Behind Govt Lines

• My favorite thing about the governor's budget address

  ...is his pronounciation of years the way they should be — "twenty-ten" or "twenty-eleven." The cumbersome "two thousand and three" style was passable for the first couple years of this decade, but there's no reason we should pronounce years in the third millenium AD any differently than we do dates [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 4:29pm EST
  

• Requirements for overriding the education formula?

  One of the most controversial proposals in Gov. Rounds' budget talk today is his call for no per-student increase for education. That means overriding the formula that calls for an increase of 3 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. One question that comes to mind is what's [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 5:03pm EST
  

• Heidepriem found

  Senate Minority Leader Scott Heidepriem was on my list of people to interview for reactions after Gov. Mike Rounds' budget speech today — but he was nowhere to be found. I tracked him down by phone this afternoon for his reaction (coming soon), but I got his explanation for why' [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 5:03pm EST
  

• Observations from the Capitol

  Things I've noticed while watching Gov. Rounds' budget address: [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 5:03pm EST
  

• Highlights from Rounds' budget address

  Gov. Rounds is beginning his speech to the Legislature right now. Here's a few highlights of what he's going to say: [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 5:03pm EST
  

• Highlights from Rounds' budget address

  Gov. Rounds is beginning his speech to the Legislature right now. Here's a few highlights of what he's going to say: [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 1:37pm EST
  

• Rounds: More money for Medicaid, less for everything else

  Here's my story for tomorrow about Rounds' budget:' [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 7:23pm EST
  

• Updated: Rep. Deadrick announces for Secretary of State

  I just got an email announcement from Rep. Tom Deadrick, R-Platte, announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State. I haven't been paying much attention yet to the constitutional office races, so I don't know from my memory and a quick Googling if Deadrick is alone in [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 12:33pm EST
  

• Updated: Rep. Deadrick announces for Secretary of State

  I just got an email announcement from Rep. Tom Deadrick, R-Platte, announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State. I haven't been paying much attention yet to the constitutional office races, so I don't know from my memory and a quick Googling if Deadrick is alone in [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 11:01pm EST
  

• South Dakota's delegation on Obama's speech

  President Barack Obama tonight addressed the nation about his strategy for the war in Afghanistan and the temporary troop increase he's proposing to accomplish that. You can read it here. [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 10:43pm EST
  

• Updated: Tea party protest, South Dakota-style

  PIERRE — Tea parties? So East Coast. Here in Pierre, conservative activists are organizing a protest against Obama administration policies they’re calling South Dakota’s New Pony Congress. [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:12pm EST
  

• Tea party protest, South Dakota-style

  PIERRE — Tea parties? So East Coast. Here in Pierre, conservative activists are organizing a protest against Obama administration policies they’re calling South Dakota’s New Pony Congress. [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 5:41pm EST
  

• Declining schools

  At last Friday's gubernatorial forum on education, candidates Scott Munsterman, Ken Knuppe and Scott Heidepriem all declared their opposition to the 100-student minimum size for school districts to avoid consoldiation. (Dave Knudson is a supporter of the provision.) In today's New York Times, there's a story of a state with [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 7:15pm EST
  

• Road-sign primary update

  I'm writing this from Minneapolis, one stop on my trip home for Thanksgiving. I'll take advantage of the week off to clear out my notes with some older interviews. In the meantime, two observations from my drive east on U.S. Highway 14: the highway patrol is very active around Huron, [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:23pm EST
  

• UPDATED: The people who has been waiting for?

  UPPDATED: Bob Mercer informs me that the phrase, in it's "we are the ones" variant, was first used by poet June Jordan in her 1980 "Poem for South African Women." Since then, it's been broadly adopted, including by Rev. Jim Wallis in a 2004 speech at Stanford, author Alice Walker [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 7:01pm EST
  

• Gubernatorial candidates pledge support for K-12 education

  [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:45pm EST
  

• The people who has been waiting for?

