Free Republic

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Senate Republican Conference Chair Senator John Thune (R-SD) argued it would be best if Alabama Republican Senate nominee Judge Roy Moore stepped aside. Thune said, “[I]f and when he gets here, there’s going to be this cloud, I think there’s going to be an ethics investigation. I think that’s probably inevitable, and that it would — everybody would be better served if he would step aside and allow somebody else to run, even as a write-in candidate, I think we win that seat with a Republican. But the president sounds...

They have no intention of giving Donald Trump a clear victory even if said victory would be of great benefit to the American Middle Class. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow GOP Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, among others, are creating further dissention in the hopes of stalling or even halting the proposed tax cuts legislation altogether. McConnell is presently calling the process “challenging” while Corker and Flake are claiming to have concerns over the tax cuts worsening the deficit. That claim is especially astounding from Senator Corker given he was only too happy to allow former...

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox New Sunday,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said he would like to see President Donald Trump ask Alabama GOP Senate hopeful Roy Moore to step aside. Thune said, “I would like to see the president come out and support what many of us have said and that is that Roy Moore needs to step aside, allow somebody else to be write in candidate. We can win that seat.” He continued, “If Roy Moore wins and he comes into the Senate in January there will immediately be an ethics investigation which is going to be a...

The leak was detected along a stretch of the pipeline about 35 miles south of a pumping station in Marshall County, South Dakota. TransCanada estimates the pipeline leaked 5,000 barrels of oil, or about 210,000 gallons, before going offline. The company said it's working with state regulators and the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to assess the situation. The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources heard about the leak at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, ABC affiliate KSFY reported.

LEAD — Construction on the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF), which will house the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), is underway. Groundbreaking ceremonies took place July 21. Tuesday, the Sanford Underground Research Facility and Fermilab held a joint informational meeting to brief local residents on what to expect from construction activities and from the economic impact of the project in the months ahead. Giving the presentation were Sanford Underground Research Facility Executive Director Mike Headley and LBNF Project Manager Josh Wilhite. The presentation began with the major features that will make the DUNE research being done at the LBNF a...

(KSFY) - For the first time in decades, a U.S. Navy ship will bear the name South Dakota. Navy officials will christen a new fast attack submarine the "U.S.S South Dakota" in a ceremony Saturday morning in Groton, Conn. at 9:00 a.m. C.T. You can watch the ceremony live here. According to Capt. Deb Bodenstedt, the ceremony will include the traditional smashing of champagne across the bow by the boat’s sponsor. “South Dakota’s” sponsor is Mrs. Deanie Dempsey, wife of the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. Governor Dennis Daugaard will also speak at the...

Lyle Jeffs, who was among 11 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints indicted in what prosecutors have called a conspiracy to defraud a federal food stamp program, was captured late Wednesday in South Dakota. Few details of the capture were immediately provided. An online log at the Minnehaha County, S.D., jail lists Jeffs as an inmate. He is being held without bond. The FBI Field Office in Salt Lake City sent a tweet Thursday morning saying Jeffs was arrested in South Dakota about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The FLDS has a compound in South Dakota, though...

(ELK POINT, S.D.) In this rural outpost of just over 1,900 residents, a local college student has become a courtroom sketch artist, trailers on Main Street are ersatz offices for a major law firm and members of an agricultural youth club are puzzled by a new metal detector at the local courthouse. The changes are part of Elk Point's selection as site of a multibillion-dollar defamation case pitting ABC News against South Dakota-meat processor, Beef Products Inc. The company contends that ABC and reporter Jim Avila defamed it by referring to its signature product as "pink slime" in 2012 broadcasts....

A conference held on April 9 on Christian and conservative issues in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was threatened by a Muslim man carrying multiple firearms. He attended the conference and posted numerous videos on his Facebook page, including a display of the multiple assault-style rifles, pistols and ammunition he was carrying on his person and in his van. He has not been arrested. The man, Ehab Jaber, posted numerous Facebook videos of himself both in the event and in his van in the event parking lot. In his van he shows off all his weapons, saying: “And now if you...

The Texas attorney general led a 15-state coalition Monday defending President Trump’s revised immigration order, amid lawsuits opposing the plan to halt immigration from six countries. In a friend-of-the-court amicus brief to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 13 other state attorneys general and Republican Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, laid out constitutional and federal statutory provisions defending Trump’s authority. The attorneys general also defended Trump’s “lawful actions” to revise the executive order, which was blocked last month by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit. “The president’s revised immigration order is constitutional, lawful, addresses the 9th Circuit’s concerns and...

