Developers are Crabgrass : UPDATED Upriver into The Heart of Darkness. Trying to track down the Tinklenberg Group's taconite tailings marketing and logistics contract with NRRI.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

UPDATED Upriver into The Heart of Darkness. Trying to track down the Tinklenberg Group's taconite tailings marketing and logistics contract with NRRI.

UPDATED - WED JUNE 25, 2008 -- AN UPDATE REGARDING MISUNDERSTANDINGS IN THIS POST AND REGARDING NRRI AND ITS PUBLIC DATA ACT COMPLIANCE.

Here is the email I sent today, a half hour ago, forcing the issue as a public data disclosure matter, since NRRI is an agency of the state and subject to state law on disclosure and transparency [Sunshine is the best disinfectant].

Subject: Please Provide contact person ID for public data law compliance

[This message was also sent generically, via the contact us page on the NRRI website]

My email is ezaetsch@gmail.com

I need contact info, mailing address, phone number, and email, for whoever at NRRI is tasked with compliance with the Public Data Law; Minn. Stat. Ch. 13.

See statute online:

https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=13

Under that law, as an agency of the State of Minnesota, and please check with NRRI's lawyers if you doubt, you are obligated to comply and part of that compliance is designating an official for me or others in the public to contact with Public Data Disclosure requests. See; Minn. Stat. Sect. 13.05, Subd. 13.

I presume that University counsel, or the Attorney General would be who'd advise you. I wish to obtain copies of contract information between NRRI and a marketing and logistics contractor on taconite tailings use as aggregate in highway paving; see slide 39, this link:

http://www.nrri.umn.edu/egg/TACAGG/Presentations/...General.pdf

If you'd like, send me contact info for whoever is the top person there, and/or the lawyers, if there is no compliance official as yet designated.

But I do want prompt compliance with the law, and copies of the information I seek.

Thank you.

Eric Zaetsch

ezaetsch@gmail.com
6521 154th Lane NW
Ramsey, MN 55303
763-421-8823

cc:

Principle Investigator
– Donald Fosnacht, Ph.D., NRRI
– 218 218-720 720-4282
– dfosnach@nrri.umn.edu eduProject Coordinator
Project – Larry Zanko, NRRI
– 218 218-720 720-4274
– lzanko@nrri.umn.edu
Project budget and task reporting oversight
– Steve Hauck, NRRI
– 218 218-720 720-4273
– shauck@nrri.umn.edu eduUniversity accounting and contracting oversight
University – Denise Endicott, NRRI
– 218 218-720 720-4290
– dendicot@nrri.umn.edu

This thing was Feb. 2006, the slide presentation, and at Slide 39, big as life and twice as ugly, here it is [After Slide 35, "Task assignments and strategies for implementation," there is the tasking info of Slide 38, and especially, Slide 39]:

_______UPDATE________
Two update items:

[1] Thursday morning, March 20, 2008, I have the following reply:

from Nora Kubazewski hide details 7:09 am (1 minute ago)
to ezaetsch@gmail.com
cc
Larry Zanko ,
Steve Hauck ,
dfosnach@nrri.umn.edu,
Michael Lalich ,
Denise Endicott

date Mar 20, 2008 7:09 AM
subject RE: Please Provide contact person ID for public data law compliance
mailed-by nrri.umn.edu

Thank you for your inquiry. I have copied our geologists on your request and they will respond to you directly.

Nora

I sent Ms. Kubazewski this follow-up reply

from eric zaetsch
to Nora Kubazewski
date Mar 20, 2008 7:22 AM
subject Re: Please Provide contact person ID for public data law compliance
mailed-by gmail.com

Nora-
Thank you. I expect the inquiry will not end up lost, falling between chairs. There should be procedures, and, Nora, your contact information does not directly indicate you are a NRRI person. However, a Google yielded the fact that the "Northern Lights Technology Center" is a NRRI affiliate or subordinate organization. I presume you are then the contact person for disclosure according to the Public Data Law requirements. Referring this to the engineers may be a misunderstanding of my request. I am not in pursuit of technical reports. I am in pursuit of contract papers showing how Elwyn Tinklenberg and his business, Tinklenberg Group, is paid for its "logistics and marketing" services - and how much over time he and his firm have received. The matter is being published and this link [which I am in the process of updating today] might be helpful in firming up your understanding of the nature of my concerns:

http://zaetsch.blogspot.com/2008/03/upriver-into-heart-of-darkness-trying.html

Again, thank you for the prompt initial reply.

