Poll Part 3: South Dakotans support ballot initiative process and oppose lawmaker interference
According to a recent statewide poll, a wide majority of South Dakota residents supports the citizen-led ballot-initiative process as a way to make laws or change the state constitution, and a significant majority said they don’t want the state Legislature to make the process more difficult.
Written By:
By Bart Pfankuch/South Dakota News Watch | 2:45 pm, May 27, 2021 ×
Some South Dakotans are bothered that even though voters overwhelmingly supported legalization of medical marijuana via a statewide ballot initiative, the governor and some lawmakers tried to delay legalization by a year. Photo: News Watch file
Poll Part 3: South Dakotans support ballot initiative process and oppose lawmaker interference
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New S.D. poll reveals economic pessimism and dissatisfaction with democracy
Written By:
By Bart Pfankuch/South Dakota News Watch | 9:15 am, May 21, 2021 ×
Part one of a three-part series.
As the state emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, some residents of South Dakota are uneasy about what life holds for future generations and many have only limited confidence in the effectiveness of some democratic institutions.
The findings are from a recent poll of 500 South Dakota residents conducted in a partnership between South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota. The poll is part of an ongoing, expanding effort by News Watch called “South Dakota Matters,” which seeks to use statewide polls and online panel discussions to delve deeply into topics of critical importance to South Dakotans.
South Dakota News Watch won a first-place award and three finalist citations in the annual Great Plains Journalism Awards for work produced in 2020. News Watch competed against newspapers of all sizes in an eight-state region that includes the Dakotas, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
Content Director Bart Pfankuch and former reporter Nick Lowrey won a first-place award in Business Reporting for two stories on the coronavirus outbreaks at U.S. meatpacking plants, including at the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls. One article was about lax regulation at meatpacking plants that allowed the virus to spread freely, and the other was the follow-up article on the reissued, watered-down CDC report on the Smithfield outbreak. News Watch beat out finalist entries from the Omaha World Herald and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in that category.
Shari Gonzalez is promoted to market president for
iHeartMedia’s Miami/Fort Lauderdale station group that includes news/talk WIOD, sports talk WINZ, WXBN “Black Information Network,” and eight music brands. She was most recently regional SVP of sales for the cluster. iHeartMedia division president
Linda Byrd says, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to promote Shari into her first market president role. In the short time that we have worked together, I have seen her competitiveness, work ethic and ability to move her team in the direction we need to go. Shari has the experience and smarts to make a great market president of iHeartMedia Miami/Fort Lauderdale. She will be a great leader in one of our most important markets.” Gonzalez comments, “I am honored and thrilled for this opportunity. To continue to work with and now lead this incredible portfolio of brands and this ‘best-in-class’ team of talented, passionate colleagues is a dream come true. Miami/Fort
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