Data

South Dakota sees increase in juvenile diversion program success

The Daily Republic

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More at-risk South Dakota youth successfully completed diversion programs in 2019 than in any other year since juvenile justice reforms went into effect, according to a report issued last week.

The report is the fourth issued since the formation of the South Dakota Juvenile Justice Oversight Council in 2015, when the state passed the Juvenile Justice Public Safety Improvement Act, which was aimed at finding community-based alternatives to Department of Corrections supervision for minors.

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Dealing with attempted murder cases, charges

The Daily Republic

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Dawn Long and Mark Cook’s cases may not have had much else in common, but they did begin and end with the same charges.

Both were at one point charged with attempted murder and, like many across the state who faced similar charges, ultimately accepted plea bargains and are now in prison for aggravated assault. That outcome has been the most common among the state’s attempted murder cases in recent years.

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Lake Mitchell isn’t the only lake with substandard water quality

The Daily Republic

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With a nearly $20 million cleanup plan currently on the table, it’s no secret that Lake Mitchell’s algae growth has gotten severe enough to keep the lake from being recreation-friendly.

But although the proposed plan is one of the first of its kind in the area, Lake Mitchell is not an outlier in terms of usability. It may receive more attention than many South Dakota lakes, but it’s far from the only lake to have issues with water quality – statistically, it’s actually more unusual for a South Dakota lake to not have any water impairments.

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Across South Dakota, thousands of school lunch accounts carry a negative balance

The Daily Republic

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Imagine if every public school in South Dakota gave every one of its students free lunch for a day.

That may seem implausible, but as far as financial impact, it’s not far off from what happened during the 2017-18 school year.

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In the House

Class projects, Data, The New Political

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Many Ohioans are unable to name their elected representative or even identify which of the state’s 99 districts they live in.

Despite this lack of recognition, Ohio’s state legislators, both in the House and the Senate, put significantly more time into their jobs than legislators in many other states do, from deciding how to vote to simply finding a way to get to and from the statehouse.

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