Save Our Blue Waters to me

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"the rest of the story" about the sulfide copper-nickel mining industry

being proposed for northeastern Minnesota.

Info for; HR 4292: Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007

http://www.sosbluewaters.org/oberstar.htm

To: http://www.twoharborsmn.com/
Subject: sulfide mining

Lake County Chronicle

An inquisitive group of about 45 Lake and St. Louis County residents gathered last week at the Two Harbors Community Center, anxious to hear "the rest of the story" about the sulfide copper-nickel mining industry being proposed for northeastern Minnesota.

Local mass media has painted a rosy picture of jobs and economic growth coming from this new kind of mining. Not surprisingly absent in the mining propaganda are the grim realities of the toxic pollution problems inherently associated with the mining of sulfide ore bodies and the legacy of public-funded clean up costs to taxpayers, which number in the billions of dollars nationwide. Sulfide mining, also called non-ferrous metallic minerals mining and copper-nickel mining, is "not your father's mining". Its environmental impact greatly exceeds that of the iron and taconite mining we have all grown up with. Sulfide ore bodies, in which trace amounts of valuable metals are embedded, once exposed to air and water, generate sulfuric acid. Once this chemical process (Acid Mine Drainage) starts, it cannot be reversed and will continue for hundreds, and more likely thousands of years. Sulfuric acid runoff from the massive volume of waste rock piles and strip mine pits will leach into our surface waters and groundwater if not effectively controlled and treated. This kind of control has not yet been demonstrated. A metallic sulfide mine has never failed to pollute its watershed.

Our good neighbors in Wisconsin have found an effective control measure for sulfide mining. They have legislatively enacted a moratorium that will permit sulfide mining only after it has been demonstrated that it has been done elsewhere safely for 10 years and that such a mine has been closed for 10 years without any negative aftereffects. So far no company has been able to meet the criteria of this law. Minnesota has not yet adopted this kind of caution to protect our environment.

A new Canadian mining company, PolyMet is presently in the permitting process with Minnesota's DNR, including an environmental impact statement (EIS) which is due out soon, to be followed by a brief period of public input. The proposed mine site is just outside of Babbitt MN, and surrounded by the Partridge River, a Lake Superior tributary. If PolyMet is allowed to proceed, it will set off a ripple effect, with many other mining companies ready to pursue prospects of their own. These new mining prospects will expand mining into new areas of the Arrowhead country, including the Spruce Road area near Birch Lake, less than 1 mile from the BWCA. Settled areas such as the Bassett-Fairbanks community, could be next, with more than 9000 acres of 50-year mineral rights leases recently purchased from the state in that area.

Even though our iron mining industry is healthy, our politicians are anxious to bring even more non-diversified non-sustainable industrial growth to Minnesota's Arrowhead. Rep. James Oberstar has introduced a bill in the House to facilitate the sale of 6,700 acres of Superior National Forest land to PolyMet, without waiting for the results of the EIS, and without possibility of appeal of its authority or provisions. The bill, HR4292, sets a dangerous precedent of sale of such a large parcel of national forest land to a foreign, private industry without public input.

North Shore Watershed Watch and ACTNOW, the groups which organized this meeting, believe that the environmental problems such an industry would bring to our water-rich environment are not being adequately addressed or shared with the public. After viewing the evening's presentation, most of those in attendance, including residents who traveled from Brimson and Ely areas, agreed and were looking for ways to express their anger and frustration.

Other questions coming from the group which should be considered in deciding about the future of this industry in our state were: how long are the jobs generated locally likely to last? Do domestic or foreign companies stand to profit most from extraction of these minerals? Where are the markets for the minerals – we all use them, but would these be used domestically or go to China, India, etc.? What is the rush – the minerals aren't going anywhere are they? There will still be a market for them after however many years it takes to find out if they can be mined safely. Has there been an energy budget proposed for this industry? Given the rising cost and diminishing supply of energy, will it have to compete with the taconite industry for energy? And the taconite industry requires clean water – will they be working at cross purposes on that front too? You mean, I can't run over a cattail with my ATV, but a Canadian mining company can destroy a thousand acres of wetlands? So, this is like a grand experiment with our forests and water resources?

Will the financial benefit to today's generation be at the expense of tomorrow's generation? Only our descendants' will be able to answer that question.

