Minneapolis / St. Paul News Blog

State Senator and candidate for Governor Becky Lourey has scheduled a press conference for 10 o'clock this morning to announce that she has chosen North Minneapolis businessman and former pro football player Tim Baylor to be her running mate as the prospective Lieutenant Governor. Baylor accepted Lourey's offer more than three weeks ago but needed some time to put his business affairs in order before making the decision official.

In an exclusive interview with City Pages yesterday, Baylor said that he was most consonant with Lourey in her ambitious initiatives to enhance education and health care, and in her support for conceal and carry gun legislation. As for Lourey's opposition to recent legislation that provides public funding for a Twins stadium, Baylor initially said, "Because I am a sports guy, we disagree on stadiums," before amending it to say that he and Lourey have a common concern about first providing funding for more important priorities such as education and health care.

THESE DAYS

A war widow who wants the government to put a Wiccan religious symbol on her husband's memorial plaque held an alternative service Monday as a protest, hours before an official Memorial Day ceremony nearby.

1970s pop star Marie Osmond has launched a personal crusade to clean up the Internet after learning her two teenage daughters have been posting sexually explicit correspondence on their MySpace pages. Sounds like cleaning up the Internet begins at home, Marie.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Web and print designer Ryan Bickett blogs on marketing, music, and photography (with the occasional pet photo thrown in) at RhynoDesign Blog.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The National Review's 50 greatest conservative rock songs

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I would give the entire Congress, of which I'm a member, an F for results."

-- Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN), cutting loose as his political career draws to a close

CITY PAGES BLOGS

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

THESE DAYS

Reporters pretending to be teens on the Internet to bust pedophiles may make for great reality TV, but the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled it isn't enough to get their targets arrested.

A British study suggests the Roman Catholic Church-approved "rhythm method" may kill more embryos than other methods of contraception.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

The pseudononymous Pauline Kilar sifts through internet detritus, picking out the good stuff and posting it at Dodging Invisible Rays.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

So dark the comedy of man: The Norman Rockwell Code

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"She's had damn rapists, child molesters and lying authors on her show. And if I'm not a rags-to-riches story for her, who is?"

-- Ice Cube, on being snubbed by talk show queen Oprah Winfrey

Name the new Twins ballpark!!!

Stadium expert weighs in on Twins ballpark

If anything was sorely missing from the recent stadium debates at the Capitol, it was a dutch-uncle figure to bring some much-needed reality to the proceedings. Lawmakers, in fact, would have been wise to consult Neil deMause. In 1998, deMause co-authored Field of Schemes, the authoritative book on stadium boondoggles across the country. Since then, deMause has tracked stadium deals on his web site of the same name, and through various stories on the business and politics of sports in numerous publications.

More recently, deMause contributed to a new book from Baseball Prospectus called Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong, where he dispassionately dispels the many myths surrounding the economics of new ballparks. DeMause watched the Twins deal closely, and did this Q&A with City Pages via e-mail.

THESE DAYS

The evidence from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, shows the outer boundary of the solar system distorted as though it has been punched from below.

The Hercules (CA) City Council voted unanimously to take the unprecedented step of using eminent domain to prevent Wal-Mart from building a big-box store on a 17-acre lot near the city's waterfront.

Durex has launched New Zealand's first ever National Condom Week in conjunction with Family Planning, to celebrate the condom.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

If you're finding it difficult to live without your Norwegian blogging fix, a Minneapolis secretary who goes by the name Norwego may be able to help.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS (ANIMAL EDITION)

Rate My Kitten

10,000 workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk were each paid two cents to draw a sheep facing left

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"We hired campaign organizers, and it was very much like a political campaign. Instead of 'get out the vote' it was 'get out and hold hands.'"

-- Hollywood promoter Ken Kragen, reminiscing on the 20th anniversary of Hands Across America

Shed a tear for Citibank. Send an e-card to MBNA. A front-page story in today's Wall Street Journal suggests that the major credit issuers are feeling the pain of lower profits. The American consumer--better known as the American debtor--has begun to pay off a greater chunk of her balance each month.

In fact, repayment rates, according to some measures, are at their highest level in 10 years. Home-equity loans and monthly balance-shifting have helped the plastic warrior to hold down payments. (It would be unpatriotic to just stop spending.)

The interest payments of "revolvers"--customers who fail to pay off their balances each month--have long represented the most profitable part of the credit card industry. To maintain profit levels, your friends in consumer banking have considerately boosted the rates they charge to their most indebted customers and jacked up late fees, which now routinely run to $39.

