The most entertaining fight might be rhetorical tag-team thumb wrestling between state representative Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) and state senator Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) and Greg Davids (R-Preston) over the 2014 bonding bill Governor Dayton signed today.
Are these three living under the same sky? We know they're serving abutting senate districts (with a DFLer serving in the house district that separates Draz and Davids) but the contrast between the Republicans' messaging might create a bit of head scratching among local citizens who.
A busy final week at the Legislature has culminated in the passage by both the House and Senate of a 2014 bonding bill. The bill was put together after months of negotiations and input and will result in southeastern Minnesota seeing great benefits and prosperity.
When I have the opportunity to visit with the citizens from the district I represent here at the Capitol and in district, I often speak of and stress not only the importance of working hard, but that we must also work together. This has been very clear during the bonding bill negotiations.
I am fortunate to have a great working relationship with both house members from our district. It is not uncommon to see Rep. Pelowski, Rep. Davids and myself together at events and many times we are on the same side of issues, especially local issues. We have worked very closely together to ensure that the bonding projects critical to our area were included in the bonding bill. . . .
Pelowski is a DFLer (more or less) and Davids a Republican (and former ALEC state chair). Miller praises local projects including $5.352 million for the Chatfield Center for the Arts.
In today's Daily News, Draz talks smack about the very idea of a bonding bill with arts in i, as well as the "radical social agenda" of letting cute boys marry. He writes in Legislative session had wrong priorities:
Another area the parties differed was on capital investment. Millions were wasted on sculpture gardens, museums, art centers and snow-making equipment, while not nearly enough money was included for local road and bridge repair.
I authored a bonding bill that would have dedicated $517 million for road and bridge improvement projects statewide, prioritized Capitol reconstruction along with wastewater and drinking water projects, and would have left out the pork — completely. It did not receive consideration.
Take that, Chatfield! The Draz and Greg Davids also part company about Whose Line Is This Anyway when it comes to that bonding bill.
There were at least a few instances in which Republicans helped pass legislation beneficial to them. That includes an $846 million bonding bill that only needed eight Republican votes to pass, but still included millions of dollars of projects in GOP districts. Some of those projects were tucked into a $200 million cash bill that funded additional construction projects.
“The bonding bill is the House Republican bonding bill. Not the Senate Republicans — the House Republicans,” Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, said.
We can't wait for the next Tea Party rally in Winona for these chappies to square off on a shared message. Perhaps Draz can just stay home.
Photo: Oh really? Whose bonding bill is this anyway?
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They note the successful of earlier pollinator legislation in the Minnesota (both of which have made into law in some form or the other) on the campaign page:
1)SF2727 (Dibble)–Beekeeper Compensation–This bill concerns bees and other pollinators killed by pesticide. If the pesticide applicator cannot be identified or the pesticide applicator is identified and found to have followed application instructions and restrictions on the product’s label, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) could compensate the bee owner from state Pesticide Regulatory Account. The Pesticide Regulatory Account contains the fees and penalties paid to MDA by pesticide manufacturers, distributors, and applicators.
SF 2695 (Dziedzic) This bill defines “pollinator lethal insecticides,” and says that nurseries cannot label plants as pollinator-friendly if they’ve been pretreated with these pesticides. It prohibits labeling or advertising a plant, plant material, or nursery stock as beneficial to pollinators if the plant was treated with an insecticide that was absorbed by the plant and, as a result, the plant is lethal to pollinators.
Why are we not surprised to see Senator Dibble's name on a bill that's good policy? Thanks also to Senator Dziedzic.
Restitution is an old concept, and another Hansen bill, HF2908, hopes to provide for compensation when bee death caused by pesticide poisoning, establish a pollinator emergency response team, and provide a civil liability for bee deaths. The final item is restitution.
The money for compensation when "the loss of the bees was likely caused by an acute pesticide poisoning and the source and applicator of the pesticide cannot be determined" will come from the pesticide regulatory account. When an investigation determines that bee deaths came from a particular applicator, the bill provides that the applicator pay the beekeeper for the bee deaths:
A pesticide applicator that has knowingly violated the law resulting in the death of bees kept for commercial purposes is liable for any actual damages resulting from the violation, including any economic damages associated with loss or damage to bees kept. In awarding damages under this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that the economic value of a damaged or destroyed bee population is consistent with the value assigned to bees by the commissioner of agriculture . . .
It's not rocket science, but an old concept, and should help Minnesota's struggling beekeepers. This proposal shouldn't be considered controversial and deserves passage.
While Minnesota Public Radio touts the conventional talking points about this year's session in What the 2014 Legislature did for you, Bluestem is finding all sorts of goodies in the supplemental budget bill, and we'll be posting more about them in the coming week.
One provision leads our list of Other Things the 2014 Legislature Did For You: a study of the numbers of agricultural employers who are using a 48-hour work week to figure overtime and the number of employees this exemption for agricultural business affects.
Sec. 22. AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT; REPORT. 53.2The commissioner of labor and industry shall report by January 1, 2015, to the chairs 53.3and ranking minority members of the standing committees of the house of representatives 53.4and senate with jurisdiction over labor policy and finance issues on the number of 53.5agricultural employers who are using a 48 hour work week and the number of employees 53.6affected. The commissioner shall include recommendations for appropriate compensation 53.7for such agricultural employees. For the purposes of this section, "agriculture" has the 53.8meaning given in Minnesota Rules, part 5200.0260.
During the minimum wage debate, we made no secret of our disappointment that a provision in the House version of the minimum wage bill that would have required employers to pay agricultural workers overtime using the same formula used by employers in other sectors.
Those who opposed the measure cite hard working family farmers who hire a few seasonal hands--maybe a niece or that nice neighbor kid down the road--in the rush of the harvest, while those supporting the change have suggested that the exemption mostly helps larger operations. Governor Dayton's office supported the change.
While supporters of the change were willing to settle for the study, those opposed fought authorization and funding of the study. This resistant suggests that they'd rather create policy based on myth-making, rather than fact-finding.
Bluestem looks forward to the facts discovered by the report, as well as learning more about how this provision entered the final report on the bill heading to the governor's desk.
Disclosure: Bluestem's editor and proprietor, Sally Jo Sorensen, served on the Minnesota Farmers Union Policy Committee for 2013-2014. At its 2013 convention, the Minnesota Farmers Union adopted policy supporting a 40-hour work week for the calculation of overtime for ag workers. The views expressed here are the opinion of the author and not the Minnesota Farmers Union.
Photo: We love Terence Malick's "Days of Heaven" but doubt its gorgeous depiction of farm labor is a sound ag or family policy.
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Jim Hagedorn, who ran unsuccessfully for GOP nomination in Minnesota's First District in 2010 and this year, questioned Walz during a press conference at the VA Outpatient Clinic. Hagedorn asked about the work of the House Committee on Veteran Affairs and more specifically the committee's chairman Jeff Miller, D-Florida. Walz, who also sits on the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said he can't say enough good things about Miller and the rest of the Committee on Veterans Affairs.
