News Cut: March 12, 2008 Archive

I admit it. I get tired of hookers and pig politicians, political theater, and all the hypocrisy that surrounds all of it. So today I set out to unearth some sort of uplifting story of decency.

What does it say when the closest I could find today is stories about dogs?

His name is ... was ... Alex and for 13 years he was the loyal firedog at the Alexandria Fire Department, according to the Alexandria Echo Press. Alex died in his sleep last week.

No one seems to know for sure how Alex ended up at the fire department; only that one day years ago, he was left on the back step of the department, "tucked in a kennel with blankets to keep him warm and toys to keep him occupied," and a letter signed with a paw print.

There are no great stories of heroics by Alex, he was just good at what dogs are good at. He welcomed kids to the fire house and all that.

There are other stories about dogs worth paying attention to, today:

In West Virginia, a man's boat capsized, sending him and his dog, Lacy, into the water. He got the dog onto the top of the boat while he stayed in the water. When rescuers arrived, he begged them to get the dog first. Why? He and his wife lost both of their children in a car accident 15 years ago and he said the animal has helped take a small amount of that hurt away, giving them an object to pour their love into.

Jennifer Frekking, a Minnesotan in the Iditarod race in Alaska, lost one of her dogs -- Lorne -- when it was hit by a snowmobile earlier this week. The race ended today when Alaskan Lance Mackey won his second straight title.

While you're pondering the mystery of how a politician with a reputation for high ethics gets himself hooked up with a prostitution ring, here's another mystery of the mind to consider. How does a priest get around to masterminding the mass murder of 1,500 people who sought refuge in his church?

(This post was updated at 1:35 p.m.)

A lot of attention has been paid to the problem of student loans -- and deservedly so. Kids today are coming out of school with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and declining job prospects. And, as we learned today, this is particularly true in Minnesota where the cost of higher education is well above the national average.

But a study out today from St. Paul-based Securian Financial Group says the same problem is being faced on the other side of the working-years spectrum. More people are going into retirement in debt.

"If you start retirement in debt, the chance of you running out of money is higher," said Mathew Greenwald, who conducted the survey.

The survey, released this afternoon, says 26 percent of Baby Boomers and 33 percent of the Silent Generation expect to carry non-mortgage debt into retirement. Slightly more than half of current retirees reported they retired with such debts.

In many cases, according to the survey, consumers don't even realize they are in debt. Nearly half -- 46 percent -- failed to classify "at least one common financial obligation such as outstanding balances on credit cards, home equity lines of credit or even overdue utility bills as debt. And 11 percent of people with debt don't consider themselves being in debt.

Cuts in school finances have been going on for years, but now it really has their attention in Brainerd. Why? Now, they're going after athletics -- the sacred cow of school finances.

According to the Brainerd Dispatch newspaper (reg. required), the district is considering how best to implement $5.5 million in cuts, with about $860,000 to come from athletics. Last night, 300 people heard about the two plans being considered. One retains adapted floor hockey, baseball, boys' and girls' basketball, dance, football, softball, boys' and girls' swimming, boys' and girls' track and volleyball. Participation fees would jump from about $80 to near $300 per sport. A second plan retains more sports but calls for more money from booster clubs.

Brainerd is not alone in the budget cutting.

In Duluth, a similar situation is facing school officials. They need to cut almost $6 million from the budget. On Monday night, they outlined a plan to cut administrative positions -- including athletic directors -- as well as shutter a school, reduce technology and textbooks. A list of cuts on the district's Web site today lists increasing fees for "co-curricular" activities, but does not include outright cutting of any athletic programs, and says a proposal to charge students the full cost of participating in athletics is not being considered now.

In Savage, the school district is considering not opening a new school that's just been built, and is also considering increasing the cost of participation in athletics. Other programs facing cuts at the middle school level include peer mediation, the district spelling bee, student newspapers, chess teams, speech, drama club, math masters, technology club, and traveling basketball, football, volleyball and soccer.

The situation is inspiring a new round of an old debate: should high schools, in particular, still be in the sports team business?

"Is there a place for you in the global economy?" asks a promotional video trailer for a documentary that apparently is not a warm and tender reminiscence of Northwest Airlines.