Here's where the quiz comes in. Though card-issuers continue to bait the mailboxes of Americans with introductory rate offers, the average monthly rate has climbed steeply in recent years.

What, according to the Nilson Report, a credit-tracking firm, is the average monthly interest rate on an American credit card?

And for entry in the plastic hall of fame: What was the average rate five years ago?

(If you don't submit a guess by tomorrow, you'll owe us five answers on Monday.)

THESE DAYS

Americans spent more than four billion dollars last year on Internet gambling, despite a de facto prohibition on such wagering in the United States.

As Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie await the birth of their first child, they have apparently given Namibian Governor Samuel Nuuyoma the honor of picking its name.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Could someone encourage Mark Wheat or Jill Riley to update Current Cue, the blog from Minnesota Public Radio's sister station?

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

An illustrated variation on The Caine Mutiny

Scooby Doo and crew meet their match when they run into Jason at Camp Crystal Lake in an episode of Robot Chicken

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I feel a bit silly in that outfit but, believe me, my wife, really, really likes it."

-- X-Men 3 star Hugh Jackman, on his wife's preference for Wolverine in the bedroom

Lack of insured patients endangers clinics

When La Clinica en Lake shuts down on July 14, roughly 5,000 people will lose their primary healthcare provider. The overwhelming majority of the five-year-old Minneapolis clinic's clients are poor and Hispanic.

Mavis Brehm, executive director of West Side Community Health Services, which operates La Clinica, says that it simply wasn't economically feasible to keep the facility open. She notes that last year alone the clinic ran a $900,000 deficit.

CITY PAGES BLOGS

For the three of you who haven't seen it yet, Corey Anderson reveals the shocking myths uncovered in the motion picture The Da Vinci Code at American Idle.

Peter S. Scholtes has some great photos from Art-A-Whirl at Complicated Fun.

THESE DAYS

Tampa police say a man and his girlfriend were arrested after investigators found ecstacy hidden in a baby's crib.

15-year-old South Carolinian Candice Hardwick led a small protest march Monday against her high school's ban on Confederate flag clothing.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

WCCO reporter and all-around lovable scamp Jason DeRusha dishes on his personal life and delivers behind-the-scenes anecdotes at Jason's Talking About...

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

A short film featuring everyone's favorite drinky crow

Nike+iPod

Greg Kinnear stars in the movie version of Eric Schlosser's polemic Fast Food Nation.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"Here's LL Cool J. Don't call it a comeback. He's been here for years, rockin' his peers, puttin' 'em in fear, makin' tears rain down like a monsoon, explosions overpowerin' the competition. LL Cool J is towerin'."

-- XM Satellite Radio's newest DJ, Bob Dylan, introducing "Mama Said Knock You Out"

Minneapolis city council members to join the blogosphere?

The Minneapolis City Council's Ways and Means/Budget Committee debated the merits of blogging yesterday. Specifically, the issue at hand was whether the city should provide software and allow council members to have blog sites on the city's web site.

From today's Washington Post:

Two elderly women devised a complex plot in which they befriended homeless men, took out life insurance policies on them, and then killed the men in hit-and-run accidents in alleys around Los Angeles to collect $2.2 million in payments, police said Monday.

Don't ask any questions the next time grandma slips a $1,000 bill in with your birthday card...

CITY PAGES BLOGS

The Pussy Ranch has temporarily become Graceland while Diablo Cody goes through her Fat Elvis phase.

THESE DAYS

The USS New York is being built in New Orleans with 24 tons of steel taken from the collapsed World Trade Center. [via Raw Story]

When a pump at a Hammond, Indiana, gas station malfunctioned, opportunistic motorists were able to buy gas for 29 cents per gallon.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

St. Paul resident jamwall brings the Onion-esque funny to his blog Banana Blograma.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Photo series on China's controversial and enormous Three Gorges Dam

Morning Wood: From the makers of Slowdance Chubby!

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"The swimming."

-- Seven-year-old Braxton Bilbrey, when asked what was the hardest part of his successful swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco's Aquatic Park

Last weekend, we spotted what looked like the Son of God outlined in grease/rain/beer/urine on a 35W underpass. It was a sign that, surely, the highway will be infinitely awash in God's good blessings and Milwaukee's Best. A few days later, Minneapolis muffin makers Sanja Petrovich and Sara Troy happened upon another sign about the future of Minnesota, this time slightly less theistically themed and in a homemade baked good. During the days last week when the U of M Gopher stadium debate was heating up, a distinct and pain stricken gopher face emerged from one of their blueberry muffins. Perhaps it was an apology from the ashamed Gopher gods, or an ominous threat. Either way, the gopher didn't lie. And as to be expected, the $10.3 million price tag the state will have to fork over for the new Gopher stadium never did appear on their pastries. Afer all, who would've been able to swallow that?

