From Twitter:
Mike Rounds has always delivered for South Dakota, which is why we need to send him back to the Senate. I hope you’ll join me in supporting his campaign! https://t.co/76X5HYlEYg
— John Thune (@johnthune) February 20, 2026
A Renewed Partnership. A Historic Chapter for Sioux Falls.
By: Mayor Paul TenHaken
Since 1909, Smithfield Foods and its earlier iterations have been woven into the story of Sioux Falls. Generations of families have built their livelihoods there. Neighborhoods have grown up around it. Our downtown skyline has long been defined by it. Today, we stand at the edge of a decision that will shape the next hundred years just as profoundly as the last.
Smithfield’s plan to invest more than $1 billion in a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility at Foundation Park is not just a business announcement. It is a generational commitment to Sioux Falls, to South Dakota, and to American agriculture.
This new combined fresh pork and packaged meats facility will be the most modern of its kind anywhere in the world. Built from the ground up with advanced automation and cutting-edge IT systems, it will anchor Smithfield’s network as its largest combined packaged meats and fresh pork operation. It will enhance efficiency, strengthen supply chains, and help deliver high-quality, affordable protein to customers across the country.
That scale matters. Today, Smithfield’s Sioux Falls plant processes nearly 20,000 hogs per day, primarily sourced from regional independent farmers, many of which are right here in South Dakota. Nationally, the company’s 32,000 U.S. employees process more than 28 million hogs annually, purchasing roughly 130 million bushels of grain and one million tons of soybean meal each year. This investment reinforces South Dakota’s position at the center of that agricultural ecosystem.
But this announcement is about more than steel and concrete. It is about people.
Smithfield currently supports approximately 3,200 employees in Sioux Falls and contributes roughly $200 million in wages annually in our community. These are not abstract numbers. They represent mortgages paid, kids sent to college, small businesses supported, and community organizations strengthened.
As mayor, I have had the privilege of working closely with Smithfield’s leadership. When the company evaluated its future, it had options. It could have reinvested in its existing downtown facility. It could have relocated elsewhere in the United States. It could have moved operations globally. Instead, after thoughtful collaboration with city and state partners, Smithfield chose to stay. They chose Sioux Falls.
That decision speaks volumes about who we are as a community and as a state. It reflects strong partnerships with the Governor’s Office, the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, and countless local leaders who worked diligently behind the scenes to chart a path forward.
It also required vision.
As Sioux Falls has grown, our city has expanded around the existing plant. What was once an edge-of-town industrial site now sits adjacent to a thriving and expanding downtown. Recognizing that reality, Smithfield and community leaders worked together to identify Foundation Park, which was envisioned and created over a decade ago as an industrial and manufacturing hub, at the intersection of I-29 and I-90, as a location that better aligns with modern industrial needs while preserving thousands of local jobs locally and in our ag community.
This relocation will require use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF). TIF is one of the only tools we have available in the competitive environment of economic development. When used appropriately and responsibly, as the City of Sioux Falls has, it can spur a tenfold return on value, as previous TIF projects in our city have demonstrated. This TIF would be developer funded, meaning Smithfield is responsible for their upfront construction costs and would continue to pay their full property taxes. The incremental property taxes on the new plant will help pay for infrastructure for Smithfield to treat its own wastewater onsite, saving capacity at the City’s plant. This is not a tax break and is not a blank check.
Here’s how it benefits us:
The relocation creates something extraordinary: more than 130 acres of prime property in the heart of our city, across from our namesake park, that will one day become an extension of downtown.
This entire opportunity would not exist without an incredible act of generosity. As part of this transition, philanthropist T. Denny Sanford has committed a $50 million gift to enable the Sioux Falls Development Foundation to assume ownership of the current Smithfield property once the new facility is complete. This gift unlocks the possibility of long-term redevelopment that will shape the future of our urban core for decades.
To be clear: the redevelopment process will take time. Constructing Smithfield’s new facility, followed by the demolition and environmental remediation of the existing plant, is a multi-year effort and will not happen overnight. Given the scale of the property, redevelopment could span decades, and we don’t expect it to begin until at least five years from now. But that is precisely what makes this moment historic. We are not talking about a short-term project. We are talking about a multi-generational transformation.
Years from now, when residents walk through new neighborhoods, parks, businesses and public spaces on what was once an industrial site, they may not remember the intricacies of this agreement. But they will live in a city that was bold enough to think long term.
