In the Loop: May 2008 Archive

Was the invention of LSD a good or bad thing?

Posted at 12:28 PM on May 1, 2008 by Sanden Totten

Albert Hofmann, the father of LSD died this week. He lived to be a 102. Throughout his life he had great faith in the power of his drug to help people deal with mental problems. He also openly detested the recreational use of the drug by the youth movement in the 1960s.

Listening to the remembrances of his life and work I started thinking about what a mixed bag his invention was. Some say it opens your mind to a greater consciousness. And it has been the inspiration for great art and cultural movements. But plenty of people have also had bad trips, and the drug has been used in some horrible ways.

After a raid on some labs in 2000 the drug has been on the decline. But it'll probably have a resurgence sometime down the road. What do you think? Is the world better or worse for the invention of this powerful chemical compound?

Speaking of tripping on LSD . . .

Posted at 11:32 AM on May 2, 2008 by Sanden Totten (4 Comments)

What do John Lennon, Steve Jobs and Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick all have in common?

Just thought I'd add a few more thoughts on this topic. One reader sent me some interesting evidence in support of LSD's mind expanding powers. First, it was apparently a big influence on Steve Jobs. During his younger years "Jobs experimented with LSD, calling these experiences 'one of the two or three most important things he has done in his life.'"

Genetic Scientist Francis Crick had a breakthrough while tripping. "He often used small doses of LSD . . . to boost his powers of thought. He said it was LSD . . . that helped him to unravel the structure of DNA, the discovery that won him the Nobel Prize."

And while the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds wasn't actually about LSD . . . It's widely thought that the ground breaking Revolver album was heavily inspired by the band's use of the drug.

Pair that with this story from our recent Story Slam. Dave Good tells a tale about one guy who's habit of taking the stuff didn't yield such "positive" effects. Check it out:

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St. Cloud Superman -- the song, the dude

Posted at 12:25 PM on May 5, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (3 Comments)

I knew that if we included the song in our most recent Story Slam, it would spark a fresh round of curiosity, celebration, and trash-talk about central Minnesota's own self-appointed superhero.

Young Jeff interviews the Man of Granite (City)

I wrote the song in late 2001 (maybe early '02?), after doing a feature story for MPR, where I had been on the job for a few months as a reporter based in St. Cloud (while the local paper followed with a piece a few weeks later, I believe we were the first). After passing him every day on my way home from work, I finally just pulled over and asked him what his deal was. He had only been out on the corner for a few months at most, at that point.

When I pulled over, some local college students were working on a documentary. I gather it took a few years, but it eventually became this short film. I think the film benefits from its extended production timeline, since St. Cloud Superman evolves somewhat as years go by. This is definitely recommended viewing.

The song arose partly because of the complicated reaction to the MPR story. The story was an open-ended portrait of a local character; but to some, St. Cloud Superman is a jerk and a dangerous threat. Who am I to issue a verdict? (Though state records at the time showed he is not, as some have insisted, a registered sex offender.) The song was an attempt to capture the contradictory and controversial enigma that is St. Cloud Superman.

Again, I wrote this song seven years ago. A solo performance (at left) has been getting good traffic on YouTube, and the debate in the comments captures exactly why I wrote the song in the first place.

This latest Story Slam (theme: "Achilles' Heel") seemed an appropriate radio debut of the full-band version:

(Link to download the MP3.)

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St. Cloud Superman is well-documented on the web. Here's a taste:

• * He has his own MySpace page (Latest headline: "Whoever threw that Big Gulp at me, you totally missed.")
• * He reportedly got into a tussle a few years ago with police at the State Fair
• * He has been joined on his corner (peaceably) by Spiderman and (not-so-peaceably) by Darth Vader
• * In October of last year, he physically stopped a man from jumping off a bridge in St. Cloud and committing suicide. The man had started talking to him because he recognized him, even out of costume.

Vindication at last?

Google around a bit. Plenty of chatter out there (including his alter ego, which has never been much of a secret).

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Bescumber your rivals: Learn some new words

Posted at 10:10 AM on May 7, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

You know, we are running out of insults.

Seems like when we were kids, we had a new cool insult word every week. (As someone often enough on the receiving end, I should know.) Dink, dork, dingleberry, dung beetle (science class was often a source for the insult-of-the-day). And those are just the D's.

