What now, Norm? Politics in Minnesota has gotten several answers to that question over the past few days. First, on June 4, came a report from Roll Call that Norm was willing to bow out if the MN Supreme Court rules against him. PIM thought that sounded unlikely, and, within hours, posted:
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Tag Archives: St. Paul
News Day: What now, Norm? / Death in Somalia: Looking for answers / Carstarphen: Go slower / Wind industry layoffs / more
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News Day: All T-Paw, all the time / Vampire pleads guilty / Trees coming down / Recession-proof industry / more
T-Paw signing off – in 2010 As Governor Pawlenty announced that he would not run for a third term as governor in 2010, it seemed that no other news could compete. Here’s the breakdown from Eric Black, who came away from the press conference with the message that “Tim Pawlenty loves God, his wife and kids, the troops and Minnesotans”, as well as the news that House Minority Leader Marty Seifert will run for guv, the PiPress gives a straightforward report,PIM looks at Pawlenty as a Big Mac, with “Secret sauce, secret seasonings. Same thing. Extraordinary tastes for extraordinary times,” but also provides a fact check on T-Paw’s claims of success, MinnPost on possible GOP gubernatorial candidates, and the Strib.
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News Day: Fletcher and the Force / Governor No / Single-payer health insurance, more
Fletcher and the Force “Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher repeatedly tried to prevent a state investigation into the financial operations of the Metro Gang Strike Force, over which his office has fiscal oversight, according to officials directly involved in the state probe that led to the sudden shutdown last week of the unit’s activities,” reports the Star Tribune. The article also says Fletcher blamed his friend Ron Ryan for mishandling cash, denied that his office had oversight responsibility, and engaged in “shouting matches” with Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion, objecting to the state audit.
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News Day: Unemployment up to 8.9 percent / T-Paw starts the veto engine / World and national headlines
Unemployment up again The unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent in April, as the economy shed another 539,000 jobs. Looking for the bright side – that’s the smallest number of jobs cut since October. But it’s pretty hard to see much of a bright side in the highest unemployment rate in more than 25 years.
The Department of Labor also notes:
About 2.1 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached to the labor force in April, 675,000 more than a year earlier. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
and:
In April, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.9 million; however, the number of such workers has risen by 3.7 million over the past 12 months.
And the Daily Kos takes on the concept of “natural” unemployment, in a readable and important analysis of employment/unemployment in “what has just became the longest running downturn since the Great Depression, [and] probable long-term effects of this crash.”
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News Day: Fong Lee update / Mpls school surprise / Housing renewal by bulldozer / more
Judge: Yes, no and maybe on Fong Lee case A federal judge dropped some counts of the Fong Lee family lawsuit, allowed others to continue, and a federal magistrate directed attorneys to apply first in state court for grand jury records, before making the request in federal court. The PiPress reports that Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that “while the allegations leveled against the Minneapolis Police Department in the 2006 shooting death of Fong Lee were serious, there was no evidence the death was the result of department policies or customs.” The judge made a partial summary judgment in favor of the City of Minneapolis and also a summary judgment in favor of police officer Mark Anderson on the claim that his actions caused “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” The city is not off the hook — it still has to defend Anderson and is liable for his actions, and for any cover-up.
Under a legal precedent established in a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case, the plaintiffs had to show that the city’s official policies and procedures — as well as unofficial customs — were unconstitutional and caused the death of Fong Lee….
Magnuson wrote that the evidence produced by both sides didn’t support the contention that the city was liable under the precedent. He said the plaintiffs had to show “not only that the city acted deliberately and improperly through an official policy or custom, but also that the city’s policy or custom caused Andersen to shoot Lee.”
The case is set for trial on May 18, and a settlement conference is scheduled for May 11.
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News Day: St. Paul school closings, superintendent double-dipping? / House going to the dogs / On Xcel pond / War dispatches / more
St. Paul school closings Roosevelt, on the city’s West Side; Longfellow, near Merriam Park; and Sheridan, on the East Side would close under a new SPPS plan, reports the PiPress. The Sheridan building could be repurposed for other programs, but the other two buildings would be shuttered. Like Minneapolis, St. Paul plans to revise school missions and decrease busing, moving more children into community schools. The proposal is scheduled for a school board vote in June, and two public meetings will be held May 12 at Central High School and May 28 at Harding High School.
