July 2008

« June 2008 | Main | August 2008 »

St. Paul takes art to the streets

Do you have road rage? Are you currently driving down the street at 90 mph while reading this from your iPhone? It's time to stop flipping the bird at that school bus because calming street art is coming to St. Paul.

The signs are about the same size as regular traffic signs and feature unusual designs including mazes, bright clovers, and even optical illusions. Many drivers become accustomed to signage on the routes they regularly drive, so the idea of this project is shake people out of their routine, slowing things down and heightening awareness in neighborhoods.

Art signs will move about designated areas along Hamline Avenue from Charles to Blair and Thomas Avenue from Pascal to Griggs so that drivers don't become too accustomed to them, with each selected spot hosting the art for ten weeks. The project will run through 2009. The signs are not intended to replace real traffic signs, so yes, you still have to make that full stop and yield when told to.

Part of the "Art of Traffic Calming" project, the signs are the brainchild of City of Saint Paul Public Works, and will be underwritten by non–profit group Public Art Saint Paul. For more info call the project’s hotline at 651.266.6216.

Here's some more samples of what you can expect to see around the area in the next two years.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at July 31, 2008 3:42 PM | Comments (5)

 

Diploma-buying control room worker's employer: "No comment"

Filed under: Crime

Borrowing a page from the Xcel Energy media playbook, Dominion Energy Spokesman Mark Kanz tells City Pages that his company has nothing to say about Duwayne Huss. (Huss is the guy we wrote about yesterday who reportedly owns a bogus diploma in nuclear engineering and who works in the control room of a nuclear power plant in eastern Wisconsin.)

This "no comment" extends to whether an internal investigation has been launched, whether Huss is still employed in the control room of the Kewaunee Power Station, and, if they could get away with it, we imagine, whether a person named Duwayne Huss actually exists.

While we don't pretend to have extensive training in the dark art of public relations, and at risk of sounding like a broken record, we have to say that this strikes us as fairly stupid.

When all evidence suggests that someone working in the control room of your nuclear power plant has a bogus degree in nuclear engineering, it seems prudent to look into the matter. And it seems equally prudent to inform the public that you are doing so.

In the meantime, we note that Finance and Commerce picked up the Duwayne Huss story yesterday (albeit without the whole working in a Wisconsin nuclear plant's control room angle) and that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blogged about it earlier this morning.

If and when we find out anything more, we'll be sure to share.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at July 31, 2008 11:19 AM | Comments (4)

 

City Pages gets Best Music Writing honors

Filed under: City Pages

Da Capo's annual Best Music Writing anthology collects great pieces from the previous year into one handy volume. Authors whose work has been collected for the tome are notified well in advance, but each season there are Honorable Mentions announced later.

Idolator has reported that Peter S. Scholtes and Kevin Cannon's work on the Twin Cities Rock Atlas earned them one of these awards. This puts Scholtes and Cannon in some exclusive company.

Other pieces selected for Honorable Mention include four from the New York Times, one from the Washington Post, and others from Billboard, Salon, The Nation, and New York magazine among others.

Check out the writing, and don't forget to visit our Google Map of all the sites named in the atlas. Kevin Cannon's "making of" blog post is also worth your time.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 31, 2008 11:16 AM | Comments (0)

 

Former Minnesota nuclear power plant employee outed as diploma-buying fraudster

Filed under: Crime

Happily for us--but less so for our cheese-loving neighbors to the east--the man who reportedly bought bogus degrees in nuclear engineering and accounting has found a new job. At a Wisconsin nuclear power plant. In the control room.

Before we go any further, let us back up for a moment. In 2005, a federal grand jury in Washington state indicted eight people on charges of running a diploma mill and issuing thousands of fake degrees from colleges and universities both real and make-believe. All eight were eventually convicted, and last month the ringleader of the operation was sentenced to three years in prison.

Which left one big question unanswered: Who were their customers?

Frustratingly, the government refused to say. But yesterday, the Spokane Spokesman-Review published the complete list of names with an accompanying article highlighting some of the biggest eyebrow-raisers.

Included among the nearly 10,000 fake diploma buyers are members of the National Security Agency, the CIA, and even NASA. Perhaps the most interesting name on the list, however, is that of Duwayne Huss. In the article, Huss is described as:

an employee of Nuclear Management Co., operator of two nuclear plants in Minnesota, [who] bought degrees in nuclear engineering and accounting.

"I can't give you information about our employees," company spokeswoman Mary [Sandok] said Monday when asked if Huss was still employed.

Nuclear Management Co. is contracted by Xcel Energy to run its two nuclear power plants, Monticello and Prairie Island. This morning, Xcel spokesman Tom Hoen told City Pages that Huss hasn't worked for Nuclear Management Co. for more than three years--since right around the time the feds were sinking their teeth into the diploma mill.

Hoen wouldn't say what Huss's job was at Nuclear Management Co., nor would he say whether Huss quit or was fired. All of which strikes us as pretty dumb. If he was a pencil pusher who was fired when his fraud was uncovered, then good. If he was in charge of making sure the place didn't melt down and left of his own volition, well, that's embarrassing and scary and, if true, will in all likelihood come to light in due time.

But there's more:

After parting ways with Nuclear Management Co., Huss secured employment at the Kewaunee Power Station in eastern Wisconsin. A call to the nuclear plant confirms that Huss is currently employed in its control room, although the receptionist declined to say in what capacity.

The nuclear power plant is owned by Dominion, which describes itself on its website as "one of the nation's largest producers of energy."

We've got calls out to the big cheeses of the company to ask if they're aware that a control room worker at one of their nuclear plants seems to have a make-believe degree in nuclear engineering. We'll let you know what they say when we hear back.

Also, messages left for Huss at what appears to be his home phone number were not returned.

UPDATE: Xcel has released more information about Huss's stint at Nuclear Management Co. Here's the email that Tom Hoen, Xcel's spokesman, just sent our way:

"Mr. Huss has not worked for Nuclear Management Co for three years. He never worked for Xcel Energy, nor did he ever have access to or work at Xcel Energy's Prairie Island or Monticello nuclear plants."

