Bluestem Prairie

After many years, Republican Sue Ek makes second try at St. Cloud MNHouse district

In Friday's Star Tribune, Briana Bierschbach reports in Battle to control the House could end DFL control in Minnesota. Here are 5 things you need to know.:

. . . Ultimately only a handful of the House seats will be competitive, attracting millions of dollars in spending from candidates, parties and outside political groups trying to tip the balance of power. . . .

. . .[Republicans] see an opening in a a swing district seat in St. Cloud held by DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott, who pleaded guilty to a DWI charge last fall.  . . .

Yep, it's on the radar. 

So who's running against Wolgamott?  On Friday (today), Sue Ek filed as a Republican in MN House 14B. The name rang a bell, though I'm so old I had to goggle why.

Oh right, there was this paragraph in Brian Bakst and David H. Montgomery's 2021 Minnesota Public Radio report Key facts about state Rep. John Thompson’s residency issues:

 . . . Are there similar residency disputes in the past? 

Thompson isn’t the first lawmaker or candidate for office to face scrutiny over his residency. 

In 2005, Republican legislative candidate Sue Ek was removed from the ballot after she couldn’t prove she lived in a St. Cloud, Minn., district long enough ahead of a special election. The state Supreme Court upheld a referee’s finding that Ek was more tied to a St. Paul district than one in St. Cloud within the six-month lead-up to the election. . . 

How is Ek framing that? In February, Jennifer Lewerenz reported in Republican Sue Ek Challenges Democratic Rep. Dan Wolgamott for House 14B Seat for KNSI Radio:

. . . The 61-year-old Ek ran for office in 2005 but had to drop out due to a technicality. ...

Ek was endorsed by the district GOP in March.

That's nice.  Ek didn't take the question very seriously in 2005, when MPR asked Where does Sue Ek live?, just before the court's booted her off the ballot.

After Ek's name was taken from the ballot, MPR reported Mother of disqualified candidate must run as a write-in:

The Minnesota Supreme Court this week removed Republican House candidate Sue Ek from the ballot, ruling that Ek wasn't a resident of the district for the required six months before the election. With the election just a week away, Ek's mother Kay says she'll run in her daughter's place.

But the Attorney General's office says Ek's only option is to run as a write-in candidate. Chief Deputy Attorney General Kris Eiden says state election laws are clear about replacing candidates right before the election.

"They indicate that a person can be substituted on the ballot if there's a death, catastrophic illness, or if the original candidate withdraws. And any withdrawal under the statute would have had to have occurred within two days after the filing deadline, which didn't happen here," says Eiden.

A similar question arose after the death of Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone just 11 days before the 2002 election. Wellstone's name was replaced by Democratic candidate Walter Mondale on the ballot. . . .

Ek's late mother received 26.19 percent of the vote in the 2005 special election.

As far as Bluestem can tell-- checking out a couple of minor tickets in the Minnesota case records online--Sue Ek lives in St. Cloud these days.

This is merely a footnote in the current election, and Bluestem believes voters are unlikely base their choices on the 2005 mistake, since nearly 20 years have passed.

Photo: Ek in 2021, from the Central Minnesota Catholic Magazine of the Diocese of St. Cloud article, St. Cloud woman to receive ‘Humanae Vitae’ award July 29.

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HPAI digest: 3rd worker catches flu; testing not reaching workers; more MN flocks stricken

A news digest about highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), which is not just for birds anymore, as it was when I first began reporting on the outbreaks in the poultry industry several years ago. Now, as I posted earlier this month in  At a Michigan dairy: CDC confirms second bird flu infection of dairy worker farm workers are catching the disease.

At the New York Times, Apoorva Mandavilli reports in Bird Flu Has Infected a Third U.S. Farmworker:

A third farmworker in the United States has been found to be infected with bird flu, heightening concerns about an outbreak among dairy cattle first identified in March.

The worker is the first in this outbreak to have respiratory symptoms, including a cough, sore throat and watery eyes, which generally increase the likelihood of transmission to other people, federal officials said on Thursday.

The other two people had only severe eye infections, possibly because of exposure to contaminated milk.

All three individuals had direct exposure to dairy cows, and so far none has spread the virus to other people, Dr. Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing.

That suggests that the virus, called H5N1, has not acquired the ability to spread among people and that the threat to the general public remains low, Dr. Shah said.

“This newest case does not change the C.D.C.’s H5N1 influenza risk assessment level for the general public,” he added. “We should remain alert, not be alarmed.”

But the case does highlight the ongoing risk to farm workers, Dr. Shah said: “Our top priority now across this response is protecting the health of farmworkers.”

This case is the second in Michigan, but the individual worked on a different farm than did the worker diagnosed last week. All three infected people so far have been treated with the antiviral medication oseltamivir, sometimes marketed as Tamiflu, officials said. . . .

Read the rest at the Times.

Both MinnPost and the Minnesota Reformer have shared a KFF Health News story about the risks farmworkers face from exposure to HPAI in Farmworkers Face High-Risk Exposures to Bird Flu, but Testing Isn’t Reaching Them. Tony Lays and Amy Maxmen report:

Farmworkers face some of the most intense exposures to the bird flu virus, but advocates say many of them would lack resources to fall back on if they became ill.

As of May 30, only three people in the United States had tested positive after being exposed to a wave of bird flu spreading among cows. Those people, dairy farm workers in Texas and Michigan, experienced eye irritation. One of them also had a cough and sore throat.

Scientists warn the virus could mutate to spread from person to person like the seasonal flu, which could spark a pandemic. By keeping tabs on farmworkers, researchers could track infections, learn how dangerous they are, and be alerted if the virus becomes more infectious.

But people generally get tested when they seek treatment for illnesses. Farmworkers rarely do that, because many lack health insurance and paid sick leave, said Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for the national group United Farm Workers. They are unlikely to go to a doctor unless they become very ill.

Strater said about 150,000 people work in U.S. dairies. She said many worker advocates believe the virus has spread to more people than tests are showing. “The method being used to surveil at-risk workers has been very passive,” she said.

Federal officials told reporters May 22 that just 40 people connected to U.S. dairy farms had been tested for the virus, although others are being “actively monitored” for symptoms.

Federal authorities recently announced they would pay farmworkers $75 each to be tested for the virus, as part of a new program that also offers incentives for farm owners to allow testing of their dairy herds. . . .

Read the article at any of the three publications. A Creative Commons license is a wonderful thing.

Not that the poultry industry is off the hook. Thursday morning on Willmar Radio, the Learfield network reported in 5 Confirmed Cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Minnesota:

There's another major outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Minnesota. The state Board of Animal Health's Doctor Shauna Voss says within the last week we've had a total of five confirmed cases of H-P-A-I in our poultry populations. She says that includes commercial turkey farms and an egg layer facility in Meeker County that had more than one-point-three million birds. Voss says this is an ongoing bird flu outbreak that actually started in the spring of 2022. She says they are working with producers to make sure they are implementing mitigation measures to help protect their farms.

The West Central Tribune republished Minnesota Public Radio's coverage, Bird flu continues to spread as pathogen spills into other populations. Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton report:

Millions of birds around the country are being culled by farmers as an outbreak of avian influenza, or bird flu, continues to spread — and infect other species like cattle.

Crews in Sioux County, Iowa, were forced to dispatch a flock of 4.2 million egg-laying chickens, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. It’s the first backyard or poultry case in the state this year. Last week, another 1.4 million chickens were euthanized at an egg farm west of Minneapolis due to bird flu.

“It’s always a concern when we see this virus enter a flock of that size. Unfortunately, the mortality rates with this virus approach 100%, so the humane thing to do is to euthanize, depopulate these birds before they have to suffer,” Dr. Brian Hoefs, state veterinarian with the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, told MPR News on Wednesday.

This bird flu season is “a little bit later than we would expect,” he said. “The migration has moved through, and we thought we were somewhat in the clear, but it appears that it's hanging around. The virus is in the environment, it's in local birds, and we're expecting this to drag out a little bit more than it had.”

Earlier this spring, a young goat in Stevens County contracted the disease — the first detection in U.S. livestock. There’s also growing concern over the pathogen being present in the dairy milk supply. The Centers for Disease Control recently reported two cases of an avian influenza strain infecting humans; Hoefs says there are many lingering unknowns. The presentation of disease like mild pinkeye, he said, was unconventional for an influenza virus. . . .

Read the rest to learn about about biosecurity. We're hoping losses by both poultry and dairy farmers--and sickness among dairy workers--are kept to a minimum.

Photo: A barn cat. from CIDRAP's Tests confirm avian flu on New Mexico dairy farm; probe finds cats positive,

Related posts

•  At a Michigan dairy: CDC confirms second bird flu infection of dairy worker
• U.S. Department of Agriculture to require bird flu tests of lactating dairy cattle before transport 
• How two vets discovered avian flu in dairy cows
• Sick cows news digest: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza detected in South Dakota dairy herd 
• [VIDEO] State vet briefs MN House Ag Committee on avian flu (HPAI) in dairy cows and people
• Not an April Fools' Day joke: Person in contact with HPAI infected cows in Texas catches bird flu
• Dairy cattle in Kansas and Texas catch highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) from wild birds
• 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. 

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

 

South Dakota Board of Regents bans tribal affiliations in employees' emails

A friend had shared a CBS News Minnesota article about the latest South Dakota policy, Pronouns, tribal affiliations now forbidden in South Dakota public university employee emails, asking me "What the heck?"

Read the Associated Press coverage at the WCCO link.

At Open Campus, Nick Fouriezos reports in The newest higher ed battleground: college email signatures:

Battles over diversity, equity, and inclusion are playing out on campuses across the country. Fourteen states, most of them with large rural populations, have outright banned DEI offices since 2023, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

Here’s one under-the-radar consequence: Human Resources staff at the University of South Dakota told two administrators that they could be fired for language in their email signatures.

John Little and Megan Red Shirt-Shaw, who both work in student services roles, said in a statement last week that they were forced to remove their gender pronouns and tribal affiliation from their university email signatures.

The cause of the sudden threat to their livelihoods? A guidance the Board of Regents passed in December that restricts all employees in the state’s public higher education system in what they can include in their official communications. It outright bans inclusion of any information outside of the sender’s name, email/physical addresses, telephone number(s), and links to the institution’s website.

Students and faculty alike have protested the signature policy. The student government passed a resolution condemning it in February, noting that the policy came just months after previous calls for South Dakota universities to remove pronouns from communications and is “unnecessarily restricting the speech of University employees.” 

“There is a general sentiment from people on campus that the policy is very heavy handed and creates more issues than benefits for the university,” says sophomore Sam Markley, the government affairs chair for the student government.

Nearly 1 in 10 people in South Dakota identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native, and the university boasts having “over 30 tribal nations represented on campus.” 

Little and Red Shirt-Shaw had included tribal affiliations in their signatures before the guidance because it makes sense for their work. Little is the director of Native Recruitment and Shirt-Shaw is director of Native Student Services.

They raised the issue publicly for the first time last week, although the conversation with HR took place back in March. Both declined to speak with Open Campus more, saying they would need to consult with their legal counsel more before doing any interviews.

Since receiving a written warning,  Little and Red Shirt-Shaw have decided to adjust their signatures. (They continue to include that information in the body text of their emails, and say they were told doing so wouldn’t be challenged by the university or regents as of now.) 

Little said in a statement published on X.com (formerly Twitter) that he felt saddened that the Board of Regents “continues the erasure of Native people in the state of South Dakota.” 

He made the decision to remove his signature in part because a suspension would have kept him from attending campus events, including the 12th Annual Native Alumni Dinner, which featured four Native women discussing their experiences at USD a half century ago.

“It was amazing to hear their power and strength in overcoming the racism and difficulties at USD during the 1970s, but also sad to realize that South Dakota continues to limit how we can identify ourselves,” Little said.

The net effect of the policy, critics say, is that South Dakota has managed to ban administrators putting gender pronouns and tribal affiliations in their signatures without having to, well, explicitly say that they are targeting LGBTQ and tribal identities.

Critics of the policy say it effectively targets administrators with LGBTW and tribal identities, creating an atmosphere where they may feel unwelcome. The University of South Dakota didn’t respond to our request for comment.

 The USD Board of Regents did not respond to specific questions asked about the policy, but replied by saying that although employees may have “additional information they would like to share,” it was “critical” to identify consistent parameters for official communication as an employer.

“While supplemental contextual information can offer value in certain instances, consistent criteria for communications are necessary to safeguard our universities’ missions and interests,” Shuree Mortenson, director of communications, said.

The policy comes on the heels of other controversial actions, including a Board of Regents decision to replace its diversity offices with “opportunity centers” in 2022.

“There’s a part of me that feels like this is a way of getting back at tribal peoples,” says Cheryl Crazy Bull, a member of the Sicangu Lakota nation in South Dakota and current president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund. 

“I feel like I am in the multiverse,” said Crazy Bull, who is also a USD graduate.

On one hand, she sees “a very robust national conversation” from many in higher education about “equity, inclusion, and finding pathways for Native people,” including some states agreeing to offer in-state tuition for Native students, among other perks meant to enhance Native enrollment.

Yet there has also been a simultaneous and noticeable shift in anti-diversity legislation and policies coming from what Crazy Bull calls “a minority with great influence,” who she describes as having a mindset of “let me erase you, let me pretend you don’t need support, let me forget the history, and the value of doing reparative and restorative work.” 

There will likely be more of a response from Native organizations nationwide in the coming weeks, as more information comes out, Crazy Bull told me. In the meantime, she is calling for other groups to join Native communities in solidarity to advocate for a more inclusive signature policy.

“The part of me that wants to protest makes me think that everyone should put their ancestry and heritage and pronouns in their emails,” Crazy Bull says. “It shouldn’t just be Native people who feel like this targets them. Our allies should say: “I think I’ll put that I’m German, and I’d like to be known by they/them.”

