News Cut: September 24, 2012 Archive
Raising the Hastings Bridge
Posted at 11:07 AM on September 24, 2012
by Bob Collins
Nice time-lapse video from MnDOT as construction crews raise the center span of the new Hastings bridge. It was floated downstream on a barge to its permanent home.
The Civil War anniversary we'd rather forget
Posted at 2:48 PM on September 24, 2012
by Paul Tosto
(3 Comments)
Filed under: History
You're pretty much guaranteed a daily150th anniversary Civil War remembrance through Spring 2015. Last week was a grim remembrance of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in U.S. history.
You probably will not hear a lot, though, about today's unique Civil War history, the 150th anniversary of one the worst episodes of the suspension of American civil rights.
On this day, Abraham Lincoln issued Presidential Proclamation 94, suspending the writ of habeas corpus, meaning you could be thrown in jail without charges or a court hearing.
Lincoln had suspended this basic civil liberty several times earlier in the war. Presidential Proclamation 94 went further, though. It was in force throughout the union states and made it treasonous to merely speak out against the draft.
...all rebels and insurgents, their aiders and abettors, within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia draft or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and comfort to rebels against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial law and liable to trial and punishment by courts-martial or military commissions; second, that the writ of habeas corpus is suspended in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now or hereafter during the rebellion shall be imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military prison, or other place of confinement by any military authority or by the sentence of any court-martial or military commission...You can read more here about Lincoln and civil liberties in war time.
Coincidentally, Sept. 24 is also the day in 1789 when Congress established the Supreme Court, which was created to protect the key rights Lincoln suspended nearly four score later.
-- Paul Tosto
(3 Comments)On student loan delinquencies, Minnesota looks good
Posted at 3:30 PM on September 24, 2012
by Paul Tosto
(1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools
The economy's been lousy for four years and the level of student debt topped $1 trillion last year. It's a combination that, nationally, has turned many young Americans into student loan delinquents.
If there's good news here, it's that Minnesota institutions are showing the lowest levels of student loan delinquencies, The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City writes:
Minnesota has the lowest delinquency rate at 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012, while Oklahoma has the highest rate at 18.5 percent. Half of states have rates below 10 percent. A number of factors explain differences in student loan delinquency rates across states. Among these are the relative performance of the state economy and student loan debt levels.Two charts from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City tell the story. The first shows Minnesota in the middle of the pack on average student loan debt per borrower at its institutions.
The second shows Minnesota institutions with the lowest student loan delinquency rate
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
According to the federal Education Department, a debt is considered delinquent when payment is past due 30 to 270 days. After that, it's considered in default.
Despite the data, high fives are not in order. As we've reported before, when you dig down into the data you find that much of the crippling student debt problem is focused on public community colleges and for-profit career schools.
The state Office of Higher Education data show those institutions generated more than 80 percent of the delinquencies but represented only about 40 percent of the Minnesota college enrollment in 2008.
As we talk more about student loans, delinquencies, job prospects and whether college is worth the money, we should probably narrow the conversation. Should we refocus this discussion on the schools with where the debt and delinquency problems are the worst?
-- Paul Tosto
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