April 2017
What are Sioux Falls taxpayers paying in legal fees? Good question.
As you know, the Argus Leader is embroiled in a Supreme Court case with the city over a secret settlement involving the siding on the Events Center. The city has also been involved with class action suits in recent years which involved millions in settlements, but for some reason, we as taxpayers have no idea how much the city spends on these lawsuits, yet in Rapid City, they not only give us the numbers, they even conclude they may lose the case.
Over that time, the city has spent $374,200 on legal fees. Now, after deciding to appeal a Jan. 27 ruling by a Pennington County jury that absolved Big Sky LLC of any responsibility for the roads, the city expects to sink another $10,000 to $20,000 into a legal battle with an uncertain outcome against a development company that its owner says has no money.
And I think this is a good comparison. Rapid City is a SD city, and the second largest in the State. So why do they see no problem and no legal ramifications with offering this information to their fine citizens, but for some reason we won’t do it in Sioux Falls?
Detroit Lewis DOC review; Traceroute
Besides the fact TRACEROUTE has won numerous indie doc awards and has gotten fantastic reviews, you don’t have to be a Nerd or into Nerd culture to enjoy this film, in fact it may get you to understand it more.
What makes TR great is that it is hilarious. Not rolling on the ground, crying, trying to catch your breath funny. But constantly laughing in your head because of the constant comedic comments by the director, producer, writer and and narrator Johannes Grenzfurthner.
“You can’t make fun of LA, it’s beyond parody, like Henry Kissinger receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.”
And while Johannes is covering a topic that has been covered a million times before, he brings originality to the film, by making fun of mundane documentaries, by filming this like a mundane documentary. (oh, and on a personal note, they stop at the Henry Miller museum in Big Sur, a place I have been).
You will either really like this DOC, or you will be cursing me for wasting 2 hours of your life. Oh well.
Traceroute is a 2016 Austrian/American documentary film directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner. The autobiographical documentary and road movie deals with the history, politics and impact of nerd culture. Grenzfurthner calls his film a “personal journey into the uncharted depths of nerd culture, a realm full of dangers, creatures and more or less precarious working conditions”,[1] an attempt to “chase the ghosts of nerddom’s past, present and future.”[2] The film was co-produced by art group monochrom and Reisenbauer Film. It features music by Kasson Crooker, Hans Nieswandt, and many others.
Cartoons from the Past (2006?)
Some things never change
Baby Monitor Annexation Sioux Falls, 4/11/2017
Once again our esteemed Sioux Falls city administrators have bungled an event. If da mayor ain’t there, the kids even screw up the use of the only recording device they are allowed to play with, the city’s baby monitor. Do they think we will not notice their lack of transparency? How does da mayor think it’s alright to take away property rights as long as they do it with a baby monitor?
We have a prime example of why we bring our Handicams to Sioux Falls city meetings. If the administration isn’t physically assaulting citizens who attend meetings they are doing it to their sensibilities. This meeting was called after Council members started rejecting the illegal manner the Sioux Falls Planning and Zoning department was pushing through annexations.
• First the meeting was held at 2:00pm on a Tuesday when citizens can’t leave work.
• Next the meeting is planned for the downtown main library where everyone who attends has to pay about $1.50 in parking meter fees, and $10 for a ticket.
• While they were at it, they originally set up a room for 25 people, as if they could hold it in secrecy or in a room so small the peeps would just leave when they couldn’t get in.
• Who on God’s green earth thought this was a good idea, to use the room without microphones and the overhead speaker system? It is one of the worst rooms to hear anything in.
• To make the event very transparent, da mayor of all mayors needed the CityLink cameras for a retirement BFF ceremony in City Hall, so the kids who put on this meeting got only one baby monitor to record the event.
You can kind of guess by now, we showed up and so did about 200 more because Councilor Theresa Stehly let those affected by the 60+ annexation issues know the meetings were happening. The room had to be increased and it was still standing room only with people outside the door trying to get in.
In the end, the baby monitor failed just like the event planners. This is the only full recording of the event. Cameraman Bruce thanks the Sioux Falls citizens who showed up with their own recorders and caught the action he was not able to. The April 11, 2017 library meeting was a joke in so many ways but the citizens were there in such force the powers that pretend to be, had to pay attention.
Theresa Stehly the citizens thank you for your hard work. If not for your hard work talking to people ahead of time, this meeting would have been a sham like so many others.