John Thune is one of, if not the biggest dog on the porch in South Dakota politics. The question is whether he will have the opportunity to win the top spot in the US Senate during this next six years in office:

The Senator from South Dakota will now return to Washington for a historic fourth term, the second to do so since Karl Mundt in the 1960s. It’s a shift from this time a year ago when rumors were swirling about Thune considering whether he might not run again.

and..

Mike Card, a public policy emeritus professor at the University of South Dakota, said Thune’s been able to stay connected to the state. For McGovern and Daschle, Card said, both were accused of “losing touch” and were unseated in part because of those sentiments.

Schaff said Thune’s win was a “testament to his political skills and Thune has not done anything to run afoul with the State of South Dakota.”

Schaff noted Thune has not made serious enemies in the state and has almost “universal admiration” from the Republican party.

Read the entire story in the Argus Leader.

John is a good guy, and we need more of those in politics. I certainly hope he has the opportunity to rise to Majority Leader.

At the same time the South Dakota Senate committee assignments were released, the seating chart was also sent out:

The South Dakota State Senate has posted committee assignments for the next legislative session, as selected by Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck. In case you were wondering..

Agriculture and Natural Resources

Al Novstrup 
Joshua Klumb 
Erin Tobin 
Jim Mehlhaff 
Liz Larson 
Randy Deibert (Vice Chair)
Herman Otten (Chair)

Appropriations

Dean Wink 
Jack Kolbeck 
John Wiik 
Jim Bolin
Ryan Maher 
David Johnson 
Red Dawn Foster 
Bryan J. Breitling (Vice Chair)
Jean Hunhoff (Chair)

Commerce and Energy

Steve Kolbeck 
Lee Schoenbeck 
Casey Crabtree 
Brent Hoffman 
Jim Stalzer 
Larry P. Zikmund 
Reynold F. Nesiba 
Arch Beal (Vice Chair)
David Wheeler (Chair)

Education

Tim Reed 
Sydney Davis 
Tom Pischke 
Jessica Castleberry 
Shawn Bordeaux 
Steve Kolbeck (Vice Chair)
Kyle Schoenfish (Chair)

GOAC

Tim Reed 
Jean Hunhoff
Reynold F. Nesiba 
David Wheeler (Vice Chair)
Dean Wink (Chair)

Health and Human Services

Michael H. Rohl 
Tim Reed 
Julie Frye-Mueller 
Michael Diedrich 
Shawn Bordeaux 
Sydney Davis (Vice Chair)
Erin Tobin (Chair)

Judiciary

Michael H. Rohl 
Brent Hoffman 
David Wheeler
Jim Mehlhaff 
Michael Diedrich 
Jim Stalzer (Vice Chair)
Helene Duhamel (Chair)

Legislative Procedure

Jack Kolbeck 
David Wheeler 
Ryan Maher 
Helene Duhamel 
Reynold F. Nesiba 
Casey Crabtree (Vice Chair)
Lee Schoenbeck (Chair)

Local Government

Steve Kolbeck 
Tom Pischke 
Julie Frye-Mueller 
Randy Deibert 
Liz Larson
Jim Mehlhaff (Vice Chair)
Tim Reed (Chair)

Military and Veterans Affairs

Brent Hoffman 
Jim Stalzer 
Jack Kolbeck 
Larry P. Zikmund (Vice Chair)
David Johnson (Chair)

Retirement Laws

Larry P. Zikmund 
Randy Deibert 
Reynold F. Nesiba 
Jim Mehlhaff (Vice Chair)
Jim Bolin (Chair)

Rules Review

Jean Hunhoff 
Jim Mehlhaff 
Red Dawn Foster 

State Affairs

Michael H. Rohl 
Lee Schoenbeck 
Sydney Davis 
Erin Tobin 
David Wheeler 
Helene Duhamel 
Reynold F. Nesiba 
Michael Diedrich (Vice Chair)
Casey Crabtree (Chair)

Taxation

Al Novstrup 
Herman Otten 
Kyle Schoenfish 
Joshua Klumb 
Shawn Bordeaux 
Brent Hoffman (Vice Chair)
Jim Stalzer (Chair)

Transportation

Randy Deibert 
Kyle Schoenfish 
Arch Beal 
Larry P. Zikmund 
Liz Larson 
Jessica Castleberry (Vice Chair)
Joshua Klumb (Chair)

State-Tribal Relations

Kyle Schoenfish
Tom Pischke
Shawn Bordeaux
Red Dawn Foster
Michael H. Rohl (Senate co-chair)

I don’t think you can make this stuff up.

