Jackley Created Statewide Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force

PIERRE, SD: As US Attorney, Marty Jackley created a stand-alone Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) in South Dakota with an ICAC grant issued by the US Department of Justice in 2007.

Prior to 2007, South Dakota was an affiliate unit of the Minnesota ICAC Task Force.  As a result of Jackley’s efforts, South Dakota now has a stand-alone ICAC Task Force that is no longer under the authority of Minnesota.

An April 2005 Minnesota Senate bill summary that explains the mission of the Minnesota ICAC notes, “We also have the Department of Criminal Investigation for the state of South Dakota overseen by our task force.”

The summary includes an Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention map of statewide ICAC task forces then in existence, which is attached below.

“I applaud Marty Jackley for his efforts to create a stand-alone ICAC Task Force for South Dakota,” said Kendall Light, South Dakota’s ICAC Commander in 2007.  “The stand-alone SD ICAC Task Force has given our state more flexibility in charging decisions, including mandatory sentences for sexual predators, and additional resources to work with our federal, state, and local investigative partners.”

A Department of Justice press release from October 15, 2007 announced the creation of the new South Dakota ICAC Task Force.

The DOJ release states, “The Department of Justice announced today that 13 new state and local law enforcement agencies will receive more than $3 million to form Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces in their regions.”

“The creation and recognition of our own stand-alone South Dakota ICAC Task Force has provided our law enforcement officers with more freedom and ability to protect our kids in South Dakota,” Jackley said.  “The true heroes in the ICAC Task Force are the men and women in uniform that run these important operations. I also appreciate the efforts of Governor Bill Janklow, Sheriff Mike Milstead and others who were involved in getting funding to establish initial operations for internet crimes against children in our state.”

Jackley is also leading the national fight to protect children as Chair of Project Child Rescue with Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring.  Project Child Rescue is an ambitious new campaign to locate and rescue children from sexual exploitation and trafficking.

The application submitted by Jackley to create the South Dakota ICAC Task Force affiliated with the Department of Justice, which includes a Memorandum of Understanding, can be found here.

Also attached is an email showing Jackley’s efforts to create a stand-alone ICAC program in South Dakota. Initially Jackley’s request to DOJ was not accepted and was limited to a joint South Dakota and North Dakota recognized ICAC.  However, after continued efforts by Jackley, South Dakota was recognized as its own stand-alone ICAC Task Force in October 2007.

South Dakota Department of Justice ICAC statistics from 2007, the year the stand-alone South Dakota ICAC Task Force began, through the end of the year 2017 are available upon request.

De Smet Welcomes Jackley for Economic Development Round Table

DE SMET, SD: South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley met a packed room at the De Smet Event Center Wednesday for an economic round table focused on housing, workforce and economic development needs in the area.

“Marty didn’t come to De Smet to give a speech, he came to have a conversation,” said Economic Development Director of the De Smet Development Corporation Rita Anderson. “We were excited that Marty cared enough to visit us to learn about our needs in Kingsbury County, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to showcase our community. When we were finished, one person walked up to Marty and told him he had her vote because she liked his team approach to problem solving.”

The crowd included business, county and local leaders from across six different South Dakota towns, and topics ranged from workforce and training needs to EMT shortages and nursing home space.

“These events are invaluable to me as an attorney general and candidate for governor because people are candid about what they would like to see in their state leaders,” Jackley said. “The people of De Smet, Arlington, Bruce, Lake Preston, Wolsey and Watertown gave me great advice and direction about how we can move our hometowns forward, and I appreciate their support.”

Jackley finished the day in Brookings, where he toured the city’s hospital system and met with College Republicans at South Dakota State University.

“We’re going to organize as many economic round tables as we can,” Jackley said. “Meeting South Dakotans, hearing their stories and seeing the state from their own perspective makes our entire team stronger, and we look forward to returning to De Smet in the future.”

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FACT CHECK: Despite Claim, Jackley Didn’t Create Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force

In Marty Jackley’s first television ad, voters are told the candidate “created the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.” The Task Force, however, was created under the Janklow administration, nearly a decade prior to Jackley being appointed Attorney General.

“In July 2002, Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) was created under BIT [Bureau of Information and Telecommunications Agency] and then was moved in May 2003 to the Attorney General’s office,” explains the minutes from a June 2004 BIT agency review committee meeting. Jackley was not appointed as Attorney General until 2009.

By 2005, the ICAC was producing results. According to the 2007 South Dakota Legislative Manual, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force reported performing 2,100 exams on 381 items, viewing 5.6 million image files, and completing 107 reports in 2005 – still, several years prior to Jackley’s tenure as Attorney General.

