A committee commissioned by the Rapid City Board of Education to review the school district’s budget isn’t allowing the public to attend its meeting tonight.

The committee, a panel of local financial and business leaders, began meeting in private over the summer and is scheduled to make recommendations to the Board of Education in December.

and…

Jon Arneson, an attorney for the South Dakota Newspaper Association, said the committee is doing public work and that its meetings should be transparent.

“Quibble all you want about whether this ad hoc committee constitutes a ‘related’ board, commission or agency of a political subdivision within the meaning of SDCL 1-25-1,” he said. “The important consideration is the nature of the work. In a democracy, public work should be public. Plainly, this is a committee created to perform a public function. In my view, it is ample reason for the committee to presume that it should operate in an open and accessible a manner as possible. If there is compelling reason for secrecy, let that be the exception. I think history proves that leaving the public out of the process leads nowhere good.”

Read it all here.

Shame on the Rapid City School Board for trying to shut the public out of the process. So what if it’s a subcommittee? It is still dealing with how public money will be spent. It is still offering recommendations to the main board. Or doesn’t taxpayer input count?

The biggest problem is that public board members SHOULD be erring on the side of openess. But, when it comes to how they spend other people’s money, they’re happy to slam the door on the public’s right to know.

Why? Because it’s easier when you don’t have all those meddlesome taxpayers questioning the elected board members about their fiefdom…  sorry, about THEIR board. And the problem with that is that it’s not their board. It’s OUR board, our schools, and our educational system.

It is crap like this that is going to drive a future passage of a sledgehammer response to open government that pries open their personal e-mails, phone records, etcetera and so on.

Why? Because they won’t give the people what they’re due under the law now, which is simply attending a meeting. So, someone is going to ensure they have the clear and overwhelming force of law to take it. And no stone will be left unturned.

And I hope the Rapid City School Board is the first to get konked in the head with the measure. Because they will only have themselves to blame.

According to the campaign website, the campaign’s strategy is largely based on what’s been in the local news in South Dakota:

We’ve spent the last two years studying local news from across the state in order to better understand community issues. We’ve based our strategy on the research. The exploratory phase is a time to test out our ideas on community leaders, and hear what they have to say.

Read it all, and view the website here.

No information out there as of yet as to who is serving on his exploratory committee, nor has his declaration of candidacy filing been posted on the Secretary of State’s website yet.

I’ve also heard of people out talking to vendors, so it’s pretty evident that the 2010 effort is just starting to pick up steam.

So political junkies, stay tuned.

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his close confidante and former Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to several sources close to the transition.

Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, will also reportedly be given a policy portfolio that stretches beyond the department in order to help shepherd health care reform legislation in 2009.

He will oversee a department of nearly 65,000 employees spread across 11 operating divisions with a budget this year of $707.7 billion. If he is confirmed by the Senate, his responsibilities will include the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Food and Drug Administration, public health programs and government research at the National Institutes of Health.

More significantly, Daschle has positioned himself as Obama’s central adviser on efforts to dramatically expand health care coverage next year, while at the same time lowering costs. During the campaign, Obama promised to reduce the average family’s medical bill by $2,500.

Read it all here.

It’s really too bad, because I don’t think there’s anyone I know of who dislikes Jewel, including myself. I’ve always thought she was exceptionally pleasant to deal with. However… her husband’s organization, as well as the SDCAC’s scorched earth tactics this last election weighed around her neck like a massive iron anchor.

(For those of you wondering, I don’t dislike Lee either. I’ve shared a beer with him before, and I daresay I may do it again. But on the other hand, there’s no way I’m going to idly stand by while he tries to wreck the GOP and call it’s elected officials corrupt with no evidence, either.)

Having been the person who notarized the documents creating the SDCAC as a legal entity, as well as having access to the complete donor files of the South Dakota Republican Party was just too much of a security risk for many in the party to feel terribly comfortable with.

What I’m hearing was the last straw was the infamous fundraising letter that Lee sent out blistering the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, the GOP State Senators, etc.

That set the stage, and now that the election is over, there wasn’t much of anything preventing them from doing what they thought was necessary.

I’d personally like to wish Jewel well in her future endeavors, and hopefully her husband’s political crusades won’t serve as a detraction for her employment again.

The rumor tonight is that friends of Brendan Johnson are starting to let it slip that he has supposedly been asked to be the new US Attorney to replace outgoing Republican Marty Jackley.

If it’s true, that’s pretty interesting.

I’ve been getting frequent requests from folks who want the law in South Dakota changed to allow safe access to medical cannabis. As I have told them, I also want the law changed, but I can’t do it by myself. This message is an attempt to find out how much support we have. That means I’d like to hear from you.

