Furst Draft

'Good luck on the unemployment line'

Here's a note from a reader whose e-mail address identifies him as Ken Otto...who knows if it's his name...complaining about how we didn't allow online comments on the story about racial profiling:

I found it amazing that this post did not allow comments. I have no idea why anyone would pay for your "news" paper.

Good luck on the unemployment line.

I think I may have heard from this guy before, with the "good wishes" for our fate.

Here's my response to him:

Your note is a good example of why we don't allow comments on some sensitive stories -- a few people abuse the privilege.

Was his disagreeable comment inappropriate for the online comment section? Nope. But I don't have to accept it in e-mail. I expect some civility from people in their e-mail, just as we do in the online comments.

Do Somali men in Rochester actually work?

Two items regarding race in Rochester that come to mind today, the day on which President Obama meets with the Harvard professor and the Boston cop.

Yesterday we assigned (belatedly) a local story reacting to that racial profiling case that has drawn intense national media attention. We tend to be a little slow at times getting local reaction to national stories of this kind, but our timing in this case isn't bad, with the White House meeting set for today. In any case, a few naysayers thought this was a non-story, that racial profiling isn't much of a local story.

Seriously? You don't think it happens here? Check our archives for local news stories on the subject, and talk to non-white residents of the Rochester area. Today's story ought to reflect that fact.

And here's a note that was directed to the Answer Man, our columnist on everything factual. He passed this along as requiring no attention from him.

Dear Answer Man,

I see a lot of Somali men, young and old, at Old Country Buffet in the afternoon when we are there for lunch. This could be anytime between noon and 3 or 4 p.m. Which brings up a question: I don't recall seeing Somali men working anywhere in Rochester. Do you know if they work here or are they independently wealthy?

Thanks for your column.

Kathy

I can confirm that Somali men do work in Rochester, and that this question falls neatly into the category of racial profiling. Why would one even think of this question?

'I am so sick of Mayo running the whole county'

The level of antipathy that some area people have about Mayo Clinic never ceases to amaze me.

Here's an e-mail from a reader regarding a fact that we messed up in a story Friday -- misplaced the decimal point on the estimated cost of the bypass, which is $334 million, not $33.4 million. We corrected it in Saturday's print edition.

I think you need to reprint the article and get your facts straight on the railroad bypass article. A huge error in the amount of money Mayo wants to spend to take our rights away from us. Get the billions straight. I am so sick of Mayo running the whole county. -- Signed, One of the Land Owners

Millions, not billions...

I also took a voice mail from John Donovan, whose been involved in anti-bypass efforts for years. He said he took a careful count of the number of people at the meeting and estimated it at 600 to 700 people, not "more than 200," as our Friday story says. He asks whether our low number is a deliberate attempt to minimize anti-bypass opinion.

Nope. I wouldn't assume all 600-700 people are anti-bypass, nor should any reader. The reporter tells me that organizers know precisely how many packets were distributed, and we had a reporter at all three meetings. I need to double-check the Hayfield meeting in particular -- in the story we published Thursday, the crowd estimate was about 150, so apparently we revised that upward when talking with officials for Friday's story -- but even so, at "more than 200," I'm just not going to lose sleep.

The reason we staffed all three meetings is to get the full range of area opinion on the railroad issue. If we wanted to just go with Mayo and the Rochester line on this, we probably wouldn't have bothered.

And crowd estimates are "estimates" by definition -- they should be in the ballpark but they're often subject to finessing by people pro and con on an issue. Even when it comes to Down by the Riverside concert crowd estimates, I was talking with a prominent local business person last night and he said "cut 'em in half" when we get official estimates from organizers.

Barbarians at the gate

Here's an item from Ken McCracken, one of the P-B's most colorful former reporters, now living in the Toronto area. Something about this news item strikes me as distinctly Canadian:

FAREWELL TO KNIVES  
 
Knives could soon be going the way of the napkin ring and pewter tankard, as consumers abandon the dining table and eat meals on their laps in front of the television.
 
According to a report in the London Daily Telegraph, British retailers, report sales of knives are on the decline, with many people eating the majority of their meals with just a fork or, worse still, their fingers.
 
Debenhams, a major British retailer, says that four years ago it sold equal numbers of knives and forks, but in the last few months it has sold about two forks for every knife. Experts said they feared the trend could result in knives becoming an implement used only on special occasions.

'Fist-pump' photo with sex assault story

Can't disagree with this reader on the Roethlisberger story in the sports section yesterday:

Dear Sir,
 
Just wanted to offer the opinion that the picture that you included with the article at the top of page 2 was a poor choice.  It is tiring to see so much non-sports news in the sports section, though I know that is the way it is anymore.  But to show an athlete doing a "fist-pump" which is usually associated with a highly successful play, along with a headline on sexual assault is, well, not good.
 
Sincerely,
 
Tom Steger
Zumbrota

How bad was the hail last night?

