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Public option or private bankruptcy A clear majority of 57 percent supports a public option for health care reform, according to the latest Washgton Post-ABC News poll. That’s up from a mid-August low point of 52 percent, but down from June’s 62 percent in favor of a public option. A majority of Republicans support a limited public option: Continue reading
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More Michele, more of the time With a feature story in the New York Times, talk show appearances, and continuing 24/7 coverage by local media, Michele Bachmann is riding high. This week’s crop includes reports that Bachmann has one of the worst show-up-for-voting records in the House of Representatives, that she has $600,000 in her campaign fund, that opposing candidates are “tip-toeing” around health care issues, that she’s talking to Glenn Beck (again), that she’s calling for the firing of Kevin Jennings, and that she has appeared on Glenn Beck’s show three times in September and three times in the first two weeks of October.
Any Michele Bachmann story guarantees a bump in readership numbers, both from those on the right who love her and those on the left who hate her, but can’t pass up one more Michele story. Michele stories drive ratings, and that means the stories will just keep coming.
What do MN unemployment numbers mean? Minnesota’s unemployment rate dropped by 0.7 percent to 7.3 percent in September, but the state also lost 7,900 jobs. How does that work?
The biggest part of the explanation is that MN unemployment figures do not include people who have given up looking for work. The MN Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) offered one explanation:
About 15,000 more Minnesotans were employed in September, but there were nearly 19,000 fewer who were unemployed. That means that 4,000 people left the labor force, reducing the state’s labor force participation rate to 72.3 percent last month. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of working-age people in Minnesota who are employed, or unemployed and looking for a job.
State economist Tom Stinson, quoted in the Star Tribune, cautioned that the 7.3 percent figure might be an anomaly, and cautioned:
“This is a big change, and the concern is that anytime you have a big change in a number that comes from a relatively small survey, it may just be a problem with the sample,” Stinson said. A similarly low number next month would confirm the unemployment rate has fallen this far, he added.
And in a continuation of the good news/bad news theme, MPR notes that lower unemployment numbers will mean more unemployed workers losing unemployment compensation benefits:
While the declining unemployment rate is an encouraging sign, it also means thousands of the state’s unemployed will be eligible for fewer weeks of benefits.
McElroy said the U.S. Department of Labor is expected to certify the new numbers next week, which would reduce the maximum number of weeks of unemployment benefits from 79 to 72 weeks. Up to an estimated 7,000 people could be affected by the change, 4,200 of them starting Nov. 14.
Minnesota’s looming healthcare disaster With General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) ending on March 1, by the governor’s decree, about 35,000 Minnesotans will be left without health care coverage. Casey Selix details the impact in MinnPost today, ranging from the financial wallop to hospitals to loss of desperately-needed prescription medications for individuals.
Program funds may run out even sooner, some time in February, reports MPR:
“Right now, we’re seeing that more and more people are needing health coverage under the program so the money is going faster than we thought it would,” said Michael Scandrett, director of the Minnesota Safety Net Coalition, a group is made up of dozens of hospitals, clinics, and other health providers. “It looks now like it could be some time in February when people could lose their coverage”
GAMC covers individuals making less than 75 percent of federal poverty guidelines, which would be about $8,000 for a single adult. Many make far less than that. Some 28 percent are homeless. Just over 60 percent have mental health and/or chemical dependency diagnoses.
The impact will go far beyond the people who lose GAMC coverage and their doctors, especially in Hennepin County, home to 41 percent of GAMC enrollees, and Ramsey County, home to 12.6 percent. Monica Nilsson, director of street outreach for St. Stephen’s Human Services in Minneapolis, told MinnPost that downtown businesses will also see the effects:
“They’re always complaining about panhandling and people causing disturbances,” Nilsson said, “and I’ve been saying that if you think we have an economic development issue now, just wait until our folks can’t get their anti-psychotic meds. There will be a lot more people talking to themselves” on March 1.
