Latest news with #Janklow
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
While criticizing absent Republicans, Democrats should look for their own candidates
Attendees carry signs during a protest against President Donald Trump on April 5, 2025, in Sioux Falls. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight) As the editor of the daily newspaper in Pierre, I operated under the rule that editors should edit and reporters should write. This was back in the day when newspapers still had staffs. I had three reporters and they kept me busy at my desk, so it was rare that I would write a news story. I can't remember the exact circumstances but for some reason, one day during Bill Janklow's second tenure as governor, I was filling in for a reporter at the Capitol and happened to ask a prominent Democrat why his party had such a hard time getting enough candidates for legislative offices. He blamed Janklow, a Republican. It was impossible to get candidates to run for office, the Democrat said, because they didn't want to come to Pierre to be bullied by Janklow. In the next century, as a freelance writer, I was once again in Pierre, this time to cover the impeachment proceedings for Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg. During a break in the action, I asked another legislative Democrat why his party failed to field enough candidates for office. He either didn't understand the question or didn't want to answer it. He gave a rambling discourse about overcoming the long distances it took to get Native Americans to polling places and how voters had a tough time distinguishing between the values of South Dakota Democrats and the values of those raging liberals in Washington, D.C. South Dakota Democrats announce town hall meetings as frustration grows, even among some Republicans In the most recent election, I used some of this space to praise the state Democratic Party for its efforts to find more legislative candidates than usual. This was a hollow effort, as it turned out that some of the candidates were just ballot placeholders waiting for real candidates to come along, or they simply lost interest. In any case, some of them dropped off the ballot. Democrats, as they traditionally do in this state, ceded majorities in the House and Senate before a single vote was cast in the 2024 election. After the 2024 election, the future didn't seem bright for Democrats in South Dakota. They had just three of 35 seats in the Senate and six of 70 seats in the House. They don't hold any of the statewide elected offices. But now, in the spring of 2025, they have been gifted with a first-rate recruiting tool and his name is Donald J. Trump. During the first months of his second term, Trump and his buddy Elon Musk have done their best to push the federal government into disarray. They've fired thousands of federal workers, shuttered federal offices, disrupted services to taxpayers and cut congressionally approved funding. Even usually staid South Dakotans have taken to the streets in protest. Now the state's Democratic Party wants part of the action, promising a series of town hall meetings. These will be held in protest of the state's Republican congressional delegation's decision to follow the advice of their party leaders and stay away from the public that they serve. It seems that discretion is not only the better part of valor, it's also a way to avoid screaming protesters upset about the future of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, federal grant cuts and any number of other Trump/Musk shenanigans that have made it look like the country is run by Keystone Kops. Of course people will be at these Democratic town halls to vent and organizers should let them. But they would do well to quietly take some names. Not necessarily the names of the people who complain the loudest or are the most emotional. It would be best to be on the lookout for those who are well-spoken. Perhaps even get the names of some disenchanted Republicans. It will be easy for Democrats to appear as the party of reason at these town halls. It should also be easy for them to use these meetings to recruit a roster of candidates to run for office as Democrats. The town halls are organized to ask where the state's Republican congressional delegation has been hiding. If South Dakota Democrats turn in the same woeful effort at candidate recruitment in the next election, it wouldn't be a bad idea to organize similar town halls to find out where their party has been hiding all these years. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
South Dakota's ag, cultural ties to China
SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — China has upped the ante in its trade war with the United States by raising tariffs on goods from the U-S to 125%, starting Saturday. It's in response to President Trump's 145% tariffs on China. But there was a time when trade relations were much more cordial, if not cautious, between the two nations. South Dakota was on the front lines of building stronger economic and cultural ties to the communist country. South Dakota's Bill Janklow and Minnesota's Rudy Perpich were among the U.S. governors who visited China in 1983. At one point, Janklow blew up a balloon that read 'China and America are Friends' and gave it to a little girl. LIST: $9.1M in federal spending cuts in SD 'I think the biggest thing is people get to know each other. We get to know them, they get to know us,' Janklow said in 1983. Much of South Dakota's outreach to China involved getting the Chinese to purchase South Dakota ag products. A group from China checked out farm equipment during a tour of Sioux Falls in 1986. 