By Denise Ross

In a national media moment that would make PP proud - of a Democrat, even - SD state Rep. Garry Moore, D-Yankton, stood up for Gov. Mike Rounds in his veto of a law that would have required young children to ride in booster seats. Read/listen to the NPR report here.

I’m to the point anymore where I firmly believe that maybe government should just take the children at birth and raise them for us, Moore said. They’re not letting parents make their own decisions anymore. And it just seems ludicrous to me to make these laws telling parents what to do.

Moore was speaking to increased pressure coming from the National Transportation Safety Board trying to get three hold-out states - SD, Arizona, Florida - to pass booster seat laws.

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By Denise Ross

Of course when the crowd heard it, it seemed obvious. Tom Hennies wanted his final farewell, the last hymn sung at his funeral, to be God Bless America. And so it was.

Besides the size of the crowd - the Rapid City Journal’s reporting 800 - the broad swath of society present at Tuesday’s funeral is notable. That the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center was needed to house the crowd, that was a given. So, too - for anyone who knew Hennies, was the mix. Dusty cowboy boots and shiny dress shoes. Shirt sleeves and blue jeans (even a pair of bib overalls) and expensive suits. Whites and natives. Young, middle, old.

Lawmakers (past and present) in attendance who I saw were Larry Rhoden, Jim Lintz, Eric Bogue, Fred Whiting, Stan Adelstein, Elizabeth Kraus, Gordon Howie, Alan Hanks (now mayor), Don Hennies (of course). I also saw Qusi Al-Haj of John Thune’s Rapid City office. I’m sure there were others there who I did not see, as the crowd was literally that big - a sea of people.

Afterwards, I took this picture to try to illustrate just how many uniformed cops of various stripes were there, but the photo really doesn’t do justice to what seemed like an endless stream of uniforms - many blue but also lots of other colors.

When I remember Hennies, I think of both his incisive judgments, which could sometimes seem arbitrary but always proved to be thoroughly thought-out, and his equally incisive sense of humor, examples of which would either be lost in translation here or are not entirely appropriate to retell on the solemn occasion of his passing. Suffice it to say, there were many times when I and others were left only to shake our heads.

OK, here is one, done at the very public event of a legislative crackerbarrel. Some other lawmaker had drawn a diagram on a chalkboard to try to illustrate South Dakota’s school funding scheme, which lends itself to multi-faceted diagrams. Hennies got up, drew over an hour-glass-shaped part of the diagram to make it bolder and said, “Aw, hell, I thought this here was supposed to be Arlene Ham.”

There are a whole lotta folks, Hennies, who are going to miss both your judgment and your jokes.

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By Denise Ross

Tom Hennies had an infectious personality. I don’t know any reporter who covered him who didn’t appreciate his straightforward answers to questions and his penchant for corny jokes. Apparently his no-nonsense approach was popular among constituents, too, as he routinely won election to the Legislature by wide margins.

And I still remember vividly how a crackerbarrel audience burst into a standing ovation when he announced he would run for city council. He lost that race against a popular, well-organized incumbent, but he went on to serve on Rapid City’s planning commission.

I saw him at an election forum last fall and had no idea he was still suffering from the effects of Legionnaire’s. He continued right on with public service until the end.

No doubt there were many occasions on which several folks disagreed with Hennies, but that was always OK with him. He would make his arguments, you could make yours. All he asked for was a fair fight, which he didn’t always get in Pierre. He would have been fearless in the face of what’s passing for town hall meetings this summer. Years on the police force, dealing with the great span of humanity, honed his people skills to a brew of a highly sensitive BS detector, a heavy dose of compassion for the disadvantaged and a screw-’em-if-they-can’t-take-a-joke detachment from the disfunctionalities inherent in our governmental systems. I’ve seen him disarm more than his share of angry, torch-bearing villagers.

It’s difficult to imagine Rapid City without Tom Hennies. I guess we’ll all have to muddle through.

