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Independent Larry Pressler continues to steal support from Republican Mike Rounds in the race for U.S. Senate, while Democrat Rick Weiland falls behind, a new poll shows. Survey South Dakota — conducted by Survey USA on behalf of the American News, KSFY TV of Sioux Falls and KOTA TV of Rapid City — was of 616 likely voters and was conducted between Oct. 1 and Sunday. It shows 35 percent of those responding will vote for Rounds, 32 percent for Pressler and 28 percent for Democrat Rick Weiland. Three percent of voters back independent Gordon Howie and 2 percent are...

Today, the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) made the following statement about Mike Rounds, the liberal Republican candidate running for U.S. Senate in South Dakota. "Mike Rounds is trying to hide his pro-amnesty record by pretending to oppose the Senate's immigration bill, but he co-signed a report in February endorsing the same misguided policies," said SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins. "That's why his immigration task force welcomed the bill's passage in the Senate. "Mike Rounds now says he wants the border fence built before amnesty, but the report he signed earlier this year didn't call for more fencing and it didn't...

With one month until Election Day, Republicans' chances for retaking the Senate and picking up seats in the House are improving. The GOP has been buoyed by positive public polling, while red-state Democrats are still struggling to find distance from President Obama. There are bright spots and even some unexpected new targets on the map for both parties, but the overall national environment seems to have ticked a bit toward Republicans. The GOP needs to win a net of six seats to retake control of the Senate, and Republicans seem better-positioned to do so now than they did through much...

South Dakota state Rep. Stace Nelson (R) met with a handful of national conservative groups last week in Washington — an indication they continue to search for a challenger to former Gov. Mike Rounds (R) in the state’s open Senate race. The Republican primary field is already wide, and a bruising contest could jeopardize a pickup that is crucial to GOP efforts to take back the Senate in 2014. Nelson met with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) office, Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist and the Club for Growth. “To say things went well is an understatement,” Nelson told The Hill....

Public Policy Polling’s newest South Dakota Senate poll finds that Mike Rounds’ support has dropped all the way down to 35% in the wake of voter anger over the EB-5 scandal, and that Rick Weiland continues to be better liked and within single digits of Rounds. Key findings from the poll include: -Rounds is at just 35% to 28% for Weiland, 24% for Larry Pressler, and 8% for Gordon Howie. A majority of South Dakotans have a negative opinion of Rounds, with just 41% rating him favorably to 51% with an unfavorable opinion. Weiland’s favorability, at a positive 42/38 spread,...

Former Gov. Mike Rounds has acknowledged he made an inaccurate statement in written testimony he sent to lawmakers last week, and now he wants to change that testimony. Rounds sent a letter Thursday to state Sen. Larry Tidemann, R-Brookings, the chairman of the Legislature’s Operations and Audit Committee. In the letter, Rounds seeks permission to amend one of his earlier written responses to the committee’s questions about state involvement in the federal EB-5 immigrant-investor program. In the answers Rounds sent to legislators last week, he wrote that “the governor’s office was not served” with papers regarding an EB-5 related lawsuit...

The U.S. Senate Energy Committee advanced a bill on Wednesday that would force congressional approval of TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline project, but the measure seems unlikely to be taken up by the full Senate. The bill, the latest effort by lawmakers to breathe life into the long-delayed pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, will languish without a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring it to a vote. The measure, from Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Republican Senators John Hoeven of North Dakota and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, would take a decision...

Jim Geragthy, acclaimed author and National Review’s chief campaign analyst, has been grousing about the lack of quality polling in key Senate races this year. His frustration is well-founded. So yesterday must have felt like Christmas in September for Jim and political junkies everywhere, as two pollsters released a deluge of surveys covering the most contested races in the country. In light of the results, I’d expect that national Republicans are kicking off the week with an extra spring in their step, as well. We were leaked an advance copy of last week’s much-anticipated Politico/GWU Battleground poll, which was packed...

