May 7, 2004
The Minnesota Senate, working against time to complete their business before a mandated adjournment date, thumbed its nose at the House by passing an alternate set of Social Studies requirements that conflict with those passed weeks ago by the House: The DFL-dominated Senate gave its approval Thursday to a set of social studies requirements for all Minnesota students that goes lighter on the facts and heavier on the analysis than its more knowledge-based counterpart passed by the House in March. ... The chief author of the policy bill, Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, said he didn't think differences in the general principles of what's required in the two versions were that big. But a major difference is in the number of people, places and events kids are required to know. In the Senate social studies standards, those are generally left up to the teacher, though numerous examples are provided. The House...
May 8, 2004
After yesterday's performance by our intellectually- and historically-challenged Senator, Mark Dayton, Minnesotans have felt the need to abjectly apologize to the rest of the nation in general, and to the military specifically. Hugh Hewitt challenged us to demonstrate our contrition, which I did on his show yesterday and here at CQ as well. One of my readers, a fellow MN-blogger who operates the Intergalactic Capitalist blog, also apologizes in a humorous and R-rated rant that discusses Dayton's intellect, his grasp of history, his neurology, and his potential for becoming an Enzyte spokesman. StarBanker notes this Power Line entry by Rocket Man, who reported on Dayton's "homily" to a Roman Catholic audience at St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis last summer: Our country has moved decidedly to the right. Our citizens, many are less involved. Our social system is less compassionate, government is less effective and liberalism is more distrusted....Where...
I don't often do this, but I perused the local Minneapolis Star-Tribune due to acute boredom this afternoon. After getting past the fact that the Strib managed to bury most of Mark Dayton's appearance at the Hill yesterday -- which means they understand exactly how poorly he fared -- another headline caught my eye: 1,000-Man March Planned May 21. I suppose these days a protest just doesn't count if you can't tag "[round number]-Man March" onto it in the same way that a scandal without a "-Gate" suffix gets relegated to page A-32, but the number seems to be pretty low, compared to the Million-Man March (that attracted about 800,000) and the Million-Mom March (which drew 150,000). I figured that a thousand-man march might draw something like, oh, twelve guys and thirty-three reporters for their true and noble cause. Of course, on this point, the whole notion falls apart. Take...
May 11, 2004
Mark Dayton, our illustrious senior Senator, managed to make a name for himself again today in the hearings regarding the abuses at Abu Ghraib. While the rest of the Senate asked questions of Maj. General Antonio Taguba, who spent months investigating the incidents, Dayton could not be bothered to ask one single question. Dismissing the opportunity to actually get information from an important witness, Dayton instead spewed forth with his partisan posturing during his entire ten minutes, making clear that the purpose of the public hearing was to score as many points against the military and the administration: On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Mark Dayton of Michigan [sic] never asked a question during his time, instead using it to accuse Pentagon officials of sanitizing the abuse and obscuring the truth. "That's why the pictures have been so important," he said. "The pictures showed us the truth. ......
May 17, 2004
The Minnesota Senate closed its session early Sunday morning on a legally mandated schedule, but snuck in a final cheap partisan shot by firing Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke. Yecke's sin was not malfeasance nor gross incompetence, but her pledge to enact Governor Tim Pawlenty's policies for education -- the same policies that won him the election in 2002: When the smoke cleared from the education wars at the Capitol early Sunday, Minnesota had one fewer commissioner but a brand new set of requirements for social studies and science. Cheri Pierson Yecke was fired by the Senate on a 35 to 31 vote at 3:40 a.m. that followed strict party lines, after a day virtually devoid of any education action. ... Yecke's firing was effective immediately, without so much as a two weeks' notice. Yecke, who hosted reporters at a Sunday afternoon news conference in her Blaine home, said she...