In Tripp County, which was noted has having been the only county in the state which was silly enough to go back to hand tabulation, apparently had an error in the hand-count. One which was caught by the machine tabulators they were told they couldn’t use, leaving County Commissioners who ordered the hand count with egg on their face.

Tripp County officials were prepared to ask for a court order to reopen a ballot box to find the answer, but the question was resolved without one. The human error explanation for the mismatch, it turned out, was right there in the records from the vote tabulator – the machine that county commissioners had ordered Desersa not to use to tally the county’s official, reportable Election Day results.

and..

“The machine caught it,” Desersa said. “To me, that shows that the machine is more accurate than humans.”

Read the story here at SD Searchlight

The South Dakota State University administration is quietly shuffling away from the staging of the Drag Show scheduled for tomorrow on the SDSU Campus, as President Barry Dunn himself is disavowing the entire thing in a statement released this afternoon:

“We apologize for the miscommunication pertaining to the drag show in the University Student Union tomorrow night. The sponsor of this event is the Gender and Sexualities Alliance student organization, and not South Dakota State University or its Office of Multicultural Affairs. Registered student organizations are free to sponsor lawful events on campus in accordance with SDCL 13-53-52 and applicable policy.  This event is being put on by the GSA student group and not supported by university funds.”

Now, wait a moment…  It’s not being put on by the “Office of Multicultural Affairs?”  Well, that wasn’t the case last year as related by a story in the SDSU Collegian:

Sponsored by groups like the Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) and Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), the drag show was part of RHPC’s “Back in Da Club” event series, both to offer more entertainment to students and to help OMA with some of their scheduled events.

and..

GSA has put on their own drag shows in the past, usually with the support of OMA. This year is the first time a drag show has been hosted by a group other than GSA.

Read that story here.

So, last year the OMA sponsored it and now that this years’ event is gaining a little attention, there’s a hard disavowal from the administration?

I’m sensing a little last-minute spin.

Now this is a new development.   The link at the South Dakota State University website that went to an announcement for a drag show at SDSU asking for $1 and $5 dollar bill tips while calling it “kid friendly” has gone from this…

to this:

Did someone finally figure out that maybe it wasn’t as “kid-friendly” as they would have liked to have thought?  A drag show with the performers begging for dollar bills might be fine for college-aged students, but it’s anything but “kid-friendly.”

I suspect the heat from all of the attention got higher-ups involved. And when they figured out that they’re probably going to have to explain why they think it’s appropriate for a public institution to host this kind of thing, not to mention calling it kid-friendly, to a legislative committee in a couple of months, the adults in the room gave it more thought than someone gave it in the first place.

 

Summit Carbon Solutions Partners with South Dakota Landowners to Achieve Major Project Milestone

• The company has secured easement agreements for more than 50% of the proposed pipeline route in South Dakota

• Summit Carbon Solutions has partnered with 400 South Dakota landowners to sign 650 easement agreements

AMES, Iowa (November 15, 2022) – Summit Carbon Solutions reached another major project milestone as the company has now secured easement agreements for more than 50% of the proposed pipeline route in South Dakota. Partnering with 400 landowners across South Dakota to sign 650 easement agreements, the company continues to make significant progress in advancing its carbon capture, transportation, and storage project and the $4.5 billion investment remains on track to begin construction next year and move into operations in 2024.

“Summit Carbon Solutions and our seven ethanol plant partners in South Dakota are incredibly pleased that landowners continue to embrace our project and support our efforts to maintain a strong, competitive ethanol industry,” said Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank. “Securing easement agreements for a majority of the proposed pipeline route in South Dakota represents a significant step in advancing our project and driving growth in our ag economy long-term.”

