Jim Gradishar dead at the age of 47.

A man who was surrounded by controversy over the last few years took his own life on Wednesday. Jim Gradishar owned the NorShor Experience, a strip club here in Duluth. He had trouble with citizens and police since the strip club opened.

The owner of the NorShore building, Eric Ringsred, blamed Gradishar's suicide on the media and the police. Saying they had a witch-hunt out on Gradishar, Ringsred went as far as to use the word murder instead of suicide, saying the newspaper, city officials and the police all have blood on their hands.

Gradishar had trouble with the law here in Duluth and elsewhere. Here, in Duluth, he brought a gun to a public place while under the influence. His business, the NorShor Experience, has also had its run ins with the police and the city. They have been the subject of numerous police calls. The business also had its liquor license pulled by the city until a judge overruled the city and restored the license.

I did not know Gradishar at all. I do think the media seemed to focus on him because of the type of business he ran. I think if this would have been someone who ran a high tech industry, you would have heard little about it.

Buffalo wild wings.

So as many of you know Buffalo wild wings has been building a restaurant in the old gander mountain site, the restaurant is set to open it's doors on Monday March 22nd.

The staff has been in training and as of last night, there are already people camping out at the restaurant. Yep just like black Friday, people are waiting out side of the site for it to open. A bit crazy if you ask me.

Yes I want to try it. I have never eaten at one but people tell they are good, but is it worth waiting in the lot for five days?

Bye the way March 22nd happens to be some blogger's birthday, here is a good gift idea if you would like to get a certain blogger something for his birthday. A gift card works just fine thanks, LOL.

Lots going on, little time.

There is a lot going and I hope to blog soon about it. I have and will be busy the rest of this week. I will try to get caught up this weekend, even though it will also be busy.

That said check back daily as I will try to post what I can. As always thanks for reading.

Pawletny nice to Duluth in bonding bill.

Duluth gets projects from Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty did what he said he would with the bonding bill, he did not veto it. He did however trim it down. That said, many Duluth projects stayed in the bonding bill.

Governor Pawlenty trimmed $319 million from a $1 billion bonding bill. Duluth is one of the cities that is left with many projects, however Duluth will get money for three projects.

Lake Superior College will be adding a Health Sciences building. The Duluth International Airport will receive funding for a new airport terminal, and money is allocated to help fix Duluth's wastewater control issues. Included is money to build two new sewage overflow tanks to prevent raw sewage from entering Lake Superior.

The projects come at no small cost to the state. The LSC building will receive $12.1 million, the airport project will receive $11.7 million and money for the wastewater control project is $27 million.

A day with a candidate.

Do you want to learn more about the Republican candidate for the Minnesota House District 7A? Saturday, March 27th will be your chance.

Carinda Horton will be running against DFL candidates Tom Huntley or Brandon Clokey in the primary. Horton has a number of events scheduled for March 27th. She would love to see people at any or all of them.

Her very busy day starts at 7AM and will end at 5PM. Her day starts with the Step Out Walk To Fight Diabetes at Miller Hill Mall, then a number of events for the campaign starts at Mr. D's Bar & Grill.

Here is a list of the events at Mr. D's: -

9am - Take Back Washington

10:30am Town Hall meeting -

1pm - Golden Gloves boxing show at The Actors Gym, 404 West Superior Street


3-5 pm - Meet and Greet.


Head on out to one or all the events if you would like more

Not much going on.

Not much going on, unless you like talk about furniture. The city bought furniture withs out the council approval. It is not that big of deal to me.

I might not be able to blog about the rest of todays games.

I know I will not be able to blog about the night games as I will be at work. The second after noon game will start shortly and I will try to blog about it, but I have other things I need to do.

I will have more tomorrow on the tournament. Again I will try to cover the second afternoon game.

HIgh school hockey update: Edina and Roseau

It is now 7-3 Edina this game is over. More on it later.

Edina leads 5-2 after two. Sorry I missed the last two goals. Edina is out shooting Roseau 30-11.

Champman gets his second goal of the period, this one at 8:57 of the second period. This one came off a tip in off his stick. The original shot came from the point he tipped it in. 3-2
Edina leads with 7 and a half left in the second.


