State of Minnesota Payments to Minnesota Teen Challenge

STATE OF MINNESOTA PAYMENTS TO MINNESOTA TEEN CHALLENGE INC.

2007

DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES

Medical services paid to vendors-medical/rehabilitation clients: $812,242

DEPT OF EDUCATION

Aids/grants to nongovernmental organizations, 9.14.06-7.27.07: $60,319

DEPT OF EMPLOYEMNT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Medical/rehabilitation clients: $59

STATE NURSING BOARD

Printing at nonstate shops (?),4.17.07: $59 (this could be a misprint)

2008

DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES

Medical services paid to vendors-medical/rehabilitation clients: $734,697

DEPT OF EDUCATION

Aids/grants to nongovernmental organizations, 8.29.07-7.29.08: $71,580

2009 (to date)
DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES

Medical services paid to vendors-medical/rehabilitation clients, 7.8.08-3.17.09: $347,489

DEPT OF EDUCATION

Aids/grants to nongovernmental organizations, 8.28.08-2.26.09: $37,329

DEPT OF EMPLOYEMNT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Medical/rehabilitation patients: $47 Source: Minnesota Management and Budget

This is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Call Up Budget Committee - Tell Them to Vote Down Any Efforts to Bring Back Abstinence Only - Condoms Don't Work Sex Ed

From Focus on the Family:

Take Action: Abstinence-Education Funding in Jeopardy
by Jennifer Mesko, editor

SUMMARY: Senate Budget Committee is expected to vote Thursday on key amendment.

The monstrous stimulus bill recently passed by Congress curiously left out funding for Title V abstinence-education grants, which are set to expire June 30.

Republican Sens. Jim Bunning, Ky., and Lindsay Graham, S.C., plan to propose an amendment in the Budget Committee on Thursday to save a place for Title V in the 2010 budget.

Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, said the amendment provides the best chance at preserving the key funding.

"Title V is vital, particularly since we see not only STD (sexually transmitted disease) rates going up, but also teen-birth rates beginning to go up," she said. "More than ever, teens need to receive skills that will help them avoid those consequences by delaying sexual activity until they're married.

"Abstinence education is the only approach that provides those skills for teens."

Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst at Focus on the Family Action, said this is a fight family advocates can win.

"This is one of our only chances to preserve funding for abstinence education under Title V," she said, "so it's very important people contact the Budget Committee right away."

TAKE ACTION
Please call the Budget Committee and ask that Title V funding be preserved. In addition, if your senators serve on the committee, please call their offices with the same message. The priority is on Democrat members.

If you don't counter by calling Democratic members - and Republican members, this nonsense will continue to be funded by our taxpayer dollars.

Mary Kiffmeyer Makes the News

She's trying to compete with Michele Bachmann in terms of outlandish behavior.

Drew Emmer Claims that Minnesota Majority Has More "Members" than Education Minnesota

I wonder how those membership numbers are determined. From Wright County Republican:

1. Minnesota Majority was formed two years ago and now has almost as many members as Education Minnesota. That's the good news. The bad news is that aside from bringing issues to the forefront and motivating activism we don't really have a whole lot to tangibly show for this Herculean effort. Kudos to Jeff Davis and Dan McGrath.

Minnesota Majority is the group that theorized that a lack of "racial purity" causes poor health outcomes in the United States. Then Minnesota Majority Executive Director, and now Minnesota State Representative Mary Kiffmeyer defended this position in the St Paul Pioneer Press stating:

Kiffmeyer said the page dealing with health care and its mention of racial purity must be understood in context. That phrase, she said, is simply descriptive.

"That's a genetic term," said Kiffmeyer, who is a nurse by training. "It does matter when you are doing medical studies."

Emmer also discusses what "we have accomplished":

What platform planks have been successfully converted into legislation that was introduced, passed committee, became law? (i.e. Human Life Amendment, Marriage Amendment, .....)

I don't think the marriage amendment is going very far this year. I haven't heard anything about a human life amendment.

Olson Supporters Replaced in House District 16B

Gary Gross reports on this.

I got some great news Saturday afternoon from Alison Krueger. That good news came in the form of HD-16B’s delegates sweeping out the pro-Olson cronies from their leadership positions, thus ending the pro-Olson regime in HD-16B.

THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!!

Simply put, today’s GOP had to move beyond Mark Olson because his ethical lapses were an anchor around the GOP’s neck. We can’t be the party of family values if we still support someone that was convicted of a domestic assault midemeanor. We can’t be the party of personal accountability if we look past criminal behavior just because a politician “votes right.”

Ms. Krueger sent me an email saying that Jim Newberger had been elected the new chair and Dean McDevit had been elected the new co-chair.

Congratulations to Mssrs. Newberger and McDevit. It’s now their responsibility to provide the leadership that will be needed to strengthen the HD-16B’s conservative base and to build the ‘farm team’ up, starting with the school boards and city councils and ultimately the state House and Senate.

The rumors I've heard is that Kiffmeyer is planning on running for the State Senate, and that Mark Olson is planning on running for the house again.

Andy Applikowski Raises the Issue of Conflict of Interest with Michael Brodkorb's Deputy Chair Run

Andy Applikowski reporting on the SD 42 convention.

I also got to see the Deputy Chair candidates speak. We had current Dep. Chair candidate Dorothy Fleming and Michael Bordkorb, who also had with him a staffer. Brodkorb didn’t seem to like that I was there. Usually we’ll at least do the fake cordial handshake, but this time he and his staffer kept their distance. And I did the same. His speech? Well, he did decide to attack Fleming for taking a small salary again. A salary, that he fails to tell you, has been reduced significantly from her predecessor, all the while the Executive salary budget item has remained the same. Did that go to Carey or the Executive Director? That is something, someone so concerned with Officer salaries should be harping on……

Brodkorb’s raising the notion of doing the Deputy Chair’s job as a volunteer raises some serious concerns.

A) Has he made enough money as a blogger that he is rich enough to do the party Deputy Chair duties out of his own pocket? Must be rough.

B) But will he continue to work for the Senate Caucus? This is a full time job. He can’t do his Party job on Senate time. The Senate operates during the day and into the night quite often during session’s end. How is this going to work? He can’t, legally, do political work while on the dole from taxpayers. I see some serious conflicts of interest and legal barriers brought up by the whole who pays who angle of attack from Brodkorb. He needs to explain how he can perform both jobs, if elected as Dep. Chair. Hopefully, it won’t be an issue and he can just keep working with the Senate and Fleming will be reelected.

Has Obama's Katrina Moment Arrived?

Frank Rich's column suggests it has.