The notion that artists are layabout leeches is nothing new. In "Adam's Curse," William Butler Yeats summed up the scorn poets felt:
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.’
And who can forget then House Majority Leader Representative Matt Dean's May 2011 condemnation of science fiction writer Neil Gaiman as a "pencil-necked little weasel" for receiving a large stipend for an event underwritten by Legacy funds?
Today, the now-minority caucus again questioned the value for the dollar of the arts. A tweet went out--retweeted all of three times, like Peter denying knowledge of that boon companion from Nazareth--denouncing business trips for artists:
While you sit inside today, remember $840k in taxpayer money went to overseas trips for artists. on.fb.me/XutxBD#DFLWaste#mnleg
Here in the frozen, but flourishing, arts paradise that in the western prairie waters, we simply had to shake our heads at the invidious comparison. We weren't the only ones, though House DFL staffer Mike Howard tweeted out an interesting fact about that "#DFLWaste:
Voted for & passed by GOP in 2011 #cantmakeitup MT @mnhousegop: $840k in taxpayer $ went to overseas trips for artists. #DFLWaste
What about that? Here's the 2011 vote, along with the KSTP article the minority Minnesota House Republican caucus references and a list of the travel. It's remarkable that in the 2011 vote, only three House DFLers voted for this "waste" that the minority caucus is trying to brand as "DFL."
Also worth noting: the KSTP story is built entirely on assumptions made by Watchdog.org, although the station doesn't identify what this organization is.
It's a watchdog, right? With a name like that, what else might we need to know?
Recent reports suggest knowing more about Watchdog.org might help KSTP viewers better evaluate investigations from Watchdog.org
Dark Money: Watchdog, MN State News, Freedom Foundation of MN and the Franklin Center
On February 16, 2011, the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota announced that it was launching Minnesota State News:
The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota today announced the launch of Minnesota State News, an online media service that provides timely, original political and public policy news from the State Capitol and around Minnesota.
Minnesota State News (www.mnstatenews.com) features free coverage and analysis of the state budget negotiations, high-impact investigative reports, in-depth video interviews with the state's political leaders, and more. The site also includes a frequently updated "Budget Buster" section that shines an unflattering spotlight upon those policymakers who seek to increase spending and expand government.
The last report by Minnesota State News was published on August 29, 2012 by Tom Steward, investigative director for the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota. Sourcewatch reports:
The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota is listed as a Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity "Statehouse News Bureau". . . The Franklin Center funds reporters in over 40 states. . . Despite their non-partisan description, many of the websites funded by the Franklin Center have received criticism for their conservative bias. . . .On its website, the Franklin Center claims it "provides 10 percent of all daily reporting from state capitals nationwide.". . .
Statehouse News Online is a network of journalists covering state-specific and local government news. Statehouse News covers state legislation, government & special interests, state budgets and political/campaign news. In 2012, Statehouse News was rolled into the Watchdog.org project.
Essentially,Steward's work for the MN State News was simply rolled into the Watchdog.org project. Who's providing Franklin Center funding or related funding to the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota?
95 percent of its 2011 funding came from DonorsTrust, a spin-off of the Philanthropy Roundtable that functions as a large "donor-advised fund," cloaking the identity of donors to right-wing causes across the country (CPI did a review of Franklin's Internal Revenue Service records). . . . Mother Jones called DonorsTrust "the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement" in a February 2013 article. . . . Franklin received DonorTrust's second-largest donation in 2011.. . .
The Franklin Center also receives funding from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, . . . a conservative grant-making organization.
The Franklin Center was launched by the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance (SAM),[12] a 501(c)(3) devoted to pushing free-market ideals. SAM gets funding from the State Policy Network,[13] which is partially funded by the Claude R. Lambe Foundation.[14] Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, sits on the board of this foundation.[15] SAM also receives funding from the Rodney Fund.
In 2009, a network of online media outlets began popping up in state capitals across the nation, each covering the news from a clearly conservative point of view. What wasn’t so clear was how they were funded.
“The source is 100 percent anonymous,” said Michael Moroney, a spokesman for the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, the think tank that created the outlets.
In fact, 95 percent of Franklin’s revenue in 2011 came from a charity called Donors Trust, according to Internal Revenue Service records.
Conservative foundations and individuals use Donors Trust to pass money to a vast network of think tanks and media outlets that push free-market ideology in the states — $86 million in 2011 alone. The arrangement obscures the identity of the donors wishing to keep their charitable giving private, especially “gifts funding sensitive or controversial issues,” according to the group’s website.
The $6.3 million donation to the Franklin Center was the second-largest gift made in 2011 by the group, a tax-exempt “public charity” that takes tax-deductible donations from donors “dedicated to the ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise,” according to its website.
Donors Trust includes 193 contributors, the majority of whom are individuals. “A lot of donors are flying totally under the radar,” says president and CEO Whitney Ball.
Among the key findings on the Watchdog.org family:
The sites scored a 63 on the 100-point scale PEJ devised to measure
ideology, making its journalism the second-most ideologically oriented
in the study.
41% of stories presented a primarily conservative theme, while 11%
contained pro-liberal themes. (49% contained no particular theme or a
mixture.)
On nine of the sites, only Democrats or government agencies were the subject of investigative exposes.
The majority of Watchdog stories (53%) contained only one-or mostly
one-point of view. About one third (34%) contained two or more.
The sites scored 61 on a 100-point transparency scale, ranking them among the least transparent of all sites studied.
The sites as a whole scored 20 on a 100-point scale for
productivity, which measures volume of original reporting and opinion
blogging, as well as the number of editorial and reporting staff listed.
As a group, they were the lowest in productivity.
Obviously, Watchdog.org's Minnesota Bureau doesn't just go after Democrats, since there's no mention in the KSTP report about which party in the legislature approved the funding.
That sort of bias--and blinders about its own caucus's vote in 2011--is left to the Republican Minority Caucus, bless their little hearts, as they hunt down pencil-necks everywhere.
Photo: A pauper breaking stones, so not like one of those artists doing things hard to measure by the wheelbarrow.
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Since it's an article by Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism intern Kate Prengaman, one should approach with caution, but an article in today's LaCrosse underscores the need for more than just a list of "best practices" and that promises from the industrial sand mining industry aren't a substitute for strong state oversight.
But with Prengaman, we're supplied thinly sourced, industrial "growing pains" narrative.
And it's curious to note that while the article notes that nearly one-fifth of the active industrial sand operations violated their permits, readers never see a total dollar figure for the fines levied.
Nearly a fifth of Wisconsin’s 70 active frac sand mines and
processing plants were cited for environmental violations last year, as
the industry continued to expand at a rapid clip.
Violations
included air pollution, starting construction without permits and an
accident at the Preferred Sands mine in Trempealeau County, where a
mudslide during a heavy rainstorm damaged a neighboring property.
In
addition, the state Department of Natural Resources cranked out letters
of noncompliance — warnings to fix a problem before it becomes serious
enough to merit a notice of violation — at numerous facilities. . . .
“Some of these companies should have known better,” said Marty Sellers, a DNR air management engineer.
“They seem to put construction and production ahead of regulations.”
Oh, jeepers. What a surprise. Sadly, Prengaman doesn't think to file a data request for the number and location of frac sand mining and processing facilities that received letters of noncompliance, but goes for a hickey beside the jugular with the anecdotal:
Usually, Sellers said, the DNR expects 90 percent of companies in a
regulated industry to comply with rules on their own. But in his visits
to a dozen frac sand facilities, Sellers encountered the opposite
pattern, and he sent letters of noncompliance to 80 to 90 percent of the
sites.
That would be 10 or 11 of the industrial sand sites he visited, compared to the whole of a regulated industry, but as a suggestive but meaningless statistic, 90 percent sure is scary. As well as a distracting cover for the intern's failure to score public records.
The claim is sensational--but it's a minor anecdote. Producing those letters of noncompliance might actually give readers a concrete, documented sense of what the problems actually are--and how frequently they come up under WI DNR oversight.
She didn't do good enough exploration of the public record to prove that WI DNR
actually cares about how badly behaved this industry might be--or what that behavior might be--while just a little digging suggests that the agency is most interested in "partnering" with those it's charged with overseeing.
And buried in the story, after the tale of two Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations and three fines, this:
Nine companies that received violations faced no fines, Dix said. Their
violations were largely either paperwork problems or other easily
corrected issues.
Scott Walker: Emperor of Air
What's Wisconsin's response to the violations? That's a good question. First, let's look at Prengaman's text, which on the surface paints Governor Scott Walker as a real man of action:
Gov. Scott Walker has proposed two new DNR positions in his budget to
monitor the sand industry, by shifting $223,000 from other parts of the
budget.
The Wisconsin Industrial Sand Association, an industry
trade group representing five large companies, applauded the move.
Increasing staff will help to ensure that all mining companies operate
according to state laws, the group said in a press release.
Prengaman both buries and obscures the news that the two new Wisconsin DNR staff
positions in Walker's budget--the ones the Wisconsin Industrial Sand
Association so eagerly welcomes--will be assigned to the Air Program.
Seven paragraphs down from the paragraphs above she writes:
The proposed two new DNR positions would most likely be focused on
mines’ compliance with air quality regulations, said Tom Woletz, the
DNR’s point person for frac sand.
In an effort to expand the state’s management of natural resources in
and around industrial sand sites in Wisconsin, the Department of Natural
Resources has asked for two additional Air Program staff in its
biennial budget request to the Department of Administration.
While the link to the press release is provided on the Wisconsin Watch site, it's on the LaCrosse Tribune article--certainly not in print, and not online. Prengaman's text itself--what most readers will see--simply doesn't adhere to fact.
Moreover, the staff originally weren't envisioned to be working exclusively on industrial sand mining and processing oversight:
. . . Stepp noted that the two new staff will work in the Air Program on
compliance and permitting issues at sites around the state, including
industrial sand sites. . . .
. . .“With this high demand we’ve seen a significant increase in our air and
water permitting programs, as well as an increase in requests for
endangered and threatened species and archeological reviews,” said Tom
Woletz, special projects coordinator in the DNR’s Water Division and the
agency’s frac sand expert.
Read that closely. These new hires are designed to help clear high demand for the industry, far more than they are to protect citizens. It's the sort of mindset that views regulation as hoops to jump through, and the environmental consequences as mere "growing pains."
