In a sign that the campaign season has truly started, Pres. Barack Obama’s campaign will open an office just outside the University of Minnesota campus Monday.

The office will be located at 2722 University Avenue S.E., in Minneapolis. An invitation sent to supporters invites them to meet fellow activists and learn about the campaign’s “grassroots strategy for re-electing the president.”

“One year isn’t so far away, and we have to build for the long term and strengthen this movement today. Come on Monday to see how you can be involved and how together we will re-elect the President and reclaim the basic values that make our country great.”

Obama’s Republican rivals are currently focusing their resources on early primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

“I encourage members of the progressive caucus or any public official or any public figure, don’t try to inject yourself into this,” Ellison said on MSNBC over the weekend. “Show up and support it, if people want you speak—speak—but respect the fact that this is a citizen thing.”

Ellison said he’s convinced the Minneapolis occupations are peaceful, and that people are rightly concerned about predatory banks, unemployment and the “expanding wealth gap.”

“It’s deeper than a bill, and it’s deeper than what party’s in the majority,” Ellison said. “There is a growing sense among many Americans that the American dream is getting out of their grasp.”

The demonstrators were the outgrowth of an Occupy Wall Street movement that started in New York more than three weeks ago. They plan to occupy the site in downtown Minneapolis indefinitely.

Their manifesto: “If you are struggling; if you have lost your job, or your home; if you have seen your child unjustly incarcerated; if you are homeless, living without health care, or drowning in debt; if you work full time but still are unable to afford food to feed your family; if you feel no one is listening to you; if you are fed up with the direction this country is going in — then you are one of the 99 percent. We are talking to you. Come and join us! This is your chance to be heard.”

Award-winning photojournalist Kathy Easthagen captured these scenes from the “occupation” of the Twin Cities on Friday morning.

Cody Cooper, second-year law student at the University of Minnesota, is planning on a career as a lobbyist or in public policy. "I, like most of the people here, want to see easier access to a voice in politics." (Photo: Kathy Easthagen/The Minnesota Independent)

(Photo: Kathy Easthagen/The Minnesota Independent)

An unnamed woman, not wanting the message on the man's sign behind her to go unchallenged but also not wanting to draw attention to it, stands in front of him with a sign of displeasure. (Photo: Kathy Easthagen/The Minnesota Independent)

Educator Pattrice Jones paints a banner for the "teach-ins" that will be held later in the day. (Photo: Kathy Easthagen/The Minnesota Independent)

Jacob Kelly, a 28-year-old resident of the Twin Cities, is like many attending the occupation in that he has a host of reasons for attending that ranged from personal freedom to inequitable public policy. (Photo: Kathy Easthagen/The Minnesota Independent)

Minnesotans are planning a solidarity occupation in downtown Minneapolis Friday, Oct. 7.

Source: Flickr, David_Shankbone

About 800 young labor organizers at the AFL-CIO’s Next Up Youth Worker Summit in Minneapolis announced their support for New York Wall Street protesters Sunday.

The youth summit attendees compared the protests to the pro-democracy Arab Spring demonstrations in the Middle East and recent protests against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

“The future of our country depends on young people demanding the future we believe in,” the statement said. “And we believe that Wall Street should pay for the damage they’ve done to our economy, our jobs, and our communities – foreclosing on homes, making massive profits with no oversight, and not sharing in building a future for the next generation.”

The resolution was proposed by Mary Clinton of the CUNY Murphy Institute in New York. It passed by a unanimous voice vote at the convention.

Citing Occupy Wall Street’s slogan that “we are the 99 percent,” the labor organizers called for a “country that doesn’t just work for the top 1 percent.”

“We stand together to call for a sustainable future that doesn’t begin with massive tax breaks for the wealthy and end with austerity measures and a jobs crisis,” the statement said. “We are one.”

Protests inspired by the Wall Street occupation have broken out in Minnesota. One group, OccupyMN, plans to occupy a site in downtown Minneapolis Friday.

The full resolution is below:

“The world in which we live isn’t working for the vast majority of people. The top 1 percent controls the economy, makes profits at the expense of working people, and dominates the political debate. Wall Street symbolizes this simple truth: a small group of people have the lives and livelihoods of working Americans in their hands.