May 27, 2004
The Democrats in the Minnesota State Legislature had quite a time in the closing hours of its last session, when they fired Cherie Pierson Yecke just to show their solidarity. Apparently, the DFL fortified themselves with more than just a healthy dose of partisanship, as local station KMSP found out when a news crew looked behind the scenes in the session's final hours: Late at night, in the closing days of the legislative session, lobbyists, state workers and even some lawmakers gathered in offices at the State Capitol to drink beer, wine and liquor, KMSP-TV reported Wednesday night. The station showed trash cans full of beer, wine and liquor bottles and suggested that at least some the alcohol of might have been provided by lobbyists. Lobbyists are not allowed to give gifts to legislators. ... KMSP said state policy forbids state workers from drinking on the job, even during rest...
June 2, 2004
In this period of rapidly rising gasoline prices, you may feel relieved to hear that the state of Minnesota has focused on the pump prices to make sure that there are no shenanigans going on. However, that feeling might be fleeting when you find out that they're keeping prices up: With gasoline prices painfully high, it may be surprising for some to learn that state regulators are penalizing retailers for, well, for not charging Minnesota motorists enough for gasoline. The Commerce Department snagged its first offenders last week under a 2001 law that aims to prevent predatory pricing by requiring gas merchants to charge 8 cents more per gallon than they pay for fuel. Arkansas-based Murphy Oil was penalized $70,000 for violating the law prohibiting below-cost sales. The company operates 10 service stations in Minnesota on property it leases from retail giant Wal-Mart. If the oil companies got together and...
June 5, 2004
The two major political parties have reached an agreement on opening a special legislative bacchanalia session to complete the work they left on the table when time ran out, or when the booze ran out, whichever came first. Governor Tim Pawlenty, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, and House Speaker Steve Sviggum met over some barbecuing brats at the Governor's mansion to reach an agreement on the agenda: After a two-hour meeting featuring gubernatorially grilled brats and beans on the patio of the governor's residence on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said he will report by noon Tuesday on whether he can agree to some broad framework that would set the stage for a one- or two-day legislative session, possibly before the end of June. The Legislature adjourned May 16, leaving unfinished its work on a major bonding bill for state borrowing and budget adjustments that would balance the...
The FBI and the Department of Justice have closed the case of alleged police brutality brought by Stephen Porter, a drug dealer and sometime informant of the Minneapolis PD: Two Minneapolis police officers named in an explosive allegation that a man was sexually assaulted with a toilet plunger handle during a drug raid won't face federal criminal charges, Chief Bill McManus announced Friday. Stephen Porter said that he was assaulted in a north Minneapolis apartment nearly eight months ago. McManus said the U.S. Justice Department investigation found no evidence of a "prosecutable violation" of federal criminal civil rights laws by officers Jeff Jindra and Todd Babekuhl. When this case hit the media, it was front-page news, especially since it echoed the notorious Abner Louima case in New York. However, the Stephen Porter case seemed wrong from the start. First off, the alleged abuse took place not in a police station...
June 10, 2004
I few weeks ago, I weighed in on a St. Paul proposal to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, pointing out that regardless of whether such a ban was good public policy, the city and state had the authority to regulate behavior in public places -- and then half-heartedly endorsed the proposed ban. The hue and cry that post brought rivalled anything I'd written before, and I received some especially fierce (but good-natured) ribbing from the gang at Fraters Libertas. I hadn't realized that they were part of the tobacco cabal, although the Elder does remind me of the Marlboro Man at times, sans horse. Today, then, even as Atomizer weighs in on the difficulty of being a smoker and a bird lover, the Star Tribune reports on a major victory in their battle to keep the environment friendly to nicotine addicts: Irwin Kester, a patient committed to the psychiatric...
June 11, 2004
I normally don't read Nick Coleman, either for elucidation or for unintentional humor, until I see him get fisked by the guys at Fraters Libertas, especially St. Paul's terrific pieces. However, for some reason, I decided to take a look at Coleman's piece today, entitled "It'll always be Dayton's to us." Unbelievably, the man of the little people spent his column space shedding tears for the demise of a corporate image! We're still not over Dayton's. Dayton's dropped its century-old name in 2001, switching to Marshall Field's after parent company Target Corp. bought Chicago-based Field's. The new owner, May Department Stores Co., says it'll keep the Marshall Field's name, but who cares? It's still Dayton's to us. See, this is the problem with people who want to imbue business concerns with all sorts of emotional baggage. They never understand that business has little to do with emotions; they either succeed...
