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.