Bluestem Prairie

SD Dept of Game, Fish & Parks skips $20 million in federal funding for shooting range, avoids more complete historical analysis of site

Just over a year ago, the Duluth News Tribune reported in Indigenous remains found during Twin Ports Interchange construction:

DULUTH — Human remains, determined to be Indigenous, were found during construction of the Twin Ports Interchange, pausing work in one area of the project.  . . .

“As a result of a MnDOT-related project, culturally sensitive material has been found,” said Dylan Goetsch, the field investigator for the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, a state agency, adding that the find triggered Minnesota’s Private Cemeteries Act and the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. . .. 

Apparently the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks isn't being so circumspect with the construction of a shooting range near Rapid City (though the article below doesn't suggest the site was an indigenous burial ground.

From the South Dakota Searchlight:

Parks department skips federal funding for shooting range to avoid additional site scrutiny
By Joshua Haiar

Tribal Historic Preservation Officer says artifacts were found but are likely destroyed

The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks wanted to use federal funding to help offset the cost of a $20 million shooting range outside Rapid City. 

That is, until the department learned more time was needed to analyze the site’s significance to Native Americans. Artifacts had been found, according to the state Tribal Historic Preservation Office familiar with the site. 

At that point, the department pulled its application for federal funding. 

The project has secured some funding already, just not from the federal government. The department said it has thus far received $5.1 million in pledges and donations. It broke ground in early December 2023.

The federal Advisory Council of Historic Preservation sent a letter to the state parks department on Feb. 5, 2024, criticizing it for skirting federal funding when it learned of the need for a more complete historical analysis of a site. 

“These actions appear to indicate a pattern of behavior in which the SDGFP changes course for its proposed projects after learning about historic properties located in the projects’ area of potential effects and the federal requirement to take into account the effects of the undertaking on those historic properties,” wrote Christopher Koeppel, assistant director of the federal Advisory Council of Historic Preservation.

The department withdrew its federal funding application in January.

The proposed shooting complex would be located on Elk Vale Road in Meade County. The complex is expected to host around 180 shooters at a time, offering free public use while potentially bringing national competitions to the area. The design includes a south-end range for the general public and a north range for more experienced shooters, with “action bays” for tactical shooting practice.

Until January, funding plans included $2.5 million in federal money. The “Pittman Robertson” funds came from a federal excise tax on firearms, ammunition and archery equipment. Money from the tax is funneled into wildlife conservation, restoration and hunter education programs across the U.S. To use the funds, states must submit project plans for federal approval.

GFP Communications Manager Nick Harrington answered questions for this story over email. He said the department staff spent hours conducting an environmental assessment and a cultural resources survey.

“GFP was issued a Finding of No Significant Impact and ultimately awarded a Pittman Robinson grant from the USFWS early in 2022,” he said in an email, referring to the $2.5 million planned for the project. 

But in November 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) flagged the proposed project, saying its location could affect nearby historical locations. The determination brought the project under the National Historic Preservation Act, which mandates a thorough review of any federally funded projects on historical sites.

A separate survey conducted by the state’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office identified seven sites near the proposed range that the office believes are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. 

That resulted in a need for more thorough investigation, according to the federal letter. Harrington said that because the federal government changed the survey requirements after giving the project a greenlight, the department chose not to pursue the $2.5 million. 

“GFP decided to forego the Pittman Robinson funding and move ahead with the complex project without any further delays,” Harrington said. 

Garrie Kills A Hundred, the tribal historic preservation officer who helped with the site survey, said the issue began with the USFWS, which did not consult with tribes when conducting its initial site assessment.

“That is where things first started to go south,” he said. 

Kills A Hundred said he was later informed the state had begun developing the location, resulting in “the bulldozing of the sites we located.” He worries all of the historical sites and artifacts within them that were identified have been destroyed. 

The shooting range proposal has elicited mixed reactions from nearby residents. Concerns have been raised regarding potential noise pollution, increased traffic, impacts on wildlife and the environment, and the disruption of residents’ rural way of life. 

Additionally, some lawmakers have expressed concern with the inflated price tag to complete the project. The $20 million price for the 400-acre shooting range is a significant increase from 2020 estimates of $11 million.

The shooting complex is expected to be completed in the fall of 2025. 

Harrington said funding to construct the complex will be a combination of private and public dollars. He and the Governor’s Office did not answer questions regarding where the public dollars would come from, given the federal funding hiccup.

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: A rendering of a proposed shooting range in Meade County. South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks is leading development on the project. (Courtesy: GFP/via South Dakota Searchlight).

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Session Daily: Increasing off-roading popularity requires better planning proposed in Pursell bill

A retired naturalist in Northern Minnesota--who supports the bill--alerted me to this Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee on Wednesday. As someone who has seen damage created by hoolihans who forge their own sidetrails and ride up shallow creeks on public lands, I can see my source's point. 

It's worth checking out  letters of written testimony for and against HF2791.

Here's the coverage from Session Daily:

Increasing popularity of off-roading requires better trail planning, legislator says
By Margaret Stevens

With more than $18 billion in economic impact nationwide, riding all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles is the third-largest outdoor recreation activity in the country, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

This ranks well behind using recreational vehicles ($71 billion) and boating ($47.3 billion), but it’s on par with hunting, shooting and trapping.

In Minnesota, the number of off-highway vehicle users has more than doubled in the past 20 years. Vehicle weights and horsepower have increased even more.

The increasing popularity requires the state be more intentional about spaces set aside for ATVs and dirt bikes, said Rep. Kristi Pursell (DFL-Northfield), who sponsors HF2791.

As amended, the bill that would modify planning, placement and use of trails for off-highway vehicles was laid over Tuesday by the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee.

“We must have a better balance in how we recreate outdoors and how we protect our priceless water, wildlife and habitat,” Pursell said.

The bill would better protect state land and water while offering better coordination in trail building, Pursell said, by doing four things:

• make law consistent across the state regarding use of designated trails and posted signs;
• codify requirements for buffer zones for water protection, especially to avoid the state’s remaining pristine streams;
• require environmental assessment worksheets for all off-highway vehicle projects; and
• ensure tribal and local input early in the process to level the playing field for all levels of government.

The provisions would apply to future, unpaved trails.

Bill supporters say the measures are needed to preserve habitat as off-highway vehicle trails can cause erosion, hinder growth of shrubs and trees, damage wetlands and transfer invasive species.

Opponents say it is a solution looking for a problem and the current multi-step process achieves all the stated aims. Moreover, Itasca County Land Commissioner Kory Cease said the buffer zone requirement would prevent any future trails from being developed in his area.

[MORE: See letters for, against the bill]

Rep. Roger Skraba (R-Ely) said his constituents include people who really want to develop trails and people who don’t want them at all. But, in the end, he believes the current system is working, and the Department of Natural Resources does a good job of overseeing the process.

Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the hearing:

Photo: Representing the Minnesota Public Lands Coalition, Susan Schubert testifies before the House environment committee in support of a bill sponsored by Rep. Kristi Pursell, right, that would protect land, water quality and wildlife from the effects of using motorized recreational trails. (Photo by Andrew VonBank/ Session Daily).

Related posts

• Update: City of Houston MN council resolves to exit disliked OHV trail agreement with DNR
• Strib: Review finds stewardship gaps in motorized trail project in Houston, Minnesota
• Snowmobilers, ATV & MN Four-Wheel Drive Associations seek to curb trespassing

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The rest on the unrest? SD DOC collected $1.25 million for prison calls, messages since 2021

There have been two nights of "unrest" at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. As Shelly Conlon reports in DCI will investigate both nights of 'disturbance' at the South Dakota State Penitentiary:

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is directing the state's Division of Criminal Investigation to investigate two "disturbances" Wednesday night and Thursday night at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. 

Jackley said in a statement Thursday morning following Wednesday night's incident that he's directed DCI to work with the state Department of Corrections to investigate the disturbance. That statement also applies to Thursday night's disturbance, the Office of the Attorney General spokesman Tony Mangan told the Argus Leader on Friday morning.  . . .

Shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, multiple local media outlets reported fire alarms, yelling and chanting could be heard at the facility, and more correctional officers were called in to help settle the disruption, but the exact details remain unclear. . ..

Between 4-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, a similar incident unfolded, with audible chants of "We want phones" coming through the penitentiary's walls from inside. . . .

So what's up with the unrest over phones? At the South Dakota Searchlight:

Corrections has collected $1.25 million for calls, messages since 2021
By John Hult

Data released after tablet communication shutdown, just before tablet-related prison disturbance

The state prison system collected at least $1.25 million in fees from inmates and their families for phone and messaging services in the three years leading up to this month’s sudden shutdown of tablet-based communications.

The South Dakota Department of Corrections (DOC) revenue is a mix of commission payments for phone calls and electronic messaging. The money is paid to the DOC from its communication contractor, ViaPath, which does business as Global Tel Link. 

Inmates can call from wall phones and, until recently, from their tablets. Those fee-for-service mobile devices are provided by the contractor to all inmates at no cost to the state. The tablets offer calls, texts and photo messaging, music and games for fees, and have a free law library. Inmates cannot access regular websites or social media.

The DOC provided the commission payout information to South Dakota Searchlight in the run-up to a Wednesday evening disturbance at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. During the event, inmates in the East Hall cell block could be heard from the street chanting “we want phones.”

An initial call on the disturbance appeared on the Sioux Falls Police Department call log just after 4 p.m. Wednesday. DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko sent a written statement at 8:30 p.m. announcing that order had been restored at the penitentiary.

The statement referenced a “staff assault,” but did not mention the extent of any correctional officer injuries.  

In an interview with The Dakota Scout’s Austin Goss on Thursday, Gov. Kristi Noem confirmed that the incident began when correctional officers took tablets from inmates.

“That’s what started the original conflict last night, and yes, we did have a correctional officer that was assaulted and went to the hospital,” Noem said.

In the same interview, Noem said the state needs to “see if it’s possible for prisoners to have these tablets and have them not be used for nefarious reasons.”

“We’re working with the technology and the vendor to make sure that to see if that’s even a possibility,” Noem said.

Attorney General Marty Jackley released a statement Thursday saying the state Division of Criminal Investigation will work with the DOC to “to investigate the disturbance at the State Penitentiary.”

“It is the Attorney General’s intent to prosecute those responsible for any harm done to correctional officers, other inmates, and state property to the fullest extent of the law,” Jackley wrote in a press release.

Communication restrictions began 20 days ago

The tablet-based messaging system, which moved to a new mobile platform late last year, was heavily used prior to the March 8 shutdown of tablet-based phone calls, texting and photo messaging. 

A press release posted to the agency’s website two weeks after that date said that tablet communications had been suspended indefinitely pending the completion of an investigation. The release offered no details about the nature of the investigation, and the DOC has declined to offer further details on its nature.

Inmates were still able to place calls using wall phones, the DOC notice said.

The sudden change, as well as a lack of communication about it, has frustrated inmates and their family members across state prison facilities in Sioux Falls, Yankton, Pierre, Springfield and Rapid City. Inmates have complained of wait times for phones, and about the loss of the tablets’ 1-hour phone call limit – 40 more minutes than they’re allowed on wall phones.

“The tension is rising due to the lack of phones in here,” Inmate Wesley Jarabek told Searchlight last week.

Surge in text, photo messaging follows tablet update

Pre-paid phone calls currently return an 18.7% commission for the state. 

Commission rates are far higher for tablet-based text messages and emails, netting the state 50% of the proceeds. Inmates pay 12 cents per photo or text to family and friends outside the walls. Family members and friends pay 25 cents per message.

The lion’s share of the $1.25 million the DOC collected between February 2021 and last month came from prepaid phone calls. But text and photo messaging payments skyrocketed after the tablet and messaging platform updates took effect last year.

November is the first month for which tablet-specific data are listed in the commission report, which was provided on Monday by DOC spokesman Michael Winder. In prior months, revenue from emails and photo messages sent over the previous platform were lumped in with monthly phone revenue reports, Winder said.

By November, all inmates and families were able to communicate using a mobile app called “Getting Out” that works much like regular smartphone-based messaging. 

By January, 412,343 messages – more than 13,000 per day – were exchanged between inmates and those on the outside, according to the DOC’s commission data. That’s an average of about four messages per inmate per day. The DOC collected $37,758 in commission that month from tablets, according to the commission data.

That same month, the agency collected $26,662 in prepaid phone revenue. 

The report includes monthly payouts from February 2021 through last month, which added up to a total of $964,755.28.

There was a period of time when monthly payments appeared to drop suddenly and significantly, from November 2021 through March 2023. Monthly payouts had totaled $30,000 or more in the months leading up to November 2021, but fell to around $11,000 or so each month until March 2023. 

