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February 3, 2009 · 10:56 am

News Day – February 3: Let them eat arts, RNC mistrial, undercounting the homeless, and more

Let them eat arts T-Paw’s plan to turn the Perpich Center for Arts Education into a charter school may have bipartisan support, writes Norman Draper in the Strib. Make that bipartisan support for killing the Perpich Center, which has been a proud national model of a statewide arts school and a center for arts education that sends staff to assist in arts education across the state and provides training sessions and resources for arts teachers from across the state. This is not a slam on charter schools – the fact is that the Guv’s move means cutting all the funding that enables Perpich to provide arts education for students and teachers, leaving it with state funding that pays only a per-pupil allotment equal to the funding formula for every other public school student. “Converting to a charter” in this case means taking away state resources, with no way to replace them. The Strib quotes Rudy Perpich, Jr.: “As my parents said, ‘Arts are always the first thing to be cut.”

Free–at last, sort of, at least for a while The jury deadlocked in the federal trial of RNC protester David McKay, accused of Molotov cocktail making and possession. While a March 16 retrial date has been set, the judge let McKay go free on bail. Writing in the PiPress, David Hanners reported that jurors apparently deadlocked over McKay’s claim that he would never have had anything to do with Molotov cocktails, but for the goaoding of federal informant Brandon Darby. McKay’s attorney said he was “a kid who came here to throw trash in the street,” not a bomber.

First-hand history recovered Almost a century after Lakota Chief Martin White Horse dictated stories about his community to Florence May Thwing, the typewritten document detailing 100 years of Lakota (Sioux) history has been re-discovered in a trunk by Thwing’s great-granddaughter. The winter count includes an entry for each year from 1790 to 1910, reports MPR:
(1835) In the year of stars moving in the sky.

(1845) In this year the Sioux Indians were starving and dying for lack of food because there had been no buffalos in their country for a long time. So they took the head of an old buffalo and painted it red, and placed it in a tepee and worshipped it with much singing and other things, and asked this buffalo head to send them buffalos to where they are located inside the boundary line. Their prayers were successful and many buffalos came to the place where they were camped, so the Sioux had again plenty of food.

MN Job Watch Macy’s announced Monday that it will cut 7,000 jobs, about four percent of its workforce, AP reports in the Strib. According to the Strib/AP report, Macy’s is centralizing, and its central buying, merchandise planning, stores senior management and marketing functions will be located primarily in New York. No word yet on any job cuts in MN, but Macy’s already closed its regional HQ in Minneapolis last year, cutting about 950 jobs, and announced the closing of its Brookdale store last month.

In Eden Prairie, ADC Telecommunications announced a general hiring freeze and plans for unspecified layoffs, reports Leslie Suzukamo in the PiPress. ADC announced layoffs of 160-190 MN workers in October as part of a global reduction in force. The Eden Prairie-based company has about 10,500 workers worldwide, and announced a quarterly loss of 17-23 cents per share.

TPM says RNC Chair Michael Steele is coming “straight outta Hooverville,” with his bogus claim that: “Not in the history of mankind has the goverment ever created a job,” saying “This is such transparent nonsense it’s hard to know where to start … Has Steele every heard of government road building? Defense spending? … ” Ann Markusen writes in MinnPost that “Few elements of the forthcoming stimulus program would pump money into the economy faster and more efficiently than the funds to states to refresh depleted unemployment insurance, social safety nets, and college aid programs.”

(Under)counting the homeless January is the wrong time to count homeless people, reports Madeleine Baran in the TC Daily Planet, but that’s the time mandated by the federal government. In a related article, Session Weekly reports that one in eight Minnesota households spends more than half its income on housing, and that the average cost for rentals is now higher than $900/month. All that, as Twin Cities home values fell 10 percent last year, according to Jim Buchta in the Strib.

