By Kevin Woster

Andrew Iron Shell will ask a tough-and-pertinent question Saturday at the Heartland Presidential Forum in Des Moines: What would the Democratic candidates do to reduce suicide rates among reservation youth and improve health services to Native Americans overall?

Clinton, Obama, Edwards and the rest of the Demo gang will know the questions in advance, so they and their brain trusts - including, in Obama’s case, South Dakota’s own Steve Hildebrand - can prepare their responses.

It’s a complicated question shaped by heart-breaking human losses across Indian Country. Real answers could save real lives.

It doesn’t get much more important than that.

Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson called attention to the problem a couple weeks back with a letter to the director of the Indian Health Service calling for more resources and focus on the “youth suicide epidemic” on South Dakota reservations and elsewhere.

Johnson spokeswoman Julianne Fisher pointed to past efforts by the senator to provide more funding for youth wellness and activities programs on the reservations in South Dakota, as well as criminal justice efforts there.

Kyle Downey, spokesman for Republican Sen. John Thune, said Thune was focusing on increased resources for federal prosecutors operating in Indian Country. Reducing crime and making people more safe and secure will improve the reservation lifetyle overall, and should help reduce suicidal tendencies, Downey said.

What is the answer? Better law enforcement and reduced crime rates? More resources for IHS? More directed wellness programs and counseling options?

All of the above?

By Bill Harlan

I was gone from the newsroom for a couple of days when we got the terrible news about Ron Bender. I’ve known him for 25 years, and I’ve worked with him for 20. Today I have no words — except to say that when I think of Ron, I’ll think of laughter in the newsroom.

So I was grateful to receive a backchannel e-mail from a Blogmorite sharing a Gail Collins column in the NYT headlined Paging the Lesser of 8 Evils. She writes about the Republican presidential debate last night, and her kicker is about South Dakota’s meaningless (we thought) presidential primary on June 3. Warning, I’m going to spoil the punchline:

Every sign points to the party nominees being chosen by the first week in February. (If given the choice, would you prefer to see your Christmas stocking filled with a lump of coal or 10 months of Clinton vs. Romney?) But on the Republican side, it’s not hard to imagine the poor voters veering from one to the other. (Him? — Oh, god no. How about — him! No, wait, what were we thinking? )

Maybe they’ll vacillate until the bitter end, leaving it all up to the final primary in South Dakota in June. And that would be great. Finally, instead of allowing a few thousand corn farmers to decide the fate of the nation, we could place the power where it rightfully belongs, with a few thousand wheat farmers.

As Jim Carrey once say, “So you’re saying there’s a chance!”

By Scott Aust

Don’t know how successful the mayor’s veto of ongoing cost of living increases will be in avoiding “needless controversy”, but it will be interesting to see if the city council overrides his decision.
You can read his comments here.
Any bets on whether the controversy or criticism of city decisions will go away?

By Kevin Woster

If Walt Whitman didn’t know, how can I?

The large, sweet soul of Ron Bender left our lives Monday, when the 38-year veteran of Journal news production was hit by a car and killed while visiting family in Maryland.

Word reached us in the newsroom this morning, beginning a workday marked by tears and warm recollections, as well as the normal hustle to package a news product worthy of landing on our readers’ steps tomorrow morning.

Our friend Ron was the subject of that news flow today, after years of work to produce it. The 64-year-old son of a Eureka shopkeeper, he held just about every job in the hectic line of news production at the Journal, including and especially news editor, before retiring late last spring to his family, books, canoes and racquetball.

He retired well, but short. And in the end, he made the news, as we all will to one degree or another, with his passing.

A large, sweet soul, as Whitman said, now gone.

Travel well, old friend. We love you.

The Blogmore-TIO Invitational Hunt gang, from left (click to enlarge, unless you’ve just eaten): Dan O’Brien, Bill Fleming, Steve Sibson, Todd Epp, Matt Epp, Tony Dean, Jeremiah Murphy, Denise Ross, Pat Powers (about to be annointed by a yellow lab), Nick Nemec, Jon Schaff, Lee Schoenbeck, Jon Lauck.

By Kevin Woster

We did.

