Congress Passes Herseth Sandlin's Tribal Law and Order Act

Some honyocker over on my KELO blog says I never say anything nice about our Congressional candidates. La-tee-da...

Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin got an important piece of legislation through Congress this week. Her Tribal Law and Order Act got amended into another bill, HR 725, on Indian arts and crafts, passed the Senate by unanimous consent, then passed the House yesterday 326–92.

What does the SHS's bill do? Let the Congresswoman explain:



Not bad. Amnesty International sees this bill as a huge step for Native women's rights, as it will clear away some of the legal bureaucracy that hinders investigations of rape and sexual assualt against Native women (86% of which crimes, says Amnesty International, are committed by non-Native men).

So who could be against strengthening prosecution of rape and assualt, improving interagency cooperation, and boosting recruitment and training of BIA/tribal cops? Only 92 House Republicans, including Minnesota's Michele Bachmann, for whom it must just be too hard to admit that sometimes government can and should act to solve problems.

Of course, Kristi Noem, SHS's GOP challenger and a Bachmann clone in many ways, wouldn't have voted against this legislation, would she? Since the primary, Noem has added a "Native American Issues" page, where she says, among other vagueries, "I am committed to working to ensure there is basic law and order in Native American communities."

Nice statement. Too bad Noem doesn't back it with a plan... like the legislation that Stephanie Herseth Sandlin just passed.

-------------------
Update 12:20 CDT: Read more!

1. Indian Country Today points out that the new law will require some tribes to spend more to get properly licenses attorneys and judges.
2. President Obama digs it.
3. So does the National Congress of American Indians: "This historic legislation is an opportunity for tribes and the federal government to work together to make our communities safer, and it supports the sovereignty of tribes to investigate and prosecute serious crimes on our lands."

Update 2010.07.24: Jon Hunter seems to think the Tribal Law and Order Act is a fairly good idea.

Hospitals Resist Industrial Livestock Antibiotics

Pro-industry blogger Troy Hadrick asserts that the livestock industry never misuses antibiotics. Everyone else—over-prescribing doctors, dopey patients—is to blame for any problems with antibiotic resistance, not the members of his industry.

I thought Hadrick was a cattle rancher, not a fish farmer. But his mastery of the red herring says otherwise. Medical professionals, the people who study and deal with the consequences of heavy antibiotic use in our agricultural system, will tell you the problem is not a handful of ranchers misusing antibiotics. The problem is an entire system of meat production that relies too heavily on antibiotics.

This Chicago Tribune article notes that 300 hospitals across the nation are working to improve the health and sustainability of the food they serve. For many of these hospitals, that includes serving only antibiotic-free meat:

Administrators say they hope increased demand for those products will reduce the use of antibiotics to treat cattle and other animals, which scientists believe helps pathogens become more resistant to drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that antibiotic-resistant infections kill 60,000 Americans a year.

Although the U.S. doesn't keep national records on antibiotic use in animals, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that up to 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are administered to healthy animals to speed growth and compensate for crowded living conditions. Some of these drugs, such as penicillin and tetracycline, are also used to treat sick people [Monica Eng, "Meat with Antibiotics off the Menu at Some Hospitals," Chicago Tribune, 2010.07.20].

Antibiotics essential to agriculture? Only if you insist on pushing unnatural growth rates and crowding thousands of animals into feedlots that don't have enough space for their own filth.

But oh, that fancy-pants grass-fed beef costs a lot more, doesn't it?

Diane Imrie, director of nutrition services at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Vermont, also started serving antibiotic-free beef at the hospital in recent years as part of her plan to switch to local, seasonal, sustainable food.

"When we started a sustainability council at the hospital a few years ago, antibiotic reduction was one of the first things on my list," she said. "I think it has the most impact on farming, the environment and public health."

Imrie estimated that her food costs rose about $67,000 last year when she switched to antibiotic-free chicken from conventional. "But that's also about the same cost as treating a single MRSA infection," she said, referring to drug-resistant staphylococcus bacteria [Eng, 2010].

