News Day: Lawyer-speak for loser / Ho-hum DFL / Backing off on spy bill / Around the world in 90 seconds / more

Coleman looks to appeal Joe Friedberg, Norm Coleman’s lead trial attorney, told KFAN radio that “we’ve been trying this case with the appeal record in mind, and that’s where we’re going,” reports MinnPost’s Jay Weiner. In lawyer-speak, that’s about as clear a statement as you will ever hear that the Coleman camp expects to lose in the three-judge recount court.

Ho-hum: DFL in St. Paul The St. Paul DFL convention on Saturday held few surprises: As Al Oertwig bowed out of the school board race, the convention lauded his service and unanimously endorsed all three incumbents; John Brodrick, Tom Goldstein and Elona Street-Stewart, reports the Strib. They also endorsed St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. The PiPress reports that , with only 58.2 percent voting for instant runoff voting, the convention fell short of the needed 60% to declare support. Among the resolutions highlighted by Grace Kelly in her post at the MN Progressive Project:

Be it resolved that: The St Paul DFL expresses profound disapproval at the suppression of legitimate political dissent which occurred during the Republican National Convention in September.

and

Be it resolved that: The City of St Paul enforce the ordinances requiring people to shovel their **** sidewalks.

St. Paul Republicans will meet April 4.

Government spy bill on hold for now After encountering a storm of opposition, DFL Rep. John Lesch withdrew is bill on secret government spying from consideration. The Lesch bill, and a companion bill sponsored by Sen. Don Betzold, provide that intelligence data collected on individuals by law enforcement officers could be kept secret for a year, according to the Minnesota Independent.

How much is your house worth? If you live in the metro area, median home prices average just 3.9 percent, with only five percent of homes reaching double-digit declines, according to a McComb Group study cited by MPR.

MN Job Watch MnDOT will be hiring soon, with an infusion of $502 million in federal stimulus money, reports the Strib.

Because the stimulus money is one-time-only and must be designated quickly — half by July 1, half by next February — Gutknecht said MnDOT’s district offices across the state are hiring consultants rather than permanent employees to handle the bubble of work moving through the system. The department employs about 4,800.

After contracts are awarded, the real wave of hiring (by contractors) will begin.

And on the national front, big guns are mobilizing against EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act), the legislation that would allow employees to organize a union by signing up a majority of employees in a “card check” rather than going through the entire election process. A coalition including Starbucks, Costco and Whole Food has formed what the employers are calling the “Level Playing Field Committee” to lobby against the union-backed legislation, according to Politico. Instead of allowing a majority of workers to choose a union by signing cards, the employer coalition wants to se tthe bar at 70 percent, and also to authorize employers to use card check s to decertify unions. Other employer groups continue to oppose EFCA unconditionally.

One guilty ” Thirty-four charges, 10 people, one conviction,” reports the Strib, as SEan McCoy was convicted of one count of public assembly wihtout a permit, and acquitted of fleeing police. He was fined $50.

Poppy policy doesn’t work U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, called the $800 million/year U.S. war on drugs in Afghanistan “wasteful and ineffective,” reports BBC Holbrooke told a conference in Belgium that the U.S. effort “hasn’t hurt the Taleban one iota.” Though the U.S. claims to have cut poppy acreage by 19 percent in 2008, Afghanistan still produces 90 percent of the world’s heroin. In other encouraging news from the war in Afghanistan:
• senior NATO commanders say violence will increase in 2009;
• the Afghan national police are “inadequate” and “riddled with corruption” (Holbrooke again);
• President Obama is sending 17,000 troops to fight “the spreading insurgency” (BBC).
I know we all love Obama, but come on folks – this is another bad war.

“Extermination” in Sudan Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, said that by expelling aid agencies and blocking aid to refugees, Sudan’s indicted President Omar al-Bashir is “exterminating” them, reports BBC.