Earth's plants and animals are vanishing at a rate that's 10 to 100 times faster than previous estimates suggested, according to a new analysis of changes to the planet's biodiversity.

The swelling is gone. That’s a plus. Maya Moore still has a trace of a shiner and five stitches next to her right eye, residuals from that midcourt collision with teammate Seimone Augustus in pursuit of a loose ball last Friday night against New York.

The joke, of course, is that Moore got the worst of it from a hustling teammate instead of a physical Liberty defender. Moore’s WNBA-record four consecutive 30-point games to start the season set a league record. But her defensive play in the only game she failed to score 30 — Monday’s 75-72 victory in Chicago — revealed just as much about her growth as a player.

With Rebekkah Brunson months away from returning from right knee surgery, the task of guarding the prolific 6-foot-5 Elena Delle Donne fell to the 6-foot Moore. Augustus usually defends an opponent’s top scorer. But Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve needed someone physical against Delle Donne, a silky forward who can be equally dangerous down low or on the perimeter. Delle Donne managed 16 points, well below her average of 23.5 points, on 7-for-19 shooting.

“I love the challenge of it,” Moore said after practice Thursday at the Target Center. “Whenever there’s something that that needs to me done for my team, I kind of come alive and get turned on and want to get it done. That’s where my focus gets locked into. Whenever I get a task I can focus on, I get excited for that. Last game, that’s what was required of me.”

Michael Jordan became Michael Jordan the superstar in part by developing into a terrific perimeter defender. Moore sees herself on the same path. “All competitors don’t want any holes in their games,” she said.

Moore, the WNBA’s leading scorer at 29.8 points per game, won’t have a Delle Donne to contend with this weekend. The 5-0 Lynx, the WNBA’s last undefeated team, dive into home-and-home set with the San Antonio Stars, beginning Friday night at the Target Center and finishing Sunday afternoon in Texas.

But the Stars bring gifted offensive players like guard Becky Hammon, back after missing all but one game last season with a torn left knee ligament, and the improving Danielle Robinson. Moore might draw Kayla McBride, the rookie from Notre Dame who scored 30 against Tulsa on Tuesday night.

“What Maya has improved at is, she’s become a better athlete,” Reeve said. “Now, there are a lot of people that kind of go, wait a second, she was always a great athlete. No, she wasn’t actually. She was a great athlete straight up and down running, but some of her movements were lunging, off-balance.

“Now if you look at her movements, they’re more mature. She’s staying in place. She’s using her gifts, her length, her agility, and her intelligence. That’s the biggest thing that you see with Maya. She understands the league. She understands what teams are trying to do. She’s no longer a player that you can go at. Her rookie year, we would always say, `Okay, Maya, they’re coming after you.’ But that’s no longer the case.”

Added Augustus: “Her first few years, people felt like they could attack her on that end to try to get her in foul trouble because they felt like she was a weaker defender. She took pride in not having a weakness in her game, and striving to get better every game.”

With Delle Donne, Moore concentrated on denying her the ball and keeping her out of her favorite shooting spots. Chicago is one of several WNBA teams who create mismatches by moving a versatile power forward like Delle Donne to small forward. (Los Angeles does the same with Candace Parker.) But Moore, who also plays both positions, devoted herself to the task.

“It was a combination of (watching) film and remembering things from last year as well — where she likes the ball, tendencies, her team’s tendencies with her, knowing certain spots on the floor are going to trigger certain actions,” said Moore, who had 14 points. “You let a great player like that catch the ball too many times, she’s going to burn you. I just wanted to put my most effort into not letting her catch it. If she can’t catch it, she can’t shoot it.”

On Chicago’s final possession, Moore prevented Delle Donne from catching the ball on her favorite side of the floor, the right. When the play broke down, Delle Donne ran Moore into a killer screen and headed for the top of the key, where Courtney Vandersloot held the ball out for her. Janel McCarville jumped out on Delle Donne first, then Lindsay Whalen. Delle Donne flung a desperate 3-pointer that banged off the glass and the rim, no good.

“A year ago, we would not have been saying it was a good idea to put Maya on Elena Delle Donne,” Reeve said. “She just wasn’t there yet. We had better options. Now, Maya is a player who embraces it.

“Maya is coming off four games where she scored 30-plus points a game. And Maya goes into the game saying, `My focus is on defense.’ When that happens, as a coach, it’s a joy. It’s not because you wanted it. It’s because she wanted it. That’s what made her really good.”

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Moore is determined to defend like that all the time. Her goal: Become as reliable as Augustus. Or a certain sneaker mogul.

“Certain players are more gifted physically, but I know I’ve been given gifts and abilities to be a great defender and a great offensive player,” Moore said. “I don’t want to ever change my mindset and expect less of myself as a defender. Every time there’s a competition, I want to be able to dominate it. Whether it’s a defensive drill, a sprinting drill, offensive drill, I want to win. I know here, I’ll be tested and challenged in that.”

MinnPost file photo by Brian Halliday

Minnesota GOP chair Keith Downey

For the first time in years, Republicans from across Minnesota will gather for a political convention … and the party’s debt figure won’t be the star of the show.

That’s been the case in gathering after gathering since 2011, when Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Tony Sutton suddenly resigned, leaving in his rearview mirror more than $2 million in 2010 campaign and recount debts. 

Under two new chairmen — former chair Pat Shortridge and current chair Keith Downey — the party has slowly and painstakingly whittled that debt down to its current $1.1 million level. Now, as more than 2,200 GOP activists gather at the political convention in Rochester this weekend, their focus will be on picking their preferred party standard bearer among a rash of candidates who want to take on Democrats Mark Dayton and Al Franken this fall.

“There was a time when I thought about debt service every day and now I don’t even think about it,” said Bron Scherer, treasurer of the Republican Party of Minnesota, one of the troops called in to clean up the Sutton administration’s sloppy bookkeeping.

Some of this weekend’s GOP delegates counter that the debt remains an electoral millstone, but there other are signs things are looking up, party officials insist. Restructured debt now consumes only about 10 to 12 percent of the party’s budget this election year. Small and large donors have started coming back to the party, Downey said; the state GOP raised $2.5 million total in 2013.

(Democrats raised $3.2 million in the same stretch.)

Focusing on old-school methods

The GOP also escaped a lease with escalating rent near the Capitol in St. Paul to new, cheaper headquarters in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis. “It sends a message that we put a stake in the ground in a highly concentrated DFL area and we are willing to play ball in all parts of the state,” Scherer said.

The party has hired a new finance chair, Pete Hegseth, whom GOP libertarian factions beat out for U.S. Senate endorsement in 2012, and is often mentioned as a possible candidate in other races.

Downey is also going back to the basic state party functions, before flashy television ads and Internet campaign web banners were a thing. That means giving massive voter identification lists to endorsed candidates and helping with get-out-the-vote efforts. That’s increasingly important in a post-Citizens’ United world, Downey said, where independent third-party groups have started dominating the campaign spending game.

“When people look at the value of the state party and the party organization in this new modern political era — with so much outside spending, with so many images coming from outside candidates and outside groups — there’s increasing recognition that the party is the only realistic place where the grassroots, boots on the ground organizational work can happen,” Downey argues.

A million in the hole is still a lot

The debt is smaller but not gone, however, and rank-and-file activists say its weight can be felt in more than just dollars and cents. 

Jennifer DeJournett, a convention delegate and head of the state chapter of VOICES of Conservative Women, said there’s only so much money the party can use to protect any endorsed candidates coming out of this weekend. Gubernatorial candidates like well-financed businessman Scott Honour and former House Speaker Kurt Zellers are already likely to move on to a primary, and Senate candidate Mike McFadden promising to move on to a primary. Honour is already spending money on television ads.

“It’s great [the party is] rebounding and I’m confident they will be back by 2016, but we are 160 some days from 2014,” DeJournett said. “For other organizations, we have a plan for our candidates. There’s no more time for rebounding.”

Delegate Jeff Kolb echoes DeJournett’s sentiment, and notes that many of the candidates have not proven their ability to raise money on their own, and could be depending on the party’s weak finances.

“They are going to have resources to do some of the basic operations that the party is supposed to do, but we are far from the operation it was at its peak,” Kolb said. “Specifically candidates who are abiding by this endorsement who think they are going to get the kind of help candidates used to get from the state party — they are out of their minds. In the past, the party has set out targeted mailers in certain races; I don’t see any evidence that they will be involved in that level.”

On the surface, the DFL convention that opens on Friday in Duluth will be a mellow affair.

Unlike four years ago — when a colorful array of candidates was seeking the convention’s endorsement for governor — there’s only one bit of endorsement business to tend to in a statewide race. Delegates will decide whether to endorse Brooklyn Center State Rep. Debra Hilstrom or St. Louis Park State Rep. Steve Simon for Secretary of State. (That Republicans covet this office so badly may raise the profile of the race in November.)

DFLers are running incumbents in all other statewide races, meaning most of this convention’s focus will be getting a big turnout to the polls in November, not convention candidate floor fights.

Still, there are things for delegates to get steamed about. 

The biggest convention issue likely will be non-agenda battles between lunch-bucket DFLers who support mining and the metro area greens. This sort of powder-keg issue could prove costly to DFLers in November in both state legislative races and the 8th District Congressional race.

Who are the players at a DFL convention?

