PIERRE, S.D. – The first confirmed case of Anthrax in South Dakota this year (2024) has been found in a beef cattle herd in Meade County.

State Veterinarian Dr. Beth Thompson says herd vaccination, a quick response and veterinary oversight limited the number of affected animals to one calf in a herd of approximately 60 pairs. She says the adult cattle in the herd have been vaccinated within the past year.

Anthrax spores survive indefinitely in soil and significant weather events can expose the spores to livestock and become infectious. If left untreated, Anthrax can cause a large number of animals to die in a short amount of time.

Thompson says the Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory at South Dakota State University in Brookings confirmed the disease from samples submitted by the herd veterinarian. She says the Animal Industry Board has quarantined the affected herd, notified the neighboring herd owners and will quarantine any additional herds impacted.

Thompson says if a there’s a death in your herd, don’t move the suspect carcass until a diagnosis is made. She says if Anthrax did cause the death, the proper way to dispose of the dead animal is by burning and burying it.

If Anthrax is suspected, producers should contact their local veterinarian or the Animal Industry Board (605-773-3321) immediately.

 

MITCHELL, S.D. – District 20 Republican State Representative Ben Krohmer has decided against seeking a second term in the State House. He made it official earlier this week citing medical issues in his family.

Krohmer’s withdrawal leaves an open seat with Republicans from Davison Sanborn, Jerauld and a portion of Miner County to select a replacement on the ballot.

The selection will take place Monday evening at the Mitchell Public Library where all elected Republicans from District 20 and organized county executive boards will gather to pick a candidate.

Current Republican legislative candidates in District 20 are Paul Miskimins of Mitchell for Senate and Jeff Bathke of Mitchell for House. Three previously announced Democratic candidates have withdrawn from the race.

 

SPEARFISH, S.D. – For the past 19 years during Sturgis Rally Week, the international motorcycle group Hamsters USA has gone out of their way to help Black Hills area kids grow up strong. Their annual fundraiser for LifeScape Rapid City was held this past week in Spearfish, raising an amazing $371,700! These funds help West River children get the physical, occupational, speech, and behavior therapies they need to be empowered for greater independence.

“This year’s total puts the accumulated contributions over the $5 million mark,” says LifeScape Foundation President Jessica Wells. “We can’t overstate how critical their support is in helping kids in underserved areas of the state. For 19 years, Hamsters USA has been our strong partner, ensuring children with disabilities get the help they need.” Special thanks go to event sponsors GCC, a world-class supplier of cement and concrete products, and to Music City Indian Motorcycle of Nashville, TN.

The fundraiser was part of their annual meeting during Rally Week.  For the third year, Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden was a special guest at the event.  Five-year-old Olivia Bybee of rural Custer, who gets physical therapy at LifeScape, attended with her family and charmed all she met.  Olivia introduced herself to every Hamsters USA member she could, putting stickers on their shirts and learning their names. Olivia learned to walk with LifeScape’s help and continues to improve her balance and coordination. “I’ve seen a little girl who couldn’t walk,” says Olivia’s mom, Sara. “That little girl can walk now and doesn’t want to hold my hand anymore. And that’s worth more than anything.”

LifeScape Rapid City served 1,200 children last year.  Besides the clinic site in Rapid City, clinicians from LifeScape drive over 10,000 miles each month to deliver outreach therapies to kids in their own communities – in their homes, schools, and daycare centers.  This allows children living long distances from Rapid City to receive developmental help without their parents having to take time off work to drive them to Rapid City for therapies.

 

PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota News Watch) – The deadline for printing ballots for the November 2024 election presents a daunting timetable for an anti-abortion group seeking to keep an abortion rights amendment from being decided at the polls.

But Life Defense Fund now says as part of its lawsuit that even if Amendment G makes the Nov. 5 ballot, the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office could make a public announcement that “no votes for or against the measure will be counted or have any impact.”

That’s part of an amended complaint filed in state circuit court in Minnehaha County after the South Dakota Supreme Court on Aug. 2 reversed the lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit. Life Defense Fund contends that Amendment G’s sponsor, Dakotans for Health, violated state laws with improper petition circulation.

At the same time, the Supreme Court denied Life Defense Fund’s request to expedite the matter in circuit court. That makes it highly unlikely that the matter will be resolved by Aug. 13, the deadline for the secretary of state to certify copies of all ballot questions to county auditors for ballots to be printed.

The suggestion that Amendment G appear on the ballot but voters be instructed to disregard it would be an extremely rare occurrence in the state, if not unprecedented, said Michael Card, emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Dakota.

He noted that there have been scenarios in other states where candidates died after ballots were printed, but the votes still counted and some of those candidates even ended up winning.

Sara Frankenstein, the Rapid City lawyer representing Life Defense Fund, told News Watch that the anti-abortion group is trying to meet the Aug. 13 deadline but has looked at other options if that’s not possible.

“It’s not unprecedented for measures to be disqualified after they are printed on the ballot,” said Frankenstein. “For instance, the South Dakota marijuana measure, Amendment A, was voted on and passed (in 2020), yet the court still disqualified it.”

Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration challenged that recreational marijuana effort, saying it violated the state’s requirement that constitutional amendments deal with just one subject. That argument prevailed in a 4-1 decision at the South Dakota Supreme Court.

That’s different from a court telling the secretary of state to proclaim that a constitutional amendment on the ballot will not be counted, said Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health, a grassroots organization that pushes for progressive policy through petition efforts.

“There’s no provision in South Dakota law that allows that,” Weiland told News Watch. “They’ve been saying all along that this (Aug. 13) deadline is a hard stop, and now they’re saying, ‘Well, don’t accept anything we said about that. The court can just dictate to the secretary of state not to count the votes.’ It just looks like another in a series of desperate measures from them.”