Given how Governor Noem has lamented native children lacking hope, Bluestem's not surprised to see this attempt to erase staff's identity. Captain Richard Henry Pratt would be proud.

This Open Campus article is republished online under  Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. I first read the piece at MinnPost.

Photo: The University of South Dakota in Vermillion (Courtesy Photo via Open Campus).

Related posts

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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. 

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Rick Weible fails to convince South Dakota Board of Elections to move toward hand-counting

Once again, Rick Weible, an election denier/election integrity/ tax refugee who transplanted himself from Minnesota to South Dakota, shows up in the news. 

Readers can red earlier appearances in my list of related posts at the end of this South Dakota Searchlight article.

Activists fail to convince Board of Elections to move toward hand-counting
By Joshua Haiar

The state Board of Elections did not approve petitions Wednesday from activists who want to move the state toward hand-counting ballots.

A Republican state Senate candidate, Rick Weible, of Elkton, petitioned the board for declaratory rulings. The petitions asked the board to take several actions, including deeming certain election tabulating software non-compliant with state law and de-certifying its use. The board did not grant the requests.

Board member Scott McGregor said afterward that Weible and his supporters routinely attend board meetings to pursue their agenda.

“It’s all about going back to hand-counting our elections,” McGregor said.

He added that Weible and others in attendance are misguided: The appointed board serves an administrative function and does not make law.

“They need to talk to the Legislature,” McGregor said.

During the meeting, Weible and his group lashed out at Republican Secretary of State Monae Johnson, the state’s top elections official. Weible helped Johnson win the office, and while she was campaigning, she repeatedly declined to say whether she accepted the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Attendees at Wednesday’s meeting accused Johnson of betraying them since she won her office. She did not respond.

Meanwhile, three South Dakota counties will ask voters Tuesday if they should ban the use of tabulator machines in future local elections. Each of the measures was petitioned onto local ballots by members and supporters of a group called South Dakota Canvassing, of which Weible is a member. 

If the measures pass, the auditor’s offices in each county would have to hand-count ballots in the Nov. 5 general election and thereafter. The votes are in Gregory, Haakon and Tripp counties.

Photo:  Poll watcher Rick Weible observes the counting of ballots during the Sioux Falls city and school board election on April 9, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight

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

Related posts

• Three SD counties will vote on banning ballot tabulator machines, requiring hand-counting
• Hand counting vs. voting machines: the usual election deniers rage in South Dakota 
• Poll shows South Dakota voters question integrity of elections; South Dakota War College names rise of election truthers #1 2023 story 
• Not just a leaking nuclear plant: MN tax refugee returns to Monticello to update big lie 
• Rick Weible includes SD Secretary of State Monae Johnson as swamp dweller
• Former small-town Minnesota mayor Rick Weible is behind the rise of electoral activism in South Dakota. He's just getting started
• Rick Weible includes SD Secretary of State Monae Johnson as swamp dweller
• SD Searchlight: Incoming Secretary of State looks to hand-count ballots, audit each election 
• The big lie goes on tour in Minnesota [Minnesota Reformer]
• Ben Davis, Master of Ceremonies for Dec 2021 'Searching For Truth' event, GOP endorsed in 6A
• Westrom wouldn't talk to local reporter about why he attended sketchy election fraud event

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

Carbon capture update: North Dakota landowners "horrendous" interaction with Summit; farmers ponder price connection

Some catch-up on ethanol carbon capture news after taking the weekend off.

Just before the Memorial Day weekend, Jeff Beach reported for the North Dakota Monitor in Landowners call communication with Summit ‘horrendous’ during CO2 pipeline rehearing:

WAHPETON, N.D. — Communication, or the lack of it, between Summit Carbon Solutions and North Dakota landowners was highlighted in testimony Friday during a Public Service Commission hearing on Summit’s proposed carbon capture pipeline. 

Richland County landowner Loren Staroba and other landowners testified that they have been frustrated by a lack of communication throughout the pipeline siting process. 

Staroba said Summit sent him a written request for survey access that included wrong information, including identifying that land as being in Dickey County, not Richland. 

“Do we want to work with a company that can’t even get the county correct?” Staroba asked.

Staroba said he has proposed a reroute to get the pipeline from cutting across a section, but felt he has been ignored. 

He cited other landowners that were able to get the pipeline routed around their property but only because the PSC singled out those landowners after the 2023 round of public hearings. 

The three-member PSC denied Summit a pipeline route permit last year but the company has made changes to its route and appealed that decision. The PSC is in the middle of hearings on the Summit pipeline as it reconsiders the company’s application. 

Friday’s hearing started with four landowners represented by Domina Law attorney Brian Jorde, who has clients across the footprint of the Summit pipeline, which would run through Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. 

All four landowners complained that Summit has not communicated with them adequately. 

Commissioner Sheri Haugen-Hoffart asked two of those landowners why they hadn’t reached out to Summit in the last year. 

Those landowners said they had hoped the project would go away. 

Jorde said the burden was on Summit to address the concerns that the landowners have made. 

Jorde said letters sent to Summit attorneys a month ago did not elicit a response until those letters were filed with PSC. Then responses came in the last few days. 

Later in the all-day hearing, Ben Dotzenrod repeated those complaints. 

“The communication has been horrendous, like a lot of people have said,” Dotzenrod said.

Among those testifying in favor of the pipeline were Andew Mauch, who farms in Richland County and is president of the North Dakota Corn Growers Association. He read a statement of support that he said received unanimous approval from the group’s board on the benefits of the pipeline for ethanol and the growers who supply ethanol plants with corn. 

He also has signed an easement agreement with Summit. He said Summit has answered his questions about the pipeline, including Summit’s ability to repair drain tile on the fields.

Ryan Carter, chief operating officer of Tharaldson Ethanol at Casselton, the only North Dakota ethanol plant among the 57 plants that have signed on to the Summit carbon capture and sequestration project, also testified. 

He said that with the project and other efforts to lower its carbon intensity, Tharaldson Ethanol could become eligible to sell into the emerging sustainable aviation fuel market. 

Mauch called that market a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 

“If we won’t be able to play in this market, our price of corn is dramatically going to be decreased,” Mauch said. 

Another farmer, Karla Waloch of Sargent County, said even with the advent of the ethanol industry, “the price of corn has still gone up and down.” 

Concerns from the landowners including damage to farmland, pointing to damage to farmland still evident decades after other pipelines were put in. 

“The land is scarred,” Starboda said.

Jeanne Lugert said Summit’s offer to compensate farmers in exchange for the voluntary easement fell far short. 

“It wasn’t anything,” she said in a response to a Summit attorney. “And since I haven’t heard a single thing from Summit since, I have no idea what you’re going to do.”

Landowners also cited safety concerns. Lugert complained that at a safety meeting  held in Mantador that Summit offered little useful information. 

“They really didn’t answer the questions,” Lugert said. 

Opponents often cite a carbon pipeline rupture in Mississippi in 2022 that sent dozens of people to the hospital. There also was a leak this year in Louisiana. 

Iowa-based Summit calls its $8 billion project the world’s largest for capturing carbon. The CO2 would be stored underground northwest of Bismarck. 

There would be 22.7 miles in Cass County, running south from the ethanol plant at Casselton. There would be two sections of the 66 miles of pipeline in Richland County. One section would come from the Tharaldson ethanol plant near Casselton. It would connect to a line that would come from the Green Plains ethanol plant at Fergus Falls, Minnesota. 

The CO2 would flow through Sargent (40 miles) and Dickey (37.4 miles) before connecting to the main trunk of the pipeline in South Dakota.

Technical hearings, with no public testimony, are set next week in Bismarck. A final public hearing is June 4 in Linton. 

And in today's Monitor, Beach reports more on the uncertain economics of this for farmers in Corn price connection to carbon capture hard to pin down:

The ethanol industry says capturing carbon emissions from ethanol plants and storing it underground is needed to help the industry keep up with the trend toward greener energy. 

But it’s unclear what the direct benefit to the farmers who supply corn to the ethanol plant might be. 

David Ripplinger is an associate professor at North Dakota State University, who specializes in renewable fuels. 

“So everybody always asks me, ‘Well, what’s the price of carbon?’” Ripplinger said. “The problem is, there isn’t a single price of carbon. 

“It’s not as if there’s a futures market or a spot market and transparency of a price, let alone what it might be for a particular farmer or rancher.” 

Two North Dakota ethanol plants are already capturing carbon, benefiting from being in the western part of the state where the right geology for underground storage is nearby. 

There’s also the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, which the Iowa-based company calls the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project. The company hopes to connect 57 ethanol plants to underground storage sites northwest of Bismarck. 

The pipeline project is expected to benefit from huge federal incentives in the form of tax credits. 

The tax credits go to the ethanol plant or to the pipeline developer.  

“The ones who are investing billions of dollars are the ones who are going to benefit,” Ripplinger said. 

While the investments may not be in the billions, investors in Summit’s $8 billion project include Continental Resources, an oil and gas company that operates in North Dakota; Gary Tharaldson, owner of Tharaldson Ethanol, the only North Dakota ethanol plant signed on to the project; and agribusiness giant John Deere. 

At the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck last week, Summit Carbon Solutions co-founder Bruce Rastetter took the stage with Harold Hamm of Continental Resources to highlight the ag-energy partnership of the two companies. 

“Profitability drives investment,” Rastetter said in attracting investors such as John Deere. 

The three-member Public Service Commission is in the middle of hearings on the Summit pipeline as it reconsiders the company’s permit application. Technical hearings are set this week in Bismarck and a public hearing is June 4 in Linton. 

The PSC denied Summit a permit last year but the company has made changes to its route and appealed that decision. 

Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank, in an interview with the North Dakota Monitor, said the ethanol plant partners will benefit from the project, but how much of a benefit it provides will vary from plant to plant. He said the plants should get a minimum benefit of 20 cents per gallon of ethanol. 

But Blank would not offer an estimated price premium that could be passed on to farmers for the corn used to produce ethanol. 

“It is still the concept of a rising tide lifts all boats,” Blank said. 

Recouping investment

The two North Dakota plants that have developed their own carbon capture and storage systems are Red Trail near Richardton and Blue Flint near Underwood. 

Jodi Johnson, CEO of Red Trail, said the carbon capture project was a $35 million investment that will take time to pay off. She said the project doesn’t mean it can pay a premium price to corn growers but could provide a benefit to farmers who are partners in Red Trail. 

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring is among those partners as a farmer southeast of Bismarck. He said he  didn’t expect to see a benefit from carbon storage right away but hopes to down the road. 

Ripplinger said an ethanol plant such as Red Trail forging ahead on its own has to bear those upfront costs. 

“The ultimate benefit to farmers in the region would be a stronger local customer,” Ripplinger said.

Keeping up

For Andrew Mauch, president of the North Dakota Corn Growers Association, it’s not so much about expecting a price bump for corn with carbon capture, it’s about not getting left out of the low-carbon fuel market. 

“If that market expands and we’re not qualified, our price is going to drop substantially,” said Mauch who farms near Mooreton. 

Red Trail is developing a program with farmers that may lead to a premium price for those who are able to document growing low-carbon corn that will help further lower the ethanol plant’s carbon-intensity score. But Johnson said it was too early to estimate what that premium might be. 

Blank also noted that trend. 

“I think, over time, we will see the farmer and the ethanol industry probably work much more hand in hand,” Blank said. 

But Ripplinger said if those low-carbon practices become widespread, that premium isn’t really a premium anymore. 

“So if it’s all low-carbon corn, but it’s not low-carbon corn anymore. That’s just corn,” Ripplinger said. “It’s kind of the idea of, if everybody’s special, nobody’s special.” 

The North Dakota Monitor articles above are republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo:  A truck delivers corn to the Tharaldson Ethanol plant near Casselton, North Dakota, on May 15, 2024. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor).

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• Navigator CO2 pulls its ethanol carbon pipeline permit application in Illinois
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• Iowa Capital Dispatch: Summit pipeline hearing will resume on Tuesday; Navigator asks Iowa regulators to pause its pipeline permit request
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• North Dakota Public Service Commission votes 2-1 to reopen Summit Carbon pipeline case
• Navigator CO2 has not ‘taken any state off the map’ after SD pipeline permit rejection 
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• Iowa utility regulators want to finish Summit pipeline permit hearing by month’s end
• State denies Summit permit; both ethanol carbon pipelines proposed in South Dakota now rejected
• Summit Carbon Solutions forges ahead despite SD PUC staff's motion to deny pipeline permit 
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• South Dakota Navigator pipeline decision might jeopardize Summit Carbon Solutions proposal
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•  Iowa governor denies influence over Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline project process
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• ND Public Service Commission denies Summit Carbon Solutions permit for ethanol carbon pipeline
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• Thanks to federal tax credits, it’s boom time in the Midwest for carbon dioxide pipelines 
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• South Dakota Searchlight: Environmental groups seek Biden moratorium on ethanol CO2 pipelines
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• Ethanol CO2 pipeline news digest: PUC hearings in Minnesota; South Dakota lawsuits; IA setbacks
• CURE files appeal with MN PUC on Summit Carbon pipeline environmental review
• News digest: South Dakota and Minnesota PUCs deal with Summit carbon pipeline issues
•  In Iowa, ethanol carbon pipeline opponents want pause until new safety regulations are ready
•  Summit Carbon Solutions files permit for risky CO2 pipeline in Otter Tail and Wilkin Counties 
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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. 

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Memorial Day weekend break: Bluestem will resume publishing May 28

I'll be taking some time off publishing Bluestem Prairie until Tuesday, May 28, to catch up with gardening and to remember my uncles who died in World War II. 

Star Tribune Minnesota history columnist Curt Brown told the story of one of those uncles last year in Remembering a Minnesota soldier killed in a Nazi massacre nearly 80 years ago.

