Category: Uncategorized

Tools for a Healthier Forest
By Rep. Kristi Noem

Have you ever hiked the Black Hills during the winter? There’s something almost magical about it. It’s so quiet and yet surprisingly energizing. I absolutely love it.

But underneath the snow is a forest in repair. For more than two decades, the Mountain Pine Beetle has damaged more than 30 percent of the 1.2-million-acre forest. Earlier this year, the U.S. Forest Service announced the beetle had finally been beat, albeit significant work remains to repair the damage and make the forest more resilient against future outbreaks.

In November 2013, then-U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell came to the Black Hills with me to view the damage firsthand. While he felt good about the tools we had to combat the pine beetle, we couldn’t apply them on a large enough scale.

In the months that followed the visit, I helped write new reforms and fought to get them included in the 2014 Farm Bill. As a result, we cut through the red tape, got boots on the ground faster, and allowed the Forest Service to work on the scale this epidemic required. Around 1 million acres of the Black Hills National Forest benefited from the provisions, which have proven critical in curtailing the pine beetle’s spread – something U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue recognized when I welcomed him to the Black Hills earlier this year.

We are incredibly fortunate to have so many dedicated foresters in the Black Hills, and their work is often pointed to as a model for the nation. In Rapid City, I had the opportunity to catch up with a number of Rangers and forestry officials just before Thanksgiving. We talked in depth about the forest’s health and how the new tools are working. It was encouraging to hear their optimism for the Black Hills’ future. But the reality remains that years of damage have left behind thousands of acres of dead and dying trees. There’s still more work to do.

This November, I helped the U.S. House of Representatives pass the Resilient Federal Forests Act on a bipartisan basis. Now being considered in the Senate, this legislation would pair a responsible budget fix with forest management reforms to dramatically improve the health and resiliency of our forests.

More specifically, with fires breaking out across the country in recent years, too much federal funding has been transferred from forest management to firefighting. The resource drain only perpetuates the problem and increases the risk of future wildfires. By allowing more flexibility in how funds flow between various agencies, this bill would fix the problem without authorizing any new spending.

This bill also eliminates duplicative paperwork and begins to address obstructionist litigation – or lawsuits set up to stop responsible forest management programs, like logging infested trees. Both of these reforms will help eliminate hurdles we’ve dealt with in the Black Hills.

The bill also increases tribal participation in forest health projects and strengthens Impact Aid to South Dakota schools that have a lot of Forest Service and other federally controlled lands in their districts. All around, it’s an important bill for South Dakota – one that can help make sure those magical winter hikes through the Black Hills’ snow-covered trees can be experienced by this generation and the next.

New Zealand’s 1 News Now is reporting terribly sad news this Thanksgiving of State Representative/Former State Sen Craig Tieszen’s death while trying to rescue his brother in law:

Sources from Rarotonga told 1 NEWS the senator’s brother in law Brent Moline, 61, had got into difficulties after capsizing a kayak outside the reef in Avana Harbour.

Sioux Falls writer Michael Wyland had an interesting article out today about the Chiesman Foundation’s campaign criticizing the State Legislature (as we had noted earlier) and encouraging people to blindly sign petitions.

Interestingly, Wyland notes that we’ll probably never see what was spent on this effort on any campaign finance report, despite it consisting of a private company attempting to influence the political process:

The South Dakota blogosphere lit up recently with the release of a video and web site by the Rapid City-based Chiesman Center for Democracy,  associated with the Chiesman Foundation. There was little information available about the “Join the Conversation” campaign, including most importantly who was funding this effort to influence South Dakota voters to sign petitions to place various political issues on the state’s 2018 general election ballot.

Unraveling the story presents a case study of how transparency works far better than secrecy when becoming involved in public political dialogue, and how that secrecy can produce unintended and potentially harmful consequences. It also shows how one company or one individual can influence the political system without ever showing up on a campaign finance disclosure form.

and..

Media One produced a short video themed “Join the Conversation,” featuring petition circulators in several South Dakota locations encouraging civic participation through signing their petitions. In addition, Media One build a website, jointheconversationsd.org, to host the video and provide a link to the list of petitions being circulated.

