Earlier this year, Republican House lawmakers unveiled their “Jobs First Agenda” in an effort to attract more businesses and get West Virginians working. And Gov. Patrick Morrisey celebrated tax cuts and economic development wins. 

Morrisey said his administration has announced over $12 billion in new investments, which is set to bring more than 12,000 new jobs to the state. 

“The momentum is real,” he wrote on social media this month. 

But Steve Roberts, president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, says the data tells a different story. 

The state’s largest advocate for businesses has repeatedly warned that employment is declining, the labor force is shrinking and West Virginia is falling behind competing states. 

Lars Dalseide, a spokesman for Morrisey’s office, said the administration believes the recent investments will position the state for stronger job growth in the future while acknowledging some sectors have “experienced challenges.”

Mountain State Spotlight asked Roberts why he believes the governor’s narrative is wrong. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

MSS: Steve, after the March jobs report, you said, “With each new jobs report, we are seeing a clearer picture of where West Virginia stands and where we risk falling behind.” What economic indicators are you watching closely, and what are they telling you? 

Roberts: What we’re seeing in West Virginia is a disturbing trend. We are seeing a trend that suggests that we are not creating jobs as fast as we’re losing jobs, and we’ve been losing jobs in the private sector. We are seeing declines in mining jobs, manufacturing jobs, hospitality and tourism and retail. 

I think that a good, hard look at the numbers is what we need to be doing, and understanding these numbers. West Virginians need to know what direction our job picture is going. 

We also pay attention to household income, wage growth and gross domestic product growth. For the last year measured, West Virginia’s domestic output was the 48th slowest-growing gross domestic product in the country.

MSS: This spring, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said: “The ‘Backyard Brawl’ for our state’s future is being won both at the kitchen table and in the marketplace.” He was pointing to billions of dollars of announced investments and thousands of promised jobs as evidence that the state is moving in the right direction. So why have you and the Chamber said that West Virginia is “not keeping pace” with the region or the nation?

Roberts: Let me say, this is not new for us. We have tracked jobs reports, income growth, and GDP for years and years, if not decades and decades, so we’re not doing this because of any one political opponent or anything like that. 

We are simply saying, what does the data show in terms of job creation and economic growth? We will continue to talk about what the data shows. We’ve actually participated in some of those announcements, and we love it when there are good news announcements. But we’re simply looking at what the data says.

MSS: What are you hearing from businesses about the state’s economy that state leaders and rhetoric from the governor are missing? 

Roberts: Well, I just came from a meeting in South Charleston, as an example, where I spoke to employers, community leaders, and so on. One of the first questions that came up was related to the workforce. 

Where do people who are looking for a job go for information? How can we help people get connected? We have a program through our foundation, which is called Workforce Unifiers. 

The Workforce Unifiers program is going out throughout the state and meeting with local groups, economic development, and education representatives of workers and others to say, ‘What are you hearing? What are your needs?’ 

And consistently, what we hear is that employers are having trouble finding workers to replace the workers who are retiring or otherwise leaving the workforce, and that the pipeline, the connecting system, needs to be improved. 

MSS: For decades, West Virginia has had a smaller share of working-age adults employed or looking for work than in any other state. Despite years of proposed fixes from governors, lawmakers and business leaders, that number hasn’t moved much. Why?

Roberts: I think many of our jobs in West Virginia have been in

industrial settings, and those jobs tend to be male-dominated jobs. And I think that over time, we developed a culture in West Virginia that one spouse could work, and the other spouse could stay home. 

There are also people living in rural areas who don’t have transportation, and who don’t have public transportation. So, the ability to get to work or get to a job is an aspect. 

We also don’t have adequate childcare. If a family has children, in many places in West Virginia, there is no choice but to have somebody stay home and take care of the children, because there’s no other place for the children to be.

I’ll give you an example. In my neighborhood, there is a young woman who walks her baby in a stroller, who is a pediatrician. If a child needs a doctor at night, unless her parents are available to take care of the baby, she can’t go to the hospital.

What she points out is that she’s very fortunate; she lives close to her parents. In other words, there’s somebody to care for that baby while she goes to work. So, this is not limited to low-wage, low-skill kinds of jobs. 

An additional factor that I have thought a great deal about is that, because West Virginia’s economy has been distressed over a period of decades, there are simply fewer opportunities for a working spouse. I think one of the reasons our workforce participation rate is low is that we don’t have that many places to work.

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MSS: The Chamber has become increasingly vocal about the state’s progress on childcare policy. Why do business leaders see childcare as an economic issue rather than simply a family issue? 

Roberts: We have a declining population, and I think we’re the second-oldest population in the nation, so we have a lot of people who are not available to be in the workforce. 

If you are an employer, and you need workers and you can’t get them, you start asking the question, if you’re working in our workplace and you’re going to leave, why are you leaving?