Edina ties the game at 2 after crashing the net. The rams goalie could not get a hold of the puck and it laid free for Champman to punch in to the net at 4:57 of the second.


Roseau gets its first lead of the game. In the second period, at 1:57 in Adam Nockenmouth scored to make it 2-1 Roseau.

The first period is over and it remains tied at 1. There was just one power play oppertunity and that went to Edina, they could not score on the man advantage. Edina carried the play in the period out shooting roseau 15-6.

The first Class AA game has just started and there is already a goal. Steven Forgity scored for Edina just 32 seconds in to the game.

Just like that it is all tied up as Roseau has now scored and make. it 1-1. At the 1:52 mark of the game Norman scored off a deflected shot.

Class A recap. Two teams and two machines.

Four games are complete in the high school hockey tournament. The class single A teams are one with there quarter finale games, they now look a head to Fridays semi final games.

Two teams and two machines have made it passed the querter finals. The first semi final game will be Mahtomedi and Hermantown. Mahtomedi beat Alexandria 7-1, well Hermantown defeated Virgina-MIB 2-1 in there quarter finel game.

This game is the two teams that made it out of the first round. Well the second game pits the two machines against each other. Breck who is the defending champions beat New Ulm 11-1 well hockey power house Warroad won 9-0 against Rochester Lourdes.

Both of these semi final games will be very good. I don't even want to predict a winner in the Breck Warroad game. That said however Breck had beaten Warroad the last two years in the hockey tournament. I think Hermantown will win against Mahtomdi but it will be a close game.

High school hockey update: Rochester Lourd and Warroad.

More later tomorrow on the games.

Hamil scores the 3rd goal for Warroad. 2:35 in to the second period. Can you say game over? Rochester lourd looks lost.

The first period was dominated by Waroad, they lead 2-0 and held Rochester lourd shot less till 1 minute left in the period. Shots where 8-2 Warroad. Rochester is going to have to find some offense against this team. The problem is Rochester Lourd is built on defense not offense. There was just one penalty in the period, that was on Warroad but Rochester could do nothing with it.

Aaron Rasmussion adds to the lead for Warroad, scoring at 5:27 in to the first period. The shot was harmless but font it's way in the net. Warroad has shots on goal lead 4-0 so far in the first period. Both of Warroads have came off turn overs.

Game time shortly. Just some quick notes well we wait for the game to start. Action earlier today. Mohtomedi beat Alexandria 7-1 and Hermantown defeated Virgina-MIB 2-1, in the best game of the tournament so far.

That sets up the first semi-finale game on Friday for class A. Mahtomedi and Hermantown. This should be a great game. It will be a tough challange for Hermantown, Head coach Bruce Plant said his team can play with anyone. He and the hawks have a tough challange on Friday.

The first night session game is done and it was a blow out. Defending state champions Breck won 10-0 ( I think, last score I heard. I will update if score was different. ), over New Ulm.

Warroad is up 1-0 scoring 2:37 minutes in to the game, Brock Nelson with the goal.

High school hockey tournament: Breck and New Ulm.

I will have more on this game later. I will blog again in game 4 of the day. In about an half or so.

End of the second period breck leads 9-0, scoring 7 goals in the 2nd period. That ties a record held by two other schools. The first team to score 7 goals in one period was Eleveth in 1945 .

Breck is up 6-0 nothing still in the 2nd period. The 5th goal I did not see, putting the son to bed. The 6th scored by Opperman. This game is getting way out of hand. Breck is scoring at will, they have 3 more goals in the time I am typing. That is four goals in 52 seconds it is now 9-0. Andler has 2 goals in the game.

It is now the second period and breck leads 4-0. They are out shooting New Ulm 21-9 . The last goal by breck was scored 5 minutes in to the period. The goal was scored by Conner Anlder.


In the first period Breck leads 2-0 over New Ulm. I have not seen either goal because we flip between channels. This game is be all breck at any rate, they will be tough all tournament. I will keep you updated on what I see of this game. I hope to see more of the second period.

