Casino profits provide Shakopee Mdewakanton adults $84,000 a month

Casinos are great business for a few. In Timothy Williams’ New York Times story, he writes: “[T]he Shakopee Mdewakanton are believed to be the richest tribe in American history as measured by individual personal wealth: Each adult, according to court records and confirmed by one tribal member, receives a monthly payment of around $84,000, or $1.08 million a year. … While the Shakopee tribe continues to prosper, casino gambling in much of Indian Country — which tribes say is the only economic development tool that has ever worked on reservations — has in recent months come increasingly under threat, stirring worries that the long lucky streak is over. The primary anxiety is competing casinos being hurriedly opened by states in pursuit of new revenue. But more menacing, tribes say, is a sophisticated and growing movement to legalize Internet gambling under state laws that would give those states the potential power to regulate and tax online gambling even on reservations.”

Also in the Times, Allison Kopicki looks at new polling on Wisconsin’s Senate race: “[T]he poll finds Representative Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, in a dead heat with the three leading Republican contenders who will face off in a primary next week — former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson; Mark Neumann, a former member of the House; and Eric Hovde, a hedge fund manager. In a head-to-head match, Ms. Baldwin and Mr. Thompson each received 47 percent support. Against Mr. Hovde and Mr. Neumann, Ms. Baldwin had a four-point and three-point edge respectively, differences that are within the poll’s margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points on each candidate. Against a fourth Republican in the field, Jeff Fitzgerald, the State Assembly speaker, Ms. Baldwin holds a 12-point lead. The Quinnipiac University/Times/CBS News poll was conducted July 31 to Aug. 6 among 1,428 likely voters.”

At The Huffington Post, Harry Boyte and Hunter Gordon discuss Minnesota’s nation-leading Civic Health Index: “In the Civic Health Index conducted each year by the congressionally mandated National Conference of Citizenship, Minnesota leads the nation in civic engagement when a variety of measures, from voting levels and volunteering to involvement in neighborhood problem-solving and charitable contributions, are taken into account. Some years ago, the vitality of the civic culture in the state prompted a Time cover story called ‘The Minnesota Miracle.’ … Whatever happens in November, the MN United effort is a trailblazer. In a period of wide concern that we, as a people, are losing our ability to work across differences, citizen politics points to possibilities for regaining control over our collective destiny. This means revitalizing what can be called public experiences of work with different kinds of people, against the grain of a highly privatized and therapeutic culture when people post their most intimate secrets on Facebook, but have little sustained way of interaction with people who are very different.” Do I assume they mean “The Good Life in Minnesota”?

There’s an irony to anyone who still expects privacy on the Internet. Curtis Gilbert at MPR writes: “Cities throughout much of Ramsey and Washington counties recently received requests to turn over all the email addresses they have collected. Experts on Minnesota’s Government Data Practices Act say the addresses are public information, and there is little cities can do to shield them. … Roseville released some 4,000 addresses in response to a data practices request received last month. The list consisted of residents who had signed up to receive email alerts about city council meetings, street maintenance and more than a dozen other topics. ‘If I had my choice, I would not make this information available,’ city spokeswoman Carolyn Curti said. But Roseville was legally required to hand over the information. In Minnesota, all government data are presumed public unless they’re specifically classified otherwise under state law.” It isn’t so bad, some of those citizens are probably looking for a deal on Nigerian Viagra.

Up north, DFLer Rick Nolan is accusing DFLer Tarryl Clark of “gutter politics.” Mark Zdechlik at MPR says: “Nolan is defending his work as founder and chairman of the Minnesota World Trade Center against Clark’s claims that he took ‘lavish trips overseas’ rather than creating middle class jobs. Nolan says former Gov. Rudy Perpich appointed him to establish the center, which he says he did on a volunteer basis for four years before accepting a paid position in 1986. Clark claims that as head of the center Nolan fought for a $200,000 bonus and one of the highest taxpayer salaries. Nolan says the ad is ‘dishonest.’ ” Sounds like a job for PoliGraph fact-checking …

GOP congressional candidate Mike Parry’s next visit to the Winona Daily News will be interesting. Following his “pill-popping” pop-off, the paper writes: “Parry’s outburst makes us believe [Allen] Quist when he says Parry muddied the 1st District primary race and turned it into a regrettable pigsty of backbiting and personal attacks. Parry, quit with the boneheaded statements that have done nothing but bring shame to our state’s politics. At the very least, stand up and admit when you’ve said something astonishingly stupid. If you can’t, there’s no reason for voters to take you seriously when they enter the booths next Tuesday for the primary. Return to the issues or return to cooking pizzas in Waseca.” And when Quist says you have muddied the race …

Isn’t this another reason not to go into Best Buy? Thomas Lee and Jackie Crosby’s Strib story about a Target-Best Buy collaboration says: “Two Minnesota retail giants will team up in a pilot project to put Geek Squad agents in 29 Target stores mostly in the Denver area starting this fall. The Minneapolis Target on Stinson Boulevard will be the only local store taking part in the six-month test drive, which begins in October. … Richfield-based Best Buy has seen sales plunge as consumers use stores to test drive merchandise but go online to make purchases. Putting Geek Squad agents in high-traffic Target stores could expand the brand name.”

T-Paw was in Miami stumping for Mitt Romney when he stopped by a radio station. Kevin Diaz of the Strib writes: “Potential vice presidential contender Tim Pawlenty, traversing the nation stumping for Mitt Romney, told a Miami radio station Thursday that with the exception of killing Osama Bin Laden, President Obama doesn’t have anything to brag about. The radio actuality, distributed by the Romney campaign, has the former Minnesota governor attacking Obama’s record of passing health care reform (‘Obamacare’), trying to end tax breaks for the rich, and passing a ‘porky’ economic stimulus bill, all of which Pawlenty told WIOD are unpopular.” Quick, someone get me the latest polling on “taxing the rich.”

First, the otters … now the deer. Chuck Haga at the Grand Forks Herald writes: “The way Mark Christianson tells it, in his lilting Old Country accent, the deer started the fight. ‘I was going out to finish spraying the soybeans,’ said Christianson, of Fertile, Minn. ‘I stepped out a side door, and we saw each other, and he started coming closer. He was pummeling me, standing on his hind legs and hitting me with the front ones. He hammered me good, rapid fire, and I thought, ‘Well, this isn’t good.’ I wasn’t winning, so I grabbed him and tackled him and we both went down on the ground.’ ” When the chipmunks start going rogue, I’m outta here.