April 13, 2008 - April 19, 2008

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MPD Lt. Lee Edwards ousted

Filed under: Police

WCCO's Caroline Lowe breaks the news today that Minneapolis police Lt. Lee Edwards has been relieved of duty pending a federal investigation. Veteran fellow officer Mike Roberts has also been removed from his post while the probe is conducted.

Edwards is a former homicide investigator and 4th precinct inspector. More significantly he is one of five black police officers currently suing the MPD and chief Tim Dolan in federal court on charges of racial discrimination. Edwards was demoted from his 4th precinct post last summer. In February he was cleared by an internal probe of allegations that he drove his squad car while drunk. Edwards is currently a finalist for the police chief post in Northfield.

No details have been released regarding the nature of the federal investigation, which Lowe reports has been going on since last year. MPD officers were notified of the personnel moves at roll calls last night.

This morning John Kassen and Andrew Muller, the attorneys representing Edwards, released a statement defending their client:

We believe that this current disciplinary action against Lt. Edwards fits a pattern of alleged retaliatory and discriminatory discipline by Dolan of officers, black and white, who speak up about the alleged racist practices of the Minneapolis Police Department. Such discipline has been used in other instances to intimidate officers such as Lt. Mike Keefe and Sgt. Charlie Adams; now it is happening to Lt. Lee Edwards.

This is the second time Dolan has come after Lt. Edwards. The first time, Lt. Edwards was disciplined for allegedly driving a police department vehicle under the influence of alcohol. That charge against Lt. Edwards was ultimately found to be bogus and Lt. Edwards was fully exonerated.

This current allegation against our client, Lt. Edwards will be found to be baseless. There is no connection between Lt. Edwards and Mike Roberts. The intent of the allegations against Lt. Edwards can only be to punish and intimidate those on the MPD who speak out against discrimination. It is our intention that this current disciplinary action against Lt. Edwards will become an integral part of the lawsuit that is pending in Federal Court against Chief Dolan and the City of Minneapolis. Ultimately, the City of Minneapolis and Mayor Rybak are going to have to account for the actions of the man they have placed in charge of our police department, Chief Dolan. Right now, Mayor Rybak seems content to let Chief Dolan run rough shod, and to let him do as he pleases, without concern for how it will impact the City and race relations within its departments.

The intent of the current investigation against Lt. Edwards is obvious. It is intended to harm Lee Edwards professionally and his family personally. When the allegations and investigation against Lt. Edwards are shown to have no merit, the City of Minneapolis and Mayor Rybak will called upon to explain why such unilaterally punitive acts are allowed to continue without proper political oversight.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 19, 2008 1:08 PM | Comments (1)

 

Follow the story: The wars on Terror and PTSD

Filed under: Iraq

The L.A. Times reported on a RAND study released this month discussing the psychological impact of guerrilla warfare on soldiers and the failure of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to keep pace in the wake of the wars on terror. The study shows one in five veterans suffer from psychological problems and that many are not getting adequate care.

An estimated 300,000 veterans among the nearly 1.7 million who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are battling depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. More than half of these people, according to the study conducted by the Rand Corp., are slipping through the cracks in the bureaucratic system, going without necessary treatment.

The Rand study underscores one of the lessons of modern counterinsurgency conflicts: Such wars may kill fewer troops than traditional fighting but can leave deeper psychological scars.

Besides the personal and often devastating social repercussions to soldiers and their families dealing with combat related mental health issues, (See City Pages' piece on soldier suicides last month and its online post about Minnesota veteran Noah Pierce.) the Rand report also delves into the economic costs associated with not providing adequate health care for veterans with PTSD who, without treatment, are likely to turn to drugs and alcohol, and fall into homelessness or legal trouble. (See our story on local vet Tony Klecker who killed a 16-year-old girl while drunk driving.)

Failure to adequately treat disorders can cost the government billions of dollars, said Lisa H. Jaycox, one of the study's authors. "We make the case that investing in treatment early would prevent some of the negative consequences from unfolding and save money," Jaycox said.

Unfortunately, despite the lessons learned in Vietnam, the VA has entered into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unprepared, a complaint many associate with a lack of funds and trained expertise.

The VA maintains that it is doing everything possible to increase quality of care, especially after a Washington Post investigation last year found wounded Iraq war veterans living in ramshackle housing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Nonetheless, according to the Dallas News, portions of a Texas VA had to close this week, after 4 mentally ill patients were able to commit suicide while on the hospital’s grounds.

Bryan Catherman, a former staff sergeant in the Army Reserve, quoted in the La Times' story says he sank into a depression and abused alcohol after returning from overseas.

At first resisting his family's pleas to get help, he later encountered frustration in dealing with Veterans Affairs. Today, he credits the VA for the help he needed, but thinks the government misread the problem.