Media One contacted several foundations and other nonprofits through which it might disseminate the “Join the Conversation” message, and the Chiesman Center for Democracy agreed to promote the video and website.

and…

Unfortunately, looking at publicly available Internet-based information leads to a far different conclusion than does a simple conversation with the two people most intimately involved with the effort. If Chiesman had publicly acknowledged and thanked Media One for its providing the web site and video, and if Media One had participated openly in the promotion effort for the campaign the firm created and financed, questions would have been far fewer and suspicions would have been all but eliminated.

Read the entire article here.

The article doesn’t delve into the reason for the tone of the advertising campaign which attacked the legislature by claiming “most South Dakotans disapprove of the job our state legislature is doing,“ based on a poll by PPP, a Democratic polling firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As I’ve heard rumored, the end of result is that it may have affected how willing legislators are to support the organization.

Now, seeing that this material was produced and provided to them, I don’t know that I necessarily agree with Michael that “questions would have been far fewer and suspicions would have been all but eliminated.”

Your thoughts?

Republican candidate for Governor Lora Hubbel shows us one again how she would assess information as our next Governor:

Sure, Lora. “Marines land in Langley for Counter Coup.” A rumor.

Or maybe you could consider it crazy talk, and not something a candidate for Governor says.

Small Businesses are a Not-So-Small Part of South Dakota’s Economy
By Sen. John Thune

Whether it’s Sioux Falls or Rapid City or any city in between, the communities dotting South Dakota’s landscape have far more in common than just a shared area code. It doesn’t matter if it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town or a multiple-exits-on-the-interstate city, you’re likely going to pass or visit a South Dakotan-owned small business along the way.

In fact, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if the only businesses in some communities were small family-owned operations. They help keep gas tanks, coffee mugs, and lunchboxes full, and they help keep cars, trucks, and farm equipment on the road and in the field. They’re the lifeblood for many South Dakota communities.

There are more than 83,000 small businesses across South Dakota, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. These businesses, of which nearly one-third are owned by hard-working South Dakota women, employ nearly 60 percent of South Dakota’s private workforce and account for more than 96 percent of all the businesses in the entire state. Of all the South Dakota companies that exported goods in 2013, more than 75 percent of them were small businesses, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration.

In addition to being a large part of South Dakota’s economy, small businesses play an important role in the American Dream, too.

After my grandfather and his brother immigrated to the United States, they laced-up their boots, looked for work, and found jobs as railroad workers as the transcontinental railroads made their way across the country. They worked hard, saved up, and opened a hardware store in Mitchell. My grandfather then moved to Murdo, my hometown, to run another hardware store. My mom and dad worked there for years, too, and although the ownership has changed over the years, the Mitchell store still bears the Thune family name.

All that to say, small businesses are a big deal here in South Dakota, and they have a long history here, too.

There’s a lot to be thankful for this time of year, including the contributions small business owners make to the communities in which they operate. That’s a large part of why Small Business Saturday – the Saturday after Thanksgiving – has become such a popular event in communities around the country.

Being a small business owner means far more than flipping the sign on the front door from “open” to “closed” and earning a paycheck. It means more than just working in a community. It means being part of a community. These are the same folks who support the local booster club, help organize the local Fourth of July parade, and greet hometown heroes when they return home from war.

There are already plenty of good reasons to show small businesses that this kind of local support is mutual, but by shopping small on Small Business Saturday, we can collectively send that message loud and clear.

###

Regulatory Relief for Community Banks and Credit Unions
By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

In South Dakota, our local banks and credit unions play an important role in helping our businesses thrive and our communities grow. Local financial institutions help families buy a home, start a new business or save for the future. As a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, one of my priorities has been to relieve community banks and credit unions from the unnecessary regulatory burdens imposed on them.

I recently joined a bipartisan group of Banking Committee members to introduce a bill that would improve our nation’s financial regulatory framework and promote a healthy economy. Since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank act, which was an overreaction to the 2008 financial crisis, our financial institutions and our economy have suffered. Our proposal begins to roll back some of Dodd-Frank’s one-size-fits-all regulations, which have been disproportionally hurting small-and-medium sized institutions who had nothing to do with the financial crisis. While there is still work to be done, our proposal is a good step toward allowing community banks and credit unions to expand, and I’m happy that it includes a number of provisions that I introduced.

