The truck route has re-opened after a chemical spill near Nachurs Alpine closed it on Friday, March 6. Three thousand gallons of phosphoric acid spilled from a railcar due to equipment failure, and while initial projections had the road re-opened after two days of clean-up efforts, they remained ongoing late into the week. No comments were received by the Gazette from Nachurs Alpine as to the seriousness of the situation, but large amounts of phosphoric acid in the soil increases its acidity, making it difficult for plants to grow. The Gazette observed several truckloads of soil being removed from the site. The effects resulting from the spill, including the substantial amount of traffic required for clean-up, showed in the extreme wear in the road’s surface. At this time, the SD DENR considers the case still open, and no further documentation is being released to the public.
The coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19 has been the main headline throughout the past several weeks. Last week, the consequences were hitting South Dakota and the US as a whole.
On March 10, it was announced that five people in South Dakota had confirmed diagnoses of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. At that time, there was one recorded death, of a 60-69 year old male from Pennington County. On March 11, the West Central School District closed for deep cleaning to help prevent the spread of this novel virus due to a positive diagnosis in a parent. The dominoes kept falling throughout the week, with social distancing measures becoming increasingly pertinent.
On Friday, President Trump declared a National Emergency, and Governor Kristi Noem requested all schools in SD close for one week, and on Tuesday, March 17, she announced a further week of closure was needed. Garretson Schools soon announced their closures, and Palisades Healthcare closed its doors to all visitors until further notice.
By March 17, 11 people were diagnosed positive throughout South Dakota, with 5 of those cases being listed in Minnehaha County.
COVID-19 is caused by a "novel virus," which means that this version of the coronavirus has not been seen among the general population before. Due to this, immunity is low and the potential for virulent spread is high. At press time, the virus was not found in community spread in South Dakota, meaning all cases had been diagnosed in people who had traveled outside the state. This is expected to change soon. The likelihood that healthcare systems get overwhelmed is also high, meaning that ethical calls such as who receives ventilators, could have to be made. Italy, which is trending 10-14 days ahead of the US in its number of cases, saw its healthcare system overwhelmed last week.
Mortality appears to be highest for those aged 65+ and those with underlying medical issues, especially those with compromised immune systems and those with lung or cardiovascular issues. COVID-19 affects respiratory systems most of all, causing shortness of breath, coughing, and pneumonia-like symptoms.
The CDC states, "Reported illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death for confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. The following symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure: fever, cough, shortness of breath."
Reports have shown that people can be highly infectious well before they start showing symptoms, and many have been entirely asymptomatic. Incubation periods range from 2-14 days, but some studies have shown continued infectiousness even after symptoms have passed.
Last week, Italy shut down all non-essential travel and had banned group gatherings, and the US started following suit, especially after sports stars such as Utah Jazz basketball player Rudy Gobert tested positive.
Throughout last week, colleges and universities in the US were closing all in-person learning opportunities, and major events were canceled. By Monday this week, the SD Board of Regents had asked all public universities to move to online learning by March 23. SDSU, the SD School of Mines, and USD quickly followed those recommendations. Augustana University and USF made the call to extend their spring breaks at least one more week.
The Garretson School District, after releasing an initial letter on March 11 discussing prevention measures, followed the governor’s request on Friday and closed its doors after school let out.
They used Monday and Tuesday this week to restructure lessons and curriculum for distance learning, and will proceed as needed throughout these upcoming weeks. In his letter to the parents and students of the high school and middle school, Principal Chris Long outlined expectations that learning objectives will be moving forward. As of press time, the school was also providing grab-and-go lunches for students in need through Thursday of this week.
Superintendent Guy Johnson stated in his letter to the parents of Garretson School students, “We will continue to adjust our planning based on the best information that becomes available and will communicate those adjustment with you as we are able to. As we have stated before, the situation is changing rapidly, and we will work with the best information we have from the CDC, the SD DOH, and a variety of other experts from the medical field to keep our students and staff as healthy and safe as we are able to.”
