Well, between the poison ivy and the wobbly front end of the car, I felt cursed, but forged on ahead. In the morning at the campsite, the low tire light was on AGAIN, I’d just filled yesterday morning, and on loading on the way to Red Wing, then Waterville, I saw a worn through spot and cord of the tire. Oh great… called around and the only place that had the tires and could get me in was… WALMART! Ran over there and they got me in right away, with the caveat that if the front end was screwed up, they wouldn’t put tires on. Thinking it was the front end, like a tie rod end about to fall off, oh, I was freakin’ but as luck would have it, a tire belt had broken and the tire was falling apart!! Haven’t had that happen before, and GOOD, they slapped tires on and off I went. Made it to Waterville only 10 minutes or so late! The poison ivy didn’t go away, but that’s life… whine, whine, whine…

They spent a full HOUR going over the intro powerpoint, and it was really hard to stick with it given the itchies. I’m glad I had Nancy Prehn there to keep me in line (former Sen. Dick Day said, about Prehn, ““I think you’re a very vicious lady. I’ve never had anybody talk to me like this in my 29 years of public service.” He knows a little about Prehn’s ability to keep someone in line!):

What was interesting is that the Xcel handouts identified a “preferred route,” which had been filed with testimony in March 2025 (which landowners would not know about):

It appears that Waseca, the City of, is on that Highway 14 alternate route, and they didn’t get notice, the Mayor said that they’d received notice a couple weeks ago. The City isn’t on Xcel’s list from their January 31, 2025 notice, and of course, Commerce-EERA didn’t send notice. This needs to be checked out, and I understand the City of Zumbrota is also wanting to weigh in.

Notice has been an issue in this project proceeding. Remember, it was Nancy Prehn who notified CenterPoint of the original proposal to run transmission right over the gas dome. BOOM!

Xcel did not even mention the natural gas dome in its application of April 2, 2024, and didn’t bother to chat with CenterPoint until May 2! Here’s the map that we drew up when doing boots-on-the-ground recon, and put in the record in our comments:

And back to notice — it’s a problem, and I’m trying to track down who got notice when, and it’s hard to even how many “original” landowners were affected and who received notice! Hence these two requests:

Frankly, Asst. A.G. Dornfeld, I don’t care what it’s called or what the rules are for IRs or DPA Requests, I just want the info and I want it in the record. We need to establish who got what notice when. If the route selected affects landowners who did not get adequate notice, you’ve got a problem. And then there’s the question if cities along the route got notice, particularly those along Hwy 14. City of Waseca may not have received timely notice. Is that correct? Are there others that did not receive notice?

Put this up yesterday when it was tomorrow, and now it’s TODAY!

MMRT? That’s what they’re calling the project above — Mankato-Mississippi River Transmission.

COMMENT PERIOD CLOSES

4:30p on JUNE 10, 2025

Minnesota need? Ummmmmm, no… It’s all based on MISO claims:

It’s not real clear from the notice, but this is THE time for the public to comment on need. These are hearings for both the need docket (E002/CN-22-53) and the routing docket (E002/TL-23-157).

And as an NSP engineer testified way back in the Arrowhead hearing, “It’s all connected,” and that big long line described above is just a part of a much bigger plan:

And it’s moving right along, so don’t wait. Now’s the time to show up:

My car is acting up and I can’t get it in until Monday, so we’ll see how this goes.

Prior Legalectric posts on this project:

Public Hearings & NO NOTICE to 1,341 newly affected landowners May 11th, 2025

More on the 1,341 Landowners May 14th, 2025

Here’s the Commerce-EERA chart on landowner notifications from December, 2024:

Comparing this and the numbers from the Xcel notice, and they just don’t add up:

I sent these Info Requests to make some sense of it:

Last week, I heard a story about a confiscated sign at the Wabasha Saturday protest:

Wabasha & 8647 – May 23rd, 2025

After hearing a sign was confiscated at a Wabasha protest, and utterly appalled, I committed to showing up at the next Saturday protest, which was today. The story wasn’t clear, other than the cop took the sign. No one videoed, and eyewitness accounts were vague, not much was heard. Sooooooo…

Off I goes to Wabasha with my sign, as above. Alan got to carry the Ukraine flag.

The furor about and attributions to “86” are so bonkers. Distractivism, but easy to push back.

