Free Republic

A Black Hills environmentalist who for years has fought U.S. Forest Service timber-cutting projects is facing federal charges for changing marks on trees in a timber sale near his home so that more trees would be cut. Brian Brademeyer, who lives on a small private acreage inside the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve southeast of Hill City, faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for the misdemeanor citation served on Jan. 31. He is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Veronica Duffy on March 15 in Rapid City. Brademeyer admitted that he painted over marks on more...

Wyoming lawmakers appear ready to change the state’s wolf management law to accommodate an agreement that Gov. Matt Mead and U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar reached last year on ending federal protections for the animals in the state. Under the agreement, wolves could be shot on sight in much of the state. The Republican governor has made wolf management a priority, saying the animals threaten agricultural interests and other wildlife. Officials say there are about 300 wolves in the state, and Mead has said the population grows by 10 percent every year. Under the deal, Wyoming would commit to...

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

There is an old political axiom that is attributed to Thomas Jefferson, and more recently Gerald Ford, that says, “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.” Those words took on new meaning in January when we found out that the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, was issuing new regulations with regard to President Obama’s signature health care law. For the first time in history, the federal government would force faith-based institutions to pay for coverage of products and services they find morally objectionable or against...

Law enforcement responded to reports of "shots fired" at a residence just north of Box Elder shortly after 4:00 PM Wednesday afternoon. Box Elder Police officials say the incident was the result of an apparent home invasion. By about 4:30 PM they said the witness was still in the home being interviewed by the Meade County Sheriff's Office. Law enforcement officers were seen inspecting the backyard which was marked off by police tape and there was a hole in the glass of a back door. Chief Deputy Tom Wiltz told Black Hills FOX later Wednesday night that the woman in...

PIERRE, SD - A bill recently passed in the South Dakota House of Representatives would give more rights to employees. But some say it takes too many away from the business. House Bill 1132 passed with a vote of 49 to15. The backbone of the bill would let employees keep guns and ammo in their locked cars on company property, but some say it goes too far. Nearly the same bill failed in Pierre last year. Representative Marc Feinstein says the main difference this time is a new group of sponsors and the backing of the National Rifle Association. He...

PIERRE, S.D. — Two lawmakers who said they were threatened with smear campaigns if they didn't support a bill that would have allowed people to carry concealed weapons without a special permit nonetheless helped kill it Friday.

The Gingrich campaign launched a preemptive strike as news spread that ABC plans to broadcast a potentially damaging interview with Newt Gingrich’s second ex-wife on Thursday – just two days before Saturday’s crucial South Carolina primary. Gingrich’s daughters (from his first marriage) Kathy Lubbers and Jackie Cushman came to their father’s defense in a letter released by his presidential campaign. “The failure of a marriage is a terrible and emotional experience for everyone involved. Anyone who has had that experience understands it is a personal tragedy filled with regrets, and sometimes differing memories of events,” the daughters said in the...

Newt Gingrich appeared incredulous after being told of the latest attacks by GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney. ”Wait, wait, wait.  Hold on. They’re saying I helped re-elect a Democrat?” Mr. Gingrich told reporters in Winnsboro, S.C., adding, “That’s just stupid.” Earlier Wednesday, the Romney campaign set up a conference call with two former lawmakers who lashed out at his leadership as House speaker, saying it helped to re-elect President Bill Clinton. The campaign also released a new Web ad,  calling him “unreliable.”Mr. Gingrich said he helped create the GOP’s first House majority since 1928. “So what did Mitt Romney do?  Who...

The GOP Debate on FOX News will pit favorite Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich against each other for the first time since New Hampshire. As you know Jon Huntsman bowed out of the race earlier today. Bret Baier will moderate the debate.

Thousands of Pennington County residents have permits to carry concealed handguns. If Rep. Don Kopp gets his way, they won’t need a permit. Kopp’s HB1015 would let any South Dakotan who can legally carry a gun conceal their handgun without having to get a state-issued permit. “This just doesn’t penalize the citizens, to make him buy a permit to defend himself — which I believe is unconstitutional,” said Kopp, R-Rapid City. Under the current system, people who want to carry a concealed weapon have to pay $10 and undergo a background check in order to get their permit. Applications can...