We'll let readers decide the propriety of Hagedorn inserting himself into news conference at the Rochester VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic. The Veterans Administration frowns on campaigning at its facilties. The Walz tour of VA facilties on Wednesday was part of his service on the veterans committee.
We'll see if Hagedorn uses his cameo in his campaign now that he's jumped in. At the Mankato Free Press, Josh Moniz reports in Hagedorn re-entering 1st District race"
Blue Earth resident Jim Hagedorn will announce today his re-entry into the Republican race for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District.
The decision puts him on a collision course with endorsed Republican candidate Aaron Miller of Byron in the August primary. Both candidates are seeking to become the official Republican candidate to challenge Democrat incumbent Rep. Tim Walz of Mankato in the November elections.
. . . He said he wants to focus the majority of his primary run on pressing the attack against Walz, similar to his pre-endorsement convention campaign. He said he believes working hard early in the year will pay off in the general election.
Was the VA appearance part of Hagedorn's "insurgent" style campaigning? If so, Hagedorn might ask Miller campaign adviser Brad Biers just how well campaiging at the Veterans Administration works. While serving as an adviser for 2008 Walz challenger Brian Davis, Biers tried crashing a meeting then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi held at the Minneapolis veterans hospital with veterans, county veteran service officers and other state officials concerned with veterans care.
If Bluestem recalls correctly, several VA staffers grew concerned with Biers lurking on the scene and called security. He wasn't removed from the building, as he is a veteran himself, but he wasn't allowed in the meeting. As we say, no campaigning on VA grounds.
Given Biers' learning experience years ago--and Miller's own understanding as a command sergeant major in the Army Reserves--we doubt Hagedorn will get much traction if he tries it.
Moreover, the irony of Hagedorn running a double insurgency campaign against Miller, who served in Iraq, and Walz, who supported the war in Afghanistan from a base in Italy, might give many Southern Minnesotans reason to pause, regardless of their political stripes.
Who's helping the Southern Minnesota insurgency? Moniz reports:
Hagedorn said he will retain all of his original staff for the primary race. He said the only new development will be heavier coordination with the Minneapolis-based consulting firm P2B Strategies. The firm, which is associated with political consultant Gregg Peppin, was utilized by Hagedorn prior to the endorsement convention.
Moniz reports that Miller's side, for its part, offers this list of supporters in rebuttal to Hagedorn's claims of disstisfaction among the Republican ranks:
Biers also provided a letter signed by 78 Republicans that support Miller, which will be sent to Stevenson on Monday. Notably, the letter included signatures from Republican state chair Keith Downey, Minnesota College Republican chair Angie Hasek and state lawmakers Rep. Greg Davis, Rep. Steve Drazkowski, Rep. Duane Quam and Rep. Mike Charron. It also included signatures from Tea Party Patriots coordinator Cindy Maves and the Republican county chairs for Olmsted, Rice, Dodge, Jackson, Winona, Fillmore and Houston counties. The remaining signatures were largely concentrated around Olmsted County, Winona Couny and Fillmore County.
This is a curious list, suggesting support largely in the population-heavy eastern part of the sprawling district, although Mankato and Worthington are missing.
As for Maves' signature, perhaps the Rochester Tea Party Patriots might put some distance between her endorsement and the group, which touts its self as non-partisan and has protested IRS scrutiny in its application for non-profit status. Bluestem hopes that the group continues to act in good faith and invite all conservatives to speak at its events.
Photo: A friend likes to call Jim Hagedorn Fossie Bear. We'll run with it.
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The Minnesota House and Senate have approved a bill designed to protect bees and other pollinators from systemic insecticides in garden plants.
The legislation says, “A person may not label or advertise an annual plant, bedding plant, or other plant, plant material, or nursery stock as beneficial to pollinators if the annual plant, bedding plant, plant material, or nursery stock has been treated with and has a detectable level of systemic insecticide.”
University of Minnesota bee expert Marla Spivak says the legislation is an important protection for bees and reflects a new consumer demand.
“Nurseries, to stay in business, will have to pay attention to this new and strong consumer demand,” she said.
The bill takes a good step to ensure that nurseries pay attention to insecticide use on flowering plants according to Spivak. With many other legislative initiatives passed this session to help pollinating insects and birds, “it puts Minnesota in the lead nationally,” Spivak said. . .
Sadly, ten legislators couldn't bring themselves to support this common sense measure. They are: Mark Anderson, Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, Steve Drazkowski, Sondra Erickson, Tom Hackbarth, Jerry Hertaus, Brian Johnson, Jim Newberger, Joyce Peppin and Peggy Scott.
Wednesday, the Senate approved an amended version of the bill, 60-0. Returned to the House, the pollinator buzzkill widened, although the bill pased 111-17.
The Journal of the House records these no votes: Tony Albright, Mark Anderson, Mike Benson,Kurt Daudt, Greg Davids, Steve Drazkowski, Sondra Erickson, Dave FitzSimmons,Pat Garofalo, Tom Hackbarth, Jerry Hertaus, Joe Hoppe, Ernie Leidiger, Jim Newberger, Joyce Peppin, Duane Quam, Peggy Scott.
Benson, FitzSimmons and Leidiger are retiring after this session. Constituents of the remaining 14 naysayers might contact their legislators and ask them what they have against a common sense bill that prevents plants treated with chemicals that will kill bees from being labeled as "pollinator friendly."
Uffda.
Meme: Bees mean life, since most fruits and vegetables need pollinators to create produce.
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The agreement would also blend nearly $5 million from the General Fund and the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund to create the Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center at the University of Minnesota.
“This is amongst the most important legislation that has been enacted to support agriculture and Minnesota’s farmers,” said Rep. Andrew Falk (DFL-Murdock). “Invasive species pose hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars of threats to our agricultural, forestry and tourism industries in addition to causing irreparable harm to our state’s ecosystems and our quality of life.”
There's only so much buckthorn Minnesota's goat herd can devour after all.
State Representative Andrew Falk (DFL-Murdock) chief-authored and spearheaded the effort to establish the Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center. “We know the immense threat invasive species and herbicide-resistant agriculture weeds pose to our state and our economy. Instead of playing catch-up and attempting to reactively deal with invasive species, we will be taking a proactive approach to contain and address the threats before they become a crisis.”
If you're wondering why it's a sound spending decision to create the Center, just watch the expert testimony from weed scientists in the post at the second link.
Photo: Herbicide resistant waterhemp smoking some soybeans in a field. Via Seeds Today.
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Early this morning, Joshua Weaver, whose daughter Amelia lives with Dravet Syndrome, contacted Bluestem with regard to questions about the timeline of developments in Minnesota's medical marijuana debate.
Mostly, we were curious about Melin's claims since December 2013 that the Weavers had led her to introduce the first bill in May 2013. We had not been able to find any record of Melin discussing pediatric cannabis or the Weavers before December 2013.
