I Don’t Hate America!

While I was in Winona this weekend visiting to catch fall graduation ceremonies at the ole’ alma mater, Winona State, I missed quite a bit of news concerning transportation issues, especially those surrounding US Highway 14 in southern Minnesota.

With a h/t to Bluestem Prairie, the Star Tribune shows us it has the ability to publish thoughtful stories about the First Congressional District, as opposed to those based nearly solely on press releases from ambitious GOPers, with a thorough piece about the deadly stretch of road around Owatonna.

Several years ago, as newcomers to Winona State, my colleagues and I would light-heartedly write off Highway 14 as a possible route getting to the metro area (instead sticking with I-90) as it is likely to become stuck behind a tractor and limited to traveling at 15 mph. Later we would find out 14’s problems go beyond inconvenience into the realm of real danger. From the Strib:

The highway, a mix of old two-lane and reconstructed four-lane sections, has blind intersections, heavy truck traffic, narrow shoulders and unexpected curves. It may be the deadliest highway in the state.

Since the mid-1980s, more than 145 people have been killed on the highway, which winds through 265 miles of farmland from Winona to the South Dakota border. On average, someone dies on the road every two months. And 75 percent of the deaths between 2000 and 2005 occurred on the two-lane stretches, state rec­ords show.

Instead of investing in transportation projects such as Highway 14, we keep getting empty political rhetoric from Republican officials. On TPT’s Almanac last month, John Kline called this year’s House Transportation bill, which had funding for Highway 14, the I-35W bridge and other projects, “fiscally irresponsible.” What’s really fiscally irresponsible: fixing the infrastructure now, or continuing to clean up wrecked vehicles, bringing accident victims to the hospital and taking the pieces of wrecked bridges out of the river?

On that same program, Rep. Tim Walz asked Kline why he should have to give up Highway 14 for his district when the President Bush won’t compromise on anything. Kline’s response: “We should all have to give.”

Meanwhile, GOP state Sen. Dick Day, who represents a district bisected by the highway, shows signs of being out of touch with what’s really going on. From the Owatonna People’s Press (I know I’m late here, but other stuff was on our minds when it came out):

Day and Ruth, both members of legislative committees concerning transportation, told the audience that transportation has been a low priority in Minnesota. The pair said they hoped to bring more funding and attention to transportation issues in Southern Minnesota.

“[Highway] 14 isn’t ever on the radar, yet,” Day said. “Everybody said health care, education are more important. The Bridge had to come down before a certain group of people would say that transportation is important.”

Barring a presidential veto, Highway 14 will soon be in line for federal funding. U.S Representative Tim Walz has sought funds in the 2008 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill for the expansion of the highway.

According to Meredith Salisbury, Walz’ press secretary, Walz earmarked $850,000 for Highway 14 in the current version of the bill. The revised bill still has yet to pass through the U.S. Senate. President George W. Bush threatened to veto the first version of the bill in October.

Day and Ruth did not mention the bill pending in the U.S. Congress, but explained to Chamber members that they hope to pass a comprehensive transportation plan and find state funding for Highway 14 and other road projects without resorting to a gas tax.

This is a classic article in the sense that Day forfeits any credibility even before reality is presented.

Not even on the radar? Was Day awake in the Senate chamber this legislative session (before the bridge collapse) when Sen. Steve Murphy, Senate transportation chair, spoke clearly about “Highway 14 in Sen. Day’s district” multiple times (among countless other things)?
Funny too is how Day says people think “education and health care are more important” when he’s made it clear his campaign theme is rounding up illegal immigrants.

Well, he convinced the Strib’s Mark Brunswick of that anyway.

As this photo shows, Day should put the toy glasses he got early from Santa away and worry about the issues important to southern Minnesota such as education, health care and oh yeah, transportation.

Over two months after Minnesota Reps. Tim Walz and John Kline .ast squared off on the big blue couch on Twin Cities Public Television’s Friday night staple Almanac (that time about the Iraq war) the two will return to the program to discuss this week’s House vote to approve transportation and housing funding. Included in the bill was funding for the reconstruction of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, the Northstar commuter rail corridor and funding for US Highway 14 in southern Minnesota, which is, well, in craptastic shape.

Walz voted for the bill; Kline voted against it.

From the Almanac Producer’s blog:

Congressional Tussle Over Funding the New 35W Bridge
U.S. House members John Kline and Tim Walz took different sides on a big House Bill that would fund –among other things– the final construction costs of the new 35W Bridge in Minneapolis. They join us live to explain their positions.

7:00 p.m. on KTCA 2.

The US House of Representatives today approved a transportation and housing bill today by a vote of 270-147.  The only members of the Minnesota delegation voting against the bill were Reps. John Kline and Michele Bachmann, both Republicans.  The bill includes $195 million for funding the reconstruction of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis.

Steve Sarvi, the only announced DFL challenger to Kline so far, released the following statement:

“I’m in shock. John Kline has been grandstanding on this issue for the past month – and now, when he actually has the opportunity to deliver the funds authorized to Minnesota in the wake of the bridge tragedy, he votes against the bill. He chose a smoke-and-mirrors attempt at convincing his constituents he’s willing to invest in the infrastructure they count on every day over actually doing anything about it. This was a horrible vote for the people of Minnesota. An unthinkable vote.”