In the last two weeks, young people have sparked a movement on Wall Street, just as they did through the Arab Spring and in Wisconsin against Scott Walker. Participants at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit left Occupy Wall Street to join with young people in the labor movement to talk about how best to take back our economy for the middle class.

Today, more than 800 Next Up participants from around the country stand with those on Wall Street who are making their voices heard. The future of our country depends on young people demanding the future we believe in. And we believe that Wall Street should pay for the damage they’ve done to our economy, our jobs, and our communities – foreclosing on homes, making massive profits with no oversight, and not sharing in building a future for the next generation.

We stand together in calling for a country that doesn’t just work for the top 1 percent. We stand together to call for a sustainable future that doesn’t begin with massive tax breaks for the wealthy and end with austerity measures and a jobs crisis.

We are one.”

Photo: Wall St. protesters rally in New York; Source: Flickr, _PaulS_

Minnesotans sympathetic to Wall Street protests that are stretching into their third week are planning their own occupation Friday.

Protesters are planning to rechristen the target, Hennepin County Government Plaza in Minneapolis, as “The People’s Plaza,” according to the group’s website.

The Minnesota group is just the most recent sparked by Wall Street protests in New York, where over 700 people were arrested this weekend. The protests have spread to other North American cities like Albuquerque, N.M., Boston, Mass., and Toronto, Canada.

An organizer told the Star Tribune that the group is ”trying to be transparent, because we want to be totally nonviolent.” He said he wants everyone to be able to get involved in the protest. Organizing is being discussed on Twitter and Facebook. One thread announces outreach efforts at local unions, with Facebook followers chiming in to mention their own union connections.

The Star Tribune reports that members of the group have spoken to police about their plans: “It is not illegal to spend the night in public parks or plazas,” a police spokesman said, warning that the presence of protesters would only become an issue if they caused disturbances or blocked access.

The group is holding a “general assembly” in Stevens Square Park Monday evening to organize the action.

OccupyMN’s Facebook page has already gathered almost 2,000 supporters. They’re also raising money on the internet site WePay.com, and had already raised almost $600 by Monday morning.

“It is time to establish a new system that values people over profits,” a statement on the group’s website reads. “We are the 99% and we are moving to reclaim our mortgaged future.”

As a protest roared in front of the Minneapolis Convention Center, a few dozen office workers and sprinkling of protesters clustered on the corners of 3rd Avenue and 12th Street.
Police growled at pedestrians in the crosswalk, sirens yelped and a stream of emergency vehicles shot through the intersection. Then, at 10:46 a.m., a cheer rippled through the crowd as President Barack Obama’s motorcade rushed by.

Patrick T. Murphy lifted higher his sign reading, “Jobs?”

Inside, at the annual convention of the American Legion, attendants waited for Obama to discuss veterans benefits. Outside, hundreds of Minnesotans held signs about the environment, war and jobs under the overcast sky.

“I think this president and all the other politicians have failed us,” Murphy said after the motorcade passed. “They’re more interested in serving the needs of their contributors than they are the people of the United States.”

Police reopened the sidewalk to pedestrian traffic as the clusters of people fanned out.

“I came out today because this is so important,” says Patricia P. Hauser, pointing to her sign against the Keystone pipeline. “We wanted him to see a sign, at least one sign—he doesn’t get away scot-free.”

In the body of the protest, Remi Eichten of St. Paul wasn’t disillusioned that the motorcade avoided protesters.

“I want citizens of Minneapolis, of Minnesota, to see we’re out here,” she said.

Eichten says she’s still an Obama supporter, although she hopes he’ll take action on the Keystone project, as well as push for other policies like a new stimulus plan.

“I feel like he kind of needed to have his first term to say I’m a ‘work with you’ person [to Republicans]. If we can get him in for a second term it will be like doot, doot, doot,” Eichten says, checking off accomplishments. “I also wanted to come out and show that you can show dissent with him and still be supportive of him,” Eichten added.

Misty Grandison of Minneapolis said she wished Obama would be a little more scrappy.

“He sometimes feels uncomfortable with  [criticism], especially when it comes from the left,” Grandison said, although she said she still preferred Obama to other presidential candidates like U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Later, as the speech wrapped up inside, protesters streamed to where Obama’s motorcade had entered the convention center, trailed by lines of police and five horses. A police officer announced “Disperse now,” as the horses crowded protesters off the sidewalk near the new security cordon. As it began to lightly rain, protesters argued with police or discussed Obama’s appointees.

