South Dakota
A bipartisan push to make air travel easier for new parents packing breast milk and formula • South Dakota Searchlight
As the summer travel season approaches, new parents may be navigating airports with their babies — and the complexities of keeping them fed. Despite federal guidelines for airport agents laying out how to treat nursing moms, stories about problem encounters with security sometimes go viral.
In 2023, actress and singer Keke Palmer said she was at Houston airport when she faced threats to throw out her 16 ounces of breast milk. A year earlier, engineer and science TV host Emily Calandrelli said U.S. Transportation Security Administration officers escorted her out of line and made her check her partially thawed ice packs, which are used to keep breast milk cool.
“It was a very traumatizing experience, and it also didn’t align with what the TSA policies were, which state that you’re allowed to have them for medically necessary purposes,” Calandrelli told States Newsroom.
In May 2022, she went on her first work trip away from her 10-week-old baby and was traveling from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. Calandrelli planned on pumping after going through security at LAX, but TSA officers drilled her with questions about what the ice packs were for and said it wouldn’t have been an issue if her breast milk was already pumped.
“I spoke to three different males who worked at TSA, and I requested to speak to a woman but wasn’t able to,” she said.
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Like Palmer, she shared the experience with her legions of social media followers. Calandrelli said the agency later apologized. TSA issued a statement shortly after the incident: “Our employees go through regular training to effectively engage and screen diverse traveler populations, including those who are breastfeeding and/or traveling with breast milk.”
Both women’s experiences violate TSA guidelines: formula, breast milk, toddler drinks and baby food are allowed on planes and carry-ons in quantities greater than 3.4 ounces. Breast milk, formula and ice packs — along with other cooling accessories — are considered medically necessary. Passengers are advised to let TSA officers know they’re carrying these items when arriving at airport security.
Even though these protections exist, many lactating parents still encounter problems during air travel, and these issues carry physical and emotional side effects, according to Tina Sherman, a doula and interim executive director at the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee.
“Lactating parents have to pump on a fairly regular basis to be able to continue to keep up their supply,” Sherman said.
When they can’t express milk or that cycle is interrupted, mothers experience pain or breast leaks, she said. In some cases, long delays in pumping can lead to mastitis — an infection that causes swelling in the breasts and cracked nipples. Emotionally, being prevented or delayed from expressing milk can make parents feel anxious, embarrassed and stressed, Sherman said.
Calandrelli’s plight two years ago led her to reach out to her local California congresswoman. U.S. Democratic Rep. Katie Porter first introduced legislation to strengthen existing protections for breastfeeding parents in August 2022.
“You have to have clear instructions and clear rules, and have people follow them in order for moms to be able to meet the standards,” Porter said. “There’s a lot of obstacles to breastfeeding. There’s a lot of challenges to feeding a baby and traveling with a baby.”
The Bottles and Breastfeeding Equipment Screening (BABES) Enhancement Act would require “hygienic handling of breast milk and baby formula” by TSA officers and private security companies. Porter’s bill would direct airport officials to “minimize the risk for contamination” of breast milk, formula and infant drinks, along with ice or freezer packs and related cooling accessories.
Under the proposal, the agency must consult with maternal health organizations — March of Dimes, Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine — to determine what policies and regulations need to be updated as pumping technology and best practices for breast milk storage evolve, she said.
BABES Act is an update to a 2016 law that required TSA training on special screening procedures for nursing parents. The original law also made it legal to carry larger amounts of breast milk, formula and infant drink — juice or purified water — in airports and on planes.
Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, and Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, are the lead co-sponsors in the House. Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, along with GOP Sens. Steve Daines of Montana and Ted Cruz of Texas sponsored the bill in the upper chamber.
The bipartisan bill didn’t go anywhere last session, but Porter reintroduced the proposal. She said the bill is set to be heard in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee soon.
As a mother of three, Porter is acutely familiar with the problems that come with traveling with infants. Her children are adolescents and teens now, but when they were babies, lactation stations in airports were uncommon. She said a flight attendant once told her to stop nursing her baby while the plane was still on the ground. Porter said she was angry and scared, but mostly “worried about my baby, who was hungry.”