While Pawlenty has said that GAMC recipients should enroll in MinnesotaCare, advocates say that’s no answer. MinnesotaCare charges both premiums and co-pays, and the people receiving GAMC have no money for either.
Meanwhile, costs for another Minnesota health care program are skyrocketing. Politics in Minnesota examines the state’s high-risk insurance pool – a nonprofit called the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association (MCHA). While enrollment is holding steady at about 28,000, costs are increasing and MCHA’s funding base is eroding.
Crunching the math scores Minnesota’s math scores remain above average for fourth and eighth graders, while national scores increased slightly for eighth graders and remained at the same level for fourth-graders, according to the national report released yesterday. Minnesota’s scores remained nearly the same as they were two years ago, with 54 percent of Minnesota fourth-graders showing proficiency.
Minnesota’s achievement gap remains large. MPR explains:
On the one hand, Minnesota’s black, Hispanic and American-Indian students all scored higher than the national average for each ethnic group….
On the other hand, Minnesota’s actual achievement gap is larger than the national average. While students of color regularly performed above the national average, so too did white students – which kept the gap large. The national achievement gap between white and black fourth-graders, for example, is 26 points. Minnesota’s gap is 28.
Wilder will cut 260 jobs The Wilder Foundation announced yesterday that it will cut 260 jobs, almost one-third of its 650-person work force, according to the Pioneer Press. The cuts come because of the recession’s impact, which slashed the value of the Wilder Foundation endowment.
Cuts will include:
• closure of residential treatment centers for troubled children and teens: Bush Memorial Children’s Center, Holcomb House and Spencer House;
• divesting from ownership of low-income housing in six buildings and ending management of low-income housing in an additional six buildings;
• closing the Home Health Agency (600 senior clients) and the Housekeeping and Homemaker service, which assists seniors.
With a $40.6 million budget in 2008, Wilder provided direct service to thousands of vulnerable people in the community; research that focused on community needs, accomplishments, and challenges; and a meeting place in its new building open to a wide variety of community events and organizations.
Wilder launched its first-ever capital campaign in 2005, opening its new headquarters at Lexington and University in 2008. The Second Century Capital Campaign came, according to Wilder’s annual report, “after 100 years of relying on funding its programs and services primarily from the Wilder family endowment established in 1906,” and was a signal that the foundation “needed support to continue its mission of serving the community’s most vulnerable citizens.”
Wilder Foundation CEO Tom Kingston was quoted in the Pioneer Press as saying that the new building does not contribute to the foundation’s current financial problems, but rather is “exactly on track with saving money,” and had actually improved cash flow.
News is going to the dogs And other animals.
• Dog flu, aka H3N8, has spread to 30 states, according to Tampa Bay Online. WCBS in New York says that there is a vaccine, but that the mortality rate is low and the usual course is a couple of weeks of “coughing, high fever and runny noses.” The flu, first spotted at a greyhound track in Florida in 2004, is not related to H1N1, and is not contagious to humans. The new dog flu was originally a horse flu that went to the dogs.
• Raising chickens in St. Paul will get cheaper, but not easier, reports the Pioneer Press. The city council lowered the permit fee from $72 to $27 but said prospective chicken owners will still need signatures from 75 percent of neighbors within 150 feet to get a permit, reports the Pioneer Press. And yes, roosters are still allowed.
• The Brits have created a fruit fly that is “sexually irresistible,” reports BBC.
• A moose “calmly hung out in a Fargo, N.D., hotel courtyard for several hours Wednesday morning, munching on grass and leaves,” before being tranquilized and taken to a wildlife refuge, reports the Star Tribune.
On a more serious note, Ron Way’s excellent report in MinnPost yesterday asked whether the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) may finally be ready to enforce the law on large dairy and feedlot operations across the state. He notes the criticism arising from “excessive timidity by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to deal with a problem that’s left several families and children sporadically inhaling “dangerous” hydrogen sulfide fumes over a two-year period,” and recites the history of MPCA delays in responding to complaints, and lax enforcement against super-sized feedlot operations.
