News Cut: February 14, 2008 Archive

Housekeeping item: The archives

Posted at 1:00 AM on February 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Because News Cut is updating with new information so often, posts scroll off the bottom of the main page pretty quickly and some of you have commented that the search function where you have to remember what day it was (that calendar over there on the right) isn't very good.

I agree, but there is a way around it. Use the drop down "month" function of the calendar instead. It'll load all posts in a given month, with the latest at the bottom of the page.

For example, here's February. And January.

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New media ethics

Posted at 7:56 AM on February 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

I've been late getting to this sooner. MPR and the Society of Professional Journalists are hosting a discussion on new media ethics.

According to the SPJ news release:

But how much do the traditional journalistic touchstones of vetting sources and fair and transparent reporting matter at a time when anyone with a cell phone can publish images instantly for the entire world to see?

I tend to disagree with the notion that there is a "traditional journalistic touchtone of .... transparent reporting" (while embracing the notion that fairness is certainly a goal), but we can talk about it in a couple of weeks.

Hope to see you there. Bring your questions and comments because I'll run out of them early.

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When women have authority over boys

Posted at 8:17 AM on February 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

The very fascinating discussion taking place downstream about the rights of a religious institution in employment policy may take a fascinating turn with the item that crossed my inbox.

In Kansas, a private religious school refused to allow a female referee to work a boys' game because -- according to the refs -- "as a woman, (she) could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy's beliefs."

Says the Kansas City Star:

St. Mary’s, which houses students in kindergarten through 12th grade, separates boys and girls in virtually all endeavors. Some women teach boys, and the girls can participate in intramural-type sports.

It's not clear -- yet -- what the other team's beliefs are.

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What does it mean to be 'business friendly'?

Posted at 11:06 AM on February 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)

What does it mean to be "business friendly?" That was the theme of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's State of the State speech yesterday, where he zeroed in on taxes, and sounded many of the same themes he sounded in a speech in Burnsville a few weeks ago when he appeared to suggest it means (among other things) spending less on health care and more on roads and bridges.

Senate Majority Minority Leader Dave Senjem picked up the theme, according to a story from MPR's Tim Pugmire, when he said, "If you expect to have a growing economy in Minnesota, you've got to look and ask why we're 44th in the country in corporate tax rate. What corporation would want to stay here with that kind of a tax rate?"

What corporation, indeed?

Let's look at the record:

Target Corporation - Made $19 billion in profit last year, almost $3 billion more than the year before.

General Mills - $4.4 billion.

U.S. Bancorp - Generated $4+ billion in income.

Xcel Energy - Had a 5.7% profit margin

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is privately held.

PepsiAmericas Inc. - Made a $1.8 billion profit in 2007, higher than the year before.

The Valspar Corporation - Made a $971 million profit last year, higher than the year before.

Ameriprise Financial - Had a gross profit of $6 billion, higher than the year before.

The Travelers Companies, Inc. - Had a 17% profit margin last year.

3M - Made an $11 billion profit last year, higher than the year before.

Ecolab Inc. - $2.4 billion in profits last year, higher than the year before.

Securian Financial Group Inc. (Minnesota Life) -- Privately held.

Patterson Dental - $969 million profit last year, more than the year before.

Land O'Lakes Inc. - Lists a 1.25% profit margin.

Andersen Corporation -- Is privately held.

The Toro Company - No information available.

Donaldson Company Inc. - 18 consecutive years of earnings growth, the company says. $604 million profit last year, higher than the year before.

Holiday Companies - No information available

Thermo King Corporation - No information available.

Northwest Airlines - A $3.2 billion profit reported in 2007

Nash Finch Company - A $401 million profit in 2007, less than a year ago.

Other corporate headquarters here include:

Alliant Techsystems Inc.
Regis Corporation
Supervalu
C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.
Medtronic Inc.
General Mills
Pentair Inc.
CHS Inc.
St. Jude Medical Inc.
Polaris Industries Inc.
Cargill
UnitedHealth Group
Carlson Companies, Inc.
Petters Group Worldwide
Michael Foods
Imation
Best Buy
Deluxe Corporation

Those are the biggest companies, and the biggest employers, in Minnesota. The profits reported here are pre-tax. Most of the companies are reporting record profits. Many of the companies are doing so well, in fact, that they're able to pay their top executives millions in salaries and bonuses.

Senjem appeared to be citing the Tax Foundation's corporate tax index. But the Foundation's overall tax ranking for business puts the state at #42.

But let's look, not at the corporations who have stayed, but those who have left.

When Norwest Bank took over Wells Fargo, much of the operation headed west. California's ranking is 47th. When Allied Signal bought Honeywell, the headquarters moved to New Jersey, a state that is ranked 49th.

Now, it's clear Minnesota is about to lose Northwest Airlines to Georgia. But that has little to do with the corporate tax situation in Georgia (ranked 36th, just 8 spots higher than Minnesota).