As adults, the well dries up. We fall back on the same old standbys, like "jerk" and other more off-color options I can't write here lest I get a note from my boss.

Someone just flipped me a link to a list from Neatorama designed to give us some new (and printable!) options.

Lots of good nouns (I like "cacafuego" and "coccydynia"). But my favorite is probably one of the few verbs: "bescumber," meaning (ahem) "to spray with poo." Some possible applications I'm imagining:

• * "Bob, I prepare for these meetings in good faith, and all you do is bescumber my proposals. I'd like to see you put something worthwhile on the table for a change."
• * Look, I don't put myself out there on Match.com so I can show up for a blind date and have my life's ambitions bescumbered by the likes of you."
• * Honey, I'm not sure, but I think the cook may have bescumbered my pork chop." (This is a more literal application.)

(Thanks to Jo Easton for the link!)

You know you're (almost) a grown-up when...

Posted at 5:45 PM on May 8, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (3 Comments)

...you look up and suddenly realize you are interviewing pediatricians.

We interviewed our second one today on our lunch break. The first one, a few days ago, was a little odd -- and I think that distracted me from the big emotional impact of what we're actually doing. Today's was much more accessible, and we walked out thinking, "Yes, this is the person who we'd choose to safeguard the health of our first-born."

That's heavy.

All the books say that when you've got a kid on the way (as I do, within a few weeks) the guy usually has his crisis near the end of the process. I'm not having a crisis -- and I continue to maintain a very macho notion that I'm totally ready (even though, of course, I'm not -- who could be?)... but it's interesting how your world shrinks dramatically as the date gets closer. The pediatrician visit was definitely a signpost.

Must have been something to me if I'm actually writing about it. Suddenly I feel like I'm writing on Nanci Oleson's "How's The Family" blog. But like most guys, I'm too out of practice with verbalizing my emotions, so it's kind of an ugly process. So before I subject you to more... < EOM >

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WSHD: "What Should Hillary Do?"

Posted at 11:25 AM on May 9, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

For Hill-raisers, Hill-colytes, and Hill-ophiles (just invented those last two) the clouds are darkening.

Indiana was a squeaker -- the sound of leaking air, perhaps?

Yet the numbers still let a crack of light through the door. And we all know how hard it is not to walk toward the light.

Of course, the unscientific opinions of the great unwashed masses are deeply important at a time like this.

So, what say you?

Do have what it takes to be a 'Budget Hero?'

Posted at 10:54 AM on May 12, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

Our hardworking friends at Public Insight Journalism have just released their most massive online game project yet. It's safe to say online game concepts don't come much meatier than balancing the federal budget.

While I believe it is available as a widget that will probably appear on multiple sites around the web, for starters the Budget Hero game has established an outpost on the Marketplace web site.

Sure, I've got a slight personal interest in the project (um...whose voice is that in the tutorial?). But I'm pleased to be tangentially attached to something that really did turn out great, considering the incredible ambition of building an interactive game around something so complex.

At times, I'm a little thrown by the simplifications that had to made to tame this beast of an idea. But that's part of the necessity of a project like this: No sane human being who isn't justly compensated would want to contend with the true vastness of the federal budget.

This allows people to engage with the concepts and trade-offs -- built from the actual budget numbers and forecasts, to be sure -- and get a sense of how truly difficult the process is. That's especially true if you remain true to your values (the "badges" you are asked to choose at the start of the game) rather than just hue to fiscal discipline.

It's a good eye-opener for an election year. Give it a whirl.

What do you think? You can comment on the game on the page where it resides at Marketplace, on Gather.com, or -- if you like -- right here.

Food crunch and the dumpster-diver

Posted at 3:12 PM on May 12, 2008 by Sanden Totten (2 Comments)

The food shortage is hitting close to home. Real close. Check out this story from Marketplace about the increase of traffic at St. Paul food shelves.

All of this has got me thinking about a story I did a while back on dumpster divers (right click to download). I still hang out with a lot of these same people and they are still foraging for food in the trash. In fact, one friend of mine gets the majority of his groceries from the garbage . . . everything from veggies and breads to easter candy and flower bouquets. He's doing fine. Trash cans are still more than full enough.

