February 24, 2009 · 7:10 am

Wind on the wires: Bigger isn’t better

Wind power is big in Minnesota. Carleton and St. Olaf both have wind turbines, and Carleton is planning another one, reports Sarah Lemagie in the Strib. So do Macalester and the U of M-Morris. St. Olaf’s turbine supplies about a quarter of the college’s electricity, while Carleton sells its wind power to Xcel Energy. In Woodstock, MN, Juhl Energy expects to earn $12 million from small Midwest wind farms, developed in partnership with farmers and other community-based owners, Neal St. Anthony writes in the Strib.

[Minnesota wind pioneer Dan Juhl, retired Gen. Wesley] Clark and JUHL President John Mitola, an engineer, lawyer and veteran utility executive, have spent a lot of time figuring out how they can keep the wind energy from becoming just the province of huge energy players such as utilities and energy conglomerates.

“Dan, on his own and without any silk-stocking investment bankers, managed to get about $200 million in wind farms going that are owned by farmers and other community members,” Mitola said this week. “We’ve got [hundreds of millions more] in the pipeline. But we need capital.”

While many people associate “local” and “sustainable” in discussions of energy or food, the contest for control of “green” energy has big-time national players, the feds seem to be lining up with big-bucks proposals for massive wind farms and giant powerlines. AP reports that the Obama administration and congressional leaders say the federal government should have greater authority to locate transmission lines, and not allow states to stand in the way of construction of a “smart grid” for wind and solar energy transmission.

Sea Stachura reports for MPR that an out-of-state power company wants to build a $12 billion power line across seven states, saying it will carry wind-generated electricity to eastern states. The ITC Holdings Corp.’s “Green Power Express” proposal calls for a 765 kilovolt power line with thick electric lines 150 to 300 feet in the air. Critics say the giant power lines would interfere with bird migration, tourism and the ecosystem. ITC does not guarantee that the power carried over the lines would be wind power, and critics also say much of it would be coal or nuclear-generated.

According to the MPR report, CapX 2020 is a consortium of MN utility companies that wants to upgrade and expand its power lines in MN. MN Senator Amy Klobuchar says she supports power lines to carry wind energy to the East Coast.

While Minnesota (and several other states) claim to be “the Saudi Arabia of wind power,” Saudi Arabia may not be the best development or energy production model. The Institute for Local Self Reliance reports that bigger isn’t always better:

Rapid growth of the renewable energy industry requires economies of scale. The status quo rewards ever-larger production facilities for rather modest reductions in costs and indirectly reduces local ownership. A policy of locally-owned renewable energy production, however, could pour nearly $1 billion into rural economies via thousands of rural owners. That’s an economy of scale.

Giant wind farms require giant transmission line grids, which are not only environmentally suspect but also economically inefficient.

A large, 200 MW wind farm can produce electricity for 25% less than an otherwise equivalent local 10 MW wind farm, but large wind farms often need new transmission lines to send their power long distances. If a 200 MW project sends its power 500 miles, transmission costs and losses largely offset its economic advantage. [emphasis added]

On the other hand, twenty 10 MW projects injecting their electricity into the existing transmission system could produce the same power at close to the same cost while also providing substantial local economic benefits.

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February 23, 2009 · 9:03 am

News Day 2/23/09: Oscar-free zone / Stormin’ Norm / Bonding basics and blunders / World news and more

T-Paw playing fast and loose with bonding rules In theory, MN can’t borrow to pay for current spending. The tobacco bond borrowing is an end run around that prohibition, based on a fiction that the state is just borrowing against future tobacco settlement revenues. In fact, explains Steve Perry in MinnPost, other states have already found that tobacco bonds don’t sell well, and MN is marketing the bonds as general obligation bonds. The Department of Revenue says that $987 million in bonds now will cost $1.6 billion in payback.

Your chance this week! The St. Cloud Times reported on the first town hall forum on the state’s budget woes, with more than 250 people mostly agreeing on one part of a solution: “Raise taxes. Cutting the budget and services is not the best way to solve the problem.” Hearings started Thursday in Mankato, Rochester and St. Cloud, and continue across the state this week, including metro-area meetings.

Last-minute RNC lawsuits As the deadline for filing civil claims related to the RNC expires this week, expect more lawsuits. In an RNC-related suit last week, Betsy Raasch-Gilman charged that Sheriff Bob Fletcher failed to provide “all private and public data” on her. The State Department of Administration had already issued an advisory opinion that Big Bob failed to comply with state law, reports Randy Furst in the Strib.

And on Friday, St. Paul city attorney John Choi announced that no charges will be filed against 323 people arrested on the final day of the convention, but that 20 arrests are still being investigated.

Sinking Strib ship A bankruptcy filing says that Strib gross earnings plummeted by almost one-third in two years, down to $203 million in 2009 from the $303 million earned in 2007. The Strib survival plan, reports Braublog includes a demand that pressmen take a 23-50% pay cut, chopping $6-12 an hour from wage rates.

Secret meetings on health care reform According to the NYT:

Since last fall, many of the leading figures in the nation’s long-running health care debate have been meeting secretly in a Senate hearing room. Now, with the blessing of the Senate’s leading proponent of universal health insurance, Edward M. Kennedy, they appear to be inching toward a consensus that could reshape the debate.

Unfortunately for single-payer advocates, the NYT predicts this will mean “a requirement that every American carry insurance.” And Republicans, predictably, are not participating in the talks, though business is on board.

Around the world in 90 seconds In Mexico, the Juarez police chief quit, reports BBC. The border city, torn by drug war violence, saw a police officer and a prison guard killed just before Roberto Orduna quit. Gangs had issued a notice that they would kill a cop every day unless Orduna quit, and he said this was the only way he could safeguard police lives. Orduna took over in May after his predecessor fled to Texas following death threats.

