Bluestem Prairie

30 years war? MPCA asks EPA to establish specific mercury standard to protect MN waters

UPDATE: 9/30/2020: At the Duluth News Tribune, Jimmy Lovrien reports MPCA to EPA: It's time to set mercury limits on the taconite industry. [end update]

A couple of press releases came our way related to an important water quality issue. From the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency via a reader:

MPCA asks EPA to establish specific mercury standard to protect Minnesota waters

EPA had 30 years to develop mercury standards for taconite processing

Late yesterday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), along with the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy, challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its continued failures to establish court-ordered mercury standards. The two states filed a petition for review with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and asked the EPA to reconsider its decision.

Statement by MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop

“The MPCA has been working with Minnesota’s taconite industry to make significant reductions in mercury emissions, but the EPA has reneged on its responsibilities to develop standards for taconite processing. Mercury pollution poses a significant threat to our waters, human health, and economy. The EPA has had 30 years to address mercury emissions from taconite, and its inaction leaves us no other choice than to ask the court to intervene.”

In 1990, the U.S. Congress required the EPA to set mercury emission standards by 2000 and the federal agency failed to meet that deadline. When the EPA issued its required hazardous air pollutant rule for taconite processing facilities in 2003, it failed to set a mercury limit. In 2005, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals required the EPA to propose and finalize mercury emissions limits. In its July 2020 final National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Taconite Iron Ore Processing Residual Risk and Technology Review, the EPA claimed it did not have sufficient time to determine what technologies could be used to control mercury emissions and failed, once again, to set a standard.

Commissioner Bishop continued to say that Minnesota’s taconite mining industry is a vital part of our state’s economic engine and essential for U.S. manufacturing and international trade. “The MPCA remains committed to working with our mining industry to ensure we’re able to protect our waters and foster stronger economic growth. We should not have to choose one over the other.”

Mercury continues to pose a serious threat to Minnesota’s waters and human health. More than 1,200 Minnesota lakes and rivers are impacted by mercury pollution, meaning more than 10% of a fish species in a water body have unhealthy levels of mercury making the fish unsafe for regular consumption. According to a Minnesota Department of Health study, 10% of tested Minnesota newborns in the Lake Superior Basin region had elevated mercury concentrations at birth which can harm brain development and the nervous system.

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy sent out a statement of its own:

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and State Attorney General Keith Ellison joined the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy in a federal lawsuit this week against the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to force the EPA to set a national air emissions standard for mercury in the taconite industry.

A 2011 study by the Minnesota Department of Health showed that 1 in 10 newborns on Minnesota’s North Shore had an unacceptably high level of mercury in their blood, and that there is a connection between mercury and impaired fetal development.

Kathryn Hoffman, Chief Executive Officer for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, issued this statement:

We fully support the Attorney General and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s decision to bring this federal lawsuit. We know that mercury is a pollutant that can be controlled, and that there is a huge upside for public health in doing so. A national air emission standard for mercury in the taconite industry would formalize needed limits, and protect the health of children, especially those in northern Minnesota.

Taconite mining is the last major industry without a national mercury standard. The State of Minnesota currently has a goal of a 72% reduction of mercury emissions from taconite operations. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is the only company that has currently committed to the 72% reduction.

The group describes itself in its about section, "MCEA is the leading legal voice protecting Minnesota’s environment, with deep organizational expertise."

Photo: The moon rises at sunset at Split Rock Lighthouse, on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota.(Image: © Igor Kovalenko | Shutterstock).

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MNReformer update: After Hagedorn payment revelations, Al Travis off KTOE until after election

Earlier today we posted a MN01 race news digest: Feehan and Hagedorn spar; do Hagedorn's accusations hold water? just after noon. Now there's more news out of Southern Minnesota.

The @MNReformer tweet sums up matters neatly, but we'll reprint the story below to make your job as a reader easy:

After revelations about payments from Hagedorn, Al Travis taken off the air until after election https://t.co/TeAV2ilwC2 via @mnreformer

— Minnesota Reformer (@MNReformer) September 29, 2020

The whole story from the Minnesota Reformer:

After revelations about payments from Hagedorn, Al Travis taken off the air until after election
by Daniel Newhauser

WASHINGTON — A Mankato radio host has been pulled off the air until after the November elections, after the Minnesota Reformer revealed he had interviewed U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn on the air without disclosing to his listeners he had been paid by the congressman’s campaign.

Al Travis Thielfoldt, who hosts Al in the Afternoon on KTOE, will sit on the sidelines until after November 3, which will feature a 1st Congressional District rematch between first term Republican Hagedorn and Dan Feehan, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nominee. The move was announced by station management Tuesday.

Matt Ketelsen, the general manager of Subarctic Media, which owns KTOE, said in an interview posted on the station’s website Tuesday that although he believes the station followed all Federal Communications Commission regulations, the station brass decided Thielfoldt should sit out the next month or so of shows.

“We are slightly disappointed with how the story was covered, but at the end of the day, perception is the most important thing, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “We want our audience to believe that we are 100% fair, because that is the case. So we decided that we’re just going to take Al off the air here just to avoid any perception of bias whatsoever.”

The decision was made after the Reformer reported that Thielfoldt — through his company Innovative Marketing Techniques — had worked as a media buyer for Hagedorn’s campaign while at the same time interviewing Hagedorn on the air.

Broadcast law experts told the Reformer the financial relationship could raise several problems for the station if it is found that Thielfoldt was compensated directly or indirectly for giving Hagedorn favorable coverage or extra time. Thielfoldt vigorously denied he was paid for the interviews or gave the congressman special treatment.

Ketelsen told KTOE news anchor Ashley Hanley on Tuesday that the station followed ”every FCC guideline and legality involved with this to the absolute letter in terms of equal time and equal treatment of every candidate,” and noted that candidates of both parties are regularly on the air. He said the decision to sideline Thielfoldt had nothing to do with any potential violations.

“We’re not doing this because of any legality, we simply want our audience to understand that we’re going above and beyond to prevent any perception at all of how we cover news here in the Mankato area,” Ketelsen said.

Feehan has not appeared on Thielfodt’s show, but he has been interviewed by other news personalities on KTOE. The equal time provision of FCC law would only apply if regulators found that any interviews on the air were not “bonafide news.”

Hanley said in the interview that the station has been fielding a lot of calls and emails about the issue, since the Reformer story ran on Monday and was reprinted in the Mankato Free Press.

Ketelsen did not respond to a phone call on his cell phone asking for comment about whether he or other station ownership or management knew about the financial ties between Hagedorn and Thielfoldt prior to the publication of the article. Thielfoldt previously told the Reformer that he had sold Hagedorn’s ads to KTOE, but did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Al in the Afternoon, which runs from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., kicked off Monday with a guest host, Darin Svenson. Svenson made no mention of why he was sitting in for Thielfoldt.

We wonder when the next shoe drops in the Fighting First. Also whether Jim Hagedorn is a centipede.

Image: All those shoes dropping in the First.

If you enjoyed this update, consider making a donation to the Minnesota Reformer.

MN01 race news digest: Feehan and Hagedorn spar; do Hagedorn's accusations hold water?

The battle for Minnesota's Fighting First continues.

Local radio host's Hagedorn campaign bucks

Tuesday, the Mankato Free Press picked up the Minnesota Reformer story by Daniel Newhauser, GOP ad man, KTOE radio host has hidden connection to Hagedorn:

In appearances over the past year on a small AM radio station in Mankato, U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn discussed the federal response to COVID-19, impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump and of course, the Minnesota Vikings.

One thing he didn’t discuss, though, is that the news jockey throwing softballs his way is a paid vendor of Hagedorn’s campaign for reelection in the state’s 1st District, having been entrusted with turning hundreds of thousands of Hagedorn’s campaign dollars into digital ads and spots on local news stations, including KTOE, the one on which he interviews the congressman.

Hagedorn and the radio host, Al Travis Thielfoldt, who mans the “Al in the Afternoon” chat show on KTOE under the stage name Al Travis, have never disclosed on the air that they have a financial relationship, Thielfoldt confirmed in an interview.

Thielfoldt’s company, Innovative Marketing Techniques, was given $64,450 this election cycle from the Hagedorn campaign as of the end of July, and half a million dollars during the 2018 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Failure to disclose the relationship is at the very least a breach of journalistic norms, which has raised the suspicions of media ethics experts and made at least one news employee at the station uneasy. . . .

Read the rest at the Free Press, or in Minnesota GOP political ad man’s side hustle as radio host could draw attention from regulators at the Minnesota Reformer.

Hagedorn deflects office spending questions with Feehan work doubts

The candidates debated on Sunday. Minnesota Public Radio's Hannah Yang reported in 1st District candidates Hagedorn, Feehan face off in debate:

Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn and DFL challenger Dan Feehan outlined their differing views on health care, civil unrest in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, and Minnesota's COVID-19 response in a debate Sunday.

This election to represent Minnesota's 1st District is a rematch of 2018, when Hagedorn narrowly defeated Feehan for the seat vacated by Democrat Tim Walz, who successfully ran for governor. The district spans east to west across southern Minnesota and includes cities such as Rochester, Mankato, New Ulm, Owatonna and Worthington.

Yang touched on a flash point at the article's close:

Hagedorn . . .  was quick to level accusations at Feehan, alleging he was being paid to run for office by Democratic groups.

“Sir, I am an unemployed guy trying to earn the title of congressman here in this district — working hard, supported by an incredible wife who is allowing our family to go through this,” Feehan responded. “How dare you attack my integrity? Integrity is central to every single member of Congress, and you have shown absolutely none.”

The Mankato Free Press reported after the debate that Feehan's disclosure forms show $476,620 in earned income from 2017-2019, "but there is no indication from the income disclosure forms to suggest he was paid for anything other than work he did for those groups."

In the Mankato Free Press, Trey Mewes reported in Accusations fly at Feehan-Hagedorn debate:

Things came to a head at the end of the forum when Feehan brought up Hagedorn’s recent bulk mail scandal, where the congressman is alleged to have violated House ethics rules by paying close to $450,000 to companies with ties to his staffers to send out mail to constituents.

Hagedorn defended by saying he reported any potential violations as soon as he found out about them, but went further by accusing Feehan of potentially being paid to be a candidate. Hagedorn claimed Feehan has been paid $500,000 by organizations tied to Democratic operatives during the past two years to run for Congress rather than doing work for those organizations.

“You have to do a half-million dollars’ worth of work, and we’re talking about a two-year period,” Hagedorn said. “I’m very interested to see how you’re going to explain that you did a half-million dollars’ worth of work in two years, because if you didn’t, those are felonies. These are serious charges you’re going to have to deal with.”

Feehan responded by claiming Hagedorn is making up accusations, “things that are so untrue and so unfounded that they’re damaging to the integrity to the election.” Feehan said he was unemployed at the moment and supported by his wife, a local teacher, while running for office.

“How dare you attack my integrity?” Feehan said. “Integrity is essential to every single member of Congress and you have shown absolutely none.”

The forum broke down momentarily as the candidates sparred over potentially misusing funding, as Feehan demanded Hagedorn cite the sources behind his accusations and Hagedorn said his campaign found information in Feehan’s income disclosure forms.

“None of the words you’ve said tonight are true,” Feehan told Hagedorn.

Feehan’s income disclosure forms from 2017 to 2019 show he was paid $476,620 in earned income over that period from various companies and nonprofits, but there is no indication from the income disclosure forms to suggest he was paid for anything other than work he did for those groups.

In the Minnesota Reformer, Newhauser has more in In debate, Feehan questions Rep. Jim Hagedorn’s integrity; Hagedorn punches back.

KEYC reported Hagedorn claims Feehan was paid to run for Congress by Democratic groups (video clip) and FACT CHECK: Feehan was paid for work at nonprofits from 2017-2019.

KEYC reports in an update that Hagedorn has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Here's an explanation of the process on the FEC site.

But the Minnesota Reformer has more, including an depth look at the organizations for which Feehan worked.

At the Minnesota Reformer Monday, Daniel Newhauser reported in National security think tank responds to Hagedorn allegation: “Doesn’t hold much weight”:

A national security think tank, an educational reform outfit and a group that works with veterans interested in getting into politics pushed back Monday against murky charges of corruption leveled by U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn in a Sunday night candidate debate against his DFL challenger Dan Feehan.

Hagedorn tried to one-up Feehan’s own accusations of corruption by leveling some of his own: That “Democrat” groups had given Feehan phony jobs to help him run for Congress. The groups — which are well known in Washington — responded that they are not progressive front organizations, and that Feehan did real work for them.

A spokesman for Feehan said the work was above board.

“As Dan said during the debate, these baseless and slanderous accusations are a desperate attempt to distract from the ethics scandal engulfing the Congressman’s office,” said Ben Reimler, spokesman for Feehan’s campaign.

He’s referring to questionable spending by Hagedorn’s congressional office, which used $450,000 of taxpayer money on positive mailers about Hagedorn. As the Reformer reported, the money went to companies owned by a member of his staff and the brother of his chief of staff.

Hagedorn shot back during the Sunday night debate, questioning the work Feehan did for three organizations: Leadership for Educational Equity, the New Politics Leadership Academy and the Center for New American Security.

Hagedorn implied the groups sought to financially prop up a Democratic candidate so he could focus on knocking off Hagedorn, a vulnerable first-term Republican, who beat Feehan in 2018 by a narrow margin.

Hagedorn has yet to substantiate the allegations, and an email to his campaign spokeswoman and call to his campaign director asking for specifics were not returned.

The campaign released a spreadsheet showing payments that Feehan had self-reported on his annual financial disclosure forms showing he was paid about $473,000 over a three year span from 2017-2019, mostly from the three above-mentioned groups.

(Feehan’s campaign says it was actually less than that — his 2019 financial disclosure shows he made $120,000 that year and the previous year from Leadership for Educational Equity. That is a mistake, according to the campaign. He was only paid by that group in 2019, and they’ve filed an amended disclosure reflecting that he received no compensation from the group in 2018.)

