Introducing Thomas Haeg running for Fourth District Hennepin County Judge
Twin City Business invites all candidates and elected officials to voice in their words why the community should support and vote for them. For more information email us at info@ibnn.org – or call 612-986-0010.
TOM HAEG, a faithful and loyal Court Referee of the Hennepin County District Court bench for over 32 years, is running against James Swenson for Fourth District Hennepin County judge, Seat 58.
“For once we will have a sound and meaningful debate about character and integrity in a judicial race as intended by the framers of our State Constitution.”
—Thomas F. Haeg
ABOUT THOMAS HAEG
Thomas F. Haeg is a lifelong Minnesota resident. He grew up in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, and attended primary school in North Minneapolis, De La Salle High School, St. John’s University (Collegeville, Minnesota, B.A., 1970) and St. Louis University School of Law (J.D., 1973). After admission to the Bar, he clerked for the Honorable Chester Durda and later as Special Term Law Clerk to the Hennepin County District Court bench.After two years in private practice, he was invited by the Honorable Douglas Amdahl to serve as Special Term Referee. He was then asked by the Honorable Allen Oleisky to serve as a Juvenile Court Referee. Later, he served two terms as Chief Referee of the Hennepin County Housing Court, serving under the Honorable Kevin Burke as Chief Judge. His last assignment was Referee in the Hennepin County Family Court. He has served on several Bar Committees, lectured, written articles and was a frequent speaker to community groups, especially while on assignment in the Housing Court.
He had an extensive non-legal working career before he was admitted to practice—brakeman on the railroad, highway construction, millwork, warehouse, paper route with the Star and Tribune, caddy and pageboy at WCCO Radio. He brings these labor-oriented insights with him in the courtroom.
He is married to his wife of 23 years, Susan, and they have three wonderful children—Bridget (23), Britney Therese (21) and Ryan (18) Haeg. He built his own home on the west side of Minneapolis overlooking Cedar Lake, where the family has lived since 1984. Haeg is an avid outdoorsman, biking to and from work (even during the winter) for the past 15 years. His entire family is active in Nordic skiing, canoeing and fishing. For more information about Thomas Haeg visit his website at www.HaegForJudge.org
Introducing Kari Reed for Minneapolis Public School Board - The one to Watch!
Twin City Business invites all candidates and elected officials to voice in their words why the community should support and vote for them. For more information email us at info@ibnn.org – or call 612-986-0010.
We must stop failing the children of our city!
Hello I am Kari Reed and I teach my five beautiful children at home. I am a college graduate (degree in Spanish from Goshen College) and have lived in Minneapolis for eleven years. I am running for the school board because I care deeply about children and for the kids in my neighborhood who are in high school yet can’t read as well as my seven and nine year old! I began to realize that the public school system is failing the children of Minneapolis.
Unlike many who run for public office, just because I desire a place on the school board doesn’t mean I think I have all the answers. I do, however, believe that one of the biggest problems with the school district is its leadership. The school system is stuck in a horrible rut and it has grown too large and bureaucratic. There has not been any meaningful reform and results are worse every year. The lack of meaningful change in our school system has produced low test scores, a 47% graduation rate and most embarrassingly the Minneapolis school district is rated 45 out of 50 major city school districts according to a recent education study. The current school board leadership has not come up with an aggressive plan for improvement, they are just (again) begging for more money which they claim will solve their problems). It would be sad to see more money wasted on a failed system with the same leadership. If money were the answer Minneapolis would already have the top schools in the state. I am the only candidate running that is offering a different philosophy and some new ideas.
I thought about how we could fix this mess and I thought it would be wise to look at other big cities that have had similar problems, but have tackled the problem head-on. One city that has had difficult problems, has come up with some great ideas, and is now getting some very positive results is Chicago and their Renaissance 2010 project. They have a goal of starting 100 new charter schools in the worst performing areas of the city. They have partnered with business and the teacher’s unions to get this done. I have spoken with people familiar with what is going on in Chicago and the people are thrilled with the progress and results so far. The beauty of charter schools is they get the money into the classrooms more efficiently. They operate independently and therefore compete for the students. They tend to smaller, neighborhood schools with more parent involvement. They also offer a variety of curricula and a variety of start times and areas of focus, and most importantly they offer real choices for parents. I believe this concept can work in Minneapolis as well. Minnesota already has laws in place to make this even easier to achieve then it was in Chicago. The school district can of course have a role in charter schools and work to assure that a variety of charter schools with quality leadership are opened in not only the worst performing neighborhoods but all over Minneapolis. Charter schools also represent an ideal that we value in this country – individual freedom, choice and people solving problems locally. We should embrace this ideal of freedom in education, just as we do in other areas of our lives.
