Props to Dick Wiedenman

Both KJAM and MDL (print only -- sorry!) give prominent coverage to the clean-up of the old drive-in movie theater site, which culminated with a bonfire this morning to get rid of the remaining junk. East River Electric plans to build a 27,000-square-foot warehouse and service center on the land.

Conspicuously absent from either source's coverage was mention of the man who sold the land to East River, Madison's favorite persona non grata, Dick Wiedenman. I know, the media and the powers-that-be here hate Dick. They dragged him into court on nuisance charges over all the old trailers, garages, and general junk he kept on that property. People just didn't like such a junkard gracing the western gateway to Madison.

But, even though saying it won't win me any friends at the country club (and probably will earn me a dirty look from my friend Deb), some quixotic part of my heart goes out to Dick Wiedenman. I can't help sympathizing with a man who just wants to be left alone to do what he wishes with his property. Dick wasn't discharging toxic waste into the groundwater or the atmosphere (at least not that I ever read about in the paper). He wasn't feeding 80 stray cats or harboring terrorists. He just collected a lot of junk. (He also rides his bike a lot -- thumbs up!)

And ever since East River made Dick an offer he couldn't refuse, he's been busting his hump clearing the property. Just about every time I went to town, I saw him sifting through the junk, hauling away some useful bits, setting aside the rest for today's bonfire. Heck, he even boosted the local GDP by selling some of the more precious bits.

So Dick isn't exactly Chamber of Commerce material. He's not a big employer, certainly not worried about appearances. He's just a grouchy old guy who does his own thing. So's my dad. Maybe that's why the Madville Times will always have soft spot for the contrarians of our little world.

Fight the Ruling Elite, Sibby! Join Us Dems!

Hog House Blog turns me on to some sabertooth-rattling from Steve Sibson, who starts his post protesting the potential use of eminent domain for the Transcanada pipeline (I'm with you there, pal) and ends up floating a trial balloon for his own candidacy for the State Legislature.

It sounds like Sibson is suffering from the same sort of disenchantment with the "Country Club Republicans" that led me to switch parties. If you're really serious, Steve, about checking the executive branch and challenging (if not replacing) the ruling elite, might I suggest joining us Dems? You might find it easier to oppose the party in charge of the state if you were actually in the opposition party. You might have to spend a little less time parroting Fox News, but you'll get to spend more time on real issues (making South Dakota's tax system more progressive, increasing education funding, promoting local economy) that will have practical positive impacts on the lives of all South Dakotans.

Of course, if joining the Dems is too much to swallow, there's no rush. I think we Dems can find a few good men and women next year to carry the banner of true populist opposition to the country club elites.

Lake County Dems Online!

The rumbling you feel beneath you is the seismic portent of the new Lake County Democratic Party website! Behold the trembling of the masses of the Grumpy Old Party before the awesome juggernaut of truth, justice, and Dem-power!

Yeah, yeah, it's just a free Blogger site cobbled together by a couple of amateurs (Prairie Roots and yours truly). But it beats the Lake County GOP site, which CreditSoup hasn't updated since winter 2006! Plus, the Lake County Dems site has a cool button for contributions. Get out your MasterCard! Game on, Republicans!

All the More Reason for a No-Booze Street Dance

Nancy Naeve at KSFY posts a story on South Dakota being a national leader... in teen drinking. We're among the ten worst states for teen alcohol consumption, with 22.03% of our kids drinking, 5% higher than the national average.

Naeve also notes that July is the biggest month for teen drinking. Sounds like all the more reason for the Jaycees to get back on their street-dance horse and host an all-ages, no-booze event where we can put the lie to the notion that we have to ahve booze to have a good time. Thus far, the Jaycees, by withdrawing plans for a street dance just because the city as denied them a malt-beverage license, sends a pretty clear and distressing message to the contrary.

As I note in "The Pro-Life Handbook," it doesn't seem to make sense that in a pro-life state, so many young people get the message that life isn't good enough without a few drinks. "If life is so grim that we think a few drinks will make it look better, then we have a lot of work to do" to create a society where people truly value life.

Elk Point Refinery -- Now We Can Hear All Sides

Love it or hate it, at least the Gorilla Project, the proposed oil refinery by Elk Point, is now out in the open so people can research and discuss it. Let the company and the governor whine about how we have to keep secrets to protect the business interests; we have a more compelling interest in giving our citizens all the information we can so they can participate in democratic decision-making about the future of their community.

That means hearing information about the project from people other than the project boosters. KELO reports that refinery opponents group "Save Union County" invited Refinery Reform Campaign representative Denny Larson to a public information meeting in Elk Point today. The meeting drew a hundred people for an hour and a half discussion of the impacts of an oil refinery on its neighbors -- pretty big crowd for the day after July 4th in a small town.

