I’m hearing late this afternoon that Annette Bosworth won the right to continue practicing medicine while her case is under appeal.

Thoughts? Would you set an appointment with her?

We have enough trouble with coyotes here in the great wide-open spaces. Imagine my surprise to hear that a better one has been created, and is numbering in the millions already as it’s territory spreads:

Interbreeding between animal species usually leads to offspring less vigorous than either parent—if they survive at all. But the combination of wolf, coyote and dog DNA that resulted from this reproductive necessity generated an exception. The consequence has been booming numbers of an extraordinarily fit new animal (see picture) spreading through the eastern part of North America. Some call this creature the eastern coyote. Others, though, have dubbed it the “coywolf”. Whatever name it goes by, Roland Kays of North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, reckons it now numbers in the millions.

The mixing of genes that has created the coywolf has been more rapid, pervasive and transformational than many once thought. Javier Monzón, who worked until recently at Stony Brook University in New York state (he is now at Pepperdine University, in California) studied the genetic make-up of 437 of the animals, in ten north-eastern states plus Ontario. He worked out that, though coyote DNA dominates, a tenth of the average coywolf’s genetic material is dog and a quarter is wolf.

The DNA from both wolves and dogs (the latter mostly large breeds, like Doberman Pinschers and German Shepherds), brings big advantages, says Dr Kays. At 25kg or more, many coywolves have twice the heft of purebred coyotes. With larger jaws, more muscle and faster legs, individual coywolves can take down small deer. A pack of them can even kill a moose.

and…

The animal’s range has encompassed America’s entire north-east, urban areas included, for at least a decade, and is continuing to expand in the south-east following coywolves’ arrival there half a century ago. This is astonishing. Purebred coyotes never managed to establish themselves east of the prairies. Wolves were killed off in eastern forests long ago. But by combining their DNA, the two have given rise to an animal that is able to spread into a vast and otherwise uninhabitable territory.

and…

Having versatile tastes is handy for city living. Coywolves eat pumpkins, watermelons and other garden produce, as well as discarded food. They also eat rodents and other smallish mammals. Many lawns and parks are kept clear of thick underbrush, so catching squirrels and pets is easy. Cats are typically eaten skull and all, with clues left only in the droppings.

Read it all here.

Press Conference Regarding September 17th Platte House Fire and Death Investigation

PIERRE S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley will conduct a press conference on November 3, 2015, at 1:00 p.m., at the Community Center adjacent to the Platte City Hall building, Platte, S.D. The purpose of the press conference is to discuss the law enforcement investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the September 17th house fire and death investigation, which claimed the lives of the Westerhuis family.

The press conference is open to the public.

I was noticing this morning that a facebook group “Make Education a Priority in South Dakota,” which has been closely watching the Education task force, had the organizer of the group making a few critical comments about the task force’s last meeting:

The complaining was about the group not being bold enough. And the very next post on the web site – coming after this lament – was very telling about the reality some of the critics are living in:

Yes, it’s a post asking people to support Bernie Sanders’ idea of “Free College to all Americans.” (Yay! Free stuff for all of us! Woo Hoo!)

The complaints about the task force not being bold enough and Bernie Sanders free stuff interestingly both have the same problem at their root. Someone is going to have to foot the bill for all these pipe dreams.

Socialist Bernie Sanders might want to give away college for everyone, but the rest of us will have to foot the bill. Amy Scott-Stoltz might want legislators to be bolder in their plan for schools, but the reality is that any proposal has to be created and passed in the realm of actuality, and not fantasyland.

Our legislators are going to have a difficult enough time swallowing a $75 million dollar plan for schools if it involves a major tax increase. There are those who will want more, but they’re also competing against those who want a lesser increase. And those who want none at all.

That was always the problem with SDEA in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. They wanted it all, and all at once, and damn anyone who said no. Look where it got them. Yes. It’s nice for your kid to want a pony, But when you live in the middle of town, there are issues of practicality, and mom and dad are going to say “Heck NO!”. And maybe that bicycle would have been a better choice before you pitched that fit, and got nothing.

Unlike the pipe dreams of people who are dreaming about utopia, the task force has to operate in the land of reality. And what they end up proposing may be bold – not in fantasyland terms, mind you – but in the terms of actual reality.

