Yesterday, we sent this email out to Alliance for a Better Minnesota members in hopes that Minnesota Republicans would stand by their vote, and not pull the ultimate political flip-flop. With debate underway in the State House, things are still up in the air.
Joe,
Republican leaders appear to be backtracking from their support for a bipartisan compromise to protect more than 70,000 Minnesotans from getting kicked off a state service -- General Assistance Medical Care -- that provides access to basic health care.
In a radio interview, one Republican legislator admitted it's a shift from "what's good for the district" to "party loyalty." It is shameful to let party loyalty displace the needs of veterans and the poor who are seeking access to doctors and medicine.
Take a minute to tell your legislators that their loyalty should be to their constituents -- not political party leaders:
http://ga0.org/campaign/VoteYesOverride
We need to put the pressure on legislators so that they have the courage to stand up to party leaders in order to save this crucial service. The vote is expected on Monday and we need you to click on the link and take action now.
Thank you for telling your legislator to put the needs of constituents ahead of party loyalty.
Joe Davis, Alliance for A Better Minnesota
P.S. The override vote could happen tomorrow, Monday March 1st, so make sure you take action right now.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joe Davis, Alliance for a Better Minnesota
Subject: 70,000 Minnesotans are counting on you
To: joe@allianceminnesota.org
Last week the state legislature put partisan bickering aside to protect the more than 70,000 vulnerable Minnesotans--around 8,000 of which are veterans-- who depend on General Assistance Medical Care to get access to basic health care.
But now, after Governor Pawlenty's veto, some of those same legislators that supported the bipartisan bill are thinking about voting against that very same bill this time around.
Click here to ask your legislator to vote YES on GAMC one more time.
If the legislature does not act, more than 70,000 Minnesotans across the state that depend on the GAMC program will be without the care that they need. This service is simply far too important to the most vulnerable in our state to be a victim of of Tim Pawlenty's presidential hopes, and the ambitions of other Republicans seeking higher office.
That's why we here at Alliance for a Better Minnesota, a grassroots advocacy organization, have been contacting folks like you across the state to contact your legislators right away.
Our legislators have the power to make things right but they need to know that they made the right decision the first time. We only need three out of 38 House Republicans to vote the same way they did last week to make this happen.
http://ga0.org/campaign/VoteYesOverride
Hearing from people in their district is the only way that they'll stand up to Tim Pawlenty. Click on the link to contact your legislator and tell them you support basic medical care for the most vulnerable folks in our state, and you support their vote.
Thanks for standing up for what's right,
Joe
Joe Davis
Deputy Director
Alliance for a Better Minnesota
There is a lot to get excited about at Netroots Minnesota. With two days of engaging panels and workshops, there is sure to be something for every progressive looking to learn how to grow our movement in Minnesota. In addition to all of the panels and trainings, attendees of the conference this weekend are going to have a unique opportunity to spend their lunch hour Saturday with Minnesota's 1st District--The Fightin' First!--Congressional Representative, Tim Walz.
Walz's dedication to people powered politics has been especially visible this summer. When John Kline turned down his offer for a bipartisan town hall and was still hiding from his own constituents, Representative Walz was out hearing what the people of his district had to say, even the ones who disagreed with him. Both on health care and the war in Afghanistan, Walz has impressed his constituents with his command of the issues and concern for their thoughts. From a letter to the Winona Daily News:
"I am proud to say Walz represents me in Washington, D.C. His vast knowledge about the subject and his willingness to hear the questions and concerns from his constituency are admirable.Walz wrote copious notes while numerous speakers spoke for and against the current policy toward Afghanistan. If these thoughtful conversations took place before invading Iraq, a rigorous policy solution could have been drafted...We need to have a serious conversation about U.S. involvement, and Tim Walz is the right person to lead the discussion."
Now you have your chance to hear from Tim Walz. On Saturday, folks at Netroots Minnesota will get the inside scoop on events in Washington from Representative Walz. He will be taking questions via twitter, facebook and in person, making this one of the most interactive congressional briefings around. You only have two days left to reserve your spot to hear Representative Walz and attend Netroots Minnesota, so head on over and sign up right away.
