To say people in Northfield are concerned about climate change would be an understatement.
Organizers of Saturday's "Northfield Area Climate Summit" were hoping for 400 people to show up at St. Olaf College's Buntrock Commons for the event. On Thursday night at the close of registration of the first-ever community-wide event on the subject of climate change, 857 people had signed up, according to Alan Anderson, one of the organizers.
"We have been astonished and pleased that it has gone to 857," Anderson said. "This event has continued to grow since we first mentioned it in March and began organizing in July. A lot of folks in the community have been talking about the summit for some time now. It's a real success."
Meterologist Paul Douglas was the keynote speaker.
Fiscal responsibility with the tax payers money is a high priority for Senator Nienow. The same common sense money management used by families and businesses is also necessary with the state budget. Senator Nienow is committed to being thoughtful, prudent and disciplined with your tax dollars to ensure the state meets its obligations, provides appropriate help to those in need, and fosters a vibrant economic climate for Minnesota business.
State Sen. Sean R. Nienow, R-Cambridge, and his wife, Cynthia, have been sued and are accused of failing to make payments for the past 3½ years on a $613,000 loan they took out from the Small Business Administration (SBA).
The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed Friday afternoon by the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis.
The Nienows borrowed the money for their company, the National Camp Association, Inc., described in news accounts as an organization that helps parents select a camp. The association, which is listed on the Minnesota secretary of state’s website at the Nienows’ home address in Cambridge, also was sued.
The website shows that the association was incorporated in 2008 and dissolved in 2012. Nienow was described as the chief executive officer.
The suit alleges that on Jan. 16, 2009, the SBA provided the loan to the association and it was personally guaranteed by the Nienows. A copy of the signed guarantee is attached to the suit.
“The defendants ceased making payments on or about July 28, 2010, and the Note has not been repaid,” the suit said. “Defendants have defaulted under the terms and conditions of the Note by failing to repay said Note.”
Nienow and the National Camp Association, Inc, a Minnesota corporation, was also sued in state court by the National Camp Association, Inc, a New York Corporation (Minnesota Case No. 30-CV-11-1022, filed December 6, 2011). Bluestem obtained a copy of the complaint in late 2012 while the civil case was still open (court financial information, Receipt # 0030-2012-04691).
In the state case, the National Camp Association Inc, a New York Corporation, claimed that Nienow had purchased the assets of the New York organization but had not made full payment. Online records indicate that the court granted a summary judgement on June 6, 2013, on the original principle of $30,000.00. On December 24, 2013, the court a gave a judgement to the plaintiff on the original priniciple of $7,755.04.
Furst writes that Nienow lists only "consultant" as his profession in the official directory of the state legislature. However, In Senator Neinow's Economic Interest Statement, the state senator lists his occupation as "Director," with "National Camp Association, Inc - Self Employed" as his employer. Under sources of compensation, Nienow lists himself as a director, officer and employee of the National Camp Association. The "National Camp Association, Inc" is also listed as an asset.
A measure to require the labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMO) sold in Minnesota was introduced in the House and Senate last year but there were no hearings. An amendment was drafted to the House Omnibus Environment and Agriculture Finance Bill to study the health and environmental effects of GMO’s but it ultimately was never offered. Agri-Growth is an ardent supporter of agriculture biotechnology and supports the position of the FDA that labeling would be misleading and is precluded sincethere is no nutritional or safety difference with non-GMO food ingredients.
One of Minnesota’s legendary business success stories underwent a major revision Thursday at the criminal trial of businessman Robert Walker.
Walker, the founder of Select Comfort Corp. in the late 1980s, is accused of cheating investors in an energy company he ran from 2001 to 2011. Along the way, Walker touted to potential investors in the now-defunct Bixby Energy Systems his executive credentials at the Minnesota-based bed company.
But a retired investment banker testified in U.S. District Court in St. Paul that Walker brought Select Comfort close to bankruptcy by 1991, and was forced to step down as CEO as a condition for new investment. . . .
Walker, 71, is on trial for fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and witness tampering. Prosecutors contend that he defrauded 1,800 investors who put $57 million into Bixby Energy, a company he cofounded in 2001. He is accused of lying to investors to enrich himself, his family and accomplices, including a convicted fraudster who has pleaded guilty in the fraud case. . . .
(Gutknecht was not a party to the fraud, and tried unsuccessfully to rescue what remained.)
Bixby did develop a corn stove product and recorded sales. But rising corn prices ruined that market, starting in 2006. Bixby then partnered with a North Carolina firm to develop a process of converting coal into natural gas and oil.
"My personal feeling is that this company has the potential to become one of the biggest business stories of the century," Walker wrote in a later edition of the Blaze, as the company was trying to launch the coal conversion business.
