Election Reflection with Three State Legislators *Location Change!*

Sen. Kari Dziedzic

Saturday, November 10

 

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Labor Temple 312 Central Avenue Room 217, Minneapolis (map)

Due to the election results and strong interest, we’re moving to a larger venue for this month’s conversation!

This month it’s an open discussion about the election results with with Reps. Loeffler and Kahn and Senator Kari Dziedzic and all the participants in Stone Arch.  Join us and weigh in!

This is part of our monthly series of informal “Stone Arch” conversations at Gardens of Salonica.  As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

October Newsletter

You may be dismayed or delighted by the result of the 1st presidential debate, but either way we keep finding interesting state or federal issues you can debate with our local speakers.

More importantly, you have a job before our next newsletter: VOTE. Minnesota has two ballot issues with awful implications and a host of local and national races that will chart the course of our communities for years to come. Make sure you can say “I voted” on November 6.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Wieland
DFL Education Foundation President

October’s Stone Arch Topic

Higher Education: Problems and Prospects

Saturday, October 138:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)
This month we talk with the Director of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, Larry Pogemillerabout the challenges of higher education access for Minnesota students. His office is a cabinet-level state agency that “provides students with financial aid programs and information to help them gain access to postsecondary education,” and manages the $150 million State Grant Program. Prior to being appointed by Governor Dayton last year, Senator Pogemiller served 30 years in the state legislature, specializing in tax and education policy.As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Suggested Reading

Articles that inspire (or anger) our Board to action

• Why do working class people vote conservative? read article
• How to slow traffic: Put s#!t in the way. read article
• The 1 Percent’s Problem: read article
• In U.S. today, no margin for illness: read article
• Encouraging Corporate Crime: read article
• A Job Creation Strategy that Works: read article
• 5 Charts on the State of the Middle Class: see the charts

Other Good Events

Higher Education: Problems and Prospects

Saturday, October 13

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

This month we talk with the Director of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, Larry Pogemiller about the challenges of higher education access for Minnesota students.  His office is a cabinet-level state agency that “provides students with financial aid programs and information to help them gain access to postsecondary education,” and manages the $150 million State Grant Program.  Prior to being appointed by Governor Dayton last year, Senator Pogemiller served 30 years in the state legislature, specializing in tax and education policy.

This is part of our monthly series of informal “Stone Arch” conversations at Gardens of Salonica.  As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Minnesota Care (Podcast)

Sen. Linda Berglin and Rep. Lee Greenfield  discuss Minnesota Care (MNCare), a subsidized health care program for people who live in Minnesota and do not have access to health insurance. MNCare was created in 1992 by the Minnesota Legislature (a part of the Grand Consensus) and is administered by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. It is funded by member premiums, the State of Minnesota, and a tax on health care providers. MNCare provides an alternative to private market plans for low income residents of MN.

A long-time legislator, Sen. Berglin is now Hennepin County’s Health Policy Program Manager.  Rep. Greenfield served 21 years in the Minnesota House, representing Minneapolis.

Listen to the podcast from iDream.tv.

The linked podcast is a segment from the Stone Arch Discussion Group, a project of the DFL Education Foundation. It was recorded on March 10, 2011, at Gardens of Salonica in NE Minneapolis. Production services provided by Minneapolis-based multimedia company iDream.tv.

September Newsletter

The national party conventions are done, and you may have seen a conversation with a chair or a speech in Charlotte so good a person on Twitter remarked: “that’s how it’s done kids.  BOOM.”

If you didn’t or if you did, we’ll keep bringing you great, thoughtful conversations on the issues of the day.

Check out Iric Nathanson’s latest essay in our Grand Consensus series (on health care) or some of our great forthcoming events!

Sincerely,
Jeremy Wieland
DFL Education Foundation President

 

Suggested Reading

Articles that inspire (or anger) our Board to action

• Voter Restriction Amendment
  • Cases of voter-ID election fraud found ‘virtually non-existent’ read article
  • Making Sure Citizens CAN VOTE – Our Vote Our Future Video: watch video
  • Mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman and Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky discuss the ramifications of the Voter Restriction Amendment.  Watch video.
  • Steve Simon on the Voter Restriction Amendment: watch video
• Charter Schools and Kudzu: read article
• Senate Committee Report on For-Profit Colleges Condemns Costs and Practices: read article
• In U.S. today, no margin for illness: read article
• ‘Was the Decline of American Unions Inevitable?’ read article
• Nicholas Kristof: The Secret Weapon: All of Us: read article
• Obama: A president ready for a showdown: read article
• Inequality and the Middle Class
  • The Lost Decade of the Middle Class: read article
  • 5 Charts on the State of the Middle Class: see all five
  • “Inequality Undermines Prosperity,” Joseph Stiglitz: read article
  • Infographic – the Absurd Contradictions of Capitalism 
  • Why the Minimum Wage Doesn’t Explain Stagnant Wages: read article

Other Good Events

Julie Sweitzer on the Minnesota Principals’ Academy

Click here to Register

Julie Sweitzer, Director of Leadership Initiatives at the University of Minnesota, will be the first presenter of the season for our Brown Bag forums.  She will talk about the Minnesota Principals’ Academy, with which she has been involved since its inception, and about what principals must do to have a successful school.

