News Cut: June 19, 2009 Archive

Five at 8 - 6/19/09

Posted at 7:37 AM on June 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Friday flashback: Many forecasters have one word for summer: COOL Our 8 a.m. temperature in the Twin Cities: 75. Discussion point: Which is hyped more: severe weather or swine flu?

A suicide bombing in Somalia puts the Twin Cities on edge. Does it have anything to do with the missing Twin Cities Somali men? The short (and long) answer? We don't know. Time Magazine has a piece today, "Behind the Suicide Bomb in Somalia," but there is no identity of the attacker.

I am not prepared for the death of Walter Cronkite.


That's the extent of the sobering news on today's 5@8. It's Friday, and Fridays are for "soft landings" into the weekend, even if it takes more than five items to do it.

What's Stephen Colbert like when he's out of character? Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has the video.

He's better when he's in character.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Murder in the White House - Jeff Goldblum
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

Another installment in the New York Times' "One in 8 Million" series: The struggling stand-up comedian. He's not that funny.

During World War II, hundreds of German prisoners passed through New Ulm. The daughter of one visited the area recently, the New Ulm Journal reports. One of the debates at the time, according to this American Legion feature, was whether they had to buy fishing licenses.

I mentioned to The Current's Mary Lucia during a "newscast" that if you're an older guy around smaller kids, you have to be careful people don't think you're a pedophile. When the Girl Scout rings the doorbell in January when it's 10 below to sell you cookies, you don't invite her in. You sit on the stoop and freeze. It's just the way it is. Just ask Charles Quimby of Across the Great Divide. He is documenting Twin Cities lemonade stands. He ran into the same problem in Crystal.

Bonus: Rats gamble for the same reason people do.

WHAT WE'RE DOING

There will be a News Cut Quiz posted here later this afternoon. Earlier this week, a colleague complained that it was too hard. It made me wistful.

Midmorning - What's Barack Obama really like? Richard Wolffe was given extraordinary access to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. His new book chronicles Obama's evolution as a candidate and the moments that shaped his campaign. He's Kerri Miller's guest in the first hour. Second hour: This may be the best hour of the week. The use of language in politics. It's a minefield for journalists.

Midday - First hour: The latest from Iran. Second hour: Meteorologist Paul Huttner.

Talk of the Nation - It's Science Friday! First hour: Can a health care bill survive Congress? Second hour: A look at new research on sperm and infertility. How does the way sperm is packaged affect development? I'm betting they won't get around to this BBC story: Huge sperm of ancient crustaceans.

All Things Considered - Cities are turning to volunteers to do the work once done by paid employees. How's that working in Duluth? MPR's Bob Kelleher will have the story.

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The Renter's Credit impact

Posted at 10:30 AM on June 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

MPR's Jessica Mador provides some insight into the impact of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's trimming of the Minnesota Renter's Credit as part of the effort to balance the state budget without raising taxes.

That's Robert Zozaski, who lives in subsidized rental housing in Breckenridge. He's 80 years old, a veteran of the Korean War and he's thinning his packaged soup to help make ends meet. The credit goes to about 270,000 low- and moderate-income Minnesotans.

Here's what Jess wrote:

The credit is essentially a tax refund intended to offset renters' share of property taxes. (Many) homeowners get one, too but the governor's proposed cuts would only affect renters.

The refund goes to people who earn about $50,000 or less, but more than half of the households make less than $20,000 a year. An estimated 28 percent are seniors and people with disabilities.

Eighty-year old Korean War veteran Robert Zozaski lives in subsidized rental housing in Breckenridge. Between his Social Security check and his pension from the VA, he gets by on about $930 a month. He says he saves money by eating lots of ramen noodles.

"The ramen noodles and chicken flavor, I like. One package of that, I double the water so I make two meals out of it. What I do is I buy them by the case when they are a dime a pack. That's $2.40 a case. That's quite a few meals," he says.

Zozaski has a heart condition. Luckily, his medications are paid for by the VA, but he worries about the sodium in the ramen and other cheap foods he relies on but says it's all he can really afford.

He'll have to figure out a way to save even more money if he loses his Renter's Credit, which usually puts a few hundred dollars extra in his pocket. He uses it to buy new clothes and pay a county home health aide, who comes twice a month to help with laundry and chores.

Zozaski says he doubts the governor and lawmakers know what it's like to live on ramen.

The governor's budget would cut the Renter's Credit by more than a quarter - about $51 million a year, a deeper cut than he has proposed in the past.

Stay tuned

Are you receiving the Renter's Credit? Tell us about your budget.

On his weekly radio show today, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the cut that his fellow politicians have been most vocal about, is the end of the rebate for political contributions, according to the Pioneer Press' Rachel Stassen-Berger.

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Minnesota's airports

Posted at 10:29 AM on June 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

A good use of YouTube by a Minnesota agency. The Metropolitan Airports Commission has produced a series of videos about each of the six "reliever" airports in the Twin Cities.

Here's the feature on Crystal, for example.

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Politicization of the language

Posted at 11:57 AM on June 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

"It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes."
-- George Orwell

Is it torture or harsh interrogation tactics? National Public Radio ombudsman Alicia Shepard told MPR Midmorning host Kerri Miller she'll have a piece on her online column later today because "NPR listeners are furious that we're not calling a spade a spade."

So the timing was perfect for today's Midmorning hour on how our language has been politicized, and how a point of view creeps into the journalism.

At MPR, for example, pro-choice and pro-life and no-no's. Instead, we use phrases such as legalized abortion. Of more recent vintage is the controversy over the use partial birth abortion. It is a virtually endless debate.

That said, here's a list of the words or phrases that came up in this morning's broadcast, either from the guests -- Shepard and Karlyn Kohrs Campbell from the University of Minnesota -- or callers. Add your own below.

Public plan vs. government plan
Death tax
Public option vs. government takeover
Waterboarding
Disabled person vs. Person with disabilities
Enhanced interrogation technique
Fee vs. tax
Break news
Abortion doctor
Latino
Collateral damage
Regime vs. government

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The Quiz is back!

Posted at 3:25 PM on June 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (24 Comments)
Filed under: The Quiz

Please be sure to let us know how you did (via the comments section below).

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