On Monday, please take time to remember those service members who gave all to their country. My partner--a Dakota elder--and I will be attending a flag ceremony on the Lake Traverse Reservation on Monday, as well as a traditional Dakota Kit Fox Society ceremony on Thursday.

Enjoy the holiday weekend.

Photo: My uncle's grave in the Fort Snelling National Cemetery. Photo by Sarah Hayden.

 

South Dakota's Republican Secretary of State Monae Johnson runs afoul of anti-abortion groups after labeling their phone calls a ‘scam’

Another glimpse into the Itchy and Scratchy Show that is South Dakota politics, Republican politics in this instance. And here I thought the Republican cicada closing to the Minnesota legislative session was something special.

Our state motto is "Under God, the People Rule," but I gather there are some misgivings at time about letting the people vote.

Learn more about the measure and the attempt to get it pulled from the ballot in Abortion-rights measure validated for the ballot, but challenge expected at the South Dakota Searchlight.

The latest on the effort from South Dakota Searchlight:

Republican runs afoul of anti-abortion groups after labeling their phone calls a ‘scam’
By Joshua Haiar

A top Republican state official has run afoul of anti-abortion groups after labeling their recent phone operation a “scam.”

The controversy started May 13 with a news release from South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson, who oversees elections. The release warned about phone calls from people who allegedly claimed to work for her office.

The callers were contacting people who had signed a petition to place an abortion-rights measure on the ballot in the Nov. 5 election. The phone operation was part of a coordinated attempt to gather information for a legal challenge to the petition, and to inform people that they could withdraw their signatures.

Johnson’s news release said callers were “impersonating” her staff and “trying to pressure voters into asking that their name be removed” from the petitions. The release included a quote from Johnson: “Citizens in South Dakota, by law, have the right to petition and people like these scammers are eroding public trust in the election process,” she said.

Johnson asked Attorney General Marty Jackley, a fellow Republican, to look into the calls. He announced one day later that no laws were broken, and subsequently told South Dakota Searchlight that callers did not impersonate anyone or claim to work for the secretary of state.

‘Irreversible damage’ alleged

The episode angered state Rep. Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, who was involved in the phone operation. He is the vice president of the board of South Dakota Right to Life and co-chair of the Life Defense Fund.

“By labeling our lawful activity as a scam, Secretary of State Johnson has done significant and irreversible damage to the pro-life movement in South Dakota,” Hansen said in a statement to Searchlight.

Johnson did not answer Searchlight’s request for a response to Hansen’s comment. She was elected in November 2022 after convincing delegates to the state Republican convention earlier that year to nominate her instead of the incumbent secretary of state, Steve Barnett.

Johnson’s news release labeling anti-abortion activists’ efforts a scam could be a problem for her political future if it proves to be a “burr in the pro-life movement’s saddle,” said Lisa Hager, associate professor of political science at South Dakota State University. 

The ballot measure would amend the state constitution to include abortion rights. Hager said if a legal challenge removes the measure from the ballot, or if it makes the ballot and voters reject it, Johnson’s news release could end up being “a blip on the radar.”

“A lot of what happens with this probably hinges on what happens with the abortion amendment,” Hager said.

Jackley explains findings

Jackley said in an interview with South Dakota Searchlight that two state laws are relevant to the phone-call controversy. 

One law says falsely pretending to be a public official is a crime. Although the Secretary of State’s Office said callers were “impersonating” the office’s staff, Jackley said that wasn’t the case. He said callers read a script identifying themselves as volunteers for a group that obtained information about petition signers from the Secretary of State’s Office.

“Nobody called and said they were with the secretary of state,” Jackley said. “There was no impersonation.”

He said some people may have mistakenly thought the callers were public officials, but there is no evidence the callers deliberately created that impression. 

“Could they have been reading the script too fast?” Jackley said. “Possibly.”

Hansen provided South Dakota Searchlight a copy of the script used by callers. It said, in part, “I’m a local volunteer with the South Dakota Petition Integrity Committee which is an organization registered with the South Dakota Secretary of State and staffed by local volunteers.”

South Dakota Petition Integrity is a political action committee that Hansen registered on May 13, the same day Johnson issued her press release.

Another state law says it’s a crime to impersonate a public official while injuring or defrauding someone. 

“We have to prove both,” Jackley said, adding that no impersonation occurred, and there is no evidence anyone was tricked into removing their signature, nor that any other legal damages occurred.

Challenge to petition expected

Dakotans for Health is the ballot question committee supporting the abortion-rights amendment. The group’s lawyer, Jim Leach, declined to comment on the lack of criminal charges against the phone operation because “we’re about to be sued by Life Defense Fund.”

Life Defense Fund, a ballot question committee organized to defeat the ballot measure, has already said it will challenge the validity of petition signatures. People associated with the committee have alleged some petition signers were duped into believing they were signing a petition to repeal the state sales tax on groceries, when they were actually signing the abortion-rights petition. Dakotans for Health circulated both petitions.

Republican legislators laid part of the groundwork for a legal challenge by passing a bill in March allowing people to withdraw their petition signatures. 

Hansen, who was a prime sponsor of that bill, said the phone campaign was part of the “independent research into the validity of the petition signatures” that “is a requirement upon us to bring our challenge under South Dakota law.”

The Secretary of State’s Office has since announced that the abortion-rights petition had enough signatures from registered voters to be placed on the ballot. That triggered a 30-day window in which opponents can challenge the petition’s validity. Hansen and his Life Defense Fund co-chair said they’ll file a challenge “at the appropriate time.”

Abortions are currently banned in the state, except to “preserve the life of the pregnant female.” The ballot measure, if approved by voters, would legalize abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy but allow the state to impose limited regulations in the second trimester and a ban in the third trimester, with exceptions for the life and health of the mother.

Dakotans for Health Chairman Rick Weiland described the phone campaign as unethical. 

“We knew all this would happen once that signature removal bill passed,” Weiland said. “They did and continue to misrepresent the ballot measure.”

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

Images--at top: South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson applauds Gov. Kristi Noem before Noem delivered her 2023 budget address on the House floor of the Capitol building on Dec. 5, 2023. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) In post: A script used by callers contacting signers of an abortion-rights petition. (Courtesy of Rep. John Hansen via South Dakota Searchlight).

Related posts

• Open primaries measure approved for SD ballot
• SD grocery tax repeal validated for the ballot 
• Group says it’s filing petition signatures to put grocery tax repeal on South Dakota ballot
• Budget reckoning looms in Pierre as Governor Kristi Noem talks tax cuts and discipline
• South Dakota News Watch: Gov. Kristi Noem pulls support for grocery tax measure over jeopardized tobacco money
• A tale of two states, two sales taxes: Jensen and Noem share very different campaign promises
• SD lawmakers (like Dem gubernatorial contender Smith) tried cutting grocery sales tax before 

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

At a Michigan dairy: CDC confirms second bird flu infection of dairy worker

An update on the ongoing story of bird flu in dairy cattle, from Iowa Capital Dispatch.

CDC confirms second bird flu infection of dairy worker
By Jared Strong

A Michigan dairy employee is the second known person to contract bird flu while working with infected cattle in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The person had symptoms of an eye infection and has recovered. That is similar to the first infection that was identified in a Texas dairy worker in early April.

The CDC said the infections might have happened when the workers’ eyes were splashed with contaminated fluid or if they touched their eyes with a contaminated hand.

“Given the high levels of … virus in raw milk from infected cows, and the extent of the spread of this virus in dairy cows, similar additional human cases could be identified,” the CDC said.

The agency maintains that highly pathogenic avian influenza poses a low risk to public health because it has not spread person to person.

The virus was first identified in Texas cattle in March and has since been found at a total of at least 52 dairy farms in nine states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

As of Wednesday, USDA data showed that 15 Michigan farms have had infections — the most of any state. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development listed four more for a total of 19.

The initial source of infection in Michigan is believed to be sick dairy cows that were transported from Texas before they showed symptoms. The virus has transmitted from cows to other cows and to poultry.

The virus has infected eight commercial or backyard poultry flocks in Michigan since early April. Three of them were large egg-producing operations with a total of about 6.5 million birds.

Entire flocks are culled to prevent the virus’ spread. It is highly contagious and deadly for domestic birds, but cows typically recover in 10 to 14 days.

The Michigan dairy and poultry operations with infections are located in 10 counties in the state’s lower peninsula. State agricultural officials declared an “extraordinary emergency” early this month and are requiring dairy farms to implement better biosecurity precautions and to document the vehicles and people who come and go from the farms.

The USDA recently announced it will reimburse dairy farms for costs associated with those precautions, including protective equipment for workers and heat treatments to inactivate the virus in contaminated milk.

Milk from sick cows is required to be discarded, but federal tests have detected fragments of the virus in the country’s commercial milk supply. Despite that, the Food and Drug Administration said it is safe to drink the milk, which is pasteurized to kill pathogens.

The states with bird flu infections among cattle include Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas.

This Iowa Capital Dispatch article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: Dairy cattle infected by highly pathogenic avian influenza have large amounts of the virus in their milk. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images/ via Iowa Capital Dispatch.)

Related posts

• U.S. Department of Agriculture to require bird flu tests of lactating dairy cattle before transport
• How two vets discovered avian flu in dairy cows
• Sick cows news digest: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza detected in South Dakota dairy herd 
• [VIDEO] State vet briefs MN House Ag Committee on avian flu (HPAI) in dairy cows and people
• Not an April Fools' Day joke: Person in contact with HPAI infected cows in Texas catches bird flu
• Dairy cattle in Kansas and Texas catch highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) from wild birds
• 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

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News digest: Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe to banish Noem; calls for Flute, State-Tribal Relations Committee chairs resignation

Bluestem last posted about the conflict between South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and South Dakota's nine tribal nations over her reckless and disrespectful assertions about cartels on the reservations and native children having no hope.

My last post was last week's After Lower Brule vote, eight of South Dakota's nine tribes have endorsed Noem ban.

Multiple sources are reporting that the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe now stands in solidarity with the other nations of the Oceti Sakowin.

At the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Dominik Dausch reports in 'Solidarity': All 9 South Dakota Native American tribes endorse Kristi Noem's banishment:

Key Points

• All nine South Dakota tribes have officially endorsed the banishment of Gov. Kristi Noem from their lands.
• Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe's executive council voted Tuesday in favor of banishing the South Dakota governor from their reservation
• The governor initiated her cartel-tribal rhetoric Jan. 31.

All nine South Dakota tribes have officially endorsed the banishment of Gov. Kristi Noem from their lands.

Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe's executive council voted Tuesday in favor of banishing the South Dakota governor from their reservation after she made disparaging remarks earlier this year against Native American parents during a town hall in Mitchell, saying their children "have no hope."

She has also continually pushed claims that Mexican drug cartels have a "presence" on South Dakota Indian reservations.

This has placed Flandreau Santee Sioux leaders under pressure by their citizenry to punish Noem for her comments.

Prior to the decision, Tyler Rambeau, executive administrative assistant of the FSST Homeowners Assistance Fund, told the Argus Leader tribal citizens have urged council members to banish Noem.

"A lot of us are really wondering why it's even a question and why we're holding off so long," Rambeau said. "A lot of us are really uncomfortable and upset with that."  . . .

Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is the last of the state's Dakota, Lakota and Nakota tribal governments to endorse Noem's banishment and the eighth to make it official.

"We need to stand in solidarity with our fellow tribes in South Dakota, the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ," Rambeau said. "We do not want to come up on the wrong side of history in this moment." . . .

Read the rest of the story at the Argus Leader. In Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe bans Gov. Noem Dakota News Now and Keloland in Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe banning Noem, an image of the tribe's press release has been published:

Here on the Lake Traverse Reservation, I heard sentiments second-hand of Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate members who are not pleased with South Dakota Tribal Relations Secretary David Flute, an SWO citizen and former tribal chair, in the service of Governor Noem's administration, so it wasn't surprising to see similar criticism of Flute by the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe in the Dakota Scout article South Dakota tribe says Gov. Noem getting bad advice, calls for resignations.

Joe Sneve and Austin Goss report:

Gov. Kristi Noem’s latest banishment by a tribal government also comes with calls for leadership changes at the state Capitol – and not just within her office.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe’s (FSST) Executive Council has joined the state’s eight other tribal governments in banning or moving legislation for a ban on the second-term governor from reservation land – the Yankton Sioux Tribe’s Business and Claims Committee voted to support a ban but is awaiting final action.

In admonishing the governor for making “blanket statements” about Indian Country and Mexican drug cartel activity, the Flandreau Executive Council Tuesday also demanded the job of Noem’s top tribal relations advisor and new leadership on the Legislature’s Tribal State Relations Committee. . . .

The vote in Flandreau comes a day after members of the tribe’s leadership met with the governor to discuss ongoing tension between officials on the reservation and the state. According to a news release from FSST, it became clear to tribal officials that the governor is relying on advisors in deciding how to effectively communicate with tribal governments and that her messaging has been “ill-advised and escalated the situation.”

The resolution explicitly called for the resignations of Tribal Relations Secretary David Flute and the highest-ranking legislators on the State-Tribal Relations Committee – Rep. Tamara St. John and Sen. Mike Rohl, crediting them for failing to stem what’s become a months-long and increasingly combative feud between South Dakota’s tribal nations and the state.

Flute, an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe, has served as tribal relations secretary for the entirety of Noem’s tenure as governor.

House and Senate chairs of committees are determined by legislative leadership.

The governor’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Rohl and St. John, though, are defending themselves and the committee’s involvement.

Rohl told The Dakota Scout he’d hoped the State-Tribal Relations Committee might hear from tribal governments this summer, saying he recently extended an invitation to FSST leaders.

