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South Dakotans and Midwesterners comprise a region that is “friendly and conventional,” according to a new social psychology study. Read More »

As Common Core standards started going into effect in Dakota classrooms this fall, state education leaders probably expected to spend some time explaining what the standards are. But Ryan Townsend, director of academic standards for the N.D. Department of Public Instruction, said he’s spent a lot of time lately explaining what the standards are not. “A lot of it is based on misinformation, unfortunately,” he said. Read More »

What is causing the significant increase in bee die-offs in the past decade? Recent research suggests there’s no single cause, instead pointing to several factors that combine or interact to weaken or kill bees. But according to an ongoing study in Stutsman County, N.D., at least one of those causes is tied to changes in the Dakota land where those bees buzz away their summers: The conversion of grassland to cropland is affecting bees’ diets, which makes them less healthy. Read More »

Area beekeepers are suffering from bee die-offs in numbers they call unsustainable, which threatens not only their livelihood but could also affect hundreds of crops that depend on pollination by bees. The first in a two-part series. Read More »

If the physician shortage is the result of too much demand (for health care services) and too little supply (physicians to provide health care services), the marketplace answer would be to either lessen demand or increase supply. Policymakers are trying to adjust both sides of this equation to make sure that people get the care they need when they need it. Read More »

The two Dakotas are similar in many respects, but at least for now have fallen on two different sides of this issue. With North Dakota enacting the Medicaid expansion, how will the two states fare differently if South Dakota does not expand Medicaid? Check out two infographics to see how Obamacare would affect you and your state. Read More »

Area hospitals transitioning to electronic health records (EHRs) are making progress, and their administrators say they are confident that they are providing or will eventually provide better care with EHRs, but the process hasn’t been without significant headaches—and there’s still a ways to go before EHRs reach the comfort level of those corner-worn manila files. Read More »

Communities across the nation, including dozens in the Dakotas, are joining in a growing nationwide trend of forming markets with a very short farmer-to-consumer transportation system: goods go straight from the farmer’s hands to the consumer’s. Read More »

Does it matter who owns farmland? It might, according to several recent surveys and studies, which suggest that land owned by the person who farms it can be better for local communities, and may be more likely to have in place conservation measures, than land that is rented. Read More »

After raising the issue of the relevancy of rural places to the national political conversation last December, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack took a step beyond that Tuesday as he addressed the National Rural Assembly: Why aren’t rural advocates outraged when rural places are dismissed as irrelevant? Read More »