From the fall of the county prosecutor to pet names? That’s a bit of a tumble in story quality at the Argus.
I’m not sure what’s worse. That it’s a top of the website story… or that it took both of them to write it. 🙂
(From http://danielhaggar.com/)
Daniel Haggar announces his candidacy for Minnehaha County State’s Attorney
Sioux Falls, SD – January 6, 2020– Daniel Haggar announces his candidacy for Minnehaha County State’s Attorney.
I am running for Minnehaha County State’s Attorney to enforce our laws in a way that promotes justice. I will provide fresh, hardworking leadership for the office and our communities. Keeping where we live safe is my top priority and essential for the continued growth of our County. My wife, Jennifer, and I were raised in Minnehaha County and we have chosen to raise our three young children here. I am invested in ensuring this a great place to live and raise a family.
I have extensive legal experience in the public sector. I have served as a public defender, state’s attorney, and city attorney. I prosecuted and defended criminal cases from arrest to trial. This helps me to understand the impact the criminal justice system has on individuals and our communities.
I believe Minnehaha County deserves a leader with fresh perspective, who values being present and working hard. There are many passionate, knowledgeable, and dedicated employees in the State’s Attorney Office who are currently doing excellent work. These employees deserve a working environment that fosters integrity and furthers justice. By serving alongside these employees I will improve the efficiency and organization of the office.
In Minnehaha County, I will collaborate with stakeholders to fight violent crime, find lasting ways to halt the current crime trends, and reduce the number of repeat offenders. I will find solutions which prioritize our communities, but also benefit our State. I have experience in the legislative process. When appropriate, I will be able to provide leadership when legislative questions arise.
The chief prosecutor in the most populous county in South Dakota needs to be a visible leader focused on safety, integrity and justice. As Minnehaha County State’s Attorney I will be that leader.
Contact Daniel Haggar at 605-610-9338 or [email protected] with any questions.
Noem Appoints Schoenfish, Overweg to Serve District 19
PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem today announced that she has appointed current Representative Kyle Schoenfish to fill the District 19 vacancy in the South Dakota State Senate. The vacancy was created following the resignation of Stace Nelson. Schoenfish, a Scotland resident, has served in the House since 2013.
“It has been a tremendous honor to represent my community and home district in the House these last seven years, and I am grateful for the opportunity to now serve them in the Senate,” said Schoenfish.
Concurrently, Noem appointed Marty Overweg to represent District 19 in the State House of Representatives, succeeding Schoenfish.
“Serving in the South Dakota legislature is an incredible privilege and responsibility that I do not take lightly,” said Overweg. “I look forward to representing the people of my district and working with other legislators and Governor Noem to make a positive difference for our state.”
Overweg, a New Holland native, owns and operates Overweg Feed and Wagner Feed Supply. He and his wife have five children and nine grandchildren.
“I am thankful for the input of the people in District 19 as we’ve worked toward this decision,” said Noem. “Kyle and Marty are pillars in their communities and have excellent records of service. I am confident they will represent their district with boldness and innovation. I look forward to working with them in the weeks and months to come.”
Both appointments are effective immediately.
Greg Neitzert Raises More Than $13,500 for City Council Campaign
Sioux Falls, SD — Greg Neitzert, City Councilor for the Northwest District and candidate for reelection, has far exceeded his fundraising goal and ended the year with $13,586 in contributions.
Contributors donated between $15 and $1,000 and represent all walks of life.
“I am blown away by the support”, says Greg Neitzert. “It has been humbling and I am incredibly thankful. I have tirelessly worked to make informed decisions based on the long-term interests of the city and all citizens. If I am honored with reelection by the voters, I pledge to continue to serve in the same way. Now more than ever we need public servants who put the best interests of the city ahead of their own, and I strive to do that every day.”
As the son of an auto mechanic and a nurse raised in a working-class neighborhood of Northeast Sioux Falls, Greg learned firsthand the value of hard work and living on a tight budget. Working his way through college and now raising a family, Greg understands the challenges citizens face. In his career as a software engineer, Greg has developed strong analytical skills that allows him to break down complex problems and to find solutions. These skills are essential to address the challenges and opportunities the city will encounter as it continues to grow. Greg will continue to focus on improving the quality of life for all citizens, investing in critical infrastructure, and working to ensure sustainable growth while keeping Sioux Falls an affordable place to live, work, and play.
Greg Neitzert has served on the Sioux Falls City Council representing the Northwest District since 2016. Before his election to City Council, he served on the Sioux Falls Zoning Board of Adjustment for 5 years. Neitzert has served on various boards and task forces, most recently as Vice Chair of the City Council, Chair of the City Council Audit Committee, and member of the city’s Annexation Task Force and Billboard Task Force. Neitzert has been married to his wife Jennifer for 17 years. They have an eleven-year-old daughter, Olivia, who is a fifth-grader in the Sioux Falls public school system.
