A Sioux City native has been named deputy executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming, according to a news release today. Libby Skarin of the ACLU
Libby Skarin joined the ACLU in 2014 as the policy director for the ACLU of South Dakota.
Skarin has worked as an assistant attorney general for the state of Iowa and worked with the Sioux City Human Rights Commission; she also worked with Iowa Legal Aid.
Skarin attended East High School in Sioux City, is a graduate of the University of Iowa and the University of Iowa College of Law.
The South Dakota Democratic Party has elected a new leader. In August, the party ousted Jennifer Slaight-Hansen by unanimous vote, saying she created a hostile work environment and violated portions of the state party's constitution, according to the Argus Leader.
The recall came seven months after she had been elected chair of the party. Former party vice-chair Shane Merrill was elected to serve as Chair of the Saturday during a party meeting in Rapid City.
Merrill had previously been vice chair and served as interim chair when the party voted to recall Jennifer Slaight-Hansen.
Morningside University has named its recently acquired farm, the Lags Farm, after a $1 million naming gift from the David L. Lageschulte Trust.
Morningside bought the 76 acres of farmland along Old Highway 141 at auction for about $1.3 million in March 2022. The school built a state-of-the-art greenhouse and an outdoor classroom at the site. The farm is used to teach lessons in agribusiness management, budgeting, hybrid analysis and crop scouting. Students will begin growing cover crops at Lags Farm as early as this fall and will continue to expand facilities and work at the farm, the university said in a news release.
Lageschulte was a 1973 Morningside graduate who served as CEO of LTP Management group, a restaurant management company. Lageschulte died in 2014. He served on Morningside's Board of Directors,
Nebraska Wesleyan University reported the third-largest freshman class in its 136-year history this fall.
The 440 first-time students and 84 transfers — the most in school history — mark a significant rebound from precipitous enrollment losses the private liberal arts college endured during COVID-19. Three in 10 first-year students also hail from Lincoln, the largest number in the university's history.
After a record-high 555 new students in fall 2019, the Lincoln, NE school's first-year enrollment fell by double-digit percentages in multiple years during the pandemic.
A Fremont lawyer has been appointed to a vacant county judge position in northeast Nebraska's Sixth Judicial District, according to the Omaha World Herald.
Gov. Jim Pillen announced late last week that he named Sara Bauer to the post. It has been open since Judge Douglas Luebe's resignation in June.
Bauer is currently an assistant city attorney in Council Bluffs and has worked in law firms in Omaha and Norfolk, Nebraska. She received her bachelor's degree from Saint Mary's College of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and her law degree from Creighton University.
