The COVID-19 pandemic could not have come at a worse time for many of South Dakota’s small towns. The deadly virus has further complicated the already herculean task of keeping cherished rural communities vibrant and reversing a historic downturn in population and economic stability. Though mostly spared from major outbreaks, small towns that once served as the backbone of rural South Dakota have been stung by the indirect economic and emotional outcomes of the pandemic.

Abnormally dry conditions and a persistent risk of summer wildfires in the Black Hills of South Dakota make the fireworks display planned for July 3 at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial an unnecessary, potentially devastating and expensive event, according to one fire expert with intimate knowledge of the region.

The highway checkpoints implemented by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in north-central South Dakota have been all over the news as Governor Kristi Noem has threatened legal action unless the tribe removes them. But the roadblocks are only a small part of the efforts by the tribute to protect its people from the COVID-19 pandemic.  The stalemate between the governor and the Cheyenne River and Oglala Lakota Sioux tribes remains, with checkpoints on state and federal highways still in place and Noem seeking but not yet finding a resolution to the conflict.

A group of business leaders and volunteers with almost no journalism training or experience has banded together to launch a local weekly newspaper in Kingsbury County, S.D., where two weekly papers were closed on April 1 due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stacey Twiggs is one of the “uncounted” unemployed people in South Dakota.

The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed the U.S. meatpacking industry, but public health experts say the risks posed to workers and the U.S. food supply chain by airborne viral infections were readily apparent and could have been addressed years ago.

Millions of American schoolchildren, including tens of thousands in South Dakota, are suffering a loss of learning and reduced exposure to instructional rigor now that schools across the country have closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Loss of advertising and circulation revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic are putting some South Dakota weekly newspapers on the brink of closure. Here is South Dakota News Watch reporter Bart Pfankuch with a report. The financial crisis for the state’s roughly 110 weekly newspapers hit home in April when the owner of the papers in De Smet and Lake Preston decided to close them after nearly 140 years in operation.