All of the other five candidates for school board support and wish to continue the current failed ideas and programs – in fact they propose more quick fixes, more bureaucracy, more band aids; while more and more children are not getting the education they deserve.
I am the only candidate with different ideas. And I promise I will be the voice for these ideas on the school board.
Thank you for your consideration.
Please vote for Kari Reed on November 4th
EARMARKS – Who got them? Why did the Black, Asian, Hispanic-Latino, Hmong Communities Miss Out?
Note to the community: Don’t get “Befuddled” by the celebratory status of a few politicians – ask the questions that need to be asked! According to Rep. Ellsion’s son - North Minneapolis should look different and doing a lot better….Mmmmm
Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.”
The 2008 Federal Earmarks tell a story of political collaborations that seemed to bypass the community. This opportunity from our elected officials have not focused on the need to address the housing foreclosure crisis, the lack of jobs in North and South Minneapolis and the social service agencies that are actually working hard to keep the lights on while still serving the underserved populations of Minnesota. It’s shocking to know that a local elected official’s office is in one of the Flagship Social Services Agencies – but yet they are not listed below.
There’s a flip side to this. Some of the organizations that desperately need economic stimuli in the form of Earmarks – don’t have the capacity to complete the necessary paperwork to be submitted. Imagine a youth and adult entrepreneurial program funded by Earmarks; A new business incubator; a summer youth employment program; a social wellness hub; a community CWT (Compensated Work Therapy) program for ex-offenders. None of these thing where considered.
The Minneapolis Public Schools knew they were in trouble for the past 3 years – how come no one stepped forward and addressed the issues of getting dollars through Earmarks rather that asking the voters to support a referendum that would raise property tax in an economy that would make an estimated 20% of home owners fall into foreclosure if passed? Furthermore, the MPS can’t supply information on how the money would be used, what the actual property tax increase would be and what would be different in light of our children of color failing in school that make schools in Mississippi look better than schools in one of the richest counties in the United States (Hennepin).
The operative word this political season is “change.” Ask yourself, in 2004, 2006 and 2008 we were asking the same questions; we had the same economic problems. When will we as Americans stop apologizing for being Americans and stand up to the carefully worded statements of a few politicians that by the information below really don’t want to address the needs of the community – but work in a collective effort to fund the “haves” rather than assisting the ‘have-nots”.
Who got Federal Earmarks 2008? (To see this information click HERE)
1. Bolder Options – Minneapolis: A program to reduce truancy
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison; Ramstad
Amount: $312,550
2. Bolder Options – Minneapolis: A program to reduce truancy (Listed twice)
(Same as Above)
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison; Ramstad
Amount: $117,500
3. Central Corridor Light Rail – Light Rail Project
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison; Betty McCollum
Amount: $10,192,000
4. Children’s Hospital and Clinics – Minneapolis, Minnesota
(Hospital)
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Klobuchar; Keith Ellison; Bachman; Walz
Amount: $302,000
5. City of Minneapolis: For land and building acquisition
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison
Amount: $264,600
6. Hennepin County Human Services – Public Health Department
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Klobuchar; Keith Ellison
Amount: $407,000
7. Jewish Family on Children Services of Minneapolis
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Klobuchar; Keith Ellison; Ramstad
Amount: $192,000
8. Gunfire Detection System – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison
Amount: $564,000
9. Minnehaha Creek Watershed – UMR Lake Itasca to L & D
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison
Amount: $226,000
10. Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison
Amount: $95,000
11. NorthStar Commuter Rail
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison; Oberstar
Amount: $53,900,000 (53 Million)
12. Plasma Sterilizer (?)
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Coleman; Klobuchar; Keith Ellison; Oberstar
Amount: $3,000,000 (3 Million)
13. The City of Minneapolis – Combined Sewer Overflow Improvements
Elected Officials who signed off on the money: Klobuchar; Keith Ellison;
Amount: $295,000
The final amounts that the above organizations received totals $69,867,650. Let’s round it off…$70 Million Dollars! Another example of “bad cooks”.
