August 2024

UPDATE: Glad I could be of assistance

UPDATE: It was brought to my attention yesterday that the main reason the city is nervous about the elimination of the food tax is it will affect their bond rating which will hamper the city’s ability to bond for play palaces. While this should be concerning to the citizens because it will also affect borrowing for stuff we need like sewer plants, it is really about the bonding companies, or should we say the ONLY bonding company in SD, losing revenue, and they are doing summer salts trying to stop this.

ALSO, a local seasoned journalist reached out to me after reading this post and AGREED that most of the supposed journalists in town are out to lunch.

One of my favorite things to do is to post something that I know the local media doesn’t have a clue about then wait about 12-24 hours while the media crafts a story around one of my blog posts. Which I updated yesterday at 2 PM but was originally posted late Tuesday night. My first comment was Wednesday morning at 8 AM, long before our local MSM even gets out of bed.

I do always check the local MSM sites to see if any of them have reported it, and if so, HOW? Half the time they beat me to the punch, but leave out important details.

I also ‘LIFT’ from the local media, but NOT to get the news story, just to editorialize it, so THANK YOU.

I want you to know, this ain’t hard hitting journalism, I am an editorial blogger and could care less who covers what. I simply dropped a text to a councilor and they told me what was going on, heck, I even sent the text while riding bike.

What I find ironic is our lazy butt journalists in this town will IGNORE my leads or go TATTLE TALE to the administration and help them cover something up, like perjured campaign forms at the School District, then wait for Detroit to post something then try to create their own BS story around my blog post. Just look at KELOLAND’s story, I might as well have wrote it for them!

Here are some more ‘LIFTS’.

ARGUS

PIGEON605

I think it is sad that three of the largest media groups in SF decided just to wait while that Toad at DaCola posts something. How do I know they are ‘lifting’? Because I have gotten texts within minutes of a post from some local journalists asking me questions.

So while I am a whiner, it also seems I am a pretty good source for your drivel.

Next time you want to ‘lift’ something from me, why not drop me a line and find out what I ‘really’ know. I often tell folks about 75% of my leads never get posted because I can’t get the local media to help me dig around.

Do you guys get paychecks? It makes me wonder sometime if these folks are volunteers because they ain’t working real hard.

The City of Sioux Falls lacks transparency? Get out!

I really enjoyed this article about the new arts coordinator for the city. She really does have a ton of experience and is a good fit for the job. But it was this remark that made me smirk;

In her conversations locally, “there’s been a need for transparency, an understanding of how arts decisions are made at a city level, who makes them and why they’re made,” Engel said.

“I think there’s a real desire to have an understanding of how those processes happen, and that’s fair, and I have a lot of understanding of that. The last thing I want is for the arts community to not have clarity around how creative decisions are made or if there are opportunities for them.”

Maybe you need to have this conversation with your boss first before you have it with the community? Because I don’t trust anybody who censors art.

UPDATE: Mayor ‘Kick the Can’ does it again

UPDATE: As several peeps have told me the real reason to hold off Aquatics bond is to scare people into voting against the food tax cut. They will make the argument we can’t have ‘nice things’ if the food tax cut passes. This is a slimy political game, but not surprising. Paul is a political hack and has always been one. If you handed me the budget book and gave me 4 hours I could cut $200 million from next year’s budget and NO ONE in this town would miss that money. Why? Because it is spent on play things, non deserving non-profits and bailouts to developers. Do what the rest of us do when you have less revenue coming in . . . you SPEND LESS! It’s called ‘budgeting’. Wonder if the city has ever heard of this?

I often tell folks there is ONE thing TenHaken is good at, kicking the can. In fact, I am guessing instead of jumping jacks he plays kick the can with the kids during his Mayoral PE classes.

The city council was supposed to have an informational today, but it was canceled. So I texted a city councilor to see what was up, they said;

The administration has decided to delay the aquatics bond until after the general election. One reason cited was uncertainty over the sales tax and the grocery tax effect on revenue, if it is eliminated.

Which is interesting considering cities will still have the ability to charge sales taxes on food. It also makes you wonder where the city’s finances are now and if they are just going to squander the money for the Riverline District.

Either/or, this is really bad leadership considering the hours staff, consultants, volunteers, councilors, etc. have spent on this project.

So when Paul is faced with a challenge, he puts on his sh!t kickers and kicks that can down the road, because as he would say, “I’m over it.”

Why do some British people not like Donald Trump? By Nate White

This guy described DT in just a few paragraphs. Golden.

“A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.”

Lincoln County Commissioner Joel Arends schools the Sioux Falls City Council on growth plans

Trust me, Mr. Arends and I do NOT see eye to eye on many political things, but when it comes to joint jurisdiction, I hear him. During the joint county meeting tonight he basically told the council they are trying to take control of an area (joint jurisdiction) where the constituents in that jurisdiction can only vote for county commissioners but NOT city councilors (out of city limits). As Joel said it, ‘taxation without representation.’ After his mini rant the city council really didn’t know how to react. Not sure what the heck the Planning Director was talking about. In my humble political opinion there should be NO joint jurisdiction areas. You either are in the county fully or the city fully or both. Those are your 3 choices. I don’t think the city council should have ANY authority over someone who doesn’t live in the city limits.