FLANDREAU, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a Sioux Falls man charged in the death of a deputy who was struck while putting out spikes during a police chase.

The South Dakota Attorney General’s office filed an official notice Wednesday announcing it will seek the penalty for Joseph Gene Hoek, 40, in the death of Moody County Chief Deputy Ken Prorok, 51, of Wentworth, who died during the pursuit on Feb. 2.

Hoek pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of first-degree murder and aggravated eluding. Hoek’s attorneys said they plan to seek a mental health evaluation of their client and will consider entering a plea of insanity to the charges.

Attorney General Marty Jackley said he made the death penalty decision after reviewing the circumstances and meeting with the victim’s family and the sheriff who were at Wednesday’s hearing. Jackley said the fact that Prorok was killed in the line of duty and that it happened while Hoek was trying to evade arrest made the crime worthy of the death penalty.

When he was charged, investigators described Hoek as being on a “downward spiral” marked by drug use and escalating threats of violence.

The pursuit started after officers responded to a call about a man, identified as Hoek, making “homicidal threats” near the business where the caller worked. Police spotted his car and tried to stop him, but Hoek sped off on Highway 34 toward Interstate 29, Special Agent Jeffrey Kollars of the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation wrote in a court filing.

The chase reached 115 mph. Prorok stopped to deploy stop spikes across Highway 34. But a witness said he saw the approaching car intentionally swerve and strike the chief deputy before it went into the ditch and flipped, the agent wrote. Hoek ran off on foot. The witness followed Hoek, ran him down and detained Hoek until officers arrived.

 

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem recently starred in a commercial for Smile Texas, a dental practice in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston.

The nearly 5-minute video, posted on her personal social media accounts, features her praising the dental practice for fixing her teeth, which were damaged in a biking accident. Despite her busy schedule, Governor Noem did not address questions about the commercial at recent events.

The move has sparked confusion and criticism, with some questioning the appropriateness of a sitting governor endorsing a business in another state.

While it’s unclear if the governor was compensated, the South Dakota Dental Association notes that she knows several dentists in the state.

Until Governor Noem provides further explanation, the motives behind her promotion of the Texas dentist remain unclear.

 

YANKTON COUNTY, S.D. – A motorcyclist suffered fatal injuries yesterday in a two-vehicle crash near Volin, SD.

The names of the persons involved have not been released pending notification of family members.

Preliminary crash information indicates a 65-year-old male driver of a 2006 Harley Davidson motorcycle was traveling east on 301st Street near 446th Avenue behind a semi tractor/trailer. A septic tanker truck was traveling the same direction and was in front of the semi. The septic tanker truck slowed down to turn north into a field. The motorcycle driver attempted to pass the semi and struck the side of the septic tanker truck as it was turning into the field. The motorcycle rider was thrown from his motorcycle. He died at the scene as a result of his injuries. He was not wearing a helmet.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. All information released so far is only preliminary.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Citing major national security concerns, the U.S. House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that effectively bans TikTok unless the company splits from its Chinese owner ByteDance.

The 352-65 vote occurred just a week after lawmakers introduced the bipartisan proposal and days after the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce unanimously advanced the legislation, an unusual speed for the 118th Congress.

The bill required a two-thirds majority because House leadership placed it on the floor under a fast-track procedure called suspension of the rules.

South Dakota Republican Dusty Johnson is a co-sponsor of the bill and voted in favor of it.

“TikTok is Chinese Communist Party malware, promoting their propaganda and stealing Americans’ private data,” he said earlier this week.

The legislation, dubbed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, now heads to the Senate, where concerns over singling out a private company in legislation may slow momentum.

“The overwhelming vote today is a strong signal to the Senate that they need to act,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Washington Republican who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, said after the vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement late Wednesday morning that the body “will review the legislation when it comes over from the House.”

Leaders on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said they are “united” in concern about a platform that has “enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party.”

“We were encouraged by today’s strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives and look forward to working together to get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law,” committee chair Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and vice chairman Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said in a joint statement.

President Joe Biden, whose administration had a hand in crafting the bill, is expected to sign the measure if the upper chamber approves it.

Despite Biden’s support of the bill, his re-election campaign joined TikTok last month as a way to reach Gen Z voters.

 

DES MOINES, IA – This is a busy week for the Iowa legislature as it is the last chance for some bills to survive and move on.

It’s called “Funnel Week” and it is the deadline for bills passed by the House have to make it out of Senate committees and vice versa.

Some of the bills in that funnel include:

The bill Governor Kim Reynolds’ office calls the “Women’s Bill of Rights”…it is not likely to be signed into law. The bill would create a new code defining a person’s gender as their sex assigned at birth and would be required on documents and ID’s like driver’s licenses and birth certificates. House lawmakers didn’t vote on it and it didn’t make it to a Senate Committee.

A bill banning Guaranteed Basic Income stands a chance to survive. Right now, there’s a pilot program in Central Iowa that gives certain lower income families $500 a month for two years. A bill outlawing these programs passed the House and it’s committee in the Senate and leadership can now bring it up for a debate.

A bill passed by the Iowa Senate would allow state agencies to hire their own outside accounting firms, rather than have their audit be conducted by the elected state auditor. A subcommittee in the House declined to forward it to the State Government Committee.

A bill in the Iowa House that establishes crimes of organized retail theft and looting and lay out additional penalties has life in the Senate. It made it out of Committee and can now be brought up for a vote.

The Senate Judiciary Committee did not take up a House bill that would require non-citizens to document and verify their status to receive public assistance. The second part of that bill would make it a crime to smuggle a non-citizen and provides different penalties for those who do.

The Senate Workforce Committee also didn’t take up a bill passed by the House that caps the amount that travel nurse agencies can charge Iowa nursing homes and hospitals.

Funnel week does not apply to tax, spending, or budget bills which can be passed anytime before adjournment. There are also tools leadership can use to revive “dead” bills.