ClimateMom

Cook's paper is also not the only one that has come up with a figure of 97% (or within a few percentage points of it): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change#Surveys_of_scientists_and_scientific_literature

Prairie garden! Minnesota has tons of gorgeous native wildflowers that are popular with bees. Most prairie nurseries will have charts showing blooming times for the different native flowers and the goal should be to have at least one species (and preferably two or three) in bloom from the last frost to the first.

Here's a couple nurseries I have used and recommend:

http://www.prairienursery.com/

https://www.prairiemoon.com/

They have both meadow mixes (which are great if you have the space) and more formal-looking border plantings, which are safer in areas with nosy HOAs or picky local bylaws about lawn height. The first one even has some pre-planned gardens developed with the Xerces Society specifically for pollinators: http://www.prairienursery.com/store/pre-planned-gardens/pollinator-gardens/

And the second has a list of pollinator favorites, if you'd rather mix and match your own: http://www.prairiemoon.com/seeds/Pollinator-Favorites/

Culinary herbs and clover are also very bee friendly if you let them flower, as are fruit trees such as apple and pear.

ETA: Minnesota's DNR has a page of native plant/seed suppliers divided up by region, which also looks like a great resource: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/gardens/nativeplants/suppliers.html

More resources:

http://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/

http://www.mnnps.org/

http://www.pollinator.org/guides.htm

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/xerces_bee_plants_upper_midwest.pdf

Scotty Hamilton was one of my favorite skaters as a kid, but his very vocal homophobia kind of ruined him for me, especially coming from a sport with so many LGBT athletes. How can you look your friends in the eye and say they don't deserve the same rights as you?

Good luck from a fellow Nebraskan! Hopefully it will be a long time before I need to seek out your services, but I hope you're successful because when the time comes, I'd like to use them. :)

I'm basically set on cremation at this point, because taking up good land for dead people has always seemed kind of stupid to me, but I'd reconsider if I had the option to be buried in an environmentally sound way in a stand of native prairie or oak-hickory woodland.

2007 was the second lowest extent on record (2012 was the lowest), so suggesting that there's no global warming because 2014 has more ice than 2007 is kind of like saying your kid should be on the honor roll because he got a D+ instead of an F. His grades are still lousy, and so is the state of the Arctic ice:

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/files/1999/09/Figure3.png

Global warming is expected to reduce the total number of hurricanes, so low hurricane activity isn't a sign of problems with the science either. However, hurricanes that do form are likely to be stronger and longer lasting as temperatures increase.