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

Sunday early afternoon digest: home in the valley edition

Update: we've read that servers on the Hill are getting slammed, so here's a mirror provided by the helpful good people at the Sunlight Foundation (pdf); embedded version here. end update.

News reports say that negotiators in Washington have reached an agreement on proposals to aid Wall Street. The final language has yet to be released to the public (and may indeed still be incomplete). When done, the deal will be posted here: http://financialservices.house.gov/.  (Isn't Michele Bachmann on that committee?)

From what we're reading in the papers, we're inclined to say  that Minnesota's congressional delegation should say no, but we withhold final judgment until the written details are made public.  Congressman Walz's constituents should let him know what they think. Contact information here.

It's times like this that we are grateful for once having dated a bank examiner for the FDIC.  Who knew that pillow talk would come in handy?

The Albert Lea Tribune reports in People using absentees can vote next week:

In Minnesota, people can vote absentee if they will be absent from the precinct the day of the election, if they have an illness or disability that disables them from coming out to vote or if they are serving as an election judge in another precinct.

Another reason people can vote via absentee is because of a religious discipline, religious holiday or observance. The last reason is if there is an eligible emergency declared by the governor or a quarantine declared by the federal or state government.

Martinson said a large number of people who vote with absentee ballots in this area are absent from the precinct and are in other states at the time of the actual election. There’s also a fair share of college students and others with disabilities that vote via absentee.

For more information on absentee voting, check out the details at the Minnesota Secretary of State's Voter Information page. Be very wary of requests for absentee ballots sent to you in mass mailings by a campaign or political party, as mischief has been reported elsewhere in the country in such devices.

Walz supporter Ron Yezzi writes the Mankato Free Press to say Walz not too liberal, concluding:

I strongly support Walz’s reelection. He’s an amazingly gifted person totally dedicated to serving the public interest with openness and fairness. His outstanding first term shows he can work effectively on the nation’s problems and he has the potential to attain national political stature. But if he ever gets derailed, it should not be because voters make the mistake of thinking he’s too liberal for the 1st District.

The Rochester Democrat notes that Walz Hails Passage of Second Economic Stimulus Package. Go read the details there.

Just across the river from the LaCrescent area, Sen. Obama stopping by La Crosse on Wednesday.

A little ditty to lighten up the day, from Minnesota's most prominent songbird:

KEYC-TV: A house divided can still be friendly

Update 9/1: Here's a letter of support in the Waseca Daily News for the Obama-Biden ticket from Marcus Penny: Obama-Biden ‘08 — It’s got a good ring to it.  Turns out that young Penny was originally a Biden supporter--and Obama was his second choice. Hmm: former Congressman Penny has indeed brought up a thoughtful son. [end update]

We'd noted a few times before how former Congressman Tim Penny and his son Marcus have split on their presidential choices. The Waseca County News reported in July that Marcus was staffing the DFL booth at the county fair, and one of our correspondents wrote that he'd seen both McCain and Obama signs on the lawn of the Penny manse.

KEYC-TV noticed, too, and the ever-charming Betsy Gessell reports that more Obama signs are up since our source drove by on the way home from the fair in July:

Campaign signs at the home of a well known McCain supporter have some Waseca residents questioning which side Tim Penny is really on. As News 12's Betsy Gessell explains... the answer is all in the family.After stepping out of the political public eye for 6 years Tim Penny is making another appearance - this time as Chair of Minnesota Citizens for McCain...Endorsing the Senator because of what he calls McCain's courage for bucking his party and President on major issues.

Tim Penny says, ''McCain is a maverick....It's a lot of personal connection with him and personal confidence in him that he in fact will continue to be the independent leader that he's been in the senate, able to work with both sides.''Working with both sides is very important for Penny.

Take his Waseca home for example.Five Barack Obama campaign signs belonging to his two children outnumber his one for McCain.Marcus Penny says, ''We're very much for Barack Obama, my sister - one day when my dad was out of town put them all up in the window to sort of surprise him when he got home.

''Fortunately, Tim supports the political diversity in his home.Marcus Penny says, ''He brought us up telling us to believe in what we believe in, and has no problem with us disagreeing with him as long as we're respectful of one another's views.''Something he feels the rest of the country should learn as well.

