Dakota Today

**Some links..Non-profit Journalism and some references combined

As newspapers decline in readers and they also reduce funding for independent news gathering and something like that also hits the electronic media because it is cheaper to put on a gasbag talking head, some groups are financing non-profit news gathering...at least that is what I heard tonight on PBS News Hour.  A couple links from that program below:

Pro Publica--Journalism in the Public Interest

Center for Public Integrity-- Investigative Journalism In the Public Interest/

Pulitzer Center-- Crisis Information

Those could keep a person busy for more than a few hours and should germinate an idea or two. If you are scratching for information, you might (according to CPU Magazine) find the link below useful.
 Ref Desk ..Fact checker for the Internet

**Stay tuned even if you are turning pages in a new pixel way--- Doug Wiken

**So venture over to Cranium Creek and laugh or groan

Cranium Creek descends deep into the caverns of puns.  Laugh or groan, it is your choice:

Cranium Creek Blog and "Punilingus"

 Not much new in the way of news around here, but about 4pm this afternoon, I was driving the 1/4 mile from our farmhouse to the county highway when I heard a thump and a dark thing with 4 legs hanging down over the windshield for an instant. The old Mitsubishi Eclipse is relatively low and apparently a deer had jumped nearly cleanly right over the top of the car. No window or windshield breaks, dents, or scratches that I could find. Also no broken deer parts littering the gravel. Brome grass has grown up nearly as high as the car. Guess tomorrow will be a good day to try to mow along the road so a deer in the ditch might be seen and perhaps a deer might even see a car coming.
In the spirit of punilingus and Martha Stewart, "Near and deer" is not a very good thing

. ***Stay tuned even if your groan response to puns is far too close to a gag reflex-- Doug Wiken

**Some election info for South Dakota Democrats

  Below is at least part of what you will be voting on tomorrow June 3, 2008 if you are voting in the Democratic Primary.

For Presidential Delegates and Alternates
you may vote for one or leave it blank
 Candidates preferring Hillary Clinton for President

• Malcom Chapman Pam Nelson James Feinstein Jennifer Slaight-Hansen Jim Burg Mary Ann Giebink Hayden Graff Connie Irwin Ritchie Nordstrom Cecilia Fire Thunder Delegates: Alternates: Marc Feinstein Trudie Myers Mark Church

Candidates preferring Barack Obama for President

• Russell Blacksmith Cathy Piersol Ned Horsted Shirley Halleen Tom Katus Kim Killer Andrew Frank Lisa Engels Matt Thompson Arlette Blacksmith Delegates: Alternates: Barry Foster Katrina Jarding Lon Stroschein

If you need to know where you can vote or where you are registered, you can find it in the elections area of the SD Secretary of State web page under the election option by plugging in your name and your birthdate. SD Secretary of State Office Site-- Voter Portal


**Stay tuned even if there won't be any REAL news on this SD election until tomorrow night--- Doug Wiken

**News from the Weekly Incontinent on Pipeline near Winner, SD

Recently, The Madville Times blog mentioned a new pipeline apparently snaking past Winner, SD being planned by the same outfit building the east river South Dakota pipeline. And noted I should be checking on this.

NWLINK to Madville Times on Pipeline

Skimming through the local rag today, I notice in the city council news..not front page news...that some surveyors have gotten permission apparently to poke around the Winner City dumpsite or near it. Text as I typed it follows..there may be errors.

Trans Canada pipeline
Dick Kirsch of the city building department, told the council Universal Field services, Inc., representing TransCanada Pipeline is conducting studies for the proposed pipeline to be constructed from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to the Texas gulf coast. In order to evaluate the project, the company will be doing some soil testing on land owned by the city near the land fill. The mayor was authorized to sign an agreement with Universal to do the testing. The company plans to do soil analysis, civil, archaeological and other environmental surveys along the proposed route.

The survey party will consist of two to five persons along with survey equipment.

TransCanada Corp is planning a second oil pipeline entering South Dakota at the northwest corner and exiting the state at the southern border.

The proposed pipeline would be larger than the one planned for eastern South Dakota.

