Attorney General Jackley Encourages South Dakotans To Observe National Fentanyl Awareness Day Today

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley encourages South Dakotans to remember those impacted by Fentanyl during National Fentanyl Awareness Day which is today (Tuesday).

“Too many families have been impacted by Fentanyl in South Dakota,” said Attorney General Jackley. “South Dakota law enforcement seized 18.2 pounds of Fentanyl in 2024, enough to overdose every South Dakotan four or five times over.”

National Fentanyl Awareness Day highlights the dangers of Fentanyl and educates the public on overdose prevention.

Last week, Attorney General Jackley, Emily’s Hope, and the state Departments of Health and Social Services announced a partnership to distribute 20,000 naloxone kits throughout South Dakota. Naloxone is an opioid overdose reversal medication which helps those who are dealing with overdoses of opioids including Fentanyl.

“South Dakota is the first state in the nation where state government has partnered with an organization like Emily’s Hope to provide naloxone kits statewide,” said Attorney General Jackley.

Attorney General Jackley has been a strong advocate of Fentanyl awareness. He has asked the Trump Administration and Congress to strengthen security at the southern border to keep Fentanyl from coming into the United States and South Dakota.

Law enforcement in South Dakota at all levels arrested 330 people on Fentanyl charges in 2024. The amount of Fentanyl, in grams, seized in the last five years in South Dakota:

2020		578.631
2021		3098.285
2022		8568.209
2023		4636.901
2024		8262.000
2025		767.756

• 2025 numbers are January through March.

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In case you missed this video from last week (4/25), Attorney General Marty Jackley was interviewed by Dan Santella of KELO, and had noted that he’s considering getting in the race for Governor in 2026:

Gov. Rhoden Works With U.S. Government to Save Maudes from Unjust Criminal Prosecution

PIERRE, S.D. –  Today, following the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) announcement that the U.S. government has dropped criminal charges against the Maude family, Gov. Larry Rhoden shed light on his work with Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to achieve this outcome.

“I have been working closely with Secretary Brooke Rollins behind the scenes to achieve this result and deliver fairness for the Maude family,” said Governor Larry Rhoden. “I’ll be joining Secretary Rollins and the Maudes in Washington on Wednesday morning to celebrate this fantastic news!”

Secretary Rollins invited Governor Rhoden, the Maudes, and other members of the Trump Administration to celebrate this announcement at an in-person press conference. More details will be forthcoming shortly.

“The Maudes are not criminals. They have worked their land since the early 1900’s and something that should have been a minor civil land dispute that was over and done with quickly turned into an overzealous criminal prosecution on a hardworking family that was close to losing their home, children, and livelihood. Not in this America, not under President Trump,” said United States Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. “A politically motivated witch hunt was launched against the Maude family over a fence line and planting dispute with a small family farm which has cultivated land near federal grasslands since the early 1900’s. Dropping these charges against the Maude family is not only just, it affirms the America First mandate that was sent to Washington when President Trump was overwhelmingly elected and sworn into office just 100 days ago. This case, and the many others that are currently under review, shows that this Administration is fully committed to ending government regulation by prosecution. President Trump will never stop fighting for farmers and ranchers like the Maude family.”

The Maudes had faced a political prosecution at the hands of the Biden Administration over 50 acres of federal land, facing up to 10 years of prison time and a $250,000 fine.

“The prior administration’s misguided agenda must be reversed in order to make America safe again. This Department of Justice will spend our resources and efforts on prosecuting criminals, getting drugs off the streets, and identifying and dismantling the weaponization,” said United States Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

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Hard work and common sense has finally prevailed. I am grateful that Judge Theeler signed an order dismissing charges against the Maude family of Caputa over a disputed fence line on land that was ranched by their family for decades. We have been working closely with the Maude…

— Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) April 29, 2025

I’ve been hopeful that USDA and the Maudes could settle this outside the courts and I’m pleased to see that the charges against the Maudes were dismissed today.

I’m grateful for @RepHageman’s partnership with me to secure this outcome. https://t.co/gTDxzmd3uk

— Rep. Dusty Johnson (@RepDustyJohnson) April 28, 2025

Had a reader send this over to me. Who was the SDGOP chair who brags about voting twice for Obama….?

