Flags at Half-Staff in Honor of Dolly Parton
PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Larry Rhoden ordered that flags be flown at half-staff statewide effective immediately until sunset on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, as a mark of respect for the memory of Dolly Parton.
This announcement is consistent with President Trump’s order, which can be found here.
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Attorney General Jackley Announces SD to Receive Minimum $52 Million in Multistate Settlement with Meta
PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announces South Dakota will receive a minimum of $52,612,676 as its share in a landmark $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms, Inc. It is one of the largest state consumer protection settlements in history outside the Big Tobacco settlements of the 1990s. South Dakota’s share of the settlement could grow to $73,480,057 upon certain conditions being met. South Dakota’s share will be paid out over the next 10 years.
The settlement is contingent on the approval of the agreement by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California which is hearing a lawsuit filed against Meta by South Dakota and 28 other states.
“Today’s historic settlement marks a significant milestone in our efforts to protect children online,” said Attorney General Jackley. “We have secured a record monetary award and meaningful safeguards for children and parents setting the new national online standard.”
By securing unprecedented injunctive relief and a record monetary award against any single company, we are ensuring that Meta is held accountable and that meaningful, lasting safeguards are firmly in place.
In addition, Meta must implement a sweeping set of safety features designed to protect children on Instagram and Facebook. The agreement resolves claims by 47 other States and D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands that the company designed Instagram with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms, and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms, among other things. This settlement is a monumental victory for the protection of America’s children and will fundamentally transform how the entire social media industry designs products for kids and teens.
The settlement requires Meta to implement a series of safety features on Instagram and Facebook, including:
● Hard cap daily time limits and “Productive Pauses” for children: for its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, a combined two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling. These limits remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.
● “Nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.
● Limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year.
● Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users.
● Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.
● Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.
● Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts, that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens.
● Both the implementation and efficacy of the features will be regularly assessed by an independent auditor and the settling states.
Attorney General Jackley and nearly every other Attorney General in the country cooperated to investigate the social media industry for designing and promoting platforms to children and teens despite known harms. After a bipartisan, nationwide investigation found that Meta designed Instagram’s features to addict children while internally documenting the resulting mental health harms and failing to warn parents, 33 attorneys general sued Meta as part of a multistate coalition.
The settlement also resolves the states’ claims against Meta for its sharing of nonpublic information about Facebook users with third parties, like Cambridge Analytica.
Other Attorneys General who signed the settlement are from Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
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South Dakota Democrats have filed their latest FEC Report on activity within their federal account during the month of July.
And while they may not have fielded candidates in a race or two in their last convention, the candidates they do have may actually be able to count on financial support, because they have money in the bank:
August 2026 SDDP FEC Report by Pat Powers
According to the latest report, State Democrats are reporting $26,135.48 in contributions against $54,744.71 in expenses. Leaving them $115,162.29 to put towards their efforts.
There were a couple of interesting items I noticed. Remember former legislator Nancy Turbak Berry telling us that political parties don’t work, so we should vote for Bengs? If that’s the case, why is she getting out her checkbook for South Dakota Democrats?:
Granted, it’s an earmarked donation, but I’m just sayin.
I also learned Democrats spent $34.23 at Taco Bell.
Interestingly, this is more than half-again as much as the $20 the people currently in charge of the South Dakota GOP raised in their federal account during the same period:
Maybe the people in charge of the GOP should open a taco stand? It would be an improvement over what they have been doing so far.
The Beaudion exit from the US Senate race and Beaudion’s column pointing a finger at Indy/Dem/Republican Brian Bengs continues to be a problem for the Bengs campaign.
This is as evidenced by yet another story about it circulating on facebook, this time from the Intellectual Dissatisfaction podcast, noting “Former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Julian Beaudion says he experienced threatening or intimidating conduct before withdrawing from the race.”
