Bluestem Prairie: September 2021

Justice for Joe Boever: news about Ravnsborg impeachment; Jackley's campaign for office

We posted last week about the ongoing story in the process of the South Dakota House's exploration of the impeachment of state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg in Bipartisan group of South Dakota House leaders call for Ravnsborg impeachment inquiry.

The South Dakota Attorney General hit and killed Joseph Boever in a moment of distracted driving a year ago September 12.

Some updates in the story

On Wednesday, Bob Mercer reported for Keloland in Ravnsborg impeachment petition to be sent to legislators this week:

What’s said to be the first impeachment proceeding against a state official in South Dakota history is starting to take shape.

The petition seeking a special session of the Legislature will go out later this week, House Speaker Spencer Gosch said Wednesday.

The potential target is state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg. The car he was driving hit and killed pedestrian Joe Boever on the night of September 12, 2020.

Ravnsborg, a Republican, had his defense attorney plead no-contest for him to two traffic misdemeanors. Ravnsborg never appeared in court on the charges.

Just days before the pleas were entered, Ravnsborg was ticketed for driving 57 mph in a 35 mph zone in Pierre. He wasn’t carrying his driver license.

The petition calls for a special session on impeachment to start November 9.

The Legislature will already be at the Capitol for a special session that starts November 8 on drawing legislative-election districts for the next 10 years.

For the November 9 impeachment special session to occur, the petition needs support from at least 47 of the 70 House of Representatives members and at least 24 of the 35 Senate members.

Senator Lee Schoenbeck is his chamber’s top member and presides when Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden isn’t available. Schoenbeck has encouraged senators to agree to the impeachment special session.

Schoenbeck said Wednesday he doesn’t expect the Senate to spend much time on impeachment November 9 if there is a special session to consider impeachment. He said the Senate would gavel in, take care of some procedural issues and then recess. . . .

The South Dakota Constitution says that a majority of House members –36 currently –is necessary for an official to be impeached.

The article on impeachment includes a provision that says, “No officer shall exercise the duties of his office after he shall have been impeached and before his acquittal.”

How a suspension would affect Ravnsborg’s $121,449.51 annual salary isn’t clear.

If the House votes to impeach, the Senate must conduct a trial. The impeachment article requires the impeached official to receive notice 20 days before the start of the trial. A two-thirds majority of senators is necessary to convict.

A conviction would remove the person from office and disqualify the person from holding any office of trust or profit in state government.

Under that schedule, and with the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays, a Senate trial might not start until after the Legislature returns January 11 to start the 2022 regular session. . . .

There's more at Keloland.

The general public won't be able to read the Ravnsborg crash report for now. Earlier, Dakota News Now reported DPS denies request for Ravnsborg crash report:

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s fatal crash report won’t be released to the public, at least for now.

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety has denied Dakota News Now’s public records request for the crash report, citing South Dakota Law. The denial letter says the department will reassess whether to release the file once the State Legislature determines if it will move forward with impeachment.

DPS Secretary Craig Price delivered the investigation files to Speaker Gosch earlier this month at Governor Noem’s direction. House Majority Leader Kent Peterson called for a special legislative session to determine if impeachment proceedings are warranted against Ravnsborg. The special session would take place in November. . . .

Regardless of the legislature's action on impeachment, Ravnsborg might be removed from office the old-fashioned way: an election. in this case, a primary. For South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Kevin Woster reports in Jackley runs again for familiar public-service job, where less is more:

Marty Jackley is working awfully hard these days for a chance to take a pay cut.

That’s what will happen if he wins his run for the South Dakota Attorney General’s job, a position he held in the past for 10 years.

“If I win, I will make considerably less,” Jackley says. “But I’ve been in that position before when I left private practice to be the U.S. Attorney. I took a pay cut then, too.”

Jackley’s experience as both U.S. Attorney for South Dakota and the state Attorney General make him hard to beat in terms of experience on the job. He was appointed to fill the remainder of former AG Larry Long’s last term when Long was appointed as a judge. Then Jackley was elected to two four-year terms of his own, before leaving the office because of term limits and to run for governor. . . .

It’s a crammed schedule for the 50-year-old Jackley, what with balancing private practice obligations, family obligations, and an active campaign for the attorney general’s job now held by first-term Jason Ravnsborg.

Ravnsborg’s political future is cloudy, and perhaps non-existent, following his no-contest pleas on two misdemeanor charges in connection with a fatal car-pedestrian accident late on the evening of Sept. 12, 2020, on Highway 14 just west of Highmore. Ravnsborg apparently was distracted when he allowed his Ford Taurus to drift out of the westbound lane and onto the shoulder, where 55-year-old Joe Boever was walking with a flashlight that investigators said was turned on.

Ravnsborg claimed he never saw Boever, whose face hit the windshield, sending his glasses inside the car. Ravnsborg dialed 911, telling the dispatcher who he was and that he’d hit something in the roadway. It was the dispatcher who first asked if it was a deer, and Ravnsborg said it might have been. A local sheriff came to the scene, but neither he nor Ravnsborg located Boever’s body.

The sheriff loaned his private car to Ravnsborg, who drove back to Pierre and returned to Highmore the next day, followed by his chief of staff, to return the sheriff’s vehicle. Ravnsborg stopped at the scene of the accident, discovered Boever’s body, and drove to the sheriff’s nearby home to report it.

Noem has called for Ravnsborg to resign. And the state Legislature is considering impeachment proceedings that had begun but were suspended pending the outcome of his criminal trial.

Ravnsborg hasn’t yet said that he won’t run for a second term. When asked if he thinks Ravnsborg will run, Jackley said: “I’ll leave all that to the current attorney general and to the Legislature. I’m just focusing on my race, my pathway, and trying to earn the job in 2022.

It’s a job Jackley says he loves, noting that he has missed public service since he left the AG’s office in January of 2019. . . .

Stay tuned.

Video: Return of Our Sisseton-Wahpeton Children

O

R eturn of our Sisseton-Wahpeton Children, an item in the Oyate News, caught our attention. It was just an image and a link but worth readers time if they want to learn about the legacy of the boarding school system on families and communities.

Tamara St. John's discussion of the way in which the removal of the children of tribal leaders from their families and communities--along with her sharing of what has been learned about the boys at home and at the schools--illustrates why the children and this history should never be forgotten.

The unflinching questioning of the representatives of the Department of the Army by Sisseton Wahpeton by SWO citizens, along with their insistence that traditional cultural practices and family values be honored, is bracing.

Here's a YouTube of part of the event. It begins with St. John talking about the children:

If a YouTube of the complete event becomes available, we'll add it to this post.

Image: Amos LaFromboise's student information card at Carlisle. From the online Amos LaFramboise Cemetery Sources:

The records indicate that Amos LaFramboise was originally buried in Ashland Cemetery,
a burial ground located in the town of Carlisle. In December 1879, the body was relocated to the
Carlisle Indian School Cemetery due to racial restrictions on the deed for plots at Ashland.

Excerpt from Jacqueline Fear-Segal, White Man’s Club: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of
Indian Acculturation (University of Nebraska Press, 2007), pages 235-237:
“The day after [Amos LaFramboise] was laid to rest in Ashland Cemetery, Pratt wrote to the
War Department requesting ‘to be informed whether the Burial Ground at that place is available
for the interment of Indian youth who may die while attending that school.’ … The judge
advocate general was called on to make the final decision, and he informed the War Department
that ‘The deed in this case conveys to the United States the ‘exclusive and entire right of
interment and sepulture’ in a certain burial lot in Ashland Cemetery in said Carlisle ‘to have and
to hold’ – and it is added – ‘for the burial of such White persons’ as the grantee may admit to be
buried there: In my judgement these last words constitute a condition annexed to the grant, that
the premises shall be used for the burial of White persons only; and I have therefore to express
the opinion that the interment therein of an Indian would not be legally authorized.’”

Years later, in an 1892 speech, Pratt infamously said that the goal of boarding school education was to "kill the Indian and save the man." St. John skillfully wove this information into her discussions.

Related posts:

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 15, 2021 at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's video of latest MN House informational hearing on Chronic Wasting Disease

On Monday, we posted Tune in to House Enviro Committee hearing tomorrow morning for latest CWD information.

The hearing is definitely worth a watch, for both the information in the scheduled presentations, passionate appeals to agency staff by Minnesota deer (and deer hunter) champion state representative Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, and public testimony by outdoors group members.

