House panel rejects anti-newspaper bills
State lawmakers blocked attempts Thursday to cut the guts from South Dakota’s law that makes local governments and school boards publish minutes from their meetings in local newspapers.
Twice the House Local Government Committee voted 11-1, first against HB 1141, then against HB 1142, in another battle of a long war over South Dakota publication laws.
The latest incident flamed up in November, when the corporate owner of weekly newspapers at Belle Fourche and Sturgis locked their doors with one week of notice.
Just as suddenly, Butte County and most of Meade County were without a newspaper.
The Black Hills Pioneer stepped up and hired three more reporters to help fill the gap. But payments to the Pioneer for putting meeting minutes in the paper cover only part of the additional costs, publisher Letitia Lister told the committee.
Read more: http://www.capjournal.com/news/house-panel-rejects-anti-newspaper-bills/article_77e873dc-07e0-11e8-8bc9-f3decb421a9d.html
