Bluestem Prairie

NRDC report: ‘neonics,’ pesticides with harmful environmental effects, common in MN waterways

On Tuesday, I posted MN Environmental Quality Board releases 2024 Minnesota State Agency Pollinator Report. One of the factors mentioned in the report is the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which kill insects, including pollinators.

One indication of the presence of neonics in Minnesota? Neonic Pesticides in Minnesota Water: Their Contamination of and Threats
to the State’s Aquatic Ecosystems, a report from the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council. The report focuses on the effect of neonics on aquatic life.

With the changes in the Minnesota House Agriculture committee chairs in the coming session, I'm curious whether this report might have any consequences for law making that governs the use of pesticides in farming,

At the Minnesota Reformer, Madison McVan takes a look at the report in the article republished below.

‘Neonics,’ pesticides with harmful environmental effects, are common in Minnesota waterways
by Madison McVan

A common pesticide coating on corn and soybean seeds has leached into Minnesota waterways, threatening pollinators and aquatic ecosystems, according to a report released this week by the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.

Neonicotinoid pesticides, or “neonics,” are a group of insecticides that kill pests like aphids — but can also devastate bee colonies and aquatic insects, leading to a chain of negative effects in the polluted ecosystem. 

The NRDC report, written by Pierre Mineau, a research scientist who worked for the Canadian government and teaches at Canada’s Carleton University, found that most Minnesota waterways have some amount of neonic pollution. 

Using sampling data from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Mineau found that over a 12-year period, 95% of flowing-water sites had at least one neonic chemical, and 87% of the sites showed a mixture of two or more neonic chemicals. 

“Where neonics were found, they appeared in most cases at concentrations expected to do biological harm,” Mineau wrote. 

Ninety percent of neonic pollution in Minnesota comes from agricultural uses.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture considers two common neonicotinoids — clothianidin and imidacloprid — “surface water pesticides of concern.” The department encourages the adoption of “best management practices” for those two neonicotinoids, including rotating neonics with other types of insecticides and using the lowest effective amount of the pesticide.

Some U.S. states, and the European Union, have banned or severely limited some of the most common neonics. 

Farm groups have opposed attempts to rein in the use of neonics. When the New York state legislature passed a bill banning neonicotinoid-coated seeds last year, the state Farm Bureau called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto the bill. (She did not.)

“Seeds treated with neonicotinoids were designed to be safer and reduce pesticide use…we believe the end result of this ban will force farms to revert back to spraying greater amounts of older pesticides as well as increasing tillage to combat harmful pests, releasing more carbon in the soil and increasing the likelihood of soil erosion,” New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher said.

I mbed a copy of the report itself below.

Neonic Pesticides in Minnesota Water: Their Contamination of and Threats to the State’s Aquatic Ecosystems  uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

The Minnesota Reformer article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Screenshot: The cover of the NRDC report

Related posts

• Commentary: Seeds treated with neonics are bad for bees, the environment and human health
• In ag omnibus bill, Minnesota is not quite so poised to lead an environmental breakthrough 
• House enviro omnibus bill centers "the people, & the land, & the water & the wildlife of MN"
• Pollinator protection bills heard today in the Minnesota House Agriculture Committee at 1PM 
• MN House Republicans abjectly fail to protect pesticides from radical pollinator-hugging leftists
• Update: MNHouse GOP fails to replace pesticide industry interests over local control
• MN Pollution Control Agency makes 2nd request for comments on waste treated seed rules
• Omnibus environment bill aims to ‘correct past wrongs, prepare for future,’ committee chair says 
• MNHouse Ag Committee approves proposed rules for disposal of pesticide-treated crop seeds
• Though court strikes down EPA chlorpyrifos ban for farmers, product still illegal on MN state lands 
• See it in the Strib: the silence of Corn Growers about deer exposure to neonicotinoids
• Preliminary results from pesticide study show widespread neonic exposure in wild MN deer.
• Study shows endocrine-disrupting imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid, messes up does and fawns.
• South Dakota News Watch: study shows neonics a danger to deer, pheasant study results soon 
• South Dakota study on neonicotinoids' effects on whitetails prompts MNDNR deer spleen request.
• LCCMR funded scholars studied the impact of neonicotinoids on surface and groundwater
• Large study finds neonicotinoids push honeybee hives over the edge; pesticide makers polish turd  
• EPA cancels registration of 12 neonicotinoid products from Bayer, Syngenta & Valent 

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

[VIDEO] Noem budget includes cuts; also new school-choice program & more prison money

This afternoon, I watched Governor Noem's budget address. No outrageous flamethrowing, though I was surprised by the proposed cuts to SDPB, which provides coverage of the state legislature.

UPDATE: At the South Dakota Searchlight, Makenzie Huber takes more nuancedlook in Noem proposes school choice program to ‘prioritize education.’ Critics say it’ll undermine it. [end uptake]

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader has published the transcript of the speech here: Read Gov. Kristi Noem's full 2024 budget address here.

And the South Dakota Searchlight covered it in the article below. 

Noem budget includes cuts, but also new school-choice program and more prison money
by Joshua Haiar

PIERRE — South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem proposed a leaner state budget Tuesday with a small increase for schools and cuts to some departments and programs, yet with new money to create a school-choice program and continued contributions to a prison construction fund.

In her fiscal year 2026 budget address, Noem outlined a $7.29 billion spending plan, which would be a reduction of about $20 million, or 0.27%, compared to the current fiscal year budget of $7.31 billion. The reduction is driven primarily by lower-than-expected sales tax collections.

“We’re going to have to make some tough decisions to deliver the 136th consecutive balanced budget for South Dakota,” Noem said.

Noem delivered her speech to lawmakers in the state House of Representatives chamber at the Capitol. Legislators will take her proposals into consideration next month when they gather for their annual lawmaking session. 

