Category Archives: news

August 12, 2009 · 8:17 am

News Day: Guns and budgets / Swine flu preparations / Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced

MSNBC broadcast interview with gun-toting protester

MSNBC broadcast interview with gun-toting protester

Your Second Amendment right to protest? Photos of a gun-carrying anti-Obama protester (William Kostric) outside the president’s New Hampshire town hall meeting set off a storm in the blogosphere but didn’t impress the Wall Street Journal, which found nothing alarming about people bringing guns to protests, writing that, “outside Manhattan, citizens’ exercising their Second Amendment rights are nothing unusual.”

Unlike the WSJ, Gawker.com headlines a cause for concern”:

The man is carrying a sign that says, “It Is Time to Water the Tree of Liberty.” That’s a reference to a Thomas Jefferson quote: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” It was a favorite slogan of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was wearing a T-shirt when he was arrested with a picture of Lincoln on the front and a tree dripping with blood on the back.

Now, this guy is carrying a legal weapon, says NBC News’ Ron Allen. The local chief of police has no objections. …

But let’s be clear: anyone watching the mounting rage over, of all things, health care — perhaps one of the most boring and complex policy subjects — has to worry that these people are going to try to kill Barack Obama.

Another man carrying a gun inside the Portsmouth high school (Richard Terry Young, 62) was arrested at 9:40 a.m., hours before the town hall event, according to UPI. These incidents follow the arrests of a man with a gun outside Obama’s Chicago home in July, and a man with a gun looking for Obama at the U.S. Capitol in February, and other gun-related incidents and/or arrests at various rallies during last year’s presidential campaign and this year’s town hall rallies.

MSNBC’s Hardball program aired a seven-minute interview with William Kostric – the man with the gun, giving him ample time to explain his strange position that carrying a gun some how serves the cause of more politeness in society.

A more hard-nosed look at Salon.com profiles Kostric’s internet presence:

[In MSNBC’s Hardball interview,] Kostric insisted his intentions were peaceful, and that he’s not affiliated with Birther groups.

But at least one of those statements doesn’t seem to be true. A right-wing activist named “William Kostric,” who’s left a lot of footprints around the Web, is listed as a “team member” of the Arizona chapter of We the People, the far-right group best known for joining a lawsuit challenging Obama’s right to be president based on his not being a U.S. citizen. Kostric told MSNBC he recently moved from Arizona to New Hampshire. (Kostric did not reply to Salon’s e-mail request for an interview.

Kostric’s MySpace profile also lists among his heroes Randy Weaver, the white supremacist and right-wing activist who survived the Ruby Ridge confrontation with federal agents, along with Ayn Rand’s John Galt, Thomas Jefferson, libertarian/GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul and William Wallace, the Scottish resistance leader portrayed in Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart.”

Last week, Democracy Now reported on the extremely high level of threats against President Obama:

A new book on the history of the Secret Service reports the rate of threats against the President has increased 400 percent since President Obama took office in January as the nation’s first African American president. According to author Ronald Kessler, Obama is the target of more than thirty potential death threats a day. Most of the threats have been kept under wraps, because the Secret Service fears that revealing details of them would only increase the number of copycat attempts.

One budget down, one to come As both Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors continue as undeclared but much discussed possible candidates for next year’s gubernatorial race, their 2010 budget statements take on added significance.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman presented his 2010 budget proposal on Tuesday, and reports in the Pioneer Press and MPR note that his proposal combines a decrease in city spending — from $540 million in 2009 to $538 next year — with a six percent increase in property taxes to cope with an $11.6 million reduction in state funding next year.

Among the specifics of the plan:

• The city will cut 121 positions, which will mean leaving vacant positions unfilled and laying off about 45 current employees.
• Federal ARRA funds will allow hiring of 34 additional police officers and 18 additional firefighters. (MPR notes that St. Paul received $7.5 million in federal funding for police hires, but that Minneapolis received only about half that amount.)
• Hamline Midway library, which saw an outpouring of community support when it was threatened with closure this year, will remain open.
• Front, Sylvan and Prosperity rec centers will be torn down, but their athletic fields will be improved. Baker, Griggs, Margaret, South St. Anthony and Wilder rec centers will be turned over to “community partners” for management in some form. Bonding funds will be used to replace the current Arlington Hills library and recreation center with a new Payne-Maryland combined community center and library.

Next up: Minneapolis. Mayor R.T. Rybak will deliver his budget address on Thursday. MPR notes that Minneapolis is facing a $21 million cut in state aid, and also “an increase in pension obligations for two closed employee funds, which will cost the city an additional $18 million a year.”

Swine flu preparations The flu season is coming and a double whammy of regular, seasonal flu and swine flu is expected to strain health resources across the country and in Minnesota. MPR’s report of a briefing by state epidemiologist Ruth Lynfield noted that, “No one knows what will happen with H1N1 this fall. The virus could mutate and become more severe. It could fizzle out. Or it could follow the path it has charted so far.”