  I just got out of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota education forum with gubernatorial candidates. I'll have a story on that sometime tonight on this blog, but I wanted to take a break to momentarily address a quirk from ex-Brookings mayor Scott Munsterman's speech tonight. Here's how he' [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 9:54pm EST
  

• Web TV for political junkies

  Marc Ambinder's blog recently flagged Zolitics.com for me — a newly launched Internet TV network devoted to "the entertaining side of politics." Started by a bipartisan group of political consultants — including Republican media consultant John Brabender (alum of Giuliani, Ridge, and Santorum, among others) and Democratic media consultant Tad [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 4:04pm EST
  

• In the dead tree edition: Gubernatorial preview

  I started working on a story introducing the gubernatorial race six weeks ago (and in the case of some of the interviews that went into it, six months ago), but today it finally ran, along with the graphic I made for it. [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:34am EST
  

• Gubernatorial candidates to talk education in Pierre

  The election is still six months away, but the gubernatorial campaign is in full swing. Four of the six declared major-party gubernatorial candidates will be in Pierre Friday for a forum focusing on K-12 education. [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:34am EST
  

• Johnson backs Herseth Sandlin against liberal critics

  Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin has been taking a lot of heat from progressive groups for her vote against the House health care reform bill. But one prominent South Dakota supporter of health care reform gave his backing to Herseth Sandlin Wednesday — Sen. Tim Johnson. [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:12am EST
  

• More press for Thune

  Pivoting off David Brooks' declaration of Sen. John Thune as a future big name in the Republican Party, Washington Post reporter/blogger Chris Cilizza today annointed Thune as his official dark-horse pick for the 2012 nomination.' [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:55am EST
  

• Who's the 2009 Person of the Year?

  Every year, Time Magazine famously declares a "person of the year" who had an outsized influence or symbolic value given the year's events. But unlike least year, when Barack Obama dominated the year's news literally from the beginning (the Iowa Caucuses) to the end (winning the election), this year there [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:19am EST
  

• Science in Hollywood!

  If you pay close attention in Roland Emmerich's new world-destruction film "2012", you'll see a little bit of science.' [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 10:46am EST
  

• David Brooks lauds Thune

  I've been arguing for some time that John Thune should be on the radar as a 2012 dark horse, as he has become more vocal and risen through the Republican leadership ranks in the Senate. Now New York Times columnist David Brooks — a center-right wonk — devoted his entire' [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 1:11pm EST
  

• Liberal group targets Herseth Sandlin for health care vote

  Pressure is building on moderates from both sides as the health care debate races toward a climactic showdown, and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin isn't getting off the hook.' [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 2:47pm EST
  

• Liberal group targets Herseth Sandlin for health care vote

  Pressure is building on moderates from both sides as the health care debate races toward a climactic showdown, and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin isn't getting off the hook.' [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 11:09am EST
  

• View from the left: "I'm (now) a Nelson guy"

  My newsroom debating partner on political issues is Capital Journal sports editor Josh Linehan, a liberal Democrat who volunteered for Barack Obama and who supports robust health care reform. After Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin announced she would vote against the health care reform bill being considered in the House, Josh [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 4:16pm EST
  

• Herseth Sandlin on the politics of health care reform

  Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin said her decision to oppose the current version of health care reform was influenced by discussions with constituents — but not by organized protests or concerns about her reelection. [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 1:34pm EST
  

• Herseth Sandlin to vote against House health care reform bill

  Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin announced Friday she will oppose the health care reform legislation being voted on by the House of Representatives Saturday — but said she hopes to be able to vote yes on future versions of the bill if changes she wants are made. [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 12:27pm EST
  

• The soul of the Republican party

  Three big elections are going on today that will inevitably be interpreted as a referendum on President Barack Obama: gubernatorial contests in Virginia (almost certainly a Republican win) and New Jersey (something of a tossup), and a congressional race in northern New York. [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 12:34pm EST
  

• Anatomy of a talking point

  My article in today's paper checked in with South Dakota's Congressional delegation on health care reform negotiations — and, thanks to an NPR interview, got Gov. Mike Rounds in, too. [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 3:58pm EDT
  

• Gov. Rounds to appear on NPR this afternoon

  Gov. Mike Rounds will be discussing health care reform on NPR's All Things Considered this afternoon. The exact time his segment will appear is unknown, but his spokesman says it should be sometime between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 4:37pm EDT
  

• Thune slams stimulus bill as ineffective

  Sen. John Thune acknowledged that the $800 billion federal stimulus package has done some good but said Wednesday that he believes the bill has by and large been wasteful and ineffective. [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 12:40pm EDT
  

• Hunting season in South Dakota

  While hopping from site to site online yesterday, I stumbled across a scanned comic strip from the 1980s comic strip Bloom County that's quite apt to both our current frenzied political environment and hunting season: [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 11:34am EDT
  

• "So some cow passes air and I can't eat a cheeseburger?"

  Over the past week, I've been getting back in touch with one of my favorite childhood TV shows — the science-fiction adventure drama SeaQuest DSV. Essentially Star Trek in a submarine, the 1993-1996 series takes place in the year 2018, in a world where humanity has colonized the sea and' [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 12:19am EDT
  

• Obama highlights South Dakota in wind energy speech

  South Dakota in the news — In a speech today at a solar energy plant in Florida, President Barack Obama highlighted South Dakota's potential for wind energy: [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 2:05pm EDT
  

• One day, two candidates

  As a political junkie, Monday was the kind of day I love — both my stories were about political events. And despite that fact that one of them got much more prominent play in the print edition due to having good photos, both are interesting stories. [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 12:42am EDT
  

• Herseth Sandlin: position on public option "complex"

  Republicans jumped on Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin today after former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean's Web site reported Herseth Sandlin as a "yes" vote in favor of a public option in health care. [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 1:08pm EDT
  

• New bill reforms veterans' funding

  Each year, Congress takes longer and longer to pass its annual budget. As deadlines approach, Congress has taken to passing "continuing resolutions" which extend the previous year's funding until they can pass a new budget. It's not a pleasant process for government agencies trying to make their budgets — and it's' [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 12:49pm EDT
  

• Health care and Medicare reimbursement

  My article today in the print edition of the Capital Journal looks at a really interesting — and really complex — debate in Congress about fixing a set of automatic pay cuts to Medicare physician payments. In the confines of that article, I didn't get to get into one of' [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 12:55am EDT
  

• Thune and Rounds on interstate insurance competition

  The tough part about doing this blog is getting behind. I pile up lots of great material, but because I have to do my writing for the print edition first, sometimes stuff gets left behind — stuff that'd make good posts. But I never throw any of my notes away,' [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 12:53am EDT
  

• Roberto Lange confirmed 100-0 as U.S. District Judge

  A press release from Sen. Tim Johnson's office announces that Sioux Falls attorney Roberto Lange has been confirmed as U.S. District Judge for South Dakota by a 100-0 vote in the Senate. [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 2:13pm EDT
  

• Climate change heterodoxy

  One of the most interesting things about Freakonomics authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner is their willingness to buck orthodoxy and come to counterintuitive conclusions by careful analysis of data. In their original bestseller, for example, Levitt and Dubner famously argued that a big reason why crime rates dropped in [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 1:10am EDT
  

• Climate change heterodoxy

  One of the most interesting things about Freakonomics authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner is their willingness to buck orthodoxy and come to counterintuitive conclusions by careful analysis of data. In their original bestseller, for example, Levitt and Dubner famously argued that a big reason why crime rates dropped in [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 12:14am EDT
  

• Climate change heterodoxy

  One of the most interesting things about Freakonomics authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner is their willingness to buck orthodoxy and come to counterintuitive conclusions by careful analysis of data. In their original bestseller, for example, Levitt and Dubner famously argued that a big reason why crime rates dropped in [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 12:41pm EDT
  

• Thune 2010 war chest grows

  Federal Election Commission filings from the third quarter are out, and Sen. John Thune -- still without a Democratic opponent -- is in a strong financial position. [...]
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  Posted: October 17, 2009, 5:56pm EDT
  

• Senators call for full funding for Indian Country

  Twenty-two senators, including Sen. John Thune and Sen. Tim Johnson, have signed a letter to President Obama calling for full funding for public safety and public health products in Indian Country. [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 11:20am EDT
  

• Thune and Kerry-Graham

  Badlands Blue highlights a new bipartisan effort by Sen. John Kerry, R-Mass., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to reach a consensus on climate change legislation in the Senate. The Kerry-Graham proposal — at this point little more than an op-ed — marries a committment to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 11:05pm EDT
  

• More thoughts on the Nobel

  As I said before, I'm skeptical of it. But a few points of fact:' [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 12:30pm EDT