Spokesmen for three groups Hagedorn attacked said that Feehan did perform work at the intersection of veterans and education policy, a theme that has been a cornerstone of his campaign as an Army veteran and middle school teacher.

Cole Stevens, spokesman for the Center for a New American Security, said Feehan was a senior adjunct fellow at the think tank, which focuses on national security and defense policy research. Feehan is a veteran of the U.S. Army and was the former principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness in the administration of former President Barack Obama.

Stevens was indignant about Hagedorn implying the center is a Democratic shill group. The group’s board of directors includes Dick Armitage, who was a deputy secretary of state in the administration of former President George W. Bush; party-switching Sen. Joe Lieberman, who endorsed Republican John McCain for president; and, Rupert Murdoch’s son James Murdoch.

“Our CEO is Richard Fontaine. He’s a lifelong Republican. He was McCain’s foreign policy advisor. So that criticism doesn’t hold much weight,” Stevens said. “We’re a four-star rated charity. We’re very transparent about what we do, and we make sure the payments are tied to the research we’re doing.”

Leadership for Educational Equity is a nonprofit that bills itself as a group that inspires Teach for America alums to get civically involved. The group’s spokesman, Jason Llorenz, said in an emailed statement that Feehan, who taught in Chicago and Gary, Ind. for Teach for America, worked as a consultant for the group.

“(Feehan) played a key role in building LEE’s engagement and education programs to inspire LEE members who have served in the Armed Forces to further their service as civic leaders, as well as designing an educational fellowship program engaging LEE members with politics in their communities,” Llorenz said.

Feehan’s work for the New Politics Leadership Academy was along the same lines, according to the group’s spokesman, Gabriel Ramos. The nonprofit teaches military veterans how to get involved in politics. It often recruits losing Democratic candidates, paying them a stipend to reflect on their race and teach lessons to the next generation of candidates. Hagedorn’s colleague, GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher, has in the past spoken to alumni of the group, however.

“As a fellow, (Feehan) worked on a number of projects related to NPLA’s educational mission — including a research project that provided NPLA with quantitative research about the rural-urban divide,” Ramos said. “Throughout his fellowship, (Feehan) also served as co-facilitator for NPLA Foundations programming geared towards military veterans and other service alumni who are considering running for office or becoming more actively engaged in politics more broadly.”

Larry Noble, a 20-year veteran of the Federal Election Commission who now teaches law at American University, acknowledged it would be illegal for Feehan, during his candidacy, to accept money for work he didn’t do. But If Hagedorn has proof something untoward is going on, he should show his hand, Noble said.

“The congressman could file a complaint if he wanted with the (Federal Election Commission), but you know, he would need more than just saying, ‘He got paid by these people.’ He would have to allege the idea that (Feehan) didn’t do work for them,” Noble said. “The question, I guess, to the congressman is what, exactly, are you saying? What evidence do you have? What is your specific allegation? Just that he got paid? Or do you have any information that he didn’t do work?"

Prior to the debate, Business Insider published an overview of the contest in First-term Rep. Jim Hagedorn faces Democrat Daniel Feehan in rematch to represent Minnesota's 1st Congressional District.

Image: Is Congressman Jim Hagedorn the Scratchy of Minnesota's Fighting First? From The Simpsons.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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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Following other states' lead, MN DNR begins testing deer for industrial chemicals (PFAS)

Over the years, Bluestem Prairie has covered the pollution and policy consequences of industrial chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS or PFCs).

A press release issued Monday by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources demonstrates yet another consequence of industrial pollution:

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will test liver and muscle samples from deer to help determine whether industrial chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are present in deer near two PFAS contaminated sites.

The DNR initiated sampling near the Duluth airport south of Rice Lake Reservoir when the archery season opened on Sept. 19, and is also making arrangements for samples to be collected in portions of the east metro area of the Twin Cities.

This will be the first time the Minnesota DNR has sampled deer for PFAS. Recent findings reported by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources led to a deer liver consumption advisory for deer harvested near a known PFAS site in Marinette County, due to the presence of the contaminants in some of the liver tissue collected.

The Minnesota DNR plans to collect liver and muscle tissues from a total of 60 hunter harvested deer within or near the two areas where PFAS are known to be impacting surface water: the Duluth airport and the east metro area of the Twin Cities. The DNR will reach out to hunters in these areas directly and ask them to voluntarily submit liver and muscle tissue samples from their harvested deer for testing purposes.

The DNR worked with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to select the two sites because they have known or possible PFAS exposure routes for deer and are in the proximity of planned hunts.

“We are in the early stages of testing deer in these areas of known PFAS contamination,” said Barbara Keller, DNR Big Game Program leader. “We hope to gather some baseline data to determine if PFAS are accumulating in deer in Minnesota.”

The liver filters toxins in the body, and may contain higher levels of chemicals than muscle. Until more information is available, people who are concerned with the potential for PFAS contamination in deer should consider avoiding consumption of livers from deer harvested near the Duluth airport south of Rice Lake Reservoir and the Twin Cities east metro area.

Advisories in nearby states

Michigan and Wisconsin have found elevated levels of the chemical in deer at specific sites, leading to consumption advisories.

In February 2020, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources tested 20 deer from a fire training center in Marinette County and detected the chemicals in the liver of all 20 deer sampled. They subsequently issued a “Do Not Eat Liver” advisory for deer harvested within 5 miles of the facility.

In October 2018, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a “Do Not Eat” advisory for deer taken within 5 miles of Wurtsmith Air Force Base.

Other samples

To broaden the study sample, the DNR may additionally test samples from deer taken during population control activities and vehicle-killed deer, potentially including deer from beyond the two focus areas near the Duluth airport and the Twin Cities east metro.

PFAS in Minnesota

The MPCA has conducted PFAS monitoring in Minnesota since 2002. The earliest area of focus was in the east metro area of the Twin Cities, where 3M manufactured PFAS and disposed of PFAS-containing wastes at multiple disposal sites, causing a widespread area of groundwater and surface water contamination. More information about this focus area and MCPA’s sampling in other areas can be found on the MPCA website.

MDH needs more information before it determines whether PFAS-related consumption advisories for deer in any areas of Minnesota are needed. The test results from hunter-harvested tissue will help inform that decision.

PFAS are human-created chemicals that have been used by industries for many purposes including repelling water and grease, reducing friction, insulating, and reducing fire risk. More information about PFAS in Minnesota can be found on the MPCA website.

Related posts:

• Raiders of the lost tobacco settlement pretty piqued about 3M pollution settlement firewall 
• In 2008, Denny McNamara praised 3M for dealing with PFC contamination "in a positive way"
• Don't drink the water: 3M PAC cash in the MN Future (& anti-Bigham) IE money stream in SD54

Photo: Whitetail deer.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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 [email protected] as recipient

Pollinator Friendly Alliance: the natural world, enviro policy & bringing back a healthy planet

One of the more lovely things we've seen online lately was a Zoom talk by Chris Helzer, Nature Conservancy's Nebraska Director of Science, ecologist and author of the popular blog, Prairie Ecologist, and two books.

The Stillwater grassroots group, Pollinator Friendly Alliance, sponsored the webinar, which included remarks on pollinator policy by South St. Paul DFL state representative Rick Hansen, who chairs the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division.

Here's the description of the webinar: featured in the video below:

Laurie Schneider, Executive Director of Pollinator Friendly Alliance, leads conservation actions for pollinator protections in Minnesota with an energetic following of naturalists and volunteers dedicated to protecting a healthy food supply, lands and waters.

Chris Helzer, Nature Conservancy's Nebraska Director of Science, is a dynamic speaker, long time ecologist and conservationist.  Chris is the author of the popular blog, Prairie Ecologist,  and two books, The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States and Hidden Prairie: Photographing Life in One Square Meter.  His photographs and writings are a source of inspiration for both savvy and beginner naturalists and appear in numerous magazines. The little things that run the world – a talk about the diversity and value of plants and insects, and their interactions, and how that diversity is often overlooked but is really the backbone of ecosystem function and thus conservation success.

Rep. Rick Hansen serves the people of Lilydale, Mendota, Mendota Heights, South St. Paul, and West St. Paul in the Minnesota Legislature. He is dedicated to protecting our environment and chairs the Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee. He authored and championed many bills to protect pollinators; conserve Minnesota’s lands, waters, and wildlife; support sustainable farmers; and combat climate change. He is a farmer and an energetic leader.

Helzer's talk, "It's All The Little Things," is a feast of photographs, focused not on the charismatic bison, but plants and the invertebrates at the base of an ecosystem. Open-minded readers will gain a new appreciation for flies, spiders, and grasshoppers (one the size of a mouse), as well as butterflies and native bees.

Hansen's talk on Minnesota's policy breakthroughs--like Lawns to Legumes--and challenges is also worthwhile.

Here's the video:

The next webinar is Wednesday, September 30. Guest speakers:

Don Shelby, an award winning journalist, tv anchor and Twin Cities Public Television voice dedicated to investigating energy conservation and mitigating climate change with three national Emmys and two Peabodys. He worked a lifetime to preserve the Mississippi River and continues to be a prominent voice for the environment, celebrated speaker and author.

Keely Cervantes, Conservation Minnesota’s Regional Manager works on whole ecosystem and public policy issues to bridge urban and rural communities and advocates for clean water and healthy land. Keely has a background in urban agriculture, holds a MPA in Public Policy from NYU, and grew up amid rural Midwest farmland.

Register here.

The group is also hosting a Zoom (and on the Finnegans Brew Company patio and taproom) Bumble Beer Bash on October 3, 2:00-6:00 p.m., featuring a Dress Your Dog Up Like a Bumble Bee Contest:

500 to 545 PM: DRESS YOUR DOG UP LIKE A BUMBLE BEE contest and win BIG. A trunkful of prizes including a Finnegans growler, Artist’s pollinator t-shirt, coffee bag, and hand crafted award, doggie accoutrements, honey and more. Show off your fancy bee dressed pooch via zoom from your own backyard or living room or Finnegans patio. Prizes to the Best of Show, Mr. or Mrs. Congeniality, and Most Talented. Must show dressed up doggie during 5-545 pm on zoom (not a photograph).

We encourage readers to support this grassroots group. And enlist your pups to help save the bees! Sign up here.

Photos: Top: A katydid, from Chris Helzer, the Prairie Ecologist. Bottom: Bumble Bee pups.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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 [email protected] as recipient

 

Rocks and Cows of MN supports MacDonald for state Supreme Court because tyranny

UPDATE, October 9: The Rocks and Cows and National Guard Cooks of the North page is either no more or private. However, there's Rocks and Cows of The North and National Guard Cooks The Sequel up now, though without the old content. The new group, established today, has far fewer members, but that could change. [end update]

On Friday, MinnPost's Greta Kaul reported on Why Paul Thissen isn’t waging a normal campaign for Minnesota Supreme Court. We'd been wondering why Thissen might have to worry about getting re-elected, even after reading the article, which closed:

But also said he’s also taking the challenge from MacDonald seriously. After running multiple times, she has some name recognition and has captured significant shares of the vote in previous elections, he said. “We have a serious opponent … this is her fourth run for the office.” 

At the Fargo Forum, the McFeely Mess podcast checked out the race in Minnesota Supreme Court candidate Paul Thissen says judgment matters, draws distinction with opponent:

Justice candidate MacDonald has history of suspension, discipline measures

 

Minnesota state Supreme Court justice Paul Thissen joins podcast host Mike McFeely to discuss his race against Michelle MacDonald, a candidate who had her law license suspended and has faced discipline from her peers. Thissen says judgment matters and believes his track record separates him from MacDonald.

 

And there's always more at Missing in Minnesota. Most recent MacDonald centered posts:  MacDonald asks Trump to nominate her to replace RGB and MacDonald’s testimony refutes claims made in her lawsuit and Live-stream: MacDonald’s disciplinary hearing.

Well, jeepers.

But not everyone in the North Star state has doubts about about her competence and all that. One group that's taking her seriously--and supports her over Thissen--is Rocks and Cows of Minnesota. Let's take a look at who Rocks and Cows of Minnesota is, then why the movement is supporting MacDonald.

On its front page, Rocks and Cows of Minnesota describes itself:

We are working on turning Rocks and Cows into a true political organization that will survive and continue to fight, well past this upcoming election. We will be fighting for all of us in the outstate, or to us, the Greater State of Minnesota. Therefore we have filed to become a Political Hybrid PAC, that makes only independent expenditures. . . .

From the Governor right down to the school board member, Rocks and Cows will be providing continual updates on issues, votes, and general performance. . . .

With 100,000 members across the movement, one thing is very clear, we will no longer endure being marginalized. We will be silent no more…! HERD STRONG is HEARD STRONG!

Rocks & Cows of Minnesota

Rocks & Cows of the North & National Guard Cooks

Recall Governor Walz

Mostly Rocks and Cows of Southern Minnesota

We can't find a state level political action fitting this description in the Minnesota Campaign Finance And Public Disclosure Board's Recent committee and fund registrations database, nor does anything come up on the federal level.

Now, the first two of those links go to the same Facebook page--with 37,400 some members--while the Southern Minnesota group is unavailable now on Facebook. The message on the page:

When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.

 

 

The Recall Governor Walz Facebook page is a private group with close to 60,000 members which uses the harhtag #RecallWalz.org.

The Recall Walz web page? Conservative Minnesota media site Alpha News' Judah Torgerud reported in Recall Walz group attempts to remove governor for a third time:

Along with grassroots support from citizens, Recall Walz has organizational help from Action 4 Liberty, a group that has previously petitioned for the removal of Walz’s emergency powers. They also have support from state Rep. Jeremy Munson, who is a moderator on the Recall Walz Facebook group

Ballotpedia's Tim Walz recall, Governor of Minnesota (2020) page includes Chief Justice Lorie Gildea's dismissal of the first two petitions. Irony alert: Gildea's spouse, Andy Gildea, recently retired as a staffer for Munson's New House Republican Caucus.

