Central Minnesota Political

On Monday February 17th fifteen members of the Minnesota House Climate Action Caucus announced a package of fifteen bills across different sectors to help move us in the right direction on climate. Caucus members and their supporters are calling the package the “Minnesota Can-Do Climate Actions.” “Minnesotans have been telling legislators about the urgent need to address climate change. This bold package of one-time appropriations is inspired by what we have heard. These new investments will enable Minnesotans to participate directly in solutions that address the climate crisis,” the Caucus wrote on its  web site ( https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/climateactioncaucus/ ) The bills span areas including residential and commercial building energy efficiency, subsidies for solar-electric installations for homes and schools, funding for electric school buses and cars, and funding for conservation and carbon sequestration.  For example, HF3730 authored by ...

A web site featuring hundreds of photographs of sculptures and medallic art by   Joseph Kiselewski  has just been completed. Mr. Kiselewski was a Polish farm boy from Browerville at the beginning of the last century. He went on to become a world renowned sculptor and medallist with a studio in New York City from 1929 until the early 1980s when he retired to Browerville. Among the many images on the website are Kiselewski’s sculpture of Benito Mussolini, created when he studied in Rome in the late 1920s and the giant sun dial that he created for the 1939 World’s Fair. The site also includes his fascinating autobiography and a dramatic video of the night his studio went up in flames. The website was created by Barb Noland, Kiselewski’s grand niece, Colin King, Jan King, and Tim King of Dreams United/Suenos Unidos. The site is called The Art of Joseph Kiselewski and can be found on the internet at  kiselewskisculpture.com The website was made possible by the vot...

Department of Natural Resources Senior Climatologist Dr. Kenny Blumenfeld's will make a presentation at Central Lakes College's Chalberg Theater on Monday, April 20.  The presentation, on climate, change will begin at noon and is a free event open to the public. Dr. Blumenfeld talked in New Ulm last year. Below are a few paragraphs, from the New Ulm Journal, summarizing that presentation. “It’s really the lowest temperatures that are increasing the fastest,” Blumenfeld said. “Especially winter-time nights with the coldest nights. That’s where we’re seeing the most warming.” Blumenfeld said this rapid loss of cold extremes in Minnesota may be projected to continue if weather pattern trends match data collected from each decade. According to data collected in Minnesota since 1970, Blumenfeld said there’s been an average of a 1.2 degree Fahrenheit increase in winter temperatures per decade. The data also showed that average summer temperatures have increased...

A new Line 3 pipeline would swing down into the Crow Wing Watershed in Central Minnesota. I've not heard opposition specific to the threat to that remarkable stream. Perhaps it's time to raise our voices. I wrote the following for the Long Prairie Leader several weeks ago. Tim Central Minnesota Political -------------- The Line 3 oil pipeline is a disaster waiting to happen. And a disaster that has already happened. The Canadian Enbridge Corporation owns the pipeline. The Line starts close to Edmonton, Alberta, near the tar sands oil deposit. It runs 1,097 miles through Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and a tiny corner of North Dakota near Pembina where it crosses the Red River and enters Minnesota for its long run to Lake Superior and the oil terminals and refinery at Superior, Wisconsin. The huge pipes that transport the oil are thirty-four inches in diameter. Thanks Wikipedia Enbridge wants to rebuild the pipeline so it has pipes that are three feet in dia...

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Pathway to PEACE 7-bill package advances a bold, progressive approach to U.S. foreign policy — creating a baseline for how to build peace in tangible ways, and putting our values and principles into practice. So, what does Pathway to PEACE include? 📜A bill calling for the U.S to ratify the Rome Statute & join the International Criminal Court:  the U.S. DOES NOT deserve special immunity when it commits massive breaches of international law. Joining the ICC is what actual accountability & justice look like. 📜 A bill urging the U.S. to accede to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:  it's EMBARRASSING that every single eligible nation (196 total) has ratified the Convention except the U.S.  This shouldn't even be a debate. 📜 A bill calling on the U.S. to accede to the UN Global Compact on Migration & promote the adoption of a BINDING Global Migration Agreement:  this bill demands justice, accountability, ...

Last week I wrote about the Minnesota Republicans support for a so-called "all of the above" energy policy in their myopic Vision 2020 plan. In their all-of-the-above plan they only mention energy derived from coal and nuclear power. The plan does not mention renewable sources of energy. However, their plan does include a photo of a wind generator. The Republican all-of-the-above energy plan reminded me of Rep. Collin Peterson's support for  an all-of-the-above energy plan. In his plan, Rep. Peterson uses the word renewable but not the phrase climate change. Being the deep thinking political analyst that I am I began wondering what the difference between an all-of-the-above energy plan that uses the word renewable and one that merely has a picture of it. I'm not up to the task, I'm afraid. I've published below a column I wrote last year as I wrestled with Rep. Peterson's murky thinking. Perhaps it will help you understand. Tim Central Mi...