News Cut: May 2010 Archive

Five by 8 - 5/3/10: When luck runs out

Posted at 7:03 AM on May 3, 2010 by Bob Collins
Filed under: Five by 8

Mondays are for the Rouser, but today it seemed fitting to make it a blues piece.

1) A car bomb in Times Square didn't work right over the weekend, a guy's underwear bomb fizzles on Christmas. The difference between a normal day and an international tragedy is the incompetence of some people. But this weekend's "near miss" in New York has us thinking "what-if?" Apparently, the New Yorker's Nick Paumgarten is too. He considers the work of Irwin Redlener at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University:

The idea of preparedness, during the Cold War, was absurd, a fantasy; a full-tilt exchange of warheads would have been unsurvivable, and so, as people came to recognize the futility of the Eisenhower- and Kennedy-era placebos and sops (duck-and-cover, Bert the Turtle, back-yard fallout shelters), they stopped thinking about preparing. Prevention was all. But a terrorist attack is different: harder to prevent, easier to survive.

Bombs have been going off all over the world for years -- why has New York been spared since the first World Trade Center attack? Luck.

It's New York, so there's always at least one camera watching (like downtown St. Paul in that respect). At least one caught the image of the guy who apparently drove the car bomb to Times Square. Here's the game changer: He's white.

When they find this guy -- and they will -- will he be tried in New York?

2) David Longbehn, a 25-year-old veteran of the St. Paul Police Department, is going to get some time off, as is standard when police officers are involved in a shooting. Officer Longbehn is the officer who fought off an an attack by 21-year-old Jason John Jones and fatally wounded Jones, who is believed to have been one of two people who killed a Maplewood police officer a few hours earlier.

Officer Longbehn was featured on an episode of Animal Planet in October 2008. You can watch it here.

Longbehn was also one of several police officers and city officials sued by the protesters at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul for a raid on a home several days before the convention started. (Read affadavit)

3) This is one of those "what's right with people?" days. So here's one: A 90-year-old woman had a "bucket list" item remaining -- go to a prom. So she did, thanks to her great grandson.

In New Ulm yesterday, about 75 seniors went to their prom, too.

4) I wish This American Life would encode individual segments, but they don't. So if you want to hear the very definition of poignant, you'll have to scroll ahead to Act 3 of this week's Scene of the Crime program. Dan Savage tells the story of the death of his mother and his return -- sort of -- to church. Here's some Kleenex.

5) The best images and observations from this weekend's May Day parade in Minneapolis can be found here, here, and here. Favorite: "Young anarchist biker-types."

Bonus: How long could you go without the technology invented after you were born. There'll be a fair amount of "tsk tsking" abut the younger generation as the result of this story in the University of Minnesota Daily, but it's unlikely any current generation could do it.

A professor asked students to replace their technology with the technology of the '70s for a week. Apparently, they lasted only two days. The professor wanted to teach them that technology is just a tool, and not an extension of themselves.

TODAY'S QUESTION

Most teenagers play some sort of video games, and some of the most popular games feature violent content. How have you seen violent video games affect your friends or family?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Video games that award points for killing opponents in brutal ways turns the stomachs of parents, but do they harm kids? The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear a case that contests California's wish to ban the sale or rental of violent video games to children. Two guests who have studied the effects of video games talk about what happens when kids participate in virtual violence.

Second hour: A typical pre-teen girl today obsesses with her appearance and forms close attachments to friends, according to psychologist Leonard Sax. He says the shrinking window of childhood hurts girls in the long run because it prevents them from creating their own identities.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour:

Second hour:

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: Remembering Kent State.

Second hour: TBA

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - Wildfire officials say the moisture levels in much of northern Minnesota is worse than any time in recent memory; probably since the drought years of 1976 and '77. State and federal agencies are aggressively attacking wildfires from the air to prevent small fires from quickly growing to very large ones. Meanwhile, continued dryness could result in more restrictions on activities - including a potential ban on logging in some places. MPR's Bob Kelleher will have the story.

Film maker Robert Altman, writer/raconteur Studs Terkel, novelists Ray Bradbury and Phillip Roth. Hear why they feel they owe so much to radio legend Norman Corwin.

Five by 8 - 5/4/10: What New York teaches us

Posted at 7:34 AM on May 4, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) Why do security officials always take it out on airline passengers? When a man tried to light his shoe bomb on fire, we all had to take off our shoes, and we couldn't take mouthwash on our carry-ons. In December, another guy tried to light his underwear bomb on fire, and for a few days, we couldn't get up out of our seats.

Last weekend, someone tried to blow up Times Square with a car bomb in an SUV, and yet SUVs are still allowed in Manhattan. Why? Because the TSA isn't running midtown Manhattan.

The Atlantic's James Fallows says the response shows the difference between Washington and New York:

Something about airplanes and air travel heightens the emotional response to such threats (as Bruce Schneier and I discussed in a Second Life conversation recently). Thus the mood of fear and panic after this event seems less than after the foiled "underwear bombing" airline plot at Christmas time. But as a matter of logic, the steps above are what the TSA approach would necessitate. After all, we still feel the consequences (shoes off! no liquids!) of the failed "shoe bomber" in 2001, and there is no foreseeable reason to expect that to change.

There is one other crucial element in the Times Square case, and it can't be stressed often enough. So far we have seen a New York-style rather than a Washington-style response to the threat. And while New York is the least "American" of U.S. cities, its emotional and social response is just what America's should be.

Meanwhile, the suspect in the Times Square attempted bombing has been arrested. He's a Pakistani American. The "white guy" suspect? The one seen changing his shirt in the middle of a sidewalk? That, apparently, was just another guy on just another day in New York City, according to authorities.

Slate Magazine today considers three lessons from the incident, one is that terrorism manifests itself in criminal acts, and the acts are solved the old-fashioned way, treating it as crime, not war.

2) I've written a number of posts in recent weeks about court decisions protecting the right to free speech, even if it's despicable speech. What about "speaking" (publishing) the names of dead soldiers? California's Assembly has passed a bill making it illegal to print the names of fallen soldiers on T-shirts. It's aimed at shirts like this, which is being sold by a Web site called Carry A Big Sticker.

3) University of Minnesota Duluth officials have shut down a webcam that showed live images of the school's library. The live stream was also being posted on the Web site of a gay sauna in Duluth. The connection is unclear.

Down in the city, the University of Minnesota Daily reports that the U is shifting away from full-time faculty and opting for non-tenured faculty who can be easily cut. The paper raises the possibility that the trend will result in less long-term research.

4) A study out today confirms what your father told you: TV is rotting your brain. The study of 1,300 children started when they were between 2 and 4. Researchers revisited them when they turned 10, and found they did worse in school and had more physical problems. One problem with the science: It isn't science. There was no mechanism for an objective assessment of academic performance. The researchers asked the children's teachers for the assessment.

5) It's Ballpark Magic night at Target Field tonight, but you won't find it on the promotional schedule. The blog that's documented the construction of Target Field delivers one of the better lines we've heard in awhile: "You may also have noticed that ticket prices are climbing precipitously. I'm thinking that baseball outings this year will be about as spontaneous as mortgage refinancing -- and have similar origination fees!"

In Philadelphia, there's a brouhaha because a cop Tasered a kid who decided to run onto the field. Who hasn't wanted to Taser those goofs?

Bonus: Timewaster

TODAY'S QUESTION

Legislators have unveiled a plan to use public money to pay two-thirds the cost of a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings. Do you support the proposal for a new Vikings stadium?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: The Naked Economist explains why government needs "hacks" as much as "wonks," why the economic turmoil in Greece matters to us, and what he makes of the latest economic numbers.

Second hour: Bruce Feiler was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 and dreaded the thought of his young daughters growing up without a father figure. So he reached out to six men in his life and asked them to play his role for the girls in all passages of their lives.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: The Independence Party candidates for governor. I may live-blog the hour.

Second hour: MPR President Bill Kling will be in the studio to answer listener questions about MPR.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: Everyone has an opinion about Arizona's stringent new immigration law. But on the border, it's more than talk. It s daily life for folks like chili farmers who need workers to harvest their crop.

Second hour: The author of Wide Awake talks about her struggle for slumber.

Five by 8 - 5/5/10: 'What would I do?'

Posted at 7:38 AM on May 5, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

If you were born on 5/5/55, you turn 55 today.

1) The news gives us lots of opportunities to put ourselves in the position of others and ask, "What would I do in that situation?" Earlier this week, for example, we heard from the jogger who witnessed the shooting of a police officer, and got involved in summoning help.

Last evening's interview with Julie Pearce on All Things Considered is another example. The Duluth TV anchor, trained in nursing, knew she had to do something when the earthquake struck Haiti; more than just read into a camera and tell you about it. So she quit, and went to Haiti. She left the rest of us asking ourselves, "What would I do?"

"I've seen dead bodies line the street, seen babies born, watched babies die, held mothers who have lost their children, treated gunshot wounds and children hit by cars, watched children cry, helped children smile, been in several earthquakes, been scared to go to sleep, and grateful to see another day. I've seen the worst in people and the best in people."

2) Last summer, a Detroit columnist got it right when he said a tragedy in life is that Ernie Harwell never got a chance to sit on the porch on a summer night and listen to Ernie Harwell call a baseball game. Harwell died yesterday, leaving Vin Scully as the last great baseball announcer.

3) If you turn right at a red light today, think of Roy Schulz, who sponsored the legislation in the Minnesota House. Schulz, from Mankato, was a long-time lawmaker until his retirement in 1970. He died over the weekend.

The Mankato Free Press offers a tribute to him, along with a reminder that back in the day when the Minnesota legislative process worked, it was -- technically -- non-partisan.

Schulz was a Republican but the Legislature was technically nonpartisan throughout his tenure, so he was a member of the Conservative Caucus that held the majority. Searle remembers one of the most monumental battles coming when lawmakers wanted to pass the state's first sales tax despite the objections of Republican Gov. Harold LeVander.

Searle said the entire Conservative Caucus was invited to a meeting with LeVander the night before the vote, where he pleaded with them to not pass the sales tax and then threatened a veto when they weren't persuaded. They passed the bill, LeVander vetoed it and the conservatives recruited a pair of liberals to join them in overriding the veto in the House.

