Legalectric

Thanks to Shawn’s sister, Jeanne McGovern Acuna, for putting together a gathering to remember a unique character in our lives.

We blasted in late, GRRRRRRRRRRR, we were headed up to Tettegouche afterwards, and, well, GRRRRRRR, and missed some/most of the service. In the rush, something I forgot to bring up was how I learned much about sound and electricity from him, and I didn’t realize it until later, like less than a year. How was it that later that I walked into KFAI and started in radio, 2 programs over the years, and years of live on-air mix of the 9-Oscar show at the Riv, and bar and concert sound (I’ll never forget the 5 part monitor mix for Sweet Honey in the Rock. Bernice Johnson Reagon wanted, and got, just right).

I did bring up remembrances of the many, many pages of calculations for the speakers he made (my brother gave me his, and Shawn replaced the blown tweeters a couple years ago), from the design of the basic box (his time as a cabinet maker paid off) to determining the number of winds for the hand wound crossovers. Hand wound, blister inducing, crossovers.

This one was from FIFTY years ago when we lived on 12th — I didn’t know he was sending himself designs to “copyright.”

Jeanne and Tom had found many examples and put together a display of his work, his business plan, and he’d even received a grant to get that business going — he had a well stocked shop, and at long last got a space to work in. He gave that rolling box of pipe clamps to Alan years ago.

It was good to see the family, meet the “new” ones, especially Jeanne’s son who is working for Sierra Club down in Rochester. Welcome to southeast Minnesota! I’d presume we’d have projects in tandem, hoping so!

Last week, I filed a Complaint with Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) regarding Gary Iocco for Mayor and his sign on the roof along Hwy. 61, above. In his Campaign Finance Report, he says he paid big bucks for the sign, but the sign lease was $1. Right… Campaigns are supposed to pay market rate for a sign lease.

Just now, I’ve received the OAH determination of prima facie violation and setting of a probable cause hearing.

There’s a probable cause hearing on THURSDAY! Whew, that’s fast!

Who owns the roof on which the sign is posted? Is it Dehn Oil, the “new” owner of a handful of parcels there, or is it Wilson Oil, which has a corporate HQ on one of that group of parcels?

Turns out, it doesn’t matter to OAH, the complaint goes forward with all 3 Respondents. Which corporation contributed the roof space for the sign and it’ll all come out in the wash.

ONWARD!

This Thursday in a rare divided vote, 3 of the 5 Commissioner of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved moving the Megellan pipeline in southern Minnesota to a route near Pipestone National Monument and to an area where there are active pipestone quarries. Commission Chair Sieben and Vice Chair Sullivan voted against it, and Commissioners Ham, Means, and Tuma voted for it.

The Administrative Law Judge had recommended it be approved, but that’s just a Recommendation, and the it goes to the Commission — the PUC is “the decider.”

OAH FOF, Conclusions & Recommendation 7-17-24

Here are the route options reviewed, and “RA-02” was the one recommended — it’s the purple one going north and then east in the middle of this map:

Here’s the PUC staff Briefing Papers laying out staff perspective with decision options (at the end) and then additional decision options:

• Briefing Papers
• New Decision Option 1.a-Commissioner Tuma
• New Decision Options-Commissioner Sieben
• New Decision Option 3.b.i-Commissioner Tuma
• New Decision Option 4.a-Commissioner Tuma

The PUC’s discussion begins at 3:29:09:

https://minnesotapuc.granicus.com/player/clip/2418?meta_id=265921

In the STrib:

Minnesota regulators narrowly approve gas pipeline near Pipestone Monument

NoCapX 2020 and the Prehn Family petitioned for intervention in the “Mankato-Mississippi River” transmission line, a/k/a Wilmarth-North Rochester-Tremval (plus a Chester spin off).

Now the work begins.

To look at the filings in the dockets, go HERE to the PUC’s eDockets page, click “eDockets” again, and search for 22-532 (Certificate of Need) or 23-157 (Routing):

OR

UPDATE: U.S. Citizens Convicted of Conspiring to Act as Illegal Agents of the Russian Government

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Trump’s 2016 “campaign advisor” Dimitri Simes and his wife Anastasia Simes are indicted:

Meanwhile, it appears they are no longer in the U.S.

He was featured in a Carnegie “Great Immigrants, Great Americans” series, where it was noted that he was an advisor to Nixon — too early for any mention of Trump, although Trump for sure had Russian ties before he started his campaign in 2015 (see Temples of Chance, David Cay Johnston):

Simes was named, though not charged, “many”(at least 134) times in the Mueller Report — READ THIS AND SEARCH. Just do it – try it for yourself, and note his interactions with Kushner, who I hope will be next to be indicted, and look at his direct link to the Clinton info fiasco. It’s all connected, and I wonder and wonder why red flags did not go up on hearing “Russia, if you’re listening” and Trump was not ejected immediately. Sleeping at the switch…

Meanwhile, some uninformed folks are saying that the Mueller Report “showed no collusion” (remember, “collusion” is not a thing in this context) and that the “Russian investigation” ended and there was N-O-T-H-I-N-G!

Nope, WRONG! We’re seeing some results. It’s about time, and I’m so looking forward to additional indictments.

Russian TV presenter named in Mueller report charged with sanctions violations