EXPLAINER: Will lawmakers dig into Kristi Noem, appraisers?

 South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Family Leadership Summit in this July 16, 2021, file photo in Des Moines, Iowa. South Dakota lawmakers will be taking a look at a state agency that has been at the center of questions about whether Gov. Kristi Noem used her influence to aid her daughter's application for a real estate appraiser license. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, file)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota lawmakers will be taking a look at a state agency that has been at the center of questions about whether Gov. Kristi Noem used her influence to aid her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license.

At first glance, the first item of business for the Legislature’s Government Operations and Audit Committee on Thursday appears routine: “Department of Labor and Regulation to discuss the Appraiser Certification Program.”

But it could have a big impact for the Republican governor, who has generated speculation about a possible 2024 White House bid. Noem has come under scrutiny after The Associated Press reported that she held a meeting in her office last year that included her daughter, Kassidy Peters, and the director of the Appraiser Certification Program, which had moved days earlier to deny Peters’ application for a license. Peters received her certification four months later.

WHO WILL BE SPEAKING?

Lawmakers have carved out a few hours in a packed schedule to hear from four people.

One is the Appraiser Certification Program’s former director, Sherry Bren. She was called into the July 2020 meeting in the governor’s office and was pressured to retire shortly after Peters received her license that November.

Another official slated to speak is Secretary of Labor and Regulation Marcia Hultman. She was also in the meeting and later pressured Bren to retire. Hultman has defended her actions by saying there have been positive changes at the agency since Bren left.

Lawmakers have also called the president of the state’s professional appraiser association, Sandra Gresh. She has raised concerns about the new direction of the state program.

The director of the state’s Office of Risk Management, Craig Ambach, also is expected to appear. His office helped negotiate a $200,000 payment to Bren for her to retire and withdraw an age discrimination complaint. Both Bren and Hultman are bound by a clause in that settlement that bans them from disparaging each other.

WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED AT THE MEETING IN NOEM’S OFFICE?

It is not entirely clear. The governor hasn’t answered detailed questions about the meeting. Bren told the AP it covered the procedures for appraiser certification and that she was presented with a letter from Peters’ supervisor that criticized the agency’s decision to deny the license.

Noem has said she didn’t ask for special treatment for her daughter. She has cast the episode as yet another way she has “cut the red tape” to solve a shortage of appraisers and smooth the homebuying process.

In a YouTube video responding to the AP’s report, Noem pointed out that Bren had been in her position for decades, and she charged that the system “was designed to benefit those who were already certified and to keep others out.”

IS THERE A SHORTAGE OF APPRAISERS?

Yes. Industry experts have long said that’s a problem, especially in rural states. In South Dakota, many experienced appraisers are nearing retirement age.

However, the governor’s ability to “streamline” requirements for a license would be limited because they are mostly set at the federal level.

As governor, Noem has worked to ease licensing requirements for an array of professions. She said she had been working on appraiser regulations for years.

Asked for examples of that work prior to last year, her spokesman Ian Fury pointed out that Noem, during her eight years in Congress, twice signed onto GOP-sponsored bills that would have, among other financial reforms, adjusted federal appraiser regulations.

HOW CAN THE SHORTAGE BE SOLVED?

Since Bren’s departure, Noem’s administration has moved to waive certification requirements that go beyond the federal standards, such as an exam for entry-level appraisers.

But the leadership of the Professional Appraisers Association of South Dakota has raised concerns about those moves. The group says the biggest barrier to becoming an appraiser is a lack of supervisors who can train new appraisers.

Before Bren left her job, she was working to launch a first-of-its-kind program that would allow appraiser trainees to take hands-on courses and avoid the traditional apprenticeship model that has become a bottleneck. Bren helped the state win a $120,000 annual federal grant and later testified in the Legislature in support of a bill to create the training program. Noem signed it into law this year.

WHAT WILL THE COMMITTEE DO?

It’s not clear. Republican lawmakers said they will start by asking about the state agency and why there are difficulties to becoming an appraiser. But they also acknowledged that the meeting was an opportunity to question the governor’s conduct. Just two Democrats sit on the 10-person committee.

If lawmakers are satisfied, they could move on from the issue.

They also could decide to delve deeper. The committee has the power to subpoena witnesses and records, but that would require approval from the Executive Board, a ranking committee of top legislators.

Kathleen Clark, a law professor who specializes in government ethics at Washington University in St. Louis, said she would not be satisfied with the governor’s explanation that she was simply trying to “cut the red tape.”

“It is conceivable that the agency processes needed improvement,” she said. “But the presence of the daughter and the timing of the meeting suggest that this was not a meeting aimed at improving processes in general, but instead aimed at pressuring the agency to change its mind.”

New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: 66% of Americans disapprove of Kristi Noem shooting and killing her dog

And just 13% think it would be “a good idea” for Trump to pick Noem as his running mate.

Andrew Romano
·National Correspondent

YAHOO NEWS

Wed, May 15, 2024 

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem introduces former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on March 16, in Vandalia, Ohio. (Jeff Dean/AP Photo)

Former President Donald Trump thinks South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — the only person on his vice presidential shortlist to boast about shooting and killing her own dog — is a “terrific” leader who’s simply had a “bad week.”

The problem, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll, is that the vast majority of Americans disagree.

The new survey of 1,794 U.S. adults, which was conducted from May 10 to 13, shows that a full two-thirds of them (66%) disapprove of Noem’s decision to shoot her family’s 14-month-old wirehaired pointer in a gravel pit after the dog ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbor’s chickens — a story Noem recounts in her forthcoming memoir, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, as proof that she’s willing to tackle even “difficult, messy and ugly” tasks.

“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that the puppy was “untrainable” and “less than worthless.”

Just 14% of Americans approve of Noem’s decision, including a mere 26% of Republicans. Roughly twice as many Republicans (50%) disapprove.

“[Noem] did a great job as governor,” Trump said in a conservative podcast interview that aired on Tuesday. “That’s a tough story, but she’s a terrific person.”

It’s unclear if Trump — who also recently described Noem as “somebody that I love” and of whom he’s “been a supporter … for a long time” — is still considering the South Dakotan as a potential running mate.

But after reading a description of the dog incident, only 13% of Americans think it would be a good idea for Trump to put Noem on the 2024 GOP ticket; 48% say selecting her would be a bad idea. And even current Trump supporters agree (16% good idea, 44% bad idea).

