7/31/23

States biggest obstacles to cannabis success in Indian Country

Nez Perce citizen, Mary Jane Oatman is executive director of the Indigenous Cannabis Association. In 2022 she spoke at the organization's conference in Milwaukee as did Rich Tall Bear Westerman (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate).

Washington and Nevada are the best states for cooperating with tribal communities planting the seeds of cannabis economic development according to another industry expert.
While functioning much like a traditional association, Oatman herself is a strong proponent for tribes exerting their sovereignty. She also sees the positive link to what happened with Indian gaming. States, however, have been very predatory with regard to cannabis, putting up regulatory walls wherever possible, right down to water rights. Worse, she said, “there is no deference to tribal sovereignty,” and tribal consultation is not taking place. “States keep us out of all markets, not just cannabis,” she lamented. 
“A tribe must be really committed from concept to completion,” Tall Bear said. That includes tribal capacity to actually build a business that has more and more diverse regulations to deal with than gaming. He also sees cannabis replacing gaming as a form of entertainment as tribes age out. Although that adds a layer of regulation, in the meantime, tribes could pursue something similar to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. Waiting to get into the cannabis market only makes it less profitable for tribes in the long run, according to Tall Bear. Get in now and grow, is his battle cry. [Indian Country Today]
Under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act the Tohono O’odham Nation won its lawsuit with the State of Arizona and in 2017 it opened a casino in Glendale outside its established boundaries. So, in 2018 the Oglala Lakota Oyate bought fifty acres just off I-90 outside their Nation then legalized cannabis for all adults in 2020. According to the Lakota Times Oglala Lakota College has the equipment to test cannabis. 

Working in conjunction with the University of Idaho College of Law, Professor Mark Cowan, J.D. is Director of the Accountancy-Taxation Program at Boise State University where his research interests include the taxation of nonprofits and tax issues in Indian Country.
The current law surrounding the cannabis industry is uncertain. Tax is just one part of this complicated puzzle. Until the federal government acts, the states, the tribes, and the industry must bear the burden of these complexities with as much grace as possible. Since we are at an early stage, now is an opportune time for the three sovereigns to coordinate their efforts and level the tax playing field between on and off reservation sellers. States or tribes should not try to exploit an often ambiguous, unfair, and multi-sovereign tax structure to their advantage. Instead, they should work with their fellow sovereigns to develop a fair and certain tax framework that will allow the cannabis industry to grow. The best strategy for the cannabis industry, including the tribal cannabis industry, is to support these efforts. It is the industry’s stability and growth, fostered by a clear and fair tax system, which—through increased economic development and additional tax revenue—will benefit all the governments involved over the long term. Tax disparities—like cannabis itself—might temporarily alleviate some symptoms, but they won’t cure the underlying ailments. [Cowan, Taxing Cannabis on the Reservation]
Trapped in North Carolina the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians hopes to be the next tribal community to market retail cannabis

7/30/23

Tribal nations expect compacts with Minnesota will expand off-reservation cannabis

In 2020 the White Earth Nation voted to legalize cannabis for some patients and activist, Winona LaDuke hoped voters would embrace the Oklahoma model, home to the loosest rules in America. Now, after the Red Lake Nation announced retail sales White Earth will also open a dispensary in Minnesota on August 1.
The two Ojibwe tribes will have a significant head start in establishing recreational marijuana businesses as adult use of the plant becomes legal across the state. White Earth, Red Lake and other tribes will also be able to operate dispensaries off reservations through compacts negotiated with the administration of Gov. Tim Walz. [Minnesota Reformer]
The Picuris and the Pojoaque Pueblos have entered agreements with State of New Mexico to market cannabis product outside tribal borders.

