Shawn Cable and MySiouxFalls.Com -- Some Evidence

Folks have been saying Shawn Cable may be going to work for MySiouxFalls.com, an online news channel (rumbled by one blogger to be a GOP tool). A WHOIS search on MySiouxFalls.com, registered by Joe Prostrollo, shows another domain registered on the same IP address:

Whois Record

Registrant:
Shawn Cable
104 W. Beechnut St
Brandon, South Dakota 57005
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: MYNEWSIOWA.COM
Created on: 12-Apr-07
Expires on: 12-Apr-08
Last Updated on:

Administrative Contact:
Cable, Shawn
104 W. Beechnut St
Brandon, South Dakota 57005
United States
6053361100

Technical Contact:
Cable, Shawn
104 W. Beechnut St
Brandon, South Dakota 57005
United States
6053361100

Domain servers in listed order:
NS45.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS46.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Make of that what you will!

The Big News: Shawn Cable

Shawn Cable once said in an interview, “We’re lucky enough to not have six murders to report overnight. Weather is usually the big story in the morning; it’s the one thing that’s changed, it’s the one thing people want to know.” [Dave Holly, "Singin' in the Rain," Sioux Empire City Weekly.com, cached by Google, 2007.07.01.]

Evidently South Dakota weathermen are almost as high as the weather itself on South Dakotans' "want to know" list. Readers seeking thoughtful commentary on important social issues backed with solid statistics and research (which the Madville Times remains happy to provide) appear to be vastly outnumbered this week by folks eager to find out what shenanigans led to Shawn Cable's unceremonious departure from KELO-TV.

To quantify that interest, StatCounter says that 64% of search engine referrals to the Madville Times have come from Google searches for Shawn Cable and whatever happened at KELO-TV. (Yahoo contributed one search referral, but naturally Google catalogs its own Blogger posts much more quickly.)

Now I'll admit, I'm apparently as intrigued about the fate of my fellow SDSU alumnus and the inner machinations of our flagship TV station as my readers. I'm enjoying tracking down some Shawn Cable background, like the Holly column, which notes that Cable had no meteorology experience before his interview with Mark Millage and Jay Trobec in 1997. Cable also said in that interview that he had no big network aspirations, since working for an outfit like the Weather Channel "wouldn’t allow him to get as actively involved in local severe weather coverage, something he has a passion for."

If Cable remains dedicated to local weather, maybe we should make an effort to keep him around (assuming he didn't punch Perry Groten or commit some other heinous crime). Yesterday I e-mailed director of television Bob Bosse at SDPB yesterday and suggested they hire Shawn Cable to create a regular prime-time weathercast to draw viewers and keep Shawn in the state. They could call it "Weather Hustler" (an homage to Star Gazer Jack Horkheimer), run it every hour between shows. Anyone for a letter-writing campaign?

It is summer, so we're all entitled to a little light reading and blogging. But in a few days, when we get done speculating and agitating over Shawn Cable's fate, we'll still have an underground physics lab to build, a death penalty to overturn, schools suing and consolidating, insurance agents sweating the deliberations of the Zaniya Project, bloggers threatening to run for the Legislature, and a whole host of other issues with a bit more impact on the condition of our social contract.

US House Protects Public Broadcasting

On a 357-72 vote, the House of Representatives yesterday "overwhelmingly rejected President Bush's plan to eliminate the $420 million federal subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting" [Andrew Taylor, AP writer, "House Retains Public Broadcasting Funds," posted at Yahoo News, 2007.07.18]. Representative Doug Lamborn (R-CO) carried the White House's water on this one, proposing his amendment to HR 3043, a big spending bill for Labor, HHS, Education, and whatever else Congress manages to throw on the pile.

South Dakotans should be particularly glad that our gal Herseth-Sandlin stood with the majority to defend public broadcasting. In a state where media outlets are being snapped up by outside corporate interests, we have very few reliable independent voices left. Jon Hunter's mighty Madison Daily Leader remains one of the few locally owned dailies in the state. Our broadcast media are dominated by out-of-state owners (see The Center for Public Integrity for a really cool media ownership database). The only locally owned TV station left in Sioux Falls appears to be KTTW (reportedly owned by Independent Communications, Inc., 2817 W 11th St, Sioux Falls, SD 57104-2540).