FURTHER UPDATE: Dominion Energy responds.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at July 30, 2008 2:12 PM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 7/31: Hasbro's Facebook Scrabble lives (dies?) to torment users

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Earlier in the week, Hasbro's lawsuit against the creators of the not-quite-Scrabble application Scrabulous on Facebook successfully shut down the popular game. This was much to the chagrin of yours truly and tens of thousands of other users -- but, I conceded, it was good of Hasbro to at least ensure that the official Scrabble application was up and running at the time.

Jinx!

That's right, the corporation emerged victorious in its anti-fun campaign, ruining the experience of potential customers throughout the U.S. and Canada -- and then borked their own version of the application the next day. It'll be down for weeks.

In an, ahem, unrelated development, the Indian brothers who created Scrabulous for the social networking site have a new game. It's called Wordscraper, and it doesn't have any set rules you must follow. It's just a blank board.

And yet, you can create your own board replete with double-word scores, triple-letter scores and the like. If the board happens to mimic Scrabble's exactly, well, what a happy coincidence.

Besides, it's not like you can play the game anywhere else on Facebook.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Jonathan Kaminsky takes the list of diploma mill customers published by the Spokane Spokesman-Review and discovers our own private Homer Simpson: a Minnesota man whose degree in nuclear engineering appears fraudulent. The former employee of Xcel Energy found gainful labor a few miles east, in Wisconsin -- in the control room of a nuclear plant. Frank Grimes was unavailable for comment.

The Fringe Festival starts later today, and Christopher O. Kidder has a preview post to help you choose what to see. More in-depth previews, with interviews of prominent theater people, are available at our Fringe site.

In honor of Doomtree's first full-crew CD release -- and the resultant party tomorrow night -- Andrea Myers uses their new bike-friendly video as a jumping off point to show other bicycle-related videos. But what about this one? No love for Queen?

Our sports bloggers want two athletes in the decline phase of their careers to come to Minnesota, for very different reasonss. Judd Spicer says http://blogs.citypages.com/sports/2008/07/undoubtedly_iff.php, while Jonathan Kaminsky just wants to experience the schadenfreude of Brett Favre backing up Tarvaris Jackson.

"C'mon inside. Set a spell. Don't worry if we can't spell." I'm not necessarily in concordance with Rachel Hutton that spelling correctly correlates with producing good food, but "Mediterranean" is one of those words that you really ought to look up before spending money on a sign. Like "alternator," I guess, which is spelled "altenator" on a painted Washington Avenue auto shop repair sign that I pass every day on my way to City Pages world headquarters.

Photos of the month coming in a couple of hours! Be sure to check 'em out; July was quality.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 30, 2008 9:38 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 7/30: American Refugee

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

The main focus of this Wednesday's content centers around Beth Walton's feature article about the Collins family, living in exile in Amsterdam.

To complement this story of spousal abuse, kidnapping and refugee status, we have an additional interview with Jennifer Collins, one of the children allegedly abused by her father. Now 23, Jennifer Collins talks about a future working with adult survivors of abuse.

From their therapy sessions as children, Jennifer supplied us with chilling stories her brother Zachary wrote and drew as a child. Also see the photo slideshow with more artwork Jennifer and Zachary drew as children. The artwork links are can't-miss if you want to feel the emotional impact of this story.

Elsewhere: Nipa might not have been the "Next Food Network Star," but she sat down with Rachel Hutton to give you a behind the scenes glimpse into the reality show.

Which Vikings quarterback is the most American? This is a question Bradley Campbell poses. Another factor in John David's favor: Americans love Booty.

I liked The Government Inspector at the Guthrie. Just so you know.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 30, 2008 7:51 AM | Comments (1)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Children's artwork tells story of Collins case

Filed under: Women's Issues

Also see:
The feature article
Interview with Jennifer Collins
Photo slideshow with more artwork Jennifer and Zachary drew as children

When Zachary Collins was 8 years old,he would bang his head on the floor after getting off the phone with his father, mother Holly Collins says. Holly sought the help of outpatient family therapist Fred Emilianowicz in Salem, Massachusetts.

Zachary had told the therapist that he would run away before going back to Minnesota. He told of having recurring nightmares of his father chasing him and said he believed that if his father caught him, he would be killed. During therapy, the child drew an 8-page depiction of his life. On paper he penciled his father slamming his mother into a wall while he and Jennifer hid in a nearby closet. The story, "The Tale of Mark," ends when the children are rescued and taken to safety in New England and Mark is decapitated by a guillotine at a nearby castle. “If I could get rid of Mark this is where I would do it,” the child wrote at the bottom of the page.

Zachary wrote and drew two complete stories which were supplied to City Pages by Jennifer Collins. They are reproduced in full after the jump. Click on each image for a larger version.

THE TALE OF MARK

Young Zachary also produced another four-page story.

THE KID HURTER

Posted by Beth Walton at July 29, 2008 3:29 PM | Comments (7)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Jennifer Collins speaks about her family's case

Filed under: Women's Issues

Also see:
The feature article
Complete stories about abuse written and drawn by then-8-year-old Zachary
Photo slideshow with artwork Jennifer and Zachary drew as children

Jennifer Collins says that her father beat her as a child. She says that she told court officials and therapists several times during a tragic and lengthy custody trial that she did not feel safe with him. Nonetheless, Hennepin County Family Court put her and her older brother Zachary in his custody when they were just 7 and 9. It was believed that their mother was unstable and coaching the two children. Despite findings of spousal abuse, her father, Mark Collins of Crystal, Minn., was seen as the more fit parent.

Today, at 23 years old, Jennifer feels cheated. As a kid everyone told her if she told the truth everything would be OK. "But it wasn’t, was it?" She says on the phone from her mother's house in Western Holland. "I know I am an adult and it shouldn't matter so much anymore, but I want justice for us kids and for other kids who are currently being abused," she later adds in an e-mail.

Jennifer and brother Zachary

Jennifer says her past has shaped her future. Upon graduation from college, the psychology major plans to be an advocate for change. She hopes to move to the U.S. and work on issues of family court reform and the rights of children. Someday, she would like to start her own organization for abused children, run by adult survivors of child abuse. "I think it is about time for such a bold organization…" she wrote.

