Minneapolis / St. Paul News Blog

​Joe Basel, one of four right-wing hacks who tried to screw around with a U.S. senator's phone lines and ended up getting busted by the FBI, is under a federal court order not to travel outside Minnesota ahead of a Feb. 12 court date. But that didn't stop him from showing up in Nashville this past weekend to hear birthers howl and Sarah Palin speak with the aid of crib notes on her hand.

According to the Washington Independent:

One of the credentialed reporters is no less than Joseph Basel, one of the four activists who was arrested -- and let out on bail -- for the mysterious botched sting of Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-La.) office. "I'm here for myself," Basel told me, after chatting with Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit and Andrew Breitbart of Big Government.

​​​​It's February. It's snowing. And Minneapolis has declared a Snow Emergency, starting at 6 p.m. Here's a refresher course in what that means:

Day 1: (Monday, Feb. 8, 6 p.m.)

Park on either side of non-Snow Emergency routes (these streets DO NOT have the red sign: Snow Emergency Route).

Do not park on either side of the street with the red sign: Snow Emergency Route. Snow plows will clear those streets first.

After a street is fully plowed to the curb, feel free to park there, even if Snow Emergency parking rules are still in effect. Fully plowed means the street is completely cleared and plowed to the curb. Plows may come through more than once, so make sure that it is fully plowed to the curb before parking.

Day 2 - 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Tuesday, Feb. 9)

At 8 a.m., Day Two parking rules begin.

Park on the odd side of non-Snow Emergency Route streets (example: house address number 1359 Maple or 2513 17th Ave.).

Park on either side of streets with the red sign: Snow Emergency Route.

Do not park on the EVEN side of non-Snow Emergency routes. (Example: house address number: 1356 Maple or 2512 17th Ave.)

Do not park on either side of parkways.

After a street is fully plowed to the curb, feel free to park there, even if Snow Emergency parking rules are still in effect. Fully plowed means the street is completely cleared and plowed to the curb. Plows may come through more than once, so make sure that it is fully plowed to the curb before parking.

Day 3 - 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Wednesday, Feb. 10)

At 8 a.m., Day Three parking rules begin.

Park on even side of non-Snow Emergency Route streets. (Example: house address number: 1356 Maple or 2512 17th Ave.)

Park on either side of streets marked with the red sign: Snow Emergency Route and you may park on parkways.

Do not park on the ODD side of non-Snow Emergency Route streets (example: house address number 1359 or 2513 17th Ave.).

After a street is fully plowed to the curb, feel free to park there, even if Snow Emergency parking rules are still in effect. Fully plowed means the street is completely cleared and plowed to the curb. Plows may come through more than once, so make sure that it is fully plowed to the curb before parking.

More details on the city's Web site here.

You can also follow them on Twitter.

​Sure you do. Here's the link. You're welcome.

More from the Strib:

Minnesota's only team to make it to the Super Bowl, "technically unemployed" Minneapolis film makers and best friends Ben Krueger and Cole Koehler, got their 30 seconds of fame Sunday night, even though they didn't score the big payoff. Their "Snack Attack Samurai" Doritos commercial was seen on the most watched TV show on the planet, the Super Bowl.

​It has to get old answering the same questions over and over, but that's the game, isn't it? So here we have Gov. Pawlenty, down in North Carolina promoting himself, and the GOP line, and some reporter pops question: You running for the White House, or what?

So, for the record:

Q: What thoughts are you giving to 2012?

A: I've started a federal PAC which is geared toward trying to help candidates in 2010 but I have not decided what I'm going to do after 2010. Certainly using some of my time this year to support candidates and causes around the country trying to influence the 2010 election, but I haven't decided what I'm going to do beyond that.

Q: Is that something that interests you?

A: You know I just haven't ruled anything in or out I just don't know what I'm going to do. This something I won't decide until nest year.

Q: But it's something that's at least a possibility in your mind?

A: I don't know that yet. I don't know that yet. I mean I genuinely just don't know what I'm going to do after I'm done being governor. I may end up in the private sector. I don't know.

