From South Dakota Drinking Liberally on December 4th, 2015:
Democratic voter registration in South Dakota fell to 169,059 this week, the lowest level of Democratic registration since 1972 when it stood at 158,086.
Today, a month later, South Dakota Democrats are down to 167,272 voters.
A loss of 1787 voters.
Rounds Statement on President
Obama’s Gun Control Announcement
PIERRE—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued the following statement on President Obama’s recently announced gun control executive actions:
“The executive actions the president announced today will make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to legally obtain firearms and do nothing to fix the problem of gun violence,” said Rounds. “Criminals and terrorists aren’t going to obey the law anyway. I will continue to fight against the president’s endless attack on our 2nd amendment rights.”
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South Dakota PUC certifies Keystone XL Pipeline construction permit
PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission today determined that the certification filed by TransCanada Keystone Pipeline to construct the Keystone XL Pipeline in South Dakota is valid. The decision was made by commission members Chris Nelson, Kristie Fiegen and Gary Hanson at a regular PUC meeting in Pierre, S.D., on Jan. 5, 2016.
“State law narrowly defines the certification question we voted on today,” said PUC Chairman Nelson. “This was not a question of whether the permit should have been issued in 2010; rather, it was whether TransCanada filed a valid certification stating that the company can meet the conditions attached to the original permit. Opponents failed to prove that the certification was not valid. We all understand, however, that the pipeline cannot be constructed without a presidential permit,” Nelson continued.
“My vote today to accept Keystone XL’s certification takes proper account of the controlling law enacted by the legislature that guides our actions in this docket,” stated Kristie Fiegen, PUC Vice Chairman. “Due process has been delivered. The commission considered a host of motions, allowed a vast amount of discovery to be gathered, provided an opportunity for all to properly argue their case, and enabled compilation of a complete written and oral record that addressed the conditions first established in the Keystone XL Pipeline construction docket,” Fiegen concluded.
“We made it clear from the very beginning of this process that in order to prohibit the Keystone XL Pipeline certification, proof would need to be presented that TransCanada cannot meet the conditions set by the PUC in 2010,” Commissioner Gary Hanson said. “Through this protractive and open process, the validity of Keystone XL’s certification has been thoroughly vetted. There has been no evidence provided that shows TransCanada Keystone XL will be unable to meet the requirements of the permit. If the company secures a presidential permit and the pipeline is built, the PUC will monitor the progress to ensure the construction conditions are met,” Hanson said.
TransCanada came before the PUC in March 2009 with its request to construct the Keystone XL Pipeline across parts of western South Dakota. The commission approved an amended final decision and order on June 29, 2010. Because TransCanada did not begin construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline in South Dakota within four years of the permit being issued, state law requires the company to certify to the PUC that the facility continues to meet the conditions upon which the permit was granted.
TransCanada Keystone Pipeline filed the certification with the PUC on Sept. 14, 2014. Since then, the PUC has reviewed thousands of pages of filings by parties; held numerous meetings at which motions offered by intervenors, TransCanada and PUC staff were discussed and decided; and conducted a nine-day evidentiary hearing.
The commission granted intervenor status to all 30 individuals and 12 organizations that requested it, allowing them full participation in the certification docket including the ability to file legal motions, request discovery (facts or documents), present testimony and evidence, and participate in the evidentiary hearing. Three intervenors withdrew from the docket in the spring of 2015. The remaining intervenors included landowners along the pipeline route, Native American tribes, environmental groups, grassroots membership organizations, and interested individuals from South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and New York.
Approximately 100 people attended a public input session at the State Capitol in Pierre on July 6, at which 52 commenters offered verbal statements to the commission about the Keystone XL Pipeline certification. Several hundred written comments were submitted to the PUC throughout the course of the proceeding.
The evidentiary hearing was held in Pierre on July 27-Aug. 1 and Aug. 3-5, during which the commission heard testimony and accepted evidence from TransCanada, PUC staff, and intervenors.
The pipeline route in South Dakota has an estimated length of 315 miles that will cross portions of Harding, Butte, Perkins, Meade, Pennington, Haakon, Jones, Lyman and Tripp counties. The project also includes seven pump stations to be located in Harding, Meade, Haakon, Jones and Tripp counties. The plans specify two pump stations each in Harding and Tripp counties. The pipeline will transport crude oil starting in Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska.