Todd Ronning

Two Harbors MN

Michael Winship on media reform and the economy

http://www.truthout.org/article/media-reformers-its-economy

This piece, written for Truthout by Michael Winship, and reprinted here, is the second in a series about the amazing National Conference on Media Reform and its implications for True, Cook County and the nation.
-True

Last weekend's National Conference on Media Reform in Minneapolis was a freewheeling, articulate, committed gathering of activists, policy wonks and everyday citizens dedicated to the idea that there can be no real democracy without a media democracy - independent reporting from diverse communities free of the interference and spin of government and big business. Perhaps, nowhere else can you witness an FCC commissioner like Michael Copps get a rock-star-like standing ovation worthy of Mick Jagger, or hear the words, 'Common carrier rules are hot!'
Some 3,500 assembled to participate in panels and hear a range of speakers that included my colleague Bill Moyers, Senator Byron Dorgan, Center for Internet and Society founder Lawrence Lessig, Naomi Klein, Louise Erdrich and Dan Rather. Participants grappled with mobilizing grass roots movements around such hot-button issues as continuing big media consolidation and net neutrality - the latter two words perhaps more elegantly phrased as "Internet freedom" - keeping cyberspace open and accessible to all, regardless of income. As Moyers has pointed out, neutrality sounds too much like Switzerland, and as my colleague Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild, West, says, the notion of fighting for neutrality seems oxymoronic. So, "Internet freedom" it is.
Marty Kaplan, director of the University of Southern California's Norman Lear Center, told those gathered they were a crowd that "may not color inside the lines but sure can connect the dots." Yet, as perceptive and informed as attendees were, sadly absent from the weekend's energetic dialogues was any significant discussion of this country's economy, the vast gap between rich and poor, the way gross inequality in such desperate times is being largely ignored by the media, our candidates and the progressive movement.
"The economic crisis is just not that compelling or sexy to the many progressives who are stirred into action by every ugly utterance by Bill O'Reilly," media activist and journalist Danny Schecter writes. "... Cheering on political personalities or mounting one more issue oriented e-mail campaign is certainly easier than confronting the economic and power imbalances caused by the structural conflicts in our economy."
Schecter goes on to quote an executive with the Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank, who describes our current situation as, "A CRISIS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS." The exec elaborates: "I'm not talking New Testament biblical; I'm talking Old Testament hellfire and brimstone. This is the worst credit crisis we've ever seen."
Thirty-six and a half million Americans - one in eight Americans, one in six children - that we KNOW of, because there are no good ways to really measure - live below the official federal poverty level, $20,000 a year for a family of four. Half of us - half! - will have gone through a year or more of poverty by the time we turn 60.
In contrast, behold the woeful case of Alan Schwartz, former CEO of the now defunct investment bank Bear Stearns. As that company nosedived last year, with subprime mortgage hedge funds crashing in flames, Schwartz relinquished his usual annual bonus, which meant his total compensation for 2007 and the prior four years was a piddling $141 million. Poor guy had to rent out his 7,800 square-foot house in the New York suburbs and squat at his new, $28 million Manhattan apartment; his seven-acre home in Greenwich, Connecticut; and his Colorado condo. Just a couple of weeks ago, shareholders approved Bear Stearns's merger with JP Morgan, which received $30 billion in taxpayer-funded, federal loan guarantees to take over what little was left.
John McCain says the fundamentals of the economy are strong, but admits it's a subject he doesn't know a lot about. He counts among his economic advisers Carly Fiorina, fired chief executive of Hewlett Packard, where, you'll recall, she was accused of breathtaking mismanagement and street-bully tactics. Of her role in the McCain campaign, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management told The New York Times, "You couldn't pick a worse, non-imprisoned C.E.O. to be your standard-bearer."
Among McCain's other top advisers are John Green and Wayne Berman, who received $720,000 in lobbying fees from Ameriquest Mortgage, one of the noteworthy, predatory lenders in the country's mortgage mess. As The New York Daily News reported this past spring, Ameriquest, which has since been bought out by Citigroup, "was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show."
Barack Obama believes our current economic crisis is "the logical conclusion of a tired and misguided philosophy that has dominated Washington for far too long." Nonetheless, his economic policy director, Jason Furman, has been a defender of Wal-Mart and was director of former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, a group of Wall Street Democrats committed to continuing Bill Clinton's economic doctrine - i.e., growth based on deficit reduction and free trade.
Until his resignation Wednesday, Obama's team also included Jim Johnson, ex-Mondale chief of staff and former CEO of Fannie Mae, the government-sanctioned banker that buys and resells loans from other banks and lenders. According to The Wall Street Journal, Johnson, who was leading the search for Obama's running mate, was given preferential treatment when he received $2 million in personal loans from one of Fannie Mae's biggest customers, subprime lender Countrywide Financial Services.
A front page story in Wednesday's Washington Post added that Johnson was also "the beneficiary of accounting in which Fannie Mae's earnings were manipulated so that executives could earn larger bonuses. The accounting manipulation for 1998 resulted in the maximum payouts to Fannie Mae's senior executives - $1.9 million in Johnson's case - when the company's performance that year would have otherwise resulted in no bonuses at all, according to reports in 2004 and 2006 by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight."
Both candidates need economic advisers untainted by association with corporate interests, folks who know what it's like to have to live on macaroni instead of meat, to spend sleepless nights in subways or shelters, to let diseases like cancer and diabetes gnaw away at a person's insides because they can't afford medicine and doctors. And the media need to tell their stories, not only to make the rest of us aware and stir us to action, but also to validate and empower with web space, column inches and airtime the plight of those so afflicted, to bring dignity and gravitas to their predicament. Attention must be paid.

Let them eat Triscuits

Dear readers,
Who will speak for those of us devastated by rampant inflation of food, gas, heat and electricity? Hmm, looks like it is up to little old me...
What is the deal here in Cook County? While the busy-ness elected officials continue to seek new sales taxes-a regressive burden on the poor-look out! Prices are rising at alarming rates.
Maybe not so surprising, since the world we know is also disintegrating (carbon emissions, melting Arctic permafrost releasing methane that humans can't breathe...)
Back to the point: True tries to eat right while respecting sustainable agriculture. For True, this does not mean buying organic fruits and vegetables! Ya ya it is the right thing to do BUT...
True is broke. So far not reduced to seeking macaroni from the food shelf, but no way being able to afford organic produce. Is that a sin?
There's a disconnect here. The rich can afford to buy organic, but I can't. I still owe big bucks for my winter fuel bills. My well water line doesn't work.
And yet I get guilt-tripped by the organic PC club?
Hello, folks. I used to have Triscuits and (Wisconsin, no hormones) cheese for dinner. Ya? When you are old and creaky maybe this will look good to you too.
Somehow I manage to buy fairly healthy food for myself and my beloved companion animals.
But, I won't be buying any more Triscuits, my former fave, 100 percent whole wheat with no trans fats.
Last week the price of a box was $3.19 for 9.5 ounces (a reach, by the pound this would buy some very fancy cheese at the coop); this week it is $4.00....
Like lots of poor folks, I can still get fat on the cheap stuff: white bread, pasta, potatoes, and corn chips. Nobody in Cook County need go without Kraft Dinner! Yum yum, everybody loves comfort food...
But what to do to make a difference in this world where people in Burma starve without even empty calories? True can't afford to make a difference!

MinnPost

New mining industry leaves Arrowhead wetlands vulnerable

By Elanne Palcich

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

In the late 1800s, the U.S. government claimed the land of Minnesota, and pushed the indigenous people onto reservations. The huge pine forests of northern Minnesota were cut, red earth was discovered, and immigrants from a variety of struggling northern and southern European nations moved in to become workers for the mining companies.

While the Iron Range continues to be mined, following bands of taconite rock, the Arrowhead region of Minnesota escaped the mining process. Some of the northern counties were in large part wetlands, while others remained forestland. The Arrowhead region became known for its lakes and for the quality of outdoor recreational opportunities — the vacation land of the north, where campers "hear the lapping waters, hear the whispering of the pine trees."

These northern wetlands escaped the destruction that occurred as the rest of the state turned urban or agricultural.

Scientists know that wetlands have evolved over the past 10,000 years, since the recession of the last glaciers. We also know now that wetlands sequester carbon — and that destroying wetlands releases carbon that has been stored over centuries. There is evidence that global climate change is literally being fueled by the burning of fossil fuels and the accompanying release of CO2 into the air.

A new threat in the Arrowhead
Minnesota's wetlands may hold the key to moderating climate change on a local level, except for one thing: the threat of an entirely new mining industry poised to begin in the Arrowhead.

The industrialization of the burgeoning populations of China and India is driving demand and prices for copper, nickel, platinum, and gold — precious metals bonded within sulfide ores throughout the Duluth Complex, the underlying rock formation of the Arrowhead Region.

These precious metals are very low grade — 0.4 percent copper, 0.1 percent nickel and 0.01 ounces per ton of platinum, palladium, and gold. But the current price is enough to bring a half-dozen Canadian companies into the Arrowhead, exploring in an unregulated fashion and pulling every political string for funding and support.

The international balance of economic power is changing. Just three generations after the take-over of native lands by extractive industries, Canadian companies are seeking to turn the remaining Arrowhead Region into a colonial outpost for China and India. For basically a handful of jobs, we are turning over our land and our culture so that Canadian companies and their shareholders can earn fantastic sums on precious metals while our workers will receive $40,000-a-year nonunion wages (translate into no pension and no health care) based on the price of copper. And when the price of copper drops, or the precious-metals market collapses, or the price of diesel fuel makes mining uneconomical, the Canadian companies will pull up stakes and leave northern Minnesota with an acid-mine drainage problem requiring perpetual treatment — almost forever.

No way to replace lost wetlands
The Arrowhead region of northern Minnesota is our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It's our Brazilian rainforest. It is the equivalent of the remaining special places left on each continent, in each country. When we lose our wetlands, there is no way to replace them. There is no way to reconstruct a process that took thousands of years to form. There is no way to recapture the carbon released when wetlands are destroyed. There is no way to rebuild the wildlife habitat and plant communities that will be eliminated.

At the same time, this new mining industry would spew hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 into the air, further contributing to global warming.

Consider, too, that the Arrowhead is just the first piece of the metallic sulfide pie. While exploration is progressing in the Birch Lake area, along the Kawishiwi River, Partridge River, and the St. Louis River, companies are also exploring along the Rainy, Pigeon, Root, Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, the Mille Lacs area, in the Big Sandy Watershed (Aitkin County), and in Carlton County.

