WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate took a broadly bipartisan vote early Saturday to approve a $1.2 trillion spending package, sending the measure to President Joe Biden for his signature with no time to spare after missing a midnight deadline.
The 74-24 vote wraps up the government funding process for fiscal year 2024, which began back on Oct. 1, making lawmakers just about six months behind schedule. Congress passed the other six bills in mid-March after relying on short-term spending measures to bridge the gap.
South Dakota Republicans John Thune and Mike Rounds both voted yes. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley of Iowa both voted yes, and Nebraska’s Deb Fischer voted yes also.
Senate approval came shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday, creating a minor funding lapse that was not expected to have any real effect. Biden signed the bill later Saturday.
Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, said Friday hours before the vote that the agreement shows “Congress can still work, but only when we come to the negotiating table in good faith and leave politics at the door.”
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, ranking member on the spending panel, said the package “supports America’s working families while providing funding to better secure our borders and combat the transnational criminal organizations that are flooding our communities with fentanyl.”
PIERRE, S.D. – (Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight) For more than two months, state officials unintentionally led some potential legislative candidates to believe they needed hundreds more petition signatures than state law requires.
The problem affected independents. Retired Rapid City attorney Jay Davis noticed it.
“I was seeking information on behalf of a prospective candidate who was considering filing as an independent,” he said. “I asked how many signatures she would need in her district.”
Davis was referencing nominating petitions. To earn a spot on the ballot, candidates need signatures on their petitions from registered voters in their district. The window for circulating and submitting petitions opened Jan. 1 — the same day the erroneous signature guidance was published — and will close for independent candidates on April 30.
The Secretary of State’s Office oversees elections in South Dakota. Davis said Rachel Soulek, director of the office’s Division of Elections, initially refused to look up the information and told him to find it on the office’s website.
“Later, she forwarded me the applicable information from the website, and I was horrified,” Davis said.
For example, the list said independent legislative candidates in Sioux Falls-area Districts 12 and 13 needed 1,029 signatures. On March 8, after Davis reported the errors, the numbers were changed to 114 and 88, respectively. Numbers for many other districts were also updated at that time.
State law requires a number of signatures equal to 1% of the votes cast within the district in the last governor’s race. The number of people in each legislative district is roughly equal and based on numbers from the 2020 Census, which determined the total population of South Dakota was 886,667. There are 35 legislative districts, making the target number for each 25,333 people. Therefore, even if every person in a district voted in the last governor race, the maximum number of signatures required in any district would be about 250.
But on the erroneous list published by the Secretary of State’s Office, independent candidates in Rapid City-area Districts 34 and 35, for example, were listed as needing 454 signatures. On March 8, the figures were changed to 115 and 99, respectively.
Davis doesn’t think that fully addresses the problem.
“There may already be people who looked into running as independents for the South Dakota Senate and House who abandoned the idea, after looking at the onerous signature requirements,” he said.
Soulek, with the Secretary of State’s Office, communicated with South Dakota Searchlight only by email and did not accept phone calls. She offered a lengthy explanation of the events leading up to the publication of the erroneous list. The explanation culminated in a final sentence: “A staff person had an error in our calculations when putting the signature requirements together.”
Soulek said the office notified county auditors, who run elections at the county level, once the information was updated.
Davis said the ultimate responsibility lies with the current head of the Secretary of State’s Office, Monae Johnson, who did ultimately call him to discuss the error. But, Davis alleged, “my understanding is that some of the numbers for independent signature requirements on their website are still wrong.”
As of Friday afternoon, no independent candidates had submitted nominating petitions to become candidates for legislative offices in the Nov. 5 general election.
There are about 88,000 registered independent voters in the state and 61,000 people registered as non-politically affiliated. There are about 145,000 registered Democrats and 302,00 Republicans.
PIERRE, S.D. – Leaders from Native American tribes in South Dakota are asking Governor Kristi Noem to apologize and provide proof to back her claims that certain tribal leaders are profiting from cartels.
“We’ve got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being here and that’s why they attack me every day,” Noem said during her recent town hall meeting in Winner.
Noem said Mexican drug cartels are making their way to South Dakota through the tribal reservations to traffic drugs, sex and children.
