September 2025

UPDATE: Another SD community could be helped by the Levitt Foundation

UPDATE: Parkston won the online vote!

The Levitt in Sioux Falls has been a great success (though this year’s series was a real sleeper). My SD hometown of Parkston is in the running for a 3-year grant from the Foundation which will help them bring in bigger entertainment. Parkston already has a amphitheater in which they do a Thursday night summer concert series in which the entire town shows up for including folks from regional towns. If they get the grant, it will be likely they will work with the SF location to bring some of those folks from our series to theirs.

Here are more deets and how to vote;

EXCITING TIMES for our community! The Parkston Commercial Club has teamed up with the Avera St. Benedict Health Center to apply for a National Levitt AMP GRANT. 

We will need ALL of our local community, as well as all of the other concert goers from other communities in our broader area to help us out. We will need to receive enough votes to finish in the TOP 50 out of 100 communities to help secure our grant. The voting will run through September 15th. Please share this post with all or your family and friends to help us out! 

You will only be able to vote one time per person.

If we are successful, our community will receive $28,000 a year for three years to enhance our Parkston Amphitheater concert series.

Vote Now! Text “Parkston” to 1-877-409-5525 to help us win funding for even more AmphiThursday fun!

Thank you to the Levitt Foundation for your support of live Music, public spaces and communities!

I was a victim of political violence

I was thinking about this tonight; ‘Have I ever been attacked physically for my political views?’ I have. And I am not talking about the losers on Reddit that troll me anonymously or the other set of losers (probably the same folks) that attack my grammar.

A few years ago a very angry mayor decided to kick my chair while elbowing my friend in the head, cracking his tooth. The video evidence was scrubbed immediately and the courts wouldn’t allow a hearing because of the lack of evidence. So not only was I the victim of political violence I was also the victim of corruption because of the cover-up. I could care less that he kicked my chair. At the time, I had no idea what was going on, I knew someone either shoved or kicked my chair and my friend was keeled over in pain holding his jaw. I guess my point is that political violence isn’t about the left or the right, it is about rage, people who commit it are enveloped with rage. I still have no idea what his motive was to kick my chair, but it wasn’t political.

MIKE IS RUNNING FOR SOMETHING

After someone was suckered into nominating Huether to the SD Hall of Fame and after he cut them a big check he had his acceptance speech Saturday night. Those in attendance said he cried, of course, and said that he is likely running for mayor because he referenced that he wanted to get back to the work he cherishes, public service. I welcome him into the race, because I will be the one asking him the question, ‘Do you condone political violence?’

those who live by the sword will also die by the sword

These words uttered by Jesus to his pal Peter have an obvious point; Poke the bear and the bear bites back.

The headline this week should have been, ‘Another Anarchist kills another Fascist’.

To be completely honest, before Charlie Kirk died I had only heard him say a few sentences from different sound bites. They were all racist or misogynistic or a combination of both. He did have a special talent of combining his different hates into one sentence. While his followers thought he was serious, when he would make such statements they came off as comedic to me. He’s like Doug Stanhope if Doug wasn’t funny and sarcastic. So I guess I am baffled as to why the right is putting him on a pedestal. Are we supposed to honor him because he figured out a way to sugar coat white supremacy and fool a generation? As for a defender of free speech? Huh? I follow many national free speech organizations and am a member of NCAC, and trust me, none of these orgs have ever mentioned Kirk as a defender of these rights, quite the opposite.

Do I think people should be killed for their speech? No. And who does? What a silly question.

But when you are getting over 200 death threats a week, as reported by a Kirk staffer after the shooting, you wonder if you were defending free speech OR security ignorance? The warning signs were there, I saw these kinds of attacks escalating after the vicious attack on Salman Rushdie only 3 years ago.

The MAGA movement is only going to use Kirk’s death to further take away our free speech rights. And it is already happening right here with the recent firing of a professor at USD because he dared to call a spade a spade on the internet. If there ever was a time to speak out, it is right now. I have maintained this blog for almost 20 years not because I care about local governess but I care about FREE speech. I know not everyone agrees with my point of view, but that is why I share it, to have you think of a different way of doing things.

Did you know the 1st Amendment was merely a compromise by James Madison;

James Madison was the primary author and driving force behind the First Amendment, which he introduced to the First Congress in 1789 to guarantee freedoms of religion, speech, press, and assembly. He did so because many Americans and delegates at state ratification conventions feared the unamended Constitution lacked protections for essential liberties, and Madison, initially a Federalist who didn’t believe a Bill of Rights was necessary, changed his mind to gain support for the new system and secure the support of Anti-Federalists.

Essential Liberties. Isn’t that a beautiful thing? These things are NOT guaranteed by the barrel of a gun, a religious doctrine or by someone who owns property, they are guaranteed by our speech and speaking out against injustice. “The pen is mightier than the sword,” was coined by the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Some people close to Kirk know that his OWN words will ultimately destroy his legacy, not an assassin’s bullet and this is why they are literally killing the messengers by having people terminated for speaking the truth about Kirk.

