O.K., I'm news. Actually, I'm not, but Pat Powers wants me to be, because, like fake Senate candidate Annette Bosworth, he survives on distracting readers from the main point (Annette Bosworth is a scam artist, bilking vulnerable donors around the country with a cynical montage of conservative talking points that she doesn't really believe, all the while refusing to pay former employees and refund the raffle ticketholders she cheated).
In today's fun and games, Powers cites the affidavit of one Tanya Montgomery, another former employee of Bosworth's clinic who is suing to get back wages. Montgomery says she was offered big money by an online journalist for information about her work for Bosworth:
In July 2013, I received a call from a writer for an online political blog inquiring about the small claims action I had filed. I did not initiate contact with the writer. He was seeking confirmation of the information found in the public file on the small claims action.
At that time the writer offered to pay me my unpaid wages if I would participate in additional interviews regarding my employment with IM, PHS and Dr. Bosworth. I refused the offer and had had no further contact with the writer until after the Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Attorney’s Fees was filed in February 2014, as the action again became an issue in the media. I have not received compensation from any writer or member of the media nor have I cooperating in providing information or documents for stories or posts [Tanya Montgomery, affidavit, Montgomery v. Bosworth, March 2014; quoted by Pat Powers, "Plaintiff in Montgomery v. Bosworth Court Case Claims Blogger Offered Her Thousands of Dollars for Her Interview," Dakota War College, 2014.03.24].
From this statement, and from Bosworth's filing of lengthy excerpts from the Madville Times in her court affidavit (Hey! Thanks for reading!), Pat Powers leaps to the conclusion that I am the blogger who offered Tanya Montgomery thousands of dollars for her story.
For the record:
- I do not recall speaking with a Tanya Montgomery at any point in the summer of 2013.
- I have never given or offered money to anyone named Tanya Montgomery.
- I have not volunteered to act as a conduit for money from another source to anyone named Tanya Montgomery for any information.
- Of the many people I have spoken to about the Bosworth story, none have received payment or an offer of payment from me for their information.
- No outside source, no evil George Soros "lurking behind the liberal curtain," has offered to spot me any amount of money to get sources to talk about Annette Bosworth. People are talking about Annette Bosworth because they see bad things happening that they want to stop.
- The money I have spent covering the Bosworth story consists of a few dollars to obtain records of Bosworth hubby Chad Haber's corporate filings in Utah, and I spent that money grudgingly, because I am a bigger cheapskate than any Republican. I haven't even coughed up the cash to subscribe to PACER and read Raymond Paul Morris's claim that Haber was the mastermind of the criminal 100X mortgage-flipping scheme.
- Beyond that, my expense on the Bosworth story consists of research, time on the phone, and the effort to write the accurate, documented articles on the Bosworth campaign that you expect.
And in all of my writing on this story, I have gotten nothing as wrong as Pat gets when he claims I have offered a Bosworth source thousands of dollars for her story. His claim his as wildly false and verging on slanderous as his claim last summer that I stole documents from a locked desk in Chad Haber's office.
I have been diligent and truthful in my coverage of Annette Bosworth's Senate campaign fundraising scam from day one. Pat Powers has been neither.
Sources, to be clear: you won't get rich talking to me. But if you tell me truth that's in the public interest, you'll get your story told well... and if we keep speaking up, you may get justice.
p.s.: If I have $5,000 to spend on the blog, I won't waste it buying a source on one story when I already have lots of information pouring out of the leaky Bosworth bucket for free. I'll spend that $5,000 on a grand tour of South Dakota, talk to a hundred people, and get interviews, pictures, and video for a whole year's worth of quality blog stories... and some fresh kuchen and buffalo burgers.
"and I spent that money grudgingly, because I am a bigger cheapskate than any Republican."
We aren't all that way Cory, but what an awesome quote.
I read the copy in DWC and didn't see your name mentioned. Am I missing something?
Cory was called out by name..."It appears that they are claiming that Madville Times as written by Cory Heidelberger as the person involved.."
