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I'm sure telecom carriers would welcome local competetion and build out their infrastructure for everyone:

http://www.startribune.com/tel...

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/...

https://www.bizjournals.com/de...

https://arstechnica.com/uncate...

https://www.reddit.com/r/cordc...

http://www.startribune.com/dee...

The brutal cold gripping Minnesota made itself felt in tens of thousands of living rooms Wednesday as Xcel Energy resorted to asking customers to turn their thermostats down to 63 degrees to conserve natural gas.

https://www.americanexperiment...

The screenshot below is from Electricity Map. It’s a fun app that tells you how your electricity is being generated at any given moment in time. Turns out wind is producing only four percent of electricity in the MISO region, of which Minnesota is a part.

While that’s not good, what’s worse is wind is only utilizing 24 percent of it’s installed capacity, and who knows how this will fluctuate throughout the course of

It's a real shame that turning on the lights doesn't make the wind blow.

Take your pick.
Pennsylvanians receive mysterious letters promising to expose them if they do not vote
Mailers attempt to 'embarrass people into voting' by revealing voting history to neighbors
GOP Mailer: We’ll Tell Your Neighbors If You Vote Democratic
Sleazy voter shaming letters coming by email, too, and some are inaccurate
A mysterious group is publicly shaming Pennsylvania residents with their voting records

And Minnesota too.
Creepy but legal: 'Voter shaming' letters showed up in Minnetonka mailbox

You do know how to use Google, right?

It seems the rule of law is breaking down and the presumption of innocence is no longer required and instant guilt is all that's required.

I completely agree--due process is breaking down (and the presumption of innocence is one aspect of due process). Examples range from the seizure of Kim Dotcom's assets despite the fact that he is not a US citizen and has never been to the United States, to the #MeToo movement that that can destroy a person's career over mere accusations.

Be aware that there are some people who are in favor of this breakdown of due process. They may try to convince you that things have always been like this, or that this way is better. Don't believe them!

How many hundreds of times have YOU personally made the decision to fill your vehicle with fuel? You damn well knew (you did not merely suspect, you the person doing it knew) that it was definitely and inevitably going to pollute the air, with zero chance that it wouldn't pollute.

Butyl alcohol, or "Butanol", is a 1:1 replacement for gasoline made by bacteria from any organic matter. While most of it today is reformed from petroleum, it was historically produced with a process known as "ABE", by a bacteria called Clostridium acetobutylicum. In this process, the bacteria can turn any organic matter into acetone, butanol, and ethanol. The production of butanol by biological means was first performed by Louis Pasteur in 1861.

GE Energy Ventures' branch GEVO wanted to sell butanol on the general market, but was prevented for years by BP+DuPont's corporations Butamax. Butamax gained an obvious patent, developed at a public university (and therefore partially with our tax money) on the cost-effective commercial production of butanol. As a result, Butamax now has an effective monopoly on producing butanol as a road fuel. Unfortunately, they seem to have no actual interest in doing so; they could have been producing and selling it years ago, and they have been focusing on lawsuits instead.

In short, big oil (in the form of BP) has been working hard to keep the situation from improving.

Let's consider another transportation failure: the proliferation of the interstate highway system, and the decommissioning of profitable public transportation systems by the automobile industry. Automobiles are a spectacularly poor way to travel long distances. The total number of parts failures waiting to happen is vastly higher than when using rail. Automobiles also produce more pollution, both direct emissions and secondary ones like tire dust. And they are substantially less safe, as well.

To be fair, I can only explain how the American consumer was forced into an automobile, but it is a fact that this situation was perpetrated against us by a series of conspiracies — some of which led to actual convictions, like the streetcar conspiracy, so there is no doubt about whether they were real. Now you want to blame the victims. Real classy there, sport.

Almost entirely Somali, though this report doesn't mention that: http://m.startribune.com//minn...

HOWEVER you must still question WHY KILL?

* It prevents the offender from hurting anyone again. Incarceration does not. Incarcerated murder kill prison staff and other prisoners, as well as escape, or serve out their sentences and re-offend.

