The Star Tribune, journalism and the future

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As the Strib slides into bankruptcy, I’m thinking more gloomy thoughts about the future of journalism. Not that the Strib is going away any time soon. They’ll limp along in Chapter 11, probably not sliding noticeably farther down the hill than they have over the past few years, since the “investors” took over from the newspaper people. The Star Tribune, like other grand newspapers of the nation, was owned by newspaper families for most of its life. In 1998, Cowles Media sold it to the McClatchey Company for $1.4 billion. Continue Reading

Whose law? Bob’s law!

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Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher concealed his pre-RNC operations from other law enforcement officials, including the St. Paul city attorney’s office, according to reports published January 13 in a PiPress blog. He now has asked the Ramsey County Board for $300,000 in convention costs, including money spent on agents and informants criss-crossing the country during the year before the convention. The expenditures could not be billed to the $50 million in federal convention financing, since they were secret. As the RNC Commission presents its report to the St. Continue Reading

We’re on Flickr!

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Yes, the TC Daily Planet is on Flickr. Our first Flickr set is photos from the Lake Harriet Kite festival. Thanks to Mark MacLennan for the first photos from Saturday’s festival. Continue Reading

Who gets the axe?

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The state budget deficit crisis is monumental. As the legislature reconvenes in January, they will be faced with decisions about cutting programs, raising taxes and deficit spending. The state of Minnesota cannot run a budget deficit, but issuing bonds to pay for state spending is an option that looks something like deficit spending. Bonding means basically taking out loans to cover spending and paying them back over the long term. Bonding typically covers construction and public works projects.The Minnesota House of Representatives has set up a webpage to gather your comments on the budget deficit, which totals $426 million this biennium and $4.8 billion for FY 2010-11. Continue Reading

A day of their own

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Sometimes, skimming through the day’s news from two Twitter accounts, my Google reader, paper newspapers, 100+ emails, and — of course — the Daily Planet, I don’t get all the way to the end of a really good story. This morning, reviewing the week for tomorrow’s weekend highlights, I discovered arts editor Jay Gabler’s list of officially-proclaimed days in Minneapolis, from this week’s Tonic Sol-fa Day to the more obscure hemp bread and Buster the Rabbit days. I started thinking—what day would you, our faithful readers, like to have the mayor of Minneapolis or St. Paul proclaim next year? Send your nominations to us and we’ll pass them along to the mayors. Continue Reading

MN Job Watch – Part II

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Best Buy offers 4000 buyoutsTwin Cities health groups cut 613 jobs3M to cut jobs to weather stormOffice Depot to close Woodbury store in nationwide downsizingDownturn hits Hutchinson Tech hardFord Plant layoffs during December”I don’t know anyone who’s actually lost a job,” the business owner told me. “I think a lot of it is just media hype.” That was two weeks ago. He probably wouldn’t say the same today. Today the Daily Planet publishes two articles with personal stories about the recession’s impact. Continue Reading

MN Job Watch, Part 1

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As the economy tanks, it’s tough to know where to start covering it. Today’s announcement that Intermedia Arts is closing its gallery and laying off all full-time staff is one example of the human consequences of the recession, and the impact on our community. Last week Neighborhood House announced a 18 percent budget cut, which might play out in various ways. One way: 18 percent of their 75-person staff would be 10-15 people. At Teatro del Pueblo, the doors are staying open but all staff are taking cuts in hours. Continue Reading

From the land of sky blue waters

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Can they beat the Hamm’s Bear? That’s my question for the advertising firms hired to sell Minneapolis tap water. The Hamm’s Bear advertised beer during the Twins games of my childhood, indelibly imprinting the jingle:
“From the Land of Sky Blue Waters (Waters),From the land of pines, lofty balsam,Comes the beer refreshing,Hamm’s the Beer Refreshing.” According to the Wikipedia entry,
The original jingle, first used on radio and later extended to television , was derived from “From The Land of Skye-Blue Water,” a 1937 song setting the words of a 1909 poem by Charles Wakefield Cadman to music by Nelle Richmond Eberhart. The sheet music, however, lists Nellie Richmond Eberhart as the poet and Cadman as the composer. Continue Reading

Digging deeper — reporting on Jordan controversy

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When we first ran the Insight News story about the Jordan Area Community Council, I wondered about its description of the controversy, since the article quoted only one of the people involved. While we do fact-checking and editing of Daily Planet original articles, we do not re-edit articles from our community media partners. So we published the article, and an explosion of comments from readers immediately confirmed that this was not the whole story: “… the facts were not well represented and neither was the opinion of the community JACC serves ..””… how many of you would be excited to participate in a community organization where the executive director files lawsuits against a board member for asking to see the financial records?…””This article is bias. Continue Reading

Minnesota’s budget deficit

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With almost every news outlet and politician in the state commenting on Minnesota’s budget deficit, what’s left to say? The numbers are bad: a $426 million deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, plus a projected $4.8 billion deficit for the 2010-2011 biennium add up to $5.273 billion dollar total. State economist Tom Stinson said this could be the worst recession since World War II. (Excuse me, wouldn’t that make it the worst since the Great Depression?) He said today’s budget forecast was not a worst-case scenario, and that the situation “could be noticeably worse between now and the end of the biennium.” The next budget forecast will come in February. Continue Reading