Looking to grill your legislators this weekend? Here are the Presidents' Day Weekend events from the crackerbarrels I listed last Friday. Most events are Saturday, but Redfield holds a special Monday afternoon event: Brandon, Saturday February 14th, 9:00 AM -…
Posts published in February 2015
The South Dakota Legislature has before it a bill declaring that personhood begins at conception. House Bill 1212 adds fifteen words to our child abuse statutes: For purposes of this section, a child conceived, but not born, is deemed a…
Senate Judiciary yesterday heard and wisely killed Senate Bill 162, Senator Brock Greenfield's (R-2/Clark) bad idea to authorize legislators to carry concealed weapons in the State Capitol. In advocating his bill, which Greenfield said he thunk up all on his…
The South Dakota Senate is on its way to agreeing with the House that the primary cause of shortages of teachers and other workers is low pay. Yesterday, Senate Appropriations approved Senate Bill 170, which would raise legislator pay from…
House Appropriations felt like spending money yesterday. The committee heard five bills and approved four of them: House Bill 1147 would spend $1.274 million to increase the merit-based Opportunity Scholarship for university students from $5,000 to $6,500. Governor Dennis Daugaard…
A bill inspired by this blog's reporting has received unanimous approval from both chambers of the South Dakota Legislature. Senate Bill 18 makes conducting a fake raffle a crime prosecutable under South Dakota's deceptive trade practices statute. In five votes—Senate…
Rep. Rev. Steve Hickey (R-9/Sioux Falls) saw seven bills that he prime-sponsored killed this week, five in committee yesterday. Among them was House Bill 1210, which would have clarified that quora of legislative committees cannot meet privately, including via group…
Gordon Howie says House Bill 1030, which would require passing motorists to give cyclists three to six feet of space, is a stupid idea. To boost his point, Howie misrepresents the text of the bill: The South Dakota Department of…