Oct 15, 2021

State rep Tim Miller: MN state public officials beholden to radical anti-livestock enviro groups

Unnamed

In a legislative email sent Friday, New Republican state representative Tim Miller, Prinsburg, condemns the DNR's pointing a shaky finger at public officials responsible for steering "livestock and agriculture policy in Minnesota."

It's a conspiracy! They're "beholden to radical environmental groups who do not want livestock farming to exist."

We posted about the ban in DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into & within MN to protect wild white-tailed deer and MN Deer Farmers Association sends House environmental committee chair a letter.

Miller goes where the deer farmers themselves didn't tread, sending out this message Friday in an emailed legislative update:

MillerMNDNRemail

Accusing Department of Natural Resources commissioner Strommen of being "beholden" to "radical environmental groups who do not want livestock farming to exist" seems a bit odd, given her background. Perhaps Miller sees the Board of Water and Soil Resources, where she worked before joining the DNR, as a radical environmental group.

Or perhaps it's Thom Petersen, the Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture, who is beholden to "radical environmental groups who do not want livestock farming to exist." If so, Commissioner Petersen completely fooled us. We first met him when he worked for the Minnesota Farmers Union, which we have on good authority is not a radical environmental group.

Here's Commissioner Petersen's biography on the MDA website:

Thom Petersen was appointed Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture by Governor Tim Walz in 2019.

Commissioner Petersen is a long-time resident of Royalton Township near Pine City where he lives on a horse farm. Before being appointed Commissioner, Petersen served as the Director of Government Relations for Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) since 2002, working on behalf of MFU’s farmer-members in both Washington, D.C. and St. Paul.

Prior to his work at the Minnesota Farmers Union, Commissioner Petersen spent most of his life working for his family and his own horse and farm business. He has a wide range of experience in state and federal farm policy, and travels to almost every county in Minnesota each year to fully understand how these policies affect farmers’ daily lives. He has served on many boards and committees, including the University of Minnesota Extension Citizens Advisory Committee, Farmers Legal Action Group, Citizens Utility Board, Minnesota Ag in the Classroom, Minnesota State Organic Task Force, Minnesota Rural Broadband Coalition, and the Minnesota Fair Plan.

Commissioner Petersen received his Associate’s degree from Normandale Community College and studied at both the University of Minnesota and University of Georgia. The Commissioner and his wife Alana live in Pine City with their two sons. The Petersens show horses around the state and have competed at the Minnesota State Fair for over 25 years.

Farmers everywhere should be shaking in their overalls.

We have been told  that the family Miller's fellow New Republican Jeremy Munson, Lake Crystal, show horses in the same shows as the Petersens. Should Miller check Munson's teeth for the scourge of radical environmentalism?

As for Minnesota House Environmental and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee chair Rick Hansen, DFL-South Saint Paul? His Economic Interest Statement at the public disclosure board reveals a couple of things to which he's beholden. There's Oneota Farms LLC; its website describes its mission in these terms:

Located in Harmony, Minnesota, we work with several Amish families to provide fresh, high-quality food from the land in an environmentally-friendly manner. We are an official Bon Appétit Farm to Fork Vendor for pork, vegetables and honey.

From the About page:

For over 100 years, our farm (located in Harmony Township in Fillmore County, Minnesota) has been cared for by our family. During the 1930's, land was added to our farm in Bristol Township, and in the early 2000's, more beautiful acreage straddling the Bristol-Harmony Township border was acquired. The topography of our farm is rugged; in it are knolls of basswood and oak as well as wooded ravines and gullies. It is Karst, characterized by fractured bedrock limestone with intermittent creeks feeding the Upper Iowa River, which flows through the Oneota Valley to the south.

The small farms of our Amish neighbors and their traditional agricultural practices look like farms of 100 years ago. The Amish family farms are located in the Upper Iowa Watershed on both sides of the Minnesota-Iowa border. The Upper Iowa River was originally called the Oneota by the Native Americans who resided there.

We work with several Amish families to provide fresh, high-quality food from the land in an environmentally-friendly manner and we are an official Bon Appétit Farm to Fork Vendor for pork, vegetables and honey.