“She’s DOA,” one Trump ally told The Hill. “Any time you have to respond more than once to a story, it’s not good.”

Even before reading a description of the dog incident, few voters who identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning independents — just 4% — selected Noem as the best of nine potential Trump VP choices. Only New York Rep. Elise Stefanik (3%) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (2%) scored lower.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (13%) led the list, followed by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson (all at 9%). Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake (5%) and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance (4%) scored in the middle of the pack.

On a related note, more than half of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters say that it “makes no difference” if Trump selects a running mate who commits to accepting the 2024 results in advance of the election (40%) or that they want Trump to pick someone who “will not commit” to accepting the results (12%) — while just a third (34%) say they would prefer a GOP vice-presidential nominee who has committed to accepting the results.

The Washington Post recently reported that this “question has become something of a litmus test, particularly among the long list of possible running mates for Trump, whose relationship with his first vice president, Mike Pence, ruptured because Pence resisted Trump’s pressure to overturn the 2020 election.”

____________

The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,794 U.S. adults interviewed online from May 10 to 13, 2024. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to Nov. 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 27% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.7%.

GOP Gov. Kristi Noem Demands Drag Show Ban While Touting 'Free Speech'

BY ANDREW STANTON 

NEWSWEEK

ON 5/27/23

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem called for a ban on drag performances at public universities in a memo that also touted efforts to protect "free speech" on college campuses.

Noem released a memo on Friday detailing new plans to improve higher education in South Dakota, which currently has a 6-year graduation rate below the national average. In the memo, Noem calls for a flurry of new policies aimed at making the state a model for "strong, conservative" higher education. Noem's plan, however, is also facing scrutiny for allegedly calling for restrictions on LGBTQ+ students' rights, including the removal of any mentions of "preferred pronouns" in school materials and a ban on drag shows.

Noem's higher education plans come amid an ongoing debate about how issues of sexual orientation and gender identity should be approached in a broad range of institutions, including colleges, which have long sought to strike a balance between safeguards for LGBTQ+ students and the free speech of those who oppose the expansion of rights for the LGBTQ+ community.

Republican-led states have emphasized efforts to protect those "free speech" rights while also rolling back protections for the LGBTQ+ community in schools, saying that educational institutions should not be engaged in "divisive" topics. Critics, meanwhile, have accused GOP lawmakers of targeting an already-marginalized group, calling for stronger protections against discrimination against LGBTQ+ students.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem speaks in Washington, D.C. on February 17. Noem released a new plan to improve higher education in her state on Friday that calls for a ban on drag performances on college campuses, despite also urging new protections for free speech.

ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES

Noem, a social conservative who has been named as a potential future presidential candidate, expressed opposition to drag shows in her education plan while also calling on the removal of "any policies" that "prohibit" students from expressing their free speech rights.

"The Board of Regents should go further and remove any policies or procedures that prohibit students from exercising their right to free speech. Recently, Black Hills State University came under fire for one such policy that limited student speech – thankfully, the policy was removed. We must prepare our students to discuss and debate opposing ideas in a civil way," the memo reads.

In the next paragraph of the memo, however, Noem called for a ban on drag performances, saying that "divisive theories" surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity should not be "celebrated" using public funds.

"Next, the Board of Regents should prohibit drag shows from taking place on university campuses. Gender theories can and should be debated in college classrooms, but these divisive theories shouldn't be celebrated through public performances on taxpayer-owned property at taxpayer-funded schools," Noem wrote.

Ex-Trump official blasts anti-trans boycott

Newsweek reached out to Noem's office for comment via email.

While Republicans have pushed for protecting the free speech of conservatives who do not support LGBTQ+ rights, critics have accused them of disregarding the freedom of speech of drag performers through their support for banning these performances in public.

In March, a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump ruled against Tennessee's ban on drag performances, citing concerns that such a ban would violate the First Amendment rights of drag performers.

ANTI MIGRANT BIGOT

GOP donor pays $1M to deploy South Dakota national guard

By BRIAN SLODYSKO and STEPHEN GROVES

July 1, 2021


FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2021, file photo, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Fla. A billionaire Republican donor is paying $1 million to help defray the cost of deploying the South Dakota National Guard to the U.S. -Mexico border. The amount of the donation was confirmed Wednesday by Gov. Kristi Noem's office. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)


SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Willis Johnson said he just wanted to help.

So, earlier this month the billionaire Republican donor, who amassed a fortune building an international junkyard empire, took the unusual step of calling South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a rising Republican star who has railed against illegal immigration and aligned herself firmly with former President Donald Trump.

He asked if she wanted to send National Guard troops from South Dakota to the U.S.-Mexico border — and offered up $1 million to help.

Noem said, “Yes.”

Her acceptance of the donation from Johnson, who doesn’t even live in Noem’s state but rather in Tennessee, has drawn intense scrutiny. It landed in state coffers Tuesday and though it came from Johnson’s private foundation and appears to be legal, experts say it sets a troubling precedent in which a wealthy patron is effectively commandeering U.S. military might to address private political motivations.

“I didn’t know it would build into a bonfire,” said Johnson, who answered his phone on the second ring and estimates he’s talked to about 50 reporters since the news broke. “It’s getting out there a lot more than I thought.”

Whether the decision to accept his help will amount to smart politics or policy blunder for Noem is unclear. In the short term, at least, the decision has catapulted her into the headlines and generated even more attention for a possible presidential run in 2024.

Yet the pay-to-play transaction also highlights another way that big-dollar donors have insinuated themselves into governmental process to drive decisions. It also shows the lengths to which some GOP governors will go to show their fealty to Trump even as they try to position themselves for higher office.

“We don’t need this donation and whether it’s legal or not, it’s a terrible idea because it looks like our guardsmen are being used as political pawns,” said South Dakota state Sen. Reynold Nesiba, a Democrat.

Noem’s spokesman Ian Fury said the money could legally be accepted into a state fund designated for responding to emergencies, alleviating costs to taxpayers. South Dakota currently has a budget surplus, which Noem has boasted about.

Fury disputed the suggestion that Johnson’s donation motivated deployment of the 50-person contingent. The state would have sent the guard without it, he said.

