Saturday, January 26, 2013

A Note to Readers of Ripple in Stillwater - Thank You

Karl Bremer, journalist, photographer, friend and the proprietor of this blog passed away January 15, 2013 from complications related to pancreatic cancer.

Ripple in Stillwater will remain on the web as an archive and resource for reporters, historians and anyone who shares Karl's passion for music, art, the environment and the beautiful St. Croix Valley.

We want to thank the many loyal readers of Ripple in Stillwater.

If this is your first time here, if you just happen to be here via a search or link from another website, Thank you for stopping by. Please stay awhile, read and enjoy Karl's many well-crafted articles and photos. If you find something here worth mentioning elsewhere, please credit the author and link back to the source. Thanks again.

Articles About and Tributes to Karl Bremer:

Stillwater Gazette: "Local blogger Karl Bremer dies"- Avery Cropp

Firedog Lake: "Ave Atque Vale, Karl Bremer" - Phoenix Woman

Pioneer Press: "Obituary: Stillwater journalist Karl Bremer dies" by Mary Divine.

Star Tribune: "Obituary: Blogger Karl Bremer kept Stillwater on its toes" Kevin Giles.

Stillwater Patch: "Ripple in Stillwater Writer Karl Bremer Dies" - Shawn Hogendorf

FDL: "Come Saturday Morning: Here’s to You, Karl Bremer" - Phoenix Woman (February 18, 2012)

Star Tribune: "Stillwater-based political blogger keeps ire stoked" - Kevin Giles (February 20, 2012).




Monday, July 30, 2012

Bayfront Blues Festival calendar by Ripple in Stillwater author Karl Bremer now available


The first-ever Bayfront Blues Festival calendar is hot off the press, featuring 16 months of Bayfront Blues Fest images by award-winning Ripple in Stillwater photographer Karl Bremer.

The 12" x 18" calendar covers September 2012 – December 2013 and includes Bremer’s images from more than two decades of Minnesota’s largest music festival. Featured blues musicians are: Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Koko Taylor, Trudy Lynn, Dr. John, Lonnie Brooks, Cyril Neville, Sonny Landreth, Marcia Ball, Alison Scott, Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland, Paul Metsa, Taj Mahal, Anne Harris, Big Walter Smith, Scott Graves, Luther Allison, Bernard Allison, Ruthie Foster, Harold Tremblay, Sugar Blue, Bobby Rush, John Mooney, Jimmy Thackery, and Dickey Betts.

To order, send $17.45 ($14.95 calendar and $2.50 S/H) via Paypal for Paypal account saintcroix@aol.com. Or, send a check or money order for $17.45 to: Karl Bremer, 10949 Stonebridge Tr., Stillwater, MN 55082.

The calendar also is available at Valley Bookseller in Stillwater.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Bayfront Blues Fest Calendar


The first-ever Bayfront Blues Festival calendar is hot off the press, featuring 16 months of Bayfront Blues Fest images by award-winning Ripple in Stillwater photographer Karl Bremer.

The 12" x 18" calendar covers September 2012 – December 2013 and includes Bremer’s images from more than two decades of Minnesota’s largest music festival. Featured blues musicians are: Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Koko Taylor, Trudy Lynn, Dr. John, Lonnie Brooks, Cyril Neville, Sonny Landreth, Marcia Ball, Alison Scott, Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland, Paul Metsa, Taj Mahal, Anne Harris, Big Walter Smith, Scott Graves, Luther Allison, Bernard Allison, Ruthie Foster, Harold Tremblay, Sugar Blue, Bobby Rush, John Mooney, Jimmy Thackery, and Dickey Betts.
To order, send $17.45 ($14.95 calendar and $2.50 S/H) via Paypal for Paypal account saintcroix@aol.com. Or, send a check or money order for $17.45 to: Karl Bremer, 10949 Stonebridge Tr., Stillwater, MN 55082.

The calendar also is available at Valley Bookseller in Stillwater.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Money launderer and GOP donor Frank Vennes Jr. nets Ripple in Stillwater two more awards

Felon-on-the-run Frank Vennes Jr.
By Karl Bremer
 
Ripple in Stillwater collected two more Minnesota Society for Professional Journalists Page One Awards June 19, bringing to three the total number of MN-SPJ awards this blog has won in less than two years online.
 
In the online category, I won First Place for “Best News Portrait” for my photo of convicted money launderer and GOP donor Frank Vennes Jr. as he ran through the streets of St. Paul trying to flee from my lens following a federal court appearance in September 2011. After chasing him for two blocks, I was able to capture the fleet-footed felon on the run before he ducked into a bank building.
 
For the second year in a row, I won in the special “Best Use of Public Records” category, where media of all types and sizes compete against one another. This year, my three-part series “Lawyers, Guns & Money: An Inside Look at the Political Pardon of Frank Vennes Jr.”, won Third Place.

In addition to the two 2012 SPJ Page One Awards, I won a second place 2011 Page One Award for “Best Use of Public Records” for my series on recently-captured fraudster and GOP donor "Bobby Thompson." And this spring, City Pages voted Ripple in Stillwater “Best Local Blog” in its Best of the Twin Cities 2012 competition.

A tip o' the hat to fraudsters and Ponzimen everywhere! As long as you keep plying your slippery trades in these parts, Ripple in Stillwater will be there to cast a light upon you.

Photo Copyright ©2011 Karl Bremer


 
 

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Sometimes you've just gotta leave the planet

Like a fly, Venus crawls across the upper-right area of the
setting sun's face June 5.

By Karl Bremer

Here at Ripple in Stillwater World Headquarters in Stillwater Township, we sometimes tire of the daily grind of boondoggle bridges, fraudsters, money-grubbing politicians and other cancers, and prefer instead to focus on the beauty of the visual image rather than the printed word.

