ANOKA COUNTY - Reader help needed. Will somebody explain to me why Harold Hamilton ceased posting his Anoka County Watchdog stuff at the Record website - listed there as "PAID ADVERTISMENT?" Was it in order to have himself a bigger fig leaf about that entire situation, or did he have another explanation such as the incremental exposure beyond his own website that he got via the Record did not justify the cost of posting it as "PAID ADVERTISEMENT?" [CORRECTED, SEE END OF POST].

Record watchers can note that Harold's last official bark on the Record website was per the Feb. 27, 2015 posting on the Record website. Since then there have been only a few further postings there at that website - each sans dog woofs; one dated March 6, another dated March 13, and a latest March 20 - the latter having what appears to be a front-page unpaid advertisement about GOP affairs, and mention of Amtrak.

Below is the last Record dog woof - (preserved for posterity) - before Harold's deciding to cease (or interrupt) his own personal publication there:

click to read

Enlarge that thumbnail. See at the bottom. It does say "PAID ADVERTISEMENT."

Really it does. Strangely so.

I expect Harold's pants have a right pocket and a left pocket, and as a free American, he can freely move his money from one pocket to the other any time he wants to. As a thought experiment, moving a Ben Franklin bill from left pocket to right pocket, would the phrase be the left pocket "paid" the Ben Frank to the right? Or just "shifted" it?

Now it should be noted, I am not privy to contract terms between Hamilton and John K., although I did ask. Each declined to provide me any information.

DEPARTING QUESTION: How would you phrase that Ben Frank hypothetical?

____________UPDATE_____________
Interestingly, that last Feb. 27 woof, on the top caption it says something about "on the lookout for fraud in Anoka County." Good to know, the dog says so.

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
CORRECTION: I was flat-out wrong. The Captain was still aboard ship, Friday the 13th.

This link, p.3 [confusing as being for a change the second page of PAID ADVERTISEMENT. Perhaps Mar. 20 was an anomaly, an interlude with the dog not having any woof to pay to publish for that web post, and I simply misinterpreted a mere momentary roiling in a Tea Pot, as if it were a tempest. My apologies to readers, to Harold Hamilton, and to John K. I erred. This led to my checking again the Mar. 20 website posting, and indeed, there is no Harold Hamilton content identified as such within that item.]

Why does self-appointed Watchdog-of-the-blind-Right-eye ignore an Abeler opinion? Because he is more Oz lion than bulldog?

Dog, you really do pick and choose your trees, ...

The fact is, others do write to the editor, and get published. Pay heed.

Now, I normally try to excerpt items published by ABC Newspapers (i.e., real newspapers, buying ink by the drum and newprint by the hundred-weight or ton - more than a website with an electronics supply house as its ostensible Anoka County business address). I do so to encourage readers to go to the original for complete detail. This time, why be different? For this excerpt, read the full item here.

It made sense at the time. That’s the only reason I can fathom for the Anoka County Board of Commissioners to choose to publish its important County notices in the Anoka County Record, a newspaper that reaches almost nobody.

[...] For most, the County Board is nearly invisible anyway, with a role understood far less than city councils or the state legislature. Adding another layer of fog will only serve to increase their lack of accountability to the 340,000 souls they are sworn to serve.

[...] Bad things can happen in the dark when it comes to politics, and the sunshine of public exposure serves to prevent that. It is time to undo a poor decision and put the Anoka County people first, and open the door of county government a bit wider for all to see.

It’s time to send the Anoka County Record packing, [...]

Jim Abeler
Former member of the MN House

Well Jim, the District 1 seat where you live is up for election in 2016. With the properly accountable people in place on the Board, sound decisions can follow, and back to full-time fair sunshine on things also can follow.

Somebody has to contest the seat, Jim, since the incumbent is a favorite of the Oz lion. Perhaps they foresee a challenger, in a letter writer?

______________UPDATE_______________
A suggestion to bring light and reason to the "Anoka County Record Question."

Mr. Abeler, and Mr. Look or his designate might visit the ostensible Anoka County Record office in Fridley, and each independently in an ABC Newspapers letter to the editor report - nothing but the facts and honestly stated - what they found and saw there. It might enlighten the situation. After all, the purported editor of the ostensible operation encourages contact via a P.O. Box, and newspapers in general do not do that. They have plant and equipment and buy ink and paper.

Such a visit just might also give the pair an opportunity to converse with Harold Hamilton, while onsite.

Battle lines being drawn. Federal budget reporting by Strib's carrying an AP feed.

This link:

Obama: Republican spending plan offers 'path to prosperity for those who've already prospered'
Article by: DARLENE SUPERVILLE , AP - Updated: March 18, 2015 - 6:13 PM

"It's a budget that doesn't just fail to embrace middle-class economics," he said. "It's the opposite of middle-class economics."

[...] The House GOP budget also drew criticism from likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Hours after the plan was released, Obama's former secretary of state blasted it on social media as one that "fails Americans" on investments in jobs and economic growth, on aid for college students and on access to health care.

"Budgets reflect our priorities. They should help families get ahead, educate our kids, and spark small business growth," Clinton said on Twitter. She said the "nation's future — jobs & economic growth — depends on investments made today. The GOP budget fails Americans on these principles."

Latest Israeli election news - Bibi's fourth term.

New York Times (source of opening image), more NYT, Haaretz (opening only, main reporting behind a paywall) here and here, Reuters, and USA Today.

A Flaherty project. Surprisingly having a TIF component in the brew. At Wherever, USA.

Actually, at New Albany.

Old Albany presumably not willing to TIF, etc.

This link, noting:

[...] a step closer to fruition as the Indiana Economic Development Corp. awarded $3.3 million for the project this week.

The IEDC awarded the money through the Industrial Recovery Tax Credit Program, designed to assist communities in developing large vacant structures.

Flaherty & Collins Properties, an Indianapolis-based development firm, received the credit in partnership with the city to convert the property, at 411 E. Spring St., into a 157-unit apartment complex.

It appears New Albay is a 'burb of Louisville. And for appreciation of deja vu, and its reassurance dimensions:

"Flaherty & Collins Properties is thrilled to partner with the city of New Albany and the IEDC to make this development a reality," said Austin Carmony, lead developer of the project with Flaherty & Collins Properties. "This public/private partnership brings a luxury residential mixed-use development to downtown New Albany that will add approximately 200 residents with disposable incomes to the area that will further support local businesses. The project will build on the strong economic development that is already occurring downtown, making the area vibrant, walkable and full of activity."

The project will likely require the city to issue a Tax Increment Financing bond to be paid back with TIF revenue generated by the project. The New Albany City Council and Redevelopment Commission will need to vote before a bond can be issued.

City Council President Pat McLaughlin told other media outlets the project could be a key component in future development downtown, attracting residents who would bolster commerce for existing businesses and encouraging more service-oriented establishments to open.

Wow, public private partnership. I wonder how Heidi is doing in Wayzata. I wonder if Wayzata has any Landform consultancy work in its mix.

___________UPDATE____________
Efficiency would dictate there being a Flaherty Fluff-Form:

Flaherty & Collins Properties is thrilled to partner with the city of _______________ and _______________ to make this development a reality," said ____________________, lead developer of the project with Flaherty & Collins Properties. "This public/private partnership brings a luxury residential mixed-use development to downtown __________________ that will add approximately ___________ residents with disposable incomes to the area that will further support local businesses. The project will build on the strong economic development that is already occurring downtown, making the area vibrant, walkable and full of activity.

And it shall redouble to the lasting legacy of every town official embracing Flaherty adventuring; its shepherding and fostering and shearing being as innovative as sliced Wonder Bread.

Special project press release forms could be preprinted, "... said Ryan Cronk, lead developer ..." since Cronk apparently is the Flaherty honcho who gets the slam-dunk stuff from the office.

Flaherty and archetectural excellence, one typical one atypical, surprising at first, but there is an explanation.

First, Kansas City, here, the lead rendering says "Flaherty" all over it. Busy, busy, busy. Schlock, schlock, schlock.

As in, typical.

But wow, something restrained, senior housing, in Vincennes, Indiana. A restrained hand. Atypical.

And for a reason:

The Vincennes Education Fondation and Vision Communities collaborated to make Clark’s Crossing a reality.

The project re-uses the old Clark Middle School and Adams Coliseum buildings. The development relied on the sale of historic tax credits and rental housing tax credits to turn the two buildings into a senior living facility in the middle of downtown Vincennes.

Flaherty & Collins will manage the property.

Yes. An old middle school. Redone. No wonder it looks less ugly than that thing in Ramsey Town Center.

They did not start with a clean slate.

Libraries are basically about books. People can borrow them, or not, and they help educate the population. Where exactly in such basics, is the place for dog-and-pony shows eating up cash arguably better spent, for of all things, books?

This link. Readers wanting to defend some of the stuff that author criticizes are urged to submit comments.

If you total the numbers there, how many books might it purchase?