New poll.

The poll is will you take part in the Duluth Tea Party? It just went up so take time to vote.

Mayor’s night canceled tonight.

The mayor’s night  set for tonight is canceled because of the weather.

Mayor’s night is were citizens have an oppertunity to meet with the Mayor and talk about any issue(s) they wish to.  They get five minutes.

It happens every month.  The last Tuesday of the month.

Weather is horrible.

I am one of those people that will go any were is most any condition. Yet today I would not go any were if I don’t have to. It is bad.

There are accidents all over the place. Buses are having trouble moving and they are getting in accidents. 

If you do go out please be careful. 

Lake Superior College to go smoke free.

Lake Superior College is going smoke free. They are most likely one of the last Government building or colleges that to do so. I don’t remember what the date is.

The policy does not allow smoking in the parking lot, out side the building, in the school, in the woods on the property, and in your car.

 

Duluth Tea Party.

I will be hopefully interview some one from the group. I will be in contact with them this AM by email.

I would guess they would do the interview because they want to get the work out as much as possible.

I encourage people to think of going to this event. It will be a great event against our government and there endless spending on both sides.

Nettleton on lock down.

Nettleton was put on lock down yesterday. A call came in to 911 about 11 AM.  The caller had said a teacher had been shot. 

Cops ran in to the school and checked out the school. They went on every floor and in every room.  The school was cleared after a search showed no such thing as happening.

There was no teacher shot. Nor was there any sign of a student or adult with a gun on the property. This call took 12 police officers.

It turned out to be a prank yet the school and the cops did every thing right.  The kids remained calm as they were instructed to go in to rooms and under desks. Cops did a great job of getting there and doing there jobs.

The call that came in to 911 was made by a cell phone. There is no way to trace the call. The call sounded like it was a child but again there is no real way to tell.

Duluth Tea Party.

You may have heard of this event.  They now have a blog at http://duluthteaparty.blogspot.com/ . There is just one post now as the site went up today. 

I will have more as I learn more about the event here as well.

Duluth Politics on twitter.

We are now part of twitter.  You can follows on twitter here http://twitter.com/DuluthPolitics . Our twitter site will be used to have short post or thoughts. You will also see some personal things shared there. Such as what I am doing, did, plan on doing ect….

Link to Food Stamp Story in the Star.

http://www.startribune.com/local/east/42033327.html?elr=KArksUUUU

Here is a snipped of the story.

“The 317,000 Minnesotans relying on food stamps will get a 14 percent increase in their monthly benefits. For a family of four, that means a jump in maximum benefits of $80 a month to about $668.”

Okay well I believe the food stamp program is good. There are problems with it as well. One of the big issues I have that you can buy anything on it.  I am a huge believe that it should have a set program of things you can buy. 

There is also cash on some people’s cards and they can buy such things as beer and cigarettes with this side of the card. This is wrong.

Technorati Tags: Food Stamps,Minnesota,Star Trib,Stimulus,EBT

WDSM web site: Slaps Lew in the face.

Currently the web page for WDSM radio say’s Lew Latto is on the air. The way Lew was treated was wrong. Yes Lew has done it to his employees in the past.

It is however a big slap in the face to Lew. The station should have made sure it did not have him on the web page any longer.  As you know Brad Bennett is now on from 8-11 AM.  That is fine by me.  I know many people don’t like Brad’s show.  That is your right.  Isn’t it great to live in a place were you have the right to say what you believe?

The WDSM web page also have Lew still on the staff page again now you have fired Lew take him off your page.  Just another note there liners still stay Brad is on 9-11not 8-11 AM.

The WDSM web page is www.wdsm710.com . 

 

Technorati Tags: WDSM Radio,Lew Latto,Brad Bennett,Web Page

Food Stamp increase.

If you have read this blog for any time, you know what I think of the EBT system.

I believe there is a lot of problems out there. People find ways to get it that should not.

