Week of October 6, 2007

Schedule: On Monday, October 8th, I attended the Oberstar Forum at the Center for Transportation Studies at the U of M. I just stuck around to hear Jim Oberstar and Senator Klobuchar speak. In the evening I attended a meeting of the DFL House Caucus. On Wednesday, October 10th, I visited with fourth graders from Rice Lake Elementary School in Lino Lakes at the Capitol and attended a Senate hearing on the health impacts of atrazine, a common pesticide used on corn. Two testifiers spoke about how atrazine causes feminization of male frogs and is a likely cause of increased prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. The relevant issue for us in the suburbs is that atrazine (and other pesticides) can actually reach us through rainfall because they are evaporated with surface water and end up in the water cycle. On Thursday, October 11th, I chaperoned my son's first grade class field trip to the Shoreview Library. I didn't realize that the Shoreview Library houses the technical services office for all Ramsey County Libraries. So those folks in the basement prepare books for distribution to the libraries. On Friday, October 12th, I attended an all day meeting at the MPCA on their work for a biennial solid waste policy report.

Visitors: Met Council staff about drinking water; White Bear Lake resident about water issues

Constituent contacts: Lino Lakes resident about contact information for Senator Klobuchar; Shoreview resident asking about DFL agenda for children's issues in 2008; Lino Lakes resident against rail and the gas tax; North Oaks resident, two Circle Pines residents, and Shoreview resident against Department of Commerce agreement to allow the Big Stone II coal plant