Bluestem Prairie

T-Paw era state supreme court justice stymies GOP activist's Radinovich, Ward recall petitions

Supreme Court Chief Justice Lori Gildea (appointed during the Pawlenty administration) has rejected recall petitions submitted by Crow Wing County Republican with something of a history of objecting to human diversity.

Politics in Minnesota's Mike Mullen reports in Supreme Court rejects recall efforts against Radinovich, Ward

Both recall initiatives originated with Doug Kern, a Crow Wing County Republican activist who argued that Radinovich and Ward should face recalls for having voted against the will of their neighboring districts, where a majority of voters supported the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. In Ward’s House District 10A, 57.6 percent of voters favored the amendment, while Radinovich’s HD 10B voted “yes” with a 62.6 percent majority.

Kern quickly collected the required 25 signatures for a recall petition, which the Secretary of State’s Office then passed on to the Minnesota Supreme Court. In a pair of nearly identical dismissals filed yesterday, Gildea ruled that the gay marriage votes fell well short of the state standard for a recall, which requires that a legislator be guilty of “serious malfeasance or nonfeasance” of his or her office.

“Constituent disagreement with votes taken by their elected representative does not equate to malfeasance by the representative,” Gildea wrote, in language which appears in both of her dismissals. “As the supreme court has recognized, the remedy for constituents who disagree with an elected representative’s positions or voting record is not in the recall procedures.”

The Brainerd Dispatch reports that Kern felt the legislators were depriving him of his freedom of speech and religion, while admitting that state party officers had tried to talk him out of filing the petition:

Kern, a deputy chair of the Crow Wing County Republican Party, said his recall attempts had merit. He said the enactment of the gay marriage law, which was supported by both lawmakers, meant that Minnesotans lost the word marriage and also lost their freedoms of speech and religion.

Bauer said he was not surprised at the ruling.

Radinovich said he has been busy with legislative business and hadn’t been paying too much attention to the recall effort. He said he respects everyone’s right to the democratic process and he and Kern had a difference of opinion on this issue.

Ward said the facts prevailed in the case and the democratic process worked.

“I’m very thankful they found the way they did,” he said. “I respect the opinions of the people who presented the petitions, as well.”

.  . .Kern said he initiated the recalls as a private citizen and not as a party official. He said state Republican Party officials had tried to talk him out of the recall efforts.

Kern is actively fear-mongering in local newspapers. In a May 16, 2013 Open Forum letter at the Brainerd Dispatch, Freedom of religion, Kern writes:

And what about me as a Sunday school teacher? Who will protect me? No one. Can you spell “diversity training in your church”?

Read the comments on the post. Kern repeats his fears in a letter about the recall posted today at the Mille Lac Messenger:

Not to mention every business in Minnesota will have to bend the knee or have a lawsuit, especially now that marriage is redefined by state mandate. . . .

. . . If they can redefine marriage and infringe on our freedom of religion, which is tied into our freedom of speech, everything else is on the table from your children, guns, land, pursuit of happiness and so on. So really is it all about the feel? . . .

A review of earlier news reports reveals that Kern has a history of activism against LGBT rights and religious diversity.

The Doug Kern Record: Fear of a gay planet, colleges teaching about Muslims in the Mideast

The Crow Wing County Republican has long opposed human rights for gay men and lesbians.

Recently, it's been at a fever pitch. In a letter published in March at the Dispatch, Kern attacked Ward, and warned that same-sex marriage would "infect" children: 

Be informed on what your representative stands for or votes for, as it will affect or infect your children’s grandchildren

In Oberstar's 'California values', Kern urged support for the 2004 Republican CD8 candidate:

Could someone explain these signs that read, "For Minnesota Values Vote James Oberstar?" Last I checked, marriage being one man, one woman, is a Minnesota value, the sign should read "California Values," yes, I will vote for real Minnesota values -- Mark Groetum -- He knows the difference between marriage and "playing house."

Kern was among the conservative Republicans who worked to endorse other candidates after former state senator Paul Koering came out as a gay man in 2005. Koering secured the 2006 Republican endorsement after 7 ballots, but Kern supported his primary challenger.

The primary challenge functioned largely as an coded attack on Koering's sexuality.  MPR reported:

Koering thinks his sexuality shouldn't be an issue in an election, and it shouldn't matter to constituents.

"The fact that I'm gay, never, never comes up. I don't think that's a huge concern with people," Koering said.

But Koering still thinks that's the sole reason he's being challenged in a primary.

His opponent is Kevin Goedker, 34, a former Marine who sits on the Brainerd City Council. Goedker says Koering is not conservative enough for this Senate district.

"I don't see somebody out there representing me and my family. So with no other choice, I felt it necessary to step forward and represent the values of my family," Goedker said.

Goedker failed to win his party's endorsement this summer, losing to Koering. But Goedker says the fact that it took the incumbent seven ballots to win endorsement proves a primary challenge is viable. And Goedker maintains his challenge is not about Paul Koering's sexuality.

"If that was the only reason I was running, I would've announced a year ago that I was going to run against him then," Goedker said.

One political watcher says despite that assertion, many people feel this primary challenge has everything to do with Koering's personal life.

"Just about any public pronouncement will make reference to values, morals and gay marriage," says Michael Ceriello, a political science professor at Brainerd's Central Lakes College. "And you don't have to read very far between the lines to know exactly what he's talking about," Ceriello said.

MPR reported after the primary:

. . .In the Brainerd area, Republican state Sen. Paul Koering also faced criticism from an opponent for his stand on gay marriage. Koering voted to prevent a vote on same-sex marriage on the Senate floor in 2005. Koering is gay, but says he voted against the measure because it didn't move through the proper legislative channels.

Conservative groups also campaigned against Koering leading up the primary election. Koering says in the end, that tactic didn't work.

"Our campaign has had just about everything thrown at it that could possible happen, and I still prevailed, so it shows that people in Minnesota don't like negative campaigning," he said.

Koering finished with 55 percent of the vote. His opponent was Brainerd City Council Member Kevin Goedker. Goedker campaigned heavily on "family value" issues, and said his campaign had nothing to do with Koering's sexuality.

Koering assumes that's not the case, and that his primary challenge was directly related to his personal life. . . .

Kern ripped Koering's Twin Stadium vote in carefully coded language in a 2006, stating that Koering was "untrustworthy."  The "trust" meme was promoted by Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage.

In 2006 open forum in the Brainerd Dispatch, Kern defended Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage flyers in Criticism of Koering was fair game:

I am amazed at how Koering's voting record and statements in a leaflet will be considered character assassination, despicable and an attack, I am thankful organizations such as the Minnesota Family Institute and Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage are willing to bring out real issues that concern my family's future - a previous article stated "they attacked one of their own," by putting out this literature. Hate to break it to you, but he is not one of their own, they stand for marriage - one man one woman. Just goes to show you common sense just ain't as common as it used to be. Just ask your grandma I bet she's not confused on the issue. Stand for something or fall for anything my grandma used to say.

Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage endorsed Koering's opponent. Read more at the Dispatch.

The anti-Koering forces came back with a vengence in 2010, with an unintended assist from the incumbent when news broke that he went out to dinner with a gay porn star whose mother lived in the senate district. 

Koering's opponent in the 2010 primary, Paul Gazelka,  disavowed a mean spirited National Organization for Marriage mailing in a statement on his website:

I want to express to the voters of Senate District 12 my frustration and deep disappointment at the mailings sent by the National Organization for Marriage comparing me and Paul Koering.  This group, which supports marriage, a cause near and dear to my heart, has regrettably chosen to use mean-spirited ads instead of what most of us demand, civilized debate on the issues. 