State Hockey tournament update: Hermantown and Virgina-MIB

It was the only goal of the 3rd period. Hermantown wins 2-1 over Virgina-MIB and will move on to the semi-finale game. Game three starts at 6pm.
2:57 in to the 3rd period Hermantown regains the lead,with a quick shot by Adam Krause. It was a very pretty play. Is the game is? Only time will tell. If the one goal a period holds true it maybe over. Again still 13 minutes in game any thing can happen.

Two periods of play are over, and it is tied at 1. Each team had 1 power play opputunity but neither could score on the chance. The period had a lot of play in the Hermantown zone but Virgina-MIB could only get the one goal to tie the score. The 3rd period of play should be just as good as the last two. It has been a great game to this point.

Virgina had 10 shots on goal well Hermantown had 9 in the second period. Shots on goal after two Virgina 16 Hermantown 15.

The night cap games will be New Ulm against defeanding champs in class A Breck. The last game of the night is Warroad and Rochester.

The second period is under way and Virgina tied the game early in the period. They have dominated the first few minutes of the second. Eddie got the tip in goal. Now Hermantown is going on there 3rd power play of the day. Game tied at 1. The Virgina goal game in the first and a half of the period.

The second game of the tournament is under way. The score is 1-0 in favor of Hermantown, they got the goal on the power. They are just now going on the second power play of the day.

Scoring the goal at 13:03 in to the first period was Christopherson with an assist from Krause and Kolquist. The power play goal came on the second shot of the power play. The penalty was for hooking on Virgina, it was a bit of a flop by the hermantown play.

The first period has just under 1 minute left. Virgina had 1 power play opportunity but could get nothing going on it. Hermantown had 2 power play chances scoring on there first one.

The period was pretty evan except when Hermantown had the power plays. Each team had six shots on net.

At the end of one period of play its Hermantown 1 Virgina 0.

Minnesota high school hockey tournament.

The winter version of the great Minnesota get together starts tomorrow. The boys high school state hockey tournament kids off tomorrow with four games and the Xcel energy center in St. Paul. The tournament has two divisions. Class A and class AA, A is the smaller schools around the State well AA are the large schools.

The four games tomorrow will feature the class A schools, two area schools will go head to head in the first game of the tournament. Hermantown will take on Virginia -MIB starting at 1pm Wednesday. The other local school involved in the tournament is Duluth East and they will take on Hill Murry in Class AA on Thursday in the quarter finales.

Good luck to all area schools.

Duluth to make a Google movie.

I will have more information on this later, for now here is the press release that google twinports send out today.


MARCH 8, 2010 — An open casting call for Google Movie will be held from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 13, at the Carnegie Building in Duluth, located at 101 West Second Street, Suite 200. Participants don’t need an appointment for the casting call. “We’re looking for enthusiastic supporters of all ages,” says Patrick Garmoe, public information officer for the Google Twin Ports Fiber Initiative. “We’ve hired a Hollywood director to shoot a movie geared to impress both the public at large and Google specifically, and would love to have a big crowd of actors involved.” Part of the movie will be shot during the Google Fest rally between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on March 20, at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

Bentlyville, should be ran by who?

