A reliable source tells Bluestem Prairie that Ernie Leidiger has endorsed Bob Frey, and Frey is seeking endorsements from other Minnesota Republicans in the Minnesota House. This may not play well for those in the Republican Party of Minnesota who are trying to move on from the marriage equality defeat.
The Pro-Marriage Amendment Forum, a group created in 2011 by Republican Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, and “ex-gay” activist Kevin Peterson, has crafted a video called “Sodomy, Health, Money, and HF-826.”
“Sodomy, Health, Money, and HF-826″ targets HF 826, the Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act, which aims to make Minnesota’s anti-bullying laws stronger. The video produced by Gruenhagen and Peterson makes claims that contradict sound public health science. TheColu.mn made requests for comment to both Gruenhagen and Peterson, but were not returned.
The video was first discovered by Bluestem Prairie who reported that a Republican candidate for the State House has been distributing it among activists. In fact, it appears that at least one activist aired the program on public access television in the Twin Cities area. . . .
. . . The narrator takes the viewer on an in-depth and fact-challenged lesson on the human reproductive cycle and then makes the claim that AIDS is caused by an enzyme in sperm entering the digestive system.
“When sperm enters the digestive system, it is quickly absorbed into the blood. It is the enzyme in the sperm that causes the immune system to fail. AIDS stand for acquired immune deficiency syndrome.“
He continues, “Sodomy is a voluntary act to destroy the immune system that protects us from disease, various cancers and other health issues.”
Contrary to the claims in the video, HIV universally recognized by the medical community as causing AIDS. . . .
. . . The claims made in the video are incorrect. According to virtually every private and public institution focusing on HIV including the Centers for Disease Control, AIDS.gov, and National Center for Biotechnology Information, HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva, tears or sweat. . . .
Read Birkey's in-depth examination at The Column.
Ernie Leidiger first gained statewide attention when he was outed as the legislator who invited toxic metal preacher and homophobe Bradlee Dean to serve as guest chaplain for the opening prayer for the Minnesota House. The prayer was stricken from the record after Dean questioned President Obama's faith.
Republican Jim Nash, mayor of Waconia, is also seeking his party's endorsement for the seat.
Photo: Bob Frey.
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Albert Lea schoolteacher Peggy Bennett will be the Republican challenger to face incumbent DFLer Shannon Savick in the race for House District 27A. . . .
Bennett, a first-grade teacher at Sibley Elementary School, had time to speak to the crowd of 130 people. She said she likes to study history and has six grandfathers who fought for liberty in the Revolutionary War.
“I want to stand up and echo that voice for liberty,” she said.
Bennett read a paragraph from the Declaration of Independence, then said the country had strayed from its origins as a result of layers and layers of laws and bureaucracy. She cited the proposed multimillion-dollar Senate building, an anti-bullying people and tax increases in Minnesota as examples.
She said she is a single person but she is not a single-issue person. She said she cares about Second Amendment rights, opposes the anti-bullying bill and is concerned about people not paying attention to what the government is doing.
Bennett said she is opposed to the marijuana laws from the view of protecting children but could be in favor of them if presented with more information. She said she supports schools whether public or private as long as they have the children’s education as their best interest.
She said she would like a provision to require chambers of the state Legislature to vote on measures as a single issue, rather than many issues wrapped up in a single bill.
“It’s part of the government going on a diet, if you ask me,” Bennett said.
She said her best strength is as a listener.
“I am not one to listen to a community by seeing which way the wind blows,” Bennett said.
Bennett said she opposed the same-sex marriage legislation but doubts it could be undone now that it is law. . . .
Surely it's a sign of her newbie status that the adorable pet videos remain up (and Bluestem's supervisor, Oscar agrees). Among others, there's this charming boudoir tape:
And an engaging conversation with her dog, Colter:
These critters' owner could give Mark Dayton a run for his money when it comes to pet cuteness.
Bennett will seek to oust freshman Democrat Shannon Savick (Wells), an M.B.A. who served as mayor of Wells after retiring from a 28-year career in technology sales.
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With a fast and furious legislative session underway, Bluestem hadn't read the Central Minnesota Tea Party Blog for a while, and so we missed a fantabolus post from March 25, 2014, Transgender day in Browerville/ Muslims in Little Falls, wherein the anonymous blogger concludes:
I sent a note to Rep Ron Kresha and Sen Paul Gazelka and informed them of all of this and asked why it is even possible that Rep Keith Ellison can legally be a Rep in our govt when he has ties to CAIR, which is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood! Ron is doing some checking on this and will get back to me.
That fear seems familar, and indeed, Bluestem's editor recalls that one issue some Americans raised about Article Six during the adoption of the United States Constitution was that it might open the doors of leadership to "Jews Turks & infidels." However, the question of a religious test is settled, according to a scholar at the Heritage Foundation.
For this anonymous individual, any possibility that Muslims might live and go to school in her or his community is cause for alarm and evidence for a conspiracy. Earlier in the post:
I heard on 960 AM yesterday that the Initiative Foundation and Catholic Charities are planning an apartment complex to start moving in the Muslims into Little Falls. Evidently that was why they scheduled their meeting last fall – with CAIR and the Priest hosting it, but the meeting was canceled due to weather and to the Priest’s father passing away. It was not rescheduled to date. But that, of course, was to get us to trust them and to get us to be nice neighbors, and to accept their decision to do this. Anyway, it was on the radio the other day again that evidently they have decided to do this so many of us are livid! I have heard so much of how they have destroyed St. Cloud – the schools had to add foot baths and they just do whatever it is they want during school, not even trying to simulate into our society and then wonder why they are not liked and people are not neighborly. I have heard that their goal is to get a group started in all the small town areas throughout our state and then grow.
Why, the very nerve of people to think that in 2014, Americans of all origins and faiths can live wherever they like! If only the Central Minnesota Tea Party could roll the clock back fifty years. (Not).
Bluestem believes that we know who the anonoblogger is, as the particular CMTPP organizer is obsessed with Ellison and CAIR, but we're looking for confirmation.