 

Campaign laws forbid me to be aware of what others want to do to “help” me, and early on, I was clear that if issue related advocacy groups were going to independently support me that they should not do negative campaigning.  My personal, Christian view, is that it reflects poorly on Christ’s command to do unto others as you would have done unto you and it is not speaking the truth in love. . . .

In 2010, Koering skipped the endorsing convention and went straight to a primary; the primary bid lost steam after Andy Birkey reported that the lawmaker had a dinner date with a gay porn star whose mother lived in the senate district. Koering launched a write-in vote,  but Gazelka won the seat in November.

Kern ran for Crow Wing County Commissioner in 2012, but was defeated in the primary by Koering  and others. Koering won the seat in November.

Apparently, voters will only hold those gay porn star dates against a guy for so long. 

Kern made same-sex marriage an issue in  his county commissioner race, reposting an "editorial" ( his letter in the Brainerd Dispatch) on his campaign website:

Orientation for high school students took on a whole new meaning for my wife and I this last Monday. Being the parents of a eighth-grader going into ninth we were excited to see our son’s enthusiasm for high school. As we entered the school recruiting began … there was the ski team, weight-lifting team, FFA, video club, etc…. and the Gay/Straight Alliance — all recruiting our children.

We walked two times through the booths looking.There was not one Christian-based organization represented. After talking to the principal (who was extremely helpful) we found out there are none. My wife and I have decided to influence our children and the school by organizing a Christ and Christ alone group at the high school.

I have currently contacted youth pastors to link with me to make this work. I also am looking for adults to contact me and donate so we can make this work and be fun. This will be student-led, but adult supervised — just like the Gay/Straight Alliance. If you are as alarmed as I by the recruiting of our impressionable youth (eighth-12th-graders) contact me at djkern@charter.net. As a Sunday School teacher for 27 years I refuse to stand by and see my investments go down the tubes because I am too busy to protect them. Jesus loves you as you are, but he doesn’t leave you the same way he finds you. Put action to your Christianity, be active, be changed and contact me. And to those who say this wasn’t recruiting — that was the purpose of every table represented.

One wonders why he waited until running for office against an openly gay candidate to help students organize a Christian club (they're perfectly constitutional in schools that allow other clubs).

In Chair of Crow Wing County GOP makes false claim about anti-gay marriage amendment, Birkey looked at one of Kern's 2012 letters: that defeat of the amendment would mean same-sex marriage  would be legal in two years and churches that failed to perform all marriages  would lost their tax status.  Birkey's analysis about marriage equality itself was predicated on the GOP retaining control of the legislature (or losing by slight a margin). His review illustrates, however, that no church has ever had its tax status  revoked in those states where same-sex marriage is legal.

But it's not just gay folk that make Doug Kern fearful.

On  April 16, 2009, Brainerd Dispatch associate editor Mike O'Rourke reported in Kiwanis Park is scene of tax protest:

Doug Kern of rural Brainerd, chair of the Crow Wing County Republican Party, said America was a Christian nation and told how his son was alarmed at a sign at Central Lakes College about a meeting on the Muslim faith in the Mideast and politics.

Oh scary. We certainly wouldn't want college students to learn about Muslims in the Mideast.

Photo: Doug Kern, via his real estate office listing. Uncropped and unretouched by Bluestem.

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Tales of Hoffman: former state senator Kvetchin' Gretchen resurfaces on Bradlee Dean show, carries about polygamy and NAMBLA

Today's City Pages Blotter reports that Mary Franson wonders whether marriage equality extends to polygamy.

She's not the only conservative rural woman flogging this one after the Minnesota legislature extended the freedom to marry to same sex couples.

Former state senator Gretchen Hoffman, who has moved to North Dakota as well as become the Minnesota state director for Concerned Women of America, expounded on her belief that advocates for polygamy and pedophilia (she names NAMBLA) will be next in line for changes in the state's marriage law.

The statements were made on Tuesday, May 14, during an interview by Bradlee Dean and Jake McMillan on the Sons of Liberty radio show.

Hoffman: polgamists and NAMBLA will demand marriage rights

Last Tuesday, former Minnesota state senator Gretchen Hoffman was interview by toxic metal preacher Bradlee Dean and his sidekick, Jake  McMillan on the Sons of Liberty Radio show.

From our transcript (full text below the fold) :

Hoffman: I mean, these are militant activists who are pushing an agenda. . .and they made it all about love and being with who you love.

Well, I'd like to know how the state can regulate love anyway. I mean, where does it end? We're looking--the polygamists now are going to come and ask for, I love, you know, four people and you know the NAMBLA group which is what-I don't even know what that acronym stands for--

Dean: The North American Man Boy Love Association,  it's a pedophile group, correct

Hoffman: . . .And they're working to lower the age of consent so they can have sex with children and so you know of course whenever I say stuff like that they tell me I'm an extremist or I'm overreacting or..I've been called every name in the book. . .

Hoffman: "Political correctness" kept Catholic Church "cowed" in 2012

While not mentioning that the diocese spent $650,000 to promote last year's amendment to restrict the freedom to marry to one man and one woman, as well as recruiting volunteers to work for the ballot measure, Hoffman also chided the Catholic Church for being too "politically correct" about "homosexual marriage", while praising a protestant community church in Warroad:

Dean: . . .Many won't like it, what I have to say, saying I was too indelicate, well, how's being delicate worked for everybody,  tell us about the right, the church, what has been their part to play in this defeat?

Hoffman: Well, I think that they've played a huge part, um,  in the defeat. They have been so cowed by political correctness that they are not speaking morals and moral values and following God's Word from the pulpit and our young people are walking away from the church in droves.

You know, is that a product of they're bored in church, is that a product of, you know, [chuckles] I went to church every Sunday when  I was growing up, that's just the way it was in our house, I didn' have a choice in the matter. Are we trying to be too friendly with  our kids and not be their parents, I mean there's just a whole host of things but I will tell you, I went to church and I'm a Catholic.

I went to church the Sunday before the election, I mean I always do, but especially I try not to miss the Sunday before elections, you know Catholics are supposed to go every Sunday and I listened to what the priest in my church said and there was no talk of gay marriage, homosexual marriage--I'm trying to take back the language as well--there was no talk in my Catholic Church against homosexual marriage. At the end of the service he made a small mention to vote pro-life and that was it.

And so when we have churches that are being cowed because of political correctness and the threat of losing their tax-free status--

Dean: Which has never happened...

Hoffman: And I'm sure you guys know about this, the church, the pastor up in Northern Minnesota, I think his name is Doug Booth [Gus Booth], and the IRS--

The interview starts around the 14 minute mark on the May 14 show archived here, and Bluestem's transcription is below the fold. Some nonessential remarks are marked by ellipses.

Hoffman may be best known for being required to apologize after an ethics complaint when her tweets misrepresented floor statements by Senator Barbara Goodwin (DFL-Columbia Heights). Hoffman retired after she was re-districted into a seat shared by another Republican, declaring her intention to seek her party's endorsement in CD7. She lost to Lee Byberg on the first ballot at the Republican district convention.

On twitter today, Hoffman promised a follower she'd be back to doorknock next year.

Read the transcript below the fold:

Senator Jeremy Miller's constituent not fooled by self-congratulory frac sand regs press release

There's something missing in recent news stories about the watered-down frac sand mining regulations heading to the governor's desk.

At Politics in Minnesota, Charley Shaw reports in Broadbased state regulations emerge for frac sand mining:

. . . Heading into conference committee, the Senate reached a deal to require frac sand operators to get a permit from the state Department of Natural Resources if the mine is within 1 mile of a trout stream. The permit approach was a compromise from an earlier proposal by Sen. Matt Schmit, DFL-Red Wing, to prohibit silica sand mining within 1 mile of a trout stream.

