The state’s prison population currently exceeds facility capacity. That provided myriad ideas from legislators and others at the inaugural meeting of an informal working group.
No action was taken Friday by the Prison Population Task Force, which received an overview of the overcrowding and provided the more than 30 people gathered around the table — including about a dozen legislators — chances to express their thoughts.
“It’s a conversation that’s long overdue,” said Rep. Raymond Dehn (DFL-Mpls). “One size doesn’t fit all.” . . .
Read the rest at the Session Daily. Over the weekend, Bluestem will post more analysis of the hearing, but for now present The Uptake's Youtube of the meeting, along with the Department of Correction's powerpoint presentation. Both are embedded below, after the video.
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Here's the Department of Corrections presentation to the Prison Population Taskforce:
Photo: Representative Dan Schoen, DFL-Cottage Grove, a police officer and consultant for a medical cannabis firm, spoke of the need for public safety, but also about how education and living wages are the best crime prevention measures.
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Not long ago, a middle-aged friend who's a double amputee living with intractable pain explained how his condition had been treated for years with addictive opioid painkillers, though he'd recently made the decision to quit using the prescription medications.
Now his hope is that those in his situation soon will be included in the state's medical cannabis program.
He and other Minnesotans will have a chance to weigh in on this option in a series of meetings the Minnesota Department of Health's Office of Medical Cannabis is holding around the state.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Office of Medical Cannabis will hold a series of community sessions around the state this fall offering members of the public the opportunity to learn more about the state’s medical cannabis program. Participants also will have the opportunity to provide input on the question of adding intractable pain to the list of medical conditions that qualify people to participate in the program. . . .
Minnesota’s 2014 medical cannabis statute requires the health commissioner to make a determination on whether intractable pain should be added to the list of qualifying conditions before giving consideration to the addition of any other condition. Legislation passed in 2015 requires this determination be made by January 1, 2016.
The Office of Medical Cannabis is responsible for organizing opportunities for public input on this question and has established an advisory panel to make a recommendation to the commissioner. Intractable pain is defined in statute as “a pain state in which the cause of the pain cannot be removed or otherwise treated with the consent of the patient and in which, in the generally accepted course of medical practice, no relief or cure of the cause of the pain is possible, or none has been found after reasonable efforts.”
Here's a list of the meetings; we're happy to see one in Willmar, which will be a 25-minute drive for our friend.
Dates (2015)
Time
City/County
Event Location
Wednesday, August 26
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Rochester
Rochester Public Library 101 2nd St. SE Rochester, MN 55904
Thursday, August 27
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Willmar
Kandiyohi Health and Human Services 2200 23rd St. NE #0030 Willmar, MN 56201
Monday, September 14
TBD
Hennepin County
TBD
Tuesday, September 15
5-7 p.m.
Moorhead
Minnesota State Community and Technical College (M State) 1109 28th Ave. S. Moorhead, MN 56563
Monday, September 21
5-7 p.m.
Mankato
Blue Earth County Library 100 E. Main St. Mankato, MN 56001
Tuesday, September 22
TBD
Grand Rapids
TBD
Wednesday, September 23
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Hibbing
City Services - Memorial Building Arena 400 East 23rd Street Hibbing, MN 55746
Tuesday, September 29
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Woodbury
Globe University 8147 Globe Dr. Woodbury, MN 55125
Wednesday, September 30
TBD
St. Paul
Wilder Center 451 Lexington Parkway North St. Paul 55104
Tuesday, October 20
TBD
Bemidji
TBD
Tuesday, October 27
5:30-7:30 p.m.
St. Cloud
St. Cloud Public Library 1300 W. St. Germain St. St. Cloud, MN 56301
Photo: A medical cannabis product.
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Life News, which describes itself as "an independent news agency devoted to reporting news that affects the pro-life community" with a weekly readership of 750,000, picked up self-proclaimed ex-satanist Zachary King's sensational account from the Lepanto Institute, a conservative Catholic group founded last year by anti-choice activist Mitch Hichborn. It is known mostly for attempting to stoke outrage against Catholic Relief Services for employing a gay man in a same-sex marriage as its Vice President of Finance.
King also believes that Protestants use a "made-up version of the Bible" (beginning around the 8:30 time marker here), a statement which Bluestem suspects would not be looked upon kindly by Representative Miller's Dutch Reformed neighbors in Prinsburg.
The now-blind ex-Satanist's introduction to the demonic when he was a mere slip of a boy playing Bloody Mary and Dungeons & Dragons, but he quickly moved of Satan's career ladder to doing magic spells for the rich and powerful (discussion begins around 25 minute mark in the Youtube posted by the San Felipe Chapel in Los Angeles. King claims that Masons, the Bohemian Grove club and Skull & Bones call on satanic high wizards for magic.
Bluestem suspect that members of the fraternity at Yale, such as former President George W. Bush, would be as surprised by that claim as the good souls in Prinsburg would be about the Scripture they read, and while Bluestem thinks that no one ought doubt Representative Miller's deeply felt position on life, we hope that he acquires the critical thinking skills to match.
While only one of Miller's friends "liked" the post, it was shared by Child Protection League founder Michelle Lentz while generating a fun conversation between Miller and a friends about evaluation of sources and the conspiratorial impulses of public figures like Bill Clinton:
Mark LundgrenI'd be careful with this one, Tim. It looks like a fake story plant. It's SO outrageous that conservative Christians are especially going to go for it and then, when it's proven to be false, ALL the videos and stories about PP will be thrown into doubt. I'm not saying it isn't true--just check your sources thoroughly first. Remember, they will do ANYthing to deflect attention from themselves.
Tim MillerFair enough. But it was printed in LifeNews who does a very good job of vetting themselves. They are a highly recognized and respected news source. I will look deeper. If I find it to be false, I will retract.
Tim MillerAlso, while this is no proof, I have had first person testimony years ago from another person involved in the occult where something similar occurred.
Mark LundgrenAs I said, I'm not saying it isn't true. The timing and shock factor just seemed a bit too convenient. And disinformation is how guilty but powerful people get themselves out of the public eye. Bill Clinton used to do it all the time with false news stories to distract people from the truth when he was involved in some scandal.
Here's the screenshot in case Miller follows through and pulls the post:
Well okay then: King's schtick, promoted by groups associated with the fringe of American Catholicism, is simply another Clinton false flag conspiracy. We'll forget about those emails ASAP.
We're not surprised that Miller has heard this sort of thing before. While anything at the Patheos progressive Christian site needs to be viewed critically, Slackivist Fred Clark does seem to have done his reading for The Satan-selling con-men are boring. Their Satan-buying audience is fascinating. He notes how King's material is lifted from earlier "ex-satanist" grifters:
King is just the most recent “Satan seller” stepping up to meet the unmet demand for this shtick ever since Mike Warnke was exposed as a liar and a fraud. There’s a huge audience desperate for someone to come along and take all the money and adulation they used to shovel at Warnke, and we can hardly blame a guy like Zack King for taking advantage of that opportunity. Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, grifters gotta grift. . . .
* We can, however, criticize Zachary King for his shoddy craftsmanship. He’s got the hair and the look, but apart from that he seems like a hack. Most of his patter is lifted, verbatim, from stuff written decades ago by guys like Warnke and Bob Larson. There’s no originality, no flair, no sense that he’s moving the story forward or making it his own. That’s just lazy. And it makes him the con-man equivalent of a joke-thief.
King’s only innovation seems to be his decision to focus on a less-tapped-out niche audience. Warnke’s and Larson’s shtick played well among white evangelicals, so King seems to be testing how it works among far-right Gothic Catholics. That’s shrewd, but he doesn’t seem to have fully explored the different approaches needed to milk that audience. Warnke raked it in from evangelicals through the collection plate and scary direct mail fundraisers, plus he sold books and albums and VHS tapes. King, likewise, is working the speaking circuit and selling DVDs and, eventually, books. (He needs to get his butt in gear and finish those, even if that means hiring a ghostwriter — that’s what Larson and Hal Lindsey did and it worked for them.) . . .
We suspect that this is the material that Miller once heard. If not, perhaps he can be forthright in sharing more of the circumstances.
It appears from me doing even the smallest amount of digging, I have uncovered possibly a huge satanic conspiracy. On printed page 11 of 19 on the Wikipedia Pepsico printout, last paragraph, it states: "In 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama initiated a campaign to end childhood obesity entitled "Let's Move," in which she sought to encourage healthier food options in public schools. improve food nutrition labeling, and increased physical activity for children. In response to this initiative, Pepsico, Campbell's Soup, Coca-Cola, General Mills and others partnered in an alliance called the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation."
