Furst Draft

'You should be ashamed of yourselves'

A reader was apoplectic about our Backtalk survey question online a few days ago.

This was the question and the options:

What do you think of the Wisconsin dispute over union rights for public
employees?

    The governor's trying to bust the unions and it's about time.

    The Democrats should hold out until a reasonable compromise is reached.

Here's the first note from the reader, who pointed out that 834 people (28.29 percent) chose option 1, and 2,114 people (71.71 percent) chose option 2.

Geez!

What kind of foolish poll statements are these?  You guys can't be serious.

I guess it's clearer and clearer why I don't get much of my news from the
Post Bulletin.

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Here's my response...I happened to write that survey question, by the way:

Hi -- thanks for the note. Why do you think that poll question was out of bounds? The options were colorfully phrased, but they represented the two common viewpoints on that issue, I believe.

Best wishes, etc.

His reply:

Jay,
Read the statements. The Governor has asked for union concessions which include removing collective bargaining for benefits, but he has kept collective bargaining for wages. That is not busting at all. He's looking to balance the budget.
Your comment: "...and it's about time."? What the heck is that?
Your statement that the union only wants a "reasonable compromise" paints the debate as though one side is being reasonable and the other is not.
This is a foolish poll and you should be a shamed for running it.

You should fuel the debate... Not the fire.

My turn:

I guess we disagree. Yours is the only comment I've had on it, and I guess nearly 3,000 people chose to play ball. The goal was to make the responses a bit more engaging than simply yes or no, but I do think they reflected the two perspectives -- either the governor's doing the right thing (and most people would say he'd dramatically reduce the unions' rights and effectiveness) or the Democrats are right to be hiding in Illinois.
Thanks for the feedback.

And the last riposte:

Then that should be your poll question:

The WI Governor's doing the right thing.
or
The WI Democrats are doing the right thing.

It appears we do disagree. You express your opinion to your readers through your poll. I call you on it. 3000 played ball. I know of several who read it and said, "I don't play that game."

What's your take? Seems to me that both answers gave people clear options -- they weren't flip sides of the same coin. And I really don't think the reader would have taken me to task if the results had turned out differently (or been "skewed" differently).

But it's certainly easier to write boring, straight up-and-down survey questions. Since it's not any kind of scientific survey or poll, we try to have some fun with it.

 

 

Star Tribune now 'censors' comments, just like us

Great news organizations think alike: According to David Brauer at MinnPost, the Star Tribune now previews reader comments online, just as we've done since late last year.

The idea (of reader comments) was to preserve a real-time discussion, but it created “a hole some people used to their advantage,” (Star Tribune senior vice president for digital Jim) Bernard says. “They got our giant audience and could say whatever the hell they wanted for 15 minutes. At the risk of frustrating them, it’s time to close the loop.”

Letting the stupidest stuff through, even briefly, inevitably provoked counterpunches moderators worked harder to excise. Also, readers who read the newest comments first rarely saw the cleaned-up component. “I think our comments are better than people give us credit for,” Bernard contends.

The Star Tribune doesn't allow comments "on sensitive stories such as obits, shocking crimes, and those involving gays or Muslims." I'd be interested in reading the Strib policy book on that. We also don't take comments on crime and accident stories.

It's interesting that they don't preview sports comments. Also interesting that Bernard says pageviews for reader comments is 2 percent or less of total pageviews -- and that advertisers don't want to buy those pages.

The Strib says reader comments generally are approved in 30 minutes or less, except for overnight. That might be better than our average performance so far, but we'll see. As Bernard says and I've said, reader comments were never intended to be a real-time chat room. That's a different type of feature -- one we might be interested in providing at some point.

As Brauer notes at the end, this and other changes such as "tougher comment review show a higher regard for the non-frothing reader, and that’s good."

 

 

Isn't this sort of like freezing teacher pay and not allowing a strike?

Wisconsin's new governor has a novel approach to dealing with the public employee unions:

Citing a $137 million budget deficit, (Gov. Scott) Walker announced a plan last week which would essentially take away the public union's collective bargaining rights and slash benefits for state employees.

As a Georgetown University labor historian says in the story, that doesn't sound like just a way to save money. "If it had simply to do with the budget there doesn't seem to be a need to eliminate collective bargaining," said Joseph McCartin. AFL-CIO official Michael Uehlein says Walker's proposal is "an excuse to go after his political enemies."