* It deters as surely as lesser punishments deter, like incarceration or fines. Charts of death penalty vs. murder rate in the US underscore this point. It's curious to assert that lesser punishments deter, but the harshest does not.

* It's the closest to justice as we can get (i.e. a commensurate cost imposed on the offender). Most think the offender should incur some cost for malicious pain inflicted on others. Codes of justice going back to Hammurabi reflect a sense of fairness that it should be commensurate.

Organic is about sustainability

That's just a potential side-benefit, and only if you do a lot of research ahead of time to make sure.

For instance, I can (and occasionally do) buy "organic" produce from 10,000 miles away. There is nothing even remotely "sustainable" about that.

"Organic" farmers can dump any pesticides on their field that come from "natural" sources, completely irrespective of how "sustainable" it is. Some older pesticides, like copper-based anti-fungals, are perfectly cromulent with the "organic" label, but build up in soil over time.

Finally, 1950s farming tech does not scale to the current world population, so no matter how sustainable you think it is, adopting it globally can only happen if half of the world dies.

If sustainable is what everyone was after, there would be a "sustainable" label. For many (most?), it's a perceived health benefit. But don't believe me, believe the data:
From this survey:

“Polling shows the No. 1 reason people go organic is to avoid pesticides, chemicals and all of those things that are not allowed in organics,” said Katherine Paul, associate director of Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association. “So I think you are looking at a better-educated population that is connecting the dots between what they eat and their health.”

Pure, unmitigated bullshit.

What are you talking about? They have lockers. Use them. For schools that don't have lockers either forbid them to bring the phones or come up with a secure box to store them during the day.

You should learn how many schools are removing lockers these days.

I have no problems with government working for the people, as long as there's a balance to the work being done.

From the perspective of working in a public school, there are right ways and wrong ways of obtaining public information. I've worked in three different school districts, and at 9 out of every 10 school board meetings, the only member of the public in attendance is the newspaper reporter. And 9 out of every 10 board meetings where someone else from the public attends, it's an individual, a family, or a community group speaking at the public commentary, then leaving after the public comment period is finished. (And 1 out of every 100 is when the shit hits the fan, and 300 people show up to complain about some coach who got fired or homosexuality advocacy group or what have you.) But if you want your public information, GO TO THOSE MEETINGS. That's why we have them open to the public. If you don't, then don't complain about why some school employee gets frustrated when you interrupt their already-busy day telling them to bend over backwards for some pissy FOIA request, as this guy has the habit of doing on a regular basis.

A public school in the state of Minnesota already has to file 37 different reports with the state every year, everything from attendance, to financing, student performance, and even one for preparing students to be a part of the "World's Best Workforce". There's an incredible amount of internal resources devoted to making that all happen. The best resource to find out what schools are doing is the information already publicly available on the state's Department of Education website, school websites, and newspapers.

But, despite all those efforts, it only takes one fool to mess it all up for the rest of us.

I know the twin cities have had Prime Now alcohol delivery for over a year now. I wonder how many of the other markets are actually new?

This is why.

As Machiavelli said, however deceived in generalities, men are not deceived in particulars.

The regulations were many, and often at odds with each other and at odds with the goals of School Nutrition Association. It was pushed by Michelle Obama with little or no input from nutrition experts or the aforementioned group,

Literally everything you wrote is false.

Obama worked with top experts on nutrition. These guidelines were the product of the best current science in conjunction with many in the industry itself, not politics and certainly were not arbitrary "dictates."

The SNA originally supported the law when it was passed in 2010.

The board has since flip-flopped to the serious consternation of many of their members.

And the cause seems to be due to the fact that they are overwhelmingly funded by food suppliers. One of their largest donors was previously responsible for getting pizza declared a vegetable. The SNA no longer advocate for children's health, they advocate for business's profitability at the expense of children's health.

Schools are better off managed at the local level.

Everyone knows that.

Everyone knows that kids need the same nutrition regardless of where they live. The law does not mandate meal choice, only nutrient content. Every school is free to follow their own direction within the guidelines.