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The South Dakota High School Activities Association has postponed or canceled all events until at least April, with reports that practices are left up to the decision of individual schools.
Churches also started to reduce or eliminate activities. In Garretson, Zion Lutheran Church and the United Church of Garretson made the decision not to hold its Sunday services or activities until March 27th. Renovation Church moved its services to O So Good and then to an on-line-only format for this coming Sunday. St. Rose canceled its Wednesday evening activities for this week. Other churches proceeded as normal, with the encouragement that those who are ill or concerned about becoming ill stay home, and have made changes to communion, passing of the peace, and offering.
As of Tuesday this week, CHS had canceled its planned Chili Feed benefit, and was encouraging supporters to order raffle tickets to help support the Food Pantry. O So Good had announced that they were suspending all eat-in dining for the next two weeks and transitioning to carryout and delivery only, with this week’s hours as Thursday through Saturday at 4:30-8:00 pm daily, and the two weeks after that will be Tuesday through Saturday evenings. Dollar General is limiting their hours to 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily, and encouraging senior citizens and high-risk individuals to shop during the first hour past opening.
The City of Garretson does have a contingency plan for the pandemic, but they were not ready to make it public as of press time. Mayor Greg Beaner states that right now, the City is following all Federal and State protocols. They have limited visitors at City Hall to only staff and necessary visitors, and request all other items of business be taken care of by phone or email. The City Council discussed holding its April meeting via an on-line format such as Zoom, and will be updating the public as that information becomes available.
The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is handwashing, and if you are feeling ill, to stay home. Those who have been exposed knowingly to COVID-19 may have to quarantine for up to two weeks, so some preparation is key. As some panic has occurred, grocery stores are finding it difficult to keep some essentials such as toilet paper in stock, so it is important to keep from over-buying. Purchase only what is needed for two weeks.
Expect more disturbances to public life as the virus moves through the area, such as cancellations of other events, and possibly the temporary closure of restaurants and bars. However, with level-headed thinking and preparation, most people will likely move through this without issue. But keeping community-protection in mind, protecting our most vulnerable, has to stay at the forefront.
Editor's Note: During this difficult time, we at the Gazette are committed to ensuring you get as much up-to-date and local information as possible. For that reason, we are keeping many of our coronavirus articles open and available to you. We also have made this on-line issue available for free to anyone who registers for a free account to the Gazette. If you appreciate the coverage we are working hard to bring to you, consider getting a yearly subscription today! Remember: support your local businesses as much as you can; and reach out if you are in need- we are more than happy to help!
The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has grabbed the headlines, and we bring you everything you need to know for Garretson in this issue. Plus, coverage of the new natural gas contract from the Mayor and Women's History Month celebrations.
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The community of Garretson is unique in many ways. One of those ways is that we have a municipally owned natural gas system. There are 4 towns in SD that own natural gas systems: Watertown, Humboldt, Crooks, and Garretson. The city council has recently voted to make a change to our system.
The history of our gas system is pretty interesting. I will try to be as accurate as possible in explaining the history and how things work. In the early 90’s the Northern Natural Gas line was extended into South Dakota. Communities were offered the chance to tap into the line to start their own natural gas systems. In Iowa there are a lot of cities that took this opportunity but only a few in SD. Since the tap into the pipeline was so expensive, Crooks, Humboldt and Garretson shared the cost of the tap. Crooks and Garretson also shared the cost of a pipeline to transport the gas. We were paying a flat fee to Crooks but Mayor Tim Mullin worked out a resolution with Crooks to pay only for the amount of gas that we actually transport through this line. We will be making our final payment on the gas line construction cost this year.
If you have ever read the city council meeting minutes you will notice that there is always a resolution for the natural gas prices. The city council currently acts as the natural gas board. Some communities, like Humboldt, have an independent board that makes decisions for the community. I like the way that our system and operations have been set up. With our council acting as the board, it seems easier to make informed decisions when questions come up.