If you remember from earlier, these guys have promised to cut sugar and transfat from foods. Is it mere or simple coincidence that all of the companies partnered with the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, that's closely linked with Michelle Obama, are also linked with Senomyx, which uses aborted baby kidneys in their research and development of artificial flavor enhancers.
If I might add one more link to the chain, can anyone guess than one of the most abortion-friendly presidents we've ever had is? President Obama. Now it comes full circle. Whether they were doing this to make money, to really make children happier, or to slap God in the face by using aborted babies for research, this simply cannot continue. You cannot make your body healthy while destroying your soul.
Snopes.com Urban Legend Reference Pages examined the controversy over Senomyx in a 2011 post, Senomyxed Messages, which was last updated in April 2015.
Perhaps Miller will back down and pull the Facebook share, but he could go even deeper down this rabbit hole if he's having a bad evening. Given that Lt. Gov Tina Smith started her career at General Mills, so maybe Miller will contact General Mills to demand whether they're using baby kidneys in flavor research, as well as supporting marriage equality.
There's political damage to be done here--not just an erosion of critical thinking skills--and the guy who's not King of Minnesota might be just the one to do it.
Images: Dana Carvey as the Church Lady (top); Lego Dungeon and Dragons (second from top); screengrabs of Miller's personal Facebook page, which is open to all Facebook users.
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Update: City Pages has corrected its copy, without acknowledging the correction, from "hasn't had a single seizure" (screenshot below) to "she hasn’t had a single drop seizure." [end update]
It's early days, but a Hibbing couple are ecstatic about their daughter's initial response to treatment with medical marijuana.
"We gave her her first dose on Friday morning," Angie Weaver said on Monday about 9-year-old daughter Amelia. "She had a seizure-free day." . . .
Amelia had no seizures on Friday and none on Saturday, Angie Weaver said. As of Monday afternoon, she had had a total of two seizures since starting to take the medicine.
"We know and we understand that Amelia has a very serious medical condition," Angie said. "But all the advocating and all the fighting and all the work was worth it for just one drop-free day."
The Weavers picked up the first 20-day supply of the drug on Thursday at the LeafLine Labs distribution center in Eagan, Minn. . . .
The activism paid off. Since medical weed became legal and Amelia received her first prescription from LeafLine Labs, she hasn’t had a single seizure. The 9-year-old is sleeping, speaking and catching up to the other kids in school.
Amelia has seen drastic immediate results from medical cannabis. She has not had one drop seizure since her first dose from LeafLine. She has only had a handful of short GTCs. She's smiling, sleeping, and making cognitive gains!!!!
The Weavers are being forthright about the improvement. Du is the one who doesn't understand the clickbait story she's compiled.
What City Pages' reporter didn't get, but DNT's John Lundy did
According to the Dravet Syndrome Foundation website page, What is Dravet Syndrome?, a "GTC" is an acronym for a form of seizure: "generalized tonic-clonic seizures." On its Medical Information page, the group notes that Dravet Syndrome is "a progressive disorder characterized by multiple seizure types."
Medical cannabis is producing astonishing results for Amelia Weaver, but she's still having seizures, though even the GTCs are reduced by cannabis. Our readers who have the means to help the family to pay for the drug should do so, as well as work for the expansion of the program to include more types of treatment.
City Pages? Try a correction.
Here's the original passage:
Accuracy in reporting
This isn't the first Du story to catch our eye. In Pro Tip: restore the vote, but try to avoid bad info on gun rights while you're advocating for it, we examined how Du circulated a claim by a Restore the Vote advocate about Minnesota's new gun suppressor law that people convicted of felonies could possess silencers but not vote. She failed to check Minnesota's statutes (and language in the new law as well); despite a number of comments that document the issue, the story remains uncorrected.
Bluestem supports making medical cannabis available to patients of all ages who need it, restoring the vote to people convicted of felonies who have served their time, and gun rights. We also like accuracy in reporting, which we learned in our eleventh grade Journalism class with Mom Burdick in St. Peter High.
Photo: From the July 27, 2015, John Lundy story, Hibbing couple thrilled by daughter’s early response to medical marijuana" which ran above the cutline: "Amelia Weaver, 9, started receiving medical marijuana treatments Friday for a rare form of epilepsy. Her parents say that her seizures have decreased dramatically since treatment began. (Submitted photo)."
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Smoke from wildfires in central Saskatchewan is being carried southeast in the mid-levels of the atmosphere, and eventually mixing down to ground level here in Minnesota where we see and feel the effects with poor air quality, limited visibility and a smoky smell to the air we breathe. . . .
Monday evening, the air quality index for the Twin Cities was at 187, with fine particle pollution reaching a level considered unhealthy for everyone. By comparison, Beijing had an AQI of 158 on Monday.
An air quality health alert covers the entire state of Minnesota, including the Twin Cities area. The smoke band should move out of the state during the next 12 hours, but smoke may return Tuesday afternoon.
While air quality briefly improved following rain showers on Sunday and Monday, heavy smoke returned to Minnesota behind the storm system. As of 9 a.m. Monday, air quality across the northern two-thirds of Minnesota had reached unhealthy levels. . . .
Bluestem snapped the picture at the top of this post at our editor's garden in Wang Township, named after a place in Norway, however Chinese it might have looked on Monday. The air smelled like a cross between wood smoke and a tire fire.
It's been more than twenty years since the Northwest Territories, one of Canada’s northernmost remote jurisdictions comprising parts of the North Pole, experienced extreme drought conditions of the magnitude it's currently enduring. That extreme drought has fueled wildfires now affecting much of the NWT, a territory almost twice the size of Texas. . . .
Officials told the CBC some of the fires—at least 13—started because of human causes, such as people tossing cigarette butts or campers setting campfires in places where there were fire bans. In addition, the continuous burning is no doubt due to lightning striking the hot and dry forests of the NWT, which has been desperate for rain since the spring melt.
There's another factor at play, as well: the climate. Record droughts in the NWT will become more common as the region warms. In a 2008 government report on climate change, researchers outlined the several observable changes to the vast forests of the territory. . . .
The Canadian government has been careful not to blame increasing forest fires solely on climate change. In an online report by Natural Resources Canada on climate change and fire, the department cites things likes "changes in land use, vegetation composition, firefighting (meaning suppression) efforts" and something they call "climate variability" as factors influencing wildfires. According to the report, in the last half of the 20th century forest fires have steadily increased in the northern regions of Canada, while those in southern regions have decreased.
Even so, the Canadian government predicts climate change in the twenty-first century will most certainly bring frequent fires in many boreal forests, bringing with it environmental and economic consequences to boot. . . .
While that doesn't sound like it will help make The Good Life in Minnesota very pleasant, KSMP Fox 9's report looked on the bright side, noting "The silver lining is magnificent sunsets!"
That's all very pretty, but Bluestem recalled a story from Asian media that suggests that the United States could gain an economic advantage from air pollution. In December 2013, Chris Luo at the South China Morning Post reported in Smog? It bolsters military defence, says Chinese nationalist newspaper:
A nationalist newspaper has tried to put a positive spin on China’s smog, claiming it is conducive to the country's military defence strategy. Smog, it argued, could thwart missile attacks and hamper hostile reconnaissance.
Smog may affect people’s health and daily lives … but on the battlefield, it can serve as a defensive advantage in military operations,” said an article on the website of Global Times, a nationalist newspaper affiliated to the Communist Party’s mouthpiece the People’s Daily.
Missile guidance that relies on human sight, infrared rays and lasers could be affected by smog in varing degrees, the article said. It explained that tiny particles in the air contributing to air pollution could hinder missile guidance systems.
The article said that during the Kosovo war, soldiers of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia used smoke from burning tyres to hamper Nato air strikes. The smoke reduced visibility, hindering reconnaissance efforts, the article said.
Photographic reconnaissance equipment employed by satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and reconnaissance vehicles would be rendered useless by smog it added.
The article also said that during the first Gulf war, sand storms reduced the identification distances of thermal imaging equipment on US tanks from 2,500 metres to 800 metres, while optical detection of Iraqi tanks was reduced to almost nil. . . .
Bluestem finds this story to be very heartening on two fronts. First, with Canada forest fire air quality, the United States could spend a lot less on the military-industrial complex and invest that money into emergency medical centers for low income people with asthma.
Second, the smog would not only protect Americans from foreign military spying, but from reconnaissance efforts by local enforcement agencies. Just imagine how much work the Minnesota legislature could get done on transportation and bonding bills if the endless hearings about license plate readers, fusion centers and other such malarky went the way of clean air, clean water and the horse and buggy.