Tim Penny says, ''We have as citizens, I think have allowed our politics to get pretty nasty and ugly in the last number of years and we need to back away from that because it doesn't get us anywhere.''Supporting political diversity and possibly instilling the courage he says McCain shows in America.Betsy Gessell, News 12.

We've been experience a bout of civility emailing back and forth with our two old friends with Alaska roots. Christine B. respects Palin but is voting for Obama; Bill, her communications head, whole-heartedly supports his chief. Since she can be more candid, Chris's emails especially offer fascinating glimpses into Alaska's politics--a very different political world from Minnesota.

The Gavel: Walz questions VA Secretary Nicholson

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's blog The Gavel features today's hearings about  “The Results of the President’s Task Force on Returning Global War on Terror Heroes.”  Tim Walz (MN-01) questioned Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson in the following You Tube:

Hardball: Tim Walz paired with CA Representative Duncan Hunter

A Walz staffer emailed us to let us know that Representative Tim Walz will be paired with Duncan Hunter today on Hardball. Hunter has been exploring running for president, according to the New York Times. The paper reports that he recently won a Republican straw poll in Arizona's most populous county.

This match-up should make for interesting television: the first term prairie progressive populist v.s the long-serving California congressman from San Diego.

Hardball airs on MSNBC at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. EST.

Tim Walz among the "Macho Dems": another post moronic media moment

One of the curious things about Tim Walz's election has been how everybody wants to claim him as one of their own.  Last week it was the Blue Dogs; this week, it's the Tough Urban Guys.

Where to begin with Ryan Lizza's New York Times op-ed piece on The Invasion of the Alpha Male Democrats?   

Lizza has been listening to political operatives who lump Tim Walz in with the "Macho Dems." We can't speak to the virtues of the other legislators Lizza writes about, but somehow, Everyman Tim Walz seems thrown in to bolster a point.  We not sure why the tough urban guys Lizza interviews are making their point:

NANCY PELOSI’S carefully crafted introduction to the American people last week seemed to reinforce some stereotypes of the so-called mommy party. On the day she made history as the first woman to be elected speaker, she appeared on the House floor, surrounded by children and bedecked in pearls.

But even as this nurturing image dominated the news, the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday was notable for another milestone in gender politics: the return of the Alpha Male Democrat.

The members of this new faction, which helped the Democrats expand into majority status, stand out not for their ideology or racial background but for their carefully cultivated masculinity.

“As much as the policy positions is the background and character of these Democrats,” says John Lapp, the former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who helped recruit this new breed of candidate. “So we went to C.I.A. agents, F.B.I. agents, N.F.L. quarterbacks, sheriffs, Iraq war vets. These are red-blooded Americans who are tough.”

Mr. Lapp even coined a term to describe these manly — and they are all men — pols: “the Macho Dems.” . . .

Except, of course, some of the candidates who weren't elected. That FBI agent named Coleen Rowley.  Or disabled war vet Tammy Duckworth.

And we don't recall Tim Walz being recruited to run by the DCCC; when the D-Trip and Walz did connect, he was positioned as a third-tier candidate until late in the cycle.  In Minnesota, the D-Trip pumped a lot more money into the Sixth. Lapp's remarks do provide a glimpse of the mind set that thought that changing Patty Wetterling's public image into an attack dog via television ads was a smart move. Impressive.

But some like 'em tough:

. . .The  architects of this strategy, Representative Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Lapp’s boss, as well as Senator Charles Schumer, are well-known political pit bulls. Mr. Emanuel won his Congressional seat by navigating the ward politics of Chicago’s old-fashioned political machine.

He is missing half of one finger — his aides refer to him as “nine point five” — and swears enough to make a Soprano blush. . . .

When Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Schumer set out to find candidates to run in the red states and districts of the 2006 electoral battleground they sought their own rural and exurban doppelgängers. . . .

. . .Other House members include Minnesota’s Tim Walz, an Army national guardsman; Brad Ellsworth, an Indiana sheriff; and Heath Shuler, a former N.F.L. quarterback from North Carolina. . . .

