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Data Centers Aren't a Hot Topic in MN's Gubernatorial Race
Oddly, the major Minnesota candidates for governor, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) and Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, don't have much to say about data centers. Polls suggest that the majority of Minnesotans don’t want ‘em in their neighborhood (even Facebook AI slop argues against them), and data center resistance could end up being a big voting bloc this coming election. But while speaking out against data centers might win votes, hard stances can also discourage campaign funds from Big Tech.
“Their positions illustrate how both candidates want to cultivate ties with business interests and influential trade unions and see promise in the construction jobs and tax revenue of data centers, even as a Minnesota Poll this summer found nearly two-thirds of likely voters would oppose data center construction to expand AI in their communities,” Walker Orenstein writes for the Star Tribune.
He notes that both are actually in agreement on the topic: If tech giants want data centers in a community, let the locals decide. How often do politicians argue that something is actually below their pay grade?
“[Data centers] cause people’s rates to go up, they have hurt the environment, and that just can’t keep happening,” Klobuchar told KFGO’s News and Views with Joel Heitkamp back in August. “So my answer to this is number one, local control. Allowing the locals to make decisions, one data center isn’t the same as another one.”
Demuth has also referred to it as a “local issue.”
Over in Wisconsin, however, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany is blasting his Democratic rival as "Data Center" David Crowley in attack ads that appear ad nauseam (attack ad nauseam?) locally via KFAN. Crowley edged out democratic socialist Francesca Hong, who presumably wouldn't have gifted this issue to Republicans, in this summer's primary.
RIP Tangletown BBQ Spot Scott Ja-Mama's
Since 1991, Scott Woolsey has served up ribs, chicken, and pulled-pork sandwiches made with his mother’s BBQ sauce recipe. But according to a Facebook post from Scott Ja-Mama's, the 60-year-old sauce is going secret again, as the south Minneapolis BBQ joint will close in October.
“35 years just flew by but we finally have an end date. Saturday, October 3rd will be our last day,” the announcement states. “Try to stop in one last time before then, even if it’s just to say hi. We appreciate all of you and your support has meant more than you know. See you soon!”
According to Racket's Jay Boller, who grew up eating Scott Ja-Mama’s, the hole-in-the-wall spot doesn’t have much of a dining room, but it’s great for takeout if you’re able to swing by its brick building at 3 W. Diamond Lake Rd. Get the twice-baked potatoes while you can, he urges.
“You fed the kids from Annunciation for decades. Gave my son more than something to eat,” writes a commenter on the farewell post. “You will be missed.”
Mesabi Trail Finally Completed
Five years after Ja-Mama’s opening, construction on the Mesabi Trail began. The plan was ambitious: to construct a 165-mile paved bike/pedestrian trail over old railways and logging roads that would run from the Mississippi River in Grand Rapids to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Ely. The first leg of the trail was completed in 1996; the last portion, between the city of Tower and the unincorporated community of Embarrass, was finished this year. (Embarrass’s claim to fame is for being the coldest location in Minnesota—nothing embarrassing about that!)
Paula Kangas of Club Mesabi give a lovely overview of the different areas of the trail for Lee Bloomquist of the Mesabi Tribune…
There's the Mississippi section that runs past rivers. The Mesabi section takes you through mining country. The Laurentian section is hilly and takes you along the Continental Divide. And in the Vermilion section, you can smell the pine scent. With most trails everything looks the same. But the Mesabi Trail is different.
A variety of happenings are scheduled in celebration of the trail finally being complete after over 30 years of construction and planning. That includes a 30-mile bike ride this Saturday covering the newest portion and ending in a fest with live music and food as well as a trailhead open house next week in Eveleth.
Jay’s On the Radio!
Well, he was on the radio, to be more precise. And now he's on the internet. Think of it like a crossover episode where an actor from your favorite show turns up on another show—a local journalism multiverse, if you will.
Anyway, you can listen to Jay argue that alternative news is alive and thriving (and also legit!) on WCCO’s Adam & Jordana (list to the segment here), and yesterday he talked up Racket and how our sausage gets made with Matt McNeil on The Matt McNeil Show on AM 950 (listen to that recording here).
