Unemployment up even more than expected national unemployment figures jumped to 8.1%, even more than expected, rising half a percent in the last month, with the economy shedding 651,000 jobs. Rates for blacks (13.4 percent) and Hispanics (10.9 percent) continue higher than the average, while the jobless rate for teen-agers continues at a whopping 21.6 percent.
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Tag Archives: environment
News Day: Unemployment / Bad news for bus riders / Nick speaks! / Pigs flying? / Viking stadium / Outrage of the day / Wonk alert / more
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News Day: Carstarphen going to Texas – and in other news: Getting rid of environmental watchdog; First Dog; Pig brains; Workers’ comp abuses–by insurers; Cartel crackdown; Smoking in cars; Around the world in 90 seconds, and more
Carstarphen going to Texas The Austin school trustees >voted unanimously to hire Meria Carstarphen as superintendent on Thursday morning, ending the suspense over her future plans.
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Obama speech hits another home run
“What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.” With that declaration, President Barack Obama delivered another ringing call to action, devoting nearly all of his February 24 address to a joint session of Congress to what the country needs to do to rebuild and recover. The 52-minute speech was interrupted 50 times by applause.
The full text of the 52-minute speech includes international policy, tax cuts and promises to cut the deficit. En Español
Declaring that the country’s agenda “begins with jobs,” Obama thanked Congress for passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which he said will save or create 3.5 million jobs, more than 90 percent in the private sector, and will give tax cuts to 95 percent of working households. He insisted on the importance of re-starting lending and promised more stringent oversight of bailouts to banks.
Turning from plans for recovery to a vision for the future, Obama said the nation has three priorities:
Energy: “[T]o truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.” that means transformation of the auto industry, as well as doubling the nation’s supply of renewable energy, and increasing energy efficiency.
Health Care: “[T]he cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”
Education: Obama called the mismatch between fast-growing occupation sectors that require education and “the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation,” a “prescription for economic decline, because we know that countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.” He called for both increased funding and reform, gave a ringing endorsement to the charter school movement, and warned that “dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American.”
President Obama held up a banker, a student, and a town as examples of hope:
• “Leonard Abess, the bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company, took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him. ”
• “Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community.”
• Ty’Sheoma Bethea, a student from a South Carolina school “where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom.” She sent a letter to Congress asking for help, writing: “We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters.”
Echoing her words, Obama said that Americans are not quitters, that “even in the most trying times, amid the most difficult circumstances, there is a generosity, a resilience, a decency, and a determination that perseveres; a willingness to take responsibility for our future and for posterity.”
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News Day 2/24/09: T-Paw ready to eat the pizza / Wind on the wires / Coleen vs. Big Bob / Mpls school desegregation, and more
T-Paw will take the money Governor Tim Pawlenty said Minnesota will take all the money it can get from the $787 billion economic stimulus plan, even though he has called it “a meandering spending buffet.” Continuing the food metaphors on Monday, , writes Kevin Diaz in the Strib, T-Paw said “For every dollar we send out … we only get 72 cents back. So, if you’re buying the pizza, it’s OK to have your slice, even if there are some anchovies on it.” Only a few of his GOP counterparts are still talking about turning down the stimulus money, reports NPR, including Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who objects that the stimulus package is “filled with social policy.”
Wind on the wires: Bigger isn’t better Wind power is great green energy, but the proposals for 130-foot transmission towers marching across MN are a bad idea. Here’s my explanation of what’s wrong with the proposed $12 billion grid, and where to look for a greener solution.
Burris blowing it Illinois Senator Roland Burris has failed to mount an effective PR defense, according to Politico, after new allegations about his involvement with disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Both an Illinois prosecutor’s office and the Senate Ethics Committee are now investigating charges that Burris failed to disclose conversations with Blagojevich’s brother about raising money for the governor, when he testified under oath in impeachment proceedings. Burris admitted the conversations in a February 5 affidavit, and then, on February 16, admitted that “he actually tried to raise money for the governor at the same time he was expressing interest in the Senate seat.”