. . . Prosecutors say that Bixby Energy was simply a way to raise money. They claim the technology behind Bixby's coal-to-natural gas and oil process never worked, despite Walker's claims.
Lawsuits that have just now become public accuse Englestad of religious discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination and, of course, anti-Semitism. This is actually the second Hitler birthday bash that Englestad has thrown in the hotel. But hey, at least there was cake!
Another guest says that during this year's party Engelstad "forced some Jewish employees to come against their wishes. He wanted one Jew to cut the cake, but the person ducked out. Ralph ran around trying to find him."
While Ronald Reagan was dedicating the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, Ralph Engelstad was in Las Vegas applying the finishing touches to his own multimillion-dollar tribute to the era. The 58-year-old owner of the Imperial Palace hotel and casino was busy with his War Room, a 3,000-square-foot private suite filled with Nazi memorabilia—heroic murals of Adolph Hitler and staff, swastikas and Nazi daggers, and military cars used by Mussolini and by Hitler and his Third Reich henchmen Himmler and Göring. . . .
His peculiar fascination with Hitler was revealed by half a dozen present and former Imperial Palace employees who have filed lawsuits or grievances accusing him of anti-Semitic remarks, religious discrimination and sexual harassment and, in some cases, wrongfully firing them. Mick Shindel 44, who was the hotel's director of corporate security until last month, charges Engelstad with "name-calling and reviling of my Jewish religion."
MCPL’s lead spokesperson is Barb Anderson, a ubiquitous figure in the school bullying debate. Anderson has long volunteered as a researcher for the Minnesota Family Council, which led two failed battles against marriage equality. She was also a vocal opponent of LGBT safety in the Anoka-Hennepin School District where she helped launch the Parents Action League. PAL is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its adamant demands to have the ex-gay movement in the Anoka-Hennepin School District.
Anderson has made some extreme statements about LGBT people, so much so that GLAAD has added her to its Commentator Accountability Project.
For example, she once said, “The greatest threat to our freedom and the health and well-being of our children is from this radical homosexual agenda that is just so pervasive.”
Anderson is joined by several other veterans of anti-LGBT campaigns, particularly Education Liberty Watch formerly known as EdWatch. . .
Let us be clear from the outset: We have little, if any, tolerance for bullies — those who use their power to control or harm others. Some of us have seen, sometimes first-hand, what it looks and feels like to be pushed around and bullied, and we know that it can be hurtful, sometimes devastatingly so.
For that reason, we understand the need for the Minnesota Legislature to strengthen bullying laws — something that lawmakers tried but failed to do this past session, and something that lawmakers are expected to consider, perhaps early in the session, when they convene again in February. We understand the need to protect students who are most likely to be targeted.
The problem is that the bill that is before the Legislature mandates school districts to do many things — including establishing new anti-bullying programs in the districts, investigating alleged instances of bullying and training all district staff on how to handle bullying — but the bill provides no funds to pay for the new programs and the training, let alone money to pay the salaries and benefits of the extra staff that will be needed to handle the bullying investigations.
Unlike folks like Anderson--who sought to introduce reparation "therapy" into the public schools to "cure" the queer in young folks--Smith's point isn't based on the notion that LGBT children need to be forced to change. It's about the Benjamins.
“Terrible politics” was the opinion of Alan Shilepsky, a 2006 Republican candidate for Congress in the 5th District. Shilepsky, as a board member for the Log Cabin Republicans, had lobbied Republicans to not support the constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage.
After listening to Anderson’s remarks, Shilepsky said he, too, believes the bill is a bureaucratic nightmare but that preaching the fears of a gay agenda to defeat it would create a Republican backlash.
“The marriage amendment was the biggest organizing effort to help the Democrats in 10 years. It mobilized them to do many things,” he said. “We’ve built a monster because of our own foolishness.”
The CD7 Republicans might also consider the legacy of Ralph Englestad as well. While a hockey arena in North Dakota and a meeting center in Thief River Falls bear his name, little remains causes for which bullied employees and others--ust as policies Anderson pushed have vanished from public schools.
In the court of public opinion, Barbara Anderson's animosity toward LGBT youth may go the way of Englestad's celebrations and bullying about an offensive nickname. In the meantime, you can catch her new organization at the Imperial Room just before this MNCD7 event:
4 pm Meet and Greet the Republican Candidates! All declared US Senate, Gubernatorial and Congressional District Candidates have been invited. They’re clearing their schedules and want to meet you! Cash bar and appetizers. Free to attend, donations accepted
So much for the Republican Party steering away from social issues. Instead, we're seeing this "Mega Event" in an appropriate venue. The Ralph Englestad Arena's page, Who Was Ralph Englestad, includes only laudatory articles from the local paper, including one in which Ralph laments the existance of child labor laws. It's so awful that "You can't give kids a job. Why not? You're making it worse for those kids by not letting them work. It isn't fair and it just doesn't make sense."