No wonder the Wisconsin Industrial Sand Association was so delighted with the request to shift funds:
Sand mines must also follow the same state requirements as other
nonmetallic mining operations in Wisconsin, said Woletz, including
getting necessary air and water permits and following state reclamation
laws.
“We’re also working with the newly formed Wisconsin Industrial Sand
Association (WISA),” said Woletz. “By engaging this organization, along
with other groups and the general public, we hope to keep an open
dialogue that helps us provide the best management possible for the
protection of our state’s public health and the environment.”
Governor Walker requests additional staff in state budget in effort to broaden DNR management at industrial sand sites
In an effort to expand the state's management of natural resources in and around industrial sand sites in Wisconsin,
Governor Scott Walker requested two additional staff in the Air Program
to work on compliance and monitoring activities as part of his
2013-2015 State Biennial Budget proposal to the Legislature.
While sand and gravel mining has existed in Wisconsin
for decades, a recent growth in the industry is occurring nationally,
attributed largely to hydrofracking, a technique used by the petroleum
industry to extract natural gas and crude oil from rock formations.
Within
the past few years, more than 70 sand mining and processing operations
either have been constructed or are under construction in the state. The
department estimates 40 additional "frac" sand mining or processing sources could become operational over the next few years.
"This rapid increase and expansion of sand mining and processing operations in Wisconsin has created a significant, new workload, in a compressed amount of time," said DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp. "We are committed to dedicating staff time and resources to protect Wisconsin's public health and the environment."
Staff in these positions will:
* conduct compliance activities for new and existing sand mines and to provide support to monitoring activities;
* conduct full or partial compliance inspections of operational frac sand operations for compliance with air pollution requirements;
* provide compliance assistance and assurance;
*
respond to complaints by following through with investigation and
compliance auditing, which may include partial compliance inspection;
*
ensure proper enforcement procedures are implemented in cases where
non-compliance is found, including referral to the DOJ when necessary;
and
* provide assistance with ambient air quality monitoring activities.
The closer one looks at this new staffing, the less there is to meet the eye. It's compliance and monitoring (DNR budget priority #24) for additional mines that will be coming online, not additional enforcement.
And adding up the handful of fines levied--remember, bureaucracies divide compliance from enforcement--we discover another fact omitted from Prengaman's reporting. For all the millions the industrial sand companies are pulling from the ground, the total fines charged for polluting the water are and the air?
$4127.00, although additional fines might come from the two incidents under investigation. Two of the three fines come from water permit violations--but no additional state resources are going into this area.
We're betting that the industry will point to that figure with pride--while laughing all the way to the bank.
Images: Map of 2012 violations from Wisconsin Watch (above); fines not yet added in for this spill, from which the investigation is still underway (Photo credit: MPR).
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One of the talking points industry uses to marginalize citizen concerns about the impact of frac sand mining in Southeastern Minnesota is to insist that those raising questions about the industrial scale mining on their property values, safety, health, communities, landscapes, and future economic opportunities are either misinformed and think fracking itself will be happening in their neigborhoods.
Or the claim is made that the activists are actually using local interests as a stalking horse for opposition to fracking itself, however distant that might be from the bluff country. And while that debate is heated nationally, the Minnesota House and Senate are being asked to legislative relief that would address issues raised by the new scale sand mining itself.
Gov. Dayton says the issue of sand
mining for use in a natural gas and oil extraction process called
hydraulic fracturing will be "huge" this session. The procedure, which
relies on injecting water, silica sand and chemicals to retrieve oil and
natural gas deposits, has been controversial, as has the mining of
silica sand in Minnesota. Gov. Dayton and the Legislature will be forced
to balance the interests of the energy industry and the jobs it
provides with the interests of environmentalists who are concerned about
the long term impacts of hydraulic fracturing.
Get real: for months, news media in Minnesota have been reporting about counties and cities imposing moratoria because of problems created by the impactc of new industrial scale silica sand mining. While sand has been extracted in the area for years, this problem of scale is what's creating the problems; even if fracking itself were completely safe and without controversy, people in Hay Creek Township, Red Wing, Wabasha, Winona, Goodhue County, Wabasha County, Winona County, Houston County, Fillmore County, Olmsted County and other places in the state would still be seeking legislative relief.
To report otherwise is simply missing the story on the ground and at the capitol.
How will heavy truck traffic affect the life of county and townhip roads that aren't engineered for heavy traffic? Will they cause more accidents?
Is the dust created by the mining and processing process safe? If there are no established standards for safety, when will they be established? Who will do the monitoring? Who will pay for this?
Since the washing process requires large amounts of water--and chemicals as well--what guarantee do residents have that their wells won't go dry? Or be contaminated? Who will pay for the benchmarks for well quality?
In Wisconsin, a frac sand operation holding pond spilled into the St Croix River and the spill was undetected for days. Who will monitor holding ponds and water quality in the lakes, streams and rivers in the watersheds where frac sand mines and processing plants are located?
How will local environmental concerns--such as preservation of bluff and "goat prairie" eco-niches where threatened and endangered species dwell--be factored in? What value can be established for signature native landscapes themselves, like the river bluffs?
Will frac sand mining affect property values? Will it inhibit other forms of economic development, like the area's growing organic farming, tourism, real estate?
Given the burdens on local communities, will frac sand be subject to additional taxes to support the infrastructure costs of the industry to local and state goverment? Should a fee be charged mining companies to help with post-mining economic development, just as the taconite industry on the Range was taxed to fund the IRRRB?
While companies promise they will reclaim mines once they're finished with them, what should standards for water quality, land use, soil contamination and so on should be used for reclamation projects? How long can a mine lie idle in an industry that's someone boom and bust before it most be reclaimed?
Other than that, perhaps there are environmentalists somewhere who think the Minnesota legislature will be dealing with fracking.
As soon as we find them, we'll let readers and MPR know who they are.
Screenshot: MPR is confused about what the Minnesota legislature is being asked to consider. The focus is frac sand mining.
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While the nation's attention may be riveted on the Sandy Hook school shootings, the frac sand industry hasn't turned away from the quest to haul silica sand away from the Upper Midwest, despite the soft-peddling of the Wisconsin Industrial Sand Association's favorite news intern.
A proposed frac sand loading and storage facility in Wabasha could open as early as next week if the city approves.
The
Wabasha City Council will decide at a special meeting Monday whether an
environmental review should be done for Superior Sand System’s
facility.
The council is considering the review because of a
recent petition with 156 signatures submitted to the state’s
Environmental Quality Board. Petitioners want the review in order to
identify the facility’s potential impacts on traffic, health and safety
issues, and other concerns.
If the council chooses not to order
the review, the city’s planning commission on Tuesday will consider
approving the facility’s conditional-use permit.
The planning
commission has until Feb. 8 to vote on the permit but is expected to
move more quickly, in part because company officials have expressed a
desire to open the facility this month.
“They indicated they will
start to lose quite a bit of money if they don’t start hauling by Dec.
20,” Wabasha City Planner Molly Patterson-Lundgren said.
The
company could lose up to $40 million in secured contracts if it can’t
open before that date, said Paul Van Eijl, a company representative and
Buffalo County’s former zoning administrator, in a letter to the
commission.
The commission initially held off on voting until a
traffic impact study could be done to determine the effects of 400 daily
truck trips, but now that the process has accelerated, the study would
be done after the permit is approved. . . .
And as more of the new sand mines in Wisconsin begin production this year, the supply is catching up with the demand.
Rich Budinger, the regional manager for the Wisconsin Industrial Sand
Company (WISC), a subsidiary of Fairmount Minerals, which has three
operating sand facilities and one more in development in Wisconsin, said
these price fluctuations are part of natural market cycles. Lower
prices will benefit experienced sand mine operators like WISC, said
Budinger, who also is president of the Wisconsin Industrial Sand
Association.
“If prices continue to drop off, a competitive market will be
established,” Budinger said. “Experienced companies have seen that
before, and we’re prepared for it.”
WISC doesn’t just produce frac sand. It also sells sand for glass,
construction and recreational uses. This diversification is key to
weathering the ups and downs of the market, Budinger said.. . .
Prengaman's reportage was not always so industry-friendly, but then, last summer there was no WISA, though both her investigations and the trade group ripened quickly, like the finest Wisconsin cheese product. A coincidence, to be sure.
A new labor market study published Wednesday has found that oil
companies with hydraulic fracturing interests have outpaced the tobacco
industry, Wall Street, and the gun lobby to become the largest employer
of recent college graduates with public relations degrees. "These days,
media-savvy professionals who know how to publicize questionable
scientific data in order to downplay the environmental dangers of
forcing toxic fluids into the ground can pretty much write their own
ticket," said Bart Hobijn of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco,
adding that this year at least 2,500 graduating seniors will be put to
work obfuscating the levels of carcinogens in groundwater. "And in the
long term, the job demand will only increase. Fracking has become a
high-growth sector in which there is an extraordinary amount of spinning
to be done." When asked how he enjoyed his new position with a
Pittsburgh-based fracking operator, recently hired PR manager Matt
Coleman said he believed the practice is a "safe, clean way to increase
our natural gas reserves and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil."
Surely, that message translates just as well to the frac sand industry as well, as Prengaman's reporting clearly illustrates. Nothing to worry about.
It is troubling that the author cites the Wisconsin Economic Development
Corporation as if this were a credible source. A caveat should include
the fact that the WEDC is a Walker created corporate entity. Cronyism is
implicit in this creation. As has been noted in the past, there is
often a financial insentive to pad the numbers. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics is certainly a much more credible source but receives less
attention as a credible source. I think the thing that those of use who
live with this invasion and devastation would note – is that it seems to
be a very common industry practice to “pad the numbers. In general,
this industry scrupulously avoids long term numbers. Jobs = Sand is the
industry advertizing slogan. It is the same slogan that is used with
Mountain Top removal, Fracking and other destructive dirty energy
efforts. It is Wisconsin’s best interest, nor even the U.S. to ignore
the long term consequences.
Fascinating stuff: the kid has a bright, bright future.
Photo: Frac sand sediment spills into the St.Croix River last spring. Everything is a-okay. Image from the Wisconsin DNR, via the Environmental Review.
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Several Facebook friends first raised the objection today: what's up with giving winter storms names?