For now, Jennifer is focused on getting the word out. She has started a website with several YouTube videos detailing her version of the past. She has sent over 400 emails to every U.S. Senator, member of the Minnesota legislature and advocacy groups she could find to raise awareness. She’s even worked with StopFamilyViolence.Org to set up an online petition on behalf of her family.

While reluctant to share the intimate, tragic details of her past, Jennifer realizes the power of her family's story. They went forward to raise awareness about the system that they believe failed them. "[Family court] is the one who should be charged with 'Failure to Protect!,'" she says.

Unfortunately, experts and advocates in the area of abuse say what happened to the Collins family is a widespread problem within the American judicial system. There have been several studies done around the country that show the difficulties family courts have in protecting women from domestic violence and children from abuse, says Dr. Joyanna Silberg, clinician and Executive Vice President of the Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence.

Every week the organization's website is flooded with people in similar situations needing help. It is astonishing the number of custody cases where domestic violence is present in which the courts award the children to the abuser, she says.

"It isn’t as if people want to harm children. Certainly nobody consciously wants to harm children, but it’s a matter of systemic errors that allow children's needs to fall through the cracks. The same systemic errors exist in many states and counties."

Abusers will often challenge custody because it is a way for them to continue to exhibit control over the woman or kids they batter, she says. "It’s almost a science of how to get custody when you are an abuser. There are websites and play books you can find on line. If you are accused of child sexual abuse, some lawyers will recommend the thing to do is to go for full custody… Chances are the court will look at you as, 'here’s a nice guy who wants to be part of the children's lives.'"

More often than not, a battered woman is not going to want let the children go to the home of the man who abused her, and she ends up looking hysterical and frantic as she pleads for their safety, at times defying ordered visitation upon the advice medical practitioners. Lawyers for the abuser will then capitalize on that behavior and make the battered parent look unstable—using labels such as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP) or Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), a disease not substantiated by the American Psychological Association with little scholastic or empirical evidence. Here's a great Newsweek story on the subject.

Slowly some states are starting to introduce legislation to improve the system, says Silberg, who is working on federal reform to better protect children from abuse. In Tennessee, for example, a bill was passed making it illegal to use PAS as a custody reversal basis if abuse is alleged. In other places lawmakers are trying to do the same thing with MSbP.

The system changes slower than the cases cycle through. A little while ago Silberg worked with a client whose father was implicated for physical abuse and had punched his child in the face. He got full custody. Years later the mother was finally allowed weekend visitation.

"But that's not uncommon. That's a very common story," Silberg says. "If you spent a day in my shoes you would not believe you are in America. It's like the Middle Ages, a Third World County. It's truly a veil over reality. It's so sad."

Posted by Beth Walton at July 29, 2008 2:38 PM | Comments (13)

 

Breakfast of Champions 7/29: Facebook shuts down Scrabulous

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Every morning before I write this post, I check my messages from assorted e-mail accounts and on the social networking site Facebook. A lifelong Scrabble junkie, I often take a few seconds to make a move on Facebook's knockoff application, Scrabulous.

But not today. Today, this message greets me.

Just this morning, Facebook has agreed to shut down Scrabulous for American and Canadian users. Apparently not making enough off of Transformer and G.I. Joe licensing, owner Hasbro has been suing the application's developers. Which translates into users like me being struck dumb before our first sips of hot caffeine.

I'll offer this crumb of praise for Hasbro. At least they developed an official Facebook Scrabble application before shutting down the pirates. The first priority in situations like this should be ensuring your potential customers access to your game; then try to shut down the copycats. A lot of companies fail to understand this reality of the Internet age, where making products and information available to users is almost always the right policy.

On the other hand, they were way late to the dance. If Hasbro had spent half the lawsuit's resources on outreach, telling fans of Scrabble that they could play the popular game online for free legally, I suspect the shift would have occurred naturally. You can see this failure in the numbers. Scrabulous has 509505 daily users on Facebook; the official version checks in at just under 15,000.

To date Hasbro's application gets just 1.7 out of 5 stars from users (Scrabulous gets 4.2 stars). Whether this negative rating is simply spamming by vengeful Scrabulous devotees or is actually related to the gameplay remains to be seen.

But a lot of people -- including me -- are going to be trying it out now. We'll see.

UPDATE: Tried to log in to the Hasbro application. Got the following message. Way to capitalize on your legal victory, folks.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

The Fringe Festival's final preview for young viewers has Christopher O. Kidder (and his daughter!) excited for the theater extravaganza's onset.

Matt Snyders: proud to be an Iowan, even though Karl Rove's free. Despite the best efforts of some other Iowans. If Rove ever tries to come to the Twin Cities, I'm sure there will be volunteers. We're the top of the heap in other types of volunteerism.

The Robert Novak hit-and-run story is less funny now that Novak has a brain tumor. But this parody, Little Black Corvette, remains worth a chuckle.

In his final Comic-Con 2K8 installment at Joystick Division, Gary Hodges talks passing out buttons, spending too much money and Playmate Tiffany Taylor. Is she really a Playboy Playmate if she doesn't spell "Tiffany" with an "i"? I'm skeptical.

Bradley Campbell is surprised that Critical Mass riders beat down a motorist who backed into one of their number. Clearly, Bradley hasn't been to Seattle in a while.

Brunch at Windows on Minnesota is a 50-story experience worth the ride, writes James Norton. But how about those cream puffs?

Law student and MMA fighter Nick "The Goat" Thompson is taking the bar exam. "The state needs more badass lawyers," writes Bradley Campbell, "especially ones who can rock a neck beard."

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 29, 2008 8:18 AM | Comments (3)

 

Iowans Attempt to Place Karl Rove Under Citizens' Arrest

Filed under: Crime

Say what you will about our neighbors to the south. In the months since relocating to the Twin Cities from Ioway, I’ve learned that few punching bags endure as much ribbing and ridicule as my home state and those who inhabit it. (Though after last month’s flood, the jokes suddenly dried up, presumably out of respect or pity or other such Minnesota Nice claptrap.)

