Minnesotans United dropped $2 million on gay-marriage effort

The tab for campaigning for gay marriage? $2 million. The AP story says: “Minnesotans United for All Families leader Richard Carlbom provided the figure to The Associated Press ahead of a mid-June deadline to report lobbying during the just-completed legislative session. About $400,000 to $500,000 was spent on TV ads, he said. Minnesotans United likely will rank at or near the top of 2013 legislative lobbying, if historical spending is any guide. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Xcel Energy are the only entities to recently surpass the $2 million mark in a single year, and some of that includes lobbying state utilities regulators. The Minnesotans United money fueled a personal lobbying effort, phone banks and television commercials. The group used 14 lobbyists. In contrast, the main opposition group, Minnesotans for Marriage, had three registered lobbyists.”

Get your Amazon orders in … fast. Tom Webb of the PiPress explains: “Starting July 1, the state is requiring major online sites to collect the state’s 6.875 percent sales tax. Technically, it’s not a new tax. All along, online shoppers were supposed to report and pay the sales tax themselves. But almost nobody did. Soon, they won’t have a choice, at least not at big online retail sites. The change is being welcomed by Minnesota’s brick-and-mortar retailers, from neighborhood shops to corporate multi-state giants like Best Buy and Target. … Internet message boards are filled with irate comments and a lively debate about what’s fair. By one estimate, uncollected sales taxes amounted to $235 million a year in Minnesota.”

Following the latest Tom Petters court saga, John Welbes of the PiPress writes: “After seven months at Arrowhead Capital Management, Ted Ceglia had seen enough. … Four months into his job at Arrowhead, Ceglia testified, he sent a lengthy memo to [company founder James] Fry detailing records he wanted to review and meetings he wanted with partners who did business with Petters. Ceglia said that Fry’s initial reaction to the November 2002 recommendations — such as contacting retailers to check on the authenticity of purchase orders — was that Petters would not allow such measures to be taken. … Fry’s firm invested billions with Petters from the late 1990s until 2008, when Petters’ $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme was unveiled and collapsed. Fry isn’t on trial for the Ponzi scheme but for lying to his investors about how his business operated and withholding information about the criminal past of outside fundraiser Frank Vennes.”

The Cartoon Network ripped off some fine and decent North Dakotans? The AP says: “H2M, a Fargo-based advertising and marketing agency, filed the lawsuit against Dane Boedigheimer and Spencer Grove in U.S. District Court in North Dakota on Monday. Boedigheimer and Grove are the creators of the animated series ‘Annoying Orange.’ H2M alleges Boedigheimer and Grove ripped off a copyrighted character called The Talking Orange that was created for television commercials for the North Dakota Department of Transportation. The commercials aired in North Dakota and western Minnesota from 2005 to 2010. The lawsuit also names Annoying Orange LLC and Annoying Orange Inc., both based in California.” If they’d only called it “Annoying Tangerine,” or “Annoying Kumquat.”

How long are they going to fight over this? Emily Gurnon of the PiPress continues to follow the saga of the guy who videoed an emergency call: “A 29-year-old man was ‘extremely intrusive’ when he videotaped a medical call outside his apartment, an attorney for the city of Little Canada argued in court Wednesday. Andrew Joseph Henderson recorded the actions of a sheriff’s deputy and an ambulance crew as they prepared to take a highly intoxicated man to the hospital the night of Oct. 30. … Henderson was sitting three to five feet from the ambulance when the man was being loaded into it, the state alleged. The paramedics ‘had to stop the medical assessment to ask Henderson to stop videotaping,’ the complaint alleged. ‘When Henderson refused to stop, (paramedics) had to leave the area of the ambulance to notify the deputies,’ the complaint said.”

The latest on Twin Cities home prices … Jim Buchta of the Strib says: “Home sales in Minnesota and across the country posted modest gains last month, while prices increased by double digits, according to a pair of reports released Wednesday. April home sales in Minnesota eked out a 0.3 percent increase compared with last year with the median price rising 12 percent to $165,000, according to the Minnesota Association of Realtors. Declines in foreclosures and short sales, and growing competition for a dwindling number of listings is boosting prices in the state.”

Curious about how much Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken are worth? Brett Neely of MPR reports: “It’s difficult to be precise about what members of Congress are worth because their assets and debts are reported in broad ranges, but from the 30,000 foot perspective allowed by the Senate filings, Franken and Klobuchar’s personal finances are little changed from last year. … Franken’s assets are worth somewhere between $4.3 million and $12.8 million, essentially unchanged from his 2012 filing. Those assets are spread over a very broad set of investment funds and a personal business that manages the assets and income from Franken’s previous career as a comedian, actor and writer before entering the Senate in 2009. Franken has a mortgage on his house in Minnesota that’s between $100,000 and $250,000. … Klobuchar assets are worth between $400,000 and $1.2 million, an increase from last year when she reported assets between $310,000 and $1 million. Those assets are almost entirely spread across a series of investment and college funds. She reports holding no debts and minimal outside income from those investments.” The second richest in D.C.? Darrell Issa at $220 million …

Jennifer Brooks of the Strib reports on happy folks down in down in Rochester …  “Minnesota came up with the money — more than half a billion dollars — and now Mayo Clinic is keeping its part of the bargain. It won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. ‘It’s a great day to be a Minnesotan, a great day to call Rochester our home,’ Mayo CEO John Noseworthy told a cheering crowd Wednesday in Rochester. He was flanked by Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders, all celebrating the herculean effort that went into ramming the $585 million Mayo legislation through the Legislature in a matter of months. … The state funds, wrapped into a $2.1 billion tax bill that passed in the final hours of the legislative session Monday night, will steer $585 million to Rochester to support infrastructure improvements around the new downtown development. The state will chip in $372 million over the next 27 years, but only after Mayo, the city of Rochester and Olmsted County make substantial investments of their own. Mayo has pledged billions to the project — $3.5 billion of its own money and another $2 billion in private investments.”

Sally Jo Sorensen tips her Bluestem Prairie readers to a fascinating editorial in a local paper. Rich Glennie, editor of the McLeod County Chronicle in Glencoe (home of GOP Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen), writes: “Well, just like the Y2K millennium end-of-the-world scenario and the Mayan calendar doomsday predictions, the world did not end with the same-sex marriage bill passed recently by the Minnesota Legislature. But it may have ended the world as we know it when it comes to what constitutes a family in this society. The genie is now out of the bottle, and getting it back in may be impossible. … DFLers have done exactly what the Republicans did in 2012 — they over-extended their reach into our pockets and bedrooms and will now pay the price in 2014. While new and more taxes are predictable with DFLers, the gay rights marriage bill presented a real dilemma for many God-fearing Minnesotans. While many point to the Bible for guidance, the Bible is ambiguous in ways. It does not look kindly on homosexuality, especially in the Old Testament.” … And then he goes to domestic drones … and facial recognition … and …