Climate change is the new good life in Minnesota.
Photo: Air quality in rural Renville County on Monday.
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Checking out newspapers around the state this morning, Bluestem reads in the Hutchinson Leader that Gruenhagen to speak on health care on June 9. He'll be answering these urgent questions:
He will answer questions such as: What is the future for Minnesota health care? Will we see a better health care system or will we get rationed health care?
Bluestem suspects that many readers can place bets on what Gruenhagen's answer might be when he speaks to the free event at Gert and Emma's in Glencoe.
Gruenhagen [R-Glencoe], who is in his third term in the Minnesota House, serves on the Health and Human Services Finance Committee. He is the author of "Health Care in Crisis: Is Government the Solution or the Problem?"a book based on his 37 years of experience in the health insurance industry.
We hope those attending the Glencoe meeting will post video to YouTube so that the rural Sibley County lawmaker's answer to the question about rationing will be preserved for posterity.
Photo: Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe.
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. . .During recent visits to Albert Lea and Apple Valley, I listened to Minnesotans’ concerns about caring for their aging loved ones. I learned that reforming the way our state pays for long-term care today could improve the quality of care and aging adults’ quality of life in the long run.
In response, our budget proposes to spend $138 million in new money for this long-term care reform, far more than the governor and Senate Democrats’ budgets have committed. . . .
That's lovely, and his words echo a message repeated across the state in letters-to-the-editor by long-term care facility managers. In fact, their words are so alike in these letters that we can say that they're of one text and one mind.
Thank you, Representative Mary Franson and Representative Paul Anderson, for your support of senior care reform this session. The current funding system for senior care services is broken and does not meet the needs of our seniors or the people who provide them with care.
The new system that Representative Mary Franson and Representative Paul Anderson have supported will ensure seniors have access to the quality care they deserve in their communities and their families. It will also provide long overdue funding to pay more livable wages and benefits for caregivers.
Sixty thousand Minnesotans will turn 65 this year and each year for the next 15 years. Our aging population is growing so quickly that it will eventually make up 25 percent of the state’s total population. This group of seniors is expected to live longer, and likely will require more care than any group of seniors in the state’s history.
Minnesota needs to get ready to ensure our seniors receive the care they deserve and their families expect from experienced caregivers.
With a $2 billion state surplus, now is the time to make seniors and caregivers a priority. Representative Mary Franson and Representative Paul Anderson supported a bill that addresses the realities of senior care today and in the future. A conference committee will soon make the final decision on this important reform proposal. I urge Representative Mary Franson and Representative Paul Anderson to do all that they can to positively influence the outcome of the conference committee and make this reform a reality.
Across the state in ABC Newspapers, which serve Anoka, Blaine and environs, we find that Mark Broman of the Camilia Rose Care Center writes in More support needed for senior care:
Thank you so much to the legislators from Anoka County, including Hoffman, Johnson, Petersen, Scott and Uglem for your support of senior care reform this session. The current funding system for senior care services is broken and does not meet the needs of our seniors or the people who provide them with care.
The new system that Hoffman, Johnson, Petersen, Scott and Uglem supported will ensure seniors have access to the quality care they deserve in their communities. It will also provide long-overdue funding to pay more livable wages and benefits for caregivers.
Sixty thousand Minnesotans will turn 65 this year and each year for the next 15 years. Our aging population is growing so quickly that it will eventually make up 225 percent of the state’s total population. This group of seniors is expected to live longer, and likely will require more can than any group of seniors in the state’s history.
Minnesota needs to get ready to ensure our seniors receive the care they deserve and their families expect from experienced caregivers.
With a $2 billion state surplus, now is the time to make seniors and caregivers a priority. Legislators Hoffman, Johnson, Petersen, Scott and Uglem supported a bill that addresses the realities of senior care today and in the future. A conference committee will soon make the final decision on this important reform proposal. I urge all legislators to do all that he/she can to positively influence the outcome of the conference committee and make this reform a reality.
In contrast stand the Republican priorities: a budget built on a $1.07 billion cut in health care services for hospitals, workers and seniors, which eliminates affordable health insurance for 90,000 working Minnesotans, and an inadequate and unstable transportation plan that relies on shifts, gimmicks and confiscating money from current programs.
Closer to our Chippewa County home, Jim Flaherty of the Luther Haven in Montevideo is more succinct, while striking the same chord. In Make senior care a priority, Flaherty tells the editors of the Montevideo American-News:
Thank you Representative Tim Miller, District 17A for your support of Senior Care Reform this session.
The current funding system for senior care services is broken and does not meet the needs of our seniors or the people who provide them with care.
The new system that Representative Miller supported will ensure seniors have access to the quality care they deserve in their communities and their families. It will also provide long overdue funding to pay more livable wages and benefits for caregivers.
With a $2 billion state surplus, now is the time to make seniors and caregivers a priority. Representative Miller supported a bill that addresses the realities of senior care today and in the future. A conference committee will soon make the final decision on this important reform proposal. I urge Representative Miller to do all that he can to positively influence the outcome of the conference committee and make this reform a reality.
Thank you Representative Miller for supporting Senior Care Reform.
Two paragraphs from the other letters are missing in the Montevideo letter. We're sure happy that it's not totally a one-size-fits-all message for these folks, or they might end up with some of the same problems in persuasion that those seeking clean water and buffers now have encountered.
Photo: Postcard from Echo, Minnesota, the "messaging" center of the state.
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Our editor's late father spent some time working at the Regional Treatment Center in St. Peter. His stories about the needs of the patients and occasional punch or slap from those under his care are unforgettable.
But Minnesota took some pride in the 1949 reforms that had lifted the treatment of the mentally ill and the working conditions for those who attended them. Perhaps there's no greater sign of the re-branding of the Republican Party in Minnesota than this note in the biography of former Governor Luther Youngdahl:
. . . [A]ppalled by the conditions of state mental hospitals, Youngdahl introduced a more humane concept of care. His sincere efforts to improve the lot of troubled youth, enhance public education, and give returning World War II veterans a financial boost earned this Republican administrator bipartisan respect and support. So popular was Youngdahl that he won each successive gubernatorial election by an ever-larger margin. That some conservatives found him "too liberal" didn't diminish his appeal or effectiveness.
Humane care for the mentally ill and the safety of those who provide it were once winning political platforms.
Safe staffing is now a hot topic being debated at the Legislature. The number of patient-on-staff assaults is surging at Minnesota Security Hospitals and psychiatric facilities. There has also been an alarming increase in violence toward health care workers at hospitals like Fairview, Regions and HCMC. The number of inmates in state prisons and county jails is also rising as corrections staff has been cut by the budget axe. Those trends should prompt lawmakers to protect the public workers who protect the public.
AFSCME is asking the Minnesota Legislature to increase funding to assure safe staffing. Keeping workers and the public safe is a core responsibility of government and it should be a funding priority. The Minnesota Security Hospital requires $10.4 million to add staff and other safety measures that protect patients. Investments are also needed for safe staffing at correctional facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, and other human service facilities operated by the state and counties.
AFSCME has created a page where readers can learn about workers' injuries on Facebook; caution: some of the comments by and photographs of injured workers are graphic. The union has created video testimonials as well.
Next week, union members will be marching for safe jobs at six sites on Tuesday. From a press release:
April 28 is Workers' Memorial Day. It's a day when the labor movement remembers all workers who have been killed or injured at work. This year, AFSCME is fighting for the living. AFSCME members who work in state-run mental health facilities are taking a beating from violent patients. The workers are fed up with management giving them lip service instead safe jobs.
Mental-health workers will be marching for safe jobs at six sites on Tuesday.
ANOKA: Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center 3301 Seventh Ave. N., Anoka April 28 - 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. Contacts: Jackie Spanjers, 763-227-6837; David Ruth, 763-291-7980
BRAINERD: Department of Human Services / Brainerd Campus 16515 State Ave., Brainerd April 28 - 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. Contact: Aleathea Modlin, 218-851-9584
DULUTH: DHS State Operated Community Services Lake Ave. & Superior St., Duluth April 28 - 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. Contact: Chris St. Germaine, 218-590-8839
MOOSE LAKE: Moose Lake Sex Offender Program 1111 Minnesota Highway 73, Moose Lake April 28 - 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Contact: Jessica Langhorst, 763-477-8210
ST. PETER: St. Peter Security Hospital Minnesota Square Park Highway 169, downtown St. Peter April 28 - 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. Contacts: Tim Headlee, 507-469-5609; Eric Hesse, 507-382-9607
WILLMAR: Outside AFSCME Office at Plaza One Mall 1305 S. First St., Willmar April 28 - 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. Contact: Cathy Malvin, 320-522-0847
Workers' Memorial Day is observed every year on April 28. It is a day to honor those workers who have died on the job, to acknowledge the grievous suffering experienced by families and communities, and to recommit ourselves to the fight for safe and healthful workplaces for all workers. It is also the day OSHA was established in 1971. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their workers. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance.