Well, if the answer is because somebody needs to stay home to take care of children, you as an employer, are just simply motivated to try to find a solution to that. Employers have been pretty vociferous with us in saying that childcare is a real issue, and the lack of childcare is keeping people out of the workplace.

MSS: In a column you submitted to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, you wrote that “policies are the driving force behind the reality you experience” and that policy choices determine whether communities grow or shrink. What policy decisions made in Charleston over the last few years do you think have helped West Virginia’s economy, and what decisions have made growth harder?

Roberts: I think policies such as eliminating the business franchise tax and reducing the corporate net income tax rate are policies that have helped West Virginia’s economy. 

I think when West Virginia passed a right-to-work law, it really sent a positive signal to employers that West Virginia wanted to do things differently and was open to a new way of looking at job creation and economic development. 

I think the failure to pass Amendment Two, which would have eliminated the property tax on business equipment and inventory, sent the wrong signal to businesses because we’re the only state in the nation that has this particular tax. 

When this was all going on, I was visiting my dentist. I was just in the dentist’s chair, and the dentist was saying to me, “I sure hope Amendment Two passes because I pay a whole lot anytime I buy a new piece of equipment to make your dental procedure go faster or be less painful. I’m being taxed for upgrading.” 

We also need to reassure the county emergency services and the county bus services that we’re not trying to defund them or take money away from them. We simply have to look at another way of funding them than by penalizing businesses for growing.

Also, passing the child tax credit bills over the past couple of years has helped because we have businesses that are taking advantage of that, and they are adding childcare to what they offer to employees to come to work here. 

MSS: Gov. Morrisey recently said West Virginia needs to invest in schools and workforce training programs to meet future demand for construction workers and other skilled trades. You have argued that the jobs of the future will require more education and specialized skills. How is West Virginia preparing workers for those jobs?

Roberts: We think there are some noteworthy examples that we should take a look at and learn from. 

There is a combined Jackson-Roane County Community Technical Education Center. They are producing more welders than any other program at the high school level, than any other program we have in the state. That, by all accounts, is a successful program, and it’s somewhat unique in West Virginia. 

It is a program for multiple counties, and it is also very focused on skills that are needed in that community. For instance, in Jackson County, where there’s Century Aluminum, they are focusing on the kinds of jobs that companies are creating and are in need of. 

What we need to do is ramp up those models.

MSS: You’ve written that businesses won’t move to a state unless they can find workers with the skills they need. State leaders are betting heavily on manufacturing projects, energy development and data centers. Does West Virginia currently have the workforce to support that vision?

Roberts: It’s a mixed bag. The answer depends on where.

For instance, take a look at Monongalia County, which is now second in population. Monongalia County is graduating people from high school, people from community and technical education, and people from West Virginia University, and we see economic growth without question. 

We also see economic growth in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Where we’re not seeing growth is in the more isolated and rural communities of West Virginia. 

I gave a talk at Glenville State University about six or eight months ago, in which I talked about the “hollowing out” of West Virginia. The central part of West Virginia is hollowing out, but the border communities are where there is opportunity for growth. 

MSS: The Chamber and Republican leaders generally agree on issues like taxes, regulation and economic development. But there appears to be a growing divide over diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Gov. Morrisey has said “No more DEI,” while the Chamber has pledged to oppose legislation that “promotes or allows discrimination.” Is this an area where the business community and state leaders are moving in different directions? 

Roberts: I think realistically, the answer is yes. 

Employers say that they want to be able to hire the best people, regardless of their race, gender, or country of origin. Frankly, business is just better at running business than government. Regardless of who is in charge, the government doesn’t need to tell businesses how to run their business.

So this is nothing new for us. This is not a new position we have created. We’ve always opposed discrimination in the workforce. 

We’re not saying that the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion is automatically discrimination. There are those who would argue that it isn’t. But we do not think we should give any signals or vibes that we want to be a discriminatory state or a state where discrimination is encouraged. 

One of the most obvious ways to discourage discrimination is to support diversity and openness and a welcome for all. I have long said, if you had a sick child and you needed a doctor, you wouldn’t ask what that doctor’s race is, or what that doctor’s gender is, or what country that doctor is from. 

That’s all we’re really asking: that the state acknowledge that business wants to be able to make its own decisions without undue government interference.

MSS: If you were sitting down with Gov. Morrisey and legislative leaders tomorrow, what are the most important things you would tell them they could do over the next two years to strengthen West Virginia’s economy? 

Roberts: I would start with education, and I would say helping educators do their jobs, both at the higher education level and K-12. 

For instance, we need to assure teachers that if they enter the teaching profession, they’re going to make a minimum salary of at least $50,000 a year. That is, that is something the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce believes in, our members believe in, and they are willing to support it. 

Second, I think without spending any money, we could have a better, stronger workforce effort in West Virginia. West Virginia’s workforce efforts are largely paid for by federal dollars, but we need to examine the effectiveness of our workforce programs. 

