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Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin says she will oppose the health care reform bill expected to be considered this weekend in the House. The South Dakota Democrat says the plan falls short of her goals for health care reform and could threaten existing access to health care for many South Dakotans. Herseth Sandlin says she's also concerned it doesn't do enough to bring down the federal deficit and could affect future health care for seniors. The House could begin consideration this weekend of the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation that would extend health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and...

Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin says she will oppose the health care reform bill expected to be considered this weekend in the House. The South Dakota Democrat says the plan falls short of her goals for health care reform and could threaten existing access to health care for many South Dakotans. Herseth Sandlin says she's also concerned it doesn't do enough to bring down the federal deficit and could affect future health care for seniors. The House could begin consideration this weekend of the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation that would extend health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

An Israeli weapons company is opening a manufacturing plant in Rapid City that will create at least 19 new full-time jobs. TDI Arms, which specializes in military-grade weapons accessories, will receive a $50,000 grant from the Rapid City Economic Development Partnership to defray relocation costs. The funding will come from the Opportunity Capture Fund, a city 2012 project intended to financially assist economic development in Rapid City. Previous grant recipients include Northrop Grumman, Cabela's and South Dakota School of Mines & Technology

A mountain lion was killed within the Deadwood city limits Wednesday morning after the big cat, and possibly another, apparently killed a deer in a backyard in town. A South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department trapper killed one lion Wednesday, but the hunt wasn't over, because police reports early in the day indicated that two lions were in the area. GF&P placed four baited live traps in town in hopes that the other cat could be caught overnight Wednesday. "Our trapper did euthanize one lion, and we're trying to determine what else we have out there," said John Kanta,...

Day 1: Sun Oct. 25, 2009  11:00 a.m.Tuna Harbour Park, across from the USS MidwayLocation: Tuna Lane at the foot of G StreetSan Diego, CA  4:00 p.m. Griffith Park (Pad D - Crystal Springs Area)4730 Crystal Springs RoadLos Angeles, CA  90027 Day 2: Mon Oct 26, 2009 - 1:30 P.M. Eaton Plaza2400 Fresno St.Fresno, CA Day 12: Thurs Nov 5, 2009 - 12:00 John Stiff Memorial Park (Picnic area #4)4800 Bell St.Amarillo, TX     Day 13: Fri Nov 6, 2009 - 5:00 p.m. Austin State CapitolCongress Ave & East 11th St.Austin, TX 

Tea Party Express Coming to Rapid City By Bob Ellis on October 12th, 2009 Entertainer Lloyd Marcus at the Bloomington, IN Tea Party Express (Photo credit: Dr. Theo) You heard about the Tea Party Express a month or two ago as these limited-government patriots toured across the United States, ending up in Washington D.C. for a huge historic protest in our nation’s capital.The first cross-country tour was such a success,  they are doing it again.  Starting October 25, the Tea Party Express will party in San Diego, California and end on November 11 in Jacksonville, Florida.On November 2, the Tea...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel09/harrington082109.htm August 21, 2009 FBI Responds to United States Parole Commission Decision to Deny Parole to Leonard Peltier Statement of Thomas J. Harrington, Executive Assistant Director, FBI Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch: The FBI family has never forgotten the ultimate sacrifice made by FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, and we fully support the decision of the United States Parole Commission to deny parole to Leonard Peltier. His callous criminal acts demonstrated a complete disrespect for human life and for the law. His time served in jail for their 1975...

The state’s adjutant general of the South Dakota National Guard and Gov. Mike Rounds are among state leaders opposed to a Pentagon proposal involving control of how part-time military troops are used in any state. At the heart of the disagreement is who will command troops when they are sent to a particular state to deal with a hurricane, wildfire or other disaster. The military justifies a change in law as a natural extension of its use of federal forces. The governors see the Pentagon move as a strike at state sovereignty. Rounds agrees with the National Governors Association’s opposition...

Women seeking an abortion must be told that the procedure ends a human life, a federal judge ruled Thursday, upholding part of a South Dakota law.U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier said doctors must disclose to pregnant women that “the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.�But she rejected other portions of the state’s 2005 informed consent law that required doctors to tell women that abortion increases the risk of suicide and that they have “an existing relationship with that unborn human being.�10-week old human fetus (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) “A legal relationship requires two people....