August 21, 2004
Pam Wolf has been a CQ sponsor for the past few weeks, and she's running for the Minnesota State Legislature in November, in state district 51B. She faces a tough race in her district and needs the support of fellow Republicans across the state in order to bolster the Republican majority in the House. Pam's announced a great fundraiser for Sunday, September 12th -- a golf tournament at Brightwood Hills Golf Course in New Brighton, where Pam has made me the guest of honor! The entry fee is just $30 to support one of the Republican grassroots efforts to ensure the success of Governor Tim Pawlenty's program and to play golf with one of the worst duffers in Minnesota -- me. If you don't want to play golf but just want to hang out with us and have a hot dog, come on out! Pam has the option for those...
October 12, 2004
Today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune reviews the flip-flopping going on in one of our Congressional races, pitting popular Rep. Mark Kennedy against political neophyte Patty Wetterling. Wetterling has built a name for herself from her tireless work on behalf of missing children after the tragic disappearance and loss of her son, Jacob. However, the Democratic strategy to run her against Kennedy appears to be floundering as their candidate can't decide which policies she supports or opposes, even on basic-values questions such as abortion: U.S. House DFL candidate Patty Wetterling confirmed Monday that she unreservedly favors abortion rights and supported the war in Afghanistan, two issues that may play a decisive role in her Sixth District race against Republican incumbent Mark Kennedy. ... Wetterling retreated from previous statements that she and others made that she opposed second-trimester and late-term abortions. "I did have concerns about late-term and second-trimester," she said Monday. "I always...
The bizarre behavior of the senior Senator from Minnesota continues and deepens this afternoon, as CBS News reports that Mark Dayton has closed his office for security reasons. CBS also reports that government sources are baffled by his reasoning, as no specific intelligence exists which would lead them to believe he's been targeted (hat tip: CQ reader Laura): Sen. Mark Dayton said Tuesday he is closing his Washington office because of a classified intelligence report that made him fear for the safety of his staff. Dayton, D-Minn., said the office will be closed while Congress is in recess through Election Day, with his staff working out of his Minnesota office and in Senate space off Capitol Hill. "I take this step out of extreme, but necessary, precaution to protect the lives and safety of my Senate staff and my Minnesota constituents, who might otherwise be visiting my Senate office in...
October 16, 2004
The fallout of Mark Dayton's decision to close his offices in Washington DC due to unspecified threats continues, generating ridicule from both sides of the aisle and embarassment for Minnesotans. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that local DC reaction fluctuated from fury to concern over Dayton's psychological fitness: The surprising response by the freshman senator from Minnesota to the latest in a series of warnings prompted ridicule and a flurry of angry reactions yesterday. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said Dayton's decision was "ill-informed." Minnesota's senior senator, Norm Coleman (R), called Dayton reckless. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) compared him to the boy who cried wolf. Colleagues on both sides of the aisle whispered "paranoid." ... Dayton's reaction to the extreme possibility was ridiculous, D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said. "It's not based on any credible information that's come in. Nobody knows why he is doing what he...
November 2, 2004
Fox and CNN have both called the Oklahoma Senate race for Coburn. This was a hard fought, sometimes nasty race. OOPS: Ed and I did a double-post, so see below for his comments....
November 3, 2004
Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton, who did his best Brave Sir Robin* impersonation last month when he "bravely ran away, away" from DC after a security briefing that caused no one else to leave town, has decided to make his triumphal re-entry now that George Bush won the election: Sen. Mark Dayton said Wednesday he is reopening his Senate office after closing it last month, citing terrorist threats. Dayton, D-Minn., said that the threats outlined in classified intelligence reports that prompted the closure covered activity only through Election Day. "The timeline for the heightened threat has passed in those reports," Dayton said in a conference call with reporters. "I will be opening the office effective next Monday." Dayton announced that he would release the declassified report next week so people can make up their own minds about his decision to run screeching for the hills. However, the report will not outweigh...