Beaudion isn’t backing down either, as he has recently written another column about Bengs pandering to voters by this former Democrat Candidate switching from referring to himself as an Independent and now pretending he’s somehow “a Teddy Roosevelt Republican:”
Brian Bengs is running on the ballot as an Independent. But recently, while campaigning in Aberdeen and in an interview on CNN, Bengs publicly described himself as a “Teddy Roosevelt Republican” while making clear that he is seeking Republican votes to defeat Senator Mike Rounds.
Is this the same Teddy Roosevelt Republican whose mother was a slave owner? Or the Teddy Roosevelt that campaigned on opposing slavery but not social or political justice or equality? The same Roosevelt who won the Presidential seat by debating that Black people were degenerates and that freedom made Blacks, the “White man’s burden?”
and..
Earlier in this campaign, Bengs talked about the importance of being Independent and escaping the constraints of the two-party system. He wrote that his Independent candidacy allowed him to engage Republicans, Democrats and Independents differently.
There is something to admire about political independence.
But independence should mean something more than removing the letter next to your name.
and…
If Democrats surrender their political identity every time they encounter difficult electoral terrain, eventually there won’t be much of a Democratic Party left to defend.
It looks like not even Democrats are buying Bengs’ act of selling himself as a “pick-a-party” candidate.
Secretary of State Reaffirms Duty to Follow State Law
(Pierre, S.D.) – The South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office has not yet been formally served with the lawsuit filed in League of Women Voters v. Johnson.
The Secretary of State’s Office is responsible for implementing and administering the laws passed by the South Dakota Legislature. While the Office may not agree with every policy decision made by the Legislature, our responsibility is not to decide which laws to follow. Our responsibility is to carry out the law as it is written.
We must presume that legislation enacted by the Legislature is constitutional until a court determines otherwise. Until there is a court decision regarding the law at issue in this case, the Secretary of State’s Office will continue to administer it as required.
The Office will review the lawsuit once it is formally served and will comply with any direction issued by the court. Until then, we will continue to follow the law and fulfill the responsibilities placed on this Office.
For more information, please visit the Secretary of State’s website: https://sdsos.gov
Attorney General Jackley Announces Pierre Woman Sentenced for Defrauding South Dakota Medicaid Program
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that a Pierre woman has been sentenced to a 10-year suspended prison sentence after earlier pleading guilty to one felony count of Grand Theft. She had been charged with defrauding the South Dakota Medicaid Program of more than $588,000 in federal and state funds.
Sharon Laraye Monson, 49, was sentenced Tuesday in Hughes County Circuit Court. As part of her sentence, she also will be on probation for 10 years and will pay $500,000 in restitution to the South Dakota Department of Social Services.
The Attorney General’s Office recommended a 10-year prison sentence with five of those years suspended.
“As Attorney General, I am committed to protecting taxpayers and their money,” said Attorney General Jackley. “This defendant’s actions stand in stark contrast to the integrity and dedication shown by the overwhelming majority of Medicaid providers in our state.”
Monson was the owner of At Home Nursing in Pierre and submitted the false claims to Medicaid. The charges occurred from May 1, 2018 to Jan. 1, 2024.
The case was investigated and prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud, Abuse and Neglect Services Unit.
This release is provided in compliance with the federal Stevens Amendment: The South Dakota Medicaid Fraud Control Unit receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling approximately $1,033,972 for Federal Fiscal Year 2026. The remaining 25%, totaling approximately $334,656 for Federal Fiscal Year 2026, was funded by the State of South Dakota.
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From facebook, unsuccessful Congressional primary and losing School and Lands convention candidate James Bialota reminded people why he should never be considered for any office whatsoever. As Bialota takes to facebook to attempt to conflate Aberdeen rejecting flock cameras with Mayor Travis Schaunaman’s tragic parasail accident that injured he and his daughter, and cost the life of his son:
Seriously. Don’t consider him for anything. Ever.