According to a press release today, the film followed airline mechanics "from the picket line to the bread line as they lost their jobs to outsourcing."

The producers of the film, though, don't have the money to finish it. They're holding a benefit later this month to raise the cash to visit China to interview mechanics who service Northwest planes.

The Iowa House of Representatives today narrowly approved a smoking ban which exempts bars and restaurants. The bill now needs to be resolved with a tougher Senate bill that didn't even exempt casinos. Most workplaces already ban smoking in Iowa.

Rep. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, said the vote reflects intense lobbying by the restaurants and bar owners who said it will hurt business. Presumably they didn't argue Iowans would go over the border to Minnesota to smoke, however.

Minnesota lawmakers are considering legislation this session that would bar sex offenders from accessing social networking sites like MySpace, the online community where young people are way too casual about sharing their personal information.

The bill is similar to one in the New York State Assembly that would would force sexual predators to register their instant messaging screen names and enable sites like MySpace and Facebook to block their access.

But how can this sort of legislation be enforced? Sexual offenders might change usernames or e-mail addresses to cover their tracks.

According to Rep. Karla Bigham, DFL-Cottage Grove, who authored the House bill, someone would have to report the sex offender being on MySpace first. Alternately, probation officers -- and others -- would have authority under the bill to enter a sex offender's home without a warrant, confiscate the computer, and have it checked to see if they've been on MySpace or other social networking site.

There are an estimated 15,000 sex offenders in Minnesota. Various "reports" have said MySpace has between 29,000 and 32,000 registered sex offenders as users. Attorneys general from 49 states -- including Minnesota -- forced an agreement from MySpace earlier this year to heighten security. It pledged to default user profiles of 16- and 17-year-olds to a private category, and purge sex offenders from its service.

But that moves comes a year after a similar promise by MySpace to clean its membership of sexual predators.

There is, as Nate Anderson of Ars Technica pointed out back then, a huge flaw in the approach.

Without federal legislation requiring sex offenders to register e-mail addresses, the entire scheme falls apart. How else will MySpace match user accounts against their new database? Using names? If we assume that there is not a complete overlap between the "total moron" population and the "sex offender" population, it immediately becomes obvious that sex offenders are not going to sign up to a site like MySpace using their real names.

Then again, maybe the Spitzer case will be in the game, now that the New York Times has discovered who Client 9's hooker was.

Two reasons why the Spitzer story won't be the most e-mailed story on the Internet today.

From the BBC: Hundreds of Indian Catholics reportedly stared at the sun last month following rumours that a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary could be seen in the sky. Soon afterwards, local eye hospitals started receiving patients with burn damage to their retinas.

Meanwhile, in Ness City, Kansas, a woman has been checked out at the hospital after being stuck on her boyfriend's toilet seat for two years. According to the Associated Press, the woman's legs had begun to grow around the seat. Police said they were surprised they weren't called in sooner. (Please note: The smart money in ye olde newsroom is on this being a hoax but we cannot yet collect our reward.)

On the other hand, there's a chance the Spitzer story will rise to the top, now that the NY Times has the details on his hooker. The head-shaker factoid: She's not sure how she's going to pay her rent now that her boyfriend moved out after she found he'd fathered two children. That must've been an interesting conversation.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a father?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were a hooker?"

Quick! How many American soldiers have died in the war in Iraq? If you're like 72 percent of the American adult population, you don't know, according to a new Pew Research Center Survey.

That's the lowest awareness total since the war began and it also mirrors the declining amount of war coverage in the American media. Maybe it's the media's fault, but other elements of the survey are just as troubling and don't necessarily track with media coverage.

For example:

* Only 70% know which party is in control of the U.S. House of Representatives
* Only 56 percent know which state John McCain represents in the Senate.
* Only 31 percent knew the Dow was at 12,000 points (at the time of the survey)

Even worse, the questions were multiple choice, and only 52% of those surveyed got at least 6 of the 10 questions right.

I have confidence that News Cut readers can beat these numbers. So take the survey here. Then post your results.

Here's a freebie: As of tonight 3,966 soldiers have been killed in Iraq.