November 11, 2004
Two days after John Kerry lost to George Bush, three of his teen supporters got into a dispute with a Bush-supporting schoolmate at their Minnesota Zoo School of Environmental Studies, and after some juvenile taunting, the budding Democrats beat the other teen with a baseball bat: Three high school students, one allegedly armed with a bat, were charged with attacking a pro-President Bush classmate after he reportedly said only gays would support Sen. John Kerry. ... The alleged assailants have all been charged: one with felony assault — because he allegedly went to his car to get a bat during the assault, prosecutors said — one with misdemeanor assault and one with disorderly conduct. In fact, both sides called the other "gay" for their political views, which still managed to outstrip the maturity level in some of the public debate from this election. Perhaps Lawrence O'Donnell counseled these young Democrats....
December 3, 2004
The Star Tribune reports that Senator Mark Dayton alleges that Republicans denied him a trip to Iraq in order to undermine his chances for re-election in 2006. Dayton cannot comprehend a single reason why Republicans would have bypassed him for a slot on the fact-finding tour and the denial of permission to travel separately: Sen. Mark Dayton wants to make a return trip to Iraq, but his request has been denied, the Minnesota Democrat said Wednesday. Dayton speculated that his request was denied by the Senate Armed Services Committee because he has criticized President Bush's handling of the war and because he's up for reelection in 2006. "Either one of those reasons is absolutely wrong, and unjust and unwarranted, and I regret very much the committee's decision," he said in a conference call with reporters. Perhaps he should re-read the transcripts from his participation in the Abu Ghraib hearings in...
December 12, 2004
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that a local beautification group has filed an objection to bronze statues of "Peanuts" characters in Rice Park, complaining that the memorialization of perhaps the most beloved and influential comic strip in American culture demeans the historic nature of the area: The Ross Group is an 11-member organization that's been involved in city beautification efforts for the past dozen years. They say bronze statues of Peppermint Patty and Marcie don't fit with the historic character of the park in the middle of downtown St. Paul. In particular, they say the characters clash with the park's statue of St. Paul-born author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The group says the "Peanuts" statues could jeopardize the park's possible designation as a historic site. The snobs at the Ross Group apparently do not understand -- or care to learn -- the influence of Charles Schulz on American culture, one that...
December 21, 2004
The 21st Century Democrats, a PAC affiliated with the DNC, has found out that Minnesota means business when we demand full disclosure on donations. After ruling that the Democrats had slipped in hundreds of thousands of dollars without disclosing their source, the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure board issued a stinging rebuke and a six-figure fine: Minnesota campaign regulators slapped a national Democratic political group with $317,950 in fines Tuesday for violating state campaign finance disclosure laws, the largest penalty of its kind issued in Minnesota. The 21st Century Democrats is the same organization at the center of a campaign finance flap involving House Democratic leader Matt Entenza, whose $300,000 in contributions to the group prompted Republicans to file complaints with state and federal election watchdogs on Monday. I posted about Entenza's checkbook politicking three weeks ago. At the time, I speculated that the 21st Century Democrats and Entenza would...
December 29, 2004
Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Nick Coleman went off his meds today, or on some new ones, in writing a smear job on Power Line, who he sees as his archnemesis these days. Without bothering to do any research whatsoever, Coleman accuses the "lads" of being unaccountable sellouts and worse: The lads behind Powerline are a bank vice president named Scott Johnson and a lawyer named John Hinderaker. If you read Powerline, you know them better by their fantasy names, Big Trunk (that's Johnson) and Hind Rocket (Hinderaker). I will leave it to the appropriate professionals to determine what they are compensating for, but they have received enormous attention from the despised Mainstream Media and deserve more. Oh ho, a penis reference from Coleman! What a great way to express his superior intellect and standards, seeing that he is a newspaperman: I work for a dopey old newspaper committed to covering the...