'Constituency caucuses'

The party has incorporated a laundry list of “constituency caucuses’’ in its structure. There’s the African American Caucus, the Asian Indian Democratic Association, the Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Disability Caucus, the Feminist Caucus, the Hunting and Fishing Caucus, the Latino Caucus, the Young DFL (MYDFL), Native American Caucus, Progressive Caucus, Senior Caucus, Somali American Caucus, Stonewall DFL and the Veterans Caucus. 

All of these are well-intended. In any given year, many of these caucuses will come up with resolutions for the body to consider. They meet. They endorse. The Stonewall and Feminist caucuses have endorsed Simon; the African American caucus endorsed Hilstrom. 

Some caucuses only allow paid members to vote on endorsements. The African American, Latino and Feminist caucuses, for example, charge a $25 membership fee; MyDFL $10. Such fees can function as a poll tax that candidate advocates are sometimes tempted to pay.

While the subgroups’ attention rises near endorsement time, there are other groups, outside the party structure, that matter more.

Super Delegates

The crucial players at the hotly contested gubernatorial convention of 2010 were those “super delegates.’’ (The party calls this group “automatic delegates.” Others might call them “insiders.”) 

REUTERS/Susan WalshWalter Mondale

By any name, this is a body of about 160 people — there are about 1,200 regular delegates — who are convention delegates based on holding elective office (think state legislators) or people who are esteemed party members (think Walter Mondale).

This group has the power to swing whole conventions. Again, go back to the convention of 2010. Margaret Anderson Kelliher won endorsement over R.T. Rybak in large part because she was supported by an overwhelming number of super delegates.

Given that DFLers like to be the party of the people, this super-delegate business typically does not go down well with the delegates who have “earned’’ their way to convention by going through the tedious caucus process.

It is expected that at this convention, the party will adopt rules that diminish super-delegate power.

Take Action Minnesota

This eight-year-old progressive organization has grown mightily in the last few years — and a nice piece of that growth comes thanks to the Republican Party, according to executive director Dan McGrath.

When the GOP put the voter ID constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2012, Take Action had a clear target. It organized as never before. Not only was Take Action a leader in defeating the amendment, it grew mightily across the state, according to McGrath. It now has a mailing list of more than 50,000 people, it has a staff of 35, and is a player in every legislative district in the state.

MinnPost file photo by James Nord

Executive Director Dan McGrath

Back up a bit. At the 2010 convention, Take Action hoped to be a big player. Entering the convention, the organization had endorsed three candidates: Kelliher, Rybak and Paul Thissen. The hope had been that at a crucial point in the voting process, Take Action would swing all of its support behind one candidate. That didn’t happen. 

As an organization, it has no big plans to be a player in this convention. Instead, McGrath said, “we are focused on the fall elections.’’

But that means Take Action is an indirect contributor to the convention’s main goals: Party unity and rallying the base to get to the polls in November.

By keeping Gov. Mark Dayton in office and keeping the legislature in DFL hands, Take Action believes it can continue to push its progressive agenda. 

GLBT

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender voices long have found a mostly-welcoming atmosphere within the DFL. But again, it was the GOP that created a huge boost for the GLBT movement across the state.

The so-called marriage amendment that the GOP put on the ballot in 2012, led to the creation by OutFront Minnesota of Minnesotans United, which opposed and ultimately defeated the amendment.

Just as importantly, as it turned out, the organizing didn’t stop with defeating the amendment. The movement has pushed DFL legislators farther than they expected to go: First came legalization of gay marriage, followed this year, by passing of anti-bullying law.

Given the movement’s ability to rally Minnesotans and raise money, GLBT issues at DFL conventions will be taken seriously. 

Unions

Though unions continue to decline in strength, union members continue to be a vital foundation to the party, in both money and people power.

There are the public employee unions: AFSCME (43,000 members) and MAPE (12,000 members). There’s Education Minnesota (70,000 members). There’s the umbrella union organization AFL-CIO (300,000 members). And on and on.

The union power in the DFL? Recall the past legislative session, when DFL Sen. Roger Reinert attempted to at least weaken liquor blue laws in the state. Polls show that most Minnesotans support elimination of the laws that block liquor stores from being open on Sunday.

But when the Teamsters said “no,’’ DFL legislators wilted.

It’s not just the big guys that have clout within the DFL. For example, Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union has about 6,000 members, mostly in custodial fields. But its leader, Javier Morillo Alicea, is a heavyweight within DFL politics and is Democratic National Committee Member. 

SEIU is a vital link to the party and the state’s growing immigrant population.

All in all, unions play a much stronger role within the party than they do in the culture as a whole. That power means that anything that even smacks of being worker unfriendly, will get smacked down quickly on the DFL convention floor.

It also means that the party will continue to at least outwardly push for improved worker pay, paid sick days for low-wage workers and immigration reform.

By the way, eight unions or locals — including Teamsters Council 32, North Central Regional Carpenters and Sheet Metal Workers Local 10 —have endorsed Hilstrom; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Minnesota State Council has endorsed Simon.

Mark Dayton

To the winners, go the conventions — which means the most meaningful presence at this convention will be the governor. What he wants, he will get. There’s no end of irony to that, given the fact that four years ago, Dayton was not even allowed on the convention floor. 

MinnPost photo by James NordGov. Mark Dayton

Remember, in 2010, Dayton was not interested in the endorsement process, which was mightily offensive to the activists. He was going straight to the primary and he went on to narrowly defeat the endorsee, Kelliher.

The irony doesn’t end with Dayton being the grand poobah of the convention. The party is headed by Ken Martin, who was the executive director of WIN Minnesota, the “independent’’ expenditure organization which was crucial to Dayton’s victory four years ago.

This convention is under the control of people who were outsiders just four years ago.

MinnPost file photo by Karen BorosMark Andrew

Mark Andrew, the former Hennepin County Commissioner who ran for Minneapolis mayor last year, takes a giant swing at the billionaire Koch brothers in a Star Tribune blog and ends up scolding the Ordway Center for Performing Arts.

In a community voices piece for the Star Tribune, Andrew lays out a pollution-loving, right-wing, political manipulation case against the billionaire brothers who own a stable of oil refining and production businesses, including Flint Hills Refinery on Hwy. 52, south of the Twin Cities.

He notes that they fund the annual Flint Hills International Children's Festival at St.Paul's Ordway, and calls it "the perfect halo under which the conglomerate might dwell for a few days, basking in the glow of delighted children whose lives are put at risk by their business and political actions."

A Flint Hills official says the company supports numerous causes, like the festival, in an effort to be a good corporate citizen.

While Andrew lauds the Ordway's mission and says: "Sally Ordway Irvine's dream of bringing multi-cultural and arts variety to the stunning theatre that the family helped fund, is articulated in the flier advertising the Festival."

But, he says those attending the  festival "won't be asking why, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Koch's continue to imperil the very children whose skirts and trousers they hide behind this weekend."

And he takes a shot at the St. Paul's beloved arts organization: "The Ordway management, while not exactly dancing with the devil, are up close and personal with benefactors that are out of step with the spirit and magic that emanates from their stages."

Andrew's environmental marketing company, GreenMark, has counted Xcel Energy as a client, a fact that now-Mayor Betsy Hodges'campaign criticized in the 2013 Minneapolis race.

Jake Reint, a Flint Hills spokesperson, has posted a response to Andrew's blog:

"Mr. Andrew’s characterization of Flint Hills Resources, our parent company, and our long-time sponsorship of the Flint Hills International Children’s Festival is to say the least disappointing. Most troubling, however, is that Mr. Andrew’s comments do a tremendous disservice to the Ordway Center, their employees, and the many volunteers who work hard every year to bring the Children’s Festival to life. Thanks to their efforts, the Children’s Festival has become one of the top events of its kind in the world, delighting more than 50,000 people every year.

"Flint Hills supports numerous community causes like the Children’s Festival out of a commitment to being a good corporate citizen. Our employees are proud to call Minnesota home, and we want to do our part to contribute to all the things that make this such a special place to live and work. We are equally committed to making sure our refinery operations in Rosemount remain among the safest and cleanest in the country, which they are today. Mr. Andrew himself is well aware of this commitment. He and his promotional company GreenMark have approached us many times in the past about doing business together as a way to call attention to Flint Hills’ environmental accomplishments. It’s disappointing that he now finds our support for these community causes so objectionable."

Like many great ideas, the one that gave rise to ARTCRANK was super-simple: Get local artists to create original bike-themed posters, then throw a party to sell them at affordable prices, with beer. That was in 2007. Today ARTCRANK is international, with annual shows in 10 U.S. cities (including Portland and San Francisco) plus London and Bristol in the U.K.

More than 8,000 people are expected at Saturday’s opening night for the eighth annual Twin Cities show, held this year at Shelter Studios in Northeast Minneapolis. Posters by 40 area artists will be featured, all available for $50 each. Oregon’s Deschutes Brewing will provide the beer; proceeds benefit World Bicycle Relief. If you ride your bike, nice people from Nice Ride Minnesota will valet park it for you, for free.

Founder Charles Youel is an avid biker and ad man who originally thought ARTCRANK would be a one-off. MinnPost spoke with him Thursday.

MinnPost: Are you surprised by your own success?