Among the contentions offered, Larson argues Elk Point is a bad site choice for a refinery specifically because of the town's small size and lack of other industry: "It should be located in an area that already has heavy industry. They have the infrastructure, hazardous materials division, the siren systems, all the bells and whistles you need if you're going to have an oil refinery in your community" [Ben Dunsmoor, "California Speaker Talks About Elk Point Refinery," KELOLand.com, 2007.07.05]. A new refinery would also pump tons of toxic emissions into the atmosphere every day. So much for being able to use our fresh prairie air as a selling point to potential tourists....

[Stats were gnawing at me overnight, so I did some checking: A second KELO report -- Ben Dunsmoor, "Residents Talk About Refinery Presentation," KELOLand.com, 2007.07.05 -- says "thousands" of tons per day, but that number may have been misquoted; the RRC's website cites reports counting volatile organic emissions from five San Francisco Bay Area as totaling 2 tons per day and total daily "flare emissions" at 8 tons. A 2001 BP document estimates sulfur dioxide emissions from its Mandan refinery in 1976 at 30 tons per day. Scorecard.org indicates that emission rate has been drastically reduced, down to perhap 2 tons a day, if I'm reading the stats right. Scorecard.org offers detailed breakdowns of emissions by type and site around the country. You can find out who's making air pollution in your hometown you can also learn that my alma mater, South Dakota State University, is one of the biggest air polluters in the state. Sounds like the next project after the wellness center had better be some solar panels on the physical plant!]

Now it's possible the RRC is just a bunch of California hippies standing in the way of progress with a bunch of eco-babble. It's possible Hyperion is completely sincere when it promises to be different from the rest of the oil industry and build a green refinery. It's also possible 1800 workers won't give a good gosh-darn about air pollution when they're pulling down $20-$30 an hour.

But it's also possible that there comes a point where we have to stop burning up more resources and instead try to do more with less. We can drive smaller cars (and scooters and bikes!) and save our big four-wheel-drive rigs for when it's actually snowing out. We can share rides. We can spend less time on roaring jet-skis and more time buffing up by paddling a canoe. We can convert to fluourescent bulbs. We can buy more local products and grow more of our own food. We can do myriad things that will be much more satisfying and less harmful than tearing up more land and burning up more oil. It's just a question of priorities. And now that the governor and Hyperion have decided to stop playing secret games, we can have an honest discussion about those priorities. Secrets are bad; open dialogue is good.

Do we really need more oil? If we decide we do, we have to remember that the price we pay will be much more than just the dollars at the pump.

Nitpicking: Sloppy Citations from the Professional Media

O.K., KSFY and KELO, which one of you can't write your citations right? The Sioux Falls TV stations run nearly identical stories on the accident at the Flandreau fireworks show last night. KSFY's version (posted 06:55 today):

Two people were reportedly hurt last night at Flandreau when a fireworks show went awry.
Officials say a shell bounced along the ground and went into the crowd.
The rest of the show -- which was sponsored by the royal river casino -- was canceled.
A spectator who was about 40 yards away from the mishap says he saw at least one person loaded into an ambulance.
Another spectator says she saw a young woman with a leg injury.

KELO's version (posted 07:37 this morning) moves the sentence about the sponsor to the end and properly capitalizes Royal River Casino. The text is otherwise identical. So whose story is it, kids?

More Bad PoliSci: Bob Ellis Prooftexts the Constitution

How better to spend the Fourth of July than prooftexting the United States Constitution? Bob Ellis took some time away from fireworks to post the rhetorical hatchet work of Rapid City pastor Rev. H. Wayne Williams. The good pastor's manipulations and contortions might evoke hilarity, if it weren't for the horror of people actually thinking such miscontextualization constitutes solid political science.

Take it from these sources: prooftexting (or -- word of the day! -- eisegesis) is the wrong way to read the Constitution, the Bible, or any other important or (dare I say it?) sacred document. (Read also here, here [hee hee], here, and here ["For instance, the idea of the United States as a 'Christian Nation' is the creation of egos who gloat over being powerful. It has no basis in history or fact, but more important, it has no basis in the Bible. Yet some leading politicians and pastors interpret the Bible through this notion."])

Invitation to Pat Powers and Other Victims of the Nanny State

Pat Powers is grumbling about a really rotten Fourth of July in Brookings. He laments the city's staunch refusal to let him and his kids detonate explosives in the streets in "one of South Dakota's wettest" and apparently most oppressive cities. To make matters worse, the city effectively mandates its citizens "must go" to the city-sponsored fireworks display at the Swiftel Center "to enjoy fireworks at this time and in thsi manner because we say so." Government oppression and corporate branding -- what could be worse?

