South Dakota
updated
11:36 a.m.
While the local Glenn Beck fan club, including District 8 House candidate Patricia Stricherz , presume to lecture me about their piety, their Dear Leader is proving he doesn't know his theology. His equation of Christian social justice with Nazism and Communism leaves Madison churchgoers with very few places to worship. Here's a quick survey of where our local churches and their denomina...
Madville Times - 9:49 a.m.
A Friday gift for my conservative readers: I'll advocate health care reform that has nothing to do with big government and everything to do with personal responsibility. If you want to drive down health care costs and reduce hospital infections and deaths, do one simple thing: be annoying. When you go to the hospital, ask any doctor, nurse, or anyone else who tries to touch you, "Did you wash your...
Madville Times - 6:45 a.m.
Be all that you can be... 140 characters at a time! A commenter here once expressed shock and disgust that KJAM's Matt Hendrickson and I would be using Facebook. What does a grown man need to be Facebook for? the commenter asked oh so ominously. Well, that commenter can now turn her ire to Uncle Sam: the Pentagon just announced Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of Web 2.0 are cool : The Pen...
Madville Times - 6:08 a.m.
The Madison Area Arts Council is conducting a poll to pick a new name for the Community Arts Center . Not that there's anything wrong with "Community Arts Center"—that's the current name and one of the options in the poll, for you lovers of the status quo. But some folks (at least seven, as of my current reading of the poll) think that name sounds a bit generic, and too much like the "Community C...
Madville Times - 5:49 a.m.
If GDP growth is your cup of tea, then you have to admit President Obama's plan to expand rural broadband is one of the best long-term economic growth ideas he's had. Not only does it create lots of jobs upfront laying cable and hooking up gear, but it also lays a foundation for sustained gains in economic activity (click image to enlarge): Information Society Policies: Annual World Repo...
Madville Times - 3:25 a.m.
Senator Russell Olson (R-8/Madison) can celebrate his greatest legislative victory yet: yesterday Governor M. Michael Rounds signed into law HB 1095 , which allows economic development corporations to conduct bingo and lotteries. Senator Olson was primary sponsor. Yay. Since job creation isn't working , the LAIC can turn to gambling to build Madison's economy. Maybe the LAIC will convert the...
Madville Times - Thu 5:23 p.m. - 3 clicks 
That's curious: Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling reports that South Dakota is one of five states where President Obama gets positive approval numbers from Independents . The President's margin among South Dakota's independents is slim, just 45–44. But considering Obama lost South Dakota to McCain 45–53 and that there's been a lot more South Dakota activism in the past year declaring Obama a Ma...
Madville Times - Thu 8:47 a.m. - 6 clicks
The GOP's proposed budget amendments include elimination of the Board of Regents Tech Fellows program. Savings would be $770,000. I know a number of students who are Tech Fellows. They do good work, vital work for every campus. The Tech Fellows provide tech support for students and faculty. They set up and trobuleshoot computers. They figure out why you can't connect to the network or the print...
Madville Times - Thu 6:49 a.m.
I recall various Republicans crying foul over the climate change and health insurance reform bills pending in Congress. Too big, too partisan, too many deals behind closed doors, too much thrown in at the last minute.... But that's exactly how the Republicans cobble together South Dakota's state budget. They negotiate budget cuts in a wholly partisan process behind closed doors . They wait until...
Madville Times - Thu 6:27 a.m. - 6 clicks
As the South Dakota Legislature moves toward negating the annual funding increase promised to K-12 schools by state law, consider this: In voting for the hoghoused Senate Bill 22 , the State House would save 1.2%. According to the governor's budget book , total state aid this year is $375 million. 1.2% of that figure is $4.5 million. At the same time, the House hoghoused Senate Bill 195...
Madville Times - Thu 5:48 a.m. - 7 clicks
Bob Ellis tags his blog with the line " Exposing the Pernicious Lie ." I think he's referring to his own content. South Dakota's nuttiest wing proves its penchant for believing what it wants and ignoring what is . Bob Ellis gloats and chortles over a lefty poll that he says says America is less respected globally . Ellis, of course, blames America's diminished standing on President Obama'...