The PUC expects to issue its written final decision and order in the coming weeks. That document will be part of the full docket found on the PUC’s website at www.puc.sd.gov, “Commission Actions,” Commission Dockets,” “Hydrocarbon Pipeline Dockets,” “2014 Hydrocarbon Pipeline Dockets,” Docket HP14-001 – In the Matter of the Petition of TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, LP for Order Accepting Certification of Permit Issued in Docket HP09-001 to Construct the Keystone XL Pipeline.
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Marty Jackley: Release of Further
Information on the Westerhuis Fire and Death Investigation
PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley is releasing the following additional information arising from the Westerhuis fire and death investigation.
“Forensic evidence and the totality of the investigation continues to confirm that Scott Westerhuis was responsible for the death of his family, before setting fire to his home and taking his own life,” said Marty Jackley. “I also want to re-assure the public that the joint state and federal criminal investigation into the financial circumstances surrounding the Gear-Up and related programs remains an ongoing priority. Any information from the public that may assist law enforcement with our financial review would be greatly appreciated,” said Jackley.
On September 17th, 2015, a catastrophic house fire occurred at the Westerhuis residence located at 36705 279th Street, Platte, SD. On September 22nd, 2015, preliminary autopsy reports were released indicating that the cause and manner of death for Nicole, Kailey, Jaeci, Connor and Michael Westerhuis were homicide by shotgun wounds, and the cause of death for Scott Westerhuis was shotgun wound with manner of death as suspected suicide based on investigation findings.
On November 3rd, 2015, Attorney General Jackley joined state, local and federal law enforcement and first responders at a press conference in Platte and released the final fire and death investigation results confirming that the totality of circumstances indicated that Scott Westerhuis was responsible for the death of his family. It was further released that a joint state and federal investigation into the financial circumstances surrounding the Gear-Up Program remained an ongoing priority.
During and since the press conference, further questions have been asked regarding the following three general areas:
As demonstrated by the further release of this information, none of these items provide evidence that anyone other than Scott Westerhuis was responsible for the tragic loss of his family.
I) Video of White Pickup
On the morning of September 17th, 2015, an individual driving a white pickup with a trailer delivered a load of pheasants from a farm in Gregory County to a pheasant hunting preserve north of Platte. Law enforcement has reviewed the gas station surveillance video of the vehicle coming and going through Platte, interviewed the driver of the truck, the pheasant raiser, and obtained the invoice from the day of delivery. The route is consistent with the video, including the trip to the hunting preserve and on the return trip having the pheasant crates empty and stacked up and ratcheted down. All individuals involved have been cooperative with law enforcement.
II) The 2:57 a.m. call from the Westerhuis landline to Nicole Westerhuis’ cell phone
Phone records demonstrate a call from the Westerhuis landline to Nicole Westerhuis’ cell phone. The call began at 2:57:54 and ended at 2:58:37, lasting 43 seconds. It is believed that Nicole’s cell phone device and any voice message on the device were destroyed in the fire. On September 24th, 2015, seven days after the tragic incident, MCEC deactivated Scott and Nicole’s cellular telephones. Verizon, as the carrier, contracts with a third-party to provide voice messaging service. The third-party only retains voice messaging while a cell phone is active. Once the deactivation occurred, the actual voice message could not be retrieved by the third-party carrier.
Further investigation has confirmed the installation of an automation alarm system in the Westerhuis residence approximately three-years ago. The fire alarm system is tied to the residence’s landline. The system was programmed to first call Scott Westerhuis’ cell phone and then Nicole Westerhuis’ cell phone in the event of a fire alarm. Consistent with the alarm programming the first call came to Scott Westerhuis’ cell phone at 2:56:35 and ended at 2:57:45. Nine seconds later came the second call to Nicole’s cell phone starting at 2:57:54 and ended at 2:58:34. Although the voice mail on Nicole’s actual cell phone is believed to be destroyed and Verizon’s third-party carrier did not maintain the actual voice mail message, the follow-up investigation with the alarm installation company has confirmed that the call from the Westerhuis’ landline to both cell phones in the order programmed would have been consistent with and in all likelihood the automated alarm notification.
