Cloud Cult's Shannon Frid, Connie Minowa and Craig Minowa. Photo: Michael Anderson

2008 was a big year for the Minnesota-based band Cloud Cult. They released a new album, Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes), earning spots on a few best album lists (including one by the Atlanta alt-weekly Creative Loafing) and Rolling Stone’s Breaking Artists page. They played SXSW, the CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory and, locally, the Walker Art Center’s Rock the Garden. The Denver Post dubbed the group “one of the best live bands out there,” they penned a partnership with insurance company Esurance, and a documentary about them is slated to come out in a few months.

As we peek around the corner of 2009, I caught up with Cloud Cult frontman Craig Minowa, an environmental scientist at the Organic Consumers Association by day, to see what the year has in store — musically, environmentally and personally.

For progressives, 2008 was a big year politically — at least in contrast to the previous eight. But 2009 isn’t an election year (except for some smaller races), so how will you be “political” in the new year and beyond?

The coming year is going to be a critical time to put pressure on the Obama administration’s agencies, namely the USDA and EPA, to reverse disastrous policies Bush put into place. For example, Bush gutted the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, and these need to be put back into place. Obama’s science advisers are also well educated on the climate change crisis, so, at the very least, by the end of 2009, the EPA needs to be looking at greenhouse gases as something that can be federally regulated. The Supreme Court has already ruled that this is the case, but the Bush administration is ignoring that and is doing nothing to curb the nation’s disastrous output of greenhouse gases.

What personal activism will you be doing in 2009?

The climate crisis is much bigger than most Americans are willing to accept. We need to make radical changes to curb greenhouse gas output, but we also need to make radical changes to prepare for the coming changes. I plan to also be involved in pushing mass transit. With the new administration, I think we’ll see some significant opportunities to build mass transit infrastructure. For example, there’s a plan in place to connect Minneapolis and Duluth with a high-speed commuter train. There would be a stop-over in Hinckley. It’s called the Northern Lights Express, and I plan to be more involved in making sure it happens. At the same time, Connie [Minowa, his wife] and I are continually trying to expand what we do at the farm. We’d like to get to the point where we are growing and preserving most of the food we eat.

A note on your site says you’re taking a break as a band. So what’s in store for 2009 -– for the band or for you?

We’re releasing a full-length DVD documentary in the spring. It’s kind of a behind-the-scenes look at the band and includes footage going back as far as 10 years. John Burgess and Scott West [who directed the video for the band's song, "Everybody Here is a Cloud"] have been working on it for a couple years now, so we’re excited about that. An album of live songs and previously unreleased songs will be released with the DVD. We’ll be touring the U.S. and some of Canada quite heavily March through May. We’ll probably do some festivals over the summer. I’m not sure what’s on the plate for the fall yet. In the meantime, I’m working on writing a new album. I want it to be the best one yet, so I’m taking my time on it and not putting any deadline pressure on, like I have with the last few albums. Right now, I’m also scoring the music for a National Geographic special on the grizzly bear.

What was it like having documentary filmmakers in your home for so long? Are you cut out for a reality-TV gig?

We’ve had a few too many cameras up at the farm. There were a few different shootings for the documentary up here, but having situations like MTV coming out to shoot us out here can be really uncomfortable, because we have a pretty modest place here. The Weather Channel also did a piece on us, for their Forecast Earth program, so they had a crew up here this summer, too. Reporters from different publications also come out here, and there are the occasional fans who track our home down and come spy for a bit. And then Showtime called to send a crew, but we really hit a point where we felt we needed to cut the traffic off and have a place in our lives where we could enjoy some privacy. It’s really nice that people are interested in our lives, so we can’t complain, but, at the same time, there’s a certain point where you start to feel like you’re never leaving the stage. The documentary itself was fun to be a part of. I feel bad for John Burgess, the fellow that did the bulk of the shooting. I’m really a pretty introverted person, so if I’m not on stage, I’m usually pretty quiet and mellow, so I don’t think I make a very entertaining reality-TV-type subject.

