Monday, December 4, 2017

8:30 – 9:30 EARLY START – TREATS Heritage Room

9:30 – 10:30 ENVIRONMENT

Sulfide Mining in Northern Minnesota:
Imminent Threat to Minnesota’s Clean Water and Values

Speaker: Paula Maccabee, Advocacy Director, Council for Water Legacy

The PolyMet open-pit copper-nickel mine is in a highly contested state permitting process. Sulfide mining may be a threat to Lake Superior, Boundary Waters, and Mississippi River watersheds with pollution and habitat destruction. Maccabee will explain why most of what we think we “know” about the regulation of water pollution in Minnesota is inaccurate. She will reveal the risks that sulfide mining poses to clean water, ecosystems, climate change, health, environmental justice, and sustainable economics in Minnesota.

10:45 – 11:45  OUR PLACE IN THE WORLD

How the World Looks at US

Speaker: William Davnie, Foreign Service Officer, retired

How a country is seen has both “soft” and sometimes “hard” effects on that country and others. Perceptions of the United States have shifted dramatically, and even erratically, over the past two years, with a sharp change since November, 2016. Davnie will bring his foreign service experience to bear on how shifts in opinion can affect substantive changes in the international order to which we are accustomed.

11:45 – Noon ANNOUNCEMENTS
12:00 – 1:15 LUNCHEON

1:15 – 2:15 THE ARTS

Inside The Song

Speaker: Scottie Miller, Singer, Songwriter, Pianist, and International Touring Musician

Miller recently released his tenth CD and has a song featured on the new album by the Grammy-winning gospel group, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Miller will perform, discuss his songwriting process, reveal his inspiration, and explain how songs get from the napkin to the recording studio and finally to the stage.