Free Republic

November 19, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – It’s November 7 in South Dakota. The night is well below freezing. The Augustana University Republican and Life Runners clubs have teamed up and spent the evening chalking the sidewalks with messages defending the right to life. These messages included Bible verses, statistics, and blunt proclamations in the hopes of stirring up a discussion on the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) campus. A discussion was what they got, but not before things began “slipping” toward madness and mayhem. The pro-life messages were meant to be seen, and they were. Unfortunately, pro-abortion students didn’t respond with principled...

Former FBI Director James Comey said Monday he took inspiration from a visit to Mount Rushmore in a brief message sent amid a chaotic day of headlines that included an order from President Trump to declassify Comey's text messages related to the Russia investigation. "Enjoyed today’s visit: An inspiring reminder that we always emerge stronger from hard times," Comey tweeted along with a photo in front of the memorial in South Dakota. Comey, who was fired in May 2017 and regularly tweets both subtle and overt criticisms of Trump, sent his latest message a short time after the president ordered...

Dr. Howard Dean, a physician who previously served as the governor of Vermont, told MSNBC on Sunday that Donald Trump suffers from mental illness and he is unfit to be president. “I’ve long believed the president is mentally ill,” Dean said as part of a panel discussion hosted by Alex Witt, Raw Story reported. “And I believe narcissism overcomes his ability to know, A, what’s good for the country, and B, what’s good for him.”

Sioux Falls Police arrested an apparent antifa radical on Tuesday after finding a "concerning" number of illegal firearms and bomb-making materials in his apartment while serving a search warrant in connection with three area burglaries. Police also found antifa-related items during their search, including an antifa jacket and an anti-police manifesto. Authorities reportedly evacuated the surrounding area and called the Sioux Falls Police bomb squad.

ABERDEEN, S.D. (KSFY) - Molded Fiber Glass Companies (MFG) in Aberdeen announced Monday it will create about 60 more jobs after a substantial new order for wind turbine blades was confirmed. The company said the new order is part of a long-term agreement. “This new order is very good news for our teammates, the Aberdeen economy and MFG," Senior Vice President David Giovannini said in a press release. "In the context of challenging conditions in the wind energy market, we are very pleased with this win.” Back in early December, MFG announced plant would shutdown in February due to changes...

One question before the Supreme Court this term was a big one: As technology evolves, how do our laws governing commerce evolve with it? The answer, issued in the ruling held in a 5-4 decision on Thursday, is a bad one for taxpayers. Many proponents of an online sales tax have argued that we must completely revisit what we know about interstate commerce, and create illusory tax regimes to contemplate a brave new order of online transactions. In reality, none of this is true. For one, while it has been 26 years since the Supreme Court visited the issue in...

In the "What Did He Expect?" category, a deputy sheriff who defeated his boss for election was fired one minute after the polls closed. That means Sheriff-elect Mark Maggs of Bon Homme County, South Dakota, is out of a job until he takes office in January, when incumbent Lenny Gramkow's term expires, the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan reports.Maggs was Gramkow's only challenger in the Republican primary on Tuesday (June 5). With no other candidates seeking the job, the GOP winner would become the sheriff for a four-year term. Maggs defeated Gramkow by a margin of almost 3 to 1.

Voting precincts have closed in Alabama, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota as eight states hold primaries Tuesday, including in California where the Democratic Party’s plan to regain control of the House of Representatives faces a big test. The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former pharmaceutical executive Bob Hugin will win Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary in New Jersey. But it is too early to project a winner on the Democratic side, where incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez is battling fellow Democrat Lisa McCormick. Menendez’s corruption and bribery case is expected to play a starring role in...

The motto "always be prepared" is wise advice, but one man is taking the mantra to the max. He's got former military bunkers spanning a space that is three-quarters the size of Manhattan, and is selling them to survivalists. Survivalists and so-called "preppers" are often the brunt of jokes, with insults ranging from "paranoid" to "weird" and everything in between. But Robert Vicino couldn't disagree more. He runs a company which is currently focused on transforming military bunkers into doomsday shelters. The shelters are in Middle of Nowhere, USA, otherwise known as Edgemont, South Dakota. It's barely on the map,...

