• What to know about state childcare assistance changes. South Dakota Searchlight breaks down changes to how the state is allocating childcare assistance funds – including major cuts in funding for some families, and concerns that remain even after the state readjusted some of those cuts. Find the full story from Makenzie Huber on SD Searchlight's website.
  • No public input on city budget. The City Council on Tuesday held a public hearing related to the 2027 city budget, but no members of the public weighed in. The council will now move on a final vote on the budget later this month.
  • A welcome rock. Experience Sioux Falls Director Teri Schmidt told the City Council on Tuesday that she'd like to see the city do more to have a visual draw for people entering Sioux Falls on the interstate. She said Experience Sioux Falls could contribute funding for a rock formation or some type of striking visual that, as Schmidt put it, "screams, 'Sioux Falls welcomes you.'"
    • Councilors later Tuesday evening voted unanimously to approve the Business Improvement District budget, which funds Experience Sioux Falls in marketing the city, as well as the downtown ambassador program.
  • 'Might as well just drop out' of convention market. Schmidt also spoke passionately to councilors about the need for a new, larger convention center in Sioux Falls – a conversation that's been on pause for nearly a year. She also said conventions are used to getting free space because of their economic impact, and that right now Sioux Falls is losing conventions to Omaha, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and the like because Sioux Falls is both charging for convention space and doesn't have enough of it in the first place.
    • "We have to continue to get that space, or, to be very blunt, we might as well just drop out of the industry," Schmidt said.