Central Minnesota Political

By Tim King Senator Paul Gazelka has a reputation as being the silent thoughtful guy in the room. It’s a judgement not based in fact. I’d argue that Senator Gazelka is as subject to the same partisan lip flapping and political inconsistency as Donald Trump, the leader of the Senators political party. Take for example a visit Senator Gazelka made to the Todd County Board of Commissioners earlier this year. Accompanied by his largely silent side kick Representative John Poston, Senator Gazelka told the Board of Commissioners that he was going to go to St. Paul to cut taxes. Cutting taxes, the Senator said, would make Todd County more competitive.  Sen. Gazelka visited with Todd County Commissioners (left to right)Neuman, Erickson, and Kircher at the Capitol recently. Will they cut taxes to make us more competitive? Photo thanks to Sen. Gazelle's Facebook. That’s the Republican Party line and it’s what I would expect the leader of the Republican controlled S...

Minnesota Power wants to build a new gas power plant in Superior, WI, at a cost of approximately $350 milion to its ratepayers. The state Public Utilities Commission is taking comments for a short time. Gas turbine - Thanks to USDOE Submit a comment today to let the PUC know what you think. Expert witnesses for large industry and clean energy groups analyzed the proposal, and it's not in customers' best interest. First,  the utility does not need this extra electricity . On the contrary, one expert analysis found that “acquiring 250 MW of capacity would put Minnesota Power in a position of extreme excess capacity.” And, even if it did need more power,  there could be less expensive options.  Minnesota Power hasn't considered alternatives to the gas plant that could be more cost-effective, including relying on the regional electric grid and investing in low-cost energy efficiency and renewable power. For more information, visit  CUB's websit...

F or over a year a group of eight to ten of us have been meeting as the Todd County Resistance and Coffee Club. We meet, identify State and Federal issues, and then write post cards to the responsible elected officials asking them to take action. On Saturday March 3rd we met and wrote 70 post cards. We also raised $50.00 for the local food shelf. We'd welcome you to write post cards as well. Here are some of them that we wrote on March 3rd. The addresses for the officials are below the messages. Dear Congressman Peterson. I recently learned that you voted Yes on the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017. Shame on you! We  need less people carrying guns - not more. It’s time you started voting for common sense gun control legislation. Our safety depends on it. ---------------- Dear Congressman Peterson. Please co-sponsor H.R. 2436 - the Organic Agriculture Research Act of 2017. Organic food accounts for more than 5 percent of total food sales b...

The terms “White Supremacy” or “White Supremacist” have been tossed around a lot since the election of Donald Trump. I think I have a handle on the meaning of racism. For example, in the early 1970s the African American cleaning women who cleaned the office of the sawmill I worked in weren’t allowed to use the office toilets. Those were for the white office workers only. The black women had to use the toilets that the black workers in the mill used.  An old friend called the other day and described racism in his small Ohio town when he was a kid. It was about the same period of time that I was at the sawmill. My fiend said that African Americans were demanding a few basic rights. One day the African Americans in that town marched for some simple right that white people take for granted. For that act the doors on the homes of all the African Americans in that small town had the white hood of Ku Klux Klan terrorists hung on them. There were, of course, black and white people in ...

Two bills on gun control were discussed today (March 1st) in the MN House Public Safety Committee. These bills are described below. They are  modest proposals. Please call your representative today and ask them to sign on as a cosponsor to HF 1605 and HF 1669.  Phones for those of us in District 9 are below. Information for H. F. No. 1605 2017 - 2018 Regular Session Short Description: Law enforcement and family members enabled to petition a court to prohibit people from possessing firearms if they pose a significant danger to themselves or others. Information for H. F. No. 1669 2017 - 2018 Regular Session Short Description: Firearm transfer criminal background check required, and transfers excepted. Rep. Poston 651-296-4293 (9A) Rep. Kresha 651-296-4247 (9B) Photo from Wikipedia 

The MN350.org book discussion group read and discussed What We Think About (When We Try Not To Think About) Global Warming by Per Espen Stoknes. Here’s the group report from Brian Nowak. How did it go ? The book club was a great success, 30 people participated in person or over the phone on February 5th. We had some great discussions and learned a lot about climate messaging.  We have over 70 people who have contact MN350 about the book club. Send me your suggestions and let me know if you have a book to suggest for our next meeting in April. We will send out a list of suggestions next week and from peoples responses chose a new book to read. For those who called in we will be working on our technology to make the call in a better experience.   Book Suggestions so far: Motorcycles, Madness & Miracles  - A Badass Journey to Empowerment , a  book  Rowen Glaser wrote after attending a Pachamama Awaken the Dream Symposium.  H...

By Tim King One of the finest principles of Americanism is that we all are equal before the law and that we all have the same rights. That basic principle is right there in our Declaration of Independence from the tyrant Britain.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Those words of Thomas Jefferson rang out across America and around the world and down through time. They inspired independence movements and movements for human dignity from the Caribbean and Latin America to Asia.  But living up to those self-evident truths has been a constant struggle for many Americans. There have always been, down through our history, the frightened and small minded people who have denied that we were all created equal by our Creator. Whether it was Native American or African American or Japanese America...