Fast-forwarding to May 5, 2010. The Minnesota House late last night passed a health and human services bill with $164 million in cuts, mostly to programs for the poor. They're wasting their time. Gov. Tim Pawlenty says he'll veto the bill and whack almost a half-billion dollars from the budget on his own. Can he do that? Yes, unless the Minnesota Supreme Court overturns his authority to do so. A ruling on that question could come tomorrow morning.

A bill providing public financing of a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings survived its first test yesterday.

4) The Star Tribune looks at how a couple of crooks ended up with the ability to kill a cop on Saturday. Meanwhile, in Chicago, a woman was sent to jail for wearing a T-shirt.

5) The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico will never work its way up the Mississippi, of course. But its impact will. Local farmers may be unable to ship crops throughout the world, the Winona Daily News reports.

Bonus: Your flash mob video of the day:

I believe the university president is in that group.

TODAY'S QUESTION

Does Minnesota need tighter limits on access to guns?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Architect and author Sarah Susanka talks about how to remodel your home when money is tight and the space is small.

Second hour: Minnesota's famously short growing season begins and Rebecca Kolls has ideas for growing vegetables and managing your landscape.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: GOP-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.

Second hour: John Heileman and Mark Halperin, authors of the best-selling book, "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime."

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: Last year, Sen. Arlen Specter bolted the Republican Party. Now, he has to prove himself to Democrats in his home state. Joe Sestak, his opponent in the Pennsylvania primary this month, won't make that easy. They both join NPR political editor Ken Rudin.

Second hour: Meghan Daum has a house problem. For her, happiness was always just a new house away, and real estate was an obsession. Finally, she sunk her savings into
900 square feet of bungalow at the height of the housing boom.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - Next year, the first wave of baby boomers turns 65. That will set into motion a demographic shift that will strain state and federal budgets for decades to come. In 10 years, one in six Minnesotans will be over the traditional retirement age. But some rural parts of the state are already there. Todd County, located an hour northwest of St. Cloud, is discovering the difficulty of caring for a growing elderly population with less state money to pay for services. MPR's Curtis Gilbert will have the story.

An ongoing study of prairie land in North Dakota and South Dakota shows some prairie birds appear to be affected by the presence of wind turbines while others are not. Researchers are also trying to determine if wind turbines will scare ducks away from prime nesting habitat. MPR's Dan Gunderson will report.

Five by 8 - 5/6/10: And now a word from your lake

Posted at 7:21 AM on May 6, 2010 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) 1000 Friends of Minnesota is releasing the results of its essay contest in which Minnesota writers described a connection with a Minnesota lake. It will post one each day.

The latest comes from Will Weaver who recalls building a house in turtle country.

"There's another one, too!" my wife said, pointing to the yard. In fact there were several. All had come up from the river on the same day-which over the years we have charted to fall on or close to June 21, the longest day of the year. We had as many as dozen big turtles crawling about the yard, digging up the new lawn they tried to find their former nesting sites.

We felt like intruders. Like we had built our house upon sacred ground. The next few days we watched the turtles lay their eggs. They hunched backwards, scraping away dirt with their rear claws, urinating to soften the crust of gravel until they were half-way underground. Afterward, sometimes the same night, predators-crows, skunks, raccoons- dug up the nests and ate the eggs. We felt helpless.

Find the latest essay here.

Extra credit: Identify the lake above.

2) You go to work today and you wonder, "Am I making a difference?" Sometimes, it's the little things you do that deliver the big payoff. Take Det. John Wright of the New York Police Department. He cracked the big New York car-bomber case. He never fired a shot. He just knew where to find the VIN number on the SUV that a man tried to use to kill people with a car bomb. The VIN near the windshield had been rubbed off. So there he was last weekend with a can of degreaser and a flashlight, finding the number on the engine block. That led police to the original owner, which led police to the suspect in the nick of time.

"Some guys have a knack for guns; some guys have a knack for drugs," he said. "I have a knack for cars."

Enjoy your day at work. You and your knack. Making a difference.

3) Sometimes, of course, making a difference involves more direct action. We heard from St. Paul Police officer David Longbehn last evening, after the visitation for Sgt. Joe Bergeron, whose funeral is being held this morning. Longbehn shot and killed the man believed to have killed Bergeron early Saturday morning. "The real hero here is Sgt. Joe Bergeron. He's the hero that came first and foremost and confronted the suspects. So if there's anybody that's a hero, it's Sgt. Joe Bergeron," he said.

4) The editor of Newsweek was on Daily Show last night, newsworthy because earlier in the day the Washington Post announced it wants to unload the magazine.

"This is an existential crisis... and it's not just because I feel incredibly strongly that this magazine, for 77 years and unto this hour, has mattered to the life of this country, and is one of the very few common denominators in a fragmented world."

He challenged people to pay for the news they value, which is, as you know, crazy talk.

5) Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, research out today suggests. It's quantifiable.

Researchers in Scotland say that while there are some idiosyncrasies from person to person, it's possible to predict who will be attracted to whom, livescience.com reports.

The researchers measured the pitches of voices of 113 female college students, and then played them recordings of men saying either "I really like you" or "I really don't like you," and were asked how attractive they thought they were.

The women found lower-pitched voices more attractive regardless of what the men were saying.

"The findings suggest that women's own attractiveness in some way influences their preferences for masculine traits in men's voices," Jones said. "Effects like those in our study might simply reflect people finding their place in the mating market and taking that into account when judging others' attractiveness."

Now, what are we supposed to do with that knowledge?

Bonus: Filthy state seals. (Minnesota isn't one of them)

TODAY'S QUESTION

The Minnesota Legislature may be asked to clarify the circumstances under which the governor can use unallotment to balance the state budget. Should the governor be able to act alone to set the budget?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Rep. Laura Brod and Sen. Ellen Anderson consider the impact of the new budget deficit in the wake of yesterday's ruling from the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Second hour: Psychologist Alison Gopnik says that scientists have learned more about the brains of young children in the last 30 years than they had in the previous 2,000. She joins Midmorning to talk about what's going in kids' brains, and what that means for parents and educators. This is from a Ted talk held in St. Paul last night. Here's a video that was played at that session:

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Nick Hayes, author of "And One Fine Morning."

Second hour: Norman Corwin tribute.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - MPR will have coverage of today's funeral for Sgt. Joe Bergeron.

It's believed that a state court judge will issue a ruling this morning in the lawsuit between the Vikings' Pat and Kevin Williams vs. the NFL, which suspended them for a positive drug test. MPR's Brandt Williams will have the story.

Five by 8 - 5/7/10: Faces by the side of the road

Posted at 7:25 AM on May 7, 2010 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) I don't have a lot to add to all the coverage here on MPR NewsQ about yesterday's funeral for Sgt. Joe Bergeron of the Maplewood Police Department. You've probably seen all the pictures from the sidewalk of the procession from the Maplewood Community Center to the cemetery. Here's what it looked like from inside one of the Maplewood public safety vehicles.

(Click for a larger image. Look at those faces!)

The takeaway: We're still a place where school kids (in this case: Edgerton Elementary) come out of class, stand by the side of the road, put their hands over their hearts, and show respect to someone who's earned it.

(h/t: Jeff Morgan, Maplewood Fire Dept.)

2) The odds are increasing that there's going to be a state government shutdown to compensate for the huge budget deficit that lawmakers seem unable or unwilling to close. So let's start assembling a list of our priorities. Select as many of the following as you like, and add your own.

Some already-implemented cuts are hitting Main St. Blue Earth County is the latest to consider cutting a Sentence to Serve program, according to the Mankato Free Press, designed to keep low-level offenders out of jail.

3) Dreaming. Could Jon Stewart succeed one of the iconic TV news anchors?

I know the arguments against the idea. Stewart is the first to tell anyone who will listen that he is an entertainer, not a journalist. He intends to make people laugh and think, probably in that order.

But what is a journalist, anyway, in 2010? A blogger, who has no experience, can consider himself or herself a serious journalist. So can your garden-variety loudmouth on any cable-news channel.

Then we have Stewart's case. He may just be America's most trusted name in news among his fans, the young, hip, educated, affluent cable audience.

It was a trick question. He already has.

4) Remember when public radio was stuffy white folks talking about dead classical music composers and Greek tragedies? The truth is: We're still pretty stuff and there are a lot of conversations about the latest trip to Europe, but ...

5) The target of racist Facebook comments by a couple of white University of Minnesota Duluth students says she'll return to the school next year. The two students who ignited racial tensions at the school have not apologized, she said.

"It's not like they stepped on my toe ... or called me ugly. It's deeper than that," Savannah Caldwell told the Duluth News Tribune. "The things they were saying were so racist, like from-the-1800s racist. Monkeys and trees? I thought we got past that."

(Video h/t: Jay Cole of Youth Video Quest)

This morning at 11 afternoon, MPR's Michael Caputo will host another online conversation about race. This week: How we talk about race. What does it take for conversations to begin on race? How do we keep perspective as we engage in such discussions? Find it here.

Bonus: Is it time to get rid of the mortgage interest deduction?

The home mortgage interest deduction also subsidizes Americans to buy bigger homes, and there is little reason to like that. Americans, even poor Americans, have almost twice as much living space as the average resident of France or Germany. According to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey, homes with between 2,500 and 3,000 square feet of heated living space use 41 percent more electricity than homes with between 1,500 and 2,000 square feet of space. In an age of global warming, why should we subsidize the greater energy use inherent in larger homes?

Follow-up: Last month, MPR's Euan Kerr talked with Neil Gaiman about "why he loves libraries." Who wouldn't love a place that pays you $45,000 for one afternoon's work? The Star Tribune reports on how Legacy money (sales tax increase) was spent to "expose suburbia to authors of national acclaim." Excuse me? "Expose suburbia to authors of national acclaim." You pay for the author. The condescension comes free.

TODAY'S QUESTION

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatens environmental and economic disaster. How has the Gulf oil spill affected your view of America's energy future?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Rosanne Cash (Rebroadcast of the 2/9/10 show).

Second hour: Midmorning reprises two music shows recorded live at MPR. We'll hear brothers, Minnesota natives Dan and Matt Wilson and sisters in song Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour:An update on the legislative session and budget negotiations, from MPR's Mike Mulcahy, Tom Scheck and Tim Pugmire.

Second hour: University of Minnesota meteorologist Mark Seeley.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - Science Friday! First hour: A study finds that people making a tough decision may find some solace in washing their hands. Writing this week in the journal Science, researchers report that having test subjects wash their hands after making a difficult decision could reduce 'cognitive dissonance,' the uneasiness that comes from holding two opposing ideas in your mind at the same time. Test subjects who washed their hands after the decision-making test appeared to be more at ease with the choices made during the experiment. We'll talk about the finding, and what it tells us about the human mind.

