Lurz and Wyatt Tie in Lake Co. Sheriff's Poll

I sometimes worry that local Madison news and polls won't draw much attention compared to our big statewide political races. The latest Madville Times poll shows that's not true! I asked you, eager readers, "Who is the best candidate for Lake County Sheriff?" That question drew one of the biggest responses yet to a poll here: 265 votes! That's a whole heap more than the Lake County Commission poll I ran just a couple weeks ago, which drew a mere 73 votes. The sheriff poll turned out about a third of the votes that the Madville Times U.S. House and S.D. Governor polls generated back in June. Given that Lake County has less than 2% of the total registered voters in South Dakota, that turnout for a local online poll suggests a lot of interest in this particular race.

Enough ado: let's look at the numbers!

Jason R. Lurz	113 (43%)
Dan Wyatt	113 (43%)
Roger C. Hartman	39 (14%)

Votes: 265

A tie between the challengers! I thought that Madison City Patrolmen Lurz and Wyatt might split the anti-incumbent sentiment and leave incumbent Sheriff Hartman room to squeak by with a slim plurality of folks satisfied with the status quo. Not so in this poll: both challengers appear to have strong voter bases.

But get out your grains of salt. This online poll indicates first and foremost that supporters of Lurz and Wyatt are paying attention to the Web. Sheriff Hartman represents the older generation: he has no campaign website, and his base probably doesn't fuss with the Internet much, either. Hartman has voters; they just aren't reading the Madville Times (but they should be!).

Still, Lake County's Internet users are not some fringe minority (well, I am, but not all of you are!). The strong showing for Lurz and Wyatt indicate a large number of voters who want a new man at the helm of county law enforcement. Hartman has been sheriff for twelve years. He told voters in 2006 that this would be his last term; the Madison Daily Leader called it his final term when he won the 2006 Republican primary against Wyatt. The above poll suggests that a lot of voters are ready to hold Sheriff Hartman to his word.

I haven't heard much in terms of actual policy that explains why folks might want a change. I don't have many reasons in that direction: the Lake County Sheriff's Department has responded with due alacrity when I've called for help. But the current sheriff did indicate previously that he didn't want the job beyond 2010. Officers Wyatt and Lurz have also been dutiful and conscientious law enforcement officers for the City of Madison. I have confidence that either challenger could effectively and fairly protect and serve the people of Lake County.

I look forward to further public comment from the candidates and their supporters on the future direction of law enforcement in our county. Voters, feel free to hit the comment section with your observations on who's the best man for Lake County Sheriff.

Vote Now in Lake County Sheriff Poll!

My readers have been itching for a poll on the Lake County Sheriff's race. I'm happy to oblige. Vote here in the right sidebar for the man you think would best serve the people of Lake County as chief law enforcement officer:

• Madison city patrolman Jason R. Lurz
• Madison city patrolman Dan Wyatt
• Incumbent two-term sheriff Roger C. Hartman.
  

This race could be more heated than one might expect from a local sheriff's race. Patrolman Wyatt has already demonstrated his willingness to criticize the incumbent sheriff in pretty direct terms. Patrolman Lurz is less direct, but his clear expectations of the sheriff's office suggest he sees something lacking in the current regime. And a potential race-shaker: the rift exposed between the police and fire departments by the DUI arrest of on-duty fireman Scott Johnson. If there is a candidate's forum for the sheriff's race, expect awkward but necessary question #1 to be, "Suppose you see a local volunteer fireman drinking to excess. At what point do you intervene?" (Candidates, feel free to respond now!)

The sheriff's poll will stay open until Tuesday, September 28, at 11:59 p.m. So tell your friends, and vote now!

Noem Claim of "Jobless Stimulus" False

Ask DSU, Sioux Falls P.D., Governor Rounds...

In her new lackluster TV ad, GOP candidate for U.S. House Kristi Noem recycles footage from her Texas ad shoot, footage that her own campaign manager Josh Shields criticized back in April when he was sinking R. Blake Curd's campaign.* What gives? Did your original ad plan collapse, and you had to paste together all the old footage you could find just to satisfy your TV ad contracts? Amateur Hour with Team Kristi continues....