In Afghanistan, , a tribal militia of “men and boys, armed with old riffle and true grit” in southeastern Paktia province is protecting people against Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. The government and the U.S. plan a “Public Protection Force” to provide “community defence initiatives,” but insist it is different from the militias. In Pakistan, reveals the NYT, U.S. Green Berets are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops in a now-no-longer-secret task force.

Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebel planes bombed the capital, reports the NYT. Though this is the first air attack on the capital, the last six weeks “have seen a surge in civilian casualties, with up to 2,000 killed and 5,000 wounded as the government attempts to rout the rebels.”

In Somali, Islamist insurgent suicide bombers killed 11 African Union peacekeepers at an AU military base in Mogadishu, reports the BBC. The al-Shabab group said its members carried out the attack, as part of its continuing armed struggle against peacekeepers.

Corn vs. clean cars You might think that corn growers and ethanol producers would like legislation requiring lower emissions. Not so, reports Ron Way in MinnPost. The Corn Growers Association opposes clean car legislation, claiming that 18 flex-fuel and biodiesel cars and trucks are banned in California because of the clean car law. But wait — Rep. Andy Welti, DFL-Plainview, called CA car dealers and discovered that “the vehicles that the Corn Growers said are not available were in fact available and being sold.” When confronted by this information in the committee meeting, the Corn Growers lobbyist … had nothing to say.

Stormin’ Norm Since he continues to lose every battle in court, Norm Coleman now wants to recount ALL absentee ballots — that’s right, all 290,000 votes cast, not just those that were rejected, reports Jason Hoppin in the PiPress But wait — the PiPress editorial page goes even further, calling for the election to be thrown out entirely, and a new election held. That’s just what we need to do — hold a clean election, and throw out the results. Politico reports that the Republican National Committee has sent Norm a quarter of a million to pay legal fees in the recount battles.

Save northern MN land, string powerlines across south? As the DNR proposes using the dedicated sales tax funds to protect 187,000 acres of forest and wetlands in north-central MN through the Upper Mississippi Forest Project, private developers propose stringing hundreds of miles of intrusive high-power transmission lines across the rest of the state. More on this tomorrow.

Let’s make people miserable and lose money, too! A successful Anoka county program for meth-addicted moms is targeted by state budget-cutters, reports Brady Gervais in the PiPress. Not only would this particularly short-sighted and mean-spirited budget cut eliminate a successful program that helps addicted mothers kick the habit, find jobs and learn parenting skills — it would also lose money in the long run. Gervais writes that, “By reducing the need for social assistance and child protection services, the program is estimated to save between $8,400 and $16,800 per participant, according to a recent study by Wilder Research.”

Million Dollar Mile Oops, make that $9.2 million — for a one mile bike path in downtown Minneapolis. The Strib’s Pam Louwagie blows the whistle.

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February 20, 2009 · 9:08 am

News Day 2/20/09: Recession-Depression? / Embarrassing MN / MN Job Watch / World news / more …

Downbeat goes on “Who’ll stop the pain?” asks Paul Krugman, but finds no answer as a meeting of bankers at the Federal Reserve predicts high unemployment through the end of 2011. Krugman says this isn’t your father’s recession (think 1981-82), but more like your grandfather or great-grandfather’s Great Depression.

Over at Politico, Matthew Dallek debunks the debunkers, notably Amity Shlaes, whose Forgotten Man claims that the New Deal failed to employ people or stimulate the economy. He cites historians to show the fallacies and outright deceptions in the popular right-wing screed:

Shlaes cited unemployment figures that excluded Americans who had New Deal-generated jobs, and she virtually ignored what Rauchway calls “the authoritative reference work Historical Statistics of the United States.” That reference book shows that during FDR’s first term, the real GDP grew by some 9 percent annually; and after the 1937-38 recession, the economy grew at an annual clip of 11 percent. By the fall of 1934, another New Deal historian, William E. Leuchtenburg, explains, “the ranks of the unemployed had been reduced by over 2 million and national income stood almost a quarter higher than in 1933.”

Fool on the Hill? Minnesota’s own embarrassment, Michelle Bachmann, is at it again. In an interview on conservative KTLK radio, Bachmann told one whopper after another. Daily Kos observes: “There are lies, there is stupidity, there are stupid lies, there are migraine-inducingly-stupid slanderous lies, and then there are Bachmannisms,” but for a point-by-point analysis, go to Washington Monthly. The ACORN lie is a good example: “Bachman ‘explained’ … ACORN is ‘under federal indictment for voter fraud,” but the stimulus bill nevertheless gives ACORN “$5 billion.’ (In reality, ACORN is not under federal indictment and isn’t mentioned in the stimulus bill at all.)”

Of course, as embarrassing as Bachmann is for Minnesota, we are in good company: Illinois has its own Roland Burris embarrassment in the Senate.

MN Job Watch U.S. Steel is laying off almost 600 workers at its Minntac mine in Mountain Iron, reports Jessica Mador at MPR. That’s almost half the workforce. Mountain Iron mayor Gary Skalko said the layoffs will have a massive ripple effect because most industry in the area is mining related.

Last month’s Best Buy announcement of future layoffs materialized Thursday, reports Martin Moylan on MPR, with pink slips for 250, and a posting of 210 new jobs. That’s a net loss of 40 jobs, and you can bet that the 210 new jobs pay less than the 250 that are ending. In the Strib, Jackie Crosby notes:

The company, which is the nation’s largest consumer-electronics retailer, now has slashed 13.5 percent of its corporate workforce in recent months as sales at its more than 1,175 stores have plunged. …

Best Buy in not alone in its struggles to remain profitable during the nation’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. In 2008, retailers eliminated more than half a million jobs, about 20 percent of the 2.6 million layoffs that occurred nationwide.

And AP reports that February looks like another “brutal month,” as “the number of people receiving regular unemployment benefits rose by 170,000 to 4.99 million for the week ending Feb. 7, marking the fourth straight week continuing claims have hit a record.”

