Argus Leader
‘Unprecedented growth’
You are officially one among nearly a quarter million residents in the Queen City. Mayor Paul TenHaken announced during the weekly One Sioux Falls media briefing on Jan. 14 that the Sioux Falls population hit 224,676 in 2025, a 2.3% increase (or 5,088...
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Dems seek to impeach Noem
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democrats Wednesday introduced three articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, after a deadly shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer. The Department of Homeland...
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Bloom and Branch opens downtown
Landscape Garden Centers is bringing a new presence downtown. After 605 Florista in the Jones421 Building went up for sale last fall, a new business bloomed, in partnership with the city’s well-known nursery and landscaping business (LGC). Bloom and...
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Trans athlete debate reaches high court
WASHINGTON − Becky Pepper-Jackson was in elementary school, already sure she was a girl despite being designated male at birth, when the nation took notice of two transgender athletes. The debate over whether the high school runners in Connecticut had...
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Furor continues over ICE shootings
Tensions remained high Jan. 9 after shootings involving immigration agents in Minneapolis and in Portland, Oregon, drew protesters to the streets and deepened fractures between federal and state officials. In Portland, a U.S. Border Patrol officer...
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K-12 student population dips as more choose homeschool
South Dakota’s K-12 population dropped slightly this year, along with public and private school enrollment, but enrollment in alternative instruction grew once again. That’s according to headcount numbers taken Sept. 26, 2025, and released by the...
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SD Rose Parade float recognized for depicting a ‘national treasure’
South Dakota’s float in the annual Rose Parade – a celebration of the state’s iconic landmarks, particularly Mount Rushmore – received an award that recognizes outstanding depictions of “national treasures and traditions.” Travel South Dakota, the...
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Sanford, Avera ring in the new year with newborn joy
As the clock struck midnight, the new year arrived not just with cheers and fireworks, but with newborn cries as Sanford Health and Avera Health hospitals welcomed babies born at the turning point of 2025. The two babies, one at each hospital, were...
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The ‘crown jewel’ of downtown Sioux Falls celebrates 100 years
Maybe a young couple had their first kiss under the sparkling marquee after watching “Gone with the Wind” in 1940. Maybe there was excitedly a first date in 1950, or unfortunately a last date in 1970, or a child’s first time watching “The Lion King”...
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‘Trump’ is everywhere during second term
WASHINGTON – As a New York businessman, President Donald Trump put his name on real estate, golf courses, vodka, steaks, bottled water and his own university. As president in his second term, he is merging his personal brand with national institutions...
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‘Beautifies the neighborhood’
Staff and guests at the Oak View Branch Library on the east side of Sioux Falls are enjoying some much-needed and appealing updates to their 20-yearold facility. Siouxland Libraries director Alysia Boysen announced in December that the library has...
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All Things Sioux Falls hosts first-ever Dinner Club
Winter says Brr, stay in, but Dinner Club says, Let's make new friends. All Things Sioux Falls, a weekly newsletter team that lists events in the Sioux Falls area, announced they will be hosting their first-ever Sioux Falls Dinner Club on Jan. 7, a...
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First reptile-exclusive zoo opens in Sioux Falls
Upon entering the new immersive Reptile Adventure Zoo in Sioux Falls, with more than 100 reptiles and amphibians, be sure to watch your step for any tortoises that may be ambling across the floor. Owner Andrew Adam may be speaking to a group of...
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50 participants to compete in Burger Battle
Nothing says new year in Sioux Falls more than its well-attended Burger Battle. h Downtown Sioux Falls released its lineup on Dec. 26, featuring a record-breaking 50 participants and 13 new restaurants on the list − a nary gluttonous season to us all....
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Arrowhead House now open for rent, classes
Once a private residence of the late Dale and Dorothy Weir, the Arrowhead House is now open as a space for all of the community to enjoy views of nature outside and events by the fireplace within. The Arrowhead House is a 2,440-square-foot open...