“I don’t want to say I’m 100 percent satisfied, but I think this gives us a lot of tools to make a difference in southeastern Minnesota,” Schmit said. “The trout stream setback language we agreed to earlier this week is going to make a big difference in protecting the most sensitive regions in southeastern Minnesota.”

The bill makes lays the groundwork for establishing protections for more than just trout streams. Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, contended the trout stream issue was too narrow of a focus. He successfully pushed for the establishment of a model ordinance for local governments that looks at setbacks for things like wellhead protection areas in addition to trout streams. The standards also call for air and water quality protections for frac sand that’s in temporary storage.

The breadth of conference report, Hansen said, goes farther than any other state that has faced frac sand mining controversies.

“It’s the first of its kind, to our knowledge, in the country for silica sand. It’s comprehensive so we’ve got air, water—the whole picture,” Hansen said. . . .

Shaw reports that the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) will be leading the effort across agencies to set the standards and to provide technical assistance to local government.  It's something, since the industrial sand mining special interests and hostile legislators repeatedly tried to cut out the EBQ from the mix.

Meanwhile, the state Chamber of Commerce's lobbyist whined to Shaw that the industry is unfairly singled out for its water use. Orchards use water, he noted, and they're not being asked to apply for water permits.

Bluestem agrees: the next apple orchard that strips off hundreds of acres of soil, digs a ginormous hole in the earth that's open for years, and washes sand should so be required to apply for a permit with the DNR. Fair is fair.

So what's missing in Shaw's report? The name of Senator Jeremy Miller (R-Winona).  In Miller's misleading frac sand statement, a letter published in the Sunday Winona Daily News, local activist Jane Cowgill writes:

I couldn’t believe it when I read Sen. Miller’s statement trying to take credit for the frac sand legislation that passed on Monday. Getting out a press release taking credit for something he had nothing to do with is almost the only initiative he has taken on the frac sand issue.

. . . Miller was the key vote in committee killing the state standards proposed by Sen. Matt Schmit of Red Wing and Trout Unlimited, and endorsed by the DNR. These standards were the result of work with experts and would have put the most sensitive areas of southeast Minnesota -- those near trout streams -- off limits to frac sand mines.

The provisions that did pass are not everything we wanted, but some will be very helpful. Again we have Matt Schmit of Red Wing to thank for this. Schmit worked all session and moved bills forward even when some leaders of his own party disagreed with him. That’s because he was representing and fighting for his district. I can’t say that about Miller. He carried water for the frac sand special interests all session. Now he wants us to think that he actually cared about what his constituents wanted.

We aren’t fooled.

It will be interested to see whether the impressive grassroots organizing by citizens in Southeastern Minnesota will carry forward into electoral politics. Neither party will be able to leverage it, given the way the DFLers on the Range rushed in to prattle about the frac sand mining industry creating "empathy" for their region. Schmit's a clear winner in his first term.

Photo: Jane Cowgill at the state capitol, promoting protection for trout stream and other living things. Photo by John Kaul.

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Andy Parrish's lawyer confirms FBI checking out Bachmann's alleged campaign improprieties

Kevin Diaz reported Sunday in the Star Tribune article Bachmann campaign allegations attract attention of FBI:

St. Paul attorney John Gilmore, who represents former Bachmann chief of staff Andy Parrish, also confirmed that his client is among those being interviewed by the FBI as a witness. “Andy Parrish has been contacted by the FBI for purposes of an interview,” Gilmore said. “That has been set up for next week and Mr. Parrish will cooperate fully.” . . .

. . .One source familiar with the FBI inquiry said an agent from the bureau’s public integrity section expressed interest in campaign finance allegations contained in a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint brought by whistleblower Peter Waldron, a Florida pastor who worked on the Bachmann presidential campaign in Iowa.

.  . . In an affidavit to the Iowa Senate earlier this month, [Iowa State Senator Kent] Sorenson denied being paid directly or indirectly by any “Bachmann entities.” That contradicts an earlier affidavit from Parrish describing an “arrangement” to pay Sorenson through Short’s company. Parrish’s affidavit said Bachmann was aware of the arrangement, but thought it was legal. . . .

Read it and weep at the Star Tribune 

Bluestem is curious about the status of Bachmann's seat should the investigations mature. As readers may recall, Bachmann barely won in the 2012 election, beating DFL challenger Jim Graves by 4,296 votes in a district where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney received nearly 6 percentage points of the vote than she.

We've heard and read rumors that many Republicans wish she would retire. That set Bluestem to wondering how the GOP could find a candidate who isn't a client of John Gilmore.  Perhaps Tom Emmer would be interested in the job.

Photo: John Gilmore, blogger and GOP kingmaker.

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Fontgate: MN House Republicans launch late-session crusade for large print formatting

At two in the morning, the Minnesota House finally took up the bill to allow home-based childcare providers and personal care attendants to organize and vote on union representation.

House Media services has posted the video archives of the session.  At 8:15:20 in the House video, Representative Kresha (R-Little Falls) introduced the S0778A39 amendment.  At 8:16:50, he begins:

Thank you Mr. Speaker and Members. What I'd like to do with this amendment is to require all signatures for the [union] solicitation materials to be printed in at least 14 point font. I'd like to avoid fine print. Smaller type can be hard on the eyes and even cause headaches according to the National Institute on Aging.

We do have an example of this in statute with park closings  . . ."using the closure statements the following language must include in a font no smaller than 14 points." So I would just like to include that for the first part here on the childcare signatures.

It's a good amendment and I would urge your support on this one.

Here's what the National Institute for Aging actually says about font size in Making Your Printed Health Materials Senior Friendly:

Make type size at least 12 point, 13 point, or 14 point. Type that is too small can be hard on the eyes and can even cause a headache. When selecting a type size, keep in mind that some fonts are naturally bigger than others. For example, look at Georgia vs. Times New Roman. Both of these fonts are in 13 point type size and yet Georgia is bigger. Use 14 point type size when working with smaller fonts, like Times New Roman. Headings should be even larger so they will stand out. If your audience has low vision, consider using larger fonts, like 16 point or 18 point. However, for older readers who do not have low vision problems, font sizes that are too large (greater than 14 point) may be difficult to read. [emphasis added]

Throughout the debate, Republicans stood up against fine print on union materials. Former English teacher Sondra Erickson discussed her bonafides as a graphic designer, for example.

Bluestem applauds the offensive on fine print and looks forward to Ron Kresha, Mary Franson, graphic designer Sondra Erickson, Joyce Peppin and other members of the Republican House Caucus standing up for readability in all documents that Minnesotans may have occasion to read in the course of business.

A modest proposal on large type format equality

Let us suggest that not only union organizing documents, but all terms and conditions, contracts and other documents distributed by banks, consumer credit companies, mortgaged lenders, payday lenders and pawnbrokers be printed in 14 pt type. Or larger.

Indeed, given the urgency of this issue, first pressed by Republicans at 2:00 a.m. this morning, we're shocked that they haven't proposed this before. (The amendment was withdrawn after much discussion).

Unless the early morning fantods over fonts was simply time-wasting concern trolling, the Republican House caucus should have golden opportunity today to demonstrate their commitment to Reader Rights and Liberty. 

SF1276, a bill to modify mortgage foreclosures provisions  and require lenders and servicers loss mitigation, which passed on a 61-1 vote in the upper chamber on May 16, has been substituted for the House version of the bill and, under House rule 1.21, placed on Calendar for the Day Sunday, May 19, 2013.

Will the House Republican Caucus be bold, bold we say, and ask that the House rules on amendments be suspended, and ask their colleagues from across the aisle to require banks and mortgage lenders to produce all home loans, mortgages, and documents related to foreclosures, loan modifications, and evictions in at least 14 point size type, regardless of the font?

