"Anoka County Rescinds Support of Northern Lights Express"

The Crabgrass headline is a direct quote from the Channel 5 online headline to its short and one-sided (anti-rail) report, online here. For the other side of things, reporting from Duluth, here. ABC Newspapers in a lengthier report gives much useful local detail. Under a Strib subheadline, " 'Pie in the Sky' " Paul Levy of Strib wrote:

County Board Chairwoman Rhonda Sivarajah was among the most vocal opponents of the proposed 155-mile line, [... and] balked at Anoka County's possible commitment of $10 million or more toward the line.

Commissioner Matt Look, the county's new rail authority chairman, also questioned the $10 million commitment before voting against NLX.

"NLX is a gamble I'm not willing to take," he said.

Last year, Look pushed for a $13.2 million commuter rail station in his hometown of Ramsey. Some questioned its need, and it raised some eyebrows in Sherburne, Stearns and Hennepin counties. The station opens this fall.

Andy Westerberg and Robyn West were the other commissioners who voted to withdraw from the alliance.

Look replaced Commissioner Dan Erhart, who championed the 2 1/2-year-old Northstar commuter rail line, as Anoka County's rail authority leader when Sivarajah became board chairwoman last year. Along with James Oberstar, who lost his seat in Congress to Chip Cravaack in 2010, and Mark Stenglein, who left the Hennepin County Board recently to become president of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, Erhart is a once-key NLX player now largely on the sidelines.

In addition there was coverage online from MinnPost, MPR, and PiPress where coverage included:

However, Erhart said, it's not too late to reverse it.. With six of the seven Anoka County Board seats-- including his own -- up for reelection this fall, support for public transportation could shift.

"It would just take one vote," he said.

Interestingly, an online operation I believe is out of New Hampshire carried a partial feed from a Minnesoata operation having an arguably inasupicious board and sponsoring an essay contest in honor of an arguably inasupicious film actor.

It is interesting to see from details of each linked item, how one can infer that there may possibly be editorializing on the "news pages" for each of the different coverage outlets. (All except Crabgrass, which of course is wholly objective and unbiased about all that is posted here.)

Was there a clear conflict of interest at play, in one Republican's bill sponsorship and advocacy?

Anoka County, for vague reasons, is surrendering control of the Pines School it had been operating in the county juvenile detention facility to the local Centennial Independent School District, a step impacting the 29 teachers there, who have no job seniority with that district.

This link, headlined, "GOP Sen. Pam Wolf, author of [anti-]‘LIFO’ bill, loses teaching job," tells the political dimension of LIFO applying with there being no bargaining unit seniority among the existing teachers at the transferred school.

Wolf, in sponsoring legislation and advocating for it, to eliminate teacher LIFO [last in first out] seniority based teaching staff contraction requirements, had a stake in things, so was she out of step in participating in a way that advanced her outside paycheck, were her legislation to have passed?

Strangely, Strib had reported of Wolf's situation with the transfer of school jurisdiction, mentionig her by name as a focal person in the situation, but without mention of her having been in a conflicted situation as a legislator sponsoring stuff. Zippo reported, that way.

What Strib reported of interest:

"It is important to pass it on because a school does not fit our governance model, and we are required to have an entire administrative system within the county just for the school," said County Board Chairwoman Rhonda Sivarajah.

There's a touch of pretension in characterizing it as an issue of "our governance model" when the transfer of school jurisdiction also happens to look to be fobbing off a part of the cost of running the county juvenile detention site. With this controlling bunch presently on the County Board, however, fobbing off costs of governing might just be all there is to "our governance model."

After the November elections, the "governance model" might change; governance models not being carved in stone.

The bottom line situation appears to be Republicans fobbing off a part of governing jurisdiction, to the detriment of another Republican, one in the legislature who had conflicted interests in sponsoring legislation which would or might have had a direct impact on her day job. Usually they try to do in Democrats, but call this "unintentional collateral damage?" (When they are not gloating in doing in the likes of Brodkorb, as s kind of internal-GOP excommunication ritual, done with glee in a way that boomeranged to where taxpayers have to pick up lawyer bills).

My bet, Wolf has strings to pull, and gets her job back (even if others laid off do not and even if some of the others had more seniority with the county at the time of the transfer). It would be refreshing if this were not so, and if the Centennial people, taking over the school, deal first properly with their own bargaining unit, and then if there are jobs left over they honor seniority with the superseded faculty - however that positions Wolf in things. That would be the orderly way to proceed, no strings pulled, and if Wolf has her job back based on seniority it would be a most interesting outcome, given her legislative intents.

Who is this pack of devils, using your money to propagandize you?

MPR, this link. They are who you would have guessed they'd be. Brian Lambert doing his MinnPost gleaning, said it best:

I’m sure you’ve been following this one. Tom Scheck of MPR says: “The Office of Administrative hearings ruled today that a case accusing Republicans in the Minnesota Senate of using taxpayer money for campaign literature may go forward. An administrative law panel ruled that all but one of the complaints against the Senate Republican Caucus, 15 Senate Republicans and the spokesman for the Senate GOP may continue. The DFL Party filed the complaint in February after several senators handed out pamphlets at precinct caucuses. Those leaflets outlined the legislative successes of the first year in power for Senate Republicans but also linked to websites that solicited political contributions. Democrats argued the pamphlets violated state law that prohibits using taxpayer money to campaign for office.” Lord, I hope this isn’t distracting anyone from the Brodkorb case.

Ah yes, the Minnesota Senate Republicans. The glorious Senate Republicans. Using your money for legal fees for mopping up their vulnerability to litigation over how they treated one of their once-treasured own, the wonderful Mr. Brodkorb, who could have been fired for cause for simply being who he is. But instead - the Republican way - he was fired for -- well you know all that. With pomp and circumstances, spite and venom, late evening in a restaurant.

Can you imagine, "Okay now Brodkorb, enjoy your meal." It is obvious why many of them are against bullying reform. They like their ways and want no part of changing themselves.

Bottom line: They bleat fiscal conservatism. They make it a public mantra. They posture and they pose. They criticize taxing. They then next spend your taxed money on - [1] defending their screw-up with Brodkorb; [2] propagandizing you on how fiscally conservative you should believe they are. Bless the DFL for calling that propaganda effort what it was, illegal as well as an unneeded and outrageous insult to taxpayers.

I await Phil Krinkie's public expression of disdain for such conduct. For him to appear honest in things related to wasted tax money you have to expect that from Krinkie. Right?

In Anoka they debate what an ugly and non-ugly parking ramp might be. New look, old look?

This ABC Newspapers link.

Why not use the Ramsey solution? Give special perks to David Flaherty so that he will wrap something imposingly ugly around Anoka's ramp so that what the ramp itself looks like will not really matter.

Flaherty sold that brand in Ramsey. I suppose he's on a one-per-commuter-rail-line these days. Rationing in Anoka County so he can get chump towns to pay his freight all over the nation, wherever chump towns can be found. Bless Flaherty. Bless Collins. Bless Cronk, their agent.

Medical marijuanna - latest on the feds tampering with states' rights where Candidate Obama in 2008 said he'd mirror Ron Paul on the issue (he did not phrase it exactly that way but that was the gist of yet one more broken promise). It is an awkward situation. Hands off. Kind of. Except when ...

This link. Holder really has better things for the US Attorneys to focus on. Really.

It probably is a sign of how the privatized-prison industry is calling shots. Paid piper. Called tune.

Nailing the cult of Apple. On an otherwise enjoyable eclectic websitge.

Click image to enlarge and read.

Image credit, this link. Site home page. Bacon.

And one mopo.ca post links here, the gift for the Republican dad in your family who thinks he has everything. And with that product in the marketplace of ideas: These people are missing a "resources" ploy. Ditto, here.

Anoka County Board Elections - There is nothing really "unusual' with several people chasing an easy fat paycheck.

And that's what it is all about when four "fiscal conservatives" get into the octagon (figuratively speaking). I don't know the exact amount for county board pay, but my understanding is it pays substantially more than service in the legislature, and the work is less. Fat city, relative to slogging it out in the Minnesota House or Senate, or getting the equivalent of an honorarium for serving on City of Ramsey's council. In terms of a pay/work balance, it's one of the top jobs in the State.

That is at least my read on " 'Unusual' field to challenge Anoka County's Andy Westerberg," online here, stating in opening:

Anoka County Commissioner Andy Westerberg calls himself a fiscal conservative. So imagine his surprise when he learned that all of the other candidates for his County Board seat are also fiscal conservatives -- Debbie Johnson, Julie Braastad and Mike Jungbauer.

"It's unusual," Westerberg said of the field vying to represent District 2, after the candidate filing period closed last week.

The item, authored by Strib's north metro reporter Paul Levy, fleshes out the County Board races that involve primaries:

In Anoka County, two of the races will require an August primary. In District 1, incumbent Matt Look will face off again former county Veterans Services Director Allison Lister, former Ramsey Mayor Tom Gamec and Oak Grove City Council Member Dan Denno.

Look, a former Ramsey City Council member, has been on the County Board for less than 18 months. Gamec was Ramsey's mayor from 1979 to 1984, stepped aside and then was talked into running again in 1996. He was elected and remained mayor until 2007, before retiring again.

Lister, who spent 21 years in the Air Force, chastised County Board members in e-mails sent to all seven commissioners earlier this year. She described the county's leadership as "appalling" and faulted the board for a "complete lack of communication." Despite the memo, several commissioners praised Lister for her work with veterans.

The other primary will be in District 2. Westerberg, a four-term state representative who was elected to the board for the first time in 2010, said he's "excited about the possibility of continuing." [...]

Johnson, a former state senator who says she is the most conservative of the bunch, ran against Westerberg for commissioner two years ago.

"I laid the groundwork in the last race and can't see stepping away now," she said. "I'm more conservative and I have a proven track record that shows that."

But Braastad, a Ham Lake City Council member, says that she is "by far the most conservative" [...]

State Sen. Jungbauer lost the Republican Party endorsement in March to fellow Sen. Michelle Benson on a fifth ballot; redistricting had placed the two in the same district.

Junbauer says his wife wanted him to run for the County Board two years ago and now "I feel the call."

"I'm detailed, I campaign hard and I think I have a wonderful grasp of the issues driving this county," he said. "I don't like the partisan side of politics. I think I'm better suited for county-level government."

Mirror, mirror on the wall.
I'm the most conservative baby-kisser
of them all.

None of them told Levy about the nice paycheck. Each wants to serve, and believes he/she can serve best. Each is capable of cashing that paycheck, or going with a County - bank automatic deposit mechanism. But would you expect any of the pack, especially the career politicians among them, to say "... and the money's pretty good too"? So be it.

I am not at all conservative, so I would be a unique candidate if running, I guess. Besides that, the money's pretty good too. There, somebody said it.