We've noticed that some on our favorite rural Minnesota anti-Muslim activists are sharing a post on Facebook by anti-Muslim author Pam Geller. Here's a screengrab of her post:
There's only one Muslim currently serving in the Minnesota legislature, and that would be Ilhan Omar. Since the Minnesota House voted on HF2621, we can see who voted yes for the bill, introduced by state representative Mary Franson, R-Alexandria. Here's a screengrab:
It's clear that Omar voted yes. We're not sure who the stealth Muslims are in the Minnesota legislature, but perhaps Geller can share that. Of the four Demcorats who voted no, David Bly is Congregational, Rena Moran is Methodist, while Tina Liebling is a Jewish Minnesotan and Susan Allen is the daughter of an Episcopal priest
The headline for the post on Geller's website is Democrats legislators OPPOSE Minnesota bill against female genital mutilation, which doesn't clear much up, since "Democrats legislators" seems like sloppy editing. The passage in Geller's article--a direct quote from the Star Tribune article--is a bit murky:
"The bill won support from all but four of the 128 House members who voted, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, the country’s first Somali-Muslim legislator."
Is Omar grouped with the 123 other House members who voted "yes" or does that ambiguous comma group Omar with the four? Those coming to the article from Facebook might not look twice after seeing Geller's Facebook headline about Muslim legislators.
Update: A reader reminds us that Representive Omar also voted for the bill in Civil Law committee. [end update]
The Star Tribune copy within the article also broke from the standard journalistic convention of identifying lawmakers' party affiliation (see recent example here in the Strib). Geller opens:
This is evil. There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.
Now, the author of the Senate version is voicing second thoughts about approving the legislation yet this session, though Senate GOP leadership have not committed to a course of action. “We all agree this practice is absolutely horrible, and something needs to be done,” said the author, Sen. Karin Housley. “How can we empower communities to address this practice from within rather than having Big Brother come down and say, ‘This is wrong?’ ”
Is this the new approach to law and order? Why have laws against murder or rape? Why not say, “How can we empower communities to address this practice from within rather than having Big Brother come down and say, ‘This is wrong?’”
Unsuspecting readers might be forgiven for thinking Housley is a Democrat, given both of Geller's headlines, but the author of the senate version of the bill is indeed a Republican from St. Mary's Point near Stillwater. The Star Tribune's copy editors didn't catch that omission.
One might think Geller could create yet a third headline to reflect that fact that state Senate Republican inaction, not "Democrats and MUSLIM legislators," is responsible for the upper chamber's lack of follow through.
It's not surprising why the anti-Muslim network in Minnesota is confused about this topic if they're swallowing the nonsensical spin in Geller's headlines.
Photo: Karin Housley, the Republican state senator with cold feet about an anti-FGM bill she authored. Its companion bill passed in the Minnesota House. Bonus: here's Willmar anti-Muslim activist Bob Enos' sharing of the Geller piece; note the screaming caps in the Geller Facebook post. Just as on Geller's own Facebook page, the factually incorrect headline persists, days later.
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Stories about how fake news pervades the internet and how it even helped Donald Trump win the presidency have been wide spread in the news media over the past couple weeks.
First, we don’t think the Republican candidate won because of fake news. He won because a majority of those who voted in states that count in the electoral college did so because of his conservative social stands, because he was a Republican, because many undecided voters detested Democrat Hillary Clinton, because many Democrats wished they had another choice, and because people wanted change in Washington.
But news that is made up, twisted far from the truth, and intended to deceive is a significant problem on the internet and to an informed citizenry. Too often people reading it take what they see and read on the internet as truth, repeat it to friends, and to like-minded people through Facebook sharing, through Tweets, and through other social media. . . .
Another Times story tracks a post by a Texas man who had fewer than 50 Twitter followers, but whose simple Tweet of a photo of a line of large busses lined up along a street in Austin brought him instant celebrity. Because the busses were lined up relatively close to where a Trump celebration rally was taking place, and because he thought the timing of the busses appearing was relatively close to the time of the rally, he surmised that they must have brought protestors. He never saw anyone get on or off the busses.
But it wasn’t long before his Tweet was shared 16,000 times on Twitter and 350,000 times on Facebook. Even Trump saw it and Tweeted saying, “Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!”
The busses had, in fact, brought a group of people attending a business convention to the venue where they would be meeting. . . .
Bluestem found a very similar example of a Facebook account sharing fake news in the congressional district that's home to both the Monitor and our poor country blog. Our old friends at the Minnesota 7th Congressional District shared the post capture in the screenshot above:
We suppose these are the same protesters we are seeing Busing from City to City. Paid Agitators Fox News says George Soros is flipping the bill for.
The Milo Yiannopoulos post purported to depict buses that brought protestors to Chicago.
Not so fast, Western Minnesota Republican activist Allen Anderson chimed in a few hours later:
Allen E Andersonwrong these buses were used to bus Cubs fan in for the world series parade according to a post I saw elsewhere. somebody actually took the time to call badger lines to find out why they were there instead of just assuming what they were there for.
The page administrator thought that was nice to know, but didn't remove the post--or edit the headnote.
Yiannopoulos is a senior editor at Breitbart, a Right-wing online magazine and the most-read conservative news website in the States — and whose chair, Steve Bannon, has just been appointed President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist.
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Update September 29: The mailing that Regan received is from 2016, but it's not from ABM's federal PAC. Rather, it's from the Alliance for a Better Minnesota Action Fund, a state political fund. Here's the side of the card that includes the disclaimer as is required by state law:
It's not the text that Regan described in her letter and it's not from the federal fund. We've pointed out to Regan and in this post that it's a common practice of ideological non-profits like the Alliance for A Better Minnesota (on the left) and the Freedom Club (on the right) to establish legally separate political funds. Both organizations maintain legally separate state and federal PACs in accordance with Minnesota statutes. The Minnesota Jobs Coalition, also a non-profit, works only on the state level, and so its legislative fund PAC is registered only with the Minnesota campaign finance board.
It's worth noting that the new postcard isn't a negative attack on Representative Miller (an earlier letter writer claimed ABM had sent negative mail pieces about Miller beginning in 2014 through the present) but a positive independent expenditure urging voters to cast a ballot for Falk.
It's worth noting that Regan originally sent us only the address side of the postcard (we've obscured her address but left her name on it):
By originally sending only this side, Regan thought to bolster her published claim that the federal PAC--a legally separate fund--sent her the piece about Falk since the return addresses are the same and that all entities using that address are "one and the same."
As for that national network to which ABM belongs, this too is not unusual. The Coalition of Minnesota Businesses appears to be part of the BIPAC national network that was established in 2001. (The CMB--not its legally separate PAC or legally separate IEPC--is sending "issue advocacy" postcards in MN17A) If Regan dislikes networking and organizations with PACs and IE funds, she can find plenty of targets. The other letter writer saw them as part of free speech, but claimed ABM had sent out "hate mailings" against Tim Miller.
[end update]
Bluestem's household received its issue of the Clara City Herald in the mail today, and as with last week's edition, the letters-to-the-editor in the Opinions section did not disappoint.
DeGraff resident Cindy Regan also has a bug up her bonnet about the Democratic front group, and like the earlier letter writer Mike Thein, her memory of the political mail she's received doesn't match campaign finance reports of spending. [See our update above; the 2016 mail piece doesn't match her description and was not sent by the federal PAC].
Nor does she have a grasp of how independent expenditures work. Regan writes in part:
Andrew Falk's campaign seems to center around telling us about Tim Miller's so called supporters such as the Jobs Coalition, Reynolds America, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Koch Industries, Las Vegas Sands, Exon [sic] Mobil, and Northern Oil and Gas. As of yet there hasn't been a single mailing from any of these organizations on Tim Miller's behalf.