Surely, if Kresha's crusade is worthing of imposing on organized labor, banks and other lenders deserve big honking print as well.

At Bluestem's request, our friends at The Uptake are pulling the video of this morning's Fontgate debate. We'll post it here when it is available.

Here's the video:

In the meantime, enjoy the #Fontgate twitter discussion from the wee hours.

Photo: Ron Kresha (R-Little Falls), Defender of Large Print Formats.

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Bee's knees or Republican buzzkill? Minority tried to sting DFL on pro-farming legislation

In April, the Minnesota House Republicans mocked efforts to fund bee habitat in the agriculture bill, seemingly ignorant of the vital role pollinators play in agriculture.

Minnesota Public Radio reports today in Bill would ensure habitat preservation for bees, pollinators:

A conference committee has approved a plan to improve habitat for bees and other pollinators.

Pollinators around the country are suffering from a complex set of problems that is causing their numbers to plummet. This could hurt agriculture, which relies on insects to pollinate crops.

Rep. Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin, sponsored a bill that requires the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture to ensure they keep pollinators in mind as they are restoring habitat.

One way to help is by choosing plants to ensure there is always something blooming.

"We have bees that have colony collapse. We have bees that are impacted by pesticides. We have just a reduction in the number of pollinators, so this is an attempt to say throughout the state we have the right habitat," Poppe said. . . .

Check out the whole article at MPR. 

How big of a problem are  bees and other pollinators facing in Minnesota? On Thursday, CBS-Minnesota reported in Minn. Farmer Blames Pesticides For Big Bee Die Off:

As farmers get underway with their spring planting, some bee farmers in Minnesota are already counting their losses.

In the last couple days one major producer reported that thousands of honey bees suddenly died.

In 2005, Minnesota was the sixth largest honey producer in the nation. But since 2006, millions of bee colonies have died off in Minnesota and across the nation. ...

The University of Minnesota Entomology Department website states:

The service that bees and other pollinators provide allows nearly 70 percent of all flowering plants to reproduce; the fruits and seeds from insect pollinated plants account for over 30 percent of the foods and beverages that we consume. Beyond agriculture, pollinators are keystone species in most terrestrial ecosystems. Fruits and seeds derived from insect pollination are a major part of the diet of approximately 25 percent of all birds, and of mammals ranging from red-backed voles to grizzly bears. However, many of our native bee pollinators are at risk, and the status of many more is unknown. Habitat loss, alteration, and fragmentation, pesticide use, and introduced diseases all contribute to declines of bees.

Republicans joked about a "buzzkill" in their tweets about the legislation written by the Austin-based chair of the Ag Policy committee. Apparently, they had no idea about the job-killing consequences of bee loss as they droned on to themselves.

Here's the CBS-MN clip:

Photo: A honeybee helping out an apple grower.

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Blame Cthulhu: MN Representative Mary Franson channels H.P. Lovecraft in latest letter home

You'd think that after last year's debacle over comparing feeding people with food assistance to feeding wild animals, Mary Franson might use a bit of caution with her use of metaphor.

You'd be wrong.

In her latest newspaper column updating her constituents, Franson (or the hapless minority communications staff person who may have drafted this) channels the great American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, morphing the limbs of her majority caucus colleagues into those of the children of Cthulhu.

Published in the latest Osakis Review, The Update from State Rep. Mary Franson, May 17, 2013,  begins:

Dear neighbor,

The legislative session is coming to a close and the tentacles of Democrat legislators are out and reaching to extract the hard-earned dollars out of your wallet! . . .

Scary. 

Or perhaps Franson is channeling older American iconography about corporate power. Or maybe Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism from the late Clark Mollenhoff.

Image: Is cuddly Cthulhu the face of the DFL in Franson's prose? Would that make the tax bill the Necronomicon?

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Alexandria area tea party launches prayer offensive to convert George Soros to Christianity

Bluestem has no idea whether the Alexandria Lakes Area Tea Party has sought tax-free status, but if it has, its latest project will pose no questions about the application. Their sanity, perhaps.

According to a PDF posted on the group's website, the conservatives have launched a worldwide prayer request asking people everywhere to pray for the conversion of  billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros to Christianity. To pray--"perhaps more than once a day":

The Alexandria Lakes Area Tea Party (ALATP), Alexandria, MN, would like to invite you to participate in a world-wide prayer campaign for the conversion of George Soros from atheism to Christianity. Please say a prayer everyday for the conversion of his soul—in fact, perhaps more than once a day. This prayer campaign must be done to the Glory of God--not to glorify the tea party movement.

We are asking that you spread this message to anyone on your contact list via Email, Facebook, Twitter, and the like. We are hoping that by midsummer, the whole world will be praying for Mr. Soros.

A Jew born in Hungary, Soros and his family managed to escape extermination by Nazis in World War II by assuming false identities and hiding, according to his website. He is an atheist who "believes that people of faith and faith communities contribute to the public’s understanding of pressing social issues and often add a principled, moral aspect to debates that are too often dominated by politicians, statistics and polling," a FAQ on his religion notes.

Yes, this is the place that elected and re-elected Mary Franson to the state legislature. The PDF is embedded below.

Meanwhile, on Monday, May 20 in Chanhassen, the SW Metro Tea Party Patriots will be Channeling Alex Jones: Allen Quist & Rolle Neve to host Agenda 21 Hunger Games roundtable. Check out our post from last month--the event appears to have been rescheduled from April 22.

Is there something in the water of our ten thousand lakes? Sadly, it's not a rhetorical question. According to Fox News and other news outlets, our Minnesota lakes are reportedly contaminated with cocaine, antidepressants.

Alexandria Lakes Area Soros Prayer Project

Photo: George Soros, via the Open Society Foundation.

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Local Congregational church in Mary Franson's district likely to solemnize same sex marriages

While Representative Mary Franson (R-Alexandria) believes that the freedom to marry should be restricted to one man and one woman at a time, she was willing to allow straights and everybody else to get civil unioned, though only straight folk could marry.

Since this is the one of the few known cases of Franson approving of a union, Bluestem concedes that it was progress of a sort, but she and the other civil union supporters lost the argument.

With marriage equality coming on August 1, the local Congregational church in Alexandria will likely begin to solemnize same-sex marriages.  The Alexandria Echo Press reports in Contrary constituents: Some Alexandrians support gay marriage:

Political representatives in the Alexandria area say their constituents do not support the gay marriage bill that was signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton on Tuesday afternoon. Many, however, are celebrating the decision.

Within minutes of the bill passing in the Senate, Pastor Scott Keehn of Alexandria received a text message from a couple in his congregation asking him to perform their ceremony. He accepted.

“All this really does is expand the definition of marriage to include loving couples who had been excluded,” Keehn said. “It’s about granting civil and social rights.”

The church council will still have to approve same-sex weddings, but Keene believes that it will do so. The article notes:

. . .The First Congregational United Church of Christ has an “open and affirming” process, meaning it accommodates for all people to be able to worship.

“I think this will be a good thing for the Alexandria community,” Keehn said. “Our government made the right choice in this matter.”

. . .Pastor Keehn is a member of the Inclusion Network (IN) in Alexandria, an organization that educates the community about differences and promotes the value of diversity. Steph Alexander will be speaking on the transgender experience at Foundation Hall in Alexandria on June 19. For more information, visit www.inclusionnetwork.org.

Photo: Rainbow wedding cake.

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Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen's column sends constituents to anti-gay group MassResistance

Minnesotans know Glenn Gruenhagen isn't shy about sharing his opinions, however much he whines about how he's a waif amid the forces of political correctness. Yes, it's truly a burden to be asked by one's colleagues not to break into arias condemning butt sex when the topic before the local school board is something else, (see LTE mid-post) but most folks we know just think it's something of a boundary issue for Glenn.