After being denied admission to the White House as he hung under a cloud of felony charges, State Representative Travis Ismay has taken a plea bargain where he made an alford plea. That is, a type of guilty plea where a criminal defendant maintains their innocence but admits that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict them at trial.
In other words, he didn’t want to own up, but admitted the evidence is there to show that he’s a dope.
According to court records, Ismay was sentenced Friday to pay $1,750 in restitution and $78.50 in court costs after entering a plea of no contest to a charge of destruction of a highway, grade or ditch, while dropping his original felony charge.
In a joint press release, Butte County State’s Attorney Brian D. Knox and Ismay’s legal counsel, Tim Rensch, said the plea agreement saved both parties and the county the expense of a jury trial.
Maybe now Ismay will realize that being a legislator does not include self-help on fixing county roads.
Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up. Because the more you read, the more you wonder “Who the heck is Brian Bengs?”
We’re all baffled why Brian Bengs signed up for another butt-kicking in the U.S. Senate race. The soon-to-be two-time loser isn’t known among South Dakota voters and will essentially only get anti-establishment votes and anti-conservative votes.
Clearly, Bengs is desperate for attention and trying to court all voters by saying whatever it takes. Case in point: in the last four years, he’s claimed to be a Democrat, Independent, and in the last week, he even claimed to be a Republican. You can’t make this stuff up!
Democrat: Bengs ran against Thune in 2022 as a Democrat and lost big time. (70-26%)
Independent: This time around, he’s running as an independent bad mouthing Chuck Schumer and even John Thune.
And now, he’s claiming he’s a Republican! On August 16, Bengs ACTUALLY made the claim to CNN’s Inside Politics that he’s a Republican:
“I’m billing myself as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. Old School Republican”
But what Bengs isn’t saying is that he’s really more of a Democratic Socialist of America. He’s not going to say that out loud in South Dakota, but when you look at his statements on issues and the names of members in Congress that he wants to work with, it’s pretty clear.
PLUS, it’s the far-left’s playbook in 2026: run the crazies as “Independents” in red states like South Dakota and Nebraska telling people they’re “moderate,” and run the crazies as DSA in the blue states.
So, consider this your friendly reminder that when you get into the voting booth this November, the party affiliation next to Bengs doesn’t mean a damn thing.
Planting Seeds for South Dakota’s Future
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
August 21, 2026
BIG Update
Dakotafest celebrates the best of South Dakota agriculture. Every year, this event brings people together to learn about the techniques and technology that our producers use, and yes, the delicious food our producers work so hard to provide. It’s especially encouraging to see the next generation of South Dakota agriculture inspired by the equipment and conversations at Dakotafest.
I joined in on the fun to provide an update from Congress, including the status of the Farm Bill, the path toward year-round E15, and the producer-first policies we’ve already put into law. It’s important to hear directly from those working in the fields about the challenges they face and how policymakers can support their work. I also saw firsthand some of the technologies that are supporting producers today.
Johnson speaks with producers at Dakotafest in Mitchell
BIG Idea
Rural economic growth is powered by innovators, entrepreneurs, and builders. I joined the NorthWestern Energy Summit in Sioux Falls to discuss the importance of our shared commitment to growing South Dakota’s economy and investing in its future. The United States must continue to do big things, and South Dakota can play a leading role in our nation’s future. By encouraging investment and opportunity, we can strengthen South Dakota’s rural communities.
Johnson speaks at the NorthWestern Energy Summit in Sioux Falls
BIG News
The Rural Health Transformation Program, established through the Working Families Tax Cuts, set aside $50 billion to strengthen rural health care across America. This week, the administration announced South Dakota will receive $90 million to modernize health care technology, expand access to care, support tribal health options, and strengthen the rural health care workforce. I supported this program in Congress, and I’m glad to see these investments reach South Dakota’s rural communities to ensure families can access quality care. This investment will have a significant impact on the future of health care in our state.
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