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Department of Energy awards $1.5 million to South Dakota nonprofit

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Department of Energy awards .5 million to South Dakota nonprofit


The U.S. office of Solar Energy Technologies Office awarded $1.5 million to Red Cloud Renewable for promoting workforce equity.

Red Cloud Renewable is an organization focused on providing job training to Native American communities.

They offer three programs that give individuals the skills to find jobs in the weatherization, renewable energy, or sustainability building programs. The training itself takes place in the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

According to the U.S. Census, over 40 percent of the population of the Pine Ridge Reservation live below the national poverty line. John Red Cloud, the Managing Director for Red Cloud Renewable, said that is one of the motivators behind the nonprofits mission of work force development.

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While the organization is open to all tribal communities, it currently works with 70. The organization’s plan for the grant received from the Department of Energy’s SETO is to make the training they offer more accessible.

“That money is going to provide travel, it’s going to provide tuition,” said Red Cloud, “It’s going to provide what we call wrap-around services for anywhere between 36 and 72 Native American women.”

Red Cloud says wrap-around services will include childcare, and the $1.5 million is budgeted out to be spent over a two-year period.





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South Dakota

Age verification bill for adult websites passes committee of SD lawmakers • South Dakota Searchlight

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Age verification bill for adult websites passes committee of SD lawmakers • South Dakota Searchlight


PIERRE — A committee of South Dakota lawmakers endorsed a bill Friday that would require pornographic websites to implement age verification measures. 

The House State Affairs Committee passed the measure 11-2, with all yes votes from Republicans and the two no votes from Democrats. It now goes to the full House of Representatives. 

The legislation would require pornographic websites to ensure users are at least 18 years old by verifying their identification, via means that could include submitting an image of an identification card. The bill would also prohibit the websites and any third parties conducting age verification from retaining users’ identifying information post-verification. 

Non-compliance by websites would result in a misdemeanor for the first offense and escalate to a felony for subsequent violations. The bill contains lengthy definitions for pornographic content harmful to children.

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Rep. Bethany Soye, R-Sioux Falls, is the prime sponsor of the bill. She said it’s essential to protect minors from exposure to explicit online content.

Hollie Strand is a forensic examiner with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office who said she was testifying on her own behalf. She said children as young as kindergarten students are being exposed to pornography, whether parents take measures to protect their kids or not.

“I had a kindergartener ask me what to do when his friend showed him porn and he asked him to stop,” she said. 

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The state Attorney General’s Office endorsed the bill. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota testified in opposition and said that while the intention is to safeguard minors, the legislation could undermine the First Amendment rights of adults who might be deterred by age-verification privacy concerns from accessing legal content.

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“Allowing the government to restrict access to sexual content will inevitably lead to more censorship and a more restricted internet for everyone,” said Samantha Chapman, ACLU of South Dakota advocacy manager. “Young people deserve our protection and support, but age-gating the internet is not the answer.”

The legislative effort follows similar, failed legislation from last year. 

In response, an interim study committee was established to examine the issue further. A separate, similar bill also addresses the issue this session in the Senate but hasn’t had a hearing yet.

Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, a sponsor of the Senate bill, said it’s modeled after Texas legislation that’s under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court. The bill would only take effect if the Texas law is upheld. Wheeler said that would prevent South Dakota from having to face litigation and pay legal fees for its own law.

The other difference is the Senate bill would only require age verification for sites where at least one-third of the content is harmful to minors, to more clearly distinguish between pornographic sites and sites that merely contain some adult content. In response to a South Dakota Searchlight question, Wheeler acknowledged that pornographic sites could transition two-thirds of their content to non-harmful material to avoid being age-gated.

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“That just illustrates the difficulty of regulating this stuff,” Wheeler said. 

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Kristi Noem faces confirmation hearing for homeland security post: Live updates

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Kristi Noem faces confirmation hearing for homeland security post: Live updates


WASHINGTON − A Senate committee will hear today from Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Homeland Security, an agency that will be central to fulfilling his campaign promise to perform mass deportations of unauthorized immigrants.

Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, was on Trump’s vice-presidential shortlist before he named her to run the sprawling, $108 billion DHS. She was a member of Congress during Trump’s first administration and is an outspoken advocate for border security and tax cuts.

Trump is expected to formally nominate Noem shortly after taking office Jan. 20.

Noem is the only prospective Trump cabinet member with a hearing on Friday. Senate committees have so far heard from nine top appointments, including Pete Hegseth (Defense), Pam Bondi (Justice), Scott Bessent (Treasury), Marco Rubio (State), and John Ratcliffe (CIA). All appear headed for confirmation.

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Kristi Noem defends killing dog for bad behavior in new memoir

Governor Kristi Noem, a Trump vice presidential candidate, landed in controversy for killing her former dog. Rivals seized the moment to share photos with their respective pets.

Sen. Peters asked Noem about countering militants who’ve been “radicalized here in the U.S. with the intent of terrorizing our communities.” She agreed that “homegrown terrorism is on the rise,” while cautioning that Americans’ civil liberties must be protected.

