South Dakota
updated
4:21 a.m.
Elouise Cobell is no longer with us to see the results of her nearly sixteen-year efforts that exposed some of the mismanagement of Indian trusts in the Interior Department distributed to tribal members. Before she died an appeal to that settlement was filed in US District Court according the Albuquerque Journal : Boulder, Colo., resident Kimberly Craven , a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oy...
interested party - Mon 7:00 a.m.
The standard Republican legislator joke has something to do with "don't tax me, tax the other guy behind the tree." Representative Stan Adelstein of Rapid City has a fine variation of that. Put on a special summer sales tax so all those evil tourists who dump money into South Dakota while visiting or traveling through here. City sales tax on......
Dakota Today - Sun 4:29 p.m. - 16 clicks 
From The Onion . The Washington Post constructed this chart to show the actual work done by Planned Parenthood in response to the Susan G. Komen Foundation fiasco . The right wing furor to discredit Planned Parenthood, as you can note, is based upon only three percent of what the organization actually does. Contraception advice comprises 35 per...
Northern Valley Beacon - Sun 10:05 a.m.
Holy crap! @wikileaks: CIA says , as to five volumes of documents on the Bay of Pigs: "Trust us. You don't need to read it for yourselves." The best line from Tinker , Tailor , Soldier , Spy : I don't know about you George, but I'm feeling seriously under-fucked . From New Dimensions, The Foremothers of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity : The war in Iraq has been called a ...
interested party - Sun 6:45 a.m.
Update, 5 February: Santorum not dead and feeding on Newt's zombie campaign . @PeterHambyCNN: Romney camp had been eyeing a campaign appearance in Minnesota but canceled plans to focus on CO instead. Santorum may take MN. ___________________________________________ Or Cheney's, or both? I woke up thinking that Rick Santorum has nothing to lose. None of the other candidates in the earth hat...
interested party - Sat 6:48 a.m.
KW sez a protected endangered wolf was killed near Custer: Brad Merrill, a special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service in Pierre, said that he couldn't discuss specifics of the incident, which remains under investigation. Merrill said wolves are still protected in most area s, including western South Dakota. And the gray wolf is on the state list of rare, threatened or en...
interested party - Fri 7:04 a.m. - 13 clicks
That's the headline in The New York Times . By granting exemptions to laws and regulations that act as a deterrent to securities fraud, the S.E.C. has let financial giants like JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America continue to have advantages reserved for the most dependable companies, making it easier for them to raise money from investors, for example, and to avoid liability fro...
Northern Valley Beacon - Fri 7:04 a.m.
It's called death. On one section of the reservation, people must boil drinking water because chemicals, possibly the result of the oil and natural gas drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, have contaminated the water supply. And fearing the chemicals might explode in a home, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered residents to run fans and otherwise ensure ventilation while ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Thu 2:47 p.m.
Wild Earth Guardians releases Report from the Burrow on Groundhog Day: “Despite being essential to a healthy grassland ecosystem, prairie dogs are not getting the protection they deserve,” said Taylor Jones, Endangered Species Advocate for WildEarth Guardians. Scientists consider prairie dogs keystone species . Like the keystone that supports an archway, prairie dogs support whole ecos...
interested party - Thu 11:40 a.m.
Update, 4 Feb: Mr. Mercer said it wasn't his fault. _________________________ ip is blocked from dissent. The apologist for the SDGOP purged all dissenting comments from Pure Pierre Politburo . Rep. Justin Cronin (earth hater-23), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Member is pushing a bill that represents a chilling effect on tribal sovereignty . The Koch wing of the earth hater party is...
interested party - Thu 9:07 a.m. - 12 clicks
@SanfordLab: What is the Long Baseline Experiment (LBNE) and why is an underground facility essential to its success? KUNM brought news that the Navajo , one of the largest tribes in the US, has entered a three-year pact with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory . The Arizona Business Journal has the story: The lab signed a memorandum of understanding with the Navajo Nation , which ...
interested party - Thu 8:01 a.m.
A friend remembered a description of Mitt Gingrish made by another GOP candidate:" Mitt is a well-lubricated windvane." After listening to Newt a few times too often, I have decided he is a rusty windvane with some mighty nasty slash-inducing sharp edges. I am not an unbiased observer by any means, but it appears that the GOP primary voters are......