Maybe that's why teachers reacted as they did when the Minnesota Senate voted last week to freeze their pay and take away their right to strike on the issue.

Not insignificantly, the story also notes that "the share of corporate tax revenue funding the state government has fallen by half since 1981 and, according to Wisconsin Department of Revenue, two-thirds of corporations pay no taxes."

 

'Justice is not optional in Minnesota'

When Chief Justice Lorie Gildea was in Rochester last Friday, she asked that the new DFL governor's budget would "hold harmless" the judicial branch, which already is barely able to provide quick, effective justice because of inadequate funding.

Here's a statement from her office tonight:

“Today Governor Dayton recognized the constitutional priority of the Judicial Branch by recommending funding for FY12-13 that holds the Judicial Branch harmless from further cuts.  I call on the Legislature to do likewise.  Justice is not optional in Minnesota; it is an obligation.”
 
Chief Justice Lorie S. Gildea

How I started my day

Here's a very strange voice mail from late yesterday...the voice was rather familiar, possibly involved in a local restaurant. The complaint is regarding the Answer Man column Saturday, posted Monday:

We were wondering...we have friends who have restaurants in town and we were wondering why you are promoting this restaurant, Wolf Creek, I know it's the second time it's been in the paper now, and with a phone number. What about all the other restaurants in town? Rochester has the most restaurants per person in Minnesota. Why would you promote that? What about all these other businesses? What about the hardware store? He wants his phone number in there. What about the guy at the grocery store? We don't get it at all. Why do you do that?

And secondly, environmentally, you know, these animals that we're trying to preserve, these animals are being killed and used for food. None of my friends agree with this at all and they definitely have boycotted that restaurant and they hope it goes out of business. It's a very touchy situation and it would have been much better if you hadn't done that. And everybody I know has said that. But we know how you guys run down there...

For the record, it's a safe and sane assumption that White Wolf Creek restaurant uses farm-raised "wild game" such as alligators and ostrich.

'Capricious, inflexible, inconsistent, time-consuming...'

Those are among the more polite words used to describe Rochester city employees who work with developers in the report issued this week by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce.

The report, "City of Rochester Development Services Redesign," is by Glenn Dorfman of Common Sense Solutions, a consulting firm in Shoreview, Minn., and gives some intriguing glimpses into the world where developers and bureaucrats intersect. Jeff Pieters wrote an excellent story on this Thursday.

The study was paid for by the Bush Foundation, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the Rochester Chamber. The latter notes that its Local Services Redesign Task Force led the way and involves the city, Rochester Area Builders, S.E. Minnesota Realtor Association, Grow Rochester and Rochester Area Economic Development Inc.

From the executive summary:

"After the two days of interviews, it was easy to conclude that there is an obvious and serious disconnect between the service expectations of the Development Community and the mindset of the City development staff. The development community considers the current plan review and permitting process to be capricious, inflexible, inconsistent, time-consuming and unnecessarily bureaucratic."

Among the recommendations: Both the "Rochester City Staff" and "the Development Community" should "take a communications course once per year."

I'd like to be a fly on the wall for those sessions.

The report clearly empathizes with developers who have to deal with the "monopoly" regulators:

The list of recommendations for the development community is shorter because it functions in a very competitive marketplace where market forces (customer satisfaction, price, service, recessions, interest rates, etc.) close down inefficient and ineffective producers. The City, on the other hand, is a monopoly provider of regulatory controls...therefore, it follows that the monopoly should have to change (become efficient and effective) more significantly than the competitively positioned development community.

This leaves aside the motivations that the development community might have for change, for dissatisfaction with the city, etc., which presumably involve a lot of money. Nothing wrong with that, but the regulatory and permitting function of government isn't exactly warmly regarded in this report.

The findings get personal:

The Development Community:

Feels strongly, and without exception, that City Development Staff has no understanding of customer relations. The one recurring exception was the City Clerk...Dennis Hanson, City Council President, was also roundly praised for "running interference" with City Staff. Stevan Kvenfold, City Administrator, was consistently mentioned as the key person in many any reforms "work."

Dennis has close ties to the building and development community, so it's natural that he would be perceived as a good lineman for developers. But I wonder about the word choice involving Stevan and his role in city administration...he's certainly key but how do developers perceive his role? Helpful? Not helpful?

(The development community) is intimidated by City Staff and consistently verbalized this fear during the interviews.

(The development community) believes that the Public Works Department is particularly insensitive to the cost of delays, time and exactions.