But Noem also shifted focus back to the southern border and said 382 “known terrorists” had been allowed to cross into the U.S. from Mexico. According to DHS, 382 people whose names appear on a terrorist watch list were arrested trying to cross the border between 2021 adn 2024, up from 11 between 2017 and 2020.

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Noem cites familiarity with FEMA from SD disasters

In her opening statement, Noem said she worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on 12 natural disasters in her state so she would be familiar leading the Department of Homeland security responding to “floods, tornados, blizzards, wildfires, a derecho, and even a global pandemic.”

“As Secretary, I will enhance our emergency preparedness and strengthen FEMA’s capabilities,” Noem said. “We will ensure that no community is left behind and that life-saving services like electricity and water are quickly restored.”

−Bart Jansen

Noem calls border security ‘a top priority’

Noem said securing the country’s borders against illegal trafficking and immigration will be a top priority.

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“Border security must remain a top priority,” Noem said. “As a nation, we have the right and responsibility to secure our borders against those who would do us harm.”

She said the country “must create a fair and lawful immigration system that is efficient and effective.”

−Bart Jansen

Thune praises Noem’s ‘absolute toughness’ to lead DHS

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., introduced Noem, his state’s governor, by saying her “absolute toughness” is required to lead the Department of Homeland Security and toughen security along the southern border.

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Thune argued Noem’s “tremendous persistence and energy” would enable her to combat the “chaos on the southern border” and fight drug trafficking.

“I think she brings things to this job that are absolutely essential,” Thune said.

The Dakotas are well represented at the top of Washington this year. In addition to Thune’s leadership at the Senate and Noem’s expected confirmation at Homeland Security, President-elect Donald Trump has named former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department.

−Bart Jansen

Peters: DHS needs ‘strong, stable and principled leadership’

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the comittee’s top Democrat, said Noem would “need strong, stable and principled leadership” to oversee the sprawling Department of Homeland Security with 240,000 workers and an annual budget of more than $100 billion.

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He urged her to focus on the northern border in addition to the southern border, while working to streamline the immigration system and asylum process.

Peters said she must also protect the country from attacks like ones recently in New Orleans and Las Vegas on New Year’s Day, and cyber attacks from China and other foreign adversaries.

−Bart Jansen

Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., opens Kristi Noem’s hearing with a litany of complaints about the department she may soon command, saying DHS has been distracted from its core duties of protecting the U.S. by intruding on the constitutional rights of Americans and policing their speech.

House Republicans voted to impeach the outgoing Homemand Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, last February but the Senate, then under Democratic control, killed both impeachment articles.

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem may not have to answer for her dead hunting dog Cricket at her confirmation hearing Wednesday. But President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security will likely face tough questions about how she intends to run one of the nation’s largest and most sensitive federal agencies.

If confirmed by the Senate, Noem would be at the center of Trump’s effort to make good on campaign promises to shut down the border, prevent illegal immigrants from crossing from Mexico and Canada, and stop the flood of lethal fentanyl into the U.S.

As overseer of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Noem would play a critical role in Trump’s much-touted plans to deport potentially tens of millions of people living without authorization in the U.S.

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Noem made headlines last year for writing in her 2024 autobiography “No Going Back” that she shot her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer because it was “untrainable,” attacked livestock and tried to bite her. The backlash may have cost her a shot at the vice-presidency.

−Josh Meyer

Who is Kristi Noem?

Prior to starting her government career, Noem worked on her family’s farm in rural South Dakota. She served in the state legislature for four years, and was elected to Congress in 2010, during the midterm election under then-President Barack Obama when the Tea Party movement swept the nation.

Noem won the governor’s race in 2018 on a small-government platform. She is an outspoken advocate of border security and has sent three different cohorts of the South Dakota National Guard to serve on the Texas-Mexico border for Operation Lone Star.

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−Erin Mansfield

What is the Department of Homeland Security?

The Department of Homeland Security is the umbrella agency for 22 departments and about 260,000 employees. Its departments handle border security, immigration detention, citizenship processing, airport security, and natural disasters, among other things.

President Joe Biden’s current secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has been a frequent target of Republican criticism for the administration’s handling of unlawful crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

−Erin Mansfield

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Will Kristi Noem be confirmed?

While some of Trump’s nominees have faced controversy or bowed out of the confirmation process, Noem has been well received.

Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who heads the committee that will hold her hearing, told a podcast in December, “My first order of business will be getting her confirmed, and I plan on trying to do that either the day of the inauguration, or that week.”

−Erin Mansfield

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What time is Kristi Noem’s confirmation hearing?

The hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee starts at 9 a.m. It will be held in the Senate Dirksen Building, room SD-342, in Washington, D.C. USA TODAY will post a livestream link here when it becomes available.

−Erin Mansfield



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Obituary for Donald E. Bittner at Miller Funeral Home & On-Site Crematory

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Obituary for Donald E. Bittner at Miller Funeral Home & On-Site Crematory


Donald Edward Bittner, age 64, passed away on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at his home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. A Celebration of Life will be held at 100 pm on Monday, January 20, 2025 at Miller Funeral Home Downtown Chapel 507 S. Main Ave., Sioux Falls, SD. Family will



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