Distrust Shifts Burden to Federal Taxpayers

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) requested a free copy of the state Department of Game, Fish and Parks mailing list, which lists the 150,000 people who bought hunting and fishing licences in 2009.

The rack price for the names is $100, per 1000 and groups can request a discounted rate of $100 for the whole list.

Representative Herseth Sandlin had requested the list for free and when the Commission asked her plans, the Rep's office replied that they'd be used "to contact residents for official use".

The commission's chairman thought the list should be provided to the Congresswoman as a professional courtesy because she may be able to help them down the road, but apparently the majority thought "official use" was too broad and "campaigning" not accurately defined.

Her request was denied by a 6-1 vote.

Consumers Prepare to Grab Your Ankles

Last night, I linked to a profile of Terry Smiljanich of the Consumer Warning Network and embedded one of his videos.

In both the Dow Jones piece and the YouTube, Mr. Smiljanich came down very hard on South Dakota because they eliminated usury laws in 1980, which explains why so many people get credit card statements with a Sioux Falls return address.

This morning, we hear word that Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota has the backing of many prominent Senators to become chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, once Sen. Chris Dodd is out of office.

Sell the Horse, We're Moving to Town

We've all seen the ads especially on cable, where a state might run a national or regional in hopes of attracting businesses or a tourist destination touts the wonders of their area, but apparently there's been a move underfoot for South Dakota communities to run ads on their local, statewide broadcast network.

The latest entry in this effort is the City of Brandon, which according to their ads, BusinessWeek rated the 3rd "Most Affordable" suburb.

I'm not sure if the plan is to pull people from the larger towns in the area or if they're looking to draw folks from the boonies, who long for paved streets, but because neither of the videos are embeddable or on YouTube, it's really just a local campaign.