Minnesota DFLer calls for legalization

Democrats in blue states already understand the added value of talking legal cannabis during their campaigns and some red state Democrats get it, too; but so far this election cycle South Dakota Democrats believe that state is just too fragile for cannabis rights.

DFLer Jon Applebaum is the House Deputy Minority Leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

As the chief author of Minnesota’s first ever bill to legalize recreational marijuana, I think the best path ahead for health, personal liberty and economic opportunity is clearly right in front of us. Through full legalization of marijuana – for both medicinal and recreational use – we have an opportunity to create a true billion-dollar made-in-Minnesota marijuana economy. The next governor and legislature must courageously work to eliminate our failed criminal prohibition in order for Minnesota to realize the significant benefits that full legalization has brought to a growing number of states. Full legalization will not only improve availability for those who count this product for their health, but will create phenomenal economic benefits for our entire state, of which both the public and private sectors are currently missing out. [LeafLine struggles highlights need for marijuana legalization in Minnesota]

Black market cannabis not tested or subject to inspection makes America and South Dakota less safe. Legalizing and regulating a product that so many people enjoy is reasonable public policy aligned with life/safety concerns.

Unless Democrats weave cannabis into their platform at their state convention and arch-conservatives run for offices outside the Greedy Old Party it's curtains for the South Dakota Democratic Party in November.

Minnesotans suffering from autism and obstructive sleep apnea will be able to seek relief with therapeutic cannabis starting in July.

LeafLine struggles highlights need for marijuana legalization in MN: https://t.co/OEVwn5czfE #mnleg

— Rep. Jon Applebaum (@JonApplebaumMN) May 11, 2018

SOS Krebs expects another abysmal turnout for primary

South Dakota Secretary of State Shantel Krebs talked to KWAT radio the other day about her expected dismal voter turnout next week where she is actually part of the story.

Sioux Falls just turned in the lowest voter turnout in a city election in nearly 25 years. A declining number of people registering to vote, a Republican secretary of state purging voter rolls or overwhelming disgust and hopelessness? Krebs herself is being thrown under the bus in her primary race for South Dakota's lone US House seat because she exposed Kristi Noem as a philanderer. Neal Tapio is in the primary to erode support for Krebs.

The race was a topic during the In the Moment segment today on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio. Jonathan Ellis told listeners Democrat Cory Heidelberger carped about Kristi Noem's hair in a tweet during her debate with Marty Jackley which aired previously on Bill Janklow's idea of public teevee.

According to Watertown Public Opinion Managing Editor Roger Whittle, West River white men support Jackley 48-41 in the gubernatorial primary race and white women support Noem 48-41. Noem is being thrown under the bus because she got caught being a philanderer.

In 2014 Krebs' opponent in the earth hater primary, Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson, attended the Western Governors Association conference in Denver with his boss Denny Daugaard. Make them pee in a cup.

Very little warms the cockles of my heart like the war being prosecuted for the soul of the South Dakota Republican Party and the bloodbath does taste delicious; but, it does beggar the question whether Tapio and his handler Shad Olson are being manipulated by the SDGOP or if there is a quid pro quo.

Primaries are expensive and allow far too much mischief. Since turnout is so pathetic especially during midterms the hobbled South Dakota Democratic Party should end them and choose candidates at the state conventions.

Listen to the interview with Krebs here.

Alcohol, speed killing more South Dakotans on highways

Tony Mangan's dad, Tim, his aunt Pauline and The Dakota Progressive attended St. Mary's in Elkton in the 60s.

Tony left a job in radio journalism for a position as spokesperson for the South Dakota Department of Public "Safety."

This year, the state has already witnessed 42 motor vehicle fatalities, a 60 percent increase compared to the same period in 2017. As for the cause of crashes, Mangan said speed and alcohol continue to be the major factors. [DOT says fatal crashes are up 60 percent over last year]

The same is the case during the Sturgis Rally where girls as young as ten are bought and sold like methamphetamine, Wild Turkey or souvenir t-shirts.

Thanks to selective enforcement white thugs have carte blanche to commit flagrant criminal acts during the Rally. A long history of lawlessness can make the event highly virulent attracting common parasites who breed in the cesspools of human existence.

Gangs of armed men with mental illnesses and addictions to meth power their way into western South Dakota every year; and, an accepted outlaw biker culture routinely traffics illicit behaviors that would otherwise be subject to legal interdiction.

But, a red moocher state like South Dakota is powered by sin: video lootery, a loan shark industry that preys on the least fortunate and a too-big-to-jail banking racket fill in the gaps created by lobbyists who enjoy the protection of single-party tyranny. Desperate to pay off those who benefit the entrenched Republican establishment criminals have a champion sitting as attorney general.

Investigators at the University of Oregon compared traffic accident outcomes in Colorado and Washington following legalization to other states with similar pre-legalization economic and traffic trends. They reported, “We find that states that legalized marijuana have not experienced significantly different rates of marijuana- or alcohol-related traffic fatalities relative to their synthetic controls.” [Study: Traffic Fatalities Have Not Increased As A Consequence Of Legalization]

What do fat, white people have in common besides being far greater burdens on American health care than those who exercise regularly? They all say cannabis is dangerous to young adults while also saying efforts to reduce childhood obesity, like a sugar or soda tax, is over-regulation, government overreach or nanny-statism.

Rochford residents rankled over Canadians increasing road traffic, noise, dust

Canadian miners with permission to drill some 120 exploratory holes near a site sacred to American Indians in the Black Hills are still trying to secure enough off-site water to resume operations.

Mineral Mountain Resources is drilling on some 7,500 acres in the Homestake Gold Belt on public lands and at a private site known as the Standby Mine Target.

John Hopkins is one of the few residents in Rochford, South Dakota and one of those concerned there about the gold project they believe is taking over their town. "If they wind up getting water and they're going to have to haul it in, you can imagine trucks coming down through this territory here and tearing up the roads," Hopkins expressed. [KEVN teevee]

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe passed resolutions condemning what they say are abuses of the General Mining Law of 1872 that led to the Custer Expedition's discovery of gold in the Black Hills and to pay Civil War debt.

Mineral Mt. Resource’s Plan of Operations is too loose and will require a rigorous NEPA analysis. We submit that an environmental impact statement would be the best method of accomplishing such an evaluation. It would provide your agency and the public with the best information to evaluate the proposed project and determine necessary and adequate mitigation measures for problems which may result from the implementation of the project, and to determine whether the Forest Service should require a bond from the project applicant. [South Dakota Chapter of the Sierra Club]

Area residents say the Vancouver-based miners have destroyed Black Hills National Forest Service Road 184A.

Wife of Pitiable Porker Applies for Brookings School Board

In 2014 Brookings was ranked the fifth-drunkest city in America.

Michelle Powers has announced her application for the Brookings School Board. Powers and her husband, Pat, residents of Brookings since 2005, are the parents of seven children, four of whom are BHS graduates. Three children, ages 16, 13 and 10, remain at home and attend Brookings schools. [Brookings Register]

Pernicious Pug Pat Powers, who makes a stopped clock look like a well-greased machine, salts his blog comment section with a seemingly infinite variety of aliases that threaten or jeer his political enemies and most of his kids suffer from horrible afflictions.

That SDGOP condones, encourages and even pays Pat Powers to threaten, malign, bully and libel women while their party standard-bearers preach the protection of women is a measure of hypocrisy that strains human gauges.