Over at True North, Jeff Kolb posts some cautionary blogging for local Tea Party members in The Sheriff Joe I Know:
he Minnesota Tea Party Alliance announced the other day that Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be headlining their first quarter Tea Party event.
This confuses me, as I’m not sure how Arpaio fits in with the Tea Party’s principles of Free Markets, Fiscal Responsibility, and Limited Government- specifically the last two.
I lived in Phoenix, Arizona, which is in Maricopa county, for a few years, starting in 2008. I was excited to be living in the county that was protected by the man who calls himself “America’s Toughest Sheriff.”
. . .His media team has done well in developing his old-time, wild-west county sheriff image. I bought it, hook line and sinker.
. . .It was only after I got more involved in Arizona politics that the real Joe Arpaio started to become clear.
The bills for the sheriff’s publicity stunts continue to mount.
Tent City, pink underwear and green bologna may have made the sheriff popular, but what they did most effectively was distract attention from multimillion settlements with the families of inmates killed or severely injured in Arpaio’s jails.
Next came more than $17 million in settlements with Arpaio’s political enemies — the ones he and Maricopa County Attorney Andy Thomas targeted in their supposed campaign against corruption. Every allegation they served up was laughed out of court. Thomas was disbarred. But Arpaio remains in office, kept there by the very taxpayers whose money he treats like a blank check.
And now the next bill is coming due: $21.9 million over the next 18 months to comply with a judge’s ruling that Arpaio’s office engaged in widespread racial profiling. The profiling occurred in service to the “toughest sheriff” story line. If we had a sheriff who put law enforcement ahead of his image, it’s $21.9 million we wouldn’t have to spend now.
That's a 2014 editorial, but the notion of Arpaio as America's most expensive sheriff is nothing new. in 2010, the Arizona Republic posted a short letter, 'Most Expensive Sheriff in America':
Given the millions of dollars Sheriff Joe Arpaio has cost the taxpayers in lawsuits, I think he should change his title of being the "Toughest Sheriff in America" to the "Most Expensive Sheriff in America."
-- Lee North, Peoria (Nexis All-News, accessed Jan, 15, 2014)
2007: Arpaio targets Phoenix New Times with lawsuit
Kolb notes how the recent editorial "only touches on the use of the laughably named “anti-corruption unit” as a tool to punish political enemies, while claiming that the Sheriff's Department was able to use interviews in the national press to promote an image while dodging local media. Thus, those who voted for Arpaio more than once can be forgiven because they were snookered.
That take seems overgenerous, as local media had been reporting about Arpaio's excesses for years, although like political rivals, Arpaio used the levers of power in attempts to silence critics in the media as well.
This newspaper and its editorial staff — both current and former — are the targets ofunprecedented grand jury subpoenas dated August 24.
The authorities are also using the grand jury subpoenas in an attempt to research the identity, purchasing habits, and browsing proclivities of our online readership. . . .
In a breathtaking abuse of the United States Constitution, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, and their increasingly unhinged cat's paw, special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik, used the grand jury to subpoena "all documents related to articles and other content published by Phoenix New Times newspaper in print and on the Phoenix New Times website, regarding Sheriff Joe Arpaio from January 1, 2004 to the present."
Every note, tape, and record from every story written about Sheriff Arpaio by every reporter over a period of years.
In addition to the omnibus subpoena, which referred to our writer Stephen Lemonsdirectly, reporters John Dougherty and Paul Rubin were targeted with individual subpoenas.
More alarming still, Arpaio, Thomas, and Wilenchik subpoenaed detailed information on anyone who has looked at the New TimesWeb site since 2004. . . .
. . . Lacey and Larkin wrote an Oct. 18, 2007 story detailing authorities’ actions. The night the story was published, they were arrested on charges of violating the secrecy of a grand jury. The subpoenas were later declared invalid because they were obtained without the approval of any grand jury, nor Superior Court Judge Baca, who was in charge of convening them.
The last two lawsuits filed by political targets of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas were settled by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Friday, ending a long bout of litigation that has cost the county millions of dollars over the past few years.
Supervisors voted to settle for $3.75 million a federal lawsuit filed against the county by Phoenix New Times founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin. The news executives were arrested in 2007 after publishing details of a rogue prosecutor’s misdeeds.
Later Friday, supervisors also voted to settle for $3.5 million a federal lawsuit filed by former County Supervisor Don Stapley, who was arrested during the so-called war on political corruption waged by Thomas, Arpaio and their deputies.
The two settlements bring to at least $17 million the final taxpayer cost of lawsuits relating to Arpaio’s and Thomas’ politically-motivated legal attacks. That tab is likely to grow, due to a separate settlement that was approved last year but is currently under appeal.