Noem is expected to resign as soon as late January to accept an appointment as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, if she’s confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden would then take over as governor and appoint a new lieutenant governor.

School choice and public education funding

The governor proposed the creation of a $4 million education savings account program, which she said would offer $3,000 per student toward private school tuition or alternative education curricula. 

She said the money would not cut into public school funding.

“Public schools are very important to our state’s educational future,” Noem said.

Yet she proposed only a 1.25% increase in funding for public education, health care providers and state employees. 

Noem said she and legislators have provided 27.9% worth of inflationary increases for those “big three” parts of the state budget since she took office, while inflation during that time has been 24.9%

But this year’s proposed increase would fall short of the current 3.25% inflation rate reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Incoming House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish, praised the governor’s support for education savings accounts.

“This could be a game-changer for education in South Dakota,” he said.

Speaking after the speech to South Dakota Public Broadcasting, which carried the speech live, incoming Senate Minority Leader Liz Larson, D-Sioux Falls, expressed skepticism.

“One of our core beliefs as Democrats is that we protect public education,” Larson said. “So we would need to make sure those types of programs are not a slippery slope leading to less investment in our public schools.

Cuts

Noem proposed nearly $72 million in “reductions and discretionary changes,” many of which are cuts to state departments and programs. 

Those include $38 million in combined reductions for the Department of Social Services and the Department of Human Services. 

“They have been reverting money for years at the end of the fiscal year, and it’s time we right-size these budgets,” Noem said.

Other proposed cuts include a $17 million reduction in maintenance and repairs of state property, and a $5.3 million reduction for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which is designed to provide assistance and build economic self-sufficiency for children and families. 

Noem also wants to cut $3.6 million from South Dakota Public Broadcasting and $2 million from the Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s public universities.

“We must consult our means rather than our wishes,” Noem said, quoting President George Washington.

Incoming House Assistant Minority Leader Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls, expressed concerns about cuts to social programs. 

“We need to understand how these cuts will impact the most vulnerable people in our state,” he said. 

While he applauded Noem’s proposal of $10 million to help schools make safety upgrades and improvements, he questioned the necessity of her proposed 12% budget reserve. 

“Today is a starting point,” Smith said. “And there are things we can work together on, but we need to closely examine areas where the most vulnerable might be affected.”

South Dakota Public Broadcasting, which relies on the state for part of its funding and the nonprofit Friends of SDPB for additional funding, issued a statement Tuesday saying Noem’s proposal would be a 65% decrease to the organization’s state budget allocation.

The organization highlighted the importance of its online, radio and television coverage of topics including high school sports, fine arts, education, public policy and the Legislature.

“A cut of this size and scale will force significant reductions to all these important services,” SDPB said in a statement. “This cut is likely to disproportionately affect rural service, where SDPB’s programming is most valued.”

Prison money

Noem proposed putting $182 million in a fund to build a new state prison south of Sioux Falls, which would largely replace the antiquated Sioux Falls penitentiary, parts of which date to 1881.

The state has already set aside $567 million for the project, which is expected to cost $825 million. Noem said the state expects $76 million in interest earnings from the prison fund. The interest and the proposed $182 million would fully fund the project, she said.

The prison location and price have been controversial, and Odenbach said he expects significant lawmaker attention to the project.

“We’re going to have a lot of discussions about this,” he said. 

Unclaimed property record

The budget will receive a boost from a record-setting $229 million in unclaimed property revenue, exceeding last year’s historic haul. 

That money comes from an array of abandoned or forgotten private assets, including bank accounts, stocks, life insurance payouts, uncashed checks and the contents of safe deposit boxes. The holders of the money or items — such as banks, including some large ones chartered in South Dakota due to the state’s favorable finance laws — try to find the owners. But after three years of dormancy, the property reverts to the state.

Noem proposed reserving $43 million of unclaimed property revenue for potential claims from people seeking to recover their money. The state Treasurer’s Office maintains a list and makes efforts to help people reclaim the money. 

“This money belongs to the people, and we must be ready to pay it back when those claims come in,” Noem said.

Sunsetting sales tax reduction

During the 2023 legislative session, when the state was flush with federal pandemic relief and stimulus funding, lawmakers temporarily reduced the state sales tax rate from 4.5% to 4.2%, with a sunset in 2027.

Noem appeared to call for that reduction to be made permanent.

“Our people deserve better than a temporary sales tax holiday,” she said.

Other spending

Among other highlights, the governor noted that the state faces $86 million in mandatory ongoing spending increases, mostly due to the joint federal-state Medicaid program that provides health care for people with low incomes.

She also proposed $1.2 million in additional ongoing funding for regional mental health facilities, and a $1.5 million investment in Agency with Choice, a Department of Human Services program that families use to choose companion care, respite care, personal care or supported employment services for people with developmental disabilities.

To continue work on replacing the Richmond Dam at the state Richmond Lake Recreation Area near Aberdeen, the governor proposed $13 million.

Here's SDPB's livestream of the speech, along with some after-speech analysis:

Photo: Gov. Kristi Noem delivers the fiscal year 2026 budget address at the Capitol in Pierre on Dec. 3, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight).

The South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

MN Environmental Quality Board releases 2024 Minnesota State Agency Pollinator Report

Bluestem Prairie has long been concerned about native pollinator populations in Minnesota and Northeast South Dakota.

In Tuesday's email, I received notice of the MN Environment Quality Board's latest publication:

We are happy to announce that the 2024 Minnesota State Agency Pollinator Report is now available! The interagency pollinator protection team updated the scorecards to communicate the progress we are making toward our pollinator protection goals. Additionally, the report includes pollinator-related action highlights from state agencies, and a section on new findings from pollinator-related research.

Visit our pollinator webpage to learn more and download a copy.