ICAC received taxpayer support as well. In 2002, the Task Force received a $1 million Internet Child Safety grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, which was to be “used by the Internet Crimes Against Children enforcement unit (ICAC) that Janklow started….” In FY2007, the South Dakota Office of The Attorney General was awarded a $250,000 federal grant in support of the ICAC. In FY2009, the Task Force received additional support from taxpayers, winning a $210,000 grant for the South Dakota Office of The Attorney General to “continue to operate its Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.”

“Marty Jackley needs to correct the record,” said Justin Brasell, Kristi for Governor Campaign Manager. “Voters deserve to have honest and accurate information. Clarifying the facts on this claim would be a good first step.”

For those who are interested, Republican congressional hopeful Shantel Krebs is on the campaign trail this coming Monday in Brookings and Flandreau:

Jackley Announces “Open and Honest Government Initiative”

PIERRE, SD: South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced his Open and Honest Government Initiative Wednesday, a policy agenda aimed at ensuring accountability in state government.

“In recognition of national Sunshine Week, we wanted our fourth policy initiative to reaffirm our commitment to transparency and honesty in state government,” Jackley said. “Like all our policy initiatives, the Open and Honest Government Initiative is the result of a collaborative effort with input from the citizens of our great state.”

The initiative highlights the action Jackley has taken as attorney general to make government more accountable and outlines an agenda to build on that progress. The six major points include:

1. Initiate a new open government task force to review ways to make state communications and records more available to the public.

2. Strengthen the Government Accountability Board.

3. Clarify open meetings law to prevent government entities from abusing executive sessions to hide information from the public.

4. Adopt new technologies that give us the ability to broadcast meetings more efficiently than ever before.

5. Support legislation requiring settlements negotiated by government entities to be public unless confidentiality is necessary to protect victims of crime.

6. Require statewide candidates to report contributions and expenditures more frequently so voters have campaign finance information in a timely manner, and reform campaign finance laws to require candidates to disclose when they are coordinating with Super PACS or other organizations.

The Open and Honest Government Initiative can be read in its entirety here.

Hearing that the District 13 House Race is getting interesting today.

I’ve been told that Speaker of the House and District 13 State Representative Mark Mickelson is apparently passing on the race which has opened up a seat in the District triggering a primary election for the two seats.

Returning in her run for the office is State Representative Sue Peterson. Sue is pretty darned good at fundraising, and will not likely have any trouble returning to her office. But, here’s where the free for all is going to start.

Sioux Falls City Councilman Rex Rolfing has quietly taken out and has started circulating petitions for the District 13 House seat.

Amber Mauricio, REALTOR with Keller Williams in the Sioux Falls Area has petitions out and circulating for the District 13 House Race. Amber was recently featured in a Sioux Falls Argus Leader article about school safety issues.

Eric Leggett of Sioux Falls has his petitions completed, and is getting ready to turn them in as I’e been told.  Eric had ran previously in District 15, and has some good campaign experience under his belt.

And I’m hearing there might be yet another candidate looking at the race, which I’m trying to track down at the moment.

This would mark the 8th Republican legislative primary I’m aware of (at the moment), and there’s rumors of more to come. Hang on to your hats – less than 2 week until petitions are due.

Senator Tapio Sides With Parents Angered by Student School Walkout Organized by Radical Left

(Rapid City, S.D. March 13, 2018)

State Senator and GOP Congressional Candidate Neal Tapio joined a growing outcry of South Dakota parents angered by a planned student walkout calling for nationwide gun control after a Florida school shooting last month that left 17 dead.  Tapio called the protest a leftist political movement designed to exploit and indoctrinate American children, damaging the relationship parents have with the public schools their children attend.

“We are watching the demise and possibly the end of the public school system,” Tapio said.

“Make no mistake, the school walkout protests are a gun control effort pushed by left wing organizations with a political agenda. They are organized and funded nationally by the most dangerous liberal organizations in the world who, at their core, are anti-American community organizers in the image of President Barrack Obama,” Tapio said. “School participation in a ‘student walkout’ endangers the trusting relationship parents have with their children’s schools.”

Tapio said there is a growing concern among parents about the long term direction of public schools and their failure to protect their children from left wing political activists.

“Our public education system is failing to protect our kids on multiple levels.  We are not preparing workers for a workforce, we are preparing them to be political activists and community organizers with a leftist agenda, and parents are frustrated by this,”  Tapio said.