He has long been banned from this and other South Dakota related sites because of a constant stream of bigotry, misogyny and other hate speech.

Unaffiliated voters will have outsized impact on South Dakota elections

In a Facebook post, West River legislator Elizabeth May told readers South Dakota conservatives are raising funds and nearing a split with the South Dakota Republican Party in efforts to clean up Pierre's culture of corruption.

Now, unaffiliated and third party voters in Brookings, Lincoln, Union, Butte, Lawrence, Pennington, Meade, Custer, Fall River, Oglala Lakota and Todd counties could have devastating impacts on Republican candidates according to veteran politics reporter Bob Mercer.

The Dakota Progressive has been seeking out and recruiting principled South Dakota conservatives to run for statewide office as third party and unaffiliated (independent) candidates. With the petitions filed for an unaffiliated candidate, a Libertarian and the Constitution Party expected to field a contender South Dakota's lone US House seat is no longer safe Republican. Custer area Democrats have a real opportunity to win a District 30 senate seat as earth haters split their votes with Libertarian Gideon Oakes in the race.

Delegates at party state conventions will pick candidates for most of the statewide races.

Lieutenant Governor - 4 year term
Public Utilities Commissioner - 6 year term
Attorney General - 4 year term
Secretary of State - 4 year term
State Auditor - 4 year term
State Treasurer - 4 year term
Commissioner of School and Public Lands - 4 year term

Principled conservatives are already fighting back against the South Dakota Republican Party insiders in Rapid City. Pierre is broken and the only way to fix it is to have Republicans lose several races to Democrats. Fact is: the best way to a strong two party system in South Dakota is for arch-conservatives to launch an alt-right party. South Dakota's most ardent citizens for liberty are recruiting conservatives to run not just in statewide elections but for the legislature, too.

May, Tonchi Weaver, Steve Livermont, Dan Kaiser, Neal Tapio, Shad Olson, Florence Thompson, Stace Nelson, Gordon Howie, Lora Hubbel and Scott Jones could be among candidates fleeing the SDGOP for the Libertarian and Constitution Parties.

Read Bob Mercer's piece here.

Former Heitkamp intern is new CRST judge

Danielle Ta’Sheena Finn graduated from the Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and is the 2016 Miss Indian World.

Before attending law school, Finn served as an intern for U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), the first Native American Indian to do so. During law school Finn practiced law pro bono, advocated for voters’ rights, and worked on family law and human rights issues. Finn will continue to work full-time as the external affairs coordinator for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, but plans to work one or two days presiding over Healing to Wellness Court cases. “I really believe in this program. The criminal court system is really bogged down. Try our program out. If you get into a bind with substance abuse and alcohol-related charges, we are here for you,” Finn said. [West River Eagle]

Elsie DuBray, another Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member, is headed to Stanford University to research the effects of modern American diets on heart disease and Indian Country’s diabetes epidemic.

Trump Organization defends KXL ecocide in Montana court

Attorneys for the Trump Organization will stop at nothing to erase Barack Obama's legacy including accelerating the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a warming climate and an eventual American Indian rebellion to protect treaty lands.

In 2015, John Kerry, secretary of state under President Barack Obama, concluded the controversial project was not in the country's national interest, citing the impact the project would have on climate change as a major factor in the decision. The environmental impact statement used by the Trump administration in approving the project, attorneys for the environmental groups argued, is “unacceptably stale” and contains outdated information about oil prices, crude by rail, oil spills and modeling for greenhouse gas emissions. [Army of attorneys spar over Keystone pipeline in Great Falls court]

Nearly twice as much as originally believed or some 407,000 gallons of oil leaked last year from a faulty Keystone pipeline in Marshall County, South Dakota just days before Nebraska officials announced its decision on an alternative for an additional TransCanada route. Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska says support for TransCanada's day in court is facing its final argument and that the pipeline will never be built.

The same geology that forces engineers to rebuild I-90 through West River South Dakota every year also makes construction of the Keystone XL pipeline untenable.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has created a website to raise funding and awareness for the dispossession of treaty land, natural resources and to provide information about the nation's battles against the Dakota Excess and Keystone XL Pipelines.

Rounds, Thune want to force tribes from Obamacare protections

Republicans in the US Senate hate everything about Barack Obama but they hate American Indians even more.

Mike Rounds, Steve Daines, John Thune, Mike Crapo and James Risch have introduced the so-called Tribal Employment and Jobs Protection Act to exempt white contractors working on reservations from a mandate enshrined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

During a bipartisan hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) said Congress should take a “solid look” at a single-payer health care system. Tester, who has been listening to various options including some intense lobbying from this blog, asked the panel of experts how to finance the health care system while controlling the costs.

Because of the way hospital networks and private insurers independently negotiate prices with each other in most of the country, rural hospitals are often de facto monopolies with massive leverage. As a result, only insurers that are also effectively monopolies can hope to negotiate for decent prices to drive out competition. Even increasing insurer competition in these concentrated hospital markets could actually make the cost problem worse. [The ACA is Failing Because It Didn’t Account For Hospital Monopolies in Rural Areas]

Despite extensive hype from South Dakota's First Lady child obesity and infant mortality rates have risen again in the chemical toilet yet Sanford, Avera and Rapid City Regional enjoy virtual medical industry monopolies in their markets making South Dakota the most lucrative state to practice medicine.

The ongoing payment dispute between the State of South Dakota and the Indian Health Service is not close to resolution. The state has been trying to recover Medicaid dollars spent on IHS eligible patients in non – IHS facilities. Governor Dennis Daugaard says they continue to talk to federal officials about those payments. Daugaard says the tab for the state continues to increase. Daugaard says they tried to get a bill through Congress to make those changes. Daugaard says he is not optimistic of changes anytime soon. [WNAX]

Recall former Montana Sen. Max Baucus threw President Barack Obama's pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, former Senate Majority Leader and fellow Democrat Tom Daschle, under the bus during a pre-confirmation quarrel in 2009.

Daschle was widely expected to push Congress toward a universal health care plan in the weeks before Big Pharma-backed Baucus soundly rejected single-payer medical insurance and guided the passing of what would become the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Obama later admitted he "screwed up" by pushing Timothy Geithner's confirmation as Treasury Secretary first in a effort to reverse the economic catastrophe left by the previous administration. Daschle withdrew after Obama put off his confirmation hearing and after Baucus stabbed Daschle, the American people and the new president in the back.

In 2013 Obama appointed Baucus, a Democrat who had been a royal pain in the ass, Ambassador to China. Baucus has publicly reversed course and now supports a single payer system.

So if these hospitals are monopolies like utilities are, or even oligopolies in their markets, why isn't there a voter-elected public commission to regulate pricing?

This progressive likes the idea of rolling the funding for Obamacare, TRICARE, Medicare, the Indian Health Service and the Veterans Administration 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.

The plot to gut treaty rights and America's trust responsibilities to Native Americans through #Medicadi #WorkRequirements https://t.co/8UmnEKG77F Shame on South Dakota Republicans #sdleg

— Erin Kelly (@Erin_KellyMT) May 24, 2018

Jackley, Seiler, Russell refuse to act on FLDS lawbreaking

Sharia Law? Nah. Sons of Perdition.

Seventh Circuit Judge Jeff W. Davis has confirmed births occurring at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints compound near Pringle are not being recorded with the State of South Dakota as required by law. Attorney General Marty Jackley, also a candidate for the earth hater gubernatorial nomination, says the actions amount to “stale” evidence therefore no probable cause exists to search the compound.