Among the "findings" regarding city staff, the author says the staff:

Believes that some developers/builders are pressuring their consultants to "cut corners" in the actual work of the development, regardless of the agreements or terms of the permit.

The report gets boring and formulaic for the casual reader after that. There are lots of nuts-and-bolts items for improving the city's service, with plenty of examples cribbed from other cities.

We'll post the full report, hopefully yet today.

 

Does this seem like news to you?

Latest research from the U of M:

Couples who can make up after a fight stay together, research says

The best indicator of a stable romantic relationship might be how well partners are able to “move on” after a conflict, according to new research from U of M psychology Ph.D. candidate Jessica Salvatore. The study’s findings are relevant to everyone in relationships, Salvatore says.

If even one partner recoups well after a spat, the other partner can reap the benefits of a more happy union...

And what does that last line mean? The other, embittered partner still gets benefits? Maybe there's more news here than I realize.

 

'100-degree warmup ahead for some states'

Unfortunately, not for us...I'd take a 10-degree warmup on Friday.

 

100-Degree Warm-Up Ahead for Some States Next Week

State College, Pa. -- 10 February 2011 -- AccuWeather reports a major, prolonged warm-up is finally on the way for the eastern two-thirds of the nation next week.

After a record-shattering, frigid morning with lows well below zero in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas Thursday, temperatures could jump nearly 100 degrees in some areas by late next week.

A change in the overall weather pattern will allow milder air to spread through this region, as well as the rest of the Plains, Midwest and parts of the East, over the next few days. A more substantial warm-up will follow next week.

In the areas of Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas where temperatures dropped between 20° and 30° below zero Thursday morning, highs in the 60s are in the forecast for late next week.

In some areas, temperatures could even make a run for 70°. This would be close to a 100-degree warm-up from Thursday morning's frigid lows.

The warmer air will also help to melt the record-setting snowstorm that dropped up to 1 to 2 feet of snow in those areas Tuesday into Wednesday of this week.

Milder air will also overspread the rest of the Plains, Midwest and parts of the East over the next few days with the most substantial warming coming toward the middle and end of next week.

AccuWeather.com Chief Long Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi has been highlighting the potential for an 80-degree day in Dallas, Texas and a 70-degree day in Washington, D.C., in the next week or two.

Deer Valentine, we won't be having dinner tonight

If you're a deer-lover, you'll pay attention to this news release from the DNR:

Deer feeding ban effective Feb. 14
in four southeastern Minnesota counties

A ban that prohibits the feeding of wild deer in Dodge, Goodhue, Olmsted and Wabasha counties will go into effect on Monday, Feb. 14. This is part of a comprehensive, long-term strategy to contain or eliminate Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in southeastern Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
 
“The purpose of the ban is to reduce the potential for the disease to spread from deer-to-deer by reducing the number of deer concentration sites,” said Dr. Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game coordinator and CWD incident commander. “The disease can spread from one deer to another following nose-to-nose contact, contact with saliva, or other body fluids. By eliminating deer feeding sites we are reducing the potential for the disease to spread.”
 
The emergency rule makes it illegal to place or have out food capable of attracting wild deer. Those who feed birds or small mammals must do so in a manner that precludes deer access or place the food at least six feet above ground level.
 
Food placed as a result of normal agricultural practices is generally exempted from this rule; however, cattle operators are advised to take steps that minimize contact between deer and cattle.
The rule can be viewed online at mndnr.gov/cwd.
 
CWD is a fatal brain disease that affects deer, elk and moose, but not cattle or humans. The disease was confirmed in Minnesota’s first wild deer Jan. 25.
 
That discovery has led to implementation of the DNR’s disease response plan, which includes cooperative efforts with landowners to sample 900 deer within a roughly 10-mile radius of Pine Island. This is where the infected deer was harvested by an archer last hunting season.
 
-30-

Want something else to worry about?

Then try this story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel regarding chronic wasting disease:

New laboratory research suggests that prions from chronic wasting disease in deer could infect people and create an entirely new kind of brain disorder.

The research is not proof that chronic wasting disease can infect people, but advances what science knows about that fear.

The researchers cautioned that the ability of chronic wasting disease prions to infect human brain tissue and cause disease could take years or decades of the disease first passing between deer in the wild, and might not occur at all.

Just so you know, our next Post-Bulletin Dialogues program is coming up on Tuesday, March 15, and the topic will be CWD. More details to follow, but as always, we'll meet in the Rochester Public Library auditorium.