State Representative Bethany Soye has sent out an editorial column this afternoon chastising Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken because the Mayor had the audacity to comment that he thought this next session that legislative time would best be spent solving problems as opposed to being culture warriors.

In defense of those who want to tell everyone what they should do and think, Soye has issued the following column to scold the mayor for not being  dictating everyone’s morality and “stealing children’s innocence” and contributing to our moral collapse because he opposes more government, and to scold government in general for helping to heal the sick and to assist the poor with housing:

As a legislator I feel compelled to respond to Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken’s recent comment asking the state legislature to “stay out of culture war issues and focus on the core needs of delivering services.” One wonders what Mayor TenHaken means by a “culture war.” I think it can be defined by stating what he clearly thinks does not fall under that category: spending. The Mayor believes that government exists in order to tax its residents for the purpose of providing goods and services. This is a sad departure from what the founders of our country and state believed the purpose of government was: to protect the rights of the people. Our founders would never have dreamed of government bodies building houses, providing healthcare, or paying for childcare. They would have anticipated government officials standing up for the rights of parents and protecting the vulnerable.

One of the areas specifically given to the state legislature under the South Dakota Constitution is public education. The whole reason for the creation of our public school system is set out in our South Dakota Constitution in Article 8 Section 1: “The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people…”  This leads me to the specific policy called out by the Mayor in his complaint against “culture wars.” The bill in question is HB1197 from the 2024 session. This bill required public schools and libraries to create and publish a policy that explains how the institution attempts to keep children from accessing obscene materials. This bill passed UNANIMOUSLY through both the House and Senate. That means that every Representative and Senator from the Sioux Falls area, including the Democrats, supported the bill. How is that an evil culture war?? It seems the only one fighting this “war” is the Sioux Falls Public Library. There was absolutely no need to cancel the Student Success Card program in order to implement a materials review policy. For an example we can look at the Brookings Public Library which adopted a policy that states who is in charge of reviewing library materials and what criteria are used to ensure age-appropriateness. Easy as that. HB1197 was a simple transparency measure unanimously supported by the legislature. In response, the Sioux Falls Library has chosen to harm underprivileged children in order to make a political statement that no one can tell them what to do. If I were you Mr. Mayor, I would take a hard look at who is running your library system and what his or her agenda is. It does not appear to be to serve the public and educate our children.

If the Mayor doesn’t think library policy transparency is a worthwhile issue, then what is?   Would he also scoff at protections to keep children from being preyed upon and groomed by the predatory pornography industry? I assume those protections would not provide the ROI that the Mayor is looking for: more revenue to build new public pools. I ask the Mayor and you the public: what is the point of having a city full of gleaming new public facilities if our children’s innocence is stolen and our families are falling apart? If we are truly concerned with addressing the rising crime rate we will care about strengthening the family. For those living in Sioux Falls, the next time you pay your outrageous property tax bill remember that a significant portion of that amount goes to fund the Sioux Falls City Government. It goes to fund an administration that doesn’t care what your kids are exposed to but merely sees people as economic development numbers.

Strong families and healthy, confident children provide a city with the greatest ROI possible. It’s time for the people to remind the Mayor that social issues are worth fighting for. What truly divides and angers people is telling them that their concerns don’t matter and that they should simply be happy with efficient traffic flow.   We face a choice: the City of Sioux Falls can continue down its current path and become like Minneapolis or Denver with great infrastructure and a society in chaos and moral collapse. Or we can take a different direction towards building up and strengthening our greatest asset: the morality and intelligence of our people. I sincerely hope we will choose the latter.

So, there you go. Now you know the justification behind spending all that time creating more government to tell parents how they’re supposed to raise their children.

Art Fryslie, who served 2 stints as a Republican the South Dakota Legislature from Willow Lake passed away recently. Art served from 1999-2006 in the House, and from 2009-2012 in the State Senate.

