This year produced a seemingly endless array of history-making events and nearly constant change to immigration policy, tariffs, the Education Department and federal health care programs. The @statesnewsroom.com D.C. Bureau takes a look back:

"Just as candidates are forced to make some decisions in an election year, so are newspaper editors," writes Dana Hess. That includes deciding whether and how to publish letters endorsing candidates, and whether to publish columns from the candidates themselves. Commentary:

Three years ago, barely half of Norris Elementary's students came to school regularly. Now attendance is above 90%. Staff at the predominately Native American school credit one-on-one engagement with students and families, and Lakota language and cultural programming. buff.ly/f3VJtAB

As childhood #vaccination rates fall, diseases once considered eradicated are back and spreading. In an episode of "Stories from the States," a podcast from @statesnewsroom.com, a doctor shares how her state is reacting to confusing and polarizing information from the #CDC.

How nostalgia led to the invention of the first #Christmas card ⬇️

The man accused of shooting two #NationalGuard members was charged in federal court, moving the case out of the local courts. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro wrote that the transfer ensures she can undertake the "analysis required to determine if the death penalty is appropriate.”

The South Dakota Highway Patrol didn’t visit Brookings for a saturation patrol that had been announced in advance by the city’s leadership. Troopers went to Winner and Sturgis for the ninth set of patrols undertaken as part of Gov. Larry Rhoden’s #OperationPrairieThunder.

The Iowa Utilities Commission will have to decide whether #SummitCarbonSolutions can change the ending destination for its carbon sequestration pipeline before a case against the company’s permit can proceed, an Iowa court ruled. Via @iowacapitaldispatch.com buff.ly/7JKA0yp

President Donald Trump for now has not met the requirements to send #NationalGuard troops to #Chicago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a major setback for the president. Via @statesnewsroom.com

President Donald Trump’s administration will start garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers in default beginning early next year, the U.S. Education Department said. Via @statesnewsroom.com

The U.S. Department of Justice released thousands more files related to the late sex offender #JeffreyEpstein, with several referencing President Donald Trump. Via @statesnewsroom.com

South Dakota’s Republican attorney general asked a judge for a court order to stop an abortion-rights ad campaign by a New York-based nonprofit, Mayday Health. The ads direct people to information about #abortion pills.

A South Dakota law that prevents drug companies from restricting federal drug discounts for hospitals and other providers will remain in effect while a lawsuit against it proceeds, a judge has decided.

Inmates in Montana are suing a food service company based in South Dakota, alleging that blood dripped into a pasta dish and infected some inmates with hepatitis C. Via @dailymontanan.com

No state that borders South Dakota has publicly confirmed a lethal overdose in a state prison in 2025. South Dakota has reported eight. buff.ly/HP0CA1I

Since Inauguration Day, more than 1.5 million #immigrants have either lost or will lose their temporary legal status, including their work authorizations and deportation protections, due to President Donald Trump’s aggressive revocation of legal immigration. Via @statesnewsroom.com

A program that helps farmers pass their operations along to their children got a $200,000 boost from a South Dakota government fund under the exclusive control of the governor.

Willingness to meet inmates where they’re at and respond to their needs as individuals are pillars of what one former incarcerated South Dakotan calls "moral leadership." He said that's needed to stop a spate of overdose deaths in the state's prisons. buff.ly/JMnW82J

The chairman of a South Dakota economic development board not only sits on the corporate board for a company benefiting from millions in state aid but also has connections to the company’s landlord. buff.ly/Khzb85j

International student enrollment across South Dakota’s six public universities dropped this fall by 76 students. The drop, which comes amid a Trump administration immigration crackdown, follows a 10-year high last fall that capped four straight years of increases.

The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a confidential draft agreement to more than a dozen states, including South Dakota, that would require election officials to remove any alleged ineligible voters identified during a federal review of their voter rolls. Via @stateline.org buff.ly/jfKJZ3C

Dana Hess considers pledges by South Dakota gubernatorial candidates to use Department of Government Efficiency-style tactics: "If we learned anything from watching the slash and burn techniques employed by #DOGE, it’s that chainsaws are best left to lumberjacks." Commentary:

The Department of Justice began releasing thousands of records related to #JeffreyEpstein. The trove reviewed by @statesnewsroom.com contains images of Epstein with celebrities including Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, David Copperfield and former President Bill Clinton. buff.ly/93rp7Te

A company benefiting from $69 million in state grant and loan approvals has South Dakota's former economic development chief as an employee and the chairman of the state's economic development board as a corporate board member. That's caused lawmakers to raise ethical questions.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a long-awaited #DakotaAccessPipeline environmental impact statement, recommending that the pipeline keep operating but with some new conditions for its Missouri River crossing in North Dakota. #DAPL Via @northdakotamonitor.com

The November overdose death of a state prison inmate in Sioux Falls has drawn charges from the attorney general against a former Department of Corrections medical staffer and a man who’s already serving a 65-year sentence. southdakotasearchlight.com/2025/12/19/i...

