South DaCola

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Governor Rounds

City Administration Building Corona Virus Employment Governor Rounds Mayor TenHaken Rounds Sioux Falls Unemployment

I have been suggesting since 2016 that City of Sioux Falls administrative staff work from home

l3wis 4Comments

One of my biggest arguments against building a new administrative building was that many city employees who do administrative duties could work from home and would probably save the city millions of dollars a year.

Many of my friends have worked from home for years. In 2009 I used to work for a financial company as the Creative Director, before we closed due to asset selloff, I was preparing to work from home 3 days a week, and was excited about the possibility.

Even farther back than that, when Governor Rounds was being ribbed about having a state airline fleet, it was suggested to him to do more teleconferencing instead of flying places for meetings.

I also find it ironic that the mayor has been urging employers to have employees to work from home when he has done similar to Rounds and has flown all over the country and even the world for ‘meetings’ he could have done via Skype from the comfort of his office, also saving tax dollars.

I hope if something good comes from this pandemic, it is that employers invest in having their employees work from home. Not only is it less stressful and makes employees happier, it would save millions in capital expenses such as large facilities to house these people. It would also save the employees money because many would not have to get expensive childcare. And happier employees have less health problems.

Working from home is a great idea that has been going on for decades in this country, it’s time to expand this option to more workers in our community. It will keep people safer, it will save money and more importantly it will save jobs. It’s too bad it took a horrible pandemic to get employers to look at this option.

Governor Rounds Rounds

Is Marion Mike Rounds running for re-election?

l3wis 8Comments

I have been saying for a long time that he is not. These rumors got started when Dusty Johnson had a cow over Borglum running against Rounds in the primary. At the time, the assumptions going around were that Rounds would NOT run and Dusty would run for that seat while TenHaken or someone else would run for Congress. There seems to be a lot of ‘grooming’ going on.

There is also the obvious, Jean Rounds’ continued health issues (which I’m sure would be part of the reason he decides to not run – even though I think the plan was floated before she got ill).

Many have been wondering though about his continued fundraising? There is a simple solution to that, he can transfer those funds to anyone else, so why would he NOT continue to fundraise?

But what if he does run in the primary and wins, but decides to drop out after that? I’m not sure how the rules would work, but I think the SD GOP delegates could pick a candidate, and if they were smart, they would choose the candidate who came in second in the Republican primary. But that may NOT be the case.

Ethically, most would say Rounds would drop out before the primary, but this guy hasn’t had an ethical bone in his body his entire time as a public servant, so I would not put it past him to run and win the primary than drop out. I have often felt that Rounds was more corrupt than Janklow by two-fold. He had many scandals throughout his governorship and it shocked my he got elected to the Senate to begin with.

But some wonder why he would not run again. There are some pretty obvious reasons besides Jean’s health. Rounds doesn’t like DC and has a very large family he is not seeing as much as he would like. It’s also a long term, 6 years. It’s hard to make plans for the future when have those kind of terms. He got some legislation thru he wanted that benefits his private insurance business. And lastly, Marion Mike Rounds does what is good for him, that is why he is such a devote fan of Trump. While Thune-Bag and Howdy Doody sometimes waiver on their support for Donny, Rounds is always quick to defend him.

Mike got what he wanted out of his Senate seat, and now he is ready to boot scoot along. Maybe this will give him time to explain to us how you can shoot yourself using a shotgun and a 5-foot branch.

If he does drop out, it will be one of my better political predictions in a very long time.

Governor Rounds

Either former Gov. Mike Rounds is incompetent, in denial, stupid or all three when it comes to the EB-5 investigations

l3wis 26Comments

Bosworth-Cardboard-Rounds-by-Bob-Ellis-Dakota-Voice-20131121

I’m just a cardboard cutout, how could I have known Richard Benda was pulling a fast one? Why don’t you ask him? Wait he’s dead. Oh darn.

You can HEAR & READ all about the EB-5 investigations to your heart’s content, but I’m not buying Round’s story of ignorance;

“One of the documents in question is the letter of authorization that basically said that they could receive a Future Fund payment for construction costs had been changed slightly and it had a different date on it than the one I authorized,” Rounds said.

It’s pretty easy to take Rounds’ word on this? Right? Because our chief witness is dead. Benda, who was originally hired in 1979(?) by another dead guy, Bill Janklow.

While I am NOT sure that no criminal charges against Rounds can be brought up, with the whole document altering and such, one has to own up a bit about ‘what Mike knew.’

• While a document manipulation can certainly go under the radar of the Governor’s office, you can’t tell me ‘other’ (alive) people are not involved.

• Who cut the check to the SDRC? Isn’t that the job of the auditor and treasurer? Why didn’t they inform Rounds about the check?

• There obviously would have been a lot of legal commentary that goes with such a contract? No one in the AG’s office questioned these fees?

• No one in the GOED office, auditor’s office, SDRC office, heck, the freaking Post Office, told the Rounds administration that they thought this payment was a little suspicious?

• Richard Benda (who is conveniently dead) masterminded this whole scam on his own? No help from anyone? No oversight? No whistle-blowers? No patsies? Nothing. Zilch. Zero?

My speculative conclusion is this on the EB-5 programs;

Rounds might have known what happened after the fact and failed to investigate or inform Federal authorities. While manipulating his signed documents is certainly out of his control, knowing about something that was possibly illegal after the crime is committed and not telling authorities, then you have a problem. “Because, like, you were in charge and all of the state, like, you were the governor, man.” (sorry, that was my best ‘Dude’ impression)

All I can say, is let’s hope my speculation is wrong, would hate to see (another) former governor go to jail. No worries Mike, probably only get a 99 days. It’s not like you killed a man, governors only get a 100 days for that.

governor 2010 Governor Mark Sanford Governor Moose Drool Governor Rick Perry Governor Rounds Governor Sean Parnell

Oligopolies

l3wis 13Comments

Not sure what to think of this;

A former University of South Dakota law professor announced Friday that he plans to run for governor as an independent candidate.

Mike Myers taught health care law and elder law at USD for 23 years. He also worked in the early 1960s for the Argus Leader and the Sioux City Journal.

But it’s in health care where Myers has his most significant experience. He was CEO of Mayo-St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minn., and an executive with other hospitals.

Myers has been an outspoken critic of the vertically integrated health systems reflected by Sanford Health and Avera McKennan, which he called “oligopolies.” And he said that health care and criticism of “corporate medicine” will be the crux of his campaign.

The Dems would be smart to get behind him and not have a candidate of their own. The amazing part is he is about 900x smarter then our current governor, and has given the middle finger to the political party system.

This will be fun. Dennis better get out his cod piece.

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