Health care reform update

By Free Press Editor Joe Spear

Lots of news coming out of health care reform bill going through the Senate. A couple of developments worthy of note:

President Barack Obama says he will support prescription drug re-importation legislation outside of health care reform, according to the Washington Post.

The pharmaceutical industry has been fighting this, and I'm not sure why Obama would propose it later versus in current reform, but don't expect it to be an easy win for him.

CBO still reports Senate Bill will cut deficit by $130 billion over 10 years, but Wall Street Journal makes an important clarification on the language. Bill will cut the deficit by $130 billion (less than it would otherwise be), which if we keep spending like crazy, could be a lot.

One of the better sites I've seen that puts together a lot of good analysis, fairly balanced is the Kaiser Foundation Health News site.

Here are some key facts to how it might affect average working person in buying health insurance. It's from the main Kaiser article titled "Individual mandate is central to health overhaul."

Here's a key excerpt:

"Under the Senate bill, people who don’t buy coverage would face a maximum penalty of $95 beginning in 2014. That would jump in 2016 to $750 or two percent of their annual income up to the cost of the cheapest health plan, whichever is greater. In the House bill, violators would pay as much as 2.5 percent of their annual income up to the cost of the cheapest plan beginning in 2013.

When people buy health insurance on their own rather than through employers, the average cost in 2016 is projected to be $5,500 for an individual policy and $13,100 for family coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Both health bills would provide a sliding scale of subsidies to individuals who earn less than $43,320 or families of four who earn less than $88,200. The bills also exempt millions of people from the mandate, including for religious reasons and financial hardship."

So, depending on the subsidy, if you're making an average of say $32,400, the approximate average wage in Mankato, you'd pay $915 penalty, versus says $4,000 to $5,000 for a policy. The question being raised: Would young people just pay the penalty and go without insurance?

Senate kills lower prescription prices

By Free Press Editor Joe Spear

The U.S. Senate could not muster enough votes on an proposal to allow imports of safe prescription drugs from Canada as part of the health care reform bill.

We all lose as this was one non-government, market-driven way to reduce health care spending with good old American competition and capitalism.

As The Free Press vote watching service Thomas Reports Inc., notes "Voting 51 for and 48 against, the Senate on Dec. 15 failed to reach 60 votes needed to pass an amendment under which individuals and businesses could import U.S.-made, federally approved pharmaceuticals from Canada and other countries at retail costs much lower than in U.S. stores. This amendment was offered to a pending health-care bill (HR 3590).

Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said: "I have a beef with (a drug) industry that decides they are going to overcharge the American people, in some cases 10 times more, in some cases...double the price that is paid in other parts of the world for the identical drug."

Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said: "As much as we want to cut costs for consumers, we cannot afford to cut corners and risk exposing Americans to drugs that are ineffective or unsafe."

Lautenberg, by the way, has many large pharmaceutical companies in his state. And they seem to be generous supporting his campaign with contributions.

Minnesota senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken voted in favor of imports, and as noted previously, this proposal has had bipartisan support and been passed in varying forms through almost 15 years. That legislation always contained a "poison pill" list of bureaucratic regulations that effectively killed its practical implementation.

The pharmaceutical companies, with new bulldog lobbyist Billy Tauzin, have been tenacious as a pitbull hanging on to a bloody limb in fighting this for years. (Sorry about mixing my dog metaphors).

It's too bad someone can find stick to whack this pitbull.

Tauzin is the former powerful representative from Louisiana, of Cajun descent, Democrat turned Republican, majority whip for both parties, and eventually chairman of the committee that, surprise, surprise, regulated pharmaceuticals.

He left Congress in 2004, but take a look at the industries that supported him. In 2002, these industries were even more generous.

Healthcare reform: More lawsuit savings

By Free Press Editor Joe Spear

The Free Press recommended in its editorial a few weeks ago that Congress consider "lawsuit reform" as part of its healthcare overhaul plan.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis at the time estimated a potential $41 billion savings over 10 years, thereby helping healthcare reform trim the deficit even more, the key talking point of proponents.

Well, our friends at the CBO just upped the ante. It now says tort reform, limits on damage awards and other caps on lawyers and their fees, will help stop frivolous lawsuits, but also so-called "defensive medicine" to the tune of $54 billion over 10 years.

That estimate was revised "substantially upward" according to the CBO director's blog because of a larger estimated impact on reducing payouts on medical malpractice suits and decreased utilization of medical procedures that are basically unnecessary unless there's a threat of a lawsuit.

CBO also noted that the higher savings estimate can be attributed to lower overall federal spending on healthcare, presumably in payouts to Medicare and Medicaid patients.

And finally, CBO updated its report on lawsuit reform in response to a question for Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., who asked if the CBO could estimate the cost of tort reform on patient outcomes. In other words, would these new restrictions on lawsuits affect healthcare of consumers.

On that, CBO says the studies show mixed messages, but there is only "limited evidence" about the connection.

We stand by our previous editorial. Lawsuit and medical malpractice reform should be part of healthcare reform legislation. Adopting such would also give Democrats a chance to say they've included Republican ideas in the bill.

Health reform stifles lower drug prices

By Free Press Editor Joe Spear

When does Congress thwart the will of the people in health care reform? When politics is more important than say something like lower drug prices.

One key proposal in health care reform that through the years has garnered bipartisan support is being stymied by political considerations. Allowing for imports of safe prescription drugs has been a proposal that has been approved by Democrats and Republicans alike for at least 15 years.

It always runs into an administration, first Clinton White House, then W. Bush White House, that set up the "poison pill" a bureaucratic procedure that allows White Houses to thwart the will of Congress, and quite frankly, the people.

After Congress has passed import legislation, administrations have bottled it up by requiring overly stringent and bureaucratic rules for importation that all agree effectively limit it. These administration efforts are bolstered by parts of the legislation, usually added by some opponent of importation, that require administration to "guarantee safety" of imported drugs.

The administrations, with a wink and a nod, always says, they can't "guarantee" such a requirement and it would require lots of costs and bureaucracy to do this. It's also a provision that does not apply to drugs made in the U.S. Figure that one out.

And, the drug re-imported are just as safe as anything made in the U.S., in fact, some come from U.S. factories, are sold to Canada and then re-imported. And we say we can't "guarantee" their safety. That's an argument that doesn't fly.

The re-importation language was a stumbling block as of early December, according to the Los Angeles Times. Had it been approved, health reform may have lost the support of the pharmaceutical industry. Even though Obama supported it in principle, he feared it would undercut pharmaceutical companies support for overall health care reform.

Too bad. Re-importation makes a lot of sense, and it has for years. It will lower costs of health care, something badly needed in any reform measure.

Here's a case where politics is thwarting the will of the people.

Why we're better than bloggers

The speed at which today's news and pseudo-news moves makes it all a little difficult to sort what's credible and what's not, even for news junkies and people in the business.

Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, search engines all allow news and commentary posing as news to move more quickly than ever. It seems it's getting faster every day. What's lost however, is credibility or rather our ability to judge if something is credible.

Unfortunately, some news organizations that used to consider credibility before speed have now resorted to speed. They take some commentary, that could be a "possible fact" and more or less run with it. Publish it. Put it online.

For the news consumer, this means you're getting a lot more information, but you're probably more confused about what it means and if it can be trusted.

News organizations like The Free Press make it our goal to help with that understanding. While our writers and editors blog like everyone else, they are still part of our larger organization, and can face consequences if, through their blog, they're spreading information that is either blatantly false or seriously unreliable.

Our competitive advantage against bloggers and others who don't have people checking their content remains that we have professional journalists working for us, and yes, by and large they're better at discerning truth from B.S. than others. They don't have hidden agendas. They're transparent. You can find them at a real office with a real phone number.

But we find ourselves constantly defending our profession as main stream media. As an organization, we all have different views and can keep our journalistic activities in check because we engage regularly in self criticism. We even take criticism from outside our walls and publish it in our product. They're called letters to the editor.

Last time I checked, bloggers and talk radio show hosts with large web site followings did not have a daily method and an ethical rule for publishing criticism of themselves. They don't have regular discussions among staff if they're doing the right thing.

That's why news organizations are more credible, and until these other media out there can show the public they have checks and balances and willingly accept criticism, we will have the competitive advantage, maybe not always in speed, but the thing that matters more: credibility.

Headlines vs. Fact in agriculture

I was invited to sit on a panel at the recent rural/agriculture legislative forum titled "Headlines vs. Fact" the media's portrayal of food issues like pandemics and H1N1.

While I felt a little like I may be in the bulls eye on this topic, I was happy to explain the role of "the media" as it were and my role as editor of The Free Press.

Others on the panel included representatives from the pork industry, the ethanol industry and a public relations specialist.

For more than an hour we discussed how food scare issues and the H1N1 issues can be portrayed in the media in ways that are not always accurate or in some cases where facts are not complete.

