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I managed to snag this ribbon on eBay earlier this week, and I’m quite proud of this find mentioning Samuel H Elrod, Clark County’s favorite son.

Not familiar with S. H? You should be. The legislators, Governor, and a lot of other people work in the building this 5th Governor of South Dakota built.

During his tenure, he served as chairman of the building committee for the state capitol, which also led to his ouster, losing his second term:

However, in 1904, Sam Elrod’s political stock shot skyward. He went to the Sioux Falls convention occupying a seat of honor beside the mighty Kittredge who was driving the old political machine now lying in the scrap-heap of eternal usefulness, licked his wary opponent, Coe 1. Crawford, to a frazzle, and was nominated by the republican party as their candidate for governor of South Dakota, Crawford took his defeat good-naturedly, climbed onto the band wagon helped to elect Elrod, and then came back two years later and whipped Elrod to a frazzle. (We are not well enough informed on Rooseveltian philosophic slang to know what two frazzles equal.)

Two things conspired sort of automatically to bring about the defeat of Elrod and cause his downfall, politically: the material to be used in building our new state capitol, whether it was to be Indiana or South Dakota stone, and the enactment of a statewide primary law. Elrod, as is characteristic of the man, took a decided position on each issue, and he was right on both. Still he went down to defeat before a lot of clap-trap that was a bugaboo, but an eloquent thing for campaign purposes.

Read it here.

The race that the Elrod ribbon is for represents a race he lost to Charles Burke in the primary, but his losses don’t diminish his eternal contributions to our great state.

State Senator Phil Jensen is a member of the Legislative branch of government in Pierre. And apparently, he has run afoul of another branch of government. Over a pile of branches:

Grand Jury Issues Indictments in GEAR UP Financial Investigation

 PIERRE, S.D.- Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today the three individuals who were arrested by complaint for their roles in the financial misconduct case surrounding the GEAR UP in March 2016, have each been indicted by a Charles Mix Grand Jury.

The indictments are as follows:

Daniel Mark Guericke, 58, White Lake, 2 counts of falsification of evidence, class 6 felony, punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment in the state penitentiary and/or $4,000 fine, 4 counts of conspiracy to offer forged or fraudulent evidence, class 5 felony, punishable as a Class 6 felony, with a maximum sentence of 2 years imprisonment and/or $4,000 fine.

Stephanie A. Hubers, 43, Geddes, 1 count of grand theft, class 4 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in the state penitentiary and/or $20,000 fine, 2 counts of grand theft by deception, class 4 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in the state penitentiary and/or $20,000 fine, 3 alternative counts of receiving stolen property, class 4 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in the state penitentiary and/or $20,000 fine,

Stacy Lee Phelps, 42, Rapid City, 2 counts of falsification of evidence, class 6 felony, punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment and/or $4,000 fine, 2 counts of conspiracy to offer forged or fraudulent evidence, class 5 felony, punishable as a Class 6 felony,  with a maximum sentence of 2 years imprisonment and/or $4,000 fine.

The Preliminary Hearing previously scheduled for April 19, 2016, has now been replace with a scheduled arraignment on all three individuals on May 2, 2016, at 9:30 a.m., at the Charles Mix County Courthouse in Lake Andes, S.D. At the arraignment it is anticipated the defendants will be advised of these charges, the maximum penalties, their rights, and enter a plea of not guilty. These individuals are presumed innocent until such time as proven guilty.

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A correspondent writes me this evening and asked me to spread the word about the following:

My 93 year old neighbor (and lifelong Republican) has been pulling fences (yes I said 93 ). He has about 200 fence posts available. He would like two bucks each. Can you get the word out?

Done. And Done. Any candidates need fence posts for 4×8’s out there?  Drop me a note, and I’ll hook you up.

Thune Urges Colleagues to Support Comprehensive Reforms in Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization

“The legislation before us includes the most passenger-friendly provisions, the most significant aviation safety reforms, and the most comprehensive aviation security enhancements of any FAA reauthorization in recent memory.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, spoke on the Senate floor in support of the bipartisan airport security and passenger-friendly reforms in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate.

Noem’s IRS Workforce Integrity Bill Advances Unanimously

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem’s Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act (H.R.3724) advanced through the House Ways and Means Committee today unanimously, setting it up to be considered by the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks (VIDEO).  The bipartisan legislation would prohibit the IRS from rehiring an employee who has been fired for certain forms of misconduct.

“If a person has been fired for accessing private taxpayer information without permission or filing false documents, they should not be rehired and given access once again to our sensitive data. But the IRS has done this hundreds of times,” said Noem.  “My bill does what IRS bureaucracy has refused to do. It stops them from rehiring people who have betrayed the trust of taxpayers.  With unanimous consent from the committee, I’m hopeful we can move this commonsense solution forward quickly.”

In February 2015, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) publicly released a new report explaining it had “identified hundreds of former employees with prior substantiated conduct or performance issues ranging from tax issues, unauthorized access to taxpayer information, leave abuse, falsification of official forms, unacceptable performance, misuse of IRS property, and off-duty misconduct.”

The agency went on to say that nearly one in five of the rehired employees with a record of prior misconduct had performance issues when they returned to the IRS.  For more information on TIGTA’s findings, click here.

VIEW NOEM’S REMARKS AT COMMITTEE HEARING

(Click for high-resolution video)

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The South Dakotans promoting Marsy’s Law are our newest advertiser here at the SDWC, and will be with us through the election.

Take a moment to click on their ad, and check out their website, and please do so for all of our advertisers such as United States Senator John Thune, Americans for Prosperity SD Chapter, Congresswoman Kristi Noem, the fine barristers at Redstone Law Firm, as well as my own Dakota Campaign Store, one of the State’s largest suppliers of campaign materials.

And if you might be interested, we do have other advertising spots available. Drop a note to the webmaster for more information!

Rounds Opening Statement at EPW Subcommittee Hearing on Small Businesses’ Perspectives of EPA Regulations

Hearing Entitled, “American Small Businesses’ Perspectives on Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Actions”

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight, today delivered the following opening statement at the hearing, “American Small Businesses’ Perspectives on Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Actions.” The purpose of the hearing is to examine how regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) affect small businesses in the United States.

So, while my daughter was getting inducted into the National Honor Society last night, I kept one eye on my phone.

I wasn’t intentionally being rude, but darn it, it happened to coincide with the on-line auction ending for an item I wanted very, very badly. And I quite pleased to say that I managed to get the souvenir for this little gathering in Sioux Falls where some guys got together on July 4th, 1889…:

This is a ribbon worn by one of the participant’s in South Dakota’s Constitutional Convention, which wrote our state’s founding document around 127 years ago.

You all might think it’s boring, but as a political history buff, I think it’s kind of cool.

First, Democrat US Senate Candidate Jay Williams was out demanding that all fossil fuels be banned.

#DemDebate Stop using fossil fuels. Period!

— Jay Williams (@Jay4Senate) March 7, 2016

And in his latest missive, he claims pot prohibition “is a bad idea,” and the war on drugs was actually Nixon going after “people of color and war protesters.”

Welcome to the 1960’s.  Or at least, welcome to a candidate with liberal views from them.