We strive to compliment our environment by planting and maintaining native prairie and trees. This organic carbon storage helps sequester carbon and combat climate change. Our Amish growers are horse-powered and care for their animals. Quality and care are a way of life and a daily practice. Oneota Farms can bring you our sustainable farm products.

There's a photo of some beef cattle on the page and the logo includes a hog.

We doubt Miller considers the Amish to be a radical environmental group, rather than a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins, but with Tim, one never knows.

During the State Fair, Hansen tweeted about a niece's grand championship:

Perhaps Miller frets about the Hansens' family connection to those radical hippies at 4-H.

In closing, we have to reflect on the disease itself. One thing we learned from Beltrami County and elsewhere is that if a farm goes positive and Chronic Wasting Disease prions are put out in that environment, they are concentrated and can spread outside of the farm or the dumping ground for the carcasses of infected deer, including downstream. It’s different in the wild deer population, as the herds not as concentrated.

It's also sad to see us-versus-them rhetoric--including the visual rhetoric of a target on a human face--when it seems to us that the scientists at the University of Minnesota' College of Veterinary Medicine Research and Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach are working for solutions for all deer.

Related posts:

Images: From Representative Miller's email. Online here at his official website at the Minnesota House.

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. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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Images: From Representative Miller's email.

Posted by on Oct 15, 2021 at 03:51 PM | | Comments (0)

Oct 14, 2021

Argus Leader, SD Newspaper Association sue Speaker of House Gosch for keeping a secret

Ravnsborgcar

In the latest twist in the road to justice for Joseph Boever, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader and the South Dakota Newspaper Association have sued Spencer Gosch, Speaker of the South Dakota House, for refusing to release the names of those state representatives who voted to consider impeaching state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg for killing the Highmore man.

On Wednesday, Joe Sneve reported for the Argus Leader in South Dakota House Speaker sued for keeping attorney general special session vote secret:

South Dakota Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch is being sued for keeping secret a list of lawmakers who voted to hold a special Legislative session to consider impeaching the state's attorney general.

The Argus Leader and the South Dakota Newspaper Association jointly filed a lawsuit Wednesday with the South Dakota Supreme Court. The complaint alleges the Glenham Republican, who presides of the state House, is in violation of state open records laws by refusing for weeks to make public the names of lawmakers who formally signed a petition calling for the special session into Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg next month at the capitol.

"It's inexcusable for Speaker Gosch to continue hiding this information from the public," Argus Leader News Director Cory Myers said, noting attempts to work with Gosch and his private attorney to resolve the matter were unsuccessful. "There's a constitutional requirement to record legislative votes, and at the very least, an obligation of elected servants to be transparent about their processes.

Posted by on Oct 14, 2021 at 04:51 PM | | Comments (0)

Deep in Times report on Sinema attack on climate funds: loss for rural energy ratepayers

REC-coverage-map

A friend shared a down-column item in the Coral Davenport article in the New York Times, Kyrsten Sinema Wants to Cut $100 Billion in Proposed Climate Funds, Sources Say.

The article begins:

 Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who began her political career with the Green Party and who has voiced alarm over the warming planet, wants to cut at least $100 billion from climate programs in major legislation pending on Capitol Hill, according to two people familiar with the matter. 

Part of the cuts would hit electrical co-operatives particularly hard:

Another possible contender for the chopping block could be a $10 billion program to help rural electric cooperatives, which supply electricity to over 40 million people in rural communities. The money would aim to ease the price spikes that those rural residents could see in their power bills as the cooperatives make the switch from buying coal-fired power to wind and solar. . . . 

“Absent programs like that, the economic transition to different energy sources will be less even and equitable,” Mr. Coequyt said. “There will be communities that can’t take advantage of the new technologies for a whole bunch of different reasons.”

Cutting assistance to local communities would also undermine popular support for a transition to a clean energy economy, experts say. “Some of the programs that are intended to reach into rural and low-income communities are really important to maintaining the political coalition for this,” said Dallas Burtraw, an analyst for Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan research organization focused on energy and environmental policy. “It could be both an economic and a political problem if those communities are left behind.”

Scientists and environmental activists in Arizona say those cuts would end up hurting Ms. Sinema’s constituents.

Shame on her. 