One issue: Why does the media use the term "swine flu" when you can't get it by eating pork. The Free Press tries to avoid the term swine flu, and our headline writers are instructed to use H1N1. The key here: Do people know what you are talking about when you use the term H1N1. I contend they do.

Do people know you definitely cannot catch H1N1 from eating pork when you use the term "swine flu." My take: some do, some don't. So H1N1 in my mind is more informative, and accurate.

The caveat I mention to folks. Media rely on sources, and the biggest source in this case is the Centers for Disease Control. If you look on their Web site, they title their information on the issue just like this "H1N1 (swine flu)."

My key advice to the agricultural industries, is to engage the mainstream media. Officials say they tend to favor the trade media, like the ag publications etc, out of a comfort zone type of thing.

But, they must engage mainstream media, because mainstream talks to consumers, and it is consumers' confidence that directly affects the price of their products.

All in all a great panel, lots of positive feedback from the audience. One e-mail I got said our story on the event was even pretty darn accurate!!!

Thoughts on the local economy

Free Press reports from last week seem to sound a somewhat optimistic note about Black Friday shopping, with retailers saying it was definitely better than last year.

That's not too surprising, given we were in midst of much uncertainty in the national economy last Christmas. We were in the middle of bank bailouts, stimulus plans, and new federal deficit projections. Lots of people were fairly cautious.

The job picture in the Mankato region also appears to be better than one year ago. The unemployment rate is down and the number of people working is up slightly for Blue Earth and Nicollet counties, even though the number of people looking for work and not being able to find it is much higher.

Part-time jobs for college students have been particularly tough. Word on the street was a new Pizza place opening had a couple of entry level jobs that drew 150 applications even without much publicity.

Bar owners downtown also sound a definitely less optimistic note, especially just in the last couple of months.

The Free Press carried another story a week ago that detailed a number of area businesses beginning to rehire people they had laid off earlier this year. That included about 80 re-hired workers at ISJ-Mayo hospital and 60 at Wells Concrete. Jones Metal products recalled about a dozen.

Statewide, 3M, Best Buy and Ecolab also reported they were hiring again.

The Mankato regional economy also has major employers who are in industries, according to state figures, that are growing again, namely health care and educational services.

A recent unscientific poll on The Free Press Web site showed about half believed the regional economy was stable and doing well, another half thought it was stagnant.

Famous front pages

The Free Press front page is now drawing readers in Washington D.C.

We know certain members of our congressional delegation get the newspaper in their offices but The Free Press front page is also wired electronically every night to the Newseum, a new multi-hundred million dollar museum of newspaper and media history.

We've been doing this since last January as have hundreds of other newspapers around the country.

The Newseum is located on Pennsylvania Avenue between Congress and the White House. At last count, there were 818 front pages from 77 countries displayed every day.

You can look at them here

Roy McCabe of Madelia was at the Newseum on Nov. 6, and low and behold he saw the front page of The Free Press as the representative paper from Minnesota displayed on the outside of their building. Each day, they pick one paper from each state to display.

Roy sent us a picture, and we thank him.

A few months ago, The Free Press front page also showed up behind CNN's John King on his Sunday morning talk show. He also was hosting the show at the Newseum and had a rotation of front pages behind him.

I haven't been to the Newseum yet, but I've heard its fabulous, 14 exhibit galleries, 15 theaters, interactive news exhibits in 250,000 square feet.

Businesses inducted into Hall of Fame

Greater Mankato Business Hall of Fame winners this year have astounding records of not only business success but draw that success from their constant attention to customer service and business relationships.

Schmidt Siding and Window estimates that they have served over 40,000 customers over their 60 years in business and have never had a complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau. That's unheard of in the home construction and contracting business where disputes occur just as a course of business. But it's clear Schmidt has done an excellent job of making everything right by the customer.

The company estimates 38 percent of its business is repeat customers, another impressive statistic.

Someone did raise an issue with the BBB on a Schmidt ad claiming that they were the number one contractor for their kind of business in Mankato, and when the BBB saw Schmidt's documentation of the numerous industry awards it won, they said, yes, no problem, you can call yourself No. 1.

Schmidt President Dale Brenke likened building the Schmidt business to building a cathedral, one generation builds the foundation, the next generation ads to that and others join in until the cathedral is completed.

Gary Schmidt sold his interest in the business a few years ago to employees Jim Hockert and Steve Beetch, but is still part of the Schmidt team that accepted the award.

After 60 years in business, the Schmidt company has built quite a cathedral.

Weir Insurance

The James R. Weir Insurance Agency also had a great story of a family business that grew for some 40 years.

The Weir agency was also inducted into the Greater Mankato Business Hall of Fame. Founder James Weir started the agency in 1969 with a few business associates. "We came to town and didn't have one policy," he told The Free Press. "Now the business is huge."

His son Jay Weir and son-in-law Mike Donohoe now run the business. Jay recalls coming back from college graduation in 1986, sitting down in his father's office and waiting for instructions on his new job.

His father plopped a phone book down in front of him and told him to "start making relationships" and pointed to the clock, saying "we don't watch the clock in this business."

Said Jay: "23 years later, I know exactly what that means."

Mike Donohoe thanked the Mankato community for all their patronage and, like many others on this night, described Mankato as a great place to live and do business.

Great stories at business awards event

Terrific stories emerged in pieces at the Greater Mankato Growth awards banquet Tuesday night.

Many award recipients had their own unique tale of how the business got started, a light moment or a poignant realization.

A few examples:

MSU students in a service project showed up at a local school to help a teacher and watched a 5-year-old student drink a full gallon of milk. When they asked why they drank the whole gallon, the kid says because they were "hungry." That point helped motivate the Campus Kitchens project that brings meals from cafeterias to Mankato's needy. MSU's Engagement Office was recognized for the business/education partnership award.

MRCI CEO Pam Year won the Hap Halligan service award, and had this anecdote about her first experience in Mankato 45 years ago as a college student. A kindly gentlemen helped her find MSU's lower campus as she was a lost small-town Iowa girl in the big city. That initial kindness of residents lead her to think she could stay in this place.

Robyn James, 25, won the young professional award. Her start to helping people in Mankato: She came up with the idea of putting red, white and blue ribbons on lockers of students at Mankato West after 9/11. Anyone who wanted to talk about 9/11, would take the ribbons off and give it to someone.

John Daley won the CVB volunteer of the year award. His favorite activity: visiting elderly at Laurel's Edge assisted living. He's been a volunteer with the chamber Cavaliers for years.

Shirley Piepho was also honored as volunteer of the year for her tireless work with MSU and Vikings training camp. While the monitore flashed a picture of her and Jared Allen, she told of the dues she's had to pay with Vikings camp. Mike Tice joked with her and "stuck me under his armpit." "That was my agony," she joked. "I earned my pay."

Pub 500 owner Tom Frederick also had a good Vikings story. Seems defensive lineman 300 plus pound Kevin Williams came in and sat at a table with a reserved sign. A Pub 500 waiter joked he would not make Williams move. When the rest of the Vikings defense showed up, the Pub employeed quipped. "I see you've brought reinforcements."

The Sports Institute took honors as a top emerging business, and co-owner Shane Bowyer recounted the advice of his 1,000 plus-win father, Dean, longtime coach of MSU baseball.

It's not the wins. It's the development of the players, the young people.

Part 2 continues Wednesday. Look for it in this blog.

What's the deal with these widgets?

As a reader of The Free Press Web site, you might notice we have created some "rolling marquees" for our blogs.

They're also known as widgets, and can even be downloaded to your own Web site.

We borrowed the idea from a sister paper in North Andover, Mass., just outside of Boston, but the tool itself, can be found at a free site called "widgetbox.com"

We wanted to dress up our blogs and get them more prominent play on the Web site. So now, they're easy to find and they're easy to read. The widgets update as soon as a new blog posting is filed.

They're broken down into two main categories of blogs: Free Press sports blogs that include blogs on baseball, hockey, fishing and fitness and The Free Press variety blogs that include blogs on entertainment, education, campus life and the blog you are reading as well as a blog from Free Press photographers John Cross and Pat Christman writing about their craft.

You can still look up blogs by individual writers by going to our "blogs" link at the top menu bar of our homepage.

We're also using our scrolling widget tool to provide a national news feed that is automatically updated any time big news breaks. It's from Google news but contains dispatches from The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and even Fox News.

The scrolling widgets have already driven our blog traffic through the roof with great readership.

It's just another innovation to make our Web site reader friendly.

Kasota verdict draws more fire

We once again suspended the story comments function on our Web site on the Kasota shooting case grand jury decision.

A grand jury found there was not enough evidence to charge Le Sueur County Sheriff's deputy Todd Waldron with murder, intentional or not, in the shooting death of Tyler Heilman.