3.0 M - SOUTH DAKOTA Preliminary Earthquake Report Magnitude 3.0 M Date-Time 16 Jan 2012 13:41:10 UTC16 Jan 2012 06:41:10 near epicenter16 Jan 2012 07:41:10 standard time in your timezone Location 43.446N 103.051W Depth 5 km Distances 22 km (14 miles) ESE (104 degrees) of Buffalo Gap, SD 30 km (18 miles) SSE (154 degrees) of Fairburn, SD 33 km (20 miles) NNE (27 degrees) of Oelrichs, SD 362 km (225 miles) NNE (27 degrees) of Fort Collins, CO 443 km (275 miles) NNE (20 degrees) of Denver, CO Location Uncertainty Horizontal: 13.5 km; Vertical Parameters Nph = 9; Dmin...

PIERRE -- Bill Janklow, a flamboyant politician who left a lasting mark on South Dakota politics by serving four terms as governor died Thursday. He was 72. Janklow's son Russ Janklow confirmed that his father died around 11 a.m. CST Thursday of brain cancer. Bill Janklow had announced in November that he had inoperable cancer, and Gov. Dennis Daugaard this week said Janklow had been moved to hospice care. Janklow, a Republican, dominated South Dakota government for more than a quarter century, inspiring both fierce support and criticism. Even his political opponents admitted he got things done, though they decried...

PIERRE, S.D.—As governor of South Dakota for 16 years, Bill Janklow was always in a hurry—pushing lawmakers to approve his proposals and racing to disaster sites to take charge. His need for speed also likely played a role in his one regret: the 2003 fatal traffic accident that landed him in jail and ended his political career. As South Dakota's attorney general, governor and congressman, the colorful politician dominated the state's political landscape for more than a quarter century, changing the face of the state's economy, education system and tax structure. Even his enemies—and there were many—admitted the Republican had...

In an exclusive Human Events interview, the senior Republican on the Senate’s Agriculture Committee's Jobs, Rural Economic Growth and Energy Innovation subcommittee discusses his take on the MF Global bankruptcy scandal. “I have heard from several South Dakotans who were affected by the apparent fraud that occurred in the final days of MF Global before its collapse,” said Sen. John R. Thune (R-S.D.), who worked in the Small Business Administration​ under President Ronald W. Reagan. [Video of Thune's December 13 questioning Corzine is at the bottom of the article.] The firm’s Halloween bankruptcy was followed by the November 4 resignation...

DES MOINES -- Sen. John Thune (S.D.), a conservative member of the Republican Senate leadership, will endorse presidential candidate Mitt Romney during a campaign stop here on Wednesday.

In the end, it came down to a conversation between two of the most powerful people in the world. Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with President Barack Obama about a pipeline set to run from Alberta’s oil sands down through the U.S. Midwest to reach refineries on the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. ... “It’s blatant politics,” said David Wilkins, former U.S. ambassador to Canada, in an interview Friday. Mr. Wilkins lobbied for Keystone on behalf of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “It’s politics at its worst. It was a move by...

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday that he was looking at exporting more oil to China after the United States delayed a decision on a controversial pipeline. President Barack Obama's administration last week put off a decision on Keystone XL project after a major protest campaign by environmentalists, who say the pipeline would be prone to accidents and worsen climate change. The conservative Canadian leader, taking part in a summit in Hawaii hosted by Obama said the pipeline decision had produced "extremely negative reactions" and that he discussed oil exports with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Dozens of people gathered at the Sioux Falls Convention Center Saturday night for a straw poll. The event is being put on by the South Dakota Republican Party. Voters could pick one of the 8 republican candidates. Tickets were $25. Herman Cain won the poll coming in with 35% of the votes. Newt Gingrich 23%. Mitt Romney 20%. Rick Perry 7%. Ron Paul 5%. Michele Bachmann 4%. Rick Santorum 3% and Jon Huntsman 0%.

You could love him or hate him, but you couldn't ignore him. During a political career that touched four decades and includes more than 20 years in elected office, former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow shaped his own legacy with bold ideas, a powerful personality and a political philosophy that often defied traditional labels. Some saw the Republican, who announced Friday that he has terminal brain cancer, as conservative. Others said he was a populist. And still others said his political shape-shifting to fit the problem at hand transcended politics entirely.

With a fresh incision curving along his hairline from temple to ear visible to all, former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow broke down and cried Friday as he announced that he's dying of brain cancer. But it wasn't the cancer that prompted the tears. It was recalling what he called the one regret of his life: a 2003 car wreck that killed a Minnesota man and ended Janklow's political career. "I know it's over. I know it's at the end of the trail, but I don't hurt," he said of the weeks-old cancer diagnosis. Janklow, 72, a Republican who dominated...