Families USA released a report today that has hit the Star Tribune on the 45,000+ Minnesotans that have now lost their health insurance by losing their jobs. This is quite a scary number, and it certainly points to the need to reform our broken insurance system. However, there is a line in the Star Tribune story on this report that would almost slip by you if you weren't careful. It both points to the need for health insurance reform AND the positive effects of a program designed to take care of those who need it the most...lets see if we can pick it out:
The states with the biggest losses are California (661,600), Texas (396,900), Florida (297,600), New York (253,100) and North Carolina (184,700). By contrast, the number of uninsured children stayed stable due to public coverage for children through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Find it? Right after listing the hundreds of thousands of people who are newly uninsured, the story notes that children in these families have not suffered the same fate. The reason? Super socialist/evil/mean government run health insurance! This is not really surprising for supporters, that is why it was developed and passed in the first place. However on a political level, with regards to the current reform effort, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the government program that uses tobacco taxes to pay for health care for poor and working poor children (in brief), is particularly useful for us to look at, because this program was just enhanced and expanded at the start of this year after George W Bush and Republicans had blocked and watered down parts of the legislation in 2007. Despite this program's obvious success and the essential service it provides, the program has been hammered with the same attacks being shouted against President Obama's current reform efforts.
Just take a look at some of the crazy conservative Republicans like Michele Bachmann have talked about this program, which is now preventing millions of children from suffering the same fate as their parents in going uninsured, I promise you'll recognize a few:
"[B]ecause now President Obama even voted for the SCHIP bill, which we all know will now for the first time swing the door wide open for illegal aliens. I know one thing: The people in my district are not interested in paying for the health care for illegal aliens that are coming across our border to be yet one more magnet to bring people in that should come here legally." (Michele Bachmann, from Minnesota Independent, 3/18/09)
Rep. King of Iowa introduced a new acronym for the program. He called it the, "“Socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents” (Think Progress, 10/18/07)
Rep. Tom Feeney of Florida had his own little acronym, "Socialized, Cuba-style Health care for Illegals and their Parents" (Think Progress, 10/18/07)
Both Bachmann and John Kline voted against this program a grand total of six times.
Yet none of these Glen Beck styled conspiracies about coverage for non-citizens, socialism running around lawless, a government takeover and the end of the private insurance market have come true. What has happened, though, is that millions of children are now getting access to the care that they need, staying out of expensive emergency room visits keeping costs down for everyone, and allowing their parents to sleep a little easier at night. Something that isn't happening for adults because of the powerful interests that have blocked reform in the past are gearing up to fight yet again.
The point is, folks, that all of the theatrics about the current reform effort are just the same old sick scam that conservative Republicans have trotted out against every reform effort that may dip in to insurance company profits, including successful ones like the State Children's Health Insurance Program. We need to extend the same access to all people that we fought so hard for to give to our children. Head over to our health care website and learn about past attempts to distract from and destroy reform, and then share it with your friends. If you're more the phone type, make a call to your legislator about the urgent need for real health insurance reform for all Americans.
This is another episode of our Blog Action Day posts about Climate Change.
I'm a huge sports fan. Huge. Like on the level that teenage girls were obsessed with the Backstreet Boys back in the day, and like the level that most of those folks are now on about "Twilight". As a sports obsessed youth growing up in Wisconsin, there are few images that get force fed to you more than that of Bart Starr crossing the goal line during the "Ice Bowl".
Needless to say, this play was recreated roughly 3,457 times in our backyard growing up with all of my brothers and sisters decked out in their winter gear. Having our own "frozen tundra" was fun for us, and a great relief for the parents when we'd come back in from running around like crazy, each of us totally exhausted. We all embraced the cold weather games, both at Lambeau and in our backyard. The mystique, the challenge of the cold, and the toughness it took to overcome, made us all feel like our team and ourselves were made out of tougher stuff that those folks who journeyed up from the warmth of the south, or played their games indoors.
