How tall can you build with wood? Consider this 1,250-foot 'plyscraper'

Could you build the Empire State Building out of wood?

Not just a tabletop model, mind you — but the whole 102-story, 87,000-square-foot skyscraper, covering a New York City block at its base, and for 40 years the world’s tallest building at 1,250 feet?

Of course you could, say the Vancouver architect Michael Green and the Finnish engineers at Metsä Wood. And it would be a good idea — economically, environmentally and, not least, aesthetically.

Green has a significant following in architectural and construction circles for championing wood as a preferred alternative to concrete and steel for large buildings; my MinnPost colleague Peter Callahan has written about his design for a seven-story office building that Hines Interests hopes to build in Minneapolis’ North Loop.

Metsä Wood, for its part, has earned a global reputation for quality and creativity in turning the world’s oldest construction material into some of its newest and most beautiful building components.

So their collaboration on a re-imagined Empire State Building, with additional technical input from Equilibrium Consulting, has been getting considerable attention in architectural and construction-trades publications — not to mention an admiring write-up last week from architecture columnist Philip Oldfield of the U.K. Guardian.

Here’s the point that Green and Metsä are trying to drive home with attention-getting images like the one you see above:

The world is going through a high-rise building boom, using materials and construction methods essentially unchanged since “skyscraper” came to mean a steel-and-concrete office tower (as opposed to a mast-topping sail on a square-rigged ship; Ian Fleming fans, see also “moonraker.”)

At the same time, we’re continuing to load the atmosphere with globe-warming carbon dioxide. And while high-rise construction by itself isn’t among the biggest contributors, steel- and cement-making are fairly carbon-intensive.

So substituting wood offers some significant offsets, including:

• A smaller carbon footprint throughout all phases of putting the building up, from iron mining through I-beam transportation to welding.
• Vastly extended sequestration of tree-captured carbon in wood products that are preserved for generations, as opposed to wood that’s used for fuel, left to decompose, or turned into short-cycle goods like cardboard or newsprint.
• Construction components that may well outlive a building, and can be re-used in new structures.

Nature’s tall wood structures

Courtesy of Metsä Wood

Trees in the Pacific Northwest routinely grow to 30 or 40 stories in height. The Empire State Building re-conceived in wood would be a bit taller. (Click for larger version of diagram.)

If you pause to think about it, it’s actually kind of strange that nowadays a merely seven-story wooden building like Hines’ T3 project should qualify as a paradigm-breaker and national first of its kind. Especially in a region that owes its existence in large part to lumber production.

After all, as Michael Green is fond of pointing out, trees in the Pacific Northwest routinely grow to 30 or 40 stories in height. And in a sort of manifesto entitled “The Case for Tall Wood Buildings,” he notes that:

Tall wood buildings are not a new concept. 1,400 years ago tall pagodas in Japan were built to 19 storeys in wood and still stand today in high seismic, wet climate environments. Several countries around the world have a history of building Tall Wood buildings. In Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood 7 and 10 storey heavy timber buildings have stood for the last hundred years.

Only somewhat newer is the notion of materials Green calls “mass timber,” which you could think of as plywood multiplied: laminated panels, beams and trusses of wood-fiber sheets pressed and glued together for almost limitless potential variation in weight, strength, flexibility, weather resistance and finish.

Even more important — and here’s where Metsä comes in — the panels can be made to order near the wood sources and shipped in finished form to the construction sites, ready to be assembled with custom fasteners of a type familiar to anyone who has ever assembled an end table from IKEA.

Only bigger.

For a 35-story building that Green has designed as part of a Parisian project called Baobab, the panels would be nearly 16 inches thick; for the Metropol Parasol project already built in the Spanish city of Seville, Metsä supplied laminated components up to 54 feet long, in thicknesses from 2½ to 12 inches.

Still, as Green told the Guardian’s Oldfield, because “their manufacture is very accurate, there’s very little work that needs to be done on site. Because of this, construction will be very quick. Someday I’d like to make a building where all you need is a giant Allen key to put it together.”

Courtesy of Metsä Wood

The Metropol Parasol project in Seville, Spain houses an archeological museum and farmers market as well as bars, restaurants and terraces.

So, what about fire?

One of tall wood’s public relations challenges is the assumption that wood skyscrapers can’t be made fire-safe. Oldfield’s take is that “there’s a huge difference in terms of physical properties between mass timber, such as cross-laminated timber, and the lightweight timber frames that are perceived as being susceptible to fire.”

When mass timber is exposed to fire, the outer layer starts to burn and form charcoal. The charcoal layer forms a protective barrier, soaking up heat and insulating the interior timber. As exposure to fire increases, this layer grows, creating even more insulation, and further slowing the burning rate.

In timber towers the thickness of the charcoal layer that would form in a fire can be predicted. To protect the structural integrity of the timber, this same thickness of wood can be added to the CLT sheets. This would form a sacrificial timber barrier which would char in a fire, and in doing so, protect the material within.

“It’s mother nature doing what she does best,” says David Barber, a principal fire protection engineer at Arup in Washington, D.C., and an author on a report on the fire safety challenges of wood tall buildings. “In the aftermath of a forest fire you’ll see trunks of trees that are black and charred. The timber inside the charcoal layer is still alive – after a fire you will see regeneration. This is the same physical property we utilise in timber towers.”