High-ranking leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are accused of carrying out a “calculated plan” of ritualistic sex abuse involving girls as young as 8 years old in the lawsuit filed in late December against former FLDS President Warren Jeffs, his brothers Lyle Jeffs and Seth Jeffs, former FLDS leader Wendell Nielsen, the FLDS church and the United Effort Plan Trust, the church’s former land trust. [Defendant seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging ritual sex abuse of FLDS girls]

Polygamy and pedophilia are apparently protected religious freedoms in South Dakota as far as Marty Jackley is concerned.

In South Dakota where corruption drives the Republican Party expect public money to be funneled to private parochial schools like the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) uses Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dollars to bleed the beast.

Recall the mother of earth hater state legislator and candidate for South Dakota Attorney General, Lance Russell sold property to the FLDS Church where minor girls are trafficked and raped.

A secretive religious group linked to national cases of polygamy and the marriage of underage girls may be expanding to the Edgemont area, and there may be little Fall River County officials can do. The property in question was part of the estate of Buddy Heck and was left to Doris Seabeck and to Carolyn Fines. Seabeck is Heck’s sister and is the personal representative of his estate. Seabeck signed the purchase agreement, which is being contested by Fines in the courts. The commissioners said that as Carolyn Fines is state’s attorney Lance Russell’s mother, there may be some conflict of interest on the county’s part. [Rapid City Journal]

In 2011 Russell was censured by the state's judiciary for leaking grand jury testimony.

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.” [Custer County Chronicle]

Former US Attorney for the District of South Dakota and candidate for the Democratic nomination for attorney general, Randy Seiler has done nothing about the trafficking of minor girls, either.

Attorneys have been unable to find Seth Jeffs.

Thune crucifies Republican irony

Bake a man a pie and he'll learn to divide by seven but teach a man piety and he'll crucify the apples then say they died for his sins.

Senator John Thune (earth hater-SD) is already notorious for encouraging moral hazard and adding a layer of government overreach bureaupublicanism on fighting wildfires.

Thune has heard a number of concerns with respect to the accuracy of the Drought Monitor, especially given its use in determining grazing disaster assistance through programs administered by the Farm Service Agency. Among these concerns is a frustration that USDA does not fully utilize data gathered by existing reporting stations to determine indemnities for insured grazing losses under the Pasture, Rangeland, Forage Insurance Program that is administered by the Risk Management Agency. [After Hearing Constituents’ Concerns, Thune Introduces Legislation to Improve Accuracy of U.S. Drought Monitor]

A Vale ranch pair lied to the Farm Service Agency after a blizzard buried parts of western South Dakota.

The offense carries maximum penalties of five years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. In a Journal interview following the storm, Karl Knutson said he had been checking cattle and fences on the ranch of his father, Dale, east of Sturgis. [Rapid City Journal]

A farm bill laden with subsidies and ecocide has passed from a house committee.

In an audio statement, Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) said, "I know a lot of you are calving right now, and these calves and cows are in danger. There are two farm programs available as a safety net for you. The first is the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), and it's there to help mitigate the cost of some of those losses. That program will reimburse you for 75 percent of the market value of livestock that are lost due to a storm like we see here this weekend. The second is Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish (ELAP), which is there to help with secondary losses. Both programs are administered by your local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office, so please stay in touch with them if losses were to occur. [Friday the 13th brings harsh April blizzard]

Real conservatives at the Heritage Foundation have called for subsidy reform for years. Both Kristi Noem and Mike Rounds have taken handouts. Noem frequently calls for a socialized Black Hills timber industry to placate Hulett, Wyoming-based donor, Neiman Enterprises.

South Dakota's Republican congressional delegation has been obstructing attempts by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to streamline the agency weaning support from a Spearditch hatchery known for introducing invasive species in Black Hills watersheds and into the waters of the United States.

South Dakota owns loads of the means of production: part of the very definition of socialism.

Socialized agriculture, socialized livestock production, socialized coal and a socialized timber industry: South Dakota truly is a perpetual welfare state and a permanent disaster area.

Powers: okay for Kristi Noem to pimp her kids

Who else is old enough to remember when petty pug Pat Powers accused Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of pimping her son in a campaign advert?

Release – NEW AD: Noem Kids Explain 4 Pillars of Protection https://t.co/JNfEs7ULpt

— Pat Powers (@SoDakCampaigns) May 23, 2018

Majority of New Mexicans want to legalize

Black market cannabis not tested or subject to regulation makes America and New Mexico less safe.

Sixty-three percent of 420 New Mexicans who responded to a poll in March said they would support a bill in the Legislature to legalize, tax and regulate sales of marijuana to adults age 21 and over. Those who “strongly support” legalization, 46 percent, had grown by 6 percentage points since the last survey in 2016. [Santa Fe New Mexican]

Michelle Lujan Grisham worked with former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson to legalize cannabis for some patients but Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, signed it into law.

Lujan Grisham said if she is elected governor she would sign a recreational cannabis bill into law if it included certain conditions. One of the conditions she would require is that the bill provides protection for medical cannabis, which often has lower levels of THC than recreational cannabis. She said the bill would need to include regulation of edibles. [Farmington Daily Times]

It is the view of this blog that edibles should only be available to patients suffering from debilitating diseases, disorders or conditions and be dispensed by pharmacists and taxed like other prescriptions.

Legalizing and regulating a product that so many people enjoy is reasonable public policy aligned with life/safety concerns.

“The New Mexico Department of Health is placing political ideology above public health by refusing to recognize the reality that cannabis offers a viable alternative to opioids.” #nmpol https://t.co/mFBiWEJF9Y

— DPNM (@NMDEMS) May 17, 2018

States that have legalized marijuana for medicinal use have seen a dramatic decrease in opioid use & overdose rates. https://t.co/RVNZ724059 pic.twitter.com/JgNLG846hC

— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) May 16, 2018

TDP supports mechanical timber harvest in the Black Hills but not new roads

The Island in the Plains has been broken for decades but the Black Hills Resilient Landscapes project could fix some of that.

Black Hills National Forest officials have said the project aims to make the forest more resilient to mountain pine beetles and wildfires through a variety of forest-wide actions including the reduction of natural fuel for wildfires, prescribed burning, enhancement of hardwoods and grasslands, logging and noncommercial forest thinning. [Project would log Black Hills to death, Norbeck Society says]

Pinus ponderosa is not native to the Black Hills and only reached the region less than four thousand years ago. When the Custer Expedition came through the Black Hills bringing invasive cheatgrass for their horses stands of ponderosa pine were sparsely scattered but a century and a half of poor ranching and land management practices have created an unnatural overstory best controlled by the mountain pine beetle, prescribed fires and periodic wildfires. After a century of destructive agricultural practices invasive grasses infest most of western South Dakota. It's important to remember high-VOC ponderosa pine only reached central Montana a thousand years ago. They're weeds.

South Dakota's failure to sufficiently clear decades of overgrowth and understory led to the Legion Lake Fire. After a century of fire suppression, a decades-long moratorium on prescribed burns, a lack of environmental litigators and GOP retrenchment the BHNF and surrounding grasslands remain at risk to even hotter blazes.

The mountain pine beetle is hard at work clearing centuries of overgrowth throughout the Rocky Mountain Complex, so is the western spruce budworm. But leaving dead or dying conifers on the forest produces methane, an even more dangerous greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is. University of Montana entomologist, Diana Six has been studying the relationship of forests, fungi and bark beetles for decades. Her work outlines how insects are clearing clogged watersheds being decoupled by the Anthropocene.