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Heroes Behind the Badges blood drive celebrates 30 years
The Community Blood Blank is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its Heroes Behind the Badges blood drive during the holidays. The city-wide event is a partnership with the Sioux Falls Police Department and Sioux Falls Fire Rescue. It will run through...
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Sioux Falls zoo now has 2 new tigers to visit this winter season
A new baby girl has arrived at the zoo. The Sioux Falls Zoo and Aquarium announced Dec. 17 that 2-year-old Amur tiger Mila is officially on exhibit with her male neighbor tiger, 2year-old Zuzaan. Mila was born in 2023 at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo...
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Jackley targets jailhouse drug smuggling
South Dakota’s top law enforcement officer wants greater deterrents for smuggling drugs into the state’s prisons. Attorney General Marty Jackley announced in a Dec. 19 press conference that Natalie Bernice Krause, a former medical aide at the South...
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Christmas at Cathedral brings packed houses
As guests walk up the stairs and take their first step inside the Cathedral of St. Joseph, they are gazing above their heads at the architecture among the pews. It is not until the orchestra, choir and organ fill the air with music that they navigate...
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Flu cases on the rise ahead of holidays
Flu cases in South Dakota have surged during the month of December, with hundreds of new infections reported in just a few weeks. As of Dec. 18, at least 476 new cases had been reported statewide since the last day of November, bringing the season...
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Breaking stereotypes
McCrossan Boys Ranch has to turn down one boy a day from admissions, newly-appointed CEO Christy Vastenhout said. In those cases, the family can’t pay for them to come to the Ranch, insurance isn’t an option or there’s no government funding available...
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China pulls back from soybean buying; farmers in tough position
RYDER, North Dakota — Tyler Stafslien is a fourth-generation farmer who’s worked his family’s land in central North Dakota for about 20 years. Roughly half of his 2,500 acres are typically dedicated to soybeans, a major crop in the state and in the...
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Luminary Lane back in Parkridge neighborhood
For one night only every holiday season, the Parkridge neighborhood glows. h Luminary Lane, a nostalgic tradition that began as early as the 1960s in Sioux Falls, will run from dusk till 9:30 p.m. Dec 21. h With hundreds of paper lanterns, the...
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Johnson introduces education initiative in SD governor bid
U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, unveiled a “strong schools initiative” Dec. 15 that he hopes to implement if elected governor in the 2026 election. Johnson wants improved school funding, better math and reading scores, and a new skilled trade...
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Darkness shadows Festival of Light
On a popular beach in Australia, the darkness of antisemitism intruded on the Festival of Light. Instead of celebrating a Jewish holiday, Jews were slaughtered. For the second time in two months, Jewish people on opposite sides of the world were...
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Oldest-ever resident at Trail Ridge Senior Living turns 105
Anne Huff will be celebrating her 105th Christmas this year. As the oldest ever resident at Trail Ridge Senior Living Community in Sioux Falls, Huff enjoyed birthday celebrations last month with many flower deliveries, cake, music and memories. Huff...
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SD universities, foundations have spent millions on property
South Dakota’s public universities and their foundations own everything from out-of-state space for research and university presidents’ million-dollar homes to houses near campus that students, staff and faculty can rent. After a more than six-month...
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Noem asked to explain deportation of veteran
WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was grilled on Capitol Hill, facing questions related to her department’s immigration efforts, including whether United States military veterans have been deported under the Trump administration’s...
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U.S. farmers warn of broken system
A few years ago, Wisconsin soybean farmer Doug Rebout was getting $14.50 a bushel for his crop. Now, amid a trade dispute with China and rising production costs driven by inflation, that price has plummeted to around $9.30. Rebout’s farm, which grows...
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‘Save this species from extinction’
On World Wildlife Conservation Day, Dec. 4, Great Plains Zoo staff, Greater Chamber of Commerce members and others in the community huddled together in the South Dakota below-zero windchill elements. The residents inside the newly renovated American...
