Crazed Man Holding Pillow Outside In Minnesota? Maybe

People in Jordan, Minnesota thought this was a deranged man
standing out in the street. It was just a cardboard cutout,
but I suppose the mistake was understandable

Police in Jordan, Minnesota got a weird call the other day.

It was freezing cold, and a person reported a deranged man standing motionless outdoors, with no coat on, hugging a pillow.

Police raced to the scene, only to find a cardboard cutout of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

Well, that was an easy mistake. If you've seen any of the company's TV ads, he does look like he's a bit much. And the premise of the ad is something: A sleepy couple encounter Lindell inside their bathroom medicine cabinet.

I don't know about this company's pillows, but I do know if this medicine cabinet encounter happened to me, I'd probably never be able to sleep again.

According to Jordan, Minnesota police, "Those cardboard cutouts sure can look real from a distance and the caller certainly was not wanting to get too close thinking who is this deranged person standing outside in the cold hugging a pillow."

Or, for all we know, the person who called police knew it was a cardboard cutout but was still freaked out anyway. A plausible scenario, don't you think?

Tragic Police Shooting Death Leads To Of All Things, Kids Able To Have Lunch

Philando Castile was shot and killed by a Minnesota
police office in 2016. Castile was school nutrition
supervisor. A fund in his name is now paying off
childrens' school lunch debt. 

A guy named Philando Castile worked in a school cafeteria as a school nutrition supervisor.  Sometimes, he'd dip into his own pockets to help kids who couldn't afford lunch.

Castile was killed by a police office during a 2016 traffic stop, which of course meant the world lost a generous, kind guy, the type of person we all need.

As is pretty much always the case when a police officer shoots a black person, the police officer was acquited of criminal charge. Which compounds the tragedy.

When a good person dies, people often try to turn the tragedy into something good. And Castile's death has led to exactly that.

According to CNN, a charity run in Castile's name has wiped out the lunch debt of every student in all 56 schools in the St. Paul Public Schools district in Minnesota.

"That means that no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt," according to a fundraising page for the charity Philando Feeds the Children.

I'm going to stop right here for a second and get on my soap box. I get it that school districts everywhere are strapped for cash and can't afford to pay for school lunches. Somebody has to pay for them.

However, I have an immense problem with all those schools who punish the kids because their parents either can't pay for the school meals or won't.

In many schools, when there's lunch debt, the kids involved often just get a lame, cold sandwich while their friends get full meals.

That's an insidious practice that's become known as "lunch shaming." It's terrible to deny a kid a decent lunch. It's also terrible to shame a kid by giving him or her something substandard in front of all their friends. I thought schools discouraged bullying. All this does is encourage it.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Philando Feeds The Children fund goes beyond rescuing kids from food bullying by the school district.

CNN says student parents or caregivers cannot submit paperwork to request free or reduced-price lunches (based on income and need) unless the kids' lunch debt is retired.

Which leads to a never-ending cycle. The kids' lunch fund keeps going deeper and deeper into debt, so it becomes more impossible for the kids' parents to pay off the debt. Some parents acrue as much as $1,000 in debt.

Which means the kids will never, ever get decent food.  They can't pay the debt, so they can't apply for free or reduced cost lunches. That's the way it works in today's America. If you're poor, you need to be punished. Whether or not it's your fault.

It looks like when he was alive, Castile understood this. So do the people donating to this cause. There's a lot of bad things in this world, but at least some good can come of it, at least sometimes.

As of about a week ago, the Philando fund stood at over $107,000, which really, really surpassed its goal of $5,000, CNN says.

"Philando is STILL reaching into his pocket, and helping a kid out," the charity wrote in a social media post recently.

New Mayor Of Minnesota Town Is More Furry Than Usual

Duke being inaugurated as maor of Cormorant, Minn.  

Congratulations go out to Duke, a seven year old dog who was just elected mayor of the fine town of Cormorant, Minnesota.  

It's not exactly the biggest town around. The twelve residents there each paid a dollar to vote, and Duke defeated a guy named Richard Sherbrook, said CBS Local in Minneapolis. 

Duke's salary won't bust the town's budget. A local pet supply store is donating a year's worth of kibbles to pay for Duke's services.

According to the Huffington Post, Duke is not the first non-human mayor in American history. A cat named Stubbs has mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, for the past 17 years, says the Huffington Post.  

My dog Jackson had an unsuccessful run for U.S. President in 2012, but was defeated by Barack Obama as he sought re-election to a second term.

One Restaurant Owner's Response To Minimum Wage Increase: Screw The Waitstaff

One restaurant chain's solution
to a minimum wage increase?
Stiff the waitstaff.  

Out in Minnesota, they've just increased the minimum wage to $8 an hour.  That's a good thing. Minimum wages have scarcely gone up over the past decade, and why should workers live in poverty?

And why should we taxpayers pay for their public assistance when their employers should be paying them, not us?

However, some business owners, especially some people who operate restaurants, are not thrilled by this.

Of course, they're passing along the added cost to consumers, which is what a business owner normally does when expenses go up.

The worst response to the price increase came from the owner of a chain of eight Minneapolis-area restaurants who will put a fee on credit card payments by customers that would deduct about 2 percent of a server's tip.

I know that's not much, but imagine what it's doing for morale. Hey the waitstaff gets a government mandated pay raise? Let's just take it away by imposing this fee and essentially deducting your pay.

As Consumerist notes, this is all perfectly legal, but I wouldn't want to work for the loser who decided to do this.  Probably good wait staff will seek employment elsewhere, leaving the incompetent ones at this chain of restaurants. I wouldn't want to eat there.

Another restaurant is  being criticized for putting a "minimum wage fee" on the bottom of each bill a customer gets.

Yeah, it reflects a bit of a pissy attitude. He could have just increased the price of some of the restaurant's offerings a little bit. But, again, he's just passing the added cost on to the consumer, and making them aware of why there is a price increase.

It's certainly not as bad as taking away a little bit of the wait staff's tips because you're pissed off at the government for increasing the minimum wage.

However, I would have just upped the price of entrees and put a sign in the restaurant or in the menu explaining why.

Maybe some customers would be happy to see their waiter getting paid enough to live on.