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News Cut: June 1, 2009 Archive

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Coleman-Franken: Last stop?

Posted at 10:22 AM on June 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

The Minnesota Supreme Court holds its hearing into Norm Coleman's appeal of Al Franken's apparent victory in the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota, starting at 9 a.m. on Monday. I hope you'll join me here for the hearing, and then we'll live-blog the follow-up analysis with Kerri Miller and guests.

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Five at 8 - June 1, 2009

Posted at 7:35 AM on June 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Thank goodness the weekend is over. Now we can get to the Monday morning rouser.

It's June 1, a day of unfairness for people who live on the even side of the street in communities with odd-even watering rules. Why should "odd people" get two days of watering, while the "even people" get to look longingly where the grass is greaner?

  • Several readings on the subject of government and business. Philip Greenspun considers the true nature of diversity on the Supreme Court; not racial or ethnic diversity, the "life experience" kind. The Supreme Court doesn't have it, he posits. It's got the life experiences of people who went to law school. What if there were business experience on the court?

    He uses South Dakota's George McGovern as an example that people with public service experience make poor businesspeople. McGovern reportedly said he wished he had the experiences he had running a motel before he went to Washington.

    The observations on business and government are particularly keen today because the government is going into the car business lock, stock, and barrel with General Motors' bankruptcy. So the future of GM, owned by the government, is in the hands of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which is run by the government.

    Meanwhile, Smart Politics calculates that the Supreme Court is getting younger. Will this bring a new perspective to cases involving young people?

  • What's the most exciting play in baseball? The inside-the-park homerun, according to Chris Jaffee of the Hardball Times. Harmon Killebrew had an inside-the-park homer on July 4, 1961, by the way. Any old-timers want to explain how that happened?

  • Privatization runs amok in Chicago. The city turned parking meters over to a private firm, and now there's no place to park bikes, the Sun-Times reports. Meters are being replaced by boxes, which allow people to pay for street-parking by credit card. That brings up a whole 'nother thread: Do we spend more money when we don't actually use cash in the day's mundane activities?

  • Having trouble sleeping? Spend more time on the Web.

  • An hour with John Hodgman. Now you need to figure out a way to fritter away the other 7 hours of your work day. I'll do what I can to help. (h/t: Open Culture)

    WHAT WE'RE WORKING ON

    This is a big day in the U.S. Senate election as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments starting at 9. Somewhere this weekend -- it might've been the Star Tribune -- I read from a former Supreme Court member that most justices already have their minds made up before the oral arguments in cases take place. I'll be blogging the arguments and then the subsequent analysis.

    Midmorning - Kerri's guests include Raleigh Levine, professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law; Jennifer Duffy, senior political reporter, Cook Political Report; and David Gergen, professor of public service at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

    Midday - The Senate analysis continues (as will the live-blogging). Professor Edward Foley of Ohio State University will take a few whacks at today's hearing and we'll take your calls, of course.

    In the second hour: A live broadcast from the National Press Club featuring former Vice President Dick Cheney and the recipients of the Gerald Ford Journalism Awards.

    Talk of the Nation - First hour: Saving the car companies. Is it worth it? Add your comment below.

    Hour two: If money doesn't make us happy, what does? You know, that's a whole thread of its own. What does make us happy. Maybe I'll get to that this week.

    All Things Considered - Court reporter Elizabeth Stawicki will put a bow on today's Supreme Court arguments. NPR will have the update on what looks at this hour to be a huge airline tragedy. An Air France jet is missing over the Atlantic. It's obviously gone down, but why?

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    • Changing industrials

    Posted at 12:05 PM on June 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy

    Traveler's -- the St. Paul-based (sort of) -- insurance company has made the big time. It has been added to the vaunted Dow Jones 30 industrials. It and Cisco have replaced the bankrupt General Motors and the teetering Citigroup.

    Here's are the current "members" of the industrials:

    3M
    Alcoa Inc
    American Express Company
    AT&T Inc
    Bank of America Corporation
    Boeing Co
    Caterpillar Inc.
    Chevron Corp
    Cisco
    E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
    Exxon Mobil Corp
    General Electric Company
    Hewlett-Packard Co.
    Intel Corporation
    International Business Machines
    Johnson & Johnson
    JP Morgan & Chase & Co
    Kraft Foods Inc.
    McDonald's Corporation
    Merck & Co., Inc.
    Microsoft Corporation
    Pfizer Inc
    The Coca-Cola Company
    The Home Depot, Inc.
    The Procter & Gamble Company
    Travelers
    United Technologies Corporation
    Verizon Communications
    Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Walt Disney Company

    There are no longer any automakers on the list.

    Compare it to the 30 Industrials of 1979, with an abundance of oil and steel.

    Allied Chemical
    General Foods
    Owens-Illinois Glass
    Aluminum Company of America
    General Motors Corporation
    Procter & Gamble Company
    American Can
    Goodyear
    Sears Roebuck & Company
    American Telephone & Telegraph
    Inco
    Standard Oil of California
    American Tobacco B
    International Business Machines
    Texaco Incorporated
    Bethlehem Steel
    International Harvester
    Union Carbide
    Du Pont
    International Paper Company
    United Technologies Corporation
    Eastman Kodak Company
    Johns-Manville
    U.S. Steel
    Exxon Corporation
    Merck & Company, Inc.
    Westinghouse Electric
    General Electric Company
    Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing
    Woolworth

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    Is college worth the money?

    Posted at 1:42 PM on June 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)
    Filed under: Schools

    A commentary in the Chronicle of Higher Education raises the possibility that college may be the next bubble to burst:

    Consumers who have questioned whether it is worth spending $1,000 a square foot for a home are now asking whether it is worth spending $1,000 a week to send their kids to college. There is a growing sense among the public that higher education might be overpriced and under-delivering.

    In such a climate, it is not surprising that applications to some community colleges and other public institutions have risen by as much as 40 percent. Those institutions, particularly community colleges, will become a more-attractive option for a larger swath of the collegebound. Taking the first two years of college while living at home has been an attractive option since the 1920s, but it is now poised to grow significantly.

    College enrollment, it says, crested this year and will be declining over the next few years. Some colleges are competing for fewer students by freezing tuitions.

    (h/t: Andrew Sullivan)

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    More newspapers try to be TV stations

    Posted at 4:03 PM on June 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
    Filed under: Media

    I worked in television in Boston once, between radio gigs. I hated it, though, because I was a TV fish out of radio water. "Write to the pictures!" was the mantra and I still don't get it. It was hard for a non-TV person to master. The Boston Globe's Bob Ryan was at the station around the same time, and quit to go back to newspapers for pretty much the same reason.

    Newspapers, however, seem bent on figuring it out. A few months ago, the Star Tribune started a daily "TV-style" newscast. Today, the Duluth News Tribune premiered DNTV (registration possibly required), a similar attempt. It's obviously too early in the project to judge, but I still don't get it.

    I can tell good use of video from bad, however, and the New York Times shows that newspapers can produce high-quality video in storytelling with its documentary tracing the decline of General Motors.

    It's a good example of what the newspaper TV stations are missing. There's plenty of talking head newscasts on television, but there aren't many well-produced documentaries. The New York Times is filling a niche. The Duluth News Tribune is not.

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