In case you missed it, recently there was an opinion piece in the Argus Leader by Dr. Bill Cohen highlighting the need for increased access to reliable broadband across South Dakota in order to improve health care outcomes.

Cohen’s piece focuses on the premise that there is a severe gap in access to health care across South Dakota due to inadequate Internet access to utilize telemedicine. Dr. Cohen discusses: “Around 52 percent of S.D.’s population lives in rural areas. Furthermore, 72 percent of S.D. hospitals are deemed as critical access sites in rural areas. These rural hospitals are often the only health care option in their area, but specialists are not often available… Telemedicine would allow hospitals to access critical resources and medical opinions without increased costs.”

The need for telemedicine access has been talked about in the state since the time of George Mickelson and Bill Janklow. We’ve made inroads, but we’re not there yet.

Due to the lack of telemedicine access, healthcare specialists are often only available to those able to travel long distances, according to Dr. Cohen. By increasing the availability of telemedicine, specialists could be reached 24 hours a day, anywhere in the state and reduce healthcare costs. However, this cannot be accomplished until broadband access is improved in rural areas.

Seriously. There are some people who are using their phones if they can get reception at all, or they go scouting around for an old AOL disk.

Significantly slower Internet access in rural areas creates a rural/urban digital divide and represents a lag in services available. However, this divide can and should be eliminated by giving rural populations access to broadband connectivity through new technological advances developed to accomplish this goal.

By increasing broadband, telemedicine can expand in South Dakota and have a positive impact on rural patients’ quality of care. As Cohen states in his opinion piece, “Telemedicine is a positive for patients and doctors. Patients would have lower costs to see a specialist due to video chat sessions being short and to be the point. Also, patients would no longer have to travel hours, which often leads to lost wages, in order to see a specialist. The decreased travel time would also benefit doctors who could then see more patients on a daily basis.”

This rural divide does not have to exist. The group Connect Americans Now (CAN) plans to eliminate this gap within the next five years by utilizing TV white space technology. Traditional fiber cable is often too costly to run to rural areas, and by using TV white space CAN looks to cut operating costs by roughly 80 percent.

CAN is poised to reach its goal, but needs the support of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ensure that there is a sufficient spectrum available for wireless use on an unlicensed basis in every market in the country.

It’s time for the FCC to support CAN’s goal and bring broadband access to rural America.

A larger mail piece (a.k.a. a “flat”) touting the attributes of Lance Russell appeared in delegate mailboxes yesterday from Russell for Attorney General:

If you’re a delegate, does this mail change your mind? Or is it already made up?

Statement on Finalization of Zylstra Kaiser Lawsuit

PIERRE, S.D. – The State of South Dakota confirms today that the State of South Dakota has finalized the Laura Zylstra Kaiser lawsuit. This case and settlement was handled by the Governor’s Office of Risk Management and the State’s insurance company.

The Director of the Division of Criminal Investigation, Bryan Gortmaker, first received the compromise settlement agreement and release in full of all claims on Friday, May 18, 2018. The paperwork was signed and finalized by the Governor’s Office of Risk Management on Monday, May 21, 2018.

Based upon these dates, this settlement was not delayed. The language of the settlement agreement states the following: The payment will be made by delivering the checks to Kaiser’s attorneys so that the checks are in their hands no sooner than May 21, 2018, but in no event later than June 8, 2018.

Ravnsborg Campaign Finance Pre-Primary Report by Pat Powers on Scribd

Jason Ravnsborg has put up 50K in cash since the last campaign finance report. With $50,480 raised, $18,188 spent, and $64,276 cash on hand, he’s going into the last month of the first portion of the campaign in an enviable position.

Fitzgerald Pre Primary by Pat Powers on Scribd

AG Candidate John Fitzgerald has his campaign finance report in, and as we roll into the primary in 2 weeks, he’s showing he’s raised $25k (Including a $10,000 loan to himself) and spent about half.

Kristi Noem is going to the last two weeks of the election with plenty of cash on hand.

Noem PrePrimary by Pat Powers on Scribd

With a starting balance of $2.1 Million, Noem added $619,372 to that total, spending $1.73 million.

And now goes into the last two weeks of the election with $1,015,447.07 Cash on hand.

That might buy a couple of commercials.

Questions Raised about Jackley’s Stalling of Court-Ordered Payment to Victim

While Marty Jackley was delivering remarks at a press conference about how victims “deserve better protections and better rights,” he was simultaneously stalling a $1.5 million court-ordered payment to a woman who was retaliated against for reporting sexual harassment at the Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI), which he oversees.

After numerous instances of sexual harassment, former state DCI agent Laura Kaiser followed the normal grievance process. The grievance was denied by Attorney General Marty Jackley. In 2015, Kaiser then sued the DCI Director and a former DCI agent for the retaliation. In 2017, a jury sided with Kaiser and awarded her $1.2 million in damages, plus legal fees that bring the total to more than $1.5 million.

