As opposed to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who costs $200,000 a pop for speaking fees, Sioux Falls is getting the discounted Clinton, Chelsea:

Chelsea Clinton is set to stump for her mother, Hillary Clinton, at a pair of events Wednesday in Sioux Falls.

Clinton will focus on the Democratic presidential nominee’s platform on building the economy at a public event and will speak at a private fundraiser Wednesday evening at the home of former U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson and his wife Dr. Jana Johnson.

Details for the public event were not immediately available Monday morning.

Brendan Johnson said Monday that they expect to host nearly 100 attendees with entry donations ranging from $250 to $5,000 for  couples interested in co-hosting.

Read it here.

The Marsy’s Law campaign continues to extensively send postcards out across the state, with the latest version being an endorsement from a former Federal Prosecutor, Paul Cassell, in favor of the victims rights measure, as well as answering some of the objections raised by the measure’s opponents.

Thoughts?

The Vote No on 23 campaign has kicked off their effort to oppose the labor union initiated measure which would force union dues to be paid by people who have no wish for union registration.

The measure is a response to South Dakota’s status as a right to work state, which has enjoyed increased popularity across the country, allowing people to work without the requirement to join a labor union.   If passed, IM23 would revoke South Dakota’s status as a right to work state, and allow labor unions to force due payments from non-union members.

Vote No on 23 has started their activities in campaigning against the pro-Union measure by going on twitter, Facebook, opening up a site on the web at www.voteno23.net/ and by having No on 23 coalition chairman and Executive Director of the SD Chamber of Commerce David Owen appearing on inside KELOLAND.

Attorney General Jackley Joins Legal Challenge to Protect Children from Sex Trafficking

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that South Dakota has joined 20 other State Attorneys General in an amicus or “friend of the court” brief, challenging a decision granting Backpage.com broad protection from civil liability even when it took active steps to promote sex trafficking of children.  Data reveals that   these children exploited through sex trafficking are typically given a quota by their trafficker of 10-15 buyers a night, and sold up to 45 times a day during high demand sports  events  and conventions.

“The internet continues to be the primary method of advertising for sex trafficking and South Dakota is not immune from these types of ads. It is an uphill battle when   sources like Backpage.com actively promotes and refuses to cooperate in the  prevention of child sex trafficking. Companies selling ads for profit should not have immunity for their role in harming children,” said  Jackley.

The brief was filed in the United States Supreme Court in the case of Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 & Jane Doe 3 v. Backpage.com. The brief argues that the Communications Decency Act does not protect a website operator from liability when it creates content that actively promotes sex trafficking of children by encouraging use of language that will attract customers seeking children for sex. The brief argues that Backpage.com uses language to encourage payment methods that make financial transactions with    the traffickers’ untraceable, strips metadata to impair law enforcement’s ability to  locate victims, and deletes “string ads” posted by law enforcement.

In 2011, Attorney General Jackley co-authored with Democratic Attorneys General Bob Ferguson of Washington and Chris Koster of Missouri, a letter to Backpage.com signed by 45 Attorneys General. The letter outlined a series of requests and specifically asked them to describe how they intend to stop the exploitation of minors. The goal for the Attorneys General with this letter was to find cooperation from Backpage.com to protect children from being sold with the removal of the adult services advertisement. Backpage.com has not cooperated with the Attorneys General.

The South Dakota Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit and their law enforcement partners from across the state continue to battle sex trafficking with law enforcement operations targeting sex traffickers.  Since 2013,  9 operations have been implemented statewide resulting in 39 arrests of those individuals soliciting minors for sex.

From South Dakota’s Congresswoman Kristi Noem comes a guest editorial at foxnews.com, noting how Hillary Clinton’s tax plan unfairly targets small business and farmers:

You don’t forget moments like this – the ones that come so unexpectedly, shoving a pit into your stomach.  I was 21-years-old and nearing the due date for my husband Bryon and my first baby. That’s when the phone call came: “Kristi, your dad is stuck in a grain bin.”  I knew instantly what it meant.

and…

To keep our family’s American Dream going, we were fortunate enough to get a loan, albeit one so large that it impacted nearly every decision we made for a decade.

I have never understood why the federal government thought it was appropriate to go after families with this double tax – especially in a time of crisis.  My family had already paid taxes on the equipment, the land, and any other assets.  Now, we had to pay taxes on it again because my dad had died.  It’s not right.

This month, Hillary Clinton proposed a dramatic 65 percent increase to the death tax, pushing it to the highest point since 1981. She justifies this as a tax on the 1 percent, but all too often it is small businesses and family farms that are put into jeopardy for a few days’ worth of government spending.

and..

No family should have to go through what ours did.  Clinton’s proposal is a tax on the American Dream during a time of tragedy.  Hardworking Americans deserve better.

Read it all here.

It’s bad enough that death is a taxable event at all. But a 65 percent increase to the death tax as Hillary Clinton is proposing should offend everyone who believes they are going to be dying in the future. (Yes, that would be ALL of us.)