And it worked.

The Mount Blogmore-Take It Outside Unofficial and Unsanctioned Invitational Pheasant Hunt drew a diverse and potentially divisive crowd to the Nick and Mary Jo Nemec farm near Holabird Sunday.

Unfortunately, the father of Mount Blogmore - political blog sculptor Gutzon Harlan - was on the disabled list with bronchitis. But otherwise, pretty much the whole gang was there, including established blog tenders and those who comment on them.

From Sibby to Fleming, Powers to Epp, the gathering stretched the boundaries of political thought and appropriate discourse in South Dakota, putting together people who have often clashed in very emotional ways via the blogosphere.

But simply arranging that volatile mix wasn’t quite good enough for the cutting-edge planners of Mount Blogmore. We thought it would be a good idea to add a few loaded firearms and send the orange-clad gang of friends and foes across uneven terrain to shoot at wildly flying targets.

And guess what? Nobody got “Cheneyed.” Nobody even got mad, near as I can tell.

But somehow Steve Sibson, Todd Epp and son, Matt, Pat Powers, Doug Wiken, Jon Schaff, Tony Dean, Bill Fleming, Denise Ross, Jeremiah M. Murphy, Jon Lauck, Dan O’Brien, Lee Schoenbeck and I managed to find the Nemec place, with almost all arriving by the scheduled noon shooting time (get that GPS system fixed, Todd).

More than that, everybody managed to set pointed political differences aside and be of good cheer throughout an afternoon of stalking the South Dakota state bird and enjoying the central South Dakota skies - followed by a wonderful chili supper in the fetching-and-welcoming farm home of the Nemecs.

If they can do half as well in Annapolis this week, they’ll go a long way toward finding an Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Fleming, Wiken and Sibby are absolute proof that Americans can handle loaded weapons without shooting each other. Or at least Blogmorites can. (Note: The canine scene in the background is as close to X rated as Blogmore will ever get.)

Schoenbeck holds court to a mix of rapture and skepticism during a sumptuous repast. More peaceful than Annapolis. More progress was made.

Mount Blogmore goes to the dogs. For details see the upcoming post on the blog “Take It Outside.” (Button at upper right.)

By Bill Harlan

The NYT has an interesting story this morning about the GOP — short of cash!?!? — is recruiting wealthy candidates who can finance their own campaigns. Here in Rapid City, former state Sen. Stan Adelstein finances his own campaigns. (And contribute to others.) He’ll have a money advantage in a primary or a general election run against state Sen. Tom Katus. The wealth advantage wasn’t enough for Stan to survive a primary challenge from Elli Schwiesow in 2006 — the year of the abortion referendum. Still, money does talk.

Ah, campaign financing. Things go better with cash. An eternal truth?

By Bill Harlan

I fear I may have hit the “delete all comments in moderation, then delete those comments’ families and friends, then delete comments even loosely related to those comments, or comments that knew comments that knew those comments, then sow salt on the fields’ of the comments, driving the comments from the Moderation Queue forever, verily saying unto all those comments that shall have been posted in the last 36 hours or so that they shall be scorched from the earth” button. (I think that’s “ctrl-alt-F4.”)

On Thanksgiving, no less. I blame my excessive tryptophan ingestion. Sincere apologies* to those those of you who submitted comments between bites of stuffing. My bad.

PS:
To those of you who submitted comments giving the lat-long coordinates of Jimmy Hoffa’s grave, Osama bin Laden’s hideout and the key to my dang bicycle lock — I beg you, resubmit.

*Typo “apoloties” corrected. (Fleming thought I had invented a new word.)

By Scott Aust

Well, the Rapid City Five came back from New Orleans Sunday night — with a bit of a chip on their shoulders.
For almost an hour during Monday night’s council meeting, city officials played up all the learning that happened at last week’s National League of Cities convention, obviously in reaction to all the criticism received about the travel budget and the original decision to send 8 of 11 elected officials.
Malcom Chapman seemed especially vexed when he called the actions of a local reporter, who he refused to name, “shameful” for calling NLC convention officials last week to check up on council members’ activities without initially identifying themselves as a reporter.
I wonder if the public thinks council members are right to be peeved about the coverage and criticism, or are they being a little thin-skinned?