Former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle's visit to the Oval Office on Friday, at the invitation of President Obama, was more than just a meeting between two loyal friends and political allies. It also served as a reminder of what might have been. As Obama's health-care agenda teeters in Congress, the White House listed the private meeting on the president's public schedule, sending a signal that Obama is still consulting Daschle on his top domestic policy priority. An assiduous student of health policy and an adept creature of the Senate, Daschle was Obama's first pick to oversee his reforms,...

A “Broken” Health Care System for Native Americans On paper, the situation sounds good: Based on a 1787 agreement between tribes and the United States government, the U.S. has an obligation to provide American Indians with free health care on reservations. But that’s not how it works, reports the Associated Press. Roughly one-third more is spent per capita on health care for felons in federal prison, according to 2005 data referenced by the AP. The system’s ineffectiveness has yielded a common refrain on reservations of “don’t get sick after June,” because that‘s when federal funds run out.

PIERRE, S.D. - The South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment voted unanimously Thursday to approve an air quality permit for the proposed Hyperion Center, which would be the first new oil refinery built in the United States since 1976. The long-awaited decision moves the Dallas, Texas-based Hyperion a major step closer to starting construction in rural Union County. The location is in extreme southeast South Dakota, across the Missouri River from Nebraska and near the border with Iowa. The nearest Nebraska towns are Newcastle and Ponca. Hyperion executive Preston Phillips said the permit allows the firm to proceed with...

Planned Parenthood has asked a judge to prevent South Dakota from suspending or revoking its license to perform abortions because of state claims that it violated a law requiring doctors to tell women that abortion ends a human life. Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota requested a temporary restraining order in response to a letter it received Monday from the state Department of Health. The letter, included in the court file, lists numerous deficiencies reportedly found in May during an inspection of the state's only abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls. The agency gave Planned Parenthood, which operates the clinic,...

STURGIS, S.D. — Aerosmith's Steven Tyler suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries in a tumble from the stage at a South Dakota show, a concert spokesman said Thursday, and the audience thought it was part of his hipshaking act until he didn't get up. Tyler, 61, fell while entertaining the crowd by dancing around as the sound crew replaced a fuse that blew during the song "Love in an Elevator," said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the Wednesday night concert. An amateur video showed him spinning around before falling off the stage.

Today the so-called Thune amendment to require states to accept each other’s handgun carry permits failed 2 votes short of the Senate’s 60 vote cloture requirement. Senator Thune’s (R – South Dakota) bill was a great idea in intent, but the mechanics were unconstitutional. . . . Congressional members who are serious about encouraging inter-state gun carry permit recognition should do things the right way via the Congress' enumerated federal powers. First, Congress should knock off the "do as I say and not as I do" stuff and legalize all state gun carry permits in the District of Columbia, Puerto...

Earlier this week, Senator John Thune offered a Concealed Carry Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill. Today, the Senator issued the following statement after his bipartisan amendment allowing individuals to lawfully carry concealed firearms across state lines under the condition that the laws of the host state are obeyed was defeated by a vote of 58 to 39: "Today, overheated rhetoric and fearmongering overcame common sense. My amendment would allow responsible firearms owners to protect themselves while obeying the firearms laws of the states they visit. The individual right to self-defense should not end at the state line. Despite today's...

In a rare win for gun control advocates, the Senate on Wednesday rejected a measure allowing a person with a concealed weapon permit in one state to also hide his firearm when visiting another state. The vote was 58-39 in favor of the provision establishing concealed carry permit reciprocity in the 48 states that have concealed weapons laws. That fell two votes short of the 60 needed to approve the measure, offered as an amendment to a defense spending bill. Opponents prevailed in their argument that the measure violated states rights by forcing states with stringent requirements for permits to...

Final vote was 58 for and 39 against. Unanimous consent for the need of 60 votes meant the amendment for national reciprocity was withdrawn.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – A federal grand jury has indicted the environmental group Greenpeace and 11 people involved in hanging a banner on Mount Rushmore. Greenpeace has said three of its members hung the 65-by-35-foot banner calling for a stop to global warming July 8 while others blocked access to the site.

