Boycott of South Dakota affecting revenue in most sectors

Early this year after signing a bill into law that discriminates against some couples seeking to adopt South Dakota's earth hater governor is preparing a bad news fall budget speech.

And since every single media outlet in the failed red moocher state is a mouthpiece for the South Dakota Republican Party there is complete silence on the effects of a resulting boycott. But to anyone reading between the lines the evidence is clear that California's actions are having effects.

Thanks to a blue state South Dakota's experiment with single-party rule and red state failure appears to ending with a whimper.

Denny Daugaard is struggling to keep white workers, infrastructure is crumbling, industrial agriculture is failing, South Dakota churches are girding for gun violence, meth is replacing alcohol as the state's drug of choice, Pierre's culture of corruption and rape violence threatens open government, the governor's budget address damages his legacy, socialism is quietly replacing free enterprise, pheasant numbers are dwindling, environmental degradation is increasing, aquifers are emptying, wildlife are being exterminated to make way for disease-ridden domestic livestock, jails far outnumber colleges, ag bankers continue to enslave landowners, the state's medical industry monopoly operates without scrutiny and visitor traffic in Deadwood is off so dramatically locals are pleading with younger people to move into the Gulch.

Thoughts? Prayers?

Hunhoff wins Trivia Tuesday

The death of the Missouri River ecosystem in South Dakota began with the European invasion, was accelerated by the Homestake Mining Company and sealed with the construction of the main stem dams.

Not many South Dakotans have prospered as professional fishermen, but there was a time when you could make a living by clamming on the James, Big Sioux and Vermillion rivers. The clam industry dwindled in the 1940s due to over-harvesting, environmental changes in the rivers and, of course, the invention of plastic buttons. Huge fish were also reported by dam-builders when the reservoirs were built along the Missouri. Some divers saw fish 15 feet long floating at the bottom of the muddy river.

Read Katie Hunhoff's remembrance here.

South Dakota's earth hater junior US senator is leading a crusade to block the US Environmental Protection Agency from identifying non-point sources of pollution deposited into watersheds by his GOP donors.

Since at least 2004 zebra mussels have been plaguing the main stem dams in the Missouri River. The invasive mussels compete with paddlefish and other native species like the pallid sturgeon.

Your thoughts?

Bjorkman campaign announces listening dates

Kent: foreign miners don't give one shit about the Black Hills

Last year Montana environmental policy advocate Bonnie Gestring told an audience observing World Water Day at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City that tribal nations should support proposed regulations and two new federal companion bills that lead to reform of the General Mining Act of 1872.

That the especially sacred Lakota site of Pe` Sla – within the already sacred Black Hills – is also marked for gold exploration should come as no surprise. Native American land is always treated as disposable, whether for the federal government’s needs or for the monied interests that control it. They don’t care about your race, your ethnicity, your religion, your sexual orientation or what car you drive – foreign or domestic. All they want is what will make them more money.

Read the rest of Jim Kent's report here.

Opponents to efforts by a Canadian miner exploiting the 1872 law and targeting lands on the Black Hills National Forest abutting tribal-owned off-reservation property are hinting legal action.

Last year Democratic Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton toured a Janklow mining disaster in the Black Hills calling it "a textbook example of how not to do it."

Your thoughts?

Engineer expects more pipeline breaches

TransCanada says they're going to run an inspection device through a damaged pipeline that has leaked at least fourteen times and recently spilled some 5000 barrels of toxic diluted bitumen on northeastern South Dakota.

Evan Vokes was fired as a materials engineer for TransCanada in 2011 after trying to publicize what he called the company’s noncompliant construction methods. He said TransCanada rushed to complete the pipeline, which compromised the structure’s integrity. South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen said the commission has no authority to revoke TransCanada’s permit to operate the pipeline in the state unless an ongoing investigation shows the company violated one or more of 57 conditions set by the commission.

Read more about red state failure here.

Earth hater Fiegen is suffering from breast cancer in state that leads the United States in breast cancer rates due to an absence of environmental protections.

Attorneys for Greenpeace and BankTrack want a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Dakota Excess Pipeline ecoterrorist Energy Transfer Partners as an attack on free speech.

Your thoughts and prayers?

Another day of grassland fire danger highlighting poor ag, ranching practices

Rangeland Fire Danger Statement
National Weather Service Rapid City SD

Harding-Perkins-Butte-Northern Meade Co Plains-Ziebach-Rapid City-
Southern Foot Hills-Custer Co Plains-Pennington Co Plains-Haakon-
Fall River-Mellette-Todd-Tripp-Beadle-Kingsbury-Brookings-Gregory-Jerauld-Sanborn-Miner-Lake-
Moody-Brule-Aurora-Davison-Hanson-McCook-Minnehaha-Charles Mix-
Douglas-Hutchinson-Turner-Lincoln SD-Bon Homme-Yankton-Clay-Big Stone-Corson-Campbell-McPherson-Brown-Marshall-Roberts-
Walworth-Edmunds-Day-Dewey-Potter-Faulk-Spink-Clark-Codington-Grant-
Hamlin-Deuel-Stanley-Sully-Hughes-Hyde-Hand-Jones-Lyman-Buffalo-
Including the cities of McIntosh, Herreid,
Eureka, Aberdeen, Britton, Sisseton, Mobridge, Ipswich, Webster,
Isabel, Gettysburg, Faulkton, Redfield, Clark, Watertown, Milbank,
Hayti, Clear Lake, Mission Ridge, Onida, Pierre, Highmore, Miller,
Murdo, Kennebec, and Fort Thompson
Union-Sturgis/Piedmont Foot Hills-
Southern Meade Co Plains-Hermosa Foot Hills-
Including the cities of Buffalo, Lemmon, Bison, Belle Fourche,
Faith, Dupree, Rapid City, Edgemont, Hot Springs, Folsom, Wall,
Philip, Ardmore, Oelrichs, White River, Mission, Winner, Sturgis,
Union Center, Hermosa
243 AM MST Thu Nov 30 2017 /343 AM CST Thu Nov 30 2017/

...MODERATE FIRE DANGER...

Islam addresses South Dakota's culture of racism

Taneeza Islam is executive director of South Dakota Voice for Peace, a lawyer and human rights advocate.

She said Islam hadn’t been involved in local politics in South Dakota before the last session of the state Legislature in Pierre, where she found herself having to learn the ropes of lobbying against what she felt were harmful proposals. "This past session, I was alerted by some friends in Pierre that there were a lot of anti-refugee, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim bigotry going on, and it was coming from state legislators, and it was being drafted into not just resolutions but also bills which had the chance of becoming law," she said.

Get the story at the Yankton Press & Dakotan.

Hatred is a South Dakota value spread by an uncharitable christianic religionist majority masquerading as a big tent.

In a related story the extremist South Dakota Legislature won't investigate white people professing to be christians.

A request by South Dakota District 30 Rep. Tim Goodwin to study the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound in southwest Custer County was denied April 18 at a meeting of the legislature’s executive board. “To be honest, I couldn’t get traction from anybody else,” he said. “Most people have a yellow streak down their back, so I couldn’t get anybody to touch it.”

Get that story here.

A student organization at South Dakota State University is fostering a culture of understanding about Islam.

Thoughts? Prayers?

Doing a few updates.....Thanks for your patience

If you're noticing the site is bouncing up and down tonight, I'm working on some server side issues. I've having and doing some major server software updates. Thanks for your patience.

Hahahahahaha!

South Dakota's socialized dairy industry threatens Minnesota watersheds

South Dakota's socialized dairies are wreaking habitat havoc on the state's border with Minnesota.

In January, a South Dakota judge will hear arguments from dairy supporters and critics and then decide whether the county approval of the dairy was legal. Regardless of what decision comes down on legality, Brenda Boeve and other Minnesotans believe that putting a huge dairy farm here simply isn't right.

Get the story here.

In the above image a phallus competes for the skyline with ubiquitous wind turbines near the divide between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers on Buffalo Ridge over Oak Lake, part of a Brookings water supply and tributary of the Big Sioux River in extreme eastern South Dakota.

As Hendricks, Minnesota sues to prevent the effects of cattle shit from another South Dakota dairy and cross-state pollution rules cease to exist my home town is struggling to digest the numbers of Spanish speaking wage slaves.

The crony capitalism that keeps South Dakota the 8th worst state for the working class is destroying lands promised to native peoples by treaty and Elkton struggling to find enough housing for migrant workers often living in squalor.

Daugaard struggling to keep white workers

South Dakota's climate science-denying earth hater governor is watching his legacy circling the red state drain. Now he's turning to socialism to salvage what's left.

Governor Dennis Daugaard says there are a number of funding programs already available.

Get more on Daugaard's leadership failures at WNAX.

Daugaard is preparing a budget speech that outlines South Dakota's death by single-party rule.

Will the last person to leave South Dakota please blow up the main stem dams then set fire to the entire state?

Thanks!

Jackley dealt blow in tribal cannabis case

Better late than never, the Moody County Enterprise is rubbing Marty Jackley's nose in his inability to get a conviction in a tribal sovereignty cannabis case.

Sad.

Jonathan Hunt, 44, was sentenced Nov. 21 in Moody County Circuit Court after having agreed to testify in the case against his boss, Eric Hagen, earlier this year. Hagen, who was president and CEO of Monarch America, was found not guilty in a jury trial. More than a year earlier, the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe executive committee had entered into a five-year agreement with Monarch America to design, construct and develop a 10,000-square-foot marijuana grow facility to supply a 15,000-square-foot retail recreational marijuana consumption lounge, according to court papers.

Read the rest here.

Flandreau has a long history of racism and a crooked law enforcement industry.

SD Game, Fish and Plunder seeking revenue boost

South Dakota's Republican-owned wildlife killing arm is using its last gasp to encourage the extermination of deer in the red moocher state.

“Winter depredation hunts are a valuable management tool that GFP uses in some situations to alleviate wildlife damage to landowners’ stored-feed supplies,” said wildlife damage program administrator, Keith Fisk. “Depredation hunts are largely dependent upon the severity of the winter, snowfall accumulations and the number of animals involved.” Winter depredation hunts focus on assisting landowners with wildlife damage, but can also provide hunters with another opportunity after traditional hunting seasons are closed.

Get the pathetic story here.

The state has spent most of the last three decades wiping out apex predators like cougars that used to control cervid populations but that's all over now, baby blue.

Your thoughts on red state failure writ large?

Opioids, alcohol and suicide continue to prune South Dakotans

South Dakota won't be able to build jails fast enough to contain red state failure carnage according to new data from the medical industry.

The report found in 2015, out of every 100,000 deaths, 44 South Dakotans died as the result of alcohol, drugs or suicide. If the trend continues, South Dakota could see an increase of more than 30 percent in drug, alcohol, and suicide deaths.

Get the cheery story here.

Single-party rule and red state failure is a parade.

Deadwood numbers continue to tumble

Revenue for historic preservation continues to diminish as people burn out on Deadwood.

Gamers visiting local casinos in October dropped $91.5 million in machines and on tables, a 1 percent decrease compared to October 2016, resulting in roughly $8.7 million in taxable adjusted gross revenues for the industry in October.

Get the story here.

Much of the gaming attrition is due to the graying of visitors but with the political will tourism can easily be revived in the Black Hills community.

Poor ag and ranching practices driving red flag warning in South Dakota

Red state failure is driving today's red flag warning.

Kloucek: industrialized agriculture, CAFOs "huge public health and safety issues"

Frank Kloucek served 22 years in the South Dakota Legislature.

As the state's county commissions face lawsuits that seek to address their conflicts of interest Kloucek sees an opportunity to raise voter awareness.

Called industrialized agriculture, it comes with huge public health and safety issues. The sheer volume of animal waste [fertilizer] and its level of concentration must be addressed. We need modern day livestock production decisions based on sound science and common sense, including safer buildings and manure management that provides adequate protection for the general public.

Read his manifesto here.

David Ganje is a Rapid City-based attorney practicing environmental law.

His concern with pollution generated by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations appeared in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

In testimony to the U.S. Senate, the USGS associate director stated, “The USGS has found CAFOs to be a source of nutrient, pharmaceutical, and metal contaminants in nearby waters and lands receiving wastes.” Are state and county officials in charge of the stewardship of public waters in favor of continued indifference to clean, potable, usable water?

Read the rest here.

South Dakota's GOP congressional delegation are stumbling all over themselves trying to protect donors like Monsanto and Syngenta from their accountability for the state's impaired waters.

Your thoughts on South Dakota being a chemical toilet?

GOP's hypocrisy on Indian Health Service coming to a head

Guess who stands to benefit if the Indian Health Service is privatized.

From Indian Health Services emergency rooms that have been shut down because they pose a threat to the health and safety of patients to others that don't meet the requirements established by Medicare and Medicaid, Sen. Mike Rounds says the health system is a disaster.

Read the rest here.

Steve Rounds enjoys an unusual 30-year lease on land managed by a state agency. Rounds got the lease to the Oahe Marina from South Dakota Game, Fish and Plunder while his brother was governor and when his banker, Larry Deiter was named South Dakota Director of Insurance.

“We are obviously concerned about the impact that Wellmark’s decision will have on consumers,” South Dakota Insurance Director Larry Deiter told the Public Opinion this week. “The current environment under federal health care reform is causing companies to either raise premiums, narrow networks, or cease marketing of products.” Lonnie McKittrick, who heads up the Health Department at Fisher Rounds and Associates, echoed those comments. “ACA is just not working,” he said. “People are getting hammered. Everybody on the inside knew this is what could happen. You crossed your fingers and hoped it wouldn’t, but it did. It’s a system that was set up to fail, especially in a small state like ours.” [Looking for health insurance? Good luck]

And:

Forty-three states and the District of Columbia require insurance commissioners to file some kind of personal financial disclosure report. All but two of those jurisdictions — Hawaii and Vermont — make the documents available for public inspection. Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming have no such disclosure requirements. [Drinks, dinners, junkets and jobs: how the insurance industry courts state commissioners]

Here's Mike Rounds' career donor page at Open Secrets.