Of course not everyone has the time to go looking for free grub. And I'll be the first to admit, the idea of dumpstered food is not that appetizing for a lot of people. But my point is that there is a lot of free or wasted food in this city. Even with organizations like Sister's Camelot and Second Harvest trying to save some of this stuff, there's still almost 100 billion pounds of food being wasted every year in the U.S.

It would be great if there was more food in the world, but in the meantime, how can we get better about making use of the tons of food we are throwing out?! What's stopping us from getting it to the people who could actually use it?

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Bye-bye, old (toxic?) cup. Hello weird replacement.

Posted at 10:30 AM on May 13, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (2 Comments)

Not the deepest blog post ever...

Out with the old...

...in with the new.

But my brain is functioning well enough this morning to make a clean break with my tea mug of five years. It was a tough decision, but it had to be done:

• * It's made of possibly toxic plastic (I haven't confirmed this),
• * ...which has partially melted because it has metal inside and I once nuked the mug by mistake,
• * ... besides which I haven't really washed it more than four times since I got it.

It does however have a lid, which I really like, and sentimental value: It was given to me by my Rochester reporting colleagues when I moved from St. Cloud to St. Paul in 2003. I think it's funny that this mug which I suspect has been leaving toxic traces of plastic in my body says "Mayo Clinic" on it.

I don't think a workday has gone by that I have not used this mug in five years. It was a sad, if brief, trash-can funeral.

My temporary replacement (temporary, because it does not have a lid, which is essential as much as I carry my tea around) is valuable mostly for kitsch value. I got it for free when I refilled an inkjet cartridge at OfficeMax. It features images of a heavily tattooed man and woman, whose backs sport the reminder to "Save Money on Ink."

Am I veering too close to the true blog aesthetic with a post like this? Perhaps. I'll have a sip of tea, refill some ink cartridges, and think it over.

(btw, I'm currently drinking Republic of Tea "Acai Green Superfruit" tea -- $15 a tin. Not sure if it's worth it. I think I'll have to wait another 40 years before I learn whether all these extra antioxidants are doing me much good.)

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Are you a 'Black Diamond' at airport security?

Posted at 1:10 PM on May 13, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (8 Comments)

(TSA graphic)

WSJ's Scott McCartney (subscription may be required) brought some popular attention today to the new Black Diamond airport security screening program now rolled out at a few airports by the Transportation Security Agency (eight cities so far, according to the Journal).

Basically, you're supposed to sort yourself based on how much of a hassle you're likely to be going through security.

To simplify the concept (at least for skiers) they adopted the "black diamond," "blue square," "green circle" code: Are you an "expert," a "casual traveler" (though apparently not frequent enough to be an "expert" yet) or are you a green circle "family" or "special assistance" case?

The TSA (here's their latest press release) has a scintillating and dramatic video that takes five minutes to walk you through basically what I just explained in about 50 words.

McCartney's column is upbeat; people in Orlando certainly seem to be fans. The idea is increased speed for people in a hurry, and less stress on slower people.

My big question is the middle category. Now...I'm not an everyday business traveler. And I'm hesitant to declare myself an expert on anything. But when it comes to going through airport security...dare I say I know most of what there is to know?

Who has been on a plane more than twice in the past five years who is not basically an expert? It's hard for me to imagine someone arriving at the security lanes and thinking, "Now, how does this whole thing work again? I'm supposed to walk through where? I'd better take the casual route 'till I can wrap my head around this dag-burned system."

Then again, maybe I'm missing something. What additional levels of knowledge might I still need to attain black diamond level?

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A personal experience with the China quake

Posted at 10:35 AM on May 14, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

An ITL listener put us in touch with a former college classmate who is teaching in China -- specifically Beibei, which is near Chengdu and about 250 km from the epicenter of the 7.9-scale earthquake.

Rescuers search the rubble of the collapsed Juyuan middle school where six children died in Dujiangyan, in southwest China Sichuan province. (AFP/Getty Images)

I fired off a quick email asking Keegan O'Hara to get some details of his experience with the quake. (Any emphasis added is mine.)

I was on the top floor of a dormitory building (6th floor) when the quake began. To tell you the truth I did not notice it right away...Then I realized the building was shaking, and some students said "earthquake" rather calmly to me and my friend who is another teacher at the University, they even told us in English which was helpful. Then we preceded to exit the building, it was very calm and orderly scene, I did not hear any screaming or an uncommon amount of yelling...