Noem herself took to social media Wednesday, arguing the state has a history of relying on private donors. But those projects have typically been focused on local projects — like an events complex at the state fair grounds — not deploying the National Guard.

“This deployment is vital for the security of our state and our nation,” Noem said in a Twitter video.

South Dakota state law suggests that’s not the way such donations are intended to be used. The law states that the fund can only be used “to meet special emergency requirements of the Division of Emergency Management,” an agency tasked with preparing the state for natural disasters or other emergencies.

Republican governors from Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska and Iowa have all committed to sending law enforcement officers or national guardsmen to the border. But Johnson says South Dakota is the only state he’s donated to, a decision motivated by Noem’s quick response to a call from Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for assistance.

Immigration continues to be an animating issue in the Republican Party, stoked by Trump. On Wednesday, the former president and a group of about two-dozen Republican members of Congress toured the border in the Rio Grande Valley, where they railed against President Joe Biden’s handling of the border.

“The other ones were slow to react,” said Johnson, 74. “If they are procrastinators then I’m not going to help.”

Johnson, who also donated to Trump’s presidential campaign, amassed his fortune starting almost literally from a scrapheap.

A native Oklahoman, he learned the trade from his father. After serving in Vietnam, Johnson bought an old tow truck and his own wrecking yard in Vallejo, California. Through aggressive acquisition and an embrace of online technology, he built what is now known as Copart Inc. into a publicly traded global business.

He relocated to suburban Nashville over a decade ago, buying a home from country music star Alan Jackson.

Now a prolific donor, he’s given at least $2.3 million to federal campaigns over the past decade, including $900,000 to Trump, records show.

“America has been good to me. The Lord has been good to me,” said Johnson, whose memoir is titled “From Junk to Gold: Lessons I Learned.”

“I help upcoming senators, congressmen and governors. I’m behind the scenes. I try to keep it quiet.” Until now.

Separately, his family’s philanthropy, Willis and Reba Johnson’s Foundation, typically gives $1 million or more a year to churches and charities — including so-called abortion alternative services, disclosures show.

According to U.S. Defense officials and tax experts, his foundation’s donation to South Dakota is highly unorthodox but permissible.

As South Dakota’s governor, Noem has the legal authority to send her troops to Texas on state-activated duty, funded by the state, the defense officials said. The two states are also working within an existing emergency pact that allows them to send guard troops to each other when needed. Once in Texas, the South Dakota Guard troops would be under the Texas governor’s authority.

Officials said that the private funding given to South Dakota did not go directly to the National Guard. Instead it goes into the state treasury, and the state has wide latitude over how the money can be spent. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations on state matters.

The White House said the use and funding of the National Guard was the governor’s prerogative. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

The duties of the South Dakota National Guard contingent are not yet precisely known. Texas’ own guard will have a limited scope of duty that does not include making arrests and will focus instead on observing and reporting, according to statement from the agency.

Steven Bucklin, a professor emeritus at the University of South Dakota who has written on the history of the National Guard, said he was concerned about how the private donation threatened the distinction of the military as an apolitical organization.

“The optic is one that the South Dakota National Guard are soldiers of fortune and will go anywhere that some billionaire sends them,” he said, adding, “I think this is all politics.”

___

Slodysko reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of Gov. Kristi Noem’s spokesman is Ian Fury, not Ian Fry.

Kristi Noem banned from Native American reservation because of 'gossip and lies'

Alex Henderson, 

AlterNet
April 5, 2024 

Republican presidential candidate and\u00a0former President Donald Trump greets South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem after she introduced him at the Monument Leaders Rally hosted by the South Dakota Republican Party on September 8, 2023, in Rapid City, S.D. Noem endorsed Trump during the event. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has been barred from a Native American reservation because its residents accuse her of “gossip and lies,” according to a report.

Noem is reportedly on the shortlist to be a running mate for 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and has been a popular speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and MAGA Republicans view her as a staunch Trump loyalist.

But she has plenty of critics outside of MAGA circles, including Native Americans in her state.

According to Dakota News Now, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has banned Noem from its reservation. It was only two months ago, in February, that the Oglala Sioux Tribe announced a similar ban against her.

These bans come after some disparaging comments Noem made about Native American reservations during a town hall event on March 13.

Dakota News Nob reports, "Noem stated, at a Winner, (South Dakota) town hall on March 13, that she believes tribal leaders are 'personally benefiting' from drug cartels. At a town hall in Mitchell, she said tribal children 'don't have parents who show up and help them,' and tribal members '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.'"

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Ryman LeBeau said of Noem, "The South Dakota governor speaks gossip and lies about our Lakota students, their parents and our tribal councils. (The) SD governor's statements made on March 13, 2024 perpetuate stereotypes, misconceptions, which are inaccurate and untrue."

MISANTHROPIC GOP FAMILY VALUES 

'I hated that dog': Kristi Noem recalls gunning down family's 'worthless' pup

Travis Gettys
April 26, 2024

Kristi Noem / Gage Skidmore

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a frontrunner to be named as Donald Trump's running mate, admitted to killing her family dog for misbehavior.

The Republican governor wrote in her forthcoming memoir, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, that the female dog Cricket had an "aggressive personality" and proved herself "untrainable," according to excerpts from the book published by The Guardian.

“I hated that dog,” Noem wrote, adding that the 14-month-old wirehair pointer was “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.

The governor said she included the story in her political memoir to demonstrate her willingness to take on “difficult, messy and ugly” tasks, and she described an attempt to teach Cricket to hunt with other dogs, but instead the pup ruined the trip by going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life."

Noem unsuccessfully attempted to bring Cricket under control using an electronic collar, but she said the dog escaped her truck as she stopped to talk to a local family on the way home and attacked that family's chickens.

"[Cricket] grabbed one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another," she wrote, comparing the dog to “a trained assassin."

“[She] whipped around to bite me," Noem wrote, adding that Cricket was "the picture of pure joy" throughout the incident.

“At that moment,” Noem wrote, “I realized I had to put her down.”

Noem said she retrieved her gun and led Cricket to a gravel pit.

“It was not a pleasant job,” she writes, “but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”

She then recounts how she killed one of her family's goats, a “nasty and mean" male that had not been castrated, by dragging him to the gravel pit, and afterward she realized a nearby construction crew had watched her slaughter both animals before her children were dropped off by a school bus.

