Questions from residents about the safety, and ultimate route, of a proposed high-voltage power line project that will run through southwestern Minnesota were raised Tuesday at a public meeting in Marshall.

The proposed 345-kilovolt transmission line, called CapX 2020, would run from Brookings, S.D., to Hampton, Minn. One branch of the line would run north from Marshall to a newly constructed substation near Granite Falls, said the Marshall Independent.

At the meeting, held by the Office of Energy Security, alternate routes were displayed, including one that would have the lines follow Minnesota Highway 23 between Cottonwood and Granite Falls, rather than going through farm land.

Although a draft environmental impact statement was the focus of the meeting, the paper said other issues were raised:

• Dan Wambeke of Green Valley came forward with clarifications for the report, including some "narrow" areas where power lines would be passing near residences. Moving the lines from one side of the road to the other could have a big impact in those cases, he said. "I think there are probably more (narrow areas) that need to be identified," Wambeke said. He also wanted to make note that one of the proposed routes would affect his home, grove and hog barn.
• "Would you confirm or deny any health issues with EMF and power lines?" Galen Boerboom asked [Scott Ek of the state's Office of Energy Security]. Ek said medical studies have found no solid link between power lines and health conditions like leukemia. "There is more information on the subject than there is for most chemicals," Ek said. "Epidemiological studies have found some correlation, but it's minute, and they can't reproduce it in the lab."
• "What's the reason for staying so close to the road?" asked Ken VanKeulen. Having the lines avoid roads would also keep them away from residences, he said. "Some people don't want them through section lines," or through farmland, Ek said. In some cases, it's easier to route power lines along existing corridors than opening new ones.

Questions on route and safety will be addressed at a Dec. 1 public hearing in Marshall.

A health care reform tour of northwestern Minnesota by legislators this weekend has been postponed. It was being organized by state Sen. John Marty, a DFLer from Roseville who's also seeking the DFL endorsement for governor.

Reason for the postponement: scheduling conflicts.

"Some sites we were going to visit had conflicts, and some of the legislators working with us had conflicts as well," said Barb Jacobs from Marty's office.

On Monday, Marty had announced the tour, saying he would lead lawmakers to forums in Bemidji, Thief River Falls, Hallock, Warroad and International Falls. He had planned to have legislators from those areas join him in the discussions.

No word on when the tour will be rescheduled, although Jacobs said sooner, rather than later, would be better because the issue will be considered when the Legislature convenes in February.

Marty is the Senate author of a bill called the Minnesota Health Plan, which he says would cover all Minnesotans for all their medical needs, including prescription drugs, dental care, nursing home care, vision care, immunizations and preventative care, chemical-dependency treatment and mental health. He says it would have "a lower cost than we are spending now."

Rep. David Bly, a DFLer from Northfield is House author of the Minnesota Health Plan.

Marty says one-third of state legislators are co-authors of the bill. He said cost savings would come from:

•  Focusing on prevention and early intervention;
•  Promoting public health and efficient delivery of care;
•  Decreasing administrative expenses;
•  Eliminating insurance bureaucracy;
•  Helping people use health care services appropriately; and
•  Negotiating fair prices with drug companies and medical providers.

Tax reciprocity with Wisconsin, which has been eliminated to help with Minnesota's budget deficit, may be back in play.

The longstanding policy had allowed residents of the two states who live or work in the other state to file only one state tax return. But Wisconsin has been pokey in repaying Minnesota's share of the take — which results from far more Wisconsites working in Minnesota than vice versa — and that hurt Minnesota's bottom line.

Now, Sen. Kathy Saltzman, DFL-Woodbury, reports new interest in resuming discussions.

“Last Friday, I was contacted by the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader's office and asked to convey to our administration that the Wisconsin Legislature would be willing to call itself into an ‘extraordinary session’ for the purpose of passing legislation specific to restoring reciprocity,” Saltzman said in a statement.

She asked Minnesota Revenue Commissioner Ward Einess to speak with Wisconsin officials, and now both sides seem interested in "jump-starting negotiations," she said.

Einess, though, wants to wait until early December, after the next state budget forecast.

Reports Saltzman:

If a new agreement is not reached, 13,000 Minnesota residents who work in Wisconsin will need to file a separate Wisconsin income tax return for income earned after Jan. 1, 2010. In addition, about 8,000 of these filers will experience an average additional tax payment of $300 to Wisconsin, according to Minnesota’s Department of Revenue. About 33,500 Wisconsin residents are expected to be affected by the change.

A roundup of Tuesday's political candidate news:

• In the 2nd Congressional District, Burnsville construction contractor Dan Powers, a DFLer, will challenge Republican U.S. Rep. John Kline, who has represented the district in the southern Twin Cities and rural counties to the south since 2002. Powers ran for the seat in 2008 but dropped out to endorse Steve Sarvi, who later lost the bid to beat Kline.
• In the 3rd Congressional District, DFLer Maureen Hackett, a physician and forensic psychiatrist from Minnetonka, will challenge first-term Republican Erik Paulsen. Also seeking DFL endorsement in that race is Jim Meffert, president of the Minnesota PTA. Hackett said she will abide by the party endorsement.
• Republican state Sen. Steve Dille, R-Dassel, who's held state office since 1986, won't seek another term. He represents parts of Meeker, McLeod and Wright counties and was one of eight Republican lawmakers who challenged their party by voting to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty's transportation tax veto in 2008. Besides Dille, only three of eight are still in office.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, fresh from his re-election and now officially in the hunt for the DFL endorsement for governor, announced that Chief of Staff Tina Smith is taking a leave of absence to run his gubernatorial campaign.

Jeremy Hanson Willis, the mayor's city communications director, will take over as chief of staff.

And with the domino effect, John Stiles will become the communications director. Stiles has some experience across the river in St. Paul, having served as campaign manager for St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s re-election campaign. Stiles also has been communications director for the Minnesota DFL Party and as principal aide to Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter.

Tom Steward of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota — who's always quick to alert us about tax spending he finds outrageous — reports finding some wacky numbers on the federal government website that tracks stimulus spending.

The basic Minnesota page seems to be working OK, but when you scroll down the page and click on the link View All Congressional Districts, some strange listings show up:

The site claims, for example, that in Minnesota’s 57th congressional district, 35 jobs have been saved or created as a result of $404,340 in stimulus spending.

Only 2.5 jobs, though, were created or saved in Minnesota ’s 27th congressional district, despite $3,159,657 of taxpayer dollars, the site says.

It also lists results in Minnesota's 11th, 12th, 13th and even the 00th congressional district. Talk about gerrymandering.

Of course, Minnesota only has eight congressional districts, so the website obviously has some glitches. Maybe a lot of glitches.

Steward raises the question, though, of whether it is more than a glitch, maybe something insidious.

In a statement he says:

"Many have raised questions about the creative calculations used to estimate the number of jobs created or saved thus far as a result of the $787 billion stimulus package. Stories have proliferated around the country of non-existent or over-hyped results, including in Minnesota.

The glitch in the government’s website only adds to the questions and concerns over the reliability of the stimulus spending jobs data and undermines the credibility of the tracking system."

Worried that state officials aren't adequately addressing pollution in Lake Pepin and the Mississippi River, Rep. Jean Wagenius wants the state Pollution Control Agency to focus on additional pollutants, including nitrates and endocrine disruptors.

She spoke at a joint legislative hearing, says a report from the House Public Information Services, and "criticized the PCA for focusing solely on water turbidity and phosphorus pollution in Lake Pepin."

Wagenius represents Minneapolis and is chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division.

“We’re telling Minnesotans that we’re cleaning up their waters, and that’s what they think we’re doing, but we’re really only looking at two pollutants,” Wagenius said.

The report says:

Gaylen Reetz, PCA regional division director, responded that there are no standards available yet for nitrates or endocrine disruptors in surface water. He said addressing all three issues at once would require developing standards, conducting assessments and coming up with implementation plans for the other pollutants — all of which could delay cleanup efforts.

“Do we wait for the phosphorus until we have nitrogen standards and endocrine disruptor standards?” Reetz said, adding that it is “potentially a very significant policy question.”

Wagenius replied that fixing all the problems separately could be costly to the state.

“I think the policy question is, do we spend money once or do we spend it three times and potentially cost a lot more?” she said.

The city of Nevis in north central Minnesota — between Park Rapids and Walker — will save about $18,000 a year now that it has disbanded its "police department."

The city's sole officer had been part-time Police Chief Ed Franckowiak, said the Park Rapids Enterprise. The Hubbard County sheriff's department will now handle patrol and other police duties.

The paper said in the past three years, 15 other state police departments have been disbanded, usually one or two-person departments.

If a potent energy bill passes in Congress, Minnesota could expect 18,000 energy-related manufacturing jobs, says the Blue Green Alliance.

Finance and Commerce reports that Joshua Low, a field organizer for Blue Green Alliance, claims that number of jobs if Congress passes a bill like Minnesota's that requires electric utilities to generate 25 percent of power from renewable sources by 2025.

But the bill already approved in the House would require only a 15 percent renewable energy standard, and that would mean fewer new jobs.

Finance and Commerce notes that "a variety of studies containing conflicting claims have been presented by conservation groups, which claim that developing renewable energy will lead to job creation to support the new technologies, and by business groups, which claim energy costs will soar and jobs will be lost if legislation capping carbon emissions is approved."

The Obama administration supports capping carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade system.

Editor's note: Check back later today for analysis of the Rules Committee action from Doug Grow.

As the court case challenging Gov. Tim Pawlenty's unallotment solution to the state budget crisis gets under way with a hearing today, the Rules Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives this morning agreed to file a "friend of the court" brief on the case.

"Members of the Minnesota House feel strongly that we need to address the important issues raised by this case," said House Majority Leader Tony Sertich in a statement after the action.  "The plaintiffs are arguing that the governor did not follow the law when he resorted to unallotment in this instance.  We believe it is important that the court understand we agree with that argument."

Although it would appears to be a partisan effort supported by DFLers against the Republican governor, Sertich said it's more than that.

"We do not see this as a partisan issue, but rather an important case about the separation of powers in state government," Sertich said in an earlier statement. "The matter under consideration has important ramifications for our state, regardless of which party the Governor and Legislature represent. We also intend to examine the unallotment statutes and how they impact separation of powers during the upcoming 2010 legislative session."

If the committee votes to file the brief, House Research attorneys are standing by to prepare the legal papers, which House leaders say would address issues affecting the House, including separation of powers issues under Article III of the Minnesota Constitution. 

"Members of the Minnesota House feel strongly that we need to address the important issues raised by this case," Sertich said. "The plaintiffs are arguing that the governor did not follow the law when he resorted to unallotment in this instance. We believe it is important that the court understand we agree with that argument."