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By Denise Ross

South Dakota’s own John Thune might be rising fast in the GOP ranks, but today he got the cold shoulder from the Washington Post. They don’t much like his proposed amendment that would require states to honor concealed carry gun permits from other states.

THE GUNS-everywhere-guns-for-all crowd in Congress is at it again. This time it’s Sen. John Thune’s turn.

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This is a frightening prospect. 

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Conservatives usually argue against the federal government telling states what they can and can’t do. If approved, the Thune amendment would trample all over the rights of states and cities to enforce reasonable restrictions on gun ownership. There are already enough guns on America’s streets. A vote for Mr. Thune’s bill would make them that much more dangerous.

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The first version of a smoking ban failed to pass the South Dakota Legislature. A House version still survives, but legislative leaders Dave Knudson and Kristi Noem think the measure will go to the ballot regardless. The two spoke at a news conference for the state’s newspaper publishers and editors a couple of weeks ago. If the bill is defeated the two think proponents will take it to a vote of the people. If it passes, they suspect tobacco industry representatives will be pounding the pavement for signatures.

But Sen. Bernie Hunhoff, D-Yankton, isn’t counting the ban out just yet.

“I think it’s just a matter of time,” Hunhoff said. Employment is the real issue, he says.

 ”You can’t make people work in an unhealthy environment.”

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By Denise Ross

If you haven’t yet read the lively discussion going on over at the SD War College in which my friend Pat Powers goes all Church Lady on weed (and I mean that in the best possible way, Pat), you must read it. Click here.

My favorite entry at the time of this writing is this comment from “Detroit L”:

You’d think a guy with 23 kids would be sucking on a J at least once a day.

Followed closely by this laugh-or-cry observation from “DPW”:

put it on the ballot,tax it big,, promise all the money will go to k-12,,it will pass big,,,then funnel all the money into the general fund,,,hahahaha

Meanwhile, Bob Newland has made some valid points in his Tuesday e-mail outlining plans to take another run at legalizing medical marijuana in South Dakota. (Read the full e-mail on the jump.)

Here are some facts:
1. We put medical cannabis on the ballot for the 2006 election in South Dakota.
2. We obtained 48% of the vote.

If they can turn out some of those young, new Obama voters, the pro-medical MJ crowd could cross that 50 % threshold.

I don’t agree with Newland’s analysis that the tide has turned so dramatically that a bill to legalize medical marijuana could pass in the Legislature. (That is, however, a great way to get a ton of free publicity - also known as “earned media” in the campaign world. And that would set up the public debate for a November vote.)

Pat makes a good point that, if we want to treat cannibis as a medicine, perhaps some pharmacology controls on consistency and cleanliness ought to be imposed. Why not get the MJ prescription down at Wal-Greens, Boyds or Lewis like the rest of it?

It seems that whether SD gets another crack at voting on medical marijuana depends on whether Newland can round up some money. Might not be the year for that, but who knows?

To read the full e-mail, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

As Election Day draws nigh, we are hearing more about trouble with voter registration and accusations of voter suppression, especially in the swing states.

Sure, there’s plenty of time devoted to arguing over who’s more un-American than who and hand-wringing over who’s TV ad is more negative.

But there still seems to be some time and space left over for addressing problems that might be threatening the very integrity of our electoral process. 

In recent weeks, ACORN has become synonomous with Mickey Mouse and Superman registering to vote. It all sounds way too familiar, so I wrote last week’s newspaper column about how very similar events left South Dakota a little worse for the wear back in 2002.

Nichols, hired … while on work release from the Pennington County Jail, had been paid $3 per voter registration card filled out. He enlisted a few friends to help, paying them each $1 per card.

Nichols told the judge he and his pals grabbed a phone book … and set to work copying information from the phone book to the voter cards. And, oh yes, they also set to work drinking. When the judge asked if Nichols and his friends were “intoxicated” when they did their work, the man replied, “Oh, yeah! Definitely!” with such enthusiasm that the courtroom erupted in giggles.

To read the entire column, click CLICK HERE below.

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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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