A story about South Dakota Republican State Senator Jessica Castleberry has been recently featured at the independent media website Epoch Times about attending a performance in Rapid City of performing arts group Shen Yen:

“I am absolutely loving this performance, and I especially appreciate the perspective of providing pre-communism China,” Castleberry said. “We were so moved by the message that China is more than communism.”

New York-based Shen Yun is dedicated to depicting China before the ruling communists took power in 1949.

Shen Yun is “celebrating the rich history in China that happened before communism took over,” said the Republican senator.

“Something I feel that it is really important that more Americans realize is that it’s really easy to decide you want to be a communist when you live in a free country, but it’s impossible to decide that you want to be free when you live in a communist country,” she stated firmly.

Read the entire story here.

Thune, Wicker Question NTIA’s Ability to Effectively Administer Broadband Programs

“Allowing volunteers to review applications suggests NTIA lacks the qualified staff and technical expertise necessary to administer current or future broadband programs.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband, and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today urged National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) Acting Assistant Secretary Evelyn Remaley to reconsider her decision to allow volunteers to review grant applications for the nearly $1.5 billion that NTIA will be disbursing to expand broadband access.

“Allowing volunteers to review applications suggests NTIA lacks the qualified staff and technical expertise necessary to administer current or future broadband programs,” wrote Thune and Wicker. “We urge you to reconsider this process and carry out the duties Congress has entrusted to you.”

Full text of the letter below:

The Honorable Evelyn Remaley
Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20230

Dear Acting Assistant Secretary Remaley:

The last eighteen months underscored the extent to which broadband has become an essential part of daily American life in the 21^st century.  Overnight, millions of Americans relied on broadband services to work, learn, socialize, obtain medical services, and otherwise communicate from home.  The pandemic demonstrated how our broadband networks could withstand the unexpected surge in demand, but it also highlighted that some areas of the country lack service entirely.  In recognition of this, Congress allocated over $1.5 billion to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to address broadband gaps in tribal areas, rural areas, and minority communities.

Unfortunately, we are concerned that rather than dedicating its time and resources to the efficient and expert implementation of these programs, NTIA is instead advertising to crowdsource one of the most important aspects of these programs: application review.  NTIA is advertising that these reviewers will not only assist, but be an “integral part of the overall grant review and award process”^[1] by assessing applications and determining which will proceed to the next stage for possible funding.  It is alarming that NTIA finds it appropriate to offload this important work to volunteers.  The last time NTIA used crowdsourcing for its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, it faced great criticism for having made no appreciable progress in closing broadband gaps.^[2]

Allowing volunteers to review applications suggests NTIA lacks the qualified staff and technical expertise necessary to administer current or future broadband programs.  We urge you to reconsider this process and carry out the duties Congress has entrusted to you.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

###

It has been well over three weeks and the silence from Dakota Free Press author Cory Heidelberger over his permanent relocation is very unusual.

If you recall, his wife has a nice new job, and his house is on the market which means Cory will be heading out of state to Nebraska – likely never to return – denying Al Novstrup any more opportunities to defeat the most liberal man in South Dakota. (Poor Al!)

I would point out that it looks like his REALTOR has an open house this weekend on the property. Hello! Why did we not know this before? Tell all your Aberdeen friends about it so we can collectively send Cory on his way out of state as quickly as possible.

Of course, while Cory is ignoring the elephant in the room and according to at least one commenter, squelching people who ask about it, he’s busy throwing barbs at Governor Noem.

The Cory Countdown clock is now sitting at 11 days with the countdown ending soon.  Click on the image above if you want to follow how many days we can expect until the state’s most liberal commentator is gone, gone, gone.

I’d heard about this a little while ago, but last night, the South Dakota CR’s made it official, and broke away from their national auxiliary group after an extremely contentious national College Republican election which saw state organizations being decertified left and right amidst accusations of vote rigging by the outgoing chair to install a preferred successor.

You can read about the whole debacle here.

