City Pages received a missive this afternoon from a Star Tribune employee suggesting that another round of belt tightening is imminent at the state's largest daily newspaper. I certainly can't vouch for the veracity of its claims, but given recent events anything seems possible. Here's the nub of it:

I'm a current (for now) employee of the Strib. There have been rumors flying around in the last couple of days that another mass layoff is imminent [next week], way larger than the last layoff/buyout ... which was 145 persons [for buyouts] from varying departments.

This coming from two different persons in two different departments.

Just an anonymous heads-up from a third-person party.

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Peter Schilling Jr. discusses the Luis Castillo trade and Scott Baker's inspired performance at Balls.

Read Christopher Matthew Jensen's review, and view Daniel Corrigan's photos, of the recent Fratellis show in our gallery section.

DVD Reviews this week include Hot Fuzz, The Darwin Awards, 300: Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition, and more.

Check out the best photos and artwork in City Pages from July 2007 in our gallery section.

THESE DAYS

A 2006 government report found more than 1,000 soldiers being billed a total of $1.5 million for lost and damaged equipment.

An electronic tissue dispenser is being rolled out to the masses by Kimberly-Clark Professional as it seeks to capture more of the $1 billion US away-from-home toilet paper market. The company believes most people will be satisfied with five sheets.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Photos and stories of Twin Cities' wind-surfing community can be found at Atlas Surfed.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The 50 Best Movie Robots

Dramatic Prairie Cat (not bad, but no Dramatic Prairie Dog)

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"It was logical."

— 76-year-old actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock in Star Trek TV shows and movies, on agreeing to a role in the Trek prequel directed by J.J. Abrams and scheduled for release Christmas 2008

Text by Matt Smith

If you happened to catch the CNN-YouTube Democratic debate last week—and with Minnesota's caucuses more than six months away, who didn't?—you may have noticed one of the video questions from a somewhat excitable Minneapolis man named Marcus Benson, who asked if the candidates would raise his taxes.

That national coup was the handiwork of the Uptake, a new nonprofit devoted to citizen journalism. As one of their first public efforts, the Uptake solicited man-on-the-street questions to the candidates, then sent the videos to the YouTube debates. (You can see the selected question and others at www.theuptake.org.)

But that's only a prelude to their real ambition—to train as many as 100 amateur video reporters to cover the Republican National Convention next year in St. Paul, plus the Democratic convention in Denver and the Iowa caucuses.

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Lord knows times are tough at the Newspaper of the Twin Cities, and Stribbers take heart: We feel your pain. Still, our empathies took a nosedive once we caught the fawning profile of Michele Bachmann in last Sunday's paper.

In the age of declining readership and sharp media scrutiny, no one could really fault the old Star and Sickle for straining to hook the Fair and Balanced crowd. Still, would it hurt the paper's credibility to be even slightly critical of our daffiest congressional member? Kim Ode's "impossibly gleaming" (her words to describe our nation's Capitol) piece on Bachmann was headlined "Watching Her Step," something that apparently applies to subject and author as well. Setting the equal rights movement back 40 years, Ode regurgitates Bachmann's election victory vow to "hit the ground running, even in high heels" in the lead, before moving on to recount "exactly what [Bachmann] was wearing when she decided that she no longer was a Democrat."

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CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Steve Monaco has posted the latest Monday Movie Quiz at Couch Pundit.

We're adding new articles like DVD and game reviews every day. Use our Recent Article RSS feed to check for new content:

THESE DAYS

Pharmacists have sued Washington state over a new regulation that requires them to sell emergency contraception, also known as the "morning-after pill."

A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments.

Although the federal government ordered states more than a decade ago to dramatically limit mercury discharges into the Great Lakes, the BP refinery in northwest Indiana will be allowed to continue pouring small amounts of the toxic metal into Lake Michigan for at least another five years.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Amy Crea blogs about losing Teddy the Wonder Dog, Harry Potter, and, of course, knitting at Knit Think.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Artistic tanks of the oil, propane, and water varieties

10 Unfortunate Business Names

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources, then it's a reasonable thing to do."

— PepsiCo spokeswoman Michelle Naughton, responding to pressure from Corporate Accountability International on bottled water sellers to disclose where the water comes from. Bottles of PepsiCo's Aquafina will soon reflect the water comes from the same source as tap water.

THESE DAYS

For the past year, a special Colombian police unit has been locking rats in cages with cats as part of a project to train the rodents to sniff out the more than 100,000 land mines planted mostly by leftist rebels across the conflict-wracked Andean country.

Researchers at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research have found tonsils might serve as a passageway through which HIV enters the body.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

The AimClear internet marketing firm blogs about search optimization, link baiting, and blogging tips at the aimClearBlog.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Ten Fictional Characters Who Must Die from New York Magazine

The Lost Nintendo Sex Ed Tape

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"If the show works, it will work because people care about these three guys under a lot of makeup and... can relate to their problems and find them charming."

— Mike Schiff, producer of the new ABC series "Cavemen," based on the popular Geico ads

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Read Sarah Askari's review, and view Daniel Corrigan's photos, of St. Vincent's Tuesday night show at the 7th Street Entry in our gallery section.

THESE DAYS

Oscar, a Rhode Island cat, has been observed to have an uncanny knack for predicting when patients in the nursing home in which he resides are going to die.

Countrywide Financial Corp.'s CEO Angelo Mozilo stated during a conference call with investors that the U.S. is experiencing home price depreciation as never before, with the exception of the Great Depression.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Brandon Ivers, James Laurie, and Jared Thiele blog about L.A. punk movies, Brigitte Bardot songs, and the Turkish version of Star Wars at Die Monster.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

From McSweeney's: My Father's Harper's Index

The Top Five Ballpark Promotions That Went Wrong

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"Our Earth is talking to us and we must listen to it and decipher its message if we want to survive."

— Pope Benedict XVI, speaking about global climate change during his holiday in northern Italy

Yesterday was the deadline for Pioneer Press staffers to opt for a buyout package offered by parent company MediaNews. The goal was to convince 30 workers to voluntarily leave the company, including 15 editorial employees. Looks like they came up a little short. Among the soon-to-be departed: veteran travel writer Beth Gauper and Positive MEInforcement author Matt Peiken. Here's the note sent around this afternoon by editor Thom Fladung:

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Over at Minnesota Lawyer (subscription required), Editor Mark Cohen recently slammed the way U.S. News & World Report ranks law schools.
Cohen says that despite the disparity in the rankings of the four Minnesota law schools—the U of M ranks 20th in the country, while Billy Mitchell and St. Thomas are listed as "Tier 3" and Hamline is relegated to lowly "Tier 4" status—graduates of these schools are indistinguishable from each other.
Thoughts?

In this week's cover story, Trials and Stribulations, G.R. Anderson Jr. and Paul Demko analyze the recent sales, buy-outs, and legal tangles involving the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press. An excerpt: "Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm with no prior experience in the newspaper business, agreed to buy the Strib for $530 million—less than half what McClatchy had paid for the paper eight years earlier. McClatchy tried to put a positive spin on the shortfall by pointing out that the sale would save the company $160 million in taxes. But the Strib sale nonetheless became a national benchmark for how steeply the value of daily newspapers has tumbled in recent years. 'I was stunned,' says Tim J. McGuire, the newspaper's former top editor. 'I didn't realize that revenues had declined quite as much as they obviously had.'" Can two daily papers thrive in such a small market? Can daily newspapers survive in the internet age? Check out the cover story here, then come back to join the conversation.