The Land Stewardship Project’s mission is to create a more just and sustainable food and farming system for everyone, no exceptions. Our organizing is based on shared values of community, democracy, stewardship, health, and justice. Upholding this foundation is the conviction that we believe in the innate value of people and the land. Racist hatred, exclusion, and violence are clear violations of our strongly held belief that every person has value that cannot be earned or taken away.
Based on this set of values, the Land Stewardship Project condemns the activity of white supremacist and other hate groups, many of whom are seeing a resurgence in the upper Midwest.
The rise of white supremacist groups is paralleling the unwillingness of our nation’s leaders to call them out for what they truly are: a threat to our communities and the future of this country. That is why we call on our leaders at the local, state, and federal level to unequivocally condemn not only the actions of white nationalist, white supremacist, and other hate groups, but the racist, bigoted roots that they are based on. To do otherwise is to be part of the problem. . . .
Image: One version of the Boogaloo Bois flag. From the fact sheet: "The Boogaloo Bois movement is an antigovernment extremist movement. The term“boogaloo” refers to a future civil war. While the movement is not explicitly white supremacist, there are white supremacists within the Boogaloo Bois."
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A friend in Murdock alerted us about efforts by Jason Plourde of Willmar to advertise in a local Facebook group.
He's something of a joiner, it seems. As source of the image above reveals, Jason Plourde Financial Services posted on January 4, 2021, he was "Excited to be part of the community!"
Note the neckless he's wearing and the pin on the seat of the car. These are pagan symbols used by the Asatru Folk Assembly.
He's displaying them presumably because he's an active leader in the Asatru Folk Assembly, although one wouldn't learn about his residence and business from the group's website, The Runestone.
The AFA is proud to introduce Andrew Johnston of Colorado as our newest Apprentice Folkbuilder! Andrew will be helping out Jason Plourde in the AFA Four Corners region, a region that is seeing increased activity recently. Let’s give Andrew a warm welcome and watch as his successes pile up.
The website includes him on an August 27, 2020 contact page for Alsherjargothi, the leadership of his organization. Plourde is a Folkbuilder for Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, & Utah according to the page, and the caption below his photo locates him in Colorado. Screenshot:
He seems to have shaved since moving to Minnesota, though he's still flashing the group symbols in his portraits.
In the AFA, our greatest priority is our members’ needs. We go to great lengths to ensure that we are not just an online phenomenon where all our leaders are on the other side of the country. We prioritize REAL LIFE interaction between our membership and our leaders and ultimately our greatest goal is building REAL LIFE Folkish community’s of like-minded people, honoring our Gods, and building our Folk. Folk builders are the face of the Asatru Folk Assembly in the different regions of the world and the local leadership of these communities. These men and women have stepped up to make a difference and not only do the tasks people see, like throwing events and interacting with membership but also are busy behind the scenes doing things like membership, online management, and helping shape the AFA.
According to our source in Murdock, that church would be the Baldurshof: Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly, where Mr. Plourde visits almost every day.
In the Neo-Volkisch article in the SPLC's Fighting Hate's Extremist File, the AFA appears in the list, 2019 Neo-Volkisch hate groups (View all groups by state and by ideology). Under the cruelty of the alphabet, AFA tops the list:
Ásatrú Folk Assembly . . . Bloomington, MN Newport, MN
A neo-Pagan religion drawing on images of fiercely proud, boar-hunting Norsemen and their white-skinned Aryan womenfolk is increasingly taking root among Skinheads, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists across the nation.
Asatrú leaders have opened prison ministries in at least five states recently, and their many jailed followers are heavily white supremacist.
As for Jason Plourde himself, documents gathered online suggest he's got a bit of the dark side of pagan world in him. Here's a 2017 YouTube video in which he defends !4 words about racial purity for white children:
Plourde apparently live in Florida at the time. He defends the word Aryan against "lunatic leftists" while condemning those who want to "go around playing Viking" without acknowledging the white roots of Vikings. That should go over well in Minnesota (sarcasm) and scientists who've been checking out Viking DNA.