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Finding the best best dive bar in South Dakota
There’s a game of Shake-A-Day around here somewhere. Dive bars in the Midwest are like coming home and bellying up to your regular spot or with your lucky pool cue. Your Jack and Coke is already poured, your buddy arrived at the time he always does...
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Christmas at the Capitol is back
The South Dakota State Capitol glows with glistening lights as Christmas at the Capitol returns for another holiday season. This year, the Capitol is filled with 98 Christmas trees decorated by volunteers from communities, schools, churches, nonprofit...
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‘We love seeing joy’
At the Arctic Express in Sioux Falls, the stockings are hung, the lanterns are lit and snow is falling atop 40 trees aglow. There’s miniature elves hiding among the tinsel and twine, music hums and model train sets belonging to 8-year-old Eva Clemens...
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AI could worsen school inequalities
Today’s teachers find themselves thrust into a difficult position with generative AI. New tools are coming online at a blistering pace and being adopted just as quickly, whether they’re personalized tutors and study buddies for students or lesson plan...
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‘Leaning Tower of Zip’ didn’t stop land vision
For the week of Dec. 1-5, Cherapa Place in downtown Sioux Falls is celebrating and looking back 20 years at a notorious event that marked the start of the urban development along the Big Sioux River greenway, quite literally, with a “BOOM.” Cherapa’s...
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Searching for Savannah
There are rumors. About what’s known and who knows it. About why what’s known has never moved out of the realm of rumor and into the investigatory record. Savannah Standing Bear’s family and friends have plenty of rumors, but not many answers. It’s...
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Officials investigate Thanksgiving Day inmate’s passing
South Dakota officials are opening yet another investigation into the death of a state inmate. The South Dakota Department of Corrections announced in a Friday, Nov. 28, press release that Larry Franklin, 37, died at the G. Norton Jameson Annex, a...
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SD food banks, donations aren’t enough to fill SNAP benefit gap
After the back-and-forth about when, or even whether, SNAP benefits would be issued during the 43-day government shutdown, Sioux Falls and South Dakota’s more rural communities are still grappling with reduced or even no food stamp benefits. “We...
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Alien Tattoo owner says he’s hanging up the ink
The ink is forever, but the tattoo parlor is closing its doors. Artist Steve ‘Alien’ Butterfield announced Nov. 22 that his 20-year-old tattoo shop, Alien and Co. on First Avenue, is permanently closed. He will retire from his 50-year-old tattooing...
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Soybean pledge lifts prices, S.D. farmers still nervous
South Dakota soybean industry leaders said on Monday, Nov. 24 that a new trade pledge with China is lifting prices but hasn’t erased anxiety about how much farmers depend on a single foreign buyer. “China’s the number one buyer of soybeans out of the...
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WHAT’S THE DEAL
The biggest shopping day of the year is almost here. h Black Friday is a little more than a week away, and many retailers have already started offering early deals ahead of the big day on Nov. 28. h If you’re planning to brave the crowds for a Black...
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Sioux Falls anchorman retires after 35 years on TV
His voice was compassionate and steady when he had to announce the death of Gov. George Mickelson after a plane crash in 1993. He didn’t panic on the 10 o’clock newscast when 67 tornadoes ripped through the Sioux Falls area over one long night in...
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Rosie’s Cafe to reopen with new owners
Rosie’s Café, a longtime Sioux Falls staple for more than four decades, is reopening under new ownership in early December. The restaurant, at 2202 W. Madison St. west of the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, closed in early May after 41 years as a...
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Falls Park, Jacobson Plaza welcome thousands for holiday kickoff
Light up, lace up: The City of Sioux Falls launched its annual holiday experience Nov. 21, 2025, with Winter Wonderland and the newly opened Jacobson Plaza ice ribbon at Falls Park downtown. Admission to skate is $5 for 45 minutes. Skate rentals are...
