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 .
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.
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.
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 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. Kathryn Martin announced that she will retire this year 15 years of leading the school. She will stay on for some special projects.
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.
Okay so here it is. My thoughts on the murder and then the stand off that occurred the other day.
First lets start by making it clear regardless what people have said neither of these men or were good people. Both had criminal records a mile long.
The murder most likely took place because of money and or drugs. It happened in a part of town that is well known for drugs sales.
One thing I think that needs to happen is a some kind of program/law that makes it mandatory that landlords do criminal background checks on all people interested in renting from them. Depending on the check they get it or don’t. If the background check has one case of drugs, abuse, murder, assault, ect.. They don’t get the place.
Please don’t try to tell me this is discrimination it is not. It is watching out for your self and the community in which you live in. This would stop a lot of the unwanted people come here and all towns.
Also promote Duluth in a positive light. One that is uplifting but not over welcoming to those that will cause major pain to our people and our town. I have had more people tell me horror stories about how Duluth is presented as a place to go when you get out of jail.
I am okay with hand up’s but not hand out’s. Hand up’s help people out of poverty and crime well hand out’s just in crease poverty an crime.
A great question posted on face book today by talk of the town host.
Talk of the Town with Tracy Lundeen
Is it time for local law enforcement to crack down on suspected gang members and peol. e that have come here solely to participate in criminal activities similar to the manner in which they did with the recent Hells Angels visit? Three murders in one ...summer? Contrary to what you want to think or say....."this isn't the Duluth I grew up in"
My reply below:
If you read the DNT they try to tell us that there is not a crime problem. Not only that they tell us that they are people not from out town, they are Duluth citizens. I don’t buy it.
When you read the story they are always or at least almost always not from Duluth. They have moved here from bigger cities all of which have big gang troubles.
Is it time to scare the entire public and hurt business like the cops did during the hells angles visit no. It is time to crack down on land lords that allow these people to move in to there houses. It is time the Government understands we have a problem and they allow the cops the tools needed to fight this type of enemy.
Then a comment was made that the DNT needs to revisit the idea of crime. Again my reply to that is below:
The DNT does need to revisit it however they won't and if they do it will the same old story. Why? It is the line the local Government wants them to hold. The Mayor and other left of center politicians don't want to lo ok bad to any one.
Those of us that speak up against the crime however don't count to the local government.
What are your thoughts?
If you see the Duluth or Superior firefighters out give them some money for the boot. They are raising money for MDA. They will be out on a number of busy street corners from today to Friday.
A Superior Barber shop that has seen just one barber for 54 year will change hands. Bud Wigchers shop he has owned for 54 years has had it’s good times and it’s bad times. The shop is called Campus Barber Shop.
He remembers when haircuts were just $1.40 and you they could use straight edge shave. He has kept the straight razor but has not used it for decades.
Has anyone gone to this shop in Superior will you miss Mr. Wigchers.
Ian Guzzo who played hockey for Marshall got what he deserved yesterday. He drew a map of a house that two of his friends broke in to. They threatened to kill the mom and 9 year old child well there.
Guzzo got the least amount of time in jail of the three. He got a 57 month sentence. The other two got 81/2 and 93/4 years. I think Ian should have got more time then he did. He however got the most possible. I wonder why he could not have gotten near what the other two did?
Well I was not able to attend the council meeting on Monday I have heard a lot about the “fight” with the administration, the firefighters union and some councilors.
I do agree the Mayor that this does set a bad president. Now any time a city organization has a problem with what there department head is saying they can just go straight to the council and ask that they try to do something about it.
Well I continue to see both points of this argument I still don’t see the harm in letting them do well on duty . It is sit the station and wait for a call or do this.
Now I must say I also don’t like that they went straight to the council. Yes they are going over the head of the chief and the Mayor. Well the administration does not need to listen to the request it is a bit of a slap in the face.
Once again this year I will be giving the candidates running for city council an opportunity to interview on the blog.
I have not yet send out an email to all candidates but I have one confirmed so far. Matt Potter who is running in the 4th district. The rest have not yet seen an email. I will be doing that today and expect the most of them will take part again this year.
More on the fire fighters and the MDA. I emailed Mayor Ness this morning and he said that he supports the firefighters and the MDA drive as long as it is volunteer off duty. He supports the MDA it’s a great cause he said. He said he wanted it off duty because of legal and liability issues.
Danny at www.dannydoesduluth.com brought up some great points as well to why it should be off duty. Is it volunteer when you are on the clock was one.
Like I said before I see both sides of the issue but I don’t see the harm in them doing it well on duty. Also I have asked the Mayor what the legal and liability issues are. I think I know what they are but lets see when I get a reply.
*****UPDATE*****
Got an email from the Mayor. Much like I thought the concern is traffic. There is liability and legal issues should some one get hit.
Last year the Duluth Fire Department took part in an MDA fund raising event. The event is called fill the boot and is done by fire departments around the country.
Now this year it seems they may only take part if they can do it well on duty. This far they are being told they can not do it well on duty. Last year some councilors and citizens raised concerns about the fire department doing well on duty.
I remember seeing them out last year and thinking this is not right. Then after I thought about it more I thought it was a great thing they were doing plus the fact is they were ready if they were needed.
The concern was they would not be ready for a call that came in. I can see that however I can see the department saying they are ready. The firefighters where always in there fire gear well doing the event and the trucks were with them. They were in fact ready to go if needed.