We asked Weaver to provide a statement for the record about his family's journey from private citizens insearch of remedy to public advocates for legal access to medical cannabis, and he has done so. Here's his emailed statement:
Ms. Sorensen
Hopefully I can clear up a timeline for you. My daughter, Amelia, was diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome at the end of January 2013. It was a difficult diagnosis to get because of the limited number of treatment options. Over the next few months, we started doing our own research into those treatment options. Of course, medical cannabis was not on that list. I did find a story of a boy in California using medical cannabis for intractable epilepsy with some amount of success. Sometime in the summer of 2013, my coworker forwarded me the video of Charlotte Figi. Of course, this was overwhelming to us because she also has Dravet Syndrome (many times diagnosed with a gene panel). Charlotte's story drove us to find out more.
We first started seriously talking about moving to Colorado in the Fall months of 2013. However, as we quickly found out, it was not as easy as just moving and immediately starting medicine. On top of that, we did not have the means or support to be able to move immediately. In November 2013, we were told that Representative Melin had introduced a bill for medical cannabis in Minnesota. After some amount of discussion, we decided to contact Representative Melin to make her aware of our situation and how her legislation could help us. My wife and I are not political activists by any means, but we thought that it was the least we could do for our daughter. Representative Melin and Representative Murphy stopped by to visit my daughter and talk with us about our situation in December 2013. [emphasis added] They happened to be in town for some reason that I do not remember. We visited them and told them our story.
I do believe my wife submitted a personal testimony with Amelia's story to the Minnesotans for Compassionate Care website sometime in January of 2014. It was before the session started. After that, we were contacted by interested news organizations looking to tell Amelia's story. In the middle of February, we were invited to bring Amelia down to the Capitol and speak with legislators about Amelia's story. I don't remember everyone who showed up to meet Amelia, but there were about a dozen lawmakers that stopped by. We never did meet the Governor, but we were able to talk with members of his staff that same day.
Then the session started and I believe the rest is fairly well documented. We were at the Capitol yesterday for a truly wonderful moment and we are beyond thankful to the lawmakers who made this happen. At the beginning of the process, I was very skeptical that anything would get accomplished. The Governor made is position very well known and it was a hurdle that just kept looming. Seeing a compromise emerge and having a bill that could pass into law was overwhelming for my wife and I. We are ecstatic with this dramatic turn of events.
This account conforms fairly precisely with what Bluestem has found online at the Weaver's blog, Cupcakes and Home School.
Weaver adds in a separate email that Melin's father taught classes at Hibbing Community College for many years, but retired as a colleague sometime back:
I'm sorry I don't know the exact date. It must be a couple years by now. I don't know if he fully retired or just retired and continued part time work here and there. He was a law enforcement instructor here for many years.
In news reports, the Weavers were never the ones to claim that they were the inspiration for Melin; those statements come entirely from Melin, and the media appear to have never asked why Melin changed her story to focus on the Weavers as the impetus for her signing on to the bill.
Since the Weavers themselves hadn't learned about medical cannabis as a treatment for their daughter before HF1818 was introduced, and would not learn themselves about pediatric cannabis applications until later that summer, it's difficult to believe that Representative Melin happened to have that insight.
Especially since she never mentioned the family until after they approached her.
What should we make of this?
It's apparently a mispresentation of matters on her part, and it's an apparent misrepresentation that has had resounding consequences on the end result of the legislative process. Melin was able to take bows for seeming to call out law enforcement, but then deliver on a highly restrictive bill once Scott Dibble started getting the process rolling again with the stronger bill. Dibble's bill also became stronger as it moved through the committee process.
And once Melin held out suffering children as her original inspiration for getting involved in medical cannabis policy making--a statement examined by no one in the media--she and her defenders think themselves able to cry foul on any critics of the "compromise" law enforcement desired and Dayton so desperately needed for re-election as he fumbled the issue.
Bluestem is happy that Amelia, Luella and 5,000 other people wil have a chance at receiving medical cannabis, if the compromise can be made to work.
We cannot, however, forget about the 30,000 other people who are left out, as we have long believed that there should not be a hierarchy of the ill, nor are we comfortable on putting happy DFL face on while apologizing to veterans we know who suffer from PTSD who experience rather frightening side effects from existing treatments.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this limited proposal is that it was completely unnecessary. Over two-thirds of the state, and a majority of my legislative colleagues, support proposals that do not cost the state a cent while more efficiently protecting a greater number of patients. Much of this “compromise” is the direct result of hyperbole, fear, and rigid intransigence from Gov. Mark Dayton.
Ignoring the overwhelming body of evidence that medical cannabis is a viable and highly effective treatment for tens of thousand of Minnesotans, the governor forced the legislature to put forward an inadequate bill that leaves so many patients and families on the outside. Gov. Dayton consistently required language that would treat medical cannabis as a highly toxic and dangerous substance and those who use it as untrustworthy drug addicts. These suggestions were, and are, far from reality. Medical cannabis has been used for thousands of years and is much less toxic and addictive than many legal prescription drugs. The patients who seek to use medical cannabis do so in order to get better, not to get high.
NOTE: OUR QUESTIONS TO JOSH WEAVER
Note: In the interests of full transparency, here are the questions we asked Weaver after he contacted us, and to which he responded with the statement above. The questions:
Thanks. News accounts from earlier this year make it appear that Amelia, who had lived with seizures since she was a toddler, was diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome when she was six. (About a year before the articles were written). The newspapers are unclear about the timeline from the diagnosis to your family's exploration of medical cannabis as a potential tool in aiding Amelia.
The next step is your family's move from concerned parents to passionate advocates for legal access to medical cannabis for all children living with seizure disorders; this journey is first reported by news media in December 2013 (ECM Publishing, a statewide newspaper chain, published and reprinted an article about the pending legislation) and continues through this day. Angie's testimony also occurs on the website kept by Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, although the date when this document was first posted is unclear.
If you could sketch out this timeline of personal discovery to public activism for a statement for publication, that would be very helpful for my readers. Including specific mileposts, such as finding videos, television shows, and newspaper articles about cannabis as a treatment--as well as dates of initial contacts with public officials such as Governor Dayton, legislators and organizations like Minnesotans for Compassionate Care that worked to achieve yesterday's deal--would be helpful.
Apparently, Melin was so inspired by the Weaver's story, that she authored a bill before even the family learned that medical cannabis could helped their daughter--and then kept news of her inspiration secret until months later. Super powers! [end update]
In the post, Melin slammed Minnesotans for Compassionate Care and its lobbyist, Heather Azzi, as using the drive to legalize medical marijuana as a pretext for moving forward the legalization of recreational marijuana. She noted that the Senate version of the bill, authored by Senator Scott Dibble, was written by this group.
Her bill, the Ranger said, was written by "attorneys employed by the House, and by legislators with input from the Board of Pharmacy, MN Medical Association, Department of Health, and manufacturers from Colorado."
