Argus Leader
Treehouse expansion shaping up for 2029
The Sioux Falls business scene is bustling, regularly showcasing a dynamic blend of new ventures, expansions and next chapters that reflect the city’s everevolving economic landscape. Staying in the know about it all can prove challenging for the city...
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Airshow takes off at Joe Foss Field this weekend
Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane! It’s the Sioux Falls Airshow. Billed as “Power on the Prairie,” the free event is landing at Joe Foss Field this weekend, July 18-19, to celebrate the South Dakota Air National Guard’s 80th birthday, as well...
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Jamie Smith concedes mayoral race
It is a historical mayoral race that undoubtedly exposed ballot integrity in Sioux Falls, with results of which could have been challenged in court, but to concede instead is “exactly the type of decision” unsuccessful candidate Jamie Smith would make,...
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Ready on ‘day one’
After Sioux Falls mayor-elect Christine Erickson prevailed in a monthlong election saga with a four-point recount win Thursday, July 9, she’s holding true to one of her first promises: Ready on “day one.” Ahead of her pending inauguration ceremony...
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Incumbents hold seats in school board race
Thousands of dollars went into the Sioux Falls school board race that saw incumbents Dawn Marie Johnson, Gail Swenson and Marc Murren keep their seats on the board. Newcomer candidates Jean Childs, Michael Stangeland and Stuart Willett lost out,...
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Historical recount moved the margin to 4
The city really made her work for it, but she won’t be one to revel too long in the win. The first-ever female mayor-elect in South Dakota’s largest city has said doggedly she will be “ready to lead on day one” during what turned into a taxing,...
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Language program has ‘rigor and heart’
The first full academic year offering an Oceti Sakowin language minor at South Dakota State University has already produced two graduates and is assisting in statewide efforts to preserve and revitalize Lakota, Dakota and Nakota language. h South...
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School District awarded out-of-school program funds
The Sioux Falls School District has received a $1,195,321 grant for its Community Learning Centers to expand afterschool and summer learning for middleschoolers. This grant is one of 11 awarded from the South Dakota Department of Education to...
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Lallycooler is coming to Birdcage for 2nd festival
Lallycooler is back and better than ever this Friday and Saturday, July 10-11. Darius Rucker and Jason DeRulo will be headlining the second-edition festival at its new venue at the Birdcage. Last year’s inaugural event was at Great Bear Ski Valley and...
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Sioux Falls has big crowds, no citations
City officials and business leaders on Monday, July 6, confirmed a safe and successful three-day Fourth of July weekend in Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls Police Department public information officer Aaron Benson cited 25 fewer firework complaints than last...
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Thunderstorms fail to dampen Mount Rushmore celebration
KEYSTONE – It started out with sunshine, then there was hail. Then it all ended with a staunch message that Americans “must always remember who they are” before a reverberating pyro musical capped what some called an “awesome, awesome” pre-Independence...
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Safety issues beset Silicon Valley defense startup
Ayear ago, Ryan Tseng, the head of U.S. defense tech startup Shield AI, announced his company had turned a new page. After a gory incident that partially severed a U.S. Navy official’s fingers during a test of its V-BAT drone, Shield AI had addressed...
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Trump : ‘Identity of a nation is the destiny of a nation’
KEYSTONE, S.D. − President Donald Trump used the unmistakable faces of Mount Rushmore on July 3 to talk about another important identity - that of America. “The identity of a nation is the destiny of a nation,” he told the crowd gathered for his 250th...
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‘Science of reading’
Three school years have passed since the South Dakota Department of Education announced the launch of a statewide literacy initiative “designed to build better readers” with an emphasis on the science of reading (SOR). Secretary Joe Graves has sung...
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CELEBRATE SAFELY
City leaders at a One Sioux Falls press conference this Wednesday stressed the importance of fire and firework safety and being prepared for summer heat as Sioux Falls gears up to celebrate an extra-special, extra-hot Fourth of July. “In honor of our...
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Sioux Falls Fireworks show adds skydiver, food trucks
Already planned as their “largest one yet,” the Sioux Falls Fireworks organization has added more activities to their Fourth of July festival at the W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds. The free, family-friendly Fourth of July celebration will offer more food...
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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
Although school’s out for summer, dozens of students stop by the Roosevelt High School weight room to train, strengthen and condition themselves for school athletic activities, including for show choir. While not a traditional sport, show choir...
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AI can lead to false arrests and wrongful convictions
In Baltimore County, Maryland, on Oct. 20, a 17-year-old student named Taki Allen was sitting outside his high school after football practice when an artificial intelligence-enhanced surveillance camera falsely identified the Doritos bag in his pocket...