Antibiotics and hormones in cattle manure have disrupted and killed essential fungal communities in western forests. More diversity means clearing the second growth ponderosa pine, restoring aspen habitat, prescribing burns, beginning extensive Pleistocene rewilding using bison and cervids, engaging tribes, buying out ranchers, leasing private land for wildlife corridors and turning feral horses from Bureau of Land Management pastures onto other public land to control exotic grasses.

The collapse of the Black Hills ecosystem has been evident since at least 2002.

Water quality and native fisheries on the forest are in serious decline due to grazing, logging and water diversion. Consequently, the biological integrity of the Black Hill's aquatic ecosystems is extremely low. Over the last 95 years, Forest Service logging practices have created a younger, more fire-prone ecosystem on the BHNF in violation of the National Forest Management Act [and] reflects poorly on the Forest Service's commitment to forest conservation. [On verge of ecological collapse]

Keystone, Hot Springs, Custer, Pringle, Hill City, Rochford, Nemo, Silver City, Deadwood, Lead, Newcastle, even Sundance, Rapid City, Piedmont, Sturgis and Spearfish are at extreme risk from the tactical use of wildfire. Just six strategically-placed improvised fuel air explosives (FAEs) deployed during red-flag conditions have the potential to create a firestorm that would be virtually unstoppable.

Restoring some Forest Service roads beats the hell out of bulldozers carving up hillsides willy-nilly to fight wildfires but instead of building new roads on the BHNF managers should urge Raven Industries in Sioux Falls to manufacture Aerostats for timber harvest and fewer for surveillance.

Get cattle off the Black Hills National Forest, approximate historic habitat, make it part of the Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge and elect Democrats to lead the way.

BHNF's first Moon Walk of 2018 will discuss the importance of good fire.

Citizens for Liberty release 2018 scorecard

Lakota language critical to preserving South Dakota history

In 1869 General William Henry Harrison Beadle was appointed surveyor-general of Dakota Territory.

"Tȟuŋkášilayapi, tȟawápaha kiŋháŋ." So opens the Lakota Immersion class at General Beadle Elementary School in Rapid City. Today, Lakota is considered "critically endangered." The Lakota Language Consortium in 2016 reported that 2,000 first-language speakers were alive, down two-thirds from a decade earlier. It's more than just learning the diacritics and glottal stops (which creates a popping sound), but values. [Lakota language immersion expanding at General Beadle]

Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish in South Dakota schools? Sure, that's cool; but, schools where students are steeped in American Indian languages are giving the next generation of Natives opportunities to preserve their cultures.

Mato Standing High practically lived at our house in Spearditch from 1983 until he and my stepson graduated high school in 1994. As both my step kids did he got his Bachelors of Science at the University of Wyoming. A Bush Fellow and a member of the Sicangu Oyate, he is an attorney having received his Juris Doctor at University of Montana Law School. He has also taught at Black Hills State University, a leader in American Indian Studies. No doubt he has heard me expounding on the importance of preserving indigenous languages as i have been ranting about it for nearly thirty years. My young nephews called him "My Toad." Mato is Lakota for bear.

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. 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.

It is the opinion of this blog now that South Dakota's highest geographical point is named for Black Elk, a holy man who rejected the Roman Church, it should be in the Lakota language: loosely translated as Paha Heȟáka Sápa.

White retirees drive South Dakota's red state failure

South Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida are the most heavily gerrymandered earth hater-tilted states.

The number of the registrations was formerly higher, but many RVers who register to vote in South Dakota now do so with the help of mail-forwarding companies, such as Americas Mailbox in Box Elder. There are currently 5,042 active registered voters at that company’s address. Besides utilizing the mail-forwarding service, some RVers use the company's help to establish full residency in South Dakota because of the state’s lack of an income tax and relatively cheap vehicle licensing and registration fees.” [162 Pennington County voters list Walmart as address]

South Dakota has been a net inbound demographic for at least two years running. United Van Lines is reporting upticks, a Republican secretary of state is purging voter rolls and the resident electorate is withering under overwhelming disgust and hopelessness. Voter turnout is dismal in Indian Country mostly because tribal nations trapped in South Dakota flounder as they compete with the stingy red moocher state government for resources.

This is at least as much about the flight of young people and Democrats from South Dakota than anything else. White retirees from Minnesota, Colorado and California parachute into South Dakota hoping to isolate themselves from fair taxation and cultural diversity tap into the state's culture of federal dependence. These slackers are obese Republicans taking advantage of the red moocher state's regressive tax structure now returning in their RVs after a six-month winter and strings of below-zero days.

It's obvious this phenomenon is no accident: it has been manufactured to make the state a corporatist tax haven for an exclusive set of Republicans while some $4 TRILLION languishes in South Dakota banks.

Expansion of Black Hills National Cemetery another slap to American Indians

An American president with a tenuous grip on legitimacy is poised to sign a bill into law that would double the size of the Black Hills National Cemetery.

South Dakota's earth hater congressional delegation is applauding a decision that honors one of the last outposts supporting the US Army's war against Native forces. Land seized from the Great Sioux Nation had been remanded to the tribes under the Treaty of Fort Laramie but Congress broke the agreement leading to the General Mining Law of 1872 to pay down Civil War debt and exploit the Custer Expedition's discovery of gold in the Black Hills.

According to the Congressional Budget Office the affected lands would be withdrawn from mining and mineral leasing activities.

On April 7, 2017, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 35, the Black Hills National Cemetery Boundary Expansion Act, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 30, 2017. The pieces of legislation are similar and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same. [CBO]

The space currently warehouses over 20,000 headstones and 28,000 burials including some military spouses. National cemeteries in Hot Springs and Fort Meade are now closed to additional internment.

An entry in Wikipedia has Bill Janklow buried there. An exhumation would confirm that claim.

Samuel Sturgis and George Meade are both known for slaughtering American Indians.

Libertarians running circles around South Dakota Democrats on cannabis reform

The trip to Yankton for the 2014 South Dakota Democratic Party State Convention to take photos for Northern Plains News was a personal opportunity to learn directly from the delegates, legislators and candidates while lobbying them about what this blogger believes is the future of the party.

It was gratifying to be received as a credible voice at an event were everybody knew a blogger living in Santa Fe who cared enough about his home state to drive a couple thousand miles and shoot a few pictures. Jeff Barth and the Minnehaha County people took a straggler into their ranks and pressed the caucus on strict adherence to the rules with vigorous confidence.

There were some disappointments like no representation from Lawrence County and a watered-down therapeutic cannabis plank, for instance; but, the experience of knowing these people are dedicated Democrats who are sick and tired of being bullied by the state's dominant party while tirelessly fighting for a land they love was worth every driven mile.

2016's platform was better.

in Support of Marijuana Legalization

Whereas: South Dakota law prohibits the possession and usage of marijuana, and
Whereas: The existing South Dakota marijuana laws violate the commitment to meeting every individual's basic human rights to promote respect for diverse lifestyles and viewpoints and to live in a community without fear of discrimination, and
Whereas: The medical benefits of marijuana would help countless South Dakotans who suffer from Glaucoma, Parkinson’s Disease, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, various psycho-physiological disorders, and many other conditions, and
Whereas: The existing marijuana laws inhibit economic growth and opportunity, and now therefore be it
Resolved: That the South Dakota Democratic Party supports regulation and taxation of marijuana in a manner similar to that of alcohol, and be it
Further Resolved: That the South Dakota Democratic Party urges state and federal governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all medical marijuana patients, and be it
Further Resolved: That the South Dakota Democratic Party supports the legalization of industrial hemp which can be grown and used to produce renewable food, oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, paper, and fuel in support of a sustainable full-employment society. [SDDP]

Democrats in blue states already understand the added value of talking legal cannabis during their campaigns and some red state Democrats get it, too; but so far this election cycle South Dakota Democrats believe the state party is just too fragile for cannabis rights.

