More than 50 people gathered in front of Brainerd City Hall, holding signs reading “America’s middle class: too big to fail” and “tax Wall Street,” according to the Brainerd Dispatch.

Josh Brewster of Brainerd was holding a sign that read “Tax the richest 2 percent.” He said he attended the demonstration because he wants a future for his children. Nothing, not even a little rain, was going to keep him away Wednesday, he said.

In Duluth, more than 100 people braved a rainstorm in Lake Superior Plaza, according to the Duluth News Tribune.

Anne Fryberger of Duluth, an investment adviser and former broker who has been in the business for 25 years, held a sign saying she supported the Occupy Wall Street objective.

“I’m not against capitalism. I’m against the part of capitalism that can’t get enough and gets more and more by taking it from everyone else,” she said. “The whole system is predatory. I believe the middle class is losing ground in this country and we need to stop it.”

Duluth police told the News Tribune that protesters have been advised that they won’t be allowed to camp overnight on public property.

KIMT 3 also has a story on a group that’s organizing in Rochester, having held three meetings now, with the most recent happening in the storefront of Zeus Auto Repair.

Zane Zodrow told the station that he was “tired of politics being driven 100 percent by money instead of by principle and what the American public wants.”

Former state Sen. Tarryl Clark of St. Cloud says she is moving to Duluth in order to take on freshman Rep. Chip Cravaack in 2012. Clark, who lost to Sixth Congressional District Rep. Michele Bachmann in one of the most expensive House races in history in 2010, told the Duluth News Tribune that she has purchased a condo in Duluth.

“There’s too much at stake to sit on the sidelines,” Clark said in an email to supporters on Sunday. “Minnesota deserves a voice in Congress that will stand up for ordinary families who have been left behind. We need leadership in Washington that will put our families first, protect Medicare for our seniors, and bring good paying jobs back to Minnesota.”

She added, “I am honored by the support I have received from people across the 8th district who have encouraged me to run for Congress.”

While Clark hasn’t lived in the district, she told the Duluth News Tribune that she’s worked with groups in the district. “Every single one of us cares deeply about the community that we live in, and my job is going to be to make sure that every community and our families know that I’m going to strongly represent them,” she told the paper.

The Tribune also noted that Cravaack lives close to the southern part of the border, about as close to the 6th district as Clark is to the 8th.

Clark’s campaign put out a video to supporters about her run for Congress in the 8th.

Cravaack, who defeated longtime DFL Rep. James Oberstar in November, has not yet announced he will seek reelection, but in December he said he wasn’t sure voters would send him back for another term.

“I realize this is a very highly Democratic area,” he said. “I also realize there’s a lot of people that really don’t like me being here in this seat. But hopefully they’ll judge me by my actions rather than what’s behind my name, an ‘R.’ Because I will be working very hard for the people of the 8th.”

Watch Clark’s video, “Priorities”:

A Tuesday debate in Duluth spotlighted the excitement that Republicans are feeling as they try to unseat Rep. James Oberstar, an 18-term veteran congressman who has won reelection with more than 59 percent of the vote for decades. The crowd was raucous, repeatedly interrupting the candidates, and Oberstar’s barbs at the audience have become soundbites for the national media. Oberstar, chair of the House Transportation Committee, has ramped up his campaigning in the district, while his opponent, Republican Chip Cravaack, is taking heat from some conservatives for being too liberal.

Oberstar was booed as soon as he walked onto the stage at the Duluth debate. Oberstar said to the crowd, “My goodness, no civility at all.”

Debate topics ranged from health care to climate change.

Cravaack made the claim that Canadians are crossing the border to get American health care: “They come down here because they’ve been denied care.” He said the health care reform that was signed into law will make the American system like Canada’s and decried “rationing.”

Oberstar shot back. “This idea of rationing health care… is just wrong. We are seeing rationing of health care now by health insurance company bureaucrats in the private sector, in the corporate interest and not in the patient interest.”

He said he was proud to support the bill.

An audience member’s question about cap-and-trade policies resulted in an interesting statement from Oberstar.

“Climate change is real,” he said, prompting outbursts from the audience. “I’m sorry if the flat earth society over here doesn’t believe it. Lake Superior is 4 degrees warmer than it was 15 years ago. Again, I’m sorry they just don’t like facts. It is changing our way of life. We have to deal with this.”

