Rounds Statement on Fermilab Meeting

Rounds Statement on Fermilab Meeting

PIERRE, S.D. – U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today made the following statement following a meeting with Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer to discuss the planned Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) experiment:

“I was pleased to meet with Director Nigel Lockyer to hear about the latest LBNF developments. Fermilab is leading LBNF for the Department of Energy, partnering with the Sanford Underground Research Facility to base the LBNF detectors for this world-leading neutrino experiment deep underground in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Construction of the facility is expected to have an immediate economic impact in South Dakota. I’m proud of the work being done by Director Lockyer, his team and the crew at Sanford Underground Research Facility to further scientific discovery. We welcome this opportunity here in South Dakota.”

###

47 thoughts on “Rounds Statement on Fermilab Meeting”

      1. Anne, why do you not just admit you’re a retired snarky old hag with nothing better to do?

        PS – It’s an elementary subatomic particle. I looked it up on Wikipedia for you so you too can know what it is. 🙂

        1. keep up with that wikipedia thing. it’s obviously working for you. search ‘nasty a-hole’ and see if your picture comes up.

            1. Oh you’re wrong, when I checked it just now on Wikipedia it displayed a picture of a donkey. So you’re picture is there. Lol

                    1. Gosh, I guess that makes you very slow learner. Perhaps it’s not too late for you correct that.

        1. “delightful” and “excellent” are opinion (or sarcasm for you.) “needed” is a circumstance of his elected position. if he were a private citizen again, his remarks wouldn’t always be needed. but as an elected u-s senator, what he says and does are open to public scrutiny.

          1. humans ‘need’ air, food and water to live. an individual does not need to run for political office. if one wins the election, sending out press releases is not a need but a choice depending on the circumstance. the MSM does not use the majority of the press releases, therefore, they are not needed.

            you changed your moniker from jammer to enquirer, right?

            1. it’s a matter of context, but that’s beyond your grasp. i miss jammer. he was smarter and more fun to fight with.

              1. it’s a matter of opinion but that’s beyond your grasp. i miss jammer too. i miss the copy and paste statements from jammer. i’ll just get used to you now.

    1. No, Anne, you’re sooooo cool! You’re the coolest 60-something year old that I know of. Did you use Google to find that? That would make you even cooler.

        1. No. Because she’s dead. Does your mom know you’re a moron. Of course she does, why am I asking.

          1. I think you need to seek help. Obviously, you are still troubled by her death. And, the fact that you are Facebook stocking people to somehow make up for this loss is alarming. Bottom line, you need help, and this is not the place to get it. I am not going to assume any one course of treatment for you; so, here are multiple help hotlines. You likely need multiple contacts to adequately address all of your problems:

            Below is a list of national hotlines that provide anonymous, confidential information to callers. They can answer questions and help you in times of need.
            •Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline
            Phone: 800-4-A-CHILD (800-422-4453)
            •Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
            Phone: 800-826-3632
            •Boys Town National Hotline – Crisis hotline that helps parents and children cope with stress and anxiety
            Phone: 800-448-3000
            •Hopeline
            Phone: 800-442-HOPE (4673)
            •Mental Health America – For a referral to specific mental health service or support program in your community
            Phone: 800-969-NMHA (6642)
            •National Alliance on Mental Illness – Provides support, information, and referrals
            Phone: 800-950-NAMI (6264)
            •National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders
            Phone: 847-831-3438
            •National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
            Phone: 802-296-6300
            •National Center for Victims of Crime – Multi-language service available
            Phone: 800-FYI-CALL (394-2255)
            •National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Hotline – Treatment referrals
            Phone: 800-662-HELP (4357)
            •National Domestic Violence Hotline
            Phone: 800-799-SAFE (7233)
            •National Eating Disorders Association Information and Referral Helpline – Support services, help, and guidance to people struggling with eating disorders, their loved ones, and families
            Phone: 800-931-2237
            •National Domestic Violence Hotline
            Phone: 800-799-SAFE (7233)
            •National Runaway Switchboard
            Phone: 800-RUNAWAY (800-786-2929)
            •National Sexual Assault Hotline
            Phone: 800-656-HOPE (4673)
            •National Suicide Prevention Hotline
            Phone: 800-273-TALK (8255)
            •Postpartum Support International
            Phone: 800-994-4PPD (4773)
            •PPD Hope
            Phone: 877-PPD-HOPE (877-773-4673)
            •PPD Moms
            Phone: 800-PPD-MOMS (800-773-6667)
            •S.A.F.E. Alternatives
            Phone: 800-DONTCUT (800-366-8288)

            1. Facebook ‘stocking’? Facebook has stockings? Spencer, you are a freak. LOL Your attempt at snark, sarcasm and wit = FAIL. This is hilariously awesome. You’re smart not to reveal your last name. 🙂

      1. No I had a weird childhood. For example, one evening My mother took me around the corner to the Kistiakowsky home to wrangle a raccoon that had gotten into the house.

