Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Opening Hearts and Homes
By Rep. Kristi Noem
September 4, 2015

Bryon and I have always tried to teach our kids that family is more about what is in your heart than in your bloodstream.  Over five years ago, we came to realize just how true that was when my brother Rob and his wife opened their hearts and their home to Ruby, who was just an infant when they adopted her from Ethiopia.  I know the process wasn’t easy and it came with so much stress, but I couldn’t imagine our family without this sweet and spunky little girl and her sister, who they adopted a few years later.

It truly warms my heart to know that this is a story shared by many families in South Dakota and I’m honored each year to be able to nominate one special South Dakota family as “Angels in Adoption.”  This year’s “Angels” nominee and award recipient is a very inspiring family from Rapid City.

Paul and Dotty Enos have 14 children, four of which are adopted.  In 2007, they chose to extend their family by adopting twins, an infant boy and girl. As if that didn’t make their family busy enough, they opened their home to foster children the following year.  In 2009, they took in their first foster child, who they adopted two years later.  Over the next six years, they fostered more than a dozen children.

A few years after they first became foster parents, a close friend of their daughter’s lost both her parents.  Once again, they opened their home and invited this young woman into their family where she was welcomed with love.  Without a doubt, the Enos family has earned the distinction of being called “Angels in Adoption.”  Of course, if you ask them, they’ll tell you the true angels are the children out there looking for a home.

There are, of course, financial challenges that come any time a family is expanded – whether through adoption, foster care, or otherwise.  And while the Enos family has said that when you do the right thing, the finances take care of themselves, I want to do all I can to make adoption more affordable for good families like this.

Since 1997, the federal government has offered a tax credit to help offset adoption fees, attorney fees, court costs, travel expenses, and re-adoption expenses for intercountry adoptions.  This is a great credit that has helped many families, but I’d like to improve it further.  Currently, families can only apply the benefit if they have an income tax liability, meaning they owe the federal government money at the end of the year.  That doesn’t benefit many middle-class families.  That’s why I’d like to see the tax credit fully refundable, meaning they’ll receive the benefit regardless of how much they owe on Tax Day.

As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax policy, I have helped sponsor legislation to accomplish this and am committed to moving it through the legislative process.  After all, adoption fees should never stand in the way of finding a child a home.

Hanging in the Enos’ home is a sign that reads: “A hundred years from now… it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove … but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”  What a testament to their family’s values.

Thank you to all of those who have opened your hearts, your homes, and even your families to a child.  The love that is shown to them can and will change our world.

The Enos Family

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Preserving A Century-Long Tradition
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

Next month, tens of thousands of hunters will take to the fields and grasslands of South Dakota to seek a colorful upland game bird – the rooster pheasant.

Over the last century, pheasant hunting has become one of South Dakota’s most beloved traditions. This will be the 96^th year that South Dakotans have pursued ring-necks in our state. According to our South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Agency, it should be a good year. In their annual pheasant brood survey, the pheasant count is up by 42 percent.

The news wasn’t as good a couple of years ago when the pheasant count was down 64 percent from the previous year. The pheasant population was the lowest it had been in a dozen years.

In response to the low numbers that year, I hosted the Pheasant Habitat Summit and appointed a work group to evaluate hundreds of comments, suggestions and letters that resulted from the summit.

The work group made eight recommendations, and some have already been accomplished.  The Federal Duck Stamp was raised to $25, and crop insurance is now available for winter wheat in South Dakota.

The work group also found that lack of adequate habitat is a problem. Pheasant numbers are higher where quality habitat still exists – areas like grasslands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program and in growing winter wheat fields. With the decline in CRP acres, conserving habitat areas in our state is a challenge.

One of the work group’s recommendations was to establish the South Dakota Habitat Conservation Fund. The Fund provides a permanent funding source for wildlife habitat work. So far, private donors have contributed a total of $425,000 to the Fund and state government has dedicated $350,000.

Even with the increase in pheasant numbers this year, we still need to be proactive about improving habitat. Not surprisingly, in addition to habitat, pheasant numbers have a lot to do with the weather. South Dakota has experienced a couple of good years for pheasant nesting thanks to favorable weather conditions; but we can’t risk our pheasant hunting future by counting on that weather pattern to continue.

That is why I’m challenging the Habitat Conservation Board to raise an additional $1 million in private money for habitat conservation. I’m pledging to match that amount with $1 million in state funds, if the group can meet that goal.

Pheasant hunting is a treasured century-long tradition in our state. If you’re interested in helping us preserve this tradition for future generations, I hope you’ll consider giving a donation to the South Dakota Habitat Conservation Fund. To donate, go to the South Dakota Community Foundation website and search “South Dakota Conservation Fund.” Help our S.D. pheasants find more nesting homes.

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Attorney General Explanations Released for Initiated Measure to
Give Certain Organizations the Right to Charge Fees

PIERRE, S.D.- South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today an Attorney General Explanation for an initiated measure has been filed with the Secretary of State. This statement will appear on petitions that will be circulated by the sponsor of the measure. If the sponsor obtains a sufficient number of signatures (13,871) on the petitions by November 9, 2015, as certified by the Secretary of State, the measure will be placed on the ballot for the November 2016 general election.