Photo: Workers Memorial Day poster, via OSHA,
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Bluestem had hoped that all charges against Madison, Minnesota, resident Angela Brown for giving her brain-injured son medical cannabis would have dropped, but mercy wasn't on the top of the agenda for the Lac Qui Parle County attorney.
“I was shell-shocked and actually upset, he’s getting exactly what he wants,’’ said Brown of her initial reaction when asked by her attorney if she would approve the agreement.
Brown learned of the agreement while in the Twin Cities on April 10 for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival and the debut showing of “Pot (The Movie)’’ which documents the fight for medical marijuana, and in which she appears.
By approving the agreement, Brown said she spares her son Trey the trauma of having to testify in the trial. The prosecution intended to subpoena Trey, according to Brown. She said it would have been traumatic for her son to have to testify. She said her attorney filed statements from her son’s medical provider warning of the harm it could cause him. . . .
Her decision is easy to understand, driven by the same determined love for her son that led her to obtain cannabis oil for him in the first place. We believe charges ought never have been brought against her.
But there's more in the story that illustrates the absurdity of the war on marijuana and medical cannabis. Cherveny adds near the bottom of his story:
The legal fight has been a financial blow to the family, and the ordeal very stressful for the parents and their three children, Brown said. They have been fearful that she would be taken away and put in prison. She and her husband have a gofundme.com fundraising site to accept funds for their medical and other costs, and now the costs to move to a new home.
Brown said they have decided to move to Colorado where David has accepted a position with his former employer, the Corrections Corporation of America [CCA].
CCA is a for-profit private prison corporation; its facility in Appleton, Minnesota, has been shuttered for years.
Now, Bluestem doesn't fault anyone outside of the executive-level management of this company for working for CCA. Jobs are hard to come by in rural committees; a couple of friends worked at the prison before it closed.
No, the irony is that Brown's husband will be working for a corporation that profits from the mindset and public policy that threatened to put his own wife in prison. From the CCA's 2014 Annual Report:
Our ability to secure new contracts to develop and manage correctional and detention facilities depends on many factors outside our control. Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage correctional and detention facilities. This possible growth depends on a number of factors we cannot control, including crime rates and sentencing patterns in various jurisdictions, governmental budgetary constraints, and governmental and public acceptance of privatization. The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.
Imagine a United States of America in which fewer people are put in prison. One in which minimum sentences for nonviolent criminals are lowered. One in which the government abandons much of its failed War on Drugs, leaning toward decriminalization of marijuana and replacing incarceration with treatment. Imagine immigration reforms that could fix a largely broken system and decrease the number of people we arrest and detain.
Executives at Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison company, have imagined this America. Apparently it worries them. In a 2013 annual report, the Nashville-based prison profiteers warned shareholders that these sorts of policy shifts — along with other frightening trends like "reductions in crime rates" — represent a risk to their future returns. . . .
Yet critics wonder whether such statements show CCA has a vested interest in maintaining retrograde policies, crowded facilities and stringent sentences. Since only laws, not prison companies, have the power to lock people away, it stands to reason the corporation would target the legislators who make the rules. That's why the very next sentence in the CCA annual report cited above seems curious:
"Our policy prohibits us from engaging in lobbying or advocacy efforts that would influence enforcement efforts, parole standards, criminal laws, or sentencing policies."
Really? If that is indeed the case — as CCA spokesman Owen insists it is — why does the prison-for-profit giant employ no fewer than eight lobbyists on Tennessee's Capitol Hill?
The truth is, those two things may not be all that hard to reconcile. When a player wields the kind of broad influence CCA does, it may not have to lobby all that hard to get its way on individual issues. . . .
What's perhaps more important than whether CCA explicitly twists legislative arms, however, is that it might not have to. If you set up the dominoes just right, sometimes they fall on their own.
Others have not been so circumspect about the manner in which get-tough-on-drug-policies help pad CCA's bottomline. In 2013, MSNBC's Ari Melber at Presumed Guilty wrote in How prisons profit off the ‘war on drugs’:
. . .In many states, private prisons have grown into a powerful employer and business lobby. Between 2003 and 2010, Corrections Corporation of America spent over $14 million on lobbying in over 30 states. For years, the company has also worked with ALEC, the conservative advocacy group, which backed legislation for harsh sentencing and mandatory minimums at the state level. As the Washington Monthly recently noted, ALEC has “probably contributed more to the spread of mandatory minimum legislation in the states than just about any other single source.” (And CCA is not alone; the top three prison companies have spent $45 million on campaign donations and lobbying over the past decade.) ALEC has recently softened its support on mandatory minimums somewhat. . . .
A 2011 report by the Justice Policy Institute, “Gaming The System,” documents how private prison companies, including CCA, have sought to advance “pro-incarceration” policies at the state and federal level. “Private prison companies have had either influence over, or helped to draft, model legislation such as three-strikes‛ and truth-in-sentencing‛ laws,” the report explains, “which have driven up incarceration rates.”
Others point to the industry’s reliance on the so-called “war on drugs.”
“For-profit prisons are making contracts with states, saying, ‘Guarantee that our prisons will be filled. Guarantee we’ll make a profit,’” says Michael Skolnik, a filmmaker who visited over 100 prisons while researching Lockdown, USA, a documentary about reforming jail sentences for drug offenses. “And how do you guarantee that? You create drug laws,” Skolnik told msnbc. He argues that private prisons reinforce drug sentencing policies that have constituted “a war against black and brown America.”
Again, it is the powerful individuals who run and lobby for CCA who are responsible for profiting on locking up people in the War on Drugs. It's not the Browns who deserve scorn. We're happy the Browns are moving to a state where they can treat their son without fear and that Angela Brown's husband has a job.
Photo: Angela Brown won't be heading to prison.
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Amendments to the Minnesota House omnibus agriculture finance bill have shifted more funding to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health and the Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center, according to the Session Daily article Funds to fight avian flu bolstered as omnibus agriculture bill is approved.
Session Daily correspondent Jonathan Mohr reports:
Several of the dozen amendments offered dealt with the flu outbreak that has swept through the state over the last several weeks causing farmers to destroy more than 1 million birds as they work to curb the damage.
H1437A1, successfully offered by Rep. Dale Lueck (R-Aitkin), would increase funding for the Board of Animal [Health] to cover its costs related to fighting the outbreak, and H1437A17, successfully offered by Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul), would appropriate $1.2 million “for rapid response to poultry and livestock disease.”
The Lueck Amendment ensures that the BAH receives a "cost-of-living" increase that Chair Hamilton had not included in the bill. The Hansen amendment (H1437A17) shifted funds for rapid response to animal diseases from the pork-laden, commodity-group controlled "transfer board" proposed in the omnibus draft to the Board of Animal Health.
Bluestem thinks that's where the funds belong to begin with, seeing no good reason to create multiple bureaucracy to do one job. It's not a matter of ideology (although we'd rather not see public dollars handed out to quasi-private boards) but of biology.
Let the Board of Animal Health do its job and provide the funds it needs to do it.
We'll go through the audio of the hearing when it's posted, as audio-only hearings in the Minnesota Legislature are not live-streamed.
Photo: Birds in Israel that were afflicted by the deadly (to turkeys) highly pathogenic Avian influenza (H5N1) one of the strains of the flu. According to the CDC,"there have not been any reports of HPAI Asian-origin virus infections in people in the United States."
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In Thursday's New Ulm Journal article Dahms highlights GOP Rural Caucus priorities, a statement by Senator Gary Dahms illustrates the limits of the Republicans' one-size-fits-all catchphrase.
It doesn't fit all sizes and situations. Take the state formula for nursing home funding.
The 2014 session was successful in campaigning for a 5 percent increase to reimbursement rates for the disabled. This session is focusing on a long-term care bill for nursing homes and elderly care. A Senate bill would modify the nursing facility reimbursement system.
"The current funding is based on a structure developed in the 1990s," said Dahms. "It's a one-size-fits-all rate structure."