Now councilor Sharla Gardner is going to introduce a resolution that would allow the department to do well on duty if they choose to.
The fire department union supports the resolution well the Mayor and the chief does not at least it seems that way. I hope they would support the department to do the event well on duty.
Even if the resolution passes the Mayor can still not allow it. The resolution is just a request there for the Mayor can do what he feels is right. The Mayor does not have to allow the firefighters to do it well on duty.
Well I have not listened to talk radio for some time. I did not realize that Brad has not been on the air. That is till Danny asked me about. I thought I would do a bit of checking around. It did not take me long to find out what the issue is.
I talked with a Mid-West employee tonight and asked if the show was still around. The person said it will be back. Brad is on his annual Marie retreat. Well I did not ask how long he will be gone for, if I remember off the top of my head it is a month.
The show will return with Brad as the host after the trip is over. Well the employee told me it was Brad that said he did not want a fill-in host. I am not sure that I buy that. MWC has had serious money issues and I am sure the company decided to put on a syndicated program instead of having a fill in host. They company has released talk show host because of money issues. They have also down sized many other departments in the company.
Running a syndicated show will save then a ton of money well Brad is out on his trip. I don’t know what they are running in his place. I did not ask and as I said before I have not listened for some time.
There is not a lot going on right now. The talk is mostly about Home Make Over and the Hells Angles. Both of which I are the latest voice blog I did. You can find the link in the post below to listen to it.
Another new thing to the blog is the links for council candidates. You can find out about all the candidates by using the links located on the right side tool bar. I will be adding more as I am not done yet. If you know of one that I have not yet added however feel free to send me an email at duluthneedshelp@yahoo.com or make a comment here.
There is a new voice blog up.
http://www.snapvine.com/blog/show/de43bbb67d1311deb2b40030485c71d2e.
It’s a bit of a bitch fest by me. Items include the hells angles wrap up and the home make over show. Listen to it and find out what is on my mind about the two issues. Leave a comment if you want to.
I will have even more here on the week that was with the Angles and also a voice blog about once my phone is charged.
The Hells Angles came and went. Well the Carlton County Police way over reacted. I normally don’t go after any police department. This time I will.
Well the Hells Angles came and left with little incidents that is because of there own doing. It had nothing and I mean nothing to do with extra police. The fact of the matter is all the police did was harass the group and make it hard for people to get around and support business. Many business owners I have talked to both in the city of Duluth and Cloquet say they were hurt by the police and not the hells angles.
The hells angles for the most part stayed close to there home base for the week. This is because they did not want to go else where for fear of being pulled over for little to no reason. Many members said they have not been treated like this for a long time. The Hells Angles stayed mainly near Black Bear Casino and Lost Isle bar. They rented the lost isle as there home base.
Minnesota Senator Al Franken will be in Duluth tonight. He will speak at a conference about the progressive movement starting at 7p,m tonight. Duluth Politics will be there to cover the event.
More later after work.
Today marks an exciting day for the Duluth Politics family. I have started voice blogging. I am doing this from snapevine.com. My address is http://www.snapvine.com/profile/3kOD7n0TEd6ytAAwSFxx0g.
There you can listen to my show’s. They will be short at most 5 minutes long. I will talk about a number of issues. Not just Duluth Politics. The fist show is about the cab driver in Boston. I did a post about it here as well. I will focus on Duluth Politics but we there we will discuss a bunch of issue’s.
I believe you have to register to listen but I am not sure. You can try to click on the link and see if you can listen to the show. I think to comment you need to register.
Just checked you can listen by clicking on the link. No need to register however please do and comment by phone or write a comment on the voice blog site.
I was unable to go to this as some thing came up at work just prior to and I could not get a way. With that said I will try to give my comments best I can, based of reports have seen and read.
You can find some report at the following sites www.wdio.com and www.dannydoesduluth.com well kind of a report more of just making fun of every thing.
Now did this do much. As far as any one resigning no. No one is going to step down as councilor, what it did do however is show that people are upset. Well reports varied on the amount of people at the rally. It seems most people were said there was 40 to 50 people there. With a smaller group of anti protesters.
Well I don’t agree with everything this group stood for I do agree with much of it and I hope what comes of it is more people getting involved with Government one way or another.
The rally was about the actions of a couple of councilors Toney Cuneo and Sharla Gardner. The issue’s with Cuneo was his appointment to DEDA and not paying his property taxes. Well Gardner had an issue with the sitter city commission.
The rally seemed to be more focused on Cuneo after it was all said and done.
The motor cycle group (gang) hell’s angles are here. Every one panic we are all going to die.
People don’t worry or panic these are just people. You know the first thing that happens will be blown way out off hand by the media.
This is not a local however I found it to be interesting. A 5 year girl was left behind by her family in a Boston cab. The family was returning from a trip. They took a cab from the airport to there house. The family and the cab driver un loaded the cab when they got to the house.
A few minutes later the cab driver got a call from the police they said a child was left in his cab. He looked sure enough the child was in a the back seat of the mini van cab. The driver brought the child home right away.
Who do you think took the blame for this one? Nope not the family. That’s right the cab driver was faced with a three day suspension. Well the family would not have any charges brought against them.