Last Thursday police officers were dispatched to a residence on the 3100 block of 18th Ave. S. in Minneapolis to investigate an assault. At the scene officers met with Jovan Badillo, who claimed to have just been attacked by his girlfriend's father.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court, Badillo told the cops that he went to the address to visit his girlfriend, Chelsea Weber. However, her father, Maryland Reynolds Rosenbloom--better known as Lucky Rosenbloom--answered the door.

The Acts 1:8 Ministry, based out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, recently received a $30,000 grant to expand their work to Milwaukee, and plan to open a regional office in Minneapolis/St. Paul next year. According to their website, Acts 1:8's mission is to "create a culture for Christians to care, share, and connect people to Christ worldwide through Christian kindness." Recent acts have included 99-cent gallons of gas at the Stadium Shell on Lombardi Access for two hours one Saturday afternoon, and serving 200 kolaches at the Green Bay Farmers Market. Jeff Van Beaver, chairman of the Board of Evangelism at Pilgrim Lutheran Church states, "One image about church is that we're a lot of talk, but no action. We want to show that it is possible to get something for nothing and expect nothing in return." Speculation that Zigi Wilf has inquired about stadium giveaways is unfounded.

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Steve Monaco has the Monday Movie Quiz at Couch Pundit.

THESE DAYS

The mayor of Waldron, Arkansas, was released on a signature bond last week after being accused of soliciting two women for sex after they fell behind on their water bills.

A bear has been reported in Germany for the first time since 1835, police in the Bavarian Alps said, following the discovery of seven sheep carcasses.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is re-examining Amazon.com's patent for "one-click" online shopping at the request of New Zealand actor Peter Calveley who says he's upset over slow book delivery.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Minnetonka Felix lives in Deephaven, writing and photographing topics of interest relating to Lake Minnetonka at Minnetonkascenes.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Full-screen panoramas from Harrod's grand staircase, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's H.O.G. Pod, an Armenian monastery, and more.

Biblical tale as teen romance: 10 Things I Hate About Commandments

The pro-carbon dioxide commercials from the Competitive Enterprise Institute: CO2: We Call It Life [via Andrew Sullivan]

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I really think this book should be made into a musical. And once this is done, it should play in the heart of his enemy's country, on Broadway."

-- Journalist and translator Itsuko Hirata, on the Japanese release of "Get Out of Here, Curse You," the novel written by Saddam Hussein

This week the Minnesota House voted 114-to-17 to prohibit minors from purchasing or renting mature- or adult-rated video games. In nearly every state where a similar law has been passed, a federal judge ruled such government restrictions as unconstitutional.

But Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul) doesn't believe kids have First Amendment rights. In an article last year in CP, Pappas said the First Amendment was irrelevant to the issue, and that the law wasn't intended to criminalize kids buying video games, but simply to educate parents: "This is to let them know that the state says it's inappropriate for children to play these video games." And it's the state's job to inform parents of what's appropriate for their children, right?

Proponents of a new Minnesota Twins stadium received another significant boost this morning when the House-Senate conference committee agreed on a voice vote to legislation that overwhelmingly favors the version passed by the House earlier this month.

The stadium bill that will appear for a final floor vote before the House and the Senate before the Legislature adjourns on Monday does not contain a roof, nor a referendum, nor, most significantly, a statewide sales tax to fund transportation and new ballparks for both the Twins and the Vikings. Senate conference committee chair Steve Kelley (DFL-Hopkins) essentially threw in the towel this morning by agreeing merely to have the committee recommend to the House-Senate transportation conference committee that the sales tax for transportation be considered as part of their bill. Without any quid pro quo, there is very little likelihood that the conference committee on transportation will heed that recommendation.

The legal battle over the right to Gatheroo.com has gotten messier. In March, Gather, an online social networking company affiliated with Minnesota Public Radio, sued Warecorp, a Minnetonka-based company, for trademark infringement. The dispute is over the right of Warecorp to operate Gatheroo.com, a web site that was started after meetup.com began charging for its services. The case is pending in U.S. District Court, in Massachusetts, where Gather is based. (For more background, see this previous Blotter post.