“I have a lot of respect for the FSST leaders and people and I hope they respond to the invitation to meet that I personally sent last week – it has yet to be answered,” the Aberdeen Republican said. “When the FSST is ready to have those hard talks, the committee is available.”

St. John, also a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, said she has the same frustrations about the governor using reservations to advance her southern border policy agenda. And she noted that the Legislature’s State-Tribal Relations Committee functions independently from the governor’s the tribal relations department that Flute oversees. . . .

Read the rest of the article at the Scout.

At the Rapid City Journal, Amelia Schafer reports in Final South Dakota tribe bans Gov. Noem:

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is now banned from entering the lands of all nine tribes in South Dakota.

Following a meeting on Tuesday, May 21, the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe moved to ban the governor from the reservation in solidarity with the other eight Oceti Sakowin tribes in South Dakota. 

The tribal council held an emergency meeting Saturday, May 18, during which no decision was made. On Monday, May 20, tribal leaders met with the governor’s office to further discuss the issue. The next day, the executive council voted to ban Noem. 

The decision was made in response to inflammatory comments made by Noem about the tribes since January 31.

“The Executive Committee calls on the governor to reconsider the effectiveness of the liaisons she has appointed and whether or not they truly have an understanding of the issues affecting tribal nations as well as their ability to foster a cooperative relationship between the Tribes and the State of South Dakota,” the Tribe said in a May 21 press release. 

Dave Flute, secretary of the South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations, was formerly chairman of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate in northeastern South Dakota. 

Several weeks ago, Noem announced the appointment of former Oglala Sioux Tribe Police Chief Algin Young as her new tribal law enforcement liaison. 

Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe President Tony Reider informed Noem of her banning and requested that she refrain from making future statements that offend all of Indian Country. The tribe also called for an apology from the governor. . . .

At the South Dakota Searchlight, staff reports in Flandreau tribe says Noem ban ‘is imminent':

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe said Tuesday that its president “informed the governor that a ban from our territories is imminent,” according to a news release obtained and published by multiple media outlets.

South Dakota Searchlight’s messages to tribal officials seeking further comment were not immediately returned. The tribe was the only one of nine in the state that hadn’t yet endorsed a ban of Gov. Kristi Noem from its lands.

The banishments began after Noem said during a speech in January that Mexican cartels were operating on Native American reservations. More bans came after Noem said during March town halls in Winner and Mitchell that some tribal leaders are “personally benefitting” from cartels, and that children on reservations “don’t have any hope” because “they don’t have parents who show up and help them.”

The Noem administration has questioned the validity of the Yankton Sioux Tribe ban, because it was adopted by that tribe’s Business and Claims Committee. The committee is the highest elected body under the tribe’s unique structure, but its action to ban Noem is not considered final and enforceable without a vote of tribal members, which hasn’t occurred.

Noem has not adjusted her rhetoric in response to the bans. During a press conference last week, she reiterated allegations of cartel activity on reservations and said, “Banishing me does absolutely nothing to solve this problem. All it does is help those who are perpetuating horrible violence and crimes against the people that are citizens of the state of South Dakota.”

Flandreau Santee Sioux tribal members discussed a potential Noem ban Saturday during a meeting that was “contentious at times,” according to the tribe’s Tuesday news release.

The release said President Anthony “Tony” Reider and Vice President Cyndi Weddell met with Noem on Monday for a conversation that was “respectful and productive.”

But the tribe’s Executive Council continued deliberations Tuesday, the release said, and agreed that Noem’s rhetoric was “ill advised.”

“President Reider informed the governor that a ban from our territories is imminent and requested that the Governor refrain from making future blanket statements that offend the tribes within the boundaries of the State of South Dakota, some of which depend on state services for the needs of their people,” the press release said.

“It was recommended that the Governor clarify her statements and issue an apology to all tribal nations for the misunderstanding,” the release continued. “Until such a time, the Executive Council and the people of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe stand with our fellow nations.”

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

Bluestem will keep an eye open on this developing story.

Related posts

• Noem hires former Oglala Sioux police chief for state post as another tribe votes to ban her -{South Dakota Searchlight]
• Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ Dakota Oyate: Sixth tribe bans Governor Kristi Noem from reservation
• Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate bans Governor Kristi Noem from Lake Traverse Reservation
• Tensions continue between Noem, tribes 
• News update on Noem's pairing reservations, tribal leaders with cartels; Rep. St. John's reply
• Noem calls for audit of tribes; ICT News/Rapid City Journal reporter finds the receipts
• 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

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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Open primaries measure approved for SD ballot

It looks as if we're going to have a busy ballot this November here in South Dakota.

From the South Dakota Searchlight staff:

Open primaries measure approved for the ballot

A petition that would establish open primary elections in South Dakota has enough signatures from registered voters to be placed on the Nov. 5 ballot, according to the South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office.

The office made the announcement Tuesday, triggering a 30-day window for challenges to the petition’s validity.

It’s the third citizen-initiated measure to be validated for the Nov. 5 election, pending potential challenges. Additionally, the Legislature has exercised its authority to place two measures on the ballot, and at least two more measures from citizen groups are either pending validation or still circulating.

The open primaries measure would alter future elections in South Dakota.

Currently, the state has traditional primary elections, in which Democrats and Republicans choose their nominees for the general election.

In an open primary, all candidates for an elected office would run in one primary race, regardless of their party affiliation, and the top two winners would advance. The candidates advancing to the general election could be from different parties or the same party.

The open primaries measure applies to races for governor, the Legislature, U.S. Senate, U.S. House and elected county offices.

Supporters of the measure say the current system disenfranchises some voters, because Republicans only allow members of their own party to vote in Republican primary races. When there’s no Democratic or independent candidate for an office, the winner is determined in a Republican primary that excludes Democratic and independent voters.

Opponents of the measure say political parties should be allowed to choose their own nominees.

Ballot question status update

Measures placed on the Nov. 5 ballot by the Legislature:

• An amendment to the state constitution updating references to certain officeholders and people (replacing male-specific pronouns with neutral language).
• An amendment to the state constitution authorizing the state to impose work requirements on certain people who are eligible for expanded Medicaid.

Citizen-proposed measures validated for the ballot, pending potential challenges:

• An initiated measure prohibiting state sales taxes on items sold for human consumption, specifically targeting state sales taxes on groceries.
• An initiated amendment to the state constitution re-establishing abortion rights.
• An initiated amendment to the state constitution establishing open primary elections.

Citizen-proposed measure pending validation of the required number of petition signatures:

• An initiated measure legalizing adult recreational use, possession and distribution of marijuana.

Petition still in circulation:

• A proposed referendum of a new law regulating carbon dioxide pipelines (the deadline to submit referendum petitions is June 25).

I'm certainly hoping the final petition is successful.

Photo: Joe Kirby, head of South Dakota Open Primaries, signs a petition on April 19, 2023, in Sioux Falls that aims to allow all voters to cast a vote in the state’s primary elections. Kirby is seated next to De Knudson of Sioux Falls, with Tom Dempster of Sioux Falls standing to her left. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight).

Related posts

• SD grocery tax repeal validated for the ballot 
• Group says it’s filing petition signatures to put grocery tax repeal on South Dakota ballot
• Budget reckoning looms in Pierre as Governor Kristi Noem talks tax cuts and discipline
• South Dakota News Watch: Gov. Kristi Noem pulls support for grocery tax measure over jeopardized tobacco money
• A tale of two states, two sales taxes: Jensen and Noem share very different campaign promises
• SD lawmakers (like Dem gubernatorial contender Smith) tried cutting grocery sales tax before 

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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South Dakota News Watch Poll: Nearly half of South Dakotans have unfavorable view of Noem

Have stories like Not her first rodeo: Governor Kristi Noem in political freefall as book inaccuracies emerge following backlash against animal killings affected the opinions South Dakotans hold of the second term governor who was once thought on the national level to be a leading contender for Trump's 2024 running mate?

New polling published by South Dakota News Watch is intriguing.

From South Dakota News Watch

Poll: Nearly half of South Dakotans have unfavorable view of Noem
By Stu Whitney

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Nearly two-thirds of South Dakotans said Gov. Kristi Noem damaged her credibility in her book rollout, and nearly half said they have an unfavorable view of the second-term Republican, according to a scientific poll of 500 registered voters co-sponsored by South Dakota News Watch.

As for Noem’s bid to become former President Donald Trump’s vice-presidential nominee in 2024, nearly 60% of South Dakotans said she should not be chosen, including 55% of Republicans. The poll was also sponsored by the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota.

The governor's favorability based on personal popularity was 39%, down 13 points from a similar poll conducted in October 2020. Nearly half of respondents (48%) said they had an unfavorable opinion of Noem, which is double the number from 2020.

Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy conducted the statewide survey May 10-13, several days after the governor cut short her book publicity tour and returned to South Dakota. “No Going Back,” her second book, was published May 7.

Media coverage focused on revelations in the book about Noem killing an unruly family hunting dog and fabricating a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The controversy, and Noem’s response, has sent her political prospects into a spiral not just nationally but in the Mount Rushmore State, said Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen.

“These numbers are worse than I expected, quite frankly,” said Schaff. “What it tells you is that some of the issues coming out of the book not only damaged her national ambitions, but they put a serious damper on any statewide ambitions she might have had.”

Noem did not respond to News Watch interview requests for this story made through Ian Fury, her chief of communications.

'Disappointment, embarrassment'

Poll respondents were selected randomly from a telephone-matched South Dakota voter registration list that included landline and cellphone numbers. Quotas were assigned to reflect voter registration by county. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The poll showed that 52% approve of Noem’s job performance as governor, while 46% disapprove. An April analysis of Morning Consult polling data showed Noem with a job-performance approval rating of 59%, with disapproval at 38%.

Noem’s overall favorability, which includes a politician’s character traits and personality, took a larger hit, especially within her own party. While 81% of Republican respondents approved of Noem’s job performance, that number dipped to 58% when respondents were asked if they had a favorable opinion of her.

By comparison, former president Trump had a favorable rating among Republicans of 70%.

“I think those numbers speak to voters’ ability to distinguish between the job she’s doing as governor and her likability as a person,” said Julia Hellwege, an associate political science professor at USD and incoming director of the Chiesman Center.

Perhaps most notable is the fact that criticism and mockery of Noem’s book launch have come from all sides of the political and media spectrum, from traditionally left-leaning "Saturday Night Live" to conservative Fox News.

“Regardless of what party you belong to, it’s not a great look for the state,” said Hellwege. “When we’re getting Saturday Night Live-type attention in a negative way, there’s some disappointment and embarrassment wrapped up in that.”

Could fallout impact Senate race?

Noem's book, promoted as being “packed with surprising stories and practical lessons,” coincided with her rising national profile and status as one of the front-runners to be chosen as Trump’s running mate for his rematch against Biden.

“I will do everything I can to help him win and save this country,” Noem said as she endorsed Trump at a South Dakota GOP fundraiser in Rapid City in September 2023.

The 52-year-old Castlewood native was the betting favorite to get the VP nod as recently as January by OddsChecker.com.

Following the book controversies, as of May 17, the same betting site lists her as 49^th in the VP race behind fringe political figures such as conservative commentator Candace Owens and University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders.

If the book fallout prevents her from becoming the VP nominee or getting an administration position if Trump wins, it could also impact Noem’s next move in South Dakota politics.

There has been speculation that she could make a run for U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds’ seat in 2026. Political experts said the recent controversies and negative media attention could change the dynamic of that race.

“You’re only talking two years from now, and it’s not like Mike Rounds is in a weak political spot,” said Schaff. “She would not be the first politician to find herself in a kind of scandal and rehabilitate herself over time. Such things are possible. But these poll numbers show that she’s in a little bigger hole than I would have expected.”

Voters: Killing of family dog was wrong

One of the book’s most revealing passages involved the killing of a 14-month-old female puppy named Cricket after the dog ruined a pheasant hunt with unruly behavior about 20 years ago.

Returning from the hunt, wrote Noem, she stopped to talk to a local family and Cricket jumped out of the truck and attacked the family’s chickens one at a time, "crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another."

“I hated that dog,” she wrote in the book. “At that moment, I realized I had to put her down.”

Nearly 6 in 10 of statewide poll respondents (58%) said they felt that the shooting of the dog was not justified, compared to 38% who said it was justified. Among female respondents, 65% said the shooting was not justified, compared to 50% of males.

“It’s not surprising, perhaps, that women were more critical of the shooting of the family dog, but half of men thought the same thing,” said Michael Card, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Dakota. “There’s a lot of room for the governor to grow in terms of repairing her image.”

Nobody saying 'You're about to step in it'

Another passage from the book that drew criticism was a reference to meeting the notoriously reclusive North Korean dictator when she served on the House Armed Services Committee in Congress.

Trump met with Kim Jong Un several times as president, significant encounters that would have been highly unlikely for someone in Noem's position. Without any congressional records to back it up, the story was widely disputed, and Noem’s staff and publisher, Hachette Book Group, said corrections would be made.

But in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on May 5, the governor didn’t offer a clear explanation of how the mistake happened or if she even acknowledged the error.

The News Watch poll asked registered voters: "Does Noem’s decision not to answer questions and address some of the issues she raised in her book damage her credibility with you?”

Statewide, 62% said yes, while 34% said no and 4% were undecided. Those saying that Noem’s credibility was damaged included 86% of Democrats, 48% of Republicans and 68% of Independents.

The book rollout and ensuing public relations crisis challenged an administration marked by cabinet and staff turnover, including five chiefs of staff. Noem has not named a sixth chief of staff after the June 2023 departure of Mark Miller, her former general counsel.

“People in leadership need to have at least one person who can tell them no and not be afraid they’re going to lose their job over it,” said Schaff, who was appointed by Noem to the state’s Social Studies Content Standards Commission in 2022.

