News Cut: May 2008 Archive

The magic of May Day

Posted at 8:53 AM on May 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

My colleague in MPR's information technology department, Maria Montello, tackles the subject of May Day in this delightful presentation. It sure beats tanks and troops in Red Square.

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An aversion to being second fiddle?

Posted at 11:56 AM on May 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

(From colleague Tim Nelson)

There's a lot of speculation this year about Gov. Tim Pawlenty's possible place on a Republican presidential ticket with U.S. Senator John McCain. Pawlenty is even being called to answer for the all-but-GOP-nominee's comments on the potential root cause of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.

For his part, Pawlenty politely demurs whenever asked about his political future. But if Pawlenty's state ride is any indication, he may not be ready to move into the Naval Observatory or any other secure, undisclosed location next January.

The SUV sports a trademarked, not to be used without written permission of Ricky Bobby Inc., license plate frame. It's straight from the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, starring Will Ferrell.

"If' you're not first, you're last," it says on the front front bumper of the official car of the state's chief executive. It's Bobby's signature line.

And as Ricky Bobby's best friend and teammate Carl Naugton, Jr., says, you can't have two number ones: "'Cause that would be 11."

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Immigration resurfaces

Posted at 3:29 PM on May 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

A march to protest U.S. immigration policy is underway in St. Paul, with marchers taking a route past the News Cut World Headquarters.

The point of the march may have been lost in translation, at least to some of the few people standing by. MPR's Nikki Tundel, pretty much for the fun of it, asked a couple of spectators "what's going on?"

"I think it's that thing the police do every year to get a raise," she quoted one person saying. Another thought it was a rally by teachers, she said.

Meanwhile, according to MPR's Tim Nelson, area police apparently used the march as practice for the Republican National Convention. He says he recognized several people in streetclothes as cops, including some videotaping the march. He says police from some suburban districts were also involved.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the governor put out a news release as the march started:

According to news reports, thousands of immigrants and activists are holding rallies and protests across the country today, including in Saint Paul, demanding immigration reform.

In January, Governor Pawlenty announced executive actions and legislative proposals to counter illegal immigration. Actions taken by the Governor included executive orders to enhance cooperation regarding immigration enforcement between state and federal officials and to require that state employees, contractors doing business with the state and recipients of state grants electronically verify employment eligibility.

The Governor also proposed legislative measures to prohibit city "sanctuary" ordinances that prevent police from inquiring about immigration status, strengthened human trafficking laws, increased penalties for identify theft, enhanced penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and establishing the crime of aggravated forgery regarding underlying documents used to obtain identity documents.

Nearly four months into the 2008 session, the DFL-controlled legislature has refused to even hold a hearing regarding the Governor's immigration reform proposals. The following is a statement from Governor Pawlenty regarding the failure of DFLers in the Minnesota legislature to consider proposals to combat illegal immigration.

"This week's revelation that police in Lakeville, Minnesota recently stopped a vehicle carrying 15 illegal immigrants who had been traveling for a week highlights the fact that illegal immigration is a real problem and it's here in our state. It's time for DFLers to admit that and address this real concern. At a minimum they should hold hearings to debate the common sense immigration reform measures I've proposed. It is inconceivable that anyone would oppose measures to combat human trafficking and fight identity theft. I'm hopeful these important issues can be considered before the end of this session."

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Can you live without a cellphone?

Posted at 5:33 PM on May 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)

Douglas Jessmer at Visual Editors just picked up a new mobile phone and realizes it's become an appendage:

The mobile phone is the perfect extension in a time of instant gratification and the 24-hour news cycle. You can "Reach Out And Touch Someone" anytime, and it sometimes feels like an electronic tether, especially since most have GPS capability now. No use running, because Big Brother can find you.

Scary thing is, the world comes to my phone. Every time I hear the phone chime with a new e-mail message, I realize just how vital that little thing is. How did it ever get that way? And how did we ever survive without cell phones?

If you've got a "I'm addicted to the cellphone/iPhone" story, please share it.

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Outrage delayed

Posted at 7:11 PM on May 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Maybe we should have rules about when the I-35W bridge collapse can be mentioned in any political context. The current system isn't working. Republicans mention the bridge, and Democrats are outraged. Likewise, Democrats mention the bridge and Republicans are outraged.

The obvious solution is: Don't mention the bridge. But perhaps that defeats the point.

Sen. John McCain is the one currently under fire for linking the bridge collapse to Congress' spending on pork.

But what he said on Wednesday isn't much different than what he said three days after the bridge collapsed. He said in Ankeny, Iowa then:

"I think, perhaps, you could make an argument that part of the responsibility lies with the Congress of the United States. Do you know what we do with your tax dollars every time you go and fill up your gas tank, and that money that flows to Washington as a result of that? We spend approximately 20 billion -b -- billion dollars of that money on pork barrel earmark projects.''

and Radio Iowa reported additional comments

"Maybe if we'd have done it right, maybe some of that money would have gone to inspect those bridges and other bridges around the country. Maybe, maybe the 200,000 people that cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it."

Then he said this in Pennsylvania on Wednesday:

"The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

The words are almost identical, and yet the reaction would suggest they were new. What's the real difference? McCain's campaign was written off as dead last August, and now he's the party's presumptive nominee.

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Immigration march: Police practice for RNC?

Posted at 7:54 PM on May 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

(From MPR's Tim Nelson)

RNC? Si se puede!

About 850 people marched up Cedar Street this afternoon to rally in support of immigrant and other rights.

We counted them. Really.

It was a little tougher, though, to keep track of the people that were keeping track of the marchers: the local gendarmerie looked like they taking the opportunity to hone their civic order keeping skills, as long as there was a march to secure.

It looked like there were about eight St. Paul officers on bikes working the crowd, and a goodly many more in marked squads making themselves "10-8," as the saying goes, in case their services might be called for.

There was also a fairly significant, um, discrete presence along the route of what was a raucous but otherwise peaceable march route.

These fellows, who said they were with the St. Paul Police Department, were running a camera out the window of this Ford Ranger, recording the May Day event for posterity.

A few of Bloomington's finest were parked in a Jeep behind nearby, availing themselves of the opportunity to get a firsthand preview of this summer's activities. There was even what looked like a rented Merit Chev van packed with St. Paul officers parked a down the street in what we can only assume was a low-profile reserve.

St. Paul police have long been a pretty amenable presence around demonstrations, but this might just be the first tangible evidence of their preparations for the coming Republican National Convention.

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On the other hand...

Posted at 10:12 AM on May 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)

Every now and again a news story comes along so filled with irony that you can spend half a day turning it around and around trying to make it black or white. Last year, for example, my favorite was the bill at the Capitol (eventually signed) was the one that mandates that American flags sold in Minnesota can only be made in the United States.

Today, it's this one:

The Tennessee parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq are attempting to open a $40 billion class-action lawsuit against Flagstaff T-shirt vendor Dan Frazier.
Frazier sells shirts emblazoned with the phrase "Bush Lied, They Died," along with the names of thousands of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Is it freedom of speech? And, if so, isn't that what soldiers are defending? On the other hand -- and these sorts of stories tend to be full of "on the other hands" -- should you profit on the deaths of others?

(H/T Politics in Minnesota)

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Bridge comments revisited

Posted at 10:55 AM on May 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

More musings on what it means to politicize the I-35W bridge collapse.

John McCain's comment in Pennsylvania:

"The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

Rep. Keith Ellison in the Associated Press story on McCain's remarks:

"The last thing we need is a misinformed presidential aspirant posturing at our expense."

Keith Ellison on August 3 -- two days after the bridge collapse:

"Well, I will say this. You know, life is about tradeoffs. Government is about tradeoffs. And you can have one thing or another. You can invest in infrastructure or you can pursue other government expenditures, which are not as productive as basic infrastructure investment."

Are they saying the same thing with different words? Infrastructure is crumbling because money is being spent elsewhere?

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The Week-in-Review Quiz

Posted at 4:12 PM on May 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)

I got so busy working on the Women of World War II stories over the last week (here, here, and here and thanks for asking!)that I neglected to put together a News Cut Quiz last week. Nobody noticed -- a blow to your education and my ego. But let's muster on. This week's quiz is full of great trivia from this week's news stories. Where else can you learn the temperature at which a seed of corn germinates. There. That's your only clue this week.

As always, report back here when you're done.

I am heading to New England for the next two weeks. I'll be occasionally posting something but in the meantime, if I hear correctly, MPR's Tim Nelson and, perhaps, Tom Weber will be your hosts. In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter.

And, what's that? You say you have a good angle for News Cut, or a person you think I just have to profile? Good. Tell me about it.

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Fast. Cheap. Right. Pick two.

Posted at 10:11 AM on May 5, 2008 by Tim Nelson (2 Comments)

How often, driving over a freeway bridge or under a railroad overpass, do you think, "Hey, I'm sure glad they finished that eight weeks early"?

That thought came to my mind when I head that that Flatiron Construction thinks it can finish the new Interstate 35W bridge by September, rather than well into winter. They're not making any guarantees, but there is a $200,000-a-day carrot at the end of the MnDot stick. (You can read the story here.)

It's hard to argue with the builder's alacrity, particularly if you've spent any time sitting on Minnesota 280 in Lauderdale.

Right?

But the construction is at the point at which some of the state's most recent bridge misadventures have occurred.

An apparent miscalculation by a scaffolding engineer led to the collapse of the Lake Street bridge one night in April 1990. They had to start over. Similarly, a design flaw is blamed for the hairline cracks that brought construction on the Wakota Bridge to a halt three years ago.

That project still isn't finished.

In fact, the only engineering feat that brings fame to mind for the speed of its completion was the transcontinental railroad, which was finished in 1869.

It's also remembered for the Enron-esque Credit Mobilier scandal and a smallpox epidemic from which we'd recoil in bio-terror today.

The project also involved some early, and apparently often fatal, experiments with nitroglycerin and a forced-labor work-ethic for some of the Chinese immigrants working on the project.

There is also the issue that the railroad and its construction helped wipe out Native American populations across the West. If you set those issues aside, the construction of the railroad was an amazing feat.

At any rate, the general rule of getting things done seems to be: Fast. Cheap. Right. Pick any two.

Flatiron wasn't the low bidder on the project, and there's speculation that taxpayers may have to put up as much as $20 million more to get the job done early.

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The "Talk"

Posted at 11:24 AM on May 5, 2008 by Tim Nelson (8 Comments)

I've spent a fair measure of my time recently painfully reliving my tween years: I've been covering the Legislature while it debates a statewide sex education mandate.

Unlike the subject, the legislative discussion gets a little, um, sterile.

Luckily, there's a DVD. You hear about it every now and then at the Capitol. Its formal title is "The Talk, An Intercourse on Coming of Age." It's a school video that's mentioned as a potential element of a sex-ed curriculum.

It's occasionally referred to by lawmakers as the "Captain Condom video."

It really isn't clear how many who talk about the video have actually seen it. The teenagers in the actual "Captain Condom" scene actually decide it's best to abstain from sex. Or pretty much from sex. But they take a rather awkwardly hilarious route to that conclusion.

"Kids are really engaged with it," says Catherine Conzet, development director at the Minneapolis-based Youth Performance Company, which produced the video. "It's something that teenagers won't roll their eyes at, like other videos... They're horrible, and they're usually written by adults. This one was predominantly written by teenagers."

It first ran in YPC's 2004-2005 season, and subsequently reappeared at the Fringe Festival, as did the other YPC smash hit: Goddess Menses and the Menstrual Show. Conzet said the YPC filmed "The Talk" for DVD because the demand for the production to tour was so high that they worried that the cast wouldn't get their school work done if they took the show on the road.

"We've sold the DVD in 28 states," Conzet says. "They're showing it in India and South America."

