Minneapolis / St. Paul News Blog

​It's that time again to run down the most popular posts on Citypages.com. Nearly all of week's story topics have one thing in common: bad behavior. 

Photo by jcuthrell

​Left-leaning denizens of the Internet converged in St. Paul and online for Netroots Minnesota this weekend to figure out how they can win elections and influence political debate. 

​Adam Bauer learned there's a whole new meaning for the term "social networking" recently, after the 19-year-old was ticketed for underage drinking based on pictures he posted to his Facebook page.

The University of Wisconsin student told the La Crosse Tribune that local police invited him down to headquarters recently and presented him with the photos -- and the ticket. He pleaded no contest in municipal court on Wednesday and was fined $227. He was one of eight students tracked and tagged by local police using Facebook.

​The National Institute of Family and the Media, a Minneapolis-based collection of busybodies obsessed with video game violence, has decided to shut its doors. The group's founder, psychologist David Walsh, said the decision was made in light of "the current challenging economic environment." 

Founded in 1996, the institute took an adversarial approach to the video game industry, pushing for more stringent regulations on the sale of video games to minors from the get-go. The group handed out annual "report cards," invariably piss-poor, assessing Entertainment Software Rating Board's governing of the industry.

 

​Packer backers fighting the war in Iraq have an extra load of grief to endure these days: Detainees mocking them for their team losing quarterback Brett Favre to the Minnesota Vikings.

Tim Boehnen, a first lieutenant with the Wisconsin National Guard,  tells radio station WTMJ that captives being held at their camp know Favre by name: "They'll constantly talk about 'Favre shenanigans,' 'He's so good for the Vikings,' and 'The Packers have got to really feel bad about that one.'"

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Today on Citypages.com's 'In The Stream' with T.D. Mischke:

• This photo represents so much to me. There are layers of meaning in it. Why is it in the news today? What isn't being said about it?
• This video is disturbing on many levels. Why am I posting it? It relates to today's program.

 All of this and more, "In the Stream," today.

Tune in from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., and feel free to leave comments about today's show below. Call and talk to Mischke live on the air: (651) 330-4091

Comments WILL be posted within minutes -- please do not hit the 'Post' button more than once. If you are having trouble, send us an email.

Check out the previous shows in the archives or subscribe to the iTunes podcast. If you are having problems downloading the show via iTunes, please try using a browser other than Internet Explorer.

Mulad via Flickr.com

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Minnesota Daily reporter Robert Downs masochistically decided to spend 19 hours traveling on the Metro Transit system, recording what he saw. For the most part, what he saw were depressing scenes and snippets, like the bus-stop fistfight that opens the piece and a conversation with a Wal-Mart greeter. Here's my favorite passage, during a conversation with a fellow named Robert Olson; the pathos rolls off it in waves.

​They've gobbled chocolate-covered bacon at the Minnesota State Fair. They've enjoyed the fruits of Summit Brewing's labors. Now they've watched women go to the bathroom -- standing up. There's never a dull moment for the members of Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The organization sponsors monthly meetings for social media geeks and fans at different venues around the Twin Cities. They usually give their host site some props, and then they hear from a local speaker or sponsor promoting a product. This month they gathered at Imation's headquarters. And they heard from Minnetonka-based Go Girl, which makes a cute little pink thing that looks like a funnel that allows women to pee standing up.

Breakfast tweeters had to chuckle.

​This morning, MinnPost published the second installment of a softball doubleheader with conservative scold Katherine Kersten.

An ostensibly non-partisan website that publishes mostly liberal writers, it appears MinnPost is wearing the Kersten interview as a fig leaf of sorts.

The only problem is that MinnPost is dependent on readers for donations, and in comments below the Kersten interview, it was clear the audience felt outraged and betrayed over a puff piece on their most ardent adversary.

MinnPost's managing editor, Roger Buoen, defended his editorial decision on Friday to publish the two-part interview, in which author Michael J. Bonafield offered questions but never challenges Kersten's assertions on everything from gay marriage to taxes to Trotsky-loving liberals.