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January 29, 2009 · 10:00 am

News Day – January 29: Stimulus heads for MN; St. Paul “cutting the bone”

Economic Stimulus – despite GOP no votes President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package passed the House without a single Republican vote, despite his outreach efforts. Paul Krugman, Nobel-prize winning NYT economics columnist asks, “Aren’t you glad that Obama watered it down and added ineffective tax cuts, so as to win bipartisan support?” The Daily Kosexcoriates the eleven Dems who voted against the stimulus, and especially Blue Dog Jim Cooper (D-TN) for “his FU to Obama” after getting the Pres to agree to a February “fiscal responsibility summit.”

Back in MN, the Strib and both pick up an AP report saying that MN will get more than $477 million from the plan to upgrade highways and bridges, as part of the $30 billion national transportation package.

Cutting the bone “Anticipate park and library closures, and public safety reductions.” That’s the message from St. Paul, in light of reductions in Local Government Aid under the Pawlenty budget plan. The PiPress reports that city’s entire budget is about $200 million annually, and that Mayor Coleman says the city has to cut $43.8 million. That, says council member Melvin Carter, means cutting the bone. For example, closing all libraries and eliminating all 34 rec centers would save only $36 million.

And — big surprise here — Tom Scheck at MPR reports that business groups like Pawlenty’s tax cut plans, which would reduce business taxes by $268 million over the next two years.

Goodbye, Challenge The MN Housing Finance Agency said it will cut $8.5 million from the Challenge Program, which funds new affordable home construction, in response to the governor’s budget cuts. Session Daily reported that the agency plans to focus on rehabilitating existing housing stock and subsidizing rentals, and wants $1.5 million transferred from the state Disaster Relief Contingency Fund to help 80 families currently living in shelters, which would require declaration of a federal disaster.

MN Job Watch U.S. union ranks are growing, reports the Washington Post, showing “the first significant increase in 25 years.” The numbers are still small, with union membership growing from 12.1 percent in 2007 to 12.4 percent in 2008, according to the BLS. In the 1950s, union membership was about one-third of the work force. Union leaders said most of the growth came in government workers, as private employers continued to use union-busting tactics to intimidate employees. The BLS report says only 7.6 percent of private-sector employees are unionized, compared to 37 percent of government employees. According to an AP report, Minnesota union membership dropped from 16.3 percent of the work force in 2007 to 16.1 percent in 2008, with the number of union workers dropping from 400,000 in 2007 to about 392,000 in 2008.

In other MN job news, the Rochester Post-Bulletin reports that IBM laid off workers yesterday, but has not released number son how many, and may be making more cuts.

Ramstad to Harvard The PiPress reports (via AP) that former U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad is heading off to Harvard. Ramstad will be a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics.

Bad news drives bank stock prices higher That’s right. Financial stocks rose even as banks showed bigger losses. Wells Fargo stocks went up 31 percent, reported Chris Serres in the Strib, despite its announcement of “a multibillion-dollar loss, falling revenue and a doubling of bad loans.” The Strib says that investors thought the news would be even worse. And they may also be reacting to hopes for more bailout money. To be fair, Wells Fargo’s losses have something to do with a one-time event:

Wells Fargo executives, by contrast, appear to be preparing for the worst by taking dramatic steps to shore up its balance sheet after buying Wachovia, which is saddled with many exotic mortgage loans that are going soar as the housing market deflates. On Wednesday, Wells Fargo said it took $37.2 billion in credit write-downs Dec. 31 related to Wachovia’s loan portfolio. The bank also increased its allowance for loan losses — money banks set aside to cover bad loans — to $21.7 billion in the fourth quarter from $8 billion as of Sept. 30.

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January 26, 2009 · 9:03 am

News Day – January 26: Sex, money, jobs and politics

A three billion dollar question? That’s the Pawlenty estimate of the amount MN could get from the federal economic stimulus program, writes Bill Salisbury in the PiPress, and T-Paw thinks a good chunk of that money could go to resolving the state’s deficit. Not so fast, says Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark, who says the federal package will be aimed at job creation, not budget relief. The TC Daily Planet reports on the economic stimulus wish lists that Minneapolis and St. Paul have sent to the MN congressional delegation. The focus? Heavy on roads and bridges and parks.

Senator, Governor, the race goes on As the recount trial begins today in St. Paul, former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza filed with the Campaign Finance Board, indicating that he will be running for governor in 2010, reports the Strib.

