Two congressmen — Democratic Rep. Tim Walz and Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen — joined leaders of labor unions and the state Chamber of Commerce in seeking the repeal of Minnesota’s nuclear moratorium.

Their public backing could put pressure on legislators from their areas considered swing votes in the debate. In April, a bid to lift the ban fell eight votes short in the House after convincingly winning approval in the Senate

Walz, who represents much of southern Minnesota, said he doesn’t discount concerns over long-term waste storage. But he said there are environmental consequences to keeping the nuclear ban in place, too.

“Without a baseload of other alternatives here in Minnesota, quite honestly we’ve encouraged people and forced them into the coal business,” he said. “We want to give them other options.”

I have no questions that ending this law and building nuclear is the right thing to do. I believe that newer nuclear technology is safer and more efficient than the plants of the past. (See Also: Wind vs. Nuclear Power: Which Is Safer?
) And it’s my understanding that we are now able to get more power due to recycling nuclear waste.

Still, that’s just like, my opinion man.

What do you think?

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There’s been a bald eagle chillin’ like a villian at Lake Harriet and people can’t help but stop and stare.

I hear it’s been there everyday for the last week, go check it.

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Delivering the news

While out for a morning bike ride I stopped and talked to this fellow biker who was delivering the paper.

He was a bit shy about having his pic taken “I can get off the bike. You don’t want a picture with an ugly old man in it” he offered which I rebuffed with “I don’t think you’re ugly, at all.”

We had a little chat about about biking: bike commuting, adult trikes, winter biking, tires and tire width and tire pressure and optimal tires for different conditions; turns out he bike commuted to work for twenty years.

Now in retirement he’s delivering the paper.

Sympatico.

Reflection

SOTC has NEMAA Fall Fine Arts Show and an interesting conversation about the light rail, Gentrification Via Light Rail.

Minnpost has a must read with the judges talking – Small-fee case explodes: Minnesota justices direct judicial anger at Pawlenty and Legislature

the most remarkable piece of the package is raucous, angry concurrence by Justice Paul Anderson. Anderson sides with Magnuson, which makes his the deciding vote in favor of the deal. The license fee is necessary for the maintenance of “a civilized society,” Anderson says. But the price he exacts for his vote is a fierce lecture about how government ought to function. He ratifies the deal, then denounces it as necessitated by the “unfortunate impasse” between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the DFL Legislature. But “unfortunate impasse” is pale language compared to what happens when Anderson gets warmed up.

Seriously, read the entire article and the links.

Derusha has a great read on What is and what isn’t terrorism. Did you know there are 109 kinds?

Though, I don’t think cancelling interviews is one of the 109, nor is Friday the 13th, but Sanden of InTheLoop fame doesn’t need Friday the 13th or terrorism to feel the effects of a tough week.

Can we reschedule?

Well, it looks like today isn’t that unlucky for the IntheLoop’ers after all as they have a Joa Cao song going viral in Louisiana

What are you talking about?

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Twitter is a wonderful way to meet new people and often times those people can become quite close in the Social Media realm but wouldn’t it be nice to meet those people in real life?  That is what MSPTweetup was organized to be, a regular event for Twitter folks in the Twin Cities to mix and mingle at a local establishment to put faces to usernames.

The Thursday, November 14th MSPTweetup was a big success, held at the Bulldog Northeast and sponsored by IZEA’s Sponsored Tweets there was a huge turnout enjoying the tater tots and conversation.

Planned by Kareem Ahmed & David Dellanave it was one of the largest MSPTweetups. And then it happened. The special surprise guest arrived.  Dallas Mavericks owner and twitterer Mark Cuban arrived at the MSPTweetup. 

Twitpic of @kazeemy & @mcuban @bulldogne #msptweetup

@snyd043 & @mcuban @bulldogne #msptweetup

Image hands of a princess- autumn day in the park Uploaded on November 8, 2009 by cichlee {novella}

Amazing detail in tatoos. I love that even without much English, she understood I wanted a closeup of her hands. So beautiful to a midwest girl like me. I’ve lived abroad and had people talk at me in languages I didn’t understand. It was interesting to do this here.

I think this next item is really cool, Bob Collins and Mary Lucia have put their 5:15 segment online. I know with many folk Bob and Mary can inspire a love’em or hate’em situation, well you can put me in the love’em camp.
MPR News Cut: Fresh Eye on the Radio
Give it a listen.

*Update*Speaking of MPR,if you haven’t seen David Brauer’s, of Minnpost, piece on MPR Executive Pay check it out, especially the comments.

While Secrets of the City has art The Affair
AND
scandalOnline Protest Promotes Viewer Interaction

Citypages trys to help out Snoop, who was in town last night, with Advice for Snoop Dogg on getting high in the Twin Cities

My only advice to the Snoop Dogg would be don’t exhale, but I’ll bet he knows that already.

Since Crazy stays crazy

I’ll close it out with: Smart went crazy

“the sombrero is for anyone who doesn’t show up in costume.”

Image uploaded by The Queen of Subtle

Sadly I missed Q.O.S.’s Halloween party, but it sounds like everyone had a blast.

I did take the kids out (one was a ladybug and the other a goldfish, the wife was Little Bo Peep) and then we handed out candy.

Also, I made a scary 30 second video with my cameraphone to terrify the wife.

Between groups of kids arriving the Ladybug and I would walk around the street in front of my house. I’d drag my leg through the leaves and clink the machete against the road. Several kids stuttered out a “ya..ya…You’re really scary” as they they tenatively held out their bag for candy.

What did you do for Halloween? Was your costume horrifying?

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Lake Harriet Bandshell uploaded by cichlee {novella}

Just the other day I was contemplating, much like the above image, about bringing on even more authors.

Unlike the beautiful image above I wasn’t enjoying the serene beauty of our lakes, I was being tossed out of a car at 50mph for not paying a debt in a timely fashion. ( Grandmas, what are you going to do right? )

That’s when it hit me, the road. Just kidding, it was the car behind us. No really, I think it was Bob Dylan on a motorscooter.

I digress.

What I really mean to say is more awesome writers!

Jon will be covering local outdoors, biking, and whatever else catches his interest.

Meghan likes to write about music and set things on fire. She can actually burn down a rock pile with just an ice cube and flynt.

And last to the party will be, Kara who will be starting mid-November and is going to take up the helm of fashion and intrigue . You may know Kara from MnDaily where she’s been rocking the fashion scene.

Please treat the new authors right, they are friendly, but armed and extremely dangerous.

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And a few moments ago, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a news release detailing a puzzling lapse by a Northwest Airlines flight crew over Minneapolis yesterday: On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at 5:56 pm mountain daylight time, an Airbus A320, N03274, operating as Northwest Airlines (NWA) flight 188, became a NORDO (no radio communications) flight at 37,000 feet.

The flight was operating as a Part 121 flight from San Diego International Airport, San Diego, California (SAN) to MSP with 147 passengers and unknown number of crew.

At 7:58 pm central daylight time (CDT), the aircraft flew over the destination airport and continued northeast for approximately 150 miles. The MSP center controller reestablished communications with the crew at 8:14 pm and reportedly stated that the crew had become distracted and had overflown MSP, and requested to return to MSP.

Now, we could wait for a rational or reasonable explanation OR we could speculate wildy.

I think you know which I prefer.

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