Glenn's back in the news today for Aaron Rupar's viral post at City Pages, MNGOP Rep. Gruenhagen on climate change: "It's just a complete United Nations fraud", but closer to home, he's calling for measures to protect "the right as citizens, parents and school officials to passively resist the gay agenda coming into our schools."

The gay agenda! United Nations fraud! The world is a scary, scary place.

Gruenhagen shares his Thoughts on passage of state’s gay marriage bill with the readers of the McLeod County Enterprise:

This may be difficult to believe, but as a long-term school board member, I do not make this statement lightly. I have personal experience as a board member, where state statutes were changed and eventually school curriculum and speech had to conform. I was then chided for public comments on school issues when I used terminology that was not politically correct.

Here's what his former colleagues said in part in 2005:

. . .With regularity Mr. Gruenhagen inserts his own biases into school board meetings with not the least provocation. Abortion, homosexuality, safe sex, evolution and countless other topics that do not appear on the school board’s agenda are brought to the fore, repeatedly, and forced onto unsuspecting school board members, administrators and individuals in the viewing audience. To do so is rude, a violation of school board decorum, a waste of attendees’ time and a disruption in the flow of otherwise quality public meetings. He ignores the expert advice of the superintendent of schools, two architectural firms, a construction management firm ... Incredible! . . .

Jodi Braband,
Doug Grams,
Loren Mathews,
Nancy Morris,
Mark Rudy
Glencoe-Silver Lake
School Board

The link to the Glencoe paper at the earlier Bluestem post doesn't work anymore, but a diligent researcher could find it in a copy of the print edition.

Gruenhagen continues in the more recent post:

In other countries and in the state of Massachusetts, where gay marriage has become the law, we have observed that citizens who would not succumb to politically correct speech have been charged with hate crimes and their parental rights infringed upon. (See www.massresistance.com for more information.)[Link is live in original MCC post online]

When signed, this bill will become the law of our state. We are a nation of laws, however we still have the right as citizens, parents and school officials to passively resist the gay agenda coming into our schools.

What is MassResistance? From the Wikipedia entry for the group:

MassResistance is a Waltham, Massachusetts-based anti-gay group^[4][5] that promotes socially conservative positions on issues relating to homosexuality, abortion, anti-bullying, gun control, the transgender community and same-sex marriage. It was founded by Brian Camenker in 1995 as the Parents' Rights Coalition, and in 2003 it changed its name to Article 8 Alliance. It adopted its current name, MassResistance, in 2006.^[3][6]

MassResistance's activism takes several forms, including promoting its views via its website, blog, email, lobbying, and voters' guides.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

The group has been critical of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for maintaining moderate positions on LGBT rights during his term as governor.^[8][12] The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated MassResistance an anti-gay hate group, in part for its claim that suicide prevention programs aimed at gay youth were "put together by homosexual activists to normalize homosexuality".^[3][5]

Lovely. And there's more:

Since March 2008, the nonprofit civil rights organization^[26][27][28] Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has listed MassResistance as an active anti-gay hate group.^[3][5][29]

In 1996 MassResistance's leader, Brian Camenker claimed that suicide prevention programs aimed at gay youth actually were “put together by homosexual activists to normalize homosexuality”. MassResistance also asserted that groups such as the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which support school anti-bullying programs, actually want to "lure children into homosexuality and, very possibly, sadomasochism".^[3]

MassResistance has also insisted that gays were "trying to get legislation passed to allow sex with animals", later adding, "They [gays and lesbians] are pushing perversion on our kids".^[3]

MassResistance has made claims that no homosexuals died in the The Holocaust of World War II, that the "pink triangle the Nazis forced imprisoned gays to wear actually signified Catholic priests", and that "gays are dangerous to kids". They have also made comments regarding "skyrocketing homosexual domestic violence"^[3][30] and called a gay pride event a "depraved" display that featured "a great deal of obviously disturbed, dysfunctional, and extremely self-centered people whose aim was to push their agenda".^[3]

If that's where the Glencoe Republican gets his information when he goes online, no wonder he's so afraid. Gruenhagen goes on in his column to cite one "self-confessed homosexual" coming after his religious rights:

As an example of this threat to religious liberty, University of Minnesota constitutional professor Dale Carpenter, a self-confessed homosexual, errantly wrote an editorial arguing that the religious freedoms in our Bill of Rights is “limited to the right to worship” only in our churches, instead of the current robust religious freedoms we enjoy. In truth, it is the right of each American under the Bill of Rights to act in accordance with their conscience and religious beliefs in the public square, not just in our churches. As you can see by the professors comments, the threat to religious freedoms is real.

What was Carpenter's "errancy"? Here's the editorial (the link to which Gruenhagen forgot to provide, unlike the one to the hate group) in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Dale Carpenter: The rites and rights of marriage.  Here's part of what Carpenter said:

. . . Nor is there any basis for fearing a flood of lawsuits against religious individuals or businesses. Consider an obvious fact: there is no right to sue simply because you don't like what someone else believes or does. You must have a legal basis, a "cause of action," spelled out in the law. The Minnesota Human Rights Act ("MHRA") prohibits discrimination by businesses against people because of their race, sex, or religion.

Since 1993, the MHRA has also prohibited businesses from discriminating against a person based on sexual orientation in jobs, housing, and services. In 20 years, despite what opponents predicted at the time, there have been very few claims of such discrimination in Minnesota. This is partly because there are comparatively few gay people, partly because most businesses have no interest in discriminating against customers and hard-working employees who happen to be gay, and partly because the MHRA specifically allows religious nonprofit associations and schools to discriminate against gays.

There is no additional cause of action provided in the marriage bill. That's why it's puzzling that opponents claim business owners and others with religious objections will be punished for their religious beliefs. On what ground would a gay person sue a business owner or religious association simply because he's now married?

If he did not have a valid claim before passage of the marriage bill, the newly married gay person will not have one now. If a religious organization was exempt from compliance with the MHRA before the marriage bill, it will be exempt afterward. In case there was any doubt about this, the marriage bill explicitly states that it "does not alter or affect the protections or exemptions provided in" the MHRA to any "religious association, educational institution, business, labor organization, place of public accommodation, employer, or other person." The exemptions in the MHRA are already among the most expansive in the country, especially where claims of anti-gay discrimination are concerned... .

Carpenter really didn't get into a discussion of schools, so Gruenhagen's representation of the editorial is peculiar.

How threatened are religious liberties? Check out Richard Painter's post at the Legal Ethics Forum, Key Amendment Introduced by Minnesota State Representative David Fitzsimmons Protects Churches and other Religious Organizations from Frivolous Lawsuits.

Screenshot: Glenn Gruenhagen, Republican from Glencoe.

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Local watchers silenced by legal action, RWW makes catch on Dean gay marriage meltdown

It used to be that Bluestem could depend on local sources for news of toxic metal preacher Bradlee Dean's latest rantings and not have to listen to his radio show ourselves. But since his lawyer initiated yet another lawsuit (we'll let Wonkette explain), those heroes of fee speech  have been silenced while the legal eagles work things out.

Funny how a guy like Dean who describes himself as a son of liberty works that way.

Fortunately, People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch is listening to Dean's show so we don't have to. In Bradlee Dean Has Epic Meltdown over Minnesota's Gay Marriage Law,  RWW's Brian Tashman reports:

Minnesota-based Religious Right activist/rock star Bradlee Dean went ballistic on his radio show yesterday in response to his state’s new marriage equality law. Dean warned that Gov. Mark Dayton, who signed the same-sex marriage bill into law, is at “war with God” and is “about to find out what it’s like as to what the fallout is when you throw rocks towards God, he’s going to learn how gravity works.” He added that Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who backed his state’s marriage equality law, and other pro-gay rights “criminals” will face divine justice as well.