If nothing else, you’ve got to hand it to Iowans for their determination. More specifically, their inimitable resolve to snatch up Karl Rove and place the doughy gnome where he belongs, which is to say squarely behind bars. For the second time in six months, Iowa denizens tried to place Rove under citizens’ arrest, this time while the former White House advisor was in Des Moines for a fundraiser. A quixotic endeavor, to be sure (the four would-be captors were subsequently arrested themselves), and, yes, a tad sophomoric— but also weirdly endearing. I must confess that upon reading this morning’s headline (“Iowans Attempt to Arrest Karl Rove”), my heart swelled with a state pride not felt since the lily white state gave Hillary Clinton the proverbial finger, opting instead for a rookie senator named Barack Hussein Obama.

For whatever reason, Rove has not been threatened with arrest—by citizens or otherwise—in any other state to date. It seems that in other parts of the country, people are intimidated by Rove. Or maybe they’re more levelheaded and pragmatic. Or maybe they despise Rove free-of-fear, and are merely too complacent/deferential to take matters into their own soft hands.

But not in Iowa. The state's can-do attitude is much lauded, but it is usually associated with agriculture or education or shitty nu-metal. It is thus a little-known secret that Iowans will—will!—seize you by the lapels if you happen to be a pasty-faced, piggly war criminal* with a crazed history of duplicity, baseless smear attacks, and psychotic fear-mongering.

So tread lightly through the cornfields, Mr. Rumsfeld. Your day might soon come.

*Admittedly, "war criminal" might be a bit of a stretch. But you get the idea.

Posted by Matt Snyders at July 28, 2008 12:33 PM | Comments (2)

 

Plenty of Do-Gooders Here

Filed under: Civil Soctiety

A report by the Corporation for National and Community Service released today puts Minnesota and the Twin Cities in the top ranks of volunteerism.

For the third year in a row Utah was the top volunteer state with a volunteer rate of 43.9 percent, followed by Nebraska, Minnesota, Alaska and Montana. Minneapolis-St. Paul once again ranked number one among large cities at 39.3 percent, with Salt Lake City, Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Austin rounding out the top five.

Some 61 million Americans volunteered in 2007, totaling 8.1 billion hours of service worth more than $158 billion.

Interestingly enough, this year's report included an analysis of the differences between volunteers and non-volunteers. Turns out, non-volunteers are lazy bums.

In a typical week, volunteers spend approximately 15 hours watching television, compared to 23 hours for non-volunteers. That eight-hour difference adds up to more than 400 hours over the course of a year.

"The research shows that volunteering isn’t as much about having the time to volunteer but creating volunteering opportunities that people want to make the time for," said Dr. Robert Grimm, the Corporation’s Director of Research and Policy. "If millions of Americans traded in one hour of TV a week to volunteer, they could make a profound difference in some of the big problems facing our nation and potentially accrue personal health benefits."

Posted by Beth Walton at July 28, 2008 9:56 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 7/28: In Pictures

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Image-heavy events -- concerts, fashion shows, festivals -- happen on the weekends. When we bring you a passel of slideshows from a glorious three days of revelry, I feel like excellent photos often get lost in the shuffle. If they aren't in the thumbnail that appears on the homepage or in the first few slides, you might miss them.

This will not stand. Here are three memorable images that nestle, like a secret caramel center, inside this weekend's slideshows:

In a fashion-heavy weekend, the Center for Hmong Art and Talent's second annual fashion event stood out. Here, a model sports Mai Moua’s designs. More images from the CHAT's Fresh Traditions fashion show here. Photos by B FRESH.

To look at the thumbnail, you'd think that Lumberjack Days was all about the lumberjacks. Au contraire. The dogs and the logs are both represented by Daniel Corrigan's photographs from Lumberjack Days in Stillwater.

To the written word for a moment: "A state program funneling excess deer carcasses from the big hunt to food shelves that was canned last year over lead contamination worries will resume this fall," writes Jonathan Kaminsky. I ran over a wild turkey last month. No lead in that sucker. Of course, it practically evaporated when I hit the thing, so feather soup would have been the best you could hope for from that ex-turkey.

Expecting to see your favorite national Republican at the convention? Gordon Smith? John Sununu? You might just be disappointed. GOPers in competitive congressional races are choosing to stay away.

The last photo in the swimsuit fashion slideshow features this fellow, who was having a bachelor party -- only to stumble upon a group of models willing to be pictured with him. More shots by Tony Nelson from the Exotica Swimwear fashion show in the slideshow.

In news of the printed word, Joystick Division's Gary Hodges has a series of posts from the San Diego ComicCon, including one where he meets the Penny Arcade guys -- who, as it turns out, read the site. Gary maintains his dignity and does not act like a fanboy.

The run-up to the Fringe Festival is almost complete, and local writer and director Christopher Kidder has a series of blog posts for us. More will be updating throughout the day, and you can follow them all here. The most extensive so far is an interview with performer Allegra Lingo.

Have you forgotten the Vikings' misbehavior over the years, especially that of its sack leaders? Ben Palosaari hasn't. Of course, Ben also drank Colt .45, and God knows if he did so before writing this post or not.

The Minneapolis Police Department has once again amended its protest policies, and Matt Snyders highlights one element: just what can they do with your camera, and under what circumstances?

If only David Carr had started commenting on the Internet while actually using crack, then we might have had something. You're late to the dance on this one, buddy.

Finally, let me leave you with this bit of off-site linky goodness:

Scientists have photographed a giant gas bubble emanating from a whale, suggesting that flatulence is just as common for ocean mammals as it is for humans and many other terrestrial animals.

"The picture is of an Antarctic minke whale taken from the bow of a ship," said AAD principal research scientist Dr Nick Gales. "The white bits in the photo are pieces of ice-floe, the stream of pinky colour behind the whale is a faecal plume - a.k.a. "poo" - the large circle in the water is indeed the physical eruption of the whale’s flatulence."

Yes, you can see the picture by clicking the link. No, I've never seen this happen while scuba diving. Or observed it with my other senses, either.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 28, 2008 6:36 AM | Comments (0)

 

MPLS City Council Amends 'Police Policies' Resolution

Filed under: Police

The Minneapolis City Council today amended four parts of controversial resolution 2008R-248, which set forth “police policies regarding public assemblies.” (Read: Republican National Convention.)