Those are the powers behind a group that's supporting MacDonald over Thissen. Here's a screengrab of the side-by-side comparison on the group's Current Minnesota Supreme Court Race:

Apparently all that history of suspension, discipline measures matters not.

On its "Our Team" section on Rocks and Cows of Minnesota's About Page, we read:

Seeing a need to correct the tides of deprecating, disregard for anyone outside the metro, we formed our organization to wake the silent majority. We’ve consistently grown since then, all thanks to the huge number of amazing Rocks and Cows. Our organization is made up of many amazing individuals and organizations. More information on affiliate groups coming soon!

We're happy to deprecate this nincompoopery from from our vantage point in Summit, SD, where we literally look down on the fertile farms and lovely conservation acres of west central Minnesota. Withholding information about MacDonald's sketchy legal reputation--especially in a time when conservatives fret about child abductions--boldly goes where no satirist has gone before.

Of course, part of this organization's membership is a Facebook group whose members by and large don't understand that the Babylon Bee is a satire group.

Related posts:

• Rocks & Cows Facebook group members decry Ilhan Omar's son John--er Bruno Mar
• She'll be back: Michelle MacDonald emails supporters that she's running for Justice again (2014)

Photo: From Rocks and Cows of Minnesota's frontpage. The billboards are the creation of one of the movement's member groups.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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 [email protected] as recipient

SD News Watch: State's criminal & civil traffic laws favor drivers over pedestrians in collisions

by Nick Lowrey, South Dakota News Watch

Used with permission

South Dakota traffic laws place more responsibility on pedestrians to be on the lookout for errant drivers than they do for drivers to watch out for walkers, joggers and cyclists when it comes to assigning liability in vehicle versus pedestrian accidents.

The state criminal and civil laws are unique among Great Plains states in the high level of responsibility for safety placed upon pedestrians and in the high legal standards prosecutors or civil attorneys must meet in order to bring charges or secure damages against a motorist.

The traffic laws may come into play soon as an investigation continues into a Sept. 12 fatal pedestrian crash involving South Dakota State Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.

If a driver in South Dakota is not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and wasn’t obviously “reckless” according to the legal definition of the term, prosecutors face a high bar of evidence when trying to bring criminal charges against drivers who kill or maim pedestrians, said Timothy Rensch, a Rapid City defense lawyer who has defended many clients involved in vehicle versus pedestrian collisions.

Civil attorneys, too, have major hurdles to cross when bringing complaints against drivers who strike pedestrians, due to South Dakota’s unusual take on the concept of “contributory negligence,” said Scott Hoy, a Sioux Falls trial attorney who specializes in recovering damages for those injured in traffic collisions.

When it comes to traffic crashes between pedestrians and vehicles, South Dakota is the only state in the nation that asks jurors in civil lawsuits to determine if a pedestrian’s own negligence is more than “slight” compared to the driver that hit them. But there isn’t much of a legal framework for determining what constitutes a “slight” contribution to a crash, Hoy said.

“The laws in South Dakota, quite frankly, are really archaic for pedestrians and, frankly, are a bit frightening,” Hoy said.

As an inquiry involving investigators from three states continues into the Sept. 12 accident in which Ravnsborg struck and killed pedestrian Joseph Boever, legal experts contacted by News Watch say that bringing any kind of criminal or civil case against Ravnsborg may be difficult given what is publicly known so far about the incident.

Ravnsborg killed Boever, 55, at about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 as Ravnsborg drove alone on U.S. Highway 14 just west of Highmore. Most of what is publicly known about the circumstances of the crash comes from a Sept. 14 statement sent to media outlets by Ravnsborg himself.

In his statement, Ravnsborg said he originally believed he hit a deer but never actually saw what he hit. In reality, the Attorney General had hit and killed Boever, who relatives say was likely walking along the highway toward or back from the white pickup truck he had crashed into a hay bale in the ditch earlier in the day. Boever’s pickup was located about half a mile west of where he was hit and killed by Ravnsborg.

 

South Dakota law requires drivers involved in collisions that result in an injury, death or property damage to immediately notify law enforcement and to render aid to someone who is injured up to and including, “the carrying of such person to a physician or surgeon for medical treatment if it is apparent that such treatment is necessary or is requested by the injured person.”

After hitting Boever, Ravnsborg said, he immediately stopped and called 911 to report that he’d been in a collision and needed help. Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek responded to the scene, Ravnsborg said, and both he and Volek searched near Ravnsborg’s car, a 2011 Ford Taurus, trying to figure out what had been hit, but found nothing.

Sheriff elections are partisan in South Dakota; Volek is a registered Independent, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Rensch said that based solely on Ravnsborg’s statement, it seems unlikely that the attorney general had been drinking prior to the collision because the sheriff should have noticed any impairment and tested Ravsnborg if he suspected alcohol use. Ravnsborg said he submitted to a blood test the day after the accident, which could indicate the presence of drugs in his system, but no results have been released.

“He called the police and they came to the scene. I don’t know how you can ever contend that he was under the influence of alcohol or other drugs if he’s having a conversation with the sheriff and the sheriff’s talking to him and doesn’t notice anything wrong, doesn’t have any suspicions,” Rensch said.

Proving that Ravnsborg behaved recklessly prior to the collision — another way to bring criminal charges against him — would require a confession or clear evidence that Ravnsborg ignored other people’s safety in some way that caused the collision, Rensch said.

Vehicle versus pedestrian collisions are fairly common in South Dakota. The state saw 140 such collisions in 2019, about one every 2.5 days. Eight pedestrians were killed and 132 were injured in 2019.

So far in 2020, seven pedestrians have been killed. From 2014 to 2019, 50 pedestrians were killed on or along South Dakota roadways.

Often in South Dakota, vehicle versus pedestrian collisions don’t result in serious criminal charges being filed. On Aug. 21, 2020 for example, a 19-year-old driver killed a 46-year-old pedestrian walking along Interstate 29 north of Sisseton. Investigators determined that the pedestrian had been walking partially on the interstate shoulder and in the travel lane at night and did not press charges against the driver.

State Sen. Arthur Rusch, a Vermillion Republican, said he thinks Ravnsborg did everything right after the collision, according to Ravnsborg’s own statement. Rusch is a retired judge in Clay County, where Ravnsborg often practiced as a lawyer, and said he knows Ravnsborg fairly well. In 2018, Rusch delivered one of the speeches that officially nominated Ravnsborg to run for Attorney General as a Republican.

South Dakota law does not require drivers who hit animals on roads to verify that the animal was killed outright, Rusch said, adding that enacting such a law probably is not practical.

“You know, if they look for five minutes, is that enough? Would they have to look for 15 minutes? How do you draw up a standard on what kind of an effort you have to make,” Rusch said. “I don’t know how you can draw up a standard.”

Because Ravnsborg stopped, said he called local enforcement and tried to locate the deer he believed he had hit, it doesn’t appear that he knowingly left a dead or dying person at the scene of the collision, Rusch said.

“Even if he knew that it was a person, which he says that he didn’t, he did immediately stop and notify law enforcement,” Rusch said. “I don’t know what more he could have done."

Criminal charges hard to bring in S.D.

If drugs or alcohol were thought to be a factor in the collision, Ravnsborg could face a charge of vehicular manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

From a criminal defense perspective, the most important thing Ravnsborg did on the night of Sept. 12 was call Sheriff Volek to the scene, Rensch said.

In the absence of drugs or alcohol, a criminal prosecution of a driver in a pedestrian crash would likely hinge on whether the driver was acting recklessly at the time of the accident, Rensch said. Legally, the term “reckless” applies to actions that are so careless they are deemed an extreme departure from the care a normal person would take. When it comes to driving, recklessness means intentionally disregarding the potential consequences of one’s actions.

Killing someone while driving recklessly can lead to charges of second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and reckless driving after he sped through a stop sign and killed a motorcyclist in 2003. Janklow was sentenced to 100 days in jail.

But the Janklow case was more clear cut than the Ravensborg fatality, Rusch said. Rusch was one of the circuit judges who filled in for the state Supreme Court justices who recused themselves when Janklow appealed his conviction. Rusch said Janklow was shown to have been speeding and clearly ran a stop sign in broad daylight and had a passenger in the car.

Rusch said it is unclear if Ravnsborg, who has several previous speeding violations, was speeding when he hit Boever, though his traveling speed is likely part of the ongoing investigation.

“The only comparison is that someone died,” Rusch said.

Proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ravnsborg was driving recklessly would be very difficult without a confession or hard evidence, Rensch said, even if Ravnsborg had been distracted by his cell phone or was falling asleep at the wheel.

In the case of distracted driving, prosecutors would have to prove Ravnsborg was distracted by his phone at the time of the collision, Rensch said. Even if Ravnsborg had glanced at his phone to check a text message or phone call, that doesn’t necessarily mean he was being reckless, despite a new South Dakota law making nearly any phone use while driving a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Ravnsborg said in his statement that he has turned over two cell phones to investigators.

“It’s not even close. You have to consciously and unjustifiably disregard a known risk. And I don’t think it can be said that anytime you glance at your phone, you know that you can risk killing somebody. That’s not really the way it is,” Rensch said. “The truth of the matter is many people, even with this law in place, glance at their phones for many reasons.”

If Ravnsborg had been falling asleep at the wheel, there’s not much prosecutors can do as there is no law against driving while tired in South Dakota. Prosecutors could try to show that driving while tired was reckless, but it would be difficult to prove without some kind confession from Ravnsborg, Rensch said.

Ravnsborg had driven at least 190 miles that day to and from a political event in Redfield; the day prior, he had traveled from Pierre to Rapid City and back and arrived home after 1 a.m., according to his Facebook page.

“I don’t really see fatigue as the $64,000 answer,” Rensch said. “Unless somebody’s saying, ‘I was so tired I just kept falling asleep,’ and things like that. It depends on what somebody says, but I don’t think fatigue is a person’s way into a criminal conviction.”

There are many reasons that drivers drift within the driving lane or even onto a highway shoulder and very few of those reasons are criminal, Rensch said. Ravnsborg could have drifted to the right if he was looking off to the left when he hit Boever, Rensch said.

“You can drift the other way if you reach down and mess with the radio or you are adjusting the air conditioner or whatever a person might do. All kinds of things can happen which do not turn (a collision) into a crime,” Rensch said

But just because an action wasn’t reckless according to the law doesn’t necessarily mean that it wasn’t negligent, which opens the door to a potential wrongful death lawsuit in civil court.

“I know that the violation of a safety statute — that would be texting while driving or distracted driving or something like that — could be utilized to establish negligence,” Rensch said.

Civil lawsuits difficult to win in S.D.

Bringing a wrongful death lawsuit against Ravnsborg for Boever’s death is possible, but it would be tough to win, legal experts said. South Dakota laws regarding liability in vehicle versus pedestrian collisions were written more to protect drivers than walkers or bicyclists, said Hoy, the Sioux Falls trial attorney.

Because there is no legal formula for determining “slight” negligence, jurors in pedestrian versus vehicle lawsuits are asked to decide for themselves what constitutes slight negligence and whether the pedestrian’s actions meet or exceed the jury’s definition.

“You’ve always got a jury saying, ‘Well, if this guy has anything that he’s partly responsible for, then he can’t recover,’ and that’s what makes it a tough deal,” Hoy said.

On a basic level, South Dakota law makes pedestrians more responsible for looking out for drivers than making drivers responsible for watching out for pedestrians, even though motorists are protected by thousands of pounds of steel, Hoy said.

In most states, including the six states that border South Dakota, jurors are tasked with determining how negligent each party was leading up to a crash. Then the jury has to determine what their verdict would be if only the defendant had been negligent. Once they’ve figured out what their verdict would be, they then reduce the award by the percentage that they determined the plaintiff had been negligent.

In South Dakota, if a plaintiff’s contribution to a crash is determined to have been more than “slight,” they cannot be awarded damages.

If a pedestrian involved in a crash with a vehicle were to sue for damages in Wyoming, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, Nebraska or North Dakota, for example, and was awarded $100,000 in total, but was determined to have been 25% negligent, the final award would be $75,000.

In Boever’s case, South Dakota law requires pedestrians on highways to walk on the left side of the road, against traffic. Walking against traffic allows the pedestrian to see what is coming their way and because they’re moving slower, pedestrians have more time to react.

Boever’s cousins Victor and Nick Nemec, who may have been the last people to see Boever alive, believe he was walking with traffic in the westbound lane of U.S. 14, meaning he would have been violating state law.

If a jury determined Boever’s actions contributed more than slightly to the collision, whether Ravnsborg was illegally distracted or falling asleep, there’s a good chance that Boever’s family would not be able to recover any damages, Hoy said.

EXAMPLES: THREE RECENT PEDESTRIAN FATALITIES

Between 2014 and 2019, 50 pedestrians have been killed by vehicles on South Dakota roadways. Many, but not all, of the deaths have occurred in rural areas. Often, no charges are filed against the drivers. Here are three recent examples of fatal vehicle versus pedestrian crashes in South Dakota and the legal outcomes.

Sisseton, August 2020

A pedestrian was killed Aug. 21, 2020 on Interstate 29 north of Sisseton when he was struck by a 2007 GMC Yukon.

Crash investigators determined that the pedestrian, identified as 46-year-old Cornelius Kirk of Rice Lake, Wisc., had been walking with traffic, partially in the interstate driving lane and partially on the shoulder, when he was struck and killed.

The 19-year-old driver of the GMC was not charged. The South Dakota Highway Patrol investigated the crash.

Tripp County, July 2020

On July 4, 2020, a 41-year-old pedestrian was killed while walking on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 18 about 13 miles west of Winner, S.D.

According to a police affidavit filed after the crash, two witnesses saw a car crash into a person, later identified as Kenneth Beard, on the highway at about 2:30 a.m., and then drive off. The witnesses called 911. Highway Patrol troopers dispatched to the crash were able to locate a 2018 Mazda3 that had damage to its driver side door and had grass wedged in its door seam. The Mazda3’s driver, identified as Cleveland Kills In Sight, Jr., 38, was arrested and charged with hit-and-run resulting in death, and driving under the influence. A charge of vehicular manslaughter was added against Kills in Sight Jr. after an investigation into the crash.

Sturgis, Oct. 2019

On Oct. 28, 2019, a 68-year-old Sturgis man died when he was run over by a pickup as he tried to cross a street in a crosswalk.

According to news reports, the crash happened at about 8:30 a.m. Gary Vandenberg, 59, was driving his 2014 Chevy pickup west on Sherman Street and stopped at the intersection of Harley Davidson Way before driving through the intersection and hitting Jerry Watkins.

Watkins was taken to Sturgis Regional Hospital where he died from his injuries. Vandenberg was cited by the Sturgis Police Department for having an obstructed windshield.

Photos/ Top: This image from U.S. 14 west of Highmore shows tire skid marks likely made by the car of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg near where 55-year-old Joseph Boever was struck and killed on Sept. 12. Photo: News Watch file.

Middle: South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, left, and crash victim Joseph Boever, right.

Bottom: This white pickup was stalled in the ditch a half mile west of where South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg stuck and killed Joseph Boever west of Highmore on Sept. 12. Ravnsborg would have passed by the pickup on his way back to his home in Pierre after the accident. Photo: Courtesy Dakota News Now.

If you enjoyed this article consider donating to South Dakota News Watch here.

Related posts:

• South Dakota News Watch: Crash experts question Ravnsborg’s car-deer explanation
• UPDATED: Joe Boever's tragic death on Hwy 14: news digest about Ravnsborg's fatal accident

f 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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News digest: Greater Minnesota gets salty

Reading around the North Star State's media this lovely September day, we're struck by a flurry of stories that suggest perhaps not all people in greater Minnesota are above average.

At the Star Tribune, Jeremy Olson reports in COVID-19 surveys halted in Minnesota amid racism, intimidation:

A door-to-door COVID-19 testing survey has been halted due to multiple incidents in outstate Minnesota of residents intimidating and shouting racial and ethnic slurs at state and federal public health survey teams.

The CDC pulled its federal surveyors out of Minnesota this week following reports of verbal abuse and intimidation, including an incident in the Iowa border town of Eitzen, Minn., in which a survey team walking to a house was blocked by two cars and threatened by three men, including one who had a gun.

Frustration with the state’s pandemic response “is totally understandable,” said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist, “but that is distinctly different than taking out frustration on another human being who is trying to help and is especially galling when there is a taint of racism. There is no justification for this — the enemy is the virus and not the public health workers who are trying to help.”

The frequency of problems became clear last weekend when surveyors discussed their experiences. A Hispanic surveyor was called one slur “more in the last week than in her entire life,” said Stephanie Yendell, a state senior epidemiology supervisor.

Insults came at doorways, from angry people approaching the surveyors or just people walking their dogs on the other sides of the streets, she said. The surveyors trapped in the Eitzen incident were permitted to leave and did not file a police report about the gun-toting man or the two others who approached them. . . .

Frustration with a lockdown doesn't justify bad behavior, especially toward strangers. At least, that's what my mother stressed--who grew up in Watonwan County--stressed to me.

At City Pages on Thursday, Hannah Jones reported in Minnesota Republican asks if residents are 'prepared' if Black Lives Matter 'comes to our city':

Republican Jeff Dotseth wants to unseat Democrat Mike Sundin to represent District 11A in the Minnesota House of Representatives this November, and he used Facebook to announce a get-out-the-vote event in Cloquet Wednesday evening.

The topics of discussion to be tackled by keynote speakers—Dotseth himself and State Sen. Jason Rarick (R-Brook Park)—started out fairly standard. “Do you know your rights when it comes to voting?” (Important!) “Do you know that you can become an election judge and make sure your polling place is open to the public?” (Sure!)

From there it takes a turn. “Let’s discuss BLM [Black Lives Matter].” (Okay...) “Are you prepared for when they come to our city?” (Wait, what?) “Do you have a network of patriots that you can count on?” (For what, exactly?) “Where is BLM getting all their funding?” (Literally a million people donated after the death of George Floyd, and the average gift was about $33.) . . .

Dotseth has removed the Facebook post that's embedded in the City Pages article, but DFL-endorsed candidate Michelle Lee, who's running for state senate in District 11, tweeted the image on Wednesday:

Meanwhile, this popped up on social media today featuring the Republican House and Senate candidates in SD11 in Greater Minnesota. One more reason to #FlipMNsenate @MinnesotaDFL pic.twitter.com/TaeIwcxiDL

— Michelle Lee for MN (@noozelady) September 23, 2020

Jones continues:

Dotseth, who previously ran against and lost to incumbent Sundin in 2018, didn’t respond to interview requests about his event, so unfortunately, we don’t know what he meant by any of that. . . .

He hasn’t posted much about Black Lives Matter by name—but he seems very preoccupied by unrest and crime outside of his district, which covers some of Carlton and St. Louis County. On July 11, he posted a KARE 11 story about a night of multiple shootings in Minneapolis.

“Coming to a city near you!” he wrote. “Get your friends and family to vote red in 2020, there is too much at stake not to.” . . .

Hop over to City Pages to watch the videos and read the rest of the story.

The Alexandria Echo Press editorial board gives a thumbs down to Qanon conspiracy theory adherents in Fooled by conspiracy theory:

Thumbs Down: The depths of deception seem to have no bounds. There is a growing group out there (way out there) who believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory that claims Satanists and pedophiles run the government and COVID-19 is a plot to steal the election. Such claptrap isn’t even worth the ink of printing except for the fact that some political candidates actually believe it’s real. The Star Tribune reported this week that as many as 77 congressional candidates and at least two dozen candidates for state legislatures across the country have been linked to the QAnon theory, which emerged in late 2017. The Tribune’s story noted that In some cases, Minnesota candidates have used official social media pages for their campaigns to post slogans in support of QAnon. The “movement” calls to round up elected officials, journalists and other members of the so-called “Deep State” for imprisonment or execution. Enough said.

Bring Me The News reported GOP lawmaker [Pat Garofalo] calls on state party to un-endorse candidates with QAnon links. Minority Leader Kurt Daudt claimed ignorance of the conspiracy in an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio News Friday morning (link as it is available.

Last week, Tom Cherveny reported in the West Central Tribune article, Quiet protest is start of anti-hate movement in Murdock:

Carrying lighted candles and a lighted sign, a small group of people strode quietly but surely through residential streets Thursday night in Murdock, an autumn nip in the air.

The group of 16 men and women made their way to the sidewalk in front of the former Calvary Lutheran Church, which is now the Third Hof, or gathering hall, of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a small group of pagan white supremacists.

The men and women gathered Thursday chose to hold a quiet, candlelight vigil to make it clear that their protest of the arrival of the Asatru Folk Assembly to this small Swift County community was a peaceful one. But don’t expect the newly formed Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate to be silent. . . .

Laura Thomas of Benson, who helped organize the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate, said her research of the Asatru Folk Assembly made her very concerned about the newcomers to town. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies it as an “extreme hate group,” she told those who gathered on Thursday night. The center calls it a white supremacist organization.

The Assembly members have been busy, arriving on weekends to restore the long-vacant building and spruce up its grounds, according to local Murdock residents and the group’s Facebook page. Most of the vehicles have out-of-state license plates, mainly from the Dakotas, according to the local residents.

The group says it is not racist, but the group's leader, Matthew Flavel, spoke at a 2018 event that also celebrated what would have been the 100th birthday of George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, according to an earlier report on the group published in the West Central Tribune. Flavel in the speech described Asatru Fellowship Assembly beliefs as a “white man’s religion.”

Pam Skoglund was among those carrying the lighted candles Thursday through the streets of Murdock. Her children were all baptized in the Calvary Lutheran Church, where she and and her family worshipped until its closing several years ago. “I find it very upsetting, sad, very sad,” she said of the church building’s purchase by the Asatru Fellowship Assembly.

“It’s awful to see that someplace that was there to spread love is encouraging hate,” said Karen Falk, also a former member of Calvary Lutheran who joined the candlelight vigil.

Those who joined the vigil said they wanted it known that Murdock is a welcoming community to all people. The Rev. Denise Fossen, pastor of the Kerkhoven Lutheran Church, said she joined the vigil to speak out against those who oppress others.

Guillemard is a law student living with her mother, Annelle, in Murdock, where she grew up. Mother and daughter said they were surprised when they learned about the purchase of the church building. To start the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate, a group of mothers got together to decide what to do, Victoria said. Their desire, she said, is to keep Murdock as a welcoming and safe community.

Guillemard said the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate will start its efforts to inform people in the area about the Asatru Folk Assembly by launching its own Facebook page. Her hope is that at some point, the group can host an open — and COVID-safe — meeting to provide information about it.

Video at Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate holds candlelight vigil.

We'll have more about future actions by the group. Bluestem Prairie broke the story of the new group's arrival in a July post. Baldurshof: Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly setting up in Murdock, Minnesota and delved into one leader's past in AFA gothar coordinator's life changed from police shoot-out & prison to serving old Gods.

In the Star Tribune, Maya Rao reported Thursday in Trump rally highlights tensions over race in Beltrami County:

As a movement for racial justice spread across America, residents protested in Paul Bunyan Park. Community leaders pushed for the police department to have a citizen advisory commission, questioning why the majority of jail detainees are Native American.

The small Black community here found a greater voice in a region where American Indians are the largest racial minority group and the Leech Lake, White Earth and Red Lake reservations surround this mostly white city of 15,000.

But some worry that the rhetoric of the presidential campaign is dealing a blow to race relations in Beltrami County. President Donald Trump at his rally here last week denounced refugees and praised his nearly all-white crowd’s “good genes” and the state’s pioneers, with no acknowledgment of the county’s 22% Native population.

Backers of Democratic nominee Joe Biden accuse Trump and his supporters of racist rhetoric while Trump voters say they are supporting him due to concerns about the economy and abortion, and that the media and liberals are the ones sowing discord.

Discussions on race are happening against a backdrop of political divisions in a swing county that voted for Barack Obama twice before 50.6% supported Trump. A January vote by county commissioners against refugee resettlement set off a furor that drew national attention.

“I’ve sat on every race relations committee and board in this city but one in [the past] 30 years and we have not been able to break that cycle of misunderstanding. … We live in very different cultures,” said Audrey Thayer, a member of White Earth and an arts and humanities instructor at Leech Lake Tribal College.. ..

Read the rest in the Strib.

Down in the Worthington Globe, the Forum Communications' Indigenous Impacts series is worth your time: How has COVID-19 affected Native American communities, people? View the entire 'Indigenous Impacts' project here.

Minnesota Reformer's Ricardo Lopez scooped the story of 2nd congressional district race delayed after sudden death of Legal Marijuana Now candidate. Our condolences to Adam Weeks' family.

Finally, the Rochester Post Bulletin examined the question Was candidate's online comment a threat?

Photo: Eitzen doesn't always welcome you, a state and federal public health survey team discovered, the Star Tribune reported. Image via Eitzen Family Funfest.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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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Southern MN QAnon state senate candidate Bangert outraged by notice of nomination

 

Minnesota's state statute (204C.32, subd. 2) governing the canvass of state primary states:

Subd. 2. State canvass. The State Canvassing Board shall meet at a public meeting space located in the Capitol complex area seven days after the state primary to canvass the certified copies of the county canvassing board reports received from the county auditors. Immediately after the canvassing board declares the results, the secretary of state shall certify the names of the nominees to the county auditors. The secretary of state shall mail to each nominee a notice of nomination.

That law doesn't sit well with one of the QAnon on the ballot: Six GOP-endorsed Minnesota candidates back conspiracy theory, identified by Star Tribune reporter Steve Montemayor on Tuesday. (Of course, Bluestem readers learned about Senate District 19 Republican candidate Elizabeth Bangert's Qanon fantasies when we reported in mid July's GOP state senate candidate totally upset all MN pols silent about Wayfair conspiracies).

Now she's found something closer to home to make faces about on Facebook. That notice of nomination!

Qanon Republican Bangert is outraged at receiving a notice of nomination as the Republican candidate in Minnesota Senate District 19:

Our state hands out participation trophies for politics? I mean... Am I supposed to add this in my resume? 😐 Tax payer dollars hard at work.

Posted by Bangert for Senate on Monday, September 21, 2020

Oh what fresh outrage is this? Secretary of State Steve Simon following the law! Heavens forbid an official seal shows up on an official document. Katie bar the door!

North Mankato DFLer Nick Frentz is serving his first term in the seat.

Related posts:

• Mankato Republican says she's not taking any contributions for her state senate campaign
• Mankato Republican says 'the Devil' is attacking her campaign [City Pages]
• Minnesota Citizen Lobbyist Elizabeth Bangert announces bid for Senate District 19

Photo: Bangert's making faces at receiving that notice. Via Facebook.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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 [email protected] as recipient

One of the Ortonville Whitleys damns veteran for wearing Black Lives Matter shirt

Back in 2014, Bluestem broke the story of Big Stone County GOP chair Jack Whitley in our post In Facebook status, Big Stone Co GOP chair calls Muslims "parasites," writes "frag em" at Mecca.

That led to fairly universal condemnation of the post, as we reported in Jeff Backer's campaign posts Big Stone Co GOP chair resignation news release without comment.

The Whitley account was JackAndGwenWhitley, and now Gwen has returned to public discourse, with a letter of response in the Ortonville Independent to the epistle we wrote about in.  Letter to Ortonville Independent: Father shares son's pain at being told "get the f- - - out of here".

Just a reminder of the background and love of country on the part of Mark Lindquist, that son who served "six years in the U.S. Air Force. He was an intelligence analyst with the highest security clearance. His service included service in Kuwait, Afghanistan and at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium":

Here's Gwen Whitley's letter of response, now online at the Ortonville Independent:

Dear Editor:

Concerning the comment in last week’s letter to the editor, “Get the F out of town,” that comment, I’m sure, was not about the color of the mans skin, obviously, he grew up in Ortonville and is well thought of. The comment was about the message “Black Lives Matter” he had on his T-shirt. When you wear and promote a statement like that, expect confrontation!

Black Lives Matter is a Marxist, Hellish, Anti-American, mob. It has nothing to do with skin color. I challenge you all to look it up and read their manifesto. Everywhere they go they raise hell. It doesn’t matter “what it means to me,” it matters what and who they really are!

So men, Stop crying, Stand up! and guard what is left of this country, our town, our homes!

Ortonville, we can do better than This!

Gwen Whitley

Ortonville

She seems nice.

Photo: Above: A source tells us these signs  were on the Whitleys' lawn in Ortonville until recently when they were replaced by Trump and Recall Walz signs. Below: Mark Lindquist singing the national anthem.

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+ Pants News: Chris Young cancels & Noem promotes SD as haven for cancelled events

Back at the end of July, the official South Dakota State News webpage published Governor Noem Announces Chris Young Coming to Sioux Falls for Inaugural Sportsmen’s Showcase and Concert:

Today, Governor Kristi Noem announced that award-winning country music superstar Chris Young will headline the concert at this year’s inaugural Governor Noem’s Sportsmen’s Showcase and Concert. The Showcase and Concert will be part of the annual Governor’s Hunt, a long-standing part of South Dakota’s pheasant hunting tradition. . . .

Governor Noem’s Sportsmen’s Showcase is a family-friendly trade show specializing in all things outdoors, including hunting, fishing, recreation, and more. With room for nearly 100 exhibitors, the Sioux Falls Convention Center & Arena provides the perfect location for exhibitors and visitors alike.

Ah, the glories of marketing pheasant hunting in a state's biggest urban area.

On September 21, Chris Young tweeted:

As we’ve done with all of my concert dates since early this year, everyone’s safety is the top priority so we've canceled our show on 10/24 in SD.

— ChrisYoungMusic (@ChrisYoungMusic) September 21, 2020

In what we suspect was a scheduled tweet, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem's account tweeted on September 22:

Have you had to cancel or postpone your group meeting or function?

If so, how about making South Dakota the destination for your event this year. We're open for business, and we'd love to have you.https://t.co/aq9H3N18sJ

— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) September 22, 2020

We can't make this stuff up.

Dakota Free Press has more in Chris Young Cancels Concert; Sanford, Avera, Monument Still Sponsoring Noem Event with No Masks, No Social Distancing…

Speaking of marketing campaigns. KELOLAND reported in One year after South Dakota’s “Meth We’re On It” Campaign:

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: The governor’s office contacted KELOLAND News to say it is still using the “Meth: We’re on it” campaign.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Nearly one year after South Dakota launched the controversial Meth: We’re On It campaign, the state says these ads were to grab people’s attention and they worked.

“Meth We’re On It’ is what we used in our first awareness campaign and we’re pivoting now to ‘Anyone Everywhere’, the whole idea here is that meth can be used by anyone in South Dakota and it can happen anywhere it doesn’t matter if you live in rural South Dakota or in the urban areas,” Secretary of Department of Social Services Laurie Gill said.

The meth campaign is still being worked on.

Oh good. "Anyone Everywhere" might explain a lot about Governor Positive Pants.

But we're speculating.

Image: We fixed an image.

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Minnesota Reformer: Eden Valley police chief endorses force to put down demonstrators

Bluestem Prairie editor's note: Another fine story from the Minnesota Reformer. To view the petition, click here for A call for Accountability, Action, and Justice for the Eden Valley Police Department.

From the Minnesota Reformer, September 22

Eden Valley police chief endorses force to put down demonstrators; petition circulates

by J.D. Duggan

A rural Minnesota police chief has come under fire for a Facebook post calling for the use of force against “criminal thugs” during the August Kenosha riots.

Last month, Eden Valley Police Chief Ernie Junker posted the comment under his own status, “Kenosha courthouse on fire here we go again.” The comment rippled through Eden Valley, inspiring some to petition for better training and accountability.

Eden Valley is a small city in central Minnesota about 30 miles southwest of St. Cloud.

“This is a joke. The only way you deal with these criminal thugs is force PERIOD,” Junker commented on his own post about the Kenosha riots.

In another, Junker wrote, “I only have one thing to say about this. FOLLOW ORDERS AND DIRECTION OR BAD THINGS CAN HAPPEN.”

Morgan Meyer, who grew up in Eden Valley, started a petition demanding a public apology, accountability for racist and violent speech and training centered around anti-racism and de-escalation. The petition had more than 950 signatures as of last week.

Eden Valley Mayor Brent Bengtson told Meyer he is creating a social media policy, but he has not committed to any other actions, according to Meyer.

Junker referred inquiries to the mayor. Bengtson declined to comment, saying it’s a personnel matter.

“I think the social media policy will stop the situation from happening going forward,” Meyer said. “However, I think that this is a deeper issue. It’s the mindset of the police department that’s clearly stated here.”

Junker last made headlines when he was tased in the neck by a former Meeker County sheriff’s deputy, as reported by the Litchfield Independent Review. The former deputy alleged the tasing was a response to “workplace sexual harassment.” At the time, the sheriff told the newspaper he was unaware of any allegations of sexual harassment.

As other officers commented on the post, Meyer said she was concerned that this is a broader problem of police relying too readily on force.

One recently retired officer, Todd Rohloff, responded to Junker’s post with a comment: “Start shooting these (expletive)!”

Rohloff was the chief of police of Kimball Police Department until 2007. He retired as a patrol officer from Glencoe Police Department in 2018. Since the killing of George Floyd, Rohloff has posted multiple racist memes.

In one July 18 post, a flag is decorated to look like a watermelon with the caption “The new flag for Black Lives Matter.” Rohloff responded to his own post with more racist stereotypes.

Rohloff posted an image on July 27 with still more stereotypes about Black people, drugs and prostitution.

Conspiracy theories and warnings of a coming civil war are also a common theme among Rohloff’s posts. One image, shared Aug. 19, paints the civil war as being between military veterans and Black Lives Matter supporters, ending with “Y’all better work this (expletive) out before we do, because I guarantee you are not ready for this.”

At the end of August, Rohloff shared a picture of 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who has been charged with murder for the killing of two people during the Kenosha riots, captioned with: “kenosha kid for MN governor 2020.”

Rohloff changed his name to “Tig Moe” on Facebook shortly after Junker’s comments were shared widely through the community.

Glencoe Police Chief Jim Raiter condemned Rohloff’s posts in an email. He said Rohloff’s views “do not express or reflect the past or present culture or views of this department.” Glencoe officers must go through cultural differences training, including specific training around implicit bias, Raiter said.

“It is very unfortunate that a past employee’s post-employment behavior is reflecting poorly on the department and all the police officers who are doing good work,” Raiter said in the email.

Martin Althaus, a former patrol sergeant who retired from the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office in 2015, also engaged with posts by these officers, including liking some of Rohloff’s racist memes. Althaus has made posts comparing Antifa protesters to Nazis.

Althaus published a Facebook status Aug. 28 that reads “My prediction. Shortly before Christmas someone will post something about a white Cop shooting a Black person in Minneapolis so people can loot for Christmas presents.”

In an emailed statement, Chief Deputy Dan Miller with the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said the posts do not represent the department and, “We expect our employees to be professional in and outside of the workplace.”

Some former Eden Valley residents who signed the petition seeking accountability for Junker’s posts said they are worried about how officers act in private based on their public social media posts.

“I’m disappointed in the community that raised me, because they can’t find any faults with those officers’ actions,” said Kayla Ehresmann, a 2016 graduate of Eden Valley High School, referring to many comments by residents who support Junker’s words. “Their own children could be these victims of ‘Follow directions or bad things can happen.’”

Junker has not apologized. Before making his Facebook settings private, he said Meyer made him famous by misrepresenting his statement.

Some other community members have rallied around Junker since his posts, with many thanking him for his service. One Facebook post shows Junker in multiple photos with children, high-fiving or smiling.

One person commented, “You have always lead [sic] with your heart in the right place and it shows! Keep up the good work.”

Photo: Eden Valley is about 30 miles southwest of St. Cloud. Photo courtesy of Lakesnwoods.com, via Minnesota Reformer.

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Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis: Project Tundra likely to raise rates for Milton R. Young Unit electricity customers

In a press release, IEEFA U.S.: Ratepayers face risks with Project Tundra’s retrofit of aging N.D. coal-fired plant, Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis staffers David Schlissel and Dennis Wamsted note:

A plan to retrofit an aging coal-fired plant in North Dakota with unproven carbon capture and storage technology is likely to raise rates for customers who get electricity from the Milton R. Young Unit 2 facility, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

Here's the report:

Project Tundra a Step in the Wrong Direction September 2020 uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

The press release continues:

The Project Tundra plan would retrofit the 43-year-old, 455-megawatt plant with a new carbon dioxide (CO2) technology that is untested at commercial scale. According to the proponents, the captured CO2 would be geologically sequestered or sold to companies for use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations.

Already, ratepayers for the Square Butte Electric Cooperative and Minnkota Power Cooperative are paying much more for power from Young Unit 2 than it would cost to purchase the same electricity from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) competitive wholesale market. Using federal tax credits to add carbon capture storage infrastructure is highly unlikely to reduce those costs, said David Schlissel, the study’s lead author.

“Minnkota customers already have paid millions of dollars more for electricity from Young Unit 2 than necessary,’’ said Schlissel, IEEFA director of resource planning analysis. “Adding carbon capture to the plant is only going to raise its costs, and ratepayers and customers are likely to end up stuck with the bill for the whole risky venture.”

The operators of the Young plant have estimated that retrofitting the plant will cost between $1 billion and $1.6 billion. IEEFA concludes that these estimates are optimistic, given that the Young retrofit would be almost twice the size of the 240 megawatt (MW) Petra Nova plant in East Texas, one of only two carbon capture storage facilities at coal-fired plants in the world. The much-smaller Petra Nova plant cost $1 billion to build, failed to capture as much CO2 as was expected, and was mothballed in May due to low oil prices. The other plant, Boundary Dam 3 in Saskatchewan, Canada has also failed to meet projected CO2 capture goals.

Even without accounting for the almost-certain cost overruns inherent in new technology, retrofitting the Young Unit 2 plant presents unique issues for its owners because of its age. Older plants cost more to operate and are less reliable than newer facilities, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Since the amount of CO2 produced by the plant depends on how much the plant operates, the project’s backers are betting that they can keep the unit running at a high rate even though research and real-world experience shows this to be unlikely.

There is also the issue of paying for the project. Project Tundra’s owners believe that federal tax credits, known as 45Q credits, will generate enough revenue to cover the cost of the retrofit. The owners of the project plan to sell the credits from either storing the captured CO2 underground or selling it for EOR activities. In return, investors will provide funding for the construction. A limited pool of tax equity financing and hesitation to fund a potentially risky project, however, makes Project Tundra less appealing than more conventional projects being developed by wind- and solar-based interests.

Finally, the fact remains that power from Young Unit 2 plant is expensive and can’t compete with renewables such as solar and wind power, whose costs have been falling rapidly, or less-expensive gas-fired plants. Even though less-expensive power from sources within the MISO market has been available to Minnkota Power Cooperative, the operator of Young Unit 2, it has spent $455 million more for power from the unit between 2011 and 2019 than it would have cost on the wholesale market. The operators have purchased less than 5 percent of their energy from MISO since 2015, and plan to obtain no more than 2.4 percent of future purchases from the market.

“Instead of pursuing this risky financial project,” said Dennis Wamsted, the study’s co-author, “Minnkota should close Young Unit 2 and embrace the renewable energy transition by building cleaner, lower-cost wind with storage to meet its capacity needs.”

Photo: Minnkota's Milton R. Young Unit in North Dakota.

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Savanna's Act passes in U.S. House; on way to White House for President Trump's signature

Some welcome news for the movement to address the heartbreak of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and girls.

At the Fargo Forum, April Baumgarten reports in Savanna's Act passes US House, heads to President Trump's desk:

President Donald Trump is poised to sign a missing and murdered Native Americans bill that was backed by North Dakota leaders in light of the 2017 death of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind in Fargo.

The U.S. House approved Savanna’s Act Monday, Sept. 21, with a voice vote, meaning the bill is headed to the president’s desk, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said in a statement. If signed, the Department of Justice will be required to develop protocols to address the issue of missing and murdered Native Americans.

That includes providing training to law enforcement on how to record tribal enrollment for victims in federal databases, implementing strategies to educate the public on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, consulting tribes on work regarding missing and murdered Native Americans, developing guidelines for cases and reporting statistics.

“Savanna’s Act addresses a tragic issue in Indian Country and helps establish better law enforcement practices to track, solve and prevent these crimes against Native Americans,” Hoeven said in his statement.

Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., introduced Savanna’s Act in the Senate in October 2017, less than two months after the 22-year-old LaFontaine-Greywind went missing. Her body was found Aug. 27, 2017, in the Red River just north of Fargo.

Prosecutors said Brooke Crews, who is serving a life sentence in prison for her part in the death of the enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Nation, cut LaFontaine-Greywind’s child from her stomach. Crews’ ex-boyfriend, William Hoehn, also is serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection to the kidnapping of the baby, Haisley Jo, who survived.

After unanimously passing in the Senate, Heitkamp’s bill died in the House when former Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia blocked it. The Democrat accused Goodlatte, the then-head of the House Judiciary Committee, of playing “petty partisan games.”

