Fake facebook pages!!!

So it seems like there are two fake mayoral candidates face book pages floating around.  One for each announced candidate, Howie Hanson and Emily Larson.  The fake pages are here, www.facebook.com/Emily Larson for Mayor and www.facebook.com/Howie Hanson for Mayor.

It is clear  both of the pages are fake and here are just a few reason's. Each page has few likes, Larson 3 and Hanson 18.  Not to mention both sites have pictures I don't think either one would use for profile pic's.  The content is not what you would expect from either Emily or Howie.

The about section of the fake Larson page I'm going to clean up the mean streets of Duluth. This is protected under the 1st amendment and the right to criticize political figures.

The about section on Hanson's fake page is not as bad as Larson's.  


Now why would some one run these fake page?  Well knowing who it is that is behind these after some investigation the answer is very simple.  The person thinks it is  funny however,  it is just childish.  It is sad that a grown adult would act like a 3 year old on a consistent base. This person leans to the right of center and that is fine, what is not okay is spending countless or any time on such petty acts.  

Just plan childish behavior by Daniel Golden.  

Johnston investigation cost are out.

Tax payers are you ready to pay $43,000 for a completed investigation?  Regardless of your thoughts on the Art Johnston issue this is insane.  A friend of mine said on facebook that there are no heroes in this and I could not agree more!!!!  

The law firm billed the school district for 205 hours of work on the case at 210 dollars and hour, resulting in the 43,000 bill.   Think where we could have spend this money on education!!!! 

school board races will be interesting.

Well well well, it seems like our Mayor's race may have a close second as to what people will be watching this up coming up election.  One would think right away yeah the council races simply not true they seem to be falling back as far as being interesting.

The most interesting will for sure be our Mayor's race but right behind that is our school board races, for a couple of reason's.  The Art Johnston issue and will he be removed from the board and what impact will it have on the races. Also now it seems as one side of the red plan is going to kick it up a little bit.

First I think any action taken in Johnston case is going to hurt any school board member regardless of there vote.  I think that is why two board members are not seeking re-election, Is there any wonder why good people don't want to run for the school board now.  We need people that will work for our children and education.

Second I have heard that a group of citizens are organizing to make this election about all the people that where put out or off by the red plan.  This group is going to be vocal about why there are not heard by the administration.

This is sad as it is only going to cause more disruption to what the focus should be our children and education.

School board closed door meeting.

The Duluth School board held a closed door meeting Tuesday night to sell Duluth Central High School. It sat for three years with a few buyers looking at but nothing the board wanted to deal with.   Now they have sold the building for 10 million dollars to a developer not being named as of yet.

Now two other schools looked in to buying the building Duluth Edison and Lake view Christian.  The school board refused to sell to them because they are "competing" schools.  First lets take edison, it is a private public partnership with 709 the school board allowed them to come here and are in partnership with them how is that competing?  Lake view yes is a private but the way I see it is already a school let it be used as such if you are not going to.

Now on to the closed door meeting I don't care what any one says, I hate closed door meetings now the school district will hide behind that they are protecting the developer and the citizens in realty you are only protecting your own butt.  It was a 7-0 vote.  You only have a closed for two reason, one for expelling kids and I get to protect the student.  Two to protect your self because you really don't want to hear from the citizens.

Council Vice President.

Well folks it's time of year where the Duluth City Council looks to elected new leaders to president and vice president.  There is a cat and mouse game taking place as we speak.   The two front runners right now are councilors Jay Fosle and Jennifer Julsrud.  Now there is potently for a even a third person to jump in the is for vice president.

For those that don't know normally all the "fighting" for these positions are normally done behind hind sence. When the election takes place it is normally a 9-0 for the seats because the council wants to show unity.  That said don't be followed there is a big game being played for these seats.

Joel and I talked about it on the radio show last night, if you have not listened to the show go and do so, we explain it well there.  You can find the show at www.blogtalkradio.com/duluthpolitics2.


Now councilors are already who they want to vote and most seem to have there minds made up one way or the other, there are two swing votes I believe right now on who will get the seat. Those councilors are Howie Hanson and Zack Filpovich.  The others I believe know who they will support. How I see it as of now:

For Councilor Julsrud are Russ, Krug, Larson and her self

For Councilor Fosle Sipress, and Gardner and him self.

Now the two swing votes will be courted for there vote.  This will be very interesting and it should be fun to watch as it develops.

Is there some one you want in the VP role then let the councilors know your thoughts as to why that person would be a good VP.

As far as president it seems like Larson would be the front runner for it and maybe the only to do so at this point.  

The Duluth Governors debate.

This post is not going to be at all about the debate that took place in Duluth this morning.  Fact is I did not go to it so at this point I don't know how it went.  This post will focus on the fact that the debate was missing something/some one.

Now I know that the chamber had been setting this up as a  debate between Governor Dayton and republican challenger Jeff Johnson.  Fact is they totally disregarded another choice for Governor and that was independent candidate Hannah Nicollet. Now it may not have been a big deal to some but for me it is, regardless of your political stand all major voices should be heard.  The independents does major status in Minnesota and there for should have had there candidate in this debate.  After all she was in the other two prior debates in Rochester and Moorehead Minnesota.


Not only was she in them but she did well in them according to many sources for all walks of the political life.  I just strongly believe that all candidates should have the right to take part in a debate.

Now why would the chamber not include her, I don't know for sure.  There sure are many possibility's, they have a political bend they wanted to protect?  The chamber does not believe she is in a major party or viable candidate.  Neither of these should be something the chamber should decide.  They don't like her?  Don't like the party?  ect....

The chamber said that they would not include her because it would be distrustful, to the other candidates.  What a complete joke.   The chamber made a bad decision in not allowing her to debate today, it angered many people again of all political aisles.  Many did not attend debate because of this.  

News and endorsing.

Okay folks here is the deal  I have been involved in media for 20 plus, in many ways from blogging,radio and politics.  Now I have a real issue with news papers and news cast endorsing/ fact checking.  There is a reason you are news.  Do your job and report the news.  

I don't feel that news papers should do endorsements, this is not news.  Fact is an "endorsement" by a paper just an opinion there is no news involved in this. Papers time in and time out tell you vote this way and here is a bit about the candidate, what they don't tell is how they came to decision.  They also do not tell who is making that decision nor do they tell where those people stand politically. I don't see anything news worthy in papers endorsements.

fact checking in a newscast, again this is not something that should be done in a newscast.  This is not news, what they are doing is threw a tv commercial of a candidate or party and saying if they believe it is true or not.  I fail to see how this is news.  I don't have a problem with them doing fact checking, the problem I have is where it is done.  If you want to have a community show that does where you say we   have taken this commercial apart and here is what we believe.  That said in that show if the station leans any way they need to make that information public.  

Blogging is completely different, this is where people share there thoughts and opinions. Quickly also there a talk shows on radio, these are different from news programs.  The show host and callers are sharing there opinions on issues, candidates ect...

This may come from my schooling and being involved in media for 20 plus years.  I just don't see any positives in this type of "news" broadcasting.  When is school you learn that news is just that news, you don't have a political lean.