III) Safety or lock deposit boxes.
The investigation has involved two safety or lock deposit boxes. First, there was a bank deposit box that had been obtained by Scott Westerhuis. Law enforcement executed a search warrant on November 11th, 2015, in relation to the safety deposit box. Although the Search Warrant Return has been filed, consistent with the Order to Seal it is not appropriate to disclose the specific contents at this time. Generally, there was nothing of evidentiary value in relation to the death investigation.
At different times witnesses have also described a safe or lock box contained in various locations on the Westerhuis property. It is generally described as a small, portable, gray safe or lock box. Law enforcement has on two separate occasions, when processing the fire scene and subsequent search, specifically looked in the location areas witnesses described. Based upon statements from witnesses, the safe is believed to be similar in nature to the SentrySafe 1100 Fire-safe chest that provides only a ½ hour of fire protection. Safes of this nature generally have limited fire protection capability based upon amount of heat and duration. In the event the public has any further information regarding the safe of this general description including surrounding its purchase, we are kindly requesting it be provided to law enforcement.
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I don’t think anyone in South Dakota would deny that at times the federal government seems to have a tendency to manage federal lands like a pack of idiots. I don’t think any rancher grazing on federally controlled grasslands would disagree.
When protesters swoop in, such as they have in Oregon, I’m sure they’re acting out of a sense of frustration. But, is it justification for also acting like a pack of idiots? I can’t imagine it’s not going to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars dealing with their tantrum.
As you’ll note in the attached clip, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly skewers one of their leaders when she points out that whole “rule of law” thing, and they very quickly backtrack from their “pledge to die for their beliefs.”
In this instance, I’m not sure how they’re better than the Black Lives Matter groups that infringe on the rights of others when they too intentionally block traffic, commerce, and protest on private property. Even the family of the person they’re claiming to be protesting for is disavowing them.
Throughout the siege, Bundy has claimed the two ranchers were targeted for not selling land to the government.
But the father-and-son ranchers have distanced themselves from the group.
“Neither Ammon Bundy nor anyone within his group/organization speak for the Hammond family,” the Hammonds’ attorney, W. Alan Schroeder, wrote to Harney County Sheriff David Ward.
So, why are they there?
Yes, our democracy affords them the opportunity and ability to express their freedom of speech in protest. So good, go protest.
But when the law of the land has spoken, it serves little purpose to take over buildings and claim you’re ready to die, as the rest of us are forced to deal with it.
Now that I’m done giggling over someone’s plagiarism causing them to inadvertently promote dakotawarcollege.com, the word is out there that a few more people have petitions out to run for the state legislature.
State Representative Dan Kaiser is said to have his petitions out in the Aberdeen community for another run at the State House. And the word out west is that Tim Goodwin of rural Hill City may be a candidate for the State House in District 30 giving us a 4-way primary instead of a three-way.
But isn’t there one missing? Weren’t we promised a candidate?
I distinctly recall South Dakota Democrat Chair Ann Tornberg promising that Democrats would have a candidate for US Senate. They went all last year – when a legitimate candidate would have been running – and ended 2015 without a candidate to their name.
Now we’re starting to creep through January, when desperation should be kicking in, and they still don’t have one.
And the campaign season continues to roll on…..
Sometimes the best part of people stealing material straight off of your web site because they’re too lazy or incapable of doing much more than hitting the on-button, is that it’s pretty easy to add to the material after the fact. Such as changing the thumbnail image and adding annotations.
I just wish I could have added a RickRoll to the video I uploaded after the fact.
Psst… (You can find the real video sent out with the release here)
Secretary of State Certifies 4th Ballot Measure
Amendment to the Constitution Limiting Ability to
Set Statutory Interest Ratio for Loans
Pierre, SD – Today, Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced that an Initiated Amendment to the Constitution Limiting Ability to Set Statutory Interest Ratio for Loans (18% rate cap) was validated and certified to be on the November 2016 general election ballot as a ballot measure the citizens will vote on. The sponsor turned in 63,772 signatures to the Secretary of state’s office. A Constitutional Amendment requires 27,741 signatures from South Dakota registered voters. Once the signatures were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office, a 5% random sampling was conducted. It was determined that 66.17% or 42,195 of 63,772 signatures were in good standing. This will be Constitutional Amendment U.