The Madville Times is happy to report no such feelings of oppression here on the liberty-loving shores of Lake Herman where the smell of gunpowder still hangs proudly in the air (oh, wait, that might be the neighbors burning the garbage before the wind picks up). Mrs. Madville Times and I had a splendid time sitting on our front porch watching the community display across the tranquil waters as well as the vigorous fusillade of fizzlers and boomers from a half dozen of our surrounding neighbors and numerous launching points from around the lake. A few audacious youths even fired off some Roman candles at the public boat ramp by our place, a clear contravention of the state law forbidding fireworks on GF&P land (just the sort of patriotic defiance that makes Dakota War College's heart swell with pride, I'm sure). Our Fourth of July is just one more reason Governor Rounds named Madison the sweetest little apple in basket.

In light of our very different Fourths of July, the Madville Times extends an invitation to Dakota War College and his family to escape swampy oppression of Brookings next year and enjoy the most important American holiday (no arguing about that here!) on the beautiful shores of Lake Herman. The kids can bring their sparklers and crackers and rockets and fire them off all day long (when they're not too busy swimming, canoeing, running wild through the trees, etc.) Mrs. Madville Times will make brownies, and we can all sit on the front porch watching the fireworks. Heck, Pat, you can even fire a few rockets toward our friend Gerry Lange's place, just two shelterbelts down.

Why this generous offer, when we haven't even met? Well, that's what we Democrats -- and we Americans -- do: help everyone escape oppression and share the wealth. Come on over!

Meadowlark Project Coming to Madison

KJAM surprises me this morning with a report about something I've never heard of, the Meadowlark Project, coming to Madison for a meeting next Monday, July 9, at St. John's Lutheran Church. Here's the group's description of itself from its front page:

A Leadership Laboratory on the Future of the Northern Great Plains is a two year, innovative, disciplined process that leads to systemic change by bringing a diverse sample of the region�s population to the table and engaging in intense dialogue about the kind of future we want, focused research on actual and possible future conditions, exposure to direct learning experiences, use of scenario planning techniques, and implementation of replicable demonstration projects. The process will create a new framework for understanding what the future can offer on the northern Great Plains.

Hmm. I recognize that my brain may be working at vacation capacity on this glorious holiday, but the Meadowlark Project's self-description seems a little... obtuse? marketing-speak-ish? They might draw a bigger crowd Monday if they were able to explain in simpler language what they're all about and what Monday night's attendees will be getting themselves into.

Still, I'm intrigued. On its website's About page, the Meadowlark Project identifies several key barriers to "advancement" of the rural Great Plains:

1. continued migration of rural youth, both non-Native and Native, from rural areas to larger cities in and outside of the region in search of economic opportunity and cultural acceptance;
2. ongoing racial divisions that prevent the region�s Native American and Latino populations from contributing their full potential to the economic and societal health of the region and perpetuate a view that the Newest Americans are needed solely for jobs others won�t take;
3. hidden and insidious poverty that traps families in a paycheck-to-paycheck existence and a dependence on federal or state programs for survival;
4. growing drug and violence problems in rural communities that come from isolation and despair;
5. reluctance to change cultural norms to match the changing work environment; and
6. a belief that the region should accept whatever the market determines and cooperation between governments, the private sector and civil society to build an economically, socially and environmentally stronger region is taboo.

Their brochure identifies one additional item among "systemic issues that need to be challenged": "a belief that production agriculture remains the principal economic driver in the region and any economic renewal strategy must focus primarily on agriculture."

The Meadowlark Project seems to have a good grasp of the real problems facing the region. They also seem to have a perspective on solutions that might go beyond traditional economic development answers.

Whatever their specific policy goals, the Meadowlark Project's Madison meeting sounds like it promises thought-provoking and worthwhile conversation. Monday, 7-9 p.m., St John's Lutheran in Madison: tell your neighbors, bring your open minds!

p.s.: I have just a small beef with the KJAM headline, "Madison Residents Get a Chance to Voice Opinions." The Madville Times has been providing free-wheeling opinion-voicing for all interested citizens for two years now; where's my coverage, KJAM? ;-)

There Shall Be No Dancing

Here's the Madville Times morning scoop: no malt-beverage license for the Jaycees' street dance. Reader Jackrabit1 reports that "from what it sounds like, the commission was looking for any excuse to pull the plug" on the street dance. Geez, and someone once called me a CAVEman....

