Opinion

After listening to the president’s recent State of the Union address, I expressed optimism about his vision for pursuing an agenda that inspires cooperation, commonsense, and compromise.

Rog's Rod & Nimrod On the weekend of February 1st, Betsy and I traveled out to Spearfish to visit our longtime friends, Art and Janice Jones. Art is the best all-around fisherman I know, and I know a lot of good fishermen.

Until the day Ted Blakey died in 2004, he possessed a newspaper clipping from February 1838. It advertised his grandfather, an 11-year-old boy at the time, for sale at a slave auction in Missouri.

THINKING ABOUT HEALTH: Not long ago, the news site ProPublica published an important story about employers who, in their quest for a younger and cheaper workforce, were pushing out “older” workers – often those in their early 50s.

The phone rang, and I answered it because the call was from a nearby community. No big surprise that the caller was obviously not from anywhere near, and the caller was asking for a donation for some organization in which I had no interest. I said, in a kindly tone, “No thank you,” and hung up.

Rog's Rod & Nimrod When Brian Maas of Parkston first let me know about the Sinkebeil wolf a few weeks ago, he sent me some photos that were not used with my column or in the stories that followed in newspapers, on television, and Facebook, etc.

As an instructor with the SD Center of Farm/Ranch Management (SDCFRM) program, I am not sure I am proud of the title of this article. In the past few months, I have signed up a number of new clients and, after working with them the first day, they tell me, “Where were you five years ago?

Benjamin Franklin was on to something when he said the only certainties in life are death and taxes. He clearly didn’t live in South Dakota, otherwise “winter” surely would have made his list, too. But he was right.

I grew up in a family that always had a shotgun in the pickup; our vacations were spent hunting in the mountains. Even at an early age, I understood the way guns fundamentally made us more safe, secure, and free. Bryon and I have instilled those values in our kids too.

Earlier this week, I took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to make my first official remarks. A bit of anticipation surrounds the first floor speech given by a member of Congress. Some members rush right in – giving a speech just days after being sworn in.