“Kennedy looked around confused,” Noem wrote, describing her daughter's reaction. “'Hey, where’s Cricket?'”

“I guess if I were a better politician," she added, "I wouldn’t tell the story here.”

The White House reportedly asked South Dakota's governor how to add another president to Mount Rushmore, and she later gave Trump a 4-foot replica with his face on it

VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS VANITY

Benji Jones

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend Independence Day events at Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2020 SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Last year, a White House aide asked the office of South Dakota's governor, Kristi Noem, how to add more presidents to Mount Rushmore, The New York Times reported Saturday, citing an anonymous source familiar with the conversation. 

Gov. Noem played to President Trump's interest in the monument in July, greeting him with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with his face added on to it. 

Noem recalled her first meeting with Trump in the oval office: "I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'"

It's not possible to add another president to the monument, according to reporting by the South Dakota paper Argus Leader. 

It's not possible to carve a fifth president's face into South Dakota's Mount Rushmore national memorial — there's no secure surface left, according to the National Park Service.

But that didn't stop the Trump administration from asking.

Last year, a White House aide contacted the office of South Dakota's governor, Republican Kristi Noem, to inquire about the process for adding more faces, according to The New York Times. The Times cited a Republican official familiar with the conversation.

Trump's interest in Mount Rushmore, and his desire to be etched in among the four existing presidents, is no surprise to Noem, who says he brought it up during their first meeting in the oval office.

Mount Rushmore national memorial Mike Stewart/AP Photo

"He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,'" Noem recounted to South Dakota's Argus Leader. "I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?' "I started laughing," she said. "He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."

Noem, a close ally of President Trump's, has since played into that dream, at least with the power she has.

When Trump visited the monument in early July for an Independence Day speech, she greeted him with a four-foot model of Mount Rushmore with his face carved into it, the Times reported, citing a source familiar with the exchange.

The news came amid rumors that Noem could overtake Vice President Mike Pence as Trump's running mate in the 2020 election, though The Times cited a source who said Noem has already indicated to Pence that she isn't trying to replace him.

To be clear, adding another face to Mount Rushmore is not possible. While it looks like there's a spot to the right of George Washington — which is actually where the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, intended to put Thomas Jefferson — the rock surface is unstable. 

Noem reportedly joked with Trump that there is another option, Argus Leader reports.

"Come pick out a mountain," she told him.

SD Gov. Noem contradicts labor secretary on meeting with daughter


South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference in Sioux Falls, Idaho on Monday, Nov. 1, 2021 . Noem insisted that a meeting she held last year didn’t include any discussion of a path forward for her daughter after a state agency moved to deny her a real estate appraiser license.

 (AP Photo/Stephen Groves)
STEPHEN GROVES
Thu, November 4, 2021

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem contradicted her own labor secretary Thursday about a meeting last year in her office, saying it didn't include any discussion about how her daughter could still win a real estate appraiser license after a state agency moved to deny it.

The Republican governor answered questions from South Dakota reporters on the episode for the first time Thursday, more than a month after The Associated Press first reported on it. While a Republican-dominated legislative committee and state government ethics board have looked into the matter, she called AP's reporting on the meeting “twisted” and “manipulated.”

Noem's secretary of labor defended her department's actions to lawmakers last week by explaining that state regulators before the meeting had already reached an agreement to provide Noem's daughter, Kassidy Peters, with an opportunity to fix issues with her application. She said the meeting mostly consisted of potential fixes to a shortage of licensed appraisers.


However, Secretary of Labor Marcia Hultman told lawmakers it also included a “brief discussion at the end” of the meeting about a “possible plan forward” for Peters to obtain her license.

But when Noem was asked by the AP at a Thursday news conference if she was aware of that plan headed into the meeting, she responded by saying, “We didn't even talk about that” and insisted the meeting was not to discuss Peters' application.

“She gave her personal experiences through the program," Noem said. “Of course, she gave her perspective and how long it took to go through the program and how difficult it was.”

However, Sherry Bren, the longtime director of the Appraiser Certification Program, told the AP she was presented at the meeting with a letter from Peters' supervisor that slammed the agency's move to deny her the license.

Four months after the meeting, Peters received the license.

Noem once again insisted Peters “went through the exact same process that other appraisers did in the state of South Dakota. She at no time received special treatment.”

Noem has also defended her conduct in the episode by saying she was working to solve a shortage of appraisers in the state. However, she has faced backlash from the organization that represents appraisers after Hultman pressured Bren to retire late last year, shortly after Peters received her license. Bren filed an age discrimination complaint and received a $200,000 payment from the state to withdraw the complaint and leave her job.

“I came in to fix the program. And so we are fixing it,” she said. “But also we recognize that some people that have been involved in the industry for a long time don’t like that.”

The Legislature's Government Operations and Audit Committee, which is looking into the agency at the center of the episode, has requested copies of the agreements between Peters and the agency, but Noem said doing so would set a precedent of opening personnel files to the public.

“That’s why for consistency and to make sure that I’m being fair — because that’s exactly what I’m focused on — I would have to set that same precedent for everybody," she said.

When asked if she would allow the documents to be opened because the agreements themselves state they are open to public inspection, she said she would let her attorneys decide what should be deemed an open record.

Attorneys for the Department of Labor and Regulation have already denied a public records request from the AP for the records. An appeals office later ruled that the department was right to deny the records request.

While Bren declined an invitation from the Legislature to speak last week, she has said she is working with her lawyer to communicate with lawmakers and correct “any factual inaccuracies” from Hultman’s testimony.

KULTURKAMPF
Gov. Noem: Biggest cultural challenge is 'defeating anti-American indoctrination'

Morgan Matzen, Sioux Falls Argus Leader 


The biggest cultural challenge of this lifetime is “defeating anti-American indoctrination,” Gov. Kristi Noem said in a Fox News opinion piece co-signed by Dr. Ben Carson and published Monday morning.

© Erin Bormett / Argus Leader Governor Kristi Noem gives the State of the State address on Tuesday, January 12, in the House of Representatives at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre.

The politicians shared they’ve signed on to the "1776 Pledge to Save Our Schools," which commits that K-12 public education will restore “honest, patriotic education that cultivates in our children a profound love for our country.”