So let me see if I have this right: ranchers could spend a little more to raise beef without antibiotics, charge a little more in the market, still come out even... and we could reduce the cost and death of antibiotic-resistant infections? Sounds like the only people who could be against that are the mouthpieces of an ag-industrial complex that relies too much on antibiotics and disregards any consequences beyond the speed and profit of their own business model.

New Bike Trail Spur Paved Along Highway 19

Is that new pavement I see? Let's ride!

Crews have finished laying the pavement for the new bike trail spur that connects the main Madison–Johnson's Point trail with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Office on Highway 19. Paving included a nice little parking spot at the USFW headquarters entrance... because heaven knows nothing will fly in Madison without lots and lots of parking. (You can see all the parking I needed up by the wetlands kiosk.)

Yay for trees! This shady copse greets riders at the south trailhead.

Ah, fresh asphalt. Zoom!

Yeah, soft shoulder. Not to worry—I'm sure the sity will send out our man Ted LaFleur and the rake crew with some grass and wildflower seed, and we'll be pedaling past prairie pasque presently.


Up the hill toward the Highway 19–34 intersection—Most of this spur, like the main trail, is out in the open. Perhaps the Lake Madison Sanitary District will do riders a favor and plant some trees alongside the west edge of their containment ponds. After all, do visitors really need a clear view of our admittedly glorious sewage treatment facilities?

View south from the trail intersection—The ride from USFW HQ to the 19–34 intersection is just 0.7 miles, but it's a nice addition to the 4.2 miles that parallels 34 from town out to Lake Madison. Next priorities: extending this spur all the way down to the public access area and the mondo-cool mountain bike park we could build on the old gravel pit, then giving riders an actual loop! Riders love loops!

Climate Change: Watch out for Angry Grandkids

Hot enough for ya? Meteorologist Paul Douglas notes that June was the warmest month on record. Not just the warmest in proximity of my or Bob Ellis's overheated blogs, but worldwide. That's four straight months of record global warmth, and 304 straight months with global temps beating the 20th-century average. This data isn't just one hot week or, for the paid deniers, one month of blizzards, says Douglas:

The trends are apparent to anyone taking the time to really look at the science. No one heat wave, month or year proves anything, but what we have here is a steady trickle of evidence, a gradual accumulation of coincidences that can no longer be denied. Melting glaciers, thinning arctic ice, rising sea levels, an uptick in drought and 1-in-500 year floods are all symptoms. The earth's atmosphere is running a mild fever. The question: do we believe the doctors and treat the patient now, or wait for those symptoms to worsen? It's not ideology, it's not a political litmus test, it's not a "new religion." It's basic science [Paul Douglas, "Thursday Flood Risk (and the most severe 30 days in Minnesota history?)," Minneapolis StarTribune: On Weather, 2010.07.21].

Douglas echoes the sentiment of The Age of Stupid, the speculative documentary the SDSU Sierra Club showed in Brookings last December, when it was awfully cold out. Douglas says a few words about the need to take responsibility for our energy consumption habits that ought to send a chill through the conservative obstructionists who love talking about personal responsibility on every other issue:

Our grandkids are going to be pissed. They will hold us accountable for sitting on our hands, bickering with professional scientists—waiting, hoping for a magic cure or "more evidence." ...I was taught that actions have consequences. We've been binging on oil, coal and natural gas for 200 years, most of the greenhouse spike in the last 50 years. This week China just surpassed the USA as the greatest producer/user of energy on the planet. Think we have a problem now? Just wait 10 years. You haven't seen anything yet [link mine; Douglas, 2010].

So, Senator Thune, keep fighting energy responsibility with every fiber of your being. Then be sure to eat well and use your government health coverage to live a long and happy life... so you can be around to explain to our grandkids why we wrecked their ecosystem and burned up all the easy fuel.

Commissioner Abraham Asks for LAIC Budget; Now How About Benchmarks?

Many of us wonder just what the Lake Area Improvement Corporation does with our money. Now, thanks to Madison City Commissioner Nick Abraham, we may find out. At Monday's night's commission meeting, when LAIC director Dwaine Chapel made his request for $240,000 in taxpayer dollars, Commissioner Abraham asked the economic development corporation to submit a detailed budget. Chapel agreed to do so.

