Up in International Falls, getting around is a little different than in Red Wing.  Snowmobiles outside the restaurant, beyond the dots of the snowmobiles is a town of ice houses way, way off in the distance, maybe Canada… and then this goes by:

Yesterday, it was was 30+ degrees warmer up here on the border than it was in Red Wing… weird, really weird, and it was even colder than that in La Crosse yesterday morning.  “Climate change” is a bit of an undertstatement!

I’m up here for a few days for public meetings on Scoping for environmental review for the Great Northern Transmission Line.  For the latest on that, see www.not-so-great-northern-transmission-line.org!

Of course, noticed the shelter up here, but no time to stop:

39 German Shepherds, ranging from puppies to 7 years old were found in two houses, owned and rented by Dawn Verdeshi & Christopher Cella.  They’ve been removed and taken in by the Columbia-Green Humane Society in Hudson, New York, and will be up for adoption soon.

The yahoos who were busted have dogs currently advertised on pedigreedatabase.com, posted by Christopher Cella on that website:

German Shepherd Puppies for Sale: Big Boned Bears

German Shepherd Dog for Sale: 7 mo. old Female

Pedigreedatabase.com, remove those postings and ban them NOW!

From the Columbia-Greene Humane Society:

Thirty-nine German Shepherd Dogs removed from a Durham home

On February 9, the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCA and the Greene County Sheriff’s Office removed thirty-nine German Shepherd Dogs from two homes in Durham, NY. One home was rented by Dawn Verdeschi (age 44), and the other home was owned by Verdeschi. The dogs, which ages ranged from two weeks old to seven years old, were living in their own waste in small crates. The home was described by CGHS/SPCA officials as one of the most deplorable living conditions ever witnessed by investigators. All dogs were found to be dehydrated and thin. Ms. Verdeschi was charged with one count of animal cruelty, with an investigation into the situation continuing.

All 39 dogs were surrendered to the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCA, and are available for adoption. For people interested in adopting one of these dogs, please visit the shelter’s website at www.cghs.org and fill out a pre-approval application, or call the shelter at 518-828-6044.

 
NEWS10 ABC: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports

NEWS10 ABC: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports

From Southeastern Regional Show and Breed Survey, March 15-16, 2008, Statesville, NC:

From DEUTSCHER SCHÄFERHUNDE CLUB SAN DIEGO, March 2-3, 2013:

And this disturbing one — is it the same pup as the 7 mo. old female for sale above? Photo by John Woike, Hartford Courant:

Ava, a 13 week old puppy was going to be picked up by her new owner, Dawn Verdeschi of New York, Sunday after the North American WUSV Sieger Show where more than 200 World Class German Shepherds from all over the U.S. and many foreign countries competed in a European-Style Ring Show at Beardsley Park in Bridgeport. — John Woike / Hartford Courant, Oct. 6, 2013

Minnesotans — CLICK HERE TO Find out where to attend your precinct caucus.

It’s caucus day today, and right now what’s humming around in my brain is the need for beefed up regulation of train traffic.  There’s the exploding Bakken oil tankers, due to the increased volativity of the crude and need for degasification, and there’s the delay of Amtrak trains through North Dakota, putting people on BUSSES, because of the increased traffic.  These are examples of how the rail system is NOT working.

Here are a few resolutions I’m putting in:

I’ve got a list of resolutions, growing by the minute:

• Ban use of polyacrylamide for mining processing in Minnesota (used in silica sand mining, also proposed for use at PolyMet).

• In the interest of public safety, Bakken crude oil must be properly tested, characterized, classified, and where appropriate sufficiently degasified prior to loading onto rail or truck tanker cars, or into pipelines, to identify potential hazards and degasified to lessen volativity prior to transport.

• Amtrak trains must be given priority over freight traffic, particularly through North Dakota, where currently trains are significantly delayed (hours), or passengers are put on busses to go around the oil train traffic.

• AMEND – delete garbage from definition of “renewable” energy sources:

216B.1691 RENEWABLE ENERGY OBJECTIVES.
Subdivision 1.Definitions.

(a) Unless otherwise specified in law, “eligible energy technology” means an energy technology that generates electricity from the following renewable energy sources:
(1) solar;
(2) wind;
(3) hydroelectric with a capacity of less than 100 megawatts;
(4) hydrogen, provided that after January 1, 2010, the hydrogen must be generated from the resources listed in this paragraph; or

(5) biomass, which includes, without limitation, landfill gas; an anaerobic digester system; the predominantly organic components of wastewater effluent, sludge, or related by-products from publicly owned treatment works, but not including incineration of wastewater sludge to produce electricity; and an energy recovery facility used to capture the heat value of mixed municipal solid waste or refuse-derived fuel from mixed municipal solid waste as a primary fuel.

• Repeal 216B.1694 INNOVATIVE ENERGY PROJECT.

The Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project was rejected by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and the statute should be repealed.

• Develop publicly available state registry of animal abusers, including those convicted of abuse, neglect and hoarding, identifying names, current address and address at time of conviction of those convicted, dates and charges, resolution, and contact information for probation officer.

How did I miss this?  Tom Micheletti’s house is for sale… has been for some time, since September 2009.  DOH!  Somebody’s been sleeping at the switch!

In the STrib:

Orono: A long way to go to regain value

Hennepin Co. “market” value $1, 362,000.  It hit a high of $1,582,000 in 2007.

Listing: 519 Ferndale Road North, Orono, MN

The bathroom is bigger than my office…

I wonder if they’re still here, or if they took off to Italy or something… it doesn’t look lived in or at all personal, not like the listing for Peter (a/k/a Tan) Mastic (!), maybe they’re long gone.

If you’re so inclined, if you have anything to say to the MNsure Board of Directors, their meeting is this next Wednesday, and Public Comment time starts at 2 p.m.:

MNsure Board of Directors Meeting

Wednesday,February 5, 2014

81 East 7th Street, St. Paul MN

1st Floor Atrium

1:00 to 4:00 pm

Meeting agenda

In today’s St.PPP:

For thousands of users, promise of MNsure is always ‘pending’