Steel-and-concrete towers are also vulnerable to fire, of  course, because those materials lose strength to extreme heat. Metsä had the good taste not to mention a couple of towers that burned in Manhattan while all the world was watching, but it did make this comparative observation about an Empire State Building constructed with its Kerto panels:

In the event of a fire, Kerto LVL performs more predictably than many non-combustible materials.... To achieve the fire ratings required for a 102-story building, additional fire protection would still be required in the form of sprinklers, and drywall, but many parts of the wood structure could remain exposed.

In contrast, the steel structure of the Empire State Building needs to be fully protected by insulation, drywall, stone and other fire resistant materials to provide safe resistance to fire.

Now, nobody really expects to see the Empire State Building rebuilt as a plyscraper.

Green and Metsa are out to prove a larger point about wood as a high-rise material; having taken the Empire State project through the conceptual phase, they’ve begun a technical design to yield detailed projections of costs, construction time and environmental benefits.

For Metsä, it’s part of a multistage demonstration project called Plan B that has already imagined the Colosseum of ancient Rome resurrected in mass timber, with other iconic buildings to come.

They’re working real-world buildings, too — if not on the monumental scale of Empire State, then certainly larger than most of us have thought possible with wood.

Courtesy of Metsä Wood

Metsä uses modular construction, with columns as tall as six stories, box beams tied together with cable, and horizontal panels up to 8 feet by 82 feet, in varying thicknesses.

Read Source: https://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2015/07/how-tall-can-you-build-wood-consider-1250-foot-plyscraper

The Iran treaty: a strategic consideration

mnpACT! Progressive Political Blog

This Iran treaty is very important to the United States and Republicans are not even considering the strategic ramifications. It used to be said that politics ended at our country's shores and foreign policy, especially international treaties, was off limits to the petty vagaries of partisan politics.

Our Republican friends have ground that theory into dust.

What I don't understand about the instant criticism from Republicans is a failure to look at the bigger picture.

Yes, Iran wants sanctions lifted and yes, the money could be used for more interventions across the Mideast. But the goal has been to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and this treaty puts an indefinite hold on that acquisition.

But even beyond that, no treaty would be signed unless both parties have broader goals to meet and it sure looks like both parties have ISIS in mind.

Iran is a Shiite dominated country. ISIS is a Sunni organization. Iran has already been involved in Iraq with ground forces against this group. Doesn’t it feel like Iran has a more immediate problem with ISIS than a longer term goal of a nuclear weapon? Is it possible that the more immediate threat has become the more important threat to deal with.....and a treaty to remove some of the sanctions and get the U.S. off their back might be, in broader terms, a means to let them gear up for an ISIS fight?

The U.S. not only gets to stop Iran from moving toward nuclear weapons, but they open up a possible “ally” in the fight with ISIS. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Chances are good that if Iran uses new sanction free money to obtain conventional weapons and strengthening their economy, their target will not be Israel, not the United States, but the Sunni dominated ISIS group.

Something to consider.

This post was written by Dave Mindeman and originally published on mnpACT! Progressive Political Blog. Follow Dave on Twitter: @newtbuster.

If you blog and would like your work considered for Minnesota Blog Cabin, please submit our registration form.

Read Source: https://www.minnpost.com/minnesota-blog-cabin/2015/07/iran-treaty-strategic-consideration

The six Twins to watch in the second half of the season

The sentiment may be different behind closed clubhouse doors. But the public message the Twins put out in the final days of a surprisingly good first half carried an equally surprising air of humility.

Except for Torii Hunter, no one trotted the “we’re proving people wrong” line of clichés that so many teams, even championship ones, spout so often.

There’s a reason. Players take their leads from manager Paul Molitor and general manager Terry Ryan, two low-key Midwesterners who have been around long enough to know nobody wins anything in July, especially by crowing about it.

“We’ve put ourselves in position to make the second half somewhat interesting” is the way Molitor put it last Sunday, an even more measured analysis than Ryan offered two days earlier. “We’ve had a nice start and we’re in a good spot, but it matters more what’s going on in September and October,” Ryan said. “We can pretty much decide our own fate.”

That’s right. Not even the players themselves reasonably expected a 49-40 record at the All-Star Break, second-best in the American League behind Kansas City, the defending league champion and present Central Division leader. That the Twins overcame an inept 1-6 start; Ervin Santana’s 80-game drug suspension; an ankle injury to Ricky Nolasco that endangers his season; and subpar first halves from last year’s promising rookies Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas suggests actual talent and learning at work. It hasn’t all been smoke and mirrors.  

The influence of first-year manager Molitor on baserunning and defense is easy to see. Former manager Ron Gardenhire and his staff harped on the same things, but sometimes it takes a different voice and tone for the message to get through. (If you’re a parent with a son or daughter in athletics, you may have seen this yourself.) And Molitor’s trust in his players — giving Mike Pelfrey an extra batter one day, letting .215-hitting Danny Santana bat in a tight spot in another – boosted  confidence all around.

The biggest difference? Ryan’s three-year quest to improve the starting pitching finally took hold; the rotation’s 3.86 ERA ranks 12^th in the majors after finishing dead last in 2014 and ’13, 29th in 2012, and 26^th in 2011.

“Nobody’s satisfied,” said Hunter, who’s playing remarkably well for someone who turns 40 this Saturday. “I refuse to let that happen. Guys like (Joe) Mauer and myself, who have been through the playoffs and been on winning teams, will not allow that to happen. We’ve go to come back stronger in the second half.”

As the Twins open the second half Friday night in Oakland, a few players who made modest or limited contributions in the first half bear watching these final months:

Joe Mauer               

Anyone else notice Mauer twice bunted for hits last week? It’s been five years since a failed Mauer bunt attempt set off a tsumani of criticism from people who questioned Mauer’s judgment. 

