An anonymous source provided South Dakota War College a copy of the letter sent by Gene Abdallah to Attorney General Marty Jackley declining his nomination to the Parole Board.  And you can read it for yourself:

As you’ll note, the health matters Abdallah cited are not simple matters, especially when one is 81, causing him to understandably decline serving.

We certainly wish Gene the best in his recovery.

Anne Hajek Recommended by Attorney General Jackley to Board of Pardons and Paroles

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today the recommendation of Anne Hajek of Sioux Falls, S.D. to the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Hajek will fill the vacancy left by Don Holloway, effective January 23, 2018.

“Anne’s legislative and local government experience, along with her strong sense of fairness and concern for public safety, will serve South Dakota well,” said Jackley.

“I want to extend my appreciation to Don Holloway for his dedicated service on the Parole Board. He too has dedicated his life to public service and has been a strong leader in protecting our communities,” added Jackley.

Anne Hajek has dedicated numerous years to public service, including being twice elected to the Sioux Falls City Council, and the Minnehaha County Commission and one term in the House of Representatives where she served on the House Judiciary Committee. Anne practiced law in Sioux Falls for 24 years, and prior to that was an educator and school counselor. She brings a diversified background to the Board.

The Board of Pardons and Paroles is a nine member appointed board charged with the authority to make decisions of parole, the revocation of parole, and parole policy and procedures. Three of the board members are appointed by the Governor of South Dakota, three are appointed by the Attorney General, and the remaining three are appointed by the South Dakota Supreme Court.

This appointment is subject to final confirmation by the South Dakota Senate.

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From a release:

Sheriff Candidate Faces No Incumbent Challenger

Aberdeen, S.D. (Jan. 16, 2018) – With only 70 days remaining to turn in the minimum 30  required Republican voter signatures to be put on the ballot for the Brown County Sheriff position, Dan Kaiser is the only candidate currently listed by the Brown County Auditor’s office to be placed on the ballot for the June 5^th primary.

Some are speculating that current Brown County Sheriff, Mark Milbrandt, may be considering stepping down from his position to retire. If Sheriff Milbrandt were to be re-elected again, he would be 69 years of age when his term expires in four years.

In a press release statement, Sheriff Candidate Dan Kaiser said, “Whether I face a challenger or not, I believe I bring the right experience to tackle the issues we face today in Brown County,  serving 15 years in local law enforcement protecting our families and 8 years in Pierre forming policies to improve our lives as our State Representative.”

Dan Kaiser will be on the June 5^th primary ballot for Sheriff in Brown County, and is currently serving his last term in Pierre as the District 3 State Representative.

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From Facebook:

Independent Candidate George Hendrickson has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to run for the US House of Representatives:

Hendrickson for House by Pat Powers on Scribd

His candidacy notes his top issues are as follows:

My top issues

• Citizen legislators: Our founders intended citizens, not political pros, lawyers, lobbyists, or people with gobs of money, to represent the people.

• Consolidation and reform of bureaucracies: Must simplify IRS 74,000 pages of code and a socialized medical program that had 2,000+ pages and was passed without members being able to read it first

• Continuity of governance: Require all government employees – including elected officials – to be subject to the laws they pass (including health care and retirement/pension provisions)

• Constitutional integrity: Return power to the states where citizens have access to their representatives who live with them

• Cannabis: One of the most glaring examples of government interference with individual rights to access remedies for those facing medical conditions and disabilities

You can read it all here.

If he’s successful in collecting enough signatures to get on the ballot, Hendrickson would face the victor of the Republican Primary and Democrat Tim Bjorkman in the November election.

Noem: Free Speech is Not Optional on College Campuses, It’s a Right

Sioux Falls, S.D. – Rep. Kristi Noem today endorsed H.B.1073, which would protect free speech on South Dakota’s college campuses.