President Obama’s proposed “Buffett Rule”-- which would force the wealthiest Americans to pay higher taxes to help cut the nation’s deficits -- has met its Republican match. Republican lawmakers have introduced their own “Buffett Rule” that would allow billionaire investors like Warren Buffett who say they’re not paying enough taxes to voluntarily give more money to the federal government. Under the legislation, authored by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Rep. John Scalise of Louisiana, taxpayers can donate at least a $1 to the Treasury fund for deficit reduction when they file their federal income tax returns starting next...

A Filipino church called Iglesia Ni Cristo, or Church of Christ, is the buyer of 59 parcels of land in Scenic, paying $700,000 for the properties, Pennington County records show. What the church plans to do with the nearly empty Old West town on the edge of the Badlands remains a mystery. The church hasn’t said anything about its plans for the property, and calls seeking comment from church offices were not returned. Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and county Planning Director Dan Jennissen each said their offices have had no contact from the church. A variety of sources describe...

Gannett paper. Link only. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111005/NEWS/310050044/0/COMM/?odyssey=nav%7Chead

The Obama administration is taking steps to extend new federal protections to a list of imperiled animals and plants that reads like a manifest for Noah's Ark - from the melodic golden-winged warbler and slow-moving gopher tortoise, to the slimy American eel and tiny Texas kangaroo rat. ... With a Friday deadline to act on more than 700 pending cases, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already has issued decisions advancing more than 500 species toward potential new protections under the Endangered Species Act... Patrick Parenteau, an environmental lawprofessor at the University of Vermont. "They are moving through this large...

Legacy Electronics, a high-tech contract manufacturer, has opened its new 40,000-square-foot headquarters in Canton, S.D., closing its San Clemente facility. Engle earlier explained the move: “California, unfortunately has become … a more difficult place to do business, a more costly place to do business, especially for manufacturers.

As late as April of 2011, the Water Management Chief for the Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, expressed an opinion in an e-mail to a concerned citizen that the mountain snow melt this year would "be nothing to write home about." This internal e-mail, among many others recently released through a Freedom of Information Act request by Gannett's Washington Bureau, exposes that assertion as a gross misstatement of known facts. The e-mails reveal that a cadre of hydrologists, engineers, and National Weather Service (NWS) officials had repeatedly warned the chief, Ms. Jody Farhat, beginning in January about the danger posed...

When it comes to energy, America is lucky to be next to Canada, whose proven oil reserves are estimated by Oil and Gas Journal at 175 billion barrels. This ranks just behind Saudi Arabia (260 billion) and Venezuela (211 billion) and ahead of Iran (137 billion) and Iraq (115 billion). True, about 97% of Canada's reserves consist of Alberta's controversial oil sands, but new technologies and high oil prices have made them economically viable. Expanded production can provide the U.S. market with a source of secure oil for decades. We would be crazy to turn our back on this. In...

RENE, S.D. – When the nearly 300 students of the Irene-Wakonda School District returned to school this week, they found a lot of old friends, teachers and familiar routines awaiting them. But one thing was missing: Friday classes. This district in the rolling farmland of southeastern South Dakota is among the latest to adopt a four-day school week as the best option for reducing costs and dealing with state budget cuts to education.

3.4 M - SOUTH DAKOTA Preliminary Earthquake Report Magnitude 3.4 M Date-Time 9 Aug 2011 19:45:18 UTC 9 Aug 2011 14:45:18 near epicenter 9 Aug 2011 13:45:18 standard time in your timezone Location 44.365N 100.363W Depth 15 km Distances 1 km (1 miles) NE (56 degrees) of Fort Pierre, SD 2 km (1 miles) W (261 degrees) of Pierre, SD 34 km (21 miles) WSW (241 degrees) of Blunt, SD 305 km (190 miles) WNW (289 degrees) of Sioux Falls, SD 640 km (398 miles) NE (35 degrees) of Denver, CO Location Uncertainty Horizontal: 16.3 km; Vertical 10.9 km...

RAPID CITY, S.D (AP) -- A western South Dakota police officer was killed and two others were seriously wounded after a shootout with a man during a routine stop, authorities said late Tuesday. Officer James Ryan McCandless, 28, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, Rapid City Police Chief Steve Allender said. Officer Nick Armstrong, 27, was in critical condition after undergoing surgery, and the third officer, who was shot in the side of the face, was listed as stable. His name hasn't been released. Gunfire erupted about 10 minutes after the three officers approached four people at an intersection....

