Border war: Iowa finds way to issue red light camera tickets despite South Dakota’s DMV firewall

When South Dakota passed a law last year protecting its citizens from camera-generated red light and speeding tickets issued by other states, the Australian company behind many of the controversial machines did not take it lying down.

The law bars South Dakota's division of motor vehicles from working with out-of-state jurisdictions on the automated tickets, and was aimed mainly at neighboring Iowa, which shares its southeastern border. Several towns in the Hawkeye State issued thousands of the tickets to drivers from South Dakota, who took their ire to lawmakers in Pierre.

"Our intention in passing this law in 2014 was to protect the citizens of South Dakota with respect to their due process rights, and that the burden of proof should not be shifted to the person accused," State Sen. Deb Soholt, whose district includes the South Dakota-Iowa border, told FoxNews.com.

"Our intention in passing this law in 2014 was to protect the citizens of South Dakota with respect to their due process rights, and that the burden of proof should not be shifted to the person accused."

- South Dakota State Sen. Deb Soholt

Without South Dakota's official help in matching license plates to owners and addresses, Redflex Traffic Systems is still managing to track down violators and send them tickets, according to TheNewspaper.com, an online publication that covers driving-related news. The company has managed to issue more than 2,000 photo tickets to South Dakota residents since the beginning of the year using unspecified "alternative methods" to match up plates with car owners, the website reported.

"This is a real red flag," South Dakota State Rep. Arch Beal told FoxNews.com Tuesday. "They're accessing people's private records in a back entry way."

"We're absolutely fuming about this private information that Redflex is getting," added Beal, who claims the cameras serve no purpose other than to generate revenue.

A representative from Redflex did not return requests for comment.

"It's clear that it's not coming from the DMV," Soholt said of the information used to issue the tickets.

Iowa police, however, said the citations are being issued with information accessible to law enforcement.

"All of the citations that are issued are approved by a Sioux City police officer," Sgt. Mike Manthorne of the Sioux City, Iowa, Police Department told FoxNews.com. "When we approve those, we determine the registered owner at that time." He said Redflex only provides the technology needed to document speeders.

Via: Fox News

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15 States Finally Standing Up Against Obama’s Unconstitutional Regulations

Fifteen State Attorney Generals have filed suit against Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency for their sweeping and unconstitutional carbon regulations.

The fifteen states who petitioned the court on Thursday are West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

If you are like me, you are wondering where your state is in the list.

The Blaze reports that under the unconstitutional regulations, the EPA will “regulate the electricity industry and require states and utility companies to meet goals, providing rewards and penalties.”

EPA spokeswoman Liz Purchia told Reuters, “To ensure that the Clean Power Plan’s significant health benefits and progress against climate change are delivered to all Americans, EPA and the Department of Justice will vigorously defend it in court.”

Fine, but you have no constitutional authority to do so.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said, “This rule is the most far-reaching energy regulation in the ... to transform itself from an environmental regulator to a central planning agency for states’ energy economies. The Clean Air Act was never intended to be used to create this type of regulatory regime, and it flies in the face of the powers granted to states under the U.S. Constitution.”

The attempt by the states could be more easily dismissed through nullification of EPApolicies, since they are not even law and since the EPA is an unconstitutional agency. However, something had to be done immediately.

“If we were to wait on the EPA to get this rule published, it could be well into 2016 before the States complete arguments and receive a ruling on a request to stay this rule,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “By that time, many states will already be in the middle of drafting their compliance plans ahead of the September 2016 deadline. We want to ensure that no more taxpayer money or resources are wastefully spent in an attempt to comply with this unlawful rule that we believe will ultimately be thrown out in court.”

“While this request is not typical, the EPA is playing games by putting the risk of a delay in publication entirely on the states,” Morrisey added. “We hope the court will spare our states any more unnecessary harm, and that the EPA will not needlessly delay the publication date.”

Of course, Barack Obama, being the Marxist that he is, called the unconstitutional measures “the single most important step the U.S. has ever taken to fight climate change.”