As expected, the Senate Republican leadership continues to line up against the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, with Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Thune (S.D.) on Monday joining Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on the list of official “no” votes. Thune joins a growing list of Republicans who publicly oppose the nomination. But a number of GOP Senators have also announced their support — including Sens. Dick Lugar (Ind.), the longest-serving Senate Republican, Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Mel Martinez (Fla.). Sotomayor is expected to be easily confirmed by the full Senate following a vote in the Judiciary Committee next...

Two in California, one in Georgia and one in South Dakota - these FDIC closures bring the total number of failed banks in 2009 to 57. BY CATHERINE CLIFFORD NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- State regulators shut down four banks Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said. The bank were: First Piedmont Bank, based in Winder, Ga.; BankFirst, based in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Temecula Valley Bank of Temecula, Calif.; and Vineyard Bank of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Friday's actions bring the total number of closings for 2009 to 57. . . . . . Friday's failures will cost the FDIC fund nearly...

Regulators on Friday shut two banks in California and two smaller banks in Georgia and South Dakota, boosting to 57 the number of federally insured banks to fail this year.

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and . . . Barack Obama? Patriotic tourists visiting the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on Wednesday found a fifth face displayed -- and not as a compliment -- next to the giant stone carvings of four legendary presidents. A group of environmental activists connected with Greenpeace unfurled an enormous banner showing President Obama's face and calling for an end to global warming. The 65-foot by 35-foot banner — which read "America Honors Leaders, Not Politicians: Stop Global Warming" — was hung to the immediate right of Lincoln at about...

Members of the environmental group Greenpeace draped an enormous banner next to the carved stone faces of Mount Rushmore today, calling for more aggressive action to fight climate change. The banner appeared to show President Obama's face and the words "America Honors Leaders, Not Politicians. Stop Global Warming." It was unfurled next to the image of Abraham Lincoln, on the far right side of the South Dakota landmark, starting about 12:30 p.m. EST....

The man who took five lives in six days in a small Cherokee County town should have been in jail, according to South Carolina officials who have examined his criminal record. Patrick Tracy Burris, who allegedly murdered five Gaffney residents ranging in age from 15 to 83, was a habitual felon with a 25-page rap sheet that included an eight year stint in North Carolina prison. Police say Burris should have never been released from prison, and now they are demanding answers. “When you have that many crimes you shouldn’t get parole,” said South Carolina Law Enforcement Chief Reggie Lloyd...

To think that Boris and Natasha lived right here in South Dakota, and we didn't even know it! Recently, Walter Kendall Myers and Gwendolyn Steingraber-Trebilcock-Myers - a couple who once lived in Aberdeen - were arrested for spying. The news rocked the nation. Well, actually, the nation immediately forgot the story. Still, South Dakota hasn't forgotten. It's not every day suspected spies are found traipsing through your own neighborhood. The espionage likely started after they left Aberdeen, but you still wonder if that abandoned shopping cart you saw in aisle 8 of Kessler's might have contained a coded message. The...

The government has taken unprecedented actions over the past 15 months to stabilize the economy, including taking direct ownership stakes in private companies.  This creates a dangerous conflict of interest between the federal government and the private sector.  The government shouldn’t be an owner of companies it regulates in the private marketplace. Ends government ownership of private companies by: Preventing the U.S. Treasury from purchasing additional ownership stakes in private companies in any form, including preferred stock, common stock or warrants.Requiring the U.S. Treasury to sell any ownership stake of private entities by July 1, 2010.Requiring the Secretary of the...

Senate Republicans on Thursday unanimously tapped John Thune and Lisa Murkowski for new leadership positions in the wake of John Ensign's resignation due to a sex scandal. Thune (S.D.) was tapped as GOP Policy Chairman, the position that Ensign held until his admission last week of an affair with a female staffer. Murkowski (Alaska) was tapped to replace Thune as Senate Republican Conference vice chairman. Thune, who defeated former Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in 2004, is considered a rising star among Senate Republicans. Murkowski — daughter of former Sen. and Gov. Frank Murkowski — has fended off rumors of a...