Noem is widely considered a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate. Her signature comes as she proclaims Monday through Friday is Teacher Appreciation Week in South Dakota.

Carson was the 17th U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and a member of President Trump’s advisory 1776 Commission.

In the column, Noem and Carson criticize President Joe Biden for canceling and disbanding President Trump’s 1776 Commission, which released a controversial 1776 Report two days before the end of Trump’s term, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and attempted to end a “radicalized view of American history.”


More: Republican state lawmakers want to punish schools that teach the 1619 Project

The pledge also promotes curriculum that teaches all children are created equal, prohibits curriculum that “pits students against one another on the basis of race or sex,” and prohibits any curriculum that requires students to protest and lobby during or after school.

In the column, Noem shares concerns about giving up and abandoning altogether “the teaching of our children the true and inspiring story of America,” and that children should be taught about the country’s values, history and heroes. LIKE CUSTER

Noem and Carson also said it’s “alarming” that students are “being subjected to the radical concept known as critical race theory, which pits them against one another on the basis of race and gender under the guise of achieving ‘equity.’”

Critical race theory sows division and cripples the nation from within, “one brainwashed and resentful student at a time,” the pair argue.

America’s most defining principle, the pair argue, is that as individuals, “we are all created equal by God.”

Noem has shared similar concerns about the concept of indoctrination in the past. She's written a column for the Federalist with worries about the nation’s failure “to educate generations of our children about what makes America unique,” and for the “left’s indoctrination” of students.

At the time, local educators like Tim Eckart, president of the Sioux Falls Education Association, were not happy. Eckart said the suggestion that educators were indoctrinating students was "incredibly insulting."

The conservative governor also successfully pushed for $900,000 in state funding to create new civics curriculum to meet her goal of educating why the "U.S. is the most special nation in the history of the world," while efforts to mandate instruction on the state's tribal history, culture and government failed in the legislative session this spring.

A new state-specific curriculum has yet to be seen months after Noem pushed for it, but the South Dakota Department of Education has a two-year project to develop and prepare it for schools to use if they wish to do so.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Gov. Noem: Biggest cultural challenge is 'defeating anti-American indoctrination'

South Dakota Gov. Noem clashes with Sioux tribes over coronavirus checkpoints

SHOE ON OTHER FOOT 
SHE DOES NOT LIKE DEALING SOVEREIGN NATION
 TO SOVEREIGN NATION - WHICH IS A FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITY ANOTHER ONE ABDICATED
Brie Stimson

© FoxNews.com 'We never did shut down our businesses, we gave them an opportunity to be innovative,' says South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem discussing her plan to return to' normal'

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has warned two tribal leaders she will take “necessary” legal action if the tribes don’t remove coronavirus checkpoints on their reservations.

“The State of South Dakota objects to tribal checkpoints on US and State highways regardless of whether those checkpoints take into consideration the safety measures recommended by” the South Dakota Department of Transportation, Noem wrote in letters to leaders of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe.



South Dakota Gov. Noem clashes with Sioux tribes over coronavirus checkpoints

“Safety recommendations do not constitute consultation and they certainly do not equal agreement,” Noem added.

Both tribes have been allowing non-resident access to the reservations for essential business only -- with visitors required to fill out a health questionnaire.

SOUTH DAKOTA GOV. NOEM UNVEILS 'BACK TO NORMAL' PLAN, SAYS IT PLACES POWER IN 'HANDS OF THE PEOPLE'

Passing through the checkpoints takes “less than a minute," Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier told Time magazine.

Noem cited an April memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs in her letters that says tribes must enter into an agreement with the state government before restricting travel on U.S. highways.

“We are strongest when we work together; this includes our battle against COVID-19,” the governor said in a news release. “I request that the tribes immediately cease interfering with or regulating traffic on US and State Highways and remove all travel checkpoints.”

Frazier responded in a statement Friday.

"I absolutely agree that we need to work together during this time of crisis," Frazier wrote, "however you continuing to interfere in our efforts to do what science and facts dictate seriously undermine our ability to protect everyone on the reservation.

“The virus does not differentiate between members and non-members," he added. "It obligates us to protect everyone on the reservation regardless of political distinctions. We will not apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death."

South Dakota is one of a handful of states that never issued a stay-at-home order, although both tribes have.

“We’d be interested in talking face to face with Governor Noem and the attorney general and whoever else is involved,” Chase Iron Eyes, a spokesman for Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner, said, according to the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls

Noem “threatened the sovereign interest of the Oglala people when she issued an ultimatum,” Bear Runner said on Facebook on Saturday, according to Time. “We have a prior and superior right to make our own laws and be governed by them."

He added he believes the tribe is in full compliance with the Department of the Interior’s memo because the tribe hasn't "closed non-tribal roads or highways owned by the state of South Dakota or any other government.”

There were at least 169 coronavirus cases among Native Americans out of 3,145 total statewide and 31 deaths as of Friday, according to the health department.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/native-american-tribes-say-theyre-at.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-judge-sided-with-native-american.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com2020/05/extreme/-lockdown-shows-divide-in-hard.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/usa-small-tribes-seal-borders-push.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/trump-cant-mask-his-message-to-indian.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/south-dakota-gov.html

Native American tribes reject coronavirus checkpoint threat

Two Sioux nations in South Dakota have said that Governor Kristi Noem is undermining both their sovereignty and their health. Indigenous populations have been especially hard-hit by the pandemic.

Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux, said he would not apologize for tribal land being an "island of safety"

The Ogala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux nations in the US state of South Dakota continued on Monday to reject attempts by Republican Governor Kristi Noem to force the tribes to take down coronavirus health checkpoints on their land.

On Friday, Noem had threated legal action if the checkpoints on federal and state highways were not removed within two days, a move that would violate both tribal sovereignty as well as existing agreements between the state and Sioux governments. The checkpoints are part of the measures the tribes have put in place to stop the spread of the pandemic in their territory.

Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux, said "we will not apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death…You continuing to interfere in our efforts to do what science and facts dictate seriously undermine our ability to protect everyone on the reservation."

Read more: US blocks UN vote on coronavirus pandemic

His sentiments were echoes by Ogala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner, who said in a video posted to Facebook that "we have an inherent and sovereign right to protect the health of our people, and no one, man or woman, can dispute that right.

