Obama EPA warning, continued

Earlier today I wrote about a government memo, supposedly from the White House Office of Management and Budget, critiquing the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as potentially harmful to small businesses.

Shocker: Leading conservatives sponsor tax

Here's something which seems unexpected but actually isn't quite so much: leading conservative Congressmen have sponsored a bill to create a federal carbon tax.

Life after being governor

With politicians across the state lining up to kick him out of his current home, Gov. Mike Rounds has to do some thinking about the future. This week he's done more than think: he's bought land in Fort Pierre to build a new house.

Curb & gutter decision raises questions

The news yesterday about homeowners winning a lawsuit against the city of Pierre regarding being charged for replacements has some pretty broad implications -- both for municipal government and for homeowners.

Thune and the EPA: Issues at stake

Sen. John Thune has criticized recent moves by the Environmental Protection Agency he believes represent the agency overstepping its bounds in ways threatening South Dakota’s agricultural economy. I examined Thune’s concerns in an article in today’s paper, but wanted to explore the specific policy areas where Thune has objections to EPA decisions. In recent weeks, Thune has interacted with the EPA in three areas: two where he has criticized EPA decisions and one where he has praised it.

Et cetera: Steroids and Star Trek

Two non-political things are on my mind this morning. The first is the, shall I say, out-of-left-field news that Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for testing positive for steroids. His likely replacement is Juan Pierre, who of course I dropped from my fantasy team's bench last week. For any baseball fan, though this is huge, affecting not only the playoff situation in the National League but the eventual Hall of Fame debate when Ramirez finally retires. Me, I'm just taking it as revenge for what Manny and his Dodgers did to my beloved Cubbies in the NLDS last year.

Sen. Johnson's father dies

*UPDATED with contributed photos.*

Stanley County School Board race nears deadline

As of 2:30 p.m. Central Time Friday, all three Stanley County residents who have taken out nominating petitions to run for the Stanley County School Board have returned those petitions. Though individuals can still pick up petitions, acquire 20 signatures and return them by the 6 p.m. Central Time deadline today, the three candidates to already enter present an intriguing race.

Stupid mainstream media

We're at it again:

Obama at the White House Correspondent's Dinner

Break out the teleprompter, folks -- it's time for the recurring political ritual where politicians try their hands at delivering the best jokes their speechwriters can come up with. Obama gets out some good zingers at the expense of Rahm Emmanuel, Michael Steele, Hillary Clinton and himself at the 2009 White House Correspondent's Dinner.

iPhone coming to South Dakota?

Living in South Dakota has many perks, but one major disadvantage for the technologically-inclined: no AT&T coverage, which means no legal usage of Apple Computer's popular AT&T-only iPhone.

Obama administration warns EPA on greenhouse gases

*UPDATED* Last week I published an article and blog post about Sen. John Thune's concerns EPA regulation could harm South Dakota's economy.

Thune, Johnson, Herseth Sandlin on Sotomayor

EDIT: Updated to reflect the obvious fact that members of the House of Represenatives don't actually vote to confirm Supreme Court nominees. Dur.

Breaking: Blogger Pat Powers on the Munsterman bus

Curse my slow-paced RSS feed; I found out about Pat Powers getting off the fence and joining the Scott Munsterman for Governor campaign not from Powers' own blog where he announced it, but from Todd Epp's Twitter post announcing his coverage of it. Anyway, Powers is pretty widely read; this action gives Munsterman's campaign some newfound credibility. Coming on the heels of Dave Knutson's possibly record-breaking fundraising and Bob Mercer's critical article yesterday about Knutson's and Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard's meeting with the Board of Regents, I think we can pronounce the Republican Gubernatorial race to be all shook up. Any of those three candidates have a conceivable route to winning the nomination now.

