Opinion

On Friday, December 14, 2018, the IRS announced (Notice 2019-2) that the optional standard mileage rate for business use of a vehicle will increase significantly in 2019. The rate will be 58 cents per mile up from 54.5 cents.

It’s been a humbling and highly rewarding experience to have spent the last four years leading the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

THINKING ABOUT HEALTH The other day came a lengthy report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announcing worrisome findings for anyone with a Medicare Advantage plan and anyone thinking about buying one in the future.

With the holidays upon us, now is a time to put 2018 to rest and for many a wish for fewer weather challenges for 2019. Wouldn’t this statement hold true many years? We can only manage the controllables, so focus on them.

Dear Editor: Wrestling Numbers – What has happened? When I learned that the Wagner school had only 14 young men out for wrestling this year, with some of these being 7th graders, it was a shock! I was even more shocked when I heard that arch-rival Parkston was looking at the same numbers.

Sometimes I wonder if every kid who grew up on a South Dakota farm or ranch went out with their dad on Christmas Eve searching for Santa Claus. We always did. Dad would load us kids in the car. Mom stayed behind, to finish a few jobs, she always said.

The Hardin, Montana area, where Wagner’s Mike Frei and Dave Kotab recently made a mountain lion hunt, is just east of Billings and north of the Little Bighorn battlefield. Mike’s hunt was first, and his primary guide was Chaz Bends of Crow Country Outfitters.

I guess it‘s fitting that things are coming together in a tidy package since it is the time of year for tidy packages. This will be the column that goes to press on the day before Christmas, so I’ll use this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Should you contribute additional money to your retirement account this year? With year-end nearly here, make sure you have contributed enough. 401(k) contributions lower your taxable income now, but increase taxable income during retirement at the time of withdrawal.

Rog's Rod & Nimrod Mule deer have become an increasingly coveted trophy, and drawing an “any deer” tag in order to hunt them has steadily become more difficult. As I know a couple of guys who hunted mule deer this past fall, I thought I would take a look at their hunts.