Now, tribal leaders from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Crow Creek Sioux Tribe are responding to those allegations.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe released a statement refuting the Governor’s claims.
“Governor Noem’s racially prejudiced remarks about tribal presidents and tribal councils being focused on a ‘political agenda’ are simply not true,” Rosebud Sioux Tribal President Scott Herman wrote. “Governor Noem’s malicious remarks that tribal officials ‘benefit’ from the presence of cartels without any evidence, is made without any basis in truth and is defamatory and libelous.”
Herman stated Governor Noem’s statements, “strayed from education into an unwarranted and untruthful attack on Tribal Nations. Her remarks were made from ignorance and with the intention to fuel a racially based and discriminatory narrative towards the Native people of South Dakota.”
Peter Lengkeek, the tribal chairman for the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, agrees the governor’s comments were defamatory and wants her to provide evidence.
“Where is her proof of this financial benefit that we are receiving? Where’s the proof? Show it to me,’” Lengkeek said.
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Ryman LeBeau stated, “The South Dakota Governor speaks gossip and lies about our Lakota students, their parents and our Tribal Councils. SD Governor’s statements made on March 13th, 2024, perpetuate stereotypes, misconceptions, which are inaccurate and untrue.”
Noem made additional comments about the reservations and education during a Mitchell town hall to sign SB 127 and HB 1022. When someone from the audience asked what her future goals for education are, Noem said she’s “super, super grieved” she hasn’t made more progress with education opportunities on tribal reservations.
Tribal leaders are doubtful about Noem’s interest in addressing issues like education.
ST PAUL, MN – Minnesota has about 15 years to achieve its mandate of 100% carbon-free electricity from utilities.
To get there, clean energy voices say the permitting process has to move much faster, and they think legislation would make a difference.
Minnesota’s carbon-free standard for 2040 was approved last year.
In this legislative session, lawmakers have followed up with a measure that aims to reduce the timeline for those seeking permits for wind, solar and power grid expansion projects.
Madelyn Smerillo – regional policy manager for the Clean Grid Alliance – said not only would it help with emission targets, but would also provide certainty to developers.
“The developers need to know when they’re going to be able to get steel in the ground,” said Smerillo. “They need to know when they can start their construction.”
Researchers say Minnesota’s current permitting process for solar projects has increased from an average of 300 days to nearly 550 days.
Among other things, the bill would remove duplications, and require state agencies to identify and solve problems early in the process.
For those worried about minimizing public engagement, supporters say the new plan doesn’t sacrifice the ability for residents to have their say.
Smerillo contended the proposed changes would make it easier for the public to get a better understanding of clean energy development happening in their backyard.
“So they can clearly see,” said Smerillo, “these are the projects that get a shorter timeline, these are the projects that have a longer timeline, and these are the requirements that are expected of all of them. ”
The bill was drafted with input from nearly 30 stakeholders recommended by state regulators. It’s been making its way through committees and could be included in a larger omnibus package.
The Senate version has Republican and Democratic sponsors, hinting at bipartisan support as the measure advances.
AMES, IA – Researchers at Iowa State University are taking the next step in genetic medicine by targeting diseases in a person’s RNA.
Most drugs target proteins to interrupt the disease process.
Iowa State University Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Walter Moss said they’ve moved beyond targeting proteins, and are taking aim at disease on a smaller level – focusing on ribonucleaic acid, or RNA.
This will allow scientists to create ‘personalized disease attackers’ that Moss said fit perfectly into ‘pockets’ in a patient’s cells.
“So, there’s the different pockets on a protein drug target,” said Moss. “You’d be able to get that drug into that pocket, either to interfere with the protein function or the protein interaction in some way. And the same idea would be with RNA.”
Moss said the RNA approach could be used to target cancer and genetic diseases, but adds years of testing remain before the technology will be ready for the commercial market.
Moss said 90% of the body’s genome is turned into RNA as opposed to just 10% that becomes protein. He explained that dramatic ratio presents scientists with new opportunities.
“It opens up whole new avenues of targeting diseases that aren’t currently possible at the protein level,” said Moss. “Because now you can start to treat RNA-related diseases, or diseases where there is no good protein drug target.”
Moss said COVID vaccines harnessed the power of what’s known as “messenger RNA,” which caused a spike in interest in using RNA science more broadly to treat other diseases.