Photo: After signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson hands Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. one of the pens used to sign the landmark legislation.
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A state government omnibus finance bill containing a pay increase for legislators squeaked by the state Senate on Tuesday afternoon. The bill passed 34-32, with five DFLers and all Republicans voting against the bill in a roll-call vote that lasted several minutes. . . .
The House doesn’t face the same political calendar as the Senate, however. They will stand for election in November 2014. Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, got a dig in at the Senate following the vote when he tweeted: “So the senate officially voted to raise its own pay before voting to raise the minimum wage. ‘Leadership.’”
The pay increase wasn’t the subject of debate on the floor, and no DFL senators stood to tell their colleagues they would dissent. But Bakk recessed during the session and pulled his caucus into a 45-minute closed-door meeting to discuss the pay issue. Final passage was an intriguing couple of minutes in which the bill appeared to be at risk of failing.
But could Bakk use his authority as Majority Leader to whip the Senate to index a higher minimum wage to inflation? Perish the thought.
Image: It's that easy!
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Indeed, earlier this month she said in a legislative update that legislators should have the courage to vote for raising the wages of Minnesota's lowest paid workers:
I appreciate the many contacts I have received regarding the minimum wage debate at the Legislature. I am becoming more comfortable supporting a higher wage than that which the Senate passed last year, but I will not vote for a bill that includes inflationary increases. Legislators should be willing to do the right thing consciously and vote for increases when they are appropriate. I sincerely hope that the conferees recognize that compromise is what will result in success, not steely insistence that only one side of an issue can be “right.”
Such prudence. But Bluestem's memory began to nag us, and when we woke this morning, we remembered an innocent time when Senator Rest voted for automatic pay hikes for a certain class of low-paid workers.
Pay raises for Minnesota lawmakers won approval Tuesday from the state Senate, but the plan to boost salaries of the governor, Legislature, agency commissioners and other elected officials faces a taller climb in the state House.
Five Democrats from swing districts joined all Republicans in voting against the bigger state agency finance bill that includes the raises. No one attempted to strip out the proposed raises and there was no debate about its inclusion in a budget bill that narrowly passed 34-32.
Minnesota hasn’t increased pay for elected officials since the late 1990s. The governor makes $120,000 and legislators earn $31,000. Under the plan, the governor would see two 3 percent raises, and legislators would earn one third of the governor’s salary going forward. That would result in a nearly $10,000 raise in 2015 and another bump the next year. After that, raises would be automatic because the governor would receive inflationary increases annually.
The news report noted that "House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, has said House leaders don’t consider lawmaker pay a priority and aren’t eager to act on it."
But Tom Bakk felt his colleagues' pain:
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said his caucus contemplated removing the pay raises but decided to move ahead. He argues that the stagnant pay has made holding office less attractive and could eventually lead to a Legislature where only retirees or those with personal wealth can serve.
“It’s a tough vote. It’s never easy to take a vote to raise your own pay,” Bakk said.
Apparently easier than increasing the wages of the lowest-paid Minnesotans. Not we don't fault those who voted for a pay hike (Minnesota legislators are low paid) and who are willing to pass an indexed minimum wage. There's no double-standard there.
Nor is there one for the DFLers who voted no to raising and increasing their own wages (although most of last year's no votes are either willing to index or undeclared on how they'll vote. Last year's naysayers are: The five Democrats who voted against the bill were: Greg Clausen of Apple Valley, Kevin Dahle of Northfield, John Hoffman of Champlin, Vicki Jensen of Owatonna and Susan Kent of Woodbury.)
But Rest? Apparently so. And Bakk? He'll take the limelight at an opening day rally, but not push for the same type of deal he's willing to give himself.
Update: A friend sent an account from Politics in Minnesota of the "long count," wherein Bakk kept the board open to make sure the indexed wage hike for Seantors passed:
A state government omnibus finance bill containing a pay increase for legislators squeaked by the state Senate on Tuesday afternoon. The bill passed 34-32, with five DFLers and all Republicans voting against the bill in a roll-call vote that lasted several minutes. . . .
The House doesn’t face the same political calendar as the Senate, however. They will stand for election in November 2014. Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, got a dig in at the Senate following the vote when he tweeted: “So the senate officially voted to raise its own pay before voting to raise the minimum wage. ‘Leadership.’”
The pay increase wasn’t the subject of debate on the floor, and no DFL senators stood to tell their colleagues they would dissent. But Bakk recessed during the session and pulled his caucus into a 45-minute closed-door meeting to discuss the pay issue. Final passage was an intriguing couple of minutes in which the bill appeared to be at risk of failing.
Photo: Senator Ann Rest, official photo.
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A Facebook friend shared the Youtube above from The UpTake of the minimum wage conference committee coming to order.
About midway, through the hearing, the House lead asks a question about Senator Ann Rest's amendment and the Senate lead on the conference committee admits she wasn't asked about the constitutional amendment.
That's flabbergasting news about a bill that will be heard in committee on Friday. Here's the exchange:
Winkler: I guess another question for the Senator is, I understand that today the Majority Leader co-authored a bill for a constitutional amendment that included indexing. Is that representative position of the caucus that indexing is acceptable if the voters approve it? Or is that kind of a statement from two senators?
Tomassoni: [muffled]
Winkler: That's question from any senator
Tomassoni: Is that a rhetorical question?
Winkler: No, it's just--I'd like to better understand the position of the Senate.
Eaton: Mr. Chair--
Winkler: Senator Eaton.
Eaton: It was not discussed with me, so I have no idea if other people support it. I only know that Senator Rest and Senator Bakk are listed on the bill as the co-authors.
For all of you who care about raising the wage, but aren't following this closely, here's the deal: The current proposal from the MN State House requires small businesses to pay workers $7.75 per hour beginning in 2016, indexed to inflation and capped at 3% per year, whichever is lower. That's $.50 above the federal minimum wage two years from now, which most small businesses pay today, and an additional $.15-20 cents per year increase after that-to keep up with the cost of living.
We don't freeze the price of groceries, why should we freeze the minimum wage? Any MN State Senator that tells you they don't support raising and indexing the minimum wage because they are concerned about impacts on small business either isn't paying attention, or is standing up for big business under the guise of standing up for small business. [emphasis added]
What the Raise the Wage Coalition is fighting for is for a FULL TIME worker at a big business to make $19,760 per year, and a FULL TIME worker at a small business to make $16,120 per year, in the year 2016.
Can you imagine supporting a family, not to mention local businesses, on that? And then we are fighting to ensure those STILL POVERTY WAGES keep up with the cost of living. That's just common sense and the right thing to do. It's time to catch and keep up...It's time for the Senate DFL to get this done.
Ryan Winkler convenes the committee, and in the brief space in which it meets, there are some telling exchanges. The House lead opens:
As we left the room last time, we had an offer that we made to the Senate. The Senate was planning to talk it over and was hoping to get back to us and so this is our opportunity to for the Senate to let us know what you're thinking.
Chris Eaton: Mr. Chair, Senator Tomassoni would like to explain our caucus.
David Tomassoni: I'm not sure that we have enough time, or that we want to deal with that. [crosstalk]
Eaton: ---In the meeting last night.
Tomassoni: Oh you don't want me to tell him about everyone in it? [Laughter]
Winkler: Senator Tomassoni.
Tomassoni: Because I'm still trying to understand our caucus, too. Mr. Chairman and members, Senator Eaton showed the caucus your offer and the inflationary factor is still a problem and so I don't know what to tell you other than that the offer is not going to be acceptable to us.
Winkler: Senator Tomassoni, it's uncharacteristically brief for your body, but we appreciate the comments. So is there any thought from the Senate of responsing aside from "No, thank you"?
Tomassoni: If the House is willing to tell us that they're willing to drop the inflationary factor, we could have an offer.
Winkler: I guess another question for the Senator is, I understand that today the Majority Leader co-authored a bill for a constitutional amendment that included indexing. Is that representative position of the caucus that indexing is acceptable if the voters approve it? Or is that kind of a statement from two senators?
Tomassoni: [muffled]
Winkler: That's question from any senator
Tomassoni: Is that a rhetorical question?
Winkler: No, it's just--I'd like to better understand the position of the Senate.
Eaton: Mr. Chair--
Winkler: Senator Eaton.
Eaton: It was not discussed with me, so I have no idea if other people support it. I only know that Senator Rest and Senator Bakk are listed on the bill as the co-authors.
Eaton is the lead negotiator for the Senate on the conference committee.
After a period of silence, Representative Jason Metsa jumps in with his best What Would Rukavina Do? moment and mentions a little website keeping a count of where the Senators are on the indexing. In the best Rukavina tradition, Tommy's successor claims that the Whip Count is at the magic number of 34.
Actually, it's 32, but there are some blank spaces--and Bluestem hears that not all the silent holdouts are in the no column when it comes to indexing. Check out the MN Senate minimum wage constituent Whip Count.
Photo: A scene from the gallery at the conference committee. Photo by Dale Moerke., who noted on Facebook: "My view from today's minimum wage conference committee. I did not have much of an opportunity to take pictures because it only took the Senate 3 1/2 minutes to blow off 350,000 + Minnesotans."
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After stalling on raising and indexing the minimum wage, fearless leaders in the Minnesota Senate are hoping to put the question on the ballot in November as an amendment to the state constitution.
Unlike Republicans who placed voter suppression and marriage inequality on the 2012 ballot in order to please the supporters on both measures, Senators Tom Bakk and Ann Rest are pursuing this approach against the resolute objections of the broad-based coalition that's been fighting for an indexed $9.50 minimum wage.
Why do we smell the sweet civet odor of insincerity in the air around this bill?
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk proposed Thursday giving voters power to decide whether Minnesota’s minimum wage climbs automatically.
A constitutional amendment that he and another prominent senator, Ann Rest of New Hope, put in play would ask voters this fall if the wage should be linked to inflation. Bakk said he worries that a legislatively adopted minimum-wage indexing feature could be susceptible to repeal later. He said 10 of 11 states with an automatic inflator have accomplished that through a referendum of some kind.
Oh really? Frankly, Bluestem finds this new approach to raising the minimum wage to be an act befitting a leader like Bakk, who lacks political courage, while taking his encouragement mostly from the praise of Republicans and big business, rather than those who brough him to the dance.
Bakk's new-found allies should come in so helpful if the Democrats should lose control of the governor's office and the Minnesota House in November, Bluestem is sure.
Rest on indexing: "bad policy"
More on that later. First, let's review where Ann Rest stands on indexing the minimum wage. After all, Bluestem's been keeping that MN Senate minimum wage constituent Whip Count since March 6, and so we have a pretty good idea what Senator Rest thinks about the policywhich she's proposing to enshrine into the state constitution.
While Republicans like Scott Newman and Mary Kiffmeyer were true believers in the voter suppression amendment they flung at voters, Rest's move seems much less heartfelt, if one looks at her March 7, 2014 "2014 Capitol Update." In a "Note From Ann" on page 3, Rest wrote:
I appreciate the many contacts I have received regarding the minimum wage debate at the Legislature. I am becoming more comfortable supporting a higher wage than that which the Senate passed last year, but I will not vote for a bill that includes inflationary increases. Legislators should be willing to do the right thing consciously and vote for increases when they are appropriate. I sincerely hope that the conferees recognize that compromise is what will result in success, not steely insistence that only one side of an issue can be “right.”
Okay then. But there's more. In an email to a constiuent dated March 19, 2014, the senator from New Hope wrote:
I am waiting for a bill that shows the House is willing to compromise. I haven't seen any evidence of that yet. The Senate has compromised. I hope a bill is reported that does [not?] have the auto- pilot language in it. It is bad policy.