What is known:

• In a normal year, seasonal flu kills about 36,000 people in the United States, most of them elderly.
• Young people and children seem to be hardest-hit by swine flu.
• “The Health Department estimates that 30 percent of Minnesotans — about 1.5 million people — may become infected by H1N1 as multiple waves of the pandemic move through the state over the next year or two. Of those, the agency says anywhere from 3,600 to nearly 33,000 could die.”
• Priority for the new swine flu vaccine will go to health care workers, pregnant women, young children and people who care for infants under 6 months of age. No one will be required to be vaccinated. (That should go without saying, but in today’s political climate, it’s an issue.)

For more information and for updates on the situation, check out the Minnesota Health Department’s “H1N1 Novel Influenza (formerly known as swine flu)” page

World/Nation

Burma Nobel Peace Prize winner jailed again As expected, reports BBC, opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted and sentenced to another 18 months of house arrest.

Ms Suu Kyi was on trial for allowing a US national, John Yettaw, into her lakeside home after he swam there uninvited. Mr Yettaw was jailed for seven years, including four years of hard labour.

Critics of Burma’s military regime say the verdict is designed to prevent Ms Suu Kyi from taking part in elections scheduled for 2010.

4,000 arrests in Iran The Iranian government said that 4,000 protesters were arrested in protests over June’s elections, reports BBC. Opposition leaders say that at least 69 people were killed. The government is now trying 100 of the protesters. Allegations of torture and rape in jail continue to be made.

Activists killed in Chechnya Two human rights activists were kidnapped on Monday and killed in Chechnya, reports BBC:

The case follows July’s abduction and killing of activist Natalia Estemirova.

Ms Sadulayeva and her husband Alek Djabrailov were in their mid-20s and had just got married, reports say.

Law and Order plot? “A man accused of hiring a U.S. Army soldier and another man to kill a Mexican drug cartel lieutenant who was cooperating with U.S. authorities was himself a government informant, police said Tuesday.”

No – it’s not a TV crime drama, but a real-life report from AP. The convoluted Texas scheme resulted n a May 15 murder in El Paso, Texas.

War Reports

Iraq Two car bombs in a Shia neighborhood in Baghdad killed at least eight people and injured at least 40, reports BBC.

Afghanistan Taliban fighters attacked a government base in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, killing a district police chief and at least one other person in a prolonged gun battle, reports BBC. The attack comes just one week before the Afghanistan elections

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August 11, 2009 · 8:34 am

News Day: NCLB failing schools / RT vs. Park Board / Obama on immigration / One in nine Americans

<a href="http://us.fotolia.com/id/8903511" title="" alt="">© M Jackson</a> - Fotolia.com

© M Jackson - Fotolia.com

NCLB failing schools If I were a Minnesota school principal or teacher, I would have awakened this morning with a mouth full of dread. Another of the many annual school-bashing events is scheduled for today, with the 2009 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report released late last night by the Minnesota Department of Education. With absolute predictability, the AYP report showed more “failing” Minnesota schools. Since this year’s report included 357 more schools than last year, it also showed more “passing” schools. Total numbers:

Despite the late hour of the release, the Star Tribune was prepared with an impressive set of charts and graphs showing the performance of every school district in the state, and every school within each district. For the record, statewide proficiency stands at 64% in math and 72% in reading. In Minneapolis, the figures are 48% in math and 51% in reading. In St. Paul, the figures are 46% in math and 52% in reading.

The figures can be sliced and diced in myriad ways, and the Department of Education spins the story as well as it can be spun:

There has been a 7.6 percent increase in the number of schools making AYP, compared to 2008, due to an increase in the number of schools measured for AYP. The increase in the number of schools not making AYP is the result of more schools being measured and proficiency improvements that have not yet matched the increases necessary to meet the AYP targets under NCLB.

The Department of Education helpfully provides a PDF file detailing the five stages of AYP for school and three stages for districts, with a guide to penalties at each stage.

Minnesota 2020 has a cogent critique of the entire NCLB/AYP problem:

The number of schools not meeting AYP grows each year because the NCLB is meant not to highlight student achievement but to brand schools as failing. AYP is a false measurement of achievement. Even the most ardent of public education’s detractors will find it contrary to common sense that more than half the schools in the state can’t educate their students. These “results” are ludicrous. …

Here’s how NCLB works: States develop a standardized test and give it to all students once each year. Students are divided into subgroups depending on their race or special conditions, i.e. special education or English language learner. If one subgroup fails to meet AYP, the entire school and district fails. Not only must students show proficiency, the school must make sure enough students take the test. If too many students miss the test, the school and district fail to meet AYP.

The bottom line is that AYP doesn’t measure the work of teachers and principals and schools or the achievement of students over time. To measure that work, a test would need to ask how much individual students have learned during the course of a school year or two or three. That would require knowing where students were when they entered a school and how much each of them progressed.