Here’s what folks missed at the time: Historically, Mauer will bunt when he’s not seeing the ball well, usually against lefthanders with sharp breaking down-and-away stuff. And he used to be really good at it, dropping 19 bunt singles from 2005-09, according to FanGraphs.com.

In 2008, a rare Mauer bunt against a righty, Arizona’s Micah Owens (who had struck him out twice), started a six-run seventh-inning rally in an eventual 6-1 victory. Mauer also bunted that September in the divisional tiebreaker loss in Chicago under similar circumstances, after lefty John Danks fanned him his first two times up. (Mauer was thrown out.)

The 2010 bunt against Cleveland, in the seventh inning of a tie game with two on and one out, fit that pattern. Lefty Rafael Perez was pitching, with third baseman Jhonny Peralta playing back. Mauer, struggling at the plate, saw an opportunity and took it rather than risk an inning-ending double play. Yet fans and various ex-Twins ripped Mauer, insisting middle-of-the-order guys hack away no matter what.

But the game had changed. The late 1990s championship Yankees as a whole, and Albert Pujols in particular, worked counts and maintained plate discipline instead of making foolish outs to prove one’s manhood. Mauer did nothing wrong, except to people rooted in the 1950s.

Yet the outcry scrubbed the bunt from his game for years. For the next four-plus seasons, through the end of 2014, Mauer bunt only twice, with one hit — April 2014 off Kansas City lefty Bruce Chen.

“I talked to him about it this winter, not to forget to use it as a part of his game,” Molitor said. “He’s a really good bunter. He stays in there a long time, and when he’s gotten it in play he gets it in the right spot more times than not.”

Mauer’s three bunt singles, out of the Twins’ 15, are his most since 2008.

The bunts last week against Baltimore’s Wei-Yin Chen and Detroit’s David Price, both lefties, were meant to counter defensive shifts. Both teams rotated the shortstop behind second base to take away the middle, where Mauer likes to hit. As Mauer explained it, a third baseman fearing bunt must hold his ground, forcing the shortstop to play more normally. 

“The other day when I bunted (against Baltimore), I came back, (Molitor) told me how much he liked it, taking advantage of situations like that,” Mauer said. “I’ve always prided myself on taking what the defense and pitcher gives you. At that moment, they gave me that hit right there.

“The situation came up with David Price on the mound. He’s throwing power cutters the other way, they’re giving it to me, so I figured it was a good time to do it too.”

Look for Mauer, also a savvy baserunner, to do more in the second half. Mauer took a .271 average into break, which isn’t optimal for a three-time batting champion. But it’s not like he hasn’t been productive. Over his last 23 starts Mauer batted .326, with four of his five home runs. And his 42 RBI at the break are the second-most of his career, behind 45 in 2006.

Phil Hughes

Hughes’s fastball velocity and command are off from his outstanding debut season with the Twins, when he won 16 games and set a major-league record with an 11.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio. By FanGraphs charts, Hughes fastball averages 90.8 miles per hour, down from 92.1 last year and 92.4 the year before with the Yankees. That doesn’t seem like much unless you’re a hitter sitting on a fastball, and the 22 homers Hughes allowed leads the A.L.

So how is Hughes 4-0 with a 3.37 ERA in six starts since June 14, despite nine homers? First, every homer has been a solo. And Hughes, with help from pitching coach Neil Allen, learned to trust whatever he has working on a particular day, instead of fretting about what isn’t. He throws strikes regardless. If runners get on, he thinks his way out of trouble. 

This is what a mature pitcher does. Hughes listed Jamie Moyer, Kenny Rogers and Andy Pettitte — all lefthanders, unlike the right-handed Hughes — as role models who crafted long careers pitching that way.  

“It’s something I wasn’t comfortable doing in the past,” Hughes said. “The last five or six starts, I’ve gotten good results with stuff I’m not very proud of. It says a lot about Neil’s faith in me.”

Aaron Hicks

One day in early 2013, a scout came to Target Field, saw Hicks taking batting practice and blurted out, “What the hell is Aaron Hicks doing here?” The gist: Hicks hadn’t worked hard enough to earn it, even after a big spring training. Teammates who like Hicks still question his drive to succeed. How badly does he want to be good?

Some players find drive and passion later than others, and Hicks, 25, needs to show his. He’s got remarkable range in center field, evidenced again by that Willie Mays-style catch last week, and a terrific arm (six assists in 38 games). Byron Buxton’s sprained left thumb bought Hicks time to prove he can be a productive everyday player.

The second half means more to Hicks than perhaps any other player on the roster.

One encouraging sign: Hicks’s .264 average from the left side, up from .178 last year when he scrapped switch-hitting for awhile, for an overall .266 mark. 

Trevor May

Ervin Santana’s return bumped May, the rookie righthander, to the bullpen. He won’t be there long. Someone will get hurt, or struggle, and May (6-7, 4.16 ERA) will slide back in with incentive to secure a starting spot next spring.

He’s had a pretty good last couple of weeks, picking up victories in his first two relief outings, throwing the final two innings Sunday to spare an overworked setup crew, then getting engaged over the All-Star Break.

Miguel Sano

Scouts say it’s tough for hitters to jump to the majors without time in Class AAA, facing veteran pitchers with major-league quality off-speed pitches. Buxton, as talented as he is, struggled coming straight from Class AA Chattanooga, striking out 15 times in 37 at-bats. And Sano, even in a .378 start with two homers, is going through it too; he fanned nine times in four games before the break. 

