SOUTH DAKOTA Undated – Yesterday was Primary Election day in South Dakota and President Joe Biden carried the state’s Democratic primary easily, gathering 75% of the vote.
Incumbents Julie Auch and Mike Stevens will be representing District 18 in the general election on November 5th.
Auch was the top vote getter with 39%, Stevens was close behind with 33%, and John Marquardt came in third with 28% of the vote.
There were 3,900 votes cast in the District 18 Republican House Primary.
In the Senate race for District 18 Lauren Nelson received 52% of the vote, over incumbent Jean Hunhoff’s 48% with a total of 2.323 votes cast.
Also in the area, District 17 results saw Sydney Davis taking the Senate nod with 66% of the vote over challenger Jeffrey Church’s 34%. In the House race it was Chris Kassin with 53%, then William Shorma with 39% and Robin Schiro in third with 8%.
District 19 results saw Jessica Bahmuller with 43%, Drew Peterson at 32% and Steven Mettler with 26%.
There were no Democratic races in these districts.
Some other races of interest around the state include some possible recounts:
In District 4 when Former Representative Fred Deutsch was running for the Senate seat and the final count between he and challenger Stephanie Sauder is just 64 votes with Sauder in the lead.
In District 21 only 48 votes separate Mykala Voita, the projected winner, from incumbent Erin Tobin for the senate position
And in District 34 Taffy Howard is the apparent leader for the senate seat with a 34 vote margin over Jason Green.
Full election results can be found at the Secretary of State website.
LINCOLN, NE – In Nebraska the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said a woman who’d been pronounced dead and later came back to life in a Lincoln funeral home has died.
Constance Glantz, 74, was pronounced dead for a second time on Monday at 4 p.m., according to Chief Deputy Ben Houchin.
Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon ordered an autopsy that will be performed at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The sheriff’s office will give an update once the final autopsy report is completed. The investigation is ongoing.
Houchin said officials at the Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home have been cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation.
Lincoln Fire and Rescue responded to the Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home at 11:43 a.m. on Monday. The caller said CPR was in progress for a 74-year-old woman.
Earlier, around 9:45 a.m., Glantz had been pronounced dead by staff at The Mulberry nursing home in Waverly. She had been in hospice, and nursing staff were expecting her to pass away, according to Houchin.
Funeral home staff transported the woman back to Lincoln. While preparing her body for funeral arrangements, a staff member noticed she was still breathing and called 911.
Lincoln Fire and Rescue transported Glantz to the hospital where she died hours later.
SOUTH DAKOTA Undated (Kathleen Shannon / Greater Dakota News Service) – Some rural South Dakotans struggle to get good drinking water but the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has awarded two local communities with grants to help change it.
Nearly $13 million in WaterSMART Drought Resiliency grants are slated for projects in Eagle Butte and Day County. The Mni Wašte Water Company, run by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, will receive $2.8 million to pipe water 10 miles northwest of the community to supply 17 existing residences and 20 being constructed.
Leo Fischer, executive director, Mni Wašte Water Company and enrolled member of Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said the water company started planning this project in 1993 and in the meantime, the people living there have had to haul their water.
“It’s more of a pain than it is anything, because you haul it in the back of a vehicle,” Fischer pointed out. “In the wintertime, everything freezes up.”
Piped water is important in the region, because area groundwater wells are of poor quality, must run deep into the ground and have proven unreliable.
To the east, the WEB Water Development Association is slated to receive nearly $10 million to build about 40 miles of pipeline, supplying more than 700 people with drinking water in the city of Waubay and in rural Day County.
Shane Phillips, general manager of the association, said it feels ironic to be doing a project in Day County, which is known for having ample water.
“It’s the true quality of the water that’s not great in Day County,” Phillips observed. “There’s total dissolved solids. It’s really high in minerals.”
Phillips added the company hopes to break ground in 2025 on its project piping and treating potable water from the Missouri River. The Bureau of Reclamation has made WaterSMART grants in 11 states this year.
DES MOINES, IA (Mark Moran / Iowa News Service) – A prominent animal safety group is calling on restaurants to do more to ban the use of animal gestation crates where livestock and poultry are grown for meat.
A new report from the group Animal Equality said some chains have made progress but many are lagging. Dozens of U.S. restaurant companies pledged to end the use of gestation crates for pregnant pigs in their supply chains back in 2008. Since then, 11 states, including Iowa and others in the Midwest, have either restricted their use or outlawed them.
Devon Dear, institutional outreach manager Animal Equality, said some restaurant chains still do not comply but she is encouraged others do.
“We’ve seen some really big players in this industry move away from crates,” Dear acknowledged. “For example, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, Chipotle, Shake Shack, Panera Bread; these companies have all either significantly reduced or eliminated crates. We know that it can be done successfully.”
Scientists said gestation crates, which amount to a space about the size of an airplane seat, are breeding grounds for disease. The report lists Denny’s, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin, and KFC among 13 companies it contended have not been aggressive enough in reducing their use of the crates. Dear hopes the Farm Bill now being debated in Congress will put the issue in the spotlight.
In Iowa, the use of gestation crates grew along with the proliferation of large factory farms in the 1980s and 90s, where thousands of animals are confined in limited areas, creating health and environmental problems. Dear emphasized Animal Equality is concerned with the threats the conditions pose to animal welfare.
“When you have this many animals in one place, you’re getting really high concentrations of feces, you’re having all of the environmental impacts of this,” Dear pointed out. “Pigs produce a ton of waste, and this has to be disposed of properly to not make nearby communities sick.”
Dear argued the higher the pigs’ stress levels, the higher the use of antibiotics, which often run off with manure into groundwater. Iowa’s factory farmers have said they are responding to consumer demand for more consistently raised, high-quality pork and other products.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (Mike Moen / Minnesota News Connection) – Events are scheduled this month to inform more people about Minnesota’s new law eliminating the need for proof of legal residence to get a driver’s license. Advocates for Latino immigrants see some positives, along with a few hiccups to sort out.
Last fall, Minnesota launched its Driver’s Licenses for All initiative, with supporters saying it would make roadways safer while removing transportation burdens for undocumented individuals.
Eduardo Penasco, lead organizer for Communities Organizing Latino Power and Action, said in general, the policy change is still embraced by the populations he works with.
“People are happy about this and (are) making an effort to try to apply and go through the process so they can get their license,” Penasco observed.
At first, the group found many Spanish-speaking applicants were not passing the written exam, in part through not accessing valid information in the driver’s manual. In partnering with the Department of Public Safety, it has been hosting orientations to help people prepare. The organization noted written exam passage rates are improving but there is concern some people are discouraged by early obstacles.
The Department of Vehicle Services has upcoming dates listed on its website for various outreach related to the program. The events are all in the Twin Cities, and the group hopes to beef up its informational approach elsewhere in Minnesota.
Penasco indicated they want Latino communities to feel reassured about the option and recapture the enthusiasm seen when the initiative kicked off.
“It has been kind of a slowdown a little bit but still somewhat in demand,” Penasco pointed out. “Taking the first step is always the difficult part.”
After focusing on helping with those first steps, Penasco added the next challenge is the skills test behind the wheel. Staffing issues have led to delays in scheduling. Community partners also point out driving schools, prompted by a failed test, can be costly with information in English only. Penasco feels the state is making a sincere effort to reduce headaches as all parties try to adjust.