'And here we have a t-rake, for raking hay,' was a comment shared within the group. In 1987, a Chinese trade delegation visited the South Dakota capitol to sign an agreement to purchase wheat grown in South Dakota. 'It is our overall policy to buy as much as possible U.S. wheat,' a delegate from China said in 1987. In that same year, a group from China visited the Rosebud Reservation to sample Native American culture. 'Everywhere, we've been met by very friendly American people,' a visitor from China said in 1987. UPDATE: Rice Street fatal crash victim identified In 1985, panda diplomacy came to Sioux Falls when China donated a mounted giant panda to the Delbridge Museum. 'These animals don't leave China very much because of the extremely endangered status of the animal.,' an official said of the donation. A site-seeing visit to Falls Park was accompanied by a hope for global goodwill in the future. 'We are much grateful to Sioux Falls people,' an official from China said in 1985. But there's been growing distrust between the countries in more recent years. Officials here have raised concerns about China stealing U.S. intellectual property and purchasing farmland. The South Dakota legislature passed a law in 2024 prohibiting China and a group of other countries from buying ag land in the state. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former state librarians oppose its elimination
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Four of South Dakota's past heads of the State Library are taking a stand against an attempt by the Noem-Rhoden administration to defund many of its operations and eliminate most of its staff. They issued a statement on Saturday night strongly urging state lawmakers to oppose House Bill 1041. Old TV provides clear picture of KELOLAND's past The House Education Committee last week voted 13-0 to recommend that HB 1041 do not pass. The next decision will be made by the Legislature's Joint Committee on Appropriations that sets state government's budget each year. Then-Gov. Kristi Noem proposed getting rid of many of the State Library's functions and staff when she revealed her budget recommendations to legislators in December. Her budget office recommended cutting 12.5 positions from the current staff of 21.5 and stripping $1,030,267 from its current $2,371,975 state general funding and taking away all of its current $1,399,443 federal funding. Noem didn't mention the State Library reduction in her budget speech, but she told lawmakers that she was recommending many cost reductions in state government because revenue is flowing into the state treasury at a slower rate than lawmakers had forecast. Noem resigned last month to become federal secretary of homeland security. Her successor, Larry Rhoden, said in his first speech to lawmakers that he wouldn't be submitting a budget of his own this legislative session. The State Library is part of the state Department of Education. The legislation to defund the library came at the department's request. The legislation also would eliminate the State Library Board. State Education Secretary Joe Graves was the only person to testify for HB 1041 during its hearing by the House Education Committee. Ten people spoke against it. Some were librarians. Others included Sara Rankin from the South Dakota Municipal League and Republican Rep. Tim Walburg. The four former state librarians who issued the statement on Saturday are Daria Bossman, who served 2012-2021 during the Daugaard and Noem administrations; Dorothy Liegl, who served 2004-2007 during the Rounds administration; Suzanne Miller, who served 1999-2004 during the Janklow administration; and Jane Kolbe, who served 1986-1999 during the Mickelson, Miller and Janklow administrations. 'The State Library is an efficient, cost-effective, trusted and valuable resource for all South Dakotans,' they said in the statement. They said a review in 2006 led to reducing the State Library staff of 37 to 27, and a decade later the staff was further reduced to 21.5. At the same time, the State Library became more technologically advanced. 'This new system which was named South Dakota Share-IT allowed the State Library to link all participating libraries with no cost to the local school or public library. The end result is that patrons can discover what each library has for their physical holdings,' the joint statement said. The statement also said that South Dakota's universities and a few larger public libraries are members of the international OCLC library network. 'However, without the State Library's connecting software and their librarians who manage it, most of the state will go dark,' the statement warned. 'The information isolation will be devastating to local schools and communities, particularly rural areas. Without access to magazine articles through subject databases and access to books held by hundreds of linked South Dakota libraries, individual research and inter-library loan will be severely curtailed,' the statement said. It added, 'In short, the proposed drastic reduction of personnel and budget cuts would severely limit the State Library's capacity to support k-12 schools, homeschoolers, public and academic libraries. Additionally, the economic impact over time would be crippling, again most especially to rural schools and communities. This ill-advised legislation will NOT save tax-payers' money. In fact, it will most likely have the opposite effect, costing tax-payers more money but with limited access to fewer resources, trainings and services.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
