Furst Draft

Author unearths myth of the 'Minnesota Iceman'

One of the more intriguing e-mails of the week:

Hello,

I am writing a biography of the late naturalist, author and media personality Ivan T. Sanderson (1911-1973). Toward the end of his life, Sanderson became interested in some unusual subjects, such as Sasquatch / Bigfoot.

In one instance he met Frank Hansen, who was exhibiting an alleged Bigfoot frozen in ice, called "the Minnesota Iceman". Photos of it (and Hansen) that were credited to the Rochester Post-Bulletin appeared in (another newspaper). I am interested in reproducing these two photos in my book, as seen below. If the rights are available, but the original photos are lost, I can use the "de-halftoned" versions that I scanned out of the magazine.

Hope to be hearing from you.

Anyone have information on the Iceman? I might let the Answer Man chip away at this one.

Who says zombies aren't charitable?

Headline on a news release:

Zombies to Donate Thousands to RNC 8 and Scott DeMuth

Portion of Minneapolis Police Settlement to Go to Anarchists Facing Trial

This is like catnip to a journalist, of course. Here's the rest of the lead:

Minneapolis, MN--The RNC 8 and Scott DeMuth, Twin Cities anarchist
organizers facing trial this fall on politically motivated conspiracy
charges, are receiving donations to their legal defense funds from an
unlikely source--zombies who settled a lawsuit with the City of
Minneapolis late last week.

The seven “zombie” street theatre performers split a $165,000 settlement
with their lawyer stemming from police misconduct during their false
arrests in 2006. Members of the
Zombie 7 have pledged at least $4,000 of their settlement to the legal
defense of the RNC 8 and Scott DeMuth, another Minneapolis activist facing
a politically motivated conspiracy trial this fall.

Moses as secular lawgiver

In the U.S. Supreme Court building (designed by Minnesota native Cass Gilbert, by the way), there's an image of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. I've heard that fact, over the years, but never went looking for a photo of it.

Some people refer to that Moses emblem to argue that the Founders never intended for religious images such as Ten Commandment tablets to be forbidden from public property.

Well, here's the rest of the story. Yes, Moses is the High Court's courtroom frieze, or sculptural decoration, but he's one of 18 lawgivers, mostly secular.

The list: Menes, Hammurabi, Moses, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Confucius, Octavian, Justinian, Mohammed (imagine that! don't hear about him in the Supreme Court too often), Charlemagne, King John, Louis IX, Hugo Grotius, Sir William Blackstone, John Marshall and Napoleon.

That's quite a crowd. John Marshall in the company of Solomon, Napoleon hanging out with Mohammed.

In any case, from former Justice Souter's ruling in the McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties case, "Nor does the Court hold that a sacred text can never be integrated constitutionally into a governmental display on law or history. Its own courtroom frieze depicts Moses holding tablets exhibiting a portion of the secularly phrased Commandments; in the company of 17 other lawgivers, most of them secular figures, there is no risk that Moses would strike an observer as evidence that the National Government was violating religious neutrality."

Rochester mostly caters to 'elderly visitors to Mayo'

The Washington Monthly piece on the University of Minnesota Rochester is a great marketing piece for UMR -- more hyperbole than may be appropriate at this point, but maybe that's what sells a story about Minnesota to D.C. editors.

Among the details that stand out, to anyone familiar with Rochester:

The description of UMR Chancellor Steve Lehmkuhle: "Tall and balding with a genial affect and a neat moustache..."

    Can't disagree that Steve is tall, balding and genial. I'm not sure why his mustache needed to be described as "neat," however.

Demographics of Mayo patients: This is pretty funny..."Fortunately, Rochester was eager for a new university to create jobs and liven up a city center whose restaurants and stores mostly served elderly visitors to Mayo."

    That might come as a surprise to the thousands of younger-than-elderly patients as well as the patrons of downtown restaurants and bars. The writer, Kevin Carey, might have had a good time at Thursdays on First last night, or maybe the Peace Plaza jam tonight at Martinis.

    Just this week, we had another story about how downtown is getting downright rowdy, at least by Rochester standards.

Lectures are harmful: "Traditional college instruction -- epitomized by the lecture -- is largely a process of orally transmitting facts from the brain of the teacher to a student. It's a tremendously inefficient method -- even harmful."

    I'll put this in the hyperbole column.

How inexpensive UMR is: The story goes on at some length about how inexpensive UMR is, compared with, oh, the main campus in Minneapolis, Winona State University, etc. Of course, UMR offers limited programming, has plans for building more infrastructure and so on, but you'd think this is a cost-neutral enterprise in Rochester.