Summit Carbon Solutions is partnering with 32 ethanol plants across the Midwest, including Dakota Ethanol in Wentworth, Redfield Energy in Redfield, Ringneck Energy in Onida, and the Glacial Lakes Energy plants in Aberdeen, Huron, Mina, and Watertown. The company’s $800 million investment in South Dakota will enable partner ethanol producers to sell their product at a premium in the growing number of markets (both states and countries) that have adopted low carbon fuel standards. Access to these markets is critical to the long-term viability of the ethanol industry that today purchases more than 60% of the corn grown in South Dakota and remains a key driver of commodity prices and land values.

While Summit Carbon Solutions has crossed the 50% mark statewide in South Dakota, there are several counties that have surpassed that pace, including Beadle County (78%), Clark County (86%), Edmunds County (68%), Hamlin County (60%), Kingsbury County (88%), Lake County (75%), and McCook County (100%). In each county where the project is proposed to be located in South Dakota, Summit Carbon Solutions will invest an average of $44 million during construction and pay an average of $650,000 in new property taxes every year once the system is operational.

To learn more about Summit Carbon Solutions, please visit www.SummitCarbonSolutions.com.

To get the facts on Summit Carbon Solutions and carbon capture, transportation and storage projects, please visit www.SummitCarbonFacts.com.

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(h/t to State Rep. Scott Odenbach)

If an SDSU club was advertising that they were hosting strippers at the SDSU Student Union, and telling people to “bring $1 and $5 bills to tip if you choose” to the stripper event, or encouraging children to attend, I don’t imagine it would be very well received by the SDSU administration, nor considered kid-friendly by the community at large.  So, someone explain to me why a drag show would get a pass for the exact same thing.

According to the SDSU Event Calendar:

If you’re into this sort of thing, that’s kind of your own business. But when someone is enticing you to stuff a single or five-dollar bill in an article of their clothing, it’s not something that most of us would consider a “kid-friendly” event, or a “bring your whole family” event, as much as adult entertainment. And last I knew, I didn’t think SDSU hosted adult entertainment on campus, whether it be strippers or a drag show.

If they want to hold a pride event on campus, and tells people so inclined to bring their kids, who cares? But when they start pulling adult entertainment into the mix, and tell people to bring their dollar bills, someone hasn’t given it a lot of thought, and is bumping up against (and probably grinding on as well) what a lot of people would not consider appropriate for a campus activity.

From Twitter:

New — Kristi Noem has been fielding calls from top RNC donors urging her to run for RNC chair while remaining South Dakota gov. Noem spox would neither confirm nor deny the effort to draft her.

She’s been in touch w Trump since handily winning re-election last Tuesday.

— Gabby Orr (@GabbyOrr_) November 14, 2022

If it would be true, I wouldn’t be surprised that there are those who would like her to serve as National GOP Chair, as Kristi would do a great job in energizing the Republican base. But for now, talk is talk.

Attorney General-Elect Marty Jackley selects Dan Saterlee as Director of the Division of Criminal Investigation

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General-Elect Marty Jackley announced Monday that he has selected Dan Saterlee to lead the Division of Criminal Investigation. Saterlee previously served the DCI as Administrative Assistant Director and Field Operations Assistant Director. Saterlee is currently the Coordinator for the South Dakota Fusion Center, the agency that compiles, analyzes and disseminates criminal intelligence to support terrorism prevention and the investigation of criminal activity.

“Dan Saterlee’s diverse experience in law enforcement, corrections, and the military has prepared him to lead the DCI as our new Director. The DCI has a rich history of earning the public’s trust by working directly with local law enforcement across our state to solve crime and to keep our communities safe, and we are committed to building upon this earned reputation,” said Attorney General-Elect Jackley.

“I would like thank Attorney General-Elect Jackley and the selection committee for this great opportunity,” Saterlee said. “I look forward to working with the staff at DCI and law enforcement agencies across the state.”

Saterlee, a South Dakota State University graduate and former Corrections Officer and Army Reserve Master Sergeant, will assume his new role during the transition. He will succeed Interim Director Chad Mosteller who will return to his position as Assistant Director.

“I want to thank Chad for stepping up as Interim Director,” said Attorney General Mark Vargo, who was appointed to his post in August by Gov. Kristi Noem and will resume his duties as Pennington County State’s Attorney when Jackley is sworn in on January 7, 2023. “I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in guiding the DCI and look forward to continue working together through the inauguration.”

Jackley was elected Attorney General on November 8. He previously served as United States Attorney and three terms as Attorney General.

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