Frankly, we need businesses to have a bigger voice and a better seat at the table for workforce development.

Q&A: Gov. Patrick Morrisey says West Virginia’s economic momentum is real. The state’s top business advocate thinks the state is falling behind. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

By Brandon Pho, San José Spotlight Additional reporting by George B. Sánchez-Tello and Voices of Monterey Bay This story was originally produced by San José Spotlight. On Wednesday, California Attorney General Bonta and Santa Clara County filed suit against the Trump administration aiming to block the “illegal development” of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility […]

Inside the flower shed at Little Creek Valley, trays of seedlings, stacks of newspaper bouquets and freshly cut stems mark the beginning and end of each day for the Brubaker family.

Brad and Shelly Brubaker have owned their current family farm, Little Creek Valley, for 10 years, growing and selling over one hundred types of flowers for nine months of the year.

“It’s just enjoyable all the way through,” Brad Brubaker said. “(There’s) just a lot of variety.”

The Brubakers have been selling flowers for around 15 years and have been attending the Oxford Farmers Market for nearly 14 years.

Other than attending Oxford’s farmers market, the Brubakers sell their flowers to florist shops in the area.

According to Brad Brubakter, the family begins harvesting toward the end of February. This harvesting doesn’t stop until early November. 

In early spring when weather is less predictable, the Brubakers harvest and sell blooming branches from their fruit trees.

Once the weather warms up a bit, they begin growing perennials. When summer comes, the farm is filled with hundreds of different kinds of flowers.

The farm’s flower shed, “the head of operations,” as Brad Brubaker calls it, is where the first and final steps of the family’s craft take place.

At the start of the process, the Brubakers begin by seeding hundreds of flowers in trays inside the farm’s main building over the course of a week.

“We’re planting somewhere between 15 and 30 trays a week,” Brad Brubaker said.

Then, the seeds are placed on heat mats under lights in order to encourage germination. Once these flowers germinate, they are moved and planted inside one of the property’s greenhouses.

Brad Brubaker said that the process succeeds when continual and constant harvesting and planting is achieved.

“To be able to cut flowers,” Brad Brubaker said, “we have to plant every week.”

Some flowers, like tulips, require harvesting up to three times a day.

After the flowers are collected and cut, their stems are placed in water or kept in a freezer until they are arranged, wrapped in a newspaper bouquet and sold.

Brad Brubaker said that they also supply loose flowers to the Oxford Farmers Market to allow locals to create their own bouquets.

The biggest challenge that the Brubakers face is the weather, according to Brad.

“There’s no perfect weather,” Brad Brubaker said, adding that warm and dry weather is best for flower growth.

With the summer season quickly approaching, the Brubakers are more than ready to bring their bouquets to the Oxford Farmers Market, rain or shine.

In early March, Democratic delegates from across New Mexico gathered at the Inn of the Mountain Gods on the Mescalero Apache Nation for the party’s pre-primary convention, where they heard from candidates and voted on who would qualify for their primary ballot. Republicans held their convention on the same day in nearby Ruidoso. The conventions […]

Supporters of a proposal to build a $4 billion aluminum plant at the Port of Inola aren’t packing town hall meetings.

They aren’t cheering on the attorney general’s lawsuit to try to block the development.

They aren’t booing Gov. Kevin Stitt’s calls to reduce America’s reliance on foreign metal. 

They’re quietly running the local school district and nearby Career Tech center. 

Or they’re retired now and hoping a major new company could increase local tax revenue and maybe even bring in some new restaurants.

They aren’t engaging in public rhetoric, but they do exist.

“This is controversial times 100,” said Jeff Unrau, superintendent of Inola Public Schools. “I’ve seen lifelong friendships severed in the last few months just over the thought of an aluminum smelter being built here, and it hasn’t even happened yet.”

With emotions running high in his community, Unrau said he prefers to deal in facts. And he believes the aluminum smelter is coming to Inola regardless of local opinions.

“There are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed,” Unrau said. “I’m an Inola guy; I want my cake and I want to eat it, too, but I don’t want money at the expense of the environment or people’s well-being. I want it, but I want it to be clean.”

The fact of the matter is, Inola Public Schools stands to benefit the most, eventually, if investors at Emirates Global Aluminum and Century Aluminum go through with their plan to construct the Oklahoma Primary Aluminum plant by 2030. 

Other recipients of local property tax revenue that stand to see their coffers grow to a lesser degree are the Town of Inola, Rogers County and its health department and fairgrounds, and Northeast Technology Center.

Unrau’s office is in the space once occupied by the second-grade classroom he attended as a child. While being the school superintendent in his hometown is his dream job, trying to literally keep a roof over students’ heads in outdated school facilities in constant disrepair has been anything but.

Local voters failed two school bond issues before a third try, in April, narrowly passed. That effort will soon yield $60 million to update and expand Inola’s elementary school.

