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Inside Brasserie Zentral

Hot off visiting his delicious and “high-class” new restaurant, Brasserie Zentral, TC Jewfolk sat down with MOT Chef Russell Klein to talk bagels, foie gras, and why he “wouldn’t touch a Jewish deli in this town with a 10-foot pole.”

If you missed Leora’s review of our lunch experience, we definitely suggest it — but not on an empty stomach. After presiding over what’s debatably the most popular restaurant in St. Paul, Meritage, Klein crossed the river to downtown Minneapolis with a much more ambitious goal in mind. “Brasserie Zentral is kind of the first part of a larger project,” he said. There’s the 150-seat fine dining brasserie, which he developed after his travels through Europe. ”France is where most people think about it, but really they’re in Germany, Austria, Hungary, all that.”

In addition, he plans a “Cafe Zentral” to open on the skyway level this summer, a wine bar called “Foreign Legion” a wine and spirits shop across the hall from the bar, and a private dining area called the “Moon Room.” All zentered on the main floor of the Soo Line Building on Marquette Avenue.

Before asking him more about Zentral, we had to address a rumor that we heard that he shipped bagels in for his Meritage brunch direct from New York — because if that were true he’d instantly have the best, and most under the radar, bagels in all the Twin Cities.

“We used to bring them in from New York,” this Queens-bred chef said. “But the shipping got outrageous.”

So where does he get them now? “St. Paul Bagelry does a decent job. It’s not, you know —  am I gonna tell you it’s as good as a New York bagel? It’s not. And no it’s not the water. But it’s good enough that honestly, for what shipping was costing me, it just wasn’t worth it anymore.”

We also heard another rumor — okay, straight from him, actually, when we visited last week — that foie gras, a big player on his Zentral menu, has a long Jewish tradition. Clearly we were still thinking about it, because we asked him about it again. “Foie gras goes all the way back to ancient Egypt, which is where they first started force feeding foie gras. How much of that was, you know, the slaves of Egypt… I don’t know.”

Foie gras is made by force feeding duck or geese to fatten their livers. It sounds miserable, but we don’t claim to be experts in the process, and there’s even some debate whether the cruel-sounding “force-feeding” is even cruel at all. However, we were more concerned with the specific intersections of Judaism and foie gras than the broader, ethical discussion. “Liver itself is not kosher, as I understand it,” said Chef Klein. (Between the foie gras at Zentral and the extensive oyster bar at Meritage, clearly Chef Klein isn’t too concerned about kashrut.) He said he spoke with a rabbi recently who confirmed that liver isn’t kosher. “But foie gras is used a lot throughout the the region. It’s a part of Jewish cooking. And schmaltz! The popular Ashkenazi cooking fat is just duck fat. “So it’s all kind of connected to the Jewish use of schmaltz.”

“There’s a book out there called Foie Gras: A Passion – it’s about 20 years old now — that has a whole chapter on the intersection of Jewish cooking and foie gras,” he said. “The guy who wrote it is a guy named Michael Ginor, who’s an Israeli Jew who started Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York.”

In terms of the Jewishness of Zentral, specifically, Klein admitted that he’s not much of a religious Jew, but “being a Jew is important to me culturally. It is my background, both sides of my family.” While there’s nothing specifically Jewish on the menu, “The area we’re talking about is sort of at the heart of the Ashkenazi Jewish life. The culture and cuisine of those areas is so intertwined with Jewish cooking that it can’t help but influence what we’re doing here.”

Finally, we couldn’t resist asking this über-talented Jewish chef when he was going to open the successful Jewish deli we’re all craving. He made it pretty clear that it would never happen. ”Let’s face it,” he said, “we’re notoriously picky people.” We needed more than that so he elaborated: “No matter what you do with a Jewish deli it’s never going to be as good as what people imagine Katz’s to be, or Carnegie or any of those places. Which, by the way, they’re not as good as they used to be either — and a lot of them were never that good to begin with. You know, we all just have this memory of them.”

He also reasoned that making an affordable deli sandwich, say pastrami on rye, is really tricky to do. “The reality is that to do a big, thick pastrami sandwich nowadays — it’s a $15, $18 sandwich. It’s very expensive. People don’t want to spend that much.”

Still, he said, “I would love to see one.” It just won’t be him opening it. For now, he’ll stick to making quality food with good service. ”What I really care about is that we’ve got a full, successful restaurant, that people are happy and want to come back. And after that, it doesn’t really matter.”

This post was written by Bradley Machov and originally published on TC Jewfolk. Follow TC Jewfolk on Twitter: @tcjewfolk.

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It might not be "Must-See TV," but there will be plenty of options tonight to watch Gov. Mark Dayton give his annual "State of the State" speech.

Those who want to watch the speech as it happens — starting at 7 p.m. — but don't want to climb up into the dark House gallery at the State Capitol, can see it many ways:

• House Public Information Services will live-stream video of the Governor’s remarks.
• PBS Stations will broadcast it live on PBS television stations statewide on the Minnesota Channel.
• MPR Stations will broadcast the speech live on affiliated radio stations statewide. The speech will also be re-broadcast at noon Thursday.
• Minnesota News Network Stations will offer a live broadcast for its affiliated radio stations statewide.
• WCCO Radio will be broadcast it live on AM830.
• StarTribune.com and the Pioneer Press will live-stream video of the Governor’s remarks on their websites.

Dayton had planned to give the speech earlier in the legislative session, but his hip at the Mayo Clinic in February led to a lengthy recovery period and delayed the speech until now.

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges has added Erick Garcia Luna to her staff as an aide for economic development and opportunity.

Garcia Luna has been working for Sen. Amy Klobuchar as Outreach Director, covering immigration, education, housing, and children and teen issues.

He was chair of the DFL Latino Caucus from 2008-2010, when it endorsed Hodges' predecessor — R.T. Rybak — in his bid for governor.

Before joining Klobuchar's staff four years ago, Garcia Luna worked on  revitalization efforts of the Central Avenue commercial corridor in Northeast Minneapolis.

Said Hodges about the appointment:

"Garcia Luna’s professional, personal and academic background make him uniquely qualified to focus on economic development, ensuring our growth is inclusive."

An immigrant from Mexico, Garcia Luna became a U.S. citizen in 2008.

Nancy Brady is returning to St. Paul's historic nonprofit Neighborhood House as its new president.

She'll start June 2. Brady has been working at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity the past eight years as Vice President of Resource Development and Communications.

Before that, she'd run the fundraising effort to build the the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center for Community Building, which is Neighborhood House's home on St. Paul's West Side.

Neighborhood House has operated as a social service agency for 117 years and is best known for its aid to St. Paul's many waves of immigrants from many countries.

Sally Scoggin, chair of the Neighborhood House board of directors, said in a statement:

"(Brady) is a mission driven, results-oriented leader with a deep commitment to partnering with individuals, families, and communities seeking to create brighter futures."

Brady replaces Armando Camacho, who left last year to head Opportunity Partners, the Minnetonka-based nonprofit that provides services for people with disabilities.

Joy Powell of the Strib talks with a few Byron Smith jurors … . “[T]wo jurors, speaking just hours after their verdicts were delivered, said the picture of Smith that emerged from days of often chilling testimony was of a man who methodically planned for a violent confrontation rather than a homeowner surprised by intruders. Several other jurors declined to comment in detail, saying only that it was a tough case to hear but not a tough one to decide.”

“Major changes” at Cedar-Riv will be an improvement … . Says Eric Roper in the Strib, “When the Green Line light rail opens on June 14, Cedar-Riverside will be the only area outside of downtown Minneapolis served by two LRT lines. To coincide with that, the Cedar Cultural Center is planning a new multi-use ‘destination’ plaza to improve the outdoor realm near the Riverside Plaza towers. A simultaneous $1.7 million Cedar Avenue street reconstruction this summer will widen sidewalks, add pedestrian lighting and create additional on-street parking.”

Today in gun-grabbin’ and trampling on your precious Second Amendment rights … . The AP story says, “The Minnesota House has passed a bill banning gun possession by people convicted of certain abuse crimes or subject to restraining orders. The bipartisan measure marks a rare instance where lawmakers appear ready to tighten gun restrictions.” You can read MinnPost's analysis here.

