South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

l3wis

Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Smithfield

The Piggies are coming home to roost for Smithfield

l3wis 8Comments

I was hearing rumors about this during the covid shutdown that Smithfield had a large inventory of product at a cold storage unit in town with Chinese labeling, apparently it was very true;

Even as Smithfield warned of a meat shortage, the company was exporting pork outside of the country, the complaint said.

The lawsuit also cited government data, which showed the US pork inventory in cold storage “was well into the hundreds of millions of pounds.” Analysts estimated such an inventory would keep grocery stores supplied for “months,” the lawsuit stated.

“Smithfield’s public messaging amounted to a scaremongering campaign, exploiting consumer fear about food insecurity,” FWW said in the complaint. “These statements, however, were misleading, deceptive, and contradicted by the facts.”

Just more lies from Trump/Noem/TenHaken B.S. factory to keep people working in an unsafe work environment.

If I was Mayor Behindcloseddoors I would have a meeting with Wholestone in devising a way to shutdown the Communist Packing Stinkhole and transfer the workers to a locally owned packing company that doesn’t stink up our town everytime there is a light breeze.

We will see how long it takes the local yocal media to cover this.

SFPD Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Sioux Falls PO looks the other way while kid urinates near bike trail

l3wis 8Comments

Just in case any superior officer with the force is reading this, it occurred around 6:30 PM tonight at Cherry Rock park with an officer on an ATV.

As I was riding by the ball fields tonight at Cherry Rock park I noticed a game going on, to my surprise only a couple hundred feet from the portable bathroom a player about 10-12 years old (who should know better) in his full baseball uniform and hat had his wang out and was peeing right along the trail, as I yelled at him to knock if off while riding by, he just laughed and continued, at that moment I looked over and an officer on an ATV talking to a parent looked over as I pointed at the kid, he just turned around and continued to talk to a parent.

Urinating in public, next to a baseball game and near a bike trail wouldn’t you think the officer would have said something? Nope. Apparently it is OK to urinate in a public park as long as you are wearing a youth sports uniform (I told you that is all people care about in this town).

Ironically, after I did my downtown loop, I did see the same ATV cop chasing some transients out from under the Cliff Avenue bridge, so he does have his priorities. None of them were urinating . . . yet.

I never want anyone ever to tell me to my face that our cops are overworked and underpaid, because it is complete B.S.!

1st Amendment

Detroit’s Journal

l3wis 3Comments

Okay, I am taking a page from Ms. Schwan, but this column is not about her, just about my personal feelings lately. I think pride month is a perfect time to reflect on them. I love all my rainbow friends, know I love you.

For the record, I am NOT a father or intend to be, but those that are, happy ties.

Lately the right wing radio sh!t show has decided to attack ‘Woke Culture’ and we will get to that in a moment, but as I reminded friends the other night, getting rid of the ‘R’ word was a successful campaign, because it was played out well, I can’t say that for the current state of woke.

I don’t care if you are queer, had an abortion, smoked pot or ran a stop sign. The great part about America is we get to try things. Sometimes more than once.

I have to tell you that I am not confused by the ACA, BLM or the Proud Boys. I get it, but the woke culture really gets under my skin.

If you are offended maybe you should just stay home. I understand your grievances when it comes to someone saying something you are offended by, that’s life learn from it. My favorite founding father, Ben Franks said it best;

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

I would not want to live in that world, and you should not want to either.

Donita Trump Noem Kristi Noem Marijuana recreational

Noem’s fight against Rec Jane has nothing to do with ‘saving the children’

l3wis 6Comments

The real reason I supported decriminalizing recreational marijuana in South Dakota had nothing to do with me wanting to suck on a bong all day, my main argument besides the extra tax revenue which can be used for infrastructure and education is that it would save taxpayers millions each year in costs associated with justice and incarceration for possessing and ingesting a plant.

The real fight that our Governor has launched has very little to do with saving the kids but protecting the massive private prison contractors;

The largest private prison corporations, Core Civic and GEO Group, collectively manage over half of the private prison contracts in the United States with combined revenues of $3.5 billion as of 2015.

It is estimated that around 1 million people in this country are incarcerated for minor drug/non-violent offenses, and all that farting around with arresting pot heads is costing us;

The costs of this national obsession, in both money and time, are astonishing. Each year, enforcing laws on possession costs more than $3.6 billion, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Don’t be fooled by Noem’s message that she is trying to protect your children, this is about big money and big business. I have argued one of the main reasons employers are struggling right now to find workers is because many of these workers that are qualified can’t pass background checks due to felony drug convictions for minor possession.

I will say this, if Rec becomes legal in South Dakota (I give the Feds under 5 years to decriminalize it) I am not suggesting anyone who hasn’t tried it before to take up the hobby. Believe it or not, Mary Jane is popular because it works (gets you high) and has very few side effects. In other words, it is kind of harmless. But the major benefit from decriminalization, whether you use or not, is that it will save taxpayers a boat load of money, and the private prison contractors are not very happy about it (and neither are the lawyers).

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council SFPD Sioux Falls

Lincoln, NE Police Chief inquiry includes input from the Public, a National Search and recognizing Experience and Diversity

l3wis 24Comments

Sioux Falls is often compared to Lincoln due to similarities in size (they have about 100K more people). Recently they started a search for a new police chief. The first thing they did was engage the public before the search even started asking them in a public forum what they wanted in a new chief. They also performed a National search in which 3 of the 4 finalists come from other states, and only one candidate is internal (currently a retired Captain from the force). They also have tons of experience (Between 20-30 years) and notice that TWO are women and THREE are minority.

I’m not saying Sioux Falls should do identical to what Lincoln did, but it is obvious they put a little effort into it, instead of turning on the cruise control. Often when I am critical of our city government I will bring up openness, ethics and competency. This contrast between Lincoln and Sioux Falls blatantly shows how we have a ‘go it alone’ attitude instead of learning from other communities. One of the reasons we send our elected officials to national governing conferences is to learn from other communities (and I am NOT talking about that right-winger conference Neitzert went to) I’m talking about non-partisan events like National League of Cities.

The contrast between how Lincoln did this and how we did this is startling, and frankly pretty embarrassing.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

Harrisburg School District Open Government Open Meetings

Did the city of Harrisburg violate open meeting laws?

Bonita Schwan

Personal Privilege

1st Amendment Mayor TenHaken Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE II: Mayor TenHaken continues to cut off public inputers

abortion Cartoon

Making a Buck while sticking it to Women