Any way on to what I want to say.  The first stimulus packages will arrive in Minnesota starting Wednesday.  What is it?

A 14% increase in the food stamp program. Great!!!!

More later.

No Lew Latto today.

Right now I am listening to WDSM and Brad is on.  It is clear he will be on now 8-11 AM.

Lew was to do his last show today.  That did not happen.  Mr.Stone did not allow Lew to have his final show today.  Here is what was on Lew’s web site today.

www.lewlatto.com

                    THANK YOU!

     This is a sad day for me.  Instead of hosting my final radio show, I must instead try to explain the details of my dismissal.  Before I do that, however, I would like to thank everybody for your wonderful support!

I have spent hours and hours these past two weeks answering a multitude of e-mails.  It is proof to me of the extended radio family which we all have been a part of.  Your kind words have been so gratifying!

     It was never my intent to go public with my dismissal, however after I learned in an e-mail from Ron Stone, the market manager for WDSM and five other local radio stations, that he had canceled my final broadcast today, I had no choice.  I consider his action an attack on my integrity.  I had assured Mr. Stone that I would not discuss my situation on the radio show.  I had not, as you all know, and would not have done so on my final broadcast!   Not being on-the-air today means I cannot personally say "goodbye" to the thousands of listeners who tune in daily. 

     Many of you have asked me why Mr. Stone canceled my show.  I cannot give a logical reason.  WDSM last fall had the best ratings the station has ever had in its current format.  My ratings have always been strong and as a radio station owner: never mess with success!  The many sponsors who have been on my show for years brought more revenue to WDSM than I was costing the station.  Perhaps I am not enough of a "patriot" for Mr. Stone.  Only he can answer that!

     I have no immediate future plans, except to relax for a while.  If Midwest Communications would like me to return to WDSM after Mr. Stone is gone, I would certainly consider it.

     Should any other opportunity present itself, I will post my future plans here on my web site. 

Thank you again for your wonderful support!

                                                               Lew

Chat With Other Tabernacle of Truth Listeners

00 Days, 01 Hours, 45 Minutes, 45 Seconds.

 

Note the clock on his site at the time still  had an hour and 45 minutes at the time. It does not seem like he has any current plans according to his web page.   More to come when I find something out.

New Lew info.

I just talked to a second source that is involved in radio. The source told me that there is  no truth to the Hog going to a talk station.  It has changed to a classic rock as of yesterday.

He said that Lew is in fact moving to 1490. I guess we will find out on Monday.

Also Brad Bennett’s show will now be three hours long 8-11 AM accourding to his report to me.

102.5 the hog going to hog talk?

Well some people have been talking, there for rumors have been around that the hog will go to an FM talk station.

If this was to be true this maybe were Lew Latto goes. Keep in mind I think this whole Lew Latto thing has been some kind of stunt all a long.  After developments over the last few days.

Now I think it would be a poor chose for MWC to do this.  The FM station in the Twin Cities is not going over the best. I wonder how they think it would work better in a smaller market.  The only think that may work is if it was mostly local talk show host.  People up here like local talk. I also think that if there were to change 102.5 to a talk station they would have to have balance both views expressed on the station.

I would  be a bit surprised if they did change the station to a talk format. With that said it is something Ron Stone has wanted to do for some time. He has more say at MWC then he did when he was GM at Clear Channel. Clear Channel never would have allowed a FM talk station up here.

The other thing is the hog is a pretty good station from what people tell me.  I don’t listen to it not my type of music. I wonder why they would change this? Yes I understand that if it went to a talk station it would not be called the hog any longer.  Although i like hog talk LOL.

Let the conversation and rumors go here. 

Post coming tomorrow.

I will not make any new post tonight. I will aprove comments and such tonight. 

Tomorrow back to posting.  I will post what I know about a possible FM talk station in Duluth.  Danny kind of broke that on the comments in the post below.  More Lew chat also.  Anything else that may come up.