That’s not what the tests are structured to do. The test does not measure how much progress Johnny and Maria and Moua and Jamal, who have now moved on to different schools, made during the years they spent at PS 135. Instead, it measures how well the current population of students performs — regardless of whether they have been in the school for six weeks or six years, regardless of what reading or math level they had when they entered the school, regardless of whether the teachers and school have had time and opportunity to make a difference. If a student enters the school in fifth grade, with a first grade reading level, and moves up two grade levels in one year — that’s still not proficiency and that’s not Adequate Yearly Progress.

Our schools need support and improvement. The NCLB/AYP mess provides neither. NCLB comes before Congress for renewal — or not — later this year.

Mayor vs. Park Board Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak denounced the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board’s attempt to get taxing authority. The MPRB has turned in thousands of signature sheets to put a referendum on this fall’s ballot, a move the mayor called “half-baked.” According to the Minnesota Independent:

The proposed referendum would grant the city’s quasi-independent (and chronically broke) park board the ability to impose its own levies, without oversight of the city council.

Today is the last day to turn in petitions, and then the city clerk will have 10 days to count and verify signatures. To put the measure on the ballot, signatures must total five percent of the votes cast in the last general election.

Some of the day’s best headlines

• With God as his co-pilot, Jungbauer announces bid for governor
• Barnes & Noble to buy Barnes & Noble College Booksellers
• Do not drive drunk to jail to bail out boyfriend on DWI
• Wisconsin woman accused in Krazy Glue assault

World/National News

No immigration bill until 2010 That’s the Obama message, delivered after a tri-national meeting with Mexican and Canadian heads of state, according to the New York Times:

“Now, am I going to be able to snap my fingers and get this done? No,” the president said. “But ultimately, I think the American people want fairness. And we can create a system in which you have strong border security and an orderly process for people to come in. But we’re also giving an opportunity for those who are already in the United States to be able to achieve a pathway to citizenship so they don’t have to live in the shadows.”

One in nine That’s the number of Americans using food stamps to help meet basic needs. Another number: $4.50 per day. That’s the average amount of food stamp benefits. Think about it. What do you get for $4.50 a day? Rice and beans, yes. Maybe milk and cheese. Fresh vegetables or fruits? Rarely. And, as NPR reports, you wait for that. Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) explained:

Let me point out one other kind of problem we’re finding here and that is because more and more people are eligible and are, you know, trying to enroll and state budgets are being cut back, and the states kind of processed the whole program even though the federal government provides most of the money. But because they’re being short staffed that is taking them, in some parts of the country, up to 57 days between the time somebody applies and between the time that they’re told they’re either qualified or that they’re denied. … And, you know, 57 days is a long time to go without a benefit to be able to put food on the table.

War Reports

Congo The government troops sent to drive out rebels in eastern Congo and protect the people in fact have become persecutors, escalating the rape epidemic as they take women as spoils of war.

Although all sides in Congo’s messy 15-year conflict have used rape as a weapon of war — particularly the Rwandan rebels — the spike since January is being widely blamed mostly on the army. The number of soldiers roaming these eastern hills has almost tripled to 60,000, and rapes have doubled or tripled in the areas they are deployed. Aid groups said the number of rapes so far this year is probably in the thousands.

Pakistan A rocket attack on Peshawar killed at least two people and wounded more as a dozen rockets sent panicked residents fleeing into the streets. In northwest Pakistan, a U.S. drone attack killed at least ten people. Officials said the attack targeted an insurgent training camp.

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August 10, 2009 · 7:29 am

News Day: Town brawls and anti-Pulitzer nomination / Evicting Rosemary – or not / New anti-gang police plan

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©KonstantinosKokkinis - fotolia.com

Crazy days of summer From “town brawls” (more here) to death threats to Congress members and the SEIU, the weekend headlines described a political scene loosely tethered to reality. “It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity,” proclaimed the Daily Kos, linking to half a dozen stories of right-wing blather and bluster.

Josh Marshall at TPM commented: “Teabaggers say they want their country back. But Afro-Arab socialists have only had it for like 6 months. Can’t they wait their turn?”

“Idiot Nation, Idiot Press,” read another Daily Kos headline, this one denouncing Politico’s serious treatment of Sarah Palin’s outrageous and completely non-factual claim that the “Obama health plan” would set up a “death panel,” and that such a panel would have condemned her aging parents or her Downs Syndrome son. Hunter writes:

I think there should be such a thing as an anti-Pulitzer. There should be an award for the reporter or reporters that most willfully ignore the basic falsehood of a story — something like “fire is cold”, or “if you shoot yourself in the head, M&M’s will come out” or “if we reform our nation’s healthcare, the President will send a Death Panel to murder my disabled son” — and instead treat as if it was a debatable point worth reporting as fact.

For a factual analysis of claims about the health care reform proposals, turn to PolitiFact’s Truth-O-Meter, which ranks claims on a scale ranging from truthful to “liar, liar, pants on fire.”

Evicting Rosemary – or not Rosemary Williams has become a symbol of the foreclosure-and-eviction crisis in the Twin Cities, and Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies arrived on Friday for what could have been the final act — eviction. The deputies turned Rosemary and her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren out of the home on the block where she has lived for 55 years, and padlocked the doors. As soon as they were gone, her supporters got back inside the house, and spent the weekend moving her possessions to a safe place and setting up an occupation inside the home, reports the TC Daily Planet.

Similar stories abound, with inner city residents who refinanced their homes with adjustable mortgages and then were unable to keep up when, after an initial grace period, monthly payments “adjusted” to double or triple the original amount. A Facebook post by a neighbor noted eight boarded-up homes on his block.

New anti-gang police plan In the wake of the dissolution of the Gang Strike Force, police chiefs in 36 out of 37 Hennepin County jurisdictions (including Minneapolis) are working on a new strategy — communication and prosecution, reports the Star Tribune. The old Strike Force was heavy on property and cash seizures, and light on prosecutions. The new, collaborative arrangment will emphasize prosecutions, according to County Attorney Mike Freeman, who has assigned a prosecutor to meet with the police chiefs.

In addition, the police departments will collaborate on “focused, proactive investigations to head off crimes,” information sharing, collaborative investigations, and, when a local chief feels it is necessary, a “surge ‘suppression’ operation in which officers would blanket a neighborhood.”

Next up: St. Paul budget In 2009, the city of St. Paul scrambled to meet a $5 million budget deficit. In 2010, St. Paul faces an $11 million plus gap due to decreased state aid. Tuesday, Mayor Chris Coleman will present his proposal, which will then go to the City Council for debate and revision, with passage of some budget by December.

According to the Star Tribune, the mayor’s budget proposal will increase police on the streets, by using ARRA federal funding, and will keep the Hamline Midway library open through 2010. The budget will cut some city positions, cut library hours, close some rec centers, and eliminate some city jobs. According to the Star Tribune:

The city employs about 3,000 people.

Under Coleman’s proposed budget, about 160 jobs would go away. The majority are vacant positions.

About 50 current employees would be laid off across the departments.

A property tax increase will also be part of the budget, though a smaller amount than in previous years.

Kids Count – down The Annie E. Casey Foundation released its 2009 Kids Count Data Book on July 29. The Kids Count report noted some progress, but also continuing racial disparities:

Our ability to progress as a nation depends on the degree to which we can create opportunities for all children to succeed. In fact, nationally, since 2000, gaps in the differences in child well-being along racial and ethnic lines have decreased in some areas—most notably, the high school dropout rate. However, on the whole, non-Hispanic white children continue to have greater opportunities for better outcomes compared with most other racial and ethnic groups.

Minnesota ranked second overall in ten measures of the well-being of children. But, reports the Star Tribune, “Child poverty in Minnesota rose 33 percent between 2000 and 2007, six times the national average, and several other measures of child well-being declined.”

Kara Arzamendia, research director for the Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota, is preparing a Minnesota state report that will include Kids Count data.

Arzamendia argues that restoring funding for some state programs could help.

“We made cuts in 2003 when we had major state budget problems and we didn’t buy them back,” she said. “What did other states do? Well, some of them are doing something right. While our numbers remain pretty good, Minnesota’s changes generally were not as good as the national average.”

Somali travel agency raid, arrest In unrelated cases, a Somali travel agency was raided by FBI agents and its owner was arrested, MPR reports. The raid was staged in connection with an ongoing investigation into travel to Somalia by young Somali-Minnesotans.

The owner of the agency, Ali Mohamed, was arrested for fraud in connection with an unrelated case on charges of “scamming customers out of more than $33,000 in airline tickets that he allegedly never arranged for them.”

World/National News

Waiting in line for health care – today In a report that every Congress members should read, NPR tells the story of tens of thousands of people in miles-long lines waiting to see a doctor. Right here in the United States. Right now under our wonderful private health care system.

5:34 a.m.

That was when the weekend’s free mass clinic was supposed to open. But the line of cars trying to get in was a mile long. In the pre-dawn darkness, headlights snaked down the road as far as we could see. Doctors and dentists were also stuck in that traffic jam, so the clinic couldn’t open on time.

People seeking treatment had been arriving for two days. Many camped in a grassy parking lot while they waited. Some had long drives to get there; there were license plates from at least 16 states.

Read the whole story. And then send it to your Congress member.

Honduras The OAS continues trying to find a compromise that will reinstate Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a coup on June 28. However, the acting government, put in place by the coup, has refused to allow a high-ranking OAS delegation including OAS secretary-general Jose Miguel Insulza and several foreign ministers to enter the country, according to BBC.

War Reports

Iraq BBC reports that Sunni insurgents continue to target Shiites. The latest:

Two truck bombings in northern Iraq and attacks targeting day laborers in western Baghdad killed at least 51 people and wounded scores early Monday, Iraqi authorities said. …

The truck bombings killed at least 35 people in Khazna, a small Shiite village 12 miles north of Mosul. Residents said at least 80 houses were destroyed in the blasts.

Last week’s bombings included blasts in Shiite areas of Mosul and Baghdad, which killed more than 50 people.