Much of the news isn't promising for Minnesota's wild deer herd and those who hunt and eat them. No votes were taken by the committee in the informational hearing.

Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the hearing:

Documents on the agenda that will help understand the scheduled testimony and public comments:

Larsen U of M Presentation - 9/13/2021
Larsen U of M Handouts - 9/13/2021
DNR/MPCA CWD Presentation - 9/13/2021
Board of Animal Health Presentation - 9/13/2021
Board of Animal Health Handout - 9/13/2021
CWD Action Coalition Letter - 9/13/2021
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Letter - 9/13/2021
Bluffland Whitetails Association Letter - 9/13/2021
St. Louis County Resolution - 9/13/2021

Some eye-opening tweets about the subject matter:

The fence around public land in Beltrami County cost MN taxpayers $195k. “Farmer” who dumped the #CWD carcasses hasn’t paid a penny. #mnleg pic.twitter.com/pyaC7X9GuH
— Jamie Becker-Finn (@jbeckerfinn) September 14, 2021

Advice to hunters from U of M prion expert @peter_a_larsen : wear gloves when gutting & butchering, use stainless steel equipment & then disinfect with 40-50%(!) bleach solution #mnleg #CWD

Home butchers: is your garage set-up full stainless steel?
— Jamie Becker-Finn (@jbeckerfinn) September 14, 2021

We may have more as we unpack the testimony and committee members' comments. We hope Session Daily publishes an article about the hearing.

Related posts:

Photo: Wild white-tailed deer in the woods.

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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Oceti Sakowin March for our Children: over 200 march, drum, and ride horses in pouring rain

UPDATE, 9/16. 2021:

The march and other objections to the SDDOE standards appear to have prompted a change/ For Keloland, Bob Mercer reports in Social studies hearing to get larger venue, new date:

The South Dakota Department of Education announced Tuesday night a five-week delay and a move to a larger venue in Aberdeen for the first public hearing on controversial proposed content standards for social studies.

The hearing before the state Board of Education Standards was supposed to be Monday, September 20, at Holgate Middle School theater. The new plan sets it for October 25 at the Ramkota Convention Center in Aberdeen.

A state law requires at least four public hearings over the course of six months on changes to content standards. The law, first passed in 2012 and amended in 2014 and 2017, requires hearings in Aberdeen, Pierre, Rapid City, and Sioux Falls.

An accompanying law passed in 2014 requires at least 30 days of public notice for a hearing on content standards.

The changes for the social studies standards came one day after a protest march in Pierre against the department’s removal of dozens of references to Native American culture from a draft version that a team of teachers, historians and others had assembled at the department’s invitation. . . . [end update]

In mid-August, we posted South Dakota's cancel culture triumphs in state DOE social studies standards revision about the removal of nearly all references to the Oceti Sakowin Oyate [Seven Council Fires] and other indigenous groups in the state from a working group's social studies teaching standards.

Now, South Dakota's Lakota high school students are organizing against the erasure of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate [Seven Council Fires] from the state's teaching standards--and marched yesterday in the rain to voice their objections.

There's the Lakota Empowerment Club at Central High in Pierre. At KEVN/Black Hills Fox, Miranda O'Bryan reports in Central High School students stage walkout to support teaching Native American history:

As the South Dakota Department of Education prepares to make a decision on public school social studies standards, people across South Dakota raised their voices, hoping to express their opinion on the potential removal of Native American history from schools.

Students of all races gathered outside of Central High School, voicing their opinion on the South Dakota Department of Education’s proposed removal of Native American history from social studies standards.

“It’s important that we know where we come from and it’s especially important for the students who don’t necessarily have a traditional background, don’t have a traditional household that they can turn to and ask questions to so at school that’s really all that they get,” said student and member of Lakota Empowerment Club, Adriana Young.

“Our school is very diverse and I think to take away one part of that diversity is crazy,” said students and club members Keera Taylor and Star Sharp Fish. “We all want to learn about each other. I want to know everything about my peers. So if a part of that was taken from me, it doesn’t make sense to me at all. The option just being gone is unthinkable.”

“When I heard about what they were doing to basically what happened to us, all the genocide, the residential schools, and everything they’ve done, it hurt my hear to hear it because it’s part of who we are, it goes back generations and whenever they said we were going to get together, and do something, I was all for it,” added Niyah Dukes, CHS student and Lakota Empowerment Club member.

Lakota Empowerment Club, a new group at CHS, staged the walkout with the help of NDN Collective, who were in Pierre speaking out as well.

Young said it’s important to stand up for what you believe in and Dejarae Little Bull agreed.

“Don’t be afraid to use your voice,” continued Young. “Don’t be scared of what other people think. When you do something that may seem small to you, it can mean a lot to a lot of people. Stand up for what you believe in.”

“I remember, Kristi Noem said she wanted to broaden what we learn in history and I just think that removing the standards in contradictory to what she said because we have a large and plentiful culture here in South Dakota,” said Dejarae Little Bull, CHS student and club member. “We have all of our tribes and the reservations and learning about that, not just to Native kids, kids of other ethnicities, it’s important for them to learn that.”

Rapid City Area Schools superintendent Dr. Lori Simon put out a statement saying, in part, “I have concerns about the recent revisions to the social studies content standards.”

And about the group that took part in and drafting the standards for review, Dr. Simon said, “In discussions with some of the educators on the committee, I have heard that many felt their expertise and work was discounted. Perhaps most importantly, the group felt key references and facts about Native American history were omitted.”

Here's the NDN Collective's livestream of the march and rally, narrated by Sarah Sunshine Manning:

On a day in which the heavy rain caused our satellite to blink off and on here in Summit, we're impressed by the resolve of these young people and their "allies and accomplices."

At the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Morgan Matzen reports in Oceti Sakowin March for Our Children demands Indigenous history education for all of South Dakota:

The South Dakota Education Equity Coalition is calling on Gov. Kristi Noem, South Dakota Department of Education Secretary Tiffany Sanderson and other government officials to resign after the DOE removed more than a dozen references to the Oceti Sakowin before releasing proposed social studies standards a month ago.

More than 200 marchers walked, drummed and rode horses Monday across Pierre as part of the Oceti Sakowin March for our Children, demanding Indigenous history education for all ahead of multiple public hearings expected for the proposed standards, which start next week in Aberdeen, before they're finalized.

Sarah White, the coalition's director, said the demands are listed as follows:

Make Oceti Sakowin Essential Understanding standards mandatory

Move the office of Indian Education back to the DOE

Honor laws with tribal consultation on education

Study session to enable opportunities for school choice

Demand for resignation of Noem; Sanderson; Secretary David Flute, from Department of Tribal Relations; and Fred Osborn, the director of the Office of Indian Education

Several students also spoke during the protest, including Ochankowin Chasing Hawk from Dupree High School. She said she had to teach her own classmates about the Dakota 38, the 38 men who hanged in the nation's largest mass execution in 1862 as part of convictions tied to the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. It wasn’t taught in her school, she said. . . .

Read the rest at the Argus Leader.

At the Capital Journal, Michael Woodel reports in Protesters march through Pierre to oppose Oceti Sakowin removal from social studies standards:

After the Pierre Police Department escort and mounted horse riders passed by, at least 100 marchers on foot made their way through Pierre on Monday. They let the children lead the way.

The march winding its way from Steamboat Park to Hilger’s Gulch was led by the children of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate, otherwise known as the People of Seven Council Fires or the Sioux Nation.

The children at the head of Monday’s march carried a banner that read “Oceti Sakowin Past. Present. Future.” They also waved signs that called on South Dakota’s leadership to “Honor Indigenous Leadership In State Decision Making,” something many Native Americans in South Dakota have voiced as lacking in 2021.

Afternoon rain dampened the route for Monday’s protesters, who marched down Dakota Avenue and up Highland Avenue across Pierre’s main stretch of Sioux Avenue to Hilger’s Gulch, not far from the South Dakota Department of Education building on Governors Drive.

The march, organized by Rapid City-based groups South Dakota Education Equity Coalition and NDN Collective, protested the South Dakota Department of Education’s draft social studies content standards published for public feedback on Aug. 6, which removed almost all mentions of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate included in the July 26 draft. . . .

There's more at the Capital Journal.

