A fugitive from justice out of Harmon County, Okla. wanted for felony child abuse was arrested in Freeman Friday afternoon, Oct. 10 after a strong police presence surrounded at a home at 901 S. Dewald Street. Gary Bunt, an enforcement supervisor with the United State Marshals Service for the state o...

More than three decades after becoming a four-time All-American wrestler with South Dakota State University, Freeman native and Flyers standout Mike Pankratz is properly recognized For those familiar with Freeman High School athletics in the 1980s, the name Mike Pankratz is easily associated with wr...

A winding career has taken Steve Helgeland through various changes, but he’s happy to be where he is today — learning curve and all Signs hanging on the walls of his office inside Menno Public School indicate that Steve Helgeland is a thinker. One quotes Greek philosopher Socrates, reading: “The min...

A boys varsity team from Freeman led by a pair of sophomores that is hopeful for a strong team finish in the postseason, and a young but hard-working group from Menno led by a junior who has been around for what feels like forever, is setting the stage for what is shaping up to be a fun 2025 cross-c...

PHOENIX TREAT FANS TO 'CULTURE WIN' by Jeremy Waltner It might not be the ultimate goal of a state championship, but Friday night in Freeman was pretty fun for the Phoenix. Hosting No. 1-ranked Elkton-Lake Benton in its home opener on a cool but exquisite late-summer night, No. 3 Freeman/Marion/Free...

Twenty-four years after Freeman farmer Joey Graber took part in his first distance triathlon, his son Jeff joined him. And, as you’ll read, the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run (all in a single day) was mighty challenging — and exceedingly rewarding. Just how young was Jeff Graber...

TURNER COUNTY OFFICIALS TAKING UP CONCERNS ABOUT DAKOTA PROTEIN SOLUTIONS Board of Review looks at conditional use permit, learns of non-compliance issues at Aug. 19 meeting; another hearing scheduled for evening of Sept. 23 Action of one kind or another in response to the problematic rendering plan...

Given his family history and exposure to livestock on the farm west of Olivet on which he grew, it’s not surprising that Aidan Friesen is pursing a doctoral degree in veterinarian medicine. And many stand to benefit from that fortune. When Dr. Dave “Doc” Barz of NorthWest Veterinary and Supply reach...

Per a tradition that goes back decades, students, staff and the larger Freeman Academy community gathered Sunday night, Aug. 17 to kick off another school year — one that comes 124 years after South Dakota Mennonite College was founded and 122 years after the first term of 1903. And the school’s tra...

Jake Weier has spent 16 seasons playing on Freeman’s amateur baseball team, the Blacksox, and eight of those seasons have also been spent as manager. And this season, he says, has been among the most fun of all of them. Perhaps that’s what makes last week’s brutal ending so tough to stomach. Facing ...