The payment for those damages were due on April 15, 2018, but according to a court order on May 18, 2018, the damages were yet to be paid by Marty Jackley’s DCI and a proposal was offered to instead make the payment “in early June.” A judge is now ordering the DCI Director to appear in court as a result of the proposed delay.

“At the very least, Marty Jackley’s delay shows a blatant disregard for the needs of victims,” said Justin Brasell, Kristi for Governor Campaign Manager. “At the most, it shows he’s willing to manipulate victims and the criminal justice system for his own political purposes. There are questions this revelation draws, and they need to be answered.”

Jackley Finishes First in SD Fundraising Race

PIERRE, SD: The Jackley for Governor campaign announced today that it has outraised the Noem for Governor campaign in the race for South Dakota contributions.

“This is a campaign by South Dakotans for South Dakotans, and the numbers prove it,” said Jackley for Governor campaign manager Jason Glodt. “During the pre-primary season, 97 percent of our contributions came from right here in South Dakota, while Congresswoman Noem received more than $100,000 from out-of-state PACs and individuals who won’t be voting in the primary.”

Final campaign finance reports in the Republican primary reveal Attorney General Marty Jackley has outraised Congresswoman Noem by over $163,000 since she announced her candidacy in November 2016.

“In the past five months people in Florida gave more money to the Congresswoman than 11 of the largest counties in South Dakota,” Glodt said. “Marty’s focus is winning support in South Dakota, not Miami.”

Despite the Congresswoman’s transfer of nearly $1.2 million from out-of-state PACs to her campaign for governor, Jackley’s strong grassroots support has significantly closed the cash-on-hand gap. He outraised Noem in all but three of the largest counties in the state.

“This is a story of two very different campaigns,” Glodt said. “Team Jackley is beholden to no one except South Dakota voters, and we’re grateful to all the supporters who launched Marty into first place when it comes to South Dakota fundraising.”

Speaking of the American Liberty Network, which is operating out of a UPS store mailbox, apparently they’re also using another state political action committee besides Chip Campbell’s to try to influence elections:

The group has filed papers in the state:

Sd Liberty network PAC by Pat Powers on Scribd

…where it appears they’re also putting money into the Russell AG Campaign.

Given the fluorescent postcard MO, I would not find myself shocked if they were affiliated with the SD Gun Owners group.

I received a text this morning:

I just received a slickly produced campaign piece soliciting my vote for (my committeeman opponent). It was paid for by Republican Direction PAC!  Since when does GOP get involved in primaries?

I verified, and had to let my correspondent know it’s not a Republican PAC.  And I’m sure the confusion is only starting.  Outgoing Republican State Representative Chip Campbell has apparently formed a political action committee and has called it the deceptively named “Republican Direction PAC” which has jumped into the GOP’s State Committeeman and Committeewoman races:

CHIP_PAC by Pat Powers on Scribd

Campbell’s group has jumped into over 50 delegate, precinct committeeman & committeewoman elections, and according to the campaign finance disclosure is sending out postcards, such as this one with Campbell endorsing a candidate:

(I might dispute the slickly produced comment. But it takes an even more bizarre turn from here.

Apparently, at least one of the people on the list being supported (last two pages of the pdf, btw) received the card endorsing them, and had never had any communication with the group.  And whomever produced a misspelled mail piece & took the person’s photo off of their Facebook page without permission!

Noticing that at least one of the photos on the piece is a SD Tourism photo being used without the required SD Tourism photo credit, I’m not surprised.

But getting back to Campbell’s group that’s trying to appropriate the Republican name.. where did Campbell get the money to blast mail out to 50+ precinct races?  According to the PAC filing, he’s raked in $10,000 for his purposes from a Washington DC group, similar to how Rick Weiland’s organization pulls in money for ballot measures:

The American Liberty Network seems to be a recently formed organization that claims non-profit status for itself.  In case you’d like to visit the American Liberty Network office building at 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE…

Yep. The Washington DC non-profit that sent Chip $10,000 to take over South Dakota precinct people positions? The donor operates out of a mailbox at the UPS Store in DC.

In fact, if you try to do a search for this group which claims non-profit status at the Guidestar website.. you come up with a big goose egg.   I suspect it’s simply new enough that they haven’t filed with the IRS. But, it still leaves us with more questions than answers in terms of campaign finance disclosure.

What don’t we know? Who is actually behind the curtain of the “American Liberty Network” and feels so strongly in Washington DC that they’ve kicked in $10,000 to providing the funding behind the bizarre election effort for South Dakota precinct committee people that some of them probably didn’t ask for in the first place.

Stay tuned for more.