Some outlets were calling the generous but not especially scary snowstorm that dumped about an inch of much needed moisture across the state "Winter Storm Caesar," and folks were rightly calling foul.
Blizzards aren't named beforehand like hurricanes for those wusses who've fled our winters for the retired sunshine of Florida--or those hipsteric East Coast elites who didn't have the sense to come in out of Sandy's paths. Those folks need a weatherman to tell them which way the wind blows.
Rather, our grand old Minnesota tradition is to have our storms earn their names. Think of the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. The Armstice Day Blizzard of 1940. The Thanksgiving Day Blizzard of 1896 (okay if you don't remember that one). The State Basketball Tournament Blizzards. The St. Patrick's Day Blizzard of 1965, which set up the Minnesota River Valley for such horrific flooding.
Or the Super Bowl Blizzard of 1975, which shut the state down, just as the Pittsburgh Steelers held the Vikes to a mere 6 points on the killing fields of Tulane.
Note how Minnesotans give names associated with a holiday or an event, not some "organized naming system for these storms before they impact population centers" selected by idle marketing hands at "a world-class organization such as The Weather Channel."
These blizzards aren't pets.
No: the naming of significant blizzards isn't an act of charity for a corporation to bestow on us in benevolent concern for our safety, nor an exercise in branding (or brand extension). Blizzards earn their names in the shared memory of those who plowed the snow, who waited in hotel rooms and remote farmhouses, who packed storm kits for their cars and so shook off hyperthermia and frostbite when their wheels simply could go no farther.
Great winter storms on the northern prairies are named by those who remember the hunters who huddled in their duck blinds with good dogs and never made it.
It's not a list brainstormed by people who aren't from around here.
And so it is with this storm. Newly engaged lovers in Clara City will remember making bacon and potato soup while one cleaned closets. A now-young boy may recall going out to feed his ponies in Pine County. A senate aide in Kandiyohi County will laugh about how he suddenly didn't have enough ruler to measure the snow. A young girl in Minneapolis will recall baking M & M cookies with her immigrant mother while the snow fell outside the kitchen window. Football fans will remember clearing snow, then settling in to watch a team that finally recalled the glory days of Bud Grant, Fran Tarkenton, and the Purple People Eaters, then heading out to deal with more snow.
But these will not be memories of a singular storm that earned a name. They will simply be the first storm of a winter, remarkable only in its novelty for the season.
So, no thank you, Weather Channel. We understand our winter storms here in Minnesota and don't need a list of names to tell us which way the wind blows. (By the way, the guy who came up with the original version of that line is from around here; take the hint).
issued a statement saying it would not offer an opinion on the decision
by a private enterprise to name storms. However the service said, "A
winter storm's impact can vary from one location to another, and storms
can weaken and redevelop, making it difficult to define where one ends
and another begins."
Even the word "blizzard" itself, my Oxford English Dictionary tells me, has a nearly local origin, a name given to our fierce prairie storms by the Northern Vindicator of Estherville, Iowa, between 1860 and 1870. Like so many of our blizzards here in Minnesota, the colloquialism itself might have blown in from the West.
So please, corporate media Weather Channel people, just stop with the naming of our snowstorms. You mean well. Fine. But good intentions don't give you naming rights. Those who shovel the walks and bury the dead already have them, and we'll pick which storm we'll name, and what that name will be.
Image: These storms aren't pets.
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In Sunday's Star Tribune, general assignment reporter Curt Brown weaves a colorful narrative of envy in Sand mining creates wealth and friction (what appears to be his first frac sand mining story), while failing to note that neighbors of a farm couple who collected $550,000 for their place might have more powerful reasons not to wave when they pass by.
There's more to this story than the green-eyed monster angle Brown selected.
Curiously, envy never seem to be on the list of the factor mentioned in their public testimony.
In his report, Brown doesn't hint at information that reveals the payment to the farm couple is nickel-and-dime stuff in the frac sand drama playing out in Wisconsin. Instead, that half-million dollar check is a grain in the unit train hauling what Winn Bay Sand got when they sold out to one of the largest frac sand mining corporations in North America in January: $200 million.
Brown's usually better than this: his look back at Little Crow in August as part of the 150 anniversary of the 1862 US Dakota War is superlative. This piece isn't.
Brown: Half-millionaires get "envious looks"
In Sand mining creates wealth and friction, Brown sets up a tale of poor dirt farmers suddenly coming into wealth, and with that wealth, "envious glares" from their former neighbors:
Lou Ellen and Jim Frei spent 40 years as hardscrabble dairy farmers,
cussing the sandy soil that gave them and their tractor such fits.
Today they are finally breathing easy, thanks to that same gritty
land. They just moved into a new one-story house on Sjuggerud Coulee
Road. Now they don't have to worry about climbing their old farmhouse
stairs on knees made sore by milking cows.
Once so poor they couldn't afford new shoes when their daughter started school, they now have more than $550,000 in the bank.
"We've even got a Jacuzzi tub now," said Jim, 66, chuckling about their sudden change of fortune. . . .
While they count themselves fortunate, the Freis acknowledge some
heartache. They get envious glares from neighbors who were hay-baling
partners for years. Some neighbors won't wave anymore as they pass on
country roads.
"This has become a very divisive local issue, with some people
becoming quite wealthy in what used to be a tough rural farming area,"
said Tom Woletz, who tracks frac sand mines for the Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources.
"It's certainly big money and a big change,'' he added. "And if
you're not in, you're out. So you've got families and neighbors that
aren't going to talk to each other for the rest of their lives and
hillsides you looked over your whole life now cut wide open. Who could
have imagined it?"
And Brown reports that the couple just didn't anticipate this resentment from their neighbors:
When the sale went through, Jim expected his neighbors to say, "Well,
good going, Jim, good for you, you deserve it after all those lean
years."
But Lou Ellen said, "It's been war. I'll tell you, it was bad."
There's a paragraph mentioning objections and one family on a small plot next door is interviewed:
Amy and Jeff Swanson have lived on 12 acres adjacent to the Freis' old
place for seven years, raising 10-year-old Rayna and 8-year-old Jaren.
They grow some crops and run landscaping, hauling, can-recycling and
dog-breeding businesses. Unlike the Freis, says Amy, "our security is
gone.
It's clear Brown is sympathetic to the older couple. That's not necessarily bad journalism, but the rest of what happened in Blair with Winn Bay Sand is a story--or so a search of Nexis's All News database tells us--that the Star Tribune has never told.
Those stories certainly are not the tales the flacks from WISC would bring up in pitching how to cover sand mining--but then, we don't know if one from the industrial sands pr group reached out and touched Brown.
From the record: beekeepers, dairy farmers and parents speak
Since Brown does characterize the neighbors' looks as "envious glares," Bluestem will go into what the neigthbors said when they heard about the Larkin Valley project. Once we read the testimony, we came to believe that there's a lot more to the former neighbors' dirty looks than mere envy.
Brown reports that the Freis sold the land in 2010 and that "When the sale went through, Jim expected his neighbors to say, 'Well,
good going, Jim, good for you, you deserve it after all those lean
years.'"
But even before the sale went through, the neighbors objected, so the half-millionaire is fudging a bit on the surprise he recalls for Brown. The Blair Press--Taylor reported on December 24, 2009, in Group forms to oppose sand mine in Larkin Valley:
Residents of Larkin Valley, Snake Coulee, and Schansberg Road, and the
City of Blair met to form a formal opposition group to the proposed
"Larkin Valley Project", a silica sand mine operation proposed by a
Canadian firm called Winn Bay Sand Limited Partnership.
Winn Bay has proposed a silica sand mine about a half-mile northwest of Blair, north of Schansberg Road. . ..
It's quite likely that the deals were in place by the end of December, but material on the group's website doesn't really suggest envy. But then, Brown only mentions hearings and petitions in Wisconsin in very general terms. Readers aren't told the name of the opposition group that was formed: The Larkin Valley No Winn Project, though we're told about "envious glares."
Public Hearing – Conditional Use Permit – Non-metallic Mining - Jonas and Katherine Neuenschwander, James and Lou Ellen Frei, Phineas R. Schrock and Carl and Lucy Axness, Property Owners, Blair, WI and Winn Bay Sand, LP Sand, LP Operator, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada – Town of Preston.
Brown writes that the Freis sold their cows "several years ago" but the last dairy program payment that they received, according to information in the EWG farm subsidies database was 1995, when they received $296 in a milk marketing program. Overall, the farmer received $73,573 in federal farm subsidies between 1995 and 2011, largely from conservation programs, or around $4598 per year.
Frac sand opponents have packed meeting halls and circulated petitions,
worrying about increased dust getting into their lungs, heightened truck
traffic pummeling their roads and all that water the mines would suck
from the aquifers.
Judt Haase-Hardie – Testify in opposition – Haase-Hardie lives on Schansberg Road with husband,
Arden and three daughters. Their farm was purchased by Don and Doris Hardie (Arden’s parents) in
March of 1941 and in those 68 years a way of life has been established and currently they are an organic
dairy farm. Their seventeen year old house is in close proximity to the railroad crossing which is a
concern. They presently farm 8.3 acres of one of the farms included in this proposal; therefore they
would be losing that land. She felt it doesn’t take a sand mine to improve our local economy, in this area
it takes friends of rural life – people who intentionally purchase items and services of our local
community. People who pray, play and work together. She questions, do we want our young people to
return home to the farmland or their homestead? On their neighborhood road alone, they have several
friends and their own two daughters who are active on the family farms. It used to be considered that
farming was solely a “man’s world” and that has really never been true as farming as been a family role
but many times the women have not been given credit for what they have done. We have been hearing
that the land will be reclaimed and it will become better Ag land after the mining is over with. Who is
going to want to buy our organic beef after it has been raised on reclaimed mining land after a sand mine
that has flocculant in the soil. It is her opinion that you can never, ever return the land to its original form,
Ag land can never be made better than what God has given. She has attended all the meetings and a
comment was made by a Winn Bay Sand, LP representative, at the initial public meeting, that if the
community doesn’t want us here, we will not come. Haase-Hardie questioned how many petitions, how
many more signs does Winn Bay Sand, LP need to indicate that we do not want a sand mine in our
neighborhood. Haase-Hardie suggested the matter be tabled so that more information can be sought out
and her prayer for the Committee – wisdom of God be always with you at work in you.
