For the record, we were never in favor of the State of South Dakota selling the former STAR Academy property. The facility was an effective means of dealing with troubled youth and getting them back on the right path. That is, until former Gov. Dennis Daugaard decided to close the place and send these troubled youth back to their communities where many of them got in trouble again and reentered the judicial system.
People don’t like talking about tough things – things that make us uncomfortable or sad. Things that make us feel small. Things that are heartbreaking.
It’s fall, which means it’s football season—the best time of the year.
There’s just something about the sound of pads popping, the smell of freshly cut grass, players and coaches barking out plays and encouragement that gets my adrenaline going. You can have your Christmas (for which I have no doubt decorations will be in stores this week or next), I will take the beginning of football season as my most wonderful time of the year.
We continue to be amazed at the lawlessness being condoned in our country today. One example is so-called sanctuary cities where illegal immigrants are being harbored and protected by city officials who are actively hostile toward federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents whose job it is to round up these people and see that they are deported.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last Sunday had some surprising, and maybe some not so surprising, results. It found that younger Americans place much less value on what their counterparts of 20 years ago did.
From our vantage point at the newspaper where so much news and advertising flows through our building on a weekly basis, it is fairly easy to see who and what is making a difference in our small community. The recent flash flood of Aug. 2 brought much of this to the forefront and there were not many surprises.
If you had told anyone that two weeks after the destructive Aug. 2 flash flood the community would have raised over $10,000 for flood relief, they probably would have said you were crazy. The amount raised as of press time this week is actually just a hair over $12,500. That’s the money that the Long Term Recovery Group will be using to help those in financial distress from flood damage.
A few days ago I was watching my son Matt pay for our food at a local eatery using his debit card. After swiping his card the clerk turned the small white flat screen monitor toward him and instructed him to “sign with your finger.”
