[image_credit]REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert[/image_credit][image_caption]Rep. Ilhan Omar[/image_caption]
Also in racism … John Molseed at the Rochester Post-Bulletin reports on Attorney General Keith Ellison‘s listening session Tuesday night: “Ellison noted that white supremacist groups don’t address the actual problems facing white men without college degrees — a group of people who face a relatively higher suicide rate, opioid addiction, and a higher overall death rate. White supremacy leaders prefer instead to incite hatred and division than to help uplift their own target demographic, Ellison said.”
First District dynamics … Mark Zdechlik at Minnesota Public Radio offers an early look at the Hagedorn-Feehan rematch in the First Congressional District race: “[Local resident Jim] Decker, 74, said he’ll vote to reelect Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn next year. ‘The Democrat Party has gotten too liberal for me anyway. It’s just like they want to give everything away and immigrants come into the country and they just want to hand them everything. I just don’t go for that anymore.'”
Mea graupel. KSTP reports on Duluth Mayor Emily Larson’s statement regarding the snow removal issues following the weekend storms: “In the letter, Larson says she takes ‘full responsibility’ for the city’s response to the storm and personally apologizes for the ‘pockets of our city still untouched’ as well as resulting school closures. … Meanwhile, Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge was not operational due to the weight of snow and ice from the storm.”
Add them to Grand Avenue when no one is looking. Frederick Melo at the Pioneer Press has a piece on the St. Paul City Council settling a lawsuit involving the height of most of the city’s electronic parking meter pay stations: “The St. Paul City Council is poised to settle a federal lawsuit that will cost the city up to $200,000 to replace or lower the height of most of its electronic parking meter pay stations — some 180 out of 200 across the city. … [Jerald] Boitnott this year filed a similar Americans with Disabilites Act lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city of Minneapolis, which chose in October to settle for $60,000 and agreed to replace its electronic pay stations by May 2023.”
Beating = wrist slap. Libor Jany at the Star Tribune reports on a recent arbitration decision regarding police officer Peter Brazeau: “A former Minneapolis police officer who was fired for his role in the beating of a handcuffed suspect can have his job back, an arbitrator has ruled, citing the officer’s otherwise strong service record. The ruling found that the officer in question, Peter Brazeau, still violated the department’s policy on excessive force and, therefore, must serve an 80-hour suspension without pay.”
Education cuts up north. Adelie Bergstrom at the Duluth News Tribune details the deficit-reducing actions being considered at the University of Minnesota-Duluth: “The cuts include 24.7 full-time equivalent positions and will directly affect 29 faculty and staff, as well as 13 graduate teaching assistants. As a part of the plan, UMD’s College of Liberal Arts and School of Fine Arts will merge on July 1, 2020. Dr. Jeremy Youde, the current Liberal Arts dean, will lead the new college.”
In other news…
Insult to injury: “Get ready to pay more if your car is towed during a snow emergency in St. Paul” [Star Tribune]
Must live near tracks to see: “Cheery Christmas train to visit several Minnesota communities” [Bemidji Pioneer]
Disputable: “Minneapolis Named Most Bikable City In The Nation” [WCCO]
Related: “Beloved Minneapolis bike nonprofit Cycles for Change closes” [City Pages]
Well … crap: “Majority of wells in new Wisconsin sample have fecal matter” [KARE]
The voter from CD1 exposes a degree of political illiteracy all too common: the misnaming of the oldest political party in the world. Even if one didn’t graduate 6th grade or pay much attention to the books in high school it shouldn’t escape their attention that the name of the party is the Democratic Party, not the Democrat Party. It must be ignorance, certainly no disrespect is intended, which certainly would be the case if the voter does indeed know the correct name of the party.
Or maybe, just listening to Fox News.