Membership Sideblog
- The Marcus Welby of law, by Lance Heisler | Lampe Law Group
July 31, 2010 | 7:45 pmGrowing up in North Dakota during the 50s and 60s, I was privileged to experience something that's all too rare now - the old-fashioned family doctor. "Doc" delivered babies, set broken bones, treated pneumonia, and helped Grandpa with his newfangled hearing aid. Doc knew the community, the families, and the individuals whose basic medical needs he treated from birth through the end of life. Some of you who grew up in that time, and perhaps in smaller communities, may remember a Doc of your own. . . . → Read More: The Marcus Welby of law, by Lance Heisler | Lampe Law Group
- Kitty Mania at the Prairie’s Edge Humane Society, by Sandy Vesledahl
July 28, 2010 | 10:51 pm
Let’s talk about cats, cats and more cats! Why?? Because Prairie’s Edge Humane Society is full of cats and we have many more arriving daily. As of today, there are 44 cats on the adoption floor with more awaiting their surgeries so they are ready for adoption. There are cats in every corner of the shelter who need homes! We are in desperate need of homes for these cats. We cannot emphasize this enough. So we are having a cat sale and we are calling it Kitty Mania ! Kitty Mania is this weekend, beginning Thursday, July . . . → Read More: Kitty Mania at the Prairie’s Edge Humane Society, by Sandy Vesledahl
- On Watermelons and Widgets, by Tom Swift
July 12, 2010 | 11:50 am
The free market does many things well, but we know it does not do everything. Even market fundamentalists concede that the public must build roads, put out fires, police streets, and provide national defense. Most people, at least those to the left of the Tea Party edge of political spectrum, accept that the government must also be involved in education, disaster relief, and health care. That is, certain services must be rendered — necessary services, universal services — whether or not those services are financially profitable. If your house is on fire, you do not have time to . . . → Read More: On Watermelons and Widgets, by Tom Swift
- Vintage Band Festival Contra Dance, by Dan Bergeson
July 12, 2010 | 10:56 am
Okay, so most of the news about the Vintage Band Festival so far has been about the bands. But there’s a number of other events during the weekend. Like the VBF Contra Dance, for instance. The Vintage Band Festival Contra Dance will feature music by The Dodworth Saxhorn Band of Ann Arbor, Michigan and will be led by dance instructor/caller Robin Nelson. Dancing will begin at 8:30 p.m. with a “Grand March” led by 60 costumed members of the 1st Wisconsin Infantry Brigade, followed by a variety of period dances including polkas, contra dances, schottisches, reels and waltzes. . . . → Read More: Vintage Band Festival Contra Dance, by Dan Bergeson
- The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome, by Tom Swift
June 27, 2010 | 8:00 am
Even before I read the first word of this article I had a visceral reaction to it. The accompanying photographs — my eyes tend to skip over photographs in magazines — affected me in a manner that is difficult to articulate. I knew, immediately I knew, I was not going to like what I was about to read. In fact, for that reason I put the piece aside. Not now, I thought. Maybe tomorrow, I said to myself. But, then, I couldn’t not read it, either. If you have not done so already, I hope you will read . . . → Read More: The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome, by Tom Swift
- Puppies! Puppies! Puppies! by Kathy Jasnoch
June 27, 2010 | 7:54 am
June may be Adopt A Cat month here at Prairie’s Edge Humane Society and we have lots of wonderful cats, but we also have PUPPIES! We have a male Newfoundland mix named Chong who is 6 months old, he was a stray so we don’t know a lot about him. He loves to play! We also have three Australian Cattle Dog mixes who are two months old. Marcia, Bobby and Cindy were born at the shelter and spent some time in one of our fabulous foster homes. They are now back at the shelter and ready to find . . . → Read More: Puppies! Puppies! Puppies! by Kathy Jasnoch
- Relay for Life of Rice County, August 6th, Rice County Fairgrounds. By Sandy Vesledahl
June 23, 2010 | 9:35 pm
The American Cancer Society Relay for Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. At Relay for Life, teams of people camp out at local parks or fairgrounds and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events. Relay for Life of Rice . . . → Read More: Relay for Life of Rice County, August 6th, Rice County Fairgrounds. By Sandy Vesledahl
- Critter Cam live from Prairie’s Edge Humane Society, by Sandy Vesledahl
June 16, 2010 | 9:04 amNow Showing! Live Kittens playing! You can now watch our adoptable animals at Prairie’s Edge Humane Society (PEHS) live 24/7 on the new Critter Cam installed in conjunction with KYMN Radio. Thanks to the fine folks at KYMN radio we now have a live feed of our adoptable animals showing on our website and KYMN’s website, Tim and Jeff are AWESOME! Currently the Critter Cam is featuring kittens available for adoption. Watch them play, sleep, eat, and everything else they do 24 hours a day 7 days a week! It’s better than anything you can see on TV! . . . → Read More: Critter Cam live from Prairie’s Edge Humane Society, by Sandy Vesledahl
- Save the Northfield Depot: fundraising help needed. By Lynn Vincent
June 11, 2010 | 11:34 am
A BIG Thanks to all of you who came to last Monday’s Volunteer Organization Meeting, and to those who contacted us saying you wanted to help but could not make the meeting. We have pretty full support for Communications and Design and Build sub-committees, and we got a web graphic designer to help with the site. Alice Thomas is facilitating the Communications group, and Steve Edwins is facilitating the Design and Build group. What we are missing and really need are Fund Raising people. We have two grant writiers, but we need folks who are committed to the . . . → Read More: Save the Northfield Depot: fundraising help needed. By Lynn Vincent
- Photo albums: 2010 Prairie’s Edge Humane Society Walk for the Animals, by Bridgette Hallcock Photography
June 11, 2010 | 8:09 am
Thank you to all of those who came to Alexander Park on a beautiful Saturday morning in May to help support Prairie’s Edge Humane Society! I have placed all of the fun photographs on my Bridgette Hallcock Photography Facebook page so that everyone can see how much fun we had! See the two 2010 Walk for the Animals albums here and here. If you would like a print, please contact me, as the proceeds will benefit the animals at PEHS.
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Northfield becoming Silicon Valley and North Beach; but what about green collar manufacturing?
By Griff Wigley, on July 15, 2007, 11:43 pm
 Art Monaghan, Northfielder and a partner with Granite Equity Partners, (4th of July photo on left — click to enlarge — is with two of his partners but I’m not 100% certain they’re the Granite types) alerted a few folks to this article which appeared on the front page of the June 8 edition of Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal: Northfield striving to become tech town. It got forwarded to me eventually.
 The Northfielder featured in the article (in the Biz Journal photo on the right) was Lee Runzheimer, the executive director of the Northfield Enterprise Center at the time the article was written. He resigned shortly it was published to become the CFO of ID Insight, the company he helped lure to Northfield. Details in this 6/16 article in the Northfield News: Director of NEC resigns.
Here’s the Biz Journal paragraph that helps paint our economic future as a mix of Geeks of Silicon Valley with the Beats of North Beach (click the screenshot image to see a large gif of the article):
 ID Insight Inc., which is developing software to combat identity theft, said last week it will relocate its St. Paul headquarters to Northfield in August… ID Insight looked at about a half-dozen Minnesota communities for its permanent headquarters before settling on Northfield, said CEO Adam Elliott. The financial incentives helped, but Elliott has other ties to the city; about half his employees are alums of St. Olaf College, and about 60 percent of his board of directors went there, too.
When Lee Runzheimer, executive director of the Northfield Enterprise Center, suggested that Northfield could one day be a sort of Midwest version of Palo Alto, Calif., Elliott said he didn’t completely laugh it off. The Northfield Enterprise Center is a nonprofit arm of the city’s economic development authority that helps expand area businesses.
“It’s got kind of a beatnik culture,” Elliott said. “We bought in a little bit to the vision.”
Also mentioned in the article: 3C Capital Partners, a Northfield investment fund spearheaded by Rich Falck and Brett Reese; and Richard Garcia, CEO of Northfield-based videogame developer Monster Games.
I wonder, though, if we shouldn’t also be pursuing the green collar manufacturing that NY Times columnist Tom Friedman talks about in his column today, The Green Road Less Traveled:
O.K., Friedman, so I.B.M. is now in the traffic biz. Who cares? I care, because it underscores a fundamental truth about green technology: you can’t make a product greener, whether it’s a car, a refrigerator or a traffic system, without making it smarter – smarter materials, smarter software or smarter design.
What can many U.S. companies still manufacture? They can manufacture things that are smart – that have a lot of knowledge content in them, like a congestion pricing network for a whole city. What do many Chinese companies manufacturer? They manufacture things that can be made with a lot of cheap labor, like the rubber tires on your car. Which jobs are most easily outsourced? The ones vulnerable to cheap labor. Which jobs are hardest to outsource? Those that require a lot of knowledge.
So what does all this mean? It means that to the extent that we make “green” standards part of everything we design and manufacture, we create “green collar” jobs that are much more difficult to outsource. I.B.M. and other tech companies are discovering a mother lode of potential new business for their high-wage engineers and programmers thanks to the fact that mayors all over the world are thinking about going green through congestion pricing systems.
FYI, Friedman’s The Power of Green article that originally appeared in the April 15 NY Time magazine is still available online along with a video interview. And see this YouTube video of his Green is the New Red, White, and Blue presentation at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
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Art Monaghan, Northfielder and a partner with Granite Equity Partners, (4th of July photo on left — click to enlarge — is with two of his partners but I’m not 100% certain they’re the Granite types) alerted a few folks to this article which appeared on the front page of the June 8 edition of Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal: Northfield striving to become tech town. It got forwarded to me eventually.
The Northfielder featured in the article (in the Biz Journal photo on the right) was Lee Runzheimer, the executive director of the Northfield Enterprise Center at the time the article was written. He resigned shortly it was published to become the CFO of ID Insight, the company he helped lure to Northfield. Details in this 6/16 article in the Northfield News: Director of NEC resigns.
but I’d have a hard time during the sabbatical not paying attention to see if that was actually the case. I think the more places in Northfield...
[...] now, the 20 employees at Monster Games are working on a top-secret video game for Nintendo. They’ve worked on it for two years and [...]
[...] striving to become tech town. I cited the article a month later in a blog post titled Northfield becoming Silicon Valley and North Beach; but what about green collar manufacturing? in which I pointed to Tom Friedman’s (NY Times columnist) April 2007 article, The Power of Green, [...]