Your environmental cred is remarkable — and too long to quickly summarize: Cloud Cult has resisted the major label system, continuing to self-produce albums on your nonprofit Earthology label to remain environmentally responsible. You buy wind-energy credits to offset the CO2 emitted in touring, you’ve planted trees and begun recycling used CD jewel cases. You live on an organic farm, work as an environmental scientist at the Organic Consumers Association, use geothermal, wind and solar energy, etc., etc., etc. A geeky question: Are there green technologies, practices you’re hoping to learn more about or implement in your life or work — or that deserve more public attention in 2009?

We’re working hard on trying to line up a mass transit tour for 2009. Our band manager, Adrian Young, is working out the details to try and have us do the whole tour on Amtrak. Our biggest ecological flaw, as a band, is the fuel we burn up when we’re touring, so this would be a major step in greatly reducing that impact. Right now, we plant hundreds of trees each year to absorb the CO2 we put out from the touring, and we went the biodiesel route for a while, but we have a lot more work to do in figuring out how to mitigate those negative impacts.

Where have you found inspiration in the past year?

I’ve been reading a lot about understanding the difference between the true self and your brain. We’ve been taught to equate our selves with our brains. But thought patterns are actually just a screen that tricks us into feeling like we’re separate from everything. I’ve been working hard on trying to shut the brain off and just be more present in the moment. I’ve come to recognize the constant noise up there is not a healthy thing, and it’s taking a lot of work to quiet down. It’s been inspiring to see life through very different eyes. I can’t expect to write truly good music or to have the energy to keep working towards a green planet, if I can’t get a better ongoing connection to the whole.

At Cloud Cult concerts, you often wear a sleep mask. What’s the significance — and does it come off in 2009?

It helps me separate from “Craig.” My conscious brain has all these conceptions of who and what “Craig” is. But if I try to write music or perform on stage and am overly conscious of that concept of me as “Craig” then I won’t create anything worthwhile.

The disease of the pop music industry is ego. It’s everywhere, and it is contagious and very destructive. Music is a very sacred art form. I remember reading how the Buddhists talk about moments of enlightenment being the complete loss of the sense of self. Performing and writing music does that for me. A good night on stage entails having moments where I can completely forget that I have an identity as “Craig” and connecting to what feels like a bigger higher power. It’s sort of like dreaming, as in dreams you often don’t have a sense of where or who you are.

Anyway, one night before a show, I was taking a nap backstage with my sleep mask on, and I realized that just by putting the mask on, it created the psychological feeling that I was about to enter the dreamworld. So I started putting it on before shows, as a matter of ceremony and ritual to get my mind connected to the other side. It’s sort of like making sure I have my eyes on heaven at all times, because the day I lose the real meaning of the music, which all came from a very spiritual place, is the day I need to hang the guitar up and try a new profession.

Photo: Michael Anderson

Tomorrow: A Q&A with Doomtree emcee, singer and writer Dessa.

Tom Vilsack Photo: Wikipedia

Our colleagues at the Iowa Independent hail Gov. Tom Vilsack, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for agriculture secretary, as a “consummate pragmatist” who has “endeared himself to both the left and the right.” But one group that’s not so fond of Obama’s selection is the Finland, Minn.–based Organic Consumers’ Association. It reacted to today’s announcement with a petition calling for organic producers and consumers to urge Obama to block the nomination, highlighting Vilsack’s support for factory farming and biotechnology.

Last month the OCA outlined six reasons they oppose Vilsack for the job, including his support for genetically modified plants and animals, Vilsack’s apparently cozy relationship with Monsanto (the OCA says he’s been known to use the company’s jet), and his advocacy of plant-derived biofuels, “which use as much or more fossil energy to produce them as they generate, while driving up world food prices and literally starving the poor.” (The Iowa Independent’s Chase Martyn reports that Vilsack has “subtly tempered his enthusiasm for corn-based ethanol over the course of his candidacy, shifting to a more tenable position in favor of all forms of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels, using corn ethanol merely as a ‘transitional fuel.’”)