The problem is that there is no climate change. There is no global warming. All of this is false science in order to extort money from the American people, impose communism inAmerica, shutdown business and eventually control the people.

“This is one of those rare issues because of its magnitude, because of its scope, that if we don’t get it right, we may not be able to reverse it,” Obama said. “There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change. That doesn’t mean it’s hopeless. We can take action.”

The problem is that men do no create the weather or change the climate. God does. He determines how far the seas go (Job 38:8-11) and how hard the winds blow (matt 4:39). Yes, even hurricanes, tempests and such are at His command. Climate change is nothing more than a ruse. It is a lie because it comes from those whose father is the father of lies (John 8:44), the devil.

It’s long past time that states began to start banding together to ignore, not go to court with, the federal government in matters like this. Furthermore, they should ignore the court’s ruling, which is just that (ie. A ruling), and begin nullifying and interposing themselves between citizens, businesses and other entities in the states and the federal government.

Better yet, why don’t we simply band together to eliminate the federal government altogether and go back to sovereign states and Articles of Confederation. That would eliminate much of the tyranny that is strangling us today.

Via: Tea Party Command Center

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Energy-booming states continue to outshine energy-regressive states

The Federal Government released yesterday its monthly “Regional and State Employment and Unemployment” report of January. (The State numbers are released 4-6 weeks after the national numbers are out).

Here are some interesting numbers about January – the latest month available:

– The unemployment rate in Texas (5.7%), Utah (3.9%), South Dakota (3.6%), and in North Dakota (2.6%) are well below January’s national UR of 6.6%, while the UR in Illinois (8.7%), California (8.1%), and New York (6.8%) are higher than the national average. A key issue that empowers the first half state over the second half is energy production: ND and TX have massively increased their production in recent years while NY and CA have both cut their natural gas and crude oil production since 2008.

– In terms of jobs, Texas added 778,600 jobs in the last five years starting with February 2009 (Obama’s first full month in office), while California produced 644K jobs in the same period. New York State came in a distant third with 270,500 added jobs. ND in this same period produced about 85K jobs. Remember: ND does not even have close to 1M people living there while NY has almost 20 million and CA almost 40 million!

- The 863,600 combined jobs created in two of the most energy-producing states (TX-ND), account for 24.3% of the net jobs created since Obama’s first full month in office. Meanwhile, NY and CA, two energy-regressive states with a combined population more than double of TXND, produced only 25.7% of the jobs over the same period.

Considering that the jobs data are based on surveys and rough estimates subject to endless revisions, it’s fair to say that job gains in NYCA are essentially the same as in TXND despite boasting 58M people to the 27M of TXND.

If only the people running GOP messaging had the brains to showcase those numbers during the 2012 election.

Democrats try to dismiss  these numbers by claiming that those jobs are low-paying. Putting aside the fact that by saying this, the Democrats are trashing a BIG percent of the Obama-era jobs, the fact is that of all the state that income to the bottom 5% fell since the recovery began, it dropped least in TX. Better yet, of the three states that income to this class actually rose, it did best in ND!

Via: The Right Scoop

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Newspaper presses FOIA fight for food stamp payment data

South Dakota's Argus Leader newspaper urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to reverse a ruling blocking the newspaper from receiving data on how much the federal government pays to stores that redeeem food stamp benefits.

Jon Arneson, an attorney for the newspaper, told a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit that a lower court judge misinterpreted the law by ruling that a confidentiality provision for retailer applications allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to withhold all data on payments to those retailers. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the newspaper requested the data on annual payments to each retailer approved to take part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

"The Argus is not asking for the invoices. They’re asking for the payment information. All we’re really doing is asking: how does the government spend its money in this instance?" Arneson told the three-judge panel sitting in St. Paul, Minn. "Because of the way FOIA is intended to be applied, we’re entitled to the benefit of the doubt. If there’s doubt here, the Argus is entitled to that benefit."

(Also on POLITICO: Palestinian leader's son appeals loss of Foreign Policy libel lawsuit)

However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Bengford said the confidentiality provision applies because the cumulative amount of payments to each retailer is based on the series of purchase transactions the stores submit to USDA.