As a matter of fact, the formula isn't one-size-fits-all. When that structure was developed in the 1990s, the state divided into three funding categories: metro, rural and "deep rural," with reimbursement declining with each zone.
Bluestem has to wonder how rural legislators agreed to that formula. In the 1990s, more lawmakers were allocated to Greater Minnesota before demographic changes and redistricting shifted power to the Metro. Go figure.
The new legislation being pushed by the rural GOP caucus would create reimbursement criteria based on a facility's incurred expenses. If the long-term care bill were to be passed under its full language, it would amount to $200 million in funding and significantly increase the compensation for nursing home staffs.
"We have to understand the severe situation in our rural nursing homes," said Dahms.
Many nursing homes are being forced to turn away clients due to a lack of staffing. Rural Minnesota in particular is struggling to maintain adequate staffing at current reimbursement rates and with the baby boomers now beginning to move into nursing homes the need for these facilities will only increase The state cannot afford to lose any long-term care homes at this time, Dahms said.
As we noted, it's not a one-size-fits-all formula that's creating the problem. Nor, as we have discovered, is the solution being developed and advanced in both chambers of the legislator a creation of "the rural GOP caucus."
. . . A proposal moving in both the House and Senate would revamp the way the state pays nursing homes. House author Joe Schomacker, R-Luverne, said since 1993, the state has set the reimbursement rates for nursing home facilities. But over the years, those rates have failed to keep up with inflation. Schomacker's bill would base reimbursement rates on expense reports filed with the state. He said it's critical state lawmakers act quickly to help struggling nursing homes. Five years ago, he said the state's nursing homes had a total profit of more than $30 million. That has since plummeted to $4 million in profit for the roughly 350 facilities in the state.
"There's been a dramatic shift in just how much funding is available in the system, and I think we're at a really big turning point if we can't get going in a different direction," he said.
Sen. Tony Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, is sponsoring the bill in the Senate. . . .
It remains to be seen whether Schomacker's $200 million proposal can win the support necessary to pass this legislative session. In the meantime, several lawmakers — including Liebling — are introducing bills to help increase funding for nursing homes in their districts. Liebling told her colleagues it's time to pass a statewide solution.
She added, "I am really hoping it's not going to be about my district or your district. It's going to be about all of us."
The legislation eliminates the "deep rural" category and splits the state into two zones (moving from three sizes to two).
We've put the Senate author in bold because Senator Lourey is so not part of the GOP Rural Caucus.
Moreover, when we look at the status HF316, we see a host of co-authors from both parties, ranging from Erin Murphy (DFL-St.Paul) to arch-conservative Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe). As is the case under Minnesota State rules, Lourey's companion bill has far fewer co-authors, but SenatorJulie Rosen (R-Vernon Center) joins four rural Democrats: Kent Eken of Twin Valley; Lyle Koenen of Clara City; and, Leroy Stumpf of Plummer.
Only Dahms knows how that grouping can be described as the GOP Rural Caucus, but we'd hope that the New Ulm Journal might in the future look up the bills and check things out, rather than take Dahms' word for these things.
Carlson did--and a much different story emerges beyond the catchphrase of the hour.
Photo: Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls).
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This may be the boldest stroke of political brilliance from Representative Matt Dean since that time the Dellwood Republican called sci-fi novelist Neil Gaiman "a pencil-necked little weasel."
Days after saying they want to cut taxes and still spend money on key priorities, a key Republican in the Minnesota House is floating a proposal to end a popular health care program for Minnesota's working poor.
Pressured by their own party to return a $1.9 billion budget surplus to taxpayers, GOP leaders are looking for ways to do that while pursuing their agenda.
State Rep. Matt Dean, who chairs the House Health Care Finance Committee, would move the 95,000 people currently participating in MinnesotaCare coverage to MNsure, where they would buy a private plan. Dean estimates the shift would save about $900 million over two years, cash that could be used for Republican priorities that include nursing home funding, and mental and dental health programs. . . .
Ghita Worcester, senior vice president of public affairs and marketing for Ucare, which covers about 30 percent of MinnesotaCare's participants, said the company's analysis of Dean's idea points to higher costs for Minnesotacare participants.
"We're talking about a couple of hundred dollars at least in differences in premium through the year, and deductible differences," Worcester said.
Dean's bill is scheduled to receive its first hearing this week.
While his approach to MinnesotaCare might suggest Dean wants to bolster MNsure, which has been the subject of criticism from Dean and other Republicans since it launched in 2013, Dean said that's not the case. He has another bill that would abolish MNsure and move Minnesota to the federal exchange in 2017.
In a media release, Minority Leader Thissen deplored Dean's plan to dismantle MinnesotaCare:
House DFL Leader Paul Thissen released the following statement on Rep. Matt Dean’s proposal to dismantle MinnesotaCare, cutting health care for 95,000 Minnesotans.
“With a $2 billion surplus, it is outrageous that Republicans would consider jeopardizing the health care of tens of thousands of Minnesotans. Not only do Republicans want to cut taxes for corporate special interests, they apparently want to pay for it by cutting health care for hardworking Minnesotans and working parents.
In 2011 Republicans took us down the path of taking money from doctors and hospitals and conjuring made-up savings through Medicaid waivers to create the pretense of a responsibly-balanced budget. That path led to a state government shutdown. It's not a path we should follow again.”
There's that.
Meanwhile, progressive political operatives at TakeAction Minnesota were tweeting about how Greater Minnesota's working poor would disproportionately pay the price of the Dean scheme. After we retweeted one of those posts, communications director Greta Bergstrom sent us this documentation sheet, which we've posted to Scribd:
Sunny Chippewa County, our beloved prairie home, is right up there in terms of percentage of population enrolled in MinnesotaCare.
Photo: Representative Matt Dean, real man of Republican genius. Photo by James Nord.
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In a letter published in the Sunday Grand Forks Herald, Paul Lysen of Meeker County's Kingston Township accuses Democratic Congressman Collin Peterson of being a Democrat in his letter, Reject Rep. Peterson, a Democrat in Democrat's clothing.
Another version of the letter has been published in the Park Rapids Enterprise, another newspaper in the Forum Communications chain, under the headline, Collin Peterson is not one of us. More on that one later in the post.
Since Congress reconvened with an even more Republican cast, Peterson hasn't been getting any more blue of a Blue Dog, so we suspect with the district back on the national hit list, we'll see more of this purple prose and yellow journalism.
Representative Kevin Cramer (R-ND) sponsored H.R. 3, yet another a bill to automatically approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would transfer the world’s dirtiest oil through the American heartland to be exported at an international shipping port on the Gulf Coast. Keystone XL would lead to a significant expansion of tar sands development, unleashing massive amounts of carbon pollution and threatening surrounding communities, ecosystems, and watersheds including the Ogallala aquifer, which provides drinking water for millions of Americans. Despite these real threats, Keystone XL would create just 35 permanent jobs and would not enhance American energy independence. H.R. 3 would short circuit the approval process, eliminating the State Department’s ability to assess whether the pipeline is in the national interest and the President’s authority to ultimately approve or reject the project. On January 9, the House approved H.R. 3 by a vote of 266-153 (House roll call vote 16). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.
He supported tax credits for wind farms and solar installations, but voted against the Keystone Pipeline and against permits for more oil refineries in our country and oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Peterson has always voted for the Keystone project. It's true that he's supported wind and solar, but it's peculiar to pit votes on petroleum industry policy against wind and solar, which are related to electricity generation.
Westrom encouraged executives of Xcel Energy to meet with members of the neighboring Prairie Island Indian community to consider increasing the number of fuel casks and boosting Xcel's commitment to renewable energy at the same time. The resulting law was enacted four years before former Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a 2007 law requiring Minnesota utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Westrom's bill also required Xcel to contribute $16 million annually to a Renewable Development Account. . .
Westrom characterized the wind turbines as "freedom towers." While support of renewable energy among Republicans has decreased since the 2010 GOP landslide, Westrom remains a centrist on energy policy; believing that a diversified portfolio of conventional and renewable energy creates jobs. He characterized himself as a "huge supporter" of renewable energy, including 2001 legislation he sponsored to mandate a 5 percent biodiesel fuel blend for vehicles used by the state.
However, since Westrom campaigned a lot on ramming the Keystone pipeline through, perhaps in these deeply divided times, Lysen inferred from Westrom's intense focus that Peterson opposed Keystone, regardless of what those dirty hippies and their roll call votes say.
Park Rapids Enterprise version: Collin Peterson, bond to be voting for Obamacare?
