Category Archives: State

State officials in South Dakota have unveiled the design for 2016 license plates.

It’s similar to the current Mount Rushmore plate design with different coloring.

The current plate design has been in use since 2006 and the state Department of Revenue motor vehicle division says many existing plates are succumbing to age, damage or loss of reflectivity. These issues can make the plate hard to read.

The new license plates will be issued beginning Jan. 1. Department of Revenue estimates that 1.5 million plates will be sent out.

Skylar Forgey of Colome led the way for the Dakota Wesleyan University women cross country team at the Briar Cliff Invitational.

Forgey finished 49th in 19:10.25

Kyle Bertram of Winner is in his sophomore season at Presentation College, Aberdeen.

In a 24-14 football loss to Valley City State, Bertram recorded one assisted tackle. Bertram had tallied 12 tackles, one interception this season.

With consumer prices down over the past year, monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for nearly 65 million Americans will not automatically increase in 2016.

The Social Security Act provides for an automatic increase in Social Security and SSI benefits if there is an increase in inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). The period of consideration includes the third quarter of the last year a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) was made to the third quarter of the current year. As determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was no increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2015. Therefore, under existing law, there can be no COLA in 2016.

Other adjustments that would normally take effect based on changes in the national average wage index also will not take effect in January 2016. Since there is no COLA, the statute also prohibits a change in the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax, as well as the retirement earnings test exempt amounts. These amounts will remain unchanged in 2016. The attached fact sheet provides more information on 2016 Social Security and SSI changes.

The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet announced Medicare premium changes for 2016. Should there be an increase in the Medicare Part B premium, the law contains a “hold harmless” provision that protects approximately 70 percent of Social Security beneficiaries from paying a higher Part B premium, in order to avoid reducing their net Social Security benefit. Those not protected include higher income beneficiaries subject to an income-adjusted Part B premium and beneficiaries newly entitled to Part B in 2016. In addition, beneficiaries who have their Medicare Part B premiums paid by state medical assistance programs will see no change in their Social Security benefit. The state will be required to pay any Medicare Part B premium increase.

The state minimum wage will increase from $8.50/hour to $8.55/hour effective Jan. 1, 2016.

The minimum wage is annually adjusted by any increase in the cost of living, as measured in the Consumer Price Index published by the U.S. Department of Labor. This year’s increase was 0.2 percent and is rounded up to the nearest five cents.

The hourly minimum wage for tipped employees will be $4.28/hour effective Jan. 1, 2016, half the minimum wage for non-tipped employees. Wages and tips combined must equal at least the minimum wage.

These increases will apply to all South Dakota employers, with some limited exceptions. For more information, visit http://dlr.sd.gov/wagehrs/minimumwage.aspx.

PIERRE, S.D – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced that 24/7 Sobriety Program is distributing money back to the counties to strengthen and improve the program. The third quarter in FY 2015 returned $64,864 back to the program and those monies are redistributed to the participating agencies.

The allocation for the quarter to the Winner Police Department was $345. 
“The 24/7 Sobriety Program has proven to be an effective means to combat addiction and drunk driving in South Dakota,” said Jackley. “This disbursement will assist our sheriffs and local agencies to run and improve this offender pay program. The program holds qualifying offenders accountable for their actions and for the costs, and provides them the opportunity to be at their place of employment and with their families.”

Participants using the SCRAM bracelet pay $6.00 a day. This money is used for monitoring fees, testing site costs and the remainder going into a 24/7 program fund monitored by the Attorney General’s Office. The 24/7 program fund is used to pay administrative cost of the program and the remainder to be allocated to the testing sites for staffing, equipment and facility improvement associated with the 24/7 Sobriety Program. Funding part time testers, printing of 24/7 materials and the purchase of new PBTs are just a few examples. Allocations to participating agencies began in 2011.

GFP’s mission motto is “Serving People, Managing Wildlife.” The work that we do is not all about the nuts and bolts of science. There are many social implications as well.
Due to the importance of pheasant hunting in South Dakota, numerous opinions and ideas are put forth every year, both in support and in rebuke of the efforts of GFP to set and hold the pheasant hunting season. Here are some of the more common concerns that seem to surface every year, and our responses.
With the costs of hunting licenses, isn’t GFP just after the money?

GFP’s Division of Wildlife operates solely on sales of licenses and federal excise taxes on sporting arms and ammunition. The GFP Commission takes their role in setting fees for hunting and fishing licenses very seriously. They recognize the importance to balance opportunity with funding necessary for our work. They do a tremendous service to our agency and to the public, as evidenced by a history of rare fee increases and the public support they receive when a fee increase is required.
An important point to make is that, unlike all the rest of costs associated with hunting or fishing, the money spent by hunters and anglers on their licenses cycles back to perpetuate their sport.
Some examples of this cycle include boat ramps and fish hatcheries for anglers and Walk-In Areas and habitat programs for hunters.
GFP administrators must be conscious of the need to generate revenue. But all the revenue generated still belongs to the citizens of this state. GFP has and will continue to prudently spend that revenue with the goal in mind of enhancing of the outdoor resources that our state is so well known for.
Does GFP fabricate optimistic pheasant forecasts to generate more license revenue?

Every year there are hunters who do not find the success that they had anticipated.
GFP forecasts fall pheasant populations in August after surveying over 100 standardized pheasant counting routes. What these routes tell us is whether regional pheasant populations are up, down or about the same as the previous year.
The forecasts are made for the vicinities of 12 city areas in central and eastern SD, and the forecasts are never the same for all 12 areas. GFP also summarizes the survey routes together for an estimate of the statewide pheasant population.
These roadside surveys are not intended to be representative of how successful individual hunters are going to be in a localized area. Even the regional forecasts are never completely consistent within a given survey area because these areas can span up to 8,000 square miles. Undoubtedly, there are going to be parts of survey areas that are better and worse than the overall estimate for that region.
Then why does GFP make these forecasts of upcoming seasons?


One principal GFP objective is to maximize hunter satisfaction.
When it comes to pheasant hunting, this can be at least partially achieved by providing hunters with the most accurate (not necessarily optimistic) predictions possible.
Although GFP pheasant forecasts are never 100% accurate, they are generally a very good predictor of upcoming seasons. Most importantly, every population forecast is based upon the data collected along the survey routes. GFP officials do not alter results of the annual counts in order to attract more hunters.
Any misrepresentation of fact would cause irreparable damage to the trust instilled in our agency by both pheasant hunters and the general population of our state. In the long run, the potential effect of this diminished confidence would be a decline in our hunter population and a decline in license revenue that would far exceed damages from a blizzard or poor pheasant hatch.
What is the position of GFP on fee hunting?

Farmers and ranchers continue to search for alternate sources of revenue to supplement traditional farming income. Charging for hunting access is one such alternative. GFP has not attempted to either promote or discourage charging access fees for hunting. This is free enterprise, and free enterprise system is the economic foundation of this country.
However, GFP recognizes and will ardently defend the fact of law that wild animals in this country are owned by no one. Rather they are held in trust by the people for the people.
In addition, GFP is very serious about the state of South Dakota’s responsibility to manage wild animal populations that reside within the borders of our state. Consequently, as long as the legal ownership designation of wildlife is not eroded, GFP will not attempt to restrict farmers and ranchers from generating income for hunting access to their property.
GFP will, however, work to develop all available opportunities to enhance and preserve free access to hunting opportunities. If hunting is a sport reserved only for the wealthy, then its appeal to the non-hunting population will diminish and its support from the general population will dissolve.
What is the position of GFP on road hunting?

