One long-running drama may actually have reached resolution. Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wajnarowski is saying, “The Minnesota Timberwolves have reached an agreement in principle to send All-Star forward Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a protected 2015 first-round draft pick, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Cleveland is making the deal with Minnesota with a firm agreement Love will opt out of his contract in 2015 and re-sign with the Cavaliers on a five-year, $120 million-plus contract extension, league sources told Yahoo Sports. The deal cannot be finalized until Aug. 23 … .”
Zach Harper at CBS Sports says, “The Minnesota Timberwolves are on the verge of trading Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and in the process bringing arguably the most impressive haul we’ve seen in exchange for a star in some time. With the package of Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, and a 2015 protected first round pick coming back, the Wolves have gone from a team on the playoff bubble in the West to another rebuilding effort. However, this rebuilding effort includes the previous two No. 1 picks, another exciting rookie in Zach LaVine, Ricky Rubio, Gorgui Dieng, and whatever they can mold forward Shabazz Muhammad into.”
For the AP Tom Withers and Jon Krawczynski add, “ … the deal could be expanded to include a third team, according to one of the people familiar with the talks. The Timberwolves have had discussions with the Philadelphia 76ers about acquiring forward Thaddeus Young to help fill Love’s shoes. The Wolves could use the first-round pick they get from the Cavaliers to help entice the Sixers to part with the 26-year-old Young, but talks continue on that front, the person said.”
Garrison Keillor gets off some good lines in a Q&A with the New York Times.
“ ‘What are the best books about Minnesota?’
Ecclesiastes tells you all you need to know about Minnesota. ‘Whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow.’ You can say that again. ‘The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong nor bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding, but time and chance happeneth to them all.’ That’s got Minnesota down to a T. You run fast and you trip on a gopher hole, you are heavily armed and well trained and you shoot yourself in the foot, you’re so smart you go broke. ‘The thing that has been is the thing that shall be; and the thing that is done is that which shall be done: There is nothing new under the sun.’ This is the sum and substance of the prevailing philosophy in my state. The optimists among us are either running for public office or on strong medications; the rest of us are skeptical.
Or, put more simply, “Mind your high falutin’ ways.”
In a couple very basic money indicators we continue to outperform … Wisconsin … where, that’s right, “It’s working.” The AP says, “New economic data is confirming Minnesota’s status as a top performer among Upper Midwest states. The U.S. Department of Commerce for the first time is releasing state-by-state breakdowns of personal income and consumption. North Dakota is the runaway growth leader nationally and regionally thanks to its oil boom, with double-digit gains. Minnesota’s per capita personal income rose 4 percent to almost $47,000 in 2012, the latest year available. Wisconsin’s per capita income rose 3.6 percent, Iowa’s 3.4 percent and South Dakota’s 1.2 percent.” Which is odd, since South Dakota now has all our millionaires.
Haven’t read The Washington Free Beacon lately? Well, Lachlan Markay is saying, “The Democratic Party, labor unions, and Hollywood stars Bette Midler, Michael Douglas, and Larry David are pouring money into state and federal races in Minnesota by way of a network of political groups helmed by a Twin Cities legislator, public records show. … Minnesota’s most noteworthy donors are household names: famed actors Bette Midler and Michael Douglas, who have donated $7,500 and $5,000 to the group, respectively, and Seinfeld producer and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David, who has given $5,000.” Nothing in the story on Americans for Prosperity or anything such.
A Canadian dam collapse is arming opponents of nickel mining up north. Aaron Brown at the Strib writes, “Sometime in the middle of the night on Monday, Aug. 4, the dam holding together a tailings basin at a British Columbian copper and gold mine gave way, sending 1.3 billion gallons of tainted, sludgy water into local streams and lakes. Officials tell residents in the closest town, Likely, B.C., not to use the water from several lakes and rivers near the Mount Polley Mine, including a precautionary ban stretching all the way to the well-known Fraser River. … Many here in Minnesota wonder: if this tailings pond breach can happen at an active mine in Canada, where regulations are similarly stringent to U.S. law, how on earth can we be confident in a tailings pond at a proposed nonferrous mine in northern Minnesota? After all, those tailings basins are supposed to last 500 years … .”
Russia’s ban on food shipped in from places like Minnesota is causing worry. Al Schoch at WCCO-TV says, “Minnesota farmers are bracing after Russia imposed a U.S. food ban in reaction to sanctions. ‘Poultry and soybeans will probably be the biggest impact in Minnesota,’ Minnesota Farm Bureau president Kevin Paap said.”
Yeah, that’s a word for it … Tim Nelson of MPR writes, “Gov. Mark Dayton says he’s disappointed that restaurants are adding fees to diners’ bills to pay the state’s new minimum wage. Dayton spoke about the practice in an interview with MPR’s Morning Edition. ‘I think it’s tacky, myself. But it’s their restaurant, and they have a right to freedom of expressions … .’ ”
