S.D. governor is
banned by tribe
The Associated Press
A South Dakota tribe has banned Republican Gov. Kristi Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation after she spoke last week about wanting to send razor wire and security personnel to Texas to help deter immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and also said cartels are infiltrating the state's reservations.
"Due to the safety of the Oyate, effective immediately, you are hereby Banished from the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe!" Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said in a Friday statement addressed to Noem. "Oyate" is a word for people or nation.
Star Comes Out accused Noem of trying to use the border issue to help get former U.S. President Donald Trump re-elected and boost her chances of becoming his running mate.
Many of those arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border are Indigenous people from places like El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico who come "in search of jobs and a better life," the tribal leader added.
"They don't need to be put in cages, separated from their children like during the Trump Administration, or be cut up by razor wire furnished by, of all places, South Dakota," he said.
Star Comes Out also addressed Noem's remarks in the speech to lawmakers Wednesday in which she said a gang calling itself the Ghost Dancers is murdering people on the Pine Ridge Reservation and is affiliated with border-crossing cartels that use South Dakota reservations to spread drugs throughout the Midwest.
Star Comes Out said he took deep offense at her reference, saying the Ghost Dance is one of the Oglala Sioux's "most sacred ceremonies," "was used with blatant disrespect and is insulting to our Oyate."
He added that the tribe is a sovereign nation and does not belong to the state of South Dakota.
Noem responded Saturday in a statement, saying, "It is unfortunate that President (Star) Comes Out chose to bring politics into a discussion regarding the effects of our federal government's failure to enforce federal laws at the southern border and on tribal lands. My focus continues to be on working together to solve those problems."
"As I told bipartisan Native American legislators earlier this week, 'I am not the one with a stiff arm, here. You can't build relationships if you don't spend time together,'" she added.
Chicago to install
public bathrooms
The Chicago Tribune (TNS)
CHICAGO -- For many homeless people in Chicago, finding a restroom often requires walking a long distance. Many restrooms in businesses are only available for customers and public ones are few and far between, an issue Ali Simmons said was brought to the forefront during the covid-19 pandemic.
"It's definitely humiliating, embarrassing. (Unsheltered people) see it as a necessity," said Simmons, a case and street outreach worker with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
The city is now on track to install new public bathrooms, according to an alderman, more than two years after a Tribune investigation found there were fewer than 500 structures throughout Chicago that contain free public restrooms with few or no barriers to entry, such as security checkpoints or client-only access.
Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st Ward, told residents in a newsletter that JCDecaux is prepared to install four "high quality" public bathrooms as part of the French company's contract with the city. Block Club Chicago was the first to report the announcement.
JCDecaux has designed a "self-cleaning public toilet," saying on its website that they're used in 28 countries and are fully funded by advertising on street furniture, such as the bus shelters the company operates in Chicago.
"I'm excited to see the city work with such an experienced operator and hopeful that we can determine appropriate locations in the very near term," La Spata said. "It's a great opportunity to bring new services to our residents!"
The 1st Ward's office said in a statement that La Spata is collaborating with JCDecaux, Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration and the City Council's Committee on Health and Human Relations on details related to the restrooms' installation, including where they will be located, and will "have a more substantive update soon."
The mayor's office and JCDecaux did not respond to requests for comment.
Simmons said while these additions are a step in the right direction, the city needs to add more than four public restrooms. It's a matter of "decency," he said.
"You don't want to have people out here using the bathroom in public places, and that also contributes to public complaints about health and safety issues that's coming from the unsheltered population," he said.
FILE - South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem listens to Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairwoman Janet Alkire, unseen, during a tribal flags ceremony, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, at the state Capitol in Pierre, S.D. A South Dakota tribe has banned Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation after she spoke this week about wanting to send razor wire and security personnel to Texas to help deter immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and also said cartels are infiltrating the state's reservations. (AP Photo/Jack Dura, File)