Libertarian Party candidates like George Hendrickson, Greg Baldwin, Gideon Oakes and Daryl Root will have major impacts on South Dakota politics in November.

Marijuana and cannabidiols can help control disabling muscle spasms of multiple sclerosis and is an effective treatment for children with Dravet syndrome. It provides relief from nerve-related pain from fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. In states where it has been legalized, opioid overdoses have been reduced by up to 25%. Research is being done for PTSD, encephalopathy, and Alzheimers. My opponents ignore this science because they don't want to "defy" Federal laws or because they falsely think 3/10 of 1% THC can get someone high. It's time to elect a leader, not a follower. It's time to elect someone who does what's right for the people, not the party. [Daryl Root for District 4 House]

Black market cannabis not tested or subject to regulation makes America and South Dakota less safe. Legalizing and regulating a product that so many people enjoy is reasonable public policy aligned with life/safety concerns.

Unless Democrats weave cannabis into their platform at their state convention and arch-conservatives run for offices outside the Greedy Old Party it's curtains for SDDP in November.

States that have legalized marijuana for medicinal use have seen a dramatic decrease in opioid use & overdose rates. https://t.co/RVNZ724059 pic.twitter.com/JgNLG846hC

— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) May 16, 2018

Daugaard will have to explain South Dakota's red state failures to Western Governors Association

Rapid City is hosting the Western Governors Association in June while Denny Daugaard is spinning his failed legacy black hole.

Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta will deliver remarks, and the Governors will participate in public roundtables on critical issues facing the West, including land management, environmental challenges of wildfire, battling the opioid epidemic and more. [release]

Seriously? Big Pharma has given millions to South Dakota’s Republicans including to Denny so opioid reform won't happen on his watch. Land management is already a lost cause for South Dakota, so is the environment. Daugaard's failures on wildfire prevention are still piling up.

Democrats Barack Obama, John Hickenlooper, Kate Brown, Steve Bullock and Jerry Brown already have most of the answers to all of those issues so maybe they can school lame duck Denny.

18.7% of children under 5 years old in South Dakota lived in poverty in 2016 #EndPoverty pic.twitter.com/yXFvBIZWZT

— SD KIDS COUNT (@SoDakKC) May 16, 2018

Senate rejects Thune's call to end net neutrality

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

Thune is a top recipient of dollars from telecom. The paper trail is clear: John Thune made Congress look the other way as Russia infiltrated Facebook.

Breaking: the U.S. Senate just voted 52-47 vote on the bill to restore #NetNeutrality and to protect a fair and open internet. Amazing victory for consumers, small businesses and rural communities. Final vote at 3. Watch on CSpan!

— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) May 16, 2018

Rapid City schools getting the shaft while cops get the cash

One of Rapid City's west side schools is prone to flooding but there's little money to do anything about it because the police department wants a new precinct there.

"We just don't have the money right now," said assistant superintendent Dave Janak Monday night at the regular bimonthly Rapid City Area School Board meeting. In 2016, an outside consultant targeted Meadowbrook Elementary for possible closure, given traffic and environmental concerns. Facilities service manager Kumar Veluswam said when water enters Meadowbrook, either from Rapid Creek rising or a heavy rain, it doesn't leave the property. "We've flooded multiples classrooms in that building," Veluswam said. [Money tight in next Rapid City Area Schools budget ]

So, police unions get the cash while teachers unions get the shaft: how conservative. A third of qualified teaching grads leave South Dakota while the remainder struggle with certification.

The idea of a new police precinct was briefly addressed at the Rapid City Council meeting May 7 when the council considered the city’s government facilities Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) through 2023. The RCPD requested $600,000 in 2023 for the potential cost of purchasing and renovating a building for its new precinct in west Rapid City. [Police chief says second precinct needed for growing Rapid City]

Ashamed of being the only state without at least one gold or silver medal school South Dakota education officials were too embarrassed to even provide permission to US News to publish the state's Advanced Placement results in their rankings.

This evening, Officer Darrius McMullin worked with Officer Matt Macrander in order to rescue a baby duckling from a storm drain. After some diligent police-work, they were able to reunite the missing duckling with its family at Canyon Lake Park. Nice work! #ServiceAboveSelf pic.twitter.com/4AcMDt7Rzj

— RapidCityPD (@RapidCityPD) May 16, 2018

South Dakota ready to go all in on gambling addiction

I began playing in Jerry Apeshit Apa's illegal poker games in the basement of Deadwood's Bodega in 1984.

One frequent player was Walter Dale Miller even after he became Lt. Governor Miller. When poker became legal he played while he was governor and even after Janklow drove him from politics he came to Deadwood to play. Miller was horrible at poker sometimes pouring thousands into a game. Recall that after years of financial problems Miller's son and daughter-in-law, Randy and Mary, were convicted of tax crimes then served time in federal prison. The specter of Janklow operatives sabotaging Governor George Mickelson's plane still haunts me.

It took the lobbying of Walt Miller, Democrats "Five Dollar Bill" Walsh and Tom Blair to bring legal gaming to Deadwood to finance historic preservation; but, Republican greed has turned it into the prostituted cultural wasteland it is today.

A Deadwood gambling advocacy group is discussing trying to put a sports betting constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2020. Gov. Dennis Daugaard's office said in a statement that the state doesn't currently have any reliable estimates on the economic effect or revenue that sports betting could generate. "I welcome this decision because it recognizes the right of states to regulate in this area," Daugaard said. [Rapid City Journal]

Republican Denny Daugaard is presiding over spikes in childhood obesity, violent crime, suicide rates, homelessness, acute hunger, mass incarceration, coverups and a poisoned environment. There are no checks on executive power and the governor's cronies routinely raid the state's general fund. The state is second in addiction to gambling and teachers' salaries surf the bottom of the US. Wage slavery is the state's biggest claim to fame. Corruption and graft have become ordinary.

Imagine the number of lives touched by video lootery.

In partnership with the National Council on Problem Gambling, the South Dakota Lottery is reminding citizens that scratch tickets are not suitable gifts for minors, it was announced in a news release. Research shows that problem gambling can be established at a young age and lottery play is sometimes an introduction to these activities. Gift givers are reminded to ensure that any recipient of a lottery product is 18 or older. [Pierre Capital Journal]

Communities throughout South Dakota are being drained dry and becoming increasingly violent. The annual criminal costs of video lootery in South Dakota have soared to $42 million and the social costs an estimated $62 million. $9 million were lost because state and local sales taxes weren’t collected. When video lootery began in 1986 104 charges were filed for robbery, grand theft and aggravated theft. There were 1,037 cases in 1990 and last year they went past 4,000 yet South Dakota continues to raise revenues off those least able to pay.

