Whiskey Soluble playing at The Cow

The Contented Cow held a fundraiser last night for the American Refugee Committee that is building boats for the tsunami struck fishing villages. All band tips went towards the cause. Attenders, including many college students, donated $655.89 to the effort. The Contented Cow mached this contribution. Chapati matched the resulting amount of $1,311.78 bringing the total amount raised for the releif effort to $2,623.56. Julie Bixby, manager of Chapati and The Contented Cow, said that this amount was well over their goal of $1,000 and stated that she considered the event a huge success.

Note: The owner and manager of the Contented Cow are personal friends of the author.

Explorers Lonnie Dupre, Eric Larsen and their One World Expedition were the focus of a fundraiser at the Froggy Bottoms River Pub tonight. (Details in an earlier post.)

See the high-res versions of these and twenty other photos in the One World Expedition photo album.

In the non-Northfield media this week: Marie Fritz Perry, Gary Dahl, Bob Jacobel, Earl Weinmann, Scott Neal, Ray Cox.

On Tuesday, February 8, Phil Steeger from Friends for a Non-Violent World met with Northfield citizens at the Center for Sustainable Living. Steeger brought information to interested citizens on a movement to propose the Iraqi Dignity and Self-Determination Amendment to congress. According to Steeger, the amendment, which is gathering some bi-partisan support, could both "redeem past mistakes and provide Iraqis with what they need to rule themselves and US troops with a ticket home."

Steeger emphasized to promoters of peace that "small steps" and even activities that do not bring about desired results are successful in and of themselves. While proponents of this legislation expect the amendment not to pass, they feel that an introduction of the points in the amendment may be successful in begining new discussions for policy change with regard to Iraq.

Francis Moore Lappe, world reknown author, spoke at this morning's convocation at Carleton. Her "Diet for a Small Planet" is often credited with disproving the concept that the world isn't capable of feeding its inhabitants. Most recently, "Hope's Edge," co-written by her and her daughter, follows up on her previous analysis with new experiences and information. Lappe's talk focussed on systemic causes of world hunger and promoted some ways to address those issues.

Pat Allen asked me to post this flyer about the fundraiser she's hosting for One World Expedition. The PDF flyer reads, in part:

Meet Explorers Lonnie Dupre & Eric Larsen (1993 Ole Grad)... Join us for a presentation on their upcoming summer adventure across the Arctic Ocean that will focus on Global Climate Change.

February 12th, 7:00 p.m.
Froggy Bottoms River Pub
305 Water St. S, Northfield

Appetizers will be provided; cash bar available. A $20/person donation is suggested. More if you can, less if you can't.

For more, see One World Expedition.

Northfield Police Chief Gary Smith has a detailed post on his weblog about yesterday's drug bust.

"What officers found is extremely troubling to me - In the vehicle were lists of peace officers', names, locations, and the types of vehicles they are driving as well as telephone numbers, cell numbers and pagers used by drug officers and other area law enforcement officers... It's hard enough to see your name and vehicles listed, but imagine how you would feel reading your spouse's or child's name and information as to vehicles and location of schools."

Here's the City of Northfield's Jan. 05 edition (PDF) of The City Commons, their monthly newsletter that gets mailed out to residents with the utility bills.

Among the items in the newsletter:

- Next chapter begins for downtown improvement plan

- Riverfront Redevelopment expectations given final approval

- Help keep the streets lit

- Snowmobiling in town limited to specific streets

- Meet Northfield's New Operations Manager Joel Walinski

Thanks to Marin Amundson-Graham at A+Communications and Brent Kivell at Kivell Design for their help in getting it to me. They produce/publish the newsletter for the City.

The Northfield City Council met at City Hall Tuesday evening. Among the more mundane subjects, City Council decided to allow the new BP Express on Highway 3 to sell 3.2 beer. While there is a stricter license which regulates the sale of so-called intoxicating alcohol, non-intoxicating alcohol sales permits are given out on a routine basis, typically to grocery stores and gas stations. Only 12 of the stricter licenses exist and only 9 or so have been given out.

Northfield's Olympus Athletic Club held a regional racquetball tournament, the Super Bowl Splat, this past weekend.

I took some photos of Mark Mueller-Dahl, Mueller-Dahl Interiors (white shirt above), playing Tony Pierre, Carleton Alumni Office, playing a match on Sunday morning. They're posted in the Super Bowl Splat photo album.

Northfield.org consists of two important things. The first is the technology platform employed to get local news and discussion to our audience. Among other things this platform includes a website http://northfield.org, running weblog software and an email listserv, http://lists.nfld.us. The second is the organization, Northfield Citizens Online (NCO), which is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, and which runs Northfield.org. Currently NCO consists of the General member base, the NCO Board, the Content Committee and the Tech Committee, all volunteers, and then, of course, you, our valued audience.

The UN has proclaimed the years 2001-2010 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World." In 2000, the Northfield City Council, in response to a petition signed by many local groups, declared Northfield a promoter of the Decade, encouraging residents and groups to work towards the goals of the decade and thereby advancing a culture of peace in the city.

Now at mid-point in the Decade, the United Nations is calling for reports on actions and projects that groups have implemented.

Thursday, Feb. 3, the Northfield People for Peace and Goodwill group brainstormed about the events and projects held in Northfield. While the list was extensive, Judith Stoutland is calling for citizen input, as she is compiling a report on the activities held in Northfield since it became a focal point for this global initiative.

The information will be sent to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNSECO), will be posted on their website, and will be presented to the UN General Assembly. In addition to reporting on activities, focal points are asked to consider future work for the second half of the Decade.

NHS senior Matthew Flavell (top of photo above) was one of the students who organized a meeting at the High School yesterday for students, staff and area residents to get more informed about the Northfield School District's budget deficit.

See the District's Feb. 2005 newsletter (PDF) which includes a summary by Supt. Chris Richardson on the budget deficit problem and actions taken by the Board for immediate reductions.

I got this email on Tuesday from Sheryl Joy, office manager at the NAG:

Here are a couple pictures I took tonight at the rehearsal for the Arts
Guild's theater production of Mr. Toad's Mad Adventures, which opens on Friday. If you can put them up on the northfield.org site, that'd be great!

Where is this fireplace being constructed?

While sitting in the Goodbye Blue Monday coffeehouse on Wednesday, the owner of the James Gang Coffeehouse, Jim Spaulding, stopped by my table and told me that Caribou Coffee has started construction on its new space in the Westside Plaza next to Movie Gallery. The irony of this story occurred to me when I was telling Rob Brown of Bad Brain Computers about it over coffee at The Kitchen coffeehouse on Thursday morning.

A photo of the space is posted on the Land'Sake weblog by Tom Heiberg.

Full disclosure: Land'Sake and James Gang Coffeehouse are clients of mine.