Category Archives: State

PIERRE, S.D. – Every year, thousands of adults in the United States suffer serious health problems, are hospitalized, or even die from diseases that could have been prevented by vaccination.

To celebrate the importance of immunizations throughout life – and to help remind adults that they need vaccines too – the South Dakota Department of Health is joining with partners nationwide in recognizing August as National Immunization Awareness Month. “There is a misconception among many adults that vaccines are just for children,” said Barbara Philips, nurse educator for the Department of Health immunization program. “The truth is, you never outgrow the need for immunizations.”

Immunization gives parents the safe, proven power to protect their children from 14 serious and potentially deadly diseases before they turn 2 years old, says a state health official.

To celebrate the importance of immunizations for a healthy start and throughout life  – and to make sure children are protected with all the vaccines they need – the South Dakota Department of Health is joining with partners nationwide in recognizing August as National Immunization Awareness Month.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard demonstrated his support of employers who employ National Guard and Reserve members by signing a proclamation announcing Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Week in South Dakota Aug. 16-22. The proclamation coincides with President Barack Obama’s national proclamation announcing ESGR Week.

The proclamation recognizes employers who provide critical support to members of the National Guard and Reserve; allowing citizen warriors to serve whenever the nation calls, often foregoing financial gain and making sacrifices in the process.

ESGR is a Department of Defense agency that works to develop and promote a culture in which all American employers support and value the military service of their employees.

Shelby Riggs, the Tripp County 4-H rodeo ambassador, was crowned the state 4-H Rodeo ambassador, Sunday in Ft. Pierre.
The 17-year-old is a senior at Mitchell High School. She is the daughter of Kevin and Becky Riggs.

The state ambassador has participated in 4-H rodeo for three years and her events include barrel racing, poles and the ambassador contest.  After high school she plans to pursue a degree in agriculture.  This year, Riggs will be traveling around the state representing 4-H rodeo.

South Dakota Farmers Union celebrates 100 years of service to South Dakota’s rural communities and farm and ranch families during Farmers Union Day held Sept. 5 during the 2015 South Dakota State Fair in Huron.

“The State Fair is South Dakota’s agricultural showcase. It’s the place where the families, businesses and organizations who make up our state’s number one industry gather to celebrate the best of the best. Farmers Union is proud to be a premiere sponsor of this event,” said Doug Sombke, President of South Dakota Farmers Union.

Famers Union will recognize six individuals for their selfless contributions to their rural communities with the Rural Dakota Pride Award. The 2015 Rural Dakota Pride Honorees include: Bob Glanzer, Huron; Steve & Carol Smith, Groton; Donna Kubik, Hamill; Ken Lindblad, Huron; and Lyndee Fogelman, Piedmont.

As an organization which supports South Dakota farmers and ranchers, Farmers Union understands the integral connection between those who work in South Dakota’s number one industry and their rural communities.

“One cannot survive without the other,” says Karla Hofhenke, Executive Director of S.D. Farmers Union. “Without thriving communities, it’s difficult to encourage young people to return to their family’s farm or ranch. Rural communities are key to the future of South Dakota’s agriculture industry, which is why we like to recognize those individuals who help them thrive.”

The organization will also announce the 25 South Dakota students who received $1,000 scholarships for post-secondary education as part of the Farmers Union Foundation and Farmers Union Insurance Agency 2015 Insuring a Brighter Tomorrow Scholarship program. Dusti Littau, a graduate of Winner High School, is one of the scholarship winners.

Better overall odds, increased prize amounts and a chance for players to multiply most winnings by up to 10 times during certain jackpot runs are among changes to the Powerball lotto game approved today by the Legislative Rules Review Committee.

The South Dakota Lottery Commission unanimously approved the rules on July 30, 2015. With today’s action, the game changes will take effect beginning Oct. 4, 2015.

Under the new rules, the overall odds of winning a prize will go from 1:31.8 to 1:24.9 while the odds of winning the jackpot increase from 1:175 million to 1:292 million. The game’s $10,000 third prize is being boosted to $50,000 and the Power Play option will be expanded to multiply most prizes (except the jackpot and the Match 5 prize) by up to 10 times whenever Powerball’s annuitized jackpot is at $150 million or less. The starting jackpot will remain at $40 million.

by Lura Roti, for South Dakota Farmers Union

Although his corn has a ways to grow before harvest 2015, like most corn farmers, Orrie Swayze knows where his crop will go once it leaves his Wilmot farm.