Arpaio has been a Tea Party darling since the conservative movement took off in 2009, and Tea Party organizers have always ignored his war on political opponents and reporters who dogged stories about his record.
Among the speakers scheduled to address the convention are former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, former U.S. Rep. John Shadegg and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The Arizona Republic reports an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 tea party members are expected to attend.
A Tea Party Patriots national coordinator says the group has a 40-year plan to instill in Americans the core values of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets.
When Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's anti-corruption unit was established in 2008, it set out to investigate and prosecute corruption in public agencies.
But once the sheriff's second-in-command, then-Chief Deputy David Hendershott, assumed control, the unit became a tool to smear political enemies, say a number of deputies interviewed in an internal investigation released this week.
Detailed testimony of the inner workings of the public-corruption unit is contained in more than 1,000 pages of an investigation by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu into the conduct of Hendershott and two other sheriff's commanders, former Deputy Chief Larry Black and Capt. Joel Fox. The heavily redacted report was released Tuesday.
Kolb has a point many conservatives have missed: Sheriff Joe isn't much a friend of constitutionally limited government.>
We only wonder what's taking so long for the Tea Party to understand these facts about this "ally."
Photo: Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Not a cheap date people.
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A pair of Worthington High School seniors will be able to attend prom this spring with their same-sex partners, WHS Principal Paul Karelis said Tuesday.
The issue surfaced after the teens began circulating a petition in the high school Tuesday morning, seeking support from fellow classmates on an issue Karelis said hadn’t previously come up.
Stephanie Romero and Randy Junker collected more than 100 signatures in just a few hours, and said students, for the most part, were supportive. Some wouldn’t sign the petition due to religious beliefs, and the teens said that was OK.
Buntjer contacted superintendents across Southwestern Minnesota and reports that schools don't see a problem:
Superintendents at several area school districts said that while they haven’t had requests from students in the past to bring a same-sex partner to prom, they aren’t going to deny them admittance.
“We aren’t going to discriminate,” said Gary Fisher, Luverne Public Schools Superintendent. “The prom is a big deal. We want kids to come to prom whether they have a date or not.” . . .
Todd Meyer, superintendent at Jackson County Central Schools, said students there can bring whoever they want to prom. Luther Onken said Fulda Public School and Murray County Central don’t have anything in writing that would prevent same-sex couples from attending prom — at least not that he was aware of.
They, like Roger Graff, superintendent at Adrian Public Schools, said the issue of same-sex prom dates has never surfaced.
“If it ever did come up, we’re going to do what we have to,” Graff said. “We can’t discriminate.”
Read the article at the Globe. The students' comments are endearing.
Cartoon: From last year's Funky Winkerbean prom storyline (King Features). Flipping over prom dates is so 2012.
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Never one to sit back and watch, Gruenhagen has introduced HF1997, a bill to remove obscenity law exemptions for public schools and postsecondary institutions (the strikout removes the word schools and the underlined text addsnew language:
. . .Subd. 2. Best interest. It is in the best interest of the health, welfare, and safety of the citizens of this state, and especially of minors within the state, that commercial dissemination, and dissemination without monetary consideration in a place of public accommodation, of sexually explicit written, photographic, printed, sound or published materials, and of plays, dances, or other exhibitions presented before an audience, that are deemed harmful to minors, be restricted to persons over the age of 17 years; or, if available to minors under the age of 18 years, that the availability of the materials be restricted to sources within established and recognized schools, churches, museums, medical clinics and physicians, hospitals, public libraries, or government sponsored organizations, excluding schools and postsecondary institutions.
If passed, public K-12, PSEO and Doogie Howser-types in public schools will have to use the library or something if they want to learn about the Big O or filthy Kinsey studies.
At least, that's what Bluestem's crack team of legislative scholars is telling us.
Photo: Glenn Gruenhagen, the sole legislator backing HF1997. There is no Senate companion bill.
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Now that he's running for Congress everything is wrong with America for Stewart Mills III. Via Duluth, The Star Tribune's Kevin Diaz reports at the end of Nolan duel with GOP ‘young gun’ heats up early:
But Mills’ free-market philosophy is likely to be challenged by Democrats, who note that the Mills Automotive Group sold more than $3 million in inventory under Obama’s “Cash for Clunkers” program in 2009 and 2010.
Mills called the job stimulus program “another failed example of Washington, D.C., trying to legislate the free market.” His family business only took part, he said, “in an effort to protect employees and our customer base.”
A friend in the Cities pointed out to Bluestem that the family business was not always so down on Cash for Clunkers. While the headline of Renee Richardson's 2009 report about the program in the Brainerd Dispatch was lukewarm, the Mills employee interviewed for Car program had a few clunkers of its own states that "there is no question that it was a success":
Thinned ranks of automobiles on area dealership lots attest to the popularity of the Cash for Clunkers program.