Activists had decried the resolution for two main reasons. First, it allowed the use of plastic/rubbber bullets and secondly, it--in effect--permitted MPD officers to confiscate, tamper, and destroy activists' and witnesses' cameras. You know, for evidence.

Below are the amendments. (Amended material appears in bold.)

In concurrence with MPD policies, and state and constitutional law, MPD officers will not use pepper spray, tear gas, or similar substances, or projectiles except in situations where use of such force is reasonable.

In concurrence with MPD policies, that MPD officers shall not confiscate, destroy or tamper with cameras or other recording devices being used to document public assembly activities or MPD enforcement actions. The restriction on confiscation shall not apply to situations in which a) cameras or recording devices are to be used as evidence subject to First and Fourth Amendment constitutional protections, or b) MPD officers arrest an individual in possession of cameras of recording devices.

In concurrence with MPD policies, that rubber or plastic bullets or rubber-coated or plastic-coated bullets fired from conventional firearms shall not be used.

That MPD officers will not subject law abiding demonstration organizers to disparate enforcement actions. MPD officers will not target law abiding persons not engaged in demonstrating, including journalists, camera people, and legal observers, for enforcement actions.

Posted by Matt Snyders at July 25, 2008 5:04 PM | Comments (4)

 

Carr runs over Dogma: Drug memoirist defends himself in blog comments

Filed under: Media

Local crackhead-about-town turned New York Times media reporter David Carr has enjoyed quite a lot of pre-publication buzz on his intriguing new memoir, The Night of the Gun.

One of the best pieces is Brian Lambert's interview with the author in Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine. One of the the worst pieces is a guest blog post on Mother Jones by Mojo author Maia Szalavitz.

Szalavitz, who hasn't read the book, judges it entirely on a recent excerpt published in New York Times Magazine.

Perhaps in the book he tells the story of how he came to be so uncaring and far gone as to leave his children in a car for hours the winter while smoking crack or shooting up. Perhaps there, he further examines his privileged position. And perhaps there he recognizes that a model of addiction that sees addiction as simple immoral behavior doesn't capture its essence.

In the article, however, his immorality is described as a simple consequence of addiction. The drugs made me do it, Officer. End of story.

This morning, Carr himself appeared in the comments section to answer the criticism:

my book addresses, precisely and comprehensively, each of the issues you raised. why review an excerpt? why not do the work and read the book? seems silly to indict on what is and is not in an excerpt and speculate on what might be in the book.

best regards,

david carr

Posted by: David Carr on 07/25/08 at 10:14 AM

We gotta give this one to Carr. Judging the book based on the excerpt was poor form, and Szalavitz's moralizing from the perspective of a reformed addict is insufferable.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at July 25, 2008 2:08 PM | Comments (6)

 

Unleaded protein

Filed under: Food

Down-on-your-luck venison lovers, rejoice!

A state program funneling excess deer carcasses from the big hunt to food shelves that was canned last year over lead contamination worries will resume this fall.

To ensure that the bellies of the less fortunate will remain unleaded, the state Departments of Health, Agriculture, and Natural Resources are teaming up. Chief among their initiatives: a DNR study involving a grassy field, 75 sheep carcasses, and a whole bunch of ammo. (The idea being to determine and then to advise hunters as to which bullets pose the lowest risk of lead contamination.)

"It's a positive program," says Michael Schommer, spokesman for the Agriculture Department, which destroyed 12,000 pounds of venison after finding lead in a deer burger last year. "We have to make sure that it's safe."

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at July 25, 2008 12:41 PM | Comments (1)

 

Breakfast of Champions 7/25: I Want the Moon, Redux

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

In keeping with an earlier post, today I've got another cosmos-related link. Turns out Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, says Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, and NASA's covering up alien contact.

For me the oddest part of this story isn't Mitchell's tales of intergalactic life. It's that this apparently wasn't the intended topic of the interview. Imagine being the radio interviewer when this comes out.

[Mitchell] told the astonished Kerrang! radio host Nick Margerrison: "This is really starting to open up. I think we're headed for real disclosure and some serious organisations are moving in that direction."

Other unexpected disclosures: the earth is not round, either. It's shaped like a burrito!

Hipsters love the fixed-gear bike. One thing you can say for the machine: the brakes don't freeze even when it hits 25 below. Also, Europeans dig it.

John Kruk once famously said "I'm not an athlete; I'm a baseball player." The Twins strength and conditioning coach would disagree. Judd Spicer interviewed him, and if you've ever wanted to see a pitcher's workout, we've got you covered.

Among the weekend's events: the Kickapoo Country Fair, an organic farm fest. If you don't want to make the trip to La Farge, you can always stay close to home and try our Drink of the Week.

You've still got a chance to catch the Momentum dance event at the Southern, and Friday night's probably the night to do it. Caroline Palmer offers a review of the latest pieces.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 25, 2008 8:38 AM | Comments (1)

 

Fake employee rights group attacks Al Franken in smear ad UPDATED

Filed under: Al Franken

If you open up the Star Tribune to page A10 today, you'll see a garish full-page smear against Al Franken (the same ad is on the back of the Pioneer Press's A-section as well today).

Above a huge picture of Al Franken looking shifty eyed with discolored teeth--clearly the ugliest picture they could find of the man--reads the headline:

Is Al Franken Confused?

The short answer: No, but this ad is trying to confuse you.

The ad points out that Al Franken supports the right of workers to have open union elections rather than secret ballots. It quotes the Wall Street Journal talking about how it would strip U.S. workers of "the right to decide in private whether to unionize."

Is Al's plan fair? Is he confused? Maybe he's just wrong.

The ad gives the impression that Franken is against union campaigns, or at least privacy. In fact, Al Franken is in favor of the more open, easy form of unionizing, called "card check" meaning all you have to do is sign a union card rather than hold a secret ballot.

So whose behind the deceptive advertising? The website listed in the piece is employeefreedom.org, where you'll find this "About Us":

The Employee Freedom Action Committee (EFAC) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization fighting for fair elections in the workplace. The committee is composed of thousands of American workers, employers and others that believe that everyone deserves a right to a private, fair election when it comes to joining a labor union.

