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Posts tagged as “South Dakota”

Surrounded! Conservative Religious Activists Drive Discourse in Pierre

During my visit to the Capitol Wednesday, I found myself surrounded by the Religious Right. Concerned Women for America, Family Policy Council, Family Heritage Alliance... and those are just the three I encountered in my brief intersection with the right…

Letter: South Dakota Gives up Valuable Water for Foreign Uranium Scheme

Blogger John Tsitrian posted a complaint Monday calling out Azarga (formerly Powertech) for lying to investors in its public statements about the progress of its plans to mine uranium in the southern Black Hills. Tsitrian's Black Hills neighbor Juli Ames-Curtis…

Get Practical: Build South Dakota Scholarship Apps Available

The Build Dakota Scholarship is now open to applicants! (Just be careful when you click: when I opened the new site, welding sparks flashed all over the place.) The scholarship board has decided to spend $25 million of T. Denny…

Graves Feigns Ambivalence, Wants Fewer Darn Teachers

Mitchell school superintendent Dr. Joseph Graves admits that he's ambivalent about Governor Dennis Daugaard's proposed summer study of education... which, for a guy who has flacked for the Governor's worst policy whims, could be read as stern condemnation. But I'm…

Dems Working with Docs on Medicaid Expansion; Daugaard Open?

Could Medicaid expansion happen this year? South Dakota has already given up two of the best years of the federal government's offer under the Affordable Care Act to cover most of the cost of putting 48,000 low-income South Dakotans on…

Senate Defines “Rural” More Broadly for Teacher Recruitment Than House

The Presidents' Day crackerbarrel in Redfield drew a good comment from a local school board member who would like the Legislature to help his district recruit more teachers. The Legislature currently has two competing rural teacher recruitment proposals. House Bill…

Tulson, Greenfield: Legislature Doesn’t Trust Local Governments

Last week, District 2 Reps. Lana Greenfield (R-2/Doland) and Burt Tulson (R-2/Lake Norden) both bucked the GOP leadership and voted for House Bill 1216, a measure proposed by Democratic Rep. Dennis Feickert (D-1/Aberdeen) to lift the cap on annual property…