The request seems logical enough. Combine the LAIC and Chamber of Commerce funding requests, and Madison taxpayers are pouring over $300,000 into economic development activities. $140K of that comes from the third-penny sales tax, a levy that was supposed to sunset when the Community Center was paid for but which has somehow remained on the books. When taxpayers are footing the bill, they're entitled to see the budget.

But what we really need are benchmarks. What is our $240K investment in the LAIC getting for us? Here's the LAIC's explanation, as summarized in the Madison Daily Leader:

Chapel said that LAIC has worked with two companies, one for about 1 1/2 years and another for about seven months, concerning Madison expansion. He added that the development corporation was also negotiating with several other businesses. Chapel described the work as "an ongoing process" and added that LAIC officials had "focused real hard" on retaining jobs already in the community [Chuck Clement, "LAIC, Chamber Officials Request Annual Funding from City," Madison Daily Leader, 2010.07.20].

Talking, negotiating, and focusing real hard are important. But shouldn't we expect some quantifiable performance? If I were getting $240K from the city, I would expect the city to demand some proof of return on investment. Along with a detailed budget, the city should demand answers to the following questions before giving the LAIC one more penny:

1. How many jobs has the LAIC created? (Context for that answer: four years ago, the LAIC set a goal of creating 400 new jobs in five years. Lake County has since lost 435 jobs.)
2. How many new businesses has the LAIC directly recruited (not every single business that has started, but only those businesses that the LAIC can demonstrate wouldn't be here without specific LAIC action)?
3. How many affordable houses has the LAIC sold in its TIF district?
   

I remain appalled at the lack of accountability and transparency in how the LAIC spends our money and at our local governments' willingness to keep throwing money down this hole without asking questions. Commissioner Abraham's request for a detailed LAIC budget is a step in the right direction, and I will be eagerly awaiting the publication of that budget in the city commission agenda packet. Now it's time for the city (and county!) to say, "You can use our money, but here's what we expect for the investment."

Engage:SD -- Rural Learning Center Offers Social Media Help for Non-Profits

The Rural Learning Center is giving me all sorts of things to think about this week. RLC's blog, Reimagine Rural, announces an interesting new project, Engage:SD. The project's purpose is to help small non-profit organizations learn how to use social media—not just billboard Web pages, but blogs, wikis, Facebook, forums, and all the other online tools people can use to interact, share, and build texts and ideas together.

What will Engage:SD actually do?

1. Engage:SD is offering eight online seminars on using online tools for branding, sustaining community conversations, and organizing non-profit action and events. These webinars run from July 27 (that's next week! sign up already!) to December 21.
   
2. They'll give five $2500 grants for technical assistance in developing social media strategy. Non-profits focusing on rural community or economic development get first dibs, but RLC is open to other applicants who can make the case that they can put a social media grant to good use.
3. They'll also host some in-person skill-building workshops where non-profit staff can come learn to use Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Flickr, and Delicious (what, no Blogger? ;-) )

I dig this project. It is exactly the sort of collaborative effort rural organizations need to acquire social media skills. Most rural non-profit groups are too small to have staff dedicated to marketing or Web work. Take our local Habitat for Humanity chapter: their Facebook page and website, along with their Shelter Fest online info, aren't products of rigorously designed social media marketing campaign sustained by an information systems specialist. They're all set up by my wife, the board secretary, who marshals her marketing experience, sparkly enthusiasm, and occasional Web advice from her blogger husband into Web presence for the organization. That Web presence happens because the group just happens to have a volunteer interested in that kind of work who can find a few spare moments amidst the general business of the organization to tinker online.

Engage:SD offers small non-profits like Habitat ECSD some training and practical tips that they probably couldn't afford on their own. The Rural Learning Center can snag a social media expert and share her knowledge with a whole bunch of groups at once, making a difference in a bunch of communities simultaneously in a way that scattered individual non-profits could not.

