By Denise Ross

While surfing SD news sites - and procrastinating on the blogging - I learned that one-time Dem gubernatorial prospect Mel Olson appears headed to the Mitchell City Council. The fine residents of Mitchell have to vote, of course, but in the meantime the Mitchell Daily Republic has a reader poll up online about the contest.

Given Olson’s flair for framing the questions of the day in especially dramatic-tinged-with-humor fashion, he’s a reporters dream. That style also has plenty of appeal to voters, even if it drives his opponents mad.

His line about why he ultimately would not run for governor:

There are a million reasons not to run for governor, and they all have George Washington’s picture on them. *

And that, folks in the political biz will tell you, means that Mel didn’t want it badly enough. City council must seem more managable, not to mention close to home.  

So, if you’re a fan of Mel’s, you can go vote for him - in the newspaper site. If you’re not a fan, you could vote against him. And we’ll soon see how most of those Mitchell residents feel about him.

While we’re quoting Mel’s greatest hits, I recall two from his days as House minority leader when budgetary issues were - shocking - at the fore.

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By Denise Ross

Here’s video of South Dakota’s own John Thune explaining to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that until President Obama presents a plan for what he wants to do with the prisoners detainees now held at the Guantanamo Bay facility, he really hasn’t got a prayer of getting cooperation from Congress.

Thune says he really wishes Obama would just leave well enough alone.

Maybe they’ll back away from the whole issue of closing Guantanamo in the first place. It’s a $200 million state-of-the-art facility hundreds of miles away from America’s neighborhoods. It’s very safe and secure.

Despite that, the president seems intent on closing it without a plan as to what to do.

And then Thune explains a bit sheepishly that he really did like a lot about the credit card reform bill he voted against, but he just couldn’t go along because some credit card issuing operations in South Dakota might have to “shut down.” And, therefore, jobs would be lost.

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By Denise Ross

2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave Knudson raised $250,000 at a Thursday night fundraiser attended by about 200 people, a source close to the campaign (who is not Sen. Knudson) tells Hoghouse Blog.

I know he’s got to go a ways to catch up with Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who’s been raising money since, like, 1992, but isn’t $250,000 a haul? Especially for South Dakota?

Is the fact that Sen. Knudson could raise so much a sign that there’s active opposition to the Daugaard candidacy? (I haven’t been in Sioux Falls in ages, so I am totally guessing here. But I must wonder if the dollar amount is telling us something.)

Are we in for a spirited primary next spring? If so, please don’t go the route of Barnett-Kirby 2002. Or maybe go ahead. That was interesting, if a bit painful.

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By Denise Ross

Y’all remember Arnold Garson of Sioux Falls Argus Leader fame? Now he’s Arnold Garson of the Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal, and he’s picked a fight with Jeff Jarvis, a pretty big kid on the new media block.

Garson did not bother to research or check his facts and instead chose to libel me just because we disagree and I dare to criticize newspapers’ stewardship of journalism. Who does he think he is - a blogger?

…

I think he’s wrong about newspapers. His first big defense of the state of their business is that they’re better off than car dealers and Realtors. That sure as hell ain’t saying much.

Read it all here. (For what it’s worth, you might think the commenter “Alex” is me, but I swear it’s not. She does make me feel less lonely in my exasperated heartbreak over the self-inflicted wounds slowly killing newspapers, tho.)

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By Denise Ross

South Dakota’s US senators have just said ‘no’ to the credit card reform bill, but they were among just 5 ‘no’ votes, so they hardly won the day.

The fact that both our Republican and Democrat voted against the bill didn’t stop the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from issuing a press release titled “SENATOR THUNE CHOOSES TO PROTECT CREDIT CARD COMPANIES OVER SOUTH DAKOTANS.”

Ah hem. DSCC, I think you forgot someone in your headline, there.

Anyway, I wrote a newspaper column last week about the fact that South Dakota’s entire congressional delegation wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about the credit card reform legislation wending its way over Capitol Hill. (Read the full column on the jump.)

This month, Congress is answering President Obama’s call for a reform bill by Memorial Day.

But South Dakota’s congressional delegation is not on board. The trio is eying the jobs credit cards have produced for their constituents. Between 3,000 and 5,000 jobs of the 20,000 that now exist at operations like Citibank and Premiere Bankcard could go away, state officials estimate.

Looks like it could turn out that one man’s lower interest rate is another’s lay-off.

It’s important to note that South Dakota’s congressionals favored a reform plan designed by the Federal Reserve and scheduled to take effect in July 2010. This new legislation changes some of the rules and ramps up the timeline.

To read last week’s full column and quotes from our delegation, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

This topic was all the rage for a few days about a month ago, when I wrote this installment of my newspaper column. Under this president, however, hot topics are ever-changing.

But to the farmers of the Dakotas, there’s never a bad time to talk about expanding trade opportunities. (Read the full column on the jump.)

South Dakota’s three members of Congress all favor lifting the trade embargo that currently limits how much wheat, corn, beef and pork can be sold to our Caribbean Communist neighbors. … our delegation has long wanted to further open up Cuba’s agricultural markets to American farmers and ranchers.

