South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant has issued the Secretary of State Economic Report for the 4th quarter of 2012 based on corporate registration data. Gant stated, “Corporate filings in December 2012 were the highest on record, and up 23% over December 2011.” This is the sixth issue of the Secretary’s Economic Report. Secretary Gant issues the reports on a quarterly basis.

Karen and Rod Mersinos’ corporate offices display a document that reflects their core value, “Honor God in all we do by serving our customers and employees with honesty and integrity.” Based on their deeply held religious beliefs, Karen and Rod Mersino have never offered insurance which included coverage for contraception, sterilization, abortion, and abortifacients. Because of the HHS Mandate, the Merinos must now choose between honoring God and honoring the HHS Mandate—an unconstitutional choice.

The South Dakota Department of Transportation has released a traveler information app for smart phones using the Android operating system and plans to do the same later for iPhones. The South Dakota 511 mobile application provides the same information as SDDOT’s popular SafeTravelUSA website, but in a compatible format with mobile phones.

Rep. Kristi Noem will be in White and Brookings on Tuesday, March 26th. She will visit Deubrook Area School, South Dakota State University and will also receive an “Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence” from the National Association of Manufacturers.

What I propose to do in this column is examine what are the hallmarks of empire and ask my readers to honestly ask themselves, “Is America a republic or an empire?” What do we see in America today? We have a president who says, “We can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will.”

According to the Democrats, cutting a tiny portion of our federal government’s spending was supposed to bring utter disaster and perhaps cause the earth to plunge into the sun. Have you ever wondered really how much was being cut from our spending? From Patriot Post, here is an illustration of how “draconian” these sequester cuts are.

A client brought a bill from a hospital for my review and assistance on December 4, 2012. The bill was for a balance of a few hundred dollars. The client wanted to know why Medicare and the Medicare supplement insurance policy did not pay everything on the bill. Medicare never delivered $5,485 of claims to our client’s insurance company.