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Project hopes to reduce traffic, improve walkability
A new traffic calming pilot project has been installed on 10th Street in downtown Sioux Falls. Beginning at 2nd Avenue and extending to the 10th Street viaduct, the pilot will run from June 29 until July 31. It was conceived through a partnership...
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4th of July events in and around Sioux Falls
Wondering where you can celebrate America’s 250th without making the drive six hours west to Mount Rushmore’s planned fireworks display? Well, you are in luck because there will be a plethora of events spread across Minnehaha and Lincoln counties on...
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Trump blames Iran for attack on ship
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump victories in two immigration cases June 25. In the divide between gun rights and gun violence, the justices struck down another state law, this one in Hawaii, aimed at curbing guns in public...
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Fire transforming West’s public lands
Wildfires are affecting our public lands at an accelerating scale and increasing intensity. Yet how fire affects recreation has remained poorly understood. Colorado’s two largest fires on record, the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires, burned...
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EVERY VOTE COUNTS
First a runoff, now a recount. After a classic cliffhanger in an already “exhausting” race, the Sioux Falls mayoral runoff election was within two votes. Turns out every single vote counts after all. As of midnight Tuesday night, and all 79 precincts...
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MCKENNA’S DEATH
The body of 14-year-old McKenna Wendel of Sioux Falls was recovered March 19 along Six-Mile Creek, somewhere near 214th Street west of Brookings. Some, but not all, first responders participating in the water recovery included the Sioux Falls Police...
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Opening night of fair will offer fireworks
As a special celebration for America 250, the Sioux Empire Fair organizers announced Tuesday, June 15, that they will put on their first-ever fireworks show on opening night. The event on July 31 will be reduced admission for “Sneak Peek Night,” an...
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City introduces natural solutions to manage stormwater, flooding
Two new green infrastructure pilot installations are helping reduce urban flooding and keep waterways clean, Sioux Falls city officials said at a press conference Wednesday morning, June 17. These natural stormwater management systems use rain gardens...
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‘It was pretty awesome to watch how the idea grew’
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken aired some of his frustrations Monday, June 15 during a public Q&A with the Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary Club. Asked to share advice for the next mayor of South Dakota’s largest city, TenHaken suggested building a...
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Uncle, one other charged in case of Wendel’s death
She was missing for five days then found dead on March 19 in South Dakota, miles from home. Now her uncle has been charged in her death. On Thursday, June 18, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa announced after three months of...
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LOWER CRIME RATES AT RISK
The United States is experiencing one of the steepest declines in violent crime in modern history, including a murder rate at its lowest point in more than a century. Homicides across 35 major American cities fell 21% in 2025, amounting to 922 fewer...
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‘Time has come to say goodbye’
They started with a humble flyer on MySpace 20 years ago, printing pink and black shirts and empowering women in Sioux Falls to lace up their skates, call on their confidence and compete in bouts worldwide. After 50 recruits in their first year alone...
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Summer of events and a zoo fundraising milestone
The Sioux Falls Zoo and Aquarium announced on Monday, June 15, upcoming evening events this summer. While the zoo maintains momentum with its $50 million expansion campaign, seasonal events will include extended hours for families and after-hour...
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Mayoral candidates debate at Carnegie Hall
As the runoff election on June 23 nears, the two remaining Sioux Falls Mayoral candidates are becoming increasingly clear about how they view trending topics like childcare, public transit, homelessness and social justice. In the first and likely only...
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Leaders lobby for public education funding in D.C.
One of Sioux Falls’ most active school board members traveled to Washington D.C. this month to advocate for greater public funding for public schools. Dawn Marie Johnson, who was reelected for a second term on the board in the June 2 primary, went to...
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‘The Great Burns’
“He’s such a colorful individual, great sense of humor, really tenacious on the football field, the way he lit into his players,” Whitney said. “There are so many stories about him just striking the fear in his players, yet building this camaraderie...
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Views split on UFC event at White House
It was 2001, and mixed martial arts fighting was on the ropes. Banned in 36 states, booted from cable operators, derided as “human cockfighting” – it was such an outcast sport that it traded hands for $2 million. A song. The new owners of Ultimate...
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25M people lost Medicaid coverage after pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people covered by Medicaid rose month after month – an unusual pattern for the government’s insurance program for people with low incomes and disabilities. Why? A policy of continuous coverage during the...
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NWS says 5 tornadoes hit region on May 31
South Dakota has had seven confirmed tornadoes this storm season so far, data from the National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls states. And a newly available NWS report shows five of them happened in one night. Emergency management service...
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‘Get up and fight’
While on stage at the McGovern Day Dinner on Friday night, June 5, for the South Dakota Democratic Party’s largest fundraiser of the year, keynote speaker former President Joe Biden recalled a childhood moment of encouragement from his father. In...