Shannon Leer – Registered to testify in opposition - Leer lives on Larkin Valley Road and is a small
business owner. He is a beekeeper. Leer was told specifically by William Vachon that his business
would be affected. Leer stated that Harold Derkson stated it would be best to mitigate with everyone so
that they are happy. Leer added there has been no mitigation other than “we’re not interested”. Leer
leases 65 acres of land for recreation for himself and his family, which is adjacent to the north property
line of where the processing center will be. The conveyor that Winn Bay Sand, LP will put in for the
movement of the sand is going to eliminate the movement of the wildlife. The reason that Leer leases the
land is for the wildlife movement and he feels that will be eliminated if the mine is allowed.
Tracey Leer – Registered to testify in opposition – Leer is not opposed to mining. Leer is opposed to a
mine coming within 480 yards of her home and the other homes that are in area. Everyone has children.
Leers’ children are eight and eleven and they rides horses. What is going to happen when blasting
occurs? How will blasting feel on horse’s feet? Horses can go crazy at any little difference. Yes, a person
can get injured walking across the street but that is a responsibility we take upon ourselves. With this
situation it doesn’t feel like we’re being thought of as much because Winn Bay Sand, LP has made it feel
like they are coming in regardless. Jamie Puent and Bill Vachon had a meeting with landowners and Bill
Vachon told Leers’ that they would be negatively impacted. Shannon Leer runs his bee business from
their home because it is just like any other farming and a big portion of the bee business is spent in the
bee yard. Their daughters are also able to spend time in the bee yard, not only to learn the business for the
future, but it is good family time. When James Kalny said that their mission statement had integrity, Leer
didn’t find it very responsible for them to come into an area and affect so many families. They are not
looking at the full picture. They are looking at the mining industry and they want it and they want to start
making money right now. Leer stated that Jamie Puent had said that Winn Bay Sand, LP would run
numbers to help buy Leer’s house. Two weeks later, Leer stated Puent had stated Winn Bay Sand, LP
was not interested whatsoever in buying their house whether Leers are affected or not. On Winn Bay
Sand, LP’s slide presentation, Leers were not one of the businesses that were listed as being negatively
impacted. Leer continued that Winn Bay Sand, LP knows Leers’ business will be negatively impacted
and Winn Bay Sand, LP does not want to compensate for that. Winn Bay Sand, LP suggested that Leers
take their bees and move miles down the road which will impact their family quality time. If the mine
comes in and does not compensate Leers for what they are losing, what is the world coming to. Leers are
here for the duration and will lose their livelihood for the mining people coming in for twenty years and
then leaving. Leer expressed her wish that this issue be tabled for now.
Diane Carlson – Registered to testify in opposition. Carlson and her husband have been faced with a
unique situation. They own property along Schansberg Road that is located directly across the road from
the rail spur site. Winn Bay Sand, LP has respectfully met with the Carlson’s’ and have acknowledged
that the Carlson’s will be negatively impacted. Winn Bay Sand, LP has offered them an “Option to
Purchase” on their property. Carlson stated that doesn’t mean that they feel they have been placed in a
win/win situation....
Cathy Buresh – Registered to testify in opposition – It has been a very difficult past few days trying to
get information together as we are facing a giant, but David is on our side. Buresh read a letter that she
submitted on May 5th to the Township of Preston. The proposed silica sand mine in Larkin Valley is of
great concern to my family. Buresh relocated to beautiful, pastoral Trempealeau County from the suburbs
of Milwaukee for the express purpose of raising our family in the serene countryside of Blair. It is most
disturbing to hear of the Winn Bay Sand, LP limited partnership vigorous attempt to begin mining within
a mile of their home. The detrimental affects of a mining venture within proximity of family, friends and
neighbors pose very serious health risks. Cumulative impacts from dust and diesel fumes and fugitive
dust from multiple sources degrade air quality. Traffic congestion, safety hazards and public nuisances
such as noise and chronic dusting issues and loss of aesthetic views are a very few of the substantial
losses our community will suffer. Buresh shares the consternation of her neighbors with regard in which
Winn Bay Sand, LP is pressing forward with this proposal and the lack of support and unbiased protection
apparent in the editorials of our local newspaper. It is with trepidation that Buresh must share this
information so that you may consider what is in the best interest of the people Buresh is a wife and
mother of ten children, a registered nurse and she has lived in Larkin Valley, Town of Preston for the past
18 years. . . .
Sharon L. Sweno – Registered in opposition but not testify. The Committee granted Sweno the
opportunity to comment. Sweno has health issues and the silica mine could affect her. The mine will
affect her home, friends and her family. Sweno spends time on the family farm. Sweno doesn’t want the
mine. Why do the people that don’t want the mine seem to be fighting a battle that they probably won’t
win? Sweno stated that everything the people have said here is true. It is possible that the people that
will be affected by the sale of their land are thinking more of what they will be getting in money rather
than the people who are being affected by the mine. Are these people planning to move out because they
sold their land? It is a moral issue also.
Andrew Wengerd – Registered to testify in opposition. Wengerd’s property line and buildings are about
900 feet from the proposed Winn Bay Sand, LP property. Wengerd’s concern is that he does adult/family
home care on his property and he has a ward of the state living in his home that is an epileptic and
autistic. People talk about how the air pressure, etc. might affect this person if the mine goes in.
Wengerd has lived on this property for 18 years and cannot afford to relocate. Wengerd is concerned.
Calvin Lebakken – Registered to testify in opposition. Lebakken thanked the Committee for the
opportunity to speak. Lebakken and his wife have owned and operated an accounting business in the rural
Blair area for the last 21 years. Lebakken’s home and business are located right next to the area of the
proposed mine. Lebakken’s have made every attempt to remain neutral regarding this project, but now it
is vital to stand up for their son’s well being. Their son is a very active, vital, 10 year old with a zest for
life. He suffers from low muscle tone . The low muscle tone prevents him from normal walking and
speaking and in addition he also has hyper-sensitive hearing. A great example of this is when the train
blows its horn in Whitehall, 7 miles away, he can sense that. Their son knows that within 15 minutes that
train will pass Lebakken’s house. At this point, they hold their hands over their son’s ears to help cut
down the extreme sound that the whistle has at the crossing near their home. Currently, the train travels
past their house two times per day. The mining plan talks of three railroad spurs going in roughly ¾ of a
mile from their house. Winn Bay Sand, LP is looking at loading 1 car every 20 minutes and have the cars
in groups of 10. This extra noise could affect their son. Currently, their son does sleep thru the train at
night 95% of the time. With the new proposed train activity the time of hooking and unhooking could
increase from 10-15 minutes to 45 minutes to an hour. Is the movement during the day/night going to be
an all day process? Lebakken inquired about the dynamite blasting? It going to be where it startles him
too much? Lebakkens are not sure how far their son can hear, but he might possibly hear the grinding
over the hill. Lebakken suggested perhaps the decision could be tabled to do more research.
Dan Lee – Registered to testify in opposition. Lee also has two letters from other people to read. The
first letter is from Audrey Lee. Audrey Lee is 94 years old and lives at Grandview Health Care Center in
Blair. A. Lee moved to the Pleasantville area in 1949 and raised 6 children, was a dairy wife and a retired
elementary school teacher. A. Lee is concerned about the negative health effects from this sand mine
proposal. She has breathing problems and is on oxygen. Adding any air pollutants would adversely
affect her health. Most, if not all, of the residents at Grandview have breathing and/or heart problems and
would also suffer from this silica dust. Grandview is down wind one mile from this proposed site. A.
Lee urged the Committee to consider the most vulnerable of residents at this time
Dan Lee was also asked to read a letter submitted by Albert Przybylla, Sr. Przybylla lives across the
road from the proposed mine site entrance. Przybylla was told by mine representatives that the current
access road across from his driveway will be the worker’s entrance. Przybylla bought the place in 1948
and currently farms 392 acres with his two sons. Przybylla is against this proposal for the following
reasons: Water Quality – a few years Ago AMPI started to spread whey on the property that is now
proposed to be a mining site. Not long after that he started to see brown flakes of matter in his water.
Przybylla contacted AMPI and they stopped immediately. Not long after that the brown flakes went
away. Przybylla feels this mine will cause a serious water quality and health risk. Noise , dust, light
pollution – Przybylla is only a quarter of a mile from the site. That distance is the same as three city
blocks. The mine site is also higher in elevation and flanked by rolling hills. This will channel all noise,
dust and lights right to his operation and home. Blasting will not be good to the home foundations, water
wells and various animals. Traffic increase – often Przybylla is on Snake Coulee and Larkin Valley road
with farm machinery. . . .
Amy Swanson – Swanson stated this has been a really emotional issue for all involved. As adjoining property owners and on behalf of her husband and two children, one of which has asthma, she asked the Committee to consider that inhalable crystalline silica is not currently regulated by the DNR. This means that her family and her neighbors have no protection. Since the DNR is currently in the process of working on this study, Swanson asked that the Committee please not allow a mine of this nature, this one or others, without those standards and a way to enforce those standards in place.
Other than that, perhaps it's just envy for neighbors becoming half-millionaires.
Preferred Sands has acquired substantially all the assets of Winn Bay Sand, including mining locations in Blair, Wisconsin and Hanson Lake, Saskatchewan, for an excess of $200 million. Preferred is now the largest frac sand producer in Canada and one of the top three in the U.S.
The acquisition will benefit Preferred Sands' customers by allowing the company to increase its current capacity. Both the Blair and Hanson Lake locations are in close proximity to existing Preferred Sands operations. The access to rail in both locations will streamline and shorten the length of time for transport.
As a part of this acquisition, Preferred Sands has offered employment to the existing 110 Winn Bay Sand employees and will take over supply of Winn Bay Sand's current customers. Preferred Sands will expand both of the newly acquired plants in 2012 further to further increase capacity.
Preferred Sands did not disclose how it will finance the deal. Mergers
& Acquisitions Journal reported in November that the company was
seeking a $430 million senior secured credit facility to pay for an
acquisition, buy out minority investors, and refinance existing debt.
Preferred Sands recently acquired Winn Bay Sand in conjunction with a
$376 million debt offering. The debt offering was secured through J.P.
Morgan and the transaction was led and managed by Barclays Capital and
KeyBanc Capital Markets. The transaction was finalized on December 15,
2011.
