Miffed

So the Star Tribune editorial board is miffed about the New Yorkers cover this week....

The cover cartoon on this week's New Yorker magazine is jarring, even by the standards of these culturally coarse times: Sen. Barack Obama, dressed in what most associate as Islamic garb, fist-bumping his wife Michelle, depicted as Black Panther-type militant, sporting a gun, an ammunition clip and a 1970s-style afro. Over the senator's shoulder hangs a picture of Osama bin Laden, and roasting in the fire aren't chestnuts, but an American flag (to see the cartoon, go to www.startribune.com/a4556.

The scene? The Oval Office.

"Tasteless and offensive," said the Obama campaign.

"We completely agree with the Obama campaign, it's tasteless and offensive," said a spokesman for Sen. John McCain's campaign.

We agree, too.

Well I am certainly glad to hear that. I assume that now they will speak out against Ted Rall portraying Condi Rice as Bush's "House Nigga" and Pat Oliphant's portrayal of Rice as a big lipped parrot riding on President Bush's shoulder and when Gary Trudeau called Rice "Brown Sugar"? Or maybe they will finally speak out against all of the published cartoons that have depicted President Bush as the devil or Hitler or any one of a number of negative images? Maybe they will speak up against this disgusting cartoon of Senator John McCain that was recently published in Rolling Stone (HT Michelle Malkin)?

Somehow I doubt I will ever live to see that happen.

The End Of The Era Has Officially Been Called

Today has been one of those embarrassment of riches days. Every time I start a post I get a call or hear another story that I "must" post on. This one is courtesy of Logical Lady Sarah Janecek.

A fascinating exchange between MinnPost's media writer David Brauer and Star Tribune editorial board writer Jill Burcum flagged an important milestone in Minnesota public affairs. We passed it years ago but I have not yet written about it because, quite frankly, it's painful. I've long respected many of the fine journalists involved, even the ones I have ideologically disagreed with most of the time. [Hello, Susan Albright.]

To be blunt, the milestone is that the unsigned editorials -- the institutional voices of our state's two largest newspapers, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press -- have become irrelevant in Minnesota politics.

This is something that center right bloggers have been saying for as long as the Minneapolis Star Tribune has been ignoring the political views of roughly 50% of the readership in the state.

The source of the debate was whether the Star Tribune should have disclosed their relationship to Avista and Avista's holdings in oil companies in their recent pro-drilling op-ed. That is a no brainer, yes they should have and is no surprise that they didn't. They have long been loathe to disclose their biases. Again, that is nothing new to center right bloggers.

However, the laugh line of the thread had to be this one...

What's worse, Burcum wrote, "Our editorials on [Minnesota DFL Attorney General] Lori Swanson played a key role in triggering the legislative auditor's investigation and calls for reform at the office."

That's not only wrong, it's patently absurd.

The Star Tribune editorial calling for an investigation of AG office employees' efforts to unionize was dated March 23. Sure, the Legislative Audit Commission officially called for the investigation March 28, but here's one of a number of meetings the Legislative Audit Commission held to discuss audit evaluation topics, including investigating Lori Swanson's office, before the editorial ran.

The call for an investigation was first made by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano) March 12 (albeit an investigation to be conducted by a different unit of government, arguably more favorable to Republicans, the Bureau of Mediation Services). And perhaps most significantly, employee issues in the AG's office were all over the blogosphere for months (just a few examples here, here (the specific link to Steve Perry's The Daily Mole web site is now defunct and he currently writes at the Minnesota Independent ), here, and here.

Never mind the months of speculation at the Capitol that Swanson's internal union woes would have to be investigated. Speculation which never included, "the Star Tribune edtiorial page called for one."

Because no one at the Capitol ever talks about what the Star Tribune is calling for. Or the cries (have there been any the last few years?) of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

I imagine Sarah had a lot of fun documenting how the blogosphere was all over the Swanson fiasco since most of that documentation appeared on the pages of the PIM morning report.