As for her bill, she recognizes that TSA agents have a hard job. But the BABES Act will help them “have clear rules and better training so that they’re not put in challenging situations when they’re dealing with frustrated parents,” she said.
Making travel for lactating parents easier could chip away at larger stigma about breastfeeding, advocates said. More than 80% of babies are breastfed in infancy, and 58% are still getting some breast milk by the time they’re 6-months-old, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, earlier this month, an ad for lactation cookies featuring a cooking star’s covered breasts and pregnant belly was temporarily removed from a Times Square billboard, according to The New York Times.
“Normalizing breastfeeding and lactation is really critical to families being able to meet their breastfeeding goals,” Sherman said.
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This is the second installment in a four-part series profiling the four candidates seeking the GOP nomination for governor of South Dakota.
DELL RAPIDS, S.D. – The city of Dell Rapids, roughly 20 miles north of Sioux Falls, labels itself “The Little City with the Big Attractions.” And it’s here, in a relatively humble law office off the main road leading into town, News Watch met with one of its biggest current draws.
Over the past few weeks, state House Speaker Jon Hansen has enjoyed a growing prominence in the race to be the Republican nominee for governor.
After polling at just 2% when he initially announced his candidacy in April of last year, Hansen, who at 40 is the youngest in the race, now finds himself within striking distance of being one of the two candidates that could make a potential runoff.
In a poll commissioned by News Watch and the Chiesmen Center for Democracy last month, Hansen, a lawyer by training, drew 18% of support from potential GOP primary voters.
If no candidate receives at least 35% of the vote on June 2, the runoff will be held eight weeks later, on July 28. The winner of that contest will meet Democrat Dan Ahlers, also of Dell Rapids, in the Nov. 3 general election.
So what does Hansen put his steady rise in the race down to after spending the previous few months being viewed as the long shot candidate?
“The debates were a huge factor because people across South Dakota were able to line up those four candidates on the stage and take a measure and get a sense of who is honest and who is genuine,” Hansen told News Watch.
In a poll of viewers after the first GOP gubernatorial debate on KELO-TV in March, Hansen was seen as the winner, while observers were also left impressed by his performance in the second debate co-moderated by News Watch and SDPB.
“The more people have been able to line up the four candidates, the more they have been coming our direction,” Hansen said.
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In the same News Watch/Chiesman poll from last month, 27% of respondents did not know Hansen, which, some observers believe, could indicate he has the most potential of the four candidates to grow his support.
“A lot of people hadn’t heard of us and in large part, it’s never been about us. Karla and I have been fighting for the issues. We’re not big self-promoters,” Hansen said, referring to his running mate for lieutenant governor, Karla Lems.
From tragedy to political awakening
Hansen’s early childhood was marked by the death of his father, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hansen describes the experience as “awful” but that it allowed him, his mother and his sister to grow closer.
“For awhile it was just my mom, my sister and I, and what really pulled us through that was the unconditional love we had for each other,” Hansen said.
His mother eventually remarried and they moved from Yankton, where he was born, to Dell Rapids, where he has lived for most of his adult life.
He said he had fond memories growing up in Dell Rapids, but he wasn’t the best of students. He also wasn’t interested in politics.
Hansen said that all changed when he got a job working at the local movie theater, where he befriended a female coworker involved in the pro-life movement.
“One day she brought up the issue of abortion and, after we had a bit of a back and forth, I told her. ‘I don’t get it. The baby doesn’t even know the baby exists. I don’t see what the big deal is?’ Then it got real quiet and I noticed that she started to cry. In that moment, I realized there was something I was missing,” Hansen said.
“I think a lot of people have those moments that get them engaged in the political process,” he said.
Hansen said the conversation not only awakened his desire to enter the political arena but that it also reconnected him to his Catholic faith.
He is married to his high school sweetheart, Sheila, and they have six children.
