News Cut: October 22, 2008 Archive

The YouTube 'bombings'

Posted at 7:19 AM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

I had an interview on Future Tense today with a tech writer who selected "viral video" as the technology having the most impact on the '08 campaign.

There's the other side of the coin, too, where video is concerned -- and by "video," of course, I mean You Tube.

Up in Superior, Wisconsin, three 13-year olds have been linked to a "series of small homemade bombs that had gone off around town over four days," according to the Duluth News Tribune.

They were inspired, the story says, by videos on YouTube.

They couldn't be "inspired" by algebra videos?

Comment on this post

Have we seen the last of the Delta Queen?

Posted at 8:36 AM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Icons

The Delta Queen, the quintessential American fixture on the Mississippi River, dies at the end of the month when an exemption that allowed it to travel the river from St. Paul to New Orleans expires.

What's behind its demise? It's either a public safety issue -- the ship is made of wood -- or it's a payback to a union from an influential Minnesota congressman.

The New York Times tackles the issue today but doesn't answer the question as it documents the Delta Queen's last scheduled visit to Cincinnati on the Ohio River.

Rep. James Oberstar, who chairs the House Infrastructure and Transportation Committee, is refusing to allow a vote on an exemption allowing the steamboat to continue. Oberstar, the Times says, cites a Coast Guard evaluation that the ship is a "fire hazard."

But Capt. Erik Christensen, chief of the Coast Guard's office of vessel activity, denies that characterization.

The newspaper story suggests Oberstar is sinking the ship at the behest of the Seafarers International Union, which represented the boat crew until a new owner forced the union off the steamboat. The union is a campaign contributor to Oberstar's re-election.

The Queen's supporters have tried video to help save it, but it never "went viral."

Politics aside, here's a nice multimedia slideshow of the Delta Queen, produced last year.

Comment on this post

High school musicals

Posted at 10:21 AM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

(My colleague, Tom Weber, who probably can carry a tune, sent me this entry)

This Friday marks the theatrical release of the third "High School Musical" movie. This sequel focuses on the teens' senior year, which would suggest this will be the last of the "High School Musical" series - but if anyone can finagle another sequel, it's Disney.

I truly don't understand the draw of this phenom, but that proves nothing except how far removed I am from the target audience. Still, I used the opportunity of the movie's opening to find out what some schools around the metro (and one outstate) are performing this year.

A few notes:

- One high school (Eagan) is doing "High School Musical."
- Centennial is doing "Sweeney Todd," the school edition. Me wonders if the 'school' edition has dulled the show's murderous undertones - but if you take out those themes, what's left?
- Rumors that I portrayed Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls" when I was a senior are actually quite true.
- This was never an attempt to be a complete list of all schools, so if yours isn't listed but know which show they're doing, please join the discussion of this blog entry.

Comment on this post

Northwest posts quarterly results

Posted at 11:04 AM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Northwest Airlines

Like Southwest Airlines last week, Northwest Airlines is reporting a profit while reporting a loss.

The company announced today that it lost $317 million in the third quarter. The company took a write-off its hedge bets for fuel; it's a practice that can save money when jet fuel is going up, but not when it's coming down in price.

Northwest says if you take away the write-off, it made money in the quarter, just as you did if you take away the costs of the car repairs and mortgage. The Vikings are also undefeated if you take away their four losses.

In the long run, lower fuel prices should be good news for travelers by virtue of lower fares and an easing of the fees that airlines tacked on when the cost of fuel was rising. It should be. But it's not.

"We waited a while to react to the increases in jet fuel. ... We haven't been able to make that up," said Michelle Aguayo Shannon, a spokeswoman for Northwest Airlines, in a Detroit Free Press article. "But you have to really look at the airfares; there's a false sense that fares are through the roof."

Comment on this post

Mining the moon

Posted at 11:07 AM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Science

India's planned spaceshot to the Moon is an easy one to ignore -- it's just another country not named the United States ramping up its space program while the only country to actually land and walk on the moon seems increasingly content to keep its feet on terra firma.

"When completed, this mission will put India in the very small group of six countries which have thus far sent space missions to the moon," said Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, a member of the Indian parliament, reinforcing the narrative that this is about prestige and a place at the scientific table.

And maybe it is. But tucked into the New York Times story today is this nugget:

The Indian mission is scheduled to last two years, prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for nuclear power plants, according to the Indian Space Research Organization.

The moon as strip mine? It's not that far fetched. A 2004 Popular Mechanics article from former astronaut Harrison Schmitt.

It is not a lack of engineering skill that prevents us from using helium-3 to meet our energy needs, but a lack of the isotope itself. Vast quantities of helium originate in the sun, a small part of which is helium-3, rather than the more common helium-4. Both types of helium are transformed as they travel toward Earth as part of the solar wind. The precious isotope never arrives because Earth's magnetic field pushes it away. Fortunately, the conditions that make helium-3 rare on Earth are absent on the moon, where it has accumulated on the surface and been mixed with the debris layer of dust and rock, or regolith, by constant meteor strikes. And there it waits for the taking.

Comment on this post

Why can't Washington County get a transportation break?

Posted at 12:26 PM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

Is there a way for cities not named Minneapolis or St. Paul to get a break when it comes to a transportation future?