However it is the emphasized line that is the best. No one at the Capital talks about what the Strib is calling for. Oh the humanity....

Sloppy Reporting?

So Rep. Mindy Greiling calls for the Star Tribune to fire columnist Katherine Kersten for "reckless" journalism and yet the state DOE pretty much calls on TIZA to take "corrective action" in order to address the very issues Kersten raises...

An Inver Grove Heights charter school must take "corrective actions" to address concerns about how it handles Muslim prayer in school and after-school religious instruction, the Minnesota Department of Education said today.

In its report, the department raised several issues with Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a public school with many Muslim students, which came under fire this spring for allegedly blurring the line between church -- or in this case, mosque -- and state.

One has to wonder if Rep. Greiling will be as public in her apologies to Kersten as she was with her condemnations....

Oh who am I kidding.....it will never happen...

Off With Their Heads Pt 2

The advocates of free speech are at it again. It seems that an online petition has been started by some of the usual suspects to get Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten fired. They apparently did not like her reporting on the inconsistencies at the TIZA school. Some of the esteemed signatories include Mark Gislason, our dear friend Eva Young and failed Congressional Candidate Coleen Rowley. One anonymous commenter had this to say:

May 15, 2008, Anonymous, Minnesota
Katherine Kersten should lose her job because her column is extremely poorly researched, completely lacking any criticism of those in power who hold her narrow and intolerant views, and is invariably divisive to the community. It takes advantage of the Right of Freedom of Speech to perpetuate oppression --time and time again. The Star Tribune can certainly find a conservative columnist who is not so one-dimensionl.(sic)

Poorly researched??? I guess talking to an EYEWITNESS is Anonymous' idea of "extremely poor research". Scott Johnson at Powerline has listed out all of the "extremely poor research" that Katherine Kersten did in a post here.

What is most frightening about this is the fact that this petition had it's genesis in an elected official calling for Ms. Kersten's employer to fire her.

In response to questions prompted by Katherine Kersen's recent columns on Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), I decided to visit the school myself.

What I learned during a tour late last month is that none of Kersten's concerns that the charter school is promoting religion in violation of a state law that prohibits public schools from doing so is valid.

What I did see was excellent teachers hard at work in the classroom focused on improving student achievement. I saw engaged students of different religious and cultural backgrounds learning reading, math, government and science. I spoke with parents, teachers and administrators who all stressed their high standards for TIZA students.

While an outsider, or someone like Kersten who is trying to validate a predetermined conclusion, might be tempted to brand Tarek ibn Ziyad as an "Islamic School" because it leases space from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, the school, like other charter schools in Minnesota that lease space from churches, is a separate entity. It does comply with federal law that requires all schools to accommodate a student's right to practice his or her religion. And unlike other charter schools that have faced financial and other administrative challenges, the school was recognized with a 2008 School Finance Award from the Minnesota Department of Education for its "sound fiscal health and financial management policies."

Kersten's reckless journalistic standards have diminished this paper's credibility. Worse, they have threatened the safety of the children and staff at the school, which has been forced to take extra security measures in the wake of recent death threats. While I value a broad range of opinions from a variety of perspectives, I value the facts even more. Kersten's gross distortion of the facts in this case should compel Star Tribune management to ask for her resignation.

REP. MINDY GREILING, DFL-ROSEVILLE; CHAIRWOMAN, HOUSE K-12 FINANCE DIVISION

Now Rep. Greiling accuses Kersten of "gross distortion of fact" for quoting an EYEWITNESS to the events in question. Did Rep. Greiling also speak to this EYEWITNESS when she did her "research" or did she simply take the school administrators word that there was no violation of "church and state" here and would Rep. Greiling show the same understanding to a Catholic Church if someone accused them of having mandatory chapel services during the school day?

To Ms. Kersten's credit, she is keeping a sense of humor about this. However, the fact can not be ignored that the oh-so-tolerants on the left are yet again calling for the head of yet another person who dares to insert cold hard facts into their nice fuzzy preconceived notions. The good thing is that Rep. Greiling has shown her true colors just in time for the election. Here is hoping that her opponent can put this information to good use.