Here is how Mike Rounds took federal money then gave it to SDGOP donors.

From 2015:

Specifically, the CBO determined that maintaining sequester-level cuts would lead to 500,000 fewer jobs and 0.4% less growth in 2016, and 300,000 fewer jobs and 0.2% less growth in 2017. Many Americans have been led to believe the emerging crisis is solely about Planned Parenthood funding, and that may be somewhat true. However, at the rate Republicans love killing Americans’ jobs and retarding economic growth that the CBO warned is the result of not addressing sequester cuts, pundits should consider the real impetus for the looming crisis is the GOP’s rejection of eliminating their precious sequester.

Read that here.

The “unimaginable horrors” comment came from U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., during testimony to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in Washington about his bill to force the Indian Health Service to undergo a wide-ranging audit. The tribe is alleging that the federal government has failed to uphold its legal obligation to provide health care to tribal members, in part by temporarily closing the Rosebud emergency department in 2015.

Read the rest here.

Rounds' donors Sanford, Avera and Rapid City Regional have virtual medical industry monopolies in their markets.

Kinda makes you sick, init?

I like the idea of rolling the funding for Obamacare, TRICARE, Medicare, the IHS and the VA together then offering Medicaid for all by increasing the estate tax, raising taxes on tobacco and adopting a carbon tax. Reproductive freedoms should be included with conditions just like the military does under TRICARE.

South Dakota churches girding for gun violence

As white nationalists drive gun violence in the United Snakes South Dakota churches are bracing for the worst.

Organizers say nearly 60 people from churches as far away as North Dakota have signed up to attend the seminar, which will take place Friday and Saturday at Outreach Community Church in Box Elder. The Rev. Barry Young, who will lead the training, is vice president of Church Security Ministries for Strategos International, a Kansas City-based security training and consulting organization. The cost of the seminar is $99 for one day or $159 for both days.

Get the story here.

American churches have brought this on themselves since radical christianity has murdered millions but you know what scares me?

Donald Trump has escalated his war on civilians and someone seeking retaliation could roll a truck bomb into Rapid City Central or Sioux Falls Lincoln High School after an Ellsworth-based drone pilot or some jock from the 114th Fighter Wing targets a wedding party or religious service.

Pig Abdallah tells woman to go to Hell

Gene Abdallah is the living definition of a fat pig.

The career member of South Dakota's law enforcement industry is struggling to remain relevant.

Tiffany Campbell, a former lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, sent emails to every member of the South Dakota Senate this month urging them to block the appointment of Gene Abdallah to the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles. “She can go to hell," Abdallah said. “I’ll put my background of 37 years up against anything. If they believe her over me, I don’t want the appointment."

Get the disgusting story here.

Rep. Gene Abdallah had sponsored virtually every anti-gun bill to be introduced during his career. He frequently boasted that he gained more votes every time he poked gun owners in the eye. Thanks in large part to SDGO PAC’s accountability campaign, Abdallah went down to defeat, 60-40.

Get that story here.

Abdullah cannot be given any position of power again. Do better South Dakota. #sdleg https://t.co/952c9gX9q9

— Samantha Spawn (@sspawn711) November 28, 2017

Abdallah does not have the temperament or decency to serve SD in any capacity. #Sdleg https://t.co/ITIo2012WA

— Antoinette Miller (@ToniMiller77) November 28, 2017

Bjorkman blasts earth hater tax bill

Earth haters on Capitol Hill are ramming a billionaire tax cut down the throats of average Americans.

The tax cut plan being debated in Congress would increase the federal deficit by over one point five trillion dollars over ten years. Supporters of the plan say increased economic activity would more than fill that gap. South Dakota [D]emocratic Congressional candidate Tim Bjorkman isn’t so sure. Bjorkman says a better plan to stimulate the economy would be a reduction in taxes for workers.

Get the story at WNAX.

Daugaard driving SD economy into the ditch

As young people and Democrats flee South Dakota the state's red moocher state legislature is scrambling to fund itself.

South Dakota lawmakers will be in a familiar spot when they return to Pierre in January, lots of demands, but not enough money. Representative Jean Hunhoff of Yankton is Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee. Hunhoff says there are some basic functions of state government that have to be funded.

Get the story here.

Your thoughts about red state failure?

Embattled Future Fund facing changes

South Dakota is plagued with conflicts of interest and the Future Fund is part of Pierre's culture of corruption.

The program is funded by a contractor’s excise tax that spent more than eleven million dollars last year on Governor Denny Daugaard's pet Republican projects.

Pam Roberts gave a thousand simoleons to Dennis Daugaard during the 2014 election cycle so in turn she got cash from the Future Fund and now has been been appointed to the scandal-plagued Board of Regents.

Roberts currently is chairwoman of the South Dakota Republican Party. She retired as state secretary of labor in the Daugaard cabinet two years ago. Among her previous roles in state government, she was chief of operations for then-Gov. Bill Janklow. She also served in Cabinet-level posts for the Mickelson, Walter Dale Miller and Rounds administrations. [Mitchell Daily Republic]

Gov. Daugaard gave out $26.5 million in Future Fund grants just during his first three years in office.

In 2013 Daugaard appointed disgraced former US Attorney Kevin Schieffer to the board. In a fit of partisan government overreach Schieffer upended local control by seizing a T-Rex fossil in 1992 from the Black Hills Institute of Geology.

On advice of counsel Mike Rounds won't release the names of his Future Fund cronies because he's shielded by South Dakota's lack of ethics oversight.

Kinda makes me wanna puke.

Your thoughts?

Suspected child abuser Hiland confronts earth hater Johnson

Republican is simply another word for earth hater and 'pro-life' is code for white people breeding.

Wendel Hiland is a Newell, South Dakota-area handyman and self-styled 'sovereign citizen' who faced 300 years in prison after he was arrested and charged in 2013 with 30 counts of abuse of a minor over the age of seven. He raped a minor, forced her into child marriage and has called Attorney General Marty Jackley "as crooked as they come."

In a Facebook post he recently blind-sided earth hater candidate for US House Dusty Johnson about guns, god and government and Johnson mouthed the boilerplate earth hater lines.

Rich women have full reproductive freedom while women at middle and lower income levels experience chilling effects on their rights. South Dakota’s repeated attempts to restrict access to medical care are not only mean-spirited, they’re discriminatory anti-choice extremism.

But, applaud the nutball Republican efforts diverting attention from the party’s culture of corruption where murders and their coverups are commonplace by clogging the legislative session with christianic religionist argle-bargle.

SD Chamber president says governor race worth the watch

Dave Owen, president of South Dakota Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told WNAX radio Democratic gubernatorial candidate State Senator Billie Sutton is a good contender against the eventual earth hater nominee.

Owen is a cannabis alarmist who just gave the legislature its marching orders.

In addition to tight budgeting, Owen said the session may also end up tackling the state’s ongoing workforce shortage. "Immigration and refugees are a valuable potential asset to our workforce issues," Owen said. "This is going to be cast, I think, in more economic terms."

