Star Tribune
Holidazzle opens Wednesday on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis
The Holidazzle is back after a one-year hiatus, and the free celebration returns to Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis for the first time in more than a decade.
The Minnesota Chorale, the Minnesota Vikings’ SKOL Line and a performance by NUR-D at the U.S. Bank Stage at 9th Street and Nicollet Mall will kick off five days of holiday- and winter-themed activities taking place both indoors and outdoors between 6th and 11th streets.
Unfortunately, there won’t be a parade like in yesteryears, but twinkling lights and walk-through displays will bring color to the festival featuring live entertainment, holiday market, Santa visits and, of course, food. New attractions include indoor roller skating and miniature golf and Saturday’s “Peppermint Pub Crawl,” in which a dozen local establishments will serve up festive cocktails. There is a charge for the beverage sampler, but everything else is free.
A 17-foot tall, 360-pound marionette is Holidazzle’s official mascot. (Downtown Council/Downtown Council)
Parking ramps near the fun are offering discounted rates and Metro Transit is offering free rides to anybody who downloads a free pass from the Holidazzle website.
Holidazzle debuted in 1992 as a way to bring people downtown during December and keep them flocking to the newly opened Mall of America. And it worked. Thousands lined Nicollet Mall for almost nightly parades featuring music, bright lights and floats carrying comic-book characters.
The annual spectacle ran its course and in 2014 the Downtown Council changed Holidazzle’s format and moved it to Loring Park. For a decade, the event turned into more of a holiday market and place for artists to show and sell their wares. The park events also included family activities, beer and fireworks.
Last year, there was nothing. The Downtown Council didn’t have enough money to carry on the 30-year tradition. But this year, Holidazzle is back.
Festivities will run from 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, noon to 9 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee in the next Congress, after a vote of support from her colleagues on Wednesday.
Klobuchar becomes ranking-member on the powerful committee, which will oversee the next farm bill, a day after Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democratic counterpart, became ranking member for the House Agriculture Committee.
Klobuchar won her fourth term in the U.S. Senate earlier this year. With the retirement of current Ag Committee chairwoman Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, Klobuchar had largely been expected to ascend to her party’s top spot on the committee.
“When I first came to the Senate, my number one request was to be on the Agriculture committee,” Klobuchar said, in a statement. “From working across the aisle to strengthen our defenses against animal disease outbreaks to bolstering our ability to produce home-grown fuel and supporting conservation efforts, the work of the Agriculture Committee touches every aspect of our lives.”
Republicans won the U.S. Senate in November’s elections, and Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas will chair the committee for the GOP. But the committee, as in the House, will operate within a closely divided chamber where the minority party will maintain limited but important leverage over the steering of farm policy, environmental programs and nutrition funding.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers were advancing a proposal to extend the current farm bill through March, with an additional $10 billion in aid for farmers and ranchers.
The district’s attorney and three board members advised against a policy that mandates reliance on Book Looks’ ratings. In a statement, the attorney said the language in the policy would “arguably violate the state law by supplanting the library media specialist’s professional judgment with an external rating system” since Book Looks does not “appear to have any professional library credentials.” The attorney also cautioned against using the site because of its perceived “ideological perspective,” which could “run afoul of the First Amendment.”
Book Looks was started by Emily Maikisch, a former member of Moms for Liberty. A representative with Book Looks did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Book Looks site says it is not affiliated with Moms for Liberty or with any other groups but says it does “communicate with other individuals and groups with whom there is an intersection of mission and values.”
That’s one of the reasons St. Francis Board Member Amy Kelly said the board chose Book Looks.
“We’re red here,” she said at the Nov. 25 meeting, adding that district policies should reflect the community’s priorities. “We’re not always going to be on the same page, but I know we’re conservative. [Community members] don’t want the stuff in the library.”
So far, the district has removed “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and “Out of Darkness” because of their Book Looks ratings, said Ryan Fiereck, the president of the St. Francis teachers union. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” had gone through a review committee, which deemed it appropriate to keep in the library, he said, and “Out of Darkness” was set to be reviewed by the committee before the new policy was approved.
Fiereck said he’s heard from union members and community members who disagree with the board’s policy revision.
Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber is challenging the federal government’s plan to idle the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, a minimum-security facility that is among seven across the country slated to close due to aging infrastructure and staffing challenges.
Stauber, who represents northeastern Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District, on Wednesday called the move “quite misguided. The motives behind this decision do not appear to be reasonable or sound and I am disappointed by the way the announcement was rolled out.”
But many of the facility’s approximately 90 employees may find themselves without a job, since only 15 are expected to be transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, about 70 miles away from Duluth, according to a letter Stauber sent Tuesday to Colette Peters, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Stauber was quoting job estimates from union officials, who were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
It’s unclear when the Duluth prison’s operations will cease. “To inform the employees they would be out of the job through an impersonal letter right before Christmas is far too insensitive,” Stauber wrote, noting he will work with the incoming Trump Administration to reverse the decision.
More than 700 inmates currently incarcerated at the Duluth facility will be transferred to other prisons.
The all-male Duluth prison camp, located on a former U.S. Air Force base, has “aging and dilapidated infrastructure,” including several condemned buildings contaminated with asbestos and lead paint, according to Bureau of Prisons documents obtained by the Associated Press.
