WDIO-TV in Duluth, part of the Hubbard empire, has dropped the latest DFL Party ad supporting Rick Nolan, the one accusing Chip Cravaack of “not even living in the district.” Megan Boldt of the PiPress writes: “WDIO, the ABC affiliate in Duluth, pulled an ad at the request of first-term Congressman Chip Cravaack that claims the Republican ‘doesn't even live in Minnesota anymore.’ … Cravaack's residency has been a target since last year, when his wife and children moved from Lindstrom to New Hampshire. His wife, Traci, got a promotion with Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk that caused her to move to New England. The Congressman still has a home in North Branch. And his campaign points to a Duluth News Tribune article from this past spring that shows Cravaack spent 164 days working in Minnesota in 2011, compared to 160 and 181 for U.S. Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar respectively.”
Another option to Paris. Nice. David Phelps of the Strib says: “French carrier Air France announced Tuesday that it intends to provide seasonal service between Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris beginning next year. It is the first-ever service by Air France in the Twin Cities, said Brian Peters, assistant director of air service business development for the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). Service will be offered five days a week from May 21 until June 16 and daily from June 17 until Sept. 1. Passengers will fly on a 275-seat Airbus A340 with 30 seats in business class, 21 seats in premium economy class and 224 seats in economy.”
Valspar is making improvements in downtown Minneapolis. Janet Moore’s Strib story says: “The Valspar Corp. said Tuesday it is spending $30 million to expand its research and development campus in downtown Minneapolis. The Minneapolis-based producer of paints and coatings said the expanded R&D operation will create 135 full-time jobs over the next two years by adding 87,000-square-feet of laboratory, meeting and office space to its downtown campus.”
Video of that brawl between two local high school soccer teams is getting good play on the Internets. Dylan Murphy at SportsGrid writes: “A Minnesota high school soccer match between Totino-Grace and Prairie Seeds Academy ended in a massive brawl when two players got in a shoving-punching match as the game came to a close. Eventually both teams stormed onto the field and a brawl broke out, the result of pent-up frustration boiling over after a chippy match. … Notice the Totino-Grace coach, who tries to break up the fight, getting punched in the head and the violent kick and FLEE THE SCENE move by the same Prairie Seeds goalie who punched the opposing coach.”
Minnesota will pick up a nice check following a drug fraud case involving an Illinois company. Christopher Snowbeck’s PiPress story says: “Minnesota will receive about $4.5 million from Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories as part of a national health care fraud settlement, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announced Tuesday, Oct. 23. The settlement calls on Abbott to pay $9 million related to the use of a drug called Depakote by patients in the state's public health insurance programs, including Medicaid. The sum will be split between the state and federal government, which jointly fund Medicaid. In May, Abbott Laboratories pleaded guilty to illegally marketing Depakote to control agitation and aggression in elderly dementia patients and to treat schizophrenia. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not approve either use of the drug, which is approved for epileptic seizures, bipolar mania and the prevention of migraines.”
Have you seen the video of the state trooper … and the near miss with a semi? Lauren Osborne Miller of the PiPress says: “During a routine traffic stop Oct. 15 in Eau Claire County, a semitrailer traveling at highway speeds came within inches of side-swiping a car on the shoulder — and the state trooper conducting the stop. The near-miss was captured on video by the trooper's dashboard camera. The footage shows trooper Charles Hotvedt talking with the car's driver through the passenger-side window when the semi zips by, its tires well over the line separating the lane from the shoulder.”
It is odd, or maybe ironic, that Tea Partiers are so quiet this year. Mark Zdechlik of MPR says: “[S]upporters of the tea party have been far less vocal, allowing the political cycle to run a more-typical course. That could be a bad sign for Republicans like Cravaack who rode the tea party wave to Washington. ‘I don't know what the problem is, why they don't have the strength that they had a couple of years ago,’ said Kent Linblad, a tea party supporter in Cravaack's hometown of Lindstrom, Minn. ‘It's just like they backed off.’ … Chisago County Republican Party vice chairman Darrel Trulson said that as the tea party movement was exploding a few years ago, local GOP officials rewrote their constitution to try to make the party more accessible to newcomers. He said the changes paid off. ‘The tea party here in Chisago County and, you know, this little area, has really been absorbed by the Republican Party,’ he said.” Or vice versa.
Even the little papers are down on the GOP’s voting amendment. As Sally Jo Sorensen notes in her Bluestem Prairie blog, Dave Phillips of the Bluff Country Newspaper Group writes: “The measure to put the question on the ballot was supported only by Republicans. Every Republican, except state Sen. Jeremy Miller, in both the House and Senate voted in favor of this proposal. The partisan nature of this amendment makes it unworthy of being on the ballot. Although the state constitution doesn't have the weight of our national Constitution, amendments should be nonpartisan in nature, rather than an attempt by one party to get around a DFL governor veto. … The most baffling aspect is that the Legislature agreed to put it on the ballot before figuring out how it would work or how much it would cost. Those are important details that voters should know before making their vote.” There weren't any details in the order they got from the ALEC.
A Strib commentary by Jim Lenfesty notes the near total absence of campaign discussion over climate change. “Three huge issues face voters this year: the national debt, the current state of economy and the ravages of climate change. Yet in three lengthy debates, not one question from moderators or selected "undecided" voters has directly addressed that third question. This represents a shocking failure of journalism to enhance public understanding, particularly when the difference between the two candidates on this issue could not be more stark. As Massachusetts' governor, Mitt Romney once endorsed the science of climate change, understood that carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants were a prime culprit, and said so. But now he is in the grip of a Republican Party in full denial of those facts. … Nor has President Obama mentioned climate change … I understand the straightjacket both candidates wear, with every response tested against the handful of undecided voters this late in the campaign. But recent polls show that most voters have learned from the ravages of drought this summer and the record collapse of the Arctic ice sheet — as has the Defense Department, very worried about the destabilizing effect of climate change.”
Correction
The Glean wrongly attributed the disputed ad about Chip Cravaack's residency to the Rick Nolan campaign. The third-party ad was sponsored by the DFL Party.