If you're running a little non-profit on the prairie, fighting the good fight for small-town arts or business recruitment or social justice, you'll want to look into Engage:SD. This program could give your group a little Web boost to help you connect with your community and get things done.

Support the Troops: Pass Clean Energy-Climate Legislation Now

Which do you prefer, clean energy and climate legislation, or more dead soldiers?

I prefer the former... as does VoteVets.org. Badlands Blue features the veterans group's latest ad urging Congress to get off its butt and pass clean energy legislation:



Retired Brigadier General Steven Anderson was Chief Logistics Officer for General David Petraeus in Iraq. Logistics—that means he had to coordinate the movements of all those fuel trucks that keep our Hummers and generators and other war equipment running. Anderson understands better than anyone the tactical vulnerability created by dependence on fossil fuels. Order men and women to drive a few thousand gallons of explosive fuel through a war zone—yeah, that could sharpen one's appreciation for fuel efficiency.

Clean energy and climate legislation is not just for treehuggers. It's also for wives and husbands and kids and parents who want hug their soldiers again when they walk off the plane from Iraq.

Brookings Downtown Model for Madison

I don't want to move to Brookings. But I'd sure like to make Madison as cool as Brookings. While Madison dithers about the menace of tall grass and residents think a Wal-mart on the edge of town would improve our local economy, ever-progressive Brookings is building a thriving downtown.

What's so great about downtown Brookings?

1. Iconic local restaurants like Nick's Hamburger Shop and George's Pizza.
2. A 3% vacancy rate.
3. Downtown Brookings Inc., an association dedicated to real Main Street development, not just banners and flower baskets.
4. People who don't see a lack of parking as a problem. "People like to complain that we don’t have enough parking in downtown Brookings," Downtown Brookings Inc. President Kris Struwe tells the Brookings Register. "That’s a good problem to have. That means people are shopping and eating here." If you go to a Twins or Vikings game, think about how far you walk from the parking lot to your stadium seats. It's probably longer than the length of either Madison's or Brookings's main street.
5. Shop owners are upgrading their facades.
   
6. Planners are considering pocket parks, little bits of green space amidst the already diverse mix of retail, services, and residences that make Main Street a place to hang out.

Madison, if you want to know how to revive our Main Street, the roadmap lies just 40 miles to our northeast. Brookings Crazy Daze is the same weekend as ours, July 30–31. I highly recommend everyone in Madison take a roadtrip to Brookings that Friday to see downtown development done right... just make sure you get back to Madison in time for Tonic Sol-fa!

Millner Continues Legal Games, Claims Milk Not Product of Cows

Veblen, South Dakota, dairy operator Richard Millner had one of his polluting mega-feedlots, Veblen East, taken away in March when a Minnesota court placed it in receivership. Millner's Veblen West and his dairies in North Dakota and Minnesota have since declared bankruptcy. (The Minnesota dairy in Thief River Falls was denied a permit to operate due to environmental violations.) The Chapter 11 filings are quite likely part of a shell game, as Millner is likely trying to prevent creditors from getting their hands on any more of his assets.

I just came across two rulings from U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Charles L. Nail, Jr., that give some idea of the monkeyshines Millner is willing to resort to in his dairy endgame. The first ruling, dated July 9, deals with the question of whether AgStar, the receiver of Veblen East, has any security claim to milk Millner's cows have produced since AgStar took over the dairy in March. As I understand it, if your property goes into receivership, any products you make from that property after receivership or from other property you put up as security aren't wholly yours to do with as you please. The receiver can claim those products or the proceeds from the sale of those products to pay down the debts you owe.

Millner argued in court that milk from his cows is not a "product" of his cows.

Apparently, Millner's lawyers were able to cite some court rulings that support this remarkable conclusion. Fortunately for common sense, Judge Nail was able to cite a majority of rulings that "have reached the opposite conclusion." Let's hear from the judge:

Debtor is correct when it says neither the bankruptcy code nor the South Dakota Codified Laws define the term "products."[ 4 ] However, when a term used in a statute is undefined, courts interpreting that statute must give that term its ordinary meaning. Hamilton v. Lanning, ___ U.S. ___, 2010 WL 2243704, *6 (2010) (citation omitted).