As a rule, we don't typically recommend sex education films here at Minnesota Public Radio News. But since Bob Collins is on vacation and I've got the run of the place, I thought I'd urge the gentle readers of News Cut to decide for themselves just what Minnesota's youth might actually be learning at school.

Click on the play button below to see the video. The clip runs about 5:20 and the second-best line is the last one.

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The Newspaper(s) of the Twin Cities

Posted at 12:21 PM on May 6, 2008 by Tim Nelson (5 Comments)

The Star Tribune has refuted reports out of New York that it is on the verge of bankruptcy, but clearly something is going on over there at 425 Portland.

It's probably a lot like what's going on wherever they're putting out a newspaper these days, according to Lauren Fine. She's a former Merrill Lynch media industry analyst - considered one of the country's best newspaper watchers. She's now teaching at Kent State University.

She doesn't have any direct knowledge of the situation in Minneapolis. But Fine doesn't think the Star Tribune's owners brought in the Blackstone Group in preparation for a bankruptcy.

Its sounds more like a sub-prime mortgage, as Fine explains it:

"My guess is that if there were covenants at any time that they could be coming dangerously close to breaking through them, and this would be the time ahead when you hit those problems, that you would look for alternatives. And alternatives could range from trying to get an infusion of equity. It could be renegotiating to a different type of instrument that maybe has no near term cash pay component, but maybe something that defers those payments to later. It could be something that takes into account new covenants and doesn't change the interest rate structure... I'm guessing, but I imagine that they're facing some severe pressure points right now."

She's not putting any odds on a workout. Fine ran through a list of other scenarios for the endgame for the Newspaper(s) of the Twin Cities. Here's her run-down, from likeliest to the longest shot:

● A joint operating agreement with the Media News-owned Pioneer Press that would combine back shop and production resources and leave the newsrooms separate. Whether they are "intact" would be another matter altogether. "If they are interested in a JOA, I doubt the Justice Department would have a problem with that," says Fine.

● An acquisition of the Star Tribune by MediaNews. It would be difficult for the bigger paper to buy a smaller competitor under the Newspaper Protection Act, but if the Strib does declare bankruptcy, it could help satisfy the NPA requirement that an acquired property be "failing." But Fine and other industry observers don't think Media News is in any condition to be borrowing for or spending money on any acquisitions either.

● The Hail Mary. The Capital Times in Madison, Wis., recently quit publishing a paper and went online only. It slashed costs, but doesn't allow them to monetize sheet after sheet of newsprint any more, whether anyone reads through the "Bargain Pet" classifieds or not. The online revenue today is only a fraction of the print revenue, and Fine doubts there's enough time for the two to converge in Minnesota.

● Stop the presses. Businesses close down all the time, some of them quite substantial. Bear Stearns started in 1923 and survived the Great Depression. But not the foreclosure meltdown. It had more than 15,000 employees when J.P. Morgan bought it at fire sale prices. "The option would also be to basically say, 'You know what? This isn't working," says Fine. "We're really sorry. You have another paper. It's a great paper. We made them a better paper by virtue of competition, but we're sorry, we can't afford this any more, we're shutting the doors. I doubt that would happen."

You can hear the whole 7 minute Megillah right here.

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The politics of hurricanes

Posted at 2:13 PM on May 6, 2008 by Tim Nelson

Relief groups are scrambling to get aid to Myanmar to help victims of last weekend's cyclone - the south Asian version of a hurricane.

But that's no comfort to Minnesota's fastest growing refugee community, ethnic Karen who fled Myanmar, which the Karen still refer to as Burma.

Eh Taw Dwe is among them. He's doing a lot of praying these days.

A translator for the St. Paul Ramsey County Department of Public Health, he fled Myanmar in 2002. He and his then-pregnant wife crawled under gunfire on the Thai border to escape oppression of the ethnic Karen at home.

They've still got family back home, but there's been no phone contact, no email, nothing to do but listen to the radio and watch television since the cyclone hit over the weekend.

The storm swept straight across the northern neck of the Karen homeland. And though his family lives inland, Dwe says about half the population of the nation's Bay of Bengal delta is ethnic Karen.

"I feel like I am one of them," says Dwe, who lives in St. Paul with his wife and three children. "I feel terribly sad for them."

Like many other Karen, Dwe joined the armed struggle against the military dictatorship in Myanmar. His people have struggled for their independence, or at least some measure of autonomy, for half a century.

It's sparked a sometimes brutal response in the nation's Karen state. The government began a military offensive against the insurgent Karen National Liberation Army two years ago.

Dwe himself had been arrested, beaten and nearly summarily executed before he fled his native country six years ago.

Now, he and other Karen in Minnesota fear that the political unrest will spell even further disaster for their friends and family back home. Like those among the Tamil diaspora after the tsunami struck Sri Lanka in 2004, Karen refugees fear their brethren will intentionally be left out of recovery from the natural disaster.

And they are brethren. Many, like Dwe, are among a significant Christan minority. Their families were brought to the church by American Baptist missionaries to southeast Asia nearly two centuries ago. It's part of the reason they've had to flee their homeland.

For many, though, there's no where to go. More than a half million Karen were though to have been driven from their homes by the armed struggle with the government. About 150,000 have fled to Thailand, swelling eight refugee camps on the northern border.

"We're really concerned," Dwe said. "We really want to have good management for this assistance to get directly to the people that are suffering, not to the Burmese military. We want to cooperate with the local government."

He said he expects the death toll to rise dramatically in coming days, nonetheless. Dwe says the estimates of 20,000 dead and 40,000 missing only account for the cities, not low lying rice-growing areas where many Karen grow rice.

Dwe also fears a lack of clean water and food, dysentery and malaria will kill many more in the wake of the cyclone.

The eventual death toll, he says, "will never, ever be counted."

Here's a 5-minute interview with him.

It's a bird. A plane. It's...Super Spike!

Posted at 8:28 AM on May 7, 2008 by Tim Nelson (14 Comments)

Goldman Sachs analysts now say they can foresee another $80 tacked onto the new $122 a barrel oil record. It's an extension of their "super spike" theory, the one that once predicted (SHOCKING!) oil at $105 a barrel.

Assume for argument's sake that that everyone keeps getting, proportionately, the same piece of oil's financial action that they're getting now. That would put gas at about $5.72 a gallon or more when oil hits the magic $200 mark.

We're talking $100 for a typical 17 gallon tank that was costing you just $34 as recently as the last time the White House was up for grabs.

At some point you might as well just get out and push. (That's actually why I quit driving the nitro-fueled funny car to work. I do miss the 93-second commute, but then again, it was hard to park.)

But is $5.72-per-gallon gas the straw that's going to break the Camaro's back?

Probably not.

If you're driving 40 miles each way every workday, $200-a-barrel gas is going to cost you maybe an additional $100 a month from what you're paying now.

That's a lot, but what's the alternative? Selling your house and moving closer to work? You'd have to move halfway closer to the job and pay a bargain-basement $200,000 mortgage for five years to recoup just the bank fees with your gas savings.

And that's saying nothing of the bath you took on the real estate, the stuff you broke during the move or what you're actually saving when gas drops back to a relatively reasonable $5 per gallon.

How about selling your car and getting something more reasonable? If you're getting 20 miles a gallon now, you'd have to trade in for a 32 mpg model to match today's per-mile fuel cost.

You know what vehicle gets 32 mpg, according to Car and Driver magazine?

The Smart Car.

Yeah, that little French two-seat number that looks like the egg that Robin Williams popped out of in the opening credits of Mork and Mindy. But with wheels.

The Smart Car is four feet shorter than a Volkswagen Beetle. AND it requires high buck 91-octane gas, to boot. You aren't trading the Corolla in for that thing, let alone the Volvo XC70 or the Ford F150 XLT.

Here's what the News Cut Strategic Global Petroleum Index Assessment™ says: Whatever Goldman Sachs says oil is going to cost, you're gonna pay it.

Shazbat!

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File this under irony -- on April 15th

Posted at 2:08 PM on May 7, 2008 by Tim Nelson (4 Comments)

It turns out that the complexity of Al Franken's income taxes isn't a recent phenomenon. They date back to the Al Franken Decade.

Comedically speaking, anyway.

Hearken back to April 5, 1980, and Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. It dates from the end of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players era, just five episodes from the final breakup of the original cast. The newsbreak was one of the classics, with Jane Curtin and Bill Murray at the anchor desk.

And, um, Al Franken as the "social sciences editor," asking that prescient question: "Well, now that it's tax time, I know a lot of you are thinking, what can you do to help me, Al Franken, do my taxes?"

Here's how Franken explained the situation 18 years ago (with a tip of the News Cut chapeau to colleague Elizabeth Stawicki, who pointed us to the site):

Okay, now I'm gonna tell you three of the ways that I legally avoid paying my fair share of taxes. I'm not going to tell you everything - after all, this is something I pay my big-time accountant for, whose services are, by the way, tax-deductible.

Now, first - the Al Franken Corporation. You see, I make only $300 a week, paid to me by Al Franken the Corporation. Now, the rest of the money taken in by the Al Franken Corporation goes to paying many of the expenses of its employee - me, Al Franken. Now, of course, the more business expenses that Al Franken, me and Al Franken, the corporation can document, the less taxes I have to pay.

He urged the audience to send in their receipts for any and everything. Books, medicine, food, whatever, noting that, as a comedian, anything could be part of his act and a business expense. "My accountant can do something with it. Believe me."

Here's what looks to be a reasonable transcript of the segment. The Internet Movie Database and several other sites indicate that there was indeed a Franken tax sketch on that episode, but no one else seems to have the actual video.

As always, any contributions would be warmly welcomed here at News Cut Headquarters.

Anyway, consider this today's reminder that there's a very fine line between tragedy and comedy.

Who knew it'd turn out to be a U.S. Senate race?

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A few other self-evident truths

Posted at 4:11 PM on May 7, 2008 by Tim Nelson (2 Comments)

One of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence is on display at the Minnesota History Center. On Tuesday the museum opened a display of the document printed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

It's here in Minnesota to help celebrate the state's sesquicentennial, to be marked this Sunday.

But America got a new beginning, too, just downstairs from the Declaration of Independence this morning. A 129 people from 40 different countries stood in the 3M Auditorium and swore their allegiance to the United States.

They were drawn by love; they fled war, and everything in between.

"In this country, you can become what you want to become if you wish. That's an incredible opportunity here," said Adasanya Adelaja, of Brooklyn Park. Originally from Nigeria, he wore his leather U.S. Army jacket to the ceremony: like several others among the newly minted citizens, Adelaja is already an American soldier.

That's him at left. He quickly made friends of two other African natives at the ceremony -- Rahel Desta, of Bloomington, (at center), and William Doup, of St. Cloud (right). She's originally from Ethiopia. He's from Sudan. They all followed siblings or parents to America.

"I'm proud to be a citizen of this country, of the greatest nation in the world," Adelaja said, showing off his citizenship certificate.

A couple rows away, Kamran , a health care manager from Eden Prairie, was sitting alone, the sole immigrant to stand when the USCIS adjudications officer read "Iran" from the roll of countries from which today's immigrants had come. (He asked that his last name not be used.)

He fled his native country more than 20 years ago. "His parents sent him away," his wife, Britt said. "They didn't want him in the Iran-Iraq war." He's never gone back.

Kamran came instead to the University of Minnesota and majored in physics. "The alternative was to go fight in the war," he said. "The way to stay out of that was to go to university, just graduate from high school and go to college, but the colleges were closed for a year or two at a time. Really, the only opportunity was to continue your education. The United States offered me that opportunity. Here I am."

