West St. Paul Councilmember Promises to ‘Enjoy’ His ‘Bag of Dicks’

Dick Gets Dicks

We’ve been sleeping on West St. Paul. And so, almost too late to comment, we saw this Bring Me the News report on councilmember Dick Vitelli’s response to being sent “a Bag of Dicks,” a novelty gift (a “gag” gift?) of penis-shaped gummies. “I will enjoy these very much,” Vitelli gruffly pledged to the anonymous donor, noting “They don’t have the balls to put their name on the bag.” (The balls are in the bag, Dick.) The councilmember (heheh, "member") closed his remarks with a traditional West St. Paul proverb: “Kiss my ass.”  

Mayor vs. Mayor

A MinnPost opinion piece this morning raises a good question: Why hasn’t Jacob Frey sought an “after action” report on the murder of George Floyd? [Checks byline] Ah, it’s Betsy Hodges, who’d like to remind you that when she was Mayor of Minneapolis, she requested such a report on the police killing of Jamar Clark. (What I wouldn’t give to hear Hodges talk about Frey off the record for just 10 minutes.) Acrimony aside, her point stands: Without a report, there are “no lessons learned” from the incident and there is “no one held accountable.” 

Raising Rates? Not Xcel-lent!

Xcel Energy is headed to the state Public Utilities Commission with its hand out this week, the Star Tribune reports. Minnesota’s largest energy provider is asking for permission to raise its rates 21.2% over the next three years. If the changes are accepted, the “average residential customer” would pay 19% more by 2024, which breaks down to about $15 to $21 more a month. (What about “very special” residential customers like you and me?) I’d just like to add a reminder that if you work from home, your employer has outsourced a good share of these electricity costs to you. 

Mpls. Council: Go Sell Your Stolen Catalytic Converters in St. Paul

If you’ve been reading Nextdoor lately… well, first, stop doing that, why do you hate yourself? But if you have, you know that catalytic-converter thieves are everywhere this summer, sawing off the devices and reselling them for the valuable rhodium, platinum, palladium, and catalysium they contain. (I only made one of those elements up.) Maybe you’ve even been one of their victims, Now, Axios reports, the Minneapolis City Council is holding a hearing to determine whether the city should have an ordinance that limits the resale of the devices to authorized dealers. And that probably wouldn’t make matters worse. The problem, of course, is that a large part of the world, or even the state of Minnesota, is not covered by Minneapolis city ordinances.