Building plans in Minneapolis Bridges, scattered-site public housing, and a pedestrian mall for the Convention Center area are among the priorities for federal stimulus spending in Minneapolis, reports Steve Brandt in the Strib. It will be a while before projects and programs get sorted out, but other candidates include energy conservation and weatherization, lead abatement, job training, and law enforcement. Part of the federal money will come in a pot of $3.7 million for the community development block grant fund.

Around the world Right-wing Likud party chief Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next Israeli government, 10 days after an inconclusive parliamentary election, reported Ha’aretz. Netanyahu was prime minister before, in the 1990s, and will now have six weeks to put together a caoalition cabinet. Centrist Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni said her party won’t be part of the coalition. Likud has 27 seats in the 120-member parliament, and Kadima has 28, but smaller right-wing parties hold the balance, and Ha’aretz reports that extreme right-winger Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party will play a key role.

In DR Congo, the FDLR Rwandan Hutu militia killed more than a hundred civilians in the last month, reports BBC, as a joint Congolese-Rwandan military force hunted them down. Though Rwandan officials say the FDLR killed almost 50 people this week, the joint force says it has achieved 95% of its objectives and Rwandan troops will leave next week. The FDLR militia is estimated to number more than 6,000 and has been linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In January, Congolese Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested, and some of his CNDP militia are now being integrated into the Congolese army. BBC reports that “On-and-off fighting involving the CNDP, FDLR, the army and pro-government militias has forced more than one million people in North Kivu to flee their homes since late 2006.”

Argentina has ordered the ultra-traditionalist, Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson to leave the country, reports BBC. The Pope lifted the bishop’s excommunication (on an unrelated matter) in January. Then his anti-Holocaust and anti-women views became widely-publicized, embarrassing the Vatican. The pope ordered him to recant — he hasn’t — but so far has taken no further action.

A suicide bomber killed more than 30 people and wounded more than 50 in the Pakistani city of Dera Ismail Khan today, reports Pir Zubair Shah in the NYT. The bomber targeted the funeral of a Shiite Muslim man, and was followed by mob attacks on local security forces and shops. Sunni-Shiite strife has been frequent in the city, with six suicide attacks in recent months.

Coleman keeps losing On Wednesday, the three-judge panel refused to hear testimony from conservative blogger King Banaian, who was set to testify about inconsistencies between counties in rejecting absentee ballots. This is what the Coleman campaign now calls an “equal protection” issue, reports Jay Weiner in MinnPost. Of course, classic equal protection arguments require some government action that adversely affects a protected class of people, not just random differences between counties. In the judges’ opinion:

“The Court will be reviewing all ballots presented according to the uniform standard contained [in Minnesota law]. It is irrelevant whether there were irregularities between the counties in applying [Minnesota law] prior to this election contest.”

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February 19, 2009 · 8:27 am

News Day 2/19/09: Housing plan in MN / “Nation of cowards” on race / Carstarphen leaving SPPS? / more …

What part of “no” don’t you understand, Norm? The three-judge panel yesterday “just said no” to the Coleman campaigns latest request to reverse a previous ruling. Writing in MinnPost, Eric Black reminds us that, like every ruling in the case, this one was unanimous.

Mortgage relief on horizon Dan Olson on MPR talked to local homeowners and U of M law school housing expert Prentiss Cox about the Obama mortgage relief plan. The plan provides some refinancing by some lenders, and extends relief to some homeowners who are “under water” — so long as the gap between their home value and amount owed is not too great. Cox faults the plan for failing to provide a “cram-down,” a provision that would make banks agree to take a loss on a mortgage when the home is worth less, and write a new mortgage for a lower amount.

Many big banks, including Wells Fargo, suspended mortgages while waiting to hear about the president’s plan. According to the NYT, one in ten home mortgages is either delinquent or in foreclosure. The plan will provide incentives to lenders to rewrite mortgages, changing the interest rate to make them more affordable. It will increase available credit through $200 billion in backing for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And it will offer some homeowners who are current on their mortgages but cannot refinance because they lack enough equity an opportunity to refinance at the current low interest rates. The plan also calls for bankruptcy rule changes to let judges reduce mortgages on primary residences to fair market value.

Take a look at the White House summary of the plan here. And for a critique that says the plan is “comprehensive, but not aggressive” enough, see Simon Johnson in The New Republic.

Over at the legislature According to AP, GOP lawmakers are proposing–and DFLers are “open to looking at” –a five percent pay cut for legislators, which would cut base pay to $29,600, saving the state a whopping $338,000 a year. Let’s see – that’s less than one percent of one percent of the $4.8 billion deficit. Hope they don’t spend a lot of time debating that one. Another bill would require MN students to stay in school through 18 or through high school graduation, rather than the current compulsory school attendance through 16, writes Jake Grovum in the Strib. Critics say it would cost a lot and that schools aren’t very good. Wisconsin, South Dakota and 16 other states already have 18-year-old attendance laws. And in what we can devoutly hope is a lost cause, the Vikes are still trying to get public money for a nearly one billion dollar stadium this year, reports Mike Kaszuba in the Strib.

“Nation of cowards” on race Attorney General Eric Holder spoke yesterday at the DOJ African American History Month program. Among his remarks:

One cannot truly understand America without understanding the historical experience of black people in this nation. Simply put, to get to the heart of this country one must examine its racial soul.

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race. It is an issue we have never been at ease with and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.

Read the whole speech here. It’s well worth reading, thinking about, and responding to his call.

Sez who? A day after a study showing a 97% thumbs down on NCLB from MN principals, the Strib reports that a DC-based think tank said MN is too easy on enforcement of NCLB rules, and that WI has the loosest interpretation of all 50 states. What the press reports don’t say is that the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is a conservative think tank, led by Chester Finn, “one of the education policy gurus of the conservative movement” with ties to the Manhattan Institute, the Hudson Institute, Center of the American Experiment, and National Association of Scholars.