        At the time, being the go-to kid to wrangle a raccoon out of the home of the guy who headed up the implosion division of the Manhattan Project was my normal.

        My Dad worked in R&D for Raytheon. I thought the stuff that went on in our basement was normal. The only thing that I thought was strange was that the steady stream of visitors ate all our Popsicles.

          1. It was funny too. I never met Werner Von Braun but I was aware that nobody could stand him. I remember the hilarity that greeted one scientist’s telling of a story of how, at a cocktail party, Von Braun drank too much, and there was a gorgeous blonde woman who told him something along the lines that the Nazis had the right ideas, and he started bragging about what a devoted Nazi he had been, and he might even have spilled the beans about having been in the SS. And everybody just loved THAT story.
            Another of my Dad’s colleagues came from Poland and told us the story of how near the end of WWII everybody was herded into a clearing in the forest for the night. During the night some tried to escape, and they heard gunshots all night long. In the morning, the Germans were gone, so they all started walking away. And in the woods they found the bodies of all the people who had tried to leave during the night.
            It was an interesting time and I wish I had paid more attention to what they were doing in our basement.

  1. Interesting seeing all the early negative slander against Senator Rounds knowing his next two years in DC will be pure Hell but once we get a President who has some Huevos and an R before his name the next four should be extremely rewarding for all of us.

    1. I concur, Charlie. Bye bye, Barry-hello an actual leader. It will truly be a good day for the country and the world.

    2. ‘President who has some Huevos and an R before his name the next four should be extremely rewarding for all of us.’

      Bwahahahaha!

      1. October Surprise in South Dakota? FBI reveals investigation that could affect senate race.
        National Review ^ | 10/29/2014 | Ryan Lovelace
        Posted on 10/29/2014, 8:38:43 AM by SeekAndFind

        With less than a week to go until South Dakota voters decide whether to send their former governor, Mike Rounds, to the U.S. Senate, the FBI for the first time publicly acknowledged the existence of an ongoing investigation into the state’s management of a federal visa program during Rounds’s tenure as governor, between 2003 and 2010. The statement breathed new life into a controversy that many thought had long since died out and that is now being used against Rounds on the campaign trail.

        The FBI’s confirmation came nearly three years after a Texas lawyer reportedly notified the FBI of wrongdoing regarding the visa program in South Dakota, and nearly one year after the state’s attorney general says his own investigation came to an end. The revelation’s timing has prompted allegations that it was designed to imperil Rounds’s political prospects in a race once considered a lock for the GOP.

        Federal officials have long remained mum about their investigation, refusing even to confirm or deny its existence. That changed as the midterm elections drew nearer and Rounds, one of this year’s most promising candidates, showed unexpected signs of vulnerability. Just three months ago, he had a 25-point lead in the polls; that narrowed to three points in October, with both his Democratic and independent opponents gaining ground. Rounds has since rebounded, but a poll released earlier this week shows his lead is in the single digits.

        As governor, Rounds oversaw the Department of Tourism and State Development, which worked closely with the federal government to administer the visa program, and he reportedly encouraged foreign nationals to participate in the program. When a member of former governor Rounds’s cabinet who headed that department killed himself with a shotgun blast to his abdomen last October, the state attorney general’s investigation into the state’s management of the federal visa program appeared to have evaporated.

        Until, that is, last week, when the FBI made the federal investigation public. Jeff Lanza, who worked for the FBI for more than 20 years, tells National Review Online that the acknowledgement of an investigation is a breach of FBI protocol unless a public official has made the investigation public, knowledge of the investigation is already widespread, or the public admission serves a law-enforcement function. Lanza tells NRO that it remains unclear whether the investigation met any of these standards, and he says he is surprised by the bureau’s acknowledgement of the ongoing investigation. “It’s highly unusual that you would acknowledge an investigation into a political figure who is running for office in an upcoming election,” he says. “I think it deserves an explanation, because it does come off as potentially political when you announce an investigation in a candidate who’s running for office.” The FBI has not identified the specific target or targets of its investigation publicly.

