October 2019

UPDATE: Is Mayor TenHaken’s Deputy COS Staff, TJ, scared of Cameraman Bruce?

Bruce told me today he was able to ride along on the Capital Projects Tour with the city council and film most of it. He said it was very informative, and since it was a posted public meeting (working session) anyone from the public could come along on the bus tour.

Right before the bus was about to leave, the Deputy COS of staff to the mayor, TJ Nelson was approaching the bus to go on the tour, but once he saw Bruce getting on with his camera, he turned around and never came. Some councilors questioned what happened to him.

TJ must have gotten Cameraman Bruce confused with ‘The Living Man’ Christopher Bruce . . .

. . . Who announced today he will be sentenced in 8 days instead of December. He thinks he will probably get 10 Months. He also included a tidbit about the Mayor’s father possibly having a link to 5G expansion and the telecoms. I had heard some rumblings about that, but haven’t had anyone else confirm it with me. Maybe one of our talented investigative reporters in town could dig around on that instead of chasing the State’s Attorney on his drunken bike rides.

UPDATE: Speaking of Mayor TenHaken, I guess him and councilor Neitzert are rumored to have attended the FCCLA conference in Texas. They both justified it’s relevance and being above the board because this group paid all expenses associated with the conference. They used to be called the FHA. I’m assuming they were hired as speakers at the event.

I have no doubt they are trying to groom Neitzert to run for mayor.

On a side note, I heard the Mayor has upped the ante on whoever will challenge Stehly (if she decides to run) from $100K to $130K.

Money, Money, Money, Mooonnnnneeey.

Is KSFY already transitioning reporters over to KDLT?

I had to chuckle a little bit while watching this video, at the end of the video, KSFY reporter, Jill Langland (who I haven’t seen for awhile on that station) closes by saying ‘Jill Langland, KDLT News’.

I checked to see if the same story was on KDLT or if Jill was listed as a reporter over there. Nope.

So I guess we already know who is going to transition to that station. Maybe they should tell Jill though that the transition really hasn’t taken place yet, or maybe this is a way of softly bracing the public for Jill’s transition 🙂

As we all have suspected, when GRAY bought KDLT, it probably won’t expand our news coverage, it just expands their bottom line with more advertisers. Maybe they should just have reporters from both stations sign off, ‘Reporting for KSFDLT news, so there is no future confusion.

Speaking of transitions, I see Bridgett Bennett didn’t last long in Sewer City, as I suspected she wouldn’t. She probably had some weird non-compete where she couldn’t be in the Sioux Falls market for a year, and since KCAU is owned by the same media company as Stormland TV, I’m sure they probably had this in the works for a while, but who knows? She will be replacing Sammi Be Yellin’.

Governor Noem gives state employees 3 paid days off for Christmas (Dec 23-25)

I heard from a Minnehaha County official today that the state has told them and other counties that the State is giving 3 paid days off this year for Christmas. Counties of course rely on State employees to do business, so when the state takes a day off, counties do to. So how will the counties across the state handle it? Will they also give their employees 3 paid days off? This will be interesting to see how this is handled. While I don’t have a problem with State or County employees taking off Monday December 23, they should only be able to do without pay or use PTO, this should NOT be a taxpayer expense for essentially a religious (not government) holiday – heck, it’s NOT even a holiday – It’s two days before!

Former SD State Legislators are asking for your help with settling the GEAR UP Scandal

In the wake of the GEAR UP tragedy, no one has ever come forward with an honest, accurate number of deserving Native American kids who actually went to college. This is despite our state government blowing through about $60 million of our state and federal tax dollars. High-placed bureaucrats claimed preposterous conflicts of interest were “business as usual.” Auditors failed their professional and ethical obligations. Politicians suddenly came down with amnesia. Consultants laughed all the way to the bank with their ill-gotten millions. While thousands of our young people got cheated out of a chance for a better future, no one ever spent a single night in jail. It was convenient to blame it all on the dead guy and move on. Will our state’s Native American children and our taxpayers suffer again from such scandals? Yes they will, unless we find ways to prevent such abuses of public trust from happening again. If you have suggestions for meaningful changes—in rules, laws, or oversight procedures—please consider sharing them with us before November 10. If you wish, we will keep your identity confidential. We will not attribute your comments to you in any way. We will present our findings and proposals to legislators and other public officials for their review and action in the 2020 legislative session.

Frank Kloucek

Email: fkloucek@hotmail.com • 29966 423rd Avenue • Scotland, SD 57059 • 605-660-0254

Jack Billion

Email: jackbillion@sio.midco.net • 400 E. 21st Street • Sioux Falls, SD 57105 • 605-212-2084