Eric

***

[2] In the interest of notice and directness, I also sent this email:

from eric zaetsch hide details 7:10 am (17 minutes ago)

to
el@tinklenberg08.com,
info@tinklenberg08.com

date Mar 20, 2008 7:10 AM
subject Voluntary disclosure of financial stake in promotion of taconite use as road aggregate
mailed-by gmail.com

Thurs. Mar. 20, 2008

To: Elwyn Tinklenberg, and/or his designate at his Congressional Campaign

Will you voluntarily release a complete set of your contract(s) with NRRI and/or others, personally or through Tinklenberg Group, disclosing to the public the amount of money you have attained over time for marketing and logistics services in promoting use of taconite tailings as paving aggregate on Minnesota roadways.

The question is clear. Follow the money. See what incentive, that way, exists which might make the position on taconite tailings safety from Elwyn Tinklenberg be what it is.

I recall from the Sunday, March 16, 2008, quite clearly Elwyn Tinklenberg saying that NRRI had "certified" use of taconite tailings in paving as safe, as a public health matter affecting the health of citizens of the state. The only qualifying statement made by Elwyn Tinklenberg was that tailings from eastern and western locations differed and one but not the other had been certified safe. Certified and certification were the actual words used. My understanding is the Zanko work has done no such thing and that the claim of such a certification is a falsehood. My understanding is that Larry Zanko holds a master's degree in geological engineering and has no medical training nor any epidemiological experience, nor any position with health authorities to make medical certifications.

If you care to explain, revise, or extend that contention you stated in Anoka last Sunday, I will publish your response, and any contract papers you willingly provide will be published. I presume the documents are in digital form and can be provided that way. My email address is a part of this mailing. If you would like a mailing address, please reply stating that, and one will be provided.

Thank you.

Eric Zaetsch

On that one, sent minutes ago, I await the prompt and responsive answer I trust Elwyn Tinklenberg is capable of giving.

***

________FURTHER UPDATE_________

Some interesting comments. I do not monitor traffic here, but blueman says he's seen some traffic. There are a good dozen or so sites I have looked at and can post more about, showing the issue is wholly open - is this a health hazard or not? Has it been used more widely than so far publicized or not is not as easy a question to pin down, given the first rate Ramsey engineer says it is neither specified or barred for use in Ramsey and he does not know if it's been used on the roads where I live or whether it's been delivered to the asphalt plant along the BNSF tracks within a mile of City Hall and the Ramsey Town Center, where dust would presumably be a factor. It is an unknown whether those private parties are using it or not - unknown to me, to Ramsey public works people having local police powers, and I expect MnDOT, if asked, could not say with certainty whether the piles are being worked down via use as aggregate, or not. If the federal DOT is concerned, as a blueman comment indicates, then, can they say if its staying in the Oberstar district until proven safe, or not?

Here's a thought. If the stuff gets used, and a safety determination is that its use was not a sound idea and a health risk is posed; are they going to go rip up the paving? Not likely. So, go figure where that leaves those living next to that paving.

The error now, with the jury out, is to err on the side of safety, not the side of spreading it where it will not be removed if the Tinklenberg advocacy is proven wrong.

And that last thing the Tinklenberg campaign put out - is it disingenuous to say, if the stuff is proven a hazard, we are sure to withdraw advocacy and expect NRRI to do so also? It seems disingenuous to me, given the risk threshold being real - and it cannot be put into Lake Superior, that it stay put where it is until the proof - the reasonable burden of proof is met - the other side, those wanting to use it prove there is no discernible or major risk. I saw something about a very limited sampling procedure, possibly, on the NRRI work so far as well as a charge that the lab chosen and used is a sweetheart lab of Big Steel. That I have read on the internet but cannot say one way or the other whether the possibility of testing bias, other than experimental error which is always possible without knowing the details of how sampling was done, by whom, whether rain-washed tailings atop or on the edge of a pile or pool of the stuff was taken, or whether deep sampling of what would or could end up shipped was sampled, etc., etc., all technical questions that would have to be publicly debated.

