The Rapid City Journal talks about the Governor's Hunt. And they aren't filing a lawsuit or anything.
In today's Rapid City Journal, Kevin Woster's column squarely gives the Governor's hunt credit for a $70 million dollar donation from Denny Sanford making the Homestake Lab a reality:
Denny Sanford got his limit last year at the governor's invitational pheasant hunt. And if things go well, South Dakota could get $70 million in return.Read the whole thing here at the Rapid City Journal.
OK, OK, it's not quite as simple as three roosters for $70 million. The October shotgun gala was actually just the starting point in discussions between Sanford and Gov. Mike Rounds that led to the big announcement last week that the Sioux Falls banking executive was offering to kick in $70 million to the Homestake underground science laboratory project.
There were some "ifs" of course, the first and biggest being that the National Science Foundation must select the old Homestake mine as the site of the underground lab. And second, the NSF must then provide $10 million for research grants at the lab.
We'll have to wait and see on those, probably until this fall or early winter. But Rounds already has taken care of a couple of the other "ifs" in the deal. He agreed to name the laboratory, if it's built, after Sanford. Likewise with an above-ground science-education center that would be built as part of the $70 million deal.
Sanford already has his name on some big-ticket items, including the state medical school - now the Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota - and the newest light on the Sioux Valley Hospital horizon of possibilities in Sioux Falls - the Sanford Children's Hospital.
Sanford earned those namesakes with gifts of $20 million and $16 million. He also wanted to slap his name on a new football stadium at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota, thanks to a promised donation of $35 million. But that deal fell through, at least in part because the Golden Gophers' powers that be thought Sanford was hanging too many "ifs" onto the donation.
It's far from a sure thing that South Dakota will ever see the $70 million promise for the Homestake, er, Sanford lab. But if it happens, the ring-necked pheasant - a bird rarely seen in the vicinity of Homestake - will be at least partially responsible.
Comments
As far as I can determine, that information has not been made public?.
I can't believe you don't see this for what this is. This is the Rounds Administration giving information to the Rapid City Journal about one person who attends the Governor's Hunt.
It's a double-benefit, the Rounds Administration is slapping the Argus, and the Journal is too.
See... the Rapid City Journal is a pretty good mouth piece for Rounds. And its not their fault, their readers like to see things of that nature.
In any event, this is a pitfall of closed government. "If you are going to critcize me, and hold me accountable, I won't give you access," the Republicans said.
Bush does it too. They all do. That's where all the "liberal media" splashing comes from - when newspapers want access, republicans shut them out. So, newspapers have to make stinks about it.
Such is life, in the area of closed government.