In the latest edition of Agrinews, the Post Bulletin's farm publication, Brownton horse-dealer Keith Tongen compares the proposed wall along the United States Mexican border with fences that farmers use to control livestock--while suggesting that there's "DFL logic" about fences.
Indeed, we have to wonder why the Agrinews editors chose to run this letter, since it's about border policy, not farming in Minnesota. In Letter: Farmer's logic says build the wall Tongen tells the editors and readers:
Having grown up and currently living in an agricultural area with livestock (farm animals), I can relate to “the wall.”
In my world, it is very simple — if we want to keep the bull from the cows, the boar pig away from the sows, horses apart from the sheep, or the young animals away from their mothers at weaning time, we use a fence to keep them apart. The fence has gates strategically placed so I can regulate when I want them to intermingle or transfer which pasture a specific animal is placed to live. I refer to this method as “farmer’s logic.”
Now let’s look at “DFL logic” and what seems to be their point of view. It seems to me they are offended by “my fence” and feel it is immoral. They seem to think it is wiser for me to hire shepherds or cowboys to herd and patrol my animals, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for eternity. It seems to me this is not very fiscally responsible. But we should not be surprised by this point of view. I will say this view does create more U.S. government jobs, so that those of us who pay taxes can support. Is this really “DFL logic?”
I am happy to say that my representative in the House, Collin Peterson, has come to the front, crossing party lines and calls for fellow representatives and senators to give in to President Trump, build the wall with some strings attached and end this shut down!
Keith O. Tongen, Brownton, Minn.
While the faulty analogy (livestock farming and ranching is enough like border security to compare strategies) and the dehumanizing comparison between humans and farm animals are unfortunate enough, Bluestem sincerely hopes Tongen doesn't extend it to encompass a fate for humans that has faced some of the real horses in his care.
Indeed, we hope those reading about Tongen's business are able to see how it illsutrates just how faulty the "farmer's logic" is. In 2006, the Waverly, Iowa, Courier reported in Spring tradition resumes with Waverly horse sale:
Auctioneer John VanMaanen of Waverly keeps a close eye on Keith Tongen of Brownton, Minn. And with reason. In three days, he has already spent more than $100,000.
"I buy and sell any horse that makes money," Tongen says.
Within the hour, he is on his cell phone, arranging transportation for shipments to Japan, a growing kill market.
Yes, Tongen has been in the business of buying and selling horses for slaughter. We wouldn't want anyone to use the farmer's logic (analogy) of confining and selling horses to confining and selling people--or even herding and selling them.There are many contrasts between farm animals and people, especially for Mr. Tongen, so it's unfortunate that he is unable to see just how weak the comparison he makes is.
As far as DFL fences goes, we hope readers will support legislation for real fences offered by Roseville DFL state representative Jamie Becker-Finn, HF0229, which would require additional fencing for Farmed Cervidae (captive deer and elk), a measure intended to slow the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease in Minnesota's wild whitetail deer herd. That, friends, is a real DFL fence for a solution that should actually be nonpartisan.
Bonus: We applaud the poptarts at WCCO for carrying on about Tongen's farmstead being Pretty In Pink, truly drive-by reporting on rural Minnesota if there ever were.
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The bill's author, Mary Kunesh-Podein, DFL-New Brighton, and other committee members discussed how it should be passed as a stand alone bill in both houses and sent to Governor Tim Walz.
Mysti Babineau was raped for the first time when she was just 9 years old. Three years later, she and her grandmother were violently assaulted, resulting in the death of her grandmother and deep knife wounds to Babineau’s hand.
Such traumatic and violent events are all too common among Native American women and girls, Babineau told the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division Tuesday. An unknown number of Native American women and girls also disappear each year, she testified, most presumably dead or victims of sex trafficking.
Babineau and several other Native American women spoke in support of HF70, a bill that would create a task force to track the number of missing Native American women and girls in the state, and to analyze the systemic reasons for the high rate of disappearance in that population.
The division approved the bill and sent it to the House Ways and Means Committee.
The goal of the task force would be to better understand the causes of violence against indigenous women and to reduce and prevent violence where it is happening. The task force would include members of the indigenous community, law enforcement, policymakers and the public. . . .
The bill would appropriate $67,000 in Fiscal Year 2020 and $33,000 in Fiscal Year 2021 to fund the task force.
The companion, SF515, sponsored by Sen. Patricia Torres Ray (DFL-Mpls), awaits action by the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.
Here's the press statement Kunesh-Podein released after the hearing:
Legislation authored by Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein (DFL-New Brighton) to create a new state task force to address the endemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Minnesota (H.F.111) received its first public hearing today. The House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee listened to heartbreaking personal stories from families impacted by violence committed against indigenous women. There is currently no state or national system in place to collect data on missing and murdered Native women in Minnesota.
“We can send a message that Minnesota will not let Indigenous women continue to vanish,” said Rep. Kunesh-Podein. “No one should wonder if their daughters, their sisters, their mothers and loved ones will return when they walk out the door. Native women are not a disposable community.”
If approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Walz, the new task force will provide analysis regarding the systemic causes behind the number of missing Native American women in the state. The goal of the task force will be to better understand the causes of violence against Indigenous women and to reduce and prevent violence where it is happening. The task force will include members of the indigenous community, law enforcement, policymakers and the public.
Stats and Figures:
Murder is the third-leading cause of death among American Indian/Alaska native women.
5,712 cases of MMIWG were reported in 2016 and only 116 were logged in a DOJ database.
Misclassification is a serious problem. From the 1960s through the early ‘80s, the Seattle Police Department used “N” to signify either Negro or Native American.
Photo: Ojibwe Elder Grandmother Mary Lyons, who testified at the hearing.
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Republican Senator Jim Abeler, who formed the MN Autism Council, says Rohde and Carroll are both “remarkably useful” members of the group. They both have children on the autism spectrum, and they “represent a community” of people who have “concerns about vaccines.” That, he says, is part of why he “consciously” picked these two people.
Abeler, a chiropractor by trade, wouldn’t say whether he believes vaccines have a link to autism, and he said at a recent meeting of the council that he’d “suggest we don’t discuss that anytime soon, or maybe never.” He believes vaccines could cause a wide variety of harms to children, some of which he believes may be underreported.
But refusing to address the issue of vaccines and autism implies that there’s a debate to be had. There is no proven link between vaccines and autism spectrum disorder. In fact, the origin of the supposed vaccine-autism link is a 1998 case study broadly regarded as an “elaborate fraud.” ....
Abeler isn't alone among Republican senators in appreciating that community of people who have "concerns about vaccines." On Facebook on Tuesday, Carver County state senator Scott Jensen posted on his Facebook page:
There's a lively debate about vaccines on the post, as well as appreciation of the sentiment.
Jensen is considered a fellow able to work across party lines on issues such as gun violence and legalization of recreational cannabis. However, we had to wonder about his remarks at a recent press conference covered by MinnPost's Peter Callaghan in Is the legalization of recreational marijuana in Minnesota inevitable?:
Jensen said he would give the same advice to a patient who asked about recreational marijuana that he would if they asked about alcohol or tobacco. “There’s no study that says it’s good for you,” Jensen said. “If there’s a medical condition we’re treating, it may well provide enhanced health. But in terms of using it recreationally, I’m not going to stand in front of a group of people and say that’s good for people.”
But he said with regulation comes a more consistent and purified product. And more use could broaden use for medical conditions not yet allowed by state law.
That sounds like he's recommending using pot to self-medicate--even though the text of the bill excludes medical cannabis from the scope of the legislation.