Government programs don't believe in heaven, but many seem to have eternal life. That federal initiatives grow old but never die is particularly significant today. Fueled by ideology and equipped with a large majority in Congress, President Barack Obama and his allies on Capitol Hill are injecting steroids into Washington's normal propensity to expand. But is there an exit strategy for the new largesse? The deck is normally stacked against government shrinking itself. Washington rarely takes steps to limit its own power. Ensuring that outmoded or ineffective programs don't live in perpetuity is a daunting task. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.,...

We're hearing that South Dakota Sen. John Thune has locked up support to replace Sen. John Ensign as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. The opening came when Ensign admitted to an affair with an ex-aide and could clear the way for Thune, talked about last year as a vice presidential nominee, to run against President Obama in 2012. Tall, somewhat quiet, and Western handsome, Thune is already considered a dragon-slayer, having taken out former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004 and beating back a base closing in his state during the Bush administration. Should he nail the...

Now I can safely cheer up. Senator John Thune (R-SD) has introduced a bill he calls the "Government Ownership Exit Plan Act of 2009." At the site he has established to promote public support for the bill, he explains its purpose. "The government has taken unprecedented actions over the past 15 months to stabilize the economy, including taking direct ownership stakes in private companies. This creates a dangerous conflict of interest between the federal government and the private sector. The government shouldn't be an owner of companies it regulates in the private marketplace." The bill aims to prevent further government...

Senators who oversee the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package held stocks in many of the banks bailed out towards the end of last year, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday. According to the reports detailing senators’ finances in 2008, nearly half of the members of the Senate Banking Committee had holdings in financial institutions that have taken funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The panel has jurisdiction over the bailout fund and other relief efforts directed by federal regulators to save the nation’s financial system. For example, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), a Banking panel member, has...

UNDATED (AP) - A couple charged with spying for Cuba over the last 30 years lived in South Dakota. Retired State Department worker Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, are charged with passing U.S. secrets to the communist government.

Recent articles have raised questions about whether or not it is ethical for David Chicoine to continue in his position as South Dakota State University president while at the same time receiving $400,000 per year as a member of the Monsanto board of directors. First of all, it should be noted that Chicoine's $300,000 yearly salary as SDSU president is quite modest by the standards prevailing in academia today. Salaries for university administrators are shooting up at an unprecedented rate. During the 2007-2008 school year, compensation packages for public university presidents averaged $427,000 per year. Topping the list: Ohio State...

Special to AIPNEWS.com Just when you think you have heard it all, there is more. The Republican party has failed time and again to stand on the party planks, and failed to listen to the voices of the members of the party, the voters, whom they are allegedly supposed to represent. NOW we cannot even be assured that our voices are being heard, when it is our own voice, in Washington DC. The Senate Judiciary Committee is hoping to make fast moves today, while under the smoke screen of Obama's support of Muslim rights and his selection of Sotomayor for...

United States Attorney Marty J. Jackley announced that a man charged with distribution of child pornography was sentenced on May 20, 2009, by US District Court Chief Judge Karen E. Schreier. Ryan Murphey, age 33, of Rapid City, was sentenced to 12 ½ years’ imprisonment, twenty years’ supervised release, and ordered to pay a special assessment of $100 to the Victim's Assistance Fund. Murphey was indicted by a federal grand jury on July 23, 2008. On February 27, 2009, he pled guilty to possessing thousands of images minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct (child porn) on his home computer. This...

...Thune was not alone in voting "no." A Democrat — *gasp* — and fellow South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson — also voted "no," probably for the same reason Thune voted "no" which was because it was going to kill 3,000-5,000 jobs in their state, which is simple math.

It's been said that conservatism has different meanings for different people. It may not be textbook, but without a whole lot of navel gazing, here's what it means to me and what Free Republic is all about: In a word, Freedom! In two words, Preserving Freedom. In a handful of words as stated by our Founding Fathers, to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity! America was founded on the proposition that all men are created equal by God and that our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are granted directly by God...

Do not believe the nattering nabobs of negativity. The Nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt was a huge success!! What we need now is MORE and LOUDER!! Obama has no clue. Being confronted by millions of fed-up citizens is new to him. He never expected the otherwise docile American people to rise up against his wannabe Marxist/fascist totalitarian regime. He's now lashing out at us through the Dept of Homeland Security as if We the People are his enemy. Well, we are! And he now knows it. And he's scared witless!! And the media has been reduced to the speechless,...