I swear, I don't know why anyone trusts what you write anymore. You regularly tell bald-faced lies which you then pad with misrepresentations and to top it off you cite breitbart. WTF dude? Breitbart?

> Did you get your biofuel from you local landfill yet? No?? Why not? All it takes
> to convert almost anything in a landfill into biofuel, is a high pressure tank,
> heat and time. Because they've been doing it for almost 2 decades now
> in Canada. (It's been mostly scrubbed off of the Web.) Latin people laugh
> at you when you don't believe they can make gasoline out of tires. ...

Yes you can make biofuel. Yes it does work in Latin America, aka the tropics. Other areas of the planet have this thing called "winter". Biofuel congeals when temperatures drop near zero. Back in 2009 https://wattsupwiththat.com/20...

> "All schools in the Bloomington School District (Minnesota) will be closed today
> after state-required biodiesel fuel clogged in school buses Thursday morning and
> left dozens of students stranded in frigid weather, the district said late Thursday.
>
> Rick Kaufman, the district's spokesman, said elements in the biodiesel fuel that
> turn into a gel-like substance at temperatures below 10 degrees clogged
> about a dozen district buses Thursday morning. Some buses weren't able to
> operate at all and others experienced problems while picking up students, he said.
>
> We had students at bus stops longer than we think is acceptable, and
> that's too dangerous in these types of temperatures," Kaufman said."

Other school districts avoided these problems by either idling their buses all night long, or using heated parking garages. Not exactly "green solutions". And finally, the biodiesel stuff was forced down people's throats in Minnesota. If it's so cost effective and wonderful, why does it need to be mandatory? And the cold-weather problems are not exactly unkown. http://www.startribune.com/min... because "essential services" are exempt from the mandate.

> First, key industries have been permanently exempted from the requirement to use
> any biodiesel whatsoever. The state's nuclear power industry was given an indefinite
> exemption. A temporary exemption for railroads; taconite and copper mining;
> logging, and the U.S. Coast Guard was changed to a lifetime pass. Through
> such action, legislators acknowledged that biodiesel is not reliable enough
> to ensure that these vital industries would not suffer serious disruptions.

Agreed, he's not killing elephants like the fucking ex-king of spain or killing liions like that bastard california dentist.

Minor nitpick, I think you mean Minnesota dentist, not California dentist.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/zim...

I blame Hillary and the democrats. Hillary for being such a shitty candidate that she couldn't beat someone who may have been an even shittier candidate but it was close on the level of shit. I blame the democrats for selecting a shitty candidate. The fact that it was close in Minnesota and the state was one of the last to be called is a testament to how shitty she was given that MN hasn't gone for the republican since 1972.

The republicans made it very clear they were done with the usual cast of characters that sit on their hands and piss and moan about not being able to do anything and then from their voter's point of view cave. Granted there were better candidates for the republican nomination but the republican voters are likely getting exactly what they thought in this case. If you want to blame those who voted libertarian well that is just further proof of how shitty Hillary was because a party that typically takes votes from republicans caused her loss.

Or how about the police that has militarized to the point where they are an occupying force?

Hyperbole much? An occupying force? That's where you're going? Have you ever been under occupation? Do you have any idea what conditions are like under occupation? Here's a hint: go ask the Palestinians what occupation is like.

Or how about police in neighborhoods that regularly target minorities?

You do realize those neighborhoods most likely have a high percentage of minorities (which is odd since they then wouldn't be minorities)? Would you like the police to turn a blind eye to the crimes? Look at what happened in Baltimore when police stopped patrolling.

because there is obviously a middle ground between giving the police 'new toys' and giving them pillows.

This is the middle ground. Police won't be shooting at criminals. They'll be using less lethal means to do their jobs.

Of course all of this wouldn't be necessary if criminals wouldn't be criminals. But lets us blame the police for doing their job, not the criminals for committing the crimes, for putting their lives on the line to protect the whiners, who think nothing of going into the line of fire in domestic disputes or go out in miserable weather to rescue asshats who drive around signs warning people of flooded roadways, thereby endangering themselves in the process.

