This is the same mosque that was damaged by that explosion in August. MPR’s Tim Nelson reports: “Bloomington police have released security camera footage of last week’s burglary of the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center and are asking the public’s help to identify the suspects. … The 30-second video shows two suspects dressed with what appears to be heavy clothes, gloves and fur-covered ape masks that totally cover their heads. There appear to be no distinguishing characteristics visible for either one of the burglars. … The video shows the two suspects carrying out a large object, which looks to be a black safe with a gray door.”
A little Marco love for Jeff Johnson. The Pioneer Press’ Rachel Stassen-Berger reports: “Florida Sen. Marco Rubio announced he is backing Republican Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson in the Minnesotan’s second bid to become governor. … The endorsement could add some national attention to the Minnesota-based battle among Republicans to succeed DFL Gov. Mark Dayton. Johnson was Rubio’s Minnesota chairman when the Floridian ran for president last year and helped Rubio win the Minnesota’s Republican caucuses. Minnesota was the only state Rubio won in the GOP primary.”
More money to kill wolves? MPR’s John Enger report: “There’s a place just east of Nimrod where the trees and prairie meet. There’s tamarack bog, miles of rusting barbed wire and pastureland where angus beef cows graze. The locals call it Eden — for wolves. … ‘They start feeding on cattle, because it’s easy for them and they taste good,’ said area cattle rancher Chuck Becker. ‘Wolves come here, and they pretty much don’t leave if they don’t have to.’ … Becker’s lost dozens of cattle over the last 20 years, and there’s not much he can do about it. Only trappers working for the United States Department of Agriculture can kill the wolves. And for a few weeks this fall, the federal trappers couldn’t do their jobs. They didn’t have the money.”
St. Cloud comes out in support of refugees. The St. Cloud Times’ Jenny Berg reports: “City Council member Jeff Goerger has a message for St. Cloud — the temporary ban on refugees being proposed by City Council member Jeff Johnson is not constitutional and not something the City Council as a whole supports. … Goerger introduced a resolution Monday ‘in support of a just and welcoming community’ to refute Johnson’s resolution calling for a moratorium on refugee resettlement. Goerger’s resolution passed on a 5-1 vote, with Johnson opposing it; council member George Hontos was absent.”
In other news…
Congrats: “Digital First Media promotes Pioneer Press Publisher Guy Gilmore” [Pioneer Press]
Attention Prince fans: “Photographer’s new book offers ‘glimpse into the human side of Prince’” [MPR]
Interesting take: “‘We need to start thinking of housing as infrastructure’” [Rochester Post-Bulletin]
Metropolitan Statistical Area Pride: “Navy ship will carry Minneapolis/St. Paul name” [KARE]
Shh, don’t ruin it: “Pig’s Eye is St. Paul’s largest park nobody knows about” [Pioneer Press]
You can improve the acoustics all you want, but it’s still going to be Kenny Chesney: “Kenny Chesney’s crew visits U.S. Bank Stadium to try to improve acoustics” [Star Tribune]
What tastes good to wolves?
How does this dude know cows taste good to wolves? Did he ask them? They are opportunists, survival is their goal, so they eat what is easiest and safest for them to catch. (A small injury can be a death sentence to a wolf.) Also too, he has been compensated for the lost cattle, the state pays fair market value for deaths proven to be from wolves, its a pain in the ass, but he’s been paid. Its not always wolves, packs of stray dogs have been known to kill livestock. Dozens in twenty years is like one or two a year, depending on the size of the herd, that can may not be that great of loss. Lastly why isn’t there any money for state trappers? Who do we know that is always whining about taxes and government waste? What is the role of corrupt Republicans in all of this?
Thank you, Henk
I was about to write much the same thing. It’s certainly inconvenient and annoying to lose a heifer or steer, but if he’s compensated at fair market rates, he has little basis for complaint. In my relatively few years as a farmer, in an area not as far removed from a city as Nimrod, we lost a cow to a pack of dogs, so it’s not like that never happens.
Henk’s last point is the one that seems most relevant. If there’s no money for government trappers, it’s because tax revenues aren’t sufficient to pay for them. What’s Chuck’s position on state and federal taxes? If he’s opposed to tax uses for urban areas, where I live, but OK with tax uses for rural areas, where he lives, or at least raises cattle, I think we’ve found the crux of the problem…
Farmers aren’t compensated for losses due to wolf attacks. Yes, farmers have insurance but the deductibles are usually higher than the value of one animal lost due to a wolf attack. Also, some insurance companies will say this was an “act of God” and refuse to pay-up.