Carstarphen looks south St. Paul School Superintendent Meria Carstarphen is a finalist for the Austin, Texas superintendent’s job, reports Emily Johns in the Strib. She’s in her third year with SPPS, has not yet signed a new contract, and has her Summit Avenue house up for sale.

RNC 8 on Democracy Now You can hear from RNC 8 defendant Luce Guillens-Givens and attorney Jordan Kushner on Democracy Now. Not much that’s new, as the judicial process continues, except for criminal charges against one of the FBI informants.

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February 18, 2009 · 8:35 am

News Day 2/18/09: Criminal charges for FBI snitch / 46 St. Paul teachers reassigned / Principals dis NCLB / more …

FBI RNC snitch charged in attack Andrew Darst, who spied on the RNC Welcoming Committee for the FBI, faces felony charges of first- and second-degree burglary and a misdemeanor assault charge, reports Randy Furst in the Strib. Court documents say that Minnetrista police responding to a call to a home at 2:18 a.m. on January 11 found the door ripped off its hinges, and that Darst “appeared to be full of rage and anger” and said he “wasn’t comfortable with the people his wife was with” in the home.

The FBI, of course, won’t confirm that Darst is an informant, but he was listed as a potential prosecution witness in a previous RNC trial, and RNC 8 lawyer Bruce Nestor confirms that he is listed as such in FBI documents. Although mug shots are usually public, a Hennepin County clerk said that Darst’s mug shot would not be released, on instructions from the FBI.

NCLB forces reassignment of 46 St. Paul teachers As part of forced restructuring at Humboldt Junior High and Arlington High School, 46 teachers were ordered to different assignments last week, with letters from the district saying that “this assignment change is not related to any issue of misconduct, nor should it be construed as a failure on your part.” Emily Johns writes in the Strib that dozens of teachers rallied outside district HQ on Tuesday, protesting lack of input into the restructuring process as a whole. District plans include the already-in-place transformation of Arlington into a sciene, technology and math magnet school, funded by a $6 million federal grant, and future plans to combine Humboldt junior and senior high schools into a single small 7-12 school and to extend the school day at both schools.

The restructuring is mandated by NCLB, but most MN principals think that NCLB itself is destructive, according to a report released yesterday by Minnesota 2020.

There are about 1,800 principals in Minnesota. Each oversees a school that has been affected by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. While NCLB was created in Washington D.C., it has permeated education down into each classroom. NCLB has forced principals to make draconian choices to meet NCLB requirements, choices made more difficult in Minnesota’s atmosphere of declining funding and diminished results.

Some 97% of the 740 principals responding to the survey said that “NCLB’s main goal – 100 percent proficiency in tests by 2014 – is unattainable.” In addition, principals said that NCLB has forced them to spend more time and resources on “teaching to the test” and to divert resources away from arts and other subjects. They feel that NCLB has affected community perception of schools, and that its requirements for special education students and ELL students are particularly unrealistic.

The NCLB test, MCA-II, is an ineffective measure of student development. Only 15.5 percent of principals say the MCA-II is an effective assessment of student achievement. More than 96 percent said that an assessment that measures student growth over many years is more useful than the MCA-II.

“The job of an educator is difficult enough without having to work with a program that has dubious results,” concludes MN 2020.

T-Paw backtracks on carbon Are MN legislators actually surprised by the Pawlenty administration’s abandonment of green principles? Ron Way in MinnPost reports that they are, as T-Paw administration officials waffle on carbon emissions, green jobs, and clean car legislation.

David Thornton, assistant commissioner for air quality at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) told legislators no further action is needed to reduce carbon emissions and that millions of tons of carbon emissions from coal-fired Big Stone II and Excelsior Energy could actually reduce greenhouse gases. His assertions fly in the face of not only common sense but also other reports by previously Pawlenty-approved expert Bill Grant of the Walton League and the MN Climate Change Advisory Group. Thornton said the new plants would replace older, more polluting ones — but Thornton said the utilities told MCCAG that the opposite was true.

Fur, feathers and fins report What is it with all of the animal news? From the horrific chimp attack in Connecticut to discovery of 26,000-year-old saber-toothed cat bones in southeastern MN, animals are in the news this week. In the Twin Cities, the Animal Humane Society euthanized more than 120 cats found in a St. Anthony mobile home, deciding they were too sick to survive, though Animal Ark takes issue with that assertion. In Alaska, a BBC team used underwater cameras to film grizzly bears catching salmon, and reports that “Most bears will do anything to avoid getting their ears wet.” In Scotland, reports BBC, a lamb head-butted a golden eagle.

In MN, the MPCA found mercury levels in fish increasing since the mid-1990s, reversing a previous, and healthier, downward trend, reports Dennis Lien in the PiPress. The pollution probably comes from outside MN, as mercury travels thousands of miles after being produced by coal-fired power plants.

MN Job Watch As Minnesotans get laid off at a rate of about a thousand a day, many are being pushed to sign documents waiving their right to sue their employers, reports Martin Moylan at MPR. The waivers are required in exchange for some kind of severance benefits, and prevent future lawsuits about anything from work-related disability to discrimination. Attorney Stephen Cooper warns:

“An employee often thinks, ‘Oh this is something that serves both our interests. This is just a mutual way to both agree we’re both protected. That is very seldom the case. Usually the only person being protected in those documents is the employer.”

Saving drowning homeowners President Barack Obama will announce a housing bailout plan today in Phoenix. Two groups of homeowners are in trouble, reports the New York Times: about three million who are already behind in monthly payments and also about ten million whose houses are “underwater” — worth less than they owe on their mortgages. The Obama plan will target the first group, with $50 billion from the already-allotted financial bailout money going to reduce their monthly payments. The NYT analysis is that the Obama plan bets on underwater homeowners staying with their homes and mortgages rather than walking away, at the risk of wrecking their credit ratings.

