Cory Allen Heidelberger @coralhei

30 Republicans Who Supported Less Petition Time Last Year Support More Petition Time This Year Republicans hate ballot measures. But last week 30 House Republicans contradicted themselves and voted for more local ballot measures. House Bill 1323 would give local activists more time to circulate petitions to put newly approved local ordinances to a public vote. Prime sponsor Representative Aaron Aylward (R-6/Harrisburg) originally wanted to extend the time for collecting signatures from 20 days to 45.

30 Republicans Who Supported Less Petition Time Last Year Support More Petition Time This Year

Republicans hate ballot measures. But last week 30 House Republicans contradicted themselves and voted for more local ballot measures. House Bill 1323 would give local activists more time to circulate…

26.02.2026 12:29 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Look Out, Voters: Senator Miskimins Doesn’t Trust Your Judgment on Constitutional Matters The Senate approved Senate Joint Resolution 508 yesterday with one vote to spare. With his GOP mainstreamers and Democrats divided on nixing the Lieutenant Governor's role as Senate President, prime sponsor Senator Steve Kolbeck (R-2/Sioux Falls) had to rely on the radical right fringe to win a slim 19-vote majority and send the proposed constitutional amendment to the House. If Senator Kolbeck can find 36 anti-LG activists in the House (

Look Out, Voters: Senator Miskimins Doesn’t Trust Your Judgment on Constitutional Matters

The Senate approved Senate Joint Resolution 508 yesterday with one vote to spare. With his GOP mainstreamers and Democrats divided on nixing the Lieutenant Governor's role as Senate President, prime sponsor…

26.02.2026 00:37 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

All green space will be fine with me. But if we could combine green space with some nice affordable downtown housing instead of the top dollar stuff that I'm sure Sanford wants his money to go toward, that would be an improvement.

25.02.2026 16:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Hopes for Property Tax Reform Fade, Legislature Leans Toward Passing Buck to Counties Whoever's mad about high property taxes apparently isn't mad enough to get the Legislature to take action. The only big property tax bill left standing appears to be Governor Larry Rhoden's wimpy Senate Bill 96, which passes the buck to counties by letting them impose a half-percent sales tax for the exclusive purpose of offsetting property tax reductions. SB 96 creaked through the Senate Monday on a 20–14 vote, but only after rookie Senator Joy Hohn (R-9/

Hopes for Property Tax Reform Fade, Legislature Leans Toward Passing Buck to Counties

Whoever's mad about high property taxes apparently isn't mad enough to get the Legislature to take action. The only big property tax bill left standing appears to be Governor Larry Rhoden's wimpy Senate Bill 96,…

25.02.2026 12:31 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

If Pete Hegseth blacklists Anthropic, I may start using artificial intelligence… from Anthropic.

24.02.2026 22:41 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

For four years, as Russia has waged war against Ukraine — and against the truth — the Kyiv Independent has reported from the ground, documenting events as they are.

Our work is made possible by readers who choose independent journalism.

24.02.2026 18:19 — 👍 133 🔁 14 💬 2 📌 0

Senators OK with Cluttering Ballot with Lt. Gov/Senate President Question, But Not Property Tax Relief The only person speaking yesterday against the Senate's plan to ask voters to approve removing the lieutenant governor from the Senate's Presidency was Retailers' chief Nathan Sanderson. His opposition to Senate Joint Resolution 508 appears to come not from deep scholarship on constitutional checks and balances but from his aversion to letting voters speak up too much: Only one opponent came forward: Nathan Sanderson, executive director of the South Dakota Retailers Association, who previously was a senior aide during Gov.

Senators OK with Cluttering Ballot with Lt. Gov/Senate President Question, But Not Property Tax Relief

The only person speaking yesterday against the Senate's plan to ask voters to approve removing the lieutenant governor from the Senate's Presidency was Retailers' chief Nathan Sanderson. His…

24.02.2026 12:51 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Wittman’s $600K Free-School-Meals Bill Survives First Committee and Specious Novstrup Nay Representative Kadyn Wittman (D-15/Sioux Falls) has been trying for four years to get the Legislature to fund more free meals for school kids. Yesterday for the first time, she got a bill to that effect through committee. On Monday, House Appropriations voted 7–2 to approve House Bill 1082, which would require schools to serve free school breakfasts and lunches to kids currently qualifying for reduced-price meals under…