Charles Youel: Some days surprised, some days terrified. The growth of the show – the way people took to the idea – is not something I can wrap my head around. In fewer than 10 years, we’ve put on 50 events in three countries.

MP:Why serve Oregon beer when there are so many breweries right here in the Twin Cities? Isn’t Fulton’s Lonely Blonde good enough for you?

CY: That goes back to one of the challenges we encountered when we were trying to convert ARTCRANK from a once-a-year party in Minneapolis to an event that went on in multiple cities. We were spending more time pursuing individual sponsors than running the show. We needed a larger brewing company, one that could help us support a show in multiple cities. On Saturday, we’ll have 30 kegs of beer. That’s more than most smaller breweries can afford.

MP:This year’s beer sales benefit World Bicycle Relief. Why that particular organization?

CY: One of the things we love about them is they turn donations into bicycles for people in the developing world. The bicycles allow them to access education, health care, and job opportunities and improve their quality of life. It’s the most pure expression of the good bicycles can do in the world.

MP:Tell us a bit about this year’s artists.

CY: There are 40 artists in this year’s show, selected from 200 submissions during an open call for entries. At least half of the artists in every event are new to the show. There are some familiar faces and first-time contributors. Adam Turman has been with us since show #1 in 2007; he holds the all-time ARTCRANK poster sales record, which will never be broken. He’s kind of the Beatles of ARTCRANK.

MP:Minneapolis is consistently listed among the best bicycling cities in the nation, in spite of our weather. What do you think is the reason for this?

CY: I think, in a strange way, that our weather is responsible for our bike culture. People took it as a challenge. We found the right clothing to be outside in any weather. We created the Fat Bike specifically for riding in winter. Our bike culture was born out of this upper Midwestern, Minneapolitan thing about biking no matter what.

MP:What do you think is the best thing Minneapolis has done for bicycling?

CY: It hasn’t just paid lip service to being bike-friendly. It has made a tangible, positive and beneficial investment in bike infrastructure. Look at what [former Minneapolis mayor] R.T. Rybak and the City Council did during his terms in office: reconfiguring downtown streets to include bike lanes, extending the bikeways through projects like the Greenway, LRT trails, and neighborhood bikeways like Bryant Ave. that connect different parts of the city. All add up to creating a transportation climate where people feel more comfortable getting on a bike and sharing the road.

MP:That was Rybak. What about [current Minneapolis mayor] Betsy Hodges?

CY: Her biggest challenge is to do the less glamorous maintenance and expansion to keep it up.

MP:What’s the worst thing Minneapolis has done for bicycling?

CY: Is this the part where we talk about First Avenue? The road to hell paved with good intentions has to be the First Avenue bike lane. It was meant well, but it didn’t take into account the realities of how people ride bicycles and react to traffic, and the realities of weather and snow. All the snow goes into that bike lane, which ceases to exist. 

MP:What is your dream bike?

CY: Do I have to have just one? A couple of years ago, I had the good fortune to work with the people at Trek to create an ARTCRANK bike. A single-speed, belt-drive, urban commuting bike with custom graphics. Ten-year-old-me went nuts for it. The one I’ve been riding most this year was built by a locally based brand called Foundry Cycles. It’s a hybrid road bike/mountain bike, an amazing piece of machinery and a joy to ride.

MP:Is there anything else we should know about Saturday’s event?

CY: Cash only for beer; we’ll have ATMs on site. Posters can be purchased with credit cards. We’ll have four food trucks: Red River Kitchen, Sassy Spoon, Gastrotruck and Butcher Salt. And the free valet parking from Nice Ride. We’ve worked with them from the beginning – we launched their service at our 2010 show.

MP:Are you really expecting 8,000 people?

CY: In 2012 we had 4,000. Last year 6,000. We need to be prepared for at least the possibility to be ridiculously large.

What, when, where, how much: ARTCRANK Poster Party for Bike People, Saturday, May 31, 4-10 p.m., Shelter Studios, 721 Harding St. NE, Minneapolis. Free. All posters $50. ARTCRANK pint glass with beer $5.

***

And here we thought we could count on seeing Cantus every Christmas in “All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914.” It’s not to be. This year, the 100th anniversary of the historic ceasefire between Allied forces and German troops on a Christmas Eve during the First World War, will be Cantus’s final season with the show. Developer and director Peter Rothstein will have a new version ready for 2015, so “All Is Calm” will continue, but without the splendid men’s vocal ensemble, which will move on to other things including more performances of its own holiday program. So if you want to see Cantus in this poignant and beautiful production one more time (or for the first time), it’s emphatically not too soon to buy tickets, which go on sale this morning (Friday, May 30) at 10 a.m.

Courtesy of Cantus

The singers of Cantus

In more Cantus news, the group has announced its 2014-15 season of new programming, new venues – and new singers. Baritone Adam Reinwald and tenors Gary Ruschman and David Walton are departing to pursue other interests; their final Cantus performance will be Sunday, June 15, at Lake Harriet, during the annual Father’s Day concert. Baritone Matthew Goinz and tenors Zachary Colby and Blake Morgan will join Cantus for the new season, which includes “Anthem” (Oct. 16-26), “Christmas with Cantus” (Dec. 11-15, now including a date at the U’s Ted Mann Concert Hall), a reprise of “The Singing Revolution: Songs of the Baltic Awakening” (March 12-22, 2015, with the March 15 performance taking place at the new Ordway Concert Hall), and “Covers: A Pop Concert” (June 5-13).

You can catch this year’s “Covers” concert this weekend and next at the Cowles. In a departure from its usual a cappella performances, Cantus has added a live quartet, plus some members of the ensemble will play their own instruments. The set list includes a Daft Punk medley, some Doobie Bros., “Funkytown,” a little Led Zeppelin, some Simon & Garfunkel, U2’s “Pride in the Name of Love,” and more songs you probably know. Tonight and Saturday, then Thursday through Saturday (June 5-7), all at 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($29-$14).

On sale tomorrow (Saturday, May 31), two big-deal additions to the State Fair’s Grandstand line-up. For Friday, Aug, 22: Aretha Franklin. Yes, that Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul. This will be her first time on the Grandstand stage. Knowing how she hates to fly, we’re wondering how she’ll get here. Limousine? Private train car? Cushy tour bus? For Saturday, Aug. 30: MN Music On-A-Stick, with Brother Ali, Doomtree, Bob Mould, Cloud Cult, Har Mar Superstar and the Cactus Blossoms. Aretha tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. ($45, all reserved seating), On-A-Stick at noon ($30, general admission and reserved seating). Go online here or here, call 1-800-514-3849, or visit the State Fairgrounds box office from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Fair’s free entertainment line-up is, as always, eclectic, appealing, and vast: more than 900 shows, all free with the price of admission, on stages throughout the grounds. A few names from the long list: Blood, Sweat & Tears, Buckwheat Zydeco, Scott Stapp (the voice of Creed), Tonic Sol-fa, Marcia Ball, Sonny Knight & The Lakers, the Belfast Cowboys, Chastity Brown, Monroe Crossing, Axis Mundi, Jack Brass Band, Ticket to Brasil, Galactic Cowboy Orchestra and – heads up, parents and grandparents – the Grammy-winning Okee Dokee Brothers on Aug. 23 & 24 at Baldwin Park, three shows each day.

The American Composers Forum has announced the four recipients of the 2014 McKnight Composer Fellows: Alex Freeman of Northfield, a Carleton College professor and composer of chamber works and choral music; Jocelyn Hagen of Minneapolis, composer-in-residence at North Dakota State University in Fargo, who writes mainly for the voice; composer, cellist and improviser Michelle Kinney of Golden Valley, co-leader of Jelloslave (among other original music ensembles); and George Maurer of Minneapolis, a composer/jazz pianist whose recent work, “Autumn Song,” settings of the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and Tennessee Williams, had its Berlin debut in April. Each will receive $25,000 in unrestricted funds. Two artists from outside Minnesota were chosen as McKnight Visiting Composers and will each receive $15,000 to spend a minimum of two months here pursuing self-designed community residency projects. Robin Eschner of Forestville, California, will work with the 2015 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon and write a song cycle to be performed at the 2016 opening ceremonies in Duluth. San Franciscan Pamela Z will focus on Minnesota’s “from farm-to-table” movement; her composition will include the voices and sounds of the people and the environments in which they work.

Northrop has announced the six recipients of the 2014 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Choreographers and the McKnight Artist Fellowships for Dancers. Each will receive a $25,000 award. The choreographers are Penelope Freeh, a former dancer and artistic associate for James Sewell Ballet; Joanie Smith, co-founder of Shapiro & Smith Dance; and Wynn Fricke, director of the dance program at Macalester College. The dancers are Kenna-Camara Cottman, an African American Griot who practices the oral tradition of storytelling through art and manages her own company, Voice of Culture Drum and Dance; Max Wirsing, a dancer in the Twin Cities since 2005 who has worked with Emily Johnson, Karen Sherman, and Morgan Thorson, among many others; and Sally Rousse, co-founder of James Sewell Ballet. Choreographer fellows are also eligible to apply for additional support for a national choreographic residency; dancer fellows may receive funds to commission a choreographer of his or her choice to create a new solo dance work.