Madville Times - Wed 5:24 p.m. - 5 clicks
Seth Tupper reminds me that South Dakota's unemployment numbers for January are out today. The news isn't good for Lake County. After a couple months of decline, we started 2010 with an increase in unemployment, from 5.5% to 6.0%. That's still better than 7 out of 12 months last year. But consider this shocking number: in January, there were 6050 jobs in Lake County. According to Department o...
Madville Times - Wed 1:06 p.m. - 8 clicks
South Dakota expat Donald Carr works for the Environmental Working Group in D.C., but he's still rooting for his home crowd. He writes in yesterday's edition of that Sioux Falls paper to criticize the South Dakota Legislature's ridiculous ostrichism on climate change . He reminds us that SDSU research shows we're losing wetlands as a result of climate change. Carr also reminds us that the mai...
Madville Times - Wed 9:44 a.m. - 5 clicks
Right now, if they're paying attention, thousands of Huffington Post readers are clicking the living crap out of the big Gordon Howie button that pops up, just for catharsis: Gordon Howie ad on Huffington Post, 2010.03.09 (click to embiggen... if you dare!) Curious, Gordie : how many South Dakota "Tea Party Republicans" do you expect to reach on the Huffington Post ? The ad takes...
Madville Times - Wed 6:02 a.m. - 4 clicks
Contrary to the opinion of our South Dakota House Republicans and some crotchety conservatives in D.C. , the stimulus act really is " important, useful, and beneficial " for our fair state and the whole country. Jim Bunning be darned, extending unemployment benefits really is a good idea: Almost every economist agrees that these benefits do, indeed, stimulate the economy by putting money int...
Madville Times - Wed 4:45 a.m. - 5 clicks
It's official: domestic abuse is no longer a pre-existing condition in South Dakota. Governor Mike Rounds signed HB 1189 into law on Monday, March 8... which also happened to be International Women's Day . Nice timing, Gov! ...
Madville Times - Tue 8:41 p.m. - 4 clicks
Two interesting actions on education by the South Dakota Legislature: Some serious hoghousage: House Appropriations grabbed from the table SB 22 , which originally called for establishing a private fund to keep Birth to 3 Connections afloat. The committee deleted all text and substituted their own version of HB 1050, which would zero the increase in the per student allocation in the state schoo...
Madville Times - Tue 11:08 a.m. - 6 clicks
The South Dakota Legislature just passed a plan to adjust the school funding formula to use more current enrollment data. That's a good thing for growing districts, who won't have to wait a year to get the funds they need to cover the cost of educating all those new kids. But given the state's persistent view of students as an expense rather than an investment , it's surprising our legislators...
Madville Times - Tue 7:21 a.m. - 6 clicks
The big Keystone XL pipeline will cross just four miles of Butte County, but commissioners are already working to get their ducks in a row and prepare for the disruption of their county roads. (Memo to Butte County: check with your counterparts in Beadle County to find out what it takes to get TransCanada to fix the roads they tear up.) On an arguably encouraging note, the new pipeline may ac...
Madville Times - Tue 6:46 a.m.
Working up my post on the supposed monetary value of students brought me to the Census Bureau's page on public school finance data . Yum, numbers! Some statistics I find interesting (all from AY 2006–2007): 50th : South Dakota's rank in state revenue spent per student on K-12 education. 56% : ratio of South Dakota's state per student spending to national average. -1.07 : z-score o...
Madville Times - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 6 clicks
Does the Obama Administration read the Madville Times ? Does a bear make Number Two in the woods? Evidence: last week I post on the role of antitrust regulation in boosting the economy through job creation. This week the Obama administration launches a series of workshops examining the concentration of economic power in rural America : A newly invigorated antitrust team in Washington is beh...
Madville Times - Mon 3:07 p.m.
Richard Millner has been up to his eyeballs in trouble with his Veblen East mega-dairy. His giant CAFO was supposed to be part of a bold vision of dairy consolidation and rural economic development . Now Millner appears to have lost control of an operation choked with manure and with debt. Farm Forum reports that Veblen East " has been placed into court-ordered receivership ." Not that I'd ...
Madville Times - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 2 clicks
The whole middle school concept is predicated around the idea of building kids' self-esteem. But when the kids act like animals, they deserve a good chewing out. Fortunately for the students and parents at Dakota Middle School in Rapid City, principal Brad Tucker appears to get that : Five students were injured by thrown plates and one required medical attention in a student-organized food figh...