Moreover, with legalization of recreational cannabis in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain state's medical cannabis industry has shrunk, rather than broadened, as Colorado Public Radio's Ben Markus reported in August in Colorado Medical Marijuana Sales Take A Nosedive. Is The End Nigh?. We wonder, as does Callaghan, whether reforming Minnesota's expensive and unworkable medical cannabis law might be reformed, rather than pushing patients toward self-medication.
Photo: Jensen, standing, with anti-vaxxers during their day on the hill. Via Facebook.
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But had Republicans had their way yesterday, the bill would have been referred to another committee--and not heard today. This House floor game with this bill illustrates clearly that the both House Republican caucuses are only interested in political ankle-biting, not in creating more transparency for citizens, by pulling a bill that's gotten media attention, from a committee the afternoon before it was to be heard.
One of the complaints Republicans are making is that under a new committee system, Greater Minnesotans planning to testify won't know about last-minute shuffles and will be unable to plan the long trip to St. Paul--or even follow the bills. MinnPost's Peter Callaghan looked at the fight in How new rules for the Minnesota House signal the downfall of democracy. Or not. (We have no problem following bills now--though it was difficult, as Callaghan writes, to learn what happened to language laid on the table and crunched--or not--into omnibus bills)
Apparently, the plans of Minnesotans coming from Northern Minnesota Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) reservations or Dakota communities along the Upper Minnesota River Valley didn't matter yesterday afternoon. Only the Republican time-wasting over talking points. At 6:05 into the session, Tony Albright, R-Prior Lake, moved to pull the bill from the committee in which it will be heard today at 12:45. That's less than a 24 hour notice:
Tuesday is a big day for Native Americans in Minnesota. The House of Representatives Public Safety Committee will hold the first hearing to consider legislation to create a Task Force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
In 2017 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported on JoJo Boswell, a 19-year old Native American woman from Minneapolis vanished in 2005.
"I just miss being able to give her a hug and give her a kiss," Boswell's mother, Geraldine Jackson, said. "She was only 19. She would just be beginning her life. She was just beginning. She was just starting out. She was just a child. She needs to come back so she can live and grow and be with us."
"JoJo's story is really the typical story of missing and murdered indigenous women across the nation," said Minnesota State Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein, a descendant of the Standing Rock Lakota Tribe.
Experts on the issue said it is difficult to know just how many Native American women are missing.
One of the latest top 10 lists Minnesota made didn’t garner adequate headlines. That’s a shame, because the ranking highlighted a grim public safety reality that all too often falls through the cracks of law enforcement and media coverage — the number of missing and murdered American Indian women.
Minnesota is home to seven Anishinaabe reservations and four Dakota tribal communities. And while there are other states with far larger indigenous populations, Minnesota came in ninth in a recent innovative analysis listing the states with the highest number of missing and murdered indigenous women, with the list relying mainly on data from 2010 to 2018. New Mexico had the ignominious achievement of being No. 1, with 78 cases, with Washington close behind at 71 and Arizona with 54. Minnesota ranked ninth with 20 cases, just ahead of Oklahoma, with 18.
Thankfully, conscientious and compassionate Minnesota legislative leaders are already aware of this shameful ranking and are working to protect Indian women and punish those who hurt them. Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein, DFL-New Brighton, stands out in particular for her hard work last session and again this year to pass a bill, HF 111, to create a “state task force on missing and murdered indigenous women.” One of its chief aims: better tracking these crimes in Minnesota, compiling the statistics to reliably indicate the scope of the violence and convening experts here to tailor strategies to reduce this violence.
There is growing bipartisan support for this bill, several Republicans having signed on as co-authors and influential Republican leaders such as Rep. Nick Zerwas of Elk River speaking out forcefully about the task force’s importance in a recent interview with an editorial writer. The Minnesota County Attorneys Association also is backing the bill, and understandably so. Many of these women live in poor or remote communities, but the crimes against them must not be overlooked or go unpunished.
The report listing the state rankings, available at tinyurl.com/y7c5hpxv, is from the respected Urban Indian Health Institute, a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board. It wields data — collected largely by its own researchers — that illuminates the public safety crisis highlighted in a 2017 movie, “Wind River.” The movie, which centers on the discovery of a frozen young Indian woman’s body on a Western reservation, heartbreakingly details the jurisdictional divisions between law enforcement agencies that can undermine investigations into deaths like this, especially on Native lands. The movie also drives home at its end a heartbreaking point, that missing and murdered Indian women are often underreported.
Both Republican House caucuses--old and new--are spending a lot of time whining about new temporary House rules, claiming that those of us watching at home can't follow the bills. Oh? There's the MyBills tool--and the Bill Search & Status search engine.
Indeed, we've got to wonder who in the recent past listened to the lightning round announcements by the House clerk or the Journal of the House as a means to track bills when the tools above are available.
Had the House Republicans had their way, everyone testifying or following that bill would simply have had to scramble their plans.
Screengrab: A tweet by Kunesh-Podein about the hearing. The artwork has been widely used by activists in the MMIW in the United States and Canada.
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Minnesota’s waters face mounting challenges. Pollution lingering from the past is being joined by new pollutants, creating an evolving balance between the growth of society and preservation of an irreplaceable natural resource.
“One of the things grey hair brings to you is that we are doing things a whole lot better than we did when I started in 1974. We have made progress; we have a long way to go,” Calvin Alexander Jr. , professor emeritus of earth science with the University of Minnesota, told the House Water Division Monday. . . .
Water moves through different geologic landscapes in markedly different ways, said Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska), making it necessary that approaches to water management be suited to the region.
Alexander agreed, noting that while pollutants rapidly enter and spread in southeast Minnesota’s karst geology, for western Minnesota issues of aridity and a different geologic filtration system alter that equation.
Each of the state’s groundwater regions face different sets of stressors and responses affecting quality and quantity.
While central Minnesota has plenty of water, nitrate contamination is found in over 40 percent of shallow wells and the region’s sand aquifers are highly susceptible to contamination from land use.
The metro region’s high demand challenges the areas aquifers, as does contamination from chlorides, nitrates and other urban pollutants.
The southeast portion of the state is also blessed with a bounty of water, but its karst aquifers have potential for rapid contamination due to land use, including siting of industrial, municipal, and agricultural facilities.
In western Minnesota, where water resources are more limited, 20 percent of shallow wells show nitrate contamination. Deep aquifers face quality issues, while channel aquifers are highly susceptible to contaminants, including nitrate from feedlots, agriculture, and human wastewater.
Also of interest: a presentation by the U's William Arnold:
Image: Perceptions/concerns about water in their regions that Minnesotans shared during Citizens Forums the Dayton administration conducted early in the former governor's first term. From Dr. Arnold's presentation.
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While soybean farmers watched the drift-prone weed killer dicamba ravage millions of acres of crops over the last two years, Arkansas beekeeper Richard Coy noticed a parallel disaster unfolding among the weeds near those fields.
When Coy spotted the withering weeds, he realized why hives that produced 100 pounds of honey three summers ago now were managing barely half that: Dicamba probably had destroyed his bees’ food.
In October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyextended its approval of the weed killer for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton, mostly in the South and Midwest, for two more years. At the time, the EPA said: “We expect there will be no adverse impacts to bees or other pollinators.”
But scientists warned the EPA years ago that dicamba would drift off fields and kill weeds that are vital to honeybees. The consequences of the EPA’s decisions now are rippling through the food system.
