Hemmingsen "weighs in" at Keloland

Steve Hemmingsen may not be the grandfather of blogs in SD, but he is probably the grandfather of Keloland News retired newsmen. He knows how to find a good story for his blog and knows how to take good photos. And if he can't find a good story, he knows how to turn an average story into a good story. Steve's blog is good and his posts don't seem to fit a pattern. His posts can be about just about anything, but always worth reading.
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South Dakota Magazine Blog

Most South Dakotans have seen a copy of South Dakota Magazine on a magazine rack or a coffee table or have or are subscribing to it, so you might have a good idea of what you will find at South Dakota Magazine Blog. Those not familiar with either should check the blog and subscribe to the magazine if you really have an interest in South Dakota. Bernie Hunhoff and his staff put together a homespun interesting and even often beautiful magazine..some of that spills into the blog site. My only complaint is that the photos there never link to a larger version. Minor gripe however. So take a look.
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USDedu Blogs ..Blog Server

The Department of Education at USD provides a blog system. A whole lot of blogs under one heading not a predictable mixture..everything from education technique and issues to politics with none of them necessarily approved or not by the U of South Dakota. So check it. A blog smörgåsbord with a few tasty delights and some chewy dense stuff.
New Window LINK to Many Blogs at USD EDU Blog Server

Democracy in Action Blog

The Democracy in Action blog is subtitled "Women working for a better world". That doesn't mean it should not be read by males however. Generally liberal and usually thought-provoking. Multiple authors and contributors. Moderated comments (by Melanie Sekellick and Patti Martinson). State and national perspectives, but focused also on the Rapid City area. Blog is associated with an organization aimed apparently at "doing" as well as just talking and writing.
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SD Moderate Blog

At last, I get the South Dakota Moderate blog by Bob Schwartz. Months ago..well maybe a year or so..I had the best of all possible intentions to get this blog into another bloglist. Alas, it was not until this week that I got around to copying the masthead and getting it in here. But, truth be told Schwartz rattled my cage at Dakota Today. You can too if you think you have a blog of your own or another to add here. The SD Moderate blog is sort of centrist politically, but often has non-partisan and non-political posts as well. So check SD Moderate today and don't forget it. You will find links to a lot of sites there including a few to other blogs and sites made by Bob Schwartz.
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Progressive Republican Blog

If you can see the image, you know this is a Republican site and if you read the fine print, you find "Commentary on current events with a dash of humor from a curious student of human and political behavior."

Unfortunately, he apparently hasn't found much fitting the criteria since July. It would be good for South Dakota if the progressive Republicans would say more and some of the other kind would say a lot less and think about it too. I probably shouldn't jab anybody about not spouting off regularly enough. I am finding a number of "South Dakota Blogs" that are very dormant. I suspect many people start them and then find it takes a lot of time to build up any kind of readership. Blog analytics can be a tad bit depressing. Well, log into this blog a few times and maybe the author will rouse like Rip Van Winkle...
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Republic Insider Blog

A year or more later than some of the so-called Mainstream media in South Dakota, the newspaper Mitchell Daily Republic found that their readers liked a temporary blog on a bonding issue, and have decided to make it a regular feature of their paper. The "About" area has this "This Daily Republic blog is moderated by Seth Tupper, the newspaper's city reporter and assistant editor. The Daily Republic reserves the right to remove any posts that its editors find to be obscene or libelous, so please keep it civil."
You can get to this new blog via Http://www.mitchellrepublic.com or you can use the link below which may get you there directly. A newspaper blog that isn't in Rapid City or Sioux Falls may fill a hole in the SD bloglandscape. Watch it grow or make it grow.
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Prairie Roots Blog

Prairie Roots blog is pretty much planted as a close neighbor to Madville Times. Not to be too cute about it, Erin is Cory's wife. Her blog emphasizes sustainability while practicing permanence on the great plains. Her profile suggests she has at least two full-time jobs, but not quite said that way. But, check her blog. I guess if you can find her blog you can find his and vice versa...so check their interesting linklists too.
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Haggard News Blog

This is a blog I just never quite got into my RSS feeds or reader. Never mind that, here is the data from Haggard News "About": Haggs ,Canton, South Dakota I'm an idependent guy who enjoys discussion of politics and stuff on the internet.
The header image indicates..well you can read it too..."A Progressive Blog". Today it looks like discussion of SD news and local Canton, SD. news and views. So, get another moderate progressive view on some areas of South Dakota and stuff interesting to South Dakotans. Haggard News has been online since 2006. Categories suggest an eclectic taste in stuff. Somewhat less than very regular posting however.
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Voices at Argus Leader Blog

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader papers has tried a number of things bloglike, but their current Voices Blog may be getting it right..a tad bit more like the RC Journal's Mt. Blogmore. Looks like the writers are regulars in the dead tree version of the paper. Patrick Lalley, Matt Okerlund, David Kranz, Sheri Levisay, Tiffany Leach, and Nestor Ramos...at least those names show up on posts today. It is a regular newspaper blog, so the issues here tend to following the local, state, and national issues the paper includes as news. I'm sure some of the writers have their own partisan or ideological preferences, but I also suspect the intent is to stay pretty much middle of the road or at least balance one issue with another of the opposite stripe. The Voices blog can be especially effective if a particularly hot ongoing issue is being discussed or a court case is being held, etc...so, another blog worth checking on regularly. Comments are allowed.
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Madville Times Blog

