SDGFP wants to kill native bighorn sheep but mountain goats are the real problem

After the six Rocky Mountain goats that came from Alberta, Canada in the early 1920s escaped a facility in a South Dakota state park named for a war criminal but because of a dead-end gene pool they peaked at about sixty head so SD Game, Fish and Plunder began transplanting goats from Colorado in 2007. The State of South Dakota began a goat season in 1967 but only two were killed in 2022 after only two licenses were issued. 

Non-native goats are aggressive and even killed a hiker in 2010 in Olympic National Park so the feds removed them. But even after contractors working for US, the People shot scores of invasive goats from helicopters between 2019 and 2022 in Grand Teton National Park a herd is rebuilding. Those critters are the descendants of goats released by Idaho Fish and Game sometime before 1977. Today, they're at odds with efforts to reintroduce native bighorn sheep in the Black Hills. Bighorn sheep are native to the region but because of uncontrolled hunting they were extirpated from the Hills by the early 1900s. 

In 2002 the Grizzly Gulch Fire opened nearly 13,000 acres of overgrown and beetle-killed ponderosa pine but invasive weeds and cheatgrass moved in because cars and hunters have killed off the elk, white-tailed and mule deer. After they were reintroduced in 2015 bighorn sheep have taken up residence in Deadwood where they have become accustomed to some protection from predators like cougars. 

So recently, the SDGFP Commission approved one license to kill a bighorn sheep in the Hell Canyon (site of the 2000 Jasper Fire), Deadwood, and Rapid City herds, two licenses in the state park named for a war criminal, three licenses for the Elk Mountain herd and one license for auction. 

Spearditch Canyon has become home to at least twenty five goats so it's just a matter of time before one kills a looky-loo or a biker.

Dump your Tesla for a Scout!

Back in the mid 1970s the International Harvester dealer in Brookings, South Dakota debuted a Scout Terra. It was four wheel drive El Camino cool but really doggy with its automatic transmission and four cylinder Nissan diesel engine so the last one rolled off the line in 1980. IH rebranded as Navistar International Corporation in 1986 then entered a strategic alliance in 2016 with Volkswagen who bought the company in 2021. Herb loved "Binders'' too and we talked about driving that Terra right up until he left the Earth. Now, a factory in South Carolina is producing electric Scouts under the International® banner.

Here in New Mexico the two Tesla dealerships are on the Nambé and Santa Ana Pueblos to skirt state laws. It's become very complicated for the tribal governments especially now that a barely legal alien from South Africa is finding out after fucking around and gutting resources to Native communities.

 

Deep borehole could be resurrected after Summit defeat

In 2016 the Department of Energy and Republican former President Heather Wilson of the South Dakota School of Mines later Air Force Secretary in the first Trump term a Rapid City firm specializing in toxic waste floated the idea of a deep borehole in Spink or Haakon Counties where contaminated materials could be dumped. Albuquerque-based Valero Energy, a chemical company that is was one of Heather Wilson's favorite benefactors and has an ethanol processing scheme in Aurora, South Dakota has given Republican now US Senator Mike Rounds at least $10,000 in campaign contributions. 

Then because the state relies on taxpayer help to finance improvements to infrastructure, South Dakota received nearly $27 million from the Federal Railroad Administration in both 2022 and 2023 through what’s known as federal Short-Time Compensation program. Aurora sits on the tracks of the Rapid City Pierre and Eastern Railroad which also go through Haakon County.

After public outcry scuttled its eminent domain scam federally subsidized Sioux Falls, South Dakota chemical company POET, that enables nitrate pollution to grow corn for ethanol, entered an agreement to transport waste carbon dioxide through Nebraska in an existing natural gas pipeline to a sequestration site in Wyoming. After being denied permits Summit Carbon Solutions is petitioning courts to end litigation where they are the plaintiffs.

Some Great Plains states, such as Minnesota and Wyoming, report on the total tonnage of hazardous materials carried by rail in their states, but South Dakota does not. In an email response to questions, Jack Dokken, the air, rail and transit program manager for the South Dakota Department of Transportation, said the federal government is responsible for regulating rail shipments in South Dakota, but the state can respond to a release of hazardous materials. [11 billion-pound mystery: The chemicals South Dakota trains carry]

Republican then-US Representative Kristi Noem balked at the idea of storing nuclear materials underground but as governor she signed SB 201 which some call the "Landowner Bill of Rights" further splitting the South Dakota Republican Party and caving to the Green New Deal.

South Dakota is a sacrifice zone so if Earth haters like Pat Powers believe CO2 can be transported safely trains carrying it through Brookings to a site West River then buried under the Pierre Shale should be perfectly fine, right?

Area man training drone pilots in Ukraine

Luke Fitch is the oldest son of Steve and Lynn. This morning the BBC reported on Ukrainian drone superiority in its war of resistance. Luke is owner-operator of Santa Fe-based Altitude FX.

The American president and his VP trying to shout down Zelensky will go down as one of the most disgraceful moments in American history.

South Dakota still among most federally dependent states

In 2024 South Dakota dropped to 49th in financial literacy and 50th in financial knowledge and education despite the Republican former governor's pathological Pollyannaism. The state was the 43rd best economy in the US, 51st in percentage of businesses owned by women and 50th in innovation potential. Because of talent flight and brain drain in 2023 South Dakota was among the least innovative states, ranked 50th in venture capital spending per capita, 47th in R&D spending and 51st in share of tech companies. 

Creighton University's Ernie Goss and supply managers are sounding the alarm again about the Trump tariffs, economic uncertainty and the potential for retaliation. Only nine percent of bankers see a potential of growth in the coming six months and economic optimism plummeted to 45.7 in February from 61.4 in January over concerns about global economic tensions and rising tariffs. Farmland prices sank again, farm equipment sales fell for the eighteenth straight month and retail sales are at the lowest levels since the pandemic.

WalletHub's newest surveys reveal South Dakota is now 40th in innovation but 50th in its share of technology companies, 48th in R&D spending per capita, has dropped to the third best state for doctors but 11th most federally dependent, 4th in rank for government dependence and is now 16th in medical environment rank.

South Dakota ranks as the third-best state for doctors, in part because physicians have one of the highest starting salaries in the country, at $5,330 per month. The state ranks particularly high when it comes to the yearly salaries for psychiatrists ($273,000) and general internal medicine physicians ($318,000). In addition, doctors in The Mount Rushmore State pay less for malpractice insurance premiums than people in most other states. South Dakota also ranks well in the number of physician assistants per 1,000 residents, and has around 8.5 hospitals for every 100,000 residents, which is one of the highest numbers in the country. [Best and Worst States for Doctors (2025)

Cimpl Meats in Yankton has released some 250 workers after American Foods Group said the location isn't profitable and is moving its operations to Missouri.