"The system is overburdened," Catherman said. "We should have learned from Vietnam. I feel, as a veteran, that once I got home from Iraq, I wasn't much of a concern anymore."

Posted by Beth Walton at April 18, 2008 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/18: Poems for Breakfast

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

It was twelve days
before we realized
before each one could hear
the same story from Arthur
and Bertie and William
Three days for the storm to stop blowing
Another two to dig one’s way
to the hog pen and the barn
to throw hay to the starving mare
Another week before
the wagons could make their way to town ...

So begins "Hearing the News," a poem by Jana Bouma. Bouma's poem, about an 1873 snowstorm, contains vivid imagery and raises historical details you might find interesting.

It's this week's winner in the What Light: This Week's Poem series sponsored by mnartists.org. The program celebrates Minnesota writers, but it's also an admirable initiative to help get poetry back into our daily lives.

Poetry's like breakfast. It's better when you have it every day.

The submission deadline for the weekly poem series is tomorrow, so ship 'em some poems if you're registered on mnartists.org. It's still National Poetry Month out there, after all. Onward ...

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Music editor Andrea Myers makes her debut with two posts, including breaking the news that the B-Girl Be summit for women in hip-hop is taking a year off. Also see her review of the Voltage fashion show and the bands that played there, supported with an extensive photo slideshow.

Three new gaming posts at Joystick Division. First, Nate Patrin reviews the stylus-powered Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword. Chris Ward reports on Rob Zombie (that's Mr. Zombie to you, pal) and Rivers Cuomo from Weezer having an aversion to Guitar Hero. Finally. what do console sales tell us about video games? Is the Wii making your grandmother a Halo addict? These and other numbers questions are answered by Gary Hodges.

It all depends on the criteria, you see. A company can see a mysterious illness emerge from its plant, but still win a workplace safety award.

Slowly but surely, Minneapolis heads for Instant Runoff Voting.

Akon, the R+B singer who told wild tales of a Gone in 60 Seconds style youth with significant prison time, turns out to have been full of shit.

Judd Spicer advises young Carlos Gomez (and other national pastime practitioners) in the art of the sacrifice bunt. I would have slightly different advice: don't sacrifice bunt. Ever. In this era of supercharged offense, giving up an out is almost never a good play, especially in the American League where the pitcher doesn't bat. If you're going to bunt -- especially if you can fly like Gomez -- bunt for a base hit.

Outs are the precious sand of baseball's hourglass, and giving them up for free just doesn't make sense like it did in the dead ball era. When you play for one run, you only get one run, and one run's not often enough these days.

On a somber note, the Wild game did not turn out the way either Kevin Hoffman or Ben Palosaari had hoped, but each one has a take.

Nipa Bhatt of Chanhassen will compete on the fourth season of "The Next Food Network Star." Bhatt, former owner of the Gypsy Curry House, will compete against foes as yet unknown, but will be judged by unfortunately named celebrity chef Bobby Flay. Johnny Maim and Nicky Thumbscrews are waiting for Paula Abdul to go to rehab so they can judge American Idol.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 18, 2008 5:37 AM | Comments (0)

 

Minneapolis City Council ratifies IRV rules

Filed under: Elections

The City Council voted today to approve rules governing instant runoff voting, the ballot-counting system that city voters overwhelmingly passed in 2006. The Council also asked city elections staff to put out a request for proposals from voting equipment vendors.

It's still anyone's guess whether IRV will be in place by 2009, given the challenges in getting federally-approved machines lined up quickly. The Council didn't address whether they'll have to push IRV back to 2013, a move that would be unpopular with advocates of instant runoffs.

"We're moving forward toward the 2009 implementation date," said Cynthia Reichert, the city's election director, after the rules had passed. However, she added, "Council has the authority to make a determination that we may not be ready."

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at April 17, 2008 1:37 PM | Comments (0)

 

Pork plant tied to mysterious illness wins top tier award

Filed under: Health Care

It seems like mysterious worker illness and butchered pig brains would be any PR flack’s nightmare. But, despite Quality Pork Processors's bad press as of late, the Austin, Minn. plant was recently given a top tier workplace safety award.

A spokesman for the American Meat Institute, who gave the plant its highest award, told the AP, that the recognition applauded the plant’s overall health and safety program, not its handling of a single situation.

Only in America can the fried nervous systems of 18 workers be seen as a single issue problem. Check out this lady's story.

As Minn Post's David Brauer puts it:

She just got free of her walker. But I guess she still has her thumbs, so it's a great safety victory for the packers.

Posted by Beth Walton at April 17, 2008 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/17:

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Don't miss Jeff Severns Guntzel's post from yesterday about the first ever Minneapolis Film Festival, which we covered when we were still called "Sweet Potato."