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Whittier replacement, new elementary top of mind for district task force
Final recommendations from a facilities task force the Sioux Falls School District convened this spring to review more than $183 million in potential bond projects were released June 1. The 32-member group’s final priority list came together after...
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Senate narrowly OK’s $70B for ICE
Democrats don’t have much leverage in Washington these days – until they do. A small, but significant, political window opened up briefly this week as Senate Republicans worked to pass a roughly $70 billion funding bill for Immigration and Customs...
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House of Representatives votes to end war in Iran
In a severe political blow to President Donald Trump, the House of Representatives on June 3 voted for the first time to end the war in Iran. The 215-208 vote, which was mostly symbolic, marked a new period of congressional unease with the conflict in...
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‘The least bad option’
South Dakota Searchlight reporters visited polling places Tuesday to talk with voters about the primary election. Here’s a sampling of those interviews. Samantha Stobbe, 41, Republican, Sioux Falls Stobbe was an independent for years, but registered...
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‘Highly active summer’
Emergency management service officials in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties confirmed no significant damage after the final weekend in May yielded a second round of severe weather around the Sioux Falls area. On Sunday evening, May 31, residents of...
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Ads for GLP-1 drugs flooding the internet
If you watched the Super Bowl in 2026, you likely saw Serena Williams share her weight-loss journey on GLP-1 medications in a commercial. h Like millions of others around the country, if you’ve ever considered taking one of these drugs, you probably...
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China expands digital yuan footprint
China’s central bank is making a broad push to increase the use of digital yuan at home and abroad, several industry sources said, setting Beijing on a different – and potentially competing – path from the United States in shaping the future of...
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TenHaken says mayoral tenure was a ‘calling’ built to last
Alone in his prison cell, Sam wrote a two-page letter to the Sioux Falls Mayor. During his eight-year tenure, Paul TenHaken received plenty of notes, phone calls, social media posts – some to say Hello or Thank you, some begging him to get the hell...
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Potential Iran deal puts Trump in a bind
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump finds himself in a bind as he seeks to end the war against Iran: He is under pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get U.S. gasoline prices down but at the same time faces a potential backlash from Iran hawks...
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Pentagon spars with SpaceX over pricing
NEW YORK – As U.S. kamikaze drones guided by Elon Musk’s Starlink network began to make visible gains in the war against Iran, senior SpaceX officials reached a conclusion: The Pentagon should be paying more for access to their satellite Wi-Fi...
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A ‘nasty’ start to tornado season
One of this year’s first severe storm events tore across southeastern South Dakota on Sunday, May 17, 2026, leaving behind destruction, power outages, heavy rain, hail and high winds amidst an ominous sky. For one Wagner family, the turmoil also took...
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Free meals, camps or classes
Although the Sioux Falls School District had its last day of school May 20, the district still has a variety of summer programming available for students to access when school’s not in session, up until the first day back to school on Aug. 27. As many...
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See inside the 1976 time capsule
Mark Twain Elementary School alumni and former teachers have unearthed history in the form of a 50-year-old time capsule containing everything from Argus Leader clippings and toys to school picture photos, boots and playground balls. The time capsule...
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Summer reading starts at Siouxland Libraries
Siouxland Libraries kicked off its summer reading program Friday, May 22, which will run to Aug. 14 and encourages people of all ages to keep reading and learning over the summer. Readers can pick up four age-specific reading logs either at a library...
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‘There’s illness, family needs, unavoidable conflicts with work...’
The 101st South Dakota Legislature had what could be considered an off-year. In 2026, South Dakota’s legislative chambers saw a significant increase in missed representation compared with last year—more excused absences and more missed votes on...
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Hot Summer Nites moves event location to 8th & RR
Before the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally makes noise every August, a caravan of Corvettes first revs its way west in July for the Black Hills Corvette Classic. The night before, enthusiasts prep for the trip with Hot Summer Nites, a crowded show-and-tell...
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DeJong invites you to notice the trees in your neighborhood
Trees make time feel slow, but Paul DeJong knows better. Maybe we could control the pace of the day by paying attention to where we live, to whom we see and to what we smell, or being fascinated by a flower. In that pause, we feel comforted, as if...
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Sioux Falls expands nursing training as DWU moves sites
Mitchell-based Dakota Wesleyan University’s Sioux Falls nursing program has moved into a new, bigger location. DWU has had a presence in Sioux Falls for five years, and previously had its associate degree in nursing (ADN) program at 114 S. Main Ave.,...
