Polinaut: October 15, 2007 Archive

The Daily Digest: 10-15-2007

Posted at 8:57 AM on October 15, 2007 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Daily Digest

An economics professor with the U of M won the Nobel Prize for Economics.

The Star Tribune says agencies were paying a sex offender as an informant.

The Star Tribune has a story on Gov. Pawlenty's climate change advisory group.

AP says Rushford is recovering slowly from the flooding.

The Star Tribune writes about the downside to ticket scalping

The Brainerd Dispatch writes on school funding.

Gov. Pawlenty urges Norway to keep the Norway consulate open.

KSTP says illegal immigrants are bringing meth into Minnesota.

I-35W Bridge

The Transportation Contigent Appropriation Group meets again today. ECM Publishers says there have been plenty of interim committee meetings this year.

This is the first full week of construction on t new I-35W bridge. Here are some of the things you don't know about the construction.

KARE-11 says a ceremonial ground breaking is slated for today but I was told on Friday that those plans have been scrapped.

Some of the bridge collapse survivors are still trying to cope.

The second opinion on causes of the bridge collapse will be kept secret. Public money for an investigation will be kept secret? Sounds more like the state is preparing for a lawsuit instead of finding out what happened.

Conde Naste's Portfolio says the feds learned a lesson from Hurricane Katrina and worked quickly to give aid for the I-35W bridge.

Congress

AP says the federal government had concerns that foot and mouth disease could hit the Midwest this summer.

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to take up the Farm Bill on October 23rd. Klobuchar is mentioned in this story.

But permanent farm disaster funding is dividing the Senate. DFL Rep. Collin Peterson is mentioned.

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann writes an op-ed on why she opposes SCHIP expansion.

The op-ed comes on the eve of an attempted veto override.

DFL Rep. Tim Walz holds several Iraq forums around the state. The Rochester Post Bulletin and KEYC have stories.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison declines to be a part of a coloring book titled "I Don't Want to Blow You Up!" Others have filed cease and desist letters to the author.

Forum Communications says a court ruling could add to construction costs in St. Louis County. DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar is mentioned.

The FAA is faulted for the way it handled maintenance concerns during the mechanics strike.

Idaho Senator Larry Craig is expected to file an appeal.

2008

The Star Tribune details the money race.

DFL U.S. Senate candidate Mike Ciresi is way behind in the money race. The Star Tribune and AP have stories.

GOP Rep. John Kline has $312 thousand in the bank.

Pigs at the trough

Posted at 11:30 AM on October 15, 2007 by Bob Collins

Not my phrase, that belongs to Chris Farrell, the Two Cents blogger at Marketplace who lambastes lobbyists and legislators following the Washington Post article on how legislators get around rules to make piles of cash for themselves.

In many ways, one wonders why there's such a polarization between Democrats and Republicans, since once they get to Washington, it's simply one giant money suck for so many of different stripes.

I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!)

Posted at 1:01 PM on October 15, 2007 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

"Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream is driving a bulldozer into The New York Times while drinking crude oil out of Keith Olbermann’s skull.” --Stephen Colbert

Maureen Dowd at the New York Times must have had something to do. She turned over her column to Stephen Colbert yesterday. Perhaps she should make it a regular occurrence.

Our nation is at a Fork in the Road. Some say we should go Left; some say go Right. I say, “Doesn’t this thing have a reverse gear?” Let’s back this country up to a time before there were forks in the road — or even roads. Or forks, for that matter. I want to return to a simpler America where we ate our meat off the end of a sharpened stick.

Let me regurgitate: I know why you want me to run, and I hear your clamor. I share Americans’ nostalgia for an era when you not only could tell a man by the cut of his jib, but the jib industry hadn’t yet fled to Guangdong. And I don’t intend to tease you for weeks the way Newt Gingrich did, saying that if his supporters raised $30 million, he would run for president. I would run for 15 million. Cash.

Nevertheless, I am not ready to announce yet — even though it’s clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative.

What do I offer? Hope for the common man. Because I am not the Anointed or the Inevitable. I am just an Average Joe like you — if you have a TV show.

Oh, by the way, do the New York Times editors fact-check the opinion page? If not, how does one explain the opening sentence of Verlyn Klinkenborg's column today? Especially egregious since Klinkenborg once taught in Minnesota without apparently knowing where he was.

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