It seems they care about the plight of your brothers and sisters more than you imagine in your fantasy world of oppression.

Nuclear plants, when running normally, do not kill 28,000 birds a year.

Yawn. Don't pretend you give a shit about the birds.

In fact most nuclear plants will never have an accident at all, much less one that harms the environment.

Actually, I don't know of ANY nuclear plant that doesn't have a reported incident. Some of them by sheer neglect of thoughtfulness. S

Meanwhile these solar reflection arrays BY DESIGN will kill tens of thousands of birds a year if they are operating "properly".

The tower setting itself on fire was, to anthropomorphize the situation, an act of suicide over the guilt build up. The tower just could not take it anymore. Strange that a tower should care more for the environment than you.

Yawn. You know these incidents happen with plenty of other buildings, but you don't give a shit about them either.

Or the Fish.

So go take your whining to somebody who gives a shit.

businesses do the same thing domestically. delaware, the oft-cited example everybody is aware of, is the incorporated capital of not only the u.s. but likely the world, with their corporate-friendly laws and ease of establishing and doing business there.

banks and insurance companies often locate or relocate to more friendly environments as well (example: tcf bank).

mail order and online retailers are often located in states that do not have a sales tax, or locate major facilities in an exploitative manner that encourages customers to skip their legal obligation to pay sales tax on even out of state purchases (often called a 'use tax' after the sale). amazon frequently located large distribution centers 'across the border' from major cities and markets to avoid establishing a presence in that city's state and becoming required to collect that state's sales tax.

The Obama DoJ has a long history of questionable ethics and former AG Eric Holder was held in contempt by Congress for stonewalling and withholding documents. A judge can refer any counsel to the bar for disbarment proceedings over ethics violations, as what has happened to one of the Prenda lawyers. Seeing firsthand evidence of the DoJ ethics in the case before him, this was his shot over the bow that he was not leaving out that option.

Yes, but referral is an empty threat if the lawyers haven't done anything warranting disbarment. Perhaps you're not aware, but this is the famous "Birther Judge" we're talking about. He deals with the facts of the case even less than he deals with reality in general. The strategy in his courtroom is to get the case decided as quickly as possible, so that the appeals court can then decide the case correctly.

The Obama DoJ has a long history of questionable ethics and former AG Eric Holder was held in contempt by Congress for stonewalling and withholding documents. A judge can refer any counsel to the bar for disbarment proceedings over ethics violations, as what has happened to one of the Prenda lawyers. Seeing firsthand evidence of the DoJ ethics in the case before him, this was his shot over the bow that he was not leaving out that option.

There has to be proof of rape, or else it will get thrown out.

This may be *mostly* the way the criminal justice system works now, but if you follow the nonsense that has been happening on college campuses, you might have cause to worry.

Activists are vigorously pushing to have colleges' investigate and punish rape accusations internally, with their own investigations and their own "tribunals". Naturally these all lack any standard of due process rights for the accused, including no standard of proof, no ability to confront accusers, and "verdicts" are rendered in secret by college administrators.

Naturally, activists are asking for this because they want the ability to make one-sided accusations without any evidence, often for "crimes" committed months ago that they only now have recognized as rape. Why the Minneapolis paper today has an article about one such case:

http://www.startribune.com/st-...

"Raped" in May, accusation made to the college in October and a police report filed only in December. Really? What is she expecting? I think she's even quoted as "not realizing" it was rape until the middle of the summer. To me this sounds like reckless behavior coupled with regret.

If colleges get away with extrajudicial criminal proceedings for this, it will only serve to condition the public and ultimately the legislature to reduce standards of evidence for sexual assault to whatever accusation the victim wants to make, whenever she wants to make it.

I honestly don't quite understand what's driving this on campus. My only guess is that among freshmen, there's a culture of extreme promiscuity and heavy drinking and some of these people honestly don't know what they're doing until months later, and that a large part of this is regret. I don't doubt many of these women have been treated poorly, but I question how many of them meet any but a women's studies definition of sexual assault.

