Ready for Wildfire Season?

While the fires in Colorado are getting all the attention, fires are burning communities throughout the Western US. The Ash Creek fire burning through the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and in Rosebud County has destroyed 19 homes and is threatening scores more. Our hearts go out to all the people in the country who have suffered from evacuations and the terrible destruction. As the people in New Mexico's pueblos, California's bands and Arizona's reservations have learned, recovering from wildfires can take years.

As emergency preparedness consultants, we can't stress enough that the time to prepare for a wildfire is before it starts. The least you should do to prepare for any natural disaster is to get a kit, make a plan and be informed of current conditions. To truly protect your home or business, read through the wildfire information at ready.gov.

Watch and Share Our New PSA

Our extraordinarily talented associates at Red Ant Films helped us make this powerful video for one of our online training courses. The reaction we have gotten is so powerful, we're releasing it as a public service announcement. We understand that alcohol is a contributor to untold criminal activity, violence and preventable accidents in Indian County and we pray for the end of this destruction.

Read more about our thoughts behind making this PSA at Indian Country Today Media Network.

Great News from the DEA

The Drug Enforcement Agency announced today that they would be regulating 26 synthetic drugs under the Controlled Substances Act under Schedule I including several synthetic cannabinoids and the "2 C family" of hallucinogens that have been in the news recently.

We applaud all such actions on the part of the government, as it will clear up many jurisdictional issues with Indian Country smoke shops. However, as I pointed out not too long ago for Indian Country Today, when you start with 450 known compounds, banning some is a good start, but doesn't address the whole problem. A more comprehensive approach is to change the culture in which sales of these harmful chemicals can thrive, even when they're labeled "not for human consumption."

Oglala Lakota Business Students Fight Youth Suicide

This Friday, if you're near Kyle, SD, visit the gym at the Piya Wiconi Oglala Lakota College campus from 4 pm - 7 pm. Students in the Introduction to Business class at the college are exhibiting pictures taken by elementary school and middle school students about "what hope looks like." The students distributed over 200 disposable cameras as part of this effort to combat the local epidemic of youth suicide, which is among the highest worldwide.

Assemble a Kit, Make a Plan, Stay Informed

The new series of PSAs from Ready.gov remind us that it doesn't take much to prepare for an emergency, so when disaster strikes, you can just react to keep yourself and your family safe rather than having to think about how to respond.