A rapidly expanding tissue paper manufacturing plant in Inola, run by an Italian company called Sofidel, has also begun boosting annual revenue for the school district. 

But the aluminum smelter and additional related businesses expected to be built in Inola have the potential to hike local property tax collections to a degree that a small-town guy like Unrau finds difficult to comprehend.

“I think it’s going to be a windfall,” he said. “Before Sofidel came in six years ago, we were very state aid-dependent. I believe in a few years, if this smelter happens, we could be off state aid (for public schools).”

“Here’s the Turmoil We’re All In”

Controversy arose when Inola area residents started researching how an aluminum plant works. 

Because pure aluminum doesn’t exist in nature, an intensive extraction process is the only way to produce the strong, lightweight metal that is in ever-increasing demand for infrastructure, technology, food packaging, and the automotive, aerospace, defense, and energy sectors.

Smelting involves large, hot vats of chemicals and requires a massive, continuous jolt of electricity to produce pure liquid aluminum that can be cast into various shapes and products. Local concerns center on hazardous solid waste and toxic air emissions, including hydrogen fluoride and perfluorocarbons, produced during the process. 

So, who is it that wanted a smelter to be built in Inola, a town of about 2,000 surrounded by verdant hay fields and cattle ranches? And why?

To hear Gov. Kevin Stitt tell it, the idea originated with President Donald Trump, as a way for the U.S. to become less reliant on a so-called hostile nation.

“President Trump believed that Oklahoma was the best state to center this effort when he chose us to build the first aluminum processing facility since 1980,” Stitt said in a new video posted to his social media accounts on Sunday. “Every little thing that depends on aluminum currently depends on China …. Every time China tightens its grip on aluminum supply chains, they threaten our ability to defend our nation. President Trump understands this is a national security emergency hiding in plain sight.” 

Spurred by concerned local residents who have organized under the banner of Stop the Smelter, Oklahoma Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Gentner Drummond filed a lawsuit last week in district court seeking to block construction of the smelter, which would occupy about 350 acres along the Verdigris River.

One of those concerned local residents is Joleta Ingersoll, who runs the 11,500-acre McFarlin Ingersoll cattle ranch founded in 1918 by her great-great-grandfather. It’s 10 miles from the proposed smelter site. 

She said Oklahoma’s environmental protection laws and regulations are designed for the oil and gas industry, so she has no faith in the government protecting families or cattle, including hers, from smelting toxins.

She also believes local leaders were misled by economic development promoters’ early sales pitches for a metal processing plant, which she said was a gross oversimplification.

“Nobody knew anything until they voted and that includes our city council,” Ingersoll said. “Then when it came out as a smelter when the NDA was released, we were like, `You all just bought a big fat pig here when you did not know what you were buying.’ And now here’s the turmoil we’re all in.”

Stop the Smelter is consulting with attorneys and pushing the town council for a six-month moratorium. But Ingersoll hasn’t given up hope that somebody with much greater political power will reconsider.

“If I could call President Trump today and say, ‘I know we need another aluminum plant, but look around this area!’ If he could see Inola, I truly believe he would say, ‘Let’s get her moved out of here.’ It’s that bad.”

Ingersoll’s sister, Wendy Keener, is president of the local school board, so she has had to weigh the pros and cons through that lens, as well.

Parents have been contacting her with questions about whether it would be safe for their children to continue playing in the dirt and grass at recess, or even just to breathe the air at school, since the school is three miles from the proposed smelter site.

“It’s concerning as a parent,” Keener said. “It’s absolute fear. I haven’t talked to anyone who will admit they’re for it.”

Keener said the school board has only received official accounts about how beneficial the smelter would be for Inola Public Schools’ bottom line. 

But her own inquiries into how a smelter operates ultimately informed her opinion on the matter.

“There’s no doubt the school district would benefit from the TIF, upfront and down the road,” Keener said. “And the school really needs the budget help. But my stance is it’s not worth it to jeopardize our community, our livelihoods for something that’s not safe. The superintendent, the town leaders, they’re put in a difficult spot. But once you start learning what an aluminum smelter actually does, it’s like, `Whoa!’ It’s not something you can take back. It’s really scary.”

“This Firestorm Has Hit”

Local leaders developed a tax increment financing plan for the proposed $4 billion aluminum smelter. The plan calls for a $429 million economic incentive package that would capture a portion of local property and sales taxes, plus utility franchise fees generated by the plant to fund civic infrastructure, port and school upgrades. 

Inola Town Administrator Scott Devers said he sees no downsides to the proposed smelter after extensive meetings with aluminum company representatives. 

“People around here don’t understand this will be the lowest-emitting smelter in the world based on best available technology, which is what the company will use,” Devers said. “They still don’t know how efficient this thing will be. It breaks my heart that we have a community that is divided; it’s almost like a civil war. We have families and friends that are divided over this one issue, and that makes me sad.”

In Devers’ view, opponents to the Oklahoma Primary Aluminum plant are really opposed to growth but have cloaked their argument with environmental concerns.

