Facebook friends in Willmar have been wondered how to help the families of Idris M. Hussein, age 10 and Ahmed Sahane Hashi, age 11, who tragically drowned in Foot Lake yesterday. Following Islamic funeral practices, the boys' funeral and burial is today.
A Somali-American community member is sharing the following message for those who want to help the families. Like many families faced with the sudden death of a child, these are expenses that are unanticipated. Here's how to help the families:
Abdullahi Khalif OlowWe have agreed to put a donation box at Ainu Shams Inc Store here in Downtown located at 222 SW 4th ST Willmar, MN 56201. Abdullahi Omar, the owner of the store who is also coordinating the burial will be the contact person and his phone number is 612-298-6330. Anyone wanting to bring it to me will be okay too and I will deliver it to him.
Thanks again for all the well wishers who have been on standby to help the grieving families at moment of great need. Our financial and spiritual support to the families will be a blessing!
Olow mentions that well wishers have been on standby. Many non-Somali-American residents have wanted to help the families, but have been culturally sensitive about how to help, especially since it's Ramadan.
Another fund is being set up for the families of the boys. It will be administrated by the ELCA Lakeland Conference. Checks can be made to "Lakeland Conference" with Hussein-Hashi Funeral in the memo line. They can be dropped off at Bremer Bank, any ELCA church or sent directly to Lakeland Conference PO Box 1513, Willmar, MN 56201. The fund will remain active through July 31st. At that time the funds will be distributed equally between the two families through the mothers of the children. I will research how this can be done electronically for those who don't want to send a check. Thank you for all of your support. On a personal note, the families are extremely grateful for the support that has already been shown by the turn out at the graveside service.
Laid to rest two children today. The community came together for which I am grateful to God. Here is one thought shared at the service that will stick with me forever. Everyone in this world is on loan from God. We should treat each other accordingly.
Tuesday morning, three candidates in Minnesota's Second Congressional District were seeking the DFL endorsement for the open seat. By the end of the day, only Angie Craig appeared to remain.
Angie Craig will apparently have a clear path to the DFL endorsement for Minnesota’s only open congressional seat. Her well-funded opponent Mary Lawrence ended her campaign Tuesday and her only remaining opponent, Roger Kittelson, says he will make an announcement about his campaign late Wednesday.
Kittelson says DFL party officials contacted him shortly after Lawrence’s surprise announcement. They apparently have convinced him to end his campaign also.
That would leave Craig as the only announced DFL candidate to replace retiring Rep. John Kline for Minnesota’s second congressional district. Minnesota holds its caucuses on March 1. Delegates selected at those caucuses will later determine who gets the party’s endorsement, which presumably would go to Craig unless another candidate quickly emerges.
If that happens and no other DFL candidate files to run in the August 9 primary, Craig would likely face one of five candidates vying for the GOP endorsement in November. Those candidates are former talk show host Jason Lewis, former state Senator John Howe, former state Representative Pam Myhra, David Gerson (who ran against Kline two years ago) and a newcomer to the race, David Benson-Staebler. Three of the candidates — Myhra, Howe and Lewis are scheduled to debate at the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute on January 21. . .
For the moment, Lawrence’s withdrawal is a boon for Craig, a former St. Jude Medical executive, who, if she wins the seat, would be the first openly lesbian member of Congress from Minnesota. But there is still time for another DFLer to enter the race, and Lawrence’s withdrawal will probably set off some serious thinking. Several DFL politicians have surely considered seeking the seat if Kline ever retired. But Kline didn’t announce his plans until Craig and Lawrence were already running, which led several who might have run to hesitate.
State Rep. Joe Atkins of Inver Grove Heights, for example, who has contemplated running for the seat and for several statewide offices over the years, had announced that he would not enter the congressional race this cycle. One DFL insider described Atkins as an obvious example of someone who had passed on the race when Craig and Lawrence seemed to have claimed dominance over the endorsement and primary paths, respectively, but who might be thinking hard now about taking a shot.
The list to look at would include those with a record of activism in DFL politics in the district, and perhaps especially those with strong ties to organized labor, which is seen as a possible weakness for Craig because of her work as a corporate executive.
This seems far-fetched to us, since Craig has received labor endorsements including the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the United Steelworkers and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
Moreover, Atkins is in the crosshairs of the Minnesota Jobs Coalition over pension benefits. The Republican front group asked for the investigation that found Rep. Atkins was not eligible for PERA pension benefits he received as Independent School District 199 for his work with the Inver Grove Heights B.E.S.T. Foundation. While Atkins will receive a refund check for his contributions to PERA, the Jobs Coalition now raises questions about thousands in other benefits the Dakota County lawmaker received from the school district, blogger Michael Brodkorb reports at the Star Tribune.
It's hardily the sort of thing the DFL or a candidate wants hanging over his head in what's going to be one of the most competitive races in the country. Following the retirement of John Kline, it's an open seat.
Photo: Angie Craig (right), her wife Cheryl Greene, and their four sons play Scrabble at their home in Eagan. Photo via the campaign's Facebook page. It was a triple-word score day for the candidate who has won praise from Bluestem Prairie's sources in the district for her relentless and very well-organized campaign for the endorsement.
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Sources deep in both chambers of the Minnesota legislature have contacted Bluestem Prairie to share the deep consternation sweeping both bodies as members learned that scheduling conflicts might keep them from attending the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future's annual legislative reception late Wednesday afternoon.
According to the June 5, 2014 Lignite Research Council Agenda of the North Dakota Industrial Commission Lignite Research, Development and Marketing Program, CSEF is funded by a grant from the commission:
Re-Submission of Regional Lignite Public Affairs Plan (Coalition for a Secure Energy Future) Submitted by: Lignite Energy Council; Request for: $600,000 annually for a total of $1,200,000; Project Duration: 2 Years.
While the discussion of the plan was closed meeting, page 35 of the minutes (pdf) of the July 1, 2014 meeting of the North Dakota Development Commission reveal:
During the closed session, it had been moved and seconded that the Industrial Commission accepts the Lignite Research Council recommendation to fund the grant application “Regional Lignite Public Affairs Plan (Coalition for a Secure Energy Future)” and to authorize Karlene Fine, Industrial Commission Executive Director, to execute an agreement with the Lignite Energy Council to provide a total of Industrial Commission Lignite Research Program funding in an amount not to exceed $1,200,000 (marketing) with annual updates presented to the Commission . On a roll call vote, Governor Dalrymple, Attorney General Stenehjem and Commissioner Goehring voted aye. The motion carried unanimously.
The item appears in the Lignite Research, Development and Marketing Program portion of the NDIC minutes.
Scheduling conflicts
What can keep state representatives and senators away from this event scheduled by a coal industry group that's so not* lobbying them?
First, we're told the DFL Senate Majority caucus holds a regularly scheduled caucus meeting on Wednesday afternoons that ends at 7:00 p.m. Even with former Majority Leader Roger Moe co-chairing (but so not lobbying for) the Coalition, we doubt they'll trade the privacy of their caucus discussion for free beer and bacon-wrapped cocktail wienies, though if anyone could finagle a side room, it would be Roger.
While the legislative reception begins at 5:30 p.m., we imagine it would be difficult for the committee members stop in at the location and get back to the committee room by 6:00 p.m., downtown rush hour traffic being what it is. Moreover, in a state that's had a hard time passing a Sunday growler bill, to-go cups for reception beverages are likely to be frowned upon by St. Paul's finest.