People have to vote on it. People have to pass the legislation. And taxpayers have to be able to swallow the cost when they’re asked to foot the bill.

Bold in reality may be difficult enough to accomplish in the atmosphere of limited funds and competing political needs. Those wanting more would be wise to keep that in mind before they set their hearts on that pony.

A reader caught the story about the tab a day or so ago, and how after the Democrat didn’t win against EY Berry, he eventually ended up as the head of GOED under Kneip.  And he posed the question to me – did you hear the story about Allmon’s successor?

The last time Democrats ran Pierre, apparently it was a bit of a party place. I’d long heard rumors about the Governor getting kicked out of the mansion for a while because he had ‘a friend’ of… well, of the opposite sex. And there’s this article about the Democrat who took over the office of Economic Development after Allmon:

2 wives? 9 kids? Good grief! Apparently it was a lot easier to conceal this kind of thing before the days of the Internet & facebook!

Read the whole article here.

Paul Ryan was elected speaker today. As related in the New York Times:

Mr. Ryan received a comfortable margin of victory that included several of the hard-line conservatives who had worked to oust Mr. Boehner. In his address to Congress after the vote, he implored members who have been fighting so bitterly to find a way to work together. “Let’s be frank, the House is broken,” Mr. Ryan said. “We are not settling scores,” he added, “we are wiping the slate clean.”

His ascent was a generational transition as well. Mr. Boehner, 65, came into the job a seasoned leader who tried to appease the Tea Party members whose electoral victories helped usher Republicans into the majority.

Read it here.

NorthWestern Energy is granted its first base electric rate increase in South Dakota
in three decades

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission today voted to allow NorthWestern Energy to raise its electric rates by 15.5 percent, the first such increase since 1981. A typical residential customer using an average of 750 kilowatt-hours of energy each month will see an average monthly increase of about $16.41.

At its regular meeting in Pierre on Oct. 29, 2015, PUC Commissioners Chris Nelson, Kristie Fiegen and Gary Hanson accepted a revised settlement agreement that was filed by NorthWestern Energy, PUC staff, and businesses that had intervened in the case: Toshiba America Business Solutions, Trail King Industries, Redfield Energy and Wal-Mart Stores. The agreement fully described the negotiations from the starting point of $26.5 million in additional annual revenues requested by the company to the final figure of $20.9 million in additional annual revenues agreed to by all the parties. The rates will be effective upon the in-service date of the Big Stone Generating Station Air Quality Control System, expected to be Jan. 1, 2016.

The company filed its request for a 20.2 percent rate increase with the PUC in December 2014. On July 1, 2015, as allowed by state law, NorthWestern Energy implemented interim rates based on their initial request. Because the final rate increase is lower than the interim rate increase, the commission approved a plan for NorthWestern Energy to refund the difference to customers, plus 7 percent annual interest, no later than April 2016.

In its application, NorthWestern Energy cited a number of reasons for requiring increased revenue including the addition of the peaker plant in Aberdeen, South Dakota, federally-required environmental controls at three coal-fired generating plants, integration with the Southwest Power Pool Regional Transmission Organization, and distribution and transmission upgrades, including a transmission project near Yankton, South Dakota.

In the months following its application, NorthWestern Energy purchased Beethoven Wind, an 80-megawatt wind facility near Tripp, South Dakota. The cost of the purchase was included in the rate case. Prior to the wind farm purchase, NorthWestern Energy’s electric customers were obligated, as a result of federal regulations, to pay for the purchase of energy produced by Beethoven Wind via the Delivered Cost of Fuel on their electric bill, which is adjusted quarterly. Parties in the case agreed that incorporating the wind farm purchase into base rates would save customers approximately $44 million over the next 20 years as compared to continuing to purchase the energy produced by it pursuant to the contracts.

PUC Chairman Nelson focused on the reasons for the rate increase in his comments at the meeting. “It’s truly extraordinary to consider the capital investment NorthWestern has made in the last 34 years and the fact that the increase was kept as low as 15 percent,” he said. “It’s important to understand that much of this increase is the result of the company complying with federal mandates,” Nelson stated.

Fiegen, vice chairperson of the PUC, commented: “I have come to expect and am always impressed by the professionalism and high degree of character that is exhibited by the parties to dockets as complex as this rate increase. I am pleased that throughout the process NorthWestern, PUC staff and the intervenors kept reliability and limited customer impact as top priorities.”

Commissioner Hanson noted consumer involvement in the process. “The commission held a public hearing about the rate increase in May in Yankton at the formal request of NorthWestern Energy customers,” he said. “Additionally, a number of consumers submitted written comments to us. We fully understand how important it is to South Dakotans that the cost of energy be affordable while maintaining reliability. I believe that has been achieved with our decision today,” he concluded.

Today’s action by the commission imposes a moratorium prohibiting NorthWestern Energy from filing a request for an increase of base rates that would go into effect prior to July 1, 2018.

While the recent docket is the first comprehensive rate case filed by the company with the PUC since 1981, NorthWestern Energy has implemented limited rate adjustments since then with commission approval.

NorthWestern Energy serves approximately 62,100 electric customers in its South Dakota territory.

The complete NorthWestern Energy electric rate increase docket is available on the PUC website at www.PUC.SD.gov, Commission Actions, Commission Dockets, Electric Dockets, 2014 Electric Dockets. The docket is EL14-106 – In the Matter of the Application of NorthWestern Corporation dba NorthWestern Energy for Authority to Increase Its Electric Rates.

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I received a package yesterday of pins I’d ordered  with a few I didn’t have. Most notably, a Kneip pin, and a tab for “Allmon for Congress.”

It’s unthinkable today to imagine that state Republicans could support a South Dakota Democrat candidate enough for them to issue a pin of this nature, but back in those olde-timey days, when Democrats attempted to appeal to more than Union Members, pot smokers and hippie liberals, they actually issued a campaign pin for Republicans who supported the last Democrat to hold the office of Governor.

And we also have the tab for “ALLMON for Congress.”  I had to ask, “Who?” as I’d never heard of this guy, but he actually was a Democrat of note at one time, and served as Rapid City’s Mayor before running for Congress. From his bio:

He was a Democratic candidate in 1966, as a representative for the Second Congressional district of South Dakota.  In the fall of 1971, Governor Dick Kneip named Jack the director of the State Highway Department.  He resigned as mayor and commuted from Rapid City to Pierre for the next six years.  In the fall of 1974, Governor Kneip named Jack the secretary of Tourism and Economic Development.

Read it all here.

And in the 1966 race, Ellis Yarnal (EY) Berry defeated Jack P. Allmon 60.5% to the Democrat’s 39.5%

Delegation Reviewing Draft EIS Findings on Hot Springs VA  

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) today commented on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) release of its draft environmental impact statement (EIS) with respect to the Black Hills Health Care System and the veterans facility in Hot Springs, South Dakota. The draft EIS is now open to a 60-day public comment period prior to a final EIS and decision that will be made by VA Secretary Robert McDonald.

“My primary concern remains what is best for our veterans,” said Thune. “Hot Springs is a special place of healing built around the veterans’ community. As I continue to review this extensive draft EIS, I will compare the analysis to what I have heard from the men and women who have answered the call to serve and will continue to consult with the Save the VA Committee. While any decisions will ultimately come down to Secretary McDonald, I am hopeful we will be able to strike a balance that best serves all of our veterans.”

“For more than 100 years, the Hot Springs facility has delivered exceptional, quality care to our veterans,” said Rounds. “While the great service at the local level continues, the VA’s bureaucracy continues to disappoint. As we analyze the EIS, I will make sure the data is complete and not based on a pre-determined decision to close the facility. I encourage everyone affected to remain engaged and offer comments during the public comment period. As a member of the Veterans’ Affair Committee, providing our veterans with proper and timely care is a top priority of mine.”

“For more than a century, the Battle Mountain Sanitarium has served the needs of our nation’s veterans,” said Noem. “Despite the wishes of our veterans, however, the VA has continued to reduce the facility’s services and push forward a proposal to close it altogether. The EIS findings released today once again highlight the dramatic impact closing the medical and residential rehabilitation center would have on the community and the historic site. I remain committed to fighting for Secretary McDonald to settle on a solution that will work for all involved – especially, our veterans – and encourage everyone impacted to let their voice be heard during the public comment period.”

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Nice crowd for the Augustana college….. Strike that. University College Republican debate watching party.

I just breezed in for a moment because I have to do some things in Sioux Falls tonight, but it looks like the GOP faithful are there in force, and ready to continue fan vetting our presidential hopefuls.