Jan. 8, 2011

I am writing this article late Saturday afternoon. This past week was indeed a busy one with the new governor taking office on Monday and the new legislature getting started on Tuesday. MEP held its legislative reception Wednesday night, the Legacy Amendment organizations had a forum on Thursday, and the DNR just held its annual roundtable on Friday and Saturday!

(more…)

Dec. 29, 2010

It is truly and honor and a privilege to be working for the Minnesota Environmental Partnership this session. I have been active in MEP from its creation and believe in its mission and goals completely. I have served on the MEP board and served as chair of the Governmental Relations Committee in the past. I have lobbied for a number of MEP member organizations. It feels like family!
(more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Fall Version, October 7, 2010

“While the bicycle as a fad and vehicle for pleasure riding only, has passed by, it has come to be the means of transportation to and from business for thousands to whom the saving of time and carfare are important items.”

- St. Paul City Engineer 1901 Report*

In the 1890s a huge bicycling craze stormed across America.  By this time bicycle makers had perfected the machine from earlier versions that appeared in the 1860s, to make them much more manageable and rider-friendly.  Comfortable seats, chain-driven rear wheels, and rubber tires made possible a tour in the country or a compulsive shopping trip into town with much less time and hassle than a walk or hooking up the horse and buggy.  The new contraptions could reach speeds never before imagined by a device propelled by a single person.  Bicycle races and expositions became the fashionable pastime of the elite and the growing middle class by 1895.

(more…)

From Amber Collett, Communications Associate, Transit for Livable Communities

I recently sat down with Rachel Bents, a St. Paul resident who has decided to try to live car-free (without her own personal vehicle) in Minnesota. (more…)

From Barb Thoman,  Acting Executive Director, Transit for Livable Communities

The Twin Cities regional highway system continues to expand – it grew another 1 percent between 2000 and 2008 and is the 8th largest of the 25 most populous regions. When we look at lane miles per person, our highway system is 30 percent larger than Los Angeles and 30 percent larger than Portland, Ore. (more…)

“This afternoon we will take the Skyline Trail, the trail that more than any other gives us a feeling of distance and space.  Vistas of wilderness will be ours, frozen swamps and lakes and winding trails through the woods.  Along that trail towards sunset the light effects are more striking than anywhere else, for here the whole country lies before us.”

- Sigurd Olson, The Singing Wilderness, 1956

Sigurd Olson is a giant in Minnesota’s conservation history as one of the leading voices during the mid-1900s for the preservation of wild places like our beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park.  He was also a literary acclaimed writer, penning his classic, The Singing Wilderness, in 1956, a must-read for any environmental activist.  So respected was Olson that his likeness is one of only a few busts displayed within our State Capitol.  It seems almost providential that Olson’s bust stands guard to Capitol Committee Room 107 where most of the Senate environment and conservation issues are addressed. 

(more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update for May 18, 2010

“I rolled off the pony in a heap.  I staggered toward the stockade gate and fell headlong through the door of a house, where I lay in a stupor for hours.”
- Sam Brown, Fort Wadsworth, Dakota Territory, 1866

Sam Brown was a legendary frontiersman.  He was the son of Major Joseph R. Brown, for whom Browns Valley was named.  That valley lies between the headwaters of the Red and Minnesota Rivers on the western border of Minnesota; right at the tip of that little bump you see on the state map on our western border.

(more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update for May 14, 2010

“It’s very confusing, and very wonderful.  People disagree, they get angry — and they do it in public and nobody dies.”
- Idil Abdull, May 11, 2010

On Wednesday, Warren Wolfe of the Star Tribune provided us with one of the more pleasant stories from the State Capitol, that of 36-year-old Somali-born Idil Abdull.   She is a citizen lobbyist from Burnsville working to make some changes in a bill to protect Somali autistic children.  “Lobby of one: Making sense of Legislature” provides an interesting perspective of our American legislative experiment in democracy, Minnesota style, through the eyes of a newcomer to our land of immigrants.  Ms. Abdull provides us with a refreshingly honest citizen’s perspective. 

(more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Supplemental Edition for May 11, 2010

Did you know that May 11 is Statehood Day in Minnesota?  This is the day Congress ratified Minnesota’s acceptance into the Union back in 1858.  The great state of Minnesota is 152 years old today.  In typical historical fashion, the Minnesota legislative session is in the midst of its traditional end of session train wreck this rainy and gloomy Statehood Day.  Here is a brief update on where the Minnesota Environmental Partnership’s (MEP) legislative priority issues are on this Tuesday morning as the session careens to its sudden end.

(more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – May 7, 2010

“The administration of government has become more complex.”
- US Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, June 1, 1931

Every aspiring attorney throughout this land of the free has to read in their constitutional law class this quote from the opinion in the landmark federal Supreme Court decision of Near v. Minnesota, which is viewed as a foundational case for the freedom of press. “Landmark decisions” are the rare cases that are truly game changers on our political or social fields of competition. Minnesota was the birthplace of the set of circumstances that gave birth to this great landmark decision regarding the freedom of press.

(more…)