Stop the ReRoute: taking a stand on sacred land will show at the Riverview Theater at 7pm on Thursday, May 22.

Stope the ReRoute tells the dramatic story of a community’s opposition to the State of Minnesota’s plan to drive a road through its birthplace, Camp Coldwater between Minnehaha Park and Fort Snelling - land considered historic to some and sacred to others. This inspiring film bears witness to the commitment of citizen activists to live lightly on Grandmother Earth, preserve precious natural resources, and resist car culture at the end of the Petroleum Age, as neighborhood and environmental champions, Native American activists, and young people coalesce in nonviolent civil disobedience.

Cost is $10. Doors open at 6pm, there’s “entertainment” at 6:30, and then the film screening will be followed by “honoring of activitists” and Q&A with the film’s producers.

I’m not sure if the Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition is at all affiliated with the folks who made the documentary. A pagan activist person I know suggested that there’s not complete alignment between different groups with interest in preserving the land.

I attended a winter solstice celebration at Coldwater Spring last year.

More about Coldwater Spring

Ever wondered who owns all the TV, newspapers, radio and major news Web sites you enjoy each day?

In December 2007, the FCC “gutted the rules that protect local communities from media monopolies,” and I just got this e-mail from the Free Press Action Fund urging Minnesotans to take action:

As early as tonight, the Senate will have its last chance to roll back media consolidation, and Sen. Norm Coleman and Sen. Amy Klobuchar could cast the deciding vote. All of our work to stop runaway media conglomerates could come down to your senators!

Their vote would overturn a disastrous FCC giveaway of local news outlets to Big Media. If the giveaway stands, it would open the floodgates to the type of consolidation that has allowed tycoons like Rupert Murdoch to stifle diverse voices and skew America’s political agenda…Call Sen. Coleman and Sen. Klobuchar Now.

Tell them to vote for the bipartisan “resolution of disapproval” (S.J. Res. 28), which rejects the FCC ruling. If the resolution passes, our fight will move on to the House. If it doesn’t, then Big Media gets to move into your neighborhood, gobbling up more local outlets.

I found some talking points here:

These new rules are bad for local news. Research by Free Press — a non-partisan, non-profit organization — has shown that allowing one company to own a major newspaper and TV broadcast station in a community leads to less local news overall. Additionally, we know that more consolidation leads to cuts in newsroom staff and erodes quality journalism. Read more.

These new rules are bad for people of color. Right now people of color own only 3% of broadcast media in America. The way these new rules are written, it will put these minority media owners in the cross-hairs of consolidation. They will become targets for buyouts, further diminishing the diversity of voices on the airwaves. Read more.

These new rules are bad for business. As one company amasses more media properties in a given community, it effectively gets monopoly status. By setting up advertising deals across media outlets, it becomes impossible for other small media firms to compete.

The FCC’s process has been corrupt. The FCC Chairman has consistently bucked standard procedure, ignored members of Congress and the public, and snuck through new media ownership waivers that undermine his new rule. The House is currently investigating the FCC on the grounds of bad process.

And if these kinds of topics interest you like they do me, be sure to check out the National Conference on Media Reform coming to Minneapolis this June. More info about the campaign here.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: Senate passed the bill around 8 tonight. Bush has said he will veto if House passes, as well. I guess we’ll see.

• Sunday, May 17, is Syttende Mai, Norway’s Independence Day.
• Kids from one school bus stop are biking to school together for Bike Walk to Work Week.
• Minneapolis City Councilmember Ralph Remington on the black experience in America.
• Charles Hallman of the Spokesman-Recorder, who (along with Stephen Litel from DT/SW Journal) provides the best Lynx coverage in town) previews the Lynx going into the team’s 10th season and the WNBA’s 12th season. Home opener is Sunday at 5:00 against the Detroit Shock and will be broadcast on FSN North. FanFest will be happening out on 6th Street from 2-4pm.
• Vandals damage governors’ portraits in the Capitol. Harold LeVander, Elmer Anderson, and Jesse Ventura. Colonel Mustard, in the rotunda, with a marker.
• Mary LaHammer previews her Almanac interview with Jesse Ventura. Dude’s all over the place pimping his new book.
• Sornie: “When I attend the Minnesota State Fair, I love to wander through the ‘varied industry building’ or as I refer to it as ‘people peddling crap that doesn’t deserve shelf-space at the As Seen on TV store at the Mall of America building’.” It doesn’t even matter what the rest of the post is about.
• St Paul Issues Forum is doing happy hour tonight. O’Gara’s. 5-7pm. SPIF is also looking for candidates for their executive committee. Deets at happy hour.
• My favorite Rake blog is Just Passing Through. Guest blogging by all sorts of interesting folks.

Y’know, I’m still a little pissed about the smoking ban in bars. I pretty much took the Eddie Izzard view on the matter: “Yes, no smoking in bars, and soon there’ll be no drinking and no talking.” I’ve heard all sorts of “but it’s nicer to breathe clean(ish) air than all that cigarette smoke.” Sure. Whatever. It’s still government overreach… and doesn’t even pretend not to be.