Included in our bipartisan bill is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act, which provides small banks and credit unions with data reporting relief. It also includes relief from Dodd-Frank capital rules that allows banks to count high-quality municipal bonds toward capital requirements. This will be helpful to both banks and local governments that issue debt.

Our legislation also contains provisions of my Community Bank Access to Capital Act that would free small banks from having to go through arduous and expensive tests mandated under Dodd-Frank and make it easier for banks with less than $3 billion in assets to raise capital and grow. It also includes language that protects the credit of our military veterans who are awaiting delayed payments from the VA Choice program. Lastly, it provides rural appraisal relief for situations when borrowers apply for a loan of less than $400,000 and have trouble finding a qualified appraiser.

In addition to our most-recent bipartisan proposal, I have also introduced a number of different stand-alone bills this year to help improve access to credit for South Dakotans and reduce the regulatory burden of Dodd-Frank on local financial institutions so they can better provide loans and other services to their customers. I continue working to move my TAILOR Act forward in the Senate—this bill would require regulatory agencies to take into account the risk profile and business models of individual financial institutions and tailor their regulations accordingly. This will help put a stop to the one-size-fits-all approach to rulemaking we’ve seen out of Washington during the previous administration.

Making sure South Dakota families and businesses have access to credit when they need it is critical as we work to grow a healthy American economy. Every step we can take to provide relief to our lenders is a win for South Dakota families and businesses who rely on them for credit. I look forward to continue working on legislation that will provide smart, targeted regulatory relief to our community banks and credit unions so they can better serve their customers and boost South Dakota’s economic activity.

###

South Dakota’s senior United States’ Senator and Top 3 Republican Senator John Thune was hosted today by South Dakota’s chapter of Americans for Prosperity for a discussion on the Senate’s version of Tax Reform.

Senator Thune addressed a packed room of nearly 200 people including several legislators from across Eastern South Dakota about the Senate’s version of the tax reform plan, which he noted as reducing the average family’s tax burden by an estimated $2200 yearly…

As well as providing fuel for our nation’s economic engine…

In terms of the why the package addresses the individual mandate of health care, Thune noted that as part of the package, doing away with the Obamacare tax mandate frees up additional funds for tax relief, which they were able to direct into middle income families.

Senator Thune also took questions from the audience, and noted at the Luncheon that one of his signature issues he’s been fighting for over the course of the years he’s been in the public eye is a balanced budget requirement. In fact, Thune noted that as many states have, our nation should have included the requirement for a balanced budget in the US Constitution.

All in all, a great event from the South Dakota Chapter of Americans for Prosperity. Thanks!

Good morning readers!  We’re proud to announce that we have a new advertiser to help us round out 2017, and we encourage you to give a click to their website, and thank Senator Rounds for helping to support manufacturing jobs:

An while you’re at it, make a point to support our other wonderful advertisers such as the South Dakota Bankers Association, Americans for Prosperity, Kristi Noem for Governor, the South Dakota Republican Party, Marty Jackley for Governor, U.S. Senator John Thune, Dusty Johnson for Congress, and everyone else who helps deliver the political news to our elected officials and South Dakota’s opinion leaders.

Interested in advertising here yourself? You can e-mail me here for more information.

Great discussion on expanding rural broadband with @SenJohnThune @kristiefiegen and @paultenhaken today @SDNcomm Thanks to @connectamnow for raising awareness on this issue #ruralbroadband pic.twitter.com/igT353LIsc

— Dan Lederman (@danlederman) November 20, 2017

From Newscenter1 in Rapid City, Attorney General Marty Jackley made a stop to tout economic development in his campaign for Governor:

Speaking on job creation in Rapid City for young college graduates, he stressed how important it was to keep young people in the state. Jackley suggested utilizing the Sanford Lab, and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology’s proposed small business incubator to create high-paying jobs.

Job creation, he said, can only come from businesses and government working together.

“Business and public partnerships – it’s something that the business community wants to be a part of,” Jackley said.

Read the entire story here.