I personally did not feel scared at any point, although many of my Chinese friends were very concerned about the threat of aftershocks. As a result many students were encouraged, if not directed, by the teachers or administration to not sleep in the dormitories on Monday night. This meant that all of the athletic fields and open areas on campus were filled with students on Monday night. It was a very interesting sight to say the least...

Although I am nearly sure there are no sort of rescue efforts going on in Beibei, due to extremely minor amount of damage, the rescue efforts have been extremely impressive. The response by the central government was almost instantanious, much different than the events currently taking place in Burma/Myanmar in Southeast Asia, or dare I say...New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The troops from the Peoples Liberation Army were unable enter many of the affected areas by vehicle or aircraft due to bad condititions, so they went by foot to begin rescue efforts as soon as possible. Even Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao travelled to the area within hours of the earthquake and he is helping with the rescue efforts.

Now, I am in Beibei, everyone has been glued to the state news channel, but I think life is more or less back to normal (in Beibei).

Thanks to Keegan for the details, and listener Matt Steele for the contact.

What if I told you Minneapolis was the cleanest city in the world?

Posted at 3:07 PM on May 14, 2008 by Sanden Totten (1 Comments)

Well, okay. It's not the cleanest city in the world. According to Forbes.com Calgary is the cleanest city in the world. But Minneapolis is number 5 (right after Honolulu, Helsinki and Ottawa).

(MPR Illustration/Preston Wright)

What does it take to be in the top 25 cleanest cities of the world? According to the Mercer Human Resources consulting firm (the folks behind this report), clean air, good waste disposal and a solid public transportation system are all crucial.

But hey, we live in or around Minneapolis. Does this ranking surprise you?

I have to admit, I didn't expect to be in the top 10. At least once a summer we have an air-quality alert. Our public transportation system leaves much to be desired and we've recently found dangerous chemicals in our water and lawns. But I guess it says something about the world's general state of cleanliness that even the cleanest of the clean still have a ways to go.

And it could be worse, much worse. Check out the list of the 25 dirtiest cities in the world. The good news here is that according to pollution experts quoted in the article, it would take relatively little money to clean up 90% of the pollution in these cities. But getting the governments to actually do it is another matter . . .

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Real life Iron Man

Posted at 12:26 PM on May 15, 2008 by Sanden Totten

While America is marveling over the imagined technological feats of Robert Downey Jr., the Swiss are cheering on this guy.

Yves Rossy is a pilot, inventor and, um . . . a rocket man (cue the Elton John song).

Yesterday he strapped on a pair of homemade jet wings and gave a public demonstration of his flying machine. He flew over the Swiss alps at a speed of 186 miles per hour and apparently he even pulled off a 360 degree mid air roll. He was later quoted as saying: "that was to impress the girls."

How are Americans handling their stimulus check?

Posted at 10:15 AM on May 16, 2008 by Sanden Totten

The check is in the mail . . . or for many Americans, already in the pocket. What are we doing with the money?

Buying ponies. Or getting our teeth pulled. Or investing it in really awesome arcade games.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you are hard up for creative ideas on how to spend your check, click over to How I Spent My Stimulus. It's a running commentary from average citizens on how they plan to stimulate (or not) the economy. It's also like reading a mini-novel on someone's life situation, like this entry.

Much like the comments for our recent YouTube video, folks are stopping by to discuss and diss (mostly diss) the whole idea of stimulus checks. Still, people seem more than happy to get the money. And you really shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth . . . or a gift pony.

These gas prices are freakin' ridic...Ooh, it's PumpCast!

Posted at 3:59 PM on May 16, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

So I was driving around the other night at 12:30 looking for an open gas station (the band and I were "rehearsing" -- with beers -- until way too late as usual on a Tuesday night) and I finally found working pumps at a station I don't normally use.

Gas was $3.73. Crazy.

I started pumping my gas, and suddenly a glitzy TV screen springs to life on the pump, with the KSTP Channel 5 "PumpCast." While a quick Google search reveals this is not brand new, I'd never seen anything like it. It felt a little like "Back To The Future."

Maybe more like "Idiocracy."

You see, the idea is to cram something vaguely like an entire newscast into the time it takes you to fill your tank. And the results are comical. My favorite was probably the movie segment. I'm not making this up:

Hi there, I'm Rusty Gatenby with the latest movie news. "Prince Caspian: The Chronicles of Narnia" is out. It's the sequel to the first Narnia movie. I saw it the other day, and I have to tell you -- it's pretty good.