The Sioux Falls City Council election will be held on Tuesday April 14, 2020.
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Municipal Candidate Committee_ Greg Neitzert for City Council_ Campaign Finance Disclosure Report_ Northwes… by Pat Powers on Scribd
New Law Finally Puts Illegal Robocallers on Notice
By Sen. John Thune
If you’re a Seinfeld fan like me, you probably remember the episode where Jerry receives a phone call from a telemarketer, interrupting his conversation with other characters on the show. Jerry tells the person on the other end of the line that he’s busy, but says that if the telemarketer shares his home phone number, he would call him back later. The telemarketer says he won’t do that, and Jerry asks, “I guess you don’t want people calling you at home?” When he agrees, Jerry says, “Well, now you know how I feel.”
Jerry’s sentiment is something we all can relate to, and maybe you’ve even used his strategy a time or two when you’ve received an unwanted robocall or telemarketing call over the years.
As technology has evolved, traditional telemarketing calls have gone from a landline ringing during dinner to relentless, downright annoying – and sometimes illegal – phone calls that are barraging our home, work, and mobile phones at all hours of the day. I receive them. My friends receive them. Even my 100-year-old dad has received them.
For some people, the situation has gotten so bad that they’ve chosen to simply stop answering the phone all together. That’s an unacceptable position for Americans to feel forced into, particularly if they’re sacrificing answering legitimate calls in order to avoid the annoying nuisance ones.
While no one with a phone is immune to robocalls, some people are specifically targeted, often vulnerable populations like the elderly. If you don’t know someone who’s been tricked by one of these scammers, you’ve probably seen a story on the news or read about it online or in the newspaper. These guys will stop at nothing. Well, hopefully, until now.
As I travel around South Dakota, I get a good sense of what’s on folks’ minds. As the hot-button issues of the day change, the feedback I hear from people often changes, too. One issue that has never seemed to change, though, is the outrage people feel toward illegal robocallers.
Having been on the receiving end of these calls myself, I tried to harness this collective outrage when I drafted the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or TRACED Act, to formally put these scammers on notice. As Frank Costanza said during the annual “airing of grievances” on Seinfeld, “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!”
This bipartisan bill is actually pretty straightforward. First, it gives federal agencies more authority to go after illegal robocallers, including by increasing the window in which they’re able to levy fines, and it significantly increases the amount robocallers can be fined in that expanded window. Second, it requires federal regulators to finalize rules that will require most carriers to adopt technology that will prevent these calls from reaching consumers in the first place. Finally, among other common-sense fixes, my bill adds teeth to the law’s enforcement mechanism by creating a credible threat of criminal prosecution – spending time behind bars.
It’s worth noting that the TRACED Act only targets those unwanted and illegal robocalls, like being offered a free trip to the Bahamas in exchange for a Social Security number and credit card information. It protects legitimate entities that use technology to contact consumers, like a bank flagging a potentially fraudulent transaction or a health care provider reminding a patient about an upcoming medical appointment.
My bill was approved by the Senate earlier this year with overwhelming support. Just before Congress adjourned in 2019, the Senate approved a slightly modified version by a simple voice vote, sending it to the president for his signature. On December 30, 2019, after years of work, the TRACED Act became the law of the land.
This effort, which I led with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) was as unique as it was important. In today’s political environment, it’s not every day that you see a conservative Republican teaming up with a liberal Democrat on a bill that was nearly unanimously supported in a divided Congress. That’s why the Washington Post said the TRACED Act is “what good, old-fashioned legislating looks like.” That’s a badge of honor, in my opinion.
While this new law won’t immediately stop every single illegal robocall, it does mark the first major attempt to end this scourge in more than a decade, and it will lay important groundwork in the fight toward giving consumers greater peace of mind when their phone rings in 2020 and beyond.
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Two Years Later, Tax Reform Continues to Help South Dakota Families, Small Businesses
By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)
Historic tax reform legislation was signed into law by President Trump just over two years ago, and it has had a positive impact for South Dakota families and small businesses. Entrepreneurs are feeling optimistic about their businesses, and are reinvesting savings from tax cuts back into their businesses and their employees. Wages are rising and new jobs are being created. The average American household can expect a lifetime gain of around $25,000 thanks to tax reform.
