The long read: South Dakota is known for being the home of Mount Rushmore – and not much else. But thanks to its relish for deregulation, the state is fast becoming the most profitable place for the mega-wealthy to park their billions...

Researchers from around the globe are on the hunt for elusive dark matter particles by building the world's most sensitive detector.

South Dakota’s use of forced catheterization. By Mark Walker.

This gargantuan shrine to democracy has never felt so surreal. By Sam Anderson.

South Dakota Republicans are on the verge of doing something that backfired spectacularly for congressional Republicans earlier this year: Getting rid of an independent ethics commission. What is a politically tricky endeavor for any lawmaking body could be even more precarious for the state's lawmakers, given that the commission they want to cut was approved by 51 percent of voters in a ballot initiative this November. The independent commission was part of a larger voter-approved ethics reform package that put limits on campaign finance and lobbying access.

The right to choose in Rapid City. By Kiera Feldman.

South Dakota-based artist John Lopez welds monumental sculptures by re-purposing scrap iron collected from ranches.

A grandma and mother have been charged with brutally beating a two-year-old boy today in an attack sparked by a potty-training accident. Tragic Kylen Shangreaux was found to have suffered horrendous injuries before he died. A post-mortem exam showed the toddler was killed as a result of blows to the head and abdomen in Porcupine, South Dakota in July.