Read that here

Some of the most unsettling xenophobia and barricades to diversity in South Dakota come from a small white christofascist clique operating at the fringes of the South Dakota Republican Party.

Despite efforts to tax out of state businesses Marty Jackley's defense of an e-tax is doomed.

Kristi Noem is a serial philanderer expected to be eliminated in the June earth hater primary.

Emperor Dump putting democracy, American consumers last

Former Massachusetts US Representative Barney Frank says the independence of watchdog agency Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was a key consideration when Congress created it in 2010.

The director of the Consumer Financial Bureau is different than every other in many ways. He's appointed or she's appointed for a five-year term and cannot be removed by the president. And we thought it was appropriate that, in that case, they be protected from being cut off at the knees politically.

Get the story at Bill Janklow's idea of public radio.

Your thoughts about Emperor Dump's disregard for American democracy?

South Dakota remains at risk to poor ag and ranching practices

The Grassland Fire Danger Index will be in the Very
High Category today. A cold front will cross the area this
afternoon followed by gusty northwest winds. Ahead of the front,
especially over parts of southwestern and south central South
Dakota, very warm temperatures and low relative humidity will
occur this afternoon along with breezy westerly winds.
Harding-Perkins-Butte-Northern Meade Co Plains-Ziebach-
Northern Foot Hills-Rapid City-Southern Foot Hills-
Custer Co Plains-Pennington Co Plains-Haakon-Fall River-
Oglala Lakota-Jackson-Bennett-Mellette-Todd-Tripp-
Sturgis/Piedmont Foot Hills-Southern Meade Co Plains-
Hermosa Foot Hills-Corson-Dewey-Stanley-Jones-Lyman-Gregory-Lincoln-Yankton-Clay-Union
Including the cities of McIntosh, Isabel, Mission Ridge, Murdo,
and Kennebec, Buffalo, Lemmon, Bison, Belle Fourche,
Faith, Dupree, Spearfish, Rapid City, Edgemont, Hot Springs,
Folsom, Wall, Philip, Ardmore, Oelrichs, Pine Ridge, Oglala,
Kyle, Kadoka, Martin, White River, Mission, Winner, Sturgis,
Union Center, and Hermosa
308 AM MST Mon Nov 27 2017 /408 AM CST Mon Nov 27 2017/

...VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...

Beadle-Kingsbury-Brookings-Jerauld-Sanborn-Miner-Lake-Moody-Brule-Aurora-Davison-
Hanson-McCook-Minnehaha-Charles Mix-Douglas-Hutchinson-Turner-Bon Homme
Including the cities of Herreid, Eureka,
Aberdeen, Britton, Sisseton, Mobridge, Ipswich, Webster, Gettysburg,
Faulkton, Redfield, Clark, Watertown, Milbank, Hayti, Clear Lake,
Onida, Pierre, Highmore, Miller, and Fort Thompson

...HIGH FIRE DANGER...

Thune getting rich in the swamp

John Thune (earth hater-SD) can't run for any higher office because he's deplorable, infidelitous and touched by scandal.

He went to DC with a net worth of $423,000 placing him among the poorest members of the Senate but now he's a swamp thing.

An undisclosed portion of the committee’s money is invested in securities. The $11.37 million balance held by Thune's committee exceeds not only the amounts held by other South Dakota politicians but also most national politicians.

Get the disgusting story here.

Anyone who believes Thune has never pawed girls or boys inappropriately is delusional.

South Dakota hates American Indian kids

"AMERICAN INDIAN CHILDREN IN SOUTH DAKOTA ARE FURTHER AWAY FROM OPPORTUNITY THAN ANY RACIAL GROUP IN ANY STATE"

South Dakota, Montana, Arizona and New Mexico are at the bottom of a list of Kids Count results just published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. If 1000 is perfect South Dakota comes in dead last with a score of 220. The average score for the United States is a dismal 413 although African American kids fare even worse.

Read the rest here.

Montana is at least doing something about American Indian dropout rates. Great Falls Public Schools has developed an immersion program that includes a bison hunt.

The students like immersion school so much that several asked to continue it for three weeks over the summer. Antonio, who before the program was using drugs and dropped out of school, was one of the students who did credit recovery over the three-week summer program. [Great Falls Tribune]

Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota is sending some genetically pure bison to Arizona to build a new herd there.

More than 5 million children in America are separated from a parent because of a prison sentence. Eight percent of South Dakota's kids or about 17,000 children are affected by the state's repressive law enforcement industry. Exacerbating prison population and hopelessness, personal income in South Dakota has plummeted under Republican Governor Denny Daugaard according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. The state is addicted to gambling creating staggering homelessness and despair. Rapid City and Pennington County brag about their Native mass incarcerations.

In South Dakota white people steal money slated for American Indian education and murder their families when the jig is up then place a complicit attorney general at the head of the investigation. A so-called "South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations" led by earth haters plots new ways to take advantage of and siphon resources from the nine tribal nations trapped in the red moocher state.

Hyperpartisan DWC crackpot calling kettle black

Hyperpartisan morbidly obese earth hater and hack, Pat Powers lives in a town shaped and guided by socialism created long before he moved there to enjoy its fruits.

He is using his blog space this morning to contradict a respected legislator for telling voters the way it is. Al Novstrup is Powers' fellow earth hater.

Not surprisingly, District 1 Rep. Susan Wismer, D-Britton, has a different take than Novstrup. She was on the legislature's 2011 redistricting committee and said residents need to pay attention if the efficiency gap calculation shows a GOP advantage. "The reason South Dakota is in the shape it is, is because Republicans have maintained a stranglehold on the process," Wismer said. [Aberdeen American News]

South Dakota and Wyoming's residents are graying faster than most US states where revenues are completely in the shitter. They're both on track to outstrip Kansas as the worst run states.

Read his stupid ass response here.

Powers and Novstrup live on the banks of the most polluted waterways in America.

South Dakota Investment Council buying stock, ignoring infrastructure

Instead of repairing crumbling infrastructure the State of South Dakota is buying up shares of stock in a number of questionable ventures.

South Dakota Investment Council raised its holdings in AECOM (NYSE:ACM) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter and owns about 0.16% worth $9,269,000. It just bought 10,000 Shares of Analog Devices, Inc. It just boosted its holdings in ViaSat, Inc. by 37.8%, has a $3.60M stake in Splunk Inc., a $4.40M stake in LifePoint Health, boosted its stake in JetBlue 83.8% and purchased 20,400 shares of Microchip Technology Incorporated.

The State just increased its position in earth hater Monsanto Company by 445.3%, bought 45,800 shares of United Continental Holdings, Inc. and increased its holdings of Cimarex Energy by 14.9%.

It bought more Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Halliburton, McKesson, Marathon Oil, Kohl, Fluor, Devon Energy Corporation and has nearly $12M in Humana.

South Dakota bought 6,700 shares of Western Digital Corporation, has $31.93M in Cigna Corporation, $32.01M in Aetna, boosted its holdings in doomed Peabody Energy, has a $34.13M stake in Apache Corporation and after settling a recent lawsuit with the company bought more Allergan.

There's more, much more in the Friday news dump.

Conflicts of interest? Crumbling bridges?