Second hour: The ecological damage from the Gulf oil spill.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - MPR's Dan Gunderson will report on whether wind turbines are driving prairie birds away from habitat.

Christopher Lehman, a professor of ethnic studies at St. Cloud State University, has done extensive research on the history of African Americans in St. Cloud. He's reviewed census records and newspaper articles from as old as the late 1800s to string together a historical narrative of slavery in St. Cloud. The slaves were, of course, in the single digits. So slavery was not rampant in St. Cloud. Southerners also vacationed in St. Cloud with their slaves. MPR's Ambar Espinoza explores how the legacy of slavery has influenced race and ethnic relations today in St. Cloud.

We'll all meet back here at 3 p.m. to determine whether we still have a viable stock market.

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Five by 8 - 5/10/10: The morality of walking away from your mortgage

Posted at 7:28 AM on May 10, 2010 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

Lena Horne has died. Here's the Monday Morning Rouser:

1) Should there be any morality in the financial promises you make? There was troubling moment or two in last night's 60 Minutes story on people walking away from their mortgages. A young man declared he felt no responsibility to pay his mortgage, even though he can afford to. So he and his bride have stopped making their monthly payment and with the money they'll save, they'll rent an apartment nicer than their house. "It's the 'in' thing to do," he declared. Swell.

A man who has set up a company to help people walk away from their mortgages declared that people shouldn't let emotion -- or morals -- play a part in their decision. We've seen the likes of him before -- they were mortgage brokers who helped get people into mortgages they couldn't afford.

But the clients now are different. One in five foreclosures is by people who can afford their mortgages.

The comments have run the gamut, but there's this defense: It's what big business does.

A government official says regular people shouldn't walk away from their mortgages because it's the wrong thing to do. It's irresponsible. Other regular people will get stuck paying for those who walk away. Big business got millions of dollars from the government to save them and they used that bail-out money to dole out millions of dollars in bonuses while not paying back their debt to the government. Meanwhile, the average American is losing his/her home but it's irresponsible for that average American to walk away from a fraudulent mortgage! How does that make any sense?

2) Why? Because it's Betty White, that's why.

The New York Times -- predictably -- has the finest line of any review of Betty White's Saturday Night live appearance: All it took to reinvigorate a 35-year-old comedy show was the presence of an 88-year-old woman.

3) Should America buy American? The Boston Herald makes a big stink because the government bought its swag for the U.S. Census overseas. Or did it?

Meanwhile, a new census analysis shows whites are fleeing the suburbs.

4) Much has been made of Twitter's and Facebook's utility for giving voice and exposure to protesters in Iran and elsewhere. But they're not the only ones using social media; so is the authoritarian state they protest. Twitter and Facebook give Iran's secret services superb platforms for gathering open-source intelligence," according to Devin Gaffney of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. New Scientist reports on a conference that considers more research into all of the interactions spawned by the Web.

At the Raleigh meeting.. Gaffney ... described how in mid-2009 he set up software to archive every message posted by Iranians using the social messaging service Twitter to coordinate dissident protests. Now that the buzz from bloggers and journalists declaring that this was a "Twitter revolution" has subsided, Gaffney is analysing the 766,263 tweets he has collected in order to assess how justified that description was.

At the time, Twitter boasted about its role in connecting the protestors, but Gaffney's initial results suggest that Twitter had a greater impact internationally. "Evidence so far suggests a demographic of non-Iranians generating awareness about the situation," he says.

Gaffney is now trying to find out if the Iranian government itself has been monitoring and reacting to online activity, and whether the authorities have used Twitter to keep track of the protests. "Twitter and Facebook give Iran's secret services superb platforms for gathering open-source intelligence," he says.

Today's MPR commentary is about the usefulness of social media by another authoritarian state -- parents.

For example, when Emma and her boyfriend broke up, I learned about it on Facebook several days before she was ready to tell me. The public gossip flew faster than the personal message. But hasn't that always been the case with social networks? What's concerning is how prominently Facebook encourages gossip, complete with candid photos, while more personal communication takes a sorry back seat. As if we all were tabloid celebrities.

When Emma finally told me the news, though, I said just what mothers have said for centuries: "I'm so sorry you're sad. I was hoping it might not be true." Some things must still be spoken face to face. There is no virtual substitute for tears and a hug.

5) The changing face of politics. SCOTUSblog looks at the appointment of Elena Kagan as Supreme Court nominee and more:

As the days wound down this past week toward Kagan's selection by President Obama, the nation could look West and East and see cultural conventions on the verge of change, much along the lines of Dylan's title track. At the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, a Republican U.S. Senator who is a Mormon and has absolutely solid conservative credentials was dumped by his own party. In Boston, some 2,400 miles -- and perhaps a world -- away, the gay rights movement got a serious hearing in the Moakley U.S. Courthouse on its plea to change the nation's legal perception of marriage.

What those events have in common, though, is that both will figure in the fight over the future of the Supreme Court that begins later this morning with the announcement of Kagan's nomination, and both will influence, in coming months and years, the political pressures on the Court.

It's the best analysis you'll read today.

TODAY'S QUESTION

Advocates for children warn that they are at risk from cyberbullying, adult predators and other dangers on the Internet. What steps do you take to protect your kids online?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Author Siri Hustvedt investigates the causes of her migraine headaches and episodes of uncontrollable shaking that began shortly after the death of her father (originally broadcast on 3/25) .

Second hour: Sassy spinster Elizabeth Philpot befriends young working-class Mary Anning over their love of fossils. In this historical fiction, the unlikely pair navigate the early 19th century sexism of England's scientific community as they try to gain ownership and respect for their archaeological finds (originally broadcast on 3/31).

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: The IP-endorsed candidate for governor.

Second hour: Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - NPR, of course, will have plenty on the Supreme Court nomination and its reaction. It will also look at the possibility of a national ID card.

MPR's Dan Olson reports on the 20-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act, which , requires transportation officials to make conditions safer. In Minnesota, advocates say, compliance has been slow. Officials say they are making progress. He'll sort it out.

It is another day of waiting for the DFL solution to the suddenly-huge state budget gap. The MPR Capitol team is staking out hearings and meetings today and we'll have plenty on the subject here on MPR NewsQ during the day.

Five by 8 - 5/11/10: Are we Greece?

Posted at 7:00 AM on May 11, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) - As the Minnesota budget drama plays out -- extra credit for correctly predicting what movie the governor will quote when he vetoes the DFL budget bill today -- more comparisons are being made comparing "us" to Greece. Steve Franta of Wayzata writes to the Star Tribune today:

The situation in Greece is dire. The country is on the brink of bankruptcy because of excessive government spending. Here at home, the Democrats' cradle-to-grave benefit programs are sending us down the same path. Gov. Tim Pawlenty gets it; our DFL Legislature doesn't. Wake up, folks.

Are we a young Greece? Sort of. It's a problem of spending and borrowing. All of the politicians at the Capitol -- including the governor -- have some sort of scheme involving borrowing. It's just a matter of who is borrowing from whom.

The other problem is Greece "faked' its deficit problem, lying about it financial situation. Now, nobody -- other than the European Union -- will lend it any money. Here's a Q&A on the crisis from Business Week.

It may not be debt that's bad -- this vlogger says -- it's debt you can't repay.

2) Some of the worst news at the Capitol this session, however, is the departure of the dean of the Capitol press corps. Eric Eskola has chosen to take a buyout from his employer, the once-mighty WCCO. "Nobody cares," he told the Star Tribune's Jon Tevlin in declining an interview for his column today. It's not just that another chunk has fallen from an institution many people grew up with; that's been going on for years. It's that people know the answer to many of Minnesota's problems rest with a more informed and educated population, and it's illogical to expect people to be more informed by providing less information. Eskola is a dying breed; a journalist who'd go above and beyond on a regular basis because what's happening is too important to keep secret.

According to MPR's Cathy Wurzer (via Twitter), "The Mn. Historical Society has been asked to enshrine Eric Eskola's eye poppingly messy office for posterity. Saves him from cleaning it!"

3) I don't have any background on who shot this video but it was uploaded to YouTube last evening. It's a look behind the scenes at the Minneapolis light-rail system:

4) This video is getting big play in the world of sports. The mayor of Boston flubs the city's great sports moment, while honoring Bobby Orr:

"Varitek splitting the uprights." He meant Adam Vinateri. Jason Varitek plays for the Red Sox. There are no uprights in baseball.

But how great must it be to be a fan in a city where it's fairly easy to mix up the names in all the championships the city's teams have won?

5) One moment in time. The New York Times' Lens blog has created a globe with images stacked on the location at which they were taken at the same time -- 10 a.m. (CT) on May 2. This is pretty much where you'll be spending much of your workday.

TODAY'S QUESTION

As part of their response to the state budget crisis, DFL legislators have proposed an income tax increase for wealthy Minnesotans. What sort of tax increase would you support, if any?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour:Lynne Rossetto Kaspar of the Splendid Table and Ray Isle of Food and Wine magazine.

Second hour: Travel expert Rudy Maxa.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - Both hours: Stephanie Curtis with her list of best and worst courtroom dramas.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: For almost a decade, Joel Kotkin and Mike Shires have been compiling a list of the "best' and "worst" places for jobs in the country. And this year, they say is easily the most depressing. But there are places where the jobs are growing.

Second hour: Doug Lemov watched teachers closely for more a decade, -- and learned that the best share several specific characteristics. Now, he's got a new handbook that collects the best techniques.

Five by 8 - 5/12/10: The return of the gay marriage issue

Posted at 7:29 AM on May 12, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) Same -sex marriage came roaring back into Minnesota's political debate yesterday when three couples sued to overturn Minnesota's ban on gay marriage. In the gubernatorial campaign four years ago, DFLers tried to derail the issue of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman by saying there's already a law against same-sex marriage in Minnesota. Yesterday's action shows why the constitutional amendment issue will be back shortly.

But there are at least five myths about homosexuality to be debunked in a scientific way and Live Science does that today. "Gay parents aren't as good as a father and a mother" is one of them, according to the writer:

The bottom line is that the science shows that children raised by two same-gender parents do as well on average as children raised by two different-gender parents," said Timothy Biblarz, a sociologist at the University of Southern California. "This is obviously inconsistent with the widespread claim that children must be raised by a mother and a father to do well."