Bill would set a precedent
In the meantime, U.S. 8th District Rep. James Oberstar has introduced a bill in Congress (H.R. 4292, the Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007) that would fast track a land sale between the U.S. Forest Service and Polymet, Inc., in anticipation of the permitting of Polymet's proposed metallic sulfide mine near Hoyt Lakes. While this bill singles out Polymet for special treatment, it would also set a precedent for the selling of public lands to private mining companies nationwide, or wherever the Forest Service does not own the mineral rights. Much of the mineral estate in Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters is owned by mining interests, not the Forest Service. What implications might this have for the future?

What exactly are those of us living here thinking? Are we in denial regarding the ecological degradation that is taking place on a global scale and how this is going to affect our future? Are we naive enough to believe propaganda about clean mining technology that is being pushed upon us by mining-company spokesmen who are set to receive huge bonuses once the sulfide industry gets up and running?

Or are we going to believe in our own ability to create an alternative future that allows us to finally acknowledge the true heritage of the Arrowhead Region — that of living in harmony with the land?

Elanne Palcich, a retired elementary school teacher, lives in Chisholm, Minn.

Oberstar Speaks on "Harsh Realities" of Record Diesel Prices

STATEMENT OF
THE HONORABLE JAMES L. OBERSTAR
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHWAYS AND TRANSIT
HEARING ON “RISING DIESEL FUEL COSTS IN THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY”
MAY 6, 2008

I am pleased that the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit is holding this important hearing today to shed light on the reasons behind ever-escalating prices for gasoline and diesel fuel, and the tremendous impact this continues to have on the trucking industry, its drivers, consumers, and our national economy.

The price of both gasoline and diesel are currently at an all-time high. Consumers, who are squeezed by having to pay $3.61 per gallon at the pump, are hit again with escalating costs for food and other basic consumer goods, in part due to the rising costs of getting these goods to market.

The men and women in the trucking industry who bring these goods to market are also facing situations that were unimaginable just a few years ago. The cost of a gallon of diesel fuel has risen 48 percent in the past year; 78 percent in the last three years; and 166 percent since 2003. Every one-cent increase in the price of diesel fuel translates to an annual additional cost of $391 million to the trucking industry. It costs nearly $800 more for a driver to fill a standard tractor-trailer than five years ago.

As hard-working Americans struggle to adjust to the harsh realities of record fuel prices, oil companies continue to report record profits. ExxonMobil, which earned over 25 percent of the $155 billion profit enjoyed by the oil industry in 2007, reported a quarterly profit last week of $10.9 billion dollars – the second biggest quarterly profit in the history of this nation. The record for the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history is held, perhaps not surprisingly, by ExxonMobil.

Without a doubt, the gross imbalance between enriched oil companies and captive consumers must be addressed. Yet some have called for a myopic, short-term “solution” to this complex and pervasive problem by proposing to suspend the Federal gas tax for the summer months.

Leading economists have confirmed that this proposal would provide little relief to consumers while providing another multi-billion dollar windfall profit for the oil companies. This irrational proposal will bring the Highway Trust Fund to the edge of insolvency; will eliminate approximately 300,000 family-wage, highway construction jobs; will cut highway safety funding; and increase the cost of congestion.

The problem of high fuel prices is unrelated to the Federal gas tax. The 18.3-cent gas tax rate was established in 1993, when the average retail price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.05. The Federal gas tax has not changed in the last 15 years, yet the average price of a gallon of gasoline has more than tripled.

High diesel prices have also brought into sharp focus fuel surcharges in the motor carrier industry. Today’s hearing will examine the relationship among motor carriers, brokers, shippers, and independent drivers with respect to setting and collecting fuel surcharges. Currently, fuel surcharges are left to the discretion of an individual motor carrier or broker arranging for transportation, with few disclosure requirements and without any government oversight.

This lack of transparency affects independent owner-operators and drivers who often do not control if, and what amount, a broker or motor carrier charges a shipper for the rising cost of fuel. This makes it very difficult for drivers to verify whether the fuel surcharge is being passed through. When it is not, drivers are nonetheless the ones stuck paying the higher price at the pump.

I commend Chairman DeFazio for holding this hearing, and for his strong leadership on this important issue.

The Creechville dilemma

In 1909, J.S. Creech opened his sawmill operation at a 12-man camp on Elbow Lake near Maple Hill, during a time that logging was bringing new local jobs to the pioneer settlers. His 1,300 acre parcel along the Elbow River was the source of his timber. Within a few years Creech hired only locals for his logging operations.
Today, 99 years later, his descendants Leroy and Barbara Creech are opposing annexation of Creechville by the city of Grand Marais. "We can't afford to live here now," Leroy Creech told WTIP reporter Barbara Jean Meyers in an interview. "When they charge us more, how will we afford that? ... We don't need the water and sewer."
The county has declined to support the annexation by the city after hearing concerns from Creechville residents. Commissioner Bob Fenwick says it is a tough choice; although property values will go up tax increases will in some instances more than double, not including the new sewer and water assessments.
There are no villains in this story. The city has been working toward the annexation project for years now at the request of some Creechville residents. They did go through a public process and did get approval for the project. However, property owners like Creech didn't realize that everyone would be required to sign on, not only those who wanted city water and sewer.
It's hard for True to imagine what it would be like for a pioneer family to be driven out of their century-old home because they can't afford to pay for amenities that they don't need.
Mayor Larsen told WTIP in an interview that the project will benefit all sewer and water users by spreading out the cost, and that the city is applying for grants to help those who need assistance. The grants could be jeopardized if the project is held up.
Here is True's idea: Don't look now but in the last 20 years or so onsite wastewater treatment technology has skyrocketed. Yes, the city ought to provide sewer and water for those who want it, but it also ought to allow new onsite cluster system technology as an option for those who can't afford to buy in. The townships of Tofte and Lutsen are looking at cluster systems with small waste package plants. Grand Marais ought to look to 21st century options for those who can't afford city taxes, sewer and water. Honor your elders and your pioneers, folks!
True

To the GM Park Board: Government Ethics 101

One of the biggest problems with having two local papers in Cook County is that neither one can devote adequate resources to the big issues. The Park Board meetings, for example, often get bypassed entirely.... it has been True's experience that these folks want to encourage the rich and get rid of the middle class who now support Rec Park with their huge fees for utilities and space for their RVs....
So, the latest brouhaha is the decision to add nine (count em, nine) new docks to the present marina of 16 slips. By True's calculations this is an increase of MORE THAN HALF (56 percent) without, as far as True knows, any public process.... The new slips obscure the lake view of North House and the Hjordis. It looks like a hostile takeover by the downtown Bidness interests from where I sit....These guys compare our tiny harbor to MegaMarina Bayfield. They think the big bucks are just waiting to descend on Grand Marais, despite recent studies that rich yacht owners are on the decline. Wheareas our loyal Rec Park tenants have stayed year after year despite knockout increases in fees. Hello, Grand Marais? The rich will see us as a "slapdash" town and won't want to be bothered to stay here. Too totally funky. So, why do we care? The ordinary folks, the working folks and the middle class, love us. They are our bread-and-butter, our biggest fans.
Bidness doesn't like North House because they pay their way and yet they still make money, they draw in tourists from all across America, and they are committed to sustainable development of the harbor. Bidness couldn't care less about sustainability so long as they can sell more gas to the rich s---ers who want to dock here but don't want to pay their fair share like the rest of our tourists who pay for lodging and meals or the RV Park folks who pay horrific fees to retain their spaces...
Worst of all are the statements by board member Carol Backlund and Recreation Area Assistant Manager Dave Tersteeg. True is appalled that they just don't get it, that conflict-of-interest means DO NOT VOTE. Ya shure, anybody can express an opinion. Carol, Dave, do your worst... but DO NOT VOTE. Hello, you think your opinions are valuable? Duh.... so is everybody else's opinion, but the rule goes that if you have even the slightest interest in the decision you DO NOT VOTE.
Civics and Government appear to be low on the list of classes for Cook County students.
The ultimate decision about extra slips in the marina should be considered in terms of its impact on existing businesses and the environment, as well as the view shed that visitors expect during their holidays. NOT NOT because anybody might even conceivably profit from additional slips....
It is no wonder that the neocons who control the government slash away all legal challenges to their limitless power: The Sheep are putty in the hands of the Wolf.

True's fave paper is not the Star and yet they had the story this time.

Minnesota: raise income taxes!

Hello, Governor Pawlenty. Hello, Cook County. Hello, Minnesota legislators!

Stop taxing the poor! New gas taxes, new sales taxes, new fees, but NEVER new income taxes! Y'all are shifting the tax burden from the richest to the poorest.
Can you say, REGRESSIVE TAXES?
Minnesota used to be all about graduated taxes, all about ability to pay. No more. Cook County and Grand Marais are hollering for a new one percent sales tax, claiming that it is borne by tourists. Hello, hello? WE are the ones who live here, who pay the tax every single day on every single thing we buy.
The legislature passed a new gas tax without even asking what anybody thinks about that. This happens even as gas prices break all records. Us po' folks can hardly manage to buy gas to get to work. Our food, our heat, our rents and mortgages, not to mention our health care have all shot through the roof. How much blood can you squeeze out of a stone? How much poorer will we have to be before the big D word is spoken aloud?
As for property taxes, nobody seems yet to have caught on: we are being taxed on inflated property values!!! We can no longer sell our homes for their inflated values but we still have to pay taxes on them. Property taxes are also regressive, but necessary at the local level, WHICH is why Minnesota used to offer lots of aid to local governments as well as homeowners. Back in the day when Minnesota government meant something good for people, before the Repugnants took over.
As for the No New Bridges governor, who keeps sending my "tax bill" spiraling by increasing all those fees like license tabs in the name of "no new taxes" meaning no new FAIR income taxes, well I hope you will be soundly defeated by an old-fashioned Minnesota DFL progressive next round.
True

Obama landslide winner in Cook County: Yes!

