Today in the inbox… weird things today, you’d think it’s a full moon… oh, close enough:

Not only the Department of Energy, but on the heels of that DOE press release, there’s a filing from Goodhue County Sheriff Marty Kelly.

He can be reached at Sheriff’s Administration 651-267-2615 and via email: marty.kelly@goodhuecountymn.gov

His administrative aide posted this letter in the Xcel Integrated Resource Plan, PUC Docket 24-67, served today, and he’s promoting, lauding, incineration… not just “our” Xcel garbage burner in Red Wing, but also Wilmarth in Mankato, and French Island in La Crosse, WI! WHAT? The sheriff on incineration?

Why?

This is parroting Xcel Energy talking points, odds are they wrote it.

I’d guess the Sheriff has a role in preventing domestic terrorism directed at Xcel’s Red Wing garbage burner, as they did in protecting the County building after a “credible threat” during the furor fomented about refugee resettlement in 2020. What does the Sheriff have to do with any of these points? What does the Sheriff have to do with any of the garbage talking points above? Why stretching all the way to the Wilmarth garbage burner in Mankato, and French Island in La Crosse? Whew… absurd…

I wonder, with this “interest” in garbage burning, did Sheriff Kelly file comments in the MPCA’s permit docket, addressing renewal of the Xcel Energy Red Wing garbage burner’s air permit that expired in 2009?

MPCA Renewal of RW’s USG Air Permit

November 29th, 2024

Today, the STrib reports another high-speed option between Metro and Rochester:

A 700-mph tunnel between Twin Cities and Rochester? Group wants $2M from Met Council for ‘hyperloop’ study.

Haven’t they learned anything from Zip Rail?

Zip Rail’s dying gasp…

Apparently not here. And the federal Department of Transportation has issued guidance!

HYPERLOOP STANDARDS DESK REVIEW
Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council

Back in 2020:

San Francisco To L.A. In 35 Minutes? Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Moves Closer To Reality

Closer to reality? Not quite… Though Musk’s hyperloop did not go far, it just so happened to go belly up at the end of 2023!

The hyperloop is dead for real this time

So now, those workers are looking to move on???

A couple of sentences here caught my attention, and I’m wondering…

Hyperloop One to Shut Down After Failing to Reinvent Transit

DP World, the Dubai-based conglomerate, has backed Hyperloop One since 2016 and owns a majority stake. The startup’s remaining intellectual property will be transferred to DP World, a person familiar with the situation said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-21/hyperloop-one-to-shut-down-after-raising-millions-to-reinvent-transit

Is DP World involved in this reincarnation of the failed Musk Hyperloop?

Just NO! Do we need to go through this again?

I know I’ve been preoccupied, struggling to keep up and not doing a very good job of it, but how did I not know that the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant was shut down for the winter and the river has completely frozen over?? Granted this is proof positive that we don’t “NEED” this generation, but what does it mean for the river and those dependent on that open water? Fish, eagles, other wildlife??? Maybe the plant closure is why the 2024 nuclear notice came out late (no calendar)?

That’s from MPR on November 22, 2023 about this shutdown on October 19, 2023, over a month later:

Electrical trouble shuts down Prairie Island reactor

Odd, it took the STrib that long too, November 22, 2023. Guess Xcel belatedly sent out a press release?

Xcel’s Prairie Island nuclear plant will be out of commission until January

So something between generator and substation? Something similar may have happened to Unit 2 last May:

Nuclear reactor at Xcel’s Prairie Island plant remains offline after ‘unusual event’ reported Saturday

Turned out it wasn’t “just” a transformer — there was a problem with the “main feed water pump” that had to be fixed too: “The licensee determined that the fire alarms were caused by the electrical transient which occurred due to the fault on the Unit 2 main transformer” and then:

From NRC reports:

And here’s the Notification:

More info needed. It’s a cold winter Sunday, good for googling.

Campaigning as “America First” in 2022 — do people understand what this means? I hope it’s “just” voter ignorance, but it’s how Altendorf proudly, intentionally, labeled herself. That alone should be reason to eject them from office. Check out the high mileage look of these two:

Both are 2020 election deniers, and together they are sponsoring their (ALEC) Education Freedom Act, identical to one passed on Arizona. Thankfully it won’t go far in Minnesota’s DFL controlled legislature.

What Drazkowski had to say about Altendorf in his endorsement of her for state House 20A:

“LEADING” conservatives with Recall City Hall effort, squawking at school board meetings about “critical race theory” and mask mandates.