We don't know if Regan deliberately gives a shortened, incorrect name for the MN Jobs Coalition, whose political fund received contributions directly or indirectly from the corporations she names. But she does misrepresent what Falk wrote.
Regan continues in her letter in the September 14 Herald (no online edition):
. . . However, I have received political mailings from Alliance for a Better Minnesota Federal PAC with Falk's picture and the words, "Andrew Falk Agrees!" . . .
[See our update above; the 2016 mail piece she provided doesn't match her description and was not sent by the federal PAC].
Had such a mail piece ever been sent by a federal PAC on behalf of a state candidate, former Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board executive director Gary Goldsmith and his staff would be very cross indeed.That federal race spending needs to be spent on federal races--and indeed it was. We found no evidence of independent expenditure cash on mailings in the Minnesota House District 17A race.
The only independent expenditures by ABM's Federal PAC were related to online ads against Republican United States Senate candidates from Minnesota: Mike McFadden and a couple of also-rans.
Even if Regan is mis-remembering the copy from an online ad as a mail piece, we're at a loss to figure out why the online ads would include Falk's photo and the copy "Andrew Falk Agrees!" since we're not sure about what, if anything, Falk and Mike McFadden would agree.
Perhaps it was some other group. [Update: it was sent by the state PAC, a legally separate entity]
An earlier PAC kept by America Votes, American Votes-Minnesota, was terminated in 2014.
Since the America Votes-Minnesota shares an office suite with ABM, Regan believes that these organizations are THE SAME! She continues:
I decided to do a little digging into this PAC [Alliance for a Better Minnesota Federal PAC], and they actually share the same address in St. Paul with an organization called America Votes. In my opinion, they are one and the same.
Regan then lists the national partners of America Votes, all found on the national group's website Our Partners.
Whatever the case, neither the ABM Federal PAC nor the America Votes Action Fund--Minnesota, sent any mail out in 2014 or since, to any state or federal race in Minnesota, much less House District 17A. It's puzzling that two Letters To The Editor attempt to pin their tales on these donkey allies without producing a copy of any mail piece or campaign finance report to support their claims.
Was there a mail piece with Falk's picture and copy about agreement? We don't have it in our collection of 2014 political junkmail, but someone might have sent it.
Just not ABM or America Votes.
Regan does switch over later in the letter to discuss votes that Falk took on abortion, child custody and daycare regulation. While the list appears to be drawn from a 2011-2012 cycle voting checklist (she doesn't mention which group put the key votes together nor chose the wording). While we don't share Regan's positions, Bluestem thinks this issues-based approach is much more grounded and legitimate than her forays about mis-remembered sources of the junkmail she may or may not have gotten.
For a fact-based discussion of spending, "negative campaign messages and a loud drum beat paid for largely by money from political action committees outside the district" and voter turnout in Minnesota House District 17A in 2014, we recommend Tom Cherveny's Andrew Falk in the aftermath of defeat, in the West Central Tribune.
Photo: Negative campaigning at its most simple.
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By not paying close attention to Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson's testimony, Ricardo Lopez conflates February's Pollinator Summit and separate special registration review of neonicotinoid insecticides in his Hot Dish Politics post, House GOP criticize Dayton's executive order on pollinator rules.
Lopez writes:
Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson and some DFL legislators pushed back at Republican criticism that farmers and other agriculture operators were not included in the process. They said the administration invited GOP legislators to a February summit and that more than 400 public comments were received, including some from industry representatives.
Um, that's not quite what the ag commissioner said.
The first step was not August of 26 of this year, or the August 26 announcement of the Governor's Executive Order. The first step was actually taken back in 2013 when the legislature directed the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to develop best management practices to protect pollinators and to issue a report on the status of pollinators in Minnesota.
2013.
That was followed by the legislature again requesting that the Minnesota Department of Agriculture conduct the special registration review of neonicotinoid pesticides. The results of the special registry review and subsequent recommendations were then included in the directives outlined in the Governor's Executive Order.
These directives were based on discussions with stakeholders at the pollinator summit held in February and the special registration review process, including public comments included as part of the scoping document.
These public comments include a total of 444 responses, including five responses from ag industry representatives.
The executive order acknowledges the value of and the importance of agriculture in the state of Minnesota.
Watch the comments here:
Frederickson outlines two processes, one of which began long before the MDA Pollinator Summit. The summit was much more broad in its focus than just looking at neonics use.
As Lopez points out, the Republican legislators on the Ag Policy Committee were invited to the summit--and so were other stakeholders such as the Minnesota Corn Growers, the Soybean Growers, Farmers Union, co-ops such as CHS, and ag industry representatives, all of whom sent staff to the Summit. DFL legislators were also on the guest list.
But the comments Frederickson mentions don't come out of the Summit, as Lopez's copy implies. Indeed, the public comment period for the registry review scoping document closed in May 2014, many months before the February 2016 Pollinator Summit.
We had contacted Sam Fettig, Dayton's Press Secretary about the special registration review in an email 's statement unrelated to the Lopez article. Fettig's statement distinguished between the registry review and the pollinator summit:
“At the direction of the Minnesota Legislature, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture undertook an extensive, public process of research and review on the impact of neonicotinoids on pollinators, including a full and open public comment period. Further, the Department hosted a Pollinator Summit attended by Minnesota farmers, agriculture groups, and members of the public, to gather public input on pollinator policy. The Governor’s Executive Order followed that legislatively-mandated public process, and the Pollinator Summit, to ensure that the State of Minnesota leads by example on protecting Minnesota pollinators and the agriculture they support.”
At the direction of the Minnesota legislature and the Commissioner of Agriculture (PDF: 213.8 KB / 1 page), the MDA, together with partners at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the University of Minnesota, and the Board of Water and Soil Resources, determined the scope-of-work (the underlying criteria) necessary to conduct a special registration review of neonicotinoid insecticides for the State of Minnesota. The draft scoping document was prepared to guide the special registration review of neonicotinoid insecticides and to describe the process and criteria that will be used when conducting the review.
The MDA accepted public comments on the draft scoping document until May 2, 2014. At the close of the comment period, the MDA received 444 public comments. The MDA has created two documents to facilitate stakeholder review: Comments that were unique due to their content and comments that employed a common text. The two PDFs are:
The unique comments include material from Bayer CropScience (page 4); Minnesota Crop Production Retailers (page 35); Minnesota Agri-Growth Council (page 36); the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation (page 38) and Syngenta (page 69). Three commercial beekeepers--two from Greater Minnesota (Barrett and Eagle Bend) and an Iowa-based operation in bordering Howard County) also comment; they should be considered as part of agriculture.
Several DFL legislators sent a letter, but there's no comment from their Republican counterparts. Were Anderson and his colleagues simply asleep at the wheel--or too busy helping then-candidate Jeff Backer formulate talking points and name-calling about "metro" rural DFLers to actually weigh in on policy considerations?
But since the Strib can't be bothered to report accurately, we gather that it's more important for the paper to be able to tell readers, as J. Patrick Coolican does in today's Morning Hot Dish, that the hearing provides ". . .GOP with a nice wedge issue among ag and related outstate voters."
Only if we don't know about the basic timeline and facts of the legislatively-mandated review, and the media seems happy not to report them.
An area lawmaker is ripping Governor Mark Dayton over his ban of a pesticide that kills honey bees. Yesterday Representative Tim Miller of Prinsburg and members of the Minnesota House Agriculture Policy committee took part in an informational hearing to learn more about why Dayton issued an executive order to restrict the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on August 26th. He issued the order in hopes of reversing the decline of bee and other pollinator populations, but Miller says he did so without consulting or collaborating with farmers or agriculture stakeholders. ...
There's no "ban" on neonics (farmers and licensed applicators have to follow the instructions on the chemicals' label, including the bee box, Frederickson testified).
