An AP story says, “The University of Minnesota says a $74,000 investigation into the source of a leak of private personnel information was unable to identify the source. The Board of Regents retained attorney Don Lewis in May after a leak of documents to KSTP-TV about allegations of sexual harassment by an athletic department employee. The station reported that a regent provided an email containing information about the allegation. … The board said in a statement Friday it considers the review into the leak closed.”
Pipeline pushback. April Baumgarten, for the Forum News Service, writes: “The Department of Commerce’s recent analysis that an Enbridge pipeline project is unnecessary defies common sense, northwest Minnesota legislators said this week. … Rep. Dan Fabian, R-Roseau, and Sen. Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, disagree with the department, saying Tuesday in a joint news release Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration is ‘siding with environmental extremism instead of common sense.’”
Related? In the Strib, Don Jacobson reports, “The industry wide survey of more than 1,600 construction firms by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and engineering software maker Autodesk found that 70 percent of construction firms across the United States reported that they are having ‘a hard time’ filling hourly craft positions that represent the bulk of the construction workforce. In Minnesota, the squeeze was even more acute, with 78 percent of the 40 companies answering the survey indicating they were having trouble filling craft labor positions.”
About that St. Kate’s security guard who invented a black gunman: In the Strib, Pat Pfeifer reports, “The security officer, Brent Patrick Ahlers, 25, of St. Louis Park, was arrested Wednesday. He has been charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor, and will likely be released from the Ramsey County jail after being booked and fingerprinted, police said. … Police said Ahlers admitted during questioning to bringing his personal handgun to work with him on Tuesday. Security guards at the university are normally unarmed.”
The AP reports: “Two Minnesota mothers have been charged in an investigation of genital mutilation in a Muslim sect, months after bringing their daughters to a Detroit-area clinic. A new indictment was unsealed Thursday in Detroit federal court, raising the number of defendants to eight. The eight include Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, who is accused of performing the procedure.”
My people. Or at least the kids of my people. Says Beatrice Dupuy in the Strib, “Scores of students gathered in the Edina High School commons Thursday to protest what they said were tighter restrictions in the school’s dress code. … Photos on social media showed two boys wearing overalls with no shirts underneath. Students chanted and snapped photos. Some stood on tables.” I presume they later gathered at the Galleria for sushi and espresso to discuss their next move.
Just happy to be here. Lauren Theisen at Deadspin writes this about the Twins: “The Twins are in this position not because they’re a great team, but because they’ve been just good enough. … In fairness, as far back as 1973, the Mets won the pennant after only winning 82 regular season games, so bad regular season teams making the playoffs isn’t a brand new phenomenon, but this was the obvious drawback of the new Wild Card system. As filled with potential as the Twins are, there’s still a world of difference between them and this Yankees team. A few bad bounces, though, and New York will be out, leaving a potential Twins-Indians stink bomb to thwart what would otherwise be a thrillingly cutthroat postseason.”
She should really pay attention
That “world of difference” between the Twins and Yankees? 3 more wins, or half a win more per month.
What am I missing???
There’s a severe shortage of construction workers, and on the other hand, entire Minneapolis neighborhoods begging for economic opportunities. Does Minneapolis have ANY political leadership?
We are missing workers
MN has a severe shortage of both skilled and unskilled workers. This year many of the workers rebuilding our MN roads have been brought in from out of state because there are not enough willing workers available.
The benefit of ignorance.
or “Data? We don’t need no stinkin’ data!”
I confess, I don’t know whether the Enbridge decision is based on solid data or not. I haven’t read the report and likely wouldn’t understand a good deal of it if I did. Neither, I suspect, have or would the vast majority of those claiming the decision is invalid, a political decision, or anything other than what it purports to be: an honest assessment of the need to replace and expand the capacity of the line, not for the business purposes of its owner but for the public.
Enbridge has its options for an appeal and I trust it will exercise those options. The rest of us should let the process run its course and, if we so choose, participate in that process to the extent we are capable of and interested in doing so.
Politics be damned on all sides.
“April Baumgarten, for the Forum News Service, writes: “The Department of Commerce’s recent analysis that an Enbridge pipeline project is unnecessary defies common sense, northwest Minnesota legislators said this week. … Rep. Dan Fabian, R-Roseau, and Sen. Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, disagree with the department, saying Tuesday in a joint news release Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration is ‘siding with environmental extremism instead of common sense.’”
Political decisions
The standard for a certificate of need aka public convenience and necessity is inherently a legislative (or quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial)) decision that requires a balancing of factors. That’s the job of the MPUC not the Department of Commerce. The Department’s recommendation will carry more weight than the “environmental extremists” who have been complaining for some time that there is considerable overcapacity in both pipeline transportation and refining capacity. The Department of Commerce’s position which is usually quite conservative and has supported Enbridge and other pipeline firms in the past 25 year s has finally seen the nation has enough for the foreseeable future.
Enbridge will be presenting an array of “experts” who will contest the Department of Commerce”s recommendation at the MPUC evidentiary hearings in November . The Administrative Law Judge will then parse through the record and make a recommendation which will then go to the Commission. It’s very possible that decision will then be appealed whichever way that goes. A Commission decision granting a certificate of need has to be supported by substantial evidence and cannot be arbitrary or capricious. Or, to put it another way, the Commission cannot decide to approve a pipeline based on “political” considerations, such as promoting job growth in northern Minnesota.
The only “political angle” of this is coming from Fabian and Johnson, who would like to create a partisan political issue where none exists by blaming “environmental extremists.” Building pipelines has been a source of good paying construction jobs for the last 25 years and it’s discouraging to realize that the pipeline building boomlet is bout to come to an end. But you can’t blame the messenger for bad news.