Obama’s words at this morning’s press conference might suggest that the OCA’s petition drive won’t sway his opinion about Vilsack. He hailed the Iowan for, among other things, “promoting biotech to strengthen our farmers and fostering an agricultural economy of the future that not only grows the food we eat but the energy that we use.”

Meanwhile, Minneapolis’ Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy expressed its reservations about Vilsack as well, echoing several of the points made in Martyn’s piece — namely, that Vilsack’s conservative track record doesn’t suggest he’ll bring real change to the office.

“As Iowa’s Governor, Vilsack has shown a fairly conventional perspective on agriculture — particularly related to biotechnology and the siting of factory farms — that seems to indicate a status quo approach,” said IATP President Jim Harkness in a statement. “But these are unconventional times, and with his charge to implement the national vision for agriculture of President-elect Obama, he has an opportunity to address the concerns of farmers — big and small, organic and conventional — and consumers, as well as environmental challenges facing the country.”

The organization, founded by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, sees volatility in commodity pricing as a big problem the ag secretary must face, but listed other areas it hopes Vilsack pays attention to:

· The bioeconomy is trying to rapidly transition from corn-based ethanol toward more sustainable feedstocks. But what was once a primarily farmer-owned industry is increasingly being dominated by absentee corporate owners, providing fewer community benefits.

· Consumers want more organic, locally produced and healthier food, but government programs still offer relatively little support and multiple obstacles to meet this market demand.

· As the number of farmers declines and the average farmers’ age rises, significant barriers prevent much-needed new farmers from entering the sector.

· Along with adapting to climate change, agriculture is being identified as both a contributor and possible mitigator of climate change. The USDA will have to lead a shift toward a climate-friendly agriculture.

· A rising number of major food recalls and internal government audits have exposed serious weaknesses in the USDA’s food safety oversight.

Text of the Organic Consumers Association petition:

Despite a massive public outcry, including over 20,000 emails from the Organic Consumers Association, President-Elect Obama has chosen former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to be the next Secretary of Agriculture.

While Vilsack has promoted respectable policies with respect to restraining livestock monopolies, his overall record is one of aiding and abetting Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or factory farms and promoting genetically engineered crops and animal cloning. Equally troubling is Vilsack’s support for unsustainable industrial ethanol production, which has already caused global corn and grain prices to skyrocket, literally taking food off the table for a billion people in the developing world.

The Organic Consumers Association is calling on organic consumers and all concerned citizens to join our call to action and block Vilsack’s confirmation as the next Secretary of Agriculture. Please help us reach our goal of 100,000 petition signatures against Vilsack’ nomination. Sign today!

More: The environmental site Grist on why Vilsack’s a “big-ag man,” and Bluestem Prairie looks at other responses in Minnesota.

Vilsack, who faced off against Obama early in the presidential campaign, will become the fourth cabinet member from the 2008 race, joining Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Secretary of State nominee Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and commerce secretary Bill Richardson.

At tomorrow’s 10:45 a.m. press conference in Chicago, Obama is also expected to name Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar as interior secretary. The position oversees the country’s national parks and the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as the Interior Department’s 70,000 employees. Salazar (whose brother John, a Colorado congressman, was considered a front-runner for the agriculture secretary post) will reportedlly accept the position.

Last week, Ritchie — a former chicken farmer and founder of both the “November 2″ get-out-the-vote project and the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy — was included on a shortlist of “sustainable” agriculture secretary candidates sent to Obama’s transition team by 88 activists including authors Frances Moore Lappé, Bill McKibben and Michael Pollan. While Ritchie’s political ascendancy has been far from typical, his answer (sent via Facebook) fits that time-honored political artform: a thanks-but-no-thanks delivered while leaving the door slightly ajar.

