August 2014

Somebody may be eating their words

As the EB-5 scandal has reared it’s head again, it seems some in the GOP are in denial;

Craig Lawrence, the chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party, said Democratic calls for more investigation are fruitless.

“This is probably one of the most investigated matters in the history of South Dakota,” Lawrence said. “Through all this, there’s no smoking gun.”

First off, yes there have been ‘investigations’ but not a lot of answers and we have yet to hear from what the Feds have found, which leads me to believe, they are still investigating. Mr. Johnson could easily have said, “The investigation is over with.” He did not.

As for saying it will be fruitless to ask more questions, I highly doubt it. Remember, we still haven’t seen Benda’s autopsy and Joop has still not spoken publicly. It seems the GOP is running around these days with a bunch of fire extinguishers trying to put out those smoking guns.

I encourage everyone to watch the video of Patrick Duffy in the above link.

New Middle School – No Sidewalks

While the other TV stations have been hooping and hollering about the inside of the new McGovern Middle School, the folks over at KSFY have found a little problem with the exterior. No sidewalks leading to the school. (I just think it is a conspiracy to punish the School District for naming the school after a liberal);

The newly opened McGovern Middle School was built near a few busy streets in Sioux Falls.

It sits on Maple St. near Marion Rd.

The problem is, there isn’t anywhere for people to walk on those roads.

Including students.

It forces people to walk on the street which doesn’t even have much of a shoulder.

Ms. Bartness does a good job of ‘starting’ this story but comes up short at the end;

The school district tells us the city is in charge of making sidewalks in Sioux Falls.

KSFY News reached out to them earlier, but haven’t heard back.

First off Logan, there is more then one person you can call with the city about this. But what I find interesting is the School District saying the city is responsible for ‘making sidewalks’. While this is true most of the time, the adjacent property owner of new construction is assessed for the cost of those sidewalks. The city does it all the time with private businesses and homeowners, so why wasn’t the school district assessed for these sidewalks?

Once again, I see a case of a different set of rules being applied to government entities, like the school district. Reminds me of the school district parking lot next to the EC that doesn’t have ADA parking. Hmmm.

Good job Logan, now maybe you can track down Chad Huwe with the city and he can explain why the school District doesn’t have to pay for sidewalks out there.