Argus-Leader from Sioux Falls, South Dakota • Page 14

4B State region Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, S.D. Monday, Jan. 21 1991 Mouse speaker Diad sights set on job for 27 years constitutional amendment authorizing the state lottery. The lottery measure passed the House by only one vote and also made it through the Senate. The state's voters later agreed to amend the constitution to allow the lottery.

"It's provided some needed additional dollars for the state of South Dakota," Hood says. The new speaker says he has no regrets about the time he's spent in the House. "I love the process. I love the people." He says he won't make any decisions about his political future until he completes his two years as House speaker. "I'm just keeping my options open.

I haven't made any decisions as to higher office or continuing in the House." prevent debate on measures they oppose. In South Dakota, every bill must get a public hearing. Hood says he can exert only limited influence on legislation by deciding procedural matters. South Dakotans wouldn't allow the kind of power some other states give their House speakers, he says. "South Dakota is a small state.

People in South Dakota know each other and really wouldn't stand for that type of abuse of power." The South Dakota House also limits each person to only a two-year term as speaker, a tradition that ensures no one will stay in the job a long time and become too powerful, Hood says. Hood says the two biggest highlights of his legislative career involve the decision to build a new athletic facility at Black Hills State University in Spearfish and the jumped at the opportunity and haven't looked back since." A tall man who sports a distinguished silver beard, Hood trained for the speaker's job during the past two years, when he was speaker pro tem. That position as assistant speaker allowed him to take over when then-Speaker Bud Wood took a break from the rostrum at the head of the House chamber. The Republican majority in the House nominated Hood to be speaker, but he also had strong Democratic support. The full House voted unanimously to make him the chamber's top officer.

"You strive to be non-partisan and be fair to the minority party," Hood says. "That really comes with the job. You have an obligation to strive for fairness there." House Democratic Leader Bob Duxbury of Wessington gives Hood high marks for the way he's conducted himself so far. Duxbury says the new speaker has a good understanding of how the House works and tried to assign all representatives to the committees they wanted. "Jim has been excellent to work with," Duxbury says.

"He's been fair and cordial." The House speaker decides which representatives are appointed to which committees, decides which committees bills will be assigned to, enforces the rules of the House and controls the flow of debate in the chamber. "I guess you could be compared to a traffic cop" in directing the flow of bills and House business, Hood says. In some other states, House speakers have enough power to By CHET BROKAW Associated Press PIERRE In 1964, a high school junior named Jim Hood worked as a messenger in the South Dakota House of Representatives. Now a lawyer from Spearfish, he wields the gavel as the chamber's top officer. Hood was sworn in as speaker of the House when the 1991 legislative session began, an event that marked the start of his two-year stint as the 47th speaker in the history of the House.

Hood says his interest in the Legislature started when he served as messenger 27 years ago. He was elected to the House in the 1982 election after Lawrence County Republican Party leaders asked him to run. "I had always had it in the back of my mind," Hood says. "I Jim Hood South Dakota Speaker of the House Woman turns life around after cycle of abuse Mickelson, staff taking sales tax plan on the road Women are starting to speak out. I think it's a lot of women's movements.

We're starting to say it's not OK to be Shari Aaker-Gilchrist Outstanding Young American control there. He can dominate. "It's like an addiction, like alcohol. The abuser needs to turn to himself and say, 'I've got a problem. I need Often, financial hardships can trigger an episode of violence.

In rural areas, such as South Dakota, the farming crisis has triggered domestic problems. "We've had women come into the crisis center after the hay baler broke down, or something like that," she said. "We had a lot of problems during the drought. And the problem, she said, is getting deadlier. "I see it getting a lot worse," she said.

"In our agency, we see more knives and guns being used. We're seeing, across the state of South Dakota, the end result of domestic violence being death." She said she recognizes the irony in returning as a counselor to the state where she once was a victim. She plans to make that the theme of her speech. "I feel that I've gone full circle," she said. "I left Oklahoma with a goal and a dream.

I feel that I've fulfilled that, and I'm coming back to Oklahoma to be honored." S.D. native runs Redfield shelter TULSA, Okla. (AP) The last time Shari Aaker-Gilchrist was in Oklahoma, she was fleeing an abusive husband. But when she took her place here alongside nine other men and women Saturday at the U.S. Jaycee's 10 Outstanding Young Americans ceremony, she was honored as an advocate for abused women and children.

The road from victim to advocate was a long one, starting in Woodward, in a troubled marriage. She eventually fled, returning to her roots in South Dakota and remarrying. "I was married to a man who was very violent, had a temper that would fly with the flick of a switch," she said. "He became very violent with us, both my daughter and I. There were many nights we would drive around the streets of Woodward, Oklahoma.

