It's convention time.....

Okay okay it's not really time for state conventions yet. That said however the DFL has moved there convention up by two month. The convention which will take place in Duluth was suppose to take place in late June. That has been moved up to April 23rd-25th.

The party did this to make there candidate a better contender for the office. They thought that waiting would give the republicans a head start. The republicans are holding there conventing in Minneapolis in late April.

And the endorsment goes to?????

The DFL set to endorse for the Duluth School Board. Who did these endorse? Why did they endorse who they did? What does it all mean?

The DFL who endorse candidates in non-partisan races was all set to endorse candidates for the school board race. Here is they endorsed. For the at-large race no one. For the district races no one. What who ever will I vote for now?

The DFL chose not to endorse because of the red plan and the split in the party. They have people on both sides. Those that are for the red plan and against it. They believe it is better if they party did not endorse and cause a split among party members.

Clunk clunk what's that sound.

Clunk clunk oh no my car is falling a part. Oh wait nope it is just the cash for clunkers program that did not working. The Federal government program that failed badly.



The DNT had an interesting story in the Sunday paper. That basically some dealers where not finishing paper work for the program until they got there money from the government. One dealer said that the government told us to trust them. First you never trust the government no matter it is a democrat or a republican talking. They all liar, they tell you what you want to hear.



The money seems to have been coming in slow up to last week. The bigger deal to me is that some dealers would not allow people to get there regular license plates because they did not complete the paper work. Those dealers are wrong to hold other people now news cars hostage.

The dealers that fail to complete paper work are dealers I would not go to. Now it is the governments fault but the dealer ships don't need to make it worse.

Change in the second story.

*****UPDATE***** Golden said in an email to me that he most likely would not run. He did say that if he was to run he would seek a third party endorsement. He also said that the only reason he would run is so he had some one to vote for. He would not put out much of an effort to win.



My second story was going to be on Carinda Horton’s run for the house seat 7A in Minnesota. The seat is currently held by long time DFLer Tom Huntly.

Today I will focus on if there could be a third person in this race. Well there sure couldThe i be and according to a face book post that person may be Daniel Golden. Golden said on facebook, that he was considering a run for the state legislature just so I have someone to vote for.

Golden is best known for his podcast (http://www.dannydoesduluth.com/). There he does a number of different things. The show is meant to be funny but he does get in to politics some times.

The interesting thing is if Golden chose to run would he run as a republican against Horton or would he be a third party candidate? There are pluses for him which ever way he went. A three person race would be interesting regardless of the third candidate.

One of the two stories.

Well they may not be stories to everyone they are to me. Well the second is not a huge deal it is a story none the less. The first one may not be a big deal either but it is to me.

Now on to the first one . It is from radio land. Duluth may or may not have seen a big change this week. Long time employee of GapWest radio stations group left the stations. Corey Cater who has been with the station sense they were in the little blue building on 9th street. Left  company on his own standing. He did this become Operations Manger at Mid-West commutations in Duluth.

Carter  as the program for two of GapWest radio stations. He also was the morning co-host on Mix 108. Carter brought mix out of the dead. Mix 108 plays today’s top hit music. The station was at the bottom of the ratings when GapWest took over the station. Then Z-rock. Gap along with Carter helped bring the station up in the ratings. Carter was also the program director for ESPN Radio an Am sports station.

Some say that a lower arbitron rating had to do with the change for Carter. I don’t think it had anything to do with the change. Well the   station has a smaller rating this time that is expected and not uncommon for this market. The station is still strong. Why the lower rating then?  Two reason’s.  Summer time always brings lower numbers for radio stations. Also the college kids where not in town a big part of the Mix108 group.

Why the change then? I think Carter thought it was just time. Well he did not get the promotion at GapWest. He realized the opportunity was there for Mid-West and  took it.

What will the change mean? It will not mean a lot for GapWest as they always make adjustments. They will look to fill the mix108 program spot and the morning show for now will be Dan Hanger and Laura who was the co-host with Carter .  Only time will tell if it will bring good change to the Mid-West stations.

More Later.

Two big stories.

I have two stories that I know about but I can’t tell them yet. I hope that you will check back for these next week. I can’t even really tease them so please check back. 

Election results and more.

Looks like Olson and Hartman will get top two spots. Follewed by Stauber and Hall in the fourth spot. Kasper is running away with the school board race. Okay night all more tomorrow. I will have the candidates reaction then as well.


9pm The City web page is now posting numbers. with about 10% of the vote in here are some numbers.

Hartman 501 - Hall 323 - Olson 555 - Stauber 383 those are the top four at this point. It looks like the DFLers are the ones that got out to vote this far. I am not sure you can look for these numbers to change a lot. Yes it's early in the counting but this may set the stage for the night. We will have to see.

School board at large numbers are as follows. Kasper 525 -Nilsen 325 -Cameron 394 - Booth 204.


8:45pm The DNT does have numbers up for the fourth district. Again if these numbers are close to right then it looks like Gauthier and Grant will be moving on.

8:37pm If the number by the DNT are right it also looks like Beth Olson will in fact be the top vote getter that follwed by the Dan Hartman but again I think it is early for numbers. No T.V. station is reporting numbers yet. I will be calling some of the candidates soon.

The Duluth News Tribune has some numbers but it seems early to have numbers. Plus I can't keep the page as I get a message and then it closes the page out. I think it is the link the DNT is using. Anyone else having trouble with it.
If the numbers are right on the DNT site it looks good for those DFL backed canidates.





The polls have closed about a half hour ago. Results will start coming in soon.

I think that the voter turn out was low that will be a plus for the DFL and the union backed candidates. Those are the people that get out in vote in the primary for the most part. It also is a non presidential year.