But what does my story of backyard football glory, living vicariously through professional athletes, and a flashback to a sporting event from decades before have to do with climate change? Well, lets start with this image from a study done by the Nature Conservancy:
Yes, you may look at these projections for temperature increases by the year 2050 and begin to think about the impact on the important agricultural sectors in these states and other very important things, but the sports fan in me looks at this and thinks, "NO! The Packers are going to lose all semblance of a home field advantage!" What will happen to the "frozen tundra"? The fog of the breath passing through the facemasks? The opposing team huddled around space heaters? The blaze orange dotting the stands? Then I came across Wisconsin Environment's recent analysis and it confirmed my panic:
· All 14 cold-weather teams’ cities saw an increase in winter temperatures from 2000-2007 as compared to the previous thirty years.
· The Green Bay Packers had the largest temperature increase during the last seven seasons, a 4.1 degrees Fahrenheit increase as compared to the previous thirty years. This is significant in comparison to the next highest temperature rise of only 2.9 degrees.
That's just downright scary people. The thought of a team from Tampa or Jacksonville not feeling downright terrified in the upper midwest in November and December... sickening.
There is more to my sports climate change concern than just the Green Bay Packers. Now that I've been in Minnesota for 5+ years and adopted it as my home, I've also had to adopt new sports and teams like the the Wild and the Gophers into the fold (though I will never ditch the Packers...ever. You hear that Brett?). The climate of Minnesota, at least the ones not controlled by a thermostat and a dome, plays a huge role in most of these. With these projections, what will happen to the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships on Lake Nokomis? Do we annex part of Canada and keep moving north as the temperatures rise? I don't think so. What happens to the AMOSIL Snocross Series? Slow and wet tracks make for slow snow machines people. The Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza wouldn't be exempt either, folks.
These things are important to communities across this state. We all have to push our leaders to take action now. For the sake of the Packers, pond hockey championships, ice fishing extravaganzas, the Packers, backyard snow football, downhill skiing, cross country skiing, curling, the Packers, the snocross series, and community outdoor ice rinks. Help protect the things that make our state great by taking part in an action on October 24th, the international date of climate change actions with 350.org, and spread the word.
We are participating in Blog Action Day 2009, this is the first of several posts on climate change issues we'll be putting up here today...enjoy.
When people start talking about the early signs of climate change's impact on our planet, they usually point to the ice caps. With recent reports predicting that the North Pole could experience an iceless summer within years and the big time ramifications of the ice caps melting, it's completely understanable. But we here in Minnesota do not need to look so far outside of our own backyard to see the problems being created by global climate change.
I present to you the moose, Minnesota's answer to Alaska's polar bear. These huge and magnificent creatures are already starting to come under a great deal of pressure both directly and indirectly from rising global temperatures. Minnesota is also one of the few places in the U.S. where you can find a stable moose population, though we don't have as many as Maine and Canada. From the Huffingtonpost:
Minnesota has an estimated 7,600 moose, nearly all in the forests of northeastern Minnesota, where plentiful swamps, lakes and streams provide good habitat. Yet they're beleaguered by increasingly warm weather and parasites such as brainworms, ticks and liver flukes...
Warmer weather is considered one of the main reasons for the near-disappearance of moose from northwestern Minnesota, where their numbers have plunged from at least 4,000 in the early 1980s to fewer than 100. The advisory committee's report warns that they may never recover to significant numbers.
Though infections and parasites (the brainworms, ticks, and liver flukes) come up as the cause of population decline, the driving factor for the deterioration of the moose population in Minnesota is climate change. Warmer weather equals more deer, which equals a faster spread of parasites that can kill the moose. With projections for temperature increases by 2050 to look like the image below (without action) the prognosis for the moose in Minnesota does not look good.
Protecting the moose population is one of the millions of reasons why action is urgently needed. Head over to to 350.org and check out some of the thousands of events happening on October 24th, a day packed full of calls for international climate action. Sign up for one or plan one of your own, and most importantly, spread the word.
