From Twitter:

Former SD Attorney General has announced his intention to seek the GOP nomination for Attorney General in 2022. Current AG Ravnsborg is also a Republican

— Joe Sneve (@Argus_Joe) March 1, 2021

And from the Argus:

Amid uncertainty about the South Dakota Attorney General for his role in a crash that killed a pedestrian last year, Jason Ravnsborg’s predecessor is positioning to get his job back.

Former South Dakota Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Marty Jackley formally announced Monday his intention to seek the Republican nomination in the 2022 attorney general’s contest, in which Ravnsborg right now is eligible for another term.

Read that here.

From facebook, South Dakota Retailers are remembering their long-time former Executive Director after his passing yesterday afternoon:

Venturing back out into the light post-COVID, it might not have been my first choice to spend a couple hours at the monthly Brookings County Republican meeting, but well worth my time. Here’s what I found out.

There is a lot of interest in the local city races. While there is local Democrat Ope Neimeier who is running, it appears that Republican and former police chief Jeff Miller is going to be the man to beat, and was very, very good in his first public appearance as a candidate. (I’ve known Jeff a long time, so I might be prejudiced, but he hit the buttons I like to see) Miller was authentic, inspirational, and an excellent off-the-cuff speaker.

There is another Republican who is apparently running for mayor, but.. well, he didn’t impress me enough to remember his name, and I was sitting next to him. Guy moved to town from Oregon some months back. Ok.  (Update, newspaper notes as Bradley Walker)

City Council candidates. There were two Republicans who spoke, Isaiah Crevier and Nate Holden. And Nick Schmeichel. I was wondering about Schmeichel speaking at the GOP meeting, as I’d noticed this week he had openly endorsed an indy candidates against the GOP candidates in one of the last legislative races, but he was up front about being an indy.

School Board candidates. Republicans Jade Withers and Kelli Books addressed the group with their speeches. Both had similar backgrounds, but as a businesswoman Jade gave me a better sense of independence and authenticity, while at least at first blush, Books seems tied to the status quo.

There are two seats open, and two Republicans, so it won’t be a challenging vote.. but given the amount of taxes the School Board has pushed in the past, I think following the community’s wishes are far more important than the School Administration’s wish list.

State Senator Brock Greenfield addressed the fairly good-sized group and spoke about his candidacy for the office of School & Public Lands – one of the early signs this race is off and running – so I’m sure we’re going to see more candidate appearances in coming months.

Big comment from members of the group was that a few are independently noting/hearing that Marty Jackley intends to be a candidate for office in the next election. The phrase bandied about was “something prosecutorial.”

And after that point, the legislators presented and had Q&A time.

Major point – in the Ravnsborg case, legislators are of the opinion that the gag order applies to them as well as other branches of state government. So we’re not going to hear anything from them on the topic while it winds through the process.

Despite all the issues facing the legislature, there were a few members of the audience who were more than a bit fixated on the whole boys competing in women’s sports/transgender issue.. which actually got a little heated, with one couple going on the attack against legislators for their vote… despite no indication that they had anyone in their family displaced because of a boy playing in girls sports.

I don’t currently have anyone in girls’ sports right now, and I can’t say that I’ve ever seen an election swing on that issue, so I’m in the “it doesn’t matter to me” category. Given this is moderate to liberal Brookings, at least at an at-large basis, I think it’s even more of a non-issue in any election here.

What else? COVID has been somewhat dominating my dance card this past month. And I’m actually feeling great this weekend on my return from COVID blahs.. My congestion and cough are abating, and as of Sat/Sun I feel like I have my energy back.

But why is my lower left leg swollen to twice its normal size for the third day in a row?

After hemming and hawing for about an hour, I make one of those “should I get this checked out” calls to my sister (a RN) in the Denver area. Our mom was a RN, and my sister followed in her footsteps as a nurse, so she’s the go to person when someone doesn’t want to be a bother. As the child of a nurse, you don’t go to the Dr. unless you’re dying, so even at this age, all of the siblings still want “the nurse sign off.”

She said one of the things they’ve seen on COVID is that “it does clotty things” to your blood, so no, I should not ignore it, and just go in.. because I enjoy nothing more than Emergency Room visits.

After laying there while they call in the ultrasound person, feeling kind of dumb… apparently it was not such a dumb thing to go in, because it exactly did “clotty things” in my leg.. and now I’m on blood thinners and wearing a compression sock.

I can live with a sock and a pill. And hopefully I’m done falling apart.

I would point out that if you’re harboring any goofiness about the COVID vaccine to rethink it, especially that for me, it has effectively wiped out a month of productivity while I’ve recovered. I would most certainly advocate that if you are eligible to get the COVID vaccine, make arrangements to do so at your earliest convenience.

Let’s Work Together
By Sen. John Thune

Congress has passed five COVID relief bills, and every single one of them was overwhelmingly bipartisan. It’s unfortunate that as we consider additional relief measures, Democrats have made it clear that they are determined to do it on a purely partisan basis – which is particularly disappointing because, again, up until now, COVID relief has been a bipartisan process.

In a recent speech, President Biden acknowledged that people have criticized his $1.9 trillion plan but asked, “What would they have me cut?  What would they have me leave out?” Let me offer a few ideas.

For starters, it might be a good idea to cut the sections of the Democrats’ bill that have nothing to do with combating COVID. Less than 10 percent of the bill is directly related to combating COVID through public health spending. Less than 10 percent.