This investment will outlast my time in office. It will outlast the current leadership at Smithfield. It will carry forward into the lives of our children and grandchildren.
That is what makes this moment so significant.
We are witnessing the planting of roots for another century of partnership. And because of that, the story of Sioux Falls is not just continuing. It is accelerating into a future defined by innovation, collaboration and confidence.
This historic moment sets the stage for transformation and together we will write the next great chapter of our shared success.
Apparently, some charter school supporters are out there playing dirty tonight.
Text blasts are hitting phones trying to jack up voters to bang on their legislator on the issue. Except the problem is they are not just anonymous, they lack any legally required disclaimer.
Someone ought to do something about that. In addition to doing the opposite of what some of the most scurrilous political operators out there are encouraging.
Hot off the internets, Congressman Dusty Johnson’s campaign is on fire. More than 1 month early, Team Dusty has turned in what might be a record-breaking number of petition signatures in a statewide race as they brought petitions in to the SOS office today with over 5000 signatures, as gathered by a crew of over 200 volunteers. (Full disclosure, I seem to recall notarizing a couple of them as team members came to my house looking for a notary.)
But, damn. Over 5000 signatures. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a statewide campaign dropping off that many.
According to Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s website, a Republican candidate for Governor needs 2,171 signatures validated to be placed on the ballot, and they have to file petitions with the Secretary of State by March 31, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. central time or mail by Registered Mail by this date and time. In 49 days’ time, they did more than twice that. (40 more days left to go, BTW)
It’s why the Dusty Johnson for Governor campaign team is going to be tremendously formidable in the contest. It’s not just the money he has raised and banked – with a majority coming from South Dakotans. It’s the level of grassroot support that Dusty has cultivated and has been out there working.
The first candidate is in. Game on in the race for Governor.
by Mike Karbo, Midwest Region Director, American Petroleum Institute
South Dakota stands at a crossroads, one that will shape the state’s economic future. Lawmakers currently face a choice: they can either pursue policies supporting continued growth and energy security or adopt measures that could unintentionally halt critical infrastructure in its tracks.
A proposal moving through the capitol, HJR 5001, jeopardizes critical infrastructure growth. By imposing strict new limits on what qualifies as a “public use, purpose or utility,” the resolution could block essential infrastructure projects, including pipelines that safely move energy from nearby production to refineries and ultimately, to consumers. Such restrictions could threaten jobs, reduce investment, and undermine the United States’ energy dominance agenda.
The existing constitutional language already in place maintains the right balance. The proposed change within HJR 5001 is an attempt to fix a problem that isn’t there.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) has long supported respectful, two-way engagement between landowners and pipeline operators rooted in transparency, reciprocity, and accessibility. Eminent domain is used as a last resort, only when voluntary agreements cannot be reached. It remains a critical tool used to help build the infrastructure Americans rely on every day to fuel vehicles, support agriculture, and heat homes. Highways, dams, airports, railroads, telephone networks, and electric transmission lines all exist because policymakers recognized that responsible infrastructure development serves the public good.
South Dakota’s long-term prosperity depends on policies that protect individual property rights while still enabling the construction of infrastructure vital to energy reliability, economic growth, and public safety. Before adopting a blanket constitutional change, lawmakers should consider the broader consequences, especially the risk of deterring future investment in critical infrastructure.
It’s time for a balanced, thoughtful approach that keeps energy reliable and affordable for all South Dakotans.
I hate all those master hackers who lurk in facebook forums. As does ex-newsreader Shad Olson, because for some reason they have it out for him in a big way after these posts were made this morning.
Which brings us to this afternoon as the ex-newsreader Shad Olson now claims to be back in control of his facebook, and was publicly posting that he was “hacked and commandeered” after taking on Democrats on a public forum. And that “it has happened over and over“:
With – as Shad claims – this continues to happen to Shad, I’m not sure what to tell Shad. To stop all this hacking or commandeering, that is.
Maybe, consider stop using password as a password?
After sponsoring a measure to have women who have an abortion charged with murder earlier in the session, State Senator Tom Pischke is strangely pivoting from a controversial choice to protect children to not wanting to support them. Even after he found enough money to buy an apartment complex:
From: Tom Pischke <Tom.Pischke@sdlegislature.gov>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2026 9:29 AM
To: (all of them, edited for brevity – pp)
Subject: Please Vote NO on HB 1040
Representatives,
I’m asking you to vote NO on HB 1040.
