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Minnesota gets an ‘F’ on freedom of government information

Chris Steller — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:59:31 +0000

Minnesota and 37 other states got failing grades for their public-records laws from the Better Government Association (BGA), which scored states in five categories: response time, appeals, expedited review, fees and sanctions. Sluggish action on government-data requests sunk our state in the rankings (pdf), despite high marks for mercilessly punishing violators — an unusual combination.

Minnesota and Iowa were the only failing states to score a perfect 4 for “Sanctions.” (Nebraska, tied for best in the country with New Jersey, got the only other 4 in that category.

But Minnesota was among the worst states in the length of time it takes to respond to public-records requests under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA) and in its appeals process for dissatisfied citizens.

Maybe next time, if the BGA adds use of social media to its scoring system, Minnesota could get more points. Like any other 30-year old (pdf), the MGDPA recently started a Twitter account.

Twitter’s utility for protests, now evident in Iran, debuted in St. Paul during RNC

Chris Steller — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:23:38 +0000

Iran has proven the headline prescient, even if the terminology needed tweaking: “The revolution will be Twittered.” That was the title of Tom Elko’s Sept. 9, 2008, Minnesota Independent post about how Twitter messages (technically, “tweets” that were “tweeted”) came in handy during protests outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

Elko noted a then-staggering number of RNC-related tweets: 17,000. Last week, one estimate pegged the number of tweets related to Iran’s election and the subsequent protests at nearly a billion.

A MnIndy sampling of RNC tweets showed that St. Paul’s protests had some of the same confusion and enthusiasm, if not the gravitas, seen in recent demostrations in Tehran:

Police: “You must go to the left.” Protester: “Your left or ours?” 6:31 PM Sep 4th from web

Overheard at May Day cafe: “Dude, I totally got tear gassed. It was fucking awesome.” 11:57 AM Sep 3rd from web

Overheard from excited Mpls policeman, “So I shot him with impact round a[nd] he just fucking dropped!” 6:51 PM Sep 1st from web

Here’s one area in which St. Paul exceeds Tehran, for now. The roster of arrested journalists in Iran is as yet not quite half as long as those arrested during the RNC — though with much more serious implications for the people detained.

Coleman’s ‘ethernet’ no match for other ‘Conservative New Media FAILS’ contenders

Paul Schmelzer — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:40:19 +0000

(WDCpix)

Former Sen. Norm Coleman’s recent comment that the future of the GOP lies in the “ethernet” — first reported on by the Minnesota Independent — gets an honorable mention in Talking Points Memo’s list of the “Top 7 Conservative New Media FAILS So Far this Year.” But Norm’s no match for other conservatives on the list, like two South Carolina GOPers. One, activist Rusty DePass, wrote on his Facebook page that Michelle Obama was a gorilla, while another, Mike Green, tweeted (and later apologized for) a joke that Barack Obama aimed to impose a 40 percent tax on aspirin “because it’s white and it works.”

Missing from the list: A staffer for Tennesee Republican state Sen. Diane Black forwarded an email that included a “Historical Keepsake Photo,” showing portraits of American presidents. But the last square, Barack Obama’s, shows only white cartoon eyes in a field of black. When twice asked about it, the staffer, Sherri Goforth, only showed remorse for sending the image to the “wrong” email list:

When I asked her if she understood the controversial nature of the photo, Goforth would only say she felt very bad about accidentally sending it to the wrong list. When I gave her a second chance to address the controversial nature of the email, she again repeated that she only felt bad about sending it to the wrong list of people.

“I went on the wrong email and I inadvertently hit the wrong button,” Goforth told NIT. “I’m very sick about it, and it’s one of those things I can’t change or take back.”

AM.MN: Hausers’ media ride turns literal

Chris Steller — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:30:06 +0000

The Hauser family’s media ride climaxes with … a ride home, provided by the media. Las Vegas-based Asgaard Media got Colleen Hauser and her cancer-stricken son Daniel off the lam, onto a chartered red-eye flight and home to Sleepy Eye, Minn., by 3 a.m. Monday. The film company distributed a video interview with the pair, who had fled Minnesota for California, Mexico or parts unknown to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy. The boy saw doctors in the Twin Cities yesterday and a Brown County judge reviews his case today.