South Dakota says nobody cares. Let the feds fix our shit.

RCPE having tough weekend

A subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming, the Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern Railroad, demanded a few column inches in Black Hills news in the last couple of days.

Crews welding and grinding on track is the suspected cause of the 291 acre fast moving Dry Creek Fire that began near Fairburn.

And charges are pending for a Rapid City man who failed to yield to an RCPE train near Box Elder and was seriously injured.

Insurance costs expected to rise

Insurance companies have been hesitant to raise premiums for idiots building in the wildland urban interface and along waterways being swollen by human-caused climate disruptions but not any more.

A wildfire east of the Black Hills of South Dakota burned 291 acres between Hermosa and Fairburn November 22. It occurred on a day when the weather station at Rapid City Regional Airport recorded wind gusts up to 42 mph and a minimum relative humidity of 29 percent.

Read that here.

And:

There are two ways to encourage, or even force, them to take action before a fire strikes. Zoning laws and insurance companies. Laws can, for example, ban wood shingle roofs, and require vegetation clearances up to 100 feet, as well as other requirements.

Read more here.

If the legislation passes, it may affect around 205 buildings in Watertown along Lake Kampeska and the Big Sioux River that were designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as being in a repetitive loss area. According to Mayor Sarah Caron, Watertown has had 30 to 40 properties claim repetitive losses. A former assistant city engineer, Caron has studied floodplain management going back to her college days in the 1980s. With her background and experience, Caron was not surprised by news of the proposed legislation.

Get that story here.

Letter: which part of ecocide don't you understand?

Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the Midwest and Great Plains are destroying waterways all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Factory farms are exempt from the Clean Air Act, even though they produce large quantities of toxic emissions that have been proven to harm human health. With many thousands of factory farms/CAFO’s [sic]in rural states that have little or no public health or environmental regulations, it’s time to ensure that our grandchildren will inherit an environment that is safe and pleasant to live in. That starts with a moratorium on new CAFO’s [sic] until adequate state and federal regulations can be developed to protect our most precious resource – our children.

Read the rest here.

Your thoughts?

The EPA reports that agricultural waste from these kinds of industrial hog operations are a leading cause of impaired waterways. https://t.co/XsSMEcPYw8

— American Rivers (@americanrivers) November 24, 2017

Pheasants phorever: phowl phucked

As the Chinese ring-necked pheasant is wiped out by industrial agriculture revenues in South Dakota continue to slide.

Last year, South Dakota landowners applied to enroll more than 42,000 acres during the regular sign-up for CRP, but only two landowners and 101 acres were accepted. That’s right, only two landowners.

Read the rest here.

Which part of ecocide don't you understand?

Keystone leak brings spike to local economy

Who says pipelines aren't job creators?

The Front Porch in Langford was tapped to feed responders immediately following the leak, but TransCanada has since brought in a specialized emergency response team, said Jacquelynn Benson, spokeswoman for TransCanada. While TransCanada is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, technicians and specialized crews have responded from all of the U.S., Benson said.

Read the rest here.

Kinda makes you wanna puke, init?

About one tenth of the diluted bitumen has been recovered.

The grassland fire danger index will be in the very high category over the breach area. Maybe Gaia will simply fix East River.

Kronaizl: SD legislature doesn't give one shit about voters

Vermillion's Doug Kronaizl is a spokesperson for South Dakotans coming together to fight corruption.

South Dakotans want to return power to the people. That’s why more than 50,000 S.D. voters all across the political spectrum signed petitions for the Voter Protection and Anti-Corruption Amendment. The amendment would restrict lobbyist gifts to politicians, ban foreign money in S.D. elections, toughen ethics law enforcement, reduce special interest money in our elections and it puts the people in charge by saying that only S.D. voters get the final say on changes to laws we pass at the ballot.

Read more here.

Your thoughts?

Grassland fire index reflects poor ag practices

South Dakota, parts of Minnesota and Iowa are chemical toilets where poor ranching and agricultural practices are driving this fall's grassland fire danger.

Harding-Perkins-Butte-Northern Meade Co Plains-Ziebach-Rapid City-
Custer Co Plains-Pennington Co Plains-Haakon-Jackson-Bennett-
Mellette-Todd-Tripp-Sturgis/Piedmont Foot Hills-
Southern Meade Co Plains-
Including the cities of Buffalo, Lemmon, Bison, Belle Fourche,
Faith, Dupree, Rapid City, Folsom, Wall, Philip, Kadoka, Martin,
White River, Mission, Winner, Sturgis, and Union Center
158 AM MST Fri Nov 24 2017 /258 AM CST Fri Nov 24 2017/

...VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...

Corson-Campbell-McPherson-Brown-Walworth-Edmunds-Dewey-Potter-Faulk-
Spink-Stanley-Sully-Hughes-Hyde-Hand-Jones-Lyman-Buffalo-
Including the cities of McIntosh, Herreid, Eureka, Aberdeen,
Mobridge, Ipswich, Isabel, Gettysburg, Faulkton, Redfield,
Mission Ridge, Onida, Pierre, Highmore, Miller, Murdo, Kennebec,
and Fort Thompson
324 AM CST Fri Nov 24 2017 /224 AM MST Fri Nov 24 2017/

...VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...

Lyon IA-Sioux-O'Brien-Plymouth-Cherokee-Woodbury-Ida-Murray-
Nobles-Pipestone-Rock-Dakota-Sanborn-Miner-Lake-Moody-Davison-
Hanson-McCook-Minnehaha-Hutchinson-Turner-Lincoln SD-Union-
415 AM CST Fri Nov 24 2017

...VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...

Osceola-Dickinson-Clay IA-Buena Vista-Lincoln MN-Lyon MN-
Cottonwood-Jackson-Beadle-Kingsbury-Brookings-
415 AM CST Fri Nov 24 2017

...HIGH FIRE DANGER...

Dixon-Gregory-Jerauld-Brule-Aurora-Charles Mix-Douglas-Bon Homme-
Yankton-Clay SD-
415 AM CST Fri Nov 24 2017

...VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...

On a roll, Daugaard will appoint another earth hater

The untimely death of a moderate Republican has given South Dakota's extremist governor another opportunity to drive the state's legislature even further to the wrong wing.

“Craig Tieszen was a good man and a dedicated public servant, and his loss is very sad,” said Gov. Dennis Daugaard in an emailed statement. [Rapid City Journal]

Rapid City's mayor, a former cop who managed 'a bunch of racists' while chief of police, said he was 'heartbroken' after hearing the news Tieszen was killed.

Rapid City is already represented by a gaggle of racists, misanthropes and climate science deniers. Earlier this year nutbag Lynne DiSanto posted an 'all lives splatter' expletive to her Facebook page and Phil Jensen called all LGBTQ people paedophiles.

On a record pace Daugaard will be appointing another extreme earth hater to a seat for the 2018 legislative session.

Your thoughts?

Chiesman Center: GOP threatening end of democracy in South Dakota

Rapid City-based Chiesman Center for Democracy chronicles South Dakotans' voter fatigue and disgust plaguing democracy in the red moocher state.