Dasly, not all of the findings are positive for the Minnesota State Bee, the Rusty Patched Bumblebee, Monarch butterflies, and the Dakota skipper butterfly (which still survives here on the Lake Traverse Reservation).

Check out the details and scorecards in the report embedded below:

2024 Minnesota State Agency Pollinator Report uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

Photo: A Rusty-Patched Bumblebee, Minnesota's endangered state bee.

Related posts

• Pollinator Day at the Minnesota State Fair--and more buzz about Lawns to Legumes pathways
• South Dakota & nation's bee colony loss at ‘unsustainable’ rate hurts ag, consumers
• Rep. Rick Hansen & Mason Sargent: Minnesota making progress in protecting pollinators
• House ag committee approves bill that would let cities regulate use of some pesticides 
• O! my! Minnesota's #Lawns2Legumes makes Live Your Best Life list in Oprah Magazine
• Lawns to Legumes program earned great media for MN; 5 GOP senators want to rob funding
• Pollinator Friendly Alliance: the natural world, enviro policy & bringing back a healthy planet
• Good & bad news for pollinators: a news digest
• Pew Charitable Trusts Stateline looks at Minnesota's bee lawn program national buzz
• VIDEO: Watch Republicans get totally offended by neonic-treated corn & soybean seed tag bill
• VIDEO: MN House Enviro Finance endorses $7 million in funding for Clean Water Fund projects
• Background reading on the buzz: here's the study discussed in MPR's "Bee Proud" story
• Surprise invite to SWO Dakota skipper prairie demonstrates MN Zoo's conservation work
• Heintzeman: Democratic messaging is a plot to secretly fund "Lawns to Legumes" program 
• Press Release: MN BWSR awards over 1000 Lawns to Legumes Individual Support grants
• Lawns to Legumes program earned great media for MN; 5 GOP senators want to rob funding
• Minnesotans, your yard can BEE the change: BWSR taking Lawns to Legumes requests 

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

A different boarding school story: press release from the Hillcrest Survivors Steering Committee

Bluestem has posted about the genocidal consequences of forced boarding schools on my Dakota neighbors.

Recently, I learned that another neighbor in nearby Marvin, South Dakota, had lived through another boarding school trauma as the child of missionaries in Africa, though one that didn't have the scale of destruction nor cultural genocidal implications and motives of North American indigenous boarding schools.

He's part of the Hillcrest Survivors Steering Committee. On Sunday, the SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) issued the press release republished below: Press Release From the Hillcrest Survivors Steering Committee.

There's been some coverage of the Hillcrest history and struggle in the Christian press. In 2023, The Christian Century's Dawn Araujo-Hawkins reported in Surviving Hillcrest:

Letta Cartlidge created a group for missionary kids who’d attended her boarding school in Jos, Nigeria. The stories of abuse poured in.

It was on a Friday in spring 2021 that Letta Cartlidge decided she had seen enough.

In her backyard in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, a stack of bangles on her arm and an oversized cardigan draped around her shoulders, Cartlidge explained to the Century how on April 15, 2021, James McDowell, a former principal at Hillcrest—a boarding school primarily for the children of missionaries in Jos, Nigeria—admitted in a private Facebook group for Hillcrest alumni that he had “molested” two students during his tenure.

In his post, McDowell, who was at Hillcrest from 1974 to 1984, said he’d already apologized to the two students and offered restitution. But he also wanted to apologize to the wider Hillcrest community for “this breach of trust which these days is considered criminal.”

As Cartlidge, a 1992 graduate of Hillcrest, watched reactions to McDowell’s post pour in, she estimated that about 30 percent of the people who commented were either angry or used it as an opportunity to share their own stories of abuse by other Hillcrest staff. The other 70 percent called McDowell brave for coming forward and assured him of God’s grace.

It was when the 70 percent began verbally attacking the 30 percent that Cartlidge knew she had to do something. The next day, she created a new Facebook group—Hillcrest Survivors—where people who’d had a negative experience at the school, herself among them, could speak freely and begin to process what had happened to them.

By fall 2022, Cartlidge’s Facebook group had 236 members. Perhaps more significantly, it had launched a nine-member steering committee that has started lobbying Hillcrest leadership for a professional, independent investigation of several decades worth of sexual, physical, and religious abuse allegations. . ..

Earlier that year, the editors explored The uncomfortable truth about Hillcrest: How missionary work can create the conditions for child abuse to thrive unchecked.

In August 2022, Christianity Today's Rebecca Hopkins reported in Mission Schools Sexual Abuse Suit Dismissed on Technicality:

North Carolina judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging a missionary agency was responsible for abuse at a boarding school in Nigeria, ruling the statute of limitations in Nigeria prevents him from hearing the case.

“It was a gut punch—building yourself up for things, hoping, hoping, hoping, then having the rug pulled out from under you at the very last moment,” plaintiff Daniel Robinson, the son of Canadian missionaries, told CT.

The suit against SIM—formerly known as Soudan Interior Mission, Sudan Interior Mission, and Society for International Ministries—claims that seven employees at two schools in Jos and Miango, Nigeria, sexually abused children as young as five. The abuse reportedly went on from 1962 to 1981. . . .

[ Daniel Robinson] believed for a long time that he was one of only a couple of people who suffered abuse at Hillcrest School until he found a Facebook group called Hillcrest Survivors. It currently has 227 members.

“I would like to make personally sure that none of the things that ever happened to me and my fellow victims can ever happen to anybody ever again,” Robinson said.

The people accused of abuse include James McDowell, a principal of the Hillcrest school who reportedly confessed last year to “molesting two students.” The official Hillcrest School Facebook group posted a letter from the school quoting the confession in April 2021. McDowell did not return an email from CT seeking comment.