"It worked very well for sales," said Rick Goble, Mills Motors director of operations. "It was a challenge to administer. There was a great deal of confusion but it was certainly a boost to business." . . .
. . . Goble quoted the National Automobile Dealers Association's report that the program started with 30 federal employees and about 200 contract workers, which grew to nearly 5,000 in the last two weeks.
"They started with far too few of people," Goble said. "Overall, there is no question that it was a success and nobody could have estimated the kind of demand there was, and everything got overwhelmed that's just the way it was." . . .
Seifert also mustered his vast rhetorical powers to tell rural voters that any rural citzen who votes for Dayton is like a friendly but abused cur:
“After understanding these consistent facts, someone in rural Minnesota who votes for Mark Dayton is like a dog fetching a stick, knowing the stick will be used to beat them,” Seifert said.
In the close 2010 gubernatorial election, Mark Dayton won Aitkin, Beltrami, Big Stone, Blue Earth, Carlton, Chippewa, Clay, Cook, Freeborn, Itasca, Kittson, Koochiching, Lac qui Parle, Lake, Mahnomen, Marshall, Mower, Nicollet, Norman, Polk, Red Lake, Rice, St. Louis (since Duluth's Solon is a "rural" person on Planet Seifert, we'll keep this one in the dog dish), Swift, Traverse and Winona County among the rural areas--not to mention those who voted in red counties.
Bluestem does not believe comparing voters to beaten dogs is a convincing strategy to capture the independents and moderate Democrats Seifert says will help him win the governor's office.
Photo: Mark Dayton with Mingo and Itasca. From Diverting dogs help Dayton decompress in ECM Newspapers. Photo by Howard Lestrud. Will Marty Seifert call voters "sheeple" next?
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Many of the names on the newly-released list of Minnesota's new silica sand advisroy panel will be familiar to Bluestem Prairie readers.
From the MPCA/DNR press release:
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) have announced the membership of a new joint advisory panel that will guide the agencies as they consider possible rulemaking for the regulation of silica sand operations in Minnesota.
Members of the committee are:
Local government representatives
Beth Proctor, Lime Township
Allen Frechette, Scott County
Keith Fossen, Hay Creek Township
Lynn Schoen, City of Wabasha
Kristi Gross, Goodhue County and Minnesota Association of County Planning and ZoningAdministrators
Citizen representatives
Kelley Stanage, resident of Houston County
Katie Himanga, resident of Lake City
Jill Bathke, resident of Hennepin County
Jim McIlrath, resident of Goodhue County
Vince Ready, resident of Winona County
Industry representatives
Aaron Scott, Fairmount Minerals
Mike Wallenius, Unimin Corp.
Brett Skilbred, Jordan Sands and Industrial Sand Council
Tom Rowekamp, Sand Mine Operator in Winona County
Tara Wetzel, Mathy Construction and Aggregate and Ready Mix Associatio
The MPCA and MDNR decided to establish the panel to provide input as they implement legislation passed in 2013 calling for rulemaking on silica sand operations. The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board will also participate in the advisory committee process to receive advice on rules related to silica sand environmental review.
The committee will have its first meeting Jan. 29 and continue meeting monthly until new rules or rule revisions are proposed. This process is likely to take at least one year. Meetings of the committee will be public, with some held at the MPCA or MDNR offices in St. Paul and some likely in southeastern Minnesota.
Baja Sol Cantina EP LLC, Anoka; filed Jan. 3, 14-40026; Chap. 11; assets, $0; liabilities, $6,328,821. Michael Wigley, chief manager.
The restaurant, once part of the expansive franchise dreams of failed burrito baron and former Republican Party of Minnesota Tony Sutton, has been closed since 2010.
Wigley's name will be familiar to many readers as the founder of the Taxpayers League. In a 2008 feature about The 10 most powerful Minnesota Republicans, City Pages reported:
. . . Wigley made his millions in construction. He's chairman, president, and CEO of Great Plains Companies, Inc. He has degrees fromStanford and Harvard. And he's got a monomaniacal fix on his issue: taxes. Specifically, eliminating them. And he's a walk-the-walk man: He's donated $95,500 of his own money to the Taxpayers League over the years.
When state government hits a wall over one tax issue or another, you will probably find Wigley in a corner somewhere smirking. But it's not just about muscle. The league doubles as a research center, issuing talking points to fuel the tax debate. Sure, says Weber, "Wigley pisses a lot of people off—but that's his job." Weber observes that Minnesotans—liberals and conservatives alike—occasionally lock arms on tax issues. "And in a liberal political climate, in areas where we do have some common ground, there needs to be somebody to organize around it."
And organize Wigley does. Relentlessly. He's called for the resignation of a state Republican speaker of the House. In recent months, he's called on Chamber of Commerce members to revoke their membership.