So, you’d imagine I’d flip my shit when I saw this:

In an effort to rid its playgrounds and beaches of cigarette butts and secondhand smoke, Ramsey County is considering making many of its recreation areas tobacco-free zones.

But… no. I am having a really hard time getting my blood worked up about keeping cigarettes away from places where children play. I know in the depths of my political soul that it should not be the government doing this–that people should have the good sense not to smoke at a playground. But the plain truth is most people don’t.

And this placates me even more:

Tobacco use would still be allowed on Ramsey County golf courses and at picnic shelters.

Golf really isn’t golf without a cigar. And who of us has left a picnic satisfied without eating a cigarette or two.

Maybe you can come up with a good point to help piss me off about this?

MinnPost is reporting on something very interesting that is happening within in the Minnesota chapter of the Republican Party. When the party convenes this fall in St. Paul, six of the delegates will be pledged to Ron Paul.

While this may not seem like anything newsworthy, it actually kind of is. (In fact, MinnPost did two stories on it. Two!) Fully half of the delegates from three of the four Twin Cities districts (the fourth, fifth, and sixth) will be going to St. Paul wearing Ron Paul tshirts. The state party isn’t happy about this. In fact, in an email sent to some supporters, the state GOP said:

“You should also be aware that, unlike your service as a State or local delegate, your influence on the process is considerably limited. The other primary states will, by convention time, have determined the Presidential nominee. The platform process is divided and the opportunity to participate in even a piece of it is limited. After the convention, the platform is generally ignored. For this reason, the role of National Delegate is generally seen as a ‘reward’ for long and faithful service to the Party, rather than as a ‘representative’ to a deliberative body or a ‘learning opportunity’ for newcomers.”

In other words, a pat on the head for being able to do so darn well. Now sit down and shut up while the grownups discuss business.

This really makes me want to poke my head into the X come September when the convention rolls into town. Because I think it may look something like this.

But, I don’t know. Are you a member of the Ron Paul Revolution here in the Twin Cities? Or are you a lock-step GOP member? Give us some insight on what the hell is going on here.

There have been a couple things going on around school down at the ol’ State Capitol.

First, they’re in the process of trying to raise the legal high school drop out age from 16 to 18. Now, I don’t have any statistics in front of me about how effective the law is in deterring dropouts, but it seems to me that any of the following would work better:

1) Funding after school programs
2) Smaller class sizes
3) Smaller school sizes
4) Better funded/expanded curriculum choices
5) Performances measures not based on standardized tests
6) Hotter, looser teachers

So yes. Let’s ignore the difficult root causes and make the symptom illegal. Up next: it’s illegal to get talk about condoms. That’ll get those teens to stop doin’ it.

Yep. The legislature is hearing about why talking about sex in school is how kids get clued into the fact that boy part fits into girl part quite nicely (I’m turned on just by that phrasing alone!). So, no talking about condoms or STDs or how, if God didn’t want women to masturbate, why do they have an orgasm button? Again, if we outlaw the symptom, the problem will fix itself.

The award for Best Quote Ever on abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education goes to Rick Olseen:

The back-and-forth exasperated one proponent, who told Prichard to get his “head out of the sand” and realize people aren’t getting married until they’re in their 30s these days.

“I wish you would come at this with a little bit of reality,” said Sen. Rick Olseen, DFL-Harris. “If you don’t want people to have sex until they’re 35 or 40, just say so.”

Also, I’m sure by “sand” he meant “ass”

• twin_cities: ISO grassy metro parks for a guinea pig festival! “The grass has to be chemical free as dozens of hungry guinea pigs will be snacking on and simultaneously fertilizing it.” OMG SO KYOOT!
• MPR: College of St. Catherine to become a university. “The new name hasn’t been determined, but will include ‘St. Catherine’s’ and ‘university.’”
• Minneapolis Issues Forum: Do Idaho’s bike safety statutes make more sense?
• MinnPost: How we’re doing so far. Joel Kramer reports in on the first six months of MinnPost. “MinnPost.com has more than 100,000 absolute monthly unique visitors, as measured by Google Analytics. This makes us the most-visited local-news website in Minnesota that is not driving traffic to itself from a legacy medium, like TV, radio or print.”
• Minnesota Monitor: Congress studies wrong city for RNC disaster preparedness. “The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found that Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Medical Center did not have sufficient capacity to handle a terrorist attack. The committee completely overlooked St. Paul’s Regions Hospital, which would be the first responder in the unlikely event of a terrorist attack on the RNC.”
• Southwest Journal: Neighborhood organizations are adjusting their fundraising strategies in preparation for the loss of NRP funding. They mention Bryn Mawr Neighborhood Association; Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc.; and East Harriet Farmstead Neighborhood Association.
• City of Minneapolis: Sustainability Initiatives
• City of St Paul: Sustainable Saint Paul
• The Deets: Ed looks at recent reports on the link between local food environments (i.e., stores/restaurants in your neighborhood) and obesity and diabetes. Ed’s theory: “The distance you drive to buy groceries effects how you shop.”