Let's hope all South Dakota children gain the opportunity to learn a robust version of South Dakota social studies, rather than the thin gruel the Department of Education drained out of the working group's rich stew.

Photo: NDN Collective leads the march through the rainy streets of Pierre, South Dakota. Erin Bormett/Argus Leader.

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.

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

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 14, 2021 at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tune in to House Enviro Committee hearing tomorrow morning for latest CWD information

Readers interested in learning the latest information about Chronic Wasting Disease and its detection in Minnesota should tune in to watch a Zoom live on Tuesday, September 14 at 10 a.m.

From Representative Rick Hansen's September 7 Legislative Update email; Hansen chairs the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee:

The House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee is holding a hearing on chronic wasting disease (CWD) next week. I encourage you to tune in if you’re interested in hearing the latest information about the disease and efforts to stop it from spreading. You can watch the hearing live on Tuesday, September 14 at 10 a.m. or view it later on House Public Information Services’ YouTube channel.

The agenda and documents are posted on the committee's webpage. Here's the agenda:

Update on Chronic Wasting Disease Efforts
• Dr. Peter Larsen, Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach
• Michelle Carstensen, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
• David Benke, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
• Christian Balzer, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
• Dr. Beth Thompson, Board of Animal Health
• Dr. Linda Glaser, Board of Animal Health
Public Testimony
• Patrick Boyle, Commissioner, St. Louis County
• Keith Nelson, Commissioner, St. Louis County
• Kevin Dupuis, Chairman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Brad Gausman, Minnesota Conservation Federation and CWD Action
Coalition
• Matt Lee, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers

Documents on the agenda:

Larsen U of M Presentation - 9/13/2021
Larsen U of M Handouts - 9/13/2021
DNR/MPCA CWD Presentation - 9/13/2021
Board of Animal Health Presentation - 9/13/2021
Board of Animal Health Handout - 9/13/2021
CWD Action Coalition Letter - 9/13/2021
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Letter - 9/13/2021
Bluffland Whitetails Association Letter - 9/13/2021
St. Louis County Resolution - 9/13/2021

We'll be processing our garden harvest tomorrow and thinking about concocting the perfect sauce for venison while we tune in. My grandmother couldn't tune in Zoom meetings years ago when she taught me how to can vegetables in southern Minnesota years ago, but then, she didn't have to worry about the wild deer herd sickening.

Related posts:

Photo: A wild white-tailed buck.

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

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

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

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 13, 2021 at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

South Dakota governor Kristi Noem was for vaccine mandates before she was against them

On Thursday, we retweeted this exchange between the News Director of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader and a former Argus Leader reporter:

And Gov. Noem was a fan of those vaccination requirements only 18 months ago. https://t.co/BGjf36BJmw
— Lisa Kaczke (@LisaKaczke) September 10, 2021

Here's Kaczke's February 21, 2020 in the Argus Leader, Gov. Kristi Noem opposes bill to drop vaccination requirements for students:

Gov. Kristi Noem says she opposes a bill eliminating the vaccination requirement for students.

"Vaccinations have literally saved millions of lives over the years. That is not something that I can support," she said during her weekly press conference.

The House Health and Human Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on House Bill 1235 at 7:45 a.m. CT on Tuesday at the Capitol. Noem said her office will oppose the bill during the hearing.

House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, R-Platte, is the prime sponsor of the bill, and 13 legislators have signed on as co-sponsors.

The bill proposes that no student entering a public or nonpublic early education program, school or post-secondary school is required to have immunizations or medical procedures prior to entering school. It also states that no one can be discriminated against if they aren't immunized.

Any school, medical provider or person who forces someone to be immunized could be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, which comes with a maximum sentence of one year in jail and/or a $2,000 fine.

On February 25, 2020, House Bill 1235 crashed in the Health and Human Services committee on a 2-10 vote, then was deferred on a 10-2 vote to the 41st legislative day, which is South Dakotan for "killing a bill." Opponents included representatives of the South Dakota Department of Health, the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce, the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, the South Dakota Medical Association, The South Dakota Nurses Association and other miscreants.

Sad to read that Tamara St John, one of my state representatives and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribal archivist, favored the failed measure. Nearly a year later, St. John tested positive for COVID-19, but fortunately experienced no severe symptoms.

The list of vaccines mandated for South Dakota school kids and Noem's new opposition to mandates is catching national attention.

CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront commented on the inventory of those vaccines, but didn't note Noem's 2020 defense of vaccine mandates for school kids in this clip:

Governor slams Biden's vaccine mandate. Here are the vaccines required in her state https://t.co/8RgddJcA0i
— Sally Jo Sorensen (@sallyjos) September 12, 2021

It's worth your time clicking through to watch the CNN clip.

There's more of course. Noem tweeted on July 31:

Workers whose employers are mandating a vaccine for continued employment have the power to say no. Our robust economy and job market gives them the option to find a new employer that values personal choice and responsibility, and doesn’t force mandates on their employees.
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) July 31, 2021

Reporting for BizPac Review, Vivek Saxena wrote in Kristi Noem sets off firestorm after saying workers can say no to vax mandates due to robust job market:

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, already on thin ice over her battles with state Republicans over a bill to ban biological males from women’s sports, is once again facing intense heat, this time for refusing to ban vaccine mandates.

On Saturday, she posted a tweet ostensibly designed to cheer up private business employees who’re being forced to choose between either complying with their employer’s vaccine mandate or looking for a new job.

“Workers whose employers are mandating a vaccine for continued employment have the power to say no. Our robust economy and job market gives them the option to find a new employer that values personal choice and responsibility, and doesn’t force mandates on their employees,” the governor wrote. . . .

The tweet provoked massive backlash from … conservatives.

It sounded to conservatives as if she was tacitly condoning those private businesses that have chosen to force a vaccine mandate on their employees.

Technically, her position is the correct one from a free market perspective. Businesses should be allowed to run their operations as they choose.

However, since the arrival of former President Donald Trump, the contemporary Republican Party has slowly been becoming more populist, and the populist position on this issue is that businesses DON’T have the right to force vaccines on employees.

And so for Noem to choose the free market position over the populist one — and for her to do so while in the middle of a pre-2024 election feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — was perhaps not the wisest move.

After all, DeSantis has taken the populist position and banned vaccine passports and mandates in Florida, making him extremely popular among the base.

Noem meanwhile is having her “Marie Antoinette” moment, according to Newsmax’s Jessie Jane Duff and others. . . .

That's our positive pants governor for sure.

Photo: Governor Kristi Noem riding her horse. To give her credit, she was vaccinated back in April, according to Associated Press coverage at the time.

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.

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

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 12, 2021 at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Patriot Day: a great read in The Atlantic

Between running errands, harvesting garden vegetables, and processing them, today we read dozens of news articles about the legacy of the September 11, 2001 attacks as well as friends' remembrances of what they were were doing when the planes hit. Some wrote of the friends and colleagues they had lost.

If some worry that America and the world have forgotten September 11, 2001, we come away on this Patriot Day knowing that's not the case.

For us, the most moving article was Jennifer Senior's What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind: Grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning in the two decades since 9/11, published in the September 2021 issue of The Atlantic. A thoughtful friend sent us the link.

It's a powerful piece of non-fictional. Go read the online version.

We'll have posts tomorrow about South Dakota governor Noem's latest backflip, Minnesota politics, and our usual schtick.

Photo: Bobby McIlvaine's wallet (Danna Singer for The Atlantic). Consider subscribing to The Atlantic.

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.

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

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 11, 2021 at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bipartisan group of South Dakota House leaders call for Ravnsborg impeachment inquiry

Is symbolic justice coming for Joseph Boever, the man South Dakota Attorney General hit and killed in a moment of distracted driving a year ago this coming Sunday?

At the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Joe Sneve reports in South Dakota House leaders call for special session to consider impeachment of Attorney General Ravnsborg:

A bi-partisan group of leadership members in the South Dakota House of Representatives are calling for a special legislative session to consider whether to pursue impeachment of the state's attorney general.

House Majority Leader Kent Peterson, R-Salem, in a news release Thursday announced he is formally requesting lawmakers return to the capital in November to "evaluate the matter of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg," convicted of a pair of misdemeanor traffic charges last month stemming from his role in a vehicle crash that killed a pedestrian a year earlier.