In the face of the growing corporatization of the media, the Madville Times will certainly do what it can to publish what might prompt censorship by shareholders elsewhere. But even MT cannot provide the broad scope of vital cultural services that South Dakota Public Broadcasting does. South Dakota Public Radio and Television are among the last bastions of independent, truly local media content available. For most of South Dakota, SDPR is the only source of classical music (Uncle Owen is powering this blog right now), jazz (shout out to Uncle Jimmo!), and even diverse adult alternative music. With Statehouse, SDPTV is the only media outlet in South Dakota that gives us daily, detailed coverage of the legislature, plus live streaming audio and archives of committee hearings. Our public TV and radio give us more (and better) daily and weekly local content than all of the corporate broadcasters in the state combined. All those services, not subject to the ratings- and profit-cravings of corporate shareholders, are worth every penny of the tax dollars and private donations we give to public broadcasting.

(Hey, maybe Shawn Cable is going to jump to public broadcasting to bring them a local weather program, one thing that SDPB has sorely lacked for years!)

Downtown Development Vital

Mrs. Madville Times is right! Downtown development is essential for a community's economic and cultural well-being. Ben "I've Escaped Aberdeen!" Dunsmoor reports on the second annual Downtown Development Idea Exchange conference in Sioux Falls this week ["Idea Exchange for Downtown Development," KELOLand.com, 2007.07.18]. Conference attendees are busy brainstorming ideas for events, websites, parking, and landscaping that can bring more life to their downtown cores.

"Core" is a really important word. Downtown is the heart of a community, usually the original center of business, government, entertainment, and culture. Downtown Madison has the traditional retailers, city hall, the courthouse, restaurants, and the library. Like many small towns, Madison shows off some of its finest old houses within a five-minute walk of downtown That sort of concentration brings all branches of the community together and mixes them daily.

But over the past few decades, Madison has seen a dispersal of those downtown functions. We still have a lot of businesses and offices downtown, the library has been nicely expanded and renovated, and the city hall and the courthouse aren't going anywhere. But entertainment venues have disappeared from downtown. My dad remembers two movie houses downtown, but both closed up before my time, to be replaced by our tin-roof cinema tucked away at the far end of a gravel lot at the edge of town. The playhouse is up on the north edge of town. Over 40 years the schools have all been moved to the periphery as well; even the Christian school is building out in the country, away from physical connection with the community. Restaurants and retail have also migrated away from the center, most recently with the Southridge and Schaefer Plaza developments, plus the ugliest new building in town, the new Dollar General on Washington Ave. (Just what Madison needs: a third franchise dollar store.) And of course, residential capital is invested in ever greater distances away from downtown, increasing car traffic and decreasing the number of of people walking to the store or the office. All of those changes mean less interaction between people in and on their way to and from the downtown area.

The Idea Exhange folks get this concept: downtown matters, practically and metaphorically. Bringing and keeping diverse elements of the community together in the downtown area enhances the sense of community identity and cohesion. When businesses, government offices, and even residential developments start dispersing to the periphery, the community starts to lose its sense of a shared core. Every South Dakota town needs to remember that the key to a healthy community (remember: community comes from common) is not simply economic growth wherever it can be had, but an effort to grow while maintaining and nurturing the sense of shared space, the downtown core, that defines a community.

Ethanol Impacts: Higher Land Prices, Ranchers Squeezed, Water Tight

USA Today offers more perspective on the full impact of ethanol on the farm economy. Sue Kirchoff ["Land Prices Leave Farmers in a Lurch," USA Today, 2007.07.18] cites USDA figures showing a doubling of ag land values since 1996, with a 40% increase just from 2004 to 2006. Kirchoff reminds us of the 1980s farm crisis, when "After jumping in response to a strong export market and high commodity prices, rural land values fell more than 25% from 1982 through 1987." Interest rates are lower now, so farmers may be better positioned to withstand a downturn, but with ethanol, farmers are hitching their wagons to the volatile world of energy prices. That volatility, in addition to increased production costs, introduces more uncertainty into an already risky business.

Rising land prices mean higher taxes for our South Dakota farmers, which is especially problematic since, as any farmer can tell you, property tax constantly goes up even though farm income may swing wildly from year to year with the vagaries of the market and the weather. Rising land prices also mean higher rents. "That's significant," writes Kirchoff, "because the USDA says upwards of 40% of agricultural land is owned by absentee landlords, and many farmers and ranchers lease the land they rely on." Rising land prices also represent one more rising barrier to established farmers expanding or new farmers getting into the business.

