Furst Draft

'Minnesota is choosing to short-change its children'

Bruce Klaehn, the Dover-Eyota schools superintendent, sent me a copy of an "open letter"-type column that he wrote and published in another paper recently. Rather than re-run a column already published, I told him I'd post it here.

First, the e-mail from Klaehn proposing the column, which is interesting by itself, followed by excerpts from the column, and then a response from state Sen. Carla Nelson, who copied me with her e-mail as well:

Dear Representative Mike Benson and Senator Carla Nelson,
 
     Attached please find an open letter that I have submitted as my bi-monthly article to our local Dover/Eyota newspaper.  As I shared it with our Board of Education and district staff members, I was overwhelmed by the support and appreciation I got for writing it and promising to forward it to you and the Governor.  Many asked that we create a sign-on option, which I have opted not to do at this time.  At the request of several people, I have also forwarded it to the managing editor of the Rochester Post-Bulletin.
 
     I understand that you have an enormous task in trying to solve the budget issue and meet the needs of Minnesotans, and I do not suggest that task to be easy.  What I do suggest is that a big part of why we are where we are today is due to partisan politics and a lack of meaningful compromise and collaboration among our elected officials.  Mike and Carla, I strongly believe that is what Minnesotans want, and they are growing increasingly frustrated that it isn’t happening.  I know you get rousing cheers from your supporters for taking your party’s side of the key issues, but many, many Minnesotans are not cheering.  They are not cheering because our government seems to be getting more and more polarized, at the expense of our State and our children.
 
     As my local representatives, I appreciate your consideration of this letter, and any efforts you can give to leading our State in a more collaborative and professional manner.
 
     Thank you.
  
Bruce A. Klaehn
Supt. of Schools

+++++++

Dear Gov. Dayton and Minnesota Senators and Representatives,

It appears that again in 2011, the theme of "Republicans vs. Democrats" is driving the work being done in St. Paul. Again this year, it seems the goal of most of you is for your political part to "win." One man's perspective is if that happens, Minnesota loses again. I believe the vast majority of Minnesotans would like to see you work together to meet the needs of all Minnesotans, including people of all levels of income, outstate and metro, our children, our elderly and our state employees. It seems as though many of you are interested in supporting or targeting particular groups of Minnesota...

Please understand that as you continue to wage this war against one another year after year, our state gradually deteriorates. Because of these wars over the past few years, K-12 education has gone without so much as even an inflationary increase, while now also being "owed" hundreds of millions of dollars by the state, which is constitutionally response for their obligations...

Spin it anyway you want, but regardless of who's fault this is, or reasons why, Minnesota is choosing to short-change its children...

PLEASE work together more. Listen to and respect one another with the intent of trying to understand each other's position, rather than advancing yours harder -- that will only advance polarization. Find some common ground...

+++++++

Dear Bruce,
Thank you for your note and letter in the Eagle.
You are correct.  Minnesotans want and deserve government that works together for the best interest of our state. 
I also share your frustration with the  structurally unbalanced so called solutions from the prior legislature.
To date, the hearings for all my committees have had a flavor of compromise and working together. Two examples are the streamlining of permits and the alternative licensure bills. 
You would have enjoyed the Local Government Committee Wed. evening.  It was our third hearing on the photo id bill.  We worked in a bipartisan manner crafting amendments that improved the bill.  We didn't leave the committee room until well after 10 PM. Similarly, all of my bills have a DFL sponsor.
I think you will like our education proposals.  These are just now being finalized.  In a nut shell:  no real cuts, greater flexibility in spending, more equitable funding.
Warm regards,
Carla

 

 

The Minnesota Supreme Court gets more ethical

MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea put out an order last Friday, effective on April 1, that's long overdue, to assure that former chief justices don't immediately return to the court to argue a case -- and especially to argue an extraordinarily partisan case, such as -- oh, let's just say a U.S. Senate recount.

