News Cut: January 14, 2008 Archive

Check again, counselor

Posted at 4:30 AM on January 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Warning: You know that little "memo" line on your checks? Don't write anything obscene there when you make out a check to pay your parking ticket.

A Pennsylvania man has now apologized for what he wrote on a $5 check and the police have now dropped disorderly conduct charges against him.

But there must be something his lawyer can be charged with for uttering this quote while insisting his client would've been cleared if the case had gone to trial.

‘‘The F-word isn’t what it used to be,’’ attorney Keith Williams said. It doesn’t have a sexual connotation anymore and so can’t be considered obscene, he said.

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Shrinking Antarctic

Posted at 11:53 AM on January 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Another day, another hunk of ice disappears from the planet.

The Washington Post today reports that in Antarctica, ice previously considered stable is now unstable... and melting.

It still snows in Antarctica, if that's any comfort. But researcher Eric Rignot says the ice is melting faster than the snow is falling.

Antarctica is one of the two large ice caps scientists are concerned about. The other is in Greenland. Yesterday, researcher Tom Mote at the University of Georgia had nothing to say to lift our global warming spirits.

Mote's analysis showed the rate of melt for the past decade is sharply higher than the previous 25 years - and that 2007's rate of melt was 60 percent higher than the previous high in 1998.

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School's out

Posted at 3:13 PM on January 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

When last we talked politics -- we try not to talk politics too much on News Cut -- the voters of New Hampshire had just schooled big media on the problem of polls, and big media even sounded slightly disturbed, with faint promises to change.

So how's that going as we start another campaign week?

Not so good.

New Gallup/USA Today Poll: Hillary, McCain Lead Nationally -- Obama in Trouble?

McCain Moves Into Lead; Obama Gains on Clinton (reg. required)

Fluidity in G.O.P. Race; Democrats Eye Electability

Poll: 4-way GOP "dead heat" led by McCain; Hillary trounces Obama (Florida)

And that's just today.

I suppose it's too obvious to point out, by the way, that national polls don't mean much when we use the electoral system to elect presidents. But, if you're going to be enthralled by polls -- and, face it political wonks, you are -- then this is the best site to use to satisfy your electoral urges.

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The winds of change

Posted at 3:21 PM on January 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar picked an interesting spot to hold her news conference today unveiling new legislation she's introducing to promote further development of wind energy. It's the big windmill near the Arbor Lakes Shopping Center at Maple Grove. It's the first utility windmill to creep into the Twin Cities. It's not one of the big ones we see outstate, but as windmills sprout within spitting distance of our homes, we'll probably revisit old arguments with previous intruders to our vistas.

Klobuchar's bill would extend tax credits for renewable energy investments.

Here's an essay on the subject of how our energy and public works infrastructure changes the landscape. Flash is required. Click on the play button at the bottom.

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Return of the Ice Palace

Posted at 3:59 PM on January 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

For a city that once pridefully built the ice palace -- the last time was 2004 -- it was cold comfort to hear last week that the St. Paul Winter Carnival was having a hard time raising money to buy blocks of ice for ice sculpting.

An ice palace? That was never seriously considered. And good thing; the 2004 version took 27,000 blocks of ice. The 1992 version left organizers $600,000 in the hole.

In that context, then, what happens in China every year is astounding.

That's an image from last year's Harbin Ice and Snow World in China.

Of course, you can do impressive things when you have 800,000 people to visit who don't mind paying $21 apiece.

Like everything else winter-like, it's feeling the heat of a warmer climate.

(H/T: Michael Wells)

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Drinking forum live blogging

Posted at 5:34 PM on January 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

We've been concentrating on the issue of youth drinking in the last week or so. It culminated tonight in the UBS Forum at Minnesota Public Radio. It will be played on air on Tuesday's Midmorning. As the forum closed tonight, the Midmorning folks were unclear whether both hours of this forum would be aired, or just the first. Feel free to post your comments, and let's talk about this. You can also join a thread underway on Gather.com.

Live blogging

7:07 p.m. - "The issue is big and it touches our heart very deeply," Michael Caputo of MPR's Public Insight Network said, introducing tonight's forum. And he's right, of course. Shortly before the event started, we heard alcohol is suspected in another death in Mankato today. We're all parents, and yes, we've all -- mostly -- been in college, so we know all about the ritual of drinking. We're trying to figure out what's changed -- or even whether it's changed -- in this ritual that leaves people dead.

7:12 - Reporter Tom Weber interviewed several young people on Saturday night. A tape was played on when it's OK to binge drink. "When you get a promotion or you get married," said one young woman. "When you're at home and your friends won't just leave you to die," said a young man.

What did the young people here in the forum think about what they just heard? Ben Marcy suggested we define binge drinking first. "A point where you're vomiting," he suggested. "Drew" said binge drinking is having more than 5 drinks an hour, or drinking for four days straight.

(More below the fold)

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