Wittman’s $600K Free-School-Meals Bill Survives First Committee and Specious Novstrup Nay

Representative Kadyn Wittman (D-15/Sioux Falls) has been trying for four years to get the Legislature to fund more free meals for school kids. Yesterday for the first time, she got a bill to that effect…

24.02.2026 12:24 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Former Sioux Falls mayor Knobe: Smithfield’s relocation could create a beautiful space for all of us — The South Dakota Standard Here is my 23 cents worth on what should happen with the soon-to-be-vacant Smithfield property in central Sioux Falls. When done right this area will become extremely livable, popular and a natio...

Rick Knobe brainstorms what could replace the slaughterhouse in downtown Sioux Falls: www.sdstandardnow.com/home/former-...

24.02.2026 01:01 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Count on Al Novstrup to give stupid reasons not to invest on feeding children: www.keloland.com/keloland-com...

24.02.2026 00:56 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1

Brandi Carlile concert raises over $600,000 for families affected by ICE Singer criticizes Trump administration’s ‘violent theater’ as she supports people caught up in Minneapolis crackdown

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

23.02.2026 20:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The ICE surge in Minnesota cost $280M to detain 4k people. Of those- only 30 were accused of violent crimes.

$9 million per capture of the "worst of the worst".

Renee Good and Alex Pretti were unavailable for comment….

23.02.2026 16:50 — 👍 15231 🔁 6377 💬 419 📌 271

1. On January 23, Crypto.com donated $5 million to MAGA Inc, Trump's primary Super PAC. (The donation was first disclosed in a FEC filing Friday night.)

Less than 1 month later, on February 17, the Trump administration intervened on Crypto.com's behalf in a high-stakes federal lawsuit.

23.02.2026 13:33 — 👍 1980 🔁 968 💬 51 📌 71

Greenland Prefers Denmark’s Single-Payer Health Care to Trump’s Hospital Boat In more senile rambling, Donald Trump said Saturday that he's ordering a hospital boat to Greenland "to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there." That's strange coming from a guy who quit sending all sorts of American medical assistance to people around the world last year, raising the possibility of 2.5 million additional dying children and 9.4 million deaths overall by 2030…

Greenland Prefers Denmark’s Single-Payer Health Care to Trump’s Hospital Boat

In more senile rambling, Donald Trump said Saturday that he's ordering a hospital boat to Greenland "to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there." That's strange coming from a guy who…

23.02.2026 12:43 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

House State Affairs Approves Anti-Corruption HB 1278, Includes PUC, Excludes Legislators’ Private Employees House State Affairs last week approved a measure to state officials from pressuring their minions to contribute to their campaigns. The committee also fixed one problem I identified and another that I missed! On Wednesday, House State Affairs took up House Bill 1278, Representative Will Mortenson's (R-24/Fort Pierre) proposal to prohibit the campaign committees of state officials from taking contributions from certain state officers and employees.

House State Affairs Approves Anti-Corruption HB 1278, Includes PUC, Excludes Legislators’ Private Employees

House State Affairs last week approved a measure to state officials from pressuring their minions to contribute to their campaigns. The committee also fixed one problem I identified and…

23.02.2026 12:23 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Greenland says ‘no, thanks’ to Trump’s US hospital boat Leaders of both Denmark and Arctic territory rebuff US president’s claim that islanders are ‘not being taken care of’

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister,… said she was “happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all. Where it’s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

23.02.2026 03:39 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

SB 243: Retail Transaction Tax Fails in Committee; Sponsor Carley Fails Math and Rural Businesses Rookie Senator John Carley (R-29/Piedmont) tried to spare his radical Black Hills friends Mike Mueller, Julie Frye-Mueller, and Matt Smith the trouble of petitioning a retail transaction tax onto the November ballot by pushing his own Senate Bill 243 to enact a tax on retail transactions to take the place of property taxes. Keep petitioning, Team Mueller: Senate Taxation rejected SB 243 Friday as a regressive, anti-rural tax proposal.