"But for the fact of gathering that information as to each transaction, USDA would not have the total amount of what it paid to the retailers," she told the judges. She also said that a provision in the law protecting information like "income and sales tax filing documents" authorized USDA to withhold data on its own payments to retailers, because they became part of the stores' income.

Via: Politico

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A Dakota Boom Town, but Not the Kind You'd Expect

Everyone has heard stories about the shale-oil boom towns that are transforming North Dakota, for better and worse. "Man camps" for oil-field workers, jobs for anyone who can work a rig or drive a truck, social distortionslike those of the Klondike. You know the stories, and the town of Williston ND (where we've not yet visited, but plan to), with the orange dot in the upper left-hand corner of the map above, is a frequent dateline for them.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why you don't hear these stories about South Dakota? The map at the top offers a clue. It shows "shale plays," or active and prospective shale-gas mining areas, as defined by the U.S. Department of Energy. A little tongue of the Gammon Play laps into South Dakota, versus the huge Bakken Play that is spread over North Dakota. 

The map  shows a larger view of shale basins, with potentially exploitable reserves, in the plains states. South Dakota includes almost none of the Williston Basin (pink) to the north, the Powder River Basin (tan) to the west, or the Denver Basin (a poppyish color) to the south.

So how, then, can South Dakota be any kind of boom state on a par with North Dakota? Especially the state's most populous city, Sioux Falls, which is in the far southeastern corner of the state (green pin) and much closer to Iowa and Minnesota than to any point in North Dakota?

What my wife and I have seen in Sioux Falls this summer, and will try to itemize, is a combination of ingredients that have together produced a genuine economic strength quite different from a shale-oil boom and potentially more instructive for the country as a whole. The unemployment rate in greater Sioux Falls now is around 3.5% -- about the average for the state as a whole. (That give South Dakota overall the second-lowest unemployment rate in the country. For number one, you could go to the BLS site -- or just take a wild guess, based on the maps above.) Our Marketplace partners kicked off a series of coverage of the Sioux Falls economy last week. 

Via: The Atlantic

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Report: NY, NJ, CA Worst Business Tax Climates

CNSNews.com) -- Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nevada, in that order, have the "business-friendliest" tax climates, according the Tax Foundation in its report, the 2013 State Business Tax Climate Index, which was released today.

Those three states held the same top three  “business-friendliest” rankings as last year, according to the Tax Foundation.

The 2013 State Business Tax Climate Index measures the components of an individual state's tax system, such as the corporate tax index, individual tax index, Sales Tax Rank, unemployment insurance tax rank, and property tax rank.

Six states are tied for first in the individual tax index rank. However, three states –Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nevada – ranked first, second, and third respectively in the “overall” business tax climate index category. The top ten rankings in that “overall” category are as follows:

1. Wyoming
2. South Dakota
3. Nevada
4. Alaska
5. Florida
6. Washington
7. New Hampshire
8. Montana
9. Texas
10. Utah

At the bottom of the list were New York (50th), New Jersey (49th), and California (48th).

Via: CNS News

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BEST PLACES FOR JOB GROWTH LARGELY RED STATES

Texas is a great place to move if you’re looking for work.

Duh.

Of course it is; Texas is a red state. And one example is Fort Bend County, which once was famous for farming, but now attracts company after company looking for a business-friendly environment. Texas doesn’t kill businesses with taxes, the county has a strong school system, and it’s close to Houston, so corporations are flocking to Fort Bend. Among them are a Fluor Enterprises, an engineering firm that is purchasing land for a plant that will add 2,000 jobs; oil services firm Schlumberger, which has a 240-acre campus; CVR Energy, whose headquarters reside there; and Team Industrial Services, which intends to relocate its headquarters and 100 jobs to Fort Bend.

It’s not just Texas; in this era of rampant unemployment, guess which color states had the lowest unemployment in July? The top four were red: North Dakota, at 3.0%, Nebraska, 4.0%, South Dakota, 4,4%, and Oklahoma, 4.9%. 

And the elites on the coasts think they’re so much smarter.

Via: Breitbart

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