Nice try, Al and Amy. Brett Neely of MPR notes, “DFL Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar both voted in favor of opening debate on legislation that would have raised the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, the level proposed by President Barack Obama during his January State of the Union address. While the measure got the support of 54 senators, it won’t advance because of a Republican-led filibuster that required 60 votes to break.”

A decline in HIV cases … . Christopher Snowbeck of the PiPress says, “The annual tally of new HIV cases in Minnesota dropped slightly last year, the state health department reported Wednesday. The state tabulated 301 new cases during 2013, down 4 percent from 314 new cases the previous year. Among people living with AIDS and the virus that causes it, racial and ethnic minority groups along with men who have sex with men continue to be over-represented, the health department said.”

Here’s one for that “only in Minnesota” ad campaign … . Angela Davis of WCCO-TV reports, “Head north of the Twin Cities along the shores of Lake Mille Lacs and you’ll find some residents dealing with large piles of ice being blown onto shore — and creeping towards their homes. With the month of May just two days away, trees should be showing some signs of spring, but trees along Lake Mille Lacs are showing signs of distress. They’re split and shoved by creeping ice.”

The poor dears. From the Los Angeles Times, Kevin Baxter, covering the Dodgers writes, “What's worse than playing 16 baseball games in 16 days? How about 16 games in 15 days? That's the challenge facing the Dodgers after Tuesday's game in Minnesota was postponed by rain and cold. … All those plans depend on the weather, of course. And in Minneapolis in April, that's not a good thing to depend on. Forecasts for Wednesday and Thursday call for near-freezing temperatures and a mix of snow and rain.” BTW … temperatures around Dodger Stadium yesterday were close to 100.

Intimidated by transparency? Scott Bauer of the AP says, “Gov. Scott Walker did not disclose Wednesday how much he was paid to write a book he released last fall, providing only the bare minimum required on a statement of economic interest form he filed with state regulators. The form showed Walker received payment of more than $1,000 from his publisher for ‘Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge,’ which was released in November.” I like Zach Galifinakis as Scott Walker in the movie version.

Also next door … . The AP says, “A dance coach fired after her team performed to an edited version of Robin Thicke's popular but racy hit ‘Blurred Lines’ has filed a discrimination complaint with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. Coach Lisa Joling says in her complaint that male coaches who allowed more egregious songs to be played in locker rooms or at school functions faced no penalties.”

We have a winner … . Erin Adler of the Strib reports, “Hundreds of juniors wearing Google t-shirts flooded the auditorium at Burnsville High School Tuesday morning, but the reason for the impromptu assembly was a mystery. After a half-hour presentation on the magic of Google by two company employees, they learned why they were celebrating: Junior Paul Nong was named Minnesota's winner of the 2014 ‘Doodle 4 Google’ contest. Nong will fly to Google's headquarters in California, all expenses paid, on May 21 to find out if his drawing, titled ‘The Dream Machine,’ makes it into the top five nationally.”

Can you tolerate more celebrity “news”? Details magazine has an interview with Minnesotan Josh Hartnett, on why he’s back here instead of living the full tilt movie star dream in LA. The chat with Benjamin Svetkey goes like this: DETAILS: "At the height of your success, after Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down, you disappeared to Minnesota, where you grew up." Why? Josh Hartnett: "I was on the cover of every magazine. I couldn't really go anywhere. I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. I was alone. I didn't trust anyone. So I went back to Minnesota and got back together with my old friends — ended up getting back together with my high-school girlfriend for a while — and I didn't do any filming for 18 months. I'm still finding my way through all that.” I know you all have had such problems.

ROCHESTER — As a practicing physician, I have devoted much of the past 30 years to studying and treating patients with nicotine addiction. At the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center, we have developed a model of treating tobacco dependence, which has been emulated around the country and in many other parts of the world.

Dr. Richard D. Hurt

We have received many questions about "e-cigarettes," which probably are better designated as electronic nicotine delivery devices. E-cigarette use has exploded in popularity here in Minnesota and elsewhere, with many people saying they're using them to quit or reduce their smoking.

The ultimate role e-cigarettes will play in helping smokers stop smoking conventional cigarettes is simply not known yet. Initial studies have drawn different conclusions about their effectiveness as an aid to help people stop smoking, with the most credible suggesting they may not be especially useful for this purpose.

E-cigarettes have not been approved by the FDA and no treatment protocols exist for using them to help smokers stop. Moreover, promotions for the devices (which in many cases are made by the same tobacco companies that sell conventional cigarettes) advocate that they be used recreationally or as a way around smoke-free policies.

Time will tell if they may someday be a tool for helping smokers quit, but for the moment there is not scientific consensus around that point.

Research on the effects of inhaling e-cigarette vapor also is in its early stages. Studies done so far suggest that vapor is indeed less harmful than the smoke of combustible cigarettes, but it's worth pointing out that it is not as safe as breathing clean air. Studies have found metals and toxic chemicals in the vapor.

Different 'recipes'

There's no regulation of e-cigarette manufacture, and because individual shops may use different "recipes" to make the solutions, it's impossible to speak definitively about what chemicals they contain. And of course, because they are so new to the scene, any long-term effects of breathing the vapor can't be known yet.

In the Minnesota Legislature, lawmakers have proposed updating the statewide smoke-free law so that it applies to e-cigarettes. This move is a scientifically prudent one, and is consistent with what we do know about e-cigarettes.

First, while many smokers say they are using e-cigarettes to try to quit, in fact at this time we know that most e-cigarette users are also still using combustible tobacco products, too. The relationship between smoking and e-cigarettes is not yet fully understood, but research shows dual use of different types of tobacco products can make it more difficult — not easier — to quit.

Smoke-free policies such as the Freedom to Breathe Act, on the other hand, are proven to move smokers away from tobacco, by making tobacco use less convenient and quitting more desirable.

Second, allowing e-cigarette use in public creates a positive association around smoking-type behaviors not seen in our state since the smoke-free law was passed seven years ago. This is of special concern when it comes to children.

Appeal to youth

There has not yet been sufficient study on the role e-cigarettes may play in youth tobacco initiation, but we know they do have appeal for kids. Data from the CDC show a recent uptick of e-cigarette use by school-aged students who do not smoke, and an even larger one by youth who use both combustible and e-cigarettes.

The fact that e-cigarettes are sold in candy flavors (a ploy that we know, from secret tobacco industry documents released through the Minnesota tobacco lawsuit, was deliberately used to hook children on tobacco in the past) makes this even more worrisome. Obviously, children becoming addicted to nicotine is something any reasonable person should want to prevent.

It likely will be years before scientific consensus around e-cigarettes is reached. In the meantime, keeping them out of public spaces where clean air is protected is a reasonable, justified approach.

Dr. Richard D. Hurt is a professor of medicine and emeritus director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at Mayo Clinic. This commentary originally appeared in the Rochester Post-Bulletin and is republished with permission.

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If you're interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, email Susan Albright at salbright@minnpost.com.)

For the first time since 2009, a Minnesota pro sports team not named the Lynx actually beat another pro sports team in a playoff round. Congrats to the Minnesota Wild, 5-4 overtime winners over Colorado in Game 7. The Strib's Mike Russo has the gamer. Columns from Tom Powers, Jim Souhan and most excellent loser lamentationsfrom the Denver Post. Trust us, legal potsters, we know the feeling. It's on to face the Blackhawks. 

Speaking of pot ... the Senate is taking a stand for it, and it isn’t making the cops happy. Patrick Condon of the Strib says, “Minnesota police officers, sheriffs and prosecutors pushed back hard Wednesday against legalizing marijuana for medical use, as a proposal to do just that picks up steam in the state Senate. … ‘It will end up in the hands of our children,’ said John Kingrey, executive director of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association. ‘It will result in more kids being arrested for possession of marijuana. We believe it sends the unintended message to our youth that marijuana is a safe substance.’"

At The Huffington Post Jon Sherman, an elections lawyer, looks at the quick turn-around here over online voter registration.“[I]t is to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's credit that Minnesota now has permanent online voter registration going forward. ... More than 3,600 Minnesotans used the online system since September. The lesson here is that pushing the envelope in creating new opportunities to register and cast a ballot can drive change in the Legislature. Here, an administrative reform forced legislators to play catch-up and effectively ratify an instantly popular, forward-thinking reform.”

