Sally Jo Sorensen
Clown car politics: MNGOP circus strategy travels to Minnesota’s Eighth CD
Posted in Congress, Media criticism, Minnesota Women Writers, Politics, Prairie, Range, Sally Jo Sorensen, Weblogs on February 18th, 2010 by Sally Jo Sorensen – Be the first to commentBack in 2007, potential candidates started lining up in Southern Minnesota to run against then-freshman representative Tim Walz. By 2008, FDL/Mercury Rising blogger Phoenix Woman soon identified this as "The Clown Car" Syndrome, a strategy the MNGOP appears to be repeating in the First. Given the anemic fundraising by the candidates running against Walz, it's more of a kiddies' party than three-ring circus. The Republican Party seems to be taking the clown car on the road to Minnesota 's Seventh Congressional District, a seat now held powerful House Agriculture Chair and Blue Dog Collin Peterson. While progressives across the country are dismayed by Peterson's voting record, he remains quite popular in the sprawling rural district. Four potential candidates have hitched a ride.Since then, Forum newspapers have learned to check the Minnesota CD7 website, since the new candidates aren't sending out press releases. Unlike Bluestem, the papers' accounts-- and Minnpost's digest of them--aren't acknowledging the Clown Car Syndrome, or the long shot nature of the bids. More...
Mike Parry now and then: needing, wanting and bonding along the Stagecoach Trail
Posted in Minnesota Women Writers, Minnesota legislature, Politics, Rural development, Sally Jo Sorensen, State Legislature, Transportation on February 17th, 2010 by Sally Jo Sorensen – Be the first to commentIt is the first day of session and Republican Sen. Mike Parry's footsteps are still echoing down the halls of the capitol building, but he is already thinking of limiting his potential political career in St. Paul. Parry was elected as the senator for District 26 just two weeks ago during the special election that ensued after six-term Republican Sen. Dick Day resigned on Dec. 8, 2009 to take up a career as a lobbyist. Parry carried the election with 43.04 percent of the vote, compared to 36.5 percent for DFLer Jason Engbrecht and 20.32 percent for Independence Party candidate Roy Srp. One of the first bills Parry plans to write will deal with term limits — if he has his way, each legislator will be confined to just three terms.He has dropped seven bills in the hopper, most of which are bonding projects: More...
Road trip: MNGOP brings clown car politics to Minnesota’s Seventh
Posted in Congress, Minnesota Women Writers, Politics, Sally Jo Sorensen on February 16th, 2010 by Sally Jo Sorensen – Be the first to commentPainful cuts in local government aid hit greater Minnesota in T-Paw budget
Posted in Cities, Counties, Minnesota Women Writers, Minnesota legislature, Politics, Rural development, Sally Jo Sorensen, State Legislature, Towns, University, education on February 15th, 2010 by Sally Jo Sorensen – Be the first to commentGov. Tim Pawlenty presented a supplemental budget Monday morning that outlines how he wants to erase a $1.2 billion state budget deficit. Aid to cities, counties and health and human services took the deepest cuts in Pawlenty's proposal. The governor, who is in his last year in office, pledged to protect programs for the military, veterans, public safety and money for K-12 classroom education. According to the governor's office, the budget proposal cuts $250 million from aids to local units of government; $347 million from health and human service programs; $47 million from higher education funding, and $181 million from state agencies and other programs. . . .More...
Lazy NASCAR weekend reporting: WCCO asleep at the wheel on Hahn proposal
Posted in MN Governor 2010, Media criticism, Minnesota Women Writers, Politics, Sally Jo Sorensen on February 14th, 2010 by Sally Jo Sorensen – Be the first to commentA candidate for governor is calling for an expansion of gambling in the state. Rob Hahn is in the running for the Independent Party nomination. On Sunday, he proposed allowing betting on stock cars at local tracks across the state. In a news release titled, "Ladies and Gentlemen Start Your Betting," Hahn said the state needs to look seriously at every possible new form of revenue. He said money generated through gambling would go to the state's general fund. "Minnesota can really be a leader in this area of betting on local stock car races," Hahn stated in the press release. "The feedback I've gotten from voters, particularly in the past few days while in Mankato and St. Peter, has been very favorable." ...Stock car racing is popular across rural Minnesota, and I don't doubt that Mr. Hahn has gotten people's hopes up. Unfortunately, WCCO didn't conduct the minimal fact checking about Hahn's proposal. More...
Another Bachmann moment, brought to you by the Mayo Health Policy Blog
Posted in Congress, Media analysis, Media criticism, Minnesota Women Writers, Politics, Sally Jo Sorensen, health care on February 12th, 2010 by Sally Jo Sorensen – Be the first to commentPayment Reform and Coverage for All a Step in the Right Direction
We have been asked about the financial impact of health care reform bills on Mayo Clinic. We reiterate that both the House and Senate bills include important steps toward creating a more equitable and higher value health care system, consistent with the cornerstones of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. We believe that reform provisions, which set the stage to rework the way Medicare pays for care (with the goal of transforming the current payment methods) have the potential to improve incentives for high quality doctors and hospitals and make it more possible for them to offer the highest quality care at the most reasonable cost. We have concerns about some of the across-the-board cuts in Medicare payments associated with the proposed legislation, which are a continuation of historical approaches to cutting prices rather than addressing utilization of care. However, we cannot quantify the net impact of those cuts with any level of specificity. In addition, the potential positive and negative financial impact of several reform provisions can not be quantified at this point. Expanding insurance coverage to more Americans is the right thing to do, and will also have a financial effect on providers. Doctors and hospitals will see fewer financial losses from charity care and bad debt. Yet, to the extent that this is accomplished through Medicaid expansion, it will result in more patients being cared for in a system that reimburses below cost and does not reward good care provided at a reasonable cost. We are confident that expanding insurance coverage and moving Medicare in the direction of paying for value will positively transform health care delivery in the United States. Reforming health care in America is essential. The status quo is not sustainable, and Mayo Clinic remains firmly committed to moving forward with patient-centered reform.While the Mayo Clinic's Health Policy Center is optimistic that the pay-for-quality reforms in the bill are good step and cautiously guarded about the across-the-board cuts, the gentlewoman from Minnesota's Sixth was quite confident that Mayo would suffer thirty percent cuts in federal funding in her remarks to the audience at a campaign event for MN01 GOP congressional hopeful Allen Quist.
Sam Johnson, Austin neo-Nazi, cited for abandoning dog on porch
Posted in Immigration, Minnesota Women Writers, Politics, Sally Jo Sorensen on February 11th, 2010 by Sally Jo Sorensen – Be the first to commentAustin police have cited a local man who led neo-Nazi rallies downtown for abandoning his pit-bull dog when moving out of a rental home. Samuel James Johnson, 29, is being cited for a misdemeanor count of mistreating an animal and is scheduled for a March 1 hearing in Mower District Court. According to the police report, an Austin community service officer got a report about 4:40 p.m. Feb. 1 of the abandoned dog from the property owner at 304 Third Ave. N.W., from where Johnson had moved. The dog was left behind in a locked cage on the home's front porch with no food or water, the report says. The officer found the male pit bull in the locked cage with feces inside the cage and no food or water. With the dog appearing to be vicious with its growling and barking, two other officers helped tranquilize the animal to transport it to the city pound. . . .This situation most likely spells a sad end for the abandoned dog. Was it vicious before being left caged without food or water on a porch in the dead of a particularly harsh Minnesota winter? Would its attitude had been better had not Johnson left him confined to soil the cage? Odds are that no one will try to discover if the abandoned dog responds to humane treatment. More...