Noem's ad also recycles an old Wall Street Journal headline into a bullet point about the "jobless stimulus."

Jobless stimulus? Really? Then who are those nice folks at DSU with new jobs in health IT, thanks to stimulus dollars? And where did Sioux Falls get those nice new police officers:

"If it weren't for the grants, there's no question we wouldn't be adding police officers this year based on just where the economy is," Sioux Falls Police Chief Doug Barthel said.

The police department hired nine new officers this year through federal grants. They cover salaries and benefits for the next three years. The department also has drug task force detectives who are paid through grants. And the county and city each have a domestic violence detective funded solely through grants [Ben Dunsmoor, "Federal Grants Help Fund Local Law Enforcement," KELOLand.com, 2010.09.15].

Now I don't know if those Sioux Falls police grants are Recovery Act dollars. To find out, maybe we can check with Governor M. Michael Rounds, whose own spreadsheet connects Recovery Act spending in South Dakota with over 6500 jobs. And on SDPB's Dakota Midday, the governor's Secretary of Labor Pam Roberts just said her stats show 1000 more job openings this month than last month.

Hmm... I thought jobless meant no jobs. The above examples look like jobs.

As usual in South Dakota, it's Uncle Sam to the rescue. And it's Team Kristi pretending words mean what Team Kristi says and not what the words actually mean.
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Update 2010.09.17: Add 110 jobs in northeast South Dakota and adjoining areas thanks to broadband stimulus.
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*In an interview with Jonathan Ellis ("Ads in GOP House Race Start with Noem Commercial Filmed in Texas") published in that Sioux Falls paper on April 30, 2010, Shields pointedly observed that the Curd campaign would respond to Noem's opening ad salvo with ads filmed in South Dakota.

Want Nazi Tactics? See Arizona's Anti-Immigration Law

• President Obama signing health reform—not fascism.
• Arizona police walking up to you and saying, "Show me your papers"—fascism.

Seth Meyers said it last night... and it's really not a joke. For all you 9-12ers hollering that President Obama is acting like Hitler, let's hear some protest about the real police state tactics just passed by the Republicans running Arizona. Their new state immigration policy authorizes police to approach anyone they consider suspicious and demand proof of citizenship.

Quick check: policeman walks up to you on the street and says, "Prove you're an American. Prove you're here legally." Can you?

Sheriff Joe Arpaio thinks this new power is a great idea. His new county attorney Rick Romley thinks it's a terrible idea, an unfunded mandate threatening civil rights.

Conservatives should be up in arms over this presumption of guilt and expansion of police power beyond probable cause. Some truckers are ready to boycott the state, and I can't blame them.

Yes, we need a secure border. Yes, immigrants must follow the law. But a law that allows police to yank us off the street just for looking suspicious and not carrying the right documents is the wrong way to enforce our laws. It's the Nazi way.

Feds Send $910K for SD 911: Curd Apoplectic... or Oedipal

Oh, that darned federal government, sapping our spirits with all its handouts. South Dakota is getting another $910,000 from Uncle Sam, this time to upgrade its 911 communications. Lake County will receive a just-about $48K slice of that pork.

GOP Congressional candidate R. Blake Curd is surely going to campaign to send that filthy money back to Washington:

...Sioux Falls surgeon and state representative Blake Curd says states should stop relying on federally funded government programs.

"We need to regain our sense of personal responsibility and make sure that we can solve things for South Dakota people in South Dakota ways, and not have people rely on government as some kind of large father," Curd said [Ben Dunsmoor, 'Three Candidates to Challenge Herseth Sandlin," KELOLand.com, 2009.10.07].

Money from Big Daddy doesn't seem to scare Governor Mike Rounds:

"The transition to next-generation emergency response systems is important to continued public safety in South Dakota," the Governor said. "These funds will allow the upgrade of hardware and software to meet enhanced 911 needs as they develop. The upgrades will result in a much safer and more responsive network of emergency communications" [Office of the Governor, "South Dakota Receives Grant for 911 Upgrade," South Dakota State News, 2009.10.06].