By Bill Harlan

There’s a South Dakota subtext to the latest “kerfuffle”* among Democratic prez hopefuls. Robert “the Plame game” Novak** now says Hillary Clinton’s campaign is telling Dems in a stage whisper that they have dirt on Barack Obama but are not using it. Novak is outrage — outraged! — he tells us.

Naturally Mount Blogmore is interested in the conspiracy behind the conspiracy, which reveals Tom Daschle’s plot to take over the world, as hinted at in the Washington Post and on Fox News. Clinton spokesman Jay Carson responded to Novak’s charge, saying it ain’t so. Obama strategist Steve Hildebrand, meanwhile, is touting his candidate’s increasing strength in Iowa.

Carson is a former Daschle aide. Hildebrand ran Daschle’s 2004 race. Is it a coincidence that top aides on both sides are tied to South Dakota’s former Top Democrat? As Dr. Evil would say, riiiiiiight.

*”Kerfuffle” is turning up more and more in political commentary. See Chris Cillizza at “the Fix” in the the WaPo for his use of the word and a bit more about the Obama-Clinton-dirt kerfuffle.

** And the South Dakota conspiracy deepens. Novak was the columnist who labeled George McGovern the candidate of ‘amnesty, abortion and acid’” — a story Novak recounts in his new book, The Prince of Darkness: 50 years of reporting in Washington.

By Kevin Woster

Bruce-Tatanka made an interesting point in the Herseth-Sandlin discussion down below, which inspires my questions here:

If Bill Janklow hadn’t run that stop sign four years ago, would he be campaigning today for Tim Johnson’s U.S. Senate seat?

Or would he have run for Tom Daschle’s Senate seat?

And what would Stephanie Herseth Sandlin be doing?

By Bill Harlan

An NYT editorial today took the Bush administration to task for its alleged failure to have a plan to deal with the housing credit crisis. This graf got my attention:

Under current law, mortgages on primary homes are the only type of secured debt that is ineligible for bankruptcy protection. Owners of vacation homes, farms and commercial property can modify those debts in bankruptcy court. But not your everyday homeowner. Under any circumstances, that double standard should not be allowed. With a foreclosure debacle unfolding, it must be rectified.

Could a Blogmorite enlighten me about why primary homes are ineligible? (Meanwhile, just so my mortgage company knows, my motto is “Life’s a vacation!” so I consider domicile a “vacation home.”

By Kevin Woster

Herseth Sandlin for governor in 2010?

The congresswoman says she’s not interested. Well, that’s not really what she said when I asked her during a telephone conference call this morning if she was interested in running for governor in 2010?

“I’m focused on 2008. I want to seek reelection to the House of Representatives. That’s my intent,” she said.

She wants to continue to build seniority in the House that could pay off for South Dakota, she said.

Still …

“I don’t want to be closing off any opportunities to serve the state as effectively as possible,” she said.

I take that to mean, “Who knows? Anything’s possible” when it comes to challenging the GOP candidate for governor in three years.

And who might that be? Well, last summer on the day the Homestake Lab finally landed in South Dakota, I stood by Gov. Mike Rounds at the Sioux Falls airport as he and Herseth Sandlin and Sen. John Thune prepared to fly to Lead to celebrate.

When Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard appeared, strolling briskly across the Business Aviation lobby, I teased to Rounds: “Hey, here comes the next governor of South Dakota.”

I laughed. So did Rounds. Then he added, with a smile going slightly serious: “I would think so.”

I’m still not sure what Herseth Sandlin thinks.

By Bill Harlan

See reporter Steve Miller’s story on the farm bill deadlock for comments from Sen. Tim Johnson’s first telephone interview with a South Dakota reporter since his brain hemorrhage last December. On Sunday the RCJ had editorialized That Sen. Johnson’s health would be a valid issue to raise during next year’s campaign. The editorial pointed out that Johnson hadn’t been giving phone interviews. That’s no longer the case.

