Legalectric

Photo stolen from this site! That’s “Fair Use” for all you lawyers and lawyettes in the audience…

Here they are, SD 41 “adults” and even a dog, Red and Blue bashing each other purple over each other’s failure to list their party endorsement on campaign signs, and SD41’s Green candidate, voteRisser4Senate.com, does list her endorsement on her sign. Yup, you got it, the font’s small, call the printers about that one… they screwed up the sign order not once, but twice, and worse/better, their earlier fox paws was so bad they trashed them, they forgot to print the SD 41 part, and then the hilarious part, budget minded workers for the Irish Fair on Harriet Island last weekend used the unprinted side of the 86’d “Risser for Senate” signs to promote their food tent, and so when Julie goes there, she’s astounded to see that “Julie Risser” was all over Harriet Island, Julie Risser upright facing away from the food line, Julie Risser backwards, Julie Risser upside down, Julie Risser sideways, but the message was everywhere, it was unmistakeable, undeniable, Julie Risser, Julie Risser, Julie Risser, Julie Risser, Julie Risser, Julie Risser, Julie Risser, Julie Risser, everywhere she looked! That kind of advertising you just can’t buy! Risser’s luck o’ the Irish…

Back to Sunday laundry… where is that spot remover…

Excelsior now has radio ads on a station in Duluth! The lengths they’ll go to to promote this thing…

Important meeting coming up:

MINNESOTA DEPT. OF COMMERCE PUBLIC MEETINGS ON
MESABA COAL PLANT ENERGY PROJECT

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Taconite Community Center
26 Haynes Street
Taconite, Minnesota

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Hoyt Lakes Arena
102 Kennedy Memorial Drive
Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota

DOC will conduct two public scoping meetings in which agencies, organizations, and the general public is invited to present oral comments or suggestions with regard to the range of alternatives and environmental issues to be considered in the EIS.

Here’s the DoC Comment Notice.

Here’s a Comment form you can use:Â Â eis_comment_form.doc
Comments are due by August 30. Email (click here) or send to:

Bill Storm
Dept. of Commerce
85 – 7th Place E., Suite 500
St. Paul, MNÂ 55101-2198

August 30 is not that far away! Get your comments in today!

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And fresh editorials from the Grand Rapids Herald Review:

 Project will affect people’s health

Editor:

There are times when sacrifices made to promote economic development may be appropriate. However, I am troubled by the massive sacrifices that our elected officials are supporting for the handful of permanent jobs proposed by the Mesaba Energy project. In addition to around 100 permanent jobs (a reduction by 900 since the original proposal) there are other â??developmentsâ? Excelsior Energyâ??s IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) plants will bring if built.

Canisteo Lake will be closed for recreational use and a massive pumping station will operate on the lake to serve the plant. One hundred-forty foot transmission towers will impede on private and public land, forcing landowners off in a controversial use of eminent domain. People will become sick as documented in Excelsiorâ??s own literature. Miles and miles of coal trains will travel through Grand Rapids each week. Snowmobile trails will close or reroute to make room for the plant footprint. One thousand two hundred acres of hunting land will now be off-limits. Carbon dioxide will be pumped into the air, contributing to global warming, along with tons of sulfur dioxide, pounds of mercury, and other particulates that cause asthma and other respiratory problems. Children will be exposed to unsafe levels of electro magnetic fields, putting them at greater risk for childhood leukemia. Groundwater aquifers that supply drinking water to nearby communities are at risk for contamination when Canisteo Lake becomes polluted. Millions upon millions of dollars will be bonded by the county, placing us at financial risk and possibly increasing our property taxes. How will schools, health care facilities, and housing developers deal with the glut and then absence of hundreds of imported construction workers? Hire then fire? Build then abandon?

Our health is our wealth. Development that endangers our personal, environmental, and financial health to this extent is too big a sacrifice for us to take on. We should demand better! The carbon dioxide can be captured in IGCC technology but not in this location. More mercury can be captured than what Excelsior is proposing. Technology exists to prevent water pollution. Local dollars do not have to be used to build infrastructure. My hope is that we can promote economic development in a way that achieves balance and addresses the reality of the future.

Kristen K. Anderson
Bovey

-=============================================

Quality of life is in danger

Editor:
As I read the information provided in the Environmental Supplement for Excelsior Energy’s proposed coal gasification plant I became very angry. How is it that a power plant with a potential to contaminate our wells and the air we breathe could even be considered for this area when no one has demonstrated the need for the electricity and the power would be sent down to the Cities and beyond anyway. Where are the people that were given the responsibility of protecting our health?

If this plant is built in this beautiful area I will have lost all faith in the system, the checks and balance that were designed to protect our quality of life. We should look at the future results of this and keep in mind that this will effect us a lot more then what they are showing or telling us.

Pam Perry
BoveyÂ

Citizens Against the Mesaba Project is at the Itasca County Fair through tomorrow. Do stop by and check out their booth in the heart of the fairgrounds on the north end of Grand Rapids. Stop by and get your lawn signs and order your own personal copy of Excelsior’s application for their site permit and/or the Power Purchase Agreement!