My own obsession with poker and power wiped out a career and destroyed at least two of my marriages so i haven't played for nearly a decade. Going into a restaurant where poker is on teevee causes my mind to replay images of the past and renders me unable to take my eyes off the screen. When i was still playing Ricky Jacobsen, Chuck Baumann and Jeanette something took their own lives after losing everything in Deadwood's poker games. No doubt there have been others.

Despite lies from SDGOP video lootery, payday loan sharks, domestic violence and homelessness are inextricably linked putting children at risk to more catastrophic consequences far more often than has happened in states that have legalized or lessened penalties for casual use of cannabis.

There is a better way to reverse red state collapse than the all-consuming addiction to gambling.

State of South Dakota covering up cause of Legion Lake Fire

Since 2013 alone at least 41 fires in the Black Hills region have been caused by trees falling on transmission lines.

South Dakota is a perpetual welfare state and a permanent disaster area. Just as the State of South Dakota sued Black Hills Power and Light after the 2002 Grizzly Gulch Fire, Black Hills Energy should sue the shit out of the State of South Dakota for the Legion Lake Fire. A lawsuit settled in 2006 compelled Black Hills Energy to pay the state and federal governments a total of $5.9 million; but the agreement also allowed Black Hills Energy to pretend lightning caused the fire.

Logging slash and piss-poor planning turned the Legion Lake Fire into a wildfire. During his investigation South Dakota State University forester John Ball was able to determine the tree that fell on the power line causing December's blaze in Custer State Park hadn't been hit by bark beetles.

Before offering his theory, Ball stopped his phone interview with the Journal and said he needed to seek permission to continue the interview from an attorney working for the state. Later, Ball said the permission was denied. Bob Morris, a Belle Fourche-based attorney who has been designated by state government to handle any legal matters that might arise from the Legion Lake Fire, also declined an interview request from the Journal. Authorities with the state Department of Game, Fish & Parks, which oversees Custer State Park, declined interview requests from the Journal.

Read it all here.

Being the only blogger covering the Black Hills daily has its rewards. Seth Tupper clearly used The Dakota Progressive and interested party as sources for his story.

The absence of prescribed burns and the persistence of invasive cheatgrass in the park are just two more examples of poor planning by Game, Fish and Plunder. Instead of allowing native aspen to be restored stands of doghair ponderosa pine that grew after the Galena Fire fed the blaze.

The Black Hills National Forest is every bit as guilty of pandering to the Greedy Old Party. The fire danger today in the Black Hills is in the moderate category at all reporting sites but after overreach by Senator John Thune (earth hater-SD) federal fire managers have become increasingly timid to burn prescriptively.

Fact is: the human-caused Legion Lake Fire represents strategic failures by the State of South Dakota, South Dakota Game, Fish and Plunder and the South Dakota Republican Party.

Mother of Brady Folkens petitions for change of venue, hearing in federal court

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT OF SOUTH DAKOTA

SIOUX FALLS SOUTH DAKOTA

DAWN VAN BALLEGOOYEN, Guardian/ Mother of

The BRADY FOLKEN (DECEASED)

PLAINTIFF

v. District Court Judge



Magistrate:

DENNIS DAUGAARD, in his capacity as GOVERNOR

For the STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA;

DENNY KAEMINGK, in his capacity as SECRETARY for the

SOUTH DAKOTA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS;

DANIEL MART in his capacity as CORRECTIONAL OFFICER;

AARON RODGERS in his capacity as CORRECTIONAL OFFICER;

NANCY FLEMING in her capacity as CORRECTIONAL OFFICER;

JEFF HAIAR, in his capacity of DIRECTOR for

STAR ACADEMY; AARON BROWNSON in his

Capacity as COUNSELOR for STAR ACADEMY;

DR. HEITH WADDELL in his capacity as PHYSICIAN

For CUSTER REGIONAL HEALTH HOSPITAL; BRENT R. PHILLIPS in his capacity as

PRESIDENT/CEO on behalf of REGIONAL HEALTH HOSPITAL

CUSTER REGIONAL HEALTH HOSPITAL; STEPHANIE LAHR in her

Capacity as CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER AND MEDICAL INFORMATION

OFFICER; ROBERT PRESTON in his capacity as acting SUPERVISE PHYSICIAN contracted through CUSTER REGIONAL HEALTH HOSPITAL; ROBERT VAN DEVENTER, in his capacity as PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT contacted through CUSTER REGIONAL HEALTH HOSPITAL for STAR ACADEMY;

ETAL,



DEFENDANT (S)

CHANGE OF VENUE

TO THE HONORABLE DISTRICT COURT OF SOUTH DAKOTA, comes now Plaintiff Dawn Van Ballegooyen seeking a change of venue under 28 U.S.C.§ 1391 (a) (1) (2) (b) (1). Plaintiff original complaint was filed (docket#4:14-cv-04186) which was dismissed and directed in changed venue in state court. Plaintiff seek return jurisdiction due to the complex issues which has arisen from the death of her son, Brady Folkens violation of the United States Constitution 8th and 14th amendment. Additional evidence and statements provided to Plaintiff by the state supports her allege complaint citing state created a conspiracy to cover up the death and cause of.

Plaintiff assert the State of South Dakota wanted to boost the recognition of Star Academy in recruiting and federal grants sent juveniles who were not a threat to the rehabilitation facility on charges not warranty instead of alternative solutions. Brady Folkens had tested positive for THC of marijuana in his urine. There was nothing in his record he was ever charge with such possession prior to suggesting he was addictive to any illegal substance.

Plaintiff’s Pleadings will support (1) Medication prescribed to Brady caused side effects which required hospitalization. (2) Star Academy governed by the State of South Dakota failed to monitor the side effects which lead to Brady’s hospitalization resulting in his death could have been preventative. (3) State of South Dakota, Star Academy and Department of Correction has attempted to cover up the death of Brady in violating this 8th amendment caused cruel and inhuman treatment and (4) Custer Regional Hospital became a party of the state failing to provide adequate care for Brady which lead to his death. Both the state and hospital violated his due process and his 8th amendment right.

JURISDICTION

The court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C§ 1331 seeking a federal question jurisdiction before this court.

PLAINTIFF APPEARING BEFORE THE COURT PRO SE

Plaintiff, Dawn Van Ballegooyen is petitioning this court pro se on behalf of her Son, Brady Folkens. Plaintiff is filing under Federal Rule of Civ. 25 on behalf of the deceased. Unless Plaintiff obtains counsel, she is appearing a substitute party on behalf of the deceased. Evidence submitted on behalf of the deceased by the Plaintiff shall be taken as the same of the person who would have presented.

The court shall take Plaintiff complaint as true and liberal, Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S 519, 520-21 92 S Ct. 594, 30 L. Ed. 2d. 652 (1972). This must also give Plaintiff a wider latitude and cannot dismiss an action if there is any valid cause that the court can see even if Plaintiff is not pointing out the right law and presenting it well. Statements made by Plaintiff on behalf of the deceased shall be taken as factual using the diary of the deceased. Plaintiff submission to the court are to be construed liberal and held less stringent than submission of lawyers regardless of failure to cite legal authority, confusion of legal theories, poor syntax, and sentence construction, Bogg v. MacDougall, 454, U.S. 364, 102 S. Ct. 700, L. ed. 2d. 551 (1982).



