Tag: Minnesota Reformer

We Lost A Good One

Minnesota lost an incredible leader by horrific violence on June 14. She cared deeply for the people of Minnesota and was always respectful and thoughtful.

Sign made by my niece.

Here’s an excerpt from a statement from Sophie and Colin Hortman, the children of Melissa and Mark Hortman:

“If you would like to honor the memory of Mark and Melissa, please consider the following:

Plant a tree.

Visit a local park and make use of their amenities, especially a bike trail.

Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do.

Tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it. 

Bake something — bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa, and share it with someone.

Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something.

Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace.

…The best way to honor our parents’ memory is to do something, whether big or small, to make our community just a little better for someone else.”

Below is from Patrick Coolican, Minnesota Reformer, https://minnesotareformer.com/

y J. Patrick Coolican | Editor-in-chiefSATURDAY, June 14, 2025
  The American nightmare has arrived in Minnesota. Democratic House leader Melissa Hortman was shot and killed .
 I knew Melissa Hortman well. Michelle and I sat down with her Thursday for a 30-minute off-the-record conversation. I respect a lot of elected officials, but I admire few. I admired Melissa Hortman. Despite her achievements, she was never self-important. She knew that average Minnesotans had no clue who she was, but that didn’t stop her from doing everything she could to make their lives better. She could be wonderfully blunt. Among my first interactions with her when she became minority leader in 2017, she commented on a profile I’d written of a Republican political operative, calling it, “the journalistic equivalent of a,” well, I can’t publish it, but you can imagine. After I wrote a column in 2019 that proclaimed it was time to stop underestimating Melissa Hortman, she told me, “Whew, I needed a cigarette after reading that one.” She had a wonderfully salty mouth and sense of humor. In the political and legislative sphere, she cared about the work and only the work. And when the work was done, she cared about her family and golden retrievers. 
We lost a good one.
J. Partick Coolican

Ozone

I am sad about all the bad air warnings. One week it is wildfire smoke, the next week it is ozone pollution. Our precious summers go too fast to have to stay inside to avoid unhealthy air. Every action matters, and we all can make a difference! Let’s all work harder for clean air.

If everyone does a little, it makes a big difference! Please don’t use your leaf blower or lawn mower if they pollute, and please don’t idle your car/truck.

What can you do to help ozone pollution?

  • Don’t use lawn mowers or leaf blowers
  • Use public transportation or carpool. Minimize the use of cars and trucks.
  • Do not idle your car engine!
  • Take a long break from your outdoor heaters and fires!
  • Reduce your plastic use. Plastic pollutes our air and bodies at every stage of its life. Plastic is made from fossil fuels.
  • Do not use cleaning products that are harmful to the environment and to us.
  • Buy local products.
  • Maintain air conditioners, as their malfunctions cause CFC to escape into the atmosphere.
  • Spend more time indoors, where ozone levels are usually lower.
  • Choose easier outdoor activities (like walking instead of running) so you don’t breathe as hard.
  • Plan outdoor activities at times when ozone levels are lower (usually in the morning and evening).

Below is so interesting from Christopher Ingraham at the Minnesota Reformer https://minnesotareformer.com/

Much of the state is experiencing its third straight day of unhealthy air quality. The culprit this time isn’t wildfire smoke, but rather ozone – a colorless, odorless gas that forms when certain chemicals in the atmosphere interact under intense sunlight. 

In practical terms, ozone can cause similar breathing problems as wildfire smoke, and it’s linked to many of the same long-term health ailments, including premature death. But there are enough differences between these two flavors of air pollution that I wrote an explainer on them yesterday, in part to help me fully understand the situation.

One interesting takeaway: when it’s smoky out, experts recommend wearing a mask outdoors or running an air purifier with a HEPA filter inside, which removes smoke and other fine particles from the air. But ozone isn’t a particle, it’s a gas – meaning masks and air filters don’t work against it. 

And here’s an especially wild fact to ponder: many companies market “air purifiers” that actually add ozone to indoor spaces. Generally speaking you should steer away from products claiming to use “ionization” or “energized oxygen” to clear the air. The electric processes they rely on produce ozone and actually make the air dirtier.

Other products take this a step further – there’s an entire category of “ozone generators” that deliberately add ozone to the air, under the mistaken belief that ozone molecules remove other pollutants. It’s kind of like pumping car exhaust directly into your house to hide the smell of cigarettes. MN Reformer

And from the American Lung Association: It may be hard to imagine that pollution could be invisible, but ozone begins that way. As ozone concentrates and mixes with other pollutants, we often call it by its older, more common name—smog. It is currently one of the least well-controlled pollutants in the United States. And it is also one of the most dangerous.

Scientists have studied the effects of ozone on health for decades. Hundreds of studies have confirmed that ozone harms people at levels currently found in the United States. In the last decade, we have learned that it can also be deadly.

https://www.lung.org/clean-air/outdoors/what-makes-air-unhealthy/ozone

‘This Is the Critical Decade for Climate Change’: Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reach Record High

It’s your personal responsibility!

Forever Chemicals are Everywhere

PFAS (forever chemicals) have been polluting our air, water and bodies for too long! They are made by 3M and Dupont

It is so sad that a company like 3M has been allowed to pollute our land, water and bodies for so long. People have died and suffered because of their negligence.

Last week the Minnesota Reformer released a yearlong investigation on 3Ms PFAS chemicals, and concluded 3M couldn’t survive as a company with all the litigation taking place against them.

3M must of come to the same conclusion that they needed to stop making PFAS or they wouldn’t survive. 3M Says It Will Stop Making and Using Forever Chemicals by End of 2025

There must be something in the water – Minnesota Reformer  

Toxic: 3M knew its chemicals were harmful decades ago, but didn’t tell the public, government – Minnesota Reformer   

3M contines to argue their chemicals are not harmful. The evidence shows a different story.  

3M — the Scotch tape company — is a huge producer of PFAS, which it began manufacturing in Minnesota in the 1950s. By the 1960s, that work was generating 4 million gallons of wet chemical waste each year. 3M disposed of that waste by dumping it in unlined pits in the ground, even after officials allegedly knew it was polluting the groundwater. 

Internal 3M documents show that company officials were warned repeatedly that the chemicals were toxic, and that they were accumulating in the environment and in blood samples from both humans and animals. Those conversations, which began in the 1950s and continued for nearly 50 years, included details about two internal studies — one on fish, another on monkeys — that had to be abandoned because the subjects kept dying after being exposed to the (purportedly nontoxic) chemicals. By 1983, 3M’s own scientists had concluded that concerns about its chemicals “give rise to legitimate questions about the persistence, accumulation potential, and ecotoxicity of fluorochemicals in the environment.” 

https://www.startribune.com/3m-end-manufacture-use-forever-chemicals-pfas-by-2025/600237425/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=politics&refresh=true
How about a dose of chemicals?

The story does not end here. these chemicals exist everywhere. Who is responsible for cleaning them up? Who is responsible for the medical bills of the people and children with health issues from these chemicals? Clean-up of chemicals

https://digital.sierramagazine.org/publication/?i=770798&article_id=4400495&view=articleBrowser
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/4-november-december/material-world/pfas-are-everywhere-we-need-systems-change-fix?suppress=true&utm_source=greenlife&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter