RAPID CITY, S.D. – A South Dakota man has been arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges, including for assaulting law enforcement during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.

Darrell Goins, 42, of Newell, South Dakota, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia with six felony offenses, including civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; and entering and remaining, disorderly or disruptive conduct, and act of physical violence in a restricted building or grounds using a dangerous weapon.

In addition to the felonies, Goins is charged with two misdemeanor offenses of disorderly or disruptive conduct and act of physical violence in a Capitol building or grounds and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

The FBI arrested Goins on May 9, 2024, in South Dakota, and he made his initial appearance in the District of South Dakota today.

According to court documents, on Jan. 6, 2021, Goins was part of the crowd gathered on the Capitol’s West Plaza, standing directly in front of a line of the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officers that had formed to protect the building. While there, open-source video footage depicts Goins raising his fist in the air and cheering to the crowd of rioters. At approximately 1:50 p.m., rioters began to breach the police line protecting a staircase located at the north end of the West Plaza. Goins proceeded to join the crowd in pushing forward up the stairs and, before entering the stairway, Goins allegedly threw what appears to be a full, approximately 20-ounce plastic soft-drink bottle in the direction of a USCP officer.

After throwing the bottle, Goins moved with the crowd up the northwest stairs before again confronting a police line attempting to halt the crowd’s movement. Here, Goins physically engaged with several USCP officers while attempting to break through their lines. During this confrontation with police, Goins made it to the top landing of the stairway that police were protecting. Eventually, however, USCP officers were able to wrestle Goins to the ground and bring him to a seated position on the stairs.

Court documents say that the rest of the mob advanced to the top landing of the stairs, and Goins returned to his feet and remained directly in front of the police line. At some point in the subsequent minutes, Goins obtained a USCP officer’s riot shield and passed it off to another rioter. Eventually, other rioters succeeded in breaking through the police line and began surging up the remaining stairs at approximately 2:09 p.m. Less than a minute later, Goins joined the crowd and advanced up the stairs and to the Capitol’s Upper West Terrace.

From the Upper West Terrace, Goins allegedly entered the Capitol building via the Senate Wing Door at 2:14 p.m.— one minute after the initial breach of the Capitol building at this entrance. Once inside, Goins moved further into the building and arrived at the foyer just inside the Senate Carriage Door. At that time, USCP officers were working to clear the building by moving rioters out through the Senate Carriage Door.  Despite efforts by the police to move the crowd out through the Senate Carriage Door, Goins remained inside the Capitol building. He positioned himself just to the side of the door’s interior while other rioters outside the door attempted to gain entry.

Goins later returned to the area inside the Senate Wing Door and exited the building at approximately 2:30 p.m.

This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota.

In the 40 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,424 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 500 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony. The investigation remains ongoing.

 

SIOUX CITY, IA – Sioux City authorities have made an arrest in connection to a report of kidnapping and sexual assault.

The situation started on Sunday morning around 8 am when police received a report of a sexual assault that occurred inside a home in Sioux City, Iowa.

Authorities said the incident started when the individual was allegedly at the residence to drop off items on Saturday, at that time the suspect became violent and allegedly prevented the victim from leaving the residence. Officers said the individual eventually escaped the next morning and drove by a nearby convenience store, seeking help.

After a search warrant of the residence took place, police said there was evidence of the alleged assault and kidnapping.

Following the investigation, the Sioux City Police Department arrested 39-year-old Aaron K. Thomas of Sioux City. He has been charged with Kidnapping First-Degree, Sexual Abuse/Torture, Sexual Abuse First-Degree Serious Injury and False Imprisonment.

The investigation is still ongoing and no further information will be released.

 

BERESFORD, S.D. – A 66-year-old man died Saturday afternoon in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash one mile south of Beresford, SD.

Authorities have not identified the individual at this point in time, pending notification of family members.

The preliminary crash report shows that the driver of a 2004 Kawasaki VN750 motorcycle was southbound on I-29 when, for an unknown reason, he drifted off the left side of the highway and into the median. The motorcycle crashed in the median, ejecting the driver. He was not wearing a helmet and sustained serious injuries. He was transported to a local hospital by ambulance where he died from his injuries. Speed and alcohol are not believed to be a factor in the crash and no other vehicles were involved.

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

 

DES MOINES, IA (Mark Moran, Iowa News Service) – New research released by AARP Iowa shows how important Social Security benefits are to people who receive them – and the numbers reveal women are far more likely to list those benefits as critical.

About 700,000 Iowans receive Social Security benefits, and 55% are women.

AARP Iowa State Director Brad Anderson said he dug into the data, to find out why women see this as an important issue in their lives – in far greater numbers than men.

He said it’s because women tend to have far smaller Social Security checks – due to factors like receiving lower wages than men, and taking on unpaid family care-giving responsibilities during their lives.

“In addition to that, women have fewer resources of retirement income than men,” said Anderson. “And so, what that means is, men can rely more on stocks and bonds and pensions – whereas women really rely more heavily on Social Security.”

Anderson and other advocates are calling on Congress to address the dwindling Social Security Trust Fund, which could be forced to cut benefits by 2035 unless Congress acts to address the funding shortfall.

In addition to earning less and qualifying for fewer benefits, women also typically live longer than men – which, Anderson says, means they have to stretch their Social Security income even further.

“When you put it all together,” said Anderson, “it makes a lot of sense that women find Social Security and the strength of Social Security an extremely important issue, when it comes to the polls that we’ve seen.”

AARP Iowa released its findings on the heels of a national report on the financial health of Medicare and Social Security.

 

ST. PAUL, MN (Mike Moen, Minnesota News Connection) – A federal agency today is expected to announce reforms related to the power grid, which is stretched thin as the nation transitions away from fossil fuels.

It’s a complex issue clean-energy advocates in the Midwest know far too well.

There’s a push to expand transmission lines to accommodate the tidal wave of wind, solar, and other renewable projects.

Rules being unveiled could address the thorny issue of cost-sharing among states for the build-out.

More broadly, the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s Executive Director Nick Hylla said market dynamics are tricky – noting competing interests among utilities and developers in expanding the grid.

He said another issue is protecting wildlife.

“The history of management of transmission lines isn’t some solid track record from an environmental-conservation point of view,” said Hylla. “We could be doing a much better job in transmission corridors.”

In these cases, decarbonization groups and conservationists are at odds with each other. Notably, a recent court ruling is allowing a transmission line project involving Wisconsin to advance.

Hylla said “non-wire alternatives” are emerging to help the movement without turning to the grid.

In Minnesota, Xcel Energy has been testing a program that incentivizes customers to curb energy use during peak demand.

Similar programs are taking shape elsewhere, but industry analysts say these initiatives are navigating their own barriers as they try to get off the ground.

Still, Hylla said an example of this approach along the East Coast is turning some heads.

“It’s a BYOB program – Bring Your Own Battery program – that now, over 24,000 customers in three eastern states have subscribed to,” said Hylla. “It’s basically a subsidy to put a battery in your house and just to make sure that you’re not using electricity in peak times. ”

As governments, utilities and other entities face pressure to meet climate goals amid soaring demand for electricity, Hylla suggested these solutions will have to work hand-in-hand.

His group is focused on efficiencies, such as rooftop solar, to reshape the distribution of energy.

But he said large-scale renewable projects play a role, too, including the economic benefits for communities in which they’re located.

 

WAGNER, S.D. (John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight) – Six of the nine Native American tribes in South Dakota have now voted to ban Gov. Kristi Noem from their lands.

The Yankton Sioux Tribe Business and Claims Committee voted unanimously on Friday to ban the governor, citing her comments about drug cartels, Native American children and what one tribal council member characterized as performative rather than substantive efforts to engage tribal leaders.

The committee is the primary elected body for the Yankton Sioux Tribe, whose lands are situated in southeastern South Dakota.

“It’s about standing in solidarity together, all the Oceti Sakowin,” said Council Member Ryan Cournoyer, referencing the name for speakers of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota languages.

Earlier this week, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate voted to bar the governor from the Lake Traverse Reservation for similar reasons. Previously voting to ban Noem were the Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes.

Calls and messages to the leadership of the remaining tribes in the state — the Flandreau Santee, Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux tribes — were not immediately returned Friday.

Gov. Noem’s spokespeople also did not offer an immediate response to the Yankton Sioux Tribe’s vote. Noem has been busy reacting to the fallout from her new book, “No Going Back,” in which she sparked a national backlash by revealing she had fatally shot a dog and a goat. Noem also faced criticism for claiming in the book that she had met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un — a claim she and the book’s publisher ultimately retracted.

Beyond tribal solidarity, Cournoyer told South Dakota Searchlight that the governor’s comments during town halls in Mitchell and Winner earlier this year were particularly offensive.

In Mitchell, speaking of tribes, Noem said, “Their kids don’t have any hope. They don’t have parents who show up and help them. They have a tribal council or a president who focuses on a political agenda more than they care about actually helping somebody’s life look better.”

Comments suggesting that Mexican drug cartels have “set up shop” on the state’s reservations have been a sticking point since her delivery of a speech about the U.S. border with Mexico on Jan. 31. Since the speech, delivered to a joint session of the South Dakota Legislature, the governor has written an op-ed column titled “banish the cartels” and claimed without offering evidence that tribal leadership is “personally benefitting” from the cartels.

Noem also angered some tribal leaders during a meeting between the tribes and the federal government in early April in Rapid City. The meeting was about Pè Sla, a stretch of prairie land in the Black Hills considered sacred by the tribes.

She hadn’t been invited, and Oglala Sioux Tribal Council President Frank Star Comes Out criticized her surprise arrival as an unwelcome distraction and a “publicity stunt” meant to bolster her chance at becoming Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

Cournoyer was at that meeting, and said the governor “charging in there” with her team made her words about working with tribes to solve problems ring hollow.

“It was more for the media than to show she wanted to work with us,” he said.