We've been busy today processing a new batch of sauerkraut that just finished fermenting; we always take the transformation of humble cabbage to the perfect condiment or side dish as proof of God's graces.
Not so the politics of our relatively new home, South Dakota.
In a story that first ran on Monday, the Associated Press's Stephen Groves produced investigative journalism worth the label in As daughter sought state license, Noem summoned agency head:
Just days after a South Dakota agency moved to deny her daughter’s application to become a certified real estate appraiser, Gov. Kristi Noem summoned to her office the state employee who ran the agency, the woman’s direct supervisor and the state labor secretary.
Noem’s daughter attended too.
Kassidy Peters, then 26, ultimately obtained the certification in November 2020, four months after the meeting at her mother’s office. A week after that, the labor secretary called the agency head, Sherry Bren, to demand her retirement, according to an age discrimination complaint Bren filed against the department. Bren, 70, ultimately left her job this past March after the state paid her $200,000 to withdraw the complaint.
Exactly what transpired at the July 27, 2020, meeting in the governor’s office isn’t clear. Noem declined an interview request and her office declined to answer detailed questions about the meeting. . . .
Read the rest at the AP website.
Dakota Free Press blogger Cory Allen Heidelberger made an interesting observation in his lede for New Noem Nepotism: Governor Fires Appraisal Chief Who Delayed Daughter’s License, Pays $200K to Shut Her Up:
Maybe the Legislature will make its impeachment Special Session a two-fer….
As we posted a few days ago, South Dakota legislators call for special session to ponder impeaching state attorney general.
Less than on hour ago, Groves reported in South Dakota AG reviewing Noem’s meeting with daughter:
South Dakota’s attorney general said Tuesday he is reviewing concerns from state lawmakers over a meeting Gov. Kristi Noem held last year that included both her daughter and a state employee who was overseeing her daughter’s application to become a certified real estate appraiser.
“I have been contacted by concerned citizens and legislators,” Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said in a statement. “I am actively reviewing their concerns and I will be following the steps prescribed in codified law in relation to those questions.”
Ravnsborg didn’t immediately respond to a question about what steps he might take. The attorney general is tasked under state law with issuing legal opinions to lawmakers. . . .
Though Ravnsborg and Noem are both Republicans, they have become political enemies over the last year after the governor pressured Ravnsborg to resign following a car crash in which he struck and killed a man walking on a highway. The attorney general pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors in the crash. The Legislature is planning to convene in November to consider whether to proceed with impeaching Ravnsborg.
Democrats in the Legislature, who hold just a handful of seats, have also called for an investigation into the governor’s conduct during her daughter’s appraiser certification application. . . .
We're not in Minnesota anymore, that's for sure.
Photo: Noem on her horse.
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