Ditching desegregation Minneapolis wants out of the Twin Cities’ desegregation district, writes Norman Draper in the Strib. the West Metro Education Program began in 1989, with Minneapolis and 10 suburban districts planning to promote racial integration and narrow the achievement gap. WMEP has two magnet schools: the Interdistrict Downtown School in Minneapolis and the Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Resource school in Crystal. Minneapolis superintendent Bill Green said the schools have had little impact on the achievement gap and have done little to change racial disparities between Minneapolis and the suburbs. The Minneapolis school board is scheduled to vote on the proposal March 10.
RNC back to court As the RNC8 defendants go back to court this week, with motion hearings before a new judge, FBI whistle-blower-turned-activist Coleen Rowley is set to file notices of claim against Sheriff Bob Fletcher, Ramsey County and the State of MN, reports Chris Steller in MN Independent. The complaints focus on “aggressive ‘police state’ action during the RNC ,” and on Big Bob’s refusal to comply with requests for information since then. Rowley knows her way around a Freedom of Information Act request. While she’s fililng them now, it was her job to respond to FOIA requests as an FBI agent in the 1980s.
Fast trains on fast track High speed rail gets $8 billion under the economic stimulus package, reports Brian Naylor at NPR, and MN may be among the beneficiaries. While California is ready to roll with bonding already approved, the Minneapolis-Chicago corridor is one of the half-dozen priority corridors identified by Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood.
Scholarship aid for state budget? The fed stimulus bill includes more money for Pell Grant scholarships, raising the max from $4731 to $5500 in 2010-2011. Because MN state grants and Pell grants are tied together, that won’t mean more money for low-income MN students, reports Jenna Ross in the Strib. Instead, it will mean the state grant fund will save money as the fed funds make up a larger part of the MN grant package. Unless the legislature changes the grant formula, the MN treasury, rather than low-income students, will benefit by $60 million from the increase in fed scholarship money.
MN Job Watch With MN unemployment claims up more than 60% in January 2009, compared to January 2008, WorkForce Center employees are seeing the psychological impact on people who have worked all their lives and now face unemployment and no job prospects, reports Lisa Peterson in the Daily Planet. While 80 percent of MN unemployment claims are made on-line, that doesn’t work smoothly for everyone:
Applying online can be tricky, though, especially for those who may not have the tools to navigate the system. For example, one question refers to whether an applicant was “Laid Off,” “Terminated,” or “Discharged,” which frequently confuses applicants, especially those with limited language proficiency. Simple errors can delay benefits for days if not weeks.
In Plymouth, a four-month lockout by the Progress Casting Group’s foundry continues, with no end in sight, reports Larry Sillanpa for Workday MN.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who have worked there for 30 years or more, one’s been there for 47 years,” said Hill, who has been Shop Chairman for 10 years. “45 percent of the workers have 10 or more years.”
Now all 200 of the AFL-CIO-affiliated members are out of work as scab replacement workers do their jobs.
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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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News Day – February 2: Health at risk, MN not-so-nice for minorities, Punxsatawney Phil and more
Health at risk No, not salmonella this time — the bigger health risk comes from lack of money. Kathlyn Stone, writing in the TC Daily Planet, tells the story of Jean Bender, who “is worried about the next round of Health and Human Services cuts that will make it harder to afford the care needed by her developmentally and physically disabled child.” Chen May Lee reports in the Star Tribune that more than a thousand local health care employees have been laid off since last year, and big construction projects have been postponed as the recession means people just can’t pay for health care.
“In the past, people were delaying vacations or new automobile [purchases],” said Steve Hine, director of labor market information at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. “This time around, they’re even cutting back on their health care.”
Meanwhile, the Daily Planet reports on the debate in the legislature over single-payer health care reform.
Minnesota not-so-nice “Economically, Minnesotans are blessed with a Lake Wobegon, above-average life. As long as they’re white,” writes Richard Chin in the PiPress. In appalling and statistically-backed detail, he goes on to describe a state where whites are better off than the rest of the nation as measured by income, unemployment and poverty levels, and black Minnesotans are worse off, and where the gaps between white and black Minnesotans continue to grow. Read the whole article for an alarming wake-up call.
Punxsutawney Phil: ONLY six more weeks of winter! I’ve never understood why the groundhog seeing his shadow was so bad. Here in the northland, ending winter on St. Patrick’s Day, instead of suffering through another round of March blizzards, sounds pretty good.