Republicans love to use "No federal money!" as a rallying cry, but they keep ignoring the reality that in South Dakota, that position is a non-starter for practical policy. Our whole low-tax/no-tax mindset depends entirely on continued subsidy from the federal government. When asked, "Who's your daddy?" South Dakota must answer, "Uncle Sam!" I continue to wait for a Republican candidate who will be honest about that point.

In the mean time, R. Blake, keep working on that Oedipal complex.

False Alarm in Tea; Hysteria Threatens Gun Rights

...at least that's the headline I was expecting.

Some guy in Tea exercises his Second Amendment right to stroll down the street with his shootin' iron. The tip line goes crazy, the school district goes into lockdown, the police "sweep through all three schools... and look for anything suspicious" before someone figures out the guy (the suspect, the threat, the potential terrorist?) was just one of thousands of God-fearing, camo-and-ammo-wearing South Dakotans getting ready for hunting season.

And not one news outlet mentions the phrase "false alarm." KELO celebrates this exercise in warrantless searches as "Practice in Lockdown Policy." Superintendent Jerry Schutz says the unnecessary disruption and panic for parents made him feel even more comfortable about Tea's wonderful security policies. Declaring mini-martial law when not a single law has been broken is apparently so fun, the school continued to limit access to the building even after the lockdown.

I am able to find one commentator, USD student Chris May, who sees something other than a fruitful exercise in school safety here. He's troubled by the media and the culture of fear:

What I find troubling is that is that a man was seen with a gun and instantly everyone is scared. What has the media done to us? Seriously!? I remember stories from my dad about how they could keep guns locked in their vehicles. Has the biased, reactive, media made society think this negatively about a man simply carying a gun near his house? Moreover, to think so negatively about it that not only was the closest school put on lock down but also the remaining schools in town? Did the events of Columbine, Virginia Tech, and other school shootings and the lack of recognition of all of the days without school shootings make our reaction this severe?...

As a society we are accustomed to reacting to, mainly, the bad events without giving much notice to the good events. When we mold into this reactionary behavior we begin to impose more rules and proceedures for the sake of an "unreasonable sense of insecurity." I hope when I have kids and send them off to school that a whole city doesn't get shut down because I happen to have my garage door open and a gun visisble [Chris May, "The Power of Media," IdEA 310 Chris May's Class Blog, 2009.09.25].

Indeed, when I went to class at DSU Wednesday, I parked behind a truck with two guns in the rack. No campus lockdown that day.

If I put on my wingnut shoes (I do keep a pair around), I could see in Tea's "security measures" fascism unbridled—children locked in, parents locked out, police on full alert conducting warrantless searches, and everyone smiling and saying, "Great work, team!" when it turns out there was no reason to conduct those actions in the first place. I would think such actions would constitute a greater, more concrete threat to liberty than anything passed in Washington during the last eight months.

The conservatives around Sioux Falls (including some legislators?! I so want names) will line up to tremble before Orly Taitz's delusions of a fake birth certificate. But they ignore a police lockdown triggered by one man's lawful behavior.

What am I missing here?

Today's Pork: Watertown PD Receives Federal Grant

More money that candidate Munsterman will surely want to send back to Washington: The Watertown Police Department is receiving nearly 1.6 million soul-sapping federal dollars in the form of a grant (grant! free money! pennies from heaven, right?) to support the Northeast South Dakota Rural Information Exchange Model. The money will cover salaries and benefits for three new communications officers for the next two years. It will also buy new communications equipment and 45 laptop computers for other PDs in the Codington-Hamlin-Day-Grant-Roberts metroplex.

The Munsterman-Thune-conservative argument here should be, "Federal money is bad! Send it back! We can pay for our own police!" The pragmatic argument holding sway in Watertown appears to be, "We can use the new staff and equipment to better communicate and catch bad guys for at least a couple years."

It is perhaps worth noting that Watertown is saying yes to apparently temporary funding for new hires. In a similar situation, the Mitchell City Commission recently turned down federal dollars that would have covered a new community resource officer for three years.