January 15, 2005
The firefighters in the IAFF Local 21 of St. Paul might want to check the coffee in the firehouse where Pat Flanagan serves. In what was meant as a stinging rebuke to Mayor Randy Kelly, Flanagan specifically e-mailed a warning to Kelly not to attend their annual installation bash, warning Kelly that "alcohol will be served" and implying that would make the party dangerous for the mayor: Reasons for the snub, Flanagan wrote, are the mayor's budget cuts, his decision to decommission an engine company, and growing tensions at the bargaining table. Flanagan ended his three-paragraph missive, dated Jan. 10, with this salvo: "Alcohol will be served at this event, so we write this letter in the best interest of all parties involved." On Thursday, Kelly fired back with an e-mail of his own. He defended his record and said he was "perplexed" by the reference to alcohol. Was that...
January 31, 2005
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes that approval ratings for both Minnesota senators has dropped over the past year. Both Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton have dropped below the 50% mark in the latest Minnesota Poll. But while the former attracts about the same level of support as President Bush received in the last election, Brave Sir Dayton has seen his popularity crash 15 points, winding up far below John Kerry's final numbers: Dayton, a Democrat who's up for reelection next year, took the heaviest blow: His approval rating declined by 15 points in a year, from 58 percent to 43 percent. The approval rating for Coleman, who just began his third year in office, fell by 7 points, from 54 to 47 percent. Dayton's job approval decreased among all categories of Minnesotans, grouped by age, education, income, party and ideology, with the largest drop among men -- down 27 points --...
February 26, 2005
One of the pleasures of participating in local radio is meeting the people who shape our community in many different ways. Today on the Northern Alliance, we had the pleasure of spending an hour with Michelle Bachmann, our state Senator from District 52 who just announced her candidacy for Mark Kennedy's Congressional seat. Kennedy plans on running for the Senate seat that Brave Sir Mark Dayton will vacate in 2006. Michelle took to live radio like a seasoned professional, making the rest of us juuuuuuust a little envious of her performance. She promises to come back for one of our upcoming live remotes at White Bear Lake Superstore, where I think Paul Rubin will be delighted to have her presence to light up the showroom. We'll let you know when that happens. In the meantime, we captured the moment for posterity (courtesy of Fraters Libertas and Michelle's friend Barbara, who...
March 13, 2005
The Twin Cities freebie tabloid City Pages and its blog Babelogue has long harbored the worst of Twin Cities reporting, even surpassing the bloviation and pomposity of Nick Coleman -- which represents a fairly high threshold. Their primary means of financial support appears to come from selling scads of classified advertising to local sex workers, which as a more libertarian sort doesn't bother me but does point out the fringe appeal of the publication. The tone always tends towards the hysterical and overwrought, which is why I almost always avoid it, even at the price offered. Unfortunately, someone pointed out a Babelogue post which goes too far even for the ethics-challenged staff of the City Pages. Molly Priesmeyer attended the Center for the American Experiment's sendoff of Dan Rather Wednesday night, hosted by Power Line's John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, and attended by Mitch Berg and the Fraters Libertas fellows....
March 22, 2005
Once again in Minnesota, we're confronted by the spectre of a teenager on a killing spree, this time in the economically challenged community of Red Lake near the Canadian border. Jeffery Weise, a Native American who incongruously bought into the madness of neo-Naziism, killed nine people and wounded several others at his school before turning his weapon on himself. No doubt this story will get all sorts of play in the national and local media, and I really don't have much to add to the facts already known. The strange connection between Weise and the nihilistic philosophy of National Socialism strikes me as so predictable for an isolated sociopath and so odd for a Native America as to defy belief. However, based on the information reported so far, it appears to be true. One of the greatest mistakes made in the past twenty years or so has been the dimunition...
March 29, 2005
After the spate of news stories following the Red Lake Massacre that killed ten people painted gunman Jeff Weise as a loner, Minnesota will be surprised to find out that the FBI has arrested another teenager as a co-conspirator. Louis Jourdain, the son of the tribal chief, was taken into custody last night and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, according to the Star Tribune: The teenage son of Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. was charged with conspiracy Monday in connection with the March 21 shootings that killed 10 people, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. The source said that Louis Jourdain, who is believed to be 16 or 17, plotted with the gunman, Jeffrey Weise, to violently attack Red Lake High School. One witness told reporters that Jourdain hid out with her in the library and knew without looking that Weise was the shooter,...