I will say this again.  The Lew Latto deal looks more and more like a stunt all the time.

Lew Latto to stay at Mid-West.

A source tells me that Lew will stay put at Mid-West Communications. The source told me Lew may or may not be on WDSM. The source would not say what station he would be on.

I asked the source it this was all a game played by Lew and the radio station. Again they would not say one way or the other. They hinted that Lew was never going to go to AM 1490 however. The source said that Lew did not want to go there because of how weak the station is.

UPDATE: Lew is playing this like he is leaving the stations all together. I don’t know who to believe. The source I have is a radio station employee. The source may be a not Mid-West employee.

UPDATE #2: Lew Latto will only do one show on Friday no matter were he ends up. The counter on his blog is when an announcement will appear.

Reminder I never use the name of my sources unless they say I can.

Lew Latto and other web pages.

Okay so I am beginning to think this whole Lew Latto thing is a stunt.

I have no idea what to believe any more nor do I really care.  I don’t listen much to Lew. I have not listened to much local talk radio for a long time. Yes I tune in to shows now and then not like I use to however.

The DCB Watch is now reporting that Lew will stay with mid west communications. His story can be found here www.dcbwatch.blogspot.com .

I am thinking Lew will stay were he is at WDSM and this whole thing was a stunt from the beginning, after all April first is right around the corner.

Another short meeting.

There was yet another short city council meeting last night. Not as short as the one two weeks ago.  This meeting was about an hour long.

The council voted down a decrease in there pay. I am okay with that.  The vote was 6-3. The three that voted for it was Jim Stauber, Todd Fedora, and Tony Cuneo. I see both sides of this and if I was on the council I would have more then likely voted for it. I however see why others voted against. I really see were councilor Krause was coming from.  I will have more on his comments later.

Now one reason I would have supported it is face it this was for two years. It would have been volunteerary by the council if it would have passed.

I agree that the Duluth City Council does not get paid any were near those of other city’s it’s size.  Now I however understand that this is a public service and it should mean you receive nothing at least it use to. This has changed I am not sure that is for the good. 

Don’t get me wrong I think these people should  be paid something.  This is why I believe if there is a increase proposed the citizens should vote on that.

Lew Latto to AM 1490?

It is being reported at www.dcbwatch.blogspot.com that Lew is moving his show there. There is also another interesting idea by Danny at www.dannydoesduluth.com .

Well I have also heard a this rumor of 1490 I thought there is no way Lew would do that.  With that said I understands Lew passion for radio.  He may just do it. 

Here is why I thought he would not. The show does not fit well with the rest of the programming. 1490 is a sports station. They run the fan network when it works for them if that does not work they then run fox sports programming. AM 1490 is also one of the weakest stations around.  It is very hard to pick up. You may get it one spot and not the next. 

The second was more of a concern that I thought Lew would have. The first would be more up to the station management. We shell see what happens on Friday.

Now on to the Danny Does Duluth idea. Danny thought it would be cool if he finished his show on Friday and then went to AM 1490 and did another show following the show on WDSM. 

This would be interesting if he was to do it.  It would be a move unheard of. It does make sense with clock on his site.  It is a possibility. I am not sure he will do it however.  Again a waiting game. 

Lew Latto web page

As most of you know Lew’s show is coming to an end on WDSM this week. Friday will be the last of the show there. What happens next who knows.

Lew has said little on the air. He has only said show will end on WDSM and will not talk about it further on the air. Lew now a counter on his site www.lewlatto.com. Some think as did I when I saw it. It was a count down to the end of his show on WDSM. 

That can’t be the case however if it was the counter would have about an hour less of time on it.  The counter puts it near an hour past when Lew’s show would end on Friday.  What is the counter for then? 

I believe it is to find out what Lew is going to with his show. He will make announcement on his web page.

Council Pay.

Well you may remember a while ago I talked about the possibility of the council cutting there pay.  Now three councilors have proposed to do just that. 