Others named in the lawsuit include a dorm supervisor, dining hall employee, and four more employees. Some of them have passed away. CT was unable to reach the others.

The suit tells stories of abusers sexually assaulting children in the dorms, in cars, and in bathrooms. Survivors say they were given alcohol in some cases, and in others they were told the authorities were just “inspecting” their private parts after showers. . . .

Here's the Press Release From the Hillcrest Survivors Steering Committee 2 - Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests:

Investigation into boarding school abuse is set

Church agencies reach funding deal with survivors

Both liberal and evangelical Protestant groups are involved

Survivors set precedent, command seat at the table

For almost four years, dozens of adults have lobbied over 15 church agencies to investigate the sexual, physical, racial, psychological and spiritual abuse they say they suffered as kids at a Christian boarding school in Africa.

Now, finally, their efforts seem to be paying off. Eight religious groups that sent missionaries to Hillcrest have agreed to fund and cooperate with an independent probe into the alleged abuse at the school from its founding in 1942 until the present.

"This hard-won commitment means that decades of crimes and cover ups by church staff, volunteers and supervisors will be fully and finally examined and exposed - not by biased church insiders but by credible outside investigators," said Letta Cartlidge of Colorado, who was abused at the facility in the ’80s and early ’90s. "It's been a very long, tough road but now, we have real hope that the horrors so many of us endured will be brought to the surface."

While there are no official estimates of the number of youngsters who were violated over the past eight decades at Hillcrest, the Hillcrest Survivors Steering Committee (HSSC) surmises there could be many hundreds of victims. Although the school was founded to teach children of missionaries, over the decades more than 6,000 children have attended Hillcrest from over 40 different countries around the world. The HSSC has taken dozens of reports from people who say they were hurt at the school, some of whom are as old as 80. And the committee has identified about 50 credibly accused perpetrators of abuse there.

"Those of us who were victimized and are still suffering should never have had to fight so long and hard for this simple, long-overdue step forward," said Nathan Mueller of South Dakota, who attended the facility in the late ’70s. "But I'm confident that this investigation will shed sorely-needed light on long-buried abuse and deter other church officials from ignoring or concealing crimes against kids in the future."

"Survivors of Hillcrest need and deserve comfort, closure, healing and validation," said Dale Gilliland of California, who was abused at the boarding school in the ’60s. "Nothing these mission bodies can do now can give us back our innocence and our childhoods. But they can - and should - investigate, publicize this widespread wrongdoing and compensate those of us who have been so egregiously hurt."

HSSC members have been at the center of writing the proposal for the investigation, selecting the independent investigator and negotiating the final contracts between the missions and the school with Victor Vieth of the Minnesota-based non-profit Zero Abuse Project.

The HSSC has also chosen as their advocate Grace Stewart with Accord, LLC, a firm based in West Virginia. Stewart will be available throughout the investigation to help victim-survivors navigate their pain, supplying resources and support.The missions will pay for her services.

"We're very disappointed these groups refused to join in supporting the investigation. At Hillcrest we were told we were a family. In fact, off campus, we called our teachers and administrators 'Uncle' and 'Auntie.' Today we hear a different story from the missions, 'None of OUR kids were hurt so no need for us to be involved.' To that I say, we are ALL your children," says Cartlidge. "We hope that good Christians across the US, Canada, and Europe, especially those who donate to these organizations, speak to their leaders and press them to embrace the survivors of Hillcrest who were violated at the hands of their very own missionaries. We say to you, do as the Good Samaritan, be compelled by compassion and bind up our trauma so that through truth and justice we may find healing."

The HSCC expects the actual investigation to begin December 2, 2024.

Hillcrest Survivors Steering Committee

*Letta Cartlidge, President
[email protected]
303.505.9141
Denver, CO

Nathan Mueller, Vice
605.237.2108
Marvin, SD

Hillcrest School
Dele Alabi, Superintendent
[email protected]
WhatsApp number: +234 803 472 0174
Jos, Nigeria

John Brown, Chairman of the Hillcrest Board of Governors
Jos, Nigeria
[email protected]

MISSIONS WHO SIGNED

North American Baptists Conference NAB
Harry Kelm, Executive Director
Roseville, CA
[email protected]
916.783.1524

Pioneers UK
Stephen Carling, Director
+44 (0) 1302 710 750 Mobile, +44 (0) 7533 062 584
[email protected]

Graeme Simpson, Deputy Director
[email protected]
Doncaster, UK
01302 710 750

Global Resonate Mission (Christian Reform Church CRC)
Kevin deRaaf, Director
[email protected]
(905) 336-2920
Burlington, ON. Canada

Evangelical Lutheran Church of America ELCA
Khader El-Yateem, Executive Director of ELCA Service & Justice
Chicago, IL

Church of the Brethren Mission
David Steele, General Secretary
[email protected]
Elgin, IL

Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada EMCC
John Cressman, President
Kitchener, ON Canada

SIM Nigeria
Tom Jessurun, Director
[email protected]

General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church UMC
Roland Fernandes, General Secretary
Atlanta, GA

MISSIONS WHO DID NOT SIGN

*Southern Baptist Convention SBC
Paul Chitwood, President of the International Mission Board IMB
804.353.0151
Richmond, VA

Somer Novak
Director of Abuse Prevention and Response Administration of the IMB,
[email protected]
m.804.219.1261 | c.804.814.0790

*Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod LCMS
Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, President
[email protected]
Staff switchboard: 800-248-1930
St. Louis, MO

*SIM USA
Randy Fairman, Director
[email protected]
704.588.4300
Charlotte, NC

*SIM International
Phil Bauman, Director
803.802.7300
Fort Mill, SC

*SIM Australia
Malcolm Watts, National Director
Tel: +61 2 9580 1422
1300 746 580 / 02 9580 1422
Penhurst NSW 2222, Australia

Wycliffe Bible Translators
John Chiu, Executive Advisor
407.852.3600 : main office
Orlando, Florida

Summer Institute of Linguistics SIL
John Chiu, Director of Human Resources Responses
[email protected]
972.708.7400 : main office Dallas, TX

Mission Afrika (Danish Lutheran)
Daniel Toft Jakobsen, Secretary General
[email protected]
+45 8672 5050
Viaduktvej 5a, 8260 Viby J, Denmark

Assemblies of God AG World Missions
Kevin Donaldson, COO of AG World Missions
[email protected]
417-862-2781
417-862-3420
Springfield, MO

Investigative agency: https://ZeroAbuseProject.org/

Advocacy agency: https://www.accord.llc/

Bluestem hopes all religious groups agree to fund a probe into the allegations.