Another harassment suit for Jonathan Palmer Leah Ellis claimed in a 20-page complaint filed last week that Jonathan Palmer, now director of the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center in St. Paul, sexually harassed her, offering her $20 to strip for him, caressing her and retaliating when she resisted him, write Dave Orrick and Emily Gurnon in the PiPress. Toni Carter, board chair of the center, expressed confidence in Palmer and said he would stay on as director. The lawsuit says Ellis complained to Carter about Palmer’s behavior but was told to handle it with Palmer, and that other female employees also complained about sexual harassment in the work environment. Workplace lawsuits are not new to Palmer.

In August, former Minneapolis city employee Melissa Heus won a $15,000 settlement from the city in an employment-related claim against Palmer, said city spokesman Matt Laible. The claim arose when Palmer was director of the Empowerment Zone program, a federally funded, city-run revitalization program.

MN Job Watch New layoffs announced last week include 100 jobs from Arctic Cat’s Thief River Falls plant, says the Strib, and 110 from Polaris Industries’ Roseau plant, which will no longer make the Polaris Ranger utility vehicle, according to MPR. Andersen Windows announced another 160 layoffs on Friday, reports MPR, on top of permanent reductions of 50 workers and temporary layoffs of 400 announced earlier in January. Andersen said the latest layoffs will last at least through the first quarter of the year.

Hutchinson Technology cut its Sioux Falls work force in half less than two weeks ago, and announced Friday that it will close the plant and lay off the remaining 300 employees over the next three months, reports MPR. Sioux Falls assembly operations (computer disk drives and electronics products) will shift to Eau Claire and Hutchinson plants.

Strib union employees who took a buyout last spring and summer are getting the shaft, writes David Brauer at MinnPost, as the Strib, now in bankruptcy, says “future payments will be capped at $10,950 each — even if workers are due tens of thousands more.”

And in better job news The U.S. Census Bureau is looking to hire about a thousand people and is having trouble getting applicants. The census job site is at http://www.2010Censusjobs.gov.

The Minneapolis City Council voted to go ahead with scheduled pay raises for non-union employees, reports Steve Brandt in the Star Tribune. The group includes the 125 of the city’s highest-paid officials, and another group of 148 ranging “from fire cadets to senior attorneys.”

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that about 40 workers displaced by the trouble at the Agriprocssors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa have been recruited to work at the Long Prairie Packing Company in Long Prairie, MN. About half of the workers are from the Pacific island of Palau, with the others coming from a variety of places around the world. Under a “Compact of Free Association” with the U.S., Palauans can travel and work in this country without visas or green cards. Wages of $11.65 in Long Prairie compare favorably with the $9 an hour they were making in Postville.

JOBZ failing at jobs T-Paw’s favorite jobs program has some problems delivering, according to a recent AP article in Finance & Commerce. The article says 315 companies are in full compliance with the pledges they made to get JOBZ tax breaks, five will lose the tax credits for falling short of job creation goals, and 57 have been terminated for failing to meet targets, going out of business, or violating the JOBZ law, with 46 of these “subject to repayment provisions.”

The JOBZ tax breaks from 2004-2006 totaled about $46 million. According to the AP article, state officials expect a quarter of the companies with JOBZ deals will miss job-creation goals as the recession continues. One employer promised, in 2004, to create 25 full-time, $12-an-hour jobs by the end of 2007. Then he got an extension. Then he downgraded the target to 12 jobs. Now he says that, despite saving more than $!50,000 in taxes since 2004, the company will go under in 2010 when the tax breaks end.

Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, who sponsored the original JOBZ bill “said a significant number of companies were missing targets even before the downturn, and he wants to see more evidence that JOBZ is working before granting any leeway.”

A 2008 legislative auditor’s report criticized JOBZ, concluding that “it has not been adequately focused or administered.”

