HometownSource Blogs

Rep. Jeremy Kalin, DFL-North Branch, thus far has gone through one pair of shoes out door knocking the district and is half way through a second pair, he reports.

Pounding the pavement takes a toll.

“I started the ibuprofen regiment for the first time last night,” said Kalin today (Aug. 31). “(It’s) where you just get home, and without thinking, you pop the ibuprofen,”

Rep. Jeremy Kalin, DFL-North Branch, didn’t need to seek the news that former Minnesota Department of Transportation Emergency Response Coordinator Sonia Pitt, fired for being absent from the state for two weeks last summer during the I-35W bridge collapse and for other matters, was recently hired the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The news came to him. Read more »

Independence Party (IP) U.S. Senate candidate Jack Uldrich has announced that Tammy Lee, a former IP 5th Congressional District candidate who showed well in a contest in 2006 that ultimately saw Congressman Keith Ellison elected, is supporting his campaign.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have Tammy’s radiant smile (I’m also a bald male) but otherwise we’re pretty similar — at least in our political outlook and philosophy,” said Uldrich in an email.

Lee captured about 21 percent of the vote in 2006, which historically for an IP congressional candidate is doing exceedingly well.
Uldrich is taking on his former boss, the former U.S. Senator Dean Barkley of Plymouth, in an IP U.S. Senate primary tussle.

Call me crazy, but I like the idea of charging for plastic and paper bags.

As of January 1, 2009, Seattle will start charging 20 cents for each plastic or paper bag. Read more »

Interesting banter today at the Post Review. My good friend Wade’s letter to the editor, and this statement, spark the debate:

The Democratic legislature has increased LGA to our cities; increased funding for our broken bridges and roads; increased payments for HHS and put in place a cap on property taxes in Chisago County.

To which Relieved responded (in comments):

And here I thought that the cap on property taxes was Governor Pawlenty’s idea. Good to know it was Kalin and Olseen leading the charge for us here in Chisago County. My only question is: Do they know they are leading the charge?

Relieved was referring to remarks made by Kalin at a county board meeting in which Kalin said the cap was the governor’s idea.

Last night at the Rush City Council meeting, Rep. Kalin also told the council that the Governor proposed the cap. He also said he “wasn’t the biggest fan of the cap,” but that agreeing to it was the “mature and responsible” thing to do to demonstrate bipartisanship.

However, at Kalin’s campaign Web site, he says:

Read more »

Sixth Congressional District DFL candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg today (Aug. 30) expressed unease over attending the I-35W bridge tragedy remembrance on Friday.

“We are looking at that in terms of the schedule,”

Here’s something to make any real journalist cringe:

When Obama walked on stage at the McCormick Center, many journalists in the audience leapt to their feet and applauded enthusiastically after being told not to do so.

They must be hopium addicts. Or, they think he’s already president. Or maybe, they see in Obama the same thing he sees in himself:

“This is the moment…that the world is waiting for…I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”

One wonders how we ever managed without St. Barack here to lift us up. We are his children…or something.

Second Congressional District DFL candidate Steve Sarvi has been endorsed by the Independence Party (IP) in his bid to unseat Congressman John Kline, R-Lakeville.

“The Independence Party occasionally endorses a candidate from a different party when we do not have a candidate from our own party,”

Minnesota Republicans today (Aug. 29) again attacked DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken on comments he reportedly made about child abuse in a comedy routine in 2000.

But Democrats were active today as well.

Citing a New York Observe article, Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey denounced Franken’s imagined child abuse of actor Rob Reiner, speaking at a Capitol press conference.

Carey defended the Republican attack on Franken — Republicans have gone after Franken on his comedic activities before.

“You have a 50-year-old man here who is not only writing about this, thinking about this, he’s performing this,”

It was a hot June day.

I stepped out of my car and saw a lady in the car next to me. I couldn’t tell whether she was sleeping or weeping. She had her arm extended over her face. Best leave her alone, I thought.

I headed into the vet’s to pick up some special-diet cat crunchies. I always call ahead and ask them to have the food ready because I need to get in and out in a flash. The chemical smells in the office about knock me over. The scented plug-ins used to mask odors are evil. People are breathing in chemicals, for the most part, unless they’re the plug-ins that use essential oils. And if the essentials oils are commercial, meaning impure and made from chemicals, that’s just as bad.

Read more »

Was I really surprised that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said this week will be hot and humid with an air pollution health advisory in effect? No. Not really considering I knew I had to move. Read more »

Victims of the I-35W bridge collapse seeking redress from the state can now review the claim process on a special website, www.BridgeCollapseClaims.com

Information on the site includes deadlines on filing claims, claim forms and instructions, and other information.

“We wanted the persons with eligible claims to have convenient access to accurate information and the claim forms needed to submit their application for compensation. And, we hope this website will serve that function,”

Over at mnpACT they got this guy, Tom Hammond, who really likes Barack “Rocket Man” Obama. So much so, in fact, that even the mildest of criticism is likely to unleash a torrent of tolerance:

Tom Hammond Friday, 25 July 2008 16:59

Typical right-wing responses, all mouth and no brains. Eventually these Limbaugh-like creatures will mutate into grotesque monsters with tiny, pin heads containing no brains at all,and enormous mouths which have a direct connection to their rectums so that they may spew their filth directly from the source. I am not sure if I should label conservative political discourse, “oral flatulence,” or simply “pornography” because it has no redeeming social value.

Read more »

As an online editor for this newspaper and as a resident living in Apple Valley’s Cobblestone Lake neighborhood, I’ve been following Andrew Miller’s coverage of the Dakota County Community Development Agency’s proposal to build senior apartments in the neighborhood as well as a 45-unit low-income townhome complex just north of the Cobblestone Lake SuperTarget.

I sympathize with the CDA, who has been making a noble effort to inform residents about these projects. I also sympathize with my neighbors who share a concern about affordable housing stereotypes. After all, stereotypes have some basis in fact.

Read more »

The Steve Sarvi campaign in the 2nd Congressional District is hailing a change of status given the race by CQ Politics from “Safe Republican” to “Republican Favored.”

The publication notes that national Democrats similarly categorized the race and are keeping watch and could step in to help Sarvi under certain conditions.
Sarvi, an Iraq War vet and Democrat, is taking on three-term Congressman John Kline, R-Lakeville.
While the change of status by CQ Politics indicates the race is one to watch, the publication goes on to point out that Kline holds a big lead in fundraising — Sarvi had $98,000 cash on hand on June 30 to stack up against Kline’s $647,000.

Kline decisively defeated FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley two years ago by winning 56 percent of the vote.