South Dakota
At long last, Lewis and Clark water arrives for Madison • South Dakota Searchlight
MADISON — After waiting nearly 35 years, Madison is the last South Dakota city to connect to the tri-state Lewis and Clark Regional Water System. Local leaders, South Dakota’s three congressmen and economic leaders gathered to celebrate the city’s connection on Wednesday.
Madison’s roughly 6,000 residents tapped into the system earlier this month.
The pipeline delivering the water covers 310 miles and spans southeastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa. The roughly $700 million water system serves about 350,000 people.
The connection means better water quality in the city and economic development, because it increases water capacity, especially for agriculture surrounding Madison, said state Sen. Casey Crabtree, R-Madison.
“This just means a higher capacity for growth that otherwise wouldn’t exist,” Crabtree said.
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds told attendees of Thursday’s celebration that “water development is economic development.” He compared the Lewis and Clark system to the expansion of electricity and broadband in rural parts of the country.
“We’re continuing to make it so that young people want to come back in and stay in the rural parts of our country — not just in the communities themselves but in the ag areas as well,” Rounds said. “It would not happen if it wasn’t for this type of development across multiple states.”
The city will blend its existing water sources with pipeline water to ensure resiliency in supply during droughts and other disasters.
Sibley, Iowa, will be the last to connect to the pipeline. Lewis and Clark Executive Director Troy Larson expects to hook up to Sibley in the fall.
The final step in construction of the “base” water system is to build out a water treatment plant in Vermillion and reach a water capacity of 44.19 million gallons a day, Larson said.
The majority of the pipeline is funded through the federal government. It was supposed to be completed in 2016 but fell behind schedule because of poor funding, Larson said.
The pipeline is now planned to be completed in 2028, after receiving a $152.5 million boost from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Roque Sánchez represented the Biden administration at the celebration, touting the federal government’s role in aiding the project and other rural investments across the country.
None of South Dakota’s U.S. congressional delegates voted for the bill.
“While it took a long time because of federal funding to get where we are,” Larson said, “the last few years we’ve been sprinting to the finish line.”
Larson said Lewis and Clark started construction on the water system’s first expansion in 2022, which is expected to be completed in 2030 and expand water capacity to 60 million gallons a day. The nonprofit expects the second expansion will start shortly after to more than double the system’s capacity as the population grows.
The regional system has “paved the way” for similar water systems in the state and country, Larson said. Fledgling efforts in western, northern and eastern South Dakota are vying for Missouri River water for their communities.
It’s to be expected, since cities and rural water systems across the state are maximizing their groundwater sources and realize other states are looking to tap into the Missouri River, Larson said. South Dakotans want to get there first.
“The only source of really untapped, reliable water in the state is the Missouri River,” Larson said. “What we’re all waking up to is that we need to fully utilize this resource we have.”
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South Dakota
SD Department of Corrections announces high-risk offender release
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The South Dakota Department of Corrections is warning the public about the pending release of a prison offender.
Richie Desersa, 31, is scheduled to be released from prison to suspended sentence supervision on December 3, 2025.
He was convicted of third-degree burglary in 2017 in Minnehaha County.
“Based on the assessments we conduct during incarceration, as well as his criminal history, including prior sex offenses, Offender Desersa is considered to be high-risk for committing additional violent acts in the future,” said Lamb.
“I am issuing this alert to let law enforcement and the public know about his release.”
Desersa will be released to Sioux Falls with GPS monitoring and must participate in treatment.
He is a Native American male, 5′11″ tall, weighing around 190 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
This notification is in addition to the letters currently sent to law enforcement and notices provided to the Division of Criminal Investigation each month.
Since 2011, the Department of Corrections has issued a total of 21 public notices of pending high-risk offender releases.
Copyright 2025 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
South Dakota
SD Lottery Lucky For Life winning numbers for Nov. 30, 2025
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Nov. 30, 2025, results for each game:
Winning Lucky For Life numbers from Nov. 30 drawing
03-08-13-17-18, Lucky Ball: 17
Check Lucky For Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
South Dakota
Competition for Nebraska’s ‘Carhenge’ rises near South Dakota’s Badlands
KADOKA, S.D. (Nebraska Examiner) — Nebraska’s quirky replica of England’s prehistoric Stonehenge, “Carhenge,” is about to get some new competition in a neighboring state. And a former Nebraskan is behind it.