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August 7, 2009 · 7:20 am

News Day: July unemployment numbers / Swine flu ahead / Operation Red Zone / Scam alert

jobs on a white background with a magnifierJuly unemployment numbers Surprisingly, unemployment fell slightly in July, with the U.S. Department of Labor reporting the figure as “9.4 percent, little changed for the second consecutive month.” Economists had forecast an increase. The U-6 unemployment figure, which includes all workers who are marginally attached to the labor market and those who are employed part-time for economic reasons, remained at 16.8 percent. The total number of non-farm jobs declined by 247,000.
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August 6, 2009 · 7:32 am

News Day: Talking trash in St. Paul / Twine and turkeys / Unemployment update / GLBTQ-friendly school

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©Maninblack – Fotolia.com

Talking trash in St. Paul St. Paul council member Dave Thune has proposed that the city council study trash collection in St. Paul, and from the storm of comments unleashed on the E-Democracy forum, this ranks right up there with single-payer health care as a threat to the entire capitalist system. Currently, garbage collection in St. Paul is 100% private, which means that every house on a street might have a different garbage collector, with different trucks rolling down the street five days a week. Alternatives range from city-owned and operated garbage collection, which no one advocates, to city-awarded contracts for specific collection routes. The issue keeps on coming up, and the garbage industry has always rolled out the big guns to shoot down any proposals for change.

In unemployment news The MN unemployment compensation fund, forecast to go into the red early 2010, dipped into red ink in July, necessitating borrowing from the feds for a week, reports the Star Tribune. After that, unemployment tax collections put the fund back in the black – at least temporarily, with the next red ink forecast for October, before the end-of-quarter tax payments. Then the fund will go into the red again in December, with no prospect of pulling out of deficit until at least 2012. A big part of the problem: no jobs.

On average, laid-off Minnesotans collected unemployment checks for 14 weeks in 2007 and 18 weeks last year. In June, the timeframe rose to between 21 and 22 weeks.

The U.S. Department of Labor figures on initial unemployment benefit claims showed a slight decrease nationally, with seasonally adjusted initial applications for unemployment insurance at 550,000 for the week ending August 1, a decrease of 38,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 588,000.

Twine and turkeys Meeker County is in the news, which is rare enough, and it’s in the news for two separate stories on the same day, which is almost unheard of.

First, there’s the avian flu, discovered in one of the gigantic turkey factory farms. Not to worry, says the state Board of Animal Health, according to MPR. This is a mild form of avian flu, and besides that, theyve quarantined the farm, and besides that, none of the workers shows any signs of infection. In fact, it sounds like none of the birds are really sick — they just have the virus, which shows up multiple times each year, somewhere among the cages of the turkey-growing factories that make MN the top turkey-producing state in the country.

The Darwin Twine Ball is the second Meeker County newsmaker, with Martha Stewart naming it one of the “good things” in the country. Among more than a thousand Google references to Martha and the Twine Ball, here’s the local take from the Litchfield Independent Review:

Anyway, can anyone make a connection between Martha Stewart — the diva of home design and all that is proper — and the Largest Ball of Twine Collected By One Man?

Apparently, Martha and her team of TV producers are going to give it a try. Roger Werner, curator of the Darwin Twine Ball Museum, informed me yesterday that he got a call from one of the producers of the Martha Stewart TV show….

Werner admits he has no idea why Stewart would be interested in Darwin’s twine ball, but he figures that any kind of publicity is good publicity for the city’s humungous claim to fame.

Just in time for this Saturday’s Twine Ball Day celebration in Darwin.

Picture 8
For more than you ever wanted to know about the Twine Ball, click here to watch and listen to Weird Al Yankovic’s seven-minute ode.

Bankruptcies rise Both nationally and in Minnesota, bankruptcy filings are rising, reports the Star Tribune. Nationally, consumer bankruptcies were up 34 percent in July, compared to July 2008. In Minnesota, bankruptcies were up 30 percent in July, compared to July 2008, and “consumer bankruptcies for the first seven months of 2009 are running 35 percent ahead of the same period in 2008.” Bankruptcy attorneys said that more filers are people earning more than $60,000, both because filing became more expensive in 2005, and because people with higher incomes are more likely to have homes in foreclosure and second mortgages outstanding.

Nationally and in Minnesota, bankruptcy filings are expected to continue at high levels.

American Bankruptcy Institute executive director Sam Gerdano is expecting 1.4 million bankruptcies by the end of the year, the busiest year since 2005, when more than 2 million consumers flocked to file to beat the less-consumer-friendly reforms put in place that fall.

GLBTQ-friendly school A new on-line high school based in Maplewood says it is the first on-line GLBTQ high school in the country, reports the Pioneer Press. GLBTQ stands for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning. David Glick, the first online learning coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Education, founded the school and says it is getting national and international interest. So far, however, only 24 students have registered, and 50 are needed to start the school in the fall. Tuition for the private, on-line school is $5900 per year. While some fear that an on-line school could further isolate students from their peers, Glick is confident that will not happen.