It may also be worth noting that the KELO story on the Watertown PD grant assiduously avoids noting that the money helping to make KELOLand a safer place is coming from the Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement to Combat Crime and Drugs Program, part of the Department of Justice's chunk of the federal stimulus package, voted for by Senator Tim Johnson but voted against by Senator John Thune. How did that detail not make the story?

Check the Checkpoints: ActCivilized.com Alerts SD Drivers to Sobriety Searches

Do sobriety checkpoints torque you off? Believe it or not, as Sergeant Thompson pointed out Friday, South Dakota's Department of Public Safety is offering to give you a heads-up on when and where the Highway Patrol will be ignoring the Fourth Amendment. The state has set up a new website, actcivilized.com, where you can sign up to get text message alerts about sobriety checkpoints in your county.

If I had a cell phone, that would be even peachier.

The service also offers a text-message directory of cabs available throughout the Black Hills and around some of South Dakota's bigger burgs.

So this would be Big Brother helping me keep track of Big Brother. I'm having a hard time getting my mind fully around that one, and I'm sober!

Sobriety Checkpoints: Public Safety or Nanny State?

For all of you readers who like to complain about Marxism and the "nanny state," here's a question: how do you feel about sobriety checkpoints? KJAM reports the South Dakota Highway Patrol will be stopping drivers throughout April at checkpoints in Minnehaha, Moody, and several other counties around our fair state.

Police stop you without cause, ask to see your papers, sniff around... for all the talk about surging socialism in the new Administration, I'm not sure you can find a more apt analog to life in the USSR than sobriety checkpoints, and they've been going on for years... in Republican South Dakota.

I've always been made a bit nervous by the extent to which we defang the Fourth Amendment on our public roads, especially when evidence of their effectiveness is questionable. Apparently so are eleven states, including the Democratic People's Republic of Minnesota, which prohibit sobriety checkpoints.

I do not drink, and I have darn little tolerance for those who do so to excess. But I also have little tolerance for officers of the law detaining me without probable cause or even reasonable suspicion.

So you tell me: where do we strike the balance?

Denver Police Go Chinese on Press, Arrest Reporter

(Hat tip to Sibby!)

Denver police arrested ABC producer Asa Eslocker yesterday as he and a camera crew gathered footage for a report on wealthy donors and the Democratic party. The Brown Palace Hotel, where Democratic Senators were meeting with top donors, called the cops to complain about those darn reporters outside, and the cops came thundering in to break up those dangerous First Amendment devotés.

Evidently in Denver, standing on a sidewalk taking pictures is "trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order."



Push a reporter into the street, grab him by the throat... that's China, not America. The Denver police should be ashamed of themselves.

Two-Wheeled Fun and Fuzz: Madison Cops Patrol on Bicycle!

Forget grad school, forget blogging -- where's my app to join the Madison police force?

This great photo from the Madison Daily Leader shows Officer Jason Lurz at the helm of the newest weapon in Madison's Finest's arsenal against crime: the police bike! Disc brakes, cushy seat, odometer, red and blue flashers on the way... yum!

According to the feature in yesterday's MDL, Madison's easy-riding patrolmen love the new wheels:

"It's a dream to ride," said [patrolman Jason] Lurz, a patrolman in his fourth year. "It's effortless" [Amy Poppinga, "Police Fight Crime on Two Wheels," Madison Daily Leader, 2008.06.18].

After just four evenings of bike patrol, Officer Lurz and cycling colleagues Heath Abraham and Jesse Ehlers see all sorts of advantages to policing by pedal:

1. More community interaction: kids see the bike and say, "That's cool!" Adults see the bike and stop and chat. ""The cruiser is like a barrier or a separation," Lurz tells the Leader. "It's nice to get out and interact with the people." I've felt the same thing on my bike: instead of being sealed behind the windows and sidewalls of your car, riding a bike lets you see and hear much more and connect with your place and the people in it.
2. Health benefits: Stifle those cop–donut jokes: even if Lurz and his pals did indulge in extra pastries, they might need 'em for bike fuel. Says Lurz, "police officers can suffer health problems from sitting in a car all day... instantly going from a relaxed condition to having the adrenaline pumping can really mess with the body" [Poppinga's paraphrase].
3. Stealth: The venerable Crown Vic has nothing on these guys when it comes to sneaking up on bad dudes.
4. Fuel savings: Sure, the bike and cool accessories cost $1000. But a good year of parking the police car and biking instead may well pay that bill in gas savings.