That “history of bowing to agriculture, especially in environmental policy” should be familiar to everyone in the state by now, and there’s nothing in Way’s report to indicate that it is changing.
World/National news
Social Security – no increase this year For the first time since automatic cost-of-living increases were instituted in 1975, social security recipients will not get an increase this year. Because of the recession, inflation has flat-lined or even dipped to the negative side, so there will be no benefit adjustment.
Pakistan A series of attacks across the country today demonstrated the reach of Taliban and Al Qaeda factions and the inability of security forces to maintain zones of safety.
Teams of gunmen attacked three security sites in or near the eastern city of Lahore, reports NPR, “showing the militants are highly organized and able to carry out sophisticated, coordinated strikes against heavily fortified facilities despite stepped up security across the country.” The attacks began just after 9 a.m., and streets emptied as the city shut down.
In northwest Pakistan, a suicide car bomb exploded next to a police station in the Saddar area of Kohat, killing 11 people. Another bomb, near a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killed at least five people.
According to the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Lahore, “Thursday’s co-ordinated strikes appear to say to security forces “the more you come after us, the more we’ll go after you.”
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Schools clinging to “less bad” as good news With this fall’s enrollment figures just in, the “less bad” news in Minneapolis Public Schools is that the student count is down, but not by as much as predicted, reports the Star Tribune. After the major enrollment declines of 2003-2007 — about a thousand students each year, Minneapolis lost only 250 students last year and only 300 this year. The district had predicted a loss of 880 students this year. District officials, according to the Star Tribune, cited “a slowdown in the number of Minneapolis students leaving the district for charter schools, and a slowdown in migration out of the district by families with school-age children. Continue reading
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T-Paw’s math failure and stimulus jobs Governor Tim Pawlenty says that the 11,800 stimulus-created jobs in MN cost $135,000 each — but that’s wrong. MPR reports the explanation offered by MN Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson: Continue reading
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St. Paul school board contest heats up The teachers’ union refusal to endorse three incumbents and the revelation that Republican candidate John Krenik’s employment as a teacher in the St. Paul Public Schools was terminated last year make the school board race look a lot more interesting.
CLARIFICATION: In an email asking for a correction, John Krenik says he wasn’t fired: “After a settlement was reached I resigned/retired, I was NOT fired.”
The Star Tribune reported that Krenik “said in June 2007 that he heard from an administrator that he would be recommended for termination.” According to the Star Tribune, he accepted a $12,000 settlement last year, in return for quitting his job as a special education teacher at Murray Junior High School and promising “not seek or accept work as a teacher with [the] district at any time in the future.”
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The war at home claims another life Pamela Taschuk, a 48-year-old juvenile probation officer and social worker, died Thursday, another casualty of the war at home. According to AP, Allen Taschuk dropped their 16-year-old son off at a gas station and then went to find and klll Pamela. Then he killed himself.
Pamela Taschuk was afraid of her husband, and had gotten a no contact order to keep him away after she filed for divorce last month.
AP: Since 1995, police were called to the Taschuk home 48 times – 22 domestic-related. Allen Taschuk was arrested three times, the most recent Aug. 26.
Pamela Taschuk told police that she feared for her life. The no contact order did not protect her.
Less than a month ago, North St. Paul police officer Richard Crittenden responded to a call for help from another woman with a violent partner. Like Pamela Taschuk, she had obtained a no contact order, in which the court told her partner to stay away from her.
MPR: Stacey Terry, his wife, had filed three orders for protection against him over the past nine years.
Like Allen Taschuk, Devon Dockery violated the no contact order. When Officer Crittenden answered the call for help on September 7, Dockery shot and killed him.
In 1994, the Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). According to MS Magazine, VAWA “changed the way the judicial system handles cases of intimate partner violence and increased the availability of public resources for victims.”
Pamela Taschuk is one of more than 200 women killed in domestic violence in Minnesota since 2000. The tools we use to address domestic violence may have improved with VAWA and subsequent state legislation, but those tools are not good enough.
