Dear Editor, This letter is in response to Jack Billion’s letter to the editor in the Burke Gazette, August 4, 2021. The problem, from the very outset of this pandemic, has been politics, and the involvement of government.

In South Dakota, habitat destruction has been the major reason for the population decline of both the Piping Plover and Least Tern. Construction of the Missouri River dams has resulted in the loss of much of their sandbar habitat. Those remaining sandbars are susceptible to human activities, predation, and water fluctuations as the result of dam operations. Also lost with the flooding of the bottomlands behind the dams was the cottonwood trees which grew all along the river from Nebraska to North Dakota.

Lloyd Hanson (left), one of the South Central Storm men’s amateur baseball team’s biggest fans is shown here with Bob Altenberg, formerly of Gregory. Hanson threw the first pitch for the South Central Storm in their state tournament game against Winner/Colome in Mitchell on Sunday.

U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson of South Dakota has announced that Reid Rasmussen of his Sioux Falls office will be in Gregory and Winner on Friday, August 13, 2021.

Education leaders in South Dakota say that as the new school year approaches the state doesn’t have enough teachers and support staff, a situation they attribute to the coronavirus pandemic. State Education Secretary Tiffany Sanderson says every school district in South Dakota is dealing with staffing shortages for the upcoming school year.

Law enforcement officials say the first few days of this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally have been among the busiest they’ve seen. Some 700,000 people were expected to celebrate their enthusiasm for motorcycles at the 10-day event which kicked off Friday, August 6.