I'll hand it to the Minnesota GOP. The conservatives that run the shop over there have come up with some pretty goofy games in the past--putting an asterisk behind an elected senator's name.. HILARIOUS-- but this one is just the tops. Seriously. This whole thing with the $2,500 to stand in line for "Obama Care" is a nice visual, the cameras love it, and whew, it's a laugh riot. I'm going to run down to the people who just got kicked off of GAMC and tell them about it, they'll totally love it.
Over at MNPublius, Jeff Rosenberg also noted this little stunt, and how much money the MNGOP is throwing at it, which got me thinking. In the grand scheme of health care, is $2,500 for a publicity stunt really that much money? What else is going on in the health care scene while the Republican's are busy playing little games for the press?
First, lets see how much money the insurance companies have spent lobbying Congress to block real reform. From the Washington Post, we get that the insurance companies are spending about $1.4 million a day lobbying. Take that multiplied by the two days that folks have been participating in this media stunt, and you get $2.8 million spent blocking the reform that American's want (health care question is #23).
Next, lets take a look at insurance company profits. Looking at the top five insurance companies alone--UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, Aetna, Humana, and Cigna--the profits from their Fortune 500 profiles comes to $7,790,800,000 for the year. Back to the MS Paint math board:
That's over $42 million in profits for only the top five insurance companies during the two days the GOP has been putting on plays for the media.
Finally, lets look at how many people have lost their insurance during the GOP's little game thus far. I mean the insurance companies are making boat loads of cash and spending it like crazy on lobbying, people shouldn't be losing their coverage then, right? Unless they're in the business of denying people coverage to lower their costs, this should be straight forward, right? The current system is the best in the world, right?
But...from the Center for American Progress' study on the rate of people losing insurance from earlier this year, we know that up to 14,000 people per day are losing their insurance. The study was fact-checked by Politifact, and they actually say the number is a little low, but with COBRA being extended through the stimulus... we'll stay on the safe side and go with the low number. Anyway, take that rate times the two days the "contest" has been running so far and we have 28,000 people who have lost their health insurance during the Minnesota GOP's media stunt. 28,000 people is the city of Brooklyn Center, losing it's health insurance.
With the $2,500 that the Minnesota Republican Party is using to get a newstory, they could give the newly uninsured around 9 cents each. Now that's a start to some compassionate conservatism.
Folks, the current state of health care is a lot scarier than any media stunt that the Minnesota GOP can think of. The $2,500 they are offering wouldn't even cover the out of pocket costs of a family of four for 1 month if we continue on the path that we're on. The real crisis is the status quo. The crisis is insurance companies protecting their bottom line by denying people the coverage that they need. The crisis is politicians that have raked in the money from insurance lobbyists using scare tactics and lies to demand that any real reform by crushed. The crisis is happening right now, and only an option provided by the American people can bring choice and competition back to this broken industry. We need real reform, but I guess the Minnesota GOP thought we just needed more political theater. I'll keep a running total of these numbers during the contest so the Minnesota GOP can see what working families were dealing with while they were busy trying to score political points.
Via Thank LGA and Minnesota 2020 we come across an editorial in the Mankato Free Press about Tim Pawlenty and his allies' cuts to local government aid, and how they endanger communities in greater Minnesota. From the editorial:
Reinstatement of state aid doesn’t seem likely anytime soon, so small communities will be forced to raise taxes or cut services to levels that may be OK to some, but that may also deter growth, both residential and commercial...
That would create an entirely different outstate Minnesota, an entirely different small-town Minnesota. There is likely to develop, under this scenario, a mishmash of fees and costs uneven across cities in Minnesota. It will create a tax and fee structure that will be less understandable, and less accountable for businesses and residents.
On our Make Minnesota Thrive Drive, we talked with Wayne Wolden, the mayor of Wadena, and he echoed the words in the editorial. The cuts to LGA are pushing city budgets to the brink, and communities like Wadena are left with little choice than to levy regressive fees. Instead of making the tough choices, and showing the leadership that our state needs right now, Tim Pawlenty--with the help of those who sustained his veto of a balanced budget--shifted the choices to communties like Wadena that do not have all of the tools needed to make these decisions in a fair way.