Winder, the DOC spokesman, said via email on Wednesday afternoon that the payouts didn’t actually drop. Instead, he said, the method of calculating payments changed in that time frame. 

“ViaPath paid a lump sum payment of $288,057.20 for the difference in those months,” Winder said. “That payment is not included in the cost recovery reports we sent because those are monthly totals.”

Adding the lump sum payment to the monthly payments puts the total for known communication service commissions for the past three years at $1,252,812.

Winder did not immediately respond to a follow-up question on any other additional commission revenue that may have been collected since February 2021.

The price of phone and video calls to and from prison- isn't just a South Dakota issue. Deena Winter reported Friday in With their seats on the line, some DFL lawmakers are hesitant on police reforms:

Freshman Senator Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, continues to advocate for better treatment of prisoners and against racial disparities in policing. Among her bills: . . . free video calls to complement the free prison phone calls passed last year . . .

As Winter reported last May in Minnesota may make prison phone calls free to keep families connected, reduce recidivism:

Family members or friends can also purchase video calls to Minnesota prisoners, for which JPay charges $3.50 per 15-minute call. That’s down from $9.99 per call during the pandemic, during which the DOC received a $1 commission for each call. After the price was dropped, the DOC commission was eliminated.

Minnesota families spend about $4.5 million annually “lining the pockets of the state’s private telecom provider” to talk to their loved ones, the group said. . . .

Bluestem hopes that the SD Division of Criminal Investigation figures out what the problem is--and that a way is discovered for prisoners and their families to make contact again. While the unrest is specific to this week's experience in South Dakota, the need for contact isn't isolated to just this state's incarcerated.

The South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: The South Dakota State Penitentiary, pictured on March 27, 2024. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Related posts

• Price tag for new South Dakota state prisons, already historic, could grow significantly
• Minnesota House passes private prison prohibition

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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Noem calls for audit of tribes; ICT News/Rapid City Journal reporter finds the receipts

Articles on Governor Kristi Noem's possible career as a Trump running mate grace the pages of the Wall Street Journal (Kristina Peterson's Is VP Contender Kristi Noem Ready for Prime Time?) and Bloomberg (Patricia Lopez's Kristi Noem as a VP Is ‘Straight Out of Central Casting’).

Not surprisingly, those headlines remind Bluestem of my own October 2022 post, What the hell was that? Governor Kristi Noem butt of Saturday Night Live cold opening schtick. The SNL cast hasn't been the Not Ready for Prime Time Players since the first three seasons beginning in the mid-1970s, so that's one joke I can't make.

Meanwhile here in the Rushmore State, Noem's pursuing her branding of the Oceti Šakowiŋ being cartel cronies, now demanding that federal monies be audited. From South Dakota's March 26 press release, Gov. Noem Calls for Audit of Federal Funding to SD Tribes:

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem called for the Biden Administration to conduct public and comprehensive single audits of all federal funds that have been given to South Dakota’s nine Native American tribes. The primary purpose of this audit would be to verify the need for additional law enforcement resources from the federal government on these tribal reservations. You can find Governor Noem’s letter here.

“Law enforcement in Indian Country is failing to meet basic safety needs,” wrote Governor Noem. “For years, the level of actual funding drastically underestimates the true breadth of the challenges of Indian Country, made worse by the failed border policies of the Biden Administration and exacerbated by the presence of drug cartel operations on South Dakota tribal reservations. To understand the funding level that is necessary to keep these communities safe, I am calling on the Biden Administration to conduct a comprehensive and public audit of all federal funds to South Dakota’s nine Native American tribes.”

The letter was sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, and U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro.

“I stand ready to advocate for more public safety dollars and have even shown a willingness to use state resources to fill the gap that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has left. But there must be accountability and transparency to further these efforts,” concluded Governor Noem. . . .

That take was dutifully reported by South Dakota media, in stories like Keloland's Gov. Noem wants federal funding audit of SD Tribes and Dakota Scout's  Gov. Kristi Noem calls on Biden Administration to audit tribal finances.

Jeepers gee golly holy cartel willikers! Dog-whistling stereotypes about tribal nations receiving endless federal funds with no oversight! 

As readers may remember from Bluestem posts like  Winner, Noem links tribal leaders to cartels, Malice: she's on it. Tribal leaders insulted after Governor Noem claims they "are personally benefiting from the cartels being here"  and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chair responds to Noem's latest linking tribes to drug cartels.   Noem's been more than dog whistlinng anti-Indian stereotypes since her border crisis speech to the South Dakota state legislature at the end of January in which she claimed Drug cartels have infiltrated reservations.

Fortunately, Amelia Schafer, reporting for ICT (Indian Country Today) and the Rapid City Journal, has the receipts for those audits in Kristi Noem calls for audit of tribes:

RAPID CITY, S.D. – South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem issued a statement Tuesday calling for the Biden administration to conduct single audits of all federal funds given to the nine Oceti Sakowin tribes in South Dakota.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Comptroller Gene Dodaro, Noem asked for comprehensive single audits of federal funds given to the nine tribes in South Dakota.

Specifically, Noem, a Republican, asked for an OMB Circular-A-133 audit, which is an organization-wide financial statement and federal-awards audit of a non-federal entity which expends $750,000 or more in federal funds per year.

“If single audits of these tribes have been occurring, it is not transparent as single audits are not publicly available,” Noem said in the March 26 letter. “I encourage members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs and U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to demand a review of each single audit, inquire as to why an audit is not complete, and report on how each tribe is managing audit findings to improve eligibility for federal programs.” [This text is from the letter here]

Tribes are already required by law to have audited financial statements and compliance audits. The Single Audit Act requires an annual audit of all non-federal entities that spend over $750,000 in Federal Financial Assistance, including tribes, every fiscal year.

Records from the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, a searchable database of organizations, show prior to 2020 a majority of the nine tribes in South Dakota regularly completed detailed audits. Following 2020, the process became difficult for tribes according to leaders. An influx of funding for COVID-19 relief caused issues backlogging the process and overwhelming the treasurers.

In a January 2024 Oglala Sioux Tribe Tribal Council meeting, Treasurer Cora White Horse reported the 2020 audit is estimated to be completed by May 2024, the 2021 audit by August 2024 and the 2022 audit by December 2024.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe all completed audits for the 2022 fiscal year, the most recently available period. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s 2022 and 2021 audits are available to the public and can be downloaded via the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. . . .

Jeepers. Who knew? Here's the link to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse.

Bluestem encourages readers to read the entire article at eithervenue and consider making a donation:

This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.

Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute $5 or $10 today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter. 

Donations to ICTNews can also be made through April 2 via this link to Arizona Gives Day. Schafer is the Indigenous Affairs reporter for ICT and the Rapid City Journal. She is of Wampanoag and Montauk-Brothertown Indian Nation descent.

 

Update: the article has been republished by South Dakota Searchlight. I republish it below under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

 

Most tribes were completing financial audits prior to Noem call for scrutiny
By Amelia Schafer

 

Governor called for ‘single audits’ after comments on crime on reservations

RAPID CITY, S.D. – South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem issued a statement this week calling for the Biden administration to conduct single audits of all federal funds given to the nine Oceti Sakowin tribes in South Dakota.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Comptroller Gene Dodaro, Noem asked for comprehensive single audits of federal funds given to the nine tribes in South Dakota.

Specifically, Noem, a Republican, asked for an OMB Circular-A-133 audit, which is an organization-wide financial statement and federal-awards audit of a non-federal entity which expends $750,000 or more in federal funds per year.

“If single audits of these tribes have been occurring, it is not transparent as single audits are not publicly available,” Noem said in the March 26 letter. “I encourage members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs and U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to demand a review of each single audit, inquire as to why an audit is not complete, and report on how each tribe is managing audit findings to improve eligibility for federal programs.”

Tribes are already required by law to have audited financial statements and compliance audits. The Single Audit Act requires an annual audit of all non-federal entities that spend over $750,000 in Federal Financial Assistance, including tribes, every fiscal year.

Records from the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, a searchable database of organizations, show prior to 2020 a majority of the nine tribes in South Dakota regularly completed detailed audits. Following 2020, the process became difficult for tribes according to leaders. An influx of funding for COVID-19 relief caused issues backlogging the process and overwhelming the treasurers.

In a January 2024 Oglala Sioux Tribe Tribal Council meeting, Treasurer Cora White Horse reported the 2020 audit is estimated to be completed by May 2024, the 2021 audit by August 2024 and the 2022 audit by December 2024.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe all completed audits for the 2022 fiscal year, the most recently available period. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s 2022 and 2021 audits are available to the public and can be downloaded via the Federal Audit Clearinghouse.

In the statement, Noem said she is calling for a financial audit to verify the need for more law enforcement funding provided to tribal nations while also reiterating her claim that drug cartels are operating on tribal land in South Dakota.

Noem’s letter referenced Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out’s Dec 20, 2023 testimony to the U.S. Committee on Indian Affairs in support of OST’s lawsuit against the federal government. In the testimony, Star Comes Out cites a lack of law enforcement presence to drug cartel movement on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Noem did not respond to a request for comment, instead referring back to the March 26 press release.

“I stand ready to advocate for more public safety dollars and have even shown a willingness to use state resources to fill the gap that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has left. But there must be accountability and transparency to further these efforts,” Noem said in the letter.

On March 13, comments made by Noem at a town hall meeting in Mitchell, S.D. and Winner, S.D. sparked outrage amongst tribal governments in South Dakota. During the Mitchell town hall Noem attributed low graduation and attendance rates to a perceived “lack of parental involvement.” At the Winner town hall, she alleged tribal governments are benefitting from cartel presence on their reservations.

In the days following these comments, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe all condemned Noem’s statements.

“Governor Noem’s wild and irresponsible attempt to connect tribal leaders and parents with Mexican drug cartels is a sad reflection of her fear-based-politics that do nothing to bring people together and solve problems,” said Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairwoman Janet Alkire in a March 20 press release.

Alkire added only seven police officers patrol the over 1 million-acre Standing Rock Reservation. Currently, only two officers can patrol the reservation’s 12,000-person population at one time.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe and Crow Creek Sioux Tribe have previously voiced similar issues. Both reservations have a limited number of police officers to patrol reservation lands despite their vast land bases.

On Jan. 31, Noem first claimed cartels are operating on tribal land in South Dakota – specifically the Pine Ridge and Lake Traverse Reservations. Following these allegations, Noem was banned for a second time from the Pine Ridge Reservation and held a meeting with the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate in which she apologized for naming the tribe.

Following Noem’s March 13 comments, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chairman Garrett Renville reiterated his request that no tribal governments be singled out when discussing drug cartel and law enforcement concerns. [end update]

Photo: Governor Noem as she talks about tribal leaders "personally benefitting from the cartels being here." From a Governor Noem's Facebook Watch video.

 

Related posts

• Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chair responds to Noem's latest linking tribes to drug cartels
• Malice: she's on it. Tribal leaders insulted after Governor Noem claims they "are personally benefiting from the cartels being here
• In Winner, Noem links tribal leaders to cartels
• SWO Dakota to Governor Noem: don't single out reservations when drugs are a statewide problem
• Noem banned from Pine Ridge Reservation over remarks in border speech to state legislature
• Explaining and gaining? Noem concedes Texas costs were gift to Lone Star state; meets with two South Dakota House tribal members
• Drug cartels have infiltrated reservations, Noem says, but some tribal voices call speech ‘political’
• Noem to address Legislature on ‘potential South Dakota response’ to Mexico border situation
• No word on who paid or if she packed razor wire: Noem travels again to Texas-Mexico border
• South Dakota Searchlight: Tribal leaders urge legislators to support reestablishment of Lake Traverse Reservation boundaries

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

ND GOP resolution against CCS pipelines decries "false premise of looming climate apocalypse"

I have to hand it to the authors of the anti-carbon pipeline petition that North Dakota Republicans will consider at their state convention April 5-6. 

Maybe it's my Creative Writing degree from the Ozarks Famous Writers School, but language like “Corporations within the energy sector are capitalizing on the false premise of a looming climate apocalypse by introducing CCS (carbon capture and storage) projects into North Dakota” and  “opposes the fascism of mutually beneficial partnerships between government and private energy corporations created under the pretext of climate change" would certainly have generated a response in the late Bill Harrison's creative non-fiction workshop.

And he wrote the short story on which the original Rollerball movie was based (and the screenplay).

Not a fan of the pipeline either, but that overheated rhetoric must be a sign of climate change in and of itself. From the North Dakota Monitor:

North Dakota Republicans tackle eminent domain issue for carbon pipelines
By Jeff Beach

The North Dakota Republican Party will vote on a resolution that backs the rights of landowners and objects to using eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines.

The resolution was one of several approved by a committee this month and targets a project that Gov. Doug Burgum and some Republicans have supported – the carbon capture and storage project from Summit Carbon Solutions. 

