Minneapolis / St. Paul News Blog

Pity poor Jonathon Sharkey, the vampire politico forced to live in a world where two staples of the bloodsucker's craft--escape and stalking--happen to violate the laws of the daylight-dwellers. Sharkey was arrested in Princeton yesterday on two Indiana felony warrants that turned up after a police dispatcher saw Sharkey's name in the news.

Read the AP story.

Read Blotter's "Intervyew with the Vampyre."

The Pioneer Press and Checks & Balances both had stories yesterday reporting the departure of state Rep. John Lesch on a two-week backpacking trip to Iraq and Syria. But what exactly the St. Paul legislator hopes to accomplish on this journey remains somewhat murky.

"While it is true that most folks would choose more stable settings for their vacation, I believe the Iraq war is the seminal conflict for our age," Lesch wrote in announcing his departure. "What happens there today will affect many generations of Americans and Iraqis, and I seek to learn as much as possible in a short amount of time."

As both articles noted, Lesch's mission sounds a wee bit like that of Farris Hassan, the 16-year-old Florida rich kid who traveled to Iraq by himself and turned up at the Associated Press office inside the Green Zone.

Whatever Lesch's motives, you can follow his progress on his blog, Down the Rabbit Hole.

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Karl Pearson-Cater wants to know what's on your iTunes Smart Playlist at Culture To Go.

Steve Monaco presents another edition if "My Movie Year (So Far)" at Couch Pundit.

An e-mail from Bruce Innes has Jack Sparks musing on Hunter S. Thompson and buying apes at the Other Side of Country.

Jim Walsh has the latest edition of his must-have Top 20 at the Walsh Files.

THESE DAYS

Coretta Scott King RIP

Larry Batson RIP

A printer that spits out ultra-fine droplets of cells instead of ink has been used to print live brain cells without causing them any apparent harm. The technique could open up the possibility of building replacement tissue cell by cell, giving doctors complete control over the tissue they graft.

Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, is now drinking his own pee to promote his portable water filter.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Jason Motylinski blogs about A Million Little Pieces, local homophobic radio, his illin' pup, and taxes at Computer Jargon.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Demonic Tots and Deeply Disturbing Cuisine [via Boing Boing]

Whittling as a Hobby

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"This is the dark side of the reality of war. ...People don't want to know the Marlboro Man has PTSD."

-- Jessica Miller, wife of ex-Marine James Blake Miller, the famed "Marlboro Man" from a 2004 Fallujah photo, in a riveting SF Chronicle article

"If I had to pick right now and make a decision, I would say I'm not coming back."

-- Green Bay Packers Quarterback Brett Favre, interviewed on ESPN

Anyone who has spent much time in Minneapolis knows that the city government can be mighty picky in matters of zoning. Commercial, industrial and residential uses are generally quarentined from one another, as if any intermingling might result in an outbreak of bubonic plague, Ebola or, worst of all, a downward spiral in property values. That's why when you travel through certain residential districts in south Minneapolis, you can cover block after block without encountering a single bar, restaurant or other commercial entity. In this regard, Minneapolis resembles the suburbs it so often seems stuck on emulating: we live under the tyranny of the homeowners.

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Steve Monaco has your Monday Movie Quiz at Couch Pundit.

Factotum, the Matt Dillon film based on Charles Bukowski's second novel and filmed in Minneapolis, has found a distributor at Sundance. More info at Culture to Go.

THESE DAYS

Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO), a co-sponsor of the 2005 Marriage Protection Amendment, has confirmed that Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN) will attempt to bring the anti-gay legislation to the floor this year for a full vote.

The amount of money spent on pork barrel projects -- special state or local projects tacked onto federal legislation -- has almost tripled over the past 10 years, according to figures from the Congressional Research Service.

After 25 years and 1,500 versions of print ads built around the shape of its bottle, Absolut vodka is shelving the campaign that made it famous.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Mamluke is a Minneapolitan in the local GLBT chorus. He blogs about working at the U, rehearsals, and his friend grouchbutt at Late Late Antiquity.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Which sports car are you? I'm a Mazda. Jeez.

The Brian Peppers Song

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I genuinely care about people and life in general."

-- "Will & Grace" co-star Megan Mullally, touting her upcoming daytime talk show "The Megan Mullally Show" at the NATPE TV sales convention

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee. That's just a joke, for you in the media."