The latest in a series of posts we're calling Unearthed, Guntzel goes through the City Pages archive and finds out what coverage of that 1981 event looked like, in words and pictures. He's got video from some of the films, too, but what I think will most whet your appetite is this cover image:

More contemporary images are coming later this morning, when we'll have multiple slideshows from last night's Voltage fashion show and music event.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE
Lots new on the Culture to Go blog, from anti-folk to Anti-Flag.

Kimya Dawson played at the Cedar. Andy Mannix reviewed. A completely different style of music was in evidence two nights ago at First Ave, when Anti-Flag railed against the evils of everything.

Full coverage of Voltage momentarily.

Uptown will miss you, too, James Norton. But at least you've left us a list of eateries to remember you by. Also, you can come back, if you aren't killed by a pothole or food poisoning.

With a Democrat in office, the chances of the NWA-Delta merger being regulated increase. Hence, Rep. Jim Oberstar threatens to "run out the clock" on the event.

Remember yesterday, when Lean Dean Singleton referred to one of the Democratic presidential candidates as "Obama" bin Laden? Demko has the video.

Award-winning author Maya Hornbacher has struggled with a host of mental maladies, and not only lived to tell the tale, went on to win awards for her writing. Jessica Armbruster interviews the confessional author.

Mark Kiszla is to hockey what Ben Stein's movie is to biology. Fortunately, a host of hilarious Wild fans told him so.

Why are girls playing sports more than ever but still on the whole behind in exercise? Jonathan Kaminsky breaks it down.

That debate last night was like a rehab meeting in Utah: substance-free. But I'm going to call the Clinton campaign today and ask a frivolous question about her gambling predilections, so I'm guilty too.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 17, 2008 7:20 AM | Comments (0)

 

Oberstar to NWA, Delta: Not so fast

Filed under: Economy

Rep. Jim Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, is threatening to "run out the clock" on the NWA-Delta merger until a new president is in office.

From Politico:

“We have no legal authority to block the merger, but we can continue to raise issues about it and ask the [Transportation Department] and [Justice Department] to address them,” said Oberstar spokesman John Schadl. “Simply put: Jim may be able to run out the clock on this.”

If a Democrat were elected president, so the thinking goes, there would be a greater chance of the merger being rejected by regulators newly charged with doing their jobs. There is nothing to say that Oberstar will be successful in this, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the state legislature are tripping over themselves to lure the new Delta's HQ to Minnesota with millions of dollars in tax breaks. (MPR)

The company isn't going to relocate, but here's a prediction that you can hold me to: The dangled goodies could well give Atlanta-based Delta enough leverage to demand similar corporate charity from its home state of Georgia just to stay put.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at April 16, 2008 10:06 AM | Comments (1)

 

Obama bin Laden

Filed under: Media

Here's a video clip of MediaNews Group CEO William Dean Singleton's unfortunate verbal gaffe referenced in yesterday's post:

(Cribbed from ASNE Reporter)

Posted by Paul Demko at April 16, 2008 9:37 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/16: Poo-tee-weet?

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Spoiler alert: the onomatopoeia in the headline to this post ends Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s novel Slaughterhouse-Five. It's the transliteration of a bird sound heard by Billy Pilgrim, the title character.

If you didn't know, the book covers the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. The bird sound is meant to symbolize the absence of anything intelligent to say about war. Instead of human pontifications about strategy, the final sound you hear is an animal's. And the sound "poo-tee-weet" is offered as a bird's way of saying, is it over yet? Is it safe to come out?

Not that I'm comparing winter to the firebombing of Dresden, but that's what this week's weather has me thinking. The literal birds are out twittering, and the figurative ones inside me are saying, "hey, is it over yet?"

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Paul Demko wants to ensure that we get lots of Web hits on his way out the door, so he headlined this post about clean water regulations "Water Sports." His next post about corporate malfeasance will be called "Barely Legal," and I expect any missive about stupid politicos to be entitled "Big Boobs."

Augmenting the review from yesterday, today offers a new slideshow from the KRS-ONE show, with several images of local artists and breakdancers as well.

The Pi Press's parent company CEO has a problem distinguishing "Osama" from "Obama." Is anyone else tempted to start a "John McVeigh" meme in response?

When I interviewed him for the music feature, I asked RJD2 to tell me which beat was his favorite from all the tracks he'd ever produced. He thought for a long time before coming up with the track "Big Game" from Diverse's solo LP. It didn't seem like anything super-special, he said, until he played it in a club with a booming sound system. Turn up the bass and check out this 30-second sample clip.

Another free MP3 download, this one full-length: try out the best song ever written about being in love with a dental hygienist.

Critical Mass cyclist gets off. Matt Snyders uses phrase "maggot-ridden pigshit." Everybody wins!

Anonymous sourcing is a tricky issue, because you don't want to cut off reporters' access to gather and distribute information, but you also don't want to give people free rein to attack others without fear of repercussions. Kevin Hoffman identifies a specific example of this pertaining to Barack Obama.

There are also accountability issues with anonymous sources. One reason I always comment under my own name on blogs rather than pseudonymously is I want to be accountable for the things I say. Also, I think the Web would be a more decorous place if everybody used their real name. I'm a firm believer in the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

The Village Voice lines up some fish, puts them in a barrel, and shoots them. Tom Tomorrow draws the results. It's our sister paper's take on right-wing bloggers, many of them local, and my only beef is that there is no "robot sex" joke about Glenn Reynolds.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 16, 2008 7:30 AM | Comments (0)

 

Village Voice lampoons rightwing bloggers

Filed under: Blogs/Web

This week our sister paper, the Village Voice, published a hilarious guide to rightwing bloggers, and the list includes several notable Minnesotans.

First up is James Lileks, the Strib's wunderkind-turned-scaremonger:

JAMES LILEKS (The Bleat; lileks.com)

ORIENTATION: Suburbative

TONE: Nostalgic

FUN FACT: Briefly lived in Washington, D.C. (“where I heard every voice on the globe,” and also “the world’s crossroads of disease”), in a “blaring trash-strewn enclave” where he “lived in a constant state of nervous dread.” Currently resides in a house he calls “Jasperwood,” complete with “water feature” (i.e., fountain), in a Minneapolis neighborhood that he describes as “urban.”

CANDIDATE: Undeclared, leaning toward George Wallace

STUPID/EVIL RATIO: 60/40

HISTORY: Writer for various papers, including The Washington Post; longtime employee of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, for whom he blogs and supplies columns. Books include humorous, affectionate tweakings of ads, recipes, and photographs from the mid-20th century, which also comprised the centerpiece of The Bleat when it started in 1997, along with scrupulous coverage of Lileks’s daily routine (dog-walking, conversations with daughter, unsatisfying encounters with store clerks). Conservative themes emerged tentatively at first, with grumpy-old-man swipes at graffiti (“When I see that thicket of cryptic squibbles plastered on a sign, I want to bring back the chain gang”) and Monica Lewinsky (“I no more care how she feels about Ken Starr than I care how Al Capone felt about Eliot Ness”). September 11 exacerbated these tendencies to an hallucinogenic degree. Predicted New York would be “nuked,” compared a Chock Full O’Nuts Coffee can to “an urn from Atlantis,” and imagined his daughter attacked by Osama bin Laden (“Give me a gun; show me the cave”) and feminists (“I cannot possibly think of any good reason to ever strike a woman, unless it’s the one in the uniform who wants to pry my daughter’s arms from my neck because the state has decided all men must leave the household for the good of the People”).

MODUS OPERANDI: The Bleat remained thick with such fist-shakings until the 2006 elections, which seem to have thrown Lileks for a loop. Now, he mainly weaves weird culture-war demurrers into his ripely worded chronicles of shopping and child-rearing. So far he’s been quiet about McCain and even Hillary, but he refers to Obama as “Cool Brother,” which, given his longstanding antipathy to The Boondocks, is dispositive. Also: “Hillary and Obama; put them together, and what do you have? White. Male.”

WHAT TO EXPECT: Long, maudlin reminiscences of Ye Olden Tymes (croquets lawns, village greens) contrasted with fantasies of the Brave New Worlds affected by Hillary (forced repatriations of girlchilds and slut-servicings of Bill) or Obama (forced integration of Target, Wal-Mart).

Then in a threefer, we get the gang from Powerline:

HINDROCKET, THE BIG TRUNK, THE DEACON (Power Line; powerlineblog.com)

ORIENTATION: Grassroots Establishmentarian

TONE: First-draft-of-right-wing-history important

FUN FACT: Named “Blog of the Year” in 2004 by Time. (“I don’t put much faith in anything that comes from Time magazine.”—Hindrocket, 2003)

CANDIDATE: McCain

STUPID/EVIL RATIO: 30/70

HISTORY: Powerline was founded in 2002 by lawyers John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson, and Paul Mirengoff, all fellows of the right-wing Claremont Institute and contributors to conservative publications. The genesis of their cognomens is unknown, but they’ve been widely mocked (“Assrocket”) and were eventually soft-pedaled by the authors, who favor lengthy dissertations on moral and political topics (“the Clinton-Gore lack of seriousness about issues”), personal essays (“Being a child of the ’50s, I don’t recall a time when Sammy Davis was not a celebrity . . .”), and the occasional attempt at investigative journalism, some of which were howlingly unsuccessful (“Bin Laden is dead. More leaks are starting to come out . . .”—July 27, 2002). Sometimes they struck pay-dirt, however, including the “Rathergate” controversy over George W. Bush’s alleged military service, which figured in the blog’s 2004 Time award. Thereafter, Powerline sometimes attempted to recapture the old magic, most notably by unsuccessfully debunking the damning “Schiavo memo” from Senator Mel Martinez’s office, which was laid to rest with the admission “Real Memo, Fake Story” (“While [it] . . . didn’t turn out to be a Democratic dirty trick, the media’s treatment of the memo was misleading at best”). Mostly covered other people’s reporting from a right-wing Republican perspective, like Fox News with a scroll bar.

