On Monday, Brian Noy and Mary Laurel True of Augsburg’s Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning sat down and started brainstorming about ways to help—because that is what Auggies do.

“Actually,” True said, “President Pribbenow called and asked what we were going to do for North Minneapolis.” The two decided to organize clean-up groups to go to the area Wednesday and Thursday afternoon (see details below).

The Sabo Center is coordinating two clean-up trips to North Minneapolis, sandwich making on campus, and a donation collection. Noy says they are hoping to find a location to serve meals in the evenings as well. .

Ann Garvey, vice president of student affairs, reported that there are 66 students whose permanent address is in the affected zip codes, and several faculty and staff also live in North Minneapolis. Garvey offered to let displaced residents stay in the on-campus housing if needed.

For more information, “Like” the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College Facebook page and read the Augsburg Daily A-mail for updates.

Ways to pitch in – UPDATED

Donation drive

Week of May 23

Bring donations of canned food, bottled water, diapers, blankets, clothes, and other household items to the Christensen Center welcome desk

1,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwich-making

Wednesday, May 25 10 a.m.-12 noon

Marshall Room, Christensen Center

Storm clean-up

Wednesday, May 25 12-4 p.m.

Meet in Christensen Center lobby

Storm clean-up

Thursday, May 26 12-4 p.m.

Meet in Christensen Center lobby

Neighborhood check-in

Door-to-door to check in on residents to gather information on service needs

Friday, May 27 12-4 p.m.

Meet in Christensen Center lobby

The post Auggies pitch in to help tornado victims appeared first on News and Media.

On Thursday, the grim news was delivered: Minnesota is facing a budget deficit of $5.2 billion over the next 30 months because of falling tax revenue from struggling businesses and workers.

That, in turn, leads to another question: how exactly is the state going to deal with it?

The Augsburg College community will be given some insight into this topic on Monday afternoon. That’s because the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning will host a pair of key Minnesota Legislative leaders for what is expected to be an interesting forum.

Minnesota Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kellier and Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller will preview the upcoming session of the Minnesota State Legislature in an event moderated by former U.S. Representative Martin Olav Sabo. The event will be held from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Hoversten Chapel.

As soon as Thursday’s budget projection was announced, the political maneuvering began.

Because Minnesota has a Republican Governor in Tim Pawlenty at the same time that both the House and Senate are controlled by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, reaching a balanced budget agreement may be challenging.

Pawlenty has continued to be opposed to raising taxes to balance the budget. A number of ideas are likely to be considered including the potential privatizing the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and completely starting the budget process from scratch.

Those topics and others are expected to be considered in the 90-minute event that will also include a question and answer session for people in attendance.

The post Key Legislators to discuss Minnesota budget deficit Monday appeared first on News and Media.