On the Minnesota 2020 Web site, Conrad deFiebre analyzed the habits of Washington County commuters.

Only 1.3 percent of Washington County commuters used transit in 2000, according to the U.S. Census, while 93.3 percent drove; walking and working at home accounted for the rest. Getting to work by bus from the county's mix of second- and third-ring suburbs, semirural expanses and pioneer cities along the St. Croix River took an average of 47 minutes, nearly double the median commute by car.

It's true that Washington County residents are in love with their cars despite high energy prices. They don't have much choice, although they've proven their interest in a solution. The most recent survey from the census bureau, for example, showed that Washington County residents have the highest percentage of car poolers in Minnesota.

Why don't Washington County residents use transit? Because there's no transit to use. When Gov. Pawlenty and the Legislature closed a budget deficit in 2002-2003, Metro Transit cut bus service to Washington County, over the strong objections of people who lived there. The buses were full

Transportation decisions for Washington County, for the most part, aren't being made by Washington County, but by the Met Council. Washington County residents, including some members of the County Board, are concerned that sales tax money from the county will go, instead, to more powerful counties like Hennepin and Anoka.

Says deFiebre

A commuter bus service from Forest Lake got Washington County's only original slice of the five-county sales tax pot, equal to about one-quarter of the county's contributions. Other counties that have heavily invested property taxes in rail transit initiatives -- something Washington County hasn't done yet -- fared much better.

True. Property taxes in Anoka County, for example, paid for commuter rail stations. And now those property taxes will come down, partly because taxpayers from outside Anoka County are pooling the sales tax increase.

But what deFiebre doesn't say is plans for rail transportation can't get off the drawing board in less populous counties because the deck is stacked against them. Of the 16 members of the most powerful agency in such matters -- the Met Council -- only 2 are from Washington County. On the Counties Transit Improvement Board -- the agency that will dole out the transit tax money -- Washington County has minority representation.

A September 2008 MPR story on the transportation tax increase bears this out, when the topic of commuter rail in the county comes ups:

But Met Council spokesman Steve Dornfeld said the route is short on ridership - projections suggest only 1,600-1,800 riders would ride Red Rock every day by 2030, compared to predictions of nearly 5,600 a day by 2030 for the Northstar commuter rail, which opens next year.

"Possibly something will change; possibly development patterns will change. But for the foreseeable future, Red Rock simply doesn't look like a promising corridor for rail," Dornfeld said.

So Washington County can't look forward to commuter rail until 2030, according to the Met Council. In a battle with Northstar, which is what this is, commuter rail in Washington County can't win. More people live in cities served by Northstar than in Washington County.

Some candidates for the county board complain that the current commissioners unwisely opted into a quarter-cent general sales tax for Twin Cities rapid bus and rail development -- and then got shortchanged when it came to dividing the revenue with more transit-rich counties to the west.

That's not entirely true. It's not just candidates for the County Board who are complaining about how the Washington County tax money got spent. Two of the board members to vote against the tax complained too. And so did commissioners who voted for it.. But their point isn't so much that there shouldn't be a transit tax, it's that the tax money of Washington County should be spent for transit in Washington County.

Says deFiebre:

It's up to this 160-year-old county's citizens and their leaders to design and finance an appropriate mix of transit and highway infrastructure that will serve it well for the next 160 years.

When Minnesota 2020 was urging metro counties to join the Counties Transit Improvement Board (i.e. pool sales tax increase money) last summer, it was on the promise of a regional solution to transportation issues. That Washington County is now considering pulling out is born from the deFiebre's message: "Washington County, you're on your own."

Comment on this post

Spraycan religion

Posted at 3:30 PM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Religion

The assaults on the Washington delegation to Congress overnight all looked pretty much like that on the garage of Sen. Norm Coleman.

The reference to Psalm 2 is perplexing:

1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. 7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Fox 9 quotes the University of St. Thomas' Theology Department:

... the university says there are many parts that can easily be taken out of context. The most likely in this instance would be the rulers, or politicians in the vandalism cases, trying to go above their "pay grade," so to speak.

There are few examples of the passage being quoted in other quasi-political ways.

A cartoonist in the Christian Post referred to it in an editorial cartoon to prove that God believes marriage is between one man and one woman. Another site . But various discussions online about the Psalm focus on whether it refers to Jesus, or King David.

Comment on this post

State worker alleged to have embezzled $1.1 million

Posted at 4:39 PM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

An indictment was unsealed today against a Minnesota state worker who allegedly embezzled more than $1.1 million.

At the time the allegation first surfaced -- September 26th -- I asked, "So now the question isn't when did it begin, but when did it end?" And now we know: September 10th, 2008. It started in 2003.

According to the indictment (which you can read here), Kim Austen, 47,of Hudson, headed the Department of Human Services unit that submitted Medicaid claims for payment. Starting in August 2003, the indictment says, Austen created an account for an adult man who was not a Medicaid provider, then added dummy invoices into the state's system that automatically generated checks.

At a news conference last month, Sen. Linda Berglin said the woman was caught thanks to some recently implemented controls. "This would not be able to happen today," she said. "It got started before the controls that are in place today were installed, and this hasn't got caught until today."

Comment on this post