FOLLOW THE MONEY! Funding For Activist Al Flowers "Community Standards Initative" (Sic) Came From Pandering State Government And Was Passed Through Minneapolis Public Schools! The School Board HAD NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER...

Al Flowers, on left, ejected from turbulent JACC press conference, 
blog post by John Hoff

Click here to view a link to SF 1214, a state appropriations bill and  enjoy the Watergate-esque drama as we "follow the money." 

In the wake this blog commenting and trying to add, further, to an article on MinnPost hot pieces of information keep surfacing about large amounts of funding funneled to so-called initatives (sic) involving "activist" Al Flowers. 

Flowers is loud, scary and known to suddenly get physical at turbulent community meetings.  But Flowers has managed to insulate himself from the legal consequences of his actions over the years. He does this by masterfully manipulating and stirring up red hot racial politics. 

Oh, and by the strategic filing of lawsuits. 

Now Flowers says he was "beaten" by police and we urban Minnesota liberals are all expected to kowtow with political correctness and respond a certain way... 


JNS blog, thinking for itself, declines to kowtow this way and looks forward to hearing further details regarding any "bite mark evidence" on the body of a Minneapolis police officer arrested Flowers, if such evidence exists. 

A spokesman for the two police officers says Al Flowers actually BIT a police officer. 

Good lord. Tetanus shot. 

Now in the wake of the alleged beating, which will be examined by an independent investigator, Flowers is caught in the swirl of even further controversy regarding his fatly funded but horribly misspelled Community Standards Initatives. (Sic)

Yes, the misspelling appears just that way on documents filed with the state. 

From MN Secretary of State website:Community Standards Initatives, Inc
Business Type
Assumed Name

MN Statute
333

File Number
712774500027

Filing Date 11/13/2013

Status
Active / In Good Standing

Renewal Due Date:
12/31/2014 
Registered Agent(s)
(Optional) None provided 


So there you go. 

Now a highly placed source to JNS blog has pointed me to SF 1214, an appropriations bill. I will put the entire text of the bill into the public record at the bottom of this article.

But, in summary, what I'm being told is the money was a direct designation by the state to the school district. So the school district didn't DECIDE to give this money to Flowers. They had no choice. This would tend to explain why the money was in a consent agenda along with fuel oil instead of getting a public hearing like the article in MinnPost mentioned.

So who put this money in the state budget for the dubious CSI? Who served up this fat piece of pork pie to this group of shakedown artists? 

Meanwhile, other deserving initiatives (note correct spelling) are given short shrift. 

Take, for example, the Black Male Student Achievement Initiative (note correct spelling) led by Michael Walker. While JNS blog doesn't know enough about this program to endorse it, I can certainly observe that Walker's program would be a more moderate and sensible example of something that might deserve funding AS COMPARED TO this dubious "CSI" entity involving "Mayor of Crazy Town" Al Flowers. 

But apparently Michael Walker lacks "shakedown skills." 

My source says it LOOKS like State Senator Hayden was behind the appropriation to CSI but that has not been confirmed. 

So is there a way to avoid giving the money to CSI at all? After all, the money gets doled out as work is performed and reportedly most of the money hasn't all been doled out, yet. 

This is my observation on the matter: 

The money in SF 1214 is intended for an entity where "initiative" is spelled correctly. But the entity which filed its papers with the state has a different spelling.

I say there is no such animal as the "Community Standards Initiative." 

I have heard, however, of a creature called the "Community Standards Initative." (Sic) 

God, it's a great day to be an English Major! 

A bill for an act

1.2relating to education; appropriating money for a grant to Special School District
1.3No. 1, Minneapolis, for community engagement and empowerment.
1.4BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.5    Section 1. APPROPRIATION.
1.6    Subdivision 1. Department of Education. The sum indicated in this section is 
1.7appropriated from the general fund to the Department of Education for the fiscal year 
1.8designated.
1.9    Subd. 2. CSI: Minnesota. For a grant to Special School District No. 1, 
1.10Minneapolis, for a community engagement and empowerment project with Community 
1.11Standards Initiative: Minnesota to reduce the achievement gap:

1.12		$	350,000	.....	2014