…

What members of Congress want to do matters because the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 requires the trade embargo to be lifted by an act of Congress rather than by decree of the president. …

If the trade embargo were lifted, however, U.S. exports would likely double, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Yeah, even though there’s an embargo, the U.S. is still Cuba’s largest supplier of food. Go figure.

To read more about that situation and the statements of SD’s 3 congressionals, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

After an historic election, some serious personnel shuffles in the Rapid City Journal newsroom and the birth of my first baby, the old Mount Blogmore team finally got together so I could collect my bet winnings - dinner and wine at Botticelli’s.

None of us could quite remember the exact terms of the bet - whether we differed over whether Hillary would get the nomination or when the election. I won in any case, as I said no way. Kevin and Bill said, yes way. And, necks bowed all around, we had a wager. Sometime back in 2007. The much blogged-about pay-off finally took place on Saturday night - once Bill got back from France, Kevin didn’t have a dinner party to attend and I could line up Grandma and Grandpa to babysit. Whew.

So here’s the photographic evidence:

                                                      (Photos by Mr. Hoghouse)

Kevin Woster, my former Mount Blogmore mate - and the only one of the original clan still left on the Mount, serves me salmon. Mmmmmm. At right are honorary Mount Blogmore-ite Bill Fleming and his wife, Susan Turnbull.

Incidentally, I often ribbed Woster for being a Reisling drinker, but on Saturday NPR had a nice piece about how Reisling is really pretty good. And then I had some of the dry Reisling at dinner, and I think I might have more of that in the future. Not so bad, Woster. Not so bad.

Bill Harlan, who now works at the super-cool Homestake lab, serves me the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever eaten. Lemon. Super mmmmm.

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By Denise Ross

Sunday was Mother’s Day, of course, and South Dakota’s most famous new mother talked to me for my weekly newspaper column. South Dakota’s congresswoman talks about experiencing daycare “sticker shock,” a global effort to reduce maternal mortality and children’s health insurance. Plus lots more. (Read the full column on the jump.)

“I’m seeing young men, women as well, bouncing toddlers on their knees. I got emotional thinking they’re going to be away from them for a year,” Herseth Sandlin said about attending National Guard deployment ceremonies. “One woman at Aberdeen, she came straight from the hospital with her 2-day-old baby.”  

The above quotation comes from the “lots more” category.

As a new mother myself - and one who’s fortunate enough to be able to stay home with my 3-month-old, America’s typical maternity leave policies have struck me as nearly inhumane. And yet millions continually cope with dropping off at daycare a baby whose age is measured in weeks. But that’s me, and no one elected me to anything, let alone Congress.

SHS addresses the question of maternity leave in a fairly circumspect way in the column. To read it all, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

Ethanol is never far from the front pages of South Dakota news. And the plucky little fuel that could (so far) pops up rather frequently on the national news scene, too. A few weeks ago, I wrote a newspaper column about what South Dakota’s congressional delegation is doing to advance ethanol’s cause.

When it comes to ethanol’s future, anyone who’s been paying attention knows that cellulosic ethanol - the stuff made from wood waste and grass and corn stalks rather than corn itself - is the sought-after elixir. But ethanol’s best friend is neither a promising future technology nor a letter from a member of Congress.

Ethanol’s best friend is the Renewable Fuels Standard, part of the 2007 energy bill, that requires the use of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022.

Under that schedule, ethanol will hit a “blend wall” by 2010, ethanol production is expected to exceed demand. That is unless South Dakota’s congressional delegation finds success in its current ethanol endeavors.

(Read the full column by clicking “CLICK HERE” below.)

Since I wrote the column, ethanol has made some news nationally. Here are two examples.

First, Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., is mad at the EPA for saying that ethanol might not be so environmentally friendly.

(Peterson) said the EPA plan is prompting him to oppose any climate-change legislation that Congress may consider.

“You can’t trust them,” the Minnesota Democrat (and House Ag Committee chairman) said of the agency, which would write rules under any bill that would be passed. “I no longer have any confidence in the EPA.”

Second, a new university study has concluded that it would be more far more efficient to burn plants to create electricity than it is to turn plants into ethanol to supplant gasoline.

(A) new study shows that it would be more energy-wise and better for the environment to burn biomass in boilers and make electricity - then use the electricity to power cars.

Meanwhile, you can read about the ethanol efforts of our congressionals on the jump.

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HERE’S THE PRESS RELEASE:

Friday, May 8, 2009  

Van Johnson Passes Way

Washington, DC- U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) announced today that his father, Vandel Charles Johnson, Ph.D., passed away earlier this week in Michigan at the age of 95. Van Johnson was the former Dean of Students at the University of South Dakota and retired as Chairman of the program for Higher Education Administration at Michigan State University in Lansing. A memorial service will be held in South Dakota at a later date.

“It is never easy to lose a parent, but my father has followed my mother and they are both now at peace together. My father was a loving dad, mentor and friend. I was by his side when he passed away. I will miss him dearly,” Johnson said.

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