We all tend to agree that we want our legislative body to be the best it can be, with the very best and brightest at the helm. We can also agree that we want our legislature to be comprised of members who reflect the very demographics of South Dakota. If that is true, then instead of retirees and the self-employed we need to create a legislature that allows for and encourages diversity.

Read that here.

South Dakota's GOP legislators and candidates have enjoyed millions in lobbyist benefits from the Kochs' contribution arm, the American Legislative Exchange Council; the state's junior senator was elected with cash from ALEC-backed National Federation of Independent Business.

Common Cause filed a supplement to its three-year-old tax whistleblower complaint against ALEC, and the two groups sent a joint letter to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen demanding an investigation, collection of fines and back taxes, and the revocation of ALEC’s status as a tax-exempt charity.

Read more here.

As a member of the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council Betty Olson is toeing the line for her benefactors and for the radical wrong wing of her political party.

A sad day for democracy in SD. New bill drafts not having any public testimony at SD Task Force on I&R. Diff process than last month

— Chiesman Center (@ChiesmanCenter) August 23, 2017

Most American Indians see Thanksgiving as time of mourning

The first European celebration of Thanksgiving in the New World took place in the Spanish-conquered Southwest but it wasn't until a slave-owning US president made the date official.

Larry Salway is a pastor at He Sapa New Life Church, and he says some Natives think of Thanksgiving as a time of mourning. Jonathan Old Horse is a linguistics teacher in the Lakota language. He says when he thinks of Thanksgiving, sometimes he thinks of it as a Native American, with atrocities, but he also thinks of the holiday as an American.

Get that story here.

As the Roman Church contemplates sainthood for a Lakota catechist white South Dakota continues to celebrate genocide.

South Dakota still twenty years behind the times

The wind farms north of this blogger's home town are eyesores of continental proportions.

South Dakota's climate science-denying earth hater governor is touting his reliance on out of state investments in his red moocher state.

Wind power has contributed more than $2 billion in capital investment to our state for the construction and maintenance of the 14 wind projects now in operation. Wind farms now pay approximately $5 million each year in lease payments, creating a new, drought-resistant revenue stream that can help family farmers and ranchers expand their operations or withstand market fluctuations in crop prices. [press release, some Daugaard staffer]

One Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks study determined a single wind farm kills between 120 to 397 bats annually or about nine bats per turbine.

But some progressive states are resisting efforts by Minnesota-based Xcel Energy to build more bird and bat killing wind farms.

Xcel's proposed New Mexico wind farm is directly in the path of Sandhill crane migrations something South Dakota Game, Fish and Plunder doesn't care about.

Meanwhile, lesser prairie chicken advocates have expressed anxiety about the proposal’s proximity to the habitat of the vulnerable grouse, whose regional range has been shrunk and degraded by industry and grazing. The lesser prairie chicken has an aversion to vertical structures, associating them with predator perches, said Robert Findling of the New Mexico Nature Conservancy. Such structures threaten to further fragment their habitat, he said.

Get the story here.

In a related story: after a pipeline leaked 210,000 gallons of diluted bitumen in South Dakota the state's Public Utilities Commission is pondering legal action against a wind farm developer.

Trump Organization ending livestock disease study to boost exports

The Republican-owned U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to decommission brucellosis field studies after the disease was discovered in thirteen cattle herds in the Greater Yellowstone Area.

Additionally, from comingling of cattle herds at the time of transmission and transfer of ownership of some animals between infection and detection, 3 more infected cattle herds were identified. Another concern is that the void in research will be filled by other groups that may not have the same priorities, including protecting domestic livestock.

Get the story here.

A Tripp County, South Dakota cattle herd is still under quarantine after a routine inspection discovered bovine tuberculosis.

According to the Yankton Press & Dakotan more than half of county commissions have been infiltrated by Republicans with conflicts of interest who rubber-stamp concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Trump officials are covering up diseases in livestock to boost exports.

Your thoughts?

Pipeline resister: US an apartheid government vs. oppressed minority

After Manape LaMere renounced his citizenship, disenrolled from the Yankton Sioux Tribe, and gave up his Social Security number he joined the resistance to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline at the Wiconi Un Tipi Camp near Lower Brule.

He describes the current state of American-tribal relations as that of an apartheid government toward an oppressed minority. To break free from that dysfunctional relationship, tribes must break free from America completely in order to be treated as equals, LaMere said.

Read the Kevin Abourezk story at indianz.

Launching a $30,000 fundraising drive for a kitchen at Wiconi Un Tipi Camp, the No KXL Dakota Alliance announced a November 21 signing ceremony for the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred Against Tar Sands and the KXL Pipeline. The camp in Lower Brule is strategically located to block the path of a proposed power line that TransCanada Corp. has slated to carry electricity to a pumping station on the Keystone XL tar-sands crude pipeline route through unceded 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory.

Read that here.

Crews from TransCanada shut down its Keystone pipeline after 5,000 barrels of diluted bitumen (dilbit) spilled near Amherst in Marshall County, South Dakota.

An assessment and investigation are underway after the leak was detected around 0600 local time. Hackers with nefarious intent have been stepping up attacks against American infrastructure recently and overloading sensors that control pipeline pressure has not been ruled out.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission has just approved an alternate route for the planet-killing pipeline but anti-KXL leader Jane Kleeb says an appeal of the decision is expected.

Pipeline opponents already had planned to appeal the commission's decision in court. They say the panel's decision on Monday brings up new issues that could be challenged in court. Ken Winston is an attorney representing environmental groups. He says the vote, "opens up a whole new bag of issues that we can raise."

Read more here.

The spill came just days before Nebraska ruled on a permit for the Keystone XL.

Human error is cited as the cause in a Sunday spill in North Dakota that leaked 270 barrels, or 11,340 gallons of saltwater mine waste because crews there failed to close a valve.

The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux have filed court documents urging a federal judge to reject the recent arguments of federal officials and the pipeline developer that the tribes' proposals aren't needed. The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting an additional court-ordered review of the pipeline's impact on tribal interests. While that's done, the tribes want additional protections such as emergency equipment staging at the pipeline's Lake Oahe crossing on the Missouri River, which is their water source. [KSFY teevee]

In 2016 even earth hater South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson said the Keystone XL won’t happen without State Department approval.

Despite the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Excess Pipelines fuel costs in the region are soaring.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is expected to take up two water rights settlement bills next month.

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chairman Dave Flute said his tribe will stand with other tribal nations and oppose the KXL pipeline.

The same West River geology that thwarts railroad improvements in South Dakota makes KXL untenable.

Brookings man catheterized after being suspected of cannabis ingestion

South Dakota's legislature is a Reichstag having passed the most repressive drug ingestion laws in America.

The man was taken to the hospital to be medically cleared due to possible effects of suspected drug ingestion, and both suspects were transported to the Brookings County Detention Center.

Get the story here.

Jonathan Ellis of Argus Leader Media apparently submitted his blog post to his editor as "Jackboots Jackley missing out on real crime" but that is not the headline.

