Legalectric

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Waseca, and at a time when there’s a power plant proposed, when County government is making decisions about exempting the power plant from $2.5 million in taxes, yes, that’s $2.5 MILLION, and there’s a Mankato TV crew at the Waseca County Board meeting — what are they covering? They’re covering the disappearing “420” signs… 420 signs are disappearing as fast as the county can put them up. As soon as that agenda item is up, and before the power plant issue takes center stage, he packs up his gear and leaves! Utterly clueless! These disappearing 420 signs are the priority of our “media?” And you wonder why this society is so damn vacuous?

Here it is in the STrib today:

Cannabis connotation makes some rural road signs vanish

Here are articles from the Waseca County News:

Bringing out the Neighbors

Still undecided (2nd Letter to Editor, scroll down)

420 Ave. gets new number

What’s the deal with 420?

Nancy Prehn was driving down to Waseca the other day and there was the Channel 5 TV crew at 420 Ave., so she had a chat with them about power plants and groundwater contamination. Nope, that’s not their interest, they want the scoop on the 420 signs! Seven billion cubic feet of gas stored under Blooming Grove Township isn’t news? Kissing goodbye $2.5 million in county tax revenue isn’t news?

Last night was the Morristown Dam Days Parade.

Of course, Patti Fritz, REP. Patti Fritz, was there:

And my buddy from Culver’s in Owatonna was there again this year too, a little greyer, but aren’t we all!

“Mr. Moose” put me on the trail of “Wergeland’s Children – Jewish Life in Norway,” a photo exibition that’s now touring in Norway and the U.S., which lead me to Arnulf Overland, Norwegian poet who wrote “Dare not to sleep” during World War II, excerpted here from a opening speech at the exibition opening by Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Minister of International Development, Norway:

How dare you endure, sitting smug in your home

Saying: Sorry, so sad, poor they are, and alone

You cannot allow it! You dare not, at all.

Accepting the outrage that on all else may fall.

I cry with the final gasps of my breath

You dare not be seated, nor stand and forget.

After the Nazi invasion and occupation of Norway, Overland was arrested and sent to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

Variations on the “stand up, keep fighting” theme…

For a change, I saw these guys first — usually they’re flying hooves over head after they’ve been up close and personal with my grill. This is a big improvement for all of us!

I’m still working on my CLE whirlwind tour of Minnesota, and last stop — Grand Marais! (thankfully I didn’t do it the way these guys did!) I haven’t been here for decades, since I went up here with “Mr. Moose” to the family cabin on Lake Superior and visited with relatives in Grand Marais. I think they had a shop, and someone in the family was an artist (art teacher too?) and were part of the arts community there, but my memory is awfully foggy. In town, it’s apparent the importance of tourism to the local economy. Here’s a Calendar of Events in Grand Marais.

Here’s the Taconite Harbor Energy Center, owned by Minnesota Power:

The taconite industry, second behind electrical generation, is a leader in mercury emissions, and the industry has been targeted for emissions reduction.

Since the airshow posting, I’ve learned that at last year’s Red Wing airshow, Don Hinz, pilot of a P-51C Mustang, crashed after engine failure and died of his injuries the following day. He had lead the restoration of the airplane and was an integral part of the “Red Tail Project,” honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, after which the plane was named. His son, Kelly Hinz, died in a plane crash over Iraq on May 2 of this year.