I can't speak for the other airports in your list having never flown through them but MSP is one giant cluster fuck of an airport. Why they went from 6 security check points down to 2 is beyond me. The TSA claims that they have the same number of security lanes open just fewer check points. I can only assume that this is to make us less secure as instead of having 6 spread out checkpoints with fewer people in each they have 2 with a giant pile of waiting targets, I mean people, in them. For a long while there they had TSA agents who would walk around outside the security line explaining that if you wanted to get through the line faster you should put your liquids less than 3 oz in a ziplock bag of if larger pitch them in the trash. Being the smart ass I am I responded that if they really wanted to get us through the line faster they would instead go and open that other lane that was closed.

"Mitch McConnell has warned Obama not to send the trade deal to Capitol Hill for a vote before the presidential election." - http://www.startribune.com/sta... It looks like Democrat in Republican clothing is once again trying to get Obama's will carried out without being held responsible for it by having the vote during a lame duck session.

That's pretty much all I need to know about the TPP to oppose it.

If it were genuinely a good bill he could pass it before the election and take credit for it. Instead I bet he's telling the crony capitalists to be patient and they'll get what they want when the next election is two years away and the voters are likely to forget about once again being defrauded by the Republican leadership.

Hey Trump primary supporters! McConnel hates Cruz more! Vote Cruz!

Medical records are sheer gold for identity fraud http://www.wsj.com/articles/ho...

Stolen medical records can be used for medical insurance fraud and taking out loans in your name. If you don't pay up, they send debt collectors after you. They are paid by commission so don't care if they debt is legit. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem... http://www.philly.com/philly/b... http://www.startribune.com/cri... http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news...

What to do if they send a debt collector after you http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pa...

Shit IT security by health providers is a big problem http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/1... http://www.wsj.com/articles/an... http://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/17...

So is doctors collecting information about you they don't need like your SSN which staff can sell to identity thieves http://www.forbes.com/sites/la...

"ISIS isn't necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though."

Kimmel's views have no place in our party.

Oh, the pompous Democratic assholes — the above-quoted view was perfectly in line with the party's (including government officials) thinking until last Friday.

Maybe, not all of the party, but hardly a far fringe — the man was endorsed by the same Star Tribune, which is now reporting on his dropping out. The whole idea, that evil is relative (unless it is Hitler or Bush) and that we don't really have enemies in the world — only friends, whose grievances we haven't accommodated just yet — is firmly planted in the Democratic party today. Mr. Kimmel's attempts to stop "othering" ISIS were perfectly in accordance with the opinions prevailing on the Left. The Left, which temporarily retreated into their "Healing Zone", but who will emerge from there with counter-arguments on how ISIS are different from Islam, and how murdering infidels is really "unislamic" — pretending to believe, they know the opinions and customs of ISIS' target-audience better than ISIS knows them themselves.

No, Mr. Kimmel's views do have a nice and comfortable place in the Democratic party — complete with a "Safe Zone" too — it was just silly of him to underline that point at such inopportune time. Should've waited a month or two...

"ISIS isn't necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though."

Kimmel's views have no place in our party.

Oh, the pompous Democratic assholes — the above-quoted view was perfectly in line with the party's (including government officials) thinking until last Friday.

Maybe, not all of the party, but hardly a far fringe — the man was endorsed by the same Star Tribune, which is now reporting on his dropping out. The whole idea, that evil is relative (unless it is Hitler or Bush) and that we don't really have enemies in the world — only friends, whose grievances we haven't accommodated just yet — is firmly planted in the Democratic party today. Mr. Kimmel's attempts to stop "othering" ISIS were perfectly in accordance with the opinions prevailing on the Left. The Left, which temporarily retreated into their "Healing Zone", but who will emerge from there with counter-arguments on how ISIS are different from Islam, and how murdering infidels is really "unislamic" — pretending to believe, they know the opinions and customs of ISIS' target-audience better than ISIS knows them themselves.

No, Mr. Kimmel's views do have a nice and comfortable place in the Democratic party — complete with a "Safe Zone" too — it was just silly of him to underline that point at such inopportune time. Should've waited a month or two...