Over the course of the 80-minute debate, Oberstar and the moderator had to ask the audience to be quiet numerous times, especially when Oberstar was speaking.

Aaron Brown, a blogger and columnist on the Iron Range, wrote, “I knew there was going to be trouble as one of the moderators was running through the pre-debate rules. When he said, ‘And we ask that you keeping cheering and booing to an absolute minimum, and no catcalls,’ he was actually booed and catcalled. This was before the candidates were even on stage.”

He predicts that Friday night’s debate at Itasca Community College will be just as noisy.

An internal poll released by Cravaack — and called a push poll by Oberstar — showed Cravaack had seemingly eroded Oberstar’s historical 30-point lead over his challengers to several points behind Oberstar two weeks ago.

Cravaack has the support of the tea party and has been attacking Oberstar about conservative principles, but he’s not the only one in the race. As Cravaack stakes out conservative positions hoping to appeal the tea partiers in the 8th, he’s being attacked himself from the right for not being conservative enough.

The same day as the debate, Richard “George” Burton of Brainerd, the Constitution Party candidate, penned a letter to the Duluth News Tribune accusing Cravaack of hiding his union-organizing past.

“What may be found is that what voters have been led to believe is not entirely accurate, and that large amounts of spin have been applied to hide the 8th Congressional District GOP candidate’s work history as a union strike event organizer,” he wrote.

“Republican Chip Cravaack has absolutely no experience in the business world, just as the Democratic incumbent, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, has none,” he wrote. “This field also leaves me as the only snowmobile trail groomer ‘expert’ and the only licensed pyrotechnician, Habitat for Humanity volunteer, Tea Party organizer, director of a state snowmobile association and church board member in the race. Not to mention I am the only lifelong resident of the 8th District and Minnesota, as I would argue that Oberstar lives in Maryland (and vacations in France) and Cravaack only moved to Minnesota and the district in the past decade.”

Also on the same day as the debate, Oberstar’s campaign released a new television ad featuring a local basketball coach who has endorsed him.

The debate and the attention it has drawn to the race has made national cable news including Fox and Friends, which was being promoted by the National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday:

The Republican Party of Minnesota predictably called the debate for Cravaack.

“Jim Oberstar has been in Washington, D.C. for way too long and his patronizing performance in today’s debate reinforces why it’s time for a change,” party chair Tony Sutton said in a statement on Tuesday. “While Oberstar tried to defend his support for record deficits and out of control government spending, Chip Cravaack outlined his optimistic agenda of job creation and reform. When he wasn’t attacking members of the audience, Oberstar demonstrated time and again that he just doesn’t get it. On November 2, it’s time to send Oberstar packing and replace him with a real leader like Chip Cravaack.”

The Win Back Washington rally is organized by the same group that but together the Take Back Washington rally in North Dakota in February. At that event Bachmann told Tea Partiers, that she’s had to “grow a titanium spine” in response to media criticism.

In one clip from Duluth Answer Man, Franken fields a question from a man wondering about the safety of the city’s running of the bulls. “I believe you’re thinking of Pamplona, Spain, However the smelt run every spring in Duluth,” says a nasally Franken.

The Franken of today says that internet technology means his services in that regard are no longer required.

“Fortunately Google emerged, freeing me from my responsibilities and allowing me to serve in the United States Senate,” he said.

The video concludes with Franken sharing the URL for the Twin Ports Fiber Initiative, which aims to “”win the Google Fiber project by showing Google the community’s passion for fiber – high speed Internet, video and voice – the highly skilled workforce in our communities, the strong, supportive entrepreneurial environment, and the community’s visionary leadership.”

Sen. John Marty, who has announced his campaign for governor, had a large presence at the festival and parade. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, widely rumored to be running for governor, was a long way from home on Sunday when he and a contingent of supporters walked in the parade. Sen. Al Franken was also in the parade.

Protesters turned out during the festival and parade warning attendees that they must repent or burn in hell.

There were only a half-dozen protesters who heckled the crowd with a megaphone. At the parade, members of the Superior Police Department managed to isolate them.

International drag star RuPaul entertained thousands at Bayfront Park. She told the crowd to work toward making the next generation an inclusive one for LGBT people.