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby says the federal government has already decided what marriage means:

To be sure, an individual state is free to adopt an irregular definition of marriage -- or anything else -- for purposes of state law. But it doesn't have a constitutional right to impose that definition on the rest of the nation. Massachusetts could decide to recognize martial-arts studios as institutions of higher education, and to make them eligible for state-subsidized education loans. Plainly, that anomalous definition of "higher education'' would not be binding on the federal student loan program. By the same token, Massachusetts can decide (or be required by its supreme court) to treat same-sex partners as married spouses. But it can hardly insist that its definition of "married spouses'' trumps that of the federal government and 45 other states.

The job of the public schools is to develop the student's identity as Americans and as strong individuals," the state school's chief said last year. "It's not the job of the public schools to promote ethnic chauvinism."

Courses about Native American history are excluded. They're protected by federal law.

3) Take us to DEFCON-1, we've got a real crisis here. Intelsat has lost control of the satellite Galaxy 15. It might smash into another satellite. That satellite contains programming for cable TV.

4) Today's timewaster: Strange signs from abroad.

5) You can have your kestrel that eats moths at Target Field. I'll take the nearby animated face on the water tower.

Bonus: The sign man has a job!

TODAY'S QUESTION

A Philadelphia police officer used a stun gun last week against a teenager who ran onto the field during a Phillies game. In Minnesota, a complaint alleges that a man was shocked with a Taser after shouting at authorities in the Sherburne County jail. When is it appropriate to use a stun gun?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Author Laura Munson was married for a decade, and raising two children with her husband when he said he wanted out of the relationship. She has a surprising reaction to his request that she says actually kept her family together. (Originally aired on 4/28)

Second hour: Single at age 40, writer Lori Gottlieb started to wonder if looking for the perfect mate was the best approach to dating. Her new book chronicles her attempts to find Mr. "good enough." (Originally aired on 2/12)

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Chris Farrell on the economy.

Second hour: Civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis, speaking recently at the 50th anniversary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: NPR political editor Ken Rudin.

Second hour: New research shows that the family values divide between red states and blue
states is real, but there's a paradox. The redder the state, the more traditional the family values, the higher the divorce rate, and the more teen pregnancies. There are differing interpretations as to why

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - MPR's Tim Pugmire is tracking the budget debate at the Capitol.

Employers who provide health insurance to early retirees can begin applying for money under the new federal health care law next month. That program aims to encourage employers who provide such benefits to keep doing so. The $5 billion program will reimburse companies, state, local governments, and non-profits, a portion of the money they pay out in claims for their retirees. MPR's health care reform reporter Elizabeth Stawicki will have the story.

From NPR: Wealthy students in the Middle East have long come to the United States for their college education. Nowadays, American universities are coming to them.

Five by 8 - 5/13/2010: When politicians are people too

Posted at 7:39 AM on May 13, 2010 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) We usually get our best insight into people in politics after they've dropped the better-not-say-anything-that-might-cost-you-an-election strategy that's made campaigns so utterly predictable. It's too bad. Rep. Marty Seifert, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor, writes the MPR commentary today, revealing to us the human toll of being a politician. He described the day after he dropped out of the race:

Two days later, after mass on Sunday, my wife Traci and I took Brittany and Braxton to Sioux Falls -- the closest "big town" to where we live -- and played games at Chuck E. Cheese's, saw a movie and had a great buffet dinner.

When I snuggled with Braxton, our 5 year old, that night, he said, "Daddy, this was the best day ever. I am so glad you lost."

Meanwhile, at the Capitol, there's no agreement over a new budget despite a night of meetings. Some 5-year-old isn't getting to snuggle with mom or dad.

The governor says he'll go fishing this weekend, even if there isn't a budget deal.

2) For the last week or so, I've wondered if there's another word we newspeople can use for what the oil is doing in the Gulf of Mexico besides gushing. Then the House Commerce Committee released this underwater video yesterday of the "leak" and I got my answer. It's "no."

A congressional investigation continues today. So far, it's suggested the multi-billion dollar disaster might have been caused by parts that cost a few dollars and incompetence -- the two things that cause most man-made disasters.

But a poll out overnight shows it doesn't much matter. Those surveyed are still fans of oil drilling.

Unclear on the Concept Department: In Ohio, a legislative committee has approved a plan to tighten oversight of coal mines. It funds it by taking money from a fund to help miners with Black Lung disease. (h/t: Midwest Energy News)

3) Other than Updraft, Tim's Weather Blog, is one of the most enjoyable area meteorological endeavors. It's written by Tim Burr of Duluth. This morning, he recounts his weekend trip to Tornado Alley. He went storm chasing, and found what he was looking for.

4) They're killing off Little Orphan Annie. The quote from the licensing company is hilarious:

'Annie' is more of a kids' property, so it's less relevant to newspaper audiences than say a 'Dick Tracy' or a 'Brenda Starr,'" Tippie said

If that doesn't describe the problem facing newspapers, nothing does. They're places where Dick Tracy and Brenda Starr are still relevant.

The whole subject makes me want to head for the Wayback Machine:

5) We have a winner in the Best Illusion of the Year contest:

The gathering in Naples, Florida examined how our brains deceive us on a daily basis because it attempts to "solve what it sees."

Bonus) "Did you see this video? It seems like something that'd be on a 5@8," Ryan Vanasse wrote yesterday. He's right, and it is. Let's just put it here in the "what would you have done category?

TODAY'S QUESTION

Jon Stewart said, "Love what you do. Get good at it." Winston Churchill said, "Never give in. Never, never, never, never." It's commencement season, and you or someone you know will soon be listening to a speech. What's your message for the Class of 2010?

Here's Stewart's speech.

(Bob notes: It's the same message I had for the class of 2009)

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: The classic gumshoes, spies, and femme fatales of crime, mystery, and spy novels.

Second hour: Broadcast of Kerri Miller's conversation with author Colum McCann. (Originally broadcast 10/5)

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: NPR health reporter Julie Rovner answers questions about the new health care law.

Second hour: Best-selling author and attorney Scott Turow, speaking at the Commonwealth Club about his legal thrillers, including his latest: "Innocent."

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: In the last 10 years, changes swept every branch of the military. Besides the enormous strain of deployments in the Army and Marines, more and more Air Force pilots fly unmanned drones, women will soon serve on Navy submarines, and Marines can no longer get Semper Fi tattooed on a forearm.

Second hour: It's a medical mystery: Why do sugar pills work so well? In some drug trials they work better than the real thing.

Five by 8 - 5/18/10: Speed dating with your doc

Posted at 7:08 AM on May 18, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

I'm back after four days away. Thanks for checking back today to be sure there still is a News Cut. There is.

1) I'm the first to admit, I don't get Texas, scene of an NPR story today where patients and doctors engage in "speed dating."

Physicians and parents pair off for five minutes, then rotate into new conversations.

"How far along?" Dr. James Wheeler asks Kim Gage, a 36-year-old computer programmer pregnant with her third child, as she approaches his table. "I usually am not too cavalier about that question, but I thought I was safe here."

"You are safe here," Gage replies with a laugh. The two seem at ease, and Gage peppers him with questions. How accessible would he be as a doctor? How does he feel about medications for attention deficit disorder? And what does the office look like?

2) Our mission today is to figure out what we're supposed to do with research out of the UK today that says men are bigger liars than women. The survey studied 3,000 people and found that men tell lies twice as often as women. Didn't we really already know this? What are most lies about? Whether they've been drinking. Women's top lie is "Nothing's wrong. I'm fine." What researchers don't know, however, is whether the lying habits of men are the result of upbringing or genetics.

3) Do numbers lie? The anti climate-change crowd probably will say so, but it's hard to dismiss the statistics MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner dispensed to All Things Considered host Tom Crann last evening. The planet is on a pace to have its hottest year ever, and April was the 302nd consecutive month with a temperature higher than the 20th century average. He's posted all the numbers on his blog.

Meanwhile, the United Nations will investigate its own climate change panel, the New York Times reports:

As you may recall, the panel found itself in hot water about six months ago when critics accused it of scientific sloppiness. They also accused the panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, of conflicts of interest because he served on some corporate boards.

Yet many noted that the most serious charges originated with a camp that denies that global warming is even under way, even though mainstream scientists agree that human-caused climate change is a reality.

Still, the climate panel has apologized for a significant error in its latest report, issued in 2007: an errant figure on the rate of melting of Himalayan glaciers that was not supported by scientific research.

4) You really can't go wrong learning your biology from Julia Sweeney. Don't leave a book around for your ready-to-learn kids. Just show 'em this:

5) Here's something you've never seen before, in all probability. And it's something you probably won't see again. Yesterday afternoon at South St. Paul, the last remaining 1929 Hamilton airplane flew for the first time in decades, and the last time around here:

This is a real part of history in the upper Midwest. The Hamilton, built in Milwaukee, is how people used to get the mail in these parts. Here's some background:

I wrote more about it on my aviation blog.

Bonus: In order to save downtown St. Paul, we have to kill it.

TODAY'S QUESTION

It sometimes seems that Minnesota's political debate centers on one choice: whether to raise taxes or cut services. Can you name a government service you'd be willing to do without?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Insomnia from a patient's perspective.

Second hour: Lee Child, author of more than a dozen novels. His latest in the Jack Reacher series is "61 Hours."

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Second hour: MPR's Stephen Smith interviews best-selling author Hampton Sides about his new book, "Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin."

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: The next steps for the new health care law.

Second hour: From Islam to America.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - How many times have we seen this movie, anyway? The legislative season ends, and both sides fly around the state or head for the talk shows to proclaim victory. We'll have a report or two tonight, which will sounds vaguely similar.

The University of Minnesota's David Kittelson is among a batch of researchers investigating lower carbon alternatives to gasoline. Part of the reason is because of the remarkably energy intensive and dirty nature of creating a gallon of gas. MPR's Dan Olson will have the story.

Along Mexico's border with Texas, two drug cartels battled for control. One of them managed to gain the upper hand, but was that because of help from the country's army? NPR investigates the role of the military in Mexico's fight against the drug cartels.

Five by 8 - 5/19/10: Somebody's poll is wrong

Posted at 7:40 AM on May 19, 2010 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) A new poll out today reveals that.... somebody's poll is wrong. In the MPR- Humphrey Institute poll, former Sen. Mark Dayton beats all comers and Republican-endorsee Tom Emmer beats all DFLers and Independents but Dayton.