The map at the top of this post illustrates where this cut would affect the members of rural co-operatives transitioning to climate-friendly clean energy. 

Readers don't have to stand by while an Arizona senator tanks an affordable track to build rural energy back better. Learn more at the Rural Power Campaign.

There's more on the lobbying behind the effort to remove this item from the bigger infrastructure bill in Joe Smyth's Major co-op supports Biden coal debt relief proposal that NRECA has sought to undermine published by the Energy and Policy Institute.

Had enough? Then sign the petition at Tell Congress - Invest At Least $10B in Electric Co-op Clean Energy. Here's the text of the petition:

Recent reports from the U.S. Senate and United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines just how urgent infrastructure investments are and the dire consequences of not making these investments. Congress MUST act to address climate change in all facets of the energy sector. 

One of the most important sectors in need of energy reform are Rural Electric Cooperatives (REC's) which provide electricity to 42 million people across 56% of the nation's land mass  REC's account for one fifth of all carbon pollution in the US power sector and nine of the thirteen most carbon intensive utilities. For rural areas, investments in energy transition are long overdue and will require major overhauls of critical infrastructure. 

Congress must prioritize a rural energy transition in the budget reconciliation. While the Biden Administration proposed $10 billion in investment through rural electric cooperatives in the American Jobs Plan, its estimate of the need falls short. In reality, an investment of of up to $10B is required to make a reasonable down payment on rural energy transition.

With electric cooperatives serving 90% of counties federally-recognized for persistent poverty, it is essential that the path to a lower carbon future does not drive electric cooperatives and the communities who own them further into debt. The Rural Power Coalition estimates the need for equitable investment in the rural electric system at $100 billion — the amount of debt currently carried by electric cooperatives that rely on fossil fuels. That is why Congress must commit to a least a $10 billion dollar down payment for energy efficiency upgrades and clean energy  to begin the energy transition in rural communities.

Congress must fund an equitable and fair energy transition to improve the lives of the millions of rural Americans served by electric cooperatives. Join the Rural Power Coalition by calling on your members of Congress to prioritize rural energy transition in the budget reconciliation!

Map: Areas served by co-op power. Paul Horn/Inside Climate News.

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Posted by on Oct 14, 2021 at 01:12 PM | | Comments (0)

Oct 13, 2021

Limbo Creek update: Renville County board votes to appeal MN Appeals Court decision

Limbocreek

Last week, we posted Up Limbo Creek with an EAW: MN Appeals Court slows Renville County's plan to improve Ditch 77.

The anticipated appeal of the opinion is on.

The West Central Tribune's Tom Cherveny reports in Renville County to appeal court decision that Limbo Creek is a public water:

Renville County is appealing the recent Limbo Creek decision to the state’s Supreme Court.

On a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the County Board of Commissioners approved bringing a petition for review to the state’s high court. The decision came after the board met in a closed session with the county’s attorney for the litigation, Gerald Von Korff with the Rinke Noonan law firm.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 4 that Limbo Creek is a public water and entitled to protections. It found that a proposed project to excavate a channel at the outlet of Renville County Ditch 77 into the creek has the potential for environmental harm and, as a result, the county must complete an environmental assessment worksheet before approving or rejecting the project.

The commissioners had approved the estimated $699,880 project in November 2020. The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy challenged the county’s authority to award a project in what it contended was a public water.

Landowners who petitioned for the channel project are upset by the Court of Appeals decision. . . . 

At the commissioners' meeting Tuesday, Hamre expressed his concerns about how the Court of Appeals case could affect proposed ditch projects in waters across the state, as well as the potential for more litigation.

“I think that the money that has been spent would be truly wasted if we don’t progress forward now and try to get the relief that these petitioners and any of the other projects coming forward in the state and the issues that they have,” he said. “We’ll spend some money now, (but) it will be a minor amount compared to the litigation coming forward with all the other projects throughout the state. That’s why I made the motion.”

Read the entire article at the West Central Tribune. We'll keep an eye on this issue.

Photo: This October 2020 photo shows Limbo Creek as it flows south under County Road 10, southwest of Sacred Heart in Renville County. Brian Peterson/Star Tribune.