Annexation: Goodbye, good neighbor policy
Brown mentions in passing that an annexation took away some of the conditions that mitigated some of the worst aspects of mining that the neighbors would face, but he doesn't tell readers much of that story, either, so intent is he on spinning the tale of his chump-change Jed Clampett:
Jeff Swanson, 38, said they were ready to live with the mine under the
original rules that shut down operations at 8 p.m. and left a ridge line
of trees as a buffer. After the mine was recently annexed to a nearby
town, many of those safeguards are gone.
Seeing dollars signs in increased property tax
revenue, the Blair City Council recently reversed its decision on
preventing the annexation of a sand mine operation into the city.
The Trempealeau County Times reports the second time around the vote was
4 to 1, with one abstention, to allow the annexation of the Preferred
Sands Mining operation into the city. The council had voted 3 to 2 in
early July, with one abstention, against allowing the annexation.
What swayed their minds this time, according to the paper, was an
additional almost $191,000 in property tax revenue the operation would
provide to the city. The city's planning commission must now finalize
guidelines for a conditional use permit before the annexation becomes
official.
And so the safeguards from the original CUP approved for a different corporation by a different unit of government vanished.
But let's call those looks on the neighbors' faces "envious glares," and chalk failure to wave up to a green-eyed monster.
Blog begathon: Bluestem is supported by reader contributions. If you liked this post, consider throwing some coin to the tip jar. If you don't like using PayPal, email at the address on this page for a snail mail address. We'll be running our twice-yearly "bleg" though Christmas.
Now, CWCS's policy recommendations on the mining industry and motorized vehicles in the BWCA are well documented on the group's site, and so it's no surprise that McReady supports the positions that politicians like Cravaack and the Range delegation DFLers take about mining and land swaps.
The close of her letter, however, suggests that Cravaack's tenure in Congress is lucky for students in district post-secondary training programs:
Iron Range community colleges and vocational-technical schools are
educating our young people to fill the jobs of retiring taconite workers
and are readying them for the skilled labor jobs to come. These jobs
enable our sons and daughters to remain on the Iron Range.
We are lucky to have Congressman Cravaack.
Have students gotten lucky with the Congressman? A review of key votes related to making those community colleges and technical schools (often one and the same in MNSCU's system) suggests probably not.
Cutting TRiO funding
Cravaack voted to cut TRiO funds that help first-generation post-secondary students pay for college. Jana Peterson of the Pine Journal reported in Cloquet students question Cravaack (the article is now posted on the College of St. Scholastica's website):
Cloquet High School student Sara Bush took the opportunity Thursday morning to ask U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack why he voted for a bill that would take away $26 million in funding from the TRiO programs, which help students like her go to college.
“There are a lot of other programs associated with that,” he told the senior, referring to the federal program designed to help low-income, minority and first-generation students go to college. “I understand it’s not going to be easy. But right now we’ve got $14.3 trillion in debt. If we don’t do something, here’s what’s going to happen to TRiO programs: We won’t have a TRiO program. We’ll be broke.”
Bush — who has been accepted to study pre-medicine at the College of St. Scholastica — thanks, in part, to TRiO funds — didn’t completely let Cravaack off the hook for his TRiO vote.
“This also gives up the opportunity for 90,000 people to go to college,” she pointed out.
Cravaack suggested that she work three jobs like his wife did to put herself through college. Duluth News Tribune reader Lee Peterson applauded Bush for taking Cravaack to task, since he's been willing to spend on other things:
Kudos to the Cloquet High School student who asked U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack about his vote to take $26 million from TRiO programs, which would result in 90,000 fewer students going to college; and kudos to the student who questioned Cravaack about general cuts to education (“Cloquet students question Cravaack, April 22).
We need to note Cravaack’s voting record because, so far, it doesn’t seem to reflect the values of the people of the 8th Congressional District. Contrasting his anti-TRiO vote with his reported support for building a second engine (by GE) for the F-35 fighter provides a good example of his disconnect from the 8th District and his affinity to connect with the defense industry and lobbyists. The extra engine, as I understand, has been opposed by Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, by the past two secretaries of defense, and by three branches of the service that would use the plane. Imagine that! Cravaack knows better? The extra engine reportedly has cost us $3 billion so far. Cutting it would save $450 million this year alone, according to my research.
It helps Cravaack that GE reportedly spent $39 million lobbying Congress last year. How much does anyone think low-income students spent lobbying to keep TRiO funded?
That's right: Cravaack voted to cut funding for poor students who want to continue their education, but found it in his heart to vote to spend millions more on a jet plane engine the military does not want.
Students and Duluth community leaders are criticizing newly elected
GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack for a vote that could lead to severe cuts to a
financial aid program.
They took turns at the microphone on
the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus to denounce cuts to the
federal Pell Grant program. The cuts are part of a spending bill that
passed the U.S. House two weeks ago.
According to the Chronicle of Higher
Education, the bill reduces Pell Grant spending over the next decade by
$64 billion.
. . .about 30 percent of UMD students receive Pell Grants. However, if left alone, the program faces a multi-billion dollar deficit.
Cravaack did not reply to a request for a response.
While the protest took places at the UMD campus, Pell Grants are an important source for MNSCU community and technical college students to pay for their educations.
Theresa O’Halleran Johnson, a recent college grad, spoke up
after Cravaack suggested that Pell grants are responsible for raising
tuition costs on “normal people.” “Pell grants have increased the last
four years by 139 percent. Dollar for dollar, as the Pell grants
increase, so does normal tuition on normal people,” Cravaack. “That’s
not true!” several constituents shouted. Johnson took the mic to say,
“That is completely incorrect.” . . .
Cravaack’s claim about Pell grants comes from analysis put out House
Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) in support of the GOP budget, which
cuts funding for the education program. As ThinkProgress has noted, the
study Ryan cites to support his claim actually finds the opposite,
concluding, “we find little evidence” that the grants increase tuition costs.
Robbing Health Care Funding to Pay for Student Debt
The bill, which would strip $5.9 billion from a program within the health care law
to pay to keep rates on subsidized undergraduate loans at 3.4 percent,
is all but certain to fail in the Senate, where lawmakers have put
together their own measure to keep the rate from reverting to 6.8
percent by closing tax loopholes for some wealthy business owners.
While the House legislation has little chance of becoming law in its
current form, the bill — the last piece of legislation considered before
a one-week recess — was an instructive metaphor for the current state
of Congressional politics.
As with other measures designed to appeal to middle-class voters, the
fight between Democrats and Republicans was less over the substance of
the bill than how to pay for it, with Republicans, as they have all
year, looking to cut government spending and Democrats, as has been
their approach, looking to extract more money from high earners.
Republicans, continuing their yearlong assault on the health care law,
proposed it as a source for the money while Democrats, persisting with
their accusation that the other party has been waging a “war on women,”
pushed that meme further, arguing that the money would reduce spending
on preventive health programs. . . .
In Minnesota, Democratic Congressmen Peterson and Walz were criticized by members of their own party for voting with Cravaack and the Republicans on this one. Thirty Republicans voted against the bill, as did Ellison, McCollum and 163 other Democrats.
A question for debate
Since Cravaack won't be back in Duluth until October 9 for a debate with
DFL-endorsed challenger Rick Nolan, perhap someone on the panel posing
questions to the candidates might just ask how lucky community and technical college students
would be in getting assistance in funding their educations and programs.
Since the primary ended, Parry has been talking with constituents. He
also voted to offer disaster relief to flood victims in Duluth, raised
funds for Republican candidates and has spoken to GOP leaders on
possibly running for various offices.
Senator Parry voted against flood relief and was quite vocal about his opposition on the floor of the state senate, Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reported in Gov. Dayton signs flood relief bill:
One other point of contention with
the bill surfaced during a morning Senate Finance Committee hearing.
State Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, objected to a $1 million allocation to
the Department of Natural Resources to compensate for lost timber sales
in areas where lots of trees were blown down. Parry said it didn't seem
right when private businesses weren't getting similar compensation.
"How do we justify that?" Parry
asked. "How do I go back to Steele and Rice County businesses when they
that see we're bailing out our own state government because of loss of
sales, and yet we had businesses that couldn't even keep their doors
open? They lost sales."
Rep. Kory Kath, DFL-Owatonna,
thanked his House colleagues for working across party lines to help
people in need.
"This is what we do. We look out for
Minnesotans," he said. "We do what is right, and we make sure that in
times of crisis that we react in a way that really reflects our
Minnesota values."
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, offered a similar endorsement of the measure.
"This is the good work that
government does, and can do and can continue to do," he said. "This is
the good work that people can do in Minnesota to help those who truly
are in positions that can't help themselves."
In the Minnesota Senate, GOP
Minority Leader Dave Senjem of Rochester said Minnesotans won't soon
forget last month's heavy rainfall and flooding.
"Tell you what, Sept. 22 to 24 will
be a period of time, at least in southern Minnesota -- they will talk
about those days 100 years from now," Senjem said.
Lawmakers pieced together the aid
package at a time when state finances are still in a mess. . .
The 2010 bill passed unanimously in both chambers of the state legislature, but Parry couldn't return the favor in 2012.
It's hard to tell from the passage whether Parry told the reporter that he voted for the 2012 flood relief or the OPP is simply mistaken. Either way, a clarification should be made.
Photo: Flood damage in Duluth, 2012 (above); flood damage in Owatonna, 2010 (below).
Austin neo-Nazi Sam Johnson, whom Bluestem interviewed during the period he was holding anti-immigration rallied in the Mower County meat-packing town, was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday for possessing an assault rifle, the Associated Press and the Austin Herald report.
Since Johnson is a felon, he is not supposed to possess weapons or ammunition.
Thirty-one-year-old Samuel James Johnson was sentenced in a St. Paul
federal court Wednesday for possessing an assault rifle. Federal
officials believed Johnson was amassing weapons and hundreds of rounds
of ammunition as part of a plan to attack the government and minorities. . . .
Johnson’s criminal history includes a number of convictions
in Mower County: attempted simple robbery in 2000, simple robbery in
2007, possession of a short-barreled shotgun in 2007, and sale of a
simulated controlled substance in 2007. Johnson also has a Hennepin
County conviction for felony theft in 1999.