But I find this description in Willamette Week to be far more accurate:

Washington, D.C.-based Employee Freedom is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which means it does not need to disclose its funding sources. The group is headquartered in the office of D.C. lobbyist Richard Berman, who has a history of setting up AstroTurf groups for the tobacco and booze industries, as well as anti-union employers.

It kinda bugs me that newspapers print political ads they know to be false, even though they would never permit willfully deceiving readers in non-ad copy. But it's a slippery slope--what's next, forcing reporters to verify whether Coke is truly more refreshing than Pepsi?--and the Strib isn't in a position to turn away ad dollars.

UPDATE: There's an excellent piece on this in the Strib this morning:

The DFL Party filed a formal complaint this week against the sponsors of two ads that slam U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken for supporting federal legislation making union organizing easier.

The television and print ads, sponsored by the independent groups Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and Minnesotans for Employee Freedom, allege that the Employee Free Choice Act, which Franken supports, would eliminate secret ballots in workplace elections over whether to approve union representation.

The DFL, in a complaint under Minnesota election laws to the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings, said that claim is false and that in fact the bill would guarantee the right to secret ballots.

"In Minnesota, we don't tolerate intentionally false statements in paid political advertising," said DFL chairman Brian Melendez in a statement.

The Employee Freedom Action Committee released a statement calling the DFL complaint "frivolous."

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at July 24, 2008 3:15 PM | Comments (6)

 

Salmonella Saintpaul: National media & local dailies pick up on Minnesota angle

Filed under: Science

If you're a faithful City Pages reader, you learned about Minnesota's role is solving the nationwide Salmonella epidemic on our website Tuesday or in print Wednesday. In a Reporter's Notebook published on our site yesterday, I wrote about how I stumbled onto the story in the first place. Now the story has gone national.

Both dailies front paged the story today. The Strib gets cheeky and calls the story 'Team Diarrhea' helped state crack salmonella case. The Pioneer Press plays it straight--and uses the Associated Press wire story--here:

WASHINGTON — It was a hot lead for detectives on a cold case. People suddenly were getting salmonella at a Minnesota restaurant more than 1,000 miles from the center of the nation's outbreak.

Not my tomatoes, protested the manager. He'd switched his supply to government-cleared fresh tomatoes and even canned ones. But a lot of his menu items had a raw jalapeno garnish sprinkled on top, and that turned out to be a critical clue in the two-month salmonella mystery.

You can also find the AP story in USA Today and the Washington Post. Another follow-up on the story appear in the Wall Street Journal.

Here's the scandal at the heart of the story laid bare:

How could Minnesota pinpoint hot peppers just days after discovering a cluster of sick residents, when federal investigators had spent weeks fruitlessly chasing tomatoes?

Well, here's what one knowledgable anonymous source told me when I was reporting the original story:

"When this thing completely unfolds, I'll say off the record there has been a fricking disaster. CDC is obviously gonna be held accountable."

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at July 24, 2008 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 7/24: I Want the Moon

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Full disclosure: a friend of mine worked on this NASA research. Fuller disclosure: the guy who runs Bad Astronomy says this is "just about the coolest thing [he has] ever seen," so I feel beyond justified in sharing it with you.

It's an animation from NASA's EPOXI spacecraft that shows the moon passing directly in front of the Earth, something that's impossible to see from terra firma itself. If this doesn't make you inhale deeply, well, I feel sorry for you.

Once more, with feeling: here's the infrared view.

Enough of the interstellar phenomena. What type of stellar newsgathering have we done for you today?

From a view of the moon circumnavigating the Earth to a bunch of hot people try out for a reality show in St. Paul. Someone make a stupid "heavenly bodies" joke, I can't bear to do it myself.

We'll definitely be following the story of the two female lawyers being fired after sharing a drunken lesbian kiss. Some of us will be hitting the phones trying to work on the employment discrimination angle. Others will be doing Google Image searches for "lesbian kiss."

The Fringe Festival starts on July 31. To get you ready, we're giving voice to Commedia Beuaregarde's Christopher O. Kidder, who will be liveblogging the event on-site. Kidder's initial "Fringe By Numbers" post explains his method for picking shows and offers a rundown of the Monday Fringe-For-All, breaking down the good, bad and strange shows. Between Kidder and theater critic Quinton Skinner, we'll be able to hit a wide array of performances at this year's Fringe.

Slam, Bam: Ward Rubrecht covers the BIG Slam event in photos and MP3 files.

Beth Walton makes fun of Norm Coleman's new "bowlers" ad and broadcast news types that lift content directly from newspapers. But the funniest thing going today is this picture of John McCain and Mitt Romney. Help us caption it!

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 24, 2008 9:20 AM | Comments (3)

 

Scandal: Firm allegedly fires summer associates after drunken lesbian kiss -- UPDATED

Filed under: Law

According to abovethelaw.com, two female summer associates at Minneapolis firm Lindquist & Vennum were fired last week after drunkenly kissing each other at a post-work function.

The legal gossip blog says it has a half dozen sources confirming the incident and subsequent firing.

We have little to add to this story at present, other than to say we've confirmed that while there used to be 10 summer associates at the firm, there are now eight. Once we have comment from folks at the firm, assuming they return our calls, we will let you know what we know.

UPDATE after the jump:

Nancy Vollertsen, a partner at Lindquist & Vennum, returned our call. Here's what she had to say:

"We have a great summer program and we don’t make employment decisions on a discriminatory basis."

Beyond that, she declined to either confirm or deny what has been written about the alleged firings, citing the privacy of the employees.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at July 24, 2008 5:47 AM | Comments (3)

 

Broadcast News: Plagiarism at its Finest

Filed under: Media

Everyone keeps talking about the decline of print journalism and its impact on society. But what they really should be talking about and aren't is without newspapers to rip stories from, what in the world are broadcasters going to say? Blogger Brian Lowry reports:

Shrinking print coverage threatens to trigger a "domino effect" as news operations downsize, feeding the strange Internet age conundrum where there's more information -- courtesy of blogs and the Web -- but less real news, especially as it pertains to backyard issues. ...