Do tell me, dear sir, how you intend to wash the lettuce served in a Chipotle burrito?

http://www.startribune.com/twi...

Keep in mind that this comes after Chipotle just switched from their previous supplier that provided GMO food to one that is all organic. Smart choice, wasn't it?

Anyways let's hear it, tell me the process you use to remove the lettuce from the burrito to then wash it.

You're getting a bit desperate here. If I go to a restaurant, I expect them to observe normal hygience rules too, and this definitely includes washing raw vegetables before serving them.

Do tell me, dear sir, how you intend to wash the lettuce served in a Chipotle burrito?

http://www.startribune.com/twi...

Keep in mind that this comes after Chipotle just switched from their previous supplier that provided GMO food to one that is all organic. Smart choice, wasn't it?

Anyways let's hear it, tell me the process you use to remove the lettuce from the burrito to then wash it.

Strawman argument.

One can get food poisoning from ANY restaurant that does not follow basic food safety and preparation standards (like washing produce, etc).

As for me personally? I rarely eat fast food....I love to cook and do most of my cooking and dining at home. Rather than waste money on crappy fast food....I save my pennies and every couple of weeks go somewhere for some fine dining, with good service and wine selection.

But any time you dine out, if the establishment doesn't clean and properly handle the food, it can be unsafe, this has nothing to do with GMO or non-GMO.

Next argument please?

;)

Do tell me, dear sir, how you intend to wash the lettuce served in a Chipotle burrito?

http://www.startribune.com/twi...

Keep in mind that this comes after Chipotle just switched from their previous supplier that provided GMO food to one that is all organic. Smart choice, wasn't it?

Anyways let's hear it, tell me the process you use to remove the lettuce from the burrito to then wash it.

That's close, but not quite correct.

The NCAA ordered all schools using Native American nicknames to change otherwise they would face certain penalties from the NCAA. The exception is for schools with the support of local tribes, which is how Florida State gets to be the Seminoles and, I believe, Utah gets to stay the Utes. UND wasn't so lucky as the Sioux didn't give their blessing to continued use of the name.

The guy registering the trademarks is actually an ND State grad (source: http://www.startribune.com/und-nickname-issue-mucked-up-by-former-mayor/327720071/), so I doubt he cares about UND being called the Fighting Sioux. I assume there's an intrastate rivalry between the two schools and it's an ND State grad trying to give shit to UND and their fans. I don't think he's serious about keeping the trademarks. I think he's just trying to get attention and troll rival fans. It won't be successful, and I think he knows as much. One of the names he tried to trademark is "North Stars," which I'm guessing is actually trademarked by the NHL's Dallas Stars.

As for the other ND, Notre Dame, I'm not offended by their name. I am, however, offended by their refusal to join a conference for football.

If the claim is false, it could be a felony in Minnesota, where the student attended school.

Not any more

And specifically in Minnesota, the state's criminal libel statute was recently struck down. Previously, certain kinds of libel in MN were criminal rather than only civil offenses, though still misdemeanors, not felonies.

First, there's an issue of the age of the people involved, which can lead to statutory rape charges even if both parties clearly consented. The article doesn't list the age of the person at the time he made the comment, but this article indicates that he was 17 at the time. Even failing that, relationships between two people where one is in a position of authority relative to the other are still messy as far as sexual harassment suits go and would be enough to get a teacher fired.

Also, you would care if you were the person about whom these rumors were being spread as that kind of allegation can be career ending on its own. The administration clearly went overboard, but there's a clear difference between insinuating that someone is having sexual relations with their students and jokes about a person being a closeted Jets fan.

It's hardly surprising when kids in high school act immature. That's to be expected, but the administration taking such a disproportionate reaction to something, which is better sorted out with a simple discussion about the seriousness of making such claims and perhaps an apology, is rather disappointing.

Citation?

I love it when I challenge someone for a citation and the first response is someone demanding a citation from me (without any of their own).

You can't be held in contempt for not showing up to a civil hearing, you just lose by default.

