Custer County Chronicle

During National Apprenticeship Week, we celebrate the people who work in the trades and on factory floors as well as the next generation coming up to do this important work. To my knowledge, there’s no artificial intelligence that can lay a foundation for a house or chatbot that can fix a toilet. Skilled jobs are in-demand jobs, and they will continue to be in-demand for a long time to come. So we need to invest in these careers and support the next generation of workers going into the trades, manufacturing, and other skilled professions.

Greetings. Four more weeks until the primary election. You can now go to your county courthouse and vote early.
I’m getting a lot of questions regarding negative campaign ads on TV and on glossy, big postcards. I watched one reporter ask the four Republican governor candidates if they were responsible for these ads, both print and on TV. There, of course, weren’t takers owning up to it.

Today is 33 years since the Mickelson plane crash. On the way back from a meeting with John Morrell & Co. packing plant officials in Cincinnati, the plane went down at an Iowa farm on a Monday afternoon. Lost were South Dakota Gov. George Mickelson, two state pilots and five men who made up a large portion of the state’s economic development expertise. 
At the time, I was the editor of the daily newspaper in Pierre. Recalling what life was like in 1993 serves as a reminder of what was lost, not only in that plane crash but also what we’ve lost in the last 30 years.

Greetings. Are you fed up with political ads yet? The election is six weeks from yesterday, on June 2. It will be the primary election. We were supposed to be able to early-vote, but getting ballots out hit a snag, so I’m not sure when a person can vote early. Seems like we’re always kind of reinventing the wheel on ballots and election procedures.