For what it's worth...I would be very interested in a colorful book/extended series of articles from you (Cory) if you ever get a chance to travel SD...maybe a good GoFundMe campaign idea?
John, From DWC:
"If you review the other information in the case, the litigants allude to the “online political blog,” as one that has long perseverated on Dr. Annette Bosworth. It appears that they are claiming that Madville Times as written by Cory Heidelberger as the person involved."
Also, I would say that PP's use of perseverated, according to my dictionary, is incorrect, as Dr Bosworth as not paid the employees or the ticket holders from the lottery back yet. (I must be honest however, I had never heard that word before.)
Curious that Cory has banned Sibby for less odious smears but keeps PP in Madville's sidebar.
I meant in the affidavit, advocate and Lanny. Should have clarified. Never heard of "perseverate" either, but apparently it's a verb form of persevere. One who perseveres is perseverating.
You're right, John: in the two pages of the affidavit offered, Montgomery does not name me. Annette Bosworth implicates me more directly in her affidavit submitted last week by including pages from my blog, though her court documents, too, seem to avoid saying my name. It is Pat and Pat alone putting one and a half together and getting 2.7.
I, too, have never given money to anybody named Tanya nor acted as a conduit for such money to be given to any such person. I just wanted to have that on the record as well. I'm just sayin...
(Larry, there are many kinds of odour.)
Cory, If you were Sen. Lederman you would immediately send out a letter to PP demanding a retraction and threatening legal action. Hey, isn't Lederman's lawyer the one slinging allegations for Bosworth in the lawsuits her employees brought?
On a side note, I wonder if the AG's Office is going to take any action for the raffle scam victims.
PP called you basically an out of work French teacher with no visible means of support. You gonna take that?
I would do one of those emo things here to jab at Mr. H and show him my teasing but manly admiration but I'm not good at them.
Times as written by Cory Heidelberger as the person involved..
If you start looking at this sworn court affidavit, the plaintiff notes, “the writer offered to pay me my unpaid wages if I would participate in additional interviews.” In reviewing other documents in the case, I believe those allegedly unpaid wages exceeded $5000.
Aside from the ethical concerns over “checkbook journalism” or paying someone for their story, you have to wonder who’s behind the curtain providing a state blogger with this kind of financial backing? In addition to my 2 jobs, I have several advertisers and I work my advertising pretty hard. I know I wouldn’t have the means to offer someone $5,000 for a story (not that I ever would, as I don’t believe in it.)
If this is true, at the time, in July of 2013, I believe Cory had finished his tenure with the Spearfish school district. Which leads up to the $100,000 question – How was an out of work french teacher with no visible means of support, and a wife who is interning, going to pay someone $5000 to “provide information or documents for stories or posts?” (That’s about the same amount that a major national website, gawker, offered for an iphone prototype).
Last time I checked, Annette Bosworth is a bit less of a national news story than a pre-release of the next iPhone. (No offense, Dr. Boz).
Maybe the blogging on the other side of the aisle is far more lucrative than some people care to let on. But, if not, it raises a huge
Shameful of Pat to be so wrong, and then to use that word...
Grudz, you, too, are offering distraction. Get on point: Bosworth is scamming voters, and Powers is blowing smokescreens for her.
I maybe way wrong here, but this resembles some perverse parlor game. I'll take Cory at his word that he was not involved in paying Tanya Montgomery.
The next question would be, do you believe Tanya's affidavit? What are her motivations in saying she was made such an offer and why won't she disclose the name?
If Tanya's affidavit is in need factual and if Cory is not the blogger that offered her payment for her story, who is?
What does Pat Powers gain from her?
Is Chad Haber the mysterious blogger?
Sibby, Ellis or any number of political bloggers in the state?
Rounds is probably telling pp to be nice to her bc he wants her 12% later in the general. Otherwise they would shut down that carnival ride.