Only in the world of Washington DC insiders could anyone write that a genial teacher, coach, and sargeant like Tim Walz is Rahm Emanuel's "doppelganger."  Friends and former colleagues reach for the phrase "teddy bear" when describing Walz and his former students tease him about how he never assigned homework. "Pitbull"? Not so much.

Someone should give Lizza the news that Tim Walz is member of NOW as well as of Pheasants Forever. 

Did the young women who ran Walz's campaign construct an "image" of "carefully cultivated masculinity"?  Sure, if one defines macho as a guy who gets up in the middle of the night to change diapers and jokes about being fat and bald. Walz has said Camp Wellstone taught him to stay true to himself and that guy came out.  A down-to-earth everyman; even the New York Times got it right for a while.

We're trying to figure out when we started living by the Macho Dem creed. Without media folks like Lizza and DC operatives,  we might not think in approved patterns of women or of men. We might think about National Guard soldiers as being our friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. We might even remember those soldiers in Iraq who are women.

We'd talk about real things that matter to ourselves and our children, and elect people who will work in our best interests.

We'd remember that if there's a toughness in southern Minnesota and this part of the Midwest, it's the persistance of the notion that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.  It's not "macho" or "dem" but cooperative and practical,  born out of surviving blizzards and tornadoes, of working in the fields and factories, of building co-op creameries, public schools, and the Mayo Clinic, of reviving grassroots and persisting in the face of  impossible odds.

If voters saw a certain toughness in Tim Walz, it was the ethos of their own survival and prosperity.  One of their own, and they elected him to represent them.

OLLIE OX UPDATE:  The Wege takes up Lizza's putzhood in Diapers aren't the only things that need changing.

Spring Grove Herald: Girl Scouts reaching out

We read small town papers regularly, and today came across a worthy project that a Girl Scout troup in Spring Grove is working on for their Silver Award. From the Spring Grove Herald:

[Becky] Myhre is in the midst of her large project and is asking for help from the community. She is collecting fabric and thread to be delivered to Tutwiler, Miss. This town in the Mississippi Delta is very poor.

That's an understatement. The 2000 census revealed:

The median income for a household in the town was $18,958, and the median income for a family was $22,857. Males had a median income of $21,364 versus $17,222 for females. The per capita income for the town was $7,177. About 32.1% of families and 38.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 45.5% of those under age 18 and 31.1% of those age 65 or over.

Myhre's project presumably is helping the Tutwiler Quilters, a cooperative put together by the local Catholic-run education center, though the project is not named specifically in the article:

A group of ladies there have come together to make quilts, wall hangings, bags, and etc. to sell. This has become their income.

A visit to the cooperative's web site provides a history of the project, as well as information on ordering what are gorgeous quilts:

The Tutwiler quilters, members of the Craftsmen¹s Guild of Mississippi, are part of the Tutwiler Community Education Center (TCEC). Responding to a strong quilting tradition of women in Tutwiler and surrounding towns, Sr.Maureen Delaney SNJM, Director of TCEC and Sr. Joann Blomme O.P., Counselor at the Tutwiler Clinic, organized the group in 1988 as a way for these women to make money to support their families. As of today the quilters are about 25 to 30 women from Tutwiler and the surrounding communities.

The art of quilt making has been passed down from generation to generation with improvisation as the key word to this style of quilt making. Many of these piecers and quilters, learning quilting from their mothers and grandmothers, take traditional patterns, mix them up, turn them up-side down, mix colors, etc; the effect is a beautiful cacophony of color and design.

This quilt program not only preserves the rich quilt making tradition of these African-American women, but is also a way for women in our area to support themselves and their families. They receive 80% of the price of these products; the other 20% helps buy materials.

Quilts by the Tutwiler Quilters have been displayed at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and the Quilters have taken part in the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife. (Tutwiler and the Delta are home to other folk traditions; W.C. Handy claimed to have first heard the blues here).

Myhre's large project is being coordinated with the Platteville, WI, chapter of Habitat for Humanity:

Myhre is working with Mandy Landsom who visited the Tutwiler area last year. Mandy will be traveling to Tutwiler again this January with the Habitat for Humanity Chapter out of Platteville, Wis.

She will personally be delivering the fabric and thread that Myhre collects. The Platteville Chapter has also offered to pay for the shipping for any of the donations that will not fit on the bus.