Our picks for the weekend

Ends Saturday: “Alec Soth: Until Now” at the Weinstein Gallery. A retrospective of 35 photographs by the internationally recognized, Minnesota-based photographer, spanning the years 1998-2014. Soth’s large-format color images, taken with an 8" x 10" film camera, are like Raymond Carver stories. Noon until 5 p.m.

Ends Sunday: Gremlin Theatre’s “Rocket to the Moon” at New Century Theatre. We’re not in the predicting business, but if this doesn’t win some Iveys, we’ll be very surprised. Everything about this staging of Clifford Odets’ Depression-era play – the set, the pace, the direction, the cast, the acting – is strong and irreproachable. Peter Christian Hansen is perfect as dentist Ben Stark, frustrated, diminished and stuck; Craig Johnson is mesmerizing as his cold, cruel father-in-law, Mr. Prince; Jane Froiland as Cleo, the new receptionist, is a flickering flame. See it or be sorry. Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 4 p.m. FMI and tickets ($25 adults, $22 seniors and Fringe button holders; under 30, pay half your age).

Saturday and Sunday: Family Weekend at the 14th Annual Flint Hills International Children’s Festival. This diverse, colorful and generous festival – a gift from the Ordway to children and families – takes over St. Paul’s Rice Park, Landmark Center and Plaza, Hamm Plaza, the Ordway, and the Lehr and Lab Theaters with international performances, activities, and displays. Most events are free; others are only $5. This year’s artists include the Minneapolis-based dance theater company Flying Foot Forum, Australia’s Terrapin Puppet Theatre, the traditional Quebecois music group De Temps Anton, the dance company Step Afrika! and Cirque Mechanics, whose Gantry Bike will carry aerialists, acrobats and contortionists up and down Washington Street. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. FMI and tickets.

Courtesy of The Napoleon Complex Project

STEP AFRIKA!

Saturday: Bedlam Grand Opening Party in Lowertown. See the space, sample the food, attend a puppet workshop, tour the neighborhood, hear speeches, meet Mayor Chris Coleman, watch a cabaret, dance, meet people. FMI. Free.

Sunday: “Sheltering Nature” at the Bell Museum. Three years ago, 21 regional artists, all members of Project Art for Nature, each chose a natural area and committed to visiting it regularly. Then they did what artists do: they made art in many media reflecting their discoveries and insights. The art is personal, and it has a message: We need to protect what we have before it’s gone. “The goal is to call individuals and communities to action,” said artist Cynthia Starkweather-Nelson. “While nature shelters us, we need to shelter nature.” The exhibition will be presented in two parts. The first part begins Sunday with an opening reception from 1-4 p.m. Works are priced for sale; proceeds will benefit natural areas in Minnesota and Wisconsin. FMI.

Courtesy of Project Art for Nature (PAN)

A drawing by Rachel MaKarrall.

Monday: The Monkees at the Zoo. Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork have reunited for a national tour. (Davy Jones, the cute one, died in 2012.) What can we say? We’re believers. FMI and tickets ($70).

Society of Antiquaries, London

Portrait of Richard III, painted c. 1520

Despite what Shakespeare wanted us to believe (or thought was true), Richard III, the controversial 15^th-century English king, did not have a hunched back.

Instead, he had scoliosis, a condition marked by a sideways curvature of the spine, which probably caused only a slight physical disfigurement.

That’s the conclusion of a team of British scientists who created a 3D model of Richard’s spine based on computer tomography (CT) scans of the monarch’s 500-year-old skeletal remains. The bones were discovered under a parking lot in the city of Leicester in 2012.

“His trunk would have been short relative to the length of his limbs, and his right shoulder a little higher than the left,” write the scientists in a “case report” paper published Friday in the British-based medical journal The Lancet. “However, a good tailor and custom-made armour could have minimized the visual impact of this.”

The scientists also found no evidence to support the ideas (propagated by Shakespeare) that Richard walked with a limp and had a withered arm. His leg bones, for example, were symmetrical and well formed. Shakespeare undoubtedly gave Richard these physical deformities, along with the hunched back, to support the anti-Richard "Tudor spin" of Elizabethan England, says Piers Mitchell, one of the study's authors and an anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, in a video released with the study.

Acquired in adolescence

Richard’s scoliosis had a classic "spiral" shape and a pronounced right-sided curve, according to the report. But it's unlikely the deformity was severe enough to have interfered with the king's physical activity, the scientists stress. The condition, however, may have made him appear a couple of inches shorter than his full 5 feet and 8 inches (an average height for a man during medieval times, the report points out).

The bones also suggest, according to the scientists, that Richard had what today is called “adolescent idiopathic scoliosis,” which develops between the ages of 10 and 18, when children hit their adolescent growth spurt. It’s one of the most common forms of scoliosis, and its cause is unknown, although the condition is thought to have at least some genetic components.

"If Richard had lived today, the scoliosis would have been picked up as he went through his adolescence, and then, with his degree of curve, it's highly likely he'd have had an operation to put some rods in his back, straighten out his spine, and then he would have had much less of a problem with his spinal deformity," says Mitchell in the video.

© University of Leicester

New 3D representation of Richard III’s spine shows 'spiral nature' of his scoliosis.

Politically motivated?

Based on the structure of Richard’s spine and additional bones found in his grave, Mitchell and his colleagues were able to rule out other medical conditions that have been proposed over the years as causing the king’s reported hunched back, including cerebral palsy, Marfan syndrome and Chiari malformation.

Indeed, it’s likely that reports of Richard being “crook-backed” (as Shakespeare wrote) were an “invention of his enemies after death, with political motivations,” the scientists write.

Richard was only 32 years old when he was killed in battle in 1485. His body was buried on the grounds of a church in the center of Leicester, but the church was torn down during the Reformation of the 16^th century, and its exact location was forgotten — that is, until scholars from the Richard III Society, a group that has been working since 1924 to “secure a more balanced assessment” of the king, tracked it down a few years ago.

“Examination of Richard III’s remains shows that he had a scoliosis, thus confirming that the Shakespearean description of a ‘bunch-backed toad’ is a complete fabrication — yet more proof that, while the plays are splendid dramas, they are also most certainly fiction not fact,” said Dr. Phil Stone, a radiologist and current chairman of the Richard III Society, in a statement released with the study.

“History tells us that Richard III was a great warrior,” he added. “Clearly, he was little inconvenienced by his spinal problem and accounts of his appearance, written when he was alive, tell that he was ‘of person and bodily shape comely enough’ and that he ‘was the most handsome man in the room after his brother, Edward IV.’”

You can also watch a video of Mitchell talking about the study on The Lancet's website.

Michael Humphrey knows firsthand what it means to be a nurse with a substance-use disorder. He understands, no matter how terrible the consequences, how on earth it is possible for nurses to cross the line. As an intensive care nurse for the University of Minnesota Hospital in the 1980s, he crossed that line himself.

“I never stole from patients — I didn’t have to,” he said. The leftover fentanyl after an open-heart surgery was there for the taking. “But I would have,” he said, likening addiction to “the person who is drowning and taking down the rescuer.”

Recovery came hard for Humphrey, who grew up in Brainerd in a family that demanded extreme self-reliance. After his first inpatient treatment experience (in 1989), “I fully expected to walk out 28 days later with no desire to use narcotics anymore,” he said. “But I threw away the Big Book in a garbage can on my way out the door.”

After relapsing (more than once), losing his license for a year, losing a business and going through two divorces, a strong sponsor and an equally strong therapist nudged him into a new state of mind and a deeper understanding of himself. They also nudged him into a new career — in the field of addiction treatment and recovery.

Humphrey now is director of the new specialty treatment track program for nurses at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in Center City, Minn. Since it began in September, the program (which was announced early in May) has served more than 87 nurses from across the United States.

MinnPost asked Humphrey about what problems and challenges might contribute to addiction among nurses, and what’s missing in the way of help.

MinnPost: What motivated Hazelden Betty Ford to create a specialty treatment track for nurses?

Michael Humphrey: The evidence shows that the recovery rate of nurses is about half that of physicians [45 percent compared with 90 percent, respectively]. There are a lot of different variables. One that is most apparent is resources. Physicians are much more likely to be able to afford a longer duration in primary treatment.

Another [variable] is the working environment. ... A doctor may prescribe a narcotic, the nurse actually has it in her hands. The physician has the knowledge of the pain relief associated with it, but as a nurse, you actually see the patient. You give them a pill, they haven’t been able to get out of bed, it takes two people to get them out of bed, suddenly you get them out of bed and up to the bathroom, and they’re standing there pain-free wanting their razor. So there’s this endorsement — it’s like living in an advertisement because you see the results of it.

Another big component is gender specific. Ninety-two percent of nurses are female. There’s a huge stigma surrounding women and substance-use disorder. Society will grant a lot of latitude for a man to overindulge and have some catastrophic events, but that same latitude is not granted to women.

We’re finding that the nurses who are coming into the program are sicker than the general population. ... A female nurse will go to a prescribing physician and will complain of anxiety and depression, and be treated for it, but they’ll leave out the alcohol use. So that medication will just further their addiction.

MP: Addiction has been called an “occupational hazard” for nurses. Do you agree with that?

MH: There’s a fair amount of injury on the job — lifting patients and that sort of thing. And the work environment requires a lot of scrambling, a lot of thinking outside the box. It’s a very intense job. You may be taking care of five patients, and say you have one who goes into cardiac arrest. You may be tied up with that for 45 minutes. You’ve just set yourself back, and you still need to catch up with the other patients.

There’s a nursing shortage. There always will be a nursing shortage. So you’re understaffed. You are subjected to physicians coming and doing rounds on their patients, and you need to make them feel as if their patients are the only ones you’re really taking care of. And that’s just a part of the culture of nursing. The culture is changing: In the old days, nurses would stand up when the doctor came onto the unit, and there was a definite pecking order. That’s just the way it was, and it was pretty much universal. That still exists to a great degree.

It’s an occupational hazard in that there are very, very high expectations. And it’s nearly impossible to meet them.

MP: What’s your impression of the size of this issue?

MH: I think it’s underreported. I actually think that the rate of addiction among nurses [reported to be 1 in 10, as in the general population] is much, much higher. “Liver checks” and “liquid rounds” are some of the designations [for use]. Going out for a drink after work is widely accepted. It’s a great stress reliever. It’s accepted if you are inebriated and a little bit out of control. It’s part of the culture.

MP: Because of patients’ vulnerability, nurses struggling with addiction it seems are especially subject to judgment. How do you help nurses come to terms with crossing the line?

MH: That’s one of the major stumbling blocks. And it’s one of the reasons we have a separate nursing group, so people feel free to talk about their crossing of moral lines.You feel very much alone — that you’re the only one who’s ever done that. And I think it helps to be with a cohort and establish a commonality. “Yes, we have crossed moral lines. Now what do we do about it?” Well, let’s look at what substance-use disorder is. It is a disease, and you don’t need to ever go back to crossing those moral lines. And therefore you’re at a crossroads: It’s not that you can erase anything you’ve done. But you can restore the relationships and restore trust the best that you can, only with more realistic expectations of oneself, more boundary setting — these sorts of things.

Self-forgiveness is probably the most difficult thing — more so among women than men. Failure as a mother, failure as a caregiver [produces] mounds of shame. You’ll find people unable to forgive themselves. It takes a lot longer, due to stigma but also their own idea that “I have been a failure, and I’m no good.”

We make a big point of looking at guilt versus shame. Guilt is a good person who has done something wrong. Shame is, “I’m just a bad person.” So many people are in that shame mode and have a core belief that they are bad. You need to start to have forgiveness, to know that there’s hope of never having to cross those lines again, and that you can continue to move forward.

A nursing team is very special. You’re all team players and you really have to cover for each other. You’re very dependent on each other. So when people reenter that environment, they carry a lot of shame because it’s hard for them to get over the fact that they have done careless work, have let the team down, and the nurses who are receiving people back are oftentimes not very forgiving.

MP: What are some other barriers to recovery?

MH: Nursing chooses nurses before they choose nursing. Nurses come from dysfunctional families — some studies have found that as many as 70 percent come from some kind of abuse situation or other dysfunction. When somebody becomes a caretaker very young, their brain is still in development. They become a responsible adult at a time when they should be being nurtured. They start to develop these truths, but more than that they develop expectations and lifestyles that compel them to put the care of others above their own. It would be great to have some research, but most of this is anecdotal.

The establishment of a strong person comes very early ... and therefore there’s a lot of self-reliance. Therefore you’re not going to go to anybody to talk about your problem. You’ve been taking care of yourself all these years, and all of a sudden there’s a failure of the ability to do that.

MP: Are there some nurses who leave treatment understanding that they must leave their professions?

MH: Most are able to reenter when recovery is achieved, but some may move to a different area. It’s interesting because you can look at specialties in nursing and see a different style of using: Hospice nurses are typically binge drinkers. Emergency room nurses have higher use of stimulants and marijuana. They [the latter] enjoy the drama and the trauma, and perhaps that may not be well-suited to recovery because it will drag them back into the adrenalin rush.

MP: What’s missing in the way of supports for nurses who are struggling?

MH: Minnesota is the land of 10,000 addiction centers, a hot bed for recovery. But it’s somewhat amazing that we haven’t been able to recognize and create cohort groups for nurses. Although there have been some grassroots support groups for nurses, they tend to die out. They’re not very well-established. What’s needed is a formalized peer assistance group for nurses. Addiction is treated fairly aggressively by the Board of Nursing. And that’s not a judgment thing, but I think that it does keep people away from treatment.

WASHINGTON — In a mostly lazy post-Memorial Day workweek and amid the fervor over a wait-time scandal at the nation’s Veterans Affairs clinics, rather important news slipped by Congress relatively quietly this week: President Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by 2016.

Obama announced Tuesday that the majority of American forces in Afghanistan would exit the country by the end of the year, with a force of 9,800 left behind to provide training and logistical support for troops there. Troop levels would cut in half by the end of 2015 and zero out entirely by the end of 2016 (except for a small embassy presence similar to in other countries), ending the longest military conflict in American history.

Only one member of the Minnesota delegation, Rep. Keith Ellison, put out a statement after Obama made his announcement. When House members returned for work on Wednesday afternoon (the Senate is out on recess), there was a flurry of news relating to the V.A. scandal, but little reaction to Afghanistan.

There seems to be three main camps when it comes to Obama’s announcement, typified by the Minnesota delegation. Most Republicans, while opposing Obama’s foreign policy generally, are more concerned with his setting an end date than the troop levels themselves; Democratic leadership generally supports the move; and strident anti-war liberals say it’s still unwise to let the conflict linger.

Bachmann: Timetable strategy 'perplexing'

Rep. Michele Bachmann visited Afghanistan over the weekend to meet with officials and thank troops on her last Memorial Day in office. Obama’s troop level proposal, she said Thursday, is “reality-based,” but she rejected the idea of setting a total withdrawal date like he has.

“I think the 9,800 is a little skinny on the number of what we needed, but still, I think within the realm of acceptable. A little low, but acceptable,” she said. “What I think is perplexing is that the president has this weird idea that he can make a pronouncement and essentially say the war will end on Dec. 31, 2014. Wars don’t begin and end because the president says, ‘today the war is going to begin, today the war is going to end.’ ”

Courtesy of Rep. Bachmann's office

Rep. Michele Bachmann visited Afghanistan over the weekend to meet with officials and thank troops on her last Memorial Day in office.

In Afghanistan, Bachmann met with the head of American forces, Gen. James Dunford, Ambassador James Cunningham, the Afghan foreign minister and other security and intelligence officials, according to her office. She said it’s “completely possible” for the country to successfully implement the political and military reforms it needs to be viable, though she worries a timeline for fully withdrawing U.S. troops is “setting the next Afghan government and the Afghan army up for failure.”

“I think we can safely say that it’s highly unlikely that his rosy predictions for 2016 and 5,000 will come to pass,” Bachmann said.

Still, she said a gradual drawdown is better than what happened in Iraq in 2011, where nearly 40,000 U.S. troops left the country in a matter of months. The country has, by all counts, backslid badly since then.

“We came out, precipitously, out of Iraq, it’s very analogous to the discussion we’re having right now about Afghanistan,” Rep. John Kline said on WCCO radio on Tuesday.

Kline visited Afghanistan on trip with House Speaker John Boehner in April. Kline said the 9,800 troop number is “about where we ought to be,” but he said the timetable for pulling those troops out shouldn’t be set in stone.

“How fast you can come down from there will still be a matter of some discussion that Congress needs to be involved in with this administration,” he said. “I would hate to think that you bring it down so precipitously that you lose the ground that you’ve gained.”

For his part, Boehner said, he was “pleased” with Obama’s decision, but said any further troop levels should be made in conjunction with commanders on the ground.

“I look forward to hearing more specifics on how the proposed troop number will adequately cover the defined missions as well as provide appropriate force protection for our military and civilian personnel,” he said in a statement.

Ellison: I don't think 9,000 soliders is 'out'

Democratic leadership was generally pleased with the announcement. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called it “a path forward to fulfill [Obama’s] core promise: to enhance the security of the American people, to end the war in Afghanistan responsibly, and to bring us closer to the day when all of our troops can come safely home.” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said it was a “responsible plan to bring our troops home by 2016.”

Most Democrats, like most Republicans, had little to say after the announcement. But anti-war liberals, led by Rep. Keith Ellison’s Progressive Caucus, said the decision doesn’t go far enough. He notes: “I don’t think 9,000 soldiers is ‘out.’ ”

“We should maintain a relationship, from a diplomatic and development standpoint, with Afghanistan,” he said. “But in terms of military presence, we should end that. Even if it’s what some might call a token force, it’s still a force.”

Like Republicans, the CPC said Obama should consult with Congress before making final troop announcements. Of course, they want something that isn’t likely to happen.

“We urge the Congressional leadership in the House and Senate to schedule a vote on [ending] the war in Afghanistan as soon as possible,” Ellison and CPC co-chair Rep. Raul Grijalva said in their statement.

There were a couple of other groups of lawmakers to speak out about the decision, including a trio of hawk-ish Senate Republicans who blasted the move. But for the most part, lawmakers let the issue slip by with little fanfare.

But Ellison said that doesn’t mean the most passionate among them have given up the cause.

“I think a lot of people might be, ‘all we can get,’ ” Ellison said.  “But in my view, you should never stop demanding what’s right. Nine-thousand people, that’s 9,000 Americans who are vulnerable to attack, 9,000 people who can be the focal point of an anti-American type of campaign, 9,000 people subject to never coming home again.”

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry

Our regional government, the Metropolitan Council, adopted Wednesday the final draft of its Thrive MSP 2040 plan. As you no doubt know, this document — or set of documents, issued every decade at the behest of the Legislature — aims to guide development in the seven-county metro for transportation, water resources, land use, parks and, this time around, housing. And, of course, it's being picked apart by all and sundry.

But before I get to that, I have an important breaking urban-news bulletin. To wit: the Lake Harriet elf tree is again open for business. It is, in case you haven't noticed, a rather slender ash tree (located on the walking path around Harriet, just past South Oliver) with a tiny wood and metal door at its base. Children and adults leave notes and wishes for the elf to answer — and, miracle of miracles, he does, enclosing typed messages in waterproof baggies.

In my recent strolls around the lake, however, I noticed that while the tree's garden was in bloom, the elf's door was locked, and some crestfallen children told me that the elf had retired to his Castle in the East and wasn't returning. I had some wishes of my own to be addressed (example: could he make my columns write themselves?); so I made inquiries, and it turns out that the elf has returned to his tree. In an email, he announced, "my retirement is grossly over exaggerated. i just moved back in on saturday and have already answered close to 100 letters." I hope that in case Mr. Elf ever contemplates a permanent move to his Castle in the East, he has a succession plan. For such a community asset — our very own elf! — to disappear would be heartbreaking.

Meanwhile, back to Thrive 2040. The plan lays out a future that is not particularly revolutionary. Given the prospect of global warming and depletion of resources, it advocates growth in already urbanized areas. It proclaims that we have enough highways and emphasizes maintaining what we've got instead of building more. The council also calls for building out the transit system to reduce congestion and help people commute to the metro's 42 designated job centers. (You can see a map of them on page 50 of the Thrive plan.)

And, it wants dense development around stations and along transit corridors to make travel more efficient. The plan makes a stab at, or says it will make a stab at, reducing so-called RCAPs or Racially Concentrated Areas of Poverty by placing affordable housing in higher-income areas. In water management, it calls for more cooperation among jurisdictions to somehow stop draining aquifers. A lot of the plan, of course, is pretty vague, endorsing mother-love and apple-pie goals like prosperity, equity and livability.

I don't love every word. (I did skim the whole thing.) If anything, it seems overly cautious — though the Met Council will be spelling out more specifics in the coming months — and maybe bolder measures. (Surely, we need more than "partnerships" in the realm of water usage when White Bear Lake seems headed for puddle-dom.) But having a plan for the future of water, parks and so on is way better than not having one. If you like cities with no planning whatsoever, then you should move to Houston. It doesn't even have zoning regulations; so you can build a $2 million mansion, or a nice little $200,000 house, only to have a strip club open up next door.

Anyhow, here are some of the major complaints about Thrive 2040 and my rejoinders:

Who made these Met Council folks bosses of us?

The governor — he appoints them. One comes from each of 16 districts, and one member serves at large. True, they are not elected officials, but taking regional planning issues out of the hands of politicians was one of the motivating ideas behind the enabling legislation. After all, if Betsy Hodges, the Minneapolis mayor, and Jeff Jacobs, the mayor of St. Louis Park, were free to decide on the alignment of the Southwest LRT, the two tracks would probably meet somewhere in Indiana.

We don't need the Met Council.

Maybe not, but if it didn't exist, state agencies (also full of unelected bureaucrats) would be making regional decisions about transit, water and so on. And their portfolio would not include looking out for the seven-county metro.

The Met Council is crazy to say we don't need more highways. Look at the congestion during rush hour!

Minnesota needs $20 billion merely to repair the roads that are already built. And, since there seems to be no appetite either in St. Paul or Washington, D.C., for raising the gas tax, the major financing source for roads, we'll be looking at more potholes and more crumbling bridges, not smooth new freeways.

In any case, study after study has shown that building more highways in and around cities only increases congestion. Historically, adding more roads invites more drivers. According to Anthony Downs, a Brookings Institution economist who has studied the effect, building enough road capacity to accommodate rush hour traffic into the furthest suburb would require us "to turn much of every metropolitan region into a giant concrete slab, and the resulting huge roads would be grossly underutilized in noncommuting hours." 

And this stupid mass transit system — who's going to use it?

The Met Council has ambitious plans to build out a system of light rail and express bus lines. Unfortunately, Downs also makes the point that light rail is unlikely to ease congestion by much. "Even if the nation’s existing transit capacity were increased fourfold and fully utilized, morning peak-hour transit travel would rise only to 11 percent of all morning trips. That would reduce private vehicle trips by only 8.8 percent — hardly enough to end congestion," he's written.

That would be true if the majority of the population continues to live in single-family houses in far-flung suburbs, but public opinion surveys have shown an increased bent toward renting and toward living in cities. If denser living becomes the norm, more people will use mass transit. Even so, don't expect congestion to ease. The Met Council is projecting a population increase of 550,000. More people equals more crowded roads, transit lines and everything else.

The plan is too city-oriented. This complaint comes from suburban mayors. Minneapolis and St. Paul, of course, claim they are the ones being short-changed.

They are both right and both wrong. Because the two cities are the end-points of the new train lines, development is naturally gravitating there. Banks and housing developers are calculating — maybe correctly, maybe not; they're not infallible — that more people will want to live close to the new transit lines. But development is also occurring near transit stops in the suburbs. For their part, the two cities are distressed that Thrive still anticipates more growth on the suburban edge than in the cities.

The plan will force everybody to live in high-density apartment stacks, which is un-American.

Given the Met Council's expectations of growth on the metro's margins, the single-family house probably won't disappear — at least not by 2040. But demographic changes suggest that such housing might not suit growing swaths of the population. An increasing number of households are made up of single people, some divorced, some never married, some widowed; few of them would seem eager to clean and maintain a three-bedroom ranch, miles from the nearest grocery store or movie theater. For them, developers have been experimenting with micro-apartments — 300-square-foot-units that are almost like dorm rooms. Geared to people who are short on cash but want to live in pricey areas, they offer shared amenities, like kitchens, cafeterias and so on.

Every time a town wants to extend a sewer line, it will have to meet sustainability criteria. Ridiculous!

Extending sewer lines to ever-more sparsely inhabited areas of the metro can be wasteful. Not only does such development unnecessarily cost taxpayers a ton of money — after all, there's plenty of vacant land that already can hook up to available sewer lines — but sucking all the water out of aquifers endangers our water supply. Maintaining the generous water resources that nature granted our region gives us a competitive advantage over water-deprived areas like California in luring new residents and businesses. If we overuse it, we'll lose it.

And what about this equity thing? It sounds like the council wants to make sure that there's a racial and income mix in every municipality. They are trying to make people live with people they don't want to be with.

I won't lay out the evidence of racial and ethnic inequality in the Twin Cities. The gap is the widest among all large metros in the nation. Anyway, you can find the statistics on page 19 of Thrive. Doing something to close the gap would obviously boost the region's economic power, productivity and prosperity.

Katherine Kersten, senior fellow of the Center for the American Experiment, a conservative Minnesota think tank, writes in the Wall Street Journal that the Council says that any action by the Met Council to integrate is unnecessary because, "minority residents have been streaming into the suburbs for the past 15 years." But according to Myron Orfield, director of the University of Minnesota Law School's Center for Metropolitan Opportunity, 29 percent of Twin Cities suburbanites live in diverse communities, as compared to 44 percent in other large metros.

The council doesn't plan to issue its housing plan until later; so we don't know what's in store. I would like to see the council return to its pre-1985 policy of allocating a fair share of affordable housing to every municipality. But it instead seems to be pledging to pour investment into already poor areas, which would suggest that RCAPs will continue to exist. The council is also hoping to prod developers to put up affordable housing on or near transit corridors, on the theory that poor people will then be able to get to the jobs and educational institutions that lie along them. Given the rising cost of land near train and express bus lines, however, that may not be economically feasible. Still, I would argue that the fact that the Met Council is concerned about boosting opportunity can't be a bad thing.

CC/Flickr/Doug Wallick

Prior to 1975, baseball fans didn't wear the same uniforms as the players.

Prior to the middle of the 1970s there was a separation in baseball between fans and teams. In the thousands of photos that exist of crowds prior to 1975, you will not see team hats and shirts on fans. Now, such a photo shows that fans are also in uniform. This change occurred in 1975 or 1976 due to a chance encounter with an anthropology professor and the new Vice-Chairman of Major League Baseball Promotion Corporation, now MLB Properties. (The reason the company had that long, awkward title was that the NFL had a “Properties” organization, and baseball didn’t want to appear to be copying the NFL! )

I was that Vice-Chairman and we were starting a program that registered team trademarks (they weren’t all registered at the time) to allow licensing of those trademarks to merchandise manufacturers. In those days, it was commonplace for teams to allow others to sell merchandise with, say, the Detroit classic Old English ‘D’ logo as it was seen as good advertising. Teams received no revenue from such practices. I was looking for ways to gain control over that intellectual property and increase sales and generate revenue from the licensing of team-trademarked merchandise.

A chance meeting with an anthropology professor provided the rationale. In an hour long meeting, he explained that fans were like tribes in that they were organized around their teams: they had a pantheon of gods, the venerable old stars, shared lore of games and pennants won, songs — “Skol Vikings” and “We’re Gonna Win Twins” — and, most importanly, similar uniforms in designs and colors. The team’s hats and shirts being primary in this regard.

