HometownSource Blogs

The three-judge court panel’s ruling today (March 31) that will have officials reviewing some 400 absentee ballots next Tuesday (April 7) at 9:30 a.m. at the Judicial Center — those the court deems legally cast will be opened — drew biting words and indications of a high court appeal from Coleman campaign attorney Ben Ginsberg.

Ginsberg styled the court ruling as an almost April Fool’s Day ruling and explained that if the court did not change its principles in regard to the selection of ballots, the Coleman campaign would appeal the panel’s ruling to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Ginsberg would not comment on whether the Coleman campaign would take its case into the federal courts.

“We are disappointed,” he said of today’s court ruling.

“We feel the court is wrong. And we will appeal,” said Ginsberg.

The Coleman campaign has argued that the panel needed to consider a much larger universe of absentee ballots than the 400 ordered to be delivered to the court — some 5,000.
Ginsberg opined that the three-judge panel’s ruling showed them operating in a “parallel universe.”

Asked whether Norm Coleman could win election, surpass Al Franken’s 225 voter lead, Ginsberg indicated that there was still an iota of hope.

“You never give up hope but it becomes a much longer shot,” he said.

Franken campaign lead attorney Marc Elias expressed satisfaction with today’s ruling.

“We are quite pleased with the court’s order issued today,” he said. “Obviously we feel pretty good where we stand,” said Elias.
Elias opined that the three-judge panel had been meticulous in their examination  — he alluded to a comment by the judges in their ruling of court evidence that if stacked would tower more than 20 feet high.

The Franken attorney also suggested that the court would not open all 400 of the requested ballots, but a subset.

Elias indicated that Coleman faced long odds at winning.

“The math is the math,” he said.

Elias noted that the campaigns, just as during the state canvassing board process, should have the right to challenge a decision on a ballot by the court.

But he indicated the that the odds of the Franken campaign challenging ballots next Tuesday is small.

The Minnesota Zoo has found funding in both House and Senate bonding bills, but other local projects failed to land on both feet.

The House today (March 30) presented a $248 million bonding bill, more than a $100 million smaller than the bill passed by the Senate.

While the Minnesota Zoo is slated for $4 million in the House bill for asset preservation — $5 million is slated in the Senate bill — the National Sports Center in Blaine and the proposed Big Lake Regional Ice Center failed to make the House bill.

Other local projects found in the Senate bill — a grant to the City of Coon Rapids to develop a pedestrian/bike trail along 85th Avenue to the Mississippi Regional Trail Corridor and more than $2 million for the redevelopment and expansion of Springbrook Nature Center in Fridley — likewise failed to make the cut in the House.

House Capital Investment Committee Chairwoman Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said she would have been happy with a $500 million bonding bill.

But that was not going to happen, she explained.

Both the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) have funding for new roofs and windows and other infrastructure needs in the House bonding bill.

About $50 million is slated towards transportation — the Minnesota Department of Transportation commuter and passenger rail corridors programs is slated more than $7 million, for instance.

The Como Zoo in St. Paul, found in the Senate bonding bill, is not found in the House bill. Funding for the Bell Museum, also in the Senate bill, is not found in the House bill.

No votes were taken in today’s capital investment committee hearing.

Former Blaine hockey standout, Brian Bochenski has been recalled from Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate, Norfolk Admirals for the final push to the end of the season. Check out the press release here. He has played in 69 games with the Admirals this season, recording 27 goals, 11 power-play goals and 53 points.  He leads Norfolk in goals, power-play goals and is second in points.

Another Blaine native, Matt Hendricks has been compiling a nice season with the Colorado Avalanche’s AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters. He has 25 points in just 38 games, which includes a three-month stint on the DL after an injury last fall. He was recalled to the Avs for the second time in March on the 24th only to be sent back down, four days and two games later. In four games with the Avs this season he has five shots, 13 penalty minutes and a +1 rating. The Monsters have five games left and are sitting in 10th place in the Western Conference standings.

The Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association released its 2009 award winners. Among them was Spring Lake Park’s, Section 3AAA Coach of the Year, Grant Guzy.

Some players were named to the coaches’ association’s All-Star Series and will play April 3-4. Spring Lake Park’s Shaun Scott and Blaine’s Dylan Rodriguez and Billy Giddings were named to seperated teams. Scott will play for the Maroon team, who faces Giddings’ Green team at 8:45 p.m. on April 3 at Hallenbeck Hall in St. Cloud. Rodriguez will play for the Blue team which plays the Gold team at 7 p.m. Three point and dunking contests will preceed the games on both days.
The four teams head to Macalester University in St. Paul the next day for games at 2 p.m. and 4:15 p.m.
Rodriguez was also named to the All-State Academic team and Anoka won the Class AAAA Academic State title.
All of the honors can be found here.

Rep. Tom Tillberry, DFL-Fridley, said he asked the House ag committee this morning (March 27) right at the start of the hearing to hold his cat and dog breeders license bill over.

It was tabled — that sounds harsh, he noted.
“I knew it needed more time,” said Tillberry, indicating that he plans to work with the various stakeholder groups over upcoming months.

“I would see if we can bring it back out next year,” he said of the bill.
Tillberry, like other bill supporters, opined that some opposition to his bill had less to do with what the legislation actually contained than underlying issues.

For instance, the various stakeholders groups mistrust, even fear, other groups, he explained. And that a history existing long before he picked up the legisaltion, explained Tillberry.

People showing up to testify at the committee hearings were thoughtful, genuinely concerned people who loved their animals, Tillberry opined.
“The bill might feel insulting (to them),” he said.

But rather than trying to insult people, he merely wanted to extend to cat and dog breeders the security and status that having a license brings, Tillberry explained.

House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said today (March 27) that the House capital investment committee next week will begin crafting a $200 million bonding bill.

The Senate has already acted on a $367 million bonding bill.

The House bonding bill will focus on basic items, Kelliher explained.

House DFLers hope that a bonding bill could clear the Legislature by the second half of April, Kelliher explained.

They don’t want the bill caught up in late session global budget negotiations, she opined.
Asked if Gov. Tim Pawlenty would accept such an approach, Kelliher said that if she were chief executive of the state and had two Metrodomes full of people who were unemployed, she would think of speedily turning out a reasonable bonding bill to get people back to work.

On another topic, Kelliher indicated that the House would take up the Green Acres conference committee report on Monday (March 30) on the House floor.

The House Agriculture, Rural Economies and Veterans Affairs Finance Committee this morning (March 27) tabled a bill by Rep. Tom Tillberry, DFL-Fridley, that sought to license cat and dog breeders in Minnesota not currently covered by federal law.

Supporters of the bill argued the bill was necessary because some cat and dog breeders operated without any oversight at all — and this is a big business, they argued.

They highlighted instances of animal cruelty.
But critics of the bill styled it poorly designed, questioned whether the state had money to implement it, and saw it as  threatening hobby breeders.

Keith Streff, a Minnesota Humane Society investigator, said that he had been pushing for passage of the legislation for six years and joked that maybe the seventh would be the charm.

Streff thought opposition to the bill, besides focusing on a general dislike of licensing, didn’t focus on any one item. Indeed, Streff opined the opposition often seemed based on things not even in the bill.

“It’s dead,” he said of this year’s efforts to pass the bill.

Democratic legislative leaders today (March 26) emerged from a meeting with Gov. Tim Pawlenty on global budget issues unhappy and disappointed — Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, questioned the governor’s fitness in crafting a budget.

A little later in the afternoon, Pawlenty offered his appraisal of the meeting.

“Well, I think the legisaltive leaders of the DFL just expressed their strong desire to raise taxes and I expressed my strong desire not to,” said Pawlenty.

He told Pogemiller and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, explained Pawlenty, to focus on areas of agreement, not differences.
“I don’t think it’s a blow up,” he said.

Rather, Pawlenty styled the disagreement over taxes as a “legitimate policy difference.”

It’s not a new debate, Pawlenty said.

DFLers argue that the governor is anything but pure on taxes.

They point to property tax increases and the cigarette health care impact fee, for instance, as evidence of the Pawlenty-factor in taxation.

That’s right. If you think I’m kidding, read that headline one more time.

Sad, but true.

On Tuesday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld an earlier decision that Daryl Fleck was guilty of driving while intoxicated after police found him sleeping in his car outside his apartment. Read more »

A bill to lift restrictions on construction of nuclear power plants in Minnesota is expected to get a vote this evening (March 26) in a House energy committee.

Last night, a joint House/Senate committee listened to nuclear power advocates and critics — one union official indicated that a resurgence of American nuclear power plant construction means jobs.

Some 585,000-linear feet of piping would need to be fitted, said Jerome O’Leary, of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry.

But Arjun Makhijani, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, pointed to France, which is heavily reliant on nuclear power, as an example of the incomplete nuclear equation. The French, he argued, have never solved the problem of what to do with nuclear waste.

Indeed, Makhijani, who managed to be funny while talking about deep subjects, argued that attempts at reprocessing nuclear waste has met with limited success and produces degraded fuel for nuclear plants.

He also argued that since American hadn’t built new nuclear plants in decades, the skilled workforce to do so was limited. Because of this, only about 30 new nuclear power plants could be built by 2030, he said.

Minnesota gets about 24 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. The nuclear industry heralds the technology as being virtually emissions free and reliable.

Makhijani quipped that people who wanted more nuclear power plants already had a free one 93 million miles away — the sun.

In his research, Makhijani concluded, he became convinced that America could bet on alternative energy for its energy future.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty favors lifting the current moratorium nuclear plant construction in Minnesota.

Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, rallied support in a Senate committee today (March 25) for $3 million for Capitol restoration funding.

Capitol restoration doesn’t really have any constituency group pushing it, Rest told senators.