That people were angered at this verdict was no surprise. When that anger turns into speech, we have to put some limits on what can be said on our story comment system on our Web site. It's not that we don't understand the anger, we just find that it's a discussion that will never be resolved.

It does more harm than good. With some of the comments I saw, civility was thrown out the window.

Law enforcement and a certain number of the general public will agree the ruling was just. Heilman's friends, and a certain number of the public, will call the ruling unjust.

We've taken some heavy criticism from law enforcement on how we played the issue, favoring Heilman. But we've had just as much criticism, if not more, saying we are not asking tough questions of police and we're somehow slanting stories to favor law enforcement.

Whenever we have both sides of a case like this calling us unfair, it usually means, we were very fair. I believe we were, and while I am always willing to listen to criticism, I don't see another way we could have reported the fact and the emotion surrounding the issue.

When one caller asked why we weren't asking tough questions of in their words "cops who kill" I said we do. It's just you can't print what someone doesn't say. Law enforcement and the prosecutors decided against holding a press conference with their key witnesses.

I wouldn't expect them to.

They have promised to offer more information to explain the jury verdict in a few weeks. We'll be there, and we'll be responsibly reporting the case and the facts

Marathon should be fun

Greater Mankato Convention and Visitors Bureau today announced that Mankato would be hosting the first Mankato Marathon next October, and it should fill the tourist attraction void left when the Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race put the brakes on a Mankato location.

It should be fun to see a hoped for 1,000 runners taking on the hills and valleys of Mankato.

The date is Oct. 23 and the course, to be finalized in January, will include Mankato parks, trails and City Center. As a certified marathon it will be one of the last races for people to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Hy Vee has taken the lead role in sponsoring the event, but more are needed as are some 250 volunteers. To find out more, go to www.mankatomarathon.com

Can leaders make something happen?

I just got back from beautiful Grand Rapids, Minn., after spending a week with 23 other people from the Mankato area who have positions of leadership in their organizations.

It was a program fully paid for and sponsored by the Blandin Founation, a group that has an endowment of $400 million and a goal of improving communities in greater Minnesota and rural areas.

Our goal was to learn how to mobilize a community to solve common problems. It's easier said then done, and of course, the role of a newspaper editor is different than the role of say, someone at Greater Mankato Growth. I'm charged with more of the gathering of information and framing the issues than actually mobilizing people at meetings and other events.

Still, lots to contemplate. The group was fairly enthusiastic about the greater Mankato area as a place to live, raise family, have fun. But there were several fairly significant problems discussed as well.

The group will be gathering more information on the issue of young girls in our region who, according to a major survey, have lots of feelings of hopelessness, even suicidal thoughts.

Another group will look to define more clearly the issue of childhood obesity and what can be done locally about that.

And a third group will try to understand and move forward on getting more people of color and diverse ethnic backgrounds to become part of decisionmaking groups in local institutions.

The meeting of 24 people from such different institutions, half women, half men, was sort of an amazing event. Our trainers pointed out it may be the last time all of us are in a room together for one-hour, much less five days.

There's got to be some good that comes from that.

Covering diverse communities

Thoroughness has always been a hallmark of good journalism. So has self-criticism.

In an effort to ramp up our efforts at both, Free Press staff recently met with representatives of Mankato’s growing diverse community, and we discovered we can improve our game, and our business.

The epiphany for me arrived a few months ago when I examined the picture the newspaper was portraying of the communities of color in our region. It was an exercise for a Blandin Foundation leadership program for editors, but it also allowed me to take a look at the broad picture we were drawing.

It also was prompted by a study of our newspaper by the Center for Small Towns at the University of Minnesota Morris. That study showed that compared to other things we covered, we were a little light on page one stories that showed diversity was valued.

While newspapers publish daily, the message we portray to the community is a story that develops over time. People don’t forget yesterday’s news. In fact, the continuing cycle of a newspaper paints a picture for people that leaves a lasting impression. My own realization suggested our picture of the people of color in our community was not so much inaccurate as it was incomplete.

We’d have a story about a cultural event, and then three crime stories involving minorities. Another good story, three negative. At the same time, numerous positive human interest feature stories in our newspaper involved white people that equal or outnumber the negative stories.

This is not a sin of commission, but rather one of omission. While we tell the “true” stories of people of color involved in crime, we often let that news dominate the painting of the broader picture. We do indeed cover so-called “positive” events of the diverse community, but they are often weekend features that one could view as a token way to cover the community.

Too often we neglect to depict people of color in positive roles, and where we do, it may not be enough, again, to help paint a broader, balanced picture.

These kind of omissions of coverage have lead many in the community to believe the people of color are the main crime problem in the city.

Too often, they are all painted with the same brush.

Young school children should not have to hear they are the problem in the community when they walk through the doors of our schools. They shouldn’t have to hear that they should “go back where they came from.”

That’s happening, and the sobering truth is that the newspaper is contributing to part of that, even if we’re not doing it intentionally.

The kids are blamed for crimes committed by “their people” even though they may have had nothing to do with those acts.

This change of thinking on our part doesn’t mean we’re not going to report crime. It does mean we’re going to try to paint a balanced picture of the diverse community like we are painting a balanced picture of the white community.

We’re able to more easily paint a balanced picture of the white community because, by and large the people who write Free Press stories are white and live in white neighborhoods. As one astute observer told us: “Where does the paper live.” He was saying, we write about places that are familiar to us and where “we live.”

So we’ll have to engage the diverse community, by inviting them to places the newspapers “lives,” but also going out to where they live.

Engaging works. Through meeting with the representatives of the diverse community, we found at least three or four good stories. These families who immigrate to Mankato have tremendous stories of struggle. They are overcoming odds to succeed in America, not unlike the immigrants of years past who came from places such as Norway, Ireland and Germany.

Many come from cultures with strong family bonds, something we in American could do better at ourselves. There is true value in the diverse community. The newspaper is one place that can help show that value, and create a more complete picture of the community as a whole.

We're not in Kansas anymore Toto

Mankato crime may not be like New York, Chicago, or even Minneapolis crime, but we're also not "in Kansas anymore."

That was one of the favorite phrases of former Mankato Public Safety Director Glenn Gabriel when he came across a crime that was more serious than one would expect in a town like Mankato.

It was a reference of course to the line in the movie Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her dog Toto discover the tornado that hit their home has landed them in a very different place, much less innocent than the proverbial Kansas.

We've begun tracking crime in Mankato through police reports in an online crime map that we keep updated as crimes occur. We don't report every assault, only the more serious ones that seem to be done in more public places.

In October, we've tracked four serious assaults and one robbery through the 19th. In September, our tracking showed four assaults, five sexual assaults, a car crashing into police and two other instances of drunk drivers hitting pedestrians or other cars, and two robberies.

This seems above the norm from what I'm used to seeing. The robberies could be related to the economy. Some of the assaults are related to excessive drinking.

The crime map details each crime, with time, date, place and circumstances.

Hockey goalies and editors

My time as a high school hockey goaltender has served me well in life.

The hockey culture of my hometown - St. Paul, Minnesota - is well known. And kids, almost all kids, grow up on the outdoor rinks at the many recreation centers in one of Minnesota's most beautiful and safe cities.

Youth had something to do besides drink. I lived within walking distance - imagine that - of three St. Paul recreation centers - Rice, North Dale and Front street centers. Usually, each center had at least two boarded hockey rinks and a "general" rink for those who did not take their winter sports as seriously.

Not only did each recreation center have its smattering of youth hockey teams, the many Catholic schools, one for each neighborhood it seemed, had at least one hockey team. St. Andrews, where many a storied Minnesota hockey player got their blades wet, had four or five teams, starting with sixth graders.

In all, I played about eight years of competitive hockey, ending my career on the MSU JV in 1978-79.

But I can still remember the drill. A goaltender is a special person, we were told. You must have the steel constitution to face down the rest of the maniacs who get to crank slapshots past your eyeballs. I have the lifetime experience of hearing the whiz of a 4 in. hard, black rubber disk flying past my ear at 80 mph.

I have the experience of one of those shots landing under my left eye on the cheekbone. This was before caged masks. You can feel this kind of shot with a fiberglass form-fitted goalie mask that I'm sure the State High School League would now outlaw.

I'm not sure how the physical experience of taking a slapshot to the face - in the context of good sportsmanship - prepares one for handling life's experiences as a newspaper editor, but I'm sure there are some.

Maybe once a goalie, always a goalie. There's just not much that rattles you when you came of age overcoming the fear of a 4 in. black rubber disk traveling 80 mph and headed for your nose.

Fact and opinion: "Truth" can be fuzzy

The angry politician couldn't believe it.

We just published a letter to the editor where the writer launched a "personal attack" on him that he characterized as inaccurate and false. We violated our own standards of requiring letter writers to cite the source of their facts, the politician argued.

Well, not quite. We require people to have sources for the facts they present, but opinions are an entirely different things.