As we noted yesterday, Melin's claims create a peculiar reconstruction of the past, as she had worked with Minnesotans For Compassionate Care for months--without a single publicly voiced qualm about this stealth agenda.
Two additional pieces of information have emerged that leave Bluestem with more questions about Melin's shifting frames.
The next post on Cupcakes and Home School is the July 10, 2013 entry by Angie Weaver, Hope For Those Battling Dravet Syndrome, in which the devoted mother writes:
After a week of caring for my daughter during her night time seizure, taking her to be poked and prodded for her pre-op physical for yet another surgery, and comforting her while she sobbed in the middle of the night, I opened an email from the Hubs titled- I hear Colorado is nice. He sent me an article from a newspaper in Colorado about a girl battling Dravet Syndrome that was having success with medicinal marijuana. It was such a great article that I had to share it. Ironically, our daughter looks so much like the girl in the story-even the same haircut!
There are no words to describe the feeling of watching your child suffer everyday, knowing there is nothing you can do to take the pain away. The Hubs and I will do anything to save our daughter, maybe that will mean moving to Colorado.
A reasonable reader might infer from the two posts from the summer of 2013 that the June article--revealed in the July 2013 post to have come to Angie Weaver in an email from "the Hubs."
But later news coverage suggests otherwise. In an article printed in the ECM Publishers chain in December 2013, we read:
She become interested in carrying medical marijuana legislation, Melin said, after learning of a family in her district whose 7-year-old daughter suffers from Dravet syndrome. The child suffers as many as 400 seizures a month, Melin said, and the first time her parents heard her utter a sound for many weeks was when she began to cry after breaking her arm in three places, with bone jutting through the skin, in a condition-related mishap. . . .
Melin doesn’t want to see parents of children with Dravet syndrome need to flee Minnesota to seek treatment for their child.
While the Weaver blog has chronicled their daughter's illness since January 2013, they didn't mention medical cannabis or moving to Colorado until after the bill was introduced--nor did those posts include mention of Melin's legislation.
Amelia has Dravet (pronounced dra-VAY) syndrome, a rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy that attacks young children. Most antiepileptic medicines aren’t recommended for Dravet syndrome; the few that are haven’t helped Amelia.
“We have all but exhausted our options,” said Angie Weaver, 32.
But the Weavers have a glimmer of hope.
They’ve learned about it through TV shows and newspaper articles and especially through the online community of parents who have children with the same condition. Some of those parents tell of a treatment that has made an enormous difference in their children, allowing them to bring their seizures under control and to start to regain lost functions.
But the treatment is illegal in Minnesota. It’s a medical form of marijuana, taken as a pill or in an oil solution.
Amelia’s story, and those of people suffering with cancer, glaucoma, debilitating pain and other conditions, led state Rep. Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing, to author legislation that would legalize marijuana for medical uses in Minnesota.
A number of news reports tout Melin's superpowers as the House DFL Millennial Brand Leader, but none have reported on her ability to see into the future when drafting bills.
But then, in talking to Lundy, the Weaver focus on a February 2013 video, rather than the June article that marks the first mention on their blog of Charlotte's Web and moving to Colorado. Moreover Josh Weaver echoes his wife's July 2013 observation on the blog that their daughter resembles the girl in the Colorado article.
The Weavers were dubious when first told about the possibility of treating Dravet syndrome with medical marijuana. But then one of Josh Weaver’s colleagues at Hibbing Community College told him about Charlotte Figi. The video they watched (see below) showed a 6-year-old girl with short, dark hair like Amelia’s. Charlotte’s mother, Paige Figi, explained in the video that Charlotte had been diagnosed at 2½ with Dravet syndrome, and every possible FDA-approved medication had been tried.
Charlotte’s symptoms were, if anything, even more drastic than Amelia’s.
In the first seven days after taking the medical marijuana, Charlotte was seizure-free, her mother said. Over the next nine months, she went from having 300 seizures a week to zero or one.
Watching it, the Weavers were transfixed.
“The little girl looks like Amelia; the story sounds the same,” Josh Weaver said. “It’s like watching our life, happening somewhere else.”
The difference is that Charlotte Figi’s somewhere else is Colorado. The medical marijuana compound she takes, cultivated to be extremely low in the THC that gives marijuana its psychoactive effects, is grown there.
The Weavers don’t want to move to Colorado.
Josh Weaver, 33, likes his job in the information technology department at the community college, and the health insurance is good, they said. Both grew up in Hibbing, and their family, friends, and their church are here. Having a child who has multiple seizures means most babysitting options aren’t available, but they can call on their parents.
In Colorado, all of that would be gone. . .
Bluestem hopes the Weavers aren't confused about when they first heard the story of Charlotte's Web. We still can't figure out the reticience on either the Weavers or Melin to talk about Amelia's part in inspiring the Hibbing lawmaker to introduce HF1818., companion to Dibble's SF1641.
Of course, Melin now thinks that the copy-cat companion bill of her own HF1818 is a totally horrible scheme to push Minnesota toward legalizing recreational pot, so we can't fault anyone involved in this legislative and public relations history for being confused by these varying accounts.
Meanwhile, we've found the undated Testimony of Angie Weaver on the website of Minnesotans for Compassionate Care's website. While there's a 2013 copyright on the website's "skin," the page wasn't captured by the Wayback Machine during 2013, and 2014 television ads are also on a page bearing the 2013 copyright "skin." We suspect that the Weaver testimony dates from sometime after June 2013.
We have calls into other sources and will update this ongoing research as we learn more.
Bluestem hopes that the House and Senate conference committee report creates a report recommending a law closer to the Senate version, so that not only the Weavers, but many suffering Minnesotans have a new line treatment for what ails them.
Screenshot:The first post at Angie Weaver's Cupcakes and Home School blog that mentions moving to Colorado (July 2013), with the headline for the June 9, 2013 Colorado Spring Gazette article reprinted on the site by Angie Weaver.
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If one's only encounter with Representative Carly Melin's opinion of Minnesota Citizens for Compassionate was a post she made in the MN Pediatric Cannabis Therapy closed Facebook group on May 10, 2014, one might take her as the fearless guardian of the line against stealth legalization of recreational cannabis.
And that her colleague in the Senate, Scott Dibble (Minneapolis)m was nothing but a patsy for MCC, a front for the Marijuana Policy Project. UPDATE: Melin claims that the new bill was written by non-partisan attorneys employed by the House with input from the Board of Pharmacy, the MN Medical Association, Department of health, and manufacturers from Colorado. End update.
Unfortunately for that representation to people interested in providing pediatric medical cannabis children who might gain from treatments that may reduce suffering, that's not an accurate accounting of Melin's history of working with MCC's "one employee."
Melin was (and remains) a co-sponsor of HF1818, original companion to Dibble bill
Advocates of legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes claim that they have 40 co-sponsors for legislation that will be introduced on Thursday.
According to Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, they have lined up 35 co-sponsors in the House and five in the Senate. . . .
