Edwin's City of Lakes Blog

Today I broadcast the 40th Annual Nordic Fest Parade live for KWLC. It was very hot, sweltering in fact but the parade kept my mind distracted at least until the last FARMALL tractor passed by. One of the neater things was seeing how large the parade is and how many other local festivals had float entries. The Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days, royalty such as the Iowa ALTERNATE Beef Princess and the Winneshiek County Beef Princess and ALTERNATE Princess all made an appearance, even Little Miss Calmar, the Harmony Queen and Mrs Oktoberfest of La Crosse. Wow! Because of a family tragedy with one of our KWLC staffers, there are just two us figuring out how to divide 16 hour broadcast days and I will be here at the station from now until 21:00 CT

On a sadder note this story from the Star Tribune gave me pause because this kid seems like one of those really nice kids who really have an effect on their communities and schools and he was killed riding a bike—I am sure because of his commitment to the environment. I drive past the BP station in Marion outside of Rochester on US 52 anytime I go home. I know it will bother me to drive past now.

I once had quite a bit of respect for my representative on the Hennepin County Board, Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. In fact, I supported him at the Minneapolis DFL City Convention last year in his race against Mayor Rybak. I believed then, and still do, that Mayor Rybak cut spending on public safety during the budget crisis instead of other services--and we're paying the price with the crime and decay on the north side and downtown and hoped McLaughlin would be a more forceful advocate for the City of Lakes at the Capitol.

After Rybak won reelection however, McLaughlin voted against the public interest to weaken the Hennepin County Smoking Ban.


My disillusionment is now complete. The images attached to this post are scans of a mailing we got at my family home in Minneapolis. The purpose of this mailing is obstenibly to let south/south-central Minneapolis residents know about the new County Service Center (driver's licenses, passports, birth certificates, various filings, etc). However it prominently displays his picture and appears to credit the "activities of a political subdivision to an individual." Peter McLaughlin is, in an election year, using county taxpayer funds to send what is essentially a promotional mailing for himself. The sad thing is that no other serious candidate has filed for election against him (I do not count anti-stadium gadfly Nye or "Green Party" candidate Hakeem as serious candidates because I would never seriously entertain the notion of voting for either of them) and McLaughlin locked the DFL endorsement.


When Rybak and some city council members sent some newsletters at city expense last year which inappropriately contained his photo and credited actions of the city to themselves personally, they were issued a scolding by family-values-loving, Bush-backing, library-hating State Auditor Patricia Anderson. (Formerly known as Pat Awada, she reverted to Anderson after her divorce--most likely caused by a homosexual getting married somewhere). For as much as I dislike the auditor's personal politics--she was right--using the city's money was wrong for Rybak and company and using the county's is wrong for McLaughlin.