Following is the Vermillion, S.D. Police Department activity log. This information is for Dec. 23, 2023, through the afternoon of Jan. 22, 2024. More information about individual incidents can be found at the Vermillion Police Department web page.
Total arrests coming through the Union County Jail in December: 75
Total number of individuals incarcerated in jail awaiting trial, sitting out sentences, or awaiting extradition: 28
Below are the charges for the month stated above. You may notice that there may be more charges than arrests. This is due to individuals facing multiple charges. Continue reading Union County Sheriff’s department arrest data for December 2023
Iowa Republicans will cast their vote for the GOP presidential nominee on Monday, kicking off the process of deciding who will run in the 2024 presidential election.
Candidates including former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy spent the final days before the first-in-the-nation contest holding events with Iowans and encouraging people to show up to their precinct caucuses to participate.
Caucusgoers planning to weigh in on the GOP presidential nomination must attend their precinct caucuses in person to participate. Iowa Democrats also will hold in-person caucuses on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, alongside Republicans, but no expression of presidential preference will take place at the in-person events. Democrats are holding a mail-in ballot process with results to be announced on Super Tuesday in March.
Here’s what Iowans planning to participate in the caucuses need to know: Continue reading What you need to know to participate in the 2024 Iowa caucuses
The western Iowa man suspected of sexually assaulting an Iowa nursing home resident was the subject of a prior police complaint that “fell off the radar” without being pursued by authorities, according to police officials.The home’s parent company, Care Initiatives of West Des Moines, continued to provide work for the man in other Iowa nursing homes that it operates, inspectors found.
Seven months before the alleged rape, in March 2023, the suspect in the case was working through a temp agency at Friendship Home in Audubon when a female co-worker complained to management that the man had been making suggestive remarks to his female colleagues, sent them photos of himself masturbating. Continue reading Correctionville nursing home rape suspect was subject of prior police complaints
According to a recent poll conducted by News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota, nearly half of registered South Dakota voters support the creation of a school voucher program in the state.South Dakota is not one of the 16 states that offer school vouchers. A legislative measure to enact a voucher system failed by a wide margin in its first committee stop in 2023.
As of Jan. 10, a voucher bill had not yet been filed for the 2024 legislative session, which just began, though some backers do expect some form of legislation will be filed this session.
The poll showed that 48.8 percent of respondents support the development of a voucher system, while 45.6 percent do not, with 5.6 percent undecided. Continue reading School voucher program backed by many South Dakota voters: poll
The National Weather Service is placed our area under a winter storm warning effective at midnight tonight. In anticipation of the storm, some Siouxland communities are declaring snow emergencies.
We are listing those snow emergencies here as they come in.
Drive safely tonight and tomorrow as you drive to work and school. Continue reading Snow emergencies declared in North Sioux City and Sioux City
The following disposed cases were provided to the Siouxland Observer by the South Dakota Unified Judicial System on 12/26/23. They are reprinted in the same order as they appear on the Unified Judicial System’s report.
Cases Disposed: December 18 – December 22, 2023 Continue reading Union County court
According to a news release from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s, three Sioux County men were arrested Thursday, Dec. 28 for attempted burglary of a church in rural Lincoln County.
Over the last month, Lincoln County deputies have been investigating several burglaries of rural churches in the county. They have been working with neighboring agencies in both South Dakota and Iowa in counties experiencing similar church burglaries. Continue reading 3 Iowa men arrested by Lincoln Co. sheriff’s deputies for S.D. church burglaries
City, county and state food inspectors have been visiting Siouxland area restaurants, bakeries, food trucks, school cafeterias, hospitals and convenience stores in November and December.
Below are some of their findings over the past two months as reported by the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing, which handles food-establishment inspections at the state level.
The state inspections department reminds the public that their reports are a “snapshot” in time, and violations are often corrected on the spot before the inspector leaves the establishment. Continue reading Siouxland restaurant inspection update
In September, Gov. Kristi Noem carried the American flag on horseback into a Sioux Falls arena full of fans.
Several months earlier, Noem had decided to use tax dollars from South Dakota employers to help pay for the event.
In June, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development awarded a three-year contract worth up to $2.5 million to rodeo announcer Rorey Lemmel’s Dean Entertainment Group, to promote and conduct the annual event. The contract said Sioux Falls would contribute additional matching funds.
It was the Cinch Playoffs Governor’s Cup, advertised as “the richest rodeo in South Dakota history,” with $1 million in prize money. Noem handed out awards, posed for photos with the winners, and shared the images with thousands of followers on her social media accounts.
The Siouxland Observer 