Bye-bye, Big Stone? Less than a week after the MN PUC shot down a challenge to the Big Stone II coal plant, the federal Environmental Protection Agency put on the brakes. MPR reports that the EPA says the SoDak-issued air quality permit doesn’t deal adequately with important air quality issues, including monitoring for SO2 and NO emissions that contribute to acid rain. Environmentalists say the Big Stone plant would also add to global warming. Sierra Club says the EPA decision “likely spells the end” for $1.6 billion Big Stone II plant construction, but others are not so sure. At the very least, the decision slows the process and requires additional permitting. Read the decision here and here.

Off to war About 560 Minnesota National Guard soldiers head out to training in Texas in April, before being deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, reports the PiPress. The soldiers are from units in Montevideo, Appleton, Marshall, Madison, Olivia, Morris and Ortonville.

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January 23, 2009 · 9:39 am

MN Job Watch – January 23

MN Job Watch As expected, MN unemployment jumped again in December, to an official 6.9 percent. Official MN unemployment increased by 13,900 workers, which raised the total number of unemployed MN workers to 202,800. Jeff van Wychen in MN 2020 writes that is probably the highest number since the Great Depression. Employers cut 11,800 jobs in December, and November’s job loss numbers were revised upward (surprise!) to 13,366. According to the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development:

Overall, there were 2.9 unemployed workers for each job vacancy statewide. This ratio indicates that the second quarter 2008 labor market was the least favorable for job seekers during the history of the job vacancy series dating back to fourth quarter 2000.

The Strib put a hopeful headline spin on the bad news saying the report “hints slide may be nearing bottom.” Not clear to me that there’s any factual basis that conclusion.

In rare good news, despite Microsoft’s plan to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide, the software giant says it still plans to open a new software development office in the Twin Cities. Leslie Brooks Suzukamo reports in the PiPress that the office will employ fewer than the originally-planned 55 employees. It’s not clear how the worldwide job cuts will affect about 100 employees in Microsoft’s Bloomington sales office. And on another front, Session Daily reports that, “It may not be the best deal Minnesota could get, but an airline agreement will still keep thousands of jobs in the state.”

NPR’s Planet Money notes that jobless claims nationally continue to rise, with the labor market “a disaster area,” and that other indicators also point downward, with housing starts dropping and the Consumer Price Index continuing a deflationary downturn. You might think lower prices are good, but the experts say that’s not necessarily true. NPR quotes High Frequency Economics’ chief economist Carl Weinberg to explain why:

If people perceive themselves to be bogged down in a deflation, they will behave accordingly. They will defer purchases because they expect the price of a new coat or refrigerator or iPod to be lower in a few months than it is right now. Indeed, all the people in the world who are deferring house purchases rather than borrow money to buy a depreciating asset . . .are demonstrating deflationary behavior. . . . This will make the recessions in the developed market economies worse than they might have been in an environment of rising prices.

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January 13, 2009 · 9:41 am

News Day – January 13

Crime decreasing … for now Looking at FBI figures, the the PiPress reports that crime in St. Paul rose slightly during the first six months of the year, compared to 2007. “Slightly” means 0.2% or ten more crimes than in 2007. St. Paul police say that the crime figures showed a decline by the end of 2008. In Minneapolis, the Strib reported that crime fell during the first six months of 2008. Nationwide, violent crime fell by 3.5% and property crime by 2.5%. Final crime stats for the entire year will be available in the fall.

But can it last? Though crime stats show decreases, city governments across the state face major budget cuts. MPR interviewed Wadena Mayor Wolden:

Wolden said cities are struggling with Gov. Pawlenty’s admonition not to cut budgets for public safety.

“We understand that. We’re not dumb. We know that people want to dial 911 and have somebody show up at their door in 60 seconds, 24/7/365. It’s what we do. That’s why they pay taxes,” Wolden said. “We are going to try to hold them as harmless as possible. But this is forcing our hand. This may have to be the cut.”

Liberians need a pathway to permanent residence. Once again, Liberians lawfully in the United States under a grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) face forced departure as the latest extension of TPS expires in on March 31. TPS was first granted in 1991, and extended year to year until 2007, when President Bush changed the status to Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). Liberians who fled war and persecution, have lived here for more than a decade, starting businesses, buying homes, and raising families. Each family has its own story. MPR tells one of the stories:

The possibility of deportation would pose an immediate dilemma for Kirkpatrick Weah. He has two young American-born sons who both need special education. He’d have to decide whether to take them with him to Liberia, where the schools may not offer the programs that can help them succeed, or whether to leave them in the U.S.

