"Government exists to serve the people [View all]

[question everything]

and when people are, through no fault of their own especially, put in dire straits, that’s when our government needs to be as responsive as it can be,” Dayton said at a news conference Wednesday.

This is from a report in the strib that Dayton is considering a special legislative session to help the business around Lake Mille Lacs because of declining Walleye fishing.

http://www.startribune.com/special-legislative-session-likely-as-gov-mark-dayton-seeks-to-address-walleye-shortage-at-lake-mille-lacs/319505641/

Of course government exists to serve the people, all people. I am just curious on how many of these business owners share this general outlook.

And then there is an op-ed by Ron Way, who is a former official with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the U.S. Department of the Interior.:

Mille Lacs is a very large and shallow lake ringed by towns and resorts and cabins. Its watershed has been radically altered over time by development designed to generate revenue with little concern for how it might affect the lake. And so the “perfect storm” of abuse includes nutrient enrichment from lawn fertilizers as well as phosphorus and poisons from nearby row crops that cannot be effectively filtered because shore-land vegetation has been removed. There’s little to prevent nutrient overload that grows algae, which decays and consumes oxygen that sustains fish and their habitat. Leaky septic tanks and paved-over areas add still more nutrients.

http://www.startribune.com/counterpoint-if-it-can-happen-to-mille-lacs/319645691/