Rep. Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing, will be the lead author of the House bill. Also listed as a sponsor is Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar. Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, will sponsor legislation in the Senate.
When a bipartisan group of legislators threw a medical marijuana bill into the hopper during the last month of the 2013 legislative session, it wasn’t intended as an 11th-hour bargaining chip. Anticipating a short session in 2014, medical marijuana advocates said they were trying to set the stage for convincing lawmakers that they should join a growing list of states that allow patients with serious or terminal illnesses to use the drug to alleviate their pain.
The bill’s chief sponsor in the House, Rep. Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing, said she and other advocates plan to lay the groundwork for a campaign to explain to lawmakers the bill’s safeguards and why it’s needed.
“We introduced it late knowing we weren’t going to pursue it in 2013, because it was a budget year and we had a lot else going on,” Melin said. “But obviously we have a short session coming up, and we want to get the ball rolling over the interim so we can pick up right away once the session starts in February.” . . .
. . .Heather Azzi, political director of Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, who advocated for the medical marijuana bill in 2009, said the groundwork is being established for a strong showing in 2014. And that means trying to make inroads with the most vocal opponent of medical marijuana: law enforcement.
“We introduced the bill at the end of session so we could begin conversations with the law enforcement community now,” Azzi said. “Our goal with this bill is to enact something in Minnesota that protects the sick and suffering patients whose doctors have recommended marijuana while preventing abuse. We don’t want anything like what we’ve seen in California [to happen] here.”
Was Melin completely ignorant of the connection between Azzi and MCC and the Marijuana Policy Project when she introduced a bill in 2013? Public lobbyist registrations suggest that she must have nodded off when presented with the draft of the bill Azzi presented her.
Azzi first registered as lobbyist with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board on February 5, 2013. Other lobbyists include medical organization Thomas Lehmann, who first counted MPP among the fifteen organizations on his client list on April 4, 2013; former Republican lawmaker Christopher DeLaForest (registered December 5, 2013); and Henry Erdman (registered January 1, 2014).
The University of Minnesota Duluth’s Center for Ethics and Public Policy will be hosting a panel discussion about the pending legislation that – if passed – would make Minnesota the 21st state to pass a medical marijuana law. This panel is free and open to the public, so feel free to attend.
What: Medical marijuana in Minnesota panel discussion
Who: Rep. Carly Melin, Heather Azzi, Rep. Bob Barrett, and Cody Wiberg
The panel will feature Rep. Carly Melin, the lead House sponsor of the medical marijuana bill that is pending before the Minnesota House of Representatives. Rep. Melin (DFL) represents District 6A, which includes the Iron Range in Itasca and St. Louis counties. Joining Rep. Melin will be Heather Azzi, the political director for Minnesotans for Compassionate Care who is working to protect seriously ill people from arrest and prosecution for using medical marijuana with doctors' recommendations. Rounding out the panel are Rep. Bob Barrett (R), who represents portions of Chisago County, and Cody Wiberg, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy. . . .
The event was covered by Lake Voices News and other media. Rosemary Bray writes:
The bill was introduced earlier this year by Representative Carly Melin, member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. The purpose of the bill would be to allow doctors in Minnesota the right to prescribe medicinal marijuana to patients who are seriously ill or in chronic pain.
“I introduced the bill last year knowing there was going to be a lot of conversation surrounding it, with hopes to receive a lot of community input,” Melin said. “I continue to learn more and more about the benefits of medical marijuana and having forums like this is definitely beneficial in moving forward.” . . .
. . .“This legislation is to make sure people who are sick with chronic and terminal illnesses have access to medical marijuana if their doctor says it would be the best practice for them,” Melin said. “We’ve seen that there are a lot of other drugs out there that have more harsh effects than marijuana.”
According to Melin, the medical evidence of the benefits of marijuana is overwhelming; the biggest barrier is the legal and law enforcement issues. Minnesota is at an advantage because the law can be created based on what has been successful or not in the allowance of medical marijuana within other states.
While we are able to find a number of articles publics published in 2013 in which both Melin and Azzi are featured, what Bluestem has been unable to locate is any discussion of the pediatric use of medical cannabis.
UPDATE:We've found two 2013 references for Azzi and Melin discussing pediatric cannabis.
Minnesota, where Luella lives, is one state where medical marijuana legislation is still under debate. Unlike New Jersey, which made it difficult for children to obtain medical marijuana, the proposal circulating in Minnesota intentionally allows children to qualify for the program, said Heather Azzi, political director for Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, a medical marijuana advocacy group.
“Children suffer from the same illnesses as adults,” she said, adding that they need to be protected, too.
She become interested in carrying medical marijuana legislation, Melin said, after learning of a family in her district whose 7-year-old daughter suffers from Dravet syndrome. The child suffers as many as 400 seizures a month, Melin said, and the first time her parents heard her utter a sound for many weeks was when she began to cry after breaking her arm in three places, with bone jutting through the skin, in a condition-related mishap.
Dravet syndrome is a rare and “catastrophic” form of epilepsy that begins in infancy, according to the Dravet Syndrome Foundation. Without the advent of better treatment, individuals with Dravet syndrome face a diminished quality of life, the foundation notes.
We will continue to dig. [end update]
Neither Azzi nor Melin talk about this use until January 2014. On January 18, 2014, the Duluth News Tribune reported that the story of Hibbing's Amelia Weaver led Melin to author the bill; the story was also in other Forum Communications venues like the Bemidji Pioneer. On March 4, the Mesabi Daily News reported in Pot Politics that "The Weaver family was the inspiration for Melin’s bill."
We find it curious that Melin didn't share her inspiration for sponsoring the bill before January. While we understand that the Weaver family might have wished for privacy before the session, certainly Melin might have mention pediatric application of cannabis oil somewhere in passing. The Weavers talk about seeing a video of Charlotte Figi ( presumably this one first posted on Febuary 8, 2013) so the discussion was in the public realm before the bill was introduced (although the famous Gupta CNN video about Figi wasn't aired until August 7, 2013).
But by May 10, 2014, Azzi--who worked with Melin for months on the issue--was denounced as a stealth recreational pot advocate. It seems to be a curious move on Melin's part, given her own record of involvement with MCC>
We'll be looking more into the timeline of when pediatric medical cannabis use began to be publicly discussed in Minnesota politics and let readers know what we find.
SCREENSHOT: Melin blasts her former ally in
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Jesus Christ may have famously said in Matthew 23 that the way to heaven is through serving the "least of these" among us, but on Monday's Sons of Liberty radio broadcast, toxic metal Christian rocker Bradlee and wife Stephanie Dean preached stereotypes about American Indians in order to bash all poor Americans as actually wealthy.
Pointing out that poor Americans own appliances--the "WalMart Effect" of cheap goods, while decent housing and essential services remain out of reach--has long been a standard trope employed by the right to bash poor Americans.
But it's rare for the Christian right to single out the improverished living conditions of Dakota and Lakota people living on reservations in South Dakota, while trotting out stereotypes about alcohol and tobacco, to ridicule all poor Americans.