This is the fourth initiated measure to be approved by Secretary of State. A total of 8 measures were submitted for review. This office will continue the signature validation process of the remaining 4 measures in the order they were submitted to the Secretary of State. A total of 275,000 signatures were submitted among all petitions.
Those looking to challenge the Secretary of State’s certification of a ballot measure have 30 days from the date they are certified, which would be February 3, 2016.
When living in Pierre, I helped a couple people fight a city reorganization, and we just narrowly lost by 14 votes (we rant it with a couple hundred bucks and a copier). Part of the genesis of it was that the city of Pierre wouldn’t stop messing with the people living in it’s extraterritorial jurisdiction – outside the city limits, but subject to some of it’s strictures.
Cities in many places have been aggressively working and trying to expand extraterritorial jurisdiction in recent years, as they prepares for expansion. They have a vested interest in doing so. But what about those “gap children” – those living in the extraterritorial jurisdiction, but not having a vote in city affairs? State Senator Jeff Monroe is going to propose a measure to give them a voice that they’ve been lacking:
Many Fort Pierre residents live within the one mile zone.
Currently, the city has jurisdiction over the one mile zone around Fort Pierre, however those residents do not get to vote in city elections.
Local District 24 State Senator Jeff Moroe is bring forth a bill this year that would give those residents an opportunity to vote in city elections.
Some South Dakota cities have jurisdictions of up to three miles outside of city limits. Whatever the amound of miles, this bill would allow those residents to vote in city elections says Monroe.
I was noticing recently that over at the Dakota Free Press, that the Secretary of State’s office has returned to a practice that I bemoaned and refused to do while I was there – The full page vanity photo in the Blue Book Legislative Manual. I hadn’t bothered to read the latest edition, but now, I had it staring me in my face, so I was forced to go look.
The Vanity Photos are back? Aargh! What have they done to my Blue Book?
With tongue firmly in cheek, I refer to it as “my book,” as during my tenure with the office, I wrote/compiled the 2011 book, which ultimately was issued as the “2011 South Dakota Legislative Manual” or 2011 Blue Book. Yes, that one. The sole softbound Blue Book in a century old lineup of hard bound volumes.
I’ve seen one or two people grumble about it, as if the world will stop turning if a state issued book is issued in a soft-bound versus a hard-bound version. But there was a reason for it which I fought for because it was important in attempting to transform the concept behind the book from a vanity publication handed out to legislators, state agencies, libraries, and election nerds into an almanac and valuable reference of state information.
The genesis of being handed the book came about as one of those “duties as assigned” duties, where I was in charge of publications and printing, and this was a publication. Probably the only publication bigger than a brochure, or election results booklet.
Yes, it is a book. A big book.
In looking at what was left in the office for files from previous editions, there were massive Microsoft Word documents in a folder and computer files that needed to be reviewed, and revised, along with collecting new information that needed to be gone through. So, I sent out a nice e-mail to legislators that asked them to provide biographical information for the Blue Book, or update the information that they currently had, which they could find at a certain link, etc.
Most all got back to me quickly, so we could start the process of slogging through 105 bio’s, edits, and re-edits. I say most got back to me quickly, because Stan Adelstein chose the moment to send a blast e-mail to every legislator on the list, angrily demanding that none of his information be changed, etcetera, and so on. Which was probably the mildest thing he ranted about.
In other words, he was using the occasion to be a horses ass. I don’t think that was lost on his colleagues, whose responses to me varied from “Oh, Stan,” to privately offering me more pointed commentary. I went ahead and changed his bio anyway, for historic accuracy, as his bio in the previous edition skipped over the gap in his service where he was beaten in a primary. Yeah, I didn’t miss that one.
Anyway, it was in the midst of this process when the office started to receive legislative manuals from other states. And I noticed something about these books from other places. These weren’t the books which collected dust on the shelves of offices for decades at a time, until someone cleaned or died. They actually had useful information. They were directories, with phone numbers, and contact information. There were no massive page sized vanity photos of their elected officials.