The attack may have been personal, and clearly, the official didn't think it was very flattering. But it wasn't false or inaccurate. That's because there are no "false" opinions.

The Supreme Court has said as much in a series of cases where the principle of "fair comment and criticism" became a defense against libel. In a case where longtime conservative commentator William F. Buckley was called a "fascist" the court found that it was not libelous, but rather protected by "fair comment and criticism."

In the same case the court found, that while "fascist" was an opinion word, accusing Buckley as a journalist of lying and committing libel was something more provable and therefore, not a defense against libel.

Essentially, law evolved suggesting it's mostly not libelous to call a politician inept, or even unintelligent, but it is libelous to say they made off with city funds unless one can prove that.

So while the letter writer had an opinion that the politician was "off-base" and questioned his qualifications to hold office, there were no incorrect facts presented, only opinions the politicians didn't like.

Then the public official suggested I have great discretion to publish or not publish letters and that I should be judging the quality of one's argument. That may be a worthwhile goal to a point, but one that can also be prone to filtering or censoring views based on assumptions I don't agree with.

I later explained to this official, that they probably really did not want me or anyone else here to start making judgments on whose opinions are "true" or "accurate" or even if they are drawn logically from a set of facts.

That would create a system where letters were filtered through the views of one person, and their view alone, of whether an opinion was derived from facts and built into a reasonable argument.

I'd rather let readers decide if an opinion has merit and draws logical conclusions from the facts of a case. People can read. From my experience, most readers can tell B.S. when they see it or smell it.

Small towns hammered by cuts

Sunday's Free Press editorial takes aim at unfair taxation imposed on outstate Minnesota and small towns.

A conversation this week with small-town mayors with the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities lead me to believe this situation is getting worse, and people won't know it until they wake up one morning and their street is not plowed, and it's been a week since police responded to their call to report vandalism in their neighborhood.

Property taxes will rise to a level in places like Wells and Lake Crystal where they put these towns out of the running for any industrial or commercial development. Exaggeration you say.?I doubt it, but time will tell.

We have a lot of politicians who want to have it both ways. They want to say they support small towns, mostly because they make up a sizable part of Minnesota's voting block and they're likely to vote for the person and not the party. But they also want to adhere to the no-new taxes pledge. Unfortunately, taxes have been rising throughout the history of the pledge and they've been put on small towns residents on fixed incomes. State politicians have blamed local officials for spending, but have done little to reduce state mandates for spending. You can't have it both ways, state legislators.

Unfortunately, small towns don't have access to the information on how their legislators are performing. There are just not enough outlets in small towns, and the leaflets some legislators put out about their voting record our outstanding exaggerations or outright lies.

The Coalition only wants gubernatorial candidates to say how they stand on fair small town taxation. But there are plenty of legislators in rural Minnesota who need to come clean also.

Future of the other "Twin Cities"

Mankato City Manager Pat Hentges spoke to the Downtown Kiwanis Club today and offered a number of interesting views on the "state of the city."

Hottest topic came last, through a question of longtime Kiwanis Club member Claire Faust, former Mankato city councilman and longtime MSU vice president.

What about the merger? asked Faust.

Hentges had made reference to cities combining services in his earlier remarks, talking about the budget crunch cities face, reduced government aid, and an eroding state government picture. And now is not the time for the state to be raising taxes.

Hentges remained diplomatic and noted "merger" decisions were up the the political leadership of both cities, but that, in his view, the cities of Mankato and North Mankato could save 10 percent and not reduce services, but at the same time he reiterated: "It's not going to save a lot of money."

To some, 10 percent would be a good start.

Makes one wonder if the political leadership of each town could discuss the "10 percent solution." Hentges thought out loud that there might be a way to keep each town's identity, but that should be left to people smarter than he.

Among the other items of interest in "state of the city:"

In 2003, local government aid made up 50 percent of city's budget. After Gov. Tim Pawlenty's unallotment this year and cuts of previous year, the amount will be roughly 25 percent.

Cuts of $3 million in city budget will cause city to solicit nonprofits and neighborhood groups to do the plantings around town and maintain them.

They'll cut planting and mowing 15 percent to 20 percent.

The city will be slower to respond to non-emergency public safety calls.

Snowplowing of neighborhood streets might be done later in the day instead of it being cleared curb to curb when you wake up.

The city will call more snow emergencies to get cars moved.

City will attempt to keep property tax levy low, but Hentges notes that on a statewide basis this will be the first year property taxes will bring in more than state income taxes.

Tough budget times will require cities to cooperate more. "We have to look at more mergers" but that mergers between cities and cities make more sense than cities and counties, because counties provide a whole array of services that are very different from cities.

He says he'd love to merge city and county law enforcement but they are so different in how they provide services, it wouldn't work very well.

It's been a big year for parks. City opened new Riverfront Park last week, will be completing improvements to Sibley Park and will be building new youth baseball complex on site of new elementary school south on Monks avenue.

My take: Clearly, a lot is happening in the other "Twin Cities." But budget pressure will reduce a Mayberry-like life to one that is more like......"Gopher Prairie," with apologies to Sinclair Lewis.

SPJ story: believers in tough times

Some 600 believers descended on Indianapolis in late August.

I was among them.

Each of us had a connection to a constitutional right every American shares, but very few of us exercise on a daily basis. For the first time in my 25-year career in journalism, I attended the national convention of the Society of Professional Journalists.

The right, of course, is contained in the First Amendment. The right to free speech and the press, and — if it were modified for current times — the right to blog, to provide outrageous content, words, pictures, video, true or not, to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web.

Many of us take our right for granted, so it’s not discussed a great deal. There were workshops on new media, how to use Facebook, Twitter, and free Internet sites that allow us to “live stream.”

A white haired professor from the University of Florida showed us all the tools we need to be “Mojos” or mobile journalists. It involves a backpack, various USB cables, a laptop computer, a video camera the size of a cell phone and several electrical power supplies that can pull energy from numerous devices, and possibly from a live chicken.

There were snake-like devices to hold your flip cam steady to get the disaster shot to send via wireless to your office, where it can be instantly broadcast around the world.

All we need is an Iphone and livestream.com to bring you the world. Anybody can do it, and if you’ve got $500, you can set up shop as a self publishing Internet “content provider.”

No need for $10 million Goss presses anymore. No hard-drinking, late night working pressmen with ink under their fingernails, scaling monsters of manufacturing to make sure that magenta comes out just right on a maroon gophers uniform.

Still, there were seminars put on by old-fashioned journalists. The photographer for the New York Daily News told of the trauma that comes with continuing to click the horrific images of 9-11. It was his job, not his choice.

We heard from the small-town editor of the Lafayette, La., newspaper sending her entire staff of nine to cover Hurricane Katrina and then Hurricane Rita. Throw in a couple of fatal car accidents with local kids and the “usual” August drowning, and there’s enough trauma there for a lifetime.

Dozens of student journalists attended the convention, all with great enthusiasm for the profession, and with greater knowledge of the new tools than the veterans. Many will not be hired any time soon in an industry that has cut back, but they were still there to hear about the future of journalism. Many of them may shape where we’re going.

And, of course, there were seminars on just where our “business” is going. It’s been no secret the recession has taken its toll on journalism and newspapers, mostly because owners couldn’t see the risk of piling on debt for an industry that was about to have its business model rug pulled out from under it.

The journalists have paid the price. The editor and publisher of the Detroit Free Press talked about a 30 percent reduction in his newsroom in the last few years. This kind of reduction in people whose job it is to monitor corruption in a democracy should scare every American.

Of the three people I met for the first time at a cocktail party, two had been laid off.

Still, somehow these members of the “Society” have endured to tell the stories we all need to hear in the most sensitive way possible, all the while, sometimes, sacrificing their own sanity. I’m glad they’re still with us. I’m glad they’re strong. I’m honored to be in their company.

Because they’re believers. They believe in the First Amendment. They believe in the power a story carries to create empathy and kindness and motivate action on the part of our world community.

I can’t imagine where we’d be without them.

Phonecalls for help

As the audix voicemail lady greets me Monday morning, she notes I have 27 new voicemail messages.

Must have been a big weekend, I figure, for angry readers. I suspect the ELCA Lutherans approving of gay ministers. Or, maybe we messed up the crossword puzzle again.

No, instead, our circulation customer service rep had forwarded me 27 voice mails of a woman desperate to be heard, but most likely without much of her mental faculties. It involved a town in Illinois, a place she had been taken, in, she says, what was a kidnapping. The town, she says, was morally deficient. And on she goes for several more minutes.

She apparently called the newspaper some 27 times between Sunday around 10 a.m. and 4 a.m. Monday morning.

This is not a totally unusual occurrence. Another mentally troubled man would leave me much more comprehensible voice messages, mostly about politics, earlier this year, or was it last.

He spoke quickly and asked us to "look into" numerous conspiracies he had about the unabomber and "the real" John McCain.