The suggestion was meet with some strict opposition last night at the agenda session. I agree with opposition. 

Most people don’t understand what councilors do other then meetings.  There is a number of other things they do then just council meetings.  Right now I think there pay is just fine. One councilor said they should be paid more.  I don’t agree with that either. 

More on this later.  There was an interesting attempted mad last night.

More Lew Latto talk.

It seems to me according to all my sources that Lew Latto is making his own chose to leave. The radio station wanted to make changes to the show.

Lew Latto did not like the changes there for he was going to retire or find some thing else. It is clear to me at this point that change is good.  Now I did just listen to the DDD show and I agree with him in part. www.dannydoesduluth.com is were you can find it.

Danny says that it seems the show is being taken off the air for a syndicated show. I wish if they take Lew off that he would be replaced by a new local talk show host. I know of some one who could fill that spot if the station was interested. In fact I know of more then one that could.

Now I will say this again, the Lew Latto show was  a lot like a syndicated show in that he did not talk about local issue nearly enough.

That is some thing that has lacked in local talk radio for a long time.  In fact sense Duke Skorich radio show days there has not been a talk show that had talked about local issue most of the time. I did not agree with Duke however I enjoyed the show because most of the time it was local.

I would encourage WDSM to look to fill the spot with a local host. Not more uninteresting national talk.  I believe the air waves are filled with enough of that. It is very important to have local talk programs.

Has mid-west carried there talk format to far one way?

Yes, I believe they have.  The format for all the shows have seemed to change from a talk show host to an interviewer. It seems like most of the shows are now focusing on interviews.  I guess it is okay. This to me is not talk radio however.  Yes okay do an interview ever once in a while.  It at least is not local talk radio.

Local talk radio needs to be about local issues and it needs to be a host  or even a possibility of two host talking about the issues.  Then taking calls.

The focus has seemed to interviews and I don’t care for it. What are your thoughts?

Lew Latto history?

Will the Lew Latto show be off the air starting next week? Well I am not sure when it may happen I would not be surprised to see it happen.

Many radio talents have been talking about it privately for some time now. It seems that WDSM has been looking for a way to improve there ratings.

In doing so it seems like they want to drop a long time talk show host in the Duluth area. That is what the host claims anyway. Lets face it Lew is offen not in the studio many times he is in Florida and does the show from there.  He also claims to talk about local issues. Yet if you listen to the it never or hardly ever talks about local issues. 

I have known Lew for many years but I believe it is time for the station and him to move on. 

Not much political news but there is other news.

Not much political news going on right now in Duluth. There is however a number of other interesting issues going on.

Lew Latto gone from WDSM?  I have heard rumors for some time and had some other info but chose to hold on to it. Now today the paper has something in it so I will comment.

Shipping news.

A bad bad car crash kills two young men. 

 

Those post coming up.

No news

No post today so far nothing going on really.

My new blog.

Back to school and in my 30’s.  Is the name of the new blog, find it here,http://backtoschoolandinmy30s.blogspot.com.

If you have or are going back to school and are in your 30’s or more this site is for you.  I hope it becomes a resource for us all.

I am going back to school and I start tomorrow at LSC.  I am going for CNA program.  Anyway head over there is you are interested in reading it. Right now it only has one post but I will post there a lot I have feeling. My question today at the site is, those that have gone back already what was your feeling before you started?

First Oriental Grocery Closes it’s doors.

It is sad that yet another business had to close do to the economic down turn. I know a lot of people loved the store.

One thing I did find interesting for the DNT was a reason why she closed her doors.

Cummings-Gibbs has owned the store for four years with decreasing sales affecting the bottom line for two years. She said the decision to close came last week, in part to her husband, Joe Gibbs, losing his job in February.

Okay I guess it makes perfect sense that neither one of you are working now.

 

School board meeting yesterday.