In Steve’s story, Tim J. and John Thune offer the Democratic and Republican perspectives on why the bill is stuck. Thune blamed Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. Reid blamed Republicans. Johnson said there was plenty of blame to go around. (I blame Derek Jeter, but that’s just me. I’ve yet to understand a single farm bill in 29 years of reporting.)

Participants in the RapidPoll also assigned blame. The results as of a few minutes ago:

Whose fault is it that the farm bill has stalled in Congress?
Democrats (207 Votes, 31%)
Republicans (157 Votes, 24%)
Both (296 Votes, 45%)Total Votes: 660

Anyway, Blogmore welcomes our senior senator back to the world of telephonic conversations.

By Kevin Woster

The race is on.

And it’s not a gravel track, although Republican candidate Chris Lien would be helpful if it were.

The former chair of the Ellsworth Task Force and current president of Birdsall Sand & Gravel - a division of the family business, Pete Lien & Sons - is running for the state’s lone U.S. House seat.

That’s a tough run - some might say lost cause - given the popularity of Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, her incumbent advantage and her astute (some liberal Democrats call it Republican) positioning on key issues.

The 42-year-old Lien, however, seems like a pretty legitimate challenger all things considered, with solid family credentials, business and civic connections and the ability to generate some bucks.

Things are getting more interesting than I might have thought.

By Scott Aust

So far, so good. Day One of half the city council’s trip to a National League of Cities conference is proceeding without incident, though I am monitoring the Times-Picayune’s police blotter.
Originally, eight city officials planned to attend, but only five council members decided to make the trip. Mayor Hanks stepped out at the last minute and you can read that here.
The three who decided to stay home say public criticism played no role in their decision, but the Dr. Evil in me can’t help but arch an eyebrow and think, “Riiight.”

By Bill Harlan

I can’t find that statistic — I know I had it once — that showed Pennington County has more concealed weapons permits per capita than anywhere in the nation. All the more reason Mount Blogmore will watch the U.S. Supreme Court closely. The AP reports the court is likely to take up the gun-control issue — specifically the District of Columbia’s ban on all handguns.

The Second Amendment:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The court could end up revisiting U.S. v. Miller, the 1939 decision, untouched for almost 70 years, that has been interpreted as upholding gun ownership as an individual rather than collective right.

By Bill Harlan

It’s a book bound to spark debate in South Dakota. Dr. Susan Wicklund has written “This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor” (published by Public Affairs). See the NYT story about it. An excerpt:

According to the Guttmacher Institute, about a quarter of pregnancies in the United States end in abortion. Dr. Wicklund says that is why she believes far more people favor abortion rights than are willing to admit it in polls. For example, she said in the interview, an abortion ban that seemed to have wide support in South Dakota was put to a vote and “when people got behind those curtains and nobody was watching it was overwhelmingly defeated. Unfortunately, people are not willing to say what they really think.”

People organizing for a South Dakota abortion ban by ballot initiative next year say adding exceptions for rape, incest and health of the mother will tip the scales, but exceptions as written failed in the Legislature. Is the Legislature representative of the state?

By Bill Harlan

The Mount was shocked to learn Attorney General Larry Long is in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer. He took sick during an Open Government Task Force in Mitchell, but the AP reports that a full recovery is expected.

That’s what we’re hoping for. And not just because we’re biased in favor of an Open Government Task Force.

By Bill Harlan

An interim committee of the Legislature will present to the Executive Board its recommendations on a code of conduct for lawmakers. (The board meets Nov. 19 and 20.) My story in today’s paper reports how some legislators think the Klaudt case may or may not affect whether they should adopt a code of conduct.

The Mount has hosted conversations about this before, but today I’d like to know what YOUR code of conduct is. The Rapid City Journal, for example, recently revised its ethics code, which I have somewhere around here on my desk. (There is no free lunch anymore, literally.) Our dress code has been tightened up, too. (Now my boxer shorts must not be pulled above my belt, to which I can only reply, Harsh, dude.)

Anyone else got a code?

By Scott Aust

Anyone have a suggestion as to the appropriate penalty for a contractor that uses old pipe when installing a water line? City councilman Ron Kroeger suggested Monday a $2,000 fine, probation and inspections. Is that enough?