May 6, 2005
The city of St. Paul lost one of its heroes early this morning when Sgt. Gerald Vick, a two-time Medal of Valor recipient, died in a hail of gunfire while protecting the citizens of our state's capitol. Police have two suspects in custody: Police said Antonio Alexander Kelly, 27, and Harry Jerome Evans, 32, were being held on probable cause in the shooting of Sgt. Jerry Vick, which happened across the street from Erick's bar about 2:20 a.m. St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington announced the arrests at 12:10 p.m., saying Kelly was arrested at 3:30 a.m. and Evans was arrested at 10:15 a.m. Evans was covered with mud and appeared to have been hiding. Vick, a member of the department's vice squad, was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Harrington said. Vick had been shot in an alley near 7th and Forest Streets after exchanging shots with...
May 21, 2005
Power Line posted late last night that the local broadsheet, the Star-Tribune, finally noticed that the Governor had invited several Metro-area bloggers to the mansion for a meet-and-greet last Tuesday. Scott and John do a good job of poking holes in the reporting of Mark Brunswick, so I don't necessarily want to cover the same ground, but some aspects of Mark's report are just too good to pass up. First off, I can confirm what Scott says about having received no contact from Brunswick about this report despite the four days it apparently took him to write it. I display my e-mail address right on my website, just below the Day by Day cartoon now, and I can assure readers that my e-mail service works just fine. (In fact, this morning I've already received three offers from former Nigerian heads of state who need to get millions of dollars out...
May 25, 2005
Michelle Malkin notes that Al Franken, the premier host of the dying Air America talk-radio network, will move back to Minnesota and broadcast his national show from the Twin Cities. Franken has lived in New York for decades, but returns to the Land of 10,000 Lakes for a particular purpose: Radio host Al Franken, who is mulling a run against Republican Senator Norm Coleman in 2008, has purchased a town house on the edge of downtown Minneapolis and will establish residency in Minnesota. "It's one of the things I need to do if I decide to make a run," Franken said from his current home in New York. "I haven't made the decision yet, but if I do, I'll have to have been living in Minnesota a while." Franken might also want to make a run for the seat that Mark Dayton will vacate at the end of next year,...
July 14, 2005
The AP reports that abortions dropped by 30% in Minnesota in 2004, a year after passage of the Women's Right to Know Act. The new law requires abortion providers to give information about medical risks, potential fetal pain, and assistance options to women seeking abortions, and imposes a 24-hour waiting period. In its first year of application, abortions dropped to their lowest level in 30 years: The number of abortions in Minnesota dropped to a 30-year low in the first full year after the state passed a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions. ... The number of abortions in 2004 dipped to 13,788, the lowest level since 1975, the first year the state Health Department started tallying the numbers. The department has been reporting annual abortion figures to the Legislature for the past five years. The number of abortions in the state has been falling since it peaked in...
August 17, 2005
Two Minnesota politicians have announced that they will travel to Crawford to join Cindy Sheehan and join the media circus surrounding her protest. State Senator Becky Lourey joins FBI whistle-blower and Congressional candidate Coleen Rowley to garner some publicity and to take part in Sheehan's grandstanding: Rowley, now a Democratic candidate for Congress, and Sen. Becky Lourey will join a protest initiated by Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq last year. Sheehan started the vigil Aug. 6, coinciding with Bush's summer vacation. She has said she won't leave until the president meets with her. Rowley said Tuesday that she and Lourey would leave Thursday and stay at least through Sunday, sleeping in a tent at the site. They are paying their own way, she said. Lourey's son died in Iraq three months ago in an attack on his helicopter. The theme of the protest does make a certain...