Dakota Today - Wed 5:45 p.m.
From the Raw Story : A majority of Californians believe that marijuana should be regulated like wine, according to a recent statewide poll sponsored by legalization advocates. Sixty-two percent of residents in the Golden State support the Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012 , a ballot initiative that will be voted on in November. Last October, a Gallup poll showed that half of American...
interested party - Wed 11:23 a.m.
Robert V. Remini: a chronicler of compromise as a political necessity. During a recent election campaign, I stopped in at the printers to pick up some work they did for the party. As I approached the service desk, I simply told the clerk "Brown County Democrats." A woman behind me suddenly exploded with a sneering "Democrats!" And she proceeded to rage with a...
Northern Valley Beacon - Wed 9:09 a.m. - 2 clicks
And now something completely different....and it is not yet April Fools Day. Strange Object in Baltic Sea-- CNN via Huffington Post And U-TUBE with Iris Dement singing the haunting OUR TOWN My daughter thought Iris Dement sounded like a goat and immediately went into the "It's the goat lady" whenever she heard her sing. I did not find her sound......
Dakota Today - Tue 6:49 p.m.
If you missed the last Moyers and Company show on public TV, you can view the show on banking writing the rules. Moyer and Company: Bankers Writing the Rules. Interesting video from around 1999 with Sen. Tim Johnson pandering to the banking industry and Sen. Byron Dorgen of North Dakota correctly predicting the economic devastation that resulted as a consequence......
Dakota Today - Tue 6:03 p.m. - 14 clicks
My guess is that Steve Sibson is suffering from depression. Radio Lab is one of my favorite public radio shows: Robert Krulwich is a master producer. Remember this 2007 story ? A piece on Seattle's KPLU the other day brought glutamic acid closer to home as mushrooms are sources of glutamate. The smell of sex, especially in Hypomyces lactifluorum , has been a fascination. This...
interested party - Tue 8:01 a.m.
This afternoon, SDPB-TV carried coverage of the SD Senate today when they killed a resolution supporting postal service in South Dakota, and passed a resolution urging instruction in the bible as literature to be an elective in SD Public Schools. Those who think there is a deity, ought to be forced to produce objectiveproof of such existence before dragging their......
Dakota Today - Jan 30 - 13 clicks
Update, 31 January: Colstrip benefits PPL Montana investors at the expense of the facts . Indiana coal expansion would destroy bat habitat . --------------------- The Boston Globe collected 48 photos that brings it all home. Former New Mexico Governor and Libertarian Party candidate for president, Gary Johnson , called for repeal of the 'Patriot Act' at ACLU speech. The GOP ...
interested party - Jan 30
Mildly amusing that as "Argus Leader Media" or some such is planning to put some variety of paywall, firewall on the papers digital content, KELO is adding a TV ad promoting their "FREE, FREE, FREE" digital online content. I imagine if the digital content becomes only available to ARGUS subscribers, the actual newspaper will become even more of a shopper......
Dakota Today - Jan 30
NPR and ProPublica have found that Freddie Mac, which is chartered to facilitate home ownership, has used its investments to bet on the failure of homeowners. Here is the opening of the story at NPR, which you can read in its entirety through this link: Freddie Mac, a taxpayer-owned mortgage company, is supposed to make homeownership easier. One thing that makes owning a home more affo...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 30
by Lorraine Collins Very occasionally I pen a few lines of verse and the other day I cameacross a couple of lines for a poem Iwas going to title "Scandal". I wrote the lines several weeks ago based on items in the news: Women in Yemen are burning their veils. Saudi women want to drive. I never got any further with that idea but when I looked at a news i...
Black Hills Monitor - Jan 30
A couple of sentences from an editorial in the Rapid City Journal typifies what has become a cliche: " We can support an initiative that rewards good teachers and roots out poor ones. School districts need a way to get rid of poor teachers, and if ending tenure helps accomplish this, it will be a welcome change." The current wisdom is that our public schools are impeded by a horde of ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 29
Update, 31 January: @DBleizeffer Dustin Bleizeffer, Pavillion study upheld by independent research group. ----------------- Sioux Falls ALEC legislator, Lora Hubbel is calling for the gang rape of South Dakota aquifers and watersheds according to the Argus Leader : In a draft report, which the industry disputes, the Environmental Protection Agency linked groundwater contamination in the ...
interested party - Jan 29 - 3 clicks
A woman was leaving a convenience store with her morning coffee when she noticed a most unusual funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery. A long black hearse was followed by a second long black hearse about 50 feet behind the first one. Behind the second hearse was a solitary woman walking a pit bull on a leash. Behind her, a short distance back, were about 200 women walking single fi...
interested party - Jan 28
She wrote her senior thesis about him at Wellesley College. Which is probably the reason that Newt Gingrich keeps bringing him up . But what is more significant is what Gingrich is trying to do by bringing him up. Gingrich is one of the preeminent word shyster s operating in today's political culture of word shysterism. Willard Romney is right behind him snapping a...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 28
South Dakotans are being beset with ideas to again replace the existing South Dakota flag. I have seen the proposed flag and think it looks like a design for a bag of dogfood or hogfeed. Newspapers have examples of good and bad flags compliments of sites like those immediately following: Flag Survey of North American Flags and NAVA Flag Design......
Dakota Today - Jan 27 - 2 clicks
During the CNN debate last night the earth haters were asked which Latino(a)s were important to the earth hater party. Dipshit N ew Mexico Governor Susana Martinez ' name was mentioned. KUNM alerted ip to a ruckus in town. The guest of New Mexico legislator Bill Rehm suffered a scratched cornea during a confrontation according to Steve Terrell of the New Mexican : A protest at a dinne...
interested party - Jan 27 - 2 clicks
From the USDA : Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today signaled the U.S. Department of Agriculture's intent to issue a new planning rule for America's 193-million acre National Forest System that seeks to deliver stronger protections for forests, water, and wildlife while supporting the economic vitality of our rural communities, by releasing online a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact ...
interested party - Jan 26
Fewer people watched President Obama's State of the Union Address this year suggesting that Americans are giving him the benefit of the doubt about a successful crossing for the ship of state. One right leaning polling group quizzed likely voters: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barac...
interested party - Jan 26
This should be a no-brainer: A report produced by the Preservation Green Lab of the National Trust for Historic Preservation provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the potential environmental benefit of building reuse. This groundbreaking study, The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse , concludes that, when comparing buildings of equivalen...
interested party - Jan 25
{Or, when Chinese communism beats American capitalism} Click here for update. Election or American Spring? It is not that sometimes the mainstream media shows a preference for liberal policies in its editorial stances that bothers conservative America. It's when it digs up and reports facts that ties the knots in the regressive panties that g...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 25
Check the Raucus Caucus link in above menu for transcripts of President Obama's State of the Union Speech and the Republican response. Make your comments there or here, but you will have the actual text, so you have a chance to know what you are talking about. [[Note of Jan 26, 2012 I have noticed some compaints from Democrats that......
Dakota Today - Jan 24
From Oregon Public Broadcasting : The idea is to inject water into the cracks of hot rock 10,000 feet underneath the western flank of the Newberry Volcano , where temperatures can exceed 550 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a nice heat source for making steam to power a turbine. Geothermal energy is normally generated by pulling preexisting hot water and steam from the ground. Linda Christian, the...
interested party - Jan 24
US House candidates in Montana, Democrats Franke Wilmer , Dave Strohmaier , and Kim Gillan are embracing our party's platform and leaders. In South Dakota, one Democrat is running his US House primary campaign in South Dakota while ignoring his President. Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth posted comments at Madville Times that suggest that he intends to court voters outside our p...
interested party - Jan 24 - 2 clicks
Ron Paul's stance on Europe-based military deployments may be reflective of US voters according to a GOP polling firm: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 31% of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States should not remove all its troops from Western Europe. However, 47% favor withdrawing those troops and letting the Europeans defend themselves . Twenty-one perc...
interested party - Jan 23
That old black racism that we know so well The second Republican debate in South Carolina was a historic re-enactment that took us back to the time George Wallace stood in a doorway at the University of Alabama and proclaimed segregation forever. Newt Gingrich was the principle performer in reviving a languishing racism that brought the audience to its feet in rauc...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 21
Don't hassle me with your Christianity. I say, don't lay none of that jive on me. What it did to you is plain to see. Ain't no fool gonna jive that way with me. Ol' Massa's ch...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 21 - 2 clicks
President Obama: Tourism is the number one service we export. Every year, tens of millions of tourists come from all over the world to visit America. They stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants, and see all the sights America has to offer . That’s good for local businesses. That’s good for local economies. And the more folks who visit America, the more Americans we get back to w...