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. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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Posted by on Oct 13, 2021 at 09:40 PM | | Comments (0)

MN Deer Farmers Association sends House environmental committee chair a letter

Whitetailbuck

Another page has been turned in the story of Chronic Wasting Disease in Minnesota. In the last chapter, we reported DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into & within MN to protect wild white-tailed deer.

There was more on that development at the Star Tribune on Tuesday in Tony Kennedy's DNR's latest crackdown on deer farms could halt movement of captive whitetails for more than a year

Now the Minnesota Deer Farmers Association has fired back a letter to state representative Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul. Hansen chairs the Minnesota House Environmental and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee.

Here's the letter, via Hansen's official Facebook page, with an image of the letter below for easy reading:

The letter:

Mdfaletter

Related posts:

Photo: A wild white-tailed buck.

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. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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Posted by on Oct 13, 2021 at 06:40 PM | | Comments (0)

Minnesota House Agriculture Committee considered aquaculture, drought relief

Plowthatbrokeplainsstill

On Tuesday, the Minnesota House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee met to consider--totally non-ironically--proposals about aquaculture in Minnesota and drought relief for the state.

News articles--Forum News Service's Dana Ferguson in Minnesota ag leaders urge action on drought relief: 'Every day that ticks by is hard for us' and the Minnesota Reformer's Ricardo Lopez in $10 million drought relief package for farmers taking shape but timing uncertain.

At Session Daily, Jonathan Mohr Agriculture committee receives update on drought, proposal to help farmers took the same angle.

We'll follow their lead in this post, although we'll have a post more focused on an issue related to fish and shrimp farming by the end of the week. We're curious that an industry that produces animal wastes that must be attended to is being touted as a solution to the problem of wild fish being too toxic to eat because of pollution (though we can't blame the mercury in fish on agriculture; that would be our friends in the coal and electricity generation industries). 

But enough said.

Jonathan Mohr reports in Agriculture committee receives update on drought, proposal to help farmers:

In the midst of a significant drought that persists across much of the state, the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee held an informational hearing Tuesday to receive an update on current conditions and discuss a proposed relief package to help the many farmers who are struggling.

Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen told members the drought is the worst in decades, likely since 1988.

In mid-August, 90% of the state was under a severe drought and 25 counties are still experiencing those conditions, while 17% of the state, mainly in northern Minnesota, is in an extreme drought.

Livestock producers and dairy farmers are faced with hay shortages and less forage to feed their animals, while some crop farmers are seeing lower yields and quality.

Petersen said that although crop farmers have a safety net in place with crop insurance, livestock and specialty crop farmers who produce fruits and vegetables don’t have equally strong safeguards, and the department’s presentation to the committee outlined the $10 million drought relief package recently proposed by Gov. Tim Walz.

It includes $5 million in rapid response grants to provide relief for livestock and specialty crop producers and $5 million for the state’s Disaster Recovery Loan Program. Administered by the Rural Finance Authority, the program would offer immediate no-interest loans to farmers impacted by the drought.

“This package wouldn’t make anybody whole, it helps pay a bill or two,” Petersen said. “If we’re going to consider drought relief, this is something we could do that would help a lot of folks.”

He said the package is scalable and the dollar amounts could be adjusted up or down depending on the need moving forward but that waiting until 2022 to take action just makes things more difficult for everyone and the state can act more quickly than the federal government to provide aid.

In a letter to the committee, the Minnesota Farmers Union expressed “strong support” for the relief package, saying the rapid response grants reflect a request it made earlier this summer and that they should be “swift to administer, easily accessible, and with no or limited cost share.”  

If there is no special session called by the governor, the Legislature would have to wait to until it reconvenes Jan. 31, 2022 to act on the relief package.

Here's the slide show that accompanied Commissioner Petersen's presentation:

Drought Impact on Minnesota Agriculture by uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

Mohr links to a letter from the Minnesota Farmers Union, embedded below. MFU president Gary Wertish testified to the committee.

Here's the letter:

Minnesota Farmers Union letter in support of drought relief by uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

Finally, here's the start of the committee hearing about drought conditions and possible state relief--follows a discussion of possible crop insurance legislation by Starbuck Republican Paul Anderson viewable here.

