Russians greet Obama with a shrug - TwinCities.com

Tom Malinowski, who worked as a speechwriter for Clinton, said Russian audiences were always the toughest to connect with.

"It is a jaded political culture that has had a very hard experience with a system that professed universal idealism while delivering unbearable suffering," said Malinowski, now Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "Some degree of cynicism about high-minded ideals is a natural outcome of that."

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe move into wind power business - TwinCities.com

The 4,000-member band on Thursday will dedicate its Chi Noodin or "Big Wind" plant in McGregor that will make generator components for vertical wind turbines designed mainly for residential use.

For the band, which owns and operates a bank, three gas station-convenience stores, two hotels and a movie theater in addition to its casinos, the plant is a chance to bring jobs to a part of the reservation with no other economic development, said Sara Treiber, interim director of development for the band's corporate commission.
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...the Windspires are 30 feet tall — slightly shorter than the average flagpole — and produce energy with a rotating vertical pole. Hess said they cost about $7,000 without government rebates, which make them even cheaper, and work well in low-wind conditions.

Pickens scraps Texas wind farm - TwinCities.com

HOUSTON — Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines.

Pickens already has ordered the turbines, which can stand 400 feet tall — taller than most 30-story buildings.

"My garage won't hold them," the legendary Texas oilman said. "They've got to go someplace."

Pickens' company Mesa Power ordered the turbines from General Electric Co. — a $2 billion investment — a little more than a year ago.

Maybe there's room in Oprah's garage?

Oprah's $50 million mansion just outside Santa Barbara in Montecito, California, has been nicknamed Oprah's Hearst Castle, due to its size and luxury. The property covers some 42 acres and the house itself is 23,000 square feet. It has 6 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms and, as you might imagine, just about everything else.