"He couldn't hold a job. He became more violent. He couldn't provide for his family, and he had this ego that he needed to do this." PIERRE (AP) Gov. George Mickelson and some of his staff and Cabinet members will hit the road this week for meetings in larger South Dakota cities to pitch his plan to raise the state sales tax. Mickelson will hold meetings in Pierre, Rapid City and Sioux Falls to speak for his plan.

Mickelson staff members will take the same message to Huron, Watertown, Mitchell, Brookings and Aberdeen. The Pierre meeting will be held Thursday, and the other sessions have been scheduled for Saturday. The governor wants to raise the state sales tax by one-half cent to provide more money for education, water development and other needs. Other taxes and fees would rise as well, and the total package would raise taxes by more than $40 million. People want water projects and more money for education, but they don't want taxes to rise, Mickelson said.

"You just can't years, and it's not been until the last two decades that it's become more well-versed through society maybe even the last decade," Aaker-Gilchrist said. "I've heard stories of people's grandmothers that had talked about, 'Oh, yeah. I had experienced that, That could've been 50 or 60 years ago. "Women are starting to speak out. I think it's a lot of women's movements.

We're starting to say it's not OK to be victimized." Aaker-Gilchrist said abusers turn to violence because it gives them a sense of control. "Control, absolute control. Control needs to be felt by an abuser," she said. "You'll have a man who can't be in control while he's at work and come home and be very abusive. He can feel in Aaker-Gilchrist, who now lives in Redfield, S.D., founded the Family Crisis Center, there.

She operates on a $50,000 budget cushioned with state and federal grants and private donations. "We're a crisis agency," she said. "We're like an ambulance service. We get you to the hospital. We'll stabilize you until you can be treated.

"I felt that God had spared my life, as well as the life of my daughter, and that we were going to repay that." The center shelters abused women and children, refers families for counseling and educates the public about victims. Last year, the center responded to 55 "crisis calls" in the town of 2,766. "We've had domestic violence around for years and years and George Roger Mickelson McKellips have it both ways," he Mickelson is looking for the needed two-thirds majority support in the Legislature. A member of the Republican majority, state Rep. John Sears of Rapid City, said Mickelson used such trips to shape policy and to sell it.

Democrats have enough membership in the Legislature to block the plan and have said they are strongly opposed to a tax increase. They say the Persian Gulf war and the recession shows it is time to trim expenses, not raise taxes. Students taking longer to finish school Signer Continued from 1 of students who are age 24 or older, Flickema said. Those students tend to take fewer courses because of family and work demands. Tough economic times in the state also may play a role.

One hundred of the 1991 spring semester graduates will be former employees of the Imprimis plant that closed two years ago in Aberdeen, Flickema said. Many other non-traditional students are farmers, their spouses and single parents. Women now make up 61 percent of the student population, up from 49 percent in 1979. "Almost all of these non-trads come back to school because they have economic reasons to PIERRE (AP) More South Dakota college students are taking fewer classes and some officials think that shift could be significant in reshaping South Dakota's public universities. "Students are taking longer to get through," said Tom Flickema, vice president for academic affairs at Northern State University.

The average time for an undergraduate degree is now 4y2 years, Flickema said. A decade ago, students took an average of 15 credits or 18 credits per semester at NSU. Now the credit load for many students is about 12 per semester. An influx of non-traditional students may be one reason for the change. At NSU, approximately one-third of the enrollment is comprised do so," Flickema said.

"Eighty percent of our undergraduates have part-time jobs." But students in the traditional age range of 17 to 23 are changing their patterns at Northern State, too. Flickema said in addition to taking fewer credits, some students drop out for a semester to work. Sen. Red Allen, D-Yankton, said schools may be requiring too many hours of basic courses, thereby adding an extra semester or two before a student can be graduated. Allen said the problem is compounded when a student holds a job and has less time for classes.

"It's been my experience it's because of economic reasons. It seems to me we need to change," Allen said. Iowa legislators ready to start budget battles about Hawaiian bikinis where he struggled to sign and keep a straight face as the cameramen hooted and whistled in the background. And then there was the time his 5-year-old son, Matt, accompanied him to the station. Warned to sit quietly and not move, Matt figured he could get on camera and wave if he maneuvered his way under his dad's arm.

"Luckily, I was able to nudge him away and still keep on signing," Steele said. Such are the behind-the-scene stories of a man who said he has gained a little but not overwhelming notoriety from his television work. People comment on their appreciation of his efforts even though they don't know sign language. Occasionally, he'll hear someone on the street say, "Oh, there's the guy that does the signing." "It's been pretty obvious to me that Kevin is appreciated," KELO news director Mark Millage said. "There is no question that if we didn't do it, I'm sure we would hear about it.