Hansen subsequently got involved in anti-abortion campaigns in 2006 and 2008, which didn’t turn out the way he wanted. In both years, South Dakota voters rejected initiatives that would have instituted a near-total ban on abortions.
“The pro-life side lost those fights, but it started the journey I’m on now.”
After completing an internship at the South Dakota Legislature during college, in 2010 Hansen successfully won an open seat in the state House against a Democratic opponent who, it turned out, was his high school government teacher.
“Believe me, he never saw it coming because I was not a good high school student,” Hansen joked.
Hansen served one term and, after his return to the Legislature in 2019, played a role in South Dakota eventually enacting an abortion ban in 2022. On the campaign trail, he has also touted his involvement in defeating Amendment G in 2024, which would have enshrined the right to an abortion in the state’s Constitution.
‘In the arena’
Hansen said his work on abortion underscores his ability to deliver for the conservative Republican agenda.
“I’ve not just talked. I’ve been in the arena fighting the fight on the issues,” Hansen said.
Besides abortion, Hansen also highlighted his work to lower property taxes, which has come under heavy scrutiny from one of his primary challengers, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson.
In recent weeks, Johnson has utilized his significant campaign war chest to attack Hansen’s role in the passage of a series of bills during this year’s legislative session that, in some fashion, lower property taxes in exchange for raising sales taxes.
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In particular, there is Senate Bill 245, which will create a property tax relief fund using money generated from the planned 0.3% sales tax increase set to take effect next year.
Former Gov. Kristi Noem enacted a law in 2023 that lowered the sales tax from 4.5% to 4.2% until 2027. Efforts to make the measure permanent were rejected in the state Senate.
Hansen said Johnson’s claims that Hansen has raised sales taxes are “disingenuous” and pointed out that, at least when it comes to the scheduled sales tax increase, it was a case of trying to make lemonade out of lemons.
“I just don’t think it’s appropriate for South Dakotans to give out tax breaks to some of the world’s richest tech companies. They want to come to South Dakota, they can pay taxes just like everyone else.”
– Republican gubernatorial candidate Jon Hansen
“We (the state House) wanted to make the cut permanent, but we didn’t have the votes in the Senate. Every year after, we tried to make that sales tax cut permanent and every year the Senate didn’t have the votes,” Hansen said. “So the reality is it was going up anyway.”
“The next best thing we could build a consensus around was take all that money, dollar for dollar, and put that towards property tax relief,” Hansen said, arguing that the break in property taxes will outweigh any rise in sales taxes.
Hansen said if he were to ascend to the top job in Pierre, he would focus on examining state finances to see where he could potentially cut more taxes.
“We’re going to look at our state budget and cut government spending and use that savings to provide more tax relief,” he said.
Hansen said he also wants to clean up what he sees as a culture of grift in Pierre that favors larger corporations over small businesses.
“It’s a breeding ground for corruption. You see it when people who sit on the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board dole out money to certain companies then get executive jobs with those companies,” Hansen said, citing the recent example of CJ Schwan’s, a food manufacturer that hired a former GOED commissioner and received $69 million in state grants and loans.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate. It seems very Washington, D.C.-esque to me,” Hansen said.
Hansen’s hostility toward larger corporations is further illustrated by another piece of key legislation he passed in this past session.
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Along with Senate President Pro Tempore Chris Karr, Hansen passed Senate Bill 135, dubbed the Data Center Bill of Rights for Citizens, which puts certain restrictions in place for any future data center project.
He ruled out being open to providing data center companies any special tax privileges to operate in the state.
“I just don’t think it’s appropriate for South Dakotans to give out tax breaks to some of the world’s richest tech companies,” Hansen said. “They want to come to South Dakota, they can pay taxes just like everyone else.”
With the campaign entering the final stretch, what’s his strategy to win over voters before they vote?
“We’re going to continue being positive, share our vision of the state and show our track record of results,” Hansen said.