7/29/23

Attorneys general believe 3M is getting off too easy for toxic chemicals

In 2017 a Minnesota-based company with an operation in Brookings, South Dakota hoped to drive attention from its manufactured forever chemicals that cause cancers and spontaneous abortions and a $5 billion lawsuit.
The per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are known as forever chemicals because the substances do not break down quickly and have in recent years been found in dangerous concentrations in drinking water, soils and foods across the country. 3M’s current annual net sales of manufactured PFAS are about $1.3bn. The company expects to incur related total pre-tax charges of about $1.3bn to $2.3bn over the course of its exit from PFAS. [3M sets 2025 deadline to stop making ‘forever chemicals’]
3M knew how bad the contamination risk was since the 1950s but waited until 1978 before it warned its own employees including my own sister who worked at the Brookings facility from 1974 until her death in 1995. The firm didn't notify the US Environmental Protection Agency until 1998 when a company toxicologist noted forever chemicals in fish, birds and other wildlife but continues their manufacture yet today.
Twenty-two attorneys general urged a federal court Wednesday to reject a proposed $10.3 billion settlement over contamination of U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially dangerous chemicals, saying it lets manufacturer 3M Co. off too easily. In addition to California, states urging Judge Richard Gergel to reject the deal included Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin. [22 attorneys general oppose 3M settlement over water systems contamination with 'forever chemicals']
3M has announced plans for a major investment in Brookings in a state where environmental protection isn't a thing.

7/28/23

Christianic white supremacist Ismay would give tribal communities cannabis exclusivity in South Dakota

In 2018 after being frustrated with the inability of activists and advocates to herd the booze-soaked, ecocidal South Dakota Legislature and the Republican Party apparatchiks in Pierre into the corral of cannabis common sense an interested party reached out to Matt Kinney, a Spearditch-based attorney who specializes in the defense of clients caught up in the morass of cannabis law in my home state. In 2015 he represented former Butte County State's Attorney Heather Plunkett after she was railroaded into dismissal by then and now again Attorney General Marty Jackley. 

Today, Kinney is a registered agent of Center of the Nation Cultivation, LLC in Belle Fourche. 

But, with short fat white Travis Ismay stalking county commissioners and patrolling Butte County for aliens it’s a wonder whether Belle Fourche can protect its own residents.
Attorney General Marty Jackley released a ballot explanation for a proposed measure that would repeal South Dakota’s medical marijuana program. The measure is proposed by Travis Ismay of Newell. It would make all possession, use, cultivation, sale and manufacturing of marijuana products a crime. Supporters of the proposal [need] 17,509 signatures to get it on the 2024 ballot. [Bill Janklow's idea of public radio]
Tribal sovereignty binds the hands of states competing for federal resources. Under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act the Tohono O’odham Nation won its lawsuit with the State of Arizona and in 2017 it opened a casino in Glendale outside its established boundaries. So, in May of 2021 Native Nations Cannabis and the Isanti Dakota Oyate bought a parcel in the heart of the commercial district in Sioux Falls then purchased a long-vacant building in Mitchell.
Just recently on July 4th, Main Street Cannabis in Pine Ridge, South Dakota celebrated their one-year anniversary being open. Originally the dispensary was opened up as Star Buds and offered CBD products but was later renamed to Main Street Cannabis. [Lakota Times]
If Ismay’s crusade succeeds Matt Kinney and his associates could simply enter a compact with a tribal entity and continue doing business right where they are.