So hats off (and helmets on!) to our very forward-thinking Madison Police Department. Progress and policing are always more fun on two wheels.

"License and Registra--" Not So Fast, Officer!

The South Dakota Supreme Court issued an interesting ruling today on your rights when the police pull you over. According to Chet Brokaw's AP report (which I paraphrase extensively here -- thanks, Chet!), a Sioux Falls cop improperly obtained evidence of illegal drug use when he detained Wade Dustin Hayen during a traffic stop even after he had determined that his original reason for stopping Hayen was not valid.

Check it out: the cop sees a temporary dealer's license on Hayen's new truck. The cop can't see the expiration date, so he pulls Hayen over. No problem. The cop walks up to the driver's window, asks Hayen for license and registration. Then the cop looks back and sees the temporary license is still valid.

Pow -- there's the violation. The South Dakota Supreme Court says the cop should have looked at the temporary vehicle license first, before even going to the driver's window and making that oh-so-familiar request. The moment the cop saw the dealer's license was still good, the stop should have been over. No questions, no look at the license, no running a check on the driver, not without "reasonable suspicion" of some other criminal activity.

The sucky part of this ruling is that the cop ran a check on Hayen's license and found an outstanding warrant for his arrest. When he cuffed Hayen and searched him, he found meth and drug paraphernalia. The cop caught a bad guy who needed to be put away. But the court found the cop didn't follow the rules, so the bad guy goes free. It's not pleasant, but it's the law. Sometimes the law lets the guilty slip away, but that's still the better error than unjustly taking away the liberty of the innocent.

Smokey on Two Wheels -- Aberdeen Motorcycle Cops

When we were little, my brother and I watched CHiPs religiously. I still hum the theme every now and then when I go buzzing around on the scooter.

I am thus pleased on a sentimental level, not to mention an economic level, to see the Aberdeen Police Department encouraging its officers to get out and ride. Officer Mike Law (can't make that name up!) tells KELO that riding his Harley for work is fun and saves the city money. A happy cop might be a little more inclined to give you a friendly warning rather than a speeding ticket.
Plus every day patrolling on a motorcycle could easily cut fuel costs for an individual officer by over 50%. Consider that a standard 2008 Crown Victoria gets 15 mpg in the city and 23 on the highway, while a new Buell Ulysses police motorcycle can get 51 city, 64 country.

Cops on motorcycles are also a statement against the "bigger is better" argument that gets everyone in SUVs. Too many drivers think they need to drive a tank down the Interstate or to the mall to keep themselves safe in a wreck. Police probably face more automotive threats than anyone else on the road, and yet they are willing to take to the streets on two wheels, without two tons of metal around them.

I don't expect to see the South Dakota brethern of Ponch and Jon out on their service Harleys in December. But if Officer Law can face the mean streets of Aberdeen on his open Harley every now and then, the rest of us can consider driving smaller vehicles.

----------------------
Update 2008.05.27: An eager reader submits this photo of one of Madison's finest on the city police motorcycle during a DSU homecoming parade. The reader says we have a lot of riders on the force. Let's hope we see more of Chief Pulford and Officers Haug, O'Loughlen, et al. out patrolling with their big, buggy smiles!

Hog Farm Protesters Can Outlast Highway Patrol

Just a thought: with Governor Rounds sending over 40 Highway Patrol officers to Charles Mix County to annul Yankton Sioux Tribal authority, it occurs to me the hog farm opponents simply need to bide their time. Maintain your protest for 40 hours, and then the Highway Patrol will have to go home. With the Governor's budget cuts, the HP can't afford overtime, right?