"Your threats of legal action are not helpful and do not intimidate us. The only way we can get through this is to work together as a nation."

State lawmakers call on Noem to back down

The governor had claimed that the tribes were defying a deal not to close or restrict highways without consulting the state government first.


Noem has tracked close to the president in her policy regarding the pandemic

However, as Frazier pointed out, the tribes have met with several state bodies to discuss the checkpoints, and the health controls are not restricting commercial trade, as Noem claims.

Over the weekend, 17 state lawmakers signed a letter requesting Noem seek a diplomatic solution and not a legal one, adding that a lawsuit would "cost the people of South Dakota more money." Despite the letter, Noem reiterated her intention to sue on Sunday.

Noem is one of many Republican governors analysts have accused of trying to restart their state economies too early under pressure from the party and the White House. South Dakota is the site of the Smithfield pork processing plant, the site of a major COVID-19 outbreak after US President Donald Trump forced meat factories to remain open throughout the crisis.

Data from several state with large Native American populations have shown that Indigenous groups, along with African American and Latino communities, are being hit especially hard by the pandemic. In Arizona, for example, Native people account for 16% of deaths despite being only 4.6% of the population.

Last week, more than a dozen tribes across the US announced they were suing the federal government over a delay in federal pandemic relief funding. According to the stimulus package agreed to by the US Congress and signed by President Trump, $8 billion was to be allocated to hard-hit Indigenous nations. However, lawyers for the tribes say they have not received any of the funding due a dispute with the Trump administration, which is arguing that for-profit businesses run by Native Americans in Alaska, a state valuable to US oil interests, should be allocated some of the funds. 

Kristi Noem won't mandate masks in South Dakota schools — but she wants to make students pray

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
September 17, 2021

Gage Skidmore.

South Dakota's Republican Governor Kristi Noem refuses to mandate masks for schoolchildren and teachers but she's trying to make students pray in public. Gov. Noem, who is widely expected to run for president in 2024, has let the coronavirus run rampant in her state of just 886,667 people – a population so small New York City is ten times larger. And yet coronavirus is running rampant in South Dakota, which ranks number eight in the nation for coronavirus cases per capita.

Governor Noem just made clear she does not see herself as a government or political leader, but as a religious one. Speaking to Real America's Voice personality David Brody, Noem declared she will bring back prayer in schools (even though voluntary prayer has always been legal) and thinks political leaders are supposed to "minister" to their constituents.

Complaining that the actions other government leaders are taking "are not biblical," Noem says they are supposed to "line up with God," which is false.

"I think that it's really time for all of us to look at the actions of our leaders and see if they line up with the word of God," Noem said, "see if they're biblical and if they really are following through on those actions that God's called us to do to protect people, to serve people, and to really minister to them."

Protecting, serving, and ministering – but not in the fight against the deadly pandemic.

"We've seen our society, our culture, degrade, as we've removed God out of our lives, and people become what they spend their time doing," Noem declared. "When I was growing up, we spent every Sunday morning, every night, every Wednesday night in church, we were our church, family was a part of our life, we read the Bible every day as a family together, and spent time with each other, recognizing that we were created to serve others."



Again, Noem makes clear she does not believe serving and protecting others has anything to do with COVID-19.

"I don't know families do that as much anymore and those biblical values are learned, in the family, And they're learned in church when the doors are open so people can be there and be taught."

"We in South Dakota, have decided to take action to really stand for biblical principles. We had a bill that was passed during legislative session two years ago that put the the motto 'In God We Trust' in every single school building it is displayed. Now it is displayed in every K-12 school building in the state of South Dakota.

"I have legislation that we'll be proposing this year that will allow us to pray in schools, again, I really believe that focusing on those foundational biblical principles that teach us that every life has value every person has a purpose will recenter our kids and help us really heal this division that we see taking over our country."

MSNBC's Steve Benen notes, "given that the United States is a democracy, and not a theocracy, officials' actions are supposed to line up with the Constitution and the rule of law, not how some people interpret scripture."

"What the governor seemed to be suggesting, however, isn't a system in which students pray on their own," he adds, "but one in which school officials intervene in children's religious lives. In the United States, that's not legal: As my friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State recently explained, 'The South Dakota Supreme Court struck down mandatory recitation of the Lord's Prayer in the state's public schools in 1929. The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools in 1962 and '63.'"

As daughter sought state license, Noem summoned agency head

 governor’s spokesman said episode was example of how Noem won’t allow red tape to get in the way of growth

By STEPHEN GROVES

FILE — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Family Leadership Summit in this July 16, 2021, file photo in Des Moines, Iowa. Ethics officials are questioning whether Noem had a conflict of interest by meeting with her daughter and top state officials last year in the governor's office while her daughter was pursuing a real estate certification. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, file)


SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Just days after a South Dakota agency moved to deny her daughter’s application to become a certified real estate appraiser, Gov. Kristi Noem summoned to her office the state employee who ran the agency, the woman’s direct supervisor and the state labor secretary.

Noem’s daughter attended too.

Kassidy Peters, then 26, ultimately obtained the certification in November 2020, four months after the meeting at her mother’s office. A week after that, the labor secretary called the agency head, Sherry Bren, to demand her retirement, according to an age discrimination complaint Bren filed against the department. Bren, 70, ultimately left her job this past March after the state paid her $200,000 to withdraw the complaint.

Exactly what transpired at the July 27, 2020, meeting in the governor’s office isn’t clear. Noem declined an interview request and her office declined to answer detailed questions about the meeting.

“The Associated Press is disparaging the Governor’s daughter in order to attack the Governor politically – no wonder Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low,” spokesman Ian Fury said.

Still, government ethics experts who reviewed the series of events at the AP’s request said Noem’s decision to include her daughter in the meeting created a conflict of interest regardless of what was discussed.

While Peters was applying for the certification, Noem should have recused herself from discussions on the agency, especially any that would apply to her daughter’s application, said Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who was the chief ethics lawyer for former President George W. Bush.

“It’s clearly a conflict of interest and an abuse of power for the benefit of a family member,” he said.

Peters began working as a state-registered appraiser – an entry-level job – in 2016. She worked under the supervision of a certified appraiser to get the experience necessary to apply for her own residential appraiser certification. It’s not an easy hurdle; applicants must show they can perform appraisals to national standards, putting to use 200 hours of classroom education and months of experience.

