This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“He came here the other day and talked with me about the rascality of this Indian business until I felt it down to my boots. If we get through this war, and I live, this Indian system shall be reformed.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1862*

The person Abraham Lincoln referred to in this quote was Minnesota’s first Episcopal Bishop Henry Whipple who resided in Faribault. Immediately upon Whipple’s arrival here in 1859, he recognized the corruption and abuse that was taking place in the “business” that had developed around Native American relations. It was his fearless advocacy against this corruption that earned him the nickname “Straight Tongue” from the local Sioux Native Americans who still inhabited the lake areas around Faribault, Minnesota.

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This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“It is extremely desirable to remove as speedily as possible so vexing a question from our State politics, not allowing it to remain for years to disturb our own elections…”

Alexander Ramsey*

That quote was from our second governor, Alexander Ramsey, at his first inaugural address in 1860 describing a huge financial crisis facing the State of Minnesota as a result of some very speculative railroad financing schemes created by the previous legislature and administration. Dealing with state budget problems is nothing new under the sun as our 2008 Minnesota Legislature is facing its own vexing question of a nearly one billion dollar deficit.

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This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“I’m tired of sewing you up.”
Eddie Froelich

Those were the words of the trainer for the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team while stitching up hockey great John Mariucci in the 1940s. Mariucci’s retort was, “Imagine how I feel.” In just his first 13 games with the Hawks, Mariucci received almost 50 stitches between his forehead and chin. Mariucci is an icon in Minnesota hockey lore. Hailing from the raucous Iron Range during the rough-and-tumble years prior to World War II, he earned his reputation as a fierce battler on the ice.

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This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“The best brain and the surest brawn of the nation is found here (in the Midwest) and it should be organized into one mighty moral, material and patriotic force to overthrow paternalism and plunder, and regenerate politics and the Republic.”

John A. Johnson
Governor of Minnesota, 1905-1909*

A century ago Minnesota was in the midst of what was known as the “progressive era.”  Our political leaders, farmers, laborers and out-state business leaders ushered in progressive policies that reshaped our transportation system, commodities markets, employment relations, and economic structure.  This era gave us common innovative ideas like cooperative organizations, antitrust laws, direct election of U.S. Senators, labor rights, and workers compensation.  Things so commonplace to our social structure today that we would be stunned at the political struggle in the early 1900s that was necessary to put them in place. (more…)

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“Why cannot we, however, have a real wild park…”

Alfred J. Hill
St. Paul Dispatch, 1890*

In the late 1800s, Minnesota was at the height of its lumber days with millions of acres of virgin forest being consumed by our growing nation’s insatiable demand to build.  After a camping trip at the source of the Mississippi River, Alfred J. Hill, a prominent archaeologist, wrote the above words in an editorial calling for the creation of Minnesota’s first State Park before our wild places were all devoured by this demand.  Visionary activists like Hill and Jacob V. Brower, along with many others, pushed the Legislature for the park’s creation despite strong opposition from powerful lumbering companies who had their eyes on continued exploitation of the great white pines that surrounded Lake Itasca. (more…)

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“In the political world of checks and balances, where the three equal branches of government share power and keep each other in line, the veto override is the equivalent of a body check. If it connects, it can really sting.”
- David Maeda
Session Weekly
April 28, 2000

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This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“I wonder whether people are really grasping how wonderful Minnesota is.”

–Former Governor Elmer L. Anderson, March 19, 2001

The 91-year-old former Governor of the State of Minnesota, Elmer L. Anderson, was invited back to the Senate chamber where he served in the 1950s to present a rare speech to a packed Senate chamber. He expressed concern that Minnesota was losing its place as a national leader. The former Republican governor challenged the Legislature to make smart investments and not just make short-term tax rebates. Anderson as the governor and community leader demonstrated the need to cast a long vision to maintain Minnesota as a wonderful place to live. This is proven in his staunch support of human rights and the creation of the Voyageurs National Park. (more…)

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“Glorious News!! Minnesota a State!!! 100 guns fired at Winona: General Rejoicing.”

Headlines in the Winona Times May 15, 1858*

This year Minnesotans will celebrate our great state’s 150th anniversary of being admitted to the United States. Therefore, I hope to be able to give a little bit of a Minnesota history twist to each of the MEP Capitol Updates. The old Winona Times headline above of “Glorious News” is a fitting title for the first update of the 2008 Legislative Session. Week One does bring the environment and conservation community some “glorious news” with the passage of the Great Outdoors and Heritage Amendment (GOHA). (more…)

The news has been unsettling me lately.  Mining-related cancers hidden by the Department of Health for a year, the seemingly growing presence of 3M chemicals in drinking water and area fish, and another whistleblower lawsuit against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) – the first occurring a couple of years ago regarding the aforementioned 3M chemicals and the second regarding high levels of the pesticide Atrazine in the waters of Southeastern MN (though it is all throughout corn country) – create a troubling appearance of reoccurring patterns that our state must address.  Not only to remedy the mistakes that have happened, but for our state to evaluate mines currently being proposed, to begin rebuilding lost public confidence, and to ensure that we have systems in place that protect the health of Minnesotans. 
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The Star Tribune’s Dan Browning and Tom Meersman have dug deeper into the whisteblower lawsuit filed last week against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).   It appears that the Department of Ag asked for an investigation of Paul Wotzka prior to his request to testify against the use of Atrazine.  It is unclear whether or not they asked for this investigation prior to or after Mr. Wotzka left Ag for the MPCA. 

Also, Tom at Sky Blue Waters adds a new dynamic wondering about the role of Wayne Anderson, MPCA policy directory and agency liason to the Department of Ag.  Mr. Anderson held a key role in the Atrazine controversy surrounding Dr. Tyrone Hayes a couple of years back. 

There are still a lot of questions that remain in all of this.  I am going to go out on a limb and say that Mr. Wotzka’s criticism of the Department of Ag’s love affair with ethanol was pretty well known prior to his departure from the agency.  Did that influence the agency’s actions?  What prompted Mr. Wotzka’s move from Ag to MPCA anyway?  Hopefully there will be some legislative inquiries into all of this soon.