News Cut: June 18, 2008 Archive

Architecture poll: The final four

Posted at 7:52 AM on June 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)

KG has his championship (Did he really say "it's for all the folks in 'sota?"), so the time is nigh to finish off another championship run -- the most unimaginative and boring architecture in the Twin Cities.

When last we met (here) we were narrowing the field. You've done that; we're down to the final four.

And now it's time to pick one:

And remember.... anything is possible.

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The human face of 'capacity reductions'

Posted at 8:36 AM on June 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Northwest Airlines

If ever there was a phrase that was so unthinkingly adopted by the news media, it's the one the airline industry came up with to dehumanize layoffs and firings: "capacity reductions."

Northwest, as I posted last night, sent a news release and employee memo out yesterday to describe their latest capacity reductions, using terms such as "employee impacts" and "headcount reductions."

Here's a translation: People are going to lose their jobs.

How does this feel to the people who make up the headcounts? Not so good, as you might expect. Take Sam, for example, who blogs -- a little anonymously -- at Blogging at FL250. In the past few months, we've enjoyed his accounts of rising through the ranks at one of Northwest's regional partners to become a captain.

Today, he provides an excellent dissertation on how capacity reductions translate into the nuts and bolts of employment:

With recent developments in the industry a downgrade and subsequent furlough is looking more and more likely. It'd only take a few hundred furloughs (flowdowns) from RedCo to kick me off the NewCo list, and that's on the small end of expected furloughs at many companies. The political pressure to avoid cuts until the merger is approved may be my saving grace in the short term.

He also provides some real insight into the young vs. old pilot tension at airlines, now that pilots have been allowed to fly until they're 65.

The irony, of course, is that those enjoying an extra five years at the top of the pay scale are those least likely to be impacted by capacity cuts. A guy on the top 5% of the list isn't going to be displaced, much less downgraded or furloughed. I hope the guys staying past 60 enjoy their extra five years. Their newfound freedom to "fly 'till they die" is going to set back a lot of junior guys' careers at least five years.

Another pilot's blog -- Around the Pattern -- takes issue with the assertion that older pilots are getting fat and happy at the expense of the kids:

Why would somebody who has been flying for an airline for 25 years want to continue to work for that airline past the age of 60? Pilots at three of the legacy carriers have lost their pensions and are now relying on the PBGC formula for receiving a percentage of their once-promised retirement (a formula, by the way, that is based upon working until age 65). Pilots at another legacy carrier had their retirement benefits frozen about 4 years ago at whatever they were entitled to receive effective that date. I have met only one pilot so far who meets that "upper 5%" criteria who is still flying, though I have been told there are about a half dozen others at my airline. They are hanging on to see if there will be a buy out that might get them a little closer to the pension they had been promised for so many years.

Regardless of whether they're young or old, it's clear that pilots for the nation's airlines -- along with employees of many industries today -- are not in their happy place.

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Forfeiting rights?

Posted at 2:07 PM on June 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

"What's troubling to you?" Richard Weber, chief of the asset forfeiture section of the Justice Department asks in one of the stories of National Public Radio's excellent series on forfeiture of assets. "That a drug trafficker who's bringing money from the U.S. to Mexico, who's carrying hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars in cash in their pickup truck, who just sold dope and crack and cocaine to children in your playgrounds, and his money is being taken away? That troubles you?"

Jim McGeeney, an attorney in Rochester, has an answer for Weber. "What troubles me is if I'm driving through Alabama and I'm speeding, that for some reason your sheriff's office thinks you can stop me and then go through my car and if I have a large amount of cash, assume that it's drug money."

National Public Radio photo.

NPR's series focused primarily on federal cases, when authorities can confiscate your money without ever charging you with a crime, as long as they can prove it's tied to illegal activity. McGeeney, a defense attorney, says he doesn't see the kind of abuse in Minnesota that NPR found down south. He also tends not to handle federal cases.

In Minnesota, most of the cases he sees -- and represents -- involve people who've lost their cars, money or jewelry in state cases involving controlled substances and drunk driving. And here, he says, you can lose your property even if you've not been charged with a crime.

