First North Carolina, now Mississippi. The Star Tribune’s Paul Walsh writes, “Gov. Mark Dayton, in response to Mississippi making it legal for people there to be denied service based on sexual orientation, instructed Minnesota state employees to refrain from any nonessential travel to that Southern state as long as its law remains in force. … Dayton’s move Wednesday follows the same order he issued Saturday aimed at North Carolina over that state’s efforts to limit gay rights.”
Turns out CSI is not a documentary. MPR’s Cathy Wurzer and Riham Feshir report, “Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman relied on DNA evidence when he declined to charge two Minneapolis police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark. At one point, he described the DNA findings as ‘truth serum.’ … Experts, however, say DNA results are not as certain as they may appear to be and that the DNA evidence in the Clark shooting would have likely been challenged in court.”
Minneapolis wasn’t always all craft breweries and lumbersexuals. At City Pages, Erica Rivera writes, “Minneapolis was once home to a massive skid row in the Gateway District. Seasonal workers, pensioners, criminals, and alcoholics, dubbed ‘gandy dancers,’ stumbled from bar to bar, bloodied each other in fights, pissed in alleyways, and passed out in cubicle-sized rooms in cage hotels. Church mission workers preached in storefronts in an attempt to save their souls while undercover sociology grad students tried to understand them. … Through 25 interviews with Bacich before his death in 2012, Star Tribune columnist James Eli Shiffer compiled the stories and images of this bygone era for his new book, ‘The King of Skid Row: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis.’ He spoke with City Pages in advance of the book’s launch on Thursday night at the Mill City Museum.”
Maybe there just isn’t that much demand for sour grapes. Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine’s Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl gave chef Russell Klein the opportunity to vent in the wake of the closing of his Foreign Legion wine bar (and Brasserie Zentral, which closed in January) in Minneapolis: “So, a full retreat to the friendlier streets of St. Paul? Indeed, Klein has retained the Foreign Legion name and branding and may at sometime or other bring it back to life—in St. Paul. He has not felt much love from the mean streets of Minneapolis. ‘It’s incredibly tough to make a go of it in the Minneapolis downtown core,’ says Klein. ‘Minneapolis has the highest food and beverage sales taxes in the country, I guess to pay for all those stadiums; I hope Zygi (Wilf, Vikings owner) is enjoying himself. But the political and governmental regulatory environment is difficult,’ he says. ‘When news of Zentral closing broke, I got a nice text from Chris Coleman (mayor of St. Paul) expressing condolences. I didn’t hear from Betsy Hodges, (mayor of Minneapolis), not from my councilperson, not from the councilperson who represents the district starting across the street, nothing. My only contact from the city of Minneapolis was an email from a license inspector saying: If you’re going to shrink premises you need to file a new permit application and pay a fee. Nothing about the 42 people who were laid off, nothing about the loss of tax base, just nothing. That’s the difference between Minneapolis and St. Paul now. In St. Paul, top to bottom, the government acts like they want you to be there. In Minneapolis, top to bottom, it’s very clear nobody gives a shit. It’s not a coincidence that Revival is opening their second location in St. Paul.’”
In other news…
Well, we’re certainly familiar with four seasons around here: “Developers say they’re working with Four Seasons on tower at end of Nicollet Mall” [Star Tribune]
Uh, well, yes: “Big banks ‘easy punching bag’: Gov. Pawlenty” [CNBC]
Five grand to go from St. Louis to St. Paul: “New French America Line to set sail on U.S. rivers in August” [LA Times]
Or else no juice boxes: “Minnesota Vikings, Wells Fargo ordered to settlement conference about alleged photo-bombing signs” [Star Tribune]
Wonder if those “mom and pop” liquor stores will carry this: “LTD Brewing makes beer to protest Sunday liquor sale ban” [The Growler]
And who will pay the bill? “A Plan to Change a Beloved Stamp Is Ruffling Feathers” [New York Times]
Slightly different lineup from Rock the Garden: “Bluestem summer concert lineup to include Bret Michaels, Weird Al, Brandi Carlile” [Inforum]
Challenged by whom?
The prosecution would have been obliged to disclose the results of its own tests and the defense would have offered it. It’s useless to speculate whether it would have been admitted over what would have had to be the prosecution’s objection.
“Turns out CSI is not a documentary. MPR’s Cathy Wurzer and Riham Feshir report, ‘Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman relied on DNA evidence when he declined to charge two Minneapolis police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark. At one point, he described the DNA findings as ‘truth serum.’ … Experts, however, say DNA results are not as certain as they may appear to be and that the DNA evidence in the Clark shooting would have likely been challenged in court.'”
The state banning travel
So Minnesota bans unnecessary travel to Mississippi and North Carolina because we, or the governor at least, disagrees with some of their laws. Maybe other states ban travel to Minnesota because they disagree with some of ours. And suppose all travel to Alabama is banned for obvious reasons.
Where does this all end?
It’s one thing for an individual or private business to avoid travel for whatever reason, but I think it’s a bad precedent for one state to engage in economic war with another over laws they enact.
Why?
Why should Minnesota show even implicit support for a state whose public policy is at odds with ours?
If Mississippi wants to refuse to travel to Minnesota because some of its employees might be going potty in the same room as someone born into a different agenda, they may. They will look foolish, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue.
Why? Because where does it end? This isn’t a single issue. North Carolina could ban travel to Minnesota because we don’t allow smoking in bars. North Dakota could ban travel to Minnesota because we won’t build an oil pipe line. California could ban travel to Minnesota because our schools foster educational inequalities. And so on.
Nearly every state has some public policy that is at odds with others.
Where does it end?
Why is that question not asked of North Carolina and Mississippi in the first place? Why is it offensive to stand up against an offensive policy? In the end, what difference does it make?
Let North Carolina ban travel to Minnesota because of the smoking ban. Are they willing to go to the mat that much for the tobacco industry? Let them, and let the public judge.
I find it interesting that it is LGBT rights, and showing support for them, that provoke the fears of a slippery slope.
Don’t believe that many citizens of Alabama or Mississippi
Travel to MN and so don’t care. A more educated North Carolina should know better.
“…disagree with some of their laws.”
I think this is clearly about a specific law. One that discriminates a class of people. It may seem fair to ask where it all end. But, should we have kept separate bathrooms, water fountains, and schools based on the color of one’s skin? Where would we be today were we still asking the question, “where does it all end,” that a Black man be granted the right to drink at the same fountain as a White man? I see no difference. It even comes across to me as the same type of discriminatory code. Hopefully it ends with people understanding each other’s uniqueness and accepting one another’s differences.
So laughable to see
Pawlenty who railed against big banks as governor now dutifully protects the big banks. Oh what a million dollar salary will do for a person’s position. LOL
“Minneapolis wasn’t always all craft breweries” – gandy dancers
My grandfather drove coal-burning steam locomotives for the Illinois Central Railroad, and I learned a long time ago that “gandy dancers” were men who laid track for railroads. “Gandy” was an efficiency expert who came up with the most efficient way for men to remove and lay steel rails,
in a highly choreographed routine that came to be known as “Gandy dancing.”