And that's it. He doesn't even say goodbye. Then on to the headlines, weather, etc. Followed by an ad for corn dogs. It's a breadth-to-depth ratio of infinity.

Is news like this worth anything? Maybe momentary distraction from the dollars you're pumping out of your wallet these days.

When I went out looking for more info on PumpCast, I didn't find anything legimate (KSTP doesn't even mention the service on its web site). I did, however, find that some good fun has been had with the PumpCast concept.

Waterworld is one step closer to reality!

Posted at 1:56 PM on May 19, 2008 by Sanden Totten

When it comes to choosing toothpaste, the options are vast. When it comes to choosing a government . . . good luck shopping around.

But that's where the Seastead Institute comes in. It's a plan to create autonomus mini-governments that exist on man-made islands. Think of it like a floating lab for testing new ways of organizing a society. Anarchists, libertarians or fundamentalists could buy one of these "Seasteads" and live their way of life without interruption from some stodgy old government.

In any other day and age, this would be some crackpot idea destined to sink, not swim. And maybe it is a crackpot idea . . . but it's now a crackpot idea with $500,000 behind it. Peter Thiel, of PayPal fame and glory recently gave the project's founders some money to get started. They are hoping to drop one of the prototype islands into the San Francisco bay by 2010.

Now, there's certainly some benefit to this plan. Innovation in government is very slow and often bloody. These Seasteads could speed that process up (minus the blood, hopefully). Plus, if California does slide into the ocean, the state's population would have somewhere to move to.

But I remain skeptical. I have worked at a few collectively run businesses before. Sure everyone has equal input and any form of organization is welcome . . . but the fact that we would have long labored discussions just to decide what kind of cleaning supplies to buy, make me wonder if everyday people have the stamina it would take to develop a society from scratch. Presumably these Seasteaders will have hobbies, families and jobs to keep them busy . . . unless of course, Peter Theil plans to subsidies their living expenses as well.

Addendum: A few folks have asked me why the Seasteaders would put the first base in the San Francisco Bay when the Bay is clearly not international waters. The Wired article linked to above call this first one a "prototype", which I guess means it's just for testing purposes. To create an actual floating nation they will probably have to go much farther out to sea.

We Sprout.

Posted at 5:15 PM on May 20, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (1 Comments)

Ever since running across an item about venture capital landed by a new company called Sprout, I'd been anxious to give it a try.

Sprout (www.sproutbuilder.com) is a free, web-based tool that lets you build Flash widgets from visual and sound elements you supply. Sounded promising. I only ever learned the most rudimentary Flash, and that was ten years ago.

My verdict so far is that Sprout is damn cool.

I'd been considering non-labor-intensive ways to package our new weekly show, so I tested Sprout by creating a widget for our previous (pilot) episode. This includes only a limited number of possible features -- down the line we could incorporate our polls, videos, and other things into it.

It's not endlessly flexible -- I've run into one or two applications I saw in my mind's eye that weren't actually possible, but I'm a convert. For ease of use and the polish you get in a final product, Sprout is a pretty nifty tool.

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Disneyland's Jack Sparrow tells all . . .

Posted at 12:51 PM on May 21, 2008 by Sanden Totten

(A Jack Sparrow impersonator. Photo by Lee Templar's Photos via Creative Commons.)

I've had my head wrapped up in a lot of hard news these past few days. It was getting to the point where I was losing my ability to concentrate on anything other than headlines. But when I stumbled across this funny expose of the life of a Jack Sparrow impersonator, I read the whole thing line by line, totally transfixed.

The writer spills the beans on what it's like to be one of the Magic Kingdom's hottest stars:

"I would also get offers from women in my ear: "Anything you want, just find me." I had a girl who had turned 18 the day before . . . she wrote down her room number at the Downtown Disney hotel. I had a lady hump my leg one day in the park."

If you're thinking 'the pirate's life for me!', you might want to reconsider. He also dishes up the dirt on Disney's strict rules for their costumed characters lives, both on the job and off. Being Jack Sparrow ain't all "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum." But at least after reading this you may find you have a little more respect for what these theme park mascots go through just to pose for pictures with you on your vacation.