“The following day, Cohen was ordered to report to the Hackney unit, where police told him his license was being suspended for three days because he didn't do a thorough check of the van. He appealed the suspension and was allowed to keep his license pending a hearing. On Tuesday, he visited the police station with an attorney and learned he would only get a warning”
It took the union and it’s lawyer's to get rid of the suspension. I agree with the cab union this was not his fault. All the blame lie on the family.
“The cabbies' union expressed outrage at the proposed suspension, saying the fault should lie with the child's family, not the driver.”
Again I agree with the union what are your thoughts?
Source: www.yahoo.com , you can read the whole story there.
I don’t normally advocate for the closure of businesses or the lose of something to the businesses.
With that said I think it is time for Norshor to lose it’s liquor license. As many of you know there have been a lot of troubles with the Norshor owner. Not it seems like this guy may have another case against him in cass country.
It is time the police don’t need to worry about this business or this guy.
Who will you vote for in the at large council race?
5 (83%)
Jim Stauber
5 (83%)
Dan Hartman
0 (0%)
Beth Olsen
1 (16%)
Again these polls are for fun and mean little. They are far from scientific. I did find it interesting however that Hartman got no votes. If he is the front runner you would think he would have got at least one vote. Yes I get a number of DFLers that come here as well.
Note Becky Hall did not in the poll as she announced after the poll was up.
Tonight marks a new direction for the Duluth Huskies. A former Major League Baseball coach will take over as the field manager. Terry Collins will start as the new field manger tonight after Adam Stahl was fired on Friday.
Collins has coached two major league teams the Houston Astros and the Anaheim Angels. He also has 11 years of minor league coaching experience but he has never coached collage before. Collins will take over the huskies with just three weeks left in the season.
The North woods League with the huskies are part of is a summer league for collage kids to get use to the wood bats. The North woods league just had there all star game and this is the first night that the teams will be back in action.
The huskies thought this would be a good time to bring on the the manager for the team. Collins is here on a non binding contract. He can leave when he wants to. Collins is in the running for a few other jobs at this point. Collins last coached team China in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
The Mayor has again released his top aid. Duluth city administrator is out. Michael Ashcraft has only been with the city sense May. There was no reason given other then it did not work out and that Duluth was not the right fit. More later.
The Duluth Huskies field manger Adam Stahl after two and half years as head coach. Yesterday before the game is when Stahl found out that he was not longer with the team. It is an unusual move at this level in baseball.
Stahl in his two and half years was 84-99 last season and this have been miserable for the huskies. The huskies this year have not had won any more then two games in a row and have been not scored a single in run 9 games this season. The huskies are at the bottom of the league in hitting .220 and runs scored 174 this year.
Well I am not sure what lead to his dismissal I am sure this was part of it. There are rumors I will not allow those here. Another thing is Stahl played small ball way to much.most likely because he is a high school coach in the spring. As far as I know Stahl was the only high school coach in the league.
A replacement Terry Collins will be named field manager on Tuesday. Collins is a former MBL coach and is expected to coach the last three weeks of the season.
The two latest candidates to say they are running for the Duluth City Councils are again Becky Hall and current councilor Jim Stauber.
Stauber said he is running mainly for these three reason’s
1. The city will lack veteran leadership in January 2010. All other councilors, the mayor and the five senior staff employees will have less than two years on the job.
2. Diversity in political views in all forms of government brings a better product. The releases says many consider Stauber a moderate to conservative while many of his colleagues and the mayor are usually considered left of center.
3. He has unfinished business including working on neighborhood issues and maritime development of Duluth's bay front.
Becky Hall said she is running to improve the city’s relationship with business. Well I am sure there are other reason Becky is running I have been up able to find her press release if she sent one. I also have not yet had a chance to talk to her. More to come soon.
Just minutes ago councilor Jim Stauber announced that he would for a third term. Stauber was first elected to the city council in 2001.
3 NNC
1 (14%)
6 NNC
1 (14%)
10 WDIO
5 (71%)
21 FOX
0 (0%)
The Duluth Huskies and the Mankato Moon dog’s played almost 6 hours of baseball on Tuesday night. The two games totaled 14 innings.
The first game was the continuation of a suspended game three and a half weeks ago. The game picked up in the top of the 11th inning tied at 2. The game went in to the bottom of the 14th when the moon dogs finaly won the game by a 3-2 score. Well the huskies never really got anything going that game. It has to be tough to just get to town and then look at continue a game that started last month.
The came was called last month do to weather. In the game last month there was four stoppages in play. Three for tornado warning that last a total of 30 minutes. Then a final rain delay that lead to the came being postponed to today.
The second game was to go nine innings it did not it went 11. The Huskies jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning but in the thrid the moon dogs took a 5-2 lead and looked well on there way to the double header sweep. The huskies however fought and tied in at 5 in the top of the 9th inning. Then came the 11 inning where the huskies piled on the hits and the runs scoring 5 times off of 5 hits and three errors by moon dogs. The huskies went on to win in 11 inning 10-6. This splitting the double header.
If you are a baseball fan they are two games that were exciting. You can listen to every Duluth Huskies game on ESPN radio 560 A.M.
We will find out most likely if he will run again for City Councilor. Jim Stauber said he will announce his plans on either Tuesday or Wednesday or this week.
If he enters the race and I think he will. He will win the seat. There for being a split in the two at large seats the DFL will get one with Dan Hartman, then Stauber will retain his seat.
Jim Stauber has upset both sides of the with some of his votes and that is one reason I like Jim. Yes he makes no bones about it he is a republican. As a councilor however that side has called for his head there have also been times he stays with his side and of course votes for pro republican issues.
So I have reported about the rally. Well I may still have more about it I want to offer my thoughts about the whole conference.
Well I don’t agree with everything at the rally there were a few things I did agree with. Governor Pawlenty has been cutting health care for a number of years and he chose to do it again. Now I am not one that believes everyone should have health care. I am however one that believes everyone should have a chance at health care.
There will now be a burden put on Minnesota Care. They only have so much and can only have so many people on the program at one time.
I agree with the comment that Roger Reinert made about the Governor setting a bad example to just send the legislators home and do things my way. Not only you check out on Minnesota. Lets face it the Governor is now setting up for a run as president or Vice president. Well I am okay with him doing this it is not okay to just ignore the State.
Well I am okay with the Governor balancing the budget on his own done the right way this time he it was not done the right. It did in fact seem the Governor wanted nothing to do with anyone that did not agree with him.
Some one at the rally talked about the renters rebate. It will be cut by a minimum of 19%. She said many people used this check for a number of things. Renters also pay part of the property tax for the person they are renting from.
As some one that has rented before yes the check was nice. I however am okay with it being cut down a bit. I think most people that rent are okay with smaller check. Now are there those that will struggle sure there are. There are also those that own homes that struggle. Yet they find ways to make it. People can’t depend on one check that they receive once a year.
This was a very pro DFL rally and to claim different would be wrong. Now to the best of my knowledge no one was claiming it was not a pro DFL rally however Steve O’Neil said he did not want to be so partisan. That simply was not true he meant to be.
All in all it was put together well. It was run good and they were willing to answer questions if anyone had. The group did a nice job.
Well it’s a small number it’s a start in the right direction. Northstar aerospace has recalled about 20 workers. They returned to work yesterday. There may be more call backs but when they come is anyone’s guess.
At one time Northstar had 115 employees. They then went down to there all time low 20 as the recession went on. With they announcements of the call backs they now has a staff of 40.
The company is a precision machine shop. Cirrus is one of there biggest customers.
The press conference started with Steve O’Neil. He said it was sad that the cuts could not be vetoed by the elected officials. He said that the DFL did it’s part to try to veto the cuts but the republican party stayed in lock step with the Governor. The cuts will last beyond this year they will carry into 2010 and possible to 2012 O’Neil said.
Cuts are going to have a huge burden on the low income and the seniors O’Neil made the statement that the cuts were laid on the least politically powered people. He said that the Governor views these people as the least beneficial for him political future.
The cuts will happen to health, senior programs, and drug rehab and recovery centers. It will lead to less county services he said.
O’Neil said he did not want to be to politically bias today but yet to many chances to bash the Governor and the republican party. He even included going after the Governor for not responding to emails, letters, phone calls. He said the Governor does not want to hear from the people.
He was the first to make the comment about the Governor checking out on Minnesota as he looks to be a Presidential candidate in the next election. All the speakers make this comment after that point.
The next speaker was Roger Reinert he was there to represent the state DFLers. Well many of his comments echoed those of O’Neil’s there were a few more that I thought were interesting.
He said the there was big differences between the Governors plan and that of the DFL. The Governors plan will lead to a much higher job lose then that of the DFL. Well the DFL plan would have lead to abut 1oo job cuts the Governors leads to five times that. There plan also increased the property tax on the rich in Minnesota but only by about 100 dollars he said. With the cuts the Governor is making they will pay much more then that.
He also sad that it was sad the Governor is laying out a bad plan. He said that now all a Governor has to do is send the legislators home and deal with the budget his own way if he does not like what one side is saying. He also said that he hated the Governor made an announcement to not run for re-election during this battle. It allowed for him to basically leave Minnesota behind and look to moving his political career ahead.
There were more speakers but I will cover those in the another post soon.
Yesterday I went to the rally against the Governors cuts. It was held by Twin Ports Action Coalition. The rally started at noon. It was put together well I thought.
There was one thing that shocked me a bit however. Being that this was a rally against the Governor and his cuts I expected a lot of people. There was only about 20-25 people now remember this was on a Monday and a lot of people are working. I was thinking there would have been about 50 people but again there was only about half of that.
The other thing that was a shock was the lack of local Government officials. Here again I thought they would come out of the wood work for this. There was no Mayor Ness who will take shots at Pawlenty any chance he gets. There was no current city councilors I expected that some one would be there representing the city but nope.
Who was there of note? County board member Steve O’Neil who represents the 2nd district on the board. State Representative Roger Reinert who represents 7B. Both Reinert and ONeil made comments at the press conference. Also there was 2nd council candidate Patrick Boyle.
Another thing that was interesting was the lack of news media. T.V. there was only one channel there. That was WDIO channel 10. The other two stations were not there the 3 and 6 Northlands news center was not there nor was fox 21. NNC who has the most people working and should be at events like this never show. They along with Fox 21 don’t really care about the news that happens right here in town. I was a bit surprised that there was no one there from the Duluth News Tribune. The only two other media outlets there was the HIllsider paper and blogger Duluth Politics. ( Hey I think I know who runs that site.) I wish the media would take a more active roll in our community. I know I am going to try to attend more events like this. Again if you have a press conference or news worthy event please remember to send it to me at duluthneedshelp@yahoo.com
Any way I thought this was interesting more on the conference coming soon.