He’s defended a Medievalesque law that allows law enforcement to forcefully catheterize suspects. You know, holding people down and sticking tubes up their whatchabadinks just to prove they’ve used drugs. Because, apparently, waiting for somebody to relieve himself isn’t as expedient. [Ellis, As violent crime surges across S.D., Jackley pursues pot growers]

SDGOP‬ Brookings hack Pat Powers went on full tilt after Ellis exposesd Jackley as a partisan Trumpoid psychopath. Selective enforcement is a hallmark of South Dakota's Republican attorney general. Marty Jackley routinely settles lawsuits as attorney general with his own campaign contributors.

Be careful, Ellis. Anyone who believes Marty Jackley and his accomplices aren't capable of treachery has forgotten Heather Plunkett.

Federal subsidies key to red state failure

Speaking of Republican hypocrisy:

More than 10,000 passengers have boarded flights at the Pierre Regional Airport, the most since 2013 and an important number to keep a million dollars of federal funding coming in, Airport Manager Mike Isaac said. The feds look at how high the subsidies run – governed, of course, by passengers-per-flight figures – in looking on whether to approve such subsidies.

Get the story here.

Pierre, South Dakota is the 44th most desirable state capital in which to live because air service in Pierre is a bridge to nowhere, a shit hole where few want to live.

After President Barack Obama shined a spotlight on Watertown that South Dakota community has also seen more air service subsidies.

KCCR is reporting this morning that while white people believe cannabis is a threat to workplaces Pierre City Commissioners approved 35 liquor license renewals for 2018.

Get the stories here and here.

Former cop denied release from prison

A former member of South Dakota's law enforcement industry will stay in prison.

Brian Biehl, 48, of Platte, appeared Tuesday at the Davison County Public Safety Center in front of Judge Chris Giles. Biehl was sentenced in March after pleading guilty to taking $69,668 in money confiscated during drug searches while he was employed as a South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper.

Get the story here.

Marty Jackley hates sharing the spoils of Policing for Profit and asset forfeiture.

Cops' lives suck. Little wonder LEOs abuse their families, alcohol, drugs, food, power, detainees and occasionally murder their wives.

SDGOP will raise state pay to keep voters loyal

As South Dakota's climate science-denying governor prepares a speech on the state's drain circling wages for state workers appear to headed upward.

Lieutenant Governor Matt Michels says they know some upward adjustments are needed. Most state workers didn’t get a raise last year, and with increasing health insurance costs, may have gone backward. Michels says they are taking other steps that will help employees now, and in the future. Michels says finding more money for state workers is a priority.

Get the story at WNAX.

Former Avera lawyer Michels has been implicated in the coverup of Brady Folkens' death at state boot camp, STAR Academy.

Kinda makes you wanna puke, init?

How 65 county seats and their bureaucracies are either conservative or sustainable remains a mystery.

Noem in Hills lobbying for Wyoming donor

US Representative Kristi Noem (earth hater-SD) was in Rapid City leaning on Forest Service officials to keep Hulett, Wyoming donor Jim Neiman happy.

Despite the success of the mountain pine beetle in thinning ponderosa pine the Service reminded small government Noem mechanical treatment costs about $400 an acre. The Black Hills National Forest is planning prescribed burning on 100,000 acres but Neiman dupes are balking.

The Timber Committee expressed concern regarding the amount of overstory mortality that has occurred in some recent prescribed burns. A concern also exists concerning the use of prescribed burning to kill pine regeneration, as any fire in the Black Hills introduces inherent risks.

Read the rest here.

Even though Kristi Noem voted for a bill that helps her earth hater donors like Hulett, Wyoming-based Neiman Enterprises it's unlikely the so-called "Resilient Federal Forests Act" will ever see action in the US Senate.

Democrats are blasting the lack of bipartisanship in the GOP-driven bill.

Deadwood recently received a federal grant to reduce wildfire risk.

Socialized livestock grazing and socialized timber harvest are GOP hypocrisy writ large.

Your thoughts?

Aanning alleges conspiracy in STAR Academy cover-up

Calls to remove Clinton statue are rank hypocrisy

South Dakota is home to numerous sculptures that idolize genocide visited upon American Indians.

Mount Rushmore is the state's premier example of racist ideology. Its sculptor was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Calling him a rapist some twitter accounts are calling for the removal of Rapid City's statue of Bill Clinton. Fact is: most of the downtown statuary depict slave owners, a child rapist, war criminals and figures in history that ordered the murders of Natives.

Thomas Jefferson began raping Sally Hemings when she was fourteen. Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren drove thousands from their lands and to their deaths over the Trail of Tears. Harry Truman dropped two atomic bombs on civilians.

The United States was founded on the backs of slaves as systematic genocide became a way of life for white christians quoting scripture as they slaughtered their fellow humans. After colonizers realized enslaved American Indians had no resistance to diseases brought from the Old World, Africans were imported to do the dirty work. George Washington became a warlord because slaves created the wealth that afforded him cannon, powder and ball.

In the early twentieth century after President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House white supremacists began erecting statuary commemorating and celebrating treason in the United States.

Confederate flags routinely fly in Rapid City showing support for racism in like-minded states, South Carolina and Mississippi. Many more come out during the Sturgis Rally.

Moody and Pennington Counties struggle with racism on a local level.

As bikers in the Black Hills can still be seen flaunting their racist bents flying the flag of slavery from their machines Gettysburg, South Dakota remains a white supremacist stronghold.

The Potter County city of Gettysburg will not be removing the Confederate Flag from patches of the police department. ["...Without the war, and without the Battle of Gettysburg, we would not be the same City that we are. The Chief of Police, Bill Wainman, the Mayor, Bill Wuttke, and the City Council have no intentions of changing the police patch."]

Read that here.

Helena, Montana has removed its Confederate shrine after outcry from the state's American Indian legislative caucus.

George Custer, Phil Sheridan, George Crook and William Harney all committed crimes against humanity yet their names still besmirch numerous government and geographical features.

Right to life? Not if you're non-white in South Dakota.

Filmed almost entirely in western South Dakota Dances With Wolves opened in theaters on this date in 1990.

County named for war criminal has South Dakota's oldest residents

South Dakota's population is graying at an increasing rate.

While the overall percentage of children under 18 in South Dakota has decreased, there were 14,825 more children in the state in 2016 than there were in 1990—213,287 compared to 198,462. At the same time, the number of adult South Dakotans grew by almost 150,000, from 497,542 in 1990 to 652,167 in 2016. Custer County, which was also the state’s oldest county in 2016, had the lowest percentage of children in the state at 15.9 percent. Todd County had the highest percentage at 40.8 percent.

Read more here.

The ritual burning of the mountain pine beetle is scheduled again in a Black Hills town named for a war criminal.

Ag bankers cultivating indentured farmers

Under earth hater Governor Denny Daugaard farm income in South Dakota has plummeted dramatically.

Curt Everson, President of the South Dakota Bankers Association, says there are mixed results in production ag this year. Everson says bankers will do what they can to keep producers in business.

Listen to the story at WNAX.

Steve Rounds enjoys an unusual 30-year lease on land managed by a state agency. Rounds got the lease to the Oahe Marina from South Dakota Game, Fish and Plunder while his brother was governor and while his banker, Larry Deiter was at the state Division of Insurance.

