• Pause on prison. After lawmakers shot down funding for a proposed $825 million men's prison in Lincoln County, Gov. Larry Rhoden has decided to press pause and instead create a summer working group to study the state's options moving forward. South Dakota Searchlight has more.
  • Less severe ingestion law advances. A bill to reduce the severity of the state's penalty for having controlled substances in your system is now headed to Gov. Larry Rhoden's desk. Per Searchlight, South Dakota is the only state in the nation where a failed drug test can land you in prison. This bill would instead change the penalty for ingestion from a felony to a misdemeanor until the third offense.
  • Library still faces cuts, but less drastic. Lawmakers didn't axe as much state library funding as former Gov. Kristi Noem had initially proposed, meaning much of the staff and programs will likely continue to exist. The plan – as it stands now – is to maintain the library's ability to receive $1.4 million in federal funding and keep 17 of 21 full-time positions, while still cutting about $825,000 in the library's budget and dissolving the South Dakota State Library Board. Searchlight has the full story.
  • No to porn, yes to cash. Lawmakers this week approved a measure to require age verification to access "obscene material" online. The Dakota Scout has the details. Also this week, separately, lawmakers passed a measure to require schools to accept cash for event tickets. The Scout's got the deets on that one, too.