I wonder why it dawns on these folks that the newspaper can help them. Perhaps the institution of the newspaper has just become the phonecall of last resort. I've had numerous people visit me in person with real problems, but most of them could be better solved by a marriage counselor, psychologist or priest.

A newspaper editor can listen, and repeat what they hear, if it's newsworthy. But only if. After that, we're pretty much not much help when it comes to the social safety net for personal problems.

Unfortunately, a lot of these personal problems can't be told without names, and anonymity is what a lot of these folks need, or are comfortable with.

So I didn't listen to more than a couple of the 27 voice messages.

They weren't newsworthy here, but I'm sure they were to her.

Today's news: what it means

It's often instructive to take a step back and contemplate what today's headlines really mean.

In the news business, we often stick to the straight story, especially with state, national and world news. They all end up sounding pretty much the same because most come from one or two national and world wire services.

So here's my take on what today's state, national and world headlines mean to average people living in the Mankato region.

"State adds 10,000 jobs"
While this is the first job gain for the state of Minnesota in almost a year, it's not the first job gain for the Mankato region. Most people haven't paid attention, but Mankato has gained jobs for January, February, May and June this year.
What the news means: If the state if finally adding jobs, the Mankato region is likely to remain ahead of state trends, producing more jobs, more regularly.

"100 killed in Baghdad attacks"
What the news means: A really troubling story in my mind. Shows Iraqis are not doing very well handling their own security without presence of U.S. troops. Major government buildings are involved. This cannot be good for Maliki government, or Iraqi stability.

The fact that Maliki blames al Qaeda is also serious concern since U.S. spent lots of resources getting tribal leaders to fight al Qaeda on their own. Seems like the coalition we helped build for Iraq handling its own security might be deteriorating.

If it deteriorates further to threaten peace elsewhere in the Middle East, Obama is going to be faced with a very tough decision on whether we feel our interests need protecting, again, with more U.S. troops.

"Rottweilers attack woman, unprovoked in Lincoln Park"
What the news means: I wouldn't be surprised for someone to bring up dangerous dogs ordinance again in Mankato, maybe giving it more teeth to be breed specific. But then again, there's lot of pet owners in this town who blame the owners, not the breed.

When people speak...
Finally, when people speak, bureaucrats, politicians and even newspapers listen.

Cases in point: Postal officials decided against closing the North Mankato Post Office after hearing from residents and their congressman.

Pete Nowacki, of the postal service chuckled "We did get some customer input." Which usually means they got read the riot act by citizens of North Mankato, probably not the least of which were lots of senior citizens.

Congressman Tim Walz decided to hold town hall meetings on health care after a barrage of calls and letters to the editor. To be fair, we're not sure if he wouldn't have held them anyway, but at least some of the public attending his meeting thought he was responding to their requests.

And finally, The Free Press has been publishing a page a day of health care reform stories, and will through the weekend, in response to one reader who passionately pleaded for us to provide more information on this highly complex topic.

Favre has landed

The news business can track its competition on a story like Brett Favre returning to indeed sign with the Vikings, despite the earlier retired again drama.

First, text messages hit some newsroom staffers, who relayed the then rumor of Favre's return to an editor, who immediately found the story with anonymous sources on WCCO TV's site with longtime sports anchor Mark Rosen.

Other blogs and media started to copy. The Associated Press confirmed Mississippi airport officials seeing plane with Vikings logo taking off.

And the media frenzy was off and running. Updates every few minutes. Until about 2 p.m. news of Favre signing broke with Star Trib and Associated Press. Fans mobbed Winter Park with strib reporter worrying about security and traffic.

The circus begins. Favre already suited up in red No. 4 practice jersey.

We twittered the news, we Facebooked. Are those verbs?

Beat that, Gutenberg!

Town-hall meetings

There's a Norman Rockwell painting on my wall called "Freedom of Speech."

It's part of a series of paintings, I'm told, highlighting freedoms offered by the First Amendment.

In it, a working class looking fellow stands among others in a town hall setting as if he is addressing the town council. Around him, others, some in ties, look up and are listening to what he has to say. They have copies of the town council's budget in their hands.

If only America reflected Norman Rockwell's version of the town hall meeting. News reports show a different picture lately. Apparently groups and individuals have somewhat hijacked these town hall meetings by shouting at members of Congress about the recent health care debate.

Some of have carried pictures of President Obama with a Hitler-like mustache on his face.

The reaction is perhaps not surprising. When uninformed people read fear-laced literature distributed by groups with ulterior motives, they're likely to get scared. They shout, become disruptive and basically deny their neighbors a chance to be heard, and taken seriously.

Of course, these people should be forcibly removed for being disruptive. However much we might agree with our elected leaders, everyone deserves the respect that comes with listening to one's point of view.

One murder, one shooting, three bodies

It certainly was not a "quiet week in Lake Wobegone" these last few weeks in the Mankato region.

We have an sheriff's deputy shooting a man in Kasota after a confrontation. About a week later, we have two dead bodies in the St. Peter area, a murder-suicide that appears to involve two men and one woman. A four-year old child was left at lake dock and not found until 11 p.m. at night, bitten by bugs and traumatized.

We doubt the Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been this busy in one county in this short of time period ever.

When you're the messenger in these situations, the anger is aimed at you, no matter how unjustified. We've taken it from all sides.

We're in the classic Catch 22 with these situations. Usually, law enforcement cannot give a lot of detail in the timeline newspapers operate under. We have to go with what we've got, however incomplete, to serve our readers who want to know 1: Are they safe 2: What is being done about the people who committed these violent and deadly crimes.

Vitriolic and in my opinion unreasonable expectations from so-called friends of law enforcement who can't face us through anything but e-mails, expect us to say nothing until police have completed their investigation. That' s just not going to happen, my friends.

We have to remember, the public safety is served when the public has information. We don't need ALL the information on any given case any time. But we do NEED the BASIC INFORMATION (that required by law) and we will do anything necessary come hell or high water to get that. We hope law enforcement understands that. We know our readers expect that.

At a very minimum people need to know if they are safe, or if the perpetrator is still on the lose. I commend the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for giving us those facts on the St. Peter murder suicide as soon as possible. The agency said in a statement that "the public is not in danger. No suspects are being sought." That tells people, it's a murder suicide, even if the BCA can't confirm that yet with forensics.

In the Kasota shooting, the information has not been quite as good. We think law enforcement could do a lot to quell some of the anger and unease in the community be releasing a little more information on the details. So far, what has been reported by witnesses came from friends or acquaintances of the victim. We know that information may not be the whole picture, but again, we have to go with the information we have.

In this case, a little information may be all people have to go on. And we know people act irrationally when they only have one side of the story.

So in the large context of public safety, a little more information could go a long way.

Kasota shooting erupts in comments

The Kasota shooting story has dominated the news and this emotional story has stoked comments on both sides that pretty much overloaded our "story comment" system.

I've suspended the function for a while, so no story comments on this subject will be published. The volume and the content of the comments were problematic. Too much anger on both sides. We'll see what prevails as the details become more clear.

Disappointing the BCA can't give more details. This would "balance" the story coming out. I know it's not their job to balance the story, but it's our job to put as much of the story out there as we can, especially in a shooting case. But we can only print the facts that are told to us. We can't make them up.

In the alternative, if police can't give facts regards investigation, we cannot and will not refrain from publishing anything. Some people want us to refrain from publishing anything until all the facts are known. That's not realistic and holding off publishing news is not what newspapers do. Stay tuned.

"Retract that or I'll sue"

Three to five times per year, we get threatened with legal action.

Usually it's from the subject of a story who says they didn't say what we quoted in the newspaper. As you can expect, what they said probably did not reflect well on them or their family. Or, in other cases, they didn't think what they said would sound like it came out or produce a barrage of negative feedback.

A rather remarkable exchange in a Nicollet County courtroom stands as the latest threat of legal action. In an exchange during the sentencing of a case involving the death of a baby, in-laws went after each other, each defending their side of the husband-wife relationship. The father was accused of causing the baby's death, and eventually plead to a lesser charge but will do jail time.

One in-law told the mother they hoped she'd burn in hell, suggesting she was somehow the one who should be on trial. The mother and her mother responded in kind with threats of physical violence. Our reporter witnessed the conversation, transcribed it and put it in his story.

Who denied the allegation doesn't really matter. But we stood by our story. We haven't had a call from a lawyer yet.

That's the way these things usually play out. Even though we're all led to believe in America you can sue anybody, it's very difficult under our Constitution that provides substantial protection to the press.

Truth is always a defense against libel actions. If we were there, and we took notes, published accurately what was said, no matter how bad it might sound, we're protected by the First Amendment. Supreme Court precedents have supported the truth defense throughout history.

Of course, some such cases have nuances, and nothing is every guaranteed when you go before a jury, but the old saying applies: If you're in front a reporter, if you don't want it in the newspaper, don't say it.