Here's a transcript of the exchange, which took place about 44 minutes into the broadcast, and the audio of the segment:
BD: Nearly two-thirds, 63.7 percent, have cable or satellite television--
SD: You know, I have to--
BD: That's how poor America is--
SD: I have to say this, you know, we've done a lot of high school assembly programs in South Dakota and in South Dakota, you drive and you see, you know, especially among Native American nations, you see lot of these mobile homes and they'll just be the trashiest looking house and they just won't look good at all, but I notice, you see these really really bad-looking houses with the satellite smackdab on the side of the house--
BD--Oh yeah--
SD:--So it's like they've got these rundown houses--
BD: --Or cigarettes hanging out of their face--
SD: --And they've got these dishes--
BD: --Oh yeah--
SD:--These satellite dishes--
BD:--Or they're walking out of the liquor store with the 24-pack, these are the poor people--
SD:--I think you can afford what you want to afford--
BD:--Their groceries are paid for--
SD: --Exactly--
BD: --And if that's not good enought for you, friends, they're out there gambling--
SD:--Exactly--
BD:--Buying these little cards to see if they can win the big lottery, right? Let me go back...
Bradlee Dean first gained national notoriety when, as a guest chaplain at the Minnesota House, he questioned President Obama's faith in his prayer. He later unsuccessfully sued Rachel Maddow for defamation when she played a tape of part of one of his radio broadcasts.
Photo: Sons of Liberty radio personality Stephanie Dean, who was judging on our neighbors in South Dakota.
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Seventeen DFL legislators rebuked the state Department of Agriculture late last week over its planned review of the controversial pesticides implicated in the decline in honeybees, arguing that the study should include the possibility of restricting or even banning them in Minnesota.
Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL South St. Paul, said the public criticism is unusual, but reflects the concerns that constituents have voiced over the fate of honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies and the hundreds of other pollinating insects that are declining across the state.
“This is a concern in farm country, the suburbs and the city,” he said in an interview. “We are asking them to use [their] powers to make the best result for Minnesota.”
At the direction of the Legislature, last year the Agriculture Department launched a special review of the pesticide class called neonicotinoids, which have been implicated in the decline of insects, as part of a new law to protect pollinators in the state. In March, the department outlined the scope of the review but said it is not intended to go beyond what the Environmental Protection Agency has already done in its approval process.
In a public comment letter submitted to the agency on Friday, the DFL legislators said that interpretation of the law is “nonsensical and — more troubling — at odds with legislative intent.” The review should include a thorough analysis of whether the pesticides should be banned or restricted in Minnesota, they said, regardless of what the EPA says. . . .
Photo: Wild bee balm on Representative Rick Hansen's farm in southeastern Minnesota. Pollinators love this native Minnesotan wild flower. Via Facebook.
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Like many Minnesotans, Bluestem feels confounded by Governor Mark Dayton's veto threats over the bonding bill and the Senate version of the medical cannabis bill. But reading news accounts this morning, a workable path around the roadblocks suggests itself to us.
Gov. Mark Dayton dropped a legislative bombshell Monday when he announced that he is willing to give up $846 million in public works projects around Minnesota if legislators insist on overturning a state requirement for fire sprinklers in larger new homes.
The rare veto threat came over a provision in a Senate public works bill that would forbid state officials from requiring fire sprinkler systems in homes larger than 4,500 square feet. The current building code requires sprinklers for the larger homes.
Sen. LeRoy Stumpf, D-Plummer, told members of his bonding committee last week that requiring sprinklers would drive up housing costs, and many well systems in rural areas could not provide enough water. . . .
Gov. Mark Dayton said Monday that he hopes the Legislature will send him a medical marijuana bill he can sign into law.
The final measure can be a compromise between the House and Senate versions, Dayton said, but he prefers the House version -- especially because the Senate bill would let patients have access to whole-leaf marijuana for use in vaporizers.
"It's just, to me, impossible to believe that somebody is going to buy 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana, and not smoke it or not sell it to someone else who will," Dayton said during a news conference at the Capitol.
These are certainly completely rational policy positions, but Bluestem sees a means to solve both dilemmas, freeing the Governor to sign both bills.
Here's the drill: just as Carly Melin grafted the "compromise" medical cannabis observational study on to a bill for K-12 educational technology, Bluestem suggests that, in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation and adjourning in time for Andrew Falk, Deb Kiel and Paul Torkelson to get their spring planting in, the legislature merge the bonding and medical cannabis bills.
Sure, Minnesotans find find it hard to master the zipper merge, but construction season is upon us, and our elected representatives in St. Paul can act now and provide leadership for the rest of us.
Here's the deal. The overwhelming majority of Senators who voted for whole plant cannabis, but only deliverable via vaping, can insist that both chambers insert a provision for retrofitting the homes, vehicles and outbuildings of patients receiving medical marijuana with sprinkler systems. Given the wonders of modern technology, the systems can be calibrated to flood a home the second anyone burns one. The mandatory sprinkler requirement for new McMansion will be retained, with one temporary geographic exemption.
Medical marijuana patients and homebuilders in Southwestern Minnesota will be exempt from the sprinkler mandate until the completion of the Lewis and Clark Rural Water System.
As a low-income Minnesota living in modest housing who enjoys good health while eschewing all hemp products, the editor of Bluestem will in no way benefit from this solution, and offer it solely to assist the Governor in negotiating his way out of this one.
Photo: Governor Mark Dayton, who worries that sick Minnesotans will go into micro-dealing and burn down rich folks houses. Photo by Don Davis.
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The question begins at the 1:00:33 mark at the January 28, 2013 Transportation and Public Safety Committee confirmation hearing for Charles A. Zelle, MnDOT Commissioner.
In the light of new information a transit activist sent Bluestem Prairie--and Westrom's endorsement as the Republican candidate to challenge veteran incumbent CD7 representative Collin Peterson in 2014--the incident is worth revisiting.
While serving in the Minnesota House in 2003, Westrom signed on to HF1650, legislation that would have authorized local bonding for personal rapid transit. The bill, for which former state representative and senator Mark Olson was chief sponsor, was introduced on the last day of the 2003 session, May 19, 2003, but remained active in 2004. Michelle Bachmann, then serving in the Minnesota Senate, was the chief author of the senate companion bill, while Yvonne Prettner Solon was a co-author.
The bill was amended and recommended by the Local Government and Metropolitan Affairs Committee, and sent to the Taxes Committee on March 8, 2004.
By that date, state senator Westrom's brother, Trevor Westrom, had begun serving on the board of Taxi 2000/Skyweb Express, one of the few companies promoting personal rapid transit. According to managment information for Taxi 2000 that was preserved by the Internet Way Back Machine on February 19, 2004, Trevor Westrom was on the board. Bluestem Prairie finds no snapshots for the website past May 6, 2006.