Navy, light blue, rose, cream, maroon and forest green are the colors of fabric that are preferred by the Tutwiler ladies, but any will be accepted. At least one yard of any individual fabric would be appreciated. For questions or to donate fabric, contact Becky at (507) 498-5769.

The Girl Scouts have already helped out newborn babies in the Spring Grove area, with one member doing a little sewing of her own:

Landsom has already earned her Silver Award and received it in May at the annual Silver and Gold Award Banquet. Her large project was "Blankets for Babies." She collected fabric and made 24 baby blankets for newborns.

She worked with Vivien Mathsen and helped her deliver some of the blankets to the new babies. Mathsen works with the Friends of Family group that delivers bottles, bibs, pacifiers and books to new babies in School District #297 area.

Pretty cool. 

It's unfortunate that poverty persists anywhere in America, and we favor policies that work to end as much of it as possible.  Meanwhile, help some girls out as they work on quilting together small-scale solutions with some "real conservatives."

Winter Wednesday morning: Walz and Gutknecht contrasting styles

There's a leaden winter sky today on the prairie, a sure sign that we're in for a change in the weather.  Forecasts call for rain, freezing rain, then snow for much of the southwestern 2/3rds of the First, with conditions predicted to be worst around Pipestone.  Keep an eye on things and drive carefully.

MPR: Gutknecht looks to the future
Another farewell from Gil Gutknecht, with MPR throwing in dueling assessments of Gutknecht's records from the middle and the right.  The report begins with the Contract with America:

Throughout his tenure 1st District Rep. Gil Gutknecht did a radio show, "Conversations with the Congressman."

In his last broadcast on Rochester's KROC Gutknecht described signing Newt Gingrich's Contract with America. It was the cornerstone of the so-called Republican revolution. It promised a balanced budget, welfare reform and government transparency.

"And as we came out onto the steps to make this big formal signing in front of the press and everything, all of a sudden the clouds started to part, and the sun came out, and it was almost like an omen," he said.

The day after Tim Walz was elected, southern Minnesota enjoyed record high temperatures in the 80s.  The next day, it snowed.  This dramatic contrast was a sign that weather in Minnesota is like that.  The political lesson one might draw from it is to use the same common sense in watching the political skies that we use to gauge the weather. 

Gutknecht's reflections about his time in office and his loss are no different than those reported in other farewell articles. MPR adds third-party comments from the center and the right, with Tim Penny and Steve Sviggum assessing Gutknecht's 12-year career:

Tim Penny served as the first Congressional District Representative from 1982 until he retired in 1994. He is now a senior fellow at the U of M's Humphrey Institute. Penny says Gutknecht was a back-bench legislator, a follower as opposed to a leader.

"And lots of legislators survive quite nicely playing that role and retain a lot of popularity in their district playing that role," Penny says "But it seems to me that after 12 years you ought to aspire to a greater role than that."

Penny says Gutknecht's base of support wasn't as strong as some thought. Penny says Gutknecht didn't push through concessions for farmers or work on Mayo's behalf in health care or its fight against the DM&E railroad loan.

Penny says the district has a reputation for being more conservative than it actually is. He says Gutknecht never won by more than 60 percent of the vote, and his opponents were virtual-unknowns.

"Against those kinds of opponents typically a well-entrenched incumbent will win by a two-to-one margin or seventy percent or more," Penny says.

Minnesota's out-going Speaker of the House, Republican Steve Sviggum sees a much more effective lawmaker on a national level. He worked with Gutknecht in the state legislature.

"You take the oath of office to the United States of America, to the Constitution of the United States of America,"Sviggum says, "Not necessarily just to the First District."

He says Gutknecht lost his seat because of anti-Republican sentiment. He says Gutknecht shouldn't be criticized for not having bills to his name.

"I think Gil, knowing him quite well, would not need his name attached to every piece of legislation. But I can absolutely tell you he would be very, very, vital in the passing of a bill."

Gutknecht's successor, Tim Walz, is taking a more vocal approach to the job already.

He just called for a government oversight hearing on the contentious federal loan to DM&E railroad. That's something Gutknecht, despite sitting on the Committee on Government Reform, never did.