Recovery.gov – your turn! The new White House website, recovery.gov, ” features cool graphs, interactive maps, projected timelines of when the money will start pumping into the economy, and a place to share your stories and offer comments,” according to the Daily Kos. And if you feel the need for a little more information before telling the government what to do, check out Baseline Scenario’s Financial Crisis for Beginners.

Afghanistan: Civilian deaths up, more troops On the heels of a U.N. report of a 39% increase in civilian deaths in Afghanistan last year, President Obama cited “a deteriorating situation” and authorized deployment of up to 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, reports the BBC. The troops will add to 19,000 U.S. troops under U.S. command and another 14,000 serving under NATO command. U.S. commanders in Afghanistan asked for 30,000 additional troops.

The U.N found militants to blame for 55% of 2,118 civilian deaths in 2008, and documented Taliban assassination and intimidation campaigns against anyone associating with the government and against schools. The New York Times reported that, while most of the 39% of civilian deaths attributable to U.S., NATO and Afghan forces come from air strikes, there are other significant problems:

The newly released United Nations report singled out Special Forces and other military units operating outside the normal chains of command, which, the survey said, frequently could not be held accountable for their actions.

Special Forces groups like Navy Seals and paramilitary units operated by the C.I.A. often conduct raids in Afghanistan, and often at night. Such groups typically operate outside the normal chains of command, which means that their presence and movements are not always known by regular field commanders.

Give us national healthcare! A New York Times-CBS poll shows that 59% of the country wants the government–not insurance companies–to provide health insurance, and 49% say the insurance should cover all medical problems.

The poll sampled attitudes on a wide variety of topics, and the report compares responses now to attitudes 30 years ago. Among the other findings:

Today, most Americans (60%) say they get most of their news from television, with newspapers a distant second (14%), followed closely by the internet (13%), and radio (7%). Thirty years ago, a Los Angeles Times Poll found Americans were equally as likely to get most of their news from newspapers (42%) as television (41%). The internet was not available as a choice in the 1979 poll.

Wal-Mart up, Wal-Mart down “Stronger Dollar Knocks Wal-Mart” said the BBC, but “Wal-Mart Profit Tops Expectations” headlined the New York Times. The different spins reported the same numbers: Wal-Mart reported an 8% drop in quarterly profits as the higher value of the U.S. dollar affected overseas earnings, but sales were still up and there still was a profit, as Wal-Mart continues to do better in the recession than almost anyone else.

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February 17, 2009 · 8:56 am

News Day 2/17/09: Never-ending recount / Zombie banks / Battered by spouse? Get out of town / More …

Never-ending recount The judges ruled Friday on which sets of absentee ballots would be considered (not counted, just considered for counting), and Coleman’s lawyers struck back Monday, asking them to reverse their ruling, reports Jay Weiner in MinnPost. Weiner sees the move as preparation for an appeal after the judges’ “final” decision on who won … and there’s still no word on when that decision will come. Trial, and posturing, continue today.

Zombie banks “A zombie bank drains bailout capital but doesn’t respond with any meaningful lending,” reports MPR’s Chris Arnold. When the government props up a zombie bank, it’s not lending but it won’t die. Andy Kessler, a former hedge fund manager, says zombie banks “eat the fabric of the economy,” and warns: “I’ve watched every single one of those zombie movies and everybody knows you can’t cure zombie-ism … you gotta shoot ’em, you gotta get rid of ’em, cut their heads off, put the silver bullet through their hearts–and get some healthy banks.” As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner proposes a complicated package of private investments and public loans to buy toxic assets from banks, the zombie bank explanation sounds a timely warning. Arnold and his guests discuss solutions such as wiping out the zombie banks, and then creating new healthy banks with taxpayers as the shareholders or taking over troubled home loans and giving them to smaller community banks to restructure.

Get on the bus and get out of town Finally find a way to escape that abusive spouse and get your children to safety? Now Twin Cities victims may be given tickets to ride the old grey dog to Bemidj, Brainerd, or Albert Lea, because metro-area shelters are out of room, reports Joy Powell in the Strib. With little affordable housing, shelters and safe houses have seen average stays go from 20 days in 2005 to 37 days in 2008, and there’s just no more room in either shelters or public housing. The recession has brought more violence at home. The statewide domestic abuse crisis line has seen calls rise from an average of 500 a month in 2006 to 900 a month now. Many victims remain in dangerous situations because there is just nowhere to go.

MN Job Watch The stimulus package will increase unemployment benefits by $25 per month, across the board, as well as extending the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) through December. A federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program extended benefits by 13 weeks in July, and by an additional 20 weeks in November. The 20-week extension was due to expire in March, but will now run through December.

The MN Green Jobs Task Force wants a new Green Enterprise Authority to coordinate state agency efforts to attract new green-collar jobs, reports Tim Pugmire on MPR. The task force also wants tax incentives and bonding for renewable energy projects.

Stimulus and MN deficit MN Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson said that MN will get up to $2.8 billion to bolster the state’s general fund, paykng for health care, education and state stabilization aid, reports Tim Pugmire for MPR. The money may make up some of the increase in the state budget deficit, which is expected to grow from the current $4.8 billion to as much as $7 billion when the next state economic forecast comes out on March 3. The federal money comes with strings attached. T-Paw will have to restore proposed cuts in health care programs and might have to give up an accounting shift for education funds.

But that still leaves most of the MN budget carnage in place. Sheila Regan writes in the TC Daily Planet about the impact of the T-Paw proposal to basically dismantle the Perpich arts high school and arts education center.

Could be worse? Kansas is suspending income tax refunds, reports AP, and may miss this Friday’s payroll for 42,000 state employees, as the legislature and governor fight over the state deficit. And in California, reports BBC, Gov. Arnie Schwarzenegger ordered layoff notices for 20,000 state workers after CA legislators failed to approve a $40 billion budget. This on top of two-day-a-month unpaid furloughs already in place for state workers and delayed tax refunds for everybody.