“More and more, we’re seeing certain voices – often conservative or Christian voices – purposely silenced on our college campuses,” said Noem. “While these are places where the free expression of ideas should thrive, college campuses, including some in South Dakota, are showing a growing intolerance toward free speech. Given the rising level of censorship and the concerning limits placed on student’s exposure to differing perspectives, it’s important the legislature act to permanently protect intellectual diversity on taxpayer-funded campuses. Free speech in these places is not optional. It is a constitutional right students are entitled to.”

# # #

Republican candidate for State Treasurer John Haeder is on Facebook today with a challenge to raise $500 this week to fund his campaign activities in seeing the GOP Nomination for his office. From Facebook:

Josh Haeder for State Treasurer

We are working hard to spread our message across South Dakota. The message is simple, we must protect your tax dollars from cyber threats, work to return even more unclaimed property and create a financial education program that can help our people get started down the right financial path.

This isn’t about politics for us, it’s truly about making a difference and working everyday on behalf of all of you every day. Setting realistic expectations and accomplishing the goals we’ve set out to achieve. Our work ethic and passion for this office will help win this race.

Your support means everything to our campaign and we are asking for your help. We’ve set a goal of raising $500 online by Friday to help put gas in the tank as we travel the state. Can you pitch in $10, $20 or $50 today? Your support is greatly appreciated, visit joshforsd.com today to get on board and help us continue to spread our proactive message.

From the Argus Leader, reports are coming in that former State Legislator Gene Abdallah is withdrawing his name from consideration for the Board of Pardons and Paroles:

Gene Abdallah, a former U.S. Marshal and state highway patrol superintendent, said poor health would prevent him from serving in the position.

and..

Abdallah, whom Attorney General Marty Jackley appointed to the board last year, maintained in his withdrawal letter to Jackley that he never made inappropriate comments during his time in office, despite allegations otherwise.

“My friends have encouraged me to fight back against these nasty attacks. If I were younger and in good health, nothing could keep me from the challenge,” Abdallah wrote. “I also want to thank you for standing by me when false attacks were leveled against me by a person who was motivated by political gain.”

Read it all here.

Attorney General Jackley is appointing Anne Hajek in Abdallah’s place.

A website named “myamazingnews.com” recently offered it’s take on the Neal Tapio/Interfaith Rally incident.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t happen:

U.S. Lawmakers Gather To Honor Islam, Infidel Senator Shuts Them Down With 1 Question

Cowardly U.S. lawmakers recently gathered at a capitol building to honor Islam as a peaceful religion during an interfaith meeting. However, before they could finish the event, one senator shut down their shameless liberal propaganda with one brilliant question.

and…

On January 10, lawmakers gathered at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre to hold an “interfaith” meeting, which included Islam. Appallingly, these political elitists stood in support of Muslims, whose Quran repeatedly calls for the slaughter, persecution, and enslavement of religious minorities. Unfortunately for these ignorant legislators, their reverence for Islam was abruptly halted when one knowledgeable senator stood in the gap for Islam’s 270 million non-Muslims casualties.

Former state director for President Donald Trump and recently elected Senator Neal Tapio stood up and interrupted the praise of Islam, shouting, “If you don’t have the freedom to leave a religion, is there a freedom of religion?” according to the Argus Leader. The lone Republican lawmaker refused to be silenced, calling out both the liberal hypocrisy of honoring the oppressive religion and the Muslim attendees’ blatant lies concerning Islam’s violent commands.

Although several lawmakers attempted to drown out Tapio’s truthful exposition by belting out an impromptu rendition of “America the Beautiful,” the indignant senator refused to back down.

This story originated here.

Somehow, the participants in the Interfaith rally now all were all rewritten to be “Cowardly U.S. lawmakers” in the story. Despite the fact that none of the people in the rally besides Tapio were actually lawmakers.

My Amazing News just doesn’t seem that amazing in light of that.

From Facebook, last night the humor facebook page Dakota Posts offered another Stace Nelson cartoon, this time based on a few posts I’ve done about Nelson’s habit of taking to Twitter during committee hearings:

Here we go again.

What was I saying about it being a long session?