Friends in Britton and up and down the Keystone route, remember that if the courts rule against us and TransCanada comes a-knocking this summer with its backhoes and pipes. Stage a 41-hour protest, and the governor's corporate enforcers/Highway Patrol will have to clock out.

HP Cuts Already in Effect?

So maybe KELO wasn't flat wrong: back in December, KELO reported that Governor Rounds's proposed budget cuts were already impacting public safety by affecting HP response to traffic accidents during our Christmas snowstorm. KELO then backtracked, quoting HP Colonel Dan Mosteller as saying it was the unexpected change in the weather, not the proposed budget cuts, that caused lags in HP response.

At the time, that explanation made sense. After all, how could budget cuts proposed for the next fiscal year affect current operations?

Today KELO redeems its original story with some serious investigative reporting... or just a lucky break, as a source "concerned Governor Rounds isn't giving a clear picture of exactly what the cuts would mean" sent KELO two internal Highway Patrol memos (PDF format, and worth the wait) about the proposed cuts:

Governor Mike Rounds has explained his proposed $2 million dollar cut to the highway patrol as if it hasn't been implemented yet and as if it would only last one year.

But according to this internal memo sent to troopers on December 3, the state asked the highway patrol to cut $2 million annually for an indefinite period of time. The cuts were immediately were put into effect and, according to the memo, could last between 18 months and three years [Lou Raguse, "Internal Highway Patrol Memos Reveal Info on Cuts," KELOLand.com, 2008.02.12].

Whoa -- so the cuts and changes to field operations took effect immediately, as of December 3. The authors of the memos, District 1 (Aberdeen) Captain Rod Olerud and District 2 (Sioux Falls) Captain Kevin Joffer, got their information straight from Colonel Mosteller at a November 30 meeting.

Captain Joffer says this about trooper hours on holidays:

Troopers will be greatly limited as to the number of holidays that they will be scheduled to work throughout the year. Those Sergeants or Troopers scheduled to work holidays will be given a Comp Day. Troopers may be scheduled to work two of the "big three" holidays (Memorial Day, Fourth of July & Labor Day). Field personnel will have more holidays off than they are use too [sic] now. Sergeants working holidays will vary from possibly one to none on most holidays! [Captain Kevin Joffer, internal memo, 2007.12.03]

Again, these changes went into effect immediately, on December 3, 2007. Other impacts:

• --statewide SWAT training: "suspended or very limited indefinitely"
• --25% fewer miles driven annually
• --manpower cuts during the Sturgis Rally
• --assistance to events like Lifelight and Tour de Kota: "limited or eliminated"
• --limited assistance for tribal police and BIA on fatal crashes on reservations
  

If Senator Abdallah needed any more ammo to back his push to restore the full funding to the Highway patrol with SB 172, well, he's got it.

No wonder Governor Rounds doesn't like open government.

Update 2008.02.13 10:05 CST: Republicans are as capable as we Dems of seeing the political fallout from Rounds's mishandling of the highway budget. Writing on "Troopergate," Sibby warns this morning that "If the South Dakota Republicans do not hold this Governor accountable, there will be a change in power come November. It happened at the national level in 2006."

Sibby Catches KELO Flat Wrong -- Where Was Madville Times?

I still have fish to fry with Sibby and his fear of secular humanist one-worlders. But on local media, Sibby makes an observation that dumps a well-deserved bucket of cold water over my head.

Last week KELO ran a story saying the proposed cuts in the SD Highway Patrol budget were already impacting public safety, leading to fewer troopers on the roads during the Christmas snowstorm. Sibby wondered the same thing I did: "So how could next year's budget impact current year operations?"

A couple days later, KELO backtracked, with the HP chief himself, Colonel Dan Mosteller, coming on to say the trooper schedule for Christmas wasn't influenced by the proposed budget cuts but by the weather forecasts that didn't predict five inches of snow.

Sibby offers this conclusion:

So, Keloland got it wrong as they used factual incorrect reporting to give glory to Democrat Scott Hiedepriem. And I am the only blogger who has pointed that out. That is what happens when there is a blogger/mainstream media partnership. Accountability goes out the window. And Pat Powers uses the platform to attack conservatives, instead of pointing out their pro-Democrat bias [emphasis mine; quote from Steve Sibson, "Keloland Backtracks on Heidepriem Setup," Sibby Online, 2007.12.28].