PP evidently thinks he is reputable because he threw out the word perseverated like a big shot. It appears he ran out of press releases with which to paper the walls of today's issue of DWC, so he's doing what comes easiest to him -- and that's nothing that comes close to the credible journalism Cory offers every day. All PP can do is hurl insults, and trust that his readers are stupid enough to believe that Cory or anyone other blogger for that matter would pay $5,000 for -- well, for what exactly? Cory and the people who haven't been paid by Bosworth/Haber and the people who have been stiffed in land raffles have pretty much revealed those two are rotten. Cory and everyone else with a brain in her/his head knows you don't need to spend $5,000 to verify that.
I served a year internship as a pastor and I received $800/month. My rent and utilities were covered. That's all. I didn't get rich from it or have several thousand bucks to carelessly toss around.
Are you robbing banks Cory? If so, for a 60% cut, I'll keep my mouth shut.
"Perseverate" is a word often used in many professions where assessment of a person's psychological status, brain function or speech patterns is of concern. The word is used often in the field of brain injury rehabilitation and psychology. If you have a child with a certain conditions that affect development, you will likely be all too familiar with the word. Applied to Cory by PP, it's just PP's snarky way of saying "Cory has hit on a story that I would just as soon not be pursued because the people that pay me aren't concerned with the truth."
I learned thirty years ago during the nuclear waste issue that "perseverating" on the truth is no vice. It led to uncovering Janklow's secret efforts to site a nuclear waste dump in South Dakota. Today, I continue to perseverate on Daugaard's efforts to site a nuclear dump.
I tried to cut and paste the definition from my on line dictionary on my earlier post, but it would not paste. I just went to google and got the same exact definition so I will post that and repost my earlier post.
verbPSYCHOLOGY
repeat or prolong an action, thought, or utterance after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased.
Also, I would say that PP's use of perseverated, according to my dictionary, is incorrect, as Dr Bosworth has not paid the employees or the ticket holders from the lottery back yet. (I must be honest however, I had never heard that word before.)
Jim, You may have the answer. I have been trying to figure out why in the world PP would defend her, when she has shown herself to be so dishonest and be so down on Stace Nelson, who is honest and calls a spade a spade whether it is conservative or liberal.
Putz Powers perseverates in rinktumizing. (See Faulkner)
Mr. Pay, it always comes down to somebody's secret plans to create a nuclear waste dump north of Ardmor with you, doesn't it?
I use that Occam fellow's razor when I can:
1. The young Dr. Bos is a pretty young lady with some ambitions, and is insaner than most.
2. She is married to a really evil manipulating fellow.
3. They are tilting at waterwheels and such in get-rich-quick schemes.
4. The conspiracy freaks among you all see this as something even more insidious.
5. Those of us entertained by the entire ordeal let the conspiracy freaks flail away and fan the flames of the insanity in #1 to keep the cycle going.
That's my theory anyway. But you might think I'm insaner than most or a conspiracy freak too.
Cave Hills are more likely being eyed for radioactive residue from the Bakken:
"The Early Tertiary stratigraphic record of the Williston Basin consists of two regressive sequences separated by a transgressive sequence. Recent stratigraphic studies and radiometric dating suggest that the first regression, which is largely Late Cretaceous in age, continued into the early Paleocene. During this regression, the Cretaceous epeiric sea retreated approximately 400 km (250 mi) from southeastern Montana into central North Dakota. This regressive sequence consists of the Pierre Shale, Fox Hills Formation, and Hell Creek Formation."
http://archives.datapages.com/data/rocky_sepm/data/023/023001/127_rocky_mount230127.htm
Mr. Kurtz, you know they don't let us spend more than 24 hours in a given year at Riley pass as it is! If they dump more radioactive stuff there to fill in the ruts in the road all Harding County gonads will shrivel entirely.
Now Pat is calling this Ms. Montgomery and/or Dr. Bosworth-Haber scurrilous people. Generally remarks are scurrilous. To call a person scurrilous insults their character to the core. This reaches the root of the problem: Cory is a far better writer, and deep down Pat doesn't like it. Oh, and that Cory has pegged Lady Bosworth and her cyber court so well, PP loyalists agree with Madville. Pat should really stop boasting he is the no. 1 blog in SD.
