Free Republic

Explanation: What's that in the sky? It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 25 years ago: a red sprite. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The above image, taken a few days ago above central South Dakota, USA, captured a bright red sprite, and is a candidate for the first color image ever recorded...

Energy companies are lining up for their shot to drill in the Dakotas and Montana after a new government report revealed that a massive geological formation stretching across the states contains twice the oil and three times the amount of natural gas than was originally believed. While the new estimate is drawing smaller companies to the game, the larger players like Schlumberger, Halliburton and Continental Resources are pushing forward with ambitious multi-year plans to stake their claim in the industry. Continental recently announced a five-year plan to triple its production by 2017. The company’s growth is based on success in...

Democratic leaders are wooing staunchly pro-gun candidates to run in pivotal Senate races at the same time they are discussing a strategy for bringing gun control legislation back up for debate. The two-pronged effort has prompted Republicans to accuse the Senate Democratic leadership of hypocrisy, but Democrats say it is simply smart politics. The question is whether two of the Democrats’ most promising potential candidates in Montana and South Dakota will pay a price for the leadership’s political maneuverings in Washington. Or will recruiting candidates who do not support President Obama’s gun control agenda have any effect on Democratic fundraising...

2014 retirements: Dems heading for the hills By: Alexander Burns April 23, 2013 04:49 PM EDT Doesn’t anyone want to run for Senate in 2014? Midway through candidate recruitment season, the bad news for Democrats is this: They are watching a generation of talent leave the Senate and head for retirement. The less-bad news: So far, few marquee-name Republicans are interested in these seats either. When Montana Sen. Max Baucus called it quits on Tuesday, he became the latest in a long series of senior legislators to announce that they’ve had quite enough of life on the Hill. National Democrats...

The National Weather Service has posted a winter storm warning for far eastern South Dakota, and winter weather advisories in other parts of that region and also southeastern North Dakota. ... Snowstorms have been crossing the Dakotas for the past week, dumping record amounts of snow

During a hearing into the constitutionality of voter identification laws enacted across the country, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) tore into claims by the Department of Justice that those laws were racially discriminatory. In the space of five minutes, Gowdy knocked down the claims, one by one, that a voter ID law passed in South Carolina in 2011 discriminated against African-Americans or was dissimilar to laws the Justice Department had cleared in a variety of other states. Gowdy began by noting that, when the Palmetto State’s voter identification law was passed, a third of the state’s congressional delegation were African-American; former...

Obama quietly signs bill shielding airlines from carbon fees in EuropeBy Keith Laing - 11/27/12 02:02 PM ET President Obama has signed into law a bill that requires U.S. airlines be excluded from European carbon emissions fees. Environmentalists had framed the bill as the first test of the president's commitment to fighting climate change in his second term and urged him to veto it. Obama quietly signed it Tuesday over their objections. "The Obama administration is firmly committed to reducing harmful carbon pollution from civil aviation both domestically and internationally, but, as we have said on many occasions, the application...

Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD), a Vietnam veteran who served in Congress for more than two decades, said Tuesday on Current TV that the movement for marriage equality is much like the movement for racial equality, and confidently declared that the Republican Party is now in the process of making the right to marry “the new conservative position.” “The main thing that caused me to change my mind was my work with veterans groups,” he told “Viewpoint” host John Fugelsang, explaining that he’s worked with a gay couple who want to marry and have a family. “It’s something like in...

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, does not plan to run for re-election when his current term ends in 2014, sources close to the matter and key Capitol Hill staffers said on Monday. Johnson, 66, joined the Senate in 1997 and has been widely expected to retire at the end of his term. He plans to make the announcement on Tuesday, the sources said. Johnson's staff said that he will hold a press conference at the University of South Dakota on Tuesday. His retirement would leave a vacant seat in a conservative-leaning state that could be...

US House Energy and Commerce Committee members released a discussion draft of legislation designed to jump-start approval of the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project. The draft bill by Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) would eliminate the need for a presidential permit and find that the Aug. 26, 2011, final environmental impact statement issued by Sec. of State Hillary Clinton satisfied all National Environmental Policy Act requirements. Reps. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and John Barrow (D-Ga.) cosponsored the proposal, which also would limit legal challenges to the project so it would not be delayed further. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred...

