A bit of a jump from last weeks’ numbers with nearly 20 more hospitalized, and a few up in the ICU and on Ventilators.

Seems that numbers are somewhat holding, which still puts the focus on those unvaccinated mainly being the ones who are getting sick enough to be put in the hospital (or worse).

Rounds, Gillibrand to Chair National Prayer Breakfast

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) will chair the 70^thAnnual National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, February 3, 2022.

“Each year, the National Prayer Breakfast is a chance for us to come together, Republicans and Democrats alike, and pray for the success of our nation,” said Rounds. “For years, the prayer breakfast has been a place where we set aside politics and focus on what binds us together, not what divides us. It’s an honor to help lead this year’s National Prayer Breakfast with Senator Gillibrand.”

“The National Prayer Breakfast provides us with an opportunity to pray for the president and the nation and to come together and share in a moment of faith and community,” said Gillibrand. “The challenges of the past few years have reminded us all of the role that faith plays in our lives, and during this time of division and polarization, faith can be a place of common ground. It’s been an honor to co-host this year’s breakfast with Senator Rounds and I hope this spirit of community and commonality can continue as we work to serve the American people.”

Every president since President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 has participated in the National Prayer Breakfast. This year’s National Prayer Breakfast will feature musical performances by singer-songwriter Kari Jobe. Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of the New York Times Bestseller Just Mercy, will be the keynote speaker. Past speakers include Mother Theresa (1994), Bono (2006), Tony Blair (2009), Dr. Ben Carson (2013), Senate Chaplain Barry Black (2017), and Arthur Brooks (2020).

From Twitter:

Gov. Noem’s heartbeat bill failed to get a hearing in the House State Affairs. She talked to reporters about moments ago pic.twitter.com/SjAuvJQXxb

— Joe Sneve (@Argus_Joe) February 2, 2022

This is big news in the South Dakota political world.

Much like Ronald Reagan decided the Democrat party wasn’t for him anymore, and changed to GOP,  Former Public Utilities Commissioner Steve Kolbeck of Brandon, SD is now a registered Republican, and has filed paperwork to run for District 2 State Senate.

Kolbeck was chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission during his tenure there, and was first elected in 2006 and served to 2011.

When an official release or more information comes out, you’ll be able to read more about it here.

But, I can tell you that I always found Steve to be a pretty good guy.

Kolbeck will be in a primary election for that District 2 Senate seat, and is slated to run against Spencer Wrightsman, Treasurer of the Minnehaha County Republicans and national committeeman for the South Dakota Young Republicans (another good guy).

By my reckoning, this marks about the 9th State Senate primary to date (plus around 15 in the House so far), which tells you how active a year it’s going to be.

Update – I am informed that Steve has not been a Dem since leaving the PUC (which was more than a decade ago).

Gov. Noem Issues Statement on Heartbeat Bill

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, South Dakota legislators took unprecedented action to deny introduction of Governor Noem’s legislation to protect all unborn life once a heartbeat can be detected. Governor Noem issued the following statement:

“Every single life is precious and deserving of our protection – but apparently South Dakota legislators think otherwise. It grieves me that they would take this unprecedented action at this time based on the advice of one out-of-state lawyer. National pro-life leaders believe that now is the time to have this sort of protection in law to save lives.

“The United States Supreme Court has allowed the Texas Heartbeat Act to go forward three times, and this legislation has essentially ended abortions in Texas. My focus is on ensuring that we are protecting as many South Dakota lives as possible.

“The South Dakota state legislature has always guaranteed that every bill gets a hearing, and that is something that I’ve always loved about our process. We have rules and an open process, and we play by those rules. To our knowledge, this is the first time in decades that a bill has been denied a hearing.

“South Dakota deserved to have a hearing on a bill to protect the heartbeats of unborn children. We can hear heartbeats at six weeks, but I’m disappointed this bill was not granted even one hearing.”

You can read the proposed heartbeat legislation here.

###

Word has gotten back to me this evening that there’s a Republican Candidate running for District 27 State Senate.

The good news? The seat currently held by Red Dawn Foster might be thought of as one of the GOP tougher areas to recruit in, as it’s Bennett, Jackson, Pennington, & Oglala Lakota county in it’s new configuration, so it was a good thing to hear that there’s a candidate circulating petitions.

The bad news? The candidate circulating petitions for the seat is Florence Thompson.

The same Florence Thompson who says pre-schools are recruiting kids for the LGBT lifestyle, and accused Rapid City Schools of brainwashing students and adopting programs that encourage students to “riot, attack government buildings, destroy property and destroy society.”  Yeah. Flossie rides again.

Maybe the GOP can find a good candidate.

The website for Jamie Smith for Governor is up at www.smithforgov.org, where the Democrat’s candidate for Governor has posted an intro video for his campaign:

I did find it interesting today where he said he would not support an income tax among other statement this morning:

I get the distinct impression that Smith is going to deliberately avoid talking about some of the issues that highlight and define the differences between Republicans and Democrats in this state, and is going to portray himself as much of a vanilla Democrat as possible.

From the Senate GOP:

We’re just going to leave this right here. pic.twitter.com/nJ71MI6VkK

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) January 31, 2022

Thune: Biden’s Crisis-Ridden First Year  

“The president has not only failed to unite the country, but, as his ugly and divisive speech in Georgia made clear, he has come to regard anyone who opposes his policies with active hostility – and contempt.”

Click here or on the picture above to watch the video. 

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed President Biden’s crisis-ridden first year in the White House. Thune noted that the president has completely abandoned the promise of unity he made in his inaugural address and has failed to address multiple ongoing crises that are negatively affecting families across South Dakota.