Or Senator Coleman, heading his own subcommittee on investigations, either.

Mankato Free Press: Schieffer welcomes oversight hearings
The Free Press reports on Walz's request for oversight hearings on DM & E. The newspaper draws on a statement from last month for Schieffer's remark:

DM&E officials have accused project opponents of trying to kill the expansion through delaying tactics, something Walz said he’s not attempting to do that with his request for oversight.

As for defending the project on its merits, DM&E President Kevin Schieffer said last month that he’d be happy to do that before congressional committees.

“There’s nothing I’d invite more than an open dialogue on this,” Schieffer said.

Congress to Treasury Secretary Paulson: Soft on yuan
Someone once asked how a high school geography teacher would know anything about trade policies with China.  Tim Walz answered in Chinese. Like the district he represents, Walz has a way of surprising people.

Today's Bloomberg reports on Congressional response to a Treasury report about the undervaluation of the Chinese yuan:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is heading for a confrontation on China with the new Democratic- controlled Congress after his department softened its criticism of the country's currency policy.         

Lawmakers condemned the Treasury for failing to label China a currency manipulator in its semi-annual foreign-exchange report yesterday and vowed to call Paulson to Capitol Hill to question him on the decision. Unions and manufacturers also criticized the Treasury report, which conceded China's policy of limiting gains in the yuan is a distortion.         

``It's the worst kept secret in the world that they are manipulating,'' said Representative Tim Walz, a Minnesota Democrat and Mandarin speaker. ``A sense of urgency is not there, and it's something we need to move on.''         

The chorus of criticism raises the risk that Congress will enact punitive actions designed to pressure China. More than two dozen measures aimed at decreasing the record U.S. trade gap with China were held up by Republican leaders in the past two years.         

``They are going to get exactly what they deserve from Congress,'' said Robert Baugh, an executive director of the AFL- CIO in Washington. The nation's largest labor federation contributed $40 million to help Democrats win control of Congress. ``Our argument is that this is an illegal subsidy under U.S. trade law.''         

Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, incoming chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the committee, said in a joint statement that they are disappointed with the Treasury report.  . . .

                                  

December 16 digest: bipartisanship, ICE, and more

The Mankato Free Press editorial board salutes Blue Earth County native Margaret Anderson Kelliher's collegiality:

Thumbs up:

To the continuance of collegiality in the Minnesota Legislature, where earlier this week several Republicans announced satisfaction with the way committee assignments were shaping up.

Republicans had made numerous committee requests that were treated with respect by House Speaker-designate Margaret Kelliher, whose Democratic party will be taking over leadership in 2007.

Republicans Laura Brod of New Prague, Bob Gunther of Fairmont, Tony Cornish of Vernon Center and Brad Finstad of New Ulm were among those happy about the committees they were granted. Gunther, for instance, will remain heavily involved in economic policy while serving on panels dealing with energy, the environment and education. Finstad will remain very much in the forefront on agricultural policies and health and human services.

The spirit of bipartisanship will be tested in the coming months, but so far, so good.

The Fairmont Sentinel writes up Representative Gunther's response in Gunther positive about DFL majority:

. . .What may serve Gunther well during the session, which begins Jan. 3, are the relationships he has cultivated across party aisles.

“Some ways I’ll be able to represent (District 24A) better because I treated the DFL as well as I wanted to be treated,” he said. “Isn’t that the Golden Rule?”

Seven DFL committee chairpersons will come out of Gunther’s Jobs and Economic Opportunity Policy and Finance committee, where he says he gave them all a fair shake. Their early actions would appear to prove his assessment.

“Four of them asked me to be on their committees,” Gunther said. “And three of them asked me how to effectively chair a committee. I felt good about that; their high opinion of me and my performance.”

Because of those relationships, Gunther believes he will get hearings for bills he sponsors.

“And if I don’t poke anybody in the eye, I’ll get them passed,” he added.  . . .

Ice Raids Reaction

The Mankato Free Press gives them a thumbs down:

Thumbs down

To the continued absence of sensible policies regarding immigration in this country, heightened by this week’s federal raids on meatpacking plants in six states, including the southwestern Minnesota city of Worthington where 230 people were detained.

