A week in someone else's belly?

Having realized that Oregon has a relatively high rate of unemployment and "food insecurity," the governor of Oregon decided to get personal experience of his state's less fortunate. For one week, he took the "food stamp challenge," setting his food budget to no more than a food stamp recipient would receive. How much did he have to work with? Post a comment with your guess, Price is Right style, on your honor to not research the answer elsewhere. I'll post the amount tomorrow.

This story on the governor's challenge has a bit more on what he was able to eat on the budget:

The governor took it seriously, studying prices, forgoing organic fruit to get the price break and taking advice from Christina Sigman-Davenport, a state worker who went on food stamps to support her family of five after her husband lost his job. As the governor looked wistfully at a carton of half-and-half, Sigman-Davenport told him he'd just have to get used to 2 percent milk in his coffee...

...Tuesday's menu for the governor and first lady was simple but satisfying. Breakfast: yogurt, granola, half a banana each, coffee, honey. Lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Dinner: two-bean soup, toast. Meals planned for subsequent days include quiche, chicken pesto and, of course, leftovers.

A nifty new way to see candidates debate

Minnesota will be allowing all the gubernatorial candidates in this year's election to participate in 10-day online debate that started this Monday. Check out the announcement from E-Democracy for more details:

E-Democracy.Org and the Blandin Foundation are pleased to announce an online candidate debate with Minnesota’s gubernatorial candidates. The e-debate starts on Monday, October 9th and goes through Thursday, October 19th.

The officially confirmed and participating candidates - everyone on the ballot - include:

* Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Republican
* Atty Gen. Mike Hatch, DFL
* Peter Hutchinson, Independence
* Ken Pentel, Green
* Leslie Davis, American
* Walt Brown, Quit Raising Taxes

With new responses each weekday, this “on-demand” debate let’s you choose which candidates and questions to follow. With Voter Voices (below) you can have your say in text or multimedia. This is what any time, anywhere democracy is all about.

See the debate here or sign up to receive the e-debate e-mail by sending an email to MN Politics