Heitkamp lost her reelection bid to Republican Kevin Cramer in 2018, but Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska who co-sponsored the bill, reintroduced it in January 2019.

Backed by Hoeven and Cramer, Savanna’s Act passed with unanimous consent in the Senate on March 11.

In speaking on the bill, U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., said Monday on the House floor that LaFontaine-Greywind's story exposed that data on missing and murdered Native American women is scattered across government databases "if it even exists at all."

Armstrong said LaFontaine-Greywind's story is not unique. Olivia Lone Bear went missing in October 2017 and was found almost a year later submerged in a truck in Lake Sakakawea. The FBI is investigating the 32-year-old Native American's death, as foul play has not been ruled out.

"Savanna's Act will begin to help address this crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people," Armstrong said, noting Native American and Alaskan Native women face a murder rate 10 times higher than the national average. "Because of outdated databases and lack of coordination between law enforcement agencies, there's no reliable way of knowing how many Indigenous women actually do go missing each year."

Trump has not publicly committed to signing the bill, but he has supported other legislation and executive orders regarding Native Americans. That includes ordering the establishment of a missing and murdered Native Americans task force last year.

Since moving to Northeastern South Dakota, the crisis has become more vivid to me, since one of my romantic partner's cousins, Lakota Renville, is among the unsolved murder cases whose death still causes grieving among the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of Dakota. The image at the top of the post is from the Facebook page, Lakota Renville: Unsolved Homicide, which appears to be run by her grieving sister.

In 2017, we posted in ND senators introduce two bills to address epidemic of missing & murdered Native women:

North Dakota's US Senators have introduced bills directed at ending the epidemic of missing and murdered Native American women, the Forum News Service's Blake Gumprecht reports in two articles, ND's US senators propose legislation to address 'epidemic' of missing and murdered Native women (October 1) and These are not isolated cases': Sen. Heitkamp highlights missing and murdered native women in introducing 'Savanna's Act' (October 5).

The latter article highlights the dramatic introduction of Senator Heitkamp's bill:

In September 2010, Stella Marie Trottier-Graves, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, went to a bar with her cousin. She was never again seen by family members after that night. Thirteen days later, they were notified that her dead body was found in the pickup of a male tribal member.

In 2005, Lakota Rae Renville, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe of North and South Dakota, met a man online and moved to Missouri to be with him. She was forced into sex trafficking and later that year her dead body was found, wrapped in carpet padding in an open gravel pit.

In April 1993, Monica Wickre, a 42-year-old mother of three, born and raised on the Turtle Mountain reservation, who lived near Aberdeen, S.D., disappeared. Two months later, her badly decomposed body was found by a canoeist in the James River near Aberdeen.

In winter 1979, Mona Lisa Two Eagle, a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe of South Dakota, got into a pickup with two men. She never returned. Two weeks later, her father and brother found her frozen body in a pasture. She'd been beaten and left alone in a blizzard.

Nobody has been convicted in the disappearance or killing of any of these native women.

That was the fall of 2017. In 2018 we posted Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte blocking Savanna's Act in U.S. House and Forum MMIW editorial: Savanna's Act mustn't die.

On Twitter, Ruth Hopkins, a tribal member and spouse of the interim chair, shares another article about the bill:

Congress has finally passed Savanna’s Act, to combat the epidemic of missing & murdered Indigenous women. It’s named for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, 22, a Native woman who was 8 months pregnant when she was murdered. Her baby was cut from her womb. #MMIW https://t.co/WUMGpuzUmc

— Ruth Hopkins ⚡️❤️⚡️ (@Ruth_HHopkins) September 22, 2020

84% of Native women experience violence in their lifetime & in some places, Native women are murdered at 10 times the national average. #MMIW #MMIWG #SavannasAct

— Ruth Hopkins ⚡️❤️⚡️ (@Ruth_HHopkins) September 22, 2020

We applaud those who brought this issue to the nation's attention. We hope it will give more people the strength and courage to speak and act.

Mike's family has long mourned the death of his aunt Rosalie, who was raped and murdered at a boarding school when she was nine years old, before WWII. No one was brought to justice for her death. It was during that time when--as an SWO elder once explained to South Dakota Representative and SWO Tribal Archivist Tamara St. John--it was okay to kill an Indian. The MMIW crisis is the legacy of that time.

Photo: A memorial to Lakota Renville at the SWO Agency Headquarters on the Lake Traverse Reservation. Via the Lakota Renville: Unsolved Homicide Facebook page.

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MN Reformer: The Hagedorn rule: Watchdogs say congressional family deals need oversight

From the Minnesota Reformer, September 21

The Hagedorn rule: Government watchdogs say congressional family deals need oversight

By Daniel Newhauser

WASHINGTON — Even if U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn loses his first re-election race in November and leaves office after a single, little noted term in the House minority, he could still be leaving a lasting legacy: Call it the “Hagedorn Rule.”

Congressional ethics experts say Congress should clarify who can or can’t do business with congressional offices, following revelations that Hagedorn’s office quietly paid his chief of staff’s brother hundreds of thousands of dollars to send positive mailers to constituents.

Nepotism and conflicts of interest are explicitly banned in the ethics rules for members of Congress. For instance, a lawmaker can’t hire his wife’s firm. He also can’t hire a company owned by a member of his staff, and a member of the staff can’t contract his own company. (Hagedorn’s office appears to have violated the latter two rules, but we’ll get to that in a minute.)

Hiring a chief of staff’s brother, on the other hand? Well, the rules become murkier when you drop one rung down the chain of command and one branch over on the family tree.

Hagedorn alleged in an internal review of the matter that his then-chief of staff, Peter Su, hired Delaware-incorporated company Abernathy West to design and print postcards and fliers for the office. A lawyer hired by Hagedorn to investigate the issue found that the company is owned by Nien Su, Peter Su’s brother. A spokeswoman for Abernathy West later confirmed the ownership to the Minnesota Reformer.

Ethics experts were hard pressed to find a rule that explicitly bans a chief of staff from hiring a company controlled by his or her family member to perform services for the office. While that may seem like something that should be prohibited, there is no rule outright banning a staff member from contracting with a family member, so long as the staff member isn’t getting a kickback or doesn’t have part-ownership in the company, according to the ethics specialists.

An analogous regulation can be found in the Members’ Congressional Handbook, a guide the House Administration Committee puts out for legislators, governing their taxpayer-funded office budgets, also known as Members Representational Allowances, or MRAs.

“No Member, relative of the Member, or anyone with whom the Member has a professional or legal relationship may directly benefit from the expenditure of the MRA,” the rule states.

Hagedorn’s payments for similar work to Invocq Technologies, which is owned by his staffer John Sample, are a clear-cut violation of this provision, according to several ethics experts. But it doesn’t mention anything about the brother of a chief of staff. Bryson Morgan, a former investigator at the Office of Congressional Ethics, said maybe it should.

“The language of that rule in the Members’ Congressional Handbook is one paragraph and it’s exceedingly broad,” Morgan said. “It would be in the best interest of members for the Committee on House Administration to provide more detailed guidance on prohibited personal, legal and business relationships.”

Don’t hold your breath, said a spokesman for the House Administration Committee, the panel that regulates how members can spend their pot of taxpayer money.

“To my knowledge, there have been no discussions about amending the member handbook, which is clear,” said Peter Whippy, citing that passage.

Still, that doesn’t mean it won’t come up now that the questionable spending has been aired out. And the language could get a rewrite in another context: The House Ethics Committee is undertaking an overhaul of the ethics manual, and even got a budget increase last year to finance that task, the largest percentage increase of any single House committee.

On Monday, it became more likely that the Ethics Committee will be taking a look at Hagedorn’s office spending, after Minnesota attorney Sybil Dunlop filed a complaint against the congressman with the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body that investigates allegations of wrongdoing and refers them to the Ethics Committee.

But even Dunlop, who did a thorough analysis of House rules, said she couldn’t find a rule explicitly banning the relationship. Instead, she pointed to measures in the Code of Ethics for Government Service, which state that the members should find the most “efficient and economical” services, not “discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone” and engage in no business that is “inconsistent with the conscientious performance of his governmental duties.” She also pointed to an even more vague clause that states members and officers of the House must “adhere to the spirit and the letter” of the rules.

“A blanket rule certainly makes it easier to know what the right move is,” Dunlop said in an interview.

In fact, the larger issue could arise if it can be proven that Abernathy West was overcharging Hagedorn’s office, as alleged in the internal review of the mailings carried out by Hagedorn’s lawyer.

A spokeswoman for Abernathy West disputed that claim, however, justifying the price tag by saying the mailers were not “cookie cutter” and were produced under time constraints.

“Abernathy West stands behind the quality and value of its work,” the spokeswoman said.

Schuman, a government transparency advocate and policy director of the nonpartisan democracy reform group Demand Progress, said that despite the vagueness of the House’s internal rules, the Su brothers could run into legal problems if investigators start throwing out subpoenas or asking for documents.

Schuman said the fact that Abernathy West hid its ownership behind Delaware incorporation papers seems suspicious on its face, and that if investigators uncover any financial interest in the company by Peter Su or Hagedorn or documents outlining attempts to defraud the office of taxpayer money, the violations could change from technical to legal.

“It looks a little bit like a kickback scheme, doesn’t it?” Schuman said. “They didn’t disclose the relationship to the member. If they had they would have said so. So they were sending money to an affiliated company without disclosing to the member they did it at a rate that’s way above the appropriate rate. I mean, either it’s fraud or they’re massively incompetent.”

A spokeswoman for Abernathy West referred questions about whether Hagedorn knew the company was owned by his chief of staff’s brother to Hagedorn’s office and said Nien Su does not want to interpret whether his business relationship with the office was prohibited by House rules. The spokeswoman also said Nien Su is the only owner of the company and neither Peter Su, nor Hagedorn nor his family received any monetary compensation because of the deal.

She added that the Delaware incorporation was a run of the mill business registration.

“Mr. Su, like millions of others, chose to incorporate in Delaware to avail himself of the favorable business laws and tax treatment available in Delaware,” she said. “He was not trying to hide his ownership.”

Hagedorn said he did not know about the relationship, according to the internal review of the spending conducted by D.C.-based lawyer Elliot Berke.

The earliest evidence tying Hagedorn to knowledge of the company’s ownership came courtesy of Peter Su, who leaked to the Minneapolis Star Tribune a recording of a conversation he had with Hagedorn on August 7 — one day after the Minnesota Reformer first reached out to Hagedorn’s office seeking comment about the spending on Invocq Technologies and Abernathy West.

In that conversation, Hagedorn said, “I don’t believe there’s any problem.”

With the rules around the issue being so vague, who could blame him?

Also from the author at the Minnesota Reformer: Exclusive: Minneapolis lawyer files first known ethics complaint against Hagedorn.

Image: U.S. Rep. Hagedorn sent more mail to constituents — and spent more on it — than all other members of Congress. The printing contractors included a company owned by a member of his staff and another owned by the brother of the chief of staff, since fired. Source: the Minnesota Reformer.

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Katie Hopkins pitches anti-Muslim, pro-pussy grabbing message to MAGASOTA crowd

Last week, we posted about the MAGASOTA's surprising speakers list for Northfield Trump Rally Minnesota 2020 Saturday.

At the event yesterday, the "Surprise Guest of International Fame" was revealed as British columnist, Katie Hopkins.

For those provincial souls who don't don't know who she is, a synopsis. Forbes' Alexandra Sternlicht reported in June's Far-Right U.K. Commentator Katie Hopkins Permanently Banned From Twitter For ‘Hateful Conduct’:

The controversial U.K. media pundit and reality TV star Katie Hopkins was permanently banned from Twitter on Friday for “abuse and hateful conduct.” . . .

This is far from the first backlash Hopkins has faced from her remarks. The police reportedly investigated her over tweets in 2017 that questioned whether a Labour politician was a pedophile after he posted a picture with the Pakistani flag, reports BBC. She was also made to pay nearly $160,000 after a court found her guilty of libeling non-binary food writer Jack Monroe for implying Monroe had vandalized war memorials. Hopkins was fired from her job at LBC, and reported to the police, after using Nazi rhetoric in calling for the “final solution” in a tweet after the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.  . . .

Our favorite Hopkins headline comes from Snopes in 2017: Did ‘Liberal Feminist’ Katie Hopkins Advocate ‘Euthanasia Vans’ for the Elderly? The answer:

Hopkins, a British commentator known for making outrageous and sometimes morally bankrupt statements, made the comments in 2015.

Claim: Liberal feminist Katie Hopkins advocated for driving euthanasia vans around to kill off the elderly.

Rating: Mostly true

What's True

Hopkins did make the comment in an interview in 2015.

What's False

The comments were not made in 2017, when the story was being shared on disreputable web sites; Hopkins is considered a right-wing commentator, not a "liberal feminist".

Here's Hopkins' Wikipedia entry for more dish and libel judgments levied against the British right-wing celebrity.

Given MAGASOTA's Michele Even's judgment in putting Hopkins on the speakers list, we've have yet another clue as to how the group got on the Republican Party of Minnesota, the Minnesota House Republican Caucus and the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus's Minnesota Scammers Exposed menu.

Nor does Hopkins' speech disappoint the low standards for discourse she's set in her career. Via anti-Muslim conservative activist Marni Hockenberg's YouTube channel, here's her performance:

Hopkins begins by asking the 1,300 people in attendance:

How you all doing, you beautiful people. This is where they put all the pretty people, is it? I've been staying in Downtown Minneapolis...is it ugly there.

So ugly. All this [unclear], this is what you get when you marry into you own family, right? You get some ugly looking people.

Like the first night at the DNC. . . .

My name is Katie Hopkins. Straight, white, Christian, conservative, nationalist, patriot . . . mother of three children and I'm proud of all those things.