Nothing new here, but take a listen to the exchange:

Screengrab via NYT

​Yes, yes, she has a fancy schmancy condo in Vail, Colorado, but Lindsey Vonn is ours. When she hurtles down Canadian mountainsides in pursuit of gold medals and Olympic glory next week in Vancouver, you can bet every kid who ever ran gates at Buck Hill, as she did, will be cheering her on. And when she's interviewed by The New York Times, she makes Minnesota nice -- polite answer on the outside, thoroughly bugged on the inside:

Having spent much of her childhood in Apple Valley, Minn., Vonn is "Minnesota nice." But privately, she'll reveal that having to constantly talk about Miller's Olympian misadventure irks her. I found that out at lunch with her in New York last year, when I brought it up. She put down her sandwich and nearly snorted. "I know what I'm not," Vonn said, "and I am definitely not him." The conversation drifted away, but a minute later, she steered it back. "He was partying nights before Olympic races," she said, her voice rising. "What was he thinking? I can tell you, I'm not going to be the one that says it doesn't matter if I win an Olympic medal. I know what that means to me and to the country. The Olympics are huge."

Vonn's due in the starting gate of the ladies' super combined downhill on Valentines Day, Feb. 14.

Photo: mackenzienicole

​Just like smokers who evidently believe that we all want to pick their butts off the bottoms of our shoes or see them floating in a rain-filled bucket outside the mall, some folks who ice fish are of the opinion that we all want to find their Ding Dong wrappers and dead beer cans when we head to the lakes this summer. Slobs.

More from the Strib:

Throughout the ice-fishing season, officers find food packaging, beer cans and propane tanks stacked against fish houses and scattered around lakes across the state, said Capt. Ken Soring, the DNR's northeast region enforcement manager.

But by far the messiest time of the season comes around the state's deadline for fishermen to pull their houses off the ice, Soring said. In the southern two thirds of Minnesota, that is March 1, and officers expect to find loose insulation, wood blocks and even entire fish houses abandoned on the ice.

Photo by kteague

​A 21-year-old Wisconsin man apparently approached his mother behind their house Thursday night sporting a ski mask and trying to rob the 37-year-old woman... As a joke. Bad idea. Mom knows how to defend herself and shot her son in the crotch.

The man says he was just playing around. Great prank, dude! Prosecutors aren't buying his story. Police are currently investigating to determine the man's actual intention.

His mom came home around 9 p.m. after shopping, according to police. Her son came up to her and seemed to be trying to rob her. She pulled out a .357-caliber rovolver and shot her son at least twice. One of them hit him in the groin.

The injuries aren't life threatening and the man doesn't exactly have a "funny" record with police: He's already been arrested for drug and weapon offenses in the past.

Next time, it might be good to remember that loaded weapon your mother carries along with her when you try a knee-slapping hilarious prank. Now you've got a sore crotch to remember it by!

​Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter Jr. will oversee the trial of Aaron Biber, a once high-flying Minneapolis attorney now accused of getting a teenager drunk, raping him, and also sending him photographs of his erect penis.

Judge Mark Wernick assigned the case to Porter on Friday.

Porter is perhaps best known as the judge who ruled in 2007 that former Idaho Sen. Larry "I'm not gay" Craig could not withdraw his guilty plea after being arrested and charged with lewd behavior in a restroom at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. Craig appealed that ruling, and lost.

Biber's trial starts in July.

Photo vi truecrimereport.com

Rev. Danny Barnes and his wife, Dena

​The Rev. Danny Kwami Barnes, who says he was just trying to get his son-in-law into rehab for an abuse problem, is instead going to spend 11 years behind bars after a jury decided what he was really doing amounted to assault, kidnapping and battery.

Barnes is the pastor of Thy Kingdom Come World Ministries, in Wheaton, Minn., a church he and his wife, Dena, established in 2004 as a ministry to substance abusers and other folks down on their luck. It's also a church that some folks in the rural, western Minnesota community are uncomfortable with. A 14-month-old girl died there last year after being struck in the head by a baseball bat during a fight.

The heck with pond hockey. Forget ice fishing. No, what you want to learn this winter is ice bowling. Like Leah Shaffer, who visits Mitchell Lake for a few pointers.