7/27/23

Why are we here? Larger Very Large Array seeks answers

I seized upon the oscillating universe model when I was at university fifty years ago. The holy trinity is one oxygen and two hydrogen molecules.
The idea is controversial, although many scientists do believe that the universe operates in a perpetual cycle in which it expands, before contracting back in a ‘Big Crunch’ followed by a new Big Bang. [An earlier universe existed before the Big Bang, and can still be observed today, says Nobel winner]
Reproduction is the reason, food is the fuel. Humans are merely Terran tools to go forth and find more...unless or until we kill the planet before it kills us for taking more than our share.
The design for the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) prototype antenna has passed an intensive, five-day review, clearing the way to begin manufacturing the prototype antenna. The ngVLA, a powerful radio telescope with 263 dish antennas distributed across North America, is proposed as one of the next generation of cutting-edge astronomical observatories designed to meet the leading research challenges of the coming decades. It will have sensitivity to detect faint objects and resolving power more than 10 times greater than the current VLA. The prototype will be manufactured by pre-selected suppliers and initially tested in 2023. In early 2024, it will be shipped to the VLA site in New Mexico. Operations will be conducted at the VLA site and in nearby Socorro, New Mexico, with additional science operations in a metropolitan area to be determined. [Design review for ngVLA Antenna clears way for prototype construction]
When he was a US Senator, Harry Reid saw human built aircraft at Area 51 that would impress even little green men.
William Hojnowski, a project manager for the Next Generation Very Large Array, said the new technology, including updated receivers, might lead scientists to “find out the universe is very different than we thought it was. With the new array we will have the capability to see things like the solar system forming … how the universe actually works.” Some are familiar with it because of a science fiction film in the 1990s called Contact, in which actor Jodie Foster played an astronomer at the array who detected signals from an intelligent life form. [Very Large Array getting even larger]
Collisions with even micro-particles at near-light speeds make spacecraft design critical to its survival. Generating a magnetic field is one way to deflect space debris. 

If there is a divine creator why would It even care whether one of Its most destructive, malevolent and criminal creations chooses to restrict population growth? Republicans suffer from a disease that influences their eschatologies because they worship a supernatural extraterrestrial as the ‘son of god’ and believe It is coming to Earth to rule under a one-world government. $20 says no one can prove to this interested party that humanity is anything other than a force for utter destruction. Our species will be the instrument to extinguish all life on Earth and some divine thing cares whether we off ourselves? That anyone believes anybody can hold any moral high ground cements humanity’s doom. 

That’s likely why some astrobiologists hypothesize that any civilization capable of interstellar travel is already dead.
 

7/24/23

Native carvers continue tradition at Pipestone National Monument

Catlinite is a variety of argillite found as an aggregate of Sioux Quartzite and named for American painter George Catlin who visited the quarries near Pipestone, Minnesota in 1835 where Indigenous peoples have worked since at least 1637.

The rock is soft enough to carve with a knife and the pipe in accompanying photo is made of catlinite. In 2015 the Pipestone National Monument Superintendent sought input from several tribes on the sale of the stone to non-Natives. The Monument is still an oasis but now it's surrounded by Republicans, glyphosate-saturated cornfields and overkill CAFOs.
Faith Spotted Eagle is chairperson of the Ihanktonwan Treaty Steering Committee and a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe. She called pipestone “the blood of our people,” and said the decision to stop selling pipes at the monument is “a generational decision” that was the answer to decades of prayer. Formal government-to-government discussions among the National Park Service and Native American tribes started in 2013. It’s a complex issue; selling the pipes carved from pipestone supports Native American craftspeople, but others argue that the sacred pipestone should not be sold. The new policy was reached by consensus; not everyone was fully satisfied. Spotted Eagle said she’d like to see the sale of all pipestone objects — not just pipes — to end at the monument. [Minnesota Public Radio]
Pipes are no longer sold at the Monument but can be found for sale elsewhere in Pipestone County. 

The Fort Robinson monument in Nebraska is inlaid with precisely cut slabs of red catlinite. It commemorates the life of Crazy Horse who was assassinated there in 1877.
Pipes are widely used by Indigenous people across the Great Plains and beyond, either by spiritual leaders or individuals for personal prayer for healing and thanksgiving, as well as to mark rites of passage like vision quests and the solemnity of ceremonies and gatherings. The pipe itself is thought to become sacred when the pipestone bowl and the wooden stem are joined. The smoke, from tobacco or prairie plants, then carries the prayer from a person’s heart to the Creator. Because of that crucial spiritual connection, only people enrolled in federally recognized tribes can obtain permits to quarry at the monument, some traveling from as far as Montana and Nebraska. From new exhibits to tailored school field trips, recent initiatives at the monument — undertaken in consultation between tribal leaders and the National Park Service — are trying to foster that awareness for Native youth. [Pipestone carvers preserve revered Native spiritual tradition]