The board held a special meeting last.  I had planned on going for a bit but was unable to do so.  I was hoping that Harry Welty would have something on his blog but he does not.  At least not as of yet. 

If anyone went let me know what happened this will be an open threat of short.  Your comments will still need to be okayed. I sure do want to know what happened at the meeting however.

Post away!

Cancelation already?

These are cancelations already.  Note that the storm has not even hit yet.  Why do we panic can’t we wait and see first. From the DNT.

Timestamp
Your Name
Your email or phone #
Name of Organization
Details about closure or cancellation

.

3/10/2009 7:29:46
Lu Avery
misslu58@yahoo.com
Town of Oakland, WI
The Town of Oakland (Douglas County) has rescheduled its town meeting from tonight at 7:00 pm to Thursday, March 12, at 7:00.

.

3/10/2009 7:46:54
Kenwood Edison
Kenwood Edison
Kenwood Edison
Early dismissal at 1 p.m. today with regular busing. Students will be served lunch before dismissal. No Kids Club.

.

3/10/2009 7:57:05
Keith Fulcher
fulcher@arrowheadtel.net
town of Ellsburg
Township Election will be held today polls open at 10:00 till 8:00 p.m but the annual town meeting will be cancelled and will be held on march 17,2009 at 7:00 P.M.

.

3/10/2009 8:22:47
Sara Kubarek
skubarek@glaquarium.org
Whirligigs Preschool Program
The Tuesday and Wednesday Whirligigs Preschool program at Great Lakes Aquarium is cancelled this week due to the weather. If parents would like the lesson plan for the week they can e-mail Sara Kubarek at skubarek@glaquarium.org.

Should the Mayor be able to appoint communications and policy officer and a community relations officer.

Below you will find what will be a question we vote on next election.  The council failed to pass this it’s self. It needs a 9-0 vote to pass.  Councilor Sharla Gardner voted against it was an 8-1 vote.  This it did not pass.

The current Mayor Don Ness wants this to pass.  I think it would be a good idea to vote yes on this in November. Basically all it is asking is if you think the mayor who ever it is should be able to appoint these positions. 

PROPOSITION
Should the Duluth City Charter be amended to provide the Mayor
the ability to appoint a communications and policy officer and a
community relations officer and allow the job specifications for
each position be established by City Council resolution?
Yes _____ No_____
A “YES” vote is a vote in favor of allowing the Mayor to
appoint a communications and policy officer and a community relations
officer and that job specifications for those appointments
will be established by City Council resolution.
2
A “NO” vote is a vote against allowing the Mayor to appoint a
communications and policy officer and a community relations officer.
Approved as

I had a quickie with the city council.

Well tonight was the first meeting I have been able to attend in around a month or so.  I have been able to catch some of the meetings on T.V.

Tonight's meeting was a very quick one. That is why the title. The meeting lasted all of about 33 minutes. It is the fastest I can remember in the past 13 years. Yes that is how long I have been going to council meetings. 

Need less to say there was not much going on at the meeting but I will have more later. There were a couple of interesting things. 

I do however need to say this.  In the big return of Mark Winson here is what he said all meeting long. At the end of the meeting “ In my return I feel the need I should say something.” “ So something.” It got a good laugh.

Meetings tonight.

I will be attending both the city council meeting tonight and the school board board meeting. I will be at the school board meeting for a short time. I will have an update on what I can from there. Then it will be off to the council meeting.

You can get updates on both here tonight.

DP sports update.

I have a new post on the DP sports page. www.dpsportspage.blogspot.com. I will have more later there today as well.

Right now you can read about the bulldogs troubles the last three weeks of the season.  Also what time I think it is for the bulldogs.

Later I will have some high school hockey tournament stuff up there.  I will be picking the winners in every game.

Paper lay offs.

I just went to the News tribune site and the blogs and went to the business blog.  There I found that Patrick Garmoe was laid of on Friday.