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Trials for Olympic curling have begun in Sioux Falls
The ice sheets have been set for the 2026 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for curling at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. Four men’s teams, four women’s teams and two teams for wheelchair mixed doubles arrived in Sioux Falls this week to compete through...
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Senate approves plan to end shutdown
WASHINGTON – The Senate approved a deal late Nov. 10 to end the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown, putting Congress on the brink of resolving a weeks-long fight that has disrupted flights and halted food stamps for millions of Americans. In a...
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Shutdown appears closer to ending
WASHINGTON – The longest-ever government shutdown is on the verge of ending, as food aid benefits are in limbo and flight cancellations and delays disrupt travelers. The U.S. Senate on Nov. 9 took the first big step toward voting on a bipartisan deal...
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South Dakota will finally have a Rose Parade float
For the first time in 10 years, South Dakota’s tourism agency will have a float in the annual Rose Parade. On Jan. 1, 2026, Travel South Dakota will bring its “most spectacular float yet” to Pasadena, California, where it hopes to showcase the state’s...
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Residents shaken by string of homicides
On April 4 of this year, 45-year-old Chitprasong Amphavannasouk was stabbed five times and found lying unresponsive in the hallway of one of the buildings at Meadowland Apartments in western Sioux Falls. He died on the scene. Two weeks later,...
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Head Start considers a temporary closure
Funding for a Head Start program in South Dakota is delayed because of the federal government shutdown, forcing the program to obtain its own temporary funding and consider a potential closure next month. Aberdeen-based Northeast South Dakota Head...
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How area schools did on 24-25 State Report Card
South Dakota’s 148 public school districts, 669 public schools and 137,313 public school students showed “meaningful, though modest, improvements in overall academic achievement” last school year, from fall 2024 to spring 2025. That’s according to the...
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1 person killed, 1 injured in western Sioux Falls shooting
A male suspect police say is responsible for a homicide that left one person dead and one person hospitalized on the morning of Nov. 4 near 41st Street and Marion Road in Sioux Falls is in custody. Sioux Falls Police Department Chief Jon Thum said...
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‘Much more than vice president’
WASHINGTON – Richard Bruce Cheney was the most powerful and the most controversial vice president in American history. Cheney, 84, died surrounded by family members on the evening of Nov. 3, of complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular...
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Father-son duo leads eye-care business into the future
As Pearle Vision, one of Sioux Falls’ longest-serving eye-care providers, commemorates 30 years of service, franchise owner Kevin Lehr is also looking forward to another milestone: retirement. But Kevin’s legacy at Pearle Vision will continue forward...
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SD Republicans say state shouldn’t pay for food-aid during shutdown
South Dakota Democratic leaders want Gov. Larry Rhoden to take a stand on the potential lapse in hunger-relief benefits in the state. But he, and other South Dakota Republicans, don’t think the state should respond to a federal problem. State Sen...
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‘Where the journey begins’
The only early childhood education (ECE) center run by a public school district offering free preschool tuition opened in Yankton this fall. The Yankton School District’s (YSD) Trailhead Learning Center (TLC) opened for its first day of school in...
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ALL TREATS
New parents at the Boekelheide Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls were surprised Oct. 30 with Halloween costumes for their newborns. Many of the newborns in the NICU came into the world earlier than expected, so the...
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Feeding SD projects 500K additional meals needed
Feeding South Dakota is asking for the public’s support in providing hunger relief during the ongoing federal shutdown. The state’s largest food distribution nonprofit stated in an Oct. 29 press release it has set a goal to “provide 500,000 additional...
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Take the tour (if you dare)
Halloween is creeping closer, and in yards across Sioux Falls, sinister skeletons and gruesome ghosts are lurking, waiting to frighten visitors. There are outdoor Halloweenthemed displays haunting homes throughout the city, and there’s something for...
