RAPID CITY MAN ARRESTED AFTER MAKING THREATS AGAINST GOVERNOR LARRY RHODEN
RAPID CITY, S.D. – A 28 year old man from Rapid City man has been arrested for threatening South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden.
Hudson Wheeler was arrested Monday and charged with one felony count of Threatening or Intimidating a Person Holding Statewide Office.
Attorney General Marty Jackley said an investigation led by the Division of Criminal Investigation indicated it was Wheeler that made threatening telephone calls to the Governor’s Office.
Wheeler made his first court appearance Tuesday in Pennington County Circuit Court and is being held on a $25,000 cash only bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 19, 2025.
Wheeler faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He is presumed innocent under the U.S. Constitution.
Jackley said disagreement regarding government action or inaction is our right, however threats of any kind against public officials should not be tolerated. He said public officials have a right to safety while conducting their official duties.
Other agencies involved in the investigation are the South Dakota Fusion Center, South Dakota Highway Patrol, and Rapid City Police Department.
HOUSE COMMITTEE PASSES BILL TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO DEMENTIA CAREGIVERS
PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) – State legislators heard impassioned testimony today (Tuesday) from dementia caregivers, moving a House committee to advance financial support.
The House Health and Human Services Committee voted 11-0 to send House Bill 1098 to Joint Appropriations with a “do pass” recommendation. The measure would appropriate $500,000 to help caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“Once a diagnosis is confirmed, we South Dakotans tend to want to keep our loved ones viable by giving them loving care in our homes,” said Rep. Mike Weisgram, R-Pierre.
Carmen McGee testified about caring for her husband with early onset Alzheimer’s.
“I cannot even describe to you how absolutely overwhelming that is to be a caregiver with dementia and Alzheimer’s,” she said.
The Alzheimer’s Association reported 27,000 South Dakotans provide unpaid care for 16,500 residents with Alzheimer’s disease.
The Bureau of Finance and Management opposed the bill, noting existing programs.
“The state spends about a million dollars annually on respite caregiver services,” said BFM’s Steven Kohler. He added the state provided $40 million last year for in-home services.
The bill requires caregivers to be at least 18, demonstrate need, and apply through Human Services. Priority goes to those who have exhausted funding under the Older Americans Act.
The department must report annually on the number of caregivers helped, the amounts paid, and the types of services provided.
The measure now moves to the Joint Appropriations Committee for further consideration.
SOUTH DAKOTA HOUSE REJECTS CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF STATES LEGISLATION
PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) — House members rejected constitutional convention legislation today (Tuesday) after a debate over federal spending limits and states’ rights.
Representatives voted 29 to 38 against Senate Joint Resolution 502. It would have applied to Congress for a convention to propose constitutional amendments on federal fiscal restraints, limiting federal power and congressional term limits.
Excerpts from the debate:
“Look at our own body. We disagree on a lot of things. So, I don’t believe at all that we can stop this,” said opponent Rep. Steve Duffy, R-Rapid City. “We’re like three-tenths of one percent of the population. They don’t pay attention to us.”
“History will remember us one way or another,” said supporter Rep. Leslie Heinemann, R-Sioux Falls. “We either be remembered as the generation that finally succumbed completely to federal tyranny or the generation who stood and defended the torch of liberty.”
“Why are we not fearful of what’s going on in our country at this moment?” said supporter Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, R-Sioux Falls. “In January 2025, the national debt is $36.2 trillion… That’s $102,000 for every single citizen.”
“I think it’d be very dangerous to open up our Constitution and just to take that chance,” countered opponent Rep. Terri Jorgenson, R-Rapid City. “I think it’s a good document. I do think that there needs to be changes, but I don’t think opening the Constitution is prudent.”
The measure needs 34 states to call a convention and 38 states to ratify any amendments.
The resolution’s defeat came a week after the House approved a separate Article V convention application focused solely on congressional term limits.
LUTERAN SOCIAL SERVICES CALLS ILLEGAL PAYMENT CLAIMS MADE BY ELON MUSK ‘COMPLETELY BASELESS’
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Stu Whitney / South Dakota News Watch) – The leader of South Dakota’s primary refugee resettlement program has condemned online attacks by tech billionaire Elon Musk regarding the legality of the organization’s federal funding.
