We in Minnesota, in Ramsey, can be thankful we are nowhere near in our problems to Ferguson in its problems. On a different control-of-power front, we in this nation can look for fallout that can happen from over-ambitiousness of a clergy; witness things in the Saudi kingdom.

Ferguson continues in the news. Readers can easily do their own websearch.

Ramsey, for all its yins and yangs, now has a reliable and sagacious administrator/administration, and a functioning council.

Policing in the community is sound, and nobody is saying, "Gee, ticketing along Highway 10 could bring an awsome windfall of cash for the public fisc."

That is good.

Among the Saudi fellow humans, things are different as to how government and individual rights and powers get balanced, by government, of course having a thumb on the balance; e.g., the linked item noting:

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s version of sharia Islamic law.

Apostasy, a capital crime?

Where might we be headed (or beheaded) if yielding too much to our evangelical right?

As a thought experiment, during Saudi beheadings, do they make the soon to be headless wear a red teeshirt?

One in Arabic, with a list on the back having "Lukewarm Muslims," at the bottom right above "Allah will judge." The process designed to get things to Allah posthaste.

This worries me: Isn't "lukewarm" what "apostasy" means, depending on who is parsing controlling language?

And printing teeshirts?

Next up as a thought experiment -- Can lukewarm Christians be good Americans?

FERGUSON - BROOM TIME. "Since the report was released, the city manager, a judge, two police officers, and a court clerk have either resigned or been fired."

Court Clerk Mary Ann Twitty
with Officer Darren Wilson.
Guardian published photo

The headline quote is from BBC, here. The shooter, the boss, the ticket fixing court clerk who sent racist emails. The three now, Kaput.

Broom time, indeed.

There is the doorknob saying, which mayor and town board likely thought but declined saying. And His Honor, the mayor, will he seek reelection? That is tomorrow's worry. First the broom, then the mop-up.

In hiring a new police chief, race might be a factor. If towns could have PTSD, Ferguson should.

Play Where's Waldo. Find the black guy.

UPDATE: The judge, who resigned. Written up in Boing Boing, Guardian, WaPo, DailyMail, and the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

March 5, NY Times reported, in "Some in Ferguson Who Are Part of Problem Are Asked to Help Solve It":

While Ms. Twitty was terminated, her involvement in the emails and their wide distribution illustrate how difficult fixing the Ferguson Police Department and municipal court will be when many city officials led, participated in or tolerated the most controversial practices uncovered by the Justice Department. Those city employees include the police chief who authorized arrests without probable cause; the municipal judge who adds new charges when people contest their citations, yet quietly got his own traffic ticket wiped away; and the city manager who was the force behind the financially driven policies that led to widespread discrimination.

Many of those same officials will now be the ones attempting to carry out the reforms demanded by the Justice Department.

[...] In particular, the responsibility for making changes will fall to John Shaw, the 39-year-old city manager. He is the city’s chief executive, responsible for supervising the police department, nominating the municipal judge and running the city. And he is cited repeatedly in the Justice Department’s scathing report.

Well, not exactly.

In March 10 follow-up NYT reporting,

The city manager of Ferguson, whom a Department of Justice report blamed for overseeing the financially driven policies that led to widespread discrimination and questionable conduct by the police and the courts here, has agreed to resign. The announcement came during a City Council meeting on Tuesday, about a week after the scathing Justice Department report was released.

The manager, John Shaw, 39, had held the post since 2007. As Ferguson’s chief executive, he was the city’s most powerful official.

Mr. Shaw, who has not spoken publicly since the report was issued, offered a staunch defense in a page-long letter to the community that city officials distributed during the Council meeting.

“And while I certainly respect the work that the D.O.J. recently performed in their investigation and report on the City of Ferguson, I must state clearly that my office has never instructed the Police Department to target African-Americans, nor falsify charges to administer fines, nor heap abuses on the backs of the poor,” he wrote. “Any inferences of that kind from the report are simply false.”

Sure. And the Pope is Presbyterian. The report continues:

The resignation was announced about 30 minutes into the Council meeting, with members voting 7 to 0 to approve a “mutual separation agreement” with Mr. Shaw.

As people in the packed Council chamber began to understand what was happening, a buzz shot through the room as onlookers mumbled and a few let out quiet cheers.