Peterson has held firm on two issues, the right to life and gun rights, which has inoculated him against kickback from voting the way Obama tells him to on other issues–like supporting Obamacare.
Peterson has held firm on two issues, the right to life and gun rights, and this has inoculated him against kickback from voting the way Obama tells him to on other issues.
As Republicans are quick to remind, U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, one of 34 Democrats to oppose the Affordable Care Act in 2010, has voted against every full repeal bill the House has considered since the GOP took control in 2011.
He has, however, sided with the party on half of the 50-some Obamacare bills they’ve voted on over the last three years, including all of them since October.
Not that he’s keeping track. In fact, Peterson said his votes since last fall are only “somewhat” related to what the GOP is actually bringing up. . . . .
But Peterson’s record on GOP-led Obamacare votes over the last three years reflects his still-dim opinion of the law as a whole. And while he doesn’t have anything nice to say about how President Obama or Democrats are handling the law’s roll-out, he said he’s not going to back a GOP repeal bill unless it maintains the several parts of the law he does like, something he acknowledges is unlikely to ever happen.
A full repeal bill “repeals pre-existing conditions, it repeals all the good stuff, kids on their parents’ policies, the Medicare donut hole … by doing that, you’re getting rid of the good stuff,” he said. “So why are we doing that?” . ..
After looking at Henry's article and the attached list of Peterson's votes, we can see why the editors at the Grand Forks Herald threw that final prepositional phrase in the trash can.
But on Planet Lysen, Park Rapids Enterprise version, Peterson is supporting something evil than universal health care: the separation of church and state.
Park Rapids Enterprise version: anti-Christian bigots endorse Peterson
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) also endorses him with a glowing 100 percent rating. These are the same anti-Christian bigots who conspire to drive Jesus Christ out of our politics, laws, schools, and public displays.
Collin Peterson apparently agrees with their atheistic goals, but I doubt that many people in the 7th District do.
The word "hack" is also added to the last sentence:
Why should we continue to return this man to office time after time? Wake up, people, and kick this hack Democrat out!
Americans United for Separation of Church and State doesn't make endorsements; moreover, in 2014, only Keith Ellison was rated 100 percent by AU; like the rest of the Minnesota House delegation, Peterson was ranked 0 percent, according to the data available for the group on Project Vote Smart.
Perhaps Lysen means the 2013 ranking, where Peterson was joined at 100 percent with AU's atheistic goals by those godless commies John Kline (R-MN02) and Erik Paulsen (R-MN03), while the rest of Minnesota's congressional delegation stood at zero. (Bachmann's score is now omitted, since she's left office).
We'll presume that the Grand Forks Herald edited this erroneous copy out of the letter; it's unfortunate that it couldn't do the same for the misinformation about Peterson's Keystone votes. Let's hope that the Forum Communications papers that
As far as we can tell, the last time a sitting Minnesota congressman was accused of sharing the goals of atheists was around 1920, when Rev. Ole Juulson Kvale made such claims against bluenosed Gopher Andrew Volstead. That worked out well.
Lysen is no stranger to the ranks of outspoken Republicans in West Central Minnesota, though we don't anticipate him following in Ole Kvale's trailblazing path or Congressman Emmer's mellowing.
In a May 2103 letter to the Litchfield Independent Review, Why did Broman tell Republicans to cave on gay marriage? he attacked the paper's editor while making some rather eccentric claims about what supporters of marriage equality want:
Andrew Broman really stepped in it this time. Why would he tell Republicans to cave on gay marriage ("Democrats spring gay marriage trap," March 7)? Is he really trying to improve their chances of winning elections or is he trying to deceive them into giving up the fight against Democrat ideology? He has earlier attacked Republicans for advancing the Voter ID amendment, claiming that it was “antithetical to democracy.” What he really meant to say was that it was antithetical to Democrats. Broman was helping to preserve their right to lie and cheat their way to election victories.
So, the question remains, why is Broman telling Republicans to give up on opposing gay marriage? The same reason any Democrat would — to grant legitimacy to any and all perversions that Democrat voters choose to engage in. After all, we have to be enlightened and progressive and free from Christian prejudices. We must allow man-boy marriages, man-animal marriages, and man-inflatable doll marriages!
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?” (Mark 8:36.) Most of us Republicans are Christians first and conservatives second. Every Republican caucus, convention, and meeting I have attended starts out with prayer. We do not intend to hide our belief in God under a basket when we go out into the world. Atheists, humanists, evolutionists, Muslims, and earth-worshippers don’t. God is real, and we take His dictates seriously. Marriage is between a man and a woman. Jesus said so. Why should we deny that to win a few votes from Democrats?
Grant the homosexuals their demands and what will happen? Pastors who preach from the Bible about homosexual unions will be hauled into court for hate crimes. Schools will be required to teach that homosexual unions are normal and honorable. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, and whatever else, will demand special rights as protected groups.
Faith in God guides our conservatism, as it did the country’s founders. They knew that all humans are fallen. Give men power over others and they will abuse it. The founders’ solution was to keep government close to the governed. The states were free to decide their own matters while the federal government, with three countervailing branches, was to be held in check by the Constitution. If a citizen disagreed with the policies of one state, they were free to move to another. This is what conservatives stand for.
Broman has proclaimed that the “Republican leadership ought to prohibit Bible-thumping within its ranks” and “rediscover the true meaning of conservatism.” I doubt that he really cares about the true meaning of conservatism. Clearly, he isn’t a conservative himself since his interest is not in helping the cause of conservatism but in undermining it.
Well then. The man-inflatable doll marriage talking point is a new one on us. We also appreciate Christian soldier Lysen giving himself a waiver on that commandment about not bearing false witness. Perhaps a higher power is a-okay on misrepresenting Peterson's dirty energy votes on the Keystone pipeline.
Earlier, Lysen had accused the Litchfield paper of supporting voter fraud, and repeated the old canard that felons voting put Franken over the top in the 2008 election. In his November 2012 letter, 'Our View' supports voter fraud, he writes:
Contrary to your “Our View” editorial of Nov. 12, “Republicans lost their way with voter ID,” you editors and publisher of the Litchfield newspaper were the ones who lost their way by joining with the Democrats to celebrate the defeat of voter ID. Why didn’t you question why the Democrats spent so much money to defeat voter ID? Clearly, the present “honor” system works to their advantage.
In editorials before the election, you agreed with the Democrats who claimed that voter ID was a huge expense that would be dumped on local governments. But, how much does it cost to flash an ID card? If it so expensive, why have over 30 states already implemented it? You also cheered the Democrat’s half-baked contention that voters would be disenfranchised by having to show an ID card. Well, then, in the name of social justice, why don’t you demand that drivers need not show police their identification or that check cashiers need not show their ID to the banks?
Your paper takes the Democrat view that there is hardly a smidgen of fraud to be found in Minnesota voting. Right, and how was it that the votes of a thousand felons (who are ineligible to vote) were counted in 2008 allowing Franken to come from behind to win over Coleman by 300 votes? Do you think we have forgotten this?
Minnesota’s present voting laws are a goldmine for Democrats to exploit. Scenarios where voter fraud is possible under current law include the following:
Registering up to 15 impostors on voting day by one registered voter. The same 15 could be vouched for in another precinct by another registered voter.
Registering in multiple precincts on voting day by producing expired identification cards such as an old driver’s license.
Registering in advance in multiple precincts and going from precinct to precinct on voting day.
Voting by felons.
Voting by illegal aliens (since proof of citizenship is not required).
Double voting by college students who vote in their college town and in their home precinct.
Voting by impostors who assume the identity of people who are dead or who have moved away.
These scenarios are more likely, of course, to occur in urban areas where Democrats predominate and where anonymity is assured.
These abuses would be curbed by a voter ID requirement. So why does your newspaper criticize Republicans for supporting voter ID? You should be applauding Republicans such as our Sen. Scott Newman for trying to bring integrity to the election process. Why should you want to conspire with the Democrats to preserve a tool they can use to win every close election held in this state? Just what is your agenda here in Meeker County?
Lysen can invent as many likely scenarios as he wishes, but there's little evidence any of that has been happening.
Finally, the Kingston Township activist was among those who supported a 2014 Meeker County Republican resolution to immediately impeach President Obama, the Litchfield paper reported:
“I think it’s time we have it on record that we should impeach him,” said Kingston Township resident Paul Lysen, one of about 30 delegates to attend the convention in Litchfield.
The resolution states, “President Barack Hussein Obama has abused his office and acted in defiance and violation of the Constitution. He must be impeached immediately.”
No delegate attending Saturday’s convention voiced opposition to the impeachment resolution.
