Makenzie Huber

Graduates are gathered for a commencement ceremony at South Dakota Mines on May 10, 2025, in Rapid City. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) International students face plenty of questions amid federal immigration policy changes, said Beth Ril... See more

Sara Friedman, program director of the Justice Center at the Council of State Governments, presents to the South Dakota Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force in Pierre on Dec. 17, 2025. (Photo by Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight) Half the people r... See more

70 percent of children in South Dakota foster care are Native American, state says For the fourth year in a row, Native American children made up more than 70 percent of children in the South Dakota foster care system at the end of the state’s fiscal year... See more

South Dakota Bureau of Finance and Management Commissioner Jim Terwilliger speaks to reporters in his Capitol office on Dec. 2, 2025, in Pierre. Terwilliger is a member of the state’s School Finance Accountability Board. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota... See more

An equal justice statue stands outside the doors of the Minnehaha County Courthouse in Sioux Falls. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) South Dakota’s success rate for keeping truancy cases out of court is the lowest it’s been in a decade, according... See more