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February 16, 2009 · 9:36 am

News Day 2/16/09: Tax blue jeans / 2, 4, 6, 8 – how many billions do we rate? / Around the world in 90 seconds

Tax blue jeans, give business a break Surprise! Pawlenty panel backs business tax cuts T-Paw’s 21st Century Tax Reform Commission recommended imposing a sales tax on clothing and services, and raising the cigarette tax by about a dollar per pack — all in order to pay for business tax breaks starting at $300 million the first year and rising to $900 million a year thereafter, reported AP. Hmmm – maybe people will have something to say about the panel and T-Paw at a series of town hall meetings across the state, starting Thursday.

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money Or not — as the estimates of how much of the economic stimulus package will come to MN vary wildly from one report to the next. Four billion, and possibly more, Senator Amy Klobuchar told AP’s Martiga Lohn. $9.1 billion, said Kevin Diaz in the Strib, with the money saving or creating 66,000 MN jobs. Diaz’s colleague Patricia Lopez had estimated (one day earlier) “a cool $3 billion” for MN. Lopez quoted MN House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher as saying that “a lot of the details are not as crisp as we would like,” which seems like one of the more accurate statements about the MN stimulus funding.

Here are some of the early reports on the devilish details: Cynthia Boyd at MinnPost reports that Minnesota’s school stimulus funds are estimated at about $1.4 billion, including 815.7 million in state fiscal stabilizatin funding, $224.3 million in Pell grants, $187.5 million in added Special Education monies, $87 million in Title I tutoring for poor kids, $27.2 million in school improvement grants, $20.6 million for Head Start, and $25.2 million for Child Care and Development block grants.

MinnPost’s DC reporter, Cynthia Dizikes weighed in with more numbers — $134,695,876 in weatherization funding, $668,242,481 in infrastructure investment, $502,284,177 for roads and bridges, $92,241,542 for mass transit, $1,851,573 specifically for the Hiawatha Corridor, $107,690,700 in loan funds for drinking- and waste-water treatment.

MN Job Watch Want a recession-proof job? Shoe repair is good, according to the Strib, and so is the pawn shop business, auto repair, and debt collectors. Their business is so good, that lawyers report an increase in business from people being hounded by collectors. Bankruptcy filings are also “huge” and “the repo business is booming.”

You might take that optimistic outlook with a grain of salt, however — MPR’s Tom Robertson reports reports that not even funeral homes are recession-proof.

A growing number of families are choosing less expensive caskets for their loved ones. They’re cutting back on flowers and shortening the length of visitation services, all as a way to save money.

There’s also a rise in the number of families who cannot pay funeral costs at all, especially in regions with high unemployment. That means burial costs are increasingly falling on local or state governments.

Another Strib article by Kara McGuire points to a grim picture for workers whose retirement accounts fell, on average, by 27 percent last year. Many workers now see their employers eliminating 401(k) matches.

Around the world in 90 seconds Even as peace talks supposedly near an agreement, BBC reports that Israeli jets bombed tunnels on the Egyptian border after two rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel.

While the U.S. is at war in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan, BBC reports that U.S missile strikes killed ten people in northwest Pakistan (Sunday?), after a Saturday missile attack destroyed a house near the Afghan border, killing 28 militants. Meanwhile, the Pakistan government signed a peace deal with a Taliban group in the Swat valley, agreeing to enforcement of Islamic Sharia law in the Taliban-controlled region.

In Zimbabwe, new opposition Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai showed sufficient strength to get his deputy agriculture minister released from jail after Roy Bennett was arrested on charges of treason. The charges against the white farmer who has opposed the government of President Robert Mugabe were reduced to “terrorism,” , reports the BBC, and Mr. Tsvangirai observed that Bennet’s arrest was undermining the spirit of the power-sharing agreement.

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez won another referendum, this one to end term limits, allowing him to run for a third term in 2012, if he so chooses. International observers called the election free and fair.

Somalia’s President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed named a new prime minister, , reports BBC. New PM Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke is seen as a bridge between Islamists in the government and the international community. Insurgents have denounced the new government as anti-Islamist, despite the history that President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed came to prominence as one of the leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts.

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February 13, 2009 · 10:59 am

News Day 2/13/09: Slashing St. Paul / Home or nursing home / MN Job Watch and more …

Police, fire, libraries, rec centers going down in St. Paul Needing to make up $30-40 million due to state LGA cuts, St. Paul city department heads presented memos outlining possible cuts: laying off 56 firefighters, 67 police officers, and 23 civilian police department employees, closing the Hamline library and cutting other library hours, closing eight rec center buildings (down to 25 from 42 in 2006), turning off half the city’s streetlights, and reducing street sweeping and snow plowing. 54 city employees have applied for early retirement, and 10 have offered to reduce hours or take leaves of absence. The city has about 3,300 employees. Both the Strib and the PiPress have articles detailing the budget cut scenarios. St. Paul officials have scheduled two community conversations to solicit citizen input.

MN Job Watch In a no-win, no-loss scenario that may be a harbinger for public employee contracts during the year, MNSCU’s Inter Faculty Organization agreed to a new contract that freezes all salaries, but keeps benefits intact, reports Brady Gervais on MPR. The contract covers more than 3,000 faculty at the seven state universities.

Twin Cities law firms began cutting staff and attorneys this week, reports David Phelps in the Strib, with Faegre & Benson cutting 27 attorneys and an undisclosed number of other staff. Other firms cutting attorney and non-attorney staff include Merchant & Gould (33), Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand (5), Halleland Lewis Nilan & Johnson (6).