A courtroom is one of the most important public places in a democracy. Taxpayers deserve to know what's being said and what's going.

Thumbs up, thumbs down

We often hear the complaint that newspapers are so depressing, negative and tell only the bad news.

It may seem like that at times. There's plenty of bad news out there. The Free Press aimed to combat that perception a few years ago by our "Thumbs up, Thumbs down" feature that runs on the Saturday opinion page.

We give short snippets of actions we're disappointed with (thumbs down) and human activity we think is positive (thumbs up).

I'm here to say that the thumbs up almost always outnumber the thumbs down by a ratio of at least 3 to 1. So, in a year's time, we highlight 156 good things that happened to maybe 52 bad things.

Who says newspapers never have good news?

We also take thumbs items from readers. They'll often write in about a great coach, a great play they saw or just the acts of a Good Samaritan.

In these difficult economic and social times, people want hope. We offer many examples every Saturday morning.

Suggestions or submissions for thumbs can be sent to jspear@mankatofreepress.com

What's cool about the newspaper

Connections.

The institution of a newspaper or as we now say "news enterprise" has always had that connection with its audience, its readers.

People from Johannes Gutenberg to Bill Gates have made the connections faster and more convenient, but the old fashioned gathering of news and spreading it to people who think it's relevant is a craft that will always be around.

Take the story Free Press reporter Mark Fischenich did a few weeks back on people in the Mankato area finding where their uncle was buried after being killed in the Normandy invasion during World War II.

It was an amazing story of people finding their past through the power of the Internet. It was a story of history and how average people in Europe still remember the day the Americans freed them from tyranny of the Nazis.

They not only remember, they act. They now tend the graves of those U.S. soldiers.

That family we profiled took calls from others who read the story, wanting to know how they might find their own relatives who died in Europe in World War II.

I was one of those who was curious as well. I never knew my uncle John E. Spear, my Dad's brother. But we knew he was killed in the Battle of the Bulge, Dec, 29, 1944.

The Bulge was one of the most brutal and horrific battles of World War II. My father's side of the family, including my father, have been dead 15-20 years, before I had a real interest in finding out more about my uncle.

Luckily, my older sister had heard he was buried in a cemetery in Luxembourg, but didn't know where. She remembered my other uncle going to visit his grave.

We didn't know if he was the one of thousands of U.S. soldiers killed in that battle that couldn't be identified.

The story on the local family got me to searching on the Internet. Sure enough, the American Battle Monuments Memorial organization tends and operates numerous U.S. military cemeteries in Europe. I looked up Luxembourg's American military cemetery and found a searchable database of all who were buried there.

I searched by state. Minnesota had a handful of soldiers killed. Halfway down, was the name John E. Spear, his rank, date of death, and the location of his grave. He was awarded a Purple Heart.

My goal will be to visit that grave some day, to have a connection, and maybe write another story so someone else can find their connections as well.

Changing role of the newspaper

Newspapers have throughout their history adopted different levels of community involvement, from rampant muckraking to community booster.

For years in the early part of the century, newspaper publishers were often the spark that brought different factions of the community together to get things done. That's been more the role of smaller newspapers versus the large metro area. Hence many smaller newspapers come to be known as "community newspapers."

The Free Press is considered a "community newspaper," but hasn't really made clear to the community what causes are worthy of their attention. When we've taken up causes on editorial page, we haven't really tracked the progress of those community efforts.

It's something you're likely to see more of in the near future.

The Free Press is participating in a Blandin Foundation Community Leadership program for Minnesota editors and publishers. We've been studying eight tenets of "healthy communities" and aim to work up some kind of report card for Mankato and the surrounding region.

We'll share that report card with our readers and ask for their input on what we need to do better in this community.

The lines are open.

A couple hours with speaker, senators, reps

This is the time of year when I get requests to meet with lots of legislative leaders, and I spent a couple of hours in the last two days listening to two likely candidates for governor as well as local senators and representatives in the Minnesota House.

I am always impressed with the sincerity and knowledge of these public servants whatever their political stripe. These meetings are useful for someone like me whose job it is to be informed and write opinions on the activities of government.

In one meeting, I met with Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Rep. Kathy Brynaert and Rep. Terry Morrow, who also is an assistant majority leader.

Earlier meeting included Senate Tax Committee Chairman Sen. Tom Bakk, Sen. Kathy Sheran and Rep. Kathy Brynaert.

These meetings usually focus on a review of the session, but this year the hot topic is what didn't pass and the pending unallotments.

Here are a few phrases and points that stuck with me from the conversations.

From Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher "We're not even on a budget roller coaster. We're on a budget Tilt A Whirl."

A roller coaster goes up and down, a tilt a whirl spins you so you don't know where you will end up.

Other information that surprised me.

The higher income tax Dems were proposing would have cost family making over $300,000 just $109 per year. Renter credit that Pawlenty will unallot, costs renters $156 per year.

House research showed 2.3 percent of households in Minn. would have to pay the $109, and 5.7 percent of the 2.3 percent were small businesses. Speaker rejects "job killer" label Repubs gave the tax increase. No one had real evidence of this one way or another, but speaker says Minn. law gives tax breaks to higher income people for creating jobs.

Unallotments will hit rural Minnesota harder than metro Minnesota. Lots of General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) cases are in outstate Minnesota. That program is gone by Pawlenty veto. MinnesotaCare is also popular in outstate Minnesota with a lot of small business employees on it. They will be pushed off by law if General Assistance people apply

GAMC cases are mentally ill people, chemically dependent, including many veterans. To get on MinnesotaCare, they will have to wait four months. Gov. says they can get on MinnCare. Dems say most are not that together to apply and get in, and can't wait four months for their meds.

Liquor tax Dems proposed would have cost 5 cents a drink, 3 cents on a beer, more if you drink the fancy stuff.

Even Gov. Pawlenty knew budget problem needed revenue. He proposed $1 billion in borrowing. Speaker would not go for it, said borrowing for operating expenses would set a new precedent open the door for fiscal irresponsibility. She backs it up with House vote on borrowing 130-2 against it.

Kelliher says she is "seriously considering" run for governor. Her leadership of a diverse caucus, rural/outstate makes a big difference. She grew up around Mankato, has family farm here, lives in metro but doesn't consider herself "metro-centric."

Bakk talk.

From Sen. Tom Bakk, Senate Tax Committee chairman, union carpenter, Iron Range legislator who has announced run for governor.

Bakk was asked by governor to try to help break deadlock. He offered tax break plan for small business giving "Angel investors" a tax break. He told Pawlenty he could argue that tax increase on high earners would be made "revenue neutral" by Angel investor tax break.

Bakk said Pawlenty said he got beat up so bad when he agreed to "health impact fee" a few years ago, he was done trying to make such arguments.

Another surprise: Bakk is telling school districts not to short-term borrow. They shouldn't count on school funding backfilling via shifting school funding as part of budget solution.

His direct quote: the delayed education payment "is a cut"

Our revenue problem snapshot: Corporate taxes usually bring Minnesota $1.2 billion a year. They're bringing in $600 million, about half of normal

From Sen. Kathy Sheran.
The Senate compromised its position to no school funding shift and agreed to the shift the governor proposed. Her question for the governor. "Where did he move (compromise)."

Bakk says he is running for governor because he is an electable Democrat, likeable person. He's moderate and tries to work with the other side of aisle. Says last Democrat to get elected did so because he was likable - former Gov. Rudy Perpich, also an Iron Ranger.

Weather threats, trial outcome anger

We're back in the game, as we say, after a 11 day hiatus conducting numerous domestic activities like lawn mowing and gardening - using the term loosely of course.

At the Moondogs game Sunday I returned to work early by checking in with newsroom on storm coverage and tornado sitings. And got a call Saturday night as editor on call for the death of the man who fell into a fire a Kiesler's campground in Waseca.

Those are the kind of stories where we need feet on the ground, before we know the "newsiness" of the situation. Waseca tragedy of course, sounded more like a medical incident, and nothing involving foul play, though it certainly was an unusual call the way it sounded on the police scanner.

Something like, "man in fire, DOA."

Tornadoes are always dicey to chase down. They usually come form the southwest, and if we want to get a "safe" view, you have to get behind it. That means going into it from Mankato if it's south or west of here, or taking a straight south route and circle in behind it. Or better yet, duck until it passes, and then follow.

We can rely on a fairly solid reporting system of trained spotters the national weather service has organized. It's available on the Web and it is pretty real time. It's the information they use to transmit storm warnings over their weather radio system.

So there are tools at our disposal.

On the phone call front, I'm asked by a reader why her comment on a recent trial involving infant death did not get posted on our story comment board.

Even though Congress passed a law that pretty much protects us from Web "commenters'" libelous statements we try to moderate them to keep to relative standards of taste and fair play. So accusing an innocent person of child abuse is one of those things we'll probably flag.