The city has money set aside for emergency repairs and other unplanned expenses. This contingency fund is required by the initial contract. For several years the natural gas system was operating at a loss. The finance officer, at that time, created a formula that would allow the enterprise to break even. The price we charge pretty much pays for the maintenance, loan payment and the cost of the gas that we use. The cost of maintenance and the loan payment do not change. The cost of gas fluctuates with the market costs and our current gas is purchased through CenterPoint Energy.
We haven’t received much assistance from CenterPoint when we purchase natural gas. We have tried purchasing a larger amount of gas at a reduced price. The intention of this was good but when we didn’t use the entire amount we were fined because it had to be sold back. It is incredibly complicated to predict the amount of gas that we will need. Summers are easy but winter’s gas needs really depend on growth and the weather. Natural gas prices also change with things like production, demand, and even hurricanes. Unfortunately, at times, we have been at the mercy of the market price because we didn’t lock in a large enough “winter strip” and the winter was extremely cold.
We met with the Mayor and utility director of Crooks to discuss our natural gas systems. They explained that they were leaving CenterPoint Energy and moving to a company called Clayton Energy. This company was recommended to them as very reputable. Clayton Energy met with the utility directors from Crooks, Humboldt and Garretson and then met with the city council for contract negotiations.
At the March city council meeting, the council voted to sign a contract with Clayton Energy as our contract with CenterPoint was expiring in April. We are signing a 2 year contract instead of the typical 5 year contract. This shorter term will allow us to trial their services. Crooks is also committing to a 2 year contract and Humboldt is discussing the possibility.
We chose Clayton Energy for several reasons but I feel the biggest reason is price. Clayton Energy charges about the same price as CenterPoint. Clayton Energy works for approximately 200 cities and their only job is purchasing natural gas for those cities. Clayton Energy purchases large quantities of gas on behalf of cities and gets a discount for purchasing it in bulk. They purchase the gas like a commodity and part of it is even purchased years out. By diversifying the portfolio of our natural gas we will be able to get gas at a stable and lower price and this can be passed on to the customers.The representative from Clayton Energy gave us a list of references to check before we chose them. I actually called some of the other cities that use Clayton Energy that were not on the reference list. I was truly impressed by the positive responses that people had. We also checked with other cities about the billing operations of Clayton Energy. I think that this will be a good change for our community’s system. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. My email is . Thank you and I hope everyone has a great March.
March is a time of year to celebrate the strong women in your life. Women’s History Month is a celebration of women’s contributions to history, culture and society and is observed every year in the month of March in the United States since 1987. The 2020 theme is “Valiant Women of the Vote,” which speaks to the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The theme honors "the brave women who fought to win suffrage rights for women, and for the women who continue to fight for the voting rights of others." Women’s History Month 2020 takes place from Sunday, March 1 to Tuesday, March 31, 2020. To commemorate, The Blue Ink will be celebrating hidden women in history each week this month.
To begin, this week will briefly cover Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two pirates from the 1700’s. Anne Bonny began her life as the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy Irish lawyer. Her father had her dress a boy and pose as his law clerk for part of her youth. She later moved to America, where she married a sailor in 1718 and journeyed to the pirate-infested island of New Providence in the Bahamas. There, she abandoned her husband and fell under the spell of “Calico” Jack Rackam, a wild buccaneer who was a master of trade in the Caribbean.
Bonny had always been known for her “fierce and courageous temper”, and she later forged a friendship with the similar fellow female pirate Mary Read. The pair played a leading role in a group of raids against fishing boats in the summer and fall of 1720. Then, Calico Jack’s ship was captured by a band of pirate-hunters. Calico Jack and several other men were executed, but Bonny and Read dodged the noose after they both claimed to be pregnant.
