An aide to Oberstar said he had no hand in the mayors’ wish list, which includes a number of road and highway projects in his district, including $5 million to paint Duluth’s iconic Aerial Lift Bridge. Also tucked in are $2 million for a lake-walk extension at Beacon Point and $6 million for snowmaking and maintenance facilities at Spirit Mountain.
Archive for the ‘Minnesota’ Category
$6 million of stimulus money to make snow in Minnesota?
Monday, December 29th, 2008
Minnesotans FOR Global Warming
Saturday, September 6th, 2008Turn your snow shovels into a lawn chair – that’s just one benefit of global warming for Minnesotans.
Minnesotans for Global Warming has to be the hottest political groups in the Twin Cities. They jokingly ask people to stop breathing since we contribute to CO2 the global emissions.
I had the good fortune of meeting the brains behind M4GW this past weekend. Check out their blog.
Unofficial Visitor’s Guide to the RNC: Part One
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
The Daily Planet posted part one their unofficial visitor’s guide to the 2008 RNC and the twin cities to assist the many out-of-towners during their visit. And check out their RNC blog. The Pioneer Press (TwinCities.com) has an RNC page too.
An Introduction to Minneapolis St. Paul
So you’re very excited, I’m sure, to be coming to Minneapolis for the RNC. Minneapolis is, of course, a fine city, home to the Vikings, Twins, and Timberwolves, as well as the Walker Art Center and the internationally renowned Guthrie Theatre. It’s a center of economics and industry, whose name literally means “water city.”
Well too bad, binky, because the RNC isn’t going to be held in Minneapolis. It’s going to be held in St. Paul. Get it straight, or you’re really going to make the East Siders feel bad.
Seriously, how many of you have an older sibling? I don’t, but I can pretend I do to give you this analogy: don’t you just hate their freakin’ guts? Well, that’s how St. Paul feels about Minneapolis, except for the fact that Minneapolis is a little bit younger than St. Paul, but whatever. Point is, the good citizens of St. Paul feel a bit slighted every time someone like Katie Couric or Michele Bachmann or Gov. Tim Pawlenty goes on television to declare that everyone should come to Minneapolis for the convention. [2] Given that Minneapolis always seems to get all the publicity, all the love and attention, its pictures put up on the state refrigerator – well, it stings.
So remember, as you’re going to the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild, that you’re not in Minneapolis. You’re in St. Paul. And so if you see a local, make sure you complement them on the beauty of St. Paul. “Boy, St. Paul sure is lovely,” you’ll say, and the locals will smile broadly, and say, “Well, you know, yeah, I suppose it’s a nice enough town.” Which is practically a touchdown dance around these parts.
Of course, if you’re attending an event in Minneapolis, feel free to ignore all of this; Minneapolitans often forget St. Paul exists, and will look at you strangely if you bring the city up.
Saw an Olympic gold medal tonight
Sunday, August 24th, 2008I got to see a real Olympic gold medal tonight! Seimone Augustus of the US Women’s Basketball team (and Minnesota Lynx) was just arriving home from Beijing and was showing off her medal for the cameras.
Here’s my blurry cell phone camera picture of the excitement (imaging hearing “USA! USA! USA!” in the background). You can tell that’s a gold metal, right?
On an unrelated subject, the low is supposed to be 48F here in Minneapolis tonight!
08/08/08 08:08 8lb 8oz baby born in Fergus Falls, MN
Friday, August 8th, 2008MN salary cap spurs departures
Monday, July 28th, 2008Minnesota’s government employees are looking for greener pastures in other parts of the country.
One employee will get a $100,000 raise by moving to California – almost enough to make up for the higher cost of living?
Now, local government employees are limited by a cap that adjusts for inflation each year. It started at 110 percent of the governor’s salary when it took effect in 2006. That means that, unless a local government has received special dispensation for a specific position, the most any local government employee can make is $144,711 — exactly Twa’s salary.
In part because of the change, about 60 Ramsey, Anoka, Dakota and Washington county employees, who are responsible for everything from dealing with information technology to running libraries, make more than Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
While different states have different ways of dealing with public employee salaries, no state has quite the system that exists in Minnesota. Minnesota has had limits on most local government salaries since 1977.
To some, a local salary cap simply makes sense.
To many in metro government, even the current higher cap creates a perverse system of compensation. It’s harder for local governments to hire and retain top-scale employees, and it takes away local elected officials’ power to decide what their employees should earn, they argue.