Madville Times - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 6 clicks
Patricia Stricherz is saying she's running again for one of the District 8 seats in the South Dakota House of Representatives. Unfortunately, she's touting her candidacy on the local Glenn Beck club website. Stricherz joined the 9-12 Project last month. If Stricherz's campaign will be based on the idea that " Glenn Beck rocks! " then we're all in for a rough ride. I thought conservatives had is...
Madville Times - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 7 clicks
Sure signs of spring....those vee-shaped wedges of geese flying north, the robins in the cedar trees, the blue jays squaking, small calves dancing in the mud, and of course, South Dakota Public Broadcasting is again requesting contributions. Yup, Daniel O'Donnell is singing again..or at least half the time..between overly-long appeals, and Chet Atkins is plinking again even though dead as......
Dakota Today - Sun 1:03 p.m. - 7 clicks
Some folks express concern that our plan to home school our daughter will hurt her social development. In other words, they think home-school kids are weird. We're actually trying to engineer a nerd (again, consider the parents), so weird is o.k. But if it's the kind of weird peddled by the anti-science brainwashing of the predominant home-school culture , then public school, here we come: Two...
Madville Times - Sun 9:04 a.m. - 3 clicks
We had the first two really nice days since last December here in SC SDak. The snow was turning into water and mud and everything wasn't covered with frost in the morning. But now we are in fog where you might be able to see a person walking as if a dim shadow at about 300 feet and the mud......
Dakota Today - Sat 3:41 p.m. - 3 clicks
In the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that virtually “shook the world” last Saturday (2/27/10) the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has offered us some precise and rather interesting data. Mother Nature inflicts an enormous toll on humanity when quakes measured at 8.8 magnitude strike populated areas. And while the estimated 800 lives lost in Chile last week pale in comparis...
Black Hills Monitor - Mar 5 - 4 clicks
Looking around the SD Blogosphere today and it appears that while searching for something even dumber to do than the usual mind-numbing lunacy, the SD legislature may be considering slashing funding for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. I really don't know if I can do more for public broadcasting by supporting the cuts or opposing them. The SD legislature has been......
Dakota Today - Mar 2 - 8 clicks
Our neighbor Lorraine Collins always has an interesting perspective on a wide range of topics. Here's another that should catch your interest -- and perhaps spur a comment or two. Her commentaries appear regularly in the Black Hills Pioneer , and this gives new meaning to the old term "food fight." Lorraine graciously allows us to share it with on-line readers here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...
Black Hills Monitor - Mar 2 - 3 clicks
Recently, some GOP legislators from mostly western SD, introduced a resolution loaded with spelling errors and misuse of words. The Robbinsdale Radical noticed. Just what we need are legislators fired up about forcing teachers and students to absorb myth and nonsense. These apparently barely literate legislators are surely the best there is to micromanage eduction. Note added Mar3, 2010: Forbes......
Dakota Today - Mar 1 - 4 clicks
Jonathan R. Cole, former provost of Columbia University, has a new book on the history of the Ameican University, The Great American University. While the 616-page book does a cogent and comprehensive job of outlining the history of the American university and the role it has played in the development of the nation, it also poses some incisive questions about the future of the ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Feb 28 - 8 clicks
We’ve long admired the achievements of Congressman Charlie Rangel of New York, who rose from a tough childhood in Harlem to a career of public service in New York and a leadership role in the U.S. House of Representatives. With a witty – some would say charming -- demeanor, the 79-year-old Rangel is one of those rare politicians who can make himself understood clearly in ten words or less...
Black Hills Monitor - Feb 26 - 2 clicks
This is one of those catchall posts. Tomorrow happens to be the 90th Anniversary of Eddie Bauer and his down-filled jackets, etc. Our son works part-time at the Rapid City store and noted they were expecting crowds tomorrow because of the store-wide 30% discounts. Eddie Bauer stuff is a bit rich for me unless it is on sale. And it......
Dakota Today - Feb 26 - 8 clicks
Some of you may have checked the new blog I set up aimed at making science more accessible to more South Dakotans titled "SD Science Cafe and All-Night Coffee Shop". I kind of liked that name, but found out after setting it up that SDPB and perhaps other public broadcasting stations had "Science Cafes" set up as a regular feature.......
