A federal district judge today (Monday) dismissed Democratic Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth’s petition to preserve evidence in the EB-5 scandal. However, Judge Karen E. Schreier did give Barth’s attorney, Richard Engels, of Hartford, the opportunity to add a new petitioner to the matter, Richard Hulshof, a former employee of the now defunct Northern Beef Packers plant in Aberdeen.

SIOUX FALLS — Former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, Republican candidate for the United States Senate, responded to Democratic opponent Rick's Weiland's opposition to the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline Saturday. The line would deliver tar sands oil from Canada to the United States Gulf Coast. Rounds said he supports the pipeline.

Former South Dakota governor Mike Rounds has publicly released his answers to the state Legislature’s Government Operations and Audit Committee concerning the EB-5 matter and the failure of the Northern Beef Processors plant in Aberdeen. The Republican U.S. Senate front-runner says “I had no knowledge of the funds that Richard Benda allegedly diverted for personal use.” Benda was Rounds’ secretary of tourism and economic development and oversaw the EB-5 program. Benda was found dead last fall of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

SIOUX FALLS — With absentee voting starting tomorrow (Friday), the U.S. Senate race heated up today (Thursday) with the state’s two political parties flinging charges and countercharges over issues old and new. Noon Thursday, the South Dakota Democratic Party held a follow-up news conference with their lawyer, Patrick Duffy, of Rapid City, noting a new charge against EB-5 administrator Joop Bollen — securities law violations. “Where was the state securities commissioner in all these LLCs and LLPs that were generating securities (the Bollen set up through the EB-5 program)?” Duffy asked rhetorically. “Most of this falls in our wheel house. It should have been investigated a long time ago.” Duffy said the limited liability companies and limited liability partnerships that Bollen set up for projects were funded by EB-5 funds and were soliciting for investors. He says they should have been registered with state or federal regulators and prospectuses issued to potential investors.

A Constitution Party candidate who unsuccessfully tried to get on the November South Dakota ballot for the U.S. House of Representatives is suing Secretary of State Jason Gant to be placed on the ballot. Wednesday, Charles “Chuck” Haan of Watertown filed a writ of mandamus pro se with the U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls.

South Dakota state and local government employees grew at a faster rate than most of the country’s between 2007 and 2012, according to recent U.S. Census data. The Mount Rushmore State, along with fellow Northern Plains states Wyoming and Nebraska, had government employment grow by more than 4 percent during that period.

Several Northern Plains states — including the Dakotas — are among the highest in the nation for most traffic deaths per miles driven, according to a new report. A new study conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming were among states in the “high” category of traffic deaths per miles driven. This category has 13.25 or more deaths per one billion miles driven.

Some South Dakota communities are in or near what one environmental group calls the “blast zones” of railroads that carry oil shipments from North Dakota and Canada. 0 Talk about it The group ForestEthics has put together a searchable map at explosive-crude-by-rail.org based on federal Department of Transportation and other information that shows if residents of a certain ZIP code area are in an oil train evacuation zone or impact zone.

Picture courtesy of Northern Plains News http://npntestfeed.blogspot.com/ Dakotaman organizers announced Tuesday afternoon that due to the massive amount of rain and subsequent flooding the Annual DAKOTAMAN Triathlon will be postponed until August 16. Race founder and organizer Howard Bich discovered when going out for his regular swim at Lake Alvin water reached nearly up to the roof of the shelter on the beach.

When entertaining, where do most people at a party like to congregate? In the kitchen. Where would be an even better place for partygoers to congregate when the weather is nice? “It’s like continuing the living room and the kitchen outside,” says Jason Keller at Wolfe’s Landscape and Irrigation, Inc. in Topeka.

(NPN) — Dakotans know how to “chillax.”. The real estate blog Movoto ranks North Dakota as the least stressed out state in the nation and South Dakota the third least. In fact, the entire Northern Plains is one chill place, with Vermont the only other state in the same realm of relative bliss. Movoto selected six criteria in the lower 48 states to develop its stress rankings: length of commute, unemployment rate, hours worked, population density, percent of income spent on housing and percent of population without health insurance.

Note: This is the first of a series of articles on health care with the four candidates vying for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democratic U.S. Tim Johnson. Former South Dakota governor Mike Rounds, the U.S. Senate candidate front-runner, wants to make one thing clear: much of what the federal government does — and will do — is rationing health care.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rounds is clear about what he thinks about Obamacare. “It’s a way of rationing health care. It’s wrong. It’s not what we want for our dads, our grandmas, for our moms, for our kids.”. In fact, Rounds says rationing what the federal government does – or will do – in all its involvement in health care, from the Indian Health Service to the Department of Veteran Affairs to the Affordable Care Act.

South Dakota pheasant hunters will have the new 160-acre Gideon Game Production Area to explore in northwest Moody County this pheasant season.

SIOUX FALLS (NPN) — In a wide-ranging news conference Friday, state Rep. Stace Nelson continued his attacks on Republic primary front-runner Mike Rounds and added a new charge — that the former governor precipitated the Department of Veterans Affairs desire to close the VA hospital in Hot Springs.

According to information from the South Dakota Secretary of State's office, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Annette Bosworth registered to vote under her married name, Annette Haber. Her husband's name is Chad Haber. Copyright 2013-14 Northern Plains News, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Columnists and other content providers syndicated on NPN retain all rights to their works.