Kamran, his wife and daughters Catharina and Julia (holding her hand over her face with firm 4-year-old defiance) and son Nicky were all in St. Paul for the occasion, and for cookies and lemonade at a reception in the upstairs rotunda.

It may be true, as the Declaration of Independence's author Thomas Jefferson said, that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

But the toil of college students, the yearning of mothers for their sons and daughters, a father's pride and even the heartache of leaving behind family and home - they all help, too, if Wednesday's crowd at the History Center was any indication.

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Still going for broke

Posted at 11:37 AM on May 8, 2008 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)

Ah, spring. The snow melts. The robins sing.

St. Paul is going broke.

This is actually the first year in many that I haven't watched from the 3rd floor windows at City Hall as the trees leaf out on Kellogg Boulevard. But I took at least some comfort this week, as both papers reported multi-million dollar budget deficit projections in St. Paul.

Some things do never change.

The number goes up and down, but it's practically as reliable as a spring ice out. I went back and looked, out of curiosity, at what had been reported for the last 10 years.

Here's the rundown of projected "next year" deficits, as reported in April and May of the listed year.

2008: $13.1 million
2007: $16 million
2006: $16.5 million
2005: $16 million
2004: $17 million
2003: $33 million
2002: $6 million
2001: ($10 million)
2000: $7.3 million
1999: $7 million

There was no mention of a deficit in the spring of 2001 (heady days, indeed!), although I'll credit Norm Coleman for that year trying, unsuccessfully, to give out a $10 million tax rebate. All told, it adds up to about $106 million in total projected deficits.

Drop the rebate outlier and the conflagration of 2003 and its about $12.3 million, on average per year.

Now, go out and enjoy the day.

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Major League Bummer?

Posted at 1:41 PM on May 8, 2008 by Tim Nelson (2 Comments)

Before you get all excited about Carlos Gomez's hitting for a cycle at U.S. Cellular last night, (and prompting pitcher Mark Buehrle to take a bat to a dugout space heater, no doubt at least tepidly responsible for the White Sox's 13-1 shellacking) check out the new Fox Sports ranking.

It comes our way from Cubs fan and MPR staffer Tom Weber.

The upshot: our Minnesota Twins rank 7th in the bottom 10 rankings of all sports franchises.

At least they still beat the AL doormats on this list, the Tampa Bay Rays (they seem determined to drop the 'devil' in their name) and the now (Mike) Sweeneyless Kansas City Royals.

Best to take it as some consolation for the bottom-of-the-9th pinch Sweeney hit that broke up Scott Baker's no-hitter last September. Arrrgh.

Gomez, by the way, hit what I assume to be an extremely rare REVERSE "natural cycle" last night. There have only been a dozen times in recorded major league history that a single player hit a single, double, triple and homer in order in the same game.

(I actually got to see one hit by the St. Louis Cardinals John Mabry at Coors Field in Denver in 1996. It was spectacular, even if the Cardinals lost.)

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And now, a prescription from our sponsor...

Posted at 5:02 AM on May 9, 2008 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)

Congress opened hearings yesterday on direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals, lead by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan.

Television commercials for Lipitor featuring Robert Jarvik were the immediate cause of the uproar. Pfizer in February pulled the ads for the cholesterol drug starring the creator of the artificial heart (never mind the puzzling logic of that endorsement) over objections to featuring an actual medical professional's endorsement.

But there's more to it than the ethical issue here. Think of the money.

Direct-to-consumer drug ad spending has grown from about $1 billion 10 years ago to about $5 billion now, according to the Wall Street Journal. About half of that goes to television.

Do the math: maybe 3 percent of the television advertising industry's $80 billion revenue comes from drug companies. That means the likes of Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis are effectively paying for something like two minutes of every hour of television.

(It seems like even more than that if you watch cable for any amount of time.)

Drug manufacturers have long argued that marketing costs aren't unduly inflating the cost of medicine, at least not above the rise in the Consumer Price Index.

But all that money's not coming out of thin air, either. Whatever you think of the change in the price of medicine, there's only one real place to get billions to spend on drug marketing: from the people that take the pills. Or injections. Or whatever.

Granted, $2.5 billion in advertising expenditures would be a drop in the bucket of the $2.3 trillion Americans spent on health care last year. But if you're taking name-brand Lipitor, for instance, at $100 a month or so, it still means you're feeding more than a buck a year to your television.

And if that's not the only drug you're taking, or not even the most expensive drug you're taking, you (or you and your insurance company's clients) might be paying $2, $3, maybe even more, in annual medical costs to keep the MHz flowing into your television receiver. (And, to a much lesser extent, the magazine coming to your mailbox or the radio waves to your car antenna.)

I'm not going to argue about the truthfulness of the ads, or the medical or legal implications of direct to consumer drug marketing. And the media have an honorable place in promulgating medical information.

But given all that we ask of our health care system and the many ways it falls short, doesn't it seem just a little bit absurd to ask it, too, to help bankroll the likes of Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice and reruns of the Golden Girls?

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Wagons Ho!

Posted at 1:53 PM on May 9, 2008 by Tim Nelson (2 Comments)

Minnesota celebrates 150 years of statehood this weekend. Raise a toast to Pig's Eye Perrant, Joe Rolette and the rest of the state's scoundrels: the one-eyed barkeepers, bootleggers and ne'er-do-wells won't get celebrated any other way.

Even better yet, turn out for the Sesquicentennial Wagon Train and see what transportation emitted before greenhouse gasses. There's a whole trail of it stretching back to Cannon Falls this week.

I caught up with the wagons as they were breaking camp in Hastings this morning. Wagon master Jon Olson was leading a string of 20 wagons out of the park down by the Mississippi. It's a bit of a motley fleet: there are buggies and grain haulers and rubber-tired hay wagons in the caravan. Some are restored antiques, some came right out of a welding shop.

Rick Schmidt, a retired carpenter from Lakeville, built his double-box grain wagon out of ash from scratch. That's him at right. "I thought it would be a hoot," he said of the project. His wife didn't initially see the charm, he admits. "But now she thinks its pretty nice."

The most interesting thing, though, is that this may very well be the last time in history you get to see an actual wagon train go through Minneapolis and St. Paul proper. They're headed to Inver Grove Heights this afternoon and they're supposed to be at Fort Snelling by lunch time tomorrow.

The crew likes visitors: they had 100 people in Hastings for a chuckwagon meal and some dance music.

From Fort Snelling on Sunday, the wagons will start up 54th Street, Minnehaha Drive, Godfrey and 46th Street in Minneapolis about 11 a.m. They'll hit St. Paul about noon and go up Ford Parkway, Cleveland and then down Summit Avenue to the Capitol in the afternoon. The gawking will be good, if Hastings was any indication this morning.

Here's the turn-by-turn schedule for Saturday and for Sunday.

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This blog is child labor-free

Posted at 9:05 AM on May 12, 2008 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)

A study in the Wall Street Journal today says "corporate responsibility" is good business.

To a point.

A new study by a pair of Canadian scholars at the University of Western Ontario found that consumers were willing to pay a hefty premium for "ethically produced" coffee and T-shirts in a carefully controlled test.

The study was meant to measure the economic effect of products from companies with "progressive" corporate policies.

Study subjects were informed of corporate practices like encouraging diversity and a commitment to customer safety; environmentally friendly production and respect for human rights.

The study found consumers were willing to pay a 64 percent premium for "good" coffee, above the price for menace-to-society coffee.

But the difference between products isn't usually that clear.

The study found that "good" coffee fetched only a 17 percent premium over coffee that the consumers knew nothing about.

And then things get really interesting.

The price premium for "good" T-shirts, labeled as 100 percent organic cotton, was found to be only 6 percent above the price for a shirt without any distinction. But the premium price difference between a 100 percent organic shirt and a 25 percent organic shirt is a measly 2 percent.

The bottom line: it pays to be good, but it looks like you only have to be a little good to be paid.

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The other pledge week

Posted at 11:57 AM on May 12, 2008 by Tim Nelson (1 Comments)

The kids up at the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High are pledging, too - to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands.

But not for which Bishop Edens stands. He's sitting down.

Despite getting an ISS, better known as an "in school suspension" on Friday, the 14-year-old decided this weekend he would NOT stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, as district policy requires. That's what his mom, Heather Page, said on the phone this morning.

I called up there to see what had happened today - the his first day back since running afoul school policy.

Trouble started Thursday, when three students were reprimanded for sitting through the Pledge, although it didn't seem a matter of principle, if the various accounts of the matter are true. Edens nonetheless decided to make a point out of the matter on Friday and then got put in the penalty box. His mom decided to bring him home.

"I understand everyone is going to have their own opinion about it," said Page today. "If it's about supporting your country, there are a lot of other ways to support it, to support our troops. You can write them a letter. You can send them a package. But I don't think standing or sitting for the pledge is supporting them."

She didn't know how her son handled the situation today, although she admits to some apprehension about what the fallout from this will be in town. But since the school hadn't called, she assumed some accommodation had been reached. "I'm sure I'll hear about it when he gets home," she said.

I called Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton junior high principal Colleen Houglum, but she's out of the office. She told the Associated Press last week that the district policy may have to change.

That remains to be seen: here's the state law on the matter, as enacted in 2003:

Subd. 3. Pledge of Allegiance.

(a) All public and charter school students shall recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America one or more times each week.

The recitation shall be conducted:

(1) by each individual classroom teacher or the teacher's surrogate; or

(2) over a school intercom system by a person designated by the school principal or other person having administrative control over the school.

A local school board or a charter school board of directors may annually, by majority vote, waive this requirement.

(b) Any student or teacher may decline to participate in recitation of the pledge.

(c) A school district or charter school that has a student handbook or school policy guidemust include a statement that anyone who does not wish to participate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance for any personal reasons may elect not to do so and that students must respect another person's right to make that choice.

(d) A local school board or a charter school board of directors that waives the requirement to recite the Pledge of Allegiance under paragraph (a) may adopt a district or school policy regarding the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Our man in Shanghai

Posted at 10:41 PM on May 12, 2008 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)

I received an email today from Adam Minter, the freelance journalist from St. Louis Park who's been working in Shanghai for the last five years or so. I reached him via Skype earlier tonight.

He said he was walking down the street, a thousand miles from the epicenter of the earthquake in China, when he felt the ground rumble. Workers started pouring out of the office towers in downtown Shanghai, fearing for their safety in the swaying buildings.

Thousands are feared dead already, but Minter said any number of factors are keeping the situation fogged in calamity.

An excerpt from our interview:

"One thing to keep in mind is that ordinarily in this kind of a disaster, you'll have the information come out quite slowly. But because of where this disaster occurred in Sichuan province, it will come out even more slowly than normal. And there's two reasons for this.

For one, it's a very remote area. The roads are not good. I have been out there and it takes a very long time to get around. And the other thing is that the main area where this occurred... is a Tibetan area with some autonomy. And these areas, dating back to the Tibetan riots a month ago, have been off limits to foreign media. And they probably won't be able to get in.

The Chinese media, for its part, is very tightly controlled. The Chinese have very strict rules about about how the Chinese media can report natural disasters."

Minter also said outpourings of aid and sympathy don't really happen in China.

"In the U.S., of course, you would have Red Cross 800 numbers on television right away. That doesn't happen here. China lacks the U.S.'s philanthropic tradition, partly because of the nature of the government here.

And it's always been assumed -- in a situation like this, its kind of assumed that it's the responsibility of the government above all else to aid the situation. So you're not going to see a huge, you're not going to see people gathering blankets and tents together and looking to give money.

That said, this morning, just from my blog I was going to post a link to the Chinese Red Cross and you can't access it. I don't know if that means they're down or there's so much traffic flowing into it."

You can hear a five minute interview with Minter here (It's from a Skype call, so it's got a little sound distortion. My apologies.)

