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W E D N E S D AY, A P R I L 1 3 , 2 0 1 1 • S T A R T R I B U N E • M E T R O • B 5
As floodwater along the Red River Valley pushed north, emergency workers in boats and all-terrain vehicles went door-to-door Tuesday in areas north of Fargo to check on residents isolated by flooding. Sheriff’s deputies and federal authorities checked on residents throughout the county on Tuesday. Authorities focused most of the attention on areas of the highest water, a few miles northwest of Fargo, where the Red River crested over the weekend at 38.75 feet, the fourth-highest flood on record. The Red River is expected to slowly fall back below major flood stage by the end of next week. Portions of northeastern Cass County in North Dakota and northwestern Clay County in Minnesota have experienced their highest flood levels ever seen. More than 30 miles of Interstate 29 remained closed
Soggy tales from the area’s flood zones
Donate your Vehicle
DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS
Building Better Lives for American Disabled Veterans of Minnesota
Tom Page of Winona ate his lunch Tuesday at a table along the flooded Mississippi River at Prairie Island in Winona. Across the area, floodwaters were still causing headaches for residents.
ANDREW LINK • Associated Press
Tuesday from north of Fargo to Hillsboro. Diaper delivery: Authorities got one call Tuesday from an Argusville woman who was stranded in her home by floodwaters and needed diapers
and formula for her 3-monthold baby. Deputies took the baby supplies to the woman, but U.S. Coast Guard personnel in a rescue helicopter later moved her and her child from their home to safety.
Assessing the damage. State and federal teams are in southern Minnesota this week conducting preliminary damage assessments in 14 Minnesota counties as the Minnesota River’s floodwater recedes. Teams will move to other areas of the state once floodwater goes down. River rescue. Three teenage boys were rescued Monday night after their boat capsized and sank on the Otter Tail River, east of Breckenridge. Two were stranded for a while on a log while a third swam for help, according to the Wilkin County Sheriff’s Office. The three were treated for hypothermia at the scene and sent home. All three boys were wearing chest-high waders but not the life jackets they had with them.
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• Accepting all vehicles - any condition running or not • Plus Boats and RV’s • FREE Pickup Call Anytime 24/7 • Fully Tax Deductible
www.vehiclesforveterans.com
A CONGRESSIONALLY CHARTERED VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATION. ESTABLISHED JULY 1, 1925
651-251-7663
State officials assail GOP plan to fix budget deficit
ø BUDGET FROM B1
Repealing no-fault insurance faces rough road
ø N O - FAU LT F R O M B 1
er Protection Committee, after hearing from hospital and ambulance service officials Tuesday, voted to at least temporarily set aside Michel’s proposal. The panel instead endorsed two alternatives and sent them on for further Senate review. One, from Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-Brainerd, who owns an insurance agency, would limit benefits for “soft-tissue injuries” treated by chiropractors and physical therapists to workers’ compensation. Gazelka, whose proposal was backed by insurance industry officials, said his private business was not a motive for pushing the changes. He said, however, that chiropractic and physical therapy visits represent 69 percent of all medical bills. “There’s very little accountability of how much is charged, and how the process works,” said Gazelka, who acknowledged that his approach falls short of the “broad, comprehensive reform” that he initially sought. That, he said needed more study. Sen. Linda Scheid, DFLBrooklyn Park, sought to raise the threshold for benefits for pain and suffering. Under her plan, an injury
would have to result in a “serious permanent impairment of an important bodily function” in order to warrant damages. “It’s a significant change,” said Jim Carey, president of the Minnesota Association for Justice. The proposal, he added, would create “the most stringent standard for a threshold that I know of” and negatively impact “innocent people” injured in auto accidents. The state’s no-fault insurance law, passed in the 1970s as the approach gained in popularity, requires motorists to have insurance that covers anyone injured in an accident without regard to fault. Anyone injured in an accident, the law states, has a right to “basic economic loss benefits.” Currently, that includes a minimum of $40,000 for losses from injury — $20,000 for medical expenses, and another $20,000 for losses of income, replacement services, funeral expenses and survivor’s economic loss. Michel said Colorado saw a 27 percent drop in premiums after eliminating no-fault insurance in 2004, but he acknowledged that Minnesota ranked 28th among states in terms of auto insurance premium costs. Sen. Chris Gerlach, R-Apple Valley, the committee’s chair, said that anecdotal evidence suggested that there
was no proof that no-fault insurance led to more lawsuits. A series of repeal opponents, including Mary Krinkie, a lobbyist for the Minnesota Hospital Association, said eliminating the law would shift many costs to the state and have a “significant fiscal impact” at a time of daunting budget deficits. Dr. William Heegaard, a physician at Hennepin County Medical Center, said that as the nation debates health care costs, the law ensures that hospitals and ambulance services are paid for responding to injuries from auto accidents.