Mary Read was born in England, and spent most of her youth disguised as her deceased half-brother so that her penniless mother could scam the boy’s grandmother. She later adopted the name Mark Read and took on a large number of traditionally male jobs, first as a soldier and later as a merchant sailor. Read turned to pirating in the late-1710s, after buccaneers attacked the ship she was working on and impressed her so much, that she joined them. She later found her way aboard Calico Jack’s boat, where she met and befriended Anne Bonny and revealed herself to be a woman.
Read only sailed with Calico Jack for a few months, but during that time she won a fearsome reputation. One of her most famous exploits came in October 1720, when she and Bonny fought like banshees during an attack by pirate-hunters. “If there’s a man among ye,” she supposedly screamed at the male buccaneers cowering below decks, “ye’ll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!” Despite Read’s heroics, she and the rest of Calico Jack’s crew were captured and charged with piracy. Read later came down with a fever and died in prison. Anne stayed imprisoned until she gave birth, and then there is no other records of her whereabouts.
This week, we celebrate these sisters of the sea and their admirable ability to unabashedly be themselves in a world that has always pitted against them.
A Sioux Falls company — with its team of scientists and a herd of genetically engineered cows — is working feverishly to develop an effective treatment for people infected with the coronavirus.
SAb Biotherapeutics is located in northeast Sioux Falls and is working with numerous partners to develop a treatment for people infected with the coronavirus. Courtesy photo
SAb Biotherapeutics has emerged as a major player in the effort to produce a viable antidote to the fast-moving virus that is sweeping across the world and the United States, so far sickening more than 140,000 and killing several thousand.
Eddie Sullivan, CEO of SAb, said the company is working on producing a polyclonal antibody therapeutic to coronavirus that it expects will be ready for the pre-clinical and clinical-trial evaluations by the end of the summer, paving the way for a potential treatment shortly thereafter, depending on the pace of regulatory approval.
“The important thing to know is that our capacity and technology allow us to produce a candidate therapeutic more rapidly than any other technology available,” Sullivan said.
If successful, Sullivan said, SAb’s coronavirus treatment has the potential to be extremely effective because it may not only kill the virus but also help to reduce symptoms of the disease. These include fever, dry cough and shortness of breath, which can appear two to 14 days after exposure. Some patients with the disease, especially the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions, can die.
“Our therapeutic will neutralize the virus, because it’s a polyclonal antibody,” Sullivan said. “This is the natural way our bodies respond to disease, so it also works in conjunction with the rest of the immune system to not only eliminate the virus, but to help the patient with inflammation and all the other things associated with activation of the immune system.”
This vial contains SAb Biotherapeutics anti-MERS coronavirus therapeutic (SAB-301), which is one of the most advanced therapies to treat a coronavirus. The Sioux Falls company is now working on a similar treatment for the COVID-19 disease. Courtesy photo
For nearly 20 years, SAb has been developing and perfecting a unique method of using genetically engineered cows as the source from which to harvest antibodies that can fight human diseases such as influenza, diabetes and cancer. The company originated at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and moved its headquarters to Sioux Falls in 2002, Sullivan said. The company now operates from a site on 60th Street North in Sioux Falls, just southwest of the intersection of Interstates 90 and 229.
SAb is focused on producing antibodies targeted at the SARS-CoV-2 virus, commonly referred to as the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease that is causing illnesses and deaths.
The virus is now a worldwide pandemic that has infected about 140,000 people and killed more than 4,700 worldwide; South Dakota had nine known cases with one death as of March 13, though Gov. Kristi Noem said she expects cases will increase as the virus takes hold and testing rises.
Polyclonal antibodies are the proteins created by the body to fight invading diseases by creating an immune response that attacks and ideally kills the invading pathogen.
The first big breakthrough by SAb was developing a way to genetically engineer the cows so that rather than producing bovine antibodies, the cows produce human antibodies that effectively fight diseases in people, supplementing their own immune response.
Furthermore, the company has developed an immuno-therapy platform in which the antibodies created by the cows are targeted at specific diseases, potentially making them far more effective and faster than other treatments at fighting specific diseases within a human being.
“What it allows us to do is to vaccinate these animals, or immunize them, in the same way we would to immunize ourselves against influenza or any other type of disease where we’re creating these antibodies inside our own bodies,” Sullivan said. “We’re doing that inside these animals, producing larger quantities of highly targeted antibodies against a disease of interest, and then we’re harvesting those antibodies from the animals.”
The antibodies are harvested from the cows’ plasma within their blood. In a harmless procedure, not unlike with human plasma donors, the plasma is collected from the cows two or three times per month.
Sullivan said the company does not work directly with the actual virus, but rather subunits of the virus that are not infectious, so the animals are not harmed and there is virtually no chance of the process spreading the virus to humans.
SAb had previously developed antibodies it believes will be effective in fighting other diseases related to the coronavirus, including the common flu. None of SAb’s therapeutics has yet to make it to market, though its flu treatment and others are in clinical development, including a treatment for the Middle East Respiratory Coronavirus, a disease very similar to COVID-19.
“You have to know that regardless of whether there is what you might consider an emerging disease, like coronavirus or any other, there are very specific requirements that any company with any candidate product has to go through in order to be able to move it into the clinic,” Sullivan said. “That requires development of the product, testing of the product, evaluation of the safety of the product, and all that must be done prior to initiating a clinical trial and putting it into humans.”
To speed up development of a COVID-19 treatment, the staff and scientists at SAb are working through the complicated processes associated with bringing a treatment to the public by completing as many steps as possible at the same time.
The company recently started producing antibodies targeted specifically at treating COVID-19, Sullivan said. The company is now working with federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and university researchers to simultaneously go through the process of testing and approval rather than taking those steps in a linear fashion, Sullivan said.
“We have essentially lit up our entire network of universities, government agencies and other partners we have worked [with] in the past in order to not only develop the product, but move it into testing and eventually into the clinic as quickly as possible,” he said. “The speed at which we can move depends upon a lot of these various groups and how fast they can move as well.”
Meanwhile, other companies and scientists are working to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 that would be given to healthy people in order to prevent them from contracting the disease. Both points of attack — preventive vaccines and therapies that treat the sick — are needed to successfully slow or stop a virus from spreading, Sullivan said.
A separate segment of the biotherapy industry is looking for ways to alter or re-purpose existing products to see whether they are effective at treating COVID-19, Sullivan said. SAb is hopeful that any product it develops will be more effective than repurposed medications because its antibodies will be targeted specifically at COVID-19. The final treatment product would likely be administered through an intravenous infusion.
SAb, which has about 50 employees, has found South Dakota to be a great place to perform its research and development of therapeutic treatments, Sullivan said. The environment is ideal for the cows that produce the antibodies, and the region has provided a stable pool of competent researchers and employees, he said.
“Great science happens in South Dakota, and we have the opportunity to do something that can be helpful all over the world,” Sullivan said.
With those words to Bishop Thomas O’Gorman, South Dakota State Historical Society Director Doane Robinson announced one of the most important historical finds in the northwestern United States.
In his letter to O’Gorman dated Feb. 17, 1913, Robinson wrote “yesterday a party of school children playing upon one of the gumbo knobs in Fort Pierre village found a lead plate.” Robinson went on to describe the dimensions of the lead plate and the inscriptions on both sides of the plate.
In an address to the South Dakota State Historical Society years earlier, O’Gorman had predicted that a lead plate buried by the Verendrye expedition on March 30, 1743, would be found somewhere between Fort Pierre and Fort Bennett, about 35 miles above Fort Pierre. Finding the plate helped establish the route of the explorers and served as the first physical record of a visit of white men to South Dakota. The Verendryes claimed the region for France when they buried the plate.