Rebecca Kiesow-Knudsen, president and CEO of Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, said her group became aware of social media messages from Musk and former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn this past weekend “falsely claiming that Lutheran organizations, including ours, have illegally received federal payments and engaged in money laundering.”
Kiesow-Knudsen added in her statement to News Watch that the messages “indicated an intention to defund our organization as a result. These accusations are completely baseless and inaccurate.”
“Our work is carried out through legally awarded contracts and grants with local, state, and federal agencies that have entrusted us with these essential services,” she wrote. “We are deeply concerned by any effort to misrepresent our work and jeopardize the funding that enables us to fulfill our mission.”
LSS helps resettle immigrants and refugees through its Center for New Americans. It’s an affiliate of Global Refuge, a nonprofit organization formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
The organization said it helped resettle 206 refugees in South Dakota in fiscal year 2023, many from war-torn countries such as the Congo, Ethiopia and Sudan.
LSS became a DOGE target
LSS was among many South Dakota nonprofits on the defensive last week when Trump’s administration unveiled a plan to halt federal grants and loans and issued a temporary freeze on payments.
That executive action is currently being litigated in federal court, with a judge Monday extending a temporary block on the funding freeze.
Musk, meanwhile, has kept organizations on edge with his stated intent to cut billions of dollars in federal spending through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk and his team gained access to sensitive Department of Treasury data payment systems on Saturday. On Sunday, Flynn posted a screenshot on the X social media site listing payments to Lutheran-based nonprofits involved in immigrant and refugee resettlement, characterizing the process without evidence as “money laundering.”
The screenshot showed LSS of South Dakota receiving payments of $934,073 on Dec. 26 and $487,769 on Jan. 16 from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Flynn resigned from the first Trump administration in 2017 and later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States. He received a pardon from Trump in 2020.
Musk, who owns X, reposted Flynn’s message to his 216 million followers and added that “the DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
Kiesow-Knudsen told News Watch that Congress appropriated the money. She added that “defunding legal, government-awarded grants and contracts will have significant consequences, limiting our ability to provide vital services to those in need.”
LSS of South Dakota’s most recent financial reports show it with net assets of $21 million following fiscal year 2023, of which $14.9 million was listed as property and equipment. The organization spent $26.1 million on program expenses in fiscal year 2023 and received $19.3 million in fees and public grants that year.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, the Baltimore-based organization that oversees Lutheran-based refugee resettlement programs, condemned “the false accusations lodged against our humanitarian work.”
LSS of South Dakota assumed oversight of state refugee resettlement in 2000 and has offices in Sioux Falls, Huron, Rapid City and Yankton. It also provides services such as behavioral health care, financial counseling, mentoring, psychiatric residential treatment for youth, shelter care and disaster response.
Also shown on the Flynn/Musk screenshot was Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, an Omaha-based organization that provided News Watch with a statement that read in part:
“To allegations that we are somehow ‘money laundering,’ please know that we are highly audited, accredited, and endorsed by the Better Business Bureau and Charity Navigator. Our financial reports are available on our website. We were founded by Lutheran pastors, but we are not an evangelical organization. We are not a church. We do not proselytize. We simply serve.”
Small but growing foreign-born population
According to previous News Watch reporting, South Dakota’s increase of foreign-born population over the past 12 years exceeded the national average by 3 times, based on U.S. Census Bureau data.
The state’s population of people born overseas grew by 45.5% between 2010 and 2022, or 10,000 people, compared to 15.6% across the entire United States.
Despite those increases, South Dakota still has the fifth-lowest share of foreign-born residents in the country. Out of South Dakota’s estimated 910,000 residents, nearly 32,000, or 3.5%, are from outside of the United States.
Before 2000, the largest number of people came to South Dakota from Latin America, which was closely followed by Asia and then Europe. Since 2000, more people have been moving to South Dakota from Asia and Africa, moving Latin America to third place.
In 2018, according to an American Immigration Council, most foreign-born residents in South Dakota were from Guatemala, the Philippines, Mexico, Sudan and Ethiopia.
Households led by foreign-born residents paid $137.7 million in federal, state and local taxes in 2018, the same report said.
