South Dakota
Gov. Larry Rhoden signs anti-trans bathroom bill HB 1259 into law in South Dakota
Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office announced Friday morning that Rhoden signed House Bill 1259 into law on Thursday, which restricts trans people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity in public schools and state-owned buildings.
He also signed House Bill 1239, to make public schools and public libraries create book appeal policies, and House Bill 1174, to give fathers more rights over single womens’ fetuses or newborns.
Rhoden said in a press release that the bills he signed “protect South Dakota values.”
“South Dakota is a place where commonsense values remain common, and these bills reinforce that fact,” Rhoden said in a press release. “These bills promote strong families, safety in education, and freedom from the ‘woke’ agenda like what has happened in too many other places.”
As HB 1259 becomes law July 1, it marks the first time in state history that any similar anti-trans bathroom bill has made it on the books. Similar legislation has come before the South Dakota Legislature at least five different times — once in 2016 and 2017, twice in 2018 and once in 2022 — but never became law until now.
The bill from 2016, House Bill 1008, was vetoed by former Gov. Dennis Daugaard after he met with several trans individuals from all different walks of life who encouraged him to change his mind and veto it.
There was also increasing pressure from international attention on the bill, outspoken messages from trans celebrities, contentious protests at legislative coffees, a looming tourism boycott of the entire state, and binders full of signatures asking Daugaard to veto the bill.
South Dakota groups plan protests in response
The Transformation Project and its Advocacy Network, along with the ACLU of South Dakota, Sioux Falls Pride and Trans Action SD, plan to protest HB 1259 at 11 a.m. Sunday at Van Eps Park in Sioux Falls.
A similar protest was held Feb. 22 outside of a legislative coffee meeting at Southeast Technical College where local residents could ask legislators questions about bills they were hearing in Pierre. More than two dozen people rallied there to call out the bill’s segregation of restrooms by sex assigned at birth.
Jack Fonder, a community health worker with the Transformation Project, said he and others at the Project are “deeply saddened and profoundly concerned” by Rhoden’s decision to sign HB 1259 as it restricts restroom access for transgender and gender-diverse individuals, especially “our most vulnerable community members — trans youth.”
“Legislation like HB 1259 does not make South Dakota safer; instead, it further isolates and marginalizes transgender individuals, sending a message that they are unwelcome in public spaces,” Fonder said. “Trans and gender-diverse youth already face disproportionately high rates of bullying, mental health struggles, and discrimination. This law will only intensify those challenges, making it harder for them to navigate everyday life with dignity and safety.”
Fonder called on the community and allies to stand with the Project in supporting transgender South Dakotans.
“To our transgender youth: You are seen, you are valued, and you are not alone,” he added. “We will continue fighting for your right to exist safely and authentically in every space.”
HB 1259 was also opposed by South Dakota Youth Activism, the South Dakota Bureau of Human Resources and Administration, South Dakotans for Equity, the South Dakota Municipal League, and other South Dakota residents who’ve called it anti-trans and said it invites discrimination and litigation to the state.
South Dakota
South Dakota ends 2026 fiscal year with $69 million surplus
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South Dakota
SD Lottery Millionaire for Life winning numbers for July 12, 2026
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 12, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 12 drawing
12-21-39-46-48, Bonus: 02
Check Millionaire 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.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
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
Incarcerated women to move into new Rapid City prison to alleviate overcrowding
RAAPID CITY, S.D. — Incarcerated women will start moving into a new $87 million prison in Rapid City next month, a South Dakota Department of Corrections spokesperson confirmed this week.
The medium-security prison will be the state’s second for women. The South Dakota Women’s Prison in Pierre has operated beyond its capacity for years, with dozens of people serving their sentences at the Hughes County Jail or in halfway house facilities.
The new prison in Rapid City, which was approved by state lawmakers
in 2023
, will add 288 beds to the state’s capacity. The Department of Corrections will begin transferring women there next month, according to spokesperson Michael Winder, who said the exact date of full operations won’t be released for security reasons
The prison includes a work release area, a mother-infant building that lets new moms stay in a home-like environment with their babies, a vocational training facility to be staffed by instructors from Western Dakota Technical Institute and 96 beds for chemical dependency treatment.
The majority of the women held in South Dakota prisons are incarcerated on nonviolent drug charges, and 97% have a substance use disorder diagnosis.
“Drug addiction is a disease that must be treated,” Corrections Secretary Nick Lamb said at Friday’s ribbon cutting, adding that “Through dedicated treatment space and the therapeutic community, women will receive the counseling support and skills that they need to break the cycle of addiction and successfully return to their families and communities.”
The mother-infant program
mirrors one launched a few years ago in Pierre
.
Mothers who qualify under security guidelines stay in a group home separate from the main prison facility with other women and children for the first few years of their child’s life. The program was launched by former Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko and was championed by Lamb in his first public conversations with lawmakers on the state’s budget committee during the 2026 legislative session.
Photo courtesy Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office
At Friday’s event, Gov. Larry Rhoden said family connections and parenting skills are key factors in rehabilitation. He framed the program as an extension of a commitment to the well-being of South Dakota families.
“This program gives mothers and their children the opportunity to build that foundation from the very beginning,” Rhoden said.
Rhoden also called out the vocational training, drug treatment and work release programs as vital to rehabilitation — and to public safety by extension. The state recently broke ground on a new $650 million men’s prison in Sioux Falls, which is set to replace the state penitentiary and is also designed to expand programming and rehabilitation.
When combined with pending policy recommendations from the state’s correctional rehabilitation task force, Rhoden said, the new prisons will help improve public safety statewide by reducing the number of people who return to prison within a few years of their release.
“At the end of the day, every person in our corrections system is a human being,” Rhoden said. “They are sons and daughters. They are mothers and fathers. People who’ve made mistakes but also have the capacity to change.”
Winder, the corrections spokesman, told South Dakota Searchlight that staff will spend the next few weeks training at the new facility in preparation for the arrival of inmates in August.
The state hired Eric Aldridge
to serve as warden in March
. Aldridge, who came to South Dakota after a stint as warden of a medium-security women’s prison in Troy, Virginia, said Friday his goal is to “to facilitate an environment, an atmosphere, a culture where people learn, they grow, they heal, and where people develop through dignity and respect.”
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