“So we need to be aggressive in advocating for the building,” she said.
Rest is one of the most vocal advocates in the Legislature for fixing and restoring the 100-year-old State Capitol building, a state treasure which receives a quarter of a million visitors a year and is the site of some 600 meetings annually.

Anyone strolling through the majestic building can’t help but notice peeling paint and signs of water damage on the interior.

But outside on the gleaming stone surface, carvings are starting to lose their graceful forms and the dome itself has leaked from the day first erected.

Because careful architectural records were not kept a century ago, planners today don’t actually know the layout of the drain system within the dome — the dome is actually composed of three layers.

Twenty-two structural columns within the dome are showing signs of water damage, said the expert.

Rest hopes to tap into a funding bucket from the outdoors and the arts amendment to finance her $3 million proposal.

Senators at the hearing indicated the desire to have all the members of the Senate located within the Capitol. Currently, the Senate Republican Caucus offices are located in the nearby State Office Building.

Medical marijuana legislation cleared yet another hurdle in the House — supporters say the biggest — when the bill passed the House public safety committee Tuesday (March 24) on a 9 to 6 vote.

Several area lawmakers, Rep. Gail Kulick Jackson, DFL-Milaca, Rep. Sandra Masin, DFL-Eagan, and committee chairwoman Debra Hilstrom, DFL-Brooklyn Center, voted for the bill.

Republican lead committee member, Rep. Bruce Anderson, R-Buffalo Township, voted against.
Law enforcement officials caused something of a stir in committee by piling big bags of marijuana on the witness table in illustrating one of their points.

A sunset provision and another amendment were placed on the bill in committee.

Former Republican state representative Chris DeLaForest, now a lobbyist working on behalf of the bill, is confident the medical marijuana bill will pass when it hits the House floor.

DeLaForest recently had a meeting with Gov. Tim Pawlenty, an old friend, and said he left the meeting in a good frame of mind.

He’s confident, said DeLaForest, the governor will give the legislation a fair review when the Legislature passes the bill and it hits the governor’s desk.

Pawlenty has indicated that he opposes the legislation.

Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, has sent a letter to Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner regarding the voting history of former SLA member Kathleen Soliah, recently paroled from California state prison after serving time for crimes conducted as a member of the underground group.

Kiffmeyer, former secretary of state, indicated she had contacted the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office shortly after Soliah, living under the name Sara Jane Olson, was arrested.
In the March 20 letter, Kiffmeyer wrote to Gaertner saying at the time of the arrest, Gaertner said she would see how things developed in California before moving forward to investigate Soliah’s activities in Minnesota.

Kiffmeyer indicated in her letter that Gaertner rebuffed — “admonished” her — on a more recent inquiry into the Soliah voting matter.

Kiffmeyer has Gaertner arguing that her office had more pressing matters to deal with and that it was only one vote, after all.

It’s still an important matter, Kiffmeyer insists.
“Clearly, for every time that Soliah voted fraudulently, she stole the vote of a legimate Minnesota voter,” Kiffmeyer opines in the letter.

Kiffmeyer indicated in the letter that she was acting at the behest of a constituent.

The Pew Research Center released the results of a poll this month that asked people if they’d give a rip if their local community newspaper dissappeared.

The results aren’t all that surprising, but do indicate we (newspaper folks) could do a better job of advocating our own relevance, especially with young people.

According to the report, 74 percent of Americans say losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community “a lot” or “some.” Fifty-eight percent say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper “a lot” or “some.” (Read the report here.)

So are there any major take aways here? Yes. Read more »

The Senate today (March 23) passed a child passenger restraint bill that requires children under the age of eight or under four foot, nine inches tall, to be restrained in vehicles in booster seats.

In committee testimony, witnesses argued that seat belts alone fail to protect small children in crashes.
The bill, carried in the Senate by Sen. Jim Carlson, DFL-Eagan, passed on a 41 to 22 vote. Carlson described it as “very permissive,” saying that drivers ticketed $50 for failing to properly restrain small children could get the fine thrown out if they brought proof that they had obtain a booster seat.

Minnesota is one of the last states in the Union not to adopt the child restraint law, said Carlson.

But opposition to the bill came from conservative Republicans and Greater Minnesota Democrats. Sen. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake, said the state couldn’t afford to keep throwing people in jail.

Sen Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley, said voters in recent town hall meetings he had held gave him a strong message.

“People overwhelmingly told me, ‘Enough with the laws!’” said Koering.

“This is bordering on the ridiculous,” he said.

But Carlson’s bill passed.

Local lawmakers voting in favor were: Betzold, Carlson, Doll, Erickson Ropes, Foley, Jungbauer, Olseen, and Rummel.

Voting against: Fobbe, Gerlach, Johnson, Koch, Koering, Limmer, Metzen, Pariseau, Robling, and Vandeveer.

The booster seat bill in the House has yet to hit the House floor.