-- Political pundit Ann Coulter, taking a page from Pat Robertson's playbook

Two years ago, while researching an article about Wal-Mart's presence in the Twin Cities, I read pretty much every substantive piece that had been written about the retailing behemoth in the previous year. By far the most revealing article was in Fast Company magazine by Charles Fishman. The piece peeked behind the curtains of Wal-Mart's operations, and scrutinized its seismic impact on the world economy, in a way that no previous journalist had managed. Fishman has now expanded his reporting into a book, The Wal-Mart Effect, published earlier this month by Penguin Press.

Fishman catalogues the impact and enormity of Wal-Mart in ways that are often astounding. For instance, he points out that more than half of all Americans now live within five miles of a Wal-Mart, with roughly one outlet for every 78,000 residents. Between 1997 and 2004, the country added 670,000 new retail jobs. More than two thirds of those jobs (some 480,000) were at Wal-Mart. The company is now the largest employer in Mexico, the largest retailer in Canada, and the second largest grocer in England.

Up until September 2004, I lived across the street from where Victor Garma lived. That's why when news broke earlier this week of his murder in a botched robbery in his townhome, I couldn't help but feel a little shaken.

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Join in the Szczerbiak trade discussion at Balls!

Meet Ernie, the newest occupant of the Pussy Ranch.

THESE DAYS

The ACLU of Georgia released copies of government files that illustrate the extent to which the FBI, the DeKalb County Division of Homeland Security and other government agencies have gone to compile information on Georgians suspected of being threats simply for expressing controversial opinions, including vegans picketing against meat eating.

Happy 250, Amadeus! It's all Mozart all day on Minnesota Public Radio.

A BBC survey into Brits' views on evolution has found that while 48 percent of people opted for evolution as that which "best described their view of the origin and development of life," 22 percent opted for creationism and 17 percent for intelligent design.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

The folks at McHale Must Go appear to have a few points of contention with the Minnesota Timberwolves current vice president of basketball operations.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Stuff you shouldn't put in your microwave

Another episode of Cedric & Gerard

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what's at stake. They're willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country. What I'm asking all of you tonight is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country?"

-- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), calling Americans to serve

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Paging Dr. Freud, Dr. Freud to the Pussy Ranch stat.

THESE DAYS

Defense, engineering and construction services contractor Halliburton Co. said its KBR subsidiary received a five-year, $385 million contract from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department for establishing temporary detention, processing and deportation facilities.

West Virginia, which has one of the nation's worst obesity problems, is expanding a project that uses a video game to boost students' physical activity.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Wall Street Journal reporters read Elana Centor's business culture blog, Funny Business. Shouldn't you?

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Fill out the Holmes-Rahe Scale to gauge the stress in your life. Over 300 is trouble. [via Tild]

Create your own Simpson character with the Simpsonmaker! Yours truly has been fashioned here.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I don't think he's conservative, pure and simple."

-- Political pundit Rush Limbaugh, on why he doesn't support the presidential aspirations of Sen. John McCain. Limbaugh is quoted in The Desert Sun as "liking" Sen. George Allen (R-VA)

On November 30th, at approximately 5:40 p.m., police officers were summoned to investigate a robbery at the Blink Bonnie sandwich shop on E. 7th Street in downtown St. Paul. The clerk told responding officers that a black male wearing a camouflage jacket with black sleeves and a black stocking cap had just robbed the place. According to court records, the perpetrator stated that he had a gun and demanded all the money from the register. He made off with less than $100.

Roughly seven weeks later, on January 18th, the sandwich shop was robbed again. The details were almost identical. At approximately 5:40 p.m., a black male wearing a camouflage jacket with black sleeves entered the store claiming to have a gun and escaped with under $100.

The incomes of the poorest fifth and the middle fifth of Minnesota families have grown about half as much as the wealthiest fifth since the early 1980s, according to a recent study by the Minnesota Budget Project, a branch of the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits. The average incomes of the poorest fifth grew 47%, or $7,171, since the early 1980s, after adjustments for inflation. For the middle fifth, the rise was 49%, or an inflation-adjusted $18,847. Compare that to the 85% bump enjoyed by the richest fifth, amounting to an inflation-factored $60,449.

One reason for this disparity is the recent emphasis on business profits over labor wages in apportioning corporate income. According to the MBP study, an average of 21% of corporate income growth went to corporate profits, versus 79% to compensate workers, over the past eight business cycles. But in the current business cycle, 85% of the income growth has gone to corporate profits and just 15% to workers.

