Lee Strubinger

A house panel is passing a bill that prevents transgender girls from playing in high school girls’ sports. 

Proponents say it’s meant to preserve the integrity of female sports. Opponents say it targets the transgender community in South Dakota. 

The bill says sports designated as being female are only available to participants who are female based on their biological sex. 

House lawmakers want voters to decide whether to increase the vote threshold for ballot referendums that increase taxes or fees. It would increase that threshold from a simple majority… up to 60 percent. 

 Critics say it’s a thinly veiled attack on the ballot initiative by the legislature. 

A handful of legislators have tested positive for COVID-19. At least three are publicly saying they’ve caught the coronavirus. 

State lawmakers say the protocols currently in place will help them finish out the session. For four weeks the coronavirus was at bay. Then, last Sunday Republican Representative Aaron Aylward got a positive diagnosis. 

Governor Kristi Noem wants another year to develop a medical marijuana program.  

South Dakota voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure last year. The law would go into effect July first.  Noem’s office says that’s not enough time.  

Governor Noem says the state needs to create a new medical marijuana program safely and correctly. She says an additional year gives people enough time to make that happen   

Governor Kristi Noem says the state could have $125 million dollars in extra one-time money.  

That’s on top of nearly $225 million dollars of additional revenue the governor has already projected.  

Democrats say that’s partly because the state didn’t spend all of its federal stimulus money to fully respond to the coronavirus pandemic.  

 Governor Noem says the state is in a historic position.  

A bill under review at the state capitol spotlights the shifting societal understandings of gender and sexual identity and the law. The proposal would refuse transgender people the right to change their sexual identity on their birth certificate.  

The prime sponsor of the bill says judges are ruling inconsistently on such requests.  

Critics call it discriminatory and say the bill targets the state’s transgender community. 

Governor Kristi Noem is introducing a bill that bans abortions on fetuses with Down Syndrome. 

Critics of the legislation say it adds another ‘undue burden’ for pregnant women in South Dakota.  

The bill prevents doctors from performing an abortion if a woman wants the procedure because the fetus has Down Syndrome. 

Governor Noem made the announcement during her State of the State address. 

A doctor could be found guilty of a class 6 felony for performing the operation. 

On Tuesday, state lawmakers will hear a bill that prevents people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates. 

The sponsor says it’s meant to clarify an inconsistency in the courts. Opponents say it would codify discrimination against the transgender community in South Dakota. 

Lawmakers in the House Health and Human Services committee will hear the bill at 8 a.m. on Tuesday .

State lawmakers are gearing up for the second week of the 2021 legislative session. Dozens of bills have already been filed, including the first of several anticipated bills related to abortion.  But, it could be a few more working days before the legislature is in full swing. 

Lawmakers can file an unlimited number of bills until the end of next week.  

After that they can only file three more bills. 

At least one bill deals with abortion. South Dakota considers itself on the cutting edge of abortion law in the country. 

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate officials are vaccinating frontline workers and elders with the Moderna vaccine.

The first of 300 vaccine doses will go to healthcare providers, doctors, nurses and inhouse employees who deal with the public every day.

The tribe will then vaccinate law enforcement and first responders. The rest of the doses will go to elders.

Allison Renville is a spokesperson for the tribe’s DARE Covid 19 response team.

Congressional leaders could approve a COVID-19 relief package worth about $900 billion.

The proposal includes provisions developed by centrist House and Senate members, including South Dakota’s Dusty Johnson.

Congressional leaders are optimistic about the relief package following a lengthy negotiation session Tuesday night.

South Dakota’s US Representative Dusty Johnson is one of about a dozen lawmakers who worked on the framework for the bill.

Frontline heath care workers across South Dakota are getting their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. The state received 7,800 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

A Monument Health nurse prepares the first Pfizer vaccines for emergency room physicians who treat COVID-19 patients. Dr. Steve Dick is the first to receive the vaccine in Rapid City.

Dick is the director of Emergency Medicine at Monument Health. He s wanted to get the vaccine in solidarity with the ER team and all they’ve gone through since March.

As state lawmakers prepare for the upcoming session, they’ll handle a record amount of one-time money.

Governor Kristi Noem outlined her vision for spending those dollars during the annual budget address. Most state lawmakers like her proposal.

That record amount of one-time money hovers in at around $224 million. Typically, the legislature has anywhere from $5-$15 million in one-time money to spend.

Governor Kristi Noem is positioning the state for a Joe Biden Administration, acknowledging the democratic presidential candidate won the 2020 election. She’s asking the state legislature to place additional money in reserves and put $50 million into a trust fund for future hardships

The announcement came during the end of the Republican governor’s budget address, when she says the state should safeguard itself in the event of unforeseen economic setbacks…

South Dakota’s congressional delegation has not outright congratulated Joe Biden on winning the presidential election. 