Speaking of voting, or registering to vote, or contriving ways to keep the wrong kind of people from voting … . Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin State Journal reports, “Gov. Scott Walker and a top lawmaker said Wednesday they see little chance they could pass a voter ID law that would overcome Tuesday's decision by a Milwaukee federal court judge overturning the requirement. Any new law would have to be approved by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who not only struck down the voter ID law but also enjoined the state from enacting any similar requirement, said John Ulin, an attorney who represented civil-rights groups and individuals challenging the law.”

Gov. Mark Dayton gave his State of the State speech late in the session this year; reviews are it was an opener for the 2014 campaign. MPR's Tim Pugmire says he emphasized a bigger, $1.2 billion bonding bill the GOP again rejected. The Strib's Baird Helgesen leads with more education and transportation spending. Quick: does anyone not paid to do so remember last year's State of the State?

Will the Affordable Care Act actually cost Minnesota school districts $200 million, as Republicans now allege? MPR's Catherine Richert says it's not at all clear. The ACA does mandate employers provide not-quite-fulltime workers health care, and school systems have many such workers. Richert notes nine of 22 districts surveyed say ACA will cost them nothing, and there are strategies (such as hours reductions) that could mitigate costs. The latter is an ACA vulnerability the GOP has also focused on.

I suspect one of the little piggies on Capitol Hill … .The AP reports,“A group that's fighting to stop Minnesota's wolf hunt is howling mad after running afoul of the spam filter on the state House email system. Howling for Wolves founder Maureen Hackett said tens of thousands of emails sent via the group's website to Minnesota House members were blocked since August, blunting the momentum they were trying to build for suspending the state's wolf hunting and trapping season. Hackett said she's firmly convinced it was a deliberate act.”

Bad for wolves … good for moose. The AP says,“Isle Royale National Park's inbred gray wolf population remains dangerously low for a third consecutive year, while the moose on which they feed have doubled during the same period — trends that could lead to long-term problems for the Lake Superior archipelago's ecosystems, scientists said Wednesday. … the moose population rose to about 1,050, according to a report by Peterson and co-director John Vucetich obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release. That's a sharp jump from the 515 counted in 2011.”

With as much plastic surgery and scripting as the others … ? Fargo News Service reports, “The cable television network Bravo has announced a reality show based on the city and the growing wealth of individuals cashing in on the oil boom. According to a news release, the city of Minot is the scene of a ‘modern day Gold Rush with individuals and families from all over the country flocking to this unexpectedly wealthy area for a chance to strike it rich and ask 'Why Not, Minot?'"

They were ready for their close-up … . Says Jill Callison in the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, “When Ryan Veldhuizen first was contacted about appearing in a film about farming, well, let's just say he didn't rush to return the call. Veldhuizen and his three siblings, the fourth generation to farm land north of Edgerton, Minn., figured it was some kind of scam. … the documentary ‘Farmland’ ‘takes an intimate look at the lives of American farmers and ranchers in their 20s, all of whom are now responsible for running their farming businesses.’"

The young lady has both a voice and soul … . KMSP-TV’s Lindsey LaBelle puts up Facebook video of Molly Kestner of Austin singing a song she also wrote. “Molly Kate Kestner, a senior at Austin High School, posted a song called ‘His Daughter’ about a girl who was abandoned by an alcoholic father.”

Before panicked medical personnel in Oklahoma’s death chamber flipped down the blinds, witnesses saw a scene that one described as “incredibly difficult to watch”: the condemned man groaned, struggled, lifted his head, and said, “man” and “something’s wrong.”

Oklahoma’s first test of a new lethal drug combination failed disastrously Tuesday evening. Instead of a painless death, as intended, Clayton Lockett appeared to suffer. Gov. Mary Fallin said prison officials deny that Mr. Lockett ever regained consciousness before they administered a second dose of drugs intended to painlessly stop his breathing and his heart.

But on Wednesday she ordered an investigation into what happened. Preliminary testimony suggests there was a problem with the injection, not the drugs, state officials say.

The incident, which ended when Mr. Lockett died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the “cocktail” of three drugs was first injected, immediately raised legal challenges on Eighth Amendment grounds – that Oklahoma failed to protect Lockett from “cruel and unusual” punishment.

“I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of [a humane] standard,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said during a regular briefing Wednesday.

But more broadly, the botched execution is raising questions about what society will accept in the course of states carrying out the death penalty, a punishment that a majority of Americans still support. One central question, legal experts say, is whether the current problems with lethal injections will pass or whether they might lead to deeper reviews of the death penalty.

“I don’t expect that this one incident will be in itself the straw that breaks the camel’s back and leads to the abolition of the death penalty, but clearly it was deeply troubling, and clearly a lot of people are going to be troubled by it,” says Rick Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.

“Most Americans who support the death penalty still believe that it needs to be administered in a way that’s humane, and that’s possible, but difficult, to do,” he adds. “The conversation about what we the people are going to do will be affected by” botched executions like the one Tuesday in Oklahoma.

Lockett’s apparently painful death came only a few months after a convicted murderer and rapist in Ohio, Dennis McGuire, gasped and convulsed for 10 minutes after a lethal injection. Lethal injections should just take a few minutes to take effect and cause death.

Lockett, a convicted rapist, was on death row for shooting a woman, Stephanie Nieman, and then watching two confederates bury her alive.

The problems have arisen after the European Union in 2011 banned companies from selling drugs used in executions to American states. That has forced states to try new drugs and new suppliers. After new suppliers came under pressure for enabling executions, some states have agreed to keep suppliers' names confidential. This has raised questions about the quality of the drugs.

It has also forced states to come up with new lethal injection cocktails and procedures, and that has led to mistakes like the one in Oklahoma.

Notably, the botched execution Tuesday upset many conservative death penalty supporters.

“Promoted as a more humane way to carry out the death penalty (Ronald Reagan once compared it putting a horse to sleep), the evidence shows that it’s nothing of the sort. The sheer complexity of lethal-injection protocols, furthermore, makes continued screw-ups almost inevitable,” writes Eli Lehrer, in the conservative National Review. “These errors cross the line into torture.”

Richard Ablow used even stronger language on Fox News, suggesting that Lockett’s “tortured death exposed the sinfulness of the death penalty and the amoral reasoning of those who support it.”

In many respects, such strong words are surprising. The death penalty is “part of the identity of our country … a tree deeply rooted in the ground,” says Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York.

But the fact that Oklahoma botched another execution in January, when a convicted man complained that his body “was burning” after the drug injections – and that the White House weighed in Wednesday – makes this execution stand out, she says.

A lot attention had already been paid to Lockett’s execution because of the legal wrangling about Oklahoma's determination to keep its suppliers secret. Medical experts had warned that Oklahoma’s lethal injection cocktail was untested and likely to be “highly problematic,” Professor Denno says.

Others saw the botched process more as evidence of flaws in the lethal injection protocol, not the death penalty itself, which 6 out of 10 Americans still support on moral grounds.

“A botched execution in which death results only after the unanticipated and unintentional infliction of pain and suffering is an awful thing,” writes Andrew McCarthy, also in the conservative National Review. “It bears remembering, though, that the main objective of lethal injection is to render the death penalty as painless as possible – we are not talking here about criminal recklessness or depraved indifference to human life.”

A second inmate, Charles Warner, was scheduled to be executed in the same chamber on Wednesday, but his execution was stayed for two weeks by Governor Fallin after Tuesday's problems.

Sunday print sales fell 5.1 percent at the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, according to a report released Thursday by the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM).

However, the shift to digital is very evident in the report, which covers the six months ending March 2014. The Pioneer Press's Sunday "digital replica"— a print-paper PDF — posted a 61 percent circulation gain, while the Strib's rose 17.2 percent. And Strib's Sunday "non-replica" circulation — basically, digital subscribers who vault the pay wall — rose 14.4 percent.

Sunday print editions carry the most advertising, and has traditionally been a publisher's most profitable day by far. The AAM report only covers circulation, not revenue or profit, so it's unclear about the effect on each paper's bottom line.