"Before we concluded the session in March, the House of Representatives voted on a resolution that stated we may evaluate the matter pertaining to the Attorney General when the judicial process was completed," Peterson said. "Since that process has finished, I am asking that the legislature convene to start the formal process of investigating the matter surrounding Attorney General Ravnsborg."

Ravnsborg struck and killed Joe Boever while he was driving from a political event the night of Sept. 12, 2020, and was convicted of a misdemeanor traffic charges relating to the crash on Aug. 26.

Despite calls for his resignation from various law enforcement groups, Gov. Kristi Noem and several lawmakers, Ravnsborg remains in office as the state's top law enforcement officer and prosecutor. Following the resolution of the criminal charges he'd faced, he said he would continue to serve and had no intention of relinquishing the attorney general position.

At Keloland, Bob Mercer has more in House leader calls for special session to consider impeaching Attorney General Ravnsborg:

House Republican leader Kent Peterson said Thursday he wants the South Dakota Legislature to call itself into special session to consider whether to impeach state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.

The House considered a resolution in the regular session that was deferred by House Speaker Spencer Gosch because Ravnsborg was still facing three second-class misdemeanor charges for a September 12 crash at the west edge of Highmore. That night, the car Ravnsborg was driving struck and killed pedestrian Joe Boever, who was walking on the north shoulder of US 14.

Ravnsborg, a Republican, pleaded no-contest last month to improper lane change and using an electronic device while driving. Retired Circuit Judge John Brown sentenced Ravnsborg to the maximum fine of $500 on each charge. A third misdemeanor for careless driving was dropped as part of a deal.

Peterson’s Thursday announcement came on Gosch’s letterhead. The Legislature needs two-thirds of its senators and two-thirds of its representatives to sign a petition for a special session. . .

View document or read text of the letter at the links, courtesy of Kelo. Mercer continues:

Gosch received the investigation file from Governor Kristi Noem after Ravnsborg’s pleas. The Republican governor has repeatedly called for Ravnsborg’s resignation and said he should be impeached if he doesn’t step down. . . .

Read the rest at Keloland. At Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger observes in House Majority Leader Peterson Wants to Consider Impeaching Ravnsborg November 9

. . .November 9 is the day after the scheduled November 8 Special Session called for redistricting. If the House does convene that Tuesday and impeach the Attorney General, South Dakota Constitution Article 16 Section 5 immediately suspends the Attorney General from his office. Article 16 Section 7 requires the Senate to wait at least 20 days before trying the Attorney General. The Senate would thus have to call itself back into another Special Session on November 29 at the earliest. If the House votes to impeach Ravnsborg within a week of its convening, the Senate could save itself a little travel and hold a Special Session trial in conjunction with the planned December 7 budget address from the Governor.

If Peterson, Gosch, and their associates are planning to consider impeachment in November, that’s all the more reason for Speaker Gosch and other legislators who have received the Ravnsborg investigation file to release that file to the public now, so the public may review the same information legislators have and weigh whether they want their legislators to revoke the public’s 2018 vote and remove their elected Attorney General from office.

We suspect our neighbors would welcome the ability to read the files; across the political spectrum, they feel that if they had struck and killed someone walking on the side of the road, they'd be in prison by now. It's nonpartisan.

Gwen Westerman named Minnesota poet laureate

After a long day of harvesting vegetables and mowing lawns on my romantic partner's place on the Lake Traverse Reservation, home of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Dakota, I was delighted to read in the Mankato Free Press article MSU's Westerman named Minnesota poet laureate by Tim Krohn:

Gwen Westerman, an English professor at Minnesota State University, is the first Native American to be appointed as Minnesota’s poet laureate.

Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan made the announcement Thursday.

“It is an honor to serve as the poet laureate and help elevate poetry across the state,” Westerman said in a statement. “I am excited for the opportunity to share the beauty of poetry and to engage and celebrate the voices of all Minnesotans.”

She is co-author of “Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota,” which won two Minnesota Book Awards and an AASLH Leadership in History Award. Her poetry collection “Follow the Blackbirds” is written in English and Dakota, one of her heritage languages.

Her poems and essays can be found in POETRY, Yellow Medicine Review, Water-Stone Review, Natural Bridge and at poetryfoundation.org

Westerman has long been involved in efforts to increase the knowledge about Native Americans, particularly the Dakota. . . .

Westerman told The Free Press in April that most people don’t think about the impact Lincoln had on the people who were not hanged. The rest of the men and their families were expelled from Mankato and sent to a prison in Davenport, Iowa.

“I’m not minimizing the hanging of the 38,” Westerman said. “But we also need to take into consideration the descendants of the men who were spared and how that impacted generations of people.”

She's right. While I learned about the 1862 War and the hangings in high school, I knew little about what happened to the people who were forced out of Minnesota after the war.

Our partner's great-grandfather, Charles Crawford, is one of the men who was tried but acquitted in the military courts after the war; he was almost shot in the forced march from Mankato to Fort Snelling. There's more about his "epic life" in this historian's consideration of the Supreme Court case, United States v. Rickert.

We met Westerman several years ago at a book signing for "Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota," at a book store in Granite Falls that was sponsored by CURE, the rural environmental and clean energy organization based in Montevideo.

Westerman is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and the Cherokee Nation.

At the Star Tribune, Richard Chin reports in Mankato English professor named Minnesota's first Native poet laureate:

. . . She has written about Dakota history and language and has won two Minnesota Book Awards for her work about Dakota people, "Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota." Her poetry collection, "Follow the Blackbirds," was written in English and Dakota.

Also a fiber artist, Westerman with works in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, the Great Plains Art Museum, the University Art Galleries at the University of South Dakota and the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota.

Her website also says she's worked as a proofreader, a waitress, an editor, a sandwich delivery driver, a technical writer and a teacher.

Westerman will be the state's third poet laureate since the post was officially created in 2007. The previous poet laureates were Robert Bly and Joyce Sutphen.

The poet laureate is expected to promote and encourage appreciation and engagement with poetry and elevate the state's poets and authors. The post comes with a $3,500 annual stipend.

That's some fine company. It's also good to see the Star Tribune mention the book and it's author together in its copy. In June, the oped section published Center of the American Experiment ideologue Katherine Kersten's commentary, Counterpoint: Small group of activists commandeers Minnesota Historical Society.

Nice to see Westerman's name restored. Our partner's family stories about the war and the aftermath parallel those in Westerman's book.

Related posts:

Photo: Gwen Westerman. State of Minnesota.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 09, 2021 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MN01: U.S. House Ethics Committee taking a look at Congressman Jim Hagedorn's spending

In Minnesota, the Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio are reporting that the House Ethics Committee is looking into spending by the office of First District representative Jim Hagedorn.

The story appears to have been broken in the CQ/RollCall story, Ethics panel announces four investigations; Reps. Malinowski, Kelly, Hagedorn and Mooney are being investigated by Ethics Committee. Chris Marquette reports:

The House Ethics Committee announced on Tuesday it is investigating four members: Democrat Tom Malinowski of New Jersey and Republicans Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota and Alex X. Mooney of West Virginia.

The cases were investigated by the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics, which concluded that in each case there was a substantial reason to believe that a violation had occurred. The OCE is a fact-finding office and, unlike the Ethics Committee, cannot discipline members or issue subpoenas. . . .

The Minnesota Reformer has previously reported on questionable spending by Hagedorn’s office.

“Congressman Hagedorn personally self-reported this matter to the Ethics Committee last year and will continue working with it to bring it to an appropriate conclusion,” Elliot Berke, managing partner of Berke Farah LLP, said in a statement on behalf of Hagedorn. “The fact that the OCE, which provides non-binding recommendations to the Ethics Committee, decided to investigate something that was already under review was a waste of taxpayer funds and House resources.”

In Hagedorn facing U.S. House ethics investigation over office spending, the Pioneer Press adds this:

Hagedorn won a second term last November to represent the 1st District, which stretches across the state’s southern border.

Hagedorn is battling Stage IV kidney cancer, and announced in July that he’d had a recurrence.

He is married to Jennifer Carnahan, the former leader of the Minnesota Republican Party.

Recent news of criminal charges against a Minnesota GOP donor and operative accused of child sex trafficking increased calls for Carnahan to resign from her post, which she did after initially resisting.

Jeepers. We'll follow the story as it unfolds.

