Gag order lifted in Brodkorb case

We may soon be deep in TMI. Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Strib reports: “A federal magistrate judge decided that the gag order, imposing silence on all sides in the case of ex-state Senate employee Michael Brodkorb, should be lifted. ‘While confidentiality in settlement negotiations is important, the Court is not of the opinion that all communications regarding the lawsuit in general should be prohibited,’ said the order. … The gag order was imposed when the parties were in settlement talks. According to the order, they met in settlement talks but ‘no settlement was reached and no further settlement discussions are presently scheduled.’ The new freedom to talk may mean the case will take on a higher profile, just as Republicans and Democrats are scramble to win control of the Senate in the Nov. 7 election.” On behalf of everyone in the local press, “Thank you, your honor.”

You’ll be able to rack up about 10,000 frequent flier miles if you attend a Vikings home game next year. ESPN’s story, by Adam Schefter, says: “The Minnesota Vikings will play a home game at Wembley Stadium in London sometime in September next season, according to league sources. The announcement is expected to be made at Tuesday’s NFL owners meetings in Chicago. It also could be the first of more Vikings home games in London, though the league still wants to see how this game with Minnesota works out before giving the team another home game in London in 2014 as part of the NFL’s expanding International Series, according to the sources.”

Did you catch Frank Bruni’s New York Times column on Michele Bachmann’s half-sister, Helen LaFave, who is gay? “The two women once shared confidences. They’re family. Some 40 years ago, Michele’s mother married Helen’s father, and when Michele was in college, the house she returned to in the summer was the one where Helen, then finishing high school, lived. Helen craved that time together. ‘I remember laughing with her a lot,’ she told me in an interview on Thursday in her home here. … Michele, now waging an unexpectedly tight re-election campaign for her House seat, didn’t respond to a request for an interview for this column. She and Helen have seen each other at family events twice in the last year or so, Helen said, but Helen hasn’t insisted on a talk, because it seems pointless to her. On one of those occasions, she recalled, Michele said ‘I love you,’ and Helen said it back. But Helen’s more confused by that than ever.”

Veteran Republican Annette Meeks can’t say enough bad things about the North Star rail line in a Strib commentary: “Five years ago, I served as chairman of the Metropolitan Council’s Transportation Committee. I have to admit I was very skeptical about spending precious transit resources to test commuter rail in the Twin Cities. And now, after nearly three full years of Northstar service, it appears that the skeptics were right: Northstar has failed to meet ridership projections, even during its first full and widely promoted year of operation. Starting in 2010, Northstar Commuter Rail debuted with 183,000 fewer passengers than projected. I realize that no transit-rail line in the country comes close to covering its operating costs. But Northstar continues to defy even the most modest ridership expectations.”

Jim Spencer of the Strib has a story on Cargill paying attention to the fuel efficiency of ships it uses to transport commodities: “Cargill will determine which vessels to charter using a seven-tier rating system. The system ranks individual ships in each class of the world’s commercial fleet. Ratings go from most to least energy efficient. Cargill and two other pioneers — Huntsman Corp. and UNIPEC UK — have pledged not to use vessels in the two least efficient categories. ‘There are some [energy-efficient] technologies out there,’ said Tom Beney, president of Cargill Ocean Transport USA, a Cargill subsidiary. ‘We want to put a stake in the ground and say let’s try some of these things. There’s a lot of talk and not a lot of action.’ ”

Also in the Strib, Lutheran Bishop Herbert Chilstrom writes an open letter to his “friend,” Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt. “On the marriage amendment, you are described in the media as having ‘drawn the line.’ In my judgment, you have drawn the line at the wrong place. I recognize your authority in formulating positions for your own flock in Minnesota. That is one thing. But for you and others to campaign for an amendment that imposes your stance on all citizens in Minnesota, including other Christians, believers of other faith groups and nonbelievers, is overstepping your bounds.” The part where he compares Archbishop Nientstedt to Pope Innocent II is a particularly sharp jab.

Peter Nelson of the Center of the American Experiment has a thumbs down attitude toward requiring Xcel Energy to continue subsidizing solar installations. In an MPR commentary, he says: “[Commerce] Commissioner [Mike] Rothman ordered Xcel to continue spending money on Solar Rewards. This order is an astonishing abuse of power. No fair reading of state statute can justify Rothman’s actions. The absurd legal justification Rothman put forward is even thinner than the Dayton administration’s day care unionization arguments that a judge tossed out last spring. The order is also just plain bad and counterproductive policy. Rothman’s order argues that ‘there is a significant public interest in continuing Solar Rewards.’ He claims the program provides economic benefits by creating jobs in the solar industry and provides environmental benefits by adding cleaner, renewable energy to Minnesota’s energy portfolio. There is no question that Solar Rewards is a jobs killer for Minnesota.”

How’d you like to grow a 1,450-pound pumpkin and … lose the fattest pumpkin contest? Emily Cutts of the PiPress reports: “A little rain couldn’t keep the giant pumpkins away at Saturday’s Stillwater Harvest Festival. The winning pumpkin, grown by John Barlow of Gays Mills, Wis., weighed in at 1,462 pounds. Barlow beat out 31 other giant pumpkins for the title. The second- and third-place pumpkins weighed 1,450 pounds and 1,444 pounds, respectively. The average weight of the 10 heaviest pumpkins ranked among the top five pumpkin weigh-offs across the nation, said Joe Ailts of the St. Croix Growers Association.”

Paul Demko at Politics in Minnesota has a story cautioning opponents of the constitutional gay marriage ban against undue optimism. He writes: “[B]efore marriage amendment opponents pop the champagne, they should consider another wrinkle unique to the issue: In states across the country, pre-election polls have consistently underestimated support for gay marriage bans. A 2010 study by New York University political science professor Patrick Egan looked at a total of 167 surveys conducted in the six months prior to Election Day on 32 different gay marriage ballot measures around the United States. He determined that, on average, the polls underestimated support for same-sex marriage bans by 7 percentage points. In North Carolina, for instance, the most recent state to adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage, the final pre-Election Day poll conducted by Public Policy Polling determined that the measure was backed by 55 percent of likely voters. It ultimately prevailed with 61 percent of the vote. ‘North Carolina had a result that was almost perfectly predicted by that paper in the first place,’ Egan noted. ‘For all intents and purposes, our best guess is that that dynamic is still in place.’ ”