What else were they going to do with the summer?Brett Neely of MPR says: “Members of Minnesota's U.S. House delegation are preparing for a long, hot summer of investigating the Internal Revenue Service over its scrutiny of conservative groups. … First District DFL Rep. Tim Walz said he was outraged to learn about the IRS' activities and believes the agency needs to be investigated. But he said many Republican-driven investigations, such as the hearings into the Benghazi, Libya embassy terror attacks that have focused on the White House's talking points about the attacks, have given congressional oversight a bad name. ‘When Congress now has to exert its oversight authority, it's been so politicized and downsized everybody sees it as, 'Oh, it's another witch hunt or whatever.'Well sometimes there's witches,’ Walz said.”
Bill Salisbury’s PiPress reporting on the last details of the budget deal … “The bill would raise about $2 billion over the next two years. Republicans said the tax increase is unnecessary and will hit more than the wealthy and smokers. ‘Every Minnesotan will pay more under this tax bill, and unfortunately it's going to harm Minnesota's economy and hurt job growth in the state,’ said House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown. [Speaker Paul] Thissen said the additional tax revenue would wipe out the state's projected $627 million budget deficit and enable DFLers to increase spending on education, job creation and property tax relief — the issues they campaigned on last year. Dayton said 36 percent of the new revenue would go to education, 31 percent to deficit reduction, 20 percent to property tax relief and 5 percent for economic development and housing.” Or in other words, "wasteful government spending."
Pity the poor gypsy moth … The AP reports:“Officials will set more than 14,000 gypsy moth traps across Minnesota this spring as part of the state's annual monitoring program for the destructive tree pest. Gypsy moth caterpillars eat the leaves of many trees and shrubs. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture says they favor oak, poplar, birch and willow. Severe, repeated infestations can kill trees, especially when they're already stressed by drought.”
Beware the sesame paste … In the Strib, Paul Walsh says, “Two infants in Minnesota have fallen ill with salmonella poisoning after eating a brand of sesame paste that is the subject of a recall, state officials said Friday. State health and agriculture officials are directing consumers to not eat Krinos brand tahini from the affected lots and sizes. The product should be thrown out and the lid from the product returned to Krinos for a refund, the officials added. The product was recalled April 28 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after the Michigan Department of Agriculture found salmonella in routine sampling.”
Walsh again, with a classic car scam … “A onetime Iron Range businessman faces two criminal charges for a three-year scheme that swindled classic car buffs out of $1 million with false promises to restore their vintage vehicles. Edwin S. Verdung, 26, was charged Tuesday in federal court in St. Paul with wire fraud and money laundering … From April 2007 through May 2010, Edwin Verdung was paid money by people in the market for classic cars or who brought their own vehicles into the shop to be restored or rebuilt. However, he allegedly failed to provide the vehicles or the restoration services as promised. In some instances, he represented falsely that he had made progress in the work. The younger Verdung also required some customers to make ‘progress’ payments, providing them with bogus photographs of the restoration in progress.”
From his “Good Question” segment last night,WCCO-TV’s Jason DeRusha has this: “Dave Johnson from Owatonna: Why do they shut down several refineries at the same time? Different companies own those refineries, and right now it would be against anti-trust laws to coordinate like that. If you knew that two refineries were going to do maintenance, you might stockpile and take advantage of the higher price, according to [Jake] Reint from Flint Hills. ‘If you know the markets going to be short a certain number of barrels, you’d have a huge issue,’ Reint said. He said the equipment is set up to do maintenance on a part of the facility while continuing to produce gasoline from other parts of the operation. ‘It’s a very competitive marketplace, and there are serious anti-trust rules. We don’t know what other refineries are doing,’ said Reint.” But it would seem to offer an easy windfall … if you somehow, someway did know.
It’s pay and bonding talk at the Legislature today. The AP writes:“The Minnesota House is planning to vote on a constitutional amendment that would take decisions about their own pay out of their hands. The House planned a Friday debate on the amendment, as well as a bonding bill for construction projects across the state — including a fix for the crumbling Capitol building. If the amendment is put on the 2014 ballot and passed by voters, it would create a legislative pay council appointed by the governor and the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The governor and chief justice would each appoint one member from each of the state's eight congressional districts. Membership would have to be split equally between the two political parties, and could not include current or former legislators.” Right. And how much would we pay the pay council?
Remember the snail darter … On his “Stadium Watch” blog, MPR’s Tim Nelson reports: “Football fans were reveling over the design of the new Vikings stadium this week, but bird watchers remain skeptical. Glass, they say, kills birds. And it looks like there’s a LOT of glass on that new stadium. Minnesota DNR Regional Environmental Assessment Ecologist Melissa Doperalski noted the potential for bird strikes at the new stadium: ‘The DNR would like to encourage project designers to consider bird friendly building designs that would help to reduce the potential for a bird collision to occur,’ Doperalski wrote to the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority. Is the new stadium design ‘bird friendly’? That remains to be seen. As Tom Fisher, the dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota noted on Monday, the new stadium may have the largest transparent doors and roof in the world. It also seems to have another potentially dangerous feature for birds — glass on both ends of the building, offering the illusion that they can fly all the way through it.” Note to self … buy stock in industrial netting company.
Someone ran the stopwatch so you didn’t have to. Sarah Karlan of BuzzFeed tells us that FoxNews spent … excuse me, let me turn my calculator app on … 44 seconds … covering Minnesota’s gay marriage bill signing. Lefty, socialist, Obama-licking MSNBC? 37 minutes 31 seconds.