Homeland Security Secretary #KristiNoem said she was suspending applications for a diversity visa program because the man suspected of killing two Brown University students and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor obtained a green card through the program in 2017.

The six-day manhunt for the person believed to be responsible for a mass shooting at Brown University ended when the suspect and former Brown graduate student, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Via @rhodeislandcurrent.com

Calls from businesses for federal guidance on how to handle the elimination of the #penny have so far gone unanswered, pushing some states to take up the issue, reports @stateline.org.

South Dakota's Dusty Johnson voted yes as the U.S. House passed a bill to remove Endangered Species Act protections for the #GrayWolf outside Alaska. Via @statesnewsroom.com

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety says the Highway Patrol has logged $43,000 of overtime for troopers during a saturation patrol initiative known as Operation Prairie Thunder.

The Trump administration took steps to block minors’ access to #GenderAffirmingCare. Hospitals would be barred from gender transition treatment for children as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid, and Medicaid funding would be prohibited from use for the care.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to loosen federal restrictions on #marijuana, which Trump said reflected the drug’s potential medical benefits while discouraging recreational use. Via @statesnewsroom.com

The John F. #KennedyCenter for the Performing Arts, a prestigious cultural hub in the nation’s capital, will be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced. Via @statesnewsroom.com

A panel of appellate judges seemed skeptical during Thursday oral arguments that the Trump administration erred in relying on a decades-old statute to require millions of noncitizens to register with the federal government and carry documentation. Via @statesnewsroom.com

South Dakota’s State Economist Derek Johnson told the state Banking Commission that a sluggish farm economy, driven by lower soybean, corn and wheat prices, has been a major factor holding down recent state sales tax collections. buff.ly/PEbDMRC

September #unemployment rates rose in 25 states and fell in 21 compared with last year, the government reported recently in a shutdown-delayed analysis. South Dakota had the nation's lowest rate. Via @stateline.org southdakotasearchlight.com/2025/12/18/r...

As Americans continue to face rising prices ahead of year-end holidays, President Donald Trump blamed inflation and health care costs on his predecessor during a prime-time speech in which he also claimed to have fixed the issues. Via @statesnewsroom.com buff.ly/3gpKJ6G

Fights and serious injuries spiked higher in South Dakota’s state #prisons last year than at any point since at least 2018, according to a report released by the state Department of Corrections. buff.ly/zVQ2T8r

A U.S. appeals court ruled that #NationalGuard troops can remain in the District of Columbia while the judges take up the case that began when the district sued the Trump administration for deploying roughly 2,000 troops to the nation’s capital.

The South Dakota Department of Health is warning the public about a potential #measles exposure at the Rapid City Regional Airport. The notification came as the agency’s website lists three new measles cases in the state since November. buff.ly/S9CLXDs

The U.S. House could vote to approve a Democratic bill that would extend the enhanced #AffordableCareAct tax credits for three more years, after a handful of moderate Republicans backed the effort. Via @statesnewsroom.com buff.ly/B8YkpZA

Soybean farmers and farming associations are looking for longer term solutions than the one-time payments recently announced by the Trump administration to offset inflation- and trade-related losses. They want to diversify trade partners and increase domestic uses for #soybeans.

For the fourth year in a row, Native American children made up more than 70% of children in the South Dakota #FosterCare system at the end of the state’s fiscal year. buff.ly/5sF1MG4

U.S. senators left a closed-door meeting with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio split over the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug-running vessels near Venezuela, particularly a follow-up strike that killed two survivors.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he will not allow a floor vote this week on a bipartisan amendment supported by moderate Republicans that would extend the #AffordableCareAct enhanced tax credits. Via @statesnewsroom.com

A $300 million gift from South Dakota philanthropist #DennySanford to Sanford Health to support the construction of a new medical center in Rapid City was the fifth largest charitable donation in the country this year, according to @chronphilanthropy.bsky.social.

Many states have taken action recently to curb aggressive or reckless driving, reports @stateline.org. Virginia and Washington, for example, enacted laws requiring speed limit devices in the vehicles of drivers with multiple speeding or reckless driving violations. buff.ly/tRTa5Rx

School cafeterias got a step closer to seeing whole #milk again after the U.S. House passed a measure to restore the dairy staple to school lunches. Via @statesnewsroom.com

President Donald Trump’s administration is looking “very strongly” at reclassifying #marijuana from the strictest category of controlled substances, Trump said. Via @statesnewsroom.com