BBC covered that resignation, as it did with the Police Chief.

Apart from that, I recall it was a Friday, Nov. 17, 2006, ABC Newspapers item by Sakry, "Norman tenders his resignation as top city administrator." That being for our town, Ramsey. To that point, I had dismissed the Sister City program with a town in China as of little consequence.

The BBC did not cover James Norman's resignation. Nor did HufPo, which did report of Shaw quitting his post in Ferguson:

Shaw is the fifth person named in the Justice Department report to lose his job.

Ferguson Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer, who allegedly turned Ferguson's municipal court into a city cash cow, resigned Monday. Ferguson Municipal Court Clerk Mary Ann Twitty was fired last week over racist emails. In addition, two police department officials resigned last week, including one who supervised Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Michael Brown.

Michael Brown, shot through the top of his head months earlier, was not present at the reported council meeting. Not physically there, but in spirit, he cast the deciding vote accepting the resignations.

FURTHER UPDATE: Ramsey, after James Norman, got better. Ferguson is moving in a way that might get better.

Champlin still is using citations for income. Cozy about it. They need to get better. It's that simple. They can straighten up their act. They should. They need the will to straighten up their act.

Strib has posted the full JOD report online; here.

Who else but Larry can turn such subtle phrases in his writings?

Can you top this for cool, smooth, incisive analytical class? (It even, perhaps, is a cut above Rushbo the Great):

It is clear that, much like occurred during her years as first lady, when she greased illegal campaign contributions from communist China – a scandal I sparked when I was chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch – these contributions were intended to influence and pervert U.S. foreign policy. Knowing from the get-go that she would use her office to enrich herself and hubby Bill, not to mention her daughter Chelsea, who is also a player in the Clintons’ foundation, Hillary covered up evidence of her felonious ways by never using discoverable government email accounts at the State Department, but instead installing a private server in her illegally purchased home in Chappaqua, New York [...]

Her penchant for being bribed is not the only caper that Hillary has covered up. From Benghazi, to her having likely disclosed classified Israeli war plans to bomb Iranian nuclear sites, to her likely illegal sale of waivers to do business with the Islamic Iranian regime, and no doubt a host of other felonies while secretary of state, Hillary has simply used an old tried-and-true technique to obstruct justice. And obstruct justice she has, since she has deep-sixed thousands of Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests. [...]

During her years as first lady, then independent counsel Robert Ray, the successor to Ken Starr, declined to prosecute her for lying under oath to a grand jury reasoning that a predominantly black and Democrat jury would never have convicted her. But this time, with her sights on the presidency, the stakes are much higher. It would be punishment enough to deny her the White House, a prize that this criminally minded megalomaniac has coveted since she first married Bill. Having Hillary as our president, to follow the current Muslim in chief, would likely be the death knell of the republic conceived of and fought for by our Founding Fathers.

If you think that the Hussein Obama/Eric Holder/Al Sharpton race war against persons of a different complexion is bad enough, wait for Hillary to also pit women against men to further the divide of our decaying body politic and society, already fractured to the hilt. Already she is signaling that the hallmark of her presidential candidacy will hinge on the nation having a duty to elect the first woman president. The irony is, however, that Hillary is arguably not a woman at heart, but rather an asexual “devil in a blue dress,” and I’m not talking about the mascot of my alma mater, Duke University.

[...] Thus, Hillary and the Clintonistas’ present scam is simply a rerun of their prior criminal acts. It is part of their criminal enterprise, also actionable under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, to enrich themselves through bribes and other financial benefits and to make sure these misdeeds remain covered up. Indeed, I intend to bring suit on this basis as well.

Yes, Hillary and her crowd know no limits in committing crimes and then suppressing the evidence of them. To date, she has walked away from punishment, only to resurface as a senator and then Cabinet secretary. While higher ups like her are rarely prosecuted, given her long history of criminality, the time (ala what finally happened to O.J. when he was jailed in Las Vegas for a minor crime) may be right to finally hold Hillary accountable under the rule of law. And, while I have never and would never use legal actions to try to influence elections, the unintended byproduct may be that the nation is spared the “privilege” of having the first “woman president” of her felonious ilk if she is forced to spend her time in prison rather than on the campaign trail.

All that, and never resorting to using the term, "Feminazi."

