Jeremy Fugleberg

Forum News Service • 11th April 2021

Upper Midwest a circus of marijuana laws, proposals

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The Upper Midwest is having quite a conversation about marijuana right now. A NewsMD analysis finds marijuana laws are in a state of flux in South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. All three states have approved medical...

NewsMD • 30th March 2021

NewsMD podcast 'The Health Variant' launches, offers behind-the-scenes reporting

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Forum Communications Co. has launched "The Health Variant," a new health podcast under its NewsMD health news brand, on Tuesday, March 30. Hosted by NewsMD health correspondent Jeremy Fugleberg, "The Health Variant" will take...

NewsMD • 29th January 2021

South Dakota is a soft target for contagious COVID-19 variant

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota may prove a relatively easy target for a new, more contagious COVID-19 variant that has been discovered in neighboring states, and is expected to blanket the nation by March, according to a Forum News Service...

Forum News Service • 28th January 2021

In South Dakota Down syndrome abortion ban, questions of tests and timing

While the proposal fit with Noem's view of abortions, and is likely to further burnish her credentials in conservative circles, a Forum News Service analysis indicates a lack of data, and uncertain testing, makes it very hard to say how the ban would...

NewsMD • 16th January 2021

Armed with data, they became unlikely COVID-19 heroes

At first, nobody looked to them for health information as COVID-19 swept into the US in early 2020. Yet over a pandemic year filled with swirling uncertainty and confusing statistics, they emerged as unlikely heroes. Armed with spreadsheets and...

Forum News Service • 30th December 2020

Kristi Noem’s big bet: How COVID-19 challenged South Dakota’s governor

The state had yet to be hit by an explosion of the virus. But it expected one. Its modeling showed an overwhelming surge arriving in mid-June, one that would require 5,000 hospital beds, far more than the state had. Many other states’ governors were...

Forum News Service • 5th December 2020

Why there are so many cars in Mexico with license plates from this small South Dakota county

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Bob Jankovics was fed up, and as he dragged his luggage through the arrivals terminal in Mexico, his frustration boiled over. It was so hard to get your car licensed in the U.S. if you live in a different country. Then, he...

Forum News Service • 24th November 2020

Kelby Krabbenhoft out as Sanford Health CEO, after email about COVID-19, masks

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Kelby Krabbenhoft is out as the long-time president and CEO of Sanford Health after an email he sent to employees last week about COVID-19 and masks drew national attention and scorn. Sanford Health and Krabbenhoft have "mutually...

Forum News Service • 23rd October 2020

Texas abortion foes find cold weather — and cold welcome — in South Dakota

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — It’s cold outside, there’s snow on the ground, and the Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas is not pleased with churches in South Dakota. Thomas, national organizer for the anti-abortion group Operation Save America, is standing outside the...

INFORUM • 30th September 2020

South Dakota hospitals dispute claims they're full, but transparency remains an issue

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota's three largest health systems are disputing claims from some patients they're running out of room at their hospitals amid a near worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 surge in the state. Sanford Health, Avera Health and...

Forum News Service • 23rd September 2020

Tribes innovate to fight off, face COVID-19 pandemic

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — It might be just a Netflix subscription, but to those tribe members given one to help them stay quarantined, it could be a ticket to keeping their community safe from COVID-19. Across the Upper Midwest, Indigenous tribes are...

The Mitchell Republic • 18th September 2020

At the scene where their cousin died, two brothers return again and again, seeking justice

HIGHMORE, S.D. — Nick and Victor Nemec have returned to this straight stretch of asphalt again and again in the last few days. Nick points down to a long shadow of a streak that has soaked into the highway. "That's a blood mark," he said, his tone...

Forum News Service • 14th September 2020

SD Attorney General Ravnsborg reported he hit a deer. It was a man, left undiscovered until next morning

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg reported hitting a deer with his car while driving on a highway in central South Dakota the night of Saturday, Sept. 12, but he had actually struck and killed a man whose body wasn't...

Forum News Service • 10th September 2020

OSHA fines Smithfield Foods $13,494 for not protecting South Dakota workers from COVID-19, faces backlash from company and workers

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Smithfield Foods $13,494 for failing to protect employees at its Sioux Falls meatpacking plant from exposure to COVID-19, OSHA announced Thursday, Sept. 10, and both...

Forum News Service • 8th September 2020

Researchers call Sturgis rally a 'superspreader event', while Noem calls COVID-19 report 'fiction'

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota spread COVID-19 to hundreds of thousands of people nationwide and its public health cost totaled billions of dollars, researchers said in a recently released paper, conclusions strongly...

Forum News Service • 30th May 2020

Tale of 2 Dakotas: Why ND is a top COVID-19 tester and SD isn't

If more COVID-19 testing is better, North Dakota’s approach has paid off. It stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by its neighbor to the south. In South Dakota, a state with similar demographics and political culture but a slightly larger...

INFORUM • 27th April 2020

'We’re just trying to uncover every stone we can': Farmers, states scramble to keep animals in play

ST. PAUL — As the coronavirus hits some meat processing plants and shuts down others, farmers and ranchers are asking for state and federal help with a big question: What should be done with their growing backlog of hogs, turkeys and other...

INFORUM • 16th April 2020

1 dead from Sioux Falls pork plant COVID-19 outbreak; cases soar past 700, stoking anti-immigrant furor

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The coronavirus outbreak at the now-shuttered Smithfield Foods pork plant in Sioux Falls has claimed the life of one of its workers, as officials say cases link to the facility have surged past 700 on Thursday, April 16. A...

Grand Forks Herald • 30th March 2020

States swap COVID-19 test supplies to fight shortage

North Dakota had a problem. The state was sorely lacking a crucial testing tool for the coronavirus: long, thin collection swabs. South Dakota had its own problem. It had run out of lab supplies needed to process tests for the virus. Both states...

The Daily Republic • 7th February 2020

Medicine or jail? As state lawmakers eye transgender bill, doctors rise in alarm

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Faced with the possibility of breaking the law, Dr. Keith Hansen took a moment to consider his options. If legislation now before South Dakota state lawmakers is made law, Hansen could go to jail if he prescribes the use of a drug...