More recently, however, many Ásatrú groups have been taking a harder stance against these elements of their community. Declaration 127, so named for the corresponding stanza of the Hávamál: "When you see misdeeds, speak out against them, and give your enemies no frið” is a collective statement denouncing and testifying disassociation with the Asatru Folk Assembly for alleged racial and sexually-discriminatory practices and beliefs signed by over 150 Ásatrú religious organizations from over 15 different nations mainly represented on Facebook
It's all about valuing one's whiteness and excluding non-white people, Plourde explains, not attacking them. Okay then. He talks about liberals throwing fits and destroying property after the 2016 election. Who in Minnesots can forget the Pant Suit Riots of 2017, and a pink pussy hat placed on the head of a statue of Floyd B. Olson?
Should the YouTube be removed, we have downloaded it. Here's this from Clapper:
Globalist propaganda and "the shackles yahweh has use to bind and blind ...noble Aryan ancestors..."? But he'd have Willmar residents think he's volunteering to fix up churches. Sometimes those omissions are telling.
We see the dilemma facing the local chamber of commerce. Can a business group discriminate against a business owned by a leader in a local whites-owned group? Bear in mind that Willmar is a diverse community with East African and Latino (many of whom enjoy indigenous heritage) members.
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A sharp-eyed reader who wished to remain anonymous and out of the fray sent us the Glenn Stubbe/Startribune photo at the top of this post. The source thought that the individual in the yellow t-shirt over a black long sleeved shirt in the left front under the large American flag might be Representative Munson.
We couldn't find the photo online, but did find a Stubbe photo accompanying Patrick Condon's April 18 article, Trump-backed rally urges Gov. Tim Walz to 'Liberate Minnesota' with a caption stating "Protesters began to gather outside the Minnesota Governor’s Residence an hour before the protest was scheduled to begin. Liberate Minnesota and other groups opposed to Gov. Tim Walz’s stay home orders protested outside the governor’s residence in St. Paul."
Some of the same idividuals and objects are in this photo, taken an hour before the protest (and the Minnesota House floor session) officially began:
We contacted Representative Munson via Twitter Direct Message to ask if that were he in the top photo. His response:
[Y]es that's me. I was there from about 9-11 and left, changed clothes and was on the house floor before noon. There were a few dozen there before I left, but it wasn't the 500-1000 that were there for the actual protest. I support the reopen movement and especially rejected the idea that government should be deeming 73% of workers essential and the rest as non-essential.
So there you have it. Representative Munson correctly stated that he could not have been at official beginning of the protest at noon and on the floor of the Minnesota House when it convened at noon.
He was, however, part of the early bird special, enough to get his picture in the paper. Given this Facebook picture and its caption, and his comments posted after noon, it's clear reasonable people might indeed conclude that Munson was at the protest, if they weren't already watching the House session.
Moreover, Munson's earlier Twitter statement mispresents the rally as "support of healthcare workers" while it was clearly branded as "Liberate Minnesota":
I attended three rallies at the Governor's mansion. This one was in support of healthcare workers who were laid off due to walz's shutdown of clinics. I wasn't present for the protest, I met with the organizers while they were setting up and was on the House floor by noon.
Those who placed Munson at the scene weren't making this up
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Munson is the fellow in the yellow t-shirt over a black long-sleeved shirt, under the large American flag in the foreground left. [end update #2]
UPDATE & CORRECTION: While Munson misrepresents his presence at the governor's residence as "This one was in support of healthcare workers who were laid off due to walz's shutdown of clinics," that's not what the rally was about--it was indeed the Liberate Minnesota rally.
However, he was indeed on the floor of the House at noon, when the rally began.
In the post itself (image at top), Munson doesn't indicate that the photo was taken at 9 AM, but states "We are starting to assemble>"
The thread on the post includes 364 comments, including some with time stamps that make it clear they were made by Munson while he was in on the floor of the House. He does not--as far as we can read--indicate that he is not at the rally but on the floor of the House at the time he replies.
We apologize for thinking he was at the Liberate Minnesota rally while it was ongoing, rather than when organizers were gathering. It is clear, however, that he was at the residence with one of the Liberate Minnesota rally organizers, not healthcare workers.
Munson supporters making comments also appeared to believe he was at the rally, though that's no excuse for us not reading them all. The picture was taken three hours before the floor session, according to his comment.
It is easy to see, however, why reasonable people reading the Facebook post--whether Munson fans or foes--might believe he was at the protest, given his own comments at the time the protest was taking place.
Here's the Minnesota House Information Service YouTube of the floor session. Note that regards of party, those speaking on the floor of the House didn't wear masks while doing it.
We apologize for the error about Jeremy Munson being at the protest, while Representative Munson was clearly at the floor session.
We do not apologize for calling the Liberate Minnesota event what it was. Here's Munson's explanation for his Friday tweets characterizing the event as a rally for healthcare workers:
As with many rallies, they are a compilation of many smaller groups. I was contacted by several nurses and medical staff asking to come to speak and support them. This was when over 10,000 healthcare workers were deemed unessential. I did meet with some after the protest.
There's an exchange about one of the news sources used below:
There I am, in suit and tie at noon. Lower left corner, in my chair. I support reopening MN, but I wasn't there for the actual protest. The @Mankatonews also ran an attack piece about me, based on @bringmethenews but they care little about facts. pic.twitter.com/vYLRGUXj1l
The former's discussion of April's Liberate Minnesota protest at the Minnesota governor's residence mentions two former Republican electeds' presence at the rally but no current Republican lawmakers, while Georgiades points out:
The protest featured a few local politicians including Minnesota Libertarian Party Chairman Chris Holbrook, former 2nd District Congressman Jason Lewis (who is challenging U.S. Senator Tina Smith in November), and State Representative Jeremy Munson (R-Lake Crystal). Munson is part of the New House Republican Caucus, a faction of the Republican Party. Munson has been a vocal opponent to Gov Walz’s Stay At Home executive order and posted a Facebook picture posing with one of the rally organizers, Don Huizenga.
Elements of more hardcore right-wing organizations were in attendance, including several III Percenter Militia members, Oathkeepers, and a man who professed to be a member of the far-right ‘western chauvinist’ Proud Boys, who have been active in these cross-country actions. But most of the crowd was a mix of capitalists looking to get back to work.
Judging from an interaction on twitter with diabetes warrior mom Lija Greenseid on Friday, we're wondering if the New Republican is hoping Minnesotans don't look beyond Brodkorb's article.
After a discussion Munson frames as meeting with constituents involved in protests, Greenseid asks in a tweet:
Glad to hear that. Can you confirm that this is a photo of you outside the governor's mansion during the "Liberate MN" rally this summer? What message were you trying to communicate with your t-shirt? pic.twitter.com/ro2KfKMjZG
I attended three rallies at the Governor's mansion. This one was in support of healthcare workers who were laid off due to walz's shutdown of clinics. I wasn't present for the protest, I met with the organizers while they were setting up and was on the House floor by noon.
His tweet:
I attended three rallies at the Governor's mansion. This one was in support of healthcare workers who were laid off due to walz's shutdown of clinics. I wasn't present for the protest, I met with the organizers while they were setting up and was on the House floor by noon.
From your official Facebook page, photo is from April 17th the day Trump tweeted to "LIBERATE MN" and many gathered at the Governor's mansion in response carrying white supremacist and Qanon messages. pic.twitter.com/8S8qnNG6G2
Should any of Munson's tweets be deleted or otherwise disappear, we have saved screenshots.
Who's the other guy in the photo?
As for Don Huizenga, he's the author of a couple of posts in the Man Cave of the apparently moribund conservative website, Deplorable Housewives of the Midwest. He was a 2020 National Republican Convention delegate
Huizenga has been an active participant in local politics and school district issues for more than a decade. He ran for the House in 2008, when he lost in a primary battle against Abeler. He is the current vice chairperson of the District Executive Committee and has championed positive changes within the Republican party. He is a current and past Republican State Central delegate, Congressional district delegate, Senate district delegate and precinct chairperson and was ahead in voting for delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2012, ahead of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, but conceded his spot to Bachmann out of respect for her service.