The margin of error in the MPR poll is 5.8 -- that's a lot. An equal number of DFLers and Republicans were measured.

Flashback almost two weeks and we have a KSTP poll that showed Emmer beating all DFLers by a lot. He beat Dayton in the survey of 900 people, most of whom were registered to vote. It surveyed an equal number of DFLers and Republicans, but a greater percentage of independents than the MPR survey. The margin of error was a little over 4 percent.

In the KSTP poll, 17 percent were undecided. In the MPR poll, 25 percent were undecided.

The KSTP poll was put in the field right after the GOP state convention, perhaps giving Republicans a bounce if you assume the average Minnesotan was on the edge of their couch all weekend paying attention to it.

Has there really been an 11-point swing in two weeks from Emmer to Dayton? Not likely. More likely: Somebody's poll isn't scientifically representative of the voters as a whole. But after last night's election results in other states, how would you even try to figure out what representative of the electorate means?

Which poll should you believe? The one you want to.

2) A Connecticut politician admitted yesterday he misspoke. He didn't serve in Vietnam. He served during Vietnam? Let's see now: How many political careers have been ruined by questions about service during Vietnam. The Washington Post, naturally, is keeping score.

Dan Quayle kicked off the "what didn't you do in the war, Daddy" era when reporters questioned how he stayed out of the jungle, and instead got stuck writing press releases in Indiana? Later, questions about the service of someone who actually did go to Vietnam, labeled John Kerry a "coward" while someone who didn't go got the "patriot" treatment.

Messed up? It's a perfect political quagmire for a war that was nothing but, says the Post.

These kinds of issues have not arisen for politicians who have gone to war in subsequent conflicts, largely because there was no draft for Iraq and Afghanistan that separated the privileged and the connected from those who had no choice. But the Vietnam War generation will never escape them. What looked at the time to be the most personal decisions -- ones bound in honor and survival and ambiguity -- have become metaphors for the larger sins of a war whose history continues to be written.

It all comes back to the draft. Thirty years from now, nobody is going to ask politicians what they did during the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, because there's no longer an equal responsibility to serve as there was in the '60s where by design everybody could be drafted but by reality the fortunate sons did not.

But the more puzzling question is this one: Why do politicians keep lying about stuff like this? It's 2010 and while the news business is circling the drain, it's still pretty easy to catch someone in a lie.

3) The new ground zero in the anti-smoking battle is Rochester, where the City Council has widened a smoking ban in the downtown area to include two blocks of West Center Street between the Kahler Grand Hotel, Methodist Hospital and the Gonda Building. And, the Rochester Post Bulletin reports, it may expand it even more. It started, as smoking bans do, as an indoors ban, now it's an outdoors ban, too. Some Mayo Clinic employees told the paper they can't get to the part of the city where they can smoke and then get back to their jobs in the 10-minutes they have to take a break.

Which brings up the question: At what point is a ban on smoking in a certain spot simply the outlawing of smoking in general?

4) Children of the Great Recession. I wonder what stories today's 7-year-olds will be telling their grandchildren 50 years from now about what it's like to grow up during the Great Recession?

5) "Not in my middle-of-nowhere." Wind farms seemed like a great idea years ago and maybe they still are. But dozens of people packed a hearing room in Stearns County yesterday to consider whether the county should ban large wind farms, according to the St. Cloud Times.

It's a growing issue. Should the wide-open horizon of greater Minnesota be dotted with dozens of wind turbines as far as they eye can see?

You know, like Iowa:

(h/t: Midwest Energy News)

TODAY'S QUESTION

Security cameras are becoming such a regular feature of urban life that they raise privacy concerns in some minds. Have security cameras ever made you feel intruded upon?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: What happens to security camera information once it's viewed or recorded? As federal security agencies and local police forces try to come up with ways to prevent terrorist attacks, this raw information is up for grabs.

Second hour: As a Jesuit priest in a gang-ridden neighborhood in Los Angeles, Father Gregory Boyle has seen his share of violence and unnecessary death. The jobs program he created offers youth a different path from gang life.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Second hour: Live broadcast from National Press Club with the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Tim Kaine.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: NPR political editor Ken Rudin sorts through yesterday's election results.

Second hour: Theauthor of "Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us."

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - Since DDT was banned, the population of bald eagles has recovered dramatically. But how healthy are they? MPR's Stephanie Hemphill will have the answer.

MPR's Tim Post looks at what's happening with college tuition rates around the state.

NPR will look at job retraining in the sad state of Michigan. There has been plenty of retraining, but not many jobs.

Five by 8 - 5/20/10: Google comes to the Twin Ports

Posted at 7:36 AM on May 20, 2010 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) The Duluth area has spent months wooing Google, which is to select a city in which to build a high-speed broadband network. Few communities have been as aggressive as Duluth.

Now a film producer has created "Google Goes to the Twin Ports," about a little girl named Google "who comes to the Twin Ports and carries with her magical powers. The cast members are all local people who donated their time to help the grass roots effort." (h/t: Northland News Center)

2) We've got another MPR/Humphrey Institute poll out today, and as these things tend to do, it leaves us wanting more answers.

Here's the takeaway question:

If you had to choose, would you rather have a smaller government providing fewer services, or a bigger government providing more services?

We didn't ask the obvious follow-up question: Like what? People have answered this question pretty much the same way for years, but as with most polls, it's all in how you ask the question. Everyone wants fewer services, as long as the services that are extended aren't the ones that we use.

I've asked this question since the days of the old MPR Forum and people almost never have an answer for what they'd give up. MPR commentary editor Eric Ringham gave it a go the other day with the obvious question:

Can you name a government service you'd be willing to do without?

People whose kids have grown said "K-12." People in the city said "subsidies and programs for farmers." People who aren't poor said "social services." People who get speeding and parking tickets said "parking enforcement cops."

Writer "Mike" put it this way:

I'm willing to do without all the services that other people use. The ones I use are clearly essential.

Meanwhile, the New York Times considers the lessons from the electorate from this week's elections and notes this relic, which may be of some interest to Minnesota:

The first is that this age-old idea of "clearing the field" for a preferred candidate, so as to avoid divisive primaries, is now, much like the old party clubhouse, a historical relic. This should have been clear to everyone after 2008, when Barack Obama, shunned by most of his party's major contributors and its Washington establishment, simply shrugged off endorsements and raised more than half a billion dollars from his own constituencies.

Another lesson is that people simply have less affinity for a political party than they once did, a notion that -- if true -- dooms the current incarnations.

3) This could be bigger than the bear den cam in Ely. Bowing to pressure, BP has agreed to provide a live video feed of the Gulf oil spill. You'll be able to find it here some time today. Maybe. If BP allows it. "Are they in charge out there?" a CBS News anchor asked an Obama administration official today. An Associated Press investigation found the answer. "Yes."

Here's a fantastic interactive from the New York Times. It allows you to track the oil spill and review the various estimates about how bad it is.

Meanwhile, the head of BP says the impact on the environment in the Gulf will be "minimal." While NPR reports BP's accuracy is more than suspect.

4) It was Mukhtars Fødselsdag's birthday the other day:

Also in the "We Appreciate the Work You Do" file: Ida the canal mule is retiring.

5) Today's reason to love the Internet. A politician in Alabama creates this:

... and a day later, this is racing around the Internet:

TODAY'S QUESTION

Nurses involved in a labor dispute with Twin Cities hospitals say their main concern is patient safety. Do you believe hospital patients are either more or less safe than in the past?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Author and activist Azar Nafisi says the repression in Iran goes beyond the holding of the three American hikers. She talks about how the Iranian regime tries and occasionally fails to stifle creative expression.

Second hour: Susan Orlean, staff writer for the New Yorker. She's perhaps best known as the author of "The Orchid Thief." Her most recent book is for children, "Lazy Little Loafers."

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - Alice Swan, associate dean of nursing at St. Catherine University, and Connie Delaney, dean of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing answer questions about what nurses do, and how that's changed over the years.

Second hour: Hanan Ashrawi, speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum about the prospects for Middle East peace

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: Investigating the oil spill.

Second hour: The future of NATO.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - MPR's Dan Gunderson has a look at the turnaround challenge facing the Waubon High School. It's one of 34 Minnesota schools identified by federal officials for turnaround incentives, and one of five on the list that have high numbers of American Indian students. School officials say the turnaround remedies won't fix problems that have hindered American Indian educational achievement for generations.

The unemployment rate in Minnesota for April will be released today. MPR's business unit will translate it into English.

Democracy is plentiful in India. But so are poverty and weak infrastructure. Some Indians looking for a model of stability think they've found it next door -- in China. What citizens of the world's largest democracy hope to learn from their communist neighbor.

Five by 8 - 5/21/10: Business-friendly the drug cartel way

Posted at 7:13 AM on May 21, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

First, two things:

(a)We're having an open house on Sunday to say "thanks" to MPR members. Will we see you there?

(b) I'm looking to talk to small business owners in Minnesota who employ members of the Minnesota National Guard. I'm thinking there's a story to tell and you can help me tell it. Contact me.

1) Polaris is closing its factory in Osceola, Wisconsin, cutting 500 jobs. Some of the work will be shifted to a plant in Roseau, some to Iowa and some to a new plant the company is building in Monterrey, Mexico. This will, presumably, reignite the debate over whether Minnesota (and Wisconsin) is business-friendly enough to keep jobs like this. But how can U.S. states compete with the lower labor costs of Mexico? Perhaps an unrelated blog post in the Los Angeles Times this week provides a clue. Maybe the answer is pointing out that Minnesota isn't Mexico.

Now, however, as drug-trafficking syndicates expand their reach across Mexico, they have brought even Monterrey to its knees.

And as authorities lose control, the business elite is worried, ordinary residents panicked.

"The tradition of a tranquil Monterrey has ended," said Gilberto Marcos, a textile manufacturer who belongs to a citizens board that advises the state on security issues.

"And if Monterrey is lost, everything is lost."

Monterrey is perhaps paying the price for tolerating the presence of traffickers for so many years, allowing them to fester and grow amid the shared wealth.

"For two decades, our deliberate ignorance and our indolence have made us de facto collaborators" with organized crime, said Father Rogelio Narvaez, head priest in the struggling Our Lady of the Rosary parish. "Legality and the social fabric are in crisis.... It is easier to get guns than a scholarship."

OK, so it ain't Roseau.