There were Micheletti sightings at the Fair on Thursday, both Pat and Tom (Tom was at the Trout Lake Town Board meeting, getting a taste of public opinion of the Mesaba project later that evening). The booth is a candidate magnet — both Ted Lovdahl, who is running for Senate (SD3) against Tom Saxhaug (turn the sound off before clicking his site), and Tom Anzelc, who is running for the House seat 3A left open by Irv Anderson, stopped by. Ted said he’d be doing his homework on this and I promised I’d be testing him regularly. Tom’s already doing his homework and he’s always up for a spirited discussion! Everyone who stopped by had a lot of questions and more than a few opinions. It was a great day at the fair. Maybe today I’ll get to see the horses…

AND MARK YOUR CALENDAR!!! Tuesday, the 22nd, is the meeting to let Commerce know what should be covered in the Mesaba Environmental Impact Statement. It s 7 p.m. at the Taconite Community Center. After all, what does Commerce know about an EIS???

… a lumpa lumpa burnin’ coal…

And it’s time for Intervenors to file our Statement of the Case. Here they all are, and I particularly recommend the Xcel one, and mncoalgasplant/MCGP too, of course!

mncoalgasplant.com (MCGP)
mcgp-statement-of-case.pdf

Xcel
xcel-energys-statement-of-the-case.pdf

Minnesota Power
mp-stmt-of-case.pdf

Big Stone II
bsii-statement-of-case.pdf

Xcel Industrial Intervenors – Gerdau Steel and Marathon Petroleum
xcel-industrial-intervenors-statement-of-the-case.pdf

Manitoba Hydro
mh-statement-of-case.pdf

MCEA, Fresh Energy, Waltons
mcea-me3-waltons-statement-public-08-14-06.pdf

And I saved the “best” ’til last, Excelsior’s:
excelsiors-statement-of-the-case.pdf

Why the “best?” Because with all the conclusory statements and bizarre assumptions, it’s just so implausible that it’s hilarious! Enjoy!

And now that election season is in full swing, REMEMBER WHERE WE GOT THIS MESABA PROJECT, AND DON’T FORGET THEM ON NOVEMBER 7TH!

Well, drat…

Davids cleared by campaign finance board

By Brian Voerding / Winona Daily News

Minnesota Rep. Greg Davids has been cleared of all charges that he took $7,000 from his campaign and failed to properly classify it.

The state Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board released its findings Wednesday in response to a campaign finance complaint filed against Davids in June, which alleged that the Preston Republican failed to provide enough information in his 2005 finance report for

out-of-district travel and postage ex-penses.

â??My favorite word for the day is â??dismissed,â??â? Davids said. â??Dismissed. Everything they came at us with was dismissed â?¦ I have the cleanest campaign finance records in the world.â?

The board agreed with the complaint that Davids hadnâ??t provided sufficient information for the reimbursements, but ruled in his favor after Davids provided detailed receipts. It concluded that Davids did not personally benefit from improper reimbursements and hasnâ??t systematically misused â??non-campaign disbursementsâ? â?? expenses that donâ??t count toward candidatesâ?? spending limits â?? to evade the limit.

The complaint was filed by Lanesboro residents Frank Wright and Peggy Hanson, and Harlin Taylor; Hanson ran unsuccessfully against Davids in 2004, with Wright serving as her campaign manager and Taylor as treasurer.

Wright and Hanson were unavailable for comment Wednesday. When they filed the complaint they said their impetus was to get Davids to provide adequate information on the expenses.

Allegations and responses

The complaint asked the board to examine several aspects of Davidsâ?? campaign in addition to travel and postage. Following is a paraphrased rundown of some of the boardâ??s findings:

Complaint: Davids couldnâ??t possibly have driven 996 miles on New Years Eve, as his 2005 finance report claimed.

Board: Davids provided itemized receipts that showed multiple trips over more than one day; he combined them into a single listing.

Complaint: Davids uses his Preston, Minn., office for both personal business and campaign purposes, demonstrated by business cards that lists the same phone number of his constituent services office.

Board: Besides one instance where Davids copied constituent thank-you cards in his office, there is no evidence to support the claim. Davids said his insurance business cards were printed in error and later destroyed.

Complaint: Davids, an insurance agent, was improperly reimbursed with campaign funds and taxpayer dollars for attending the National Conference of Insurance Legislators in 2004.

Board: The concern is understood, but the practice is allowed.

Expenses reclassified

During its investigation, the board discovered non-campaign disbursements that it ruled were improperly classified, including $315 in meal costs for Davids and others and $200 for a golf tournament. Davids agreed to repay the amounts to his campaign committee. Davids also reclassified $281 in postage when the board asked him to submit receipts.

Hanson, Wright and Taylor filed a similar complaint against Davids in 2004, which led to a $6,100 fine from the finance board. The board cited Davids for spending more than the state-regulated limit each year from 2001 to 2003. The charges stemmed from Davidsâ?? â??idea adsâ? that he ran in area newspapers those years, asking readers to suggest legislation. He claimed them as noncampaign disbursements; the board disagreed. The state Legislature reacted in 2005 by passing a law that allowed such ads.

Davids is seeking re-election this year to his ninth term; heâ??s running against DFL-endorsed Ken Tschumper, a La Crescent dairy farmer.

Reporter Brian Voerding can be reached at (507) 453-3514 or at bvoerding@winonadailynews.com.