“They’ve been here for decades as an agricultural, ranching community, but that lifestyle has not allowed our kids to stay here,” Devers said. “They have to leave here to get an education and they have to leave here to get a job. They don’t want us to grow and they’re using the environmental thing as a crutch, is my opinion.” 

A global engineering firm is designing the smelter plant according to the specific size and shape of real estate in Inola that developers have optioned. That design work will inform future applications for required permits from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

Among their most ardent supporters willing to speak out are the very first local residents and leaders who scrutinized and ultimately greenlit the idea of establishing a TIF incentive plan to support the smelter development at the Port of Inola. 

The nearly dozen members of Inola’s Local Development Act Review Committee included representatives from each of the public entities that have agreed to defer new tax revenue from the plant for a number of years.

But their review work had drawn no public notice until now.

“This is the first time I’ve been asked about that committee!” said Derek Beller, superintendent of Northeast Tech. “This firestorm has hit after it was voted on and the city council approved it. I don’t know what else they can fight for other than environmental concerns.”

Beller and other officials at the local Career Tech center are supportive of the TIF incentive plan and the aluminum plant development, in general, because of the potential to train new workers and for new ad valorem revenue from housing, restaurant and retail development they think will follow.

“It’s the stimulus that gets everything started,” said Beller. “Without that plant, we are sitting on undeveloped land at the Port of Inola that is collecting almost nothing.”

Beller’s outlook is also informed by his personal experience of living just one mile from the sights and sounds and smells of CF Industries’ Verdigris Complex, which makes ammonia and is the second-largest producer of urea ammonium nitrate in North America.

“It has never crossed my mind to worry about it because EPA is involved,” he said. “I’ve become used to it. For Northeast Tech and who we train in construction trades — electricians, carpenters, welders, heavy equipment operators — those are the people who will just flourish from this new aluminum plant.  

“From that workforce development perspective, it was a no-brainer to put the trust in the EPA and other environmental groups to ensure this is going to be viable and safe for the community,” Beller said.

Northeast Tech Board President Rosalie Griffith has lived more than 50 of her 79 years in Inola. She is a retired accountant who served 20 years on the Inola school board and now serves on the town’s rural economic development and chamber boards.

She believes her neighbors engaged with Stop the Smelter are relying on outdated environmental impact studies from plants built in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Last week, when Attorney General Drummond came to town to explain his reasons for filing a lawsuit, she went to hear the man out. But after clocking the event at eight minutes, in total, she was left with the impression that the legal maneuver was a political stunt intended to garner Drummond votes in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

“Technology has come a long way and we have laws we have to abide by as far as emissions from these companies that come in and build factories, so you’re going to have to prove to me it’s going to be detrimental to the community,” Griffith said. “I’ve heard the criticisms that the main developer is foreign-owned, but Sofidel is out here and they’re a foreign-owned company that has been great for the community. I just want Inola to grow and flourish.”

TIF incentive review committee member Leroy Johnson, 83, moved to town in 1968 and commuted to his job at American Airlines in Tulsa for more than 32 years before retiring. 

His three children and most of his grandchildren graduated from Inola, and one of his great-grandchildren is a student there.

His experience with weighing budgetary matters and even some divisive policies as a member of the local school board from 1979-1999 prompted him to attend recent Inola town council meetings to listen to both officials and his concerned neighbors.

“We have to trust the EPA, and a lot of people don’t,” Johnson said. “They’re not going to let us put anything that’s gonna kill cows five or 10 miles down the road. That’s the reason I’m still for it. Some people I consider my friends, I’ve put my arms around their neck and told them I just wouldn’t vote for anything that would hurt anybody.”

Johnson also said he believes it is past time for the rural town, which serves as a bedroom community to Catoosa, Broken Arrow and Tulsa, to embrace opportunities for growth.

“We don’t even have a decent place to eat,” he said. “This will benefit the school district, even though that’s probably five or 10 years down the road before it’s on the books. I’m for it for the total community.”

The post The Quiet Supporters of Inola’s Aluminum Smelter Are Running the School District and Career Tech Center appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

For the first time in the state’s history, South Dakotans will vote in a runoff election July 28 to choose a candidate for governor. Republicans Toby Doeden and Gov. Larry Rhoden were the top two candidates in the June 2 primary election, but neither received 35% of the vote, which triggered the runoff.

Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about the runoff election:

If I didn’t vote in the June 2 Republican primary, may I still vote in the runoff?

Yes. Registered Republicans, regardless of whether they voted on June 2, may vote in the runoff election.

What about the general election in the fall?

Yes. You are not required to vote in primary elections to cast your ballot in general elections.

How long do I have to change my voter registration?

Voters have until July 13 to change or register their voting affiliation. You can find the form to do so on the South Dakota Secretary of State’s website, where you will print the form and submit it to your county auditor.

