You have a 5% chance of collecting on a pothole damage claim

There’s a 1 in 20 chance city hall or the state will reimburse you for that axle you lost to a pothole. Says the Strib’s Tim Harlow: “In Minneapolis, drivers must show proof that the city was at fault. Claims are reviewed and approved or denied by the city’s Risk Management and Claims division. On state roads, drivers should fill out an online pothole reporting form before requesting a claim form from MnDOT, said claims specialist Jolene Servatius, of MnDOT. ‘We only pay claims in case of negligence,’ meaning MnDOT was aware of the crack but did not get it repaired in ‘a reasonable amount of time. Last year the agency had 60 claims and paid out ‘about five percent,”‘ Servatius said.

The Strib’s editorial department pauses its onslaught against the business-to-business tax long enough to talk gun control. “ … [A] legislative committee is proposing a reasonable law to tighten background checks on those who purchase firearms. The Gun Violence Prevention Act was introduced by Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, who chairs the House Public Safety Committee. The bill focuses on three areas: universal background checks for buyers of pistols or semiautomatic weapons (with exemptions for sales to relatives); penalties on straw sales to disqualified people, and additional tools for prosecutors to go after gun crimes and people who should not possess firearms. … Dennis Flaherty, executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, called background checks ‘the centerpiece of all the firearms legislation.’ He’s right, and Minnesota lawmakers should lend their support to Paymar’s legislation.”

The House will likely vote on our health insurance exchange today. Elizabeth Stawicki of MPR writes: “Bills to create the Minnesota exchange have been moving swiftly through the DFL-controlled Legislature. But the House debate could be lengthy with at least 50 amendments requested. Right now the House and Senate bills differ largely on funding. The Senate bill would use an existing tobacco tax; the House bill would withhold a fraction of the premium dollars for plans sold on the exchange.”

Sweet grain prices have slowed the need for farm loan mediation. Mark Steil of MPR says: “The number of mediation requests for troubled farm loans fell again last year, reflecting strong grain prices. For the year ending last Sept. 30, mediation requests declined about 5 percent. That was substantially less than the improvement measured a year earlier, when the index dropped by a quarter. … Last year lenders filed just over 2,900 mediation requests, compared to almost 3,100 the previous year, he said.”

Lakeville wants more concrete. Marino Eccher of the PiPress says: “[Mayor Matt] Little asked that the Minnesota Department of Transportation to investigate expanding the freeway to three lanes in each direction. Little cited safety and congestion concerns in Lakeville’s portion of the freeway, which currently carries 89,000 cars per day. The stretch has seen more than 300 crashes over the past three years, he said, including 125 injuries and four deaths. In an interview, Little said that’s the highest crash rate in the metro area. ‘We’re really trying to get people to understand that this is a problem,’ he said.”

A lot more Canadian oil could be coming through Minnesota. Dave Shaffer of the Strib says: “In the campaign against Keystone XL, the National Wildlife Federation and other groups have issued two reports since 2011 critical of pipeline safety, singling out Canada’s heavy oil called bitumen as especially hazardous. Neither report mentioned the risks of shipping it by rail. … The sprouting of the oil-by-rail business in Canada is important to Minnesota because the two major carriers, Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP), have gateways into the United States through the state. CN tracks go through Duluth, while CP has a route through the Twin Cities.”

On her Bluestem Prairie blog, Sally Jo Sorenson is amused at the defense of retiring Red Wing Mayor Dennis Egan concerning his conflict of interest with area frac sand miners. “The pity party for outgoing Red Wing mayor continues, with one letter writer urging Tea Party intervention on the part of the sand industry since too many citizens at public meetings have been objecting to Egan’s lobbying job. Enough with the we the people — it’s time to respect authority! In another, We should be ashamed, mining professional John Litsenberger notes that with the pending April 1 resignation as mayor by Dennis Egan, the City of Red Wing will lose a front row seat for insider intelligence from the industrial sand industry:

I dare say Red Wing lost a strong ally with the resignation of Mayor Dennis Egan. From my perspective, we would have had an inside track on what was occurring within the ranks of the Minnesota Industrial Sand Council and having the mayor there to report back would have been very advantageous. That window of opportunity is gone now.

Egan’s critics should feel bad:

All Red Wing citizens should be ashamed of the way we’ve treated our duly elected mayor — those that raised the cry of ‘conflict of interest’ and called for his removal/resignation and those of us who failed to come to Egan’s support.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which has twice supported Gov. Scott Walker in statewide elections, tells his Democratic opponents to “get over it.” “Given Walker’s gubernatorial campaign, the resulting furor over his policies and last summer’s recall election, it was inevitable that the [John Doe] investigation would be used for political gain. But leading members of the Democratic Party in the state overplayed their ‘corruption card.’ In fact, party spokesman Graeme Zielinski was still trying to play it on social media on Friday. In one of his sillier tweets, he compared Walker’s case to that of Jeffrey Dahmer. In another, he wrote: ‘Wisconsin has NEVER had a more corrupt governor than Scott Walker. NEVER. @GovWalker @wisgop.’ Really? Where’s the proof? Apparently investigators thought otherwise.”

Apparently there is a GOP strategy in the sequestration fight, and Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey thinks he understands it. “There had been suggestions that the House should escalate the fight in the [Continuing Resolution]  battle by either making more substantial cuts than the sequester imposed — such as those were — and defund ObamaCare, which would have stopped the budget process cold.  Instead, it looks as though conservatives are going to bide their time on other priorities, and declare victory on the sequester alone for FY2013: … The next goal is normal-order budgeting, and an end to the fiscal cliffs created by Harry Reid’s no-budget strategy.  The House wants to push ahead soon on a new CR in order to force the Senate to produce its own version through normal order … . If Republicans can keep taxes off the table and the sequestration reductions in the rate of increase in place, that will be an incremental but still significant win.  The position of the conservatives on the upcoming CR strategy is designed to give Reid no excuses in following the proper budgeting procedure.” In home remodeling terms, it’s kind of like burning down the house to create a bit more light in the family room.