Minter has written for the Rake magazine and other local outlets, as well as National Geographic. You can see Minter's blog at http://shanghaiscrap.com/.

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Potty break

Posted at 10:55 PM on May 13, 2008 by Tim Nelson

There's only a few days left of the legislature, and the discussion got right down to the toilet on Tuesday.

Literally.

An hour and a half of debate on the bill preventing Minnesota from complying with Real ID was followed by 20 minutes of Senate debate on Minnesota's plumbing code - or rather, urinals and sewer gas.

Republican Claire Robling of Jordan offered an amendment to a plumbing regulation bill, authorizing the state's plumbing regulators to legalize "air admittance valves," a substitute for the stack pipe that vents sewer gas out through a building's roof.

Advocates contend it's a cheaper and easier alternative to traditional plumbing.

The amendment got the flush on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon, despite support for a companion provision that would legalize another plumbing innovation - the waterless urinal.

Those are currently illegal in Minnesota, for now the only state in the country that prohibits flushless urinals. The law currently says they gotta have a water supply, like the model at right, which may not be long for its historic place in the Capitol basement.

"It's all about the plumbing unions," Robling said in an interview after her amendment failed. She said the two fixtures would save labor, or at least installing venting and water lines, for new construction and repairs.

DFLers in both houses have decided to make waterless urinals legal, citing the potential environmental benefits. The fixtures are thought to have the potential to save countless gallons of fresh water annually.

But the air admittance valves? Not so much.

Senate DFLers said Minnesota's sewer gases should keep going through the roof.

Senator Sandy Pappas, of St. Paul, said the valves aren't reliable enough to protect Minnesotans from a whole menagerie of bad bugs, like salmonella and the like.

"They also were a problem after Hurricane Katrina," Pappas told her colleagues. "because these mechanical devices failed, allowing sewer gases into living quarters. These devices have not been thoroughly vetted, thoroughly tested. There's a reason they're prohibited by state law."

Maybe there's only so much plumbing innovation Minnesota can handle at once.

At the Capitol: Put a fork in it

Posted at 12:24 PM on May 14, 2008 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)

It's statehood week here in Minnesota, and folks are "celebrating" it pretty much any way you can imagine: there's fireworks, band concerts, a wagon train and even several protests.

State Rep. Connie Ruth? She's going to eat the Capitol.

Well, not the whole thing. And not the granite version, either. The Owatonna Republican recently commissioned a mammoth three-dimensional replica cake of Minnesota's statehouse. That one went to a Young Life cake auction.

A couple of bakers from Waseca are right now at work on another one. They're bringing the white-chocolate-filled reproduction of the Cass Gilbert classic to St. Paul tomorrow to celebrate Minnesota's sesquicentennial. "It'll be in the retiring room," Ruth said of the creation. "And we're going to eat it."

It's a new culinary venture for baker Pederag Vuleta and his wife, Lina. He's from Bosnia and she's a native Croatian. They came to the U.S. about 10 years ago and started their State Street Bistro in Waseca in 2004. They have a catering and cake business, as well. You can see other examples of their work at bistrocakes.com.

"We've made a lot of wedding cakes. A lot of birthday cakes," said Pederag, taking a break from the mammoth baking and frosting job ahead of tomorrow's event. (He doesn't know exactly how much of what goes into a 3-foot replica of the Capitol, only that it takes several grown men to pick it up.)

"Connie Ruth asked me to make a cake for the Capitol," he said. "I wasn't quite sure what to do. I thought maybe a cake with a picture of the Capitol on the front. But then I decided no, I would do the real thing."

It's even got painted gold quadriga and the U.S. and Minnesota state flags waving from the roof.

The cake is going on display in front of the state House of Representatives chambers at 11:30 tomorrow morning. Then it's going behind closed doors for a lunchtime session with lawmakers.

"You wouldn't believe it," Ruth says. "I mean it's... it's the Capitol!"

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The 8th grade "menace"

Posted at 11:13 PM on May 14, 2008 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)

Bishop Edens is standing up for the Pledge of Allegiance now, his mom, Heather Page, told me on the phone the other day.

After getting crosswise with the principal at the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton junior high for not standing up during the regular recitation, he got sent home last Friday for violating school policy.

Bishop and school policy are apparently back in alignment, advocates of his Constitutional rights notwithstanding.

I've been wondering what had convinced him.

Tales of the shivering patriots that battled the British at Valley Forge?

Perhaps something like the steely resolve of National Guard tankers like my late grandfather: his three sons were about Bishop's age when he was dispatched from Aitkin, Minn., to fight the Chinese Army in North Korea.

Bishop's turning point might even have been a moment of mutual reflection with his mother about the meaning of liberty.

Maybe.

But what his mom told me about was a "particularly upsetting card" that "someone" had sent him at school, and that the school delivered to Bishop.

It was apparently one of many.

"I never thought that people would be so cruel," said Page in an email later, asking to put the matter to rest. "Some of the comments and letters that we have received have been derogatory and extremely mean. I can not be assured at some point that my son won't be the target of a worse act."

She didn't want me to talk to Bishop and she didn't want to elaborate any more on the matter.

I would venture to guess this, though: that the reaction of Bishop's classmates was probably as indifferent to his patriotism as that of any other junior high kids.

If they are anything like the teenagers I've known or been, the discussion about the matter went like it always does - with a detailed and whispered analysis of the relative dorkdom of anyone who publicly expresses any heartfelt sentiment, be it patriotic, rebellious, romantic or in any other way authentically human.

I doubt, though, that many in the junior high student body bothered to address an envelope or rustle up a stamp to further that end.

That's usually grown-up work.

Which means that the "teachable moment" for Bishop Edens unfortunately may have gone something like this: if you REALLY love this country and REALLY respect its flag, a fitting example of our nation's lofty goals might be set by dispatching some hate mail to an 8th grader and his mom.

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The Body is coming back

Posted at 10:25 AM on May 15, 2008 by Tim Nelson (7 Comments)

Last update: Get a question in to former Gov. Ventura over at Gather.com. Click here.

You can listen to the program here.

UPDATE (12:51): Signings of book "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me" at the Mall of America tongiht and Barnes and Noble in Maple Grove tomorrow.

UPDATE (12:50): Ventura on damage to his official portrait. "It's a shame that vandalism like that can happen. But I don't want the Capitol to become like East Berlin."

UPDATE (12:49): Eichten: Do you miss public life? Ventura: "I enjoy sniping. I enjoy sitting out here and causing trouble and then going back to Mexico when I'm done."

UPDATE (12:47): Ventura: Somebody bugged my phone and home as governor. "I was an independent, and somebody wanted to know what I was doing. All I know is that when I got out office and the phone company guys went into the basement of my private house, they said, 'We've never seen anything like this before.'"

UPDATE (12:44): Will Dean Barkley run for U.S. Senate? Ventura: "We'll talk... one of us will decide to run."

UPDATE (12:42): Ventura on global warming: " You have a problem in this country between religion and science. Religious people don't always believe science... I'm a believer in global warming, because I have seen it."

UPDATE (12:40): Eichten: You've been down in Mexico a lot, what's you're thinking on NAFTA? Ventura: "I'm not frightened of the brown-skinned people, and live among them... The problems don't lie with them... If you're going to stop illegal aliens, you have to stop them with the people that hire them, not put fences at the border."

UPDATE (12:38): For someone who is as "anti-gay as our president," asks Ventura, "what looks more gay than when he comes out of a meeting with a bunch of Saudis holding hands...Looks pretty gay to me... I say that tongue in cheek."

UPDATE (12:36): Ventura questions the sequence of the collapse of buildings in Manhattan during the 2001 terror attacks. "All I'm saying is that I'm asking questions, and I have a right to ask them... You get good government when you question government."

UPDATE (12:34): Draft should be implemented as soon as Congress approves a war declaration. "We need to feel pain at war," Ventura says. Suggests members of Congress should volunteer a family member to fight.

UPDATE (12:33): Question from David. "I'm one of those voters who voted for Gov. Ventura." Some research says two parties aren't the best for democracy. What would governor do in Senate to open up two party system? "One thing I would love to do is abolish the income tax... Mike Huckabee is for the national sales tax. I agree with that. One's wealth is not defined by what you make. It's defined by what you spend."

UPDATE (12:28): Eichten: Did your entertainment career boost your political prospects? Ventura: I don't think so. The timing was right then, just like it is today.

UPDATE (12:27): Jenzie (sp?) with a question:" I couldn't agree more with you that we need more third party politics." What did you learn at Harvard about making them more viable? Ventura: Media is at fault. "It's in bed with the two party system. Clearly you see that coming out of this White House... You had the government paying off reporters."

UPDATE: (12:24): Jim with an online question: any regrets? Ventura says no, he doesn't believe in reincarnation and feels he's only got one chance to live. His legacies? School tax changes. Light rail: "I look like a genius today."

UPDATE (12:20): Rick from Randall with two questions: "It's interesting that you stonewalled the media, and now you have a book to hawk and a possible race for the Senate, and now you're out talking. Why? Does the cigarette, marijuana butts found in the governor's mansion have anything to do with why you didn't run?"

Ventura on marijuana: "That is a lie." On media: "I turned down the Star Tribune for an interview. I don't talk to any of the local television stations because they attacked my son. The only media I am doing is Minnesota Public Radio and public television."

UPDATE: (12:19): Ventura says he rolled out a transportation plan, "Moving Minnesota" in 1999, and no one is paying any attention to it in the wake of the 35W bridge collapse.

UPDATE (12:18) Ventura on a presidential run: "If I could get ballot access in all 50 states, I'd think about it."

UPDATE (12:16): Some quick jabs already: Franken is a "carpet bagger" and Norm Coleman is a "chicken hawk." Ventura says even as a pro wrestler he knew he'd have to pay income taxes in multiple states. "What a message we in Minnesota could send again, if we elected a senator... that could truly vote his conscience and not be beholden to these two parties."

UPDATE: (12:11): Ventura on a U.S. Senate race: "I'm thinking about it... I have until July to decide, and I may run on a new platform called ideas."

UPDATE (12:09):Ventura: "I'm still a citizen of Minnesota, and have been all my life. I don't think Al Franken can say that... I just choose to live in the winter down in Mexico, because like all native Minnesotans, I find after 30 years, it's hard to take."

UPDATE (12:02): Ventura's walked in and sat down in the studio with Gary Eichten. Looks like we're good to go.

UPDATE (11:59): The folks at Gather.com say they're going to host a Q&A with Ventura today. You can participate here.

UPDATE (11:48): Gov. Ventura is looking tanned, rested and ready to go in the MPR green room. (He declined a photo, though. "I'll be changing my appearance by next week anyway," he told me when I asked. "It won't do you any good.")

First post (10:25 AM) Former Governor Jesse Ventura is today's scheduled guest on the noon hour of Midday.

Fans (and non-fans, too) may recall his possibly most famous radio moment on June 18, 2002, when he broke the news to Gary Eichten and MPR listeners that he wasn't running for a second term.

Or, rather "Its time to go back to the private sector," as Ventura put it.

With his former opponent, Norm Coleman, running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, there's new attention to the former governor and what his plans might be. I'll be live-blogging the appearance here at MPR HQ.

Click back any time.

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Chinese students at the U are collecting quake aid

Posted at 9:46 PM on May 15, 2008 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)

There may be nowhere in Minnesota that the aftershocks of the earthquake in China are more keenly felt than at the University of Minnesota.

There are more than 900 students from China registered at the U, and scores of scholars at work on campus. Many have family with them.

Thursday and today, a few of them have set up a table at Coffman Memorial Union hoping to raise awareness and some help for victims of the disaster in southwestern China, according to the Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars. It's the largest international student association at the U.