Since at
least three of Johnson’s prior felony convictions were for crimes of
violence or serious drug crimes, sentencing in this current case was
subject to the Armed Career Criminal Act, which mandates a minimum of 15
years in federal prison. Johnson faced a maximum sentence of life in
prison.
According to a federal affidavit, Johnson was a
former member and Minnesota leader of the National Socialist Movement, a
white nationalist group and had gone on to form his own group, called
the Aryan Liberation Movement. He once held rallies in Austin.
Ironically, Johnson's first contact with neo-nazi beliefs came during one of his previous incerations. In an interview with Bluestem, Johnson said that he acquired "white pride" in the Mower County Jail:
National Socialist Movement Southeast Minnesota unit leader Sam
Johnson learned about what he calls "white pride" while incarcerated in
the Mower County Jail for multiple felony gun, drug, and simple robbery
counts.
Before he went to jail and discovered "white pride," Johnson said he
was an "ignorant man who wanted either to be feared or loved and to have
ton of money." . . .
The new cellmate called Johnson on his behavior and asked him to "Be White."
Paul Westrum's Minnesota Coalition For Immigration Reduction, an anti-immigrant group that seeks to severely limit all immigration to the United States, disavowed Johnson after featuring him in a video on its Youtube channel.
The Rochester Post Bulletin was sketchy about describing Johnson; in some reports, he was an "immigration reformer"; in others, a neo-nazi. Clashes with progressive bloggers and Indymedia led to an invitation for editor Jay Furst to TPT's Almanac, where Furst and the hosts chortled about how Johnson wasn't really newsworthy.
Earlier this year, Johnson associate Joseph Benjamin Thomas, who described himself as a "domestic terrorist," was indicted on drug charges. Thomas had planned to blow up the Mexican consulate in the Twin Cities.
The only source to have photos of Thomas? Indymedia, one of the online sources TPT and Furst so blythely dismissed. Jaime Hokanson had photographed Thomas at a rally in Austin and the infamous Sue Jeffers/Ruthie Hendrycks sponsored "Tea Party Against Amnesty" in November 2009. The rally was punked by prankster Nick Espinosa in the debut of persona "Robert Erickson," who called for the deportation of illegal and lawless European immigrants who had displaced Dakota people from their place in the state.
In the case of Thomas and Johnson, there might be some merit to that modest proposal.
Bluestem dearly loves the wind-swept prairies of rural Minnesota, but sometimes even the most confirmed rustic gets in a New York state of mind, especially after shoe shopping. Given the selection some days, it's no surprise we hayseeds end up going barefoot.
Bloomberg reports
that left-wing bullies can claim three more scalps this week as Sprint,
GE and Western Union have exited the American Legislative Exchange
Council, a public-policy group that works with state legislators
on proposing and supporting business-friendly legislation.
Lately ALEC members have been targeted by left-wing and liberal groups
like Color of Change (civil rights) and Common Cause (Koch brothers
conspriracy [sic] theorists). . . .
Scalps? The uncouth pastoral multitudes in Minnesota do so try to avoid that turn of phrase, especially given our own history of bounties following the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War.
What's that got to Schachter's screed? Why, News Corporation owns the New York Post, which the Post blogger forgot to mention, along with forgetting to spell check. It's standard ethical practice for news organizations to disclose such information when they cover groups to which they belong. Schachter is an associate editor at the Post, so it's surprising she doesn't remember this convention.
The NYP blogger scolds corporations for leaving ALEC and tactics used by critics of the corporate front group:
The problem with opposition to ALEC is that is [sic] has taken the only
form the left knows which is to try and stifle free speech with threats
of boycotts. So unions like the SEIU have threatened to boycott
companies that paid dues to ALEC and now it seems such threats are
working.
If we're supposed to be so worried about bullying among kids and teenagers, why are the grown-ups caving in to the same tactics?
A man once said, "Corporations are people, my friend," but Schachter's understanding of personhood and bullying seems far more naive than even we barefoot hayseeds might swallow. How like that isolated high school freshman! No wonder Schachter is unwilling to give voice to her employer's membership in ALEC. Poor defenseless Sprint and General Electric!
Finally, as an acquaintance of Minnesota's premier SEIU blogger, the Thug In Pastels, Bluestem must object to the assertion that "the only
form the left knows" of opposition is the boycott.
Oh no. Frequently, sunshine and laughter work just as well.
Bluestem noted earlier this summer that Congressman Walz rose on the floor of the House of Representatives to praise Spam, that glorious faux manufactured ham food product created and crafted in Southern Minnesota.
Now Greater Minnesota newspapers are spamming the countryside by publishing an astroturf letter-to-the-editor that repeats a doctored Obama quote. There's a lot of that going around on the right these days, along with fuzzy math problems.
Enter James Roehrborn of Alexandria, who has been circulating a letter to editors, who helpfully share the letter with their readers. Today's Fergus Falls Journal is the latest to publish ‘Hope and change’ is really anti-Americanism. It begins:
“Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 29:20). This proverb by wise King Solomon applies to a politician so eager to persuade people that he will use hasty words in making many empty promises to get elected.
President Obama recently state [sic] that “Capitalism does not work nor has it ever worked.” Americans will never believe that. Why didn’t Obama say that before the election? We are finally learning what Obama really believes in his heart and it’s not good news for America.
Free market capitalism and individuality will soon be a thing of the past. His attacks on capitalism and small businesses prove that. Obama’s real “hope and change” has not been exposed for what it really is: anti-Americanism. . . .
Bluestem readers know how we've something of a nose and loathing for bogus quotes and false urban legends, and this alleged quip by the President carried the aroma of 10,000 fake Abraham Lincoln quotations. Perhaps that's a backhanded compliment to President Obama to be edging Honest Abe in conservative truthiness quotation production.
Google "President Obama recently state that “Capitalism does not work nor has it ever worked" and the sentence turns up in letters under various headlines at the Sonoran News (the conservative voice of Arizona), the Marshfield (WI) News Herald and the Alexandria Echo Press. All are letters from Mr. Roehrborn.
Did you know our president said capitalism doesn't work? Or that he took Michelle to several flag-burning ceremonies?
You didn't? Perhaps that's because he did no such things. Those are just two of the scurrilous lies that keep floating around in the Internet sewer. They are like some of the locally written letters we regularly receive at The Pilot - the kind that refer to "Obama" on first reference, as if the writer can't bear to use his proper title and full name. Or worse, "B.O.," or "your president."
Consider two emails that came to me on the same recent day. The first sought to use our columns to "expose" something that Obama supposedly said during the 2008 campaign.
The writer began by quoting this passage from Proverbs: "Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him." Then he proceeded to write: "President Obama recently stated that 'Capitalism does not work nor has it ever worked.'... Obama's real 'hope and change' has now been exposed for what it really is: anti-Americanism."
OK. Now for what the president really said.
A quick perusal of the fact-check websites produced a YouTube video of the presidential speech to which the writer was referring. It was delivered in Kansas. Here is a transcript of the relevant part:
"There is a certain crowd in Washington who for the past few decades have said, let's respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. The market will take care of everything, they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes, especially for the wealthy, our economy will grow strong.
"Now, it's a simple theory, and we have to admit it's one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That's in America's DNA, and it fits well on a bumper sticker. But here's the problem: It doesn't work. It has never worked."
Quite a leap from the truth to the lie, huh? . . .
Roehrborn has suppliesd other remarkable letters to willing editors in the past. Last year, the Coldwater, Michigan, Daily Reporter received an epistle outlining the story of how a Turkish earthquake in 1840 revealed Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat (and it's been spotted from time to time since). And that Darwin recanted the theory of evolution on his deathbed. Nope.
Climate change denying? Roehrborn's right there in the Emery County (Utah) Progress. Impeach Obama for health care insurance reform? The progressive Cap Times in Madison, Wisconsin.
On Tuesday, (April 26) you published a letter signed by a James Roehrborn of Alexandria. It was a hodgepodge of confused fallacies and muddled clichés, but it got me thinking. At first, I thought about how deeply paranoid and devoid of fact it was – it bloviates about “evil Marxist Socialism” but fails to mention a single, specific issue or policy. Mr. Roehrborn claims to know that “Americans realized” a “last best hope” by electing conservatives thereby saving what he paradoxically calls “the future of their children now and for many generations to come.” Clearly Mr. Roehrborn has some strongly felt, political differences with many of his fellow citizens. However, your printing of these vapid ramblings is disturbing but not simply because they are vague and uninformed.
This brings me to the other thing that got me thinking: how many readers does the Pioneer have in Alexandria? I’m guessing very few. Given that nothing in the letter was connected to Bemidji, I began to suspect that it might have been a mass mailing. A quick Google search showed that, sure enough, at least four other newspapers in the country (including Troy, NY) have published letters with precisely the same words. Sorry, Pioneer, you’ve been spammed.
I don’t know what your editorial policies are, but if you’re going to publish a pile of insipid tripe, at least make sure it’s insipid tripe from our own community.
Carl Sewall
Bluestem thinks that American citizens have every right to be as insipid as we dare. However, it's the job of editors to screen out manufactured quotations and utter tripe. Publishing spammed letters? YMMV, but many papers seek original content.
Bluestem gets a lot of fun email from vendors pitching products, but today's email brings what may well be the funniest email we've ever gotten from a "Senior Digital Media Consultant Marketing & Advertising Professional | Digital/Online | Mobile | SEO" type.
Out of kindness, we're redacting the name, but sharing the request:
Sally,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the Post-Bulletin newspaper in Rochester, MN. I work with our online/digital products. We have 330,000 unique visitors per month, accessing over 2.8 million pages on our site. The great part is that we reach over 130,000 people at the Mayo Clinic. This is a great market to reach- the majority are young, affluent, and educated. We have some really inexpensive ways to reach the public through our online paper. I am not sure if you are the right person, but I was wondering if you would be so kind as to point me in the direction of the person who handles the advertising for Allen Quist?
Thank you,
Well, no, Bluestem Prairie is a left-leaning website run by a poor country blogger. We're not the Quist campaign.
However absurd this request is, it does build confidence that the "Chinese Wall" that's supposed to separate editorial and news copy from advertising and marketing is fully intact at the Post Bulletin. Jay Furst and Heather Carlson would certainly never ask us this question. Indeed, Carlson would know enough to call the campaign directly if she were doing a story about advertising.
Any questions for the campaigns, elected officials, and other entities we write about should be directed to those campaigns. This ain't no receptionist's desk.