Sound like a defender of FREE speech to you?

Like most political bubbles these days, I don’t think we will be hearing much about Kirk after his funeral, just another blip on the radar screen, but the 1st Amendment, that is something we must protect every day even though Kirk failed miserably at it because most fascists do.

UPDATE: Why is the city proposing an increase in our reserve funds?

UPDATE: While the reasons are still murky why they are doing this, there was some hints last night. They pretty much want to take more of the 2nd penny to fill the reserves. Why are they nervous about the reserves? Because the Feds are turning off the faucet. Local governments especially should work off of a balanced budget with the taxes they collect. Any additional funds from the state or feds should be considered ONE TIME MONEY to be used on needed infrastructure upgrades. Those dollars should never be considered as part of a permanent, ongoing budget. But this is what the city has done for years. Did you know that only two-thirds of the city’s budget is covered by local taxes and fees? The city has been using these extra monies to inflate the budget. The city should NEVER have a savings account. I think 25% is good enough for emergencies but anything above that needs to be spent or refunded. When I see $80 million in a city’s reserve fund, I don’t see prudence I see a community being overtaxed. Want to make significant cuts that will save citizens millions without effecting services? Cut staff. I figured if you cut 5-10% of employees in the city you could save up to $25 million a year. Salaries and benefits are paid from the 1st penny. We would have oodles of money to fill the gap. Recently a mayoral candidate says they plan to hire a HR director that will do a full review of ALL city employees and job performance. And the ones that don’t cut the mustard, well, they’ll be shown the door. This is past due. I think ALL city employees should be re-interviewed each year for job performance. I have often said, city employees are an investment, and we should take care of those investments, and when we have a bad one, we need to sell.

(Item #13) It is hard to understand where this is coming from;

This resolution is establishing reserve goals for the City’s General Fund and Sales/Use Tax Fund. Where the City is to maintain a General Fund available balance be at 25-35 percent of that year’s expense budget, maintain a 25% reserve minimum at year-end, establish the 10-year general fund forecast maintains reserves at or above 25% for each fiscal year, and maintain a Sales/Use Tax reserve equal to 3 percent of the total sales tax revenue budgeted for that fiscal year.

I will wait and see ‘why’ this is being proposed, but what I find interesting is this is being sponsored by the mayor while it is the duty of the council to implement this;

WHEREAS, the Home Rule Charter of the City of Sioux Falls authorizes the Council to appropriate City funds and set City policy; and

WHEREAS, the City Council desires adequate reserves to cash flow City government, mitigate risk from unforeseen reductions in revenue and changes in the economic environment, and meet any emergencies; and

WHEREAS, the City Council desires to ensure the long-term fiscal responsibility of the City; and
WHEREAS, the City Council desires an ongoing plan for a fiscally sound budget; and
WHEREAS, the City Council expects potential new revenue streams be approved prior to final
adoption of the budget.

Instead of trying to spend down some of the reserves (we have around $30 MILLION over what the current ordinance requires) for needed projects (not playlands) they are just going to make the reserve fund bigger so the council can’t touch it.

One the funniest starts to a Sioux Falls City Council meeting

Poops was a comedian tonight, though I don’t think he realized it. After the invocation (in which a pastor did a nice job of speaking about immigrants) Paul read a NEW statement about public input (Let’s call it the Sierra rule);

The city has an interest in maintaining civility and decorum during the public comment sessions of its meetings and has adopted rules to achieve the dual goals of ensuring the efficient conduct of the people’s business and fostering citizen participation in that discussion, part of these rules require any presenter from making any personal, pertinent or slanderous remarks which include making any personal attacks on any previous presenters.

Why do politicians always confuse the 1st Amendment with the 2nd Amendment? The 2nd Amendment is the only Amendment you can regulate (it’s in the language), not so much with the 1st. he cannot control what anyone says, that is a violation of their constitutional rights. As for slander or libel, that is ON the person standing at the podium. If they say something that is libelous about a city employee, the city can sue that individual. If they something libelous about another constituent, that person can sue them. It is NOT on this body if someone says something libelous at the podium, it is ON the constituent. And further more how can you predetermine if what is said is true or not? I see all kinds of lies coming from the podium, but sometimes it is hard to distinguish (mostly occurs when directors are at the podium). You can put policies in place until you are blue in the face, the 1st Amendment remains unchanged, and conservative and liberal judges have agreed since it was put on paper.

There were also two incidents in recent weeks of 1st Amendment violations in SD. A person at a Pennington County Commission meeting and a person at a Canton City Council meeting were threatened with removal and arrest. The citizens fought back. At the commission meeting, the constituent even threatened to do a citizens arrest of the chair for violating Federal law 🙂

We need to knock this crap off. With a wannabe dictator in DC, this is NO time for local governments to be squashing FREE speech, quite the opposite.

I have made it a priority to tell ALL mayoral candidates that I will be up their asses if they don’t embrace transparency and open the books when they become mayor.