Bluestem Prairie

Minnesota House DFL Majority announces 2021-2022 committee structure and chairs

Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman tweeted this afternoon:

Minnesota is facing significant challenges, and our committee chairs are ready to lead. Our committee chairs, like our caucus, reflect the diversity of our state's population and our geography. https://t.co/JPouRXs20A #mnleg

— Melissa Hortman (@melissahortman) November 30, 2020

Here's Minnesota House DFL Majority announces committee structure and chairs, the news release from her webpage at the Minnesota House:

Today, the Minnesota House DFL announced the committee structure and chair assignments for the 2021-2022 biennium. This biennium’s committee chairs represent the most diverse group in history.

“Minnesota is facing significant challenges, and our committee chairs are ready to lead,” said House Speaker Melissa Hortman. “Our committee chairs, like our caucus, reflect the diversity of our state's population and our geography.

“Democrats are focused on what Minnesotans value: recovering and rebuilding from COVID, affordable health care, excellent educational opportunities from preschool through job training, and economic security for our families. We are ready to get to work building a Minnesota that works better for everyone.”

 

2021-22 Committees	Chair
Agriculture Finance & Policy	Sundin
Capital Investment	Lee
Commerce Finance & Policy	Stephenson
Education Finance	Davnie
Early Childhood Finance & Policy	Pinto
Education Policy	Richardson
Environment and Natural Resources Finance & Policy	Hansen
Climate and Energy Finance & Policy	Long
State Government Finance & Policy	Nelson
Local Government Division	Masin
Health Finance & Policy	Liebling
Preventative Health Policy Division	Freiberg
Human Services Finance & Policy	Schultz
Behavioral Health Policy Division	Fischer
Higher Education Finance & Policy	Bernardy
Housing Finance & Policy	Hausman
Preventing Homelessness Division	Gomez
Labor, Industry, Veterans and Military Affairs Finance & Policy	Ecklund
Workforce and Business Development Finance & Policy	Noor
Industrial Education and Economic Development Finance & Policy	Pelowski
Judiciary Finance & Civil Law	Becker-Finn
Legacy Finance	Lillie
Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance & Policy	Mariani
Rules and Legislative Administration	Winkler
Subcommittee on Legislative Process Reform	Pelowski
Taxes	Marquart
Property Tax Division	Youakim
Transportation Finance & Policy	Hornstein
Ways and Means	Moran
Redistricting	Murphy

Committee members will be announced in December. The 2021 Legislative Session begins on January 5, 2021. 

We'll have more about these changes in the coming days. At first glance, we're pleased to see the number of powerful committees led by members of the DFL POCI Caucus--Fue Lee chairing Capital Investment (bonding); Ruth Richardson chairing Education Policy; Jamie Becker-Finn heading Judiciary Finance & Civil Law; and Rena Moran at the helm of Ways and Means. Outstanding.

Photo: The Minnesota House Chamber, via the Minnesota Historical Society.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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Noem's office remains in mask denial, despite pleas from doctors, indigenous lawmakers

Via the West Central Tribune, Forum News Service staffers Jeremy Fugleberg and Nick Sabato report in 2 indigenous SD lawmakers ask Gov. Noem for state mask mandate, as COVID-19 cases top 80,000:

Two Indigenous South Dakota lawmakers are asking Gov. Kristi Noem for a statewide mask mandate to reduce the spread of COVID-19, as state health officials reported Monday, Nov. 30, the number of South Dakotans who have tested positive for COVID-19 surpassed 80,000.

State Rep. Peri Pourier and Sen. Red Dawn Foster, both Democrats, sent Noem a letter last week imploring her to implement a statewide mask mandate, as COVID-19 deaths in the state topped 1 in 1,000 state residents.

"There really isn't a need to battle over statistics and politics right now. This isn't a political game of playing roulette with our communities or our families," the two District 27 lawmakers wrote. "It is an issue of public health that surpasses political parties and hits the core of our humanity."

The two compared it to statewide smoke-free laws, speed limit and seat-belt laws as common-sense approaches to protecting South Dakotans from harm.

"As indigenous women, we are writing from the earnest position of granddaughters, sisters, mothers, and the life-givers of our culture and people," they wrote. "It has been ingrained into us that our decisions must take into consideration the care and safety of our communities and our people above our individual selves."

Noem, a Republican, had yet to respond to the lawmakers' letter as of Sunday, Rep. Pourier said in a Facebook post.

On Monday, Forum News Service reached out to Noem's office for a response to the letter. Maggie Seidel, Noem's senior policy adviser, responded by asking if FNS has sought evidence from the two lawmakers on the effectiveness of mask mandates.

"Mask mandates don’t work – they haven’t worked anywhere in the world. We respectfully request the news media cover the facts," Seidel wrote.

Noem has repeatedly said she doesn't support statewide mask mandates, doesn't believe they're effective and said she won't issue one in South Dakota — despite support for such a mandate from the state's physicians and its two largest health systems, based on a growing body of scientific research. Noem has defended those who choose not to wear masks, calling their use a matter of personal choice and responsibility. . . . 

Read the rest at the Tribune.

Here's a copy of the letter from South Dakota singer-songwriter Tommy Edwin on Twitter:

Letter sent from two members of the #SouthDakota state legislature, who happen to be indigenous/native, to @govkristinoem concerning the COVID crisis in our state. This is how bad things have gotten. Please tag and retweet. pic.twitter.com/5JfRJ7Bcdw

— Tommy Edwin (@tommy_edwin1212) November 30, 2020

Even crooners get the blues.

Related posts:

• Positive Pants: South DaCOVID Governor Kristi Noem garners the best national headlines
• VIDEO: Stop the Spread SD's South Dakota COVID-19 Memorial Display

Photo: This full page ad appeared in every South Dakota daily newspaper on November 25, signed by 600  physicians begging residents to #maskupsodak. Tweeted by Jennifer S. Hyk on November 25, 2020.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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Twelve weeks after death of Joseph Boever, South Dakotans say his name, ask questions

What's up with the investigation of the killing of Joseph Boever? Readers may remember that he's the man who was walking with a flashlight on the shoulder of a country road, only to be hit and killed by a car driven by a distracted South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.

In Saturday's Rapid City Journal, Kevin Woster writes in Still waiting:

There were nights, during the first few weeks after his cousin’s death, when Nick Nemec just couldn’t sleep.

Sometimes he’d reach out to others by phone, just to talk. He called me on one of those nights as he stood on the wide porch of his two-story farm home west of Holabird, admiring the clear skies and shining stars above.

The familiar, peaceful scene stood in bizarre contrast to the events of another night along Highway 14 a few miles from the Nemec farmhouse. You might know the story: Just west of Highmore, shortly before 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 12, a Ford Taurus driven by South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed 55-year-old Joe Boever of Highmore as he walked along the shoulder of the road. . . .

We know quite a bit about that, but we still don’t know the whole story. The investigation continues almost 11 weeks after Joe Boever died. Authorities have concluded that Joe Boever was walking on the shoulder and carrying a light when he was struck by Ravnsborg’s vehicle, and that Ravnsborg was distracted at the time of the crash. They haven’t reported the reason for the distraction.

It’s unclear whether Ravsnsborg will face criminal charges. And there are questions about Ravnsnborg’s call to a 911 dispatcher, in which he said he hit something “in the middle of the road.” At first he told the dispatcher that he didn’t know what he hit, but then said “it could be” when the dispatcher asked if it was “a deer or something.”

Then there’s the unanswered question of why Boever’s body was not discovered. Rather, Boever was left at the scene throughout the night. Ravnsborg said he looked around with his cell-phone flashlight but didn’t see anything. Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek came to the scene in response to the 911 call but didn’t find Boever’s body, either. Volek then loaned Ravnsborg his private car to drive home to Pierre. 

So Joe Boever was left lying in the ditch, where Ravnsborg says he discovered the body the next morning when he came back and stopped at the scene. . . ,

[Boever's cousin Nick Nemec] tried to imagine what Ravnsborg could have seen that night.

“Certainly with lights on bright and, I’d contend, with them on dim, a driver would be able to see a human being walking along the shoulder of the road,” Nick says. “Somebody walking on that shoulder would have been visible, especially with a light.

“My cousin was doing everything he was supposed to do as a pedestrian in that situation,” he says. “He was walking on the shoulder the way he should have been. And he had a light.” . . . .

Read the entire column in the Rapid City Journal. The Rapid City Journal also reported on November 25, State denies public records request for additional 911 calls related to Ravnsborg's fatal crash. From the article:

. . . The Journal requested all 911 or dispatch calls from Sept. 12 and Sept. 13 that were about the crash and made by or to Jason Ravnsborg, Joe Boever, DPS, the Highway Patrol and the Hyde County Sheriff's Office. 

Public records laws say 911 calls are a public record "if the agency or a court determines that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the interest in nondisclosure."