Ann Rest
Sent from my iPad
Senator Ann H. Rest 235 State Capitol St Paul MN 55155
Now, we're not quite sure that she meant--as she wrote--"I hope a bill is reported that does have the auto- pilot language in it;" since that doesn't make good sense, we've inserted [not?] in the sentence. However, with the bill for the amendment thrown in the hopper, maybe she's just perverse and seeks to put what she calls "bad policy" in action on the floor of the Senate.
Bakk to the future?
After passing a minimum wage bill last year that would have only raised the state's minimum wage to $7.75, Bakk now insists that he's signed on to the Rest bill for an amendment just to protect those poor workers:
“The constitution is intended to protect the rights of the minority. These low-wage workers are a minority of Minnesotans. This gives them some protection that their wages would keep up with inflation,” said Bakk, a retired carpenter from Cook. “It meets my test that this is important enough that it belongs in the constitution.”
And there's this:
Although he has pushed this year to make it harder for measures to reach the ballot, Bakk said he wouldn’t hesitate to proceed even if it’s a party-line vote. “The choice for Republicans is: Put it in statute or do you want the voters to decide?” he said.
This is astonishing cheek on Bakk's part. It's not the Republicans who've been stalling on putting the indexed minimum wage, and since Bakk supposed Majority Leader of a DFL caucus, their objections matter not.
Nope, it's been folks like Ann Rest who's been objecting to indexing raises in the minimum wage.
Now, if this turkey makes it through both chambers and heads to the voters in November, Blesutem fully expects the coalition to take up the amendment and persuade voters of its worth. Getting voters to the polls on this may even help House DFLers, all of whom should leadership and voted for the $9.50 indexed minimum wage.
The senate isn't up for election until 2016, a presidential year, and so perhaps the Raise the Wage Coalition can look around for some progressive talent to run for the Minnesota Senate. Enough said.
Photo: Official photo for Senator Ann Rest, who is sincere about this amendment, for sure.
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Bluestem can't say that our Congressman, Collin Peterson, is our favorite, although looking over Republican contender Torrey Westrom's record--including support of pod transit legislation--makes us realize that it could be worse, as we say in these parts.
A column by McLeod County editor Rich Glennie about a recent visit to Glencoe by Peterson illustrates why many CD7 residents are charmed by the veteran lawmaker. He writes in Peterson makes it official — he’s running:
. . .Peterson is a favorite of mine. He is one of the few remaining “Blue Dog” Democrats in Congress, fiscally conservative, yet capable of working in a bipartisan way to get things accomplished.
We need more of his kind, not fewer.
So, district Republicans, perhaps two years from now will be a different story for the soon-to-be 70-year old congressman from Detroit Lakes. But then again, maybe not.
Peterson literally landed in Hutchinson last Wednesday afternoon, via his own airplane, after stops earlier in the day at Pipestone, Marshall and Montevideo. He had one more stop in Litchfield before heading home for the day.
He was an entourage of one, another rarity in politics these days. He didn’t need any press secretary and public relations assistant.
Dressed in a suit coat and blue jeans, Peterson comes off as the neighbor next door, out for a chat over a cup of coffee.
But behind those pale blue eyes and weathered face is a shrewd politician with vast knowledge of Congress and how it should work.
But it was the dysfunction of the legislative process of late that sparked the “drama,” as he called it, over his impending retirement.
Drama created by Republicans, he added.
He never makes up his mind until about this time each election cycle, he said. No different this cycle. . . .
The NRCC has also targeted Minnesota Democratic congressman Collin Peterson and Rep. Tim Walz, but none of their potential Republican challengers made the up-and-coming list.
We'll keep readers abreast of this one.
Photo: Collin Peterson, a Blue Dog.
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. . . The last time we heard from Senator Franken on Obamacare was nearly 5 months ago when he promised to hold the Administration accountable for its catastrophic rollout (Star Tribune, 11/06/13). ...
There's more of the same, but we suspect that the interns on Franklin Avenue don't much understand the importance of keyword selection. Indeed, when Bluestem plugged "Al Franken" and "Affordable Care Act" (since slang doesn't always work so well in these sorts of things), interesting items turned up.
U.S. Democratic senators introduced legislation on Friday that would attempt to make health care more affordable for small business owners by, among other things, improving access to small business health care tax credits and making the credits available for longer.
The Small Business Tax Credits Accessibility Act, brought forth on Friday by U.S. Senator Mark Begich, D-Alaska, aims to improve upon the Affordable Care Act and make health care more accessible by expanding tax credits to small businesses in order to ensure they are able to "compete and grow." . . .
Senator Al Franken is cited:
Franken said in a statement on Friday that the bill would help simplify what has become a troublesome process.
"Right now, the process for small businesses in Minnesota and across the country to get tax credits through the health reform law is overly burdensome and complex," Franken said. "This bill would simplify it, while also making more Minnesota small businesses eligible for the support they need to provide coverage to their employees."
There's that. Perhaps the Republican Party of Minnesota doesn't fancy that the concerns of small business matter.
Now appearing in social media and (doubtless) many inboxes, TakeAction Minnesota is asking Minnesotans to contact their state senators in a "Senate Before Tonight" campaign. Here's the pitch:
The Minnesota State House and Senate have been negotiating a deal on raising the minimum wage for weeks, and at yesterday’s committee meeting the House made it clear that they're standing firm for a $9.50 minimum wage that is indexed to inflation. Now the ball is in the Senate's court -- and they're meeting this evening to discuss it. The main sticking point is whether or not we'll tie the minimum wage to inflation.
Will you reach out to your senator today to let them know that you want them to act fast to give minimum wage workers a raise they can count on?
The email campaign's instructions are self explanatory. Check it out here.
Whip Count
Bluestem isn't part of TakeAction Minnesota, but as an independent blogger, we've been conducting MN Senate minimum wage constituent Whip Count. Heard from your state senator? Contact us via the comments, which are moderated. We'll publish the position in the Whip Count, but leave your comment private if you wish.
Meme: via TakeAction Minnesota.
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We weren't the only critical eyes reviewing his remarks and so he has walked back a couple of his remarks.
UPDATE: It's worth noting that Dayton only apologized to victims of "terrible diseases" and their parents, not to people living with pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They, apparently, still just want medical marijuana to get high [end update].
"My comment yesterday, in which I referred to 'the advocates who want to legalize medical marijuana and be able to smoke marijuana plants and leaves…' was in no way intended to refer to victims of terrible diseases or their parents, who I was trying to help," Dayton said in a statement. "I regret that my words were unclear."
The fact is, the latest proposed legislation removed smoking and even offered to add penalties for those who would smoke medical marijuana.
Rep. Carly Melin, assistant majority leader and the chief sponsor of the bill in the House, said she believes she has the votes to pass H.F. 1818 in both the House and Senate this session.
The real blockade isn't the legislature, as the Star Tribune implied yesterday, but Dayton's promise to law enforcement. As Fox9 reports, the families backing HF1818 are firm about this point:
Families advocating a medical marijuana bill criticized Gov. Dayton for stalling legislation, and called his compromise "smoke and mirrors."
One day after Gov. Mark Dayton appeared to discount any legislation on medical marijuana this year, he is urging advocates and legislators to keep talking in search of compromise.
Dayton says he has the "deepest sympathy" for children and adults with serious diseases who find relief in marijuana.
On Tuesday, Dayton had said his proposal for studying one aspect of medical marijuana appeared dead due to lack of support from people who want to see medical marijuana made legal. He said he was disappointed but would work for it next session.
On Wednesday the governor said he'd like to see a compromise that helps children. And he says it's wrong to portray him as the only barrier to people getting medical marijuana.
The latest e-mail/flyer to come from the head office really needed a little proofreading. The point they want to make seems to be that they believe businesses are leaving Minnesota because of the bad business climate.
They flyer they sent out talks to a business owner who was featured in Connect Business Magazine. It quotes Tom Rosen who is lamenting that his Fairmont based business (which is #184 on the Forbes top 500 private corporations) is having difficulty with Minnesota's business climate and he claims that his friends are leaving.
I assume this is meant to show how DFL controlled policies are detrimental to business.
The article referenced is from 2009 - 5 years ago. . . .
The blogger goes on to note that Tom Rosen is married to Julie Rosen and that Mr. Rosen praises Wisconsin. Both the critique and the MNGOP email upon which it is based are odd.
While Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker returned his state's entire surplus to taxpayers and cut taxes, here in Minnesota Governor Dayton and the Democrat legislature is sticking with the vast majority of their tax increases in spite of a surplus.
This includes the income tax, tobacco tax, internet sales tax, digital download sales tax, satellite TV sales tax, business tax, and sales tax shift.
One of Minnesota's prominent business leaders, Tom Rosen, discusses the impact in Connect Business Magazine . . .
Scott Walker was elected in 2010, taking office in January 2011. When the Business Connect article was published in 2009, Jim Doyle, a Democrat, was governor of Wisconsin. Minnesota, on other hand, was served by Tim Pawlenty, a Republican.
Rosen said, “(Wisconsin has) become pro-business and is willing to work with you. These states around Minnesota are becoming more aggressive. They realize companies can move.”
Well then. Perhaps the headquarters of Rosen Diversfied has remained in Fairmont for other reasons--perhaps because of Rosen's gift of prophecy or something.
There's an old maxim that when you're in a hole, quit digging. Bluestem had to think about this when we read the following in the Minnesota House Session Daily article, Moving women into the future:
Though the world is changing and more women are holding executive positions within companies, Kieffer said it’s sometimes more about instinct and that women and girls move more naturally to verbal professions and the arts.
“My dad was an engineer and I was a math whiz from when I was very little,” she said. “He tried to encourage me to be excited about science fairs. I’d win ribbons, but it’s just not what I was interested in. Kids today have so many more choices and opportunities that I think this will eventually correct itself.”
Like those in the latter group, Bluestem continues to wonder when cops gained the power to write our laws, rather than enforce them.
Faking pain for pot?
In Pursue compromise on medical marijuana, an editorial written after an interview with the governor, the editorial board of the Duluth News Tribune notes this exchange with Mark Dayton:
. . . However, “There are people who just want to be able to smoke marijuana,” the governor continued in an interview with the News Tribune Opinion page. “My perception is quite a number of people in that situation are using (the push for) medical marijuana as sort of a front to make marijuana more accessible.” If legalized, marijuana could be prescribed for “chronic pain and now they’ve added post-traumatic stress syndrome.Those are real afflictions, but they’re real easy to fake. You walk into the doctor’s office and say, ‘I’m in chronic pain,’ can the doctor say no?
“But I am sympathetic to those who are suffering,” Dayton said. . . .
Bluestem finds the accusation that those veterans we know whose counsellors wish they could prescribe pot are being accused to just wanting to smoke pot. These individuals, who served their country honorably in combat, wouldn't dream of going out to smoke random weed they might buy illegally on the street, however easy the Governor might have thought--earlier this month at least--that might be.
A study, the last refuge of the special interests?
A compromise proposal by Gov. Mark Dayton that the state of Minnesota fund research by Mayo Clinic into an oil-based marijuana compound lacks support from advocates for medical use of the drug and their legislative allies and isn't likely to happen this year, the governor said Tuesday. . . .
Medical marijuana backers have struggled to build support for full-scale legalization from legislators and Dayton amid concerns from law enforcement and medical groups.
Given that HF1818 is supported by the maximum number of representatives (35), and Albertville state representative David Fitzsimmons has introduced an "overflow" copycat version supported by three Republicans and three Democrats, that seems like weak sauce from the Strib. Condon continues:
. . . Dayton, who has said he's sympathetic to their plight, offered a compromise: a bill to funnel about $2 million in state funds toward researching cannabidiol, an oil extracted from marijuana and administered in pill form. Many parents of children with severe forms of epilepsy say cannabidiol helps reduce violent seizures.