Several other resolutions also received widespread support, including one relating to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. That resolution calls for the prosecution of former State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton for “countermanding the defense of the Benghazi consulate against the attack from Islamic jihadists.”
A total of eight resolutions were adopted Saturday, and party organizers said the resolutions will be submitted to the Minnesota GOP State Convention, scheduled to take place May 30 in Rochester, for possible inclusion in the party’s platform.
The only resolution to fail Saturday accuses the Democratic Party and mainstream media of engaging in a “conspiracy of lies.” “The Democrat Party and the mainstream media have engaged in a conspiracy of lies to defraud the American people,” the resolution states. “They constitute a criminal conspiracy and must be prosecuted under racketeering laws.”
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This was part of the social contract America made with its people eighty years ago in the New Deal: Workers will receive a minimum wage. It may not be enough to make you rich, but you will have enough to afford necessities for your family – food, housing, clothing, medical care.
We are far from fulfilling that social contract. Economic hardship affects many: one of every three Minnesota children are in families struggling to make ends meet. One in ten households have times when family members go hungry because they have no money for food. There are working people who go “home” from their jobs to a homeless shelter at night, because they cannot afford housing.
Many of these families feel they have been left behind, as others accumulate ever-greater wealth. Their frustration leaves some with a sense of helplessness and apathy, even about voting.
Despite ample political rhetoric about “supporting the middle class,” neither party has had the courage to back initiatives to end poverty, even among working families.
The public believes working people should not live in poverty. The only public opinion poll I have seen on the issue showed a virtual consensus – 94% of Americans agree with the statement: “As a country, we should make sure people who work full-time are able to earn enough to keep their families out of poverty.”* People understand that this is a matter of fairness.
Back in 2007, Minnesota created a legislative commission to examine how we could end poverty by the year 2020. Our bipartisan commission recognized that justice for low income workers means those workers need higher wages, some other means of paying for necessities, or a combination of both.
Since the Poverty Commission issued its final report in 2009, Minnesota has made little progress with the exception of last year's increase in the minimum wage. With a public consensus that workers should not live in poverty, it is time we take action.
I introduced legislation, Senate File 890, to ensure workers can afford basic necessities:
The phased-in increase in the minimum wage would continue beyond the $9.50/hour in 2016. The legislation would add 75¢/hour every year from 2017 through 2020, when it would reach $12.50/hour.
Even at that wage level, some workers will not be able to pay for basic needs, so the legislation would more than double Minnesota's Working Family Tax Credit – a credit designed to help working people make ends meet. The credit would jump to 120% of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. A one parent, one child family earning about $23,000 would receive $3000 from the Minnesota credit (up from about $940 – a boost of about $2000/year.)
The bill increases access to affordable childcare, eliminating the 7,000 family waiting list for the Child Care Assistance Program, and substantially increasing the payments so low income parents have a better choice of providers and childcare providers get decent compensation.
To help create jobs, the proposal reestablishes the MEED (Minnesota Emergency Employment Development) jobs program, a simple but highly effective initiative to assist small businesses in hiring the unemployed. MEED, which was created during a recession thirty years ago, has been described as the most effective job creation program in any state in the last half century.
Although this particular bill does not address health care needs, in conjunction with proposed universal health care legislation, this legislation would help lift all workers and their families out of poverty.
The Worker Dignity bill (SF 890) will improve the lives of all low income workers and their families, boost their productivity, and stimulate the economy.
It is not a radical approach. It would not deliver economic security for workers immediately. However, it would be the biggest step towards fulfilling the goal of the Minnesota’s Commission to End Poverty by 2020.
Now, let’s talk real politics. This bill is not likely to pass because it would require both businesses and government to do more. In politics, rhetoric about supporting workers is easier than action, especially when the idea of a living wage for all workers is considered unrealistic.
That must change. The current reality, where some hardworking people can’t afford food or housing, is not acceptable. This is a matter of justice. And, with more than nine of ten people supporting wage justice, it is a fight we can win.
*April 2000 poll conducted by Lake Snell Perry Associates for Jobs for the Future, Boston MA
Photo: Senator John Marty (DFL, Roseville). photo via Minnesota Senate.
A task force appointed by the Legislature is pushing for Minnesota to increase cash assistance for welfare recipients. . . .
Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, is the chief author of a bill to enact the task force recommendations.
She said she increasing the grants will help bring people out of poverty.
“This bill, I think is a good start,” Franson said. “The cash assistance has remained flat since 1986, and the buying power of 1986 isn’t exactly the same as it is in 2015.”
Franson said several other Republicans, including Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, and Tony Albright, R-Prior Lake, have signed on to her bill.
As expected, Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature have filed a handful of bills this year to “rein in” the Metropolitan Council, the body that oversees regional transit and planning in the Twin Cities. . . .
What is a surprise is that one of the bills to reform the Met Council has bipartisan interest, if not all-out support. A bill introduced by Sen. David Osmek, R-Mound, would require the governor’s nominees to the Met Council to receive the endorsement of a majority of the city councils in their district. Those same city councils would also be empowered to remove council appointees if they fell out of favor.
Of the four cosponsors signing onto Osmek’s bill, three are DFLers. And one is not only a champion of regionalism and light rail, but the chair of the Senate Transportation and Public Safety Committee: Sen. Scott Dibble of Minneapolis. . . .
Oh my.
But nothing prepared us for remarks at the beginning of a bill for student loan forgiveness for rural health care staff that Representative Franson was sponsored:
Well first I'd like to say that anytime I can hold hands on a bill with SEIU, it's a good day, so yay us, huh? This--
The committee room burst into laughter.
Franson, a former day care provider, has been one of the most severe critics of the new law that allowed day care providers and home care workers whose clients' services are paid by the state to organize.
All joking aside, tools to help bring and keep health care workers to greater Minnesota are worth hold hands across disagreements.
Here's the moment:
Photo: Representative Mary Franson on election night. Via Alexandria Echo.
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Watching the video archives of Wednesday's House Aging and Long-Term Care Policy Committee meeting, Bluestem learned that Baker (R-Willmar) is so distressed by the low funding that, along with fellow freshman representative Brian Daniels (R-Faribault), he skipped two roll call votes on amendments to HF316, a bill modifying the state's nursing home reimbursement system.
Minnesota nursing home workers can earn more money by working at Fleet Farm, Dairy Queen and a sugar beet processing plant than helping the elderly, nursing home administrators across the state complain.
That means, they told a House committee Wednesday, that nursing home residents are not getting care as good as they should. Staff turnover, they said, prevents nursing staff workers from knowing residents well enough to provide the best care. . . .
Glanzer and other administrators, from rural and city nursing homes alike, said the state does not provide enough money to pay adequate wages. The state sets rates nursing homes may charge, and the facilities have little to say about how much they pay workers.
Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, was not happy with what he heard.
“As a freshman legislator, I am embarrassed that we allowed this to happen,” Baker said.
But when it came time for voting on two amendments that were intended to help address those concerns, Baker was missing in action.
Proposed amendments offered by Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-North St. Paul) and Rep. Jerry Newton (DFL-Coon Rapids) that would have tied future payment increases to employee wages, or their cost of living expenses, failed on party-line roll call votes. Lillie also asked for projected financial impacts of the proposal, but Schomacker said the department needs time to prepare those numbers and that discussion will take place if and when the bill reaches the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee.
While much the earlier testimony from nursing home administrators concerned how higher wages at other employers made it difficult to attract and keep workers, Schomacker urged rejection of the amendments because he sought a broader reform that would recognize operating costs not related to wages.
It seems like a bit of a bait-and-switch, but at least Schomacker and the other Republicans on the committee had the character to stick around for the voice vote. Not so for Baker and Daniels, both of whom won narrow victories over DFL incumbents in November.
Photo: Assistant Minority Leader Dave Baker.
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There will be a guest lecture featuring speaker Kristin Hawkins on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 7 p.m. in the Science Auditorium (2950). Hawkins will deliver “The Ugly Truth about Abortion: How It Does More Than Just Kill Babies,” on behalf of Students for Life of America and the Young America’s Foundation. This event is free and open to the public.
A photo shared on Facebook lists "College Republicans" as the program's presenters. Hawkins is a prominent national activist.
By the size of the crowds and the enthusiasm of the speakers, it was impossible to tell that just the night before, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill had spiked one of social conservatives’ biggest priorities, a bill banning abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy.
The scramble over the bill behind closed doors was the latest in a series of conflicts within the caucus, and again underscored the challenge facing the GOP as they head into a presidential election year: How to expand the party’s appeal with untapped demographic groups, while still appeasing their conservative base.