Drug gangs blocked off city streets recently. They've kidnapped people from businesses, killed engineering students, and so far this year nearly 200 people have been killed.

Bloomberg reported this week that executives in Monterey have a new expense: hiring extra security to keep from getting killed or kidnapped:

Drug-trafficker turf wars and kidnapping gangs have elevated the cost of doing business and hurt Mexico's ability to attract foreign investment, Canales said. More private security isn't going to solve the problem and the government has to ensure citizens' safety as its most basic function, he said.

Minnesota can't compete with that?

The company says its Mexico plant will help improve delivery because many customers are in the south and should provide significant savings in logistical and production costs.

From the Times report, its sounds as though businesses will have to factor in the additional cost of doing business in a developing hellhole.

But back to our workers for a moment. We got this e-mail from a reader last night:

Polaris shutting down will not only be "tough" for the individuals affected, it will completely devastate hundreds of families those sole income came from Polaris. I got a call from my Dad tonight who has been an employee of Polaris for 25 years. My Dad and my Step mother both work at Polaris and have for decades. They have four children, my sister and I are both in college and my little brother just got braces. The saddest part is that there are so many families in even worse situations than my family, at least they have their house paid off. I am deeply saddened by the news and am worried for my Dad who does not even have a high school diploma. What will he do now? I hope the media will aid in giving a voice to the employees at Polaris, and help relieve some of their suffering.

2) Nitpicking with the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota's annual list of the 10 Most Endangered Places in Minnesota but, assuming nothing much changes from year to year to save them, shouldn't some of the same places appear on this year's list that appeared on previous year's lists?

Of course, things do change for some sites. The Rock Island Swing Bridge in Newport was on last year's list.

Most of it has been demolished.

Here's this year's list. Included in this year's list is the Cottage View drive-in theater in Cottage Grove. How do you save a drive-in? It's just a big billboard. It's difficult to keep these things operating; it's only open weekends now and in the dead of summer you can't start the show until after 10 p.m. Of what actual value is a field with a billboard stuck in the middle of it if it's not an operating theater?

(Photo from Minnesota Drive-Ins.com)

3) The best show in town -- any town -- are comments attached to newspaper stories. The Rochester Post Bulletin today profiles the retirement of Dave Rikhus from the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office after 28 years of work. He's known around town, apparently, for being a great cop and a master at getting the perps to confess to their misdeeds.

In retirement, the lifetime officer and Babbitt, Minn., native plans to spend time at his cabin in the Wabasha area and also with his 22-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter.

He lost his wife in 2006 to breast cancer, which has caused him to take a longer look at spending time with family.

"Life is so short," Rikhus said. "You have to take time to enjoy it."

OK, newspaper commenters, your turn:

This is why were are going broke... retiring at 54! give me a break, glad all of us tax payers will be paying for him to sit around for the next 40 years!

4) Sen. Satveer Chaudhary went up to Fish Lake last night to talk to his neighbors, who are upset that he snuck a provision in a bill late at night last weekend that changes the fishing regulations on the lake where he has a cabin. The Duluth News Tribune reports:

"I screwed up really, really badly," said Chaudhary, who lives in Fridley, Minn., and owns a home on Fish Lake.

He said he had been given incorrect information about public support for special walleye regulations on the lake, but he neglected to blame anyone who gave him that information.

"I got erroneous information, but I should have known better," he said. "The buck's gotta stop with me."

It's a little more complicated than not checking with the neighbors first, however. It's whether a state legislator should be slipping changes in fishing regulations on one lake, a lake where he has a vested interest.

Republicans at the Capitol want an ethics investigation. Chaudhary says he did nothing ethically wrong.

5) Did someone say fishing? This video has been on our Web site for about a week, and I haven't noticed it until now.

The meaning is in the eye of the beholder, but here's my takeaway: I'm not going to work today to sort leeches.

TODAY'S QUESTION

Is President Obama's foreign policy hurting us abroad?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

We will have an MPR News Cut Quiz by mid-afternoon.

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: The Gulf oil spill.

Second hour: Author Tim O'Brien pursues a truth in his fiction that is only somewhat based on what he experienced as a soldier in Vietnam. But the resonance of his work, particularly "The Things They Carried" has convinced people that the characters in his stories are drawn more precisely from life.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: MPR political commentators Todd Rapp, Maureen Shaver and Jack Uldrich jdiscuss Gov. Pawlenty and the 2010 Legislature,

Second hour: A debate from NPR's "Intelligence Squared" series on President Obama's foreign policy.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - It's Science Friday. First hour: Thee latest in stem cell research news. Plus, a talk with genome pioneer Craig Venter on creating a synthetic
genome.

Second hour: Your privacy online. Can you have a Facebook profile and protect your privacy?

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - MPR's Chris Roberts profiles a group of 12 'Gen Y' yarn spinners who are updating the ancient art of storytelling. They perform at the Bryant Lake Bowl this Sunday.

Two electric plants on the Iron Range are replacing some of the coal they burn with wood. The project is the result of a state requirement that Xcel Energy produce electricity from biomass, to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions. It was also hailed as a way to save jobs in the struggling northern Minnesota forest industry. But there are worries about the project's effect on wood supply for traditional uses and on soil health. It may also be hard for loggers to make a living bringing in low-value fuel wood. MPR's Stephanie Hemphill will have the story.

Regina Carter is a world-renowned jazz violinist and a Macarthur fellow. But her jazz career wasn't always celebrated. Carter's first teacher thought she was ruining her career. Her mother was outraged. Now, she turns to the folk music of Africa. NPR will have the story.

Five by 8 - 5/24/10: High points

Posted at 7:28 AM on May 24, 2010 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

The Monday Morning Rouser. It's Bob Dylan's birthday.

1) When I was 15, Janet Lynn was winning Olympics medals. She was 16. And what had I accomplished? A couple of prize-winning chickens at a 4-H fair. Big deal. So, 13-year-olds, I feel your pain of inadequacy today. Jordan Romero, 13, became the youngest person to reach the top of Mt. Everest over the weekend. "I'm doing this to inspire other kids, hopefully across the world, to get outdoors and to set goals in life. I'm doing this to set an example for them," he said. What do you do with the rest of your life once you've climbed Mt. Everest at 13? Clean your room?

2) A tale of two communities and how residents are -- or aren't -- adding glue to what keeps us together. In Rochester, residents of the Slatterly Park neighborhood got together to repaint murals. And, the Post Bulletin reports, people from other neighborhoods showed up to help. "Every time they drive by, they can see that they had an impact in improving and beautifying their community," an organizer said.

In Duluth, meanwhile, they're battering "problem properties." The Duluth News Tribune's investigation found that "despite repeated inspections and orders that landlords clean up their properties, many of the worst properties remain decrepit eyesores." Some of the worst slumlords get "hefty' federal subsidies, it said.

Some people paint murals. Some make slums.

3) Let's play. An interactive developer in Estonia has developed this Google map, which shows the most touristy areas in the world. You'll have to click here to play with it. The yellow/red show the most interesting areas.

Let the record show that North Dakota, Nebraska and South Dakota (except for Mt. Rushmore) are not interesting. I shall further alienate my Nebraska friends by pointing out that border signs that say "Welcome to Nebraska, birthplace of Arbor Day" aren't likely change your tourism luck. I've got no suggestions for you, North Dakota.

4) Climate change skeptics had a get-together in Chicago and the BBC's environmental analyst found science and data often took second place to politics and theology:

In a bravura performance he had the audience roaring at his mocking impersonation of "railway engineer Rajendra Pachauri - the Casey Jones of climate change"; hissing with pantomime fury at the "scandal" of Climategate, then emotionally applauding the American troops who have given their lives for the freedom that their political masters are surrendering to the global socialist tyranny of global warming.

His closing words were delivered in a weeping whisper, a soft prayer of praise to the American constitution and individual liberty.

As the ecstatic crowd filtered out I pointed one delegate to a copy of the Wall Street Journal on the table. A front page paragraph noted that April had been the warmest on record.

"So what?" he shrugged. "So what?"

Why don't ice ages last forever? New Scientist explores the question today, featuring a University of Minnesota scientist.

5) Milton Bradley, now of the Seattle Mariners, has been well-known over the years for "erratic" behavior. He's been easy to ridicule. That all changed a few weeks ago when he finally sought help and now he's sharing his story of thoughts of suicide in the Seattle Times:

Now, obviously that's an attention-getter right there. It's what folks will be talking about in the street tomorrow. But it's only part of what Bradley wanted to convey. This doesn't mean he was about to end his life. What it does mean is that Bradley, as a man who does an awful lot of thinking and put quite a bit of thought into the answers he gave me this morning, began pondering the merits of suicide. He told his wife that he could understand why people chose to end their lives. Not that he was about to rush out and do it himself. But that he could sympathize with their feelings. And that's not a good thing. To be so unhappy that suicide begins to look like a reasonable alternative.

In the past, no sane person rooted for Milton Bradley. Suddenly, no sane person can root against him.

Bonus: As we're in to poll season, fivethirtyeight.com's Nate Silver's confronts the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Everyone's got a cellphone. Many don't have landlines, and political pollsters can't -- or won't -- call cellphones. What's the impact on a poll's accuracy?

Cellphone-only households are different from their landline-using counterparts. They tend to be younger, poorer, more urban, less white, and more Internet-savvy. All of these characteristics are correlated with political viewpoints and voting behavior...

I certainly wouldn't go out and append 6 points to the Democrats' generic ballot number. For one thing, some pollsters do include cellphones in their sample. For another, the results from Pew reflect just one study/experiment, one which itself is subject to sample bias. Also, Pew's study finds that cellphone-only adults are less likely to vote, so the differential is probably less in the case of likely voters.

Genetic scientists say they have taken a big step toward the creation of synthetic life. What concerns does the prospect of synthetic life raise for you?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Are too many attending college, when they don't need to? Students that don't excel in high school academically still feel the pressure to pursue four year degrees. Some who study higher education question why that degree should mean more than a career certificate or an apprenticeship. Others say a BA is the only sure way to higher earning power.

Second hour: Author Monica Ali is considered one of the best young novelists in Britain. Her latest novel, "In the Kitchen," is about the efforts of a chef to succeed in a once grand restaurant, despite huge pressures at home and a murder. Last week, she talked with Kerri Miller in the Talking Volumes finale.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Former 9-11 Commission senior staffer Michael Hurley discusses the upheaval in the intelligence staff and recent intelligence failures

Second hour: A new documentary from the America Abroad series: "Iraq: The Next Act."

