News Cut: August 4, 2008 Archive

In-flight cellphone ban

Posted at 7:28 AM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)

What's the most obnoxious -- or at least, strange -- cellphone conversation you ever had to endure?

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has had enough of it, approving a bill that would make the current Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communication Commission ban on cellphone use during flight permanent.

Some of the comments during the hearing last week were at least as entertaining as the guy who sat behind me on a flight to Boston last year who jumped on the cellphone immediately after landing to tell whoever answered to "feed the fish."

One member claimed there's a "security issue" (the new phrase for "I'm afraid"), relaying an anecdote about a man who took pictures with his cellphone of "sensitive parts" of the airplane. What "sensitive parts" of an airplane can you see from inside an airplane? The overhead bin? The engine? The wing? Are these national secrets?

Concerns that might have seemed silly a few years ago now seem downright valid. Some lawmakers "worry that domestic airlines might try to get the cellphone ban lifted so they can charge passengers extra to sit in no-phone sections," reported USA Today.

Of course, the airlines could test this now with a "no crying baby" section.

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Mail call

Posted at 10:21 AM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Opening the small amount of mail that accumulates during a vacation is always interesting. News Cut reader Derek Schille provided today's glee.

"There aren't many of them," one cubicle mate said.

"There doesn't need to be," I replied.

"I want one of those," said another.

"I've got two kids that can tell you that's a life-long sentiment," I said.

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Political prostitution

Posted at 11:44 AM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

It's the topic everyone is talking about but nobody wants to admit it: Hookers during the political conventions.

The Star Tribune started it with an article today that featured police departments in St. Paul and Denver dismissing the notion that there'll be an increase in prostitution during the Republican National Convention here and the Democratic National Convention there.

St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said his department discussed the issue with police in New York and Boston, which hosted the 2004 Republican and Democratic conventions, respectively.

"And what they have reported to us is that is that there is not an increase in that kind of traffic," Walsh said.

In other words, "Who are you going to believe? Me? Or your lying eyes?"

Let's let history, be our guide. At the Democratic National Convention in Boston 2004, business was so good, it caused a near panic in the, ummm, "hooker community" in New York City in advance of the Republican convention, according to New Yorker Magazine.

A special Boston Phoenix Democratic National Convention issue included an adult section with ads like "Boston Welcomes You! Truth Escorts is offering the most beautiful bodies and faces of Boston's finest ladies." Reports were favorable on many escort review sites--consumer message boards that are the Epinions of hookerdom. One Boston escort posted that her $150 DNC GFE ("girlfriend experience") special had filled so quickly that she was extending it. "After talking with people who own agencies up in Boston," a New York escort-agency owner e-mailed me, "we are in the process of hiring two to three times the number of girls, as we have been told that business in Boston tripled during that time frame."

As for New York, I've waited four years to figure out how to fit this in to a post: there was a van with two hookers in it doing a booming business in a mobile bedroom one block over from the Minnesota delegation's East Side hotel. There may not have been an increase in prostitution arrests during the week, but that might only be because the cops were busy arresting protesters and looking the other way.

Other cities, contrary to what the local cops are saying, have reported an increase in prostitution during political conventions. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles police, which hosted the DNC in 2000, said "there's 'definitely a spike' in prostitution during large events like political conventions," according to the Rocky Mountain News which published a story in February similar to the Star Tribune's today, but drew a different conclusion. The story also featured Carol Leigh, "a San Francisco prostitute 'over 50' who has traveled to previous conventions in Los Angeles and Atlanta" and suggests that if prostitution is going to increase, it'll likely be most noticeable at the Republican convention.

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The lure of wind

Posted at 11:46 AM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Energy

Today's article in the New York Times on the changing face of Nebraska has us engaging in wind-energy trivia today. The paper points out that Nebraska has made a promotional brochure out of the fact it ranks sixth in the nation in wind energy.

Sixth? Where does Minnesota rank? Third, according to the American Wind Energy Association. It's potential for wind energy places it at #9, however. Minnesota has about 800 wind turbines.

Texas is number one (the state is home to more than 3,000 turbines), and generates about 3-percent of its electricity via wind, according to a February 2008 New York Times story.

In Minnesota, farmers are figuring out how to make money with wind, according to the Litchfield Independent Review newspaper. A series of nine farmer-owned energy companies has kept the money generated by the turbines in the community, rather than shipping it off to a far-away power company.

The most striking change in the industry may not be so much the change to the scenic vistas of the Minnesota prairie and bluff country, but the willingness of communities to construct turbines. This week, for example, Winona County is planning to overhaul its wind and zoning laws.

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Scenes from a deployment

Posted at 1:41 PM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: War

If something happens often enough, eventually we'll stop noticing it. National Guard deployments to Iraq have happened often enough that, for the most part, the deployment ceremonies go unnoticed.

But not today.

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The department of corrections

Posted at 2:17 PM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Far more interesting than reading some of the entertaining corrections the Associated Press issues each day, is imagining what it must be like on the copy desk when the editors are alerted they let something slip through.

This one is the kind of thing that might end up on Jay Leno, if it weren't attached to such a sad story.

(Stations: Please substitute the following for V4798, slugged Novak-Brain Tumor, which moved at 2:10 p.m. Eastern time. The new version CORRECTS last graf to restore dropped word 'tumor'.)

CHICAGO (AP) - Conservative political commentator Robert Novak has announced his immediate retirement after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported on its Web site Monday that Novak's prognosis is "dire."

The 77-year-old Novak told the paper that the tentative plan is for radiation and chemotherapy but details are being worked out with doctors this week.

Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He announced late last month he has a brain tumor. The revelation came days after he struck a pedestrian with his Corvette and drove away.

(h/t: Susan Leem, Marianne Combs)

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RNC security update

Posted at 3:32 PM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The upper crust of the "public safety community" held a news conference late this afternoon to assure people that there will be enough cops to provide security during the Republican National Convention later this month.

St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington did the talking, saying his department has worked out agreements with 54 other law enforcement agencies in the state to provide help, and he's still trying to cut deals with 28 others. Cops will be coming from as far away as Duluth (40 cops) and Rochester (up to 20 officers). And, Harrington says, out-of-state law enforcement agencies -- from Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois -- have been "invited" to assist.

But some communities have been concerned they'll get stuck paying the time-and-a-half rate if St. Paul doesn't fully reimburse them.

At the last Republican convention -- New York City in 2004 -- cops complained that they couldn't see their families, were forced to work double shifts, and had to sleep in the police stations. One police officer guarding the Bunker Hill subway stop in the Charlestown section of Boston During the Democratic convention told me essentially the same thing. Harrington says that won't happen in St. Paul, at least with the close-to-home cops. "That's why we want to bring in as many who are local as possible," he said, "so they can go home and be in that nurturing environment during the week."

Like Boston, where the Democratic National Convention was held in 2004, St. Paul firefighters will be asked to help out with "traffic control." In Boston, that was code for "being available at important intersections to hose down protesters if it came to that."

But Harrington says his department has no information that suggests any "threats" to the convention.

The officials still have not released details on security perimeters and road closings; that will come next week. But Harrington says downtown St. Paul "will be open for business." You may have to walk to where you're going, however.

Yards away from Harrington's news conference, several off-duty members of the St. Paul Police Federation picketed in a dispute over a new contract.

The city has offered a 10-percent pay increase over three years, according to Mayor Chris Coleman. The union says its officers rank 25th in the state, compared to other police departments, even though it has the second-highest crime rate.

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