Providing public hunting opportunity along road rights-of-way is one of the most contentious hunting issues for many rural residents. In turn, many hunters covet road hunting as the one guaranteed option of having access to public hunting opportunities.
As described above, GFP is an advocate for promoting free hunting access opportunities to the general public. However, the behavior of some hunters while hunting road rights-of-way can make the practice difficult to defend. Rural residents have a legitimate basis to be critical of the behavior of some hunters that shoot close to their homes and livestock.
GFP and the state legislature have taken action to lessen conflicts between individuals hunting road rights-of-way and rural property owners. State laws providing buffers around farmsteads and livestock where hunting is prohibited are in place and are taken very seriously by state Conservation Officers.
If compliance with these regulations were improved, most conflicts between rural residents and hunters that like to hunt road rights-of-way would be eliminated.
GFP will continue to support the rights of hunters to legally hunt road rights-of-way as long as state law permits the practice. In addition, GFP will continue to vehemently enforce laws intended to protect rural residents and their property from the unlawful hunting of road rights-of-way.
What is the reasoning behind the timing of the opening of the pheasant season?
The structure of the pheasant season is designed more for tradition and fair distribution of the pheasant hunting opportunity than to manipulate the pheasant population.
The season has little, if any impact on future pheasant populations. The annual start of the season is designed to maximize the number of young-of-the-year cock pheasants that are old enough to be identified when they flush. In addition, hunters can be more successful if the fall crop harvest has progressed enough to concentrate birds in remaining fields.
The noon opener during the first week of the season is a mainstay of our state’s pheasant hunting that is upheld by simple tradition.
Agriculture operators have the opportunity to get some of their day’s work done before joining family and friends for an opening day hunt. Business operators believe the noon starting time allows hunters to be more willing to frequent their establishments. Others contend that in South Dakota, you do not need a full day of hunting to harvest a limit of pheasants.
Regardless of the reasons, tradition will likely preserve the current season opening dates and shooting hour formats.
Why is the pheasant season as long as it is?

South Dakota actually has one of the shortest pheasant seasons in comparison to our neighboring states.
The season length issue carries much greater social than biological reasoning. The current season is set as a compromise between how long farmers are willing to host hunters on their property and how much time hunters would like to be afield.
There are hunters and farmers that think the season is too long, and some that think it’s too short. When setting future pheasant seasons, GFP will continue to try to maximize hunter opportunity while minimizing any perceived negative impacts to the rural community.

NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 11: General view of atmosphere at American Humane Association Salutes Four-Legged Military Heroes During 2014 Veterans Day Parade on November 11, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images for American Humane Association)

If you’re a regular viewer of The Weather Channel (TWC), you may have seen segments featuring Winner native Dr. Amy McCullough (daughter of Gary and Jan Bowar) and her dog Butler, the official TWC therapy dog.

The two were brought together after McCullough’s employer, American Humane Association (AHA), and TWC partnered to launch a nationwide search to find a therapy dog that would assist with recovery in communities affected by severe weather. McCullough, who is AHA’s National Director of Humane Research and Therapy, would be the dog’s official handler.

Research shows that interacting with a therapy dog (a pet that has been specially trained and evaluated to provide comfort to people) can improve human health and well-being. In the wake of a disaster, therapy dogs can be a tremendous source of support for healing and recovery by engaging and relaxing people, providing a sense of safety, comfort and relief from grief.

Once the search for the therapy dog began, McCullough met over 100 dogs at animal shelters in four different states in a four day period. She was searching for a rescue dog at least one year old, medium-sized, and in good health. The dog needed to be calm, outgoing and affectionate.

She found those qualities in Butler, a one-year-old, 35 lb shepherd mix, at the Humane Society of Charlotte in North Carolina. “Butler stood out from the moment I met him,” said McCullough, “He had a balance of being calm and comfortable in new environments, but also had enough energy to be engaging to weather victims and TWC viewers.”

Once Butler was adopted, his therapy dog training began. McCullough enrolled him in obedience classes and began exposing him to new situations such as taking him to pet-friendly stores. To become a registered therapy dog, a dog must have solid obedience skills and be comfortable around a variety of different types of people, objects, settings, and situations.

Butler became a certified therapy dog in April 2014. Later that month, he was sent on his first deployment to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the devastating EF-4 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.

Butler visited community members across the city of Moore to provide comfort as the stressful time of storm season began. While petting Butler, many people talked about their experience of the devastating tornado and how they felt one year later. Inspirational and heroic stories were shared, as well as those of grief and tragedy. “Hopefully, Butler’s visit helped provide relief and healing as the people of Moore continue to rebuild their lives,” said McCullough.

Since then, Butler has been on several service missions, including post-tornado sites of Vilonia, Arkansas and Pilger, Nebraska. In 2015, Butler was deployed to his first winter storm site, visiting the city of Boston during their record February snowfall.

Last winter, he also paid a visit to a 16-year-old boy who was recovering at a rehabilitation center in Atlanta after being in a sledding accident which left him paralyzed. When Butler’s not helping comfort communities after severe weather events, he travels the country giving weather preparedness presentations and serves as an ambassador for American Humane Association. In his first year on the job, he’s traveled to over 20 states, spreading smiles and sharing knowledge about the vital bond between humans and animals.
If you’d like to share in Butler’s travels, you can follow him on Facebook at Butler The Weather Channel Therapy Dog.

By Dan Bechtold, Editor

Twenty-one soldiers landed in Winner last week as they prepared to enjoy a pheasant hunt at South Fork Hunting Lodge of Dallas.  Four jets landed at the Winner Regional Airport being soldiers from all across the United States.  The disabled soldiers were taking part in David Feherty’s IED Hunt. Feherty, a native of Ireland, is a former professional golfer turned TV personality and golf commentator.

Leroy Petry of Washington State has been attending this hunt for several years. The retire Army master sergeant received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Perty lost his arm in a grenade blast and was shot in both his thighs in Afghanistan.

In 2008 was the first time he came on this hunt. He was still an outpatient at the hospital in San Antonio, Texas. “I had been told about this trip but I did not want to leave the hospital, I wanted to just focus on my recovery. I did not have a good outlook on what life was going to hold for me after losing my arm. I could no longer do the ranger things any more,” he said.

Petry said the trip allowed him an opportunity to relax and get away from the hospital environment.  “I came here not knowing what to expect. I had a great time and have made life long friends,” he said.

“I got credit down at the grocery store and my barber tells me jokes…” —Roger Miller

ROLLING FORK, Miss.—The chosen theme for this year’s National Newspaper Week is “Power of the Press,” and that power, it seems to me, is a very relative thing.
Everybody understands the power of, say, The New York Times or The Washington Post, but probably less recognized and appreciated is the power of the Deer Creek Pilot and the thousands of other small, community newspapers just like it all across the land.

In survey after survey, it is these little community-minded newspapers that are continuing to thrive. And there are some very tangible, observable reasons for that, not the least of which might be the notion I share that the smaller the community, the more important its newspaper.

For more than 20 years now, I have put out a little country weekly that’s been published continuously for 138 years in what most folks might consider Backwater, U.S.A., the two poorest counties in the poorest state in the union with a combined population of less than 6,500 men, women and children.

And it is neither flippant nor hyperbolic when I say that little country weekly newspaper is the only news organization on the planet Earth that gives the first tinker’s damn about Sharkey and Issaquena counties, Mississippi. That, folks, is what makes the Deer Creek Pilot mighty, mighty important to those people who call that place home.
While mine might serve as prime example, it is in that respect no different from all those other community newspapers in all those other towns in this country.
Community newspapers have the power to bring about great good and make a profound difference within their locales. And among the good ones, the ones who endure and even prosper, there is always to be found one common denominator—trust.

In a small town the local newspaper is not like the local hardware store. It simply isn’t.

In a small town, every newspaper subscriber thinks he or she is a stockholder, because there exists a real relationship, an implied contract, if you will, between that paper and its readers.

They buy your newspaper, advertise in your newspaper, sometimes even when they don’t have to, based on a simple precept: They trust you to do your very best to find the truth and to tell it to them.

News travels fast in a small town; bad news travels even faster, but all too often that “news” is no such thing. All too often, that “news” is little more than rumor, sometimes made up out of whole cloth and at best some grain of truth exaggerated in its retellings vastly, and often alarmingly out of proportion.

In a small town, readers expect their newspaper to separate the wheat from the chaff and then to “tell it like it is.”
And why not?

The community newspaper is not some monolithic entity; its editor is not some ivory towered “big shot.” He or she is also a neighbor. He or she is one who goes to church with you, or stops to chat in the grocery store or is always there to volunteer at community functions or stops to shake hands or just waves in passing.

More importantly, he or she is the one everybody else trusts to promote those things that are beneficial, and to try to stop that which is not. There’s a fishbowl effect in small towns, and its newspaper is hence, often its lightening rod. It may be praised one week and dog-cussed the next, but it is not only impossible, but really not important that it be liked. It’s important that it be respected and it is even more important that it be trusted.

I have been in this crazy business for some 38 years now, at both the daily and weekly levels, and been blessed to receive a few accolades along the way, but the greatest single compliment I have ever received came from a salt-of-the-earth little lady who stopped by the office to pick up a hot off the press edition featuring the issue du jour in my little town.
“I’ve heard all the talk, but I don’t believe it until I read in the paper,” she told me.

And that, in a nutshell, is the secret to the continued success of community newspapers.

That, in a nutshell, is the true Power of the Press.