I don't know if this story means they have not talked to anybody else around here or if it just means that contact with the city gets into the paper no matter what it might concern and the paper seldom ever covers news more than a mile from the city center...or what. Anyway, it is there and that is all I have heard or read so far about the issue..or lack thereof.

I don't think the problem for this pipeline across SD starts until it gets into the shallow sandy aquifers south of Winner. The city landfill or dump was probably selected for the clay and shale in the area which might be less permeable than the sand south of town. Somehow, this seems a bit like the drunkard's search where the drunk searches under the street light rather than in the dark where he actually lost his keys.

I'm sure there may or may not be more news on this. How's that for wishy-washy. I have been watching to much political spin lately.

**Stay tuned even if you can keep your mind out of the gutter or the city dumps--- Doug Wiken

**Marquess of Queensberry rules for blogging and website??

PP at the SDWC is having some fun at the expense of Steve Sibson. Pat Powers has bought sibbyonline.com and is auctioning it off for the benefit of charity for a few things that apparently appall the easily appalled Steve Sibson.

Those who care about truth, should buy the site for Sibby so he can spread more..well you know. Nothing like a little a little intramural Republican cat fight with hair-pulling and crotch-kneeing to liven up the blosphere.

Liberals owe it to themselves to help Sibby. We should help buy the site from PP so he can contribute and then give the site to Steve so he has another place to distribute his..er..ah truth.

More seriously, while PP is having fun with this, I don't really view it as an area of conflict we bloggers want to venture into. If there were Marquess of Queensberry rules for blogging and websites, buying or squatting on websites with names of "opponents" to poke them in the eye would probably be banned and penalized.

**Stay tuned when all else fails--- Doug Wiken

**New masthead at Dakota Today

This is news you are unlikely to read anyplace else. Of course, that has nothing to do with the significance of the content and everything to do with reading Dakota Today. You may have noticed the some what changed masthead for Dakota Today. Over the past years, I have edited it several times...and a few times too many.

The text, etc. was getting a bit ragged and cutting and patching had left some scars. So, Off to Cool Text for some logo chunks. And then to load them into Irfanview mixing and mashing by opening a couple instances of Irfanview to copy and past, etc. Tabs would be nice in Irfanview, but it is a wonderful product considering it is free.

So, if you are looking for ways to make stuff like the masthead hear or simple logos like that below, check the websites for Cool Text Logos and Irfanview below the image.

New Window LINK to Cool Text Logos Site

New Window LINK to Irfanview Site
*
*Stay tuned even if logos are about as interesting to you as faded legos--Doug Wiken

**Ben Hanten has a new SD123 up and running

A year or two ago..time flies and all that...Ben Hanten put together one of the first "RSS type" sites that put together SD links to daily blog posts, etc. I think that site got thoroughly hacked by online vandals, but Hanten has a new version with new features. Try out his site by clicking on image at right for SD 123.

You may also note there an image for SD BLOGLAND. I finally got one up for another blog of my own that has my own perspective on mostly SD Blogs. Try that out too.

Well, that is enough site tinkering for one day. More to come, but first I must find food and another day.

***Stay tuned even if there is no music except in your own mind--- Doug Wiken

**Two cent pennies and penny postcards.

A confluence of unrelated things this evening. CBS "Sixty Minutes" had a segment discussing the fact that it now apparently "costs" two cents to make a penny at the US Mint. That probably says something about the current price of copper and zinc, but also about how inflation has been used to pay for at least a couple of unwise wars and keep funding the largest military in the world as the polar ice cap melts.

Related to the "penny" tale of woe, is a link to a site that has a collection of "penny" post cards from South Dakota and other states. Below is the link for South Dakota. Postcards by county can be found and "Home" link takes you to a page with links to all the states. Have fun. I can not only remember penny post cards, but penny postal cards. I can also remember something close to a dollar dollar. None of that nonsense these days what with imperial presidents starting pre-emptive wars to revenge their daddy's wars or their mental problems with their daddies.

New Window Link to "Penny post cards --South Dakota

Have fun looking at photographs from days before you were born or from days when you were a kid having fun somewhere in South Dakota for pennies that were worth pennies.