Sano, though, has shown better plate discipline than Buxton (eight walks). That’s the only way to force pitchers to throw you something to hit. The Twins lineup is a wasteland below the fifth spot most nights, and a productive Sano allows Ryan to address other needs.

A player to be named

Traditionally, the Twins approach the July 31 deadline and beyond with an eye to dump salary or add a marginal veteran like Shannon Stewart (2003), Orlando Cabrera or Carl Pavano (both 2009). Don’t expect any blockbusters – that’s not Ryan’s way – but adding a bullpen arm or veteran infielder makes some sense. For the first time in five years, the Twins own enough second-tier prospects that Ryan may deal without giving away Sano, Buxton or Jose Berrios.

One name to keep in mind: Colorado’s LaTroy Hawkins, 42, the former Twin who plans to retire at season’s end. The Twins probably need a lefty more than a righty. But Hawkins, with a light innings load (19 1/3) and a little liveliness left (18 strikeouts), could be an intriguing addition in August or September. Hawkins has allowed one earned run and nine hits in 13 1/3 innings since his June 11 return from a right biceps strain.

Read Source: https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2015/07/six-twins-watch-second-half-season

Musical Offering's 45th season: 'La Vie Parisienne'

For its 45th season, “La Vie Parisienne,” announced on Bastille Day, The Musical Offering will present the music – and food – of France. Four concerts will feature works by Debussy, Fauré, Poulenc and Ravel and lesser-known names like Francaix, Damase, Lalliet, Tailleferre, Ibert and Blanc.

The season begins Sept. 27 with Mozart’s Sonata in E minor for Piano and Violin, written when he was just 22 and touring from Vienna to Paris. It ends with a May 8 Mother’s Day concert with music by two French women composers. The Nov. 22 program features works inspired by bel canto opera and Schubert’s Octet. On Feb. 21, the ensemble continues its tradition of combining music with cuisine, camaraderie and conversation. Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, Ravel’s Piano Trio, a wind quintet by Damase and Poulenc’s Élégie will share the bill with French food and wine.

Founded in 1971, named for a work by J.S. Bach, The Musical Offering is an unusual blend of strings, winds and pianos. Led by co-artistic directors Norbert Nielubowski, the Minnesota Orchestra’s second bassoonist/contrabassoonist, and Susan Billmeyer, a frequent guest pianist with the orchestra and the SPCO, it’s the area’s oldest continuously performing ensemble. All concerts take place on Sunday afternoons at Hamline’s Sundin Music Hall; all include personal remarks from the stage, intermission interviews, and post-concert receptions that connect the audience to the music and the musicians. Subscriptions and individual tickets are on sale now. 

***

Big transitions in arts and culture leadership continue. Joe Dowling has directed his final play at the Guthrie. Bain Boehlke is trading the Jungle Theater he founded for the coffee-scented wilds of Seattle. Patricia Mitchell is retiring as president and CEO of the Ordway. Cindy Gehrig is stepping down after 38 years at the Jerome Foundation, a major granting organization for artists and the arts. Jocelyn Hale is leaving the Loft.

Christine Podas-Larson has retired from Public Art St. Paul, the nonprofit she founded 28 years ago. After 15 years as director and president of the Minnesota Zoo, Lee Ehmke will become president and chief executive at the Houston Zoo. The Rochester Art Center executive director, Shannon Fitzgerald, has accepted a new position in Orlando, where her husband directs the Orlando Museum of Art.

The Bakken Museum’s longtime director, Dr. David Rhees, recently announced his retirement after 23 years of service. Rhees came to the Bakken as a science historian who had developed a love of museums and libraries during a fellowship at the Smithsonian and a stint at the American Philosophical Society. During his tenure, the Bakken doubled its physical size, grew its budget from half a million dollars to nearly $2.4 million, expanded its staff from seven to nearly 40, boosted its audience from 5,000/year to 75,000 and transformed a scholarly museum to a public museum that welcomes families and children. Starting next Tuesday, the Bakken will celebrates its own 40th birthday with five days of free admission and special programming.

Courtesy of the Cedar

Rob Simonds

The Cedar’s executive director, Rob Simonds, will retire at the end of the current season. Simonds became a board member in 1991 and assumed the ED post in 2007. Before coming to the Cedar, Simonds co-founded Rykodisc, the first independent CD record label. During Simonds’ tenure, the Cedar has returned to fiscal health, broadened and deepened its music program, and taken a leadership role in reviving the musical tradition of the Somali immigrants in Minnesota. Simonds said in a statement, “I believe that an important part of a leader’s responsibility is to know when it’s time to ‘pass the torch.’ ”

Enough torches are being passed for a second Aquatennial parade.

It seems even Garrison Keillor is preparing to move on after 41 years with “A Prairie Home Companion.” We haven’t seen an official statement from MPR or American Public Media, but the Current reported that Keillor told the Berkshire Eagle he will transition out of the host role during the 2015-16 season, and his replacement will be Chris Thile, who subbed for Keillor in February. (“Thile” is pronounced “thee-lee” BTW.)

Chris Thile

The Eagle's scoop happened in an email interview. The Mandolin Café website confirmed it with Thile. For an announcement this momentous – Garrison Keillor is a radio legend, APHC has millions of listeners, Thile is a virtuoso musician and a 2012 MacArthur Fellow – it was all very laid-back and uncorporate.