“I am honored that these folks would consider me capable and worthy of that important leadership role,” he wrote. “At this point in time I am very busy and very happy with my current job.”

He continued: “A strong and future-oriented thinking USDA is crucial for tackling our nation’s economic, energy, environmental and health challenges and I am anxious to find ways to be supportive of the team that President Obama puts into place to lead this important agency.”

Ritchie, who’s got his hands full with the Election 2008 recount, is not widely considered a contender for the top USDA job.

House ag committee chair Peterson, who reportedly told the Obama transition team he wasn’t interested in the job, showed support, if not effusively, for Salazar as USDA chief. “He shows up all the time. He pays attention. He really cares about agriculture and rural America,” Peterson said. “He does his homework.”

Update: The Washington Post has an entirely different shortlist: 1.) Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, 2.) Charles Stenholm, ag lobbyist, 3.) Dennis Wolf, Pennsylvania’s ag secretary.

The 88 signatories — which includes Minnesotans like restaurant owner Lucia Watson, IATP president Jim Harkness and Susan Stokes, head of the Farmers Legal Action Group, among others — write that the secretary’s vision should encompass: “recreating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment, biodiversity and the health of our children while implementing policies that place conservation, soil health, animal welfare and worker’s rights as well as sustainable renewable energy near the top of their agenda.”

Update: Ritchie tells MnIndy he’s not interested in the ag secretary job “at this point in time.”

The six suggested candidates and the letter’s text:

1. Gus Schumacher, former Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services and former Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture.
2. Chuck Hassebrook, executive director, Center for Rural Affairs, Lyons, Neb.
3. Sarah Vogel, former Commissioner of Agriculture for North Dakota, lawyer, Bismarck, N.D.
4. Fred Kirschenmann, organic farmer, distinguished fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Ames, Iowa, and president of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY.
5. Mark Ritchie, Minnesota Secretary of State, former policy analyst in Minnesota’s Department of Agriculture under Governor Rudy Perpich, co-founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
6. Neil Hamilton, Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and director of the Agricultural Law Center, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.

Read the full letter:

Dear President-Elect Obama,

We congratulate you on your historic victory and welcome the change that your election promises to usher in for our nation. As leaders in the sustainable agriculture and rural advocacy community we supported you in record numbers during the caucus, primary and general election because of the family farm-friendly p olicies that you advocated during your campaign.

As our nation’s future president, we hope that you will take our concerns under advisement when nominating our next Secretary of Agriculture because of the crucial role this Secretary will play in revitalizing our rural economies, protecting our nation’s food supply and our environment, improving human health and well-being, rescuing the independent family farmer, and creating a sustainable renewable energy future.

We believe that our nation is at a critical juncture in regard to agriculture and its impact on the environment and that our next Secretary of Agriculture must have a broad vision for our collective future that is greater than what past appointments have called for.

Presently, farmers face serious challenges in terms of the high costs of energy, inputs and land, as well as continually having to fight an economic system and legislative policies that undermine their ability to compete in the open market. The current system unnaturally favors economies of scale, consolidation and market concentration and the allocation of massive subsidies for commodities, all of which benefit the interests of corporate agribusiness over the livelihoods of farm families.

In addition, America must come to understand the environmental and human health implications of industrialized agriculture. From rising childhood and adult obesity to issues of food safety, global warming and air and water pollution, we believe our next Secretary of Agriculture must have a vision that calls for: recreating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment, biodiversity and the health of our children while implementing policies that place conservation, soil health, animal welfare and worker’s rights as well as sustainable renewable energy near the top of their agenda.

Today we have a nutritional and environmental deficit that is as real and as great as that of our national debt and must be addressed with forward thinking and bold, decisive action. To deal with this crisis, our next Secretary of Agriculture must work to advance a new era of sustainability in agriculture, humane husbandry, food and renewable energy production that revitalizes our nation’s soil, air and water while stimulating opportunities for new farmers to return to the land.