According to Sharon and Jim Stephan in Haverhill Township, this is how deep it got by the Silver Creek Reservoir.

'I will be disappointed if the Post-Bulletin confuses a lack of transparency with interpretation'

Here's a note I and other news staff received from the Rochester school district's communications director Thursday morning, in advance of print publication of our MCA-II story and editorial, though after the editorial already was online...I know the editorial was already posted because a helpful online reader pointed out a name misspelling, which were able to correct before print publication.

In this note, Rachel Hicks, the district's spokesperson, cautions us that our editorial would be misguided if it called for faster "interpretation" of the test data. (Which is exactly what the editorial says.)

The amount of research and "interpretation" that went into this note is interesting.

I understand that the P-B may print an article today that includes criticism of the District for not being transparent (i.e. not releasing the MCA-II data to the public in a timely fashion.) Since the beginning of the MCA-IIs, the District has released the data publicly at the first Board meeting after the data comes into the District, with the exception of the 05-06 results, and this year is no different.

In 2006, the data was presented on November, 28, 2006
In 2007, the data was presented on August 7, 2007
In 2008, the data was presented on August 5, 2008
In 2009, the data was presented on July 14, 2009

It is premature to respond to specific questions about certain subgroups or schools (i.e. why some students and some schools are doing very well and why others need more opportunities for improvement). We are in the process of analyzing our data further in an attempt to provide the School Board, teachers, principals, and the community with information that is meaningful and instructive. Preparing data in this way will take time. The data is available to the public, however, it’s the interpretation of the data that is not readily available or easily discernable. I will be disappointed if the Post Bulletin confuses a lack of transparency with interpretation. Thank you in advance for considering this perspective in the article.

Sincerely,

Rachel HIcks

I'll just say it didn't take a lot of time and number-crunching by a few P-B reporters to come up with the data we published this week. It was fairly simple math. For that reason, and because this has become an issue of such overriding importance to the district, it seems reasonable that the district would have a timely response.

I let Rachel know that I was planning to post her note to my blog and she followed up with more detail:

Thanks, Jay. I do believe the P-B readers will want to know that information. To be clear, the District presents MCA-II twice to the board, the first being a brief overview, as was done last Tuesday and a second presentation with further analysis comes after. As I stated in the first e-mail, the process this year isn't any different than it's been done in past years. Feel free to share this as well:

2006 presentation dates:
Preliminary data:  5/2/06 – BST/MCA Grade 10 Writing Test.
Further analysis: November 28 (This presentation talked about MCA vs. MCA II and math and reading at elementary, middle and high school levels)

 2007 presentation dates:
Preliminary data: August 7, 2007 (Complete MCA results)

2008 presentation dates:
Preliminary data: August 5, 2008
Further analysis: August 19, 2008 – Further Analysis of 2007-2008 MCA II Results; October 21, 2008 – District MCA-II Science Results/ACT Test Results.

2009 presentation dates:
Preliminary data: July 14, 2009
Further analysis: TBD

'Very loud television pitch character Billy Mays'

Every Wednesday, American Profile magazine is part of the Post-Bulletin's insert package. It's generally a 12-page general interest newspaper magazine a la Parade and USA Weekend; the latter is part of our Weekend edition.

The magazine prints at least a few weeks before it's actually distributed in newspapers.

Anyway -- in the edition of American Profile inserted yesterday, on page 2 in the "Ask A.P." column, there's an unfortunately dated item that begins:

"Tell us a little bit about the very loud television pitch character Billy Mays, who sells cleaning products."

The correct answer would be, "Mays died in Florida of an apparent heart attack June 28." But because the magazine was printed some weeks ago, it says, "In case you haven't noticed, Mays has his own TV series on the Discovery Channel," etc., and concludes with, "He lives in Odessa, Fla., and will turn 51 on July 20."

This kind of regrettable incident is one of the challenges print media has always faced -- making sure we don't leave too much time between the reporting and publication. We talk about this, in one fashion or another, in our newsroom every day. Once the story's reported, get it online and in print ASAP to make sure the facts don't change.

We'll take this as a compliment

Superintendent Dallemand said at last night's Rochester School Board meeting something to this effect -- I won't quote, since I wasn't there, but this is very close to the quote:

    Our teachers want to get their students' test scores from the school district, not Elliot Mann.

Elliot is our excellent education reporter, of course. And it's our job to get news out as fast as it happens, so if Elliot is beating administrators or whoever to the punch, hats off to Elliot.

Otto's excellent doughnut holes

Otto's Bakery in Byron turned out being an ideal place for the first of our Community Coffees, a chance for P-B news, advertising and circulation people to meet our readers and hear their ideas. Publisher Randy Chapman led the event, which was especially welcome when it came time to pay for the coffee and doughnut holes.

About 25 people attended and had questions and comments for us. Most say they enjoy the paper and think it covers the Byron area well. That's good, because we have high readership and sell a lot of papers there.

Look for the next Community Coffee in September, possibly in Stewartville.