Here's the order "promulgating rules of practice before the Minnesota Supreme Court for former justices and employees of the court."

Rule 1 -- Justices:

    A former member of the Minnesota Supreme Court shall not participate in any professional capacity in any case that was pending in the Supreme Court during the member's tenure on the court, or appear before the court as counsel for a client, in person or in writing, in any case or matter for a period of three years after leaving the court.

Rule 2 -- Employees:

    A former employee of the Minnesota Supreme Court shall not participate in any professional capacity in any case that was pending in the Supreme Court during the employee's tenure at the court, or appear before the court as counsel for a client, in person or in writing, in any case or matter for a period of one year after leaving employment with the court, except that a former employee of the court in the commissioner's office may not appear for a period of two years after leaving the court.

Hats off to the chief justice -- too bad her predecessor didn't have the same ethical priorities.

 

Random notes from Dialogues event on CWD

From Tuesday night's public meeting:

More than 400 people are on the list to receive deer carcasses after the animals are tested and found to be "clean."

28,000 deer are tested per year, since CWD became an issue in 2002.

Paul said cervid farming is the "most highly regulated livestock industry on Earth" and farmers "take this very serious as well."

Of the 900 deer to be tested in the Pine Island area, about 55 so far are road-kill animals.

Elk "infectivity" is much lower than deer. Whitetail deer are most likely to become infected with CWD; elk are least, with moose close behind.

Prions in the soil are "virtually indestructible" and persist for years. Seventeen years was the number used more than once.

Thanks to Michelle Cartstenson and Lou Cornicelli of DNR, Paul Anderson of the Board of Animal health, Pine Island land owner Bob Madsen, and Jim Byrene of the Elk Breeders Association for joining us, as well as the 50 people who came with lots of questions and concerns.

 

'MSM bias against life and for abortion'

Had an interesting exchange of notes today with Barry P. Bruss, a new member of the P-B Editorial Advisory Board. (That not him, pictured above...that's Archibishop John Nienstedt.)

Here goes:

Mr. Furst,

I take strong issue with the piece below.  The body expresses the content and themes to be discussed, while the title and first line inflame, instigate and irritate using hot-button language to attract negative attention that does not comport with the advertised topics.  Abortion is not explicitly mentioned, merely implied commonsensically as one of many life issues.  The title intimates that this will be an anti-"choice" jeremiad, thereby eliciting negative reactions rather than the positive attention it should garner.  The operative phrase is "dignity of life", perhaps more broadly termed the "dignity of the human person", confusion therewith leading to all sorts of misinterpretation and misunderstanding.   Discussion concerning human dignity will hopefully lead to better understanding and, ultimately, less abortions.

Sincerely,

Barry P. Bruss
Member, P-B Editorial Advisory Board

Here's the story he's referring to, with headline (or "title"):

Bishops to address anti-abortion issues

FARIBAULT — Two Roman
Catholic bishops will talk about anti-abortion
issues at 7 p.m. March 20 at
Divine Mercy Catholic Church.
Archbishop John Nienstedt of the
Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
and Bishop John Quinn of the
Diocese of Winona will talk on the
topic, “The Sacredness of Life from
Beginning to End.”
Quinn will talk about the dignity of
life from the first moment of conception,
while Nienstedt will discuss
end-of-life issues.
Admission is free.

Here's my response to Barry:

Thanks for the note, Barry. Guess I'd have to see the news release to see what exactly it said and how the event was billed. I did hear the event promoted in my Catholic church and it seemed pretty clearly focused on abortion, rather than "end of life," for example, and judging by the two presenters and their very strongly stated positions regarding abortion, there's not much doubt about the nature of the program.

Arguably, the headline could simply have said "abortion issues." We try not to use terms such as "pro-life," "dignity of life," etc., which are imprecise and can be politically loaded.

Our style is similar to Associated Press and other news organizations, which stick with "anti-abortion" rather than "pro-life" and "pro-abortion rights" rather than "pro-abortion."