Overall, the Strib has 500,189 Sunday buyers, down 2.4 percent from the March 2013 period. The Pioneer Press, with 272,413 print and digital replica buyers, was up 2.1 percent.

The St. Paul paper also reported 18,000 digital non-replica readers who use the paper's app; in the past, those have not been paid subscribers, though owner Digital First Media has begun to implement a pay wall. Including the 18,000 gives the PiPress a Sunday total of 290,413 readers, also up 2.1 percent from a year ago.

Digital circulation now makes up 22 percent of the PiPress's Sunday readers and 12 percent of the Strib's.

On weekdays, the Strib averaged 210,486 print buyers, down 7.6 percent. Digital replica sales fell 7.9 percent, to 45,685. However, digital-only weekday sales soared 88.4 percent, to 45,323. Overall, 30.2 percent of paying Strib weekday readers are digital.

The PiPress changed its weekday reporting period to Wednesday-Thurday (its two biggest weekdays) averaging 150,118. In comparison, roughly 75,000 pay for Monday and Tuesday print. The paper has long shifted subscribers from 7-day print to digital-only on slower sales days. Total Wednesday-Thursday sales hit 217,968, or 239,968 if you count all reported readers.

On Wednesday and Thursday, 31 percent of PiPress readers are digital; 37 percent if you count app readers.

Because of AAM rules, one subscriber could be counted three times, if she or he bought the print edition, paid for an e-replica, and purchased or used an app.

This was not so much a State of the State address delivered by Gov. Mark Dayton Wednesday night as it was a long outline as to the upcoming campaign.

You could tell by the standing ovations where the lines will be drawn in the governor’s race — as well as legislative races.

The unofficial tally showed DFL legislators rose to their feet and cheered on eight occasions. They were joined only once by their Republican peers.

The universal standing O came when the governor spoke of how well the state’s fourth graders ranked on national tests. Fourth graders tested No. 1 in the nation in math, and the achievement gap between white and minority students was cut by 10 points. 

It’s pretty safe and sound politics to give ovations to high-performing school kids.

More interestingly, was when DFLers stood and cheered, sometimes with gusto, and their Republican counterparts sat silent.

Dayton credited DFL “investment’’ policies with Minnesota having the fifth-fastest growing economy in the country.

DFLers were up and applauding. Republicans were silent.

Dayton called for a $1.2 billion bonding bill “because I’m for jobs.’’

DFLers up, Republicans seated.

Dayton called for funding for free lunches. “No child should be shamed because parents can’t afford lunch.’’

DFLers up, Republicans down.

The governor called for legislators to make transportation funding a top priority next session.

DFLers up, Republicans down.

The governor admitted “MNsure didn’t start well’’ (that’s an understatement) but then embraced both MNsure and the federal Affordable Care Act.

DFLers up, Republicans down.

He praised the legislature’s passage of “marriage equality’’ last session.

DFLers up and proudly roaring. Republicans silent.

Dayton praised the raising the minimum wage, though added it’s still too small to pull people out of poverty.

DFLers wildly cheering. Republicans totally silent.

Dayton said that by 2018 “all 3- and 4-year-olds in Minnesota will have access to quality, affordable early childhood education.’’

DFLers up, Republicans down.

So, in a 47-minute speech, Dayton laid out how he — and DFL legislators — would like to see the upcoming campaigns play out.

A couple of times, Dayton even took on issues that he must know could prove to be a weakness for him in the campaign ahead.

For example, he not only took ownership of the controversial Vikings’ stadium,  embraced it.

“There would not be a new stadium under construction in Minneapolis without the financial support of the city and the state of Minnesota,’’ he proclaimed. “7,500 construction workers will have jobs building that stadium over the next couple years. Over one-third of them will be people of color.’’

He added that the stadium has led to the $400 million “private sector development’’ by Wells Fargo being built presumably because of the stadium.

DFLers applauded, but didn’t stand. Republicans sat silent.

Not surprisingly, Republicans had a vastly different view of the state of the state. Not only did Senate minority leader David Hann and House minority leader Kurt Daudt rip the speech and the DFL philosophy of spending (DFLers use the term “investing’’), a trio of GOP gubernatorial candidates — Sen. Dave Thompson, Rep. Kurt Zellars and former House member Marty Seifert — took post-speech shots, too.

All said essentially the same thing. DFL tax policies are driving businesses and jobs out of the state.

Thompson went so far as to say he sees “economic clouds on the horizon.’’

It was Seifert, however, who made the most interesting post-speech comments. He talked about how “60 to 70 per cent’’ of the statistics Dayton used to bolster his points, likely would have been used by a GOP governor.

It was a valid point. Any governor can turn to any commissioner to come up with stats that support the policies they espouse. 

It was clear from post-speech comments by the GOP that “Obamacare’’ and “MNsure’’ are going to be campaign issues. All sorts of numbers are going to be flying out of each campaign about whether people are better, or worse off, on the health care front.

Several of the Republicans noted that Dayton made no mention of the Senate office building that’s going to be constructed. Obviously,  they mean to make that $77 million project a campaign issue.

Education issues also are going to be prominent in the upcoming months. Some of those issues will be subtle.

For example, Dayton seems to sense a growing tide of opposition to the amount of testing that’s being conducted in schools across the state. He wants the Department of Education to come up with a plan that would eliminate some of the testing.

“Many children come to school terrified on test days, then go home demoralized,’’ he said. “What purpose does it serve to send a third-grader home believing she has failed life, because she may have performed poorly on a test?’’

The GOP viewpoint is strikingly different. Tests, they believe, show if the state is getting value for the money being put into schools. 

Daudt drew the clearest line in the sand on criticism that testing is creating too much anxiety and taking away from learning time.

“We’ve got the best teachers in the country,’’ Daudt said. “We need to push our students harder.’’

Surprisingly, some in the GOP were critical that Dayton’s speech came so late in the session. The State of the State message typically is given at the start of the session, not as it’s about to wrap up.

But Dayton was still in painful recovery from back surgery, thus the long postponement.  That he’s still in recovery mode was obvious from the outset. Typically, governors make a triumphant walk, amid pomp, ceremony, handshaking and backslapping, down the center aisle of the House chamber as they go to the lectern for their speech.

On this occasion, Dayton entered from the rear of the chamber, avoiding the long, ceremonial walk and the glad-handing that goes with it.

The late date did change the tenor of the speech. Typically, the address is supposed to set the tone for the upcoming session.

Other than bonding — Dayton wants $1.2 billion, the Republicans insist they had a handshake deal from last year calling for an $850 million bonding lid — this session is virtually history. 

Dayton was even talking about what should happen in 2015.

“He spent a lot of time talking about next year,’’ said Hann. “We don’t know who’s going to be governor next year.’’

On this night of standing ovations, how many times did Daudt stand for this governor.

“Once,’’ said Daudt. “When he came in.’’

Gil Penalosa, who has worked in 165 cities around the world helping citizens improve their communities, comes to town May 5-9  to share ideas about “getting Minneapolis-St. Paul to shift from being a good place to being a great place for all.”

Penalosa, former parks commissioner in Bogotá, Colombia, and now executive director of Toronto-based 8-80 Cities, will examine innovative urban initiatives throughout our cities and suburbs as part of the third annual Placemaking Residency, which involves 19 local organizations and government agencies.  He will offer observations and recommendations at a dozen public events (including a Spanish-language presentation in South Minneapolis sponsored by the Metropolitan Council) and will headline the 20th annual Great River Gathering. 

“Gil will have an intensive immersion in Twin Cities neighborhoods, meet with citizens, go on walking tours, even take part in a game show at the Amsterdam Bar, all of which will spark a wide and robust conversation about our future,” says Patrick Seeb, executive director of the St. Paul Riverfront Corporation, principal sponsor of the residency. “We invited him to inspire us to strive for being best in the world. He’s going to push us to think beyond Milwaukee or Chicago.”

Janette Sadik-Khan, the visionary New York City transportation commissioner who improved the city with bike lanes and pedestrian plazas, calls Penalosa “the pied piper of sustainable transportation.”

'You can be world-class'

In a phone interview from Toronto (during one of his rare visits home over the Easter weekend), Penalosa noted that he’s visited the Twin Cities several times.