7/22/23

Boise to Salt Lake passenger rail chugs closer

With help from Democratic Senator Jon Tester the Big Sky Rail Authority, twenty Montana counties and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Northern Cheyenne and Apsáalooke Nations are closer to bringing the former North Coast Hiawatha to life. The Authority hopes to restore passenger rail across southern Montana from North Dakota to Idaho and include some 47 stops in seven states.
Boise is one of dozens of cities and regions vying for that money in the Corridor Identification Program, which will be awarded this fall by the U.S. Department of Transportation. If Boise is selected, that’s when the real work begins, said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. Gardner, Amtrak's CEO since 2021, delivered the breakfast keynote Thursday morning in Boise at the Greater Northwest Passenger Rail Summit. For local leaders, the rail line between Boise and Salt Lake City is the first priority. [Boise State Public Radio]
Missoula's Dave Strohmaier is Chairman of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority. Earlier this July he addressed the need for funding railroad infrastructure improvements in the Malta area

Cheyenne, Wyoming is on board with Front Range passenger rail and All Aboard Arizona says passenger rail between Phoenix and Tucson is closer than ever, too.

In Minnesota lawmakers approved some $195 million to restore passenger service between the Twin Cities and Duluth.

In my home state of South Dakota I have since modified my proposal for passenger rail from Minneapolis to Rapid City through Sioux Falls for a route from the Twin Cities to the RCPE at Tracy, Minnesota to Brookings and Pierre to Rapid City and Cheyenne.
 

7/19/23

Google-backed startup achieves commercial geothermal breakthrough


In 2021 the US Department of Energy awarded $12 million to seven projects intended to accelerate the development of geothermal potential including $2 million to the University of New Mexico and $1.5 million to Montana State University. Geothermal mining has been a topic of keen interest in New Mexico and Montana for decades where radioactive decay heats groundwater. 

Now, using an enhanced geothermal system at its Project Red site in northern Nevada Google-financed Fervo Energy completed a full-scale, 30-day well test able to generate 3.5 megawatts or enough electricity to power over 2,600 homes full time. Fervo employs a hydro-shearing process and believes it can deliver about 400 megawatts by 2028 or enough electricity to power 300,000 homes at once from half a dozen other sites across the western US.

7/17/23

More tribal nations moving toward self-reliance


Speaking of the Kewa Pueblo, a $12.7 million federal grant awarded to the tribe in 2022 is helping leaders expand a broadband network built in 2015 and assemble a photovoltaic microgrid in part to preserve their language.
The Pueblo is using 3D printers to create the parts needed to build energy and internet infrastructure. “We can’t find what we need so we created our own,” tribal administrator Herman Sanchez said. Lindsey Abeita (Kewa) is a digital content producer for the Pueblo. She said the 3D printing methodology allows the Pueblo to expand its internet presence independently. “So we can be a self-sustaining Pueblo,” she said. [Santo Domingo Pueblo 3D prints materials for its first large-scale solar farm]
In 2020, the Red Lake Nation voted to approve the first legal application of cannabis flower in Minnesota and expanded the list of qualifying symptoms for tribal patients seeking treatment. Now, the Nation will open the first dispensary in the state on August 1. 

Image: Kewa Pueblo member, Ricardo Caté is the creator of the comic strip, Without Reservations. In 2015 he traveled to occupied South Dakota with other activists to help raise awareness of my home state's inhumanity to Indigenous Americans.

7/16/23

Area couple walking fine line with feeding local horses

In May, over the objections of sympathetic residents the Sandoval County Commission passed two rules on feeding what they're calling free-roaming horses. The general public is banned from feeding but non-profits may apply for permits in coordination with the county. The horses we've seen from I-25 near Placitas are scraggly with little forage in that drought-besieged part of the county.