Nobody even came close to challenging Barack Obama's caucus victory in Cook County on Super Tuesday. This is good. True is old enough to remember the 1960 election of President John Kennedy, also an inspiring and charismatic figure but he only won by a short margin. How different the future of our country might have been if he had lost; despite the right wing assassins who took him down along with his brother Bobby, MLK Junior and John Lennon, we at least had a time where idealism found a place in the sun, where young people were thrilled to work on behalf of their country, where the rich and the poor united in working for America and for the world. "Ich bin ein Berliner," said JFK to screaming crowds in Berlin, long before the Wall was torn down. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Thousands of young people flocked to the Peace Corps and millions more of us worked on a more local scale to bring peace and justice to our people.
Much of being a great leader is being a visionary, capturing the hopes and dreams of the people. John Kennedy made some big mistakes early on, most noticeably bringing us to the brink of nuclear war over the Bay of Pigs. But, he learned and he always led from the heart.
And that is why True believes in Barack Obama. He might not stand up so strong as John Edwards on behalf of the poor, the two Americas, but when elected I believe he will step into the big footprints of history. I believe he will try to extricate us from the endless and evil war in Iraq, will start a new dialogue with other nations, will build a base of Americans with his experience as a community organizer guides him....Nobody else has the capacity to inspire the young, to bring everybody back to the table where peace and justice might be on the agenda.
YES, Cook County!
True

Read my lips, no new taxes

A good decision by the county board

Dear True,

Times are tough. It’s a safe bet that Cook County, at the tip of the Arrowhead, is especially hard hit by rising costs of gas and food; everything that other people take for granted has to be trucked up here and so we pay extra.

People are losing their homes. More and more of us visit the food shelf to make ends meet. We apply for fuel assistance but find it cut; Bushco prefers to spend tax dollars destroying Iraq. Budgets are scrunched down.

And so, it is with thanks and relief that I report that the county board decided not to ask for a continuation of the one percent sales tax now that the hospital bond is paid off. One percent doesn’t sound like much, but it can buy a couple of meals or a tank of gas over the course of a month.

The board voted unanimously to keep a sales tax referendum off the table this year. It will probably come back later, and most of us would probably support a tax that would give us a new library and a fix for the pool. But, not now. Now we need to help each other to survive these hard times. While the MSM won’t even admit to a recession, ordinary older folks are talking about their memories of the Great Depression, brought to mind by recent events.

There’s a time and a place for everything, and I am thankful that the county board recognizes that a one percent tax is not the solution now.

Anonymous

Oberstar Announces Energy Assistance Funds for Minnesota

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Washington DC – Minnesota seniors and low-income families will receive additional assistance to help pay their heating bills. Congressman Jim Oberstar announced today that Minnesota will receive nearly $20 million in emergency funding for heating assistance programs. The funding is Minnesota’s share of a $450 million disbursement of emergency funding from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

“Skyrocketing crude oil prices are driving the cost of heating oil and natural gas to an all-time high. We need to act quickly to make sure that seniors and low-income families can get the help they need,” said Oberstar.

Oberstar has worked for an increase in LIHEAP funding in his role as the chair of the Northeast Midwest Coalition, a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are concerned about legislative issues that impact the northeast and midwest states. The coalition’s efforts led to an increase in the emergency LIHEAP account in the current budget

Between 2003 and 2007, the number of households receiving LIHEAP assistance increased by 26 percent from 4.6 million to about 5.8 million or about 15.6 percent of the eligible population. During this same period, the federal appropriation increased by only 10 percent with the resulting average grant declining from $349 to $305.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that households can expect to pay between 10 to 22 percent more for heating fuels than during the 2006-2007 winter, and many of these families are carrying energy debt from previous years.

###

Social Capital Assessment

Here's a post from Boreal News of interest to all who care about Cook County. The benefits of social capital assessments are multiple and manifold. This theory, already adopted by scholars in many disciplines from evaluation/sociology to architecture and development, advocates for local communities. The idea is to inventory the community assets and then build on or strengthen them instead of the outside developer mentality of slash-and-burn.

Cook County is rich in social capital assets that include communities dedicated to the best interests of citizens and tourists.

Please, friends, if you can spare the time, consider taking part in this most important project that could have incredible impact on the long-term health and well being of our county:

Join us on Thursday, November 29 at 4:30 p.m. at the Cook County
Community Center to plan how this assessment will work in all parts of the
county. There is no charge to us as we are serving as a pilot project
for the U of M Extension. The information will be valuable for decision
makers.Contact the Community Center Extension Program to plan how this assessment will work in all parts of the county. There is no charge to us as we are serving as a pilot project.