Laurie Fiori Hacking is leaving the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System at the end of February to oversee the teachers' pension program in Minnesota. Hacking was executive director of Minnesota's public employees fund from 1991 to 1996. The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System is that state's largest public pension fund, covering 370,000 workers, 315,000 former public employees who still have retirement accounts, and 150,000 retirees. The fund has assests of $68.6 billion, from $56.6 billion when Hacking became the executive director in 2000.

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Britt Robson breaks down Timberwolves games at Balls!

THESE DAYS

"Reservoir Dogs" actor Chris Penn, younger brother of Oscar-winner Sean Penn, was found dead on Tuesday at an apartment near the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica.

Church and state collided in the Nebraska Capitol yesterday when the opening prayer in the Unicameral asked forgiveness for abortions and the teaching of evolution.

Only about one-third of New Orleans' half-million residents have returned since Katrina struck, leaving its famed restaurants understaffed.

"Brokeback Mountain," the gay cowboy movie that recently won four Golden Globe Awards, will not play in any U.S. military theaters in Europe due to lack of copies.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Darrell Schulte blogs about the Vikings, high school hockey, and his three-year-old's potty concerns at Schulte in Minnesota.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

What happens when you add a bottle of butane to a campfire?

The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"The same brutal cold fronts that stopped Napoleon and Hitler's armies in their tracks resulted in some comical stories."

-- Meteorologist Paul Douglas, setting up a few humorous anecdotes about the frigid Moscow temperatures and its affect on zoo animals in yesterday's Strib

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Britt Robson breaks down Sunday night's Timberwolves game at Balls!

Steve Monaco has last week's movie quiz winners at Couch Pundit.

Diablo Cody's got roller derby fever at Pussy Ranch.

THESE DAYS

The old switcheroo: High-level executives at Sirius Satellite Radio are developing an internal standards-and-practices document that will set boundaries for Howard Stern and their other shock jocks.

For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Rasta hats and enormous scarves are just a few of the crocheted works on display at Burnsville resident Pam Gillette's Knotty Generation.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The finalists have been chosen for the Sixth Annual Weblog Awards. Click here to vote for your favorites.

David Byrne's blog

The latest adventure of the Keyboard Kommandos

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"It was silly fun. I can't believe he was upset."

-- Beaver Area Senior High School (PA) teacher John Kelly, who forced 17-year-old student Joshua Vannoy to sit on the floor to take a test in his ethnicity class for wearing a Denver Broncos jersey prior to the AFC championship game

"He looks like I just poured ice water down his undies"

One of the (sometimes) nice things about living in the Twin Cities is how aw-shucks small town it really is. Case in point is this recent run-in citizen Jeff Johnson had with Norman Coleman, junior U.S. Senator from the great state of Minnesota (Johnson assures blotter it is absoluely 100 percent true):

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Britt Robson breaks down last night's Timberwolves game at Balls!

Steve Monaco has the Monday Movie Quiz at Couch Pundit.

THESE DAYS

Water supplied to a U.S. base in Iraq was contaminated and the contractor in charge, Halliburton, failed to tell troops and civilians at the facility.

After 82-year-old caricaturist Bill "Weg" Green's home was broken into, a quick (and goofy) sketch of the perpetrator was scribbled by Green and used to apprehend the suspect.

Ken Ortmann, an alderman who owns a Missouri tavern wants to lower the penalties for public urination before the Feb. 25 Mardi Gras Parade.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

St. Paulite Matthew Wolff has a striking profile as well as dissertations on "Project Runway," the End Times, and the Iraq War at Atheist Seeker.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Top ten reasons why nobody reads your blog

Bert gives us the finger.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"If you're not involved in suspicious activities or infidelity, and you are not trying to hide from someone because of debt, or involved in a criminal activity, there really is no reason to be concerned about your call records."

-- a statment from bestpeoplesearch.com, regarding the selling of cell phone records [via AmericaBlog]

"Now we're going to say you can't have a meal for more than 20 bucks. Where are you going, to McDonald's?"

-- Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), on proposed ethics reforms in Washington

Today's Wall Street Journal has the inside dope on impending layoffs and plant closings at Ford. Reporter Jeffrey McCracken writes that the automaker will ultimately shed some 30,000 jobs, with 10 plants closing, including assembly plants in Atlanta and St. Louis. Ford is scheduled to make an official announcement about its plans on Monday.