A class act.

[italics added, link in original]

------------------------

This link.

Do not ask Larry where he gets his money. Ask Larry instead where the Clintons get their money. He'd prefer allusion and suggestion about that, to messing his own nest. His cash flows are nobody's business but his own. How it should be. How it was designed.

If Larry gives to Norm's White-wealth Slush PAC, that also would be private.

Privacy about money matters, to Harold Hamilton too. So much so that he, via a corporate entity he had a large measure of control over, sued using the Citizen's United lawyer as his mouthpiece. Not that Harold wears a tinfoil hat. He's not that big in the other organization that sued along with his. Some must not like the tune "Let the sun shine in, face it with a grin, ...".

What do they wish to hide?

ALEC ties? Would they be ashamed of that? Or is it simply wanting funding essentials kept quiet? Whatever's there? The fewer questions, the better?

No questions, best. You start asking that and it's -- Look, look. Over there, two gay people together for years, getting a marriage license ...

It puzzles me.

Is it just me, with a bug in my bonnet, a tinfoil hat, or am I right to question why all this stuff has to be transferred and set as cookies on my workstation, just to read a PiPress item?

It seems to be corporate overkill, and folks should know what NoScrip in the Firefox browser displays:

click to enlarge the image - see right hand side

The link from which the screen capture was taken is
http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_27644761/state-rep-rick-hansens-questioning-draws-apology-demand



But I urge readers not to open the link. Unless they care little about privacy abuse by websites. If you go with that flow, the flow don't stop, it bulges.

Sorensen provided the link and explains its significance significantly to where pursuing the link is not needed.

The interesting thing, the story blocked with the browser not allowing all that stuff; and the kicker?

I hit the temporarily allow pioneerpress, the twincities.com thing at the bottom item in the right hand NoScript dialog box, and still, a wall against readership.

What's all that other stuff to do with my reading PiPress online?

And, why worry? Well, for starters there is all that tracking/profiling cookie stuff, but the hummer for me that said forget allowing any of this and post of it instead? denverpost.com in among the others.

KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH: Denver Post is aggressive against fair use of content by others. They might regard this post as going beyond fair use, to commercial disparagement. If so, bless 'em.

What you have to know is Denver Post was reported to be in league with the Righthaven shakedown perps. Most of what you need to understand about Righthaven and why they made enemies is contained in three links, here, here and here.

Readers are urged to read those three. And do your own websearch for more info if the matter interests you. This stuff really is very important to privacy advocates and those in the technical online press having privacy concerns; e.g., eff and Ars. (Making it easy, three more links tying a bow around Denver Post and Righthaven as birds fouling the same nest; here, here and here.)

BOTTOM LINE: PIPRESS, YOU ABUSE READERSHIP BY THAT OVERKILL. PIPRESS, JUST STOP IT. OR READERS, JUST SAY NO. IT IS GROTESQUE PRIVACY-INVASION OVERKILL AND HAS NO EXCUSE. MY CONCERN FOR PRIVACY SAYS FORGET PIPRESS LONGTERM IF NOT FOREVER. LET OTHERS READ YOUR OUTLET. NOT DIALING YOU UP AGAIN, FOR A LONG, LONG TIME. IF EVER. ANOTHER ALIENATED LOST POSSIBLE READER. BLESS YOU.

___________UPDATE___________
Besides suing Drudge (over a Denver Post copyrighted photo), in equal opportunity fashion, Righthaven tried to shake down Democratic Undeground, reaching across borders and against a lone Carolina blogger; with it all even percolating up to the attention of the slow to grow legs MSM, i.e., NYT, once the stench got overly ripe. In what might have been a too-little-too-late move, Denver Post also abandoned the corpse. More recently, there was porn trolling by lawyers on the edge, and while Minnesota might be proud of its favorite sons, its SOBs are a different story. And the beat goes on, and on.

So denverpost.com, (out of the trolling spotlight since bailing on Righthaven late in the game), showing up in a list is why I am jumping now on PiPress with spurs on. Am I wrong? Too harsh in judgment? Read a little, then you decide.

Common ground?

Would it be more newsworthy if he were to be rollerblading in Selma?

Strib, here:

WASHINGTON -- Jack Rogers, the president of the Minnesota Tea Party Alliance, is deeply disappointed in his Republican congressman Rep. Tom Emmer.