Huizenga . . . has been an active community volunteer for many years, working with the Tax Payers League, Legacy Christian Academy, The Minnesota Voters Alliance, the Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce, the NW Metro Tea Party, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Minnesota and many other political and philanthropic organizations. . . .
Screengrab: From the twitter conversation between Munson, Greenseid and Boss Lady.
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From a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources press release:
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Sarah Strommen today unveiled the design of Minnesota’s newest critical habitat license plate, featuring native pollinators including a bee and butterflies. The new license plate is available now online and at deputy registrar and driver’s license offices statewide.
“Many Minnesotans share a commitment to maintaining healthy populations of bees, butterflies and other native pollinators,” Strommen said. “This beautiful new critical habitat license plate is an opportunity to show your support for pollinators while providing important funding to preserve habitats.”
There is no need to wait for current license plate tabs to expire, as the license fee is prorated when a critical habitat license plate is purchased.
The $30 annual contribution to the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Critical Habitat Program helps to preserve important wildlife habitat and plant communities such as wetlands, prairies, old growth forests and endangered orchid sites. Contributions over $30 go toward buying and managing important natural habitats, which are preserved as public lands. These lands are open to compatible public use, like hunting, hiking and wildlife watching.
The winning license plate design by artist Timothy Turenne depicts the monarch butterfly, Minnesota’s state butterfly, and rusty patched bumble bee, recently designated as the state bee.
In addition to purchasing the new license plate, Minnesotans can take other steps to help pollinators:
Grow milkweed, the monarch host plant, and other native flowers to provide nectar resources.
Provide open ground and unmown roadsides as appropriate.
Reduce pesticide use.
The DNR supports native pollinators by restoring and managing the ecosystems and plant communities they rely on for food. For example, restoration and management activities on DNR-administered lands provide approximately 1.1 million acres of habitat in the northern conservation core for monarch butterflies. The DNR continues implementation of Gov. Tim Walz’s 2019 Pollinator Executive Order through participation in the Mid-America Monarch Conservation Strategy and other proactive and durable pollinator conservation measures.
More information about Minnesota’s pollinators is available on the DNR website.
More information about Minnesota’s Critical Habitat License Plates is available on the DNR’s critical habitat page.
Better late than never, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on Thursday unveiled its latest critical habitat license plate for vehicles, the new design emblazoned with pollinators.
The pollinator plates were originally proposed in 2017. But the same state computer system malfunctions that caused Minnesota driver's license backups — the Minnesota License and Registration System — also delayed the new license plates, DNR officials said. The $73 million failed computer system couldn’t produce the new, six-number plates.
MNLARS has since been replaced and the new plates are now available wherever residents renew their plates or tabs, online or in person.
The winning license plate design by artist Timothy Turenne depicts the state butterfly — the monarch — and rusty patched bumblebee, recently designated as the state bee. Pollinators, including the two species featured on the license plate, been generally declining across the U.S. due to habitat loss and likely issues with pesticides.
Vehicle owners who want the new plates pay an extra fee of $30 per year with the money going to critical habitat acquisition projects through the Reinvest in Minnesota program. In 2019, the plates generated $5.3 million to help buy and manage critical habitats for all types of species.
The new pollinator plates join a host of others on Minnesota vehicles that help wildlife, including chickadees, loons, moose and lady's slipper flowers. The state also offers habitat plates for deer hunters, turkey hunters, pheasant hunters, anglers and state park fans.
Photo: Minnesota's newest critical habitat license plate depicts a bee and butterflies. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota DNR via Duluth News Tribune)
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Four months after Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg hit and killed a pedestrian with his car, a prosecutor has yet to make a charging decision or have any communication with the media and public about the status of the case.
The fact that the decision is taking more than a third of a year has upset the family of victim Joe Boever and Gov. Kristi Noem.
"I share South Dakotans' frustration about the amount of time this has taken. To have more than 100 days go by without resolution on this is a disservice to the victim's family,” Noem told the Argus Leader last month.
“Obviously, given that the days have continued to tick by, her frustration has not decreased,” spokesman Ian Fury said Wednesday.
