Opinion

Back in December, when I gave my annual Budget Address to the state legislature, I told them that we had to remember our core function as the state governments. I told them that we needed to prioritize people, not projects. Our primary responsibility is to serve the people of the great state of South Dakota. And now, as we have wrapped up the 2024 legislative session, I am proud to say that we have done just that.

Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Chair of Transportation, State Affairs Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

One of the major factors inf luenc ing the growth and develo pment of South Dakota socially and economically was the oportunity to travel without difficulty from one area of the state to another. The Missouri River was an obstacle which challenged those who were planning for the ease of getting from one side of the river to the other by wagon or automobile.

When I was growing up, my dad would always gather our family together and we would pray for Israel. It was instilled in me from a very young age that the Jews were Gods chosen people, that Israel was the Holy Land, and that we should always pray for them.

R District 21 Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Vice Chair Agriculture and Natural Resources, Member of Local Government Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

District 21 Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Vice Chair Agriculture and Natural Resources, Member of Local Government Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

Almost every memory I have from my childhood is outdoors. I think my parents used to send us kids outside as an attempt to keep us out of trouble.

Even before statehood, the Missouri River divided the State of South Dakota and her people into two distinct regions, East River and West River. With farming in the east and ranching in the west, South Dakota has always had a split personality.

Commentary by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA It was last March, when out of the blue, the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a proposed rule to allow the importation of fresh beef into the United States from the South American country of Paraguay. The problem with Paraguay is that it is not free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which is a highly contagious foreign animal disease that affects cattle, sheep, hogs, and cloven-footed wildlife.

The first h i g hway s into the prairie grasslands of what would later become South Dakota were the rivers used by the earliest adventurers, explorers, mountain men, and fur trappers. For the late eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury travelers west of St. Louis, their road was the Missouri River.