Official flag of Arizona

The ACLU of Minnesota issued a travel alert Wednesday for Minnesotans planning to travel to Arizona over the July 4 weekend. It issued the advisory in response to Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070, which directs police to check citizenship papers of individuals suspected of being in the country illegally. The ACLU has drafted “know you rights” materials in English and Spanish, which it is making available free to state residents.

“If Minnesotans are planning to travel to Arizona for the holiday weekend, they need to know their rights,” Charles Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota said in a statement. “In Arizona, officials are not waiting for the new law to take effect to start questioning people about their immigration status. People who look or sound ‘foreign’ are more likely to be stopped for minor infractions like having a broken taillight or jaywalking and then asked for their ‘papers’ if police think that they could be in the country unlawfully.”

The new law, which takes effect July 29, prompted a similar alert on the other side of the border. In late April, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhan, issued an advisory warning its citizens against travel to Arizona.

Pawlenty vetoed the bill, authored by Kahn, which would have altered state statute so that people couldn’t be prosecuted for possession of bong water the same as they would for actual controlled substances. Pawlenty defended his veto saying law enforcement supported the use of bong water in prosecution. Kahn says that line of reasoning “doesn’t hold water.”

Here’s the Daily Show segment where host John Stewart mocked the Pawlenty’s veto of the bill:

“Jon Stewart gets it and I am sure most reasonable Minnesotans get it,” Kahn said in a statement on Friday. “We shouldn’t be penalizing the unkempt housewife who left something out on the counter top with a felony offense reserved for dangerous drug dealers.”

She continued, “We worked hand in hand with law enforcement and the criminal justice system to craft a bill that they supported and we succeeded. It was a common sense bill aimed at reducing unnecessary costs on our court systems. I still haven’t heard a logical reason for the veto.”

Kahn said she’ll be looking to pass the same bill in the next legislative session.

Salvia divinorum. Photo: Wikipedia

After several failed attempts in past sessions, the Minnesota Legislature appears poised to ban a little known but psychedelic plant called salvia divinorum. Bills that would penalize those who sell or possess the herb have moved through House and Senate committees and now await floor votes in both chambers. And while law enforcement officials push to expand the drug war, critics say this is an opportunity to enact sensible policies not create more criminals.

“What this bill will do is make salvia divinorum illegal in Minnesota,” Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, told the House Public Safety Policy and Oversight Committee last week. A chief author of the bill, Lanning said he offered it at the urging of Moorhead Chief of Police David Ebinger.

“It’s a dangerous substance and a severe hallucinogenic,” said Ebinger. “We have more consequences attached to a pack of Marlboros.”

“I think it provides a gateway to using illicit substances with kids,” he said. “We find it in schools. [Minnesota] will continue to be a source of this material to youth if we don’t take some actions,” he said noting that North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin have taken steps to criminalize the drug.

For centuries, salvia has been used by the indigenous people of southern Mexico, and only recently has it found its way to the United States.

While it can be chewed or turned into a tincture, the main way to ingest the herb is to smoke it. As one user told the Minnesota Independent last year: “I smoked it, and it tasted really gross…and then I got a little light-headed, so I lay down on the ground and it sort of felt like I was floating. It wasn’t like a marijuana high at all. It was like a catatonic feeling with a little bit of floating.”

Most users report that the high, which lasts about five minutes, has a dissociative effect — a feeling of being outside one’s body. Some report hallucinations, but nearly all say the experience was as brief as it was profound.

Carol Falkowski of the alcohol and drug abuse division at the Minnesota Department of Human Services also testified in support of the bill, but she admitted that the federal government hasn’t taken action to criminalize it because they don’t have evidence that it’s dangerous.

“They don’t have a preponderance of evidence about the negative consequences,” she said.

“I’m sure Minnesota has other things to worry about. Criminalizing salvia is a waste of taxpayer money,” Grant Smith, federal policy coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance, said of the bill.

“It would expand the drug war by adding yet another drug that is prohibited.” Smith said that Minnesota should adopt less restrictive laws surrounding salvia, like Maine and California, which regulate it instead of criminalizing it.

“Our approach is to ban sales to minors and regulate sales to adults,” he said. “If you criminalize it it will simply go underground and minors will gain access to it. Drug dealers don’t check IDs.”

Zach Tauer, of the University of Minnesota chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, had a similar take. “SSDP feels that Salvia should remain legal,” he said. “By making it illegal, it creates a potential black market Salvia. Instead of buying Salvia from a headshop (where you know the concentration), you may end up buying it on a street corner with an unknown concentration and purity.”

Smith said that some in the medical community have doubted the wisdom of criminalization. He pointed to drug abuse researchers at Johns Hopkins University who spoke out against it, doubting salvia’s dangers and stating that making it illegal will inevitably hamper research into the drug’s benefits. Drs. Roland R. Griffiths and Matthew W. Johnson submitted testimony when Maryland attempted to pass a salvia ban (pdf):

[D]espite the popularization of Salvia divinorum use over the past 5 to 10 years, there are no case reports of addiction to Salvia divinorum in the scientific literature, and Salvia divinorum use has not been reported to be a problem in substance abuse treatment programs.
…
Although addiction appears to be of low concern with Salvia divinorum, it is clear that some use of Salvia divinorum can legitimately be considered abuse (i.e. use in a way that risks the well being of the individual or others). For example, Salvia divinorum can lead to substantial motor impairment that could potentially lead to accidents, particularly if the user is in a hazardous environment or situation. It should be noted, however, that there is little evidence that such injuries are occurring because there are no emergency department case reports in the scientific literature suggesting such injuries. This is perhaps due to the extremely short time course of the drug when smoked, allowing little time for such injuries to occur. Users describe effects to be substantially resolved in approximately 5 to 10 minutes.

