Bluestem Prairie: news about Tim Walz (MN-1)

Evening update: war and remembrance

Congressman Walz was on Air America last night to talk about reports of the Bush administration concealing information about military suicides.

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, and the Mankato Trade Unions held a service to honor the eight members they lost in the last year to accidents and work-related illness, KEYC-TV reports. Congressman Walz, a member of Education Minnesota, participated.  Video available.

Congressman Walz has signed the American Cancer Society's Congressional Cancer Promise. His father died of cancer when Walz was still in his teens. Senators Coleman and Klobuchar, along with all of Minnesota's House members, save Bachmann and Kline, have signed the promise.

North Star Politics is back and analyzing like it never left.  See a Walz mention in Pawlenty Cozies Up to Fat Cats.

Update: The Pipestone Star reports that the DFL first district convention [is] tomorrow. [end update]

And now, on this damp, cold, and sadly, snowy night, we are going to do just that with Oscar de la Hoya and the Big Boo Boo, our favorite fat cats.  Good night, and good luck.

Marking Martyrs' Day

Yesterday's New York Times article about Walz's teaching in Nebraska mentioned that April is the month for marking a number of genocides: Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and quite often, the Holocaust (May 1 this year).  Today is Martyrs' Day, a day of remembrance for many Armenians.

Over at SCSU Scholars, conservative blogger King Banaian, whose grandparents fled Armenia, shares a deeply personal memory of the songs his grandmother sang and his own efforts at learning what those songs meant. A bittersweet and worthy post: 93 and remembering .

Courageous journalist Dith Pran dead at 65

We are saddened to learn of the death from pancreatic cancer of Cambodian-American photojournalist Dith Pran, whose harrowing story of survival was told in "The Killing Fields." Dith is credited with coining the term for the genocide that took place during the Khmer Rogue regime in Cambodia.

Dith escaped from his native country in 1979 and moved to the United States,where he became a photographer for the New York Times in 1980.  His AP obituary reports:

"After Dith moved to the U.S., he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.

He was "the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America," said Associated Press photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association."

The New York Times reports he hope others would work to help prevent such horrors anywhere:

“One time is too many,” he said in an interview in his last weeks, expressing hope that others would continue his work. “If they can do that for me,” he said, “my spirit will be happy.”

Dith is a personal hero. Here's hoping that more people can make his spirit happy.

Photo: In August 2002, Mr. Dith photographed young visitors perched on the base of "Liberation" by Nathan Rapoport in Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The bronze sculpture is a memorial to American soldiers who helped to liberate Nazi concentration camps.  For more of Dith's work, see the slide show at the New York Times.

The GOPeapod; or, scenes from the partisan struggle in Southern Minnesota

The Star Tribune reports today that Endorsement is only first round in GOP struggle to knock off Walz. After watching GOP congressional candidates state Senator Dick Day and state Representatives Randy Demmer on Almanac (video of the show is online), several of our more polite readers wrote to tell us how much they too thought the contenders were struggling.

We will not share what the our less genteel readers said, even though the folklorists who frequent this site would appreciate the vernacular.

Turning back to the Star Tribune article, there's the basic set up:

Two of the contenders, state Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield and Mayo Clinic doctor Brian Davis, have agreed to support whomever the party endorses.

But with greater name recognition, a rebel attitude attractive to some voters and more money than his opponents, state Sen. Dick Day is waiting in the wings.

Day, of Owatonna, is skipping the GOP endorsement process and running in the September primary.

That leaves Demmer and Davis in Albert Lea this weekend. Day and Demmer appeared on Almanac; Davis, he of the lesser name recognition, declined the invitation.

The criticism of Walz is simply that he's too liberal:

Walz's challengers criticize him for voting more with congressional liberals than his 2006 campaign had indicated, but [WSU political science professor] Downs said Walz's back-and-forth is necessary in a district that, before Gutknecht, was represented by Democrat Tim Penny, who served the southeastern Minnesota district from 1982 through 1994. Gutknecht won election when Penny retired.