Listen to the audio at RRW. Tashman points to some classic Dean schtick:

Dean even seems to believe that every gay person in the country showed up for yesterday’s celebration of the marriage equality law in order to “push their propaganda and their agendas on the American people,” just as Saul Alinsky commanded.

“They come from all over the country to do this so what you’ve seen was probably the whole lump of the population of the homosexual community in the United States of America,” Dean said. . . .

Dean really needs to get out more. 

Bluestem also found Dean's claim at the 42 second mark at this clip that Dayton was in cohoots with George Soros fascinating  (if we can trust Dean's claim, it may explain why Dayton caved on protecting trout streams, given Soros' broad investments in the gas and oil industry).

Conservatives should be able to shake their heads over Dean's claim that God rejects the prayers of the Minnesota Family Council and his  assertion that they were "spineless capitulators, burned hippies (beginning at 1:41 in the audio at this link):"

Dude, I've already bore my cross. It's called the prayer that rocked the capitol. I''ve already done my part. I was asked to step up by the Minnesota Family Council. Nothing but a bunch of spineless capitulators, burned hippies that think they're all that and a bag of chips, and yesterday we found that the bag of chips was open and they were stepped on.

But I was really happy to hear that they were in a room in the capitol praying to Je-s-us that  he would come and do something for them that he himself commanded them to do, but they're unwilling to do what God called them to do and then they wonder why they continuously get . . . the backwards results that they continuously get.

Why are we losing the day? Because you're not man enough to stand up and play the man, you're not willing to bear your cross and therein lies the problem.

We can't thank RRW for bearing the cross of monitoring Dean now that the locals can do so no longer.

In the meantime we'll wait to see just what the devil Dean means when he says,"play the man." That may explain a great deal already.

Screenshot: Dean praying at the Minnesota House. The prayer, which questioned the President's faith, was stricken from the record.

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MN legislature to trout & citizens: drop dead; new report challenges WI happy mining job numbers

An frac sand industry-friendly compromise has been reached in the Minnesota legislature over mining near trout streams. Meanwhile, a new report commissioned and published by the Wisconsin Farmers Union, the Wisconsin Towns Association and the Minneapolis-based IATP suggests that industrial sand mining falls short as an engine of job creation.

Minnesota Public Radio first reported in DFL lawmaker: Compromise reached on frac sand regulations:

The lawmaker who has pushed this year for tougher state regulation of the frac sand mining industry said DFL legislative leaders have reached a compromise on the legislation.

Lawmakers agreed Tuesday to create a new Department of Natural Resources permit for companies hoping to mine silica sand in certain sensitive areas in southeastern Minnesota, said Sen. Matt Schmit, DFL-Red Wing. Schmit said the regulations will be part of the spending bill that covers natural resources, the environment and agriculture.

Schmit and DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr had been pushing to prohibit sand mining within one mile of a trout stream or spring in the "Paleozoic Plateau Ecological Section" of the state, which includes Dakota, Goodhue, Houston, Fillmore, Olmsted, Wabasha and Winona counties. The compromise expected to gain conference committee approval would instead require a hydrological study and DNR permit for any mine within a mile of a trout stream but not springs, Schmit said.

"What this gives us is stricter scrutiny in the most sensitive regions of southeastern Minnesota," Schmit said. "If that study proves that mining will have no or limited impact on our waters, then we can move forward with the DNR permit, so I think this is a good compromise. I do think it gives notice that the areas around our trout streams are going to be watched very closely and creates an incentive for mining to take place elsewhere.". ..

Read the rest of the article at MPR.  The Star Tribune's Tony Kennedy reported in Compromise frac sand deal nixes effort to put trout stream areas off limits to mining:

In a retreat from tough language that would have put much of southeastern Minnesota off limits to frac sand mining, state officials have reached a compromise that will allow mines near the region’s trout streams, but only if companies follow new permitting rules.

As part of a deal announced Tuesday, Sen. Matt Schmit, DFL-Red Wing, said he’ll drop his effort to ban frac sand mining within a mile of any trout stream in the southeast corner of the state. The ban was embraced by Gov. Mark Dayton until a compromise emerged at a recent meeting with Schmit, industry lobbyists, three state agency heads and organized labor.

If the deal goes as expected, the 2013 legislative session will end without sweeping statewide environmental protections sought by a throng of “fractivists” from areas around Red Wing, Wabasha, Winona and other parts of the bluff country known as Minnesota’s Paleozoic Plateau. . . .

Lovely. Read the whole sordid tale of corporate power over people at the Strib, where opponents try to put the best face on this deal.  The Winona Daily News has more in Compromise reached to permit frac sand mines near trout streams.

New report challenges industry gospel on job creation

Those cheerleading the strip mining of Minnesota's Bluff Country carry on about jobs, usually citing figures promotedby the Heartland Institute, but those projections have their critics. Yesterday, the WFU and other organizations released a new report about the economics of Wisconsin's industrial sand mining.

MPR's Stephanie Hemphill reports in Officials should investigate costs, benefits of frac mining, report says:

The study, conducted by Thomas Power, a retired University of Montana economist and an expert on the economics of mining, concluded that the economic effects of silica sand production used in mining is likely to be quite small.

Drawing from data collected by the federal government and the state of Wisconsin, production could create about 2,300 jobs, but that's less than one percent of total employment statewide. The frac sand region creates about the same number of jobs in all categories every two months, Power said.

Power cites the following as reasons for mining's poor performance in creating healthy economies:

• Fluctuations in demand • Increasing mechanization • Mines depleted more quickly • Workers commute long distances, families live elsewhere • Small local economies can't supply mines • Impacts on the environment make the region a less attractive place to live and visit • Can discourage other businesses by paying high wages and degrading the environment

Read the rest at MPR.  Here's the report:

Economics of Frac-Sand Mining Final

Photo: Citizens seeking legislative relief for themselves and trout were disappointed by a compromise with weak protections for trout and other living things.

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Organizing law: MN Senate Majority Leader Bakk plays the union card, in the best possible sense

Early Wednesday morning, Bluestem watched the Senate debate on the bill to allow home child care providered and personal care assistants the ability to organize.

The Pioneer Press reports in Minnesota Senate OKs unions for child, personal care workers:

.  .  . The bill would allow two groups of workers to vote on whether to form a union:

-- Licensed and unlicensed in-home child care providers who care for children receiving state subsidies.

-- Personal care attendants who care for the disabled and elderly in their homes.

Supporters say the bill secures greater access for recipients and better working conditions for providers. But the issue has sparked the ire of Republicans who have been fighting the bill all session, focusing most of the debate on including child care providers. They argued it's just the DFL's political payoff to organized labor that helped them grab the majority in last fall's election.

Majority Leader Bakk spoke out, concluding [partial transcript from video below]:

"It just gives this group of workers, that don't have the right to have a vote, an opportunity to decide if they can form a union and form a bargaining unit so that they can bargain for some of the things that my union card has provided for me. My whole working career with the carpenters union, I've had health insurance provided for by my employer through a Taft-Hartley labor management trust fund.

Members, in the first of every month I draw defined pension fund because I'm retired from there--a pension fund of over thirty years of contributions that my employer put into that. This union card put food on the table for my family my whole life. It bought that car that sits out on the south of the Capitol lawn. It put my kids through college.

Because without it, you're alone and you have no power to improve your standard of living because you stand by yourself. But in a union, you have the opportunity to get together and there is power in numbers and you can raise the standard of living of the whole. "

Here's a video clip. The remarks come near the end:

Photo: Tom Bakk speaking for the right to organize.