An article in the 1914 volume of South Dakota Historical Collections states that “a party of seven young people” were strolling on the bluffs at Fort Pierre on the warm Sunday afternoon of Feb. 16, 1913, when Harriet “Hattie” Foster saw the end of a metal plate protruding above ground and picked it up. She handed the plate to George O’Rielly, who scraped off the dirt. O’Rielly kept the plate, and they started down the hill. Different accounts state that Hattie was 13 or 14 years old and O’Rielly two years older when the plate was discovered.
George O'Rielly
In her account of finding the plate, Hattie states that before O’Rielly got to the bottom of the hill he met George Olson, a high-school boy. O’Rielly was going to throw the plate away when Olson advised O’Rielly to take the plate home.
In letters to the South Dakota State Historical Society written in the 1930s, George White and Elmer Anderson described their role in finding the plate. They were in Fort Pierre that Sunday afternoon when they were approached by William O’Rielly and his son, George. White was familiar with the story of the Verendrye plate. He wrote, “I proceeded to eliminate the mud from the plate and read the Latin inscription on the face until I came to the last part including the words ‘LaVerendrye posuiit.’ Then I pronounced it one of the Verendrye plates and remarked to the O’Rilley’s that it was one of the most valueable discoveries and markers in American History.”
Anderson wrote that they suggested taking the plate to Doane Robinson for further investigation, but the O’Riellys would not let it out of their possession.
Anderson and White returned to Pierre and phoned Robinson to tell him of the discovery.
Robinson and Charles DeLand went to Fort Pierre the next morning and took the testimony of those present when the plate was discovered.
Robinson found “a dispute” between George O’Rielly and Hattie Foster when he arrived in Fort Pierre that Monday morning in 1913. A notice from Hattie would soon appear in a newspaper claiming possession of the “French tablet or Government Monument” which she found in Fort Pierre.
Different versions of finding the plate surfaced throughout the years. Ethel Parish Hepner Roberts would write the State Historical Society that she, Hattie and George were the only ones present on that Sunday afternoon. Blanche Lunquist, Hattie’s sister, wrote that she was present when the plate was found, and George O’Rielly insisted in a newspaper article that he found the plate, not Hattie, and gave an account of finding the plate in which Hattie was not present.
Robinson stated in a letter written in 1931 that White identified the plate as soon as he saw it and said it was “worth a million dollars.” “I guess that it was at that moment that O’Reilly discovered that he had found the plate,” Robinson wrote.
William and George O’Rielly kept possession of the plate after its discovery. In March 1915, Pattison McClure, the president of the South Dakota State Historical Society, sent a letter to members stating that the holder of the Verendrye plate had agreed to accept $500 for it. The state Senate had passed a bill to purchase the plate, but it was defeated in the House of Representatives. Members were asked to donate money to purchase the plate. Through donations and funds available to the Department of History, the plate was purchased. Adjusted for inflation, $500 in 1915 was equal to about $12,437 in 2019.
“We had come against a situation where we had to act to keep the relic within the state,” Robinson stated in a thank-you letter to a donor.
In 1916 and 1917, attorneys representing Hattie wrote Robinson requesting that the tablet be returned to Hattie as she discovered the plate, or pay her $500 if the state desired to keep custody of it. Hattie received $200.
The state retained ownership of the plate, and it is displayed in the museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. The site where the plate was found in Fort Pierre is a National Historic Landmark that people can visit and learn about its importance.
This moment in South Dakota history is provided by the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising partner of the South Dakota State Historical Society at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Find us on the web at www.sdhsf.org. Contact us at to submit a story idea.
PIERRE, SD – The South Dakota Retailers Association (SDRA) is assuring consumers that the supply chain for food and sanitary supplies remains intact, and that businesses are taking extra precautions to minimize the impact of COVID-19.
Ample supplies of food, cleaning products, and sanitary items exist, even if some store shelves are temporarily empty. The process of delivering inventory from warehouses to retail stores takes time, and businesses are taking extra precautions to clean and sanitize prior to restocking shelves. Some businesses are restricting hours of operations to allow additional time to sanitize and restock.
