News Cut: December 15, 2008 Archive

Weather beauty

Posted at 7:48 AM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Weather

Jeremy Breiner of Alpha, Minn., sent this picture along this morning. Alpha is in southwest Minnesota along the Iowa border. It's actually a picture he took in 2007 at sunset. But, like the pictures our news team are assembling of the weekend blizzard, it's a reminder of the beauty of desolation.

Weather pictures, in particular, are like that. The natural occurrence that can lead to misery, is -- at the same time -- beautiful. Take this picture for instance.

This is from southern New Hampshire where an ice storm has caused plenty of misery in the northeast, and yet, it's beautiful in a Raiders of the Lost Ark ("don't look at it or your face with melt") kind of way.

(Photo by Getty Images)

My sister sent this picture to me this morning.

It's from north central Massachusetts. She and her husband hauled a generator down from Maine to my elderly mother's house, and also rescued my disabled brother from his powerless mobile home. They were without heat and power for 50 hours.

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DTV

Posted at 12:00 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Tech

I'm listening in to a conference call at the moment announcing the opening of DTV assistance centers. It's the first time I've heard race raised as an issue in the conversion of television from analog to digital signals. But the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund has identified Minneapolis-St. Paul as one market where the communities of color, low-income workers, and the elderly are in danger of losing their TV.

The local TV stations are doing their part to alert viewers that the switch-over to digital transmission is coming and they better do something about it, while assuring people if they've got cable or satellite, they don't have to do anything about it. KARE has recently cut its analog transmitting power by half, amid rumors that its newscasts now only feature only one anchor, only half of sports scores are now given, and the weather map no longer shows the entire western half of the United States.

There are some positive aspects of the end of analog signals. For one thing, Jon Gordon reported on Future Tense, it makes earth a "quieter place," and -- potentially could keep aliens from finding us.

Let's hear what the conference call has to say. Hosting are: Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Meredith Baker, acting administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an office of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which has partnered with LCCREF on the DTV Assistance Centers; and Anni Chung, president and CEO of Self Help for the Elderly, a San Francisco, CA group that will be operating a DTV Assistance Center in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Live-blogging:

12:04 p.m. Henderson is providing background most of us already know. He says the shift is different than the switch from black-and-white to color. "At least then, if you didn't have a color TV, you didn't lose the signal."

12:10 p.m. -- Baker says 40 million coupons for converter boxes have been distributed to 11 million households. The average home has four TVs? (update 1:13 p.m. - I went back and listened again. 40 million coupons have been distributed to over 21 million households. 11 million of them say they actually needed the coupons.)

12:11 p.m. - If you haven't applied for a coupon yet, you're running out of time. Baker says it'll take 6 weeks to complete the process. She says she's asking state broadcaster associations to make donated converter boxes available for the elderly and low income. She also is asking people to help out the elderly by picking up the coupons and converter boxes for them -- sort of a Converter Boxes on Wheels program.

12:17 p.m. - Filling out a page to request a coupon. I have satellite TV so I don't really need one, but maybe some old person near me will need it on February 17.

Questions and Answers

Q:Who are you partnering with?

They're still trying to find partners in each city (including the Twin Cities) that work with people of color, low-income, and elderly.

Q: How many people have done what they're supposed to to TVs.

Consumer "awareness" of DTV conversion is 90 percent. But that percentage has not led to 90% action.

Q: Where is the funding for this coming from?

A: The money originates from the DTV Transition Act. We reserved up to $4.5 million for this.

Q: Some people in Detroit say stores are telling them their coupons have expired. People were advised to get their coupons early. They did but went to the stores and there were no converter boxes. So people through no fault of their own have worthless coupons. Why are there expiration dates on these. (Here's a Detroit Free Press story on this)

A: Congress mandated that the program start in January. Retailers couldn't update their software during the holiday season. We monitored product shortages and we've addressed it. It's important in our tracking to have a 90 day expiration.

(The reporter here is really pushing the person in charge here. "You mean we can have a charity drive to give our coupons to other people?" )

Q: Are your centers going to just tell people with expired coupons to "go home and find a friend or neighbor who has a coupon."

A: Chung says some people living in apartment buildings couldn't get coupons because they shared the same address with someone who already got them. So she helped set up a drive in San Francisco to get people to donate converter boxes to give to people who had expired coupons.

Q: How many assistance centers will there be?
A: Seven cities, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, will have assistance centers.

Q: Do you know how many people these assistance centers are targeted to reach?

A: No.

Q: When will you provide people with the location of these assistance centers?

A: We hope to finalize the partnerships soon. People can check our Web site at http://civilrights.org/dtv . We hope to have them set up by early January.

They wrapped up the conference call before they could take my question, which was: If people are being advised to request their coupons by the end of December, what good is an assistance center that won't be set up until January?

Update 1:42 p.m. One Minnesota community is among the lowest-participating communities in the DTV converter box coupon program. In Mankato, 3,513 households requested the coupons. That's an estimated 54% of over-the-air households in Mankato. About a quarter-million Minneapolis-St. Paul households have requested the coupon -- a 61% participation rate. Duluth (75%) has one of the highest participation rates. For what it's worth, three of the four worst participation rates are in Alaska . See the report.