Photo: Congressman Hagedorn, front left, red shirt) at a campaign event in Rochester.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 08, 2021 at 07:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Minnesota anti-mandate effort promotes national anti-vaxxer at September 26 state capitol rally

On September 26, national anti-vaccine crusader Del BigTree will speak at "The Big One" rally at Minnesota State Capitol to stop vaccine mandate and passports

The rally is being promoted on the Stop the Mandate MN calendar; the image is branded with the group's URL StoptheMandateMN.org. Stop The Mandate MN describes itself as a grassroots organization. It appears to be affiliated with an effort to fund a lawsuit that would be filed in Minnesota's federal court by Gregory Erickson of Minneapolis law firm Mohrman, Kaardal and Erickson. A FAQ document about the lawsuit is viewable here.

Mark Bishofsky, a respiratory therapist at Stillwater's Lakeview Memorial Hospital who blogs at the Stop The Mandate MN website, appeared on the Stew Peters show with Erickson in August to talk about the efforts to ban vaccine mandates.

BigTree will in the Loon State that weekend for the Saturday, September 25 Global Health Freedom Summit in Alexandria, Minnesota, where he'll share the stage with other leading figures in the anti-vax movement, as well as Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen. Jensen began establishing his anti-vaxx ties while serving in the state senate. though Salon reported in July that he denies he's an anti-vaxxer — he's just anti-vax-curious.

Who are these people? Bishofsky tells about his thinking in an August 22 post on the website, Why I did this...:

. . . I tried advocate for my patients by suggesting the doctors try vitamin D, HCQ and Ivermectin. I even mentioned quercetin and zinc. They refused, and since then, they treat me like I am just a crazy conspiracy theorist. Imagine being on your death bed, on 100% oxygen and barely maintaining life. Now imagine asking the doctor if they could just please give you some Ivermectin and that your are not concerned about any risks or side effects. If you imagined that they’d give it a try, you are wrong. They say no and walk out of the room. The patient-doctor relationship is dead. The decision making for treatment comes from a bureaucratic agenda, not a critically thinking doctor at the bedside. It sickens me.

I held many dying hands. I tried to give my patients some sense of peace in their last moments. I spent dozens of hours at the bedside, risking my life with inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and no vaccine, so that human beings would not have to die alone. It was heartbreaking. There are no words. I shed way too may tears and lost countless hours of sleep. I remember every single one of my patients and I tear up now thinking of them. Their deaths were tragedies that did not need to occur.

Since my employer’s mandate was released a couple weeks ago, it has been a whirlwind of emotions…fear, anxiety, anger, exasperation and exhaustion. I wondered what I could sell my house for. I wondered what would happen to my beautiful children. I crawled into a desperate hole and waited for the public…the men and women of this great country to stand the hell up and fight for what’s right. Nobody was doing it. I approached my administrators, who actually do not believe in the mandate, and asked them why they would not stand up. I asked them when their morals would trump their paycheck and all I get is political spin. I decided ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

On August 10th, I was at work, in distress and all of a sudden it hit me. Enough trying to convince the sheep! I decided I was going find every single freedom loving patriot and I was going to make some change. I gave my phone number to one person and asked that they give it out to those in the same position, and text “vaccine” to the number. Within 20 minutes, my phone was rattling. I gave it to a few more people and it spread like wildfire. Then, I made a sign and some flyers and picketed outside of a hospital. I got more and more texts…hundreds. The momentum was incredible. I didn’t even know where exactly it was going, but I knew I was sick and tired of bitching and wondering. It was time to take charge. I held a rally with 600 people and was able to connect with gubernatorial candidates and other high profile individuals. I even got to talk to Stew Peters. It has been a hell of a ride and I AM ONLY GETTING STARTED.

I had this website created to bring like-minded people together. There are, no doubt, plenty of us patriots who know the scam and my intention is to find every single one of them in Minnesota. We cannot win this with a couple hundred people standing outside a hospital. We need thousands, and not just hospital workers. This is so much bigger than just one job and one jab. This is about freedom…freedom to work…freedom of mobility…freedom to eat at restaurants and much more. More importantly, this is about our children and their future freedoms. So YES, I intend to find every single Minnesotan to unite and arrive as ONE! We must gather, organize and demand that this ends, or ‘it’ is over. Freedom will be dead.

Please stand with me. Please be proud of your ability to question authority and see through the bullcrap. Please help me stop this. I am just one person and if I can accomplish this much in 10 days, I cannot even imagine what we could do if we all got angry and energized. Please join the fight! . . .

You've got to fight for your right to horse dewormer.

On the other end of celebrity, Del BigTree showed up at Alexandria MN's yearly anti-vax conference in 2019, according to a report in the Echo Press. The paper noted:

Bigtree created "Vaxxed" with Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor who led a now-discredited study that vaccines cause autism. "Vaxxed," according to its website, is about an alleged coverup of a vaccine/autism link by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was pulled from the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016 but debuted at a lesser-known festival that same year. Bigtree also hosts a YouTube channel about vaccines that has 45,000 subscribers.

Del was also in Alexandria in October 2020, as we reported in Small town MN freedom fighting restauranteur's anti-vaxx pals make us pause about her savvy:

And Del Bigtree?

In a recent tweet, he wrote: "The rushed EXPERIMENTAL COVID VACCINE ROLLOUT could be the greatest scientific blunder in the history of mankind. Those who trust blindly will be remembered for their DARWIN AWARD. "

NBC News reported in Covid-19 vaccines face a varied and powerful misinformation movement online:

Facebook removed the page for the online anti-vaccination show The HighWire this month for violating policies on "misinformation that could cause physical harm," the company said. YouTube had removed the show’s channel in July after reports that host Del Bigtree was downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic on his show and suggesting viewers intentionally expose themselves to Covid-19.

Yep: go out and catch you some COVID, gentle readers.

BigTree founded the Informed Consent Action Network in 2016; according to Wikipedia:

The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) is one of the main anti-vaccination groups in the United States. Founded in 2016 by Del Bigtree, it spreads misinformation about the risks of vaccines and contributes to vaccine hesitancy,^[1]^[2]^[3] which has been identified by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten global health threats of 2019.^[4]^[5] Arguments against vaccination are contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

One can follow the money behind BigTree's group in How a New York billionaire-funded anti-vax group is contributing to the vaccine hesitancy that's crippling the US recovery at Business Insider.

Not bad for a non-doctor guy who produced a handful of episodes of Dr. Phil and worked for The Doctors for five years.

Bluestem suspects StoptheMandateMN.org is simply trying to ramp anti-mandate politics up from the last medical freedom rally at the state capitol last month. State representative Mary Franson, R-Alexandria and senator Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, weren't burdened with have to raise lawyers retainers from the from the gathered throngs. Perhaps celebrity will do the trick.

Image: The event image we're seeing shared on Facebook.

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

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 07, 2021 at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Not Cows and Rocks: water protectors confront Governor Walz at a DFL fundraiser in Alexandria

As my partner and I left a DFL fundraiser in Alexandria's City Park on Saturday, a handful of people wearing Cows and Rocks Proud shirts stood on the side of the road. I had Mike stop his vehicle so I could ask if they were there for the DFL events.

The two women (a third wore a different shirt) said they were simply visiting the pleasant town and the nearby event was simply a coincidence.

A few feet away, a man wearing the same shirt said that he had been told that Walz was simply doing a whistle stop in and so the conservatives choose not to engage.

He apparently got a bum steer--or was telling a tale.

This happened:

BREAKING: A speech by @GovTimWalz at a Democratic party event in Alexandria, MN was SHUT DOWN by 50 water protectors demanding he #StopLine3!

Minutes into his speech and vastly outnumbered, Walz fled the event.

Direct action gets the goods! pic.twitter.com/5oC9EJ7dD3
— Resist Line 3 (@ResistLine3) September 4, 2021

I was at the event as a journalist to cover speeches by regional Minnesota legislative candidates, and thus didn't donate or consume any of the available food and water. We saw perhaps five people other than DFL staffers--state chair Ken Martin was there--with professional cameras taping and taking pictures. It's our impression from the angle of the edited video above that these pleasant people might have been members of the Resist Line 3 Media Collective.

Here's the press release the group sent out, used heavily in Declan Desmond Bring Me the News story, Line 3 protesters disrupt, shut down Gov. Walz speech.