interested party - Jan 21
@AnonymousIRC: US Department of Justice usdoj.gov TANGO DOWN. Cause ur doing shits bitches. #Megaupload #Anonymous #Eatcock. We are legion. Expect us. The communiques occurred all day long yesterday starting in the wee hours. BMI , the music distributor was taken down and is down at this posting, too. BBC Livestation is hosting discussion of the aftermath . One of the largest online...
interested party - Jan 20
For some days, information has been circulating that a recount of the Iowa caucus votes put Rick Santorum in the lead. The Des Moines Register reported that Santorum came out 34 votes ahead of Romney. However, the tallies from some precincts cannot be found, so the Republican party is declaring a draw. ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 19
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done ; The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won ; The port is near , the bells I hear , the people all exulting , While follow eye s the steady keel , the vessel grim and daring : But O heart! heart! heart! 5 O the bleeding drops of red , Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead . ...
interested party - Jan 19
SD PB-TV is running at least an hour of Janklowisms. Helping us to remember. For every 50 words of sense, there are 5,000 words of bombastic blather. I am remembering all right, but remembering why I never cared for him. He claimed to take the hard way when usually he was exploiting the easiest rhetorical rattle of the last refuge......
Dakota Today - Jan 17
As those who read my cranky posts know, I think the Internet has done as much to destroy language as to develop its communicative traits. But it has also revived still photography by providing a medium in which one can explore the world through images, like I did as a child perusing the pages of Life magazine. On the regional level, I love it when Bob Newland posts photographs on his ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 16
It was common intelligence among Democrats that the Republican candidate who could most effectively challenge Barack Obama on his own ground was Jon Huntsman. It was not surprising that Huntsman garnered such tepid support from the Republican party because it has adopted anti-intellectualism and anti-accomplishment as primary values for determining what is a real conservative. Ac...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 16
The prohibitive cost of health care may be the explanation. Colonoscopies are a highly recommended part of preventive medicine. But they cost so much, and one has to fool around purging fecal matter that might obstruct the view. So people must be practicing self-examinations. Why else would so many American people have their heads stuck so firmly in their lower colons?&n...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 15
I have added a blog as an experiment. I hope it can become something like an online magazine with longer posts more like magazine articles or opinion pieces by multiple authors. If you are interested, let me know.. Use the foxynotes option to right. It is a more or less blank slate right now. South Dakota Raucus Caucus Stay......
Dakota Today - Jan 14
If there is one place that one might expect a bright ray of intelligence to break through the benighting smog that covers America, one would expect it in a discussion of education. Actually, the subject of education seems to turn the fog into an impenetrable darkness that a laser can't penetrate. Governor Daugaard's proposals to reform and improve education in South Dako...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 14
With all the hype about Republican Bill Janklow dying of brain cancer and all the compliments to his ability and extraordinary skill in making appointments by those he appointed, the passing of a classic good-old Democrat will probably get little attention. But check the obituary in this post continuation for the Rapid City Journal obituary of Jack M. Weiland. Jack......
Dakota Today - Jan 13
News is full of information and propaganda about death today of Bill Janklow. When I can find an obituary that is not plastered with newspaper copyright notices banning use, I will post it here in a journal of obituaries. I will reserve comment until then. Janklow was born in Chicago in 1939. Went into US Marines in 1956 (I think),......
Dakota Today - Jan 12
So some peons lose their livelihoods and their lives. Who cares? That is the attitude that is revealed in the discussion of what venture capitalist organizations contribute to the country. The argument in favor of them is that they raise money to buy out companies and engage in "creative destruction ": they buy up companies, break them up, and sell off their parts.&nbs...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 12
If you have not seen the program on Bill McGowan vs. AT&T take advantage of the opportunity.. right now 7PM January 10, 2012. For those who may have had an MCI card and an 8-party US West Phone line-- Doug Wiken...
