The Daily Slice, your Black Hills news podcast in under 10 minutes. Delivered every morning Monday-Friday at homesliceaudio.com/dailyslice
Pedestrian Seriously Injured After Being Struck in Crosswalk
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Rapid City police say a pedestrian received serious injuries after being struck by a pickup truck Wednesday morning. Police say the truck was making a turn onto Cambell Street from Saint Patrick when it struck the pedestrian, who was in the crosswalk. The pedestrian was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. At this point, alcohol or impairment does not appear to be a factor in the incident. The driver of the vehicle was cited for Failure to Yield to a Pedestrian in a Crosswalk.
Rapid City Collects Record $91.8 Million in Sales Tax Revenue in 2025
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Anchored by a record-smashing December, more than $91.8 million in sales tax revenue was collected in 2025 for the City of Rapid City. a nearly 5 percent increase over total sales tax receipts collected in 2024 when $87.5 million was collected. December’s sales tax receipts set an all-time high for collections in a single month with more than $10.2 million tallied. The December total was more than $3 million over the sales tax collected in November ($7 million) and more than $1.6 million over the receipts received in the previous record month last June ($8.58 million). For 2025, general fund sales tax revenue increased 5.28%, with general fund collections ending the year 2.5% above budget.
Three Convicted in 2022 Double Homicide Face Mandatory Life Sentences
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Three people are facing sentencing after being convicted in a 2022 double homicide. Attorney General Marty Jackley and Pennington County State’s Attorney Lara Roetzel announced on Tuesday a jury reached a verdict in the case. Montell Olivera was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder and conspiracy, while Dillon Wilson and Erin Provancial were each convicted of aiding and abetting and conspiracy. All charges carry mandatory life sentences. Prosecutors say the killings of Joseph Standing Bear and Petan Milk were gang related and they identified Olivera as the shooter in both.
Lawmakers Raising Concerns Over Senators Skipping Votes in Pierre
PIERRE, S.D. — A growing trend of state Senators skipping votes is causing alarm in Pierre. The latest instance was on Tuesday when Senator John Carley missed a vote on incentivising data centers. The strategic move has been implemented multiple times this session to prevent tie breaking votes on certain bills. Bills in the Senate need 18 votes to pass, unless there is a 17-to-17 vote tie where the lieutenant governor can cast a tie-breaking vote. The data center bill died on Tuesday when Senators voted 17-to-16 in favor of it, but it came up short of the required 18 votes.
What Smithfield’s move could mean for environment, economy
Smithfield’s pork processing facility is moving out of its century-old campus, but it is staying in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. State and city leaders joined Smithfield last week to announce the shift from the downtown riverfront site to an industrial park. The company says the new plant is bigger and uses modern odor-control equipment. The move also puts the facility farther from the Big Sioux River. Smithfield has faced past air and water permit violations and fines. The plant employs about 3,200 people and it works with more than 500 independent farmers in the region. It’s Smithfield’s second-largest processing facility and the largest producer of packaged meats in the country.
Vance says administration is pausing some Medicaid funding to Minnesota because of fraud concerns
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance has announced that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” some Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds. Vance, who made the announcement Wednesday with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration was taking the action “in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.” Wednesday’s move is part of a larger Trump administration effort to spotlight fraud around the country.
Bill and Hillary Clinton, battle-tested, gear up for another Washington fight
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bill and Hillary Clinton are slated to testify this week in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, part of a deal with Republicans after it became clear that Congress, with the help of some Democrats, was on track to hold them in contempt if they refused to cooperate. For the battle-hardened couple, it amounts to one more Washington brawl. And like so many of the battles that came before, this one is another mix of questionable judgment, sexual impropriety, money and power.