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Freedom to marry: Senator Jensen's leadership earns place in local and national news stories

Bluestem's been an unabashed fan of Vicki Jensen ever since we got to know her and husband Trevor via the Minnesota Farmers Union. While we didn't always see eye-to-eye on some farm policy, her strong positions on education and women's issues clinched the admiration.

Now she's getting the news coverage her political courage in yesterday's Senate vote deserves. The Mankato Free Press's Dan Linehan reports in Gay marriage hits home for minister:

Sen. Vicki Jensen, a Democrat who lives in Owatonna and also represents Waseca, was the only south-central Minnesota legislator to speak on the floor. Her district supported last fall’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage 57 percent to 43 percent.

She said the issue was clarified for her by the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court case Varnum v. Brien, in which that court decreed that Iowa’s law restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the state’s constitution.

“At the heart is the doctrine of equal protection, and that’s my opinion as well,” Jensen said.

In other words, the government has to treat same- and opposite-sex marriages the same because there’s no legal reason to treat them differently.

In her district, the Huckle media chain papers reported in Owatonna senator votes for gay marriage, while Blooming Prairie senator votes no:

Jensen said the Capitol was filled with supporters and opponents of the bill, similar to the scene last Thursday when the House voted.

“There was just so much excitement and people here. I’m so proud to have been a part of it. I think it’s democracy at its best. It was a great experience.”

Jensen said she studied the issue over and over again before deciding to vote for the bill. She looked at the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court case that struck down the law forbidding gay marriage in the Hawkeye state, saying it was unconstitutional to deny rights to same-sex couples. She said that case offered clarity on the issue.

“I’m somebody who puts a lot of heart and passion into every vote, whether it’s taxes or gay marriage. I study what I can to understand every implication.”

Several supporters of the gay marriage bill took to the People’s Press’ Facebook page to thank Jensen for her vote

“Thank you Senator Jensen for voting for equal rights for all!” wrote Julie Perkins Dunn. “Why I voted for you!”

Jimmy Harris wrote that marriage in the legal sense has nothing to do with God, or even love, for that matter.

“It is a system to determine property division, probate, child custody, insurance, and the like. Those questions of law should absolutely apply to every citizen equally,” Harris wrote.

Huffington Post (via the AP) and Ms Magazine picked up on her more sentimental reason for voting yes:

Senator Vicki Jensen (DFL-District 24) said, "I could never and I would never deny the kind of recognition and all the other positive things I get out of my marriage with my husband, to anyone else."

Campaigning last year, Jensen had told voters in her district that she opposed the amendment to restrict marriage and supported the freedom to marry for all loving couples. They supported the amendment but also elected her.

Photo: Senator Jensen presiding over the Minnesota Senate last week. Definitely not an Emo Senator, although she replaced one.

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CURE celebrates Minnesota River History Weekend & State Water Trails 50th Anniversary

Bluestem's world headquarters recently relocated to sunny Maynard in order to be closer to the upper Minnesota River, loveliest of prairie rivers.

The local watershed protectors, Clean Up the River Environment (CURE), will be hosting the Minnesota River History Weekend and Minnesota State Water Trails 50th Anniversary on Friday through Sunday. If you're a reader who wonders why the dirty hippies out here make such a fuss about threats to the upper valley's tranquility, consider checking this out:

Friday evening:

Grab some popcorn at Granite Falls' famous local Popcorn Stand and head over to watch a film and listen to great speakers!

Minnesota River History Exhibit Reception and Artist Talk with Dakota Author Gwen Westerman, KK Berge Building (6:30 - 9:00 PM). Read more about Gwen here.  

Then walk over to the Granite Falls City Hall to watch a film and listen to some great

• FILM. 

  River Revival: Working Together to Save the Minnesota River Video
  with producers John Hickman and Jon Carlson (7 PM). This film tells the story of people from all walks of life - academics, farmers, natural resource professionals, anglers, homeowners, students, paddlers, politicians, and citizen activists - who are working together to solve the problems facing the Minnesota River. Read more about the film and speakers here.

•  PRESENTATION.  Minnesota State Water Trails: Making History for 50 Years

  with Erik Wrede, MN DNR Water Trails Coordinator and special guest Paul Ryberg (8 PM). Minnesota has the first and largest Water Trails system in the nation. Come learn about the early years of the system, and the trip planning resources and paddling opportunities that are now available.  Plus, special guest Paul Ryberg will tell stories about growing up on the Minnesota River with his family that will be honored for their efforts to "unleash the recreational giant of canoeing." Read more about the presentation and speakers here.  Read more about the presentation and speakers here. 

   
• PRESENTATION. Paddling from Minneapolis to the Hudson Bay with Natalie Warren (8:45 PM). Ann Raiho and Natalie Warren are the first women to paddle from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. Read more about Natalie here.

• PRESENTATION. Reconnecting the Minnesota River  by Luther Aadland, River Scientist, MN DNR (9:30 PM). His work, research, and publications have included a wide variety of topics that integrate physical and biological processes of rivers and the design of river restoration, nature-like fish passage, dam removal, erosion control, and flood damage reduction projects. Read more about Luther here.

Saturday's events include Paddling Theater, with options for riding on large fur-trading style canoes or on your own craft. Sunday is a self-organized paddling on the Chippewa River, Hawk Creek, Minnesota River and Yellow Medicine River meet at Memorial Park.

Read more about both Saturday and Sunday here.

Photo: What a date! A voyageur who might just paddle your canoe. If this doesn't float your boat, we don't know what will.

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Rochester entrepreneur & activist seeks yes votes on marriage equality from GOP senators

Talk politics for any length of time with Rochester area businessman Chris Holloway, a transplant from the Show Me State, and it's clear the Missouri native's no Republican in Name Only, but a principled conservative who favors small government and individual liberty.

He's worked to elect conservative Republicans in both states. He just finished a round of service on the Olmsted County Republican Executive Board. He co-chaired the BPOU's finance committee with 2008 Republican congressional candidate Brian Davis.

Holloway's hustling to put his belief in the marketplace into action, raising funds for his new venture, Rochester Press Coffee and Tea Lounge, via a Kickstarter campaign.

He also spent the last year or so  working to defeat the amendment to restrict the freedom to marry in 2012, then pitching in to help pass the Clark/Dibble bill to extend marriage equality to all committed couples.

The Minnesota House passed its version of the bill in a bipartisan vote on Thursday, and the state senate will take up the bill shortly after it convenes today at noon. Governor Mark Dayton has pledged to sign the bill into law.  While the bill has the votes to win in the DFL majority, marriage equality supporters are still wooing Republican senators.

"All Minnesotans should have the same rights and freedoms," Holloway says.  "I have friends who wish to marry. Straight allies across the state want marriage equality.  It's obviously important to a lot of  Minnesotans."

Holloway hopes to one day marry his partner of six years, though he's clear on the distinction between civil and religious marriage. "I'm a life-long Catholic," he said, "I strongly believe in religious freedom and the right of churches and other faith communities to decide who they will marry and who they will not."

In fact, Holloway voted for a 2004 amendment to the Missouri state constitution to restrict the right to marry to one man and one woman. "It's been hard to explain my vote to people in the Minnesota campaign, but I felt that without the amendment, I there was no protection for freedom of religion, the religious component of marriage.'

"The [Missouri] campaign against the amendment didn't do a very good job explaining this," he said, observing that Minnesotans United--and legislation it supports--has stressed the exemptions that guarantee religious freedom.

'In fact, last year's amendment would have written religious restrictions by the state into the constitution," he said. "There are churches that want to be able to marry committed couples regardless of identity.'

Holloway wants his own state senator, Carla Nelson, and the Rochester area's other Republican senator, former Majority Leader Dave Senjem, to vote yes today.

