SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) has the approval of over $48 million in loans and grants for statewide projects.

Together with the Board of Water and Natural Resources, a total of $36,958,000 in state loans, including $425,000 in principal forgiveness, was authorized for drinking water and wastewater improvements.

More funding was distributed to the following programs:

BDM Rural Water:

• Received an additional $233,450 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to construct a new water treatment plant, install a new water reservoir, install a pipe to expand the water system, and replace water meters

Clay Rural Water:

• Received $334,250 in ARPA grant funds to construct two ground storage reservoirs near the Greenfield reservoir and the Wakonda Water Treatment plant

Mid-Dakota Rural Water System:

• Received $917,357.85 in ARPA grant to update the existing water system

Mitchell:

• Received $3,930,000 in Clean Water State Revolving Funds to upgrade the clay sanitary and storm sewer

Rapid City:

• Received a $14,512,000 Drinking Water State Revolving loan to make improvements to an existing well and also construct two new wells

Shared Resources:

• Received $1,500,000 in ARPA grant funds for a treatment plant, well field, distribution pipeline, and two storage tanks

Sioux Falls:

• Received $7,648,000 to complete a third connection to the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System
• Received $17,746,000 to construct a new Southeast Basin sanitary force main

South Lincoln Rural Water System:

• Received $328,250 in ARPA funds to install an elevated water tank, new pump station, and new water treatment plant

South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources:

• Received $1 million in ARPA funds for its statewide Riparian Buffer Initiative

Toronto:

• Received $770,000 Drinking Water Revolving Loan to accommodate the Department of Transportation installing new storm sewers and highway surfacing

These programs are funded through a combination of federal appropriations, loan repayments, and bonds.

The board approved the funding during a January 8 meeting in Pierre.

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MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin teen who killed a prison guard during a fistfight pleaded guilty to homicide Friday but contends he doesn’t deserve prison time because he was mentally ill and not responsible for his actions.

Javarius Hurd, 17, entered a plea of guilty/not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to one count of second-degree reckless homicide in connection with Corey Proulx’s death, online court records show. He also pleaded guilty to one count of battery by a prisoner. Prosecutors dropped a second battery count in exchange for the pleas.

The next step for Hurd will be a February trial in which jurors will determine whether he should be sentenced to prison or committed to a mental institution. Jurors will be asked to determine whether Hurd was indeed suffering from a mental disease at the time of the fight and, if so, whether the mental disease impaired his ability to act within the law.

“Javarius entered into a plea agreement that partially resolves the case involving the sad and tragic death of (Proulx),” Hurd’s attorney, Aaton Nelson, said in an email to The Associated Press. “Javarius, who has had a life filled with trauma and suffering, realizes that nothing will compensate the victims for their loss and suffering. We hope that this agreement will help all those suffering with their healing.”

According to court documents, Hurd was incarcerated at the Lincoln Hills-Copper Lakes School, the state’s youth prison in far northern Wisconsin, in June 2024.

He grew upset with a female counselor whom he felt was abusing her powers, threw soap at her and punched her. Hurd ran into the courtyard and Proulx followed to stop him. Hurd punched Proulx several times and Proulx fell, hit his head on the pavement and later died. Hurd was 16 at the time but was charged in adult court.

Another inmate at the youth prison, Rian Nyblom, pleaded guilty to two counts of being a party to battery in connection with the incident and was sentenced to five years in prison this past August.

According to prosecutors, Nyblom knew that Hurd was upset with the female counselor and wanted to splash her with conditioner and punch her. About 15 minutes before the fighting began, he got extra soap and conditioner from guards and secretly gave it to Hurd. Nyblom told investigators that he didn’t see Hurd attack the female counselor but watched as Hurd punched Proulx.

Lincoln Hills-Cooper Lake is Wisconsin’s only youth prison. The facility has been plagued by allegations of staff-on-inmate abuse, including excessive use of pepper spray, restraints and strip searches.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit in 2017 demanding changes at the prison. Then-Gov. Scott Walker’s administration settled the following year by agreeing to a consent decree that prohibited the use of mechanical restraints like handcuffs and the use of pepper spray.

Proulx’s death sparked calls from Republican lawmakers and from Lincoln Hills-Copper Lakes staff for more leeway in punishing incarcerated children, but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers rejected those calls, insisting conditions at the prison have been slowly improving. A court-appointed monitor assigned to oversee the prison’s progress reported this past October that the facility was fully compliant with the consent decree’s provisions for the first time.

Legislators have been trying to find a way to close the facility for years and replace with it with smaller regional prisons. Those prisons remain under construction, however, and Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake continues to operate.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Justice Department will send additional federal prosecutors to Minnesota amid an expanding fraud investigation tied to Somali-run nonprofit operations.

“The Department of Justice is dispatching a team of prosecutors to Minnesota to reinforce our U.S. Attorney’s Office and put the perpetrators of this widespread fraud behind bars,” Bondi told Fox News on Wednesday. 

Bondi vowed “severe consequences in Minnesota” and said the department stands “ready to deploy to any other state where similar fraud schemes are robbing American taxpayers.”

A DOJ official told Fox News the department is already planning a similar surge of prosecutorial resources in other states.

TRUMP ADMIN PUTS MINNESOTA ON NOTICE, MOVES TO AUDIT MEDICAID AND CLAW BACK FUNDS TO PROTECT TAXPAYERS

Bondi’s remarks, first reported by the New York Post, come as the department continues a welfare fraud investigation that broke open under former Attorney General Merrick Garland.

In 2022, Garland announced the first wave of indictments in what he said was a $250 million scheme perpetrated by a Minnesota-based nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which was found to have exploited taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs. Garland described it at the time as the “largest pandemic relief fraud to date.” 

The DOJ under Bondi has continued to investigate and prosecute those involved with Feeding Our Future and tangential schemes involving alleged juror bribery and healthcare fraud. Bondi recently said the scale of the fraud is greater than previously known and that more criminal charges are coming, likely with the help of the additional prosecutors now set to work in the DOJ’s Minnesota office.

To date, the department has charged 98 people in fraud-related cases in Minnesota and secured 64 convictions. The vast majority of defendants have been of Somali descent.

The Trump administration, including the White House, the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security, have targeted the roughly 100,000 Somalis in Minnesota as a community ripe for immigration enforcement and possible denaturalization. Critics say only a fraction have engaged in fraud and that President Donald Trump is spearheading a xenophobic campaign against upstanding Somali Americans.

Health and Human Services said this month that it froze billions of dollars in federal funding for childcare programs and other social services in five Democrat-led states, including Minnesota, while it investigates their use of taxpayer dollars.

REP TOM EMMER: WALZ OVERSAW BILLIONS IN STOLEN TAXPAYER MONEY — NOW COMES ACCOUNTABILITY

A viral video posted by YouTube creator Nick Shirley in December amplified the attention on fraud in Minnesota. The video, showing Shirley visiting Somali-run daycare centers and finding that they were closed, has attracted millions of views on social media.

Some of the daycare centers have since disputed the suggestions in Shirley’s video and said they have never committed fraud.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.