Tough issue and we do our best to be precise without being inflammatory.

I might post this on my blog and use in a column -- OK if I identify you?
Thanks again for the note.
Jay

(I also get the dioscesan newspaper, which has plenty of material on the two bishops and their viewpoints on abortion. I believe the last issue also had an item on the Faribault event, so I have some awareness of what it was about.)

Barry's followup, in part:

I argue that the terms espoused by the AP are indeed the inflammatory ones, very politically loaded.  I believe that it is verbal manipulation such as this that causes people to contend MSM bias against life and for abortion.
 
I agree with your comment regarding the speakers: their beliefs are well known, but to pigeonhole them as being single-issue thinkers is rather constrictive.  I do believe that they deserve broader leeway regarding the full spectrum of life issues.

Again, to wrap up, I'll acknowledge we could have just said "will talk about abortion issues" or better yet, just reported the title of the program and leave it at that, without going into more detail. This was just a brief rewrite, not a full story, and that would have been enough.

That said, the rewrite and headline wasn't inaccurate as phrased, and wasn't meant to be provocative, and I couldn't disagree more with Barry's opinion on news style regarding abortion labels.

Shocking! Video attack on NPR was misleading, at best

More details on that political video that brought down the top executive at National Public Radio and supposedly tarnished their brand...turns out that the video excerpts released by the conservative operative James O'Keefe were taken grotesquely out of context.

What a surprise! Too late and too bad for NPR, but that's how things work now. Lives are damaged and reputations are wrecked, but nobody cares after the news cycle moves on.

 

 

'Possible nuclear meltdown takes precedence over a high school game'

A note from a disgusted online reader:

So I was looking at your website today(Sunday March 13th) and was appalled by what I saw. How is it possible for a stupid highschool basketball game to get the main page pciture when there is a massive size disaster taking replace before our eyes which has the potential to affect..well the ENTIRE WORLD. Call me crazy but I think a possible nuclear meltdown takes precedence over a highschool game? Are you really kidding me? I am very dissapointed in this decision and I think it furthers my reasoning and alot of others for reading the Star Tribune FIRST..
Disgusted in Rochester

Here's my response:

Good morning. Regarding your note, we did have Japan at or near the top of the website much of the weekend, but we're primarily a local news organization and local website. There are a million places to go for national and world news and only a few for Rochester area news.

But as I said, just about every time I checked the website over the weekend, we were leading with the latest from Japan.

By the way, the print edition reflected the same...Japan at the top of the front page, a decent amount of coverage inside, but the rest of the paper was primarily local. That's primarily why people read us and buy us.

The catastrophe in Japan goes far beyond being a world news story, of course. It's an event of world historical importance and it became local almost from the beginning. We'll continue to provide as much coverage in print as possible, as well as keep developing events high up on the website.

We published a long "how to help" list of relief agencies on Monday and will repeat it often in coming days.

Are dogs a delicacy?

If you're outraged at the idea of eating shark fin soup or dogs, you might want to check the post over on Great Taste.

'You are so LEFT WING it's enough to make me want to puke'

This unedited reader comment to the Answer Man may induce nausea:

Stick to something you know a little bit about. You are so LEFT WING it's enough to make me want to puke. Quit going to the most liberal sources for your tainted information. If you are half as brilliant as you think you are, you wouldn't print BS like you did in Thursdays paper. Let me ask you. Who is going to pay the debt you Libs are ringing up? (230 billion in Feb. alone)

Robert B., Rochester

Here's the Answer Man's daily column from Thursday. You be the judge whether it's too partisan:

Dear Answer Man, as always, I come to you for the truth: I've heard it both ways, that Gov. Walker of Wisconsin DID say during his campaign last year that he'd do away with public employee unions and that he DID NOT talk about it. Which one is correct? — Mike

The record is pretty clear: Scott Walker DID NOT make rolling back collective bargaining rights for most state workers a campaign issue.