That's not the case on KatoChat or whatever the other local chats have evolved. It's unfortunate, but in the case of other chats, almost anything goes.

We're still here to clean up the debate, even though that makes us sound more like custodians in a school lunchroom than journalists.

Gone fishin'

I'll be out of the blogosphere for a 10-day hiatus. Fishin', biking, camping, going to baseball games and hangin' out in the yard. See you June 22.

Juveniles, accidents and angry mothers

Angry mothers came in threes Monday morning, the first day back from my two-day hiatus from my position of CEO of complaint central.

Over the weekend, we reported on two fairly serious car accidents involving juvenile drivers and passengers. One driver, according to police, was only 14 years old.

Angry mom No. 1 was mad because we didn't get her permission to put her son's name in the paper. Short, and impolite-sounding answer: We don't need her permission. Second, more polite answer: The police are obligated by law to give us this information on car accidents, and we feel we have an obligation to publish these names in the interest of public safety and the public's right to know about road safety.

The law prohibits authorities from releasing names of juveniles charged with misdemeanor crimes for the most part. For felony level offenses, if juveniles do the crime, or are accused of it, they will have their name in the newspaper. In traffic accidents, the law is fairly specific. Juveniles names must be released.

Angry and more frustrated mom No. 2 just wanted to know why her son's name was in the paper. People were making crank calls, insulting her mothering abilities. Again, same answer. Police must give us this information. She wanted to do something to let people know she did all she could to keep her son at home and out of trouble, but alas, was not successful.

She may write a letter to the editor, and we will indeed publish it.

Mother No. 3 took issue with her son being named as the driver. The police stand by their report.

A couple of the mothers wondered why we reported the names of juveniles in one accident and not the other. One was published Saturday, the other Sunday.

That was related somewhat to the timing and the law enforcement agency involved. State Patrol provided us the information on the first accident, and they are very quick to provide media as much as possible as soon as possible. They're staffed to do so.

Blue Earth County Sheriffs office handled the other one and they usually have limited staff on weekends, so sometimes it takes a while for them to get us all the pertinent information. To their credit, they did provide the names of the other juveniles Monday night.

I'm always a little amazed that people expect secrecy when they are involved in things that threaten public safety and involve public officials paid by tax dollars. It's not a question of an arrogant media, but providing information to taxpayers on how their money is being spent.

We begin again at commencement

I hadn't been to a high school commencement ceremony in 30 years, and that was my own.

So, when I attended by daughter Jillian's commencement at Mankato East last Thursday night, I had a hard time remembering just what these ceremonies were all about. It didn't take long to bring it back, but my high school graduation from St. Paul Washington was nowhere near the show that was put on by students, faculty and staff at East. (I'm sure the commencement at West was equally excellent)

A perfect June evening, temperatures in the 70s and a slight breeze made the evening perfect. I often think of things in storylines - comes with the business I'm in I guess. The storyline that night had more than a feel-good ending. I felt like I was in a Disney movie.

The "Pomp and Circumstance" was played by the East band. When they played another number, their senior members came from their places and played with them. Same for the East choir, an excellent group of kids with an excellent performance. You can tell these kids are enthusiastic about choir, that's a credit to their dedicated, and enthusiastic teacher Robin Hughes...Funny how enthusiastic teachers always seem to have enthusiastic students.

If this show's storyline was to highlight all the good that happens in high school, it hit all the right notes.

The student speeches by Rachel Knoblich and James Blaschko were top notch. As one of the administrators said, they're blown away by the eloquence of speech and thought by kids barely 18. I concur.

Of course, high school is easier for some kids than others. Some breeze through, others have to work really hard to get Cs. What's universal is the accomplishment. That was apparent as small groups of families shouted out cheers and applause as their students crossed the stage.

These cheers were not the kind you might hear at a football game. They had a depth of feeling that suggested the world is enthusiastically behind these graduates whatever life may throw at them. But it's also a cheer that reminds us these kids are the future, and we better be rooting for them, and remember our part.

I won't wait another 30 years to go to a high school commencement, even if I could.

Veins of community across the desk

I've often considered myself lucky to have this job, although it isn't always fun!

A line from the Paul Newman/Sally Field movie Absence of Malice always comes back to me. Field is asking her city editor if he ever thought of doing something else as she questions her own decision to be a reporter. He says he has thought about doing something else, but when she asks will he ever do anything else, he says "Nope."

And he follows with why: "Something different every day, you don't have to lie a lot, and sometimes, you get the bad guy."

"Something different every day" rings true for me.

Yesterday, members of the community were mad about racial overtones in a column we published. Today, I get a thank you note for helping with a job fair for kids with disabilities. Yesterday, the newsroom was stressed dealing with shortage of staffing during a busy week. Oops. Today they're still stressed. But that will pass

Reading a letter from a reader one day highlights the problem of homelessness among women and children and how one of their shelters, Theresa House, will have to close if it cannot find enough funding. Another letter highlights the fact a group of local community leaders have joined together to help parents get their kids ready for kindergarten.

Crime logs tell the story of kids in trouble. Honor roll lists tell the story of kids with success.

If anything, the editor of the local newspaper, and people who work in the newsroom, get a broad view of our community. I think we can do something with that knowledge. Hopefully, we're imparting a bit of what it means every day, and most importantly, offering solutions or highlighting people who've found solutions.

This daily duty of tracking the life of the community will sustain the business we are in. The importance of those stories come across my desk every day, and remind me that we have an important role, a worthwhile purpose. For that, I'm grateful.

What's the deal with all these blogs?

The Free Press carried two blogs about a month ago. We now have more than four times that many. Yes, we've quadrupled our blogs to number nine.

That's not bad expansion for an industry that supposedly is losing its fifth gear or its audience. Not here. So, what's the deal with all these blogs?

First, we want to make more connections with our readers. We now have the power and technology (the Web) to do it, so it just makes sense. Each blog is designed to give readers insight into the daily work of Free Press reporters and editors. The topics range from fishing, higher education, entertainment to baseball, hockey and general editor and publisher community blogs.

We hope to provide readers some interesting insights into how we do our job - giving them a picture of their community every day.

We hope to build our "brand." While brand tends to be a marketing jargon word, it's important people recognize the "brand" of The Free Press. In a nutshell: Comprehensive news about your and your community by people who are knowledgeable, intelligent and yes, at times, humorous.

We have and will continue to grow our audience. Our total audience as measured by print circulation, Web site and special e-edition has grown by about 15 percent in the last year. That's a very high number for growing interest in a product, any product, during a recession.

Our blogs, so far, are garnering a good amount of traffic and we hope to expand them and as always cross-promote them in the print edition.

Blogs also give the reader a chance to "talk" to the reporter about coverage or listen to their thinking on it, and gain other insights that normally would not fit into the typical format of a print-edition story.

We think our blogs offer our readers a chance to get to know us better and spend more time with us.

Yahoos and the news

When I emailed staff about "Yahoo" and "local news," I'm sure they thought I took another one of those phone calls from people who shall we say are "enthusiastic" about how wrong we are.

But it was about the real "Yahoo," you know the multi-billion corporation. In an interview with Dow Jones news, the new CEO Hilary Schneider said the company is looking to extend the "lens of local" across all of its programming. Yahoo already has deals with local newspapers to carry their content and provide to Yahoos everywhere.

Any astute Web observer knows for example, you can get "Mankato news" on a Google News service or as a Google alert. The news you usually get is from a Free Press story that has been posted online. Google scans Web sites with a "crawler" and then provides the link to anyone who says they would like local news.

Unfortunately, Google does not pay us for use of our copyrighted material, but they do link directly to our site, which increases our number of page views and theoretically revenue from advertisers.

Why don't we sue? 1. It's very expensive to fight a multi-billion corporation like Google. 2. We don't feel directing people to our Web site damages us. In fact, one could argue, it's good for us.

We do, on occasion, find a Web site that has just cut and pasted our story into their own Web site. That's when we raise a fuss.

But back to Yahoo. They're trying to make inroads with various partners into local news. Might they be able to recruit "citizen" journalists to "populate" a local news site with "news" or at least information they have come up with. Might these people be inclined to work for free or a cut of the ad revenues?

A thousand citizen journalists working two-hours a week, equals 2,000 hours of news reporting, more than the local newspaper.

Craigslist operates on the notion that people will use it, for free, and that is the content that drives the business or desire for advertisers to be on the site. Craig basically gets his content for free or virtually free. Could a news site like Yahoo do a version of Craigslist as a local free place for information?

My question to the staff is: How would we, as professional journalists, newspaper managers, combat that prospect?

The answer might be to recruit our own band of citizen journalists to provide hyper local information. That is a strategy some newspapers are already using.

Family under spotlight duress

It's not surprising Colleen Hauser was shocked people would think she was in "hiding" when she left her Sleepy Eye farm with her cancer-stricken 13-year-old son, in part at least, to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy treatment.