Dakota Today - Jan 10
Chris Hedges addresses my conscience. He was on C-Span for three hours Saturday morning where I saw him sporadically as I, in my role of treasurer, tried to fulfill the financial needs of the Snow Queen Festival being held in Aberdeen this weekend and next. The young people participating in the festival break my calloused, old heart. Chris Hedges reminds me of why.&nb...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 10
Aside from his demonstrated talent for assholery, the prime qualification for those little deities we call CEOs, Mitt Romney seems to be following a precedent for ruthlessness established in the history of his creed. He operates with the menace of a faction within the Latter Day Saints called the Danite band, which terrorized people in Missouri and whose offenses were a large part of...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 6
ZD-Net has a story online today indicating Kodak is seeking chapter 11 bankruptcy. Commenters wonder what it is about Rochester, NY that causes two sets of executives there to fail to effectively exploit the inventions of their engineers, programmers, and scientists. Xerox is not bankrupt, but years ago, it did fail to utilize their PARC inventions effectively. Steve Jobs saw......
Dakota Today - Jan 4
The GOP mini/micro GOP presidential candidates in Iowa spend a lot of time trying to avoid reality and rewrite their rotten history. Their theme song should be one sung by Eddy Arnold years ago. Make the world go away And get it off my shoulders Say the things you used to say And make the world go away Source for......
Dakota Today - Jan 3
Obviously, I should not be giving advice to the fine citizens of Iowa who have been tortured for weeks with the TV ads and handshakes of the mini and micro GOP candidates for party nomination to run for President. But, anyway. Having seen more than I already want to see of this collection of self-made irrelevancies, I do have a......
Dakota Today - Jan 2
by Lorraine Collins Since this is the time of year when we start summing up things, writingChristmas letters, reflecting on how fast the year has gone by, I thought I'dget out the notebook in which I keep the stack of columns I've written in 2011to see what they amount to. There arefewer to review this year because in July I reduced my output to one column amonth, inching towa...
Black Hills Monitor - Jan 2
Whole lot of raucus noise promoted as music on TV around midnight and the start of a new year. The actual news around here today was the miserable cold wind that blew in this afternoon. Below is a New Years Greeting image for readers of Dakota Today. Click on the image for a larger version. It was either these or......
Dakota Today - Dec 31
Today while search for something I could not find at a local hardware store, I heard a country rock or blues song about "Gunna buy me a Mercury.". I guess songs live on beyond the subject, but this one has been antique or obsolete for a year or so. Ford Motor dumped Mercury sometime after June 2010. I suppose in......
Dakota Today - Dec 28
I thought I'd see if Menards had a kitchen cabinet planning site or other information. I found a site that had something, but it was a crappy site. Another link turned up on Ripoff's. You may find it interesting if you ever shop at Menards. I'm not sure we will ever walk into one of their stores again even if......
Dakota Today - Dec 28
In the Scandinavian Protestant church in which I was raised, there were sanctions against smoking, drinking, dancing, card playing, movies, and anything sexual. The result in my generation was people who with a certain relish smoked, drank, danced, played cards, went to movies, and fucked if the opportunity presented itself. And there was not a little effort expended in pres...
Northern Valley Beacon - Dec 27
Of all the South Dakota public radio Midday noon interviews, Janklow's rant against the core of engineers and his attempt to rewrite history and the weather, this must be one of the worst they could find to rerun. But, rerun it they did this noon December 27, 2011. Janklow uses his usual diversions with expressions like "everybody knew" except perhaps......
Dakota Today - Dec 27
According to a gallery in the Washington Post , Congress is currently more unpopular than public caning, polygamy, and Hugo Chavez. When one gets specific about the cause of the gridlock and foolery that makes Congress so unpopular, I suppose one can spread the blame across bipartisan lines, but one party, the GOP, does hog the deserved credit for intransigence, petulance, and a...
Northern Valley Beacon - Dec 23
Totally appropriate for the US House Republicans that yesterday had the longest night hours and the least daylight of any day of the year. Their intransigent obstructionist partisan hackery fit well with the most darkness. Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you tolerant enough to look at Dakota Today now and then. ))) Stay tuned into......
Dakota Today - Dec 23
About 40 years ago here in rural Tripp County South Dakota, the only phones available were party line phones. Some of these had 8 families using them on a first-come first- served basis. These phones made sure gossip spread mighty fast, but if one of the old yakking forever redundantly ladies got on, it was faster to drive 8 miles......
