Getting along

Minnesota Public Radio has a story today on why Republicans and Democrats can't get along. Iron Range State Rep. Tom Rukavina is quoted near the end. His diagnosis: not enough free beer. His solution: more free beer. Makes sense to me.

Sertich wins plausibility contest

The final numbers are in.

The question: Several Iron Rangers are mentioned as possible candidates for statewide office. Which Iron Ranger do you think has the best chance of winning a statewide election?

* Tony Sertich, 21
That guy who posts the crazy signs along Highway 53 south of Cotton, 17
Tom Bakk, 8
Tom Rukavina, 6

It's not scientific, but I think Zogby might turn up similar numbers. The 2010 implications are thick.

I return, bearing the head of the dragon called First Draft

I still have to mop up the blood on the last essay, but I've had a good week of writing for my book of Iron Range essays and finally feel like I can dabble in the time vortex that is blogging.

Thanks to the person or persons who contributed so many fine lines of dialogue for the Obama/McCain cop movie. I think I have enough to write a good trailer now that I might share over the weekend. If anyone has more, jump in.

Also thanks to the many who continue to vote in the"Most plausible Range statewide candidate" Quick Poll on the right column. Tony Sertich appears to be leading as we enter the last day of voting, but he's only got a few votes over the guy who posts the xenophobic signs along Highway 53 south of Cotton. (Watch out, T-Money, this guy lives in 5B). Bakk and Rukavina continue to chase the rainbow, but kudos to the Bakk camp for your late surge. It's not over yet. I'll decipher the results when the last votes are cast Friday afternoon.

Also over the weekend I'll review the Range, state and national news that I've missed. Friday I'll post my preview of the Itasca County and SD 05 DFL conventions and Saturday night I'll tell you if I was right or not. It would appear that, in regard to the Democratic presidential nomination race, certain candidates (I won't name names) have decided to poop in the pool during the water polo championship and that we have to keep playing anyway. Hooray! I didn't want my faith in American politics to be restored anyway. As an educated white male under 30 I need to wait and see how my demo performs in suburban Pittsburgh before I know what I'm supposed to think about this whole ordeal. (Confidential to Mark Penn: I drink BEER you overpaid hack!)

Oh, and there's a legislature here in Minnesota that is apparently in something called a session. I sure hope Viceroy Pawlenty suppresses this nonsense and lowers my sales tax by a tenth of a penny on the dollar. Think of all the extra things I could buy over a vast, incalculable amount of time!

Glad to be back!

If you can't smoke 'em, drink 'em

State Rep. Tom Rukavina is one of the great characters of the Iron Range. I mean great in that he personifies our unusual culture rather well and that his heart is usually in the right place, too. That said, he has a knack for randomly enhancing the Range's longstanding reputation as a place of loud, ethnic drunkards. I don't know that his latest stance moves us in the the 21st century all that much, especially coupled with the Range delegation's latest protests about the state smoking ban. Yes, Minnesota, the Iron Range does worry about things other than smoking and drinking.

Just not publicly.

Iron Range Lawmaker Wants to Lower Drinking Age (WDIO News, Duluth)

The debate over a lower drinking age is back at the capitol. Rep. Tom Rukavina, D-Virginia, is helping sponsor legislation that would lower the drinking age in bars, to 18. This change would not affect off-sale liquor, so teens could NOT buy beer from
liquor sales. He tried lowering it back in 1999, to 19, but that measure didn't pass. Rukavina said the bill is authored by Phyllis Kahn, of Minneapolis. But he believes that people are treated as adults in every other way when they turn 18, except in regards to drinking. Rukavina also said that binge drinking is a problem, so if people learned in a controlled environment, like a bar, things would improve. He also said that underage drinking cases are clogging the court system and costing us big bucks there.

If the state did lower the drinking age, they could forfeit 10% of their highway funding. For Minnesota, that would be over $50 million dollars.

Law enforcement has traditionally opposed the move to a lower drinking age, citing the high number of deaths in young people, on our roads. Rukavina said he wasn't sure how much support the bill will have, but he said to him, it just makes sense.

The bill was introduced for the first time, today in the House.

To be fair, Vermont lawmakers are looking at a similar proposal. My general opinion is that the age of adulthood should be universal. But that's easier to say than implement in law. On one hand binge drinking is a cultural phenomenon spurred by the "forbidden fruit" image we put on alcoholic beverages in America. On the other, I don't know that legalizing bar drinking for 18-year-olds while leaving off sale liquor sales illegal is going to get us anywhere.

"You can drink, kids, but never at home."

The risk of losing federal highway funds alone will probably kill this bill, but here we are talking about it anyway.

Rukavina's flag law takes effect

The legislative delegation of the Iron Range is known for great successes and monumental failures over the course of state history. They are also known for quirky stands on random issues. Rangers put their full pressure behind legalizing low-grade fireworks a few years ago. They made a Quixotic stand against the smoking ban last year, but failed to stop it from taking effect.

Last session, Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) finally passed his law that would require all U.S. flags sold in Minnesota to be made in the United States. Sen. David Tomassoni was the Senate sponsor. The bill passed because no one dared vote against it, which is also why I suspect Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed it as well. The law takes effect tomorrow. It will make more of a statement than it will affect our daily lives, but it will be interesting to see the fallout.

The measure has attracted some high profile criticism from the Times of London and the Wall Street Journal, both of which ran editorials calling the measure overly protectionist. Rukavina, as any student of Range politics would expect, is holding his ground.

Here's one story from the Star Tribune.

T-Paw saves disfigured bear from lethal injection

In northern Minneosta, bear stories are on the news all the time. If I blogged every one this thing would be called MinnesotaBear. But I feel bad I've waited so long to talk about Solo, the one-eared bear from the Vermilion Range. Solo and her two cubs are hibernating underneath someone's porch. They called the DNR and the DNR, not known for their PR prowess, said they're going to kill it. I imagine before the media covered such things, this was often a first choice for the DNR.

Caller: Ya, there's a bear in my ...

DNR: We'll shoot it.

Caller: Well, you don't have to shoot it, it seems ...

DNR: (gun cocking) I'll be there in two minutes.

Caller: Seriously, you don't have to ...

DNR: BLAM BLAM BLAM!

Anyway, just like with cows it becomes politically difficult to kill things with names. After a week of debate in the media, the governor has intervened. See below:

Governor grants Solo reprieve
Don Davis, Forum State Capitol Bureau - 12/21/2007

“We are going to give the black bear a reprieve, a pardon,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced on his weekly Friday radio show. “It is a good pre-Christmas, pre-holiday announcement.

State Department of Natural Resources officials had considered putting Solo down because she had become too friendly with people, which could be dangerous. But now state officials say she will live out her life in a wildlife sanctuary, but no decision about where to send the bear family will be made until next week.

Solo is a 4-year-old, one-eared bear that has become well known to residents Eagles Nest Township near Tower. That is where she and her cubs are hibernating under a private cabin. Pawlenty, saying all he knew about the case was what he read in newspapers, came down on the bear’s side Friday.

“My feeling is this bear should not be euthanized,” Pawlenty declared.

Paul, a caller to Pawlenty’s show, said killing her would be “a waste of natural resources.”

The governor agreed, but said the state must keep children safe. “We obviously have to put those concerns first.”

DNR officials said Friday afternoon that the bear family will be sent to a captive facility where the three can live without “uncontrolled interactions with people.”

“This solution satisfies our original and primary concern about public safety,” said Michael Don Carlos, DNR wildlife research and policy manager. “The typical behavior of a black bear, like any wild animal, is to avoid humans. This bear is habituated to humans and has lost its fear of people, which makes it impossible to predict its behavior.”

DNR officials said they are looking into several locations for the bears.

If Pawlenty remains involved, look for Solo to receive some sort of judgeship, maybe on the appellate court. Unless it shows activist tendencies. After that, look for T-Paw to drop it off at Tom Rukavina's house.

Miners' health study carries hefty price tag

Yesterday, lawmakers learned that it will cost $5.5 million to do a study about the effects of the taconite mining process on miners' health. For years, anecdotal evidence and incomplete reports have suggested a link between working in the mining industry and a rare form of cancer. The question now becomes, do people in power actually have the fortitude to fund this expensive but comprehensive study? Rep. Tom Rukavina is quoted as saying the state should follow through when the governor balks. Here's the roundup from today's Duluth News-Tribune with more after the jump.

Miners lung study to cost $5.5 million
Lee Bloomquist, Duluth News Tribune - 12/18/2007

EVELETH — A study of the causes of lung disease among Northeastern Minnesota iron ore miners will cost $5.5 million. And some people are wondering where money to answer the longstanding health question will come from.

“We’re going to find the money,” state Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, assured about 50 people Monday at a meeting of the Minnesota Taconite Workers Lung Health Partnership at Iron Range Resources headquarters in Eveleth. “I would like to find all of it up-front and secure it away.”

The partnership is aimed at determining once and for all what has caused a sharp increase in mesothelioma deaths among Iron Range miners.

Mesothelioma is a rare, usually fatal lung disease related to asbestos exposure.

A statewide cancer surveillance system determined that 58 of 72,000 miners who worked in the iron ore industry between the 1950s and 1983 died from the disease.

The disease rate among the miners is much higher than the expected rate in Northeastern Minnesota. But it never has been determined what causes the disease.

Researchers determined in 2003 that 17 of the miners probably developed the disease from commercial asbestos dust. Some critics said the Health Department didn’t look hard enough at mine dust.

The new study will examine whether working in the mines is a risk factor for lung disease, whether other diseases occur as a result of working in a mine, and whether spouses are at risk, said Dr. Jeffrey Mandel, University of Minnesota School of Public Health associate professor. The exhaustive five-year Health Department study would include health examinations of current and former workers and spouses, air sampling in Iron Range communities and near mines, lake-bottom sampling, mineral analysis and historical data, Mandel said.

“This is the time to figure out what is going on,” Mandel said. “The rate here is clearly elevated. There’s no point in waiting longer.”

Rukavina leads early balloting for U.S. Senate

Today is your last chance to vote in the online poll at the bottom of the site. The question? Which DFL figure would be most likely to defeat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) in the 2008 U.S. Senate race. Your options are Al Franken, Mike Ciresi, Norm Coleman from 1996 (then a Democrat who endorsed Paul Wellstone), and legendary Iron Range State. Rep. Tom Rukavina, who recently announced he may seek the 2010 DFL gubernatorial nomination. So far, Rukavina is beating Franken 2-1 with one sympathy vote for Ciresi. I interpret this as a sign that I am reaching my target audience with this blog.

Scroll down and vote. The results will be published tomorrow and just might influence the race. Like, for serious.

UPDATE: The vote totals held; Rukavina beats Franken 10-7 with two votes for Mike Ciresi. I'll try to think of another poll next week.