“When I tell people about the cap, they kind of look at you funny, like: ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ ” said Dave Childs, a former Minnetonka city manager and current assistant county manager in Washoe County, Nev. Childs is also an adviser for the International City/County Management Association.
Beer and bicycling – a match made in heaven?
Monday, July 28th, 2008One Minneapolis entrepreneur thinks they are.
32 St. Paul bars qualified to serve till 4 AM during the RNC
Thursday, July 10th, 2008Unquestionably, one of the most pressing issues facing the city of St. Paul this summer as they plan for the upcoming Republican National Convention is deciding which bars can stay open until 4 AM during the convention. Fortunately, the Minneapolis Star Tribune is on top of the story, keeping its readers informed of every development.
As of June 26th, 32 bars have qualified.
However, many bar owners are not excited about paying the $2500 fee – is anyone surprised?
The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday voted 6 to 1 to approve an ordinance that will allow bars that meet certain conditions and pay $2,500 to stay open late during the four nights of the event, to be held Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center.
About 32 bars, maybe more if they can find a way to add more seats, are eligible. There are 257 places that sell liquor, wine and beer in the city. About 90 currently have licenses to stay open until 2 a.m.
Bars must already have a 2 a.m. closing license to be eligible, and they must have at least 291 seats or be in downtown or commercial development districts, such as Selby-Dale.
If a bar without a 4 a.m. license is caught serving after 2 a.m., it faces a $2,000 fine per incident.
Don’t forget – that the crowds will not be homogeneous. In addition to the 35,000 RNC attendees, there will also be upwards of 100,000 protesters here during the convention. It sounds like it will be an exciting event! Even Minnetonka is donating a couple police officers to help keep the peace in St. Paul.
Jucy Lucy, the Minnesota “Burger King”
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008Minnesota Monthly (you can find it at most Minnesota grocery stores and the like) has just produced one of the most useful pieces of literature that a Minnesotan can devour: a list of the best burgers in Minnesota.
The Jucy Lucy at Matt’s Bar in south Minneapolis was declared the “Burger King” of Minnesota. My mouth is watering, I can’t wait to try it. Plus, it’s only $4.50.
Here’s their take on the burger:
1 – Matt’s Bar www.mattsbar.com, their menu,
Location: Matt’s Bar, 3500 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407
Inherent Awesomeness: 38
If there was one ringer in this bunch, one place I was absolutely certain would make the final cut, it’s Matt’s, the venerable south Minneapolis bar that either invented the Jucy Lucy—or just perfected it. (If you’re an out-of-towner, the Jucy Lucy—purposefully misspelled—is made by crimping two beef patties around a filling of cheese and cooking it all until the cheese becomes like molten lava. This tastes loads better than it sounds.) Sure, the thought did cross my mind: What if Matt’s was off its game? What if they didn’t make the cut? There was no need to worry—it would have been like going to Paris and finding the Eiffel Tower missing. This place is as critical to the heart of south Minneapolis as Lake Nokomis. A recent visit found Matt’s in all its glory: The guys at the bar were a mix of the old and cowboy-hatted, the young and dreadlocked, and the middle-aged and computer-bag toting. They were all eating Jucy Lucys and half-orders of thin, pale fries. There was even a recent Chicago transplant at the bar: “All the burgers downtown are $10,” he said. “I have a problem with that. My employees told me, ‘Go to Matt’s.’ I’ve been here three times in five days. You put crack in these things or what?” Spoken like a true out-of-towner. Crack? Please. Matt’s Jucy Lucys are bigger than crack. It’s all about the grill. For about 15 minutes, Matt’s Jucy Lucy sits up on the hot, ancient, always-in-service grill and sizzles, sizzles, sizzles until it gets crisp and well-charred on the outside. That makes all the difference. Matt’s has been making these well-charred, unspeakably delicious Jucy Lucys, the best in the state—the best, no doubt, in the world—since, legend has it, 1954. Matt’s Bar, 3500 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis, 612-722-7072, mattsbar.com
MSP Updates
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008The 35W bridge was brought down by too much weight from construction materials and pavement added to the roadway years before, a structural engineering expert reports in a paper delivered today at a world conference on steel bridges in Portugal.
Hassan Astaneh’s research concludes MnDOT and the consulting firm it hired could have prevented the collapse. Astaneh is a professor in University of California Berkeley’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department whose work includes studies on the collapse of the World Trade Center for the National Science Foundation.
and
Is the ‘corn boom’ expanding Gulf of Mexico’s ‘dead zone’?
Some fear an ethanol-fueled harvest in the Midwest may be behind the hard times for marine life at the other end of the Mississippi River.