If the Ag Mafia was "blindsided" during a process that includes several opportunities for public comment and participation, we can only conclude that the DMV isn't doing a good job when testing vision at the time drivers' licenses are renewed.
Photo: Milker gives pet cat some milk direct from cow, Brandtjen Dairy Farm, Dakota County, Minnesota, 1939. Apparently, the ag industry lobbyists and operatives believe they have a special place in the barn, even these days, before the milk of policy is served at the table Dayton set for this discussion. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, FSA, via Library of Congress.
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Update: Responding to an email from Bluestem Prairie, reporter Josie Gerezek called Bill Schulz about his statement, and the story now reads:
At the rally, Schulz said he lived in California during his time in the Navy, through the ’60s and early ’70s. In a later phone call, Schulz said he had actually served in the ’50s and ’60s. “I saw what happened when the movement for equality among blacks turned into something violent, with the Black Panthers in the San Francisco and Oakland area, and I saw those people out on the street and the crimes they were committing, the murders they were committing,” Schulz said. “Now, I see that coming again.”
Schulz said after his 13 years in the service, he visited Mississippi and Alabama.
“Martin Luther King and a number of other black leaders were holding the freedom parades, and I marched with them a few times,” Schulz said, adding he’d served with men who were black, white and Hispanic. “I have no problem with race.”
Schulz could not have seen "those people out on the street and the crimes they were committing, the murders they were committing" while serving in the Navy in California if he marched with King in Alabama and Mississippi after his service with the Navy ended. While the Panthers legally carried guns from their founding, no fatal shots were fired until late October 1967.
Either way, Schulz is trying to have it both ways--that he was both a participant in the great civil rights marches in 1965 and 1966 after leaving the Navy and a witness to '"those people out on the street and the crimes they were committing, the murders they were committing" while serving in the Navy in California.
If he meant to say that he marched with King, then didn't like the Panthers, he simply should have said that, without using his naval service to place himself as an eyewitness to a history he probably just watched on television.
Moreover: Bluestem has yet to meet a veteran who doesn't know when she or he served our country. Schulz is a regular guest columnist at the newspaper, so apparently their regular guest columnist's shifting life history matters. Black History? Not so much. [End update]
It is a fact universally acknowledged that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968.
Rally organizer Bill Schulz, who Fergus Falls Police Chief Kile Bergren describes as a long-time supporter of law enforcement, said what motivated him were the targeted shootings of police officers like those in Dallas and Baton Rouge. The I-94 Black Lives Matter protests in the Twin Cities, too, were a call to action, he said.
“That is anarchy,” Schulz said of the protests, which took over major interstates resulting in nearly two dozen officers being injured. “It may be free speech, but it’s promoting anarchy.”
Schulz said it was time local police knew “the sentiments of the people” were with them.
Schulz said he lived in California during his time in the Navy, through the ’60s and the early ’70s. “I saw what happened when the movement for equality among blacks turned into something violent, with the Black Panthers in the San Francisco and Oakland area, and I saw those people out on the street and the crimes they were committing, the murders they were committing,” Schulz said. “Now, I see that coming again.”
Schulz said after his 13 years in the service, he visited Mississippi and Alabama.
“Martin Luther King and a number of other black leaders were holding the freedom parades, and I marched with them a few times,” Schulz said, adding he’d served with men who were black, white and Hispanic. “I have no problem with race.”
While Schulz may or may nor have a problem with race, he does appear to have a problem with timelines, given that King was no longer living when Schulz visited Mississippi and Alabama in the 1970s, after his 13 years in the service.
Shame on the Fergus Falls Journal for running this copy.
Here's the screenshot of the original copy online:
Photo:Civil rights leader Andrew Young (L) and others standing on balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968, pointing in direction of the shots after the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who is lying at their feet. Photo by Joseph Louw.
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A House candidate in Apple Valley used race and sexual orientation to criticize her opponent at a recent GOP convention. . . .
In a speech at the Republican endorsing convention in mid-May — which has since been posted to Youtube — Jimenez-Hopper took a shot at Quade’s family and ancestral background...
One would think that Jimenez-Hopper might need some help with crisis communications given these nittering nabobs of negativity nipping at her nascent campaign. Unfortunately, her choice of media maven only opens up additional ethics questions.
The SPJ Ethics Committee gets a significant number of questions about whether journalists should engage in political activity. The simplest answer is “No.” Don’t do it. Don’t get involved. Don’t contribute money, don’t work in a campaign, don’t lobby, and especially, don’t run for office yourself.. . .
For political reporters, yard signs, bumper stickers and even campaign buttons should be considered off-limits. For a broader range of journalists — whether they’re covering politics or not — political activism should be avoided. The editor/publisher of a Denver newspaper once told his employees not to attend a concert whose proceeds were being donated by the band to a candidate for the U.S. Senate. That applied to all employees, from newsroom to mailroom.
Many employers’ codes of ethics are much more specific than SPJ’s code about their employees’ involvement in politics. The SPJ code is merely advisory, but a journalist can be fired for violating an employer’s ethical rules. NPR’s code, for instance, says quite bluntly that “NPR journalists may not participate in marches and rallies” concerning issues that NPR covers — which is pretty much everything.
Alpha News uses advanced social media and online technology platforms to deliver important news programming to audiences everywhere in Minnesota. Alpha News reports on issues relating to local, state and federal government, as well as the people and personalities involved. Unlike traditional media, our programming goes beyond the headlines and focuses on issues of local interest that consistently go unreported.
Can a news outlet staff member also serve as the communications director for a political campaign? Not in any universe that we know of, but we don't get out much.
Erynn said Alpha News will be receiving press credentials, which are issued by non-partisan staff of the Minnesota House of Representatives and Minnesota Senate.
Erynn referred to Alpha News as a "news organization" and said it will generate revenue from advertising, but added "a number of private donors" are also providing financial support.
We're not sure that those credentials were ever issued, but with a staff writer and researcher now actively working on a Minnesota House campaign, perhaps the wisdom of Alpha News possessing legislative press passes needs to be examined.
Alpha News MN - Alphanewsmn.com is now listed as a Capitol News Coverage Organization in the Minnesota Senate News Directory. [end update]
Photo: Preya Samsunder, via twitter.
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In a signed editorial published by the Crookston Times, editor Mike Christopherson doesn't pull any punches about the meltdown that ended Minnesota's 2016 legislative session--but his best spleen is reserved for House Speaker Kurt Daudt.
We knew the calls would be coming into the Times newsroom at any moment, and Tuesday morning they came. Actually, one was a phone call and the other was via email. DFL Minnesota House Minority Leader Paul Thissen was going to be calling newspapers across the state to tell the DFL’s side in the latest debacle that unfolded in the closing days, hours and minutes of the 2016 Minnesota Legislative session. Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt? He was going to be doing the same.
Both legislators wanted to conduct their phone interviews Tuesday afternoon, but a look at the big calendar on the newsroom wall showed a day packed full of things that had to be covered by the newspaper, so picking up the phone to listen to the same, tired blame game and partisan spin-doctoring just wasn’t going to be possible that day.
So the representatives of both Thissen and Daudt were told thanks, but no thanks. They were also told that the Times could probably publish a he said/he said story purportedly based on interviews with both Thissen and Daudt that in reality hadn’t taken place. After all, when the same embarrassing behavior is on display in session after session of our state legislature, this stuff eventually writes itself.
Seriously, running dictionary-thick bills back and forth between buildings in the dark of night as the clock ticks toward midnight...the contents of which are largely a mystery to most of the legislators who are expected to cast a rushed, last-minute vote? A House bonding bill counteroffer, released about an hour before midnight, full of errors? Is there enough shame to go around?
That said, the Republicans are more at fault this time. You just don’t submit your very first bonding bill proposal weeks after Senate DFLers release theirs, and only five days before the session is required to adjourn, with a straight face. These are real projects affecting real communities and real people, and – Hey, Republicans! – they create jobs.