The big capital drawn by ethanol optimism puts pressure on ranchers and smaller operations. More land converted from pasture to corn means less land ranchers can lease for grazing; more corn converted to fuel means less corn for feed. In both cases, less supply means higher prices:

"Last winter some of these cash rents almost doubled, and people were willing to pay it," says Tom Hansen, a rancher and Nebraska state senator, who operates from a red cedar ranch house near North Platte.

Nebraska ranchers and farmers are working together to address the issues, and possibly realize some potential of feeding corn ethanol by-products, such as distillate grains. Still, Hansen worries that what he calls "just blatant optimism" is contorting price fundamentals. [Kirchoff]

In a companion article ["Water Constraints Rain on Ethanol Zeal," USA Today, 2007.07.18], Kirchoff notes that expansion of ethanol production could butt up against water restrictions, an issue folks in the burgeoning Sioux Falls-Harrisburg-Tea megalopolis should be able to grasp immediately. Remember, corn takes water to grow, and ethanol plants need about three gallons of water to make every gallon of ethanol. There's a lot of water in the Ogallala aquifer, but just like oil, it's not unlimited. Ethanol plants "are becoming more efficient at recycling water," Kirchoff writes. "Industry officials say water needs can be met," but even they acknowledge it will take "careful planning."

Again, as we look to ethanol to bring rural areas the riches (if not the luck) of King Farouk, we need to remember that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Higher corn prices look good now to farmers and land speculators alike, but we also need to keep an eye on long-term sustainability, not just short-term profits.

Free Market Promulgates Oppressive Environmental Rules

Oh, those darn capitalists, always imposing rules on honest working people just trying to make a living!

KELO updates us on Cherapa Place, one of the first official green buildings in South Dakota. Not only did the builders follow green guidelines in creating this new architectural wonder on the old ZIP Feed Mill site, but now building management is requiring the tenants go green in their office furnishings. "Project developer Anne Scherschligt Haber said, 'There is no added formaldehyde or urea in any of the wood. Some of the paints, coatings, sealants, materials, anything that's going into the buildings has to be low, or no VOC, which is the Volatile Organic Compounds'" [Perry Groten, "Green Office Policies," KELOLand.com, 2007.07.18]. Building management has also reserved 22 "preferred" parking spots for workers driving hybrids or electric cars.

No word yet on whether Prius drivers with urea in their bodies will be allowed on the premises [I can't believe Perry missed that question]....

Shawn Cable Unplugged?!

Say it ain't so! Fellow SDSU alum Shawn Cable is leaving KELO, says that Sioux Falls newspaper (article archived here). Contract not renewed, bio already yanked from KELOLand.com (but cached by Google and still available for the truly grief-stricken)... yikes! What will we do without our favorite singing weatherman? Let's hope his excellent weather site stays operational -- weather geeks everywhere must love it!

update: Cable's contract ends July 31, but this morning is his last broadcast. KELO's news director Mark Millage won't say why Cable is leaving early, saying it's "a personnel matter," which has been adminspeak for "there's trouble" every time I've heard it used. Cable was two-time AP "Best Weathercaster in South Dakota" (I wonder if that's for accuracy or style). If anyone knows what prompted this career change, let us know!

Typos -- Blame HP, Not Just MT!

The Madville Times commits perhaps more than its share of typos. Scan the contents herein, and you'll find a fair number of words with missing letters. Speed is no excuse for sloppiness; typos and other errors still create a negative impression that good writers should strive mightily to avoid.

However, the Madville Times is relieved to discover that it can share the responsibility for sloppy composition with Hewlett-Packard, the manufacturers of the Madville Times' state of the art publishing equipment. Ever since purchasing the HP dv5000z notebook ten months ago, this writer has noticed strange keyboard glitches: sticky SHIFT and CTRL keys and an annoying tendency for the keyboard to drop letters.

For a long time, I ignored the problem. A quick tap of the SHIFT or CTRL keys would unstick them, and the dropped letters -- well, that could just be these fingers going too fast and lightly across the keys. But recently I've been hammering through blog entries when suddenly the CTRL key would stick. A sequence of otherwise innocuous letters, now with CTRL imposed on them, would send the browser careening and beeping through a series of special commands, trying to save, print, reload, and delete the contents of the browser window. (Thank goodness for Blogger's autosave!)