“I had a fantastic time in the parks and walked, biked and ran on the magnificent trails. I feel that there is a lot of room for improvement especially in sustainable mobility: walking, cycling and transit. In parks, as in everything, there is room for improvement too. You can be world-class.”

Photo by Nancy Paiva

Gil Penalosa

Over the past several years, he’s visited 85 North American cities and 80 throughout the rest of the world researching what makes a great place for people of all ages and incomes. His conclusions: 1) vibrant public spaces and parks; 2) safe streets for all users; 3) comfortable options for biking and walking; 4) fast, convenient public transit; 5) public officials willing to collaborate with communities.  

The documentary “Finding Vivian Maier”– now showing at the Edina Cinema and available on On Demand – is a must-see for anyone with an appetite for art, history and mystery, and whose subject brings to mind such famous creative recluses as Emily Dickinson and J.D. Salinger, not to mention the concept of the artist as a necessarily solitary creature as celebrated in Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist.”

John Maloof

It’s also the story of the dogged passion and detective work of one John Maloof, the Chicago historian and gumshoe journalist who co-directed “Finding” with Charlie Siskel. Maloof discovered Maier’s work and has spent the last few years of his life almost single-handedly making sure it’s not forgotten. “Finding Vivian Maier,” then, is the ultimate fan-boy doc. Or is it?

“This film wasn’t about proving Vivian’s worth to the world by saying, ‘Hey everybody, look! The artist tastes good, please believe us,’ ” said Maloof by phone from his home in Chicago. “It’s not about that. It’s a good story, and the story is about a nanny who took 100,000 photos and never showed them to anybody, and she’s a really interesting, fascinating character.”

At this point, Maloof probably knows the enigmatic artist better than anyone. Even better, perhaps, than the enigmatic artist knew herself.

“It’s a strange thing to know someone without ever meeting them – so well, and more than probably anybody,” he said. “I have all of her stuff, I was able to talk to more people that knew her than anybody, and that’s what this film was about. The discovery of her work was not the most probable thing to happen because I’m the most unlikely person to find it and the most unlikely person to realize what it was [worth] because I wasn’t a photographer. Other people who did have it were more likely to realize what they had than me, but I was buying their boxes from them.”

In 2007, Maloof was working on a Chicago history book when he came upon a box of Maier’s photos and negatives. He purchased it for a few hundred bucks from an estate-sale auction house that had acquired the photographs from a storage locker that had been sold off after Maier was no longer able to pay her fees. None of the photos made the book, but Maloof was floored by the quality and breadth of the work. When he Googled “Vivian Maier,” not a single result came up, so he created a blog and posted several of the photos to positive reviews but no information about the photographer.

“They went viral,” said Maloof. “People loved them instantly.”

Courtesy of the Maloof Collection

Chicago, Illinois

He put the box in a closet and forgot about the photos until he Googled Maier again in 2009, only to find a weeks-old Chicago Tribune obituary of the woman who would become the focal point of his life for the next few years. He then started acquiring as much of the rest of her work as he could, and began cobbling together her biography in earnest.

“It was a lot of work, this detective work,” he said. “I’m compulsive – or I should say ‘obsessive’ – so I’d track down these leads and sometimes they’d pay off and sometimes they wouldn’t. I found 90 people who knew her.”

What he discovered was a portrait of the artist as a loner, and a mean-to-borderline abusive nanny who took live-in jobs with wealthy Chicago area families to support her work as a talented fine-arts photographer and visionary closet photojournalist. Born in 1926 in New York, she was a product of her times and something of a pioneer to the digital photo multitudes of today, capturing for the sheer love of it the life, people, architecture and street scenes of Chicago in the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. But for as much as she connected with the world via her camera, Maier remained alone and mostly unloved.

“If she wasn’t a fascinating character, I wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to find out what was up with her,” said Maloof. “Why didn’t she show the work, why was she a nanny, why did she take all these photos, all these questions we had. And to see the things she was photographing, and the humor, and the empathy for people, you get the feeling that this woman … I mean, she was like a punk rock nanny in a way.

“She didn’t care what anybody thought about her, at all. Not one bit. She didn’t need to show her photos to get off. She never had a need to show and be validated or satisfied, but to fill that need she kept going, and she kept going strong. She didn’t need any of this validation from the art world or her peers. She was a nanny. She took care of kids.

“One of the things I really loved about her was that she grew up rough. She was poor, and so she never knew that [affluent] side, but she was living in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago and she was taking these children to go see culture, because she knew these kids were never going to see where their food came from. She took them to the stockyards of Chicago: ‘This is the food you’re eating.’ She’d take them on the L [train], here and there, and I thought that was so cool.”

By accident or by design, Maier’s canon was created away from the glare of the outside world. She was either too sensitive to criticism or indifferent to outside influence, or it may never have occurred to her to share her work. From what we know, she was an observer who sublimated her own ego and life for her work, and who lurked in the shadows to avoid distraction and enhance her concentration. The result is a single-mindedness and vision born of a long-gone era.

“That’s one of the things that really compels me to know more and also to have so much respect for her, because she did this for herself,” said Maloof. “She’s a true artist. She wasn’t doing this to submit to LIFE magazine or to show off to other photographers or galleries that she’s better than someone else, or just as good as someone else. She didn’t do that. She didn’t need that. She knew that her photos were good, and she kept going, and it’s all that she knew and that’s all that she did and it’s all she needed.

“Most people I think really want to be that person that doesn’t need somebody to validate them. If you look at Twitter or Facebook, all it is is people showing off what they’re doing, or trying to get somebody to favorite or tout or get somebody to pay attention to them. She didn’t need any of that to be happy, and I think a lot of people really wish they could be like that and still be happy — but it’s not the case, especially in this social media era.”

Maloof isn’t the only Maier preservationist. After his discovery, Chicago artist, cabinet maker, and collector Jeff Goldstein bought a box of 12,000 prints and has curated exhibitions in galleries all over the world, including a recently-made-permanent showing at the Minneapolis Photo Center.

Which is fine by Maloof, who regularly collaborates with Goldstein and said his main mission is to ensure that Maier’s work is discovered by as many people as possible.

“I’ve turned down a lot of press because enough, I’ve had enough,” he said. “I don’t want to annoy people by doing this or that. Her story and her work has a life of its own and I had nothing to do with that. And if you look online you’ll see that all these publications are just publishing the hell out of her photos and what’s important is what went viral first. We didn’t know anything about her. It was the photos. It was only the photos. There was no backstory. So that says a lot about the actual work, standing alone.”

Of all the arts, photography has arguably been impacted most by digital technology. Film, dark rooms, negatives, and even prints have been rendered archaic, now the sole domain of serious artists. In these days when anyone can make genuinely stunning digital photographs, it’s safe to say we’ll never see another Vivian Maier, who meandered, wandered, and whiled away her days on the streets of Chicago and beyond.

“Things were a lot slower then,” said Maloof. “People didn’t have phones on them, constantly checking in on what their hundreds and thousands of friends were doing. It was a world when you could live in your own bubble, and that was perfectly OK because everyone was disconnected.

“As a photographer, I’m fairly in tune with the community as it is, and people always complain about digital photography and phones and that there’s so much noise: ‘How am I going to get my work to be seen? How am I going to be able to separate my work from all this noise?’ People are posting photos of all their cats and dogs and everything, and I would say that those photos of your cats and dogs aren’t taken to show in a gallery, they aren’t taken to say ‘This is my art.’ They’re taken to describe something.

“There’s a big separation there. All those photos are not meant to be shown in a gallery. Vivian’s photos were shot with her Rolleiflex [camera], medium format film, black and white, and they have a very romantic thing about them. She captured depth of field and detail. And also the fact that it was shot on film, and shot by a person who carefully composed it for her art – that’s a big difference from opening your phone and hitting off five shots of your new car.”