An environment of no Economic Stimuli demands that we follow the money and ask the questions while holding our leaders accountable.
The Slow and Progressive Death of Black Business Caused by Us - Blue Business Racism on Pluto (A Science Fiction Story, close to Home)
The planet Pluto has been plagued by “same-race business racism”. Local established Blue business owners are not being used for soft services, with comments that their prices are too high, or I can do this better myself – as we all know, that’s never the case. The facts are local Blue residents are the poorest group of aliens on the planet and some of them own restaurants, spaceship repair shops and tech stands across the universe but their own race of people (Blue people) don’t consider them for work unless they have Purple bosses. The Purple business population does not have to qualify themselves when they do business with the Blue people in the community that hold positions like executive directors and presidents of local space companies and organizations, the Blue “muck-mucks” feel comfortable with the Purple’s simply because they are Purple.
Recently, a group of Blue financial services professionals came to Pluto and paid no attention to the local Blue community going as far as to exclude them from the big party, this is an ongoing issue that falls under the saying “all inclusive with exclusions.” There was an effort to address raising “space dock” crime in Blue youth ages 18-34, so the local Purple government started the “Blue Boys Better Battalion” to address issues and start work programs that will help create education, wealth and independence. What happened with the BBBB is they became a glorified referral service and did nothing but send Blue youth to some other planet where they were put in jail or sent to the Universal Ring of Nothingness (URN), to live out life with no chances of developing the greatness in them, dying or being used as batteries by the Borg.
Before I close there was one more example of Blue Racism. The Healthiest Man in the Universe came to Pluto to talk about space travel and the effects of worm holes on the human body. The local SMF (Space Medical Facility) decided that they were not going to give this person a day to talk to the Blue people, because he was more interesting then the folks at the SMF.
All fun aside some of our people need a wakeup call
University of Minnesota fails the underserved population of Minnesota, with the help of Black people that work there.
| “Bad cooks — and the utter lack of reason in the kitchen — have delayed human development longest and impaired it most.” | |
On Monday, November 3, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. the man that inspired the movie “Hotel Rwanda”- Paul Ruesabagina, will be coming to Northrop Auditorium to speak. This event is sponsored by the Department of Post Secondary Teaching and Learning and co-sponsored by the Department of African American and African Studies with African Read-In. This mess falls under the University of Minnesota’s - of Education + Human Development. This event is free and open to the public. (?)
About two weeks ago, staff from a local agency was contacted about doing possible advertising for this event. The firm contacted has the Twin Cities #1 minority-ethnic media news distribution and operates a full service Public Relations agency. The problem - the General Manager was a Black Man.
So often a group of Black people get to a point in an organization where they get make decisions (or not make decisions) that effect how important information is distributed to the community that never get to attend or hear about such events. This is the case with Ms. Serna Wright, Director of Events for the University of Minnesota College of Education + Human Development. These events are usually attended by 85 percent White and the rest a mix of students and some “stratified” individuals that got the word through the “IIBN – (I’m Important Black Network). Staffers at the agency asked the GM, “How the University of Minnesota College of Education + Human Development would get the word out to the Black, Asian, Somali, Hispanic-Latino and Hmong community without using Insight News, The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Asian American Press, LaVoz, Hmong Times, One Nation News and the African media outlets in Minnesota?”
In a telephone call to Ms. Wright on yesterday, she (Ms. Wright) was asked what are her plans for message and information distribution; Cost per point; GRP; Budget; Reach & Frequency. Her reply was, “I’m going to use radio. Of course this was a call for possible dollars into our agency, but also a concern about why she’s stalled for 2 weeks.
Being in advertising and marketing for over 30 years in Minnesota, I understood then that Ms. Wright has and is consistently wasting the U of M’s money on advertising and marketing on what she feels, rather than reaching a segment of the population that would like to engage this event. This is another example of “Blue Business Racism on Pluto”.
It was apparent to me that Ms. Wright has no clue what a clean media distribution would be as it pertains to attracting people of color to the U of M that might possibly assist in building capacity for students interested in Journalism, African American Studies or other courses the U of M might offer.
Those of you that get it must know by now – Ms. Wright is the “wrong” person for the job!
Another example that no one was reading or comprehending when WEB Dubois said, “The Talented 10th is responsible for the other 90%.”
Again the University of Minnesota fails the underserved population of Minnesota, with the help of Black people that work there.