It's worth considering a couple of points Lopez reports in $10 million drought relief package for farmers taking shape but timing uncertain:

Walz says he won’t call lawmakers back without prior agreement from Senate Republicans that they would not hold a confirmation vote to oust his health commissioner, Jan Malcolm.

State Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, said he would ask that any financial aid to farmers should be based on need, saying farmers should demonstrate actual financial losses to qualify. 

Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube:

Still: A still from Pare Lorentz' 1936 classic short documentary for the federal Resettlement Administration, The Plow That Broke the Plains.

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. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

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Posted by on Oct 13, 2021 at 12:09 PM | | Comments (0)

Oct 11, 2021

DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into & within MN to protect wild white-tailed deer

Whitetailbuck

Breaking Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) news via Twitter:

Here's the press release:

DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into and within Minnesota to protect state’s wild white-tailed deer

October 11, 2021

Emergency action will provide time to understand connections between known
CWD-positive farms and identify and prevent transfer from potentially exposed herds

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has issued an emergency rule that temporarily prohibits the importation and movement of farmed white-tailed deer into and within Minnesota.

This emergency action takes effect today (Oct. 11, 2021) and aims to reduce further spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) and protect the health of Minnesota’s wild deer. The temporary ban will allow us to determine the previous movements of known CWD-exposed deer and potential additional exposures.

The DNR will work thoroughly but efficiently on this effort along with the Board of Animal Health, with which it shares concurrent authority to regulate farmed white-tailed deer. The DNR asks for the full support and cooperation of the farmed deer community.

The DNR is taking this action in response to the discovery that a CWD-positive farm in Wisconsin shipped 387 farmed white-tailed deer to farms in seven states, including Minnesota. Three farms in Minnesota ultimately received a total of five deer from the infected farm.

“This disease poses a clear, immediate and serious threat to Minnesota’s wild deer, and these actions reflect what’s at stake,” said DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen. “We are committed to doing everything we can to reduce the continued risk of CWD transmission in Minnesota, including from farmed deer to Minnesota’s wild whitetails.”

This temporary movement ban will provide time to track the movement of deer from the infected farm and understand the potential risk to other herds. The epidemiological investigations will show connections among known CWD-exposed herds, identify if there were additional exposed herds, and prevent additional transfer from potentially exposed herds. The rule provides exemptions for deer being transported to slaughter and those being transported on a direct route through the state.

As previously announced, the DNR learned on Sept. 27, 2021 that three Minnesota farms ultimately had received a total of five white-tailed deer from the infected Wisconsin farm. Two of those deer went to farms that no longer are in business, and the two animals subsequently moved back to farms in Wisconsin.

The other three deer were moved to a farm in Minnesota that’s currently active. Two of those deer were killed and tested; they did not test positive for CWD. The third deer is still alive and the owner is awaiting payment prior to making the animal available for testing. The farm where this animal lives is currently under quarantine.

The chair of the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee, South St. Paul Democrat Rick Hansen, tweeted a response:

We agree, as we worry about the spread of CWD from parts of South Dakota west of our home in Roberts County, and from the east in Minnesota. For many Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate citizens here on the Lake Traverse Reservation, deer remain an element of traditional culture anddiet.

Related posts:

Photo: A wild white-tailed buck.

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. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

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Posted by on Oct 11, 2021 at 07:18 AM | | Comments (0)

Oct 10, 2021

Rushmore State sorrows: "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" goes for ignorant disrespect of South Dakota

Wall-drug-storefront

We were just putting the finishing touches on In 2020, Dusty Johnson received $500 from GOP donor & alleged sex trafficker Anton Lazzaro, when our inbox cheeped the arrival of an email with the subject head, " 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me' goes for ignorant disrespect of South Dakota."

Our correspondent wrote: "I don't know if you caught this—or whether you *want* to—but as a student of South Dakota, I thought you at least should have the opportunity."

Indeed, We believe it's the perfect foil for the latest post by Cory Allen Heidelberger at Dakota Free Press, Trust Task Force Prof Writing Hard to Defuse Pandora Papers, Defend Rich, Deflect Criticism.