Arthur “Art” Fryslie, age 83, died in his home near Vienna, South Dakota on December 1, 2024.  Funeral services will be held on Saturday, December 7, 2024, at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bryant, SD, at 1:00 p.m. with Minister Pam Seefeldt officiating the service.  Following the service, please join the family for a lunch and a time of fellowship in the church fellowship area prior to going to the cemetery at Vienna Lutheran Cemetery in rural Vienna, SD.  Visitation will be held the evening prior, Friday, December 6, 2024, at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bryant from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m.

He was born on October 25, 1941 in Watertown, the son of Lloyd and Elvera (Larson) Fryslie. He was the oldest of their three children. In 1975 he married Jane Claus in Wayne, Nebraska. They had two children, Tara and Jess.

Art graduated from Vienna High School and attended State College in Brookings. He was a member of Good Hope Lutheran Church and was involved in several organizations including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Willow Lake Lions Club, the Watertown Gideon Camp, South Dakota Trappers Association, Ducks Unlimited, and the South Dakota Historical Society. He was a member of the South Dakota State Legislature for 12 years, serving eight years in the House of Representatives and four in the Senate.

You can read the entire Obituary here.

He was a super nice guy. Please join me in remembering his service, and in offering your prayers for his family.

South Dakota’s past battles over education funding and what goes to schools will start to warm up again as a one-two punch is predicted when it comes to schools this coming legislative session.  First, the amount of money going to education is already being predicted to be lean, with the Governor’s budget only able to come up with a suggested 1.25% increase. According to a KELOland story posted last night:

The latest recommendation from the Governor at 1.25 percent could mean some belt-tightening.

“When the CPI which is what the codified law calls for, it calls for a 2.4 or a 2.6 percent increase, and we end up getting a 1.25 if that comes to pass it really does make it difficult to make any kind of inroads,” said Harrisburg Superintendent Tim Graf.

Lawmakers like Representative Greg Jamison of Sioux Falls say it’s back to reality for the state budget. The Covid dollars are gone and tax revenue is flat, which means less money to allocate.

Read that here.

As problematic as the leaner dollars are for public education, of equal or greater concern to schools are the Governor’s proposal of a $3000 per student program to fund private school tuition:

The Governor proposed the creation of a 4 million dollar education savings account program, which she says would offer 3-thousand dollars per student toward private school tuition. Graff says that money could go a long ways in funding public education.

Read that in the same place at KELOland.com.

Who is going to be eligible for such a program? It had better make sure EVERYONE is eligible from the start. Because the state’s ultimate responsibility to provide an education to our children is governed by Article 8 of the South Dakota Constitution, which says:

 § 1.   Uniform system of free public schools. The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all; and to adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education.

You can read that for yourself here.

How will the program get past the constitutional mandate that “tuition shall be without charge?” That’s a good question, and there may be a very good answer. But I’m more focused on the portion that talks about how schools must be “equally open to all,”

My main concern with the program is that it doesn’t turn our neighborhood public schools into ghettos or warehouses for those who can’t afford the rest of the private school tuition, as well as for students who might have special needs who are now left behind because no one thought to include them as part of the proposed program.

I believe there is an argument that allowing public funds to be spent on private school tuition could open up the doors for it to fall under the parameters of the South Dakota Constitutional mandate of  needing to be “equally open to all.” And if that’s the case, the legislature had better be making sure the appropriate strings are attached to these public funds being spent on private school tuition to ensure equal access to those with special education needs.

Because there are also federal laws which guarantee that students with disabilities have the same right to K-12 public education that students without disabilities have. And the US Office of Civil Rights works to ensure “that public elementary and secondary schools, including charter schools, provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to all qualified students with disabilities.”

If we can create better schools in the process, it could be a good thing. But we need to ensure that it’s a good thing for everyone. Not just a select few.  If these new charter schools want public funds, they should be subject to the same public laws that protect ALL of our kids.

From Twitter, Senator John Thune briefs reporters on how Republicans intend to run the US Senate in coming months:

The Schumer standard cannot be the new normal in the Senate – and I assure the American people, it will not be next year.