Last night, we (me and my trusty Nikon D300) turned our gaze skyward to record the last transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun in our lifetime. This happens when the orbit of Venus passes directly between Earth and the sun. The last time it occurred, in 2004, it was cloudy in these parts; it won't happen again until 2117.

Using the same technique I used to shoot the partial solar eclipse May 20 (see below), I zoomed in on our neighboring planet as it made its historic trek across the setting sun at dusk last night. It's the little black dot in the upper-right area of the image above.

Venus kept us entertained earlier this spring as it danced across the twilight sky with Jupiter for several weeks (also see below).

Look for more images from the award-winning lens of Ripple in Stillwater in the future.
A partially-eclipsed sun sets on Stillwater Township May 20.

Venus (bright star above left side of pergola) performed a
celestial spring ballet March 15 with Jupiter (brighter star
to upper-right of Venus).


All photos by Karl Bremer.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Buy a wolf license to save a wolf














By Karl Bremer

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Evidently, the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association and a majority of the Minnesota Legislature—the parties responsible for ramming a wolf hunting season through the Capitol five years ahead of schedule.

When the federal government removed gray wolves from the endangered and threatened species lists in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan in January, the wolf haters ramped up their bloodthirsty lobbying efforts for a 2012 season to start shooting them legally for the first time in Minnesota since the 1970s.

The DNR states that “Minnesotans clearly value wolves. Public opinion surveys and attitudes demonstrated during development of the state's wolf management plan show people view the animal as ecologically important, scientifically fascinating, aesthetically attractive, recreationally appealing and significant for future generations. Only a small minority fear and dislike wolves or believe Minnesota would be a more desirable place without this apex predator.”

Yet it was that “small minority” that drove the legislature to start killing wolves this year rather than wait five years to see how the population stabilized after federal delisting, as the original plan called for. That same "small minority" has been shooting wolves illegally for decades and is now just looking for cover for their cowardly deeds. It's one of the few federal crimes that I hear people--including one state lawmaker--openly admit to committing.

'PENT-UP ENTHUSIASM'
DNR Fish & Wildlife Director Ed Boggess told a legislative panel earlier this year: “There’s been a pent-up enthusiasm, a pent-up demand to hunt wolves.” It’s not likely that “enthusiasm” is driven by a sudden popularity of wolf fur among hunters.  And it’s certainly not for their meat.

The wolf season has little to do with protecting farmers from wolf depredation of livestock, either; they already are compensated for those losses. It has equally little to do with population management of wolves. According to the DNR, Minnesota’s wolf population—the largest in the lower 48 states—has remained “relatively stable” at around 3,000 for the past decade without a hunting season.

A total of 6,000 wolf licenses will be made available via lottery (5,400 hunting and 600 trapping/snaring); 95 percent will be sold to residents and 5 percent to nonresidents. A quota of 400 wolves will be allowed to be killed during the season.

So the legal killing of wolves has been signed, sealed and delivered by the State of Minnesota, and the season is set. Nothing more that can be done about it, right?

Well, perhaps.

$34 TO SAVE A WOLF?
If you’re willing to invest $34, you can buy a chance on saving one wolf’s life. Simply enter the lottery for one of the 6,000 licenses—a $30 wolf license must be purchased to enter the lottery, which costs another $4—and if you win the right to kill a wolf, don’t exercise it.

There’s nothing that requires you to use a wolf license just because you buy one. Since there’s a cap on the number of licenses sold, every license that is won in the lottery but not used reduces the chances that the wolf kill quota set by the DNR will be reached.

Ordinarily, this might be seen as unwise meddling in a scientifically-based hunting season. But there is nothing scientific about this wolf hunting season. It’s a purely political response to satisfy the bloodlust of a vocal minority of wolf haters. A season on wolves is not necessary to maintain a desirable wolf population. In fact, the DNR hasn’t even determined what Minnesota’s maximum wolf population should be, only that it shouldn’t fall below a winter population of 1,600.

So if you think a season on wolves is one of the most idiotic things to come down the pike since a mourning dove season, step right up and invest $34 on a chance to buy a wolf a reprieve from the executioner. It may not stop the jackpine savages from shooting wolves altogether, but at least you’ll get the satisfaction of making them work a little harder to "get their wolf."

As a deer hunter who knows the value that wolves provide in culling deer herds of their unhealthy numbers, among other benefits for the soul, I plan to do just that.

 

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Ripple in Stillwater picks up two 2012 Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists awards


By Karl Bremer
Convicted money launderer Frank Vennes Jr.

I’ve been notified by the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists that I have won two of the organization’s 2012 Page One Awards: one for “Best Use of Public Records” and one for “Best News Portrait.”

The “Best Use of Public Records” award--the second year in a row Ripple in Stillwater has won in this category--was for my series “Lawyers, Guns & Money: An Inside Look at the Political Pardon of Frank Vennes Jr.” The “Best News Portrait” award was for my photo of convicted money launderer and GOP donor Frank Vennes Jr. on the run through the streets of St. Paul trying to flee from my lens after a federal court appearance in September 2011.

In less than two years online, Ripple in Stillwater has racked up three professional journalism awards and another alt-media “best of” citation. In addition to the two 2012 SPJ Page One Awards, I won a second place Page One Award last year for “Best Use of Public Records” for my series on recently-captured fraudster and GOP donor "Bobby Thompson." And this spring, City Pages voted Ripple in Stillwater “Best Local Blog” in its Best of the Twin Cities 2012 competition.

Not bad for a cancer-ridden, unpaid blogger, if I do say so myself.

The specific 2012 Page One Awards will be announced and given out at the annual Minnesota SPJ Awards Banquet June 19 in St. Paul.

Photo © Copyright 2011 by Karl Bremer