While the project was not named in the resolution, it is the only large-scale carbon capture project in the state at the permitting stage, with the North Dakota Public Service Commission set to start a rehearing for the pipeline next month. 

State Sen. Jeff Magrum, R-Hazelton, said he contributed much of the wording on the resolution that passed the Resolutions Committee. It was then approved by the State Committee.

He said he looks forward to a debate on the resolution at the Republican state convention April 5-6.

“Is our party still the party of property rights?” Magrum said in an interview. 

While there may not be a formal debate on the 15 resolutions up for consideration, “the debate will take place in the hallways,” said Rep. Karen Karls, R-Bismarck. 

The resolution says “Corporations within the energy sector are capitalizing on the false premise of a looming climate apocalypse by introducing CCS (carbon capture and storage) projects into North Dakota” and “eminent domain is being considered to acquire the necessary land for the pipeline.” 

Eminent domain is a legal process that can force landowners to provide right-of-way for a project that is deemed to have public benefit. Landowners would be compensated if a court rules eminent domain can be used. 

Summit says it has obtained about 80% of the right-of-way it needs in North Dakota through voluntary easements and continues to negotiate with landowners. But some landowners have refused to sign an easement agreement.

“The affected landowners and communities have expressed strong opposition to the use of eminent domain, arguing that it unjustly benefits a private entity at the expense of their property rights and local autonomy,” the resolution says. 

It also cites the Fifth Amendment on protecting property rights. 

Karls was not a supporter of the resolution. “It is such a contentious issue,” she said, but she is concerned about the effect that opposition could have on future pipeline projects. 

Summit proposes to build a pipeline connecting more than 50 ethanol plants to underground storage sites in North Dakota. It would have about 353 miles of pipeline in North Dakota. 

Summit would benefit from federal tax credits promoting the underground storage of greenhouse gasses as a way to address climate change. 

Other states on the route are Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.

Summit’s pipeline route specifies that carbon dioxide would be for underground storage. But Summit officials also have said that the pipeline would be a common carrier, meaning another company could pay to use the pipeline to transport CO2. 

One potential use for carbon dioxide is in the oil industry, extending the productivity of wells through a process called enhanced oil recovery. 

Burgum has been a vocal supporter of the oil and gas industry and the Summit pipeline project though he has said easements should be acquired voluntarily. 

He appeared with Summit officials in Casselton at Tharaldson Ethanol, the only North Dakota plant on the Summit route, praising an investment from oil developer Continental Resources into the Summit project.  

The governor is part of North Dakota’s three-person Industrial Commission that recently approved state funds to promote carbon capture, utilization and storage. 

The resolution takes aim at that, too. 

It says the party opposes the use of state funds to educate the public on the benefits of carbon capture that are contrary to the interests of private property owners. Furthermore, the party “opposes the fascism of mutually beneficial partnerships between government and private energy corporations created under the pretext of climate change.” 

Said Karls: “I know some people feel threatened by it, but I’d like to learn more.”

Another resolution, drafted by Rep. Anna Novak, R-Hazen, offers continued support for North Dakota’s fossil fuel industry. 

“North Dakota, America and the world require an energy policy that ensures plenty of fossil fuel energy to maintain a reliable power grid,” the resolution says. 

The resolution criticizes renewable energy as unreliable energy freedom, says the U.S. should reform air and water emissions standards to be “realistic” and “withdraw from climate agreements that punish America instead of fostering innovation.”

This North Dakota Monitor article is republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: A pipeline opponent attends a Dec. 18, 2023, hearing in Bismarck before the North Dakota Supreme Court. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor).

Related posts

• Ethanol carbon: Pipeline survey law, carbon as public commodity argued at SD Supreme Court
• In South Dakota, new group aims to refer ethanol carbon pipeline law to voters
• Ethanol carbon pipeline news: Summit officials now say its CO2 pipeline could serve oil industry 
• 8 more ethanol plants: Summit Carbon Solutions announced new partnership with Valero Energy
• Ethanol carbon pipeline opponents doubt certainty of $1 billion corn-based jet fuel project
• North Dakota Industrial Commission advances CCS marketing despite lawmaker objections
• ND energy councils recommend carbon capture education consultant to Industrial Commission
• Ten bills in South Dakota legislature: eminent domain is the latest front in carbon pipeline fight
• Summit Carbon Solutions denied conditional use permit for pipeline in Northeast Nebraska county
• Another attempt to block ethanol carbon pipelines from using eminent domain fails
• Commentary: Oil pipeline experience proves need for caution with carbon pipelines
• Navigator CO2 Ventures survivor Poet shifts to remaining carbon dioxide pipeline proposal
• Burying the lede: EIS points out improved farming methods & ethanol plants would reduce as much carbon as ethanol carbon pipelines
• MInnesota Department of Commerce releases draft EIS for Otter Tail to Wilkin Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Project; public meetings coming up in Breckenridge & Fergus Falls
• Hundreds of CO2 pipeline critics converged on South Dakota Capitol ahead of legislative session
• CCS squabble: CO2 pipeline debate has resulted in divisions among SD ethanol proponents
• Keystone I pipeline leaks again; after 2017 South Dakota & 2019 North Dakota, Kansas is hit 
• Keystone I pipeline leaks again--this time in ND
• TransCanada's state-of-art pipeline bums out SD utilities comish after 3 leaks in under 10 years
• Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate concerned about Keystone I Pipeline oil spill in NE South Dakota 

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MN AG Ellison wins protections for dairy-farm workers while wage theft lawsuit continues

Just an update to earlier Minnesota Reformer articles Bluestem Prairie republished: Minnesota dairy farm faces $3 million wage theft lawsuit involving hundreds of workers and Minnesota dairy farm denies stealing more than $3 million in wages from hundreds of workers.

From the Office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office:

Attorney General Ellison wins protections for dairy-farm workers while wage theft lawsuit continues

Evergreen agrees to temporary injunction containing measures to prevent wage theft and improve housing conditions while Attorney General Ellison continues to prosecute civil lawsuit

March 25, 2024 (SAINT PAUL) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today that he has obtained protections for dairy-farm workers for the duration of his lawsuit against Evergreen Acres Dairy, Evergreen Estates, Morgan Feedlots, and the dairy operations’ owners Keith Schaefer and Megan Hill (collectively “Evergreen”). In a stipulated temporary injunction, Evergreen has agreed to take specific steps to ensure it pays workers correctly and improves housing conditions while the lawsuit continues. The agreement is the latest development in Attorney General Ellison’s lawsuit against Evergreen, which alleges the dairy farm and its owners withheld millions of dollars of workers’ wages, illegally deducted rent for substandard housing, and threatened workers to discourage reporting.

“I am fighting to stop Evergreen from illegally profiting off the backs of vulnerable workers and to protect honest dairy farms from being undercut by a business that we allege is breaking the law. As we prosecute this lawsuit against Evergreen, I will continue to use the powers of my office to help employees keep their hard-earned wages and ensure that tenants have safe homes,” Attorney General Ellison said.

“As part of this temporary injunction, Evergreen has promised to pay workers correctly and fix substandard housing while this lawsuit continues. This is an important step forward in my fight to ensure Evergreen workers get the money they are owed, that their rights as tenants are respected, and that honest businesses can compete on a level playing field,” Ellison concluded.

Under the stipulated temporary injunction, for the duration of the Attorney General’s lawsuit, Evergreen is agreeing to:

• Make and keep proper records to show the hours Evergreen employees actually worked;
• Give employees clear written notice, in Spanish and English, of what their wages will be;
• Ensure workers are paid for every dollar they earn;
• Stop making deductions from workers’ pay without written permission;
• Stop charging rent for substandard housing;
• Pay for a housing inspector who will inspect worker housing and issue a report documenting housing code violations;
• Report back to the Attorney General’s Office on Evergreen’s progress in fixing housing safety issues;
• Allow re-inspections to confirm workers are no longer living in any unsafe conditions; and
• Work with the Attorney General’s Office to ensure workers are not suddenly displaced when repairs occur. 

Background of the Case

In January 2024, Attorney General Ellison filed a lawsuit in Stearns County District Court against Evergreen.  Evergreen has employed hundreds of people over the last 3 years — who work long and demanding hours under dangerous conditions — at its facilities in Stearns and Redwood counties.  Many of them are unauthorized workers from Mexico who speak limited or no English. Attorney General Ellison alleges Evergreen has systematically deprived these low-wage dairy employees of millions of dollars in wages they earned by shaving both regular and overtime hours from workers’ paychecks, by failing to pay wages owed at the beginning and end of workers’ employment, and by unlawfully deducting rent for substandard onsite housing that fails to meet standards of habitability under Minnesota law.  In the lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison estimates that Evergreen owes its employees at least $3 million in earned but unpaid wages.

Evergreen also acts as a landlord, making unauthorized deductions from its employees’ paychecks for the substandard housing it leases to them. The suit alleges that Evergreen’s employee housing violates Minnesota’s most basic health and safety standards. For example, some workers live in windowless “bedrooms” with plywood walls and unfinished electrical. Some employees live in housing with no onsite toilet.  Other workers have lived in garages, haphazardly converted barns, and other buildings not fit for human habitation. Click here to view photos of the substandard housing Evergreen provides to employees.

Evergreen reportedly cultivated a workplace culture of fear, violence, and intimidation, and discouraged workers from complaining about their pay and housing through threats of violence and threats to call the police. Despite these brazen attempts by Evergreen to silence their employees, numerous workers have come forward to speak out against these employment and housing violations.

Attorney General Ellison is seeking to stop Evergreen’s unlawful failure to pay its employees all the wages they have earned, stop its violations of Minnesota’s housing habitability standards and tenant protections, and fully remediate the harm its unlawful practices have caused to its employees, including by restituting employees’ earned and unpaid wages. The lawsuit also asks for liquidated damages, civil penalties, costs, and attorney’s fees. . . .

U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Deferred Action Policy

When a government agency enforces labor laws against an employer who employs undocumented workers, the government agency can request that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant deferred action to affected workers so that the workers can participate in the investigation and lawsuit without fear of retaliation related to immigration status. As DHS says, doing so “directly increases the ability of labor and employment agencies to more fully investigate worksite violations and support them in fulfilling their mission and holding abusive employers accountable, which protects all U.S. workers.”

The AGO has made that request in this case, and workers who are interested in seeking deferred action can review the AGO's publication on the DHS policy (available in English and Spanish). Workers with questions on this policy should contact the AGO and a qualified immigration attorney.

Photo:  At one farm, workers lived in a converted barn that was infested with cockroaches. The “kitchen sink” was a utility sink next to a water heater. Photos from civil complaint/via Minnesota Reformer.

Related posts:

• Minnesota dairy farm denies stealing more than $3 million in wages from hundreds of workers
• Minnesota dairy farm faces $3 million wage theft lawsuit involving hundreds of workers
• Session Daily: Updates to food processing, ag worker labor laws clear key committee 
• DOL investigates JBS & Turkey Valley Farms contractor for hiring minors for cleaning jobs

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Dairy cattle in Kansas and Texas catch highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) from wild birds

UPDATE: Since Bluestem published this post, Iowa Capitol Dispatch's Jared Strong has published Bird flu threat looms for cattle. [end update]

On Monday, a post on the X platform captured my attention:

Details from APHIS on the detection of avian flu in dairy cows in Kansas and Texas - https://t.co/dqPzJTuD7P

— Ben Lilliston (@BenLilliston) March 25, 2024

Just five days before, Bluestem had posted Minnesota Board of Animal Health: Stevens County goat tests positive for avian influenza.

That kid goat in Minnesota had died; the source of the HPAI infection was an earlier outbreak in the location's backyard poultry flock, and was the "first U.S. detection of HPAI in a domestic ruminant (cattle, sheep, goats, and their relatives)," according to the Board of Animal Health:

 A Stevens County goat kid (juvenile goat) residing on a farm with a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) positive poultry flock tested positive for the same virus. This is the first U.S. detection of HPAI in a domestic ruminant (cattle, sheep, goats, and their relatives). All poultry on the property were already quarantined from the February HPAI detection. Following the confirmation of HPAI in the goat, the Board quarantined all other species on the premises. The Board is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate the transmission of the virus in this case. . . .

What is known so far about this development? According to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service press release Federal and State Veterinary, Public Health Agencies Share Update on HPAI Detection in Kansas, Texas Dairy Herds:

Wild migratory birds believed to be source of infection; viral testing and epidemiologic efforts continue

Commercial milk supply remains safe due to both federal animal health requirements and pasteurization

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as state veterinary and public health officials, are investigating an illness among primarily older dairy cows in Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico that is causing decreased lactation, low appetite, and other symptoms.