While there should have been an or in there... and failure to appear is a valid cause to be arrested in some states... such as Minnesota: http://www.startribune.com/inv...

I've a friend in California whose ex was issued a bench warrant for failing to show up to a child support hearing (there had been a long series of them and he missed two in a row).

And you won't go to jail for not paying a judgement,

You clearly don't know how much power a judge has.

Don't believe me? Try this:

1. You give me your email address
2. I send you an email, in response you send me a signed and notarized document promising to pay me $50,000 within 30 days as a thanks for the email.
3. Fail to pay me within 30 days.
4. After multiple attempts by me to collect on this debt, I go to court and get a judgment against you to pay me the full amount of debt within 30 days (I'll skip the interest in this case).
5. Fail to pay me within the next 30 days.
6. I return to the judge and tell them that you still have not complied with their order.
7. They give you one last chance to comply within the next 7 days.
8. 7 days elapse without payment
9. Judge holds you in contempt.

See how easy that was?

Yes, my wife mentioned reading about a similar situation recently. This must be it

http://m.startribune.com/lifes...

You can't really know who that person will become in future years well enough leave a meaningful message. Better to just create some good memories now.

Since Vito Barbieri thinks woman can swallow a camera for a gynecological exam these two would make a great pair for medical reform. http://www.startribune.com/lif...

They borrowed it from Republican Mitt Romney who referenced Republican Newt Gingrich.

Which makes sense when one considers the voodoo Republicans have with trickle down economics (witness the wonderful state Kansas is in) or that swallowing a small camera can somehow lead to being able to perform a gynecological exam.

Well the trickle down isn't voodoo, it's just that, a trickle. Only a small benefit making it down to the lower layers. If you take a second to count America as symbolic of trickle down capitalism and the USSR as symbolic of socialism then in practice capitalism has left the lower end better off than socialism. Of course those are terribly flawed analogies, but there is more to the notion of trickle down economics than 'voodoo'. The one thing capitalism undeniably has in it's favour is that it 'works' when the metric is economic growth, and without economic growth, everyone is sharing pieces from a smaller pie.

They borrowed it from Republican Mitt Romney who referenced Republican Newt Gingrich.

Which makes sense when one considers the voodoo Republicans have with trickle down economics (witness the wonderful state Kansas is in) or that swallowing a small camera can somehow lead to being able to perform a gynecological exam.

Here, let me back up your point with last week's news from the LA Times:

"Michael Hiltzik of The Los Angeles Times reports that Southern California Edison, the local electrical utility, has let go of 500 IT employees by outsourcing jobs to Tata and Infosys who are top users/abusers of the U.S. H1-B visa process; 400 So Cal employees were laid off and 100 'left voluntarily', many with decades of experience. As indicative of a trend this has now become, last year Minnesota-based agribusiness behemoth Cargill said it would outsource as many as 900 IT jobs to Tata.
 
These employees perform the crucial work of installing, maintaining and managing Edison's computer hardware and software for functions as varied as payroll and billing, dispatching and electrical load management across Edison's vast power generating and electric transmission network. The workers I interviewed are in their 50s or 60s and have spent decades serving as loyal Edison employees.
 
"They told us they could replace one of us with three, four, or five Indian personnel and still save money," one laid-off Edison worker told me, recounting a group meeting with supervisors last year. "They said, 'We can get four Indian guys for cheaper than the price of you.' You could hear a pin drop in the room."
 
They're not the sort of uniquely creative engineering aces that high-tech companies say they need H-1B visas to hire from abroad, or foreign students with master's degrees or doctorates from U.S. universities who also can be employed under the H-1B program. They're experienced systems analysts and technicians for whom these jobs have been stairways from the working class to five- or six-figure middle-class incomes. Many got their training at technical institutes or from Edison itself.
 
This worker and the half-dozen others I interviewed asked to remain anonymous because their severance packages forbid them to speak disparagingly about the company."

They just stick them on police cars in my state.

Well it did happen in Minneapolis, MN. I believe that the guy who shot back even won his lawsuit even if it took a few years.