SUMMARY OF THE COMPLAINT

Brady Folkens was a seventeen (17) year old minor sent to Star Academy, a treatment center ran by the State of South Dakota under Governor Dennis Daugaard Administration. The allege violation of Brady’s parole of an “allege” incident over a detained hat from school. His original charge was testing positive or ingesting marijuana and possible truancy. Faced with Brady being a first-time offender incarcerated for a misdemeanor. Brady’s Mother, Dawn attempted intervention of the state taking custody by enrolling him in a state program called CHINS (a child in need of supervision). Dawn enrolled Brady into CHINS without being provided full knowledge of the program and her parental rights. Brady first stay at the faculty was for three (3) months which he returned better and a well-behaved child. The second stay of incarceration at Star Academy under this parole violation lead to his death.

Brady was not under any medication nor taking any over the counter drugs nor prior to being a resident of Star Academy. During his incarceration at the facility, Brady was prescribed a medication for his acne call Minocycline taken was 200mg two (2) times a day orally. Brady complained shortly after being prescribed about the side effects writing in his daily journal how it was affecting his physical and mental mobility. It’s a daily operation for an employee of Star Academy to read journal entries and to to see his handwriting deteriorating and to continue to give Brady the medication without full knowledge of the side effects. On December 21, 2013, Dawn went to visit Brady at Star Academy when she was approached by Star Academy Counselor Nancy Fleming and was told Brady had been admitted to Custer Regional Health Hospital. Dawn witness Star Director Haiar and five others discussing with Dr. Waddle behind a closed curtain discussing Brady’s condition at Custer Regional Hospital. Brady was semi alert and was able to talk about his future with his mother when he was released he planned on going to school and preparing for college. On or around 2: 30 pm Dr. Waddle informed Dawn that Brady was being transferred to Avera McKennan Hospital due to Custer Regional not having proper equipment to treat him. Brady’s mother Dawn arrived at the Avera McKennan Hospital and was informed fifteen minutes later of Brady’s passing. Certain property of Brady’s was seized by Starr Academy without the express permission from Brady’s estate including his daily journal. Brady’s journal described his side effects of (vomiting) while prescribed Minocycline. Dawn demanded the Governor Daugaard’s office to release Brady’s journal after seeing him at an event. The journal was release intact.

VIOLATION OF BRADY’S 8TH AMENDMENT RIGHT BY STAR ACADEMY

The state of South Dakota, under the administration of Governor Dennis Daugaard neglected to regulate it Star Academy, its staff, Director, administrators, and correctional staff in properly care and custody of Brady, a minor who was incarcerated in a state detention center from cruel and inhuman treatment by not providing medical treatment. Director, Jeff Haiar acting in his capacity of Star Academy intentionally violating Brady’s 8th Amendment rights by failure to provide proper medical treatment causing cruel and inhuman treatment resulting in his death. The court held a person detained in the custody of the government, that person becomes the property of the state. A prisoner should not be deprived of any medical treatment prior to being diagnosed while in custody. The State of South Dakota, the Governor of the state, Director Haiar of Star Academy, its staff, Nancy Fleming Counselor, Aaron Brownson, Aaron Rodgers and Daniel Mart in their capacity as Correctional Officer failed to perform a “mere” ministerial duty resulting in the death of Brady Folkens. Although state employees are immune from lawsuits in the performance of their duty, in Hancock v. Western South Dakota Juvenile Service Center, held state employees are cloaked with immunity only if the employee fails to perform a merely ministerial duty, is liable for the proximate results of his failure to any person to whom he owes performance of such duty, (quoting Ritter v. Johnson, 465, N.W. 2d. 196, 198 ( SD 1991).

Brady Folkens was entitled to the same equal protection of medical treatment during as a prisoner by Star Academy which in where the care was not properly given which lead to his death.

CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE PLAINTIFF CAUSED BY THE STATE

When Plaintiff arrived at Custer Regional Hospital she noticed five (5) Star Academy employees including Jeff Haiar who was discussing the incident when Dawn received a call from Judge Steve Polchow, Eastern Division of South Dakota Juvenile Court. Judge Polchow asked Dawn did she want return custody of Brady returned which she accepted custody. Yet, Star Academy did not return him to Dawn for her to take him to another hospital. Brady was not returned to the custody of his Mother, Dawn but instead transported to Avera McKenna Hospital after he died enroute. After Brady’s death Plaintiff, Dawn received medical bills from the various hospitals for medical services of Brady from six (6) to (8) months.

Plaintiff, Dawn demanded from Star Academy and to Governor Daugaard demanding the release of Brady’s journal. The journal contained critical information related to the side effects of the drug prescribed to him by Star Academy. Information related to his death has been contradicting the state and Custer Regional Hospital. Dawn hired an independent Physicians to determine the original cause of Brady health issues which lead him to Custer Regional Hospital and his untimely death. Information related to the cause of death has been altered on the death certificate 18 U.S.C§ 1519.

CUSTER REGIONAL HOSPITAL FAILURE TO PROVIDE PROPER CARE OF MINOR IN STATE CUSTODY

The second part of Plaintiff’s complaint deals with the care Brady received when he was transported to Custer Regional Hospital. Brady was transported from Star Academy to the hospital at or around 9 am on December 21, 2013. Plaintiff, Dawn arrived at the hospital around 1 pm after learning that Brady was rushed to the hospital when she arrived for her visit with him. At 2pm, Dr. Waddell informed Dawn the hospital did not have the equipment to properly care for Brady and made arrangements for Brady to be transported to Avera McKennan hospital eight (8) hours away instead of a medical facility which was forty-five (45) minutes away. Brady Folkens died enroute to Avera McKennan Hospital.

The first part of the complaint is Custer Regional Hospital is liable in association to Brady’s death in which the hospital is liable for Brady’s §1983 rights. A Physician who may have a private practice and contracted with a hospital to provide care for an inmate is acting on behalf of the state when it provides medical attention to an inmate, Estelle v. Gamble, 429, U.S 97, 97 S Ct. 285. Brady was in the custody of Star Academy who transported him to Custer Regional Medical. When it was discovered Custer Regional could not properly care for him, the state and Custer Regional began to cover up their wrongdoing by placing the responsibility back to Dawn.

Custer Regional Hospital violated Brady’s 8th amendment right causing a violation of §1983 of his due process causing of cruel and inhuman treatment.

THE LOSS OF BRADY FOLKENS

Brady Folkens was the Second to the youngest of Dawn Van Ballegooyen’s four children. Brady was a normal seventeen-year-old who was at the age of experimental issue. He tried marijuana but there was not proof of an addiction to the drug. There are children who committed truancy but are not addictive to illegal substance as well. The state in its attempt get higher attendance to Star Academy to being federal funding for this project, sent Brady there for treatment without his due process. Brady’s due process was immediately violated. Simply put, Brady should not have been a candidate for Star Academy and should have been given alternative measure with the family unit in mind instead of treating him in a manner of a juvenile with a harsher charge or background. Brady’s due process of the court was violation as well. Prisoners who are charged less as an adult have been given probation, community service as alternative sentencing, and on a first offense and not sent directly to state confinement. This was the hardest time for a first offender.

Brady was provided medication for the treatment for acne. Minocycline is the antibiotics group in which when the side effects were mentioned or revealed he should have been taken off as a precaution. Photos of Brady prior to this death will be presented to the court weeks before his death will show his acne was not causing any medical or social issue which would have resulted in Star Academy or any Physician to prescribe medication. Acne is a cosmetic issue which can be contain by over the counter remedies or to a Dermatologist. In the reports from Starr Academy have no documentation the medication prescribed was from a Dermatologist. Minocycline is in the group of the antibiotics and should have sought to see by prior physician if he had any allergic reaction to antibiotics. Dawn will never see Brady finish high school or go to college, graduate, get marry or have any grandchildren.