Our place is in Santa Fe County but eleven horses including a pregnant mare adopted us so we buy hay then feed them nearly every day and two colts have been born since they showed up about a year ago. They are free to roam and often pass into bordering Sandoval County in their travels. If we don't feed them they eat the trees, knock over bird baths and tromp through flower beds annoying Our Lady of the Arroyo to her wits' end. 

We have the means, two water sources and a corral with a gate so they've become quite tame and follow their hosts into the enclosure to eat. The fence is down on both ends of the property so when they've had their fill they go wherever they want browsing the cured grasses on several thousand acres of private property and Kewa Pueblo (where they compete for meager pasture with cattle owned by tribal members) in our part of wildfire-prone Santa Fe County.

We haven't seen the hugely pregnant mare for several days but no doubt she'll rejoin the herd as soon as her foal is able.

New Mexico is a fence-out state and domestic horses are considered livestock while wild and feral mustangs are not but those deemed estray is a gray zone. Headquarters has about fifteen acres fenced with horse-safe wire but neither of our properties is fully enclosed. Putting the fence back up, locking them in then feeding full time would be crazy and cruel.

The feeding ban is scheduled to begin September 1 and a meeting to discuss who gets permits is set for August 1 in Placitas.

7/15/23

BLM revising plans on High Plains District; BLM Montana/Dakotas moving on conservation leases

Tension is high in the Mountain West so local Bureau of Land Management offices and employees are on alert for militant zealots bent on violent disruptions or worse as the agency assesses resource management plans.
The proposed revision would replace the existing 23-year-old Newcastle RMP that guides the management of approximately 287,900 acres of public lands and 1.7 million acres of federal mineral estate managed by the BLM in Crook, Weston, and Niobrara counties in Wyoming. Through this process, BLM also plans to revise the 31-year-old Nebraska RMP, which includes 5,100 surface acres and 223,900 acres of federal mineral estate managed by the BLM across the state of Nebraska. [BLM Wyoming]
Whether it's American Prairie's bison grazing on BLM ground in Montana, the US Department of Agriculture killing cattle on the Gila or feds shooting goats in the Tetons socialized grazing just isn't enough to keep some Republicans happy.
Montana is about to see significant investment in habitat restoration and resilience after nearly $27 million was allocated to Bureau of Land Management field offices in the state earlier this summer. Funds will also be directed toward removing more anthropogenic threats to the landscape and its wildlife populations. [Lewistown News-Argus]
Learn more at the Daily Montanan.

Here in Santa Fe County parts of the Camel Tracks area on La Bajada Mesa will be closed to the public for two weeks.
The BLM proposes to design and build two recreational target shooting ranges within Santa Fe County, and field surveys are needed for an environmental assessment pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. [BLM New Mexico]

7/13/23

Lawsuit by short-term rental group won't affect area couple

Our Lady of the Arroyo and her man have gone to a thirty day minimum with our casita mostly because Santa Fe County passed a short-term rental ordinance but we had a five night minimum and that was still too much work.
The grassroots group, STR Fellowship of Santa Fe County, is suing the county. They said an ordinance that passed back last October violates their rights as short-term property owners. That ordinance has rules for Airbnb-type properties like noise restrictions and parking. “Short term rentals are filling a need here in Santa Fe County. A lot of people can’t afford to stay at Bishops Lodge or the La Fonda or these really big, beautiful resorts that we have here that serve a function for tourists, but also our short-term rentals give people the hospitality and the real authentic experience of Santa Fe,” explained Liz Emmens, a property owner. [KRQE teevee]
Santa Fe remains a top travel and leisure destination as cannabis sales top $33 million in June, median home prices jump to $800,000 and more people leave the city for more rural parts of the county.

7/11/23

Americans overwhelmingly support BLM conservation rules

Putting the country on the path of protecting at least 30 percent of our land and 30 percent of our ocean areas by 2030 (30x30) is imperative to preserving public spaces especially now as the worst megadrought in at least 1200 years is driving desertification in much of the western United States. A supermajority of registered voters in the Mountain West agrees according to bipartisan polling conducted by the Colorado College State of the Rockies project. 

