January 5, 2021

The battle for the Black Hills

Nick Tilsen was arrested for protesting President Trump at Mount Rushmore. Now, his legal troubles are part of a legacy.


From a distance, the green pines and the blue-gray haze that gently hug the valleys of the Black Hills merge into a deep black. The Lakota name “He Sapa” — meaning “black ridge” — describes this visual phenomenon. This is a place of origin for dozens of Native peoples and a revered landscape for more than 50 others. The land’s most recent, and perhaps longest-serving, stewards — the Oceti Sakowin, the Dakota, Nakota and Lakota people — hold the mountains central to their cosmos.

The Black Hills are also central to the political territory drawn by the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie treaties. And they continue to be a crucial part of the strategic position that sustained Native resistance to white encroachment. They have become an international symbol of the call to return stolen land to Indigenous people. That’s why President Donald Trump chose to hold his July 3 rally at Mount Rushmore, said Nick Tilsen, who is Oglala Lakota. The faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are carved into the side of the granite mountain that is the heart of the Lakota universe.

Tilsen is the president and CEO of NDN Collective, a Native-run nonprofit based in Rapid City, South Dakota, which launched a campaign on Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2020 to return He Sapa to Native people. Many Lakota people, like Tilsen, view the national monument, which attracts 2 million visitors a year, as a desecration of a spiritual landscape. “What South Dakota and the National Park Service call ‘a shrine to democracy’ is actually an international symbol of white supremacy,” Tilsen said. He was among 20 arrested for protesting Trump’s visit. If convicted, he faces up to 16½ years in prison for four felonies and three misdemeanors.

According to Tilsen, the protesters had negotiated the blockade with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office and the South Dakota Highway Patrol. The activists blocked the road, using three disabled vans to bar the way. “It was to hold space and connect our issue to the world,” Tilsen explained. Tilsen and others worked throughout the day to keep the protests organized, even speaking directly with park authorities to ensure that elderly activists and children were allowed to move away before any arrests were made. Soon, deputies announced that the assembly was unlawful, and the Air National Guard moved in, dressed in riot gear, pushing the protesters back and firing pepper balls at the retreating crowd.

Read more: https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.1/indigenous-affairs-social-justice-the-battle-for-the-black-hills
(High Country News)

January 5, 2021

When COVID hit, a Colorado county kicked out second-home owners. They hit back.

April 2020, and the novel coronavirus was spreading through the United States. As businesses closed and hospitals filled, Jim Moran found himself sheltering in place in Colorado, at his second home. His mansion has dark wood siding and a jutting patio, and it perches on a bluff above Crested Butte, a small snow globe of a town whose brightly painted cottages huddle at the base of mountains at the north end of the Gunnison Valley, a long thin basin high in the Rockies. Moran is from Dallas, Texas, where he managed private equity firms. From his back door, he can ski directly onto Crested Butte Mountain Resort, one of Colorado’s iconic ski areas. Moran speaks quickly and passionately and has swept-back silver hair. Housing prices in rural towns have surged since the pandemic as well-to-do people flee cities. Moran’s property, which he bought in 2013, has appreciated: Were he to list his house today, Zillow estimates the value at $4.3 million.

When COVID-19 came to the valley, the outbreak was so severe that the 17,400 residents of Gunnison County — which includes Crested Butte, the valley and a few outlying towns — faced one of the highest rates of cases per capita in the entire country. The county’s response was drastic: On April 3, it directed all visitors, tourists and part-time residents to leave, explicitly banning non-resident property owners, of which there are more than 4,000. The order, signed by the county’s public health director, cited the strain on local services: “Non-residents, regardless of whether they own a residence in Gunnison County, are imposing unnecessary burdens on health care, public services, first responders, food supplies and other essential services.” Violators could be fined up to $5,000 or jailed for up to 18 months.

Moran decided to stay put. He was upset, and he was far from alone. The next day, another Dallas resident with a home in the valley created a private Facebook group, eventually called GV2H & Friends Forum, for Gunnison Valley second-home owners in the area to gather and commiserate. The group swelled quickly to several hundred members. The order was divisive, one person wrote in a comment; it made non-residents feel like “outcasts,” wrote another. Many questioned the county’s wisdom in forcing them to travel during the pandemic. Then there were the legal issues. Moran told me that a key question was: “Can they just tell me I can’t use my property?”

Some Texans in the group — and there are many; the Gunnison Valley has been a popular vacation spot for oil-rich Texans since the early 1900s — turned to the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for help. On April 9, Paxton asked Gunnison County to reconsider, arguing that the Texans’ property rights were being violated. (Soon after, the Associated Press revealed that several of Paxton’s associates, including a college friend and high-dollar campaign donors, own houses in Crested Butte. This fall, seven of his senior staff accused him of taking bribes and using his office to favor political donors; the FBI is now investigating.)

Read more: https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.1/south-economy-when-covid-hit-a-colorado-county-kicked-out-second-home-owners-they-hit-back
(High Country News)

January 5, 2021

Trump playing Thune and Noem off against each other is a senseless and sorry sight for Republicans.