First, the bill supports Republican values that put individual liberty above government control. 'As Republicans," he said, "we talk about smaller government, staying out of people’s lives. When I weigh positives  of this bill against negatives, it's a pretty clear choice. Carla [Nelson] should vote yes."

Second, the consequences of the bill will be good for Minnesota. 'It’s only going to positively affect Minnesotans," Holloway said.  "It’s pretty simple."

'It's good for children. It’s going to positively affect the children of same-sex couples. The children will receive the legal protections of marriage. Having married parents will help them be more accepted as they grow older.'

'When I look to other states where same-sex marriage is legal," Holloway continued,  'I’ve seen nothing negative."

Were Senator Nelson and Senjem to vote yes, they would be a validating Republican principles.

"Ultimately, individual freedom is a Republican ideal,' Holloway said, "and at the end of the day I would hope more Republican legislators would be able to see that."

Screenshot: Chris Holloway, screenshot from a KAAL-TV story, Rochester a Key City in Marriage Amendment.

This original story is underwritten by a sponsorship by Minnesotans United for All Families.

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Editor's note: One of the first people Bluestem interviewed for our series of posts about supporters of the freedom to marry was Naomi Wente, a gifted University of Minnesota--Morris senior. Wente  graduated from the U this weekend.

Read the post here: Once an ally, University of Minnesota-Morris student now works for her own freedom to marry.

We reached out to Naomi's mother to see if she and Naomi's father might be interested in being interviewed for a post that shared their views on tomorrow's historic vote on the Dibble marriage equality bill in the Minnesota state senate, the last step before the measure goes to Governor Mark Dayton's desk. The goal would be to appeal to Senator Dave Senjem to join Senator Branden Petersen (R-Andover) in voting for marriage equality.

This is her response.

Dear Senator Senjem,

This past week has been important to us as parents for two reasons. First, our daughter, Naomi Wente, graduated from college yesterday. Naomi has been recognized by many for her strong passion for helping others here locally and internationally. At the age of 14, she was recognized for her work in Cambodia. She led a campaign to help keep girls in school called: One Toilet at a Time. The idea was to help girls overcome the problem of the lack of sanitation. She wanted to take away even one reason for girls not going to school. Yesterday, our grown daughter, no longer a girl, achieved her goal: a college degree!

Your notes of congratulations have been sent for her national awards, state service learning projects, and international competitions. She has a photograph of you and her after receiving the Olmsted County Youth Commission Award. I am thinking that as you did for her high school graduations, you and your office will be sending congratulations to graduating seniors again this year.

We hope that one day she might get a chance to say congratulations to you -- congratulations for standing on the side of dignity, justice and joy. When I met you in the state capitol a few weeks ago, and in a letter last week, I shared with you the story of Naomi wondering if she would ever hear the word, "Congratulations" at her wedding. Our amazing daughter who has motivated so many to join her in her quest for justice over these years is now needing your support and motivation to support her -- to support her in her drive to see marriage equality in Minnesota.

Tomorrow we could do just that -- we could shake your hand and say congratulations to you for taking a strong stand on supporting Marriage for all.

Mark and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in just over a month. We have been privileged to live our lives with two children who have enriched our lives. Mark and I have brought both children to church from cradle to adulthood. We have volunteered with them for local events as well as internationally in Cambodia. Our family has stood up for human rights together -- all four of us speaking at hundreds of schools, churches, community groups and organizations as well as academic conferences. People have told us how fortunate we are that our family is so strong and have asked us why our kids are so amazing. We share that while we have our own ups and downs, we are so proud of our children. I believe it is due to our deep faith -- and our charge, as Christians, to live the word of Jesus. Because our faith calls us to be faithful to each other in our marriage, we hope Naomi will have a chance to do so through marriage should she find someone to share her life with as well.

Thank you for your consideration. I interviewed you 8 years ago for the Post Bulletin. You told me then that the hardest thing in your job was finding that supposed black and white area in social issues. More recently, at the Lobby Day three weeks ago, you shared with me that so many young people seem to have a different view about homosexuality. I think the youth of today are connected to their world like no other generation. They see oppression; they know injustice when they see it. Help us to help them say congratulations to you for voting on the side of justice.

Thank you from the voices of rural America. In rural Minnesota this issue impacts us greatly.

Lori Halverson-Wente

Dodge Center, Minnesota

Photos: Mark and Lori Halverson-Wente in a Scandinavian church. Photo by Naomi Wente (above); Lori Halverson-Wente (adult on left) and her daughter Naomi (foreground, right) with Cambodian girls. Photo by Trisha Greenlee (below).

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Musician Mark Gunderson and his wife Jean, a nurse, see themselves as ordinary citizens who value fairness.

"We’re average middle class Minnesotans, college educated and employed in our respective occupations for many years," Mark wrote in an email interview with Bluestem. "We always try to be aware of public issues important to all Minnesotans."

The Winona couple, described by a mutual friend as "well-loved" in their community, wants state senator Jeremy Miller to vote yes for the freedom to marry when the Dibble marriage equality bill comes up for consideration by the Minnesota state senate.

Their voices join those of Clara Dux, and married couple Anne Morse and Jon Nicholson in wanting their state senator to vote yes. Although the DFL majority has the votes to pass the bill, they'd like to see Miller join other Republican (Branden Peterson in the Senate; Pat Garofalo, David FitzSimmons, Andrea Kieffer and Jenifer Loon in the House) in supporting the core values of equality, fairness and inclusiveness.

"Our state Senator should vote yes for this bill because quite simply it’s the right thing to do," Mark told Bluestem Prairie. "Marriage equality is important to us because we feel it is or should be a human/civil right for people to have the right to marry who they love."

The question of civil rights for everyone isn't entirely abstract for them, but has been brought home by the experiences of a family member.

"Over the last several years we’ve had an opportunity to learn more about gender issues as our daughter navigates her way through establishing her own identity. She’s taught us a lot," Mark confided in his email.

"We favor marriage equality because this will allow same sex couples who marry to enjoy the same benefits as heterosexual couples," he noted, adding that the passage of the bill will make the Gopher State truly "Minnesota Nice."

"Passing the freedom to marry bill will help the state become more inclusive and accessible for all families," Mark said.

The  Gundersons understand that some fellow Minnesotans fear change, but Mark cited a phrase by the state's most well-known singer-songwriter in hopes of relieving that anxiety.  "If we were to sit down with an opponent of the freedom to marry bill we would say: 'the times they are a changin’'. Ten years from now, no one will care."

Photo: Mark and Jean Gunderson.

This original story is underwritten by a sponsorship by Minnesotans United for All Families.

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Now for something completely different: MN Poet Laureate Sutphen chaplains for House

When Senator Bruce Anderson introduced a bill to name the lyrics to the little-known song, "Minnesota Blue" as state poem, few noted nor long remembered that Minnesota does have a poet laureate (many thought that one veto by former Governor Pawlenty had settled the question) .

Bluestem's editor and young Montevideo poet Josh Preston debated the merits of the lyrics in Shall we pick song lyrics by a Hawaiian music artist for Minnesota's State Poem? No and Yes.

At the time of the bill's  introduction, poet laureate Joyce Sutphen, who lives in Chaska while teaching at Gustavus Adolphus, graciously suggested that given Minnesota's fine crop of poets,  a better idea might be to have a webpage where readers might savor the abundant poesy in these parts. Bluestem rather liked that idea--especially if more traditional works by poets like Robert Bly and John Berryman could jostle with videos by spoken word artists like Guante and Lioness.

Sutphen served as chaplain on Friday in the Minnesota House.  Via The Uptake, here is the poem she read:

Photo:Joyce Sutphen.

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