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...

For Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his top lieutenants, the challenges of balancing the 2014 Senate map and President Barack Obama’s second-term agenda could cause as many headaches as anything Republicans throw at them. Overall, 20 Democratic-held Senate seats are up for grabs next year, versus 13 for Republicans. Democratic incumbents face reelection in solidly red states like Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana and South Dakota, all of which Obama lost by double-digit margins in November. A little more than a year after Obama is sworn in to another term, there will be high-profile Senate races in swing states...

“I think you need to put everything on the table,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D, told ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday, “but what I hear from the administration – and if the Washington Post is to be believed – that’s way, way in extreme of what I think is necessary or even should be talked about. And it’s not going to pass.” The Washington Post article Heitkamp was referring to, reported that President Obama would soon seek to pass legislation “that would require universal background checks for firearm buyers, track the movement and sale of weapons through a national...

After horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing cracked open the Bakken formation and exposed hundreds of barrels of oil per day, the appeal of oil is growing across the country. South Dakota is one state that believes it may have an oil formation, so a state geologist is trying to attract companies to travel south. South Dakota wants more than four famous faces. The state geologist believes they may have undiscovered oil. "We are looking at the old historic data and were seeing these reports of tight formations that had oil in them, but they blew them off as not being...

When South Dakota’s former two-term Gov. Mike Rounds made it official last week that he would seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator in 2014, it was national news. After an election year in which Republicans began with high hopes of winning a majority in the Senate only to end with a net loss of two seats from their ranks, news that Rounds was poised to challenge Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson was truly something to cheer for the dispirited GOP. “Instantly competitive,” is how the Hill characterized the likely contest between conservative Rounds and two-term liberal Democrat Johnson (lifetime American...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota Ellsworth Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base near Rapid City in Meade County and Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It is home to the 28th Bomb Wing of the Air Combat Command (ACC), operating the B-1B Lancer.As host wing, the 28th Bomb Wing includes an operations group, a maintenance group, a mission support group, and a medical group. The base controls all air space 40 miles (64 km) around its area, including all landings at nearby Rapid City Regional Airport,...

Stopping veteran Dem retirements is top priority for Reid, SchumerBy Alexander Bolton - 11/25/12 06:00 AM ET One of the highest immediate political priorities for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic political guru Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is to persuade veteran colleagues not to retire in 2014. Democratic sources identify four senators as most likely to retire: Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Another possible veteran retirement is Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who has yet to announce his decision. But Democratic aides expect him to run...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — George S. McGovern, a proud liberal who argued fervently against the Vietnam War as a senator from South Dakota and suffered one of the most crushing defeats in presidential election history against Richard Nixon in 1972, died before dawn Sunday. He was 90. A spokesman for McGovern's family, Steve Hildebrand, told The Associated Press by telephone that McGovern died at 5:15 a.m. Sunday at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and lifelong friends.

April 14, 1999, Wednesday COMMITTEE HEARING SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS: SUBCOMMITTEE ON NEAR EASTERN AND SOUTH U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS) HOLDS HEARING ON THE CRISIS IN AFGANISTAN  WASHINGTON, D.C. SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS), CHAIRMAN U.S. SENATOR JOHN ASHCROFT (R-MO) U.S. SENATOR GORDON H. SMITH (R-OR) U.S. SENATOR ROD GRAMS (R-MN) U.S. SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS (R-WY) U.S. SENATOR PAUL DAVID WELLSTONE (D-MN), RANKING MEMBER U.S. SENATOR ROBERT G. TORRICELLI (D-NJ) U.S. SENATOR PAUL S. SARBANES (D-MD) U.S. SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD (D-CT) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DANA ROHRABACHER (R-CA) THE HONORABLE KARL F. INDERFURTH ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SOUTH ...