The Star Tribune article doesn't point out that other sources deem Walz a centrist.  The National Journal, for instance, recently issued its rankings. Walz was among the centrists. Conservatives have often used these rankings to decry Democrats in the publication's "Liberal" bracket, but they've been mum about this particular ranking system,  Vote View, maintained by UC-San Diego political scientist Keith T. Poole and Princeton's Howard Rosenthal. It places Walz at in the 199th position in a spectrum ranging from most liberal (1) to most conservative (437). In short, he's pretty close to the middle of the spectrum.

Part of the struggle for the Republicans are the numbers:

In a telephone interview from Washington, Walz said that he's been focusing on his work in Congress but expects to unleash his force of 2,000 volunteers on a door-knocking campaign as soon as Republicans endorse their candidate.

"We're highly organized," he said. "We're highly energetic."

With incumbency on his side, he's managed to amass a much greater campaign treasury and a grass-roots campaign organization, far outpacing the Republicans' reported dozens to 100 volunteers.

Walz has large money edge

According to their campaigns, Walz has raised $1.1 million, Davis has raised about $160,000, Day $210,000 and Demmer about $205,513.

"There's no point in [Walz] displaying the image of a candidate that's panicky," Downs said. "Tim Walz has an edge at this stage of the race."

Matter of fact, the neighbor-to-neighbor campaign isn't waiting for news of the endorsement. It's scheduled for that day:

On Saturday, March 29 Tim Walz for U.S. Congress will begin mobilizing volunteers across southern Minnesota to start having one-on-one conversations with voters about the issues that matter most. The campaign will build the largest volunteer-driven grassroots campaign in the history of the Minnesota First Congressional District. Sign up to volunteer on March 29 to help Tim Walz talk to voters in Winona, Mankato or Rochester about his positive vision for a better future, please click here.

And there's the race to the right by the Republicans the Strib reports:

All three Republicans call themselves social conservatives who take a tough stance against illegal immigration and are against a firm timetable for the U.S. military pulling out of Iraq  . . .

. . . "It comes down to a personality contest," [Sarah] Janecek said of the Republican candidates. "I don't see a front-runner.

Let's recap: there's an accessible man-of-the-people working hard in Washington D.C. who spends congressional recesses in his swing district conducting dozens of listening sessions. He enjoys a cash edge, and both incumbency and the virtue of a fresh face. The GOP contenders are PeaPod Republicans, tilting distinctly right ward, who are in a personality contest.  That bodes will for Congressman Walz.

And then there's the Other Money Problem confronting the Republican's federal campaign committee. We read in this morning's CQ Politics' article Dem House Campaign Unit Gained While GOP’s Drained in February:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which helps fund the campaigns of Democrats who are running for the U.S. House, reported raising $6.2 million in February. That compared to $4.6 million raised by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the partisan counterpart to the DCCC, which also filed a campaign report Thursday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The NRCC expected to have had a bit more at the end. But the House Republican organization revised its cash-on-hand total downward by about $740,000, following the results of a preliminary investigation that alleged financial mismanagement by former NRCC treasurer Christopher Ward.

Given their money disadvantage, Republican officials also may wish they had taken back some of the $1.1 million they invested in February on the campaign for March 8 special election in Illinois’ 14th District. Democrat Bill Foster went on to win that contest by 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent over Republican Jim Oberweis — an outcome widely described as a setback and even an embarrassment to the GOP, as the Republican-leaning district had long been held by Republican J. Dennis Hastert, the former House Speaker, who resigned from Congress last November. . . .      

The Democratic committee has held a steady fundraising lead since its party’s 30-seat gain boosted it into its current House majority. And the February figures show that the imbalance between the two parties, in terms of money that each House campaign committee had left to spend on races across the nation at the end of last month, grew to its widest yet. The DCCC began March with $38 million left to spend and had $763,000 in debts, compared to $5.1 million for the NRCC, which reported $1.9 million in debts.

Washington Post: Walz "shrugged off" fearmongering ads

In House Passes a Surveillance Bill Not to Bush's Liking, the Washington Post's coverage of today's vote on FISA's revision, we find this passage:

"I'm very uncomfortable with an issue of this importance entering such a political realm, but I don't see us pulling it out of this mess either," said Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), a swing-district freshman who shrugged off a barrage of advertisements that accused him of jeopardizing national security.

Indeed.  The general reaction in the First to the ads has been greater respect for Walz in standing his ground.

This respect doesn't stop at the district's borders.  Over at DailyKos, Mcjoan writes of the vulnerable House freshmen:

Particularly deserving of thanks, though, are those Freshman Dems who would not be intimidated by everything being thrown at them by the Republicans--the robocalls to their constituents saying they were with the terrorists, the deceitful and inflammatory Defense of Democracy's crazy television ads. Particularly of note are Mike Arcuri who managed the Rule on this vote, and Nancy Boyda, Carol Shea-Porter and others who stood on the floor during these debates and strongly stood up for our civil liberties. You can show your support for them here.

The Freshmen who voted for the bill are being called the "hang-tough Dems."

Mid-afternoon news digest: fending for themselves edition

We expect to get our YouTubes from yesterday's Renewable Energy Forum later today; we've been districted by the spy bill debate in the Senate.

Meanwhile, those interested in talk of energy independence can read about the summit in the Worthington Globe article Addressing renewables at the state level.   Reporter Julie Buntjer quotes Walz extensively.  However, Walz left most of the talking at the meeting to the experts like Dan Juhl and Mike Bull.  Juhl says:

Juhl said Minnesota needs to do all it can to keep energy dollars from leaving the state.

“We export billions of dollars out of this state in energy resources every year,” Juhl said. “We have no gas, we have no oil, we have no coal, we have very little hydro, but we have a lot of wind. This is something we can really leverage into long-term economic viability for rural Minnesota.”

C-BED (Community-Based Energy Development) legislation was first approved in Minnesota in 2005. Each year since, there have been some tweaks as the state gears up to implement its plans.

“This is our chance of a lifetime,” Juhl said. “Wind energy can be to us what the tractor is to farming. It’s really an opportunity for us to do something and keep long-term economic viability in our communities and add a new cash crop to our basket.”

We suspect we'll have to wait awhile for vintage wind turbine swaps that will match vintage tractor jamborees, but you never know.

Mike Bull noted the coming shift in scale by the state:

“Rather than utility-scale projects that we’ve been working on, now we’re looking at homeowners, businesses and farms to get capital assistance for single-site and neighborhood-based renewable energy projects,” Bull said. “We’re looking on a smaller scale to capture some of the renewable resources we have.”

One of the problems flood-stricken people in Southeastern Minnesota have had in using some of the "hands-up" offered by FEMA was the lack Firm hired to develop county hazardous mitigation plan.  Editor Charlie Warner notes the efforts by Walz, Klobuchar, Coleman and Pawlenty to speed up the process are noted:

Houston County is working to have a hazardous mitigation plan in place ASAP to help bring much-needed flood relief assistance for the area. Last month numerous news reports indicated businesses in Houston and Fillmore counties would not be eligible for certain FEMA grants and low interest loans because the counties did not have a hazardous mitigation plan in place.

In January U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, along with First District Congressman Tim Walz,  urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to waive a paperwork requirement that could otherwise cause serious delays in the delivery of much-needed flood disaster assistance for the area. The following week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a similar plea to FEMA.

In letters presented to FEMA’s Administrator R. David Paulison, the three members of Congress and Minnesota’s Governor asked for a waiver of the federal requirement that local communities must first submit a “local hazard mitigation plan” before receiving funds under the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. 

Five of the flood-damaged counties in southeastern Minnesota do not have approved plans.  The counties affected are:  Dodge, Fillmore, Houston, Olmsted and Wabasha. . . .

Managing Editor Daniel McGonigle remembers Matthew Kahler, killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in Soldier from Granite Falls had touched many lives, including mine. While editor of the Granite Falls newspaper, McGonigle had met Kahler at a send-off party in the fallen soldier's home town.

Over at the Post Bulletin's blog Political Party, Washington bureau reporter Ed Felker looks at John Kline's assignment to help explain the NRCC's fundraising irregularities [emphasis ours]:

. . .With Democrats taking the majority in 2006 and a number of Republicans leaving the House rather than run this fall, the NRCC has had problems raising money -- which means Republicans hoping to win back seats lost in 2006, including Mankato  Rep. Tim Walz's seat in the 1st Congressional District, may be left to fend for themselves.

Now comes word that the NRCC has called the FBI to investigate, at the least, "irregularities" in its accounting.  NRCC Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., joined Kline last Thursday to brief the Republican caucus behind closed doors. Kline is declining comment for now, and there is no indication yet that he is somehow involved or affected, but it can't be a situation he relishes with the  fall elections looming. Kline will face the winner of the DFL endorsement contest between Dan Powers of Burnsville and Steve Sarvi of Watertown.

We doubt that Powers will present much of a challenge to Sarvi, so we look to seeing a Kline-Sarvi ballot in November.

 

Caring Bridge: Jared Stene's parent reflects on son's activism

The late Jared Stene, president of the WSU student senate at the time of his unexpected death from a genetic liver disorder, worked to help lower the costs of textbooks. One of his parents reflects on this at his Caring Bridge page, following the inclusion of textbook reform language in the federal higher ed bill:

About two years ago I remember Jared calling me to tell me that he was helping to organize a demonstration on campus at Winona State to protest the high cost of textbooks. The idea was to build a ‘coffin’ and then invite students to bring books that they were not able to sell back to the bookstore and place them in the coffin. One of the high costs of attending college is the cost of textbooks; the average student will spend $900 a year on books. You buy a textbook at the beginning of the semester for let’s say $100, three months later the bookstore will buy back the book for $10, or worse they will not buy the book at all because a ‘new edition’ has been printed.

When I heard that he was planning a ‘demonstration’ on campus my first reaction was, ‘Jared promise me that there will be no book burnings’. I could just see him leading the news, as video of him showed him throwing books into a bonfire. He assured me that there would be no burnings and that the books collected would be sent to other schools to be reused.

The day of the event came and it was quite successful in getting people’s attention. In fact Jared was interviewed by the Lacrosse, Wisconsin TV station and he was the lead story that night. (I have added a few pictures of the event).

Jared also told Congressman Tim Walz about the problem.

On Thursday February 7^th, 2008 a bill was introduced into Congress in Washington D.C. regarding Higher Education. A part of that Bill calls for a revision in the way textbooks are purchased by colleges that would reduce the price of textbooks for college students. As part of the process, Congressman Walz stood in the House of Representatives to announce that there was ‘a constituent in his district named Jared Stene, the President of Winona State University, who had worked for years on this problem’ and that due to his efforts the Committee had included this provision in the bill.

I think Jared would have liked that, to hear his name mentioned on the House floor in Wash. D.C. in association with this Bill. As Congressman Walz told me, if this bill is enacted it will ‘impact millions of students for years to come.’ I think Jared would have liked that, too.

Read more about the issue at IDHA.

Mid-morning news digest: ambush protected edition

The LaCrosse Tribune reports in  As Bush targets earmarks, area lawmakers defend their spending:

. . .Area lawmakers tend to agree the process needs reform, such as new rules that require sponsors put their names on earmarks and attest they and their families won’t directly benefit.

Still, they claim they — not Washington bureaucrats — are best qualified to determine the needs and merits of projects.

“I’m not one who subscribes to the notion that all earmarks are evil,” said Rep. Ron Kind,

D-La Crosse. “The (Congress-ional) representative knows the community and what the needs are. The president doesn’t know that. Bureaucrats don’t know that.”

Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz, D-Mankato, cites the example of the National Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University.

The first-of-its-kind program, which trains prosecutors and others in handling child abuse cases, had applied to the Department of Justice for funding. It was ranked fourth on a list of 137 programs deemed worthy of funding, but an administrator passed it over for a lower-ranked project to use golf to teach children life skills.

In 2007, Walz sponsored a $1.22 million appropriation for the center.

While the president has targeted the issue under a Democrat-controlled Congress, earmark spending actually peaked in 2005 when Republicans were in charge, according to the White House budget office.

“It’s a bipartisan problem,” said Kind, who is working on legislation to create a bipartisan commission to crack down on earmark spending.

In the Worthington Globe, Congressman reviews trip to Iraq. Walz writes:

A few weeks ago, as I landed in Afghanistan during a nine-day visit to the Middle East and Central Asia, I saw Army engineers unloading some important cargo from the plane I’d traveled on: the first Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle to arrive in Afghanistan.

Because an ambulance can’t carry heavy armor the same way a Humvee can, injured soldiers in Afghanistan were being transported from the battlefield to the medic’s station in vehicles that were insufficiently protected. The plane I hitched a ride on was carrying new MRAPs that will serve as battlefield ambulances, ensuring that our soldiers get the best care possible, from the very moment they are injured.

The soldiers at Baghram Air Base were clearly excited to finally be getting their hands on these state-of-the-art vehicles that they had been waiting for. What wasn’t so clear to me was why—nearly six and a half years after the war in Afghanistan began—we are just now getting around to providing them with armored vehicles to serve as ambulances.

It occurred to me that the delivery of that MRAP was emblematic of the changes that are taking place within military health care: we have all the resources our injured soldiers need, but unacceptable delays and needless bureaucracy have made the recovery process longer than it should be.

My visit to Afghanistan was part of a longer trip, which also took me to Iraq, Pakistan, Kuwait, and Germany. I traveled with two of my colleagues – a Democrat and Republican, as well as the Surgeon General of the Army, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the military’s health care system. . . .

We look forward to the Owatonna People's Press condemn the delivery of the ambulance as a waster of jet fuel.  After all, the paper got pretty pissy about any money or jet fuel being spent on that trip. We anticipate Dick Day's promises he'll walk everywhere if elected to Congress since his hometown paper decided that flying is naughty. In the Political Party blog, Ed Felker wonders About Walz's border trip.

In a letter to the Hastings Star Gazette, Second DFL contender Steve Sarvi contrasts Walz's and Kline's approach to earmark reform:

. . .Last year, when the new Democratic leadership took office, the process underwent review. The new leadership sought reform. Strangely, in light of his current position, Rep. Kline opposed reform. Now, he has simply opted out altogether, leaving his constituents to dig deeper into their own pockets for the necessary resources to get urgent work done.

On the other hand, Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz provides an example of how to work for change while still serving his district. Rep. Walz attaches his name to all funding requests and supports greater transparency in the process on the whole. This kind of needed change will be wrought by pulling people together to agree to solutions. By contrast, Rep. Kline’s position is to simply push away from the table. This is not leadership. . . .

The Minnesota Daily reports in Faculty donations buck trends that:

According to the data, in the first three reporting quarters of 2007, University faculty and staff donated $13,600 to Democratic Senate hopeful Al Franken, $5,800 to Democratic Rep. Tim Walz and $5,000 to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Mountain Lake Observer/Butterfield Advocate editor Kris Langland asks How low can they go? in reviewing one of FOX's John Gibson's radio shows.  Answer: pretty low.

The Winona Daily News decides anti-chicken ordinances are nothing to crow about in Winona, don’t fence us in.

Finally, in Class honoring their hero, the Marshall Independent has news of ways former high school classmates plan to remember Matthew Kahler and help his family. Killed by suspected friendly fire in Afghanistan, Kahler leaves behind a wife and four-year-old daughter.

 

Early afternoon news digest: extreme mumblety-peg edition

We were involved in a subzero split the kipper contest out on Mud Lake early this morning, and have only now recovered. Our apologies for the late post.

Yesterday, the New Ulm Journal reported that Granite Falls'  Fallen soldier has local ties:

A U.S. Army soldier whose father lives in Searles died Jan. 26,  from small arms fire injuries suffered in Waygul, Afghanistan

Sgt. 1st Class Matthew R. Kahler, 29, of Granite Falls, was the son of Ron Kahler of Searles and Colleen Kahler of Montevideo.

The Department of Defense said Kahler may have been hit by friendly fire from an Afghan guard who mistook him for an enemy, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Searles is south of New Ulm on Minnesota Highway 15.  The Marshall Independent reports Trust fund set up for soldier's family:

A trust fund has been set up by the Yellow Medicine East Class of 1997 for the Matthew Kahler family. Contributions may be sent to: Matthew Kahler Trust Fund, care of Granite Falls Bank, PO BX 8, Granite Falls, MN 56241 or dropped off in person at the bank at 702 Prentice Street, Granite Falls.

Kahler leaves behind a wife and four-year-old daughter.

A friend sent us an article from CQ Today that appears to be lodged behind a firewall, "Freshman Democrats Push for Contempt of Congress Citations for Bolten, Miers"

A determined group of freshman Democrats is pushing for a House vote on a resolution citing White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for contempt of Congress.

The freshmen, who were elected to the House on a wave of anti-Republican sentiment in 2006, say the House needs to act in order to preserve its authority to oversee the executive branch.

“I think the American people are eager to see Congress taking steps to reassert the proper balance in our constitutional framework,” said Paul W. Hodes of New Hampshire.

The House Judiciary Committee approved the resolution last July. The committee had subpoenaed Miers to appear at a subcommittee hearing on the firings of several U.S. attorneys in 2006. The committee subpoenaed Bolten for White House documents related to the firings. Miers and Bolten did not comply with the subpoenas; the White House asserted executive privilege in preventing Miers from testifying and in refusing to hand over documents.

Tim Walz of Minnesota, the president of the 44-member freshman Democratic class, echoed Hodes, saying “maybe it’s coming from the freshmen because we’re so ground level.” Walz said that his class is pushing Democratic leaders to put the resolution on the floor, and freshman proponents are working to build support in their individual state delegations.

Democratic leaders may have political reasons for putting off a House vote. Republicans are certain to paint it as a partisan exercise. And one House Democratic aide said that not all freshman Democrats are eager for the vote.

But Walz, Hodes and their allies insist that the House needs to act. . . .

The Albert Lea Tribune asks How will you spend a rebate? In Owatonna, the residents simply doubt one is on the way in Economic stimulus package met with cynicism.  A taste of the mood in Owatonna:

"I'll believe it when I see it," Muir said dryly. "There's always something to spend it on, I won't have any trouble with that."

Others believed the package is too good to be true.

"I'm a little wary of it because, as I see it, all the rich people will get most of it and we'll all get $20," said Target employee Melissa Haselton as she worked the electronics counter in the store.

The reporter interviewed Walz:

Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., wasn't surprised that the measure was met with disbelief, but was optimistic that the package had enough support from both parties to be out of the congressional chambers and onto the President's desk within a week.

"I would say they have become wise on that, and I wouldn't blame them," Walz said. "But if there's been an issue that has united us, it's the package."

Walz called the package the "first real relief for the middle class" and said he expected to pass the package in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The Senate will look at the package today.

In the New Ulm Journal, a letter writer suggests buying American-made products with the rebate, or at the very least, shopping local in Stimulating the economy – whose?.

The Owatonna People's Press also reported Walz leads fundraising for 2008 election. Read remarks from the Walz political director and the three GOP contenders at the OPP.

The OPP also reports Walz witnesses arrests on U.S.-Mexico border, though the story isn't on its front page online.  Walz's view on immigration reform is contrasted with that of the local GOP contender's support for a "wall" between the two countries:

By contrast, Walz believes that the key to solving the problem is stepped up security and immigration reform, which would make legal immigration more efficient and attractive than a risky journey through the desert.

"There are 5,000 spots, but there are 10 million [people] in the line," Walz said. "We're incentivizing illegal immigration." Walz added that employers are in dire need of workers, and that a better immigration policy would enhance the economy. On this point, activists with Centro Campesino are in agreement.

"The U.S. has its right to protect its borders, just like every country," said Ernesto Clara, who works for Centro Campesino. "What we're against is that they're apprehending hardworking people, rather than real targets."

In Worthington, a speaker talked to school children about the Holocaust in From Holocaust to racism, according to the Globe. The lead:

How do you see the spirit of the Holocaust alive and well in Worthington, Adrian or Ellsworth?

Is it in the school cafeteria, where the popular kids congregate with their kind and the stoners and the loners with theirs?

Is it at home, where parents talk negatively about the community’s influx of Hispanics, Asians and Somalis?

Is that spirit alive within you — a flicker of hatred toward gays, lesbians, blacks, Jews, Jehovah’s Witness? … The list goes on and on.

If you can look at yourself in the mirror and see even the tiniest flame, then Timothy Scott wants you to extinguish it before it gets fanned. . . .

. . .Scott, an attorney with Bakke Norman Law Office in western Wisconsin, has spent the past 17 years traversing the Midwest to tell the story of the Holocaust and relate it to the racial and ethnic tensions that are alive today in countries across the globe — and in our own backyards.

“You don’t have to be white to hate,” he said.

The documentary film "So the Bible Tells Me So" has been shown in Jake Reitan's home town, the Mankato Free Press reports in Acclaimed film reaches Mankato:

The film features Jake Reitan, and his parents Phil and Randi, while telling the stories of religious couples who discovered one of their children was homosexual. Jake Reitan was 15 years old and a sophomore at West High School when he first told his sister he was gay. It was a year later before he told his parents.

An interesting coalition teamed up to show the film:

And it was a group of six local churches — along with the Human Rights Campaign and Minnesota State University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center — that has brought “For the Bible Tells Me So” to MSU’s Ostrander Auditorium and downtown’s Maverick 4 Theatre in the Mankato Place Mall.

IAM leader Rich Michalski looks at the impact of trade policy on good jobs in Opportunity for U.S. aerospace in Minnesota in the Albert Lea Tribune.

The Waseca County News reports Economic measures affect Waseca. Former Congressman Tim Penny and other local leaders discuss the economic climate. 

The Fairmont Sentinel editorial board writes Mouthing ‘change’ won’t  alter underlying realities.  As usual with the very conservative paper, they're against Walz. And expanding SCHIP, ending the Iraq War, and affordable health care insurance, and economic policy directed toward helping the middle class.

Update on Jared Stene: Cause of death was Wilson's Disease

On January 10, his family had posted at the Caring Bridge page about the cause's of Jared Stene's death: Wilson's Disease:

Wilson’s Disease is an extremely rare disorder that effects how the liver handles copper as it enters your body. Normally the liver passes copper into bile, which the body uses in digestion. In Jared’s case the liver did not pass copper, instead it stored it in his liver. As the copper builds up in the liver, it starts to injure the liver tissue. Over time, this damage to the liver causes the liver to release the copper directly into the bloodstream, where it begins to affect other organs.

This condition is hereditary; Jared was born with it.  . . .

As a family, the news has been somewhat a comfort. The nagging questions that persisted as to what caused Jared to be taken from us have been somewhat answered. The questions of ‘what if’ that our family has been thinking about have been put to rest for now. The unfortunate part of this disease in Jared’s case was that once he started to present symptoms, his liver had already failed and resulted in fulminant liver failure. .  .

There's an article about Jared in today's Star Tribune: Rare and undetected genetic disease killed Winona State student at age 22.