KSTP-TV
Campaign controversy centers around free food
(Includes text and video)

Call it dessert-gate. State Republicans and DFLers are now butting heads over pie and popsicles. David Bly, a DFL candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives, decided to take advantage of a rhyme and incorporate pie into his campaign. He hoped it would help him win a race lost by less than 50 votes in 2002.

St. Paul Pioneer Press

Bribed by pie?
It could be the silliest political scandal in Minnesota politics since "Twinkiegate." On Wednesday evening, David Bly of Northfield, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for the Minnesota House, set up a picnic tent in Central Park here and served pie -- thick, juicy slices of apple, rhubarb, blueberry and mixed berry pie with vanilla ice cream -- to about 30 voters who stopped by for one of his weekly get-acquainted events.

Rochester Post-Bulletin/Associated Press

Northfield family committed to turkey production
Karen Zimmerman told her parents she was done with chores when she left her Oran, Iowa, home farm for college in Minneapolis. That was almost 40 years ago, and Zimmerman is still doing chores. She married Chuck Zimmerman in 1969 after a five-year hiatus from chores while she lived in Rochester and worked as a medical technician at Mayo Clinic. The couple moved to his home farm near Northfield where they raised turkeys and beef steers.

The Bateman family at work/play, along the west side of the River Walk Commons last night. Click the photo for a high-resolution image.

Rice County Habitat for Humanity is putting up a new house near the corner of Jefferson Parkway and Bunker Drive, right across from the Spring Creek Park Soccer Complex.

The City of Northfield has long been decorating downtown light poles with hanging flower baskets. And the Northfield Garden Club has long been beautifying Bridge Square and Riverwalk with its handiwork.

Increasingly, business owners along Division St. have been following suit.

See the new album of flower photos in front of Rare Pair, Re/Max, Witt Bros. Auto Repair, Northfield Auto Care, Hodge Podge que', Present Perfect, and Glass Garden.

What other businesses along Division St. have done something similar?

The syndicated community calendar now displays the most recent 20 events. (We're experimenting with the font size and layout.)

As of noon today, there are actually 25 in the queue, extending all the way to the end of August. You can see the entire list anytime by clicking the link to Upcoming.org's listings for Northfield at the bottom of the listing.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to enter an event.

What other organizations in town should have this calendar displayed on their web sites?

The Northfield Community Band held a concert last night on Bridge Square.

Group sing: the Star Spangled Banner. Click the image for a large, high-resolution version.

Real estate taxes in historic downtowns was the topic at Tuesday's monthly NDDC meeting, with panelists Joe Grundhoefer, Paul Smith, Sen. Tom Neuville and Rep. Ray Cox.

Downtown building owners Joe Grundhoefer and Brett Reese

Sen. Tom Neuville with building owners Joe Grundhoefer and Victor Summa

See all the photos in the NDDC mtg album.

For more on the meeting, see Wednesday's Northfield News article titled Downtown taxes discussed by NDDC.

I just noticed this sign across Hwy 3 from Target.

A BP (British Petroleum, formerly known as Amoco) gas station, car wash, and oil change facility.

Anyone know more about it?

Filing for the four open Northfield City Council seats started today and closes July 20.

Seats open: mayor, wards 2 and 3, and one at-large.

See the article in the June 26 Nfld News Mayor, three council seats up for grabs for more details, as well as the July 3rd editorial titled Consider running for public office.

Other openings: four seats on the Northfield School Board, Rice and Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation district supervisors, and all Rice County commissioner seats.

The Center for Sustainable Living has become part of Northfield's civic blogosphere with its new weblog.

The Center is dedicated to developing and administering programs and initiatives which foster liveability and sustainability for communities. The mission of the Center rests on the premise that building public awareness is the most effective of all the long-term forces for assuring that local communities remain vibrant and endure. Interests of the Center include improving environmental protections, conserving biodiversity, ecologically restoring degraded landscapes, building viable local economy, and encouraging civility within the human community.

The Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center has become part of Northfield's civic blogosphere with its new weblog.

The Center formed in 1996 when people from the Northfield community decided to broaden their individual meditation practice by developing a sangha, or community of practice. The Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center

Nancy Coultas (L) and Sue Mieska have launched a web site with a weblog for Northfield Survivors and have thus become part of Northfield's civic blogosphere.

Northfieldsurvivors.org came together when a group of cancer survivors expressed a desire to share our experiences with other survivors and try to help those newly diagnosed. We are all cancer survivors who have experienced the compassion and love of our friends, our families and sometimes complete strangers during our illness.

More and more people are contributing entries to the distributed (syndicated) community calendar. The more the better.


The above is an image/snapshot of the calendar as of today at 3:30 PM. It's not the real thing. See the real thing in the upper right corner of the N.org homepage, as well as on the NDDC and League of Women Voters websites/weblogs.

Anyone can submit Northfield-related events to the community calendar at Upcoming.org's listings for Northfield. As soon as an event is entered, the calendar is immediately updated on all the websites that carry it.

And any Northfield-area company or organization can have this listing of events automatically displayed on their website. Contact Us if you're interested.

I'm adding several dozen photos to the 4th of July photo album. They should be ready to view by 1 am.

Unlike the low-resolution photos here, all the photos in the gallery are available in the original, high resolution format, suitable for printing. Click the medium, 640 pixel-wide photos to see them.

(FYI, I missed the kiddie parade, so if you have digital photos that would make good additions to the the album, attach a comment here or use the Contact Us form.)

Northfield Historical Society Executive Director Mark Fagerwick with some chick, dancing on Bridge Square.

I've added another batch of two dozen photos to the 4th of July photo album. I should have another batch ready by 6 or 7 pm.