Lingtian Kong is helping organize the effort. He's from China's east coast, but says the concern for victims of the quake spans all of China, and stretches all the way to Minneapolis.

"One of our scholars is leading a medical team to the earthquake area, to help care for the victims," Lingtian said, when I talked to him about the relief efforts. He said some of what the FACSS raises may go to that effort. He also said the Chinese consolate in New York City is also accepting contributions on behalf of the quake victims.

The Friendship Association passed out flyers and took donations at Coffman. He said passersby chipped in nearly $3,000 on Thursday alone. "The response has been very good," Liantian said. "Many people have expressed their sympathy."

If you're not on campus, he suggested making a donation to the U.S., Canadian or Chinese Red Cross.

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Is a new China emerging from the rubble?

Posted at 1:12 PM on May 16, 2008 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)

There's change in the air in China in the wake of this week's disastrous earthquake in the Sichuan province.

That's what freelance journalist and Minnesota native Adam Minter said this morning.

I called him back to check in on relief efforts in the wake of this week's earthquake, and he says he's been surprised by the response, even where he lives in Shanghai.

"There are bloodmobiles on the streets and lines going in to them," Minter said.

The Xinhau news agency reports $200 million has poured into the Chinese Red Cross in the last four days.

But the public is taking up the cause, as well. There are clear plastic donation boxes on store counters and even donation kiosks on the street with the iconic photo of a student holding an IV bag above a trapped classmate. People are making millions of "microdonations" through their mobile phones and online chat accounts.

"It's an amazing and remarkable moment in China. If you look at how China has handled disasters in the past, it's a tremendous shift. In the U.S. media, you hear a lot of talk about the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. That was about three hours east of Beijing, by car. That killed 250,000 people, but the government covered it up for weeks and weeks. It was only years later that word really got out in China about what had happened."

By contrast, the disaster is consuming Chinese television, newspapers and the internet now, Minter said. Prime minister Wen Jiabao is shown on TV shouting to trapped victims in collapsed school that "Grandpa Wen" is going to help them. It's a stark contrast to previous propaganda, although critics say the response to the disaster may yet be spun into a "PR coup."

Minter stopped short of calling it an "anti-Tiananmen Square moment," in contrast to the violence and secrecy of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in the nation's capitol. But there may be no going back to those days, either.

Still, there are other shoes left to fall, Minter said, after the survivors are pulled from the rubble and the dead buried.

"The concern, and there's starting to be a little bit of an undercurrent on the Chinese blogs, is 'What's going to happen with all these refugees out there?" You have millions of people. I mean the estimates are enormous. You have 20 million people without homes and that's a very volatile situation. You think about what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and that's a very small disaster by comparison to what's happened here, and you still had, in New Orleans, unrest. The potential for unrest out in Sichuan. And if that unrest does start to happen out there, you will see the door close very quickly and very hard."

Adam Minter writes has written for the Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal and National Geographic, among other outlets. He's originally from St. Louis Park.

Visit Adam's Shanghai Scrap blog here.

You can hear an edited, 8-minute interview with Adam here. I fiddled around with my Skype settings and seem to have gotten much better audio from him this time.

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Junked junk

Posted at 9:59 AM on May 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)

You can't tell from this picture from MnDOT, but there's an overturned semi with junked cars at the onramp to I-94 from Highway 52 Northbound, creating a backup on I-94 westbound in St. Paul. The backup extends at least back to Mounds Blvd. (above) . Guess I'll have to amble over and take a picture of it.

So does the trucking company make a claim for damage when its only load is junked cars?

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The Lynx return

Posted at 11:20 AM on May 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Jayne Solinger, an assistant producer of MPR's Morning Edition and avid WNBA fan, is about the only person I can discuss the Minnesota Lynx with. There's a bit of a bounce in Jayne's step today as the Lynx won -- in fairly dominating fashion -- their opening game of the season. Have the Lynx ever been 1-0 before? We can't recall, but then again we can barely recall a time when any basketball team in Minnesota was worth being interested in.

We were particularly impressed with the Star Tribune's photograph today, which showed the "new" Lynx, personified by Candice Wiggins, meeting the "old" Lynx -- embodied by former team member Kate Smith, who is shown playing the poor kind of defense that can only be worse if the police had forced her to play while handcuffed.

We think the Lynx could take the Wolves.

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Health care's new direction?

Posted at 11:38 AM on May 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

(This post updated at 1:48 p.m.)

HealthPartners has unveiled a new Web site for its members, which includes same-day test results, and prescriptions online. In her online presentation, Mary Brainerd, the CEO, said "We want the experience to memorable, unique, and fun." But, of course, there's nothing fun, usually, about waiting -- or often, getting -- test results, so HealthPartners has created a new mascot, Petey P. Cup.

HealthPartners says if they created a marketing plan that looks and sounds like its competitors, people won't be able to tell one healthcare provider from another. That, apparently is where Petey comes in -- and Pokey, the needle. They've created a Web site for the pair.

The YouTube video also features the slogan, "go with the flow."

Petey the Peecup also has a Facebook page with 83 "friends." Think about that: A person dressing up as a pee cup, has people who follow him...it...whatever. Can't wait for the Twitter feed.

I'm trying to track down the person who came up with the idea. That must've been some interesting meeting.

Health care organizations tend to be pretty conservative. So how does the concept of a pee cup mascot make it through? Meet Kevin Palattao, HealthPartners' vice president of patient care systems. He was involved in the meetings in which the idea surfaced.

"We had this really creative group that was working on this, we had a bunch of Gen X'ers in the room working on the project and one of the things we set out as a goal in the beginning is we wanted to break the healthcare mold of relatively same healthcare advertising that you see all over the place," he said. "The more we thought about this, the more this thing grew legs and enough of our leaders thought this was a good idea. We're trying to make this so memorable that it will inspire people to use our online services."

Mission accomplished, but didn't the idea of a pee cup mascot make people a little nervous?

"We definitely heard that and that's one of the things we were trying to be sensitive to. We didn't want anyone to perceive this as a denigration to the industry or the profession. At the end of the day we felt it was so important to get this message out there that it was worth the risk," he said.

"The notion of pee cup, we had already overcome that in a 'spectacular' (large visuals of healthcare icons that the advertising firm had already produced), so getting to a mascot was not too far."

The idea came from Greg Klugherz, vice president finance, planning and improvement for the HealthPartners Medical Group. The person who initially played Petey also played Santa Claus at a couple of HealthPartners functions.

What's coming after Pokey? Pearly White, a giant tooth to promote the dental group. The possibilities are endless, and perhaps a tad frightening.

(H/T: MinnPost)

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Tax cap to cause tax increases?

Posted at 12:52 PM on May 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Now that the Legislature and governor have provided property tax relief by capping property tax increases at 3.9 percent, what can some homeowners look forward to? Higher property taxes.

"We don't need an artificial limit. I don't know how they came up with it, " Woodbury Mayor Bill Hargis told me this afternoon. Hargis, a CPA who knows a little something about managing money, says the deal reached over the weekend at the Capitol was "partisan politics."

"It doesn't show any confidence in local leadership," he said. "We appreciate what the legislators and governor have to do, but we believe in local control." Woodbury, it should be pointed out, doesn't get any local government aid from the state and Hargis, who says he's politically independent, sees the cap as the legislators and governor sticking their noses where it doesn't they don't belong.

He also says it will have the opposite of its intended effect. "I don't know if our tax levy was going to be up 3.9 percent, but it is now," he said. "It might've only been increasing by 2 percent but now we have to raise it 3.9 percent so that we don't hurt ourselves. It becomes a target more than a cap."

Hargis' logic? Cities like his, which have a small tax levy increase in a given year, have little motivation under the cap to keep the tax levy smaller since they lose the ability in future years to raise taxes above the cap, should the need require it. Instead, he figures, they'll raise it the maximum allowed to maintain flexibility.

"We'll survive it, particularly when we've done such a good job budgeting. But it's like getting an 'A' in a test and then being told you have to take it over," he said.

In St. Cloud, Mayor Dave Kleis, has a unique view on this because he served in the Legislature before being elected mayor.

"In previous years, as a former legislator, when I've seen cities faced with caps, they went right to the cap. In St. Cloud's case , we're not. We have our own policies limiting the increase to growth and inflation. As a legislator, I've always believed strongly it's a local control issue... you have local elected officials, elected by members of the community and they should make those decisions.

St. Cloud does accept local government aid from the state.

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Russian red creates a black bottom line

Posted at 3:25 PM on May 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Quick: What's the fastest-growing international buyer of goods and services purchased in Minnesota?

Russia.

It's one of the factoids from a report on exports today from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

The half-full version is that Minnesota's exports are up 6.5 percent and we rank 20th in value among all states. The half-empty version is the increase lags the U.S. export growth rate of 10.4 percent.

Want more?

Products

Half full: Transportation equipment led the state's gain.
Half empty: Computer and electronics exports dropped 9 percent.

Buyers
Half full: Canada, Russia, Phillipines and Germany were all significantly bigger buyers.
Half empty: Thailand, Netherlands, Japan bought less than before.

China
Half-full: Exports of printing-related machinery, centrifuges, and engines increased.
Half-empty: Even though China's economy is expanding like a wildfire, Minnesota exports fell by 6 percent.

Here's the full report.

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The vice presidential book

Posted at 3:55 PM on May 19, 2008 by Bob Collins

Let me just say right off the bat that I don't understand bookmaking. But I happened to be walking past one of the newsroom TVs and Wolf Blitzer was interviewing the usual suspects about a British bookmaking Web site that is taking bets on the vice presidential possibilities, indicating Condoleezza Rice, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney as the favorites.

So I took a look at the site, which -- you're right -- I'm not linking to, and found this:

Here's what I've learned this means:

Back -- Is a bet that it will happen.
Lay -- Is a bet that it will not happen.
The shaded box are the best available odds. And the dollar amount is the most you can bet at those odds.

In my fog of bookmaking ignorance, it at least looks like Tim Pawlenty is in the game, though it wasn't mentioned on CNN.

Far more interesting than trying to figure this chart out, is trying to figure out why on earth someone is betting that John McCain will select himself as a running mate.

We now turn the comments section over to the bookmaking experts... and we know you're out there.

What women want

Posted at 4:56 PM on May 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

The National Science Foundation spent $19 million a year to end gender discrimination that it was convinced was responsible for a disparity in the number of women and men in science and technology fields.

It might've been a premature conclusion according to Joshua Rosenbloom at the University of Kansas who studied, in particular, the information technology field and found that the primary reason there aren't more women in the field is that women don't want to be in it.

According to the Boston Globe story...

Rosenbloom and his colleagues used a standard personality-inventory test to measure people's preferences for different kinds of work. In general, Rosenbloom's study found, men and women who enjoyed the explicit manipulation of tools or machines were more likely to choose IT careers - and it was mostly men who scored high in this area. Meanwhile, people who enjoyed working with others were less likely to choose IT careers. Women, on average, were more likely to score high in this arena.

Personal preference, Rosenbloom and his group concluded, was the single largest determinative factor in whether women went into IT. They calculated that preference accounted for about two-thirds of the gender imbalance in the field.

Susan Pinker, author of Men, Women, and the Real Gender Gap, says the assumption that women in sciences was a case of gender inequity, was a misdirected drive for equality, according to an interview she did recently with the Vancouver Sun.

"I think it was necessary at the beginning, equating equality to sameness," she said. "Essentially all feminist writers say we want what they want, so we've got to be like them. The science tells us, no, we're not like them ... unless biology changes."

Let's think about this just a bit. Explain this: The future of social media is going to be all about women.

It's the lead of an article in Business Week today:

Traditionally, men are the early adopters of new technologies. But when it comes to social media, women are at the forefront. At Rapleaf we conducted a study of 13.2 million people and how they're using social media. While the trends indicate both sexes are using social media in huge numbers, our findings show that women far outpace the men.

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The last day of smiles

Posted at 7:27 AM on May 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Via James Fallows, we're alerted to yet another series of tragic photographs from China. The Chinese language site features images from a Sunday sports day at a middle school in Beichuan, which -- a day later -- was near the center of the earthquake.

"I include them because they are, again, true to the kind of thing I've seen in provincial China -- and different from what most Westerners imagine when they think of the country," Fallows wrote.

Overnight, a woman was rescued after being trapped in rubble for seven days.

Here's a list of resources if you're of a mind to help out.

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Charter school under fire, again

Posted at 8:25 AM on May 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Very generally speaking, the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights won the battle with Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten over allegations in Kersten's columns (here and here) that the charter school was teaching religion.

The Minnesota Department of Education issued its findings of an investigation into the allegations. The department recommended a couple of actions to -- as MPR's Tim Nelson wrote -- "better separate religious and school activities."

MinnPost's David Brauer did a nice job of comparing Kersten's charges with the department's findings.

But the school lost the public relations war when the head of the school apparently roughed up a cameraman -- I mean, photojournalist -- for KSTP. Maybe the news crew was trespassing, maybe not. But it's a bad idea to be seen attacking a camera crew, even if you think you have cause.

The best footage of the assault actually came from KARE 11 (Watch). It shows a less violent confrontation than a shaking, turning upside down, camera shot usually suggests, but it was a confrontation nonetheless.

KARE 11 also provided some factoids that KSTP did not:

The school said the crew did not ask for permission to come onto school property and had been told by police to stay across the street.

Zaman said the crew did not identify itself.

"I did not ask police not to let Channel 5 on the property," Zaman said. "I asked police to tell those unidentified individuals to leave the property."

KARE 11 had phoned in advance to request permission to videotape on school grounds and was recording video when the confrontation took place.

Inver Grove Heights Police Officer Steve Her confirmed to KARE 11 he told the KSTP crew not to come on the school property before the confrontation happened.

KSTP reporter Chris O'Connell said he and his photographer were not told to stay off the school property.

In the video, O'Connell tells Asad Zaman, the head of the school, that nobody told the crew they couldn't film. There's also an interesting segment of the altercation in which a colleague of Zaman's pokes him in the chest, and then points at the microphone on the camera, apparently to warn him.

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Disasters waiting to happen

Posted at 11:12 AM on May 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

The death toll has reached 40,000 in the China earthquake. Another 32,000 people are missing according to Xinhua, the official news agency in China.

The numbers are staggering, to be sure, but even if all of the missing are presumed dead, the disaster that's dominated the news doesn't come close to making the list of all-time worst natural disasters.

Of course, measuring "worst" is subjective. For some it's death toll, for others it's damage, or both. One scientist, for example, puts Hurricane Katrina on his "top 10" list, even though "only" 1,100 people were killed.

When it comes to natural disasters, no place beats China.

Here, according to Wikipedia, are the highest-death-toll natural disasters.

1. 1931 China floods. Officially, 400,000 people were killed although other estimates range from 1 million to 4 million dead.

2. 1887 Yellow River flood in China. 900,000 to 2 million dead.

3. 1556 Shaanxi (China) earthquake. 830,000 people dead

Two other China disasters -- the 1975 Banqiao Dam failure (242,000) and 1976 Tangshan earthquake (231,000) round out the top 10.

If the projected death toll in the most recent case is accurate, it would be the 19th or 20th deadliest earthquake in history.

For the United States, for the record, the worst natural disaster -- death toll-wise -- was the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, when 3,000 people died. The 1980 U.S. heat wave, however, is blamed for the deaths of anywhere between 1,200 and 10,000 people. Running second -- or third -- is the Peshtigo fire in this neck of the woods.

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The Democratic race by the numbers

Posted at 11:57 AM on May 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Whose got how many delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination for president?

It depends on how you want to slice it.

Using the excellent Real Clear Politics database, here's the various ways of looking at it.

TOTAL DELEGATES

Obama: 1913
Clinton: 1721

SUPER DELEGATES
Obama 303
Clinton 278

DELEGATES FROM STATES WITH PRIMARIES

Obama: 1677
Clinton: 1590

DELEGATES FROM STATES WITH CAUCUSES
Obama: 236
Clinton: 131

DELEGATES FROM STATES WITH MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAMS

Obama: 957
Clinton: 927

POPULAR VOTE
Obama: 16,108,538
Clinton: 15,512,424

POPULAR VOTE (With Florida & Michigan)
Obama: 16,684,752
Clinton: 16,711,719

MPR (via NPR) provides coverage of today's Oregon and Kentucky primaries from 9-11 p.m. CT.

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MSP gets snubbed

Posted at 3:00 PM on May 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)

Feel a bit sheepish getting all defensive over the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport being cited as the worst "big city" airport by J.D. Power and Associates. That should help convince Delta to keep MSP as a hub, eh?

I'm not entirely sure what the beef is that people have with the airport, when considered separately from the cattle company that operates an airline there. Just a few weeks ago it took me all of 3 minutes from the time I entered the security line to the time I finally convinced the TSA agent that it really was an iPod, and not a SAM missile launcher remote control.

Earlier in the week, I dropped someone off at the kiss-and-go spot and was back on I-494 within seconds.

I can park, wait at the baggage area, pick people up, and jump back in the car for only a $3 fee. It's generally bright, there's shopping options, rest rooms aren't too far away, it's pretty easy to check in with the electronic gizmos, and those flower baskets along the roadways that are watered automatically are pretty cool, too.

Granted, I'm not a huge fan of airports -- except for general aviation airports, but that's a different story -- but there are worse joints to fly out of.

Of course, I'm not a business traveler, whose opinions were the only ones that mattered to the Powers folks.

So, what's the problem? It's hard to tell but we learn a little bit from the press release/Web site that goes along with the survey, which says:

* Airlines put 14 percent more planes in the air onto a flight route system that hasn't changed since the 1950s.

* Flight delays soared to their highest levels ever and the late arrival rate was the highest since 1996.

* Fares went up.

* More flights were cancelled than in any year since 2001.

None -- or very few -- of those things, of course, has anything to do with the airport. Those are factors involving airlines.

Yet, according to the news release accompanying the report, there's a focus on airport facilities.

"When air passengers are forced to wait out delays in airports for departing flights, they are essentially a captive audience, and their frustration and stress levels affect their satisfaction with airport operations and amenities," said Jim Gaz, senior director of travel and entertainment at J.D. Power and Associates. "Those airports that are best equipped to handle delayed passengers with comfortable seating, a variety of food and beverage options and restrooms located near departure gates are the ones that will perform better in customer satisfaction in these trying times. When delayed passengers arrive at their destination airports, they are seeking efficient service at baggage claim and an expedient exit. Any additional inconveniences will only compound their dissatisfaction with the airport experience."

Clearly I'm missing something serious in the failings of our local hub. And I know there are many bigger shots than me who read News Cut and travel more extensively. What's your favorite and least favorite airport?

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Fee creep

Posted at 2:13 PM on May 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Today, "fee creep" hit air travelers when American Airlines announced that it will now charge $15 for the first checked bag, and $25 for the second.

Delta says it won't go along with the fee, but it is considering other fees.

What fees might that be? A charge for using the lav during a flight?

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To help or not?

Posted at 2:37 PM on May 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

You're a journalist for a big American outfit -- CNN. You're in China when an earthquake hits. You've got a car and some empty seats and people beg you to take them to the hospital, which isn't the way you're headed or the job you have.

What do you do?

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Is the American economy sustainable?

Posted at 7:47 AM on May 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Can the American worker compete with developing countries if he/she has to earn $5,000 a year just to pay for to cover farm subsidies, health care for the old and the poor, and the war in Iraq? That's the question today from Harvard's Philip Greenspun, who certainly has a point of view on the subject:

Given that a fairly well educated worker in China can be employed for $5,000 per year, it is tough to understand how the American economy is sustainable unless we believe that our workers are vastly better educated than Chinese workers.

Let's not forget that the working slobs are soon to be taxed another $1 trillion to bail out real estate and mortgage speculators.

Greenspun also refutes this week's New York Times editorial, which called for a mortgage foreclosure prevention plan.

...in many cities today, house-price declines are so severe that potential buyers are staying on the sidelines, fearful of further collapse. The result is declines that are deeper than need be to restore affordability. That's everyone's problem, because as long as house prices continue to fall, the financial system will remain unsettled and the economy will not revive.

Are we staring into the reality that something -- our "standard of living," perhaps? -- has to give? If so, what is it?

Discuss

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The good times roll in Afghanistan

Posted at 11:57 AM on May 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Stars and Stripes reports that the commander of forces in Afghanistan has lifted the combat-zone ban on sex between people who are not married. Sort of:

The UCMJ contains several provisions under which sexual relations are prohibited between men and women. For instance, married persons cannot engage legally in sex with anyone other than their spouse, or they can be prosecuted for adultery. Sexual relations between subordinates and higher-ranking personnel are prohibited within the same chain of command. Sexual relations between officers and enlisted personnel are generally prohibited as well. Homosexual relations are completely prohibited under the code.

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Explosions on the moon

Posted at 12:15 PM on May 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

More reasons to love your earth's atmosphere.

We could be the moon where, according to a NASA news release, hundreds of explosions have occurred in the two years NASA has been monitoring the moon, in anticipation of a return of U.S. astronauts.

Here's video of one (supplied by NASA)

Meanwhile, there's new concern about global warming today... on Jupiter.

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Replacing Lafayette

Posted at 3:03 PM on May 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)

MnDOT announced today that office drop-in hours for the Lafayette Bridge (Highway 52) replacement over the Mississippi River in St. Paul will be held 8-10 a.m. next Thursday at 222 East Plato Boulevard in St. Paul. I've been less successful at finding out what people will find when they get there in terms of how the bridge is going to be replaced in 2011. MnDOT did not return phone calls and e-mails to provide that information.

The bridge, for me, is one of the scarier ones. Its rating is worse than that of the ill-fated I-35W structure, and it's also a fracture-critical bridge, meaning -- like the I-35W bridge -- if part of it goes, the whole thing goes.

MnDOT officials have assured us there's nothing to worry about and while I accept their engineering expertise, I admit to being partial to bridges that at least look like they're not duct-taped together. Give me a can of Rustoleum and a few hours on the Lafayette's underbelly, and I'd feel a lot better.

This being a gorgeous Minnesota day, I went over to the bridge and, frankly, I was less scared than when I made a similar trip a few days after the August 1 collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis. But maybe I'm just getting used to Minnesota's bridges.

Still, I'm no fan of rusty girders...

Corroded plates with exposed and rusted rivet heads...

Plywood and 2 x 4s under the decking...

And I've been nervous about pigeon poo ever since some experts speculated that it might've had something to do with the I-35W tragedy.

Ugly? Yeah. But it's not exactly the bridge in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Temple of Doom.

We'll be interested to find out -- maybe next week -- how the bridge will be replaced. Will they build another one next to it and then knock it down? Or will 81,000 cars a day be routed through downtown St. Paul and over the Robert St. bridge (and back onto 52 via Plato?).

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The vibes of light-rail transit

Posted at 11:32 AM on May 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Now that the legislative session is over and light-rail into St. Paul is to be a reality, the hard part -- making it work -- is next. The U, of course, is dead set against light-rail on Washington Avenue. Some businesses on University are worried about losing parking spaces, and even American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio is trying to get light rail's planned route down Cedar Avenue moved.

Why? It's worried about the impact of vibration and noise from the trains on its radio and broadcast studios a few feet away from the tracks.

