News Cut: April 7, 2009 Archive

Five at 8 - 4/7/09

Posted at 7:15 AM on April 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

It's not necessarily the top of the news...

Bands hit the road with a new touring style

Posted at 11:32 AM on April 7, 2009 by Julia Schrenkler (6 Comments)

While the Minnesota-based Cloud Cult tours in a biodiesel van, today NPR's Morning Edition reports the band Blind Pilot toured by bicycle. That's right, they pedaled to their shows with instruments in tow for two "bike" tours. Now they're reportedly using a van in good old-fashioned rocker style, but I have to wonder if we won't see more wanderin' minstrels going green due to the economy and a passion for environmental awareness.

I'm looking to News Cut folks to weigh in on this topic. Are these touring styles out of financial necessity or social pressure? Do bands get a nice - and possibly or probably incidental - public relations bump thanks to media attention?

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Taxes: It don't come easy

Posted at 12:18 PM on April 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

The Minnesota Department of Revenue has sent out a news release today touting changes the Legislature has made in tax code to make it easier and less confusing for people to file their taxes.

Presumably, this will be the case once people who have already filed their taxes refile their taxes because of the new rules.

Confused? Well, yes.

Here's the release.

Some of the changes contained in the law resulted in the elimination of Department of Revenue Schedule M1NC, Federal Adjustments. As a result, some taxpayers who used this schedule in calculating their Minnesota taxable income will have to file an amended individual income tax return for 2008.

No further action is required for taxpayers who claimed federal deductions for higher education tuition and fees or for teacher classroom expenses, but who had no other adjustments on Schedule M1NC.

However, taxpayers with other adjustments on Schedule M1NC should re-file their Minnesota tax return as outlined below. This includes taxpayers aged 70 ½ or older who reported non-taxable direct transfers from IRA accounts to charitable organizations.

Taxpayers who have not yet filed their 2008 Form M1:
· Do not complete Schedule M1NC, since the schedule is now obsolete.
· Taxpayers claiming the college tuition and fees and/or educator expenses deduction on their federal returns must add back these deductions on line 12 of the newly revised Schedule M1M, Income Additions and Subtractions.
· Taxpayers who use tax software should be sure to download the latest program updates.

Taxpayers who have already filed their Minnesota return and included Schedule M1NC:
· File an amended return if you added back tax-free charitable transfers from IRA accounts or reported any federal adjustments other than tuition and fees and educator expenses. You must use Form M1X, Amended Minnesota Income Tax.
· Taxpayers who used tax preparers should contact those professionals for updated forms and information.

The legislation (HF 392) conforms Minnesota's income tax to most federal changes enacted through Dec. 31, 2008. It does not include any provisions of the recently passed federal stimulus law, which generally take effect with tax year 2009.

Conforming to federal tax law helps provide clear and consistent rules that help reduce taxpayer confusion and make it easier to calculate and file state taxes.

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Gay marriage - Vermont style

Posted at 4:42 PM on April 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

The gay marriage issue is starting to feel like the collapse of the Eastern bloc. It's happening quickly and relatively quietly, without much of a fight. Today, Vermont became the latest state to legalize gay marriage when its legislature voted to override the governor's veto of a bill. It's the first time gay marriage was enacted via the legislature and not from the courts. The "activist judges" cries, which started when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck down laws to prevent gay marriage, don't work here.

Four states now allow gay marriage, and two of them have joined the ranks in the last week. On Friday, Iowa's Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage.

Iowa. The nation's heartland. You could almost hear conservative groups sigh, "If we've lost Iowa, we've lost America." But after last November's bruising, the reaction has been somewhat muted. Then again, it's not an election year.

"You cannot take marriage, a social institution that developed over a very, very long period of time, and redefine it out of existence, without taking an enormous risk," writes BeliefNet columnist Rod Dreher. "The agenda of some of these leaders is precisely to do that -- to rid marriage of anything normative, to make it a free-floating legal condition that has no meaning beyond whatever it is they want it to mean today."

But like the fall of the Eastern bloc, the effort to legalize same-sex marriage is picking up steam on a regional basis, and it's happening quickly. The chances are improving, the New York Times reported, that New England is the core of the movement, whose slogan is "Six by '12."

This map from the Human Rights Campaign reinforces the notion of a regional strategy:

What does this mean in Minnesota? Not much; at least not yet. Same-sex marriages from other states are not recognized in Minnesota. A bill to change that is -- so far -- going nowhere at the Capitol. Legislation to make Minnesota's marriage laws gender neutral is similarly stalled.

(Photo: Jordan Silverman/Getty Images)

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Vietnam memories

Posted at 4:37 PM on April 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: War

As a baby boomer, Vietnam still seems like only yesterday to me. Maybe that's why I'm one of the few people in this newsroom of mostly younger people who still finds the images of a former Navy pilot standing at Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi, where he was shot down in the war, so stunning, and something to contemplate.

The photo was distributed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar's office. Shown are Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

McCain is urging stronger economic and military ties with Vietnam.

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