News Cut: May 1, 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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Sexy voices and fertile women

Posted at 12:22 PM on May 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Veteran News Cutters recognize I have a penchant for offbeat studies.

Fortunately, every day brings another fix.

Fertile Women Have Sexier Voices, the headline on the BBC Web site screams today.

Scientists have suggested that very subtle changes caused by the rise and fall of different sex hormones can be detected by men, who then perhaps find a woman more attractive without necessarily even realising why.

The latest research, from the State University of New York at Albany and originally published in the journal Human Evolution and Behavior, involved taking recordings of women counting from one to 10 at four points during the menstrual cycle and then played them back to male and female students.

"The missing link here is finding out how this works in plain conversation - in a bar, for example," says Dr David Feinberg, from the McMaster University in Canada.

And why do we need to know that?

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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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