John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, August 26, 2010

“May her memory save us from all pettiness, all unworthy ambition, all narrowness of vision, all mean and sordid aims… so may there be none in us, as she fought ever, without malice and without hatred, so may we fight.”

- The plaque in the Capitol Rotunda memorializing Mrs. Andreas Ueland, 1860-1927

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Get ready to share your ideas for protecting the places you love!

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC LISTENING SESSION ON THE PRESIDENT’S AMERICA’S GREAT OUTDOORS INITIATIVE

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John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, July 16, 2010

“We heard the water coming down the drift, we didn’t know if we were going to make it.  We just ran and ran for our lives.”
- Frank Hrvatin, February 5, 1924*

What seems to be all but forgotten in Minnesota history is that we were home to one of the nation’s most tragic underground mining disasters in the first quarter of the 20th century.  Frank Hrvatin was a 14-year-old boy from a Croatian immigrant family who worked with his father in the mine at Milford, Minnesota, during the winter of 1924.  You’ll not find Milford on Minnesota’s official state map.  It is a long lost ghost town whose story holds the graves of 41 miners.

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Bill includes more than $650 million in restoration funds

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (June 30) – A landmark Great Lakes restoration bill advanced in the U.S. Senate today. The Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act of 2010, which authorizes more than $650 million for restoration initiatives, passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a vote by voice vote.

“This is a major step forward in the effort to restore the Great Lakes and revitalize the region’s economy,” said Jeff Skelding, campaign director for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “Millions of people, businesses and communities will benefit from the swift passage of this bill. We encourage the full Senate and House to pass this landmark legislation before the problems facing the Great Lakes get worse and more costly.”

Read rest of the news release from the Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition.

With funds provided by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) will take a scientific look at three contaminants of growing concern for drinking water.  One of the contaminants is an ingredient in anti-bacterial soaps used in the home.

The Amendment specifically requires that at least 5% of clean water funding to used “only to protect drinking water sources.”

More information is here.

This was originally going to be a post about Conservation Minnesota’s summertime This Lake Matters contest alone, but there is so much outstanding Minnesota lake content around that I thought I’d highlight it as well.  Summertime at the lake is pure Minnesota. (more…)

Conservation Minnesota’s Check My Lake website makes it easy to check on anyone’s favorite Minnesota lake is back with new features. Included are listings of over 30 newly-listed lakes infested by non-native species and over 100 lakes newly-listed as “impaired” or polluted. The site gives a thumbs-up or thumbs-down for lakes on two criteria: pollution of waters and contamination of sportfish.

To find out which lakes have joined the list, click here.

Please note:  A new listing of an impaired lake does not necessarily mean pollution in the lake has worsened.  Typically, it means new testing and assessment has been done and shows the lake does not meet state clean water standards.

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.

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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. 

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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.

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