Photo: The grounds at Hillcrest, a boarding school in Jos, Nigeria (Photo courtesy of the Hillcrest Survivors steering committee/ Via Christianity Century).

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

 

Processing wild game still a challenge for South Dakota hunters

In the past, I've posted about the need to develop local meat processing capacity for Minnesota farmers. 

Another dimension of the shortage of this skilled labor and facilities is game processing.

In the article republished below, South Dakota News Watch's Bart Pfankuch take a look at this issue.

Processing wild game still a challenge for South Dakota hunters
by Bart Pfankuch, South Dakota Newswatch

PIEDMONT, S.D. – Earlier this year, well before big-game hunting season began in South Dakota, Josh Clark invested time and money into expanding his wild-game processing capabilities to take advantage of high demand for the service.

As the number of commercial and self-employed meat cutters willing to process wild game in South Dakota has dwindled, Clark saw an opportunity in 2024 to profit off the trend at Cutting Edge Meat Market in Piedmont, where he is the manager.

Prior to hunting season, he added another skinning station, expanded capacity to hang and move animals and created more refrigeration space. He also did some summer advertising to let hunters know he is still taking in deer, elk and other large animal carcasses for full-service processing into steak, burgers and sausages.

“I don’t know if it’s just the lack of processors still out there, but we're up 30% to 40% over last year in terms of animal drop-offs,” Clark told News Watch last week. “We’re slammed right now.”

Clark said he recently contacted several other West River meat shops and found that no one he spoke to is taking in whole deer or other game for processing.

Butchers who still take full deer carcasses said other processors who no longer take wild game or require it to be deboned first may be facing worker shortages, have higher expenses that cut into profitability or simply do not want the hassle of dealing with wild game processing that often occurs one customer with one animal at a time and creates a mad rush of business each fall.

The month of November – the heart of the deer hunting season in South Dakota – is always busy for butchers who process wild game, as hunters bring in tens of thousands of deer and antelope shot with rifles or bow and arrow. In 2023, South Dakota hunters killed about 49,000 deer, roughly 2,800 antelope and 114 elk, according to the state.

Clark said prior News Watch coverage of the processor shortage generated even more business for him, including from Custer State Park, where officials shipped him some buffaloes for processing after culling park animals after the annual Buffalo Roundup.

South Dakota butchers exiting wild game market

Some butcher shops have closed or shifted focus away from wild game, while others no longer take any game animals, and a few will only process wild meat that is already skinned and deboned by the customer.

Whereas commercial livestock producers schedule delivery of animals to be slaughtered and butchered during normal work hours and with several animals at once, big game hunters usually arrive at butcher shops with one or two animals at whatever time of day they happen to make a kill.

Paul Sorum, co-owner of Renner Corner Meats, about 10 miles north of Sioux Falls, said his shop usually processes about 1,000 deer and other big-game carcasses a year. Sorum said he feels a strong commitment to helping hunters have a place to take full carcasses. But he also wants to continue taking whole animals as a way to maintain the South Dakota hunting economy and to uphold conservation goals.

“If it weren’t for the hunters, we’d have an overabundance of deer that are not easy on crops, not to mention the damage they do to vehicles (when struck),” he said.

The shortage of wild-game processors has been a boon to Sorum’s bottom line in the fall. He’s now taking in a lot of deer from western Minnesota and has had elk, moose, caribou, bear and antelope shipped in from other states for processing in Renner.

One concern is that if hunters who lack the skills or equipment to skin, quarter and debone carcasses on their own can't find a processor willing to take a whole carcass, the animals could be dumped in the garbage or left to rot in the field. Some hunters may choose to give up hunting if they know in advance they won't be able to get a full animal carcass processed.

“The deer hunters, they need a place to take their animals to be processed correctly and to know they’re going to get a great product, so we still provide that service because there’s not that many of us out there,” Sorum said. “It’s a busy time, and it’s difficult work, but I have a great staff and we get through it.”

Hunters can donate animals to charity

Hunters who want to donate the meat from a deer or antelope to charitable food pantries across the state can work with South Dakota Sportsmen Against Hunger.  Under the program, hunters with animals can contact one of roughly two dozen butchers in South Dakota and drop off an animal carcass or deboned meat for full processing. In most cases, the participating butcher shops assume the cost of processing female animals, while donating a buck typically results in the hunter paying the processing fee.

Some of the butchers enrolled in the program require that the animal be skinned and deboned before being dropped off for processing, and the program does nothing to help hunters who want to eat the wild game meat from animals they have killed.

The wild game processing industry is not overseen or regulated by the state Game, Fish & Parks Department, which manages state hunting seasons, though butcher shops are subject to regular inspection by state and federal regulators. GFP spokesman Nick Harrington sent an email to News Watch in 2023 saying the department "is currently not seeing a lack of game processors acting as a barrier to hunters participating in the sport."

"Conversely, applications for many big game seasons including deer and elk are either holding steady or gradually rising each year," Harrington wrote. "There are some big-game hunters who utilize processors, while others process themselves. This is each individual hunter’s choice and personal preference."