People watch it and are very loyal about it." Soukup said: "Kevin leaving is the one big negative part of going to closed captions. He has done so much for public awareness by committing himself and his Saturday nights to this TV program. He'll be missed." Steele said he will miss it, too. His job now with the East Dakota Education Cooperative means he no longer works with the hearing impaired. What KELO gave him was a chance to keep his signing skills sharp, and to continue in a field he loved.

"I'm glad the deaf can get news now seven days a week," he said. "But it was fun. It was a good experience for me. I really enjoyed it." preter in 1979. He was working at the South Dakota School for the Deaf at the time, where he had progressed from teacher to affirmative action officer and, finally, to dean of students.

His interest in the handicapped is deep-rooted, he said. "I grew up half a block from the Crippled Children's Hospital," he said. "We'd go down and play baseball with some of the kids there. It always amazed me that Ron Anderson, with spina bifida and one arm, could always hit it farther than I could." While going to school at Au-gustana College in the early 1970s, Steele worked at the YMCA and came to know a number of hearing-impaired and other handicapped people who roomed there. The cumulative experiences "just kind of made me realize that I always wanted to work with the handicapped in some degree." His experience at KELO has been a mixture of challenges and humorous moments.

Steele said his goal was always to keep up with the newscasters and get the message across. That wasn't always easy with different on-camera personalities. "Doug Lund was always very easy, very even-keeled in his approach and manner. On the other hand, (Mike) Schirmer and (Gary) Weckwerth were a little tougher, a little more animated." Finger-spelling names of Czechoslovakian tennis players was never easy, he said. Neither were church postponements, spelling out the name of each church.

Steele said every newcomer in the KELO newsroom typically walked in front of his camera at least once, not realizing he was on the air. said after Bran-stad's inauguration address Friday. Branstad also delivered his annual condition of the state speech last Tuesday, but it gave no details of his spending plans. DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) After a week of distraction, the Iowa Legislature gets down to business today. Republican Gov.

Terry Branstad delivers his proposed state budget for the coming year this morning. By afternoon majority Democrats are expected to be firing criticism. The governor did not provide much of a target during the opening days of the session last week as he released only bits and pieces of his plan to spend more than $3 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1. "We still don't know what he's got planned," Senate Majority Leader Bill Hutchins, D-Audubon, cant budget cuts. In his speech Friday, Branstad said education and economic development programs remain his priorities.

Democrats are offering their own agenda. "We're committed as Democrats to spending as much as we can on education, the environment and a basic safety net for our citizens," said House Speaker Robert Ar-nould, D-Davenport. Branstad said Friday he wants the Legislature to raise the state cigarette tax from 21 cents a pack to 31 cents. That also is facing resistance from Democrats. "The mood of Democrats has been against tax increases," Ar- nould said.

A 31-cent tax would tie Texas for the highest levy on cigarettes in the nation. Opposition is expected to be led by lawmakers from Iowa cities bordering other states. They say the increase would send more consumers across the state line to shop. "Obviously you're concerned about your border cities when you have a major tax increase," said Sen. Joe Welsh, D-Dubuque.

On Tuesday, House-Senate budget subcommittees will begin work on the state budget. Those sessions are expected to dominate the week's activity at the Capitol. Terry Branstad Experts have projected a budget deficit of about $250 million next year, based on spending increases due to occur automatically. That is forcing the Legislature and Branstad to consider signifi 2 Save fuel and money with a new high efficient gas furnace from Heistek. When it feels like there's nowhere to turn, we're here to provide counseling, support, and direction.

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336-0509 iilH- I VOI3K 3321 East 26th Street Suite 4 Sioux Falls, SD 57103 605-332-8484 Heating and Air Conditioning John Heisler makes sense for every television station to close caption their local news," Millage said. Program director Marge Hok-enstad of KSFY-TV said her station occasionally uses signers on special programs, especially those involving the deaf and hearing impaired. KSFY is looking at closed captioning, she said. KDLT-TV news director Steve Snyder said his station isn't considering it at this time. Stories done live, or turned in on deadline, likely will not be closed captioned either, he said.

At present, hearing-impaired persons need a decoder to get closed captions. Congress has passed legislation that requires all television sets 13 inches or larger to contain a computer chip for closed captioning by July 1, 1993, Millage said. Because of that, "I would think between now and then, it only Company Executive Fax. Computer Training ij mmammm Panafax UF-160. Multiple Features At An Economical Price.

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