President Trump’s vindictiveness comes as no surprise, but his latest political and petulant assault (as depicted above in an image from thedailymail.uk) on our senior Sen. John Thune is exceptionally venomous. Trump tweeted this morning (Jan.1) that “I hope to see the great Governor of South Dakota @KristiNoem, run against RINO @SenJohnThune, in the upcoming 2022 Primary. She would do a fantastic job in the U.S. Senate, but if not Kristi, others are already lining up. South Dakota wants strong leadership, NOW!”

Calling Thune, one of Trump’s most dependable loyalists in the U.S. Senate, a “RINO” is bad (and inaccurate, considering Thune has voted Trump’s way 94% of the time) enough, but suggesting that our Gov. Noem should primary Thune in ‘22 is a smackdown of politically Olympian proportions.

A showdown between South Dakota’s two leading Republicans is a sure way to split the party and create many years of hard feelings within the GOP. Back in the 1980s, Bill Janklow and Jim Abdnor fought it out during a GOP primary, leaving a legacy of bitterness between what essentially became two factions in South Dakota’s Republican Party. The year was 1986, and the GOP split opened the way for Democrat Tom Daschle to win the seat and hold it until 2005.

Riding as high as it is now, the South Dakota Republican Party doesn’t need to create an internal political blood feud instigated by Donald Trump’s meddlesome, trouble-making show of favoritism towards Kristi Noem.

Read more: https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/trump-trying-to-play-thune-and-noem-off-against-each-other-is-a-sorry-sight-for-republicans-not-only-that-it-doesnt-make-much-sense

January 5, 2021

Federal judge: South Dakota has done 'little, if anything' to curtail COVID-19 spread

A federal judge says a state court can’t use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to delay a Codington County trial and in the same breath criticized South Dakota’s response to the pandemic, saying it has done “little, if anything,” to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann ordered that unless the Codington County state court resolves Matthew Kurtenbach’s May 2019 case by January 15, 2021, Kurtenbach will win a federal petition he filed claiming wrongful imprisonment and a violation of his right to a speedy trial.

And in that same adjudication, filed federally in the Northern Division of the District of South Dakota, Kornmann harshly criticized the state and Gov. Kristi Noem’s response to the pandemic and said some state courts could have done more to keep cases moving while protecting parties.

“South Dakota has done little, if anything, to curtail the spread of the virus,” Kornmann wrote in the Dec. 28 decision.

Read more: https://www.aberdeennews.com/courtnews/federal-judge-south-dakota-has-done-little-if-anything-to-curtail-covid-19-spread/article_f554cd40-4bba-11eb-a1a0-3bb30583cea2.html

January 5, 2021

Rep. Dusty Johnson again proposes constitutional amendment to cap Supreme Court at 9 justices

For the second time in three months, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., has proposed a joint resolution in Congress to cap the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices at nine.

Johnson said Monday that the resolution was the first bill he has filed in the 117th Congress, which opened Sunday, after Johnson was sworn in for a second term in the U.S. House.

“Since 1869, our Supreme Court has had nine Justices,” Johnson said in a statement. “We are living in a hyper-partisan world and Democrat leaders have already called for additional seats on the court. The control of the Senate hangs in the balance and if Democrats are successful in Georgia, we could very well see efforts to pack the Supreme Court. We must preserve the impartiality of the Supreme Court and setting the court at nine will do just that. My constitutional amendment is more necessary than ever.”

Johnson said the legislation follows the calls to "pack the court" following the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett in October. It's the second time he has proposed a resolution, with the last one getting introduced Oct. 6 and failing to get a vote in committee.

Read more: https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/government-and-politics/6826863-Rep.-Dusty-Johnson-again-proposes-constitutional-amendment-to-cap-Supreme-Court-at-9-justices

This resubmitted resolution shouldn't get a vote in committee either.

January 5, 2021

Noem Spends Multiple Days in Georgia, Out of State More Often Than Predecessors

Governor Kristi Noem spent the whole weekend in warmer climes, returning to Georgia to boost her own brand under the guise of campaigning for Senator Kelly Loeffler, who stands in Georgia’s double-run-off tomorrow. Noem was also in Georgia last week Wednesday campaigning.

While Noem was away, South Dakota reported its 100,000th case of coronavirus. Let’s hope Noem’s incessant interstate travel to maskless, indoor events don’t bring more cases to our state or to Georgia or whatever states she visits next.

If you think Noem’s frequent absence from the state she’s supposed to be governing is unusual, you’re right. In a report on Noem’s gamble on letting coronavirus run its course, Jeremy Fugleberg tallies Noem’s absences in October and finds them unprecedented:

-snip-

Janklow, Mickelson, Miller, Rounds, Daugaard—for the most part, they hung around the Second Floor and did their jobs. Kristi Noem’s priorities are clearly different from those of her predecessors.

Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2021/01/04/noem-spends-multiple-days-in-georgia-out-of-state-more-often-than-predecessors/

Kristi Noem is the Sarah Palin of the Great Plains. Look at me!