It appears that Torrey Westrom ceased sponsoring PRT-related bills after his brother joined the board of Taxi 2000 in 2004, although he didn't remove himself from the active bill that session, until the March 2013 bill.
But the technology exists. In fact, visitors can climb into a demonstration cab on a 60-foot track at the offices of Taxi 2000 Corp. The Fridley, Minn.-based company invented it and now is trying to build a full-scale prototype of its SkyWeb Express system.
"We're working on getting a test facility funded and put together now," said Trevor Westrom of Knutson Construction Services in Rochester, a Taxi 2000 board member.
He is director of business development for Knutson, which is among a group of companies that are supporters of SkyWeb Express. "We've committed to the project," Westrom said.
"From a selfish standpoint, I'd like to see it in Rochester," he said. But Rochester is not seeking the system.
"From a business standpoint, it could go in a lot of different places," Westrom said. Such as Duluth.
A joint Duluth-Superior, Wis., metropolitan commission supported a local SkyWeb prototype in January. . . .
The Duluth system never got off the ground; a proposed system for Winona in 2010 didn't pass Congressman Walz's public vetting of earmarks. The Winona Daily News reported on March 24, 2010:
City officials, while acknowledging the congressman has the right to support any projects he chooses, disagreed with his assessment of PRT, which uses small, pod-like vehicles on guideways to shuttle passengers to their destinations.
"I respect his opinion, and I have my opinion," Mayor Jerry Miller said. "I think it would be a good project. Somebody's going to do it somewhere."
Walz cited the technology's unproven track record and the size of the earmark as rationale for not requesting federal funding. The only other funding request he submitted in the same price range was $35 million for the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System, a project that will provide treated water to 300,000 people.
Before the 2003-2004 session, Torrey Westrom signed on to several PRT-related bills. In 1999-2000, he was a co-author of HF3887 and HF2041; neither passed. In 2001-2002, he coauthored HF3320 and HF3318, although he was not a co-author of HF1592, Rep. Kuslie's bill to fund a grant for PRT in Rochester.
In the end, Bluestem thinks that the overlap in Representative Westrom's co-authoring of a bill that would have hepled a company (by the end of the biennium) where his brother joined the board of directors may seem awkward but isn't damaging.
What may be difficult to explain to Seventh District voters is the fascination with untested urban transit to begin with. Use Transit Dollars Wisely, a March 20, 2000 column by Senator John Marty, may help explain the early interest--though not the most recent bill in 2013, for which Senator Westrom was the sole author--and there was no House companion.
Photos: Torrey Westrom in 2013 (above); a screenshot of Trevor Westrom's involvement with Taxi 2000.
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Carver County's Republican endorsement battle for the open seat created by the retirement of Ernie Leidiger is heading into the final days before the May 15 convention. Bob Frey, an extreme social conservative businessman who is Glenn Gruenhagen's campaign committee chair, is squared off with Waconia mayor Jim Nash.
Frey has netted endorsements by Leidiger, Representatives Glenn Gruenhagen, Cindy Pugh, Jim Newberger, Joe McDonald and Steve Drazkowski, while Nash has garnered support from grassroots conservative leaders like anti-Common Cause activist Marjorie Holsten, and gun right activists like Andrew Rothman and Rob Doar, as well as the endorsement of the Minnesota Gun Owners Political Action Committee.
On his campaign Facebook page, Frey is posting letters of support from the legislators. Newberger writes that the race is one of the most important in the state, while Gruenhagen writes that "Bob is driven by conservative convictions and puts them into action."
We post a group letter of endorsement; we post it here.
Nash's most voracious backers seem to be the grassroots Second Amendment defenders. Nash earned the affections of the Minnesota Gun Owners Political Action Committee members after he testified in 2013 against a gun control bill before the Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee. The group endorsed him in February.
. . .But there are also Republicans who would put their personal vendettas above our rights, and that needs to end right now,today, and we need your help to put a stop to it.
MNGOPAC is a single-issue political action committee. We want to put the best pro-gun candidate in office, and we view someone attacking our endorsed candidates as an attack on our Second Amendment rights.
Last week I talked about our endorsed candidate for House District 47A, Mayor Jim Nash of Waconia. Jim has been running a heck of a campaign, going from door to door, making countless phone calls, attending events all over his district and in neighboring areas, and in return he has been the strong frontrunner in his race.
Unfortunately, a standing lawmaker who would rather send your pro-2A donations out of state to a non-Minnesota run organization is also trying to sabotage Jim’s campaign.
Since Jim is one of the strongest pro-gun candidates in the state in any race, we’re taking this one personally.
Never mind that we have solid, successful pro-2A groups that are based in Minnesota such as MNGOPAC, GOCRA, Twin Cities Gun Owners & Carry Forum…no, Gruenhagen decided that his support was best outsourced.
Gruenhagen has also written letters of support for Nash’s opponent for the GOP endorsement.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust someone who thinks that Iowa residents are the best advocates for Minnesotans. In my opinion, it shows a horrible lack of good judgement, and you can bet we’ll be looking long and hard at Gruenhagen’s track record to see if he’s really the most pro-rights candidate in his district.
In the meantime, you can help make a statement against this kind of dirty politics.
Support Jim Nash, who supports your Second Amendment rights without exception. Jim still needs help getting the word out before his endorsing convention next week, and I promise you that your work will be appreciated by Jim and by all pro-gun Minnesotans when gun owners get Jim elected to serve in St. Paul as a rock-solid advocate for our rights.
Pop some corn.
Photo: An endorsement letter for Frey. via Facebook.
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Minnesota state senator Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis), author of the veto-proof Senate bill legalizing and regulating medical cannabis, has sent a letter to Governor Mark Dayton and Representative Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing) about medical cannabis observational study bill that the House passed Friday.
Dibble believes that the senate version is superior because it was more properly vetted, includes more penalties for violations of the proposed law, relieves more suffering people, allows better and safer use of cannabis by allowing vaping of the whole plant serves all of the state, costs less and enjoys support from a broad range of medical and health care groups.
Earlier Sunday in an interview with CBS Minnesota's Esme Murphy, the civil and thoughtful Dibble had said that he was still reviewing the House bill. From the looks of the five-page letter, the Minneapolis senator has been quite thorough in his review.
In January and February, Melin had received positive nationwide attention for suggesting thatlaw enforcement lobbyist resistance to her original bill was motivated by the money from drug-bust related forfeiture and federal Byrne Grant police and sheriff's departments collected because marijuana is illegal. However, fewer Americans learned that Melin had later pulled her bill --a companion to the senate version--before a committee hearing because of cop lobbyists opposition, essentially quashing the legislation in the House.
After Dibble's stronger bill began to be vetted by the committee process, Melin introduced a bill pleasing to the law enforcement lobbyists she had scolded earlier in the session. We don't believe that was in the Washington Post.
Because of the disapproval of law enforcement lobbyists, Dayton has said he will veto the Senate version, which will allow for the creation of a self-supporting system of up to 55 alternative treatment centers that will ease the suffering of 35,000 Minnesotans across the state.