Senate Republicans are ready to get to work delivering on President Trump’s agenda. pic.twitter.com/7lkoOyoE3W

— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) December 10, 2024

Attorney General Jackley and Task Force Send Warnings to Voice Service Providers That Have Allowed Illegal Robocalls

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force has sent warning letters to four voice service providers who are suspected of transmitting illegal robocalls on their networks on behalf of one or more of their customers.

“Robocalls are not just nuisance, but they also can be illegal,” said Attorney General Jackley. “These calls can be scams that prey on South Dakotans and other citizens.”

The Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which consists of 51 Attorneys General, takes legal action against those responsible for routing significant volumes of illegal robocall traffic into and across the United States. The four service providers receiving warning letters are:

*** KWK Communications, Inc.: KWK Communications received at least 129 traceback notices from the industry traceback group between 2020 and 2022, which included high volumes of calls associated with IRS and Social Security Administration scams, auto warranty scams, and utilities scams. In just one month in 2022, KWK allegedly routed more than 20,000 calls with illegally spoofed telephone numbers and more than 8.7 million calls made using invalid Caller ID numbers.

*** Inbound Communications, Inc.: Inbound Communications, Inc., formerly known as Inbound Inc., received at least 63 traceback notices between 2021 and 2022, including many about calls that involved imposter scams. Inbound is also estimated to have allegedly routed more than 28.4 million DirecTV and cable discount scam robocalls in a single month in 2022. The FTC previously issued a cease-and-desist demand to Inbound over these scam calls.

*** AKA Management, Inc.: AKA received at least 129 traceback notices between 2020 and 2022, including about calls that were government imposter scams and tech support scams. AKA is also estimated to have allegedly routed about 12.1 million Amazon and Apple imposter robocalls to consumers in a single month in 2022. 

*** CallVox LLC: CallVox received more than 47 traceback notices between 2020 and 2022 warning of unlawful or suspicious robocalls that it helped move into and through the U.S. telephone network, including thousands of calls to people who were registered on the Do Not Call list and calls placed using illegally spoofed telephone numbers.

In the warning letters, the task force informs the providers that it has shared the findings of its investigations with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will consider the appropriate next steps. The letters warned that if these providers continue to transmit robocalls and violate state and federal laws, the task force may pursue further legal actions against these companies and their owners.

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According to court records and the Pennington County Sheriff’s office, Clark Ericks, the former campaign treasurer for Secretary of State Monae Johnson is sitting in the Pennington County Jail charged with two counts of sexual contact with a child less than 16, and a charge of rape in the first degree for a child less than 13 years old.

Ericks, a Republican Precinct Committeeman for Pennington County elected in 2024 had also been the treasurer for current Secretary of State Monae Johnson from the start of her campaign in 2022 through the end of 2023, according to records from the Secretary of State’s office.  Ericks’ insurance office is noted in state records as sharing a building with the Pennington County Republican Party at 429 Kansas Street.

With the child rape charge constituting a Class C felony according to SDCL 22-22-1, the Rapid City insurance agent could face up to life in prison and up to $50,000 in fines.

In case you caught it this week, South Dakota Searchlight had an interesting article on Data Centers an expressing an interest in bringing high tech jobs to South Dakota if they are able to find the infrastructure and electrical capacity to support their operations, and how such operations need to pay their fair share and may bring expanded power development to the state, including nuclear:

These “hyperscale data centers,” or “hyperscalers,” are designed to handle immense computing demands and are often operated by tech giants. The centers are characterized by their large size — often tens of thousands of square feet — and thousands of computer servers that require significant energy to operate.

and..

“We need to ensure that large-scale energy users are paying their fair share,” he said.

Utilities also flagged the risk of “stranded costs,” referring to a data center ceasing operations, leaving a utility with added infrastructure to meet a demand that no longer exists. They said financial safeguards will need to be written into power agreements with hyperscalers.

and..