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Students get a lesson in 'press freedom'

Posted at 12:57 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (17 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Schools

Free speech ends at the school doors, the Supreme Court has ruled several times.

But it's being tested in Faribault today, the Faribault Daily News reports, where the school superintendent has closed down the school newspaper after its journalist-students refused to let him preview a story on the investigation of middle school teacher Shelly Prieve, who has reportedly been under investigation for inappropriate communication with students.

Says the Daily News:

Though the Prieve article is at the center of the controversy, (School Superintendent Bob) Stepaniak said it has evolved into something greater than the words in that story. Instead, he said, it is about the fundamental question of whether a district's administration has the right to review articles prior to publication.

Stepaniak insists he does. Zwaggerman and Hildebrandt insist he doesn't. Each side is backed by legal representation.

Stepaniak points to the powers under a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, that upheld the right of public high school administrators in a suburban St. Louis, Mo., school district to censor articles about teen pregnancy and the effects of divorce on children from a school-sponsored student newspaper.

The school newspaper's, known as The Echo, faculty advisor Kelly Zwaggerman says she's prepared to be removed from that role.

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Who needs the police?

Posted at 1:47 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Economy

Who needs police? Not Cook, Minnesota which has voted to get rid of the department in a wave of budget cutting.

The Cook News-Herald has the play-by-play of the decision, written in the no-nonsense ways of the Iron Range.

Council member Storm added, "It's nice to have police in town," but then said, "Is it a luxury?"

Pastor Reuben Rosnau, who is a member of the Cook Volunteer Fire Department and the Ambulance Squad, spoke of the need for law enforcement at fires and with the ambulance and how the local police usually were there.

Arlee Olson... He spoke of Highway 53 going through Cook and the 10 roads coming onto it with the potential for accidents. He spoke of Cook having a pharmacy and the hospital and the drugs they hold. He told the council they were making a mistake dropping the police department.

Council member Dan Manick spoke of speeding, dangerous intersections and added they should "take into fact the human factor."

Mayor Edblom said it was strictly "dollars and cents."

Police Officer Dan Nylund told the council they could not enforce city ordinances since they didn't have a badge and the county wouldn't do it. Mayor Edblom said they would have to live with that. The elimination of the police will take place March l, 2009, after Nylund is given 60 days' notice.

Until then, Cook will have one police officer, and six people who serve on the "police committee." A final decision will be made after Cook finds out more about possible cuts to local government aid (LGA). According to the League of Minnesota Cities, Cook would lose $5,300 if LGA and/or the homestead credit is cut by $25 million, $28,000 if the Legislature cuts the program by $100 million.

Sperling's Best Places lists crime in Cook as a "4" on a scale of 1 to 10.

Cook, MN, violent crime, on a scale from 1 (low crime) to 10, is 3. Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The US average is 3.

Cook, MN, property crime, on a scale from 1 (low) to 10, is 4. Property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The object of the theft-type offenses is the taking of money or property, but there is no force or threat of force against the victims. The US average is 3.

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Is the Internet all it's cracked up to be?

Posted at 2:14 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Tech

The Pew Center has released its third in its series of reports on the future of the Internet. Its executive summary's opening paragraph is riveting in itself.

A survey of internet leaders, activists and analysts shows they expect major technology advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the internet itself improves.

They disagree about whether this will lead to more social tolerance, more forgiving human relations, or better home lives.

OK, I'll bite. When and how has the Internet ever led to more social tolerance, forgiving human relations, or better home lives?

Where do you think the Internet is heading and how is your life enriched by it -- if at all? How much has constant connectivity changed your life and relationships?

Here's the full report.

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Cities wait for possible LGA cuts

Posted at 2:25 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Politics

Not everyone is sweating the possible loss or reduction of local government aid in Minnesota. The League of Minnesota cities has released a city-by-city estimate of LGA payments due on December 26th. These cities don't accept the state aid:

Albertville
Andover
Arden Hills
Baxter
Blaine
Bloomington
Brooklyn Park
Burnsville
Champlin
Chanhassen
Circle Pines
Corcoran
Cottage Grove
Dayton
Eagan
East Bethel
Edina
Farmington
Forest Lake
Golden Valley
Ham Lake
Hugo
Inver Grove Heights
Lake Elmo
Lakeville
Lino Lakes
Mahtomedi
Maple Grove
Maplewood
Mendota Heights
Minnetonka
Minnestrista
Monticello
Mound
New Brighton
Oakdale
Orono
Otsego
Plymouth
Prior Lake
Ramsey
Rogers
Rosemount
Roseville
Sartell
Savage
Shakopee
Shoreview
Shorewood
Spring Lake Park
St. Anthony (JT)
St. Louis Park
St. Michael
Vadnais Heights
Victoria
Woodbury

Many cities, of course, depend on local government aid (St. Paul has $28 million riding on this issue. Ely has $777,000 to think about.), but others probably don't. Can Chickamaw Beach live without the $438 it's due to receive later this month? What about Funkley, Minnesota? It gets $73. The population of Funkley as of June 2007: 16.

