Anti-Native bias hitting Rapid City hockey team, taxpayers hard

I was in Philip the day of the Challenger explosion in 1986 because I drove out there from Deadwood twice a week for two years and got to know the town all too well.

Recently, the hamlet has been home to Trace O'Connell who spilled beer on a group of American Horse School students during a Rapid City Rush hockey game.

Matthew Reedy testified that he was part of a large group of 14 or 15 friends from Philip that traveled to Rapid City on January 24 to attend the hockey game in a luxury box leased by Eagle Sales of Rapid City and given over for the game to Don Carley who owns the steakhouse in Philip and is an Eagle Sales customer. When asked by defense counsel Michael Butler if O'Connell had been drinking he replied, "Yeah. He was. Everybody was drinking up there." He said he saw O'Connell raise his arms and wave them over his head like he was roping, demonstrating from the stand a rodeo cowboy's motion. It was this waving that caused beer to spill from his can of Bud Light, according to Reedy. [KCCR]

I called on Don Carley at his grocery and on the couple who were leasing his dad's steakhouse in the late 80s. He's an arrogant asshole just like the rest of those stupid yachos from Philip are.

While Carley isn't sure what to expect from the pipeline construction, he has his sights set on making some extra money at The Steakhouse, a sit-down restaurant and full bar he runs in downtown Philip. Carley doesn't open the restaurant on Sundays, but he may reconsider that approach once the pipeline crews move in. "You'll always have people who want to go have some drinks and a good meal," he said. "Or if they want to watch a football game or baseball game, where else are they going to do that?" [Big hopes, big worries surround Keystone XL pipeline plan]

Wall Drug was part of my territory in those days, too. I sold them a thousand cases of french fries one year and a hundred cases of beef roasts in another. Longtime donors to the state's Republican Party Wall Drug's Hustead family brought catholic clergy to the Wall area who then abused and exploited American Indian children.

Remember Rapid City businesses shat all over themselves trying to extinguish the wildfire of anger over entrenched racism as organizers of the Lakota Nation Invitational sought alternative locations for the annual event. Sioux Falls, Bismarck and Spearfish were considered.

This terrible incident angered the Lakota people so badly that this anger has never registered with the owners of the Rush or with the City Council of Rapid City. It angered them so badly that nearly all of them ceased coming to the Rush hockey games. “Sagging attendance?” Come on Rapid City wake up. The attendance sagged because the good people of the Indian reservations were completely turned off by the rude and racist treatment their children had received at a Rush hockey game. There has never been a public apology issued to them by either the Rush owners or the City. [Tim Giago: Apology owed for racist treatment of Native youth]

During testimony a teacher from the school said she felt beer hit her, too.

Team management told Rushmore Plaza Civic Center officials Tuesday that the Rapid City Rush will not need any cash assistance for November after leaning on the Civic Center for help in October. Civic Center Officials say the money they are paying to the team is money the center makes off the team and that keeping the Rush in town makes good business sense. They say that helping the team through some lean times will pay off for the taxpayers in the long run. [KEVN teevee]

The Bad River country in Haakon County is pretty awesome and home to several millennia of non-European humans with bison habitat expanding into the horizon.

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.

New Democratic governors chugging toward Front Range passenger rail

Two congressional neighbors now newly elected Democratic governors in Colorado and New Mexico have been pledging to develop passenger rail along the Front Range and southern Rockies.

In 2017, the Colorado General Assembly created the Southwest Chief and Front Range Passenger Rail Commission to pursue building a high-speed commuter rail line that serves the Front Range of Colorado. A comfortable, wi-fi connected, mass-transit option that is accessible and affordable may be the solution that makes this vision a reality. [Jared Polis for Governor]

After helping to bring $30 million for rail improvements to the state Representative-now-Governor-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham will have a portion of a $2 billion surplus to develop Positive Train Control for the New Mexico Rail Runner.

This critical infrastructure grant will support NMRX ‘s efforts to continue providing safe and reliable service to New Mexicans and tourists who depend on it every single day. I remain committed to revitalizing our transportation and infrastructure systems, securing funding for our state’s long-term needs, and helping our economy grow. [press release, Rep. Lujan Grisham]

Now, growth on the Front Range is driving planners to pick up the pace on passenger rail.

According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, there have been many ideas to connect Cheyenne all the way down to Albuquerque, New Mexico with a commuter rail line. But getting the public, local and state governments all on the same page with the details has proved difficult. In December, the commission also requested nearly $9 million dollars from the state to conduct a 2-year public engagement campaign on the premise of a Front Range passenger rail along I-25. It was granted that money in this year’s Senate Bill 1, a large transportation funding measure. [KUNC]

The State of New Mexico bought the track bed that Amtrak's Southwest Chief uses from just north of Lamy to Behlen south of Albuquerque from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway when the Rail Runner was built. BNSF owns virtually all the rail rights of way in New Mexico.