President Bush has threatened a veto based on grounds it “doesn’t hold spending to reasonable and responsible levels.”  It’s too bad that Kline and Bachmann are more concerned with helping Bush reinvent himself as a fiscal conservative with a year remaining in his term than investing in infrastructure.

Want to talk about playing politics with the bridge?  Kline, Bachmann and Bush offer the prime example of that with their votes and threatened veto, respectively.

I admit: I’m a big fan of news-aggregator Fark.com and the awesome, albeit sometimes harsh, satirical headlines.  Last month “Farkers” had fun with the official logo of the Republican National Convention which is coming to St. Paul next year as a part of one of their frequent photoshop contests.

Yesterday, Fark linked to this column from the Rake with this heartwarming headline (tagged in the “obvious” category):

Minnesota DOT employees complain of “hostile phone conversations” with reporters covering bridge collapse. It’s getting so that states can’t kill their citizens without some civil servant being made uncomfortable by questions

It also appears Fark is coming into the mainstream somewhat: the site was featured in its own category yesterday on Jeopardy!

The termination of MnDOT’s emergency management director Sonia Pitt doesn’t seem to be even close to the end of issues for the administration of the state agency in charge of dealing with awful congestion and a bridge in the river.

Pitt’s supervision, including everything all the way up to commissioner and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, is being investigated as part of “standard procedure.”

Also, MnDOT is being investigated for not reaching goals to give projects to women and minority-owned businesses.  We noted during our liveblogging of September’s one day special session that Rep. Willie Dominguez, DFL-Minneapolis, tried to pass an amendment requiring MnDOT to make a “good faith effort” to reach similar goals during the rebuilding of the 35W bridge.

General Mills announced yesterday it is recalling 5 million frozen pizzas marketed under the brand names “Totino’s” and “Jeno’s.” You know, those “party pizzas” that cost about a dollar each and have flimsy crust and bland toppings, but can be appealing for their price and ease of cooking?

Well, before you fire up your oven in preparation of football watching and pizza eating this Sunday, check this list and make sure the pizza in your freezer isn’t on it. If it is, throw it away, but not before saving the UPC code and mailing it to General Mills.

We find this very convenient that such a potential outbreak leading to a massive recall is right in the middle of the season which they probably sell the most pizza: football season! Also convenient is that the Minority Leader of the Minnesota House, Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, has the Schwan Food Company within his district!

Why does this matter? Schwan’s produces pizzas under brand names such as “Red Baron,” “Freschetta” and “Tony’s.”

Yes, direct competitors to Totino’s. If true, it would not be the first time Seifert has used his position to help Schwan Foods. In an epic 35-minute oration on the House floor on May 12, 2005 Seifert cited the list of products produced by Schwan’s while speaking against a gas tax increase.

Did Seifert go into the factory and poison the pepperoni himself? Did he have Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad or maybe Lynn Wardlow do it for him? I don’t know the answers to those questions, but after connecting all the dots, it is clear this is nothing but political mischief on behalf of Seifert to sabotage a couple of brands of pizza for the benefit of a competitor in his own district.

Please check back to I Don’t Hate America throughout the day for more information on this developing story.

(Full Disclosure: The author’s frozen pizza preference is Kraft’s “Tombstone” brand for its superior crust and toppings, especially the cheese. Additionally, with the exception of the previous sentence, this is intended to be satire.)

Dog issues with the storms got me awake very early (here’s Phoenix), and I empathize with AAA in that regard. Two things good things about being up ridiculously early:

1. Getting to watch Washington Journal on C-SPAN live. If you thought the Jason Lewis Show had weirdos calling in, you aint’ seen/heard nothin’ yet!
2. White Castle breakfast. Whoo!

I will have my post about the very interesting transportation forum held in Apple Valley last night up later today.

A session in Winona last night facilitated by the federal Surface Transportation Board provided few answers to the questions concerning historical preservation of structures potentially impacted by the Dakota Minnesota and Eastern railroad’s proposed expansion into Wyoming’s coal rich Powder River Basin and rehabilitation of existing line to accommodate increased traffic and to improve safety.

(Thanks for hanging in there, I was just seeing how long I could make that lead).

Representatives from the railroad were said to be busy handling affairs concerning its sale announced earlier in the day to the Canadian Pacific railroad and were unable to attend the session. Basically this meant if a citizen wanted to learn anything besides the finer techniques of riveting or the inside baseball of grades of steel, that person would have been out of luck.

On hand to answer those types of technical questions were a half-dozen representatives from the architectural and engineering firm HDR, which had been doing work for the planning stages of the rehabilitation and expansion for DM&E and Dave Bibler from the Louis Berger firm on behalf of the STB.

General questions surrounding the project, such as how the flooding will effect the preservation, if the sale to the Canadian Pacific will impact the project, or how the project could affect the city of Winona were directed to the business card of Jafar Karim, public affairs manager for DM&E.

