Category: Editorial
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The Mayor Took The Floor: What Salamun Said About the Sports Complex – And What He Didn’t
Rapid City SD – Mayor Jason Salamun does not, as a rule, address city committees from the public comment podium. He runs the executive branch; committee members ask the questions, staff answer them, and residents line up at the microphone to weigh in. That’s the format. On Wednesday, at the Legal and Finance Committee, Salamun…
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Razor Wire And Bassinets: Inside South Dakota’s New Women’s Prison
Rapid City SD – By 10:00 a.m. Friday, the July heat radiating off the fresh asphalt at 1020 N Creek Drive was already suffocating. It was the kind of sweltering Rapid City morning that makes standing in a suit feel like a punishment — a fact visibly written on the sweating faces of local legislators,…
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The Shipment of the Spectacle – An Editorial Reflection of Independence Day
Growing up on the Connecticut shoreline, with Mystic Seaport practically in our backyard, we were spoiled when it came to maritime history. We knew the water, and we all had boats. But boats are not ships. In the summer of 1976, looking out from the Westbrook coast, the horizon was swallowed by a fleet. It…
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The Runoff Plurality of Silence: The Gubernatorial Questionnaire They Ignored
On June 15, 2026, The Rapid City Sentinel submitted a formal press questionnaire to both campaigns competing in South Dakota’s first-ever gubernatorial runoff election. The questions were sent to Governor Larry Rhoden’s spokesperson Ian Fury and to Toby Doeden’s campaign at their public press address with a follow up email sent June 20,2026. The deadline…
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The Droehdon-A-Saurus – An Editorial Cartoon
The Runoff Plurality of Silence: The Gubernatorial Questionnaire They Ignored
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A Different Kind Of Vigilance – Fathers Day 2026
It’s grey over Memorial Park this morning, a thin drizzle that hasn’t decided if it’s committing to rain. The geese don’t seem to mind. The ganders are out in full force right now — necks low, eyes sharp, putting their whole bodies between their goslings and anything that moves too fast. Watch them long enough…
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The Opaqueness of Transparency – Editorial Cartoon
Rapid City’s Ordinance 6717 folds an existing Code of Conduct into municipal law, but complaints against elected officials stay sealed in executive session by default, with no guarantee the public ever learns the outcome.
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Smoke and Mirrors: An Award-Winning Performance at City Hall: An Editorial
There is a dangerous kind of alchemy that happens at City Hall when the cameras are rolling but the microphones go quiet. On Monday night, navigating a grueling 34-item agenda, the Rapid City Council pulled off a masterclass in municipal sleight-of-hand, demonstrating exactly how to shift liability and bury history in plain sight. The tone…