News Cut: November 26, 2007 Archive

U.S. attorney's office: What now?

Posted at 7:59 AM on November 26, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Late last week, the Wall Street Journal had an idea: clean out the office. (reg. required).

The blog, Minnesota Lawyer, has called attention to the leaking of information as a reason not to rush to pick an internal candidate.

"The other thing that concerns me deeply is that a person or persons in the office leaked highly sensitive personnel information over the Internet, including selected details of a retaliation and a discrimination complaint. This leaking was done in a manner to stoke the negative media coverage and to compromise Paulose’s ability to effectively carry out her job. The divulging of this personnel-related information was not only clearly in violation of Department of Justice policy, but threatened the integrity of the investigative process for those complaints. I think people working in a public office have to follow the rules – if we learned anything from the Gonzales era it should be that."

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Cyber Myth

Posted at 9:57 AM on November 26, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

In the world of marketing, you can make something true, just by saying it is.

Newsies working on a slow day usually blare, "the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year," except it isn't. The Saturday before Christmas is. And getting up at 2:30 on Friday to go shopping isn't normal.

"Today is Cyber Monday, the traditional start of the online holiday shopping season," declares the Detroit Free Press.

News Cut admits it didn't know there was a traditional start of the online holiday shopping season. And for good reason. a)It's not the start of the online holiday shopping season and b) it's not a tradition. It's marketing.

Cyber Monday comes from shop.org, the association of online retailers. The group sent out a news release a few days before the 2005 date, which described the following Monday as "one of the biggest online shopping days of the year." Except that it wasn't, according to Business Week.

Based on data from comScore, a research firm, online shopping for the holidays begins in early November, and surges on Black Friday, when over $550 million in transactions occurred, and peaks around the second week of December.

About $700 million is expected to be raked in online today, mostly because online stores are joining the marketing plan. Still, if last year is any guide, today is not the busiest shopping day of the year. That will likely come next week.

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Spotlight on Cirrus... again

Posted at 10:55 AM on November 26, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Since 2002, Cirrus Design's SR22 has been involved in 17 accidents resulting in 35 deaths, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Over the weekend, four were killed in Faribault when the plane flipped while trying to land in gusty conditions.

When a Cirrus plane crashes, it usually ignites a debate -- at least in some aviation circles -- on whether the airplane is safe. The plane's accident record is not unusual. Dig under the debate, however, and you usually find disagreement with the route the plane took on the way to becoming the most popular; that the pilots weren't "real pilots," but rich guys who had to choose between a new Porsche and a new plane.

The truth? Companies build planes. And a few pilots -- relatively few -- crash them.

The SR22 is a higher-performance plane than the SR-20, that the Duluth-based company builds. The SR-20 is the plane which Yankees pitcher Corey Lidle and his flight instructor flew into a building in Manhattan last year.

Generally speaking, planes usually crash because of the pilot. Seldom is the plane responsible. Sixty-one percent of the fatal accidents in 2005 (and most other years) occurred in some measure because of the weather, or -- perhaps more accurately -- the judgment of the pilot when faced with the weather conditions. Poor decision-making was responsible in more than half of the fatal accidents in 2005, according to the NTSB.

The airplane is considered "safe." Whether its pilots are up to the challenge of flying it is another question. And that's true for just about every airplane.

Phillip Greenspun, a Cirrus owner, wrote in his review of the Cirrus,

"In terms of avoiding an accident, one problem with the Cirrus is its unforgiving handling compared to other basic four-seaters. The plane is harder to keep level with rudders in a stall than a Cessna or Diamond; if in a deep uncoordinated stall, the Cirrus wants to drop a wing and go into a spin."

Ron Rapp, a California flight instructor and Cirrus pilot has a take on Cirrus accidents that plays to the they're-not-real-pilots crowd:

The SR22s I instruct in are about $265/hr. A two hour flight with instructional costs will run close to $700. I have students who will make flights like that a couple of times per week. These guys are successful, fast pace, type-A personalities. They’re used to getting their way, making it work, pushing through and solving problems by either working really hard or throwing money at it.

This is not always an asset in the cockpit. In aviation, sometimes the answer is to not tackle the problem at all. Stay on the ground. Turn around. Land. Or, ask for help. Admit you’re lost. Declare an emergency. This is not an easy or natural mindset for a lot of these guys.

Cirrus accident statistics don't seem to bear this out. The accident rate is only slightly higher than other airplanes, and the cross-section of pilots run the gamut of experience. The pilot of the doomed plane in Faribault, Chester Mayo, was an instrument-rated pilot; not an easy accomplishment.

It is,of course, far too early to say what caused the crash in Faribault. The early indication is that weather played a part. The pilot was making a second attempt to land in gusty conditions. That the plane flipped before crashing, could be indicative that the plane's airspeed dropped too low (something that can happen when a wind gust disappears), causing a wing to stall and the plane to spin. At that point, the pilot's ability is a moot point.

A key to the accident? According to a search of the FAA registration database, the Cirrus was brand new. It was registered on November 7, 2007.

Several home-brewed studies have shown that the chances of an accident in an airplane are higher in the initial hours a pilot spends flying it.

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Restitution calculated in death of 16-year-old girl

Posted at 5:19 PM on November 26, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

The West Central Tribune of Willmar reports that a Prinsburg man has been sentenced today to six months in jail (served off and on) because he provided alcohol to a 16 year old girl at a party at his home. She was killed while driving home.

What caught my attention is this additional note:

...and pay $17,550 in restitution to the family of the 16-year-old girl ..

It's a word that caught the notice of only one person commenting on the paper's Web site.

We'll attempt to get a breakdown on the calculation from the victim's services coordinator on Tuesday.

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Twins prepare to ship out another Minnesota star

Posted at 9:32 PM on November 26, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Et tu Johan?

Major League Baseball's Web site reports tonight that the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees are talking trade over Johan Santana. It's pretty clear the Twins can't afford won't pay Santana's asking price when his contract is up after the '08 season.

The new stadium was supposed to allow the Twins to be more competitive. But, the Yankees are building a new stadium (and hotel complex), too. So, perhaps, they get to be more competitively competitive.

One can make an argument that letting Torii Hunter go last week was a smart baseball move. He's good, but he's not that good. No such argument can be made against Johan Santana. He's among the best, and projects to be among the best for the duration of however many years he's asking for in the next contract.

So why trade him?

Let's go back to April 2007, when Hennepin County commissioners OK'd a land acquisition agreement for the stadium.

"It's a fair document, and it will allow the Twins to be competitive in Minnesota, and to build a world-class outdoor ballpark," said Twins president Dave St. Peter.

In an FAQ on their Web site, the Twins address the competitive question:

First, the Twins have a proven baseball organization that has demonstrated the ability to field competitive teams with limited resources. The incremental revenues generated by a new ballpark should help stabilize the franchise and provide the team with additional resources to be competitive.

Stabilize the franchise is baseball-talk for "we won't let our best players walk so often."

Hunter is gone and Santana will likely be traded this off-season because (a) the Twins don't want to let another star leave via free agency without getting something for him (b) they don't want to pay the money and (c) letting a player leave before the stadium is built -- like right now -- makes the obvious public relations problem slightly less obvious.

But that doesn't mean they don't have one, because as Fanhouse notes, $20 million a year for a team's superstar player is nothing in today's baseball economy. Santana is already making more than $13 million, which the Twins were able to afford playing in an old ballpark, with lousy revenue streams.

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