Emphasis added in the text above. We can tell that the copy isn't writing itself when the editor passes judgment on Speaker Daudt:
. . .The ink was barely dry on the news headlines announcing that our legislature had once again put off important legislation until the last second, and, predictably, not been able to approve it, when Daudt called on Gov. Mark Dayton to convene a special session so lawmakers could return to St. Paul and try to pass a transportation funding package and a bonding bill.
That’s like a college kid partying like a rock star all night long and, then, hung over as heck the next morning, calling on his professor to cancel his 8 a.m. class.
Daudt should learn to stop dithering and start legislating. Read the entire editorial at the Crookston Times.
Photo: Speaker Kurt Daudt's hands are dithering hands.
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Bluestem wasn't the only reading the news article.
Today's Fergus Falls Journal published a guest column by Underwood resident and Women’s Foundation of Minnesota vice-chairVictoria McWane-Creek, Coverage of Bigwood speech inaccurate. McWane-Creek, who attended the lecture, writes:
I was appalled at the coverage of Lt. Col. Rice’s lecture for the Bigwood event series. The print edition’s headline seemed sensational and the content regurgitated Rice’s perspective; reporting lacked attendee feedback, offered no alternative perspective, and provided no relevant context. I attended expecting to hear this accomplished woman’s incredible story. Instead, Rice delivered a treatise on how the Republican Party is for blacks, how there is no real racism, how middle class White people are the most discriminated against group, and the “real” civil rights history. To summarize, Rice does not personally experience racism and concludes that racism and institutional discrimination no longer exist.
Rice’s conclusion rests on the belief that the Constitution guaranteed equal opportunity for all. This is a distorted belief based on an assumption that the Constitution valued inclusion. Missing from Rice’s assessment, and the Journal article, was the intent that white, landed men only benefit from its protection and rights; ignoring the documented legacy of unequal application of laws where black, native, Japanese, Muslim, and gender non-conforming people are concerned (e.g. mass incarceration, education, health, wealth and income disparities, and death at the hands of authority etc.) Some laws sought to diminish non-whites access while others sought to privilege whiteness (see Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, Harris-Perry’s Sister Citizen, or Katznelson’s When Affirmative Action was White). . . .
Listening to Rice, I thought of The Invisible Gorilla. It investigated how attention, memory, and knowledge distort beliefs, they contended that “the distorted beliefs we hold…are not just wrong, but wrong in dangerous ways” (Chabris & Simons, 2010, p. 68). Distorted beliefs are automatic and do not require or welcome close examination. Mezirow wrote that distorted premises lead to viewing “reality in a way that arbitrarily limits what is included…or does not facilitate integration of experience” (1991, p. 118).
Racism and institutional discrimination are powerful socio-political constructs that society has yet to dismantle. Rice posits a dangerous notion that encourages a false sense of accomplishment — without supportive evidence. Considering that unarmed black people are more likely to be killed by those authorized to use deadly force, our education system often fails students of color, significantly higher black unemployment, drastically less black wealth, and that my family faces racial profiling whenever we relocate, not challenging this notion is dangerous. The structures that generate “barriers and disadvantages for some and privileges and advantages for others’’ remain (Burke, 2013, p. 840).
This article forwards the unchallenged notion that white privilege and discrimination no longer exist and intimates that society eliminated institutional impediments to opportunity. I expect journalists to apply their craft, provide context, and use multiple perspectives. Furthermore, I hope that subsequent coverage enlightens readers, provides necessary context, challenges assumptions, utilizes data, allows readers to connect authentically with the issues, and builds a more informed citizenry.
Underwood resident Victoria McWane-Creek is pursuing a doctorate of educational leadership at Concordia University and is a public conversations project practitioner.
An Underwood woman has been named vice chair for the Minneapolis-based Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.
Victoria McWane-Creek has dedicated her personal and professional life to lifting the voices of people left on the margins of society, including youth, people in poverty and survivors of sexual abuse, according to a news release.
She currently works as a Title III student success coach at Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls.
Along with her service to the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, McWane-Creek currently serves on the Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program Youth Advisory Council and the Women of Color and Native Women’s Leadership Council.
She is currently working on her doctor of education degree with Concordia University- Portland, and holds a master’s degree in instructional design and technology from the University of North Dakota and a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Oregon University.
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MDA has released its Livestock study that was part of a bill authored by Rep. Tim Miller and Sen. Lyle Koenen this past session and signed by Governor Dayton. The report outlines the state of the livestock industry in Minnesota and lays out some suggestions for the livestock industry. The report is pretty lengthy but has a good executive summary. . .
The authors of the report recommend:
Minnesota should continue its regulatory efforts to protect the environment and natural resources. Crop and livestock producers should be encouraged to continue to follow recommended guidelines and standards and Best Management Practices (BMPs) that provide optimum health and growth of their livestock and crops. The environmental review process should seek a balance that includes public input and involvement. Projects that meet these standards should be encouraged to proceed. The following recommendations are presented:
Ensure the success of Minnesota’s livestock industry by encouraging processors to modernize and/or expand their operations to meet the growing market needs of the industry.
Support the dairy processing infrastructure by stimulating investments in cheese processing capacity and boosting demand for fluid/soft dairy products. This would help to address the impending oversupply of milk in Minnesota.
Fund programs that provide capital, low-interest loans and grants to young and beginning farmers or those considering an intergenerational transition of their farm.
Fund educational programs that train and teach tomorrow’s agricultural professionals, in particular large animal veterinarians who provide critical services to livestock farmers.
Explore how state and federal agencies could allow the use of more conservation acres as “working lands” and combine protection for wildlife and habitat with a source of feedstuffs for livestock using proper grazing management practices.
Support local ordinances that are fair, reasonable, recognize landowner property rights, and that seek solutions which allow for both livestock production and protection of the environment.
Continue to fund Minnesota Department of Agriculture programs that provide beneficial financial and technical resources to both producers and processers.
Increase the permitting process assistance provided to livestock producers, a service that has been successful in the other five states
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We'll be the first to admit that there's something to the notion that among many Republicans, if President Obama is for something, they've got to be against it.
Nonetheless, Satursday's New Ulm Journal takes a cheap shot in its editorial "Thumb Down" in Get real on REAL ID:
THUMBS DOWN: Minnesota has had ten years to get on board with the REAL ID program. But for some reason, legislators practiced "head in the sand" lawmaking.
REAL ID is a federally mandated program that sets enhanced security standards for state-issued IDs like drivers licenses, and prohibits federal agencies from accepting IDs from states that don't comply. The deadline is approaching for states to have this done, after which the Minnesota drivers license won't be enough to let you board a domestic flight, enter some federal buildings or have access to a military base. You will need a passport to fly to Chicago, say or Atlanta.
Minnesota lawmakers, some of them no doubt feeling that whatever the Obama Administration says to do, they're against it, have refused to put the state in compliance. In 2009, in fact, the state passed a law forbidding state officials from planning for the ID or even talking to federal officials about it. . . .
Why is this a cheap shop? It's gratuitous because the 2009 legislation has its roots in Minnesota lawmakers' reaction to a Bush-era policy.
And that reaction wasn't partisan, but born from a concern for citizens' privacy, civil liberties, and such matters. In May 2008, Session Weekly staffer Brian Hogenson reported in At Issue: Crossing the partisan divide:
Other than the job description they share at the Capitol, there would appear to be next to nothing in common between a conservative independent from Greater Minnesota, an urban Democrat and a suburban Republican.
Could there be an issue that would land all three on the same page? A motion to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a bill prohibiting implementation of the federal REAL ID Act provided an answer to that question as Rep. Mark Olson (IR-Big Lake), Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL-St. Paul) and Rep. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) rose in support of the motion.
