Minneapolis / St. Paul News Blog

Suffer the chickens that reside in cages. That's the philosophy now adopted by the dining services at the U of M. Last month they passed a resolution stating that the 2,800 pounds of liquid eggs the dining services purchase each week will now be from cage-free poultry. The change comes with the ringing endorsement of animal rights group the Compassionate Action of Animals who have campaigned for the cause for over a year.

"Compassionate Action for Animals is delighted that the University of Minnesota has taken the important step of withdrawing support for one of factory farming's worst cruelties—highly restrictive caging of hens," says Gil Schwartz, campaign coordinator for CAA. "This move, from one of the United States' largest universities, is sending a clear message to the egg industry: that battery eggs are simply too cruel for any socially responsible school to support."

...if he only managed to get better grades in his chemistry class at the University of Minnesota. He also shops at Wal-Mart and says--apparently with a straight face--that John McCain shares a "lineage" with great Republicans such as Teddy Roosevelt and Abe Lincoln. All this comes in a wet kiss profile in the current issue of The Weekly Standard.

In a shocking display of openess in the first full year of the Tim Dolan era, the MPD actually sent its Internal Affairs annual report to the media last week. But depending on your skin color, that may be where the good news ends.

According to the report, "The Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) is to function as a mechanism to receive, investigate and resolve complaints of employee misconduct." Citizens and cops alike can file complaints.

According to Chief Dolan, the document is "an excellent report, the best report we've ever done," and adds that these reports are a new development under his stint. "It's about transparency and it's about being accountable to the community," says Dolan.

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Chuck Terhark reviews Andy Friedman's Saturday night show at the 331 Club at Culture To Go.

Steve Monaco has your Monday Movie Quiz at Couch Pundit.

Download free MP3s from local artists such as Apraxia, Fort Wilson Riot, Valet, Telephone!, Mach Fox, and more at Music To Go.

THESE DAYS

Giving marijuana to mice with cancer shrank their lung tumors by half and slowed the spread of the disease, findings that may one day expand legal use of the drug as a treatment. [via Undernews]

Philadelphia city inspectors shut down more than a dozen psychics, astrologers, and tarot-card readers after learning about a decades-old state law that bans fortune telling for profit.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Bad Cat! blogs about battling depression, disturbing sex toys, and what happens when your family discovers your blog at Crazy Days of Me.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

From Clippy the paper clip to Apple's printing dog: Wired mocks the Lamest Technology Mascots Ever

The Star Wars theme played on bagpipes

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I give it all to the movies, and it's like I'm climbing Mount Everest every time. When I get off the mountain then I want to be able to enjoy some time in the chalet at the bottom."

— filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, in The Telegraph, on why he only makes a movie once every few years

Mari Newman, you may recall, is the southwest Minneapolis artist who ran afoul of the city by turning her lawn into a sculpture garden. In August, the city hauled off a couple shopping carts, two bicycles, a chandelier and other items after Newman ignored city demands to remove them.

Newman's hearing to appeal the $130 fine, as well as to demand $2,000 in compensation for the lost stuff, was last week. This week, Newman got a letter from the city informing her that she had lost.

The artist tells City Pages that she plans to appeal the fine in court, but has given up on getting any money out of the city.

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Mary O'Regan reviews last night's JoAnna James CD release party at the Varsity at Culture To Go.

The Best of the Twin Cities 2007 are posted here: Arts and Entertainment, Bought and Sold, City Gritty, Foodstuff, Out and About, Restaurants, and Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll.

The City Pages Media Taster lets you actually hear the great music you read about in City Pages—just launch, click, and listen. Simply download the Media Taster and you'll automatically receive a digital mixtape of music on a semi-regular basis (including free MP3s), legal and free of charge.

THESE DAYS

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have shown that it is possible to use solar energy, paired with the right catalyst, to convert carbon dioxide into a raw material for making a wide range of products, including plastics and gasoline.