We are looking for volunteers from all parts of Cook County to help with a county-wide social capital assessment. We want to set this up so that areas within the counties can determine how well their local
community is doing in terms of cooperating together for mutual benefit. This may differ between Schroeder, Gunflint Trail, or Grand Portage. The time commitment is one training session and getting folks to fill out the assessment in January.

If you are unable to attend the meeting but would be willing to help with the survey assessment in your part of the county, please contact Diane Booth at the Extension office at 387-3015.

Peace, peace and only peace

Shanti. That is Hindu for peace. The Shanti prayer calls for peace to all the beings and angels, all the herbs and shrubs, and for that peace to come to me. Shanti, shanti, shanti.
Here in Cook County we are very blessed with people who lavish love on our community, our lake, our woods and their precious bounty of beauty and abundance. "Locals" and newcomers alike have worked to preserve and cherish our assets: Grand Marais harbor, inland lakes and forests, the Boundary Waters and the Gunflint Trail. Tourism is our livelihood but it also is our passion: we want to spend our working hours sharing the treasures of the boreal forest and the waters with our guests.
In the past year we have collectively acted to protect and preserve our wetlands, our towns, our forests and our harbor. We have voted down every instance in which big development might overtake us: a super-sized marina, a monster Homeland project to criminalize our borders, gunfire on the lake, deep-pockets condo developers intent on transforming Grand Marais into Disney Gate World, and many another attack by big developers from the Twin Cities and the nation all looking for the big bucks.
Cook County, home of the best and the brightest although not the richest (except for the McMansion owners who post Keep Out signs and terrorize their neighbors), is for me. We give and give and give for the people and the place that we love.
But, what are we doing about the terrible evil that the Bush administration has loosed on the world? What are we doing to bring our soldier children home from a civil war where they are forced to kill innocent civilians and traumatized at far higher levels than earlier wars because of the moral muck in which they must participate?
There will be no peace or justice or health care or prosperity until this hideous and illegal war of aggression is brought to an end. Even so we will pay for its costs for generations to come. Even so we will have to rebuild Iraq, to dismantle the huge shadow network of mercenary soldiers that brings billions in profits to Halliburton, Blackwater and other no-bid contractors. We will have to withdraw our permanent bases and let the Iraqi people have their own oil revenue rather than "sharing" it with us. We will have to demand that the Congress take back the Constitution and restore our respect as a humane society in the rest of the world. We will have to turn our swords to plowshares.
Still, good people everywhere can rise to the occasion, just as the good people of Cook County take care of each other, so will others follow when we have made peace.

Poll: Majorities say income gap too wide - Yahoo! News

Despite union-busting, minimum-wage opposition, worrisome declines in employee health care coverage, outsourcing staff jobs to avoid paying fair wages or benefits, and sending those outsourced jobs to impoverished third-world companies, corporate execs continue to see lavish salary and golden parachute increases. Is it appropriate for a CEO to earn 1,000 times what the average worker makes? Hmph. A CEO taking a dump gets paid what his lackies receive for a week or month's income. Do you think that is fair?

Poll: Majorities say income gap too wide - Yahoo! News

And that's the way we like it!

Dear True,

When I was scrolling through the blog I saw the "heads up" on the NYTimes article in which we are "discovered." Sobering enough, but the really frightening remarks were made by Sarah (in the comments section) in which she mentioned that some of the McMansion owners already here with their "keep out" signs were discussing picnic tables, rest stops, and street lighting on the Gunflint Trail! (O, yaah????)

While it's certainly true that some people's idea of "roughing it" is going without the olive in their martini, what's really needed is education: these people need to learn that what we have here in Cook County is a Way of Life not open to changes we don't consider for the better. Ours is basically a simple way of doing things -- with little or no frills. If these improvement-minded folks feel they need frills, they should consider moving to Hayward, WI, where Mayo doctors escape for the weekend. We will not be building a Byerly's here any time soon. This is a North Woods environment with bears that roust the garbage, wolves that eat unguarded poodles, gulls that grab steaks off the grill, and moose that pop out of the underbrush to stand blandly in front of automobiles, holding up traffice indefinitely. We consider THEM to be our true neighbors, even more so than the "civilized" Hilfiger-clad from the city. The only street lights we need come from the stars.

What these "monied" folks don't realize is that they've moved into an area analagous to Amish country. We've made a conscious choice. We live a simple life and we like it. These McMansion folks feel they're preaching to the Gentiles, but they should save their breath -- no one's listening -- WE LIKE IT THIS WAY! HEL-LO! Take your ostentation somewhere else. WE'RE NOT IMPRESSED! We don't consider you any smarter or more advanced than we are. In fact, we'd like to see you find your way out of the Boundary Waters unassisted. And we have a college-educated population percentile second only to Olmsted County, home of Mayo and IBM. WE CHOOSE THIS WAY OF LIFE! (You'll be surprised to learn you aren't any richer than some of us either!)