NorthWestern Energy is exploring the possibility of constructing a small nuclear power plant in South Dakota, with an estimated cost of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion for a 320-megawatt facility. The plant would be the first in the state since a test facility near Sioux Falls in the 1960s.

The company is conducting a study, partially funded by the Department of Energy. Details about the study and potential plant sites remain confidential.

Read that story here.

I’m reading that everyone is doing their very reasonable due diligence, making sure that there are financial safeguards, and considering what the shape of additional power capacity might mean to the state.

But of course, this is the point we can cue our cadre of legislative NIMBY’s who are in opposition to anything resembling development..

And of course, there has to be a plot involving Blackrock and Bill Gates and whatever other facebook paranoia can be thrown out.

Legislators are starting to whip themselves and their facebook followers up based on little more than phone calls and e-mailed inquiries to utility companies, and nothing more than a feasibility study or two. Yes, the NIMBY’s are already opposing development and whipping up a frenzy. All because someone is looking at what it would take to put in a warehouse building with a bunch of computers?

I can’t help but think back at the big projects South Dakota has tried to do as a state.  At one time under Governor Mickelson, the state was making a sales pitch sales pitch for a $4.4 billion super-collider project.  Under Governor Janklow, there were tales of the administration speaking to NASA about considering South Dakota as a site for looking at the feasibility of cold weather rocket launches. Under Governor Rounds, South Dakota found a way to make the neutrino lab at Homestake work.

But under Governor Noem, the cracks were starting to show. Appropriations started out by picking at her project creating a cybersecurity center which will eventually realize hundreds of high tech jobs through Dakota State, funding it at $1, with several of the usual suspects you might assume voting against it, such as Liz May, Steve Haugaard, and Taffy Howard.  Governor Noem eventually got it through and passed, but it showed a glimpse of the environment we find ourselves in today.

Now, when companies want to come to South Dakota and they want to bring jobs, we are facing too many legislators who want to shut the door on development – even high tech development. When someone gives a hint ot wanting to put up a building with servers, we have those all too ready to declare to the world that South Dakota is closed for business because it’s all a Chinese plot arranged by Blackrock and Bill Gates.

NIMBY legislators yet again opposing jobs for the future and economic development that might keep our kids in the state.

What happened to South Dakota?

Attorney General Jackley Elected Vice Chairman Of National Association of Attorneys General

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has been elected as Vice Chairman of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). He was elected to the post this week during the NAAG conference in Washington, D.C.

“I am honored to serve as Vice Chairman of the National Association of Attorneys General,” said Attorney General Jackley. “I intend to be a strong voice on making our streets and communities safer through cooperative efforts like we do here in South Dakota.”

Attorney General Jackley served as the NAAG Vice Chairman in 2014 and as Chairman in 2015. He also served two terms as Chairman of the Attorney General Alliance in 2023 and 2024 and was Chairman of the Conference of Western Attorneys General in 2014.

Other Attorneys General elected to one-year NAAG terms were: John Formella, New Hampshire, Chairman; and William Tong, Connecticut, Chairman-elect.  New York Attorney General Letita James is the Immediate Past Chairman.

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US Senator Mike Rounds notes on facebook that he recently met with Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard in preparation of her Senate confirmation. From Facebook:

From Twitter:

Noting that it’s North Dakota with the oil reserves and South Dakota has ethanol production, breezy plains and open skies, someone should ask radical anti-energy activist and State Representative Brandei Schefbauer exactly what energy we’re allowed to produce in the state, since she’s opposed to the big three that people who own large tracts of land are allowed to produce income from?

She doesn’t want South Dakota ethanol to be able to compete in the world market. She doesn’t want landowners to permit wind turbines. And she doesn’t want landowners to allow for solar panels.  It’s as bad as an HOA Karen telling people that their grass is getting too long, and they have to have a certain color blinds in their windows.

If land owners want to lease their land for wind or solar, that should be their business.