In the last few years, some corporate headquarters have moved here. Xcel Energy, formed by the merger of Northern States Power and another company, for example, left a state -- Colorado -- that was ranked 13th.

Bemis Corporation moved to Neenah, Wisconsin, but that seems to have more to do with the fact the company execs live in Neenah.

As the debate unfolds, it might not be a bad idea to press the politicians for specifics when invoking the needs of business and the specific benefits to the state. How much help do Minnesota's corporations need?

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Here comes US 193!

Posted at 2:24 PM on February 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (15 Comments)

The United States is going to try to shoot down a satellite that never worked.

It's unclear whether the Navy missile is intended to destroy the satellite because otherwise it might fall on your head, or to get rid of the secrets that might be contained therein.

But let's go with the first possibility.

Veterans of falling things will remember Skylab, which tumbled to earth after weeks of fretting, hand-wringing, and putting the tops up on our convertibles. It ended up splattering across the Indian Ocean and a small part of Australia.

There are approximately 600,000 pieces of space junk floating around. There is only one person who has ever been hit by falling space debris, in this case a piece of a Delta II rocket. It was a woman in Oklahoma, who was uninjured and was presumed to be looking for a good reason to move anyway.

But let's get to the numbers. The probability of you being hit by space debris, according to Physics World Magazine, is one in a trillion. UK bookmakers, however, are placing the odds at 20 billion to one. I should point out that odds and probability are not the same thing.

That said, the current odds of life being found on one of Saturn's moon are 10,000 to 1.

Gen. James Cartwright, who announced the shoot-down effort today, would not say what the odds -- or even the probability -- are of the missile hitting the satellite.

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Radio's passing fancy

Posted at 4:11 PM on February 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

When MPR started News Cut, the boss made it clear: "it's not about you. And minimize the first person." And he was -- and is -- right. But I'm sneaking this one on here without him seeing it because in a way this one is about me, at least about something that means a lot to me: radio and the people in it.

Here's my story:

Back when I was far too young to know how good I had it, I worked in Boston, a city I still love like no other, with some of the finest people I've ever known. Jess Cain was one of them. Jess, the long-time morning man at WHDH Radio, worked at a time in radio when you had to be funny and clever without being vulgar, and if you think that's easy, turn on the radio sometime and hear how many people don't know how to do it.

The older I get, the more I marvel at life's twists and turns, and the journey that takes you where you had no idea you'd go. When I was 13 -- 1967 -- I followed the Red Sox in their Impossible Dream year. I threw a tennis ball against the garage wall with every pitch Jim Lonborg would make. The Sox won the pennant that year, spurred on by Carl Yastrzemski's Triple Crown, beating the Twins on the final weekend of the season. I never thought a team that finished dead last in a 10-team league the year before, could beat the likes of Killebrew, Kaat, and Chance.

Over the winter, we all sang the Carl Yastrzemski song, made famous by Jess. (Listen to an mp3 download here). Then I grew up, went into the radio business, and somehow I ended up working with Jess Cain. He was a big star, and I was a news editor who wasn't worth a minute of his time, but he always spent it anyway.

And talk about your connection with history. Jess Cain was the only member of Audi Audie Murphy's unit (he was the most decorated soldier of World War II) who wasn't wounded when it was trapped at the Battle of the Bulge. It was Cain who was able to get help to rescue the soldiers. For that, he got a Silver Star.

Jess died this morning, and I can't believe my unbelievable good fortune for having known him.

I know there are thousands of Minnesotans who grew up with their version of Jess Cain. Maybe it was Howard Viken, Maynard Speece, Charlie Boone and Roger Erickson, Jergen Nash, Dale and Jim Ed. But there are fewer and fewer of us who can point to a single radio person in our youth who bound us, our families, and disparate generations together. Radio was instrumental in creating the sense of community.

That point was made clear by a person who posted to Jess' Legacy memorial page today:

There was a time when each city and town in America had a local flavor. It wasn't perfect and I certainly don't want to live in the past but something has been lost when you read how these people remember waking up every morning and listening to Jess on the radio. It is interesting that all that was needed was a $20 radio and it lasted for years and provided unlimited entertainment. Now we need a $10/ month DSL on a computer that needs upgrading every 3 years. He was a familiar voice filling up the airwaves with a hope of a school cancellation! The Cain family should know Jess will always be remembered.

And we'll remember you, too, radio.

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In their own words: The flood

Posted at 4:14 PM on February 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

A few weeks ago, we sent out some surveys to people who were victims of last fall's floods in southeast Minnesota. They have, for the most part, played second fiddle in our state's consciousness to the I-35W bridge collapse.

This is the story, in their own words, of Crystal and Colin Schroeder of Rushford.

THE LOSSES

We were luckier than many. My three young children, husband, and I were not home for the flood. We were out of town. When my husband finally reached our house, he found that the water came 2" onto the floor joists of the basement ceiling -- 3" from our main floor.
We stored everything down there -- Christmas decorations, winter clothes, outerwear, my teaching materials, and all our family heirlooms to name a few.