Curt Johnson reaffirmed Glick’s assertion, saying his findings “overturned the conventional suspicions” of the online classroom. He is a managing partner at Education Evolving, a joint venture of the Center for Policy Studies and Hamline University that promotes technological progress in schools.

“The individual transactions of e-mailing and telephoning regularly creates a relationship between students and teachers,” said Johnson, who believes online schools will outnumber their physical counterparts by the year 2017.

Minnesota to the world Two Minnesotans have been confirmed as ambassadors, reports MPR. Miguel Diaz, a theology professor at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Collegeville, will become the new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. Sam Kaplan, an attorney and DFL fundraiser, will become the U.S. ambassador to Morocco.

National/World News

“One of these things is not like the other” Paul Krugman points out that the news reports equating Republican health-care opponents with Democratic opponents of Bush social security privatization schemes are just wrong:

Indeed, activists made trouble in 2005 by asking Congressmen tough questions about policy. Activists are making trouble now by shouting Congressmen down so they can’t be heard.

Talking Points Memo reports that Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) will not hold any town hall meetings because of “threatening phone calls, including at least one direct threat against his life.”

Dealing away health care reform The New York Times reported that the White House says it “stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion,” despite House proposals to “allow the government to negotiate drug prices and demand additional rebates from drug manufacturers.”

Closer to home, the Minnesota Independent reports that Blue Dog Democrat Colin Peterson said he won’t vote for the health care reform proposals now before Congress.

Scam alert The New York Times describes employment scams, which seem more widespread as more people feel more desperate in their search for work.

Like job seekers, criminals are after moneymaking opportunities online. And they’re setting increasingly sophisticated traps to prey on the desperation of the jobless, whose guards are down amid eroding savings, swelling debts and calamities like foreclosure and bankruptcy. Victims can ill afford another financial setback.

Among the most common scams: help for a fee, fishing for identity data, work from home, “money mule” and reshipper schemes.

War Reports

Afghanistan A roadside bomb killed 21 civilians, mostly women and children, who were headed for a wedding in the southern province of Helmand, reports the New York Times. A roadside bomb in another part of Helmand province killed five police officers and wounded three more. In Kandahar province, local officials said an attack by a U.S. Apache helicopter killed five farmers who were taking cucumbers to a bazaar. U.S. officials said the men were loading small arms, not cucumbers.

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August 4, 2009 · 7:38 am

News Day: Minnesota’s recession / New schools / Tweets from Keith / Obama and immigration

From <a href="http://www.positivelyminnesota.com/lmi/Home.htm" target="_blank">DEED's "Positively Minnesota" website.</a>Minnesota’s recession Although Minnesota is doing slightly better than the nation as a whole, the recession/depression hits us as unevenly as it hits the country. Along the western border, unemployment is lower — 4.5 percent in Moorhead and Clay County marking the lowest point. Except for Anoka County, the seven-county metro area manages to stay barely below 9 percent unemployment. The dark spots on the map are located mostly in Greater Minnesota, with four counties and a handful of cities showing unemployment at more than 12 percent. On the Range, unemployment reaches 17 percent in Virginia and 18.7 percent in Hibbing. (For county and city details, go to DEED’s “Positively Minnesota” website.)
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July 31, 2009 · 7:29 am

News Day: Beer Summit / Gangs of St. Paul / Police gang / Harassment by pizza / Iran repression

Picture 4Beer Summit Red Stripe for Henry Louis Gates, Blue Moon for the police officer, and Bud Light for the president: beer choices at the White House were all over the news yesterday, along with Congressional admonitions to the president to drink American.
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July 30, 2009 · 6:32 am

News Day: The Usual Suspects / Second chance / Credit unions in trouble / Twitter, iPhone dangers / Blue Dog deal

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The Usual Suspects The Pioneer Press has a new crime blog, dedicated to “chronicling bizarre and quirky tales from our crime and court beats.” I’m bookmarking and following it right now, so I don’t miss news that ranges from the absurd (a driver who blamed a crash on snakes in his pants, stupid criminals stories) to the straight news (Sheriff Fletcher defending himself for defending Gang Strike Force.) Okay – maybe sometimes the distinction between absurd and straight news isn’t so clear, but the blog promises to be a great read. Last night’s post – Wiliam Finney will not run against Bob Fletcher for sheriff in 2010.

Waterfall dries up Minnehaha Falls has fallen victim to the drought (precipitation is 16 inches below normal for the past 14 months), and now is only a trickle of its former self, reports the Pioneer Press. Minnehaha Falls dries up when the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District closes the Grays Bay Dam. That happened on June 2 this year, though the dam usually stays open until September. Other recent years when Minnehaha Falls was dried up: 2000, 1988 and 1964. The average precipitation by this time in the year is 17.36 inches, but the Twin Cities has received only 9.49 inches this year.