Cory Allen Heidelberger Lake Herman, South Dakota, United States has been editing Madville Times for a few months or a year. Easy to lose track of time when blog years are the equivalent of ...er..5 years of herding cat years or something like that. More seriously, Heidelberger covers the news around Madison, SD and Dakota State U pretty well and intelligently discusses many local and state issues...some issues in very good detail.
So, worth keeping track of the tracks at Madville Times...no it is not Mudville Times just because it is close to a lake.
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Holabird Advocate Blog

You will just have to look at the Holabird Advocate Blog. I haven't figured out how to describe it. People not from South Dakota might want to know that there is a Holabird, SD. somewhere between Pierre and Huron, South Dakota and it has a population of..well, I don't know. Our SD map doesn't show a population for Holabird. Maybe it disappears when the writer and his family turn out the lights. For some reason the Holabird blog does not load correctly in Firefox Browser...kind of sprawls across the screen...but check the blog for a change of pace....shifting down into a lower gear on Highway 14...
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Black Marks on Wood Blog

Corey Vilhauer writes at his Black Marks on Wood blog. Even so it is all pixels, but of a literate nature. He says he started the blog to post his writing, but the blog evolved into book reviews and generally good writing. This is a blog not quite like all overtly political blogs I have listed. A bit like the Prairie Progressive but somewhat different, tone, and interests. Take a look at it.
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Dakota Voice Blog

Dakota Voice blog has a collection of writers including Columnists - Bob Ellis, Carrie K. Hutchens, Gordon Garnos, John W. Whitehead,Ken Korkow, Paul Scates, and Raymond J. Keating. Check the link lists, and with the exception of a few in the SD Blog list, they are very much conservative, fundamentalist, and/or Republican. This is a blog that should open with a church bell as an audio device. But check it anyway. It will give you some idea of what a more literate "Sibson Online" might be. Don't expect to see logic in its finest forms however. Bob Ellis has no reluctance to twist facts and ignore them in the interests of an argument..even if that argument is irrelevant, but appears to be somewhat significant. Read Carefully. Moderated comments are accepted..even a few from yours truly have darkened the blog.

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Progressive on the Prairie Blog

A Progressive on the Prairie is actually a lawyer in Sioux Falls, but he has the prairie perspective with an erudite twist. The blog started as mostly progressive politics, but the author became more interested in posting about books, videos, movies, TV, blogs, etc and reviewing them from a progressive perspective. A Prairie Progressive fills a big hole in the prairie blogosphere rather than piling more mud the huge pile already made by expressly political blogs regularly blowing smoke and tossing mud. Moderated comments and regular updates. The guy gets more read, heard and viewed in a week than I do in a year.
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SD Straight Talk Blog

SD Straight Talk Blog has been running for a year or so. It is edited by Joel Rosenthal who has had a lot of experience in South Dakota Republican politics and SD business. Check his "About Me" for more information. His perspective seems to be mostly nearly sensible middle of the road Republican. He is interested in more than politics however and his blog is worth checking. He also gets posts into the KELOLAND blog aggregator. Check this blog and SD War College and you might have as good an idea of what current GOP thought is that is possible without being one of them on the inside. So, if you are interested in old guard, new guard, Janklow, Pressler, etc GOP politics, you can't ignore these blogs even if I am not sure that Republican SD Straight Talk can be anything but an oxymoron..but then my bias and perspective is toward the other end of the political spectrum. Regular posts and moderated comments. A "Squarespace" blog.
New Window LINK to SD Straight Talk Blog.

Robbinsdale Radical Blog

Robbinsdale Radical blog is hiding in a Rapid City suburb apparently. The blog has been running for a year or so and specializes in civil rights issues and other liberal issues. Regular posts are made and moderated senisible comments are usually accepted.
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SD War College Blog

South Dakota War College is Pat Power's attempt to help politically educate his Republican Party and educate or entertain the rest of us as well. SD War College is mostly sensible political issues now and then mixed with very partisan or ideological posts. Lots of comments and some of them make the blog posts themselves look positively bland. No doubt about it, this is a Republican tactics and issues blog, but done mostly in an agreeable way. Now and then PP gets a real plum of inside information that may catch the regular media and the rest of us by surprise. SDW is worth reading just to get something like the pulse of Republican politics in SD even when it is a corpse in need of a lot of resuscitation. So check it...it is "South Dakota Politics, Elections,Advertising, and rambling nonsense from a smart-aleck Republican"...and that is straight from the elephant's mouth (you can buy tee-shirts there too).
Open in New Window LINK to South Dakota War College

SD Watch Blog

Todd Epp has a number of blogs. SD Watch may have begun as "ThuneWatch", but became more general including some of Epp's lawyerly posts. Epp has a background in professional media being with SD Public Broadcasting often reporting from the State Capitol and then added a law degree. He has also consulted with political campaigns. Posts at his blog are not predictable as to content or perspective even if generally from a generally cautious but very liberal and Democratic perspective. Epp's SD Watch is also one of the blogs aggregated at KELOLAND as indicated in a previous post. Comments are moderated. Plan on closing a few aggravating popup and popbehind ad windows however.
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Northern Valley Beacon Blog

David Newquist has had a blog or two going for at least a couple of years. Newquist is not bashful about expressing his opinions which usually have a strong Democratic Populist taking no prisoners slant. The Aberdeen SD Blogger has a strong journalism background and routinely blasts some of the blather the rest of us present in our blogs in his crusade to either indicate why many or most political blogs aren't actually journalism or reasons for skewering the posts. Comments are allowed but moderated.

Take a look if you want a very literate and idiosyncratic view of Democratic policies and SD blogs.
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