"He's been able to mobilize an extraordinary amount of money for anti-tax campaigns," says Steven Schier, a professor of political science at Carleton. "That voice didn't exist in Minnesota politics before him. He made a material difference in Minnesota politics." . . .
hWhen those hired by the likes of Wigley and Sutton to serve as lobbyists or legislators start blittering away about how we should run government like a family or a business . . .we might ask just what they mean by that.
A spokesperson for Xcel Energy -- a $10.1 billion a year public company based in Minnesota -- said that the company hasn't been a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council(ALEC) since 2011 in response to a recent letter to the Boulder Weekly criticizing Xcel's efforts to reduce homeowner solar "net metering" credits as a hindrance to transitioning to renewable energy sources. The spokesperson attempted to distance the company from ALEC, complaining, "if you’ve been affiliated once, then they’ll brand you for life."
Xcel Energy was listed as a state co-chair in ALEC documents from the summer of 2011, but Xcel told Boulder Weekly that it last paid dues in 2010. It is not clear when Xcel actually stopped aiding ALEC. . . .
Glenn Vaad, a member of the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has been appointed to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. According to the Boulder Weekly, Vaad
was active in ALEC when he was a state legislator, serving as chair of the ALEC Task Force on Commerce, Insurance & Economic Development, according to ALEC documents posted by Friends of the Colorado PUC (friendsofthecoloradopuc.wordpress.com), which recently launched an anti-Vaad petition drive that has garnered more than 750 signatures.
Gabe Elsner, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., points out that Vaad also received ALEC’s “State Legislator of the Year” award in 2012, according to documents provided to the Center for Media and Democracy by a whistleblower.
Dodge writes that Xcel claims it hasn't given money to ALEC for awhile:
Michelle Aguayo, a spokesperson for Xcel, says her company hasn’t given money to ALEC since 2010, but “if you’ve been affiliated once, then they’ll brand you for life.”
She also says it’s a bit of a stretch to make a connection between her company and Vaad just because of Xcel’s payments to ALEC or EEI.
“If we give a grant to our United Way fund, I don’t know how often we go and say it can be used for this person, this person, but not this person, or it can be used for this event but not that,” she told BW. “It’s a charitable donation.”
“They’re probably trying to connect a lot of dots that probably aren’t there,” Aguayo says of the renewable energy advocates criticizing Vaad. “They will use any and every tactic they can to bolster their positions, whether they are valid or not. And unfortunately, you get some groups that, if they say something enough, they believe it, whether or not it’s true, and they want everybody else to believe it as well, to validate their opinion. Do we quit giving money to anybody and everybody because of possible ties somewhere down the road?”
PRWATCH: XCEL's ties to ALEC
In the PRWatch article, Rebekah Wilce explores Xcel's remaining indirect financial ties to the corporate bill mill:
Xcel Energy was the corporate state co-chair of ALEC in Wisconsin as of ALEC's 2011 annual meeting in New Orleans. "Xcel claims it wants more solar and is trying to publicly distance itself from ALEC's assault on clean energy," Gabe Elsner told CMD. He is the Executive Director of the Energy and Policy Center (EPC) -- a non-profit group that "performs research and analysis on lobbyists, front groups, and politicians working to expand our reliance on fossil fuels and slow the development of a clean energy economy," according to its website. "But in reality, their trade association, Edison Electric Institute (which Xcel gave over $300,000 in 2012), is spearheading a national attack on rooftop solar through ALEC. And Xcel is working to gut incentives for homeowners that invest in solar in Colorado. Actions speak louder than words."
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) was an exhibitor at ALEC's 2011 annual meeting and funded the 2012 ALEC States & Nation Policy Summit, according to ALEC materials obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). Other groups EEI has funded include the euphemistically named Global Climate Coalition, which prior to its disbanding in 2002, was one of the most outspoken and confrontational industry groups in the United States battling reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the staff director of ALEC’s energy task force left ALEC last year to join EEI as their X (give his name and a cite).
Undisclosed fossil fuel industry interests introduced an "Updating Net Metering Policies Resolution" -- proposing that state policymakers "require that everyone who uses the grid helps pay to maintain it" (even those who are contributing power to the grid) -- to ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force at the group's States & Nation Policy Summit in Washington, DC, in December 2013. EEI's Executive Director of retail energy services, Rick Tempchin, told EPC's Elsner that Brian McCormick, EEI's Vice President for Political and External Affairs, "worked with them on the resolution" attacking net metering, according to the Huffington Post. . . .
Xcel may not be wed to ALEC any longer, but it does seem like it's still making support payments to the corporate bill mill.
You wouldn't know it from looking at the online editions of area newspapers, but First District Congressional hopefuls Mike Benson, Jim Hagedorn and Aaron Miller met in a forum in Blue Earth yesterday, the first one sponsored by a Republican party unit this year.
