The Herbie book.

I had heard rumor of a Herb Bergson book for some time. Yesterday the Duluth News Tribune confirmed this in a story they did about Bergson.

The book is two talk about being mayor of two city's Superior and Duluth. It seems that the first number of chapters were easy for Bergson to write but now it has slowed down. He is apparently take his time on the last years of his Duluth Mayor part of the book. This is because of the contrivers he faced along with tough issues that faced the city. Also expected in the book is why he fired Mark Winson the way he did and the Drunk driving charge he received well Duluth Mayor.

I am not sure I would ever by a book about this man however I am sure many people would. Bergson is an interesting person that is for sure.

The experince.

Well it seems like the Norshore is in the news again. This time police are asking that the city revokes it's liquor linces.

The police are alleging that they have made 49 calls to the place in question sense September. The allegations include drug sales, drug use, thefts, fights and vulgar sex acts.

Now it is clear that the city never wanted the Norshore to be come a gentleman's club. That was made very clear at the beginning by many. I have never been to the place but I was also not against it opening. After all it is a private building and as long as the business is legal they do what they want with any building. A gentleman's club is legal. It may not be my type of thing but that does not mean they can't operate.

Jim Gradishar is the president of the Norshore Experience and he said he is willing to work with the city on the issues.

Mr. Gradishar attorney said this and I agree with him in part.

“It took a federal court injunction to get this establishment open, and it’s clear that the city has never been comfortable with that injunction and is obviously trying to trump up anything it can to get the place closed down,’’ Tigue said.

To me this quote from police chief Gordon Ramsey only ensures what the attorney is saying.


“Our law enforcement efforts are based on what the community desires,’’ Ramsay said. “If you talk to businesses on that block and in that surrounding area, it’s obvious there’s a problem there. Look at our calls for service in that area.’’

More to come later. Some info is from the Duluth News Tribune, www.duluthnewstribune.com

Notes- Still here.

I have gotten a number of emails the last couple of weeks asking if I was still going to post. Simple answer yes. I have not had the time to post as much as I would like to. I am working a ton right now. I am working 80 hour work weeks give or take an hour either way. Therefor leaving little time to post. I will however post when I can.

There has been a lot going on and I have to a lot to say so I hope to be doing post here today and tomorrow night for sure.

Grandmas marathon is offer, I will have more on that on the sports page later as well. The Huskies finely snap there losing steak and start a winning streak. Also will be on the sports page later.

Coming up here later, the lose of a fire truck? The cut that mayor is asking for and my thoughts and more.

Stay tuned!!!!

Play front park.

I am glad that the park will be staying at Bayfront park in Duluth. Some city officials and residents wanted to move the park. It would have been a shame to not have a park at Bay front.

The park will see some much needed upgrades. The park is getting old and needs to be updated but I hope they don't go to the all plastic like so many parks are now. The wood sets the park a side and fits in well with the setting of the rest of the area.

sports page.

The sports page has some new story on it. check it out by clicking on the sports page link. The Huskies are tops on the list.

Walgreens looking into Kenwood site.

I have a lot to say about this but for now go to www.duluthnewstribune.com to read about it. I am on the way out the door. More very soon.

We are watching

Below is a statement from the we are watching groups web page. http://watchingslc.blogspot.com/.

We Welcome Contributors!
If you'd like to contribute to the blog, you can comment on posts that exist, or, write a quick email to WeAreWatching@northernmnnews.com and we'll quickly add you to the list of approved commentators.We welcome you and we want your views.

That is unless you disagree with. Have you ever noticed that it is one site that does not like to discuss the issues. I have always been more then willing to allow all view points on this blog. Some just don't.

The republican convetion to be held here in Minnesota is not that far away. Here is a great opportunity for you to help. Here is a link to the volunteer page https://jobs.quickhire.com/scripts/msp2008.exe, and you could help the convention in many ways.

You can also learn more about the convention at there home page here, http://www.msp2008.com/home.

I will have more later and am going to ask the group to interview with me as well.

post

I should have time tomorrow to post a bit at least I hope to. If not Sunday maybe anyway. I hope to be able to do some posting this weekend, there is a lot going on.

Tim Russert gone to soon.

Meet the Press host Tim Russert died earlier today at work. Reports were he was working in his show for Sunday. He collapsed from a heart attack on the floor the NBC broadcast headquarters.

I always liked Tim Russert. I did not always agree with him but I understand more where he came from as a broadcaster and his love for his job, politics, and his family were second to none.

This is one of those things that I will always remember. I will always remember were I was and what I was doing when I first heard about his death.

Russert dead to early at the age of 58.

What is the City Goverment doing on the front page.

I am shocked and disappointed that they Mayor broke his promise. He said he was going to get City Government off of the front page of the paper. Yet that is all that has been on the front page.

I am really not shocked nor disappointed it shows just how inept this guy it to run our city. I was more then willing to give Mr. Ness the benefit of the doubt but he has done nothing but the same. His ideas are not a new vision like he said they would be. They are nothing but the same disguised to try to fool people.

The cuts he is introducing are insane and I will have much more on that later it may take a few days as I am busy but once it is up your will want to read it.

Minnesota Monitor no more....

The Minnesota Monitor changed it's name and look. Check them out at http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/.

Duluth Politics pages.

Duluth Politics pages are now up and running. We have them listed just above the about us section on the blog. Top right of the page. We have a sports page and an interview and column page.

Franken kicked off his campaign.

Newly endorsed DFL candidate Al Fraken kicked off his general campaign today in Duluth. He made stop at the Labor Temple in the Wellstone room today from 2:30 to 3:30 this afternoon.

We are expecting details soon of his visit from our staff. Stay tuned for more.

Some councilors don't like the idea of voting on red plan resoultion.