The professor went on to say that in a community, the members of tribes for various teams had allegiance only to that team. Where there was overlap, it was minor and a fan would have allegiance to one tribe only, but may have interest in another. In Minnesota, for example, a Twins fan may have interest in the Vikings, Wild and Timberwolves, or even the University’s teams, but were bound viscerally to the Twins.

I remember returning to the stadium that day wondering how to implement this information. I went to the merchanise department and checked on the team-trademarked goods being sold. There was little other than pins and badges — no real, authentic uniform articles. Wearing a T-shirt was intersting, but wearing an actual uniform shirt was critical to link between the fan and the player. This is the essence of this change in marketing. The fan and player would now wear the same clothing; isn’t that what members of the same tribes did, afterall? Is there any wonder at why some teams are named for tribes, like “Fighting Irish” and “Quakers?” (Furthermore, baseball is unique in that it has a maximum of fan participation in the game as fans chase foul balls and there are even civilian casualties from this pursuit.)

Prior to this moment, the rule was that only uniformed personnel could wear the actual uniform. I had once given a high school baseball coach a fitted official team cap that he proudly wore everywhere. I was chastised for breaking a sacrosanct rule. I was about to break that rule again. I went to the clubhouse and asked the equipment manager for some team jackets. These had previously been worn only by players on the field, a foreign concept today. I asked what they cost, tripled the amount (the seller would recive 20% of the sale price), and took them to a merchandise kiosk, hung them up and waited. The sale price, probably $45, was very high and nothing else sold for $10, so I asked a friend on mine to buy one and wear it. (What cost $45 in 1975 would cost $192 today!)

What was dramatic was the reaction of other fans, who wanted to know where he bought that jacket. A new market had been created. This event was reported to New York the next day and we started focusing on this concept as the core of merchandise sales. Some teams embraced it quicker than others and I was again chastised internally for this behavior, but the industry had changed.

I was at Target Field last night and it seems everyone wears some tribe/team clothing. Some celebrate the demi-gods, Killebrew, Oliva etc. Or the modern demi-gods, Mauer. Others remind us of things gone wrong like Cuddyer and Morneau, players playing for other tribes now. Surrounding the stadium are statues to the famous and most important executives and players in the team’s history.

Your team is your tribe, act and dress accordingly.

This post was written by Clark Griffith and originally published on the Clark Griffith Blog. Follow Clark on Twitter: @ccgpa.

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WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned Friday days after a report critical of overly-long wait times at VA clinics around the country.

More than a hundred members of Congress called on Shinseki to resign, many after the Wednesday release of a report on VA clinic wait times in Phoenix and around the county. After Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Erik Paulsen called on him to step down on Thursday, eight members of the Minnesota delegation — all except Reps. Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison — were on the record calling for his resignation.

Shinseki said earlier Friday that he would fire top officials at a VA clinic in Phoenix, where the wait time controversy first came to light, and he apologized the problems and promised to continue investigating them. He later met with Obama and offered his own resignation, and "with considerable regret, I accept it," Obama said.

The calls for Shinseki's resignation came in at a torrential pace on Wednesday and Thursday, and even his supporters said a Veterans Affairs inspector general's report was enough to warrant Shinseki losing his job. Rep. Tim Walz, a Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, for one, said last week that he wasn't ready to ask for Shinseki to resign, but he did just that after the report went public.

“As a military person, I know changes in leadership change the tone about where things are going,” Walz told MSNBC before Shinseki's resignation Friday. “So Secretary Shinseki has done honorable work, the suggestions he is making are right, but I can tell you the trust among the veteran community has been damaged.”

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com.

Not to mention he has a lot less cash after funding his 2010 run … . Tom Scheck, at MPR, reports, “Gov. Mark Dayton said Friday he has agreed to take public financing for his campaign," which limits his personal contribution to $20,000 in return for $450,000 from taxpayers. There's a $3.6 million overall spending limit, though that can be broken if someone like, say, Scott Honour, massively fundraises from the GOP side.

The first order of business is … make them know your name. But at KSTP-TV, Tom Hauser reports, “In online questionnaires with 1,621 Minnesota registered voters, 55 percent said they were 'not familiar' with Julianne Ortman, a state Senator running for the U.S. Senate. ... Businessman Mike McFadden, state Representative Jim Abeler and St. Louis County Commissioner Chris Dahlberg are ‘not familiar’ to 61 percent of Minnesota voters. ‘To have such a wide slate of Republican candidates who no one knows about is unusual and creates a steep uphill battle just to get your name out there’, says Larry Jacobs of the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute.”

An iPad for every child … . Mila Koumpilova of the PiPress writes, “Dell and the [St. Paul school] district agreed this week to scuttle an almost $4.3 million contract to design a new online home for the district's digital learning tools. A year and $715,000 into the project, it became clear the learning platform would not work as well or at least as soon as the two partners had hoped. Meanwhile, the district is finalizing a new deal with Apple to provide an iPad tablet for each student by 2015.”

The heavy hand of gummint … has been retracted. Mike Durkin at KMSP-TV reports, “Minneapolis Park Police have dismissed a citation against Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate Chris Holbrook, determining an officer ‘misapplied’ an ordinance. Holbrook was at Lake Calhoun on Thursday, gathering signatures to gain ballot access, when he and 3 volunteers were approached by police. An officer cited Holbrook for violation of Park Board Ordinance PB2-15, ‘use of parks, parkways and waters for financial gain’. The incident and citation were reviewed by Park Police Chief Jason Ohotto, who determined the officer “erred and misapplied the ordinance.”

Or maybe this will be an easier sell … ? Sarah Smith of the Forum News Service says, “A citizens group seeking to protect the region's natural resources has come up with two alternative routes for Enbridge Corp.'s proposed Sandpiper oil pipeline. The group, Friends of the Headwaters, has submitted the plans to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Both proposals skirt lake country in central Minnesota, particularly Hubbard County, and one nearly bypasses the state entirely.”

Why I stick to cars … . The WCCO-TV story says, “A 44-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman were both killed after their motorcycle crashed into a van west of Cambridge, Minn. Thursday evening. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, the crash happened along Highway 95. The van was traveling eastward on the highway when it attempted to make a U-turn from the right shoulder… . The State Patrol said that the motorcycle, which was also traveling east, was directly behind the van and crashed into it just behind the driver’s door.”

This week’s big bank fraud settlement pay-out … . Says Jennifer Bjorhus in the Strib, “Wells Fargo& Co. has agreed to pay $62.5 million to settle class action claims by a group of retirement funds that the bank breached its fiduciary duty and engaged in fraud in its securities lending program. The settlement announced Friday is the latest finale in a series of high-stakes cases against the bank over a largely defunct program that was managed out of Minneapolis.” And each case was an innocent oversight, I’m quite certain.

MPR's Catharine Richert askswhat this weekend's state political convention endorsements are actually good for. “ … if candidates plan to compete in the primary, is the party endorsement still relevant? [Gubernatorial hopeful Dave] Thompson says it is. … ‘In an ideal world, would it be preferable that we didn’t have primaries? Sure,’ Thompson added. ‘Would that be better for the party system itself? Maybe in the short run. But in the long run, if we can defend our endorsed candidates and win elections, the party will be just fine.’”

Randy Gilbert

For Republican Randy Gilbert, the second time’s a charm. After losing the Republican endorsement for the state auditor’s race in 2010, Gilbert earned overwhelming backing from activists on Friday to take on incumbent DFLer Rebecca Otto this fall.

Gilbert, an auditor in his day job at Assurance Consulting in Minneapolis and former Long Lake mayor, ran unopposed for endorsement at the state GOP’s convention in Rochester. The state’s auditor is charged with reviewing the $20 billion spent annually by local governments.

 “The state auditor is to defend the taxpayer at all costs at all times, especially when it requires him or her to stand up to their party,” Gilbert told the crowd. “That’s not what we have in Minnesota. Rebecca Otto has accepted thousands of dollars from unions who represent employees of the very people she is supposed to audit.” 

Gilbert also criticized Otto’s vote on the Minnesota Executive Council against issuing mining leases, calling it a vote against jobs on the Iron Range.

Gilbert lost out on the endorsement in 2010 to Pat Anderson, who was state auditor from 2002 to 2006.  Otto beat Anderson, and won re-election in 2010 by 1 percentage point. While the margin was narrow, she prevailed despite a banner GOP year that saw Republicans take control of the state House and Senate.

The state auditor’s office has switched back and forth between Republicans and Democrats.

“With 25 years of business and accounting experience,” Gilbert said, “I believe I have the experience and knowledge to speak truth to power on behalf of all Minnesotans.” 

MinnPost photo by Brian Halliday

Sen. Scott Newman addressed the GOP convention Friday.

Just one day after announcing his campaign, state Sen. Scott Newman won backing from Republican activists to take on incumbent DFL Attorney General Lori Swanson this fall.

Newman, a two-term senator and attorney from Hutchinson, ran unopposed for the Republican endorsement at the Republican Party of Minnesota’s convention in Rochester Friday. 

Newman touted his authorship of the photo identification constitutional amendment, which failed on the ballot in 2012. He criticized Swanson for not taking action as the photo ID legislation faced a legal challenge.  

