AFTERNOON EDITION

And I thought heartworm pills were expensive. The New York Times’s John Tierney covers a Minnesota dog valued at … $230,000: “When she costs $230,000, as Julia did, the preferred title is ‘executive protection dog.’ This 3-year-old German shepherd, who commutes by private jet between a Minnesota estate and a home in Arizona, belongs to a canine caste that combines exalted pedigree, child-friendly cuddliness and arm-lacerating ferocity. Julia and her ilk have some of the same tracking and fighting skills as the dogs used in elite military units like Navy Seal Team 6, which took a dog on its successful raid of Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. In fact, Julia was sold by a trainer, Harrison Prather, who used to supply dogs to Seal Team 6 and the British special forces. But then Mr. Prather switched to a more lucrative market. ‘Either rich people discovered me or I discovered them — I can’t remember which happened first,’ said Mr. Prather, the president of Harrison K-9 Security Services in Aiken, S.C..”

My wife refused to let me get “Hot Stuff” vanity plates for my car. Bob Shaw of the PiPress files a piece on other combinations banned by the puritans at the DMV: “With fast-changing American vocabularies, it isn't easy to weed out the license plates letters that are odd, offensive or obscene. But that is the job of Tom Evans, Minnesota's license plate censor. As the supervisor for the department's special plate unit, he and other employees meet informally to decide which letters are OK and which are not. The work never stops. Year after year, they systematically go through all possible three-letter combinations. They currently are working on those starting with the letter H, from HAA to HZZ. Some of the rejects are easy calls. Many are words drivers might find insulting — such as BUM, GAG, GUT or APE. Some are initials people might not like on their cars, such as KKK or LSD. Some are obscenities. Or letters that might sound like obscenities. Or combinations that someone somewhere once thought might possibly, potentially, be considered dirty. These include BFU, WTF, FYU and TRD. Evans has concluded that pretty much any plate including the letter F can somehow be considered obscene. ‘Any time there is an 'F' in the box, we have to look really close,’ he said.”

Bombed on your disability scooter? According to the courts, you can’t get tagged for a DUI. The AP reports: “The Minnesota Court of Appeals has reversed the drunken-driving conviction of a disabled man who was intoxicated while riding his three-wheeled mobility scooter. The appeals court ruled today that scooters don't count as motor vehicles as they're defined by state statutes. James Anthony Brown Jr. drove his electric scooter on the sidewalks of Grand Rapids to a car dealership one day in 2009. His blood alcohol level tested at 0.17, just over double the legal limit for driving a car.”

Minnesota AG Lori Swanson has made her moves to shift authority for who decides what is “essential” in a shutdown and what is not. MPR’s Tom Scheck reports: “The Minnesota Attorney General's office on Monday filed petitions in Ramsey County Court asking for legal authority to continue funding core state government services in the event of a shutdown. Citing state services including prisons, sex offender treatment and veterans homes, Attorney General Lori Swanson argues a government shutdown would deprive Minnesota citizens of rights guaranteed under the state and federal constitutions. She said the court should allow the executive branch to temporarily continue funding essential services even though the Legislature and governor have not agreed on a budget for the upcoming two years. Swanson argued that prisons, probation, state health department disease monitoring, and health care for more than 600,000 low-income seniors, people with disabilities, pregnant women and children are all examples of essential services that should be allowed to continue.” But aren’t the GOP turks saying none of that is “essential”?

Remember that proposal to prohibit video taping of farm animals? Well, it appears to be dying a slow death. Mike Glover of the AP writes: “A measure to punish those who make secret videos initially appeared to be sailing through the Iowa Legislature, but after clearing the state House it has sputtered out in the Senate and appears dead for this session. Similar measures also have faltered in Minnesota, Florida and New York. The issue is important to livestock operators, who claim their industry has been tarred by people who lie to obtain jobs, then stitch together videos that they upload to the Internet in an effort to make the treatment of hogs, cattle and chickens look as cruel as possible. Livestock owners and their supporters say the groups' ultimate goal is to convince Americans to forgo meat and adopt vegan lifestyles. ‘I feel it is wrong to absolutely lie to get a job to try to defame the employer,’ said Rep. Annette Sweeney, a farmer and Republican legislator from the small northern Iowa town of Alden who sponsored the bill. Animal rights activists respond that livestock operators want to stop the public from seeing how their animals are treated.”
                                           
A brief item up on the AP this afternoon says investors trying to claw back some of the cash they lost to Tom Petters are pretty much out of luck, at least in terms of court-ordered restitution: “The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from investment funds seeking repayment of their losses in a $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme operated by Minnesota businessman Thomas Petters. The funds together lost $165 million and challenged a federal judge’s order denying restitution to any of Petters’ victims. Among other things, the court said the victims would have other ways of recouping some of their money.” There’s nothing in the story about the Supremes asking those investors what they saw in Petters to begin with.

Writing on examiner.com, Joseph Oberle covers today’s twists in the Vikings stadium saga: “[O]n Sunday night, venerable Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman said on WCTW's ‘The Sports Show’ that he believes the Farmers' Market site in downtown Minneapolis (rather than the Metrodome) site is gaining ground and moving up fast as a viable location for the stadium. Although the site was thought to be dead in the water, Hartman says there are many in the downtown business community who would like to see the stadium built on the west side of the city near Target Field, Target Center and a growing restaurant/entertainment district. ... Clearly the Vikings like the Arden Hills proposal for a number of reasons (perhaps chief among them the fact that they get parking revenue they won't get anywhere else), but not every citizen of Ramsey County wants to pay for a stadium in their backyard. Minneapolis will now bicker over two sites, while Tim Leiweke, a former Minnesota Timberwolves official, flies into town to see if there is any carrion to be picked at.”

Nate Davis of USA Today asks his readers to vote on which of the five NFL teams rumored to be under consideration for a move to Los Angeles should really head west?

• “Minnesota Vikings: L.A. already fished the Lakers out of Minnesota ... why not steal the football team, too? In actuality it seems a long shot given the Vikes' fervent fan base and, more importantly, the fact the team finally seems close to getting the new stadium it has been seeking for years.
• Oakland Raiders: They played at the L.A. Coliseum from 1982-94 before returning to Oakland. But the Silver & Black have struggled to recapture their former Oakland glory and, worse, failed to reconnect with a lagging fan base mired in a depressed economy; the Raiders drew just 32,218 last year when they hosted the Texans, and televised home games in Oakland have become a rarity.
• St. Louis Rams: They called Hollywood home for nearly 50 years. But they never won a Super Bowl in a city fueled by star power despite being an NFC West power for most of the 1970s and '80s. Is a literal and figurative star turn in the offing for a resurgent brand led by QB Sam Bradford? Perhaps given a potential escape hatch from St. Louis if the city doesn't give the fading Edward Jones Dome a major facelift.
• San Diego Chargers: They spent their first year of existence (1960) in the AFL as the Los Angeles Chargers before bolting two hours south. But they haven't been able to line up a replacement for outdated Qualcomm Stadium nor have they kept it filled to capacity lately despite fielding five playoff teams in the last seven years.
• Jacksonville Jaguars: They've long struggled to fill their stadium in a state where college football is king and even reduced the capacity of EverBank Field by nearly 10,000 seats in 2005 to reduce blackouts, a problem that's continued to plague the Jags in recent years. Their best player, RB Maurice Jones-Drew, went to UCLA while the QB of the future, Blaine Gabbert, looks like a movie star.” Spoiler alert ... the Vikes rank dead last.

Gov. Dayton will speak at a fund-raiser for a group fighting the gay marriage bill. Andy Birkey at the Minnesota Independent writes, “Dayton is the featured guest at an event Monday night at Thom Pham’s Wondrous Azian Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis. The event comes one week before the official kickoff of Minnesotans United for All Families next Monday at the Loring Theatre. At that event, Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, will speak and artists including Stacia Rice, Bradley Greenwald, Belladiva, George Maurer, Anne Michaels and the Flying Foot Forum will perform. A new group, Republicans Against the Minnesota Marriage Amendment (RAMMA), is hosting an event on Friday with conservative columnist SE Cupp and Rep. John Krisel, R-Cottage Grove. The pair will speak on ‘why they believe Republican and conservative values are consistent with GLBT liberty.’ It coincides with the RightOnline conference, a confab for rightwing bloggers.” I'd actually like to hear that argument.