I am as much against the red plan as any one is however I also don't like the idea of the council voting on this issue. I agree with Harry Welty most of the time of this issue however on this one we disagree. His view point on it can be found herehttp://lincolndemocrat.com/?p=1281.

Many people use the argument that the council has voted on many things in the past that do not apply to city business. I would agree with that, councils in the past have voted on issues such as being against the war, being against president Bush ect..... however I don't believe that means you need to this council in that spot.

In many cases lets be honest when one local government steps in on another local government it makes the one getting interfere it makes them mad. Why should they have to listen to anything the council does. I know you want government to work together however it just does not happen that way most of the time. They are there own government.

I don't believe the council should take action one way or the other on the red plan. I hope the red plan is stopped but I don't believe the city council is an avenue that should be used.

Margaret Ciccone

After 31 years of service to the city of Superior Ciccone packs bags. Many of you will know the name of Margaret Ciccone when she was Mayor of the Superior. She was a victim of a recall vote. I did not always agree with her when she was the Mayor of Superior however thought the recall was out of this world. It was uncalled for.

She also held post of city clerk among others. She went back to her city clerk position after her recall as Mayor of Superior. She said her message would that you watch your government and be involved in it. Her last day on the job was Friday.

Best of luck and best wishes to her as she moves on to life after retirement.

Best news yet.

Thank you to the DFL for the endorsement of Al Franken today. The DFL endorsed there candidate today in at the State convention.

Today they chose to endorse Al Fraken to run against Norm Coleman. I was a bit shocked that there was an endorsement today. I was thinking they were going to go with no endorsement at all. With the troubles of Al Franken it almost ensures Mr. Coleman a victory. If you are unaware of the many problems that Franken has had you can view them at Minnesota Democrats Exposed, www.http://www.http//www.minnesotademocratsexposed.com/.

Clinton ends bid.

Hillary Clinton ended her chance to become president today. The talk had been a round for a long time as many of you know.

Here is what I find interesting. She choose to hold her endorsement of Obama on a Saturday. Why is this interesting because it is the slowest news day of the week. To me it means she did not want to end her campaign nor did she really want to endorse Obama.

More on this later. I did however want to toss out the discussion.

Talk of the Town

Today on talk of the town is city councilor Todd Fedora. Make sure you tune into webc today starting at 7 a.m.

Passing the buck.

Our Mayor Don Ness has changed his proposal for the the sewer system. This one is even more of a joke then his first plan. He is passing the buck now more then he was before. Some thing this Mayor has done sense he took office this year. Most defiantly something he did as a city councilor as well.

The new plan cuts the monthly surcharge in half from near $10.0 a month to $5.57 a month. However now the city is not going to help pay or pay for the sewer line repair at all and that will cost you a small amount of money. Just 7,500 on average, heck everyone has that much laying around right?

Once again this Mayor just passing the buck. The council does have to approve this. More to come soon.

Mayor Ness and some Councilors not getting along?

Well it seems as if Mayor Ness and some councilor's don't see eye to. What are they not seeing eye to on? It would be on how to get rid of the deficit. At least how to make strides to do so.

Yet the mayor has not even announced his plan. Why all the bickering now then. The Chamber held a forum on the issue. According to the Duluth News Tribune there was some harsh words from a couple of councilors and Mayor Ness.

Ness said he’ll present solutions for how the city will address the $5 million budget deficit he “inherited” will be presented to the council Monday night, saying they will be “painful for me personally and painful for people in the community.”

This quote leads me to believe that most of his solutions will be increases in taxes also other forms of increases. I thought the Mayor wanted to cut the size of Government, wait it was a smoke screen.

When it came time for Fedora to speak, he immediately rebuked the mayor.
Nobody inherited a budget. That budget was approved,” Fedora said. “We’ve been pissing away money in the city for years, and the chickens have come home to roost.”

Councilor Fedora is correct, the budget was not inherited by this mayor. Mayor Ness is passing the buck like he always has. Mayor Ness was on the council when the budgets came up for a vote. Yes he voted in favor of them, knowing full well that there was not money.

More to come on this later.

Brandon Stahl

Duluth News Tribune staff writer Brandon Stahl has been criticized by some. Mr. Stahl covers the city politics for the paper.

Now there are times to be critical of a paper and or it's writer's. However the criticism of Mr. Stahl to me at to this point has been unwarranted. I have heard a lot of people say Brandon does not know what he is talking about. Why because of research he finds. The fact is you may not agree with the research. With that said however you can find our own facts about a story line and write about it then.

It does not need to be for a paper start a blog and write about what ever you want. Mr. Stahl does need me to defend him, I am however sick of the game of blaming some one else first before taking your own action.

I am one that wants to come up with solutions to help Duluth. I don't just want to complain. I can however complain with the best of them lol. I think that we need to move toward looking for solution on the issues that face Duluth instead of playing the pointing game and passing the buck.

MI Statewide Smoking Ban

Michigan is the latest state to take action against smoking in public places. The House and Senate remain in a deadlock on the specifics of a state-wide ban on smoking in workplaces. The Senate wants to exempt Horse Tracks, casinos and other traditional smoking locations from complying; however, bars and restaurants will be forced to comply. The House has already passed a bill with some exemptions.

The owner of the Red Mesa Restaurant in Traverse City, MI and Pearl's Restaurant in Elk Rapids, MI say non-smokers comprise 80% of business. The smoking sections are the size that non-smoking sections use to be 20 years ago. The owner is taking steps on his/her own because he/she does not believe the government should have the right to ban smoking. It should be the business owner’s decision and he/she is deciding to ban it in his/her restaurants. Smoking will still be allowed outdoors on the patio.

Our family blog

If you would like know about our family you can go here. You can also see pic of both or our kids there.

www.therathefamily.blogspot.com