“Most all of my corn goes into ethanol. Our local elevator supplies a local plant,” says Swayze, 71, who only farms part-time these days, entrusting most of the fieldwork to his son, Patrick.

The Swayze’s corn is among more than 361 million bushels of South Dakota corn converted to ethanol and its co-products each year; supplying an industry which contributes almost $4 billion to the state’s economy annually, according to a 2012 South Dakota State University study.

Swayze played a significant role in the grassroots efforts to welcome the budding industry to South Dakota in the mid-80s – a time when, as Swayze puts it, “The whole state’s economy was in the doldrums and our farmers and rural communities were hurting.”
Working closely with South Dakota Farmers Union, an organization he has been a member of since 1972, and a few local Legislators, Swayze was one of four farmers who dedicated themselves to advocating for the renewable fuel.
“Governor Janklow called the four of us the ‘Ethanol Missionaries,'” he says, recalling the work that he, Roland Pester, Jim Pufhal and Roland Schnable did to get a state-based cash incentive passed. Dollars were raised through a pipeline tax on all petroleum products to encourage ethanol plants to build in South Dakota. “We were always there, lobbying committee meetings and testifying.”
New to advocacy, Swayze says he was driven by the knowledge that ethanol could help reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. “I’m a Vietnam Vet.
My brother was killed over there. I knew oil was at the center of nearly every conflict and I thought, at least I can do this to end this type of war,” says Swayze, a pilot who flew 100 missions over North Vietnam.

Electric cooperatives in South Dakota are bracing for what they describe as the negative financial and reliability impacts of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) newly released Clean Power Plan regulating existing power plants.
Acting under what the EPA says is its authority given to them by Congress under the section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, the agency today released a final rule that will seek to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. South Dakota Rural Electric Association General Manager Ed Anderson says the new regulations are a clear overreach by the EPA that will dramatically reshape how America generates and uses electricity.

“This rule will have a dramatic impact on the electric bills paid by every South Dakotan,” Anderson said. “We’ve worked extremely hard to control costs and keep electricity affordable, but the EPA’s plan will simply increase the cost of electricity for every consumer.”

Anderson said his members have for years been working to lessen the impact on the environment by adding renewable generation and lower-emitting resources while saving consumers money on their electric bills through energy efficiency programs.
“Electric cooperatives have been steadily reducing the environmental impact of power generation while adding natural gas and renewable resources,” Anderson said. “And our members have been engaged in energy efficiency and demand response programs for decades to keep consumers’ electricity bills affordable. The EPA’s regulations won’t give us credit for all of the investment we’ve already made in renewable generation and punish electric consumers even more with higher bills.”
As consumer-owned utilities, electric cooperatives will be disproportionately affected by the rule by increasing electricity prices and jeopardizing reliability. By shutting down coal-fired generation, the EPA will remove a vital safety net in emergencies or times of extreme power demand. Anderson said consumers will be hit with higher electric bills while the rule impacts reliability of the power grid.

“Co-op employees and directors live in the communities they serve and they care about the members at the end of the line who will be footing the bill to comply with these overreaching regulations,” Anderson said. “The EPA admits that the rule would prematurely shut down more than one quarter of electric cooperative’s coal-fired generation capacity across the country. The burden of paying off the remaining debt on those plants and paying for electricity from other sources would fall on the backs of our consumers in South Dakota.”

During the EPA’s rulemaking process, end-consumer members of South Dakota’s electric cooperatives sent in more than 28,000 comments to the EPA calling on the agency to abandon their overreaching regulations.
“South Dakotans made their voice heard loud and clear during the public comment period, and we appreciate their efforts to tell the EPA their concerns,” said Anderson.

More than 40 years after they ran track for Black Hills State University, Barry Grossenburg of Winner still keeps a photo of his teammate Roy Borreson in his office.  Grossenburg established the Roy Borreson Memorial Scholarship recently in honor of Roy, a Yankton native, who lived courageously with Huntington’s disease before passing away in 2008 at the age of 55.

Badger Clark turned four years of cowboy life into a career as one of America’s most successful cowboy poets.
Charles Badger Clark Jr., was born Jan, 1, 1883, in Albia, Iowa. His father, a minister, moved the family to the Plankinton area three months later. The family later lived in Mitchell, Huron and Deadwood. Clark attended Dakota Wesleyan University for one year and then lived in Cuba for two years before returning to the Black Hills to work for the Lead Daily Call. When he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, he followed a doctor’s advice to move to a dry climate. He went to Arizona, where he tended a small herd of cattle at a ranch near Tombstone.