Secretary of State Monae Johnson and Deputy Secretary of State Tom Deadrick declined to comment on the legal and logistical challenges involved in the scenario proposed by Life Defense Fund.

Case heads back to circuit court

The Supreme Court reversal gives Life Defense Fund another chance to plead its case in front of Circuit Court Judge John Pekas, this time with specific allegations of petition misconduct on the table. The group had sought to remove Pekas from the proceedings, but the Supreme Court decision rejected that argument.

On July 15, Pekas ruled in favor of Dakotans for Health by granting a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Rather than examine itemized charges in the complaint, the judge noted the importance of following election law and questioned why the secretary of state’s office wasn’t named as a party in the lawsuit.

The amended complaint from Life Defense Fund now lists Secretary of State Johnson as a defendant, a nod to Dakotans for Health’s argument that the state’s top elections official is an indispensable party in the proceeding. That indicates a party whose presence and participation in court are required in order for the lawsuit to proceed.

Frankenstein told News Watch that the group’s complaint is not focused on Johnson’s certification of Amendment G but rather on the actions of Dakotans for Health organizers and petitioners in gathering signatures to make the ballot.

Life Defense Fund, led by Republican state legislator Jon Hansen and longtime anti-abortion advocate Leslee Unruh, seeks a ruling that the amendment is “disqualified, invalid, and/or has not been validly submitted pursuant to South Dakota law.”

Life Defense Fund also seeks an expedited scheduling order and for Dakotans for Health organizers and petition circulators to be banned from “performing any work for any ballot question committee for a period of four years.”

Amendment set for Nov. 5 ballot

South Dakota is currently under a 2005 state trigger law activated in June 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and left it up to states to determine their stance on abortion rights.

South Dakota’s law makes it a Class 6 felony for anyone “who administers to any pregnant female or prescribes or procures for any pregnant female” a means for an abortion, except to save the life of the mother.

If passed, Amendment G would prevent the state from regulating abortions during the first trimester, following a similar framework as Roe. During the second trimester, the state could regulate the abortion decision, but any regulation must be reasonably related to the physical health of the mother. During the third trimester, abortion could be prohibited except if it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman, according to her physician.

On May 16, the secretary of state’s office certified the measure for the Nov. 5 ballot, saying that a random sample showed 46,098 of the 54,281 submitted signatures were deemed valid, well over the threshold of 35,017.

Nearly a month later, Life Defense Fund filed a complaint in state circuit court asking that the amendment be disqualified.

 

MADISON, NE – Authorities say there were no injuries and one man was arrested following a standoff that lasted for hours in the northeast Nebraska town of Madison on Thursday.

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office says Latitus Menyweather has been charged with terroristic threats, false imprisonment, use of a weapon to commit a felony and obstructing a peace officer.

According to the sheriff’s office, at about 12:53 p.m. they got a 911 call saying a man, later identified as Menyweather, was threatening another man with a knife and said he was going to kill him.

Once authorities got to the house, they learned the victim had been able to get out of the building but Menyweather was still inside.

Authorities tried to contact Menyweather, but he reportedly threatened law enforcement and barricaded himself in the house. Menyweather also made threats of suicide-by-cop and it was unknown what weapons he had with him.

A portion of the surrounding streets were closed down and a tactical team was called in as negotiations with Menyweather continued.

After two-and-a-half hours, the sheriff’s office says Menyweather walked out of the house and was arrested. He was later booked into the Madison County Jail.

 

NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. – According to a one sentence update on the Facebook page for Union County Emergency Management the planned demolition of the collapsed railroad bridge between Sioux City and North Sioux City is on hold.

The post just simply states that the dates of August 16 and September 6, which have just been released in the past few days, have been cancelled.

According to communications with Burlington Northern Santa Fe the railroad is still awaiting a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow the demolition to move forward.  At this time it is unknown when that may be.

As we reported yesterday, part of the permit from the Corps is to allow construction of a temporary levee, known as a ring levee, to protect the community.  Those changes to the permanent levee in the area require permission from the Corps.

The bottom line…the 100 year old bridge will remain right where it is…for now.

 

BROOKINGS, S.D. – A team of researchers from South Dakota State University, South Dakota Mines, and Oglala Lakota College has secured a $750,000 grant from NASA to develop advanced algorithms for mapping soil moisture levels using satellite data. The project aims to revolutionize the state’s agricultural and water resource management practices.

Accurate soil moisture data is critical for farmers to optimize crop yields and water usage. However, traditional methods of measuring soil moisture have been limited in scope and precision. The new project seeks to overcome these challenges by leveraging the power of satellite remote sensing.

The research team will combine existing and upcoming satellite data to create high-resolution soil moisture maps, including Landsat 8/9, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and NISAR. A key innovation of the project is the development of a novel time series deep learning methodology to account for vegetation changes throughout the growing season.

The research team will collaborate closely with the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center near Sioux Falls to refine the algorithm and ensure its compatibility with existing data systems. The resulting soil moisture maps will be publicly accessible to farmers, researchers, meteorologists, and other stakeholders.

Soil moisture data will benefit various fields, including hydrology, meteorology, climate science, and agricultural applications. Researchers can develop more accurate weather forecasts and climate models by improving our understanding of the Earth’s water cycle.

The project is expected to significantly impact South Dakota’s agricultural industry, contributing approximately 30% of the state’s GDP. The research team hopes to enhance the state’s agricultural competitiveness and sustainability by providing farmers with the tools to optimize their operations.

The project is scheduled to be completed within three years.