From Twitter, Senator Thune welcomes those participating in the Walk for Life:
A warm welcome to the thousands of Americans who are in D.C. today for the #MarchForLife. Many have traveled from across the country, including South Dakota, to help defend the defenseless, and I want to thank everyone who has stood up for the unborn. pic.twitter.com/exELqQkO0m
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) January 24, 2020
President Trump Signs Rounds, Tester Memorializing Veterans Act into Law
Law establishes grant program to support the Veterans Legacy Program, helping honor the lives of those who served
WASHINGTON –U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) made the following statement after legislation he introduced with Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) was signed into law by President Trump this week. The new law will establish a grant program to help honor the lives of our nation’s veterans.
“I thank President Trump for signing into law our bipartisan bill that establishes a grant program to honor veterans’ legacies,” said Rounds. “Sharing veterans’ stories of service and sacrifice is one way we can encourage the next generation to join the armed forces. Many South Dakotans have proudly served our country, and our legislation will help to preserve their memories so students and communities can learn more about their service and the sacrifices they made for the United States.”
“The American Legion is proud to support efforts to properly memorialize America’s veterans and educate future generations on the legacy of our nation’s heroes. It is imperative that we continue to invest in programs that honor and preserve the memory of America’s veterans. The American Legion thanks Senators Tester and Rounds for sponsoring and shepherding this legislation to the president’s desk,” said Ralph P. Bozella, Chairman of The American Legion Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission.
“Perpetuating the memory and history of our dead is one of the VFW’s founding principles,” said Carlos Fuentes, Director National Legislative Service, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). “The Veterans Legacy Program ensures the memories and stories of the brave men and women who have worn our nation’s uniform are preserved in perpetuity. This law will ensure the Veterans Legacy Program is expanded so more veterans can have their stories digitized and preserved for the benefit of future generation.”
The Veterans Legacy Program is an educational initiative from the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) under U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) which commemorates veterans interred in NCA cemeteries through partnerships with institutions of higher learning. Previously, institutions of higher education experienced difficulty obtaining and utilizing federal funding through this program.
The Senators’ Memorializing Veterans Act establishes a grant program to administer funds more efficiently through the Veterans Legacy Program, facilitating research and developing educational tools to increase public awareness of veteran service and sacrifice.
The Memorializing Veterans Act makes grants available to recipients such as institutions of higher learning, local education agencies, and non-profit entities with a history of community engagement. These grants are available for research related to national, State or Tribal veterans’ cemeteries, to produce educational materials or to promote community engagement about the history of the veterans interred at those cemeteries.
Full text of the bill can be found HERE.
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Rounds Statement on Revised WOTUS Rule
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today made the following statement on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) announcement of the replacement for the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule:
“The administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule gives farmers, ranchers and landowners the clarity they need to know when the Clean Water Act applies to them and when it does not,” said Rounds. “The previous administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule, which this rule replaces, was a power grab by the federal government. I’m pleased the EPA is working to protect the rights of landowners rather than infringe upon those rights. It also respects states’ rights, recognizing that state and tribal governments have a right to regulate and manage their land and water resources themselves.”
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In Case You Missed It: Noem Takes Steps to Increase Housing Availability in South Dakota
PIERRE, S.D. – This month, Governor Kristi Noem asked the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) to begin utilizing the Revolving Economic Development & Initiative (REDI) Fund to support multi-family, workforce housing projects.
“Everywhere I go in South Dakota, I hear from local business owners and community stakeholders that housing availability is an issue,” said Noem. “Businesses have good paying jobs available but struggle to get people to relocate to their communities because housing opportunities are limited. It’s a classic catch-22 holding back our communities. Developers are reluctant to invest because they don’t want to take on the risk of building homes and having them sit empty. And folks are reluctant to expand their businesses because people won’t move without good housing choices.”
“In the coming months, GOED will begin using the REDI Fund to address this need. Having suitable housing is economic progress, and I’m confident opening up this fund will get developers to invest in communities where additional housing units are most needed,” concluded Noem.
The REDI Fund is designed to promote job growth in South Dakota. The low-interest loan fund is available to start-up firms and businesses that are expanding or relocating, and local economic development corporations. For more information on REDI Funds, including eligibility requirements and the application process, click here.
