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dealing with hard drug charges, the expansion of drug courts (there are two in the state, including one in Minnehaha County), a presumption of probation for low-level felonies and a new 24/7 sobriety monitoring program.
• To be clear, these are not measures intended on making South Dakota "soft on crime." Rather, these recommendations represent a consortium of creative thought and expertise melded and aimed at solving some very real problems facing the state.
• We thank those involved and think this should be a model the state continues to use going forward with other issues of great import.
• ___
• Rapid City Journal. Dec. 5, 2012
• South Dakotans richer?
• It comes as a surprise to many South Dakotans to learn that the state's residents are in the mid- to upper-income bracket among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Say what? You might ask.
• According to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, South Dakota's per capita income of $44,217 in 2011 places the state 13th in the nation, right behind neighbors Wyoming, North Dakota and Minnesota, and at 106 percent of the national average of $41,560.
• The report said South Dakota's income was $27,865 in 2001 and increased at an annual growth rate of 4.7 percent for the next 10 years.
• After years of being told that South Dakota ranks near the bottom in income, it is something of a shock to learn that we're better off than we thought we were.
• Per capita income is an average, while median income is the middle where half the residents earn more and half earn less. By that measure, South Dakota is 36th in median income, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• We recall reports that South Dakota has the highest percentage of workers with more than one job -- 10.3 percent in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to a 2011 PBS Newshour report, the percentage of South Dakota children in poverty in 2009 was 19 percent, an increase from 14 percent in 2003. And, let's not forget, that several South Dakota reservation counties are among the poorest in the nation, according to the Census.
• So which is it? Are South Dakotans getting richer or poorer?
• As Mark Twain once said: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, (darned) lies and statistics."
• A recent Sioux Falls Argus Leader story indicated that the state's income statistics are being influenced by increases in agricultural income.
• "In South Dakota, farmers had a great year in 2011," said Reynold Nesiba, asso

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