“That typically falls to a chief of staff. If the governor is in a situation where there is nobody around to say, ‘You’re about to step in it,’ then I would say that she’s been ill-served.”

West River support is strongest

Noem’s geographic support within the state remains strongest West River, where 59% of respondents said they approve of her job performance, compared to Sioux Falls Metro (54%). East River South and East River North were both at 46%.

The governor’s overall favorability was 43% West River, the highest of the four regions.

Regarding shooting the family dog, 43% of West River respondents said the killing was justified, compared to 31% in the Sioux Falls area, which includes Minnehaha and Lincoln counties in the poll groupings.

Noem carried Pennington County (mostly Rapid City) with 61% of the vote in her 2022 re-election over Democratic challenger Jamie Smith, compared to 53% in Minnehaha County (mostly Sioux Falls).

Women, younger voters more critical

As seen in past polls, Noem’s support among male voters is stronger than with females. While 61% of male respondents approved of her job performance, that number was 44% for women.

However, both men (30%) and women (29%) surveyed were against the South Dakota governor being named Trump’s running mate. Both men (61%) and women (63%) also said that Noem’s reluctance to address some of the issues raised in her book damaged her credibility with them.

Male respondents said the shooting of the dog was not justified by a margin of 50% to 46%, compared to a margin of 65% to 38% for women.

Younger registered voters had the lowest evaluation of the governor in most categories, including job performance (34%) and overall favorability (26%).

Job performance approval of Noem from the youngest group was dramatically lower than respondents ages 35-49 (54%), 50-64 (61%) and 65-plus (51%).

Younger voters were also more critical of Noem’s puppy anecdote, with 71% of respondents ages 18-34 saying it was not justified, compared to 51% for ages 50-64 and 52% for ages 65-plus.

Mason-Dixon has a rating of 2.6 (3.0 is maximum) from FiveThirtyEight and ranks 30th out of 277 pollsters analyzed by the statistical site.

'She has a lot of work to do'

Republicans are still heavily in support of Noem’s job performance, with 81.4% saying they approve, compared to 10.9% of Democrats and 32.8% of Independents.

But only 31.2% of GOP respondents said they think Trump should select Noem as VP nominee, which is less than Democrats (33.6%) who think so. Independents were 22.7%.

On the question of credibility following Noem’s book tour and evasive answers, 86% of Democrats surveyed said that she had damaged her credibility, compared to 68% of Independents and 48% of Republicans.

Schaff stressed that nearly half of GOP respondents viewing Noem’s credibility as damaged is a serious setback in her home state, where she has served as a state legislator, congressional representative and governor, and has never lost an election.

“That tells me that even within the state party, her base has eroded,” said Schaff. “I still think she’s a talented politician, and people have come back from similar things before, but it’s clear that she has a lot of work to do.”

For a complete set of Flourish visualizations of the polling data, check the slideshow embedded at the bottom of South Dakota News Watch's Poll: Nearly half of South Dakotans have unfavorable view of Noem

This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization. Read more in-depth stories at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email every few days to get stories as soon as they're published. Contact Stu Whitney at [email protected].

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

Photo: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks March 13, 2024, at a town hall meeting at the high school in Mitchell, S.D. A new poll shows that Noem's controversial book rollout has damaged her credibility with South Dakota voters. (Photo: Stu Whitney / South Dakota News Watch).

Related posts

• Not her first rodeo: Governor Kristi Noem in political freefall as book inaccuracies emerge following backlash against animal killings
• ProPublica: Kristi Noem said she Is proud to “support babies, moms and families.” Her record shows otherwise, critics say.
• Is Noem’s Freedom Works Here Campaign ‘as dead as Cricket’ after puppy shooting scandal?
• Commentary: What Noem’s shot heard around the world says about her approach to problems
• Noem’s former opponents reject her claim that dog-killing story was widely known and used
• After Lower Brule vote, eight of South Dakota's nine tribes have endorsed Noem ban
• SD grocery tax repeal validated for the ballot
• Budget reckoning looms in Pierre as Governor Kristi Noem talks tax cuts and discipline
• South Dakota News Watch: Gov. Kristi Noem pulls support for grocery tax measure over jeopardized tobacco money
• Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ Dakota Oyate: Sixth tribe bans Governor Kristi Noem from reservation
• Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate bans Governor Kristi Noem from Lake Traverse Reservation
• Tensions continue between Noem, tribes 
• News update on Noem's pairing reservations, tribal leaders with cartels; Rep. St. John's reply
• Noem calls for audit of tribes; ICT News/Rapid City Journal reporter finds the receipts
• 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

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

ProPublica: Kristi Noem said she Is proud to “support babies, moms and families.” Her record shows otherwise, critics say.

Fine reporting on Positive Pants-On-Fire South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem from ProPublica.

Kristi Noem Said She Is Proud to “Support Babies, Moms, and Families.” Her Record Shows Otherwise, Critics Say.
By Jessica Lussenhop

As South Dakota governor, Noem has rejected programs and millions of dollars in federal funds that would have benefited parents and children and provided care during pregnancy. Critics say her rhetoric is “all hat and no cattle.”

Last month, former President Donald Trump announced he would not pursue a federal abortion ban, as many of his supporters hoped, and he criticized states with bans that make no exception for rape or incest.

Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who at the time was on a short list of candidates to become Trump’s pick for vice president, responded immediately. Even though her state’s ban has neither exception and is considered one of the strictest in the country, Noem highlighted the parts of Trump’s message that she agreed with and sidestepped the rest.

“.@realDonaldTrump is exactly right… this is about ‘precious babies.’ It should be easier for moms, dads, and families to have babies — not harder,” she wrote on X following Trump’s announcement. “South Dakota is proud to stand for LIFE and support babies, moms, and families.”

But some state lawmakers, health care advocates and political observers in South Dakota say that Noem does not always follow through on that rhetorical promise. Since she became the first female governor of South Dakota in 2019, she has rejected programs and millions of dollars in federal funds that would have benefited pregnant people, parents and children — policies that might be at odds with her vision of limited government.

That Noem doesn’t always follow through on her talk is an oft-repeated criticism, said Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota, who put it another way: Noem, he said, is “all hat and no cattle.”

“You look like a cowboy, but you’re not one,” Schaff said of the well-worn phrase. “I think there’s been a sense that she’s maybe overly concerned about sort of the imagery of politics rather than the substance.”

Much of that criticism has been eclipsed by the fallout from Noem’s memoir, “No Going Back,” in which she provides an account of shooting and killing a pet hunting dog called Cricket two decades ago. Still, Noem has pitched herself as a governor, rancher and mom passionate about family values and a second Trump presidency. For his part, Trump has not yet publicly eliminated her as a potential running mate, so her record on taking “care of moms and their babies both before birth and after” bears examination.

Noem's Record

Noem’s office declined to comment, saying responses from state agencies were sufficient. But her record does, in fact, include measures that support families. In 2020, she helped create the first paid family leave policy for state employees, and she expanded it last year from eight to 12 weeks. She extended the length of time that people in prison can spend with their newborns in a “mother-infant program” from 1 month to 30 months. And she expanded a program called Bright Start, which pairs nurses with first-time parents, to cover the entire state with a $2.5 million budget increase.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the South Dakota Department of Health wrote that Noem is “committed to freedom for life” and pointed to a recently launched mobile health clinic called Wellness on Wheels, which provides services to rural communities such as connections with federal Women, Infants and Children benefits and pregnancy risk assessments. Over half the state counties are defined as a maternal care desert.

“DOH programs like Bright Start, Wellness on Wheels, WIC, pregnancy care and many more support this initiative in ensuring our future generations are healthy and strong,” the statement said.

Abortion

At times, Noem has tried to put distance between herself and the state’s abortion ban, which was put in place by a trigger law that was passed before she took office. The ban only allows the procedure to “preserve the life of the pregnant female.” But she has not embraced opportunities to add exceptions to the ban’s language, even after calls to do so from within her own party.

Three female Republican lawmakers attempted to enact legislation to add “risk of death or of a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of … major bodily functions” to the permissible circumstances for an abortion. Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, Sen. Sydney Davis and Sen. Erin Tobin — all registered nurses who identify as pro-life — met several times with Noem staffers as they tried to build support for the measure, and they believed they had Noem’s support. But as opposition emerged from anti-abortion advocates, principally South Dakota Right to Life, Noem did not help. Rehfeldt withdrew the bill.

“I never got an official statement from her office,” Rehfeldt said. “But I will tell you that there was consensus, and then all of a sudden there wasn’t.”

In the next legislative session, Rehfeldt brought a new bill that mandated that the Department of Health and the state attorney general create an educational video intended to clarify — but not change — the ban’s language; Noem signed that one in March. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America released a statement thanking Noem “for making South Dakota the first state to protect women’s lives with a Med Ed law.”

Medicaid Expansion

Maternal and infant health outcomes are particularly alarming in the state’s Native American population. About 44% of all pregnancy-associated deaths from 2012 to 2021 were Native Americans and Alaska Natives. In 2023, more than 3% of all Native American babies born in South Dakota had syphilis, part of an unprecedented modern outbreak.

One component of the problem is the chronically underfunded Indian Health Service hospitals and clinics, which are overseen by the federal government. If South Dakota expanded eligibility for its Medicaid program, as 39 other states and the District of Columbia have done, it would infuse IHS facilities with badly needed additional money from newly covered patients.

“That may be like a job position for a new doctor or salary for a dentist,” said Janelle Cantrell, head of the Medicaid and health care exchange enrollment program at Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board in Rapid City, South Dakota.

But Noem has opposed and delayed expansion. In 2022, South Dakota voters took the decision out of her hands by approving a ballot initiative for Medicaid expansion. According to state Rep. Linda Duba, a Democrat, Noem has dragged her feet on the expansion, which has resulted in far fewer residents enrolling than expected. At the same time, Noem supports adding a work requirement to Medicaid eligibility, which is popular among GOP governors.

“There’s nothing proactive going on,” Duba said. “That comes from the administration. They didn’t want Medicaid expansion. They’re doing everything they can to slow-walk it and keep the enrollments down.”

Department of Social Services Cabinet Secretary Matt Althoff said in a statement that Medicaid expansion enrollment is going “efficiently and smoothly,” and that he expects a monthly average of 40,000 enrollees a month in the next fiscal year. He pointed to the state’s low unemployment rate and rising per capita personal income as an explanation for below-expected enrollment.

Early Childhood

South Dakota has no state-funded preschool program. Noem’s administration declined to apply for $7.5 million in federal money to pay for a free summer meal program for low-income children, something several GOP governors have also done. She also helped defeat proposals to pay for school lunches for eligible students and once called subsidized child care a “line in the sand” she wouldn’t cross.

“I just don’t think it’s the government’s job to pay or to raise people’s children for them,” she said in a radio interview in December 2023.

Some of Noem’s own initiatives have fallen flat. A pledge to eliminate the state’s 4.5% grocery tax, a full sales tax on all food items that only South Dakota and Mississippi charge, was a cornerstone of her 2022 reelection campaign. Repealing the tax, she said, would help “single moms who may rent an apartment and have a tough time feeding their kids with the rising food costs that we have.”

But the bill to repeal the tax failed to pass one of its first committee hearings, despite the Legislature’s Republican supermajority.

“It is amazing to me how much of a national profile that Kristi Noem has, in some ways not being all that successful in terms of achieving legislative agendas,” said state Sen. Reynold F. Nesiba, a Democrat and the chamber’s minority leader.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

This ProPublica article is republished online under a Creative Commons license.

Photo: Governor Kristi Noem. All hat and no cattle?

Related posts

• After Lower Brule vote, eight of South Dakota's nine tribes have endorsed Noem ban
• SD grocery tax repeal validated for the ballot
• Budget reckoning looms in Pierre as Governor Kristi Noem talks tax cuts and discipline
• South Dakota News Watch: Gov. Kristi Noem pulls support for grocery tax measure over jeopardized tobacco money
• Budget reckoning looms in Pierre as Governor Kristi Noem talks tax cuts and discipline
• South Dakota News Watch: Gov. Kristi Noem pulls support for grocery tax measure over jeopardized tobacco money
• Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ Dakota Oyate: Sixth tribe bans Governor Kristi Noem from reservation
• Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate bans Governor Kristi Noem from Lake Traverse Reservation
• Tensions continue between Noem, tribes 
• News update on Noem's pairing reservations, tribal leaders with cartels; Rep. St. John's reply
• Noem calls for audit of tribes; ICT News/Rapid City Journal reporter finds the receipts
• 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

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

After nine bills combined & passed amidst chaos, 2024 MNLeg session's over, even the shouting

Watching the Minnesota House floor session late Sunday night, I stepped away from the livestream into my back porch, to check on the progress of a mighty and lovely prairie thunderstorm.

When I returned to my living room, the Minnesota House Infromation Services live stream camera kept steady on the podium, but the sound was a cluttered shouting.

As I said, I'd stepped out on my back porch to see a thunderstorm & came back to watch this. Sounded much louder on @mnhouseinfo livestreaming. Glad to learn the impetus. #mnleg https://t.co/KIY5Cv6Chf

— Sally Jo Sorensen (@sallyjos) May 20, 2024

What had happened?

A digest of coverage

Turns out, a similar scenario was playing out in the Minnesota Senate. At the Star Tribune, Ryan Faircloth, Rochelle Olson and Josie Albertson-Grove report in Minnesota Legislature's 2024 session ends in anger and acrimony:

Republicans complained of being shut out of negotiations and shouting matches erupted on the floors as Democrats passed their final bills. 

The Legislature's 2024 session ended in chaos late Sunday night, as Democrats loaded a tax bill with a panoply of proposals, turning it into a massive vessel of more than 1,400 pages with provisions involving higher education, energy, transportation and gun safety.

