8/29/26

Black Hills Mushrooms booted from right wing farmers market, opens new venue

Black Hills Mushrooms was ousted from the Black Hills Farmers Market following closed-door board meetings in mid-August 2026. This decision directly involved Earth hater Heather Maude, the high-profile co-owner of Maude Hog and Cattle, who serves as the President of the Black Hills Farmers Market Board of Directors. 

Accusations of vendor favoritism and market "gatekeeping" quickly surfaced, with patrons pointing out conflicts of interest regarding how booth spaces and product rights are allocated by the board. Vendor fees for the Market range widely from $51 to $612 per season depending on the length of the agreement and the specific type of space or vendor category.

Recall that on January 6, 2021 the attack on the US Capitol was a climax of an anti-law enforcement movement emboldened by the 2014 Bundy standoff. So, it's hardly surprising that Earth haters like Cliven Bundy and Harriet Hageman are defending Charles and Heather Maude because they hate what they call the administrative state even as it benefits them. 

The US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Supervisor Jack Isaacs (now retired), Special Agent Travis Lunders and District Ranger Julie Wheeler received death threats just for doing their jobs then were thrown under the bus by the Trump Organization's agriculture secretary. Extremists are screaming that Agent Lunders came unannounced to the Maude ranch in 2024 in full tactical gear to serve the summons to appear in district court because the Maudes blew off civil remedies after breaking federal law. The Forest Service denies the agent was outfitted with "any tactical uniform, gear or assault weapons" even though it is widely known property owners in that part of South Dakota are militantly opposed to gubmint especially those of Democratic administrations but love all that subsidized crop and livestock insurance anyway. 

The charges have been dropped but the case is not resolved after the Maudes allegedly stole access to public land by claiming it as their own then after being advised of their crime flouted its repercussions because Democrat Joe Biden was sitting in the White House. But, the blame lies with the State of South Dakota, Custer County and the lawyers who drafted the Maude Family Trust and neglected to order a survey. 

Maude Hog and Cattle has been providing product to Wall Meats which is heavily subsidized by the USDA and Charles Maude has received some $300,000 in ag subsidies since 1995. 

In a Saturday morning phone conversation with an interested party the owner of Black Hills Mushrooms, Alan Carner, revealed that Maude is hardly the only member of the extreme white wing on the Farmers Market board and has reached out to Dakota Rural Action, Rapid City Sustainability and the City of Rapid City. Mr. Carner officially established the Black Hills Producers Market whose grand opening takes place today, August 29, 2026, located on South Street in Rapid City. The new market aims to bypass board restrictions and offer an open platform for regional growers, makers, and artisans to sell directly to the public. 

Heather Hamilton Maude is a Wyoming native and her parents are Trump supporting Earth haters, too. She writes an occasional column for the right wing rag, Tri-State Livestock News.



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8/28/26

Internal poll levels South Dakota's US Senate race

"An August 13-17 poll of 500 likely voters showed the U.S. Senate race tied at 44% each between Navy veteran Bengs and two-term Senator Rounds, with 12% undecided. When given balanced positive details on both, Bengs led 52% to 40%. The survey, conducted by Impact Research for Bengs' campaign, reveals Rounds' vulnerabilities like a -10 favorability rating and criticism from some Trump voters as too tied to corporate interests. Though forecasters see the seat as safely Republican, the results hint at a tightening contest ahead of November.
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Current Polling USA Senate Model: Democrats are at 53 seats (+1) Republicans are at 47 seats (-1) (% Change With Previous Week's Model)

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— Polling USA (@usapolling.bsky.social) August 28, 2026 at 10:50 AM
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8/27/26

Poll sez Osborn tied with Ricketts

Unaffiliated candidate for US Senate in Nebraska, Dan Osborn is facing Earth hater Pete Ricketts.

Records obtained by Flatwater show an attempt last year by Dan Osborn staffers and allies to disband a political party, which could have benefited Osborn. A spokesman for Osborn’s campaign said Osborn “had nothing to do with the Legal Marijuana Now Party activities.”🔗 buff.ly/vBkYAoN

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— Flatwater Free Press (@flatwaterfreep.bsky.social) August 26, 2026 at 2:05 PM
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8/26/26

Earth hater Noem Peters apparently a chip off her mother's block; Goss cautious

In South Dakota the Chinese ring-necked pheasant is not wildlife but it is a canary in a chemically and genetically engineered coal mine.
As for pheasants, they don’t stand a chance. Although the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department claims pheasant numbers rebounded somewhat in 2014 and 2015, because of two back-to-back warm winters, the overall trend looks bleak. Why? Because urbanization and industrialization of rural Dakota isn’t slowing, it’s accelerating. Consequently, habitat is going to continue to fall under the plow, bulldozer and backhoe. And there is nothing, and no one, who is going to stop it, especially not Gov. Dennis Daugaard and his lame pheasant recovery task-force. [op-ed, Robert Schneiders]
But a shaky cease fire in the attempted extermination of native species to prop up the pheasant industry has taken effect after the state's former Republican governor put bounties on raccoons and skunks known to feed on prolific invasive zebra mussels. In South Dakota over a hundred native species are at risk to the Republican Party including the endangered pallid sturgeon, paddlefish, black footed ferret, northern long-eared bat, the black-backed woodpecker that feeds on bark beetles and a bird that actually walks underwater – the American dipper, just to name a few.

An increasing number of scientists believe the US Fish and Wildlife Service isn't doing enough to crack down on red states that flout or simply ignore protections for vulnerable species so now some 80% of original grassland ecosystems are gone. Ag producers have destroyed shelter belts to plant industrial crops that deplete aquifers and now drought is blowing toxin-laden topsoil into downwind states. Another early spring wildfire season began in Nebraska, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, the panhandles of Oklahoma, Texas and other Republican-held areas where moral hazard and poor ranching practices routinely decimate the high plains. In the last 10 years alone, the US lost more than 50 million acres of grasslands.
 
In 2013 the eldest daughter of Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem (KLAN) was injured in a vehicle rollover apparently after learning to drive from her mother.
Kassidy [Noem] Peters, development officer with Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, whose national office is based in Watertown, addressed the Brookings Rotary Club regarding the organizations’ mission and growing impact across the region. Since 1970, grasslands have declined by 53%, making them one of the most imperiled ecosystems on the planet. The program has also succeeded in opening previously landlocked public ground, creating new opportunities for hunters. Peters shared the story of a Kansas hunter who discovered the program through a podcast, made the drive to South Dakota, and has returned every year since. [Brookings Register]
The good news? Some 1.3 million invasive pheasants were put to death by hunters in the state in 2025 in addition to the intentional culling of about 30,000 farm-raised fowl at Gisi Pheasant Farm because of the H5N1 bird flu outbreak.

Creighton University's Ernie Goss follows the economies of ten midwestern states including South Dakota's where the manufacturing sector lost about 800 jobs over the last year or 1.8% of its manufacturing base, ag workers still face severe stressors and a mental health provider shortage affects at least 62 of South Dakota's 66 counties.
The state’s farm and ranchland price index fell to 47.8 from July’s 55.0. South Dakota’s August new hiring index dipped to 50.8 from 52.5 in July. According to trade data from the [International Trade Association], South Dakota exports of agriculture goods and livestock for the first half of 2026, compared to the same period in 2025, slumped by $30.1 million for a 39.8% fall. The greatest downturn in South Dakota ag exports were to Mexico with a 50.5% drop from 2025 to 2026. [Rural Mainstreet Index]
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8/25/26

Tribal cannabis thriving as red state Montana still struggling with regulation

In the earliest years of interested party this columnist advocated for a craft cannabis industry informed by a synthesis of statutes that empower organic gardeners, microbreweries, vintners, greenhouses, banking, fiduciary and insurance participation with ways and means hammered out in committee by each state legislature to guide enforcement. Patients seeking a prescription for cannabis as medication would be seen by health care providers and be excused from paying any excise taxes.

After Montana legalized therapeutic cannabis in 2004 discussions about growing the industry on tribal lands began in 2010 with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai (CSKT). The then-purple state legalized for all adults over 21 in 2020 then opened for business in 2022 but because tribes are sovereign nations, state legalization did not automatically apply inside reservation boundaries. 

In 2025, the now-red state legislature passed a bill that included compacts that would govern tax revenue sharing, cultivation limits and how tribally-owned dispensaries would operate on or near reservations but was vetoed by the governor so each tribe chooses how to regulate the enterprise. 

The Montana Department of Revenue is authorized to issue a total of eight "Combined-Use" licenses that allows exactly one license for each of the eight federally recognized tribes in Montana or an entity majority-owned by a tribe. The state caps tribal cultivation under these specific state licenses at a Tier 1 canopy level, the smallest commercial grow size, which remains a point of regulatory friction. A combined-use license permits the tribe to run both a cultivation facility and a dispensary at a single premises and the Crow Nation passed its own independent cannabis ordinance to levy its own local taxes and regulate manufacturing while other reservations remain entirely dry or prohibit sales. 

Tribal entities can operate these facilities within a 150 air-mile radius of the exterior boundaries of their reservation, or tribal services area for the Little Shell Chippewa tribe, provided the host county allows adult-use sales. In 2026, N8V Grown is renowned as Montana’s most trusted dispensary offering premium cannabis products. Founded by an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe the award-winning, Indigenous-owned and operated business that takes immense pride in its heritage and commitment to excellence has expanded from locations near reservations to a retail location outside of Billings because Yellowstone County is green but the city is not.

The Flathead Indian Reservation spans parts of Lake, Sanders, Missoula, and Flathead counties and the CSKT operates as a sovereign entity with its own codified laws regarding possession and distribution. 

But white people are struggling how to regulate the industry in the Flathead Valley. Local county commissioners faced fierce public pushback over how to manage the market so in 2022 they attempted to host a public vote to completely opt out of "recreational" cannabis sales sparking protests at the downtown Kalispell courthouse before the county ultimately backed down.

Today, zoning laws vary statewide as jurisdictions navigate the recreational cannabis industry under the Department of Revenue, which had previously been housed under the Department of Health and Human Services. City and county officials over the last four years have been directing dispensary owners where to cultivate, process and dispense cannabis to allow their businesses to operate while avoiding community conflict. Flathead County in 2023 limited cultivation and manufacturing to agricultural and residential zones, meaning some owners could not grow their plants in business zones where their product is sold. This requires many business owners to operate separate facilities in multiple locations to cultivate, manufacture and dispense their products. [Flathead Beacon]

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