As of Monday, March 25, unpasteurized, clinical samples of milk from sick cattle collected from two dairy farms in Kansas and one in Texas, as well as an oropharyngeal swab from another dairy in Texas, have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Additional testing was initiated on Friday, March 22, and over the weekend because farms have also reported finding deceased wild birds on their properties. Based on findings from Texas, the detections appear to have been introduced by wild birds. Initial testing by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans, which would indicate that the current risk to the public remains low.

Federal and state agencies are moving quickly to conduct additional testing for HPAI, as well as viral genome sequencing, so that we can better understand the situation, including characterization of the HPAI strain or strains associated with these detections.

At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health. Dairies are required to send only milk from healthy animals into processing for human consumption; milk from impacted animals is being diverted or destroyed so that it does not enter the food supply. In addition, pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk. Pasteurization is required for any milk entering interstate commerce.

Federal agencies are also working with state and industry partners to encourage farmers and veterinarians to report cattle illnesses quickly so that we can monitor potential additional cases and minimize the impact to farmers, consumers and other animals. For the dairies whose herds are exhibiting symptoms, on average about ten percent of each affected herd appears to be impacted, with little to no associated mortality reported among the animals. Milk loss resulting from symptomatic cattle to date is too limited to have a major impact on supply and there should be no impact on the price of milk or other dairy products.

This is a rapidly evolving situation, and USDA and federal and state partners will continue to share additional updates as soon as information becomes available. More information on biosecurity measures can be found here.

Feedstuffs' Krissa Welshans reports in UPDATED: Mystery dairy cow disease confirmed as highly pathogenic avian influenza:

A mysterious disease circulating in dairy cows located in the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, and Kansas has been baffling the agriculture industry, but no more. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced he received confirmation from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that the mystery disease has been identified as a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). USDA said affected dairy cows do not appear to be transmitting the virus to other cattle within the same herd. . . ,

 

New Mexico had also reported dairy cows with similar symptoms, but those cases have not been confirmed as HPAI at this time.   . . .

The University of Minnesota Extension news service published ighly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) identified in Texas and Kansas dairy cattle:

HPAI historically infects birds but has been documented to infect mammals. Based on the findings from Texas, the virus appears to have been introduced by wild birds. Federal and state agencies are moving quickly to conduct additional testing for HPAI, as well as viral genome sequencing, so that they can better understand the situation, including characterization of the HPAI strain or strains associated with these detections.

At this time, information from USDA, FDA, and CDC indicates the risk to the public is considered low and there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply and no concern that this issue poses a risk to consumer health. Pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk.

People should avoid consuming raw milk or raw milk products. Dairies are required to send only milk from healthy animals for human consumption. Milk from impacted animals does not enter the food supply.

Additional locations with similar case profiles have been identified and are waiting for test results. Farmers and veterinarians are encouraged to report cattle illnesses quickly so that USDA APHIS can monitor potential additional cases and minimize the impact to farmers, consumers and animals. 

Veterinarians working with potentially impacted farms should consult with state health officials and their diagnostic laboratories to ensure they follow established diagnostic sampling guidelines.

Animals do not appear to be dying from this disease in impacted herds. In impacted herds, approximately 10% of cattle are affected, with most cases affecting mid to late-lactation mature cows. Impacted herds are experiencing approximately 10 to 20% reduction in milk production for 14 to 21 days. At this time, dry cows, fresh cows, heifers and calves do not appear to be affected.  . . .

Read more to learn about symptoms and biosecurity measures.

Meanwhile, Senator Warren Limmer's warnings about bovine berserkers dominated Minnesota's cow news on Monday. Heartland Signal posed on X:

Minnesota State Sen. Warren Limmer (R-Maple Grove) says safe gun storage laws will keep farmers from protecting their families against cows.

"You even walk too close to a cow, and it'll take you down and trample you into dust." pic.twitter.com/rHlqtGo5Wd

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) March 25, 2024

The Star Tribune had more in Minnesota legislator concerned gun storage law puts farmers at greater risk if a cow charges. Louis Kraus reports:

While discussing his concerns about a legislative proposal for more stringent gun-storage laws, Minnesota State Sen. Warren Limmer offered one that caught some off-guard: He thinks farmers will be in greater danger of being injured by a charging cow if they don't have easy access to a gun. . . .

Reports show that deaths caused by cows in the U.S. are uncommon but not unheard of. In 2019, a 41-year-old Minnesota man was trampled to death in his cow yard near Parkers Prairie. A January 2024 report by the journal Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology estimated that around 20 to 22 deaths per year in the United States are caused by cattle. . . .

Bluestem hopes that Minnesota cattle and milk producers put their energy into biosecurity efforts, rather than fretting over Limmer''s nincompoopery.

Photo: Some Holsteins.

Related posts

• Minnesota Board of Animal Health: Stevens County goat tests positive for avian influenza
• MN Board of Animal Health: HPAI confirmed in commercial Meeker County turkey flock 
• MN DNR: Wild fox in Minnesota tests positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza
• In America's turkey industry, SD producers hit hardest by highly pathogenic avian influenza
• Board of Animal Health: Minnesota poultry sales and exhibitions temporarily banned for 31 days
• Board of Animal Health: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza confirmed in two Minnesota flocks 
• SD Game, Fish & Parks: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) detected in South Dakota 
• Associated Press: Bird flu detected among commercial flock in southeastern South Dakota
• Minnesota Reformer: Menacing bird flu detected in western Iowa backyard chicken and duck flock
• Shocking photos in state vet's report to Midwest lawmakers reveal bird flu toll to farmers & flocks 

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Q&A with author Austin Frerick on farm policy, Cargill and food industry ‘barons’

Back in summer 2021, I urged readers to listen to a Matt McNeil Show interview with eventh-generation Iowan and fellow at Yale University  Austin Frerick.

He's just as worth readers' time in Minnesota Reformer story posted Tuesday morning, along with a Book excerpt: ‘Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry’.

The book came out today.

Q&A with author Austin Frerick on farm policy, Cargill and food industry ‘barons’
By Madison McVan

Certain familiar images shape public understanding of American agriculture: The struggling farmer working long harvest days to feed the world and his family; the cattle rancher on horseback; pitchforks and hay and green John Deere tractors. 

In “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry,” author Austin Frerick instead tells the story of the agriculture industry through a series of “barons” — a word choice meant to evoke the likes of John. D Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan — each of whom controls a large share of their respective market: hogs, grain, coffee, dairy, berries, meatpacking and groceries.

The story of each baron is intertwined with some other aspect of the agricultural system: the Farm Bill, monopolies, working conditions and modern-day indentured servitude, and more.

Frerick, a seventh-generation Iowan and fellow at Yale University, has long taken an interest in shaping agricultural policy through writing, research and public office — he ran as a Democrat for Iowa Senate in 2022 and narrowly lost the primary.

Growing up in Cedar Rapids, Frerick witnessed firsthand the rise of large-scale, concentrated hog operations — “animal warehouses,” as Frerick calls them in his book — proliferated across Iowa and southern Minnesota.

In Barons, Frerick takes on the family that drove the adoption of these ultra-packed (or ultra-efficient, depending on your point of view) hog operations that lined the barons’ pockets while contaminating Iowa’s waterways.

Minnesota’s own MacMillan-Cargill family, which still controls the vast majority of Cargill shares, is featured for its role in the global grain trade. Cargill deals in far more than just grain, which Frerick makes clear; America’s largest private company is more comparable to the British Empire than it is to any other contemporary company, Frerick argues.

Minnesota is facing a renewed debate over how to handle agricultural pollution, particularly in the southeast portion of the state, where the groundwater is especially vulnerable to runoff from farms and livestock operations.

Barons comes out on March 26. Frerick will be in conversation with Minnesota Farmers Union antimonopoly director Justin Stofferahn at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis on April 3 at 6 p.m. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

How did you land on the “barons” framework to write about different aspects of the food system?

I had been writing about agriculture monopolies for a few years, and a conversation at a dive bar in Des Moines is when the baron framework locked into my head … 2018 was a really competitive Iowa governor’s race and this political operative was bullshitting to me about how the largest donor in Iowa was this hog baron. And he not only had a private jet, but on his jet was rumored the phrase “when pigs fly.” I was like, that’s good copy. How do I tell that story? I just realized, this is a really powerful way to tell structural stories. 

How would you explain Cargill to someone who doesn’t understand what they do?

Cargill is the closest example to a modern day Standard Oil. Cargill is not consumer facing, but they own the middle — they own the grain from when it’s harvested to when it’s put on the grocery shelf. Just like Standard Oil, they’re all about moving the commodity. 

Actually, if anything, they’re more than just Standard Oil. I really think they’re the closest thing we’ve seen to a modern day version of the 19th century British Empire. Their global reach is incredible. We’ve never seen something like this before in agriculture, where the sun never sets on Cargill’s grain empire. The undercurrent of that chapter is there’s so much we just don’t know about them still. It’s like we just saw the tip of the iceberg that hit the Titanic. What we’ve seen so far — the example I mentioned in that chapter about Cargill secretly buying up land in Colombia — it’s really scary. It’s a really good example of the dark undercurrents of that much power in one secret, private entity.

The Minnesota Legislature is debating how to reduce nitrate pollution from farms. The state has historically tried to reduce pollution by encouraging voluntary adoption of “best management practices” to reduce fertilizer and manure runoff. You’re pretty tough on the voluntary “best management practices” approach in your book. Why?

They just don’t work. At the end of the day, these companies want to sell product. Cargill wants as much grain grown as possible, so they can process as much and transport as much as possible. Anything that reduces that — which honestly cleaning up our water requires we can’t plant grains right next to creeks — Cargill doesn’t like. In the rampant, greedy era we live in, these companies don’t care. To me, maybe 20 years ago I could have been convinced of that strategy. But these have been the default solutions for the last few decades, and these situations have just gotten worse. Volunteer doesn’t work. It just doesn’t. The fact that Iowa waterways are basically an open sewer at this point, tells you how much that notion of a volunteer framework works.

What kind of public policy approach do you think would work better?

Biggest picture, the Farm Bill is picking favorites, and it’s heavily subsidizing the overproduction of grains. 

I don’t want to blame farmers who are barely getting by, and the margins are so tight that they have to push their land in order to keep their land, survive, make a living …  I just think of corn — I mean, ethanol just caused a massive explosion of corn production in the Midwest. To me, moving away from the current Farm Bill reduces that demand. Moving away from ethanol reduces demand. I mean, the largest use of corn is ethanol which I think is wild. I mean these people love saying they want to feed the world, yet we’re burning most of the corn in cars — just tells you how hollow the rhetoric is. 

For the nitrate stuff, to me, this is just regulation. What I see the most is just people farming right up to the creek, and that’s usually a renter. And that’s because the owner of the land lives in like Long Beach, California, they inherited the land from a grandma who passed away … And the person renting it is barely getting by, and so they’re going to engage in pretty destructive farming practices because why not squeeze a few extra dollars out of that land.

You use this term “animal warehouses” in the book. I covered the meat industry, and I know the language used to describe these operations can be very loaded. How did you land on “animal warehouses” instead of, say, “concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)” or “factory farms”?

I’m so glad you picked up on that. I was very intentional about language in my book. I think so much language now is designed to keep people out. It’s anti-democratic. It’s technocratic. It’s designed to hide what’s really going on. The other one is “H-2A.” I mean, that’s like an agricultural term for some type of visa. That’s just indentured servitude. My strength — and I think it’s because I’m a first generation college student — is that I’m pretty good at explaining complex things in simple language. And like, these animal confinements, they’re just animal warehouses. They’re just glorified metal sheds with animals stuffed in them. I also like pushing buttons a little bit with industry because they don’t want people to know what’s really going on.

There’s just so much language we use in this space right now that’s designed by industry, designed by the barons to their benefit. So I just want to push back on that. 

Why not “factory farm”?

Because they’re not farms. I don’t want to use the term farm in that way. An undercurrent to this book is, what is a farmer? I mean, if you take my dairy baron, he might proclaim to be a farmer. That’s how he publicly identifies, but he lives at the Ritz Carlton in Puerto Rico. I would argue that the undocumented men — in most industrial dairies, they’re run by undocumented men — I would argue that they’re the actual farmers. Most of them … were farmers until they were displaced by us dumping our surplus corn on them, causing them to migrate for economic reasons. Now they’re doing most of the labor in these industrial warehouses.

The Minnesota Reformer article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: Austin Frerick. Courtesy photo.