At 11 p.m., with an hour to go until the midnight deadline, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, suspended debate and called for a vote on the mammoth bill. GOP legislators tried to stop her, shouting "tyranny" and "communism!"

"This is a horrible way to govern," Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, shouted. She was still fuming after the session and said she'd filed an ethics complaint against Hortman, alleging the speaker quashed legitimate motions.

Thirty minutes later with the House in recess, the same scene played out in the Senate. "My ears are still ringing," Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said at a news conference an hour after adjournment.

Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, was angry, saying, "I just feel gross coming off of that Senate floor."

For the final 30 minutes of the Senate floor session, a dozen Republicans shouted into their microphones in anger. Sen. Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, chanted "U.S.A." 

The yelling made it impossible to hear Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, as he called for a vote on the giant bill. That bill included a provision setting minimum pay standards for Uber and Lyft drivers, an attempt to prevent the companies from leaving parts of the state. The bill survived the angry cacophony, passing with DFL support and heading to Gov. Tim Walz's desk.

At back-to-back news conferences after the session, Demuth and Johnson angrily blamed the Democrats and their trifecta of control at the Capitol. The DFL leaders said their actions were a response to Republican filibustering in recent weeks, saying the minority prolonged debates for hours with extraneous personal stories. . . . 

Read the rest at the Star Tribune.

Here are the news conferences:

And the Republicans:

Reporting for Minnesota Public Radio, Dana Ferguson and Clay Masters in In chaotic close, Minnesota lawmakers fail to pass projects bill, equal rights amendment:

The Minnesota Legislature stumbled toward a tumultuous end late Sunday night in a chorus of shouting and snap votes in a final day sure to damage the ability of the parties to work in concert in the future.

Lawmakers wrapped up their last day of voting without approving a substantial borrowing plan to pay for construction projects or one to put an equal rights amendment before voters. The House will reconvene Monday for retirement speeches and other formalities before breaking for the year.

In an unprecedented display of discord, shouting rang through both chambers for much of the last hour – “point of order!” “follow the rules!” “you are out of line!” “this is not Russia!” ”absolutely shameful!” – with Democrats trying to speed up votes over the vociferous objections of Republicans. The presiding officers were shouted down but ignored the calls to stop the votes. . . .

There's more at MPR. From the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Alex Derosier reports in MN legislative session comes to chaotic close as DFL passes giant last-minute bill with Uber/Lyft wage deal, gun control provisions:

Minnesota’s legislative session ended in complete chaos late Sunday night as Democratic-Farmer-Labor majorities introduced and pushed through a more than 1,000-page package bill less than an hour before midnight adjournment, prompting uproar from Republican lawmakers who wanted to continue debate.

The package was the combination of nine separate bills that included a minimum wage deal for ride-hailing drivers that ended Uber and Lyft’s threats to leave the state, increased penalties for buying guns for people ineligible to own them, and changes to the state paid leave program that will increase payroll taxes by about $300 million a year.

Amid screaming and shouting by Republican lawmakers, the package passed both the Senate and House about 30 minutes after its first introduction as the midnight deadline to finish voting loomed. The final minutes of the Senate’s floor session were marked by a cacophony of screams, simultaneous speeches by GOP senators and chants of “U-S-A.” . . .

In Legislature adjourns with mega-omnibus, loud finger-pointing as DFL leaders shut down GOP delays to meet deadline, Peter Callaghan reports:

Lawmakers either ran out of time or couldn’t reach agreement on sports betting, an infrastructure bill and an Equal Rights Amendment before midnight Sunday.

An already contentious session of the Minnesota Legislature managed to become even more contentious — perhaps historically so — on the last evening that bills could be passed.

DFL leaders, claiming to be fed up with GOP delay tactics, placed many of the remaining bills into one massive bill — 2,860 pages worth — and passed it in less than 10 minutes in the House and 15 in the Senate. Ignoring shouts of objections from Republicans, as well as attempts to be recognized for debate or motions, House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate President Bobby Joe Champion moved both bills to passage before the midnight deadline for regular session actions.

The massive bill — itself a combination of bills that are themselves hundreds of pages long — now moves to Gov. Tim Walz for his signature.  While it is hard to summarize something that big, it contained issues of substance:

• Permitting reforms to speed up energy projects
• The settlement to the pay dispute between Uber and Lyft and ride-share drivers
• A plan to help low-income families collect the child tax credit throughout the year rather than just at tax time
• Reforms to how medical debt is collected
• Updates to last year’s paid family and medical leave program
• Increased penalties for people who buy guns on behalf of those who cannot legally own them

While Democrats praised the work of the session, calling the last-hour maneuver necessary to complete their work, Republicans called it an unprecedented abuse of legislative rules, even “a crying shame.”

Read about the whole hot mess at MinnPost.

UPDATE, May 20, 8:45: At the Minnesota Reformer, Michelle Griffith reports in Chaotic end leaves Democratic Legislature with a few wins:

Democratic lawmakers in the final hour of the 2024 legislative session passed a 1,400 page bill that includes a lengthy list of policy items, from minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers to increased penalties for straw gun purchases and changes to the state’s paid leave law that will result in a higher payroll tax.

Republicans cried foul, shouting at the rostrum in both the House and Senate as the clock ticked toward the midnight deadline.

For 30 minutes they shouted “Shame!” and “Follow the rules!” as Democrats — nursing a one-vote majority in the Senate — shut down debate and forced a vote on the bill while ignoring Republican yelling.

Even with the legislative hijinks, Democrats failed to take action on some key items: They’d hope to place the Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution on the 2026 ballot, while supporters of legalized sports betting again went home disappointed, as Minnesota will remain one of the few states in the Midwest without it.

Democrats ended the session without achieving their signature goal: A roughly $900 million infrastructure bill, which required a supermajority — i.e., Republican votes — because it would be financed with borrowed money. Unable to win Republican support, lawmakers will head home without new funding for water treatment plants, roads, bridges, university buildings and other public works projects.

In the final seconds of the session, Senate Democrats attempted to pass a $71 million all-cash infrastructure bill that would not require Republican votes, but failed to finish voting by 12 a.m.

Especially in light of the failure to pass an infrastructure bill — known around the Capitol as the bonding bill and typically passed in the even years — the session will be mostly known for inaction on major issues, even considering the Democrats’ modest goals following the legislative frenzy of 2023. . . .

Check out the rest of the article at the Minnesota Reformer. [end update]

Session Daily's Rob Hubbard has the links to the bills rolled into one in After nine bills are combined and passed amidst chaos, 2024 session is all over but the shouting:

Minnesota’s legislative sessions have had some chaotic conclusions, but nothing quite like Sunday night’s final hour.

While the tax bill is quite often the final bill off the floor at the end of a session, the 2024 edition was something else entirely.

Shortly after 10 p.m. — with a midnight deadline looming for completing the Legislature’s business — the taxes conference committee amended into its final bill, HF5247, the language of eight other bills that had been tabled over the course of the week. Many were supplemental budget and policy bills from other areas.

Approved 8-1 by conferees, it went to the floors of both chambers, where it would be a gross understatement to say the compendium of multiple bills was not well received by Republicans.

Amid a raucous cacophony of angry shouting, the amended bill passed the House by a 70-50 vote. 

When the bill reached the floor, House Majority Leader Jamie Long (DFL-Mpls) almost immediately moved the previous question, effectively putting an end to all debate and bringing the House to a direct vote on the bill.

“Each of these bills has been vetted through the conference committee process,” Long said. “The minority has a right to be heard, but the majority also has a right to govern. This week, we saw in this chamber an eight-hour filibuster on a bill to limit junk fees. We saw an eight-hour debate on a technical fix on paid leave that stretched longer than the original debate on the program. We spent 14 hours going through the night on the equal rights amendment. … Given this, the majority has to use the tools it has to get its work done.”

Over the course of those words, Long became more and more difficult to hear, as shouts and howls of anger echoed off the marble walls of the House Chamber.

“We request a copy of this bill of 1,430 pages,” yelled House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring). “Not available on the website! Not available in this chamber! This is a horrible way to govern and do this to the state of Minnesota!”

Almost every bill that had been tabled by the House over the previous week became part of the mega-package. Technically, the bill is sponsored by Rep. Aisha Gomez (DFL-Mpls) and Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope), the respective tax committee chairs, but you could just as easily add 16 other sponsors in the co-chairs of each of the eight conference committees that produced the reports now incorporated in the final bill.

“The bill that we passed off last from the floor contains some of our highest priorities of the session,” Long said.

So, in addition to its tax provisions, the “tax bill” now contains the final versions of the conference committee reports for:

• transportation, housing and labor (HF5242);
• the health scope of practice bill (HF4247);
• higher education (HF4024);
• an increase in penalties for straw firearm purchases and a ban on binary triggers (HF2609);
• energy and agriculture (SF4942);
• human services appropriations (SF5335);
• health and human services appropriations (SF4699); and
• paid leave provisions (HF5363).

As for the bill’s tax provisions, they include the establishment of advance payments of the child tax credit, language that changes statute on tax forfeited property and creates a housing support account, and allocates $2 million in fiscal year 2025 to grants for tax credit outreach and taxpayer assistance. The bill also includes several provisions related to Iron Range accounts.

After adjournment, Demuth and Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) filed an ethics complaint against House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park), saying that she “violated the norms of House behavior, betrayed the public trust, and brought the House into dishonor and disrepute.”

“I don’t expect it will be brought up,” Demuth said. “At least it puts it on record of what happened and how the voice of the minority was disrespected, as was done consistently.”

At an impromptu press briefing just outside the chamber doors, Demuth said the majority’s actions to present a huge bill at the last minute and shut down debate was “unprecedented” and a “complete distortion” of the democratic process.

“If the governor chooses to sign what was just done, this state will never be the same,” she said. “We cannot trust Democrats in the state of Minnesota.”

Added Torkelson: “I’ve never seen anything like this in my 16 years in the House of Representatives. It’s just not the way things are supposed to be done.”

“At 9:45 tonight, I met with [Minority] Leader Lisa Demuth,” Hortman said at a post-session news conference. “I told her exactly what we were doing. I told her exactly which bills would be in the conference committee report and indicated to her that we needed to put all these bills in the tax conference committee report, because, otherwise, we couldn’t be assured that we would get done, due to the unprecedented delays.”

— Session Daily writers Miranda Bryant and Tim Walker and editor Mike Cook contributed to this story.

I'll add more sources to this digest as more reporting is published. In the meantime, it's time to finish planting my late tilled vegetable garden.

Photo: House Majority Leader Jamie Long and House Speaker Melissa Hortman confer at the rostrum prior to the start of session May 19. (Photo by Andrew VonBank/via Session Daily).

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Survey says nearly two-thirds of South Dakota educators use Indigenous standards

As I watch the waning hours of the Minnesota legislative session, here's an update on the use of the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings in South Dakota schools. I'd last posted about the issue in 2023.

From South Dakota Searchlight.

Survey says nearly two-thirds of SD educators use Indigenous standards
By Makenzie Huber

Survey results indicate nearly two-thirds of South Dakota public school educators are teaching the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, but the number of respondents is lower than the last survey.

The essential understandings are a set of standards approved in 2018 for teaching students about Native American culture and history. “Oceti Sakowin” is the collective term for Lakota, Dakota and Nakota speaking Native Americans, many of whom live in South Dakota. There are nine tribal nations within the state.

About 62% of teachers are using the standards, based on a survey conducted by the state Department of Education in 2023 — a “remarkable increase” from 45% in 2021, said Fred Osborn, director of the Office of Indian Education, which is under the supervision of the state Department of Tribal Relations. He presented the survey results to the Indian Education Advisory Council earlier this month.

Use of the standards is optional. The survey is used to understand how the standards are being implemented, and to help state officials encourage statewide adoption.

“The key is there’s improvement,” Osborn said. “It’s not perfect yet. There’s still work to be done, but we’ve come a long way from 45% of teachers. We hope that increases every year.”

Osborn added that the Office of Indian Education provided 10,000 copies of books on the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings through a Bush Foundation grant since the first survey, and sent out education packets for all grade levels last fall.

Fewer survey responses

Only about 385 educators took part in the 2023 survey, compared to 554 in 2021. 

The 2023 survey also does not list how many public school districts were represented in the survey, whereas 2021’s survey had responses from 125 of the state’s 149 school districts. The school district identification question was changed between 2021 and 2023, said department spokesperson Nancy Van Der Weide. The department does not have any data to determine how many school districts were represented in the latest survey.

Removing the school district identification question allowed participants more anonymity, Van Der Weide told South Dakota Searchlight.

Neither Osborn nor any members of the council addressed the potential impact of fewer responses on the validity of the survey results. The survey was voluntary and available for one month, Van Der Weide said, with a notice placed in a newsletter sent to teachers throughout the state. 

“Those educators who did respond provided informed recommendations,” Van Der Weide said in an emailed statement. “Some of those were educators who already incorporate a lot of OSEUs in their classrooms, while others were those who wanted to make them a part of their instruction and responded with ideas for tools that would help them to incorporate the standards into their classrooms.”

Advisory council member Sherry Johnson, tribal education director for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, helped shaped the standards and is participating in the standards update. She doubts the survey is an accurate representation of how the standards are being used in the state.

“We have pockets of the state that are doing well, but it’s not pervasive. It’s not required,” Johnson said. “If nothing else, there should be direct teacher training and a mandate to have this Indian education for all.”

Megan Deal, a second-grade teacher in Pierre and a member of the advisory council, said her school participated in a pilot program to help create lesson plans for standards at each grade level, but not all teachers incorporated the teachings into their classrooms.

“I don’t think they’re being taught at very many schools around the state at this time,” Deal said.

Council member Brian Wagner, tribal education director with the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, said he is concerned about the lack of “teeth” with the standards. Lawmakers have introduced bills to require use of the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings in classrooms, but those efforts have failed in the Legislature.