We believe that a new administration should address our nation’s growing health problems by promoting a children’s school lunch program that incorporates more healthy food choices, including the creation of opportunities for schools to purchase food from local sources that place a high emphasis on nutrition and sustainable farming practices. We recognize that our children’s health is our nation’s future and that currently schools are unable to meet these needs because they do not have the financial resources to invest in better food choices. We believe this reflects and is in line with your emphasis on childhood education as a child’s health and nutrition are fundamental to their academic success.

We understand that this is a tall order, but one that is consistent with the values and policies that you advocated for in your bid for the White House. We realize that more conventional candidates are likely under consideration; however, we feel strongly that the next head of the USDA should have a significant grassroots background in promoting sustainable agriculture to create a prosperous future for rural America and a healthy future for all of America’s citizens.

With this in mind, we are offering a list of leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to the goals that you articulated during your campaign and we encourage you to consider them for the role of Secretary of Agriculture.

Signatories:

1. David Murphy, Clear Lake, IA
2. Paul Willis, Thornton, IA
3. Michael Pollan, Berkeley, CA
4. Bill Niman, Bolinas, CA
5. Nicolette Hahn Niman, Bolinas, CA
6. Diane Halverson, Northfield, MN
7. Marlene Halverson, Northfield, MN
8. Aaron Woolf, Elizabethtown, NY
9. Judy Wicks, Philadelphia, PA
10. Wendy Wasserman, Iowa City, IA
11. Anna Lappé, Brooklyn, NY
12. Cornelia Butler Flora, Ames, IA
13. Eleanor Bertino, San Francisco, CA
14. Wes Jackson, Salina, KS
15. Wendell Berry, Port Royal, KY
16. Alice Waters, Berkeley, CA
17. Marion Nestle, New York, NY
18. Bill McKibben, Middlebury, VT
19. Rick Dove, New Bern, NC
20. Ann Cooper, Berkeley, CA
21. Michel Nischan, Fairfield, CT
22. Jerry DeWitt, Ames, IA
23. Michael Dimock, San Francisco, CA
24. Jim Harkness, Minneapolis, MN
25. Frank Reese, Lindsborg, KS
26. Jeff Odefey, Irvington, NY
27. Cathy Liss, Alexandria, VA
28. Eric Schlosser, Monterey, CA
29. Leigh Adcock, Ames, IA
30. Dan Barber, Pocantico Hills, NY
31. Francis Thicke, Fairfield, IA
32. Josh Viertel, Brooklyn, NY
33. Peter Hoffman, New York, NY
34. Tom Philpott, Valle Crucis, NC
35. Hillary Wilson, Valle Crucis, NC
36. Dan Imhoff, Healdsburg, CA
37. Michael Stumo, Sheffield, MA
38. Simran Sethi, Lawrence, KS
39. Lisa Stokke, Clear Lake, IA
40. Sarah Willis, Thornton, IA
41. Peter Kaminsky, Brooklyn, NY
42. Kurt Michael Friese, Iowa City, IA
43. Carl Safina, Stony Brook, NY
44. Anthony Garrett, Washington, DC
45. Eliza Maclean, Snow Camp, NC
46. Odessa Piper, Silver Spring, MD
47. Edward Behr, Barnet, VT
48. Phyllis Willis, Thornton, IA
49. Larry Cleverley, Mingo, IA
50. Jesse Ziff Cool, Menlo Park, CA
51. Curt Ellis, Austin, TX
52. Wenonah Hauter, Washington, D C
53. Patty Lovera, Washington, DC
54. John Ikerd, Columbia, MO
55. Lucia Watson, Minneapolis, MN
56. Deborah Madison, Galisteo, NM
57. George DeVault, Decorah, IA
58. Melanie DeVault, Decorah, IA
59. Andrea King Collier, Lansing, MI
60. Rosiland Creasy, Los Altos, CA
61. John Jeavons, Willits, CA
62. Samuel Fromartz, Washington DC
63. Frances Moore Lappe, Cambridge, MA
64. Denise O’Brien, Atlantic, IA
65. Arnell Hinkle, Berkeley, CA
66. Marjie Bender, Pittsboro, NC
67. Winona LaDuke, Ponsford, MN
68. Diane Hatz, New York, NY
69. Cory Schreiber, Portland, OR
70. Rick Bayless, Chicago, IL
71. Angie Tagtow, Elkhart, IA
72. Ralph Paige, East Point, GA
73. Clara Bingham, New York, NY
74. Arie McFarlen, Dell Rapids, SD
75. Bret Kortie, Dell Rapids, SD
76. Dwight Ault, Austin, MN
77. Amy P. Goldman, Rhinebeck, NY
78. Judith LaBelle, New York, NY
79. Patrick Martins, New York, NY
80. Mary Berry Smith, New Castle, KY
81. John Fisk, East Lansing, MI
82. Tim LaSalle, Kutztown, PA
83. Susan Stokes, St. Paul, MN
84. Jude Becker, Dyersville, IA

