223 Carleton alums donate $30 million

So that expensive education paid off? Jean Hopfensberger’s Strib story on a Carleton reunion that netted $30 million is kind of startling: “The alumni who celebrated their 50th class reunion at Carleton College in Northfield last month danced to Elvis hits, ate seared salmon and bison ribs, and announced a jaw-dropping donation to their alma mater. It was spelled out in placards in front of the dining room one morning: $ 30 MILLION ! ‘You could hear a gasp,’ said Bob Nelson, chairman of the Class of 1962’s fundraising committee. ‘And then there was an enthusiastic round of applause.’ The gift, made by just 223 people, set a reunion record for Minnesota colleges.”

Meanwhile, The Chairman has a new set of expenses. At MPR, Tom Scheck writes: “The Minnesota Campaign Finance Board has imposed $33,000 in fines against the Republican Party of Minnesota, the former chairman of the party and the fund created to help with the gubernatorial recount in 2010. The board found that party officials circumvented campaign finance law by creating a separate recount fund that was directed by former party Chairman Tony Sutton. … The board fined Sutton $3,000 for his actions. It also fined the Republican Party of Minnesota $26,900 and fined the fund, Count Them All Properly $3,100. It also required Count Them All Properly to register as a political fund and disclose its donors and spending by the end of the month. There won’t be much to report. Goldsmith said Bob Cummins, a major Republican donor who has pushed for the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and has given millions to Republican causes, is the only donor to the fund. He gave $30,000.” So what, Sheldon Adelson didn’t return their calls?

In a Strib commentary, retired ad exec Myles Spicer argues that Citizens United was a botch by the Supreme Court: “The influx of money at this point in our history is unfortunately combined with the changing characteristics of modern campaigning, creating a lethal mixture of money and media. With the exception of a few TV debates, political dialogue has been drowned by the massive explosion of media sound bites. This is far different from an intelligent dialogue between two reasonable but competing views on how we can best govern our nation. Indeed, most of this media blizzard is nothing more than attack ads. With the introduction of Citizen United in this milieu, the race then often is not decided at the ballot box; it frequently will be decided by fundraising.”

Brett Neely at MPR reports on fundraising statements by state candidates: “In the 8th Congressional District, former Democratic Congressman Rick Nolan reported raising $127,721 for his primary bid to take on Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack. Since entering the race, Nolan has brought in $330,0037. Nolan’s campaign bank account has $93,435 cash on hand. Political action committees, including PACs affiliated with U.S. Sens. Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, were responsible for $37,184 of those donations. His campaign also touts the statistic that 91 percent of its contributions come from within Minnesota, a likely dig at Cravaack, whose family now lives in New Hampshire and at fellow DFL candidate Tarryl Clark, who has access to national Democratic fundraising circles such as EMILY’s List thanks to her previous campaign against Michele Bachmann.”                                           

From Friday … add Thomson Reuters to the long list of those publicly opposing the GOP’s marriage amendment. Tom Scheck at MPR says: “In an e-mail to employees, the highest two ranking executives headquartered in Minnesota (Mike Suchsland, President of Thomson Reuters Legal, and Rick King, COO, Technology) wrote that the amendment would hurt their ability to attract employees to work in Minnesota. Thomson Reuters is headquartered in New York and Westlaw, formerly West Publishing, is a subsidiary in Eagan. ‘We believe the Minnesota Marriage Amendment, if passed, would limit our ability to recruit and retain top talent,’ the e-mail said. ‘For this reason, we do not believe that the Amendment would be good for Thomson Reuters or the business community in the state.’ ”

Neal St. Anthony at the Strib will be having some interesting conversations with some of his sources. On the matter of tax cuts for job creators creating, you know, jobs, he writes: “[T]he wealthiest are not necessarily the job creators. The seven-figure paydays of the past decade have gone to investment managers, hedge fund and buyout jockeys. Their No. 1 job, as it was for Romney when he ran LBO firm Bain Capital, is making a return for investors, not adding workers. And the chief executives at many of the United States’ largest public companies are heading for their third year of record profits and paydays. In Minnesota, businesses on the Star Tribune 100 list of the largest public companies employed fewer workers in 2011 than in 2007. Leaner companies have profited hugely from higher worker productivity since 2009.” I am just … so … shocked … to read that.

I don’t think this idea would meet the same resistance in Uptown. Dan Linehan of the Mankato Free Press writes: “To organizer Cynthia Frederick, gathering several hundred women to march in the World’s Largest Bikini Parade was a fun idea for a sun-infused fundraiser. ‘It just seemed like a natural fit to be able to raise public awareness of the importance of higher vitamin D levels,’ said Frederick, owner of the Electric Beach tanning salon in Mankato. To the Madison Lake City Council, this entry in the July 28 Paddlefish Days parade is not in keeping with a family tone. ‘This parade shouldn’t have this image,’ Councilman Chuck Ries said.” What if they were slathered in zinc oxide?

The story behind the murder-suicide in an Apple Valley parking lot has a few unusual twists. Heron Marquez Estrada of the Strib reports: “On paper, Woynishet Woldemariam was the aggressor. She was the one arrested for hitting her husband, violating two orders for protection and convicted on domestic abuse charges. Over a two-year period, she was alleged to have slapped her estranged husband, Anteneh Tsegaye, spit in his face, possibly scratched him and at least once threatened to kill him while violating orders for protection he had taken against her. But on Sunday, the day after the 41-year-old woman was shot to death in an Apple Valley parking lot by Tsegaye, also 41, in what police described as ‘a straightforward murder-suicide,’ a different picture is emerging; one in which friends and acquaintances say the Ethiopian immigrant, a naturalized citizen, is the victim on a variety of cultural, judicial, emotional and physical levels. ‘She was the victim … from Day One, there is not one shred of doubt on my part,’ said Evangelina Aguilar, a former guardian ad litem in Dakota County who worked for months with the family.”

I think we want to see what’s up with Louise. The Duluth News Tribune reports: “According to a report from the Minnesota State Patrol, a 2006 Chevrolet Impala driven by Louise Ericksen, 72, of Baudette was traveling southbound on Minnesota Highway 72 in Beltrami County, about six miles north of Blackduck , just before 10:30 a.m. when the car crossed the centerline and went into the east ditch. While driving on the slope of the ditch, the car struck a no-passing sign with its driver’s side rear-door area, breaking the door window. According to the Patrol report, passenger Kendall Erickson, 15, of Baudette, was sleeping in the rear seat and as the car bounced along rough terrain in the ditch, she was ejected out the broken window. Meanwhile, the Impala got back on the road and continued southbound, with the driver and the other passenger, Ashley Ericksen, 18, also of Baudette, apparently not immediately realizing Kendall Ericksen was not in the back seat.”