A man arrested on Wednesday for allegedly trying to use a stolen credit card at a drugstore got a break from an Ohio judge after passing a Bible quiz after his lawyer declared him a "church-goer."

Two-time champion Tony Stewart likened NASCAR to professional wrestling and accused it of using bogus caution flags to shape races.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Matthew, Rik, Natascha, Phillip, and Bill blog about the Virginia Tech massacre, U.S. foreign policy, the 2008 presidential election and being sexier than Batman at Liberal Media Elite.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Progressive Farmer offers the Ten Best Places to Live in Rural America

Rolling Stone's munchie-inducing 25 Best Songs for Reefer Gladness

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"It's a choice for any young person as to whether they want to join the army or not. I'd be absolutely delighted if one of my children wanted to do that."

— British Prime Minister Tony Blair, yesterday on BBC Radio

When the best your coworkers can say is that you're "capable," you may not be right for the job. That "c"-word is the adjective current Archbishop Harry Flynn bestowed on comer John Nienstedt, currently the Catholic potentate of New Ulm. To be fair, in the Pi Press's revealing story, Flynn used the intensifier "such a"--as in "such a ninny," but with the words "capable bishop" used instead.

Reverend Philip M. Schotzko of St. Peter chimes in with exceptional enthusiasm that, "he considers him 'a good organizer and planner and administrator.'"

He did not add, "Bishop Nienstedt is punctual, keeps his fingernails immaculate, and has fantastic handwriting--God has graced this man with the gift of legibility."

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Mary O'Regan reviews last night's Ted Leo and the Pharmacists show at Culture To Go, with pics by Daniel Corrigan.

Peter Schilling Jr. reports on another heartbreaking loss to the Royals by the Twins at Balls.

The Best of the Twin Cities 2007 are posted here: Arts and Entertainment, Bought and Sold, City Gritty, Foodstuff, Out and About, Restaurants, and Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll.

Download free MP3s from local artists such as Danny y Elliot, the Hopefuls, Flock of Doug, Tim Rally Gold, Fitzgerald, and more at Music To Go.

THESE DAYS

A Michigan environmental group claims that "new car smell"—from toxic chemicals such as bromine, chlorine, and lead—is hazardous to your health.

A dramatic surge in the popularity of "urine therapy" in Cameroon has prompted the government to ban its consumption and threaten persistent offenders with jail.

MINNESOTA BLOG(S) OF THE DAY

Congratulations to the Cucking Stool and Faith Mouse for being named the best partisan blogs in the Best of the Twin Cities issue.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Here's your chance to own the Dexter Lake Club from Animal House

Forbes.com lists the World's Cleanest Cities, with Minneapolis coming in at #5

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"There were so many cartoon characters in the bar at the time, all Captain America's were asked to go outside for a possible identification."

— from a Melbourne, Florida, police report on the arrest of Dr. Raymond Adamcik, who was arrested last Saturday night during a costume party at a bar where he was accused of groping a woman after she refused to touch the burrito he had placed in the pants of his Marvel super-hero costume

It is a universal axiom of modern politics that no politician with presidential ambitions can talk honestly about the very real problems of the government's slavish promotion of corn-based ethanol. In the corn belt states, of course, it is impossible to talk honestly about corn-based ethanol if you want to get elected dog catcher.

This why we occasionally need to listen to professors.

Chalk up another first for University of Minnesota physician-ethicist Steve Miles: Earlier this week the U's Center for Bioethics and Human Rights Center launched an online archive of documents Miles collected while writing a book about medical operations at U.S. prisoner of war facilities overseas. The searchable database is thought to be the first ever human rights archive documenting an ongoing series of abuses.

In 2004, when Miles, a UM medical professor, first heard the reports about abuse at Abu Ghraib, he wondered about the doctors and other health care workers who had to have known--or covered up. After two painstaking years of research via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, much of it conducted by the ACLU, Miles had amassed 35,000 pages of autopsy reports, e-mails, memos, medical records and other grim source materials, some handwritten, some containing just a footnote or offhand reference to a prisoner's death.