Category: Local politics
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The Elephant in the Cement Truck – GCC Dacotah and Rapid City’s Zoning Dance
The 25-Year Blind Spot: How a 563-Acre Mining Operation Escaped Rapid City’s Oversight How Rapid City Homeowners Unwittingly Subsidized a Global Cement Giant for 25 Years Rapid City Proactively Moves to Define It’s Cement Plant Future
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How Rapid City Homeowners Unwittingly Subsidized a Global Cement Giant – GCC Dacotah – for 25 Years
Rapid City SD – When a city department leaves a massive industrial footprint unmapped for a quarter-century, it’s not a clerical oversight—it’s an unrecognized tax subsidy. A deep dive into Pennington County property records reveals a glaring disparity between how local heavy infrastructure companies are taxed versus how a multi-national cement operation, GCC Dacotah, is…
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Who Decides Rapid City? A Ward-by-Ward Look at Primary Turnout
Rapid City SD – On June 2, Rapid City held elections in all five wards to determine who would represent residents on the Common Council — the body that sets zoning policy, approves franchise agreements, and controls the city budget. Fewer than one in four registered voters participated. Citywide, council race turnout was 22.8% of…
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Rapid City Council Races Decided; Ward 4 Results Complicated by Withdrawn Candidate
Unofficial results from the South Dakota Secretary of State, June 2, 2026 Rapid City voters settled all five ward alderman races Tuesday in a primary that saw turnout vary widely across the city, with Ward 2 recording the lowest total of any ward at 1,427 votes — less than half the 3,313 cast in Ward…
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AI Deepfakes and How They Are Infecting South Dakota’s Election Cycle – Will SB 164 Come into Play?
Pierre SD – South Dakota law prohibits the distribution of AI-generated political video within ninety days of an election unless it carries a specific disclosure stating the content was digitally created or manipulated. With Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial primary two days away, at least one political action committee appears to have distributed exactly that kind of…
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How A Spearfish Political Power Struggle Helped Shape Rapid City Ordinance 6717
RAPID CITY, S.D. — When Rapid City’s Legal and Finance Committee advanced Ordinance 6717 Wednesday, the item was described simply as bringing the city’s municipal code into alignment with state law. What that alignment represents is a legal framework — rooted in an 1890 statute — that concentrates authority over appointed city officers firmly in…
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Ward 2 Challenger – Christopher Vanderhoof -Left Conflict Disclosure Form Blank, Records Show
RAPID CITY, S.D. — A challenger for Rapid City’s Ward 2 city council seat left the financial disclosure section of a required conflict of interest form entirely blank when he filed his candidacy in March, records obtained by the Rapid City Sentinel show. Christopher Vanderhoof, who faces incumbent Lindsey Seachris in Tuesday’s primary, signed the…
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Rapid City Mayor Salamun Appoints Cushman as City Attorney After Short Interim Search
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Mayor Jason Salamun has appointed Carla Cushman as Rapid City’s next city attorney, the city announced Wednesday via social media. The Rapid City Common Council will take up the appointment at its June 1 meeting. Cushman has served as interim city attorney since April 1, when Mayor Salamun confirmed he had…
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Ward 2 Candidates Utility Employment Raises Recurring Conflict Questions
A candidate seeking to represent Ward 2 on the Rapid City Common Council holds a full-time senior engineering position at Black Hills Energy — a utility company with active franchise agreements, infrastructure contracts, and major capital projects currently before the council — raising questions about how often state law would require him to sit out…