South Dakota is doing everything it can to let downtrodden pregnant women know there are better, healthier options than abortion. In March 2011, South Dakota’s Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed the Abortion Informed Consent Statute into law. Although the constitutionality of the law was immediately challenged, and Planned Parenthood recoiled at the thought of mothers being informed of all the dangers abortion poses for them (in addition to the child), the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that all major provisions of the law can stand. Generally speaking, this means that women seeking an abortion in South Dakota’s only abortion...

SIOUX FALLS, SD, July 24, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – South Dakota won a critical legal battle today, as the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the last contested portion of a 2005 pro-life law. The law, H.B. 1166, requires that women considering abortion be told critical biological information and directed to alternate means of help before undergoing an abortion. By a 7-4 vote, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a portion of the law that tells women abortion leads to an increased risk of depression and suicide. “On its face, the suicide advisory presents neither an undue burden on abortion...

Every single one of [the 17 states that elected a tea party-supported governor in 2010] has seen its unemployment rate decline since January 2011. Three of them have had unemployment drop by more than 2% (Michigan, Florida, and Nevada). The average drop in the unemployment rate in these states was 1.35%. For a comparison, in January 2011 the U.S. national unemployment rate stood at 9.1%. It is currently 8.2%, meaning that the national unemployment rate has declined by just 0.9% since then. Based on these percentages, it can be said that the job market in states with new Republican governors...

SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA, May 29, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A PR hand for Planned Parenthood, who is running as a Democratic candidate for state legislature, has been cited for DUI and Careless Driving after police say she collided with a seven-year-old girl who was riding her bike through a crosswalk. Carmen Toft, 32, is the South Dakota Public Affairs Manager at Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (PPMNNDSD). She is also running for the Democratic nomination in the state House of Representatives in District 10. The accident occurred last Tuesday at the corner of Eighth Street and North Chicago...

This column originally appeared in THE DAILY BEAST. In looking ahead toward the November election, Republican strategists should take proactive steps to avoid a damaging, dangerous conclusion to the presidential race and to prevent the very real chance that Mitt Romney will win the Electoral College even while losing the popular vote badly to Barack Obama. The problem stems from the lopsided margins President Obama will surely pile up in a few uncontested states with big populations, including California, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts. Mr. Romney, meanwhile, will prevail by comparable margins in only relatively small states: Utah, Idaho, the...

A UN human official is urging the U.S. to turn over control of lands considered to be sacred to Native Americans, including the site of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, unveiled his recommendations in Geneva on Friday after completing a 12-day visit to the U.S. where he met with representatives of indigenous peoples in six states. The fact-finder also had a chance to meet members of the Obama administration and briefed the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, but no member of Congress agreed to meet with him....

The Constitution of South Dakota says, in Section 24 of Article VI, the following: The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be denied. The language is plain, with perhaps the only confusion being that of the word ‘shall.’ The word itself is nearly synonymous with ‘will,’ except that when used in a sentence in the 2ND or 3RD person it implies authority, command, threat, promise, determination, and/or inevitability. By its usage in the above cited constitutional section its meaning can be discerned obviously as being a command, and being...

Local breaking news; no linkable sources yet. The Battle Mountain Humane Society animal shelter in Hot Springs, South Dakota burned to the ground this afternoon. No human injuries involved; one known animal death . At last word, a full accounting of the animals was on-going.

A former Sturgis ammunition manufacturer and an employee are accused of illegally selling ammunition items to two foreign countries shortly before Jamison International V LLC went out of business last October. A federal grand jury indicted Marc Jamison and Kathy Greenhaw on Tuesday for eight counts of unlawful exportation of arms and ammunition. The illegal exports are believed to have occurred between July 12 and Aug. 29, 2011. Jamison and Greenhaw are accused of shipping ammunition components designated as a defense article on the United States Munitions List without a license or written authorization.

HOT SPRINGS – An easy way to show your support of the Hot Springs VA is to sign an online petition recently created by Save the VA Public Relations Committee member Justin Gausman. One way to sign the petition is to simply log on to www.Change.org and enter “Hot Springs VA” into the “Find” space found in the top browser bar. Another quicker way to find the link is to go to www.chn.ge/zpuT7J> which will link you directly to the petition. “Change.org is a reputable website that has a very thorough privacy policy,” he said. Furthermore, if you receive further...

