Price hike for livestock program

By Meghan O’Brien

South Dakota’s Brand Board will raise its livestock ownership inspection fee for the first time since 2013, after a legislative committee approved the rule change Tuesday.

The committee, made up of three state senators and three state representatives, voted 5-1 in favor of the change. Sen. Taffy Howard, R-Rapid City, voted no.

The Brand Board is responsible for tracking livestock ownership in South Dakota counties west of the Missouri River, where cattle are more likely to roam across wide open spaces. Inspectors check to make sure that horses, cattle and mules sold or moved from those counties belong to the people who sell or move them.

By Meghan O’Brien

South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden authorized state firefighting resources to support local governments in fire suppression.

Volunteer fire departments, often supported in part by local governments and fundraising, supply the first responders for blazes across most of South Dakota’s land area.

Rhoden’s executive order, signed Tuesday, expands South Dakota Wildland Fire’s resources to areas outside the Black Hills Forest Fire Protection District. That region starts at the Wyoming-South Dakota border and runs east through parts of the Black Hills region, but does not include any area within any nearby city limits.

By Ashley Murray

WASHINGTON — Historic preservationists asked the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to deny President Donald Trump’s appeal to continue construction on his $400 million White House ballroom on the grounds of the demolished East Wing.

In response to Trump’s application to the high court, the National Trust for Historic Preservation argued irreparable harm would result if construction continued, and that the project is “illegal” without authorization from Congress.

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