The small towns throughout the state, like Wadena, are a big reason why our state has thrived through previous recessions. If the reckless budget decisions of the past several years continue we may be seeing a shift away from all cities having the basic services that we all use and love, to only those with people wealthy enough to pay higher property taxes and fees being able to afford them.
The pictures are from my phone, so they're not as good as the others.
For the first time in what feels like the entire summer there have been back to back days of rainy weather. Which I wouldn't mind in a general sense, but for the last day of a long road trip, some sun would be nice. Update: As soon as I finished writing this it become sunny and beautiful...that was the plan all along.
For breakfast, after crusing around to some spots in Mankato, we had to split because the Wagon Wheel Cafe was downright packed. Someone had to go in and see what this diner was like...from what I could tell it had a very "old-timey" feel to it. We'll have to hear from Xavier how that was.
The Fillin' Station is real nice, though. Great tunes on the radio, some pretty fantastic art on the walls, and the Sibley Park sandwich that I ordered was quite tastey. Anything with pesto I'm pretty much a sucker for, so maybe they got lucky on this review, but everyone else around me also seemed to have tasty treats so I think that, my pesto blinders aside, this place had great food.
Just finished interviewing some Minnesota State-Mankato students on the impacts of Gov. Pawlenty's unallotments to the state college system at the Fillin' Station. They had some great insights into what these cuts are going to do to their tuition, and the hurdles that working college students face to graduating with good grades as costs keep rising. Some pictures:
Katie, Megan, and Mathias also talked about how the cuts to the staffing levels hurts their experience at the school. These people are the ones that help shepherd the kids through the school, making sure their experience is the most rewarding it can be. They see a school and a college student body that is struggling with these barriers right now, and certainly not thriving in the way that Minnesotans are used to. However, they were also very optimistic that college kids can overcome these hurdles (in the fine spirit of Minnesota), but if the costs and other hurdles keep rising, it will just become harder and harder for regular people to have access to the education Minnesotans have prided themselves on providing.
We'll have the full video and interview notes up after we get to Rochester. Many thanks to Katie, Megan, and Mathias for talking with us.
It's the start of the last day we've traveled over 1,000 miles already (I think the exact reading on the trip-o-meter is 1,170) and we still have several hundred to go today. Last evening we checked out the Tim Walz townhall which was filled to the brim. For more on what happened over there, you can check out the regular ABM page, which should have those pictures and video up shortly.
Over the past several days several themes have started to emerge. Though the name on the city sign may change, the general feeling between the cities roughly the same. Minnesota, as a state, can do better than this. People from the start of the trip to the end of it have said Tim Pawlenty and his allies took the easy way out. They ducked out of the hard choices, leaving a massive deficit lasting for long after he skips town. He didn't do this in a smart of fair way. The people most impacted by these cuts are those with the least means to cope with them. I'm thinking here of Wadena, who's LGA has been gashed, but doesn't have the kind of tax base that can handle a huge property tax hike so their core services are going to be rocked. Of Cassie and the nurses at Mercy Hospital that are working doubles more and more for patients that are coming in sicker after waiting until they had to go to the emergency room.
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Every city with a college or university is seeing a main driver of their future economic growth put in danger. Classroom sizes are getting larger in the k-12 area, an area where the state prides itself on being a national leader. Every hospital is going to be filling their emergency rooms with folks who could've been cared for in a smarter way, but they were kicked off their health plan. We're seeing a state that's great, but a state that see's the things it uses and loves under increased pressure to provide more to the community, but with no means to do so. We're seeing a state that is figuring out how to survive, rather than thriving, as our state has done through booms and busts alike before. We'll have some more stories from Mankato, Rochester, and Red Wing throughout the day and then a massive round up probably during the weekend. Ok enough typing from me, time to hit the road.
During tough economic times, one of the best ways to keep people off the unemployment rolls is through some labor intensive projects that will also add some value to city infrastucture, especially when the private capital is dried up like it is now. Like the Recovery Act, which we've seen signs for all over the northern part of Minnesota, these sorts of projects put a floor down where there would otherwise be free fall. Further, when done right, they can create a thriving community around them. Which we can also see in St. Cloud with the gorgeous, and I mean gorgeous, new library.
This past legislative session another such public project was among the things vetoed by Gov. Pawlenty in the bonding bill. The project, proposed by Rep. Larry Haws, would have renovated the St. Cloud Civic Center, providing some much needed jobs in an area of the state that sorely needs them (The 6th Congressional District which houses St. Cloud has the highest foreclosure rate in the state). These sorts of projects are even more important when they're located in regional centers like St. Cloud, as the surrounding areas all benefit from the investment too. In a community that has already seen what smart investments can do with their new library, this project would have also helped St. Cloud thrive even during tough times.
We cruised by the Civic Center to check out the scene, would have looked nice with some folks getting to work...
Pulling in to St Cloud we asked our twitter followers for the best places to eat in the city. We received several responses, but @robinmarie suggested Bravo Burrito, and being that we hadn't ventured into the Mexican food genre on the trip we decided to give it a try.
I arrived just before they closed at 9pm, along with about 15 other people. The staff, needless to say, was less than pleased. I used to work in a sub shop in college and I can recall this happening to me several times, and of course it would always happen when I had some busy evening planned. So, I could feel their pain but when a man needs a burrito, he needs a burrito. I ordered the Fajitas Burrito, and when it arrived I instinctvly reached for my belt buckle to take it out a notch... this burrito was huge.
Having somewhat recently graduated from college, I still consider myself somewhat of an expert when it comes to gigantic burritos... and this one registered up there with some of the best. The perfect proportion of cheese and sour cream to the other ingredients. This for me is everything. You could empty out a tub of sour cream on a burrito and I wouldn't complain. The salsa added a nice little kick and everything tasted delightful.
My many thanks to @robinmarie for the suggestion, I thouroughly enjoyed the meal. And to the staff of Bravo Burrito, my apologies for making you stay a bit later.
Before we get too carried away with the stories from St. Cloud, here are some of the scenes from around Wadena yesterday:
The murals all over the city, shaped into jig-saw puzzle pieces, are really quite neat. It takes a city that would already have a really nice main street running through it, and makes it really great place to meander around. The paintings are all really detailed and extremely colorful. We spent quite a bit of time just roaming around to see where the other ones were.
The Cyber Cafe that we stopped in for some java and photo uploading was delightful, except for one little thing. Being from Wisconsin orginally and a huge Packer fan, there was one part of the cafe that I found disturbing. I'll let you guess which picture that is. But the cafe is a non-profit that supports the youth of Wadena, and generally a nice place to get some work done in. One last picture from Jefferson St, if I was going to start a bakery, this is the sign I would use. If we weren't running late I was planning on going over to check out the selection, but that will have to wait until the next visit.
Here is the first set of clips from Carson Starkey, a junior at Moorhead State University and an Army Vet. We'll have more of this interview as we get it uploaded.
At a speach at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, I once heard a Harvard professor talk about how it was great that Harvard had a big endowment even in the tough economic times, but for the nation to continue to lead the world in innovation, the larger university system had to be well funded as well. This is true for the nation, as well as for the state. It's nice that we have a large University of Minnesota system that has locations in more of the larger cities in the state, but if we continue to cut funding to the state university system, the economic engine in many of these communties is going to take a hit.
The St. Cloud Area Economic Development Partnership, Inc., a public-private membership organization knows the importance of institutions like SCSU, especially with the solid business programs at the school. From the partnership's site:
Business-related programs at St. Cloud State University abound. The University is home to the nationally accredited G.R. Herberger College of Business, which offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs in disciplines such as accounting, finance, marketing, and general business administration. In addition, the College of Business also directs the Harold Anderson Entrepreneurial Center, which reaches out to those involved in start-up enterprises, owners of developing businesses, or those who have been in business for awhile but need specialized help. Beyond business, SCSU provides more than 70 major fields of study, from computer science and engineering programs to social/physical sciences and humanities and education programs. SCSU offers traditional day programs as well as evening and customized options.
