EMILY LARSON

Despite plea for cancellation, Duluth says it can't call off anti-Line 3 concert at city park

Jimmy Lovrien — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 13:30:00 GMT

DULUTH — A group of local officials along the route of Enbridge's nearly completed Line 3 oil pipeline across northern Minnesota asked the city of Duluth to cancel a fundraising concert planned for next week by pipeline opponents at a city-owned park. But city officials have denied their request, citing the group's First Amendment rights and pointing out that they have received all the necessary permits to host such an event.

In an Aug. 5 letter sent by Thief River Falls Mayor Brian Holmer and signed by Grand Rapids Mayor Dale Cristy and Hill City Mayor Sean Lathrop, among other northern Minnesota officials, the officials urged Duluth to cancel the Aug. 18 "Water is Life: Stop Line 3" concert at Bayfront Festival Park.

The letter says the host, Indigenous-led environmental group Honor the Earth, has been organizing and supporting protests along the pipeline route, some of which have led to confrontations with police. The letter was sent to Duluth Mayor Emily Larson, Council President Renee Van Nett and Council Vice President Arik Forsman.

Since construction on the 340-mile Minnesota segment began in December, nearly 700 protesters have been arrested along the route as they tried blocking or slowing construction of the pipeline.

"We write this letter because of our concern for our communities and our first responders," the officials wrote. "We respectfully ask you to help us prevent future avoidable conflicts. On behalf of the people we represent, we strongly request that you rescind Honor the Earth’s permits and not allow this concert to move forward."

Larson responded in an email the next morning, clarifying that while Bayfront is city-owned, the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center manages Bayfront.

"More to your point, however, is your ask to revoke constitutionally protected rights to gather in a public space for an event I may or may not personally agree with. If the group pulls the appropriate permits, follows the rules and pays the rental fees, we do not discriminate," Larson wrote. "This follows the legal advice I’ve been given on this matter."

She added that if permitted rules are not followed, there will be "public safety or legal action" and there will be a "public safety presence" like at other events.

"In the past, this specific gathering has followed all the rules so I don’t anticipate it going off track," Larson said.

The Aug. 18 concert will feature Bon Iver, Lissie, Quiltman, David Huckfelt & the Unarmed Forces, Annie Humphrey, Mumu Fresh, Alan Sparhawk, Larry Long and Friends, Charlie Parr and Corey Medina.

In a statement Tuesday, Aug. 10, Honor the Earth said the claims in the letter were "bogus" and that Honor the Earth and its founder Winona LaDuke do not incite violence.

On Wednesday morning, Duluth Entertainment Convention Center spokesperson Lucie Amundsen said the center was unaware of the request for cancellation and declined to comment.

The Minnesota segment of Line 3 is about 80% complete and is expected to be finished by the fourth quarter of this year, Minnesota Public Radio reported this week.

Once complete, the new pipeline will carry 760,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to Enbridge's terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. Opponents of the pipeline say it is unnecessary, that it worsens climate change, risks an oil spill and violates Indigenous and treaty rights.

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Minnesota mayors, business leaders stump for $1.2 trillion infrastructure package

Dana Ferguson — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 17:26:50 GMT

ST. PAUL — Minnesota mayors and business leaders on Monday, July 19, urged Congress to advance a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, citing deteriorating roads, rail and broadband services that impeded economic progress in their cities.

The local leaders said they were among more than 400 mayors across all 50 states pressing their local delegations to back the proposal as the U.S. Senate prepares to take up the plan this week.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has said senators on Wednesday, July 21, would vote on a vehicle bill that could be used to shuttle the bipartisan plan. Ten Republican senators, along with all 50 Democrats, will have to support the bill to advance it.

Legislative leaders along with the White House over the weekend continued negotiations to decide the best mechanism to pay for the proposal. But as of Monday, they'd not yet reached an agreement.

Democrats in Congress, along with the White House, have also said they'll advance a separate $3.5 trillion budget resolution, throwing additional political dynamics into the push to get a plan across the finish line.

Meanwhile, local officials on Monday pressed the state's delegation and others to move the $1.2 trillion plan.

"We need help from the federal government to be able to provide the supports our residents, our businesses, our communities need to be healthy and thrive,” Duluth Mayor Emily Larson said during a virtual news conference. “The lift bridge is not Democrat or Republican, lead service lines don’t care whether someone is in the majority or the minority, this is about protecting safety, access, public health and economic development.”

Fellow mayors and business leaders from across the political spectrum highlighted the toll declining roads and railways spurred for farmers, manufacturers and other industries around Minnesota. The proposed infrastructure plan would fund road and bridge construction projects, passenger rail and public transit services and expanded broadband access.

"We see the impact of deteriorating infrastructure as we’re driving down the road every day delivering product to our customers," West Central Steel President and CEO Jeff Pattison said. "From an outstate Minnesota perspective, infrastructure allows our community to thrive."

Willmar Mayor Marv Calvin echoed Pattison and said crumbling infrastructure " threatens the competitive leadership of American agriculture and other industries important to rural communities." Calvin said the proposed improvements to roads, waterways, ports, railways and broadband could offer an economic boost to rural communities.

"This bill funds some of those initiatives in a dramatic way,” he said.

And build-outs to physical infrastructure and virtual technology could help spur connections that facilitate collaboration, Rochester Mayor Kim Norton said. "That requires electronic and physical infrastructure for everyone, especially health care."

The leaders said it wasn't immediately clear how much money Minnesota could stand to take in from the plan if it makes it to the president's desk, nor which projects would get a green light to move forward.

Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson, call 651-290-0707 or email dferguson@forumcomm.com

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WATCH: Klobuchar hosts presidential campaign event in Fargo

Forum News Service — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 15:15:00 GMT

FARGO — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., hosted a presidential campaign event Thursday, June 6, at Atomic Coffee, 222 Broadway N.

She was joined by several other politicians, including former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney and Moorhead Mayor Johnathan Judd.

Following the Fargo visit, Klobuchar will host another campaign event at 5 p.m. Thursday at Hoops Brewing Co. in Duluth, Minn. According to a press release, she will discuss "her optimistic agenda to move our country forward." Duluth Mayor Emily Larson will join her.

Watch a video of the Fargo event below.

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Duluth could become a destination for climate refugees, Harvard professor says

Jimmy Lovrien / Forum News Service — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 02:00:16 GMT

DULUTH — A vintage Duluth postcard shows beachgoers sunbathing on the sandy shores of Park Point as others wade into Lake Superior. The red mercury on a thermometer hovers at 70 degrees.

“Come to Duluth,” the card reads. “The air-conditioned city.”

Other tourism materials from that era capitalize on Duluth’s proximity to the always-chilly Lake Superior. One brochure proclaims Duluth as “America’s coolest summer city.”

Citing climate change, Dr. Jesse Keenan thinks it’s time Duluth brands itself, again, as a destination for people seeking cooler temperatures in a warming world — climate refugees or “climigrants.”

Keenan, a climate change adaptation expert at Harvard University, even has marketing lines he’s tested for the city: “The most climate-proof city in America” and “Duluth: not as cold as you think.”

Through his research, Keenan believes two cities along the Great Lakes would be well-positioned sanctuaries for those fleeing warming or worsening climates: Buffalo, N.Y., and Duluth.

“Their sources of energy production are stable, they have cooler climates and they have access to plenty of fresh water,” Keenan told the Guardian last year. “They also have less vulnerability to forest fires, as compared to somewhere like the Pacific north-west. They also have a legacy of excess infrastructural capacity that allows them to diversify their economy in the future. Land prices are cheap and they have a relatively well-educated and skilled labor force.”

Keenan said that while some climate refugees would be fleeing an increase in weather extremes and rising waters along the coast, he also predicts retirees will move to Duluth for the three warmest seasons of the year — the opposite of what retired people, or “snowbirds,” from Minnesota do each winter when they move to Arizona or Florida for several months.

“What we understand is the northern migration of flora and fauna, fisheries and everything else in the Northern Hemisphere … they’re moving north slowly. So why wouldn’t people also do that?” Keenan said in an interview Wednesday afternoon before his presentation at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s conference on climate change.

“It would not surprise me if 10 or 20 thousand people moved to Duluth,” Keenan said during his presentation.

The article in the Guardian got Pat Schoff, a research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth, thinking. But he said his initial reaction was to laugh.

“The climate refuge idea is really, for us, so new that it's still a question,” Schoff said. “We have the same sorts of discussions about it that everybody else does when they hear about the first time. But that said, what the NRRI is all about is, is really planning for potential futures.”

So Schoff and others organized a two-day long conference — “Our Climate Futures: Meeting the Challenge in Duluth” — at UMD, which examined climate change more broadly but concluded Wednesday evening with Keenan’s presentation on Duluth as a destination for climate refugees.

In a panel discussion that followed, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson, former Obama White House advisor and onetime chair of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Karen Diver and Allete Clean Energy President Al Rudeck discussed what would need to happen in the community if Keenan’s predictions were to come true.

Diver said she was concerned about a suburban spread beyond the city disrupting or taxing existing natural resources. She said that if careful planning for the future doesn’t take place, then it would only make existing disparities worse.

“There’s a place in this for every citizen in our area, but if we can’t figure out what to do with the ones we have now, we have no business inviting more,” Diver said.