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: The battle over ethnic studies. A month after its strict new immigration law, Arizona's legislature and governor approved another controversial measure... high schools that promote the study of one ethnic group -- Mexican American history, or African American literature -- risk losing 10 percent of state financing.

Second hour: Blair Coward is a senior at American University, and she has been to a lot of job fairs with very little result. She's terrified. And she's not alone. The job market, for most grads in most areas is absymal. Neal Conan discusses the great graduate job search.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - State transportation officials say they will increase the amount of money they spend to hire more minorities and women. The announcement by the Minnesota Department of Transportation comes after five years of talks with ISAIAH, a coalition of religious groups that proposed the change. At the same time MnDoT says it is increasing its efforts to expand the business it does with women and minority owned companies. MPR's Dan Olson will have the story.

MPR's Annie Baxter reports the outlook for workers has dimmed. The U.S. economy is likely to grow slower than in previous recoveries. And Minnesota's jobless rate is likely to remain high by historic standards for years to come. But within a decade the retiring baby boom will bring down the jobless rate, and may lead to a shortage of workers that crimps the economy.

NPR profiles sparsity? To enlarge a picture, sometimes you don't need the original-- just parts of it. That's the idea behind a mathematical theory called "sparsity." It's being explored as a way to do more with less -- paving the way for quicker M.R.I. scans and other high-tech applications.

Five by 8 - 5/25/10: Transitions

Posted at 7:15 AM on May 25, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) If you usually come to 5x8 by your RSS reader -- and even if you don't -- let me introduce you MPR's series this week on jobs. It's hardly an uplifting series, but these are not uplifting times. Maybe jobs that left won't come back, and maybe we're in a have/have-not world that's never going to change. There's tendency in these things to predict futures that look remarkably like the present. In the mid-'90s we were told the future problem was there wouldn't be enough workers in Minnesota to sustain the companies doing business here. But, clearly, there are changes in our standard of living underway, and changes in the way we live. Maybe, as Nikki Tundel's fine video piece suggests, we're going back to the days of big families and multiple generations living under one roof. Swell.

But people are finding jobs. The Duluth News Tribune notes the unemployment rate in the region dropped a full percentage point, and even mining jobs are coming back.

Last year the unemployment rate in Hibbing was over 18 percent. Now, it's around 8.

But some towns are dying. A manufacturing plant closed in Lewiston, Minnesota. Then the town's only grocery store went belly up. Now the community's "social center" -- a bowling alley -- has decided to close.

2) A Wisconsin woman is the new face of "don't ask, don't tell." She's worked for 8 years as an ROTC cadet to be a doctor. She's close, but decided she had to reveal that she's a lesbian." I've dreamed since I was 13 of a career as a military officer," Sara Isaacson said last week. "But I knew I wouldn't be OK with myself if I had to lie every day." Her honesty will cost her $79,000.

Or maybe not. A pact to repeal the ban could be announced this week.

James Fallows writes today that the deal could bring ROTC back to elite college campuses:

The case I know best is Harvard's, where ROTC programs were forced off campus in the late 1960s as part of the general effort to register opposition to Vietnam war policies. That made sense at the time, at least to me. But what was initially intended as a focused objection to a specific war extended into a general separation between an important military intake system and some of the most elite universities. This separation is, in my view, bad for the military, bad for the universities, and bad for the country. Almost no one urging the anti-ROTC change of those days would have argued or imagined that 35 years after U.S. troops left Vietnam the ban should still be in place. As the original Vietnam-related rationale has faded into distant memory, the prohibition on ROTC has been sustained as an objection to the military's exclusion of openly gay service members.

3) Wounded warriors and the power of a single photograph. Photographer Katie Hayes provides NPR with an essay from the Warrior Games.

From a bird's-eye view on the catwalk over the pool at the Olympic Training Center, I could see that all of the swimmers had finished the race, except for one lone participant struggling in the middle of the pool. His pace slowed, his legs no longer kicked vigorously and he worked to keep his head above the water. As he reached out toward the lane divider, I lowered my camera, wondering if anyone was going to help him. A moment passed, he caught his breath, the crowd cheered louder and he started to swim again. And I picked up my camera.

4) MPR's Paul Huttner examines the physics of baseball flight and the weather patterns to figure out that this could be a big week for home runs at Target Field. Whatever bounce we get from having a higher elevation than most stadiums, we lose because we get colder air and higher pressure. We are awaiting word on how hot and muggy it needs to get before the Twins can get a hit with runners in scoring position.

5) Big disaster. Beautiful pictures. The Boston Globe's fine The Big Picture blog has a healthy new catch of sad pictures.

Bonus: Should history classes wade into the more sordid elements of our past, and if so, how far? In Georgia, a teacher is likely to be disciplined because she allowed four students to dress in KKK robes to film a video production of history re-enactments. The parents of an African American student objected. "You cannot discuss racism without discussing the Klan," she told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "To do so would be to condone their actions."

Need more to think about?

The North Dakota policy on vanity license plates -- the Fargo Forum says -- puts a number of specific limitations on personal plates. For example, swear words and vulgarity, references to illegal drugs or activity, and racial or ethnic slurs are off-limits, as is a word or term that is "patently offensive or contemptuous, prejudicial, or incites lust, depravity, or hostility."

So why can't Brian Magee get the one he wants: ISNOGOD? Should he?

TODAY'S QUESTION

Officials have acknowledged that the government may have to take over the effort to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Whose job should it be to stop the Gulf oil spill?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: The culture of unaccountability. President Obama denounced the "ridiculous spectacle" of BP executives trying to shift the blame for the Gulf oil spill, but there are many examples of CEOs and politicians failing to take accountability for their actions. Have we created a culture where it's acceptable for no one to take the blame?

Second hour: New archeological evidence has revealed more information on what happened during the Battle at the Little Bighorn. Author Nathaniel Philbrick's latest book details what we now know about how General George Custer died and why in some ways the battle marked Sitting Bull's last stand as well.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Congressman Jim Oberstar on the government and private sector response to the BP oil spill.

Second hour: President Obama's commencement speech given this weekend at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: An evaluation of President Obama's response to the gulf oil disaster.

Second hour: The story of the summer of 2001 - centered on the disappearance of a young Washington intern named Chandra Levy -- the married congressman she was having an a affair with, and the media circus that erupted. A true story of bad politicians, worse policing, and a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative team.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - Fox 9's Robyn Robinson is scheduled to talk to Tom Crann this evening about the end of her Twin Cities news career. But it's likely we'll hear more about her possible candidacy for lieutenant governor of Minnesota.

MPR's Annie Baxter will have an installment of the jobs series, looking at how people are making transitions to new careers.

NPR will have a story of rebirth in New Orleans that involves a Swedish import. The life of musician Anders Osborne echoes the renaissance of that ravaged city.

Five by 8 - 5/26/10: Twins rain on fans' parade

Posted at 7:23 AM on May 26, 2010 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) The Twins couldn't beat the Yankees in 6 innings last night, so Major League Baseball took it out on the fans. So far in 2010, we've had our first opening day at Target Field, we've had the first raptor, the first squirrel, the first day game, the first night game and last night we got the first application of the rain-check policy. The game was scoreless in the sixth against the Yankees when the rain came. The game was delayed, then suspended. The game will be completed before today's game, but fans who bought tickets for last night's game won't be able to watch the conclusion of last night's game. Baseball rules say a six-inning game is an official game. The fans paid to see a game; they got a game, the Twins said.

"What a joke! The Twins completely ripped off the fans tonight!" WCCO's Mark Rosen tweeted. Actually, it's the umpires who made the call.

What could they have done? Waited? The curfew in baseball is 1 a.m. and by 10, the rain had stopped, according to some fans. But more rain was on the way.

There is, of course, a greatness to outdoor baseball. But when we were traveling down memory lane before the stadium was built, we forgot a few things about its hazards.

And now, our favorite squirrel baseball videos:

More nature news: There's a robin roosting in the foliage of a plant for sale at a Cub in Duluth.

2) 223 years ago yesterday, the Constitutional Convention started meeting in Philadelphia. For many months, it made the Minnesota state government seem like a well-run machine. Eventually, out popped the U.S. Constitution. One wonders what the Founding Fathers would say if we could go back in time and tell them that starting now, an account -- @SecretDelegate -- is providing updates on the Convention, on a thing called a computer, run by magic called electricity? The true identity of the delegate will not be revealed until the Constitution is signed.

Unlike Minnesota lawmakers, the Founding Fathers apparently went drinking with each other from time to time.

3) Should government step in to ensure that users of Facebook own their privacy? The New York Times is hosting a spirited debate today.

"And once again, as on multiple other occasions when Facebook unilaterally changed the way it handles our personal information, some observers shrug and conclude that technology simply "moves too fast" for the law to handle. I don't know which is more exasperating, Facebook's tone-deaf approach to privacy or the defeatist chatter that follows," says William McGeveran, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Facebook is announcing new privacy settings today -- which is different than what they did earlier this week, adding settings that defaulted to lack of privacy without telling anyone .

MPR's Midmorning will tackle this issue tomorrow. Incidentally, want to follow me on Facebook? Me, neither.

4) How come U.S. citizens aren't as excited to be U.S. citizens as people who aren't, and then are? Aguibou Barry of St. Cloud is one of our newest citizens, after a ceremony yesterday in St. Cloud. But his daughters had to stay in school and couldn't attend. "I wish they could be here," Barry said, "because I did this for them."

A commenter on the St. Cloud Times' Web site nails it:

THIS is the kind of story that should be told more often. The VAST majority of immigrants that come here legally are appreciative of their opportunity and excited about their future. Usually, we only hear about the ones that are disenchanted - or never should have come to begin with. Anyone that can't see the positives in a story like this has other "issues" that prevent them from being a TRUE American at heart.

5) Bill Hinkley has died. The folk music giant was on the first A Prairie Home Companion show. He provided the folk in the folksiness of the show.

TODAY'S QUESTION

Candidates for governor of Minnesota have been announcing their running mates ahead of a June 1 filing deadline. Would a candidate's choice of running mate ever decide your vote?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Greece's bailout and the future of the Euro.

Second hour: Memories of stock market's steep decline at the end of 2008, and Wall Street's recent roller coaster ride, might be giving many investors pause. Two market watchers share their thoughts on where the value is, and what to avoid.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Karl Marlantes on his best-selling novel about the Vietnam War, called "Matterhorn."

Second hour: Live broadcast from the National Press Club, featuring President George W. Bush's daughter, Barbara Bush, speaking about global health.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: NPR political editor Ken Rudin.

Second hour: A look at gays serving in the military in other countries.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - MPR's Mark Steil has one of the bright spots for employment. The health sector has grown in size and importance statewide. In some areas job growth and wages outpace the average. Blue Earth County has seen health care employment and wages grow faster than the county average. But some of the fastest-growing jobs are very low-paying. And a growing health sector reflects growing health costs, which are problematic for the economy.

National Public Radio reports on California's last car assembly plant, which shut down earlier this year. But now, it has a new lease on life. Electric sedans will roll off the assembly line there. And that means thousands of former workers will be lining up for jobs again.

Five by 8 - 5/27/10: Blood on the iPad

Posted at 7:34 AM on May 27, 2010 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) Does it matter to you how the products you love get made? iPad users and potential customers are faced with a growing ethical dilemma. Apple customers historically have tended to be more concerned about social justice; they change their avatar colors on Twitter in protest of human rights abuses in Iran, and boycott BP because of the oil disaster (a boycott that likely won't work, Jason Derusha reports). The Independent reports that there's blood on the iPad. The company in China which makes the iPad has even set up suicide nets to keep people from jumping out of the buildings:

All the incidents involved workers aged under 25, who apparently have been disturbed by the long shifts and strict discipline. Talking and music are banned during shifts, which last at least 10 hours. Workers must perform a certain number of repetitive operations per shift, under the eye of allegedly harsh military-style supervisors.

Yesterday, company officials gave journalists a tour of the plant to show how happy everybody is there. Hours later, another worker committed suicide.

So, how do we decide when to push back against injustice? How do we decide what is worth protesting?

(h/t: Paul Douglas, Star Tribune)

2) FiveThirtyEight.com wades into why two polls on the same subject have two different results if they purport to be representative of the public. In the process, it analyzes the Rasmussen polling system:

In general, if you're trying to understand what makes Rasmussen polling "different", the key heuristic is to assume that their polls are suffering from significant self-selection bias, and that the people who respond to their polls are significantly more likely to be active consumers of political news. This is probably why Rasmussen polls tend to show extremely large "bounces" associated with seemingly banal political events, and why they tend to show good results for candidates associated with activist movements, even if those candidates are barely known among the broader public. In essence, they're about half-way toward being polls of political junkies. (I'd love to see the percentage of people in their polls who claim, for instance, to have donated to political candidates, something which we could cross-check against FEC records; I'd bet you that it's very high.)

The Rasmussen poll in Minnesota this week showed the governor's race a tossup, according to MPR's Tom Scheck.

3) A company that makes American flags in Pakistan is doing a booming business. A resurgence of pro-American attitude? No. Protesters burn the flags.

"I have nothing to do with any political party, but it is really enjoyable when you see your work on TV screens," a laughing Rasheed told AFP.

"I'm busy every day making banners and placards for different religious and political parties, but work gets a boost -- especially when international controversy concerning Muslims breaks out," he said.

4) Viral video of the week:

I don't have anything to say about this. The story is here.

5) Webcams are like looking in someone's windows. Hello, Northfield!

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

KYMN Radio and the Northfield Historical Society have just set up this camera in Bridge Square. Can't wait for something to happen.

Eye Candy: Clouds and stars above a volcano. (h/t: Open Culture)

TODAY'S QUESTION

A major new study finds a strong link between indoor tanning and melanoma. Does vanity lead you to do things you know are bad for you?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Members of the Minnesota National Guard's 34th "Red Bull" infantry division have been back in Minnesota for more than three months now. Midmorning speaks with two Guard members about the reintegration process.

Second hour: Facebook has made privacy a new priority following pressure from advocacy groups and Washington. These changes will give users more control of their information, but are the updates able to keep up with our ever-changing expectations about privacy?

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Special reports from MPR News' "Retooling Minnesota's Job Factory." Comments from economist Louis Johnston.

Second hour: Live coverage of President Obama's news conference about the oil spill and other matters.

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: Debt put Greece on the edge. Spain or Portugal or Ireland or Italy may be next. Bond trader Scott Mather says the dominoes may fall from there. What happened in Europe? And what does it mean for us?

Second hour: The only thing more jarring than incessant sound might be silence. Fed up with all the noise, George Foy sought silence in Parisian catacombs, under noise cancelling headphones, flotation tanks and finally, the quietest place on earth -- a sound-blocking chamber in Minnesota.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - Stories about people dying are in the news every day. What's not usually in the news is how families cope day after day with their grief, and how differently each person in the family can be affected. Sixteen-year-old Antonio Gonzalez's mother, Judy Ojeda died suddenly last October of an undiagnosed and untreated brain infection. She left behind her husband and six children. Today in MPR's Youth Radio Series, Antonio Gonzalez gives us a portrait of life in his family, seven months after losing his mom

We'll have another installment in the MPR series, Retooling Minnesota's Job Factory. For years, the job market has been tilting in favor of educated workers, and that trend is likely to accelerate in the future. Many of the fastest growing occupations will only be accessible with college experience-- and, in some cases, multiple degrees. In addition, educated workers earn more and are less likely to suffer unemployment. But many people in Minnesota's fastest growing demographic groups don't even finish high school. Those individuals have suffered badly this recession, and life will likely only get harder. Minnesota's labor market watchers say the public sector will have to improve the graduation rates of Minnesota students, the workforce in waiting, and do more to prepare the state's existing workers for the global marketplace of the future. That means facilitating adult education and worker retraining. Minnesota's prosperity depends on it.
Wait until this afternoon to hear it or read it now.

Five by 8 - 5/28/10: The names we don't know

Posted at 7:57 AM on May 28, 2010 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) No doubt, we'll hear the phrase "the traditional start of summer" uttered by newsies over the next few days. One wonders if by making major holidays three-day weekends, we've reduced the significance of the holiday.

Each year, we ask News Cut readers to tell us the story of their relatives' or friends' (or themselves, sometimes) service to the country. Please do so, in the comments section.

I'll start.

I don't remember his name, if I ever knew it. He was just one of the grease-monkeys up the street at the Texaco station, the one I used to ride my bike to with a pocketful of dimes to buy Cokes out of the vending machine. He was the one who looked at me funny when I bought a pack of cigarettes -- Salems -- out of the vending machine. "They're for my father," I insisted, even though they weren't. And he made sure I knew that he knew that when he said, "Sure." Then he stopped being there and a few months later another grease-monkey said he was dead. His Jeep overturned "somewhere in Vietnam," he said. That was the first time I knew someone who went off to a war and didn't come back. I didn't even know his name.

Your turn.

2) If you could build your house from scratch, would you put in a furnace? Would you make more energy than you use? The blog, The Adventures of Johnny Northside, provides a terrific tour of a passive solar house under construction in Hudson, with 22-inch-thick walls, blinds that open and close automatically, and a view.

The only thing missing is the pricetag. The builders also have a blog here.

3) Is there a bigger waste of time than expending energy analyzing a gubernatorial candidate's choice for lieutenant governor? Probably not, judging from the inside view provided in the story from MPR's Mark Zdechlik today. The big news in it, perhaps, is that Mae Schunk got more coverage today -- nine paragraphs -- than she got in four years of being Jesse Ventura's lieutenant governor.

"I had a fear of saying the wrong thing," Schunk said. "You know this is the media. This is going out all over the whole state. But I guess I did alright."

Sometimes I walked into his office and I said, 'governor, this dish rag is getting a little bit soiled.'" she said.

But the most intriguing quote is this one:

Schunk said she and Ventura talked about her taking on the job of education commissioner, but decided that position required full-time attention.

Which brings up the question, if being a lieutenant governor isn't a full-time job, what is it? The job pays $78,197, by the way.

Discussion point: What's the best job in Minnesota?

4) A lot of smart people have expended a lot of carbon dioxide discussing why online comments are so uncivil and what can be done about it. National Public Radio expends more. In its All Things Considered story, NPR points out that suggestion that Web sites let everything fly because that's what gets "page views" -- audience. There's good news, NPR reports. Web site editors have realized that comments are content too and are starting to take editorial responsibility for them:

The reason people come to blogs, the story says, is the best ones converse with the audience.

5) There was nobody in charge aboard the Deepwater Horizon on the day it exploded. A woman who issued a "mayday" was reprimanded.

Bonus: iPad and velcro.

iPad + Velcro from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Meanwhile, the iPad is launching internationally.

Imponderable: Lou Reed and his wife are holding a concert in Australia. You won't be able to hear it. It's for dogs.

TODAY'S QUESTION

After complaints from users and government officials, Facebook has introduced measures to simplify its privacy controls. Have you had a privacy problem on a social network?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Are you glued to your job?
The recession saw a huge number of layoffs, scaring many into staying in jobs that they ordinarily would have quit. But there are signs that people are beginning to feel confident enough in the economy that they're willing to voluntarily leave their jobs. Career counselor Amy Lindgren offers advice for listeners about how to find new opportunities in a tough market and when to know it's OK to walk away.

Second hour: From his 1970 debut album to his more recent work, the songs of Loudon Wainwright III have provided a keen and humorous commentary on his personal relationships, society, and current affairs. His most recent album takes a look at the country's current economic woes. (Rebroadcast)

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Carleton College international relations professor Roy Grow discusses reconciliation between the U.S. and Vietnam as we head into Memorial Day weekend.

Second hour: NBC Meet the Press moderator David Gregory interviews Gov. Tim Pawlenty on "Meet the Press, Across America."

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - It's Science Friday! First hour: A very similar blowout spewed oil in the Gulf for nine months 31 years ago. So why don't we have better prevention and cleanup technologies than we did back then?

Second hour: Gardening on the cheap.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - A class of systemic insecticides first introduced in the 1990s is now ubiquitous across the urban landscape. The use is expected to increase as people treat for emerald ash borer in the Twin Cities. A University of Minnesota researcher says there are troubling indicators the insecticide stays active longer than previously thought and is killing beneficial insects. She's starting a new research project this summer examining the impact of neonics in urban areas. MPR's Dan Gunderson will have the story.

Chris Roberts profiles Zoo Animal, one of the most well-regarded indie rock bands on the local scene. A new CD features songs with devout Christian themes, but is Zoo Animal a "Christian" rock band? Yes and no.

MPR's Tim Nelson visits Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the completion of the chapel at the cemetery