One more reason not to read the Strib And no, I haven’t cancelled my subscription yet. But yesterday’s announcement that Paul Douglas is out, , as David Brauer notes on MinnPost, means the Strib will get weather news for free from WCCO. And it signals a shift from Douglas’s “strong and oft-stated belief in global warming” to Mike Fairbourne’s global warming skepticism and what ‘CCO calls “lifestyle weather.” Those who still want to find Douglas can find him online at his own WeatherNation.

Home or nursing home? “About 25,000 Minnesotans with disabilities get help with dressing, bathing and other tasks,” writes Warren Wolfe in the Strib, with services mostly paid by Medicaid under a program originally conceived as a way to improve care and save money by allowing them to stay in their homes. More than 600 agencies bill the state for personal care attendant (PCA) services delivered by more than 40,000 PCAs. The MN Legislative Auditor reported that state spending on personal care assistance for elderly and disabled Minnesotans grew from $153 milion in 2002 to just over $400 million in 2007, according to an AP story published in the Strib. The auditor called the amount of spending unsustainable, but also said that the Department of Human Services has left the program too open to fraud and abuse. Most services are paid through Medicaid. The report found that some caregivers billed for more than 24 hours per day, and claimed consecutive 24-hour work days. Now DHS proposes to fix the program by eliminating 2,100 people from eligibility and increasing oversight. DHS would also require that people whose care is directed by a “responsible party,” such as people with mental disabilities, must live in the same household as the “responsible party.”

Loren Colman, human services assistant commissioner, characterized the changes as ensuring that resources “are being directed to people who require services, not just to those who like them.” Advocates and disabled persons testifying at a legislative hearing disagreed with her characterization. Anne Henry, a lawyer and advocate with the Minnesota Disability Law Center in Minneapolis, said “If we get too restrictive, we’ll end up paying far more when [former clients] end up in nursing homes, emergency rooms and even jails.”

Day care blues Jean Hopfensperger writes in the Strib that TC day care providers are losing out as parents lose jobs or see pay and hours cut. Some parents are looking for cheaper babysitters on Craigslist, or shifting to non-traditional work shifts, or putting together a patchwork of family members and babysitters. The average cost of full-time daycare for a four-year-old is $9,300 at a child care center and $7,000 in family child care. The waiting list for state child care subsidies has grown from 5,400 in July to 7,500 in December, and Pawlenty’s budget would cut subsidies by $10 million. Day care providers “are hoping they don’t end up in the same unemployment line as their departing clients.”

Luz Maria Frias for St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced that his head lobbyist, Luz Maria Frias, will move to head the city’s new Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity Department, succinctly called HREEO, reports MinnPost.

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February 12, 2009 · 9:45 am

News Day 2/12/09: Between bailout and stimulus / $7 billion MN deficit? / MN Job Watch / Housing prices, and more …

Between bailout and stimulus Sick of reading about it / thinking about it / worrying about it? So am I, but I still keep trying to understand how and why we bail out the bankers and bash the poor. One of today’s better analyses:

Steve Perry, writing in MinnPost collates a number of analyses of the latest bailout and concludes: “Thanks to the ways the money is being used–to keep the banks in private hands and their shareholders out of harm’s way–the chances that these unthinkable sums will actually prevent continuing disaster appears to diminish by the day.”

And the sums are truly unthinkable: Bloomberg reports that the total amount of bailouts, and government loans and pledges to banks, and stimulus is close to $9.7 TRILLION — “enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child alive in the world … almost enough to pay off every home mortgage loan in the U.S., calculated at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve.”

Meanwhile, Congress continues to quibble over the economic stimulus package, now nibbled down to $790 billion by cutting such unworthy projects as $20 billion in school construction funding and additional amounts in Medicaid spending, according to the Washington Post.

And back to Perry:

The ultimate peril of our monstrously overgrown financial sector–which, pre-crash, accounted for about 20 percent of GDP and 30-40 percent of U.S. corporate profits, proportions that are absolutely unprecedented in U.S. history-is that government has a very hard time seizing control of the banking system when the banking system, for practical purposes, has seized control of the government.

A billion here, a billion there Gov. Pawlenty said that MN’s $4.8 billion deficit could grow to $6 or $7 billion by March. That’s almost 20 percent of the state’s budget, notes the Strib. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis predicted that the recession will last through 2009 — not exactly a surprise. The Fed predicts MN unemployment rates of 7.8 percent, but the hardest-hit part of the region will be the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, with a predicted 14 percent unemployment rate.

MN Job Watch Toro cut 100 salaried and office jobs Wednesday, three-quarters at its Bloomington HQ, reported the Strib. The company earlier accepted 50 voluntary retirements.

More than a thousand Minnesotans are applying for unemployment benefits each month, and four out of ten will be unemployed for 26 weeks or more, exhausting their benefits, reports Annie Baxter on MPR. For most of them, a federal extension will give them up to an additional 33 weeks, and possibly another three months after that. Lee Nelson, the state’s head unemployment benefits attorney, told MPR that, “Minnesota paid out a whopping $45 million in jobless benefits and extensions the week before last,” and payments are likel to keep increasing at about a million dollars a week.

According to the Washington Post, more employers across the country are contesting worker applications for unemployment benefits, claiming employee wrongdoing or quitting, in an attempt to keep their claim level and rates down. Department of Labor figures show record highs of just over 25 percent of claims being contested.

The play’s the thing Penumbra became the latest TC theater to announce budget woes Wednesday, cutting its operating budget by 24 percent, but maintaining plans for a half-million dollar renovation and keeping all staff on board, reported Rohan Preston in the Strib. Penumbra will postpone production of August Wilson’s “Radio Golf” from May to October.

Revise, not recount Secretary of State Mark Ritchie proposed changing election laws to require fewer automatic recounts and to allow voters to vote early and in person, and to register online. Meanwhile, the recount court is considering Coleman and Franken arguments on what categories of absentee ballots should be considered, and the end is not yet in sight.