If you don’t mind an old saloon and two empty jails then this historic ghost town in South Dakota is for you. For sale: The majority of the land within the Township of Scenic, South Dakota, totaling about 46 acres. Over the years, since 1906, it has been a thriving town mostly of visitors for the convenience of fuel, groceries, hunting, fossil hunting and the world famous Longhorn Saloon. And the price? $799,000. Population: 9. The nearest town might be 50-miles away, but reporters, television crews, and millionaires are making plans to visit this small town located on the edge...

The Summerset man who fired four live rounds into a crowd of tourists last month in Hill City while performing with a re-enactors group turned himself in Wednesday to answer a federal weapons charge, though he will not face local charges in the incident. Paul Doering, 49, made an initial appearance in Fargo, N.D., on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a felony. He was released after the court appearance, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Salter. Doering will not, however, face local charges for the Hill City incident, according to Lara Roetzel, the chief deputy...

The U.S. Air Force has deployed its bombers like never before in the Libya campaign. Wired picked up a story released by Air Force Magazine detailing a flight made this spring by two B1 bombers from South Dakota to Libya carrying ninety-eight, 500 pound bombs. During 24 hours of combat time over four days, the bombers destroyed nearly 100 targets. The B1s were chosen on top of NATO's combined air fleet because each one carries around 24,000 pounds of Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Laser guided JDAMs. To achieve equal destruction would have required dozens of NATO jets.

The Summerset man who fired a loaded gun during a re-enactment of a shootout last month in Hill City that wounded three tourists is a convicted felon who has been arrested at least 15 times since 1982. Paul Doering, 49, spent more than 50 months in Minnesota prisons for six felony convictions, according to the Minnesota Department of Corrections. Pennington County authorities determined that the bullets that injured Jose Pruneda, 52, of Alliance, Neb., Carrol Knutson, 65, of Birchwood, Minn., and John Ellis, 48, of South Connellsville, Pa., on June 17 came from Doering’s gun. Three of four bullets fired...

A federal judge on Thursday barred a tough new South Dakota abortion law from taking effect while it's being challenged in court. A federal judge on Thursday barred a tough new South Dakota abortion law from taking effect while it's being challenged in court. The law, which would have taken effect Friday, requires women seeking abortions to face a three-day waiting period and undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers that discourage abortion. The waiting period would have been the longest in the nation. Also taking effect Friday is a strict new licensing law for abortion providers in Kansas. On Thursday,...

MISSOULA- The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation filed a note it plans to appeal any decision that adversely affects a state's right to manage fully recovered wolf populations. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy is expected to decide whether Congress acted within Constitutional bounds when it delisted wolves in parts of the West. "We are protecting our right to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals any decision that results in another setback for conservation and science-based wildlife management," said RMEF President and CEO David Allen. An unfavorable ruling may stop wolf hunts planned for this fall in both Montana...

An Old West shootout staged as part of a charity fundraiser may have come a little too close to the real thing when three tourists were injured. South Dakota authorities say the three were injured Friday night at a shootout in Hill City and taken to a hospital about 30 miles away. A Pennington County sheriff’s spokesman says the tourists’ injuries are not life-threatening.

This study comprehensively ranks the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. It updates, expands, and improves upon our inaugural 2009 Freedom in the 50 States study. For this new edition, we have added more policy variables (such as bans on trans fats and the audio recording of police, Massachusetts’s individual health-insurance mandate, and mandated family leave), improved existing measures (such as those for fiscal policies, workers’ compensation regulations, and asset-forfeiture rules), and developed specific policy prescriptions for each of the 50 states based on our data and a survey...

Persistent Northern Plains rainfall and heavy mountain snowpack is setting the stage for the worst flooding on the Missouri River since 1993, reports Allen Motew, QT Weather meteorologist. These extreme levels of flooding are predicted to last for at least the next month. “The entire Missouri River Basin is flooding – only to get worse over the next several weeks,” Motew reports. “Abnormal rainfall is now expected to continue (or increase for many) across 1000’s of miles and millions of acres over the next eight days, from Alberta to Ohio.” Motew says recent reports show that the Missouri River is...