New post will be on top of the page. All updates will be here. Your comments welcome.

Get election coverage here.

I will be following tonight's primary. Get my thoughts and more right here. Starting soon. I will also be following a number of other sites.

Primary election day.

It is primary day tomorrow here in Duluth. Every one get out and vote. It matters who makes it to the the general election. That is held in November. So get out and vote. Polls open all day.

 

At large race. One person over at www.duluthcitizens.blogspot .com things that the top two spots will go to the union and DFL endorsed candidates. I don’t think they will get both top spots. However they could it they are the only people that go and vote. This is not a presidential year so the voter turn out will not be as high. Again go vote.

Here is how I see the vote going as of now.

Dan Hartman

Becky Hall

Jim Stauber

Beth Olson

Mike Akervik

If Hartman does not get the top spot tomorrow it will be a blow to him. I think he gets a spot on the council either way. It is a blow to him however because he has worked harder then anyone else has.

If Olson does get that second spot tomorrow Hall and Stauber will have a lot of work to do before November. The only out working that I have seen is Hartman the other three seem to be waiting around.  I think that is a poor choice.

 

School board I have not followed that well I think that in the general it will be Casper and Nilsen there for being a wash as one is against the red plan and one is for it.

9/11

Today is 9/11/09 the date the marks the 8th anniversary of the terror attacks on the twin towers in New York. It was a dark day for our country.

Take time to remember those that lost there life in the towers and the those that tired to safe them. Always remember the day. Never forget. Regardless of your thoughts on the war, President Bush or anything else. Please remember those that were killed in the 9/11 attack.

I remember it was my first day off in along time and I was looking to have a fun day. Instead I woke up and turned on the news. One jet had just crashed in to the towers. I sad at home that day and went had a number of things go threw my head. It was not a fun day at all. I watched the news reports all day long. I prayed for the best knowing the worst was going to get the best of it. I still cry when I think about it.

Allegaint Air adds flight to Duluth.

The air line that has a route out of Duluth to Las Vegas will add Duluth to Orlando Fla.

Allegaint has been in Duluth for a number of years now. They have been had flights from Duluth to Las Vegas and that has been it, they are now going to add Orlando to that. They will start direct flights in November.

Read more at www.duluthnewstribune.com .

Gary Glass drops out of race.

There were a couple of things I wanted to write yesterday but never got a chance to. I will cover at least one of them today if not all of them.

The first one is about current school board member Gary Glass. As many of you know he is running for the 2nd district seat of the school board. Who is that possible when he is already on the board? The school district has no rule against running for another seat well you are currently sitting on the board.

Yesterday however he for the most part his bid for the 2nd district seat. He said he would have dropped out if he could, ballots however are already made out. Some votes have already been taken because of absentee voting has already taken place.

Glass said yesterday that he was going to be part of the 1st district race because he was concerned that the school board was going to kick him off the board. The concern came over lawsuit  issues that have been settled at this point.

Glass made his announcement just one week prior to the primary vote. Instead of dropping out of the race he endorsed 2nd district candidate Marcia Stromgren .

This move came way to late. I am not sure he should even put his name in the race. He did but waiting so long I think I a bad idea. As I said there have already been votes made. I am sure he got many of those that were against the red plan. This already taken votes away from Stromgren. It also makes those votes pretty much worthless.

It also sets up in my mind an easy attack against  Glass and Stromgren as it looked like this was the plan all along.

Now I have no idea what would have happened should Glass have won the 2nd district seat. I don’t think  he could hold both seats. I am guessing he would have had to resign one of them. Then my guess is they board would have appointed some one and you know they would not appoint any one that was  against the red plan as Glass is the only sitting member on the board against the plan.

DNT online.

It sure seems like the Duluth News Tribune online is taking the Labor Day weekend off. As of Monday night the online DNT is still all Friday's stories.

Is anyone else noticing the same thing? I have been out of the loop for three days as we have been up at the  cabin. Now I can’t even get caught up again.

Thanks DNT, www.duluthnewstribune.com.

Any way I hope you all had a great weekend.

Just some notes.

I am now writing on another blog as well as this one. This be my main blog but I am excited to be on the following blog,  www.duluthcitizens.blogspot.com. Well the main author and I don’t agree on a lot of political issues.That's okay to disagree and have a good discussion of the issues.

I am going to do a second part of a story I started there. I will post part 2 here. It is about the chicken ordinance passed just over a year ago. You can read part one at link above.

I will be adding some web sites to the links as well so check those out soon. I hope to do that today.

What the hell?

What the hell is going on our community? Every were you turn it seems as of late there is  a shooting or something going on. This shooting took place back in May but the suspect was just arraigned in court.

The shooter a 22 year old man shot a house in West Duluth four times. This leading to four counts of second-degree assault. The other interesting part of the story is this guy got the guns by stealing them.

Why did the shooting happen? From best guess the person that lived in the house got in to a fight a month before hand.

The shooting suspect is a real winner and pillar  of the community as he charges in two separate charges of second-degree assault and makeing terroristic threats.

U.M.D. chancellor to retire.

U.M.D. Kathryn Martin announced that she will retire this year 15 years of leading the school. She will stay  on for some special projects.

This is sick.

Abuse to the elderly has apparently hit right new our back yard. A Virginia  Minnesota assisted living facility has been charged with abuse of residents. The clam that three employers have abused residents.

The abuse included  pinching, slapping and verbally abusing. The three employees remain at work at the facility. Two of them however have been suspended and the other one is on a 30 day work plan.  Well I am sure the place is conducting it’s own investigation. That said these three employers should be fired.

This is sick the acts of these employees was wrong and they should not be allowed to work at this or any other place that deals with the elderly.