The Journal argued that any additional 911 calls are in the public interest because the public needs to know whether the crash involving Ravnsborg was handled like other fatal crashes. . . .

And here's a November 27 letter-to-the-editors of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Jerry Wilson of Vermillion writes:

Remember Joseph Boever? Say his name! Twelve weeks have passed since he was struck and killed by Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg on September 12. Gov. Noem promised a “transparent” investigation. On October 13, Noem and Sec. of Public Safety Craig Price held a press conference to tell us — well, not much. Now another seven weeks have passed, and not another word.

We do have the transcript of Ravnsborg’s 911 call. When asked what he hit, he says “I have no idea.” Two days later, his story was that he thought he’d hit a deer. Sec. Price says there was no alcohol in Ravnsborg’s blood when it was drawn — more than 14 hours later. Boever’s body was sent out of state for an autopsy, but no detailed report has been released. We were told at the time that investigators have Ravnsborg’s two cell phones, but how long does it take an expert to determine whether the AG was reading or texting? And no report from the car’s computer or skid marks analysis about Ravnsborg’s speed.

Like most South Dakotans who sometimes drive country roads at night, I have seen hundreds of deer ahead, and I always slow down, just in case. But never have I mistaken a man for a deer, and never have I seen a deer carrying a flashlight. The AG’s story doesn’t hold up. If you hit and kill a human being beside an open road, it is hard to escape a conclusion involving negligence.

Mr. Boever won’t be telling his version of what happened the night of September 12, so these questions remain: Will the attorney general ever face true scrutiny and consequences like an ordinary citizen? Will we ever learn the results of a genuine investigation, or has the entire tragedy been swept under the rug? Will it all blow over until nobody but his family remembers Joseph Boever’s name?

Right now, a rough Google search of the Attorney General's name reveals headlines like Can legal marijuana get a fair shake in court with an anti-pot attorney general? in the Argus Leader (November 24).

And News Center 1's South Dakota, Sanford Health agree on Medicaid settlement (November 25).

And the column and the letter. Remember Joseph Boever? Say his name.

Related posts:

• UPDATED: Joe Boever's tragic death on Hwy 14: news digest about Ravnsborg's fatal accident 
• South Dakota News Watch: Crash experts question Ravnsborg’s car-deer explanation
• SD News Watch: State's criminal & civil traffic laws favor drivers over pedestrians in collisions
• Update: SD Attorney General Ravnsborg was distracted when he hit, killed flashlight-carrying Joe Boever

Photo:  Joseph Boever (left), killed when hit by the car driven by South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (right). Via the Rapid City Journal.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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Positive Pants: South DaCOVID Governor Kristi Noem garners the best national headlines

As a rather recent (2017) transplant to South Dakota from the People's Socialist Republic of Minnesota, Bluestem Prairie is still astonished by the "all headlines are good headlines" philosophy in which state leadership revels.

It didn't stop with their enjoyment of the reaction to "Meth: We're On It." (Read a reminder of that at our 2019 post, The first step to recovery is admitting there's a problem; or, Meth, We're On It in South Dakota).

In the past week, we felt the need to don our positive pants when we saw a couple headlines in that good press.

We can't do any better than Forum News Services South Dakota News Director Jeremy Fugleberg:

It's generally never, ever good when your state is featured in a piece by The Onion. This time is no exception. https://t.co/s12oUqIVJ7

— Jeremy Fugleberg (@jayfug) November 28, 2020

On Saturday, the Daily Beast story, S. Dakota COVID-19 Deaths Bust Record—and Noem Tweets About Shopping; Still No Mask Mandate popped up in our feed. Executive Editor Tracy Vance reports:

South Dakota set a new record for COVID-19 deaths on Saturday—and the state’s anti-lockdown governor tweeted a plea for people to go shopping. The Health Department reported 54 deaths, one more than the previous record set two weeks ago. And the state also tallied 819 new infections out of 1,892 people tested—a terrifying 43 percent positivity rate. Gov. Kristi Noem has repeatedly rejected calls for a statewide mask mandate and refused to warn people against gathering for the holidays. On Saturday, she tweeted a reminder of #SmallBusinessSaturday: “These businesses are the lifeblood of so many South Dakota communities. Please support them today and every day!”

Who can argue with that.

Photo: Governor Kristi Noem. A horse. She's on it.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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Big Stone County MN sheriff not fully aware of what SD cannabis law says, shares fears anyway

In Recreational marijuana in South Dakota might create challenges for Minnesota law enforcement, Mark Wasson reports for the West City Tribune:

Big Stone County Sheriff Mark Brown said while he is not fully aware of what the South Dakota law says, any sort of law loosening the restrictions on marijuana would create more supply of the product and he’s also concerned about impaired drivers.

“However, they passed something within the state that the voters approved and that’s their law,” Brown said. “We just kind of got to deal with it here because we’re right across the border.”

Bluestem Prairie is happy to help Sheriff Brown out.

Britannica's ProCon.org page on the amendment, South Dakota Constitutional Amendment A Nov. 2020, includes the South Dakota Attorney General's memo on the document, including the full text.

We hope this is helpful.

For more about the fight over the law, visit South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws.

Photo: Cannabis plants in a greenhouse.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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

VIDEO: Stop the Spread SD's South Dakota COVID-19 Memorial Display

The memorial service was streamed on Facebook by Stop the Spread SD:

For the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Trevor Mitchell reports in Empty chairs sit on Capitol grounds in memory of state's COVID-19 victims:

Hundreds of empty chairs sat on the grounds of the South Dakota State Capitol on Thanksgiving morning, a memorial for the more than 800 people in the state who have died of COVID-19.

The memorial, put on by Stop The Spread SD and sponsored by the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was livestreamed on Thursday morning, with in-person viewing discouraged to promote safety.

"Shown by this memorial is the massive loss that we have seen and will continue to see in South Dakota," said an organizer who spoke before the event who said his name was Joseph.

"We stand vigil to show families that their loved ones are not forgotten, that their hurt is not ignored," he said. "We sit at the heart of our state because the hurt caused by COVID-19 is in the heart of all of us." . . .

Read the rest at the Argus Leader.

Dakota Free Press's Cory Allen Heidelberger muses in WV GOP Gov. Justice: We Don’t Want to Be Like South Dakota:

Sanford Health’s new CEO, Bill Gassen, is a registered Republican and a big-dollar donor to Governor Kristi Noem, but Gassen says masks help prevent coronavirus and should be required statewide. West Virginia’s Republican Governor, Jim Justice, implemented such a requirement in July and continues to support that requirement with passion.

In his Wednesday briefing on coronavirus and what we need to do to fight the pandemic, Governor Justice rebutted the comments he says he gets from some of us people saying they want to be more like South Dakota. Pointing to the CBS report in which Sioux Falls mayor Paul TenHaken says he can’t enforce mask rules in South Dakota because, “This is cowboy country, man,” Governor Justice said that attitude has led South Dakota to be the deadly model of exactly how not to fight a pandemic. Far from taking away people’s rights, mask requirements are part of Governor Justice’s effort to do everything he can to protect people from getting sick and dying and not being able to exercise their liberties . . .

Governor Justice sounds more like our old Governor Norbeck than our current Governor Kristi Noem.

To recognize the toll of Governor Noem’s relative indifference to the worst public health emergency to hit South Dakota in a century, somber South Dakotans placed 849 empty chairs, one for each reported coronavirus death in our state, in Hilger’s Gulch, across the street north from the State Capitol. The event was mostly silent, but participants also offered prayers both Lutheran and Lakota. . . .

Read and watch more at Dakota Free Press.

Stop the Spread SD describes its mission:

Stop the Spread SD's primary goal is to STOP THE SPREAD of COVID-19 in our great state. We encourage South Dakotans to practice adherence to the Centers for Disease Control recommendations of handwashing, social distancing, and mask-wearing.

Video: Via Facebook.

Image: From the Stop the Spread SD Facebook page; the photo speaks directly about the participation of the singers.  Some background--on Wednesday, the Hill reported in Native Americans feel 'trapped in a house on fire' as coronavirus surges in South Dakota:

While Native Americans in South Dakota make up only 9 percent of the state’s population, they make up 14 percent of all cases and 15 percent of all deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Donate: From the group's Facebook page:

Help us to give a memorial gift to a South Dakota charity that has either been affected by or cares for those affected by COVID-19.

To donate to our cause, you can visit the SD Synod at sdsynod.org and click the red "donate" button. Make sure to note #StoptheSpreadSD in the memo!

 

For checks or mailed donations, please specify #StoptheSpreadSD in the memo line and send to:

Stop the Spread SD, c/o SD Synod

2001 S Summit Ave

Sioux Falls, SD 57197

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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

NDN Collective: Decolonizing Thanksgiving

As its frontpage says, the NDN Collective describes itself:

NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.

