Rep. Frank Hornstein and Sen. Vicki Jensen have introduced three bills related to rail safety, triggered by the recent Bakken oil rail car derailments and explosions.

Here’s a pdf with clickable links to check out the specific language and status:

2014 Bakken Oil Rail Safety Bills pdf

TO DO: Contact House Committee members and urge passage:

In the House, all the bills have been referred to Transportation Finance (HF 3134 after a trip through the Transportation Policy and Public Safety committees), so now we’ve got to contact those in Transportation Finance to move HF 3133, HF 3134 & HF 3135 on to the House floor — it’s Frank’s committee so he shouldn’t have any trouble getting a hearing!!!  Contact info for House Finance members HERE!

TO DO: Contact Senate Committee members and urge passage:

In the Senate, two have been referred to Transportation and Public Safety (SF 2795 and SF 2796), and one to Environment and Energy (SF 2797).  Contact info for Transportation and Public Safety HERE!  Sen. Scott Dibble is Chair so there should be no problem getting a hearing here either!!  Contact info for Environment and Energy HERE!

Senate Transportation and Public Safety Committee will hear them tomorrow:

     Wednesday, March 26, 2014

     Committee on Transportation and Public Safety
     Chair: Sen. D. Scott Dibble
03:00 PM
Room 15 Capitol

Something very noticeable here in this district is that Rep. Matt Kelley and Rep. Steve Drazkowski have not signed on.  ????  This is a huge issue for those of us along the Mississippi with the rail line running right through town.

TO DO: Contact these legislators along the tracks and urge them to sign on (and also those towards Fargo too, don’t know where the train runs there):

Reps: rep.tim.kelly@house.mn (21A); rep.steve.drazkowski@house.mn (21B); rep.gene.pelowski@house.mn (28A); rep.greg.davids@house.mn (28B); rep.pat.garofalo@house.mn (58B).

Senators: sen.jeremy.miller@senate.mn (28); sen.dave.thompson@senate.mn (58).

Why aren’t state Representatives and Senators in SE Minnesota acting on this explosive issue?

Here are notes from a City of Red Wing meeting with CP on March 17th:

Red Wing Mtg with CP_Pages 87-88 from 11_-_Attachment

Sure, it’s Sheldon Johnson’s birthday, but check this amendment coming up in committee today:

Maybe introduce this NEXT Tuesday too???

No, not that kind of MISO, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or is it Midwest Energy, or…  (they’ve been changing the name lately) anyway, it’s the electric market kind of MISO:

MISO LMP Map — great wallpaper

They’re having a shindig at the Minnesota MISO HQ:

Here’s the Notice:

MISO Quarterly Meeting Notice 03-10-2014

Where it talks about the “MISO report” that is to be reviewed, here’s what they’re referring to:

OMS/MISO Resource Adequacy Survey Update

And apparently this is being constantly updated, so the link is the most recent update.

It’s that County Convention time of year, so we hustled on down to Goodhue for the DFL convention and voted on resolutions.  Alan spoke to let people know what his most important resolution was about:

Energy

2) That the words “the heat value of mixed municipal waste or refuse derived fuel” be removed from the definition of biomass included in Minn. Stat. 216B.1691: Renewable Energy Options.

They screwed up the Resolutions, mislabeling statutes” as “legislation#” or “legislative bill #” — very strange.

Anyway, I wasn’t really in the mood this morning, it was kind of hard to stomach the DFL when the headlines today state that the legislature passed, and Dayton signed,  a bill that “kills some taxes for businesses.” Here’s the STrib article:

Dayton signs $444 M in tax relief; more than a million Minnesotans to see tax breaks

TAX RELIEF FOR BUSINESSES?  If businesses are paying lots of taxes, they are making lots of money, and that’s after they take deductions for expenses and then some — there is NO excuse for cutting taxes for business.  AAAAARGH!

.

$3.00!!!  PROGRESS!

There are so many of Obama’s policies I detest, particularly his spying, promotion of transmission lines, stumping for coal gasification, but for the Affordable Care Act, I say, THANK YOU!!!  Thanks to the Obama administration, to the elected Representatives and Senators who voted for it, to all of us who pay taxes that provide for basic economic services… Thanks to all those who made it happen.  This is what taxes are for, not war, not drones, not subsidizing coal gasification plants, not rescuing billion dollar bankers, not enforcing the “Patriot Act,” but for health and medical care, public education, higher education, highways and transportation infrastructure, veterans benefits, social security, this is what it’s about.

This is progress.  But the success and impact of access to health care should also increase the urgency to shift to single-payer health care, as a “civilized” country it’s time we take care of everyone, as other “civilized” countries do.  This is an issue that I’m dedicating some time every month to advocate for, and to help people navigate this frustrating MNsure mess to get coverage.  We need fundamental change in our health care system.  This is a step, but just a step, and it needs to be more than placating the insurance companies — we need to get them out of the picture, but that’s another rant for another day.  This is a happy day, one filled with relief.

Alan and I now have regular, reasonable, and reliable access to health care for the first time in 30 years or more, and it makes such a difference, particularly where we’re at the age where things come up that require treatment.  We’ve been going to the Care Clinic, open only on Tuesdays, for urgent care and keeping an eye on our blood chemistry.  I’ve got allergy problems that put me out of commission for a couple weeks every year or two, Alan’s got eye issues that we’ll have to deal with in the foreseeable future and borderline high cholesterol, and then there’s my ADHD, diagnosed as an adult, for which I take Ritalin (speed slows us down, provides mental traction).  Alan can start on Medicare next year, but I’ve got a while, 7 1/2 years, so with this, maybe I won’t die of a sinus infection before then!  The monthly price is affordable, just right, and the plan seems a lot like the CUHCC Clinic, which I went to when I cooked at Seward Cafe, available preventative care through the U of M.  And it’s such a relief to have this, and know that if something dreadful does happen, if Alan keels over of a heart attack while shoveling the roof, if I stroke out reading a particularly egregious Xcel Energy Filing, we won’t lose everything to cover the bill (I know from my mother’s last hospital bills that those without “INSURANCE” are charged more than twice as much as the insurance companies pay, and hundreds of times more than the $100 co-pay that she paid as an insured.).

So what happened today?

$3.  THREE DOLLARS!  I just picked my ADHD drugs.  Since I was diagnosed in 1997 (what a DUH!  A “so that’s it” moment!) it’s been a constant struggle to be on them, to find and pay for a doctor at $100-200 a pop  every 3 months, to have the prescriptions sent (they don’t hand prescriptions to people, has to go in mail to Pharmacy), and then to pay for Ritalin Extended Release, at $43 (42.xx) every month.  But thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I can go to a doctor, and I can get my prescription filled for $3 co-pay.  THREE DOLLARS!  That’s $40 a month less, or $480 a year, just for ADHD drugs.  There will be a nominal co-pay for the doctor, so a savings of $90-180 every 3 months, $30-60/month, so for something as simple as treating Attention Deficit (and believe me, the world is a much better place for all of you when I’m calm and collected), it’s now $13/mo. and not $133-223/mo.

$133-223 month?  WOW!  For someone like me who is self-employed, living modestly and doing public interest advocacy work, with lots of volunteer projects like the PUC Minn. R. Ch. 7849 and 7850 rulemaking, and silica sand activities, saving that much every month means there’s that much more time and money for agitating and advocacy.  $133 buys a lot of flyers.  $233 almost covers gas and hotel for a week of transmission road show.  This makes a significant difference in our lives.

THANK YOU!!!