Representatives from 13 states including 12 state attorneys general and one governor filed a motion in support of President Trump’s temporary travel ban. From the Dallas Morning News: Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday led a coalition of 13 states in filing a brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals defending President Donald Trump’s revised immigration order.In the brief, Paxton and representatives from 12 other states argue that the Trump administration’s new order is legal and falls under the president’s power over foreign affairs and national security. Those joining the brief included Paxton plus AG’s in the...

PIERRE | South Dakota's Republican governor on Friday vetoed a pair of bills that would have loosened restrictions on carrying concealed guns in the conservative state. Gov. Dennis Daugaard had warned he would veto the bills — one to let people carry concealed handguns without a permit, the other to allow concealed weapons in the Capitol building. Daugaard has said the state's current gun laws are reasonable. "As a longtime member of the NRA, I support the right to bear arms," Daugaard said in his veto letter for the permitless carry bill. "It is paramount that our state protect the...

PIERRE | The state House approved a bill Thursday that would allow people who can legally carry a concealed handgun in South Dakota to do so without a permit. South Dakota representatives voted 37-30 to send the bill to the Senate. It's currently a misdemeanor for someone to carry a concealed pistol or to have one concealed in a vehicle without a permit. Republican Rep. Lynne DiSanto, the main sponsor, said her measure is about freedom, adding that requiring a permit penalizes only legal and rightful gun owners.

The South Dakota House has passed a bill to allow people who have a South Dakota enhanced Concealed carry permit to carry in the Capitol building.  To do so will require registering with the Capitol security 24 hour previously.  The permit would then be effective for carrying in the capitol for 90 days. At the end of 90 days, the person will have to register again. From argusleader.com: On a 46-20 vote, legislators approved House Bill 1156, which would let law enforcement officers and enhanced concealed pistol permit holders to legally possess a firearm in the Capitol building. The...

The Native American tribe at the center of the controversy over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has vowed to take legal action against a presidential memorandum by President Trump pushing pipeline construction. After several months of protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux, the Army announced in early December that it would not approve an easement to let construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline proceed along its planned route. In a statement then, Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said alternate routes needed to be explored. Members of the tribe argue that the pipeline, which would carry...

President Donald Trump is planning to nominate Heather Wilson as secretary of the Air Force. A White House statement said Monday that Wilson, a former New Mexico congresswoman and president of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, would be the first Air Force Academy graduate to hold the position, if confirmed. Wilson served in Congress from 1998 to 2009, where she was a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and chaired the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence.

President Trump has announced his pick for Secretary of the Air Force — former Rep. Heather Wilson. If confirmed, Wilson would be the first Air Force Academy graduate to hold the position, according to the White House. Wilson currently leads the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, a public college focused on engineering and science. She represented New Mexico in Congress from 1998 to 2009. "She served as an Air Force officer in Europe during the Cold War and on the National Security Council Staff under President George H.W. Bush during the fall of the Berlin Wall and the...

The last time there was a new president elected for the United States, attendance at Rapid City’s annual gun show spiked. This time, attitudes in the community are much more relaxed. “Over the past year, sales and attendance at gun shows has been down a little bit, but that comes after a giant increase we had since 2008. In 2008 and 2012 for this show, we had like 22,000 people come through here in a weekend,” said Lee Rohrer, one of the event organizers and member of the Rapid City Rifle Club.

A refugee newly arrived from Somalia has been tried and convicted for attempting to sexually assault a special-needs woman while she was sitting outside of a home for the disabled in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Liban Mohamed, 39, was in the United States for only about a week when he tried to force himself on a 31-year-old woman with severe disabilities. He is not a U.S. citizen, but whether he will be deported in the wake of his conviction remains unclear.

A refugee newly arrived from Somalia has been tried and convicted for attempting to sexually assault a special-needs woman while she was sitting outside of a home for the disabled in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Liban Mohamed, 39, was in the United States for only about a week when he tried to force himself on a 31-year-old woman with severe disabilities. He is not a U.S. citizen, but whether he will be deported in the wake of his conviction remains unclear. The trial for Mohamed was held just a few days before Christmas and not a word of the conviction has...