Together, we decolonize and transform systems while providing tools and strategies for Indigenous self-determination and movement-building.

We're big fans and today, Thanksgiving Day 2020, its Twitter account shared this:

2020 is the year to tell the REAL story of Thanksgiving. Let’s talk. Read the full thread on our IG: https://t.co/kQUaTHD4x1

S/O to @sywtta for this collaboration and for breaking myths around "Thanksgiving". pic.twitter.com/J0PmWjz4de

— NDN Collective (@ndncollective) November 26, 2020

We agree. Here's the Instagram thread:

The first article recommended at the end of the thread is Ruth Hopkins' The First Thanksgiving: Separating Myth From Fact, published earlier this month at Teen Vogue. Hopkins is "a Dakota/Lakota Sioux writer, biologist, attorney, and former tribal judge," whose husband, Roly S. Hopkins, Jr., was recently elected chair of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate after serving a short period an interim chair (our partner is a citizen of the SWO).

Hopkins begins:

Here in the United States, we’ve all heard the legendary tale of the first Thanksgiving, when Pilgrims dined with Natives in celebration of a bountiful harvest.

It all started in November 1620, when a group of 102 English religious separatists known as Pilgrims, joined by unaffiliated commercial entrepreneurs, arrived on the shores of North America in a ship called the Mayflower, at present-day Cape Cod. They’d planned to settle in Virginia but were blown 500 miles off course.

Unfortunately, like much of U.S. history, the narrative surrounding the landing of the Mayflower, and what happened to the English settlers on board, has been whitewashed, diluted, or just plain fabricated.

On the 400th anniversary of that fabled landing at Plymouth Rock, let’s delve into the reality of this famous event by sorting myth from fact.

Read the rest at Teen Vogue, and follow @Ruth_HHopkins on Twitter.

We're grateful for the NDN Collective's leadership. If you find you agree, consider making a donation. 

Photo: NDN Collective launched the LANDBACK Campaign on Indigenous Peoples’ Day of this year. Photo by Willi White.

Rapid City letter-to-editor writer objects to Governor Noem's anti-cannabis nanny state

A letter in Wednesday's Rapid City Journal captured our attention. In "The nanny state is here," John Batteen in Rapid City writes:

I’m writing to you on behalf of all freedom loving South Dakotans. The recent lawsuit challenging Amendment A is an affront to our liberty, our voting system, and the will of the electorate.

The hypocrisy of Kristi Noem, Kevin Thom, Rick Miller, and the others who continue to work against cannabis is a blatant insult to the intelligence of our people. She says she trusts South Dakotans to make the right choices for themselves and their families, then turns around and tells us we’ve made the wrong choice.

This is the nanny state government people are so afraid of. The police here for decades now have said about the marijuana laws, “We don’t make the laws, we just enforce them.” Well now, Kevin Thom and Rick Miller think they can make the laws too. That is the very definition of a police state.

Cannabis is a nonpartisan issue. More people voted for Amendment A than voted for Kristi Noem when she got elected. More people voted for IM26 than voted for Donald Trump in our most recent election. If the Republicans choose cannabis as their hill to die on, the 2022 election cycle will not be kind to them. Please do not delay in the smooth implementation of Amendment A. If we can get distributors set up in time for Sturgis 2021, we will make a giant pile of money.

Back in late October, we wrote in The peculiar knots of cannabis policy prompt GOP kinks in South Dakota and Minnesota:

. . . Here in South DaCOVID--where the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported Wednesday South Dakota reaches new highs in COVID-19 hospitalizations, daily cases--Joe Sneve reported earlier in the week, Poll: South Dakotans narrowly favor legal marijuana in the state.

Also popular? The governor's handling of the pandemic, despite the climbing hospitalization and death counts, Sneve report Wednesday in Polling: South Dakotans like Noem's handling of the pandemic.

Sneve reported earlier this week in Personal freedom not part of Noem's thinking on legal pot in South Dakota:

Kristi Noem talks a lot about personal freedom while defending her hands-off approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first-term governor of South Dakota, though, doesn't support a libertarian approach to the use of drugs such as marijuana, which voters will decide whether to legalize for both medical and recreational use in next week's election.

Noem has said repeatedly during this campaign season that she opposes both Initiated Measure 26 (medical) and Constitutional Amendment A (recreational). And Friday during an interview with the Argus Leader at the Sioux Falls Convention Center, Noem said she opposes legalizing marijuana in any fashion because it would hurt South Dakota families in the long run.

"I ran for governor telling people that I wanted to build stronger families and create more opportunities for our kids, and i just don't see smoking pot as a gateway to helping people be better," the governor said.

But proponents of legal marijuana say that flies in the face of her repeated calls for less government involvement in people's lives amid the coronavirus pandemic. While Noem has championed personal responsibility during the pandemic, many of her fellow governors issued stay-at-home restrictions and mask mandates.

When both medical and recreational cannabis measures were approved by South Dakota voters, we wondered Will Big Stone Lake become pot tourist haven after South Dakotans vote for legal weed?

Not so fast, Governor Positive Pants and her allies said. In Law enforcement officers ask courts to stop legal marijuana, Joe Sneve reported for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

Two law enforcement officers want the courts to overturn legislation passed by 225,260 voters earlier this year legalizing marijuana in South Dakota.

Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and South Dakota Highway Patrol Superintendent Rick Miller filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the constitutionality of Amendment A, which legalized the cultivation, transport, possession and sale of marijuana in in the state.

Voters approved the amendment in the Nov. 3 election with by an 8% margin.

In a release issued Friday announcing the legal challenge, Thom and Miller argue Amendment A violates the constitution because it encompassed more than one subject, a limitation added to the constitution by voters in 2018. And they say the process voters used to pass Amendment A doesn't comply with the constitution. . .. .

Over at Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger took on the nuances of the attack on the will of the voters in Amendment vs. Revision: Anti-Marijuana Litigants Must Show Legal Weed Radically Changes SD Constitution and Government  and Constitutional Question, Not Election Contest: Plaintiffs Show No Voting Irregularities to Justify Challenge to Marijuana Amendment.

And he explores one of the most irritating elements in the attack in Thom, Miller Using Public Resources, Including State Dollars from Noem, to Challenge Amendment A in Court:

. . . Yet the plaintiffs are using public resources to prosecute their complaint against the public vote. Thom and Miller say they are bringing their complaint “in their individual and official capacities,” so they are contending that this effort to overturn the voters’ will is part of their public jobs, meaning they think their effort can be carried out while they are on duty, on the taxpayer’s dime. They have published their complaint on the Department of Public Safety website. Sheriff Thom announced the challenge on official Pennington County Sheriff’s letterhead and directed readers to contact his office’s spokeswoman, (still illegally moonlighting) Senator Helene Duhamel.

And as the kicker, Governor Kristi Noem says the state is helping pay for the plaintiffs’ complaint:

The state of South Dakota is paying for part of the lawsuit.

“The governor approved this because she took an oath to support and defend the constitution. This is part of her duty as governor,” spokesman Ian Fury said.

“In South Dakota we respect our Constitution,” Noem said. “I look forward to the court addressing the serious constitutional concerns laid out in this lawsuit” [Arielle Zionts, “State Paying for Part of Lawsuit Seeking to Overturn Voter-Approved Recreational Marijuana,” Rapid City Journal, 2020.11.20].

That taxpayer cash will go to the plaintiffs’ well-connected, state-favored lawyers, Board of Minerals member and past state bar president Bob Morris of Belle Fourche and Kristi Noem’s favorite lobbyist Matt McCaulley from Sioux Falls. Taxpayer cash will also cover the defense that the Attorney General will mount. So no matter what, taxpayers lose… and win!

Fortunately, the governor and plaintiffs have prompted a defense of the voters choice. For the Rapid City Journal, Arielle Zionts reports in Legal team to fight for ballot measure that legalized marijuana in South Dakota:

The group that successfully campaigned to legalize medical and recreational marijuana in South Dakota through the ballot box will intervene in a lawsuit filed by law enforcement that challenges the constitutionality of the recreational amendment.

“We are prepared to defend Amendment A against the lawsuit filed by Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and Superintendent of the South Dakota Highway Patrol Colonel Rick Miller,” South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws wrote in a news release. “Amendment A was carefully drafted, fully vetted, and approved by a strong majority of South Dakota voters this year.”

Thom and Miller “are trying to invalidate Amendment A and overturn the will of the voters on the basis of two incorrect legal theories,” the release says.

The pair filed a lawsuit last Friday in Hughes County that asks a judge to void the recreational marijuana amendment that was approved by 54% of voters statewide and 59% in Pennington County.

Amendment A violates the South Dakota Constitution because it doesn’t follow the “one-subject rule” and because it’s actually a revision, not an amendment, the lawsuit argues.

The pro-marijuana group says that’s not true and plans to intervene in the case. A legal intervention is when a third-party player who has a stake in the outcome of a lawsuit is allowed to file motions and make arguments in court.