Larson said that while the city has sat at a population of about 86,000 people for decades, Duluth was built to accommodate a larger population and could handle more people living within its existing boundaries.

“One of the reasons we really struggle … is that our built environment exceeds our capacity for people to actually pay for it currently,” Larson said. “So from that vantage, we actually do have the capacity to be an environment and a city that could build upon what we have. I think that puts us in a strong position.”

Echoing Diver, Rudeck said foresight and consistent leadership is needed.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity — if we plan ahead,” Rudeck said.

Keenan said he just wants the research on Duluth he presented Wednesday to be a conversation starter. It’s up to Duluthians to decide what to do about a potential population jump.

“Who knows when people will come? Or if they come?” Keenan said. “I think they will.”

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Runaway tortoise found 9 miles from Duluth home

Jimmy Lovrien — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 00:10:53 GMT

DULUTH-When Flash was found walking down the railroad tracks in Duluth's Riverside neighborhood, his family was relieved.

For 11 days, Barbara and Meredith Saiki searched their East Hillside neighborhood, shared photos of Flash on Facebook and posted flyers around town with his physical description - 7 to 8 inches in diameter.

Flash, their pet tortoise, had run away - far away.

On Aug. 22, Flash was picked up near Spirit Lake Marina, more than 9 miles from the Saikis' East Hillside home.

"When he is on a mission, he will go," Barbara Saiki said.

But Flash, a Rio Grande desert tortoise, made time to socialize on his trip, too. On Aug. 11, a day after he escaped from the Saikis' fenced-in backyard, he spent most of the day lounging nearby in Duluth Mayor Emily Larson's yard.

Larson even tweeted a photo of Flash eating lettuce.

Saiki said Larson didn't realize Flash was someone's pet and misidentified it as a turtle (turtles live usually in the water while tortoises reside on land).

But Larson's yard was the last known Flash sighting for 11 days, during which he covered more than 9 miles.

"He had to be going pretty fast," Saiki said, adding that Flash would have averaged just under a mile per day and is usually only active during the daylight hours.

But Saiki also wondered if someone may have picked up Flash, thought it was a turtle and brought it down to the St. Louis River in an effort to rescue him.

Eventually, Flash was spotted by Coralee Thilges and her family, who were walking along the railroad tracks near Spirit Lake Marina.

"We were crossing the railroad tracks right by our home and he caught our eye by the tracks," Coralee Thilges wrote on the "Missing Pets In The Northland" Facebook page. "So we stopped to go check it out."

Flash's 12-day adventure had ended.

"We knew he was someone's because he wasn't afraid of people at all and clearly not a species found in Minnesota," Thilges wrote.

Thanks to a photo of Flash shared earlier in the week on that same Facebook page, Thilges was able to able to reunite Flash with his family.

"You can have an eye on him and turn around, and he's not there anymore," Saiki said, explaining his name.

"Because he's gone in a flash."

Runaway tortoise found 9 miles from Duluth home

After 11 days on the lam, Flash the tortoise was found 9 miles from his home in Duluth. Photo submitted by Meredith Saiki

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'Every woman is a force of nature': Project aims to connect women, outdoors

John Myers — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 23:18:26 GMT

DULUTH --When REI Co-Op, the national outdoor recreation chain, commissioned a poll about women in the outdoors last year, they got some mixed results.

The poll found more than 85 percent of women surveyed believe the outdoors positively affects their mental health, physical health, happiness and overall well-being. Some 70 percent agreed being outdoors is liberating.

But the poll also found obstacles in the way of women in getting outdoors. Some 63 percent of women said they could not name a single outdoor female role model. And six in 10 women said that men's interests in outdoor activities are taken more seriously than women's.

"We believe we can do better and that the time is now,'' said Jerry Stritzke, REI's CEO, when he announced the Forces of Nature project last year. "We believe the outdoors is, and should always be, the world's largest level playing field."

The goal of the Forces of Nature program is to help connect women to great places to recreate, local outdoors clubs and other resources supporting women outdoors. Best of all might be the connections or networking opportunities for all women who attend - like-minded forces of nature - promoters of the event say.

Stritzke called Forces of Nature a "disruption of the status quo."

Since 2017, REI has held hundreds of events across the U.S. aimed at getting more women outside more often. REI also pledged to develop more and better gear specifically for women and to invest $1 million in established groups, national and local, that promote women in the outdoors.

Nearly half of REI's members and 48 percent of its customers are women. Co-op members pay a single fee of $20 to unlock benefits and discounts, and receive dividends. For REI, of course, the project means more women buying more gear. But supporters like Duluth Mayor Emily Larson say there's much more to it.

