News and Current Affairs Posts

When the Weather Outside is Frightful: The Science Behind the Weather and How to Stay Safe

Thursday Nov. 12, 2009
5:30-6:30 p.m.
Great Lakes Aquarium
Cost: FREE

CleanBar – Sober Networking Event

clean_front

No Can Haz Drunken La-z-boy

Only a few hours left in the infamous motorized La-z-boy auction, and it’s nowhere to be found on ebay! Anyone know what happened to it?

Oh well. If I can’t have an infamous motorized La-z-boy, I can at least bid on this.

UMD Fall Sustainability Fair: Nov. 4

UMD Sustainability

UMD Office of Civic Engagement

UMD Fall Sustainability Fair
When: Wednesday, Nov. 4, 10-3
Where: UMD Kirby Student Center
What: Sustainability is the balance achieved when a society is able to provide for its own needs without compromising the needs of future generations. The bi-annual UMD Sustainability Fair has been established to highlight the progress of sustainability efforts within our community. The Fall 2009 Sustainability Fair will feature panel discussions and presentations focusing on the issue of food, in conjunction with the Superior Grown Food Summit which will be held at UMD on Saturday, Nov. 14. However, sustainability encompasses multiple, overlapping issues, including: education, energy, natural resources, government, economy, health, transportation and social justice. Public and private groups representing these facets will be present to showcase their progress.

Regarding Rod Raymond

Rod Raymond is a fitness instructor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He was investigated by UMD administrators this past summer and reprimanded for sexually harassing students. The issue became the hot topic in town last week when the Duluth News Tribune reported on it.

A post was made on this Web site last week regarding the issue, and a lot of people weighed in with comments. The person who made the post ultimately grew uncomfortable with it and decided to change the post and remove all the comments, except one.

Since then, PDD administrators have opted to not approve two other posts about the issue — one that didn’t seem to make any sense, and another that was purely mean spirited. A third post was automatically published, but was later removed because it was considered to be in poor taste.

This is a sensitive issue, but it’s also an important one. It is not the intention of PDD’s administrators to shut down all commentary about this. On the contrary, we encourage you to add your comments to this post. If you feel Mr. Raymond’s punishment was too light or that he was unfairly judged, by all means say so.

Just keep it productive, please. Don’t go all batshit loonball.

Honkers get together on Facebook

Surely this will come as no surprise, but there’s now a Facebook page for the Honking House.

Minnesota Supreme Court: Bong water is a controlled substance

In a split decision today, the Minnesota Supreme Court said possession of 25 grams or more of bong water that tests positive for a controlled substance can be prosecuted as a first-degree drug crime.

Relax, kick back, and get a DWI

Proctor La-Z-Boy

Okay, this one’s bound to go viral.

“According to the criminal complaint, Anderson drove his motorized chair into a vehicle parked near a Proctor bar. Anderson told police he was traveling from the Keyboard Lounge after consuming approximately eight or nine beers. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.29 percent, more than three times the legal limit to drive.”

“Anderson had to forfeit his motorized chair to Proctor police, who plan to auction it with other forfeited items, Foucault said.”

Duluth News Tribune : La-Z-Boy crash leads to DWI in Proctor

Explosives in a car behind the Twins Bar?

Duluth Police have three city blocks on lock down and employees at SMDC have been asked to stay inside and cannot go home. I heard there was explosives found in a car behind the Twins Bar. Anyone know what’s going?

[Update] Some dumb ass was “transporting” some dynamite in his car for a “friend” and then got cold feet. He then pulled over and called the police.

Oct. 17 Twin Ports Anti-War Protest

Oct. 17 Duluth Anti-War March & Rally
NATIONAL DAY OF LOCAL ACTIONS TO END THE WARS

Saturday, October 17 is a national day of local actions against the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Around the country over 40 cities and towns will be holding protests, among them will be Duluth, Minnesota.

To give local citizens an opportunity to demonstrate their opposition to the ongoing wars this country is waging, we’ll be holding a march and rally in downtown Duluth starting at noon. We’ll be assembling at the Clayton, Jackson & McGhie Memorial at the corner of 2nd Ave. E. & E. 1st Street. From there we’ll march to the Duluth Federal Building.

Is Duluth “anti-growth”?

On his DNT blog, Buzz Duluth, Brandon Stahl interviewed St. Scholastica Econ Professor Tony Barrett about the city council’s frequent talk regarding “expanding the tax base,” and what that actually means. In the post, Barrett explains that the only direct way that the council can expand the tax base is to attract new business “through subsidies or TIFs,” or through zoning changes, or “to eliminate steps” involved with business development.

Barrett then goes on to explain that Duluthians are often resistant to this kind of growth.

“Every community has certain groups that oppose growth; environmentalists who don’t want to see trees cut down, or less green space… people who fear that growth is going to require higher taxes,” he said. “Duluth has a strong element of people who just don’t want Duluth to change. They like it the way it is. That’s why they didn’t move away to the Twin Cities, maybe get a better job. Duluth, of all the communities I’ve lived in, has the strongest anti-growth sentiment. And I think it’s really our culture of people liking Duluth just the way it is.”

The comments, of course, blame the DFL and “environmentalists.” But in light of the recent Honking House fiasco, the Lakewalk townhomes, and the debate over the reorganization of Duluth’s schools, it seems that the conflict in opinions is far more complex than some would like to admit.

So what do you think?

Peace Cabaret

Mississippi Civil Rights Project Fundraiser: Music and Performance

Carmody Irish Pub, 308 E. Superior St, Duluth, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 7:30-10 pm
Peace Cabaret: Welcome by Claudie Washington. Barton Sutter, Rabbi Amy Bernstein, Mary Cameron, David Comer, Portia Johnson, and Claire Kirch read short pieces by Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Fannie Lou Hamer, Stokely Carmichael, Sojourner Truth, and Barbara Jordan. Jazz by Perfectini.

This November, photographer/activist Sue Sojourner is returning again to Holmes County after working there in the Civil Rights Movement for five years in the 1960s. This time the Oral History Center of the University of Southern Mississippi-Hattiesburg is holding a gathering for the surviving veterans of that Movement. The event uses a workbook Sue created on the Holmes Movement History as a memory catalyst. It will be a unique local-community-led oral history documentation project.

This fundraiser will help defray travel costs to Mississippi. It will also help Sue finish her memoir and catalog her historical collections for transfer to two archival institutions.

Duluth’s western middle school plans

DuluthWesternMiddleSchool3498

Check out the plans for Duluth’s western middle school. Click here to see the PDF file.

Looks like Superior is one-up on Duluth today…

… that is, unless Duluth has produced any Nobel laureates (has it? Does anyone know?)

Superior native Oliver Williamson shares this year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences…. stories here and here.

Happy Leif Erikson Day

Leif Erikson Park Google-leif-erikson

I just thought it would be good to pay some respect to Mr.  Leif Erikson on his day.  Or is it Ericson?

I will stick with his nickname “Leif the Lucky” that’s catchier anyway. Either way he was a great explorer and discovered this great continent 500 years before Mr. Columbus and was way cooler. Get out and celebrate and have a beer for your favorite Norse explorer.

And screw you Google, why no respect for Leif the Lucky? O’well we will give him the Google love he deserves here.

Send your love to Leif and comment how much he means to you on this Leif Erikson Day 2009.

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