While trainees make as little as $10 an hour, certified residential appraisers can launch their own businesses and can make more than $50,000 a year.

In September 2019, Peters applied to become a certified residential appraiser. But in late July 2020, the Appraiser Certification Program moved to deny the license, according to a July 27 letter from Peters’ supervisor that was obtained by AP. The certification is denied when an applicant’s work samples don’t meet minimum compliance with national standards, according to the agency’s upgrade procedures.

Bren, who had directed the Appraiser Certification Program for three decades, told the AP that she received a text on July 26 from her supervisor telling her to be at the governor’s office the next morning, ready to discuss “appraiser certification procedures.”

Besides Noem and Peters, Bren said the meeting included Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman; Bren’s supervisor; the governor’s general counsel; and, participating by telephone, Noem’s chief of staff and a lawyer from the state’s Department of Labor and Regulation.

Bren remembered it lasting close to an hour and including questions from Noem on how certification works.

After consulting with her attorney, Bren declined to discuss with AP further meeting details, including whether Peters’ upgrade was discussed. The settlement of her age discrimination complaint includes a clause barring her from disparaging state officials.

However, Bren did confirm that at the meeting she was presented with a letter from Peters’ supervisor, Kristine Juelfs, who wrote that she disagreed with the denial and charged that Peters had run up against an “inefficient process.”

“In the past week I was notified that my trainee, State Registered Appraiser Kassidy Peters, was denied upgrade of her license to State Certified Residential Appraiser,” Juelfs wrote. “This came as quite a shock to myself as she has represented the knowledge and skills necessary.”

Juelfs’ letter blasted the application evaluation for lacking “timeliness and professionalism” and said the examiner reviewing Peters’ work had “acted unprofessional when conversing with Kassidy.”

Peters agreed with the criticism in a statement to AP.

“My upgrade to become a Certified Residential Appraiser was very lengthy and I was expected to navigate through many obstacles from the very beginning,” she said. “I’m glad I have it now and that I have the privilege to serve my clients in South Dakota.”

Bren declined to discuss the certification of any individual appraisers, including Peters. However, speaking broadly about the agency, she said she hoped to help applicants succeed while making sure they met federal requirements.

“You also want to be fair and consistent and treat all your appraisers the same,” she said.

Labor Secretary Hultman, in response to questions from the AP, declined to delve into details of Peters’ application or explain the discrepancy between Juelfs’ letter, which said the upgrade had been denied, and department records, which showed a denial was not ultimately issued.

“Kassidy Peters went through the same process as other appraisers. There was no denial,” Hultman said in a statement. “Mrs. Peters completed the requirements to become licensed, and she was subsequently certified in November.”

Bren’s troubles began to mount almost immediately after Peters’ Nov. 25 certification. One day earlier, Hultman had called Bren to discuss “concerns about the Appraiser Certification Program,” according to Bren’s age discrimination complaint. On Dec. 1, the complaint alleged, Hultman called Bren to demand her retirement, saying she had shown an “inability to change gears.”

Hultman told Bren that the phone call was to be kept a secret from her direct supervisor to make it appear Bren’s retirement was her choice, the complaint alleged.

Over the ensuing weeks, Hultman did not yield in demanding a retirement date, even after Bren asked if there was any way to keep her job, emails obtained by the AP show.

Bren filed her age discrimination complaint at the end of December and, three months later, received the $200,000 settlement agreement to withdraw the complaint and leave her job. When asked about Bren, Hultman declined to discuss “the specifics of personnel decisions.”

Mark Miller, the governor’s current general counsel, said in a statement, “Neither party admitted fault, and no agency affirmed her claim. This sideshow regarding Kassidy Peters speaks for itself.”

Fury, the governor’s spokesman, cast the episode as an example of how Noem “won’t allow bureaucratic red tape to get in the way of South Dakota’s sustained economic growth.”

“Having more quality appraisers in the market will help keep our housing market moving and home prices down,” he said.

A few days before signing the agreement, Bren sent an email to industry colleagues expressing worry about the future of the program.

“I have been forced to retire by the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Regulation at the behest of the Administration,” she wrote, then added, “I want each of you to know that I have sincerely done everything possible to avoid this unfortunate circumstance.”

South Dakota tribe bans Gov. Kristi Noem from reservation over US-Mexico border remarks

The tribal president accused Noem of trying to use the border crisis in her effort to be selected as Trump's running mate in the 2024 election.

By Madeleine Hubbard

Published: February 4, 2024 

A Native American tribe banned South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem from visiting the Pine Ridge Reservation after she said cartels have a presence on tribal reservations and she expressed support for Texas in its fight against illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe is "a sovereign nation" that does "not belong to the State of South Dakota," Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said Friday.

"We are older than South Dakota! Due to the safety of the Oyate, effective immediately, you are hereby Banished from the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe!" Star Comes Out wrote, using the Dakota word "Oyate," meaning people or nation.

Star Comes Out also accused Noem of trying to use the border crisis in her effort to be selected as former President Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 election. 

His letter criticizing Noem came after she told a joint South Dakota Legislature session Wednesday that she is willing to provide Texas with more razor wire to use along the southern border.

She also said crime is a major issue on Native American reservations, but only the federal government, not the state, has the jurisdiction to intervene to address the issue. 

"Make no mistake, the cartels have a presence on several of South Dakota’s tribal reservations," Noem said. "Murders are being committed by cartel members on the Pine Ridge reservation and in Rapid City, and a gang called the 'Ghost Dancers' are affiliated with these cartels. They have been successful in recruiting tribal members to join their criminal activity."

Star Comes Out specifically took issue with Noem's comments regarding the "Ghost Dancers," saying that he is "deeply offended" by her allegations about what is one of the tribe's "most sacred ceremonies." 

Noem responded Saturday to Star Comes Out's letter.

"It is unfortunate that President Star Comes Out chose to bring politics into a discussion regarding the effects of our federal government’s failure to enforce federal laws at the southern border and on tribal lands," she said. "In my speech to the legislature earlier this week, I told the truth of the devastation that drugs and human trafficking have on our state and our people. The Mexican cartels are not only impacting our tribal reservations; they are impacting every community, from our big cities to our small towns."

Follow Madeleine Hubbard on X or Instagram.

