Blizzard warnings in Northwest Minnesota, winter weather advisories across the state

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1) IS ROAD PLOWING REALLY WORSE NOW?       

Mindful of the warning to stay home unless we had somewhere to go -- and not having anywhere to go -- we did not avail ourselves of the opportunity to see first-hand the condition of Minnesota highways. We'll take everyone's word for it that 

But that doesn't answer the nagging question we have while we followed along on Twitter and Facebook as others ventured out: Are we worse at clearing roads after major snowstorms? Or are we just better at amplifying the voices of people who complain about it? We remember yesterday as good times. Are we doing the same with snowplowing of yesteryear?

Snow removal has always been an easy target for politicians. In 2004, a band of DFLers

 then transportation commissioner -- and Republican lieutenant governor -- Carol Molnau -- from her job because of poor snow removal efforts.

That there isn't -- so far -- a political backlash against alleged poor snow removal this year -- with a DFL governor and DFL Legislature -- suggests there was more convenient opportunism than actual data back then. But what about now?

WCCO looked at the question over the weekend 

and found that Wisconsin roads are in better shape than Minnesota's. Other than the use of cheese brine there, the chief difference seems to be that a state agency isn't in charge of clearing the highways, the counties are, WCCO reported.

Throughout the weekend, cubicle dwellers who've never run a plow, opined on the proper way to clear the  state's highways, including the proper selection of salt.

It's safe to say they weren't under a bridge in Mankato during the storm. But the 

 reports a team of researchers from Minnesota State Mankato was.

Big trucks. Look at any of the major problems on the roadways on Friday's storm, and chances are there's a big truck involved, usually a jackknifed one; there were 75 of them in this most recent storm.

In the western part of the state, ramp gates prevent traffic from entering an interstate or major highway. Maybe it's time to adopt the strategy in the metro, too.

2) IT'LL TAKE ANOTHER MIRACLE ON ICE      

In a perfect world, Americans would collectively chase down a -- so far -- anonymous rancher in the western U.S. and buy Mark Wells' olympic gold medal back. Wells was a member of the 1980 U.S. men's hockey team which stunned the Soviets enroute to a gold medal. It was more than just a hockey game, we've been constantly told. It restored the pride of a nation. So, perhaps, it's time to pay it back somehow.

Down on his luck and facing high medical bills, Wells sold his medal for $40,000. It later fetched more than $300,000 at auction.  One moment he was dining at the White House, and the next he was holed up in a home in Harrison Township, a shadow of all that promise, the 

The Free Press says when Wells returned from Lake Placid, his hometown city council voted to name an arena after him. But it never did. The mayor and the time and all of the city council members are dead now, so nobody seems to know why it never happened.

But a new mayor wanted to find out why his town never honored a member of the most important hockey team the U.S. ever produced. Two weeks ago, he found him.

“I don’t think he ever thought he would hear from someone from St. Clair Shores again,” the mayor  said. “He thought he was forgotten. We all had a tear in our eye. He is one of our own. We have to finish the job.”

The Only Six Words Parents Need to Say to Their Kids About Sports—Or Any Performance

 Olympic champions? The competitors who help out in schools in the nation's poorer school districts. 

Snowy owls have moved into Minnesota and they're a photographer's dream.

that photographers are baiting to attract the owls.

“It pushed this issue over the top,”  Carrol Henderson, supervisor of the DNR’s Nongame Wildlife Program, tells Cook. “Some photographers won’t let the owl catch the mouse. The owl is essentially wasting limited energy reserves in response to the actions of photographers.”

Someday, maybe, the American employer will be desperate for workers and then we're going to start asking 

 brain teasers and trivia questions, employers.

Marketwatch reports that in the tight job market, 

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to gut public employee unions in his state has worked, the 

 reports. Membership in the Wisconsin State Employees Group has dropped 60 percent; its annual budget has plunged from $6 million to $2 million, according to the Times.

An IT worker in the state corrections department says her family is now on food stamps.

How to make a Minnesota wilderness landscape painting.

 The story of Kelcie and Larry. Here's their 

 at a major league baseball team's spring training facility.

https://twitter.com/Brewers/status/436335957831200768

(9-12 p.m.) - First hour: The state of health care insurance exchanges.

Third hour: Tax issues before the Minnesota Legislature.

 (12-1 pm) -  A discussion of the minimum wage, recorded at the Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota, featuring Rep. Ryan Winkler, SCSU professor  and Rep. King Banaian, Ben Gerber of Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, and U of M professor Ann Markuson.

 (3-6:30 p.m.)  -You may have heard that cable TV giant Comcast wants to buy Time Warner Cable, the second largest cable TV company in the nation. If the merger goes through, it would produce the country's largest cable company, reaching nearly one in three households and would also have a major position in broadband internet and TV production through its control of NBC. One of the deal’s biggest critics is DFL Sen. Al Franken, who previously opposed Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal.  MPR's Brett Neeley will have the story.

African-American Twin Cities actor and vocalist Aimee K. Bryant is a native of inner-city Detroit and currently on stage in a Ten Thousand Things theater production, where she portrays Marian Paroo, a small-town Iowa librarian in the Music Man. The part is usually played by a blond, blue-eyed ingénue. Bryant reflects on being cast against type, and on being a single mom, raising a daughter.

NewsCut

Bob Collins

Author

Is plowing really worse now,  the need for another miracle on ice,  snowy owls and the selfish photographer,  jumping through hoops for jobs, and thekilling of the Wisconsin labor union.

The state of snowplowing in the state (5×8 – 2/24/14)

Go Deeper.

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