South Dakota voter guide

What South Dakotans need to know about voting in statewide elections, and who and what are on the ballot.

South Dakota News WatchCarson Walker

Who pays for the runoff?

South Dakota state law says that counties are responsible for paying all statewide general election fees. That includes the cost of ballots, poll workers and election equipment. The South Dakota Secretary of State’s office reimburses counties for the cost of post-election audits and administers the system that allows overseas voters, including military personnel, to vote and request ballots.

How do I know where I vote?

You can view your polling place for the July 28 election on the South Dakota Secretary of State’s voter information portal. You will need to provide your full name and either your ZIP code or birthday.

Is this the first runoff for governor?

Yes. The state’s first-ever runoff for governor is happening this year because of a law passed in 1985. Codified law 12-6-51.1 says if one candidate does not receive 35% of the vote in a primary, a runoff election between the top two candidates will take place eight weeks later to determine who advances to the general election. Before that law was passed, if a candidate did not receive 35% of the vote, the winner was decided at state party conventions.

Former Aberdeen Legislator Crafted Law That’s Led To South Dakota’s First Gubernatorial Runoff | Aberdeen Insider

His blog can be found online at sodakgovs.com, and he added a Wednesday, June 3 entry about the first gubernatorial runoff election in state history.

Aberdeen InsiderScott Waltman

If I live in Sioux Falls, may I vote in runoff elections for mayor and governor at the same time?

Yes, but for a limited amount of time, and only at specific locations. The runoff election for Sioux Falls mayor will take place on June 23, and the runoff election for governor will take place on July 28. They are separately administered elections.

But absentee voting for governor opens June 12 and absentee voting for mayor opens June 16. Sioux Falls residents may absentee vote for both races at either the Minnehaha or Lincoln County auditor’s offices. That means that between June 16 and June 22 – the day before the Sioux Falls mayoral election – registered Republicans can visit either office and vote absentee for both elections on the same day. Absentee voting is not available on election day.

Start here: Sioux Falls 101

Want to get involved in the decisions that shape Sioux Falls? Start here to get a local government crash course.

Sioux Falls SimplifiedMakayla Voris

South Dakota News Watch is an independent nonprofit. Read, donate and subscribe for free at sdnewswatch.org. Contact reporter/Report for America corps member Molly Wetsch: 605-531-7382/molly.wetsch@sdnewswatch.org.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Like many families, Jessica and Adrian Garcia, who live in the mountain resort town of Ruidoso, had to cobble together different child care options for their son when they returned to work after his birth in 2023.

In August 2021, New Mexico expanded subsidized free child care to households earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty line — at the time, $87,840 for a family of three. The Garcias earned too much to qualify.

Jessica, who works at the local branch of Eastern New Mexico University, and Adrian, a police officer, settled for a part-time day care schedule two days a week that cost $300 a month for their son to attend daycare two days a week because they couldn’t afford full-time hours. Jessica’s mother also pitched in to help. At the time, Adrian had to bargain constantly with his boss to juggle graveyard shifts and child care, and if his schedule changed, his wife and mother-in-law both had to rearrange their own work on short notice to accommodate his.

Before long, Jessica received an ultimatum from her job: If she couldn’t work full-time hours consistently, she would be demoted to a part-time position and lose the family’s health insurance benefits.

Their luck turned last November when New Mexico became the first state in the country to launch free, universal child care for children from birth through age 13, regardless of household income. The expansion to a truly universal program “was just a big blessing to us,” said Jessica, who was able to enroll her son in full-time care. “It’s been a huge help.”

New Mexico garnered a wave of attention when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced in September that all of the state’s families would be eligible for child care assistance. “Child care is essential to family stability, workforce participation, and New Mexico’s future prosperity,” she said at the time. 

In March 2026,  requirements for the program shifted. Families earning up to 600 percent of the federal poverty line are now eligible for free child care without copays, the equivalent of a four-person family earning $198,000 annually. Copays beyond that threshold are also contingent on if the price of oil decreases.  Participating families can choose from a wide range of options, including center-based care, home-based providers, before- and after-school care, and faith-based centers. On average, the universal program is expected to save participating families $12,000 a year. (Private providers still have the option to not serve families receiving child care assistance and continue to charge tuition.) 

What has received less attention outside New Mexico, however, is the state’s attempt to fairly compensate the long underappreciated and underpaid early childhood workforce.

Because the state is now in charge of early education through the universal program, it has also stepped into the role of being responsible for child care wages. It has had to decide questions such as how to weigh experience against education in child care wages, how to financially incentivize centers to adopt rigorous measures of quality and a whole host of issues that have typically been left to the market. 

But the child care “market,” as it currently exists in other states, has primarily produced poverty wages for workers and exorbitant costs for families. There’s a hope that if New Mexico can iron out these issues, it can lead the way for other places that might want to implement a universal program, such as New York City. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced earlier this year that the city will create 2,000 free child care slots for 2-year-olds in the city on its way to scaling up a universal and free program for all young children, but the city would need 30,000 new child care workers to make that work. 