1. An initiated measure to give certain organizations the right to charge fees

Under South Dakota law, the Attorney General is responsible for preparing explanations for proposed initiated measures, referred laws, and South Dakota Constitutional Amendments. Specifically, the explanation includes a title, an objective, clear and simple summary of the purpose and effect of the proposed measure and a description of the legal consequences. The Attorney General Explanation is not a statement either for or against the proposed measure.

To view the Attorney General Explanation for the measure, as well as the final form of the measure submitted to this office, please click on the link:

http://atg.sd.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=DnOTHPCC4bA%3d&tabid=442

Initiated Measure to Allow the Charging of Fees

To date the Attorney General has released Attorney General Explanations for the following:

1. An initiated measure to set a maximum finance charge for certain licensed money lenders
2. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution to allow referral of state and municipal laws affecting public peace, health, safety and the support of government and also to limit the ability to amend or repeal initiated laws
3. An initiated measure to legalize marijuana for medical use
4. An initiated measure to decriminalize the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia
5. An initiated measure to criminalize the transfer of alcoholic beverages
6. An initiated measure to criminalize the transfer of tobacco and tobacco paraphernalia
7. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution to provide for state legislative redistricting by a commission

8. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution to expand rights for crime victims
9. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution limiting the ability to set statutory interest rates for loans
10. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution establishing nonpartisan elections
11. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution establishing nonpartisan elections and requiring secret ballot elections for certain legislative officers
12. An initiated measure to give certain organizations the right to charge fees

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Thune, Rounds Request Extension of Comment Period on Proposed DOL Rule

“The public and stakeholders must be given ample time to review new regulations promulgated by federal agencies, especially one of this magnitude.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Tom Perez requesting a 60-day extension to the public comment period on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on overtime rules announced in July by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

“This massive regulation impacts millions of people, yet your department has only provided 60 days for public comment,” the senators wrote. “The public and stakeholders must be given ample time to review new regulations promulgated by federal agencies, especially one of this magnitude. In 2003, the Department of Labor introduced a proposal that was only 37 pages in length compared to this year’s 100-page proposal, yet it allowed for a more transparent 90-day public comment period.”

Full text of the letter can be found below:

The Honorable Tom Perez
Secretary
United States Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20210

Dear Secretary Perez:

We are writing to request a 60-day extension to the public comment period on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on overtime rules announced by the U.S. Department of Labor on July 6, 2015. This rule would extend overtime to salaried employees and could significantly alter the labor market dynamics in industries across the country. The 60-day comment period, which expires on September 4, 2015, is simply not long enough.

Currently, salaried workers earning more than $455 per week are exempt from overtime. The proposed regulation would raise the exemption to $984 per week, meaning over 6 million new workers will be eligible for overtime wages. These proposed overtime rule changes will almost double the amount of people that qualify for overtime pay by increasing the individual salary threshold beyond $50,000, which may lead to unintended consequences on businesses in a variety of industries across the country.

This massive regulation impacts millions of people, yet your department has only provided 60 days for public comment. The public and stakeholders must be given ample time to review new regulations promulgated by federal agencies, especially one of this magnitude. In 2003, the Department of Labor introduced a proposal that was only 37 pages in length compared to this year’s 100-page proposal, yet it allowed for a more transparent 90-day public comment period.

Employers and others affected by this rule change deserve the opportunity to weigh this regulatory expansion of overtime pay and evaluate how it will affect their employees and weekly working hours, but this takes time. A 60-day extension would provide more time for responses to be included in the public record and allow for greater public involvement.

We appreciate your consideration on this matter and look forward to your timely response.

Sincerely,

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Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson sent this plea for funds out this week to GOP Convention Delegates, kicking off his 2016 campaign to return to the Public Utilities Commission:

Nelson ended last year with $14,612.25 in his campaign account. That comes after raising (roughly around) $113,500 and spending $99,802 in his 2012 campaign, leaving him only about 10-15% in his campaign account for seed money.

Which isn’t bad, considering the last person the Dems ran for PUC, David Allen, raised $970, spent $475, and walked away with $490 left over in his campaign account. (cha-ching!)

From the New York Times, comes another rehashing of the gal who would rather go to jail, than issue a marriage license to a same sex couple:

A county clerk who, through her defiance of a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, became a national symbol of religious opposition to same-sex marriage was jailed Thursday after a federal judge here declared her in contempt of court.

The clerk, Kim Davis of Rowan County, Ky., was ordered detained and later rejected a proposal to allow her deputies to process same-sex marriage licenses that could have prompted her release.

Instead, on a day when Ms. Davis’s lawyer said she would not retreat from or modify her stand despite a Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, Judge David L. Bunning of United States District Court secured commitments from five of Ms. Davis’s deputies to begin providing the licenses.

Read it here.

Here in South Dakota, our Attorney General has weighed in on the issue himself:

Attorney General Marty Jackley says if a county employee in South Dakota has religious objections to gay marriage they can have another employee issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple.