Warecorp has argued from the outset that the Massachusetts court has no jurisdiction over the company since it has no business operations in that state. However, in April the judge assigned to the case issued a preliminary injunction barring Warecorp from further use of the terms "Gather" or "Gatheroo."

Is the 5th Congressional District still up for grabs?

With the DFL endorsement of Keith Ellison to run for the U.S. House seat vacated by the retiring Martin Sabo, the race itself would seem to be a foregone conclusion: No DFLer could manage to lose in what is perhaps the most liberal district in the nation.

But is it? Since he received the old gray party's nod two weeks ago, Ellison, a state rep from north Minneapolis, has faced a measure of scrutiny. Most of this tends to center around the fact that he's a black Muslim.

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Pizza Man's cell phone becomes a double-edged sword on the Streets of Pizza.

THESE DAYS

Researchers at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale measured people's attitudes about obese people, finding that the thinner folks are, the more they dislike fat people.

In a Fristian act of contrition, New Zealand's Xtra internet network offered it's customers $3.25 following a series of recent outages.

Iowan Trenton Camacho called the cops this week to report the theft of a blow-up doll fashioned to resemble porn star Jenna Haze.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

A blogging kitty named Aloysius Katz, despite a lack of thumbs, muses on feline folklore and behavior at Catymology.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Who wouldn't want a pocket-sized naughty school teacher? Bids are open for your very own Pamela Rogers action figure.

College Humor's 25 Un-Sexiest Women

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms."

-- Televangelist Pat Robertson, trying his hand at meteorology

"Well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two, you don't pay any taxes. So you probably, if you don't pay any taxes, you are not going to get a big tax cut."

-- Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, trying his hand at macroeconomics

At the end of February, the Minneapolis Police Department adopted a new policy for dealing with the media: henceforth all inquiries are to be directed to the "public information officer." In addition the new policy states that no police officer is to initiate a media contact without first consulting the PIO and prohibits employees from representing their opinions as facts.

Ron Reier, the PIO in question, argues that the prior policy for dealing with media inquiries was too chaotic, describing it as "any media person could contact any person about any issue." He says that the change, which was initiated by recently departed Police Chief William McManus, simply brings Minneapolis into line with how St. Paul deals with the press. "The police department's job is to do police work and not to do media work," he notes.

Cynics, of course, will suggest that this is simply an attempt by the MPD to dictate what gets reported in the press, but Reier insists otherwise. "While you may look at this as we're trying to control the message that wasn't our purpose at all," he says. "We by no means are trying to control the media."

The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce certainly sounds pleased as punch over the impending acquisition of the Pioneer Press by the Denver-based Media News Group. As a general principle, such giddiness among business folk should alarm working stiffs. But for Pi Press staffers, there are more substantial reasons for nervousness than mere class bias. Despite his recent image makeover, Media News chieftain "Lean" Dean Singleton retains a reputation as a ferocious cost-cutter; with the considerable debt incurred by his spending spree on various Knight Ridder properties, it's a fair bet he'll be more focused than ever on the bottom line when he finally assumes control of the Pi Press this summer. Additionally, the financial performance of Media News has been underwhelming of late. According to this report from the San Jose Mercury News, the privately held company reports losses of $3.6 million in the first quarter of 2006. That compares to a $2.3 profit in the same quarter in 2005.

Match, if you will, the state Republican politician with her five leading campaign donors. (Note: The companies themselves have not filled the candidate's coffers. Rather, donors are required to disclose their employers on federal forms.)

1. Norm "Kitty" Coleman
2. Mark "Money" Kennedy
3. Michelle "Warbucks" Bachmann
4. John "Cash" Kline

A. Target
B. Crown Holdings [product packaging]
C. UnitedHealth Group
D. ECA Marketing
E. Cargill
F. Lakeville Motor Express
G. BAE Systems [defense contractor]
H. Desert Caucus [U.S.-Israel relations]
I. Wells Fargo
J. Becker Furniture World
K. U.S. Bancorp
L. Frauenshuh Companies [commercial real estate]
M. Metro Gem Inc. [corporate finance]
N. TCF Financial
O. 3M
P. National Beer Wholesalers Association

Hint: Target, U.S. Bancorp, and United Health appear on the top-five list for more than one hungry-pocketed pol. All records come from the fund-tracking site opensecrets.org

Having been chased out of the New York Times with a pillowcase full of severance money to salve her wounded pride, Judith "The Phantom Menace" Miller has reappeared in... yes, the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. Her calling card, I believe, would be the unnamed "experts" and "analysts" who believe that Libya was on its way to becoming the next nuclear superpower. Her piece, quoted below, comes from the May 16th edition.