Second chance for MN refugees Three Salvadoran teens who fled their home country because of threats from the MS-13 gang may get a second chance at asylum in Minnesota, reports the TC Daily Planet:

They were recently jailed for about 17 days and faced imminent deportation. Then they scored a major victory. Not only were they released from jail, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also has joined with their attorneys to ask the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen their case. Ben Casper, one of their attorneys, called DHS’s decision very unusual. “I have never heard of it before,” he said.

Conflict of interest for U of M doc? U of M Dr. David Polly received more than a million dollars from Medtronic, and U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) thinks that may be a conflict of interest. Grassley is asking for an investigation, because “Polly went before Congress in 2006 and testified about a program that had ties to Medtronic, but Polly didn’t disclose his own ties to Medtronic,” reports MPR. U of M officials are reviewing the matter, and Polly remains on the Medtronic payroll.

Credit unions follow banks into deep water The Thumper Pond development is emblematic of new risks taken by some credit unions, reports the Star Tribune. When credit unions strayed from their traditional customers and loans to members, they courted the same trouble that banks have seen in the current economic crisis.

Losses on risky loans, from Twin Cities housing projects to out-of-state ethanol plants, are one reason why nearly half of the state’s 156 credit unions lost money in the most recent quarter, compared to 35 percent of credit unions nationwide. Seven of Minnesota’s credit unions are near or below capital levels the government deems adequate. And two were in such bad shape they had to be sold.

Want to check your credit union’s asset rating? The Strib has a list.

World/National news

Twitter danger BBC reports that a Chicago real estate company is suing a former tenant who tweeted about mold in her apartment. Horizon Group Management says her tweet was defamatory, and sued. Jeffrey Michael, whose family has run Horizon for decades, told the Chicago Sun-Times they didn’t talk to her about the tweet and didn’t ask her to take it down, saying, “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organisation.” Tenant Amanda Bonnen had 20 Twitter followers at the time that she posted the tweet, and has since closed her Twitter account.

iPhones in peril? Forbes.com reports on an iPhone hack that could “give a hacker complete power over any of the smart phone’s functions,” and then propagate itself to take over every iPhone in the world. Two cyber-security experts say that they notified Apple about the problem more than a month ago, but that it hasn’t released a patch.

If you receive a text message on your iPhone any time after Thursday afternoon containing only a single square character, Charlie Miller would suggest you turn the device off. Quickly.

The researchers have also found bugs in Windows Mobile and Google Android phones.

Beer today! BBC reports: “Cambridge police sergeant Jim Crowley and Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard scholar he arrested after responding to a report of a possible break-in at Mr Gates’s home, will sit down with Mr Obama on Thursday for a conciliatory beer.”

Is this the way to better race relations in America? If not, it is at least the way to a summer’s worth of late-night TV fodder. From across the pond, BBC thinks it is tempting to view the whole episode as the “ultimate conflation of the age of Obama and the age of Oprah,” adding that, “Aside from the choice of beverage, there is something very daytime television, something very soft focus, something very soft sofa, about this attempt to defuse the controversy.”

For a truly hysterical look at the entire flap, tune in to Colbert Nation on race and farts.

Refugees drown Some 200 people fleeing the poverty and starvation of Haiti crammed a homemade sailboat, enduring hunger and thirst for two days — and then the boat sank. NPR interviewed survivors, who said:

The boat was jam-packed with people. Men filled the deck, exposed to the hot sun, while women and men alike filled the dark, nearly airless hold below, survivors later told rescuers. Pierre said the hold was packed so tight that nobody could lie down.

118 people were rescued, after 17 hours in the water.

Pierre was among those returned to Haiti:

Pierre, who was reunited with his mother, said for all the horrors of the voyage he was still desperate to get out of Haiti, where 80 percent of the people survive on less than $2 a day.

Health care fact-of-the-day Courtesy of Paul Krugman: “Since 1970 Medicare costs per beneficiary have risen at an annual rate of 8.8% — but insurance premiums have risen at an annual rate of 9.9%. … if insurance premiums had risen “only” as much as Medicare spending, they’d be 1/3 lower than they are.”

Blue Dog deal Minnesota Budget Bites has an analysis of the deal struck by Blue Dog Democrats to allow the health care reform bill to move to the House floor. The deal allows a public option to remain, but limits tax increases and employer mandates. According to the New York Times:

The House changes, which drew immediate opposition from liberal lawmakers, would reduce the federal subsidies designed to help lower-income families afford insurance, exempt additional businesses from a requirement to offer insurance to their workers and change the terms of a government insurance option.