Amtrak is the sole user of the BNSF track between Jansen, Colo., near Trinidad, and the junction with the Rail Runner Express commuter train’s rail line south of Santa Fe, and is entirely responsible for capital and maintenance costs for that stretch of track. The National Association of Railroad Passengers is also concerned. A spokesman for the group that advocates for train and rail transit passengers said discontinuing the middle portion of the Southwest Chief route could be a “canary in the coal mine” for other routes. [Albuquerque Journal]

BNSF Railway and Amtrak both bear the costs of maintaining and improving the half mile long rail tunnel at almost 7600 feet near the top of Raton Pass. Why not sell the remaining portion north of Lamy to the border to the State of New Mexico and the remaining right of way to Jansen to the State of Colorado in a deal letting Amtrak reroute the Southwest Chief through Amarillo, Texas to Behlen like it wants to?

Equip the Rail Runner to connect with Amtrak farther south in New Mexico and to El Paso, create routes over the Santa Fe Southern Railway line from Santa Fe through Lamy and from Albuquerque serving other northern New Mexico communities. Connect with a Front Range carrier at Trinidad or go into downtown Denver, meet the California Zephyr, maybe even into Cheyenne, Wyoming. Legal cannabis for New Mexico's adults could help foot the bill for Positive Train Control.

Meanwhile the Trump Organization and the Koch Brothers are pledging to kill passenger rail service while vehicle traffic between the Black Hills, Cheyenne and Denver continues to increase just like it is between Denver, Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

I get the idea of a future I-25E but now is the time to connect the Southwest Chief to the Empire Builder at Shelby, Montana through Denver, too.

Montana cannabis industry still blunted by federal law

Despite Republican entrenchment Democrats in Montana's legislature worked to bring better testing for contaminants to better serve that state's therapeutic cannabis patients and providers.

Though medical marijuana is legal in Montana, the city of Helena cannot issue a business license to a marijuana dispensary or grow operation as marijuana is illegal under federal law. Helena city commissioners gave first passage Monday to a resolution that would suspend enforcement of a portion of city code forbidding the city to license marijuana-related businesses. A hearing for final passage will be held Dec. 17 at the commission’s final meeting of the year. If the resolution passes, licenses could be issued 30 days later. [Helena Independent Record]

Democrats are keenly aware that to energize millennials and a jaded base radical times call for sensible approaches to reforms of civil liberties for all adults.

There are rumblings of getting a measure on the 2020 Montana ballot, but marijuana advocates want to see new rules implemented on the existing medical marijuana law before focusing on recreational use. Stillwater Labs tests marijuana for contaminants, mold byproducts, potency and more. New rules include implementing mandatory licensing and inspections and allowing post-traumatic stress disorder as an eligible ailment. To see a full list of the new medical marijuana rules click here. [NBC Montana]

Montana's legislature meets every other year and in 2019 the body could revisit legal cannabis for all adults then Rob and Diane will pioneer Alzada's Stoneville Saloon as western South Dakota's and northeastern Wyoming's closest cannabis dispensary.

Besides #medicalmarijuana providers, r ther any businesses in MT required 2 use a service w no regulatory oversight (mj testing labs) costing 1000s/mos per provider w no assurances of real public safety, validity& no checks on conflict of interest? #mtpol #mtleg Enforce lab regs

— MTCIA (@mtciamontana) December 4, 2018

Colorado county will dismiss thousands of cannabis convictions

About 4000 people convicted in Boulder County, Colorado of various cannabis offenses before that state legalized for all adults in 2012 will have their cases dismissed and sealed.

Shawn Coleman, a Boulder-based consultant to the marijuana industry, said the state legislature passed a law last year that allows people to apply to have marijuana cases sealed, but applauded Boulder County DA Michael Dougherty for taking a proactive approach. Coleman said he hopes other Colorado offices follow suit, and said he imagines the state legislature will also look at making the process easier and making sure people know about their options. [Boulder Daily Camera]

North Dakota's failed poorly-written Amendment 3 that would have legalized for all adults also included language that would have forced the expungement of the records for some cannabis convictions yet in its repressive, nanny state neighbor to the south if you're even suspected of ingesting cannabis police will force a catheter into your urethra.

In South Dakota where it's more likely the macho, booze-soaked legislature will legalize prostitution before it will reform cannabis laws Policing for Profit has allowed the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to provide military armaments for the law enforcement industry throughout the state even as lame duck Attorney General Marty Jackley pleads for more resources for his minions.

States with the most alcohol-impaired driving deaths are Montana, South Carolina, North Dakota, Alabama, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. Republican-glutted states are the drunkest, kill the most kids, are the most obese and most addicted to opioids.

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. [Mitchell Daily Republic]

Gilbertson is South Dakota's ranking Democrat.

At their state convention the SDGOP adopted a platform that punishes people seeking relief from intractable pain and suffering so Attorney General-elect, suspected incel Jason Ravnsborg, wants to build more prisons to warehouse meth addicts and the mentally ill because Corrections Department Secretary Denny Kaemingk says South Dakota's jails and prisons are full, the numbers continue to rise, the population "hit a new benchmark" and are especially evident in the women’s prison.

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.

First in Europe. Incoming Luxembourg government plans to legalize recreational marijuana https://t.co/6ie3uSiq0d

— interested party (@larry_kurtz) November 30, 2018