If this bill were to pass, it would increase most child support obligations by 10%. This increase hurts Non-Custodial Parents and their ability to be involved in their child(ren)’s lives as it puts an increased financial burden on them.
Please keep in mind, the Child Support Commission had multiple meetings this past summer and allow for public comments at each of them and allowed the public to email comments to them. THERE WAS NOT ONE PUBLIC COMMENT ASKING FOR INCREASED OBLIGATIONS!!!!
The obligations for child support are already baked into the system and should not be increased. As the parents make more money, the obligations amounts are already increase. By passing HB 1040, your making the system even worse.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE…. Think about what you’re doing and fully understand how the child support system works before voting YES.
Child support should be used to keep single parents off Government assistance, not a wealth redistribution system and certainly not as a weapon to get back at your ex spouse.
Please vote NO.
Senator Tom Pischke
SD Senate – District 25
Senate Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee – Chair
Senate State Affairs Committee
Senate Judiciary Committee
Senate Legislative Procedures Committee
Cell: 605-999-2948
Email 1: tom.pischke@sdlegislature.gov
Email 2: tompischke@hotmail.com
I hardly think the person who decided to become a property investor and bought an apartment complex is the one legislators should listen to regarding whether or not children of divorce need a long-overdue increase in what’s paid to support their care.
Or that Child support is somehow “a wealth redistribution system or a weapon to get back at your ex-spouse.”
The hyperscale data center that hosts Dakotawarcollege.com located in Salt Lake City apparently needed to swap out some batteries. So nearly 6 hours later, I’m finally back up and running. Good gosh. It’s about time. I was experiencing withdrawals.
Do you remember the 2021 Anti-Thune event from a couple of years back, where a group of anti-Thune trolls had an event under the picnic shelter in falls park to have what they claimed would be a big rally to find a candidate to run against the Senator?
For an event they had months to prep for, it seems to have been a complete flop.
When Julie Korth, leader of the “Primary John Thune Facebook Group” spent weeks calling for her fellow facebook warriors, q-anon followers, and meme consumers to show up in Sioux Falls at the farmer’s market picnic shelter for a free event with their announced US Senate candidate and an out of state speaker they recruited in a show of force for their political movement.. this is what they ended up with:
Er.. yeah.
That was the event that went over like flatulence in the wind, and featured Bruce Whalen, whom caught COVID at the event, and was ultimately recruited by the group to run against Senator Thune. As pictured above, their featured speaker at the event was Scott Presler, whose claim to fame is that he was one of the leaders of Gays for Trump.
Why do I bring this up? Because Presler is going on Fox News and social media, apparently threatening to come back to South Dakota if Senator Thune does not bring a vote on the SAVE Act.. which Senator Thune has already promised to do. But if our Senate Majority Leader doesn’t do things exactly as Presler wants.. he’s coming in March – Back to South Dakota – for a rally.
Well, good luck with that. Has he looked at the line up of candidates on the primary ballot? Who does he expect to be at events with? Justin McNeal? Given the last time Scott Presler was here, maybe they’ll once again manage to put together a couple dozen people.
Is it me, or does the caliber of VIP’s coming to South Dakota for political rallies leave a lot to be desired lately?
I seem to remember several weeks back when Shad Olson completed an on-line anger management course to keep himself out of jail after a warrant was issued for his not appearing to comply with the terms of his sentence. If you recall the whole pleading no contest for domestic abuse thing:
According to Katie Hoffman posting on the Patriot Papers facebook website today, I get the impression that Shad’s on-line course he took on “Anger Management: Mastering Emotional Balance” might not have left him with adequate anger management tools:
I know Katie and I probably don’t agree on a great many topics, but I would venture that there’s a meeting of the minds over Shad insinuating he’s ready to shoot someone. And claiming an ‘alleged’ accuracy with a rifle in conjunction with it is a little beyond the pale. Not sure that claiming that he’ll shoot people in a driveway shows a depth of knowledge about how South Dakota’s Stand Your Ground laws work either.
I also seem to remember that when most people are sentenced for a crime, isn’t the typical thing that most judges tack on to the sentence a line about being a law-abiding citizen?
This might be bumping up against it.