September 8, 2005
Federal authorities appear to be conducting two different investigations into Twin Cities politics, as they launched raids at a city councilman's home and the offices of a key player in an earlier bribery scandal. However, an alert CQ reader whose name I will withhold for the moment found a connection between the two which may indicate that the FBI has uncovered something larger than a repeat of the Brian Herron case. Local ABC affiliate KSTP has a terse statement: [Dean] Zimmermann is a member of the Green party and a first-term council member. He wasn't available for comment, but his campaign manager, Lauren Maker, said the agents spent three hours at Zimmermann's home. Maker said the agents told her the affidavit attached to the search warrant was sealed, so she couldn't explain the purpose of the search. Because of redistricting, Zimmermann is in the same ward as council vice president...
September 9, 2005
Dean Zimmerman took Brian Herron's spot on the Minneapolis City Council after the arrest and conviction of the latter on federal bribery charges. Now the Strib and the AP confirm that federal agents have their eyes on Zimmerman for the same kind of behavior, apparently having caught him in a sting operation assisted by an anonymous local developer: A City Council member is being investigated for allegedly accepting bribes from a developer in exchange for help with zoning permits, according to court documents filed Friday. Councilman Dean Zimmermann, a Green Party member seeking his second term, is accused of accepting thousands of dollars from the developer, who was working in cooperation with the FBI. One payment was to help with attorney fees owed by Zimmermann, according to the document. Other payments were for the councilman's re-election campaign, the document said. The exchanges between Zimmermann and the developer were recorded on...
October 9, 2005
Patty Wetterling has decided to bypass another attempt at the sixth Congressional district seat she lost in last year's election against Mark Kennedy to take on the same opponent in the race for the Senate seat that Mark Dayton's retirement will leave open. The political novice lost a tough battle against Kennedy last year in which she showed a thin skin for politicking and plenty of inexperience and indecision on policy. She has to convince Democrats that she can more effectively challenge Kennedy than Hennepin County DA Amy Klobuchar, a much more experienced DFL politician who has already declared her candidacy: Last year, she lost a bruising battle for Congress to U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, who is now the Republican candidate for Senate. Although Wetterling was a political novice at the time, her name was recognizable to many Minnesotans. She became one of the country's foremost child-safety advocates after her...
October 25, 2005
I want to pass my thanks along to the Republicans of Senate District 41, who invited me to speak at their monthly meeting tonight. After treating me to a lovely dinner and meeting State Senator Geoff Michel, I had the opportunity to talk about blogging, politics, the media, and the intersection of all three in the coming election cycles. I met many new friends there like the two Tonys and Jerry, as well as old friends such as Laura and Ken. Brien Martin wrote up a nice blurb about the event in their newsletter announcement earlier, and I understand they will review the evening's festivities in their next one. Here's my review: I had a blast talking with real grass-roots, politically involved Republicans who have enthusiasm for their political goals and beliefs. With luck, I'll be able to do it again sometime soon....
December 8, 2005
In a mind-boggling decision, a Dakota County judge allowed a Level 3 sex offender -- the kind most likely to re-offend -- to walk out of a courtroom after spending two months without making required contacts or registering his whereabouts with the police. Jeremy Queen had turned himself in after a two-month search for the chronic parole violator and spent Tuesday night in jail. Thanks to Dakota County judge Ed Lynch, by Wednesday morning he had won release on his own recognizance: A convicted sex offender wanted by police for failing to report his whereabouts turned himself in to the Dakota County jail on Tuesday night, only to be released the next morning by a Dakota County District Court judge. Prosecutors, dismayed by the decision, said Jeremy John Queen, 26, has a long history of ducking authorities and violating par-ole. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said he will ask the...
January 30, 2006
I live in Minnesota's second Congressional district and have the honor of being represented by John Kline, a twenty-five year veteran of the Marine Corps and a man who has served honorably in the US Congress. On two occasions I have had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Mr. Kline and found him to be an affable, intelligent, and erudite representative. Of course, he and I see eye to eye on many issues, while principled people may disagree with both of us on how best to run the country and represent the Second. Those principled people who do not care for John Kline's view on the issues should get better representation than former FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley. She has descended far into the fever swamp during her brief yet notorious campaign to unseat Mr. Kline. When last CQ heard from Ms. Rowley, she had just missed her...