Writer, lawyer and consultant with over thirty years of writing and photography experience.
While my areas of writing expertise include history, travel, politics, foreign affairs, aviation, the environment and law, I believe a good writer should, with enough research, be able to write about anything.
Good writing is good writing.
Todd D. Epp, LL.M.
News Law Foreign Affairs Aviation History Travel
Harrisburg, SD (Sioux Falls metro area)
Writer, lawyer and consultant with over thirty years of writing and photography experience.
While my areas of writing expertise include history, travel, politics, foreign affairs, aviation, the environment and law, I believe a good writer should, with enough research, be able to write about anything.
Good writing is good writing.
Unless U.S. Senate candidate Rick Weiland can pull off an upset Election Day, the South Dakota Democratic Party will be shut out of holding a single statewide office. I’m not sure when the last time this has happened but I don’t recall it happening since I’ve been involved in South Dakota politics in some capacity starting in 1986.
Imagine if Islamic terrorists occupied the biggest city two counties over. How confident would you feel that they will stay put and leave you and your community alone?
That's the dilemma that faces my Kurdish and international friends in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. Just down the road in Mosul -- 60 miles of highway -- the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has scared two divisions of Iraqi soldiers to lay down their weapons and abandon their equipment -- including state-of-the-art, American-made and supplied Kiowa and Blackhawk helicopters.
(NPN) — Those who show up, the late Gov. George Mickelson liked to tell us journalists at his Friday news conferences during the South Dakota legislative session, run the government. But what if no one shows up? That’s the dismaying outcome of Tuesday’s South Dakota primary election. South Dakotans didn’t show up.
Kennedy retrospectives in the runup to the 50th anniversary of his assassination have been my TV viewing staple the past couple of weeks. CBS, PBS, CNN, the History Channel, whenever, wherever, whatever about JFK, and I’m berthed on the couch watching. At 54, I’m on the younger end of the “where were you when JFK was murdered?”.
I recently read Ido Dissentshik's essay, "Night in a Sealed Room" {op-ed, Jan. 26}. The night he and his family spent in their sealed room during the Scud attack on Tel Aviv must have been terrifying. As a family man like him, I can't imagine my 1-year-old and wife having to endure the dangers of missiles and poison gas.
While the Sioux Falls Police Department chases chimeras that allegedly assault their officers in city parks, in many other police departments across the nation, law enforcement has seemingly declared war on the citizens they are supposed to protect. Since the federal government doesn’t keep statistics on how many unarmed people are killed each year by law enforcement, it’s difficult to come up with a definitive number.
Imagine if a there was someone on the loose in Sioux Falls for nearly five months who had threatened a police officer in one of the city’s signature parks near one of it’s toniest neighborhoods! And imagine if the police officer shot at the suspect because he felt his life was in danger? You’d then imagine a huge dragnet to catch such a dangerous scofflaw would be all over the news, the video and audio of the attack would be released to help catch the assailant and a law enforcement joint task force would be set up to catch this person who is a danger to the police and public.
OK Sturgis, you get one more big party for the 75th anniversary of the Sturgis Rally and Races this summer, then that’s it. You’ve finally gone too far. You’ve sold you soul and have whore-mongered your city park to the highest bidders. Never mind that the event flies in the face of the family values that South Dakotans say they love.
Thursday, our colleagues at KCSR-AM in Chadron, Nebraska broke the story that the Lakota Nation Invitational basketball tournament is considering moving to Sioux Falls. Spearfish, Hot Springs and Bismarck have also expressed interest in the tournament that has a $6 million economic impact. Organizers are considering the move because of racial incidents in Rapid City, like the throwing of beer and racial insults hurled at Native American students at a hockey match.
I am one of probably few Americans who have actually been to Syria. When journalists report about gassings and bombings in Damascus' suburbs, they may be places I've visited. It was 2003 during the throes of the second Gulf War. I was visiting Damascus because I had a client in Damascus that my law firm was representing.