He could also cut the bill’s minimum wage hike. The Democrat spending bill would more than double the federal minimum wage – at the cost of an estimated 1.4 million jobs, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. That would be problematic enough at a time when we’re already dealing with substantial job losses. It’s even worse when you realize that the people most likely to lose their jobs as a result of this hike would be lower-income workers.

I would also suggest that the president cut his $86 billion bailout of multiemployer pension plans, which has nothing to do with emergency COVID relief.

The president could also consider cutting his $350 billion slush fund for states and localities – which would be used mostly to reward states that shut down their businesses for extended periods and, therefore, have higher unemployment rates. It’s become clear that a majority of states, including South Dakota, are doing okay financially, despite the pandemic. A number of states actually saw higher tax revenues in 2020, and a majority of states have the resources they need to weather the rest of this crisis.

Then of course there’s the money the bill includes for schools. While children in some places – like South Dakota – are in school, we need to get all kids back to in-person learning. In-person learning is important for kids’ academic, social, and emotional health, and as Republicans have demonstrated, we want to ensure schools have the resources they need to get back into the classroom safely. Our previous coronavirus bills contained more than $100 billion for education, and I think it’s safe to say that every Republican would support additional dollars if needed.

But the fact of the matter is, schools still have billions of dollars from previous coronavirus legislation that remains unspent. And the Biden spending bill would appropriate an additional $129 billion for schools that would receive the funding whether or not they get kids back into the classroom. On top of that, most of that money going to schools will stretch all the way to 2028 – in other words, long after the pandemic will be over. In fact, 95 percent of the education spending would occur after 2021. Ultimately, the Biden spending bill’s school funding ends up looking less like a plan to get our kids back in schools and more like caving in to the teachers’ unions.

If President Biden would like to know what to cut, I’d suggest he start with some of the things I’ve highlighted. I would ask that he and the Democrat leadership abandon their plan to shove through a bloated, partisan bill and start trying for the unity the president has talked about. The president could show that he really meant what he said in his inaugural address by sitting down with Republicans to develop targeted relief legislation. We’re ready to come to the table. The ball is in the president’s court.

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Celebrating America

By: Governor Kristi Noem 
February 26, 2021

There is no better place to celebrate America’s birthday than Mount Rushmore, surrounded by the beautiful Black Hills and in the presence of four iconic American leaders. Last year, we brought fireworks back to Mount Rushmore for the first time in more than a decade. The celebration was a tremendous opportunity to showcase our state to the world, and I am committed to continuing the celebration this year.

Now, you may be wondering why I’m talking about the Fourth of July when it’s still cold outside. This week in the United States Senate, there was a confirmation hearing for Rep. Deb Haaland, who is President Biden’s pick to be the new Secretary of the Interior. The Department of the Interior has oversight over our national parks, including Mount Rushmore, so if Rep. Haaland is confirmed as secretary, she would have oversight over our fireworks celebration as well.

During the hearing, Senator Roger Marshall, a former colleague of mine, asked Rep. Haaland whether she would join us for the Mount Rushmore Fireworks. Her response was promising. She said that she’d “never been to Mount Rushmore,” but implied that she’d like to “if the pandemic is over.” I have the same hope that she does: that the pandemic is old news by July. And I’m glad that COVID hospitalizations have fallen off their peak by about 85% in South Dakota.

We are moving forward with planning a Fireworks Celebration. We signed the agreements with the Department of the Interior for the 2021 celebration on the same day as the 2020 celebration – we just need the Biden administration to honor those agreements.

This event is a huge deal for our state. Last year’s celebration carried an advertising value of more than $22 million, and Google searches for “Mount Rushmore” reached an all-time high – more than 12 times higher than the previous record. This attention to our state will be an economic boon for years to come, as families choose South Dakota as their road trip destination.

I know that some suggest that this event poses safety risks to the park and the surrounding Hills, and I take these concerns very seriously. South Dakota takes great pride in our care for our natural resources. When weather conditions have not been favorable to the fireworks celebration in the past, we have refrained from holding the event. And we will continue to manage these celebrations responsibly moving forward.

I’ve also asked Senator Thune, Senator Rounds, and Congressman Johnson to help me advocate to the Biden administration on behalf of our Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration. Together, I’m confident that we can make it happen. And if President Biden wants to join us, we’d be glad to have him.

Again, there’s no better place to celebrate America’s birthday. Washington won our Independence – a fight that was driven by Jefferson’s ringing call to freedom: “all men are created equal.” Lincoln secured that freedom for the oppressed. And Teddy Roosevelt guaranteed the sustainability of the West so that future generations could enjoy it. These men embody so much of what makes America great. I look forward to once again celebrating our Independence Day in the presence of four such iconic leaders.

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I Just watched @KristiNoem interview on Face the Nation.. if you could call it an interview.

It actually came off as little more than the moderator spending most of their time talking over Governor Noem when they werent outright attacking her. The low-point was when they went after the Governor on “allowing” the Sturgis rally to happen, hanging their hat on the debunked Sturgis Rally COVID study.

The Governor’s COVID detractors seem to think that totalitarian mandates coming from above are going to make a difference in South Dakota. When in comparison to our colder neighbor to the North… maybe it hasn’t proven to be so.

In case you wanted to watch the entire speech, we’ve got the whole thing right here!