This is based on a genealogy table I made. Had a bit more trouble than I should have tracking down the first round results, wth.

Why, this must be some sort of strange coincidence:Currently, the U.S. has 22 right-to-work states. All of them are in the South, West, and Central Midwest. During the past 15 years, these states have collectively outperformed the rest of the nation to an almost embarrassing degree: • “From 1995 to 2005, incomes of residents in right-to-work states grew by 142 percent more than the incomes of Ohioans,” and “private-sector job growth was 500% greater.” • After passing right-to-work legislation in 1986 and 2001, respectively, Idaho and Oklahoma both experienced explosive growth in their economies and overall employment. • An after-tax dollar...

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):

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...

I've been job hunting for a while, and had to cast my net out in a wider arc. I'm looking at a possiblity in Sioux Falls, SD. I've never been there and never known anyone from there. Is it nice? Full of lefties? etc. Thanks in advance!

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...

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%.

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...

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...

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 Mammoth Site in Hot Springs recently yielded the remains of a 60th mammoth, the giant, extinct creatures that once roamed the continent. [just a teaser--AP story]

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...

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...

(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...

South Dakota 3-day abortion waiting period now law by Peter Smith Tue Mar 22 5:08 PM EST PIERRE, South Dakota, March 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – South Dakota’s new pro-life Republican governor signed into law Tuesday legislation that requires a three-day waiting period for women seeking abortion. “I think everyone agrees with the goal of reducing abortion by encouraging consideration of other alternatives,” said Gov. Dennis Daugaard in a statement. “I hope that women who are considering an abortion will use this three-day period to make good choices.” The law (HB 1217) is aimed at preventing mothers from feeling coerced or...

Down in Austin, Texas, the legislature has in its hopper, a law to keep Islam’s sharia law from being used in Texas. Such laws have cropped up in Alabama, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida and possibly three other states but I have not been able to identify which ones. Oklahoma passed a constitutional amendment against sharia law. It was approved by the citizens with a seventy percent majority. A good firm majority. Unfortunately, one Islamic gentleman filed a federal lawsuit against it. Federal judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange placed an injunction then later ruled it unconstitutional. It...

The Huron Chief of Police has been suspended with pay for comments that he made at a recent legislative session. Doug Schmitt was in Pierre to testify is support of a Senate bill. Doug Schmitt has been with the Huron police for 32 years. For the last ten, he has been the chief. He recently testified at a legislative session in support of a Senate bill that deals with illegal immigration. "You see, in Huron we have a very large business," Schmitt said. "It's a packing facility and the employ a great number of workers. Some of which we know...

Sen. John Thune NOT Running for President February 22, 2011 12:09 P.M. By Jim Geraghty Tags: John Thune John Thune will NOT be running for president. For months now, my wife Kimberley and I have received encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, and supporters from across South Dakota and the country to run for the presidency of the United States. We have appreciated hearing their concerns about where the country is headed and their hopes for a new direction. During this time, Kimberley and I and our two daughters have given a great deal of thought to how we might best...

Tell potential presidential contender and South Dakota's most nationally visible "pro-life," Republican elected official, U.S. Sen. John Thune, to speak out against the reckless "justifiable homicide" bill in his home state's legislature! Dear Have you heard the latest out of South Dakota? A right-wing state legislator, in an effort to advance the embryos-are-citizens-too movement and demolish a woman's right to choose, has introduced a bill which would make homicide "justifiable" if done to protect the life of an unborn child. This is an unbelievably extreme attack on women's reproductive choice ... one that transcends the choice issue and crosses all...

Colorado and South Dakota can now join Wyoming in the ranks of disappointing setbacks on immigration this year. South Dakota's version of Arizona's SB 1070 died in committee in the South Dakota House this afternoon. Republicans control the "State Affairs Committee" and account for 9 out of 13 of its members. The brief AP report alludes to law enforcement agencies and "other groups" which "work with immigrants" that testified against the bill. In Colorado, Rep. Randy Baumgardner pulled his version of the Arizona-style immigration law. He cited the burden that ACLU lawsuits would impose on Colorado taxpayers in a depressed...