BLACK HILLS, SD - Several inches of snow fell Thursday morning in the Black Hills in western South Dakota. Some areas of the Black Hills could see snow totals over four inches

Couple assaulted in the street SPD RELEASES MORE VIDEO: Greater Springfield Area Crime Stoppers and the SPD are asking for assistance in identifying suspects or witnesses involved in the incident shown in this video. We are investigating an assault which occurred just after 12 a.m. on Friday, August 22, at 318 S. South Ave. The victims sustained serious injuries after they were assaulted by multiple black males, including the one dressed in black clothing and red shoes. If you can identify the subject in the video or have any information about the crime, please call Crime Stoppers at 869-TIPS. SPD...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

When an Oglala Sioux Tribal police officer used her Taser several times on a man lying helpless on the ground in Manderson on Friday afternoon, she was trying to get the man "to wake up and stand up," Ron Duke, chief of the OST Department of Public Safety, said Monday. The man, Duke said, was "lying on the ground, probably passed out, clearly intoxicated." The incident was caught on camera by a passerby who taped the officer repeatedly zapping the man who appears to never resist, defend himself or make any threatening moves. An expert in Tasers said using the...

Twelve states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration on Friday seeking to block an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to regulate coal-fired power plants in an effort to stem climate change. The plaintiffs are led by West Virginia and include states that are home to some of the largest producers of coal and consumers of coal-fired electricity. The suit was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The other plaintiffs are Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming. The E.P.A. rule, announced by President Obama on June...

New research takes a look at decades of corruption convictions to find the crookedest states in the union. When we think of government corruption (as one tends to do), our biased minds often gravitate to thoughts of military juntas and third world governments. But, of course, corruption is everywhere, in one form or another. And it’s costing U.S. citizens big time. A new study from researchers at the University of Hong Kong and Indiana University estimates that corruption on the state level is costing Americans in the 10 most corrupt states an average of $1,308 per year, or 5.2% of...

It’s only a small matter of time until the Obama administration finally, rapturously releases what its hopes will be the crown jewel of its rise-of-the-oceans-slowing climate-change agenda: Regulations capping the emissions from existing power plants, a.k.a., stamping out coal plants across the country. This set of regs is going to be even more complicated and controversial than the regulations for only new power plants the administration released last year, and as the AP obliquely explains, we’re likely to start seeing those “necessarily skyrocketing” energy prices Obama once mentioned pretty quickly here: Electricity prices are probably on their way up...

Meade County, South Dakota will be having a surplus property auction on May 13, 2014.   While the county sheriff initially opposed auctioning off the guns (he preferred to trade them to a dealer), more fiscally responsible heads prevailed.  The firearms are considerately above the average seen in these type of sales, perhaps because these guns were confiscated in rural South Dakota instead of inner city of Chicago.   Or perhaps the guns in the inner city might go through a different "selection" process before making it to a gun sale.  From the Rapid City Journal, we have a list of...

Frustrated with President Barack Obama’s reaction to Russian action in Ukraine, a group of Republican senators said Wednesday they will introduce legislation outlining a more muscular response. “What we’ve seen from the administration is a lot of rhetoric,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. The White House has been dealing “with the situation after something bad has already occurred,” he said. Earlier this week, violence flared up in another area of Ukraine that hugs the Russian border, as the new government in Kiev criticized local police...

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Democratic U.S. House candidate Steve Kagen apologized Monday for commenting that he was late for a meeting on an Indian reservation because "we're on Injun time." "I did not mean any harm by my words and I humbly apologize if I offended anyone. That was not my intent," he said in a statement hours after the National Republican Congressional Committee released a tape recording of the comment. Kagen attended a meeting Friday on the nearby Oneida Reservation and at his next stop in Green Bay he made the following remarks: "Appreciate getting here almost on time....

ELK POINT, S.D. (AP) — Two South Dakota girls on their way to an end-of-school-year party at a gravel pit in May 1971 drove off a country road and into a creek where their remains lay hidden until last fall when a drought brought their car into view, authorities said Tuesday.

The Obama administration on Friday said it was giving eight federal agencies more time to weigh in on the Keystone XL pipeline, a move almost certain to delay a final decision on the controversial project until after the Nov. 4 midterm elections. That timeline spares President Barack Obama from making a politically difficult decision that would either anger environmentalists or jeopardize some Senate Democrats seeking reelection in red states. But Friday’s move alienated stakeholders on all sides of the issue, including oil industry allies who accused the White House of playing politics and environmentalists who want Obama to swiftly reject...