News Cut: December 19, 2008 Archive

There is no (Operation) Santa

Posted at 7:40 AM on December 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

What's this? The US Postal Service has closed up Operation Santa? For over 100 years, people would "adopt" a letter to Santa from a down-and-out family, and then shop for, and deliver presents to the children. It was all so.... so.... Christmas-like. But reality has set in, according to the New York Times. Somewhere -- the authorities won't say where -- a sex offender got one of the letters. And that was enough to wrap up the program.

Perhaps we should've known the end was near last year when the Postal Service started requiring photo IDs and legal waivers, absolving the Postal Service from any legal responsibility if something goes wrong.

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The auto bailout

Posted at 8:00 AM on December 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Economy

The White House caved in this morning when President Bush announced a plan to bail out the auto industry.

Chrysler, for one, turned up the heat on Mr. Bush by announcing all of its plants would close for a month.

In a statement a few minutes ago, Bush said in normal times "this is the price failed companies must pay." But he said allowing the auto industry to collapse "is not an appropriate course of action." He said bankruptcy is not an option because American consumers won't buy cars from a bankrupt automakers.

Under the plan, autoworker pay and wages must be "competitive" by the end of next year. The federal government will grant billions of dollars in "loans."

Automakers are getting 3 months to put reorganization plans into effect. If it can't be accomplished outside of bankruptcy, the federal money will give the companies more resources to organize bankruptcy proceedings. Retirement plans will also have to be cut back.

CNBC referred to the loan as the "bridge to Obama" loan. It also noted that the private company that owns Chrysler -- Cerberus Capital Management LP -- isn't putting any money into the deal.

Republicans who scuttled legislation in Congress on an auto bailout last week "shot themselves in the foot," says John Harwood, CNBC's chief Washington correspondent. "The situation that we're left with now is instead of having the force of law, the terms of these loans can immediately be changed by Barack Obama when he takes office." He says even the White House thought the Republicans were posturing last week.

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Minnesota State Canvassing Board - Day 4

Posted at 8:57 AM on December 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

Here's the link to the live video feed from the House.

Update 2:41 p.m. - I had connectivity issues with the Cover It Live interface. So I've had two set up a second session. We'll consider this following one "Part II" and the lower one Part I. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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MPR cuts

Posted at 3:31 PM on December 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

I blogged about NPR dropping two shows because of budget cuts last week, so I can't very well ignore an MPR press release today.

American Public Media™ is cancelling weekly production and distribution of Weekend America® as a result of the current economy's impact on station carriage and sponsorships. The final broadcast will be January 31, 2009. Thirteen full- and part-time positions will be affected. Weekend America is carried on 134 stations with a weekly audience of about 657,000 listeners.

American Public Media is proud of the many accomplishments of Weekend America's talented staff. They have produced personal, thoughtful, funny and challenging journalism that you couldn't hear anywhere else. The program topics ranged from in-depth reporting on the fallout from the Iraqi war, multi-part series on foreclosure and immigration, and the lessons of racism. The hosts and reporters also engaged people all across America on their weekends, skydiving or dancing or giving concerts or celebrating the diverse cultures and festivals of our country.

MinnPosts's David Brauer reports more cuts are coming:

Margaret Ann Hennen, APM's VP of Corporate Communications, says, "Yes, there will be further reductions, but we don't know when or what. This is part of the alignment of revenues and expenses ... that has been going on for the last year. We continue to make very methodical decisions."

As Linda Ellerbee used to say, "and so it goes."

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Detroit myths

Posted at 4:07 PM on December 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Economy

CBS/CNET does a "reality check" on the auto industry, including the myth it says that Detroit was out of touch with the auto market by making trucks and SUVs.

Around the urban United States you find hostility toward Detroit because it makes so many trucks and large SUVs - 5.35 million in 2007. But they didn't just make that many, they sold that many. We snapped them up. Should we have bought all of those? Probably not, but these are Wall Street-driven companies and the margins on trucks & SUVs were great business. For the consumer populace to wash its hands of any involvement in Detroit's product plans is disingenuous.

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Is Northwest Airlines still a local story?

Posted at 8:47 PM on December 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Northwest Airlines

Here's a question I've been noodling on. When do we stop caring about Northwest Airlines as a local story? When it was a hometown airline, it was obvious to most of us, I think, why we needed to concentrate on it. It was one of us. But now it's a part of an airline based in Atlanta, we're another stop on its thousands of destinations. We're a busy Cincinnati.

So do we still care what its CEO thinks? Is that still a story with a "local angle"?

If Richard Anderson, former Northwest chairman (and MPR board member) and now Delta CEO, goes on TV and talks about how great bankruptcy was for his airline(s) and is asked whether it'd be just as fabulous for the auto industry, do we care?

By the way, there was an event today that further solidified the end of the Northwest brand. The first Delta-emblazoned 747 took off from Minneapolis-St. Paul today, bound for Japan.

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