Pawlenty vetoed HF3807, which would have prohibited the public safety commissioner from taking any action to implement the Real ID Act.
In a compromise, Pawlenty signed an executive order prohibiting state compliance with REAL ID before June 1, 2009, without legislative approval.
“Throughout the debate over REAL ID, I’ve made it clear I share many of the concerns raised regarding federal funding, privacy, state control and other issues. Opponents have also raised important constitutional questions that should be considered,” Pawlenty said.
Issued by the governor, executive orders serve a variety of purposes, usually to help direct the operation of executive officers and agencies.
Pawlenty issued nine executive orders in 2008. Most of the orders throughout his terms have been used to trigger emergency powers during emergency situations or to fill appointed positions. In many states, including Minnesota, the governor may use an executive order to respond to federal programs and requirements such as the REAL ID Act. . . .
According to Olson, the intentions stated by Pawlenty’s executive order are very good, but REAL ID creates more security issues than it was designed to solve. “This is not a national security protection, it’s a national security problem. REAL ID is not the answer.”
Mariani said REAL ID is one of those issues where left and right come together because Americans want to ensure that private data and information remains private.
“There are very few things more important, I believe, as representatives of the people than to safeguard our constitutional civil liberties,” Mariani said.
He stressed the importance of the override, stating a preference for legislative action over an executive order. “An executive order issued today could be rescinded tomorrow. A piece of legislation enacted today remains enforced until you, as representatives of the people, debate and subsequently act and modify that legislation.”
According to Abeler, ignoring REAL ID or issuing executive orders to delay its implementation will not solve the problem. “This is the kind of law that, once the nose is under the tent, will not go away. This will be the gift that keeps on giving and you won’t like it.”
Rep. Larry Howes (R-Walker) successfully moved to table the override motion. His motion prevailed with an 86-46 vote.
The next year, HF988, the bill prohibiting Real ID, passed 133-0 in the Minnesota House; it's companion bill in the Senate, SF738, passed by a 64-1 margin.
They don't get much more veto proof than that, so the bill became law, but it didn't have anything to do with hating on either President Bush or Obama, given the bipartisan opposition to Real ID in the Minnesota legislature under both administrations.
Let me repeat: it wasn't Bush bashing. It wasn't Obama bashing.
REAL ID is a set of standards and procedures passed by Congress and enacted into law in 2005 that were intended to improve security of driver’s licenses and personal identification cards. A critical component of REAL ID compliance is the storage and retention of source documents (information you provide to get your license). The federal REAL ID Act mandates the retention rate of seven years for paper copies and ten years for source documents. REAL ID requires that states verify an applicant’s date of birth, Social Security number, and principal place of residence. Additionally, it verifies whether the applicant is lawfully present in the United States.
To meet these requirements, states may be required to verify the data contained in the presented identification source documents against several different federal databases. However, officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have stated that the data is not being stored in a centralized data base as part of REAL ID nor is DHS “given the keys” to it. Rather, states remain in control of their data.
Why is Minnesota not in compliance?
Throughout the debate on the national and state level, questions were raised over privacy issues, civil liberties, data security, and how states would handle this unfunded mandate – since they would bear the financial burden of meeting the new standards.
Four years later, the legislature acted on these concerns. During the 2009 Legislative Session, the Minnesota House voted 133-0 and the Minnesota Senate voted 64-1 to prohibit the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety from taking any action to implement or to plan for the implementation of REAL ID. Governor Pawlenty signed this bill into law.
However, the New Ulm Journal is right: the legislature has to fix this, as Minnesota is the only state left in noncompliance. If there's a special session, this item should be on the agenda. Period.
Perhaps the only folks we'd hold out for ridicule are those activists we saw beginning in 2008 wanting immigrants and refugees to have secure IDs, but resisting Real ID for "real" Americans. We don't recall any of them being elected to the Minnesota legislature (possible, perhaps), but the ironic dilemma built into that one is rather self evident.
Photo: Gail Sample has an enhanced Drivers License, which is currently available in Minnesota for those with the right documents and a $15 extra charge.
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Via an item labeled LEADERSHIP in Friday's Ag Take (a partnership between Fluence Media and the AgriGrowth Council), we learn some surprising news in the Brownfield Ag News For America article Minnesota Milk Legislator of the Year:
A lawmaker from the Twin Cities has been named Minnesota Milk’s Legislator of the Year.
Representative Denny McNamara of Hastings is being recognized for his commonsense know-how.
“His business-mindedness behind the fact he even has his own tree care and landscaping business gives him that industry know-how. Of course the leadership qualities that he has have served him well and allowed him to make sound decisions.”
That’s Sangeetha Gummadi, policy relations manager with Minnesota Milk.
Given how Hoffman and McNamara Nursery Company popped up in an ethics accusation and lawsuit following this past session, we're surprised that any of McNamara's political allies would say such a thing.
Perhaps that distance from the state capitol's influence industry spawned her misunderstanding.
We hate to see McNamara's dairy industry friends this confused in public about his business dealings, so we'll sort this out for them. It's hard to understand how else they missed in, since the nursery business was much in the news.
Two legislators have filed an ethics complaint against state Rep. Denny McNamara that alleges that he shouted accusations at them and that a landscaping and nursery business he formerly owned was getting less business from the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
The two DFL legislators contend that the Hastings Republican threatened to expose an alleged Park Board threat against the family business unless they agreed to a proposal he favored to change how money flows to North Mississippi Regional Park..
But McNamara released a statement Monday that accused Park Board lobbyist Maryann Campo of making the threat to retailiate against a business he said is owned by his son. . . .
According to President Mike McNamara, the legislator's son, his father has not been involved in the Hastings-based Hoffman & McNamara landscaping business since selling it to him in 2004. However, McNamara's statement of economic interest filing still lists him as owner and partner in the business.
. . . The reason Kahn and Rice were convinced that McNamara did in fact own the landscaping company was in part because they had pulled up McNamara’s statement of economic interest that all legislators must file with the state. In it, legislators list their sources of income and real estate.
McNamara’s statement lists him as an owner and partner in Hoffman and McNamara LLP, which is listed as a real estate business on the form.
Hoffman and McNamara Co. is the landscaping business and entirely separate from Hoffman and McNamara LLP, McNamara said.
“Hoff and I own that partnership together with our wives,” McNamara said. “We’ve had that partnership since 1975, I believe.”
When contacted June 9 and told about the two separate companies, Kahn said: “The names are the same. It’s hard to believe their not connected in some way. For all intents and purposes, it looks like he is the owner.” . . .
That question--and McNamara's statement that the limited liability partnership goes back to 1975--sent Bluestem to the online database of business record filings at the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. Readers can find our review of the documents in the earlier post.
We also requested all of Economic Interest Statements filed with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board by the Hasting Republican. Here's what we learned:
Representative McNamara has maintained that he sold Hoffman & McNamara Nursery and Landscaping to his son in 2004. This claim is consistent with his Economic Interest Statements (EIS) filed the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, which date back to 2002. Candidates, elected officials and many appointed officials are required to file EIS under state law.
Bluestem requested all of Representative McNamara's filings before the current one that is available online. Here is the pdf that we received; the documents are arranged in reverse chronological order:
On page 57 of the document, there's a hand written note:
I receive a monthly payment from new owner of McNamara & Hoffman Co. I sold my share in March '04. Do I note that anywhere?
The EIS on which the note appears was filed on July 20, 2004. This information is consistent with Representative McNamara's repeated statements that he sold the company in 2004. As the note demonstrates, there's no attempt to conceal the monthly payment.
McNamara’s statement lists him as an owner and partner in Hoffman and McNamara LLP, which is listed as a real estate business on the form. [link added by BSP]
With the creation of GIS mapping sites, it is possible to look up information about the parcels owned by Hoffman & McNamara LLP. Public officials are required to list properties held in partnerships.
