My thoughts on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings

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Remember this lady? They didn’t believe her either.

I don’t like Washington, I tell people all the time what happens there is of no consequence to us locally. It is an outer space circus land.

But, I have been following the confirmation hearings, at a distance. A Supreme Court nomination DOES affect our lives on a local level and I find it deplorable that Thune & Rounds support Mr. Kavanaugh. We will get to that in a moment.

The one thing I remind people whether you are a Conservative, Moderate or Liberal, shouldn’t matter. We should be very concerned about this process because this is a life long appointment. We can’t vote Mr. Kavanaugh out of office in a few years if he makes bad decisions. He may be there for 30-40 years. The highest level of scrutiny should be given about every aspect of his life. Besides the sexual assault accusations, I have many concerns.

First off, I don’t think there has been enough study done about his years serving President GW Bush (one of the worst presidents ever besides Reagan). I also think he is way to conservative to be replacing Justice Kennedy. What we need is a strong, Constitutional Moderate. NOT a right wing ideologue who wants to put the Supreme Court backwards 60 years.

We must also remember that if the tables were turned and this was a Liberal appointment, the Republicans would be doing the same thing. That is just how Washington works. So when I hear Sen Graham chastise the Democrats on the committee I just shake my head.

But most importantly when we are trying to figure out who is telling the truth about the sexual assault, I remind people of a few simple things.

What does Dr. Ford have to gain by coming forward? What does Mr. Kavanaugh have to gain? He has all to gain, she has nothing but living with her memories of this assault. I guess I would give her testimony more weight based on this.

Maybe Mr. Kavanaugh has blacked this out of his memory, maybe he really doesn’t remember doing it. That is a distinct possibility. But it doesn’t change that it happened, and she is pretty sure it was him.

We already have a misogynist as president, hopefully he will be voted out of office and not serve a second term. But once Kavanaugh is confirmed, we can’t turn back. Remember that when defending his appointment.

What does eliminating the daily opinion page in the Argus ‘really mean’?

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I found this tidbit today in the Argus a little interesting;

For decades, though, curation of reader-created content has been at the center of the Argus Leader’s opinion offering. While today’s social media age allows for immediate sharing of one’s view, few individuals can muster the community reach that a letter to the editor published by the Argus Leader offers.

While there’ certainly value in continuing that platform, we’re making a few adjustments. Starting next week, we’ll increase the opinion presence in the Sunday paper while discontinuing the daily opinion page. As mentioned above, the Sunday Argus Leader has our highest print readership and is a natural place to highlight community views on issues of the day.

That said, without the daily opinion page, we will be more discerning on which pieces run. Letter writers will not have the guarantee of publication. We cannot uphold that promise. We’ll publish the pieces we elect to feature based on their local relevance and the strength of the argument presented.

It’s my hope that these changes, paired with more that are certain to come, will allow us to sustain our opinion-based platforms while keeping the Argus Leader news team focused on the daily delivery of news.

As mentioned earlier in Cory’s column, a third of the daily subscribers are digital only. I’m not sure what that has to do with eliminating the daily opinion page, especially with a month before the mid-term elections. I have thought for awhile that the Argus will reduce it’s dead tree version to 3 times weekly and the Sunday edition. But my bigger concern (besides their lack of daily advertisers) is that our last vestige of local media sharing people’s opinions will be gone. Sure we can comment on blogs and Facebook, but it isn’t the same. I’m just wondering who will be turning out the lights at 10th & Minnesota someday?

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, October 2-3, 2018

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City Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM (Oct 2)

TIF, Historical Summary Presentation by COS, Beck. There is NO supporting documents in SIRE.

Executive Session for contract negotiations with employees or employee representatives.

City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM (Oct 2)

Item# 1, Approval of Contracts, (They are now being more descriptive with the line items).

• Apparently we hired one of the most expensive ad agency’s in the state to do marketing about awareness of the Emerald Ash borer. They did do $14,500 in pro-bono.

• Moving forward with ADA upgrades to our city parks

• Sound System Upgrades, $102K. Not sure what entertainment facility will get them (Events Center or Pavilion)

Item#36, Subdivision ordinance changes

Item#42, 1st Reading, They are finally gifting the Veteran’s Cemetery land.

City Planning Commission • 6 PM (Oct 3)

Item#7, Remodeling of Callaway’s for Restaurant.

Item#9, The Controversial Rezone for apartments has returned, owned by First Assembly of God Church.

Item#11, We have officially became BIG TIME! Bring on the Ramen Restaurant!

Could more heads be rolling next week?

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As mayor TenHaken has said in the past, he is continually reviewing his departments and department heads. He eliminated the Community Development Department and Central Services and re-organized them.

The rumor mill is telling me he is looking at another department to re-organize and they are under close review. Apparently under the past administration they took on some new processes directed by that mayor and they may NOT be working as planned. Unfortunately, with this re-organization more than a handful could be leaving.

We will have to wait and see.