The Republican governor has said emphatically, "The simple matter is, I campaigned on this all throughout the election," but in fact, according to various impartial news sources, he never even whispered about it in public.

"Walker certainly campaigned on the broad idea of getting health and pension concessions from public workers," according to a column in U.S. News, "but he never broached the idea of rolling back their collective bargaining rights."

U.S. News attributes the fact-checking to PolitiFact.com, the Pulitzer Prize-winning website hosted by the St. Petersburg Times, but other news sources also have looked at the clips and tapes of the 2010 campaign and can't find even a passing reference to Walker saying he planned to take away collective bargaining rights for most state workers.

That's part of the disconnect that has turned the state politically upside down since Walker and the GOP leadership in Madison started down this path.

The primary source cited here -- PolitiFact.com -- is genuinely apolitical. Take a look at the site. It nails politicians of every stripe, from President Obama on down. The columnist in U.S. News, as far as I can tell, is more partisan, but he was simply the messenger -- as was the Answer Man.

Here's the response to Robert:

Good morning. Was something incorrect in that column? Did Gov. Walker campaign on this issue?

Haven't heard back from Robert.

When you're dealing with a subject that's inherently political, such as the Wisconsin budget debate, the answer is likely to have some political overtones that make people like Robert want to vomit.

The truth is, Walker didn't campaign on the issue. Does it matter? That's for people in Wisconsin to decide. The Answer Man was asked a question and he got the answer.

If you have even one tiny piece of evidence that Walker mentioned rolling back the collective bargaining rights of public employees, whether at a campaign rally, in a letter to the editor or whatever, send it along. That won't mean he "campaigned on the issue," but it would be interesting for the historical record.

 

Dr. Paul Anderson joins the Dialogues program

Paul, a program director from the state Board of Animal Health and a guy on the front line of the state response to chronic wasting disease, will join us on Tuesday night for the P-B Dialogues program on the issue.

Also at the head table will be yours truly, reporters Eric Atherton and John Weiss, Lou Cornicelli of the DNR and Pine Island land owner Bob Madsen.

Bring your questions and join us from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. -- excellent cookies and coffee, even better conversation about an important issue that could hardly be more local.

What really happened at Elk Run?

What really happened at Elk Run?

That's what researchers and the rest of us are asking, as the unprecedented deer kill continues in the Pine Island area and the hunt for chronic wasting disease continues.

Part Two of the Post-Bulletin's special report, "The Hunt for CWD," runs this weekend, with details on how sharpshooters and researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and other agencies are dealing with the problem. That "problem" was discovered when a deer shot last year near the former elk ranch along U.S. 52 south of Pine Island was found to have CWD.

Domesticated elk on that ranch previously were found to have the disease and were destroyed. That would seem to suggest a link between the farm and the wild deer herd, right? That remains more theory than established fact, however, and some deer and elk farmers say they're being unjustly blamed.

Who's right? And are we asking the right questions? Those are among the issues in Part Two of this report that began last weekend. Of course, we continue to report aggressively on a daily basis regarding CWD, including a story in Wednesday's paper, thanks to reporters John Weiss and Eric Atherton.

These stories, like all of our exclusive content, appear only in abridged form online if you're not a P-B subscriber. We invite you to check out this weekend's print edition and see what you're missing, if you're not already getting home delivery.

POST-BULLETIN DIALOGUES: The CWD issue is tailor-made for a Post-Bulletin Dialogues event, so we'll do it on Tuesday in the Rochester Public Library auditorium. Weiss, Atherton, Lou Cornicelli of the DNR, and a Pine Island land owner will join me for an informal and informative discussion about CWD.

We'll get started at 6:30 p.m. and call it good at 8. By then, we'll hopefully answer a lot of questions, get a lot of ideas for more stories and open a continuing dialogue on the issue. Again, it's free, informal, and the cookies from Hy-Vee are always worth the trip.