Conspicuously not named in today's article (available only to subscribers) as slated for closure is the St. Paul Ford plant, which the WSJ reported last month was among the facilities to be shuttered. Also of significance, the article states that no vehicle brands will be eliminated. The St. Paul plant is the only North American manufacturer of Ford Rangers. With sales of the compact pick-up truck slack, it was thought to be a candidate for elimination. (Sales of the truck have dropped by roughly a quarter each of the last two years.)

So much for those wealthy debtors Congress feared abused bankruptcy

Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren's always excellent group blog on the economics of being middle class this week offers a link and a nice little teaser to a Washington Post story on the squalid situations of the bankrupt. We're not talking about yuppies trying to skate out from under their Capital One cards here.

Perspective and Context: Endangered Species in Newsrooms

Public Safety columnist Ruben Rosario chimes in on the case getting saturation coverage in local news media this week, a Chaska man's alleged murder-for-inheritance of his mother. With the rest of the news media busy trying to flesh out the script in these cases--wayward, feral youth, often fueled by the It Drug of the moment, turn on the hands that feed them--Rosario's bird's eye view of the case is particularly welcome.

THESE DAYS

The average American worker got squeezed in 2005 between the biggest rise in energy prices in 15 years and wages that failed to keep up with inflation. As a result, hourly earnings after adjusting for inflation fell by 0.5 percent in December compared with what workers were earning in December 2004, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Former "X-Files" star David Duchovny is set to become the new Incredible Hulk after Australian actor Eric Bana pulled out of the straight-to-DVD sequel project. [via Defamer]

The Roman Catholic Church has restated its support for evolution with an article praising a U.S. court decision that rejects the "intelligent design" theory as non-scientific.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Wick's been blogging since last June on topics ranging from job hunting to Conan O'Brien's influence in the world at I've stared straight into the sun.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Happy birthday, Trogdor!

David Hasselhoff singing Hooked on a Feeling in one of the worst videos since American We Stand As One.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"We just keep working on it. You know, we just write and write and write and write and write."

-- writer-producer George Lucas, about the impending and unnecessary Indiana Jones IV

As former Minneapolis City Councilman Dean Zimmermann was busy installing a new basement ceiling in the home of current Hennepin County Commissioner and ex-mayoral candidate Peter McLaughlin Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger was bringing forth a four-count indictment against Zimmermann for allegedly accepting bribes while a member of the council's zoning commission.

It was a rich contrast. The 63-year old Zimmermann--who ranks among the more impoverished and least pompous public servants in the long history of Minneapolis city government--was banging in nails to try and make ends meet in partnership with his wife, Jenny Heiser, who now cleans houses for a living. ("We're nonpartisan workers," says Heiser, referring to her Green Party husband doing work for DFL-er McLaughlin.) Meanwhile, Heffelfinger, a little bantam rooster dandy of a man, tugged at his cuffs and announced to a mostly well-heeled squadron of assembled media that Zimmermann could be sentenced to up to 40 years in jail for enriching himself at the public's expense.

It was only a matter of time before Eddie Sharkey and Jonathon Sharkey hooked up. The former is the long time Twin Cities wrestling promoter. The latter, of course, is the self-described "vampyre" who is running for governor of Minnesota under a platform that calls for impaling Osama Bin Laden, child molesters and, possibly, George W. Bush.

Aside from the common name, the promoter and the vampire have something else in common: a background in professional wrestling. After learning of the political hopeful's ring experience, Eddie Sharkey, who can always be counted on to work an angle, invited the Impaler to appear on a January 31 wrestling card at First Avenue. The answer, Eddie says, was an unequivocal "yes."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty may have a challenger for the Republican Party endorsement in his re-election bid. Sue Jeffers, owner of the Minneapolis bar Stub & Herbs, will officially announce Monday that she is running for governor.

Although Jeffers is seeking the state's top office as a Libertarian Party candidate, she may bid for the GOP endorsement as well. "Let's not give Pawlenty a free pass just because he is our sitting governor," she says. "I think he's let us down."

After Patrick J. Schiltz received a nomination to the United States District Court, he thanked Senator Norm Coleman for having forwarded his name to the president for consideration.