"Businesses are working hard to keep their facilities clean, safe, and stocked,” said SDRA Executive Director Nathan Sanderson. “There’s no need for panicking or hoarding; just because an item happens to be out today because of unusually high demand, doesn’t mean it will be out tomorrow.”
Retailers, wholesalers, suppliers, and manufacturers are continuing to work efficiently and smoothly to make sure consumers have food and other products they need. The viability of the supply chain and the availability of safe, affordable food and consumer products for customers has not been disrupted.
South Dakota businesses are also working hard to take care of their customers and employees.
“My number one job right now is just making sure our people are informed and receive reassurance that things are going to be okay," said R.F Buche, SDRA Board President and owner of Buche Foods. "That’s what I’m trying to do on a daily basis with my team.”
Taking care of employees and customers takes on many forms. Restaurants are implementing enhanced cleaning regimens, offering bottled beverages instead of drink stations, and providing single-use table covers. Others are temporarily limiting the number of customers in their establishments, offering curbside pick-up, or providing free delivery.
"During this time of uncertainty, we want to assure consumers that businesses are taking proactive measures to keep South Dakotans safe,” said Sanderson.
March 16, 2020 - As crude oil prices trend close to $30/bbl, Americans are seeing pump prices plummet across the country. On the week, gas price averages in 35 states decreased by double-digits, pushing the national average to $2.25, the cheapest price point of the year.
“The national gas price average is 13 cents cheaper on the week and nearly 20 cents less than the beginning of the month. These are significant decreases in just 7 and 16 days,” said Marilyn Buskohl, AAA spokesperson. “AAA expects gas prices to continue trending cheaper, with the high likelihood of the national average hitting $2/gallon before the end of March.”
South Dakota Gas Prices
Today
$2.20
Yesterday
$2.24
Last week
$2.30
Last month
$2.35
Last year
$2.47
During this uncertain time of COVID-19, gas prices are declining despite increasing gasoline demand and decreasing U.S. stock levels.
Quick Stats
The nation’s top 10 largest weekly decreases are: Ohio (-27 cents), Kentucky (-21 cents), Michigan (-21 cents), Wisconsin (-21 cents), Indiana (-19 cents), Illinois (-19 cents), Oklahoma (-15 cents), Iowa (-15 cents), Maine (-15 cents) and Minnesota (-15 cents).
The nation’s top 10 least expensive markets are: Oklahoma ($1.92), Texas ($1.96), Mississippi ($1.96), South Carolina ($1.97), Ohio ($1.97), Indiana ($1.97), Missouri ($1.98), Kentucky ($1.99), Louisiana ($2.00) and Alabama ($2.00).
Great Lakes and Central States
Some of the largest weekly pump price savings in the country can be found in the Great Lakes and Central states. Eight out of the top 10 largest weekly decreases are states from the region: Ohio (-27 cents), Kentucky (-21 cents), Michigan (-21 cents), Wisconsin (-21 cents), Indiana (-19 cents), Illinois (-19 cents), Iowa (-15 cents) and Minnesota (-15 cents). All states in the region saw double-digit decreases, with South Dakota (-10 cents) seeing the smallest decrease on the week.
With the substantial drops at the pump, state gas prices in the region are relatively cheap, ranging from as low as $1.98 in Missouri to a high of $2.30 in Illinois.
With a draw of 1.8 million bbl, the Great Lakes and Central states region saw its first substantial drop in gasoline stocks in two months, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest report. At 58 million bbl, stock levels remain healthy and in line with levels this time last year. If stocks were to decrease again in the coming week that would traditionally mean a pump price increase, but given current trends it’s more likely gas prices would decrease.