DTV or no TV? If the scheduled switchover to all-DTV goes ahead as planned on February 17, more than six million U.S. households will see nothing but snow on their screens, according to the latest Nielsen figures. After Senate voted unanimously to delay DTV until June, the House voted down the delay, but now is scheduled to take a second look later this week. Funds for the $40 coupon to apply toward the cost of a digital converter box ran out weeks ago. (And then there’s the whole problem of antennas and of which wall in which room of your home a converter box/antenna set-up must be situated in order to work.) Martin Moylan reports on MPR that MN broadcasters are split on whether the delay is needed, and that some think it will cost them up to a thousand dollars a day to delay the switch.
Nullifying the amendment Conservation and arts advocates succeeded in getting the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment passed to guarantee additional funding, because, they told voters, the legislature and governor couldn’t be counted on to maintain commitments to the outdoors, clean water, parks and arts projects. Now, reports Dennis Lien at MPR, they charge that Gov.Tim Pawlenty is about to slash arts adn conservation funding so that the amendment, instead of bringing new funding, will substitute for traditional funding sources. They point to a 50 percent cut for the State Arts Board and regional arts councils, a $1.9 million cut from MPCA clean water funds and $1.3 million from the DNR division of waters, along with a $5.5 million cut from the DNR’s fish and wildlife division. In the Strib, Doug Smith writes that DNR Fish and Wildlife funds will be cut, losing all of the $2.8 million general fund dollars previously allocated. That leaves the division funded “almost entirely” by hunting and fishing license fees, reducing funds for research on fish and wildlife populations and habitat, land and water habitat management, environmental review, shoreline restoration funds, and conservation officers.
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News Day – January 23
Cut the trees and plow under the wetlands? And this time, writes Dennis Lien in the PiPress, it’s MN House DFLers who are ready to trash the environment in order to avoid changes to the flawed “Green Acres” program. Here’s a (relatively) simple explanation.
Part One: Property taxes are levied based on land value. Farmland costs less and is taxed at a lower rate than higher-priced commercial, industrial and residential property. Near urban areas, developers and speculators are willing to pay more for farmland, driving up its value and tax burden. Farmers can’t afford to pay the higher prices, and so are driven to sell, increasing urban sprawl.
Part Two: Forty years ago, the “Green Acres” law said that farmers could pay taxes based on farmland value, rather than development value, so long as they were farming the land. Most non-industrial farms, like the one I grew up on, contain a mix of land, including woods and wetlands as well as corn and soybean fields. And then, Lien writes:
Declaring that only productive farmland qualifies for the tax break, lawmakers stripped wetlands, woods and other areas from the program. Afterward, some farmers faced with large tax increases began doing things such as bulldozing their trees to make sure they could remain part of the program.
Session Daily reports that on 1/22, House Republicans tried to suspend the rules and rush through a repeal of last year’s changes without going through hearings. DFLers refused, saying they have several bills in committee, and will hold hearings, beginning next week.
Go, Robyne! In media news, Fox9 news anchor Robyne Robinson launches “Community Commitment,” a 30-minute quarterly public affairs program, on Saturday. The show will debut at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on KMSP and re-run at 11:30 a.m. Sunday WFTC, according to the PiPress. Strangely, there’s no mention of the show on the Fox Twin Cities website, and even a search doesn’t turn up a mention of the show. It is listed in the 8:30 a.m. time slot, but without any description. Not quite the way to promote your star, folks!
And in DC The economic stimulus package stumbles through Congress, and probably won’t reach President Obama’s desk until mid-February, as Republicans and Democrats debate the amount of money to put in it and how much of that money should go to tax cuts rather than jobs programs or other direct government spending. In MinnPost, Steve Berg says MNDOT “is busy figuring out how best to spend the gusher of cash soon expected from the Obama administration’s recovery plan.”
The International Herald Tribune reports that President Obama took action Wednesday on the Iraq front, quoting a presidential statement that said, in part, “I asked the military leadership to engage in additional planning necessary to execute a responsible military drawdown from Iraq.”
BusinessGreen.com reported on the environmental front, “In a traditional game of political whack-a-mole, the Obama White House has moved quickly to freeze all pending regulations proposed by the former president’s administration, including president Bush’s attempts to roll back large swathes of environmental legislation.” The Bush administration finalized 157 “midnight regulations” in its final quarter, and either lengthy and onerous reverse rule-making procedures or Congressional action will be necessary to roll back any of these regs, which include controversial environmental deregulation as well as restrictions on women’s rights to medical care.
