VOICES | Survival mode. A plastic toilet paper bag?

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So here am I, celebrating an empty nest when I suddenly get all ambitious and clean out my closet from all the clothes on my floor. I wish I could describe to you the sheer magnitude of stuff I hauled out of there. Stuff I forgot I had and how the closet space, according to the laws of physics, could not possibly have held all that in it. Then I found a curious plastic toilet paper bag. It had one roll of paper left in it, and a can of tuna. Continue Reading

VOICES | Finally, surcease from the dumb tax attack ads so now we can face some facts

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The very best thing about Election Day is the inner peace it brings, the feeling that the people have spoken and that we will accept our collective verdict, for awhile at least, and maybe everybody should just shut the heck up for a few weeks, please. And of course there’s the literal quietude that comes from the sudden cessation of those God-awful political ads, most of them this year scaring the bejeezus out of us about taxes, a thing to be feared right up there with terrorists. It’s always like this with Americans and taxes, and has been since the agrarian Jeffersonians in the 1790s were warning us about the big-government Hamiltonians. It might always be thus in a country founded by wealthy, white anti-tax guys. But I don’t recall any elections where advertising demagoguery was more irresponsibly centered on an infantile fear-and-loathing of those words “taxes,” which by the way, is not a four-letter word, and shouldn’t be used that way. Continue Reading

VOICES | School levies: an unjust system

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From the mightiest city to the tiniest town the call is the same: It just doesn’t have to be this way. Voters Tuesday approved property tax increases in 23 of the 42 Minnesota school districts that went to the polls asking for enough money to pay for basic supplies. State underinvestment has choked Minnesota’s education system to the extent that districts as large as Minneapolis and as small as Ogilvie need to raise taxes just to buy textbooks. “This is not fair, it’s not right,” said Peggy LaVanger, chair of the pro-levy campaign at Rockford Public Schools. “Why do we have to continually beg for money? Continue Reading

VOICES | Translating electoral choices into policy results

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Tuesday, Minnesotans elected public leaders. Once again, voter turnout led the nation with 77.5% of eligible voters casting ballots. Clearly, Minnesotans are engaged, concerned with our state’s future. As campaign rhetoric fades, a pressing reality emerges: turning people’s electoral decisions into responsible public policy. In less than two months, the Minnesota legislature convenes. Continue Reading

VOICES: Hope

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When our country is in a time of crisis, it is easy and almost natural to go to a dark place of fear and pessimism; to worry and agonize over the way things are, to see little chance for improvement or hope for change. It is hard to emerge from that dark place, and sometimes it is hard not to go there. So why is there hope in the air-strong hope, undaunted hope, courageous hope? This hope, though it is tied to the upcoming election, goes beyond politics, beyond elections, beyond one person or one political party. This hope is the hope for change. Continue Reading

VOICES | Election will inspire Blacks regardless of outcome

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It is generally agreed among all sides that this year’s presidential election will find its place in history as one of the most talked-about elections in the annals of American history. And for African Americans, it could prove to be the most meaningful event since the Emancipation Proclamation. At this writing, I have no idea who the winner will be, whether Senator John McCain or Senator Barrack Obama. Either way, it will have historical significance, so I decided to envision a scenario for both sides. If Obama wins
The immediate effect will be jubilation among many diverse supporters throughout the country. Continue Reading

“Gift Ban” needed to end medical conflicts of interest

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Drug companies aggressively market their products. Since the FDA first allowed direct-to-consumer drug advertising a decade ago, this advertising has grown to about $100 million per year in Minnesota alone – that’s $100 million of our health care dollars being used to persuade us that we need certain high-priced drugs. Yet drug companies spend even more to persuade doctors to prescribe their products. Drug marketing to U.S. doctors amounts to $7 Billion per year, much of that spent on meals, gifts, honoraria for speaking, and generous compensation for consulting. Manufacturers of medical devices such as stents or pacemakers also spend lavishly on gifts and favors for doctors. Continue Reading

VOICES | Coleman, Kazeminy and the lawsuit: Five reasons to doubt that it’s all just “sleazy politics”

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Norm Coleman stood before a gaggle of reporters and fans at what was supposed to be a routine campaign stop in Moorhead this morning and addressed the story that’s been chasing after him for the past few days. Allegations that Coleman pal Nasser Kazeminy had funneled money to Laurie Coleman for doing a non-existent job were “absolutely false,” Coleman said. But that was only the starting point of his remarks, which sought for the better part of five minutes to paint the whole affair as a fabrication wrought by “Al Franken and his political allies.”
Second lawsuit claims Coleman fraudulently received $75,000By Paul Demko, Minnesota IndependentA second lawsuit has been filed containing an identical allegation that Sen. Norm Coleman fraudulently received $75,000 from longtime friend and supporter Nasser Kazeminy, the Star Tribune reports. The case was filed Friday in Delaware Chancery Court and attributes the Coleman claim to a “confidential source.”
The lawsuit was brought by minority shareholders of Deep Marine Technology, a Houston-based firm that provides underwater services to oil companies. It alleges that Kazeminy utilized the firm to funnel $75,000 to the Republican senator through payments to his wife, Laurie Coleman, via the Minneapolis insurance company where she works. Continue Reading

VOICES: Allan Spear: 1937 – 2008 | A tribute to the Senator

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When Senator Allan Spear passed away on Saturday, October 11 Minneapolis lost one of its greatest elected representatives. Minnesota lost one of exemplary great statesmen and our nation lost one of the leading figures in the movement for civil rights and greater equality for all. Allan Spear was the first openly gay member of the Minnesota Legislature and the longest serving, highest ranking openly gay state legislator in the United States when he retired in 2000. Senator Spear was the second elected official in the nation to publicly embrace being gay, doing so in 1974, and is widely known as the founder of the movement towards encouraging openly gay citizens to run for public office and to help other gay elected officials also embrace their identity. Senator Spear moved to Minneapolis in 1964 to join the faculty of the History Department at the University of Minnesota after receiving his undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and his Ph. Continue Reading

VOICES | Is Red Wing giving artists the boot?

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Five years ago I quit my high-paying corporate job in Eden Prairie and moved to Ellsworth, Wisconsin, to write a book. I wrote and wrote and spent up my 401(k) and wrote some more. And then I sold some stuff on eBay and kept writing—until a squirrel moved into the ceiling over our bedroom and I stopped writing and started sitting outside with a .22. Today, I’m broke, I have a manuscript somewhere on a hard drive, and the land around me is squirrel-free. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Continue Reading