So I called HP tech support and was directed to the warm-voiced but cool-headed Paola (location still undisclosed). Monday she recommended a full power-down: shut down, pull the AC and battery, hold down the power button for 30 seconds to drain the capacitors. She called back Tuesday to see if that had worked. It hadn't. So she recommended checking the keyboard driver. We discovered that Device Manager doesn't list one. She checked her files and found HP doesn't have a driver for its own keyboard. She said she'd do some research and call back today. In the meantime, she recommended, check Microsoft.com for a keyboard driver.

I find dealing with Microsoft about as palatable as a full system restore (which is the other option Paola is trying to help me avoid). So I did some online research and found -- surprise! -- I'm not alone! An HP forum carries the complaints of numerous users over the past year describing the "dv5000 strange keyboard problem." Sticky SHIFT and CTRL, dropped keys -- it's an endemic HP problem. The prevailing opinion: HP just can't make good keyboards.

The Madville Times will continue to seek resolutions to this problem. The only hopeful tech fix appears to be a BIOS update. The only sure fix, though, is patient, painstaking proofreading... and double-triple-checking whenever I type anything about our public officials.

Disclaimer: Downloaders beware! The BIOS update appears to fix my problem, but the Madville Times takes no responsibility for any computer strangeness you may experience seeking the same remedy to your problems. If whacking keys and updating BIOS makes your computer start smoking, don't sue me (no money here, anyway) -- sue HP!

Rounds Encourages Teachers... with Reverse Psychology?

Suppose you're a motivational speaker called in to pump up a group of employees who have a tough job. Which of the following would you not say?:

1. Tell them that their job expectations are five times what they used to be.
2. Emphasize that budget priorities mean they won't be getting any more money.
3. Tell them they aren't getting the job done and that you have created a program to make up for their shortcomings.
   
4. Advocate getting rid of some of the listeners' jobs.
5. All of the above.

Survey says...

Ding ding ding! Number 5, "All of the above."

Smiling Mike Rounds should have taken this quiz before coming to the New Teacher Academy. The state Department of Education flunked my quiz on last year's Academy, and now the good governor has flunked this year's. My neighbor Elisa Sand reports in tonight's MDL ["Rounds Provides Encouragement to Teachers," Madison Daily Leader, print only, 2007.07.17, pp. 1-2] that the good governor came to this year's round of New Teacher Academy on the Dakota State University campus last week and said all of the above:

1. Sand reports [p. 1]: "Today's teaching environment is much different [from] years past. Teachers are expected not only to teach but also to be social workers [workload doubled] and to know the challenges of working with students with disabilities [tripled], he said. // Teachers are also burdened with embracing technology [quadrupled] and incorporating its use into the classroom" [quintupled! and yes, I'll argue that's a separate issue from the quadrupler].
2. On state budget priorities, Sand quotes the governor [p. 2]: "I truly do care (about education), but we have an obligation to pay for everything else out there."
   
3. On their effectiveness in small schools, Sand reports [p.2]: "When asked his thoughts on the benefits of smaller school districts, Rounds said teachers get to know the students on a one-to-one basis, and education at the primary level is top-notch. // But, when kids get into high school, achievement scores start to decline because students are less likely to have access to the more challenging courses. // To combat that, Rounds said, the state has established the virtual high school to provide access to those more challenging courses."
4. Continuing the drumbeat against small schools, Rounds suggests further cuts. Sand reports [p. 2]: "Rounds said another option for small districts that are close to one another is to share resources. // 'Why can't districts that are in close proximity share teachers?' he asked. //Traditionally, teacher salaries account for a bigger percentage of the budget at smaller schools." [So obviously, we need to fire some people and keep consolidating.]

"Rounds provides encouragement to teachers"? Yeah, encouragement to seek a line of work with better pay and a governor looking to eliminate their jobs in a very short-sighted pursuit of the almighty dollar (or funding for his own massive spending and staff increases -- and yes, I know I can do better than cite Sibby for reliable data, but this entry is pretty good). I just hope my friends Dr. Fahrenwald at Rutland and Mr. Greeno and Mr. Kueter at Montrose didn't hear Smiling Mike's comments; they've got enough stress as it is !