The following transcript of a section of Wait Wait' for Oct. 9, 2021: Ilana Glazer plays Not My Job makes us think that Dr. Thomas Simmons of the USD Law School is going to have to work overtime to repair the reputation of South Dakota:

SAGAL: All right - moving on. Here is your next quote.

KURTIS: Who needs the Cayman Islands and Switzerland when you've got South Dakota?

SAGAL: That was CNBC analyst Dominic Chu reacting to a report this week that rich people all over the world are turning to South Dakota as a place to hide their what?

COLE: Their money.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Move over, Cayman Islands. Stand down, Switzerland. The hip, new, cool place to stash your ill-gotten gains is the sovereign state of South Dakota. It's really surprising. We thought South Dakota amassed all that wealth just selling I Went To Wall Drug bumper stickers.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: But according to a new cache of leaked documents called the Pandora Papers, South Dakota passed laws over the last decade making it a lot easier for wealthy people to shelter their money from taxes there. But it only took off when they passed another law saying you don't actually have to go there to do it.

BURKE: (Laughter).

HONG: I - where do they hide the money? You can't even dig a hole in South Dakota without it being visible for, like, 3,000 miles.

SAGAL: Yeah.

HONG: Like, it's so flat.

SAGAL: The sightlines are pretty long out there.

HONG: Yeah.

SAGAL: It's true. Well, what it is are these very complicated trusts that allow people secrecy and privacy. I mean, we usually think of, like, Swiss bank accounts for this. And they, of course, have become the ultimate status symbol. But imagine a supervillain demanding the government wire $10 million to his numbered account at the Pioneer Bank & Trust in Rapid City.

(LAUGHTER)

BURKE: I guess that does explain all the tricked-out John Deere tractors you see in South Dakota with, like...

SAGAL: That's true.

BURKE: ...Gold-plated rims and $9,000 sound systems.

(LAUGHTER)

HONG: The farmers wearing Yeezy.

BURKE: Yeah. Which one is Rushmore in? Is Rushmore in South Dakota?

SAGAL: Rushmore is, in fact, in South Dakota.

HONG: Yes.

ROBERTS: Yep. Yep.

BURKE: So is Lincoln's head just full of cash? Is Lincoln's head...

SAGAL: No, but he now has a pair of diamond earrings, so obviously something's going on.

(LAUGHTER)

HONG: What is South Dakota known for other than Mount Rushmore? What do they do there? Corn or...

SAGAL: Basically, at this point, Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse monument and COVID. And now trusts, right?

BURKE: They're the world's leader in underground lairs.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Now they are. . . .

In the Dakota Free Press post, Heidelberger concludes:

Drug dealers, dictators, and other dastardly-deed-doers are using the laws Dr. Simmons helps write for South Dakota to hide their money from taxes, creditors, and courts, but if you criticize South Dakota’s trust companies and the whole concept of letting the rich forever hoard their wealth, you are the real dehumanizing devil who would deny South Dakotans not just wealth but identity and statehood.

Who knows what the trust industry's brain trust will pen for those irreverent quiz show folks in Chicago. Paradoxical epigrams worthy of Catullus?

Listen to the entire episode of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me here:

Image: After originating as a small pharmacy, Wall Drug has grown into one of South Dakota’s quirkiest tourist attractions  Source: Wall Drug/ Culture Trip.

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. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

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Posted by on Oct 10, 2021 at 08:25 PM | | Comments (0)

In 2020, Dusty Johnson received $500 from GOP donor & alleged sex trafficker Anton Lazzaro

Johnson_BC_048_040419

Given former Republican Party of Minnesota state chair Jennifer Carnahan's scheduling of party events in South Dakota (one's here), we grew curious about whether any South Dakota politicians took money from her friend Anton Lazzaro.

Sadly,  the South Dakota Secretary of State provides no searchable database of state campaign finance donors; curious citizens can go to sdcfr.sdsos.gov--then search each candidate's non-searchable PDF filings for contributor names. Lovely.

But one can search the Federal Election Commission's databases by contributor. We found this July 30, 2020 contribution from Lazzaro to our congressman Dusty Johnson:

Lazzarotodusty

Also here.

We're unable to find any connection between Johnson and Lazzaro, however, other than the cash.