Courtesy of the Maloof Collection

Self portrait, 1954

At its heart, “Finding Vivian Maier” is a moving and inspirational film – to no one more so than Maloof himself. He’s taken up photography in order to get closer to Maier, and their bond as depicted in “Finding Vivian Maier” is matter-of-factly mystical. Every late, great unknown artist should have a champion like Maloof (it says here that Vivian Maier is dancing in her grave – because her work is known worldwide and she never had to attend one of her own openings), and the film is a lesson in the values of passion and curiosity. “When we are moved by art we are grateful that the artist lived, grateful that he labored in the service of his gifts,” wrote Lewis Hyde in his important 1983 book “The Gift: Creativity and The Artist in the Modern World,” and to that end Maloof has done the world a great service.

“This is something we didn’t really touch on in the film, because there’s only so much you can put in there,” he said. “When I bought the box, it was for a book, which is known, but nobody knows that I wasn’t a photographer at the time. I didn’t know anything about photography, really. Seriously, I didn’t know anything about what good work was. So when I started to scan the work in after I finished the book, I was interested in the things that people clearly don’t see that strongly about in her work, like the Chicago cityscapes and skyscrapers and architecture.

“So I would take my camera, my little point and shoot, and take photos of the same things. So her inspiring me to go take photos, even in that little clumsy way, I got hooked on photography. I started to read books and took a class on how to develop and print negatives, I bought a film camera, and I was scanning her work and hitting the streets taking photos, and I learned that her work was way better than I originally thought. So in doing that, I am now a photographer. And I realized, in doing that, she taught me photography, and so I have a very emotional connection to the work because of that.”

To be sure, Maloof has an emotional connection to Maier, and “Finding Vivian Maier” is his homage.

 “It’s nice that it’s finished and in theaters and getting really good reviews, so we’re happy,” he said. “Anderson Cooper tweeted about it, so that was pretty sweet.”

Minnesota is ranked first among all 50 states and the District of Columbia on the 2014 edition of the Commonwealth Fund’s Scorecard on State Health Performance, which was released Wednesday.

The scorecard measured 42 health indicators, including insurance coverage, vaccination rates, preventable hospital visits, obesity, suicide rates, smoking rates and cancer deaths from 2007 to 2012 — just before the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) began to be implemented.

That’s not to say that Minnesota scored well on all 42 indicators. We ranked 37^th, for example, in the category “children ages 19 to 35 months who received all recommended seven doses of vaccines” and 48^th in the category “home health patients whose wounds improved or healed after an operation.”

Some of Minnesota’s scores also worsened during the five years covered by the study. Those categories included “adults who went without care because of cost in the past year,” “the risk-adjusted 30-day mortality among Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia,” and “children ages 10-17 who are overweight or obese.”

But, overall, we did better than any other state — including neighboring Wisconsin, which ranked seventh overall on the scorecard.

In fact, most states either failed to improve or did worse on 34 of the indicators (the ones for which long-term data is available).

“No state is making widespread progress toward the achievable outcomes that all individuals should expect considering the substantial and increasing resources devoted to health care in the United States,” note Douglas McCarthy, a senior research director for the Commonwealth Fund, and two colleagues in a commentary about the scorecard report that appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Indeed, as the report itself points out, annual health-care spending in the United States increased by $491 billion to $2.8 trillion during the scorecard’s five-year time frame — a period that included the Great Recession.

“Spending increased in all states on both a per-capita basis and as a share of total state income. And still, the Scorecard points to deteriorating access to care for adults, stagnant or worsening performance on other key measures such as preventive care for adults, and widespread disparities in peoples’ health care experience across and within states,” the report notes. “These findings together suggest that the return on our nation’s health care investment is falling woefully short.”

Big regional differences

The report's finding of a wide geographical disparity among state health systems is particularly troubling — and glaring.

The states ranked in the bottom quartile of states are located almost exclusively in the Deep South, from Texas across to Florida. The only non-Southern states in that quartile are Indiana and Nevada.

The top-ranking quartile of states came from the Upper Midwest (Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota, along with Minnesota) and New England, as well as two "outlier" states, Colorado and Hawaii.

Tellingly, 16 of the states ranked in the bottom half of overall performance are among the 23 states that have not yet decided to accept additional Medicaid funds under the ACA.

“If all states participate in Medicaid expansions, the geographic divide documented by the scorecard might narrow; however, if many states do not, the divide could widen in the future,” writes McCarthy and his JAMA co-authors.

You can read the entire report, including details of Minnesota’s scores, on the Commonwealth Fund’s website. You’ll find the JAMA commentary on that journal’s website.

The annual survey of wolf and moose populations on Isle Royale was published Wednesday, and it's fair to say the outlook for key elements of the island's ecological health is not improving.

Major findings from the report:

• The number of wolves counted in the two-month winter study, which ended March 5, puts the island's population up by just one wolf — to nine from its historic low point of eight in 2013.
• It may have reached 11 at some point last year, thanks to the birth of three pups who lived past infancy, but two adults were lost: "Isabelle," who left the island by ice bridge and was found dead, and another lone wolf who disappeared in unknown circumstances.
• The nine are now grouped into a West Pack of six and a Chippewa Harbor Group of three, but only the larger is thought capable of reproducing. The smaller consists of an aging female and two middle-aged offspring, one male and one female.
• Although researchers had reached a firm conclusion that no pups survived infancy in 2012, there was some question about whether there might have been at least one pup in 2011. Now they know, from genetic evidence, that neither year added pups to the population.
• Because wolves are the only control on the island's moose (except for starvation), the moose herd has probably risen above 1,000, more than doubling  in the past three years as wolf predation has fallen to just about zero.
• This is especially bad news for Isle Royale's balsam fir forest, which had only just begun to reach the capacity for sustained reproduction.
• Oh — and the beavers are booming, too, also because of the wolves' decline; the number of colonies has climbed by at least 70 percent since 2010.

In a way, the cover photo of this year's report tells much of the story within: A single wolf photographed from far above, who is not running with a pack, not sharing a moose kill, but just sitting, maybe waiting, on a field of windswept snow.

Because release of this year's report was delayed by more than a month past its scheduled appearance — held up by review as managers at Isle Royale National Park worked toward a decision about what, if anything, to do about the wolves' decline — some wondered if the news was going to be still worse.

And in terms of one important, highly interesting research development, that may well prove to be the case. But to describe this discovery, we first need a bit of back story.

History shaped by inbreeding

The 65-year history of wolves on Isle Royale, and much of their current predicament, is shaped by inbreeding and a steady downward spiral in genetic diversity and health, consequences of living on a rocky archipelago in Lake Superior, isolated from mainland wolves.

The island's first known wolves turned up in 1949 or so, and until quite recently it was thought that all wolves on the island were descended from a single female and one or two males. Then in the late 1990s advances in DNA analysis detected, retrospectively, the arrival of a new wolf who came across an ice bridge in 1997 and became famous as Old Grey Guy.

Old Grey Guy's beneficial contributions to the wolves' gene pool were substantial, widespread and persistent. Indeed, his injection of fresh genes has served as a practical illustration of how today's wolves might recover toward their typical numbers of about two dozen if the National Park Service would permit a "genetic rescue."

Though the details of such a program are unsettled, the basic idea is simple: Round up some mainland wolves and drop them on the island in a mimicry of how things happen in nature, or would happen if it weren't for a changing climate and the shrinking frequency of ice bridges from Isle Royale to shore.

This approach is strongly favored by the wolf/moose research project's current and former directors, John Vucetich and Rolf Peterson. But it poses complicated policy and legal questions for the National Park Service, which announced last month that it would hew to a hands-off policy unless the wolves became completely incapable of reproducing, at which point it might reconsider.

Discovery about the wolves' gene pool

Against that backdrop, the really big revelation in yesterday's report is a finding that Isle Royale wolves' gene pool has been freshened frequently, over at least the last 30-plus years, by wolves arriving undetected from the mainland.

This analysis draws on mathematics and a measure of genetic diversity called heterozygosity, which reflects the number of ancestors that contribute to a wolf's DNA, or a human's. Here's how Vucetich explained it to me:

If both my parents have blue eyes, then my gene pair for the trait of eye color is homozygous, because the pair's two parts, one from each parent, are identical. But if one parent has brown eyes and one has blue, then my gene pair has mismatched parts and is heterozygous. This diversity is passed from me to my children, with additional matches or mismatches from their mother, and from them to their children, and so on.