Because truly – what are those of us in small business working for if not to build the foundation of something we can hand down to our children someday?  A 65% tax is nothing more than government confiscation of assets because they can.

And Congresswoman Noem is right –  No family should have to go through what her’s did.

Iola Joyce Hazeltine, age 81, died September 30, 2016, due to complications from cancer. She passed peacefully while in the loving presence of her family in Custer, SD. Even in her last moments she lit up the room with her infectious smile and class.

Joyce was born July 16, 1935, in Pierre, SD, the daughter of Howard and Ofa Mae Simpson. Well known by many South Dakotans, Joyce served as Secretary of State from 1986, through 2002. During her final term, she served as President of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Her leadership skills showed early at Fort Pierre High School where she was the first freshman chosen for the varsity cheerleading squad, graduated as class salutatorian, and was selected as a page for the legislature. She received a teaching degree from Huron College and taught for many years in Aberdeen, Eureka and Custer. She was elected president of the state Jaycettes, served as assistant chief clerk of the House of Representatives and the first woman secretary of the Senate, and owned the first association management company in the state.

In 1956, she married her true love, Dave Hazeltine. They enjoyed 60 years of marriage together, celebrating that anniversary in July. They raised three children – Derek, Tara and Kirk – and cherished the company of their grandchildren, Katelyn, Megan, Gessie, Duncan, Kennan and Evan.

Joyce is survived by her husband, Dave; daughter, Tara (Gordy) Heggen; son, Derek; sisters, Jan, Judy and JoAnne; her grandchildren, and many other family members and friends.She was preceded in death by her parents and son, Kirk.

A memorial service will be held 11:00 a.m., Saturday, October 8, 2016, at the Custer Lutheran Fellowship Church in Custer with Yvonne Steindal officiating. Interment will be held at a later date.

Memorials can be made to the Black Hills Playhouse or South Dakota Bankers Foundation, both of which she served in leadership capacities.

You can leave condolences here.

A reader sent this my way, and I thought I’d share.

Yeah…It’s somewhat reminiscent of the Republican who ran who would go door to door with her pet parrot perched on her shoulder.  If you’re running in Massachusetts or Vermont as a Bernie Sanders type eccentric, you might be ok to let your freak flag fly.

If you’re in the middle of South Dakota?

Well…. If seeing something they don’t see every day is their only exposure to you, a person might want to rethink that one.

A New and Exciting Chapter in Life
By Sen. John Thune

There are many things in life over which you have no control. Kimberley and I just experienced one of them. On September 21 at 8:24 p.m., we became grandparents for the very first time. That’s when Henley Joy Hargens made her debut. All we had to do was show up. Actually, it’s not quite that easy. You do have to raise kids of your own. That, in and of itself, can present its own set of challenges.

Still, becoming a grandparent doesn’t involve a lot of effort. Of course, you do have the heavy responsibility of adding to the conversation about whose ears and eyes or hair that little one has. As if that can be determined after one hour on the planet. Or other important matters, like whether your new granddaughter will someday be able to run the quarter mile in under 60 seconds, or sing like Auntie Brittany.

Mostly though, you sit back and soak it in. You look at that little girl who you held when she was born now holding a baby girl of her own. At that moment, you are overcome with the emotion you felt nearly 27 years ago when your baby girl entered the world. It’s the kind of thing that can turn the most stoic of Scandinavians into blubber. I’m feeling it again as I write this.

You think about how busy life got. How the days and weeks turned into months and years. How sometimes those years all seem like one big blur. And then there’s that moment where you look into your granddaughter’s eyes and you see the past meet the future. For a brief instant, it’s as if time stands still. Everything is crystal clear.

You’ve prayed hard for your daughter, that she’ll find a good husband. Then you pray for your daughter and son-in-law. Now, you’re compelled to pray for that 5 pound 12 ounce mound of life that has just been welcomed into the world, and you realize that while grandparenting has an important role, it’s a secondary role. The real work falls to your daughter and son-in-law.

Scott and Larissa are probably as prepared as you can be for parenthood. By that, I mean they have the essentials – car seat, crib, stroller, etc. They know how to change a diaper. They’re committed to the task. That said, there’s no way to truly prepare for parenthood. A friend of mine describes it as being thrown into boot camp. You can’t eat when you want to, or shower when you want to, and someone is always screaming at you. That may be bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.

Your life, or at least your time, is no longer your own. Being a parent is the ultimate lesson in self-sacrifice. The beauty of that is it reinforces an important principle – that it’s not about you. You realize that your purpose in life is now wrapped up in that child’s well-being.

There will be some hard days ahead for Scott and Larissa. The journey they’ve embarked on is filled with highs and lows. There will be celebrations, disappointments, worry, stress, joy, anxiety and pride. But they are in for the ride of their lives.

When we left her hospital bed, I squeezed Larissa’s hand, kissed her on the forehead, and told her we loved her. It felt at that moment like I was passing a baton. It’s time now for them to run the race. As for grandma Kimberley and me, you will see us coaching and cheering from the sidelines. That’s what grandparents do.