AgStar argues "[o]ne does not have to grow up on a farm to understand that milk is a `product of' a cow." The Court agrees. Thus, the ordinary meaning of "product" includes milk produced by dairy cows. Debtor even admits as much — albeit most likely unintentionally — in its motion, in which it refers to its "dairy production operation" (paragraph 10), its "productive herd" (paragraph 13), its "production numbers" (paragraph 14), the "dairy production industry" (paragraph 14), "dairy products" (paragraph 17), and "dairy producers" (paragraph 18) (emphasis added) [In re: VEBLEN WEST DAIRY LLP , Chapter 11, Debtor. Bankr. No. 10-10071. United States Bankruptcy Court, D. South Dakota. July 9, 2010. CHARLES L. NAIL, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge. Retrieved 2010.07.19 from Leagle.com].

Sometimes it's got to be hard for a judge to keep a straight face.

The second ruling came just last Friday, as Judge Nail granted AgStar's motion to appoint a trustee to manage Veblen West. Apparently appointing a trustee in a Chapter 11 case is a big deal, something that happens only if there's serious concern about "fraud, dishonesty, incompetence, or gross mismanagement of the affairs of the debtor by current management, either before or after the commencement of the case...."

AgStar asked for a trustee based on concerns about Millner's ongoing environmental issues and "numerous substantial transfers of assets and liabilities between and among Debtor and the several related entities."

The Court found the environmental problems "serious" and "ongoing." However, geologist Jeanne Goodman of the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources testified on Millner's behalf to outline Millner's compliance with DENR orders, and that was enough to convince the judge that Millner's response to his environmental violations is sufficiently "appropriate and reasonable" to avert appointing a trustee.

Worth noting: Judge Nail includes this footnote on the environmental portion of the July 16 ruling (emphasis mine):

The Court is mindful that in its July 8, 2010 motion seeking confirmation the automatic stay is not applicable to its waste water regulatory powers (doc. 261), South Dakota's Department of Environment and Natural Resources alleged:

Debtor has not taken the actions necessary to reduce the level of wastewater in its holding ponds or to ensure that it will reduce those levels within the time necessary in order to mitigate the possibility of a discharge this coming Fall or Winter. Rather, Debtor has increased the number of cattle being milked and water used, resulting in increased stress on the holding ponds and their storage capacity. . . . A failure or overflow of Debtor's wastewater holding ponds would result in an immediate and serious threat to public health.

This is certainly troubling. However, the allegations were made after the hearing on the instant motion. The Department and Debtor have resolved the motion, but not the environmental problems, by stipulation (doc. 277) [Footnote #4, In re: VEBLEN WEST DAIRY LLP, Chapter 11, Debtor. Bankr. No. 10-10071. United States Bankruptcy Court, D. South Dakota. July 16, 2010. CHARLES L. NAIL, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge. Retrieved 2010.07.19 from Leagle.com.]

Judge Nail also ruled that AgStar failed to establish "incompetence or gross mismanagement" in Veblen West's daily operations that would support appointing a trustee.

Judge Nail did find cause to appoint a trustee in what appears to be a lot of shady asset-shifting. The Court cites evidence of Millner moving money around to pay off debts of his other dairy ventures instead of paying creditors:

Debtor acknowledged some of the transfers of assets and liabilities and the changes in equity positions Steiner had questioned, and it did little to ease any of the Court's concern that Debtor's and its management team's pre-petition actions were not evenhanded and were primarily intended to benefit insiders and the several affiliated entities, rather than Debtor's creditors. Significantly, Debtor chose not to offer explanatory testimony from Shan Betzold, Prairie Ridge's controller, the individual Millner testified made the decision whom to pay and whom not to pay and who would therefore be most likely to possess firsthand knowledge of the facts needed to explain Debtor's seemingly aberrant use of its milk proceeds. Millner's own attempts to explain some of the transactions were fruitless, and his testimony raised more red flags than it lowered.

...the record is abundant and alarmingly clear that an independent entity needs to assess the case for possible voidable pre-petition preferences and fraudulent or constructively fraudulent conveyances [IN RE VEBLEN WEST DAIRY LLP, 2010.07.16].

Judge Nail thus appointed the Chapter 11 trustee.

At some point, one would think it would be easier to just admit you've done wrong, clean up the mess, and do honest business from here on out. But these rulings from Judge Nail suggest that's not a route Millner is inclined to take.

------------------------
Update 22:10 CDT: Millner isn't alone in bankruptcy: the U.S. Bankruptcy Court reports 1062 bankruptcy cases were filed in the District of South Dakota in the first half of 2010. That's up 11% from the same period in 2009

Reduce Gasoline Use by Ethanol Subsidy or Gasoline Tax?

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) wants to end the ethanol subsidy. The chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee says $7.6 billion a year in taxpayer support is unnecessary for "a mature technology whose market share is well protected." Bingaman cites this CBO report that analyzes the cost-effectiveness of the biofuels subsidy at reducing petroleum usage and greenhouse gas emissions.

Note that the CBO study is about the subsidy for all biofuels, but in 2009, 94% of the 11.5 billion gallons of biofuel produced in the U.S. was ethanol.

The CBO report includes some useful numbers on the energy in gasoline and ethanol:

• One gallon of gasoline contains 125,000 BTUs of energy.
• One gallon of ethanol contains 85,000 BTUs of energy.
• You thus need 1.48 gallons of ethanol to get the same amount of energy as you can get from one gallon of gasoline.
• By current techniques, ethanol producers burn 11,000 BTUs of petroleum fuel to produce each gallon of ethanol.
• An ethanol producer thus needs to put 1.69 gallons of ethanol on the market to replace the energy from one gallon of gasoline at the pump and petro-fuel taken off the market to make that ethanol.

Remember: the ethanol credit is 45 cents per gallon (which goes to blenders, not farmers). So the net subsidy to support the 1.69 gallons of ethanol needed to replace one gasoline gallon's worth of energy is 76 cents. Displacing fossil fuels also causes a decrease in excise tax receipts, so the total taxpayer cost for replacing gasoline energy with ethanol energy, says CBO, is $1.78 per gallon of ethanol.

Harvard's Professor Mankiw asks an interesting question: if our goal is to reduce gasoline consumption, might we not do so more cheaply and in a better targeted fashion simply by adding a dollar-per-gallon tax to gasoline and charging those who keep consuming rather than levying additional income tax on all taxpayers?

-----------------------
Bonus note on energy: CBO says that corn ethanol production and use emits maybe 15%–20% less carbon dioxide than gasoline per 125,000 BTUs of fuel made available at the pump. Cellulosic ethanol production and use beats gasoline on CO₂ emissions by well over 80%. In other words, cellulosic ethanol promises one-fifth the carbon footprint of corn ethanol.

Welspun Spins, Ignores Facts about Defective Steel in Pipelines

Welspun Corp Ltd., the company that produced 47% of the steel for TransCanada's Keystone pipeline and plans to supply Keystone XL as well, has responded to news that federal investigators found hundreds of instances of defects in steel provided to other pipelines. The Indian steelmaker's response is classic corporate obfuscation and refusal to take responsibility for failure.

Michael Cowden of AMM.com (American Metal Market) has a number of articles on the topic. One article, "Welspun Hammers Plains Justice for 'Faulty Facts' and Alleged Bias," offers Welspun's response to the bad news:

1. Plains Justice is biased and just wants to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.
2. Welspun has cooperated with federal investigators.
3. The PHMSA has come to Welspun's Little Rock mill thrice this year and found compliance with all regulations.
4. Welspun is proud to be TransCanada's partner in Keystone XL.
5. Welspun calls itself the "world leader in pipe manufacturing," insists it "maintains the highest standards in the industry," has "state-of-the-art facilities, rigorous quality controls" and "well-trained and experienced operators and engineers," and "succeeds because we believe safety should always be the number one priority."

Well-spun indeed. Did you notice that not one line of that response refutes the facts laid out by Plains Justice? Did you notice how Welspun tries to distract us from the facts Plains Justice found by accusing Plains Justice of bias? Contrary to Welspun's wishful press, Plains Justice didn't just make up some ugly public relations campaign. Plains Justice scrutinized 3710 pages of federal documents to support its conclusions.

Welspun also devotes ink to saying how wonderful the upcoming Keystone XL pipeline will be. The Plains Justice letter to the PHMSA mentions Keystone XL, but the requests to PHMSA are all about investigating and publishing information about the already constructed Keystone pipeline to ensure TransCanada hasn't already laid any BP-waiting-to-happen pipeline under the South Dakota prairie (or elsewhere).

So let's review: Welspun made a lot of bad steel between 2007 and 2009. Federal inspectors verified hundreds of defects in steel delivered to other pipelines, some of whose owners are now suing Welspun. Almost half of the now-operational Keystone pipeline is made of Welspun steel. The bosses in Gujarat may not be worried, but those of us who get our water from the aquifers Keystone crosses would like just a little more assurance that TransCanada's steel really was well-spun... or at least better spun than Welspun's red herring PR.

Boost Rural Entrepreneurship: Build Bike Trails?

...and support small firms!

As the Madison City Commission prepares to make its case to the public for building a bike trail to Lake Herman, the commissioners might want to keep a copy of this blog post on outdoor amenities in their back pockets. Mike Knutson at Reimagine Rural summarizes a USDA/U. Tennessee study on "The Rural Growth Trifecta: Outdoor Amenities, Creative Class and Entrepreneurial Context." Say Knutson and the professors:

1. More people are looking to move out of urban areas (in other words, there are more fish coming! Cast your line, rural economic developers!)
   
2. Rural towns with outdoor amenities draw more creative folks, see more entrepreneurial action, and generate more jobs.
3. Rural towns lacking outdoor amenities tend to draw more folks who fill factory jobs but fewer folks who create new jobs.

So if I take this summary correctly, building more bike trails could support building more jobs. (I'm telling you, build the Lake Herman Loop, and we'll be in high cotton!)

Of course, manmade features like recreation trails would only make up a tiny portion of outdoor amenities. The study measures outdoor amenities by the following characteristics:

• January sunshine
• January temperature
• July humidity
• July temperature
• topographic variation (hills! vistas!)
• water area (Lake Herman!)
• mix of forest and open space (plant more trees... but not too many! the optimal forestation amount on this scale appears to be between 41% and 64%)
• tourism (visitors and residents are attracted by similar features)

Alas, put all those things together, and we prairie folks have our work cut out for us. This map from page 10 of the study shows we South Dakotans sit right in the middle of the least outdoor-amenitous area of the nation:

Source: David McGranahan, Timothy Wojan and Dayton Lambert, “The rural growth trifecta: outdoor amenities, creative class and entrepreneurial context,” Journal of Economic Geography Advanced Access, May 17, 2010.

Uff da. With everywhere but the Black Hills and the Badlands falling into the bottom quarter of the outdoor amenity scale, most of South Dakota has a hard row to hoe in selling itself to the migratory creative class. I would suggest that we need to make the most of what watery, woody, hilly places we have. In other words, run some trails out to the Vermillion Hills, keep Lake Madison as clean and accessible as possible, and for Pete's sake, don't chop down those shelterbelts!

Also worth noting in the study:

4. The third and fourth sentences: "Traditional strategies of promoting exogenous growth through the recruitment of employers are now much less effective. Routine and lowskill functions are increasingly outsourced to low-wage countries." As LAIC director Dwaine Chapel comes asking the city commission tonight (and county commission tomorrow) for our tax dollars, perhaps someone ought to discuss a shift from the failing strategy of recruiting those big outside employers.
   
5. The lit review notes that folks in small firms tend to move into self-employment more often than folks in large firms. Now there is some self-selection involved—entrepreneurial types gravitate toward small firms in the first place. But recruit and/or seed 40 little firms that employ ten people each, and you lay the groundwork for more independent entrepreneurship than if you recruit one big firm that employs 400 people. (This sounds so familiar!)