“The system, to be quite frank, is fragile and can break,” he said. John Wolfe, representing the Minnesota Chiropractic Association, said that repealing the law could have unintended consequences. Wolfe said that caregivers could be forced to decide “are we going to go pick up the uninsured people first [in an accident, or] are we going to pick the insured people first? That doesn’t seem consistent with the Minnesota I grew up in.”
Mike Kaszuba • 651-222-1673
New regulations for tattoo parlors aid blood donations
ø TAT T O O S F R O M B 1
Free speech vs. desire by food sources to be left alone
ø TEVLIN FROM B1
states could become the testing ground. So, while Minnesota producers have rarely been targeted in the past, they might become sure targets in the future. Samuelson predicts that activists would almost certainly win on free speech grounds, and the state would end up paying their legal bills, as well. “We like to call this the PETA full-funding bill” because it will galvanize supporters and mean more money for the group, he predicted. Lest anyone think I’m a PETA groupie, think again. I am often dismayed by its radical rhetoric and counterproductive tactics. When one of my favorite readers tries to persuade me to become a vegetarian by sending me graphic photos, I respond by sending her Mario Batali’s recipe for lamb scottadito (marinate chops at room temperature in a coarse mix of lemon zest, chopped mint, sea salt and pepper. Grill to medium-rare). But a bill that would seemingly prohibit both journalists and whistleblowers from reporting on animal abuse? Crazy. Silly. One of the bill’s authors, Sen. Doug Magnus, R-Slayton, told a reporter that “it’s aimed at people who are harassing and sabotaging these operations. These people who go undercover aren’t being truthful about what they’re doing.”
Right. I’m guessing knocking on the door and asking if you can please enter and document abuse wouldn’t go over very well. Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals (MFA), a national animal rights organization that does undercover investigations, said the bills are “meant to intimidate us. It’s a testament to how successful [activists] have been in exposing cruelty.” MFA investigations from Iowa to Texas have led to raids, stronger laws and civil and criminal charges. One facility was so bad it was taken over temporarily by a government agency. Runkle said MFA abides by all laws and that its investigators give their real names. “These laws are a blatant violation of free press and free speech,” he said. “It’s scary.” I understand that sometimes these videos, in the hands of zealots, can be manipulated to make conditions appear worse than they are, or a deviation from industry standards, so I have some sympathy for the industry. But the frequent punitive actions taken by authorities show that sometimes more scrutiny is needed, and this oppressive bill seems geared more to appease lobbyists than do good. An axiom in politics seems to fit this situation: “There are two things you don’t want to see being made. One is sausage. The other is legislation.”
