HB 1248 to “regulate the state of South Dakota’s relationship to certain presidential executive orders and decrees” was heard in the South Dakota House State Affairs Committee today. The bill’s prime sponsor Rep. Lee Qualm summed up the bill by saying that it states that South Dakota doesn’t have to abide by a presidential executive order unless it is for military purposes or unless the state believes it is good for South Dakota.

Three bills dealing with an Article V Constitutional Convention that were making their way through the South Dakota legislature were killed on Monday and Tuesday this week. HJR 1005 was killed in a 12-0 vote in committee, HB 1136 was killed in the full House by a 37-33 “no” vote, and HJR 1004 was killed in the full House with a 42-28 “no” vote.

South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed several bills into law today. These included an act regarding children in residential treatment centers, cosmetology licensing, trust legislation, the South Dakota Athletic Commission, estate taxes and the economic development incentive program.

For the 22nd year in a row, the Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry by Movieguide: The Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment shows clearly that moviegoers prefer clean, family-friendly movies with Christian faith and values. Movies with very strong Christian, redemptive worldviews averaged $87.07 million at the domestic box office in 2012, but movies with very strong Non-Christian worldviews averaged only $21.64 million.

As if the government wasn’t already able to track our movements on the nation’s highways and byways by way of satellites, GPS devices, and real-time traffic cameras, government officials are now pushing to require that all new vehicles come installed with black box recorders and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, ostensibly to help prevent crashes.

The South Dakota Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the Rapid City Metropolitan Planning Organization and the City of Rapid City, will hold a public open house on Wednesday, Feb. 12, to inform area residents on the replacement alternatives for the interchange at Interstate 90 and La Crosse Street in Rapid City. These replacement alternatives include modifications to the La Crosse Street corridor from Eglin Street to south of Mall Drive.

These are some of the bills of interest that are being considered in the South Dakota Legislature today. Among them are bills dealing with presidential executive orders, term limits for South Dakota elected officials, taxation, prohibiting sex-selection abortions, expanding gambling, United Nations interference, illegal immigration, Common Core education standards, property rights, and more.

The past week I had to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my driver’s license. As I stood in that first line, a rather long line itself, I had the distinct impression I was in a foreign country. The language I heard all around was not English. The greatest jab was as the announcements were made regarding the next available agent, some of those were not in English either.

Nullification is real. The left has been doing it for the past decade. When jurisdictions across America perform gay marriages in direct violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), they are nullifying it. When large numbers of jurisdictions across America declare themselves “sanctuary counties” for illegal immigration, in direct violation of federal immigration laws, they are nullifying them.

According to pervading political stereotypes, Progressives are the group concerned with and committed to the betterment of the “common man” while Conservatives are characterized by a parochial desire to preserve the institutions and traditions that have served the interests of the white majority for the last few centuries. This is the narrative being promulgated by the gatekeepers of American political and pop culture, and these are the assumptions informing the attitudes and beliefs of students at America’s most elite institutions of higher learning.