She’ll be missed! The Pioneer Press has a story on the retirement of a member of the Lake Elmo City Council: “The most controversial member of Lake Elmo’s City Council — Anne Smith — is not running for re-election. … Smith, a 12-year member of the council, did not register as a candidate for the Nov. 8 election by the Tuesday deadline, according to the website of the Minnesota Secretary of State. Contacted by phone Wednesday, Smith confirmed she wasn’t running but chose not to comment further.”
Turns out you can just look at photos on your phone. The Star Tribune’s Natalie Daher has bad news out of Shakopee: “Shutterfly Inc. has roughly another year to reach a job-creation goal under a tax-break agreement that helped bring the company to Shakopee. … The photo company, which opened a manufacturing plant in Shakopee in 2014, fell 28 jobs short of the 258 jobs that it agreed to create within about two years. Both the Scott County Board and the Shakopee City Council voted 4-1 this week to extend the deadline, while also reducing Shutterfly’s tax abatements by 11 percent — amounting to $51,863 and $54,388, respectively — to reflect the job shortage. The new deadline is May 27, 2017.”
Your move, Mr. Trump. WCCO reports: “Amid the controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s refusal to release his income tax returns, Minnesota’s governor has released both his 2014 and 2015 tax returns. … The Office of Gov. Mark Dayton and Lt. Governor Tina Smith announced the release Thursday, providing links to both of the tax returns. … In 2014, Dayton reported a total income of $380,030 from his Governor’s salary, dividends and capital gains. His taxable income was $350,306 and he paid federal taxes of $72,011 and state taxes of $32,551.”
At Mayo, a dust-up over who serves the mayo. The Rochester Post-Bulletin’s Heather J. Carlson and Brett Boese write: “Some Minnesota lawmakers are blasting Mayo Clinic’s decision to subcontract its food vendor services, accusing the clinic of reneging on promises made while lobbying for Destination Medical Center in 2013. … As of Wednesday night, more than 30 legislators had signed a petition urging Mayo to reverse its decision, according to SEIU Healthcare Minnesota spokesman Josh Keller. The union paid for a full-page ad with the list of lawmakers in today’s Post-Bulletin, the fifth such purchase since Mayo announced the proposed change on June 30.”
What is Native American cuisine? The New York Times’ Tejal Rao checks in with Minneapolis chef Sean Sherman: “The moon was full and the chokecherries were ripe in the southeastern corner of North Dakota. ‘It’s the one smell that shoots me back to being young,’ said Sean Sherman, as the berries boiled under a red-veined froth. … Mr. Sherman has simmered corn silk with purple bergamot blossoms to make tea, and braised rabbit with spruce tips. He has revived chaga, the fungus that blooms on birch trees, in warm hazelnut milk, and burned juniper branches and corn cobs all the way down to a soft black ash.”
In other news…
Gonna miss you: “Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday, from a bunch of Twin Cities suburbs” [City Pages]
Some kind of problem translating the instructions from Gaelic? “Medtronic warns doctors on heart valve delivery system after 19 deaths reported” [Star Tribune]
Hmm, needs more Viking longboats: “Harbor Cam: It’s time to welcome the tall ships” [Duluth News Tribune]
One week till the State Fair! Here’s a very important story for you: “The Growler’s Complete Guide to Beer at the 2016 Minnesota State Fair” [The Growler]
Mayo & the Audacity of Sen. Dave Senjem
Senator Senjem is quoted in the linked article telling us that the legislature has “no business interfering with Mayo’s private business decisions.”
Excuse me? A private business has it’s snout in the public trough, and the taxpayers’ representatives have no business in how their dollars are spent? And this fellow is supposed to be from the party of fiscal responsibility?
Now I know how John McEnroe felt when he exclaimed, “You cannot be serious!”
She’ll be missed!
The entertainment value of Lake Elmo council meetings will drop off the map without this troublemaker causing the city to look like a 3 Stooges movie.