That was the concern raised by Rep. Renee Ellmers, the North Carolina Republican who, along with a group of GOP women and centrists in the party, led the successful effort to get the bill pulled.
“The first vote we take, or the second vote, or the fifth vote, shouldn’t be on an issue where we know that millennials—social issues just aren’t as important [to them],” she told National Journal last week.
And few dozen protesters, mostly college students and older activists, gathered outside Ellmers’ office after the march to express their frustration with her move. One, Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins, called Ellmers a “coward” for previously supporting a similar bill, before working to block this one.
But asked whether candidates should run on the abortion issue if they hope to appeal to millennials, she demurred.
“Obviously, there are a ton of important issues that millennials care about…but I think they shouldn’t shy away from it,” she said.
While Morris is located in Minnesota House District 12A, a district in which both 2014 candidates were pro-life (the DFL incumbent Jay McNamar was the Minnesota Concerned Citizens' for Life endorsed candidate; he lost to Jeff Backer).
Home to a liberal arts campus and somewhat more progressive than much of the rest of the district, Morris as a stop for Hawkins should help the College Republicans connect with both anti-choice students and the broader community.
Photo: Image shared on Facebook by friends of Rep. Jeff Backer (R-Browns Valley).
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On Wednesday, the House Aging and Long-Term Care Policy Committee listened to nursing home administrators explain how they're unable to pay wages that attract and retain employees. Representative Dave Baker (R-Willmar) was shamed by what he heard, leaving us curious how he'll feel when the freshman Republican learns how the situation came to be.
Minnesota nursing home workers can earn more money by working at Fleet Farm, Dairy Queen and a sugar beet processing plant than helping the elderly, nursing home administrators across the state complain.
That means, they told a House committee Wednesday, that nursing home residents are not getting care as good as they should. Staff turnover, they said, prevents nursing staff workers from knowing residents well enough to provide the best care. . . .
Glanzer and other administrators, from rural and city nursing homes alike, said the state does not provide enough money to pay adequate wages. The state sets rates nursing homes may charge, and the facilities have little to say about how much they pay workers.
Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, was not happy with what he heard.
“As a freshman legislator, I am embarrassed that we allowed this to happen,” Baker said.
How did the legislature allow this to happen? Bluestem hasn't tracked down the entire answer, but a couple of sources are suggestive that Republicans eager to slash state funding had something to do with creating those low wages and Representative Baker's chagrin.
Here's a chart illustrating nursing facility rate increases and decreases for the last ten years, courtesy of Care Providers Long Term Incentive project:
Over $50 million in cuts are made to programs that serve children in the GOP budget, including a $20 million cut to Children and Community Services grants that are used by counties to protect children from abuse and neglect. The bill also cuts programs that serve the elderly and disabled by almost $200 million. It cuts nursing home property rate adjustments and dramatically scales back rates for Personal Care Assistance (PCA) by relatives.
The bill also makes massive cuts to nursing homes and hospitals. Nursing homes are cut by $133 million and hospitals are cut by almost $500 million, with many of the deepest cuts coming in the 2014-2015 budget cycle.
“These deep cuts are a prescription for the closure of nursing homes and hospitals, especially in rural areas,” said Huntley. “This is a real job killer across Minnesota.”
Murphy said the bill included a lack of significant reform to adapt to the changing demographics and challenges facing Minnesota’s health care system.
“We didn’t reform, only deformed programs that serve some of the most vulnerable Minnesotans,” said Murphy. “Cutting care for our children and seniors not only harm Minnesotans, it prevents us from addressing the fundamental cost drivers of our health care system. We can and must do better for Minnesota’s future.”
But perhaps the most important and lingering consequence:
• Massive cuts to nursing homes and hospitals: The bill cuts nursing homes by $133 million in FY14-15 and cuts hospitals by almost a half a billion. By repealing rebasing, the process by which nursing home and hospital reimbursement rates are adjusted to inflation and other local economic forces, the bill ensures state payments will not keep up with state medical inflation rates that average about 7% annually.
That bump in 2013? When the DFL won control of the legislature in the 2012 elections, the new majorities were able to soften the cuts in 2013 by increasing nursing home rates by 5% for FY14. An additional 3.2% increase is scheduled for October 1, 2015 (download an Aging Services PDF here that documents the figures). These were the first rate increases for long-term care in five years.
Let's hope Baker understands the need to find revenue to pay for increased funding.
We'll keep looking for more information about how things came to such a state in Minnesota's nursing homes.
Photo: Dave Baker (R-Willmar), an emotional guy quick to feel embarrassment.
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•Approved the payment of regular hourly wages for Detective Chuck Strack during his attendance at an upcoming Colorado conference on for opponents of marijuana legalization.
Our email correspondent added:
It surprised me that the City was paying for this, and kind of taking a position on the issue, based on the seminar description: "for opponents of marijuana legalization". Things that make you go "hmmm".
It certainly hearkens back to concerns raised during last year's legislative session that law enforcement personnel and their spokespeople were dictating policy and law about medical cannabis to the legislature, rather than enforcing the law.
A quick google of "Chuck Strack" revealed that he is on the board of the Minnesota State Association of Narcotics Investigators, an organization that opposed the initial, less restrictive medical cannabis bills in the Minnesota House and Senate. Moreover, in a March 2014 article, Strack announces run for Morrison County Sheriff, the detective spoke of his opposition to legalizing cannabis for any purpose.
Given this background, our reader's question was good one. However, a brief investigation uncovered that the reporting in the Record was a bit misleading. The only conference that we could find happening in the Rocky Mountain High State in the near future is the Marijuana Impact on Public Health and Safety in Colorado Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police event that's taking place in Denver on January 14-15.
It's not gathering of and for "opponents" of legal marijuana.
While the sold-out conference is sponsored by a law enforcement association, the agenda reveals a broad spectrum of speakers and concerns, mostly related to how the state rolled out new laws and regulation, such a dealing with "Driving Stoned," "Data Collection and Economic Impact" and the "Industry Perspective."
It may well be that Strack continues to hold his opinions about cannabis, but the conference isn't one for "opponents" of legalizing marijuana. Indeed, the Denver Post reports in Colorado pot symposium draws Alaska officials:
A Colorado symposium on how the state has dealt with legalized marijuana will draw Alaska law enforcement officers and public officials preparing for pot sales.
At least a dozen Alaska officials will attend the three-day conference, "Marijuana Impact on Public Health and Safety in Colorado," that starts Jan. 14 in Lone Tree, a suburb of Denver, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://bit.ly/1EVKADZ ) reported.
"We are just trying to learn as much as we can from what Colorado has already experienced," said Brad Johnson, Fairbanks Police Department deputy chief.
Alaska voters in November approved a ballot measure that will make it legal to grow, possess and sell marijuana in Alaska.
There's much to be learned in Colorado, and Bluestem hopes that state and local officials from Minnesota who work in areas in addition to law enforcement will attend the gathering.
Photo: Little Falls detective Chuck Strack, via the Morrison County Record.
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Representative-elect Peggy Bennett (R-Albert Lea) appears to be one of those rare folks who thinks Minnesota's restrictive medical cannabis laws isn't stringent enough.
In an unsigned article, the Austin Daily Herald reports in Back to St. Paul:
. . .Bennett said she thinks medical marijuana should be treated like any other prescription drug — including studies and regulations.
“I’m all for meeting medical needs, and if there’s other conditions that would benefit from medical marijuana, to me the physicians and such should work with that,” she said, noting she thinks it needs increased regulation.
Here's hoping that she'll has one of those flip-flopping experiences about this issue similar to that experienced by Representative Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake), who spoke during the floor debate about how meeting those seeking to use safe, legal medical cannabus changed his mind.
Without public fanfare, Gov. Mark Dayton signed the bill Thursday morning that legalizes medical cannabis for specific illnesses, but includes some of the strictest controls in the country.
Of the 22 states and the District of Columbia where medical cannabis is legal, Minnesota’s new law is among the most cautious.
Unlike most states with medical marijuana laws, Minnesota does not allow the smoking of marijuana leaves. Only the use of pills, oils, or vaporizing of a cannabis compound through a device similar to an e-cigarette is allowed.
In fact, Minnesota’s strict new medical marijuana law does not allow smoking, home cultivation and allows only two cannabis dispensaries statewide. It’s also a felony to transfer medical pot to a non-patient. . .
Read the rest at WCCO. We don't see the need for more regulation.
Photo: Medical cannabis oil.
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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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