Cory,
Did you ever get investigated and charged for the stolen Bosworth papers accused you of?
I recall at one point that is would be just be a matter of days before you were charged, according to Powers.
Almost 10 years later: Do you know who I am? I'm Pat Powers and everything I have to say is important! YAWN...
G-man et al., you make me proud. I had DWC on my favorites bar before I had Madville. I never donated a dime to PP, but have hit the tip jar on here a couple of times. But I also deleted DWC from my favorites bar at least 6 weeks ago, thinking, "why bother?"
Larry, ah you finally figured it out! You got tired of reading a blog from a man having conversations in the comments section with himself. Good for you.
I see Veritis's comments whomever that is over at DWC were deleted pointing out that PP is a shill for Rounds in replying of Ethan's questions why PP continues to still put out Bosworth press releases.
I looked up the definition of "shill" last night and it perfectly fits.
Lanny I have been going over to DWC mostly for entertainment value and never taking it too seriously knowing full well it's like watching a puppeteer pulling strings sometimes carefully controlling the message steering towards whomever is paying the puppeteer.
Other times no effort is put in with all the canned and carefully prepared sterile press releases posted. Anyone could do that.
Periodically it's nice to see some Republicans, Democrats and Independents I respect weigh in on issues but it's getting to the point at least for me it's just not worth my time reading it. It's like watching Fox or MSNBC I can only take so much time watching it before I lose interest. It's like BS/propaganda overload at times.
Cory,
I take you at your word. Makes me curious who this blogger is too and I wonder if it is even true. If not Pat or you, I suspect Kal. Just Kidding. I actually have a guess, if this is true.
But, Cory, you are a big speculation/connect the dots guy and are often wrong or assert the unprovable. I don't think Pat deploying the same methodology and thinking the dots point to you since nobody has given more "ink" to Annette than you.
You and Pat "need" each other as foils/young and yang/frick and frat. You gotta admit Pat is more fun than Sibby. In the end, I am glad you aren't involved and stated it so clearly.
But this type of speculation needs to be backed up with proof, especially since Mr. Powers was labeled a journalist by a judge. And if the information on Mr. Powers blog is incorrect as Cory stated, then Mr. Powers should be held accountable, the same any journalist/newspaper would be.
So some of you say Haber is John Derek/Svengali and Bos is Bo Derek w/o the corn rows?
Troy, I have always posited that the blogosphere works best when bloggers interact. We must do so on a basis of truth and evidence.
I will also agree that Pat is more fun than Sibby. Sibby is locked in a Dungeons-and-Dragons fantasy to which response/rebuttal is both impossible and pointless.
I would be interested in seeing an example of explicit speculation that I have offered on so little evidence that has proven as wrong as Pat's assertions of my venality and criminality.
Roger, to add to my statements for the record: no law enforcement officer has ever contacted me about anything relating to Annette Bosworth, Chad Haber, their business, their campaign, or their employees. I have never faced legal charges of anything other than traffic violations.
Roger, you raise a good question about testing the truth of the words in question. Montgomery's words and mine are compatible: I made no offer, but some other blogger may have. If we assume the complete truth of all of those words, then the question is who, and why? I know of no South Dakota political blogger with the resources to offer a source thousands of dollars, especially not for a story which, in July 2013, was not yet worth that investment. Bosworth wasn't really national news (Powers agrees that's the case even today). Any blogger with resources that big to invest in the story would likely have discovered much more damning information available for much less cost. Why pay $5,000 for Montgomery's story when Mathia Rall's similarly damning and headline-worthy story was apparently available for free, and when the associated court documents are available for minimal expense?
If we bought the Republican-Rounds-Bosworth-plant theory, then we might hypothesize that Team Rounds was bankrolling or pretending to be a blogger to buy Montgomery's silence. But that hypothesis doesn't fit the facts: lots of people with equally or more damning evidence have spoken up. Team Rounds would have had to make offers like that to dozens of people, and evidently such offers either never happened or didn't work very well... and no faux candidate/heat shield is worth that much ineffective effort, especially when the main reason for engaging in such a crazy plan, Stace Nelson, either does not pose such a danger or could be better beaten by spending the same amount of money and effort in straight-up campaigning.
So who's left to make Montgomery an offer she could still refuse? Who's crazy enough to gamble on such a scam, to claim to be a blogger just to buy one Bosworth witness's silence?
Roger asks if Chad Haber could be the mysterious blogger. What makes you ask that, Roger?
"I suspect Kal."
Yeah because I post so regularly during debate season.
I have a step-daughter in college. She's the only one who gets to ask for $5000 with a prayer of getting it. Her prayer, of course, needs to be added to mine because I'd need a lot of prayer to come up with $5,000 to just give away.
If I had the $5,000 to drop, my wife and I would go visit the other young'un who's working in China.
Cory,
Most of your early NBP/GOED/Benda speculation, innuendo, connect the dots ideas have been proven exaggerated if not wholly inaccurate. I think it reasonable to speculate that based on your focus on Bosworth that it could have been you.
I do think though the "who" it was (if there was such a person and offer) is intriguing.
I think it was Troy.
Has anyone considered the possibility that either Powers or Ms. Montgomery are just making up crap?
Nick, the former is obvious. The latter is unclear. The claim in question is on a sworn affidavit. Then again, so are the claims Annette Bosworth and her sister Peggy Craig have made to the court.
Troy, a fair point. At peril of getting lost in the weeds, show me an example of a claim I have made that has been proven exaggerated or inaccurate.
Hee hee, R! But seriously, I don't think Troy is that foolish with his money.
Didn't Dr. Bosworth start her affidavit by claiming she's of sound mind? That claim at the beginning ought to render everything else in the affidavit suspect.
Who is the blogger? Pat, have you contacted republican journalist and gay escort Jeff Gannon? He used to have quite a yen for SD politics.
Cory,
I don't remember which of your NBP and related posts it was but the worst if I recall was the one where you even said "connect the dots." Most of the dots themselves were speculation and in the end the point was to be generous "exaggerated." And, that isn't a "sin" for both the nature and service of blogs is to speculate to allow ideas/potentials to be discussed. You two differently but you both do it.
By the way, you did once essentially call me a liar when I said I didn't know who DWC's "Bill" was except I was virtually certain it wasn't Pat. I still don't "know" but I think I have a suspicion. Wouldn't tell if I was absolutely sure.
Rorschach, I can absolutely assure you I didn't offer any money and wouldn't for two reasons.
1) I don't care enough about the answer. Annette will get what is coming to her without my "investigation," and,
2) Cory is right. There is two zero's on the alleged offer beyond what I could get past my "boss." If I'm going to sleep in the garage, it would be for certainly something more significant.
I don't know at all that Cory's reports on NBP/GOED/Benda were at at all speculation, innuendo, connect the dots, exaggerated or have been proven wholly inaccurate or unprovable. He has put information about this scandal out to the public for us to digest.
Given that kangaroo court of the legislature conducted and their containing the investigation, we don't know what is truth and what is fact.
What we do know is that Rounds, Daugaard, and Jackley are continuing a cover up and will never tell South Dakotans the truth about it all.
Troy, you will continue to defend Rounds and the GOP of SD until your last breath. You would really rather just have Cory not investigate NPB at all, and you act like it's really none of We the People's business as to try to find out what happened. You know that if it had been a democrat administration that had been doing this you would be wanting to find the truth and speculating about it.
You're defending your frat brothers, so people don't take you seriously on here.
.
Hope the South Dakota Republican mythologists don't look to Egypt for jurisprudence examples. Over 500 death sentences to alleged rioters in a few hours over the death of one policeman. Has a Republican wish list ring to it.