Driving into town, after going under the bridge there’s a pull off on Pembroke near the trailer park. A cop was there, arm with cigarette hanging out the window. Near Kwik Trip, I found a place to park under a tree for Maisy.

I’d started standing on the Kwik Trip corner, as I didn’t want to intrude on the Veterans Memorial there, or intrude on their protest either, but the folks encouraged me to come over, so I did, wouldn’t want to be anti-social after all. After being there a while, with many supportive honks, and a few “FUCK YOU!” hollers out the window, I see the cop car come down the street, and take a left on 8th and head over behind the buildings. He was back there for quite a while, then came out and headed east on Hiawatha Drive. I was on the NE corner of Pembroke & Hiawatha, right on the corner, a location with good visibility. As he took off from the stop sign, I waved and grinned, as I was with all the traffic there, and he kept heading east. Maybe 10 minutes later, he pulled up, and walked over.

A couple of folks got photos and were there when he first came up to talk to me, lots of support, and it was clear, most were very nervous. It was really good to see the Falkums there, it’s got to have been 20+ years since we were on the National Eagle Center board together, and I’ll have to catch up with them. A few were also butting in though, and I didn’t want that, as it was distracting, as with the prior week, it was my sign, at issue, and dealing with that is my niche. This recap is from memory, and the order of some of this may be off, and I probably forgot some:

The cop wanted my sign, said he’d gotten 3 complaints, and he was responding to those complaints, that my sign it was a threat against the President, that last week it was his partner who’d taken the sign. I said it wasn’t a threat. I pointed out the “86 does not equal 187” and he asked for my sign and I said “NO!” Told him it was unconstitutional for him to take it, there as no basis for it. That this sign was not a threat (and really, little ol’ moi with a painted sign in Wabasha, a credible threat? I don’t think so.). He said “this is not going to end well.” Oh, OK. I asked if he wanted my ID, he said he’d deal with that later. I told him “I’m ready.” He said he’d deal with me and then would also want to talk to the group, and went back to his car.

He sat there… and sat there, 10 minutes, 15 minutes… at about this time, the Sheriff came by on Hiawatha and stopped, took a left on Pembroke going the other way, of course I waved as he went through the intersection, and he went down the street and pulled into the Subway parking lot! The sheriff never did join the party. Meanwhile, cop still in car… 20 minutes… he’s got to be hearing all the supportive honking and waving, and see at least a few fingers out the windows. Some of the folks were coming up asking what was going on, was he going to arrest me, and I sure didn’t know what was happening, but was confident that he’d not do anything, no reason, no basis, and the time delay felt like good news.

… at 25 or 30 minutes he came out.

He said he’d been calling, consulting, and he wanted to know what I thought 8647 meant, that folks are saying it means to assassinate the President, that it’s a threat. I reminded him that it’s all hype, that 86 means to “toss out, eject” and those claiming it means “assassinate” haven’t a clue, haven’t spent enough time in bars. He said he was glad I said that’s what it meant, because last week, the guy with the sign said it meant “8 miles out of town and 6 feet down.” WHAT? HE SAID THAT? I told him I didn’t believe he’d said that, and for sure I’d check. I told him that I’m an attorney, that I am direct in my communications, and that if I wanted to say the President should be assassinated, my sign would say “KILL THE MOTHERFUCKER!” and “Hey, does it say that?” holding up the sign. I swear he had the tiniest bit of a grin at that point. I again pointed out the bottom line of the sign:

Those that think otherwise, those complaining, that’s THEIR problem! Don’t even try to make it mine. And I asked about those who were yelling “FUCK YOU” through their open windows, he said that’s disorderly conduct and you can make a complaint. Naaah, life is too short. He said, a couple of times, “I’m all for the 1st Amendment.” “GOOD TO HEAR” I told him. Anyway, that’s pretty much what went down — I’ll edit if I remember other parts, or the order of things.

It turns out when I asked the guy whose sign was confiscated, he did indeed say “8 miles out of town and 6 feet down.” He set himself up. I asked whatever possessed him to say something like that, and he said he’d just googled it, and said the first thing that came into his mind. WHAT?!?! Good grief… I cannot believe!