Dayton said last week such research could pave the way for relaxed state regulation of some forms of marijuana for medical use, and that law enforcement groups didn't oppose such research. But Dayton said Tuesday on WCCO-AM that medical marijuana activists notified his administration they don't support the study. The governor said the lawmakers sponsoring the medical marijuana bill don't support it either.
And why would that be? The ever-excellent Heather Azzi, of Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, tells Condon:
Heather Azzi, director of the pro-medical marijuana group Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, said Dayton's proposal isn't workable because there's no legal way for researchers to have access to marijuana and that any patients who participate would be exposing themselves to legal risk.
"What you need is some legal distribution network, and what the governor proposed does not include that," Azzi said. But she said advocates would like to continue working with the administration to reach a compromise that would satisfy all sides.
That doesn't sound like a group that's looking to get easy pot for recreational use.
Remember: that marijuana is defined as a Schedule I drug (without redeeming medical value) by the DEA, is a major stumbling block for testing the weed for medicinal qualities. This definition itself is held out by law enforcement opposing the legalization of controlled and regulated medical marijuana.
It's a circular argument, and in the meantime, Dayton feels your pain, but has his doubts about that as well.
Meme: From Marijuana Makes You Violent, a parody site. Bluestem looks forward to a time when medical marijuana is legal and well-regulated, and the war on drugs (and the financial incentives for fighting it upon which law enforcement is forced to rely for funding) is replaced by substance abuse treatment and sane mechanisms for funding public safety.
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Here are the tweets Bluestem finds interesting from our prairie home about the 15 minute conference committee meeting today. Perhaps the most distressing part of the House offer is the willingness to let agricultural workers--often new Americans--work for eight hours longer then the rest of the workforce before they get overtime.
The DFL Senators will caucus and talk about the new offer, then the committee will meet again on Thursday.
. . .The committee hasn't met since early in March after getting bogged down.
There seems to be consensus about raising the state's minimum wage from $6.15 per hour to $9.50 per hour. How fast remains a point of discussion. There's also dispute about whether to automatically hike the wage in future years to account for inflation.
Senate Democrats say they lack the needed votes to pass a bill with an automatic bump later on. Rep. Ryan Winkler, the chief House negotiator, says he isn't backing away from that provision and will make a new offer that still includes an inflation measure.
Since constructing our Constituent Whip Count, we've been hearing that enough DFL senators will vote for the conference committee bill without objection to the future wage hikes that an indexed proposal would contain.
Here's hoping that the DFL majorities can move on the minimum wage. It's not prudent to denounce Republican stupidity on WESA while one DFL-controlled chamber blocks a key part of the omnibus package.
Meme: Speaks for itself.
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Missing from both reports? A bipartisan bill making its way through the Minnesota House that would prevent the sale of bee-lethal products as bee-friendly:
A person may not label or advertise a plant, plant material, or nursery stock as beneficial to pollinators if it has been treated with and has a detectable level of a pollinator lethal insecticide.
The growing season is fast approaching, and this year, many gardeners have a new worry: how to attract pollinators to their gardens without poisoning them in the process.
It’s a complex and controversial topic that caught fire last summer after the release of a study claiming that many plants sold at garden centers, even so-called “bee-friendly” plants, had been pre-treated with neonicotinoids, a widely used class of pesticides that some believe is a factor in bee die-offs or colony collapse disorder.
Many home gardeners had never heard of the “n” word before last year.
“One woman called me, crying, because her whole hedge, that she’d planted in part for pollinators, came from a company that uses neonics,” said Paige Pelini, co-owner of Mother Earth Gardens inMinneapolis, which recently hosted a seminar on the topic. “I’m glad people are worked up about it,” she said, although she doesn’t want gardeners to panic and overreact.
Neonicotinoids’ role in bee decline, as well as how long the pesticide remains active and toxic, is unknown and being studied. However, some garden retailers are already taking action. Minneapolis-based Bachman’s recently announced that it had removed products containing neonicotinoids from its store shelves, and was eliminating the use of neonicotinoids in its nursery stock and outdoor plants at its growing range in Lakeville. . .
Gertens will also be a neonicotinoid-free zone but the article notes that:
. . . it’s up to the biggest players in the market: Home Depot and Lowe’s. … Action from these two major companies will shift the whole supply chain in the right direction, making it much easier for small and midsize local stores to source neonic-free plants.”
If passed into law, the bill would give consumers confidence that they genuinely are helpful provide pollinators healthy habitat and food.
The pesticides that are now synonymous with the demise of honeybees don’t do much for the farmers who use them, according to an analysis by a national environmental group that could open up a new front on the fight to protect a beloved pollinator that is critical to American food supplies.
The Center for Food Safety said Monday that a growing body of independent scientific evidence shows that the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, rarely improve crop yields. They are one of the most widely used agricultural chemicals in the world and a hot-button issue in the rising public concern over the fate of the honeybee.
Today almost every corn and soybean seed that is planted each year on 170 million acres across the Midwest is coated with an insect neurotoxin that is absorbed by the growing plant. They are commonly used in back-yard products, and are intrinsic to most nursery plants, which now come “pre-poisoned” as a defense against insects. . . .
Bayer CropScience, the primary manufacturer of neonicotinoids, disputed the conclusion and said that its own proprietary research shows that the pesticides are a valuable tool, and increasingly important as the world’s growing population will require even more food production per acre. . . .
Read both articles, and ask your state representative and senator to support the pollinator (and consumer) friendly bills.
HF2908, which provides compensation for death caused by pesticide poisoning, establishes a pollinator emergency response team, and provides civil liability for bee deaths, is moving on to the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance Committee. No hearing date has been scheduled.
This weekend, Republicans in House Districts 12A and 17A endorsed Jeff Backer and Tim Miller, two Tea Party Republicans, over candidates recruited by the minority House caucus campaign to regain the chamber.
Both men aim to place-bait the race, framing incumbents Jay McNamar (DFL-Elbow Lake) and Andrew Falk (DFL-Murdock) as metro-centric dudes who voted for marriage equality. Both Backer and Miller have sought unsuccessfully to be elected to the state legislature in the past.
