2009

We don't have money to fix the roads, the monkeys need new crappers

.!.

Another letter writer points out the hypocrisy of our spending priorities in Sioux Falls;

I think that some of the money being spent to beautify our city should be used instead to fix our roads.

That’s the worst part about bad roads, the damage to our cars, it’s like being taxed extra when you have make repairs to your vehicle due to bad roads. Think the roads are bad in the comfort of your car, try hitting some of those cracks with your bicycle. One hole I hit was so bad it knocked everything out of my basket. I doubt that anyone is listening though at City Hall, gotta a legacy to build, people don’t remember a mayor who fixes potholes.

I won . . . Free Beer

JAZZFEST09A

From the SFJB,

Pollard, Ehrisman Winners of JazzFest T-shirt Contests

 

For the first time ever, the Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Society held a design competition to determine the volunteer shirt and official festival shirt for JazzFest 2009.

 

Mark Pollard, graphic designer and owner of Visual Solutions Group submitted the winning design for the festival’s official shirt which will be for sale at this year’s festival.  Pollard was going for a “vintage” look with his design.  “I think this festival will be going on for years and years to come, and I wanted to design a graphic that was simple and timeless,” he said about his work.

One True Thing trailer

 

Local graphic designer and visual artist, Scott Ehrisman was the winner of the volunteer t-shirt design, which was based on the Thelonious Monk quote, “Jazz is freedom.  You think about that.”  Volunteer t-shirts are free to each and every volunteer that works at the festival.  Over 800 volunteers work at JazzFest each year.  “We always try to integrate a quote or some kind of fun theme into the volunteer shirt this year,” says Katrina Lehr-McKinney, executive coordinator of the Jazz & Blues Society.  “This year’s quote by the great jazz pianist Thelonious Monk resonated with us, reminding us why jazz music is such an important part of America’s cultural heritage.”

 

The Jazz & Blues Society plans on holding more design contests to bring new opportunities for local visual artists in the community.

Secret Agent man and SD, what's the connection?

A reader emailed me this, I found the South Dakota connection interesting. What Up? Has any politicos heard of this guy? From the Huffington Post

An indictment and criminal complaint unsealed today in the District of Columbia charge Walter Kendall Myers, 72, a.k.a. “Agent 202,” and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, a.k.a. “Agent 123,” and “Agent E-634,” with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government and to communicate classified information to the Cuban government. Each of the defendants is also charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Cuban government and with wire fraud.

According to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Kendall Myers began his work at the State Department in 1977, initially serving as a contract instructor at the Department’s Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in Arlington, Va. After living briefly in South Dakota, he returned to Washington, D.C., and resumed employment as an instructor with FSI. From 1988 to 1999, in addition to his FSI duties, he performed periodic work for the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR).

Kendall Myers later began working full-time at the INR and, from July 2001 until his retirement in October 2007, he was a senior analyst for Europe for INR, where he specialized in intelligence analysis on European matters and had daily access to classified information through computer databases and otherwise. He received a Top Secret security clearance in 1985 and, in 1999, his clearance was upgraded to Top Secret / SCI.

Gwendolyn Myers moved to Washington, D.C., in 1980 and married Kendall Myers in May 1982. She later obtained employment with a local bank as an administrative analyst and later as a special assistant. Gwendolyn Myers was never granted a security clearance by the U.S. government.

Recruitment:

According to the affidavit, Kendall Myers traveled to Cuba in December 1978 after receiving an invitation from an official who served at the Cuban Mission to the United States in New York City. His guide while in Cuba was an official with Cuba’s Foreign Service Institute. This trip provided the Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS) with the opportunity to assess or develop Myers as a Cuban agent, according to the affidavit.

Approximately six months after the trip, the Myers were visited in South Dakota by the official from the Cuban Mission in New York and, according to the affidavit, Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers agreed to serve as clandestine agents of the Cuban government. Afterwards, the CuIS directed Kendall Myers to pursue a job at either the State Department or the CIA. Kendall Myers, accompanied by his wife, then returned to Washington, D.C., where he resumed contract work at the State Department and later obtained a State Department position that required a Top Secret security clearance.