“I’m just appalled at the whole thing,” said Nick Nemec, Boever’s cousin. “It does seem like justice delayed is justice denied for everyone, for the family of the victim and for the alleged perpetrator because he’s left hanging out there.”
Read the whole article, subscribe to the Journal, and follow @Ajzionts on Twitter.
Photo: Joseph Boever (left) was struck and killed by South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (right) four months ago.
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(San Francisco, Calif.) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today rejected the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) request to allow farmers to continue using the bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor while the agency assessed the pesticide's harm to endangered species.
Today's ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Food Safety and Center for Biological Diversity challenging the EPA's 2019 approval of sulfoxaflor's use across more than 200 million acres despite the agency's conclusion that the pesticide is "very highly toxic" to bees.
In its request to the court, the EPA admitted that its 2019 approval of the pesticide violated the Endangered Species Act because it failed to conduct any assessment on the pesticide's harm to the nation's federally protected species. But instead of removing the unlawful pesticide from the market, the EPA asked the court to permit the continued sale and use of sulfoxaflor while the agency took at least 7 years to complete the required assessment.
"The EPA has repeatedly approved pesticide uses without any consideration of their harm to our nation's most imperiled species," said Sylvia Wu, senior attorney at Center for Food Safety. "But the Ninth Circuit told EPA that it does not get to put off its legal duty just so that pesticide companies can continue to sell their toxic products."
The EPA reapproved of sulfoxaflor uses in July 2019 after its initial 2013 registration of the pesticide use on soybeans, cotton, strawberries, squash, and citrus was struck down by the appeals court because the agency failed to assess the pesticide's impact on bees.
"This important legal victory underscores that the EPA cannot ignore its legal obligation to assess the harms of this dangerous pesticide to endangered species," said Stephanie Parent, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Sulfoxaflor must come off the shelves while the EPA meets its duties under the Endangered Species Act."
Photo: Bees, via the Center for Food Safety.
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It's good to watch lawmakers discuss a bill and vote on it in committee without yelly moments, while airing disagreements. So it was in the first meeting of the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy on Tuesday afternoon.
An annual bill that approves funding for dozens of water quality, research, environmental protection and environmental education projects has been approved by a House committee after falling victim to a partisan disagreement last summer.
On Tuesday, the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee approved HF30, which would appropriate $61.4 million for dozens of projects statewide, by a 17-2 vote. The bill, which has no Senate companion, now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee.
It is nearly identical to one that was approved by DFL-controlled House last spring but was sidelined after the Republican-controlled Senate tied its passage to delaying the implementation of proposed clean car standards.
Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul), the committee chair and bill sponsor, is optimistic it would become law this session. He said that hope stems from recent comments by Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria), who chairs the Senate Environment Natural Resources and Finance Committee, and has said he expects the legislation to be moved.
In recent years, DFL and Republican lawmakers have clashed on whether the trust fund should be used to pay for wastewater treatment projects. Democrats say bonding should be used to pay for such projects, while Republicans say using the trust fund to pay for wastewater infrastructure is prudent.
No funds for wastewater treatment projects are included in the Hansen bill.
In another outdoors story line, Republicans and Democrats will deal once again with an as-yet-unapproved set of enhancement projects advanced in 2019 by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). Money for the $61 million compilation is in the bank, but both sides have said Republicans withheld Senate approval last year as a way to push back against state implementation of a "clean car" emissions rule for new cars.
Two Republicans — Sen. Carrie Ruud of Breezy Point and Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen of Alexandria — both said in interviews this week that it's time to set the LCCMR projects in motion. In addition to the projects advanced by LCCMR in 2019, a second bill will be introduced at this year's session, a record-setting package of LCCMR enhancement projects assembled in 2020. The new measure offers $70.8 million in lottery proceeds for 88 projects ranging from clean water initiatives to conservation of imperiled turtles and preservation of wild rice.
"We should get those two bills off our plate,'' said Ruud, who chairs the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Legacy Finance Committee. "They need to get done and out the door so we can put people to work and get the projects done.''
Ingebrigtsen, who chairs the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee, said he's expecting early movement on the LCCMR legislation.