To test the impact of vibrations, these folks today have set up shop...

By dropping watermelons off the roof using this gizmo to pound the pavement and simulate the rumble of a train...

... the vibrations can be measured in studios like this...

... with a sensor on the floor. The readings are then sent back to the guys on the street.

I haven't felt anything in the News Cut cubicle. But usually the only vibration I feel is when Chris Roberts is listening to local bands and tapping his foot in the cubicle next door.

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Fifty strikes and you're not out

Posted at 1:17 PM on May 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

From the weekly precinct-by-precinct "highlights" from the Minneapolis Police Department crime report:

4th Precinct:

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The secret behind golf's decline

Posted at 7:51 AM on May 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

A few months ago, we noodled here on the notion that golf is in a state of decline. Memorial Day weekend is a good time to test out the various theories.

Getting a tee time? No problem. Even at the last minute (Note: I play county courses). The twosome we were to be paired with? They never showed up. Somewhere around the 5th hole at The Ponds at Battle Creek, the extent of golf's demise became apparent: Its success depends on one's inability to remember just how infuriating an afternoon of relaxation can be.

Your News Cut host loves golf, although there's a limit to the depths of any romance.

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One dead, 20 missing in Hugo storm

Posted at 6:49 PM on May 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

The initial images from WCCO's helicopter of the destruction in Hugo this afternoon shows some of the most significant devastation we've seen from a tornado in these parts in years. Send me your photos.

Live blogging
9:49 p.m. - Calling it an evening. MPR's Curtis Gilbert will have live reports from Hugo Monday starting on Morning Edition.

9:33 p.m. - Hugo city manager: 300 to 400 homes evacuated because of concerns over hazards including downed power lines and gas leaks. The city set up a shelter at Oneka Elementary School.

9:29 p.m. - PiPress also has a slideshow up. Interesting tidbit in the accompanying story. One man who survived the collapse of his house said his wife and kids weren't injured because they'd gone to Home Depot to get some things to fix up the house.

9:14 p.m. - Strib has what appears to be the beginning of a Flash slideshow with images from Hugo. Their photogs do an outstanding job. BTW, here's a Google Earth view of the neighborhood depicted in some of the Strib pix.

9:05 p.m. - Gov. Pawlenty sends out a press release. He'll meet with officials in Hugo Monday at 12:30 at Hugo City Hall.

9:00 p.m. - AP: The child who died had a sibling who was critically injured and taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, and the parents also were hospitalized with injuries sustained in the family home, Washington County Sheriff Bill Hutton said.

8:42 p.m. - Latest AP write-thru on the storm posted. Public Works Director Chris Petree's story of riding out the storm with his family is chilling.

8:26 p.m. - MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner on the air - Background of how the National Weather Service investigates in determining whether it was a tornado or straight-line winds. "We had both in this event," Huttner says. He guesses "F2 damage" (winds of 100-130 mph).

8:23 p.m. - MPR's Jess Mador updates situation at St. John's (Maplewood): They treated two patients, one was sent on to Region's. Hugo oficials are triaging patients at Oneka Elementary.

8:13 p.m. - Star Tribune has its first photo posted.

8:12 p.m. - St. John's (Maplewood) update: Has at least one injured patient, were expecting around 4 to 5 more with 10 moderately injured

8:11 p.m. - William Wilcoxen in Hugo: A dozen destroyed, three dozen damaged.

8:10 p.m. - MPR's Jess Mador with more on Regions: 3 adults and 1 child still admitted
Injuries and condition not known. Hugo Fire Chief Jim Compton tells AP child is in critical condition.

7:58 p.m. - KARE: Regions no longer in "Orange Alert" state. 7 were treated. 4 were admitted.

7:56 p.m. - U of M Climate Working Group: The last tornado to cause multiple deaths in Minnesota was in Littlefork (2) in August 1993.

7:46 p.m. - From the Hugo citydata: "Hugo-area historical tornado activity is slightly above Minnesota state average. It is 26% greater than the overall U.S. average. On 5/6/1965, a category 4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 8.1 miles away from the Hugo city center killed 6 people and injured 158 people and caused between $5,000,000 and $50,000,000 in damages. On 5/6/1965, a category 4 tornado 18.4 miles away from the city center killed 3 people and injured 175 people and caused between $5,000,000 and $50,000,000 in damages."

7:45 p.m. - KARE 11 has helicopter up. Dead individual was a 2-year-old.

7:35 p.m. - WCCO.com has posted the helicopter photos of damage. Here.

7:29 p.m. - MPR's Cathy Wurzer: "Just talked with Dan Luna, meterologist with National Weather Service, Chanhassen. They aren't getting much in the way of damage reports in from Coon Rapids/Anoka. Looks like the main damage is in Hugo. That area received its first warning at 4:37 pm, so they had plenty of warning. "

7:26 p.m. - AP: Hugo Public Works Director Chris Petree said his family took shelter in the basement before the storm lifted his house off the ground and completely wiped out the second floor of the home. "I put my daughter down first, my wife on top of her and then I bear-hugged on top of them," Petree said.

7:23 p.m. - Ch. 4 returns to prime-time programming.

7:21 p.m. - MPR's William Wilcoxen reports from Highway 61 and 152 St. Unofficial reports of gas leak. Ambulances as far away as Woodbury racing by.

7:19 pm. MPR's Jess Mador: "St. John's Hospital in Maplewood "very busy." Spokesman to update in 10 mins. At least three patients were brought into Mercy in Coon Rapids with storm-related injuries. Apparently, they were tossed in the air by the wind and slammed into a wall. At least 30,000 power outages in state. With at least 20,000 in Chisago, Hugo Forest Lake area hardest hit

7:18 p.m. - Strib: Hwy. Tornado in Coon Rapids touched down at 4:35 at Highway 10 and Main Street moving towards Sand Creek Blvd.

7:16 p.m. - TV coverage update. 4 has live coverage, 5 has Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 11 has Dateline NBC, 9 has NASCAR.

7:12 p.m. - MPR's Jess Mador: Three people taken to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.

7:02 p.m.: WCCO: Person killed in Hugo was a child who died on the way to hospital. A six-year-old was revived.

6:56 p.m. - Hugo City Administrator Mike Ericson: One dead, 20 missing. (AP)

6:54 p.m. - Reports say tornado sirens went off in Hugo. National Weather Service issued warning. Contrast that to 2006 in Rogers.

6:50 p.m. - WCCO is the only TV station with live coverage.

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See no evil

Posted at 11:53 AM on May 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

Making a point by making your life worse never made much sense to me. In 1967, the residents of of the nation's inner cities made their unhappiness known by burning down their neighborhoods. Point made, but when all was said in done, they ended up living in bombed-out neighborhoods.

President Lyndon Johnson created a commission to study the violence and it concluded that "our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal."

Violence cannot build a better society. Disruption and disorder nourish repression, not justice. They strike at the freedom of every citizen. The community cannot--it will not--tolerate coercion and mob rule.

Violence and destruction must be ended--in the streets of the ghetto1 and in the lives of people.

Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans.

What white Americans have never fully understood--but what the Negro can never forget--is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain, and white society condones it.

Now, fast-forward 41 years. America's cities are still burning themselves, only now it's called a "Stop Snitchin'" campaign.

A cover article in Broadcasting & Cable this week profiles the difficulty for reporters trying to investigate crime stories, focusing specifically on a typical situation in Kansas City.

... says the code of silence surrounding violent crime, the product of a grass-roots campaign called "Stop Snitching," has a chokehold on Kansas City. At various times while he's been interviewing witnesses, someone will walk by, repeatedly muttering "click-clock, click-clock"--simulating the sound of a gun cocking and firing. As one might expect, the witnesses promptly clam up.

So goes investigative reporting in Kansas City and several other markets in America, as the Stop Snitching movement gains momentum and leaves residents scared to death of anyone with a badge--or a microphone or notepad. "To this day, the question remains: How could two people get gunned down in front of so many people, and two years later, no one's been charged?" Nigrelli wonders. "The answer is, no one will talk. 'No Snitch' is loud and powerful here."

Highly regarded crime reporter Carolyn Lowe at WCCO found Stop Snitching to be alive and well in the Twin Cities, when she did a story on it last year.

"It's a message that really leads us down a path of destruction. It's a path that leads us to more bloodshed," said St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington in the story. Harrington said he intended to start an anti-Stop Snitchin' campaign.

One is already underway in Minneapolis, sort of. MPR's Jess Mador September story on the killing of a young girl, found the group Mad Dads at least trying to talk some sense into the community.

"I suggest that you get out and when you see something in your neighborhood that is not right that you say something about it," said Smith. "Stop having that 'stop snitching' attitude and start organizing, mobilizing and reaching out to some of these hard to reach kids and making a difference in their lives."

In many cases, the Stop Snitchin' campaign is stoked by rap artists. Hip Hop News today, for example, has the story of one such link.

Unlike the neighborhood burning of the '60s, the Stop Snitchin' campaign has no chance of at least getting attention to the perceived societal ills. It's more likely to spawn a shrug of the shoulders and a "if you don't care enough, why should I?" attitude.

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Reconsidering tornado tips

Posted at 1:38 PM on May 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Going to the basement isn't enough; that much we've learned after Sunday's tornadoes in Minnesota and, in particular, Iowa.

Consider this from an AP report just filed:

Parkersburg Mayor Bob Haylock said most of those killed in Parkersburg were in basements. All were adults, he said.

That prompted us to take another look at the tornado survival tips:

In a house with a basement: Avoid windows. Get in the basement and under some kind of sturdy protection (heavy table or work bench), or cover yourself with a mattress or sleeping bag. Know where very heavy objects rest on the floor above (pianos, refrigerators, waterbeds, etc.) and do not go under them. They may fall down through a weakened floor and crush you.

On a related front: Check out this picture MPR's Tom Weber just sent down from Hugo.

.. and this actually is someone's basement...

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The stories left behind

Posted at 4:45 PM on May 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

I usually like to stop by the veterans' memorials near the Capitol on the day after Memorial Day. I stop to read all the names (yeah, every one) and see what people left behind.

As usual, the Vietnam memorial was filled with heart-tugging mementos that make me wonder about the story behind the object.

Who was Gary? And why a chocolate bar? (Update Weds 5/28 8:24 a.m. - See comments section)

This sketch was accompanied by an Army Ranger pin from Georgia, and a padlock. Why?

Tom is "greatly missed, forever loved" the label said...

A simple sticker next to a name...

In contrast to the day-after scene at the Vietnam memorial that says "we haven't forgotten...

The scene at the Korean War memorial seems to say, "we have..."

... with the exception of someone who knew Douglas Dustin, an 18 year old kid who died of his wounds in 1950.

Mr. Dustin's name appeared in the middle of the large block of granite. But whoever left the picture, put it on the top so it wouldn't cover anyone else's name.

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Autism, again

Posted at 5:51 PM on May 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (36 Comments)

Autism is once again at the center of a battle on when special needs kids should be allowed to try to fit in.

According to a CBS story, a Port St. Lucie, Fla., mother of a 5 year old boy with autism said "Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo had her son's classmates say what they didn't like about 5-year-old Alex. She says the teacher then had the students vote, and voted Alex, who is being evaluated for Asperger's syndrome -- an autism spectrum disorder -- out of the class by a 14-2 margin."

Said the Chicago Sun-Times, "After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Alex the teacher said they were going to take a vote, Barton said. They said he was 'disgusting' and 'annoying,' Barton said.

"He was incredibly upset," she said. "The only friend he has ever made in his life was forced to do this."

The teacher's side of the story isn't out yet, because the school board asked her not to talk to the press, but she's been "reassigned."

