News Day – January 27: Velociraptors and voting, MN Job Watch, MN minorities and more

Licenses for Velociraptors! In order to stop attacks by marauding velociraptors, or at least to assign responsibility to their owners when velociraptors consume cats, chickens and small children, MN GOP legislators want to require licenses and photo IDs for all velociraptors kept within or in transit through Minnesota. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, said, “You show an ID to cash a check… (and) to get through security at the airport. If you have to do that for the most basic activities in our daily life, why wouldn’t you… want to do that for one of the most important activities that we exercise …”

Oh. Never mind. He doesn’t want photo IDs for velociraptors, but for voters. To prevent voter cheating. A problem that’s almost as common in MN as … velociraptors.

As Bill Salisbury writes in the PiPress, “Democrats have argued for years that thousands of Minnesotans lack government-issued photo IDs, and such a law would disenfranchise the people least likely to have drivers’ licenses: the poor, the disabled and the elderly. Those people also are more likely to vote for Democrats.”

Emmer said he didn’t know if anyone had been accused of voting illegally in the last election. One guy was, as I recall. A former felon up in Warroad who had not yet served all of his supervised release time cast a ballot, and later was jailed for his offense. He says he voted for McCain and Coleman. (P.S. The photo ID law wouldn’t have stopped him from voting.)

Rabbit-ear Reprieve? The senate approved a four-month delay in DTV transition, as recommended by President Obama, and House approval seems imminent, reports the Washington Post. The DTV transition scheduled for February 17 would leave 6.5 million households with blank screens, according to Nielsen. The federal agency giving out $40 coupons to help pay for the converter boxes (which cost more than $40), has run out of money, with more than 3 million people on the waiting list.

The biggest minority? While Latinos now outnumber all other minority groups nationwide, African Americans are still the largest minority in Minnesota. That will change by 2015 years, according to the state demographer’s office. Projections by the office estimate the black, non-Latino population at 314,100 in 2015 and the Latino population at 324,400.

In a January 22 report, the office projected growth in MN’s total “nonwhite or Latino” population from 14 percent in 2005 to 25 percent in 2035, with all parts of the state becoming more ethnically diverse than they are now.

Bills for schools MN schools could find a way to fund their billion-dollar-plus retirement benefit obligations (mostly for health care) under a new legislative proposal, report Megan Boldt and Maricella Miranda in the PiPress. The new law would allow a local property tax, with money going into interest-bearing trust accounts, instead of the current pay-as-you-go from operating budgets. Some 34 of MN’s 360 districts already have MN DOE authorization for levies or bonding to pay for retirement trusts. In recent years, school districts have reduced retirement benefits, but they still have obligations under prior contracts.

This is one of dozens of proposals on education introduced so far this session, reports Tom Weber on MPR. Among other proposals: starting school before Labor Day, early childhood education for at-risk four-year-olds, a new Minnesota Miracle, opting out of No Child Left Behind.

RNC trial starts David McKay, accused of assembling Molotov cocktails with another Texan, is on trial in federal court, reports Laura Yuen on MPR. His attorney says that FBI informant Brandon Darby provoked the acts. The second defendant, Bradley Crowder, pled guilty earlier this month.

Remington out, Bicking in Ralph Remington announced he would leave the Minneapolis City Council, joining Paul Ostrow and Scott Benson in departing at the end of this term, reported the Strib. In a press release, Dave Bicking became the latest candidate to declare, as the field for city council races continues to fill up.

MN Job Watch Not clear how many of the jobs lost are in Minnesota, but large companies around the world announced 62,000 job cuts Monday–22,000 at Caterpillar, 8,000 at Sprint Nextel, 7,000 at Home Depot, 2,000 at General Motors plants in Michigan and Ohio, 3,400 at Texas Instruments, 8,000 at the soon-to-be-merged Pfizer and Wyeth drug companies, 6,000 at Philips electronics company, 3,500 at steel maker Corus, and 7,000 at ING banking and insurance group. The New York Times quotes Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist at IHS Global Insight, as saying, “We’re now in the danger zone.” You think? The NYT goes on to recall that “first-time unemployment claims had risen to 589,000 for the week ending Jan. 17, tying a record high set in December.” This week’s announcements follow last week’s cuts b Microsoft (5,000 over the next 18 months), Sony in Japan (5,000), Ericcson in Sweden (5,000), and Harley-Davidson (1,000).

Closer to home, the Hennepin County Medical Center announced layoffs of 20 people in response to the governor’s cuts in health and human services funding in December, reports Toni Randolph at MPR. HCMC will also eliminate 80 positions that are not currently filled, and HCMC CEO Lynn Abrahamson says she is “very nervous” about what might come next. The PiPress report notes that Allina, North Memorial and Park Nicollet have also announced job cuts in recent weeks, as more uninsured Minnesotans are unable to afford health care.