In South Dakota conservative means never having to apologize for your dependence on subsidies or for being on the state's dole.

Your thoughts?

South Dakotans Against Prohibition advances tee-shirt ideas

Get the story here.

Thune advances telecom for whites, thumbs nose at tribes

During a speech to donors in Sioux Falls Monday Sen. John Thune (earth hater-SD) said access to telecommunications is just too hard for some rural areas.

Three of the five Federal Communications Commission members said three changes that apply to tribal lands will help reduce waste, fraud and abuse, and expand communications networks that lag behind the rest of the country. Joe RedCloud of the Oglala Sioux Tribe said earlier this week that the changes will give Native Americans fewer or no options for mobile service. "This will be a travesty to Indian Country because it will turn back the clock to times when consumers had but one choice," he said this week. Many people still live without electricity, running water and phone service on reservations.

Read the rest here.

"heavy-handed" = you are free to use the internet however you want to
"light-touch" = the company you pay for internet access can limit that freedom however they want https://t.co/r0J6nNjjq3

— Jason Emory Parker (@jaspar) November 21, 2017

The FCC intends to totally repeal Net Neutrality tomorrow, meaning we will only see some people's websites quickly -- those who paid for the quicker lane. Think about what that means and grieve for your country. Sounds corny, kind of overdramatic, so maybe I should say it again.

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) November 21, 2017

Bjorkman calls BS on GOP tax bill

South Dakota democratic Congressional Candidate Tim Bjorkman says the special interests are descending on Washington again. Bjorkman says the best help for corporations is not in the tax bill.

Get the story at WNAX.

Fiegen all about conforming to GOP protocol

South Dakota earth hater Public Utilities Commission Chair Kristie Fiegen says commissioners have to interpret state law and apply that to the evidence and filings but always rules along strict party lines.

Fiegen is limited in her ability to comment on South Dakota's dealings with TransCanada. The PUC's permit for Keystone XL to cross this state is under appeal at the state Supreme Court.

Get the story at Bill Janklow's idea of public radio.

Black Hills Energy, another client applying PUC lubrication after priming the election pump, achieved a May orgasm at the hands of Chris Nelson, Chairman Gary Hanson and Kristie Fiegen.

Read more about Chris Nelson's conflicts of interest here and here.

Last cycle, Representative Kristi Noem enjoyed a $2500 face lift from Dakota Access' parent, Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas company that gave nearly $321,000 to Republicans and less than $27,000 to Democrats.

Selective enforcement is just another GOP perk in the chemical toilet that is South Dakota.

Deadwood to get federal grant to reduce wildfire risk

Bighorn sheep seem to doing well in the 2002 Grizzly Gulch burn near Deadwood. The animals are proliferating and waiting to jump in front of a million drunken bikers set to attend the Sturgis Rally.

The city of Deadwood is one of only eight new communities across the country selected to receive technical assistance in 2018 under a national program that helps reduce the impacts from wildfires, including risks and costs. Deadwood Planning and Zoning Administrator Bob Nelson Jr. estimated that the value of the services that will be rendered free of charge to Deadwood through the program in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.

Get the story here.

The Black Hills National Forest is planning prescribed burning on 100,000 acres but Neiman dupes are balking.

The Timber Committee expressed concern regarding the amount of overstory mortality that has occurred in some recent prescribed burns. A concern also exists concerning the use of prescribed burning to kill pine regeneration, as any fire in the Black Hills introduces inherent risks.

Read the rest here.

The southern Black Hills are greener and vistas more spectacular after the mountain pine beetle opened view sheds and increased water supplies. Wind Cave National Park is greenest in its history after a prescribed burn took even more invasive grasses than was planned.

However, after the 2012 White Draw Fire cheatgrass under pine between Hot Springs and Pringle looks like hell and appears ready to erupt in flames at any second.

Even though Kristi Noem voted for a bill that helps her earth hater donors like Hulett, Wyoming-based Neiman Enterprises it's unlikely the so-called "Resilient Federal Forests Act" will ever see action in the US Senate.

Poor ranching practices driving today's grassland fire danger

Rangeland Fire Danger Statement...UPDATED
National Weather Service Rapid City SD
747 AM MST Mon Nov 20 2017

SDZ001-002-012>014-025>027-031-032-041>044-046-047-072-073-210115-
Harding-Perkins-Butte-Northern Meade Co Plains-Ziebach-
Northern Foot Hills-Rapid City-Southern Foot Hills-
Pennington Co Plains-Haakon-Fall River-Oglala Lakota-Jackson-
Bennett-Mellette-Todd-Sturgis/Piedmont Foot Hills-
Southern Meade Co Plains-
Including the cities of Buffalo, Lemmon, Bison, Belle Fourche,
Faith, Dupree, Spearfish, Rapid City, Edgemont, Hot Springs,
Wall, Philip, Ardmore, Oelrichs, Pine Ridge, Oglala, Kyle,
Kadoka, Martin, White River, Mission, Sturgis, and Union Center
747 AM MST Mon Nov 20 2017 /847 AM CST Mon Nov 20 2017/

...VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...

WNAX: earth hater seeing South Dakota insurance spikes

Insurance agent Ryan Maher is an earth hater state senator from Isabel who's watching soaring premium costs and people going without. He says many of his customers are ranch families seeing sticker shock and many are considering Obamacare.

Maher's political party is all about South Dakota being a perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area where socialized agriculture, socialized livestock grazing, socialized coal, socialized military insurance, socialized timber harvest and a virtual medical industry monopoly are simply ways of life.

Soaring with medical and insurance costs are revenues at Mike Rounds' insurance company.

Jackley is a killing machine!

Another great father-son weekend hunting in South Dakota! Michael got his east river buck (a nice 5x5) and we got our limit of pheasants! #hifromSD #HuntinSD #proudDad pic.twitter.com/yqlvnhvR2c

— Marty Jackley (@martyjackley) November 20, 2017

Drinking Liberally: South Dakota a corrupt shit hole

In South Dakota: The Republican Party here resembles the Alabama Republican Party. They are as corrupt and as overwhelmed by self-righteousness. They would condone a Judge Moore too if it put a penny in their pocket and allowed them to maintain their power.

Read the rest here.

Daugaard preparing bad news budget speech

Under earth hater Governor Denny Daugaard South Dakota is in the shitter.

Homelessness, habitat destruction, teen binge drinking, disease, despair and corruption are part of his legacy.

He says sales tax revenues are still running below projections. Daugaard says drought and low ag prices are big factors in those lower sales taxes. He says most people don’t have a lot of extra disposable income.

Get the rest of the story here.

South Dakota earth haters want total control

South Dakota earth hater Mike Stevens of Yankton says he's too stupid to learn anything in just two legislative years.

Stevens says longer terms would allow legislators more time to become more familiar with state issues. It would take a constitutional amendment to change legislative terms. Lawmakers are currently term limited to four – two year terms in either the House or Senate.

Get the story at WNAX.

Sounds like SDGOP is scared shitless there will be a Democratic governor next cycle.

Your thoughts?