Minnesota

NEWS DAY | Obama, health care and a visit to MN

By Mary Turck, News Day Blog

Tonight is the night for President Barack Obama's national health care address to a joint session of Congress, and Minnesotans are gearing up for it with TV-watching parties, according to my email inbox. For the record, the speech will be at 7 p.m. CDT. For context, go back to Obama's speech to the AMA in June. Or, if you are looking for myths and debunking thereof, check out Media Matters for a list of 18 myths and why they are false.

Widespread media speculation also puts Obama in town to talk about health care on Saturday. Most bets are on the Xcel Center, but some say the Target Center is a possible venue. Stay tuned - if this happens, you will be bombarded with approximately seven million media messages, analyzing why he picked MN (because our health care system is so good, because we vote for him), why the Xcel or Target Center, what he will say, and how the crowd will compare to the phenomenal showing during the presidential campaign.

 

 

News with attitude, mostly from MN but with occasional forays abroad.News Day summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to Minnesota news.

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NEWS DAY | Pawlenty's money

By Mary Turck, News Day Blog

 

Since T-Paw is not running for governor next time around, he has to dispose of his campaign war chest. (He can't use this money in a presidential bid.)The Star Tribune reports that he gave slightly more money to private charities than to the Republican Party, which got $284,000. The biggest winner among the charities was Minnesota Teen Challenge. Minnesota Independent reports:

The most significant beneficiary: Minnesota Teen Challenge, which received roughly $85,000 from the governor. As previously reported by MnIndy, the organization has been criticized for purportedly using taxpayer funds to spread its Christian message.

Other recipients include Minnesotans’ Military Appreciation Fund ($30,000), Minnesota Military Family Foundation ($30,000) and the Starkey Hearing Foundation ($25,000). The latter was started by Bill and Tani Austin, prominent GOP donors who two years ago hosted a fundraiser featuring President Bush at their home in Eden Prairie.

MPR has the complete list of charities, which also includes $20,000 donations to Minnesota Patriot Guard, Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance, Susan G. Komen for the Cure Minnesota Chapter, Hope for the city, Helping Paws, and Feed My Starving Children.

 

News with attitude, mostly from MN but with occasional forays abroad.News Day summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to Minnesota news.

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NEWS DAY | Domestic violence kills

By Mary Turck, News Day Blog

With the shooting death of a police officer in North St. Paul, attention focused briefly on domestic violence. Officers were responding to a domestic violence call, the most dangerous for police officers, when North St. Paul officer Richard Crittenden was shot and killed as he tried to protect a woman under attack by her estranged husband.

WCCO reports:

According to St. Paul Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Schnell, St. Paul responded to 3425 domestic-related calls for service in 2009 as of August 15. That's a 12 percent increase from 2008, and an average of 15 domestic calls a day.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety's 2009 Domestic Violence Report found that:

In 2007, three percent of women surveyed and one percent of men reported experiencing domestic violence. Based on
Minnesota’s adult population, this translates to about 57,000 women and 18,000 men experiencing domestic violence in 2007.

Overall, 27 percent of women surveyed and seven percent of men reported that they have experienced domestic violence in their lifetime. ...

On average, respondents who have been abused experienced three episodes of domestic violence in 2007, but reported less than one episode to police.

According to the Minnesota Coalition on Battered Women, at least 21 women and two men were killed in domestic violence in 2008. At least five family members or friends were killed in domestic violence, and seven children died from child abuse.

 

 

News with attitude, mostly from MN but with occasional forays abroad.News Day summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to Minnesota news.

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‘High-profile’ Pawlenty gets wide play for Obama school-speech comment

By Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent

It seemed like a watershed on Thursday when CNN offhandedly described Gov.

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MN budget cuts hit courts, schools, counties

By Mary Turck, News Day Blog

Without money to cover state judicial system needs, five Minnesota counties will begin sharing judges this week.

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Ethiopia shakes down its Minnesota refugees

By Douglas McGill, TC Daily Planet
  

Immigrants to Minnesota from eastern Ethiopia are being forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom payments to support an Ethiopian security force that tortures and kills thousands of innocent Ethiopians.

Under an extortion scheme run by the Ethiopian army, soldiers in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia abduct men, women and teenage boys and girls, holding them without charge in one of scores of military jails in the region, which borders Somalia.

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Thumbs down: Despite recession, hitchhiking remains rare

By Colleen Callahan, TC Daily Planet

Photo by Roderick SG (Creative Commons)

A few decades ago, hitchhiking was something of a rite of passage among American youth. Chip Peterson, who graduated from high school in the 1960s, well remembers hitchhiking's glory days.

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Under pressure, Becker schools decide not to air Obama speech live

By Paul Schmelzer, Minnesota Independent

The Becker School District in central Minnesota’s Sherburne County will be joining schools in the Fergus Falls area in MORE »

Fergus Falls schools won’t show Obama speech live

By Andy Birkey, Minnesota Independent

Photo: WDCpix

Bowing to pressure from some parents in the area, the superintendent of the Fergus Falls school district in west-central Minnesota is directing teachers not to show President Obama’s live “Back to

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