"Istanbul" Jeff Backer
One look at Backer's Facebook page reveals that he appears to be very popular, with 8,881 "Likes." Before the page administrator made "the most popular city" feature of the Likes private information, Bluestem Prairie noticed that Backer appealed to a distinctly international audience for a district located on Minnesota's border with North and South Dakota.
Moreover, his concerns were decidedly international for a rural district, as we noted in MN House District 12A Update: "Istanbul" Jeff Backer worried about Iranian warships in Atlantic. We allowed that it was possible those warcraft could steam into the Arctic and come down the Red River of the North to invade Traverse County, Minnesota, but concluded that it's probably not a huge concern for district voters picking a candidate for the state house.
The global focus is given a particular edge by Backer's place-baiting of McNamar's record. From a Backer press release posted today:
At the convention, Backer cited his Jay McNamar’s voting record in pointing out key differences between the two candidates. “After just over one year in office, it is clear Jay McNamar is a lockstep supporter of the agenda of the metro Democrats. On virtually every issue – from tax increases on our farmers and small town business owners, to supporting the failed MNsure/Obamacare health care debacle to voting for gay marriage despite the fact that 64 percent of his constituents support traditional marriage – “Metro” Jay has turned his back on rural Minnesota,” Backer stated.
Also posted on Backer's Facebook page today? Two posts about President Obama's response to Russian aggression in Ukraine. While Bluestem is appalled by Putin's action, as residents one district east in West Central Minnesota, we believe that the annexation of Crimea is probably closer to the hearts (or at least the history) of Backer's Turkish fanbase.
Metro or global? McNamar won the seat in a three-way race and so this will be one to watch out for. Backer lost a bid for the Minnesota Senate in 2010, losing to veteran incumbent Keith Langseth in a 52.52 percent to 47.39 percent split.
Two-time Tim Miller
Tim Miller lost to incumbent representative Andrew Falk in 2012 in a 53.9 percent to 46.1 percent split and has carried on a letter-to-the-editor war against the young farmer since the lost. The West Central Tribune reports in Republicans endorse Miller for District 17A:
. . .Miller was endorsed on the first ballot with just over 60 percent of the vote of the 70 delegates at the convention Saturday at the Swift County Law Enforcement Center in Benson. Miller defeated retired teacher and high school coach Gary Nelson of Clara City.
Miller works for Habitat for Humanity of West Central Minnesota and also owns the consulting business Development Partners. . . .
Unlike Istanbul Jeff, Miller has only 62 Facebook fans collected since 2012, and his obsession seems to be policy reports by the Cato Institute, a libertarian-right Washington-basd think tank,rather than global conflicts.
. . . locally, total metro area ridership sneaked past 94 million in 2013, according to data compiled late last week — a jump of 6 million since 2007.
High gas prices, a recovering economy, a multitude of new facilities and faster, more frequent service explain a good deal of the jump so far. And transit advocates say they expect two growing demographic segments to provide continued thrust for years to come. . . .
Locally, in a year that saw the state’s first Bus Rapid Transit line launched out of Dakota County, the suburban transit service, the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA), set a new high of more than 2.7 million rides. From the opposite direction, the Maple Grovetransit service’s 836,443 was also a record.
The big player in the area, Metro Transit, didn’t quite hit a record, but it provided 5 million more rides than it had four years earlier. . . .
...but Miller believes that it's " expensive, underutilized mass transit…most of it “light rail” in the MSP metro."
Perhaps the Beltway think tank knows best, although there is one policy area where Miller parts company with the smartypants at Cato: same-sex marriage, which the think tank supports, On that issue, Miller is as against cute boys marrying as Backer is.
Screenshot: Jeff Backer's Ukraine concerns, via his campaign Facebook page.
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Over the weekend, Bluestem has heard from multiple sources that a tentative conference committee agreement that includes a $9.50 minimum wage with future raises indexed to inflation is very close. All urge cautious optimism and remain off the record.
WESA, whining and the minimum wage
It's good that a deal is close, since the Alliance For A Better Minnesota called national attention to Andrea Kieffer's boneheaded remarks on bills with the Women's Economic Security Act (WESA). Via the Houston Chronicle, David McCumber, Washington Bureau chief for Hearst Newspapers, observed in GOP's stance on pay equity serves to widen gender gap:
. . . In Minnesota this month, Republican State Rep. Andrea Kieffercomplained that a package of bills to raise the minimum wage, introduce paid sick leave and address the pay gap make women "look like whiners."
Other than showing Republican women can say offensive things about women almost as effectively as Republican men, statements like these aren't helping the party's gender gap. In fact, they are keeping the "Republican war on women" meme alive and well. Pay equity could well be the "legitimate rape" of the 2014 midterm season. It will be two years in June since Senate Republicans blocked an important follow-up to the Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009 that would have barred retaliation against women who question their pay, and made it easier for women to sue for punitive damages if they had been discriminated against. . . .
McCumber isn't close enough to Minnesota to know that the minimum wage part of the larger WESA package isn't being stalled by the retiring Republican representative from Woodbury, but by Majority Leader Tom Bakk's Senate.
Shifting discourse in the press
We've moved Terri Bonoff from a "No" on indexing to a NA based on the following passage in Bierschbach's MinnPost article:
“I’m a supporter of minimum wage and I’m going to support what’s negotiated,” Sen. Terri Bonoff, DFL-Minnetonka, said. “I’m not commenting on [indexing] because there’s no benefit other than to know that I’m going to be a green vote. “
A source very close to the DFL Senate Caucus tells Bluestem that "I'm going to be a green vote" is trending within the group.
There are encouraging signs. We know the grassroots mobilization has had an impact. We hear it from legislative aides exhausted from taking calls and answering emails. We hear it from legislators themselves, some of whom are thrilled and some of whom are annoyed and say things like “you’re only hurting yourselves” (pro tip: a sign you’re winning).
As the editorial states, prescription and illegal drug use is on the rise. As your legislator, this is very alarming. I stand strong on preventing any addictive drug to cause the destruction we saw recently. I strongly oppose recent legislation to legalize raw marijuana. . . .
