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News Cut: May 11, 2009 Archive

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Five at 8: May 11, 2009

Posted at 7:47 AM on May 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

The Monday Morning Rouser (h/t: Nick Young)

  • History says any attempt to override Gov. Pawlenty's veto of the tax bill will fail, says Eric Ostermeier at the blog, Smart Politics. Why? Because they almost always do. Great statistic: 63.7% of all vetoes in Minnesota since 1939 have occurred during the last three administrations. And, no, Pawlenty is not at the top of the list. The most overriden governor was Jesse Ventura. Only the voters liked him.

  • The space shuttle lifts off around 1 this afternoon for a repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Like any good telescope, it has its own Web site. You've probably seen the pretty pictures its taken over the years but what does it mean? What exactly do we know now that we didn't know before and what good is it to us? There's a page on this site dedicated to telling us that, but it hasn't been updated since 2000. Yep. It's almost like, you know, looking back in time. A separate page, though, tells us that Hubble is gaining on the mystery of dark energy.

    Speaking of science, does the world seem like it's spinning faster to you? Wasn't it just Friday at 5 o'clock a few minutes ago? And here it is Monday. Meanwhile, the world of snails is getting slower.

  • War games. No bombs and bullets, just bytes, says the Times.

  • Gorgeous pictures of the Volvo ocean race on The Big Picture. Perhaps it will lead you, too, to ask, "how come some people get to spend their whole lives playing?"

  • A Fargo woman has made good on her plan to be credit-card-debt free by her 25th birthday, the Fargo Forum reports. The personal savings rate has risen to the highest level since 1995. Is it because people are stashing more away for emergencies, or paying off debt? How about you?

    WHAT WE'RE DOING

    Aside from the obvious...

    Midmorning - First hour: How to prepare for the end of the life. Say, there's a snappy pick-me-up for a Monday. Second hour: The science of emotional survival.

    Midday - First hour: P. M. Forni, speaking at the Washington County Library about his book "Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct." Second hour: Former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe and Minority Leader Duane Benson will be in the studio to discuss how to resolve tax, policy and funding disagreements in the final week of the legislative session. Salient point: Moe was in charge when the Legislature was setting records for overriding a governor.

    Talk of the Nation - Ted Koppel talks torture, and in the second hour, NPR bloggers and regulars.

    All Things Considered -- Minnesota is no longer making any headway against drunk driving. The stats haven't improved since the '90s. Why not? Dan Olson reports. Brandt Williams will have the story of a settlement hearing in the Fong Lee case. From Washington there'll be two -- two -- segments on what happens to your online profile after you die (what is this: death day?). I answered that question while filling in on Future Tense weeks ago.

  • I have a need to interview people doing ordinary things this week. Submit your recommendation, or DM me on Twitter. Maybe it's you?

    (1 Comments)

    • Should priests be celibate?

    Posted at 10:00 AM on May 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
    Filed under: Religion

    What should the Church do now with Padre Alberto, dubbed "Pastor Oprah," in his role as a TV priest. He was "caught" by photographers with a woman on a beach, and says he should -- and all priests should -- be allowed to marry.

    "There are plenty of good, practical and faithful reasons why the Church asks its priests to remain celibate: the priest is married to the church; priests have lifestyles that are incompatible with family life; priests (who also take poverty vows) don't make enough money to allow them to support families; celibacy frees them to focus on their priestly duties," writes the Washington Post's On Faith blog, while pointing out that Protestant pastors who are married and convert to Catholicism are allowed to stay married. So if some priests can be married and married to the church, why can't others?

    In 2004, a Minnesota Franciscan sister surveyed seminaries about celibacy and found "that some seminary faculty members lack confidence to make appropriate interventions and recommendations, and some are uncertain how to deal with 'cross-cultural dynamics relative to sexuality' -- especially when dealing with formation of the foreign-born seminarians who now make up about one-fourth of the theology-level students in U.S. seminaries."

    One presumes it's coming up in discussions today.

    (7 Comments)

    After Saberi

    Posted at 11:37 AM on May 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
    Filed under: Media

    Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald finds journalistic hypocrisy in the backpatting going on following the release of journalist Roxana Saberi.

    He suggests perhaps the media should be interested now in the plight of journalists being held without charges by the U.S. and/or allies,

    Many people scoff at the notion that the American media propagandizes the American citizenry, but here one sees the vivid essence of that process. Our establishment media loves to point to and loudly condemn the behavior of other governments as proof of how tyrannical and evil they are -- look at those Iranian mullah-fanatics imprisoning journalists/look at those primitive, corrupt, lawless Iraqis and their "culture of impunity"/look at the UAE and their tolerance of torture -- while completely ignoring, when they aren't justifying, identical behavior by our own government.

    (2 Comments)

    Gas prices jumping

    Posted at 1:24 PM on May 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
    Filed under: Energy, Politics

    Despite what the weather might suggest, there must be a summer coming. Gas prices are heading up in a hurry.

    In the Twin Cities today, the price of a gallon jumped about 20-cents-a-gallon, to about $2.39 in some locations, still lower than the $3.61 of a year ago, but we might get back there soon enough.

    It was July 2005, when we visited these levels for the first time. The state had shut down over a budget dispute between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Legislature.

    Coincidence?

    (3 Comments)

    A failure to communicate

    Posted at 3:26 PM on May 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
    Filed under: Politics

    budget_impasse.jpg

    At the Capitol today, Governor Tim Pawlenty offered some changes to his position on the state budget.

    According to the Associated Press, "the governor offered to cut his borrowing plan in half and to agree to a larger amount of deferred education spending that wouldn't appear on the books during this budget period. He also said he would divert $250 million he wanted in a reserve account to the general budget." (More via Polinaut)

    The governor offered the suggestion "in the spirit of compromise" by sending a letter to legislative leaders.

    Let's look at the Capitol floor plan, again.

    capitol_floor_plan.jpg

    House leaders rejected the idea by posting it on Twitter.

    From House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher:

    Governor's letter a compromise? Compromise in word only, doesn't balance the budget. Not a responsible plan.

    House Majority Leader Tony Sertich also used Twitter, but "retweeted" a reporter's "tweet" to reject the idea:

    Agreed. RT @sturdevant: Gov's first end-of-session proposal is more of the same: loads of one-time money.

    I don't think the governor is going to see it on Twitter. He only posts about once a day. His latest one is pretty old:

    Fishing opener banquet last night; Then to Rochester for daughter's Vball tournament; mom's day lunch; mowed grass and now cooking dinner.

    Meanwhile, aides are standing by in the event further negotiations are needed.

    pigeon_budget.jpg

    (5 Comments)

    Asleep at the wheel?

    Posted at 4:23 PM on May 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy

    Were business reporters asleep at the switch when it came to covering the financial industry over the last few years? NewsHour posted video late this afternoon of a forum held by the business press a few months ago in Denver.

    Larry Ingrassia of The New York Times said maybe the readers were asleep, "but the New York Times definitely wasn't." But most of the people in the video appeared to disagree.

    In an assessment of the panel in a Colorado Independent story last month veteran TV journalist Allan Dodds Frank blamed an old reportorial whipping boy: editors.

    "Fannie and Freddie were not covered on TV because there's no visual," he said.

    (2 Comments)
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