That flight made this into a national news story, with all the bells and whistles: satellite trucks, rude reporters (from other newspapers, mostly national media of course) and intrusive photographers with telephoto lenses.

Unfortunately, there are few laws that prevent the media from following a story like this or any other story for that matter. I've found that the subjects of national news stories rarely understand the scope of just how national news comes to be national.

If you're a fly on the wall that the media decide deserves attention, they've got the equivalent of the Hubble space telescope ready to examine your life.

To that extent, I received the Tuesday morning voice message that is the signature of an unhappy reader. An early morning voicemail message usually indicates an irate reader. Most people get their newspaper somewhere shortly after 6 a.m., earlier for some, later for others.

Hence, if the message is already waiting when I get in about 8 a.m., you know someone was really excited about something in that day's newspaper, and got on the phone, likely as they were turning the page.

I like the 10 a.m. calls better. People have had a couple hours to think about their anger, talk it over with the coffee klatsch and settle down a bit.

Anyway, the early morning message took us to task, scolded even, that they did not like the use of "Chemo fugitive" in the headline. This family has been through a lot over the last week, and we should be able to "take it easy" on them with a more generic lead like "Hauser family."

I can respect that opinion. Catchy headlines do not always win over sensitivity to those who are under the microscope, especially those in trying circumstances.

A good headline should be accurate, catchy and sometimes sensitive. But sometimes you also have to choose between catchy and sensitive, and of course, the real challenge: what fits in the space. I don't think "Chemo fugitive" was particularly insensitive or inaccurate.

The judge made an order; it involved required treatment of chemotherapy. The mother and son fled BECAUSE of that order. They're technically and accurately fugitives....which Webster's defines as someone who has "fled, either danger or justice"

In this case, they fled what they thought was dangerous (chemo) and justice (judge's order)

But these things are always worth considering, discussing. That's what we do, day in and day out. People often give us the benefit of the doubt, if we've discussed, and talked it through.

One-thousand editorials

Writing Free Press editorials since 1996, I have figured roughly that I have penned more than 1,000 such "voice of the newspaper" opinions. Is it any wonder, I sometimes ask myself: Haven't I written about this subject before? Haven't I written this opinion before?

That voice has evolved over the years, depending on the makeup of the editorial board. The opinions expressed under "Our View" label are theoretically a consensus opinion of the editorial board. That board is made up of myself, Publisher Jim Santori, night news editor Doug Wolter, day news editor Kathy Vos and longtime reporter and editor/columnist Tim Krohn. We've asked two community members, of opposite political stripes, to give us more frequent feedback on our editorials.

A decade ago, we had a different editor and a different publisher. Both had views that were somewhat different than those of the current board. I would say the general viewpoint has become more "conservative or progressive" over the last 10 years. Progressive meaning more in favor of pushing programs that aid economic growth. Conservative meaning more cautious about automatically accepting government as the answer to everything.

Our editorial credo has been centered around certain themes: Fiscal responsibility, freedom of expression, religion and freedom from intrusive government: government has a role to play in the health and safety of the population (our view on how much goes back and forth); investments in education are wise for the most part and promote economic growth; the best government is the one that is most open.

Our themes are sure to evolve over the next 10 years. The world is changing fast. We will be inviting more input from our readers and the community at large to help us form our editorial credos. Look for more in this space and in the print edition in future postings.

Hauser drama grows to nationwide story

A Sleepy Eye farm family whose mother and 13-year old cancer ridden son have fled authorities has become a national story. CNN, Good Morning America. You name it, the national media is on it.

They're descending on 3,000 population Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, named after an Native American chief. The story has lots of what journalists call "narrative" elements moving through it. Small town America fighting big medicine. (The Hausers have fled because Daniel doesn't want to go through court ordered chemo to treat his cancer).

The story has religious freedom overtones as well. The family believes it is being denied a right to chose medical care more in tune with their spiritual beliefs, via the Nemenhah Band of Native Americans.

It's a life and death story. Daniel could die if he doesn't get treatment. The story certainly has human interest elements to it. Dad going through the daily routine on the dairy farm as his small children wonder where mom and brother have gone.

It's a sad story really, and could be a tragic story, and one that is not likely to die soon. Brown County authorities are working around the clock chasing down leads, responding to media requests, having daily press briefings in a jurisdiction that typically has one press briefing a year.

This story hits every Television/media viewer survey hot button, and the national media know this. It is likely to draw huge ratings and readership.

Already, the family seems to be worn down. A Star Tribune report quoted father Anthony Hauser as being more tired from media interviews and attention that he is from the daily chores of a dairy farm.

Stay tuned.

Work Skills Competition/Desire for jobs

This morning I listened to high school students with disabilities go through 10-minute mock job interviews. What I heard was a real desire from these kids to have a job, to participate in life like a lot of others.

I hadn't thought about jobs in this context for a while. News headlines are dominated by how many jobs are lost, and we invariably see the faces and hear the voices of embittered people who've lost their job, through no fault of their own, in many cases.

I was a volunteer interview "judge" for the Work Skills Competition, a program put together by various community organizations and businesses that offers kids with disabilities, many of them very minor, to learn how to interview for a job, how to get a job.

Many were very good, for example, about explaining they know they have ADHD but have fashioned strategies to overcome it in certain jobs situations. And they were very poised and convincing telling you this.

Many explained their lack of experience but said with complete conviction that they "will absolutely give 100 percent to learn the job;" that in their current job, the boss calls them first when someone calls in sick.

They were applying for jobs as retail store stockers, restaurant workers, auto mechanics and skiing instructors. Some want to be corrections officers and video game designers.

You could hear over and over again the passion these kids had for what we all want but sometimes take for granted: a job, a place to feel needed, a way to contribute.

I was humbled.

Slipknot and police calls

Wednesday, May 13, Slipknot performed for 3,000 plus fans at Alltel Center.
Mankato Police calls for 24 hours from 7 a.m. May 13 to 7 a.m. May 14 were 143. Same day week earlier calls were 117. So less than a 30 percent jump.
There were 16 calls answered by Mankato Police at the event. Here's the list from police logs.

6:05 p.m.: Liquor Violation
7:31 p.m.: Liquor violation
7:36 p.m.: Assist needed
7:46 p.m.: Disorderly conduct
7:52 p.m.: Liquor violation
8:16 p.m.: Liquor violation
8:18 p.m.: Assist needed
8:31 p.m.: Liquor violation
8:33 p.m.: Warrant service, referred to other agency
8:53 p.m.: Liquor violation
9:07 p.m.: Assist needed
9:13 p.m.: Assist needed
9:40 p.m.: Assist needed
9:44 p.m.: Assist needed
9:50 p.m.: Intoxication, not driving
10:15 p.m.: Disorderly conduct

Our photographer Pat Christman who shot the show, details his experience with the headbangers in his blog. The title: "Earplugs required"

Slipknot and Facebook; headbanging heaven

The heavy metal band Slipknot slammed the Alltel Civic Center last night in Mankato with a roaring good crowd and some "aggressive" but "safe" mosh pit action.

And our City Hall reporter was there. Not because Slipknot has much to do with City Hall - though it does because the city owns the civic center - but because let's just say he finds the music, ah, and performance of Slipknot at least as interesting as a Mankato City Council Meeting.

We're glad he was there and apparently so were our readers and web users. The Slipknot story was heading for the top story of the week in terms of online page views as of this writing, and that wasn't even the most recent story.

Our Features Amanda Dyslin wrote an interview piece with lead Slipknot performer, (Would we call him head headbanger?) and that story got some 3000 page views alone, most of it from our Facebook page.

So, of course, I immediately posted today's story to Facebook. But it goes to show you how newspapers can expand their audience, with only a little headbanging here and there.

Justice Center project biggest in years

The new Blue Earth County Justice Center will go down as one of the biggest in Blue Earth County history, and offers several features that give a hint of just how much of a new age courts, law enforcement have come into.

A terrific photo slideshow by John Cross gives one an idea of some of these features in an easy to digest way. Go to it at: http://is.gd/ztTi. In the planning stages for years, the project also is the focus of a 12-page special section in The Free Press print edition today.

The justice center will be high-tech and green. It will have state of the art holding cells, a whole section for women only prisoners. Monitoring of cell blocks will be by video monitor in a central location, while at the same time 1/2 hourly checks on prisoners.

There are work stations for officers filling out their reports, a gun cleaning area and lots of customer service areas for courts criminal and civil activities.

It does seem like it consolidates a lot of related government activities in one place. Though Mankato Police decided not to go into the project because of differences with site location (Mankato wanted downtown), other county-related activities involving courts, probation and sheriff's office will be located in a one-stop shop.

Sounds like a tour would be well worth the time. Tours are:
Friday 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sunday 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Tuesday 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.