I along with many other legislators, Governor Dayton, Minnesota Law Enforcement Coalition and physicians who comprise the MMA stand in opposition to legalizing raw marijuana. Alcohol and tobacco contribute more death and destruction than all illegal drugs combined. We should not legalize a third killer.
Senator Ingebrigtsen's letter leaves a gapping hole in the list of legal killers, while suggesting that marijuana is both addictive and a killer. Let's walk through this one.
Pharmaceutical madness: opioid analgesics killing pain and people
In 2010, nearly 60 percent of the drug overdose deaths (22,134) involved pharmaceutical drugs. Opioid analgesics, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone, were involved in about 3 of every 4 pharmaceutical overdose deaths (16,651), confirming the predominant role opioid analgesics play in drug overdose deaths.
CDC researchers analyzed data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics 2010 multiple cause-of-death file, which is based on death certificates.
The researchers also found that drugs often prescribed for mental health conditions were involved in a significant number of pharmaceutical overdose deaths. Benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety drugs) were involved in nearly 30 percent (6,497) of these deaths; antidepressants in 18 percent (3,889), and antipsychotic drugs in 6 percent (1,351). Deaths involving more than one drug or drug class are counted multiple times and therefore are not mutually exclusive.
“Patients with mental health or substance use disorders are at increased risk for nonmedical use and overdose from prescription painkillers as well as being prescribed high doses of these drugs,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Appropriate screening, identification, and clinical management by health care providers are essential parts of both behavioral health and chronic pain management.”
Many people are focusing on the return of heroin and saying, "It's all the fault of criminals." You've got to remember, 4 in 5 of people today who start using heroin began their opioid addiction on prescription opioids. The responsibility doesn't start today with the stereotypical criminal street dealer. We basically created this problem with legally manufactured drugs that were legally prescribed. This really flies in the face of the argument that if we just had a flow of legal drugs, the harms would be minimal.
The expert notes the role that the prescription painkiller industry had in the real addiction crisis:
In the late 1990s, many medical societies became appropriately concerned about poor pain management in the United States. Many patients were not receiving needed pain relief, which was and remains a very serious problem. That worthy concern for improved pain management became fused with the pharmaceutical industry’s profit-seeking goals, which they pursued through aggressively pushing opioids in primary care settings and doing a lot of deceptive marketing.
Many good-hearted, well-intended prescribers were so swept up in the need to relieve pain that they were not sufficiently critical of the potential downsides of flooding the country with these medications. Here’s one stunning statistic. The U.S. accounts for 99% of the world’s hydrocodone consumptions is a spectacular level of prescribing.
U.S. prescribers also write more prescriptions for opiate painkillers each year than there are adults in the United States. When an addictive substance is prescribed on that scale, there will inevitably be substantial leakage out of the medical system. . . .
How addictive is marijuana?
Less than tobacco, about the same as alcohol.
Now, it's likely that those who oppose legalizing medical marijuana will step in and say, as Ingebrigtsen does, that marijuana is addictive. According to the National Institute for Drug Abuse Drug Facts page for marijuana, about nine percent of users become addicted to pot, although the rate is higher among daily users and those who start young.
The question about whether or not marijuana is addictive comes in various forms. Will I experience physical withdrawal symptoms if I suddenly stop marijuana? Is there anything to the idea that I might be psychologically dependent on a drug? Could I quit if I wanted to?
. . . Marijuana is different from a lot of other drugs of abuse in that although there usually are some subtle physiological signs of withdrawal when a chronic user stops smoking—mildly elevated pulse, irritability, and so on--these physical effects are generally fairly mild, and they are dramatically less obvious or powerful than those seen when a habitual user of alcohol, opiates (either heroin or any of the opioid pain pills), or benzodiazepines (such as Xanax or Klonopin) abruptly ceases use. In these latter instances, individuals in withdrawal can hallucinate, have greatly increased pulse and blood pressures, be visibly and dramatically uncomfortable, and in worst cases have seizures and even die. . . .
Even though the physiological effects of cannabis withdrawal are generally mild, it is not correct to conclude that marijuana is not addictive, because being addicted to something is more than simply being physically dependent on a drug and experiencing physiological effects if the drug is stopped suddenly. “Addiction” refers to behaviors that are compulsive, partially out of control or worse, and often escalating in severity and intensity.
Given this definition of addiction, nobody should conclude that folks who are taking pain medications exactly as prescribed around the clock for legitimate health reasons--and are thus physiologically dependent on them--are addicted if they are taking their pills as prescribed, if they are not causing problems in the person’s life, if the individual is not engaging in dangerous behaviors in order to procure them, and if the use is not continually escalating to a point that is out of control.
. . . Obviously, the vast majority of marijuana users are neither addicted nor almost addicted to cannabis. Their use doesn’t escalate over time, they can enjoy its effects without endangering some major element of their lives. . . .
. . . most people who smoke marijuana do so the way most folks who drink alcohol do: in moderation, once the day’s major responsibilities are done, and so on.
Does medical marijuana equal death?
Is marijuana a killer, as Ingebrigtsen insists? Unlike the legal painkillers that have helped fuel rising drug overdoses or severe alcohol intoxication, not a single marijuana overdose has occurred in 10,000 years of the substance's use and abuse by humans.
Will medical marijuana provide a safer painkiller?
One of the rallying cries that law enforcement sounds about legalizing medical marijuana is that it will be used to alleviate pain. Autumn Leva of the Minnesota Family Council testified to a House hearing on HF1818 that pain relief was the use most common for medical marijuana prescribed in Colorado.
Given the relate safety of marijuana, and the alarming statistics produced by prescription painkillers, Bluestem has to wonder if Sheriff Bill, Ms. Leva and the rest of the anti-medical marijuana crowd simply has this bassackward.
Remove marijuana from Schedule I and the research ban implied in that classification, open it up for doctors to prescribe and researchers to study, and severely restrict the real killers among us
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