One of the many reasons I voted in favor of tax reform was because of the benefits it included for small businesses. In our state, 99 percent of all businesses are small businesses. We are the home base for 85,000 small businesses that employ more than 200,000 South Dakotans. Each of these small businesses plays a critical role in our state’s economy. When they are doing well financially, they can hire more workers, pay employees higher wages, give out bonuses and increase charitable giving to benefit the community. Higher wages and better jobs can help families save for their children’s education, buy a home and invest for retirement.
We just wrapped up the biggest shopping season of the year. The holidays are a busy time for small businesses, and shopping locally can help to make sure they continue to succeed year after year. In 2019, the national economy continued its growth streak, and consumers felt confident spending their hard-earned money. Recent numbers showed that 83 percent of consumers planned to shop at a small business over the holidays, and 91 percent of consumers regularly shop at a small business at least once per week throughout the entire year.
During a visit to Sioux Falls late last year, I spent some time driving around the city to meet with small business owners ahead of the busy holiday season. From bakeries to retail shops, the majority of the people I met with felt confident that they’d end the year on solid footing. I’ve had a number of business owners from across the state tell me that while they’re doing well, they have trouble finding people to hire. We have so many jobs, but not a big enough workforce to fill all of them. I’ll continue working in the Senate to advance workforce development policies so businesses can fill open jobs and our economy can reach its full potential.
We also need to continue to finalize trade agreements to bring some stability back to the market for ag producers. As the administration continues to upgrade our trade policies with other countries, South Dakota’s ag producers have been at the tip of the spear. This month, we expect to finalize the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, which will help South Dakota dairy producers and manufacturers. It will also give us some much-needed leverage to finalize trade deals in other parts of the world so all of our state’s ag producers can feel some relief. I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to corn farmers and ethanol producers that his administration will live up to the law and blend 15 billion gallons of ethanol into the nation’s fuel supply annually. Making sure the EPA follows through on that promise is important for corn producers in our part of the country. Agriculture is our state’s number one industry, and it’s critical that our farmers and ranchers have markets to sell their products.
Tax reform was a win for South Dakota families and small businesses, but we still have work ahead of us to make sure our economy continues to grow in all sectors. I look forward to tackling these issues in the year ahead.
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A Year in Review
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
Rep. Johnson speaks at an Agriculture Committee hearing.
It’s been nearly a year since I packed a suitcase and flew to our nation’s capital to be sworn in as South Dakota’s lone representative. It was a proud moment for my family and me. I stood on the U.S. House floor, raised my right hand, and swore my oath to the U.S. Constitution alongside my three boys and better half. A few weeks later, I was appointed to a leadership position as a Subcommittee Ranking Member on the Agriculture Committee – it’s been an honor helping to lead a committee that does such important work for South Dakota.
Since January 3, 2019, Congress has been nothing short of eventful. When I was sworn into office, the government was in a partial shutdown. For weeks, Speaker Pelosi and President Trump went back and forth on funding for border security. I stood with the president and supported a bill that reopened the government and provided funding for a border wall.
Every day, my main priority is South Dakota. I’ve taken three-hundred and fifty-eight meetings with South Dakotans while in Washington. In the last year, I’ve toured two-hundred and ninety-seven local businesses, hosted twenty-one in person townhalls, and met with dozens of community leaders throughout our great state. I’ve always had more energy to burn than most. I promised I would work hard to fight for South Dakota’s priorities, and I believe I’ve kept that promise. An average day in Washington begins at seven in the morning and lasts well into the ten o’clock evening hour. I’m also proud of our legislative successes – I introduced thirteen bills this year, two of which were signed into law by President Trump.
Rep. Johnson gives a constituent group a tour of the U.S. Capitol building.
I did take the opportunity to venture out on a few fact-finding missions outside of Washington. I toured areas along the southern border and Mexico because border security continues to be a primary concern of mine. Our immigration courts are dealing with more than 436,000 open cases and this unprecedented caseload is why I supported legislation to send humanitarian aid to the border and increase the number of immigration case judges. The president signed this bill into law in June.
South Dakota has had a tough year weather-wise. Crops were wiped out and thousands of acres flooded – multiple times. I came to Washington to tackle the life-altering problems. I am proud of the work our team put in to get the prevent plant harvest date moved from November to September this year. The FEEDD Act would formalize that important decision, and I am grateful the U.S. Department of Agriculture moved the harvest date in part because of my bipartisan legislation.
Few issues have been more important to me than trade. I never imagined it would take more than a year to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), but it did. I gave floor speech after floor speech, attended meeting after meeting, urging Speaker Pelosi to let the U.S. House vote on a deal that, according to the Office of the U. S. Trade Representative, will add 176,000 jobs and $68 billion to our economy. I delivered my last USMCA floor speech on December 19, 2019, moments before casting my vote in favor of the USMCA.
I’m tremendously proud of the work South Dakota’s congressional office has accomplished this year, and I hope you are too.
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Keeping Resolutions for 2020
By Governor Kristi Noem
Sometimes it seems that breaking New Year’s resolutions are as much of a tradition as making them. We commit ourselves to getting in shape or quitting bad habits, but by January 15, many have already strayed. It’s easy to blame this on self-discipline or holiday leftovers, but research suggests it has more to do with how we set goals.
Studies show we’re more likely to achieve our resolutions if we set specific goals. And once those goals are set, we ought to tell someone so we don’t go it alone. With this approach in mind, I decided to put together a list of specific and public resolutions for 2020 that will move us toward a stronger South Dakota.
This year, I will work to update and enhance our state’s policies surrounding critical areas like suicide prevention, mental health, education, habitat, and business growth. We will work to expand internet access so people can start businesses. We will work to strengthen our economy in order to increase opportunity. We will strengthen laws to crack down on sex trafficking and provide hope to victims. We must work to ensure our codes and laws strengthen families and drive innovation throughout the state.
As governor, I also recognize the importance of building strong relationships. Throughout 2019, I worked to develop connections with members of the legislature. This year I want to improve communication, foster stronger relationships, and work more effectively on behalf of all South Dakotans.
Additionally, I’m committed to strengthening alliances with tribal leaders. Before session even starts, I will be attending a tribal summit with several tribal chairmen and presidents in order to hear more about the issues impacting Native American communities. We have so much more in common than we have at odds, and this year, I will work to connect our communities in new and meaningful ways.
There’s a lot I want to get done in 2020 – more of which I’ll be talking about in my State of the State Address on January 14 – but these are resolutions I’m committed to keeping. Because my mission is the same as it’s been since day one: to make South Dakota stronger for the next generation.
Bring on 2020. The best is yet to come.
It looks like former Governor Dennis Daugaard has a lot of faith in Alex Jensen. Because he’s gone all-in on the former legislator’s campaign for City Council in a big way with a $10,000 donation from his former Gubernatorial campaign account:
Municipal Candidate Committee_ Alex Jensen for Sioux Falls_ Campaign Finance Disclosure Report_ at-Large Co… by Pat Powers on Scribd
But, it’s not just former Governor Daugaard who has underlined his support of Alex Jensen for Sioux Falls City Council. It’s a list of Republicans within town and outside of Sioux Falls who are all pulling for former legislator Jensen in the campaign.
Deb Soholt. Jeff Partridge. Mark Mickelson. Jason Ravnsborg. Steve Kirby. Tim Rave. Deb Peters. Christine Erickson. Lee Schoenbeck. Joel Dykstra. Dave Knudson. Corey Brown. ..and the list of current and former elected Republican officials goes on and on.
The takeaway is that Alex Jensen is just getting started in the campaign for Sioux Falls City Council against likely opponent Theresa Stehly.
And he’s already out of the gate like a freight train.
Noem Announces more than $21.9 Million for Statewide Environmental Projects
PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem today announced that the state Board of Water and Natural Resources has approved more than $21.9 million for water, wastewater, watershed, recycling, and solid waste projects. The board met today over the Digital Dakota Network.
“These grant and loan awards are incredibly beneficial to communities across the state,” said Noem. “Through this assistance, towns will be able to upgrade storm water, wastewater and drinking water systems, development new landfill cells and equipment, and enhance protection of the environment.”
The $21,992,800 total includes $871,000 in grants and $21,121,800 in low-interest loans, with $925,000 in principal forgiveness
The grants and loans awarded by the board are administered through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Grants were awarded to:
Loans were awarded to:
Loans with principal forgiveness were awarded to:
The grants and loans were awarded from DENR’s Consolidated Water Facilities Construction Program, Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Program, Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program and Solid Waste Management Program.
The Consolidated Water Facilities Construction Program, funded in part by revenues from the Petroleum Release Compensation Tank Inspection fee and other revenues, provides grants and loans for water, wastewater, and watershed projects.
The State of South Dakota and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fund the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Program, which provides low-interest loans for public drinking water system projects. The State of South Dakota and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fund the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program, which provides low-interest loans for wastewater, storm water, water conservation, and nonpoint source projects. Principal forgiveness is a subsidy option that results in a reduced loan repayment amount for the borrower.
The Solid Waste Management Program provides grants and loans for solid waste disposal, recycling and waste tire projects. The Legislature annually appropriates dedicated water and waste funding for the Consolidated and Solid Waste programs through the Governor’s Omnibus Water Funding Bill.
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