The section of land that Hoffman & McNamara LLP owns in Big Stone County is classified as "waste land;" 100 acres are wetland. It likely is dandy hunting ground. St. Louis County's GIS site isn't set up for searches by owners, so we are not able to determine information about this property; we don't know if it's owned by McNamara or the partnership.
However, the Dakota County Property Information Online service does. The most recent McNamara EIS lists 150 acres at Section 12, T114, RI and 12 acres at 9045 180th St E, Hastings.
As we looked at the online images of the Hoffman and McNamara LLC landing holdings (screengrabs in the earlier post), we noticed that there's a lot of nursery stock growing on the Hoffman and McNamara LLC property, but we believe the stock is owned by the nursery company itself.
As the screenshot above from another year illustrates, the mileage may vary depending on the year as far as the payments that Hoffman and McNamara Co receives. Whatever the payments are, they're not going to Representative McNamara.
Photo: Representative Denny McNamara (right), R-Hastings, gets an award from the Minnesota Milk Producers (cropped photo via Minnesota Milk's Facebook page).
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Peggy Flanagan joins a rare segment of the Minnesota Legislature: an American Indian legislator.
The 35-year-old Democrat is a White Earth Nation member who lives St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb.
After a special election Tuesday, in which she had no opposition, Flanagan joins Rep. Susan Allen, D-Minneapolis, as the only two Native Americans in the Legislature. . . .
. . .The last northern Minnesota Native American to serve in the Legislature was Harold “Skip” Finn, who served in the 1900s.
Flanagan is the second enrolled member of White Earth Nation now serving; as the Forum reports, Minneapolis DFLer Susan Allen is "has a South Dakota background, with her father from the Pine Ridge Reservation and her mother from the nearby Rosebud Sioux Tribe."
We're more likely to agree with Flanagan politically, but ideology isn't a factor in determining membership of an American Indian nation.
Here's the screenshot of the Forum Communications item:
Photos: Screenshots of the news items discussed in our post.
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UPDATE 10/12/2015: In an email, Lars Negstad, an organizer for ISAIAH MN, confirms that the paper didn't contact the organization for the story. ISAIAH-MN conducted a prayer vigil at the state office building before last month's Prison Population Taskforce informal meeting, and the group is a leader in the coalition seeking criminal justice reform over profiting on a glut of inmates. [end update]
One never knows what editors leave on the news room floor, but based on the copy in a report about re-opening the CCA prison in Appleton, Bluestem finds the usually excellent West Central Tribune reporter Tom Cherveny coming up short.
Economic tipping point triggers prison campaign does a good job of presenting the point of view of those scheming to re-open the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton. Unfortunately, it also allows those folks to frame and answer the objections that those opposed to the project have raised.
We doubt that religious leaders at ISAIAH or union officials--or those they represent authorized Goff Public or its clients to speak for them.
Ever since, a task force from Swift County and the city of Appleton along with Sen. Lyle Koenen, DFL-Clara City and Rep. Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, have been working to convince the state: Leasing the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton is the answer to the state’s needs. . . .
The task force members also believe that state staffing resolves the concerns of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the bargaining unit for state employees. AFSCME wants to maintain union workers in the state corrections system.
One would think that a call to AFSCME Council 5--rather than the opinion of the local task force--would be a more reliable source on the union's concerns. Jennifer Munt is the union's Director of Public Affairs & Public Policy. She, not those pushing the facility in Appleton, is authorized to speak for the union's concerns.
And there's this:
Adding to the challenge for making the cause on behalf of the Appleton facility are calls by legislators and organizations in the state for prison reform. Those calling for reforms want the state to reduce its prison population, the two legislators said. . . .
Fidler said the Department of Corrections is confident that the county jails are meeting all that is asked of them. He also pointed out, however, that no one is making the case that county jails can provide the long-term services needed by many of these inmates.
Leasing the Appleton facility could allow the state to provide the programming and save it the expense of building new cells. Miller and Koenen both noted that building new prison cells would take up a large share of any state bonding measure. It would also obligate the state to maintain prison cells for another 50 to 100 years that might not be needed if prison reforms are achieved.
If the state leases prison cells, it can always end the relationship when the need for the cells no longer exists, Fidler said.
“A home run for everybody,’’ he said of a possible lease agreement.
Again, one would think that those raising these concern would be best to speak to them, rather than those who are pushing revive a local economy by re-opening a shuttered prison.
Indeed, Cherveny closes the article by marshalling numbers assembled "a few years ago" by the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission and the city of Appleton assembled that looked at the economic impact of the prison and its closing.
No one on the local re-opening task force--and certainly not the two legislators on it--would benefit from the "home run" for the "prison reform."
Those advocating reform call it criminal justice reform--a discussion that addresses sentencing, alternative courts such as drug courts, mental health services and substance abuse treatment, among other things. All of these issues came up at the state Prison Population TaskForce meeting, while Saturday's article suggests that re-opening the Appleton Prison was one of the centerpiece proposals of that first meeting.
Let's see Miller and Koenen introduce or support measures for criminal justice reform, push them through, insist on them as a condition for the lease--making it temporary, if it is indeed the most cost effective option for beds in a time of reform.
Otherwise, this simply looks like what the Appleton prison has always been--an attempt first by the city, then by CCA, to cash in on projected inmate gluts. Those who seek to base a region's economic development on this have only a disincentive to move criminal justice reform, whatever lip service to it their lobbyists tell them to spin in the media and St. Paul.
Photo: The shuttered prison at Appleton.
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One of the more charming pieces of American discourse is the use of bogus quotations by the Founding Fathers. Need to make a point? There's probably a chap for that.
Just after the completion and signing of the Constitution, in reply to a woman’s question as to the type of government the founders had created, Benjamin Franklin said, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49,” said Thomas Jefferson.
A republic is representative government ruled by fundamental rules of law, according to the United States Constitution. A republic recognizes the unalienable truth of Gods Laws and the rights of individuals.
In truth, Jefferson never said it. The Monticello website maintained by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation files Democracy is nothing more than mob rule... under spurious quotations:
Status: We currently have no evidence to confirm that Thomas Jefferson ever said or wrote, "Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%" or any of its listed variations. We do not know the source of this statement's attribution to Thomas Jefferson.
Snopes and other debunking sites echo the curators at Tom's old home, but perhaps the most entertaining debunking is found at the ideologically-right site Conservapedia entry for Jefferson. In the "Fake Quotes" section:
Many false quotations have been attributed to Jefferson.[58]
Jefferson did NOT say, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine”.
Jefferson did write in 1787: "Societies exist under [...] governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep."[59]
Moe's argument hinges on a distinction between a democracy and a republic, yet Jefferson apparently did not hold the latter word in awe, but rather with a cautionary note by one who had seen governments of many sorts in operation.
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We turn to the New Ulm Journal article from which we drew the latter post for more MNGOP absurdity. In Daudt: No gas tax hike, Fritz Busch reports:
Daudt said there is a big battle in St. Paul that most people don't know about, between metro area "environmental extremists" and outstate Democrats that pitted Dayton against DFL Majority Leader Sen. Thomas Bakk. "Their relationship is much worse than the press reports," Daudt said.
If the tensions between Bakk and Dayton (or Bakk and his own caucus) are a secret, we're Donald Trump with better hair.
"There is a big divide in Minnesota right now," Daudt said. "It really is between the environmentalists in Minneapolis and St. Paul and those in greater Minnesota who want to see progress on projects like this."
It's clear that Daudt is attempting to brand environmental concerns as urban, while the horny-handed hardworking yeoman workers and farmers in rural areas simply groove on dirty water, nasty air and eroded soil if there's a buck to be turned.