Steve Sweet came from Greenville, Miss., to serve as an alternate national executive committeeman at the legionnaires annual convention. He watched the preparations for the exit of the president’s motorcade from across the street.

“This is what I fought for, these people have a right to protest and say what they want,” Sweet said, nodding to the protesters, many of whom carried signs referencing jobs, which the American Legion has concentrated on during this year’s convention. “I don’t have a thing against them, I’d sit down and have coffee with them—it’s that we’re going to have a difference of opinion and that’s what it’s all about anyway—that’s fine.”

According to a study of 2010 U.S. Census data by UCLA’s Williams Institute, among large U.S. cities, Minneapolis has the fourth highest rate of same-sex couples living within its borders. Neighboring St. Paul ranked 24th and Minnesota ranked 33rd among states.

While an anti-gay-marriage initiative will be on the ballot in 2012, a policy that would surely turn many same-sex couples away from Minnesota, some of the state’s communities are embracing the growing number of such couples within their communities.

Minneapolis has 3,831 couples, according to the Census, or 23.43 same-sex couples per 1,000 households. It lagged behind only San Francisco, Seattle and Oakland among of cities over 250,000 population. Its place among major cities hasn’t change much over the last three decades. It was fourth in the 1990 Census, fifth in 2000 and in the American Community Survey conducted between 2004-2006, the city placed third.

St. Paul has 1,346 such couples, or 12.13 same-sex couples per 1,000 households, ranking it 24th among cities with a population greater than 250,000. That put it just behind Los Angeles.

Minnesota came in at 33rd among the states for same-sex couples per 1,000 households. It was bested only by Illinois among Midwestern states, ranking just above Indiana and well ahead of Iowa (47th), where gay marriage is legal. Wisconsin was 40th, and South and North Dakota were 50th and 51st, respectively.

Minnesota saw an increase in same-sex couples of 50 percent over 2000.

In Minnesota, the top city of any size with the highest concentration of same-sex couples was Golden Valley followed by Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, St. Paul and Richfield.

In the U.S., the Census reported 901,997 same-sex couples or 7.7 per 1,000 households.

The numbers are prompting some communities to tout their acceptance of same-sex couples as a positive attribute. Pine City did not make the top five in Minnesota, but Pine County did — coming in third behind Hennepin and Ramsey counties. Some community boosters there have seized on those numbers. Pine City, home to 3,100 residents and located about an hour north of Minneapolis, hosts East Central Minnesota Pride, a LGBT pride picnic held each summer. The parade has garnered attention nationally for being one of only a handful of small-town pride events in the nation. And, the Minnesota State Fair Foundation named it a winner for the 2011 Community Pride Showcase.

“This event is one of the ways that the small town GLBT community can help to bring harmony to us all no matter where we live in this great state of ours,” said Dennis Burns, owner of DB Signs in rural Pine City, in a statement about the recognition. “I urge everyone to attend the picnic next summer.”

Nathan Johnson, Pine City’s city planner, noted that Pine City’s proximity to the Twin Cities, as well as its openness, has contributed to an increase in same-sex couples choosing to locate in the area.

Another reason for the concentration of gay couples in the Pine City area might be that the city lives up to its motto: “North. Nice and close.” People are coming here from the Twin Cities area, primarily, because of the great quality of life. The town is home to a health food store, gyms, a community theater and an arts center—not to mention the recreational aspects of the Snake River and nearby lakes. One can buy anything from hummus to sushi here.

And while Minneapolis has been named the nation’s most gay-friendly city, Pine City has evidence of a community that embraces gay residents as well — such as East Central Minnesota Pride.

Bottom line, as reported recently in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the increase since 2000 in the number of same-sex partners reflects three changes: More gays and lesbians in the area; more choosing to live together; and more of them willing to identify themselves as gay.

True in the Twin Cities. True in Pine City.

Miriam Jordan of The Wall Street Journal reports on a pseudonymous couple who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico to settle in Minneapolis. They held jobs paying well over the minimum wage, plus benefits, before the Obama Administration began cracking down on employers. Both of them now work lower-paid jobs and work for less than the minimum wage.

More about the audits:

The audits, started by the Obama administration in 2009, put the onus on business to police workers, requiring companies to turn over employee records to federal agents. If the papers aren’t in order, the workers are quietly let go without penalty while the companies are punished.

The audits, conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, were initially hailed by some immigrant advocates as more humane because they eliminate deportation raids, the norm during the Bush administration.

But it has become increasingly clear that the policy is pushing undocumented workers deeper underground, delivering them to the hands of unscrupulous employers, depressing wages and depriving federal, state and local coffers of taxes, according to unions, companies and immigrant advocates.

It’s not clear whether their employer, ABM, looked the other way or the couple simply provided false documents. Employers are required to accept documents for an I-9 form or else be open to charges of employment discrimination. Either way, they were treated well — the husband made up to just over $14 an hour, and both entitled to paid vacation and sick days.

Minnesota required the use of E-Verify for state employees and contractors doing more than $50,000 in business with the state from 2008 until 2011, when Gov. Mark Dayton reversed the executive order of Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

With the recession and increased immigration enforcement, it’s unlikely that the couple will find other jobs that pay well above minimum wage and include benefits.

NEW ULM — Flanked by New Ulm Mayor Bob Beussman, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak joined local city officials from south central Minnesota Wednesday to warn local residents about the crippling effects of potential cut to Local Government Aid (LGA) under the tax bill  that Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed.

Rybak and area leaders repeatedly evoked the notion that Minnesota works best as a partnership of small towns and big cities. The big city mayor drew laughter with the example of a partnership he used to open the press conference.

“New Ulm and Minneapolis have an awful lot in common,” he said. “One of my favorite things about New Ulm is actually Nordeast beer which we get all this credit for in Minneapolis. We know where it’s made;  it’s made right here in New Ulm, as are so many other great Schell’s products.”

Rybak turned serious, though, as he pointed out that he and his wife frequently visited the Brown County town, enjoying the services that LGA helped it secure for its citizens.

“Any time you go anywhere in Minnesota, you should have that guarantee that you’ll have those good, basic services,” Rybak said. “That’s important right now, though, because there’s a proposal right now at the state capitol that would have a dramatic negative impact on all those things that those of us who come to visit us care about, and more importantly, those who [live] in New Ulm really depend on”

According to a press release issued by ThankLGA.org, a media campaign run by the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, Dayton vetoed a tax bill that would have slashed LGA to Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Duluth  by over 50% in 2011, eliminating the assistance for the large cities by 2014. Greater Minnesota cities would  have seen a 19% reduction.

Chief author of the legislation, House Property Tax  Committee Chair Linda Runbeck (R-Circle Pines),  said in a March 16 committee meeting that “she intends the bill to begin the phase-out of aid sent to cities,” veteran Forum Communications political writer Don Davis reported. Other Republicans have denied that this is the intent of her legislation, Davis noted.

Those assembled in New Ulm would have none of the GOP demurrals and hammered home the need for the program. North Mankato City Administrator Wendell Sande said that small business owners surveyed by Greater Mankato Growth, the Mankato area chamber, favored keeping LGA.

“When they had an opportunity to look at the LGA program and the impacts that the program had … a vast majority of our businesses are in support of the continuation of the LGA program and, at some point, restoring to its previous levels,” Sande said.

Representatives from New Ulm’s Chamber  of Commerce attended the event, underscoring a widely reported split between 14 local chambers in Greater Minnesota that have passed resolutions supporting LGA and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which supports the cuts. Rybak said that the revival of Minnesota’s economy would done by small businesses on the main streets of towns like New Ulm and Mankato.

Despite this division between the business groups, the mayors and city managers stressed how Minnesota is one state.

“‘Minnesota Nice’ was a slogan for many years,” Beussman said. “It didn’t say ‘Minneapolis Nice,’ it didn’t say ‘New Ulm Nice,’ it didn’t say  ‘Sleepy Eye Nice,’ it didn’t say ‘North Mankato.’ It says ‘Minnesota.’ And if  Minnesota can work together for the better of all of its citizens, then … the North Star State can be a very powerful state.”

Rybak traveled from New Ulm to Albert Lea for another press conference.

A video of highlights from the presser and an interview with Rybak immediately after the event: