HometownSource Blogs

With 12 states already in, and Minnesota seen as one of the most liberal states in the country, it was/is only a matter of time before marijuana was/is legalized for medical purposes.

But not if Gov. Pawlenty and law enforcement officials have anything to say about it.

Pawlenty has warned that he will veto any bill that reaches his desk. That denial may come sooner than anticipated, after the legislation passed in the senate and is in the process of being passed in the house. Also, Tuesday marked the start of an ad campaign throughout the state which asks supporters to call Pawlenty’s office and urge the governor to either sign off on the legislation or allow it to pass without his signature.

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Remember when gas used to cost 89 cents a gallon?
Or what about when coffee was only $1?
And now it’s stamps. On May 12 the 41 cent stamp will go to 42 cents. Read more »

The annual Music in the Zoo concert series provides one of the top music venues here in the Twins, combining a comfortably relaxed capacity (couple thousand at most, I believe), above-average sitelines, and the great outdoors of Minnesota summer.  Try as they might, no one ever succeeded in building a large-scale outdoor amphitheatre in this market, but the zoo in Apple Valley does a decent job of filling the void.

The only down side:  tickets for many of these shows go very fast. Wait until the weather is warm and you may have waited too long. I’ve learned this the hard way.

The series gets started June 12 with Aimee Mann and continues every few days through August 30 when Billy Bob Thornton (yes, that Billy Bob) takes the stage.  A few dates in particular tweaked my interest:

• Alt-country rocker legend Lucinda  Williams comes back to the Zoo on June 30th.
• Duluth’s Charlie Parr brings his guitar(s) to warm up local favorite Gear Daddies on August 1st.
• Keb Mo brings his delta blues, on August 8th.
• Los Lobos and The Los Lonely Boys pair up for a pair of shows on August 4th and 5th. Zesty.

Check out the rest of the lineup and other details.

Wouldn’t you think the first qualification for being in charge of all those federal tax dollars might be an ability to manage your own tax bill?

DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, frontrunner in the race to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, owes $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states, where he earned income going back to 2003.

Franken on Tuesday told the Associated Press that he never intended to avoid paying taxes and that on the advice of his accountant, had paid taxes to the city and state where he lived.

That’s on top of the $25k he owes New York in penalties, and it’s unclear if this late admission includes the $5k in California. Franken was also involved with Air America when it an took an $800,000 “loan” from an inner-city charity.

One can only imagine what Al Franken, satirist, might have to say about a former bomb-thrower politician who ignored his tax debt, employees, and was a party to taking money from underprivileged children. If only it wasn’t happening to…Al Franken.

UPDATE: “No one likes being called a liar,” says Franken, author of “Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them).”

Hello again internet! I’ve been meaning to write up a movie review, but quite frankly there really hasn’t been much to write about lately. Part of my usual weekly routine is to hit up a theater and do what I consider to be a dinner and a movie night. This consists of watching a movie, drinking a ‘medium’ Pepsi that somehow is the size of a milk jug and eating a large plastic tray of chips with a vat of what can only loosely be described as ‘cheese’. While the theaters definitely have oceans of Pepsi and vats of cheese sauce to unleash on me, there hasn’t really been much in the area of decent movies it seems.

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I admit it — in some ways I’m somewhat of a health freak.
I work out five to six days a week, each time for more than an hour.
I don’t eat meat, I count servings of vegetables to make sure I get enough, I’m a subscriber to two women’s health magazines (and never mind all the others I pick up at the grocery store) and I count almost every calorie going into my body.
But I’m far from the perfect specimen of health. I’ve been on-again-off-again smoking for almost 12 years, I’m known to have the occasional cocktail on the weekends and my favorite restaurant food is cheese quesadilla (extra sour cream and guacamole).
So Friday - when reading through my daily MSNBC health news online the “20 Saltiest Foods in America” article really caught my eye. (Disclaimer: read at your own risk of ruining your thoughts on favorite foods). Read more »

Examiner.com has good stuff on the left’s manufactured and hypocritical outrage over the ad run by the North Carolina GOP, which dares to highlight Obama’s 20-year relationship with preacher Jeremiah Wright. Mark Steyn focuses on the times we live in:

In a scrupulously politically correct age, it’s not offensive to organize a “Kill the police!” demo or to preach that the government invented Aids in order to perpetrate an African-American genocide. You can pull that stuff and still be part of respectable society, hanging out with presidential candidates and whatnot. What’s grotesquely offensive is the chap who’s insensitive enough to point out such statements and associations.

Indeed.

WCCO reports The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will be broadcasting from St. Paul’s History Theatre during the GOP convention in September. That’s good news - now there’ll be an entertainer to provide actual context for the coronation. ABC, FOX, NBC, CBS, and CNN will also be there, of course, providing the comedy and incompetence.

I had the pleasure Wednesday evening to moderate a candidate forum at the Legends Golf Course in Credit River Township. Wednesday, as you might recall, was before winter returned. It was perhaps the most beautiful day so far this year. But the great weather didn’t keep about 100 Credit River residents from spending two hours inside a meeting room.

They were there to hear from three men who are running for two openings on the township board of supervisors. There’s been controversy in Credit River over a number of issues, including whether enough is being done to prepare for possible incorporation into a city and to fend off anexation by nearby cities, such as Savage. I’m told some recent meetings have been heated, but Wednesday’s gathering, sponsored by a group called Credit River Citizens for Change, was the epitome of MInnesota Polite and Minnesota Involved. Behind the questions were feelings that have grown strong, but they were asked respectfully, and the three candidates answered without criticizing each other. Read more »

News of a despicable crime in Eagan recently has made it clear just how vulnerable our teachers can be.

We trust teachers every school day with our children’s wellbeing as well as their education. Two men accused of attempting to blackmail 22 male teachers and coaches played on that vulnerability to get rich. Read more »

Did you know Minnesota doesn’t only have the largest mall in the country, it is also home to a 17,400 pound ball of twine, which sits in a roadside gazebo with Plexiglass sides for optimal viewing pleasure?
That’s right. The largest twine ball created by one person (Kansas has a larger one, but multiple folks wound it) sits in Darwin, Minn.
But not that many people know this? Why? Because they’re too busy checking out something even more ridiculous. The Mall of America. Read more »

Hillary Clinton’s victory speech Tuesday night could have been a moment to reflect on the important issues, the important reasons why she won. It could have been a time to point out to superdelegates that they could give her immediate support by “logging on to Hillary Clinton.org”

Instead, She played the gender card. Again.

Why doesn’t someone tell her that’s not going to be a distraction from the numbers which show how unlikely it is that she would take over the delegate count by June 3. Don’t believe that’s the case, CNN let’s you see for yourself. Read more »

An April 10 post at the UpsiderBlog discussing “muzzling” in the media (see comments), may indeed produce love between competing political factions:

Someone in RT Rybak’s press office left a comment on another regional blog denying that I’d emailed the Mayor. I responded, in the comment as well as via email, saying that I’d left a note at the City of Minneapolis site on a form that said “we’ll forward the message to the right party”. Apparently that didn’t include the mayor’s office.

We traded an email or two last week. We shall see.

Unfortunate that our pivotal role in this potential relationship gets only a “regional blog” mention. Mitch, what’s up? We rate not even a simple linky-loo for our matchmaking?

UPDATE: Thanks for the link Mitch, and the endorsement.

Mark Seal creates climate change blog, frets potential lack of divergence:

When I launched the TalkClimateChange forums last year, I was initially worried as to where I would find people who didn’t believe in global warming.

Ask and thou shall receive:

The first few days were slow going, but following a brief write-up of my site by Junk Science I was swamped by climate skeptics who did a good job of frightening off the few brave Greens… Whilst there was a lot of rubbish written, the truth was that they didn’t so much frighten the Greens away - they comprehensively demolished them with a more in depth understanding of the science, cleverly thought out arguments, and some very smart answers.

Beware the denialists and their “in depth” grasp of science.

The New York Times posted a strong interactive piece Sunday, on the Pentagon’s PR tactics surrounding  a failing war in Iraq. Investigative reporter David Barstow weaves together documents, transcripts and video to demonstrate the manipulative relationship between Donald Rumsfeld and “military analysts” on all the major television networks.

This cuts to a key point that Barack Obama made in last week’s debate (during the small portion not allotted to pressing issues like flag pins, 70’s radicals, and gun worship):

Because the commander in chief sets the mission, Charlie. That’s not the role of the generals. And one of the things that’s been interesting about the president’s approach lately has been to say, well, I’m just taking cues from General Petraeus.

Well, the president sets the mission. The general and our troops carry out that mission. And unfortunately we have had a bad mission, set by our civilian leadership, which our military has performed brilliantly. But it is time for us to set a strategy that is going to make the American people safer.

The Pentagon exists to execute the foreign policy of the Commander-in-Chief, not to define foreign policy on its own. Deferring to General Petreaus on matters beyond his pay-grade is a clear sign of a President not willing to accept responsibility for his own title. Obama gets it. McCain doesn’t.