Finally, and most importantly, the House and Senate are convening in a rare joint session at 7:00 p.m. to vote for new University of Minnesota Regents--and given the close margin between the DFL and Republicans serving in the House and the Senate, as well as the contested position in the First Congressional District--it's going to be important for everyone to show up for the session.
Support for the CD1 seat is divided not merely along partisan lines, but also a regional split in the sprawling First. The Worthington Daily Globe urged support for Randy Simonson, CEO of Grasix Animal Health in Worthington, while the Rochester Post Bulletin urges the return of Patricia Simmons, a retired Mayo Clinic pediatrician, to the Board of Regents.
Perhaps Daudt and Bakk could agree to delay that decision, move the votes on the uncontested seats, and give members in both bodies time to trickle up from the downtown restaurant for a vote.
*Update: a number of readers coming to this post missed our earlier exploration of the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future, Horse hockey: who's pushing the puck for new Coalition for a Secure Energy Future TV ad?, in which we explored the question of this group's non-registration as an association with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board:
We will not have a lobbying presence at the Legislature. We simply want to preserve this vital energy source that’s served our communities well for decades.
“Energy policy isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue. It’s a matter that impacts all hard-working Minnesota families. Senator Moe and I will make sure lawmakers have accurate information to help them make energy policy decisions that protect the best interests of the people of this state.”
What are friends for, after all, other than to educate, but not lobby, a guy?
Images: The invitation that Public Affairs Company's Luke Hellier emailed to all Minnesota legislators (above); the Patio Room at McGovern's (below).
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Bluestem's editor is saddened to learn of the death of Mr. Harvey, her high school freshman English teacher who taught her the Greek myths and a love of poetry.
There's a wonderful tribute to this man--much of it in the words of other former students--by Mark Fischenich in the Mankato Free Press. Take some time to read St. Peter mourns death of ear-tugging, poetry loving, respect-commanding English teacher, a long profile of the "an Iowa farm boy who never married" who started teaching after serving in World War II and the Korean War.
I remember him well, especially the day when he had brought a bow to class when we were studying the Odyssey. He'd asked a number of the boys to string "brave Odysseus's bow" and none had been able to do so.
Being a pretty sassy girl who also bow hunted, I volunteered to try, and while some of the other students were not amused, Mr. Harvey knew more about the world than they, and let me try. Of course I strung the bow, and he helped me lift it in triumph. Or least that's the way I remember it.
Posting will be light over the weekend, as I'm at the Minnesota Farmers Union convention.
Photo: Mr. Harvey, via the Mankato Free Press.
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Last week, City Pages posted Bradlee Dean's ministry is no more, source says, a single-sourced blog entry speculating on the demise of the toxic metal rocker's ministry. According to the anonymous source that had contacted the paper:
. . . Dean's "You Can Run But
You Cannot Hide International" staffers have all walked out on him. Yes,
that includes his notorious street teams and Dean's "Sons of Liberty" radio cohost Jake McMillan,
who our source says put in his two weeks notice and moved out of
Minnesota. (McMillian, for some reason, sometimes went by the name Jake
MacAulay.)
Our source said the beginning of the end came when two former Dean
staffers -- a husband-and-wife team including his former director of
donor relations -- had a falling out with Bradlee. The couple stayed
friends with some "You Can Run" employees and began trying to persuade
their friends to leave the ministry. They had incremental success,
culminating with the resignation of McMillan, and as a result Dean no
longer has anybody working for him. . . .
Update: A City Pages staffer replies:
Re: Bradlee Dean report in @bspinmn -- my source tells me Jake indeed put in notice, and trip out east is his last working for Bradlee.
Bluestem hopes that the City Pages text: " as a result Dean no longer has anybody working for him" is clarified. The tweet does not explain the presence of "Chase Mathews," whose Facebook page lists earlier employment with Dean's "School of Hard Knocks" Ministry beginning in 2010, and with The Sons of Liberty starting in September 2013. Perhaps the source will come forward publicly and help end the confusion. [end update]
A veteran Dean watcher confirmed to Bluestem that the men staffing the table are Chase Schomberg and Jake "McMillian" MacAulay. The features of the room in the photo--ceiling tiles and lighting fixtures match earlier photos of the event in the album.
Curious about the blog post at the time it was published, Bluestem had listened to podcasts of the Sons of Liberty radio show and had noticed that MacAulay's last appearance with Dean was Monday, September 23, and on subsequent broadcasts, no mention had been made on air of the sidekick's separate events included on a "Liberty Week" calendar posted to the SOL Radio Facebook page.
Moreover, staff twitter accounts all seemed to go silent on September 18. Circumstantial evidence suggested that the alt weekly's source was accurate--and multiple national online outlets gleefully spread the news.
Some of the source's story may have gained credence from the social media silence, and from a little-reported merger of Dean's various ministries in August.
YCRBYCH merged with Sons of Liberty in August
It's true that You Can Run But You Cannot Hide international is no more. On August 3, the YCR Facebook page announced:
You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Intl. is now
merging with Sons of Liberty Radio. This facebook page will be inactive
beginning Monday, August 5th. Please like our page https://www.facebook.com/SonsOfLibertyRadio for daily updates on the ministry. Please call our offices with any questions: 1-866-233-0747
However, the Dean and MacAulay picture was posted five hours ago.
All of this is quite curious. Dean has been posting of late about relentless media liars. Is this episode a punking of his former employees ? An elaborate scheme by Dean and the source to discredit a venue that's been a frequent critic? An object lesson in the need to confirm a tip from a single source? Dean being dodgy about an ongoing investigation at the MN AG's office as the anonymous source said? Signs of the Rapture?
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A manhunt began for Andrew Dikken, a "person of interest" for whom a warrant was issued later. Law enforcement conducted aggressive searches of nearby Minnesota River bottomland after Dikken's vehicle was discovered north of Belview. Bluestem knows these beautiful and remote stretches well from exploring the river valley.
All three individuals have criminal court records; those of the victims mostly incurred in their teens. The most serious offense was a felony drug conviction for Panitzke when he was 19; two driving related offenses, including open bottle, remained open at the time of his death. Monson was cited seven times for minor consumption, and had been convicted of a DWI-related offense at 20. She'd been cited for open bottle violations in 2009 and 2011.
A Monson cousin who was serving as editor of the Granite Falls wrote in Love Lives On that while Monson had described herself as a "wild one" as a partying teen, her daughter's birth changed matters:
I
picture us sitting on a tailgate as the night unravels around us and our
future dances before us in yellow flame and merriment echoes.
Arms at our sides—her feet swing. She leans
over and playfully bumps me with her shoulder. I smile down and she
leans in with her secret.
“We’re the wild ones,” she says smiling...
••••
. . . Oh how my family worried over her when we were
still young and wild. The truth is we weren’t the “wild ones”. We just
loved chasing them. Our hearts were somehow predisposed to love wild
things. To find the source of all things that require passion.
The day after she is killed by a man, her
mother talks about it differently. “She looked for good in everyone and
everything. It was the mistreated. Those mistreated ones. Those were the
ones she attached to.”
It made no difference that it worried her
mother and father. She was a small-town-daddy’s-princess who pierced her
nose, got a tattoo and was shameless about it. Those little flaws of
people. Those beautiful, beautiful flaws. They shimmer in the eyes of
the wild ones. And those that know— know the soul is born and made
distinct, unique and all the more beautiful, by those imperfections.
Only grace can quell our wild yearning to belong. Our longing for passion and the wild.
Kara’s grace came with the birth of her
daughter. She found purpose, understanding and wild, wild love in the
presence of her newborn daughter. And it didn’t take long for the family
to stop worrying over their favorite. We were so proud to see her with
her daughter.
