John Tuma’s Capitol Update – March 12, 2010

“Charge those lines!”
General Winfield Scott Hancock
Gettysburg, July 2, 1863

That was the command given to Colonel Colvill of the Minnesota 1st in the midst of the second day of fighting outside of the previously unknown and sleepy hamlet of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Colvill, along with only a portion of the famed Minnesota 1st Regiment of 262 men, had just arrived on the battlefield after an arduous 20-mile march toward the sound of the developing battle.  Upon their arrival on the scene, Union forces were in chaos along the soon to become hallowed grounds known as Cemetery Ridge south of Gettysburg.  Sixteen hundred Confederates from Alabama, under the command of Gen. Cadmus Wilcox, moving quickly to take the high ground along this important place on the battlefield. (more…)

Governor Pawlenty’s proposed reductions and fund shifts for the state’s 2010 and 2011 budgets run afoul of what voters approved at the polls in November 2008, Conservation Minnesota reported.

To read CM’s analysis of the Governor’s proposals, click here.

Conservation Minnesota said the Governor’s proposed use of conservation funds dedicated to specific natural resources clashes with the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.

Darby Nelson, a member of the Lessard Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, says two new bills in the Legislature would capture money from the Outdoor Heritage Fund for unrelated environmental purposes.  It’s highly questionable whether this would be consistent with the voter-approved Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. More here.

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – February 26, 2010

“There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude, and peace.  The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness and of a freedom almost forgotten.  It is an antidote to insecurity, the open door to waterways in ages past and a way of life with profound and abiding satisfaction.  When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known.”

-Sigurd F. Olson, The Singing Wilderness, 1956

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John Tuma’s Capitol Update – February 19, 2010

“There is Governor Ames himself.” 

These were the words whispered in a low husky voice from one of four horse riders wearing long white cattle dusters as they rode across the bridge into Northfield, Minnesota, on what would become a fateful day in September of 1876.  Unfortunately for the would-be bank robbers, the words were overheard by Adelbert Ames as he walked past the riders on well-bred horses as he was leaving town from a meeting at the First National Bank. 

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John Tuma’s Capitol Update

“We, the people of the state of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty and desiring to perpetuate its blessings and secure the same to ourselves and our prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

-The preamble to the Constitution of the state of Minnesota, August 29, 1857

On Thursday of this week, Governor Pawlenty, following the time-honored tradition for over 150 years, delivered the gubernatorial State of the State address to a joint convention of both the House and Senate within the House chambers.

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John Tuma’s Capitol Update

As the legislative session opens this week, legislators and Gov. Pawlenty have taken some positive early steps for the environment with the capital investments bill.  Hopefully they will take some lessons from the leadership of former Governor Floyd B. Olson in 1933.

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John Tuma’s Capitol Update – the Pre-Session Version

“This place is now feeling the pressure of hard times… they have not found bottom yet…they have recently voted to loan the credit of the State for $5,000,000 & have thus hung a millstone around their neck, which they will doubtless have to bear for [m]any years to come…”

John P. Bardwell
Agent of the American Missionary Association
From St. Paul on May 7, 1858*

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Darby Nelson of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council is explaining this year’s Council recommendations to the Legislature for fish, game and wildlife habitat protection. The Council is responsible for selecting and recommending proposals submitted by government agencies and nonprofit organizations for funding from the Legacy Amendment’s Outdoor Heritage Fund. This week, he covers recommendations for the Forest/Prairie Transition region and Southeast Forests.

You can find Darby’s analysis here.

Conservation Minnesota’s Darby Nelson is continuing his series of posts on recommended funding for fish, game and wildlife habitat grants from the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council. Darby is in the know as a member of the Council.  His latest post is on recommendations for the Metro Urbanizing Region.  Good stuff.

The complete list of the Council’s draft recommendations is here.