I've been married twice before. I've been married almost as many times as Ilhan Omar except I've never married my own brother.

I have three children under the age of sixteen. All my Somali friends in the crack huts back in the center of town have sixteen children under the age of three. Don't tell me I don't have any Muslim friends. . . .

It continues along those lines--and so much more--until she says that the president can grab her pussy since that's better than having a pussy president.  Okay then.

Perhaps she's never heard of Minnesota Nice.

Speaking of which, the next video on Hockenberg's channel, #MagasotaTrumpRally2020take three With Michael Matt, features Matt, publisher of The Remnant, a Traditionalist Catholic newspaper, according to Wikpedia. Matt also runs RemnantTV.

As my late father would likely have observed, a pair to draw to.

The Southern Poverty Law Center included The Remnant among 2019 radical traditional Catholicism hate groups.

Photo: Katie Hopkins at the MAGASOTA Trump Rally at Castle Rock Bar and Grill in rural Dakota County on Saturday, September 19. Via GunderzThunder's tweet.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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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South Dakota News Watch: Crash experts question Ravnsborg’s car-deer explanation

Earlier this week, we posted UPDATED: Joe Boever's tragic death on Hwy 14: news digest about Ravnsborg's fatal accident.

We made assemble another digest of news and commentary about the incident, but for now, we're running a 1,500 word abridgement of South Dakota News Watch's investigative article, Crash experts question Ravnsborg’s car-deer explanation and raise concerns of distracted driving. For more copy and photos, please check out that article.

We use this shorter version with permission.

Bart Pfankuch
South Dakota News Watch

An experienced traffic-accident reconstruction expert is casting doubt on the claim made by South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg that he thought he hit a deer with his car the night of Sept. 12 when in fact he had struck and killed a man.

Kurt Weiss is a mechanical engineer who has 34 years of experience in reconstructing hundreds of car accidents and is the owner of Case Study Collision Science, a California forensic research firm. Weiss is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction and has worked on cases for government agencies and clients in civil and criminal trials.

After viewing an image of the site where Ravnsborg hit and killed 55-year-old Joseph Boever, reading articles about the incident and viewing a photo of Ravsnborg’s vehicle taken after the crash, Weiss said it is highly improbable that Ravnsborg would not have known he’d hit a man unless he was distracted and not looking at the road at the time of the collision.

Ravnsborg struck and killed Boever at 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 on U.S. Highway 14 just west of Highmore, S.D. on his way back from a political event in Redfield.

“If he [Ravnsborg] is looking forward and had the headlights on, it would be easy to discern if it’s someone’s jeans and a flannel [shirt] versus a beige-colored deer,” Weiss told News Watch in an interview. “But if he’s looking down or to the left and he blasts something, you might not know what you hit. But how could he not; look at the hole in the windshield.”

Weiss said that even at a high speed and on a dark night, Ravnsborg likely would have known he did not hit a deer if he had been driving without distraction.

“It would be easy to tell the difference; even at 100 mph, you would be able to tell the difference between an erect human versus a deer, no question,” Weiss said, “and that would be part of the interrogation of Mr. Ravnsborg.”

Weiss and another accident-reconstruction expert interviewed by News Watch said it will be difficult but certainly possible for investigators to determine how and where on or off the roadway the collision between Ravnsborg’s car and Boever took place. Information from the road, debris at the site, overhead images taken by drone cameras, tire or skid marks on the roadway, and details from the car and its internal information systems can all be used to determine what happened that night, they said.

The second reconstruction expert interviewed by News Watch, John Desch of John Desch Associates of New Jersey, said that if the investigation reveals that Ravnsborg struck Boever on the road shoulder and not in the travel lane, then Ravnsborg would have more culpability in Boever’s death.

“That would be clear negligence on the part of the driver,” Desch said. “If a pedestrian is walking on the shoulder, there is some kind of reliance on their part that they’re in a safer area.”

Weiss further said that the broken windshield of Ravnsborg’s 2011 Ford Taurus would likely have contained clothing fibers, human skin or hair that could have indicated to Ravnsborg or Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek that Ravnsborg had hit a person and not a deer. Likewise, a deer likely would have left hair, hide or bone fragments in the broken windshield or on the front of the car to indicate an animal was struck.

“A jagged glass edge is going to catch some fibers, and for me, as an experienced reconstructionist, if you look at the glass edge, you know the difference between a human and a deer,” Weiss said. “It would be very apparent.”

Weiss examined a photo of Ravnsborg’s crashed vehicle posted by KELO news; the red Ford Taurus with a smashed windshield was also seen at a highway maintenance facility in Highmore by Nick Nemec, a cousin of Boever, when he was at the accident scene in the days following the collision.

Investigators from the South Dakota Highway Patrol and the state of North Dakota are investigating the accident.

Ravnsborg, a 44-year-old Republican, released a statement two days after the accident saying that on the night of the collision he thought he had struck a deer, that he stopped his car and that he called Sheriff Volek and that the two looked but could not find evidence of what Ravnsborg had struck. Ravnsborg said that because his car was damaged, Volek loaned him his own car to drive back to Pierre, where Ravnsborg lives.

The next morning, returning in two vehicles to Highmore with his chief of staff, Tim Bormann, Ravnsborg said he and and Bormann stopped at the accident site to look around and discovered Boever’s body in the ditch. He said they then drove to Volek’s house and the formal investigation began.

Ravnsborg, who has several past speeding tickets, said he had not been drinking alcohol the night of the accident. The attorney general said he would not answer any further questions until the investigation is complete.

Department of Public Safety spokesperson Tony Mangan told News Watch that the state has hired John Daily of Jackson Hole Scientific Investigations, Inc., of Jackson Hole, Wyo., to reconstruct the accident. Daily has a mechanical engineering degree and spent 25 years as a law enforcement officer; his website said he has investigated more than 1,000 accidents.

Desch is also a veteran car-accident reconstruction expert. His firm has more than 30 years of experience in accident analysis and has a staff of 10 accredited reconstruction experts.

Desch said that if Boever was wearing dark clothing and walking in the traffic lane, it is possible that Ravnsborg could have struck him and not known that he hit a person.

A car traveling 65 mph is covering about 100 feet per second, so there isn’t much time for a driver to recognize an object that suddenly illuminates in the headlights, Desch said.

But if the evidence shows that Boever was on the highway shoulder or in the ditch when struck, then “that’s a whole different matter and then you begin to look at distractions,” Desch said.

Desch said the culpability of Ravnsborg increases if Boever was on the shoulder when struck, especially since Ravnsborg would have heard the loud sounds from the “rumble strips” cut into the pavement just off the travel lane likely would have looked up.

Weiss said a low-profile vehicle such as a Ford Taurus would tend to sweep a person or a deer onto the hood and into the windshield, which should have made it easier to identify what object was struck.

According to manufacturer information, the 2011 Ford Taurus is equipped an air-bag control module that can show both pre-crash and crash data, including speed, engine RPM, brake and throttle application levels, rate of deceleration, and when safety measures such as air bags and seat belt tensioners deployed.

A pair of black tire tracks are still clearly visible on the pavement in the westbound lane of U.S. 14 at the accident scene just outside of Highmore. The tire marks are heading off the roadway to the right; the right tire mark first appears on the paved shoulder of the road.

The tire tracks are dotted with evenly spaced splotches of green spray paint made by investigators. The tracks start a little more than half a mile from the U.S. 14 intersection with state Highway 47 and about 280 feet west of a 65 mph speed-limit sign that marks the end of a reduced-speed zone through Highmore.

The green paint near the tire tracks appeared on Sunday, Sept. 13, when crash investigators were swarming the highway, said Nick Nemec, a former state lawmaker. Nemec and his brother, Victor, have walked the scene of the collision that killed their cousin at least once a day since identifying his body because they want to understand what happened and are not getting information from state officials.

The Nemecs said they do have serious doubts about the story Ravnsborg has told the public and wonder whether an alert driver could mistake a man for a deer, even on an unlit stretch of highway.

Three key questions the reconstruction expert will try to answer are whether Ravnsborg was distracted while driving, if he was traveling above the speed limit when Boever was struck and where Boever was standing or walking when he was hit.

Desch said that since the collision occurred at 10:30 p.m., it is also possible that Ravnsborg fell asleep behind the wheel.

Weiss said it is difficult to anticipate how long a reconstruction may take, and the length can depend on the complexity of the case, Weiss said.

If you appreciate enterprise investigative journalism, consider making a donation to South Dakota News Watch here.

Photo: Nick Nemec, left, and his brother, Victor, have made several visits to the scene of the accident on U.S. Highway 14 west of Highmore, S.D., where their cousin Joseph Boever was killed after being struck by a car driven by South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg on Sept. 12, 2020. Photo: Nick Lowrey, South Dakota News Watch.

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MAGASOTA's surprising speakers list for Northfield Trump Rally Minnesota 2020 Saturday

Readers may remember our post from last February, Who owns Trump brand in MN?: MN GOP, #mnleg caucuses' battle Dorr Bros, MAGASOTA "scams" on new website; MAGASOTA fights back .

That's where we explored the politics of the Minnesota Scammers Exposed website, sponsored by the Republican Party of Minnesota and both Republican legislative caucuses. One of the groups labelled "scammers" was MAGASOTA.

Readers may also remember Footnote: Liberate Minnesota leader Michele Even part of GOP's MN Scammers Exposed at the time of the protest in front of the Governor's mansion.

The page remains online, so the disavowal of the scammers is still a thing.

We asked when we saw the speakers list for MAGASOTA's Trump Rally Minnesota 2020 on the Facebook event page for Saturday's rally at Castle Rock Bar & Grill in Northfield MN:

MAGASOTA is hosting a Minnesota Trump rally in honor of our great President Donald J Trump.

YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS EVENT!!!

Please get your tickets here. It will expedite your check in.

https://www.magasota.com/minnesota_trump_rally_2020
Print it and bring along.

MAGA hats to the first 200 people.
45 KAG Flags to be given away.
MAGASOTA gear to attendees.

 

Guest speakers:
Bill Jungbauer
State Rep Jeremy Munson
Republican candidate Erik Mortensen
Julie Quist
John Mitchell from The Rowdy Podcast
Don Huizenga
very special guest Michael Matt of The Remnant TV
Surprise Guest of International Fame

The registration page on the MAGASOTA site can be visited here. It shouldn't be confused with Friday's airport rally featuring the president himself.

So what's the rumpus? The Northfield seat, MN20B, is now held by a DFLer, Todd Lippert. The endorsed Republican candidate is Joe Moravchik of Lonsdale. The Republican senate incumbent, Madison Lake's Rich Draheim, also isn't on the guest list.

CORRECTION: The location of the event is in Castlerock Township, Dakota County, represented by Representative Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, and Matt Little, DFL-Lakeville. No Republican on the ticket in this district appears to have spoken at the event.

State Representative Jeremy Munson, the New Republican from Lake Crystal, represents House District 23B, which has been reliably Republican since 2002. Perhaps he can spend time away from his district.

But we're puzzled at "Republican candidate Erik Mortensen" spending time in Northfield, since Mortensen is the challenger in  House District 55A, a very competitive district now held by Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee.

Tabke beat Mortensen in 2018 by just over 600 votes; with the exception of the state auditor and attorney general's races, Democrats prevailed in all the partisan contests on the ballot. That was a significant change from the 2016 election, when Republicans swept all partisan offices in the district.

There are a few other fun wrinkles on this roster as well. Take former Second Congressional District Republican Chair Bill Jungbauer, for instance. In 2016, Cyndy Brucato reported at MinnPost in Minnesota’s GOP activists are still pretty bummed out about Donald Trump:

Talking to Republican activists about Donald Trump at last week’s 2nd Congressional District convention in Apple Valley was like listening to people suffering through the five stages of grief. From denial to anger to bargaining, it’s clear that these GOP voters have some distance to go before they reach acceptance.

“I’m not happy with any candidate on the ticket,” said delegate Bill Jungbauer, a former party chair in the second district. “I’m considering going with a third party. Why not vote with my heart instead of the lesser of two evils?

The news in September 2015's Brucato piece, Can Trump turn his fans in Minnesota into actual Republican voters?, mined a similar vein:

Donald Trump officially won the Minnesota Republican Party’s very unofficial corn poll of presidential candidates at the State Fair, where visitors filled growlers with corn to indicate their preference.  

And Trump won by a sizable margin – getting 25.5 percent of the votes in the field of seven. (Check out the full results here.)

Trump still hasn’t crashed and burned in the manner that many pundits predicted a few months ago, notes former 2nd Congressional District Chair Bill Jungbauer, but he thinks he will, eventually.

Jungbauer is a Libertarian. Trump, he says emphatically, is not. “He [Trump] does what he needs to do for him,” Jungbauer said. “I believe he’s another Jesse Ventura, only with thicker skin.”

Like Maginnis, Jungbauer said he has seen no grass-roots efforts on behalf of Trump, and says, in fact, the strongest support at the caucus level is for Libertarian favorite Sen. Rand Paul, whose father, Ron Paul, controlled Minnesota’s delegation to the national convention in 2012.

Still, “it’s possible Trump could pull something off,” Jungbauer said.

Jungbauer ran for Republican Party Chair in 2015, Brucato reported at the time. We looked at What's state Republican Party chair candidate Jungbauer scrubbing from his Facebook page? in April 2015. MPR's Catharine Richert reported in Race for MN GOP Party chair sparks a little drama. Jungbauer lost.

He maintained his contrarian politics in the 2016 Second District Congressional race, The Uptake's Mike McIntee reported in Former CD2 GOP Chair Backs Gerson For Congress Over “Summertime Patriot” Candidates. Former radio talk show host and summertime patriot Jason Lewis secured the Republican endorsement and the seat, only to lose to Angie Craig in 2018. Lewis is now the Republican U.S. Senate candidate seeking to grab the seat now held by DFLer Tina Smith.

