South Dakota
South Dakota regulator back on Summit case
She cited conflict in 2022 but returns without explanation
A trust controlled by a South Dakota regulator’s relatives still owns land along a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline route, but the regulator has not recused herself from the project’s second permit application in the state after recusing herself from the first one.
Two years ago, South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen disqualified herself from Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions’ first CO2 pipeline application. She cited state law prohibiting commissioners from participating in hearings or proceedings when they have a conflict of interest.
Fiegen wrote a recusal letter in February 2022 that said the pipeline “would cross land owned by my sister-in-law (my husband’s sister) and her husband.” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem assigned State Treasurer Josh Haeder to fill in for Fiegen.
In September 2023, Haeder and the other two commissioners rejected Summit’s initial application in South Dakota, citing the route’s conflicts with several county ordinances that mandate minimum distances between pipelines and existing features.
Summit reapplied in November 2024 with an adjusted route. Fiegen has not filed a recusal letter in the new application docket, and she participated in a procedural hearing about the application Dec. 17.
Fiegen did not respond to questions from South Dakota Searchlight about her participation in the new docket.
Public Utilities Commission spokesperson Leah Mohr said “ex parte” rules bar Fiegen from discussing the matter. Those rules prohibit direct communication with commissioners about dockets they’re considering. Mohr also declined to discuss the matter, and declined to discuss how conflicts of interest are defined for commissioners.
The Attorney General’s Office declined to say whether Fiegen’s participation complies with state law, or whether she sought the office’s legal advice.
Defining a conflict of interest
The chapter of state law Fiegen cited in her 2022 recusal is specific to public utilities commissioners, and it leaves conflicts of interest undefined. It says “if a commissioner determines” the commissioner has a conflict, the commissioner should file a recusal letter.
A 2016 law required the South Dakota Board of Internal Control to create a conflict-of-interest policy for use by state agencies.
The policy says officials involved in quasi-judicial actions such as reviewing a permit application must be “disinterested and free from actual bias or an unacceptable risk of actual bias” and must abstain if “a reasonably-minded person could conclude” they are not impartial.
Land owned by Fiegen’s relatives
The $9 billion Summit pipeline would span five states — including Iowa — and transport some of the CO2 captured from the production processes at 57 ethanol plants to underground injection sites in North Dakota. The project would capitalize on federal tax credits that incentivize the prevention of heat-trapping carbon emissions.
The originally proposed pipeline route in South Dakota would have crossed three parcels of land in Minnehaha County owned by Fiegen’s sister-in-law, Jean Fiegen-Ordal, and Fiegen-Ordal’s husband, Jeffrey Ordal, plus another three parcels of land in McCook County owned by the Jeffrey A. Ordal Living Trust, for which the couple serves as trustees.
Summit said it paid $175,000 in total compensation for easements and future crop damages on the land owned by the Ordals or their trust. An easement is an agreement granting access to land.
Summit said $88,000 of the money went to the Ordals. The company did not disclose further details, but public records show the Ordals completed a sale of their Minnehaha County land several months after signing the easement documents in 2022.
The new pipeline route would cross the same parcels of land: the Minnehaha County land that Fiegen’s relatives no longer own, and the McCook County land that the Ordal trust still owns.
This article first appeared in the South Dakota Searchlight.
South Dakota
Rounds, Office of the Inspector General requesting first-hand accounts of poor mail service in South Dakota
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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A squishy stress toy that’s been sitting on store shelves for years is suddenly becoming one of the hottest items in South Dakota, thanks to the power of social media.
NeeDoh, a line of sensory squeeze toys made by Schylling, has exploded in popularity on TikTok, where videos of people squeezing, stretching, and collecting the colorful toys have racked up millions of views. The viral attention is now translating into real-world demand, with retailers across the country struggling to keep them in stock.
At Child’s Play Toys in Sioux Falls, owner Nancy Savage recently announced a new shipment during a Facebook Live video.
Within hours, both Sioux Falls locations had sold out.
“So I’ve been in business, this November will be 17 years, and I have never seen anything like this,” Savage said. “It is the craziest thing.”
The frenzy isn’t limited to Sioux Falls.
At Black Hills Rally & Gold in Sturgis, manager Madison Bestgen said the store ordered what they believed would be enough inventory to last through the summer.
Instead, the shipment disappeared in less than two days.
“We made an order that we thought was going to get us all the way to the end of summer, and then when we got it in at the end of February, it lasted like a day and a half,” Bestgen said. “At that moment, we were like, ‘Oh yeah, this has blown up. This is something bigger than we thought.’”
The toys themselves aren’t new.
Both stores have carried NeeDoh products for nearly a decade and have built a steady customer base among children and adults alike.
But that changed once the product gained traction online.
“We had them out for people to play with, we’ve shown them to people, people with arthritis, we’ve sold them to so many adults, but all of a sudden, it went viral,” Savage said.
The surge in popularity has become a textbook example of what retailers call the “TikTok Effect,” where a single viral trend can transform an ordinary product into a sensation.
“It can change anything overnight into something absolutely wild,” Bestgen said.
The demand has been so intense that customers are traveling significant distances in search of the toys.
“We have people coming from everywhere,” Bestgen said. “We have people from Rapid City, Spearfish, Gillette, even, that are driving just because they want these NeeDohs.”
Savage has seen similar enthusiasm in Sioux Falls, especially when she goes live on Facebook to tell everyone.
“This is kind of a funny one, but at one of the salons downtown, somebody was getting their nails done, and the light popped up, and both the nail tech and the person getting their nails done ran down to pick up NeeDoh,” she said with a laugh.
NeeDoh’s popularity has also sparked a treasure-hunt mentality among collectors as stores wait for new shipments to arrive.
Savage believes that’s creating something positive beyond the sales numbers.
“It’s a fun, fairly inexpensive summer activity for people to go on a NeeDoh hunt and go around town looking for NeeDoh,” she said. “I think that is building community.”
Whether it’s the stress relief, the satisfying squish, or simply the influence of social media, retailers say the craze shows no signs of slowing down.
More information on Black Hills Rally & Gold Inc. can be found here.
More information on Child’s Play Toys can be found here, and the upcoming drop on Savage’s Facebook live can be found here.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
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