New Mexico has currently set aside $60 million for increased wages for the state’s child care workforce. A working group is now refining a “wage scale and career lattice framework” intended to support experience, education and quality. 

“It’s so exciting to see New Mexico grapple with these questions,” said Lena Bilik, a senior program manager at the Roosevelt Institute, a left-leaning think tank that advocates for universal child care. “Other countries have realized this is a place where the government has to step in. If you’re going to expand your system, you can’t do it without increasing wages. That’s starting to be a bigger conversation.”

Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues. 

Child care providers and advocates in the state have different opinions about the efforts thus far. 

Barbara Luna Tedrow, a child care center owner in Farmington, first opened her business, A Gold Star Academy, over 25 years ago with 60 children and 10 staff members. Farmington is oil and gas country surrounded by badlands and grayish sands. It’s also just outside of Navajo Nation, making it a border town with a significant Native American population. 

Around 2012, Tedrow was approached by an oil field worker — New Mexico is the nation’s second-largest producer of oil — who offered to finance the construction of a second child care center. Over the next decade, grant funding and solid relationships with city officials helped her expand to five branches. Now, her team cares for 700 children, with 400 of those slots opened up in the past three years alone. Part of her success, she said, is because she worked to advocate for child care as a means of complementing oil and gas jobs.

“If you want cities to flourish, they need high-quality child care,” she said. “All of these new employees want to go to work, but they can’t without it.”

Tedrow’s employees receive medical, vision and dental insurance as well as a 401(k) retirement program, which together cost $15,000 per employee on top of their salary. Therefore, Tedrow said she worries about what might happen if state reimbursement rates decline in the future or if the state increases the minimum wage for employees without increasing the state reimbursement along with it. 

“We’re dependent on the state for wages, benefits and everything else to run a high-quality child care center,” she said. 

Mirna Polendo, the director of Imagination Station, a Christian preschool in the mountain resort town of Ruidoso, made some changes to her program when the state moved to a universal system. New Mexico pays enhanced rates to centers that are open at least 10 hours a day and that pay increased wages to teachers. Polendo extended her hours from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and bumped employee wages to $17 an hour to qualify for more state reimbursement. 

In return, Polendo receives $1,400 per month from the state to care for an 18-month-old infant, $1,075 for a toddler and $890 for kids ages 3 to 5. Across the board, the state reimburses more for care than private tuition ever did. 

If her center meets certain quality measures, the state reimbursements could be even higher. But one of those quality measures would require her to bump staff wages up to $18 an hour. That is right on the borderline of what Polendo can afford to pay staff while remaining in the black, she said — “I can’t do higher than that.” 

Olga Grays, a home daycare provider in Las Cruces, has worked as an early childhood educator for 20 years and is licensed to care for up to 12 kids at a time in her home. In her backyard and garden area, vibrant streams of papel picado — colored paper with intricate perforated designs — are taped up across the shaded patio. Colorful play structures and swings are a few steps away. The setup feels so personal, which Grays credits to the nature of the business. 

“Home daycares have this connection with parents that a lot of centers can’t,” she said. Some days, Grays opens up at 4 a.m. to accommodate a family, and closes as late as 11 p.m. 

Grays has to pay her employees $16 an hour to accept state subsidies and has chosen at this time not to make the changes to her business that would unlock larger reimbursement from the state. 

“I’d rather spend my time in daycare with children providing the services they need,” she said. “I don’t believe that taking the time out to do that paperwork will help them.”

But that means that any of her employees could leave for another center that is paying more, she said. She supports linking wages to years of experience and educational attainments instead of focusing solely on a center’s quality metrics.  

While the work that remains is complex, that should not overshadow the years of effort and advocacy that it took for the state to reach this point, said Jacob Vigil, the chief legislative officer for New Mexico Voices for Children, a state advocacy group. 

“It took over a decade for us to get here,” Vigil said. “It was a campaign that was broad based and that had a diverse base of folks that really understood and coalesced around the messaging of why early childhood is important.” 

Contact editor Christina Samuels at 212-678-3635 or samuels@hechingerreport.org

This story about universal child care was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.  

The post Lessons from the first state in the nation to offer universal child care  appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

Solar energy just provided more electricity in the United States than coal for the first time on record — marking a milestone for the rise of renewables in America. 

While gas and nuclear plants still lead the country’s energy mix, solar contributed 12.8 percent of the nation’s electrons in May, according to an analysis of government data by Ember, an energy think tank. Coal, meanwhile, provided just 12.2 percent. Just five years ago, solar was less than half of its current levels and coal was at 20 percent. 

“Overtaking coal for the first month on record shows just how far solar has come, from a niche contributor to the third-largest and fastest-growing source of power in the U.S. electricity system,” said Nicolas Fulghum, senior data analyst at Ember, in a press release. “From Texas to California, markets across the U.S. are betting on solar to meet rising power needs.”

The turnaround comes even as political headwinds have shifted against renewable energy. 

Last summer, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which rolled back enormous swaths of former President Joe Biden’s landmark climate change legislation, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. And President Donald Trump has actively sought to hinder renewable energy development, even offering to pay at least one oil company $1 billion to stop building its offshore wind projects. 

The latest electricity data comes the same month that the Trump administration announced $700 million in funding for investments in the coal industry. It included money for what would be the country’s first new coal-fired power plants in 13 years — sourced from funds previously dedicated to reducing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, not deepening it. 

“Today we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal,” said Trump, who campaigned on the coal-friendly slogan ‘dig, baby, dig.” 

Ember’s analysis found that coal generation in May was actually up slightly from April, when it hit an all-time low. Its share of the grid will also likely tick up in the summer, as cooling needs peak. But the steady downward trend over the last several years suggests that even all the president’s men might not be able to put the coal industry back together again. 

“Spending $700 million to bail out the coal industry is like throwing a lifeline to a ship that has already sunk,” Lena Moffitt, executive director of the environmental group Evergreen Action, told the Associated Press. Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association disagreed, telling the AP that coal generation helps shield consumers from the impacts of volatile energy prices and supply challenges exacerbated by AI.

Regardless of what coal does, experts believe the solar market will continue its upward march. While installations dropped in 2025 compared to 2024, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association, it still accounted for more than half of all newly installed electricity capacity. Even MAGA influencers are promoting it. 

“We’re going to just keep seeing more and more renewables brought onto the grid,” said Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy at the Sierra Club. “That’s good for people’s wallets, it’s good for their health, it’s good for the planet.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline For first time, Americans are getting more of their electricity from solar than coal on Jun 10, 2026.

Santa Clara County fairgrounds leaders caused an uproar this year for pushing the annual fair date to keep vendors happy and – as a consequence – some youth farmers out of contention for junior livestock shows.

The parents’ response: Fine, we’ll organize our own.

Preparations for an alternative fair are now underway among farmers in South County, one of the South Bay’s last remaining agricultural vestiges, as a form of protest against the county fair’s new Aug. 19-23 dates this year. All elementary through high school age students participating in two agricultural student programs – 4-H and Future Farmers of America – can show their cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and chickens at the new “South Valley Ag Fair.” The alternative event will run July 27 and July 28 at Thorson’s Arena in San Martin with an auction on Aug. 1 at Rancher’s Choice Stockyard in Aromas, off Highway 101.

“I grew up in San Jose and have attended the Santa Clara County Fair since the late 1970s,” Megan Davies, a parent of three Gilroy High School farming students who’s supporting the new fair, told San José Spotlight. “(The county fair) is not an event my family will be supporting moving forward.”

Organizers didn’t have the details yet on operating costs, funding or expected attendance for the alternative event. But they said sponsorships are steadily flowing in with official backing from Future Farmers of America and support from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students and faculty who run the Western Bonanza Junior Livestock Show – considered the “Best in the West” for such events – in Paso Robles every year. They added the Cal Poly Livestock judging team will be involved.

“Many of the livestock families and FFA chapters as well as some local 4-H clubs have come together and we have created our own ‘Fair’ as a solution to our current situation,” Monica Simon, a former FFA member whose child is in the program in Morgan Hill, told San José Spotlight. “I think the Santa Clara County Fair will look much different this year as well as in the future as a result of our new fair and community support we are receiving.”

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Executive Director Salene Duarte is taking the alternative fair in stride.

“We really don’t see the South Valley Ag Fair as competition,” Duarte told San José Spotlight. “Instead, we think it’s another great place for young people to show their animals and keep building their skills—whether that’s caring for animals, being a leader, keeping records or speaking in public.”

 

 

The county fair has traditionally happened in the month of July. Duarte has said the new August dates are meant to accommodate post-pandemic shifts to fair vendors’ schedules, and will likely be the date for future years. The change was announced last December, months after youth farmers — some of whom will start college out of town by the new date — had already purchased cattle and bred sows. Parents said that would have forced youth farmers to balance their participation in the junior livestock shows with their first week of school. Parents said the date change would also affect some youth finalizing their farmer degrees. It also possibly meant three extra weeks of financial burden to feed and care for livestock.

“These kids and teens are our future farmers, ag teachers and veterinarians,” Davies said. “It is with pride that I fully support this amazing coming together of the community for our agriculture youth.”

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.

 

The post South County families create their own livestock fair appeared first on San José Spotlight.

Voters in Georgia are paying more attention to the Public Service Commission races this November, as concerns about data center growth and pocketbook issues override traditional party lines, with many voters hoping for a change in direction from the powerful utility commission.

The Current is an inclusive nonprofit, non-partisan news organization providing in-depth watchdog journalism for Savannah and Coastal Georgia’s communities.