Rogers, who lives in Ham Lake, published a blog post Thursday that alleged Emmer was avoiding conservative constituents' because he can't attend a Senate District 31 political convention on Saturday. Rogers said the liberty movement is angry about Emmer's recent vote to support funding the Department of Homeland Security.

On Saturday, Emmer will be in Selma, Ala., to join the 50th anniversary celebration of the historic civil rights march.

"We received word yesterday that Tom canceled his planned appearance due to a scheduling conflict," Rogers wrote on the Tea Party Alliance website. "When we asked about what the conflict was, Emmer stated he would be marching in a parade in Alabama that day."

The Tea Party guy is all ruffled feathers, having posted at teaparty.mn:

We learned that the parade Emmer referenced is a march to commemorate the heroic actions of John Lewis of Selma in 1965; a fantastic event as far we’re concerned and we don’t want to belittle the importance of such an event. However, our issue lies with the fact that Emmer made a commitment to his constituents to attend their convention. We believe attending the event of the people who put him in office outweighs that of events outside his district. According to members of Senate District 31, their event was rearranged months ago to accommodate Tom’s schedule.

The plot thickens…

We found out this morning that Norm Coleman and Vin Weber’s group, American Action Network, has purchased a sizeable ad buy in Minnesota thanking Tom Emmer for his recent vote. The language of the ad (see sample here) is eerily similar to the language Tom used early this week to scold fellow conservatives.

Too often, politicians go out to Washington and forget the principles that got them there in the first place. After voting for Boehner for Speaker and funding Obama’s amnesty program, it looks like Tom has become out of touch with his conservative CD6 roots. Call or e-mail Tom and remind him that he works for the people of Minnesota’s sixth Congressional District, not the lobbyists and special interest in Washington.

Well, there is something to be said in favor of anyone who will criticize Vin Weber and Norm Coleman, and the hidden, faceless men of great wealth who are providing the fund to go with the slush of teacher bashing and all that stuff in Minnesota's lower legislative house, re HB 2, the FTTU bill.

It has been charged on the floor of the House, I saw it yesterday on TV while channel hopping during a basketball commercial break, that the folks pulling as they will on the top end of the Norm Coleman puppet strings are wont to want and to promote union busting. But the First Amendment says they can come forth publicly and express their viewpoints. Yet -- Why do they instead hide their identity behind Norm? The teachers union is open and transparent in how it chooses to back the candidates it chooses to like. They report it, in full bright sunshine. These Coleman cash men, not so, not so at all and the Tea Party fellow Rogers probably is like me, in asking "Why? Why hide?"

Are they Banking Roundtable folks friendly with Mr. Pawlenty, their nominal head? Business Roundtable folks friendly with Mr. Weaver, Mr. Pawlenty's classmate in law school? Is anybody hearing much from Bill Cooper, directly, these days? Bills did not get much establishment GOP cash love when he ran against Klobuchar. Perhaps Emmer is more cagey than Bachmann. Smart enough to stay clear of Iowa and to not get into any bidding war with Ron Paul's pack, there, in Iowa. And Rogers of the Tea Party is uneasy and unhappy while Stanley Hubbard runs his electronic media and Glen Taylor buys Strib.

________________UPDATE________________
Let's see, anger over Homeland Security funding. What, there, is the precise complaint? That there exists a threat that any bureau tasked to protect the Fatherland [elsewhere, Mother Russia] has a potential to crib in citizen liberties?

That likely is it, and in mentioning Vin and Norm, do not forget W. He is the one that fashioned, with friends, the Homeland Security initial blueprint and tasking. Clearly, how it has moved since W went MII - missing in inaction - doing whatever, painting? Who's doing the sketch, putting down the numbers? At any rate, much which critics such as this Rogers person find to criticize deserves attention, yet the Tea Party persona advance some strange agenda detail: denial of reproductive freedoms weighing most heavily on one gender than another, heartlessness toward those who have gotten a lesser share while insufficiently criticizing grotesque concentrations of wealth and power in what George Carlin nailed a hundred percent; "one big club and you're not in it" [and surprisingly not having a real share of the pie while not wanting it sliced more fairly - not demanding that the nation and sub-governments tax in ways leveling the playing field between them and what they have, vs. those pulling the Norm Coleman strings, paying the Vin Weber fees, etc., so forth].