“Worst of all, our schools have become danger zones, with such tolerance of a drug culture that every school administrator I have talked to agrees that up to half of the school children couldn’t pass a drug test at any given time.

“Additionally, with the recent Obama era juvenile justice reforms implemented by Gov. Daugaard, kids with criminal backgrounds and behavioral problems are placed back in the school environment in an attempt to lower incarceration rates, not to protect kids. These liberal laws are creating the dangerous environment that should be protested by teachers and school administrators, yet they join liberal organizations to protest guns and the NRA.”

“That is disgraceful.” Tapio said.

According to multiple media outlets and published reports, this current national protest seems to be headed by the National Woman’s March, which is led by Linda Sarsour, a terrorist sympathizer and Islamist apologist who believes in sharia law, which is the Islamic law that includes the death penalty for those that choose to leave Islam.

Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan is also a confirmed organizer of the walkout.

This public school indoctrination effort follows other recent political  campaigns to indoctrinate public school children.

“For the last decade, public schools have pushed a ‘green agenda’ which demonizes the coal and energy industry and criticizing any efforts to oppose left wing climate change legislation.” Tapio said.

“Additionally, public schools have pushed a tolerance and unity agenda based on moral relativism and acceptance of all lifestyles and political ideologies as equal and deserving of equal treatment, regardless of merit or critical examination. When schools promote an LBGTQ political agenda, without a deep discussion of the psychological early childhood trauma often associated with alternative lifestyles, or when schools teach an Islamic agenda without focusing on the dangers of Islamic laws such as their calling for death to those who wish to leave Islam, it becomes clear our school system has become infected by those with a political agenda.”

“It’s time for parents to put a stop to this public school indoctrination of our children.” Tapio concluded.

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Rounds Statement on Additional Delay of ELD Rules for Agriculture Commodities

Department of Transportation today announced additional 90-day delay 

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued the following statement on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DoT) decision to issue an additional 90-day delay of the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rules for live-load truckers. Originally scheduled to take effect in December 2017, today’s announcement delays implementation until June 17, 2018.

“I thank Secretary Chao and other DoT officials for recognizing the need for additional time to continue to seek stakeholder input regarding the ELD rules for live-load truckers. These new rules could have a significant impact on not only live-load truckers but the ag economy as a whole. I will continue to keep a close watch on the issue.”

Last fall, Rounds joined a number of South Dakota truckers in Washington, D.C., to discuss these concerns with DoT officials. Since then, he has participated in multiple conversations with Secretary Chao, as well as Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Ray Martinez, regarding the concerns of live-load truckers.

The ‘grace period’ for non-ag carriers, in which citations for failing to be ELD-compliant will not count against carriers’ Safety Measurement System scores, will expire as planned on April 1, 2018. Additionally, non-ELD compliant vehicles will not be able to remain in service at that time.

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Noem Statement on ELD Mandate Delay

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a 90-day delay of the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rules for live-load truckers. Initially scheduled to take effect in December 2017, implementation is now set for July 17, 2018.

“I believe strongly in evidence-based policymaking,” said Noem. “I have deep concerns about the unanswered questions surrounding the ELD mandate’s effect on small trucking companies and those that haul livestock. While today’s announcement is welcome news for live-load truckers, I continue to believe a sector-wide delay is necessary until more can be learned about the mandate’s efficacy and potential impact.”

In December 2017, Noem co-sponsored legislation that would delay the ELD mandate for two years. In February 2018, Noem sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation to request exemptions for small businesses with exemplary safety records.

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Pennington County’s Sara Frankenstein Endorses Jackley for Governor

RAPID CITY, SD: Rapid City attorney and former Miss South Dakota Sara Frankenstein endorsed Attorney General Marty Jackley in a new video launched Tuesday.

“I worked with Marty Jackley as a new lawyer and he took the time to mentor me,” Frankenstein said. “Marty has a proven record of leadership and fighting for our kids. This year alone he passed legislation that better protects our kids against human trafficking, strengthened the sex offender registry, and led the charge against drug distribution in South Dakota.”

Frankenstein is a partner of Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson & Ashmore, LLP. She lives with her family near Rapid City, where she served on the board of directors for the Rapid City Main Street Square, serves on the Miss South Dakota Scholarship board and is the executive director of the Miss Rapid City/Miss Central States Fair Scholarship Pageants. She is a former member of the South Dakota GOP Executive Board.

“When I started working with Sara Frankenstein, I knew she was a leader Rapid City could count on,” Jackley said. “Today she is a successful attorney, a devoted mother, a champion for young women and an incredible friend. We’re honored to have her support.”

Sara’s endorsement video can be viewed here:

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