It is to bad because Mr..Garmoe did a great covering the city politics the short time he did that with the paper.  He then moved to the business section.  Were he has been doing a wonderful job coving those issues. 

I know the paper is having troubles but it is sad that such a great person had to feel the effects of this.  I wish Patrick the best in what ever may come next for him. 

If you wish to contact Patrick you can go to his blog www.laidoffinduluth.blogspot.com . Send him well wishes.  I am sure he would be grateful.

Poll update.

Should the Norshore be closed is the poll.  There is two day left on the poll.  Right now the no’s have it but lets see what happens at the end.

If you have not voted yet please do so.

 

Technorati Tags: polls,poll update,NorShore

Winter just won’t leave us alone.

March many times means warmer weather.  It also however can mean some mean winter storms.  That seems to be the case starting tomorrow.  After a number of days of near 40 degree weather it seems we are in for a change.

The national weather service is set to issue a serve winter storm warning.  The storm could drop as much as a foot of snow on the area. It may also bring near 50 mile an hour winds with it.  It is set to last two days. 

I guess we will live. It sucks being so close to spring and then another blast of winter comes. 

Technorati Tags: Winter,Spring,Winter sucks,March

It's nice that some blogs.

It is nice to see and hear that some blogs edit post before they post them. I will not do that here. If there is something in the post I don't like I will not post the whole thing.

Now I will say again I am proud of this blog. I wish we would have more people comment here. I have a lot of readers. I think there are a few reason's why people don't comment. One is I don't allow people to comment with out registering on blogger. I don't allow anonymous post.

NorShore Experience in trouble again?

I have said this many times about the NorShore. It is not my type of place and I have never been in there.  I however don’t have a problem with it being there.  Now yes I wish it was something else. It is what it is by owners chose.

The business got in some trouble because of a couple of major accusations against it.  The punishment for those was a one say suspicion of it’s liquor license.

Now it seems that on the day there were not allowed to sell alcohol they did. Some are up in arms as they should be if this was the case.  The owner had no comment that makes me thing there they did sell and they knew what they were doing. 

There has been a lot of complaints of this business and I wonder how much of this is a witch hunt against the type of business it is?  Any thoughts. 

Technorati Tags: NorShore

A hot lotto winner in the area.

Some one is a bit wealthier today. It seems some one in St Louis County won the hot lotto jackpot. The jackpot is worth 3.62 million dollars. 

The winner has up to a year to claim the prize. I would like to think that it would be claimed before then.  If you recently bought hot lotto tickets, have them checked.

It was not me who won, then again you have to buy a ticket to win.

Happy Birthday!

Today is city councilor Jeff Anderson’s birthday.  If you wish to say happy birthday you can leave a comment here or if you are on www.facebook.com you wish him well there.

Happy birthday Jeff have a good one.

Zamboni turns 60 year old.

Okay so the Duluth News Tribune yesterday reported that the zamboni turns 60 years old this year.  Well I enjoyed reading the story and thought it was a good story.  I am not sure it needed to be were it was. 

It was on the front page and the lead story.  I thought that was a bit funny.  That is the major thing going on in Duluth and or the world. What about Iraq, Iran, North Korea.  What about the school district, the city troubles.

The story should have either been in the local or sports page and tied the DECC zamboni driver in like it did.  It was not a front story thing.  With that said it was Sunday and a feel good story so that is good I guess. Any way Happy 60th birthday to the zamboni.

Military absentee ballot’s.

I was talking to a friend currently serving in Iraq. Thankfully he will be returning in the next week to week and half.

Well we were talking he said he did not a get a chance to vote.  He had problems with his absentee ballot from the from the State.  It was there problem as well.  This was however not the issue he had with military absentee ballot’s. 

His issue with military absentee ballot’s were that they had to mailed in.  He thinks that they should be able to fax or email there ballots in on election day.  What do you think of the idea. 

I know he wants to try to change the law.  He has told me that he will make ever effort to do so when he returns.  Not sure what if anything will come of it.