Gov. Noem Appoints Julie Dvorak to the 5th Circuit Court
PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem announced that she will appoint Julie Dvorak to serve as a judge on South Dakota’s 5th Circuit Court.
“It is the job of South Dakota’s courts to uphold the Constitution,” said Governor Noem, “I am confident that Julie will do so, and she will serve with honor and integrity in this new role. I look forward to seeing the good work she will do for the people of South Dakota.”
Julie Dvorak is a native of northeast South Dakota and graduated from Northern State University and the University of South Dakota School of Law. She has been in private practice at Siegel, Barnett & Schutz in Aberdeen since then.
“I am deeply honored to have been selected by Governor Noem to serve as a circuit court judge,” said Julie Dvorak. “I look forward to the opportunity to make a positive impact within the judicial system.”
Dvorak has been active in the South Dakota State Bar Association, serving as a Bar Commissioner, on the Strategic Planning Committee, on the Disciplinary Board, and as a member and chairperson of the CLE Committee.
Gov. Noem’s Office of Economic Development to Make $1M Investment in SD Trade
PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) announced a $1 million investment in South Dakota Trade to help businesses grow their overseas sales and support high-quality jobs in South Dakota.
“South Dakota feeds the world, and we are constantly looking for new opportunities to market our incredible work to consumers in other countries,” said Governor Noem. “Over 27,000 South Dakotans are employed by jobs directly supported by exports. We will continue to invest in our people and our workforce through the work of South Dakota Trade.”
SD Trade, a public-private partnership that opened its doors in April, has already assisted South Dakota companies in securing over $3 million in direct sales. They provided education to over 70 international trade practitioners and executed South Dakota’s first trade delegation in 10 years.
“Our inaugural year has been incredibly productive, thanks to our partnership with Governor Noem, GOED, and over 25 other organizations across the state,” said SD Trade President and CEO Luke J. Lindberg. “Companies involved in the delegation led by Lt. Governor Rhoden to Mexico have realized a return of over 65 times our investment in this mission. We plan on doing more trips in the future.”
Earlier this year, Lt. Governor Larry Rhoden went on a trade mission to Mexico with SD Trade. The early results from that trip have netted a 50-to-1 return on investment for South Dakota’s economy.
“In South Dakota, ag is our most important industry – but there is always room to grow,” said Lt. Governor Rhoden. “Mexico is our second largest trade partner, and SD Trade is helping that partnership expand. This investment will make continued growth a reality for South Dakota ag and every industry.”
This funding is through GOED’s Future Fund. It will expand the service offerings SD Trade is able to provide to companies in South Dakota and enable them to continue to grow South Dakota’s economy.
“Our partnership is building resiliency into South Dakota’s economy,” said GOED Commissioner Chris Schilken. “Foreign sales bring new money into our state and diversify our sources of revenue – it is a win-win for everyone involved.”
SD Trade team members work with all industries and company sizes. They also provide focused offerings for businesses anywhere on the international trade spectrum, from new-to-export companies to those with sophisticated trade teams. To learn more, or to talk to SD Trade, go to www.southdakotatrade.com.
The holiday season is a time of homecoming for many Americans. This year, more than a third of South Dakotans will travel for the holidays, many of them going home to be with family – a feeling unlike most others at Christmastime. It can be a trip down memory lane as we celebrate cherished traditions, reconnect with loved ones, and reminisce about the good (and maybe the not so good) times of holidays past. No matter how, where, or with whom you spend the holiday season, it’s a time to enjoy life’s greatest gifts and to celebrate God’s gift to the world: His son, Jesus.
Whether growing up in Murdo, raising my own family, or now with our home filled with my daughters, sons in-law, and grandkids, Christmas has always meant family. Christmas in Murdo was always a wonderful time of year. During the Christmas season, our family would go caroling at our neighbors’ houses. On Christmas Eve, we would pile into the car for the trip to grandma’s. The smell of lutefisk and lefse still takes me back to those holiday dinners. If there was snow, we would run over to Jackson Avenue with our sleds, enjoying every last bit of the days off from school.
We have since substituted clam chowder for the traditional Norwegian dishes we had when I was a kid, but Christmas Eve still has that same warm feeling. We attend our Christmas Eve church service and come home for chowder and to open gifts under the tree. The excitement on our daughters’ faces, and now our five grandchildren’s infectious joy, is something I look forward to and cherish each year.
Like a lot of families, we also have a tradition of reading The Christmas Story on Christmas Eve. Revisiting the story of Jesus’ birth is a reminder of the reason for the season, and it’s one of my favorite parts of our Christmas celebration. As I read the verses, I think about that first Christmas when God became man. An angel delivered the good news to the shepherds in the field, and the Magi followed a distant star to the manger. The Christmas Story is an incredible reminder of God’s love for us, and the good news that His son came to earth for us.
Christmas is more than just a place on our calendar; there’s a spirit about the holiday season that sets it apart and keeps us in eager anticipation the rest of the year. The sounds, smells, stories, and the feeling of home all come together to make it a truly joyful season. From my family to yours, may you have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!
The Greatest Gift By: Governor Kristi Noem December 22, 2023
During the holiday season, we are surrounded by many gifts. I’m sure we can all remember growing up and not being able to sleep the night before Christmas. The anticipation and the excitement for the presents that would be underneath the tree the next morning was just too much to handle. Through all of that excitement, though, I hope we can all remember the greatest gift of them all: Jesus Christ.
I remember one year my parents got me a new saddle for Christmas. Now, this was significant because normally my mom did all the shopping, but I knew that my dad had to go and pick it out. Another year, we went on a scavenger hunt all over the ranch looking for a big family present. We finally found it and it was a brand-new snowmobile. This was very special because all of our friends had snowmobiles and we didn’t. And searching for it as a family just made it even more special.
As we all get older, the gifts of the holidays shift from the material things that we unwrap on Christmas morning to the people we spend it with – the time that we all get to share together. I know that as my own kiddos have grown up and moved out of the house, I cherish the moments that our whole family gets to spend together even more than I did before. Christmas is one of the rare times when we all get to be under one roof again.
During this year’s abundance of gifts and giving, we shouldn’t forget that Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of all. The promise of Jesus’ birth and the hope that it brought to the world will never grow old. It will never be broken. And we should never throw away that gift.
John 1:14 reads, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus, the Son of God, became fully human. He humbled himself – knowing that He would suffer beyond what any of us could ever imagine – to save us. And Christmas is the day that we celebrate His birth. It’s important for us all to remember how great a gift Jesus is.
As we head into a week full of gifts and time spent with loved ones, I encourage you to remember the greatest gift. We live in a world that is so often full of anger and violence. I think that we could all really benefit from slowing down and remembering Jesus this Christmas.
I pray that we are able to teach our kids and our grandkids that Jesus is the greatest gift. He is worthy of our love and praise every day of the year, but especially on Christmas.
This Christmas, I am thankful for the greatest gift the world has ever received: Jesus Christ. Bryon and I are wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. God bless you.
Richard Vasgaard has announced his intention to seek the District 16 House of Representative vacant seat in the South Dakota State Legislature.
He has served two years in the House for District 17, before redistricting moved him into the newly redefined District 16. During his term in office, he served on the Agriculture and National Resources committee and the Commerce and Energy committee. Vasgaard stated he would be honored to again serve the people of the district and pursue solutions to important issues for the voters.
Vasgaard said he has been fortunate to have the opportunities to be involved in leadership at an early age with 4-H and FFA. These roles continued throughout his life with leadership roles in church, township, county, state and national organizations. These opportunities have given him the experience to work with other people, to address difficult issues and work together as a team to make a difference.
“My farming background has prepared me with business experience, learning that hard work, honesty, making difficult decisions and being financially responsible builds character and success” Vasgaard said.
A quote I have had on my desk for many years is from Thomas Paine: “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
Came across this story via Reddit on why the pipe dreams of a hand count by election truthers are delusional that provides interesting food for thought:
“Hand-counting is a recipe for disaster,” said Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice University and election administration expert. He and most other experts agree on this, and studies back them up: The method is time-consuming, costly, less accurate, and less secure than using machines to tally votes.
and..
But party official David Treibs, a precinct chair who’s been leading the hand-count planning, doesn’t think it will be much of a hassle.
“It’s not anything that’s really complicated. If you go ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5’ then you can do it,” Treibs, who has no experience hand-counting ballots, told Votebeat. “So it’s not like calculus, you know? If you have a good attention span, then I think most people can do it.”
and..
“Imagine being asked to count the number of sheets in a large ream of paper, the kind you get from Staples,” he said. Mistakes aren’t allowed, nor are programs like Excel. Plus, “You have to do it 80 times, because there are 40 contests with 2 candidates each.”
Adida said he understands why hand-counting sounds easy, but once you’ve done it, you quickly realize it’s a daunting process with dozens of steps.
Welcome back to another edition of the Weekly Round[s] Up. For the past several weeks, I’ve talked about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in this section and our need to pass it before the end of the year. This past week, we got it done: the NDAA passed both the Senate and the House, heading to the President’s desk to be signed into law. We also continue discussions on border policies to move the supplemental aid bill for Ukraine and Israel forward. Here’s my Weekly Round[s] Up:
Meetings this past week: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine; Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; Kristen Welker, host of NBC’s Meet the Press; Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe; Bruce Byrd, Executive VP and General Counsel of Palo Alto Networks; and Steve Bowsher, CEO of In-Q-Tel. I also attended several meetings with the Select Committee on Intelligence.
I attended a meeting hosted by my colleague Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and the American Jewish Committee. We met with a delegation of family members and survivors of the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel.
This past week, I hosted our Senate Bible Study in my office again, where we discussed 2 Timothy 3:16-17. We had our Senate Prayer Breakfast, as well. Every year during the holiday season, we have one gathering where we sing Christmas carols instead of having a traditional speaker. It’s a good way to bring some Christmas cheer to a Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill!
Votes taken: 11 – many of these were on nominations for judges and one for the National Cyber Director. As I mentioned, we also passed the NDAA, which you can read more about in the next section.
National Defense Authorization Act: The NDAA is a critical piece of legislation that authorizes funding for our national security and our military. The NDAA has passed on a bipartisan basis for 63 consecutive years, with members coming together to support our national security, our service members and their families. I authored 33 provisions in this year’s NDAA, which includes several wins for South Dakota and the United States. Here are a few I’m particularly excited about:
Authorizes the DOD to conduct cyber operations against a range of Mexican transnational criminal organizations, drug cartels chief among them, and requires a related strategy on how to counter them.
Provides a 5.2 percent pay raise for both military service members and DOD civilian workforce.
Authorizes $269 million for construction projects at Ellsworth Air Force Base, including $34 million for B-21 Phase Hangar, $160 million for B-21 Weapons generation facility and $75 million for B-21 Fuel System Maintenance Dock.
Authorizes $2.325 billion for B-21 procurement.
Authorizes $66.8 million for the Long Range Standoff Weapon, which will enable the B-21 to provide even better conventional and nuclear deterrence in a contested environment.
Includes $5.25 million in funding to complete the construction of the National Guard Readiness Center in Sioux Falls.
You can read more about the FY24 NDAA and a full list of my provisions in the bill here. I also joined Dakota News Now to talk more about the Congressional Charter for NAIV, which you can watch below:
Hearings: I attended two hearings in the Select Committee on Intelligence this past week. As always, both of these were classified.
Legislation passed: As I mentioned last week, I introduced legislation with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) to provide back pay to military officers whose promotions were delayed in the Senate. I’m happy to report that this bill unanimously passed the Senate and is now heading to the House of Representatives. The men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America should not be negatively impacted by political squabbles. You can read more about this legislation and read a full list of cosponsors here.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Alpena, Cottonwood, Fort Pierre, Garretson, Mitchell, Rapid City, Watertown and Wessington Springs.
Steps taken this past week: 48,578 steps or 24.29 miles.
Photo of the week: This week, we said goodbye to our last D.C. intern for the fall semester. We were lucky to have Amelia and Noah with us in Washington for the past few months. Amelia just finished up her last final on Thursday and headed home to spend the holidays with her family. Noah is originally from Presho and attended Dakota State University. Hope to see you at Hutch’s Café soon over a hot beef!
