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News Cut: May 27, 2009 Archive

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Five at 8 - May 27, 2009

Posted at 7:34 AM on May 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

  • By the time you read this, your counterpart in Japan has already moved on to the next post. The BBC has mapped the state of the broadband world with this map and finds that the free market system in the U.S. keeps us creeping along.

  • Archeology on the Gunflint Trail. A small group searches for signs of an old logging camp on Vance Lake. (The Edge blog)

  • From the Lens blog on the New York Times: Life on an Arkansas prison farm. These photographs were unviewed for years because the negatives had water spots. Enter the digital age! A digital printer and Photoshop were the keys to a trip back in time.

  • Daydreaming Timewaster: A zeppelin flight over Long Beach, Ca. (The Cranky Flier)

  • There's a rash of buttock stabbing attacks by hooligans in Rome. (BBC)

    WHAT WE'RE DOING

    Midmorning -- Are America's brightest days behind it? The first-hour guest thinks so. Equal time, anyone? In the second hour: The science of tornadoes. BTW, I'm still looking for experienced tornado storm chasers.

    Midday -- It's day two of the Sonia Sotomayor era. Gary Eichten will provide further analysis of the Supreme Court pick. In the second hour, the American RadioWorks documentary Bridge to Somewhere: Lessons from the New Deal. Can't wait? Here's the Web site.

    Talk of the Nation -- NPR political editor Ken Rudin talks up Sotomayor in the first hour. The Hauser case occupies the second hour. Why do some patients refuse life-saving treatment?

    All Things Considered -- A festival in India over the weekend marked Bob Dylan's 68th birthday. No other city has been honoring Dylan's birth for so long -- 38 years. How do you like that, Hibbing?

    (2 Comments)

    • The Toledo experience

    Posted at 10:54 AM on May 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

    Jet America has announced plans to start service from Toledo to Minneapolis, with some fares as low as $9.

    The blog, The Cranky Flier, is full of disbelief.

    I honestly couldn't make this sound any worse if I tried. The CEO is John Weikle, one of the original founders of Skybus. He has slightly tweaked the plans laid out when the airline was going to be named Air Azul. Now, the flights from Rockford are gone, as are the BWI connectors. And instead of infringing upon JetBlue's trademark, they'll now infringe upon Alaska's trademark. Alaska still owns the trademark for Jet America to provide charter airline services. And yes, this is a charter operation for now.

    Right. Skybus. The people who left hundreds of passengers stranded when it went belly up. How much are you willing to risk to be stranded in Toledo?

    There's more. The airline will have only two jets. Other routes include Newark and Lansing, Melbourne (Florida), and South Bend. Some of these cities are paying Jet America to fly there. Minneapolis isn't one of them.

    Toledo bills itself as a "business friendly" city. In March, it reported an unemployment rate of 12.3 percent.

    (1 Comments)

    Soaring gas prices

    Posted at 2:35 PM on May 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
    Filed under: Energy

    DSC_1572.jpg

    Gas prices rose 20 cents in the Twin Cities area on Tuesday, a day after dropping 6 cents. The top price in these parts is $2.59 a gallon, a 31-percent jump from a month ago, and well ahead of the nationwide 19-percent increase.

    The price of a barrel of oil has jumped almost 79% so far this year. It comes as analysts say the demand for gasoline is still dropping.

    What's going on?

    According to a report from McClatchy, big investment houses are bidding up the price, in anticipation of the economy turning around.


    Big Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, and others are able to sidestep the regulations that limit investments in commodities such as oil, and they are investing on behalf of pension funds, endowments, hedge funds, and other big institutional investors, in part as a hedge against inflation.

    A year ago, Minnesota -- what with its blend of ethanol and all -- had the lowest prices in the nation. This year, however, the Upper Midwest is among the higher-priced regions.

    Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates said gasoline prices could be back down to nearly $2 a gallon by the end of summer.

    (Photo: Tom Weber)

    (8 Comments)

    The spelling bee

    Posted at 12:29 PM on May 27, 2009 by Bob Collins

    spelling_bee_1.jpg

    Five Minnesota kids are participating in the national spelling bee which got underway today. Here's how serious this stuff is: A CNBC writer has handicapped the competition, downgrading one contestant because he's blogging for the local paper. What's next? Office brackets?

    Profiles of the Minnesota students participating are posted on the bee's Web site. The contestants are Ryan Kisch of Barnesville, Daniel Halvorson of Mankato, Anja Beth Swoap of Edina, Laura Galbus of Rochester, and Audrey Lothspeich of Staples.

    In round 2 this morning, Lothspeich advanced by correctly spelling perishable, Kisch got maverick, Halvorson spelled roulette correctly, Swoap got ludicrous right and Galbus scored with initiate.

    Words that tripped up contestants in the third round (but not the Minnesota kids) include giusto, kibbutzim, Sarsar, fettuccelle, and turgescent , all of which are also highlighted by my blog program's spell-checker..

    Update 2:40 p.m. - Correct answers for Kisch (maquiladora ), Halvorson (pestis) , and Swoap (koinonia ), and Lothspeich (tintinnabulation).

    Update 3:01 p.m. Galbus was tripped up on mousseline (mouseline).

    Update 5:56 p.m. - Here's the list of semifinalists. Unfortunately, none of the Minnesota kids advanced. The scoring system involved more than the two rounds of answering correctly (or incorrectly).

    Photo: Getty Images

    Gun background checks increase

    Posted at 4:04 PM on May 27, 2009 by Bob Collins

    MPR's Than Tibbetts has sent along an update of a post I made last January with an increase in gun sales following the election of Barack Obama.

    According to the FBI, there have been 110,488 background checks for firearms owners in Minnesota since the beginning of 2009. Over a 10-year period, the state averaged 18,500 checks per month.

    The rate of increase in Minnesota is higher than the national average. Nationally, federal background checks are up about 25 percent.

    In DC recently, a gun show promoter's advertisement said, "Come and get them while you still can."

    A story last month on NPR suggested that goes for ammunition, too.

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