    Not sure of the accuracy of this statement -- we'll check it: "The cost of UMR's planned expansion to 1,500 students by 2015 will come entirely from student tuition, which is currently the standard University of Minnesota rate of $11,976 per year."

    That's a lot of students -- I'll assume that the vast majority will be part-time -- and will tuition really cover it? Seems questionable.

Winona State's library: The reporter takes potshots at Winona State for being organized like, well, most good universities. "Although it's not a research university, it has dutifully divided its faculty among five colleges and scores of departments, 17 in the College of Liberal Arts alone. It also takes a traditional approach to buildings," meaning it built a new library several years ago. "The cost to Minnesota taxpayers: $17.7 million, plus annual expenses for maintenance and the 17 (employees)."

UMR pretty much has no library -- its "entire print collection fits in the kind of small metal bookcase you can buy at Office Depot for $129. The bottom two shelves are empty."

So -- the point is -- what? Winona State has thousands of students who pay a lot of money for an education in many disciplines and departments, compared with the narrow focus at UMR. It's a high-quality institution with a strong liberal arts tradition and a long history of serving students -- and businesses that need smart, well-trained employees.

Why whack WSU to make a point about a start-up like UMR, where expenses are tiny because there are relatively few students and programs?

I'll bet UMR fills those two bottom shelves one of these days, and might even wish for some type of library when they grow to an enrollment of 9,300, comparable to WSU.

We eat dinner early: The most puzzling line might be this one, though: "Lehmkuhle was initially worried about recruiting students to an unknown university in a flat, cold city filled with people who eat dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon."

Leaving aside the "flat, cold city" crack, do you eat dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon? Do you know anyone who does?

Today's tease on TV

Here's what I pushed on KTTC this morning:

Mayo Clinic is one of six medical centers nationwide that have grabbed a piece of a $100 million research grant to study immune responses to vaccines -- Mayo's share will be at least $12 million, and Dr. Greg Poland will lead the work at six sites. Good news for the clinic.

Yesterday we had a modest-sized pig on the front page, as part of our build-up to the State Fair, and I have to tell you, we'll have an even bigger boar on the front page today -- his name is Reggie and he's famous from appearances at the Mower County Fair -- this year he's going to Falcon Heights for the big show and he'll be the largest board in the State Fair's record books, at 1,450 pounds.

And in Heard on the Street, Jeff Kiger's twice-weekly column of business scoops, he sinks his claws into the Red Lobster story -- when and where that popular downtown restaurant will be moving...there's been a change of plans...and a change of names at a south Rochester motel, among other stuff to talk about over the water cooler.

Today's closeup on TV

Here's what I had to tell KTTC viewers this morning about today's paper:

Rochester is being called one of the top national hot spots for jobs, now and into the future, according to a story in Atlantic Monthly magazine -- it's just one economist making predictions, but this guy says Rochester might top all other cities by 2020 with estimated new job growth of 12 percent...a state economist says it's a reasonable guess, but a lot of work has to be done to make that happen...we'll have that story.

Also in the national media is the University of Minnesota Rochester, which is being called a model for innovative approaches to higher education partnering with business and employers -- feature in Washington Monthly magazine -- we'll tell you about that.

And Ed's Museum in Wykoff is getting some help from the Legacy Fund to hopefully help them make improvements to the 19th century building they call home. The grant will help pay for studies to figure out how to renovate the building, which is on the National Register.

That and a lot more...

What does Leviticus 11:7 have to do with the Minnesota Vikings?

So there was a letter to the editor in the Weekend edition regarding Tom Emmer, human weakness, etc. -- hard to tell exactly what it was about, but there was a glancing reference to the Book of Leviticus, which I'll admit is terra incognita to me.

The letter writer says:

Minnesotans who subscribe to the moral compass of the Bible also, of course, refuse to support the Vikings (especially with this Brett Favre drama), since according to Leviticus 11:7, all football players are commiting a sin that gets about as much attention in the Bible as homosexuality does.

So I had to check out Leviticus 11:7, to find out what sin NFL players are committing, according to those "who subscribe." Here's the verse -- and it isn't about working on the Sabbath:

⁷The pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you.

So the football is unclean. Hopefully the matter of the divided hoof and cleft-footedness isn't a reference to Favre's ankle.

Today's tease on KTTC

Here's what I said on KTTC just now, more or less:

Happy Friday -- have some plans, most of them involving water and sand.