That might be why we weren't able to find any reporting on this contribution since the scandal broke in Minnesota, although the contribution was noted online at the time in Dusty Johnson's campaign committee receives $500 from Anton Lazzaro, at Southeast South Dakota News, a Metric Media site. 

Well okay then. As the Columbia Journalism Review's TOW Reports noted in 2019, Hundreds of ‘pink slime’ local news outlets are distributing algorithmic stories and conservative talking points. Priyanjana Bengani has made a name exposing the "pink slime."  One passage in the article reveals--we assume--why Lazzaro's contribution to the Friends of Dusty Johnson was offered as news in the years prior to Lazzaro's arrest and arraignment:

Many of the stories attributed to automated services (Metric Media News Service, Local Labs News Service, etc.) relied on data releases from federal programs like the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services, Congressional Research Service, the Federal Election Commission, and the Census Bureau. 

We touched on one Minnesota pink slime outlet in our October 2020 post,  "Pink Slime" Metric Media outlet promotes Gruenhagen's Facebook bonding bill take.

We're feeling pretty slimed at this point.

Perhaps Congressman Johnson could donate the money to a South Dakota non-profit that works to end sex-trafficking or to aid its victims, if he has not already done so.

Images: Dusty Johnson (top; Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo); screenshot of the Lazzaro contribution.

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. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

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

Posted by on Oct 10, 2021 at 07:28 PM | | Comments (0)

Oct 09, 2021

Lawn wars: Can "Native Landscape" legislation make towns more accepting of natural lawns?

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While we were chronicling North Mankato's lawn war, MinnPost's Peter Callaghan was looking at a legislative remedy for conflicts like it in Minnesota. Good work.

We recommend reading ‘Native landscape’ bill would make Minnesota cities more pollinator friendly, one lawn at a time. A taste:

Blame George Washington.

America’s first president maintained a lawn at Mount Vernon, copying the style from English manor houses and castles. Being first in war and first in peace also, apparently, made Washington first in landscaping for Americans — at least the wealthier ones. 

The love of the turf grass lawn has hardly abated since, so much so that it eventually became encased in law. Cities and towns across the country adopted ordinances to impose the ideal of the grass lawn, and then used code enforcement officers and fines to compel compliance.

This week, though, a Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling exposed a conflict between that standard and the desire by some policymakers and homeowners to swap manicured lawns for native plantings. In a ruling written by Judge Denise Reilly, the court found that North Mankato’s attempt to force Edward Borchardt to cut back his trees, bushes and grasses wasn’t legal.

Now, the chair of the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Committee has introduced a bill that would require all cities to permit native landscapes. “We have it out there for people to take a look at,” said Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St Paul. 

He called it a next-step in the state’s modest but popular Lawns to Legumes program, in which micro grants and how-to advice is given to residents who want to convert some or all of the lawns to native gardens that support pollinators, especially the rusty patched bumblebee.

But the program requires local governments to make sure their ordinances support such decisions. “You do have a lot of cities with ordinances that the traditional lawn is the standard. Having something different and having a diverse landscape is more healthy,” Hansen said. 

Not a free-for-all for weeds

The state’s Lawns to Legumes program is less about the money that’s available — the grants are in the $350 range — and more about providing coaching as well as “social acceptance” of deviating from the standard lawn. “People are brought up through how many generations of taking care of a lawn versus how do I take care of a native garden,” Hansen said. “It’s another piece of the pollinator puzzle.” 

But Hansen’s bill would not be a weed free-for-all. “Except as part of a managed natural landscape as defined in this section, any weeds or grasses growing upon any lot or parcel of land in a city to a greater height than eight inches or that have gone or are about to go to seed are prohibited.” . . .

Read the entire article. Minneapolis Democrat Scott Dibble is the author of the Senate companion bill. Blessed are the peacemakers, indeed.

Related posts:

Photo: "Minnesota's Lawns to Legumes program is less about the money that’s available and more about providing coaching as well as “social acceptance” of doing something different with lawns." MinnPost photo by Andrew Putz.

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Posted by on Oct 09, 2021 at 07:58 AM | | Comments (0)

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    Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors. While progressive in outlook, she does not caucus with any political party.

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