The stress on the family itself is extreme. Attempting to find the truth about his death has been extreme stressful. Plaintiff acknowledge no amount of money will make her whole and therefore she is seeking statutory and punitive damages.

IT IS THEREFORE PLAINTIFF:

The change of venue be before this court.
The court has complete jurisdiction over this matter.
The court order the South Dakota to change the death on Brady death Certificate to the real cause of death.
Plaintiff seeks statutory and punitive damages for the cause of death of Brady Folkens against the State of South Dakota.
Plaintiff seeks statutory and punitive damages for the cause of death of Brady Folkens against Star Academy and its staff,
Plaintiff seeks statutory and punitive damages for the cause of death of Brady Folkens against Custer Regional Hospital and its staff
The court award Plaintiff any additional relief she is entitled to.

Respectfully Submitted,



Dawn Van Ballegooyen

303 Thunder Lane

Brookings, SD 57006

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

A copy of this pleading has been mailed to the opposing party on ____ May 2018 by delivery confirmation for Custer Regional Hospital, attention legal Counsel though the United States Postal Service. A copy has been provided to the State of South Dakota by hand delivery and my mail through the United States Postal Service on ____ May 2018

Respectfully,

Dawn Van Ballegooyen

Copy of original document linked here. Docket number in federal court - 4:18-cv-04051-KES Van Ballegooyen v. Daugaard et al.

Industrial ag poisons another South Dakota lake

Honestly, I don't give one shit about what happens East River: it's already been destroyed.

The Lake Byron Sanitary Sewer District has been notified that it's eligible for a $2 million grant, a $3.475 million low interest loan from the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources and for an additional $400,000 loan through the James River Water Development District.

Gayle Kludt is the chair of the Board of Trustees for the District and presided over a Wednesday Huron meeting of some 125.

Many in the audience questioned the propriety of the election that formed the district more than three years ago, according to R. Shawn Tornow, an attorney from Sioux Falls who said he has been retained by the recently organized Lake Byron Concerned Citizens, Inc. In response to a comment and question from the audience, it was noted that a water study had been done about five years earlier that showed most of the pollution was caused by ag runoff. It was stated that there was nothing that guaranteed adding the sewer line would improve the quality of the water in the lake.

Read the rest here.

What do you expect when earth hater Eldon Roth of Beef Products, Inc. is South Dakota's fattest donor?

Senator Mike Rounds (earth hater-SD) is not only freaking out the US Army Corps of Engineers are punishing him for his lawsuit blaming the military for 2011 flooding he's telling voters it's okay that South Dakota is a dumping ground for the ag and livestock industries.

Yes, he's calling out "activist interest groups" er, an "environmental activist group" for the court ruling upholding the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).

Nearly every moving stream, intermittent or not in South Dakota, has supported a pre-settlement Amerindian or European explorer pulling and propelling a canoe over it. Most of it is impaired.

Even before Statehood the US Army Corps of Engineers has had purview over water that flows into bodies that can support navigation. In South Dakota, once it leaves its source, all surface water that flows from or through private property is owned by the state.

The James River is out of its banks near Columbia and in minor flood stage.

Gilbertson lobbying for alcohol courts

South Dakota's ranking Democrat has evolved on alcohol and other drug treatment courts.

South Dakota Supreme Court Justice David Gilbertson, speaking at the Mitchell Rotary Club's meeting at the Ramada Inn, said the cost savings and reduced recidivism rates among targeted offenders has allowed the the state's system to continue working. Gilbertson noted there are 450 individuals in the state's drug and alcohol court programs, and 1,244 children under their parents' care. Instead of the state Department of Social Services providing for those children because their parents are in jail — at the estimated cost of $10,000 per year — those children are cared for by their working parents, who are also working to address their drug or alcohol addictions.

Get the story here.

But, a red moocher state like South Dakota is powered by sin: video lootery, a loan shark industry that preys on the least fortunate, a massive gambling addiction and a too-big-to-jail banking racket fill in the gaps created by lobbyists who enjoy the protection of single-party tyranny. Homelessness in the state is rampant; drunk driving, meth use and teen binge drinking are off the charts.

The Peoples Republic of Brookings is not just home to South Dakota's most obese GOP blogger.

Brookings was ranked the fifth-drunkest city in America by an article published by Bustle.com, and the article is now circulating around Facebook and other social media outlets. According to a Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Area study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11.8 percent of the Brookings population is classified by the CDC as heavy drinkers. Heavy drinkers are defined as adult men having more than two drinks per day and adult women having more than one drink per day. In order to rank the top ten drunkest cities, the percentage of binge drinkers and heavy drinkers from the CDC studies were added – giving Brookings a total of 35.5 percent combined binge and heavy drinkers. [SDSU Collegian]

That South Dakota Republicans prop up illegal drug use and project an ethics black hole while ignoring a potential revenue source is just more evidence of red state collapse.

Plains brace for more flooding

The Corps has increased the "service level" at least three times in the last two months based on actual and forecasted precipitation in Montana and South Dakota. The Corps adjusts the flows at the dam, trying to accommodate the heavier inflows. Could we anticipate flooding like 2011? The Corps has indicated some certain conditions are different from seven years ago, primarily that the soils in the basin are not saturated as they were then. In other words, dry soils will absorb the moisture, rather than shedding it into creeks, streams and rivers that lead to the Missouri. [Madison Daily Leader]

Today's update pic.twitter.com/IXPGywq4Kb

— Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) May 10, 2018

River Info: JAMES R nr COLUMBIA SD 1S forecast to MINOR FS, crest nr 13.3FT #CMBS2 https://t.co/fPS9EnSQrD

— NWS MBRFC (@NWSMBRFC) May 11, 2018

River Info: BIG SIOUX R nr HAWARDEN IA 4N forecast to MINOR FS, crest nr 23.2FT #HWDI4 https://t.co/YsGY6x7AlP

— NWS MBRFC (@NWSMBRFC) May 11, 2018

Cool and rainy weather is expected today and Saturday #sdwx #wywx pic.twitter.com/HxuMs8p8rw

— NWS Rapid City (@NWSRapidCity) May 11, 2018

Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson a shoo-in for earth hater nomination

Dusty Johnson is a Howdy Doody lookalike who makes cotton candy seem like a healthy snack.

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 blind-sided earth hater candidate for US House Dusty Johnson about guns, god and government and Johnson mouthed the boilerplate earth hater lines.

Shantel Krebs is being thrown under the bus because she exposed Kristi Noem as a philanderer. Noem is being thrown under the bus because she got caught being a philanderer. Neal Tapio is in the primary to erode support for Krebs.

Many of Tapio’s supporters are adversaries or critics of Daugaard, who has endorsed Johnson and was shown at work with Johnson in the “Full Dusty” ad. So those Tapio supporters would have been more likely to support Krebs than Johnson if Tapio weren’t in the race. Krebs is a former state senator and current Secretary of State who has performed well in shaping up a troubled office.

Read more from Kevin Woster. 

In 2014 Johnson attended the Western Governors Association conference in Denver with his boss Denny Daugaard. Make them pee in a cup.

Howdy Doody Dusty may be a shoo-in for the earth hater nomination but principled conservatives running outside the GOP will be his undoing in November leaving Tim Bjorkman to reap the whirlwind.

You're welcome, South Dakota. My job is nearly finished here.