Now, conservation is center stage as the Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management plan to sell preservation leases to parties interested in environmental protection.
The Center for Western Priorities performed a sentiment analysis on a random sample of 10,000 public comments submitted to regulations.gov as of the morning of July 5, 2023, in the closing hours of a 90-day public comment period. CWP’s analysis found 92 percent of the comments encouraged the Interior Department to adopt the Public Lands Rule as written or strengthen its conservation measures. 4.5 percent of comments encouraged the department to withdraw or significantly weaken the rule. Another 3.5 percent of comments did not express a clear opinion in support or opposition to the rule. The statistical analysis has a margin of error of ±0.5 percent. [Center for Western Priorities]

7/9/23

Domes enchant

 

James greets dinner guests from the front door.


Center dome is 40 feet in diameter, ceiling apex is twenty feet from the floor. Kiva fireplace chimney penetrates above. Sun tubes bring light into every room.


Kitchen viewed from the foyer.



Built in 1999 the vinyl shell was inflated with fans and polyurethane foam blown as the inside first coat then layers of plaster shot over that. The floor is etched concrete designed to resemble stone tile so the simulated joints are filled with colored grout and water heated with propane is pumped beneath it during winter.



Doorway to 20 foot diameter west dome which has its own bathroom. All the doors were custom-made in Santa Fe.



Looking west.



Looking east: James' property is about a mile farther south on Red Rock Road from our place.



The Sangre de Cristos rise above Santa Fe just beyond the local cinder cones. The photovoltaic array on the shop roof powers the inverter that cranks out 6000 watts backed up with a propane generator. To be sure, the 360 degree view on 47 acres above the Rio Grande valley represents stunning value.



James is retired from Boeing Aerospace and is a long time collector. This archway leads to the 30 foot diameter east dome that houses the exercise room and sauna right, huge bedroom and bath left. A = π r² so the total living area is around 2300 square feet.



Stairway to foyer




Custom table and inner entry door grace the foyer.

7/3/23

Independence Day apparently not for every American

Due in large part to immigration New Mexico is third in racial equality, second in worker equity, fourth in language diversity and is the sixth most diverse state overall according to WalletHub. 

But in July, 2021 tens of thousands of long-suffering Haitians made the nightmare journey through Central America only to end up in facilities like the one owned by Tennessee-based CoreCivic in Torrance County, New Mexico. After being brutalized by riders on horseback in Texas some fifty Haitian asylum seekers were subjected to dire circumstances and denied access to legal counsel while detained at a private prison complex contracted in Estancia, New Mexico by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the US Marshals Service. 

The American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU and several other immigrants rights groups filed suit after refugees on a hunger strike were attacked by guards who deployed chemical weapons.  
"CoreCivic has an egregious track record of neglect and abuse at Torrance, and these disturbing conditions are sadly common at ICE detention facilities in New Mexico," Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico, said. ICE also holds detainees at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan (also run by CoreCivic) and the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, which is operated by the Management and Training Corporation. [Federal watchdog blasts New Mexico ICE facility for unsanitary conditions and understaffing]
ICE refuses to respond to allegations of human rights abuses and it's unknown whether CoreCivic will face any consequences for its failures to meet even basic human needs as it bilks taxpayers some $2 million a month.
Hernández Castillo is seeking safety in the U.S. from death threats that came in Honduras after he testified against someone who ran a VISA scam. Hernández Castillo said after federal immigration officials arrested him in April, they sent him to the Torrance County Detention Center in May. He said the conditions living in the facility were horrible. He said he came to the U.S. thinking he could get asylum and work but found that people are unjustly locked up for coming to this country and suffer because of it. “I came with a different mentality, and I thought everything was going to be different,” Hernández Castillo said. [Asylum seeker doesn’t think federal immigration system will change, despite national policy shift]
I'm not a New World Order guy, don't support the North American Union (god bless you. please, mr. roddenberry) and I believe the US Constitution is a big enough canvas to paint a more perfect masterpiece, a big enough score for all to sing. 