“I thought my last film was hard,” Zhao laughs, “but for a Chinese woman to try to wrangle a bunch of young cowboys?” Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao is making her second trip to the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight this year, with sophomore feature The Rider. Born in Beijing, Zhao went to school in the UK and college in the U.S. before settling in Denver, basing her first two feature films on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. Zhao’s 2015 drama, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, was developed at the Sundance Institute and premiered in Park City that year. It centers...

A complex of doomsday bunkers in South Dakota that can house 10,000 people is being hailed as the 'back up plan for mankind'. Equipped with survival gear and custom-made interiors, the city-sized complex could save thousands in case of an asteroid strike or nuclear war, the creator claims. Although the structures look imposing from the outside they have all the home comforts, including sofas, a coffee table and paintings hanging on the walls. They even include 'virtual windows' with LEDs to simulate the different views of the outside world.

FULL TITLE: South Dakota Passes Bill Requiring Planned Parenthood to Tell Women Abortion Kills a “Living Human Being” South Dakota lawmakers passed a pro-life bill Monday that requires abortion facilities to tell women that an abortion kills a “living human being.” The informed consent bill passed the state legislature with strong support and now heads to Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who is expected to sign it, the Argus Leader reports. On Monday, 56 state representatives supported the bill, while nine opposed it. South Dakota requires abortion facilities to tell women that an abortion will “terminate the life of a whole, separate,...

When homeschooling mom Sara Valle volunteered to spend a day at the South Dakota Capitol promoting equal sports access for homeschoolers, she expected a battle. What she didn’t expect was that the opposition to her advocacy would include far more than just arguments on the Capitol floor. Sara had been asked by South Dakota Christian Home Educators (SDCHE) to testify in support of H.B. 1120, a bill which would allow homeschool students to participate in public school sports. As a homeschooling veteran and mother of three, she was happy to advocate for more opportunities for homeschool students. She had also...

More than two dozen Senate Republicans are urging President Trump to re-engage in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. The 25 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Trump on Friday saying they support his recent comments that he may consider U.S. participation if the 11-nation Asia-Pacific pact is improved.

Of the 11 countries included in President Trump's refugee ban, one stands out -- Somalia. That ban expired two weeks ago and the U.S. has begun accepting refugees again from Somalia and 10 other high-risk nations. Although Trump promises "extreme vetting," many Muslim refugees come as children and become radicalized years later. Somali crime rivals Somali terrorism as a major problem, and the two clearly blur into one another. The problem is leaking from Minnesota into South Dakota -- as Lutheran Social Services has resettled more than 4,500 Somalis in Sioux Falls. Many of the Somalis have migrated from Sioux Falls to...

Wild Hill Honey owners Justin and Tori Englehardt went to check on their 50 hives on the morning of Dec. 28 and found them all destroyed, resulting in more than $60,000 in damage to the business. The police department said Wednesday two boys, ages 12 and 13, have been arrested in connection with the incident, which drew ire from people across the country and garnered national and international media coverage. Because they were charged as juveniles, the suspects cannot be identified under state privacy law. Despite the crime taking place in a secluded area with no witnesses, police were able...

Pro-amnesty GOP Senators are working hand-in-glove with Democrats to block a government budget until President Donald Trump agrees to break his campaign promise and his presidency by amnestying millions of wage-lowering illegal immigrants. The hostage-taking is being fronted by a group of GOP legislators, led by Sen. Jeff Flake and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who announced Wednesday they would not allow 2018 funding for the Pentagon until Trump approves an amnesty, saying:

Congressional Republicans say they reached agreement on a final tax bill that will provide a new 20-percent deduction for pass-through income from farms and small businesses. The agreement, which the House and Senate are expected to take up early next week, also calls for doubling the estate tax exemption and will include key expensing provisions that farm groups sought to preserve and expand, lawmakers said. They said the agreement also would allow deduction of state and local taxes, including income and property taxes, up to $10,000, a concession to lawmakers in high-tax states that could also benefit farmers. Senate Agriculture...

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...