        An FBI spokesperson tells NRO that the agency declines to comment about the matter until next week, when Minneapolis Division chief counsel Kyle Loven — who first acknowledged the investigation — returns. The FBI’s refusal to answer any questions about the motivation behind its statement until next week means that voters will not receive any explanation about the FBI’s investigation until Election Day is just hours away, at the earliest.

        The investigation focuses on the administration of the federal EB-5 visa program, which awards green cards to immigrants who invest large sums of money in businesses that create jobs for American citizens. Two of the state officials running the program were accused of diverting taxpayer money and using it to line their own pockets. Two years after Rounds left office, his successor, Dennis Daugaard, who is also a Republican, directed South Dakota attorney general Marty Jackley to investigate the state’s economic development office, which was involved in the administration of the visa program.

        In October of 2013, Jackley authorized the filing of a criminal complaint and an arrest warrant against former secretary of tourism and state development Richard Benda, who left public office to work for a company, SDRC Inc., to which he had helped attract EB-5 investors when he was a public official. SDRC and Benda profited greatly. More than half of a $1 million payment from the state of South Dakota to a local business, Northern Beef Packers, was redirected to cover loan-monitoring fees for SDRC, Jackley’s investigation found.

        Benda was found dead from a gunshot wound to his abdomen approximately six months after Jackley’s investigation began. Asked whether Benda’s death marked the completion of his investigation, Jackley says, “For all practical purposes, it was over.” He says his investigation never found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of Rounds or any other elected official.

        The attorney general’s investigation into South Dakota’s EB-5 program ended in October 2013, Jackley says, and there’s only one reason people are still talking about the controversy: politics. Former FBI officials tell NRO that the FBI, the South Dakota United States Attorney’s Office, or both groups, must have approved the FBI’s decision to announce the ongoing federal investigation last week. Jackley stopped short of claiming that federal officials had done anything inappropriate. “At this time I can’t, being a former United States attorney and the attorney general, I can’t go into that detail,” he says. “It is uniformly accepted that law enforcement and prosecutors not take action that unnecessarily affects the outcome of an election.”

        Though the attorney general’s investigation is over, there may be another shoe to drop in the FBI’s investigation. Michael Tabman, a retired FBI official who spent 24 years with bureau, says he believes the announcement was prompted by an imminent development in the investigation. Tabman, a former special agent in charge of the Minneapolis FBI office, from which the acknowledgment of the investigation was issued, says he thinks that development may come in the form of an arrest, an indictment, or the execution of a search warrant. “I have a feeling something is about to happen, and they don’t want to get caught . . . looking like they were trying to hide the cookie right before an election,” he says.

        Whether or not that’s the case, Rounds’s adversaries have seized on the controversy. Rick Weiland, his Democratic opponent, has unveiled an ad slamming Rounds for selling visas to the highest bidder; a Democratic super PAC has run multiple ads criticizing the “Mike Rounds citizenship-for-sale scheme”; the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, South Dakota’s largest newspaper, has republished stories a year old pertaining to the controversy, because “the issue remains in the public eye”; and MSNBC’s Ed Schultz traveled to South Dakota earlier this month to cover the story and rally liberals against Rounds.

        Despite the newfound interest, Rounds remains ahead in the polls. Rounds leads Weiland 42–33 in a KELO-TV/Argus Leader poll released Monday that also showed former South Dakota senator Larry Pressler, an independent candidate, with the support of 13 percent of those surveyed. The poll showed that a plurality of respondents, 45 percent, said the EB-5 controversy had no effect on their voting decision.

        If former FBI agent Tabman is right, that may change. “My guess is that something between now and before the election overtly is going to happen in this investigation,” he says. Whether that something constitutes an October surprise, and whether the timing was calculated to affect the election in South Dakota, remains to be seen.

        — Ryan Lovelace is a William F. Buckley Fellow at the National Review Institute.

        that slander. there was no arrest, the whole issue evaporated the day after the election.

        1. Clearly, you don’t know the difference between libel and slander. Check it out. And then brush up rather quickly on how far a politician’s libel lawsuit would get in court.

Comments are closed.