I was under the vague impression that most people weren’t planning on using their stimulus check to actually stimulate the economy. I thought more folks would pay down debt or save it. Boy, was I wrong.

According to howispentmystimulus.com, people from Minnesota have all kinds of plans.

Brian from Merrifield, MN is using his to make his home more energy efficient. Robert from Minneapolis spent $216 on sweatpants. Elizabeth from Minneapolis is replacing her harvest gold washer and dryer. Nikki and Dustin from St Paul paid some wedding expenses. Maura from Minneapolis is paying on her student loan. Other Minnesotans are going on vacation.

(I don’t know why it tickles me so that it’s been shortened to “my stimulus” from “my stimulus check.”)

You can share your story with a photo or with a video (visual aid required). I’d be really curious to see some aggregate data six months or a year from now.

I’m boring. I’m paying down debt with mine. Inquiring minds (i.e., Sornie and I) want to know: What’re you doing with your stimulus?

The National Governors Association’s Greening State Capitols program has selected 20 participating capitol complexes. Considering Tim Pawlenty is the NGA Chair that’d be some shit if we weren’t on the list.

From Wal-Mart’s press release:

During the next year, engineering experts will visit the 20 capitol facilities to examine the lighting, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, as well as refrigeration equipment and building structures. Each governor will then receive recommendations on how to improve the energy efficiency of his or her capitol complex. The recommendations will be based on technologies that have proven successful in Wal-Mart stores, Sam’s Clubs and supplier facilities around the world. According to its engineering analysis, Wal-Mart, through its Supplier Energy Efficiency Program, has already helped participating organizations save between 20 and 50 percent on their energy bills.

More on Wal-Mart’s role, from the Greening State Capitols program announcement (pdf):

Wal-Mart will only recommend technologies that give the state a return on investment within five years, unless a state specifically asks for a different time frame. At the state’s request, Wal-Mart will use its procurement skills to attract bids from interested companies and facilitate installation of the recommended technologies.

Each state will provide personnel to help conduct the audit, implement recommendations, and track results.

It makes some sense when you consider what Wal-Mart has done to make their stores more energy efficient. And it jibes with the fact that real change on a large scale only happens when it becomes a business incentive to do so.

I still wonder about conflicts of interest, though. Wal-Mart can’t just be doing this out of the goodness of the VP of Sustainability’s heart. PR? While it’s not guaranteed, they’re obviously going to get further business when the states implement their recommendations.

(via Maria Energia)

I do not pretend to understand the gasoline economy when it comes to Minnesota and the world. I’m just listening and trying to sort it all out.

I’ve heard that by inflation’s standard, gasoline is relatively cheap. I’ve heard that oil companies make exorbitant profits. I’ve heard oil companies make big profits because they make big investments in research and risk and are just plain big companies. I’ve heard oil markets are controlled by Middle East interests and secret societies. I’ve heard arguments about war for oil. I’ve heard oil companies pay billions to our government in taxes every year and arguments for drilling off-coast and in ANWR a way to increase oil supply.

Lots of conflicting viewpoints and philosophies, really.

Now I’m hearing about states suspending gas taxes for the summer to help the economy, and I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

According to the NYT:

…state gas taxes, which run as high as 45.5 cents a gallon, often add far more to the price of gas than the 18.4-cent federal excise tax and are the primary cause of price disparities across state lines. So lawmakers and candidates at the state level have been getting into the act…The New York plan, sponsored by Republicans in the State Senate, would suspend three state gas taxes, amounting to about 32 cents per gallon, from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

The Florida plan would create a tax holiday around July 4, cutting 10 cents per gallon off the 33.2 cents in total state gas taxes.

Meanwhile Minnesota just recently raised our gas tax by 5.5 cents per gallon (phased in through October) amidst a swarm of debate, emotion and fear-mongering (mostly about paying for bridges without thought of trimming pork projects). The NYT piece shows a gas holiday for the summer would save the average Minnesota driver less than $50 for the entire summer. That won’t even get two adults into Valley Fair.

It seems like we as a society continue to think in the short term and talk out of both sides of our mouths when it comes to fiscal responsibility and taxes. Here’s a piece from the Hartford Courant that address this way of thinking:

Any 9-year-old understands that paying less for something is a nice thing, but most adults know it is not always the smart thing to do. Suspending the gas tax would cause consumption to go up, which in turn would cause oil prices to go up.

The Strib’s Nick Coleman is happy to pay his taxes — even says “It is an American thing,” about our responsibility to pay gas taxes.

So in a meandering way, I think I agree with everyone. I agree gas prices are too high for my personal budget. I agree it’s our responsibility to pay taxes. I agree we need to be thinking long term about prices and not be reactionary — heck, I don’t even remember to keep 5 cent/gallon coupons.

I suppose the disconnect for me (as only a five year MN resident, mind you) is why the gas taxes in Minnesota were raised when all these other states are looking for gas tax relief and if ~$50/summer is really enough reason to bother for any state.

Of course, the gas tax increase is a done deal now, but I wish every time the local news does a story on the gas taxes (one local station seems to do a segment on each 10 o’clock newscast), they would subtract the new taxes just to make it fair to our fellow gassy states.