 One political scientist says all three of them have acknowledged his victory in less explicit ways. 

That’s CNN host Chris Cuomo on Monday night, claiming that South Dakota Representative Dusty Johnson backed out of the show after being told he would be asked about the results of the presidential election. 

On November 23rd, Representative Johnson tweeted that he supports President Trump’s right to make his case in the courts.  

Governor Kristi Noem is outlining her plan to spend nearly $224 million dollars in one-time revenue the state has this year. 

She wants the state to use it to pay off decades old debt, to update state infrastructure and help communities as they struggle against the pandemic.   

Much of the one time money is due to an increase in wind-farm development this year, as well as a strong quarter from the Wharf goldmine in Lead. The state also has an additional $104 million dollars from federal coronavirus relief funds, and other federal dollars. 

Governor Kristi Noem delivers her annual state budget address on Tuesday.

She will update lawmakers on the state’s financial position and her budget priorities.

Unlike most states across the country, lawmakers will be working with a budget surplus.

As we head into the holiday shopping season, one thing is clear—state sales tax revenue is strong.

Right now the state is sitting in a solid financial position heading into the legislative session.

Democrats in the South Dakota Legislature have chosen leadership for the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions.

For the second time in a row, Senate Democrats make history with their decision.

Troy Heinert was the first Lakota to hold a leadership position of any party in the South Dakota statehouse. He’s been re-elected to the position. He’s one of three democrats to serve in the South Dakota Senate this year. That’s out of a 35 member Senate. Democrats lost two seats this last election.

State House Republicans are choosing legislative leadership.

Communication between the House and Senate has dissolved in recent years. The new House majority leader says the lines of communication  are open.

Kent Peterson is the majority leader for House Republicans, which hold a super majority in that chamber.

The Republican from Salem was assistant majority leader in 2017 and 2018, but hasn’t held a leadership position since.

South Dakota is one of three states in the upper Midwest without some form of a statewide mask mandate.
 
Some local governments have already issued their own mask mandates, but that number is growing as COVID spreads through the state.
 
On Monday night, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued a proclamation that requires anyone over the age of two to wear a mask in public indoor spaces.
 

 State Senate Republicans are choosing chamber leadership.  One leader says he’s focused on making sure the will of the caucus is communicated clearly to the House, the Executive Branch and the public. 

Lee Schoenbeck is the Republican nominee for Senate President Pro Tempore. If confirmed in January, the Watertown Republican will set committee assignments and choose where bills get heard.

Republicans further solidified their majority in the South Dakota statehouse.

One Republican and one Democrat are offering differing assessments on how state Democrats can pick up the pieces following Tuesday’s general election.

The State legislature hasn’t been this Republican since 1953.

Of the 105 member legislature, Democrats are down to eight representatives from 10, and down to three senators, from five. That means some Senate committees next session will be all Republican.

National cannabis advocates say South Dakota’s vote legalizing medical and recreation pot could affect cannabis reform at the federal level.

South Dakota is one of four state legalizing marijuana for adult consumption. New Jersey, Arizona and Montana are also legalizing pot for recreational use.

South Dakota and Mississippi also legalized marijuana for medical use.

New Approach out of Washington DC is a national cannabis organization and pumped in $925 thousand into the South Dakota race.

In the state’s second largest county absentee voting has been extremely heavy this year. Pennington County received more than 37,000 absentee ballots, nearly double that from 2016.

Given that influx an absentee ballot board has been at work since 7 am, opening ballots and putting an official stamp on them and getting them ready to run through the tabulators.

The ballots won’t get tallied until after the polls close, which is 7 pm local time.

Peggy Seljeskog is an absentee ballot supervisor. She’s been working as an election official for 25 years.

Over 215,000 absentee ballots are filed with county auditors across South Dakota.

That’s nearly 95 percent of absentee ballots requested. And teams assembled by county auditors are sorting those ballots.

In the state’s second largest county  absentee voting has been extremely heavy this year. Pennington County received more than 37,000 absentee ballots, nearly double that from 2016.

Given that influx an absentee ballot board has been at work since 7 am, opening ballots and putting an official stamp on them and getting them ready to run through the tabulators.

Officials say Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was distracted when he struck and killed a Highmore resident on the night of September 12th.

They declined to say how he was distracted, but are releasing the crash report and a photo of Ravnsborg’s car.

The report says Ravsnborg was travelling westbound and entered the north shoulder where he struck and killed Joseph Boever, who was walking on the north shoulder.