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Noem Shoves Fire Officials Aside to Control Wildfire Info

South Dakota’s Black Hills fire crews got a quick grip on that wildfire in Custer State Park, thanks in part to a fortuitous thunderstorm that contributed a quarter inch of rain to the containment effort. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today notes that Governor Kristi Noem also got a quick grip on public information about the fire:

The customary system for distributing information about wildfires in the Black Hills is with local agency information officers coordinated through the Great Plains Interagency Dispatch Center. But for this fire, information is being controlled by Governor Kristi Noem’s office [Bill Gabbert, “Mine Draw Fire Being Fought 6 Miles South of Mount Rushmore,” Wildfire Today, update posted 2020.06.24].

With The Donald coming over for hot dogs and fireworks next Friday, I can understand why hostess Kristi would be keen on controlling information about exactly the kind of Black Hills crisis that his explosive ego-fest could cause and why she would be quick to insert her own office’s spokeswoman, who knows little about wildfire or the Black Hills, as the public face of the fire response to co-opt credit for that response and show they are ready for anything, including Donald’s inferno.

Update 07:10 CDT: KOTA reports that it had difficulty getting answers to wildfire questions from the Governor or from anywhere else. Local fire officials kept mum, referring questions to the Governor.

19 Comments

  1. Loren 2020-06-26 08:17

    It’s called “open government – GOP style.”

  2. jerry 2020-06-26 12:03

    The old Indian fighter, Bill Janlow did the same thing in the big fires in the Black Hills. GNOem is very cognitive of Governor Bill’s approach to putting the Federal government in it’s place, whatever the hell that means to her. Let’s walk down memory lane to this Rapid City Journal article written 10.29.2002

    “Gov. Bill Janklow’s combative, take-charge management style and unwillingness to cooperate with federal officials on wildfires has threatened the safety of firefighters and made firefighting more difficult, officials from the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies say.

    Janklow vigorously defends his actions, saying they were necessary to overcome a federal bureaucracy that responds too slowly to emergencies.”

    So there ya go. Bill Janklow was just an idiot that knew it. GNOem is just a useful idiot to trump.

  3. leslie 2020-06-26 15:21

    In about 1980 we drove up skyline drive every night for 1-2 weeks and watched the Nemo Rd fire burn down to city limits all along the national forest.

    RCJ 7.26.2002 “In 2000, the Flagpole Mountain Fire burned 7,386 acres, then the Jasper Fire, the biggest ever in the Black Hills, burned 83,508 acres.

    Last year, the Elk Mountain complex and the West Hell Fire burned more than 37,000 acres combined.

    Earlier this month, the Grizzly Gulch Fire and the Little Elk Fire burned about 11,500 acres. And the heart of the fire season, August and early September, is yet to come.”

    Some of those fires burned private land, but more than 130,000 acres of the 1.2 million-acre Black Hills National Forest has been scorched.”

    Jerry remind us which one Janklow claimed the headlines? Jasper? He took over the Airport Building. Does the state still run it? Natl Guard has substantial holdings there too. Militarization. Low flying choppers all over town all hours day/night with impunity now, in addn to hospital flights from East Rapid City to Airport. Then some military trumpie sorties out low level after burner fueled B1bs often as political breaking news hits, to “stiffen our spine”, I guess.

  4. Cathy 2020-06-26 16:27

    The Custer fire never made to inciweb, which is strange, especially considering all the assets they threw at it. Too small? Too close to Noem’s party?

  5. leslie 2020-06-26 16:41

    Riot booster Noem partners with Faces anti-Antifa and tribal buster Dusty Johnson with more embarrassing laws to make Geo Soros a felon, and tie hands of future legislators to ever fund changes to white supremacy revisionism at Mt Rushmore. And Trump told Kristi straight-faced to put him up there with “real” presidents (to keep himself and family out of prison proceedings beginning in January, I suspect). No more publicly paid teams of defense lawyers.

  6. Debbo 2020-06-26 21:06

    Kruel Kristi is messing up SoDak just about as bad as Dainty Digits is messing up the USA.

  7. John 2020-06-27 09:18

    Though the Custer State Park fire was on state land, federal resources were used to fight it. Thus, withholding the public information via the media and inciweb was likely unlawful. Let’s hope the Fourth Estate sues to stop a repeat of this apparent lawlessness.

  8. leslie 2020-06-27 11:05

    John, the press gave you the info for free. Its not the press’ job to enforce the law. It is up to you, citizen, to take to the streets and demand prosecution

  9. John 2020-06-27 22:57

    Leslie, it is the Fourth Estate’s purview, standing, to sue to enforce the law. See the Pentagon Papers.
    See the several Argus Leader suits against SD state government non – “secrets”.

    Get a clue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_the_United_States
    noem’s action was likely classic prior restraint, in exceeding jurisdiction and the law.

  10. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2020-06-28 08:28

    TWU’s link is a big deal: can’t shoot video on public lands without the Governor’s permission? What a bunch of baloney!

  11. mike from iowa 2020-06-30 07:04

    ps a fireworks celebration is appropriate and acceptable to honor Independence day. A fireworks celebration in honor of the worst potus ever is neither appropriate or acceptable.

    Save the celebration and cancel dumpf, wingnut cowards/traitors!

  12. Charlie Petrick 2020-06-30 23:29

    The 4th of July ‘celebration’ at Mt Rushmore is the most irresponsible campaign rally in history! Fire danger, pollution, wildlife trauma, ridiculous waste of resources, & Covid be damned- we need to stoke egos & take pictures. Prairie Barbie wants to be VP Barbie.
    #NoMoreNoem!

  13. Debbo 2020-06-30 23:42

    Excellent summation, Mr. Petrick. Precise, brief and accurate. That’s exactly what the two of them are doing.

  14. leslie 2020-07-01 06:52

    John. You are right of course. Nyt and WaPo were named plaintiffs vs. the United States in the multiple lawsuits heard that somehow got to SCOTUS. Wiki didn’t mention atty fees, likely significant, which was my point. Clue me in oh great wizard.

    Bill Gabbert says:
    June 25, 2020 at 6:05 pm
    …But in this situation a politician, the governor of the state, has assumed control over providing information about the incident. So, it is a legitimate question in this case.

    “In absence of governmental checks and balances”, wrote Justice Stewart, “the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in [these two areas] may lie in an enlightened citizenry – in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government”.[16] wiki

    Boy i am relieved. The press can afford to protect us!
    Maybe Seth Tupper would have time to convince his employer to sue Trump. Maybe, maybe, maybe Laurence Tribe will take it up up up on the same terms busy Jim Leach Esq did in the riot booster case, good citizen that he is.

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