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A Better Way to Decide How Congress Spends Your Tax Dollars
By Senator Mike Rounds 

Determining how the federal government spends your taxpayer dollars is an important responsibility. Congress, in conjunction with the president, is tasked with deciding how to fund federal programs and various agencies through careful debate and consideration. Unfortunately, that is not happening today. Instead of thoughtful debate, too often in recent years Congress has passed spending bills that largely maintain the status quo and fail to bring about any meaningful discussions about whether federal programs and policies are working effectively and responsibly. It is broken and inefficient.

This was evident when Congress passed a short-term bill to fund the government past the end of the fiscal year, once again barely meeting our deadline as concerns about a partial shutdown of government services loomed. Many of us in Congress, along with the American people, are rightly frustrated by this last-minute reprieve. It is a reminder of our broken federal budget process – and why we can no longer afford to continue down this dangerous path.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report earlier this year that forecast a grim future for the U.S. if we fail to get our federal budget in order. The report found that by the year 2026, just 10 years from now, deficits will double as a share of GDP to 4.9 percent and more than triple in dollar terms to $1.37 trillion. It also found that in 2026, 99 percent of revenue will go to mandatory payments and net interest spending, leaving no room to pay for roads, healthcare, our armed forces or education.

The report concluded that the driver of this rising debt is largely from growing mandatory payments– Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – as well as interest on our debt. Yet, here in the Senate, when we work through the appropriations process to determine the best way to spend Americans hard-earned taxpayer dollars, we don’t even vote on mandatory payments —programs that account for nearly three-quarters of all federal spending.

All the funding bills we debate in Congress, including the continuing resolution we recently voted on, only cover approximately 28 percent of our annual spending. Yet the CBO report, just like many other projections and reports have concluded in the past, the biggest driver of spending isn’t the $1.1 trillion we actually are able to amend and debate in Congress, it is part of the other $2.7 trillion dollars that is on auto-pilot, and it is growing at an alarming rate. In other words, our fiscal crisis will continue to grow if we do nothing about these auto-pilot programs which we in Congress do not debate and consider. It is another symptom of a broken system and another example of the importance of reviving the federal budget process.

I have been working with other senators to come up with some serious proposals on how to change the budget process so we can have thoughtful debate on how and where all federal money is spent, not just one-quarter of it. Doing so will help make government more efficient and bring long-term stability to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and the people these programs are meant to benefit. 

We owe it to every American to be responsible stewards of their hard-earned money. We can no longer afford to kick the can down the road.

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Where the Farm Bill Stands
By Rep. Kristi Noem

It’s hard to believe fall is already here, although take just one step out the door and the temperature will remove all doubts.  For most of my life, this time of year meant hours in the combine.  I loved it and it’s one of the things I miss most these days. While the wheat harvest is wrapped up, soybeans and sunflowers are just getting started – and corn will be right behind.  While some areas are seeing good yields, others were hit by drought or hail damage.  Even high yields will not be enough to offset the low prices we are seeing in the markets.

These lower commodity prices have weakened farm income, worsened credit conditions, and pushed down the value of cropland by between 3 and 5 percent from a year ago, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s August report. 

It’s no secret that farming has always been an unpredictable way of life. But farmers are resilient and optimistic.  You have to be. After all, it might be the only industry where most people take out massive loans at the beginning of a year – only to bury that money in the ground in the form of seed, fertilizer, and herbicide.  We pray it produces a good yield and that someone will actually pay us a fair price for what we’ve grown.  That level of unpredictability is why the Farm Bill is so important.

I had the opportunity to be a member of the final negotiating team during the 2014 Farm Bill debate.  With only 29 members of the House and Senate having backgrounds in farming or ranching, it was a challenge to pass.  Nonetheless, we were able to finalize legislation that maintained strong risk-management programs for crop producers, strengthened livestock disaster programs, protected our native grasslands, and invested in ag-related research. 

Two years later, we’re still focused on making sure the Farm Bill is implemented correctly and fairly.  We’re also looking forward, getting input on how to improve the legislation during the next go-around. 

One of the things we’re looking at is how to improve the commodity safety net.  We know there have been concerns over the current commodity programs.  As a result, we’re again collecting feedback from farmers about the kind of system that would be most helpful to get through tough times.

We are also working to re-evaluate some of the processes in place for producers. For example, the wetland determinations process has resulted in a tremendous backlog.  I am working with the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson, and North Dakota Representative Kevin Cramer on legislation to address this backlog and enact permanent reforms that make the determination process more efficient, accountable, and transparent.

Finally, we’re looking to strengthen the conservation programs needed to protect vulnerable habitats as well as prime hunting and fishing grounds.  This includes CRP.  Only 101 acres were accepted in South Dakota during the last general sign up, which is much lower than in previous years. I am looking for feedback from producers about how we can make that program more targeted and successful.

The next few years could be tough for many in agriculture – even with strong yields. That’s why it’s critical we have farm programs that provide a safety net, not just for the producer, but for the food supply on which our families rely.