“Knowledge is power,” Wagner said. “If people don’t learn about history, then we risk repeating it, and unfortunately the history repeating would be the racism and the discrimination that many tribal members have experienced because people don’t understand tribal sovereignty or the treaties and the treaty rights.”

Impact expected from social studies standards

Though the standards are optional, said Secretary of South Dakota Department of Education Joseph Graves, the new social studies standards that will be implemented by 2025 will include references to the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings. Those will encourage more teachers to use the cultural standards, he said.

“We’re going to find more Native American history and culture being taught in the schools than ever before,” Graves said. “This is actually a move forward, not a move back. I think the social studies standards have gotten an unfair black eye, and I think once you see these in place you’ll find we’re teaching more of it rather than less and, I think, from an enlightened perspective.”

The social studies standards controversy started in 2021 because the department removed more than a dozen references to the Oceti Sakowin from a committee’s draft revision of social studies standards. After Gov. Kristi Noem formed a new work group and ordered the process to start over, the group produced standards that drew criticism for an emphasis on rote memorization over inquiry-based learning.

Graves added that the department plans to provide teachers with weekly materials to help them utilize the social studies standards and encourage them to use the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings.

According to the 2023 survey results, about 84% of educators said they were aware of the standards, and 77% said it is important to implement the standards in every classroom. Only 55% of teachers said they knew the concepts well enough to teach them, but that was an 18 point increase from 2021.

Nearly 40 administrators took part in their administrator survey in 2023, compared to 164 in 2021. The 2023 survey does not list how many public school districts were represented in the administrator survey.

Nearly 80% of administrators said it’s important to implement the standards in every classroom, but two-thirds of administrators indicated a lack of confidence to implement the standards in their schools, while 56% reported an uncertainty about how to integrate the standards and 44% cited a concern for the appropriateness of the content — an increase of 28 points from the 2021 survey.

The survey does not address how using the standards affects Native American student achievement, but Osborn said it would be “interesting to cross analyze” that.

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

Photo:  A Sioux Falls School District educator works with students. (Courtesy of Sioux Falls School District/ via South Dakota Searchlight)

Related posts

• Native American leaders in South Dakota forge ahead with educational reforms
• Noem Nincompoopery: ad scolds Jamie Smith for vote shared by state representative appointed to 2nd social studies standard work group 
• Oceti Sakowin March for our Children: over 200 march, drum, and ride horses in pouring rain
• South Dakota News Watch: South Dakotans overwhelmingly support teaching of indigenous history and culture in public schools
• SD News Watch: SD teachers endure new stress as politics & culture war seep into classrooms

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MN legislature passes Environment & Natural Resources Conference Committee report

Earlier Friday, Bluestem had posted House, Senate strike bargain on environment, natural resources supplemental spending bill.

This evening, the House repassed the bill:

#mnhouse repasses HF3911, as amended in conference committee, by a 70-56 vote. The environment and natural resources supplemental budget bill now goes to the Senate. #mnleg pic.twitter.com/AbktycSsMi

— MNHouseInfo (@MNHouseInfo) May 18, 2024

just as I finished drafting this post, the Minnesota Senate repassed the bill on a 37-30 vote.

WIth a 37-30 bipartisan final vote, the Minnesota Senate has passed HF 3911, the supplemental environmental budget and it will now go to @GovTimWalz for his signature.

Congratulations to Chairs @founghawj and @reprickhansen!

How did your Senator vote? pic.twitter.com/sWaNuwDsJb

— @MCEA1974 (@MCEA1974) May 18, 2024

House Environment and Natural Resources chair, South St. Paul DFLer Rick Hansen issued a press release on the passage of the conference committee's report:

Minnesota House Passes 2024 Environment and Natural Resources Budget and Policy Conference Committee Report

Tonight, the Minnesota House of Representatives re-passed HF 3911, the 2024 Environment and Natural Resources Budget and Policy bill, as amended by the conference committee report. The bill passed on a vote of 70-56.

The legislation, authored by Representative Rick Hansen (DFL – South St. Paul), includes significant investments in tree planting and addressing emerald ash borer, a public water inventory update, policies strengthening and enforcing Minnesota’s air quality statutes, a regulatory framework for helium gas production, and nation-leading extended producer responsibility legislation for packaging recycling.

The Environment and Natural Resources Budget and Policy bill invests over $46 million in protecting Minnesota’s water, air, soil, and wildlife. The bill includes over $12 million in trees and tree planting grants throughout Minnesota, with a focus on environmental justice areas. It includes additional funding for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for oversight and enforcement, funding for the Department of Natural Resources that includes improvements to ATV trails in greater Minnesota, and funding for the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), including $800,000 in funding for the Lawns to Legumes Program, and creates a dedicated pollinator account to increase pollinator habitat statewide.

“Our conference committee report reflects the DFL’s commitment to taking strong action to protect our environment and natural resources,” said Rep. Hansen, Chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee. “This year the legislature is investing over $12 million in trees, increasing oversight and penalties for repeat polluters, and passing nation-leading extended producer responsibility legislation to address our solid waste issue.”

The bill includes significant policy provisions aimed at environmental protection and pollution prevention. The bill increases the MPCA’s enforcement authority, increases civil penalties for repeat polluters, and sets goals to reduce the use of road salt and nitrogen fertilizer.

The legislation also includes a nation-leading Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) bill, Representative Sydney Jordan’s Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act. The EPR provisions are a major step forward in dealing with solid waste by ensuring that packaging producers are responsible for the waste they create and are incentivized to increase recycled content.

“Across Minnesota, we are inundated with packaging, from our doorsteps to store shelves. Packaging waste and printed paper now account for 40% of our garbage,” said Rep. Jordan, Vice Chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee. “The burden of managing this ever-growing deluge of packaging waste currently falls on local governments - and taxpayers. Today’s bill takes steps to ensure the producers of this waste are paying their fair share.”

This year’s Environment and Natural Resources bill builds on last year’s historic legislation that invested over $670 million in new environment and natural resources funding. That bill included a nation-leading PFAS prevention package, addressed issues like chronic wasting disease, emerald ash borer, and aquatic invasive species, and added stronger protections for Minnesotans in environmental justice areas.

The bill first passed the House on May 1 on a vote of 68-63, and the Senate on May 7 on a vote of 40-27. Documents from the conference committee can be found here. A recording of the floor debate and final vote can be found here. The bill now heads to the Senate for further action.

I'll embed the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the floor action on the conference committee report when the floor session ends.

Note: This post was updated with the embedded  @MCEA1974 X post on the final Senate passage. And now this note on the bipartisan vote in the Senate:

The MN Senate re-passed the environment omnibus bill containing EPR for packaging with 3 GOP votes even. House re-passed earlier Friday night. pic.twitter.com/AdJ7mIEWbY

— Paul Gardner (@CleanWaterCMN) May 18, 2024

Screenshot: Hansen speaks to the conference committee report on the floor of the Minnesota House. Source: MCEA X post.

Related posts

• House, Senate strike bargain on environment, natural resources supplemental spending bill.
• House passes environment budget package that includes planting trees, protecting MN's helium
• Prevention is better than clean-up: split vote sends budget, policy bill out of enviro committee
• Nitrate treatment represents bulk of spending proposed in ag finance, policy bill
•  Minnesota House passes environment policy bill 
• DNA, inbreeding issues: Rusty patched bumble bees' survival may take more than habitat

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House, Senate strike bargain on environment, natural resources supplemental spending bill

I'm catching up on posting this Session Daily article, after watching the  conference committee on HF3911 . the environment and natura; resources supplemental budget bill. 

From Session Daily.

House, Senate strike bargain on environment, natural resources supplemental spending bill
By Margaret Stevens

New ways for dealing with waste ­— packaging, boat wrap, outdated electronics, sewer sludge and heat — are included in a conference committee agreement on the environment and natural resources supplemental budget bill.

Following Thursday’s conference committee approval, the report on HF3911 next goes to the House and Senate.

Included in the agreement is a new extended producer responsibility program for packaging waste, which would shift responsibility for waste disposal from consumers to producers. House and Senate versions of the bill had included provisions of the “Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act.”

Not included are provisions connected to agriculture, such as definitions of pesticide-treated seeds and a requirement that large dairy operations get environmental impact statements.

Committee co-chair and bill sponsor Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) said the agreement reflects many modifications and compromises. Moreover, he pointed out an exception to the committee target for future budgets, which will allow $1 million per year for eight years to update the state’s public water inventory map.

Sen. Foung Hawj (DFL-St. Paul), the Senate sponsor, likened the proposed legislation to a fully laden ship, delicately balanced as it is steered to shore.

Spending

The bill would send $23.2 million to the Department of Natural Resources, $12.3 million to the Pollution Control Agency and $5.5 million to the Metropolitan Council. Much of the General Fund spending would be used to expand enforcement capacity at the PCA and DNR.

About $12 million from a variety of sources would go to plant trees as the state deals with the aftermath of severe weather and emerald ash borer infestations.

Other appropriations include:

• $2.4 million to help build a regulatory framework for gas production, sought following discovery of an unusually large pure helium reserve in northern Minnesota;
• $1.5 million to the all-terrain vehicle grant-in-aid program;
• $1.3 million to make improvements to the International Wolf Center in Ely;
• $593,000 to provide for composting grants at apartment buildings; and
• $550,000 to clean up a tax-forfeited property in Olmsted County where tires and other trash have been dumped.

[MORE: View the spreadsheet]

Policy

Among policy provisions in the agreement are those that would:

• increase penalties for polluters and those who violate buffer zone requirements;
• set goals to reduce the state’s use of road salt and nitrogen fertilizer;
• set a $250 penalty for running a snowmobile without a working muffler;
• prohibit using nitrogen fertilizer on state lands in the Karst region in the fall and retire land that doesn’t feed animals from cooperative agreements; and
• increase the registration fee on off-road motorcycles from $30 to $45. 

[MORE: View the final policy agreement]

Not included in the final agreement are provisions that would modify shotgun zones, require trappers get permission to trap on private land, prohibit planting corn on state land, and separate proceeds from habitat license plates into different funds.

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

;

Still: Representative Rick Hansen, DFL-S. St Paul, chaired the conference committee. Via MN House Information Services YouTube.

Related posts

• House passes environment budget package that includes planting trees, protecting MN's helium
• Prevention is better than clean-up: split vote sends budget, policy bill out of enviro committee
• Nitrate treatment represents bulk of spending proposed in ag finance, policy bill
•  Minnesota House passes environment policy bill 
• DNA, inbreeding issues: Rusty patched bumble bees' survival may take more than habitat

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 House passes changes to paid leave law amid chaos at close of vote

A glitch in YouTube livestreaming prevented me from watching the Minnesota House in an epic debate over a refresh of the 2023 law  creating 20 weeks per year of paid time off to deal with family or medical issues. 

I was able to semi-follow the debate on the X platform, where I read of the closing minutes of the bill on the floor.

In the early morning, KARE 11 political reporter John Croman posted video of the finish on the X platform:

Clip 2 of 2 pic.twitter.com/TL9LO50bsj

— John Croman (@JohnCroman) May 16, 2024

At Minnesota Public Radio, Dana Ferguson reported in Tensions flare at Minnesota Capitol as debates stretch on, Democrats try to force quicker votes:

Tensions ran high late Wednesday night as DFL Speaker Melissa Hortman called a snap vote on a bill making changes to a new paid family and medical leave program, an illustration of a possibly bumpy push to the legislative session’s finish this weekend.

Lawmakers have a May 20 deadline to adjourn and they can’t cast votes on Monday.

After nearly eight hours of debate on the paid-leave proposal, the DFLer from Brooklyn Park called a snap vote after lawmakers approved a motion to stay past midnight. Republicans shouted and called out various points of order during the vote. They said that they’d been silenced by the move to call the vote with no notice.

House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth said Thursday that she viewed the move to cut off debate as silencing the minority. . . .

At an event away from the Capitol, Gov. Tim Walz expressed optimism that deals could come together. He passed off the late-night flare-up as typical of this time of year.

“Not a lot of good happens after midnight. I would always encourage people, let’s finish before those times, get things done because tempers get a little short,” Walz said. . . .

At the Star Tribune, Briana Bierschbach reported in 'Everything is at risk': Tensions flare as Minn. lawmakers race to get work done by deadline:

As midnight on Thursday approached, Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman had heard enough.

The Brooklyn Park DFLer called for final votes on a bill making changes to the state's paid leave program after it had already been the subject of more than eight hours of debate, most of it criticism from Republicans. As she moved on to the next bill, Republicans shouted into their microphones, accusing her of silencing the minority party.

Likewise, Democrats have accused Republicans of spending hours filibustering multiple bills during the final week of the legislative session to try to obstruct the process and block their agenda. This is the latest flare-up between the two parties with days left until their deadline to adjourn and no agreement in sight to pass major legislation still outstanding, including an equal rights constitutional amendment, a package of construction projects and a bill to try to keep rideshare companies in the state. . . .

Tempers flared in the state Senate as well, where DFL Senate President Bobby Joe Champion said a Republican member threw a rules book at him during a marathon debate on bills that stretched from Wednesday into early Thursday morning. . . .

Read both articles at MPR and the Strib.

Session Daily's Tim Walker somewhat calmer report in House passes changes to paid leave law amid chaos at close of vote:

On the first day of 2026, a state-run insurance program is scheduled to begin providing Minnesota workers with up to 20 weeks per year of paid time off to deal with family or medical issues.

But one year after its passage, the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act may be getting refreshed.

Rep. Cedrick Frazier (DFL-New Hope) says HF5363, a bill he sponsors, will ensure the 2026 deadline is met and that the implementation will be smooth.

Republicans have a much different take, saying a smooth launch on the scheduled date is anything but certain for what they say is a fiscally unsound program whose cost is another hurt for small businesses.