The Madville Times welcomes comments from others privy to the commissioners' thinking! We can still hope the Jaycees will find another way to offer some Beadle Days entertainment for the community, preferably without alcohol. In the meantime, as Jackrabit1 notes, all you hepcats with itchy dancing feet can always head over to Chester on the 14th to boogie to the cool sounds of Eclipse. Just remember: if you're driving to Chester, hands off the hooch! You don't need booze to have a blast.

SD Lags on Green Buildings

The Madville Times reported in May on the potential educational and budget benefits of green buildings. The main Sioux Falls newspaper (which still advertises smut, so be careful when you click) reports today that a few developers are taking up the green challenge in Sioux Falls. No schools yet, but we can hope that these new downtown projects -- Cherapa Place, Courthouse Square, the Museum of Visual Materials, Larson Square, and The Arches -- will help spread the gospel on sustainable building techniques.

Support for green building in South Dakota comes not a moment too soon. According to the Ben Shouse article, "South Dakota was the last state to have a project registered with the U.S. Green Building Council and is one of four states that still does not have a certified project." Alas, South Dakota is playing catch-up on this progressive issue.

One shouldn't expect high moral principles to carry green building principles to prominence. It will likely be a matter of dollars: show developers they can build a better building for less, and they'll do it. The Madville Times notes with pleasure that today's article gives numbers that square with the building costs and savings we cited back in May. According to Shouse, Howalt-McDowell Insurance, the Cherapa Place developer, paid 1-2% more for its heating and cooling system, but it will recoup that cost in five to eight years thanks to cheaper energy bills. Add in the productivity benefits from more windows, flooring with lower chemical emissions, and other green qualities, and you've got a building that will attract tenants and workers and make money.

Shouse notes that it may take a while to convince our very conservative developers and owners to go green. He suggests that Midwesterners might view green building as one of those fancy concepts from the coasts. But in a global economy where we have to do business (and compete) with folks from the coasts and beyond, South Dakota needs to stay on top of the newest and the best building practices. Developers like Anne Scherschligt will help South Dakota have a fighting chance of competing with our progressive neighbors for businesses and residents.

More Advanced Cancer Among Uninsured and Medicaid Patients

The Madville Times continues its volunteer work for the Zaniya Project task force (are you reading, Mr. Forsch, Mrs. Hollingsworth, Mr. Sinclair...?) with this news from the American Cancer Society: folks without health insurance and folks on Medicaid are diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer more frequently than folks with good insurance policies.

"It's a very consistent picture in terms of being uninsured or underinsured having a significant effect on advanced disease -- it's not just that it appears in one type of cancer and no place else," says Michael T. Halpern, MD, PhD, strategic director of health services at the American Cancer Society and coauthor of the 2 reports.

Halpern and his colleagues used the National Cancer Data Base to compare stage at diagnosis and insurance status in nearly 534,000 breast cancer patients between 1998 and 2003, and in more than 40,000 men and women diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer (cancer in the mouth or throat) between 1996 and 2003. The team is conducting similar analyses on several other types of cancer, as well.

The oral cancer analysis, the first of its kind, found that patients who were uninsured or on Medicaid were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced (stage III or IV) cancers compared to people with private insurance. They were more likely to present with larger tumors and with tumors that had spread to the lymph nodes.

The breast cancer analysis showed that just 8% of women with private insurance had stage III or IV breast cancer at diagnosis, compared to 18% of uninsured women and 19% of women on Medicaid. Advanced stage disease was also more commonly diagnosed in African-American and Hispanic women compared to white women.

More advanced tumors are harder to treat successfully, and patients often face harsher side effects from that treatment, Halpern notes.

Now don't read these studies as a general endorsement of private insurance over government programs for health care. Dr. Halpern contends that the real issue is adequacy of coverage and availbility of services. For South Dakota's uninsured, the solution is not for the Zaniya Project to recommend a mandate that everyone carry private insurance and then let the market create a bunch of high-deductible policies that minimally fulfill that mandate (like the bare-bones liability insurance we buy for our junker cars just to meet the requirements of our auto-insurance law). Remember, the Zaniya Project's goal is "to provide access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance to all South Dakota residents."

To be affordable and comprehensive, the Madville Times says create a single-payer system that covers regular check-ups, and many of these patients could catch their cancer sooner and spare themselves punishing chemo and radiation therapy. Yes, we would increase utilization of services at the preventative end, but we would reduce overall usage of health care resources as we could increasingly avoid the more complicated and expensive advanced treatments. Catch that cancer, get better health outcomes, and save money: create one plan for all South Dakotans. Let's show that South Dakota spirit and take care of each other.