At the other end you have cases that are so clear showing CPS should have intervened but didn't that it seems like the whole system needs to be redone.

As a fellow Minnesotan this isn't new. She was pushing for the 300k cap before with the auto increase almost exactly 2 years ago. I haven't been very pleased with her even before that as she seemed to make national issues out of things that need not be or be out to lunch when sponsoring a bill that had very obvious unintended consequences that she was even informed of.

Then add in that at a personal level she has been the worst elected official that I have written to in responding to issues. While she does give responses to letters, unlike Franken who has never responded, they are patronizing as hell if you disagree with something or will thank you for supporting her decision when you were clearly against it. The worst was on the Syria chemical weapons issue when that was going on where her letter was about how wonderful it was that she didn't have to decide because thankfully Russia stepped in.

I have written Klobuchar a number of times on this H1-B issue and it seems to fall on deaf ears. The only thing I can figures is that the large medical companies here are telling her they need something in return for their support since both her and Franken voted for the ACA which put a tax on medical device makers' revenue, 2.3% per device,.

I don't know if Kurt Bills would have been any better especially on this issue but at least I knew him and was able to have a discussion with him. Part of that may have been because I was a former student and a part of that was probably because he was my representative to the state house.

As a fellow Minnesotan this isn't new. She was pushing for the 300k cap before with the auto increase almost exactly 2 years ago. I haven't been very pleased with her even before that as she seemed to make national issues out of things that need not be or be out to lunch when sponsoring a bill that had very obvious unintended consequences that she was even informed of.

Then add in that at a personal level she has been the worst elected official that I have written to in responding to issues. While she does give responses to letters, unlike Franken who has never responded, they are patronizing as hell if you disagree with something or will thank you for supporting her decision when you were clearly against it. The worst was on the Syria chemical weapons issue when that was going on where her letter was about how wonderful it was that she didn't have to decide because thankfully Russia stepped in.

I have written Klobuchar a number of times on this H1-B issue and it seems to fall on deaf ears. The only thing I can figures is that the large medical companies here are telling her they need something in return for their support since both her and Franken voted for the ACA which put a tax on medical device makers' revenue, 2.3% per device,.

I don't know if Kurt Bills would have been any better especially on this issue but at least I knew him and was able to have a discussion with him. Part of that may have been because I was a former student and a part of that was probably because he was my representative to the state house.

My knowledge of this comes mostly from Wikipedia and a movie I saw called Beer Wars. I took an interest some years ago when Surly Brewing had a long battle with the three tier system in MN. Mostly I just wanted to be able to buy a pint locally.

I've been trying to pay attention to the Tesla vs Dealership battle for a while. Mostly with the hopes that some day I could afford to comfortably pay $90k for a vehicle some day. Though I'd be more than happy to get the Model 3 when it becomes available. :)

Right, because unlike other schools UNC gives their athletes the soft glove treatment. Lulz.

Are your football players smart? Didn't think so.

What rock do you live under?

Fake classes, inflated grades: Massive UNC scandal included athletes over 2 decades

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A scandal involving bogus classes and inflated grades at the University of North Carolina was bigger than previously reported, encompassing about 1,500 athletes who got easy A's and B's over a span of nearly two decades, according to an investigation released Wednesday.

...

Many are saying Apple Pay offers nothing to the merchant. Tell that to the former CEO of target ( http://www.startribune.com/bus... ) While tracking marketing data for customers is important to merchants, not having expensive data breaches is more important. Also, everyone seems to be ignoring that POS systems can be programmed to allow customers to enter their membership card first (or type in their phone number) enabling _plenty_ of customer tracking. Walgreens does this, and they use Apple Pay. The get all the customer-tracky goodness without the PCI-just-isn't-good-enough-any-more credit card information business danger.

So you mean $50,000 each for drinking fountains isn't making good use of our money?

...ask yourself this: would you really want 1600 tons of radioactive potential death rolling through your city just waiting for an errant snowflake to land on the line to derail the whole kaboodle?

Say it doesn't happen. Go on. I dare you. Those were just a few I dug out from a cursory google search.