SEARCHLIGHT NEWS
President Donald Trump is joined by South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, at left, and other officials as Trump speaks to reporters about healthcare in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 18, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump ‘can make his own decisions,’ governor says after witnessing president’s rant about journalism
By Joshua Haiar and Seth Tupper
After pledging to protect press freedoms throughout his nearly two years in office, Republican South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden found himself standing in front of reporters Friday with President Donald Trump as the president defended a decision to ban three news organizations from the White House.
U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, speaks to members of the Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary Club on Sept. 21, 2026. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
By Makenzie Huber
SIOUX FALLS — Partisan squabbles are keeping Congress from effecting change, and President Donald Trump has made it worse when he has “lost focus,” said South Dakota Republican U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, who added that he finds many of Trump’s personal characteristics “lacking.”
Johnson, who will leave office in January, aired his frustrations about national politics and celebrated his staff and some colleagues at a Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary Club meeting Monday. During a question-and-answer session, he reflected on his eight years in Congress.
FROM STATES NEWSROOM
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is urging President Donald Trump to embargo diesel fuel exports as rising costs impact farmers in his largely agricultural state. Grassley is shown at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on July 23, 2026. (Screenshot from committee webcast)
By Ashley Murray
WASHINGTON — Diesel prices hit a record average of $6.51 a gallon Monday, and some in President Donald Trump’s own party are breaking their support for the ongoing war in Iran that has driven fuel prices to staggering levels in the United States and across the globe.
D.C. NEWS
CNN, MS Now, Politico sue Trump over White House ban | Jennifer Shutt
NATIONAL NEWS
Oregon, 11 other states reach settlement with Paramount, Warner Bros. over merger | Oregon Capital Chronicle
Georgia school system abruptly bans Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’ | Georgia Recorder
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