Many analysts no longer doubted that Libya could have made a bomb, eventually, if the program had not been stopped and it had found a way to supplement its limited technical expertise. Though most of the rotors for the centrifuges were initially missing (many turned up months later on a ship near South Africa) experts said that had the centrifuges been properly assembled in cascades--always dicey in a technologically challenged state--Libya could have produced enough fuel to make as many as 10 nuclear warheads a year.

Miller, it seems, has accepted Lewis Libby's invitation to "come back to work--and life." Can we expect to see the reporter uncovering an anthrax program in Tehran? A sarin factory in Caracas? A gas station in suburban Ottawa?

THESE DAYS

Children's author Sonya Hartnett (Thursday's Child) has been revealed as the author of Landscape with Animal, an explicit erotic novel that's expected to be the sex-lit hit of the year.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to start planning for a blimp, three times the size of Goodyear's, that would keep watch over an entire city.

A 44-year-old woman escaped serious injury from a gunshot Sunday thanks to her seat belt and a thick bra strap.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Jae, Olive, Kay, and smartyspark discuss electronic surveillance, the Moussaoui verdict, and other hot-button political issues at jaebrysonblog.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Visitors to InfoScotland can upload photographs of their faces, list their birthdates, and provide e-mail addresses to receive an image transformed by wrinkles, bags, sags and age spots.

Order your very own Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush today!

Two Port Authority police officers become trapped under the rubble during the events of 9/11 in Oliver Stone's new movie, World Trade Center, starring Nicolas Cage, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Nicholas Turturro.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"A--I don't watch porn. And B--I don't want to see someone I've known forever having sex. I mean, that's gross!"

-- Nicole Richie, in this month's Vanity Fair, denying her fued with Paris Hilton started when the heiress walked in on Richie and other friends viewing Hilton's sex tape

Hizzoner picks police chief panel

The mayor of Minneapolis has unveiled his plan in the search for a new police chief. According to a press release from R.T. Rybak's office, citizens are encouraged to offer input via a survey on the city's web site and the city's "311" phone line.

The plan also reveals some of Rybak's "principles" in selecting a chief, including such radical ideas that the future chief must be a "strong leader" who will "keep Minneapolis safe."

And there is an advisory committee made up of elected officials and community activists. The list is more notable for who's not on it.

If you've spent any time on the streets of Minneapolis--hell, the streets of any decent sized city--you've witnessed the spectacle: a bedraggled-looking guy shoving a grocery cart bearing an enormous lode of aluminum cans. For the homeless and/or chronically unemployed, collecting cans has long been one of the easiest ways to raise funds for a jug of vodka, cheap meal or other fix. Easy, actually, isn't the best word. Can guys work hard for the money. Between the mean dogs, irate homeowners, and long distances hikes, they put up with more than their share of hassles.

Still, there is no denying the scrappers' lot has improved of late; mainly, this is because aluminum prices have reached historic highs. Kelly Dobson, a veteran outreach worker, observes that the better prices haven't made the street guys he knows wealthier. "They're not really getting a windfall," he offers. "They're just working less."

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Peter S. Scholtes discusses the upcoming Suicide Commandos reunion at Culture To Go.

THESE DAYS

The Las Vegas-based Pink Taco Mexican Restaurant is scheduled to open its second location in downtown Scottsdale in June and the locals are freaking out about it.

The answer to Canada's health-care woes does not lie in the "insane" system in place south of the border, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said Monday.

A baby is to be monitored by a network of microphones and video cameras for 14 hours a day, 365 days a year, in an effort to unravel the seemingly miraculous process by which children acquire language.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Will's got extensive stats and analysis on our troubled hometown crew at Will's Minnesota Twins Page.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

A collection of Soviet Union propaganda and advertisement posters from 1917 to 1991

Minneapolis native Brian Beatty brings the funny to the jokes section of Dave Eggers's McSweeney's.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"See you later, Mom."

-- Richard Hatch, who won $1 million in the debut season of "Survivor," following his conviction for failing to pay taxes on his reality TV prize and committing perjury on the witness stand. Hatch was sentenced to 51 months in prison.

"I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program."

-- Press Secretary Tony Snow, at his first briefing, refusing to elaborate on the NSA wiretap and phone traffic database programs