[email protected] • 612-673-1702
changes will open the spigot again for young donors — a group they were beginning to worry about. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center estimated that 38 percent of Americans between ages 18 and 29 have at least one tattoo. Half of them have between two and five. From 2000 to 2009, American Red Cross blood banks in Minnesota deferred about 8,500 potential donors because of tattoos and other similar restrictions. Nick Gehrig, a Red Cross spokesman, said that doesn’t include “self-deferred” individuals who knew the rule and never showed up. Blood bank directors, who like to get people into the donation habit at an early age, worried that they were losing the next generation of Minnesota donors. “We want this to become a lifetime habit to save lives and donate blood,” said Dr. David Mair, medical director of the American Red Cross. “The younger you start, the more
it will become a lifelong commitment.” By next year, once all tattoo parlors have been inspected, Minnesota blood banks will dispense with the one-year wait. Anyone who receives a tattoo after Jan. 1, 2012, could walk out of the parlor and into a blood bank the same day. Jerry Hanson, for one, welcomed the new regulations. The owner of A-1 Tattoo Co. in West St. Paul, he paid the license fee and made the changes necessary to secure a provisional license. He says the new state standards are stringent, but no tighter than the standards he sets for himself, and he likes the idea that donating blood will be easier for his customers. “I think as long as the person got the tattoo in a professional setting, then I don’t foresee any reason why they couldn’t donate blood right away, “ he said.
Taryn Wobbema is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.
he won’t begin negotiating with Republican leaders until their budget assumptions are vetted by administration budget analysts. Instead, he is pressing Republicans to make another $1 billion in actual cuts from their budget outline. If they are unwilling to do so, he says, that proves his mix of cuts, shifts and tax hikes on high earners is the right path forward. “They still haven’t done the hardest part of it, which is to go that extra $1.2 billion or $1.7 billion,” Dayton said in a recent interview. “I want to see that and I want them to face the people of Minnesota and say ‘This is all, this is it, this is the whole package and it’s balanced and square,’ and then everybody can see these effects on people’s lives vs. my budget.” Republicans say that administration analysts — many of whom served in the previous Republican administration — are so deeply tied to traditional assessments that they cannot accurately calculate savings on innovative programs. Instead, Republicans are relying on analysis from companies that say they have helped other states save money. “We believe there are significant savings to be found in the reforms that we are proposing, and we think they are good reforms,” said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo. Dayton and DFL legislators have said the new GOP majority booked more than $1 billion in “phony” reductions because they now realize they cannot deliver the all-cuts budget they promised during the campaign. Dayton’s budget and revenue officials noted five instances where savings either were overstated or were totally unproven. In the most glaring example, House Republicans booked $750 million in savings from federal health care waivers that the letter characterizes as “unobtainable.” The GOP proposal requires the DFL governor to petition
the Obama administration for an exemption from a program the president strongly supports. “We expect some waiver relief from the federal government and we believe the governor is in a good position to help us do that,” said Sen. David Hann, an Eden Prairie Republican who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Dayton has given no indication he would be willing to seek such a waiver. The commissioners cited another example where Republicans penciled in $133 million through stricter collection of unpaid taxes. But state budget officials appointed by former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty had said last year that they were already getting about as much as they could from tax dodgers. They said any more tax revenue would largely be offset by the cost of hiring more auditors. Republicans also want Dayton to trim up to $300 million, but they don’t say from where. The letter characterized this as “unprecedented” and “unworkable.” House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, wants to get Dayton’s budget analysts together with Republicans’ experts to hack out numbers that both sides can agree on in the contested areas. “This is the hard work,” Zellers said. Schowalter warned against turning budget numbers into a political football game. “Objective things become political and that’s not the way we do it in Minnesota,” he said. Republicans noted that there is scant legislative support for Dayton’s proposed tax hikes, which he uses to balance his budget. “So that’s a significant hole in the governor’s plan,” Koch said. That leaves a long path to travel by the May 23 deadline.
Staff writer Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and University of Minnesota intern McKenzie Martin contributed to this report. Baird Helgeson • 651-222-1288
TOENAIL FUNGUS
also effective on fingernails
SAY GOODBYE TO
Introducing a new patented laser procedure that kills toenail fungus safely and painlessly.
One treatment and you’ll be on your way to healthy 1 0% OF F looking toes!
