Is 'Minnesota Nice' Dead?

Minnesota news items from the past year give one pause when one considers that the natives have long prided themselves on being 'Minnesota Nice'. Minnesota is supposed to be a place where the whole state is just like the fictional Lake Woebegone of National Public Radio fame. Everyone has a smile on their face and time to share a recipe or free advice, and they tell their kids for gosh sakes obey the laws because you don't want offenses on your record.

The item that set me off was the one from the Iron Range this Wednesday where an employee was prodded with a backhoe by the company's co-owner because he "didn't think the construction worker in the trench was doing his job right, so he hit him with the backhoe." The Hermantown (near Duluth) man was lucky to escape with only bruises while the employer was charged with second- degree assault.

Other major stories this year included items on a 'nice guy' prostitution ring that was broken up, a Madoff-type Ponzi scheme, and on and on.

In a story that ran in the July 13 edition of the Star Tribune, 30 business men were arrested on charges they ran a high-priced prostitution ring after a year-long investigation. They called themselves the Minnesota Nice Guys. One of the more shocking things was not that they paid these women around $500 an hour, or that the pimp flew them in from out of state, but that the (alleged) ringleader was John St. Marie, a former assistant Hennepin County attorney.

By the way, a website that was a front for local Twin Cities prostitutes was also shut down this summer. It was called My Fast Pass, and had five times the number of customers that the Minnesota Nice Guys group had.. Who would have thought that these nice Minnesota girls would sell themselves, or that the Twin Cities had become such a hotbed (no pun intended) for call-girl businesses?

Then there is the whole Ponzi scheme business. I do not refer to the local victims of the Bernie Madoff scandal. We in Minnesota grow our own scammers. A trial of Thomas Petters is now underway on charges he bilked his investors of $3.65 billion. He ran his own Ponzi scheme that masqueraded as a consumer-products resale business. His associates Deanna Coleman and Bob White have pleaded guilty to forging documents. However, they say that Petters knew it was a scam. Petters says he was unable to focus on business after Petters' son died.

It is sad enough that we have come to expect chicanery in high finance circles, but we expect academia to be squeaky-clean. Yet a laboratory associated with the University of Minnesota is accused of faking data or photographs in stem cell research. Other researchers had difficulty in reproducing the results obtained by this Minnesota lab.

It sure seems like some Minnesotans take advantage of a rep for 'niceness' by stealing you blind. And you know what else? I cannot remember the last time a store clerk said "Good morning" or called me ma'am or thanked me for shopping there. Gosh, I don't think I'm in Lake Woebegone anymore.

Another Twin Cities prostitution website busted, 6-10-2009, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, www.startribune.com/local/east/47481952.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU

Hermantown contractor charged with assaulting worker with backhoe, Pioneer Press, 11-9-2009, www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_13748602?nclick_check=1

'Nice Guys' prostitution ring ready for prosecutors, Insider Escort Secrets, 7-13-2009, insiderescortsecrets.com/wordpress/news/nice-guys-prostitution-ring/

Petters Admitted Deals Were Criminal, Prosecutor Says at Trial, Feeley and Hawkins, Bloomberg, 10-29-2009, www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=acuS7jzGmP4o

U of Minnesota Panel Says Stem-Cell Scientist Faked Data, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10-7-2008, chronicle.com/article/U-of-Minnesota-Panel-Says/41756