Please let us know by clicking above if you plan to attend.

The meeting will be from noon to 1:30 pm, at University Lutheran Church of Hope , 601 13th Ave. SE, Minneapolis. Coffee and water are provided.

The Grand Consensus: a Bipartisan Approach to Health Care Reform

The Grand Consensus: Minnesota’s Progressive Legacy – a Bipartisan Approach to Health Care Reform (reaching across the aisle)

By Iric Nathanson

The governor was effusive with his praise.

“You were superb,” he told the Minneapolis legislator.  “Congratulations on a splendid effort….”

Sen. Linda Berglin and Rep. Lee Greenfield

The year was 1992.  After a series of intense negotiations, Minnesota’s Republican governor, Arne Carlson, had reached agreement with DFL legislative leaders on an ambitious health reform plan known as HealthRight.  Later, the plan would be renamed  MinnesotaCare.

Carlson’s congratulatory letter to a key DFLer, Linda Berglin, the Chair of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee,  came a day after he signed the landmark measure into law on April 21.

The bipartisan atmosphere that pervaded the Capitol in April 1992 was a dramatic change from the political rancor of a year earlier.   Then,  DFL leaders were furious about a  string of Carlson vetoes, including one that torpedoed their own health care overhaul proposal.  The 1991 plan, House File 2, had been based on recommendations from a study group established by the DFL-controlled legislature in 1989,  but Carlson vetoed the DFL bill, saying that it was too costly, promised more than it could deliver and lacked a long-term funding mechanism.

Lacking the votes to override Carlson, the DFLers had to stand by and watch their plan die.  As the 1991 session came to an end,  legislative leaders hurled angry words at the Governor for blocking so many of their initiatives.    “The man(Carlson) cannot  be trusted,”  fumed DFL  Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe.  “He has a Rambo mentality and he is showing contempt for Minnesota.”

Even normally soft-spoken  Linda Berglin was irate, when she learned that Carlson was about to veto HF 2.  “If he doesn’t sign the bill, I believe it’s because he doesn’t want (care for  the uninsured) to happen,”  Berglin declared at a state capitol news conference.

But even as he was signing the veto order,  Carlson was opening the door, at least a crack, to an eventual compromise with DFL leaders.   He noted that he would be moving ahead with his own proposal  known as CHIP (the Consumers Health Insurance Plan) which set up a pilot program to subsidize health insurance premiums for a limited group of  uninsured Minnesotans. 

MNCare – A Health Solution of the Minnesota’s Grand Consensus

Saturday, September 8

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

This month is a doubleheader, featuring Sen. Linda Berglin and Rep. Lee Greenfield to discuss Minnesota Care (MNCare), a subsidized health care program for people who live in Minnesota and do not have access to health insurance. MNCare was created in 1992 by the Minnesota Legislature (a part of the Grand Consensus) and is administered by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. It is funded by member premiums, the State of Minnesota, and a tax on health care providers. MNCare provides an alternative to private market plans for low income residents of MN.

A long-time legislator, Sen. Berglin is now Hennepin County’s Health Policy Program Manager.  Rep. Greenfield served 21 years in the Minnesota House, representing Minneapolis.

This is part of our monthly series of informal “Stone Arch” conversations at Gardens of Salonica.  As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

The Grand Consensus: The Rails Return

The Grand Consensus: Minnesota’s Progressive Legacy – The Rails Return (a regional approach to transit and transportation)

By Iric Nathanson

It was billed as a grand civic celebration to mark the demise of the trolleys.

Minneapolis Mayor Eric Hoyer proclaimed Friday, June 18, 1954, “Good Bye Street Car – Hello  Bus Day” as a caravan of local dignitaries rode the Twin City’s eight remaining street cars on their final run to the Snelling Avenue rail shops in St. Paul.

When the caravan reached the end of the line, Fred Ossanna, who headed the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company, lit one of the last street cars on fire and received a $20,000 check from a local insurance official to cover the loss.

For members of Minnesota’s Railfans Association, “Hello Bus Day” was not a time for celebration.  “This is a black Friday for us,” noted the Association’s president, Clark Johnson.

Fred Ossanna faced a black day of his own, six year later, when he was convicted of fraud, along with the TCRT’s general manager, who had overseen the company’s conversion from street cars to buses. Both men had been involved in a massive conspiracy involving the sale of the TCRT equipment to a local scrap dealer.

Through the 1960s, the region’s all-bus system continued to languish under private ownership.  During these years, fans of rail transit would look back nostalgically at the street car era, which had lasted 65 years.  But they would have to wait until the start of a new century for the rails to return to the Twin Cities.

Portland (OR) a Model of Urban Development and Planning

Saturday, August 11

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

Ethan Seltzer is a S.E. Minneapolis native, and a nationally recognized expert on urban development and planning.  He’ll talk about Portland, OR, as an illustration of great urban planning.  He’ll also talk about the missed opportunities of the Twin Cities’ Metropolitan Council, a pioneer when it was established in the late 1960s, but since lagging behind Portland’s progress.

This is part of our monthly series of informal “Stone Arch” conversations at Gardens of Salonica.  As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.