We’d heard about Thile – mandolinist and singer for the acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the folk/bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers – but hadn’t seen him in person until April 2014, when he came to the Walker to play with the profoundly influential jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. Then we learned more about him, and his big ears, and his adventuresome spirit, and his cross-genre collaborations with other artists including the bassist Edgar Meyer. And his solo mandolin takes on Bach’s works for violin. All very interesting.

But will Keillor really turn over the torch? Even the Current demurs, saying “It’s not the first time Keillor has talked about retiring.” His transition, if it happens, is expected to be lengthy. 

*** 

You can catch “Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders” at the Park Square (but hurry; it closes July 26). Or you can go to the movies starting July 17 to see Sir Ian McKellen in “Mr. Holmes.” Either way, you’ll enjoy the work of Jeffrey Hatcher. Our resident super-playwright, Hatcher wrote both the play and the screenplay. He’s quite the expert on Holmes by now, having written a previous play, “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventures of the Suicide Club,” which had its regional premiere at Park Square in 2013. And he’s thinking ahead to more.

At the moment, it’s a mystery: Who will take over Once Upon a Crime, the mystery bookstore on W. 26th St. in Minneapolis? After 13 years, owners Pat Frovarp and Gary Schulze have made the tough decision to sell. “The major factor in this decision is time – we’re not getting any younger,” Schulze wrote in a statement. Also, Schulze has been battling cancer since 2007.  “I could go on and on about what a rewarding thrill ride these last 13 years have been,” he wrote. “Being a major hub for touring authors and a haven for local; going to New York to accept the Raven Award; actually getting paid for reading and talking about books; getting books dedicated to us; being made characters in books … Have to say we’ll miss it.”

Their goal: to close on or about the end of this calendar year.

The picks

At the Walker: 75 Gifts for 75 Years. A little over a week remains to catch this show, an up-to-the-minute look at how important gifts and donors’ generosity shape museum collections. Includes recent gifts in the areas of painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video and prints. Closes July 26. FMI.

Friday and Saturday on Harriet Island: Festa Italiana. Spaghetti-eating contests, wine tastings, bocce ball, gondola rides on the Mississippi, live entertainment, Italian language lessons, a Catholic Mass on Saturday, and opportunities to build an Italian village with artist Aldo Moroni. Friday 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. Free.

Saturday at Studio Z: C. Spencer Yeh and Jessica Rylan. Taiwan-born, Brooklyn-based Yeh is an artist, composer, and collaborator who has performed at MoMA, the Liverpool Biennial, All Ears in Oslo, and the Whitney Biennial. (He returns to the Twin Cities in April 2016 for the Walker’s Sound Horizon series.) Rylan is a sound artist and electronic musician who designs and constructs modular synthesizers used in galleries and her own live musical performances. Part of the 2015 Crow with No Mouth concert series curated by Jesse Goin. 7:30 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. music. $12 at the door.

Sunday at Century College in White Bear Lake: Shakespeare & Company: “Hamlet.” Bring a lawn chair or blanket, snacks and beverages for the Bard in the great outdoors. Now in its 40th year, Shakespeare & Company is Minnesota’s longest-running outdoor classical repertory theater; this year’s productions also include “Twelfth Night” and Molier’s “The Miser.” At the Outdoor Theatre on the West Campus, 3300 Century Ave. N. 7 p.m. $15 adults, $14 seniors, free for kids under 12. Complete schedule here.

Tuesday through Saturday (July 21 – 25) at the Bakken Museum: Best Days of the Bakken. Five full days of programming, each focusing on a different aspect of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math). With the Bell Museum, Seagate, Boston Scientific, the Kitchen Pantry Scientist, Pollinate Minnesota, the 3M Visiting Wizards, robots, LEGOs, and more. 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. each day. Free admission from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. during Best Days. 

Read Source: https://www.minnpost.com/artscape/2015/07/musical-offerings-45th-season-la-vie-parisienne

Minnesota’s Barbara Schneider Foundation teaches crisis intervention strategies to Rikers Island team

After researching the nation’s top Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) programs, a group of corrections officers and other staff members from New York’s Rikers Island decided that the Minneapolis-based Barbara Schneider Foundation was best qualified to lead them through an extensive train-the-trainer program designed to help jumpstart the process of  implementing CIT in their facilities. 

Rikers Island, a complex of 10 jails on an island in New York’s the East River, has been under intense scrutiny of late, thanks to an in-depth series of articles in the New York Times focusing on abuses of inmates with mental illness at the hands of corrections officers.

The Barbara Schneider Foundation, named in honor of Barbara Schneider, a Minneapolis woman who was killed in 2000 by police during a confrontation in a mental health crisis call, conducts trainings that focus, in part, on de-escalating crisis in interactions between law enforcement or corrections officers and people with mental illness.

Late this spring, Mark Anderson, the foundation's executive director, got a call from Anthony Waters, director of mental health and correctional health services at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Waters wanted to know if the Barbara Schneider Foundation could host a weeklong comprehensive CIT train-the-trainer training for a group of Rikers staff leaders. He wanted to schedule the program in the first part of the summer. Anderson agreed, and went to work to plan and schedule the training on short notice.

“We had to scramble a bit, but we pulled together a good program,” he said.

The Rikers group of 12 participants, “half from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the other half from Department of Corrections,” Anderson explained, came to the Twin Cities June 8-12. The weeklong program was held at the Columbia Heights Police Department each day from 8-4.

“Recent New York Times articles have been published about problems at Rikers, including inmate violence, staff violence, corruption and suicidality of inmates,” Anderson explained. “Leadership at Rikers is trying to address these issues with a comprehensive approach. Part of that approach included setting up this training with us here in Minnesota. They think our training model can help improve outcomes in their facilities.”

How CIT works

Developed in 1988 by Memphis police officer Sam Cochran and University of Memphis criminal justice professor Randy Dupont, CIT was designed to teach law enforcement officers how to react nonviolently in crisis interactions with people diagnosed with mental illness or developmental disabilities. 

The Barbara Schneider Foundation’s CIT trainings have earned a national reputation, expanding their programs to include communities beyond law enforcement, said Randy Carroll, Barbara Schneider senior CIT trainer.

“We see that these ideas can be applicable in many different settings,” Carroll said. “We have worked with people in a wide variety of workplaces.” Carroll was part of the Barbara Schneider training team that worked with the Rikers group during their recent Twin Cities visit.

Anderson said the core goal of CIT is increasing empathy for people with mental illness, seeing individuals as more than their diagnosis, and developing ways that they can be treated — within rigid systems — in a humane and fair manner. They also focus on decreasing the use of force in crisis. Barbara Schneider trainings accomplish that through discussion, sample scenarios conducted with participants and professional actors, and in-person group conversations led by volunteers with mental illness.

Since the foundation was established by a group of Twin Cities mental health activists and law enforcement professionals, staff at Barbara Schneider have developed CIT programs for groups from around the country. The organization’s target market is broad, including law enforcement and corrections workers and social service workers, educators and heath care professionals.

“We started doing CIT in hospitals because they see a lot of people with mental illness and have a lot of tense interactions,” Anderson said. “For four or five years now, we’ve been training hospital staff at Allina, for instance. Nursing staff there tells us that that since our trainings, the use of force in their hospitals is down dramatically. People have learned how to de-escalate situations and see mentally ill people as more than just their diagnosis.”

The diverse range of approaches appealed to Rikers staff, Carroll said.

“It’s my understanding that the Rikers folks did a lot of research before they came to Barbara Schneider. One of the supervisors at Rikers [had managed] inmates most of his career. When he looked at Barbara Schneider, I believe he found that they were doing something different from other places, something better for this group of people with mental illness. Barbara Schneider is really ahead of the curve.”

Results and reaction

At the end of the training, the Rikers group left Minnesota armed with the information they need to begin the work of establishing CIT programs in their facilities, Anderson said. The group that came to Minnesota represented a mix of Rikers staff, from corrections officers to psychologists and health care workers.

“To my understanding, this group had been asked to do this training relatively quickly, to develop a training for other Rikers staff in the CIT model,” Anderson said. “The idea is it’s not remedial training. It’s voluntary. It’s communication and mental health training for your most advanced people who can adopt this de-escalation approach and model it for other staff.”

Because Barbara Schneider CIT programs always focus on empathy and understanding, a group discussion featuring a volunteer with mental illness was a key part of the Rikers training. As he was designing the Rikers training, Anderson invited Charles Jensen, a person with severe mental illness who has spoken at other Barbara Schneider trainings, to come and speak to the group.

“Charles had been diagnosed with a mental illness and was being treated for that mental illness while he was arrested dozen and dozens of times,” Anderson said. “He kept going in and out of jail. Finally the probation officer told the judge on his seventh felony arrest, ‘You keep sending him to jail but it doesn’t seem to do any good. Can we send him to St. Peter?’”

Focused mental health care at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter helped Jenson get a more accurate diagnosis for his condition.

“The delusions went away while he was medicated,” Anderson said. “Charles became aware of the fact that they were delusions. He told the Rikers group the story of how his interaction with the criminal justice system ended and he went for 10 years without being arrested.”

The conversation was significant for the Rikers group, Anderson said. “When Charles talks about his personal experiences, it is so powerful. It’s not some expert, not some academic. He’s a human being, the same kind of person they interact with on a daily basis in a jail.”

This kind of intimate interaction can help change people’s perspective, Carroll said: “It’s completely the empathy piece.” Carroll’s father struggled with a severe depression that changed his life and caused him to leave the family farm. That personal history has informed Carroll’s career. “If you understand that this person has bipolar with psychotic features, if you understood what that meant for his behavior, you’d obviously approach him differently when you encounter him in a work situation.”

At the end of the week, Carroll and Anderson said the group of trainees returned to New York armed with a fresh perspective.

“They were really pleased with the training,” Anderson said. This is a tough group who has seen it all in their line of work, he explained. While they all sincerely wanted to learn how to improve their programs, it was clear that many were skeptical that a small foundation based in Minneapolis could teach them anything they didn’t already know.

“What typically happens is when people come in, and even though they ask for this training, even thought they’ve investigated it and think CIT is the best approach, they come in and they are skeptical,” Anderson said.  “As trainers, you have to prove yourself. We see people who have been doing this kind of work for over 20 years. They have a way of doing it. They know what works for them. They know about real challenges that they have to cope with on a daily basis. You are asking them to do things a little differently. At the end, though, this group from New York thought it was helpful to use this approach. They thought it would be something they could use with their staff. That was our goal, and that’s the first step.” 

Read Source: https://www.minnpost.com/mental-health-addiction/2015/07/minnesota-s-barbara-schneider-foundation-teaches-crisis-intervention

Minnesotans give big to Hillary Clinton

Backing up the trucks. Allison Sherry and Mary Jo Webster of the Strib say, “So much for the notion that Hillary Clinton is not generating enthusiasm in Minnesota. The state’s residents donated more than twice the cash to her as to all the other presidential hopefuls combined — including other Democrats, from April through June. All told, Minnesotans gave more than $780,000 to all presidential candidates in the second quarter, according to a Star Tribune analysis of data provided by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan advocate for open government. Of that amount, the Democratic former secretary of state and first lady scooped up 71 percent, or a whopping $559,700.”