Despite the important role the school plays in the community St. Cloud State, like MSU-Moorhead, is a part of the $50 million dollar unallotment that Tim Pawlenty handed down to these schools that make up an essential economic and educational network throughout the state. St. Cloud State expects to be about $2 million short for their 2011 budget, and with the mess Tim Pawlenty is leaving behind, the budgets of schools like St. Cloud could face even bigger problems. These are the things that make our state grow, and they're being put in jeopardy. We'll have some stories later on how these cuts are impacting some students to go along with this big picture budget take.
Okay we're roughly through half of this road trip... okay as I'm writing this it's slightly less than half...but we're starting to get a lot of the stuff from the first two days up to the tubes and wires now that we've worked out some technical issues. The oddometer reads 654.8 miles and we're dealing through Detroit Lakes (when I first started writing this part of the post), and we thought that it would be a good time to review the "Best of" thus far, and some general house keeping notes. We've only been really lost one time, and that had more to do with sleep deprivation than being lost without GPS. Who could have thought that Park Rapids would have looked so much like Paul Bunyan Dr in the middle of the night? Not this guy, I tell you.
-Favorite Food Thus Far: Xavier votes for Bridgeman's Ice Cream in Floodwood. I vote for the Tobie's Burger in Hinkley, although anything from the Atomic Coffee in Moorhead is right up there.
Bridgeman's and Tobies
-Cleanest Public Restroom: Xavier votes for "I don't use them". I vote for Matoska Park in White Bear Lake. I felt like I could have eaten breakfast off the floor, an extremely calming quality for a bathroom to posses.
-Favorite City: Xavier votes for East Grand Forks, over taking his previous pick of White Bear Lake. It has to be becaues of the animals around the streets. I'm sticking with Bemidji, a 2 1/2 ton Paul Bunyan statue? Yes, please. The people were also extremely nice, even for Minnesotans.
East Grand Forks and Bemidji
-Number of Coffees/Sodas/Caffeine Beverages: Xavier has had 5. Two sodas and 3 coffees. Although he contends that the caramel cold press whatever it was does not count. I'm having trouble tabulating my total. I'd say somewhere in the ballpark of 20, but I fear that if my Mom reads this that it might get me in trouble. So I'll smile and say 6.
We're in Wadena now after interviewing Wayne Wolden, so we're working on that video. Speaking of Wadena, this city might be the best small town in the state. I'm a big fan of murals and there are really nice ones around here everywhere. The city really has a lot of cool little places like the Cyber Cafe I'm sitting in right now which supports the youth of the city with the coffee proceeds. Really neat place. Once we get to another mileage landmark we'll check back on the caffeine count and see who's heart is going to stop first from electric-caffeine shock. Check back then.
At virtually every stop thus far on the tour people have been talking about the most vulnerable people being the targets for these cuts and how they have been cutting their local budgets for years leaving nothing left to cut. In Bemidji, a few years back they had 120 employees we were told, and now they have around 80 doing the same work in a town that is growing. Which makes Representative Morrie Lanning's record of quotes fairly interesting.
From the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, 5/16/2009:
He said he always has been open to tax increases if he believes that spending is reduced wherever possible and government is reformed. Democrats have not offered enough of either, he said.
From Capital Chatter, 5/12/2009:
"I want to make sure we are doing all we can do to lower our costs and reform how we are doing business," Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, said before he would consider a tax increase.
So Morrie got what he wanted and Tim Pawlenty cut $50 million from the Minnesota State University system which is hitting Moorhead State hard.
Edna Szymanski, the new president of Minnesota State University at Moorhead, had a different situation to deal with: a deficit and a subsequent hiring freeze. Between that and the new budget, Szymanski said: “It’s my job to say, ‘No.’”
Szymanski said that she and her fellow system presidents were told to expect bad budgetary news. She said that the previous deficits combined with the new figures will probably mean about a $9 million hit. “It was our job to keep the university alive during the recession and we did.”