Here, to keep current, is the latest email from NRRI to me:

from Nora Kubazewski hide details 7:24 am (4 hours ago)
to eric zaetsch
cc
Larry Zanko ,
Steve Hauck ,
dfosnach@nrri.umn.edu,
Michael Lalich ,
Denise Endicott ,
June Kallestad

date Mar 20, 2008 7:24 AM
subject RE: Please Provide contact person ID for public data law compliance
mailed-by nrri.umn.edu

Thank you. You are correct that I am affiliated with NRRI. I am not the contact person you wish and the NRRI geologists who are working on this study will respond to you directly. They are the correct people to explain the relationship with Tinklenberg. We will be in touch!

Nora

Does anyone have a clue who the one unidentified email address belongs to:

dfosnach@nrri.umn.edu

****
__________THIRD UPDATE_______
[to be announced]

From Women's March - 10-2-2021 - imagery speaks

Image is cropped from one of a series of Buzzfeed images. Click the image to access the Buzzfeed coverage of that march. This was a major event in Washington, D.C., and it happened mid-way after Trump had been fired by voters in the 2020 election, and before the one approaching. To assert as MN GOP politicians have that abortion is not an issue is an insensitive fiction concocted in some smoke filled GOP backroom. Do not let a GOP intent to deceive misleed your vote. The issue IS ON THE BALLOT. Women deserve dominion over their bodies, we all deserve privacy in our lifetime decision making.

Cracker fear and loathing toward Critical Race Theory has its precedent.

The precedent - Integration dodging intent behind segregated "non-profit" private schools, after the Brown decision was issued. Leading a twisted mind, Paul Weyrich, to issue-monger.

Politico in 2014 posted the true history of the ginned up propagandized opposition to abortion among the nation's hordes of Evangelicals as the "Weyrich solution" to energize the base. Leading to grave mischief. Evangel-Jesus-jockeys, with fellow travelers, (many of whom are surveyed as not as worked up about Roe as Alito would want you to falsely believe). Some, "foaming-at-the-mouth" rabid, however -

This is for you, Gipper and crowd.

Click that Wikipedia image, get THE STORY (and a link to the enlarged image, copyright info and all). GET: Online info leading into a new year via some pre-1947 new "old thoughts." New to many first time voters - this cycle. Not the thoughts, but the history. A history not to be found in Gipper speech transcripts, nor the Gipper's presidential library papers. Hello, Joe, Dem Party history, so pay attention. Pre-Clinton, Pre-Obama, but Dem party new-old nostalgia. Good old ways. Show the guts to walk that talk.

War Crime - Crime Against Humanity - Today, Now.

Let's go Brandon?

Yes, it relates to a NASCAR event, NASCAR attendees making a statement. But given how fifteen bucks got disappeared, and now Build Back Inconsequentially is pending, shouldn't we all chant? Trust whoever you care to, but wouldn't you like to see trust earned? Actions speak louder than words, while inaction when action is needed speaks loudest? Truthfully so? Pharma prices if anything have gone upward since Trump left while Manchin's daughter's a part of it via her grotesque EpiPen market manipulation and price gouging (a/k/a contract, combination, conspiracy in restraint of trade to gain market segment monopolization). Who might they want to fool? Biden's Justice Department appearing to not be looking at EpiPen under antitrust criminal law? Student debt relief is an aim of many, yet Biden has made no move to be helpful. Never mind Medicare for All sidetracked - Not even cosmetic change is being made to Obama's Romneycare? Taking progressives for a buggy ride? DC redux? Money talks? A Congress of old owned lackeys? Let's go Brandon?

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MYOGA - Make Yacht Owners Gain Again

A RIGHT - not a privilege - EVERYBODY'S RIGHT - no limits

JOE BIDEN DOES NOT SUPPORT MEDICARE FOR ALL. That is because Biden's billionaires want to keep every last one of the people beholden, manageable that way, willing to compromise and to worry about the next paycheck and the mortgage, rather than worrying abstractly over the grossly unfair distribution of wealth and power in our nation. Reform of that situation is needed. HOWEVER, with the Biden White House team, we must wait for HOPE and CHANGE. He owes, as a career politician now a millionaire himself, after NOT ever biting a feeding hand. We need Bernie.

Bernie ran for President. Who cares?

Bernie Sanders early 2019 crowds from before the Democratic Party oligarchs did him in, Clyburn, Bloomberg, Biden - the usual suspects. What resonated with those crowds - a candidate for justice and fairness, finally and for us all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7DRwz0cAt0 Joe Biden could have a Lincolnian legacy, if he cuts and runs from the big donor class he has so far courted, makes his platform the heart of that speech and delivers on the promises. If there is the will, there is the way.

More meddlesome in U.S. of A. politics. More money spent over Russians? Does that compute?

click here for image source plus NYTimes coverage.

Will there be blowback? There seems to be a disproportionate sense to DC's media-mania focus. Russians seem to make better theater, while Israelis generate movement on a scale Putin could only dream of? Essays and books could be written . . . However, in 2012 Romney and Bibi preceded Donald and Vlad mischief, in attempted outsider bias of U.S. national elections. Donald never visited Vlad in Russia. Romney did visit and schmooze Bibi, in Israel. "Double standard?" Go figure.

Doug Wardlow's police pal, Bob Kroll.

POLICE ENDORSED has to have a meaning, a context, and a discernible personality. G.R.Anderson writing over a decade ago, in a CityPages item, puts in a context, Bob Kroll, further fleshed out, here. It behooves the public to know who the supporters of a politician are, (photo above), since that reflects on the politician. "Rule of Law" must have a meaning to Kroll, one which few would share. Why is Mainstream Media not asking about POLICE ENDORSED, a Wardlow tout point?

IN ADDITION: In this image, isn't it Bob Kroll standing to the right hand of friend Wardlow? Looks like him. Paired Ellison haters? Anti-Muslim cohorts? How far back does the pairing go? And how has the pairing grown over time or evolved, from what start? Is there some Dobson joinder? The press should inquire.

Douglas Gary Wardlow did not merely throw the first stone . . .

He unleashed an ADF salvo, earning his ADF paycheck. Read about it, here, here and here. Outlawyered on appeal, Wardlow now apparently has no ADF paycheck. Others for ADF are pressing on. ADF appears to be a win-or-go-home team. James Dobson's team, so walk the line. Whatever you think you want, trust me, you do not want James Dobson anywhere near our attorney general office. A Berniecrat is the other choice, and is a good choice because Bernie's policies are the only future the Democratic Party has whether they accept that or not. Aimee Stephens is as human as I am, as human as Wardlow and Dobson and Hillstrom and Pelikan, the latter two seeming to have gone silent. Ms. Stevens should not be bedeviled in this Twenty-first Century. She merely wanted to be herself, do her job, and get her share. That is what each of us wants for ourselves. Evolution of politics is overdue. Ellison got piled on; is getting piled on. Click the above image.

Sell 'em Prosperity Gospel and feed 'em beans. Some never catch on.

What is Prosperity Gospel? It is: Channeling the mind of a brick into GOP and related dogma. Read this Minnesota story. Click the image to read its fine print. (image source: Bluestem Prairie) The image shows a part of the "mind" of a 30 yr. and still-going Prosperity Gospel faithful attendee. A Dev Crabgrass post fleshes things out. Islamaphobia is but one dimension of a larger "GOP base" stupidity. Stupidity you can bank on. HINT: Follow links in items linked here. Questions will get answered. And --- There's more -

DINO NEWS: Democrats in Name Only; they exist as a problem.

a DINO with an up-top money slot

This link. Al Franken in the linked WashTimes item is quoted:
“There are a lot of Minnesotans who are Franken-Trump voters. You have to go and talk to them, and you have to listen. That’s what we need to do. We need to listen.”
Al knows the score better. Al knows Sanders-Franken voter numbers dwarf that Trump-Franken segment, as to where Al needs to pay most attention, "to listen."

Al, in no uncertain terms, should be telling Tom Perez and the beltway money-bunnies of a new fresh smell in the air. Recognizing (in kind wording) one DINO foundation-family's drift, now, into irrelevancy is far from admitting what's relevant and moving full speed to the Bernie side of the force.

Dinosaurs, DINO ways and means, must and will be extinct (can you say "Primary Joe Manchin and Clair McCaskill"). As Al in the item says; listen. Hear Bernie sounding like a giant asteroid strike upon a DINO status quo. Indeed, primary the poster DINO-bunny of artful misdirection and status quo actions, Cory Booker. Gain attention from that, successful or not. Ideally, send Cory to work with Eric Cantor on Wall Street, where his heart is.