Rising from a dusty, prairie ridge along Interstate 90 near this Badlands-area town is a collection of firetrucks dubbed “Firehenge.”
Its creator, an Omaha Burke High School grad who runs a Rapid City brewery, said the ring of 10-ton firetrucks vertically arranged in a circle is more about promoting his Firehouse Brewery Company than trying to lure away visitors from Alliance, Nebraska’s popular Carhenge, about 200 miles to the south.
The new South Dakota version of the roadside attraction, which sits just off I-90, also includes a collection of buried fire hydrants called “Doghenge.” By next summer, the new henges will include a gift shop where visitors can purchase brewery souvenirs and canned beer and wine from the Firehouse Brewing Co., South Dakota’s first and oldest brewery.
“We are just having a ton of fun out here. Just come out and see it,” said Bob Fuchs, the co-owner of the brewery who graduated from Burke in 1981. And, he adds, bring your dog.
A city official in Alliance, which took over ownership of Carhenge in 2013, said she doesn’t expect local residents to mount a monumental fuss over a competing “henge” in the general vicinity.
“I think all of these things are fun,” said Shana Brown, the director of cultural and leisure services for Alliance.
As it turns out, both Carhenge and Firehenge have plenty of competition in tourism’s Carhenge-replica category.
There’s a “Foamhenge” (made out of foam) in Virginia, a “Truckhenge” near Topeka, Kansas (made out of farm trucks), a “Phonehenge” (made out old telephone booths) in South Carolina, and a “Strawhenge” (made out of bales) in Bavaria, Germany.
Years ago, a “Twinkiehenge” was built during a Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. There was once a “Snowhenge” in Michigan and a “Fridgehenge” (made out of old refrigerators) once graced the plains near Santa Fe before complaints caused its demise.
A couple decades ago, a reporter was summoned to Chadron, where a suspected “Hayhenge” had been built northeast of town. Round hay bales had been arranged in a circle at a local ranch.
In the kinda-old-henge category, there’s a full-size concrete replica of Stonehenge in Maryhill, Washington, that was built in 1918 to honor people lost in World War I.
And near Carbury, North Dakota, there’s a circle of granite walls that serves as a 21st Century solar calendar, which is the suspected purpose of Stonehenge, a prehistoric circle of stones aligned for ceremonial purposes to indicate the summer and winter solstices, and the spring and fall equinoxes.
Carhenge was built in 1987 by Jim Reinders and his relatives as a memorial to Reinders’ father, who had lived on the farm north of Alliance where the collection of 39 American cars – arranged to align with the solar calendar – now sits.
The off-beat attraction draws about 100,000 visitors a year, according to Brown, and features a staffed gift shop from May through September. An estimated 4,000 people gathered there for the solar eclipse in 2017.
Carhenge has appeared in films, commercials, television shows and in song. Last summer, it hosted a group of muralists, who painted murals on the grey-painted cars, providing a new look for the motorcar monument.
Fuchs, the Firehenge creator, said he’s not haunted by henges but had visited Carhenge shortly after it was first created.
The inspiration for his firetruck circle came during a recent marketing meeting for his brewery, which was established inside a former Rapid City firehouse built in 1915.
Fuchs has long parked old firetrucks, purchased from all corners of the Midwest, next to his brewery billboards to draw more attention to his business. He says that he often hears that visitors to Rapid City’s downtown area ask “where’s the Firehouse?”
“It’s guerilla marketing,” Fuchs said during a recent visit to Firehenge. “It’s very effective.”
At the marketing meeting, one of Fuchs’ aides was playing with a toy firetruck. Once she set it on end, vertically, an idea was born.
He said he has no plans to hoist a firetruck so it sits horizontally across two vertical trucks — like the stones at Stonehenge and cars at Carhenge. Too many liability concerns, Fuchs said. More firetrucks may be planted this spring, though, he said. And a YouTube video, featuring a visit by aliens to Firehenge, is in the works, Fuchs adds.
Over the din of a front-end loader smoothing out a gravel parking lot, he said it’s been a lot of fun.
“I get to explore my artistic side by planting fire trucks in the prairie,” Fuchs said.
Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Aaron Sanderford for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com.
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