Which means that by counting and comparing the number of matched and unmatched gene pairs in a line of humans, or wolves, over generations, you can arrive at a measure of heterozygocity that reflects how many different ancestors were contributing.

Courtesy of J. Vucetich

On March 1, 2014, the elderly one-eyed matriarch of the former Chippewa Harbor Pack stands in dominant display over her adult daughter, with her adult son viewing the action.

Fresh calculations by Phil Hedrick, a wolf geneticist at Arizona State, have shown that at the time of Old Grey Guy's arrival, Isle Royale wolves had lost about 32 percent of their heterozygocity after not quite five decades of inbreeding. However, the expected loss over such a time period is 82 percent — more than twice as high.

The explanation?

What explains this? One possibility is that wolves avoid breeding with close relatives ... but, nah, they're not that picky. Another is that natural selection works against wolves that are too inbred, which certainly happens, but not on such a short time scale. So, the report says,

The only remaining possible explanation for the slower-than-expected loss in genetic diversity is that wolves have periodically immigrated to Isle Royale on ice bridges that had once been common. In particular, theory suggests that retaining the diversity that the population had would require the population to have received on the order of approximately two migrants every three generations (12-15 years).

That circumstance prompted us to review field notes from the past four decades for the possibility that undetected gene flow had taken place in the past. That review revealed several plausible gene flow events [including a pack of wolves observed in the middle of an ice bridge to the island in 1977, and the known arrival of seven or eight wolves via ice bridge 10 years earlier].

The available evidence suggests that the Isle Royale wolf population had experienced periodic gene flow throughout much of its history. The concern is that gene flow is much less likely now because ice bridges form far less frequently, due to anthropogenic climate change.

To Vucetich, this is the most important finding of the past year's work, and only in part because it argues, in his view, for a human-engineered genetic rescue.

I suppose it might have that effect, although I can imagine, too, how policymakers could reach an opposite conclusion: If getting to a single genetic rescue a la Old Grey Guy remains difficult for the National Park Service, what about the possibility that to genuinely mimic history, the rescue might have to be repeated again and again?

Vucetich's perspective

I asked Vucetich why he placed Hedrick's discovery at the top of his list, and he gave the kind of complex, personal/professional answer that always makes our interviews so rewarding for me:

There's a certain joy in science when you have certain kinds of revelations or discoveries, and one of those is when you discover something that's been kind of sitting under your nose all along, but then you share it with a colleague and he looks at it in a way you've never looked at it before.

And that discovery then causes you to think about things in another way, and lo and behold, the world is suddenly a little bit different than it was before. And for a scientist, that's one of the greatest feelings you can experience. ...

Prior to this year, we would have said things like, OK, there are fewer ice bridges and that means there's less opportunity for wolves to come across — but there was still this lurking, unanswered question of whether those bridges were really all that important in the past, and we would have said, well, we think they must have been important, but we don't really know.

And now we do know.

A lawsuit to prevent the demolition of a T.P. Healy house at 24^th and Colfax in Minneapolis was filed Wednesday against property owner Mike Crow.

The Minneapolis City Council voted last week to allow demolition of the building, constructed in 1893 by master builder Theron Potter Healy, to make way for a four story 45-unit apartment building.

The lawsuit was filed by The Healy Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Healy's legacy. (Here's the complaint and one memorandum.)  In an announcement (below), the organization claims they will establish that the house is an historic resource, and that there are viable options to demolition. 

In 1893, Healy built four houses. The building near 24^th and Hennepin is the only one still standing. It is currently being used as a 15-unit rooming house. The house is designated as an historic resource by the Historic Preservation Commission but has not been upgraded to historical designation as a landmark.

At a hearing on the demolition application, city staff testified that the house interior lost integrity following a 1980s fire and extensive remodeling.

There are currently more than 100 Healy houses in Minneapolis, many with historical designation.

Here's the announcement:

The Healy Project has filed suit against the owner in District Court to prevent the demolition of the Orth House, 2320 Colfax Avenue South, in Minneapolis. The lawsuit  will establish that the property is a historic resource and that the property will be  preserved for the benefit of future generations of Minnesotans. Moreover, the lawsuit will establish that there are viable options to demolition for this property.

Last year the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission declared the Orth House an historic resource, exemplifying the work of a master builder and architect, Theron Potter Healy. As noted in a 1981 Twin Cities magazine article (“Legacy of a Master Builder: Theron Healy's Dream of Minneapolis Lingers in his Queen Anne Architecture”), the house is the transitional design in Healy's illustrious career. The Orth House is the only one of the four built by Healy in 1893 that is still standing. If left uncorrected, demolition of the Orth house represents an unacceptable and irreplaceable loss to the current and future residents of Minneapolis.

The Healy Project will present various options for redevelopment of the property, including adaptive reuse and integrating the house with new construction. We envision a Wedge streetscape that includes a mixture of old and new buildings of various styles, offering a variety of housing options affordable to all economic classes of residents and future city residents.

We look forward to partnering with the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association, the City, and city residents in building a sustainable city from our existing housing stock.

Creative Commons/Doug Kerr

“The general feeling is that the suburbs are rich, especially the western suburbs, so we aren’t going to give them any more than we have to,” Rep. Ron Erhardt, DFL-Edina, said.

Lawmakers like to joke that there’s a “Fertile Crescent” in Minnesota, starting in Bloomington and working up through wealthy western Twin Cities suburbs such as Edina, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Plymouth and Maple Grove.

Those cities are home to some of the state’s largest companies and wealthiest individuals that pump most of the income and sales taxes that fill the state’s coffers. However, legislators all around the suburban ring say they don’t get much back from the state when the bonding bill is debated. 

“The general feeling is that the suburbs are rich, especially the western suburbs, so we aren’t going to give them any more than we have to,” Rep. Ron Erhardt, DFL-Edina, said.

For all lawmakers, bonding projects are a way to bring jobs and development directly to their districts. In election years, ribbon-cutting ceremonies for major construction projects can be even more important, especially in the politically volatile ‘burbs, which often swing back and forth with national political winds.

All members of the House are up for re-election this fall — and several of the DFL’s most tenuous seats are in the Fertile Crescent.

Nevertheless, DFL Rep. Alice Hausman, chair of the House Capital Investment Committee, points out that roughly a quarter of the total House bonding bill — $213 million of $850 million — is spending for the suburbs. In comparison, 64 percent of state's tax base and 66 percent of its income tax revenue comes from the seven-county metro area (including Minneapolis and St. Paul), according to the state Revenue Department.

“I think the suburbs have always felt that they are ignored,” said Hausman, of St. Paul. “When it’s a small bill like this, absolutely everyone feels like they don’t have enough, like they’re not getting enough.”

Hausman, who would like to see a bigger bonding bill, will need to gain the support of many of those suburban members on both sides of the aisle if the “small bill” is to pass.

Capital investment packages are one of the few places where legislators in power need to garner 60 percent support, meaning Democrats will have to convince all of their members and at least eight Republicans in the House to move it forward. In the Senate, Democrats need at least two Republicans to vote yes. The Senate is still crafting its bonding bill.

Says House GOP bonding lead Matt Dean of Dellwood, “I think that’s always a tough balance between the regional centers and outstate Minnesota, but there’s also kind of an underlying assumption that the suburbs are going to continue to fund both and not get anything. We get fed up. You’ll probably continue to hear some of the suburban members on the GOP side and DFL side on this issue. It gets a little tiresome to continue to fund stuff in the metro and see little back.”

What the ‘burbs want

Rep. Barb Yarusso, DFL-Shoreview, has proposed bills to fix up several bridges and roads in her district and deal with groundwater issues in the northeast metro. A little money has been appropriated her projects in the bonding bill, but she’d like to see more.

“Everyone always wants more in the final bill,” Yarusso said. “We are so far behind on infrastructure development.” 

Rep. Yvonne Selcer, DFL-Minnetonka, says she is happy there’s funding for the St. David’s Center for children with disabilities in the bill, which many residents in her district utilize, but hoped it would include Southwest Light Rail Line funding as well.

“I understand that’s controversial, and we certainly want to move forward with all the other projects that are in the bill,” she said. “I’m hoping we will be able to find some alternative sources of funding for that.”