Dakota Today - Feb 26 - 11 clicks
We’ll shed no tears over the demise of HB-1277 and HB-1278 at the state legislature yesterday (2/22/10). The bills were crafted to help identify culprits who plaster the internet with anonymous comments that are libelous. Had they become law, they would have required web site operators to provide information about people who post articles or comments on t...
Black Hills Monitor - Feb 23
The bills before the State Legislature to provide for access to the identities of anonymous blog commenters by court order if the comments are involved in legal actions will have their committee hearings early Monday morning. These bills have managed to tie galling granny knots in the blogging community's thongwear. In questioning the rationale behind the opposition...
Northern Valley Beacon - Feb 21 - 4 clicks
Lorraine Collins offers her Black Hills Pioneer column to us every two weeks or so, and we always enjoy them. We trust you do, too. The big black headline in the newspaper said, " Resident's brace for storm." I wondered who this resident was and what his brace looked like. I don't know why the headline writer was so determined to ad...
Black Hills Monitor - Feb 13
Dreadful weather here today. Actual temperature is and was bad enough, but blowing snow and winds the 20 to 30 mph area with gusts to 40 make the out door miserable. Winner Airport Weather Summary Stay tuned until the weather improves --- Doug Wiken...
Dakota Today - Feb 8 - 2 clicks
I do not know if the proposed amendments and additions to South Dakota's defamation laws are good legislation or not, at this point. ( HB 1277 and HB 1278 .) The bills have just been introduced with a first reading in the state legislature and have not gone through the committee hearings and any of the legislative process (sausage-making, if you can stand to read that cliche one mo...
Northern Valley Beacon - Feb 7
Some members of the South Dakota legislature have introduced legislation which is aimed at catching anonymous blog and forum posters who defame from behind cover of their aliases or pseudonyms. The US FBI and other police agencies are pushing for bigger, faster, better, and more intrusive data fishing rights. I don't know if much would be lost if the "wild......
Dakota Today - Feb 6 - 2 clicks
Despite intense jamming by the Soviet Union and China during the Cold War, and unabashed political assaults within the U.S. government over the years, the Voice of America has survived. Alas, while the broadcasting service is a mere shadow of its former self, VOA continues to span the globe in 45 languages, reaching an audience that they estimate at about 130 million people every week. To s...
Black Hills Monitor - Feb 6
Some blogs have gone into a state of hyper-hysteria because a bill has been introduced into the South Dakota legislature whic h would provide that the names of people who post or comment on blogs can be revealed by court order if their statements are involved in a defamation lawsuit. Like Chicken Little squawking that the sky is falling, they are screaming that the First Amendment as ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Feb 5 - 3 clicks
Our neighbor Lorraine Collins always has an interesting perspective on a wide range of topics. This time she writes about journalism -- specifically, well-known columnist Ellen Goodman. It's a piece that might catch your interest -- and perhaps spur a comment or two. Lorraine's commentaries appear regularly in the Black Hills Pioneer , and this is her most recent offering. She graciously al...
Black Hills Monitor - Feb 4
One of the legends of South Dakota television has passed away. Veteran broadcaster Dave Deadrick died Friday, January 22nd in Sioux Falls. While we had met Dave in the 1980s when he was still going strong at KELO-TV, we didn’t know him well. But his visage was well known for decades throughout east river – and later west river, when KELO expanded its television operation to Rapid City. A...
Black Hills Monitor - Feb 4 - 2 clicks
This happened when pranks were done for their diversion and entertainment value. I was there for this one, as reported on my alma mater's Facebook site . The subject of the piece is on how the dome at Augustana College's Old Main was turned into a teapot during a night in November 1955. This collage shows how much paraphenalia and skill was needed by workmen to maintain the dome...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 31
I received e-mails and blog comments asking why I said what I said. I had made an error. Not an error of fact but an error of judgment swayed largely by my growing conviction that the Internet, which has the potential and sometimes the realization of being one of the most useful tools devised by humankind, is often rendered worthless and intellectually carcinogenic. The err...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 30
The South Dakota revenue department apparently has somebody hired to work on the idea of getting federal approval to allow a sales tax consortium to collect state and city sales taxes on distant transactions such as buying something on E-Bay or perhaps Amazon, etc. In short, not brick and mortar business setting on the main streets of South Dakota. This......
