by Joe | Aug 29, 2022 | Political/government
We like to think our state is a great example of small, conservative government at its best, with minimal wasteful spending. But I suspect we may be fooling ourselves. By historical accident, we now have too many governments in South Dakota. And they aren’t laid out...
by Joe | Aug 16, 2022 | Uncategorized
Governor Noem likes to say that we are “open for business” in South Dakota. I generally like and agree with that sentiment. But recent history suggests we might also want limits. Two Big Surprises Not long ago two surprising bits of news hit Sioux Falls. A group...
by Joe | Aug 2, 2022 | Uncategorized
As a lifelong Republican and casual observer of South Dakota politics, I have had a nagging feeling for several years that something just wasn’t working right. Then I heard reports from this year’s Republican convention and it started to sink in. Our 20th century...
by Joe | Jul 27, 2022 | Political/government
“You can’t fight City Hall.” It’s one of those sayings that sum up recognized truths. It generally suggests that you can’t win when challenging a bureaucratic system like the government. But in the early 1990s a bunch of us in Sioux Falls did just that. We convinced...
by Joe | Jul 14, 2022 | Uncategorized
Over a period of many decades and four generations of one family’s leadership, a South Dakota business quietly dominated its industry. The company was Western Surety Company. The family was the Kirbys. And the industry was the small, miscellaneous fidelity and surety...
