We spent most of yesterday on a field trip to the Cities, so we're catching up.
First, a Soldier from Hayfield dies in Iraq, the Post Bulletin reports. The basics:
Flowers were placed in newly fallen snow at the Hayfield Veterans Memorial this morning and the flags were at half-staff in honor of John J. Tobiason, who died of injuries in Iraq on Wednesday.
His family put the flowers on the memorial Thursday afternoon to remember the 42-year-old Hayfield man who had made the Army his career.
"This is what he lived for, ... and it is what he died for. We need to be proud," his sister, Nancy Mitchell of Mantorville, said this morning.
Sgt. 1st Class Tobiason, who was an Army cook, died in Baghdad of injuries he suffered in an incident. The military told the family that an investigation has been completed, though they have not seen the report yet, Mitchell said.
She said all the family knows is that Tobiason stepped outside of a tent and shots were fired. . . .
The Post Bulletin has more in Hayfield soldier was deeply private, affectionate, loyal. Thank you for your service, Sgt. 1st Class Tobiason, and may you rest in peace.
Yesterday, the Post Bulletin reported that Walz seeks bridge between energy interests:
As Congress moves to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Rep. Tim Walz has begun reaching out to environmentalists and energy producers in the hopes he can satisfy both.
Walz met with members of the Sierra Club on Monday, the same day he attended a fundraiser held for him by representatives of area rural electricity cooperatives. He used both occasions to explain his support for bills that would cut emissions through higher fuel standards and new mandates on industry and energy producers.
The meetings came in the wake of his decision to sign on to the Safe Climate Act, a Democratic bill that would reduce the overall level of greenhouse gases by 80 percent over 1990 levels by 2050, in part by imposing limits on utilities.
He also called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to stand firm behind a House-passed energy bill provision that sets a 15 percent mandatory renewable standard for electrical utilities, while excepting cooperatives and municipal utilities, and to support a Senate-passed boost in overall auto mileage standards to 35 miles per gallon.
Those provisions are at the heart of negotiations between the chambers over their respective energy bills. A vote on a final bill could come in the next two weeks, when Congress returns to wrap up its legislative year.
The rural power cooperatives held the fundraiser because of Walz's work on the Farm Bill:
[Mark Glaess, general manager for the Minnesota Rural Electric Association,] said the fundraiser was held in part because Walz has been active on rural cooperative issues, notably winning a provision in the pending Farm Bill that would require a study of rail rates on the rural economy.
The Albert Lea Tribune noted how Walz touts 2007 farm bill. Walz also talked about No Child Left Behind, Medicare, and transportation.
In the Tribune's sister paper, the Austin Daily Herald, we read a piece about the carbon-monoxide -in-meat-packaging hearing in Walz: Hormel hearing ‘heavy-handed’. The meat of the article:
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz on Wednesday called the House hearing on Austin-based Hormel Foods’ modified atmosphere packaging process “heavy-handed” and unrelated to food safety.
“Of all the issues I’ve been involved with out there — Iraq and everything else — this one really took me by storm on how it seemed to me that this was corporate interests affecting another corporation’s interests,” Walz said. On Nov. 13, the chief executives of Hormel and Cargill Inc. testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigation about concerns over including carbon monoxide in the packaging process of meat to keep the product looking red and fresh longer. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Bart Stupak represents a district in Michigan, the state that is home to Kalsec Inc., a company with a competing technology that has spent $840,000 over the last two years lobbying against carbon monoxide in meat packaging.
The Austin papers also reports Vet declines war medal. World War II vet Donald Kofron received an Air Medal with three oak clusters. Walz's office had asked to have him receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, but the Secretary of the Air Force downgraded the request to an Air Medal. Since Kofron already had one, he declined the honor and a ceremony for him on the day after his 91st birthday. Kofron briskly sums up his heroism:
“I’m proud to be an American and proud to have served my country” he said. “There are 10 men alive today because of what two pilots did in that bomber and I’m one of them,” he said.
The Winona Daily News has posted Winona State student senate leader dies: Jared Stene remembered as ‘the face of WSU’, a fine article about the candlelight vigil for Jared Stene at Winona State University. Stene's Caring Bridge page now features a statement from his family and notice of his visitation and funeral:
Hey Everyone!
Please join us as we celebrate Jared's life. We will be holding a Memorial Visitation on Monday December 3rd at:
Wulff Woodbury Funeral Home
2195 Woodlane Drive
Woodbury MN 55125
at 3pm-9pmThe funeral will be Tuesday December 4th at:
Holly Cross Lutheran Church
6355 10th Street North
Oakdale MN 55128
at 10:30amFull obituary to be printed in Sunday's edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
We invite all of you to join our family in celebrating JJ's amazing life.
Hope to see you all soon,
Cait
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