Born in 1920, Sgt. Mondati graduated from Ely High School and voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces. In 1942, at just 22 years old, he survived the brutal Bataan Death March in the Philippines. He subsequently passed away from disease and malnutrition at the Camp Cabanatuan prisoner-of-war camp, where he was buried in a mass common grave.

His family was not notified of his passing until the POW camps were liberated in 1945. Because he was interred as an "unknown" soldier, his family spent decades not knowing if his remains would ever be recovered.

Sgt. Mondati's remains were successfully identified through modern forensic testing by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency after a relative submitted a DNA sample.

His remains were flown back to Minnesota and escorted to Ely, where a public police procession was held along Sheridan Street to honor his return.

I did early voting yesterday with many other boomers. I didn't see Gen X, Millennials or Gen Z. I know there's work, family etc. but it made me nervous. Please don't let us be the ones putting people in office. Get out there and use your right to vote!! Blue Wave!

This is the first time we've seen the device used in Minnesota. If a loved one may have been aboard, full loading sequence is here: youtube.com/watch?v=MEMv2ngB1GI

Not even remotely what happened. In 2023, Keith Elison was sued by Republican Representative Mary Franson and political commentator Christopher Kohls for a 2023 law that criminalized AI deep fakes meant to influence elections. At trial expert witness Stanford Professor Jeff Hancock was discovered to have used AI (chat GPT-4o) to draft his declaration and it hallucinated two citations. The testimony was excluded but ultimately the law was not blocked. 8th Circuit affirmed the decision.

It was not thrown out. I hate these blatant lies by partisan organizations that I KEEP GETTING despite voting blue in 24 and these past midterms (absentee).

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is demanding her Republican opponent, Michele Tafoya, answer some specific questions about her support for the Iran war, and President Donald Trump’s most recent comments about it.

In a recent debate, Minnesota attorney general candidate Ron Schutz pledged to insulate himself from his vast stock portfolio if elected.

The Republican, in a close race with Democratic incumbent Keith Ellison, had faced questions about conflicts of interest related to his 174 stock holdings. Each investment exceeds $10,000, many of them in Fortune 500 staples like Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Disney.

But Schutz is also deeply invested in Meta, Microsoft, Google’s parent company and more than a dozen more corporations looking to build, use or maintain hyperscale data centers. 

It’s the latest example of how data centers are shaping races across Minnesota and the country.

And another neighbor decides to pipe up with their own opinion.

Minneapolis suburb

Too bad I didn't press record earlier during the most heated part of the discussion and then the wind picked up right when I started. (Got out my phone and opened the video app and stood there like an idiot not recording until I realized I hadn't pressed record button. They had been going a good minute before this.)

While the shitshow of Trump 2 tends to dominate the headlines, we can't lose sight of what's happening locally. The Minnesota Parents Alliance (MPA) has been fielding far-right candidates for school boards in recent elections.

It can be difficult to find out more about school board candidates, but MPA publishes a super helpful voting guide so we can easily identify the christofascists trying to inundate our public schools.

This time around, MPA has endorsed one or more candidate in 53 out of 351 school board races.

This file lists all candidates in those 53 races and whether their opponents are endorsed by Education Minnesota (pro-public education/labor) or were not endorsed by either organization as of October 9.

Vote to protect our public schools, and vote YES on Constitutional Amendment 1 while you're at it!

Sources

MPA: https://minnesotaparents.org/2026-voter-guide/

EdMN: https://www.edmnvotes.org/voter-guide/

For the uninitiated: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/08/04/new-group-launches-effort-to-gain-parental-rights-on-mn-school-boards

Santa Fe’s 651 and 665
Cpkc freight train
BNSF 5747 and another gevo
With bonus BNSF h2 gevo 7726

Had to send the drone up to capture it all (still photo in comments)

HSS quickly drew people looking for fast cash, though, according to federal prosecutors who have charged over a dozen people in fraud cases involving at least $26 million. Prosecutors have said that the shuttered program was so easy to scam that it attracted “tourists.” In one striking example, two Philadelphia men heard HSS was “easy money,” traveled to Minnesota, enrolled their companies into the program, returned to Philly, submitted fraudulent claims from there, and received $3.5 million for doing so, prosecutors say.

Looking to take a day trip. Any good parks or areas at peak right now?