As of today Shoreview has a 24% participation rate compared to the national rate of 20%. April 1st is National Census Day and when you should have mailed back your census form.

If the US Census Bureau does not receive your completed census form they will make a visit to your home some time in April through June. According to a tweet by the US Census Bureau if a worker has to get a household’s responses by a personal visit it costs $57 vs only 43 cents if you mail it back completed. A CNN Money story says that American can save the federal government $1.5 billion by mailing back their completed forms instead of waiting for a knock on their door.

The widget above shows Shoreview’s participation rate and will automatically update with US Census Bureau data. Check back to see how Shoreview does. You can also visit the US Census participation interactive map to see how different areas are doing at getting their forms returned.

For those of wondering why it is important to fill out your census form here is a list of what the US Census Bureau says.

That’s why it’s so important that you fill in the form and promptly mail it back. Census information affects the numbers of seats your state occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives. And people from many walks of life use census data to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more.

When you do the math, it’s easy to see what an accurate count of residents can do for your community. Better infrastructure. More services. A brighter tomorrow for everyone. In fact, the information the census collects helps to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like:

• Hospitals
• Job training centers
• Schools
• Senior centers
• Bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects
• Emergency services

“Our nation’s health care system is broken, and it needs to be fixed. Tens of millions of American are uninsured, underinsured, or afraid of losing their coverage. Insurance companies continue to squeeze families by increasing health premiums and reducing coverage. Unless you are an insurance company or a Republican Member of Congress this is the time for action. It is time to pass health care reform.

“We have an historic opportunity to end discrimination by insurance companies for people with pre-existing conditions; close the Medicare ‘donut hole’ to protect senior citizens from paying high prescription drug costs; lower the cost of insurance for all Americans; improve affordability, access, and quality for everyone; and extend health insurance coverage to at least 30 million currently uninsured Americans. This reform agenda is about giving Americans more insurance choices – specifically the purchasing power that big businesses already enjoy and the same options that every Member of Congress has.

“Given the current state of health care today and the opportunity for Congress to take action, I fully support reconciliation – a legitimate, transparent, democratic, and authorized legislative process. Despite Republican claims, reconciliation shouldn’t be feared. It allows for a majority vote in the U.S. Senate to pass legislation to help reduce the budget deficit.

“One of the numerous benefits of this plan is how it will reduce our nation’s overwhelming deficit. Closer monitoring of the current Medicare system will help eliminate waste, abuse, and fraud. By extending health insurance to the uninsured we can reduce the federal budget deficit by no less than $100 billion over the next decade. Making reform about paying for quality over quantity of care will also help reduce the deficit.

“Reconciliation will also ‘correct’ the current proposed version of health care reform by removing excessive provisions that some of my colleagues in the Senate have included. The provisions in question only benefit the constituents in states such as Florida, Louisiana, and Nebraska. I applaud President Obama for demanding that these special perks be stripped.

“Passing health care reform isn’t about imposing a government-run health care system. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The government has a responsibility to oversee health insurance companies’ practices and hold them accountable when they dump sick policy holders or gouge consumers with excessive premium increases. The government must protect millions of American families from denial of coverage. No one should ever have to think twice about asking for medical care but yet so many do.

“Republicans feign shock over what the Democrats have done for health care reform, accusing the Democrats of plowing this legislation through Congress. This is not true. When they had control of Congress, Republicans had endless opportunities to reform our nation’s health care system, and they simply ignored the problem. Furthermore, President Obama has reached out to Republicans and asked them to weigh in and be part of the process even going so far as to incorporate their ideas. Republicans have responded by rejecting bipartisanship and embracing stonewalling in hopes of stopping this process altogether.

“There have been enough delays in the health care reform process. The American people deserve a simple up or down vote from Congress. I will be a vote for health care reform, and I urge my House colleagues to join me in fixing our nation’s health care system.”

On Johnson’s FaceBook page he writes that he wants “To bring common sense back to state government for win-win solutions to solve our state’s problems while holding on to the values that made our country and state great!” Johnson also has a Twitter account and a web site to launch soon.