MODUS OPERANDI: Having built their reputation and traffic sufficiently, the authors appear to be coasting (“Will Bush Rebound in 2008?”). They do sometimes attempt to hold John McCain’s feet to the fire (“Those of us who want to preserve the interrogation device that apparently caused Khalid Sheikh Muhammad to break down in minutes . . . remain free to punish McCain and/or Graham at the polls for their underlying efforts to ban waterboarding categorically”), but their heart obviously isn’t in it (“Stop attacking McCain for his ‘impurities’ ”).

WHAT TO EXPECT: Pro forma boosterism, with frequent breathless dispatches on whatever scandal the GOP is pushing in October.

As Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds would say: Read the whole thing.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at April 15, 2008 10:18 PM | Comments (1)

 

Water sports

Filed under: Environment

In 2001 the United States Supreme Court ruled that many non-navigable, "isolated" waters are not covered by pollution protections in the Clean Water Act. Five years later the country's top court considered the issue again. This time it split 4-1-4, with three different and seemingly conflicting opinions about which bodies of water are subject to federal regulations. Environmentalists fear that these rulings, coupled with recent determinations by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have put the nation's waterways at serious risk. Since 2004 environmental groups have been lobbying Congress to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act, arguing that such legislation is needed to ensure that the original intent of the landmark 1972 legislation is enforced.

Tomorrow morning Darrell Gerber, program coordinator for Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota, will testify on behalf of the legislation at Capitol Hill. The hearing is before the House's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar. Gerber believes that the bill's prospects are greater than at any time in the past four years. "This is by far the most consideration that it's received," he says.

Gerber points to two Minnesota lakes in highlighting the dangers posed by changes in how the Clean Water Act is enforced. Boyer Lake is a 310-acre body of water in Becker County, roughly 35 miles east of the North Dakota border, that's popular with walleye fisherman. Bah Lake covers 70 acres on the border between Grant and Douglas counties, and is typically covered with up to 10 feet of water.

The local Army Corps office initially determined that these lakes are no longer subject to federal protections from pollutants. This decision, however, was subsequently overturned. "The fact that federal officials first concluded that the Clean Water Act did not cover large and productive bodies of water shows that the threat to so-called 'isolated' waters is significant," writes Gerber in his prepared testimony for tomorrow's hearing.

Across the country, Clean Water Action estimates that more than 50 percent of the country's streams, representing over 1.8 million miles of waterways, could be at risk of losing protection, depending on how the loosened strictures are interpreted. Such changes could potentially impact the drinking water of 110-million people. "If we really want to meet the goals of the Clean Water Act we have to cover these waters," Gerber says.

You can watch the hearing starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow on the committee's web site.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 15, 2008 3:01 PM | Comments (0)

 

Critical Mass Cyclist Found Not Guilty

Filed under: Protest News

It took a jury all of 10 minutes to determine that the charges against Critical Mass cyclist Gus Ganley (assault on an officer, obstruction of legal process, and fleeing an officer) amounted to maggot-ridden pigshit: "not guilty" on all counts.

During the four-day trial, nine eye witnesses and three videos refuted the Minneapolis Police Department's claim that Critical Mass cyclists attacked police officers. Instead, the evidence corroborated Ganley's claim that the MPD initiated wanton use of force.

Of the 20+ alleged rioters arrested Aug. 31, the city attorney was only willing to charge five. Of those, charges against one were dropped and another pled down to a misdemeanor traffic offense. Two await trial.

Shortly after we broke the story, conspiracy theories swirled that law enforcement's unprecedented surveillance of the ride was due to the presence of a protest group gearing up for the Republican National Convention. The MPD publicly denied this. (In our follow-up on the story, an MPD spokesperson, when asked about the presence of an overhead helicopter throughout the ride, told City Pages: "The police department has never been able to help facilitate their ride because they're always in the back of the riders, so they decided to provide an aerial view to make it a better ride.")

But at the hearing, a Minneapolis police officer testified that police were instructed to monitor critical mass because of intelligence reports on RNC protest-planning, according to a press release circulated by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

The next Critical Mass ride is April 25th

Posted by Matt Snyders at April 15, 2008 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

 

Lean Dean wants to hunt down Obama bin Laden

Filed under: Media

William Dean Singleton, CEO of MediaNews Group, apparently isn’t too good with names. At the Associated Press’s annual luncheon in Washington yesterday, Singleton asked Sen. Barack Obama if he was willing to commit more troops to Afghanistan given that “Obama bin Laden is still at large.”