Oil Market Dynamics
At the close of Friday’s formal trading session on the NYMEX, WTI increased by 23 cents to settle at $31.73. Fears about COVID-19 and the crude price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia pushed crude prices lower last week. After President Trump announced that the U.S. Department of Energy would purchase oil to top off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, crude prices rallied briefly. However, the announcement is unlikely to help increase crude prices further since the limited number of barrels the U.S. could purchase is small when compared to the dramatic reduction in global crude demand as a result of reduced economic activity due to COVID-19. Moving into this week, crude prices are likely to continue decreasing as the world grapples with how to contain the ongoing international public health crisis and associated economic challenges that could lead to a global recession. Until the price war ends and fears about COVID-19 subside, domestic crude prices are likely to remain low.
Motorists can find current gas prices along their route with the free AAA Mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android. The app can also be used to map a route, find discounts, book a hotel and access AAA roadside assistance. Learn more at AAA.com/mobile.
AAA provides automotive, travel, and insurance services to 60 million members nationwide and more than 104,000 members in South Dakota. AAA advocates for the safety and mobility of its members and has been committed to outstanding road service for more than 100 years. AAA is a non-stock, non-profit corporation working on behalf of motorists, who can now map a route, find local gas prices, discover discounts, book a hotel, and track their roadside assistance service with the AAA Mobile app (AAA.com/mobile) for iPhone, iPad and Android. For more information, visit www.AAA.com.
Democracy is a wonderful, empowering and uplifting gift that we the people have given ourselves. However, it is as fragile as it is beautiful.
At times our democracy has depended on the just-right person appearing at each of several precarious moments in our history. Such was the case at the dawning of our democracy, specifically July 3, 1775, when George Washington accepted the daunting task of commanding the Continental Army.
History suggests no other man could have welded our citizen-farmers into an army that eventually, after a long struggle, defeated what was, at the time, the best trained, best equipped army in the world. Washington was able to give us our nascent democracy because he was a selfless man of uncommon integrity and honesty.
Not quite a hundred years passed when, in February 1861, seven southern states succeeded from the Union, threatening to rip apart the United States of America. That likely would have happened had it not been for our newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, a man of conviction and tenacity with an unfailing moral compass.
The next threat against our democracy came in 1932 when our country was nearly washed from its moorings by a worldwide depression. Unemployment spiked to 24 percent and ten thousand banks failed. To compound the economic crisis, the American West beyond the 100th meridian entered into a decade-long drought.
In response, newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt thought outside the box to develop innovative, bold programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps that provided jobs to 300,000 unemployed young men; the Emergency Relief Administration that bought emaciated cattle from bankrupt farmers and ranchers; and the Works Progress Administration that put 3.5 million people to work, primarily at infrastructure projects.
When Roosevelt announced plans to implement graduated taxing to redistribute wealth from the ultra-rich to the poor, DuPont, J.P. Morgan, and other ultra-rich tried to launch a military coup that would remove Roosevelt and install a fascist government. They were nearly successful in doing so.
It seems threats to our democracy arrive every other generation. In 2020, we are facing yet another threat. This threat is not because there are differences of opinion on the usefulness of trade wars, whether the current changes in our climate are human caused, or even purported disregard of our hallowed constitution.
Rather, our democracy is endangered because our elected officials at almost all levels of government have become so polarized that they spend their time and energy launching vitriolic diatribes against each other instead of finding bipartisan compromises that address the people’s pressing issues.
They can do this because we, the citizens of this country, have entrenched ourselves into two tribal camps, Fort R and Fort D. We have surrounded our ideological fortresses with alligator-filled moats of emotion that effectively fend off logic that would expose inconsistencies in our beliefs and keep out information and objective evidence that would reveal the flaws in our belief systems.
The price of democracy is eternal vigilance. If our democracy is going to survive, we, the citizens, must come out of our ideological fortresses of self-centered interests and support at all levels people who are committed to governing by the rule of law, solving problems by finding consensus, and upholding the institutions that enable us to have a democracy.
We have done it before. We can do it again.
Philip S. Hall, Ph.D., of Spearfish, is a licensed psychologist with experience working with troubled children and adolescents. This article was originally published in the Feb. 26 edition of the Rapid City Journal.