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July 29, 2009 · 6:42 am

News Day: MN guilty pleas on Somalia terrorism / Minneapolis to Najaf / Above average / Health care: Costs, rescissions, reform

Minnesota guilty pleas to terrorism in Somalia Salah Osman Ahmed, age 26, and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, 25, have pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to terrorism charges, based on their travel to Somalia in 2007 to fight with Al-Shabaab. Ahmed went to Somalia in December 2007, where he learned to use a machine gun and helped to build a training camp, according to the Star Tribune. He faces a sentence of five to 15 years. Other charges, dropped in the plea agreement, would have carried a life sentence.
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July 28, 2009 · 8:19 am

News Day: Gangs of St. Paul? / Coleman: Not yet / Peltier parole hearing today / Sectarian violence in Nigeria

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© Maluson - Fotolia.com

Gangs of St. Paul? A young man who says he has falsely been labeled a gang member by St. Paul police, the NAACP, and police and prosecutors will all participate in a community discussion on “The Gangs of St. Paul” tonight at 6:30-8:30 at the Hallie Q. Brown Center (270 N. Kent Street, St. Paul). The Pioneer Press reports Jumoke Cryer says he’s not a gang member, but he is one of 18 alleged members of the rival Selby Siders and East Side Boys gangs named in an injunction barring gang members from associating with alleged fellow gang members, using gang signs and wearing gang clothing during this year’s Rondo Days Festival. Nathaniel Khaliq, St. Paul NAACP president, said that while the community does not want gangs, they also “don’t want the sardines to be caught in the web with the sharks.”

The Pioneer Press quoted Cryer:

“I’m a college student,” he said. “I don’t have a tattoo on my body. I don’t meet any of the criteria. It really doesn’t make sense.” Asked how it made him feel to be called a gang member, Cryer said, “Horrible.”

“I believe some people out there are gang banging and police need to take drastic measures, but there are others out there like myself that are being labeled,” he said. “They’re singling out everybody. If they get the wrong person, it doesn’t matter to them.”

Coleman: Not yet A spokesperson for former Senator Norm Coleman announced that he is not currently running for governor, and that he probably will wait until March or April to announce any future political plans. That would be too late for a run for governor under most scenarios. Republicans are taking a straw poll in October, precinct caucuses are in February, and the party convention will be April 30 and May 1, according to the Star Tribune.

Peltier parole date Leonard Peltier is up for parole, with a hearing scheduled for July 28. Peltier is serving two life sentences, after conviction in 1977 of killing two FBI agents in 1975. Democracy Now reports:

The Parole Commission originally denied Peltier parole in 1993 based on their finding that he, quote, “participated in the premeditated and cold blooded execution of those two officers.” However, the Parole Commission has since said it, quote, “recognizes that the prosecution has conceded the lack of any direct evidence that [Peltier] personally participated in the executions of the two FBI agents.”

Peltier’s defenders say the conviction was a product of FBI persecution of the American Indian Movement, with pitched battles between the AIM and federal agents at places including the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. The FBI cracked down on AIM, violently. That was the context for the 1975 gun battle and the Peltier prosecution. Two others accused of killing the agents were acquitted in a separate trial.

The FBI adamantly opposes parole, saying Peltier was guilty of executing two FBI agents. Other groups, including Amnesty International, have called for his release, and say he did not receive a fair trial.

World/National News

Sectarian violence in northern Nigeria A small Islamist sect opposed to “Western education” attacked police stations in two states in mostly-Muslim northern Nigeria on Sunday and Monday. About 55 people, including 39 of the attackers, and at least one police officer and one fire officer, have been killed, according to the New York Times. The region has frequently seen outbreaks of religious violence, often between Muslims and Christians.

BBC puts the death toll at more than 100, and reports that a group of the militants is barricaded inside part of the city of Maiduguri, and shooting at anyone who approaches. The militants are known locally as the “Taliban,” but are not believed to have any ties to Taliban groups elsewhere in the world, and some say the “Taliban” label was applied as a term of derision by other Muslims who consider the group “crazy.”

Reich on health care reform Robert Reich warns that health care reform is in danger, and says action before the August recess is vital:

First, the House must enact a bill before August recess even if the Senate is unable to — and the House bill should include the four key elements that have already emerged from House committees: (1) a public plan option, (2) a mandate on all but the smallest employers to provide their employees with health insurance or else pay a tax or fee (so-called “pay or play”), (3) a requirement that every individual and family buy health insurance, coupled with subsidies for families up to 300 or 400 times the poverty level in order to make sure it’s affordable to them; and (4) a small surtax on the top 1 percent of earners or families to help pay for this subsidy (“tax the wealthy so all Americans can stay healthy.”)

Iran prison deaths BBC reports that Supreme Leader Ayatolla Ali Khameini has ordered the closure of a detention center at Karizhak, because of violations of detainee rights. Whether protesters held there will be transferred to other facilities or released is unclear. Many protesters are still held in the main prison:

There are also continuing reports of grim conditions inside Tehran’s main prison, Evin, which seems unable to cope with the large number of opposition supporters rounded up since the election, says the BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne.

In recent days the opposition has reported almost every day new deaths of protestors held in prison.

War Reports

Afghanistan After the Afghanistan government announced an election truce in the north-western province of Badghis, a Taliban spokesperson said no such truce exists, reports BBC. In fact, the run-up to next month’s presidential elections is marked by violence, with an attack on the car of the campaign manager of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah severely wounding the campaign manager and killing the driver in Laghman province, and a separate assassination attempt on President Karzai’s running mate on Sunday. In another incident in Helmand province, eight security guards were killed by a remotely detonated bomb.

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