Read the Rest]]> Old Man Winter just won’t quit.  This morning the snow and yes, wind, continued.  This photo of a herd of cows was shot along Whitewood Valley Road, where visibility for a time was minimal.

Like most of us, I’m tired of snow.  I’ll tell you how lazy I was to shoot this.  Didn’t even get out of my car to grab a good DSLR camera … just stuck a smart phone out the window and snap!  Now I know why they call them “smart” phones.

Fortunately, the snow is short-lived.  I don’t know if you could call them snow squalls, although it would be descriptive.  For a while, Bear Butte is bathed in sunlight, a couple of minutes it disappears in the snow and then a few minutes later, it is back.

Read the Rest]]> (MGN Online photo by WNDU-TV, South Bend)

February gaming drops

It may just be an anomaly but it never is a good bet to dismiss dismal gaming numbers in Deadwood.

But that’s the hand casinos were dealt in February.  The state commission on gaming released the numbers Tuesday, showing total gross revenue dropping 2.89 percent; the overall handle being off 6.88 percent.

Table games continue to show growth but the meat-and-potatoes slot machine revenue dropped 5.72 percent from the previous February.  That’s a chunk of change, $415,957 to be exact.   Penny slots helped drive profits for several months but last month, the gross revenue from those machines was off almost 9 percent.

Still, adding January to the mix, total revenue is a little more than the first two months in 2011.  It will take several months of gaming numbers to gauge how the industry is progressing this year.

Overall in February, gamblers plunked down $84,574,753 onto the gaming tables and into the slots.  From that, casino revenue was $7,632,913 and the state’s take was $686,962.

Read the Rest]]> The Porkers: Larry Lindsey, Janet Lindsey, Stacie Montgomery, Kathy Stiefvater (who they call Ski Faster) and Laurie Montgomery take off in their winning run down Deer Mountain.  (photo by Jack Siebold)

A group of little piggies went “wee, wee, wee” … all the way to the finish line, taking top honors at the Ski Mystic Deer Mountain Cardboard Classic-Box Sled Races Saturday.

The Porkers had the fastest sled on the slopes today. (photo by Jack Siebold)

The team, five members of the Black Hills Ski Club, slid past a sparse field to win.  It is doubtful that adding more competitors would have made a difference anyway.  The Porkers sled was supposed to be a car filled with pigs holding pinwheels, screaming “wee, wee, wee,” just like in the insurance commercial.  At the last minute, they stripped the “car” down to its chassis and that gave them the edge.

“We worked on it for last year but that race was cancelled,” Porker Larry Lindsey said.

Unlike years past, there weren’t many teams and very few outlandish cardboard sleds.  “It’s disappointing.  We do have pretty good snow.  We could use another 20 sleds, easy.  More people, more fun,” a race volunteer named Jaws said.  From year-to-year, the competition varies due to weather.

Spaceballs race crew tastes powder. The crash earned them the “best wreck” award. (photo by Jack Siebold)

Friday’s storm was a blessing for late-season skiers but not so much for cardboard sleds.  The Spaceball team’s sled dug into the fresh powder, tossing the four-man crew down the slope.  “Maybe a design flaw,” team member Seth Keene admitted.  “We’re gonna blame it on the snow conditions,” added teammate Jason McNabb.  “They didn’t groom this hill right.”  It was the only serious crash but spectacular by any standards, earning the Spaceballs the “best wreck” trophy.

Here’s a slide show of the Spaceballs crash:

For Jacob West, a teen from Sturgis, it’s just a lot of fun, winning or losing.  “Well, it’s kind of scary but you just go for it.  It’s fun.  Do what you gotta do, do what you like,” he said.

To compete, sleds had to be made with only cardboard, held together by duct tape.  Designers were also not allowed to wax their sleds.

This year, there were 15 sled entries in categories ranging from single sledders younger than 12 up to adult teams of four.

Read the Rest]]> Spearfish Spartan guard Ryan Couch makes a fourth-quarter drive for two against the Clark-Willow Lake Cyclones Friday.  (photo by Jack Siebold)

Spearfish Spartans exited the Class A State Boys Basketball Tournament with a 61-53 loss to Clark-Willow Lake Friday afternoon.

While the Clark-Willow Cyclones controlled most of the game, maintaining about a 10-point lead at times, Spearfish was able to draw within six.  Unfortunately that came with less than a minute in the fourth quarter.

The Spartans suffered their first loss Thursday when the Tea Area Titans bounced them into the loser’s bracket, 60-53.

The number one seed Cyclones were surprised Thursday by the Platte-Geddes Black Panthers.  The number eight seed Panthers mauled the Cyclones 66-51, setting up the Spearfish Clark-Willow showdown.

Read the Rest]]> Musher Jack Christopher takes people on sled rides during Winterfest.  (photo by Jack Siebold)

While many people cuss the winter weather, the northern hills town of Lead embraces it in a three-day celebration called the Winterfest Snowbash.

Winterfest is a long-standing tradition in Lead; but with fickle weather, it was discontinued at one point.  “They stopped for a while because they weren’t getting the snow.  We brought it back about six years ago,” Lead Area Chamber of Commerce Director Melissa Johnson said.

But today, the town is not only celebrating winter, they’re celebrating the recent snowfalls.  “The snow gods worked for us and we got some snow this week to help us celebrate Winterfest.  That was perfect.”

Perfect is a good word.  “We’ve been really blessed,” Johnson said.  “Actually there’s been a couple of time in recent years we’ve been almost snowed out of Winterfest because of blizzards.”