The press release, Water Protectors Confront MN Gov. Tim Walz at DFL Event, Demand Answers About Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline:

ALEXANDRIA, MN. — On Saturday afternoon, dozens of water protectors with the movement to stop Line 3 interrupted a Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) event hosted by Governor Tim Walz. The activists confronted the Governor about the Line 3 tar sands pipeline and his administration’s failure to take action to halt the project.

Multiple people confronted Governor Walz with questions about Line 3. One water protector stood up and asked, “Line 3 would emit more carbon than your entire state. How can you still be serious about climate change and let Line 3 be built?” Governor Walz failed to address any of the audience’s questions, instead responding by saying, “I ran and got the votes, and I have to make the decisions, and I know some of them are unpopular. But we have to make everybody’s voices heard.” Walz left the event after water protectors took the stage while singing and chanting.

Today’s intervention follows a week of action in St. Paul where thousands of water protectors across the political spectrum gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol to highlight the failure of the Walz administration to stop Line 3. Following that week of action, more than 60 water protectors were brutally arrested during a peaceful protest at Governor Walz’s mansion on Saturday, August 28th.

Indigenous water protectors and climate activists have called on the Governor to take action to stop Line 3 over the years, citing threats to Anishinaabe treaty rights, water, Indigenous cultural resources, and the future of global climate. In November 2020, the Walz administration approved Enbridge Energy’s Section 401 Water Permits, allowing construction to begin in Northern Minnesota. Having opposed Line 3 prior to his election and claiming to be a climate leader, Walz has now allowed the tar sands pipeline, which will have the carbon equivalent of building 50 new coal fired power plants, to be built.

While the Walz administration remains silent as tensions escalate, President Biden too has yet to take a definitive stance on Line 3. Since construction began, more than 800 water protectors have been arrested for peaceful demonstration along the frontlines and over 26 spills have been reported by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Dozens of federal lawmakers, including Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips, have voiced support for the movement, urging President Biden to cancel the pipeline as he did with Keystone XL. This weekend, “Squad” members Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Cori Bush traveled to Minnesota to meet Indigenous water protectors on the frontlines and call on Biden to halt the project.

We interviewed a member of the collective last night and have been in contact with DFL members involved in organizing the fundraiser. When we're finished reflecting on the highly disciplined, profanity-free (at least on the part of water protectors) action, we'll post here or at another venue.

Back to the Rocks and Cows Proud bunch. On Sunday, Minnesota National Action Task Force (NATF) state representative Keith Haskell shared the tweet of the video on Facebook:

As we said, we'll have more on this remarkable action after we've touched base with more of those involved in the episode.

The Rocks and Cows crowd has its own narrative developing about what happened. Alpha News' retweet of the Resist Line 3 tweet of the video was shared on Rocks and Cows Facebook page, along with the author's comment that Walz paid the protestors:

Given the anger of many of the organizers of the fundraiser, we have our doubts about this conclusion.

Earlier, Rocks and Cows of Minnesota's Facebook page credited the action to Black Lives Matter:

We don't recall seeing a BLM sign held by or hearing BLM chants from the Water Protectors, who seemed focused on calling out the Governor from backing off from an earlier campaign pledge and past refusals for requests to meet with them.

The woman wearing the Rocks and Cows Proud shirt in the screenshot at the top of this post looks remarkably like one of the people we saw leaving the fundraiser, though none of the four people we saw carried a sign, but as our phone camera had temporarily crashed, we didn't get their picture. Here's the link to the Rocks and Cows of Minnesota post of the photo.

As we say, we'll have more after we touch bases with additional people who were at the fundraiser. It's likely the story will be different from the evolving RACMN narrative.

Screengrabs: Via Facebook; links in post.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 05, 2021 at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chlorpyrifos ban update: MN soybean farmers will look for aphid annihilation alternatives

We left off the saga of the EPA chlorpyrifos ban with our late August post, Letter: MN lawmakers ask state ag commissioner Petersen to suspend chlorpyrifos registration.

Petersen has acted on the letter.

At the Star Tribune, Greg Stanley reports in Ban on common insecticide will force Minnesota soybean farmers to find alternatives:

. . . Nobody can say exactly why, but soybean aphids have thrived in Minnesota even as their populations have fallen or crashed in other parts of the Midwest. They were first detected in the state in the early 2000s, said Robert Koch, entomologist with the University of Minnesota.

Over the years, they largely died off in places like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, Koch said. But in Minnesota the tiny green pests kept coming back, and as farmers sprayed for them, they started building up resistance to certain poisons.

Chlorpyrifos was one of the few tools that would consistently kill them, Koch said.

"There are still some chemicals that work, but that box is getting smaller," he said. . . .

The Obama administration started the process of taking chlorpyrifos off the market, citing risks to children, drinking water and wildlife. But the EPA reversed that decision shortly after President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

That reversal was challenged, and in April, a federal appeals court ordered the government to determine whether the pesticide is safe. In August, the EPA ruled that the pesticide did, in fact, pose a risk to children and farmworkers and announced the ban, which will go into effect Feb. 22.

Shortly after it was announced, Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, and several state lawmakers called on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to immediately suspend sales of chlorpyrifos to close the window during which it could still be applied.

"If we know it's a bad chemical, why continue to sell it?" Hansen said.

On Monday, state Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen wrote in a letter to lawmakers that the agency will not allow the chemical to be used on Minnesota crops starting Jan. 1.

It would be rare and unlikely for any growers to apply chlorpyrifos this late in the season, Petersen said.

"We'd like the ban to happen sooner, but we're glad the agency has taken these concerns into account and is standing up to the agrochemical interests that are used to getting their way," Hansen said.

The chemical will still be allowed for a handful of uses, including at tree nurseries, golf courses and sod farms.

It's unlikely the ban will cause Minnesota soybean fields to go out of production or force farmers to change their crops, said Bill Gordon, a farmer in Worthington and chair of the American Soybean Association.

But it may actually increase the amount of insecticide used in Minnesota, he said, because growers will likely have to reapply less effective insecticides multiple times each season since soybean aphids have grown resistant to them.

"So instead of having just one pass that kills all the butterflies, bees, pollinators and beneficial insects in the field, you have to come back in two weeks and do it again," Gordon said. "So now you don't really have a chance to build that beneficial population back up. It just negates some of the things they're trying to do with this ban."

More applications also mean more costs borne by the farmers.

We hope one tool is the removal of the invasive species buckthorn, a nasty plant that serves as a winter haven for the aphids.

Related posts:

Image: Graphic from The Most Widely Used Pesticide, One Year Later, in Harvard University's SITN's Science Policy blog.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 05, 2021 at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Friday of headlines in the life of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg

Thursday's heavy rain kept us from posting until very late last night. This morning, we woke to a flurry of stories about South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, who killed Joseph Boever last September in a fit of distracted driving.

In the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, the Associated Press's Stephen Groves reports in South Dakota House's call on Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg's impeachment may take months:

The South Dakota House speaker has received a hard drive containing all of the findings of the investigation into the state attorney general's car crash that killed a pedestrian last year, but it could take months before the chamber decides whether to try to impeach the state's top law enforcement official.

Prosecutors spent months weighing what charges to bring against Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg after it received the findings from investigators, and House Speaker Spencer Gosch, a fellow Republican, has thus far shown no sign that he's in any hurry to review them.

More:Watch body cam footage of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s latest traffic stop

Gosch said Thursday that his staff in Pierre received the hard drive late Wednesday and that he hadn't had a chance to see what it contains. He'll have to sort through files that contain nearly 1,300 photos, cellphone data extraction reports, roughly 10 hours of video and audio of interviews, more than 1,500 pages of investigative reports and a crime scene map that requires special software to view.

“We're still evaluating what the process is going to look like,” he said, adding that lawmakers would “allow an ample amount of time and an ample amount of due process.”

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has called for Ravnsborg to resign, including before he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor traffic offenses in the crash that killed pedestrian Joseph Boever. And it was Noem who had the investigation findings sent to Gosch along with a letter from Secretary of Public Safety Craig Price in which he said Ravnsborg should have been charged with manslaughter. . .

Here's that story from yesterday. At the Mitchell Republic, Christopher Vondracek reports in South Dakota Public Safety secretary: AG Ravnsborg should've been charged with felony manslaughter:

In a stunning rebuke, the chief public safety officer in Gov. Kristi Noem’s cabinet called on Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg to resign, saying he’d believed prosecutors could’ve brought manslaughter charges for his role in the death of pedestrian Joe Boever nearly a year ago.