Buyer’s market? The median home price in the Twin Cities fell 24 percent in January, writes Christopher Snowbeck in the PiPress. The St. Paul Area Association of Realtors reported a median home price of $155,000.

More on the local housing market: Lenders discriminate. Housing is segregated. Communities of color are hit harder by the foreclosure crisis than anyone else. That’s the ugly face of racial discrimination in the Twin Cities revealed in a 54-page report released by the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Flowers for sheep Sheep will eat most of the flowers raised by Gaza farmers again this year, but Israeli authorities have agreed to allow the export of 20,000 carnations to Europe for Valentine’s Day. According to BBC, “Cut flowers, along with strawberries, were some of Gaza’s main exported raw goods, providing a valuable source of income to thousands of families in the Gaza Strip” before the Israeli blockade stopped almost all exports in June 2007. Before the blockade, exports brought in half a million dollars a day.

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February 12, 2009 · 8:20 am

Report documents mortgage discrimination in Minneapolis, St. Paul

Lenders discriminate. Housing is segregated. Communities of color are hit harder by the foreclosure crisis than anyone else. That’s the ugly face of racial discrimination in the Twin Cities revealed in a 54-page report released by the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School.

People of color “continue to receive home loans on worse terms and at a higher cost than similarly situated white borrowers, according to “Communities in Crisis: Race and Mortgage Lending in the Twin Cities”. Higher incomes did not protect people of color from lending disparities, with high-income black, Latino and Asian applicants denied loans at higher rates than low-income white borrowers.

Very high income black, Hispanic and Asian applicants (applicants with incomes more than $157,000 per year) show denial rates higher than whites in the lowest-income category (less than $39,250 per year). The disparities are greatest for black borrowers. The denial rate for blacks with incomes above $157,000 was 25%, while it was just 11% for Whites making less than $39,250.

Prime and subprime: What they are, why they matter

“Prime loans are the standard home loans that have allowed high rates of homeownership and housing mobility in the United States. Subprime loans have higher interest rates than prime loans and often contain additional features and costs that are absent in prime loans. Subprime loan features can include prepayment penalties; adjustable rate mortgages where interest rates are adjusted periodically; interest only loans, where the borrower only pays for the interest on the principal of the loan; and balloon payment mortgages, where interest rates climb towards the end of the loan. …

“Segregated neighborhoods of color, neighborhoods where more than 50 percent of the residents are people of color, receive disproportionate numbers of subprime loans. …
Although not all subprime loans are predatory, most predatory loans are found in the subprime market.”

Borrowers of color, even if they have high incomes, “are more likely to receive subprime loans than in any white income group,” found the study, thereby increasing the amount that they pay for loans and their risk of foreclosure.

A few decades ago, homeowners typically looked to neighborhood banks for their mortgages. Then home lending practices changed. Mortgage brokers and automated underwriting meant less connection between lender and borrower. “Loan securitization,” based on sales of mortgages, spread and eventually became the basis of the current financial crisis. All of these factors made the mortgage market more complex, encouraged high risk lending, and encouraged high-risk, predatory lending.

Calling homeownership “the first step to building stability and wealth” for families, the study points out that discriminatory lending has “cost another generation of people of color the equal opportunity to join America’s middle class,” despite the 40-year-old fair housing legislation passed as a consequence of the civil rights movement.

This wealth can be leveraged in numerous ways including moving “up,” into better neighborhoods and homes, co-signing loans to ensure that one’s children become homeowners, and starting businesses.8 Racial discrimination has greatly reduced access for people of color and communities of color to these long-term wealth building benefits of home ownership.

Twin Cities: Pattern of discrimination

Discrimination in lending also has maintained and reinforced housing segregation across the country and in the Twin Cities. Twin Cities neighborhoods are highly segregated by race, and neighborhoods with higher non-white populations have less access to banks and higher percentage of subprime mortgages. Lenders tend to specialize, offering either prime or subprime loans. In the Twin Cities, bank branches are less likely to be located in minority communities, with a study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition showing the metro area ranking last of 25 large metropolitan areas studied.

North Minneapolis shows the severity of the discrimination/subprime lending/foreclosure impact on a community. The IRD study found a foreclosure rate of two percent in Hennepin and Ramsey counties overall, but 12 percent for North Minneapolis, which it described as “the most segregated and lowest-income area in the Twin Cities.”

Banks made few prime loans in North Minneapolis, while subprime lenders dominated the market. Overall, 1.7 percent of home purchase loans were made in North Minneapolis, and 49 percent of these were subprime, compared to 14 percent subprime in the area as a whole.

For example, the region’s largest prime lender, Wells Fargo Bank, NA, made just 286 of its home purchase loans in North Minneapolis out of a regional total of 35,272. If North Minneapolis had received a proportionate amount of Well Fargo’s loans, it would have received more than twice as many loans—1.7 percent or a total of 616 loans.

On the other hand, TCF has made a disproportionately large share of loans in North Minneapolis. But even homeowners with “good” loans have been affected by the overwhelming number of foreclosures in the community, which have driven down home values and made neighborhoods less stable.

What happened to the laws?

The IRD study reviews the extensive list of laws prohibiting discrimination in housing and in lending, but finds that “The federal and state governments have not enforced fair lending laws, allowing lenders to engage in illegal discriminatory behavior with little threat of punishment.” The Bush administration rolled back enforcement, so that lenders have little fear of getting caught and, even if they are caught, pay small penalties. Private civil rights lawsuits have increased, but the expense of suing is high, and lawsuits drag on for years.

The IRD study recommends some steps to address the problem of racial discrimination in housing and lending, including calls to:

• work aggressively to end segregation;

• enforce existing laws, both federal anti-discrimination laws and Minnesota laws curbing predatory lending practices;

• strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act to “increase access to affordable, prime credit for people who live in segregated communities of color;”

• re-establish a regional Fair Housing Center to bolster enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.

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