South Dakota News Watch is an independent nonprofit. Read, donate and subscribe for free at sdnewswatch.org. Contact politics and statehouse reporter Alexander Rifaat: 605-736-4396/alexander.rifaat@sdnewswatch.org.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) -A South Dakota mom is turning her love of children’s books into hope for kids in foster care.
Elizabeth Heggem started selling children’s books through Paper Pie to build a library for her two sons. She soon thought about how she could make an impact in her community.
“There’s roughly 1,600 kids in foster care in South Dakota right now, and maybe only around 700 homes available. So a lot of these kids have to travel when they’re placed in foster care,” Heggem said. “That’s kind of the goal with this book drive: once they’re placed in care and traveling, they have something to do, they have something to hold on to. And they know that they matter.”
Heggem is partnering with South Dakota Kids Belong for a statewide book drive during National Foster Care Month in May. She launched the campaign online with a goal to get books into the hands of kids the moment they enter care.
What’s in each pack
Each EmpowerME pack includes $50 worth of new, high-quality books, a non-disposable bag the child can keep, and age-appropriate selections designed to provide comfort, encouragement, and entertainment during transitions.
The packs are available in five age categories: 0-2, 3-5, 6-9, 10-13, and 14 and older.
“It’s 35 dollars to sponsor a child. Like I mentioned, with Paper Pie’s match, I’m able to provide 50 dollars worth of high-quality, engaging books, and they also get a bag to keep that’s theirs,” Heggem said.
How to donate
Donors can give online or directly to Heggem via Venmo.
- $35 sponsers one child
- $105 sponsers three children
- $350 sponsers 10 children
The books will be waiting in foster care offices across South Dakota for kids of all ages to grab as they head to a new home.
“Sometimes hope looks like a safe place to land and sometimes it looks like a book in a child’s hand,” Heggem said.
Heggem’s goal is to place 500 book packs in offices statewide.
Those interested in sponsoring a book pack can donate online or via Venmo: @Elizabeth-Heggem.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
Hear a bison bull roar as rut season begins in Iowa
Male bison bellow to show strength and fend off rivals during their mating season, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A 70-year-old Canadian woman died after being struck by a bison May 18 while hiking with her husband in South Dakota’s Custer State Park, after another park visitor was injured by a bison earlier this month.
The couple were on the Grace Coolidge Trail and found themselves behind a group of about five bull bison, according to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office. The couple paused about 500 yards from the animals and waited for them to continue up the trail and out of sight. The couple then continued hiking, came around a corner and encountered the bulls at a distance of 50 yards.
The couple stopped again, and then continued trailing the bison as the animals moved away. A bull eventually broke from the group, charged the woman, hooked her and tossed her into the air.
The woman died from her injuries.
Custer State Park is managed by the Department of Game, Fish and Parks. Spokesperson Nick Harrington said staff moved the bison from the area and are monitoring the animal’s behavior “to ensure public safety and prevent future incidents.” He said dry conditions have caused bison to spread throughout the park in search of grass, increasing the chance that visitors may encounter them on trails.
Harrington said park visitors should keep their distance from wildlife, make noise while hiking, use caution around corners and ridges, and keep pets on leashes.
“It’s important to remember that bison are wild animals and need to be treated as such,” Harrington said in a written statement. “Visitors are reminded to keep their distance from all wild animals and safely enjoy both the trails and wildlife within the park.”
On May 1, a 22-year-old hiker encountered a bison while hiking the Lost Trails by Center Lake, Harrington said in response to South Dakota Searchlight questions about prior incidents. The hiker was with a friend and their dog when they rounded a corner.
“The hiker was struck by the buffalo on the back of her legs and was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,” Harrington said.
Harrington said the department is not aware of any other incidents involving bison within Custer State Park this year, and there had not been a fatal incident involving a bison in the park since 2001.
The 110-square-mile park in the Black Hills is home to a herd of about 1,400 bison, also known as buffalo. Bull bison can stand up to 7 feet tall at the shoulders, weigh 2,000 pounds and run up to 35 mph, according to the department.
South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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