And averting their eyes from the Ron/Rand bidding war in Iowa against Bachmann, for buying right-wing politician loyalty, and the Rand and Mitch ties last election with who besides Mitch more beholden to establishment Republican money/power?

It is as if there are marching orders, handed down a Tea hierarchy, perhaps not saying directly, blind eye here, blind eye there; but nonetheless setting a sufficient number of vapid talking/carping/tirade points to have rank and file inattention within individual Tea Party cells toward some real nasty hummers needing more attention/chastisement than Tom Emmer's politicking.

What in the world did these clowns expect, when they put Emmer forward on their alleged behalf? Have they been asleep during Emmer's entire career? What did they think the goods were? Who else did they see backing Emmer, with more in-the-big-club ties than they'd ever have?

And now, to the extent Emmer is playing his way into the club, they have Angst?

It is troubling when folks go public with a showing of shortsightedness. And that is said knowing it is an affliction touching all, at times. And this Rogers person, will he be satisfied either way when he is handed Dem money's Hillary, against GOP money's Jeb as "so called" choice in 2016? He should not be, but lesser evil thinking from either wing is relied upon by those making actual choices and forming actual cash coalitions.

Which gets back to a very, very, very important question. Whose money is behind Norm? And the corollary question, why trust a single thing from that direction unless/until we know whose money it is and what it is buying?

With this big PAC pool of cash, it is more than Nasser Kazeminy buying suits.

When's the last election that has not been inner-Ivy League grown ups against one another where money is happy enough, whoever wins? Go figure. Clinton the Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law School champ, vs Bush the Elder, then W from Yale vs Gore from Harvard, then W vs the Ivy Leaguer who married the rich widow and is now Sec of State, Hillary v. Jeb? The Harvard Law School editor vs the hedge fund front man, who managed the money of those calling shots? It is one big club. And they most likely do not drink Tea at their gatherings. The Romney tape, write off 47% of the electorate, and concentrate on chumping the next level up sufficiently so that the 1% get traction with that lagging 30-40% better off by not much than the 47% Romney had written off.

That's the story, and that's Norm, and that's Vin, and my oh my, how the Clintons have prospered.

Enjoy politics, into 2016 while, likely on marching orders, Daudt and friends bushwhack those having the patience and skill sets, and the will, to teach your children into the job force.

Love it. It's what you are being handed.

The post below this one, about whoring, is independent of this one - about the IRRRB, and dangerous mining potential. This post IS about land development. And whatever -

Online, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, headline, "IRRRB Loan to PolyMet," an archived item:

PolyMet proposes to open Minnesota’s first sulfide mine. The company’s mineral rights existed on land owned by the Superior National Forest, which prohibits open-pit mining. Polymet, therefore, proposed a “land swap” with the Superior National Forest. Swapping thousands of acres between public and private ownership requires environmental review and scrutiny of the quality of land solicited for exchange in terms of wetlands, species, and habitat.

Prior to the environmental review being completed for the land exchange, in December 2010, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) approved a $4 million loan to PolyMet for the project. The loan violated the state’s environmental review law, which explicitly prohibits major governmental actions, including government investments, on projects whose environmental impacts are not yet known. The law is supposed to prevent giving a green light to projects or the impression that they will go forward until the environmental consequences are known.

MCEA joined co-plaintiffs Center for Biological Diversity, Save Lake Superior Association, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and Indigenous Environmental Network in a state lawsuit arguing the IRRRB loan approval violated state law. MCEA filed suit under the Minnesota Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) to invalidate the IRRRB’s decision and prevent the state from taking any further action to assist or authorize PolyMet’s proposed sulfide mine until after the environmental review for the project was completed.

In March 2011, however, the Minnesota legislature passed a law exempting the IRRRB from environmental review requirements under MEPA. Due to the law change, the case was dismissed.

That's just dandy.

But wait.

There's more.

"Antofagasta : IRRRB, DEED lost big bucks on Duluth Metals stock," dated 02/01/2015 and online here, explains:

When the Chilean copper mining company Antofagasta bought out Duluth Metals on Jan. 20, they paid 45 cents for every share of the foundering company's stock.

That's better than the 7 cents per share that Duluth Metals was trading for on the Toronto Stock Exchange when the deal originally was announced last fall.

Still, the buying price was way down from the $3 per share Duluth Metals flirted with in 2011 and 2012. And many stockholders who purchased Duluth Metals in recent years took a big hit -- including a more than $500,000 combined loss for the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

In unusual moves for both state agencies -- and maybe for any public agency -- economic development officials had purchased outright stock in the fledgling Canadian mining company.

The IRRRB and DEED each lost about $284,000 when Antofagasta took control of the Ely project, now called Twin Metals.

The loss came after both agencies bought into a Duluth Metals predecessor, Franconia Minerals, in a complicated economic development deal that started in 2006.

Public money, down a rat hole. What's your guess of what IRRRB was thinking? Friendships? What?

And how does that recent report square with the bit of orchestrated tap dancing in this hummer?

Rose colored glasses, spin doctoring Karl Rove would envy, what was going on then (March 10, 2011) if the Feb 1, 2015 item is correct about public agency (DEED) and quasi-public slush (IRRRB) taking a bath in red ink? It confuses me. Perhaps good Mr. Sertich can tie it all together with a nice ribbon, in simple words we can all understand. Was it a net bath in red ink, to promote very questionable sulfide mining, or was the bluster of 2011 correct.

It can't be argued both ways, can it. Sertich meeting himself coming back the other way?

Having confusion, a Feb. 4, 2015 Timberjay editorial might be helpful in finding some bottom line:

The real concern behind IRRRB stock purchases
Marshall Helmberger

This past Sunday, the Duluth News-Tribune ran a story on how the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board lost about $280,000 through its investment in Duluth Metals. The story originated with Aaron Klemz, of Friends of the Boundary Waters, who had crunched the numbers and determined that the agency had failed to recoup all of a $937,500 investment it had made in Franconia stock back in 2011, prior to its acquisition by Duluth Metals. He sent his calculations to a few reporters, myself included.

I opted against the story mostly because we all know hindsight is 20-20. The IRRRB is far from the only investor in Duluth Metals that took a loss. Just about anyone who sunk money into the company came out of the deal with less green in their pocket.

Buying stock is risky. But sometimes it pays off— and the IRRRB has seen gains as well as losses in the handful of stock purchases it has made over the years.

Given the amount of money we’re talking about, roughly $280,000, it struck me as pretty thin gruel for a story that was as convoluted as this one.

When you compare it to the more than $10 million in outstanding loans to the Mesaba Energy Project— money that’s almost certainly gone for good— this was awfully small potatoes. For an agency that takes in $100 million a year in revenue, a $280,000 loss is equivalent to the guy who makes $100,000 a year who loses 280 bucks on a stock deal. I figured I had better stories to cover.

To me, the real issue here is whether the agency should be investing in corporate stock at all, particularly given the composition of the agency’s board.

Most of us who invest, buy stock in a company and hope for the best. We don’t have the ability, in most cases, to jigger the playing field to help boost our investment. But the IRRR board is comprised of some very powerful politicians, and they have, on occasion, pushed changes in state policy that have aided companies in which the agency has invested. And that’s the real problem here.

With investment, inevitably, comes a certain lack of objectivity. That’s why I don’t invest in local companies on which I might have to report, even if I think they might be sound investments. Doing so automatically puts you on the side of the company, and that could easily affect one’s editorial judgment.

That is the opening several paragraphs, and it really makes sense to me. Read the balance of it online, again, here; but let's post the short closing paragraph:

It’s hard to argue that the regulatory authorities of the state will adequately oversee projects with significant environmental impacts, and the potential for catastrophic effects, when we have lawmakers and state agencies, like the IRRRB, directly invested in the companies at issue. If the agency wants to forge a silver lining from its disappointing investment in Duluth Metals, it would adopt a policy prohibiting such investments in the future.

Put another way, cap that brand of stuff. It's counterproductive to be wasting money, and in parallel it is counterproductive to public trust statewide, to see such conflicted positions - we buy in, we regulate, we want it, we know only one tune, "Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs," and it is hell to pay for any environmental depredation, since a few hundred Rahge jobs might be at stake - so damn the torpedoes full speed ahead. Is that dumb thinking for our state's officials, or not?