Our children had a playroom downstairs filled with toys, futon, TV, VCR, DVD player, both children and grown-up books (many collectible series). My husband had thousands of dollars worth of auto body-related tools ruined in the four feet of water in the garage.

We got back into our home September 3, after two long weeks of working on the house all day and driving back and forth to Minneapolis and Winona, where we had relatives, late at night. My husband took several weeks off of work and has done most of the work on the house on his own, due to expenses. We thought we were ready to move on and put the worst behind us. Two weeks after we'd cleaned up and moved in, we realized we had to tear the chimney out because the sewage had penetrated the bricks and wasn't leaving. The entire house smelled of raw sewage.

Once again, we thought we could begin painting and finish work. We were horrified in January when we found that the header in the basement, as well as the support columns are all cracking deeply due to being submerged for so long and then drying out. The house now needs to be jacked up, header beam reinforced, support columns replaced, and new footings poured. The foundation needs to be cleaned off, tuckpointed, and resealed. The basement windows need to be replaced as well as the garage doors and siding.

We're surviving, we've gotten a lot of help from the Salvation Army, a local church program, and an amazing immediate and unconditional outpouring of support from friends, families, and co-workers. We have five houses within view from our front steps that have been torn down, another five or so that had to have brand new foundations put in.

The largest struggle is the emotional exhaustion, because you still have to work in a world that is "normal," take care of your family, work on your house, pay bills, and live in a world that seems to be falling apart. One of the hardest things we've had to deal with is people outside of town thinking we (and the town) are OK and "back to normal." No one realizes how bad it is to see everyone struggle so very much. We have a neighbor who isn't back in his house yet. Every day you turn around and something else has gone wrong; things we'd never even thought about.

THE HELP

The help from FEMA was appreciated. It was very quick and the folks we dealt with were wonderful. But the money we received was not adequate to get us back into our house. Many people don't realize that they only pay for "essentials," not the air conditioning, not the washer or dryer.

We were horrified that we had to apply for the SBA loan before we'd be considered for the state monies. The last thing any of us need is another loan! Many here are now paying two mortgages -- one for the house they lost, one for the one they had to build. Others bought a house they couldn't comfortably afford because they had nowhere else to live. Many of the rest of us are now upside down on our mortgage because of the devalued property.

We all prayed that we'd be turned down for the loan. Those that were approved had to take the loan or lose out on some of the state money. The paperwork is horrendous, those providing assistance from the agency administering the state monies (SEMCAC) have been less than understanding or helpful. They cover some damage for some people and not for others. We are currently trying to find out why they will not help us pay to re-side and re-door our garage because it is not attached to the house, though we cannot find anything in the paperwork we've received that says this. They've done it for others, and if we don't get the money, it'll be a lost cause.

The Salvation Army has been wonderful, trying to help connect people to services, provide funds to help out with expenses (remember, we still have to pay bills through all of this) -- very understanding and helpful. They have been a godsend, as have the many volunteers that have come to help. We just hope they continue to come 'til the work is done.

Lutheran Disaster Relief has been wonderful. They've had a steady stream of volunteers down here helping with the rebuilding, people coming for a day to weeks in order to help provide building assistance.

MOST VIVID MEMORIES OF THE FLOOD

The feeling of elation and relief we had when we realized everyone in town was alright; it took so very long to find them all, because we couldn't call or go to find them. The agonizing wait to go back into town, first to only clean the fridge and freezer and have a safety inspection, then to finally start the clean-up process four days later. Lifting out bucket after bucket of personal belongings. Trying to decide if we should keep anything;- would it ever truly be safe again? All the people, friends and relatives, that came to help for the weekend, despite the hot weather, the bees and mosquitoes, the dust, the mold, and the stench. The massive amount of volunteers that came to help the entire town. The outsiders in their Sunday best driving slowly down the street (once they'd been re-opened), craning their necks and pointing at the piles throughout town that had been our lives. They never got out and offered comfort or help. The overwhelming feeling of joy and community that occurred when the grocery store re-opened Halloween night. People were crying as they shopped.

THE FUTURE

Rushford continues to need help. We need skilled volunteers, we need materials, and we need understanding -- the understanding that most of us are not getting '"free money" and going on trips. The understanding that for most of us the gap between the amount of damage we received and the amount of assistance we received was far wider than any thought possible and will leave most of us with debt that will follow us for decades to come. The understanding that no matter how independent we are down here, we need the help and the support.

PS

The last thing I'd like to add was my 7 year old son's response when we told him about the flood (about a week after it happened, my aunt and uncle cared for our children for two weeks after the flood so we could clean up). He cried and screamed. But not for himself. He was crying for all the children that had lost everything they had. He wanted to set a bucket on our stairs to raise money for them. When they went back to my aunt and uncle's house, that's just what they did. They made a sign "Help Rushford, they had a big flood" and went door to door in their Plymouth neighborhood. They collected $209 to buy toys for local children. That is the some of the love and caring we have seen down here.

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