***Stay Tuned. This blog does not rely on funding by the Bush Administration-- Doug Wiken

**Democrats need an "Un-Bridger" not another bridge to economic inequality

Denise Ross at her HogHouse Blog has a post concerning SD US Senator Tim Johnson endorsing Obama in the Democratic Presidential primary. She has there a comment from the Mitchell Daily Republic:

Sen. Tim Johnson's endorsement of Barack Obama for president is a signal that the two-term senator has no intention of fading away.

This from the Mitchell Daily Republic:
Johnson said he chose Obama because the candidate "makes sense in that he's bipartisan and insists on bridging the differences between parties."

http://www.hoghouseblog.com/2008/01/10/why-johnson-endorsed-obama/#comments

http://snipurl.com/1x7hb

Now, I suppose I could have dragged out my deadtree copy of the Mitchell Daily Republic, but Denise had the quote and this gives me an excuse to provide a link to her excellent blog New Window LINK to HogHouse Blog

And, since I made a comment on the post there, I am going to copy it below:

Doug Wiken said,

on January 10th, 2008 at 6:38 pm

I don't understand what gap there is that needs to be bridged that requires Obama or Johnson. They have supported Bush idiocy in Iraq.

Democrats need an "unbridger" candidate…one who separates politics from corporation contributions.

A Johnson endorsement is in the same neighborhood as a Lieberman endorsement. I doubt that the selection will still be in doubt by the time the SD primary comes around.

If Obama gets the nomination, and is elected President, Daschle as an early endorser might be in line for an administration position. Unless that might help Johnson, I'm not sure why he is endorsing anybody at this time. It doesn't really look like good politics to me, partisan or otherwise.

YMMV. Interesting circus. No need to send in the clowns.

The idea of reconcilation and "bridges" passes right over the question of "Bridge to What?'. This bridge to reconciliation with Republicans and their disastrous economic and war policies is another "Bridge to No where"... a bridge to election and economic disaster for everyday Democrats and Republicans who are unrich and watching what they do have disappear in a sea of Bush red ink.

And after getting along with Reagan, Bush,Sr., Bush,Jr., a Republican majority, and a whole raft of corporate special interests, the US has the greatest mal-distribution of wealth since the Hoover Depression. Is more of this what Tim Johnson wants? Is even greater economic imbalance what Obama wants?

I can't believe Democrats who are concerned about the economy want more trickle-down economics. It is time instead for "geyser-up" economics.

Denise thinks this endorsement by Johnson of Obama indicates Johnson will certainly run. It appears to me it is instead one more reason in addition to Johnson's support of the Bush war in Iraq that Johnson should not run for re-election..unless he wants to do it on the Republican ticket. He, Lieberman and others have done terrible damage to the USA in multiple ways and the seem unrepentant about their errors or their willful expedience that has resulted in over 3,000 US military dying in Iraq and something like 150,000 to 230,000 Iraqis being killed and also turned a bustling economy with a treasury balance into a near depression and trillions of debt.

Unfortunately, what would replace Johnson? We don't need another Thune or another Herseth-Sandlin for that matter. It is a real quandary.

***Stay tuned...it really is a circus with more than enough clowns--- Doug Wiken

**Site that should be carrying SD Legal Notices as of Jan 1, 2008

A week or so ago, I read or heard on TV or radio that as of January 1, 2008, there would be a website where all SD legal notices would be published. That link was supposed to be SDpublicnotices. com. Plug that into your address on a browser and it gets redirected. Anyway, if there is anything like legal notices there, I can't find them. Perhaps the announcement was overly optimistic. There is a list of most SD newspapers there however.

Perhaps by the time you get around to checking this, there may actually be a place where we can find legal notices for the whole state. Sounds like a good idea and if the existing dead-tree papers own the page and supply the data, they won't be running into any local competition on the web for advertising revenue. Might be a good deal for them and us if it gets working. Check it now and then. Maybe it will work one of these days.

NW LINK to SD Public Notices

ON EDIT AFTER ORIGINAL POSTING: The search options finally opened on the left side of the page. Results may show up below all the search options. Interface needs some work, but something is working there now and the page from the local newspaper with the notice will also show up.

Nice weather today in this part of SD, but that is not a legal notice and is subject to change according to the weather dudes at Keloland.

**Stay tuned for an information revolution even if it comes one small step at a time and days or years late--Doug Wiken