Transportation is one of the biggest needs in the suburbs, veteran Bloomington DFL Rep. Ann Lenczewski says. But one controversial transportation project can sink a bonding bill, and they are often the most expensive proposals.

Lenczewski, for instance, has introduced a bonding bill this year to fund the turbine-design interchange at I-35W and I-494 in Bloomington. Her bill only seeks to fund phase one of the project, and even that costs $80 million.

She has also introduced a $25 million proposal to repair the light rail stop at the Mall of America, the most-used stop on the Hiawatha Light Rail Line.

“I think that’s where you see the suburban members getting what they feel is a raw deal,” Lenczewski said. “I’ve been encouraging suburban members on both sides of the aisle to refuse to vote for a transpiration revenue package until the suburbs get a bigger share. It all goes back to transportation. We don’t ask for convention centers, we don’t ask for things like that.”

Take it to the limit

The biggest hurdle, Hausman says, is this year’s self-imposed $850 million bonding limit. The four legislative leaders agreed to the cap in a handshake agreement at the end of 2013’s session. Democrats are trying to strike a new deal that would lift that limit and allow for a larger bonding bill, but Hausman said she’s seen no indication that Republicans will budge.

To get around the limit, both the House and the Senate are pitching to pay cash for some capital investment proposals of the state’s $1.2 billion budget surplus. But demand is high for those funds too, with legislators proposing everything from property tax breaks to increased early childhood education funding.

“That’s the problem with a small bill,” Hausman said. “The need is so great and the backlog is so great.”

In Hausman’s bill, some of the larger suburban-area projects include $14.5 million for the Transit Capital Improvement Program, $10.5 million for the Oliver Kelley Farm Revitalization in Elk River, $5.5 million for the Springbrook Nature Center, $5 million for the Department of Corrections Shakopee Perimeter Security Fence and tens of millions for local road grants and suburban park projects. The Senate bonding bill has yet to be released.

Despite raw feelings over transportation spending, Lenczewski said she’s happy with the Hausman’s bonding bill. Still, she acknowledged that suburban members needed to band together if they’re ever going to fund transportation projects in the Legislature.

In many cases, suburban members don’t even introduce bills for bonding projects, Lenczewski said, because local government officials are accustomed to paying for new buildings and infrastructure without the state’s help.

“Our mayors and city councils build their city halls and their arts centers and their public works garages out of their property tax, as opposed to going to the state and asking for the money. They don’t wait for the state, they don’t rely on the state, they are used to putting in more than they get back,” she said.

“They are making decisions because they are not going to wait for the Legislature,” she added. “It’s a cultural problem here.” 

Is there anything new to say about the Southwest Light Rail? Everything and nothing, sound and fury. Angst and ennui.

OK, but even though much has been said, I still think people get the conversation wrong most of the time. I’d like to see a different discussion taking place.

Here’s what Southwest is NOT about, and here’s what Southwest IS about:

The Southwest Light Rail debate is NOT about bikes

It’s been de rigeur to suggest that the SWLRT debate is about a fight between a light rail line and a bike path. For example, this is how TPT/MPR framed the issue in their recent semi-sorta-humorous video summing up the debate in a mere three minutes.

One problem with this narrative is that the Southwest Light Rail debate has almost nothing to do with bikes. Sure, there’s a very nice and pleasant bike path in the corridor right now. But the world of Minneapolis bicycling is far removed from the Southwest Light Rail project because the scales of money involved are vastly different, by at least a couple of orders of magnitude

A few years ago, Roger Geller, the bike planner for America’s #1 Bike City Portland Oregon, was in town to talk about how to build a bike plan. He mentioned that Portland’s entire network of bike infrastructure — the sum total of all of its bike boulevards, bike lanes, bike trails and bridges throughout the entire city — had been built for $60 Million. That’s the cost for everything!

Compare that to the cost of the SWLRT shallow tunnels, which are currently projected to cost between $150 Million and $200 Million, all ostensibly to “save the bike trail.” For that sum of money, not only could we construct a quality bike trail somewhere nearby, we could build a Seattle-esque system of cycletracks, bike boulevards, and trails all throughout Minneapolis. For that amount of money we could build bike infrastructure that might double or triple the amount of bicycle ridership in the city.

The bike trail is merely a convenient fig leaf for a bunch of other SWLRT issues. Most any bicycle advocate that I know would gladly trade the Kenilworth trail for a game-changing increase in bike funding. I wish that was on the table.

Southwest Light Rail IS about a broken federal funding mechanism

My friends over at Strong Towns have spent years making a convincing case that our system of transportation funding does more harm that good. For example, in a post about “the Federal Role”, Strong Towns head Chuck Marohn writes:

Let me point out one other thing about federal spending: it comes with some pretty bizarre strings, especially when it gets down to the local level. I’ve written extensively on how, due to federal money and all of the accompanying incentives/standards, my hometown just finished … a $9 million mile of STROAD. The STROAD design was a requirement of the State Aid standards, the mechanism whereby the federal funds are dispersed. The alternative project — a locally-funded and far more neighborhood-friendly street costing $1.2 million — was rejected because it actually cost the local taxpayer more (in terms of cash today, that is — nobody ever discussed future maintenance).

That’s just one example; Chuck has many more.

The more I think about the Southwest Light Rail, the more I gape upon the Kafka-esque situation we’ve created. If you look back at the planning process for the line, each individual decision seems justifiable. For example, even though I disagreed with it, the pivotal routing decision in 2010 made sense according to the rules in place at the time. The same holds with the tunnel decisions happening now, the noise mitigation decisions, any number of smaller details, or the Hobson’s choice facing Minneapolis politicians.

Most everyone admits that the project as a whole is borderline absurd. If given a blank slate, nobody would decide to spend hundreds of millions to build tunnels through a forest. And yet it’s probably going to happen anyway! And why? Because there’s so much Federal money on the table. Cities and politicians are extremely reluctant to turn away $700+ Million in Federal funding (and for good reason).

The Southwest process reveals why the Federal funding system forces people to make bad decisions. Imagine gathering all the Southwest Light Rail “stakeholders”* in a room tomorrow — all the Kenwood and Kenilworth folks, all the folks from North Minneapolis, all the Uptown urbanists, and all folks from Saint Louis Park and Eden Prairie. Imagine sitting them down and saying “Here’s $1.5 Billion, go plan a Light Rail line.” I’m sure they’d agree on a much better solution than our present pickle.

Chasing Federal dollars forces cities to make bad decisions, and it’d be great if we had another system that provided cities with more freedom to plan their own solutions to their own problems.

And there you have it. The Southwest Light Rail is not about bikes, it’s about a system of Federal funding that forces cities to make dumb decisions. It reminds me of my favorite scene from The Magnificent Seven, only nobody knows which character they are.

[From parking meter reform to funding, Steve McQueen has had a lot of good urban policy ideas.] 

*Note: This is the first and last time I’ll use the word “stakeholders” without irony.

This post was written by Bill Lindeke and originally published on streets.mn. Follow streets.mn on Twitter: @streetsmn.

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From the Minnesota DNR:

The DNR's eagle cam has been a huge hit! Lori Naumann from the Nongame Wildlife Program shares some insights on the birds and the camera. Get more information about the Nongame Wildlife Program at http://www.mndnr.gov/eco/nongame.

Hennepin County officials say the amount of waste diverted from landfills rose to 80 percent in 2013, up from 78 percent the year before.

Recycling by homeowners and businesses hit 40 percent, up from 39 percent a year earlier. Other diverted waste was reused, composted, or burned to create energy.

The county will have to improve that 1-percent-per-year recycling gain, since its new waste report notes 2015's goal is 45 percent.

Says the report:

In 2013, 1.364 million tons of solid waste was generated, which is nearly the same as 2012. The amount of waste generated per capita has decreased by 20 percent since 2007, after having increased annually prior to 2007.

Recycling increased, the report says, because all cities had converted to single-stream recycling by the end of 2013. That was the year the county's biggest city, Minneapolis, made the switch.

The county has two strategies to improve in 2014:

• Continue to work with under-performing cities to improve program promotions and recycling performance.
• Work with the City of Minneapolis to target promotions to lower-performing areas of the city.