Congratulations FReepers and Patriots! According to Henchster's ongoing tallies, we've surpassed 750,000 participants in our nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt! Woo hoo!! All 50 states fully engaged! Over 600 cities represented and reports still coming in! Huge turnout, huge SUCCESS!! Elected officials take note: DO NOT TREAD ON ME!! Tyranny, usurpation, corruption, overreaching, big spending, high taxing will no longer be tolerated! We the people are FED-UP and we're not going to take it anymore! Ignore us at your own peril! All Congressional seats, all elected offices throughout the land at risk! Revolution is in the air!!

If the Obama administration has taken flak for suggesting that conservative groups might be home to domestic terrorists, it looks like some House Democrat leaders are willing to go even further: But in an interview on Fox TV in San Francisco, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP grass-roots effort as “AstroTurf.” “This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grass-roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class,” Pelosi said....

Symbolic tea boxes dumped in Sioux Falls rally3 hours ago By WAYNE ORTMAN Associated Press Writer (AP:SIOUX FALLS, S.D.) Spurred on by a crowd chanting "Dump that tea," two men in colonist garb threw boxes carrying labels like Tarp, Stimulus and Bailout into Covell Lake as part of a national tax day protest Wednesday. Turnout for the noon-hour re-enactment and modernization of the Boston Tea Party in a city park was difficult to gauge. Police handling traffic in the area said it likely was lower than the 3,500-4,000 given by rally organizers. But people stood 10-15 deep in a broad...

After the 2010 census has been held, the number of seats held by each state in the U.S. House of Representatives will change. The National Conference of State Legislatures recently estimated what the 2010 reapportionment will mean for each state. Eight states are expected to lose one seat each, in the U.S. House and in the Electoral College. They are Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. States that will gain will be Texas (3 seats), and one each for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah. If the bill now pending in Congress to expand the...

A 23-year-old Brookings man was shot and killed after trying to enter a home that wasn't his. Multimedia In a release sent to Action News, Brookings Police Captain Jeff Miller says Bradley Joe Odens was trying to get home late Thursday morning. At just before 2 a.m., he tried entering 129 Main Avenue, but there was a problem. Odens lives at 143 Main Avenue. Reportedly, the 28-year-old Brookings man inside the home tried telling Odens that he has the wrong house. But the man tells police that Odens didn't listen and continued to kick his way in. In a 911...

The war of words continued yesterday in the battle of the budget on Capitol Hill. Sending a very interesting message to their Democrat counterparts in the House, the Senate yesterday voted to pass -- by a whopping 89-8 margin -- an amendment by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) that would prohibit the collection of funds from any future cap and trade proposal if that proposal would increase electricity rates and gasoline prices for American households and businesses. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007 released the results of their study of a proposal similar to President Obama's cap and trade framework....

Are you ready for a FReepathon!!? Well, it's a new quarter and a new president and he's everything we knew he would be. In less than 90 days he's managed to take an economic downturn and turn it into an unmitigated disaster for good old American capitalism. Never let a good crisis go to waste! The government is now printing money as fast as they can run the presses. Our federal budget is doubling and tripling and the Fed is running with no controls or oversight whatsoever from the congress, pumping trillions more into the "economy." The government now spends...

The recession has prompted another newspaper to fold. Thursday's edition of The Rapid City Weekly News was the last to hit the newsstands.

Thune Introduces Amendment to Protect Deduction for Charitable Giving Thune's Effort to Increase Charitable Giving Draws Praise from Charities, Nonprofits April 1st, 2009 - - Washington, D.C. - Senator John Thune has introduced an amendment to the Democrat budget that would fully preserve the federal income tax deduction for charitable giving. President Obama's budget framework proposes reducing the deduction, which would result in less charitable giving nationwide. "Private charities provide essential services to the most vulnerable people in society, especially when times are tough," said Thune. "Congress and the White House should continue to use the tax code to...

Folks in Rapid City, South Dakota have now confirmed they are a GO for a Tax Day Tea Party. It will be from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM on April 15 (location TBD) and will feature speakers and more. For more information go here: http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/03/rapid-city-tax-day-tea-party-is-on/