Dakota Today - Dec 22
John Thune selects a coat-tail to ride on. John Thune is a sock puppet extraordinaire. He has the intellectual endowments and the moral compass of a night crawler, but, by God, he catches fish. You know, suckers, those bottom-dwellers who bite on anything. Obviously, I do not have much regard for John Thune as a person. But I guess if John Thune lays a claim for pe...
Northern Valley Beacon - Dec 20
The GOP sticks XL Pipeline in a tax/jobs bill as a POISON PILL. It is a purely partisan hack tactic which should fool no one. It is another indication of the GOP irrelevance for the 99.5% of us who can’t contribute millions. Unfortunately, The Democrats are equally dependent on large corporate contributions..even if once in a blue moon they actually......
Dakota Today - Dec 14
Schools need improving. But striving to meet the needs of students is a continuous process in education. Times and circumstances change, and real educators are always engaged in defining and finding ways to meet those needs. But what educators determine as needs are often ignored and the public goes off in a fury of raucous, uninformed notions of the moment. While the country...
Northern Valley Beacon - Dec 13
SDPB-Radio this afternoon (December 12, 2011) had a few interesting comments related to water and oil and wheat. California farmers can make more money by selling water rights to cities than by actual farming. There are now something like 13 rivers in the world that no longer put a drop of water into the oceans because all the water is......
Dakota Today - Dec 12
For a century and a half, people have thought about occupying Wall Street. The first that I know is the protagonist, sort of, of a short story by Herman Melville that I taught often and that many students found irritatingly undefinable: "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street." In short, Bartleby is hired by a law firm on Wall Street that is successful enough to have three s...
Northern Valley Beacon - Dec 12
U.S. Rep.Rick Larsen (D-WA) learned at noon Thursday that three of his Washington, D.C. staff members had tweeted comments which revealed that they were behaving badly in major ways and were insulting the congressman with some of their twitters. By 1:10 p.m., he had fired them. In chatting with some former Congressional staff members, I found that they shared my in...
Northern Valley Beacon - Dec 11
One previous viewing of the GOP presidential candidates and the nearly weekly summaries of their blather has pretty much convinced me of the mini or micro irrelevancy of the GOP mythology purveyors. But like an imminet train wreck, it is hard to keep my eyes off the collection. Last night on ABC was no exception. All I missed was a......
Dakota Today - Dec 11
LCD panel prices have apparently been fixed. Makers pay millions in penalties. Read the InfoPackets Story Whitch starts with paragraph below. Information from Bloomberg News and Business Week. Some major television manufacturers have been forced to pay a fine of $388 million for their actions in driving up the price of LCD (liquid crystal display) televisions. There's a good chance......
Dakota Today - Dec 8
The November job report indicated that the U.S. had gained 120,00 jobs for the month, but it downplayed the fact that 315,000 dropped out of the labor force because they could not find jobs. In all the chatter about jobs, hardly anyone has confronted the fact that the jobs which were lost in the crash of 2008 are not coming back. The economy has changed. It can no longer ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Dec 8
I read this article last night in the snail mail version. It is worth reading even if on my first reading, I was not convinced the book author's names for categories, myths, illusions, etc added either simplicity or clarity. Dispel Your Illusions Book Review by Freeman Dyson at NY Review of Books Dyson's examples and those of the actual author......
Dakota Today - Dec 7
I tried to watch re-run of Daugaard budget late last night, but could not stay awake. From TV news this AM, it appears he has presented a bandage on stupid. Percentage wage increases only expand the disparity between lowest paid and hightest paid. A five percent increase on the minimum wage might amount to an $85 a month bonus. That......
Dakota Today - Dec 7
I have this computer set up with a video splitter and audio splitter so that computer can be seen on a flat screen TV and a computer monitor. I have not done much more than play a bit with that before for a few minutes by watching part of a Charlie Rose show. Tonight however, I watched "the internet" TV......
Dakota Today - Dec 2
On a Tavis Smiley rerun today, Nov 29, 2011, Michael Lewis who wrote book Boomerang, when asked by Smiley what he thought of the Occupy Wall Street activity said, "Justice is on their side." He also noted that attempts to discredit the demonstrators are an indicator of the fear the right-wing money groups have of the OWS potential to alter......