So it begins, just one year after Bentleyville moves to Duluth the city is trying to take over the event. I said all along that Nathan Bentley, who runs the festival of lights should not move the operation to Duluth. My main reason is when the city sees something good, they try to take over and then it gets run down. Well that has not happened yet. It is starting just a year after the first season at Bayfront was completed. The city will consider a three year contract with Nathan Bentley to run Bentleyville at Bayfront at Monday's City Council meeting. In the contract are three new things, combined they indicates the start of the city taking over the event. It will be a work in progress by the City Of Duluth and City Council to take over the event. The three new items are: different start and end dates, new hours of operation, and a background check on persons portraying Santa Claus. If the three year contract is approved by the council, the festival of lights will run November 20th to December 26th, the times of operation will be 5pm - 9pm instead of 10pm. Let me first dive in to the date changes. I like the earlier start date, in fact I think it should open the same weekend as the Christmas City Of The North Parade. The event is being held in Duluth, creating a cool tie-in to the whole parade. The issue I have is the end date. Well, the festival with the new dates still runs as many weeks, but it takes some fun out of it. I've always enjoyed going to Bentleyville after Christmas. It was a neat way to start off the new year, by walking through the lights and taking time to remember the season, and to look ahead, it is a great place to ponder things. There are typically less people there once Christmas has passed, another reason to go then. You can really take time to enjoy the lights. There is no rush, no one pushing, just a nice atmosphere to spend time in. I think it is foolish to end it the day after Christmas, you are taking part of the joy and real moments families have away, by not operating it into the new year. The change of hours may not seem like a big thing to most, however to me it is just more evidence that the city wants to take this event away from Nathan Bentley. Note that the 9pm close is conveniently when most city parks close in Duluth. Gee residents, I don't think so. An hour also may not seem like a lot of time, however it is in this case. Any one who has ever gone to Bentleyville understands that there will be a lot of people there. They want to see Santa and having it close an hour earlier is going to allow for less people per night to accomplish this. I am not sure but I would guess that they will not allow new people in to see Santa after 8pm under the new contract. The gates to Santa this last season closed at 9pm. This was done because of large crowds. The last thing is a back ground check on Santa, while I agree in theory with this, I don't like it in this case. The same gentlemen has played Santa for the last 10 years and there has never been a problem. Councilor Fedora said it is not necessarily because of the current Santa but someone else may portray him at some point. That may be true, but I don't see it happening in three years. Tom Marciniak, who plays Santa has no problem with it. He said they will find nothing on his record. I think it is just another step of the city attempting to take the event away from Nathan Bentley.

Google twinports mission statement.

"Our Mission

To our supporters,

We wanted to take a moment to reiterate our mission, goals, contact information, and how you can help.
The mission of the Google Twin Ports Fiber Initiative is to win the Google Fiber project by showing Google the community’s passion for fiber – high speed Internet, video and voice – the highly skilled workforce in our communities, the strong, supportive entrepreneurial environment, and the community’s visionary leadership.

A. Fiber to each home and business is critical to Duluth and Superior’s economic vitality.

B. Communities that receive fiber first will be the ones that gain the biggest economic benefit, like the first towns with the railroad, electricity or Interstate highways.

C. Duluth and Superior can provide Google with the best return on investment in Google Fiber
The main organization number: Google Twin Ports Fiber Initiative

101 West 2nd Street
Suite 200
Duluth
218-260-2882

How you can help:
Fill out the two forms on http://www.googletwinports.com, one telling us you want to help, and second, telling Google they should come here.
And again, everyone is encouraged to come to headquarters office and donate your time when available."

Notice the name change.

Duluth Politics has changed it's name. If you don't know why go to http://www.googletwinports.com/ and watch the video,when there click on video and links.

The video was done in response to Topeka changing there name. It is meant in good fun, Duluth Politics is just joining in on the name change fun.

Google update.

Thank you readers of this blog. I have received about 25 or 30 emails the last few days saying they have or are going to sign up on the google twin ports page, because of seeing it on my blog. If you have not signed up I encourage you to do so.

If you want more information check out my google fiber page, link located on the right side of the blog. There is a fact sheet at the bottom of that page also some news and events coming up, which there is one on Thursday. There is also links to there google twinports page and much more so check it out.

It is also now easier to get to there page from here. Look up and click on the google twinports banner. There is also on located on the google fiber page.

Thanks again with community support we can bring this great project to the area.

Minnesota Vikings.

Brett Favre is expected to say he will play one more season. The announcement should come tonight on the Jay Leno show, where he is to be a guest. Favre had one of his best season's last year with Minnesota. The long time packer has been playing games during the off season the last three years. He seems to have been able to make up his mind quickly this off season on if he would play or not.

The vikings are working on signing Chester Taylor (running back). The vikings have said if they can't come to an agreement with him they will go after either Westbrook or Tomilison both have been released from there former teams. There is a reason for that, they are washed up. If the vikings don't sign Taylor it is possible they have a very poor running game next season.

Picture blog: Funny.

I saw these on a blog that I like to visit. Visit Yellowdog Granny your self at www.yellowdoggrannie.blogspot.com.