Vali throu d 4/18/11 gh 4/ 22/1 1
Advanced Foot & Ankle Care
Use your HSA or Flex spending dollars
www.nailfunguslasermn.com • 1-888-MY-TOENAIL
763-550-7999
Plymouth
Dr. Robert Mullin
952-920-1520
Edina
As floodwater along the Red River Valley pushed north, emergency workers in boats and all-terrain vehicles went door-to-door Tuesday in areas north of Fargo to check on residents isolated by flooding. Sheriff’s deputies and federal authorities checked on residents throughout the county on Tuesday. Authorities focused most of the attention on areas of the highest water, a few miles northwest of Fargo, where the Red River crested over the weekend at 38.75 feet, the fourth-highest flood on record. The Red River is expected to slowly fall back below major flood stage by the end of next week. Portions of northeastern Cass County in North Dakota and northwestern Clay County in Minnesota have experienced their highest flood levels ever seen. More than 30 miles of Interstate 29 remained closed
Soggy tales from the area’s flood zones
Donate your Vehicle
DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS
Building Better Lives for American Disabled Veterans of Minnesota
Tom Page of Winona ate his lunch Tuesday at a table along the flooded Mississippi River at Prairie Island in Winona. Across the area, floodwaters were still causing headaches for residents.
ANDREW LINK • Associated Press
Tuesday from north of Fargo to Hillsboro. Diaper delivery: Authorities got one call Tuesday from an Argusville woman who was stranded in her home by floodwaters and needed diapers
and formula for her 3-monthold baby. Deputies took the baby supplies to the woman, but U.S. Coast Guard personnel in a rescue helicopter later moved her and her child from their home to safety.
Assessing the damage. State and federal teams are in southern Minnesota this week conducting preliminary damage assessments in 14 Minnesota counties as the Minnesota River’s floodwater recedes. Teams will move to other areas of the state once floodwater goes down. River rescue. Three teenage boys were rescued Monday night after their boat capsized and sank on the Otter Tail River, east of Breckenridge. Two were stranded for a while on a log while a third swam for help, according to the Wilkin County Sheriff’s Office. The three were treated for hypothermia at the scene and sent home. All three boys were wearing chest-high waders but not the life jackets they had with them.
ASSOCIATED PRESS AND STAFF REPORTS
• Accepting all vehicles - any condition running or not • Plus Boats and RV’s • FREE Pickup Call Anytime 24/7 • Fully Tax Deductible
www.vehiclesforveterans.com
A CONGRESSIONALLY CHARTERED VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATION. ESTABLISHED JULY 1, 1925
651-251-7663
State officials assail GOP plan to fix budget deficit
ø BUDGET FROM B1
Repealing no-fault insurance faces rough road
ø N O - FAU LT F R O M B 1
er Protection Committee, after hearing from hospital and ambulance service officials Tuesday, voted to at least temporarily set aside Michel’s proposal. The panel instead endorsed two alternatives and sent them on for further Senate review. One, from Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-Brainerd, who owns an insurance agency, would limit benefits for “soft-tissue injuries” treated by chiropractors and physical therapists to workers’ compensation. Gazelka, whose proposal was backed by insurance industry officials, said his private business was not a motive for pushing the changes. He said, however, that chiropractic and physical therapy visits represent 69 percent of all medical bills. “There’s very little accountability of how much is charged, and how the process works,” said Gazelka, who acknowledged that his approach falls short of the “broad, comprehensive reform” that he initially sought. That, he said needed more study. Sen. Linda Scheid, DFLBrooklyn Park, sought to raise the threshold for benefits for pain and suffering. Under her plan, an injury
would have to result in a “serious permanent impairment of an important bodily function” in order to warrant damages. “It’s a significant change,” said Jim Carey, president of the Minnesota Association for Justice. The proposal, he added, would create “the most stringent standard for a threshold that I know of” and negatively impact “innocent people” injured in auto accidents. The state’s no-fault insurance law, passed in the 1970s as the approach gained in popularity, requires motorists to have insurance that covers anyone injured in an accident without regard to fault. Anyone injured in an accident, the law states, has a right to “basic economic loss benefits.” Currently, that includes a minimum of $40,000 for losses from injury — $20,000 for medical expenses, and another $20,000 for losses of income, replacement services, funeral expenses and survivor’s economic loss. Michel said Colorado saw a 27 percent drop in premiums after eliminating no-fault insurance in 2004, but he acknowledged that Minnesota ranked 28th among states in terms of auto insurance premium costs. Sen. Chris Gerlach, R-Apple Valley, the committee’s chair, said that anecdotal evidence suggested that there
was no proof that no-fault insurance led to more lawsuits. A series of repeal opponents, including Mary Krinkie, a lobbyist for the Minnesota Hospital Association, said eliminating the law would shift many costs to the state and have a “significant fiscal impact” at a time of daunting budget deficits. Dr. William Heegaard, a physician at Hennepin County Medical Center, said that as the nation debates health care costs, the law ensures that hospitals and ambulance services are paid for responding to injuries from auto accidents.
“The system, to be quite frank, is fragile and can break,” he said. John Wolfe, representing the Minnesota Chiropractic Association, said that repealing the law could have unintended consequences. Wolfe said that caregivers could be forced to decide “are we going to go pick up the uninsured people first [in an accident, or] are we going to pick the insured people first? That doesn’t seem consistent with the Minnesota I grew up in.”
Mike Kaszuba • 651-222-1673
New regulations for tattoo parlors aid blood donations
ø TAT T O O S F R O M B 1
Free speech vs. desire by food sources to be left alone
ø TEVLIN FROM B1
states could become the testing ground. So, while Minnesota producers have rarely been targeted in the past, they might become sure targets in the future. Samuelson predicts that activists would almost certainly win on free speech grounds, and the state would end up paying their legal bills, as well. “We like to call this the PETA full-funding bill” because it will galvanize supporters and mean more money for the group, he predicted. Lest anyone think I’m a PETA groupie, think again. I am often dismayed by its radical rhetoric and counterproductive tactics. When one of my favorite readers tries to persuade me to become a vegetarian by sending me graphic photos, I respond by sending her Mario Batali’s recipe for lamb scottadito (marinate chops at room temperature in a coarse mix of lemon zest, chopped mint, sea salt and pepper. Grill to medium-rare). But a bill that would seemingly prohibit both journalists and whistleblowers from reporting on animal abuse? Crazy. Silly. One of the bill’s authors, Sen. Doug Magnus, R-Slayton, told a reporter that “it’s aimed at people who are harassing and sabotaging these operations. These people who go undercover aren’t being truthful about what they’re doing.”
Right. I’m guessing knocking on the door and asking if you can please enter and document abuse wouldn’t go over very well. Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals (MFA), a national animal rights organization that does undercover investigations, said the bills are “meant to intimidate us. It’s a testament to how successful [activists] have been in exposing cruelty.” MFA investigations from Iowa to Texas have led to raids, stronger laws and civil and criminal charges. One facility was so bad it was taken over temporarily by a government agency. Runkle said MFA abides by all laws and that its investigators give their real names. “These laws are a blatant violation of free press and free speech,” he said. “It’s scary.” I understand that sometimes these videos, in the hands of zealots, can be manipulated to make conditions appear worse than they are, or a deviation from industry standards, so I have some sympathy for the industry. But the frequent punitive actions taken by authorities show that sometimes more scrutiny is needed, and this oppressive bill seems geared more to appease lobbyists than do good. An axiom in politics seems to fit this situation: “There are two things you don’t want to see being made. One is sausage. The other is legislation.”
