South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2009

Open Government Open Meetings

Open records with Exceptions? What’s so ‘open’ about that?

l3wis 0Comments

Good luck getting this door open.

Senator Knudson is wasting his time if he thinks their needs to be exceptions;

This year, the presumption of openness bill is being written by Senate Republican Leader Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls.  He says the legislation will presume government records are open and will contain a list of specific exceptions.

Chuck Baldwin, a journalist in residence in the Contemporary Media and Journalism Department at the University of South Dakota, says the exceptions in the pending bill will determine its quality.

Or it’s viability. Federal law already protects citizens personal information from being shared, such as Social Security numbers. Either write and pass a bill with some teeth in it, or don’t bother. This is just more showboating by another Republican running for governor in 2010.

Art

Cut tourism and fund the arts

l3wis 6Comments

I saw artist Andrew Wyeth’s exhibit ‘Helga’ in Omaha a few years back. It changed everything I knew about art, and further proves that an arts education is important to our growth as a society.

The other day I was on the fence about cutting arts funding, but as more information funneled in, I changed my mind. A majority of the almost $700,000 dollars goes towards education.

Robert Joyce (Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Society) sums it up in an email;

In addition, that 86 cents for each citizen sent 26 artists to 162 schools for 231 weeks, bringing arts opportunities to 35,000 South Dakota young people.

Arts education is extremly important. Students who combine an arts education (music, dance or visual) with math and science do better than students who don’t. A lot better. An extensive study done in Chicago a fews years back showed that an arts education produced students who are not only faster at understanding math and science problems, they are better critical and creative thinkers and usually breeze through college and get better paying jobs.

So why does Rounds want to cut arts funding? Who knows? Trying to figure out his clowning around with the budget would make someone sick to their stomach. The silly part about the cut is that it is so minimal, you would think he has an axe to grind with the SDAC? Maybe he does? I’m not a fan of the organization (a very long story), but I do support arts education, this isn’t about the who runs SDAC, it’s about the kids.

The money could come out of the very lucrative tourism budget without even impacting them one bit (An ad agency employee may lose their job, but oh well).

Cut a few Deadwood Casino ads, and fund arts education. It’s important.

Uncategorized

Our Governor; on a ‘need to know’ basis

l3wis 1Comments

Mr. Ed Rounds informing us about his version of open government. Let’s just put it this way; it gets scooped out with the hay.

Sometimes you know deep down inside that something is true, but until you hear it from the horses mouth, it doesn’t really sink in.

“Government requires individuals and businesses to provide a significant amount of information,” Rounds said in an interview. “I don’t think we should, as a matter of fact or as a matter of policy, release that information that is proprietary or confidential unless there’s a good reason to.”

Well, Mike, I don’t think you should be governor, as a matter of fact.

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Uncategorized

Talk about padding your resume

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