Bleeding Red Ink

Things are getting worse for the Star Tribune. I wrote last January about a memo that was sent out to employees about how revenue and circulation were down. Well the latest ABC numbers are out and according to MinnPost it's not getting any better.

Despite pledges to the contrary, the Star Tribune continues to hemorrhage print readers, according to an Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) report released today. During the same period, PiPress circulation was essentially flat.
The Strib lost 7 percent of subscribers on Sunday and weekdays between March 2007 and March 2008. That means 40,000 fewer people bought the lucrative Sunday paper; the drop was 24,000 on weekdays.
Here's how Sunday circulation has fallen over the past 18 months:
Sept. '06: 596,000
March '07: 574,000
Sept. '07: 570,000
March '08: 534,000
In the same period, daily circulation fell from 358,000 to 321,000.
The Strib’s Sunday decline was seventh-biggest among the nation's Top 25 papers and its daily decline was the sixth-largest. The Strib remains the 10th-biggest Sunday paper and slipped from 18th to 19th on weekdays.

Despite their "best" efforts, they still have not stemmed the tide of red ink flowing from the offices on Portland Avenue. Of course, some of the reason for that could be the fact that Nick Coleman is still employed there, but that's just a guess.

Will the brain trust on Portland Ave ever get it? Only time will tell, but I suspect that the only way to unseat the entrenched corporate mindset there is for the paper to close. I certainly hope that is not the case - I really don't want to see that happen, but there really seems to be no other way.

Trouble on Portland Ave?

There is according to Minnesota Monitor. The have gotten their hands on a memo that was sent out to employees by Publisher and Chairman Chris Harte.