These books actually looked like directories or almanacs. They didn’t look like they’d been printed off of MS Word on a state contracted Hewlett-Packard printer. (Whirrr…. chunk. page 1. Whirr…. chunk… page 2) They looked like an honest-to-god reference volume that people used all the time. And from there, a genesis of an idea was sprung. God forbid – I wanted to actually make the Blue Book relevant.
We took a hard look at what the Blue Book required under state law, and were able to focus more closely on what we had to have, versus what had been in past volumes. And having been/being in the business of printing in my personal time, I knew that we could do better. At that time, the office bought a license for the Adobe suite, which allowed concepts like layout, photo editing, typography, font kerning, and all those little things to enter into the picture.
Maybe….. just maybe…. we even could go from one column to two columns in places. And we could dump the vanity photos.
Those vanity photos were actually a pet peeve, as they served no purpose, except to up the page count. You can’t tell me that John Thune, or Marty Jackley, or at the time Tim Johnson really care about whether their photo in the South Dakota Legislative Manual was a full page versus a 1/4 page, which is what I reduced them to.
In reviewing the books for other states, aside from a lack of vanity photos, we noticed a few things, such as the use of columns. They also used smaller fonts, which did not look like the larger fonts contained in South Dakota’s Blue Books. Even some of South Dakota’s older volumes before the days of desktop publishing would often use a smaller typeface.
There was change afoot.
Pressing forward in writing the book, there was a portion of the book that proved to be a tough nut to crack. Which I never managed to. The history portion of the Blue Book.
Looking at past volumes, the history portion of the blue book would vary wildly from short sentences in the early time of the state’s history to more recent times where is would encompass pages and pages in more recent history. And the more recent history would include things that had nothing to do with South Dakota. We could do a better job of chronicling our State’s History than that. Couldn’t we?
Apparently not. I contacted university history departments, professors, and others, desperately seeking an editor, or someone in the field who would want to ensure that going forward, we’d leave an accurate snapshot of our state’s events in particular years. And no one was interested. At all.
The responses ranged from polite “thank you, but no, I don’t have the time,” to snippy comments about teacher pay. Because a middle manager in the Secretary of State’s office has control over what you’re paid? Really? So, we did the best we could do, and tried to parse a bit, and I had others temper my tendency towards verbosity.
The rest of the book came together a bit more smoothly. The State Bureau of Administration (Who I’ll talk about later) was gracious enough to hook me our with a couple of photographers in state government who did absolute yeoman’s work in photographing, and allowing the Secretary of State’s office to use their photos in the book. They made the portion of the book about state buildings happen. For their part, they were given photo credit in the 2011 South Dakota Blue Book, and in the 2013 edition which came after my time when they were used again.
In keeping with the goal of making over the blue book into a useful reference, we went beyond the information provided in past volumes, and added contact information for elected officials that was new to the 2011 edition. We added contacts information, addresses, and dates that terms ended for County Officials. For the first time, we added e-mail or website contacts for elected officials. And it was arranged in a format that was far easier to read than prior editions, allowing people to pick out information.
There were various other chores, such as gathering more information & photos, taking photos, obtaining information from the state archives, etcetera. And despite the occasional bump in the road (apparently many Judges don’t have pictures suitable for reproduction), the 2011 edition was really coming together.
Along with the information coming together, based on what other states were doing, and how the book could be modernized, I pressed hard for it to be a softbound cover. It was cheaper than hardbound by around $2000, and had other advantages. It was physically smaller to store. And that actually came up.
One thing that was discovered during the time of assembling the book and going to trying to make it more useful was how many books actually didn’t sell. I had to find an old one one day, and contacted the Bureau of Administration for it. And they informed me that they’d had quite a few old books taking up space for years.
Yes, they’d already been distributed to libraries, and every other place under the sun. But, they’d been ordered as they had always been for years… and nobody wanted them as they had in the past. So the pile of old books grew, and grew, and grew. Now it was pallets, and not piles.
We pared down the order list, and based it on the distribution list in statute, and what BOA had sent out in the past. And a smaller softbound edition was not only cheaper to print, and easier to store, but it was less expensive to mail.