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Ray's story

Posted at 2:43 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Health

Lorna Benson's story today about Ray Sandford is one of the most compelling -- and sad -- stories about mental illness we've heard in a long time.

He wants to stop the court-ordered electroshock treatments for his psychotic episodes, but it's not his choice. Lutheran Social Services is his guardian.

His mother thought the sessions would help, but she thought they'd stop after a few treatments. They didn't.

"I don't care if he forgets the birthday of his nieces and nephews, although it's very important to him to remember that and probably more important to him that it is to anybody else in the family. But I do care that he can remember the names and know that they're born and remember what he did last Christmas if it was a happy memory, remember the good times. It's too bad to take away that."

Ray will be in court tomorrow for a hearing on this.

Be sure to read Lorna's story. What do you think is the proper course of action here?

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Where were the regulators?

Posted at 3:43 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, Economy

I watched It's a Wonderful Life the other night at the end of another bad week of worry about the economy, hoping for a reminder about perspective. It didn't work, but not for the reasons you might think.

I'd driven up to Ely and back on Friday and so I spent much of the day hearing about the economy. Have you heard? It stinks and it's only a matter of time before it swallows all of us, the narrative seems to suggest.

I couldn't get the day's bad news out of my head as I watched the movie. Here's why: In the course of one afternoon, Uncle Billy misplaced the credit union's receipts, Mr. Potter stole the envelope with the cash, the state banking investigator showed up to audit the books, a warrant was issued for George's arrest and the investigator and cops showed up at the Bailey household a few hours later. All in one afternoon!

Boy, those were the days.

Bernard Madoff ran a Ponzi scheme that ripped off $50 billion (including $100 million from Twin Cities investors) and nobody who was supposed to notice noticed. Bloomberg reports today that the Securities and Exchange Commission never inspected Madoff's books, even though it was required to:

Given what the SEC claims is the magnitude of the fraud, this is something you would hope an inspection would have uncovered," said Mercer Bullard, a University of Mississippi law professor and former mutual-fund attorney at the SEC. "It's hard to imagine a fraud of this alleged size not being accompanied by significant and pervasive compliance problems."

On National Public Radio today, Jim Zaroli reported that a securities industry official warned the SEC in 1999 that Madoff's returns were too good to be true.

Congress doesn't seem to be in too big of a hurry to find out what's going on at the SEC, according to the Wall St. Journal:

A spokesman for Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee which will be the key in writing the new regulatory structure for the financial industry, said that "in due time" the committee would work with the SEC to see "what if any, failings of policy" were revealed from the alleged Madoff fraud. He said Frank hasn't been in touch with the agency.

On NPR's All Things Considered this afternoon, a former SEC official said there aren't enough people to keep up with the crooks (although he didn't use that word). It's a view shared by Columbia Law School professor John Coffee, who told the Journal that the agency is overworked and typically only examines 10% of the new funds that are registered.

The Madoff story, of course, is huge. Even the Dow's drop today is being pegged on it. But Matthew Goldstein, writing in BusinessWeek, suggests it's no bigger than Tom Petters' alleged scam in Minnesota:

Consider how little national coverage a similiar alleged Ponzi scam involving Minnesota businessman Tom Petters has generated. Sure, the alleged damages in the Petters affair are smaller--but a $3.5 billion loss isn't chump change. Some six-dozen hedge funds and their hundreds of individual investors suffered huge losses when federal prosecutors alleged that Petters was borrowing money for several companies that existed on paper only. At least a few of the victims include wealthly widows in their 90s, living in Florida, who invested in one of the hedge funds.

If there's anything to salt away from the Petters and Madoff cases (and the economic meltdown in general) it's this: If you're making money with an investment, find out why.

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Idling thoughts

Posted at 4:37 PM on December 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Weather

The Current's Barb Abney asked me a question a few minutes ago for which I had no answer.

Is the Minneapolis no-idling law in effect when it's cold as all getout?

Yes and no, the News Cut research department reports. The law, which bans vehicles from idling for longer than 3 minutes, carries this get-out-jail free card:

There are exceptions to the three minute idling restriction for cars and most other gas or diesel powered vehicles.

1. Vehicles may idle when stopped in traffic.

2. Police, fire, ambulance, public safety or other City vehicles may remain running to operate lights, circulate water in tanks or maintain accessories needed during emergency or enforcement activities.

3. Police K9 or Animal Control vehicles may remain running to maintain a safe climate for animals.

4. City vehicles may remain running at job sites during inclement weather if a supervisor grants authorization.

5. Idling is allowed to diagnose repair needs.

6. Idling is allowed if needed to operate defrosters, heaters or air conditioners to prevent a safety or health emergency.

7. Vehicles may idle up to 15 minutes in a one hour period if the outside air temperature is less than zero degrees or higher than 90 degrees.

One might argue that #6 would trump #7 and allow unrestricted idling.

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