Singleton later apologized for the verbal gaffe, which Obama reportedly laughed off. But the slip of the tongue by the head of the country's fourth largest newspaper chain, which includes the St. Paul Pioneer Press, might be revealing of his own political views.

As Westword points out, Singleton hasn't been shy about wielding his media clout to support the GOP. In 2004 he overruled the Denver Post's decision to endorse John Kerry over Singleton's personal friend Dubya. More recently he's used the Post to attack Democratic Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.

Which makes the Denver daily highly unlikely to support the senator from Jalalabad. But will Singleton's political proclivities have any impact on which candidate the Pioneer Press chooses to endorse?

Posted by Paul Demko at April 15, 2008 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/15: Bye, Demko

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

It's tax day today, and yesterday was pretty taxing. We learned Paul Demko is moving on after eight years.

We'll miss the political reporting that once got him called the Twin Cities' own Carl Kolchak, his writing and his presence in the office. Thankfully, Paul will still occasionally serve as our soccer correspondent on Balls!, the sports blog.

Here's a regret you won't hear every day. We're working on a partnership with an independent video game manufacturer -- they may be producing small amusements for our site -- and I was going to ask them to produce a Zelda-themed game entitled "The Legend of Demko."¹

Sadly, that will now never happen. Bet you won't get your own video game at Minnesota Monitor, huh, Paul? But I'll still always remember Paul's first words of sage advice to me after I heard the news of his departure: "Man," he said, laughing, "that pothole post was the weirdest thing I've ever read."

Here are three examples of the terrific work Demko has done for us over the years.

There's this award-winner, co-authored with G.R. Anderson. Before my time here, but equally incisive, was this cover piece from 2006 on homeless Hmong refugees. Personally, I'm partial to this one, a thoughtful treatment of jumpers from St. Paul's High Bridge, though that may be because I worked on it a bit with him.

There are so many more. Find some of your own favorite stories in his author archive, or feel free to leave your favorite Demko memories in the comments.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Anti-Scientology protesters, many masked, demonstrated in front of the Church of Scientology downtown yesterday. Matt Snyders reports. Tom Cruise shows up to defend L. Ron's wacky money-making scheme in the comments.²

Patterned after the popular blog Stuff White People Like, Rachel Hutton offers up Stuff White People Like to Eat. What, no fondue mentioned yet?

James Norton offers an early introduction to an improvised restaurant.

Joystick Division gets letters. We get letters every day.

¹ Note: this is absolutely true.
² Note: this is not, in fact, true.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 15, 2008 7:46 AM | Comments (0)

 

Anti-Scientology Protesters Take to the Street

Filed under: Protest News

On a miserably frigid and wet day, a protest group calling itself Anonymous staged its third anti-Scientology demonstration in downtown Minneapolis in as many months. Saturday’s protest saw about 50 demonstrators—more than a few decked in Guy Fawkes masks—congeal across from the Church of Scientology on Nicollet Mall, between 10th and 11th Streets.

Dubbed “Operation: Reconnect,” the protest took aim at Scientology’s “disconnection” practice, whereby new recruits are compelled to severe their ties with non-practicing friends and family members

“We’re here to say your family misses you,” said a girl wearing a scarf across her face and a nametag identifying her as Emily. “This is a dangerous cult that enjoys tax-exempt status. Where’s the fairness there?”

A few protestors prowled along Nicollet, handing out fliers to passersby encouraging them to google “Operation Freakout,” “Fair Game Policy,” and other “formal polic[ies] of harassment.”

The demonstration was just one of many to held worldwide on April 12. Similar protests were staged on March 15 and February 10.

Posted by Matt Snyders at April 14, 2008 2:19 PM | Comments (21)

 

Pothole of the day: Discipline and punish

Filed under: potholes

True genius is measured in both depth and breadth. The great works -- Melville's Moby Dick, Joyce's Ulysses, Flair-Steamboat from Clash of the Champions 6 -- impress not just with length, but the fullness and richness of experience.

So it was with this now-filled pothole. Wide it was, but deep, too. Its like will be seen again, to be sure, but in the meantime we're forced to choose from among its lessers. Hence, this gem from North 17th St. and Washington Avenue.

If you're going to choose depth or breadth, you choose depth every time. Reading one 450-page book in depth is better than reading the first page of 450 books, unless those 450 books each have really, really good pictures on the splash page.

It is with this principle in mind that we celebrate this pothole, which is not so wide, but as deep as a William Stafford poem:

When one of my tires nestled deep in its manful embrace, it cried out in pain -- but it was the type of pain one is almost honored to endure from such a worthy foe. It is what the bondage partners of Michel Foucault must have felt, or Michael Spinks.