This is something of a surprise to us here in eastern Chippewa County, a good two and a half hour drive to the state capitol if the traffic's good. Earlier this year, our area's environmental group, Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) held its annual meeting in Maynard's Event Center, with local folks leading discussions about how we might do better by water quality, slow climate change, and other riparian matters that the locals value.
We knew that Republicans are good at gerrymandering, but we had no idea those dirty hippies for clean water (the CURE staff live in Montevideo, Granite Falls and rural Renville and Big Stone Counties) were part of the Twin Cities. For Daudt and pals (including those in the DFL who share Daudt's values), it doesn't matter where environmentalists live, whether the rural folks are raising their voices about big dairies, frac sand mining, pipelines, wild rice waters or Dodge County hog farms.
They're so metro.
Photo: CURE's office in downtown Montevideo. Sort of homespun.
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With the attack of the killer (but can-able) tomatoes in our vegetable garden, it had been a couple of days since we last checked the Minnesota 7th Congressional District Republican Party's Facebook page for the delightful brew of urban legend and misinformation posted there.
We were not disappointed, for a wealth of Internet comedy had accrued there; two posts rise to the top of the bath water. We'll look at the second gem in another entry, as that nugget relates more to a seasoned flack funded by energy interests flooding a policy discussion with misinformation, material the admin dubs "some easy information."
We've placed a screenshot at the top of this section to given readers the full flavor. The MN07 GOP Facebook page admin posted this headnote above the article:
Not sure 'surrender" is the right word here. Someone Explain the use of taking an ID Picture if the State is going to allow Pictures of full cover - for Islamic Reasons? And they will try Minnesota next.
Unpacking this one will take two steps. First, as the Snopes Urban Legend Reference page notes in Hat Chancy, this take on Illinois' policy is mostly false:
WHAT’S TRUE: Illinois issued a flyer to DMV employees reiterating religious exemptions to driver’s license photo requirements after a Sikh advocacy group lodged complaints about DMV compliance.
WHAT’S FALSE: Existing state guidelines for photo ID changed under pressure from Muslim extremists and now allow Muslims to pose for ID pictures with their faces obscured.
Readers can check out the explanation, which includes the fact that while religious exemptions of head covering is allowed, the driver's face must be uncovered. Henry Haupt (Deputy Press Secretary for Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White) emphasized nothing had changed:
Illinois law allows a person to wear a religious head covering when photographed for their driver’s license or identification card, provided it does not cover the person’s face. This is because the photograph plays an integral part of identifying the holder of the driver’s license and identification card.
To clarify further with an example, a head scarf covering the hair of a customer would be allowed, but an article of clothing covering the entire face, except the eyes, would not be allowed.
In addition…. we did not change any procedures; this has simply been a public awareness effort to ensure that customers and employees are aware of the long-standing procedures that govern photos for driver’s licenses and identification cards in Illinois.
The next step? Looking at Minnesota's law. we found this help page of examples of acceptable photos online at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety website:
We also recalled that changing Minnesota's law to make everybody become bare-headed in their driver's licenses had come up sometime in recent memory, and Mr. Google quickly took us to Sharon Schmickle's March 2009 MinnPost article, Bill in Legislature prompts dispute over Muslim women's headscarves:
Muslim women dressed in flowing headscarves have become a familiar image in Minnesota's human landscape even while debate flared elsewhere over head garb worn for the sake of Islam.
Now a bill before the Minnesota Legislature shows that this state isn't immune to the global controversy.
The bill makes no mention of any religion. Instead, it would require that the full head and face be shown on driver's license photos and state ID cards except for headwear needed in connection with medical treatments or deformities.It's a simple matter of public safety, the bill's chief author Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, told the St. Cloud Times. Law enforcement officials need unobstructed images in order to identify people, and it isn't safe or fair to allow some people to partially cover their heads.
Read the rest at MinnPost. According to the revisor's page for the bill, the language was never heard in committee in either chamber. The MN07 GOP is simply and plainly ignorant of Minnesota law and recent legislative history--but that won't stop it from fear-mongering on Facebook.
For ourselves, Bluestem is grateful that DPS drew the line at allowing hipsters to wear stingy-brimmed fedoras, as there ought to be some boundaries. Seriously.
Screengrab: Another cray urban legend posted as fact by our brethren and cistern at the MN07 GOP Party Facebook page. It doesn't provoke outrage but hilarity.
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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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Bluestem Prairie has no problem with Terry Henshaw Ministries, Inc's "The 99" pitching its tent in the parking lot of the Kandi Mall in Willmar in order to evangelize the citizens of Willmar and Kandiyohi County. It's a free country.
Our great-great-grandmother's fourth (and final) husband was a circuit-riding preacher; it's an honorable profession.
West Central Tribune reporter Jacob Belguim reports:
. . .“I wanted to move from success to significance,” said The 99’s creator Terry Henshaw of his motivation for producing the show. Henshaw owned a sports complex in Tulsa, Okla., before developing The 99.
In fact, Henshaw's ministry predates "The 99," according to the Tulsa World (via ZoomInfo).
A cavernous 20,000-square-foot inflatable tent on the parking lot of the Victory Bible Institute campus soon will house a traveling production designed to save the lives of teenagers.
Terry Henshaw, director of missions for Victory Christian Center, said the realistic walk-through theater will begin a two-year tour of U.S. cities in April.
It is called "The 99" for the 99 young people who die each day of various causes, Henshaw said.
The production ushers visitors through a variety of sets with live actors illustrating the leading causes of deaths among teens.
Rooms at the end of the production will present the Christian response to the needs of teenagers, and offer visitors an opportunity to discuss what they have seen with counselors.
Impact Productions in Tulsa wrote the script and produced the soundtrack for the presentation. Nearly 30 years ago, Impact President Tom Newman produced "The Toymakers Dream," a multimedia dramatic presentation out of Victory Christian Center that traveled the world for years.
Henshaw developed "The 99" over the past two years at the direction of Victory pastor Billy Joe Daugherty.
"Victory is going after the teenagers of America," Henshaw said. . . .
Again: it's certainly Henshaw's right to conduct his ministry and the Kandi Mall to set up the tent (we're presuming it's private property).
But it's the West Central Tribune's responsibility to report the facts. Instead, there's this "moral tag" (a no-no in journalism) at the end:
The 99’s news release states that the production is “not based on fear and scare tactics, but rather is based solely on reality.”
It’s no haunted house, but it is a haunting tent.
Elsewhere in the country, the lack of disclosure has created news. In 2011, the Fairfield (CA) Daily Republic's Susan Winlow reported in ‘The 99′ raises questions at SCC:
The big white tent in the parking lot at Solano Community College generates a lot of attention.
Not all positive.
Some claim they were duped into believing it was a reality event designed to teach kids between the ages of 12 to 24 about the five leading causes of death of young people. They instead found out that the last portion of the live walk-through show is Christian-based — asking participants to pray, leading them out of the devil’s clutches toward the light of God and then offering “counselors” at the end of the presentation.
I think it really did push a lot of religion into it, especially when they asked us to pray,” said Mario Armendariz, a 17-year-old who is home-schooled locally. “I didn’t feel right praying with someone from a different religion or someone I didn’t know.”
Its religious connotation wasn’t translated to the public, said Peter Bostic, executive director of institutional advancement for the college. He called it a “good marketing job” and added that “you don’t see any sign externally about their objective from an evangelical point of view.”
A flier picked up at Crystal Middle School shows no religious affiliation and no mention that several of the rooms are religious re-enactments.
The outside of the white tent seems to list no religious affiliation. A Daily Republic reporter was refused entrance and a photographer was given minimal access — confined to the first two “rooms.” A call to its headquarters and a search of the website, http://whatisthe99.com, fail to reveal its parent entity — the founder’s name is Terry Henshaw, but that isn’t listed on the website. Its Facebook page doesn’t list its leaders and its MySpace page isn’t working.
