Governor Kristi Noem’s social media account has released a new video for facebook – A day in the life of Lt. Governor Larry Rhoden:

From Facebook:

I just had this sent over to me – apparently State Representative Herman Otten is throwing his hat in the ring for the District 6 State Senate seat being vacated by Senator Ernie Otten due to term limits:

This does not come as a shock, however there are also rumors that his fellow District 6 State Representative Isaac Latterell may also have an interest in the seat, as both are termed out of their current offices after this coming year.

Stay tuned.

New Proposal in Congress Around Surprise Billing Could Drive Doctors Out of South Dakota

We don’t usually think of health care as a market. When our child is sick, we aren’t contemplating supply and demand—we just want them to get better. But capitalist forces still apply to health care. This means bad policies like price controls can cause health care shortages here in America as easily as they do food shortages in Venezuela.

Unfortunately, some of our federal elected leaders are acting like health care is immune to such impacts. They want to set government-mandated rates for much of the care doctors and other medical professionals deliver.

It’s a crazy idea born from good intentions. These lawmakers are focused on cutting down on surprise medical bills some patients get after receiving care they didn’t realize was outside their health plan network. This is a real problem in metropolitan areas. In New Jersey, for instance, nearly one in three medical emergencies results in an unexpected bill, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. We do better here in South Dakota—our number is just 4 percent.

We don’t have a bad case of the surprise billing “disease” but the “cure” proposed by Congress would do the greatest damage in rural parts of the country like ours. The vast majority of South Dakota counties already face severe doctor shortages. We aren’t adding nurses in adequate numbers to replace those retiring. And although South Dakota invests more in salaries than most other states, we’re struggling to build a sufficient health care workforce.

“If government price fixing adds to these challenges, we will be in dire straits indeed.”

Sadly, the most vulnerable among us will bear the greatest burden. Rural areas have aging populations with extensive health care needs. Moreover, one in four U.S. military veterans lives in a rural community. With only three VA centers and a handful of clinics across our state, many former service members rely on local doctors for everything from checkups to PTSD treatment.

The veterans I work with often deal with daily pain because of injuries they sustained while serving our country. Similarly, my senior patients worked hard and raised families but now suffer various aches, degenerative disease, and other painful problems. These deserving people—and all patients—need access to quality care, including safe, effective pain management. But fewer doctors will be here to offer it if price controls are in place.

Have no doubt, the system-wide consequences of the surprise billing legislation would be life-threatening. With more doctor shortages, a person suffering depression may be unable to get psychiatric help before taking his own life. A woman with a breast lump might not get treated before her disease spreads.

Even one unnecessary tragedy would be an unacceptable outcome of this blanket pricing policy conceived in Washington to address a problem South Dakota has largely fixed. Price controls don’t work for our state, and our leaders in Congress should say “no.”

Dr. William Cohen

After yesterday’s bombshell where incoming USD Law school students had to go to a seminar which encouraged non “minitorized” voices to consider whether or not they are “taking up space”, we’re finding that USD isn’t the only place where diversity coordinators are promoting this kind of thing to justify the $5.9 million annually that Board of Regents have budgeted for them.

Today’s tidbit of liberal indoctrination comes from Northern State University where next week all new and returning faculty members get to learn about grants, faculty travel, teaching with technology… and spend half a day on mandatory diversity seminars.

NSU 2019 in-Service Final 8-9-19 by Pat Powers on Scribd

Interestingly, I don’t see a mention about anything faculty being given information such as supporting students with disabilities or other actual challenges they may meet as faculty members, such as maintaining a safe campus, or other tidbits of worthwhile information that they could use on a daily basis.

But, NSU is all about requiring all new and returning faculty members to attend seminars where they are required to be instructed on “promoting an inclusive campus” and “awareness and information about the LGBTQIA+ community.

When legislators raise the topic of liberal indoctrination on our University campuses, it’s worthwhile bringing up that it appears that they aren’t just isolated incidents. It comes from the top down as diversity offices try to justify their existence.

The liberal indoctrination of our university campuses will now continue.

Dusty Johnson and AOC could not be farther apart when it comes to where they stand on the issues. And according to the Daily Caller, the same goes in other areas, as they could not be farther apart with how their home districts support them:

The $1,525.50 Ocasio-Cortez received from her New York constituents represents less than 1% of her campaign’s itemized contributions reported to the FEC in the first half of 2019.

The known monetary support Ocasio-Cortez’s reelection campaign has received from the people she represents is minuscule compared to the 88-member freshman class of the House of Representatives.

And…

Of the 10 freshman representatives who received the lowest percent of their itemized contributions from their constituents, eight are Democrats. On the other end, seven of the 10 top-performing freshman representatives in this category are Republicans.

Leading the freshman class in receiving the greatest share of itemized contributions from their constituents was Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson. Over 94% of Johnson’s itemized contributions of $129,250 came from people living within his district.

Read that here.

It’s probably a good thing that the Legislature is looking into liberal bias on our state university campuses. Because as noted tonight by the Campus Reform website, from time to time things are popping up at our university campuses that might leave a lot of South Dakotans scratching their heads and asking “what are they teaching?”