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WAS DYING
It was kismet. She was a smalltown newspaper editor on her eleventh hour. They were new filmmakers in need of a story. Dan and Kari Elliott named their movie-making business Degaje, a Haitian word meaning “to make your own way,” to manage on your...
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What to know about the city’s 2026 outdoor pool season
Sioux Falls’ outdoor swimming pools open for summer at 1 p.m. May 29, but the season will be shorter than in years past, and swimming lessons will now use a lottery system instead of first-come, first-served registration. All outdoor pools will close...
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Northwestern Sioux Falls fire station breaks ground
City leaders, firefighters and community partners gathered on a blustery day, Thursday, May 14, in northwestern Sioux Falls to break ground at the future site of Fire Station 13, an imperative public safety service as the Foundation Park area continues...
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Class of 2026 seniors share why graduation is a big step for them
The path to high school graduation isn’t the same for everyone. h As five seniors from the Class of 2026 shared with the Argus Leader ahead of commencement, there were many obstacles to overcome, from family medical issues and personal struggles, to...
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Trump leaves Beijing visit with few wins
BEIJING – President Donald Trump left China on May 15 with no major breakthroughs on trade or tangible help from Beijing to end the Iran war, despite two days spent heaping praise on his host, Xi Jinping. Trump’s visit to America’s main strategic and...
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Artists chosen to design new murals at the Levitt
Levitt at the Falls announced Monday, May 11, two new art installations will be part of its campus expansion. Sioux Falls artist Les Cotton will paint an interior mural inside the new green room and dressing rooms, and San Francisco-based...
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Weather looks great for Bike to Work Day
Gas prices are getting too high: How about biking to work this week instead? The thriving Sioux Falls bike community will celebrate National Bike Month on Friday, May 15, with a Bike to Work Day challenge. Spoke-N-Sport will have “Energizer Stations”...
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Hantavirus on cruise ship renews concern
One viral outbreak on a cruise ship was already commanding worldwide attention last week when health officials reported another on a separate vessel. Oceanwide Expeditions’ MV Hondius was grappling with hantavirus cases that resulted in three deaths...
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Task force tours 3 middle schools in need of fixes
Members of the Sioux Falls School District facilities task force got an inside look at three middle schools Wednesday, May 6, to compare aging, midcentury and new facilities as they weigh upgrades and renovations needed across the district. Between...
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Six School board candidates debate opt-outs, test scores
The six candidates on the ballot for the Sioux Falls School District Board of Education debated opt-outs, student test scores and the district’s biggest challenges in a forum Thursday, May 7, hosted by the League of Women Voters. In the boardroom,...
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‘Symbol of America’
Boom went the dynamite on a rock in 1927 until the faces of four presidents appeared. OK, not exactly, but the masterpiece in the Black Hills seems impossible enough to speak of in jest. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941), who previously completed...
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SUPPORT BEYOND THE SYLLABUS
A three-year pilot partnership bringing more mental health therapists into five different schools in the Sioux Falls School District is already seeing positive returns. First announced in September, the “Rooted in Schools” partnership has integrated a...
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South Dakota still 46th in teacher pay rankings
South Dakota ranks 46th in the nation in a new report on average teacher salaries, the same as last year. The state’s standing is its highest since the National Education Association started ranking states in 1943, according to the South Dakota...
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How a new crosswalk keeps neighborhood connected
One student’s request to the mayor is keeping a whole neighborhood connected. Zoe Quinn, a sixth grader at Ben Reifel Middle School, sent a letter to Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken this fall to ask for a safer way to cross Sycamore Avenue between...
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DC Hilton attack spotlights security
NEW YORK – The suspect charged with storming a security checkpoint and firing a shotgun near the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on April 25 mocked security measures at the Washington Hilton that allowed him to get close to President...
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Microplastics could be overestimated
It seems like every day a new study finds tiny plastic particles called microplastics where they should not be: in our bodies and our food, water and air. h Yet finding and identifying microplastics is extremely challenging, especially given their...
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Avera Race Against Cancer set for May 9
Thousands of participants are expected to lace up their shoes as the 38th Annual Avera Race Against Cancer returns Saturday, May 9, with events across eastern South Dakota and southwest Minnesota. Avera Race Against Cancer running and walking events...
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Q&A: Board candidates on priorities, big picture
Six people are running for three available seats on the Sioux Falls School District Board of Education in the June 2 election. Incumbents Marc Murren, Dawn Marie Johnson and Gail Swenson are running to keep their seats on the board, and are endorsed...
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A ‘Giant’ reward
On April 26, 2025, the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra made history in Sioux Falls, as Maestro Delta David Gier became the first conductor to resurrect a long-lost, Pulitzer-winning opera. Now, Gier’s years-long effort to excavate the original,...
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