As a resident of Chippewa County, closer to South Dakota than the Twin Cities, we appreciate him sticking up for suffering people all over the state.
Photo: Senator Scott Dibble, who's been the mover behind much successful progressive legislation in Minnesota, from marriage equality to anti-bullying.
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North Dakota’s lone U.S. representative has released a BNSF Railway report that says rail cars carrying grain from North Dakota are almost a month behind schedule.
The report, dated May 2, indicates 15,846 cars were running on average 26.6 days late. The numbers exceeded the goal of past-due cars, set at 11,797 cars, by more than 34 percent, according to the report. BNSF also set a goal to be 21 days behind, but that goal was not met.
“There is a little bit of good news that they are gaining, but the bad news is they haven’t reached their goal,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
Montana had 3,038 cars past due, with 32.5 average days late as of May 1, according to a BNSF podcast. Minnesota had 1,848 cars late, with an average 19.8 days behind. . . .
The release of the document comes after heavy criticism of BNSF, which North Dakota producers say is favoring the oil and gas industry. BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth has said previously that is not the case.
Cramer said he has made it his mission to follow this issue and keep North Dakota residents informed on the progress and problems farmers face as a result of rail congestion.
While some expressions of populism gave rise to paranoia, racism and anti-semitism, other strains put aside social and racial divisions to focus on a common economic plight:
The party put aside moral issues like prohibition in order to focus on economic issues. "The issue," said one Populist, "is not whether a man shall be permitted to drink but whether he shall have a home to go home to, drunk or sober." A significant number of Populists were also willing to overcome racial divisions. As one leader put it, "The problem is poverty, not race."
The issues that 19th century farmers faced most certainly are not a one-to-one match-up with the current problem with railroad magnates, but as we spend the day lamenting both our lack of money and the ability to purchase a growler of artisan beer, we'll think about the lessons from those departed souls.
In House approves medical marijuana bill, St. Cloud Times reporter Mark Sommerhauser takes a look at how and why central Minnesota state representatives voted on the very restrictive lower chamber version of the bill.
He summarizes the provisions in the legislation:
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing, is far narrower in scope than the medical marijuana bill passed Tuesday by the Minnesota Senate. It would legalize medical marijuana only for participants in a Medical Cannabis Therapeutic Research Study run by the Department of Health. About 5,000 Minnesotans with specified conditions, such as cancer, seizures or multiple sclerosis, could participate.
A single, state-approved manufacturer would supply patients with medical marijuana through two dispensaries under the House proposal. Smoking of the drug would not be allowed; it could be consumed only in pill or oil form.
It's worth a read, and there's an interesting interview with Tama Thies (R-St. Cloud) about how she came to say yes.
The Medical Cannabis Therapeutic Research Act will have a fiscal impact of $2.9 million in FY 14-15 and a total of $4.9 million over the next three years.
These differences with the Senate bill are discussed in an interview with Scott Dibble by Esme Murphy at CBS Minnesota. Esme also pointed out that, regarldess of which version of the bill passes, Minnesotans will first gain access to legal medical marijuana in 2015 after the regulations are worked out.
Here's the interview:
Photo: Senator Scott Dibble, who's been the mover behind much successful progressive leigislation in Minnesota, from marriage equality to anti-bullying.
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Friday's debate in the Minnesota House over a medical marijuana bill--so restrictive that even Minnesota's law enforcement community and titular governor Mark Dayton could love it--was marked by deeply emotional floor speeches on both sides of the issue.
As a student of rhetoric, Bluestem doesn't dismiss pathos, so long as ethos and logos don't undercut the tears. But as the pre-WWII Institute for Propaganda Studies suggested when evaluating one sort of emotional argument (the appeal to fear), we ask:
When viewed dispassionately, what are the merits of the speaker's proposal?
In short, that speaker is emotional or appeals to pathos--doesn't disqualify her or his statements. But those emotions should match the evidence and logic.
This leads us to one of the sillier moments of the floor debate, provided by Burnsville Republican Pam Myrha, who will retire after this session to run for higher office as Republican gubernatorial candidate Marty Seifert's lieutenant governor pick.
Myrha yoked the moving stories in "State of Using," a short documentary produced by Intermedia Arts for the Minnesota Youth Council, to a study published by researchers at Columbia University which Myhra asserted demonstrated that teens used more pot in states that legalized medical cannabis.
Minnesota Rep. Pam Myhra (R-Burnsville) says states that allow medical marijuana have higher rates of teenagers using "weed", which will ruin their lives. Despite Myhra's opposition, the House overwhelmingly approved a limited medical marijuana bill. A more liberal bill has been approved in the Senate.
Here's the video:
Myrha might have drilled down a bit on that study and perhaps consulted Mr. Google a bit more. According to the Boston Globe article, Does medical marijuana change how teens view the drug?, the researchers qualified their findings:
A study published last year [2011] by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found that people ages 12 to 17 were more likely to use the drug in states permitting medical marijuana. But some of those states already had higher usage rates before the laws were enacted, so researchers couldn’t rule out the possibility that the prevalence of marijuana use simply made some states more likely to pass the laws.
Parents and physicians concerned about an increase in adolescents' marijuana use following the legalization of medical marijuana can breathe a sigh of relief. According to a new study at Rhode Island Hospital which compared 20 years worth of data from states with and without medical marijuana laws, legalizing the drug did not lead to increased use among adolescents. The study is published online in advance of print in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
"Any time a state considers legalizing medical marijuana, there are concerns from the public about an increase in drug use among teens," said principal investigator Esther Choo, M.D., an attending physician in the department of emergency medicine at Rhode Island Hospital. "In this study, we examined 20 years worth of data, comparing trends in self-reported adolescent marijuana use between states with medical marijuana laws and neighboring states without the laws, and found no increase in marijuana use that could be attributed to the law."
Choo continued, "This adds to a growing body of literature published over the past three years that is remarkably consistent in demonstrating that state medical marijuana policies do not have a downstream effect on adolescent drug use, as we feared they might." . . . .
Choo also "holds an academic appointment as an assistant professor of emergency medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University," according to the article.
Frankly, given the restrictions in the House bill on even the gravely ill and deeply suffering obtaining pills and oils manufactured from cannabis, we doubt that Minnesota teens are going to miraculously fancy that smoking street weed is a-okay.
As for the documentary that Myhra mentions, we've watched it via the premier version on Vimeo. Told from the young people's perspective, we found it more a testimony to the role substance abuse plays in mental and family health, than a tool in the War on Drugs.
It's worth a watch, but not as a means to bludgeon the hopes of those Minnesotans seeking safe, regulated and legal medical cannabis. Here it is:
All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors. While progressive in outlook, she does not caucus with any political party.
I'm sorry I don't know the exact date. It must be a couple years by now. I don't know if he fully retired or just retired and continued part time work here and there. He was a law enforcement instructor here for many years.
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