More information on Johnson and his campaign will be coming soon here at the Shoreview Post.

On Chamberlain’s web site and FaceBook page he describes himself as “a serious, principled candidate who is dedicated to putting the constitutional shackles back on government.” Chamberlain is a Senior Corporate Tax Accountant with Ameriprise Financial, Inc.

Upcoming events for Roger Chamberlain include the following:

• Saturday, February 20th
  • 9:00 a.m. to Noon
  • Caribou Coffee
  • 35E & Hwy. 96
  • 1080 Highway 96
  • White Bear Lake, MN 55127
  • (651) 429-6315

• Thursday, February 25th
  • 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.
  • Panino’s Restaurant and Bar
  • Hwy. 96 & Hodgson Road
  • 857 Village Center Drive
  • North Oaks, MN 55127
  • (651) 486-0296
  • Meeting in room behind the bar

Tickets are available at the door on a first come first served basis , if there’s any still left. They do expect a sellout. The better news is that the debate will be livestreamed at the Minnesota News Council website starting at 6:30PM with . You can also follow the debate on Twitter via @mn_newscouncil.

All declared major party candidates for governor as defined by the Minnesota Secretary of State were invited to participate in the debate.  20 Participants have said they will participate. They include:

• Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL
• Tom Bakk, DFL
• Leslie Davis, GOP
• Mark Dayton, DFL
• Tom Emmer, GOP
• Susan Gaertner, DFL
• Bill Haas, GOP
• Rob Hahn, IP
• David Hann, GOP
• Phil Herwig, GOP
• Tom Horner, IP
• Steve Kelley, DFL
• John Marty, DFL
• Tom Rukavina, DFL
• R.T Rybak, DFL
• Ole Savior, DFL
• Marty Seifert, GOP
• Paul Thissen, DFL
• John Uldrich, IP
• Rahn Workcuff, IP

Washington, DC — Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04) has invited Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson to be her guest to President Obama’s first State of the Union Address on Wednesday, January 27th. Knutson was elected president of the of the 300,000 member labor federation in August 2009, and is the first woman in the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s history to hold this office. McCollum expects President Obama to focus his remarks on putting Americans back to work, investing in our economic recovery, and passing health care reform legislation.

“Too many Americans are hurting because they have lost their job or are worried about losing a job,” said Congresswoman McCollum. “No one understands the issues facing working families better than Shar Knutson. Her leadership of the Minnesota AFL-CIO is making a difference for Minnesota families. I am honored that she is joining me as my guest for this historic night as President Obama addresses the continuing challenges facing our nation.”

Prior to her election to the statewide AFL-CIO, Knutson was elected president to the St. Paul labor federation in 1998. She is a regional representative advising the Executive Board of the national AFL-CIO and has played an active role in the successful campaign to increase labor’s voice in national, state and local issues, including raising awareness and promoting community debate about social and economic justice. Knutson served as a policy analyst and assistant to St. Paul Mayor Jim Scheibel, and was on the Greater Twin Cities United Way Board and the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Advisory Council.

The discussions were respectful but citizens and elected officials showed genuine emotions on the issues they are faced with while weathering out the tough economy. Some highlights include citizen Russell Bertsch giving a spirited rebuke on government spending creating an uneven playing field for businesses while taking money away from people in need. Betty McCollum lambasted the current Health Care bill that the Senate is presenting.

Below is audio and a slideshow of the town hall meeting. Below those I have outlined specific minute marks of the audio with topics and highlights of the meeting. Please bear with the low volume level and occasional background noise. External computer speakers or headphones will help with the volume if your built in speakers can’t give it enough oomph.

Town hall meeting 01232010 knuth mccollum

• 0.00 minute mark
  • Around the room introductions of citizens and elected officials
• 3:00 minute mark
  • Representative Knuth kicked things off talking about the upcoming 2010 Legislative session. Although it’s not the norm for the second year of  a biennium to have the budget as a primary focus, the session will have to focus on the budget once again because of  a budget forecast that includes a $1.2 billion deficit. The annual budget runs roughly $31 billion each year.
  • About 70% of the projected deficit is due to a decline of income tax revenues. This can be attributed to job losses, cut hours and cut wages.
  • To turn this around another focus of the session will be on creating jobs.
  • Representative Knuth is okay with bonding for infrastructure & long term investments of value will but not for ongoing general fund items and routine operating expenses.
  • Representative Knuth has put forth a bill asking for $2.5 million in bonding money to help with cleanup of the New Brighton northwest quadrant area Northwest Refinery site.
  • The Governor has recommended constructing an Emergency Operation Center at the National Guard site in Arden Hills and Rep Knuth believes this will make a lot of sense.
  • Jobs ideas include
    • A jobs task force has been working to find solutions to help promote small business.
    • An angel investment fund tax credit of 25% for investing in small business startups
    • Helping small businesses in starting a business, one stop shop source for starting a business.
  • The legislature will be focused on bonding bills in first 3 weeks of session.

• 10:00 minute mark
  • Congresswoman Betty McCollum went through a list of issues she is focusing on. Highlights included Congresswoman McCollum defending the  American Recovery & Reinvestment Act and thrashing the Health Care bill calling the Senate version “ludicrous” and “irresponsible”. McCollum was animated and impassioned when she spoke of the troubles people were facing, the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, jobs and health care. Quotes are included below. Here’s the run down on Con. McCollum’s statements and where in the audio you can find it:
    • The economy is creating tough times for people with 10% unemployment. She understands that these are real people, friends, family and neighbors. Jobs, health care, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and more are all intertwined creating these hard times.
    • 14:45 minute mark – “Over the past twelve months the House of Representatives has passed over 90 pieces of legislation. The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, it helped in my opinion and there might be people who disagree with it but here again most economists say if we had taken no action we would be in a depression or very severe recession. It created jobs, was its goal, but I’m going to be honest with you, it didn’t create very many jobs. It created a few, but what it did do is it kept more people from being laid off. It kept police patrolling in our communities and it kept school districts from having to lay off teachers,” said Congresswoman Betty McCollum. “And it saved 60,000 jobs here because Kate would have been cutting off teachers had we not done what we did with money coming in for Title One and for special education relief. Now we’re doing oversight on it because obviously it didn’t work quite the way we had hoped it would.”
    • 16:00 minute mark – “The Health Care Act I’m going to just refer to for a second, it deserves to be in the trouble it’s in.  And that might sound like an odd thing for somebody who campaigned on wanting to do health care reform,” said Congresswoman Betty McCollum. “I’m still committed on it, but the Senate cutting deals for individual states and indivdual members, theres even in the senate bill10 million dollars for a hospital that doesn’t even have a blueprint done for it, is ludicrous, its irresponsible and I’m not going to vote for bills like that. Now there was things in the House bill that I wasn’t all that tickled pink about but i’ll tell you we didn’t have deals like that in the House bill.”
    • People should be able to afford to purchase a policy and not be turned away or have a policy so expensive they can’t afford to do it because they have a pre-existing condition like Diabetes. Rescinding insurance policies because of a pre-existing condition and price setting behind closed doors are not acceptable.

Citizens then asked questions and raised their concerns about the following issues and received replies from Rep. Knuth and Con. McCollum.

• 21:00 – Jobs:
  • If you had the opportunity to sit down with the directors of Minnesota corporations like 3m, Hormel, Marvin Windows or Graco that have expanded outside of the state, what would you say to have them bring their jobs back to Minnesota? What would you tell them and what would be your approach?
  • Rep. Knuth would listen to the ideas they have and reassons why they left. Health care costs are the biggest problem for small businesses. They think about this with hiring and it is reducing risk taking. Angel investment tax credits can help, executive leadership is important. Iowa created an Iowa Values Fund of $50 million to create incentives to bring good paying jobs. It worked in Iowa and Colorado which is the 3rd largest venture capital state.
  • Con. McCollum says we are simply moving deck chairs around the city, state, and country, and the U.S. needs to be much smarter when trying to create jobs.
    • Viking Drill is a local business with great paying jobs competing against companies that are receiving tax dollars and incentives. A plant up in the Iron Range received a huge grant to tool up and make drills and now Viking has to compete against state tax dollars. One of the Carolina states is putting up $18 Million to attract a Chinese company to come in and make similar drill bits. Viking is now competing against our own state dollars and another state’s tax dollars. How can they do that? Their health care costs are also up 10% annually.
    • Ford is up against unions like Europe that make collective decision to go diesel or nations like Japan that decide the future is in battery technology and focus education and industry expertise to produce batteries. They want the United States to have some collective leadership with discussions producing national plans and strategy. A plan like this is needed to create jobs in the future.
• 31:20 – Upsetting the free market with government spending:
  • Citizen Russell Bertsch gave a passionate appeal for government to stop picking and choosing what businesses get the money. Why can’t the government sit down and stop doing that from the federal and state levels? How much would that save? Why not just stop? If we had more money in our pockets we could do more here instead of unintended consequences.
• 38:40 – Democracy took a hit with recent ruling for corporate & union campaign financing
• 42:40 – Health Care access Fund
• 48:30 – GAMC & Minnesota Care
• 49:50 – Health Care Bill, Where does it go from now?

Congresswoman Betty McCollum had to leave for Oversight meetings after the first hour.

• 60:00 – Legislature & government wage increases
• 62:30 – Health Insurance business methods of rates and competition
• 70:00 – Level playing field for businesses and citizens
• 77:40 – School district 3% raises for next two years, no stadium, go to caucus if you want influence in government
• 80:30 – Cap and Trade and Climate-gate
• 82:45 – Sales tax on clothing over $100 to help deficit

After the first hour and a half most of the crowd left and discussions focused on noise issues that New Brighton and Arden Hills face with 694, 35W and Highway 10. Shoreview does border 35W up in the northwest corner of the city and Shoreveiw Councilmember Ady Wickstrom did raise concerns over freeway noise affecting that area.

Rep. Knuth is hosting two town hall meetings in the coming weeks to discuss these and other legislative and community issues – including highway noise issues. All residents of New Brighton, Shoreview, Arden Hills, and Fridley are encouraged to attend and share their opinions, questions, and concerns.

WHO:

• State Rep. Kate Knuth (DFL – New Brighton)
• Residents of New Brighton, Shoreview, Arden Hills, and Fridley

WHAT:

• Town Hall Meetings

WHERE:

• New Brighton Family Service Center, Room 224
• 400 10th Street NW New Brighton, MN

AGENDA:

• Saturday, January 23
  • 10:00am – 12:00pm
  • First hour dedicated to budget and general issue discussion
  • Second hour dedicated to highway noise issues

• Saturday, February 6
  • 10:00am – 11:30am
  • Budget and general issue discussion

“Because we continue to face tremendous demand for caring mentors for America’s youth, this resolution is particularly important. Mentoring Month is an opportunity to recognize the positive impact of mentoring, recruit new volunteers and honor the contributions of the millions of mentors and organizations across the country that empower our youth,” Congresswoman McCollum said.

There are more than 4,700 mentoring programs in communities across the United States. Research shows that these formal interactions go a long way to enhance the competence and character of the mentee and also promotes positive outcomes, such as improved academic achievement and improved self esteem. Yet, of the nearly 17 million young people who could benefit from being matched with a screened and trained mentor, only about 3 million of them currently benefit from such relationships.

“We must do more to close the mentoring gap. The reality is that there are millions of at risk youth in this country who do not have a strong adult presence in their lives. Mentors play an important role and their efforts can potentially help to reduce juvenile delinquency and the dropout rate,” Congresswoman McCollum added.

U.S. Senators John Kerry and John McCain will introduce a similar resolution later this week. The National Mentoring Month public service campaign seeks to raise awareness through outreach to local governments, businesses, and community and faith-based organizations. The initiative is being led by the Harvard Mentoring Project of the Harvard School of Public Health, MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, and the Corporation for National and Community Service.