Then there's Julie Quist, wife of former state representative Allen Quist, who ran unsuccessful campaigns for governor and First Congressional district. As a board member of the Child Protection League, Quist works for anti-LGBTQ policy. Her husband predicted some of the president's anti-Democratic rhetoric--back in 2010:

“Our country is being destroyed. Every generation has had to fight the fight for freedom… Terrorism? Yes. That’s not the big battle,” he said. “The big battle is in D.C. with the radicals. They aren’t liberals. They are radicals. Obama, Pelosi, Walz: They’re not liberals, they’re radicals. They are destroying our country.”

And then there's Don Huizenga, the Anoka Republican activist (also reportedly a Carver County property owner who appeared in an anti-equity that inflamed racial controversy in Eastern Carver County Schools). Huizenga was an organizer of the Liberate Minnesota protest.

Unlike Jungbauer, Huizenga was a Trump supporter in 2016. The Star Tribune's Allison Sherry reported:

Don Huizenga, a construction worker and Trump coordinator in Emmer’s district, counts himself among the “bar stool white Republicans” to whom the Republican candidate appeals.

“A lot of politicians have forgotten, and the media has forgotten, a large group of white working-class Americans that feel like they’ve been put to the side by both parties,” said Huizenga, who lives in Anoka. “We are always asked to come to the bar and pay the bill, but not participate.”

Earlier that year, Huizenga rejected gestures intended to bring anti-Trump Republicans back in the fold, the Pioneer Press reported in Minnesota GOP rejects anti-Donald Trump party member welcome:

A group of Minnesota Republicans opposed to Donald Trump had what they thought was a modest proposal: make it clear that one could still be a good Republican without supporting Trump as the Republican nominee. . . .

But a majority of members of the Republican Party of Minnesota’s statewide governing body had a very different take: the measure was “divisive,” bad for the party and bad for democracy.

“It doesn’t unite the party at all,” said Don Huizenga, an Anoka Republican. “It separates us into different factions.”

For a good overview of his beliefs, check of his Facebook page, Don Huizenga’s - Harsh Reality (The Mix clips here).

Heckova party for the president, even if the local candidates aren't getting a chance to campaign.

Photo: Huizenga and Munson at the Liberate Minnesota rally. Via Facebook.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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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In SD, federal judge approves $440,000 settlement for plaintiffs forcibly catheterized

We're not far from Sisseton, South Dakota, where the city police department has agreed to pay people whose Fourth Amendment rights were violated in a most unreasonable manner.

In the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Danielle Ferguson reports in Federal judge awards thousands to those forcibly catheterized for urine samples:

A federal judge has approved a settlement to individuals who were unconstitutionally made to provide urine samples for suspected drug use through forced catheterizations. 

U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange approved the $440,000 settlement in a Fourth Amendment case brought on by the ACLU of South Dakota against three South Dakota cities and their law enforcement agencies, and the South Dakota Highway Patrol. Individual officers were also named.

The ACLU of South Dakota and attorney Jim Leach of Rapid City filed the Fourth Amendment case on behalf of individuals who were subjected to the practice. The settlement, reached in August, was announced by the ACLU of South Dakota on Wednesday.

Plaintiffs said they were held down and forced to be catheterized after police obtained search warrants for urine samples to test for drugs. 

Read the 2017 Argus Leader investigation:Hooded, handcuffed, and 'violated': South Dakota's use of forced catheterization

The suit was brought against the city of Wagner and the Wagner Police Department, the city of Pierre and the Pierre Police Department, the city of Sisseton and the Sisseton Police Department, and the South Dakota Highway Patrol. ...

The lawsuit followed a 2017 Argus Leader investigation into the practice, which found that even children had been subject to forced catheterization.

While some readers might reflexively cuss out "the media," work like the 2017 Argus Leader investigation can help defend people from abuse by the government that ought to protect us. In 2017, the Argus's Mark Walker reported in What it's like to have police take your urine against your will:

They found marijuana paraphernalia on the workbench, so I was arrested for that. And they said I was acting fidgety, so they suspected I had been using methamphetamine. They took me to jail and asked me for a urine analysis.

I refused.

I feel like that’s my bodily fluids, so I had the right not to give them a urine analysis. 

They came with a warrant, and said they had a warrant for my urine and that if didn’t produce it, they would take me to the hospital and catheterize me. I refused to produce the sample.

So they took me to the hospital. Four cops held me down and a female nurse inserted a catheter to get my urine. The interesting thing is the doctor who was in the emergency room that day on duty happens to bea Pierre part-time SWAT officer. [Argus Leader Media confirmed the doctor, Peter Maningas, is a reserve officer for the Pierre Police Department and a member of its SWAT team.]

I was angry. I felt like my civil rightswere being violated. I thought it was a threat. Even when we went to the hospital I thought it was a threat. I didn’t actually think they were going to go through with it. And then when a female did it, I thought, this is unreal.

First of all they put a spit mask over my head. Then I had one officer per limb — one officer for each arm, one officer for each leg — holding me down. There was one officer with a camera recording the whole thing and after that my head was back, I felt my pants being pulled down and the catheter was inserted.

There was extreme pain.

The worst pain was urinating afterwards for the next two days. I tried to hold it in. I believe I may have moaned in pain. There is no way to describe it. After was the worst part. It feels like you are urinating razor blades.

There was extreme pain every time I had to urinate. I remember afterwards, I believe it was nurse who asked doctor, ‘Do you want blood?’ (The doctor said) ‘No, that’s not necessary we got what we need.' I believe the warrant was for urine and blood.

I was really surprised they were doing all of that to get evidence for a crime that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. I don’t know. I felt like there had to be a better way. Hair sample or something. Afterward they took me back to county jail and booked me for several charges, one of them a felony ingestion from methamphetamine when they didn’t even have the results back from the lab...

Earlier today, we received a copy of the court's order of judgement from the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota; Sparks is one of the plaintiffs.

Federal Judge Approves Settlement in ACLU’s Fourth Amendment Challenge to S.D. Law Enforcement Practice of... uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

Here's the press release that accompanied the document:

U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange has approved a settlement in a case that says South Dakota law enforcement’s practice of using forced catheterizations to obtain urine samples from suspects is unconstitutional.

The ACLU of South Dakota and attorney Jim Leach of Rapid City filed the Fourth Amendment case on behalf of several individuals against the city of Wagner and the Wagner Police Department, the city of Pierre and the Pierre Police Department, the city of Sisseton and the Sisseton Police Department, and the South Dakota Highway Patrol along with individually named law enforcement officers.

In the case, the plaintiffs said they were held down and subjected to involuntary catheterization after police obtained search warrants for urine samples to detect the presence of drugs, a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches. None of the search warrants obtained by police specifically authorized forced catheterization as a means of obtaining evidence.

“The Fourth Amendment guarantees people the right to be free from unreasonable police searches,” Leach said. “There is nothing reasonable about forcibly catheterizing someone. The Constitution’s purpose is to protect people from police intrusions exactly like this. Now the practice of police using forced catheterization to gather evidence will stop.”

Under the terms of the settlement, the defendants – the cities of Pierre, Sisseton and Wagner and former South Dakota Highway Patrol Officer Adam Woxland – agreed to collectively pay a total of $440,000 in damages, legal costs and attorney’s fees.

In his April ruling, Lange said he found that the mere suspicion of low-level drug crimes did not justify this invasive and painful procedure.

“The plaintiffs were not smuggling drugs or weapons in their urethras and bladders, and the catheterizations would only provide evidence of drug ingestion rather than the more serious crime of drug trafficking. … Ingesting drugs is one of the least serious drug crimes a person can commit,” Lange wrote.

South Dakota is the only state that imposes a felony for ingestion of a controlled substance. These counterproductive drug policies have swept thousands of nonviolent drug offenders into the state’s criminal legal system and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. This settlement is another reminder of why criminal justice reform is needed.

“South Dakota’s tough-on-crime approach to drug users struggling with addiction, as evidenced with the use of forced catheterization to secure evidence, doesn’t work,” said Libby Skarin, ACLU of South Dakota campaigns director. “Though drug use is undoubtedly a serious issue, we can’t incarcerate our way out of addiction. Our lawmakers should see the outcome in this case and finally eliminate ingestion as a felony offense. It’s well past time for the state to prioritize people and not prisons and to help reform our state’s criminal legal system.”

We agree. Drug abuse is a serious problem, but as Skarin said, we incarcerate our way out of addiction.

Image: His and hers urinary catheterization.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, 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 [email protected] as recipient.

On Sensible Change MN Cannabis Policy Voter Guide, Ingebrigtsen clings to reefer madness

Earlier this month, in the post Dahms: Status quo in divided MN legislature will legalize pot within 1st six weeks of next session, we reported on anti-cannabis reform rhetoric clouding a room in New Ulm.

 A reader brought  Sensible Change Minnesota's Cannabis Policy Voter Guide for the state senate to our attention, thinking we'd find joy in former Douglas County sheriff and current state senator Bill Ingebrigsten's answers.

They did not disappoint, especially this Q & A:

Do you believe Minnesota should dedicate funding to law enforcement, specifically for designing objective impairment tests that are accurate and science-based?

No. Good grief!!! Will this be the new funding source for LE after the progressive democrats de-fund the police??

Alrightee, then. As MinnPost's Walker Orenstein reported back in July, Nobody at the Legislature has proposed defunding the police. So why is it such a big deal at the Capitol?

He answers the question in the article, so hop over to MinnPost to learn what Sheriff Bill is smoking.

Here's the page for Senate District 8 with Ingebrigsten's answers; his DFL opponent, Michele Anderson, did not answer the questionnaire as of the drafting of this post.

Candidate		Bill Ingebrigtsen (GOP)
Do you commit to prioritizing patient needs in reforms to Minnesota's medical cannabis program?		No
Do you support adding raw cannabis flower to Minnesota's medical cannabis program?		No
Do you support allowing delivery of medical cannabis from a registered manufacturer to patients?		No
Do you support removing unnecessary symptomatic requirements for patients with terminal illness and cancer to qualify for medical cannabis?		No
Do you support adding a medical necessity defense for registered medical cannabis patients who are charged with a crime for unauthorized possession of cannabis?		No
Do you support improving the patient protection provisions by allowing for attorneys' fees and punitive damages in patient discrimination cases?		No
Do you support reducing the lifetime prohibition on registration in the medical cannabis program to a one-year prohibition for patients who have violated program provisions?		No
Do you support working with stakeholders to develop workable policies that would allow school-age medical cannabis patients to have their medicine in school?		NO Absolutely NOT in school or near school
Do you support protecting medical cannabis patients' second amendment rights?		Yes if CBD without THC
Do you support protections for patients on conditional court release, probation, or parole that use medical cannabis?		No
How will you help to make Minnesota's medical cannabis program more accessible, affordable, and fair for patients?		This substance has become even more DANGEROUS than in the 60"s and the 70"s. I should remain on the Federal Drug Schedule as a very dangerous illegal substance.
Do you support the full legalization of cannabis for adults over the age of 21?		No
Do you support a social and racial equity cannabis business licensing program?		No. I don't even know what that means. Lisencing requirements for anything has no social or racial equality that I am familiar with.
Do you believe the tax revenue from the legal sale of adult-use cannabis should be dedicated to health and human services to address substance use disorders, youth education, and other funding areas related to substance use and abuse?		NO. However that is where it will be needed. So what is the point of legalization??
Do you believe Minnesota should engage in a comprehensive consumer and public education program on the safe consumption of cannabis?		No
Do you believe Minnesota should dedicate funding to law enforcement, specifically for designing objective impairment tests that are accurate and science-based?		No. Good grief!!! Will this be the new funding source for LE after the progressive democrats de-fund the police??
Do you support adult use cannabis legalization? Why or why not? What are your priorities in adult use legalization policy, whether or not you oppose legalization?		NO period. This is a very dangerous drug that will be very devastating to our youth and families and will result in huge costs to government, healthcare, and public safety.
Do you support rescheduling cannabis from Schedule I to (at least) Schedule II?		No
Do you support the decriminalization of cannabis "mixtures" (which includes concentrates, tinctures, edibles, etc.)?		No

An Aside

There's a headnote about the pro-cannabis party candidates on the Sensible Change Minnesota's Cannabis Policy Voter Guide worth checking out:

Note: Our Voters’ Guide includes all candidates we were able to reach, regardless of party affiliation. However, we must be responsible and advise that not all candidates with the Legal Marijuana Now and Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis parties are truthful in their intentions running for office in certain districts. *We will include an asterisk on those candidates identified by outside sources as “spoiler” candidates and urge you be cautious in your support.* 

Please see the following sources for more information about the spoiler candidates:

• Some legalize cannabis candidates are giving off very MAGA vibes, J. Patrick Coolican, June 15, 2020

• How marijuana legalization party candidates could decide control of the Minnesota Senate, Peter Callaghan, August 21, 2020
• Is Legal Marijuana Now Being used to Spoil Elections in Minnesota? Oliver Steinberg, August 21, 2020

Related Posts:

• Sheriff Bill and Bub Nornes go full blown grumpy cats on medical cannabis bills
• Raw marijuana menace: Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen speaks out against legalizing killer weed
• Ingebrigtsen & Rosen warn colleagues about "dangerously addictive" pot that rips apart families
• Have a hemp heart: Sheriff Bill gets a free bag
• Grumpy cat Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen still grumpy about industrial hemp's infernal roots in Hell
• Ingebrigtsen update: grumpy cat is still grumpy about medical cannabis & intractable pain
• Ingebrigtsen update, part 2: Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas, your kids think pot is a-okay
• MN Senator Gary Dahms shares scary vision of pot-loving DFL majority with Brown Co faithful
• Hagedorn: Senator Gary Dahms stands between you and socialist legal recreational marijuana:

Photo: A screengrab of Senator Ingebrigtsen during one of the floor debates on medical cannabis, doing his best imitation of the late, great Grumpy Cat.

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