The proposed cuts are equivalent to 3.3 percent of the program’s funding in 2009 and 7.6 percent in 2010. Towns with populations under 1,000 are exempt from the cuts. Many municipalities in greater Minnesota with shrinking populations rely on LGA to bolster their finances, as do larger cities with high levels of poverty.

The League of Minnesota Cities has posted a spreadsheet breaking down Pawlenty’s proposed cuts to local government aid. While a city’s overall budget needs to be scrutinized in order to gauge the significance of the hit, in sheer dollar amounts here are the ten municipalities slated to lose the biggest chunks of change:

1. Minneapolis: $44.6 million in 2009; $102.4 million in 2010
2. St. Paul: $5 million in 2009; $11.6 million in 2010
3. Rochester: $1.7 million in 2009; $3.9 million in 2010
4. Duluth: $1.5 million in 2009; $3.5 million in 2010
5. St. Cloud: $1.2 million in 2009; $2.7 million in 2010
6. Winona: $531,000 in 2009; $1.2 million in 2010
7. Moorhead: $489,000 in 2009; $1.1 million in 2010
8. Brooklyn Center: $464,000 in 2009; $1.1 million in 2010
9. Owatonna, $454,000 in 2009; $1 million in 2010
10. Faribault: $392,000 in 2009; $905,000 in 2010

(Lavverrue, Flickr)

Same-sex couples residing in Duluth will find it easier to prove their domestic partner status as the Duluth City Council voted on Monday evening to approve a domestic partner registry.

The council approved the measure by a vote of 5 to 3, and advocates say the move will make it easier for businesses to recognize domestic partnerships and offer benefits. Minneapolis is the only other municipality in the state to offer such a registry.

Registry applicants need to affirm that they are “jointly responsible to each other for the necessities of life” and “are as committed to one another as married persons are traditionally committed.” The cost of the domestic partner certificate is $25.

Currently all Minnesota communities are prevented by state law from offering domestic partnerships.

In a campaign interview with the Minnesota Independent, Anderson said that such a registry would be priority for him. “Because same-sex couples have little access to legal recognition of their relationship and their families, a domestic partner registry can be used to assist employers who wish to make domestic partner benefits available to their employees,” he said in 2007.

Registry applicants would affirm that they are “jointly responsible to each other for the necessities of life” and “are as committed to one another as married persons are traditionally committed.”

Anderson told the Duluth News Tribune that would not impose anything on people or businesses that don’t want to participate.

“This does not create special rights for same sex couples,” Anderson said. “The proposed registry places no requirement on any business, or on the city itself, to offer domestic partnership benefits.”

In fact, Duluth is not able to offer domestic partner benefits because state law forbids it. Legislators have twice passed legislation to allow municipalities to offer such benefits only to be vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

The Sunshine Review recently completed a 10-point evaluation of Web access to county government information for all 3,140 counties across the United States.

One factoid: Among Minnesota’s 87 counties, only 23 make their budgets available via the Internet.

St. Louis County, which includes the city of Duluth, ranks highest in the state. All that’s lacking from the St. Louis County Web site, according to the study, is information about permits and zoning (a single criterion) and lobbying. The county is the only one in the state to offer information in all four of these often-overlooked areas: audits, contracts, public records and taxes.

Still, the northeastern Minnesota county (the state’s largest in area) is a surprising title-holder, given recent complaints about efforts to ban a watchdog group from videotaping public meetings.

Olmsted County, which includes the city of Rochester, scored a close second. Its county Web site’s gaps are in lobbying data and public records, with partial credit for providing information about public meetings.

By contrast, each of the Twin Cities’ metro-area counties met only four to six of Sunshine Review’s 10 criteria: Anoka (5), Carver (4), Dakota (4), Hennepin (6), Ramsey (6), Scott (5) and Washington (5).

Sunshine Review has set its sights next on completing evaluations for city government Web sites across the country. So far, 51 Minnesota cities’ Web sites have been examined.

The studies are done by wiki, meaning anyone with Web access can contribute.

Incidentally, a cursory Minnesota Independent evaluation of the mock Web site for the fictional city of Pawnee, Ind., using Sunshine Review’s transparency checklist, suggests a failing grade. The site was created as a subtle promotion for NBC’s new local-government satire, “Parks and Recreation,” which premieres Thursday.