KJAM: Crazy for Alliteration... But Bye-Bye Beadle?

Headline from KJAM: "Commission Commends Committee for Crazy Days Plans." Evidently unfazed by (or unaware of?) the lingering plagiarism snafu, Sascha and the gang at the Chamber have Crazy Days all mapped out. (Note to KJAM and the city commission: it appears there is no such thing as a "Crazy Days" committee; they must have meant to commend the Retail Promotions Committee.)

No word from KJAM, the Chamber, or anyone else on what happened to Beadle Days, the name change that was supposed to help distinguish Madison's big summer retail blowout from events everywhere else. Ah, the memory hole....

Want Your Kids to Eat Right? Gotta Do It Yourself

Even this token lefty can recognize when government programs are junk. Last night's MDL runs an AP article on the failure of government nutrition programs to have any lasting positive impact on children's eating habits [Martha Mendoza, "AP: Spending on Nutrition Programs Does Little," published at Pantagraph.com, Bloomington-Normal, IL, 2007.07.09]. The feds will pour over a billion dollars into nutrition education this year, "[b]ut an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Just four showed any real success in changing the way kids eat — or any promise as weapons against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity."

Among the various programs tried, a Pennsylvania experiment gave kids prizes for eating fruits and veggies. That program worked... but only as long as the researchers kept handing out prizes. "[W]hen the researchers came back seven months later the kids had reverted to their original eating habits: soda and chips." (Tempting as it may be for teachers to use rewards -- read bribes -- to change kids' behaviors, such an approach produces a more negative outcome, where kids develop no sense of the intrinsic value of achievement and actually become less likely to continue the behavior we desire on their own.)

Evidently these government efforts to engineer children's eating habits aren't able to overcome the other confounding variables of parents (cited in the Mendoza article as having "the greatest influence" over their children's eating habits), poverty (you can't make healthy choices if you can't afford fresh produce or if your local supermarket doesn't carry it), and advertising (though certainly free market theology would recoil at the suggestion we limit corporations' freedom to manipulate children's psychology for profit).

Just as bad is the government's unwillingness to admit its failure. Be sure to read (toward the end of the Mendoza article) the nearly hilarious doublespeak of USDA minion Kate Houston:

Kate Houston, the deputy under secretary of the USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, oversees most federal funds, $696 million this year, spent on childhood nutrition education in this country. Funding has steadily increased in recent years, up from $535 million in 2003. Houston insists the programs are successful.

“I think the question here is how are we measuring success and there are certainly many ways in which you can do so and the ways in which we’ve been able to measure have shown success,” she said.

But isn’t the goal of these programs to change the way kids eat?

“Absolutely that’s the goal,” she said.

And they’re successfully reaching that goal?

“We’re finding success in things in which we have been able to measure, which are more related to knowledge and skill. It is more difficult for us to identify success in changing children’s eating patterns.”

When asked about the many studies that don’t show improvement, Houston asked for copies of the research. And she said the USDA doesn’t have the resources to undertake “long term, controlled, medical modeled studies” necessary to determine the impact of its programs.

The Madville Times has no patience with failing government programs or bureaucratic bull. Believe it or not, the Madville Times does not believe that government is the solution to every problem. Good nutrition is a worthy goal, but when presented with actual science that shows government programs aren't doing the job, the Madville Times says scrap those programs and seek other solutions.

Some things -- like highway construction and universal health care -- work better (morally and practically!) as a large-scale social effort. Other things, like education, work better on the small-scale, grassroots level. If you want kids to eat better, do like Mrs. Madville Times: avoid junk food while pregnant, then get the little urchin hooked on tofu (!) before her first birthday. Heck, our man Gerry is probably doing more to promote good nutrition here in Lake County than federal nutrition education programs (ooo, that reminds me, I should ask Gerry if the community garden could donate veggies to Headstart and the daycares as well as the old folks).

Come Help! Habitat for Humanity Starts New Project Wednesday

Habitat for Humanity is getting its latest Lake County project underway this week. If you want to get your hands dirty (cf here and here), call Tracy at 480-1211 to get on the volunteer list, or bring your work boots and gloves this Wednesday, 5:30 p.m., to the corner of SE 3rd Street and Garfield Ave. in Madison. Habitat plans to work on the house Wednesdays 5:30 p.m. until dark and Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and get this house done by November.