UPDATE: Post will be coming tomorrow instead of today. To many things going on tonight.
Post on today’s rally against the Governors cuts. An update on the another rally. Possible more.
David Ross was hoping to hold off on his announcement to run for lieutenant governor till after labor day. That did not happen yesterday he made his plans public this after completing papers that allows him to campaign and raise money.
David Ross won a straw poll in the republican convention in May. He will announce a campaign staff starting next month. He will however hold his formal announcement till September 11th and that will take place at Barkers Island.
As I said before I wish he had a Mayor like Ross in Duluth. Ross has taken control after two bad mayors in superior and really improved the city. Well Duluth continues down a line of just okay Mayors. David Ross is heads and shoulders above all Duluth and Superior politicians.
I wish Mr. Ross the best.
Another rally is set to take place on July 27th at 5 pm. It will be held on the steps of the court house. That is all I am going to say about it right now.
You may hear more about it this weekend. I know more but am not sure how much the person wants out about it at this point.
I don’t talk about the red plan much on this site. I leave that mostly for Harry Welty http://www.lincolndemocrat.com and others in the know on that issue. Check out Harry’s site listed above for the latest on the red plan.
I will say this however I am glad that the LDV group raised the money. To keep there law suit going.
Also when you vote in November I ask that you vote for candidates against the red plan.
As the races heat up I think we will do this more often. We will take a look at each candidates web page and see the differences in them. We will not agree there politics. We will judge who’s is better with content and other information.
That said lets take a look at the two candidates web pages that are involved the 2nd district race. Robert Wagner and Patrick Boyle.
First here are the two candidates address so you can check them out for your self if you wish.
Wagner- http://www.wagnerforduluth.com/
Boyle- http://boyleforcouncil.com
What we are going to look at on the site is what they have up. Up coming events, issues, and things like that. Also we will going into the looks of the page.
As I said we are not going to talk about there politics in this post there for we will not say what they say about an issue just what they think is important maybe a little bit about why.
First lets take a look at Patrick Boyle’s web site. As you go there
e it is a simple format and it’s looks nice. Across the top of the page he has a tool bar that includes his stand on issues, about him, volunteer, news, contact. Down the right side he has events he will be at.
When you click on the issues it has his thoughts on a few issues. They include public safety, water and gas, families and neighborhoods, job development there are a few others as well. The quality of the pictures on the site is good.
In my mind it is a good site.
Now on to Robert Wagner’s web site. The fist thing I notice about it is the night time setting on the page. Were it says his name at the top the moon is set behind it. The first thought I had was if he was going to ask that council meetings be held after 10pm.? The picture quality is poor on the page and when you click on the issue’s page it has a bunch of issues but no stands on there. It says under construction but it has been that way sense the page went up. It has been a while.
I like the use of the flag I also like the tool bar set up. One thing I wish he has was were he would be at events, fundraisers things such like that. It would allow people to know were and what is going on in his campaign.
The better more useful site right now is Boyle’s.
Many people are saying that Dan Hartman is the front runner right now for city councilor at large. Is he really the front runner or will he fizzle?
Hartman has been out campaigning for a number of month well others have not even started yet. Hartman is a great guy I however don’t agree with much of his politics. He most likely will win one of two seats up for election. He will have the power of three current councilors supporting him he also has the backing of the DFL and most likely will get the union endorsement.
Is it possible for him to fizzle out? Yes but I am not sure he will. I think he can and will be able to uphold a long campaign. He does seem to out much earlier then anyone however. Not sure why.
Minnesota law requires that kids 8 and under must now be in a booster seat. This is the second straight law passed by the State of Minnesota that deals with safety in cars. The first was requiring to wear your seat belt this took affect a few month ago. The booster law starts this week.
Well I am one that normally does not like government intervention I am okay with both of these laws. Well I don’t think people should have to wear the belt if they chose not to it makes sense that you do. It is much safer if you do wear your seat belt. As far as booster seats it upsets me to no end that parents would not care about there children's safety.
I have seen way to many people with there kids not in seats and they should be. Not only that I have seen parents allow there kids to ride in the front when they are not old enough to do so. With air bags in almost ever car these days you must be careful. Please use common sense people.
There has been rumor of a cruise ship coming to Duluth. It seems as if those are no longer rumors. It seems to fact now.
The ship is on it’s way here. It passed a inspection in N.Y. and will arrive in Duluth on July 4th.
Would you take a cruise from Duluth to Canada?
I have nothing good to say about the man. The music he did was horrible and he was a horrible person. There you have you it what I think about MJ.
Well as you would guess there has not been a lot of news the last few days. What has been the news is Grandmas marathon. I won’t say a lot about it as it was covered nicely at the DNT and ESPN radio.
The event went off with out a hitch other then the very hot weather. That kept the medical tent very busy.
I was very glad that an American won the men’s race. It was the first time sense 1995.
Read today's other post below this one. Mayors night canceled for the second time. There maybe more post later.
The grandmas marathon coverage sites:
The Duluth news tribune is reporting that this month mayor night has been canceled. This is the second time that I know that the night has been canceled. There was no reason given for the cancelation.
It is a once a month meeting that citizens can have with the Mayor Don Ness. You are giving about 5 minutes to talk about what ever is on your mind with the mayor. The next one comes in July.
The chicken council lead by councilor Sharla Gardner. Passed a complete ban on skateboarding in canal park last night. Not only did they ban skateboarding in the canal park area but they also voted to crack down on skateboarding city wide. It was a 6-3 vote last night to ban. The only councilors that voted against this were Fedora, Gilbert, and Fosle.
It seems that at least these three understand the issue’s that really matter to Duluth. The city faces major issues with it’s road’s, sewers and a budget crisis that could bank rupt the city. Yet councilor Gardner is banning skateboarding and passing that you can own chickens in the city. Get real Gardner it is time for you to go.
The council stopped the mowing ordinance by 4- 5 vote. The councilors that supported the ordinance is Krause, Eckenberg, Gilbert and Stauber. These four councilors did not have a clue on the determent to this city this ordinance would have had on the city.
You can now have your grass as long as you like. You should still try to cut your grass when possible. It just makes things look nice.
The fact is however this ordinance would have been unenforceable and it was micro management at it’s worst.
Custom cab to cut it’s night service. This after two cabs were robbed this week. Both happened this week. One on Monday night the other Wednesday night.
I believe this is the right chose yet it will hurt there small business. Dan O’Hearon seems to understand what is important. That is the safety of his employees. Well it is a tough decision for him I am sure it shows that people really care about there business and there employees at the same time.
Dan basically is saying I will not put my business or employees in harms way tell this is resolved. That is great. When I do take a cab I always try to use custom cab. This will only make me use them more when needed. The only time I don’t use them is if there is a long wait, but this makes me thing I will wait for them.
I hope to get a chance to talk to Dan about this and I hope he gets his business up and running at full strength soon.
I encourage every one when you need a cab to call custom cab.
If I was the person in charge of thrillz I wonder consider cutting all ties with Robert Wagner. He is doing nothing but bringing your business down. I know that the economy is tight right now however the types of events he puts on are not ones you should want to get involved in.
He also clearing does not understand that you need a permit for these types of events. You always have needed one. If you wish to continue to do business with Wagner I would encourage you to make sure he has his permits well a head of time and he shows them to you. The permits are his responsibility not your unless you are putting on the event.
Now I would again cut ties with Wagner as to me this is not the type of event you would want at your place. Your business is suppose to be a family fun center. I would encourage you to do those type of events even after hours of regular business.
Robert Wagner a candidate for the Duluth City Council 2nd district had yet another run in with the Duluth Police. For the second straight time the event took place at carnival thrillz.
This is now the second time with in a month that Wagner has had a run in with the cops. Both times for organizing a rave. Both times he did not have a proper permit to hold the event.
The first time was a campaign fund raiser that was a rave. Yes he held an fund raiser from 10- 2 am who in there right mind does that well running for city council.
More later.
At least if you are 3 rd district city councilor Sharla Gardner. Councilor Gardner has introduced an ordinance that would ban skateboarding, inline skates, and roller skates in business districts.
Gardner said that the ordinance did not ban anything. It was just cleaning up an old ordinance. That is a lie. Fact is with out the ordinance change the council could not legally pass the resolutions that ask to ban these activities.
I find it funny how the Duluth Huskies' are still promoting opening day at Wade Stadium. Oh yeah by the way opening day was June 1st.
They may want to start promoting current games rather then games that have already took place. They might get people to go to the games that way.
There web site is www.duluthhuskies.com .
Okay well I am still awaiting emails I will do a second part anyway. This may turn in to a three of four part blog or more by the time it is all done.
Okay well some view this as an attack on “bad” landlords it can be viewed from many different ways. I don’t believe this is so much of an attack on landlords. I believe the city have passed many ordinances and resolutions that are attacks against landlords. This one sure hinderers to landlords and other however.
I am not sure that many councilors have thought about the effects of this ordinance should it pass. I believe it will however pass and that is very very unfortunate. At best this passes 5-4 it could pass with as many as 6 or 7 councilors voting in favor it.
Here we go, who will this hurt and what else could it do? This will hurt the elderly, those that don’t or can’t get a lawn mower. It will also pit people against each other.
Many elderly people still live in homes in Duluth. Many of them can’t mow there grass however. There are also many low income people that don’t or can’t afford to buy a lawn mower. We live next door to some one that does not have a mower. Her grass is well over 10 inches right now. She can’t buy a mower and the one she has does not work. Well I have mowed her lawn in the past and will when I can it is hard for me. I don’t have much time plus I already also help out or other lawns as well.
This is just a micro-mange ordinance that accomplishes nothing. It is unenforceable. More later.
Those of you that know me already know this. Those that don’t here it is for the first time maybe. Gary Krause is a very interesting person. Yes I like him however he is some times a lose cannon on the council, there are times you have no idea were he is coming from or were he maybe going.
Two years ago you may remember councilor Krause introduced an ordinance’s that called on people to mow there lawns. It seemed to be yet another attack on landlords. Well many property owners take care of there land some don’t. This goes for either rental or single family owned houses.
As you may remember this passed two years ago by a 5-4 vote but was vetoed by then Mayor Herb Bergson. One of the few things I agreed with him on.
Now it’s back by the same councilor. The only change in the ordinance is your grass could be two more inches longer before it is deemed illegal. Two years ago the ordinance was if your grass was 8 inches then it was to high. That moves to 10 inches in this ordinance.
I disagree with this ordinance. I will have more on this later. In that post I will dive in to a few different things. I am waiting on some email reply’s.
Mayor Ness said he has a way to balance the budget that would not pass the buck to the tax payers. The balanced budget erases a 6.2 million deficit.
Ness said he does not want to raise taxes any further for 2009. His plan would also avoid lay offs in the city. He also added that it does not cut city services.
The plan needs to be approved by the city council.
I wonder how any one can trust any thing that Lew say’s. He can’t even tell the truth about him being fired. He keeps saying that he was on an extended vacation.
Now ever one knows that he was fired by Ron Stone yet Lew say’
I was on an extended vacation. Please Lew come out and say you were fired.
Lew is far from the tabernacle of truth when he can’t even tell the truth about his firing. Just come out and tell the truth Lew you were fired say it on the air. You can do it.
TELL US THE TRUTH LEW!!!!!!
After this term is over in 2010 Minnesota will have a new Governor. Yes that is correct Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has said he will not seek a third term.
This seems to open up his run for President in the next presidential election. Now I disagree with that this will help him. I think that him not being Governor is a bad idea. It is better to run for president as a current some thing (Governor) in this case. It seems to hurt you more when you run as a former what ever.
Now if he would have ran for a third term and lost that would have been worse but the fact is if he ran for a third term he would not lose no matter who the Democrats bring forward.
This will sure open the race on both sides and idea on who may run now? I would guess there is no shorted of candidates.
The Huskies had there home opener last night at Wade Stadium. Well there was not a very big crowd the huskies fought on for a win.
The game was tied after nine innings at 4 with the St. Cloud river bats. It remained tied to the bottom of the 12th inning.
Tim Jobe was up with a running scoring position. Tim was not going to get any thing good to hit in his at bat. He did however make contact with one pitch.
He lined just over the head of the second basemen for the bat’s and won the game for the huskies 5-4.
Lew Latto returned the the air yesterday after being fired a couple of month ago. The little bit I listened and what I have heard from other people the show has not changed at all. It is still the same old show.
It seems that Lew did not listen the the poll here.
WDSM
3 (23%)
KDAL
2 (15%)
WEBC
0 (0%)
FAN 1490
0 (0%)
Lew don't come back please.
8 (61%)
I am doing much so post will be coming as things go on. I will hopefully post some today. I am also going to be cleaning up the site a bit today as well. I will be taking down the sports page and all will appear here on this site. I don’t write that much about sports.
I would have started to post again yesterday but it was my daughters fourth birthday and we spent the day with her. She got to plan the whole day it was fun.
Yesterday the Duluth News Tribune confirmed that a case of the swine flu had hit Duluth. No way every one panic.
A child in the school district is the first Duluth confirmed case. The person attends homecroft. There was not much other information.
Lets not panic people this seems to be reaction much like the common flu does.
This site a joke, www.redandnater.com more later.
Yes www.redandnater.com is a complete joke. My guess is on the Minnesota board at least for any Duluth comments they are not even radio people. They are want to be on the radio but can’t get a job. They just spread rumors and post under fake names.
You can’t trust a things said on it. If you are going there for real info don’t.
It seems that Lew may return to the air waves. As i said in a reply to an earlier post it seems he will return to WDSM. Well nothing is concrete as of yet.
Here is a list of where he could wind up at and the chance I think it will happen at that place. Also I will tell you about a couple of other dark horses but I don’t know how much a chance they have so I will not give a % to them.
WDSM radio 45% chance he will be back there. It seems like a fit for most of what he believes. Some may say that Lew is a republican only by name. Many think he is not conservatives enough. Yet I don’t know Lew may not hold the line on all the republicans social issues but he does on the fiscal issues.
WDSM offers one of the best fits with a talk format and a mostly republican listener ship. It was the place he last was before getting fired by ex market manager Ron Stone.
KDAL radio is another AM stations that Midwest Communications owns. There is a 45% chance that they just transfer him to this station. A “new” start for Lew at the station. It could relieve any bad vibes between the station and Lew if he was on a different station other then WDSM. It may also relieve an awkwardness between him and Brad Bennette if there is any. It would also allow Brad to keep a three hour program if that is what they desire.
KDAL also is a talk station. The listeners to it are not as much of republicans per say. It may fit Lew a bit better then WDSM. KDAL and WDSM also have many of the same listeners and the flip between the two stations.
WEBC ESPN radio there is a zero percent chance he winds up here. The station is no longer a talk station, it’s current format is sports. It is very very successful.
Many people say yes but what about the Tracy Lundeen show it does not fit the format. The deal with that is Tracy bought the hour it is his to do with what he wants. The advertisers on it our his own. He gets them for the show.
1490 the Fan here again it is a sports station. Yet there is a small chance he winds up here 5% is what I would say.
I say this only because the program director and Lew get a long very well. Mark may fair from the format for a couple of hours and bring an all talk show on board.
There you have it that is what I think. What are your thoughts.
Now the dark horse thoughts. There are two of them.
He could wind up on an FM talk station. Now I think that chance is gone. Ron Stone is the only person in Duluth that has ever talked about doing an FM talk station. Now that is is gone I don’t see it happening.
If it did there are only two company's that would do it. I give it next to no chance however. The two company's are MWC or red rock. Now if you asked me to pick one I would say at this point red rock would do it first before MWC. Why I say that is they could get Lew and some other local talent’s and give the two AM stations at MWC a run for there money. If MWC did do they could use Lew as there flag ship hours .
Again I don’t think this will happen at all.
He could do something online. There is a better chance of him doing this then going to an FM talk station. If he did something online he could then do it when ever he wanted and from were ever he wanted with worrying about what was going on at a radio station. Again I don’t think Lew would do this unless it was the last chance of him ever being on the air again.
LOL I know it is only 95% on the chances of being on the air combined with WDSM,KDAL, and the FAN. How about this the other 5% can go to not returning to the air at all. I don't believe that is going to happen however.
www.lewlatto.com has a message on it that seems like he may be returning to the air waves soon. Yippee I am so excited.
Current President Obama may have voted many times to vote present well he was in Chicago politics. At least he voted. Unlike chicken man councilor Gary Krause.
Krause elected to not vote on the domestic partnership ordinance tonight. Why his excuse was lame. He said the city had no business in the issue as it should be brought up to the county as they deal with all the government licensees.
The real reason he did not vote is because he did not want to up set anyone with how he would have voted. I have been one for a strong guide line on abstaining from a vote. Krause in my mind should not have been allowed to not vote on this issue.
There needs to be a very clear rule on when you can and can not abstaining from voting. You should not be able to not vote because you don’t want to. Like Krause did tonight.
I will not be able to go to tonight meeting. I will however be monitoring it on the radio and Brandon Stahl’s live blog when I can. A number of things keep me away from this very interesting meeting. A sick kid is one and there are others as well.
As always you can get my thoughts about the meeting on the blog either tonight or tomorrow.
Okay so a call of a house fire comes in. You can bet that Mayor Don Ness or a city council candidate will not be there to help put it out. You can also bet that a member or the media would not be there to help put it out. Yet this weekend there was an event held for them to learn these types of things.
Some believe that this fire ops 101 course is just a part of the political game and helps with getting the fire unions endorsement. I will say I am not in that camp yet but close.
The fire department does this they say to dispose of mis -information that is around the city. Then this event should be open to the general public as well. They are the ones that have most of the mis- information. I agree that there is a ton of it. Any one who knows me knows how I feel about public safety. That includes the fire department. I do not stand like many other republicans do on this issue.
There is no way Duluth could have a volunteer fire department. There is no reason to even discuss that. I also agree with them on a number of other issues. I find my self not agreeing with councilor Stauber many times when he talks about the fire department. He is plan wrong.
The other think I did find interesting about this article is that the department said every council candidate is invited to the event. Fact is that is not true as I was not asked to attend when I ran.
I have not yet read the whole article as of yet. I will have more later when I finish reading it.
One can only hope that it does change. For the council to rule over DEDA is a very bad thing.
Councilor Stauber will again try to bring forward an resolution to change DEDA to a more citizen based board. It use to be a number of years ago then the council changed it to be just the city councilors on DEDA.
Councilor Stauber was going to try to do this earlier last year. The council was not going to back it so he pulled it. Now it seems councilor Gilbert may have changed mind and he may support it.
Councilor Stauber is looking at making DEDA an authority ran by more private citizens that have business back ground. He said that it would bring a much better experience to the authority.
The authority would be seven members under Stauber’s resolution. It would still have two city councilors but there would be 5 appointed spots that would be private citizens. They would be appointed by the Mayor but approved by the council.
There is the Robert Wagner story from yesterday. I don’t have much to say on that other then he is a guy I want running the city. The other thing I will say is who has a fund raiser for a city council seat until 6am. Nothing ever good will come out of that.
Mayor Ness was to have a press conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman that has been canceled. It will be rescheduled for a latter date.
Well as I said there would not be a many post last week. I would at least try to do a weekend recap. I was going to do that last night but I could not as I was very sick. Went to bed at like 6 pm. Here is it a day late.
Superior Mayor David Ross is thinking of running for LT. Governor. I think this would be great lose to Superior and this area. It would however be a huge for the State Wisconsin. I am hoping to get a chance to interview the Superior Mayor.
Ross has done a great job of improving Superior and planned key roles in improving our area as a whole.
Domestic Partner first reading. Jeff Anderson has an ordinance that got it’s first reading. It would set up a register for domestic partnership. It could come to a vote at next weeks meeting.
Jeff Anderson is Duluth first openly gay city councilor. He also apparently does not care if people want to support this ordinance or not. More on that later.
Ron Stone leaving Mid West Communications. I think I have covered that. I wish him the best in whatever he does. Look at other post for more on Ron Stone if you care.
There were some other things but I don’t remember what they were. If I remember I will post about it.
This week I should be able to post a bit more.
******UPDATE***** Don’t expect many changes on the AM dial at MWC. This comes from a top person at MWC. Well they may make changes to there FM’s in Duluth.
I sure wish some blogs would report the news right. As I said before if Ron Stone left Mid-West Communications it would be his choice to do so. Ron has decided to leave the stations because of family. Anyone who knows Ron knows he is a huge family man and he is sick of the drive for the Duluth to the Cities every week.
when Ron took the job he said right a way he would not move his family up to Duluth. Many knew he would come and do what he thought was right to try to keep the failing MWC station. It did not work in his eyes. Now it is time for him to move on.
The Duluth News Tribune has the full story if you want to read it. www.duluthnewstribune.com, remember lets report it right he was not fired he left on his own.