"You only know what you see, and we want more women to see other women outdoors,'' Larson said. "Every woman is a force of nature. It's just a matter of how you exhibit that."

Larson - an avid runner, mountain biker, backpacker and Boundary Waters visitor - said she used to see just one or two women on mountain bike trails during a morning's jaunt.

"Now, I see dozens of women on the trail. We want to build on that and get everyone involved,'' she said.

After the program comes to Duluth, Larson said she's planning to build on the Forces of Nature theme with follow up meetings focusing on getting women into hiking.

"Everyone in Duluth now lives within 1,000 feet of a trail... Now, we need to work on getting rid of barriers to getting outdoors that are often based on gender or race or financial status," Larson said of trail hiking in Duluth.

"It's virtually zero cost for entry. Everyone can do it, but you have to know where the trailheads are, she said. "You have to know you can do it. That's what we want to do."

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Dem politicians figure how best to respond to Trump's Minnesota visit

Peter Passi — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 14:28:06 GMT

DULUTH -- President Donald Trump’s pending visit to Duluth will pose a quandary for some Minnesota politicians, particularly Democrats who have been at odds with many of his policies.

Gov. Mark Dayton, who is not running for re-election, has offered to greet Trump at the airport but it remains unclear whether the president would welcome a Democratic governor’s handshake.

Although Dayton has openly criticized Trump’s policies on immigration, global warming and health care, Caroline Burns, the governor’s press secretary, said the offer stands.

Dayton told reporters on Thursday, June 14, that he has reached out to the White House and offered to meet the president at the airport as is traditionally done, but added that nothing has officially been planned yet.

As of Saturday afternoon, Burns said Dayton was still waiting for a response.

Meanwhile, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson, also a Democrat, said her office hasn’t received any direct communication from Trump’s team regarding his pending appearance. But she has known of the president’s plans for some time now, as Secret Service agents reached out to the city’s public safety team early to ensure a safe visit.

Larson said she would welcome the opportunity to talk with Trump about transportation, Great Lakes issues, infrastructure needs or any number of other topics, if he’s coming in his official role as president.

“But if it’s purely a political rally he’s coming for, that’s really not my place,” she said.

In light of the fact that her office has received no official word of the visit, Larson said she hasn’t spent much time thinking about how she should respond, adding: “I don’t see that I have to make any determination about how to engage.”

That’s not to say she’s treating the president’s trip to Duluth lightly.

“I do need to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to provide a protective environment, and that’s basically the extent of how I’ll participate in it,” said Larson, who offered assurances that local law enforcement will respect people’s freedom to peacefully assemble, as well.

Yet the mayor left the door open to a more meaningful exchange with Trump.

“In terms of greeting or engaging, if the president wishes to reach out and indicate it’s an official visit, we have many things we could talk about in an official capacity for sure,” she said.

If Larson doesn’t meet Trump, it won’t be the first time a Duluth mayor has passed on an opportunity to welcome a president to town. Former Mayor Herb Bergson, also a Democrat, did not greet Republican President George W. Bush when he came to Duluth in July 2004, campaigning for re-election.

In fact, Bergson attempted to bill the president’s campaign $11,400 to recoup the city’s costs of hosting him, including police overtime. At the time, some criticized Bergson for not showing proper respect for a sitting president.

In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Dayton defended his decision to reach out to Trump despite their political differences. “I think that’s very appropriate as governor to greet a president who is arriving in our home state. Whether that’s accepted or not remains to be seen. But I did make that offer.”

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WOMEN'S GOLF: Larson leads BSU

Jack Hittinger — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 03:16:58 GMT

COON RAPIDS - BSU junior golfer Emily Larson finished 24th to lead the BSU women’s golf team to seventh-place in the Minnesota State Invitational on Sunday at the par-72, 5,883-yard Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids.

The Beavers carded a team total of 685 (340-345) to finish 109 over par and 59 strokes off the pace set by team champion and host Minnesota State University, Mankato (316-310-626) at +50.

Individually, Larson posted back-to-back rounds of 84 (+12) to finish at 24 over par and 17 strokes out of medalist position. BSU’s Mary Elmquist (85-86) and Katy Woelfel (86-85) posted matching scores of 171 at the 36-hole event to finish tied for 30th place.

Bemidji State will return to action April 23-24 when it travels to Morton and Dacotah Ridge Golf Club for the spring portion of the 2015-16 NSIC Championships.

Following 36 holes of play Oct. 10-11 at The Classic at Madden’s in Nisswa, the Beavers are eighth in the 12-team field. Elmquist carded rounds of 82 and 84 to sit 168 (82-86/+24), 16 shots out of medalist contention and lead BSU.

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