The Star Tribune reports that St. Paul is about to launch a new initiative, called the Blueprint to assess when higher bail should be set for defendants in domestic violence cases.
“In the really lethal cases, our arrest or prosecution of them is not a deterrent to stopping their stalking or battery. It does deter them when they’re locked up,” [Comdr Steven Frazer, head of the Family and Sexual Violence Unit at the St. Paul Police Department], said. “We’re not making an argument on whether he’s coming back to court next week. We’re making an argument on whether he’s a threat to the people he’s been in contact with that warrants some other level of review.” …
According to most recent statistics, Frazer said, 54 percent of women killed in domestic situations had told police they believed they were going to be killed.
The Blueprint might have made a difference for Pam Taschuk. Her husband was released on $5,000 bail a month before he killed her.
The Blueprint might have made a difference for Officer Richard Crittenden. Dockery had been arrested more than once on charges related to domestic violence. He was arrested on August 26 on charges of violating the order of protection.
Here’s another suggestion — use technology to enforce the no contact orders. Both parties can wear an electronic ankle bracelet, and if they come in close proximity to one another, an alarm would sound in the police station. (Hat tip to Ron Salzberger for this suggestion.) For some people, the knowledge that the police would be alerted might be a deterrent.
Of course, higher bail and stricter monitoring won’t solve all the problems. Rebecca McLane, program manager for the St. Paul Domestic Abuse Intervention Program, told the Star Tribune that a shift in society’s attitudes is needed.
Part of that, she said, would involve prioritizing. “If we could have anything in the world that we wanted, it would be more shelters, more advocates, more cops on the streets, and more close monitoring of these dangerous offenders,” said McLane, who added that the metro’s dozen battered-women’s shelters are nearly always full.
MNDOT moves the goalpost After years of failing to meet its own goal for contracting with women and minority-owned firms, the MN Department of Transportation has finally figured it out: rather than increasing hiring/contracting efforts, they will cut the goal. MPR reports:
For nearly the entire decade, companies awarded MNDOT contracts have fallen short, sometimes far short, of meeting hiring goals for women and minority subcontractors. …
A MnDOT consultant several years ago concluded contractors can attain the 15 percent goal since there are nearly 400 certified women and minority-owned construction companies. …
[Bernie Arseneau, director of the agency’s policy, safety and strategic initiatives division] said MnDOT’s goal for next year is 9 percent.
Hiring minority and women construction workers is the other half of the MNDOT challenge, and, reports MPR, “Every year for the past several years, the number of women and minority construction workers has stayed the same or declined.”
After months of protests led by the HIRE MN coalition, MNDOT has also found a way to address that problem, by hiring a consultant and agreeing to talk about the problem. For the first time, MNDOT also agreed to meet with HIRE MN representatives.
Sounds a lot like the MNDOT position back in March, as reported by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder:
“For the first time, we are bringing all of the stakeholders together:
contractors, unions, minority groups, advocates, community groups, big contractors, DBEs, women, businesses, Mn/DOT, federal highway [officials]…so that we can grow the DBEs in such a way that serves the community needs, the contractors’ needs, and ultimately the needs of the citizens of Minnesota.“We are fully and wholly committed to this transformational change,” said Arseneau.
Except that now the goalpost is lower.
Somali president visits The president of Somalia, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, visited the Twin Cities this weekend, meeting with community members, parents of Minnesota Somali youth who have gone to fight with militias, Minnesota politicians, and the Books for Africa project. On Sunday, he spoke to an overflow crowd at Northrup Auditorium. Minnesota is home to an estimated 70,000 Somalis, the largest population in the United States.
The Star Tribune reported that the president gave Somali families “assurances from Somalia’s leader that he would publicly denounce Al-Shabab.” Since Al-Shabab is the leading group fighting to overthrow his government, that seems like a safe bet. The Strib also reported that the president promised to find out who was recruiting the young men and to work for their return home.