Mercer on Herseth Sandlin, Long

All-purpose state government reporter Bob Mercer (a.k.a., the man who has the job I'd like to have) has an interesting column on the slowly-forming 2010 race:

Thune keeps visible with new Web site

Continually mentioned as a dark horse 2012 presidential or vice-presidential candidate (see: this post by Kevin Woster), Sen. John Thune keeps staying active as one of the more prominent voices in the GOP, a tier below well-known conservative figures such as Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rush Limbaugh. Now his campaign group, "Friends of John Thune", is up with a new Web site that doesn't have anything directly to do with Thune: Supreme Court Watch, billed as "a conservative source for the latest confirmation news."

Where did the deficit come from?

New York Times economics reporter David Leonhard is out with an article and graphic today examining how the United States went from an $846 billion surplus in 2001 to a $1,215 billion deficit in 2009:

Goof of the day

Today's lesson: read press releases clearly. A press conference at "Dakota Dunes Country Club" is NOT the same as a press conference at "Dunes Golf Course."

Capital Journal quoted in Hotline

Slow posting now as I work through Scott Munsterman's tome of a campaign book (an 80-page extended pamphlet couldn't have done the job, Scott? Just kidding), but I thought I'd note that national political reporters apparently read the Capital Journal from time to time. My article about Sen. Thune trying to move up in the GOP leadership ranks was quoted at length in The Hotline, the National Journal's daily political newsletter.

Update: Thune & Sotomayor

Earlier, I highlighted Sen. John Thune's new Web site providing updates on the Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination. Now Politico has a story noting how the Sotomayor nomination isn't stirring up passions on the right, and quotes Thune right at the top:

Thune pushes reservation security

This was a bit too far afield for me to be able to make it out there myself, but there's still a very interesting event going on today on the Standing Rock reservation. Sen. John Thune is meeting with Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and tribal leaders on Standing Rock, which last year was the site of an experimental law enforcement "surge."

Palin steps down to collective 'Huh?'

Alaska Governor and former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been in the spotlight lately, speaking at some national events and getting into a nasty back-and-forth with comedian David Letterman. She has so far been mum about both her plans for the 2012 presidential race and her plans for the 2010 Alaska gubernatorial race.

Johnson, Thune join Herseth opposing credit card regulation

Weeks after Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin was the only Democrat in the House of Representatives to vote against new restrictions on credit card companies, Sen. Tim Johnson and Sen. John Thune today were two of only five senators to oppose the bill.

Memorial Day weekend update: Two interesting maps

I've always been interested in cartography, and was intrigued this weekend to come across two interesting maps.

Powers to serve as Munsterman campaign manager

Prominent South Dakota conservative blogger Pat Powers announced last week he was going to be signing on with the Scott Munsterman campaign. Today, he announced the position he'll be taking: campaign manager.

Caught red-handed

Well, the insightful mind of Todd Epp has caught me and exposed my obvious man crush on blogger Pat Powers. When faced with the facts I don't suppose I can deny it.

Thune elected as fourth-ranking Senate Republican

As expected, Sentate Republicans elected Sen. John Thune to be the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, the fourth-ranking position in the GOP Senate leadership. The position was vacated when Nevada Sen. John Ensign resigned his leadership roles after admitting an extramarital affair.

Speaking of DMV fees...

I wrote a brief article yesterday about the impending fee increase for driver's license renewals in South Dakota. Some driver's license facilities in South Dakota (we don't call them DMVs here, unlike most states) have reported seeing higher traffic as people try to get in before the fees go up.

Daily Republic challenging executive sessions

As a reporter covering municipal government meetings, executive session is the bane of my life. I have to pack up my not inconsiderable amount of stuff — laptop and power cable, packet of papers, laptop bag, camera, camera bag — and carry it out into the hallway, where I cool my heels for anywhere from five minutes to an hour or more. Eventually I'm let back in and the council or board usually takes a vote with little or no context. I have no idea what was discussed in the executive session beyond a vague heading like "personnel" or "legal issues." And I'll never know unless a member of the council tells me later. Put another way, there's nothing stopping the public body from talking about anything they want in executive session as long as they can keep all the members of that body from spilling the beans.

