Author: DawnSherine Bernard
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The Snowball Effect: How a Bowl of Soup Can Help Your Neighbors in Rapid City
The anatomy of a financial crisis rarely starts with a single, massive catastrophe. More often, it’s the quiet pile-up of everyday setbacks. A flat tire, an unexpected repair, a surprise medical bill — suddenly, the monthly utility payment gets pushed off. Shannon Truax, Admin Operations Manager for the Rapid City Public Works Department, sees this…
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When A 9,000 Pound Spinning Boulder gets Tagged, Rapid City Shows Up
There’s a rock in Memorial Park that spins. Not metaphorically. Rockspinner 6 — an 11-foot-tall, 9,000-pound slab of granite from Stone Mountain, Georgia — is mounted on a bearing-filled base and will actually rotate if you push it. It took three people and a crane to place it on the Promenade at Memorial Park. Sculptor…
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South Dakota’s Parole Crisis Didn’t Start Monday
A Sioux Falls officer nearly died. The governor announced emergency reforms. But the system was broken long before this week — and the people who broke it aren’t the ones cleaning it up. On Monday afternoon in Sioux Falls, a police officer followed a woman into what turned out to be an ambush. A man…
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Where was the Box Elder Representation when the MPO Voted to Put a Railyard There?
On April 16, with the majority of its members not in attendance, the Rapid City Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Technical and Citizens Committee unanimously approved a 267-page study recommending that the RCP&E railyard be relocated to Box Elder. The mayor of Box Elder was not present. Neither was the City of Box Elder’s planning department.…
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The Tracks to Innovation Run Deeper Than Imagined in Rapid City
If you stand on the sidewalk outside Red Wing Shoes on West Main and look south across the street, you’ll see the historic spine of Rapid City: a maze of old industrial brick, an active freight line, and a whole lot of untouchable dirt. It’s a neighborhood where 19th-century railroad laws still dictate 21st-century reality.…
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Urban Fishing is Easy and Accessible in Rapid City even if you’re not a Goose
This guy wasn’t worried about a fishing license. But you might want one soon. Canada geese have claimed Memorial Pond for now — but with South Dakota’s Free Fishing Weekend coming May 15-17, the anglers won’t be far behind. Rapid City has several solid urban fishing spots that don’t require a long drive or a…
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The Season That Wasn’t: A Critical Analysis of the 2025-2026 Rapid City Rush
A Rapid City Sentinel Editorial Editor’s Note: DawnSherine Bernard is the founder and publisher of The Rapid City Sentinel. She covered the 2025-26 Rapid City Rush season directly and is named in the events described in Section 4 of this editorial. All documentation referenced herein is retained by the author. The Corporate Promises They came…
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Look Up: Rapid City Celebrates Dark Sky Week Through April 20th
There is something worth stepping outside for this week. The Proclamation Mayor Jason Salamun has officially proclaimed April 13-20 as Dark Sky Week in Rapid City, joining the International Dark Sky Association’s global celebration of the night sky and the growing movement to reduce light pollution in communities across the country. The proclamation is more…