Approval also is expected for a $127 million bill laying out dozens of new Outdoor Heritage Fund projects related to hunting, fishing, nongame wildlife, clean water and other resources. Constitutionally directed tax money for the enhancements comes from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.
Ruud, Ingebrigtsen, Meier and Rep. Rick Hansen, D-South St. Paul, provided outlooks for the session in separate interviews with the Star Tribune. Hansen is chairman of the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance & Policy Committee.
He said his committee will quickly revive last year's LCCMR projects bill. Until the Senate takes similar action, Republicans will be holding the measure hostage, Hansen said.
Hansen was as good as his word, bringing HF30 to a vote in the session's first meeting of the Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy committee. After airing his concerns with the "clean car" emissions rule for new cars, minority lead Josh Heintzeman, R- Nisswa, voted for the bill, as did all Republican members save Jeff "Goose Poop" Backer, R-Browns Valley, and Steve Green, R-Fosston.
We'll have more about the clean car rule in future posts.
Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the hearing. We've set it to scrolling to the beginning of the discussion of the bill. Occasionally, there are some hiccups with the Zoom technology.
Update: Committee member Kelly Morrison's tweet sums it up:
Thanks to @reprickhansen for carrying HF30, which includes #LCCMR recs from 2020 (held up last year over unrelated issues). Passed 17-2. Next stop: Ways and Means. Let’s get this done so important projects to protect air, water, land and wildlife can proceed! #ENRTF#mnlegpic.twitter.com/yzcvvKvK8Z
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Over the years, we've posted about the threat the frac sand (silica sand for fracking) industry has posed for the lovely southeastern corner of Minnesota and the valiant organizing its citizens have done to preserve the bluffs and farmland they so love.
The ban of frac sand mining in Winona County is one of their triumphs, and it's one that just survived an industry attempt to overturn the ordinance through the United States Supreme Court.
A sand mining company's bid to overturn the Winona County ban on frac sand mining has failed after the U.S. Supreme Court refused its case.
A lawsuit first filed by Minnesota Sands nearly four years ago sought to overturn the ban enacted in 2016, saying the moratorium was unconstitutional because it interfered with interstate commerce and violated the Constitution's commerce clause.
The ban was the first in the state to prohibit mining the rich silica sand deposits along the Mississippi River valley. The sand has tremendous value for the fracking industry. Silica sand is 95% quartz and consists of round, extremely hard granules that prop open cracks in shale rock, allowing the extraction of oil, gas and natural gas liquids. The ban allows mining for construction sand, a cheaper and less-pure material used on roadways .
Minnesota Sands first filed a lawsuit against the county in 2017. The Winona County District Court upheld the ban, as did the Minnesota Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision in 2018. In March of last year, the seven-member state Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that let the ban stand, with two justices dissenting in full and one dissenting in part.
"The people of Winona County and throughout southeastern Minnesota have organized to oppose the frac sand industry for many years because this industry is incompatible with stewardship of the land and with healthy, thriving communities," read a statement from the Land Stewardship Project released Tuesday. The organization supported the ban's creation. "In passing the ban, the Winona County Board of Commissioners was fulfilling the proper role of local government, listening to the will of the people, and acting boldly to protect the common good for both people and the land."
Land Stewardship Project has expressed satisfaction with the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to not overturn Winona County’s frac sand ban.
On Monday, the court elected to not hear Minnesota Sands, LLC’s suit, which could had resulted in the ban eventually being uplifted.
Minnesota Sands LLC, citing Southeast Minnesota Property Owners, claimed the ban violates equal protection, due process and private property rights.
It added that silica sand has been mined in the state for over 100 years and that it is unique because it is “extremely” hard and round and made up of quartz, which makes it valuable for use in energy production around the country.
“The Land Stewardship Project is pleased that the court has made the right decision, respecting the people of Winona County’s right to keep their communities safe from this harmful industry,” LSP said in a statement Tuesday morning.
The frac sand ban was passed in 2016 and Minnesota Sands, LLC subsequently sued in an attempt to overturn the decision. The Winona County District Court upheld the decision a year later, as did the Minnesota Court of Appeals in 2018, the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2020 and most recently the U.S. Supreme Court this past Monday.