Home-based butchers help fill the need

The commercial butcher shops that handle wild game have long been bolstered by a network of small, home-based meat processors who take animals killed in the fall. However, those processors are also dropping out of the industry or slowing down due to age, increasing volumes or burnout.

But some home-based butchers continue to provide the service of processing wild game from carcass to usable meat portions wrapped in butcher paper, though they often can only be found through word-of-mouth connections.

Rex Roseland and his wife, Cheryl, have processed wild game at their home north of Rapid City for decades, but they've seen demand for processing rise in recent years.

“When you get swamped, it just takes time to get caught up,” Rex Roseland told News Watch in 2023. “We get a lot of people from previous years, and they keep coming back. But every year it seems like we pick up more people.”

Cheryl Roseland said they enjoy the work and want to help hunters out, but it’s getting harder to handle the increasing flow of animals being brought in.

“We’ve heard from people who are saying, ‘Help us because we can’t find anyplace that will take it,’” she said. “But the thing is, while we can do it, do we have room to add another animal? We will take overflow when we can, but we’re overflowing ourselves out here.”

This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit news organization. Read more in-depth stories at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email every few days to get stories as soon as they're published. Contact Bart Pfankuch at [email protected].

Photo:  Skinned deer carcasses hang in a cooler at Cutting Edge Meat Market in Piedmont, S.D., in November 2023, one of the few remaining butcher shops in the Black Hills that still takes whole deer and other big game for processing. (Photo: Bart Pfankuch / South Dakota News Watch).

This article is republished under a Creative Commons license.

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Commentary: SD Governor Kristi Noem rides back to D.C., possibly eyeing a bigger prize

Sharp commentary from veteran South Dakota newsman Kevin Woster.

Via the South Dakota Searchlight.

Noem rides back to D.C., possibly eyeing a bigger prize
by Kevin Woster

ome obvious questions come to mind in considering Gov. Kristi Noem’s selection to lead the Department of Homeland Security in Donald Trump’s next administration.

Will the ghost of Cricket — the 14-month old German wirehaired pointer Noem shot and killed in an apparent fit of anger over the dog’s behavior — haunt her confirmation process? And will the hapless goat she blasted on the same day she executed Cricket bleat its way into the discussion?

Will Noem’s nomination be troubled by her questionable leadership during flooding last spring at McCook Lake in southeast South Dakota? The Federal Emergency Management Agency is part of Homeland Security, after all. And during the emergency at McCook Lake, Noem managed things by hustling back and forth between South Dakota and national political events in other states.

A former two-term state legislator and four-term member of the U.S. House, Noem seemed to be on a reasonably conservative road to some House leadership spot when she decided to run for governor. After making history as South Dakota’s first female governor, she is halfway through her second term and seems to be on her way to a cabinet-level position that she claims was the one she really wanted.

Who knows? Maybe that’s true. In the last couple of years she has seemed obsessed with what she relentlessly called the “war zone” at the southern border, and she expressed it in Trump-like rhetoric that the supreme leader of her party surely loved and encouraged.

She went to the border. She flew above it in a helicopter. She rode on it in an air boat. She sent Army National Guard soldiers multiple times there to assist in security and border-wall work. And wearing jeans, boots, a work shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a hard hat, she helped Guard members erect some barrier sections herself.

Could she have done all of that with the Homeland Security job in mind? Could she have been that crafty and strategic, possibly with guidance from advisers like Corey Lewandowski? Could she have even made her designs on the Homeland Security job clear to Trump months ago, and reached some quiet understanding?

Or was it just a happy coincidence for Noem that all of that posturing and hyperbolic rhetoric about the border put her in the perfect position for what now seems to be her dream job — as opposed, it seems, to the one South Dakota voters gave her.

When it comes to politics, I never sell Noem short. As for running a 260,000-employee, multi-agency department with a mind-numbing assortment of challenges and life-and-death security duties? Well, I’m not sure about that.

But I am pretty sure that if she gets confirmed, we’ll see her in a video clip on horseback along the southern border by summer.

Photo: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem visits National Guard troops in May 2024 on the Texas border with Mexico. (Courtesy of the Governor’s Office).

This South Dakota Searchlight commentary is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 

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Federal court case in North Dakota calls national environmental review regime into question

South Dakota is among the 21 Republican-led states that seek to overturn nearly five decades of environmental regulations affecting infrastructure projects.

From the North Dakota Monitor.

Court case in North Dakota calls federal environmental review regime into question
by Mary Steurer

A lawsuit before a North Dakota federal district court could upend nearly five decades of environmental regulations affecting infrastructure projects.

The Council on Environmental Quality was created through an executive order by President Richard Nixon in 1969. It implements the National Environmental Policy Act, which directs federal agencies to assess how projects under their jurisdiction will impact environmental factors like air and water quality.

A coalition of 21 Republican-led states, including North Dakota, seeks to overturn a new regulation adopted by the council that took effect in July. The states argue that the rule introduces unreasonable requirements that will slow or even sink important infrastructure including new highways, airports, bridges and water systems, and unlawfully over-emphasizes climate change and environmental justice in the environmental review process.

In a lawsuit filed in May, the states asked the court to strike down the rule, direct the council to adopt regulations consistent with federal law and reinstate a weaker version the agency enacted during President Donald Trump’s administration in 2020.

A group of 13 other states, plus the District of Columbia, New York City and a handful of advocacy groups, have joined the case on the side of the Council on Environmental Quality. The defendants argue the agency’s work is vital to protect the environment and public health, and that the 2024 rule should be left in place.

It’s possible that neither side will get what it wants. In a hearing earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor said the Council on Environmental Quality’s entire regulatory regime may be unlawful.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found in a November order that the agency does not have rulemaking authority because Congress never explicitly granted it the power to implement the National Environmental Review Act. The appellate court did not strike down any of the council’s regulations, leaving it up to other courts to decide whether the rules should stand.

Traynor questioned how he could leave the regulations intact given the D.C. court’s findings. He said if he were to apply the court’s reasoning to the North Dakota case, he may conclude that all National Environmental Policy Act regulations passed by the council are void. The council issued its first rule implementing the act in 1978.

“If they have no authority, they have no authority,” Traynor said of the council. “It is a paper tiger.”

An attorney representing the Council on Environmental Quality, Gregory Cumming, rebuffed during the hearing the notion that the agency is operating without approval from Congress. The council keeps Congress apprised of its work with annual reports, he noted. If the assembly did not want the agency to pass rules, it could have passed legislation clarifying that stance, Cumming said.

Jan Hasselman — an attorney representing several advocacy groups that joined the case as defendants — said there’s a reason the council’s rulemaking authority has gone unquestioned for almost five decades.

“Nobody benefits when there’s no rules,” he told the judge. “It’s just sort of a mutually assured destruction.”

Traynor voiced skepticism that such a decision would create disarray. Even if the council’s rules disappear, other local and federal regulations would still be intact, he reasoned.

“It’s not like it becomes the wild west,” he said. 

Traynor asked the plaintiffs and defense to prepare legal briefs explaining how they would be impacted if he adopts the D.C. court’s reasoning.

The discussion came as part of a hearing on motions for summary judgment by the plaintiffs and defense. Both sides asked Traynor to decide the case in their favor without going to trial.

James Auslander, an attorney representing the plaintiff states, said the council is unlawfully and arbitrarily infringing on state sovereignty and the new rule will cause them significant economic harm.

“These are critical projects for plaintiff states and our citizens,” Auslander said.

Cumming argued the plaintiff states have not demonstrated that the new rule has actually harmed them, and that many of the components of the rule challenged as cumbersome are guidelines, not requirements.

Traynor took the motions under advisement and has yet to issue a ruling.

The 21 plaintiffs states are Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kentucky, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, South Carolina, Kansas, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Texas and Alaska.

The 13 states that joined the defense as intervenors are California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Wisconsin.

This North Dakota Monitor article is reprinted online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Photo: A bridge constructed in North Dakota in 2021.

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Republicans seek Minnesota House majority through two legal challenges

At the Minnesota Reformer, Michelle Griffith takes up on the DFL Trifecta postmortem that Bluestem last noted in Even Mary Franson got one: Minnesota House committee, division co-chairs announced for 2025-26 legislative biennium.

I'll look forward to learning how the legal challenges play out.

From the Minnesota Reformer.

Republicans seek Minnesota House majority through two legal challenges
by Michelle Griffith

Republicans are contesting two general election results with legal action, hoping to tip the tied 67-67 Minnesota House in their favor. 

On Tuesday, House Republicans announced they intend to file a lawsuit over the election results in House District 54A, which encompasses Shakopee. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Rep. Brad Tabke is leading the race over his GOP opponent Aaron Paul by 15 votes after a recount last week.

House Speaker-designate Rep. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, in a statement said there were “inconsistencies in vote reporting” and “21 missing ballots.” 

“House Republicans are taking action to ensure that every legal vote counts and that the election is decided by the people of District 54A without interference,” Demuth said.

It’s unclear what has caused potential vote count discrepancies. There are a few potential reasons for a discrepancy, and not all of them involve the ballots being missing. For instance, an elections official may have made a mistake on a computer menu option and marked a batch of ballots as “accepted” when they meant to reject them due to signature issues or any of the other reasons a ballot can be rejected. In that case, the ballots would be tallied as “accepted” in the computer system but never actually tabulated as votes because election workers rejected them, creating the discrepancy.

In a statement on Wednesday morning, Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar said the discrepancy appears to be a result of human error.

“The preliminary investigation into the 21-ballot discrepancy hasn’t been determinative thus far, and it appears likely to be the result of human error that occurred during the collection of early absentee ballots at the City of Shakopee. This unfortunate situation resulted in a level of confusion that should not have occurred,” Hocevar said.

The House will be evenly split after the GOP successfully flipped three DFL seats earlier this month. House leaders are currently negotiating a power-sharing agreement, but Republicans are eager to take full control.

In typically safe DFL House District 40B, which includes Roseville and Shoreview, GOP candidate Paul Wikstrom filed an election contest against DFL opponent Curtis Johnson. Earlier this month, Johnson won the race for the House seat by 30 points, but in court filings Wikstrom alleged that Johnson doesn’t live in the district.

House candidates need to be a resident in the House district for which they are running for at least six months before an election. In an affidavit, Wikstrom alleged that Johnson has a Little Canada home he primarily lives in — not in the House district — and rents a Roseville studio apartment in the district to make it appear like he lives there.

Johnson didn’t immediately respond to the Reformer’s request for comment about the allegations disputing his residency.

Wikstrom in his affidavit stated that his campaign created an “investigative team” to monitor Johnson’s whereabouts and alleged that Johnson would regularly come and go from his Little Canada home. He detailed the measures his campaign took to determine whether Johnson lived in the Roseville apartment.

Wikstrom said his team called Xcel Energy and Comcast to see if the Roseville apartment was hooked up to electricity and internet, and they were “given the impression” that the apartment didn’t have accounts set up for either.

One campaign staffer went to the Roseville apartment and saw that the door “was dusty and lacked evidence of any recent activity or markings indicating dust being wiped away from use,” the affidavit states.

Another campaign staffer in October went to Johnson’s Roseville apartment and took photos underneath the door, which ended about an inch above the ground, according to the affidavit. What was visible was bare and didn’t have furniture, according to the affidavit.