“The website is not very revealing and I wonder if it’s deliberate,” said SCC instructor Annette Dambrosio. “It should be up front. If they want to recruit, they should be up-front about it.”
Transparent — or not?
Its overt Christian affiliation wasn’t discovered by Solano Community College until later in the game: at a Board of Trustees meeting in January. That’s when Joan West, a pastor at Liberty Christian Center — which represented “The 99″ locally — was asked if it was a faith-based event, said Jowel Laguerre, president/superintendent of the college. . ..
After West presented to the board in January and the religious affiliation was confirmed, SCC chose not to partner with the group, which would have given the group free use of the parking lot, Laguerre said. The group’s founder, Henshaw, instead signed a facilities contract with Bostic, like any other entity renting a piece of the school, at the end of April and paid $2,016 for use, according to the contract. . . .
Anyone trying to find out what is inside that big white tent in the Solano Community College parking lot will not find any answers on the event’s website.
A glance from the outside doesn’t reveal much either, only a sign saying it is the “Ultimate Near Death Experience.” . . .
Nowhere on the outside of the tent did it say anything about its blatant religious intent. How could something that started out as seemingly innocent pseudo-entertainment, turn into a lesson on eternal damnation and take itself seriously?
I wasn’t bothered by the religious message itself. It was the underhanded way in which it was presented that was so irksome. Apparently the people behind “The 99″ think that the only way to get their message across to the younger generation is to clothe it in sensationalized, B-movie gore and violence.
Do they really think that the younger generation, who is obviously target audience for “The 99,” needs to be shocked into believing?
And though organizers don't want to stress the faith element for fear that will keep some people away, there's no denying it's an integral part of the experience as well.
The last two viewing rooms feature a raw crucifixion scene with a bloodied Christ on the cross, and a shortened version of the Christian video, “The Train,” a story of a father who sacrificed his son to save a train full of passengers. The final stop is an area manned by trained “encouragers” who are standing by if spectators want to talk about issues in their lives or to hear about the Gospel and eternal salvation. . . .
He says word-of-mouth generally doubles the turnout every weekend, with some people waiting in line for as long as two hours. His main concern is that some youth might avoid the 99 if they get the impression it's “too churchy or preachy.” Promotional materials are deliberately “mysterious” instead of religious to create some buzz and intrigue.
It might be Henshaw's job to draw audiences through "mystery", but it ought not be the business of the West Central Tribune to truncate Henshaw's resume or conceal the ministry he leads. For a 2013 990 tax filing for Henshaw's ministries, read the PDF here.
We're also curious whether those figures from the CDC, upon the show drew its name in 2008, are still accurate.
Love the WC Tribune, but this article is an epic fail in reporting.
Photo: A cropped image of The 99's tent from the West Central Tribune, which accompanied the iamge with this cutline: "Workers set up Thursday in the Kandi Mall parking lot in Willmar outside the 20,000-square-foot tent that houses The 99, a live, walk-through reality theater production designed to shock. Beginning tonight, patrons can walk through and view graphic scenes of deadly consequences that young people could have been avoided if they had made smarter choices. (GARY MILLER | TRIBUNE)."
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However, a legislative update that the Glencoe Republican emailed to his list on Wednesday afternoon demonstrates that he's still the same old Glenn. His email directed readers to Weather Channel Founder Explains the History of the Global Warming Hoax, an article and video published by the Tea Party News Network.
When the Republican-controlled Minnesota House debated an energy bill earlier this year, Democrats offered an amendment that would have had the Legislature state on the record that climate change is real and caused by human activity.
The amendment failed, but the debate revealed how a national trend among Republicans is playing out in Minnesota: As public opinion on climate change shifts, the ways Republicans are talking about it are too.
In 2013, for example, state Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen took to the floor of the House floor to denounce arguments that climate change is linked to humans.
"There's more and more evidence coming that it's just a complete United Nations fraud and lie," said Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe. "The facts show that in the last 16 years there has been no global warming."
This year, Gruenhagen softened his tone during the debate over the amendment to the energy bill. When House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, asked Gruenhagen if he believed climate change is caused by people, the Republican legislator said he would defer to researchers he trusts.
"Representative Thissen, I believe there's eminently qualified scientists who disagree with that comment, and I tend to agree with those scientists," Gruenhagen said. . . .
Gruenhagen wrote in his email:
I wanted to send along a video from meteorologist and Weather Channel founder John Coleman and his thoughts on Democrats' climate change rhetoric. For years, Democrats have tried to claim that climate change (first it was global cooling, then it was global warming, now it's climate change) is an imminent danger and we must implement policies that would crush low and middle-income families in order to combat it.
Republicans proposed sensible legislation this session that would allow us to take advantage of breakthroughs in technology to make our energy sources both cleaner and cheaper. Nobody is against cleaning up our energy, but we must do it in a way that doesn't crush low and middle-income families under sky-high energy bills and other taxes.
Both Fox News and CNN have recently invited John Coleman, one of the founders of The Weather Channel and former TV meteorologist, to express his views about climate change to their national audiences. Coleman is simply an awful choice to discuss this issue. He lacks credentials, many of his statements about climate change completely lack substance or mislead, and I’m not even sure he knows what he actually believes.
To begin, Coleman hasn’t published a single peer-reviewed paper pertaining to climate change science. His career, a successful and distinguished one, was in TV weather for over half a century, prior to his retirement in San Diego last April. He’s worked in the top markets: Chicago and New York, including a 7-year stint on Good Morning America when it launched. If you watch Coleman on-camera, his skill is obvious. He speaks with authority, injects an irreverent sense of humor and knows how to connect with his viewer.
Coleman has publicly denied the scientific reality of human-caused global warming for years, telling Fox News in 2008 that he wanted to sue Al Gore, for example. There’s no new content in these latest interviews; just the usual long-debunked climate myths and conspiracy theories. Coleman is apparently considered a credible climate interviewee because he was instrumental in creating The Weather Channel 32 years ago, but he’s woefully misinformed when it comes to climate science. . . .
Several times during the Fox interview, Megyn Kelly commented that The Weather Channel will “be pushed out of existence since [Coleman has] taken this position.” In reality, Coleman was forced out of The Weather Channel in 1983, just a year after he helped found it. Coleman has had no affiliation with The Weather Channel for over 30 years. . . .
On CNN, Coleman claimed to be a scientist. He’s been a TV weatherman for over 60 years, but his degree is in journalism. In recent years he forecasted the weather in San Diego, where it generally ranges from sunny and warm to sunnier and warmer. . . .
But it's not just Gruenhagen's placement of John Coleman among "researchers he trusts" that's problematic. The Tea Party News Network itself enjoys a dubious reputation. In February 2015, most of the staff resigned over the owners' focus on "clickbait" headlines and content that rivalled TMZ.
Not that this was the first scrutiny of Todd Cefaratti, the force behind TPNN. Buzzflash reported in 2013's There's Money to Be Made in Milking the Tea Party, 'Natch! that the entrepreneur looked at the grassroots citizens movement as something of a cash cow.
Given how Gruenhagen has made it clear which "respected scientists" and publications he trusts to share with his constituents and email list, Bluestem hopes that Minnesota Public Radio will update the piece to let listeners know that Glenn just maybe might not yet be the poster child for GOP evolution on this one.
Photo: Insurance salesman and state representative Glenn Gruenhagen (top); an April 8 Facebook post on Representative Gruenhagen's official page. Whatever story MPR was pitched about softening Republican attitudes about climate change, perhaps Richert could have picked a different poster child.
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But tonight, the Willmar City Council had its own moment of zen on twitter when West Central Tribune education beat reporter Linda Vanderwerf tweeted about their fear of a tweeted planet:
#WillmarCouncil discussing whether to allow any phones in the chambers. Don't like what they say going out on #Twitter right away.
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen P.O. Box 108, Maynard MN 56260) or use the paypal button below:
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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