Back in October when Minnesota Sands, LLC announced it had filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, LSP called the move “disappointing, but unsurprising.”
“The land has inherent value, and the health of the land and of people are interconnected,” LSP said at that time. “All decisions about land use must be made with the needs of the future in mind.”
“The people of Winona County have understood for many years that the frac sand mining, processing, and transport industry offers no benefit to rural communities and is too harmful to be allowed to operate in their communities.”
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court announced that it would not hear frac sand corporation Minnesota Sands, LLC’s, suit attempting to overturn the Winona County frac sand ban. Thus, the ordinance preventing any frac sand mining, processing, or transportation operations within the southeastern Minnesota county’s jurisdiction remains in place. The Land Stewardship Project is pleased that the court has made the right decision, respecting the people of Winona County’s right to keep their communities safe from this harmful industry.
The frac sand ban was passed in 2016 following a 17-month grassroots campaign in which residents put their values into action to protect their communities. After Minnesota Sands sued the county in an attempt to undo it, the ban was upheld by the Winona County District Court in 2017, the Minnesota Court of Appeals in 2018, and the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2020. In October 2020, Minnesota Sands petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
The people of Winona County and throughout southeastern Minnesota have organized to oppose the frac sand industry for many years because this industry is incompatible with stewardship of the land and with healthy, thriving communities. In passing the ban, the Winona County Board of Commissioners was fulfilling the proper role of local government, listening to the will of the people, and acting boldly to protect the common good for both people and the land. Now, despite Minnesota Sands’ desperate attack on this democratically-enacted decision, hills, bluffs, water, air, and communities in Winona County will remain protected from frac sand companies’ destruction.
We only wish photographer and Price of Sand filmmaker Jim Tittle, an old college friend who died of brain cancer in 2020, were here to learn the news. When his parents' home in Hay Creek Township in Goodhue County was threatened by a proposed sand mine, he started photographing images of the changes mining inflicted on the landscape, as well as creating the documentary film. I was writing about the industry--and his pictures helped renew the friendship. In 2018, he and Wendy Johnson released "Promise in the Sand."
Photo: Bird's eye view of a Wisconsin sand mind. Photo by Jim Tittle. Used with permission in 2013.
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We've been posting about the participation and presence of several Republican House members at the Storm the Capitol rally last Wednesday. Now there's a new development.
The Minnesota House Speaker’s office said Tuesday that the investigation into the “Storm the Capitol” rally held in St. Paul last week would be led by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) with involvement from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, on Monday said the House would investigate the involvement of six House lawmakers who attended or spoke at the St. Paul rally, which featured violent rhetoric.
A spokesman for Hortman said the BCA and Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington’s office are conducting a broad investigation, and that any information gleaned could be forwarded to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office for potential criminal charges.
Information about the six lawmakers who attended may also factor into ethics charges, if necessary, the spokesman said.
“You can bet we will fully investigate exactly what was said and done, and whether any of that is worthy of prosecution,” Hortman said Monday during a legislative forum.
The St. Paul rally — which remained peaceful with no attempts to breach the Capitol — nonetheless featured heated words. It later migrated to the governor’s residence, where the Minnesota State Patrol moved Gov. Tim Walz’s son to a different location because of the tense scene.
The Capitol rally featured at least one speaker, Alley Waterbury, a local Republican Party leader from Woodbury, who warned of “casualties.”
Six GOP House lawmakers attended the rally and some spoke. They are: state Reps. Susan Ackland of St. Peter; Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa; Mary Franson of Alexandria; Glenn Gruenhagen of Glencoe; Eric Lucero of Dayton; and Jeremy Munson of Lake Crystal.
The Star Tribune reported that Lucero and Drazkowski stoked chants against a state court judge who approved Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon’s agreement to waive witness requirements and extend the deadline for counting mail ballots.
On Tuesday, the Minnesota House Republican Caucus issued a statement saying it condemned “the violence and violent rhetoric at the events in Washington D.C. and Saint Paul on January 6.” Some of the members who signed attended the St. Paul rally.
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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, serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors. While progressive in outlook, she does not caucus with any political party.
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