Wikstrom said Johnson should be denied his election certificate based on the residency issue. 

Proving a candidate is not a resident can be difficult. The most recent residency challenge was in 2016, when Republican Rep. Bob Barrett was banned from running because he didn’t live in his district.

Photo: The Minnesota Capitol Building. Courtesy of Minnesota House Public Information Services/ via Minnesota Reformer.

This Minnesota Reformer article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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Oh the irony: ethanol carbon pipeline company has failed to address crossing concerns, DAPL oil pipeline company says

Those who've watched pipeline politics and protests in the Dakotas will clearly see the irony of this. 

Can't make it up, as the old folks say.

From the South Dakota Searchlight.

Carbon pipeline company has failed to address crossing concerns, oil pipeline company says
by Joshua Haiar

A company proposing a carbon dioxide pipeline should have conditions on its potential permit after it failed to address concerns about crossings with a crude oil pipeline, said the company that operates the oil pipeline.

Dakota Access LLC, which is controlled by Energy Transfer Partners, operates the Dakota Access Pipeline. It transports crude oil 1,172 miles from North Dakota to Illinois.

Summit Carbon Solutions plans a 2,500-mile pipeline to capture carbon dioxide from 57 ethanol plants across five states and transport it to North Dakota for underground storage. The project would capitalize on federal tax credits incentivizing the prevention of heat-trapping carbon emissions.

The routes of the existing and proposed pipeline cross eastern South Dakota. Summit recently reapplied for a permit after being rejected last year by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.

In a new filing with the commission, Dakota Access said Summit has not provided sufficient details — such as maps, depths and safety measures — about its proposed crossings of the Dakota Access Pipeline, known by the acronym “DAPL.”

“Summit has largely refused to talk to Dakota Access about pipeline crossing agreements and necessary mitigation measures to prevent damage to DAPL,” Dakota Access attorneys wrote. 

To address the concerns, Dakota Access asked for 12 conditions if Summit receives a permit. The conditions include prohibiting heavy equipment or vehicles from operating directly on DAPL’s right-of-way without protective measures, requiring abrasive-resistant coating to be applied to the carbon pipeline at crossings, and mandating that Summit monitor all crossing locations and notify Dakota Access at least 48 hours in advance of any construction activity near DAPL’s right-of-way in South Dakota.

Alternatively, Dakota Access has requested that state regulators delay Summit’s permit proceedings until an agreement on crossing terms is reached. 

Summit Carbon Solutions did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brian Jorde, an attorney for landowners opposing the carbon pipeline, said in a news release that Summit’s failure to work with Dakota Access is problematic.

“The theme has been clear in South Dakota and across the region – Summit does not respect the law, they don’t respect the will of the people, and they think they can force themselves on and through South Dakota,” Jorde said.

Summit already has permits in Iowa and North Dakota. A decision is pending in Minnesota, and Nebraska has no state permitting processing for carbon pipelines.

Photo:  A sign displays the names of South Dakota’s three elected public utilities commissioners outside of their Pierre office in January 2023. (South Dakota Searchlight/Joshua Haiar)

This South Dakota Searchlight story is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 

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Congress may have to ‘put the brakes on’ some uses of presidential power, Thune says

Glad to see Senator Thune showing some grit.

From the South Dakota Searchlight.

Congress may have to ‘put the brakes on’ some uses of presidential power, Thune says
by Makenzie Huber

BRANDON — Incoming U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, signaled Tuesday he’s willing to push back against potential attempts by President-elect Donald Trump to expand presidential power over federal spending.

“Every president is going to come in and try to do as much as they can by executive action as possible,” Thune said. “Congress, in some cases, is going to be the entity that sometimes will have to put the brakes on.”

Thune spoke Tuesday to the Brandon Valley Area Chamber of Commerce and also took questions from reporters. He said Republicans in Congress will work with Trump to achieve shared policy goals.

“The things we want to achieve at present are by and large the same,” Thune said. “How we get there is another matter, and we’ll have to work through that.”

Trump’s pick for his budget director, Russ Vought, served in the same role during the first Trump administration. Vought has since outlined an aggressive vision for presidential power in Project 2025, a 922-page document from the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation.

“The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government.” Vought wrote. “Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.”

Trump has meanwhile tried to assert greater control over the Cabinet selection process, calling for the Senate to recess the chamber early next year so he can appoint whoever he wants without having to go through the confirmation process.

Thune said Tuesday he plans to immediately begin committee hearings on Cabinet nominees when Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025.

That’ll give the Senate a head start vetting Trump’s nominees before his inauguration on Jan. 20. After Trump is sworn in, Thune expects some nominations to quickly hit the floor of the Senate. 

“The committees can’t report them out until the president is officially sworn in and they’re officially nominated,” Thune told the audience Tuesday in Brandon. “But they could do hearings.”

Thune told South Dakota reporters after the event that even though some questions have been raised about nominees, they “deserve a fair process” where senators question them on their background, qualifications and whether they “ought to be in these really important positions.”

Thune said he has not taken recess appointments off the table if Democrats try to obstruct or delay the confirmation of nominees when they reach the Senate floor, “particularly if they’re well regarded and they have bipartisan support.”

Top priorities for Republican senators heading into the new session of Congress, Thune said, include extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and securing the nation’s southern border. 

Thune said he plans to begin drafting a budget reconciliation resolution to push an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, key provisions of which expire at the end of 2025. The reconciliation process allows tax and spending bills to pass the Senate with 51 votes, instead of the 60 needed for most Senate legislation. Republicans will control 53 seats in the new Senate and will also control the House.

Failing to extend the tax cuts would lead to a $4 trillion tax increase, Thune said. 

States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau contributed to this report.

Photo: U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, speaks to the Brandon Valley Area Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 26, 2024, in Brandon. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight).

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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