And bragging about being an “America First” candidate… good grief… And she was elected.

Back to America First, there’s this, Conservative U.S. House Republicans to form ‘America First’ caucus and the platform:

And a look at what “America First” means:

From 2019, ‘America First’ is only making the world worse. Here’s a better approach. that then before the 2020 election noted the increase of nationalists, demagogues and autocratic powers:

Yet that president is going to face an increasingly dangerous world that looks more like the 1930s than the end of history—with populists, nationalists and demagogues on the rise; autocratic powers growing in strength and increasingly aggressive; Europe mired in division and self-doubt; and democracy under siege and vulnerable to foreign manipulation. Then there are the new challenges of our own century—from cyberwarfare to mass migration to a warming planet—that no one nation can meet alone and no wall can contain.

Doubling down on “America First,” with its mix of nationalism, unilateralism and xenophobia, would only exacerbate these problems. But so would embracing the alternative offered by thinkers across the ideological spectrum who, concerned that our reach exceeds our means, advise us to pull back without considering the likely consequences, as we did in the 1930s.

Yes, time to trot out my “RENOUNCE NATIONALISM sign again.

Oh we got trouble… right here in Goodhue County… And that starts with G and that rhymes with P and that stands for… or is it G and that rhymes with D… it’s BOTH!

p.s. If you want to learn more about “America First” in Minnesota get up to Little Falls, and do some reading in the library at the Charles Lindbergh House and Museum.

Stopping the overdose on the front lines

Here’s an effort to supply NARCAN to libraries:

Company to Supply Free Narcan to Libraries – Emergent BioSolutions will provide two doses to every public library branch in the US

Recently on our local COVID page (to which I post the stats daily), I was challenged for posting on COVID and not the many ODs in our community, the party stating that “there were more ODs than COVID deaths.” Nope, NOT true! Although I’ve heard of several ODs here, we’ve had 74 COVID deaths since the start of tracking, and no way have we had more ODs than COVID deaths.

But given the challenge, and that I didn’t know how many ODs here since March 2020, I did some digging to see what the stats are on ODs.

A search of our local Republican Eagle for “overdose” had a lot of hits from here and surrounding area (rather wide circle):

SEARCH RESULTS HERE

Yesterday or the day before, I got this info from Goodhue County, though note it’s not 2021 info, only current through 2020, and it’s DRAFT info:

For Goodhue County separately, but no 2021 info yet:

And this despite a sharp increase in ODs in Minnesota:

Comparisons aren’t particularly relevant, whether between numbers of COVID deaths v. numbers of OD deaths, or between numbers of OD deaths here and elsewhere. One is too many.

I had asked for OD statistics, and got the info above. I also asked about treatment options, and info on resources, because I know from days as an attorney taking on whatever issues for whoever walked in the door how difficult it is to get into treatment. Even with an intervention that pushes someone toward straightening up, getting IN to treatment, whether inpatient or outpatient, is so difficult, between location, openings, PAYING FOR IT in our wonderful capitalistic health “care” system, what a mess. Back then, I did have a list of options for clients, and so remember my successes and failures to help clients through to sobriety, one failure particularly tragic, three times with the same client, who died of his addiction to alcohol. We need to do more to help people get treatment, and to get to the state where they’re ready for treatment, and that takes commitment and MONEY.

Per the County: When it comes to treatment, there is a statewide online treatment resource called www.fasttrackermn.org , and another statewide resource locator is https://www.211unitedway.org/ .

Also, below, please note some of Goodhue County specific treatment resources:

• Goodhue County Health and Human Services – Rule 25 Assessments and funding, guidance and resources – Red Wing (651) 385-6181 or HHS main line (651) 385-3200.
• Valley View Recovery – Inpatient (currently men’s only) – Cannon Falls (507) 601-5006
• Common Ground – Outpatient Services, assessments – Red Wing (651) 347-6500
• Midwest Recovery – Outpatient Services, assessments – Red Wing (651) 846-9010
• Zashata Burton with Moment to Moment Healing – Assessments, individual counseling – Red Wing (651) 380-0043
• Nystrom & Associates – Substance treatment services, counseling – Red Wing (651) 977-500
• Goodhue County Treatment Court – Helping non-violent offenders within the criminal court system.  Treatment Court Coordinator Kaitylyn Olmsted  (651) 267-4958

Thank you for this list of resources. Nina Arneson, Director of Health and Human Services, Goodhue County, has been very helpful and responsive in finding health related info.