It is not like the Mississippi River, which flows from stem to stern of this great land. It is, in fact, just a fucking pothole. But it is a deep fucking pothole. You have to to give it that.

Also, it has friends nearby. Acolytes, even, apprentice potholes that hope one day to achieve their sensei's depth.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 14, 2008 11:45 AM | Comments (1)

 

Breakfast of Champions 4/14: Rappers, pirate and otherwise

Filed under: Breakfast of Champions

Yesterday I searched eMusic for a copy of Motorhead's song "Ace of Spades." If you have to ask why, you have likely never a) played poker or b) heard Motorhead.

The quest was in vain. Rather than the chord-crunching, card-table-vibrating original, there was merely an array of covers. One of them was a rap-metal hybrid featuring an artist called Sea Dog. Sea Dog? A pirate-themed rapper?

Curiosity piqued by the idea of hip-hop Sea chanties, I clicked the link. More specifically, it was "Sea Dog of Cypress Hill" -- raising the specter of pirate ditties about marijuana, even though it was now obviously a typo for Sen Dog.

But this concept of "Sea Dog" the rapper intrigues. Save two references I came up with off the top of my head (both from the Beastie Boys), there are few references to piracy in hip-hop. Which is a huge missed opportunity. Just look at what the Shao-lin martial arts theme did for the Wu.

This is a genre that has gone yet unexplored, possibly because not much rhymes with "matey" or "avast". Aside from adding another to the list of "absurd Google searches I had to do for my job" ("pirate rapper"), I found this 20 second sack of awesome that explains why webcams were invented:

Aspiring MCs take note. My cut is 10 percent of your pieces of eight.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

During the battle for DFL imprimatur this weekend, Ashwin Madia won, which engendered a discussion about the democratic process in the comments.

This may be the classiest thing ever done. C.J., I have an acronym for you. DIAGF.

On a happier note, Gary Hodges' latest post about his Top 5 Video Game Enemies features original art to go along with the original alien penis images from the game. No, that's not made up. Also, apparently the latest Star Wars game is brutal

Any time a headline starts with the words "alleged public masturbator," you know it's a tale worth reading.

Like Guinness? Like cupcakes? You'll love Jessica Armbruster's Guinness cupcakes. If you like neither of those things, maybe it's time to re-evaluate your priorities.

Gear up for tonight's Wild game by revisiting our liveblogging of the last two games. I especially like Ben Palosaari's images of Wild fans from game two. Ben's also got an interview with a guy who gets paid to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters

An early "concert of the year" candidate came out of Trocaderos on Saturday night, when KRS-ONE came to town and was backed by a host of eminent luminary MCs from this locality.

We are making a difference. More potholes to come on the blog, fewer on the roads.

Has McCain made up his mind to pick Tim Pawlenty as veep?

Francisco Liriano is back, and Judd Spicer says mechanical signs point to "go." Mostly.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 13, 2008 8:50 PM | Comments (1)

 

C.J. scolded by editor after mocking conjoined twins in gossip column

Filed under: Media

I don't mean to pile on. We've recently written several poisoned-penned posts about Star Tribune gossip columnist C.J. Jonathan Kaminsky called her out for a host of sins before giving her a backhanded compliment for writing a nice piece on departing WCCO weatherman Paul Douglas. Then Beth Walton mocked C.J.'s recent email exchange over who deserves credit for the Douglas scoop, as well as her admission that she doesn't know how to use spellcheck. But C.J.'s recent episode of nastiness, which culminated in an apology from the editor in today's Strib, is just too egregious to ignore.

It all started when C.J. was at the Mall of America for a media event. It happened to be the same day that Abigail and Brittany Hensel, conjoined twins, were out for a day of shopping. For those who don't know of the Hensel twins, here is a primer. The takeout: The family tries to maintain as normal a life as possible, but has done limited media appearances to help dispel some of the curiosity and explain how painful it is for the twins to be stared at or otherwise treated as a spectacle. The most cringe-worthy party of a documentary made about their lives is when a Spanish TV cameraman happens upon them and starts taping them without their permission.

So when C.J. spots the twins at MoA, what does she do? She stalks them then writes about it. Here is the part of the column that describes the embarrassing episode, in its entirety:

Just a day at the mall

The Guinness World Records guy wanted a gander at Minnesota's adult conjoined twins.

Guinness adjudication exec Danny Girton Jr. heard about them Sunday while he was at the Mall of America to declare that Duff Goldman, of Baltimore's Charm City Cakes and Food TV's "Ace of Cakes," had baked the world's biggest cupcake. Girton learned that Abigail and Brittany Hensel had walked by me and Todd Walker, one of my Fox 9 contributor pals.

"Now, there's something you don't see everyday," I remarked to Walker, returning to our previous conversation as the twins walked by Barnes & Noble. Seconds later, they came into view for Walker, who instantly became the personification of flappable: "Did I just see that? Did I just see what I saw?"