As a result, states have threatened lawsuits, and are publicly breaking away from the national organization, with South Dakota among their number according to this statement from Madison Bollweg, chair of the South Dakota CR’s:

It’s not as if the national organization provided the South Dakota group support in their activities supporting candidates anyway, so it’s not a loss locally.

Johnson in Eureka & Mobridge Tomorrow

Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) will be in Eureka to tour Dakota Woodworking. Johnson will also tour Mobridge Regional Hospital. In the afternoon, he will host a Vietnam Veteran Commemorative Pinning Ceremony and an “Inside Scoop” town hall. South Dakotans are encouraged to attend both the Vietnam Veteran ceremony and the town hall.

What:   Dakota Woodworking Tour
When:  Thursday, August 5; 11:00 AM CT
Where: Dakota Woodworking 614 7^th Street, Eureka, SD 57437

What:   Mobridge Regional Hospital Tour
When:  Thursday, August 5; 2:10 PM CT
Where: Mobridge Regional Hospital, 1401 10^th Avenue West, Mobridge, SD 57601

What:   Vietnam Veteran Commemorative Pinning Ceremony
When:  Thursday, August 5; 3:30 PM CT
Where: Mobridge City Park, ^6th Street East & Main Street, Mobridge, SD 57601

What:   Inside Scoop Town Hall
When:  Thursday, August 5; 4:30 PM CT
Where: Dairy Queen  407 East Grand Crossing, Mobridge, SD 57601

###

Looks like this poorly kept secret isn’t a secret anymore, as this afternoon State Representative Taffy Howard has filed a statement of organization with the Federal Elections Commission:

Taffy Howard for Congress by Pat Powers on Scribd

In the filing, Taffy is using the e-mail of taffy@howardforcongress.com for the campaign, however, the howardforcongress.com website does not appear to be active as of yet.

Big indication of how this campaign is going to be run is that the campaign’s principle e-mail address on the form which is to someone at the e-mail address of zach@redmountaindirect.com. Who is that, I wonder?

If I was a betting man, I would bet that zach@redmountaindirect.com is Zach Lautenschlager, who was last involved in the Attorney General race, passing out hit pieces at the SDGOP State convention which may have played a part in securing Jason Ravnsborg the win in 2018, and a number of fluorescent hit piece postcards in legislative races.

So Taffy Howard has made her filing, AND has her out-of-state consultant with a long history of scorched earth campaigns running the show for her.

It’s a pretty good indication that she’s in the race, and it’s game on!

Thune: Biden Backs Eco-Terrorist Affiliate, Democrats Follow Suit

“I hope my Democrat colleagues will think twice before confirming Ms. Stone-Manning as head of the Bureau of Land Management. Involvement with eco-terrorism should be a disqualifying factor for heading up this agency.”

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

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today called out the Biden administration for nominating an individual with ties to an eco-terrorist organization to head the Bureau of Land and Management. Thune noted that the nominee was involved in a tree-spiking plot, has referred to children as an “environmental hazard,” and promoted content that expressed satisfaction with the idea of seeing homes built in forests burn down.

Don’t Hide the Hyde Amendment
by Dale Bartscher, Executive Director South Dakota Right to Life

For 45 years, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle as well as presidents from both parties, have agreed that taxpayers should not fund abortions.

But, under the pro-abortion leadership of the House and the Senate, this has changed. Instead of protecting women and their unborn children, pro-abortion Democrats are more interested in burnishing their credentials with abortion groups and their supporters.

And to do this, many Democratic Party leaders are more than willing to force taxpayers to pay for abortions on demand.

Congressman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) introduced the Hyde Amendment in 1976, not long after the Supreme Court rulings in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that legalized abortion on demand. At that time, federal Medicaid statutes, written before Roe and Doe, made no reference to abortion and the federal program was paying for 300,000 abortions each year—and the number was climbing.

The Hyde Amendment is estimated to have saved over 2.4 million lives— National Right to Life considers it the greatest abortion-reduction measure ever enacted by Congress.

It is time to save Hyde and tell Congress – “Don’t Hide the Hyde Amendment.”