Places that have ways to lower costs left available to them don't talk about finding a way to keep their institution "alive". Especially when it's an institution of higher learning, the engine for future growth in this state, struggling to survive puts us in no position to compete in a hyper-competitive global market place. Rep. Lanning can try and waffle on his openness to making our tax system more fair, but the bottom line is he sided with Gov. Tim Pawlenty in putting MSU-Moorhead on life support.
Mark Altenburg was our first interview in Moorhead this morning. He was the DFL nominee against Morrie Lanning in the last election, so he is obviously well-informed on the issues impacting district 9A, and also has a certain political perspective. He really was able to bring to light the impacts of the education cuts on the Moorhead public schools and the choices that we are facing as a state, and what will happen if we continue down this path. Here is a little bit of video from the full interview, which we will post tonight from hotel central.
Border towns like Moorhead are in constant competition like Mark had said earlier in the video with their out-of-state neighbors. Education shifts and cuts like the ones Tim Pawlenty has used to "balance" his budgets really put these districts at a disadvantage. Moving across the river to a better school district isn't nearly as big of a hurdle when the better school district is just acorss a river. If we continue to move towards being the "Mississippi of the north" like Mark said, our image as a national leader in education is endangered. The MSU-Moorhead stories will also get to this struggling story of education in out-state Minnesota, and many folks out here feel this shift going on. The sense from the people we've talked to is that we can't continue doing this in the upcoming budget cycles or struggling to survive will become the normal way of life and class sizes will continue to balloon.
Today is move in at MSU-Moorhead and we stopped by to greet the freshman, as well as speak with some MSUM students about how these cuts are impacting college students. First we spoke with Carson who tutors kids at the school and is a junior. He also is an Iraq War veteran with an extremely powerful story and has done his country and his state proud. He noted that the incoming class this year is going to be facing larger class sizes with less faculty on hand to help them through their years here at MSUM. A quick snippet (I was talking while Xavier was interviewing him, so some forgive any run-ons) with a picture from Carson, and we'll get the video up when we get to internet access again.
"Why are we going to have tuition hikes? Well, we're having budget cut after budget cut, and these make an impact. It's a tragedy, it's sad. Cutting education is just a practical way of not investing in the future, I know it's a cliche and everyone in St. Paul says it every session, but of course if you don't do anything to enact that, someone is not able to go to college, someone isn't able to transition in to the work force. So when we look back and ask why we're falling behind, we can look back and see that we didn't stop having tuition hikes because of these cuts."
"Saying that education, or anything, has been held harmless is just a misnomer. Everything has been hit, we haven't had a "tax hike"per say, but property taxes and fees are up. So we're paying for it. The buck is being passed to the people who can't do anything about it...We're gambling on something coming along to fix this kind of magically, this current direction isn't going to do it...If you're not upset about this shortfall in these investments in higher education and schools, then you should be."
"If we want these great public services and education that we're used to in Minnesota, then we have to invest in them....and it starts with the Minnesota state college system"
One of the things that makes this state so great is people like Carson who have already given so much, yet continue to serve the community in other ways. We owe him our thanks and we'll have the partial video up once we hit Wadena, with the full interview tonight.
Driving down Highway 2 at this point is as natural to us as breathing. Seriously... is there any other road in the northern part of this state that goes east and west? Trick question, of course there isn't. Anyway, we did manage to find some delicious food at RBJ's in Crookston which happened to be just off of the never ending highway. The steaks were delicious. Our waitress Candace was the nicest I've run in to in a long time. Anyone who has ever served Xavier and I knows that we can't be without our soda refills for more than about 30 seconds, and she didn't disappoint.
Judgement...Definetly worth a trip in. Especially with the choice of potato side and a salad bar. Mmmmmm. The menu also had a pictures of someone with a statue of a Sasquatch. That never hurts.
Politics or People? | Joe's Blog
Yesterday, we sent this email out to Alliance for a Better
Minnesota members in hopes that Minnesota Republicans would s...
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