Craig Price, cabinet secretary for the Department of Public Safety, also said he virulently disagreed with the AG’s description of the events that took place on Sept. 12, 2020 west of Highmore, when Ravnsborg said he was unaware that he’d struck a human being along the shoulder.

Full collection of Ravnsborg coverage, released evidence

“On behalf of all the law enforcement personnel involved in this investigation, I categorically reject Mr. Ravnsborg’s characterizations,” wrote Price, in a letter to Speaker of the South Dakota House Spencer Gosch.

Price went on to say that the Republican attorney general “should have been charged” with a second-degree, felony manslaughter charge rather than the three traffic citations an assistant state’s attorney brought against him last February.

The letter came in a Wednesday, Sept. 1 press release from Noem’s office that called upon Gosch to restart impeachment proceedings against Ravnsborg. Noem’s team also said the governor had “provided the full investigation file” to Gosch.

“The remarkable detail in this investigation will assist the House in its important work of considering whether to proceed with impeachment articles for the attorney general,” said Noem. . . .

Via the Republic, here's the PDF of that file:

At the Argus Leader, Joe Sneve reported on Friday in What we know about the year-long saga surrounding AG Jason Ravnsborg's role in fatal crash:

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed Joe Boever while he was driving from a political event the night of Sept. 12, 2020.

He called 911 and said he canvassed the area, but he didn't see Boever's body.

Nearly a year passed before he faced charges stemming from the crash, and ultimately he accepted a plea deal and was convicted of a pair of minor driving infractions that did not amount to criminal culpability for the death of the 55-year-old Hyde County man.

Still, Ravnsborg continues to serve as South Dakota's top law enforcement officer, even as Gov. Kristi Noem and other lawmakers have called for his removal from office through impeachment in lieu of a voluntary resignation.

Read the detailed chronology of what we know and how we know it.

What we want to know is when there will be justice for Joseph Boever.

South Dakota News Watch: State's indigenous leaders in keeping close eye on redistricting

We live in South Dakota Senate District 1, much of which is within the historical boundaries of the Lake Traverse Reservation, home of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (Dakota). One of our state representatives, Tamara St. John, R-Sisseton, is the archivist for the Oyate.

As Ferguson's article points out below:

According to the U.S. Census, about 11% of the population in South Dakota identified as Native American. Meanwhile, only 4% of the Legislature consisted of Native Americans in 2020; Natives made up only 2% of the Legislature in 2015. There has been some progress in the U.S. Congress, where a record six Native American candidates were elected to the House of Representatives in 2020.

At South Dakota News Watch, Danielle Ferguson reports in Native American leaders in S.D. keeping close eye on legislative redistricting:

Native American voting-rights advocates are concerned that the voices of South Dakota’s largest minority group may be excluded from the ongoing legislative redistricting process and that opportunities for Natives to represent their communities or have influence in state elections could be restricted as a result.

Native American leaders and government advocates are concerned that a shortened timeline for redistricting this year and historical logistical challenges in Indian Country may make it harder for Natives to participate in the public-input process and ultimately to get elected to state office.

Redistricting, or the redrawing of legislative district boundaries, is a critical component of determining fair and equal representation of population groups within the state Legislature. The process takes place every 10 years and uses new U.S. Census population data to determine how many people each state representative or senator should represent.

Some critics say lawmakers have too much control over the process that can be manipulated — or gerrymandered — to make it easier or harder for members of particular population groups or political parties to get elected or remain in power.

Native Americans are under-represented in the South Dakota Legislature and have been for years.

According to the U.S. Census, about 11% of the population in South Dakota identified as Native American. Meanwhile, only 4% of the Legislature consisted of Native Americans in 2020; Natives made up only 2% of the Legislature in 2015. There has been some progress in the U.S. Congress, where a record six Native American candidates were elected to the House of Representatives in 2020.

South Dakota has a history of manipulating Native American populations during redistricting in two ways to reduce Native electoral influence, according to Four Directions, a group that educates and advocates for Native American voting rights and voter empowerment.

Redistricting leaders have either packed Native populations into a single district to reduce their voting influence in multiple legislative districts, or diluted their populations across districts to make it harder for Natives to get elected or to have influence over who gets elected, the group says.

For example, in the 2001 redistricting cycle, a federal district court ruled that the South Dakota Legislature violated the Voting Rights Act by packing District 27 with 90% of Native American voters, which diluted the potential influence of Native voters in neighboring District 26.

The court ruled that South Dakota legislators drew a map that lumped Native American voters living in the counties where the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian reservations are located into a single district, District 27. If the state had drawn districts “more fairly,” according to the ACLU, Native Americans would have been a majority in two districts instead of a supermajority in only one.

This year, the redistricting process is about five months shorter than in previous years because of a months-long delay of detailed data from the U.S. Census needed to draft the districts into similar population sizes.

“We are fighting very diligently to make sure we don’t repeat history and that indigenous people and tribal communities are part of this democratic process,” said Candi Brings Plenty, Indigenous Justice Organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota.

The condensed schedule for drawing the lines is concerning for Native Americans, who are considered a protected class under the Voting Rights Act, which says states cannot enact a voting standard practice or procedure or draw lines that would make it more difficult for someone to vote because of their race or color.

Holding input hearings on reservations is essential to ensuring people living there have a say in their districts, said O.J. Semans, co-founder of Four Directions. Many on the reservations don’t have reliable internet access or transportation, making it difficult to travel longer distances to a hearing or remain updated on the process.

“Our concern is that the Legislature would change the boundaries that would lessen or dilute the Native vote for candidates of their choice,” Semans said.

At its most recent meeting on Aug. 30, the Senate and House Legislative Redistricting Committee created a subcommittee focused on reservation areas, which was welcome news for Native American advocates who have for years said legislators need to travel to reservations to allow residents to provide input.

“Indigenous communities are very much involved, but if they’re having obstacles getting to the polls, how are they supposed to get access to these urban areas for hearings?” said Brings Plenty.

State Sen. Jim Bolin, R-Canton, said that during the redistricting process in 2011, he personally visited a few reservations, as did other members of the committee. He is on the subcommittee this year aimed at visiting those communities. Legislators said at the Aug. 30 redistricting committee meeting that the subcommittees for reservations, Rapid City and Sioux Falls would draft hearing schedules and get that information to the public soon.

Rural-urban divide also a focus

Legislators this year are tasked with creating a map that balances rural and minority group voting districts with those of the two growing urban areas in the state, and they have less time to draft a map to present to the public because of a delay in detailed census data needed to draw those lines. Normally, that information is released in the spring. This year, however, due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the state didn’t receive the information until Aug. 12. The Legislature has until Dec. 1 to submit official maps; otherwise the state Supreme Court will draw the lines.

The main friction areas this year are likely to be how districts are balanced in rural and urban areas, and how lines are drawn in and around Native American reservations and other urban Indian areas in the state, said David Wiltse, associate professor of political science at South Dakota State University.

“The important shift, if it takes place, would be between areas that are losing population, their districts are going to get larger geographically,” Wiltse said. “The urban areas — Pennington, Minnehaha, Lincoln counties — they’re going to see disproportionately more representation, just because that’s where people are moving to. By default, it’s going to push political power to the areas that are growing and take it from the areas that are shrinking.”

One big challenge will be creating “conurbation” districts — those in an extended urban area that includes multiple towns — for the Rapid City and Sioux Falls areas, which account for a majority of the state’s growth. Redistricting leaders say at least one district will probably be added to the Sioux Falls area, leaving fewer districts available for rural counties.

“Rural communities are in a tough spot. All deserve proper representation,” said Amy Scott-Stoltz, president of the South Dakota chapter of League of Women Voters, a non-partisan group that works to increase public understanding of major public policy issues.

In a state that has traditionally had strong rural representation, the likelihood of adding at least one more district in the Sioux Falls area, which has grown 25% since the 2010 census, is of concern to those living in counties seeing population declines.

“It increases the distance between a representative and their constituents,” Wiltse said. “That representative now has to learn about more communities across a greater area than they would have in the previous election. It just makes those peoples’ jobs a little harder to represent a bigger geographic area, even though it’s the same number of people.”