When Girton figured out what Walker was hyperventilating about, the Guinness guy wanted to see for himself. Walker agreed to take Girton to find them, and I tagged along.

Not long into the pursuit, my conscience told me: "You can't do this. This seems wrong." It's not as though I was seeking an interview or was going to be gauche enough to ask if I could videotape them. Since it was obvious they get gawked at enough, with many MOA shoppers barely able to contain themselves, I dropped out of the chase.

"Don't pretend you didn't partake in the pursuit," said Walker said. "We threw Duff, the Food Network stuff and Sandra Lee to the wind. You were terrible." He exaggerated but more fairly observed: "You just shrugged your shoulders and said, Yeah, well, as if somebody walked by wearing pink shoes on the wrong feet. You were quite funny, your cavalier attitude, about the whole thing."

It's called being accepting.

"Don't forget to write what you said when I called you later and asked if I had really seen [conjoined] twins."

I reminded Walker that we couldn't all be born cute, little blondes. Besides, I've seen Fancy Ray.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. More of her attitude can be seen on Fox 9 Thursday mornings.

Apparently, the father of the twins saw this odorous piece of writing and contacted C.J. After he made clear his disappointment, C.J. issued an apology in her column. But she clearly took a smartass approach and almost argues against the father in the course of saying sorry (emphasis added):

An apology to the twins

Through their father, Mike Hensel, I apologized to Brittany and Abigail, the conjoined twins who live in rural Minnesota, for the item I wrote last week.

I regret that the item's intent -- the need to accept differences in people and not to follow them around in public, at a place such as the Mall of America -- was misconstrued by their family and friends. It did not occur to me they were uncomfortable with media attention. They have participated in lots of interviews. They've appeared on "TLC" and "Oprah." They've been written about in Newsweek, the UK's Telegraph and Daily Mail. In February, they appeared in the City Pages' blotter blog.

Let me clear something up, C.J. We did not contact the family when we wrote our item, so it should not be used as a club against Mr. Hensel. Secondly, do you not recognize the difference in tone between this from City Pages:

These two young women have remarkable spirit and their story should serve as an inspiration to anyone tempted to think his or her life is too challenging.

And this from your gossip column:

"You just shrugged your shoulders and said, Yeah, well, as if somebody walked by wearing pink shoes on the wrong feet. You were quite funny, your cavalier attitude, about the whole thing."

Which is why Strib editor Nancy Barnes rightly apologized in her column Sunday:

Last week, our gossip columnist, C.J., wrote an item regarding a set of conjoined twins, Abigail and Brittany Hensel, whose family has tried to enjoy as normal a life as possible. They want to live without everyone talking about them. In this instance, C.J. talked about spotting the pair and trying to follow them at the Mall of America and her internal debate with herself when she realized that was the wrong thing to do. We later learned that the article upset the family and the twins.

Now, C.J.'s column often ticks off its targets; it's part of the give and take of a gossip column. However, in this instance, we could have handled this better. Nobody on staff intended any harm, but in writing about this incident, we crossed over the line between covering gossip and being unintentionally hurtful to people in their private lives. This was a voyeuristic bit of writing that we should have kept out of the paper.

We did double harm by issuing an apology that, in part, suggested it was the family's fault for misunderstanding our intent. We fumbled our handling of this and I apologize to the family.

Hopefully, this post will not compound the problem by shedding even more attention on this unfortunate episode. If there is a moral to this story, it is this: If you see the Hensel twins in public, show some class and leave them alone.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at April 13, 2008 2:42 PM | Comments (4)

 

Madia wins!

Filed under: Politics

After hours of votes and repeat votes and what many feared would be another democratic stalemate, Iraq war veteran and lawyer Ashwin Madia became the endorsed DFL candidate for the 3rd Congressional District Saturday evening. He will face conservative Republican senator Erik Paulsen in the general election.

Often viewed as the underdog in the race against state senator Terri Bonoff, Madia, 30, secured the nomination after Bonoff gracefully stepped aside when the marine, whose only real legislative experience stems from a stint as the undergraduate student body president at the University of Minnesota, achieved 57.8 percent of the available votes during the 8th round of ballots.

Saturday's convention brought out hundreds of Madia and Bonoff supporters who want to see change in Washington. The Third District congressional seat has been a Republican stronghold for decades, and currently houses well loved outgoing Republican Jim Ramstad.

But, with the residents of district (Brooklyn Park, Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, Maple Grove, Plymouth and Wazata) moving more to the left in the past few years, the DFL sees this seat as a crucial pickup spot and race has been closely followed in Minnesota and nation wide.

For the story behind Madia's unprecedented success pick up City Pages this week.

Posted by Beth Walton at April 13, 2008 12:17 AM | Comments (9)

 

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