Each year, the Hyde Amendment is added to the annual Health and Human Services appropriations bill to prevent taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions. The measure has enjoyed bipartisan support since its introduction in 1976 and has been in effect ever since.

But to be continually in effect, the Hyde Amendment must be added to the appropriations budget every year.

For the first time since 1976, the proposed budget by the majority party has no Hyde Amendment language—a deliberate omission.

Until recently, the Hyde Amendment enjoyed support from both Republican and Democratic presidents. However, in 2019, the-candidate Joe Biden reversed his position on the Amendment and announced that he supported taxpayer-funding of abortion.

In fact, President Biden’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2022 omitted the Hyde Amendment and clearly showed that President Biden has endorsed the extremism of pro-abortion groups who would like to see abortion on demand paid for with tax dollars.

Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer want to eliminate the Hyde Amendment and have repeatedly defended the decision to do so. Leading Democrats in both the House and the Senate are determined to fund abortions using taxpayer money.

What used to be a bipartisan consensus—that taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions—has now become part of an overall campaign to see abortion available at anytime, anywhere, and for any reason—and paid for with tax dollars.

The abortion industry is powerful. Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, brings in over 1 billion dollars annually. This powerful organization, along with its allies, sees tax dollars as another revenue source and the elimination of Hyde will increase their share of those moneys significantly.

This is a money grab, plain and simple, and Democratic leadership is part of this campaign to pour more money into the abortion industry contrary to the wishes of the American people.

Most Americans oppose using taxpayer funds to pay for abortions. In a January 2021 Marist poll, 58 percent said they “oppose using tax dollars to pay for a woman’s abortion,” and a November 2020 McLaughlin poll put the number of those opposed at 64 percent.

But the will of the people doesn’t matter to Democrat leaders when they are fully engaged in a scorched earth campaign against the unborn and wanting to use our tax dollars to pay for it.

South Dakota Right to Life asks you to partner with us in encouraging our Congressional Delegation – Senator Thune, Senator Rounds and Representative Johnson – to stand firm and to stand up in their insistence that the Hyde Amendment be added to this year’s appropriations budget.  In other words – Don’t HIDE the HYDE AMENDMENT.

After nearly being derailed by Allegiant airlines (as I arrived to the hotel at daybreak on Friday instead of Thursday evening), thankfully I had an uneventful and on-time arrival as I returned home last evening from the National Convention of Political Item Collectors.

Except I find that I have a problem. I have to completely rework my State & Local candidate frame to accommodate this monster of a South Dakota political button that I was unaware existed until my eagle-eyed wife pointed it out:

Either copied from or made directly from a newspaper ad, I don’t know that this political button has ever been seen among South Dakota collectors before. I almost missed it, and two other collectors of South Dakota pins who were at the show passed by it before I found it. Gary Widmann and former South Dakota LRC Director Terry Anderson must have missed it, as they would have certainly snapped up this gem for $20.

What else did I find? By far it was presidential fare, because local items tended to be for much larger states than ours. I did pick up a couple of Larry Pressler items that I did not have on the cheap. Which is the only way I would buy Pressler items. There was a unique Pressler for Congress pin for $85 that I could not bring myself to buy just on general principles.

That wasn’t the only item I passed on, as there was a beautiful “South Dakota for Ike” pin was priced a little too strongly for my cheapness.  My wife told me I should have just bought it, but sometimes most of the fun comes in the hunt, and finally tracking it down at a palatable cost.

There are a couple of other pins I’d like to add to my collection like the Ike one – the S. Dakota First Voters Taft League pin is a tough one to find, and there’s another one or two running around.  I couldn’t even find that to purchase.

I did find a Dougherty fo Governor pin I hadn’t seen before that I came home with, as well as several items I just liked, including a unique Ford pin with a depiction of “punchy” the elephant, mascot of Young Republicans and later Teenage Republicans that I hadn’t seen before.

I’ll have more on the show later – but well worth the travel to Nashville.