It should be interesting to see how much each candidate raised when their Year-End Reports, due Friday 31, 2014, are filed. Because the district leans Republican--or has in the past--Minnesota's Fighting First has been mentioned as a target since Tim Walz (DFL-Mankato) won the district in an upset in 2006.
Photo: The MNCD1 GOP congressional candidate clown car.
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There's a lovely story in the most recent issue of the Red Wing Republican Eagle about the respect that "quiet strength" and "fight for truth" earned for a city resident deeply involved in environmental education and human rights for LGBT people.
From that most main street of organizations, the Kiwanis.
When Bruce Ause went to Thursday’s Noontime Kiwanis meeting, he thought he was there to help talk about the early years of the Environmental Learning Center. Instead, he was honored for his work with the ELC and other community involvement when he was named the 2013 Red Wing Neighbor of the Year.
He was chosen from a handful of nominees and stood out for getting the ELC off the ground, work at the state Capitol and locally for Red Wing PFLAG, and his “quiet strength” and fight for truth, Kiwanis members said.
A google search returns a couple thousand hits on his name, and the Red Wing Republican Eagle story condenses that record into a life spent changing people's minds:
In his work with PFLAG, Ause has been “fighting for equality when it’s not very popular,” Leise said.
“He’s one of the few people who can change people’s minds,” she said. “By changing minds, you can change a community.”
Ause said his work with PFLAG has been aimed at curbing discrimination, which he said many people can’t fully understand until they’ve experienced it.
“I am most appreciative of the fact that Minnesota is leading the country in respect and dignity for those that are different,” he said.
Ause began working with the Environmental Learning Center when it started in 1970, seeking "to make a difference one kid at a time,” Killey reports. Ause was also speaking up in April, 2011 about the need to scrutinize industrial scale frac sand mining, according to an Associated Press report, SE Minn. Could Become Hotbed For ‘Frac Sand’. While most people were still babbling on about a "new gold rush," Ause was more cautious:
But some residents fear that sand mining will spoil the local environment, said Bruce Ause, retired director of the Red Wing Environmental Learning Center.
“It’s not that they don’t want any development whatsoever,” Ause said. “But I think they want smart development, sustainable development that doesn’t damage the main reason that people live here or want to live here.”
. . .The cyclical invasion of forest tent caterpillars, which has mostly avoided northern Minnesota for the past decade, appears ready to unfold in 2014 and 2015.
Aerial surveys, released in a report this week, show forest tent caterpillars quadrupled their coverage area from a quarter-million acres of forest defoliated in 2012 to nearly 1.1 million acres in 2013.
That big jump is usually a bellwether for a major infestation, Jana Albers, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources forest health specialist, told the News Tribune.
Bug experts used aerial surveys of more than 16 million acres of northern and central Minnesota at what should be peak leaf-out time last June. They found all but one of the forested counties in Minnesota had at least some defoliation caused by forest tent caterpillars. . . .
There's a huge yuck factor in the invasion, and a friendly insect ally:
Forest tent caterpillars (sometimes wrongly called army worms, which are a different species) often emit a greenish-black fluid when disturbed that stains paint and clothing. During the height of defoliation, their excrement often rains down from tree branches above.
. . .Their demise also is hastened by the so-called friendly fly, a predator whose numbers build a year or so after the caterpillar numbers. Eventually, enough of the predatory flies are around that they make a huge dent in the caterpillar population. (They’re called friendly flies because they often land on people but they don’t bite people.) . . .
According to Elizabeth Frost, the blogger at Bee Informed, the technical term for insect excrement is "frass," a word which offers the state's formal rhyming poets a great opportunity.
We citizens of Chippewa County, Minnesota can sleep soundly now that Black Snake (aka Crockpot) Militia Buford “Bucky” Rogers has plead guilty on a charge of possessing a gun while a felon.
Eight months later, in the order and calm of a federal courtroom in Minneapolis, the story of that day in May started coming to a close. Buford “Bucky” Rogers, a lanky high school dropout who the government once claimed had schemed to raid a National Guard armory and blow up a police station, politely pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors.
Rogers, 25, of Montevideo, admitted Friday he possessed a gun he wasn’t supposed to have — thanks to a 2011 burglary conviction that made him a felon — and also admitted he built and possessed two black powder-and-nails bombs.
In return for his guilty plea, federal prosecutors will drop two counts accusing him of possessing three other bombs that he had not bothered to register with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. . . .
Hanners notes that at its peak membership, the Black Snake Militia had five members.
At Bluestem World Headquarters in sunny Maynard, we think that assembling 50 SWAT members to raid the Rogers trailer is pretty impressive and should help dampen militia activity in the Upper Minnesota River Valley for a couple of years.
2010: Bachmann cosponsored a bill introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn that would have eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. [end update]
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) seemed to be channeling the Dowager Countess of Downton Abbey in a photo posted to her daughter Sophia's Facebook page on Thursday.
