By Denise Ross

Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-SD, has broken a long-running silence on his opinion of the federal investigation into the 2001 anthrax poisonings that struck his Senate office and several other places.

“From the very beginning I’ve had real concerns about the quality of the investigation,” Daschle said in a broadcast interview. “Given the fact that they already paid somebody else $5 million for the mistakes they must have made gives you some indication of the overall caliber and quality of the investigation.”

I recall accompanying Daschle on one of his drive-abouts in 2002 - it was the height of the Thune-Johnson Senate race, and the drums of war sounded on the horizon for Iraq - and somewhere near Kadoka we talked very briefly about the anthrax investigation. It seems it was about the time they had dredged up a pond somewhere near DC.

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By Denise Ross

Bill Clinton’s visit to Rapid City on Saturday wasn’t sweetness and light for all who attended.

Security - from town cops to what I assume were Secret Service officers - monitored the crowd and threw at least 2 people out.

This woman had to leave before Clinton appeared for his speech.

As did this young man, who some folks who were nearby said the officers called him by name and the parties appeared to know each other.

You talkin’ to me!?

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By Denise Ross

Regular Hoghouse Blog readers might remember the saga of Eric Sage, the attendee of the Sturgis motorcycle rally who wound up charged with drug paraphernalia possession - and later ingestion - after the cops found a pot pipe in the purse of a traveling companion riding in a seperate vehicle. (I swear it’s true.)

Mr. Sage was riding behind this vehicle on a motorcycle and was pulled over for crossing the center line. The accompanying vehicle pulled over to wait for him, and a slew of misdemeanor charges ensued.

Bob Newland over at www.sodaknorml.org has compiled the resulting round of complaints filed by Sage with the SD Highway Patrol, the Pennington County Commission and the SD Bar.

Sage found some traction with the state bar, and the prosecutor who handled the case has been formally admonished for violating bar rules against prosecuting a case not supported by probable cause and for unnecessarily burdening a third party. 

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By Denise Ross

With a hearing on Sen. Gene Abdallah’s bill to restore $2 million in budget cuts in the Highway Patrol budget already postponed once, I wonder if lawmakers aren’t quite sure which path to take to get that job done. They’ve got 2 more weeks to move SB172 out of the Senate, which is a fair amount of time in the South Dakota Legislature.

But at Saturday’s crackerbarrel in Rapid City, I saw signs of a few wobbles.

(Photo by David Larson)

Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, is all for SB172, which would reverse Gov. Rounds’ plan to scale back spending through a combination of less driving and more parked patrols and the delay of new equipment purchases.

Napoli said that the Legislature’s power over the purse strings isn’t absolutely absolute.

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By Denise Ross

 When Meade County Commissioner Dayle Hammock asked West River lawmakers about a bill to increase the tax on alcoholic beverages, he set up an appropriately rowdy end to a rowdy first Rapid City crackerbarrel of the 2008 legislative session. Hammock asked about the prospects for SB61, which would tack another dime or so onto the cost of a beer. (Technically it’s $1.06 per gallon of malt beverage, so the math is easy for, um, anyone who buys beer in gallon jugs.) (Photos by David Larson) 

Hammock noted that counties get none of the tax currently charged on alcohol but deal with most of its fallout - treatment, incarceration, the law enforcement staff, etc.

That is one of the core problems counties are dealing with.

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