Jack Christopher, musher

But the snow isn’t quite perfect for everyone.  Jack Christopher, owner of Silent Run Adventures, would like to have a little more powder for his operation.  The musher runs dog sled outings and attends winter festivals to give the public a taste of running with his Siberian husky teams.“We’ve been running a little skimpy,” Christopher said about the snow conditions. “Ideally, last weekend I’d have been doing loops around the lake all the way around the fishing contest but I was boxed in to right along the shoreline where the wind had blown the snow to.  There was too much wind-blown ice; hard to hold the snow hooks down,” he explained.

But, he made do and expects to have a lot of people to take on sled rides.  Last year, Christopher’s first year at Winterfest, he had about 150 riders.  This year he thinks he will surpass that mark in the day and a half of mushing.  “I’m really expecting a lot of rides tomorrow (Saturday).  I bet more than 200 this year,” he said.

One of Jack Christopher’s Siberian huskies is anxious to get on the trail. (photo by Jack Siebold)

The mushing experience is just one of the many activities Lead has during the festival.  There was some snow sculpture carving Friday, along with an Extreme Snocross snowmobile exhibition, tubing, and a winter sports photo and art exhibit.

“We get a lot of locals that participate but we get a lot of tourists that are doing all of the stuff that we have to offer in the northern hills, whether it’s the skiing or the tubing or the snowmobiling,” Johnson said.  “And then of course, we have the dog mushing and other events so it is really catered for locals and beyond.  It is quite the event.”

The festival continues tomorrow.  Here is the schedule:

Tuberfest Races

9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. – Ski Mystic at Deer Mountain

Dog Mushing

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – demonstration and rides at Kirk Trailhead, about a half mile south of Lead on Highway 85.

3 to 5 p.m. – demonstration and rides at Kirk Trailhead

Snowshoeing on Mickelson Trail

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Rochford Road off Highway 85/14A, Englewood Trailhead.  Snowshoes provided but a trail pass purchase is required.

Sculpture Viewing and Kids Snowman Building

Noon – Manuel Brothers Park, Lead

Extreme Snocross Snowmobile Exhibition

Noon — Days of ’76 Rodeo Grounds, Deadwood

Soup Feed

5 to 7 p.m. — BH Rod and Gun Club near Manuel Brothers Park, $5

Parade of Lights

7 p.m. — Main Street, Lead

Bonfire, Fireworks and Community Snowball Fight

7:30 p.m. — Manuel Brothers Park

Read the Rest]]> Snowmobilers ride past the Kirk Trailhead near Lead.  Recent snows help the winter recreation season but hold little moisture.  (photo by Jack Siebold)

While the town of Lead is celebrating the recent snows with a festival, the snowpack survey shows the Black Hills needs a lot more winter to recover from the drought.

The February snow report shows the moisture in the snowpack ranges from 39 to 83 percent of the 30-year average.

The most parched area is Ditch Creek with a snow depth of 8.9 inches and water equivalent of just 1.1 inches.  That is less than have the 30-year water equivalent of 2.8 inches.  Upper Spearfish moisture is 2.4 inches of a snow depth of 14.7 inches.  Again, that is about half of the 30-year average.

Read the Rest]]> Deadwood’s gaming industry was dealt a pretty good poker hand in 2012, taking in more revenue than the year before.

State gaming statistics, released Monday, show that Deadwood revenue is up 6.43 percent for 2012.  Last year, Deadwood casinos’ total gross revenue was $107,384,458.  The 2011 year-end tally was $100,897,987.  While slots are the main bread and butter for casinos, table games continue to increase in popularity.  Table game revenue was up 17 percent; $10,426,510.

Gamblers wagered 7.5 percent more in 2012 than they did in 2011.  And they love the penny slot machines.  Overall, gamblers anted up $1,169,933,563.  Of that, $772,187,407 went into the penny slots.

Read the Rest]]> It was a full House on the opening day of the 88th Legislative Session, which included the swearing in of 70 representatives.  Photo by Jack Siebold

Can a judge make the transition from enforcing the law to crafting it?  Retired 8^th Circuit Court Judge Timothy R. Johns says yes.

“Whether I’m here as a legislator or serving as a judge, there really is no difference,” he said.  Johns is a new state Republican representative for District 31, taking the House seat vacated by Chuck Turbiville who was term-limited out of office.

Representative Timothy Johns, R-District 31

One of the major issues this session seems to be tailor-made for the new lawmaker, who has 30 years of experience on the bench.  That’s Senate Bill 70, An act to improve public safety.  “I’m on the judiciary committee and I’m looking forward to seeing this legislation,” Johns said.

SB 70 is an attempt to trim the state’s prison population, 80 percent of which are non-violent inmates.  The proposed legislation, full of recommendations by the state’s criminal justice initiative working group, gets approval from Representative Johns as well as from Judge Johns.  “There’s no need for their incarceration,” Johns explained.  “With potential probation we can prove they can continue to remain in society and be productive members.  We can save a lot of money for taxpayers, no need to continue to build prisons.  As the governor indicated, studies show incarceration doesn’t rehabilitate people, especially people with substance abuse problems.  We need to get them in drug courts.”

Of course, like other lawmakers with criminal justice backgrounds, not everything in the bill meets with his approval.  An example is the section on preliminary hearings.  The retired judge doesn’t think these hearings should be avoided.  “That’s where young lawyers get experience,” he explained.

Members of the state House listen to Representative David Lust on the opening day of the 88th session. Representative Timothy R. Johns is seated in the third row from the bottom, second from the left. Photo by Jack Siebold

Johns’ experience will help guide him in his rookie session as a legislator.  On the bench, Johns said he had to follow the rule of law and there is no difference in the state House.  He knew his actions on the bench were “subject to review by a higher court,” and that is the same today, although that “higher court” is the voter, not another judge.

“And of course, you have to realize you take an oath of office and an oath of office is a rule to follow the law.  So, if you are loyal to your oath, there shouldn’t be an issue,” Johns said.