Dikken's record is more elaborate, with convictions for theft and receiving stolen property filed in 2004 in Douglas County, when he was 19. Dikken's brushes with the law continued in 2009, when he was convicted of DWI in a case where charges of fleeing a peace office, open bottle, and possession of pot and drug paraphernalia were dismissed.
That same year, he was also convicted on another misdemeanor theft charge; the terms of his sentencing included "Complete all 3 tiers of the New Beginnings treatment program while in
jail, if qualified, and be given credit upon successful completion." Not all of the lessons stuck, as Dikken was cited for open bottle in 2011 in Chippewa County.
Shortly after the shooting, investigators revealed they believed the
bloodshed was related to domestic violence and they named Dikken a
person of interest.
Dikken and Kara Monson were in a relationship for three years, but
the two broke up in April. Friends and loved ones say Monson had
recently begun dating Panitzke, of Redwood Falls, before the two were
killed.
Not content to repeal the long-standing wheelage tax in Anoka County, last night county board member Rhonda Sivarajah upped the stakes in the Tea Party panderfest that is the pursuit of the Republican endorsement in Minnesota Sixth Congressional District.
Two Republican candidates on Tuesday told tea party activists they
have styles that are sharply different from the woman they hope to
succeed in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Michele Bachmann.
The
remarks came from Anoka County Coard of Commissioners Chair Rhonda
Sivarajah and former state Rep. Phil Krinkie at a Central Minnesota Tea
Party event in St. Cloud.
Sadly, this difference is only one of temperament, not wackiness, if we're to judge from one of Sivarajah's responses to a question about "world government." Sommerhauser writes:
Sivarajah took aim at the Metropolitan Council, of which Anoka County
is part, as “nothing more than social engineering.” The comments came in
response to a questioner’s concerns about “world government” and
“regional government.”
“They
want to tell you how you should live, where you should live,” Sivarajah
said of the Metropolitan Council. “It is not a pleasant picture —
really takes away that local control.”
Developing a unified voice is going to be a challenge; county commissioners hardly speak with one voice about the Met Council.
“My personal opinion,” said nine-year Anoka County Commissioner
Rhonda Sivarajah of Lino Lakes, “is that the Met Council has gone beyond
its original scope.
“It was focused originally on sewers and water, and it became
involved with transportation and affordable housing — and so it may be a
matter of looking at the scope of work and what it should be.”
What ever happened to that working group? Gone with the wind of Rhonda's ambitions? Bluestem was unable to find a report--and we're struck with the irony of centering a state agency as an issue on a congressional race.
Perhaps Sivarajah is just playing a game of conservative catch-up on Met Council whipping. After all, the Taxpayers League copyrighted the phrase "social engineering" when it came to Met Council transit plans at a time when Krinkie was still earning a medical degree in "No!" in the Minnesota House. Back in 2003, ABC News' Philip Langdon reported in The Right Targets Smart Growth For Smearing:
Strom said a campaign that the Taxpayers League ran against a mass
transit proposal in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area depicted pro-transit
leaders as practitioners of social engineering. ``No one knew what
social engineering was,'' Strom said, ``but it sounded bad. We made it
sound like they were a bunch of commies.''
Strom told smart-growth
opponents to wage merciless attacks. ``We often make the mistake of
assuming this is a battle over who has the better facts,'' he said.
Quite the contrary, whether smart-growth policies are adopted will
hinge, he asserted, on whether voters can be persuaded that the typical
smart-growth leader is ``a pointy-headed intellectual fascist'' trying
to ruin people's lives.
Actually, Phil Krinkie knew--in 1999 (and this bunch is ready to party like it's that year). On December 30, 1999, ECM Publishers staff writer Dan Gearino reported in In Dakota County, the future is now:
State Rep. Phil Krinke (R-Shoreview) vehemently disagrees with
Ventura and would much rather maintain and expand area highways than
invest in mass transit. Krinke made headlines recently because of his
attempt to hold up a federal grant for the Minneapolis light rail line.
For Krinke, new urbanism and mass transit are wrong-headed attempts at
social engineering. Repeatedly referring to new urbanism as "utopian,"
Krinke believes that planned communities will not work because people
naturally want to move further and further from the city while still
being able to work there.
But when it comes to trolling votes on the back of regional infrastructure and the Met Council, both Rhonda and Phil are slackers compared to endorsement rival Tom Emmer. While running for governor in 2010, Tom called for the elimination of the Met Council. Tom Scheck reported in A closer look at Tom Emmer's plan to cut state agencies:
At various times in recent months,
Emmer has called for eliminating agencies, merging departments and
looking at duplication in government.
"The Department of Human Rights
needs to go away," Emmer said during a debate. "I'm not combining it
with anything. You talk about redesigning a smaller Met Council. The Met
Council needs to go away."
Sivarajah told the Tea Party members last night that she's got no personality compared to Congresswoman Bachmann:
“She is a fireball, and that isn’t necessarily my personality,”
Sivarajah said. “But I certainly would stand up and fight for our
conservative principles, just as I’ve done on the Anoka County board.”
Will Republican delegates and primary voters respond to her Bland Ambition or go with the fiery (and let's face it, fun) Tom Emmer? Will they say yes to Dr. No? Or go with what's-his-face from St. Cloud? Don't touch that dial.
Photo: The triumph of Sivarajah on the front page of the A section of the Blaine/Spring Lake Park paper. Repealing the wheelage tax and looking for highway funding. Hmmm. via Twitter (above). Tom Emmer laughing. We share the sentiment (below).
If
you enjoy reading posts like this on Bluestem Prairie, consider
throwing some coin in the tip jar:
How well are things going in the National Republican Congressional Committee's war on Minnesota Seventh District Congressman Collin Peterson since announcing a television ad buy?
Next, the editorial board of the conservative Forum Communications newspaper, the Fargo Forum, issued what would pass for an endorsement if it were published in October 2014. In Forum editorial: Attack ad won’t fly in the 7th, they write:
Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., is square in the sights of the
National Republican Congressional Committee. The long-serving District 7
congressman is described in an NRCC cable TV ad as an out-of-touch
politician who has been in Congress too long.
The voters of the
district disagree. And it is likely (although anything can happen before
November 2014) Peterson will easily win another term if he decides to
run again. By the way, he should seek re-election. He’s done well by the
people of the 7th and they have rewarded him again and again with
near-landslide victories. . . .
Peterson knows the people of his district. He has represented their
interests as a moderate Blue Dog Democrat. They seem more than satisfied
with his work. Despite the NRCC’s attempt to paint him as anti-farmer,
most farmers in the 7th know better. Despite the lame charge that
Peterson is responsible for “gridlock and dysfunction in Washington,”
voters in the district know which party controls the U.S. House; they
know House Republicans are blocking a balanced farm bill.
Peterson
should welcome the NRCC’s attack ad. It seems desperate. It is shallow
political boilerplate. He can enjoy the rest of the August recess in the
beautiful 7th, and take some comfort that the NRCC is targeting him.
He’ll spin it into a badge of honor.
Quist received 1801 votes, or 36.08 percent, while Independence Party candidate Tim Gieseke collected 511 votes for 10.24 percent of the vote.
The Republican's 2013 percentage of the vote in the state house district dipped slightly from the 37.05 percentage he received of the 2012 congressional election votes cast in the same house district. This suggests that the conservative Republican base that produces an Allen Quist in Nicollet County is fairly stable, with Gieseke capturing small-i independent voters.