Dakota Today - Jan 29 - 5 clicks
Our neighbor Lorraine Collins always has an interesting perspective on a wide range of topics. Here's another that should catch your interest -- and perhaps spur a comment or two. Her commentaries appear regularly in the Black Hills Pioneer , and this one helped launch us into the 21st century. She graciously allows us to share it with on-line readers here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...
Black Hills Monitor - Jan 29
It is that time of the year again when presidents give speeches designed to generate applause from the legislators who gladly support myth and humbug as they accomplish next to nothing for months on end. The speech is copied in the continuation of this post. I will take a better look at it tomorrow, but it was better than I......
Dakota Today - Jan 27 - 2 clicks
If you are knowledgeable or interested in science and technology, you may want to read, post, or comment at a new blog I have set up. It was an idea of a poster at Mt. Blogmore who suggested that SD needed a science blog. My start at that may not be the best way to do that, but I hope......
Dakota Today - Jan 27 - 2 clicks
One of our pet-peeves while working in radio news years ago was the gratuitous use of what we called “actualities” -- small snippets of sound, or comments by newsmakers or observers. When they really added substance to a story, and they often did, such devices were invaluable. But using an actuality just for the sake of using an actuality was – and is -- sloppy. It adds nothing to the stor...
Black Hills Monitor - Jan 27
Madville Times has lent its chortle to the incredulous laughter at the Supreme Court ruling that the McCain-Feingold bill passed in 2002 is wrong in limiting corporations from making direct contributions from its profits to use for political attack advertising. It is not the finding of five members of the court that is cause for derision, but their reasoning demonstrated in the opinion. ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 27
Weather on the plains recently have gone from ghastly to dreadfully ghastly. Low temperatures and 40 to 50 mph wind for over a day and night. Finally calmed a bit and sun is shining. Current temperature around 31 degrees. So, below is a silly cartoon I slapped together this morning. Don't try to follow the logic above, there really isn't......
Dakota Today - Jan 26
The population in rural areas keeps getting smaller. One of the pretty good guys in the area died recently. I haven't seen him for sometime. I guess my wife who works at the local hospital had seen him and family recently, but confidentiality rules there mean I don't hear about much from her until after it gets into the papers.Glenn......
Dakota Today - Jan 23 - 2 clicks
We have (or had) three primary channels to watch CBS, ABC, and PBS. SDPB-TV actually has three channels, ABC is only one, and KELO CBS/MyTV is off the air here. Was ready to watch weather forecast and the digital converter gave the "NO SIGNAL" error message for KPLO. Buried at the Keloland site is the information below. The story there......
Dakota Today - Jan 22 - 3 clicks
It looks like liberals, conservatives and so-called middle of the roaders are finding what they want to see in the left-over tea leaves and coffee grounds of the Massachusetts election. Political operatives seem to think Coakley ran a mediocre campaign failing to even get out and shake hands and assumed her election would be a cakewalk. Scott Brown got a......
Dakota Today - Jan 21 - 4 clicks
This has been an interesting week. The Denver Post’s parent company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The New York Times is positioned to start charging for its on-line content. And the Rapid City Journal’s owner – Lee Enterprises – reports revenues for 2009 dropped by 18.2 percent. In fact, Lee indicated that its yearend report was actually encouraging news. Fourth Quarter revenu...
Black Hills Monitor - Jan 21 - 5 clicks
For the jobless, the poor, and those who cannot afford healt-care, their countrymen sends a clear message: you don't have a country. ...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 19
The South Dakota legislative session is open again. As a sign in the office of Dick Kneip or Ted Muenster said years ago, "No man's life or property is safe while the legislature is in Session."..or something much like that. I don't think the situation is quite that dreadful, but after listening to legislators and Governor for the last week......
Dakota Today - Jan 17 - 6 clicks
A few weeks ago, a CNN poll revealed that 55 percent of Americans have spurned the H1N1 vaccine. The main reason is that despite no clinical evidence that there is any unusual danger in the vaccine, people believe that it may have dangerous side effects. With Swine Flu causing 10,000 deaths since April and infecting 50 million people, one must wonder why people fe...
Northern Valley Beacon - Jan 14