“There is no place for politics in that constitutional office,” Newman told the crowd. “It is the highest legal office in the state of Minnesota and carries with it grave responsibilities, and those responsibilities have not been meet for almost a half a century.” 

There hasn’t been a Republican elected to the attorney general’s office in Minnesota since 1966. Swanson, running for her third term as attorney general, won her last two races with more than 10 point margins. 

Newman graduated from the William Mitchell College of Law. He’s a former Hennepin County deputy sheriff, public defender and administrative law judge and served one term in the state House. 

Former state Rep. Dan “Doc” Severson won the support of Republican activists over former Sen. John Howe to carry the party’s banner in the Secretary of State race this fall.

Howe withdrew his name from consideration after one ballot at the party’s endorsing convention in Rochester on Friday. Current DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie is retiring, leaving the office wide open this election cycle.

Severson ran against Ritchie in 2010, losing by about 4 points. He also unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 2012. Severson served parts of Benton and Stearns County for four terms in the state House.

Severson touted a specific plan for his first 100 days if he’s elected secretary of state that includes a voluntary photo identification program and a legislative audit of the state’s voting system.

“It’s time for a conservative secretary of state,” Severson told the crowd. “Without clean elections, we cannot keep our republic.”

Howe served one term in the Senate representing Red Wing before losing in the 2012 election. While he lost the endorsement, Howe encouraged Republicans to not make their message in the 2014 secretary of state race about voter ID.  

“If we talk about voter ID we are going to give this election to the Democrats,” Howe said, encouraging the Republican candidate to focus on the business filling part of the secretary of state’s job.

DFL activists will also pick their candidate in Duluth on Saturday for the secretary of state’s race. State Reps. Steve Simon and Deb Hilstrom are seeking the party’s backing.

The VA slow walk goes on for lack of an exception process

from Zingy Skyway Lunch by Erik Petersen

I’m mystified the White House didn’t figure out here early that the VA / Shinseki is ripe for an exception to the standard process.  Especially because they would seem to be recipient of advanced insight, ie discrediting facts that will eventually come out to make impossible the ability to sell “not systemic / rogue bureaucrats” and “phony scandal.”

ACA: Website and the law are simply not the same thing

from mnpACT! Progressive Political Blog by Dave Mindeman

The entire GOP plan has been to attack Obamacare. And the ACA gave them some ammunition with a horrible roll out and a website that was a disaster. But websites can be fixed and when the website works the law itself can actually work. And it has. People are getting healthcare via the ACA and the people in Kentucky like what they have been able to access.

West 29th street as a pedestrian destination

from streets.mn by Cameron Conway

The city of Minneapolis has set aside $350,000 towards studying the possibility of reconstructing Uptown’s West 29th street as a pedestrian-only boulevard. Uptown is a tough combination of pedestrian-scale storefronts and speedy auto thoroughfares, so a pedestrian connection that’s being compared to High Line Park could be the necessary cream filling for a truly stellar pedestrian experience. While every project designer seems to want their pedestrian-oriented street project to end up ‘High Line-y’ regardless of any contextual similarity to the High Line, I believe that this project is sitting on enormous potential.

East Central Minnesota Pride to celebrate 10 years

from Pine Poker by Nathan Johnson

Voyageur Park in Pine City will again be the setting to East Central Minnesota Pride, an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) pride event to be held Sunday, June 1, 2014 from Noon to 5 p.m.

This is the tenth straight year the event will take place, offering music, food and a rendezvous of friends, family and community.  The event began in 2005, aiming to give LGBT people, those questioning, and allies an opportunity to meet and build community in an otherwise isolated part of the state.

Calling all marketers: let's banish the word 'should'

from the MaccaPR Blog by Gwen Chynoweth

I’ve been trying to eliminate should from my lexicon in communicating with co-workers, clients, media – anyone, actually. It’s a lesson I learned from a former co-worker and friend who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. While she struggled with her new physical reality, mental, emotional and spiritual issues also overwhelmed her. Her doctor advised her to reduce as much stress as possible so she could concentrate on coping successfully with her diagnosis. As she navigated the myriad stress-reducing techniques available, one of the most effective was really quite simple: Eliminate should from her vocabulary.

Minnesota Nice as spring

from My Minnesota by John Harrington

Discovering this delight after a morning spent drinking coffee while watching the backyard bluebird, the pear tree in blossom, listening to goldfinches, sandhill cranes, gobbling turkeys, and a variety of songbirds reminded me of why I get so frustrated by the delayed arrival of Spring around here. It's such a wonderful treat when it arrives that, unlike waiting for Christmas, the anxiety about when and if Minnesota's Spring will finally arrive is compounded by the certainty that, if Spring delays too long, its arrival will be overshadowed by Summer. Our Spring is just too nice to miss that way. It's one version of "Minnesota Nice" I completely support.

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The following is an editorial from the Mankato Free Press.

Problems at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter seem unrelenting.

Downtown Duluth as we know it today is such an important part of the tourist mythology of Minnesota that it’s hard to remember that before the coffee shops, brew pubs and high-end outdoors stores, it was a gathering place for inebriates, ladies of the night, and broke young people looking for cheap eats and late-night amusements. But Michael Fedo remembers those days. Growing up in Duluth in the 1950s and ’60s, he accumulated a wealth of colorful memories and an eye for detail that ultimately led him to pursue a career as a writer.

His latest book, “Zenith City” (University of Minnesota Press), revisits this lost Duluth in vivid detail, bringing back a lively town populated by miners and smelt fishermen, where Pickwick was a grungy dive bar and children were warned away from the seedy old lakefront district.

It’s a colorful and often fascinating look at the evolving environment that inspired Sinclair Lewis, Robert Zimmerman, and numerous broadcasters, performers, politicians and other creative types. Through Fedo’s memoirs, a seldom-chronicled version of the city comes to rich life.

“Thanks, I think, to my cousin John, who served several terms as mayor in Duluth, the Lake Walk is magnificent. The old warehouse district down by the aerial bridge is great now — restaurants, shops, ships,” he says, remembering but not mourning the past. “Back in the day, we boys were forbidden to venture down there unless accompanied by an adult. The old Bowery district on West Superior Street is no more. That too, was forbidden, though regarding these areas, we tended to ignore parents. On the other hand, old downtown was rather exciting for youngsters — movie theaters, stores, shops — really the heart of the city. [Today] commerce, for the most part, is at the Miller Hill Mall, and downtown seems quiet now.”  

Hate mail and some smelt

Fedo worked as a Minnesota stringer for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Christian Science Monitor, and contributed articles to other national and regional publications while working as a writing teacher; he’s devoting his retirement to longer-form journalism.

His best-known book, “The Lynchings in Duluth,” recounts the 1920 killing of three black men by a group of vigilantes egged on by as many as 10,000 witnesses. The men were accused of rape; they were later found to have been innocent. The book first appeared in 1979 (it was reissued by Borealis in 2000) and Fedo says exploring the racist history of his hometown garnered surprisingly few strong reactions, although he was quietly harassed by one anonymous reader, later identified as the infamous hate-mailer Elroy Stock.

“He felt it was his mission to mail racist material to people working for racial justice, and even folks who adopted biracial children,” says Fedo, who received a number of threatening mailings from Stock. “Some years ago he was unmasked by the press and court orders forbade him from continuing his crusade unless he signed his missives. Which he did.”

“Zenith City” briefly revisits the lynchings and the impact that act left on his hometown. But mainly the stories explore the landscape of Fedo’s own youth, a later incarnation of the city that has only been partially erased in the past 50 years. Pockets of old Duluth still stand, populated by new faces, but most of the businesses have changed. Fedo’s book brings back Sammy's Pizza on First Street, the Pickwick (under new management, with a spiffier clientele today), the Flame restaurant, Joe Huie's Café (the youngest child of the Huie family is Minneapolis photographer Wing Young Huie), the Chinese Lantern, Harry Silk's Billiard Parlor, and the Place Pool Hall.

Fedo left Duluth in 1964, and now lives in the Twin Cities. “Until my father died, I still visited Duluth during the smelt run because Dad really liked to eat smelt, but was not physically up to catching them after he turned 80. I did that with my stepmother for several years.”

Not strictly 'regional'

Michael Fedo

Although Duluth is the setting for Fedo’s tales, he doesn’t regard the book as regional. Instead, they capture a moment in time. “William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, is place specific, but the appeal of his stories is universal. Not comparing myself to Faulkner, but I think there's a universality about the characters in my book, too,” he says, and there is, particularly in his recounting of the numerous pranks and scrapes his cohort pursued. “I think everybody likes funny stories, and there are some in this book that would be of interest to residents of Philadelphia, Jacksonville, or Carbondale.”

Still, there’s no place quite like Duluth. Fedo suspects that the physical beauty of the region is part of its inspirational influence on certain residents. “As I work, I'm not conscious of being a Minnesotan, even though I've lived here for more than 60 years. I don't think 'place' as much as 'people.'

"My work — both nonfiction and fiction — [is] about people and conversation. I think Duluth had more than its share of colorful people with quiddities that beg to be put into stories. I'll always be grateful to Duluth for exposing me to so many of them.”  

Events

June 12, 6:30 p.m.
The Bookstore at Fitgers, Duluth

June 23, 6 p.m
Duluth Public Library