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News Cut: September 8, 2009 Archive

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Five at 8 - 9/8/09: Chase your passion

Posted at 7:40 AM on September 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

The kids are back in school? Say "yeah!" Here's the Monday Morning Rouser, special Tuesday edition.



1) Passion. You've got to have it or life gets boring in a hurry. What's your passion? Scott Johnson's is music, so he runs a radio station... from his porch in Montana. (If you know someone like this, let me know. I'd love to meet him/her.)

Did someone say passion? Summer's last gasp. Taken at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on Monday. That's amore!

bugs_on_plant.jpg

Which brings up this topic: Whatever happened to the birds and the bees?

2) Wait! I just got here! Lane Wallace asks, "Could we be outgrowing Facebook?"
So in that context, texting, Facebook and Twitter are all terrific developments that, among other things, certainly free up the family phone. The puzzling thing is why they've been so popular among people who are supposed to be a bit beyond that stage. At some point in our development, we're supposed to let go of that obsessive focus on what everyone else is doing in order to focus on our own work and achievements. We're supposed to mature into valuing fewer but more meaningful friendships over the herd social groups we favored as teenagers. And hopefully, we're supposed to get busy enough with more significant contributions to family, community and the world to either care about, or have time for, the movements and chatter of people we're not that deeply connected to. As free time becomes more limited, choices have to be made. And there's a trade-off: to go deep, you can't go as broad.
Without Facebook, how will we spy on our kids?




3) Courtesy of Open Culture: The opening of the Beatles Rock Band:



Sure, marketing is a big part of this, but has there ever been a video game that has generated more buzz?

It strikes me a demographic challenge. As Ars Technica points out, the Beatles long ago ceased being a band, and there's some question about whether a younger crowd -- the kind that buys video games -- sufficiently reveres the group:
This game is a love letter to the legend and music of the Beatles, and if that isn't attractive to you, then the game won't be able to convince you that it's worth your time. But if your interest is piqued, however, get ready for an experience that captures, encapsulates, and re-contextualizes a huge part of our collective popular culture.
 Some video stores -- hey, remember those? -- are opening tonight at midnight around here when the game is officially released.

4) President Obama speaks to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. The August congressional break is over and now it's time to decide whether anything is going to be done. Today's Washington Post has eight questions and answers about health care. Meanwhile, the Associated Press looks at several communities where health care already is reformed. La Crosse, Wisconsin is one of them.
... where astoundingly, nearly 95 percent of senior citizens have living wills to guide end-of-life care, meaning more hospice care and less hospitalization while dying. That has Medicare paying about $18,000 for the last two years of a beneficiary's life here, compared to nearly $64,000 for end-of-life care in Miami, the nation's priciest health market, according to the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.
 This morning on CBS, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the health care debate is Obama's opportunity to "put meat on the bones."



5) Here's something Hooper Tomato Days had that the Minnesota State Fair didn't have. Free sponges dropped by air.

TODAY'S QUESTION

How will you remember the summer of '09?

It's the summer I got all of the around-the-house chores one the list completed. Mostly.

WHAT WE'RE DOING

I'll have another installment in the News Cut series, "The Unemployed" posted by early this afternoon.

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: MPR education beat reporter Tom Weber and others dissect the president's speech to the nation's school kids (available here) .

Second hour: Political observers are anticipating the release of the memoir of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Will the memoir reveal new details about the personal life and struggles of the late senator, or merely recount his storied political career?

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: More discussion about President Obama's speech to school children, and studio guests Tom Dooher of Education Minnesota and Charles Kyte of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators.

Second hour: A panel discussion from the Aspen Ideas Festival about how we learn to read. Speakers include former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, a reading specialist and a brain scientist.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: One college already established a quarantine dorm, for students with swine flu. Massachusetts is considering forced quarantines, and home inspections. The latest on the H1N1 flu.

Second hour: Matthew Shepard's mother, Judy, discusses her book, "The Meaning of Matthew."

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - MPR's Tom Weber looks at some of the new schools that are opening. Are they just really nice -- and expensive -- buildings or do they really help improve the education of kids?

MPR's health reporter, Lorna Benson, looks at how colleges and universities around here are preparing for H1N1.

NPR's Brian Mann reports that while the National Guard is meeting its recruiting goals, it's having a hard time finding members of the clergy to serve. Neda Ulaby looks at how words move from acceptable to slurs. Take, leotard, for example.

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The Unemployed: Rick Miller

Posted at 12:01 PM on September 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, The Unemployed series

rick_miller.jpg

Today's employers can learn a few things from yesterday's employees. Rick Miller's lesson would be a simple one: When the job's filled, call or e-mail the applicants to let them know.

Miller, 52, of Stillwater, lost his job as a project manager/sales coordinator at a company in Circle Pines in January and he says he hasn't had a decent interview for a job in months, not since he almost got one in March. He'd survived the first round of interviews and the second one a week later went 2 1/2 hours -- on his birthday -- with three people and the company's owner.

"We'll get back to you on Friday," he said he was told. But no call came on Friday. He followed up with a phone call on Monday, but it wasn't returned. Over the next six weeks, he called with the same result. Finally, he gave up.

"How long would it have taken?" he asks. "Nobody has the common courtesy anymore."

It's another frustrating aspect of the frustration of the unemployed.

His $430 a week unemployment just ran out, but he considers himself one of the lucky ones. "It would be hard to be positive if you're the breadwinner," he says. "I'm lucky in my case. Otherwise, it'd be tough." His wife is an attorney with her own practice. The couple has some rental property in Hudson, which he has more time to work on. That's a good thing now that the most recent renters didn't pay rent for three months, "and left the place a total disaster."

He also gets up weekdays at 3 a.m. and hits the health club. "I have been on this type of schedule for 20-plus years. A good early-morning workout gets me ready for the day and gives me the energy to keep looking for work and also take on all of the other activities I am involved in."

But it's easier being chipper in a bad economy when the weather is good. He says it's going to be harder when winter comes and there's not as much around-the-house work to do.

In the meantime, he'll continue making dinner and networking for leads. He's tried social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, but he's not sure it's working. Still, he says "the mundane task of looking and keeping it all organized" helps keep him motivated. He applies for jobs and keeps track of his contacts. "I check back with them every two weeks and when eight weeks hits, I throw it out," he says. "If I keep at it, something is going to pay off."

His advice to those who might become unemployed? Try to negotiate fewer hours. He wishes he had. "See if there's any way they can keep you on," he says. "Then you can say, 'OK, in three months I'll be out of a job. I'll start looking now and I can be fussier.'" He's not being fussy now. He's applying for part-time positions. "Most of what's out there isn't paying anything," he says. And the rest aren't calling back.

(Unemployed? Let me tell your story. Contact me. See other posts in this series. )



Check out the map below to read what people in MPR's Public Insight Network are telling us about the job climate around them.

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The president's speech to students

Posted at 1:08 PM on September 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Schools



Now that President Obama's speech to the nation's school children is over, we can move on to other issues.

Let's move on to President Bush's (the elder) speech to the kids in 1991. Specifically, this part:
Progress starts when we ask more of ourselves, our schools and, yes, you, our students. We made a start nationally now by setting six National Education Goals to meet the challenges of the 21st century. By the year 2000, at least 9 in every 10 students should graduate from high school. We should be first in the world in math and science. We need to regularly test student's abilities. Every American child should start school ready to learn; every American adult should be literate; and every American school should be safe and drug-free. Reaching those goals is the aim of a strategy that we call America 2000, a crusade for excellence in American education, school by school, community by community.

But what does all this mean, you might say, what is he doing, what does this all mean for the students right here in this room? Fast-forward -- 5 years from now. Unless things change, between now and 1996 as many as one in four of today's eighth graders will not graduate with their class. In some cities, the dropout rate is twice that high or higher. Imagine: Out of a total of nearly 3 million of your fellow classmates nationwide, an army of more than half a million dropouts.

I ask every student watching today: Look around you. Count four students. Start with yourself. No one dreams of becoming a dropout, but far too many do. Which one of you won't make it through school?
 After we're done getting worked up on both sides of the "should school kids hear a talk by a president," maybe we can devote a little ire to the fact the nation failed -- and failed miserably -- at changing President Bush's projection.

In fact, the dropout rate is much worse than the president could have imagined. In 16 of the 50 largest cities, only about half of the students graduate.

Minneapolis ranked 40th in the survey, according to the Cities in Crisis 2009 report, with a graduation rate of 45.3 percent in 2005. In the entire metropolitan Twin Cities area, 75.3% of the kids graduated. The area ranks 30th in closing the gap between kids in suburban vs. urban schools.

The last time a president spoke to the nation's schoolchildren, it's clear that a lot of them weren't listening. Do you expect more this time?

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Coal ash dumps in Minnesota

Posted at 3:41 PM on September 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Energy

coal_ash_spill.jpg

Remember this? It's the coal ash spill in Kingston, Tenn., in December 2008. When an earthen dam gave way, more than 1 billion gallons of gray, toxic sludge inundated hundreds of acres.

It prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to find out how many sites out there are holding the toxic leftovers -- coal ash -- from the nation's power plants.

Now, the results are in. The EPA says there are 600 of them spread around 35 states. Four of the sites are in Minnesota.

Black Dog Generating Plant, Burnsville
Has four holding ponds, but only one has small amounts of coal ash, according to Xcel Energy. The company says it could find no evidence the dikes at the ponds were built with the help of a professional engineer. There has been no federal or state inspections.

Riverside Generating Plant, Minneapolis
It's in the process of being converted from coal to a gas-fired facility. A pond on the site will be eliminated this year or next. It contains a small amount of ash particles, the company said.

Sherburne County Generating Plant, Becker
The plant uses three ponds for coal ash from three plants. One is being closed and capped and the water is being pumped out. They were designed by a professional engineer, and the Department of Natural Resources inspected the operation in June 2008. The company says it has found no evidence of spills to water in the last 10 years, and two released to land over that time.

All of these are owned by Xcel. Here's the documentation submitted to the EPA.

Minnesota Valley Generating Plant, Granite Falls
Xcel reported the plant is not operating and hasn't generated "significant" amounts of coal ash for more than 10 years. When it does, four ponds are used. It says it could not locate records of a professional engineer being used, nor records of the ponds being inspected. It says it knows of no known spills but says the ponds were flooded in the Minnesota River floods of 1997 and 2001 and coal ash could have been carried away.

Here's the documentation on this plant.

There is no regulation of the residue produced by coal-burning power plants.

In a 2007 article, Scientific American said the the waste produced by coal plants "is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant--a by-product from burning coal for electricity--carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy."

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Funeral arrangements announced for slain officer

Posted at 4:20 PM on September 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

A news release from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety has details of the funeral for Richard Crittenden, who was killed in the line of duty in North St. Paul on Monday morning.

The funeral service for slain North St. Paul Police officer Richard Crittenden will be held Friday, September 11, 11 a.m. at Aldrich Arena, 1850 North White Bear Avenue in Maplewood.

Visitation will take place Thursday, September 10, 4 - 8 p.m. at Sandberg Funeral Home, 2539 East Seventh Avenue in North St. Paul.

Officer Crittenden, 57, a nine-year veteran of the North St. Paul Police Department, died at the scene and a Maplewood police officer was injured during a domestic call in the 2200 Block of Skillman Avenue East in North St. Paul on Monday morning. A woman called police to report a violation of an order of protection. When the officers arrived, they confronted a male suspect and a struggle ensued. During the struggle, two officers and the suspect were shot.

The Maplewood police officer was treated and released at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. The suspect died on the scene.

The City of North St. Paul has established a memorial fund for slain Police Officer Richard Crittenden. Officer Crittenden was killed on Monday, September 7, 2009, in the line of duty.

The fund has been set up at Anchor Bank Heritage, N.A. in North St. Paul. Donations can be made at any Anchor Bank location, or can be sent to the North St. Paul branch at 2700 7th Ave. E., North St. Paul, MN 55109. Checks should be made payable to the Richard Crittenden Memorial Fund.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is investigating the shooting.

Meanwhile, we got this e-mail today from a reader in North St. Paul:

If you haven't figured it out yet, Officer Crittenden wasn't liked, he was loved. He had a irascible tone to him, he'd like you to think that he was a hard-nosed cop, but he had a twinkle in his eye that told you he was one of the truly good guys. He loved what he did and was good at it. I used to chat with him in the morning at Holiday as he got his coffee.

Earlier this year as I stopped in on my way to work I went into the Holiday station and parked out front was this beautiful police motorcycle. Yup, Rick had his boots on and was policing on the motorcycle. He had a grin on his face from ear to ear. The sun was shining, the day was good, and Rick I'm sure had a wonderful day riding on that cycle. God bless you Rick, and our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. There's a special place in heaven for men like you. You've earned that place. Thank you for your service to the community, and thank you for your sacrifice.

Of course, we still don't know what exactly happened in yesterday's shooting.

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Tennis' troubles

Posted at 5:30 PM on September 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

I stopped following tennis when Chris Evert's career ended and when John McEnroe stopped owning the U.S. Open crowd.

Apparently one of those things didn't end afterall:

The truth is, the high point of tennis in the U.S. wasn't because of the tennis. People just wanted to be there when McEnroe's head exploded.

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