So a good time was had by all. I was concerned that the group might be offended at my showing up to press the issue, but taking away a sign, whatever the doofus said, is not OK, and I didn’t want to see that go unchallenged. Overall, the Wabasha protesters were supportive and very glad to see that the cop caved and drove away. Bottom line, I could continue to stand on the corner in the sun and hold that sign. Such a deal.

It might take a couple more Saturdays to get the police in the groove, and guide the protesters on dealing with police, but I’m confident that the 1st Amendment prevails.

It seems that those too many MAGAs have their knickers in a twist about “86 47” which leads to at least 2 presumptions. 1) They’ve not spent much time in West Bank bars… and 2) they’re conflating “86” with “187.” DOH! This is not rocket science, folks.

Last week in Wabasha, the strangest things happened at their weekly Saturday protest. This is all 2nd hand, some verified, some not, some presumptions, and will find out more tomorrow. As I know it: Last Saturday, some MAGAs were harassing protesters in Wabasha who were minding their own business holding signs. At least one was taking photos, videos, ? and shortly thereafter a police officer appeared. He confiscated an “86 47” sign.. it was confiscated or relinquished on demand. The cop said something on the order of “I could write up a citation,” (? for what??), and left with the sign. The protest continued.

No one filmed the interaction; no one objected to demand for sign/ handing it over. Ahem…

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So tomorrow, head on over to Wabasha, 11a.m., by the Kwik Trip:

25 days in to this May round of camp-hosting, and kinks have been mostly worked out.

For short term, no way, but for a month in one place, it’s all about comfort and function.

We’ve had a lot of rain, lot of cold. The tarp blew down, and has had some pooling since, but no disasters. The wind has blown away chairs, the mat in front of the tent, so the chairs are collapsed in the wind to hold the mat down. In a storm, wind blew a branch down which went right into the tent — thank Dog for Gorilla tape:

For the most part, it’s been too cold to cook outside. I just can’t get interested with the wind and rain, it too literally puts a damper on everything. Maisy is undaunted, tenting is great for her, she’s tent trained!!! She’s also cool in storms, however, one night in the super high winds and rain she did choose to take a time out:

The last few days have been ideal, warm, NOT HOT, and sun, so welcome:

Hosting is cool. There’s not a lot to do, and so much easier than last year when I was gimping around after a snapped hamstring. Have to balance that with a tendency to my not really wanting to deal with people — everyone’s dogs are another matter. We had a run on standard poodles for the first week, apricot (like my Elka), black, and white, and right now, a “parti poodle.” One family on the loop right now has 4 dogs, maybe one for each kid, and they’re all beautifully behaved, the dogs, though one is a bit territorial, oh, the kids too!

Other than a small fire, it’s been pretty… YAWN.

T

Minor issues like too many hammocks, or hung on too small trees, NOISY kids at too-early-o’clock. This year, though, it’s been family oriented, and none of the loud drunks from last year — maybe they were too embarrassed and found another park?!?!

It’s been very dry, though the park was all greened up this year, last year it was brown. The first day here there were 5 deer in the field across the way, since then, none until after all the rain, and now they are back — maybe there was no available water up here. And this cutie, he was chasing a female across the road, couldn’t capture them both. It’s bunny season too, they are all over the roads.

I’ve been taking a lot of time off, getting to meetings in Cannon Falls; candidate meet & greet at Hok-Si-La park; Keith Ellison in Red Wing; and protests in Red Wing, Lake City, soon, Wabasha; and a couple zooms and filings; and of course Sam Miletich and his Clearwater Hot Club at the WideSpot:

Officing here isn’t ideal, the signal won’t let me download or upload the larger files, and that’s a PROBLEM. Oh well… And I’m just not in the mood to work.

Work is possible, though, and it’s not a technology hangup! Have pretty decent phone signal, but not quite enough. I have a small battery/charger to keep the phone, tablet, and lights charged up, and because the fridge is only 42 watts, that’d be workable too. But it’s an electric site, so that’s covered, though I sometimes forget to unplug the fridge and drive off… oops…

Speaking of charging, first weekend there was a Rivian pulling a Bambi, and the next week, a Tesla pulling a Scamp. There also seems to be more tenters this year. Oh, and can’t forget the big honkin’ trailer I had to remove from a tree and back into the campsite!!

Oh, there’s the Aurora Borealis — time to dig into the DEIS for Mankato – Mississippi transmission.