Double dipping for Carstarphen? Although Meria Carstarphen is still St. Paul Schools Superintendent – and on the payroll – she has already been paid $16,000 for 16 days of work in Austin, plus another $1,500 for travel, reports MPR. She’s getting $1,000 a day as a consulting fee for days worked in Austin, but will continue on St. Paul’s payroll until the end of this school year. Continue reading
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News Day: Gangs in the ‘burbs? / Bedbugs to Borers / Peeling back The Onion / Raiding health care fund / more
Gangs in the ‘burbs? Right on cue, as criticism of the Gang Strike Force mounts and grumbles about withdrawing from the multi-jurisdictional mess are reported, comes a Strib article about the gang threat in the suburbs. Continue reading
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News Day: TX: “Take this country and shove it” / Cadotte is back / Carstarphen critics / No handshakes in church / Who’s buying now? / more
Take this country and shove it The San Antonio Current cheerfully reports on the latest political posturing out of Texas, including talk of secession, from current Gov. Rick Perry to Larry Kilgore, a Republican candidate for governor in 2010:
Kilgore argues that the military challenge can be easily sorted out. “After the people of Texas have the opportunity to vote for independence, and our congressmen go up there and work with Washington, we will have to negotiate who gets what ships, who gets what aircraft, who gets what bases, who gets what personnel,” he says. “For example, the United States is not going to want folks in their military who are diehard Texans. Texans aren’t going to want folks in their military who are diehard United States people.”
He has a point. We all know those “United States people” have shifty eyes and can’t be trusted.
Then there’s the proposal to split Texas into five states, each of which with its own two U.S. senators, which would immediately erase the Democratic majority in Congress. The San Antonio Current explains:
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News Day: Contract or furlough? / Crippling health care / Taking away the children / Comic relief, more
Contract or furloughs or both? State workers who are members of AFSCME and MAPE “won’t be required to take unpaid furloughs under a tentative two-year contract reached Wednesday with the state, according to the unions,” reports the Strib. That was the first read on the contract agreement, and seemed to be good news, since T-Paw had been threatening/demanding 48 unpaid furlough days over the next two years, which works out to a little more than five weeks per year.
But wait — T-Paw’s spokesperson, Brian McClung, jumped in to say the contract makes no guarantees and state government retains its “existing ability to furlough employees if necessary.”
Crippling health care in MN The PiPress details testimony by health care leaders that describes the crippling impact of T-Paw’s plan to remove as many as 93,000 Minnesotans from state-subsidized health programs. Twin Cities health care providers have cut more than 1,500 jobs since last fall, as uncompensated care in the sate rose to an estimated $601 million in 2008. Hospitals said the influx of uninsured patients would mean massive losses and would require cuts in services:
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News Day: Subsidizing corn for a sacred cow / The professor is a man / MN Job Watch / Around the world in 90 seconds, more
Subsidizing corn for a sacred cow A 107-page report (PDF) from the state legislative auditor’s office says the state should stop subsidizing ethanol and questions the potential for increased environmental benefit from increasing production of corn-based ethanol.
The recommendation to end public subsidies for ethanol producers is based on strictly economic analysis that shows increased profitability for ethanol producers has eliminated the justification for subsidies. The state program, begun in 1987, is a producer payment program. The Job Opportunity Building Zones (JOBZ) program has also provided subsidies for recently-built ethanol and biodiesel facilities. According to the report, “the producer payment program has paid $93 million over the last five years to companies that have earned profits of $619 million” during the past five years, and “about $44 million is scheduled to be spent on the producer payment program from fiscal year 2010 through 2012.” The report recommends ending the subsidy and “redirecting the funds to programs designed to further reduce fossil fuel energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.” That, of course, is not going to happen because the ethanol industry has a lock on legislative support, as well as the support of the governor.
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Mary Turck