 

“Anyone who reads Amendment A can see that every word relates to the cannabis plant,” the group said.  “Furthermore, Amendment A follows the interpretation of the single-subject rule used by the legislature.”

The revision vs. amendment argument is a “manufactured distinction” that is “unsupported in the law and is utterly insufficient as a basis for overturning a constitutional amendment approved by voters,” the release says. 

The group makes a third argument against the lawsuit: “This lawsuit was filed incorrectly under South Dakota law as a 'contest' to an election. However, the complaint has nothing to do with the manner in which the election was conducted and only relates to the text of Amendment A.”

An election contest is “a legal proceeding, other than a recount, instituted to challenge the determination of any election,” according to SDCL 12-22-1.

Thom and Miller are represented by Robert Morris from Belle Fourche and three attorneys from the Redstone Law Firm in Sioux Falls: Matt McCaulley, Lisa Prostrollo and Christopher Sommers. None of the lawyers responded to messages from the Journal.

McCaulley/Redstone has been awarded $403,375 in contracts to provide legal services and legislative consulting to the governor’s office since Dec 31, 2019, according to public records. McCaulley also a lobbyist for the office and has worked with Noem since 2010, according to a March story from South Dakota News Watch.

Gov. Kristi Noem — who is opposed to recreational and medical marijuana — approved state funds for Miller’s legal fees, according to her spokesman Ian Fury. She didn’t ask Miller and Thom to file the lawsuit, Fury said.

“In South Dakota, we respect our Constitution,” Noem said. “I look forward to the court addressing the serious constitutional concerns laid out in this lawsuit.”

No taxpayer dollars are being used for Thom’s legal fees, said Helene Duhamel, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office and a state senator appointed by Noem. Duhamel, who opposed Amendment A and medical marijuana, declined to say if Thom or a third party is paying the bills.

"No tax dollars is the answer," she said. 

 

.  .  . South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, which is a ballot question political committee, will be represented by three lawyers from the Robins Kaplan law firm, according to Brendan Johnson, a former U.S. Attorney for South Dakota and sponsor of Amendment A. Johnson is teaming up with Timothy Billion and Eric Magnuson, former chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Magnuson, a Pawlenty appointee who's now a Robins Kaplan partner, is likely a familiar name to many Minnesota readers.

Johnson and Noem's minions have tangled in court before. Check out the South Dakota ACLU press release from last October, South Dakota Governor Drops Anti-Protest Laws in Settlement Agreement With ACLU.

Freedom only goes so far with the governor of South DaCovid.

Photo: Hemp plants and Governor Kristi Noem.

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Session Daily: Board certifies Minnesota election results; three #MNHouse recounts still possible

From Session Daily

by Mike Cook

Confirmation of all House election results is complete. However, recounts could still occur in at least three contests.

The State Canvassing Board unanimously certified the 2020 General Election results Tuesday, including state and judicial offices; the U.S. Senate race; and eight U.S. House of Representatives’ races.

“The election was secure on multiple levels,” said Secretary of State Steve Simon. “As of today, there have been no reports to the Office of the Secretary of State of particularized fraud or voter misconduct. Minnesota’s record of election integrity has been upheld. As of today, there is no evidence of any successful attempt by any unauthorized source, any adversary and so forth, to infiltrate election infrastructure.”

As things currently stand in Minnesota, the DFL will have a 70-64 seat advantage in the House when the 2021 session begins Jan. 5. However, by law, three races separated by less than one-half of 1 percent are eligible for publicly funded recounts if requested by the losing candidate by Nov. 30:

• 6A: Rep. Julie Sandstede (DFL-Hibbing) leads Republican Robert Farnsworth 10,781-10,741 (50.04%-49.85%);
• 19A: Republican Susan Akland leads Rep. Jeff Brand (DFL-St. Peter) 11,621-11,510 (50.15%-49.67%); and
• 38B: Rep. Ami Wazlawik (DFL-White Bear Township) leads Republican Elliott Engen 13,906-13,808 (50.12%-49.77%).

Candidates can pay for a recount themselves for larger margins.

More than 3.29 million Minnesotans cast a ballot in November’s election, more than 1.91 million via absentee ballot, said State Elections Director David Maeda. Simon said the shade under 79.96% voter turnout was not only the best in the country, but highest in Minnesota since 1956.

By comparison, almost 2.97 million votes were cast in the 2016 election, the last year the presidency was on the ballot.

[MORE: View the state canvassing report; post-election review report]

The New House Republican caucus and others filed a lawsuit Monday seeking a temporary restraining order to postpone the result certification.

In a statement, three caucus members said, in part, “Throughout 2020, Secretary Simon illegally altered Minnesota’s election laws. His office issued unlawful consent decrees that greatly affected the rules that govern absentee ballots and who can assist people at the polls. To circumvent the Minnesota Legislature and unilaterally change election law is entirely unconstitutional. This abuse of power must be addressed.”

In a Tuesday ruling, Chief Justice Lorie Gildea ordered all respondents be served a copy of the petition by 4:30 p.m. today, with any response memos due by 9 a.m. Nov. 30.

We'll let readers know if the recounts happen and their consequences--and the same with the lawsuit.

Photo: A view of the House Chamber during the 2018 session. House Photography file photo.

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Letter: MN Attorney General Keith Ellison declines invitation to Erik Mortensen's party

Early today, Bluestem posted Newest New House Republican to hold back yard party in Shakopee, invites Walz and Ellison.

A friend at the Attorney General's office just sent us a copy Attorney General Ellison's letter declining the invitation, as he had made plans earlier. Apparently, Ellison takes COVID-19 seriously, since his own mother died from it earlier this year.

Here's the letter:

Letter to Rep-elect Erik Mortensen uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd:

Photo: Keith Ellison.

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Newest New House Republican to hold back yard party in Shakopee, invites Walz and Ellison

 

UPDATE #2, November 23, 5:44 p.m.: In a letter, embedded in the new Bluestem post, MN Attorney General Keith Ellison graciously declines invitation to Erik Mortensen's party [end update]

UPDATE, November 23, 3:55 p.m.: Since we posted this article this morning, Ricardo Lopez has reported Incoming GOP state legislator planning Thanksgiving gathering in defiance of Walz COVID-19 orders at the Minnesota Reformer, and Torey van Oot closes Two Republicans join Minnesota House Democrats in urging coronavirus caution with this:

Not all Republicans share West's outlook. On Sunday, GOP Rep.-elect Erik Mortensen, who will represent the Shakopee area, posted a letter online inviting the DFL governor to a Thanksgiving gathering at his home.

The party, set to include darts, a bonfire and "a handful of constituents that live outside my personal residence," would violate Walz's latest executive order limiting private social events.

For himself, Mortensen vowed to continue to carry on in a tweet:

The America hating and anti-freedom media outlets are attacking me; trying to make me back down. But I will continue to be a warrior for everyone’s individual rights whether they appreciate it or not. https://t.co/wTeBVEDsMJ

— Erik Mortensen (@RepMortensen) November 23, 2020

[End update]

Governor Tim Walz's new coronavirus restrictions, detailed at Minnesota's Stay Safe Plan on the state's COVID 19 Response page, includes this item "Gathering outdoors is allowed with immediate household members ONLY."

That's prompted state representative-elect Erik Mortensen, R-Shakopee, to ask ". . . some close personal friends over next week for a get together . . . "

Back on Friday the 13th, Alpha News reported in Newly-elected GOP rep joins four incumbents who defected from Kurt Daudt’s leadership that Mortensen would join the New House Republican Caucus. Careful observers might have guessed this, given the number of Jeremy Munson signs in the election night watch party photo (from Facebook) at the top this post.

Here's Mortensen's first Facebook post about his backyard gathering, from November 20:

Just in case there were doubts about the invites to Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison, Mortensen posted the letters on Sunday (with the details of the party blacked out since it's not like he's asking the whole state over):

#StandUpToWalz Governor Tim Walz has gone too far and I will not obey his illegal and unconstitutional orders telling me...

Posted by Representative Erik Mortensen on Sunday, November 22, 2020

Lawn darts, beanbag toss and civil disobedience...

Meanwhile, a tweet by Representative-elect Mortensen prompted a tweet by liberal writer David Brauer:

This is the yutz that replaced @BradTabke. Pot party candidate got 7.4% here. Tabke won 2 years earlier in a two-way. What a downgrade for Shakopee. https://t.co/PGwSkccXyO

— David Brauer (@dbrauer) November 23, 2020

Given this copy in the Alpha News article, we had thought Mortensen was just a party-pooper:

Daudt was reelected to his leadership role during a House Republican Caucus meeting last Friday, which Mortensen claims he wasn’t invited to but attended anyway.

Mortensen said he plans to “pull back the veil” on what’s really happening at the Capitol and expose “how shady so much of this is.”

“I went into that meeting. They had no idea I was coming, which made it a lot of fun,” Mortensen said in a recent video. “They even tried to kick me out. They tried to pull me aside and say, ‘you need to leave or pledge that you’re going to join this caucus.’”

Mortensen won the Republican primary in August over former Rep. Bob Loonan, the House GOP’s preferred candidate for the seat. In his video, Mortensen said “establishment Republicans” spent “tens of thousands of dollars against” him, including the Minnesota Jobs Coalition, an organization founded by a former Daudt staffer.

“Unfortunately, that group elected the minority leader all over again, Kurt Daudt, and that person has lied to me repeatedly, he’s campaigned against me,” said Mortensen. “There’s no way I could look up to that person as a leader.”

In a recent email to his supporters, Mortensen confirmed that he will join the New House Republican Caucus when he’s sworn in, a decision he made after attending Friday’s caucus meeting.

“Unfortunately, Rep. Kurt Daudt was elected as minority leader again. Of course in his press release, Daudt made it sound like his support was unanimous but I can assure you that was not the case,” said Mortensen. “There was a lot of division in the room, other lawmakers even thanked me for speaking out against his leadership.” . . .

Perhaps being left out is where Mortensen got the idea to invite Walz and Ellison. Or he could simply be a yutz, as Brauer writes.

The MN Jobs Coalition spent $4,940 in independent expenditures (IE) against Mortensen and $2470 for his Republican primary opponent, according to its filings at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. That was the only Republican-leaning IE spent against Mortensen this year, according to data at the state campaign finance board, which indicates a total of $124,284.33 was spend for and against the race.

Most of the IE spending in the race was sprinkled about by the conservative Freedom Club PAC ($39,914.85; $30,914.85 pre-primary); and the state of Virginia-based Make Liberty Win PAC ($62,745.22; $28,102.63 pre-primary) according to pre-general campaign finance reports online at the board.

Looks like the pro-Mortensen conservative money-bags outspent the MN Jobs Coalition. Details, details.

Related posts:

• Facebook fundraising: Jeremy Munson cashes in on "Give to the Max Day" for political campaign
• MAGASOTA's surprising speakers list for Northfield Trump Rally Minnesota 2020 Saturday
• MN55A: Mortensen deletes fake news about Tabke's views after area hunter calls him out

Photo: An election night party, via Mortensen's Facebook page. No doubt about it, this one's a party animal. Or maybe not. If the Facebook embeds become unavailable, we'll fill the holes with screengrabs.

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State rep hosts meeting in county making national news as COVID hotspot, slams Walz order

English writer Thomas Hardy waxed poetic about the Titanic meeting an iceberg in The Convergence of the Twain.

Two headlines in the Alexandria Echo Press and the Detroit Lakes Online (it's in Minnesota  BTW), nearly moved us to poetry this morning, but we're settling for a blog post.

First, Google alerts called Karen Tolkkinen's article in the Echo Press, Otter Tail County meeting slams Walz over shutdown order, to our attention:

Personal liberty and keeping businesses afloat during the pandemic were among concerns expressed at meeting in the town of Ottertail hosted by Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, on Friday, Nov. 20.

The 7 a.m. meeting was held at Betty's Pantry on the final day restaurants can be open in Minnesota before a four-week shutdown along with bars, salons and other businesses ordered by Gov. Tim Walz. It drew about two dozen people from around Otter Tail County. Most were not wearing masks.

COVID rates have been climbing in the heavily conservative county. On Friday, there were 463 active cases in the county, with 15 total COVID deaths since March. That was up from 20 active cases on Sept. 20.

Walz and his order drew heavy criticism from the crowd.

"Speaking of the Constitution, we also have the freedom of assembly, and the government has said now you can no longer assemble with your friends, with your family," Franson said. "Well, I find it hard to believe that our local police officers are going to come to our door."

She said police are cracking down in other countries, citing a Twitter comment about police telling an Australian he couldn't walk his dog.

"We watch these other countries saying, 'How, how is it possible? We are so lucky over here. And then we see what is happening over there start creeping into our country and we're like, how did we allow this to happen? Like frogs boiling."

What can we do with that, other than to recall James Fallows' classic 2006  short essay, The boiled-frog myth: stop the lying now!.

Of course, we are dealing with Representative Mary Franson, so perhaps it's too much to ask.

The newspaper article concludes:

There was resentment about Minnesota's large cities overruling the desires of rural Minnesota and about Walmart and Amazon taking business away from local businesses. They generally agreed that the coronavirus is real, but that people are too afraid of it, and that it's not as serious as people think.

Franson said that it's time for Walz to relinquish his emergency powers.

"We all went into it willingly," to give him his first 15-day emergency powers, but did not expect it to stretch into eight months, she said.

Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, was originally scheduled to attend the meeting, but was unable to, Franson said.

We congratulate Senator Ingebrigtsen on his absence and hope nothing bad kept him away. Franson had shared notice of the meeting on Facebook earlier in the week and had said she'd be driving:

Ottertail is a thriving small town in Otter Tail County; its population has more than tripled since 1970.

One hopes that trend isn't reversed, whatever those smarty-pants at the New York Times print. Elsewhere in the Forum newspaper chain, Nick Broadway reports in the DL-Online article Otter Tail County makes national news as COVID-19 hotspot:

Data compiled by The New York Times says Fergus Falls, Minn., has one of the fastest rates of coronavirus spread in the United States.

The Otter Tail County seat placed second highest in the nation on Monday, Nov. 16. The ranking has lowered since then, but the area is still in the top 20 as of Wednesday, Nov. 18.

When comparing the Times report to their data, public health director Jody Lien said it appears to represent Otter Tail County as a whole. Fergus Falls by itself does not meet the 50,000 population threshold.

However, the spread has indeed gotten worse. Lien said small gatherings are mainly to blame, including in more rural areas.

CEO of Lake Region Healthcare Kent Mattson said their numbers do stick out when compared to the rest of Minnesota. He told Forum News Service that 30% of the area's overall positive tests occurred in just the last two weeks.

"We can only control so much in the hospital, but the community really controls the breadth of the spread, the rate of the spread," Mattson said. "To help us take care of them, we're just asking them to just do their part and slow it down. Let it come at us more evenly."

As of Thursday, Nov. 19, 65 of Mattson's hospital staff members were unable to work. He said if that gets between 75 and 100, they could be in trouble. He is urging the community to continue masking up and avoiding small gatherings.

"Now is really the time to change that behavior," Mattson said.

Dear reader, in case you missed it, the nuggets from each story:

The 7 a.m. meeting was held at Betty's Pantry on the final day restaurants can be open in Minnesota before a four-week shutdown along with bars, salons and other businesses ordered by Gov. Tim Walz. It drew about two dozen people from around Otter Tail County. Most were not wearing masks.( Otter Tail County meeting slams Walz over shutdown order)

As of Thursday, Nov. 19, 65 of Mattson's hospital staff members were unable to work. He said if that gets between 75 and 100, they could be in trouble. He is urging the community to continue masking up and avoiding small gatherings. (Otter Tail County makes national news as COVID-19 hotspot)

Draw your own conclusion.

Photo: From the article Otter Tail County meeting slams Walz over shutdown order: "State Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, greets those at a Nov. 20 breakfast meeting in Ottertail to discuss Democratic Gov. Tim Walz's emergency order closing restaurants and other businesses for four weeks. She soon pulled her mask over her mouth and nose. (Karen Tolkkinen / Echo Press)."

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Recount widens Commissioner-elect Gardner's margin in Kandiyohi County Board District 2

In Ahmann out? Steve Gardner likely to be next Kandiyohi County Commissioner for District 2 and Ahmann and Gardner recount on for Kandiyohi County Commissioner District 2 seat, we've written about former Willmar city council member Steve Gardner's kitten whisker margin of victory.

The West Central Tribune reported earlier today in Gardner confirmed the winner following Kandiyohi County Board District 2 recount:

Steven Gardner will be sworn in as the next Kandiyohi County Commissioner in District 2, following the recount performed Friday. He defeated incumbent commissioner Steve Ahmann 1,440 to 1,422.

Gardner increased his lead over Ahmann by 5 additional votes, while Ahmann's total remained the same.

The recount was requested by Ahmann, who trailed Gardner by 13 votes prior to the recount. Once the recount was completed, that difference widened to 18 votes. . . .

The transition looks like it will be a smooth one. The West Central Tribune's Shelby Lindrud reports in Gardner wins Kandiyohi County Board seat; Ahmann says he's enjoyed his 20 years of public service:

. . . "I am happy we got a resolution to it," Gardner said. "I am looking forward to getting on with the work."

Ahmann, who is finishing his first term on the County Board, said he accepts the results.

"The vote was tallied and it is correct and I believe the process is correct," Ahmann said. "The final tally was in favor of Mr. Gardner. A very close race." .  .  .

Each campaign was allowed two representatives to directly watch the recount. Ahmann and his wife, Heidi Jo Ahmann, were on hand, as were Bruce deBlieck and Rebecca Trongaard, acting as representatives for Gardner, who was unable to attend the recount. . . .

While his re-election campaign did not end the way he had hoped, Ahmann said he has nothing to complain about.

"I had 20 years of good service," said Ahmann, who served 16 years on the Willmar City Council before being elected to the Kandiyohi County Board in 2016. "I have 20 years of people putting their trust in me. I think that is a win as far as I am concerned."

Gardner said he is looking forward to representing District 2 and the county as a whole once he is sworn into office in January.

"We worked really hard to make our case to the voters," Gardner said. "They seemed to like what we had to say. I look forward to working on their behalf over the next four years."

That's the sort of faith in the election process we like to see.

Photo: Kandiyohi County Commissioner-elect Steve Gardner, via West Central Tribune.

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For National American Indian Heritage Month: Keeler to MnHouse; Kunesh-Podein to MnSenate

It's National American Indian Heritage Month. One of the exciting developments for that heritage is the election of indigenous women to state and federal office.

In Minnesota, Evan Frost interviewed Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan for MPR in ‘We are changing those systems for the better’: Peggy Flanagan, lieutenant governor, reflects on what it means to be an Indigenous Minnesotan right now. Flanagan reflected:

. . . I also feel like we're in this moment where you can feel things shifting and changing. Like just the number of Indigenous women who are leading across so many sectors right now, it’s not an accident, right? Like we know that Native women have been leaders since time immemorial. It's just the rest of society that is catching up to us. So I think at this moment, what it means to be Indigenous Minnesotan is complicated, but it's also I think, a really helpful and powerful time. . . .

I also hope that we have leadership that accurately reflects the communities it seeks to represent. I think that every election cycle we get closer and closer. Heather Keeler, who is just elected in Moorhead is going to be an incredible addition to the Minnesota House. We have leaders like Jamie Becker-Finn, who is a state representative who's just an incredible leader. Mary Kunesh-Podein, who's now over in the Senate. . . .

News about all three came across our feed today.

Here's a Facebook post from Heather Keeler--Yankton Sioux--marking her first steps on the Minnesota House floor. We first saw it on Facebook via Roseville DFLer and Leech Lake Ojibwe descendant Jamie Becker-Finn:

In all the election drama, maybe you didn’t notice that the people of Moorhead (yes rural MN) elected a strong, progressive Indigenous woman to serve in the Minnesota House. I’m so excited to serve with you Heather!!

 

My first step onto the House Floor, I brought many generations of resilience, pride and hope with me. 🦅 This was surreal. I'm beyond humbled by this opportunity to serve 4A.

Posted by Heather Keeler on Thursday, November 19, 2020

Along with Susan Allen and Peggy Flanagan, Becker-Finn formed Something new for the Minnesota Legislature: a caucus of first Minnesotans in 2017, Briana Bierschbach reported in 2017 for MinnPost. Allen, "the first woman who identified as American Indian elected to the Minnesota Legislature," retired in 2018. Flanagan was elected Lt. Governor that year, the first Native American to hold statewide office in Minnesota.

Mary Kunesh-Podein also moved up, winning a Minnesota Senate seat earlier this month. Known for her work on legislation to counter the scourge of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, she's the first indigenous woman to join the Senate. (Native men have served in the Senate since early statehood, including Becker-Finn's father Skip Finn from 1991-1996).

To get a clear picture of Kunesh-Podein, check out the Minnesota Senate Media Services YouTube posted last week:

Want to read more about indigenous women winning office in Minnesota? In Breaking barriers: Native women and the 2020 election, Emma Quinn reports on Audrey Thayer and Liz Jaakola's victories in city council races in Bemidji and Cloquet. At the Bemidji Pioneer, Hannah Olson provides more details on Thayer's win in A pebble in a lake’: Audrey Thayer to be first Indigenous woman on Bemidji City Council.

White Earth Nation member Steve Green serves on the Republican side of the aisle in the Minnesota House, although he has not reported that heritage to the Legislative Reference Library staff.

UPDATE November 22: A couple of hours after we posted this, Briana Bierschbach and C.J. Sinner reported in the Star Tribune article, Native American voters across Minnesota turned out to oust Trump:

. . . In Minnesota, Mary Kunesh-Podein, of Standing Rock Lakota descent, will become the first Native woman to serve in the state Senate in its more than 150-year history. Yankton Sioux Tribe member Heather Keeler of Moorhead will join Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, in the House.

. . . On the local level, Audrey Thayer, a White Earth band member, won a Bemidji City Council seat, and Fond du Lac band member Lyz Jaakola won a seat on the City Council in Cloquet, Minn.

. . .“Every year they kind of stack on each other,” said Keeler, who recently tweeted a picture of her moccasins planted on the floor of the Minnesota House. “A lot of people will stick to tribal government and they’ll step up in those spaces, but we have to blow the door open and say we’re here. We’re on our land, we’re supporting the people in our communities.”

The Bierschbach and Sinner article is worth a read on the larger issue of native voting. Check it out. [end update]

Photo: Heather Keeler's moccasins and ribbon skirt. Via Twitter.

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Hunted and roadkill wild deer in Dakota and Olmsted Counties test positive for CWD

Since we know readers haven't gotten enough news about terrible diseases, there's more news about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Minnesota.

Via the West Central Tribune, Forum News Services reports in 2 more southern Minnesota deer test positive for chronic wasting disease:

A wild deer harvested in Dakota County on Nov. 7 and a vehicle-killed deer in Olmsted County on Nov. 4 were confirmed positive for chronic wasting disease, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said Thursday.

That makes a total of 95 wild deer in the state that have tested positive for CWD out of more than 90,000 samples taken since 2002.

The case of the Dakota County deer, an adult male, marks the first time the fatal neurological disease has been detected in a hunter-harvested wild deer in the newly established south metro disease management zone. The deer was harvested less than a mile from a CWD-positive wild deer discovered in March and was tested after the hunter provided the sample as part of the DNR’s voluntary sampling program.

The Olmsted County deer, an adult female, appeared to suffer injury from a vehicle before dying in Rochester. The resident who reported the dead deer brought the carcass to be sampled by DNR staff for CWD testing. While this is not the first wild deer to have the disease within Deer Permit Area 643, it is the farthest northwest that CWD has been found in the southeast disease management zone.

The DNR has notified the hunter and resident who submitted the deer for sampling of the positive test results, and the meat and carcasses from both deer have been properly disposed.

“It’s concerning to see these two positive test results. We will continue gathering data to see how prevalent the disease is in these areas, and maintain our aggressive management response,” Michelle Carstensen, DNR wildlife health program supervisor, said.

The DNR continues to collect samples from hunter-harvested deer in designated areas during all hunting seasons to help monitor the spread of the disease. Hunters in CWD management zones, control zones or surveillance areas are urged to drop off the head of deer 1 year of age or older at self-service sampling stations. Current sampling locations are listed at dnr.state.mn.us/cwd/index.html.

“We’re grateful to hunters and other Minnesotans for providing samples to test for this disease and help safeguard the health of our wild deer population,” Carstensen said. “These two positive test results are unfortunate, but highlight the importance of our sampling efforts in getting information that shows us how prevalent the disease is in an area. We urge hunters to continue bringing deer to sampling stations. Every sample counts.”

Here's the rest of  the DNR press release: Deer testing finds additional cases of chronic wasting disease; New detections are in the south metro and southeast management zones, from which the

. . .Keeping Minnesota’s wild deer population healthy remains the goal in the DNR’s response to chronic wasting disease. Since CWD was first detected in Minnesota in 2002, the DNR has tested more than 90,000 wild deer in the state.

CWD test results, including locations of confirmed positive test results and statistics, are available on the DNR website.

As part of its CWD response plan, the DNR is monitoring for CWD in disease management zones around areas that CWD has been detected in wild deer, as well as in CWD surveillance areas where CWD has been found in captive deer. The CWD management zones are located in the southeast, north-central and south metro areas of Minnesota; the CWD surveillance areas are located in the east-central, west-central and south metro areas of Minnesota.

Additional CWD information

CWD affects the cervid family, which includes deer, elk and moose. It is spread through direct contact with an infected deer’s saliva, urine, blood, feces, antler velvet or carcass. There is no vaccine or treatment for this disease.

For more information on chronic wasting disease, including maps of CWD surveillance areas, frequently asked questions and hunter information, visit the chronic wasting disease management page.

Photo: White tail deer in a Minnesota woods.

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MN Brown in MN Reformer: Bakk-assoni say they’re going “independent.” More like kept company men.

Over the years, we've tended to defer to Aaron Brown about Minnesota's Iron Range, a distinct region and culture from the south central Minnesota where we grew up and our father's maternal family had lived since territorial days.

That insider's knowledge is especially strong in his latest piece at the Minnesota Reformer.

Bakk-assoni say they’re going “independent.” More like kept company men.

By Aaron Brown -November 18, 2020

 

Two longtime Iron Range state senators will leave the DFL caucus and form an independent caucus for the 2021 legislative session. State Sen. David Tomassoni of Chisholm and former DFL majority leader Sen. Tom Bakk of Cook made the announcement Wednesday. 

The Republicans held a 34-33 majority in the State Senate. Now they’ll hold a 34-31-2 advantage. So, this is less a seismic shift and more an opportunistic realignment.

Tomassoni had already been elected Senate President in an elaborate political gambit last week. Now we see the move was part of a larger negotiated decision to reduce the power of the Senate DFL caucus and elevate the Range senators and their interests.

“People are going to wonder why I’m doing this — and to be honest, there are several reasons. I’m very disappointed by the extreme partisanship going on nationally and right here in Minnesota,” Bakk said in a joint statement with Tomassoni. “Both political parties are to blame. The constant negative and  sharp rhetoric is undermining voters’ confidence in our public institutions. It doesn’t have to stay this way.”

The move comes with Republican promises of committee chairmanships and other majority privileges, suggesting that this was a negotiated plan with the Senate GOP majority.

“Serving as chair of a Senate committee will allow me to better serve my communities and deliver results for my district,” Tomassoni said in the joint statement. “My constituents elected me to serve them to the best of my abilities. The Iron Range has provided the ore that has forged the steel that has made the bridges of America. If we expect to actually bridge the partisan divide, someone must take a proactive step to build such a bridge. I consider this to be a positive approach in an attempt to move away from the negative and partisan rhetoric while continuing to fully support our way of life on the Iron Range.”

The joint statement issued by Bakk and Tomassoni spends a lot of time talking about partisanship. But if that were really the motivating factor for the Range senators, I’d expect the statement to include assurances about DFL issues they still support.

For instance, the release doesn’t mention K-12 education, higher education, access to health care or the social safety net for poor and vulnerable people. It only mentions natural resources and the same vague notion of “our way of life” that has propelled the rightward shift of the Iron Range. It’s the terminal outcome of the “jobs, jobs, jobs” mantra that fails to address the changing economy and technology that has most affected places like this. 

So, we see quite plainly this move isn’t driven by a desire for bipartisanship. It’s about political power and the ability of these two senators to deliver the pro-mining company, anti-regulatory agenda of their districts’ most dominant political forces. Those being: mining companies, mining vendors, Minnesota Power and increasingly conservative trade unions. 

The word “independent” has thus reached its apex of irony. Tomassoni and Bakk just performed a massive display of dependence on the extraction industry. Not since U.S. Steel was the largest corporation on Earth have Mesabi Range state senators so blatantly maneuvered on behalf of the monied interests of this region.

Bakk and Tomassoni might still win elections on the Range. But surely they know that redistricting — no matter who does it — will be hard on them. Bakk’s Senate District 3  and Tomassoni’s Senate District 6 both sit near the top of underpopulated districts heading into this redistricting cycle. It is quite possible that the two of them will be drawn together in a new Senate district come 2022. 

Additionally, Bakk won his recent election by 10 points; Tomassoni won his by 15. You might call these good margins, but each actually faced the closest general election of his career against weak, underfunded opponents. President Trump won Tomassoni’s district and gave a strong showing in Bakk’s.* Better GOP candidates would give them trouble. So, dealing with the GOP means that Bakk and Tomassoni will have less to worry about on their right flank.

In doing so, however, Bakk and Tomassoni alienate the progressives in their base. Despite the narrative fueled by the Trump campaign, there remain a hefty number of actual Democrats who live in St. Louis, Itasca, Lake and Cook counties. Actual liberals, who believe in things. They will not allow two turncoat independents to go uncontested in the general election. 

And local Republicans will want total conversion on a number of issues before letting Bakk or Tomassoni have a free pass either. Thus, it wouldn’t be surprising to find Bakk and Tomassoni, like “Trapper” Bob Lessard before them, calling it a career after one last act of defiance.

This actually helps us understand the move. If these senators only have two years left, after decades of building seniority, they want all they can get. So, Tomassoni gets the Senate residency and a chairmanship. Bakk gets a chairmanship and an opportunity to flip off the Senate DFL caucus that rejected him for Sen. Susan Kent earlier this year. 

A good friend from Range politics, former Rep. Tom Anzelc, would always tell me that there is no purple button on a legislator’s desk. There is a green button and a red button. 

If the GOP takes the unprecedented step of giving chairmanships to independents elected as Democrats, they will have expectations. On all the votes that matter Bakk and Tomassoni will vote with Senate Republicans. 

So it goes. If trends hold, these two might be the last DFL senators elected out of the Iron Range for the next 10 years at least. What a pity this tradition of upward mobility for working class immigrants ends with the Machiavellian ascent of company lickspittles. 

All this for two copper-nickel mines that are unlikely to open anytime soon and a pipeline to bring wealth from one far-away place to another. Thirty pieces of silver would have been a better deal.

*This story has been corrected to note Trump did not win Bakk’s Senate district. 

Photo: State Sens. Tom Bakk and David Tomassoni left the Senate DFL caucus to form their own two-person caucus. Image via the Minnesota Reformer.

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Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources meeting is a marvel to behold

On Wednesday, the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources conducted a zoom meeting about special environment and natural resource projects, primarily from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF).

We'll have more in an update of this post later in the day.

Here's the Facebook video:

From the agenda:

10:15 a.m.	Approve the minutes for LCCMR meeting on August 13, 2020 ( Minutes)
	Members report potential conflicts of interest regarding today's business (COI PDF / Members COI 2020 / Members COI 2021)
	Director's report
10:30 a.m.	Status of M.L. 2020 Tentative Recommendations
10:45 a.m.	Action: Mesabi Trail request for extension ML 2015, Chp. 76, Sec. 2, Subd. 09i "Mesabi Trail Development Soudan to Ely - Phase II ", $1,000,000 ●   Bob Manzoline and Bill Dahl, St. Louis & Lake Counties Regional Railroad Authority
11:00 a.m.	Update and Possible Action: M.L. 2019, First Special Session, Chp. 4, Art. 2, Sec. 2, Subd. 09e “National Loon Center”, National Loon Center Foundation, $4,000,000 ( Memo) ●   Leah Heggerston, NLCF Board member, and NLC Project manager ●   Mike Angland, WSN, NLCF Board member, and proposed NLC project manager Materials     A.  5-year lease of “outdoor features” area     B.  5-year cooperative agreement that operates in conjunction with the 5-year lease     C.  25-year lease of building envelope     D.  Supplement to “outdoor features” lease     E.  Supplement to cooperative agreement
11:30 a.m.	Completed Project Presentation: M.L. 2017, Chp. 96, Sec. 2, Subd. 04g “Identification of Chemicals of Emerging Concern in Minnesota Fish”, $400,000 ●   Seth Moore, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
11:50 a.m.	Completed Project Presentation: M.L. 2016, Chp. 186, Sec. 2, Subd. 06e “Elimination of Target Invasive Plant Species – Phase II”, $750,000 ●   Monika Chandler, Department of Agriculture, $511,000 ●   Angela Gupta, U of MN, $239,000
12:10 p.m.	2021 ENRTF Recommendations: Peer review status update (Spreadsheet)
12:15 p.m.	Break
12:30 p.m.	Action: Review draft language for 2021 ENRTF Recommendations a.   Legislative Coordinating Commission: $2,000 for Legacy website b.   Draft letter re: criminal background checks c.   Draft 2021 ENRTF bill language d.   Specific project contingencies/issues      -  2021 language draft technical corrections      -  2021 language draft COVID Extensions      -  2021 language draft Mesabi Trail CSAH 88 to Ely Materials     -  Member followup questions and answers chart     -  Recommendations Spreadsheet     -  Recommendations Summary
1:30 p.m.	LCCMR Other Business a.   Next meeting: December 9 or December 17?
1:45 p.m.	Public Testimony The public is asked to keep their comments brief. If you would like to testify, please contact Diana Griffith at [email protected] by 4:00 pm the day before the meeting and specify to which agenda item your testimony relates. The chair will accommodate testimony at the requested agenda item as time allows.
2:00 p.m.	Adjourn

Photo: The banner background from the LCCMR page.

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Update: Kandiyohi County Board District 2 recount to be conducted on Friday

UPDATE November 20, 2020 post: Recount widens Commissioner-elect Gardner's margin in Kandiyohi County Board District 2

At the West Central Tribune, Shelby Lindrud reports in Kandiyohi County Board recount set for Friday:

The final answer on who won the election for the open seat on the Kandiyohi County Board of Commissioners in District 2 could be known by the end of the week.

Challenger, and projected winner, Steven Gardner currently holds a 13-vote lead over incumbent Steve Ahmann.

As is allowed under state law, Ahmann has requested a recount. The recount will be paid by the county since the vote difference between the two candidates is less than one half of 1 percent of the vote total.

The recount, which is open to the public, will begin at 9:30 a.m. Friday at the Kandiyohi County Office Building located at 400 Benson Ave. S.W. in Willmar. . . .

We've posted about the race in Ahmann and Gardner recount on for Kandiyohi County Commissioner District 2 seat and Ahmann out? Steve Gardner likely to be next Kandiyohi County Commissioner for District 2.

Over on Ahmann's Steve Ahmann Kandiyohi County District 2 Commissioner Facebook page (it appears to be a campaign page), the comments on a post about filing for a recount range from thoughtful prayers and encouragement to one supporter claiming that the Willmar Town Crier (a Facebook gadfly) and friends are responsible for fraudulent ballots, while maligning the local police chief and Gardner. We've grabbed a screenshot, but don't think it's best to publish the screed here. Sheesh.

As to how the Willmar Town Crier was able to take over Kandiyohi County's election apparatus and change the count, we can't even.

Photo: Steve Gardner.

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Senator Lang & Representative Baker's letter tells Willmar to mask-up, now that election is over

On Sunday, the West Central Tribune published an article Legislators Baker and Lang urge more mask-wearing in region about a letter Minnesota state senator Andrew Lang, R-Olivia, and state representative Dave Baker, R-Willmar, released that day:

Rep. Dave Baker and Sen. Andrew Lang are urging more people need to wear face coverings to help reduce the growing number of COVID-19 cases and to help local businesses stay open.

The two Republican lawmakers — Baker is from Willmar and represents House District 17B and Lang is from Olivia and represents Senate District 17 — issued a statement Sunday morning calling on people to put aside political and personal beliefs and to increase efforts to wear masks, wash hands and maintain social distancing.

“We understand the arguments but wearing a mask is not, we repeat is NOT bowing to a political party or governor, but it is showing a sign of respect to the business trying to keep our neighbors employed, kids staying in school and so on,” the lawmakers said in the joint statement.

Coronavirus cases are surging across west central Minnesota and the rest of the state. . . .

The letter itself was published here in the paper's op-ed section:Baker and Lang letter: Please wear a mask to help Minnesotans and businesses.

Bluestem Prairie applauds the publication of the letter, but we have to wonder what took them so long. The picture at the top of this post is from November 4 1:09 a.m election night party posting on the Kandiyohi County Republican Party Facebook page.

Left to right, that's Baker, Lang, Seventh District congresswoman-elect Michelle Fischbach, and state representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg.

Though he represents a part of rural Kandiyohi County and his wife is not only a nurse, but a highly respected nurse-educator at Ridgewater College in Willmar, Miller doesn't seem to have been around for the letter. More on where he was on Sunday at the end of this post.

There's more evidence that the earnest letter writers weren't wearing masks at an inside gathering on the county's Facebook page. In the post just before that of the photo, uploaded on November 3 at 11:48, a video of Congresswoman-elect Michelle Fischbach at the Kandiyohi County Republican election night party. Note that one man puts on a mask as Fischbach makes a joke about burning a mask--but most people aren't masked up:

Well, it's better late than never, one supposes.

As for Representative Miller, he appears to have been in Irving, Texas, this past weekend, attending the Wallbuilders ProFamily Legislative Network 2020 Conference.  Here's a photo of Miller with Albertville Republican state representative Eric Lucero's Facebook photos from the event.

We're not sure if the Conference Gallery photos from the conference are from this year or were come-ons to encourage registration, but neither set makes the event seem mask-heavy (there is a person wearing a mask in Lucero's set). Glenn Gruenhagen is in the fourth photo from the top in the Legislative Network 2020 Conference gallery but as we say, we're not sure if these photos are from 2020.

We'll have more on this conference if we see anything worth writing about, but in the meantime, the photo of Miller answers the question we saw more than once today in discussions of the Baker-Lang letter: Where's Tim Miller?

Photos: labeled in the text.

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Contact tracing: Is Mary Franson's circle of conservative friends metaphor for COVID romp?

UPDATE November 16, 11:15 a.m.: In a message sent via House Republican spokester Andrew Wagner, Representative Mary Franson issued a statement about this article:

"'I’m disappointed that Bluestem Prairie invaded the privacy of a private individuals. The article was filled with incorrect or unconfirmed information, and shows how foolish it is for the media to try to contact trace from behind their computer screens.' - Rep. Franson" [end update]

City Pages is no longer around to keep an eye on state representative Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, so we'll have to give it a stab with some amateur contact tracing. 

An article published Friday online at the Alexandria Echo Press, With COVID-19 surging, alarmed regional health care leaders plead for public's help, came to mind with a reader's tip we received on Saturday.

Those leaders hope the public behaves in this fashion:

“We need all our communities to come together to slow the spread of COVID-19. In addition to protecting our most vulnerable, we can help area businesses and schools stay open. That is why we advise using the tools we have to limit the spread of the virus.”

Those tools include washing or sanitizing hands frequently, avoiding gatherings, maintaining social distancing, staying home when you’re sick and wearing a mask. With flu season here, it’s also recommended to get a flu shot.

And businesses in Alexandria are doing their best. The Garden Bar, for instance, announced on Facebook on Veterans Day:

We regret to inform you that The Garden Bar on 6th will be closed for the remainder of the week [Nov 11 - Nov 15] as we...

Posted by The Garden Bar on 6th on Wednesday, November 11, 2020

That caution is a prudent thing. Our reader drew our attention to an early morning November 3 Facebook event photo album posted by Kalli Kraker with Mary Franson and sixteen other friends (screenshot at the top of this post captures the full list of friends).

The night before Trump’s re-election, we gathered to celebrate these amazing women! They are my rock♥️ During my...

Posted by Kalli Kraker on Monday, November 2, 2020

Update: Looks like she changed the settings on the post so it can't be embedded. Here are a screengrab and a couple of group photos that include Representative Franson:

Note that the Garden Bar staff member in the background in the first photo is wearing a mask at this private gathering.

Franson is in the rear row, second from the left.

Franson is the first on the left. [end update]

No masks and no social distancing at that gathering of amazing women. UPDATE: We've learned from a Facebook comment by Marie Ohren, the owner of the Garden Bar, that this was  "a PRIVATE event. The Garden Bar on 6th was not open to the public for this event." [end update]

Sadly, one of the women who gathered is now at home with COVID, if we are to believe Kelsi Malone's recent (November 13) Facebook post:

We certainly hope Malone wasn't positive at the time of the private gathering at the Garden Bar, nor that she picked up the novel coronavirus at the private meet-up.

Update: Using the name Kelsi Timm, Malone emailed let us know that that "I did not have COVID when I was at Kalli's thank-you party on 11/3. On 11/4, I was exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID later that week." We wish her a speedy recovery. [end update].

Malone isn't the only person in this vibrant social circle to contract COVID-19. Of those on the list of friends unable to make the private election-eve gathering at the Garden Bar, two may have been quarantined for the novel coronavirus, according to posts they created on Facebook.

There's Kassia Lueck (several posts on Facebook) and a comment on the Kelli Kraker party post by Rochelle Jenson:

We reached out to Representative Franson by email and messenger to ask if she were taking any precautions from a possible COVID-19 contact at the gathering, but have not heard back from her.

As she has for some earlier Minnesota House meetings since the pandemic hit, Franson attended Thursday's special session remotely from Alexandria Township, according to the roll call on the Minnesota House Information video archive for the special session.

We don't offer this informal contact tracing as evidence that Representative Franson needs to be tested or isolate. Rather, it seems to be a metaphor for Minnesota in 'desperate and dangerous place' with COVID-19, when friends risk illness  by meeting in a local bar.

Not that Franson has been an advocate for taking COVId-19 precautions in statements made when she has been in St. Paul for legislative meetings. In mid-September, City Pages' Hannah Jones reported in Minnesota Republicans reminded to talk 'public safety,' not COVID:

. . . Just ask Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria), who was present in St. Paul (wearing a mask that depicted the governor as a clown). She called Walz’s response to the pandemic “fear porn” and immediately launched into the den of debauchery that was the city next door.

“You have a better chance of going into Minneapolis and being murdered – being raped – your car looted…” Here she paused. “…Or, what is it called, ‘carjacking?’ Yes. You have a greater chance of your car being jacked in Minneapolis than you do, at my age, dying of COVID.”

We’re not sure what Franson's plan is for people who are not her age (43), but you cannot question the good will or integrity of someone with a clown on her face, and who ran a COVID memes page on Facebook. . . .

We wish Franson and her friends--and all people--good health and speedy recovery to anyone who has the misfortune of contacting COVID-19.

Screengrabs: From Facebook.

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