1/29/14

SDDOT considering Brookings roundabouts

Rapid City is clearly struggling as it deals with some growing pains, too.

Robbinsdale is a post-war development built over a former dump on the banks of one tributary still trickling into Rapid Creek in the southeast part of town. Hundreds of modest, cookie-cutter houses that mostly support the medical industry have helped to bolster a strong real estate market despite an otherwise dismal attitude.

Four stop signs have governed traffic flow at the intersection of E St. Pat and Elm for decades.

It's usually ordered and cordial; but, in the era of heightened tensions being generated by that town's despair it's only a matter of time before firearms are drawn then people die in hails of gunfire after someone breaches some unwritten, finger-wave, right of way protocol.

Signals for the location have been proposed and rejected so it behooves this former resident to offer a thought experiment: how does funneling the flow into a traffic circle work for you guys?
Planned for 2015, the work will include widening a part of the roadway to include new turn lanes, but another proposed change nearer the Highway 14 – I-29 interchange would result in the creation of the very first roundabouts ever built on a state-controlled highway. [Brookings Register]


Obesity and mental illness are closely linked, especially in northern tier states like South Dakota.
In fact South Dakota is slipping. Just last year,the state ranked 19th but even that ranking would put us well behind most of our neighboring states. But why does South Dakota rank so low and what's being done to improve that rank? It's a test South Dakota is failing.--Jake Iverson, KSFY.

Habitat destruction, lapses in ethics, crime spikes, increased incarceration rates, more people infected with sexually transmitted diseases, the failure of prisons, human trafficking: all mark the terms of Republican governors in South Dakota. The state leads the nation in the growth of violent crime:
The study from the Pew Research Center’s Public Performance Project, released in late December, charts states by their relative increase or decrease in prison population and their increase or decrease in crime through 2012. What the study shows, according to Adam Gelb of the Pew Center, is that there is no direct link between locking up offenders and lowering crime rates. [John Hult, Sioux Falls Argus Leader]
More people in prison means more STDs are incubated:
Chlamydia was the most commonly reported sexually transmitted disease in South Dakota in 2012. That’s when the South Dakota Department of Health received 3,924 reports of the disease – the highest ever reported for one year in the state. In 2012, there were 707 reports of gonorrhea, with approximately 57 percent coming from adults between 15 and 24. Like chlamydia, the American Indian population was disproportionately affected. About 67 percent of reported cases came from American Indians. [Joel Ebert, Pierre Capital Journal]
From KELO teevee:
Nine men who were trying to solicit sex from teen girls were arrested during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in an undercover sting operation.
The common thread running through these findings? Institutionalized repression of American Indians in the state of South Dakota has led to despair, racism and the mass incarceration of non-violent offenders. And, since 2014 is an election year the GOP is pretending to give a shit. In other words: red state collapse on parade.

If it quacks like a duck....

Local control of school curricula is failing South Dakota students.

According to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation reading scores for South Dakota’s fourth graders have gone down over the last ten years:
The results also show that lower-income students are falling further behind. Carole Cochran, director of South Dakota Kids Count, says these declining scores are not good news for students – in school or in life. The report says 68 percent of South Dakota fourth-graders were not proficient in reading in 2013, compared to 67 percent in 2003 – not a large change, but an indication of an overall lack of progress. The report also found the gap between lower-income and higher-income students continues to widen. That gap has grown by 20 percent since 2003. [WNAX Radio News]
A federal lawsuit accusing state and local officials of violating the rights of Native American parents and the tribes in child custody issues is headed for trial. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe and three Native American parents filed have accused the Pennington County State’s Attorney, 7th Circuit Court and the Department of Social Services of violating the Indian Child Welfare Act and denying them due process when children are removed from their parents’ custody. [Andrea Cook, Rapid City Journal]


Now ten different people have visited ip in the last few hours with Kristi Noem divorce as search terms.

Put this movie in your Netflix queue and see if you recognize your country:

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