• Postal workers help 'stamp out' hunger. Letter carriers across the state joined the largest single-day food drive in the nation and collected more than 80,000 pounds of food for Feeding South Dakota – a significant increase from last year's drive.
    • And it's good timing, according to a news release from Feeding South Dakota, which states that food received through USDA programs has recently been cancelled, while the number of South Dakotan's seeking food assistance remains on the rise.
    • Right now, 1 in 8 South Dakotans face hunger, according to Jennifer Stensaas, community engagement manager at the nonprofit.
  • A patented process for tracing the dark web. A Dakota State University researcher and director of digital forensics for the one of the university's labs, Dr. Arica Kulm, has secured a patent for her work in figuring out how to track what's "left behind" when folks use the dark web.
    • Her Dark Web Artifact Framework can detect if a TOR browser (a type of browser used to access the dark web) has been installed or uninstalled on a device, and in some cases can find some of the sites visited.
    • "The framework just reaffirms that you can’t really do anything without leaving some kind of evidence behind,” Kulm said.
  • Southeast Tech awards record number of Build Dakota scholarships. Southeast Technical College has set a new record for the number of Build Dakota scholarships it awarded with 172 full-ride scholarships. This year also marks the third year that 100% of those scholarship recipients are completely industry-supported, meaning private industries are helping support these students in getting their degrees.