One of the hardest working journalists in Minnesota, the New Ulm Journal's josh Moniz has hustled his way into the league of larger papers' coverage this cycle, joining the Mankato Free Press's Mark Fischenich and Post Bulletin's Heather Carlson as one of our must-reads.
With last night's catch of Mike Parry's strange and tasteless remark about Governor Dayton popping pills, it's likely that more folks will start following the young reporter. Blois Olson writes in today's Morning Take:
DRIVING: A quote that will drive part of the news day today, from the Brown County GOP picnic last night. Via YouTube from the New Ulm Journal’sJosh Moniz, video of CD1 candidate for Congress State Sen. Mike Parry. QUOTE: “I sat across from Gov. Dayton. This is a scary man for the state of Minnesota. I negotiated with him. I asked him to resign. I fought him when he tried to take away the veterans benefits. I stood up to him and he lost…I wanted 21 reforms for the state of Minnesota without budging I got 13…The most liberal Governor in the United States. When you sit across from him and watch him pop 15 to 16 pills while you’re having a meeting, it’s scary. We all know how scary Obama is, its at the same level.” WATCH: http://bit.ly/NlmqmP
FOLLOW: Josh Moniz is a must follow on Twitter if you’re tracking the CD1 race. @Josh_Moniz
Here's that Youtube again:
Photo: Herman the German, another New Ulm guy with some hustle.
While many of Bluestem's fans consider its proprietor a journalist because I post a little investigative writing here from time to time, the truth is that the material posted here reflects the author's opinion.
I consider myself a blogger, not a reporter.
In responding to my reading, I prefer to use humor over outrage and from time to time--okay, most of the time--use funny photos, photoshopped images, and Ken Avidor's cartoons as I chide the objects of my posts.
Thus, after months of running Tild's PhotoShopped images of Mike Parry as Flouncette O'Parra, Emo Senator and the Belle of Waseca County (an image prompted by Parry flouncing out of a budget negotiation last summer during the state government shutdown), it might seem hypocritical of Bluestem to question the Winona Daily News' use of an obviously tinted photo of Mike Parry and Allen Quist.
So what's the deal? Why should poor country bloggers have all the fun in the age of PhotoShop and Instagram?
Does the color alteration cross the indistinct line between a technical change and a change in meaning?
Bluestem would not have raised our eyebrows had the image at the top of the page appeared in the Winona Daily News' opinion page, in an article clearly identified as commentary.
After finishing the article, readers might conclude on their own that the portrait of each man that emerges from Mary Juhl's reporting isn't flattering, but her piece itself is an accurate report on the primary battle. The story much like the reporting by the Associated Press, the Mankato Free Press, the New Ulm Journal, and the Rochester Bulletin. Tom Hauser used this news "narrative" about the fighting to introduced the two candidates Sunday morning on At Issue, and the two did their best to live up to the lead-in.
But that content itself should be the thing to make daintier readers get a little green around the gills, not the official portraits of the candidates that accompany a news story a week and a half from the Republican primary.
I'm told by a friend who worked in the news industry for a while that the color alteration might be the result of prepping the image for newsprint--and that the website editor may simply not have realized how creepy Parry and Quist look in the image online.
This isn't a clear cut ethical issue. Writing for The Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin, Stephen J.A. Ward notes in a discussion of the ethics of images:
Even with manipulation, not all issues are clear.
Photojournalists often talk about how it is permitted to change the ‘technical’ aspects of a picture such as altering slightly the tone or color of a photo. But they draw the line at any further changes. Changing the meaning or content of the image so as to mislead viewers is considered unethical.
However, the line between a technical change and a change is meaning is not always clear. An image maker can enhance the colors of a photo until it is quite unlike the original picture of the object or the event. [emphasis added]
Bluestem isn't a fan of either Republican's positions on policy; I'd like Tim Walz to be re-elected. Nonetheless, I'm not comfortable with the queasy green Parry and Quist.
Does the image cross the line between a technical change and a change in meaning? Will voters be turned off by the greenish candidates?
What do you think, readers?
Photos: Parry and Quist from the Winona Daily News website (top); Mike Parry, from his official senate webpage (middle); Allen Quist, from his website (bottom).
A friend sent a letter in the Mankato Free Press today (it's in the print edition, though I can't find it online). In "Parry’s real world experience needed," a supporter repeats the standard talking points:
There are too many career politicians in politics these days.
I was disappointed when Alan Quist decided to run for office again this year. Quist hasn’t won an election since the 1980s and has lost five elections since that time. Quist seems to believe that his controversial statements from the past will be forgotten. If Quist were to be the Republican candidate for Congress in November, our local candidates would be impacted negatively. We need a strong Republican at the top of the ticket and that candidate is Mike Parry.
Parry grew up on a family farm and understands agriculture very well.
Parry is also a veteran and has done great work for veterans during his time in the state Senate. Most importantly, Parry is a small business owner.
We need more normal people from the real world in office — not perennial candidates like Quist.
Douglas Hitzemann
Mankato
Setting aside the question as whether seeking office and not getting an endorsement counts toward "losing an election," there's some oddball logic about the "real world" in this letter.
In a heavily agricultural district like the First, one has to wonder why a campaign would pretend that farming isn't a business or part of the "real world," regardless of how abnormal Allen Quist is. Quist farms 800 acres in Nicollet County. He's also taught college and written books (albeit conservative ones).
Perhaps Parry wants to go down the anti-intellectual route, but it's hard to see how the conservative Republican base in Southern Minnesota would appreciate dissing Bethany College, a small private, religious and quite conservative school. Nor would slamming Quist's work with EdWatch be winner among these voters.
Parry's political resume
And as far as running for office goes? Mike Parry has been a political candidate himself since 2004. He ran unopposed for Waseca City Council in 2004, was throw out of office in the first contested election 2008 after creating acrimony with city employees and trying to sell a city park. He next launched a bid to challenge Kory Kath in the Minnesota House, then hooked up with Michael Brodkorb when Dick Day left office in mid-term to lobby for racino. Parry won the special election for the historically Republican senate district, then defeated his challenger in the 2010 Republican wave election to retain that Republican seat.
This is supposed to be the record of a game changer?
Moreover, a signficant portion of Mike Parry's work record involves public emloyment in law enforcement and managing radio stations. Like Quist's work as a professor, there's nothing on the face of these professions that should be a liability.
But both men are attention-seeking politicians--and a farm is a small business. Indeed, farming be what it is, keeping the family farm going is testamtent to Quist's business acumen. Both make controversial statements; both try to explain them away.
Conventional reporting and the conventional wisdom
Witness the way each candidate packages himself in the pre-primary candidate profiles in the Rochester Post Bulletin this week. This is standard fare, where a reporter challenges little that an office seeker says as he presents himself. Thus in Fears about nation's rising debt spurs Quist to run, we read things like:
In 1994, Quist pulled off a major upset by winning the Republican Party's endorsement over then-Gov. Arne Carlson. Despite the endorsement, Carlson soundly defeated Quist in the primary. The St. Peter Republican ran for governor again in 1998 but dropped out before the state convention. Twelve years later, Quist returned to politics to run for the 1st Congressional seat.
While Quist's name never made it to the general public in 1998, the claim that he dropped out before the 1998 convention--also found on Wikipedia--isn't accurate. For the facts--and a terrific read--try Britt Robson's engaging The Brilliant Demise of Allen Quist, set at the convention.
Quist wasn't only nominated at the 1998, but he gave Norm Coleman a run for his money:
But Quist's stirring freedom-from-slavery speech overcame the reservations of Schroers and hundreds of others. As predicted, Coleman captured just over 40 percent of the vote on the first ballot. But Quist emerged a strong second, with around 33 percent, beating out Benson by 8 percentage points. Quist had confounded the prognosticators and proved himself a force to be reckoned with inside the Target Center. Ironically, he'd also doomed any chance he had of playing power broker at the convention.
Read the rest. Likewise, sticking to the convention of the bland candidate profile glosses over some of the truths about Mike Parry in Parry brings businessman's perspective to the race. There's no mention of how Parry's style created tension with city staff, and his version of the Maplewood Park story is the only side readers learn. A good look at local papers, discussion with local leaders in Waseca and a review of the City Council minutes and other public records might better shed light than merely Parry's version.
And Parry's claim about apologizing for the tweets takes an encore bow:
Parry has made his own controversial statements. Before the 2010 Senate special election, Parry sent a tweet in which he called President Obama "a power hungry arrogant black man." In May 2009 he sent a tweet asking, "What's up with Dems and pedophiles?" That tweet came when a Democratically-controlled Congress was seeking to expand the federal hate-crimes law to cover crimes motivated by a victim's sexual orientation. Those tweets were later deleted, and Parry said he made a mistake and apologized.
Last year, Parry wasn't particularly apologetic to Minnpost columnist Doug Grow about his tweets. Check out Grow's column, GOP hardliner Sen. Mike Parry not afraid to tweet what he believes. Those apologies only seem handy when he's blasting Quist for old cray-cray statements.
Sleep: truthiness as the poppy fields of the voters
Republican 1st Congressional District candidates Mike Parry and Allen Quist may have spent the last few weeks trading barbs in press releases and news accounts, but many of those who actually live in the state’s southernmost district haven’t seemed to notice. . . .
In fact, [local GOP party officials] say the campaigns have been surprisingly low-key since April, when Parry and Quist deadlocked in a historic, 23-ballot endorsing convention. . . .
Bruce Kaskubar, head of the Olmsted County Republicans, says the same is true in his area. “There’s just not as much activity as I thought,” he said. “I think it’s been tough for these two guys to get their name out there. The district is large, and I think there are a lot of people who don’t even know there is a primary for the congressional candidate yet.”
With the help of our friends, Bluestem will keep reading the letters sections of First District newspapers so you don't have to. Just remember the Paypal tip jar and toss the little blog on the prairie some coin if you've a mind and the means to do so.
Cartoon: Mike Parry and Allen Quist, aka Itchy and Scratchy (top); Allen Quist, by Avidor.
Last week, in FECQ2: Freedom Force Communications continued lucrative relationship with Byberg Bluestem raised questions about the need for disclosure on the part of talk radio personality Scott Hennen to his audiences about the consulting fees his firm, Freedom Force Communications, is receiving from Lee Byberg's campaign.