SB 243: Retail Transaction Tax Fails in Committee; Sponsor Carley Fails Math and Rural Businesses

Rookie Senator John Carley (R-29/Piedmont) tried to spare his radical Black Hills friends Mike Mueller, Julie Frye-Mueller, and Matt Smith the trouble of petitioning a retail transaction tax onto the…

22.02.2026 16:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Legislature Still Working to Let Data Centers Dodge Sales Tax After House State Affairs rejected a 50-year sales tax exemption for data centers earlier this month, Senate State Affairs this week approved a complicated plan for more unnecessary corporate welfare lasting 30 years for Big Tech. Senator Casey Crabtree (R-8/Madison) pushed a hoghoused Senate Bill 239 through Senate State Affairs Wednesday to create different rules for tax breaks for data centers and other big projects…

Legislature Still Working to Let Data Centers Dodge Sales Tax

After House State Affairs rejected a 50-year sales tax exemption for data centers earlier this month, Senate State Affairs this week approved a complicated plan for more unnecessary corporate welfare lasting 30 years for Big Tech.…

21.02.2026 16:15 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

More than just a place | George W. Bush Presidential Center

More of America's true greatness that Trumpists don't understand: www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/the...

20.02.2026 12:15 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

HB 1230: Make Employer Taxes Supporting Future Fund Optional Representative Karla Lems (R-16/Canton) may have hit on a new approach to property tax relief: just make property taxes voluntary! The Canton Republican hasn't proposed that bill yet, but the germ of the idea rests in her approach to reining in the Future Fund. House Bill 1230 would make the tax employers pay to support the Governor's economic development projects voluntary.

HB 1230: Make Employer Taxes Supporting Future Fund Optional

Representative Karla Lems (R-16/Canton) may have hit on a new approach to property tax relief: just make property taxes voluntary! The Canton Republican hasn't proposed that bill yet, but the germ of the idea rests in her approach to…

20.02.2026 11:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Bush Advisor Hughes: Trump Turns America Away from Universal Human Dignity I keep waiting for former President George W. Bush to step up his game and tell his party to save America by impeaching Donald Trump. For now, I'll have to settle for the stinging and patriotic critiques of Trumpism issued by the George W. Bush Institute. The Bush Institute's latest edition of The Catalyst features a number of essays from Bush loyalists reminding Americans that we should be far better than the stupid, greedy monster that the current President makes us.

Bush Advisor Hughes: Trump Turns America Away from Universal Human Dignity

I keep waiting for former President George W. Bush to step up his game and tell his party to save America by impeaching Donald Trump. For now, I'll have to settle for the stinging and patriotic critiques of Trumpism issued…

20.02.2026 11:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

New banner went up at DOJ headquarters this afternoon and flashback to March 27, 1936: Portraits of the Führer are raised on official buildings across Berlin. This one at the Potsdamer Railway Station reads "Freedom - Peace"

20.02.2026 00:28 — 👍 126 🔁 64 💬 7 📌 6

To Read This, Please Upload Photo ID A primer on digital age assurance methods and a survey of the laws—both enacted and proposed—requiring them.

Librarians used to go to court (and jail) to prevent the government from seeing which books you had checked out.

But today the public is demanding that platforms ask for this info in the name of protecting children. "To Read This, Please Upload Photo ID." www.lawfaremedia.org/article/to-r...

19.02.2026 20:35 — 👍 72 🔁 40 💬 2 📌 1

After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it HHS proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create systems the U.S. accessed through the WHO at a fraction of the cost, according to officials briefed on the matter.

Exclusive: After pulling out of WHO, the Trump administration is proposing spending $2 billion a year to replicate the global disease surveillance and outbreak functions the United States once helped build, which will cost about three times as much.

19.02.2026 16:18 — 👍 205 🔁 127 💬 43 📌 57

Foster Flips on 4.2% Sunset; SB 195 Dead Again The Supreme Court affirmed the Lieutenant Governor's Senate tie-breaking authority yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon, the Senate heard President Pro Tempore Chris Karr's (R-11/Sioux Falls) motion to reconsider his Senate Bill 195, which failed Tuesday on a tie vote left unbroken by President Venhuizen. Senator Karr wanted one more swing at his proposal to eliminate the sunset clause that will raise South Dakota's sales tax rate from 4.2% back to 4.5% come July 1, 2027.