This year, the state’s 35 districts must represent between 24,066 and 26,600 people, a 5% deviation from the ideal district, which is 25,333 people. Bolin said keeping county populations in the same district is a priority, but noted that some will have to be split or combined. Lawrence County is likely to be the only county able to stand on its own, Bolin said. Currently, about 10 counties are part of more than one district.

What normally is done in about seven months — seeking public input and providing draft maps — will have to be done in about two months, said Bolin, vice-chair of the redistricting committee.

At its most recent meeting, the House and Senate Legislative Redistricting Committee contemplated a dozen options (shown here) for how to break up the Rapid City and Sioux Falls areas. Subcommittees for both areas were created, and the group voted to decide at its Sept. 9 meeting how many districts each area would get.

Four Directions is using public software to draft a few possible maps to present to the committee, Semans said. Legislators and advocates encouraged members of the public to do the same. Legislators voted at the Aug 30 meeting to withhold the software they are using from public inspection, however, and only allow the 15 members of the committee to use it. Free services available to the public include Dave’s Redistricting Map or Districtr.

Chair of the senate committee, Sen. Mary Duvall, R-Pierre, said she would welcome any map drawn by a member of the public.

“If there is someone out there who has come up with the perfect map, email it to me,” she said.

Change sought to reduce lawmaker influence

A petition to create an independent nonpartisan commission to draw the lines is circulating across the state. Drawn Together South Dakota, a coalition of 22 organizations, is leading the efforts on the petition, and is advocating for an independent commission to draw the lines, rather than the legislators drawing their own districts. About 10 other states have independent commissions.

If the group garners enough signatures by Nov. 8, the issue of whether to create an independent commission would be put on the 2022 ballot and would make gerrymandering illegal. Having an independent commission would decrease the likelihood of gerrymandering, Scott-Stoltz said.

“People know gerrymandering is happening. People don’t want elections that are flawed. Both parties have gerrymandered. That’s why we want an independent commission,” Scott-Stoltz said. “What’s at stake is the next 10 years of representation here.”

Bolin said the process of drawing district lines should stay within the Legislature, but acknowledged that both Democrats and Republicans participate in gerrymandering. The current map, he said, has not been involved in a lawsuit for violating the Voting Rights Act as previous maps have.

Population and power shifts are happening, but the likelihood of the Democratic Party gaining much ground is unlikely, given how evenly spread out the registered Republicans are and the longtime GOP-dominated voting patterns in the state, Wiltse said.

RESOURCES ON REDISTRICTING IN S.D.

Here are some online links to learn more about the ongoing redistricting process in South Dakota and a look at the timeline of the process.

Redistricting landing page: https://sdlegislature.gov/Redistricting/Home?fbclid=IwAR1FlY4MwZKkNP7kfeGfQ9Uq-n_8zf1zUvV3QC0lSM2iFLO-S5SAyBAD6fk

Senate committee information: https://sdlegislature.gov/Interim/Committee/434/Detail

House committee information: https://sdlegislature.gov/Interim/Committee/433/Detail

Free public map-drawing tools:

Dave’s Redistricting: https://davesredistricting.org/maps#home

Districtr: https://districtr.org/

Information on Drawn Together SD: https://www.drawntogethersd.com/

Process timeline

Sept. 9: Next redistricting committee meeting in Pierre, where legislators will likely decide on how many districts the Sioux Falls and Rapid City areas will be given. Public input opportunity.

Sept. 22 – Subcommittees will meet before this meeting. Public input opportunity in Pierre.

Sept. 30 – Committee will meet to finalize draft maps. Will decide what to discuss in statewide tour, where public can attend meetings closer-to-home.

Oct. 11 – 13 – Committee will travel across the state to hear public input on draft maps.

Oct. 18 – Opportunity to take feedback from subcommittees, tour, incorporate that into some final options.

Oct. 25 – Committee’s opportunity to adopt a final map and send it to the rest of the Legislature.

Nov. 8 – Special Legislative session to vote on map.

Photo: Native Americans make up 11% of the population of South Dakota but only 4% of the state Legislature, according to census and legislative data. Photo: News Watch file.

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

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 02, 2021 at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Constituent letter to the Alexandria Echo Press: Franson and medical freedom as hill to die on

On Saturday, state representative Mary Franson attracted some attention on Twitter:

Rep Franson must be channeling Caleb Wallace.
— Keith Nordeen (@delasalle72) August 28, 2021

A letter to the editor from Esther Mehrer in the August 31 Alexandria Echo Press, A sad irony to Medical Freedom Rally in St. Paul picked up the Caleb Wallace connection:

On Saturday, Aug. 28, State Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, spoke at a Medical Freedom Rally in St Paul.

The irony of this event is that on this same day, [Caleb] Wallace died of COVID. Who was [Caleb] that makes his mentioning relevant?

[Caleb] was a anti-masker, anti-vaxxer who organized a Freedom Rally in Texas last year. Once he contracted COVID in July of this year, he prolonged going to the doctor because "he didn't want to be a COVID statistic" per his wife. Instead he took high doses of vitamin C, zinc, aspirin and an inhaler. He also took ivermectin (an antiparasitic drug meant to be a horse dewormer).

He leaves behind a pregnant wife, due in September, and three young girls. Uninsured, Jessica set up a GoFundMe account, or what I refer to as the Republican health care plan.

In the past, I have read Franson refer to medical freedom as "the hill to die on." Ironic that Calab died on the same day Franson attended and spoke at a Medical Freedom Rally.

We fact-checked Mehrer's story and aside from the misspelling of his first name, it checks out. There's a touching story about Wallace in the San Angelo Standard-Times, updated with news of his death, ‘He loved his family’: Caleb Wallace dies after battle with COVID-19, pregnant wife says.

A quick assessment of Saturday's rally:

2,000 rally at State Capitol against mandates for masks, vaccinations including:
- Rep. Mary Franson
- Rep. Eric Lucero
- Sen. Jim Abeler
- GOP governor candidate Scott Jensen
- GOP governor candidate Neil Shah

Today's GOP has gone fully Ludditehttps://t.co/UAJKamLy9H
— Conquistador Jones, M.D. (@devomase) August 29, 2021

As readers learned in the related posts below, Franson has peddled her "medical freedom" schtick for months.

Related posts:

Photo: State representative Mary Franson with Lynd MN part-time restaurant owner Larvita McFarquhar, outside an October 2020 anti-vaxx conference in Alexandria MN. Via McFarquhar's Facebook page. Read more in Small town MN freedom fighting restauranteur's anti-vaxx pals make us pause about her savvy. We'll have a fascinating post soon about a recent anti-vaxx speaker at Larvita's bistro, Havens Garden, soon.

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.

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

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 01, 2021 at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bluestem Prairie

News from Greater Minnesota and South Dakota

September 2021

Sep 16, 2021

Justice for Joe Boever: news about Ravnsborg impeachment; Jackley's campaign for office

Sep 15, 2021

Video: Return of Our Sisseton-Wahpeton Children

Sep 14, 2021

Here's video of latest MN House informational hearing on Chronic Wasting Disease

Oceti Sakowin March for our Children: over 200 march, drum, and ride horses in pouring rain

Sep 13, 2021

Tune in to House Enviro Committee hearing tomorrow morning for latest CWD information

Sep 12, 2021

South Dakota governor Kristi Noem was for vaccine mandates before she was against them

Sep 11, 2021

Patriot Day: a great read in The Atlantic

Sep 10, 2021

Bipartisan group of South Dakota House leaders call for Ravnsborg impeachment inquiry

Sep 09, 2021

Gwen Westerman named Minnesota poet laureate

Sep 08, 2021

MN01: U.S. House Ethics Committee taking a look at Congressman Jim Hagedorn's spending

Sep 07, 2021

Minnesota anti-mandate effort promotes national anti-vaxxer at September 26 state capitol rally

Sep 05, 2021

Not Cows and Rocks: water protectors confront Governor Walz at a DFL fundraiser in Alexandria

Chlorpyrifos ban update: MN soybean farmers will look for aphid annihilation alternatives

Sep 03, 2021

A Friday of headlines in the life of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg

Sep 02, 2021

South Dakota News Watch: State's indigenous leaders in keeping close eye on redistricting

RESOURCES ON REDISTRICTING IN S.D.

Sep 01, 2021

Constituent letter to the Alexandria Echo Press: Franson and medical freedom as hill to die on

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