It’s time for all Americans to enjoy the protection of law by being part of one nation: erase the artificial borders and grant Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness to all the people of America…Mexico, Central America even the Caribbean if they’ll have us. 

7/2/23

Invasive Chinese ring-necked pheasant numbers reduced even as South Dakota slaughters another 50,000 native critters

The introduction of the Chinese ring-necked pheasant to South Dakota is one of most destructive examples of ecoterrorism in US history and has heralded the near eradication of habitat for native wild turkeys and grouse. But a shaky cease fire in the attempted extermination of native species to prop up the pheasant industry has taken effect after the state's Republican governor put bounties on raccoons and skunks known to feed on prolific invasive zebra mussels. 

Even children have been enlisted to slaughter native species.
The limit of 50,000 tails for the Nest Predator Bounty Program has been reached and the program is closed for 2023.  
All animals submitted for this program must have been harvested (i.e. trapped or shot) in South Dakota between March 1-July 1 for youth under 18 and April 1-July 1 for all South Dakota residents.  
During warmer weather, participants are asked to freeze all eligible tails prior to submission or bring them in within three days of being harvested. Road kill animals are not eligible.  
Payment will not be received upon submission of the tail(s). GFP will process payments and send a check in the mail approximately every 30 days.  
Upon tail submission, participants are required to sign a legal affidavit indicating the tails were obtained during the time period outlined above and that they came from an animal they harvested. Participants under the age of 18 will need their parent/legal guardian to sign a legal affidavit on their behalf. [South Dakota Game, Fish and Plunder]
The good news? 1,158,000 invasive Chinese ring-necked pheasants were put to death in the state between October 15, 2022 and January 31, 2023. 

In South Dakota over a hundred native species are at risk to the Republican Party including the endangered pallid sturgeon, paddlefish, black footed ferret, northern long-eared bat, the black-backed woodpecker that feeds on bark beetles and a bird that actually walks underwater – the American dipper, just to name a few.

7/1/23

Santa Fe cannabis market saturated; buyers rejoice


With forty dispensaries Santa Fe is nearing "cannabis retail oversaturation."

Some retailers are offering penny pre-rolls or even free grams with purchases but nearly a hundred New Mexico cannabis vendors signed a letter to Regulation and Licensing Superintendent Linda Trujillo and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to slow the issuance of new licenses.
In some ways the letter tracks with what Ultra Health President and CEO Duke Rodriguez has been warning about for months: A low barrier to get a cannabis business license would create a flood of stores and a subsequent market oversaturation. While Rodriguez blames the state for making it relatively easy to get a license, making it easy was an intentional plan by the regulation department to ensure industry equity and equality. [Andy Lyman, Santa Fe Reporter, Green Out]
As of March New Mexico's 606 dispensaries had sold some $440 million worth of cannabis since April, 2022 when sales began for all adults and the state is lauding boosts to the economy, burgeoning revenues, erasing the inequities left by the war on drugs and balancing the state's water crisis with growers. In February, combined therapeutic and "recreational" sales topped $41.6 million where therapeutic purchases were nearly $14 million through 262,000 transactions and other sales were almost $28 million through 626,000 transactions. 

Today, total transactions are smoking to way over 10 million and dispensaries number over a thousand.
A new downtown outpost of Santa Fe cannabis mainstay Best Daze opening this month may be the last dispensary in the Plaza area. That’s because a city ordinance requires that new cannabis retail spots be no closer than 400 feet to each other. Tai Bixby, a director at Real Estate Advisors LLC, tells SFR rent rates on and around the Plaza range from about $40 to $60 per square foot. [Andy Lyman, Santa Fe Reporter, Plaza Encroachment]
The Picuris and the Pojoaque Pueblos have entered agreements with the State of New Mexico to market cannabis product outside tribal borders. The Tewa words wõ poví translate to “medicine flower” and so far half of Pojoaque's clients are from Texas and other red states.