The thinness in assembling TV and radio news -- and the manner in which they use newspapers as de facto tip sheets and newsgathering surrogates -- has long been one of broadcasting's dirty little secrets.

Talkradio stations frequently employ a news person, which is really just a lonely gnome culling half-hour updates from the paper and wire. Newsradio generally exhibits the same overlap with whatever happens to be in print. (National broadcast and cable news mimic this process, albeit drawing more heavily from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and -- increasingly as they let their gossipy freak flags fly -- the New York Post.)

As a former daily writer, part of me, thinks of this as revenge for every time I heard a story I wrote read word for word on television with no attribution to me or my publication. Lowy elaborates:

Print journalists have long chafed at broadcast media pilfering their stories, often without bothering to credit the source. The seldom-mentioned practice went very public and nasty in 1999, when the Toledo Blade sued WSPD-AM in Ohio for "pirating" and "misappropriation" of stories. Then again, the Clear Channel station was hardly subtle, featuring a morning host whose motto was "I read the Blade so you don't have to."

The other part of me that values hard, breaking news, is very, very sad.

Posted by Beth Walton at July 24, 2008 4:45 AM | Comments (0)

 

Obama's double-digit lead on McCain shrinks in MN

Filed under: Politics

U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of Multi-National Force – Iraq, gives an aerial tour of Baghdad, Iraq, to Sens. Barack Obama, left, and Chuck Hagel. (Photo: Department of Defense)

According to a just-released Rasmussen poll, Barack "Made it out of Iraq" Obama has a 12 point lead on John McCain in Minnesota. The Obama campaign can't complain about a double-digit lead--but that lead was 18 points two weeks ago. Who here likes a horse race?

Here are a few more details from the poll:

In Minnesota this month, Obama leads 42% to 35% among voters not affiliated with either major party. Like in many states, the Democrat has a big lead among women (54% to 35%) but a marginal lead among men (44% to 40%). Obama leads among voters from every age group, but performs strongest among younger voters.

More crunching of the Minnesota numbers from Rasmussen:

- 43% of Minnesotans choose the economy as the top issue of Election 2008. Among those voters, Obama has a 63% to 24% advantage. McCain has the lead among voters who say national security issues are most important, 60% to 32%. However, just 17% of Minnesota voters see this as the top issue of the upcoming election.

- 54% of voters in Minnesota think the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror.

- Nationally, belief is growing that the media is trying to help Obama win. In Minnesota, 47% of voters agree. (Back off citizen critics, I'm pushing this guy...again)

There are new Franken v. Coleman results too. It's tight. Coleman is riding a one-point lead.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at July 23, 2008 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

 

Bowlers for U.S. Senate

Filed under: Norm Coleman

I feel sorry for Norm Coleman's ad staff. First they put this out and everyone makes fun of them. Then, they try to be funny, but they're not. And now, in an ad meant to be a serious commentary on rival Al Franken's campaign, they are hilarious.

So everyone is talking about whether or not this ad is fair in its attack on Franken's nonexistent, err late, err mixed up tax payments. But, who really cares about that.

Let's talk about bowling and juicy porn.

I'll vote for you.

Posted by Beth Walton at July 23, 2008 7:34 PM | Comments (1)

 

Breakfast of Champions 7/23: Hand in Hand

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

One of the most comprehensive examinations of Tim Pawlenty's record, Jonathan Kaminsky's "Governor No" details each of his record-setting 34 vetoes. We've picked the top (bottom?) 15 for visual accompaniment.

Practically all of the stories have online accompaniment this time around. Matt Snyders' tale of union drives at Starbucks has a follow-up from yesterday's news conference. Kevin Hoffman explains how he stumbled onto the story of Salmonella Saintpaul. And After you read about Smalley's Jamaican Barbeque, find out how you can make a trip there a worthwhile date.

A few comments take issue with my use of the word "chilling." To me the vitriolic reaction to Indian fishing -- and the resultant threat to a newspaper's ability to publish -- fits the bill.

Isn't Priscilla Lord Faris a little late to the dance on this whole Senate race thing? Bradley Campbell asks the candidate a query or two.

Finally, welcome to the Internet, Heartless Doll. If you like Joystick Division but find it a bit of a boyzone, you might like this pop-culture focused side of the Internet run by and for women.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 23, 2008 9:31 AM | Comments (0)

 

VP Pawlenty Watch: McCain "inching towards" T-Paw

Filed under: VP Pawlenty Watch

Will Governor Tim Pawlenty become our nation's next vice president? It's hard to keep track of all the many factors at play. Each week, the VP Pawlenty Meter (TM) provides an odds sheet to ensure you make your best bet.

Faithful VP Pawlenty Watchers, our time is at hand. Today the reputable Drudge Report features as its top story a headline that McCain is "inching towards" selecting our man T-Paw as his VP candidate.

The story links to a CNN Political Ticker story that begins ...

ROCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) – It's VP tea leaf reading season, and a Republican source who attended a small private meeting with John McCain Tuesday in New Hampshire tells CNN that the GOP candidate dropped a serious hint about Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

The Republican source said "out of the blue" McCain told the gathering that he thinks they are "really going to like" Pawlenty.

It all depends on the source--this could be a trial balloon--but it is the clearest signal yet that Pawlenty will indeed be the VP nominee, which will only add significance to the upcoming Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

In light of this, we are taking the historic step of activating RED ALERT!!! on the VP Pawlenty graphic:

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at July 23, 2008 9:14 AM | Comments (0)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Salmonella Saintpaul

Filed under: Science

When I first started reporting the Salmonella Saintpaul story in this week's issue, I didn't know that I'd be covering breaking news. I just had a simple question: Why was the strain of bacteria that was sickening the nation named after Minnesota's capital city?

I was watching an NBC Nightly News broadcast about the outbreak when I saw Michael Osterholm, a nationwide expert who happened to be a professor at the University of Minnesota. I figured he'd be the perfect guy to answer my question.

Osterholm did indeed know the answer--it has to do with a local professor who first diagnosed the Salmonella in turkeys--but he also told me a much more interesting story: Data from a cluster of people sickened in Minnesota was a key part of the unraveling mystery.