Related posts

• Large livestock farms would face additional environmental scrutiny under proposed bill
• Ethanol carbon: Pipeline survey law, carbon as public commodity argued at SD Supreme Court
• Why is California funding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) dairies in Minnesota?
• Minnesota farms are consolidating and other takeaways from the Census of Agriculture
• The New Lede: Cancer in the corn belt sparks actions to fight farm chemical contamination
• In amicus brief, five ag groups ask to weigh in on ruling that blocked Daley dairy’s expansion plans
• Will MPCA's Clean Water Council recommend unconstitutional use of Legacy funds for mitigation of nitrate contamination of wells??
• State's southeastern Minnesota drinking water fix: grab donuts, coffee, and lobbyists, oh my
• All citizens are equal, but one thinks he's more equal: massive hog farm shareholder* seeks to prevent August 2 Newburgh Township meeting

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Anti-vaxx in MNHouse committee: Zeleznikar calls childhood vaccines poison

Bluestem's been tracking anti-vaccine sentiment in the Minnesota legislature for years, as early as my 2013 post--MN Representative Mary Franson repeats discredited theories linking vaccines and autism--so a story in the Forum Communication chain papers caught my attention, particularly at a time when the nation's seeing measles outbreaks.

In Minnesota Republican calls vaccines 'poison' in committee hearing, Mark Wasson reports:

ST. PAUL — A Minnesota legislator spoke out against allowing child care facilities to set their own policies regarding immunizations, calling vaccines poison, during a committee hearing Tuesday, March 19.

Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, R-Fredenberg Township, commented after a proposed bill, HF367, was presented in the House Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee this week. It seeks to give child care providers the option to adopt an immunization policy that would not allow for a conscientiously held belief exemption.

Under Minnesota statute, anyone over 2 months old must be immunized to enroll in schools or child care with an exemption for medical reasons, immunity and conscientious objections.

Zeleznikar objected to the bill and over several minutes told committee members that vaccines are poison, that the bill would negatively affect the workforce in northern Minnesota and she called into question the effectiveness of herd immunity.

"Last year we passed a cannabis bill. There's many people that want to do that because it grows from the ground. It's natural," she said during Tuesday's hearing. "And yet now we're saying to families, by the way, you don't have a choice for a poison that could kill you." 

As evidence of her claims, Zeleznikar sent information about vaccines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which lists possible side effects. On its site, the CDC states there is a very remote chance of a vaccine causing a severe allergic reaction, other serious injury or death.

However, vaccines can prevent infectious diseases that once killed or harmed people, according to the CDC, which says that without vaccines, children are at risk of getting ill or dying from diseases like measles and whooping cough. . . .

Lovely. Later, she walked it back in a statement to the Forum New Service, Wasson reports:

. . . Zeleznikar acknowledged the low risk of vaccine injuries and said Minnesota has a good track record for childhood vaccination rates when asked to provide context about her statements for this story.

"I worked in healthcare my entire career, and I am not anti-vaccine," Zeleznikar wrote in a statement to Forum News Service. "In fact, I have received vaccinations and had my own kids vaccinated. With that said, as a State Representative, I respect the importance for informed consent for medications, medical procedures, and vaccinations." . . .

The bill's author responded:

. . .“This bill would simply allow each child care provider to make their own decision about accepting exemptions to vaccines only in the case of parental preference,” bill author Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley, said. “Child care providers are private businesses and should be allowed to choose the clients they serve, within the bounds of anti-discrimination laws of course, and vaccine status is not a protected class. ...

There's lots more in the Forum Communications story. It's behind a paywall, but a subscription gives a reader access to all Forum papers in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Watch the committee testimony on the bill here, beginning at the 37:44 minute mark. Zeleznikar and Krista Knudsen,Rep. Krista Knudsen, R-Lake Shore,  posted a Facebook video prior to the hearing in which the two shared  their support for opposition to childhood vaccines.

As my late father might have said, that's a pair to draw to.

Screenshot: Natalie Zeleznikar, R-Fredenberg Township, speaks during a House Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee on Tuesday, March 19. Contributed / Minnesota Legislature to Forum News Services.

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MN conservative groups: surrogacy like slavery

Bluestem doesn't have any clever snark to preface this story from the Minnesota Reformer.

Minnesota conservative groups liken surrogacy to slavery
By Christopher Ingraham

Conservative groups testifying this week before the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee likened surrogacy — which allows infertile couples to enlist the aid of a woman to carry and deliver a child for them — to modern-day slavery. 

The groups gave their testimony in opposition to SF3504/HF3567, which establishes a legal framework governing Minnesota surrogacy contracts. Current statute neither explicitly allows nor prohibits the practice, leaving potential parents and their surrogates to navigate legal issues on their own.

A bipartisan 2016 legislative task force recommended the creation of a legal framework to spell out requirements for surrogates and intended parents; clarify and establish parental rights; set compensation guidelines; and provide for enforcement of contract provisions.

The Senate bill, authored by Sen. Erin May Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, is a step in that direction. It’s supported by groups that advocate for people dealing with infertility, as well as by the nonpartisan Uniform Law Commission, which drafts “model legislation in the areas of state law for which uniformity among the states is advisable.”

Conservative and religious groups, however, have come out against the bill. 

“On December 6, 1865, the USA ratified the 13th amendment which banned slavery in the United States,” said Rebecca Delahunt, director of public policy for the Minnesota Family Council, in testimony on Friday. “Yet the Minnesota Legislature is considering a policy in 2024 to regulate the trade of children, opening the door to the legal buying and selling of children through surrogacy. How is it possible to wholeheartedly support the 13th amendment of the United States but then try to legalize the selling of children to unrelated adults in 2024?”

(Surrogate mothers in Minnesota can already be compensated for their services, as current law does not prohibit it.)

Patience Griswold, an engagement coordinator with conservative group Them Before Us, struck a similar note by arguing that “surrogacy turns children into commodities to be awarded to the adults with the money and means to acquire them” and that it “creates a class of people who can be sold.”

The Minnesota Catholic Conference used similar language in written testimony opposing the bill.

In the United States, roughly one in five married couples experience infertility, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several thousand babies are born each year through surrogacy, which can cost would-be parents north of $100,000 in legal fees, IVF and medical expenses, and compensation to the surrogate.

Experts who study the practice have generally found that “most surrogacy arrangements are successfully implemented and most surrogate mothers are well-motivated and have little difficulty separating from the children born as a result of the arrangement,” according to a comprehensive 2015 review of the existing literature. 

Additionally, that study turned up “no evidence of harm to the children born as a result of surrogacy.”

One of the most comprehensive studies of surrogacy tracked several dozen families from surrogate pregnancy to the resulting childrens’ young adulthood. It found “no differences between assisted reproduction and unassisted conception families in mothers’ or young adults’ psychological well-being, or the quality of family relationships.”

A 2015 YouGov survey found that over 70% of Americans supported the practice, and a majority agreed that surrogate mothers should be able to seek compensation for it.

Photo: Rebecca Delahunt speaks before the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on March 22, 2024 (MN Senate Media Services/ Minnesota Reformer).

This Minnesota Reformer story is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 

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South Dakota accidentally told independent candidates they needed hundreds more signatures than necessary to be on ballot

Another oh my moment in reporting about South Dakota politics from the South Dakota Searchlight.  Perhaps our Secretary of Stage's office was simply trying to develop a special new definition of election denier.

State accidentally told independent candidates they needed hundreds more signatures than necessary
By Joshua Haiar

For more than two months, state officials unintentionally led some potential legislative candidates to believe they needed hundreds more petition signatures than state law requires.

The problem affected independents. Retired Rapid City attorney Jay Davis noticed it. 

“I was seeking information on behalf of a prospective candidate who was considering filing as an independent,” he said. “I asked how many signatures she would need in her district.” 

Davis was referencing nominating petitions. To earn a spot on the ballot, candidates need signatures on their petitions from registered voters in their district. The window for circulating and submitting petitions opened Jan. 1 — the same day the erroneous signature guidance was published — and will close for independent candidates on April 30.

The Secretary of State’s Office oversees elections in South Dakota. Davis said Rachel Soulek, director of the office’s Division of Elections, initially refused to look up the information and told him to find it on the office’s website. 

“Later, she forwarded me the applicable information from the website, and I was horrified,” Davis said. 

For example, the list said independent legislative candidates in Sioux Falls-area Districts 12 and 13 needed 1,029 signatures. On March 8, after Davis reported the errors, the numbers were changed to 114 and 88, respectively. Numbers for many other districts were also updated at that time.

State law requires a number of signatures equal to 1% of the votes cast within the district in the last governor’s race. The number of people in each legislative district is roughly equal and based on numbers from the 2020 Census, which determined the total population of South Dakota was 886,667. There are 35 legislative districts, making the target number for each 25,333 people. Therefore, even if every person in a district voted in the last governor race, the maximum number of signatures required in any district would be about 250.

But on the erroneous list published by the Secretary of State’s Office, independent candidates in Rapid City-area Districts 34 and 35, for example, were listed as needing 454 signatures. On March 8, the figures were changed to 115 and 99, respectively.

Davis doesn’t think that fully addresses the problem.

“There may already be people who looked into running as independents for the South Dakota Senate and House who abandoned the idea, after looking at the onerous signature requirements,” he said. 

Soulek, with the Secretary of State’s Office, communicated with South Dakota Searchlight only by email and did not accept phone calls. She offered a lengthy explanation of the events leading up to the publication of the erroneous list. The explanation culminated in a final sentence: “A staff person had an error in our calculations when putting the signature requirements together.”

Soulek said the office notified county auditors, who run elections at the county level, once the information was updated.

Davis said the ultimate responsibility lies with the current head of the Secretary of State’s Office, Monae Johnson, who did ultimately call him to discuss the error. But, Davis alleged, “my understanding is that some of the numbers for independent signature requirements on their website are still wrong.”

As of Friday afternoon, no independent candidates had submitted nominating petitions to become candidates for legislative offices in the Nov. 5 general election.

There are about 88,000 registered independent voters in the state and 61,000 people registered as non-politically affiliated. There are about 145,000 registered Democrats and 302,00 Republicans. 

An information sheet from the Secretary of State’s Office, showing its former and updated guidance to prospective independent legislative candidates about the number of nominating petition signatures they need.

Image: Candidate nominating petitions. (Illustration by Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight). 

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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Four SD grassland restoration projects awarded a total of $250,000 in federal funds

As this blog's name implies, I'm a big fan of native grasslands. Happy to see the nearby Waubay Wildlife Management District included in this grant. Its name suggests it's associated with the Waubay National Wildlife Refuge, near Enemy Swim, South Dakota.

Four SD grassland restoration projects awarded a total of $250,000 in federal funds
Search Dakota Searchlight Staff

South Dakota is set to receive $250,000 in federal funding for the implementation of four grassland restoration projects across the eastern part of the state.

On Friday, the Department of the Interior announced a nearly $11 million investment to help restore U.S. habitats across 18 states. The funds are in support of President Joe Biden’s  America the Beautiful initiative, which aims to conserve and restore 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the funding will support “nature-based solutions.”

“At a time when tackling the climate and biodiversity crises could not be more critical, these investments in clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, cultural resources and open spaces will benefit people, wildlife and local economies for generations to come,” Haaland said in a news release.

The four initiatives in South Dakota aim to conserve, restore and improve the biology and ecology of native prairies. All the projects will be administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The funded projects are in the following areas:

• Waubay Wildlife Management District, in northeastern South Dakota, $111,735.
• Sand Lake Wildlife Management District, also in the northeast, $88,000. 
• Huron Wildlife Management District, in eastern South Dakota, $42,000.
• Lake Andes Wildlife Management District, in the southeast, $8,265.

The $11 million comes from the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021. The law allocated funds toward a broad spectrum of priorities, including transportation, broadband internet expansion, water systems improvement, and environmental restoration.

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: A dragonfly rests on a blade of prairie grass in western South Dakota. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight).

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MN07 Update: After Trump endorsement of incumbent Fischbach, Boyd still supports Trump

Yesterday, Bluestem posted MN07: Trump endorses Michelle Fischbach. I'd wondered how her Republican opponents from the right would respond.

Looking at Republican challenger Steve Boyd's Facebook page, I found this post:

The full text:

As my campaign has always shown through our actions, and will continue to show going forward, we are aligned with President Trump on the crucial issues facing America. Namely, we visited the Southern Border to address the crisis there, and just as importantly, we have stood with the persecuted January 6 political prisoners. Just like we stand with them, we support President Trump in his legal battle against the same goons who continue to persecute him.

We still stand with President Trump, and my campaign is not particularly focused on endorsements. Like President Trump has always done, we're focused on engaging with voters, understanding their concerns, and sharing our solutions for the challenges facing our nation.. We've had amazing success on the ground in CD-7, and the momentum is completely in our favor. We look forward to carrying that momentum forward to win this race and help turn the rest of Minnesota red!

Nice underplay. Note how he doesn't specifically mention which endorsement he's not focused on, nor how winning in a Republican district helps turn the rest of Minnesota red.