Hennen regularly touts Byberg to listeners, but doesn't note that his business has received tens of thousands of dollars from the Willmar executive's political campaign.
A similar, but much smaller scale conflict is brewing in Minnesota's First Congressional District with weekly cable political affairs show host Al Travis Theilfoldt and the Quist for Congress Campaign. Under the name Al Travis, the Blue Earth resident hosts "Between the Lines," a show produced at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato.
Owner and Chief of Marketing for Innovative Marketing Techniques. Innovative Marketing Techniques has been creating marketing plans for small to midsized companies for the last 16 years.
Producer/Host/ Marketing for "Between the Lines" a cable cast political program seen throughout Minnesota in 880,000 households.
Innovative Marketing Techniques also does marketing for companies using Social networking sites. Marketing on Social networking sites including but not limited to marketing on Facebook, and Marketing on Linked In. Innovative Marketing Techniques also does marketing on the web through website marketing techniques.
Theilfoldt is also a consultant for the Quist campaign, according to the committee's Q2 2012 fundraising report to the FEC:
Al Travis 218 S Linton Blue Earth, Minnesota 56013
06/14/2012
Campaign/Marketing Consultant
4000.00
Now, significant differences separate the Hennen-Byberg relationship and that enjoyed by Theilfoldt and Quist. Hennen is far more openly partisan and touts Byberg openly on the available podcast. The latest appearance by Quist in an episode of "Between The Lines" that's posted online at the Vimeo channel for Bethany Lutheran College is from December 2011. The BLC Studios Facebook page is here.
Parry appeared in 2011 before he announced his bid for Congress.
To be fair to his audiences, Travis-Theilfoldt should disclose his paid consultant status to viewers of "Between the Lines" any time the First Congressional District race is brought up.
And there may be more entanglements with Theilfoldt and the BLC Studios as well. Quist's first ad has just been posted on Youtube. Bluestem will leave aesthetic evaluation to mansplaining progressive bloggers in the Twin Cities; questions about the financial arrangements between a political affairs host, the college studio where he and his private company tape and produce BTLs and other video, and the Allen Quist campaign are far more interesting.
One of the videos on BLC Studio's Vimeo channel is posted on the school studio's Facebook page, with the note that Stone Path Studios created the video of the tank demolishing a house in Kasota. Go to Stone Path Studios' Facebook page, and the first thing you'll see is the cover photo, of Allen Quist standing before a green screen (see photo above).
Stone Path Studios provides high-end media productions to Christian and non-profit organizations and opportunities to Bethany Lutheran College students.
Description
Stone Path Studios's mission is to provide high-end media productions to Christian and non-profit organizations at an affordable rate. The production company is student run and aims to provide educational opportunities for students to interact with and strengthen relationships with real world businesses.
Will viewers of Between the Lines be told that "Al Travis" and student crews produce television ads for political candidates? Friends working in the news media don't get to have these sorts of conflicts of interest. Most news organizations have clear policies restricting journalists' involvement with political campaigns. We certainly can't demand that for Hennen and Theilfoldt, but ethics would suggest that they tell their audiences about the money changing hands when they cover those races in which they have clients.
The Quist ad:
Photos: Quist on the green screen at BLC Studios/Stone Path (above); Quist and a director who looks a lot like Between the Lines host and Quist consultant Al Travis Theilfoldt.
Political wars are not unprofitable for radio talk show hosts who own consulting services and other living things.
Take Scott Hennen's consulting relationship with Minnesota CD7 endorsed Republican Lee Byberg.According to the latest Byberg filing with the Federal Elections Commission, Hennen-owned Freedom Force Communications LLC was paid $14,500 in Q2 for media/fundraising ($7000 in April and $3500 in May) and "monthly website" ($4000 in April).
The haul is declining a bit, however, from earlier quarters.
Bluestem didn't believe that the [Scott Hennen's] endorsement [of Byberg] was bought, but we did wonder what sort of disclosure might be required by Hennen of the lucrative arrangement between his business and the Byberg campaign. Hennen is a radio talk show and serves as a frequent speaker at Republican and Tea Party events. A bit of transparency might help listeners evaluate Hennen's remarks.
The question remains a valid one.[Blogger and Gretchen Hoffman supporter John] Gilmore noted that " Scott Hennen has been paid over $35,000 by candidate Lee Byberg over the last two years."
Our correspondent asked the obvious question: "I can only wonder what brand of Constitutional freedom he's offering at the VFW?!"
Looking into the event, Bluestem has established that "The Freedom Poet" is one Mark Skogerboe, who is to poetry what Collin Peterson and Byberg himself are to music. If Skogerboe has published a book of poems, we were not able to find it.
What we did find are a basic biography, a history of various events, and Skogerboe's professional relationship with Scott Hennen, who runs Byberg's major vendor, Freedom Force Communications.
And Skogerboe is going to serve as director of the donor clubs Hennen has formed to underwrite his purchase of AM 1100 The Flag. With a $1000 share, "founding fathers" get not only advertising time, but "access" to political guests. Will "access" to Byberg be one of the perks of donorship in the remote chance he defeats Blue Dog Collin Peterson? . . .
. . .They're practically the Duke and Dauphin of the Red River Valley with that pitch. Hennen and Skogerboe rent themselves out to Byberg, and media personality and Byberg consultant Hennen buys a radio station with promises of "access" to guests for donors. No one ever said that grifters don't have to grift.
Is it professional courtesy for Hennen that the political press doesn't ask this question about disclosure?
Photos: Scott Hennen, left, looks on as Lee Byberg, right, answered questions at a 2010 Beltrami Republicans breakfast. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, though Hennen hasn't told his audience just how beautiful Pioneer Photo/Brad Swenson Below: Mark Skogerboe speaking at a 2010 Tea Party Rally in Grand Forks. He wants you to know he's entitled to what he earns, though he might not be telling you what Lee Byberg pays him. Photo by Sarah Kolberg / Forum Communications Co.
July 2012 Sixth Anniversary Bleg Notice: Like what you're reading on this blog? Help support an independent voice from Greater Minnesota:
Isn't this crazy? And yet you go online, do a "Bradlee Dean" Google search, you'll see me up on the top, you'll see all of these sick-minded bloggers, who are my opposition. Keep in mind they're all homosexuals. Homosexuals. And if they're not, they're advocating homosexuals, they have it it in them too.
Via Politics in Minnesota's Morning Report, we learn that many male progressive's favorite conservative twit, John Hugh Gilmore, wants you to think that the party's fantods over Agenda 21 is somehow new. It's not.
Before the lazier members of the Twin Cities twitterati who loves themselves some Gilmore adopt this meme as the new shiny crazy from right, perhaps a few thoughtful reporters and editors might consider how Republican fretting over Agenda 21 is nothing new nor particularly fringy.
Let's review. As Bluestem noted back in May, Agenda 21-phobia isn't simply something that popped up in brochures at the Republican convention.
Republican Agenda 21-phobia has a legislative history in Minnesota. Companion bills in the Minnesota Senate and House take up these fears, proposing a Legislative Commission on United Nations Agenda 21, and the Senate version was heard and approved in Mike Parry's State Government Innovation and Veterans committee and passed on to the Finance Committee.
David Brown is chief author in the Senate, with Parry, Dave Thompson and retiring one-term senator Al DeKruif serving as co-sponsors. None are sponsors of the raw milk bills that so chafe Mr. Gilmore's tender sensibilities (for the record, Bluestem sides with the cooked milk side of the debate).
Mike Parry is running for Congress in CD1, where no selection was made as he and Allen Quist (another Agenda 21 phobe) battled to a standstill at the endorsing convention. Quist is the Tea Party and Kurt Bills favorite--but both men have Agenda 21 syndrome.
In the House, freshman state representative Mary Franson and veteran lawmaker Sondra Erickson are sponsors. Gilmore is a Franson ally--perhaps he only looked to her public woes but not to legislation she authors.
You'll no doubt read Gilmore's frame repeated by his dear friends in the conventional media and the blogs, but repetition of the original thimblewit assertions by a Minnpost columnist makes them no more true. This isn't a new shiny crazy--but one that's sparkled openly on the right for years.
One wonders: who gains by the pushing of this patiently false meme? Agenda 21 phobia is malarky, but it's nothing new among Minnesota's conservative Republicans like Bachmann and Quist--nor have Brodkorbians like Mike Parry rejected it. Far to the contrary.
While sharing a political culture that loathes Hollywood and big corporate news media, they both aspire to starring roles in the beast. Envy? Stupidity? Projection? Those aren't mutually exclusive answers.
That's great and all, but if the trailer is any indication, then Bills' Staring at the Future film promises to be absolutely, horrifyingly awful. Produced by Vaughn Juares, the trailer introduces the story of somebody named Riley Thomas, a young man who in the video appears to sit across a table from a grotesque future version of himself.
The piece is certainly generating more buzz than the addition of two vehicles to Bills' fleet of repainted school buses (how Wellstone ever managed to pull off a victory in 1990 with only one seems to have escaped the Bills campaign strategists).
Carlson's business partner in Blue Diamond Strategies is Republican operative Abdul-Rahman Magba-Kamara, whose Linkedin profile lists his experience as Field Staff at MN House Republican Campaign Committee, Field Staff at Seifert for Governor and Chairman at Minnesota College Republicans. A.K. Kamara on Facebook, he lists climate change denier group Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow as his employer in addition to Blue Diamond Strategies. In short, a made man of the anti-Emmer faction of the MNGOP; Gilmore carries a card as well.
Celebrity is no stranger to Minnesota politics: witness Governor Ventura and Senator Franken. Both Ventura and Franken, however, earned their chops in the entertainment world before seeking office.
Bills and Carlson have managed to skip all the intermediate steps, collapsing career aspirations and political campaigns into the small, small screen of Youtube and the micro-Variety of twitter feeds. The small scale of both men's personae on the iPhone--and the rise of John Gilmore as the Twin Cities' media Republican go-to guy on twitter are indeed emblematic of today's Republican Party of Minnesota.
A double feature of the two guys who are on the top of the statewide Republican primary ticket in Minnesota:
Bills:
Carlson:
Photo: Republican Party of Minnesota spokester Rod Sterling.
All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, served as a New Media training and strategy consultant for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party from October 2009 through mid-April 2010. She now serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors.
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