Taking Charge of Our Future
By Chris Harte, Publisher and Chairman
Last fall I told you I would write about our overall situation toward the end of the year. I waited before writing because November ad revenue was slightly better than recent months, and I hoped it was the start of a modestly better trend. But December was right back to the pattern of steep revenue declines that we'd seen since early in the year.
We have budgeted for another large revenue reduction in 2008, and we hope we won't be under budget again. What I'm hearing from other newspapers are similar expectations about further revenue declines.
I don't mean to be gloomy, because I'm basically an optimist. I believe strongly in newspapers and their Internet sites. I believe in the importance of what we do. I believe that we will not just survive but prosper. I believe in the power of the Star
Tribune's people to make the business and cultural changes that will be necessary to right our ship and give our company a vigorous and successful future.
The current business realities are incredibly difficult, however, and I don't want to pretend they aren't. 2007 was far and away the worst year this industry has seen in anyone's memory, and it was also the worst for the Star Tribune. We were not the hardest hit large metropolitan paper in the country, but our overall revenue performance was well below the median for the industry.
A few numbers tell the story well, I think. Total revenue (print and internet advertising and circulation) is down almost $75 million in the last two years. Classified revenue has been the hardest hit part of our business, and our 2007 classified revenue was down over 50 percent from what
it was at the start of the decade.
While our Internet revenue has risen substantially almost every year over the past decade, and is three times what it was at the start of the decade, it's not growing nearly fast enough to offset the declines in print advertising.
We reduced our costs substantially last year, some of it in easy ways but much of it with painful cuts. And we're already reducing 2008 costs several million dollars below our original 2008 budget.
Despite all the cost-cutting, our payroll and benefits in 2007 were actually $10 million higher than they were in 2000, while total revenue had declined over $90 million in the same period. Payroll and benefits are well over half of all our cash operating expenses; the remaining cash costs are newsprint and everything else. Newsprint is the only one of the three major categories where we've had a meaningful drop in expenses, and that's mostly because of a substantial drop in the price we pay per ton. Unfortunately, that price is going way up in 2008. All other cash expenses combined (utilities, office supplies, all the other things it takes to keep us operating) are at almost exactly the same level today as they were in 2000.
As a result of rapidly declining revenue - and expenses that haven't been cut anywhere nearly as fast - our operating cash flow has declined dramatically since 2000. Operating cash flow, which is the cash we have left after paying cash expenses, and which we then use to invest in everything from new equipment and computers to new products, and to pay our debt, has declined 50 percent in just the past two years and more than that since 2000.
Obviously, we cannot continue on this course. We need to deal with these challenges quickly and collaboratively, working together all across the company to find the best solutions.
As a first step toward finding these solutions, we have retained Restructuring Associates (RAI), a consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC to help us work collaboratively throughout the Star Tribune to get our business on the right track to meet the significant challenges we face. RAI specializes in helping unions and management work together to improve performance. Starting this week, representatives of RAI will begin interviewing Star Tribune managers and soon will interview others involved with the business to get a better understanding of what we are up against and how to frame our approach to finding solutions.
RAI expresses its basic philosophy this way: "We help our clients become high performance organizations and better places to work by engaging employees in solving organization problems and implementing their solutions. By involving people, we build internal commitment to change, generate real solutions, and facilitate implementation." I encourage you to visit their website at www.restructuringassociates.com for more information on how they work with companies to build high performance.
We selected RAI precisely because of its focus on a collaborative approach with strong involvement of employees and union leadership. We have been especially impressed that the firm doesn't have canned solutions or preconceived notions. But it does have an outstanding track record of successfully dealing with complex challenges at many companies across many industries.
Despite all our challenges - and they are huge and obvious - we still have some great competitive advantages and the ability to leverage them. We have a century and a half of powerful brand equity with our readers and advertisers. We are still by far the strongest mediacompany in the market. We have many more journalists than any of our direct competitors - and probably more than all our local competitors combined. We also have more ad sales people and a stronger support infrastructure.
In the past year, we have invested strategically to make our business stronger. Some of these investments have been in new technology - like a state-of-the-art web order entry system, a single copy returns-management system, a predictive dialing system for our call center, and a new sales management and reporting system. Plus we have also invested in our core business, spending significant dollars rebuilding our circulation, adding additional sales reps and instituting a new sales training program. You may have seen my note a few days ago about what we were able to achieve in just a few months with our new Cars website. That's just the most recent example of our incredible capabilities, our competitive spirit and our ability to change quickly.
The fundamental change we are facing is not temporary. Yes, we will try to, and should, regain a portion of our lost revenue when the economy improves. But we don't know how much, and we don't know when that will be. What we do know for sure is that the competitive world has changed permanently and we will fail if we don't change much more than we have already. In today's jargon, we are going to have to reinvent our business.
And this is a matter more of attitude than of resources. Our intellectual capital is huge, and we need to draw upon it to find new ways of operating.
I am absolutely confident we can do that.
I believe our future is bright, and I invested a substantial amount of my own money in the Star Tribune on that belief. I believe passionately in what we do, and I know a huge number of you do, too.
We absolutely have the passion, knowledge and resources to continue as the leading information company in the Twin Cities. But we won't do it by wishing we could go back to the way our business used to be. We must harness the passion that brought us all to the Star Tribune and point our efforts toward reinvention. We are all in
this together.
Thank you for helping move us forward.

Emphasis is all mine. I really take no pleasure in this, but this is a memo of warning. Warning of pending lay-offs. In my 15 years of working in corporate telecommunications I have seen no fewer than 8 versions of that memo and every single one of them was a harbinger of bitter things to come. While the sages of Portland Avenue have no one to blame for this but themselves, I do not take joy in their grief. I would be happier to see a strong Star Tribune...one that actually reported the news, rather than what we have now....one that interjects editorializing into every story. I think I can safely say that this is all ANYONE who lives in Minnesota wants.

Nick Coleman is a .....

Words fail me at this moment. The recovery effort has not even been completed....the dead still not all found and Nick Coleman presents us with this despicable diatribe.

"Minneapolis suffered a perfect storm of nightmares Wednesday evening, as anyone who couldn't sleep last night can tell you. Including the parents who clench their jaws and tighten their hands on the wheel every time they drive a carload of strapped-in kids across a steep chasm or a rushing river. Don't panic, you tell yourself. The people in charge of this know what they are doing. They make sure that the bridges stay standing. And if there were a problem, they would tell us. Wouldn't they?
What if they didn't?
The death bridge was "structurally deficient," we now learn, and had a rating of just 50 percent, the threshold for replacement. But no one appears to have erred on the side of public safety. The errors were all the other way." (emphasis mine)

There was a presser this afternoon. Governor Pawlenty spoke as did several experts in transportation and bridge inspection. All of the "experts" said that the "structurally deficient" label came because there were DESIGN and CONSTRUCTION flaws in the bridge that made it a candidate for close monitoring. I do not claim to be an expert, but the one national (NTSB?) expert said that welding techniques that were used in the 1960's were not as sound as they are today.

"Would you drive your kids or let your spouse drive over a bridge that had a sign saying, "CAUTION: Fifty-Percent Bridge Ahead"?
No, you wouldn't. But there wasn't any warning on the Half Chance Bridge. There was nothing that told you that you might be sitting in your over-heated car, bumper to bumper, on a hot summer day, thinking of dinner with your wife or of going to see the Twins game or taking your kids for a walk to Dairy Queen later when, in a rumble and a roar, the world you knew would pancake into the river." (emphasis again mine)

Now those of us who have been subjected to Comrade Nick's diatribes know that he is a DFL hack. For the most part, we read, we chuckle and maybe fisk and then shake our heads and say "what can you do? It's Nick Coleman..."

"If it wasn't an act of God or the hand of hate, and it proves not to be just a lousy accident - a girder mistakenly cut, a train that hit a support - then we are left to conclude that it was worse than any of those things, because it was more mundane and more insidious: This death and destruction was the result of incompetence or indifference.
In a word, it was avoidable.
That means it should never have happened. And that means that public anger will follow our sorrow as sure as night descended on the missing."

Here Nick is absolutely correct.

"For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It's been popular with a lot of voters and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax increase - the first in 20 years - last spring and millions were lost that might have gone to road repair. And yes, it would have fallen even if the gas tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government." (again my emphasis)

There is a 1997 report that is being quoted by all of the reporters on this, that said that they knew about problems with this bridge back then. Elwin Tinklenburg (former Ventura Administration TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY) also came out and said that this is a result of "budget cuts" at MNDOT. If we knew about this in 1997, why didn't YOU do anything about it Mr. Tinklenburg? You (and your boss) gave us the Hiawatha Line.

"I'm not just pointing fingers at Pawlenty."

The hell you aren't Nick......you set out to write this with an Anti-Pawlenty meme in mind - just as you have always done.

"The outrage here is not partisan. It is general.
Both political parties have tried to govern on the cheap, and both have dithered and dallied and spent public wealth on stadiums while scrimping on the basics."

Neither party has tried to "govern on the cheap". They have long neglected roads and bridges. Road repair is not sexy, nor does it get you votes. Social programs on the other hand.....

Yes - poor choices were made. Suppose Governor Carlson had acted on that 1997 report and shored up that bridge. Suppose Governor Ventura had taken the $715 million that was put into the Hiawatha Line into fixing this bridge...We could go on for days...

It is way to early for ANYONE to be playing the blame game. We need to come together as Minnesotans and support those that were hurt, that lost loved ones. Let the investigation GET STARTED before you come to a conclusion Mr. Coleman. As a "professional" journalist, you of all people should know better!

Chad at Fraters takes Nick to task as does Sharkbait at Anti-Strib. They are both must reads!

The meme turns???

As I have said in the past, progress is being made in Iraq, although the Star Tribune is loathe to admit it. It appears that O'Hanlon and Pollack aren't the only ones to see progress. Even our own freshman Congressman Keith Ellison sees progress. (H/T Captain Ed)

"Ellison said that local leaders in Ramadi told him of how they partnered with U.S. and Iraqi military officials to virtually rid al-Qaeda from the city. Although the lawmakers had to travel in flak vests and helmets, "we did see people walking around the streets of Ramadi, going back and forth to the market."There have been fewer anti-U.S. sermons as the violence has been reduced, Ellison said, and religious leaders meet regularly with U.S. military officials."The success in Ramadi is not just because of bombs and bullets, but because the U.S. and Iraqi military and the Iraqi police are partnering with the tribal leadership and the religious leadership," he said. "So they're not trying to just bomb people into submission. What they're doing is respecting the people, giving the people some control over their own lives."

Another Freshman Congressman on the trip, Rep. Jerry McNerney from California, who has been very pro-withdrawal is starting to waiver a bit.

"McNerney, the California congressman, also said he saw signs of progress in Ramadi and was impressed by Petraeus, who argued in favor of giving President Bush's troop surge strategy time to work.
McNerney said he still favors a timeline to get troops out of Iraq — something House leaders may bring to the floor again this week as part of a defense spending bill — but is open to crafting it in a way more favorable to generals' wishes.
"As long as we start at a certain date I'd be willing to be a little more flexible in terms of when it might end," McNerney said."

Our friends at the Star Tribune, hoping to dampen criticizm of their choosen Representative had this to say on his remarks.

"Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, said Ellison's statements appear to be a major repositioning in policy.
"It's one thing to run as a candidate. Now that he's in office and visited Iraq, he now realizes the complexity of everyone who wrestles with the issue of pulling out [which could] create a vacuum that would lead to blood-letting," Jacobs said.
Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College, said Ellison's comments could draw ire in his strongly antiwar district.
"I think part of his appeal as a candidate was his very emphatic opposition to the war," Schier said. "Now that has been altered somewhat, it seems. I'm sure there will be a reaction."

Mr. Schier is correct - Rep. Ellison's remarks are not going to sit well with the "withdrawal now" caucus that worked so hard to get him elected. However, it is good to see that Rep. Ellison is learning that maybe, just maybe, the generals in theatre know what they are doing.

The blind squirrel found a nut!

I am not one to write about Nick Coleman's weekly rantings, because others do it so much better. However, in this weeks entry Nick does manage to stumble across the nut.

"You might think panhandlers would be a low priority in a city where a 14-year-old girl just got gunned down after a birthday party.
Not in Happy-apolis.
Here in Happy-apolis, where everything is shiny and great, the biggest problem is street people with their constant requests for pocket change. We are not going to tolerate that anymore. Mayor R.T. Rybak has said so, and he has instructed citizens to dial 911 when they feel intimidated by a panhandler. "I do it all the time," he said recently.
Dear God.
Parts of the city are collapsing in a heap of foreclosures, school closings and gang activity, and we are told to sic the cops on panhandlers, as if the cops have time to respond to any panhandling problem short of a shootout in front of the basilica. I am telling you that when the history of this time and place is written, we will look like complete fools." (emphasis mine)

Nick, believe it or not, is right here. To a point....Yes the cops do have much bigger fish to fry. We are on our way to another record year for murders. I mean, when kids aren't even safe in front of their own homes or walking around the Uptown area something is seriously wrong. Then again, what do you expect when the Mayor would rather spend money of "green" roofs and bicycle paths - as opposed to hiring more cops to stop the rampant crime in the streets...

However, Nick does (in his usual style) wander off of the path in a big way here....

"These days, only upscale kinds of begging are allowed.
It is OK, for example, to beg on the Internet by placing a "tip jar" on your blog. Just click the icon and send the blogger a few bucks from your credit card. But don't insult them with quarters. For blogger-beggars, the minimum acceptable offering is $1; the maximum is $50."

Nick, Nick, Nick......do I really have to spell out the difference between a panhandler approaching you as you wait to cross the street at Hennepin & 7th and a blogger's tip jar. OK maybe I do....I have no choice when a panhandler approaches me. On the other hand - I can chose not to go to a blog that has a tip jar. Or perhaps Nick considers the tip jar at his local espresso shop to be panhandling...

Also, the clueless one isn't exactly truthful when he says that panhandling has been "banned". Panhandling in Minneapolis has not necessarily been banned. Panhandlers are prohibited from verbally asking for money within 10 feet of a cross walk, convenience store, liquor store or sporting arena and 80 from a bank, ATM or check cashing facility! They CAN stand at the street corner holding a sign begging for money. They just can't walk up to you and say "GIMME MONEY!"

Nick manages to make one valid point...probably his only one for the year. If the residents and visitors to Minneapolis need to stop giving money to the panhandlers directly.

"Give your money to the nuns, the Salvation Army, the churches and the shelters. They know what to do with it. A network of kindhearted caregivers provides support for the homeless, the mentally ill, the chemically dependent and the odd ducks who ask for money."

Now I can already hear the Logical Husband quoting our pastor's sermon from last week admonishing me for paying the "church" to do what I should be doing myself and he does have a point. However, a lot of the "chronic" panhandlers have chronic health issues that I simply am not capable of taking care of, no matter how "caring" or "kindhearted" my intentions.

I understand what Nick is getting at here...the panhandling problem is not the most pressing crime issue in Minneapolis. However, in his usual over-the -top style, Mr. Coleman glosses over the big point. We DO have crime problems in Minneapolis that the Mayor is ignoring. That is an story that is long over-due (for reporting) and one that we will probably never see honestly reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Because if the Star Tribune were to report it honestly, they would be forced to admit that a lot of their "pet" projects are a waste of time and need to be scrapped.

Move on....nothing to see here....

If you are a follower of the Minnesota media, you have been hearing a lot of that for the last two weeks. On Saturday April 14, almost 7000 people gathered on the steps of the State Capital to protest the revenue grab that is coming out of Democratic Leadership in St. Paul. The local press never really reported on the tax cut rally other than to lump our numbers in with the much smaller Sierra Club global warming rally that was held at the other end of the mall at the same time. Well, the word is finally getting out. Last Saturday, Jason had a column in non-other than the Wall Street Journal. Jason laid out the scenario in his usual blunt style.

"ST. PAUL, Minn. -- What do you call the largest political rally for tax relief in Minnesota history? A non-story, at least according to the Twin Cities media.
Then again, Minnesota taxpayers probably weren't too surprised. The lead anchor for the CBS television affiliate here as well as the Star Tribune of Minneapolis played up a competing "global warming day of action" rally on the mall, while playing down the much larger tax protest just a few hundred feet north on the Capitol steps.
Indeed, on Saturday, April 14, an estimated 7,000 Minnesotans lined up in St. Paul to protest against run-away government spending and a push to feed it with yet with more tax hikes on the "rich." Former State Senator and now Congresswoman Michelle Bachman told me it was one of the largest rallies -- if not the largest -- she had ever seen at the Capitol.
Not bad. But rather than report that tax protestors far outnumbered a much better financed (MoveOn.org was sending email reminders) Sierra Club event by at least 2-1, local news outlets merely noted the combined totals for both. The local CBS affiliate also posted an Internet story on the global warming get-together using video footage of our anti-tax rally. Under protest, the piece was pulled."

Well it sounds like this column did what it was supposed to do. Jason was talking (in the first hour of his program today) that he was interviewed on the subject by both CNN and Glenn Beck. Jason will be on Glenn's MSNBC program tonight. Both Glenn and the CNN interviewer were dumbfounded by the fact that the local media totally ignored this story!

All I can say is "It's about time". The Minneapolis Star Tribune (aka Prairie Pravda) has long been a mouthpiece of the state and national Democratic Parties. Maybe a little pressure from their national peers will be just the ticket to turn things around.....Oh who am I kidding! The national media is just as bad.......

Oh well, I can dream.