Our message is this: dig out your flannel shirt. Buy a compass and a flashlight. And quit yer belly-aching.
This ain't Edina. We left Edina behind and went on to something better: Cook County.

Signed,
Proud to Live Here

Reader is shocked by ATV rudeness

Dear True,
I am writing in response to the startlingly rude letters printed this week in the Cook County News Herald, bashing the views of my friend and mentor John Haluska. He is described as delusional, deceitful, disrespectful, false and “close to slanderous” for his opinion piece challenging the rights of ATV owners to unlimited access of ATVs in Cook County.
Ms. Elizabeth Perry also challenges him as not being a fifth-generation immigrant to Cook County. I wonder what the native Anishinabe population thinks about this.
As a 20th generation immigrant to the United States during the reign of Elizabeth I, I don’t feel very proud of my ancestors: they were thieves and murderers unless they were killed by the Indian natives. I have interviewed dozens of descendants of Cook County immigrants and none of them has said that ATVs represent a way of life in their families. In fact, looking to Wikipedia, I find that ATVs first appeared in the 1980s.
Sometimes dialogue is difficult if not impossible. True himself, along with my friend John Haluska and various other readers, attempted a dialogue with Rhonda Silence and after many attempts at communication there was an irretrievable breakdown, just as is now happening with the county ATV committee in which two members have resigned (Sheriff Mark Falk and County Attorney Tim Scannell).
The truth is that the ATV Club and its adherents are the minority. Their rude accusations in public venues will perhaps mobilize their own supporters, but most people in Cook County, “locals” and newcomers alike, value the peace and silence of the woods, understand that the tourist base that sustains them comes here for that peace, and respect the fragile ecology that sustains our bedrock-based ecology.
I and most of my friends and allies support a limited access for ATV riders to designated trails. The county, the US Forest Service and the DNR are struggling to open trails but also to avoid becoming a national destination for riders who think big noise and sensitive environmental depredation are their God-given rights.
Nancye Belding
Grand Marais

Congressman James L Oberstar -- Federal Highway Projects Save Northeast Minnesota from All-Time Construction Low

Our Rep. Jim Oberstar is always looking out for our interests here on the North Shore. The governor has vetoed any improvements to our highways because he doesn't like an increased gas tax. Hmm. True doesn't like that either, but only because it will hit the poor the hardest.
Government is the right place for infrastructure, the only question is who pays for it?
True contends that fair taxes based on ability to pay ought to provide safe highways. Our Rep. Oberstar has a plan to help this to happen. If the governor refuses to provide the local match that would make Highway 61 safe, well, this would look bad to those of us who depend on this highway for our livelihoods and life lines.
Really, folks, the slick gov is just passing the buck. He pretends he is saving taxpayer money by passing it along to local municipalities, individual property tax payers, and the poorest of the poor who must pay for state-mandated services.
Check out Jim's latest post on our behalf:




Congressman James L Oberstar -- Federal Highway Projects Save Northeast Minnesota from All-Time Construction Low

Minnesota’s ‘Freshwater Ocean’ Attracts a New Generation - New York Times

We have been discovered by the New York Times. They think it is a good thing. True thinks it sucks. The more rich fat cats who buy property here, the worse for us. They raise our taxes with their monster cabins, give nothing back to the community, and diminish our community infrastructure including schools and housing for locals. These carpetbaggers have been seen to move in to close-knit neighborhoods and put up "Keep Out" signs. Their vacation homes, on a par with royal castles, challenge the fragile boreal forest.
Their arrogance requires a service economy dedicated to their thoughtless needs: cleaning staff and groundskeepers.
In short, the objects of our tourism outreach are predators rather than assets to our community.
Read the story:


Minnesota’s ‘Freshwater Ocean’ Attracts a New Generation - New York Times

Congressman James L Oberstar -- Oberstar Asks FEMA to Take Stronger Role in Ham Lake Fire Recovery

Congressman James L Oberstar -- Oberstar Asks FEMA to Take Stronger Role in Ham Lake Fire Recovery

Foster mom asks True for backbone on issues

I almost missed this very excellent letter from Foster Mom, which was in response to a True post about the "poor tax" (i.e., new sales tax).
Others have also said we should not be anonymous. Mom makes a good point. Please share your thoughts.
True

Have a voice, people. What you think is important. Regardless of the popularity. I like this site for its voice but to be anonymous is chicken shit. It is like all the people at the local watering holes running their mouths about what should be done, while doing nothing themselves. It is a waste of time if you don't have the backbone to stand up for what you think and believe. I have a sick mother, I have a very sick father, I have work, I have dogs. I have no time for other crap.
But I begged people to come to "the meeting". True north posted it. Very few of you came came. Restaurant owners did. We beat our part of of it but when the vote came for the rest of it ... I said, "Who is here to speak for the outfitters, the other people?" and about six people raised their hands. Somebody has to speak out!!
Anonymous people deserve what they get. Nothing. We needed your opinions then! Before it left Cook County.
Sarah Hamilton
Trail Center Lodge