Do you have anything, um, that’s just a little bigger? Jim Buchta, the Strib’s real estate guy, reports, “This penthouse condominium has nearly 12,000 square feet and is the largest condo in the Twin Cities and one of the largest homes in the metro. Its sole owner was Horst Rechelbacher, who died earlier this year. The two-level pad sits atop the Phoenix on the River condo building across the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis and has sweeping 270-degree river and skyline views. It’s on the market for $8 million, making it one of the most expensive condos in the market.” The chandeliers so big they had to be brought in by a crane are a nice understated touch.
The AP’s Brian Bakst spends some time on the trail with GOP Senate candidate Mike McFadden and writes, “McFadden, a political newcomer who is heavily favored in next month’s Republican primary, said voters won’t see him dive far into Franken’s past. But he’s battering Franken as being too close to Obama and to the problem-plagued health care law the senator was pivotal in enacting. Whether that’s a winning argument is murky, as McFadden found out when he struck up a conversation with the owner of Kat’s Hog Heaven, a southern Minnesota barbecue joint where even the cheeseburgers are made of pork. ‘Obamacare is the best thing the government has ever done to me,’ self-described fiscal conservative and independent voter Bill Stephan told McFadden, describing a new medical plan that saves him thousands and enabled him to quit a second job.” … which is further proof of its “job killing” proclivities.
Working their way toward their Sept. 13th homecoming, The Replacements played in Louisville over the weekend and Chris Riemenschneider of the Strib writes, “For the fourth time in the seven Replacements shows since last August, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong once again joined in as a third guitarist, this time playing the entire set and blending in without messing up the formula – although, he did mess up. The band’s only multi-platinum musician came in at the wrong time during ‘Nowhere Is My Home,’ much to Westerberg’s and bassist Tommy Stinson’s amusement. ‘Our one-day rehearsal did not pay off,’ Westerberg cracked.”
What? Stribber Paul Walsh writes, “A motorcyclist died in a collision with a golf cart over the weekend on a residential street in Wright County, authorities said. … The golf cart was being driven by Korie A. Schiel, 39, of Chaska. Schiel was treated for minor injuries and released. The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the circumstances leading up to the crash, including why the cart was on a road that doesn’t lead to a golf course. Schiel has a lengthy record of traffic violations, among them two convictions for drunken driving, and for driving without a valid license, speeding and careless driving.”
Another “key” moment in the archdiocese’s sex scandals. Jean Hopfensperger of the Strib writes, “Attorneys for the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona have asked Ramsey County District Court for a summary judgment on the case, which would dismiss it and prevent it from moving forward to a jury trial this fall. At the heart of the argument is the ‘nuisance claim’ against the church, a claim that the archdiocese’s failure to warn the public about abusive priests, and its practice of moving them to different parishes, created a public nuisance by endangering children.”
You wonder what the natives thought 400 years ago? Bob Collins of MPR writes, “As you slip on dead mayflies over the next few days, try to remember that it’s indicative of a river’s health. The annual massive mayfly hatch on the Mississippi is finally underway, a little later than usual.” The photos are like something from science fiction.
Related: Andy Rathbun of the PiPress says, “A hatch of mayflies appears to have caused a three-vehicle crash and injuring two people Sunday night in the town of Trenton, Wis. Theresa L. Hunt, 24, of Ellsworth, Wis., was driving a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria northbound on U.S. 63 at about 10:30 p.m. when she lost control on the roadway, which had become slick from the mayflies, according to the Pierce County sheriff’s office. Visibility was also limited at the time.”
In a piece built around the Medtronic tax inversion move Elaine Povich of USA Today writes, “Tax inversions are just the newest wrinkle in corporate tax avoidance, which has been going on for years in different ways. The Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal tax study group, reported earlier this year that between 2008 and 2012, some 269 profitable Fortune 500 companies (those that would disclose their taxes) paid state income taxes equal to less than 3.1 percent of their U.S. profits. If they had paid the average 6.25 percent state corporate tax rate on the profits they reported to shareholders, the report said, they would have paid $143 billion in state corporate income taxes over the 2008-2012 period. Instead, they paid only $70.2 billion, avoiding a total of $73.1 billion in state corporate income taxes over the five years.” That’d repair a lot of potholes … . Our Dave Beal adds his reporting.
At the Huffington Post, Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, takes a shot at Medtronic’s former CEO and eminence grise, saying, “At least one former chief executive officer condemned the [inversion] practice. That would be Bill George, who wrote in the New York Times about an inversion proposed by Pfizer: ‘Is the role of leading large pharmaceutical companies to discover life-saving drugs or to make money for shareholders through financial engineering? Does anyone believe pharmaceutical companies can create long-term shareholder value by chasing lower tax venues and cutting research and development spending’? But a month later when George’s alma mater Medtronic launched the same tax dodge maneuver, well, then it was a completely different story. For Medtronic, George said, tax evasion was hunky-dory: ‘The only reason they’re doing the inversion is to free up the cash overseas.’ ”
