That whining sound you hear from the west is the cacophony of lobbying groups and lobbyists crying about the impact Initiated Measure 22 is having on their cozy relationships with legislators. Special interest groups are dropping their legislative events and dinners with some frequency because of the reporting requirements and $100 limit on gifts/services in IM 22.

I was born in Tilden, Nebraska, named for Samuel Tilden, the Democrat who lost—no, had stolen—the 1876 Presidential election against Republican Rutherford B. Tilden won the popular vote by three percent but four states were in dispute regarding their electoral votes. In the Compromise of 1877, the election went to the United States House of Representatives and all 20 disputed electoral votes went to Republican Hayes in exchange for the removal of federal troops from the South.

Add wool carpets to your wool stocking cap and wool sweater. Only instead of keeping your noggin and body warm, wool carpeting will repel stains and deflect wear, even in the most trafficked of areas. It might even clean your air. If it’s good enough for hotels and casinos, notes John Dorsey, general manager of Abbey Flooring Headquarters in the Furniture Mall of Kansas in Topeka, wool carpeting will withstand your dogs, kids, dirt and more.

I’m not sure there is, but here are five items that I think are uniquely South Dakotan, or at least Upper Midwestern. I’ve only seen them in this region or if I’ve been somewhere else and asked for them, gotten only blank stares. See Tomato Beer. Beer purists don’t think you should put anything in beer.

/SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Hail, snow, flooding, a tornado and a tropical storm made it a "severe weather" Mother's Day in much of the center of the United States and on the Carolina coast on Sunday. Rescue helicopters in Denton County, Texas pulled six people out of homes after thunderstorms dumped heavy rain in the area.

May 10 (Reuters) - Hail, snow, a tornado and a tropical storm made it a "severe weather" Mother's Day in much of the center of the United States and on the Carolina coast on Sunday. Tropical Storm Ana, the first named storm of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, weakened after making landfall near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but high surf and flooding still threatened the coast.

For just double or triple the cost of an extended warranty on your new computer from Best Buy, you could get a one-year warranty on your home’s—or next home’s—appliances, heating and cooling system and more. Home warranties work much the same way as your extended warranty on your computer from the Big Box store.

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.

What we may not need are vitamins and minerals that come in a bottle. According to the National Institutes of health, about a third of all Americans age 1 and older take a multi-vitamin/mineral (MVM) supplement. NIH says that MVMs are a nearly $5.5 billion industry, making up more than a third of the over $13 billion in vitamin/supplement sales annually.

The sun is free; the problem is converting it to energy for your house isn’t. Solar-powered electricity isn’t unique in the Topeka area. The Colmery-O’Neill VA Hospital recently installed over 2,600 solar panels on its grounds to help generate green power. And if you travel in Italy, you’ll see solar panels on almost any long, flat surface, such as parking garages or even stand-alone panels along their equivalent of their Interstate highways.

The 1960s promised us flying cars by now. Alas, we don’t have them. But the ‘60s also gave us the way cool old school yet futuristic see-through bubble chair—and that you can get. Finnish designer Eero Aarnio—yes, even his name is cool—invented the acrylic bubble chair in 1968 for his first new house.

Ladies and gentlemen! With nothing more than this cloth and a glass of water, I will clean the stubbornest stains, the filthiest flatware, the baddest bacteria and the confoundingest crud! With cleaning cloths from sellers like the Norwegian-based company Norwex and other chemical-free cleaners, it is possible to clean many items with nothing more than a microfiber cloth and tap water.