This story, of course, follows closely on the heels of a situation in Bertha, Minn., where a Catholic church banned a teenager with autism, from attending services in the sanctuary.

This week's New York Magazine features a story on the "new autism activism."

These activists argue that autism is not an illness but an alternative way of being. The preferred terminology among disability activists is to speak of a "person with deafness" rather than a "deaf person," or a "person with dwarfism" rather than a dwarf. But Sinclair has said that "person-first" terminology denies the centrality of autism and has compared "person with autism" to describing a man as a "person with maleness."

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The best and worst architecture in Minnesota?

Posted at 10:48 AM on May 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)

The Twin Cities gets a little architectural love today with MSN including the Weisman Museum in its slideshow of the "world's wildest architecture." (Hat tip: Tom Weber)

Being a contrarian, I'd like to assemble a slideshow of the worst and least imaginative of the architecture in Minnesota. Send your suggestions (and your photos) and we'll put a little vote together to select the "winner."

In the government buildings category, I'll nominate St. Paul's Centennial Building. It was completed in 1958 and named in honor of the 100th anniversary of Minnesota statehood, it says here. A commenter at the site says "this building has been misunderstood," which is probably the kindest thing to say about it. On the other end of the spectrum is the observation that you can apparently miss a lot of classes in architecture school, and still get an occasional gig.

The Centennial Building, unfortunately, serves as a bookend to an otherwise gorgeous display of buildings on the Capitol complex. It shares the role with another hideous building, the state transportation building, which appears to be crumbling; it's somehow metaphorically appropriate.

Use this form to send me your images.

Submissions (so far)

Block E (from Flickr):

Social sciences tower at the U of M (from Flickr). BTW, want to see something cool. Use your mouse wheel to scroll down the page while watching the windows in the social sciences tower.

Multifoods Tower, Mpls (from Flickr)

The science classrooms building at the U.

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Keeping up with the swag

Posted at 11:14 AM on May 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (17 Comments)

MSP 2008 (Republican convention) host committee has sent over a boatload of GOP convention swag, at the same time the mayors of the Twin Cities were at the National Press Club to provide a "sneak peak" of the convention. Convention organizers are said to be ticked off that the state reneged on a promise to provide a letter of credit to the convention.

These things also serve to show what media is where on the GOP pecking order. Let the record show: Cathy Wurzer is high on the list. News Cut is not. Mercifully, the Morning Edition staff recognized a candidate for a blog entry when they saw it.

How did these items get selected? "(They) didn't have to pay," MSP 2008 communications director Teresa McFarland said in an e-mail. "The visitor and convention bureaus sent out an email asking for items that brought our key messages to life from the press kit."

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Making things add up

Posted at 1:36 PM on May 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

The Minnesota Department of Education today announced the creation of nine centers around the state which will teach teachers in math and science. The teachers will then become teachers of other teachers.

"Whether you're a teacher of 25 years or a teacher of one or two years," Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said, "looking at the new math standards, aligning your curriculum, looking at the data around your kids - that helps every teacher no matter what year they're in."

The new math standards? How hard can they be?

The answer depends on how hard you find the following concepts and goals for teachers:

Shame works

Posted at 2:21 PM on May 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

The Minnesota Department of Revenue said today it has collected $124,000 since it posted the names of business tax deadbeats on its Web site a few weeks ago.

The list shows businesses that collected sales taxes from customers, but did not turn the money over to the state.

Browse the list here.

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Tornado follow-up

Posted at 4:53 PM on May 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

If you were involved in the Rogers tornado in September 2006, I need to hear from you.

Please drop me an e-mail and perhaps we can chat.

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Regarding Lafayette

Posted at 9:30 AM on May 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

MnDOT had an open house this morning for people who wanted to stop in and ask questions about the plans to replace the Highway 52 Lafayette Bridge in St. Paul. (I wrote about it here last week) Two of us did.

A couple of factoids courtesy of Chris Roy, the North Metro Area Manager for MnDOT:

Back to the 'big woods'

Posted at 10:28 AM on May 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

News today that Melissa Gilbert is coming to the Twin Cities to play in the Guthrie's production of "Little House on the Prairie," got some of the newsroom tongues wagging this morning.

Gilbert, who played "Half Pint" Laura on the TV version, is 44 now, so she'll play the part of "Ma."

Her career is the stuff pop culture trivia fans drool over.

Why, just consider her post-Little House career when she ran for -- and won -- the presidency of the Screen Actors Guild, which appears to be the province of actors who couldn't escape their biggest hit.

She won in a bruising battle with Rhoda (Valerie Harper) in 2001. She won re-election in 2003, beating Kent McCord (big points to you if you immediately recognized him as one-half of the Adam-12 patrol team. Bigger points if you could name Martin Milner as his partner).

After playing in the fine TV production, The Miracle Worker, Gilbert competed for News Cut's Valerie Bertinelli Award via a run of mostly forgettable TV movies and series. In 2006, for example, In 2006, she appeared as Shari Noble, a patient looking to reconstruct her nipples after committing zoophilia with her dog in an episode of Nip/Tuck.

You can't make this stuff up.

She became the darling of The Lifetime Network, the network with such movie titles as:

Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal ; Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy; and Nice Guys Sleep Alone .

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Disposing of the flag

Posted at 1:12 PM on May 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)

The Star Tribune had an interesting story today about the theft of flowers from cemeteries; often, it seems, the family of one deceased rips off the flowers to put them on the grave of another deceased. Sweet.

But what caught my attention was the caption that the Star Tribune wrote for the front-page photo:

Stolen flowers is one problem at cemeteries. Another is excessive clutter. On Wednesday, manager Dan Kantar of Mound Cemetery in Brooklyn Center made the rounds, picking up leftover garbage.

Let's take a closer look at that garbage ...

The U.S. flag code might disagree with the caption writer, not to mention the method of disposal. The flag is never considered garbage.

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Wars and memorials

Posted at 2:49 PM on May 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

News item: The Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board is seeking designers for a memorial to honor forces who aided the U.S. military in Laos during the Vietnam War, a key step toward the first state-recognized memorial dealing with the so-called Secret War. (Pioneer Press 5/20)

Question: When does a war rise to war memorial status? (Tim Nelson, MPR) Take the first Iraq war? Should it have a memorial?

Answer: (From Nancy Stark, executive secretary Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board) "At this point in time no group has come forward with a request for a memorial to honor Minnesotans who have lost their lives in the Iraq war. Sometimes groups work with the legislature for sponsorship. The CAAPB does not initiate memorials, but the Board considers a request and staff and advisors work with each group to understand the process involved with design, construction, and future maintenance of the memorial.

"We do know there is a client group out fundraising for a plaque to honor Minnesotans from the first Iraq war, Desert Storm, to be placed in the Court of Honor."

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Where do the arts fit in?

Posted at 4:32 PM on May 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

News Cut doesn't have a Best News Cut Award (that is, a sound bite on the radio) yet, but if we did, this would be it:

"It's easy to make a kneejerk argument against the arts; all you have to do is mention Robert Mapplethorpe or Karen Finley. You know, the outdoors don't get naked and smear themselves with chocolate."

Arts critic Dominic Papatola talked to MPR's Cathy Wurzer about why the effort to get a sales tax increase passed to support outdoors initiatives, seems to be targeted to and mentioning only the outdoors portion, while ignoring the fact that 20 percent of the money raised will go to the arts.

"The arts got the 'crazy aunt in the attic treatment,'" Papatola said. In other words, the marketing effort is trying to keep the arts component quiet.

The arts community and the hunting/fishing/outdoors community is an unlikely alliance to begin with. Their marriage was at the end of a political shotgun. The outdoors people have been trying to get funding with a sales tax increase passed for about a decade. The arts component was included because it's the only way DFLers would support the referendum question. Why? Some DFLers fear a ballot question for sportsmen only is more likely to draw Republicans to the polls.

According to a story from MPR's Chris Roberts, both sides have since pooh-pooh'd the tensions:

"When you talk to the owner of the Blue Heron -- that's a wonderful restaurant in Cold Spring -- and you ask him 'What do the arts mean to your business?' He said, 'When an arts event is going on in Cold Spring, my restaurant is packed.' It is an economic driver," said Leslie Schumacher of the Central Minnesota Arts Board in Foley.

Are the arts folks working a little too hard to find reasons to feel ignored?

On his radio interview Papatola described a button he saw at the Orpheum the other night showing a fisherman, and the Split Rock Lighthouse, and -- he says -- "there's a guy way at the bottom with a paint brush looking like he's painting Split Rock."

But MPR's Euan Kerr found this button...

... which appears to leave hunters and fishermen out of the picture.

Here's Papatola's very interesting -- and entertaining -- interview. (Listen - MP3)

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Gasoline price trivia

Posted at 7:42 PM on May 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

While passing a gas station convenience store in Inver Grove Heights this week, we realized that something is about to happen that hasn't happened in years: the price of a gallon of gasoline is soon going to be higher than the price of a pack of cigarettes.

Significant research Lazy browsing on the Internet failed to turn up a source of the historical prices of cigarettes, to match against existing documentation on the price of gasoline. So we'll have to rely on your memory.

Anyone?

Update Fri 8:06 a.m. That sign is so yesterday. Today the price of gas at the same spot is $3.92.

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And a robot shall lead them

Posted at 9:31 PM on May 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Some things are cool, just because...

I can see the next generation of Guitar Hero: Conductor Hero.

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Panties for peace

Posted at 8:01 AM on May 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)

When Sen. Amy Klobuchar met with members of the Minnesota Burmese community this week, it's doubtful this idea came up.

In Canada human rights groups are calling on women to take part in a unique protest against Burma's military junta.

The Quebec Women's Federation and the activist group Rights and Democracy are coordinating the Canadian edition of "Panties for Peace!" -- an international campaign to pressure the Burmese government towards democratic reforms.

(H/T: Tim Nelson)

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Teaching sex ed

Posted at 9:42 AM on May 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

If there's a lab rat for the issue of sex education for young people, perhaps Worthington and Nobles County is it. It ranks among the top areas in the state for teen pregnancy.

The Worthington Daily News (Registration possibly required) has run several stories this week in a series on teen pregnancy.

Lori Klooster, director of Southwestern Minnesota Opportunity Council's Family Planning office, is one of the guest speakers who talks to students in the Worthington school district. With the county's teen pregnancy rate ranking in the top five for the past few years, she said perhaps the schools need to consider increasing its sex education programming.

"Maybe we need to reinforce this every year, rather than just seventh and 10th grade," she said.

Donkersloot echoed that suggestion.

"I would like to see us targeting each grade every year," she said. "This (year) has brought a big awareness to the problem."

Previous stories have pointed out that the county ranks 16th (out of 87) in the state for the rate of chlamydia infections

The issue may be far more complicated than at first glance. Jane Feller of Nobles-Rock Community Health Services said there are "approximately 500 risk factors associated with sexual behavior and pregnancy in teens. The risk factors include use of alcohol or drugs, involvement with gangs, permissive attitudes about sex, sexually active peers and frequent dating."

In the most recent legislative session in Minnesota, efforts to standardize a sex education curriculum failed. Some objected to one model that might become that curriculum. Others insist the job of sexual education should fall to parents.

But in Nobles County, as in many other locations, that isn't happening.

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Mailbag: The Amazon tribe

Posted at 2:54 PM on May 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

See, now this is exactly what I'd hoped for when News Cut started: People dropping me tidbits in the news they find interesting.

Reader Derek writes:

There are pictures on a BBC Web site taken by an airplane as it flew over a previously "undiscovered" tribe in the Amazon. The part that I think is interesting is the manner in which they have painted their bodies. It makes me wonder if they happened to be caught in the middle of some sort of ceremony, or if that is just their daily attire. Seems to be a lot of work to impress the 10 other people that you know.

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