Kristofer's Blog

Athletics, should that be our focus?  In the past 6 months, I’ve gone from fully supporting the administration here at Dakota State to wondering what organization is going to be cut next.  After news of the Concert Band being arranged into a smaller pep band and Friday Night Live (FNL’s) budget being drastically cut, I can only ask - why?  The phonation students called me twice in two weeks telling me about this wonderful capital campaign we have and was wondering if I would be willing to donate towards athletic scholarships or a new athletic facility.  My answer is “no”.  The caller couldn’t even remember me telling him what activities I was involved with. 

I would like to point out that the activities that bring in the most high school students aren’t athletic games but the performing arts.  How many high schools participate in Debate or Oral Interpretation contests on campus?  How many bands and choruses participate in Large Group Contest?  How many marching bands come to our Homecoming parade?  My personal experience with Dakota State as a high school student came through those programs.  My first 1, 2,...

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Dakota State University has several machines in the Kennedy Lab that have no video.  In identifying that the video card could be the culprit, we bought Geforce 9500 GT with 512 MB DDR2 cards for them.  Well, the machines still give a black screen on startup as well as the media card reader in the front gives us a solid blue light.  Disconnecting those media card readers on startup also doesn't fix the issue.

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Jill Callison jcalliso@argusleader.com

At the risk of embedding that hideous Disneyland song in all our brains for the rest of the day, I must say this: It's a small, small, small, small world. Steve Hauff can attest to that. Hauff, who often travels abroad for Dakota Sports, recently shared a meal with residents of Great Britain, Australia, the Netherlands and Canada. His interest in other countries sprang from his boyhood in Sioux City. His mother, involved with the county extension service, frequently would host people from other countries. "I learned it was important to meet people with an open hand," Hauff says. That's why when Hauff was asked to join the Sister Cities Association of Sioux Falls in 1991, he barely hesitated. Sioux Falls has had a sister city since September 1990 when an agreement with Potsdam was finalized. At that time, Potsdam was located in East Germany, making Sioux Falls the first (and only) U.S. city to be linked with an East German community. A similar relationship with Strabane, Northern Ireland, began in May 1992 but ended several years ago. Supporters of the Sister Cities program weren't content with involvement limited to one city. They are awaiting the city's...

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By Elisa Sand (Staff Reporter)

Horizon Health Care in Howard has received $795,580 in federal funding from the Recovery Act Capital Improvement Program.  The program helps health providers purchase various equipment to move towards electronic medical records and enhance telemedicine opportunities. 

Horizon CEO John Mengenhausen said about $400,000 will be used to buy software and hardware to help the clinic with its transition to electronic medical records.  Other funds will be used for enhancing telemedicine opportunities by purchasing specializied equipment that can be used during telemedicine consults.  The balance of the funding is being used to update other equipment including a digital process for x-rays. 

"It's a great opportunity for us to upgrade our equipment," Mengenhausen said.  Health care centers operated by Horizon provide service regardless of income and charge based on a sliding scale.  Horizon operated medical clinics in Bryant, DeSmet, Howard, Lake Preston, Martin, Mission, Plankinton, Wessington Springs, White River and Woonsocket.  It also operates three dental clinics in Martin, Howard, and DeSmet. 

Mengenhausen said this is the second round of stimulus funding that has been received by the clinic.  The first was a $275,000 award allowed for the hiring of additional staff.  Through that funding the system was able...

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