Another way Paulsen’s ahead: KSTP gave Paulsen’s campaign an early preview of the poll results, according to Joe Bodell at Minnesota Campaign Report. Citing unnamed sources, Bodell writes that KSTP revealed the poll results to Paulsen but didn’t tell Madia until Madia’s staff, having heard heard Paulsen’s campaign had the information, called KSTP to ask if they could also see the new numbers too.

Madia spokesman Dan Pollock wouldn’t comment except to say that the results contradict the anecdotal evidence the campaign is seeing on the ground. MnIndy is awaiting comment from KSTP. Dillon campaign manager Bruce Anderson tells the Minnesota Independent that Dillon didn’t get a head’s up; Anderson learned the poll results by watching the news. When told of the Minnesota Campaign Report story, he said he’s skeptical of anything sinister and anyway doesn’t see a big advantage for Paulsen in hearing poll results early.

Anderson did have a problem with Survey USA’s previous poll, however, in which Dillon’s name wasn’t part of the candidate preference question. (”Some other candidate” was the wording instead.) His complaint to Survey USA prompted the firm to admit its mistake and offer to do another poll using Dillon’s name and without charging KSTP, Anderson said.

The re-do poll shows a sudden swing in a race that has looked effectively tied in previous polls, including a Survey USA poll that came out just a day before the polling began for this one. Survey USA suggests Paulsen’s lead might be due to a TV ad showing Madia with darker skin than the son of Indian immigrants really has. But if so, the effect would seem to arise more from widespread news reports about the ad’s darkening technique rather than the National Republican Congressional Committee’s ad itself. The NRCC released its ad a full week before the first of Survey USA’s pair of back-to-back polls last week.

The new 3rd District survey results were ready on Halloween along with a separate survey showing a tie in Minnesota’s 6th District race between Republican U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann and Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg. But KSTP waited until yesterday to announce the news along with results from two other new Survey USA polls: a dead heat for U.S. Senate and a remarkably small 3-point deficit in the state for Republican presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John McCain. That result led Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com to observe that “SurveyUSA’s polling in Minnesota has been very, very weird all year… SurveyUSA does not have a Republican lean in general, but in Minnesota, it has consistently had a huge one.”

Survey USA seems to have taken to heart criticism of earlier 3rd District polls in which the pollster posed the candidate preference differently. This time the question matches the firm’s Oct. 6–7 poll question, with each candidate, including Dillon, identified by name and party. Survey USA’s analysis also finds the pollster apparently responding to criticism that it isn’t trying to count Minnesotans who are likely to vote but will register at the polls:

Respondents for this survey were chosen at random from Minnesota registered voter lists. Minnesota allows same-day registration, and any in Minnesota who on Election Day 2008 register and vote for the first time are undercounted here. If same-day registrants disproportionately favor one candidate, that candidate’s support will be understated here, but that is just one source of possible error when polling a contest as volatile as this one now is.