"The way the law in Minnesota is now with DWI is there's different degrees. Fourth degree is a first offense. They can't seize your vehicle on a first-time DUI. But if you have a prior DUI, and you commit a subsequent within 10 years and there's an additional aggravating factor or you refuse to take the (breathalyzer) test, then it becomes a designated offense. I've seen where someone has a DUI nine years ago. They get arrested for a DWI today, and for some reason, they can't give a valid sample of their breath -- maybe they have asthma. That becomes a forfeitable offense."

And how often will police pursue someone's property in a case like that? "One-hundred percent," he says, "down here, anyway."

McGeeney says authorities can seize property "in proximity to a controlled substance" in Minnesota without needing a court order, if it's seized during a lawful arrest or search warrant. He's currently representing an individual, he says, who had $8,000 seized. "It's an administrative forfeiture. They take the property and hand you a notice on the spot. The notices are in multiple languages."

His client couldn't read.

"He's never been charged with a crime, but the 60 days to challenge the forfeiture has run out," McGeeney says.

McGeeney is no fool. He knows what you're thinking right about now: it serves a drunk driver or drug dealer right. "And I struggle with that," he says. " It's true, you're not supposed to be possessing controlled substances, and there are some thresholds -- a motor vehicle can't be forfeited unless the controlled substance is worth at least $100 -- but the person who is in possession of $50 worth of cocaine... they (law enforcement) come into his house and they can seize thousands of dollars in cash in his house, all the jewelry that's in his house, and in some bigger instances, they seize your bank accounts. Although it's appropriate, there has to be more balancing against your interests in your property and the government's interest in their right to seize this property."

McGeeney says while some police departments down south are using the law as a tool to raise money for the departments, he doesn't see that in Minnesota. "If it's happening, I don't see it," he says. "I think it is a motivating factor that they do it, because there is a potential up side. It's also a hidden motivation. The agencies who seize this money know that there's a good chance they're going to get a lot of it back." Especially if the cost of hiring an attorney to get it back will cost more than the amount confiscated.

"It seems they're eliminating the due process," he says. "The constitutional protections you're entitled to when you're accused of wrongdoing, they seem to be bypassing that here. These protections were developed because there were abuses in the 16th and 17th centuries."

In tonight's final installment of the NPR series (on All Things Considered), reporter John Burnett will profile a Georgia sheriff who is under investigation for misusing forfeiture funds.

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Right stuff. Wrong gender

Posted at 5:00 PM on June 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Icons

Word comes today that Janet Christine Dietrich has died. She, and 12 other women, underwent -- and passed -- the same "physical and psychological assessments as the men who became immortalized as America's first astronauts," according to an article this afternoon in the San Francisco Chronicle.

While the women waited for the next phase of their program in July 1961, the testing was halted without warning or explanation.

It wasn't until Sally Ride went into space 20 years later that America learned what it could have learned 20 years earlier.

(h/t: Michael Wells)

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Missing hikers found

Posted at 8:17 PM on June 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

A few news organizations fell over themselves trying to be the first to tell you about the two hikers, missing in Alaska. In the process, they got it wrong and reported that they'd been found. They hadn't. They'd called home.

Small details, big difference. Erica Nelson and Abby Flantz have still, at last check, not been found by searchers.

The hikers were reportedly found a little after 8 Wednesday evening.

Abby Flantz, of Gaylord, Minn. and her friend Erica Nelson of Las Vegas had been missing since Thursday, when they left for a hike in the park. They didn't return to work at a nearby hotel on Sunday and a massive search effort got underway.

They called home by cellphone but it took another several hours or so before they were rescued, after a second phone call.

It's lucky they were in Alaska. Sunrise today was Thursday is at 3:15 a.m. Sunset this evening was two minutes after midnight.

Good coverage is being provided by the Anchorage Daily News.

It's a bit outdated now, but here's All Things Considered host Tom Crann's (unedited) interview a few hours ago with Kris Fister of the National Park Serivde (Listen in RealAudio.)

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