I asked Osterholm who I should call that had first-hand knowledge of the Minnesota part of the investigation, and he pointed me to Kirk Smith, the Foodborne, Vector borne, and Zoonotic Disease Unit Manager for the Minnesota Department of Health.

Not that Osterholm thought that it would get me anywhere.

"He won't talk," Osterholm assured me. "They're waiting till everything gets put together here. You would be about 19th or 20th of people trying to interview him. Until the entire thing is put together, I don't think they're commenting. You could call them and sure find out."

I took the dare and called Smith and found him to be much more ameniable to an interview than Osterholm suspected. Smith gave me the broad outlines of the investigation, and told me that the local guy who had tracked the Salmonella Saintpaul back to a jalapeno pepper from a distribution warehouse in McAllen, Texas, was Ben Miller of the Agriculture Department.

Miller wasn't thrilled when I started calling him. "Per our agency's policy I'm required to direct you to our Communications Director, Mike Schommer," he wrote in an email.

Schommer was up north helping with a gypsy moth treatment, but he gave his blessing for a phone interview with Miller.

By then, the FDA and CDC had held a press conference in which they announced that a Salmonella Saintpaul-tainted jalapeno had been discovered at the Agricola Zaragoza produce distribution center in McAllen, Texas. And that's exactly the town that Miller had traced the Minnesota cluster back to.

Interestingly, however, Miller's traceback fingered a different distributor in the same town.

"On speaking with the health department, it sounds like that particular distributor is in very close proximity to the one we found," Miller told me. "So I can't speak to practices down there, I'm not exactly sure how those produce distributors are related, I think the CDC and FDA are investigating that."

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at July 23, 2008 5:38 AM | Comments (0)

 

MoA Starbucks Union Goes Public

Filed under: Labor

Members of a recently formed Starbucks union staged a small press conference today outside the Mall of America and issued several management-directed demands, including a living wage, an end to under-staffing, and guaranteed work hours.

Five baristas, each wearing a red-and-black Industrial Workers of the World pin, stood before TV cameras and took turns reading from printouts. Jake Bell spoke first, insisting on a more generous severance package for soon-to-be laid off employees. (Starbucks recently announced it will be closing 600 stores nationwide, including 27 in Minnesota.)

“Many workers at closing stores have served Starbucks loyally for years,” he said. “They deserve more than a 30-day notice before layoff, two weeks pay, and the vague possibility of a transfer.”

The MoA-based coffee shop is the latest Starbucks to affiliate with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Since 2004, the storied union has been organizing Starbucks shops throughout the country, much to the chagrin of company brass. Last year, the National Labor Relations Board accused the Seattle-based chain of union-busting.

“Starbucks is waging a vicious anti-union campaign across the country,” said Erik Forman, who claims his firing earlier this month was due to his association with the IWW. “We need to put a stop to this in Minnesota!”

For an overview of the unionizing effort, go to our story here.

Posted by Matt Snyders at July 22, 2008 3:11 PM | Comments (8)

 

Indian fishing video sparks attack against newspaper

Filed under: Indian tribes

Don't miss Nick Coleman's Strib column about tribal fishing from yesterday. It's a chilling recount of how video of Mille Lacs tribal members netting and cleaning walleye led to a vicious backlash -- and even a denial of service attack against the paper itself.

[T]he paper posted a video on its website showing fishermen from the nearby Mille Lacs Indian Reservation removing walleye from tribal gill nets and cleaning the fish for eating. Normal, legal and part of Ojibwe culture for centuries. But seeing it on YouTube made some walleye lovers angry, especially the bigots who posted vicious rants on the site. More than 18,000 visitors have seen the video ...

For some reason, tribal members practicing a cultural act thousands of years old inflames passions in many non-Indian fishermen. It can bring out the worst sides of people, which is a shame, given what we'd hope about the shared act of fishing building bridges across racial boundaries.

For years, I worked with tribal fishermen out west who didn't see the act of harvesting fish as much different than breathing. It's what you do, part and parcel of being alive. Also, this is settled law. It's not controversial. The tribes' right to fish is rooted in treaties, which are rooted in turn rooted in the U.S. Constitution, and as such as supreme as the law of the land gets.

Coleman's column examines the actions of a vocal few who don't care about these facts -- including some so enraged that they apparently tried to shut down the paper's Web site for daring to post video of Mille Lacs fishing. Frightening stuff.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 22, 2008 11:49 AM | Comments (3)

 

Breakfast of Champions 7/22: The Best Thanksgiving Ever

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

The big story of the day: tomatoes aren't the Salmonella culprit, jalapenos are. And Minnesota played a critical role in sniffing out the source of the illness:

The Minnesota cluster also appears to have played a role in the FDA's decision late last week to release a statement announcing that it was safe to eat tomatoes.

"It's the same bug," Michael Osterholm, a professor at the University of Minnesota and a leading expert in infectious disease research, said Friday. "Minnesota's data has had a great deal of influence on what the feds have looked at in terms of yesterday's call and the change in recommendation in part had a lot to do with Minnesota's data."

Turns out, even without salmonella, Americans lead the shortest lives of any developed country's citizens. Thankfully, Minnesota is alone among Midwest states in being largely insulated from this.

The three-day, 40-plus band Deep Blues Festival wrapped up Sunday. Check the photos of the band and the crowd.

The Hiawatha line runs Windows 2000? This engenders discussion in the comments, including a serious assessment of geek demerits.

As everyone knows, City Pages has a lot of hot readers. We have no doubts that the eventual winner of this contest will be a CP reader, one way or the other.

Franken to Coleman: hey, puck you, pal!

Shwanky food and wine sampling tonight, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Nicollet Island Pavilion. Rachel Hutton with the details. It sure beats the debacle that is today's fruit cup.

Bradley Campbell isn't in the office this morning. I wonder where he could -- hey, wait, isn't the Tour de France on today? Plus, isn't there a new discount blood doping store on Lake St.? 3

Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 22, 2008 8:42 AM | Comments (0)

 

Bachmann: Drilling in ANWR would lead to $2-per-gallon gas

Filed under: