No National Guard, about that pipeline referendum, Lincoln County's triple whammy & Ellis' winning bet

PIERRE — Backers of a referendum on carbon pipeline policy in South Dakota are confident they’ve forced a vote in November — despite some last-minute deadline uncertainty. A day after submitting petitions to the Secretary of State on Monday in support of overturning Senate Bill 201, South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance announced Tuesday it had turned roughly 10,000 more signatures than the 17,508 minimum required for initiated referendums.

PIERRE — Gov. Kristi Noem says she's still open to meeting with Lincoln County residents who want to stop a new prison from being built there. But if that's going to happen, it won't be until a lawsuit brought against the governor's administration related to the project is resolved.

Lincoln County is getting hit with a double whammy when it comes to a planned pipeline and future prison site. But now Summit Carbon Solution’s multi-billion project and the Department of Correction’s ambitions for a facility that could also top the billion dollar mark are slated to neighbor one another.

Calling in the South Dakota National Guard to natural disaster zones relies heavily on the requests of local governments on the front lines. And in the case of the floods that have devastated southeast South Dakota over the last week, military reinforcements were never requested.