Tpaw out. At Politico, Kevin Robillard writes, “Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday he won’t run in a special election for the Senate later this year. Pawlenty, now the CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, a powerful bank lobbying group, ruled out a run during an appearance on Fox Business Network. ‘I’m interested in continuing to serve,’ Pawlenty said. ‘There’s a variety of ways to do that, [but] running for U.S. Senate this year won’t be one of them’. … Pawlenty’s decision not to run leaves state Sen. Karin Housley as the major GOP challenger to Smith, who has thus far avoided any major opponents in a Democratic primary.”
10 years. Dave Orrick of the PiPress reports, “U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a Democratic candidate for Minnesota governor in November, released 10 years of personal federal and state income tax returns Tuesday. … Walz and his wife, Gwen, who works in education, reported $208,592 income in 2016, for which they paid $32,670 in federal taxes and $11,928 in Minnesota taxes, according to the returns. That’s an effective tax rate of 21.4 percent.”
At City Pages, Mike Mullen writes, “As of the 2010 census, the town of Virginia, Minnesota (pop. 8,523) was almost 95 percent white. It’s an unlikely place to strike up a conversation about race. Not a particularly good one, anyway. On Monday, Martin Luther King Day, fliers appeared in the Iron Range town promoting the Ku Klux Klan. The fliers (later posted to Facebook) featured a defense of ‘white pride’ — and a lengthy attack on the man whose legacy was supposed to be celebrated Monday. ‘White pride doesn’t mean hate,’ reads the front page of the document, which goes on to wage a battle against both common sense and punctuation … .”
Is this included in the International Baccalaureate program? Stribber Tony Kennedy reports, “A professional angler from Ham Lake and a youth fishing coach from Brainerd are attempting to greatly widen participation in high school bass fishing under a proposal to the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL). In two weeks, Jimmy Bell and Jason Bahr will make their second presentation to the high school league’s board of directors. They want the league to annually host a year-end tournament to recognize the state’s top high school fishing teams. Clay target shooters and robotics teams already enjoy that level of support from the MSHSL… .”
A new policy always cleans these things up. At MPR, Riham Feshir says, “The Rochester Civic Theatre has a new sexual harassment and discrimination policy. The new policy comes roughly nine months after the organization’s executive director, Gregory Stavrou, resigned. He cited health reasons, but left shortly after six people told the board he had subjected them to unwelcome sexual advances. … The updated policy clarifies steps to address inappropriate behavior.”
Says Mark Steil for MPR, “It would cost taxpayers nearly twice as much to lease a private prison in western Minnesota than to house inmates in county jails, a new report concludes. City officials in Appleton want the state to take over the 1,600 bed prison that’s been closed since 2010. The facility is owned by Tennessee-based CoreCivic, which used to be known as the Corrections Corporation of America. Minnesota’s 10 male correctional facilities are full, so the state leases extra space in county jails at about $55 a day per inmate. The report by Klein McCarthy Architects says leasing the Appleton facility would cost almost $100 dollars a day per inmate.”
But no casino? Says Nicole Norfleet in the Strib, “Five years after Macy’s closed in downtown St. Paul, city officials and business leaders on Tuesday celebrated that building’s reopening as Treasure Island Center, a mixed-use project with offices, a brewery and a practice ice rink for the Minnesota Wild.”