January 5, 2021

Young Democrats Question GOP Silence over "Proud Boys" Participation in Sioux Falls Protest

As President-Elect Joe Biden said on the night of his official win in the Electoral College, the 2020 election was kept fair, free, and secure by patriotic Americans taking democracy seriously and counting ballots honestly and legally, not by armed racist thugs. We needed no guns to conduct a fair election.

Yet now as they lose their bully-in-chief, the Proud Boys and other armed goons are pretending to be freedom fighters when in fact they seek to destroy democracy. Some appeared in Sioux Falls Saturday to promote the fiction the dangerous fiction that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Outgoing Republican Speaker of the House Steven Haugaard attended this hate rally, and while the mainstream party blog has archly noted the Speaker’s attendance, the South Dakota Republican Party has not spoken out against these racist knuckleheads and their effort to brutalize our democracy.

Why so silent in the face of evil, Republicans? The Young Democrats of South Dakota would like to know:

Hanging around with members of violent terrorist groups, choosing economic convenience over saving lives in a pandemic… gee, Republicans, could you explain to me again how you’re the “pro-life” party?

http://dakotafreepress.com/2021/01/04/young-democrats-question-gop-silence-over-proud-boys-participation-in-sf-protest/
(no more at link)

January 5, 2021

No charges possible for priests after child sex abuse investigation, North Dakota AG says

BISMARCK — North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says that after a lengthy investigation, criminal charges won't be filed against any priests or other Catholic officials accused of sexually abusing children in the state.

The Bureau of Criminal Investigation found that two living priests could have faced criminal charges for allegedly abusing children. However, the statute of limitations has run out, Stenehjem said Monday, Jan. 4.

“I regret it will not be possible to have these men face their victims at a trial and face the potential consequences, but I hope it brings a measure of comfort to the victims that these crimes were eventually investigated,” Stenehjem said in a statement.

Stenehjem’s BCI spent 18 months reviewing files from the Fargo and Bismarck dioceses to determine whether criminal charges could be brought. Saturday, Jan. 2, marked the one-year anniversary of the two dioceses releasing their lists of 53 priests and other religious members who faced substantiated allegations of child sex abuse.

Read more: https://www.inforum.com/news/crime-and-courts/6826299-No-charges-possible-for-priests-after-child-sex-abuse-investigation-North-Dakota-AG-says

January 5, 2021

Grand Forks allows Red River Biorefinery to pump exceedingly polluted sewage for another 10 weeks

After another setback at Red River Biorefinery, Grand Forks city officials extended further a set of relaxed emissions standards for the plant.

Mayor Brandon Bochenski issued an emergency order on Monday to suspend for 60 days the “load parameters” for the sewage the plant pumps into the city’s wastewater system, and, a few hours later, Grand Forks City Council members voted unanimously to push that to a total of 10 weeks.

The reason for the extension is a bad batch of biomass that the plant uses for its sewage pretreatment system, according to City Administrator Todd Feland. The bad batch made that system less effective, which means “stronger” discharges into city sewers.

Company staff are already working to replace the problematic biomass, and estimate that it will take about 10 weeks to return the amount of pollutants and suspended solids the plant sends to the city’s water treatment plant to the levels outlined in its industrial use permit. Bochenski and Keshav Rajpal, the plant’s managing partner, did not immediately return Herald requests for comment on Monday night.

Read more: https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/government-and-politics/6827153-Grand-Forks-allows-Red-River-Biorefinery-to-pump-exceedingly-polluted-sewage-for-another-10-weeks

January 5, 2021

North Dakota to go from high to moderate COVID-19 risk

BISMARCK, N.D. – Gov. Doug Burgum announced Monday, Jan. 4 he will sign an amended executive order lowering North Dakota’s statewide risk level for COVID-19 from high risk (orange) to moderate risk (yellow) and increasing the capacity limits for restaurants, bars and gatherings as active cases and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have decreased in North Dakota.

Bars, restaurants and other food service establishments have been operating at up to 50 percent of their licensed seated capacity, not to exceed 150 patrons, since Nov. 16. The capacity limits were one of several mitigation measures announced Nov. 13 to slow the spread of COVID-19 as active cases and hospitalizations were peaking.

Under the amended executive order, these establishments will be able to start operating at 65 percent of licensed facility capacity, not to exceed 200 patrons, beginning 8 a.m. Jan. 8. Seating arrangements and tables must still allow for at least 6 feet of physical distance between individual parties; dance areas must be closed; service must be provided to seated patrons only; and masks must be worn by owners, managers and employees at all times, and by patrons except when eating or drinking.

In addition, banquet, ballroom and event venues, which have been limited to 25 percent capacity since Nov. 16, will be able to start operating at 50 percent capacity as of 8 a.m. Jan. 8, not to exceed the ND Smart Restart capacity limits, which will be updated later today.

Read more: https://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news_monitor/news/coronavirus/north-dakota-to-go-from-high-to-moderate-covid-19-risk/article_ee16efec-4ed8-11eb-ab1e-73c4181c9a23.html