President-elect Obama made a pitch for his stimulus package today at George Mason University. The Washington Post reports:
Closer to home, the Winona Daily News reports (as did the Rushford Tri-County News in mid-December) that Rushford-Peterson hopes stimulus package can help fund new school:
Parts of the Rushford-Peterson elementary-high school building are more than 100-years-old and need replacing, but the district and the towns’ residents don’t have the money to fix the problems, officials said. The district now hopes to obtain federal money and has expressed its concerns to U.S. Rep. Tim Walz. . . .
. . .The district tried to find support from the state last year, lobbying legislators to include some funding for the school project in its bonding bill. That plan failed. After reading about a federal stimulus bill measured in the hundreds of billions, district officials met with Walz last month.
Walz has expressed support for a federal stimulus package being negotiated between President-elect Barack Obama’s advisers and House and Senate leaders.
“One of my top priorities in the upcoming economic stimulus bill is to make sure that worthwhile projects in southern Minnesota like Rushford-Peterson’s school project are eligible to receive funding,” Walz said in an e-mail.
Congress convened Tuesday, and Walz was still unsure about the size and scope of the proposed plan.
Ehler admits the district is a long-shot to receive any federal money in the proposed stimulus. It’s worth a shot to try, though, he said.
Read the whole article at the WDN; the photo above, from the Daily News article, graphically illustrates the school's cramped stairs and hallways.
The New Ulm Journal added its voice to the call for no automatic raises for Congress, and like the other media venues making the argument, didn't mention that Congressman Walz voluntary (and quietly this year) returns his raises to the U.S. Treasury. The editorial ends:
We realize that some members of Congress work hard. We understand that living in Washington is expensive. But many taxpayers work hard and have trouble making ends meet too. A substantial number of them are having to tighten their belts because of the downturn in the economy.
Members of Congress should set a good example by refusing the raises.
Too the paper couldn't share the fact that the First District congressman had set that very example--for two years running. In his satiric Daily Romp Through The Minnesota Blogosphere for Tuesday, the Political Muse gave what we hope was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion on what Walz ought to have done with the extra coin.
District media has published some heartstring pullers of late. The Owatonna People's Press reports a mother's grief after her soldier son committed suicide, in Brian remembered:
It has been exactly two years, but Connie Scott still has not found the words to describe the raw grief she felt after her youngest son Brian Williams died by suicide while home on leave from the U.S. Army, the day before he was to return to Iraq.. . .
Read the whole story at the OPP. In the companion storny,Treating depression early may prevent suicide, the paper relates Scott's work in forming a survivors' group, as well as reporting on suicide prevention efforts.
Our friend Chad continues the tale of his late mother's funeral and the housecleaning he and his family are doing in the aftermath of her death from ovarian cancer. Wonderful, gutsy personal blogging.
We got a laugh out of Senator Day's comments in the Faribault Daily News article,Local state leaders react to Senate recount result:
“Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose,” Day said Tuesday. “But (Coleman) knows better than I what grounds he has to sue.”
In Winona, WDN staff blogger Jerome Christensen believes it's Time to exit gracefully, Norm.
We concur, and so offer this Green Day hit (the title says it all) for our readers' pleasure:
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