Opinion

Who is paying for these PAC ads?

Published by admin on Wed, 04/29/2026 - 9:41am
Greetings. Five 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.

Political terms should all match

Published by admin on Wed, 04/22/2026 - 4:53pm

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.

Our rules for election season

Published by admin on Wed, 04/22/2026 - 4:50pm

The calendar is winding through the middle of April toward May, which means election season is in full swing. If you had any doubt, you can look around at the yard signs that are beginning to pop up, the advertisements that are showing up and the election notices and stories that are popping up in our paper. That will continue through the election as we do all we can to help you make an informed choice when you cast your ballot in June.

Hard times

Published by admin on Wed, 04/22/2026 - 4:46pm

It is the same look on everyone’s faces, the same careworn expression. I would guess the same pit sits in everyone’s stomachs right about now. Mornings should smell damp and fresh. We should be wearing muck boots and watching mists and fog drift across pastures at first light. Those lacy spiderwebs that appear overnight should be studded with dewdrops. We should be seeing the start of green grass. But there is no grass. 

What is the ideal Arby’s-to-population ratio?

Published by admin on Wed, 04/22/2026 - 1:32pm
I sat at the Catron and Hwy. 16 light the other day and was near tears. I looked around and thought back to when I first moved here in the summer of 2018. With the exception of our electric provider, not one building that’s here now was there then. As I headed up the hill to Keystone, it was more of the same. A new fancy rehab center, new apartments, a new storage place, two new gas stations and even a new “temporary” traffic signal.

We proudly present Progress 2026

Published by admin on Wed, 04/15/2026 - 2:16pm

By the time some of you pick up this newspaper  Wednesday afternoon, the office at the Chronicle will be locked up and we won’t be there. Why? A celebration will be taking place at a local restaurant.
That celebration is for a good cause. The 2026 Custer County Chronicle and Hill City Prevailer News Progress Editions are out the door. They are out of our lives. For another year, at least. The Progress Edition is truly a labor of love, but there should be an emphasis on the labor part of that phrase. The Progress Edition is a lot of work. And we mean a lot of work.

The key to responsibility

Published by admin on Wed, 04/15/2026 - 2:15pm

I remember how proud I was the day I got my first key for work. It felt official. Like after years of working, I’d finally reached a new level of importance. I wasn’t just the grunt labor anymore. I had a position of authority. 
At the same time, that knowledge made the key feel heavy. It came with a weight of responsibility, because now I really was in a position of authority. Now I had people who looked to me for direction. 

South Dakota’s ‘broke behaviors’

Published by admin on Wed, 04/15/2026 - 9:22am
With the rising cost of, well, everything, it would surprise me if most people weren’t at least somewhat pinching pennies at this point. If you’re not, good for you—you’re probably in an entirely different tax bracket from most of South Dakota. 
In a nationwide study  asking respondents to come clean about the small, sometimes questionable behaviors they are adopting to stretch their budgets, South Dakota turned up a resourceful, and admittedly, entertaining list. 

Attended defense symposium

Published by admin on Wed, 04/15/2026 - 9:21am
Greetings. Sen. Greg Blanc, Rep. Mike Derby, and I had the opportunity to attend the Defense Industry Symposium April 8-10 at The Box. You may say, “Where in the heck is The Box?” Well, it has a Box Elder address, but that doesn’t explain it.

Candidates: Put ads in newspapers

Published by admin on Wed, 04/08/2026 - 10:06am

As another election cycle approaches, many campaigns — by both newcomers and incumbents — are reconsidering how they communicate with voters.
Some view newspaper advertising as outdated. Others assume digital platforms alone can carry their message. In many parts of the country, that thinking may pass as a modern strategy.
In South Dakota, it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how voters actually engage — and it risks surrendering critical ground in an election.