Category: Uncategorized

Had this sent to me yesterday. And if I’m reading this correctly, former South Dakota US Senate Candidate Annette Bosworth managed to have one court appearance last year that wasn’t live-streamed on KELO.

In fact, it’s been kept pretty quiet until now.

Annette Bosworth Haber and the big credit card bill

So, “Annette Marie Bosworth-Haber,” debtor, acting as a pro se litigant (acting on her own behalf), was sued in Lincoln County (Case 41CIV15-000215) by American Express Bank FSB, Creditor. And on July 15th, AMEX had judgement awarded to them in the amount of $55,283.02.

Interesting.

The Sioux Falls chapter of Drinking Liberally continues to give us some of the best insight into the workings of the Democrat party that we get in South Dakota.

In their latest post it would not appear that the Democrat faithful are very confident of the party’s ability to produce the candidate promised in the U.S. Senate race:

Faced with their ever increasing voter registration disparity, the South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP) has been all but silent. The SDDP has not offered a plan to reverse the decline.

And…

The SDDP needs a plan and it needs to act on it soon.

Perhaps we can share voter registration ideas over a shot of Tequila at Drinking Liberally tonight. All of our thoughts will seem brilliant I am sure.

In the meantime we await the promised announcement of a Democratic candidate to challenge John Thune. Time is running short. The time to circulate nominating petitions has arrived.

I’m not holding my breath. Tonight I am drinking to Voter Registration and a plan.

Read it all here.

From a release:

The South Dakota Democratic Party announced today it has expanded staff in preparation for the 2016 election cycle and hired South Dakota native Michael Ewald to fill the new role of Communication Director.

A graduate of Watertown High School and the University of South Dakota, Michael Ewald returns to South Dakota from Chicago, IL where he previously served as Director of Debate at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and legal assistant at the law firm Baker & McKenzie, LLC.

Read it all here.

Secretary of State Certifies 6^th Ballot Measure

Pierre, SD – Today, Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced that an initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution establishing Nonpartisan Elections 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 44,095 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 67.8% or 29,924 of 44,095 signatures were in good standing. This will be Constitutional Amendment V.

This is the sixth 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 2 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 8, 2016.

Challenges to all statewide initiatives and referendums must be brought within 30 days after the petition has been validated and filed by the Secretary of State (SDCL 12-1-13)

I kind of like this. It’s good.

In case it disappeared below the horizon before you noticed, here’s one last chance to vote on our completely unscientific SDWC Reader sales tax poll. I’ll report on the results shortly:

Today in a press release, the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT organization, sent out a preview of what it is predicting in state and local legislative battles in the year ahead, noting that the anticipate bills contrary to their agenda will be considered in at least 27 states.

In 2016, HRC expects more than two dozen state legislatures to consider anti-equality measures. These include legislatures in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The full report can be read at www.hrc.org/2016legislature.

(From a press 1/8/16 press release)

According to the report, the group expects two major areas of legislative measures for South Dakota:

In South Dakota, the group is likely focusing on legislation such as HB 1008, which makes certain school bathrooms and locker rooms gender specific based on biology.

However, no measure has been pre-filed as of yet for 2016 allowing for the ability to refuse service because of religious objections, as championed as a result of lawsuits against bakers, photographers, etc, for declining to provide services for same sex marriages.

During previous sessions, measures underlining our ability to reject business on a religious basis had been introduced and failed. However, they failed before the US Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states this past June.   Which takes lawsuits from those objections from the arena of speculative possibility into potential reality in South Dakota.

State Attorney General Marty Jackley has been up front in saying “Under the law, constitutional rights are required to coexist.”  The question is what form that coexistence is going to take in South Dakota as a result of this upcoming legislative session.

With federal law changing to allow states more flexibility, the State Board of Education has announced that it will be re-reviewing common core educational standards, and whether to keep them. (Now maybe we will finally be able to help our kids with math once again):

The South Dakota Board of Education plans to re-evaluate the controversial math and reading curriculum this summer following a massive federal overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law.

and…

The Every Student Succeeds Act was signed by President Barack Obama in December, but it won’t hit classrooms until the 2017-18 school year. South Dakota education officials will start the revision process this summer for the Common Core.

The state reviews curriculum standards on a seven-year cycle. Reading standards were due for review this summer, but math standards weren’t scheduled for review until the summer of 2017. State education board members agreed unanimously to speed up the process, moving up the timeline for math.

“We’re basically going to review the Common Core and review that process this summer,” Schopp said.

Read the entire story here.

How many proposed laws do we think will come about as a result of this legislation?

From the Argus Leader:

Steele, a Republican Representative for District 12 from 2007 to 2014, Thursday night became the first person to announce ambitions for the Southwest District Council seat being vacated by the term-limited Greg Jamison.

“I have gained understanding of the workings of government on the state, county and city levels and believe these past experiences have prepared me for the City Council position,” Steele said in a news release.

and…

A retired tele-communications worker, Steele served as the chairman of the South Dakota House of Representatives Retirement Laws Committee.

Read the entire story here.

From Missouri comes a story that seems to be burning up my facebook feed.

Apparently, a legislator in the “Show Me” state wants to be shown even more. One has introduced a bill to require sex between a Legislator and a lobbyist to be disclosed on lobbyist reporting forms as “a gift.”

A Missouri bill proposed this week would require lobbyists to report sexual relationships they have with lawmakers or their staff, a change the sponsor says would promote transparency.

The bill by Rep. Bart Korman, a High Hill Republican, would define those sexual relations as “gifts,” which now include presents to lawmakers from lobbyists and must be regularly reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission.

and….

Korman’s measure would exclude sexual relationships between lobbyists and their spouses who are lawmakers or staff. Relationships that begin before an individual becomes a lobbyist or serves as a lawmaker or staff member also would be exempt.

The bill says reports on sexual relationships wouldn’t need a “dollar valuation,” which is required for other “gifts” to lawmakers.

Read it all here.

Really?  I suppose whether it should be considered a gift probably depends on the legislator…..