Rounds Receives “A” Rating from Susan B. Anthony List for Support of Pro-Life Policies
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today made the following statement after receiving an “A” rating from the Susan B. Anthony List for his strong legislative record supporting pro-life measures:
“From conception to natural death, life is a gift from God. I’ve worked with my fellow pro-life colleagues in the Senate on numerous bills to limit abortions, stop taxpayer dollars from paying for abortions and protect innocent lives. There is still more work for us to do together to change peoples’ hearts and minds about the sanctity of human life. I thank the Susan B. Anthony List for their work on this important issue.”
The Susan B. Anthony List National Pro-Life Scorecard can be found HERE.
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Looks like Terry LaFleur’s independent race for Governor in 2022 is getting off to a slow start, according to his filing with the Secretary of State:
Terry LaFleur Governor 2022 sdcfdisclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd
Zero raised. Zero Spent.
And we’ll leave it at that.
From Facebook:
On the same day that the South Dakota Board of Regents were posting about bringing the University mascots to Pierre to kiss some Republican booty…
… A study on intellectual diversity was being released which shows ideologically, that the faculty at the institutions are more likely kicking Republican booty while their administrators are putting on a show.
This past Friday, a study was released on the website for the National Association of Scholars, titled “Partisan Registration and Contributions of Faculty in Flagship Colleges,” by Mitchell Langbert and Sean Stevens, January 17, 2020 as they describe the ideological leanings of Universities across the country, including several located in South Dakota. As noted in the chart with the article (condensed for picking out the South Dakota institutions):
(As noted in the chart from Partisan Registration and Contributions of Faculty in Flagship Colleges by Mitchell Langbert and Sean Stevens, National Association of Scholars, January 17, 2020)
D:R Registration Ratio
Of the 12,372 professors sampled, 48.4 percent are registered Democrats and 5.7 percent are registered Republicans, a ratio of 8.5:1. In 2016 Gallup (Jones, 2016) finds that for the general population, 29 percent are Democrats and 26 percent are Republicans, a ratio of 1.1:1. The 8.5:1 ratio is lower than previous findings, such as Langbert, et al. (2016) and Langbert (2018), which found 10:1 to 12:1 because those studies looked at the highest-ranked institutions, in which partisan affiliation is the most skewed. The institutions in this study are the most elite in each state, but they are not in all cases the most elite nationally.
and..
Summary and Conclusion
The D:R donation ratio and the D:R registration ratio tell a story that is broadly consistent. The D:R donation ratio favors the Democratic Party in all nine disciplines sampled. Compared to the D:R registration ratio, the skewness in the D:R donation ratio for each discipline is more extreme than for registration. For six of the eight or nine disciplines, the D:R donation ratio exceeds 100:1. The D:R donation ratio among female professors is greater than among their male counterparts, and the ratios are lowest in the Midwest. It is also evident that assistant professors are less engaged in party politics as measured by the smaller percentage who register and who make political contributions.
According to the intellectual diversity study, nationally, voter registration records show a ratio of 8.4:1, for Democrats to Republicans. In South Dakota, it’s better.. but in varying degrees.
Dakota Wesleyan provides the smallest sample, but the closest margin at nearly a 1:1 basis between Republicans and Democrats. And it starts to sharply decline from there.
At South Dakota State University, for every Republican Professor you run across, three others are Democrat, with a 2.9 to 1 ratio.
And it’s worse at USD, with a 5.3 to 1 ratio. At the institution which claims itself to be our state’s flagship university (obviously their ad people don’t live there), for every 6 professors running around on campus, only 1 of them would be registered as a Republican, and the other 5 are Democrats.
Not a good defense when Universities start speaking against intellectual diversity laws.
After being amended, House Bill 1057, the bill that bans doctors from performing elective sex change procedures on minors has been passed out of House State Affairs Committee on a vote of 8-5 on an amended basis.
If I caught it correctly, during the committee, the bill was amended down from a felony to a Class 1 misdemeanor crime, among other changes.
Stay tuned for more on this bill – including how people voted – later today.