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Cheap, last-minute SD Halloween costumes
Welcome to this year’s installment of a series of last-minute, South Dakotathemed Halloween costumes that are sure to get people talking: Probably in sentences like “I don’t get it!” or “Please leave my home!” Go forth and steal one of these ideas if...
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Rhoden, Johnson lead but Doeden, Hansen surge
PIERRE, S.D. – U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and Gov. Larry Rhoden are effectively tied atop the race for the Republican nomination for governor, while Toby Doeden and Rep. Jon Hansen have surged in popularity over the past six months, according to a...
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Orchestra director David Gier, Lakota musicians tour SD
There are two dear friends in this story: Emmanuel Black Bear and Delta David Gier. Black Bear is the drum keeper at the powwow, and Gier is the conductor at the concert hall. For decades, both have had a similar calling: to share their music, to...
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‘Enjoying Halloween keeps us young at heart’
Lock up your children! Halloween’s nefarious Sanderson Sisters are on the prowl in Sioux Falls. Since 1993, Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” has bewitched families with its Halloween debauchery, cooky songs and a bubbling cauldron of magic. Like every October...
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Persistent inflation is up again in September
Inflation rose again in September, revealing the persistence of rising prices as the job market showed signs of cooling and consumers begin to think about the holiday season. Consumer prices increased 3% from a year earlier, slightly up from 2.9% in...
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When do farmers markets close, open for the season?
The days are getting shorter and temperatures becoming colder, so outdoor farmers markets in the Sioux Falls area have begun to wind down for the season. As one of the community’s favorite summer pastimes holds its final events, some farmers markets...
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$50M renovation underway at juvenile detention center
A $50 million project to reshape Minnehaha County’s Juvenile Detention Center is nearing a crucial step in a plan to create a “one-stop shop” for juvenile justice that officials say will bring widespread improvements to the facility. Media recently...
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Unity goes viral
If ever there was a photo that could symbolize how Sioux Falls shows up to protest, the community has found it. On Oct. 18, over 3,000 rallygoers took to Phillips Avenue for what was confirmed a peaceful No Kings protest, one among thousands...
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Civil servants caught up in ‘loyalty trap’
For many Americans, work is not just about earning a paycheck. It is a centerpiece of their lives, and they want their job to be meaningful. h Decades of research suggest this is true for most federal civil servants, who aim to serve not only their...
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Thousands of protesters flood downtown for No Kings rally
Their chants may have been directed at President Donald Trump, but the South Dakotans who protested Oct. 18 spoke out against something bigger: the specter of authoritarian rule. Thousands of protesters turned out for Indivisible 605 and 50501 South...
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What Sioux Falls businesses are going pink
Every October, pink ribbons bloom across the country in storefronts, on coffee cups and during community events, serving as a reminder of the fight against breast cancer. Behind the color though is a deeper purpose: to save lives through awareness,...
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President seeking charges for more foes
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton on Oct. 16 became the third high-profile Trump critic to be criminally charged after the president repeatedly attacked him publicly. All three maintain their innocence...
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Get your park passes
There are more than 60 state parks and recreation areas spread across South Dakota – and if you’re planning to visit in 2026, annual passes are already available. The annual entrance licenses, valid from Oct. 1, 2025, to May 23, 2027, can be purchased...
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Path out of government shutdown is uncertain
WASHINGTON – There’s no clear way out of the seemingly intractable government shutdown, now in its third week. The Senate has struck down the same budget bills more than half a dozen times. Another vote on a Republican funding measure failed on Oct....
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Mammogram screening locations open
With October marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month, health officials are urging women to schedule mammograms and take advantage of free or low-cost screenings offered across South Dakota and the Sioux Falls area. According to the Centers for...
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‘Tunnel farming’ extends growing season by 4 months
OKATON, S.D. – When snow covers the frozen ground, and most South Dakota farmers have sold or stored their products for the season, the operators of Cedar Creek Gardens are still able to grow vegetables and harvest a lucrative crop. Located in a...
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