In other early moves, the NYT details President Obama’s moves to open up information flows from the White House, freeze staff salaries, and strengthen ethics rules.
What’s going on in DR Congo? There may not be much MN connection with the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I want to understand what is happening there, so I read and write about it. This blog noted a few days ago that the Lord’s Resistance Army has massacred hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The LRA is active in the northeast region of Congo, but that is only one front in Congo’s wars. Today’s major developments come in the southeast, where Rwandan and Congolese troops fight Hutu and Tutsi rebels.
BBC explains that the Congolese Tutsi rebel CNDP (National Congress for the Defence of the People), which declared a ceasefire last week, has long insisted that the Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), are targeting Congolese Tutsis. However, the CNDP itself stands accused by the United Nations of massacres and abuses under the leadership of “megalomaniacal” General Laurent Nkunda. The conflict and the militias spilled over from neighboring Rwanda after the 1994 genocide in which Rwandan Hutus slaughtered more than 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis. The Rwandan government has been accused of supporting Nkunda’s forces.
Last week the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) last week declared a ceasefire in its long-standing war with Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). Some CNDP members rejected Nkunda’s leadership and left his command.
Today, the NYT reports, Rwandan and Congo troops worked together to capture Nkunda. Rwandan troops were sent into Congo to pursue Nkunda, though he, like Rwanda’s government, is Tutsi. The NYT explains:
“Rwanda and Congo have cut a deal,” said John Prendergast, a founder of the Washington-based Enough Project, which campaigns against genocide. He said Congo had allowed Rwanda to send in troops to vanquish the Hutu militants, something Rwanda has been eager to do for some time.
“In exchange, the Congolese expected Rwanda to neutralize Nkunda and his overly ambitious agenda,” Mr. Prendergast said. “Now the hard part begins.”
Now, says BBC, the “next step is for the joint Congolese-Rwandan force to tackle the FDLR Hutu rebels,” some of whom were involved in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Signs of hope NWAF’s Horizons project is sowing hope in small towns such as Evansville, Hoffman and New York Mills, reports Echo Press in Alexandria:
Always on the lookout for ways to help her town, Muriel Krusemark, Hoffman’s economic development authority coordinator, said she and several other local residents decided to apply for Horizons after hearing about the positive impact it had on nearby New York Mills, a past program participant. …
New businesses are opening up in town, she said, and the city recently finished a Main Street Galleria with space for 23 local retailers. …
Krusemark said Hoffman residents also have plans for a community garden, a computer and communication center and a mentorship program for local youth, as well as other projects.
“If we accomplish half the things we have on our list, it will be a way better community to live in,” she said. “With the people we have on these committees, I can’t believe we won’t accomplish at least half these things.”
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Still paving paradise
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
(Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell)
And they’re still at it, almost 40 years after Joni Mitchell first wrote the song. The Bush administration is poised to give the go-ahead to paving roads that will target mountain forests in Montana, facilitating development of far-flung housing subdivisions. The change would directly benefit Plum Creek Timber, which owns some eight million acres overall and 1.2 million acres in western Montana.
The change would let Plum Creek pave old logging roads. That would open its land to building vacation homes for the wealthy. The scattered sites make provision of county services more expensive.
[Costs include] the costs of firefighting in the wildland-urban interface (already, about a quarter of the Forest Service’s $4 billion annual budget is spent on defending homes from wildfires), the costs of road maintenance and stresses on other public services, and the effects on wildlife habitat in remote woodlands bordering public lands.
You might think that a conservative national administration would uphold local control. Not so. Corporate control trumps local control every time.
The Forest Service and Plum Creek tried to sneak by the change without consultation with local officials, but word leaked out in April, and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) joined Missoula County and Flathead County officials in challenging the plans.
According to the Washington Post, there’s no 30-day waiting period for this change, because it is a modification of existing easements. That means the Forest Service could act at any time, with no legal requirement for consultation or comment. If Plum Creek, “the nation’s largest landholder,” prevails, the change will come before January 20. President-elect Obama spoke out against the change in Montana during the campaign.
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Mary Turck