REAL ID beginning to cause real concern

This REAL ID thing is starting to get real annoying. In the Strib, Abby Simon writes, “Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, a key author of the 2009 legislation to block implementation, called REAL ID a classic example of government overreach. Now, he said, they’re ‘using a heavy club’ to force states to comply. Asked if he’s willing to tell constituents they can’t get on a plane, Limmer demurred. ‘I think that’s the exact logic that the proponents of the card are going to make,’ he said. ‘On the other hand, what is the cost of the card in freedom, liberty, individual rights and privacy? Does the government have to know everything? This is a step in that direction.’ Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul, said he now would be open to compromise, even though he co-sponsored the original bill along with Limmer and others.” Are they as worried about what VISA and TransUnion know about us?

Also, Ol’ Sooch knows who the real enemy is. In the Pioneer Press, Joe Soucheray writes: “It doesn’t feel American. Increasingly, it doesn’t feel like a government of and by the people, but a government overseeing the people and requiring them to ‘carry papers.’ Not that we aren’t on any variety of government rolls already, but this smacks of creating a new federal data bank of all us average Joes to make it easier for the federal government to act in case we get out of line. There’s the rub. If it is a government overseeing us then it will be a government that determines what constitutes being out of line. Too bad Dayton is caving because Minnesota was right to object.” What are the chances Joe uses Google and anyone’s explained what they know about his comings and goings?

Next up for Black Lives Matter: the marathon. Peter Cox at MPR says, “Black Lives Matter St. Paul says it’s planning to disrupt next weekend’s Twin Cities Marathon. Rashad Turner, an organizer with Black Lives Matter St. Paul, said the group will be protesting recent cases of police brutality in the city, including the forcible arrest of 15-year-old Tyree Tucker and his mother at a Frogtown church picnic last week. ‘Part of our job is to agitate,’ Turner said.”

Hey, it was game day and it wasn’t exactly his first rodeo. For USA Today, Tom Pelissero writes, “On the day his newest child was born, Adrian Peterson created a vintage highlight off a play called 40 Doctor Extra. … ‘That right there just kind of put things in perspective,’ said Peterson, who has six other known children. “It was just like, ‘Wow, this is what life is really about.’ … There was only one way to end this today, and a victory was it.’”

A familiar story in rural Minnesota. Stribber Neal St. Anthony writes, “Good news at Alexandria Industries in Douglas County, the heart of the Minnesota manufacturing mecca. The aluminum fabrication company, which employs 480 in the Alexandria area, is investing several million dollars to expand its production and warehouse space. The bad news: The privately held firm, which has long surpassed pre-recession revenue and employment levels, is struggling to fill the 50 jobs that are open or anticipated over the next six months at $15 to $30 an hour, plus benefits.”

NatureWorldReport.com covers the bison release. “[Minneopa] State Park has recently become the home for a rare herd of bison that has calves and cow pairs as well. The genetically rare bison in this herd are now settling into the park just outside Mankato. ‘The park has a large potential audience with over 200,000 people within 50 miles, numerous nearby educational institutions are potential research partners, the park contains sufficient prairie to accommodate a bison herd, and the reintroduction of bison will help naturally manage the prairie landscape,’ says the Minnesota Zoo.”

It would be very bad karma if something happened to him here. The Guardian story on the Dalai Lama says, “Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, on Sunday remained at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for evaluation following a medical visit his office said was a routine annual checkup. The 80-year-old Nobel peace laureate canceled a planned October visit to the U.S. at the advice of doctors following a medical checkup this week, his office said in a statement on Friday. The statement said doctors had urged him to rest for several weeks, though it gave no indication that he was ill nor details about his state of health.”

Golf has had a good summer. PGA.com picks up David Peterson’s Strib story, which says: “Sensational spring and summer weather has Minnesota golf heading for perhaps the fastest year-over-year rebound in the nation. And there are other signs that a seeming decade-long death spiral is being reversed as courses — including many public tracks — scramble to punch their way out of the rough. … By the end of July the number of outings in Minnesota had grown by 15 percent over the same period in 2014, according to Michael Abramowitz, spokesman for the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America. Nationally, the number of golf rounds played was up by 1 percent.”

With Planned Parenthood all the rage, the conservative NewsMax site checks out abortion statistics in the Midwest. Jerry Shaw reports, “Minnesota falls in the middle of rankings, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America, which grades states on the permissiveness of their abortion laws. Minnesota received a C+ grade, the same as nearby Iowa. But, according to NARAL, it scores higher than the neighboring state of Wisconsin, which got a D+, and Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota, which received F ratings from the pro-choice organization.” C+ … just a tick above average.

Hmmm. Creeping Denmark-ism? The AP says, “A suburban Twin Cities high school has crowned its first transgender homecoming king. Seventeen-year-old Charlie Baca was crowned Friday at Irondale High School in New Brighton. Associate Principal Andrew Mons says Baca is the first transgender homecoming king at the school of about 1,600 students.”

A bit of progress. Jessie Van Berkel of the Strib says, “When Don Marthaler drives through rural Dakota County, the retired farmer is used to seeing rows of plastic piled alongside fields. And he knows where much of that heavy-duty wrap used to keep feed and hay fresh ends up. In smoke. … Marthaler, a member of the county’s Rural Solid Waste Commission, said he suggested the group create a recycling program. Last month, the commission initiated the first program of its kind in the metro. The county gave the group a $4,500 grant to put labeled recycling containers at three locations in southern Dakota County, where farmers can dispose of certain plastics for free. The county’s funds also cover the cost of transporting plastic to a recycling facility in Hutchinson … .”