It's not a show Bluestem's editor watches, as the contemporary American fascination with British gentry and royalty escapes her, perhaps because family stories place that Houghton relative at the original Tea Party (she doubts the family legend).
Perplexity at the Bachmann family's pretension doesn't quite match our editor's surprise at hearing Tea Party royalty rival Wisconsin state senator Leah Vukmir's 2011 luncheon speech to the American Legislative Exchange Council's Spring Task Summit in Cincinnati, wherein Vukmir favorably contrasted the sheeplike docility of British crowds at the royal wedding earlier that morning with cheeky protestors at the Wisconsin State Capitol.
Oh, the horror of those unruly cheesehead peasants.
Somehow, Bluestem suspects that Vukmir and the Bachmanns simply aren't our sort of people. Anymore.
Screenshot: Sophia Bachmann's gentrified Facebook portrait and cover photos.
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Dean phrases his post as a question ("Did we really go to the moon? Really. Your thoughts....") but his belief in the no-moon-landing conspiracy theory is nothing new. In the May 15, 2006 Weekly Standard article, What Would Jesus Rap?, Matt Labash wrote:
. . . He is also a gold-plated conspiracy theorist who will readily hold forth on the mysterious plane crashes of Paul Wellstone and John Kennedy Jr., how Oswald didn't act alone, how O.J. Simpson might've been framed ("He's driving down the freeway, all of the sudden there's this helicopter on his truck--how convenient!"), and how the moon-landing was faked in a television studio. We disagree so vehemently on this last point that he starts polling his assemblies on the subject just to settle the dispute. To what should be the chagrin of us all, apparently about 35 percent of public school students and teachers believe Neil Armstrong deserves an Oscar for his star turn in that NASA movie. . . .
Good times.
It has been reported that Dean's ministry is no more, but he bravely carries on with a crew of at least two staffers. Dean gained national attention in 2011 when a prayer he gave as chaplain for the day at the Minnesota House was redacted after he questioned President Obama's faith and when he filed a lawsuit suing Rachel Maddow and others for reporting what he said on The Sons of Liberty Radio show.
Screenshot: Bradlee Dean trolling Facebook about the moon landing.
Note: The conspiracy theory that Senator Wellstone's plane crash was no accident is shared by people across the political spectrum. Bluestem Prairie does not share this notion.
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No one was more passionate about developing local food systems in this region, and few have done more to create the tools for local growers and Minnesota farm families to sustainably produce vegetables in deep winter.
With a two-year, $76,000 grant from the Bush Foundation, the Southwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (SW RSDP) will create a winter greenhouse growers association. The project is in memory of winter greenhouse pioneer Chuck Waibel, who had received a Bush Fellowship for his work several months before he passed away from cancer on August 16, 2013. Under the grant, Carol Ford, Waibel’s widow and partner in winter greenhouse work, will help establish the growers network beginning this month.
The grant’s purpose is to develop a mutual assistance network of small-scale, sustainable-food entrepreneurs using high-efficiency winter greenhouses in west central Minnesota, and potentially across the state. Some of the benefits envisioned for such a network include more producers bridging the cold climate season by growing fresh food during winter months, building a model distribution system for greenhouse users that will allow for increased sales to institutions, and price discounts for bulk supplies bought across the network.
“Through the generosity of the Bush Foundation, we are able to continue Chuck’s work and spread his enthusiasm for local foods and winter greenhouses in Western Minnesota,” said Kathryn Draeger, statewide director of RSDP and a principal investigator on the grant. “The Partnerships helped him and Carol to publish ‘The Northlands Winter Greenhouse Manual’ in 2009 and he served on an advisory panel for a recent grant we received from the US Department of Agriculture. We are pleased to continue Chuck’s legacy.”
“With this grant we seek to promote and develop the Deep Winter Producers Association (DWPA) and to hold a conference later on to share the association’s progress,” according to David Fluegel, Executive Director of SW RSDP and the other principle investigator on the grant. “While the project is based in west central Minnesota, we believe it will create knowledge that is applicable statewide and region-wide.”
Ford said she envisioned the conference highlighting three components of a successful local food model: the efficient, resilient passive solar greenhouse structure; the association’s ability to encourage new farmers; and the economic advantages of a local food hub distribution system.
Carol Ford will have an office at the West Central Research and Outreach Center/Extension Regional Office in Morris. In addition to co-authoring the "Northlands Winter Greenhouse Manual", she has presented at numerous conferences in the upper Midwest about winter produce production and has provided workshops for beginning producers. She has hosted many tours and talks in her greenhouse in Milan, MN and continues to consult with and support winter growers. She will also continue to work part-time as an Executive Office and Administrative Specialist for the Division of Science and Math at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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