Whatever the explanation, creationist Quist was defeated on Charles Darwin's birthday (as well as that of the Original Republican, Abraham Lincoln, although the Grand Old Party has--dare we say--evolved from the days of the Great Emancipator).
In today's other special election, Republican small business woman Tama Thies won with 55.08 percent of the vote with 15 of 16 precincts reporting when we posted at 10:30 p.m. Just as the 19A seat stayed in DFL hands, this traditionally Republican district in St. Cloud stayed Republican.
The results in both districts leave the party counts in the Minnesota House exactly as they were on the morning of November 7, 2012.
. . .Quist didn't talk much -- if at all -- about abortion, gay marriage or
other social issues during the campaign, but [North Mankato voter Jared] Glaser checked some of
Quist's former words and actions online. He saw videos that referenced
Quist's attempts in the 1980s to reduce the amount of anonymous gay sex
in Minnesota and his doubts about the theory of evolution, including
statements that dinosaurs and humans co-existed on earth.
"He just sounds like a lunatic," Glaser said. . . .
Cartoon: Allen Quist can still fly to the state capitol for gun hearings and such. Cartoon by Ken Avidor.
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Standing in Reconciliation Park, site of the hanging of 38 Dakota men,
Arvol Looking Horse spoke of a long journey coming to an end. . . .
“Today, being here to witness a great gathering, we have peace in our hearts — a new beginning of healing,” Looking Horse said.
Under clear skies with temperatures just above zero, 400 to 500 people
packed the area around the downtown park as about 60 riders rode in for
the nearly two-hour ceremony, which also dedicated a new “Dakota 38”
memorial. A group of Dakota runners, who started at Fort Snelling, also
arrived during the ceremony. . . .
These are the names that were read today of the Dakota men executed at Mankato 150 years ago, via Dakota Wicohan's Facebook page:
Ti-hdo’-ni-ca (One Who Jealousy Guards His Home)
Ptan Du-ta (Scarlet Otter)
O-ya’-te Ta-wa (His people)
Hin-han’-sun-ko-yag-ma-ni (One who Walks Clothed in Owl Feathers)
Ma-za Bo-mdu (Iron Blower)
Wa-hpe Du-ta (Scarlet Leaf)
Wa-hi’na (I Came)
Sna Ma-hi (Tinkling Walker)
Hda In-yan-ka (Rattling Runner)
Do-wan’-s’a (Sings A Lot)
He-pan (Second Born Male Child)
Sun-ka Ska (White Dog)
Tun-kan’ I-ca’hda Ma-ni (One Who Walks by His Grandfather)
Wa-kin’-yan-na (Little Thunder)
I-te’ Du-ta (Scarlet Face)
Ka-mde’-ca (Broken to Pieces)
He pi’ da (Third Born Male)
Ma-hpi’-ya A-i’-na-zin (Cut Nose)
Henry Milord
Cas-ke’-da (First Born)
Baptiste Campbell
Ta-te’ Ka-ga (Wind Maker)
He in’-kpa (The Tip of the Horn)
Hypolite Auge
Na-pe’-sni (Fearless)
Wa-kan Tan-ka (Great Spirit)
Tun-kan’ Ko-yag I-na’-zin (One Who Stands Cloaked in Stone)
Ma-ka’-ta I-na’ (One Who Stands on Earth)
Ma-za Ku-te Ma-ni (One Who Shoots As He Walks)
Ta-te’ Hdi-da (Wind Comes Home)
Wa-si’-cun (White Man)
A-i’-ca-ge (To Grow Upon)
Ma-hu’-we-hi (He Comes for Me)
Ho-i’-tan-in Ku (Returning Clear Voice)
Ce-tan’ Hun-ka’ (Elder Hawk)
Can-ka-hda (Near the Woods)
Hda’-hin-hde (Sudden Rattle)
O-ya’-te A-ku’ (He Brings the People)
State Rep. Dean Urdahl, who co-chairs a state task force commemorating
the Civil War and U.S.-Dakota War, said that while great progress has
been made through reconciliation and education, there remains a lack of
understanding about what led up to the war and the travails that the
Dakota suffered long after the war.
“Through understanding comes a healing that is still continuing today,” Urdahl said.
Bluestem learned about these things as a child, in school and from family, but many Minnesotans, whether indigenous or whose people came from other continents, do not know this history.
For the complete story and more amazing photos by the Free Press's Pat Christman, read "Forgive everyone everything".
Update: Video of the reading of the names, by a Dakota speaker.
Photo: Dakota riders make their way down
Riverfront Drive toward Reconciliation Park before a ceremony
commemorating the 150th anniversary of the hanging of 38 Dakota in
Mankato. Photo by Pat Christiman From "Forgive everyone everything".
Conservative sites are flaming former Minnesota Republican kingpin Jeff Larson, scorching the reach of his octopi-tentacles into the pockets and the defeat of 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
If money is the root of all evil, for the Republican Party evil is
located on the fifth floor of 66 Canal Center Plaza, Alexandria, VA
22314.
Strip away the candidate and coalition and it is on the fifth floor
of 66 Canal Center Plaza where the seeds of Mitt Romney’s ruin and the
RNC’s get out the vote (GOTV) effort collapsed — bled to death by
charlatan consultants making millions off the party, its donors, and the
grassroots.
66 Canal Center Plaza is also why Jeff Larson, the Chief of Staff of
the Republican National Committee, should not be put in charge of the
autopsy of the GOP’s defeat. Multiple sources confirm to me that RNC
Chairman Reince Priebus has already put Larson in charge of the so
called autopsy. . . .
Down the Rabbit Hole
To understand the problems, we need to go back in time. Michael
Beach is a co-founder of Targeted Victory, LLC, as is Zac Moffatt.
Before that, he was the National Victory Director for the Republican
Party during the 2008 campaign.
Targeted Victory, LLC operates from suite 501 of 66 Canal Center
Plaza in Alexandria as a foreign limited liability company. Targeted
Victory, LLC is actually a Minnesota limited liability company. In
Virginia, its co-founder Michael Beach, is listed as its registered
agent by the Virginia Secretary of State. It was formed on February 5,
2009, around the time Michael Beach left the RNC.
Targeted Victory, LLC’s registered office is 7300 Hudson Blvd, Suite
270, St. Paul, MN 55128. It’s manager, who is the person who controls
the day to day operations of an LLC on behalf of its members, is Tony
Feather.
Drum roll please — Tony Feather happens to also be the F in FLS
Connect, LLC, which made millions off both the Romney campaign and the
RNC.
The “L” in FLS Connect is Jeff Larson, the present Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee.
Curiously, the Virginia Secretary of State notes that FLS Connect,
LLC uses a registered agent in Virginia Beach, VA, but is a foreign
limited liability company just like Targeted Victory, LLC. More
curious, its principal office is the same office in St. Paul, MN as
Targeted Victory, LLC, but FLS Connect is actually an Arizona limited
liability company. . . .
Erickson dives into the wreck, emerging with:
FLS Connect continued to get business from the RNC and also got
business from Team Romney. But now Targeted Victory enters the picture.
Targeted Victory, LLC’s principal office is the same office in St.
Paul, MN that FLS Connect, LLC lists as its own principle office.
Targeted Victory’s manager is Tony Feather, who is the F in FLS Connect.
Rich Beeson, who used to work for FLS Connect, is now with Team
Romney and Team Romney awards a contract to Targeted Victory, LLC for
its digital work with Zac Moffatt as Digital Director of the campaign.
Targeted Victory, LLC and FLS Connect, LLC rake in millions in
commissions. The central component to Rich Beeson’s get out the vote
operation is Project ORCA, which is headed by Zac Moffatt of Targeted
Victory, LLC, whose principal office in Minnesota is shared by FLS
Connect, LLC. As of October 26, 2012, Targeted Victory had been paid $64 million by Team Romney and FLS Connect had been paid $16.5 million.
And now the “L” in FLS Connect, Jeff Larson, will perform the autopsy on why Election Day and its related operations collapsed. . . .
The MNGOP Way: Incest Is Best, Or the Party that Pays Together
Bluestem is surprised that anyone in the Republican Party can feign shock, much less surprise at this news, since this sort of collective ingrown toenailhood has marked Larson's business dealing for the party for years.
Two 2011 articles at City Pages by Andy Mannix and Mike Mullen illustrate this point well, though not for the first time. There's their cover article, "RNC Piggy Bank", a fine piece of investigative journalism about Larson's involvement in staging the 2008 RNC convention and his profit from the committee created for the event. Go read it.
In mid-2008, it came out that Jeff Larson had been renting a
Washington, D.C. apartment to then-Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn), a close
friend and political cohort.
As a landlord, Larson -- the subject of last week's feature, "RNC Piggy Bank"
-- had been pretty lax on collecting rent. He allowed Coleman to miss
several payments, and even admitted to accepting furniture from Coleman
instead of a rent payment. This all raised ethical questions with
political watchdog groups, leading to a formal complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee.
But records show that Larson's career as a political landlord extends beyond this one incident.
In 2003, Larson was the founding treasurer of Coleman's political
action committee, Northstar Leadership. In the years since, Northstar
Leadership has paid more than $300,000 to Larson's telemarketing firm,
FLS Connect, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Some of this PAC money has gone toward Larson renting an office from FLS. In addition, Coleman for Senate '08, the Senator's official 2008 campaign committee, also rented an office from FLS. As did the 2008 Republican National Convention host committee, of which Larson was the CEO and treasurer.
At
one point, FLS was renting an office to Coleman's PAC, Coleman's
campaign committee, and the host committee, all at the same time. . . .
Coleman and Larson: Twin Brothers of Different Mothers?
Nor have former one-term wonder Coleman and Larson parted compaign when it comes to conservative campaign bidness. Coleman's American Action Net handed over some checks this year to Targeted Victory as well, according AAN's October Quarterly report of independent expenditures on file at the FEC.
Targeted Victory
P.O. Box 2187
Arlington, Virginia 22202
Expenditure Description: Internet Advertising and Website
Date Expended = 09/14/2012
In OPPOSITION to RICHARD MICHAEL NOLAN
Amount Expended = 28999.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = 282738.63
Targeted Victory
P.O. Box 2187
Arlington, Virginia 22202
Expenditure Description: Internet Advertising and Website
Date Expended = 09/14/2012
In OPPOSITION to DAVID MICHAEL GILL
Amount Expended = 28999.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = 183747.80
Targeted Victory
P.O. Box 2187
Arlington, Virginia 22202
Expenditure Description: Digital Advertising and Website
Date Expended = 09/14/2012
In OPPOSITION to RICHARD MICHAEL NOLAN
Amount Expended = 28999.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = 311737.63
Targeted Victory
P.O. Box 2187
Arlington, Virginia 22202
Expenditure Description: Digital Advertising and Website
Date Expended = 09/14/2012
In OPPOSITION to JOSE M HERNANDEZ
Amount Expended = 28999.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = 504183.40
Targeted Victory
P.O. Box 2187
Arlington, Virginia 22202
Expenditure Description: Digital Media Advertising and Website
Date Expended = 09/14/2012
In OPPOSITION to DAVID L CROOKS
Amount Expended = 28999.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = 43935.74
As lame duck one-term congressman Chip Cravaack can attest, that $57,998 was money well spent on digital advertising and a website.
Photos: Jeff Larson, top; Norm Coleman, bottom.
Blog begathon: Bluestem is supported by reader contributions. If you liked this post, consider throwing some coin to the tip jar.
If you don't like using PayPal, email at the address on this page for a
snail mail address. We'll be running our twice-yearly "bleg" though
Christmas.
Today's Morning Take provided an assessment of this weekend's Republican state convention endorsement contest for the United States Senate seat now held by Amy Klobuchar:
According to numerous sources, Rep. Kurt Bills has a lead in delegates going into the convention. The surprise is that most people predict that fmr. state Rep. Dan Severson is in second, and war veteran Pete Hegseth is in third. The estimated percentages compiled from GOP insiders are 35-38 Bills, 30- 32 Severson, 15-20 Hegseth and 15 uncommitted. ENDORSEMENT: One possibility like 2002, is a long drawn out endorsement fight. The difference is that unlike 2002 when fmr. Gov. Tim Pawlenty battled businessman Brian Sullivan, is that most GOPers don’t think they can defeat Klobuchar. The Governor’s seat was open in 2002. WATCH: If Hegseth is knocked out early, he is more likely to consider a primary run, if he hangs on for a few hours of balloting, he may try to block an endorsement so that he can go to a primary.
Already, the race is taking on Parry-Quist levels of nastiness on twitter.
But another matter entirely makes Bluestem laugh: a post of a Hegseth email at Residual Forces under the headline: Actual Momentum. A name(emphasis added) made familiar in the 2008 CD1 congressional race reappears:
Elected officials and Party leaders
Sen. Gretchen Hoffman
Rep. Larry Howes
Randy Gilbert
Bev Aplikowski (CD 4 Chair, former)
Mark Westpfahl (CD 2 Chair)
Diane Johnson (CD8 Vice Chair)
Brian Davis
Brian Davis, who now faithfully serves the Republican Party as a member of the finance committee for the Olmsted County BPOU, brought back memories of freshman Tim Walz's re-election with 62.50% of the vote to Davis's 32.93*% (IP candidate Greg Mikkelson snagged 4.48% of the votes cast).
The recognition of Brian Davis as an "Elected official and party leader" says a great deal about the state of the Republican Party of Minnesota, not to mention Hegseth's strength. (We leave the presence of smiling RINO Larry Howes on the list for the consideration of conblogger Gary Gross, who is in far better a position to define the term than the dirty hippies on the Bluestem Prairie are able).
Beard's defense of free enterprise made us curious just how good he is at it.
When Bluestem looked at Beard's Economic Interest Statement on file with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, we discovered that Beard owns a company, Beard Aircraft, and hold securities in it--and Bixby Energy Systems, a private corporation involved in the development of "clean coal" technology.
Reps. Kathy Lohmer and Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big ALEC) also sunk money into this GOP turkey farm; former Congressman Gil Gutknecht was on the board, and served as something of a knight in shining armor when the fraud was exposed.
He'd hoped to save the firm, but he's walking away, Star Tribune business columnist Neil St. Anthony reported Saturday in Bixby Energy now running on fumes. The deets:
In a recent letter to the privately held company's investors, former board chairman Gil Gutknecht and other board members said legal, technical and financial problems make it difficult to continue, though some shareholders plan to try.
Gutknecht, a former congressman and Bixby investor who stepped in to lead the company during its securities-fraud crisis last year, has resigned from the board, as have Jim Bergeron and Dave Merhar. The company's four paid employees were laid off in February, the letter said.
Though the company has customers for its coal-to-gas technology in China, engineers have struggled for months to get the first units working. . . .
. . .Meanwhile, two men who fraudulently solicited Bixby investors await sentencing in federal court, and the company's founder and former CEO, Bob Walker, awaits trial on charges he fraudulently raised $43 million from 1,800 Bixby investors. Prosecutors say the investors are "left with nothing."
Photo: Former First District Congressman Gilknecht served from 1995-2006, when he was defeated in an upset by Congressman Tim Walz. He's campaigning that year in this photo lifted from a 2006 Daily Kos diary.
Similarly, those who worry that Minnesota is fast becoming a "nanny state'' in which all problems are solved for residents and risks to their welfare eliminated can sleep well knowing that Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, has been ever ready this session to ward off any such sissy creep.
Example:
Come autumn, you might fancy a stroll with Ol' Fido amid the season's florid aspens and oaks. Or perhaps you ponder following your English setter or Labrador retriever in quest of the wondrous and wily ruffed grouse.
But instead you stay home, fearing the watered-down body-gripping trap regulations the House passed this week might ensnare your pooch in the torturous death grip of a Conibear 220.
Well, man up, you sissy, and head for the woods, your doggie in tow. It's not the Legislature's job to protect Minnesotans and their chicken-livered mutts from concealed killers -- even though Wisconsin, among other states, has managed such protections quite well.
Drazkowski also stands ever alert on behalf of citizens who worry they might have too much public land at their disposal on which to have fun.
There's hardly a public forest that couldn't easily be platted for homes, he seems to believe, or a state park whose trees shouldn't be whacked or a wildlife management area that wouldn't be better suited as a feedlot.
The bill also includes almost $30 million to buy land, including $14 million for the Mississippi Northwoods Habitat Complex and $13.8 million to pay for Phase IV of the Reinvest in Minnesota/Wetlands Reserve.
All that spending to buy public land didn’t escape the eye of Rep. Steve Drazkowski(R-Mazeppa), who noted that governments already own nearly 8.5 million acres of land in the state.
“The definition of socialism is when the state owns the capital. And we continue to march continually toward putting this government into ownership,” Drazkowski said.
Spoken in the spirit that moved the Draz to attempt to permit logging of black walnut trees in state parks. But there's more: Dennis Lien reports in Minnesota House passes environmental package:
Republican Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa also failed in an attempt to make all lakes under 40 acres that are surrounded by private land private instead of public waters.
"We are taxing people on this surface area and then telling them what they can't do with it,'' Drazkowski said.
But even many Republicans refused to go along with that approach. "This just screws up the situation terribly,'' said Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder.
But Minnesota's great outdoors isn't the only target for ALEC zombie Drazkowski. Students attending MNSCU campuses can also look forward to dodging bricks at their campuses (and driving on rougher roads to get there) if Steve has his way. Rochester Post Bulletin reporter and Tea Party scribe Heather Carlson reports in Prospects for passage of a state bonding bill unclear:
State lawmakers left town Thursday night for a week-long Easter/Passover break without voting on bonding bills, raising questions of whether these public works packages will happen this session.
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, is among lawmakers hoping such a bill won’t pass. While the Legislature traditionally passes bonding bills in the second year of the biennium, Drazkowski said there is no need this time around. He points to lawmakers’ approval of nearly $500 million for construction projects last summer as part of a final budget deal with DFL Gov. Mark Dayton to end the government shutdown. He says that should be enough.
“This isn’t money that just falls down (like) manna from heaven. This is money that is borrowed,” he said.
Others argue that if the Legislature does not pass a bonding bill, it will have failed in one of its key responsibilities — taking care of the state’s infrastructure.
The House bonding bill has been criticized for starving metro area project in favor of greater Minnesota MNSCU campuses, but Draz would shut them all out, as well as those pesky millions for bridge repairs.
Fifteen months after taking control of Minnesota's Legislature, Republicans have put a gay marriage ban on this November's ballot, moved to expand gun rights and cast dozens of votes to cut state spending. But there's one issue where they failed to get traction: watering down the strength of organized labor with a right-to-work law.
The problem isn't so much opposition from Democrats. And it isn't a lack of enthusiasm for the idea, which many conservatives consider essential for creating a business-friendly economic climate. The problem lies with Republicans who fear triggering a huge rebellion among opposition labor unions and sending a surge of sympathetic voters to the polls in November to vote Democratic.
In Minnesota and elsewhere across the Midwest, the question of what to do about the right-to-work issue is pitting Republican against Republican, straining relationships among longtime allies and weighing cherished ideals against political tactics....
The GOP's tea party flank also tends to favor action. Last weekend, Benson triumphed in a party endorsement battle with fellow Republican Sen. Mike Jungbauer, a right to work skeptic.
For many conservatives, it's a deeply felt goal. When Steve Drazkowski began serving in the Minnesota House in 2007, Democrats had controlled at least one chamber of the Legislature for a full generation. "Four decades, right there," in which they couldn't achieve their policy goals, Drazkowski said.
After Republicans finally won control in 2010, he put right-to-work state at the top of his to-do list.
Actually, Bluestem thinks that the rich west metro businessman's own tea party, The Freedom Club, told the ordinary Tea Partiers to get excited about this one. But that's us.
But nothing stops the Drazombie--and so there's more. In yesterday's Winona Daily News' oped section, Paul Hamernik notes in There’s fraud and there’s fraud ...:
Let me see if I’ve got this right: The Republicans are saying we need picture IDs — like a driver’s license — in order to eliminate the voter fraud that we have in Minnesota.
Yet, Rep Steve Drazkowski states in his April 4 column, “I was talking to a police officer who told me about his discovery of individuals in this state who owned and possessed multiple driver’s licenses in order to pad their pocketbook at the expense of Minnesota taxpayers.”
My question is this: If its that easy to obtain multiple driver’s licenses, why change a voting system that has been in use many years with negligible problems?
True, he wasn’t talking about voter fraud, but welfare fraud — but where does it say in the U.S. Constitution that I need to show a picture in order to vote?
As much as legislators like Steve Drazkowski are a gift to the blogging community, Bluestem finds itself pining for the days when Steve Sviggum filled that seat. Unfortunately, Sviggum has risen--to be the Peter Principle's poster boy in his current role as the Senate Majority's communications chief.
At least residents of Minnesota's First Congressional District can breathe easier. Redistricting placed both of these champions of contemporary conservative cluelessness in the Second. Draz is John Kline's problem now.
Image: White chocolate Draz Zombie bunny, by Tild.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is taking aim at longtime Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) with an ad arguing he has "changed." . . .
Peterson, now in his 11th term, has faced no serious challenges in more than a decade to his hold on a Republican-leaning northwest Minnesota district, although Republicans have periodically tried to target him.
But Republicans feel good about the chances of Minnesota state Sen. Gretchen Hoffman (R), who announced her campaign in late February. Tea Party-backed Lee Byberg (R), whom Peterson beat by 17 percentage points in the 2010 GOP wave election, is also running.
Framing Norwegian-American anchor-baby Byberg as the "[t]ea party-backed" candidate is one deft stroke on the part of whomever pitched this story to The Hill.
In Minnesota, a GOP candidate for the state legislature with Tea Party support, Gretchen Hoffman, told a St. Paul reporter that she got involved during the U.S. Senate recount last year and “didn’t like the direction things were going in this country…I’d always been informed, but never really involved. And then one day I woke up and I saw my country going away.” She met with others who felt the same way, organized small gatherings and says that while they’re “not affiliated with any larger Tea Party group, there are a bunch of us around…. we have something to say and we’re going to say it.”
Hoffman not only appeared at Tea Party rallies, but organized meetings in her area. It's interesting to see the re-branding, with Byberg being cast as the Tea Party also-ran.
Regardless of which Tea Party candidate the Seventh District Republicans select at their convention tomorrow, the Peterson seat itself was chosen as a target in November 2010 by the NRCC. On November 4, 2010, Politico reported in 2012 targets already in GOP's sights:
But NRCC officials also signaled that even though Republicans took down roughly 50 Democratic incumbents Tuesday, they are already plotting how to pick off the ones who got away. . .
n a conference call with reporters Wednesday, NRCC Executive Director Guy Harrison listed 10 moderate Democrats who are in the committee’s sights for 2012: West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall, Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson and Pennsylvania Rep. Jason Altmire. All four were held under 60 percent Tuesday and represent districts that voted for John McCain over Barack Obama in 2008.
Perhaps the greatest asset Hoffman brings to the Republican race isn't a Tea Party-free status, but her trademark disagreeableness. Yesterday's Morning Take provided a snapshot of her campaign's rips on Byberg:
GOP: Hoffman has been relentless in going after Byberg in the last couple weeks. In addition to rolling out endorsements from her state Senate colleagues, she sent out releases with the headline “HOFFMAN ASKS BYBERG TO STOP LYING TO VOTERS” and a release that asks “...with media outlets reporting Congressional candidate Lee Byberg’s half-hearted apology for fabricating political endorsements he never had and his campaign acknowledging that it incorrectly represented endorsements it never received in both the 2010 and 2012 elections, state Sen. Gretchen Hoffman today called on Byberg to explain why the apology took so long and just what information delivered to Minnesota voters he is responsible for?” MORRIS: Then, an attack on Byberg’s touting of Dick Morris endorsement: VERBATIM: A letter from the Lee Byberg campaign arrived in mailboxes today touting the endorsement of Dick Morris, the architect of democrat Bill Clinton’s re-election strategy. QUOTE: “After failing to earn more than 38% of the vote in 2010, the best year for Republican victories since 1920, I don't see how Lee Byberg will improve upon his disappointing performance by aligning himself with a New York-based former campaign manager to Bill Clinton," said Hoffman.
Charming. Out here on the Bluestem, we anticipate two more years of representation by conservative Blue Dog Peterson, complete with the occasional auditory waterboarding by his country rock band, The Second Amendments. A small price to pay, we guess, for not having to listen to Hoffman or watch her antics on the state senate or U.S. House floor.
Update: Via Minnesota Conservatives, Hoffman's campaign is trashing conservative radio (and now TV) talker Scott Hennen as being bought by Byberg. Hoffman has been a frequent guest on Scott Hennen's shows and Hennen emceed several Tea Party rallies where Hoffman appeared. It's interesting to see her turn so quickly on the former ally.
Turning on him for this endorsement is curious indeed. Bluestem will be taking a look at other Republican advertising buys and will report back. In the meantime, pop some corn.
Photo: Tea Party darling Gretchen Hoffman (R-Hateuall) and Byberg's former communications manager Dave Thompson goof off during a Senate session, while Scott Dibble(foreground) diligently slogs ahead (above); Portrait of Hoffman (below).
Sometimes you read something in the news or see something on tv that strikes a deep nerve. That happened to me yesterday.
The news that Minnesota State Senator Linda Scheid had ceased treatment for ovarian cancer and was entering hospice care at home brought back a wave of raw emotions.
It seems like only yesterday that I went through this myself as a family member. My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer around Christmas 2003. She fought it valiantly but in the fall of 2008 the doctors advised her that there were no further treatments that would be of help. She entered hospice care at home around Christmas time 2008 and died New Year’s Day 2009.
Sen. Scheid and her family are going through the same things my family went through. It is an experience I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.
I walked away from the political world with an apathetic finger in 2010 when I was told by a staffer of one of our federally elected officials that the senator would not sign on and support a bill in the Senate that would provide funding for ovarian cancer research because you can’t support every cancer research bill that comes along.
According to the American Cancer Society, in women age 35-74, ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. An estimated one woman in 58 will develop ovarian cancer during her lifetime. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009, there will be 21,550 new cases of ovarian cancer and 14,600 women will die from ovarian cancer.
When one is diagnosed and treated in the earliest stages, the 5-year survival rate is over 90%. Due to ovarian cancer's non-specific symptoms and lack of early detection tests, only 19% of all cases are found at this early stage. If caught in stage III or higher, the survival rate can be as low as 30.6%.
There is still no early detection test available for ovarian cancer nor has Congress approved funding to develop an early detection test.
In honor of Sen. Scheid and her family, my mom and family and the 21,550 women who will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year maybe we can get our politicians to listen to our pleas and pass legislation setting aside funding to develop an early detection test for ovarian cancer.
One woman in 58 will develop ovarian cancer during her lifetime.
Are you going to be one of those 58? Will your mother, sister, daughter, girlfiend, wife?
Chad Larimer lives and works in Rochester.
Bluestem Prairie hopes readers will keep Senator Scheid in their prayers, and work for congressional action for funding for an ovarian cancer early detection test.
On this Memorial Day, I'm remembering those who defended my country, and those who died for it.
One story that's moved me this spring strikes at the core of what it means to be an American, to love this country, to honor its values: the death of Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt and his family's standing up for equality for all people. Andrew Wilfahrt was a gay man; this was the least interesting thing about him. What those who served with him remember is a soldier who was there for his fellow soldiers. He's buried now in the national cemetery at Fort Snelling, along with one of my own uncles who died in the Malmedy Massacre and with hundreds of others who served their country.
Wilfahrt's life and death became an emblem of equality in in recent debates over a bill to amend the Minnesota constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Those opposing the bill--and now the amendment--have risen to rare eloquence, none more than that of a Republican freshman legislator who lost the lower part of his legs in Iraq when an IED exploded.
In this video, John Kriesel points toward protesters chanting during this statement, saying that that America was the one he had fought for. I'd like to believe that this is where Andrew's heart is, in the America that includes everyone, and values everyone, but there are others, equally American, who believe otherwise. This is their right; some may even object to the posting of this video on Memorial Day. That, too, is their right.
My beloved state now faces a debate and a fight over fundamentals: who we are, what we love, how a society will recognize that love, and what love will matter. This Memorial Day, I'm siding with the Wilfahrt family and Representative John Kriesel, a straight, married, conservative man, in saying Yes to a society which respects love, and on Election Day in November 2012, saying "Hell No!" to those who would deny equality for Andrew and everyone. I'd prefer that no one's fundamental rights and dignity be put up for a vote, but since vote I must, it's "Hell No."
Thank you, John Kriesel. Thank you, Jeff and Lori Wilfahrt. And thank you, Andrew Wilfahrt.
A probable answer comes from behind the paid subscribers firewall at the Austin version of the Post Bulletin in the article County receives GOP payment, lesson:
As of three weeks ago, 31 counties still hadn't been reimbursed by the GOP, said Sharon Anderson, auditor/treasurer of Cass County. The total owed is about $31,000.[emphasis added]
The GOP still owes Cass County nearly $1,800.
"We have not received it," Anderson said Tuesday. "I've dropped that ball for the last couple of weeks; the reason I put that ball away is because our leadership spoke with the state party chair and the accountant and at least had a verbal assurance that as funds were raised, counties would get paid."
It's been frustrating, she admitted, but said she's been in regular contact with the Cass County attorney.
"I've lost patience," Anderson said. "I don't feel politically at liberty to go any further than the county administrators want."
Her position is an appointed one, unlike many of the state's auditor-treasurer roles.
Anderson hasn't spoken with Tony Sutton, the Republican Party chairman.
"Our leadership and association did the homework," she said, "and their advice to us is to keep sending the bill every month. I'm going to suggest to our county board that we should be invoking an interest charge on those late accounts."
Now, that figure is three weeks old, and presumably Sutton has paid a few more bills. Has he made a specific ask to contributors--or maybe to statewide Republican candidates who had money left in their kitties at the end of 2010? Say Pat Anderson's $3283 or Dan Severson's $8781?
A bitter divide in the state Republican Party over expanded gambling has activists saying they want a closer look at the party chairman's ties to the anti-gambling group he helps lead and the tribal money that funds it.
Republican leaders want Party Chairman Tony Sutton to explain how GOP activists on a closely held party database began receiving e-mails from Citizens Against Gambling Expansion, a group funded in part by American Indian casino operators opposed to gambling expansion.
"If Sutton wants to be part of CAGE, then he's going to have to answer questions," said John Gilmore, a St. Paul Republican who supports Sutton.
Sutton said Wednesday there's no proof CAGE even has the list. The group's chairman, Republican operative Jack Meeks, said the group built its own database over the past several years.
"We don't give anybody the list," said Sutton, a CAGE board member. He said the latest accusations are part of a "smear campaign" by those who want to expand gambling.
Sutton and the GOP are between a couple of rocks; I will not speculate about the hard places, as we simply aren't that close.
Image:Tild's take from last summer still has currency.
I'd been following the tragic story of the double suicide of Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz, two 14-year-old friends via the Marshall Independent, and thus was interested in Andy Birkey's fine story, Double suicide in western Minnesota puts bullying back in spotlight.
A couple of people leaving comments on the April 22 Minnesota Independent story suggest that the local paper isn't covering the story. "Dyna" posts that "The local press here in Marshall is not reporting this story at all" while "Bopper" writes "Nothing in SW Minnesota papers beyond a brief report that the suicides occured. This was the first real information I’ve seen." Both comments were left on April 22.
Bluestem readers know that I won't be shy in criticizing the Marshall paper if it were indeed ignoring this story. However, neither comment accurately reflects coverage of the story by the Marshall Independent, which first began reporting about the story on April 17 with Teens die in incident this weekend.
Willert and Cindy Manthey of the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative's Critical Incident Stress Management team spoke to members of the media Monday, and answered questions about the incident. Willert said school administrators and staff have been in communication with the deceased students' families in order to respect their wishes and privacy.
"Based on information provided by the Lyon County Sheriff's Department, we have had two unexpected deaths of Marshall Middle School students," Willert said. Willert said Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz, both 14, died by suicide. . . .
"We need to model and talk with our children about how do we solve problems, how do we deal with things that are hard," she said. It is also helpful to teach monitor children and teen's use of cell phones and social media, and to teach them to be cautious about information they receive electronically. "Just because it's something was texted or someone put on Facebook, that doesn't mean it's fact." . . .
The article noted that there'd be a public meeting about the suicides and places for people to find more information.
On April 20, the Marshall Independent published an article about that gathering, Middle School meeting offers support for parents. The meeting mostly addressed how to deal with students' response to the deaths, but social media was brought up:
Cindy Manthey of CISM said parents should not overlook the role social media can play after the death of a student. Texting, Facebook and Twitter all make it easier for misinformation and rumors to get spread around. In working with Marshall students, she said, "We've been handling the rumors, we've been talking about the rumors."
Rumors are a concern because young people tend to be impressionable, Manthey said.
"They also don't have much of a filter as to what gets posted," she said. Supervising children, and shutting off cell phones or Facebook at night is good for everyone's well-being.
Marshall school officials, along with a crisis team from SW/WC Service Cooperative are doing a good thing by stepping up and reaching out to students and their parents and to the community as everyone copes with last weekend's incident outside of Marshall where two middle school students took their own lives.
As school officials and, in some cases, leaders within the community, this group expedited grief counseling Sunday and have continued it this week, held a news conference for members of local and statewide media to dispel rumors and organized an unprecedented event at the middle school Tuesday evening to give parents some kind of guidance as to how best to handle the situation within the walls of their own homes. . . .
All parents should be reminded to keep the lines of communication with their kids wide open, to listen to everything they have to say, and to encourage their kids to express their thoughts, feelings and emotions - not only about what happened last weekend, but about anything that's on their minds. Tuesday's meeting was designed to be a teaching tool for all parents that they can use now and in the future as their children grow up in a society full of pressures today's parents never experienced when they were 10, 11 or 12 years old.
If a child is looking for answers, we want them to turn to their immediate, personal networks - their parents or their school leaders - not to the social, online networks where the answers they're looking for cannot be found.
. . .On Monday, the first day of school after the incident, every advisory classroom at the middle school came with its own counselor, including fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. Thomas said between 12 and 20 fifth- and sixth-graders have been seen by counselors throughout the week. Most of the counseling that has occurred with those kids, she said, has had a lot to do with previous life experiences they have had.
"This really resurrects so many emotions that kids and adults have stuffed away," Thomas said. "When something else tragic or critical occurs in our lives then all of it comes to the surface. Our team has really addressed a great deal of that as well as the tragedy that occurred last week.
Is the coverage muted? Yes, but it appears that much of the tone was set by the surviving immediate family members of the girls. What does emerge is a picture of a community and a paper that are not ignoring the deaths, but trying to address the immediate needs of middle school children.
Five news articles and op-ed pieces are not "nothing" or "ignoring" the story. Birkey's article keys on bullying related issues raised in an interview on the TODAY show with cousins and an uncle. It's worthy watching, as the grief-stricken relatives cautiously speculate about the deaths.
The deaths follow on the heels of the suicides of two teens in the New London Spicer area earlier in April. The community gathered for a discussion about suicide prevention. Groups like Minnesota Bully Busters are also organizing in West Central Minnesota communities and online.
Times Newsfeed shared a statement from Haylee's mother and older sister:
And in a written statement, Haylee's mother, Tracy Morrison, and her older sister, Ashley George, made it clear that they believe bullying played a critical role in the girls' deaths. “We need to stop pretending this isn't happening or that is just a cry for attention because obviously it is not,” they wrote. “This needs to be talked about and we need to try to prevent this by teaching kids in school, community and at home. They need to know they are not alone. It shouldn't take more tragedies to realize this.”
A monthly pension benefit that’s less than $200 for Michael Struck’s widow is generating concerns at the Capitol.
Struck, who was a Minnesota Department of Transportation employee, died in a March 22 accident while operating a backhoe. He was swept into a stream while doing flood-mitigation work at Seven Mile Creek County Park between St. Peter and Mankato.
The actuarial calculation in state law means that Struck’s widow will get $191 a month, according to Minnesota State Retirement System Executive Director Dave Bergstrom.
Struck, 39, of Cleveland, had worked for the state for about eight-and-a-half years. In addition to years of service, the actuarial process is based on the deceased age from age 65.
Policy issues in response to the tragedy could include considering a minimum death benefit for workers similar to Struck. By contrast, the widow of a state patrol officer who is killed in the line of duty receives 50 percent of final salary.
Right now it seems tasteless to this hick blogger--given my uncouth country manners--to delve into the political ironies of this situation.
Instead of just lamenting the pittance, Bluestem's readers who can afford it should send a donation to a fund set up by Struck's co-workers to help educate his small children, Kaylee, 6 and Gavin, 4:
Mike Struck Memorial Fund c/o Nicollet County Bank 220 South Third Street St. Peter, MN 56082
Consider also contacting your state legislators and ask them to put the survivors of other state workers killed responding to emergencies on an equal footing with those of Highway Patrol officers.
As has been widely reported, Struck was one of those guys who gave a lot back to the community--as a volunteer firefighter--as well as being the sort of co-worker who always pitched in. Help his kids out.
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.
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