At MPR, Catharine Richert adds, “So far, [Bernie] Sanders has raised $15 million, and more than $12,000 has come from people living in Minnesota. Again, that’s a sliver of Sanders’ overall fundraising for the quarter, but Minnesota was more generous to Sanders compared to most other states.”

Oil up the bike. On gridlock-by-construction, Peter Cox of MPR says, “Contractors are hard at work removing asphalt, grinding concrete pavement and reconstructing the Lyndale Avenue Bridge along I-394, the busy commuter artery out of downtown Minneapolis. The project pushes westbound commuters into the high-occupancy toll lanes, causing major traffic jams during rush hour. At the end of the month, motorists heading into downtown from the west will shift into the toll lanes. The Minnesota Department of Transportation says the impact on traffic should lessen by mid-August. MnDOT also is in the middle of two three-year projects on Highway 100 and sections of I-494 near Plymouth.”

Speaking of construction, Brian Bakst for the AP says, “Jostling has begun among Minnesota cities, counties and state government agencies to get road projects, nature trails, amphitheaters, prison repairs and much more into a public-works borrowing plan that Gov. Mark Dayton and the Legislature will assemble next year. The Department of Minnesota Management and Budget informed lawmakers Wednesday that $3.2 billion in preliminary construction requests had poured in — from $500,000 for a community center in Victoria to $151 million toward the construction of a light-rail line from Minneapolis to the southwestern suburbs.”

Also in vehicular mayhem, WCCO-TV has a story saying, “Authorities say 361 people died in crashes on Minnesota roads last year. That’s the lowest amount since 1944. The state credits increased enforcement and road engineering enhancements with the lower numbers. Unfortunately, the trend has not continued over the last six months. The Minnesota Department of Public safety says 198 people have died in crashes so far this year. That’s a 21 percent increase from this time last summer.”

Then there’s this, from Laura Yuen at MPR. “Motorcycle deaths are driving a dramatic increase this year in the number of overall traffic fatalities in Minnesota. So far this year, 37 people have been killed while riding their motorcycles, more than double the number by this time last year. … In many of the motorcycle crashes, no other vehicle was present and the riders were having trouble handling curves … .”

Sort of a Walker Watch. The Tea Party’s Favorite Governor was heavily supported by M&I Bank, which morphed into BMO Harris, which has finally kicked back money in the Tom Petters fraud. Jacqueline Palank of the Dow Jones Services reports, “BMO Harris Bank agreed to pay $16 million to settle litigation tied to the Tom Petters Ponzi scheme that cheated investors out of $3.5 billion. The settlement, filed Thursday in a Florida bankruptcy court, would free Chicago-based BMO Harris from a lawsuit seeking nearly $24 billion in connection with accusations that M&I Bank, which BMO acquired in 2011, was complicit in a massive fraud orchestrated by Petters, once a prominent Minnetonka-based businessman now serving a 50-year prison sentence. ‘M&I was complicit in the scheme, serving as a critical lynchpin "legitimizing" Petters' plot and facilitating it,’ the lawsuit, filed in September 2014, claimed. ‘M&I had actual knowledge of Petters' fraud and provided substantial assistance, helping it flourish.’" Presumably the investment in Walker will pay off better.

While we’re trash-talking the neighbors, here’s the latest from the crime blotter. Mike Longaecker of the Forum News Service says, “A 66-year-old Ellsworth woman accused of shooting her husband to death and hauling him to the woods was ordered Tuesday to undergo a competency evaluation at a secure state mental facility. Patricia A. Kees was charged Tuesday with one count of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of hiding a corpse. After dragging the body to the woods, the woman — with blood on her face and clothes — allegedly told people in a bar just down the road she had shot her husband.” 

Deadspin, the snarky sports site, picks up on Pat Kessler’s comparison of the cost of the 3.5 billion mile flight to Pluto and our major league football palace. Says Samer Kalaf, “I want to take this opportunity to propose that the Vikings be sent to Pluto. The Minnesota Vikings are a middling NFL team, with promise at quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater, but there’s nothing really special about them to justify leaving them on Earth. Football Outsiders calculated the snap-weighted age of each team in April, and the Vikings averaged at 26.2 years old, the 27th-youngest team in the league. They’ll be fine with a 10-year trip. The players could all absorb some great experience for road games. It’ll keep them disciplined, and no one on Pluto could get them into trouble. Roger Goodell should be all for this idea. The move will expand the league’s fanbase, and get those highly coveted Pluto dollars, or whatever currency they have there.”

Speaking of Kessler, he reports at WCCO-TV on … yet another legislative operative heading over to work for our very elaborate medicinal pot bureaucracy. “A third state official who helped write Minnesota’s medical cannabis law has gone to work for the company licensed to sell it. That news comes one day after DFL State Representative Dan Schoen announced he’ll become LeafLine Labs’s top security officer. … WCCO found out on Thursday that LeafLine hired Jamie Olson as its chief counsel last month. She was a top lawyer for the Minnesota House who helped write the cannabis law in 2014.” Always remember, though, that it’s about three an hour in D.C. leaving “public service” for a directly-connected private paycheck.

Also in the realm of flight-to-Pluto type money, Mark Steil’s MPR says, “The economic toll of avian flu on Minnesota's poultry industry has climbed to nearly $650 million, according to new data from University of Minnesota Extension. That is nearly double the estimate in May, when the disease was midway through its march through the state.”

USA Today has a story on how closure isn’t always everything it’s talked up to be. “Michelle Yvette Busha was Don Busha's first child and he said she was the rebellious type. In 1978, at age 18, Michelle Busha ran away from home. ‘She wanted her freedom,’ Don Busha said. ‘She left. That's the last time I saw her.’ Despite the passing of time, her dad still kept the same home phone number and address. He also kept the family name visible on the Busha Boat Shop to make sure his daughter could find her way home. ‘I think closure's overrated,’ he said. ‘I always lived with the hope that someday she would show up.’ In March, she did. Detectives exhumed a ‘Jane Doe’ in southern Minnesota and, based on DNA taken from Don and one of his other daughters, detectives identified Michelle.”

Read Source: https://www.minnpost.com/glean/2015/07/minnesotans-give-big-hillary-clinton

U.S. needs renewal of a core value: access to justice

CC/Flickr/Emmanuel Huybrechts

What is needed in this milestone year for LSC is a national renewal of the core value that it embodies: access to justice.

A veteran in Minneapolis receiving less than $800 a month in income from Social Security was forced into homelessness by a $200-a-month child-support payment in Indiana. He was referred to Central Minnesota Legal Services (CMLS) by his homeless shelter. A CMLS lawyer discovered that the child-support payment was well above what was legally appropriate for someone with his income, and within days, the obligation was cut to $55 a month. With more income available to meet his needs, the client was able to leave the shelter, rent a small apartment, and make some strides toward self-sufficiency.

Jean A. Lastine

This is just one example of the kind of work done every day by legal aid organizations funded by the Legal Services Corporation, which marks its 40th anniversary this year.

LSC’s Board of Directors will hold its quarterly meeting in Minneapolis at the University of St. Thomas Law School this week and will feature speakers and panels today (July 17) on the importance of access to justice, the role legal aid programs have played in the development of Native American law, and other topics. Former Vice President Walter Mondale, Rep. Tom Emmer, Minnesota Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea and other leading jurists and lawyers from the region will take part.

Created in 1974

LSC, created in the summer of 1974 as one of the last acts of the Nixon administration, is the largest single funder of civil legal aid in the country. It distributes federal funds through competitive grants to 134 independent nonprofit organizations with 811 offices in every state, the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States.

John G. Levi

LSC funds five legal aid organizations in Minnesota, including CMLS, based here in Minneapolis. CMLS derives about 70 percent of its budget from LSC.

Every day low-income Americans seek help from LSC-funded organizations with civil legal matters that go to the very heart of their safety and security. They are fighting to avert unlawful foreclosure, or to escape domestic violence. They are grandparents seeking legal guardianship of a grandchild in need of life-saving surgery, or they are veterans returning from overseas and facing legal issues.

LSC also promotes technology innovation through its Technology Initiative Grants program, which has funded more than 525 technology projects in the past decade. In addition LSC awards grants through its Pro Bono Innovation Fund to support new and innovative projects to promote and enhance pro bono efforts throughout the country.

Funding has dwindled

As LSC marks 40 years of significant accomplishment, it faces a challenging future.  

In 1976, LSC’s first year of full congressional funding when the percent of the population eligible for LSC-funded legal assistance stood at 12 percent, the fledgling LSC was allocated by Congress, in inflation-adjusted terms, more than $468 million, rising three years later to its all-time high of what today would be more than $880 million.

Despite our best efforts, the FY-2015 allocation of $375 million is less than half of that.  Even 10 years ago, LSC’s actual funding was $400 million.

As LSC funding has remained low, the population eligible for LSC-funded assistance has grown to all-time highs. In 2013, the last year for which we have full statistics, 63.5 million Americans qualified for civil legal aid during the entire year and another 32.5 qualified because they lived for two months or more at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline.  That is approaching one-third of the population.

Needs going unmet

Not surprisingly, our grantees and other providers cannot keep up with this demand and are being forced to turn away scores of low-income Americans seeking civil legal assistance.  A recent Boston Bar Association task force report showed that legal aid providers in Massachusetts are unable to help two-thirds of those seeking assistance because of a lack of resources. Other studies show that anywhere from 50 percent to 80 percent of low-income Americans’ legal needs go unmet. 

Here in Minnesota, despite steady support from some state and local sources, declining federal support from 2010 to 2013  forced a 13 percent cut in staff, including 13 lawyers, and  LSC’s five grantees were able to handle nearly 20 percent fewer cases. They are now working to restore those cuts.

In the face of all this, it is a matter of great concern to us that the U.S. House of   Representatives passed a budget in June that would cut LSC funding by $75 million, down to $300 million. LSC estimates such a cut would force local programs to lay off more than 1,000 staff members, including 430 attorneys, and close 85 legal offices nationwide. 

The Senate later passed a budget bill that would fund LSC at $385 million, and as the budget process moves forward we will do all that we can to ensure that we get the maximum level of funding. In reality, though, LSC funding has been little more than a rounding error in the federal budget even though the values we are charged with upholding are far more than that.

Increased commitment required

What is needed in this milestone year for LSC is a national renewal of the core value that it embodies: access to justice.

Only with increased commitment from all – government, courts, the bar, and the public – will our country’s promise of justice, reflected in the first line of our Constitution and the closing words of the Pledge of Allegiance, be made real to all Americans.

Jean A. Lastine is the executive director of Central Minnesota Legal Services. John G. Levi is the Legal Services Corporation board chair.

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Read Source: https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2015/07/us-needs-renewal-core-value-access-justice