While it is important to protect our borders and crack down on the illegal ID trade, Americans still don’t know what to do with the law-abiding people who are here contributing to their communities and raising children. This week’s raid disrupted the economic vitality of Worthington and placed a question mark on its future.

Meanwhile, we are left to consider how we can control our American borders without disrupting entire towns and causing undue mayhem with the lives of people who otherwise quietly go about the business of contributing to the local economy.

The Rochester Post Bulletin editorial board asks similar questions:

The raids this week by U.S. Immigration and Customs officials struck close to home, both physically and emotionally.

The enforcement action aimed at illegal immigrants swept through Austin, as well as Worthington. The Minnesota raid coincided with action across the country. In Austin, Post-Bulletin coverage reported 21 people arrested. In Worthington, some 400 people were detained at the Swift pork-processing facility there.

Those are, as they say, the facts. The story goes far deeper.

Law enforcement creates gut-wrenching stories

The Star-Tribune reports arrested women crying about who would look after their children. In Worthington, the newspaper reports, 39 percent of the children in the city's schools are Hispanic.

The same report detailed how school bus drivers were forced to leave children at churches because nobody was there to meet the children at their homes and that church volunteers were going door to door to look for children whose parents might have been caught up in the raid.

When this country calls for tough enforcement of its immigration laws, this is what it means. It is tough and emotionally painful. It is an outcome obvious to those caught up in the swirl, but to the community as well.

In Worthington, Minnesota Public Radio reports told of the fears in the business community because the raids might depress holiday shopping.

The grayness of illegal immigration: A policy of looking the other way leads to crime but also benefits

Yes, laws should be enforced, but the big picture of immigration is not black or white. A Post-Bulletin editorial on April 19 of this year detailed this grayness. Local law enforcement and social service workers described how nearly all illegal immigrants come here for the work and live quite lives.

The same editorial also noted that identity crimes are closely related to illegal immigrants. Because they are outside the law, illegals are also themselves extremely vulnerable to crime.

The sinister side of illegal immigration cannot be ignored but there is another take as well.

For starters, it is certainly true that the defacto national immigration policy along the U.S. - Mexico border has been one of looking the other way mixed with a smattering of law enforcement. The reason is the cross border migration of workers has benefited the U.S. economy.

For example, the presence of the illegal -- and low-paid -- workers benefits consumers. It's a system that holds down the price of pork and assists corporate profits while giving the illegal workers a greater wage than possible in their home country.

It is also anecdotally true that the presence of illegal workers drives down wages. Workers at Austin's packing plants have seen wages plummet over two decades.

Working illegal immigrants do burden social safety nets but they are also contributing tax dollars to government. These workers are getting the top layer of their paychecks removed to cover state and federal payroll taxes. Social Security payments attributed to a phony number won't be there when the worker needs help.

It is also true that they are deprived access to many social assistance programs that they are helping support.

Reform is a cliche but U.S. immigration policy does need change

The U.S. needs a comprehensive immigration policy. The country needs strong border control, but it also needs a compassionate legal framework that respects the humanity of workers who are contributing to the economy.

The last Congress failed to take up immigration reform. Come January, the next one needs to make it a front-burner issue.

Event: Walz at Rochester Chamber of Commerce
The Post-Bulletin takes note of two C of C events featuring elected officials on Wednesday:

First District Rep.-elect Tim Walz will be the featured speaker during a luncheon sponsored by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce. The event is scheduled for Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Galleria Ballroom of the Radisson Plaza Hotel.

Walz, a Mankato high school teacher, defeated six-term, incumbent Rep. Gil Gutknecht, a Republican from Rochester in the last election.

To register, visit www.rochestermnchamber.com or call 288-1122. The cost is $15 for members and $25 for non-members.

The chamber will host a reception for the Rochester area legislative delegation that will offer a preview of the 2007 legislative session. The event will be held Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Elizabethan Ballroom at the Kahler Grand Hotel.

The cost of the event is $25 for chamber members and $30 for non-members.

Netroots
The Rochester Post Bulletin takes note of Rochester-based YouTube videos.  Included in the round-up is Mrs. Evil Bobby's footage of Walz's victory stop in The Rock.