Foster Flips on 4.2% Sunset; SB 195 Dead Again

The Supreme Court affirmed the Lieutenant Governor's Senate tie-breaking authority yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon, the Senate heard President Pro Tempore Chris Karr's (R-11/Sioux Falls) motion to reconsider his Senate Bill 195, which failed…

19.02.2026 12:47 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Supreme Court: Lt. Gov. Can Break Senate Ties, Exactly As Constitution Says The South Dakota Supreme Court advised yesterday that 24 Senators were wrong and that Lieutenant Governor Tony Venhuizen was right: the South Dakota's Lieutenant Governor has constitutional authority to cast tie-breaking votes when presiding over the Senate. Last month, Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen cast a tie-breaking vote to salvage Senate Bill 25. For the first time in 135 years, a senator, President Pro Tempore Chris Karr (R-11/ Sioux Falls), …

Supreme Court: Lt. Gov. Can Break Senate Ties, Exactly As Constitution Says

The South Dakota Supreme Court advised yesterday that 24 Senators were wrong and that Lieutenant Governor Tony Venhuizen was right: the South Dakota's Lieutenant Governor has constitutional authority to cast tie-breaking…

19.02.2026 12:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tie Vote in Senate Kills Sunset Repeal, Leaves Sales Tax on Track to Rise to 4.5% Next Year O.K., we've had our parliamentary fun; now on the policy itself: The Senate yesterday took up Senate Bill 195, Senator Chris Karr's (R-11/Sioux Falls) latest attempt to make the sales tax reduction he won three years ago permanent. In 2023, the Legislature reduced the sales tax from 4.5% to 4.2% but scheduled the rate to revert to 4.5% on July 1, 2027.

Tie Vote in Senate Kills Sunset Repeal, Leaves Sales Tax on Track to Rise to 4.5% Next Year

O.K., we've had our parliamentary fun; now on the policy itself: The Senate yesterday took up Senate Bill 195, Senator Chris Karr's (R-11/Sioux Falls) latest attempt to make the sales tax reduction he won…

18.02.2026 12:46 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Bit by His Own Dog: Karr Loses Permanent Sales Tax Reduction on Venhuizen’s Non-Vote I hate to lead a policy story with what can be read as a personal tussle, but when that personal tussle is expressed in disagreement over parliamentary procedure, I can't resist. Three weeks ago, Senate President Pro Tempore Chris Karr (R-11/Sioux Falls) flipped a mean parliamentary bird at Lieutenant Governor Tony Venhuizen by challenging Venhuizen's exercise of his power as Senate President to cast tie-breaking votes on final passage of legislation…

Bit by His Own Dog: Karr Loses Permanent Sales Tax Reduction on Venhuizen’s Non-Vote

I hate to lead a policy story with what can be read as a personal tussle, but when that personal tussle is expressed in disagreement over parliamentary procedure, I can't resist. Three weeks ago, Senate President…

18.02.2026 11:59 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Brechtelsbauer: Homeowners Already Get Tax Break; Renters Left Out of Property Tax Discussion While the Legislature struggles to agree on any plan for comprehensive tax reform, anti-hunger advocate Cathy Brechtelsbauer of Sioux Falls notes that the state already hands provides many millions in property tax relief to homeowners. Pay particular attention to Brechtelsbauer's last sentence: It cost the state $171,922,177 of state revenue to provide owner-occupied tax relief on the property taxes we pay this year.

Brechtelsbauer: Homeowners Already Get Tax Break; Renters Left Out of Property Tax Discussion

While the Legislature struggles to agree on any plan for comprehensive tax reform, anti-hunger advocate Cathy Brechtelsbauer of Sioux Falls notes that the state already hands provides many millions in…

17.02.2026 12:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Chinese Smithfield to Build New Pork Plant at I-29/I-90 with State Subsidy Corporate welfare is bad enough, but now the state of South Dakota is forking out cash to China. Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods has a problem: CEO Shane Smith says they "have to either make significant renovations to our 100-year-old Sioux Falls facility or build a new plant." Smithfield responds to this necessity by choosing to move its Sioux Falls meatpacking operations from the old plant at the north side of downtown to Foundation Park at the city limits by the intersection of I-29 and I-90.

Chinese Smithfield to Build New Pork Plant at I-29/I-90 with State Subsidy

Corporate welfare is bad enough, but now the state of South Dakota is forking out cash to China. Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods has a problem: CEO Shane Smith says they "have to either make significant renovations to our…

17.02.2026 12:17 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Cory Allen Heidelberger

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