Here’s Survey USA on the possible influence of the NRCC skin-darkened ad in the 3rd District race:

Coincidence? Or Correlation? Women, Whites Look Twice at ‘Darkened’ Madia in Minnesota’s 6th District … In three previous SurveyUSA polls, the Democrat and Republican were separated by 3 or fewer points. Then, ads appeared with photographs of Madia that may have been altered to darken his skin color. It is impossible to know whether the ads had much to do, or nothing to do, with these newest poll numbers: Madia’s support among whites has dropped from 45% on 10/08/08 to 39% today. Madia’s support among women has dropped from 46% on 10/08/08 to 41% today. Madia’s support among Independents has dropped from 43% earlier this week to 34% today. When all of the demographic subgroups are combined… 42% of voters now have an unfavorable opinion of Madia, almost twice the 23% Madia unfavorable number that SurveyUSA found on 08/29/08.

EDITOR’S NOTE
The Democratic Senate [sic] Campaign Committee is running TV ads featuring a Star Tribune reporter questioning Sen. Norm Coleman about a lawsuit noted in this report. The video in the ad was filmed without the knowledge or consent of the Star Tribune.

The original video shows Strib reporter Paul McEnroe trying to ask Coleman about the first lawsuit filed in Texas this week as Coleman left a St. Cloud cafe Tuesday. See the original video here. See the DSCC’s ad – and the halting count of specially-moderated reader comments at startribune.com – after the jump.

Online, editors have tagged Strib stories on the Coleman-cash allegations with this unusual warning in red type:

Due to the sensitive nature of this story, comments will be reviewed before being published.

UPDATE: As of 11:15 a.m. today, 156 reader comments had survived the Strib’s special moderation — but that number hadn’t changed for at least two hours.

UPDATE: As of 12:35 p.m., reader comments – the most recent of which carries a timestamp of 4:42 p.m. yesterday, on a story last updated yesterady at 11:04 p.m. — have dropped by one, to 155. That suggests startribune.com does indeed have a moderator at work, but one who has so far focused his or her efforts on removing reader comments about this “sensitive” story rather than allowing any new comments to appear.

UPDATE: At 8:30 p.m., still stuck at 155. Apparently the Star Tribune will not permit further online reader comment about today’s article, just as the newspaper banned its columnists from commenting about the election. Strib editors will allow themselves to publish the editor’s note, but it’s not clear why they saw a need, since the DSCC ad below refers only to “reporters” and makes no mention of the Star Tribune.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Coleman ranks second, right behind John McCain, in contributions received from business associations this election cycle. Why so much money for an incumbent candidate like Coleman? The chamber is concentrating its efforts on  particularly tight Senate races in Minnesota and Mississippi, L.A. Times notes, because a Democratic win might lead to, among other things, legislation that makes it easier for unions to organize workers.

But an even bigger concern for the chamber’s numerous members is maintaining the lax oversight of the banking and financial industries. As those sectors are taking a $700 billion bailout package, they’re forking over millions to candidates to fight legislation that would result in more oversight or, more accurately, to ensure the lax oversight that resulted in the mortgage crisis continues. This month the chamber swarmed capitol hill with lobbyists calling for a swift passage of the bailout package while at the same time fighting against amendments that would make it easier to file lawsuits against banks receiving federal aid.

Norm Coleman, who favored the bailout package, is no stranger to the finance, real estate, and insurance sectors. Coleman has received more than $2.5 million from those influential industries this election cycle. Since May of this year alone, Coleman has received more than $300,000 from the beleagured mortgage industry.

Today, the jig is up:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government has declared that the beluga whale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet is endangered and will require additional protection to survive.The findings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conflict with claims by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has questioned scientific evidence that the beluga whale population in the waters near Anchorage is still declining, despite a decade-long recovery effort.

But NOAA, in putting the whale under the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act, said Friday the whale population declined by 50 percent between 1994 and 1998 and “is still not recovering.”