i'd never heard of paul wellstone. a friend of mine had said that "oh yeah, you should follow him, you'll probably like him. you know, he doesn't have a chance of winning, but you'll probably like him." and i thought, you know, okay. and i did like him. and he was very unusual -- going in and hugging everybody. and he was this little guy and he had all this energy. so he was really interesting. when i heard the news of his death, i rushed right over to the office and documented that time period. and then shortly after that time, university of minnesota press asked me about doing a book, a collection of photographs. the book is definitely an archive of, for me, one of the greatest politicians minnesota's ever had. i had to go through 12 years of my life, looking for what might be the important images. the photo of them that's on the cover of the book, i remember the moment very clearly because it was on election day of '96 and it was supposed to be his last time he was going to run. so it was like, oh, this is going to

one of our colleagues, the beloved, my friend, paul wellstone of minnesota was inducted in the national wrestling hall of fame in 2000. he said twet wrestling has always been a big thing for me. he said i've had a love affair with the sport most of ply my life. i got in some trouble, up found a sport i was good at and that transferred to better things in other areas in my life. the same is true for some 11,000 high school wrestlers and students at four universities with 17 n caa wrestling programs in my state. to high school meets like the renowned j.c. gorman invitational in mansfield to the ncaa tournament, sciewnts in ohio have egg learned the strength and discipline and focus that that allows grapplers to succeed. wrestling is accessible for working class athletes unlike some of the sports protected in the i.o.c.'s decision. it has a proud tradition in our state and in the united states and has a proud tradition around the world. the i.o.c. should not ratify this preliminary decision by its executive board, should continue its efforts to remain relevant for all athletes and communit

women act, about how this has been a longtime bipartisan bill back to 1994 when the late senator paul wellstone was involved in this bill as well as vice president biden, when people came together and said we have to do something about domestic violence. this is no longer a hidden crime behind closed doors. you know what we've seen since then? we've seen a 50% reduction. a 50% reduction in domestic violence in this country. that is a victory. and we do not want to go backwards. and, unfortunately, the bill that has been submitted by senator grassley, the substitute amendment, i believe would take us backwards. and let me explain why. first of all, we all know that the vawa reauthorization bill, months of negotiation between the two lead authors, senator leahy, the chairman of the judiciary committee; and senator crapo. it has bipartisan consensus and was drafted after months of input from numerous stakeholders. unfortunately, the grassley substitute doesn't do a lot of things that are so important to us in this violence against women bill. this is not an acceptable substitute. first of all, for

own county where i was chief prosecutor for eight years thanks toed the goo good work of paul and sheila wellstonety attorney mike freeman, we set up one of the most unique centers in the country, it's again a model for the rest of the country. under my leadership me made changes to advance it other to even higher levels. it's a one-stop shop for the victims of dmoosk so -- domestic violence so they can see a cop, be able to find a shelter and a place to live, all under one roof instead of walking through the maze of the bureaucracy and the government center. both the prevention and prosecution of domestic violence were among my top priorities as a prosecutor and i know we've done good work but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. according to a recent survey, conducted by the centers for disease control and prevention, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in this country. approximately one in four women have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime and 45% of the women kille