The two sides laid out their respective positions during a nearly eight-hour discussion Wednesday.

Members eventually passed the amended bill via a chaotic 69-34 vote shortly before midnight and sent it to the Senate. The sudden vote occurred with some Republican members waiting to speak and a cacophony of shouts about process. At least one member could be heard making a motion to adjourn the legislative session sine die.

“It is not the responsibility of the minority to pass the majority party’s bills. It is the responsibility of the minority to make sure the voices of our constituents are represented. This silencing of minority voices is absolutely shameful. This is not a house of 70 members, it is a house of 134, and Democrats are disregarding that,” House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) said in a statement.

Frazier calls the 2023 law “a great safety net” to keep workers from choosing between staying on the job to collect a paycheck and caring for a loved one.

It establishes a family and medical insurance account modeled after the state’s unemployment insurance fund, including being funded from a 0.7% payroll tax on an employee’s wages, at least half of which must be paid by the employer.

The bill would boost the tax rate to 0.88%.

Frazier said the proposed change is based on an actuarial analysis earlier this year that calculated the 0.88% payroll premium rate would be needed to keep the program sufficiently funded to pay out future claims.

Additionally, the increase is justified, Frazier said, because paid leave benefits would begin during an employee’s first week of leave, which the original law would not have paid.

[MORE: View premium rate comparisons; view fiscal note]

Republican opposition, amendments

Republicans say the proposal indicates the program is already in trouble and proof the state cannot accurately determine the right amount of payroll tax to adequately fund the program.

Citing the state’s problems rolling out other technology platforms, Rep. Bernie Perryman (R-St. Augusta) questions if the Department of Employment and Economic Development can get the IT systems in place in time for a 2026 launch. She unsuccessfully offered an amendment to delay program implementation by 12 months.

Rep. Dave Baker (R-Willmar) is concerned the bill does not propose changes needed to make the law less burdensome for small-business owners.

He said small employers will struggle under the law, especially if they don’t have enough employees to cover the duties of those taking paid leave or to quickly hire new workers to assume work duties.

The bill does give small employers a break, Frazier said, noting the premium rate for employers having 30 or fewer employees would be 75% of the annual premium rate calculated each year for larger employers.

Baker unsuccessfully offered an amendment to exempt employers with fewer than 20 employees from being required to participate in the paid leave program or to offer a comparable private plan.

“The math doesn’t work,” said Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove). She argued that nearly all 12 states that have previously enacted similar paid leave programs have seen costs spiral out of control. “We are so underestimating the cost of this program.”

To that end, she unsuccessfully offered an amendment to limit the maximum length of paid benefits from 20 weeks to 12, except in the case of complications from a pregnancy which would warrant an extra two weeks.

Rep. Anne Neu Brindley (R-North Branch) successfully offered an amendment that would require any annual actuarial analyses and updates be sent to chairs and ranking minority members of the legislative committees with jurisdiction over paid leave legislation.

Photo: The Minnesota House floor in a non-riotous moment. House Photography file photo. via Session Daily.

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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After Lower Brule vote, eight of South Dakota's nine tribes have endorsed Noem ban

Yet another development in the solidarity of the Oceti Sakowin in reaction to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem's accusations of tribal involvement with drug cartels--and perhaps even more offensive--criticism that "Native American children have no hope, and that their parents are not there for them."

From the South Dakota Searchlight:

After Lower Brule vote, eight of nine tribes have endorsed Noem ban
By John Hult

Eight of nine tribal governments in the state of South Dakota have endorsed the banishment of Gov. Kristi Noem from their lands.

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe unanimously approved a resolution to bar Noem on Wednesday, according to Tribal Chairman Clyde Estes. 

The vote comes one day after a similar resolution from the Crow Creek Sioux Tribal Council. Last week, the Yankton Sioux Tribe’s Business and Claims Committee endorsed a ban days after the tribal council of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate voted to ban Noem.

The Rosebud, Oglala, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes voted to bar the governor earlier this year.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is the only one in the state that has not yet cast such a vote.

The bans began shortly after Noem delivered a speech on the U.S.-Mexico border that tied the impact of Mexican drug cartels to reservation communities. Noem would later say that some tribal leaders are “personally benefiting” from cartels. 

Tribal leaders have also taken issue with comments delivered during town halls in Mitchell and Winner that suggested Native American children have no hope, and that their parents are not there for them.

Those comments in particular have been a sticking point for Estes, the Lower Brule tribal chairman. He said the tribe sent Noem a letter asking for an apology to children and parents.

“They were very hurtful, disparaging words,” Estes said. “We never heard a peep.”

Lower Brule voted down an earlier attempt to ban the governor. Estes said some leaders were hopeful that they’d hear an apology, but “a couple months have gone by now” without a response. 

Estes said the leadership has also taken issue with the comments on tribal leadership and drug cartels. He said he’s never met anyone in a cartel “and I hope that I don’t.” 

“It would be like tribes saying the South Dakota Legislature and executive branch of state government is in bed with the mafia,” Estes said. “These are blatant mistruths. Words are very powerful and hurtful. We have to be better than that.”

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

Map: The location of the nine Native American tribes and their lands in South Dakota. (Courtesy of state Department of Tribal Relations/ South Dakota Searchlight)

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• Noem hires former Oglala Sioux police chief for state post as another tribe votes to ban her -{South Dakota Searchlight]
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• Tensions continue between Noem, tribes 
• News update on Noem's pairing reservations, tribal leaders with cartels; Rep. St. John's reply
• Noem calls for audit of tribes; ICT News/Rapid City Journal reporter finds the receipts
• Malice: she's on it. Tribal leaders insulted after Governor Noem claims they "are personally benefiting from the cartels being here
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• 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

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SD grocery tax repeal validated for the ballot

As the photo at the top of this post illustrates, Governor Kristi Noem held a press event at a South Dakota grocery store during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign to express her support for elimination of the sales tax on groceries. She later reneged on this campaign promise.

But there's a new, hopeful development in the effort to end sales taxes on groceries in South Dakota. 

If we South Dakotans want to get it done, we're going to have to do it ourselves at the ballot box.

From the South Dakota Searchlight:

Grocery tax repeal validated for the ballot
By South Dakota Searchlight Staff

The South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office said Monday that a petition seeking to repeal the state sales tax on groceries has enough signatures from registered voters to make the Nov. 5 ballot.

If nobody mounts a successful challenge to the petition’s validation in the next 30 days, it will become the third statewide measure to make the ballot, with several more measures still possible.

The grocery tax repeal is a citizen-initiated proposal, led by the Dakotans for Health ballot question committee. The other two measures already on the ballot were placed there by the Legislature: a proposal to change male-specific officeholder references in the state constitution to neutral language, and a proposal that would allow the state to impose work requirements on some Medicaid expansion enrollees.

Validation is pending for citizen-led petitions that would create open primary elections, re-establish abortion rights and legalize adult recreational marijuana use.

Meanwhile, a citizen-led group is trying to refer a new pipeline law to the ballot. The Legislature passed the law last winter to implement new protections for landowners affected by a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline, while still allowing a regulatory path forward for the project.

In a related announcement, the Secretary of State’s Office issued a warning Monday to South Dakotans about scam phone calls. The calls come from random numbers with a 605-area code, and the caller claims to be with the the Secretary of State’s Office and the “South Dakota Integrity Committee” or the “Petition Integrity Commission.” Scammers are pressuring people who answer the phone to withdraw their signature from the abortion rights petition. People who receive such calls are encouraged to contact the Secretary of State’s Office, Division of Elections, at [email protected] or by phone at (605) 773-3537.

State law dictates the number of petition signatures required from registered voters to place a measure on the ballot. This year, the requirements are 17,508 signatures for an initiated measure or referred law, and 35,017 for an initiated constitutional amendment.

The grocery tax measure would prohibit the state from collecting sales taxes on “anything sold for human consumption,” except alcoholic beverages and prepared food. The measure would wipe out the 4.2% state sales tax on such items, while cities could continue imposing a tax of up to 2%.

Proponents say the measure would help low-income people, but it would also cost the state an estimated $124 million in lost sales tax revenue during its first year of implementation.

Ballot question status update

Measures placed on the Nov. 5 ballot by the Legislature:

• An amendment to the state constitution updating references to certain officeholders and people (replacing male-specific pronouns with neutral language).
• An amendment to the state constitution authorizing the state to impose work requirements on certain people who are eligible for expanded Medicaid.

Citizen-proposed measure validated for the ballot, pending potential challenges:

• An initiated measure prohibiting state sales taxes on items sold for human consumption, specifically targeting state sales taxes on groceries.

Citizen-proposed measures, pending validation of the required number of petition signatures:

• An initiated amendment to the state constitution re-establishing abortion rights.
• An initiated amendment to the state constitution establishing open primary elections.
• An initiated measure legalizing adult recreational use, possession and distribution of marijuana.

Petition still in circulation:

• • A proposed referendum of a new law regulating carbon dioxide pipelines.

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

Photo: South Dakota News Watch file image.

Related posts

• Group says it’s filing petition signatures to put grocery tax repeal on South Dakota ballot
• Budget reckoning looms in Pierre as Governor Kristi Noem talks tax cuts and discipline
• South Dakota News Watch: Gov. Kristi Noem pulls support for grocery tax measure over jeopardized tobacco money
• A tale of two states, two sales taxes: Jensen and Noem share very different campaign promises
• SD lawmakers (like Dem gubernatorial contender Smith) tried cutting grocery sales tax before 

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Initial test finds PFAS in Mount Rushmore drinking water at level exceeding new limit

Perhaps the presence of a ""forever chemical" in drinking water at Mount Rushmore is what prompted outgoing one-term South Dakota District 1 state representative and New Apostolic Reformation Movement Apostle Joe Donnell's 2023 vision of the place as demonic portal for communism.

Don't drink the water. Perhaps cleaning up the water and giving it back to its original owners might be the way to go.

From South Dakota Searchlight:

Initial test finds ‘forever chemical’ in Mount Rushmore drinking water at level exceeding new limit
By Makenzie Huber

A sample of Mount Rushmore National Memorial’s drinking water had levels of a “forever chemical” exceeding new limits established by the federal government.

Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, is a member of the synthetic chemical group known collectively as perfluorinated alkylated substances, or PFAS. The chemicals have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s and don’t break down easily in the environment or in the human body. Research indicates PFAS exposure may be linked to negative developmental and reproductive effects, and an increased risk of some cancers.

A 2023 test of Mount Rushmore’s drinking water showed a PFOS concentration of 9.8 parts per trillion, more than two times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s new limit of 4 parts per trillion. The EPA finalized limits for several types of PFAS last month.

The result doesn’t necessarily mean Mount Rushmore is out of compliance with the EPA’s new rule, which will be implemented in phases. Current testing is preliminary. Tests won’t count toward the new limits until 2027, and the EPA will use annual running averages to determine compliance. The EPA won’t begin issuing violations until 2029.

The current sampling is part of a multi-year, nationwide testing effort by the EPA. The South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems is conducting a majority of the testing in the state.

In publicly available results published so far, Mount Rushmore is the only site in South Dakota to test above the new EPA limits for forever chemicals. Additional Mount Rushmore sampling results will be published in the coming weeks and months. Elsewhere in South Dakota, some of the chemicals have been detected at levels below the new EPA limits. 

PFAS from firefighting foam was previously known to have contaminated groundwater at military installations in or near locations including Rapid City and Sioux Falls, leading to mitigation efforts in those areas.

In an emailed statement, Mount Rushmore National Memorial spokesman Earl Perez-Foust said the National Park Service is monitoring the results and considering any mitigation that may be necessary.

“This could include treatment or considering a new water source,” Perez-Foust said. “Public health and safety is always our top priority.”

Reverse osmosis, granular activated carbon, nanofiltration and other methods have been identified as methods of removing PFAS from drinking water, according to the EPA.

The exact source of the contamination at Mount Rushmore is unknown, said Galen Hoogestraat, a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Dakota Water Science Center. 

“In general, PFAS sources can come from anywhere humans are interacting with the environment: food wrappers, water-resistant clothing, common products and waste,” Hoogestraat said.

For over a decade, Hoogestraat has studied perchlorate contamination in Mount Rushmore’s groundwater and local streams from former fireworks displays at the memorial. He said the amount of perchlorate in the water has “dropped substantially” in the last decade.

Hoogestraat said the memorial provides water to over 2 million visitors every year from a “very small postage stamp of an area in the Black Hills,” because the memorial is limited to using water from within the park boundaries.

That source is a fractured rock system that collects rain and groundwater, which makes it susceptible to contamination.

“There’s very little soil on top of the rocks, so there’s very little filtration of anything that comes from the surface — good or bad,” Hoogestraat said.

That can create volatile test results, since concentrations of contaminants can vary based on the seasons and weather conditions. 

“There needs to be more sampling done to assess the variability around this,” Hoogestraat said, “and wrap our arms around the trends of this: Is this a long-term, persistent thing, or will this be variable over time?”

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

Photo: The busts of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln tower over the Black Hills at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 2, 2020, near Keystone. (Scott Olson/Getty Images/ via South Dakota Searchlight).

Related posts

•  PFAS in South Dakota News: Brooking 3M plant contamination; firefighting foam related illnesses burden for Rushmore State veterans 
•  Proposed federal EPA PFAS regulation could cost South Dakota millions for testing, cleanup
• Here's hoping Jesus grants state rep Joe Donnell a vision about changing SD housing fund law
• State of South Dakota predicts no trouble at future Rushmore fireworks, despite clash in 2020
•  Future Fund, COVID-19, indigenous land & wildfires: notes on Mt Rushmore fireworks show 
• Another face on Mount Rushmore? Keep calm and consider history, engineering studies

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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