 

Apparently, Fischbach is focused just on winning her race and a Trump win in Minnesota in the November general election:

I’m honored to have this endorsement by Pres @realDonaldTrump. In 2020, he helped unite #MN07 behind my campaign to defeat a 30-year democrat incumbent. Now, we will be running as a team to expand a @HouseGOP majority & make history by delivering our 10 Electoral Votes to him. pic.twitter.com/PwoSFqtyqE

— Michelle Fischbach (@FischbachMN7) March 21, 2024

Bluestem will continue to keep an eye on this Christian Nationalist organizer in Minnesota.

Screenshot:  Steve Boyd and Rick Green at the 2022 National Patriot Leadership Congress in Austin TX. From the Blessings of Liberty Facebook page.

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• MN07: Trump endorses Michelle Fischbach 
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House environment panel approves "minor" policy bill with least controversial provisions

In 2023, a budget year. headlines about the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee's omnibus bill told a large story. Bluestem posted one:  MN House, Senate repass environment, energy bill called ‘most significant in MN history’ .

This year, a policy year? Session Daily 's Margaret Stevens tells a more modest tale inHouse environment panel approves ‘minor’ policy bill with least controversial provisions:

Bottle deposits and plastic waste reduction programs are not advancing to the House Floor. At least not yet.

House members may end up voting on those issues this year, but they aren’t part of a what Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) called a “minor policy bill” approved Friday.

The House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee approved HF2774/SF2904*, as amended, on a split-voice vote and sent it to the House Floor.

Hansen, who sponsors the bill with Sen. Foung Hawj (DFL-St. Paul), said the bill contains what he considers the least controversial policy measures, and many provisions are very technical. “We will have further work that we will continue to do, but we thought it was important to get a little bit done.”

Electronic license system

The bill would start changing statutory language to prepare for digital licensing, which the Department of Natural Resources aims to launch next spring. For example, it would change “snowmobile trail sticker” to “snowmobile pass” and would remove a requirement that game and fish license applications be made in writing.

When that issue was first heard in committee, Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-Nisswa) asked if the system would be vulnerable to a software meltdown at launch. DNR officials reassured members that the vendor, S3, has successfully implemented licensing systems for other states including Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio and that paper would still be an option.  

Native rough fish

The bill would further define and help conserve native rough fish, in some cases extending to native rough fish the same rules that apply to game fish.  The aim would be to distinguish native species that may not be as popular with anglers from invasive species.

Some native rough fish named in the bill include: bowfin; bigmouth, smallmouth,? and black buffalo; white, blue, spotted, and longnose sucker; northern hogsucker; quillback;? river and highfin carpsucker; black, river, shorthead, golden, silver, and greater redhorse; black, brown, and yellow bullhead; longnose and shortnose gar; and freshwater drum. Common carp would be excluded.

The bill would also modify policy affecting the Board of Water and Soil Resources, with many provisions streamlining, modernizing and clarifying state laws. Drawing scrutiny from Heintzeman, however, was a provision that would give the state rulemaking mechanisms to protect water courses that are not public waters. This provision was included after protections offered by the federal government were removed following a recent U.S. Supreme Court case.  

Other provisions would:

• expand opportunities to protect native prairies; 
• combine the Fisheries Oversight Committee, Wildlife Oversight Committee and Budgetary Oversight Committee into a 15-member Fish and Wildlife Oversight Committee;
• require in some cases that manure applicators have a management plan including Department of Agriculture recommended best practices; and
• expand the definition of feral swine beyond wild boar to include hogs, pigs, swine and peccary that have lived in the wild during any part of their lifetime. This would include released (as defined by statute) domestic hogs unless the owner reports the release properly and recovers the animal within 72 hours of notification.

What’s in the bill?

The following are selected bills that have been incorporated in part or in whole into the environment and natural resources policy bill:

• HF3455 (Norris)
• HF3466 (Rehm)
• HF3550 (Hansen)
• HF3791 (Hansen)
• HF4015 (Jordan)
• HF4320 (Hansen)
• HF4844 (Hansen)\\

Bluestem will keep an eye out for whatever makes it to Governor Walz' desk>

Here the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the heaaring:

PHoto: The House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee takes up amendments Friday during debate on its policy bill. (Photo by Andrew VonBank/session Daily).

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MN07: Trump endorses Michelle Fischbach

Update March 23: Bluestem looked at Republican challenger Steve Boyd's response in MN07 Update: After Trump endorsement of incumbent Fischbach, Boyd still supports Trump [end update]

Has former president Donald Trump pulled the rug out from under Minnesota's Patriot Academy Constitutional Coach and Minnesota Congressional District 7 Republican challenger Steve Boyd?

Bluestem's been following Boyd's campaign since our October post,  MN07 Republican challenger Steve Boyd doesn't think of himself as extreme. Why would anyone?. I also found his championing of January 6 rioters a strange twist in  Odd choice given Fischbach's January 6 choices: MN07 primary challenger Steve Boyd hosting Epoch Times "real" January 6 film and town hall.

Apparently Donald Trump agrees.

At the West Central Tribune, Shelby Lindrud reports in Rep. Michelle Fischbach endorsed for re-election by former President Donald Trump:

LITCHFIELD — U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach , who represents Minnesota's District 7 in the United States House of Representatives and is running for re-election, obtained the endorsement of former President Donald Trump .

Trump, who is also the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said in a statement released Thursday on the social media platform Truth Social, that Fischbach has done a "fantastic job" serving Minnesota District 7.

"Michelle Fischbach has my complete and total endorsement — she will never let you down," Trump said.

Fischbach, a Republican from Regal, Minnesota, said she was honored by Trump's endorsement and looks forward to working with him in the future.

"This time, we will be running as a team to expand a conservative Republican majority in the U.S. House and make history by delivering our 10 electoral votes," Fischbach said in a statement. . . .

Read the rest at the Tribune.

Fischbach posted on the X platform:

I’m honored to have this endorsement by Pres @realDonaldTrump. In 2020, he helped unite #MN07 behind my campaign to defeat a 30-year democrat incumbent. Now, we will be running as a team to expand a @HouseGOP majority & make history by delivering our 10 Electoral Votes to him. pic.twitter.com/PwoSFqtyqE

— Michelle Fischbach (@FischbachMN7) March 21, 2024

In Minnesota Public Radio's Capitol View morning newsletter, Brian Bakst and Ellie Roth noted:

In Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District, former President Donald Trump has made his pick: Rep. Michelle Fischbach. It’s a pretty reliably Republican area not so long after Fischbach defeated longtime conservative Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson in 2020. Fischbach has two challengers on her right, Stephen Boyd and Annette Watson. In his endorsement of Fischbach , Trump called her a “proven American First Patriot” and said “she will never let you down!” Fischbach had previously endorsed Trump’s bid to return to the White House. She voted against certification of the 2020 election result on Jan. 6, 2021. 

No reaction yet on Boyd's campaign Facebook page. Watson's campaign website notes that she's "In agreement with Trump's "America First" movement, . . ." but no word whether she agrees with his endorsement of the incumbent.

Photo: Rep. Michelle Fischbach, Fischbach for Congress, via MinnPost.

Related posts

• MN07 Update: After Trump endorsement of incumbent Fischbach, Boyd still supports Trump
• Alexandria Echo Press picks up on MN07 candidate Steve Boyd's January 6 event 
• Odd choice given Fischbach's January 6 choices: MN07 primary challenger Steve Boyd hosting Epoch Times "real" January 6 film and town hall 
• MN07 Republican challenger Steve Boyd doesn't think of himself as extreme. Why would anyone?

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Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chair responds to Noem's latest linking tribes to drug cartels

As Bluestem posted in Winner, Noem links tribal leaders to cartels and Malice: she's on it. Tribal leaders insulted after Governor Noem claims they "are personally benefiting from the cartels being here" South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem had once again linked tribal nations to cartels.

At the end of January, Noem had earned the tribes' anger when she singled out reservations as hotbeds of cartel activity. as Bluestem had noted in Drug cartels have infiltrated reservations, Noem says, but some tribal voices call speech ‘political’.

In Bluestem reported the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Dakota's admonishment of the governor in SWO Dakota to Governor Noem: don't single out reservations when drugs are a statewide problem.

The tribe has responded to this latest wave of gubernatorial malice with the press release, published on the tribe's Facebook page on Wednesday:

There's more coverage of the tribes' reaction to this latest episode in the South Dakota Searchlight's Oglala, Rosebud tribal presidents demand governor apologize for comments last week and Tribes call for apology from Governor Noem in the Rapid City Journal.

Screenshot: Governor Noem as she talks about tribal leaders "personally benefitting from the cartels being here." From a Facebook Watch video.

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• Noem banned from Pine Ridge Reservation over remarks in border speech to state legislature
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Large livestock farms would face additional environmental scrutiny under proposed bill

Watching the hearing on HF4698 in the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Wednesday afternoon, I was struck by the utter confidence in Altura Republican Steve Jacob's opposition to the bill and his utter support for very large dairies.

As the Session Daily article below notes, Jacob claims that "Winona County used to be first in dairy production and now is fifth, he said,"  attributing this decline to a 1500 animal unit cap in Winona County.

I wondered about that factoid. While I couldn't find out where Winona County ranked in 1998, the 2009 and 2016 Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Dairy Industry Profile listed Winona County as second, while MinnWest's June is National Dairy Month: Here's a snapshot of Minnesota Dairy placed Winona County in third place in 2023.

In Dozens of Minnesota dairy farms folded in November, alarming farm advocates, reported for the Star Tribune by Christopher Vondracek, Winona County appears to be in fourth place by dairy permits, though it had gained one permit, according to the click-on map online. 

Perhaps Winona County sank to fifth since November 2023--Bluestem will have to check out the details going back to 1998.

By the way, while the hearing focused on dairy farms, the law would cover all operations with over 10,000 animal unitx.

From Session Daily:

Large dairy farms would face additional environmental scrutiny under proposed bill
By Margaret Stevens

When it comes to dairy cows, 10,000 is a very big number, Rep. Kristi Pursell (DFL-Northfield) told the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Wednesday.

Dairies that large are 10 times bigger than what were considered large operations in the 1980s when environmental regulations around farm operations were being enacted, she said. 

And Pursell believes the state needs to update its processes to manage consolidation in the dairy industry with fewer farmers running bigger and bigger farms.  

“It doesn’t seem quite right that operations with 1,000 animal units and 10,000 animal units are subject to the same environmental reviews,” she said. “The scope of the project needs to match the level of investigation.”  

To that end, Pursell sponsors HF4698, which would trigger a full environmental impact statement for operations larger than 10,000 animal units. The bill, as amended, was laid over by the committee.

Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) compared operations that large to a small city with regards to the resources used and waste produced.

Large animal operations go through an environmental review process – generally taking a few months ­– which could trigger an environmental impact statement. The latter process could take a couple years, include environmental and social impacts, and have community involvement.

The bill would require the Environmental Quality Board to amend its rules to perform an environmental impact statement for animal feedlots of 10,000 or more animals.

Opponents say the proposed legislation would provide no additional environmental safeguards – permitted facilities are already required to have zero discharge. Requiring an environmental impact statement would only add significant delays and significant expense, said Daryn McBeth, representing the Minnesota Milk Producers Association.

Rep. Steven Jacob (R-Altura) described what he saw in Winona County after it enacted a ban on large diary operations, which then either fragmented or left the county. Winona County used to be first in dairy production and now is fifth, he said.  

The result of the bill would be that cows will leave Minnesota and go to other states, he said.

Jacob also argued efficiencies of scale, such as county feedlot operators having an easier time enforcing rules at one operation instead of 10.

Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the hearing. Bluestem appreciated Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish's testimony in support of the bill.

Photo: Holstein dairy cattle feeding. Cole Burston Getty Images/via Scientific American.

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• This is fine: update on MN state agencies' response to EPA letter on karst country nitrates
• Following emergency petition regarding nitrate contamination in SEMN karst region, EPA sees further action needed to protect public health
• On ‘Cancer Road,’ a group of southeastern MN families ask if nitrate exposure is to blame 
• Eleven environmental groups petition EPA on nitrate pollution in Southeast Minnesota wate
• Strib scrutinizes MN Department of Ag action on nitrate-related Groundwater Protection Rule
• Nitrates in Southwestern Minnesota water: 'Do not give the water to infants' in Ellsworth
• Commentary from MinnPost: Can the state control nitrates in Minnesota waters?
• Minnesota Department of Health isn’t properly enforcing drinking water law, and kids will suffer
• is far from over 
• Packed house at Newburg Township on using local control to protect community, karst 
• All citizens are equal, but one thinks he's more equal: massive hog farm shareholder* seeks to prevent August 2 Newburgh Township meeting
• Jean Wagenius: For climate and clean water, state agencies need Walz to lead

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Ethanol carbon: Pipeline survey law, carbon as public commodity argued at SD Supreme Court

Catching up with ethanol carbon pipeline news. From the South Dakota Searchlight:

Pipeline survey law, carbon as a public commodity argued at state Supreme Court
By John Hult

Landowners say carbon stored underground doesn’t count as public good

Summit Carbons Solutions would move something of value from one place to another for a fee, and as such is entitled to survey private land and use eminent domain for its proposed pipeline. 