Minnesota is home to about 25,000 Liberians, one of the largest populations in the United States, and many live under the threat of departure on March 31.

MN Job Watch: Hutchinson Technology, which had announced layoffs of 1100 just a month ago, increased the number to 1380, according to the Strib. The new plan calls for cutting 950 jobs in Hutchinson (pop. 13,929) and 50 in Plymouth. According to the Strib:

They are not alone. Many manufacturers are swinging the employment axe as the grip on the economy tightens. Manufacturers scrubbed 600,000 jobs and shut dozens of plants last year. In Minnesota, 3M, Andersen, Select Comfort, Pentair, Imation and other manufacturers cut 8,500 jobs in just 10 weeks. Hundreds more are coming as retailers Best Buy, Linens and Things and now Cost Plus World Market shut stores and trim corporate staff.

California-based Seagate Technology announced cuts of 800 jobs in the United States. The company employs 53,000 worldwide, about 8,000 in the United States, and about 3,300 in Bloomington and Shakopee, according to the Strib.

Ford is offering buyouts in St. Paul. “About 240 of the 771 union members working at the St. Paul Ford plant are eligible for the buyouts, said Roger Terveen, president of UAW Local 879” in the PiPress. The buyouts would take effect in January. The last round was in 2006.

Gubernatorial tease Both T-Paw and Wisconsin Guv Jim Doyle say they’ll make a major announcement of a joint initiative on Tuesday at 11 a.m., and neither is telling what it will be, AP says, except that it involves efficiency and spending cuts.

Immigrant struggles MPR reports on the struggles of immigrants, many of whom had professional degrees and practices in their home countries, to make a new life in Minnesota. For Damaris Perez-Ramirez, that meant leaving her PhD in psychology and 12-year psychology practice and starting over.

Starting from scratch meant cleaning houses, working as a translator and coordinating parenting classes for Latinos in the Twin Cities. These weren’t exactly the kind of jobs she had in mind when she arrived in Minnesota in 2001. …

A recent report by the Migration Policy Institute shows that, nationally, more than 1.3 million college-educated immigrants are either unemployed or working in jobs such as dishwashers, taxi drivers or housecleaners.

Gaza war update Yesterday the Israeli government banned Arab political parties inside Israel, and even TPM confessed to not being sure what to say or think about the decision, which may well be overturned by the Israeli courts. As casualty figures, with the death toll nearing 1,000 and the number of injured topping 4,000, Bill Moyers presented a searing indictment of the Israeli war (“Brute force can turn self-defense into state terrorism”), and Naomi Klein urged a boycott of Israel. Israel warned (promised?) continuing escalation.

And the recount saga goes on … Yesterday, MN Supreme Court Justice Alan Page appointed the three judges who will hear the Coleman lawsuits in the election/recount battle. MPR reports:

They are:
• Elizabeth Hayden of Stearns County who was appointed by DFL Governor Rudy Perpich in 1986;
• Kurt Marben of Thief River Falls who was appointed by Independent Jesse Ventura in 2000, and
• Denise Reilly of Hennepin County who was appointed by Republican Arne Carlson in 1997.

Franken also asked that the Guv and SoS issue him a certificate of election yesterday — both declined, pointing out that the law requires them to wait until after the court decides on all legal challenges.

Popular public schools Choosing a school is a mind-boggling process for parents of kindergartners. Last weekend, TC Daily Planet visited the school choice fairs in Minneapolis and St. Paul and talked to parents.

Parents at both fairs moved aggressively from booth to booth, peppering parent volunteers and administrators with questions. Many were so intent on their search that I found it hard to stop them for an interview.

“It’s definitely overwhelming,” said Caralin Dees of St Paul, who was looking for a kindergarten for her four-year-old daughter with her husband Matt. The couple said they hadn’t done much research before the fair. “We’re looking for an elementary with a math-science focus…but really, how much do we want to limit her. I mean, she’s only four!”

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