Yes, I was a pest about it, and pressed my case for it at every opportunity. And based on the economics of it in a time when things were pretty lean in State Government, I was able to argue it successfully. So, softbound Blue Book haters, you can blame me.
Was it perfect? No. I wanted to do so more things with the reference portion of it, such as including more information on local divisions of government, such as municipalities and school districts. But, when you’re doing one of these things, you can’t let perfect be the enemy of the good. You also have a deadline, and you can build on it the next time.
Yeah – We can do that in the next one!
Or, maybe not.
For better or worse, there was no 2013 edition in my future, as I made the decision to leave the office in mid 2012. Both I and my wife were sick of me living in my Dad’s basement, and commuting home to see the family every weekend. My ‘old friend’ Sen. Adelstein was taking every bit of silliness & rumor he could find on the Internet about me, forwarding it to the AG, and demanding it be investigated. Ugh. To say the least, I was not enjoying my job anymore.
I took a brief vacation in early July of 2012, and that was probably my downfall. I found that going back to work was the absolute last thing I wanted to do in the world. So I got back, and told the boss that I was going home. A couple of weeks later, after going through 60,000 of my e-mails, and a million of the offices’ computer files, the AG concurred that none of Stan’s allegations were founded. At all. And Stan later begrudgingly admitted it might have been a vendetta against me.
But, I had already submitted my papers, turned in my keys, and was already moving furniture. And officially, the 2013 edition of the Blue Book was officially someone else’s task. I got to come home and returned to writing South Dakota’s #1 Political Web Site.
For the 2013 edition, I was pleased to see they kept much of the interior format, although, they made the decision to go back to the hardbound edition. I ribbed Secretary Gant a little about it, but he’s even more of a South Dakota history buff than I am, and he opted for tradition. I’m sure I would have argued with him about it if I was still there.
Even so, the 2011 edition remains something I remember with the most fondness of my time there, representing a minor footnote to an even more minor historical reference volume while I was there. You won’t find an editing credit in the book for me. It was the Blue Book for the office, and designed with the intent of it being “for the people.”
It wasn’t the first print project I’d worked on, and it wouldn’t be the last. We had started the genesis of the discussion for the update on the compiled election results for the last 125 years, as it had been around 25 – 30 years since the last one was done by the SOS. It wasn’t a statutory requirement, but something the office did as the custodian of the Government’s records.
And there were other projects, but this is one I will always remember. My adventure as a published author. An actual book.
Within the broad confines of the law, every Secretary of State is given free reign to do with the Blue Book what they will in terms of design, layout, format, and more. Secretary of State Shantel Krebs chose to go back to the layout of the Blue Book as it had been before my time, and that’s absolutely her prerogative. I know how difficult it is to assemble the darn thing, and more power to her for getting it finished.
But, I can’t also help but find myself a little melancholy for the book and the hopes of transforming it into something with loftier goals in mind.
As noted in the forward of the 2011 book:
Gone are the page sized photos of elected officials in favor a smaller photo, with more emphasis on direct contact information; to allow the taxpayers of our state to reach out and communicate with the people they’ve elected to office.
As opposed to the prior volumes which sit on many shelves with little use, this edition is intended to be a reference for daily use. It is designed to give everyone the ability to send their elected representatives a message at a moment’s notice.
On behalf of the State of South Dakota, I am very proud to dedicate this years’ blue book to our spirit of open government.
It will be interesting to see how the Secretary of State’s office treats the book in upcoming years. A bill – HB 1009 – has already been pre-filed to drastically cut the already limited number of books produced and to allow electronic distribution, as well as some limited hard bound editions in “a price set by the Secretary of State.”
I know how much time goes into the darned thing. I suspect that compiling and printing the manual might be viewed by some as a bit of a chore. But, I can’t help but think that even in the time of the Internet, there is value in the permanence of books.
And maybe HB 1009 could be amended from the Blue Book being a statutory chore, and transformed into an opportunity. An opportunity for more accessibility, for open government, and a greater ability for the common man to reach out to their elected officials at every level of government.
At the very least, let’s get rid of the vanity photos. They are the worst.