"I am deeply honored by the president's decision and by Sen. Coleman's recommendation and look forward to the confirmation process," Schiltz said in December, as quoted in the Star Tribune.

Coleman returned the kind words, sending out a press release that highlighted the St. Thomas law school professor's sparkling resume. "Mr. Schiltz's experience in the law spanning 20 years as a clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court, an accomplished attorney in private practice, and a nationally acclaimed professor of law make [sic] him an excellent choice," Coleman said.

Senator Coleman did not add the following: "Over the last five years, Mr. Schiltz has also donated $1,000 to my election war chest."

CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NY Times, LA Times, WashPost, St. Paul Pioneer-Press, Des Moines Register, Duluth Herald-Tribune, Grand Forks Herald, Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, Rapid City (SD) Journal, Kenosha (WI) News, Yankton (SD) Daily Press & Dakotan.

A: Unlike the Star Tribune, they were all (as of noon today) featuring homepage links to the bin Laden audiotape story that broke this morning.

"World news"? What world do you mean, exactly? Meanwhile, though, the local paper of record has a swell, and prominently featured, primer on starting your own blog. Click the pic above. Or read CJ's piece about Ted Canova. Already read it in the six months or so it's been posted to strib.com's front page? Read it again.

One Stribber told us recently that disgruntled newsies at the paper had compiled a list of some of the more egregious miscues and omissions of the paper's redesigned website to present to management. Obviously it's made a big difference. (My favorite New Strib snafu: On the morning after the last Vikings game of the season, coach Mike Tice's firing was the top story of the day--but nowhere among the site's page-one Vikes links was there any reference to whether the team won or lost its last game of the season.)

The English-language Al Jazeera website has posted most of the text of an audiotape that the network broadcast earlier today, allegedly recorded by Osama bin Laden in December. Some excerpts:

"The new operations of al-Qaida has not happened not because we could not penetrate the security measures. It is being prepared and you'll see it in your homeland very soon," the voice attributed to bin Laden said, apparently addressing Americans....

Reading Tea Leaves on Northwest's Bankruptcy Reorganization

Labor Kremlinology at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport has long suggested that Northwest Airlines intends to emerge from the sheltering arms of bankruptcy court a very, very different company. Meaner, leaner, and possibly able to compete in the global marketplace, sure, but also the employer of far fewer Minnesotans--and, excluding a handful of lavishly compensated execs, possibly no one who can afford to buy a plane ticket ever again.

Say what you will about our daily newspapers in this old cowtown, but it was always easy to distinguish between the two of them in at least one regard: The Pioneer Press is the cheap one.

The enemy paper across the river isn't quite ready to drop down to a newsstand price of a quarter a day, but the Star Tribune is lowering the price of its Sunday fish wrap to one lousy buck. The reason? Trying to get all the subliterates out there to look at the shiny new object the Strib is now, post-redesign.

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Peter Scholtes finds potential buyers for DUNation and MNSpeak at Culture To Go.

Jack Sparks has an ode to the Minnesota winter at the Other Side of Country.

THESE DAYS

Three men have died in the past seven months of what their families and colleagues say were persistent respiratory illnesses directly caused by their work at Ground Zero.

In a report released quietly just before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's investigative arm disclosed that the department failed to properly monitor thousands of acres of experimental biotechnology crops.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Vintage porn ads, pulp fiction covers, pin-up girls, and hyperbole in titling await you at The Dirtiest Thing in the Whole Wide World.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Co-Commissioners Matti Leshem and Andrew Golder announce the formation of the USA Rock Paper Scissors League. No comment as yet from the Leg Wrestling Federation of America.

Dancing Animals in Love

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"The casting of suspicion and doubt about the actions of veterans who have run against President Bush or opposed his policies has been a constant theme of his career. This pattern of denigrating the service of those with whom they disagree risks cheapening the public's appreciation of what it means to serve, and in the long term may hurt the Republicans themselves."

-- James Webb, a secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration and a Marine platoon and company commander in Vietnam

If you want the media to turn out for your pet cause, there is probably a better strategy than the spectacle of human nudity. For the life of me, though, I can't think what that might be. Today's exercise in the science of naked publicity stunts comes courtesy of PETA. Via press release, the celebrated/reviled/oft-ridiculed animal rights organization announced that one of its own would appear in the buff in downtown Minneapolis at high noon.