Either that, or Summit would merely move its own product to be buried underground, thereby making it ineligible to conduct surveys and use eminent domain. 

Questions that will define where the carbon dioxide pipeline company lands, legally speaking, between those two polarities are now in the hands of the South Dakota Supreme Court. 

The justices heard oral arguments on the controversial pipeline project Tuesday on the Aberdeen campus of Northern State University in Brown County, one of the counties through which the pipeline would pass.

The $8 billion Summit pipeline would collect the CO2 that would otherwise be emitted from 57 ethanol plants in multiple states and transport it to North Dakota for underground storage. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere contributes to climate change, and federal tax credits are available to encourage its sequestration.

Not all landowners along the route are interested in taking Summit’s money in exchange for access to their property, though. They’ve argued in public forums, at the state Capitol and in courtrooms that Summit ought not be allowed to use eminent domain – the legal mechanism by which it would be allowed to use private property regardless of the owner’s feelings about it – to build its pipeline.

Tuesday’s Supreme Court challenge from landowners folded several landowner lawsuits into one to decide three questions:

• Is the state’s law allowing pre-project access for surveys constitutional?
• Is carbon gas a commodity?
• Does Summit qualify as a “common carrier” of a commodity?

If the high court rules for landowners on the last two questions, Summit would be unable to use eminent domain to force the construction of its pipeline. 

If the court says “no” on the first, state law might need to be adjusted, though it’s unclear how. The law in question was already amended this legislative session through House Bill 1185, which was signed this month by Gov. Kristi Noem.

It requires $500 and advance notice to landowners before a pipeline company is allowed to survey property, and affords the right to challenge survey access in court. That rewritten version of the law is set to take effect on July 1. 

Landowners: Carbon is waste, not a commodity

Brian Jorde, the lawyer for the landowners, told the justices that South Dakota’s survey law is baldly unconstitutional in the face of a 2021 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court called Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid. 

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in that case that letting labor unions onto farmland in the interest of organizing constituted a “taking” of private property, inasmuch as it forced the farmland’s owner to let someone do something with their property it otherwise would not. 

Under the U.S. Constitution, property can’t be taken without “just compensation.”

In that case, union organizers showed up a few times a week for specified periods of time, and the owners had to let them, per California law.

In light of that set of facts, Jorde argued, the survey law adjusted through the passage of HB 1185 is an even broader swipe at property rights. 

Under the survey law’s current language – the language being challenged by the landowner lawsuit – a company that applies for a siting permit and issues a 30-day notice is allowed to send representatives to survey land, drill and collect soil samples and return to the property as often as they’d like. 

Justice Mark Salter challenged Jorde on that issue, noting that Cedar Point involved a state law and a specific set of facts wholly unrelated to eminent domain. 

On the eminent domain question, Jorde told the justices that only a “common carrier” of commodities is allowed to use the survey law. His clients do not believe Summit fits the bill.

According to its agreements, Jorde said, the carbon becomes Summit’s property the moment it enters the pipeline, and therefore no longer comports with laws used for things like the construction of rail lines that transport corn or soybeans.

Justice Janine Kern challenged that argument.

“They’re saying, ‘We’re advertising to potential customers. We’re holding this open season, where we’re reserving future pipeline capacity, and we’re holding ourselves out to the general public,” Kern said. “Isn’t that sufficient?”

Jorde disagreed. The carbon itself isn’t a commodity, he said, at least not in the way Summit plans to use it. He said no court in the nation has pondered whether pumping a “commodity” underground, rather than using it, changes its status as a commodity. 

Summit, he argues, is a “private, for-profit carrier,” that aims to transport something it owns to somewhere it will do nothing for the public. 

As such, he said, it ought not be protected by the survey access law in the first place.

“The test isn’t ‘Can carbon dioxide somewhere on planet earth be used for pop?’” he said, referring to the potential use of carbon for fizzy beverages. “It’s ‘What are you transporting it for? You are claiming you’re a common carrier, you tell us how the CO2 that you’re moving is a commodity.’”

Summit: Carbon market proves commodity status

Summit lawyer Bret Dublinske told the justices there is a market for CO2, underground or otherwise. 

“This carbon has a value, whether it’s tradable as credits, or whether it’s the federal government’s willingness to pay for that to happen through tax credits,” Dublinske said. He conceded that no court has addressed the question of whether underground storage changes a commodity to something else for purposes of eminent domain.

But the CO2 doesn’t disappear from the market because it’s buried underground, he said.

“This is, in fact, moving in commerce,” Dublinske said.

When it comes to Summit’s ownership of the CO2, Dublinske called that argument a “red herring,” meaning a distraction. 

“If I am extracting oil, or if I am growing wheat, and I’m providing the railcar the pipeline to move that, there is nobody other than me in that transaction,” he said. “That is not true here. (Summit) doesn’t create any carbon dioxide, it doesn’t have any carbon dioxide of its own. There is an agreement to ship the carbon dioxide created by the ethanol plants for the benefit of the ethanol plants.”

He also said ethanol plants pay a fee to connect to the pipeline – something Jorde would later call “new information” that wasn’t part of the court record. But Dublinske said the existence of such a fee clearly points to its project as a transporter of a commodity, regardless of which company has title to the CO2.

As for the pipeline law dubbed unconstitutional by the landowners, Dublinske said that a constitutional challenge is a high bar. That pipeline surveys would be characterized as an invasive taking of land, he argued, is predicated on the notion that surveys are unconnected to the longer-term process of staking an eminent domain claim. Eminent domain would ultimately result in a landowner receiving their legally required compensation for the “taking” of their property.

Without surveys, he said, no such claim can be staked.

“This is for an underground pipeline,” Dublinske said. “It isn’t useful, necessarily, for its intended purpose, unless you can, in some cases, figure out what’s going on below the soil.”

Justice Kern asked Dublinske if Summit is amenable to offering a copy of its agreements with ethanol companies to the high court for review. It did not object to a private review at the trial court level, he said, and would offer it to the justices, as well. 

Summit has objected to adding the agreements to public court files, or to allowing the landowners to review them. Dublinske said there are commercial secrets embedded in them.

The justices gave Summit 10 days to offer those agreements under seal. Jorde requested that the agreements be reviewable by his team, as well.

“Otherwise, there could be an opinion referencing evidence that was never part of the record,” Jorde said.

Chief Justice Steven Jensen said the justices would consider the matter and decide later. 

“If we think we need further supplemental briefing or argument, we’ll let the parties know,” Jensen said.

Bluestem will let readers know what the court decides.

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: Members of the South Dakota Supreme Court hear oral arguments on March 19, 2024, in Aberdeen on a carbon pipeline case. From left are Justices Scott Myren, Janine Kern, Steven Jensen and Mark Salter. Judge Jane Wipf Pfeifle, at right, sat in for Justice Patricia DeVaney, who disqualified herself from the case. (Dave Bordewyk/South Dakota NewsMedia Association/via South Dakota Searchlight).

Related posts

• In South Dakota, new group aims to refer ethanol carbon pipeline law to voters
• Ethanol carbon pipeline news: Summit officials now say its CO2 pipeline could serve oil industry 
• 8 more ethanol plants: Summit Carbon Solutions announced new partnership with Valero Energy
• Ethanol carbon pipeline opponents doubt certainty of $1 billion corn-based jet fuel project
• North Dakota Industrial Commission advances CCS marketing despite lawmaker objections
• ND energy councils recommend carbon capture education consultant to Industrial Commission
• Ten bills in South Dakota legislature: eminent domain is the latest front in carbon pipeline fight
• Summit Carbon Solutions denied conditional use permit for pipeline in Northeast Nebraska county
• Another attempt to block ethanol carbon pipelines from using eminent domain fails
• Commentary: Oil pipeline experience proves need for caution with carbon pipelines
• Navigator CO2 Ventures survivor Poet shifts to remaining carbon dioxide pipeline proposal
• Burying the lede: EIS points out improved farming methods & ethanol plants would reduce as much carbon as ethanol carbon pipelines
• MInnesota Department of Commerce releases draft EIS for Otter Tail to Wilkin Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Project; public meetings coming up in Breckenridge & Fergus Falls
• Hundreds of CO2 pipeline critics converged on South Dakota Capitol ahead of legislative session
• CCS squabble: CO2 pipeline debate has resulted in divisions among SD ethanol proponents
• Keystone I pipeline leaks again; after 2017 South Dakota & 2019 North Dakota, Kansas is hit 
• Keystone I pipeline leaks again--this time in ND
• TransCanada's state-of-art pipeline bums out SD utilities comish after 3 leaks in under 10 years
• Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate concerned about Keystone I Pipeline oil spill in NE South Dakota 

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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Minnesota Board of Animal Health: Stevens County goat tests positive for avian influenza

HPAI is Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

It's never good news for farmers when a disease jumps the species barrier. According to the press release below, this is the "first U.S. detection of HPAI in a domestic ruminant (cattle, sheep, goats, and their relatives)" though it has stricken "other mammalian species such as skunks, dogs and cats."

As Bluestem posted in May 2022, MN DNR: Wild fox in Minnesota tests positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Let's hope this stops with the Stearns County farm case for livestock--and HPAI doesn't work its way to a human infection. At present, HPAI doesn't infect humans,

Another cautionary note for all poultry growers to practice biosecurity.

From the Minnesota Board of Animal Health:

Stevens County goat tests positive for same influenza virus affecting poultry

St. Paul, Minn. - A Stevens County goat kid (juvenile goat) residing on a farm with a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) positive poultry flock tested positive for the same virus. This is the first U.S. detection of HPAI in a domestic ruminant (cattle, sheep, goats, and their relatives). All poultry on the property were already quarantined from the February HPAI detection. Following the confirmation of HPAI in the goat, the Board quarantined all other species on the premises. The Board is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate the transmission of the virus in this case.

“This finding is significant because, while the spring migration is definitely a higher risk transmission period for poultry, it highlights the possibility of the virus infecting other animals on farms with multiple species,” said State Veterinarian, Dr. Brian Hoefs. “Thankfully, research to-date has shown mammals appear to be dead-end hosts, which means they’re unlikely to spread HPAI further.”

Earlier this month the owner notified the Board of unusual deaths of newly kidded goats on the property where a backyard poultry flock was depopulated due to HPAI in February. The goats and poultry had access to the same space, including a shared water source. One of the goat carcasses was taken to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL), where it tested positive for influenza A. The National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) later confirmed H5N1 HPAI, which is the same virus circulating in the national outbreak that began in 2022. Samples from the adult goats were negative for HPAI and all appear healthy; no more sick goat kids have been reported since March 11.

HPAI has been previously diagnosed in other mammalian species such as skunks, dogs and cats. Animals with weakened or immature immune systems, like the goat kids in this case, are at higher risk of contracting disease. There has been limited experimental data on HPAI infection in ruminants, and there are no prior reports of natural HPAI infection in goats. The USDA has tracked more than 200 detections of HPAI in mammals across the country since the start of the 2022 HPAI outbreak.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) provided recommendations for personal protective equipment and is monitoring the health of those in direct contact with the infected goats. Anyone who develops respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms after exposure to the goats may be voluntarily tested for avian influenza and other respiratory pathogens. The risk to the public is extremely low, and any risk of infection is limited to people in direct contact with infected animals. To date, no people in the United States have become ill following contact with mammals infected with this virus.

Biosecurity is the first line of defense for anyone to protect their animals from disease and includes simple measures like cleaning equipment and housing regularly, separating livestock from wild animals, and calling your veterinarian when animals appear sick. To learn more important steps to protect your animals from HPAI and other diseases, visit the Board’s biosecurity webpage. For more information on the Board’s work to combat the spread of HPAI in Minnesota, please visit our response webpage.

Photo: A goat kid via Pixbay. Not one of the Stearns County kids.

Related posts

• MN Board of Animal Health: HPAI confirmed in commercial Meeker County turkey flock 
• MN DNR: Wild fox in Minnesota tests positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza
• In America's turkey industry, SD producers hit hardest by highly pathogenic avian influenza
• Board of Animal Health: Minnesota poultry sales and exhibitions temporarily banned for 31 days
• Board of Animal Health: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza confirmed in two Minnesota flocks 
• SD Game, Fish & Parks: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) detected in South Dakota 
• Associated Press: Bird flu detected among commercial flock in southeastern South Dakota
• Minnesota Reformer: Menacing bird flu detected in western Iowa backyard chicken and duck flock
• Shocking photos in state vet's report to Midwest lawmakers reveal bird flu toll to farmers & flocks 

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Today in SD Governor side gigs: who leads South Dakota if Noem runs for vice president?

Bluestem was wondering about this question just a couple of days ago. No word in the excellent South Dakota News Watch article below whether she'll find time for her other side gig as a social media infomercial influencer for private businesses.

Who leads South Dakota if Noem runs for vice president? 'I still get to be governor' she says.
By Stu Whitney

Noem is among Donald Trump’s top picks for his running mate. The South Dakota Constitution might keep her from doing both jobs at once.

MITCHELL, S.D. – Standing next to a row of bookcases in the Mitchell High School library, South Dakota’s lieutenant governor was asked about taking the reins of state government.

It’s a sensitive subject for Larry Rhoden, who has embraced his supporting role as Gov. Kristi Noem’s second-in-command since entering office in 2019 following 16 years in the state Legislature.

“I try not to bring it up,” said the Union Center rancher when asked by News Watch about how his duties might change if Noem is chosen as Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket. “I don’t want to make it look like I’m thinking about it.”

Despite that political prudence, the subject is hard to avoid.

Noem is considered among the top contenders to become Trump’s running mate for 2024 along with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott; New York Rep. Elise Stefanik; former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard; and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Rhoden surmised that the selection process will accelerate now that Trump has wrapped up the nomination and is looking ahead to the July 15-18 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Noem didn’t dodge the topic at a March 13 town hall that she and Rhoden attended in Mitchell. The event saw her sign two education-related bills while mingling with state legislators, staffers and residents, some of whom grilled her on landowner rights while others queried her on the VP sweepstakes.

Noem: 'I still get to be governor'

The 52-year-old governor confirmed that she met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida recently to discuss the possibility of her joining the ticket, adding that she is committed to helping Trump defeat Democratic President Joe Biden on Nov. 5.

"My answer used to be that President Trump and I have never talked about it, but now we have talked about it," Noem said during the town hall. "What I told him is that I will do whatever it takes for me to help him win. Of course, I’d rather stay with all of you if you’ll keep me. This is my favorite job. I love this job."

If she is chosen to run for VP, News Watch asked Noem, will she formally delegate authority to Rhoden during the time she is campaigning nearly full-time away from South Dakota? She responded that no such transfer of power will occur.

"If I’m nominated, I still get to be governor," Noem said. "So you keep me until I’m not governor. People who know me will tell you that I don’t sleep very well. The lieutenant governor is my partner and he helps me with a lot of stuff, but I will still be the governor and I will still be making the decisions."

South Dakota law addresses governor's absence

The answer may not be as clear as Noem suggests.

While speculation has swirled around her joining Trump's ticket, there has been less examination of what happens to state government if the chief executive is away from South Dakota for long stretches running for national office.

When South Dakota U.S. Sen. George McGovern was the Democratic nominee for president in 1972, he remained in office during his campaign, which resulted in a landslide defeat to incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon. McGovern was re-elected to the Senate in 1974 despite being labeled a "part-time senator" by his opponent in a closer-than-expected race.

Running for national office as a governor is different, not only because of differing job descriptions but also due to the boundaries of state law.

The South Dakota Constitution, in Article 4, Section 6, states that when the governor is “unable to serve by reason of continuous absence from the state, or other temporary disability, the executive power shall devolve upon the lieutenant governor for the residue of the term or until the disability is removed.”

'Not new territory' for Noem

Like other legal interpretations, the assessment of Noem's "continuous absence" will likely hinge on how much political pressure is exerted upon her to hand over day-to-day operations during a rigorous presidential campaign.

Democratic state Sen. Reynold Nesiba of Sioux Falls, a member of the Government Operations and Audit Committee, told News Watch that the governor should resign her office if she is chosen to run for vice president.

"South Dakota taxpayers should not be footing the bill for her travel around the country, especially since she provides little to no transparency about her state airplane use and security-related costs while in office," Nesiba said.

Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen, noted that Noem has already weathered her share of controversy about pursuing a national political profile away from South Dakota after her hands-off handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which endeared her to some conservatives.

“It probably comes down to how much grief she wants to get, but this is not new territory for her,” Schaff said. “(The presidential campaign) wouldn’t be during the legislative session, and state government has a certain inertia that allows things to keep running.”

State Rep. Tony Venhuizen, a Sioux Falls Republican and former chief of staff to Noem and former Gov. Dennis Daugaard, said the “continuous absence” clause in the state constitution was necessary before the advent of smartphones and Zoom video meetings.

Of course, there are only so many hours in the day.

“There are a lot of things you can do remotely, but there are time considerations,” said Venhuizen, who attended the town hall in Mitchell. “I think most people understand that if you’re running for vice president, you’re going to be on the road a lot. There would have to be some practical considerations of who’s covering some of the duties and when.”

No 'resign to run' law in South Dakota

Five states have “resign to run" laws to prevent elected officials from neglecting state duties or using public resources while running for another office. South Dakota is not one of them.

Florida's Republican-dominated Legislature added an exemption for presidential and vice presidential campaigns in April 2023, before Gov. Ron DeSantis began his unsuccessful run for the White House.

The last sitting governor to run for vice president on a major ticket was Mike Pence of Indiana, who was running for re-election when he was selected as Trump’s running mate in July 2016. Pence withdrew from the gubernatorial race and endorsed Indiana Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb as the GOP nominee.

Trump/Pence and Holcomb both won, but Pence opted not to resign and stayed in office until Holcomb was sworn in Jan. 9, 2017, vowing to “serve Hoosiers until the very last hour.”

First-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a surprise selection as 2008 running mate to GOP presidential nominee John McCain, who lost to Barack Obama. Palin remained in office during the tumultuous campaign and returned to Alaska after the defeat with a much-expanded national profile.

She resigned in July 2009 with 18 months left in her term, citing the pressure and financial burden of a flood of in-state ethics complaints against her.

Rhoden offers stability in Pierre

Rhoden has been a steady presence during Noem's often turbulent time in office, marked by five different chiefs of staff and no one currently in that role. The administration has seen higher-than-normal turnover among Cabinet positions and executive staff.

The 65-year-old Rhoden, a former South Dakota House majority leader whose legislative experience stretches back more than two decades, is viewed as a stabilizing force by lawmakers such as Republican state Sen. Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown. “If I have any questions, I contact Larry," he told News Watch in 2023.

At the Mitchell town hall, Noem credited Rhoden with helping her learn the ropes in 2007 as a rookie legislator in Pierre, something she kept in mind when it came time to choose a running mate for her 2018 gubernatorial run.

"Because I was a farmer and rancher, I was advised to choose a businessman from Sioux Falls," Noem told attendees. "So instead I chose a rancher from West River. I trust his instincts and values. He loves the Lord and loves his family. I knew that if I got killed the next day, he’d run this state exactly as I would, and that was important to me."

Rhoden is viewed as a likely candidate for governor in 2026, which would mean a highly competitive GOP primary battle against U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and possibly Attorney General Marty Jackley, among other candidates.

Rhoden could be an incumbent at that point if a Trump/Noem ticket gains the White House. Noem would likely resign as governor after the Nov. 5 election – well before the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 – to allow Rhoden to start preparing for his budget address and the legislative session.

"It would make sense to have that handover take place before the session started," said Venhuizen.

Thune seeks leadership in Senate

Even more tangible than Noem VP speculation is the possibility that South Dakota Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune will be voted by his peers as Senate leader in December, taking the reins after nearly two decades from Kentucky's Mitch McConnell.

"It would be the most influence South Dakota has ever had in Washington," Venhuizen said of the possibility of having Noem as vice president and Thune as Senate Republican leader, in the majority or minority depending on the election.

Former South Dakota Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle served as both minority leader and majority leader in the Senate before being ousted by Thune in a landmark 2004 election.

Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate as minority whip, has met with GOP colleagues privately and is viewed by Washington insiders as the favorite to win the job in a secret ballot over U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, though other contenders could emerge.

Thune criticized Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and called for him to withdraw his 2016 candidacy following the release of a 2005 Access Hollywood tape of Trump having a lewd conversation about sexual mistreatment of women.

Yet Thune twice voted against impeachment and endorsed the former president last month, a nod to the reality of procuring power in a Make America Great Again-fueled Republican Party.

Noem softens stance on Trump

While the 63-year-old Thune has been building up to the role of Senate leader for more than a decade, Noem’s rise to the level of White House hopeful is a more recent phenomenon.

She started off as a Trump critic while serving in Congress, saying in an interview with Yankton's WNAX radio in late 2015 that "he’s not my candidate” and calling Trump's comments about banning Muslims "un-American." In a separate interview looking ahead to the 2016 Iowa Caucuses, Noem said of Trump’s sizable lead in the polls: “I look at the candidates who are running and think, ‘Who do I want in the room when we’re negotiating with Iran?’ It’s not going to be Donald Trump. His principles and values don’t align with mine, and his offensive nature wouldn’t serve us very well in the presidency.”

Noem softened that stance when Trump became the 2016 nominee and defeated Hillary Clinton to win the White House. When Noem became governor and publicly derided COVID restrictions after initially supporting them, she and Trump became more politically connected.

Noem’s national profile and status within Trump’s orbit surged in the summer of 2020, leading to his visit to Mount Rushmore for July 4 festivities and her speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Washington.

When he lost to Biden that year but decided to run again in 2024, Noem decided that her best path was not challenging him for the nomination but rather remaining a strong supporter and perhaps going along for the ride.

"She started to see her ticket to national prominence as a vice presidential nominee," said Schaff. "Because Trump already served a term, he can only constitutionally serve one more term as president. So if he wins, you would have to think that the person serving as vice president becomes his heir apparent."

Can Noem help win presidential election?

So will Trump actually pick Noem as his running mate?

It would be much less surprising than McCain's choice of Palin in 2008, since Trump and Noem are already aligned in many ways and Noem is more politically seasoned than Palin.

The question is whether she helps the ticket strategically, since featuring Noem – who is more conservative than Trump on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage – doesn't appeal to the type of moderate suburban voter needed to win.

"The traditional view is that you choose a running mate to broaden your appeal or improve your chances in the general election," said Michael Card, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. "So it's either picking someone very different from yourself or someone very similar. Mike Pence was needed (in 2016) to shore up the evangelical vote. But Trump doesn't need that as much because Christian nationalists generally appreciated the policies put forward by his administration or confirmed by the Supreme Court."

Another factor is whether the VP nominee can withstand the heat of the campaign and not make mistakes that harm the ticket.

Noem drew national attention March 11 for posting an infomercial video for a Texas cosmetic dental office on her personal social media channels, which drew a lawsuit from a nonpartisan consumer group and questions about her ethical judgment.

In tennis and politics, "unforced errors" can be the most damaging.

As of March 17, Noem is no longer listed as the betting favorite to get the vice presidential nod, falling behind South Carolina's Scott but still ahead of Stefanik, Gabbard and Ramaswamy.

In the end, though, there is just one person that South Dakota's governor needs to persuade, and Trump likes those who can handle the glare. Noem has done more mainstream TV interviews recently to answer critics who said she is more suited to "preaching to the choir" on conservative outlets such as Fox News.

"There are few politicians as good as Kristi Noem at sticking to the script," USD's Card said. "If the script is well-presented and especially if she has a friendly audience, which doesn't necessarily mean a debate audience, she does very well."

As the audition continues, so will the chances to expand those expectations.

This South Dakota News Watch article is republished with the permission of SDNW.

Photo: While running for governor in 2018, Kristi Noem was joined by then-President Donald Trump for a Sioux Falls, S.D., fundraising event. Now she's a possible vice presidential choice. (Photo: Argus Leader/South Dakota News Watch).

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If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

• Now that she's sunk her teeth into side gig work, Noem shares more ‘influencer’ posts that critics label unethical and ‘bad judgment’
• In Winner, Noem links tribal leaders to cartels
• SWO Dakota to Governor Noem: don't single out reservations when drugs are a statewide problem
• Noem banned from Pine Ridge Reservation over remarks in border speech to state legislature
• Explaining and gaining? Noem concedes Texas costs were gift to Lone Star state; meets with two South Dakota House tribal members
• Drug cartels have infiltrated reservations, Noem says, but some tribal voices call speech ‘political’
• Noem to address Legislature on ‘potential South Dakota response’ to Mexico border situation
• No word on who paid or if she packed razor wire: Noem travels again to Texas-Mexico border
• Our own Ludlow? Noem partying like 1914 with use of private money to deploy National Guard
• Positive pants on fire: Noem fibs about policy, keeps Corey Lewandowski at her side in DC
• Positive Pants: South DaCOVID Governor Kristi Noem garners the best national headlines
• Death. We're on it: SD Gov. Noem wants to open tribal checkpoints, shut down sovereignty
• The first step to recovery is admitting there's a problem; or, Meth, We're On It in South Dakota)

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