The Strib’s Jim Ragsdale reports on state Capitol reaction to the Obama administration’s push for effective gun control:“Gun-control activists and police officers took a cue from President Obama’s gun violence package Wednesday and vowed to work on several fronts at the Minnesota Legislature to prevent gun violence.‘I think there’s a sea change occurring,’ said Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, chairman of the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee. Paymar will be carrying a bill to require background checks for all Minnesota gun sales, including those at gun shows or between private parties, and believes it has a better chance than in the past. … The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, representing rank-and-file officers around the state, will also support expanded background checks, said executive director Dennis Flaherty. The group will also support an expanded police presence in schools, with state and federal funding to help defer the costs, he said. The group will adamantly oppose proposals to allow teachers and other school workers to carry weapons as a way of stopping such crimes, Flaherty said. That is the chief post-Connecticut proposal of Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, leader of gun-rights activists at the Legislature. He said he saw little he agreed with in Obama’s plan.”
Brett Neely’s D.C. roundup for MPR includes this: “Congress will have to take the next step on Obama's other proposals, which includes limiting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, banning assault-style weapons and ending a major loophole in gun laws by requiring background checks for guns sold at gun shows. Franken and fellow Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar will have a front seat in that process; both sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will begin major hearings on gun violence two weeks from now. Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, thinks Senate Republicans might agree to some parts of Obama's plan. … The other two House members to watch on this issue are Democrats Collin Peterson and Tim Walz. Both represent rural districts and have been endorsed by the National Rifle Association. The National Rifle Association said in a statement responding to the Obama proposal that ‘attacking firearms and ignoring children is not a solution to the crisis we face as a nation.’ Peterson and Walz generally vote in favor of the powerful lobbying organization's interests in Congress though after the Sandy Hook killings, Walz has said he's willing to consider additional steps such as an assault weapons ban.” It’d be a provocative message if Walz repudiated the NRA.
The feds have “final regulations” about haze from northern Minnesota taconite plants. In the Duluth News Tribune, John Myers writes: “The regulations come after months of delay and will force some taconite operations to add expensive new pollution control equipment to curb nitrogen oxides, or NOx, and sulfur dioxides, SO2. Environmental and public health groups, and now the EPA, say that pollution not only causes haze over pristine areas like the Boundary Waters, Isle Royale and Voyageurs national parks, but also can cause lung ailments in people. … The rules affect all six taconite operations in Minnesota as well as the lone taconite operation on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. New plants would also be expected to meet the standards. Many coal-fired power plants already have been required to make similar upgrades.”
Someone has a new gig. Maybe. Dan Browning of the Strib says:“B. Todd Jones, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, was nominated by the president Wednesday for permanent director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The former U.S. Marine may be heading into a firefight. No one has been confirmed as director of the $1.12 billion agency since its law enforcement functions were split off from the U.S. Treasury Department in 2006 and the position was made subject to Senate approval. The gun lobby has objected to every nominee, including the choice of former President George W. Bush. The National Rifle Association already is opposing gun-control measures proposed by the Obama administration in the wake of the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The organization did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment on Jones' nomination.”
Strib nightlife guy Tom Horgen talkedwith MPR’s Tom Crann about the new Northeast taproom scene:
“Horgen: We now have our very own ‘brew district’ in northeast Minneapolis. Indeed Brewing opened in a big way last summer. A handful of breweries will open in the next month in northeast, making this area a true hotbed for taprooms. It's only fitting because northeast has a long history of brewing because of Grain Belt Brewery.
Crann: There are so many cool, old buildings in northeast, like the Grain Belt Brewery building. Are any of these breweries taking advantage of the area's old character?
Horgen: I recently took a tour of 612Brew, a long-awaited brewery that is under construction in an old warehouse space at the corner of Broadway and Central. Plans are to open in early February. The space is gorgeous. The four owners have put the taproom right in the middle of the brewery, so it'll be a total sensory experience for visitors. They've paid a lot of attention to the details in the design. The bar and tables are made from old bowling alley lanes. The fermenters are mirror-polished steel. Outside is a courtyard with a mini-amphitheater constructed from giant stone blocks from the old Metropolitan building.
Crann: What about the beer?
Horgen: They were so busy brewing for the opening I couldn't get a taste.”
Pal ...
You can kill eagles if you’re a wind farm. Josephine Marcotty’s Strib story says: “A bitterly contested wind farm proposed for Goodhue County got the go-ahead Wednesday to pursue a permit that would allow it to legally kill or injure eagles, in what could be the first case of federal authorities issuing a license to kill the protected national symbol. The 48-turbine project would kill at most eight to 15 eagles a year, a number that would not harm the local population, federal officials said in a letter to state regulators. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said its estimate does not include possible strategies to reduce the number of eagles killed and, that if a permit is eventually granted, the goal would be a much lower figure. The small wind project near Red Wing has drawn national attention as one of the first to try the government's controversial new strategy of managing the sometimes lethal conflict between birds, bats and the towering turbines.”
Since the free market has failed so badly …Jennifer Brooks of the Strib writes: “A bill introduced by House DFLers on Wednesday could make it easier for homeowners … to stay in their homes by prohibiting lenders from beginning foreclosure proceedings at the same time they are working with homeowners on ways to avoid foreclosure. Sponsored by Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley, and modeled after similar legislation in California, the bill would bar the controversial practice known as ‘dual tracking,’ which led to a $25 billion settlement with some of the nation's largest banks late last year.”
I thought The Love Doctor had a deal?Frederick Melo of the PiPress says: “Troy Decorsey, who operates the adult novelties shop at 1607 W. University Ave., left a city council meeting Wednesday, Jan. 16, threatening to sue the city and the city council for denying him the right to install an illuminated sign extending four feet over the public sidewalk. ‘It's going to court,’ said a visibly upset Decorsey, standing in the elevator lobby outside the council chambers. ‘There's no going around this.’ Prompted by the objections of the Hamline Midway Coalition, council members voted 6-0 not to allow the shop to erect a 20 1/2-square-foot illuminated sign extending over the sidewalk. Council member Dan Bostrom was absent. The Hamline Midway Coalition had appealed a Nov. 26 Board of Zoning Appeals decision, which would have allowed the Love Doctor a variance from the city's sign code.”
You knew the Power Line boys would be beside themselves with the president’s full frontal assault on their precious constitutional freedoms.John Hinderaker writes:“I haven’t noticed any ‘military-style assault weapon’ exception in the Second Amendment, especially since a ‘military-style assault weapon’ is not one with military capabilities, i.e. an automatic weapon — illegal for civilian use since the 1930s — but rather is one that looks vaguely scary to the ill-informed. So the Obama administration isn’t just attacking gun owners, it is attacking the Constitution.” And: “Rick Perry has presided for some years now over America’s most successful state. His track record of success is unmatched, so his voice should be listened to. This is what he had to say about Barack Obama’s gun control pronouncements:
… the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president.
Emphasis added. Powerful stuff, from a leader who is, apparently, fearless.” You read it right. “Texas” … “most successful” ... and Rick Perry. It’s beyond parody.