The Shoot First bill was stopped in a House committee this year on a tie vote. An attempt made to bring it up later on the House floor was thwarted as well. Thank you for your help and support in defeating the bill this year. Please note that the fight against this bill is not over. As it is part of the national NRA strategy for all states, it is certain to be brought up again next year.

CSM is proud to announce a conference entitled, "Making Change Happen: Winning Strategies for Getting Your Message Heard," we are hosting on Wednesday, June 4 from 11 to 4 at the St. Paul College Club with the support of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. This conference is open to anyone working for progressive change and is not specific to gun violence. Experts will be offering advice on marketing, lobbying, innovative web communication, networking and fundraising.

Following the conference, from 4 to 6 p.m., CSM is holding a reception to honor 3 outstanding community leaders who have done so much over many years to prevent gun violence: Mary Lewis Grow, Matt Little and Bill Strang.

To learn more or to register, go to www.endgunviolence.com and click on the Events section. If you know someone else who might be interested in this conference, please forward this e-mail!

Sue Fust
Executive Director
Citizens for a Safer Minnesota

CSM is proud to announce a conference entitled, "Making Change Happen: Winning Strategies for Getting Your Message Heard," we are hosting on Wednesday, June 4 from 11 to 4 at the St. Paul College Club with the support of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. This conference is open to anyone working for progressive change and is not specific to gun violence. Experts will be offering advice on marketing, lobbying, innovative web communication, networking and fundraising.

Wed 11-4? Do these people not have jobs?

*side note: I am also against unsolicited gun violence.

Some gunnies should attend

I thought about that but there's a fee to attend.

It's a great job, figure how to give away about 58 million each year, and your work is done!

I thought about that but there's a fee to attend.

Joyce does good stuff too, IMHO.

They've funded the legal battle against the proposed BigStone 2 Coal plant, which has recently resulted in a recommendation that Minnesota not force it's citizens to subsidize a special transmission line for a proposed coal power plant that would, among other things, result in Minnesotans and North Dakotans being forced to buy power from South Dakota at a wholesale rate of $60 per Meg for electricity vs $45 per Meg, as well as deal with a bunch of pollution, and major water appropriation, plus pay for dedicated transmission lines.

This is a tough case, because the South Dakota Public Utility Commission is rather a stacked deck.

Regardless of whether one believes CO2 is science or politics, this project is a major ripoff for electricity users.

Big Stone II should be built.

I consider that doing bad stuff. Big Stone II should be built. Whether you build more wind turbines in that area or a coal plant, you still need the transmission lines. At a time when we're facing rising energy costs, building baseload plants is what we need to do. I'd rather see more nuke plants being built, but coal plants will do just fine.