SCOUTING REPORT | School cellphones, ringing the Liberty Bell, China's collective punishment, Gassen Fieldhouse
A weekly digest of interesting local, state, national and even international developments
It’s becoming clearer that widespread cellphone usage among the young has not produced the best of outcomes. The generation of boys and girls born in the first decade of this century were essentially guineapigs for cellphones and their attendant usage of social media apps. The devices are blamed for all types of maladies, including depression, cyber bullying, exploitation and an inability to focus.
At the same time, school performance over the last decade or more has stagnated or fallen.
Now, many states, including South Dakota, are moving to ban or restrict their use in the classroom. According to Pluribus News, a group that tracks state legislation across the country, more than a dozen states are considering school restrictions. Michigan and New Jersey have already passed laws this year, bringing the number of states that have passed restrictions to 30 in just three short years since Florida became the first in 2023.
Data centers uniting some on the political extremes
PIERRE – In a partisan world that is often cleaved between left and right, blue and red, one issue in South Dakota has unified parts of the progressive and conservative movements.