(Reuters) - Texas Governor Rick Perry on Friday ceremonially signed a bill making Texas the twelfth state to require photo identification from voters. "Today we take a major step forward in ensuring the integrity of our electoral process in Texas, a major step protecting the most cherished right that we enjoy as a people," Perry, joined by lawmakers who supported the legislation, told reporters. The measure was one of the Republican governor's "emergency" legislative priorities for the session, and he's not alone. Republicans across the country are pushing such legislation. This year, more than 30 states have considered adding or...

As so often seem to be the case, the GOP doesn’t follow the Democratic playbook when it comes to obstruction. They caved when it came to a vote last week on the nomination of Jack McConnell as a US District Court Judge. He’s only 52 or 53, so we can look forward to decades of his rulings. Among the items on his resume are being the unpaid director of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island and being involved in successful tobacco litigation, for which he’s still due to receive $2-3M/year for another 13 years. He’s been a trial lawyer for 25...

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Democrats were able to confirm the former director of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island to a lifetime federal judgeship after 11 Republicans voted to close debate on the nomination and allow it to come up for a final vote. As a lawyer, the new judge was also involved in litigation against the tobacco industry and a failed lawsuit against former manufacturers of lead paint. The cloture vote on the nomination of John J. “Jack” McConnell was 63 to 33 with 1 senator voting present and 2 senators not voting at all. Had 4 of the 11...

The U.S. Senate today overcame a Republican filibuster and approved a former Planned Parenthood abortion business director, John McConnell, as a federal judge in Rhode Island. Senators voted 63-33 to surpass the 60-vote threshold necessary to stop the filibuster and approve the nomination of McConnell’s nomination to the District Court for the District of Rhode Island. his nomination previously cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee recently on a party-line 11-7 vote. Senate Republicans joining all Democrats to end debate included Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins of Maine, Lyndsey Graham of South Carolina, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Mark Kirk of Illinois,...

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2011 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on the South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS) to drop its endorsement of a national security conference featuring Walid Shoebat, a notorious Islamophobe who claims "Islam is the devil" and that President Obama is a Muslim. CAIR said the DPS' continued sponsorship of the 2nd Annual South Dakota Homeland Security Conference to be held next week in Rapid City, S.D., would send the message that the department endorses Shoebat's anti-Muslim views. The Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization also expressed concern that law...

“Budgets are about our priorities and our values,” says U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., in a recent newsletter. Johnson is certainly right, and as Congress and the president wrestle with an unprecedented budget crisis, it's becoming more and more apparent exactly what our elected officials do value. Particularly instructive: the showdown earlier this month over raising the debt ceiling. Before agreeing to raise the ceiling, congressional Republicans insisted on a rider eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood - a measure President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats said they would never allow. Neither side looked willing to back down, and we hovered...

(CNSNews.com) – The National Labor Relations Board is seeking an unprecedented expansion of powers in a lawsuit to overturn voter-approved constitutional amendments in at least two states guaranteeing the secret ballot for union elections, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said. The NRLB contends it is perfectly within the agency’s jurisdiction to bring a “preemptive” lawsuit against the states. The agency announced it would move forward with litigation against the states of South Dakota and Arizona to strike the laws from the states that voters approved last November to guarantee employees have the right to vote via secret ballot...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Labor Relations Board says it will move ahead with lawsuits seeking to invalidate state constitutional amendments in Arizona and South Dakota that require workers to hold secret ballot elections before a company can be unionized. The move comes after months of negotiations that failed to reach a settlement with attorneys general for the two states, according to an April 22 letter from the agency's acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon. It's the latest in a series of high-profile steps the agency has taken to defend union rights since gaining a Democratic majority last year for the...

Fresh off its decision to ask an administrative law judge to stop Boeing's move to step up production in South Carolina because Boeing cited its wish to lower the risk of suffering more strikes, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is stepping up its game. Now Obama's NLRB is planning on suing two states, Arizona and South Dakota, seeking to invalidate those states' constitutional amendments that prohibit card check. This is just the latest step in Obama's campaign to reward and empower unions (and their campaign piggy banks) at the expense of jobs and growth (see "Unions Still in the...

Lisa Marie Johnson is a very brave woman. Lisa is a former Catholic Nun living in South Dakota. Lisa was on the forefront of the American Laws for America Courts legislative battle in South Dakota. Lisa has been on the forefront of the effort to expose the bizarre situation of four (4) mosques in Sioux Fall, SD a city of a mere 120,000 people. Most of the Muslims in Sioux Fall are from Somalia. Most recently Lisa organized a very successful screening of Iranium to a standing room only crowd of 300, with Frank Gaffney, Founder and President of the...