Seifert wins GOP straw poll State Representative Marty Seifert came in first, with 37 percent of the vote, trailed by state Rep. Tom Emmer with 23 percent and former state auditor Pat Anderson (14 percent) and state Sen. David Hann (12 percent.)
About 1,200 delegates to the MN Republican convention voted in a straw poll Saturday, reports the Pioneer Press, which also cautioned that, “off-year straw polls are unreliable crystal balls” for predicting the eventual nominee.
Seifert, however, had a more optimistic assessment of the straw poll’s implications. “Republicans want to bet on a winner,” Seifert said. “They don’t want to bet on the horse heading to the glue factory.
The Pioneer Press reported that other candidates had less reason for optimism:
State Rep. Paul Kohls finished fifth with 5 percent of the vote. Trailing far behind were former state Rep. Bill Haas, Sen. Mike Jungbauer, businessman Phil Herwig and frequent candidate Leslie Davis.
Delegates also voted separately for their second choice for governor, and Hann (18 percent) came out first in that poll, followed by Emmer and Anderson.
War Reports
Afghanistan Eight U.S. troops were killed in a Taliban attack in the Nuristan province near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, reports NPR. Five or six Afghan fighters were also killed in the attack, and the Taliban fighters captured 15 Afghan police, including the chief and deputy chief.
Nearly 300 militant fighters flooded the lower, Afghan outpost then swept around it to reach the American station on higher ground from both directions, said Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, the provincial police chief. The U.S. military statement said the Americans and Afghans repelled the attack by tribal fighters and “inflicted heavy enemy casualties.”
Jamaludin Badar, governor of Nuristan province, complained about lack of security and lack of coordination between Afghan and allied forces. The U.S. forces plan to withdraw from the region.
Pakistan Five people in a U.N. food agency office were killed by a suicide bomber in an upscale area of Islamabad on Monday, according to NPR. The New York Times report on the bombing said about 80 people work in offices “equipped with video surveillance cameras, motion detectors and explosives detection devices.” The U.N. immediately ordered a temporary closure of all offices in Pakistan.
The bombing came a day after Hakimullah Mehsud, the new Taliban leader, appeared at a press conference. BBC reports:
Hakimullah Mehsud said his group would avenge the killing of former Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud by striking back at Pakistan and the US.
He said he would retaliate against recent efforts on the part of the US and Pakistani security forces to target senior Taliban figures.
Because of security fears, the press conference was attended only by five journalists who are members of Mehsud’s clan.
Iraq The government arrestred about 150 suspected Sunni militants in the Mosul area, according to BBC. The militants allegedly have ties to either al-Qaeda or the now-outlawed Baath political party formerly headed by Saddam Hussein.
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9.8% unemployment: By the numbers and beyond the numbers The national unemployment rate is up again, from 9.7 percent in August to 9.8 percent in September, with employers cutting an additional 263,000 jobs, according to the Department of Labor. Long-term unemployment numbers rose to 5.4 million, making up 35.6 percent of those who are unemployed. Although numbers tell an important part of the recession story, they can become both numbing and overwhelming. Robert Reich offers a description and explanation that go beyond the numbers, to the fear and discouragement that wear on most of us. Continue reading
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War in Afghanistan and lessons from Vietnam Should the U.S. send more troops or get out of Afghanistan or choose some other course? That’s the decision facing President Obama and his advisers in the next few weeks. General Stanley McChrystal, in a thoughtful, grim report, has said that more troops are needed, but that there is no hope of success without a major change of strategy, and that no U.S. strategy can succeed unless the Afghan government and security forces take responsibility adn win the support of their people. Continue reading
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Flu update Want a free flu shot? If you’re unemployed and uninsured, CVS pharmacies may have a free seasonal flu vaccination for you, according to the Pioneer Press. After a slow start, the Minnesota Department of Health has updated its listing of flu shot clinics. The nifty search function lets you enter your zip code and find the nearest clinics, with dates and hours listed. Continue reading
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Mary Turck