Jackley said Thursday that the constitutional right to marry that’s now guaranteed to same-sex couples must coexist with the constitutional right of freedom of religion for county employees.

Read it here.

So, here’s the conundrum. Like the gal who found god amidst her multiple divorces, if someone has a religious objection, should they be able to say “nah” to a same sex couple?

The phrase from the bible that comes to mind is “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” – which gives rise to a wide disparity of opinion as to how we should submit to earthly authority versus that of the good book.

Should the rule of God’s law supersede the laws of men?

This was posted yesterday in the American Political Items Collectors Facebook group. Apparently, Hillary isn’t big on free publicity, unless she controls it.

Release of Additional Findings on Death Investigation of Sarah Circle Bear at the Brown County Jail

PIERRE, S.D – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that the Division of Criminal Investigation has concluded their investigation into the death of Sarah Circle Bear at the Brown County Jail.

On August 13, 2015, final autopsy results were released and confirmed that Circle Bear had died as a result of acute methamphetamine/amphetamine toxicity. Toxicology analysis of blood obtained at autopsy was positive for a toxic and lethal concentration of methamphetamine. The autopsy further showed no further evidence of injury which would have caused or contributed to her death.

Circle Bear was booked in the Brown County Jail on July 3, 2015 at approximately 11:00 p.m. She spent time in both a holding cell and a jail cell throughout the early morning hours of July 4th, which included a mental health evaluation from a mental health professional and was cleared to remain in the custody of the jail. After the evaluation, Circle Bear was taken to the cell block where she remained until approximately 8:18 a.m. on July 5, when a cellmate called for medical attention for Circle Bear. She was removed from cell block and taken to a holding cell where she was more closely monitored by jail staff for the next two hours, including checking her vital signs and consulted medical staff via telephone. At 10:37 a.m. Circle Bear was then found unresponsive and EMT services were called immediately. Jail staff began to administer CPR until EMT services arrived at 10:41 a.m. Circle Bear was then transported to local hospital where she later died.

On three separate occasions Circle Bear was asked if she had taken or was under the influence of any illegal drugs, including the time of her arrest, booking into Brown County Jail and during the mental health evaluation and each time she denied.

After the review of jail surveillance video and numerous interviews, investigators found no evidence to indicate Circle Bear obtained methamphetamine while in custody at the Brown County Jail and the totality of evidence demonstrates she brought the controlled substance into the Brown County Jail in a way that was not detectable from regular and acceptable jail procedures. The investigation results were found to be consistent with the forensic autopsy findings. The source of the methamphetamine is part of the criminal investigation associated with the initial traffic stop in Roberts County and may be further disclosed through normal course of those proceedings.

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Towards the end of today’s edition of the “Political Junkies” show on South Dakota Public Broadcasting, the people on the show mention how it seems KELO reporter Kevin Woster is trying to stir up recruiting a candidate against US Senator John Thune.

At the same time, KSOO reporter Todd Epp has been floating KSFY Republican hater weather man Phil Schrek as a candidate against our state’s senior US Senator.

It’s a great day in SD knowing @philKSFY will be our next US Senator in Jan ’17. #PhilSchreckForSenate. @coralhei @SoDakCampaigns

— Todd Epp (@sufusodak) September 1, 2015

At the same time, you don’t see Democrats putting that kind of emphasis on candidate recruitment against Thune. So, Democrats don’t care, or they’re unable to recruit, oddly leaving members of the mainstream media who are sending people and names up the flagpole to see if something catches the wind.

That seems to leave the question – “What gives?”

It is almost as if there are those in the media who are nervous there’s not going to be the kind of advertising dollars that get thrown around as they would in a competitive year.

Or more likely, it’s as if they’re trying to gin up someone to run, because without a Thune opponent, they’re left with an already hopelessly lopsided Congressional race (where Hawks is a sure loser), and a Public Utilities Commission contest that’s also a non-starter for the other side.  It’s as if they desperately want something else besides the Republican margin of victory in the legislative races to report on.

I’ve heard of press bias before, but when it seems they’re out recruiting for the Democrats – that takes the cake.

I’m 30 years (and at least 30 beers) past my days wearing a speedo as part of the Pierre Swim Team. But if my eyes don’t deceive me, there’s someone on the SD Prairie Masters Swim Team who looks an awful lot like someone who just stood for election on a statewide basis.

Yes, I do believe that’s State Auditor Steve Barnett in the back row. Good for you buddy!  He shares the sport with former Governor Frank Farrar, who is dominating the 85-89 age group. I also think I saw a picture of Pam (Janklow) Derheim who I used to swim with on the PST on the website.

It’s great exercise, and if you’re a former swimmer, a great opportunity to take it up again, if but just to see Steve compete in a skimpy swimsuit. (I kid, I kid).  Maybe I’ll start a Brookings group myself, so I can dust off my flip-turn, and be the “B” swimmer I always strove to be.

Here’s the link for SD Masters swimming.

(Update…. okay, now he’s just showing off. I think I need to start a new blog – the incredible State Auditor!)