Dakota Today - Nov 29
A few weeks ago I got a call from a Wall Street Journal Reporter writing a story on the proposed AT&T takeover/merger with T-Mobile. He had seen my comments at this Dakota Today Blog and Bob Schwartz's Blog Great Plains Technology and other online stories in South Dakota newspapers and said he was following up on the results of the......
Dakota Today - Nov 28
AT&T runs a lot of ads for new products most of which probably won't work here in the Winner, SD area. Plain old cellphones aren't even dependable here. The phones were working again this morning at 8AM, but last evening for at least from around 8PM to Midnight or later all the cellphones produced when a number was dialed was......
Dakota Today - Nov 28
Happy Thanksgiving. Eat well but moderately. Drive carefully. And may you live to celebrate many more Thanksgivings --- Doug Wiken...
Dakota Today - Nov 24
I am not much of a movie watcher and don't much keep up on them, but I am going to give a free plug to a movie which will be in Rapid City very soon for only one showing. A short review is below: Thanks to Greg Olson for the heads up on this. Nov. film “Inside Job” Elks Theatre,......
Dakota Today - Nov 22
The problem I see with mixing religion and government is that it gives a hammer to politicans who as they do the most egregious abusive things imaginable claim they are just doing God's will on earth. Take a look at a slightly jaundiced view of the Grand Old Rotten Party Presidential Mini-candidates as they pander to the religiously deluded. GOP......
Dakota Today - Nov 21
Perhaps you have seen the video of a couple thug policemen using a spray canister that probably held a half gallon of "Pepper Sray" spraying seated peaceful OWS protestors on a California campus. Pepper spray used this way is deadly force by another name. Take a look at the link below: What you need to know about "Pepper Spray". The......
Dakota Today - Nov 21
Have you wondered why attacks on the Occupy Wall Strret protestors across the country seemed to be happening a bit too conveniently at nearly the same times? Have you wondered where the media anti-occupier propaganda emanates? Have you wondered why some congrees critters take time to slander the Occupiers? Well, that is just part one or two of the coordinated......
Dakota Today - Nov 20 - 2 clicks
If you have noticed that our very own federal government from we taxpayers has dumped $billions into big banks and financial interests and in return these banks have continued to screw their customers in the old ways while trying to invent new backdoor ways to do it, you may very much enjoy the link below. Georgia Judge Rejects Bank Motion......
Dakota Today - Nov 19
TransCanada subcontractor public relations people visited Winner for a "hearing" a couple years or so ago. I have some posts about it here at Dakota Today. Since that hearing, they have hired local people to get easement agreements, etc. A question I asked about illegal aliens being employed resulted in them answering that it was not a concern of Trans......
Dakota Today - Nov 16
by Lorraine Collins I was standing in line in the Post Office the other day and things weremoving rather slowly as one of the computers had broken down. So I had lots oftime to think about various things, including the post office. My relatives in Wyoming had recentlytold me that their post office is under threat to be closed and of course theywere very unhappy about that. We've...
Black Hills Monitor - Nov 16
Last night on Charlie Rose, Lawrence Lessig was interviewed (video) about his book Republic, Lost; How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan To Stop It". I found the discussion interesting enough that I ordered his book this morning. Lessig made several points, but one was that Congress passes legislation that appears to do things most of us want them to do,......
Dakota Today - Nov 15
by Lorraine Collins When I read a recent news report that Black Hills Airport inSpearfish had been granted over $3 million by the Federal AviationAdministration to build a taxiway to make the airport safer, I was happy forthe airport and for the taxpayers in Lawrence County . I don't know howmuch money the total airport improvement project has cost over the last fewyears...
Black Hills Monitor - Nov 12 - 2 clicks
by Lorraine Collins Last Saturday morning when I first woke up I lay in bed thinking, forsome inexplicable reason, of a spelunking tour I'd taken in Jewel Cave back in 1973, guided by Herb and Jan Conn. Why was I suddenly remembering that?I most vividly recalled dangling from a rope at least 20 feet in the air as Itried to move up from a rather large cavern to a small hole high in the w...
Black Hills Monitor - Sep 16
by Lorraine Collins My daughter and family just moved from Norfolk , VA to Topeka , KS and though they seem to likeit there, several things have been a bit of a surprise, including some feescharged by their school district. At a social gathering shortly after theyarrived, a fellow remarked that he wondered how much free public education wasgoing to cost him this year. Last year...
Black Hills Monitor - Aug 23
