Thumbs up:

To the organizers of the Summerfest event who have the go-ahead from the city to stage the first-time festival in Old Town Mankato.

The Aug. 26 festival is one of several new events in the past couple of years that is making Mankato a bigger attraction. Solstice, National Brew Fest and the Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race are among the recent events that have been added to the roster of must-do activities in town. Old Town’s Summerfest, three weeks after the well-established RibFest, is just another reason to stay in town if you live here and come to town if you don’t.

While it’s great to see a new event surface, the City Council needs to think through what its role is in supporting all of these events. Some council members at last week’s meeting made it clear they weren’t comfortable being asked to pay for unbudgeted items. The Summerfest organizers weren’t sure if the city contribution would need to be $2,000 or $10,000 in in-kind services.

If Mankato continues to draw outdoor festivals, the city should hash out more specific guidelines on what it is willing to do to help and for how much.



Thumbs down:

To the intertwined problems of substandard officiating, overly physical play and theatrical flopping that marred the just-completed soccer World Cup.

Aficionados of “the beautiful game” have to be appalled that the lasting image of this edition of the world’s biggest sporting event will be France’s Zinedine Zidane ending his illustrious career with an egregious head-butt during extra time of Sunday’s final against Italy. It was — to put it in terms Americans will grasp — the equivalent of Brett Favre going into retirement by getting ejected from the Super Bowl during overtime.

That was one play. But virtually all of the 62 games in the tournament were marred by flagrant fouls, players pretending to be fouled and overworked referees who couldn’t tell the difference.

Much of FIFA’s handling of the event — most notably its refusal to let television run the show — is commendable. But the world soccer organization needs to get a handle on the officiating.



Thumbs up:

To North Mankato Fun Days parade watchers who donated to ECHO Food Shelf. Pile It On organizers were able to collect 2,320 pounds of non-perishable items and $2,040. Volunteers walked the parade route and collected the donations.

It was good to see so many prepared spectators drop their donations into the shopping carts and buckets. Summer donations for food shelves tend to dwindle, so the timing for the big collection is perfect.



Thumbs down:

To U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman for his plan to vote against an embryonic stem cell bill. Instead he said he will back a bill that supports funding adult stem cell research.

The problem with that is that research has shown that adult stem cells don’t perform as embryonic cells do. The embryonic cells are just developing and are full of potential vs. the adult cells that contain more DNA abnormalities.

The U.S. House passed a bill last year that supports embryonic stem cell research. The Senate, including Minnesota’s Coleman, needs to pass a similar bill, not an inferior one designed to tiptoe around abortion opponents.

The science is what matters, not adhering to a stand on an issue that sidetracks the proven research that can benefit disease sufferers and spinal injury victims.



Thumbs down:

To the loss of Minnesota Valley Sommarfest (although the organizers get a thumbs up for running the festival for the past 17 years).

The conclusion of the classical music series in St. Peter will be a big loss to the area and the community. The festival wasn’t suffering; in fact, the series saw its largest crowd, 350 people, just two years ago, and finances were sound.

Instead, the organizers, John McKay and Al Behrends, simply wore themselves out planning the festival year after year.

The hope is that someone with new energy who recognizes the value of the concert series will step in and take over. It would be a shame to see such a successful event simply fade away.