In Louisiana, North Carolina and Tennessee, salvia can be grown as a garden plant but not for human consumption. In California and Maine, salvia is illegal to sell to minors. In Wisconsin, possession of salvia is legal, but sales and “delivery” of the herb are not.

Minnesota’s proposed law would make it a gross misdemeanor to sell salvia and a misdemeanor to possess it. A vote on the bill could come as soon as this week in either chamber of the Legislature.

Photo by Neeta Lind

Advocates of legalizing medical marijuana for chronically and terminally ill patients have decided to scale back their campaign to pass such legislation this year because of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto pen. In 2009, both chambers at the Capitol passed medical marijuana legislation with bipartisan support — only to see Pawlenty veto the legislation. Medical marijuana advocates had hinted at a constitutional amendment this session to bypass Pawlenty, but that won’t be the plan for 2010.

“Because Governor Pawlenty has announced that he is not seeking re-election in 2010, and because we don’t want to give him the ‘pleasure’ of vetoing another bill to help seriously ill Minnesotans, our focus has shifted to 2011,” read a statement from Minnesotans for Compassionate Care. “We intend to do everything in our power to ensure that a supportive gubernatorial candidate is in office when the next legislative session begins in January 2011.”

The group says it will continue to work with the law enforcement lobby to see if they can reach a compromise this session.

“MCC is meeting with law enforcement to answer their questions and learn about their objections,” the group wrote. “If law enforcement works with us in good faith, we may be able to introduce a bill that Governor Pawlenty will sign.”

Bradlee Dean

“Homosexuality is against the law in the United States,” says Bradlee Dean, the head of the “punk rock” ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, which brings its overtly religious message to public schools at taxpayer expense. Therefore, he concludes, the appointment by Barack Obama of Minneapolis’ Sharon Lubinski, a lesbian, as a U.S. Marshal is illegal.

On his radio show on AM 1280 The Patriot on Saturday, Dean said, “Sodomy is against the law in the United States. Homosexuality is against the law in the United States.”

“…But, what did Obama do and Amy Klobuchar do? They nominated Sharon Lubinski to the U.S. Marshal in the state of Minnesota,” he continued. “Not only is she the first woman, but she is the first lesbian to serve in such a position. Again folks, this is against the law.”

A bit later, he chides Gov. Tim Pawlenty for not stopping the Lubinski appointment:

“Why are these laws not being enforced? Why was a lesbian just nominated for the U.S. Marshal nominated for the U.S. Marshal on your watch? Don’t sit there and tell me you don’t have any power to do anything about it. You have all the power to do something about it.”

Dean’s ministry has plenty of political support from big names in Pawlenty’s party. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has been involved in You Can Run fundraising efforts, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was among attendees at the group’s most recent fundraiser. Congressional candidate Allen Quist and Republican Mary Kiffmeyer, former secretary of state, are among the organization’s backers.

Lubinski, sworn in Friday, is widely believed to be the first openly lesbian Marshal in U.S. history.

Listen:

The Minneapolis assistant police chief was recommended by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar last year, then nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate.

Lubinski is widely regarded as the first lesbian to hold the position. She will serve in the District of Minnesota.

U.S. marshals oversee federal courthouse security, witness protection, the apprehension of federal fugitives and the transport of federal prisoners.

MN Publius’ Zach Stephenson asks whether the video is evidence that Day is already acting as a lobbyist.

Not until he earns $3,000 for his lobbying services, says Gary Goldsmith, executive director at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. Goldsmith tells the Minnesota Independent that’s the threshold to meet the definition of a lobbyist under state law.

That definition specifically says that the term “‘lobbyist’ does not include a public official,” but Goldsmith tells MnIndy the law doesn’t actually prohibit a legislator from also lobbying.

But there’s a lot of overlap between activities included in the two job descriptions — persuading elected officials, for one. And in Day’s case, with the Legislature out of session, it’s an especially foggy area. Legislators are allowed to engage in outside employment, hobbies and advocacy.

Here is the video in question:

Image: fcc.gov

The Star Tribune started it, and now the newspaper has announced an end to the saga of the flat-screen TVs at the state facility for sex offenders at Moose Lake. The facility’s director has been reprimanded and the TVs have been punished.

No sooner did the Strib reveal in October that $1,500 plasma TVs grace common areas at the facility than Gov. Pawlenty ordered the sets removed for resale or (he decided on reflection) transfer to veterans’ homes.

Pawlenty also vowed that whoever made the “bonehead” decision to install fancy TVs at Moose Lake should get “reprimanded, at a minimum.” And Thursday the Strib confirmed that the facility’s director, who wasn’t there when the “bonehead” decision was made, has received a verbal tsk-tsk.

Eight of the sets got wrecked en route from Moose Lake to their new homes. Only four have been installed at veterans’ homes in Minneapolis and Moose Lake.

Any mention of his cuts to Local Government Aid (LGA) are absent from the Whereases of Pawlenty’s emergency order:

WHEREAS, the providing of fire and rescue services in the protection of lives and property is a primary function of government; and

WHEREAS, while this vital public safety function is performed by local governments, considerable potential exists for increased efficiency, effectiveness, and cost-savings by voluntary and cooperative shared services models; and

WHEREAS, recent creation of several shared services fire and rescue districts in different parts of the state demonstrates the interest and need to increase efficiency; and

WHEREAS, additional and alternate models for shared fire and rescue services warrant discussion, as do issues of governance, funding, liability, pensions, procurement, and related topics; and

WHEREAS, the Commissioner of Public Safety, through the Fire Marshal Division of the Department of Public Safety, has extensive existing relationships, statewide jurisdiction, and substantial statutory duties related to the fire and rescue services of Minnesota and so is ideally-suited to convene such a group.