The event was, to say the least, sparsely attended. In the hour I was there the only attendee was a reporter from Winona Radio who decided against running a story without a soundbyte from a DM&E representative.

Several displays on easels offered bare-bones insight into items such as the following:

-The “historic components” to be preserved such as engineered grade, stone box culverts and cast iron pipe.

-Potential “mitigation measures” for the “unavoidable impacts to the historic structures” such as historic driving tours, interpretative signage, publishing of a history of the railroad historic district, museum displays and professional video of the history of the railroad.

-The elements of environmental evaluation such as safety issues, transportation, land use, water resources, recreation, air quality, noise, environmental justice and cultural resources.

Similar sessions throughout the past week have been held in Wall, Pierre and Huron S.D. and Tracy, Minn. According to Bibler, the most highly attended session was the one held in Tracy with approximately 20 citizens attending.

Questions, questions still loom. This issue isn’t going away.

Hat tip to Bluestem Prairie.

The Dakota Minnesota and Eastern (DM&E) has been sold to the Canadian Pacific company for $1.48 billion. Additional payments of $350 million up to $1.1 billion can become due if the much controversial expansion into the Wyoming Powder River Basin occurs. DM&E had been on the auction block since May after the $2.3 billion federal loan they had requested was denied in February. The Winona Daily News has the story from the AP:

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) _ Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said late Tuesday that it will buy the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. and its subsidiaries for $1.48 billion cash, gaining access to the coal-rich Powder River Basin in Wyoming.

Canadian Pacific said in a news release that it will pay $1.48 billion in cash at closing and make future contingent payments of up to $1 billion depending on progress on a long-planned expansion project by the Sioux Falls-based DM&E to carry coal from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

CP said the deal will expand its current network by approximately 2,500 miles and increases its access to Midwest markets for agricultural products, coal and ethanol.

“The DM&E is an excellent fit for Canadian Pacific making this a strategic end-to-end addition to our network,” Fred Green, president and CEO of CP, said in the statement. “The DM&E is a high-quality, growing regional railroad that complements our existing franchise.”

CP said it intends to spend an additional $300 million on further upgrades of the regional railroad over the next several years.

“Canadian Pacific is our natural partner and we are very pleased with this deal. The logic of this acquisition is compelling,” Kevin Schieffer, president and CEO of the DM&E, said in the statement. “I’m proud of the DM&E and the organization we’ve built. … CP is not only a natural operating fit; we also share a commitment to our employees, our customers and the communities we serve as well as a vision for the potential of the Powder River Basin.”

It wasn’t immediately clear precisely how the sale would affect the DM&E’s $6 billion Powder River Basin project, which involves rebuilding 600 miles of track across South Dakota and Minnesota and adding 260 miles of track around the southern end of the Black Hills to the Wyoming coal fields. The rebuilt railroad would haul low-sulfur coal east to power plants.

The project has aroused strong opposition in some communities along the route, especially in Rochester, Minn., where the DM&E’s tracks pass close to the Mayo Clinic.

The sale is expected to close in the next 30 to 60 days and is subject to review and approval by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

More as it comes in. I am headed to Winona today for a hearing facilitated by the Surface Transportation Board discussing historical preservation procedures for the increased rail traffic that would come with the proposed expansion.

[Update]  The Rochester Post Bulletin has put together a neat little summary of the details of the DM&E’s sale to the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

• Price: $1.48 billion, due at closing within next 30 to 60 days.

• The purchase includes DM&E and a sister railroad, the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern. That system includes 2,500 miles of track, 7,200 rail cars and 150 locomotives. The acquired railroads have about 1,000 employees.

• The deal includes future contingent payments of $350 million if Powder River Basin expansion project construction starts before Dec. 31, 2025, and $700 million based on coal movement over the line by that same date.

• Canadian Pacific announced it intends to invest $300 million upgrading DM&E’s line over the next several years.

• The sale is expected to close in the next 30 to 60 days and is subject to review and approval by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

Things that make you go “hmmm”:I find it interesting that the Canadian Pacific plans to invest only $300 million into upgrades when the DM&E had previously requested about eight times that from the federal government.

This article we missed from the UK Financial Times published Aug. 13 shows the writing on the wall for the sale: DM&E: Second round bids imminent; unclear if financing commitment still in place.

Time for this blogger to head to Winona. [/Update]

Just stunning. This is absolutely horrible.

They are saying six dead and many more injured.

Sad. Also sad is the fact that partisan hacks are already trying to politicize this event.

I would call on people from both sides of the political spectrum: It’s been just over three hours. Politics does not need to be brought into this yet. Show some class.

[Update] A part of me thought my simple request would be futile, and boy, I couldn’t have been more correct.  I am absolutely sickened by the rhetoric from both the right and left being exhibited in the media and on blogs and through comments replying to them.

There will be plenty of time for fact-finding, finger pointing, and being “know-it-alls.”  Seven families (for now) are mourning.   Others are looking at the process of recovery.  For the sake of these people, back off the politics. [/Update]