Dicamba already has destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of non-genetically modified soybeans and specialty crops, such as tomatoes and wine grapes. And now it appears to be a major factor in large financial losses for beekeepers. Hive losses don’t affect just the nation’s honey supply: Honeybees pollinate more than$15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and vegetables a year, largely in California, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“It seems like everybody’s been affected,” said Bret Adee, whose family runs the nation’s largest beekeeping outfit, in South Dakota. He thinks 2018 might be “the smallest crop in the history of the United States for honey production.” . . .
Nine years ago, agricultural ecologist David Mortensen had told EPA officials that allowing dicamba use on genetically modified crops would pose serious risks to wild plants and the pollinators they sustain. In 2011, the EPA’s own scientists cited Mortensen’s work to conclude that increased use of dicamba could affect pollinators.
But the agency registered dicamba in 2016 despite the warnings, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Food & Environment Reporting Network reported in November. Last fall, the agency extended approval through 2020. . . .
Crooked Creek Bee Co., the retail sales and processing side of Arkansas' largest commercial beekeeper, closed this week, a casualty of dicamba, Richard Coy, one of its owners, said Friday.
The herbicide has been damaging or killing vegetation essential to pollination by bees the past three years, Coy said. Redvine, a flowering plant native to Arkansas, and button willow, a tree or shrub common in wetlands, are key to the flavor of his honey and have been particularly hit hard over the past year, he said.
The driving force behind us shutting down is the destruction of the pollinating plants that bees need," Coy said.
Dicamba is a weedkiller linked to crop and vegetation damage in Arkansas and other states in the past three years, as farmers planted soybeans and cotton genetically modified to be tolerant of the chemical. Dicamba damages other varieties of soybeans and cotton, fruits, vegetables and ornamental shrubs and bushes.
Weed scientists in Arkansas and other states say dicamba is susceptible after application to "volatilizing" as a gas and moving miles away, especially in hot and humid weather.
Arkansas had about 1,000 complaints of dicamba damage in 2017, prompting the state Plant Board to ban its use on crops after April 15 last year. Even with that cutoff date, the board received 200 complaints, leading its members to believe some farmers sprayed illegally deep into the summer. ...
Minnesota is maintaining its June 20 cutoff date for farmers to use the herbicide dicamba, which has been blamed for drifting and damaging neighboring soybean fields.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture imposed the cutoff for 2018 after getting 253 reports of alleged dicamba drift in 2017, including 55 formal complaints requesting investigations. Some 265,000 acres were affected.
Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson said Monday that the restrictions worked well. The department received 53 reports in 2018, including 29 formal complaints, and the affected acres plunged to just over 1,800.
The only change for 2019 is the lifting of a prohibition on applications when temperatures are above 85 degrees.
The weed-killer’s popularity has surged since companies rolled out dicamba-tolerant soybean varieties to help control weeds that have become resistant to other herbicides.
In a press release sent out by Minnesota state representative Dale Lueck on June 12, 2018, House members ask for extension on dicamba application, Republican state representatives asked that Minnesota become a copycat of North Dakota:
“We, as members of the House agriculture committees, ask you to extend the date to allow for the application of dicamba at least through the month of June, to match our neighbor North Dakota, which has a June 30th cut-off date. We would also make it clear that we expect applicators to continue following all requirements on the Federal label . . .
Curious that Lueck and others would want Minnesota to become a warm North Dakota.
Does dicamba make "beewashing" more difficult?
We're curious to know if drift from dicamba, which is paired with Monsanto's dicamba-resistant cotton or soybeans varieties, was as hard on bee fodder in the Dakotas (top two states for commercial beekeepers) and Minnesota as it was in Arkansas, when the products were released in 2017. Even the pro-industry Genetic Literacy Program called the 2017 release of the seed varieties "the 2017 Monsanto dicamba herbicide fiasco," while the Pesticide Action Network reported that Monsanto’s dicamba crisis [was] guilty as charged.
What if drift from herbicides is killing that fodder? What if the same company makes the fodder-killing herbicide and the bee-killing insecticide? How then will the blame be shifted?
Photo: Bees.
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Congressman Jim Hagedorn has appointed Carol Stevenson as District Director. As District Director, Stevenson will be responsible for managing the overall district operations and work flow. Duties will include recruiting, hiring, training and managing district staff. She will monitor district issues and conduct outreach. Stevenson will represent Congressman-elect Hagedorn at events across the district. . . .
Stevenson’s professional career has been focused in the areas of accounting, finance and human resources. She has worked in various industries including: software, agri-business, banking, manufacturing and retail. Whether working for a three person start-up company or a $7 billion public company, Stevenson has been a leader and a change agent. Decades of management experience have given Stevenson the opportunity to work with people from many different backgrounds and from all walks of life.. . .
However, that partisan volunteer background might not be an issue in her job as district director. Instead, one of her opinions about dealing with Minnesota citizens who come from a variety of background might create a barrier in serving people in the First, which includes towns like Worthington, where students in the packing town's public schools speak dozens of languages other than English.
In April, Stevenson retweeted a John Gilmore tweet with this astonishment at the different languages used to help voters at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website:
Take a look at Minnesota's Secretary of State website. Under elections and voting, the webpage is offered in 10 different languages. Yes, ten! @Shabbosgoyhttps://t.co/Pix0IzDQfj
Will the office Stevenson runs in Southern Minnesota take a similar attitude to language diversity?
We have to run on an errand for our beau but will add more about Minnesota's tradition of language diversity and voting. It's one heckova story.
Photo: Representative Hagedorn and Stevenson.
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A reader forwarded an email from the US Army Corps of Engineers with the subject line: Real Estate Appraisal Services Sources Sought Notice. Just minutes before the email was sent to us, we'd learned the Army Corps remains open despite the shutdown, by watching a Minnesota House hearing about the impact of federal shutdown on Minnesota's state environmental agencies.
And why were the real estate appraisal services needed?
Here's the email:
From: Castillo, Stayce R CIV USARMY CESWF (USA) [address redacted] Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2019 12:52 PM Subject: Real Estate Appraisal Services Sources Sought Notice
Dear Sir or Ma'am~
Please note that the USACE has posted a Sources Sought notice for the Real Estate Appraisal Services for the Border Wall Project on the FedBizOps website. Additional information can be found at FedBizOps via the following link:
Or you can go to WWW.fbo.gov and search for W9126G-19-R-BI10.
Instructions are located in the announcement in FBO. E-mails and phone calls will not be responded to.
If you would prefer to not receive these e-mail updates please reply "stop".
Stayce R. Castillo Program Specialist US Army Corps of Engineers Fort Worth District BI-PMO
Yes, almost at the very moment (12:45 p.m.) the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division began hearing about the impact of federal shutdown on Minnesota's state environmental agencies, the Corps of Engineers in Texas sent out an email (12:52 p.m.) seeking contractors for Real Estate Appraisal Services for the Border Wall Project.
Why is the federal government partially shut down?
Because Trump insists that congress fund a wall.
What's a funded agency doing? Looking for paid help to move building the wall forward.
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Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article152402734.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article152402734.html#storylink=cpy
But you'd never guess that the MREA had a thing to do with the North Dakota Industrial Commission's marketing effort to judge by art works on the invitation the group sent to Minnesota state lawmakers inviting them and their staff to a reception at the group's annual meeting on February 19:
Bluestem congratulates the MREA for its graphic change of heart, branding itself with pictures of wind turbines and solar panels, a completely renewable image.
Photo: Children romping through coal mine on one of the co-operative member junkets the Lignite Energy Council puts together.
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Much of the testimony came from DNR wildlife research manager Lou Cornicelli. Cornicelli is also active in the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and served as a contributor and editorial review team member for an important technical report the group issued back in September 2018.
Photo: A whitetail deer in the last stages of CWD.
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On January 10, Minnesota state representative Mary Kunesh-Podein, DFL-New Brighton, tweeted:
Dropping this bill today :: The historic number of missing and murdered Indigenous folks is 💔. This is only one way to honor those we’ve lost but not forgotten. #𝕞𝕞𝕚𝕨#mnlegpic.twitter.com/xcEqYemROo
The bill, H. F. 111, includes a broad bipartisan list of co-authors from across the state, would create and fund a state Task Force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. UPDATE: The bill will receive its first committee hearing on Jan 29th in the House Public Safety committee which convenes at 12:45 p..m., Kunesh-Podein shared on Facebook on Saturday.
Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein (DFL-New Brighton) chief-authored the bill in collaboration with members of the DFL Native American Caucus.
The bill seeks to address the nationwide problem of Native American women being victims of violent crime. In some regions of Minnesota, Native women are murdered at rates that are more than 10 times the national average. Nationwide, Native women suffer from violence at a rate two and a half times greater than any other group.
Rep. Kunesh-Podein first called for a governor’s task force in March to exclusively address the endemic.
“The violence against our Indigenous women is staggering and heartbreaking,” said Kunesh-Podein. “These are our sisters, our mothers, our daughters, our aunts, our colleagues, and our neighbors. These women are Minnesotans and we are failing to protect them. No family should watch a loved one walk out the door and not know if they will see them again.”
Kunesh-Podein said the bill has received overwhelming support from both sides.
“We have almost an unprecedented number of bipartisan support,” she said. “I was very pleasantly surprised by support on both sides of the isle for this issue and for this bill. I was expecting some pushback and very fortunately I haven’t received that. I really appreciate the fact that they have listened so sincerely.”
Due to the immense support, the bill is now being considered for inclusion in an omnibus Public Safety bill.
Currently, there is no system in place to collect comprehensive data on missing and murdered Native American women in Minnesota.
“That really is the biggest problem,” Kunesh-Podein said. “We just don’t have the accurate data that we need in order to fully comprehend and assess the situation. This task force will bring a number of different government agencies and non-government agencies together to focus exclusively on missing and murdered indigenous women in Minnesota.” . . .
The task force will also include a better definition to the coordinated efforts to end the violence against Indigenous women.
“As a result, we hope that they would be able to then recommend ways to reduce and end violence against indigenous women and girls both on and off reservations,” she said. “There is a lot of violence against our Native American women off of the reservation and the majority of violent acts against native women are done by non-native men. We need to find ways to work with that and reduce that kind of violence.”
The task force will provide analysis regarding the systemic causes behind the number of missing Native American women in the state to law enforcement, policymakers and the public.
Kunesh-Podein is a descendant of the Standing Rock Lakota nation.
The Fargo Forum editorial board wrote that Savanna's Act mustn't die. We agree and support state and federal efforts to counter this national disgrace and tragedy. Let's hope that Minnesota's bill is passed as a stand-alone bill or rolled into an ordinary Public Safety omnibus bill.
A national campaign around Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women just launched this week and South Dakota is the first state to see it.
The Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association, the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council and the Global Indigenous Council want to highlight the number of Native American women who go missing or are murdered and may not be reported.
The National Crime Information Center found that, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing Native American women and girls, however the U.S. Department of Justice's federal missing persons database, NamUs, only logged 116.
The national campaign is kicking off in South Dakota because it's between Billings, Montana and Minneapolis, two cities known as hubs for trafficking Native American women, according to the tribal councils. . . .
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In Thursday's meeting of the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division, the Minnesota Zoo made made an appearance to let the committee members know about its educational and conservation work.
As always, the zoo animals brought before the committee--in this case a porcupine, a bullsnake and a chinchilla--were the stars for the media. But after the charismatic critters left the stage, the Zoo's lepidopterist and conservation biologist Erik Runquist testified about the organization's work to save butterflies and other pollinators.
We post video of the testimony below. It made us eager to pay more attention to the tiny prairie butterflies that do still live up here on the prairie grasslands of the Coteau.
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The presentations in the packed hearings are impressive--like a mini-graduate seminar on the consequences of climate change in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest--and are worth readers' time watching.
Also helpful? The accompanying committee documents:
We're eager to watch what legislation comes though this committee.
Photo:Flood damage along State Highway 23 near the South Fork of the Nemadji River in Carlton County, Minn., after flash flooding on Sunday. Courtesy of Sgt. Jason Warnygora | Carlton County Sheriff's Office via MPR. Extreme weather events like flooding and drought may be linked to climate change, as are warmer winter temperatures in Minnesota.
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The services offered on Jan. 17, 18 and 22 are very limited. Crampton notes:
The furloughed employees will temporarily return to also help farmers process payments made before the end of 2018, continue expired financing statements and open mail to "identify priority items." . . .
FSA staff will not, however, be able to resume the entirety of its business, such as its work granting new loans, processing applications to participate in dairy programs and reviewing requests for trade aid payments.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture sent out the following press release about the temporary re-opening:
As part of the Walz-Flanagan administration’s action plan to protect Minnesotans during the federal government shutdown, Minnesota farmers who are experiencing setbacks due to the shutdown are encouraged to seek assistance from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). While the USDA did announce today that Farm Service Agency (FSA) Offices will temporarily reopen January 17, 18, and 22, some farmers may still be in need of additional resources heading into the spring planting season.
“I’m pleased that the FSA offices will reopen for a few days to help farmers get their existing loans processed,” said Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen. “FSA is an important federal partner and provides critical services to farmers. My understanding is that the FSA staff will be available to assist farmers with existing farm loans.”
Petersen encourages Minnesota farmers to contact their local FSA office immediately during this temporary reopening. He also reminds farmers who may be in need of financial assistance or other resources to consider these programs offered by the MDA:
Rural Finance Authority low interest loan programs. Contact Ryan Roles at 651-201-6666, or visit www.mda.state.mn.us/agfinance
Farm Advocate Program for farmers needing one-on-one financial advice or other assistance. Contact Matt McDevitt at 651-201-6311, or visit www.mda.state.mn.us/farmadvocates.
Earlier this week, a friendly Soil and Water Board commissioner from a Southern Minnesota county called to let us know that the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offices remain open.
Bluestem contacted the Minnesota state office and discovered that this is indeed the case. A staffer at the office said that the NRCS had already been funded and so remains open. The service "offers voluntary programs to eligible landowners and agricultural producers to provide financial and technical assistance to help manage natural resources in a sustainable manner."
South Dakota's state NRCS office webpage can be viewed here.
List of FSA offices open in Minnesota and South Dakota
The FSA offices open in Minnesota and South Dakota are listed in these screenshots from a larger pdf of listings sent out by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture:
Photo: A Minnesota farm.
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Citing the need to address elevated levels of nitrate in drinking water in the karst region of southeast Minnesota, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Commissioner John Linc Stine is announcing his decision to deny a general permit for the proposed Catalpa swine facility in Fillmore County near Mabel, Minn. Because of the permit denial, a related decision, whether to deny or approve requests for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this specific project is not needed at this time.
Dear Supporters of Responsible Agriculture in Karst Country -
Upsetting news: former MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine misled the public in December when he announced he was denying the Catalpa Ag LLC general permit.
When asked for official denial documents including findings of fact, MPCA staff informed RAKC members that Stine merely announced his "intention to deny" the permit even though those were not his words at the press conference.
Stine's press conference noted that Catalpa Ag would be allowed to "request coverage" under an individual permit but did not state they could withdraw their general permit before the MPCA formally denied the general permit by producing a written record. Thus, there is not a single public document laying out reasons for the permit denial. Stine has now left office.
Since then, Catalpa Ag has reapplied under an individual permit, disregarding the concerns of hundreds of local farmers, families, elected officials and small business owners. An individual permit is rarely used, and theoretically gives MPCA more discretion in requiring additional studies and additional requirements.
What does this all mean and how can you help?
1. Help on the township level! Until the new MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop and staff can clearly demonstrate that they are committed to doing business and communicating transparently and honestly with the public, we must rely on township level local control measures to keep our townships safe from harm.
Township zoning can limit the size of industrial feedlots, protecting public health and responsible farming, no matter what the county and state allows. Local control means we can shape what is right for our townships. Consider volunteering to help these efforts put permanent controls in place. Contact your township supervisors to voice your support for local control of industrial feedlots.
Email responsibleaginkarstcountry@gmail.com to help with research efforts, attend a study committee meeting, join/launch a zoning study committee in your township, and more.
Check this public Google calendar for the next study committee meeting or township board meeting.
Newburg Township’s moratorium on dangerously large feedlots over 500 animal units continues, and the local committee is hard at work studying permanent zoning options.
Preble Township recently passed a moratorium on feedlots over 750 animal units, and is in the process of forming a zoning study committee.
Canton Township will skip the moratorium and is setting up its zoning study committee now.
2. The MPCA will release a draft of the Catalpa individual permit and announce a new comment period in the coming months. Be ready to make your voice heard yet again: We say Catalpa Ag must complete an Environmental Impact Statement or the MPCA must formally deny the individual permit.
3. Email, call, and tweet positive messages to the new MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop about how you hope she will run the agency moving forward. This is a chance for the MPCA to turn over a new leaf under her leadership!Sample message: "Residents who work together as RAKC look forward to working with you to protect our health, groundwater, air, property values, and businesses. We need you to take environmental review of inappropriate, polluting industrial feedlots in our sensitive region seriously and order an EIS when the potential for significant environmental impact is demonstrated (as MN law requires). We also look forward to clear, transparent and timely communication with all MPCA staff members since we know you are working on behalf of us, the citizens of Karst Country in southeast Minnesota.
We encourage readers to help the citizens of Fillmore County out, but Bluestem is skeptical that Bishop will pay much attention to the citizens' requests, regardless of the number of contacts they have with her or their civility
We could point our little, poor country blogger fingers at her corporate background or lack of engagement with citizen-based environment groups before her appointment, but that wouldn't put a finger on our concern here. Instead, it's a philosophy of governing on the part of her boss.
. . . Walz mentioned climate change when he introduced Bishop as the state's new MPCA commissioner, saying failing to address it would be irresponsible and would hurt the state's economy. But he added that state agencies need to do a better job working together with industry to find solutions to environmental problems.
"Regulatory humility," he called it. And went on: "That doesn't mean not doing our job, it means approaching these businesses with the spirit of what can we do together to make sure we have a safer, more sustainable planet, and you're still able to make money, prosper and create jobs."
Walz says that attitude also applies to agriculture. There are still hard feelings among farmers about how outgoing Gov. Mark Dayton's administration rolled out new regulations on buffers and fertilizer.
In terms of regulation, Walz said he would be in favor of "regulatory humility"—or, assuming the businesses and corporate entities are compliant, so as to carefully dictate when government gets involved in commercial affairs.
On stage Wednesday at least, Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce appeared to be thinking entirely in harmony.
Walz, who headlined the chamber’s annual Session Priorities conference in St. Paul, said in an interview with chamber President Doug Loon that government needs to listen and collaborate more with businesses, and to “reset” conversations between government and business groups that have often become contentious.
“When you come to government, and you talk about onerous regulations, or you talk about burdensome things that have been put on you, we as government need to not see you coming to us as trying to get around something because you don’t care about worker safety or environmental quality,” Walz told roughly 2,000 attendees. “You’re bringing those things up because you feel they’re not effective and they’re burdensome and costly to your business without improving the lives of workers or the environment.”
Walz struck a decidedly pro-business tone in his remarks, even musing about possibly downsizing or consolidating some of the more than 20 state agencies under his control. Although he did not name any specific cuts when asked by Loon, he said the government needs to be more responsive in administering existing regulations, and more cautious when imposing new ones.
“These agencies need to come to you with regulatory humility, to build [regulations] together,” he said.
Perhaps those words about working using "regulatory humility" with "these businesses" don't mean what they appear to mean. However, Walz uses the conservative think tank coined phrase often enough that we'll take his word for it.
Photo: A sign of the times in Fillmore County.
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We're in the grips of a head cold, but want inform readers about a couple of key committee hearings in the Minnesota House. Fortunately, there's copy to draw from at Session Daily, as well as video.
. . . An estimated $1.3 million was spent from DNR Fish and Game funds in 2018 on surveillance (testing and assessments) and prohibitions against carcass transportation, feeding, and attractants in an effort to control the spread of the disease. But, as noted by DNR Assistant Commissioner Bob Meier, that figure would be insufficient in the face of further outbreaks in the state.
Nor does that figure include the cost of time spent by enforcement personnel investigating CWD-related complaints – easily accounting for additional expenditures in excess of $200,000 per year.
State efforts are currently focused on 17 counties in central and southeast Minnesota, with funding for the CWD response provided entirely through hunting and fishing license revenues.
Here's the video of the hearing; it's definitely worth a watch:
We have to wonder how better off the herd would be if the Republican majority had listened to Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, and Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-S. St. Paul, over the past session.
Photo: Bob Meier, left, and Lou Cornicelli testify before the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division Jan. 15 about Department of Natural Resources’ expenditures responding to the chronic wasting disease outbreak. Photo by Andrew VonBank, Minnesota House Information Service.
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As Trump spoke to the American Farm Bureau Federation Convention today in New Orleans, we assumed that's where the remarks to "a bunch of farmers" were made.
Sure enough, we found a CBS Youtube in which the statement is included in a discussion of the Obama-era Water of the United States (WOTUS) rule:
The statement drew the attention of Alan Rappeport of the New York Times, as well as Drieslein and Bluestem. Rappeport concluded his report from the convention, Trump Defends Trade Policies to Farmers Feeling the Pinch, with the President's words:
Even though Mr. Trump professed his love for farmers, his urban roots were at times hard to conceal. The president acknowledged his ignorance about wheat policy when explaining that Canada would soon grade American wheat the same way it grades its own.
“Which to me doesn’t mean much,” he said, “but to farmers it means a lot.”
At another point, Mr. Trump celebrated his efforts to ease the regulatory burden that farmers face, noting that he rolled back a rule that penalized farmers for having prairie potholes on their land.
“Do you all know what prairie potholes are?” he asked a laughing audience. “I don’t, but it sounds bad.”
The Prairie Pothole Region: America's Wild Duck Factory
Most people who grew up enjoying the Minnesota value of sitting in a duck blind with a swamp-water stinky bird dog (mine was named Michael) probably have a pretty good working understanding of what prairie potholes are. Bluestem's editor's grandfather Jens Hugh Sorensen was a Danish immigrant field tiler, so we also learned about ag drainage as a child.
As he aged, the grandfather regretted the potholes and small lakes he drained--and for good reason.
Prairie potholes are depressional wetlands (primarily freshwater marshes) found most often in the Upper Midwest, especially North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Sometimes called the “duck factory” of the Midwest, the prairie pothole region supports more than 50 percent of our nation’s migratory waterfowl. Most prairie potholes themselves are less than an acre in size, little more than depressions in the landscape that fill up with snowmelt and rainfall. Some of these depressional wetlands are present all year long, while others form only after rainfall. Threatened by increased agricultural protection and development, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that today only 40 or 50 percent of the original number of prairie potholes that covered the region remain.
Why Are Prairie Potholes Important
Prairie potholes aren’t just important for ducks. Prairie potholes recharge groundwater supplies, slowly allowing water to infiltrate into the earth over time. They also help to slow and store floodwaters, reducing the impacts of downstream flooding. In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that each acre of these small wetlands reduces flood damage to roads by $6.11 every year and provides $29.23 worth of flood protection to agricultural lands. ...
There's more at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service here and the EPA here, though we can't tell how up-to-date the information is because of the federal government shutdown.
The Prairie Pothole Region is the core of what was once the largest expanse of grassland in the world, the Great Plains of North America. Its name comes from a geological phenomenon that left its mark beginning 10,000 years ago. When the glaciers from the last ice age receded, they left behind millions of shallow depressions that are now wetlands, known as prairie potholes. The potholes are rich in plant and aquatic life, and support globally significant populations of breeding waterfowl. Agricultural development caused considerable wetland drainage in the area. The Great Plains and Prairie Pothole Region are No. 1 on the 25 most important and threatened waterfowl habitats on the continent.
Importance to waterfowl
Millions of ducks and geese pass through the PPR each spring, nesting in the grasslands.
Nest success and hen mortality during breeding are the most important factors responsible for change in mid-continent mallard populations.
The PPR provides important breeding habitat for pintails, mallards, gadwall, blue-winged teal, shovelers, canvasbacks and redheads.
The PPR is also important migrations habitat for waterfowl breeding in the Boreal Forest and Arctic such as lesser scaup, wigeon, green-winged teal, Canada geese and snow geese.
The National Wildlife Federation's Prairie Potholes webpage notes these Threats and Conservation to Prairie Potholes:
Agricultural Development
The Great Plains are known as America's breadbasket. But before the farmers arrived, the Great Plains were the most extensive grassland in the world, with about 100,000 acres of prairie pothole wetlands. Today only a small fraction of the grasslands remain in small, disconnected fragments. The wetlands that remain are surrounded by agricultural lands and impacted by agricultural chemicals and excess sediments and nutrients that run off agricultural lands and into the potholes.
Conserving the remaining prairie potholes is important not only to maintain waterfowl populations, but also to improve both surface and groundwater availability for agricultural purposes, including grazing and crop irrigation.
For many years, ranchers and farmers have been given incentives through programs, such as the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), to set aside lands for conservation and to adopt new management practices that reduce their impacts on natural areas. However, in recent years, high prices have encouraged farmers to return CRP lands to agricultural use, such as growing crops for biofuels, putting the prairie potholes at increased risk.
Climate Change
Left unaddressed, climate change may dramatically reduce the suitability of prairie potholes for waterfowl. As open water and soil moisture decrease with rising temperatures and more severe droughts, many prairie potholes are expected to dry up more frequently or sooner in the spring, thereby eliminating or reducing their suitability for breeding waterfowl. Drought conditions brought on by climate change could dry up as much as 90 percent of the region's remaining wetlands, leading to a decline in breeding waterfowl in the region, and declines in other wetlands species as well.
Compounding the impact of climate change is the fact that the prairie pothole region has already much of its original wetlands, mostly to agriculture, and the losses continue. Thus, conserving the remaining prairie potholes is all the more important to maintain waterfowl populations, but also to maintain both surface and groundwater availability for agricultural purposes, including grazing and crop irrigation.
Minimizing impacts of climate change will require programs to secure conservation easements and discourage further draining or plowing of the remaining pothole wetlands. This is important to ensure that during times of severe droughts from climate change, a sufficient number of potholes with water are left to sustain minimal waterfowl populations.
Further protection from climate change can be achieved by undertaking efforts to restore degraded, drained, and destroyed prairie potholes across a broad expanse of this historic region. Studies have shown that the most suitable areas for waterfowl production vary from year to year within the prairie pothole region due to local climatic conditions.
Thus, conserving and restoring wetlands across a broad range is necessary so that as the region becomes dryer overall due to climate change, there will still always be some areas for waterfowl to breed.
Sources
Prairie Pothole Joint Venture U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region: Invertebrate Species Composition, Ecology, and Management, United States Geological Survey
Even before the WOTUS rule, conserving prairie potholes was a source of friction between agribusiness and outdoor enthusiasts, as the 1989 Washington Post article A Farm Belt Fight Over Protected "Potholes" attests; the protection came from "Swampbuster" language in the Farm Bill. In an undated article, the Isaak Walton League noted NRCS Allowed Prairie Pothole Drainage in North Dakota.
About a month ago, Val Wagner submitted some comments regarding trade, tariffs and the farm bill for the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 100th anniversary convention. Her comments centered on how the fines, fees and permits that come with overregulation don’t just affect a farm for today but also matter for its future profitability.
Wagner got a call on Friday, Jan. 11, from the White House and learned she may have the opportunity to meet President Donald Trump and that he might base part of his speech at the convention on what she had to say.
On Monday, Jan. 14, “I was able to go backstage and meet with him and shake his hand,” Wagner said.
A bigger shock came during the speech itself. Trump was speaking about regulatory reform and the Waters of the U.S. rule.
“In the audience today is Val Wagner from Monango, N.D. Val ... (the crowd cheered and Trump stopped and laughed). It’s a good place. You have a great new senator, by the way. … Val and her husband would love to expand their farm for their four boys, but under the Waters of the United States rule they would have had to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines because of the prairie potholes on their land. …”
Wagner, voice still shaking nearly half an hour after the president’s speech, said she was “shell shocked.” What she found to be the most shocking was that Trump mentioned her tiny, North Dakota town, which is about 146 miles southwest of Fargo.
“The president actually even said Monango, N.D.,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s ever happened in the history of the world.”
Now, the casual reader might conclude from that copy that Wagner is some naif pulled from the snow fields near Monango,-- just a couple of counties west of the North Dakota part of our beloved Lake Traverse Reservation--but that's certainly not the case. Wagner is in fact a seasoned ag communicator. A 2018 event flier for Women in Agriculture event on the North Dakota State University extension site notes: "Val coordinates Common Ground North Dakota, volunteers for several local, state and national organizations . . ."
At CommonGround, we are a group of farmers having conversations about the food we grow and how we produce it. We share our personal experiences, as well as science and research, to help consumers like you sort through the myths and misinformation surrounding food and farming.
Check it out and form your own opinion. The North Dakota page is here.
On her LinkedIn page, Wagner notes that she's a freelance contributor:
What started as a small blog, turned into several freelance opportunities, as well as a pretty largeblog following. I write about whatever is in my head...which can be frightening at times. Mostly dealing with agriculture, family and how your food gets to your plate.
A visit to her personal blog reveals she's been wowed before by being at a convention where Trump spoke. Just over a year ago, she wrote in A new road:
While I’m typing this, I’m sitting in a room in Nashville, TN, where the events of the last 24 hours still amaze me.
I was privileged to be seated five rows back from an address by not only the US Secretary of Ag, Sonny Perdue, but also by President Donald Trump. Now, I get that not everyone agrees with his policies, but we should all admit that being able to personally witness an address by a sitting President is an honor.
And I followed that with a live interview on Fox and Friends…that’s right, national TV. Seriously.
Sometimes the events that unfold in my life just take my breath away.
Image: The Prairie Pothole Region in the United States. Growing up in rural Minnesota, we learned it's not bad.
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After that housekeeping, the committee will move on an update on expenditures by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in responding to the chronic wasting disease outbreak.
If that sounds wonky, you haven't been paying attention. Let's look at recent news coverage to understand one reason why the DNR's spending on the CWD outbreak is the first thing on the committee's agenda.
Dr. Michael Osterholm is deeply concerned that overall efforts to halt the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in captive and wild populations of deer, elk and other members of the deer family, known to zoologists as cervids, fall far short of what is needed to limit the spread among cervids and prevent potential transmission to humans.
An expert in infectious disease and a public health scientist, Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. During his career, he has addressed world health issues such as biosecurity and antibiotic resistance, as well as diseases including HIV, influenza pandemics and Lyme disease. He frequently consults with national and international health organizations.
Thus far, CWD is found in cervids only, but Osterholm believes the disease poses a serious risk to human health. In Great Britain, a related brain disorder in cattle, commonly called Mad Cow Disease, was transferred to people during the 1980s and 90s after disease-contaminated beef products entered the human food supply. Osterholm said existing research about the risk of transmissions to humans isn’t conclusive. However, he predicts CWD will follow a similar path as Mad Cow Disease.
“I believe it’s just a matter of time until there is a deer-to-human transmission,” he says.
Osterholm’s prediction is based upon his knowledge of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), a degenerative brain disorder that creates tiny, sponge-like holes in brain tissue. CWD is a variant of the disorder, which includes the aforementioned Mad Cow Disease, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans. These illnesses are caused by a modified form of a protein known as a prion. Scientists don’t understand why these prions enter and wreak havoc in the central nervous system. What they do know is that prion diseases are always fatal. The World Health Organization has recommended kee>Osterholm is concerned that many politicians and regulatory agencies are not taking the actions necessary to limit the spread of CWD in deer populations or prevent CWD-contaminated venison from entering the human food chain. Outbreaks of CWD seem to be accelerating in wild cervid populations across the U.S., often in the vicinity of where the disease was initially discovered on cervid farms. Osterholm and many wildlife biologists believe the movement of domesticated deer and elk among commercial operations has carried CWD across North America.
“When you look at the management of cervid farms, there is limited meaningful enforcement of regulations regarding the movement and containment of animals,” he said. “When captive animals break out of containment areas, this is the perfect situation for spreading the disease to wild cervids.”
In Minnesota, farmed cervids are regulated by the state Board of Animal Health. Wild cervids are the responsibility of the Minnesota DNR. A 2018 Legislative Audit was critical of the BAH’s CWD enforcement and record-keeping related to deer and elk farms in the state, concluding with a list of recommendations for the agency to improve its performance.
“The Minnesota Board of Animal Health has been a day late and a dollar short in enforcing the containment of farmed cervids in Minnesota,” Osterholm said. “The captive cervid industry keeps making excuses for years to protect deer farmers, which is plain B.S.”
With Minnesota wildlife officials scrambling this winter to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease among wild deer in southeastern counties, and 55 Wisconsin counties now identified as CWD sites, the impacts of the disease are hitting closer to the Northland.
CWD, now confirmed in 25 states and two provinces, is always fatal to cervids — whitetail and mule deer, moose and elk. Studies show that once it infects more than one-third of the population, entire herds may be decimated.
In parts of southern Wisconsin, more than 50 percent of the wild deer are now infected with CWD. So far, there is no antidote, no vaccine for deer, no way to get rid of it.
But it’s not just deer populations that are at stake — it could be the future of deer hunting. Even if wild deer somehow persist on the landscape, it’s unclear how many hunters would still want to hunt them if CWD remains a possible threat to people.
The disease has never been confirmed in people, but it’s very similar to mad cow disease, which crossed species and killed humans.
CWD, caused by mutated proteins called prions, already has crossed species to macaque monkeys that were fed infected meat in laboratory tests. Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and an expert on infectious diseases, puts the human danger bluntly.
“I do believe that it is not a matter of if, but when, CWD crosses to humans,’’ Osterholm told the News Tribune.
Read the entire article.
As for catching the committee hearing, the House's calendar doesn't list it as being live-streamed on video or audio, though that might change. If not, we'll link to the audio here.
Screengrab: Committee Chair Rick Hansen, DFL-S. St Paul shared the images at the top of this post of an informational tour he and fellow committee member Jamie Becker-Finn received from a DNR conservation officer in Fillmore County. Becker-Finn serves as the vice chair of the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resource Policy Committee; Hansen also serves on the policy committee.
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The rally was put on by a group called “Minnesota Gun Rights”. We’ve addressed this group in the past – for being a scam that fleeces Minnesota gun owners, and is politically ineffective at best (and at worst, they do more harm than good). Some legislators that once supported it have seen the light and condemned the group as a scam.
Unfortunately, the media doesn’t know the difference between gun rights groups; many Twin Cities news outlets credited the Minnesota Gun Owners’ Caucus and the Gun Owners Political Action Committee for the event (as they giggled about the fairly sparse turnout. . .
This past week, the group sent out a fundraising letter in an envelope calling Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota House DFL Leaders "!!BERSERK!!" While Walz's image occupies the upper left hand cover of the envelope, Ellison's picture dominates the document. At the end of October in the race for Attorney General, Ellison's campaign had issued a statement about his opponent, Wardlow Shows True Colors on Gun Safety, Reverses Support for Background Checks and Accepts NRA Donations.
However, the Attorney General's role in passing legislation likely looms far less large than that of the Governor--and certainly smaller than the role of Speaker of the Minnesota House Melissa Hortman, who literally is out of this group's picture. Perhaps Hortman wasn't thought scary looking enough to provoke recipients to peek inside the missive.
Here's the fundraising letter a friend shared with Bluestem. Readers can make up their minds about what's truly berserk here.
Visit the group's Facebook page here, to learn about how the group is ripping endorsed the Republican Party endorsed candidate in the Minnesota Senate District 11 special election:
Cryin' Jason Rarick for Senate, poor record, BAD votes on REAL ID, pledge breaker, being protected by the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, like so many other weak or outright anti-gun politicians!
When will this game end? When will they stop protecting politicians over the The People? Tune in!
Seems a bit berserk.
And there's a comment thread under a shared news news story about Jayme Closs's remarkable escape from her kidnapper and murderer of her parents in which the 13-year-old is judged to have been "involved" in the crime because of....assessments of her appearance. As one of the page's visitors wrote: "WTF is wrong with you...." It's the ultimate blaming of the victim. Heckova discourse.
Screengrab: From the scan of the envelope a friend sent us along with the berserk letter.
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In Thursday's Morning Hot Dish, Star Tribune staff writer J. Pat Coolican reports in Hide Your Children:
Lobbyists have begun feting lawmakers: Flaherty/Hood, er, Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities will have one Jan. 30; Medical Alley, Feb. 6; Coalition for a Secure Energy Future, which is hard hat labor, Feb. 4.
Well: no. According to the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future's website About page, the group is a project of the Lignite Energy Council:
The Coalition for a Secure Energy Future works to educate businesses, policymakers, and residents in the Upper Midwest that retaining an all-of-the-above energy mix that includes coal as a regional energy resource will help keep electric rates low, jobs plentiful, and the economy robust.
The Coalition is a project of the Lignite Energy Council.
In short, a coal industry front group. The current director comes out of the world of rural electrical cooperatives, many of which are tied to long-term contracts with energy providers whose power comes from (wait for it) coal. Here's the bio on the About page:
Formerly with the Minnesota Rural Electric Association, Joel serves as the Minnesota director for the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future. His experience in energy and with Minnesota Legislature provide the necessary background required to be a voice for coal-based electricity in Minnesota.
The state/industry partnership includes the Industrial Commission, and the Lignite Energy Council which have entered into a partnership to administer the Lignite Research, Development and Marketing Program. Following is a quick explanation of how the program works:
The North Dakota Legislature enacts legislation and appropriates funding for the program. The Lignite Research Council recommends policies and funding for projects to the Industrial Commission. The Industrial Commission approves policies and funding for projects.
The Industrial Commission and the Lignite Energy Council administer the program and all Lignite Research, Development and Marketing Program projects.
In the past, Bluestem has explored how the North Dakota Industrial Commission funded the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future in posts back in 2015 and 2016 such as
We knew we were on to something with these investigative posts when a young reporter for a public broadcasting group that had gotten a $1.5 million grant asked us to talk on background about our research. We declined, suggesting that she simply cite our published material as Associated Press guidelines suggest. So it goes.
We'll be looking in more recent minutes of the North Dakota Industrial Commission to see if it continues to put the coal in the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future.
The Coalition for a Secure Energy Future isn't a registered association.
That February 2019 Energy and Labor Summit
Coolican is correct in stating that the February 4 meeting involves some hard hat labor unions. Here's the agenda from an email former state representatives Loren Solberg and Mike Beard sent out on Wednesday:
Good morning,
You are cordially invited to attend the 2019 Energy and Labor Summit hosted by the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future and our partners to hear directly from key stakeholders in the energy and labor sectors discuss their organizations and upcoming legislative priorities. [emphasis in original text]
Sponsored by: Coalition for a Secure Energy Future, Iron Mining Association of Minnesota, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Boilermakers 647, Minnesota Rural Electric Association, and North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters
Refreshments will be provided.
Energy & Labor 101 Summit
February 4, 2019 4:00 PM (or immediately following floor session)
North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters Regional Council Headquarters 710 Olive Street Saint Paul, MN 55130-9825
AGENDA
Introduction & Welcome – Former Legislators and Co-Chairs for the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future Loren Solberg (DFL- Grand Rapids) and Mike Beard (R-Shakopee) [oped commentary here]
The document doesn't note the lobbying connections for Beard (here), who now serves as a Scott County Commissioner. Beard's remarks on climate change were famously captured by Don Shelby in a 2011 MinnPost article. The same is the case withSolberg's lobbying clients (listed here, including the Coalition of Utility Cities, whose designated (chief) lobbyist is Timothy Flaherty (see Coolican's crack above).
But we digress:
Panel Discussion and Industry Overview –
Electricity Generation – Joel Johnson, Director for the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future (15 minutes)
Municipal Utilities – Kent Sulem, Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association (10 minutes)
Rural Electric Cooperatives – Joyce Peppin, Director of Government Affairs and General Counsel MREA (10 minutes)
Iron Mining – Kelsey Johnson, President of the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota (10 minutes)
Labor and Energy Workers – Jason George - IUOE Local 49, Andy Snope - IBEW, Adam Duininck - NCS Carpenters (15 minutes)
Tomi Lahren: "Coal actually is, it's just ancient wood that's been under pressure for millions of years. Just like Hillary Clinton. MILLIONS of years." ....
Tomi Lahren: "I'm sorry guys but you can't power your lives on feelings and fairy dust. As much as you believe so. I see it in LA all the time. People that are driving their cars, powering their GIANT homes, they think they don't understand that comes from somewhere. Fossil fuels are God's gift to this nation. We should use it to it's fullest extent because that's how we become energy independent."
As for those in attendance.. they were glad to hear their views given a voice.
Perhaps those attending February's spectacle might do a bit more due diligence than Lahren about claims made by the marketing arm of a group that shares those views. For instance, Clean Technica reported in 6th Largest US Coal Company Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy:
The point of the chapter 11 bankruptcy is to restructure the debt with lenders to allow the company to continue operations. The company has almost 3,000 employees and reportedly does not expect to lay off any of them.
The Sierra Club released a statement about the filing, “Westmoreland’s declaration of bankruptcy is the latest clear signal that the coal industry is in an irreversible decline. With numerous coal companies facing bankruptcy in recent years, it is clear that further investments in coal are a mistake.”
The Kemmerer Gazette, a Wyoming newspaper, published an article about the possibility that retired workers from the company might have their pensions and healthcare coverage cut. “Because of their bankruptcy, Westmoreland now wants to throw out the contracts we’ve negotiated,” said Mike Dalpiaz, District 22 Vice President of the United Mine Workers of America.
Utility Divereported that Westmoreland’s bankruptcy filing marks the 4th major US coal company to do so in the last several years.
One contributing factor to the bankruptcy was that several of the company’s key customers are not going to continue using coal, reported Wyoming Public Media.
North Dakota's lignite mining not so union friendly
Dan Neurohr has been a coal miner and a proud member of the United Mine Workers of America most of his working life.
Now, after decades, the mine where he’s working and the local union — once representing nearly every coal miner in North Dakota — are coming to an end.
Dakota Westmoreland Corp. has less than four more years to deliver coal to the Coyote Station power plant from its mine at the plant’s back door. It is the only coal mine still represented by UMWA in North Dakota. The union’s other mines, such as Indian Head at Zap and Glen Harold at Stanton, have all since shut down, their coal delivery contracts absorbed by North American Coal Corp’s Coteau Freedom Mine.
The Coyote Station owners announced last month they’ll switch to a new coal provider starting May 2016.
North American, owner of the two largest coal mines in the state and both non-union, will open a new mine they’re calling Coyote Creek Mining Co. just west of Dakota Westmoreland’s open coal pits.
The Coyote Station is south of Beulah and Dakota Westmoreland is a “mine mouth” operation, meaning coal is fed from the mine pits and crusher right onto the plant’s conveyor belts.
Coyote Creek Mining Co. exists in coal lease documents for now. The Public Service Commission must issue a mining permit and North American won’t make application for the 13-square-mile reserve area until next year or possibly 2014, says its spokesman David Straley.
The contract would expire in 2040.
Neurohr, 61, says he doesn’t really understand how or why Dakota Westmoreland lost its contract. He knows it came down to the price of coal, which is what Coyote Station owners said in a press release when they announced their decision.
“We were mining at a cheap enough price. Our wages were the same or even a little less, but our benefits are better,” he said.
The Coyote Station has four owners. Otter Tail Power Co. based in Fergus Falls, Minn., is the operating partner.
Founded in 1976, Northern Municipal Power Agency (NMPA) is the wholesale energy supplier for 12 participating municipal utilities located in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. Headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minn., NMPA supplies the electric needs for more than 15,000 consumer meters in the same geographic area as the Minnkota member-owners.
Minnkota and NMPA operate together in what is referred to as the Joint System. This arrangement, which has been in place since 1981, essentially combines the revenues, expenses and wholesale electric rates for the two power suppliers.
NMPA owns a 30 percent share of the 427,000-kilowatt Coyote Station located near the town of Beulah in western North Dakota. NMPA also owns a load-ratio share (approximately 15 percent) of the Minnkota transmission system. Minnkota also serves as operating agent for NMPA.
According to the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board records, one of Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc.'s lobbyists is the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future Minnesota Director Joel Johnson. Sweet work if you can get it.
Photo: Children romping through a non-unon coal mine on one of the co-operative member junkets.
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.
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