The Heidepriem-setup charge doesn't hold water -- Republican Senator Abdallah was getting as much press as Heidepriem over the budget cuts. And I'm staying out of the Sibby-PP stuff.

But Sibson is right about one thing: KELO screwed up, blatantly, on an obvious and easy point, and the rest of us bloggers didn't call it. Why on earth not?

For what it's worth, I can say that the thought process running through my head was not, "Oh, I'd better not criticize KELO or I might lose my precious spot on their Political Bloggregator." (And for what it's worth, Steve, I got more hits from one mention in the KELO forums than I have from any of my posts on the KELO blog... and PP is still the champion SD referral site.) The Christmas story just slipped from my mind, and I didn't follow up with my KELO reading through the week.

But the accusation still stings: While I was pitching snowballs at Sibson and Ellis for empowering the wealthy elites by focusing on red herrings, I missed a story about the wealthy media elite getting a story flat wrong. Why KELO got it wrong -- political conniving? too much nog for Ben Dunsmoor? -- I leave open for debate. Why I didn't cover KELO's getting it wrong -- well, even if it was just laziness and distraction on my part, it doesn't look good.

Steve, this morning, you have my apologies and my props for keeping an eye on the media. I've already posted one story on KELO today, but I'll throw this one on tomorrow. (And we'll talk plutocracy and secular humanism a little later! Happy New Year!)

Schlueter Lands New Job in Lake County

Looks like we've got a new smokey on our tail: it's Matthew Schlueter, subject of much controversy for apparently blowing the lid off Colman's speeding ticket trickery. Beginning January 7, Schlueter will become a Lake County deputy, filling the vacancy left by Emily Bruns, who resigned in November after being charged with her second DUI.

Good to know Lake County will give an honest cop a break after he's gotten what sounds like unfair treatment elsewhere. And good to know we have one more cop on our beat who will uphold the law, even if the powers that be ask him to do otherwise. Welcome to the force, Officer Schlueter.

Highway Patrol as Revenue Generator? Not the Best Argument

The Madville Times has commented earlier on Governor Rounds's proposed cuts to the Highway Patrol budget. Senator Abdallah, former chief man in tan himself, beats the drum loudly on KELO last night:

"In any state, especially with the recent years with all the things going on, we should be increasing the amount of troopers we've got," State Senator Gene Abdallah says. "Right now, there's only fourteen troopers on duty in the whole state. 77,000 square miles in this state and we've got fourteen troopers on duty, we're running on bare bones now" [Karla Ramaekers, "Proposed Cuts to 'Public Safety,'" KELOLand.com, 2007.12.23].

"Things going on" -- expect a clarification of that term in committee and on the floor fo the Senate next month.

Those fourteen troopers will perhaps be relieved their patrol territory has just been cut in half. That should help weather the budget cuts.

While Senator Abdallah appears to have a reasonable point about public safety, he ventures further into what we might refer to as the Rosco P. Coltrane Theory of Law Enforcement:

And Abdallah says the proposed cut will hurt more than just the highway patrol... he thinks it will cause a ripple effect to other areas of state funding as well. He says that's because the money made from tickets and arrests on South Dakota highways feeds directly into the school system.

"It's going to have a trickle down effect. They don't make the arrests they've been making, the schools get less, and we all know the schools need money," Abdallah says [Ramaekers].

Perhaps we need to grant Senator Abdallah some leave to argue his case from every pragmatic angle he can find. However, arguments in favor of spending on law enforcement ought to stick to public safety and justice. When we look at law enforcement as a money maker for schools and local governments, we end up in Colman, where speeding tickets became a cash cow and a replacement for fair and responsible taxation.

If the HP needs more money to catch bad guys and protect travelers, then let's find the two million dollars. If the schools need the money, let's raise the necessary taxes. Let's not base our school funding on how many folks we can charge with a crime.