Latest episode of "The Week:" Chinese patriotism, talking gas pumps, dumpster diving, and a Hillary song

Posted at 3:47 PM on May 26, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

Well, we finally put one on the air. Give 'er a test run.

Jingle me this, Jingle me that.

Posted at 2:24 PM on May 27, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (1 Comments)

I guess, in our modern world, for every person there comes at least one time in our lives when a reality show comes knocking.

The other day I got an out-of-the-blue solicitation by email asking me to audition for a new reality show from Mark Burnett ("Survivor" creator guy) that CBS plans to air this summer:

It is currently entitled "Jingles," and we are out to find the greatest undiscovered marketing genius. We are looking for teams of two to three people to write and perform product jingles. A team could be anything from singer-songwriters to a brother/sister team to a singing comedy duo or a barbershop quartet. We are looking for fun, high-energy performances mixed with a competitive spirit.

Definitely odd. But will this be interesting to watch? I guess you've got figure Mark Burnett knows what he's doing. There must be something more to it than just jingle writing. Do the teams all live together in a one-bedroom apartment? Do they need to compose in a pit filled with snakes? Do some of the jingles need to be performed under water? What in the world is going to make this more compelling than it sounds?

My first child is due any day, so I couldn't exactly be jaunting off to Chicago to audition. But I passed it on to my buddies The Smarts, who should be naturals at this kind of thing. Sure enough, they're already off to the call-backs in early June. God Speed, Smarts.

There are lots of audition tapes out there online. But here's one that seem particularly awkward:

So, are y'all psyched for "Jingles?"

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A big bubble of oil?

Posted at 11:29 AM on May 28, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

Members of the Rockefeller family are pushing today at the annual ExxonMobile shareholders' meeting for some major changes in how the company does business.

Like most proxy fights, it's likely to generate a lot of media interest before falling prey to the same-old-same-old instinct of the majority of shareholders. Exxon is dead-set against the family's ideas.

But one of their main arguments is that the oil boom that is handing the company the biggest profits in history is unlikely to hold out, and the company would be wise to invest big-time in other ways of making power. We've been thinking about this as an angle to pursue for this week's show.

Interestingly, an interview came out over the holiday weekend with George Soros, who laid out a multi-point argument for why oil prices are a true bubble. Among them, a messed up "backward" supply curve, and much more speculation in the system than most people have assumed.

If you can tolerate the, um, less-than-caffeinated delivery, give it a look:

(UPDATE: Shareholders indeed rejected the crux of the Rockefeller proposals, to split the CEO and Chairman jobs so the CEO would be overseen by an independent chairman of the board. But the proposal garnered 40 percent support, which is pretty remarkable for proposals of this sort.)

An open secret in NE Iowa

Posted at 12:47 PM on May 29, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (3 Comments)

We just got off the line with Stephen Bloom, a journalism prof down in Iowa City who -- several years ago -- wrote a book about the kosher meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa that suffered a huge immigration raid earlier this month. It was a long but terrific interview. He's got a passion and depth of experience with the place that would be hard to find anywhere else.

This is a remarkable story, which has gotten only scattered coverage outside Iowa -- which is why I wanted us to look into it. Not only did the feds finally bust open a situation pretty much everybody in Northeast Iowa knew about, but (if gov't affidavits and first-hand press accounts are any guide) the fingers of wrong-doing seem to extend deep into the company management. This could get very interesting. (Or....not. Prof. Bloom isn't optimistic the company will actually face much penalty in the end.)

The initial development is the workers getting slammed (five months in jail before deportation). But there are reasons to think the company might be next, and the details are dramatic. If you want to read up, the Des Moines Register has been doing excellent coverage, as has the closest local paper, the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier.

We'll have our interview with Stephen Bloom featured on tomorrow's show. I've got a call out to the company for comment -- nothing yet. They haven't been saying much in the press so far.

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The Week: Immigration raids, the Week in Green, and McCain's "Bachelor" adventure

Posted at 8:57 PM on May 30, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (2 Comments)

Out with another one!

Featuring:

* An interview with Stephen Bloom, author of Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America
* A poem from listener Aaron Belz
* A conversation with two oil engineers on the future of oil supply
* Listener Terri Bly fills us in on the Week in Green
* We imagine McCain's running-mate search as...a certain reality show

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