Minnesota Monitor asks if the DM & E loan may be near a negative tipping point. Leigh Pomeroy at Vox Verax reprints a column by the editor of the Brookings Register that's pretty scathing toward Senator Thune. 

Helping families in Worthington

Those readers who wish to help families and children in Worthington who have been affected by the ICE sweeps through the Swift hog processing plant can contribute in several ways, the Worthington Globe reports:

The Chicano Latino Affairs Council of St. Paul issued a press release explaining it was “coordinating a relief response with the City of Worthington to aid the children and families affected by the recent events” at Swift. The Council was encouraging metro-area residents to deliver cash donations, diapers, infant formula and non-perishable food items to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, St. Paul.

Contact information for the church for metro readers who wish to help:
401 Cesar Chavez St.
St. Paul, MN 55107
651-228-0506

“The Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce is coordinating all cash donations to provide relief to the families and children affected,” the Council’s press release added.

Checks and money orders should be made payable to Worthington Chamber of Commerce (memo: Latino Families); and are being accepted in person and by mail at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, the Chicano Latino Affairs Council office, or at the Chamber at 1121 Third Ave., Worthington.

Mayor Alan Oberloh was also working Thursday with District 22B Rep. Rod Hamilton to set up a list of contact names of people who could meet various community needs and answer questions. Aid and donations were to be sent to the Chamber or be called into its executive director, Darlene Macklin, at 372-2919. Questions pertaining to locations of people detained may be addressed to Mike Cumiskey, Worthington’s director of public safety, at 372-2136.

Oberloh stressed anyone who phones Cumiskey would not need to “fear any type of repercussions,” and Cumiskey seconded that statement.

“We’re not asking any questions about status; we’re just providing information,” he said. “We can be a liaison for ICE in trying to get that information (locations) for them.”

Nobles County Integration Collaborative Coordinator Sharon Johnson is also available to answer general questions at 376-3300, and individuals with concerns about children being separated from their families may call Pam Fleming at Nobles County Family Services, 372-2157. Oberloh said he had heard some accounts of children left unattended, but added those reports were unsubstantiated. People calling Family Services would also not need to worry about any repercussions, he said.

On a national level, newly elected U.S. Rep. Tim Walz said he planned to be in Worthington a week from today to meet with local officials and leaders on the matter.

“Right now, we’re trying to gather as much information as we can,” Walz said by telephone. “We’re trying to monitor it … from people, to police, to members of community so affected by it. This puts an incredible burden out on the community. What it does is it causes a lot of animosity among all different people in the community, and that’s Congress’ job to help alleviate that.”

What needs have the raids created?  The Globe reports:

Gene Foth, Manna Food Pantry’s coordinator, wrote in an e-mail that his pantry, located inside Westminster Presbyterian Church, was hit with about $6,000 in excess food expenses Wednesday after having contact with about 60 families in need of food.

Worthington Daily Globe: ICE releases arrest figures for Swift plant sweep

The Worthington Globe reports that arrest figures have released for the ICE sweep of the local Swift hog packing plant.  ICE made 230 arrests in the Worthington plant:

There were 1,282 men and women arrested in Tuesday’s Swift and Company worksite enforcement investigation — 230 of them from the Worthington plant, according to numbers released today by the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a press conference in Washington, D.C.

Of the 1,282 workers arrested in six plants across the nation, 65 were charged with criminal violations related to identity theft or other violations, such as re-entry after deportation. None of those charged criminally were from the Worthington facility.

The Swift workers were brought to various locations for holding. Nobles County Sheriff Kent Wilkening said 35 people were brought to the Nobles County Jail, which has a contract with ICE for such occasions. [there's more]

Seems that the action was originally scheduled for December 4, but Swift sought judicial relief:

Countries of origin of those arrested include Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Immigration officials in November told Swift unauthorized workers would be removed Dec. 4, but Swift asked a federal judge to prevent the raid, saying it would cause "substantial and irreparable injury" to its business. The company estimated a raid would remove up to 40 percent of its 13,000 workers.

After a closed hearing, a judge rejected Swift's request Dec. 7, clearing the way for Tuesday's actions at the plants in Greeley; Grand Island; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington.