It’s a wonderful life: Jeffers detects gubernatorial ambitions in Tom Bakk’s food shelf fundraiser

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Call it Scrooge meets Frank Underwood. In a headnote to a Facebook sharing of Bakk event raises $100,000 for northeastern Minnesota food shelves, a MinnPost article based on a Hunger Solutions’s press release, radio talk show host and 2006 Republican gubernatorial challenger Sue Jeffers discerned gubernatorial ambitions in Minnesota Senate Majority leader Tom Bakk’s hosting of a fundraiser for Arrowhead Region foodshelves:
Sounds like something a guy who might be interested in running for governor might do huh? Here’s a screenshot:

This article is reposted from TCDP media partner Bluestem Prairie. Check out the links below for other recent Bluestem Prairie stories:

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A Brief History of the Fundraiser

Bakk, who has sponsored the fundraiser for eight years, first announced in 2008 that he was seeking the 2010 DFL endorsement for governor. He withdrew from the contest in March 2010. Continue Reading

Interview: Jenna Zark on ‘The Chanukah Guest’

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TC Jewfolk sat down with playwright and TC Jewfolk writer Jenna Zark to talk about her new play The Chanukah Guest, now being performed at the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company. TC Jewfolk: What drew you to adapting The Chanukah Guest, a children’s book into a play for the MJTC? Jenna Zark: Well, first because Barbara Brooks (the artistic director of the company) asked me. She had two possible stories; one was a book called The Flying Latke and the other was The Chanukah Guest by Eric Kimmel. I had already adapted Kimmel’s book The Magic Dreidels and love the way he writes—and was immediately taken with The Chanukah Guest as soon as I read it. Continue Reading

The River Bench series: Garden encounter

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The Cherokee Heights Garden Club has celebrated seventy-five years of service. They have faithfully beautified and tended the flowers on Smith Avenue at the High Bridge for years. Returning from a walk in Cherokee Park, I pass by the High Bridge flowerbeds. A seventy-something woman is tending the spider lilies and bachelor buttons, deadheading a few and weeding between the plants. She has brought a minimal set of tools in a basket. Continue Reading

IGGERS DIGEST | Saigon Uptown: Last of the old-time Vietnamese

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I tried to tell the two sisters who run the Saigon Uptown that they need to raise their prices. “We know,” one of them replied, “but we’re too busy.” Which seems a little odd, since whenever I have visited, it has been nearly empty. Instead, they have put a little note inside their menu, advising customers that all the listed prices have been raised by 50 cents. So pork with ginger and garlic sauce really costs $6.75, and the chicken with pineapples cost $7. Continue Reading