The addition of a few new nightspots on South Broadway, plus just the general growth in downtown, is raising concerns about the pedestrian crosswalk at Third Street -- as you probably know, that's a marked but not very controlled place to cross Broadway -- and especially late at night, it's a hazard for bar hoppers. City and business leaders are talking about what to do about it. We'll tell you more.

An investigator with the Dodge County Sheriff's Office has been accused in a federal civil rights lawsuit of using his authority to coerce a woman he recruited to be an informant into having sex with him. The lawsuit also names as defendants the Dodge County sheriff and former sheriff. Lots more to tell you about that.

And in today's Answer Man column, our in-house genius tells you what the city of Rochester intends to do with one of the most congested intersections in town at rush hour -- the junction of 55th Street Northwest and the U.S. 52 east frontage road -- plus what happens to solar panels in a hailstorm, and lots of people remember fondly a place called Anchor Inn, a popular restaurant south of Lake City.

Needs proof that Obama is a Christian American

Typical of e-mail we receive, either addressed to me or the Answer Man:

On Aug 19, 2010, at 10:46 PM, JAMES GREATHOUSE wrote:

If what you say about Obama "IS" a citizen, and he is not a Muslim, "YOU PROVE IT". Show me the birth certificate and prove it is not forged. Show me the prof that he is a christian and not a Muslim, and prove the papers were not forged.
 
WHY should I believe you and not someone else? Answer that.
 

JAG

The Answer Man responded:

Good morning -- I obviously can't add to what you already know, so I'll just wish you well.
______
Answer Man
Post-Bulletin
PO Box 6118
Rochester, MN 55904

Speed bump or no speed bump?

We had a story on the front page Tuesday regarding the latest twist in the region's pursuit of high-speed rail money. It's all so speculative, I'm not sure the average reader really cares, or believes high-speed rail will ever happen, but our coverage was very closely watched by rail advocates.

The Southeast Minnesota Rail Alliance put out this e-mail yesterday regarding our story, which was updated through the morning as we got more response from local advocates:

For those who may have seen an article posted earlier yesterday on the Post Bulletin's website that discussed a potential "speed bump" in Rochester's efforts to advance high-speed passenger rail, we want to assure you that Rochester continues to move forward on securing high-speed passenger rail for our community and state. Please read the most recent Post Bulletin article on the topic that affirms Rochester's standing in future rail planning, including this quote from Mn/DOT:

Dan Krom, director of Mn/DOT's passenger rail office, said Tuesday morning that a Rochester-to-Twin Cities high-speed rail line will happen.

"Our state rail plan declares that Rochester, as a regional center, needs to be connected to the Twin Cities and to other regional centers - and that would be a greenfield line," he said.

There are a few other points that may be helpful in understanding how the state's rail planning is progressing:
A Rochester route is included in Mn/DOT's alternatives analysis for a route between Madison, WI and the Twin Cities. Mn/DOT will evaluate a route along existing rail beds not a greenfield (new track) alignment. This is not news to Rochester leaders -- the Alliance is active in Mn/DOT's Passenger Rail Forum, has regular interaction with Mn/DOT regarding progress on the statewide rail plan and have provided considerable input into this long and complicated process. We understand the parameters of the current analysis and its impact on Rochester and the state.
 
For this specific alternatives analysis, the Federal Railroad Administration is requiring Mn/DOT to focus on using existing rail lines/beds. However, that does not mean that federal funds cannot be used on projects using new green field alignments along former rail lines or new routes. As evidence of this, California is advancing a high-speed passenger rail line -- using federal funding -- that includes portions of the line on new greenfield alignments.

A Rochester to Twin Cities high-speed passenger rail corridor is also included as one of the three highest priority high-speed passenger rail corridors in Mn/DOT's statewide rail plan -- development of this line is independent from and not directly related to the analysis being done on the Chicago to Twin Cities line. While we still believe that a greenfield alignment for a Chicago-Rochester-Twin Cities line is the best long term investment for Minnesota, the Alliance is devoting its attention to development of the independent Rochester to Twin Cities line. These efforts include the following:

Outreach and engagement of leaders and elected officials in Dakota County;
Active participation and input into Mn/DOT's process for evaluating its priority corridors within the state; and

Monitoring the Olmsted County Regional Rail Authority's development of a work plan for study and development of a line from Rochester to the Twin Cities.

As you can see, we continue to move forward and aggressively particpate in rail planning for Rochester and the state with particular emphasis on connecting Rochester to other major economic centers. There are a number of processes underway as part of this planning process -- those processes take time and can be confusing. However, they are not speed bumps -- just steps along the way in making Rochester high-speed passenger rail a reality for Minnesota. The Southeast Minnesota Rail Alliance remains committed to that effort.