Here’s a shrewd move ... . The Strib’s Baird Helgeson writes: “The lead group that successfully pressed the legislators to legalize same-sex marriage this year has formed a new political group to ensure those lawmakers are re-elected. ‘Minnesotans United recognizes that casting a yes vote in favor of allowing same-sex couples to marry was a decision that many legislators struggled with,’ said Minnesotans United campaign manager Richard Carlbom said in announcing the formation MN United PAC. … Minnesotans United has proven to be a fundraising powerhouse in the Legislature and over the last two years as it worked to defeat an amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage. ‘MN United PAC will work tirelessly to ensure that the leaders in the Legislature — Republican and Democrat — who voted yes for marriage this year have the grassroots and financial support they need to be re-elected,’ Carlbom said.”
The conservative Daily Caller’s Michael Bastasch alerts his readers to another example of government-mandated price increases:“The Minnesota House passed a bill last week that would mandate that utilities get 4 percent of power from solar by 2025. The Senate bill, which also passed last week, imposes a 1 percent solar mandate by 2025. On Tuesday, both chambers agreed to a 1.5 percent solar mandate by 2020. The modified bill now goes back to both the House and Senate to be voted on. … However, this move will only serve to force state residents to pay higher utility bills, according to the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank in the state. The group estimates that electricity prices would rise two cents per kilowatt hour if the mandate becomes law, which would mean industrial ratepayers would see their power bills increase 30 percent. The group also predicts that the mandate would cause the manufacturing, retail and hospitality sectors to shed from 12,000 to 49,000 jobs.” A lot of peer review on those numbers, right?
Of serious concern to Minnesota farmers ... Brett Neely of MPR reports:“[T]he House and Senate Agriculture Committees are debating a new farm bill. The current legislation directed more than $1 billion to Minnesota last year in the form of food stamp benefits and subsidized crop insurance for farmers. Those two expensive programs are the most controversial portions of the new bill Congress is considering. The Democratic-controlled Senate passed its bill 11 months ago, but the House never voted on its version. … GOP leaders kept the House from voting on last year's committee-approved bill because of election year disagreements over how much to cut from the food stamp program.” And besides that, how important are a bunch of farmers when we still haven't gotten to to the bottom of Benghazi?
Also in D.C. …The AP reports:“North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven says a measure that would authorize a Red River flood diversion project has passed the Senate. The nearly $2 billion proposal to move water around Fargo is part of the 2013 Water Resources Development Act, which was approved Wednesday morning. Authorization would allow construction to begin, but the federal funding would need to be appropriated each year to cover the construction costs, which would be shared by local, state and federal governments. The water projects bill now goes to the House.” Uh-oh …
MPR’s Annie Baxter files a real estate story on the popular practice of “sleeving”:“The historically low supply of homes in the Twin Cities means a dearth of listings for sale, and bidding wars that take place over the few available homes. The steep competition is prompting some real estate agents to market homes privately, before they're listed publicly. Typically, a real estate agent announces a home for sale by listing it on an industry database called the Multiple Listing Service. But the Whitemans' agent offered instead to market their home privately, in a method called "sleeving," or "pocket" listing. That involved checking with her colleagues at Edina Realty to see if they had buyers who might be interested. All this would take place before listing the home on the MLS. The agent said that route would be easier for [a Chaska couple], and they might be able to sell their house without it having to undergo a major paint job and cleanup.” Talk about job killing for “stagers”!
The AP’s John Flesher files a piece on the latest sense of environmental threats to the Great Lakes:“A decades-old effort to nurse the battered Great Lakes to health has made progress toward reducing toxic pollution and slamming the door on invasive species, but the freshwater seas continue to face serious threats, a U.S.-Canadian agency said Tuesday. The International Joint Commission, which advises both nations on issues affecting shared waterways, said their governments had compiled a mixed record in restoring the Great Lakes, which for much of the 20th Century were fouled by industrial and household sewage and overrun with exotic fish and mussels. Levels of some toxins have dropped, although the rate of decline has slowed and new chemicals have turned up, the commission said. Algae blooms were reduced dramatically, only to stage a frustrating comeback in recent years. Rising surface temperatures and shrinking winter ice cover are contributing to lower water levels, suggesting that the lakes' ecology may be linked increasingly to climate change.”
I’ve often wondered what happened to her …Mike Householder of the AP writes: “Cecelia Crocker's body provides her with a constant reminder of the most traumatic event of her life — one that she doesn't otherwise remember. At only 4 years old, Crocker was the lone survivor of a 1987 plane crash that killed 154 people aboard and two on the ground near Detroit Metropolitan Airport. In the new documentary, ‘Sole Survivor,’ Crocker breaks her silence, discussing how the crash of the Phoenix-bound jetliner has affected her. … The movie focuses on Crocker — known as Cecelia Cichan at the time of the crash — as well as three other ‘sole survivors’ of plane crashes: George Lamson Jr., a then 17-year-old from Plymouth, Minn., who was aboard a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno, Nev., in 1985; Bahia Bakari, a 12-year-old girl who lived through a Yemenia Airways flight that crashed near the Comoros Islands in 2009; and Jim Polehinke, the co-pilot of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Ky.”
What are they paying mail carriers these days?Paul Walsh of the Strib says: “ A onetime Duluth post office mail carrier has been sentenced for saving big money at Menards by stealing rebate checks and other retail rewards from dozens of residents along his route in a string of thefts that he said helped him buy insulation from the store to keep the cold out of his daughter’s bedroom. Giang Nguyen, 49, of Superior, Wis., was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis to two years of probation, along with restitution payment of more than $1,000 and 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty to one count of theft of mail by a postal employee. In his plea agreement, Nguyen admitted that from March 2010 to January 2011, he removed applications for Menards rebate checks, the actual checks and Menards ‘Big Money Game’ scratch-off cards from the mail of 45 residents on his rural route.”
The U of M needs more booze money. Mike Kaszuba of the Strib says: “The University of Minnesota is hurriedly moving to renegotiate its contract with its longtime concessionaire to funnel more alcohol proceeds to the school after reporting that it lost money in its first year selling beer and wine at TCF Bank Stadium. University officials said the new tentative agreement — which comes as the school faces continuing criticism for losing money on alcohol sales during the 2012 football season — would substantially increase its percentage of beer and wine sale proceeds from the stadium’s general seating area. Only two months ago, the school reported it lost nearly $16,000 in its first year of selling beer and wine at the four-year-old stadium, even though it sold more than $900,000 worth of alcohol.” Now that wouldn’t happen in Wisconsin …