[email protected] • 612-673-1702
changes will open the spigot again for young donors — a group they were beginning to worry about. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center estimated that 38 percent of Americans between ages 18 and 29 have at least one tattoo. Half of them have between two and five. From 2000 to 2009, American Red Cross blood banks in Minnesota deferred about 8,500 potential donors because of tattoos and other similar restrictions. Nick Gehrig, a Red Cross spokesman, said that doesn’t include “self-deferred” individuals who knew the rule and never showed up. Blood bank directors, who like to get people into the donation habit at an early age, worried that they were losing the next generation of Minnesota donors. “We want this to become a lifetime habit to save lives and donate blood,” said Dr. David Mair, medical director of the American Red Cross. “The younger you start, the more
it will become a lifelong commitment.” By next year, once all tattoo parlors have been inspected, Minnesota blood banks will dispense with the one-year wait. Anyone who receives a tattoo after Jan. 1, 2012, could walk out of the parlor and into a blood bank the same day. Jerry Hanson, for one, welcomed the new regulations. The owner of A-1 Tattoo Co. in West St. Paul, he paid the license fee and made the changes necessary to secure a provisional license. He says the new state standards are stringent, but no tighter than the standards he sets for himself, and he likes the idea that donating blood will be easier for his customers. “I think as long as the person got the tattoo in a professional setting, then I don’t foresee any reason why they couldn’t donate blood right away, “ he said.
Taryn Wobbema is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.
he won’t begin negotiating with Republican leaders until their budget assumptions are vetted by administration budget analysts. Instead, he is pressing Republicans to make another $1 billion in actual cuts from their budget outline. If they are unwilling to do so, he says, that proves his mix of cuts, shifts and tax hikes on high earners is the right path forward. “They still haven’t done the hardest part of it, which is to go that extra $1.2 billion or $1.7 billion,” Dayton said in a recent interview. “I want to see that and I want them to face the people of Minnesota and say ‘This is all, this is it, this is the whole package and it’s balanced and square,’ and then everybody can see these effects on people’s lives vs. my budget.” Republicans say that administration analysts — many of whom served in the previous Republican administration — are so deeply tied to traditional assessments that they cannot accurately calculate savings on innovative programs. Instead, Republicans are relying on analysis from companies that say they have helped other states save money. “We believe there are significant savings to be found in the reforms that we are proposing, and we think they are good reforms,” said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo. Dayton and DFL legislators have said the new GOP majority booked more than $1 billion in “phony” reductions because they now realize they cannot deliver the all-cuts budget they promised during the campaign. Dayton’s budget and revenue officials noted five instances where savings either were overstated or were totally unproven. In the most glaring example, House Republicans booked $750 million in savings from federal health care waivers that the letter characterizes as “unobtainable.” The GOP proposal requires the DFL governor to petition
the Obama administration for an exemption from a program the president strongly supports. “We expect some waiver relief from the federal government and we believe the governor is in a good position to help us do that,” said Sen. David Hann, an Eden Prairie Republican who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Dayton has given no indication he would be willing to seek such a waiver. The commissioners cited another example where Republicans penciled in $133 million through stricter collection of unpaid taxes. But state budget officials appointed by former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty had said last year that they were already getting about as much as they could from tax dodgers. They said any more tax revenue would largely be offset by the cost of hiring more auditors. Republicans also want Dayton to trim up to $300 million, but they don’t say from where. The letter characterized this as “unprecedented” and “unworkable.” House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, wants to get Dayton’s budget analysts together with Republicans’ experts to hack out numbers that both sides can agree on in the contested areas. “This is the hard work,” Zellers said. Schowalter warned against turning budget numbers into a political football game. “Objective things become political and that’s not the way we do it in Minnesota,” he said. Republicans noted that there is scant legislative support for Dayton’s proposed tax hikes, which he uses to balance his budget. “So that’s a significant hole in the governor’s plan,” Koch said. That leaves a long path to travel by the May 23 deadline.
Staff writer Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and University of Minnesota intern McKenzie Martin contributed to this report. Baird Helgeson • 651-222-1288
TOENAIL FUNGUS
also effective on fingernails
SAY GOODBYE TO
Introducing a new patented laser procedure that kills toenail fungus safely and painlessly.
One treatment and you’ll be on your way to healthy 1 0% OF F looking toes!
Vali throu d 4/18/11 gh 4/ 22/1 1
Advanced Foot & Ankle Care
Use your HSA or Flex spending dollars
www.nailfunguslasermn.com • 1-888-MY-TOENAIL
763-550-7999
Plymouth
Dr. Robert Mullin
952-920-1520
Edina
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