Mid-day news digest: sunny skies after the storm edition

We're going to be heading out to enjoy the wonderful post-storm weather (maybe even going to look at some tornado damage near a friend's place in Kandiyohi County; the tornado at left went down a county road within a mile of the home), so here's a quick news digest.

Another comparison of Walz and Second district candidate Steve Sarvi turns up in Can Steve Sarvi become this year's Tim Walz? by Paul Demko at the Minnesota Independent.

A great new site for Democrats in Southeast Minnesota.  The web site includes news and other information for Senate Districts 27, 29, 30, 31 and surrounding counties in Southeast Minnesota. We've added it to our "Dems in the First" typelist at right.

The Worthington Globe praises the work for the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System done by a bi-partisan coalition of lawmakers from Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, in Lewis and Clark poised for boost:

The Lewis and Clark regional water system, ignored by George W. Bush earlier this year for reasons that may only be known to the president, got a needed boost Tuesday.

A spending bill passed in a Senate subcommittee allots $30 million to the project, which will pipe Missouri River water throughout the region. The system is a partnership of 15 cities and five rural water districts in South Dakota, Iowa and southwest Minnesota.

Area legislators have all pledged their support for Lewis and Clark, which should certainly solidify the chances of new funding for the project. The water system also has a history of strong federal support — last year, the project received nearly $27 million in funding after an initial Bush proposal of $15 million. Bush’s proposed 2009 budget — the fiscal year starts Oct. 1 — left out funding for Lewis and Clark entirely.

The funding for this common sense project was upgraded through congressional earmarks, the likes of which both Republican contenders in the September 9 primary have said they will give up. No doubt their supporters will be trashing Walz with this "pork alert" for Energy and Water, without bothering to ask what was being funded in the district. 

Some candidates may oppose federal funding for good water, flood mitigation projects, and the like, in order to score cheap talking points, but that talk does nothing to help gain valuable public works projects needed by southern Minnesotans. Does the earmark system need to be reformed? Absolutely. Congress Walz has worked for transparency in the process, as well as co-sponsoring other bipartisan reforms. As we posted back in June, the Sunlight Foundation earmark disclosure project notes Walz's online list and:

Even some of the more conservative newspapers in the district have noted the common-sense nature of Walz's requests. A good example is the Owatonna People's Press editorial about the budget request for a flood mitigation project: An earmark that makes sense.

Winona Radio reports Davis files. After all the pressure that Ron Carey put on Senator Day and Davis's own rattling bravado about how there's no primary until candidates file, it's amusing to see how the short article was worded.

Since Davis was the last to file, the phrasing is that his action forced the primary, not Day's presence in the race:

Rochester Physician Brian Davis has officially entered the race for the District District Congressional seat.

That's because fellow Republican, and State Senator, Dick Day, of Owatonna, officially entered the race earlier. Davis has the Republican party endorsement while Day does not.

One of the two will be selected in September to move on to the November general election to face Democratic incumbent Tim Walz of Mankato.

Poor baby can't even claim media bias, since the station is owned by one of his campaign contributors.

And as promised, we'll post something this weekend about the latest tin-foil hat conspiracy theory floating around. It's a humdinger.

Photo: Willmar-area tornado. Photo by Paul Smith.