Kristi Noem Still Doesn’t Understand How COVID and Vaccines Work

‘IRRESPONSIBLE’

OPINION
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

The reckless South Dakota governor wants to “recognize natural immunity” from COVID. She’s not only wrong—she’s also encouraging hesitant folks not to get vaccinated.

Michael Daly
Special Correspondent
Updated Jan. 12, 2022

Halfway into robotically reading her hour-long State of the State speech off teleprompters, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem promised “to protect the people’s right to a medical or religious exemption from COVID vaccines.”

She then raised her hand with the index finger extended to emphasize some particular idiocy.

“We will also recognize natural immunity,” she said.

The majority of the state legislators applauded, indicating they are not only Republicans but also foolish enough to endorse her fiction that people who have had COVID-19 do not need to be vaccinated.

A leading research bioinformatician at the Yale School of Public Health terms such thinking “irresponsible.”

“Contracting COVID once does not make you immune over the long term and certainly does not make you immune to new variants,” Jeffrey Townsend told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.

Townsend is the author of a study published by The Lancet Microbe in October 2021 whose conclusion he summarized in a Yale News write-up.

“Reinfection can reasonably happen in three months or less,” he was quoted saying. “Therefore, those who have been naturally infected should get vaccinated. Previous infection alone can offer very little long-term protection against subsequent infections.”

The surge of the Omicron variant has been affirming that principle as people are getting COVID for a second or even a third time. Noem is not just wrong but reprehensibly reckless.

“The issue with that declaration is that there’s going to be many people who are not going to be protected against new infections, whether or not they’re new variants,” Townsend said. “Having such a declaration is not properly understanding the dynamics in this pandemic.”

He added that the present COVID situation “is as serious as it has ever been.”

“We’re going to have more people in the hospital with Omicron now than from other variants,” he said. “It’s already crazy and it’s getting worse.”

And as has been repeatedly noted by The Daily Beast, there is a possibility that a variant can arise that is as contagious as Omicron and as deadly as Delta.


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“And the possibility of that variant increases with people getting infected more,” Townsend said. “The more people there are, the more different variants form and some of them, some very small fraction of them, are going to become new variants that are immunoevasive.”

One variant of the very small fraction of infections can become a surge if it can evade the body’s defense.

“And the immunoevasion will occur regardless of whether it’s vaccine or natural immunity,” Townsend added.

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In other words, people who refuse to get vaccinated and give the virus more opportunities to mutate are endangering all of us, even those responsible enough to get the jab.

And in that lies ultimate fallacy in Noem’s disingenuous insistence that she is not anti-vaccine, merely pro freedom.

“Governor Noem has repeatedly encouraged South Dakotans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but she has consistently reiterated that this should be a choice,” her spokesman, Ian Frazer, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.

But when Noem suggests that having had COVID makes the vaccine unnecessary, she is in truth encouraging hesitant folks not to get the jab.

And her resistance to a mandate is part of an image she is constructing of a cowboy-hatted, horse-riding, flag-waving champion of freedom who has led South Dakota to economic triumph amid the pandemic

“The strongest economy in America,” Noem has boasted again and again.

In truth, South Dakota ranked 45th in GDP for the third quarter of 2021 as reported by the Board of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

That illusion seems to be part of her effort to be on the Republican ticket in the next presidential election. The Trumpian types have sought to minimize the pandemic from the start, and Noem has embraced immunity as a magical solution to the pandemic.

Back in May, she announced at a tourism event that South Dakota was about to achieve herd immunity.

“We’re very, very close, and I would expect that most people in the state feel comfortable conducting normal day to day life activities. We’ve got distribution levels that are very good and outstanding across the country… We’ve got people who had the virus and have recovered from it, and a lot of folks have the antibodies.”

By “distribution levels,” Noem apparently meant positivity rate. It was then down to 14 percent in South Dakota. It has spiked above 33 percent with the arrival of Omicron. Those who tested positive on Thursday included the 14-year-old son of a Sioux Falls businesswoman.

When your kid’s sick as hell and you can’t get a bottle of cough syrup because Walgreens shut down, I wouldn’t call that freedom.

The teen had just returned to school following the holidays. The mask policy there is in keeping with Noem’s no-mandate philosophy.

“None of the kids wear masks at school,” reported the businesswoman, who asked that her name not be used.

She said her son’s oxygen level had dropped to 92 percent when it should be 98 or higher. He was coughing so hard on Monday night that his mother dashed out to a Walgreens on 41st Street. She arrived only to find it had closed early due to a pandemic-related shortage.

“When your kid’s sick as hell and you can’t get a bottle of cough syrup because Walgreens shut down, I wouldn’t call that freedom,” she told The Daily Beast.


Michael Daly
Special Correspondent
@MichaelDalynycmichael.daly@thedailybeast.com

$400,000 fence to be built around S.D. Gov. Kristi Noem's home



President Donald Trump meets at the White House with a group of governors-elect on December 13, 2018. New South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is seated to Trump's left. File Photo by Chris Kleponis | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Officials in South Dakota say $400,000 will be spent to put a security fence around Gov. Kristi Noem's mansion in the coming months, but the reason for the barrier hasn't been specified.

Senior adviser Maggie Seidel said the fence will be built this fall around the governor's mansion and added that getting the barrier built is a priority.

"It's no secret that a few individuals don't like some of the decisions the governor has made on behalf of the people of South Dakota during [the COVID-19] pandemic and otherwise," Seidel added.

"The governor's security team believes it is critical," she added.
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Noem has drawn criticism for opting against stay-home orders and has not mandated face coverings in public or for students returning to classes this fall.

To date, there have been fewer than 10,000 COVID-19 cases and 150 deaths in South Dakota. According to CDC data, only nine other states have had fewer cases.

Critics say the Republican governor as adopted a dismissive outlook on the pandemic, similar to President Donald Trump's.

Noem, who took office in 2019, welcomed Trump to South Dakota last month when the president visited Mount Rushmore for the Fourth of July weekend. A television broadcast of fireworks at Mount Rushmore showed some attendees not complying with distancing recommendations.

Seidel said a private fundraising campaign and federal security grant will pay for the security fence. The governor's mansion in Pierre was built during the administration of Gov. Mike Rounds in the 2000s.

The project has been in the planning stage since last year, and a contractor was paid more than $35,000 to draw up the plan.