Everyone loves polar bears. They are pleasingly roly-poly and have beautiful all-white fur. Even adult polar bears are cute. The US Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice, but said the decision was not a path to address global warming, according to today’s Star Tribune. It’s not a path to address global warming? I believe that like I believe there are leprechauns dancing on my lawn. This is a back-door allowing lawsuits against automobile manufacturers and others supposedly threatening the habitat of the species with their products. This will be much easier than having Congress pass politically unpopular laws, such as gasoline rationing, making combustion engines illegal or prohibiting coal-burning electric power plants.
Herald Journal is in the process of compiling a list of deceased veterans from New Germany as part of our Memorial Day coverage. Anyone who has names to add to the list is asked to call the Herald Journal office (320) 485-2535 or e-mail news@heraldjournal.com.
On a WCCO radio broadcast Friday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a slightly off-color wisecrack about his wife, Mary Pawlenty, during a fishing-opener interview. I’m not going to repeat the wisecrack here. What bugged me about the public reaction afterwards is that some people said the wisecrack was a “calculated political move.” Even the major metro newspaper implied it might have been calculated, so Pawlenty would be selected as McCain’s running mate. It was a joke in a light-hearted moment, talking about fishing, and how his wife enjoyed fishing, football and hockey. He wasn’t talking about politics at all. I don’t believe Pawlenty thinks about politics 100 percent of the time, every waking, breathing moment, and the people who said the wisecrack was calculated know perfectly well it wasn’t. Both of the Pawlentys are probably embarrassed about it now.
A 23-year-old student teacher from St. Cloud State University has a black lab trained to protect him when he has seizures left over from a childhood injury. He was student teaching, with the dog as his constant companion, at a high school in St. Cloud in hopes of teaching special education someday. The threat came from a Somali student who is Muslim, according to the May 12 St. Cloud Times. “The Muslim faith, which is the dominant faith of Somali immigrants, forbids the touching of dogs,” Dave Aeikens said in the St. Cloud Times. The Somali students taunted his dog and one threatened it. The student teacher was so worried about his specially-trained dog being hurt, he left the school in late April, 10 hours short of finishing the 50-hour course. The diversity coordinator for the school district said, “I’m not sure where the breakdown comes into play here.” Let me spell it out for him. This is the United States. In the culture of the United States, dogs not only are our pets, they work for us as service animals. Somalis and others from Muslim cultures must adapt to the dominant culture. Public universities shouldn’t have to accommodate select immigrant groups and disrupt student teaching programs on that account.
Last night’s Lester Prairie city council meeting seemed a bit like a game of musical chairs. Mayor Eric Angvall, who announced his intention to resign in March, stepped down at the end of the meeting. Council Member Larry Hoof entertained motions accepting the resignation and announcing the vacancy. Then Hoof acknowleged that as acting mayor, he would normally be the person to fill out the remainder of the term of mayor which expires in January 2009, but respectfully asked the council to appoint Council Member Andy Heimerl as mayor instead. Heimerl was appointed, and entertained a motion to appoint resident Bob Messer to fill the council seat he, Heimerl, had just vacated, through January. Hoof administered the oath of office to Heimerl, and Heimerl administered the oath of office to Messer. More changes are likely in the not-too-distant future. Council Member Art Mallak has already said he does not plan to run for re-election in November.
The city councils of Annandale and Maple Lake are conducting a joint meeting tonight in Annandale to decide whether to include the City of Howard Lake in a joint wastewater treatment plant off of Wright County Road 7, eight miles north of Howard Lake. This makes sense for everyone involved. It will be considerably less expensive for Howard Lake than to try to upgrade or build its own little wasterwater treatment plant. It’s like buying something in bulk. Unit prices are a lot less that way. It makes sense for Annandale and Maple Lake too. They will have those extra revenues from Howard Lake. to work with. The only objections I can imagine would be from landowners between the plant and Howard Lake. They might complain about having the lift station and force main go through their properties. The proposal also might delay the project for Annandale and Maple Lake. They have been waiting a long time for this treatment plant and might not appreciate having to wait longer. Fortunately, those seem like minor problems that can be worked out.
A rain garden is a specially designed depression planted with flood-tolerant and water-loving perennial plants, according to the MPCA. Normally built curb-side, near a gutter downspout or in a flood-prone low spot, rain gardens soak up rain before runoff carries pollutants, such as lawn fertilizer and pet waste, to rivers and lakes.
Rain gardens come in all shapes and sizes and usually reflect their owners’ tastes. Some gardeners prefer shrub plantings, some like a well-groomed perennial flower garden, others are proud of their wild-looking Minnesota native plants.
Building your rain garden Continue reading ‘Consider a rain garden’
Carver County wants to be known as the healthiest county in the nation, according to KDUZ Radio. To reach that goal, health officials want to perform physical exams and health assessments on more than 63,000 people — all the adult residents. Moving forward with this idea, the Carver County Board approved spending $45,000 donated by a local hospital to hire a consultant to help determine whether the idea is feasible. Robert Stevens, CEO of Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia, came up with the idea for the communitywide survey. It was his hospital that donated the money for the feasibility study. Health officials will have to figure out how to come up with the $3-million that Stevens estimates it would cost to conduct the countywide health assessments.
This mystery photo was taken by Cassie Houston in a public place somewhere in the surrounding communities. Do you know what it is and where it was taken? If you know the answer e-mail Cassie Houston at houston7@broadband-mn.com.Winners will be entered into a monthly drawing for a free one-year subscription to the Herald Journal. We’ll publish the correct answer – and the name of the person who first identifies the mystery photo – in next week’s HJ Blog.Tony Hausladen of Lester Prairie was the first to correctly identify the Mystery Photo in the May 5 issue of the Herald Journal as the Holy Trinity Church in Winsted.
I was disappointed to see in the metro newspaper today that protesters, including several native Americans, halted the sesquicentennial wagon train to St. Paul yesterday to decry Minnesota’s “shameful history,” including the mass execution in Mankato after the Dakota Uprising. Continue reading ‘How many ‘reconciliations’ do we need?’
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