South Dakota

South Dakota medical groups promote masks, countering Noem

Oct. 27, 2020 7:08 PM EDT

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota's largest medical organizations on Tuesday launched a joint effort to promote mask-wearing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as the state suffers through one of the nation's worst outbreaks, a move that countered Gov. Kristi Noem's position of casting doubt on...

A sign for a tribal council candidate on the Rosebud Indian Reservation is shown on Aug. 6, 2020. An Associated Press analysis in Democratic primaries in South Dakota showed that turnout was 10% lower among voters who lived in counties with a majority American Indian population and at least 95% of the county on reservation land. Voter advocates say that long trips to access polling places and the fact that some people lack reliable transportation has led to low voter turnout. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves)

Voting by mail isn't so easy on Native American reservations

Oct. 27, 2020 11:42 AM EDT

MISSION, S.D. (AP) — The small, brick post office in Mission, South Dakota, sees steady business most days as people wait outside to allow one family at a time to check for mail at one of just four such depots scattered across the Rosebud Indian Reservation. With limited polling places on a reservation...

Sanford Health, Intermountain agree to merge organizations

Oct. 26, 2020 12:53 PM EDT

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sanford Health and Intermountain Healthcare said Monday they plan to merge companies. If the deal is approved, it would unite Salt Lake City-based Intermountain with operations in Utah, Nevada and Idaho, with Sioux Falls-based Sanford, which operates in 24 states. The combined...

FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2015 file photo, Jonathan Hunt, vice president of Monarch America, Inc., shows a marijuana plant while giving a tour of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe's marijuana growing facility, in Flandreau, S.D. Voters in four states could embrace broad legal marijuana sales on Election Day, setting the stage for a watershed year for the industry that could snowball into neighboring states as well as reshape policy on Capitol Hill. The Nov. 3, 2020, contests will take place in markedly different regions of the country, New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana and approval of the proposals would highlight how public acceptance of cannabis is cutting across geography, demographics and the nation's deep political divide. (Joe Ahlquist/The Argus Leader via AP, File)

Election could stoke US marijuana market, sway Congress

Oct. 25, 2020 11:10 AM EDT

Voters in four states from different regions of the country could embrace broad legal marijuana sales on Election Day, and a sweep would highlight how public acceptance of cannabis is cutting across geography, demographics and the nation’s deep political divide. The Nov. 3 contests in New Jersey, Arizona,...

Native American dancers perform at a Donald Trump rally Oct. 15, 2020 at the rodeo grounds in Williams, Arizona. Navajo Nation President Myron Lizer makes no qualms about it: As one of the top officials on the country's largest Native American reservation, he's a proud Donald Trump supporter. Lizer says Native American values - hard work, family and ranching - align more with the GOP than with Democrats. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)

Minority pushes Trump agenda largely unpopular among tribes

Oct. 24, 2020 11:05 AM EDT

WILLIAMS, Ariz. (AP) — Myron Lizer has no qualms about it: As one of the top officials on the country's largest Native American reservation, he's a proud Donald Trump supporter. The Navajo Nation vice president says Native American values — hard work, family and ranching — align more with...

FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2020, file photo, Exam Corp Lab employee, right, wears a mask as she talks with a patient lined up for COVID-19 testing in Niles, Ill. The United States is approaching a record for the number of new daily coronavirus cases in the latest ominous sign about the disease's grip on the nation. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

US sets coronavirus infection record; deaths near 224,000

Oct. 24, 2020 6:47 AM EDT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. coronavirus caseload has reached record heights with more than 83,000 infections reported in a single day, the latest ominous sign of the disease’s grip on the nation, as states from Connecticut to the Rocky Mountain West reel under the surge. The U.S. death toll,...

A woman, right, has a meal, inside a restaurant's outdoor tent Thursday Oct. 22, 2020, in Kew Gardens in the Queens borough of New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is easing restrictions slightly in some coronavirus hot spots in New York City, but adding them in areas along the Pennsylvania border as the state recorded more than 2,000 new infections in a single day for the first time since mid-May. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

The Latest: Mexico's Chihuahua border state back in lockdown

Oct. 23, 2020 9:26 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s northern border state of Chihuahua returned to the highest level of alert and lockdown Friday after coronavirus cases jumped there and hospitals began to fill up. The Chihuahua state government declared the return to the “red” level of alert Friday, which closes...

Some hospitals in crisis as US nears high for COVID-19 cases

Oct. 23, 2020 8:21 PM EDT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The United States is approaching a record for the number of new daily coronavirus cases in the latest ominous sign about the disease’s grip on the nation, as states from Connecticut to the Rocky Mountain West reel under the surge. The impact is being felt in every section of the...

Members of the festival organizing team at the Kali Bari Hindu temple pray via live transmission on the first day of Durga Puja celebrations in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. Most of the festival festivities are being scaled down following the health officials warning about the potential for the coronavirus to spread during the religious festival season, which is marked by huge gatherings in temples and shopping districts. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

The Latest: UN chief urges G20 to unite on coronavirus fight

Oct. 22, 2020 10:24 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. chief says it’s “very frustrating” that leaders of the 20 major industrialized nations didn’t come together in March and establish a coordinated response to grapple with the coronavirus in all countries as he proposed. The result, he says, is every...

Dr. Tom Dean poses at his clinic in Wessington Springs, S.D., on Friday. Oct. 16, 2020. Dean is one of three doctors in the county, which has seen one of the nation's highest rates of coronavirus cases per person. He writes a column in the local newspaper, the True Dakotan, urging people to take precautions against the virus.(AP Photo/Stephen Groves)

Rural Midwest hospitals struggling to handle virus surge

Oct. 17, 2020 6:38 PM EDT

WESSINGTON SPRINGS, S.D. (AP) — Rural Jerauld County in South Dakota didn't see a single case of the coronavirus for more than two months stretching from June to August. But over the last two weeks, its rate of new cases per person soared to one of the highest in the nation. “All of a sudden it hit,...

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