Here are some facts:

1. We put medical cannabis on the ballot for the 2006 election in South Dakota.
2. We obtained 48% of the vote.
3. That effort cost about $280,000.00. The Marijuana Policy Project (mpp.org) raised about 85% of that amount, and ran a nice campaign. We got 48% of the vote!!
4. There are two legislative sessions between now and the next election in So. Dak. (2010)
5. The legislature knows that if we take the issue to the voters again, we’ll win.

That means, I believe, that there is an excellent chance that the legislature will act, if we give them a reason. We have a few good reasons for them to think about. We have medical cannabis patients and their doctors ready to testify at the legislature.

And…

We plan to ask a legislator to sponsor a bill allowing patients–whose doctors have signed a recommendation stating that the doctor believes that cannabis use would benefit the patient–to possess and use cannabis. The bill must also provide that “caretakers” would be able to grow and transfer cannabis to patients.

And…

I am very optimistic that a group of us, especially including patients, can prevail in getting a medical bill through the legislature. There simply have to be more folks than me talking about it.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Bob Newland

Err… yeah.  Would someone tell me why each of these proposals have some clause that provides “that “caretakers” would be able to grow and transfer cannabis to patients.” Well, possibly because it’s their way of making sure they can legally grow pot. And if a few leaves drop off and fall on the ground on the way to the patient…..

The bottom line is that all such efforts are little more than just a way for illegal users to remove the stigma as well as the heavy hand of the law from their habit. None of the proposals have ever addressed such things as quality and control measures that you’d find in any legitimate pharmaceutical laboratory. You know, those little things that make sure that the patient on the receiving end of things actually gets the medicine they think they’re buying.

Not to mention that if it’s legalized in South Dakota, that all it’s going to do is to shift the burden of law enforcement to the federal level where it is, and will continue to remain illegal.

Sorry Bob. This commentator doesn’t think this staggering and addled dog is going to hunt. Not now, nor ever.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of ’stuff’ going on. Leadership elections, insolvent laptop vendors, and the Argus stupidly putting the reigning dean of South Dakota political reporters out to pasture (Terry, if you want to write for free, call me!) are not events that I’m going to let pass without at least a blurb.

There are even things going on that I’m just trying to keep up on for the readers, since the MSM is doing a bad job of covering them. Such as the election of Manny Steele and David Lust as House Whips (There’s got to be a slightly off-color comment to come from that), along with Brian Gosch and Jamie Boomgarden serving in the same role.

And I even met my goal for the Schoenbeck in ‘10 Facebook group, hitting better than 200 members by the end of last week. In fact, we’re at 210, and continuing to grow. I think the next hurdle will be to try to hit 300 by the end of the year to let Lee know that there are a lot of South Dakotans who would like to see him in the 2010 Governor’s race.

No, it’s not much of a vacation, is it? Maybe it’s just my way of sliding back into a “non-frenzied, non-campaign mode” of writing.

Of course, there’s the inevitable teasing. My friend, Todd Epp is giving me a bit of a hard time about my vacation not shaping up to actually be a vacation. And predictably, Sibby is letting me know that it’s because I’m a humanist secular educrat ingrained in the Pierre Capitol Culture. Leaving me to ask - is what he’s on still legal in South Dakota? And does it have long term health implications? (It must have been the cartoon that set him off.)

Actually, this “vacation” thing has been a good opportunity for me to give myself permission to ignore the SDWC when I’m busy with other things. My Real Estate activity has shot through the roof since the election, and I hardly have a moment that isn’t about fundraising (2+ events, and a 1500 pc letter) at the non-profit I’m working part-time for. So the last thing I need is an compulsion to keep up with everything.

So, as opposed to an “official” vacation, let’s consider it a month-long jeans day, where I’ll get around to writing more officially when I feel like it.

House:

Bob Faehn, majority leader.

Kristi Noem assistant majority leader.

Tim Rave, speaker.

Val Rausch speaker pro tem.

Senate:

Dave Knudson, Majority Leader.

Tom Dempster, Assistant Majority Leader

Bob Gray: President Pro Tem

Cooper Garnos and Larry Rhoden, Majority whips

Interesting mix. Because of necessity more than anything, the House chose almost an entirely new team, shutting out present Speaker Tom Diedtrich who was running for Majority Leader. Considering he actively punished those who voted against him 2 years ago, you might consider this a bit of payback. Plus, the selection of Kristi Noem as assistant leader seems to signal that a younger slanting conservative core is going to be in command in that chamber.

The Senate? Not so much. With the only change being the addition of Rhoden, it’s going to be business as usual there. Dempster even managed to hold on to his seat, despite running as an independent.

Anyone care to speculate what this means as far as their relationships with each other and the Governor?

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Terry is one of those rare reporters who many in the political structure - Republican and Democrat - trust that whatever he wrote would be free of bias. They might not like what he’d write, but at the least there were never accusations of playing favorites.

Too bad. Lately there have been fewer and fewer reasons to read the Argus on a daily basis, and one of the biggest ones is now gone.