Sick of politics as usual?

Here's a politician who's not only offering change, but super powers to boot: some wag has launched a "campaign" to try to get the Green Lantern elected as mayor of Washington, D.C.

BREAKING: Herseth Sandlin to seek reelection

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin will run for reelection in 2010, not run for governor, her office announced late Tuesday.

Update

I've got a couple more blog posts I'm working on, both about national politics and the local Stanley County School Board race. But first I'm going to try to sleep off this sore throat I feel coming on. More coming this weekend once I'm feeling better.

Movie reviews

Several weeks ago, I promised to give my thoughts on the new Star Trek movie. Well, it's three weeks after that and Star Trek has left the State Theater here in Pierre, but I thought I'd give some brief comments on the movies I've seen lately:

Say what you will about our legislature...

... but New York's is far worse.

Stanley County School Board election, part 2: Judging the tone

I meant to post this earlier in the day, but part of the newsroom is on vacation and everyone's a little busier with stuff for the print edition of the paper. Anyway, the most visible — and perhaps only — truly public forum for discussion about the Stanley County School Board race (in the absence of any debates or forums as Pierre had for its recent school board race) has been the commenting sections at CapJournal.com.

Having a "blast"

I'll fully admit that my sense of curiosity can be a bit morbid sometimes, but I still have to find this a bit compelling: an Australian IT firm took Google Maps and mashed it up with information about nuclear bombs to create "Ground Zero," a simulation of what would happen in a nuclear explosion. You can put in any city, anywhere, and see what'd get blasted by a bomb.

Herseth Sandlin skeptical of climate bill

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin has been critical for some time of parts of the major climate change bill which could be voted on in the House of Representatives as soon as Friday. This week a compromise with farm-state members of Congress addressed many of Herseth Sandlin's concerns — but she still seems to be leaning toward a "no" vote.

Stanley County School Board election, part 3: Analyzing voting strategies

Consider yourself warned: this post draws on my collegiate experience as a Political Science major and a game theory enthusiast.

Breaking: Thune seeking higher position in GOP leadership

Sen. John Thune has been moving up in the ranks of the Senate GOP leadership, becoming an increasingly prominent spokesman for GOP causes and earlier this year becoming the vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the fifth-ranking position in the Senate GOP.

Tracking stimulus dollars

The Associated Press has put up an interactive online map showing where money from the stimulus package has been spent.

Fact check: How liberal is Stephanie Herseth Sandlin?

Pat Powers at the Dakota War College has been joining the state GOP in launching a preemptive attack on Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin as being too liberal for South Dakota.

Stanley County School Board Election, part 1: Background

Forget the presidency or Congress -- some of the most passion-filled elections in the United States are races for local school boards. The ongoing campaign for two seats on the Stanley County School Board is certainly no exception. With the election on Tuesday, I thought I'd provide some context and analysis. First, the background:

Stanley County School Board election analysis

I just accidentally deleted a few hundred words of analysis. It's way too late at night for me to rewrite it now. I'll update this post with analysis sometime tomorrow. Short version: rural voters liked the incumbents better, perhaps because they had longer ties to Stanley County and perhaps because they like the four-day week more than Fort Pierre voters.

Reading Munsterman, part 1

**UPDATED** I'm a third of the way through Scott Munsterman's campaign book, "A Vision for South Dakota." I've been reading a courtesy PDF provided by the campaign; it can be downloaded for free here. I don't want to give any overall judgments until I finish, but some preliminary thoughts:

Heidepriem plans 2010 announcement soon

I just caught Sen. Scott Heidepriem (a name I *always* have to check to make sure I've spelled it right), D-Sioux Falls, by phone from Colorado, where he's taking depositions today. Heidepriem, the Senate Minority Leader and former Republican who has been widely mentioned as an aspiring 2010 gubernatorial candidate, had praise for Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin after her announcement yesterday that she would pursue reelection.

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