News Cut: December 23, 2008 Archive

Canvassing Board goes back to work

Posted at 9:00 AM on December 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

The State Canvassing Board is scheduled to continue its review of ballots in the disputed U.S. Senate race in Minnesota on Tuesday morning. I have some morning appointments so Than Tibbetts of MPR is covering for me until I return.

Comment on this post

The Burnsville fire

Posted at 7:39 AM on December 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

The news doesn't get any more heartbreaking than last evening's fire in Burnsville that left hundreds homeless, and wiped out Christmas presents for many kids.

This morning, we're told the American Red Cross is providing shelter for 19 families (about 80 people) at the Burnsville High School gym. Over 20 Red Cross volunteers are on site, providing medical assistance, stress counseling and other services. Donations to the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Red Cross at www.redcrosstc.org/donate.cfm or by calling 612-460-3700.

The Red Cross hopes to get people into temporary housing by Christmas Eve. Donations of blankets, pillows and food were trickling into the high school Monday evening, WCCO said.

This morning's Star Tribune carried the "silver lining" component of the story with this photo and caption:

At Burnsville High School, Jess Axt reported his lost cat, Salt, to volunteers, consisting of the Burnsville Blaze girls' basketball team. After finishing a game, they signed in displaced people from the apartments to temporary shelter at the high school gym. Taking the description of the cat was Lexy Legrand.

Oh, it gets better. The Pioneer Press reports other students started assembling Christmas gifts for the now-homeless kids:

Around the corner from the Burnsville High School gymnasium, where victims were staying, dozens of students sat on the floor wrapping presents for children who had lost their homes.

Other students arrived, bringing bags full of gifts from any store they could find open.

"It's really hit the community hard. I was in the car just crying," said Natalie Evanson, 17, a junior and student council member.

"I can't remember anything this bad happening," she said as teddy bears, footballs, coloring books and other gifts were wrapped and labeled for the recipients' appropriate gender and age.

Grocery stores and restaurants donated food to the victims. A convenience store provided coffee. The manager at a SuperAmerica gave his coat away.

"He needed it more than me," Joe Rush said. "You lose everything around the holidays -- what are you going to do?"

Update 1:50 p.m. The company that ran the complex has set up a fund to help the victims:

Make Checks Payable to:
U.S. Bank/Burncliff Apartments

The Goodman Group
1107 Hazeltine Blvd #200
Chaska, MN 55318

Comment on this post

Budget deficit online

Posted at 1:53 PM on December 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

The Minnesota House of Representatives has set up a Web page to accept ideas for how to close the $426 million shortfall in the current budget, and the nearly $5 billion hole in the pocket of the next one.

Comment on this post

Angels

Posted at 1:57 PM on December 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Things that are puzzling

Is that an angel there on that monitor?

In Charlotte, the mother of a severely handicapped girl says her daughter recovered after she was taken off life support, and she saw what she says is an angel on the TV monitor.

All of the morning TV shows discussed the story this morning, then brought in experts, who are predisposed to believing in angels, to make the final determination. The bottom line? If you think it was an angel, it was an angel.

Meanwhile, a colleague took this picture of the steam from the District Energy plant over St. Paul yesterday.

I got nothin'.

Comment on this post

Next time, try some soft music, a bottle of wine and 'Psycho'

Posted at 3:11 PM on December 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

How can any guy compete with Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle or You've Got Mail? They can't, and a study out of Scotland confirms it -- romantic comedies are bad for relationships because they create unrealistic expectations.

Researchers at Heriot Watt University's Family and Personal Relationships Laboratory in Edinburgh studied 40 romantic comedies released between 1995 and 2005, and found that problems reported by couples in relationship counseling reflect misconceptions about love and romance depicted in the movies.

Comment on this post

The lure of the train

Posted at 4:44 PM on December 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

One of these days, I've got to live-blog a trip on Amtrak.

Yesterday, MPR's Dan Olson told the story of the difficulty of getting tickets on Amtrak's Empire Builder, the only Amtrak train that runs through these parts.

"The Empire Builder is our single most popular overnight train. Of all our trains in the system that operate over significant distances the Empire Builder is number one with upwards of 500,000 passengers on it," Amtrak's Marc Magliari says.

I get it. The whole "Woody Guthrie" thing. Oh, and flying is no fun anymore. But is train travel anything but "tiring" (a word The Current's Mary Lucia used yesterday when I talked to her about this)?

Let's swing down to Chicago to see how things are going. Says the Chicago Sun-Times:

Dozens of Amtrak passengers said they've been stranded at Chicago's Union Station for more than 12 hours while their New York-bound train is repeatedly delayed. And another train scheduled for the snow-bound Pacific Northwest waited at Union Station for nearly 24 hours before departing for the west about 1:15 p.m. today, according to passengers. Passengers try to stay warm as they wait for their trains Tuesday at Union Station in Chicago. Many passengers said they spent the night in the station's cold waiting room with little information from Amtrak officials.

The alternative to airplane travel sounds suspiciously like airplane travel.

Comment on this post