In the latest, it sounds like just this past year, in 2018 at a diversity orientation presentaiton, law school students at USD were being asked if they were “deferring to “minoritized” voices during discussions,” because if they weren’t… they were being told they might need to consider if they were “taking up space.”

A diversity orientation presentation for law students at the University of South Dakota encourages non “minitorized” voices to consider whether or not they are “taking up space” when they contribute to a discussion.  This comes just weeks after the South Dakota Board of Regents announced an investigation into the existence of liberal bias in the diversity offices of state schools.

The presentation slides obtained by Campus Reform through a Freedom of Information Act request indicate that they were used during the USD law school orientation in 2018. Within the various slides is a flowchart that asks students to assess whether or not they are “taking up space” or “contributing to a space.” One slide uses a flowchart to guide students through answering this question by assessing whether or not they are deferring to “minoritized” voices during discussions.

and..

“The slide that you indicate is a conversation piece that I inserted into last year’s Law School Orientation session on Diversity & Inclusive Excellence at USD,” Lamont Sellers, associate vice president for diversity at USD, told Campus Reform in a statement Monday.

Read the entire story here.

Hm.. Was that 5.9 million in University diversity office spending I just heard being scratched out of the budget…..?

There’s a great story on the efforts of South Dakota Federation of Republican Women official Penny Sattgast that just appeared in the Huron Daily Republic about her efforts to help attract young people to the Republican Party:

“I’ve always had a passion for our youth and the Republican Party,” Penny Sattgast said Monday.

She is proposing what she’s calling a South Dakota Truth for the Youth campaign to the federation, encouraging those in the teen-age and college Republican clubs across the state to attend panel discussions with business owners, veterans, government officials and others.

and…

Sattgast said a recent experience with a young person showed her that kids aren’t always aware of major historical happenings, such as the June 6 allied invasion of Normandy that was a turning point in World War II.

The young woman asked Sattgast what D-Day was when the subject came up. While it was something that was frightening, it was probably not all that unexpected, Sattgast said. “I just really struggled with that; it’s just so sad.

“It’s a really good example of why we really, really have to stay focused on youth engagement and really step up our efforts as Republicans,” she said.

Read the entire story here.

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAVNSBORG APPOINTED TO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL FOR SPECIAL OLYMPICS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT TORCH RUN

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg has been appointed as the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) representative to the Special Olympics and Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) executive council.

The appointment was made official by NAAG President, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. The membership of NAAG includes 56 state and territory attorneys general. The group has partnered with Special Olympics and the LETR to help raise funds for, and awareness about, the Special Olympics movement worldwide. The national partnership helps increase the number of law enforcement officials involved in LETR and related activities.

State and territory attorneys general work at the national, state and community level to carry out programs and events, including the Torch Run, to raise awareness and help change perceptions and attitudes about people with intellectual disabilities.

“I am excited to be appointed to this important position,” said Attorney General Ravnsborg. “The Law Enforcement Torch Run and the Special Olympics are events that inspire each and every one of us to reach for our goals through hard work and determination.”

“We are pleased to welcome Attorney General Ravnsborg to the LETR International Executive Council and feel sure that he will continue the outstanding work performed by Attorney General Fox over the past two years.,” added Scott Whyte, chairman of the LETR International Executive Council. “It is a privilege to have this level of representation engaged with the law enforcement community in its efforts to enhance the lives of people with an intellectual disability through their support of the Special Olympics movement.”

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The head of New Approach South Dakota, Melissa Mentele is in the comment section of the prior post with what we might call false braggadocio, making a claim of hundreds of volunteers, and claiming that they’ll be successful in the pot group’s efforts to put their version of medical marijuana on the 2020 ballot.

We don’t get to buy our way onto the ballot we have to work for it. Your name calling & accusations reflect badly upon you, more so than us. You cant forget that pesky fact that our organization was hired by our former Governor & former Republican Speaker of the House last petition cycle because of our work ethic & organizational capabilities.

Well, Melissa’s typical drama aside, I can’t help but have a healthy dose of skepticism, and offer a historical view as I note, “Yeah, but.”

In 2017, the last time the NASD group attempted to put medical pot on the ballot, they only had to collect 13,871 valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot. The Attorney General issued a ballot title and summary for the initiative on March 27, 2017, meaning they started circulation within days thereafter, end of March, first of April that year.

On November 6, 2017, they turned in 15k signatures.  And they fell short of the required 13,871 valid signatures by 4,401 valid signatures, meaning they only collected 9470 valid signatures in 7 months of circulating petitions.

Fast forward to now. The same group is starting in their latest effort on about August 15th, and they have until November 4th. Giving them a little over 2 1/2 months to collect a minimum of 16,961 valid signatures.

If New Approach South Dakota failed to collect 10,000 valid signatures over the course of seven months in the last election, history encourages a more than healthy amount of skepticism for the organization’s efforts to do better in 2020 with a higher benchmark and only about 1/3 of the time that they had enjoyed in their 2018 effort.

In other words, You can stick a fork in that potato right now. They’re done before they start.

It’s not going to happen.  The best they can hope for is “next time.”