Thune: Senate to Prioritize Budget Reconciliation, Nominations, Repealing Burdensome Biden Regulations  

 “As I’ve said before, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Sioux Falls Business Journal has the announcement that’s been lurking out there for the last few weeks; that Micah Aberson has bought out and taken over the Lawrence & Schiller Ad agency:

Micah Aberson, who began as an intern at L&S, is now the advertising and marketing agency’s new CEO.

Aberson began the role today, marking a return to the firm almost one decade to the month since he left for a role at Sanford Health, where he ultimately served as executive vice president.

He then went on to serve as president of Mammoth Sports Construction and most recently as president of Cambria.

In addition to Aberson’s new role, longtime L&S leader Laura Mitchell has been promoted to president and chief operating officer — a new role for the firm. She too began as an intern before being hired after graduation from South Dakota State University in 2006 as an account coordinator.

and..

The leadership team remains in place:

• Ryan Budmayr, vice president of public relations and business development.
• Ryan Gardner, vice president of finance.
• Jamie Hegge, vice president of client service.
• Kristy Laue, vice president of creative.

In 2026, L&S will mark 50 years since its founding by Lawrence’s brother Craig and Paul Schiller.

Read the entire story on the transition here.

Looks like Brian Bengs, who US Senate Majority Leader and Senator John Thune dispatched in 2022, is coming back to the woodshed for another whipping; this time against US Senator Mike Rounds:

Bengs for South Dakota F1N FEC by Pat Powers on Scribd

In 2022, Democrat Bengs was defeated in a 3-way general election contest against Senator Thune and Libertarian Tamara Lesnar on a vote of 69.6% – 26.1% – 4.2%.

Bengs’ challenge in this new contest is that I’m not sure people know him anymore than they did 4 years ago.

PLUS, as a former Democrat running as an independent, he will face a Democrat already in the race with Julian Beaudion having filed to be in the contest. Beaudion will absorb a large portion of the automatic party votes Bengs had received in 2022.

It will be interesting to see how he will run differently to get past the margin he received in the election this last time. Because I’m not sure the electoral math is there for him with little changed from 4 years ago, except his party.

SD News Watch is releasing results of a poll they did with the Chiesman Center. And it looks like the race for Governor has two leading competitors:

Of course, there’s 13 months to go in the contest. But it looks like a couple of people need to be working on things.

As I had noted in the below post, late this last week through this weekend was busy with candidate activity.  Lots of things going on, including word that Attorney General Marty Jackley might be hinting about his political future at the Brookings/Lake/Moody County Lincoln Day dinner this last Friday night.

When it came down to brass tacks, Attorney General Marty Jackley did drop this item.. which might have been a hint, or it might have been a clever segue into the next speaker:

Lol. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what Marty’s future plans might be, but either way, I wish him well, as he’s truly a good guy.

Speaking of the Brookings/Lake/Moody Dinner, aside from it being notable for it’s reported length (I’m told 4 HOURS!?) it was notable for who wasn’t there – the newly announced candidate for Governor, Jon Hansen skipped the event sponsored in part by a county in his own District 25.  Where was Hansen?

The Brookings LDD apparently overlapped with an event sponsored by his paymaster Leslee Unruh. So, Republicans versus the money? He went with the money and was featured at the Alpha Center annual gala, where this cringeworthy video comes from:

As one person sending the clip noted to me “At least Bill Clintons saxophone was fun! He sounds like a whiney Walmart John Mayer.” Ouch.

Toby “dumpster-fire” Doeden was at the Brookings County Lincoln Day dinner with his own introduction from the podium:

Apparently his introduction is now “running for something.” That coincides with a rumor I heard where people are campaign-shipping him to be completely slaughtered by Mike Rounds in the US Senate race, versus running for Governor. Why do I think those rumors might be coming loudest from Hansen/Lems people?

But speaking of Dumpster-fire Doeden, aside from his introduction as candidate for something, apparently he went to church this weekend …without spontaneously combusting once he crossed the threshold. So he has that.

The bigger question of his church attendance is not whether he went – but how exactly did Doeden have a photographer on hand to take pictures of him in church? Or does the church provides this photography service?

Do you come in with a donation envelope and check if you want just the Jesus part of church, or Jesus with a photo session, which for an extra fee, you can also get a pulpit souvenir photo? Just asking, as last I knew, Influencer photo facilitation isn’t available in my church.

I’m also kind of guessing Toby skipped over this verse:

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.“

– Matthew 6:5

Stay tuned for more!