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines today …

RED WING: Ex-coach, a suspect in town hall fire, may have killed self. A former high school teacher and coach, 45 and beset with Parkinson’s disease, was found dead after going missing from foster care and possibly setting fire to the Midway Town Hall; brain surgery set for June would have reduced his reliance on a drug that made him erratic. [Red Wing Republican Eagle]

RED WING: 45-foot boat + 60 mph = 13 wet and injured. Drink wasn’t a factor — but the watercraft’s stern losing contact with the Mississippi River may have been. [Red Wing Republican Eagle]

TWIN CITIES: Damn the dams – make the metro Mississippi wild again. The departing Ford Motor Company doesn’t need its St. Paul dam, and barge traffic’s dropping, so some advocate returning the river to rapids. [MinnPost]

NORTHFIELD: At St. Olaf, Paulsen protest not apparent. U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s college graduation speech was “pure chloroform,” according to one critic. [Gavin Sullivan]

STATEWIDE: Minnesota pols take to Twitter. The mass-messaging medium has 30 Minnesota lawmakers in its grip, including Paulsen, who says it’s “a mistake” to resist what one of his colleagues calls “The Twitter.” [St. Paul Pioneer Press; Politico]

BEMIDJI: Sales tax to help kids learn native languages. The state will spend $1.25 million in new Legacy Act funds on an “emergency-type situation” — creating new Ojibwe and Dakota speakers. [Bemidji Pioneer]

Pawlenty’s Twitter page looks socialist

Chris Steller — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:48:58 +0000

Gov. Tim Pawlenty unveiled his new Twitter home page only yesterday. Then why does the color scheme suggest it was designed for a Soviet socialist in the 1920s? (After the jump is Aleksandr Rodchenko’s cover for the 1927 book, “Materialization of the Fantastic” — not a bad campaign slogan for Pawlenty ‘12 actually.)

Pawlenty’s debut on the social-media platform of the moment and an announcement of a retooling for Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s campaign Web site had political wags a-twitter about what he’s running for — a third term as governor in 2010, the Republican nomination for president in 2012, or both.

Despite the striking, Soviet look of Pawlenty’s red-black Twitter page, his message window initially had a legibility problem due to a lack of clash: white type on a white background.

Another interesting aspect of the governor’s Twitter page: He labels himself “TPAW” for what seems like the first time in public. But he forsakes what could have been a brilliant Twitter handle (”@tpaw”) for the more proletarian “@pawlenty.”

Larry King: ‘I’m not a sore loser. I’m not gonna pull a Norm Coleman’

Chris Steller — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 04:20:58 +0000

Here’s evidence that Minnesota’s post-election battle for U.S. Senate has permeated pop culture. Al Franken and Norm Coleman were cited this week by contestants in another competition that attracted millions of partisans: the race between movie actor Ashton Kutcher and news juggernaut CNN to be first to gain one million followers on Twitter, the social-media phenomenon.

Two leading players in the new-media stunt known as the ”Twitter War“ compared themselves to Minnesota’s Senate rivals. Kutcher tweeted “now I know how Al Franken must have felt” when the race looked tight on Thursday. After the actor bested the network today, CNN host Larry King said, “I’m not a sore loser. I’m not gonna pull a Norm Coleman and take this to the courts.” (h/t noahkunin)

King’s offhand sobriquet for the former Minnesota Senator comes only two-and-a-half weeks since a Media Matters critic took the nation’s press and commentariat to task for failing to call Coleman a “sore loser.” In the interim, however, a Minnesota court has ruled that Franken won by 312 votes, and Coleman vowed to appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court and perhaps the federal courts as well.

Here’s a video clip of Kutcher on “Larry King Live” tonight (King’s “Norm Coleman” comment comes at the 5:00 mark):

KING: I’m not a sore loser.

KUTCHER: No, you’re not.

KING: I’m not gonna pull a Norm Coleman and take this to the courts.

KUTCHER: You have been gracious, very gracious.

And here’s the “Al Franken” Twitter message that Kutcher sent Thursday.

As of the time of this post late Friday, Kutcher had 1,118,658 followers on Twitter while CNN still lagged with 1,046,927 — for a combined total of more than 2.1 million — still about 800,000 shy of the 2.9 million votes cast (and then recounted by hand) in Minnesota’s 2008 U.S. Senate election.

Obama’s speech pours praise on Minneapolis with 57-cops sauce

Chris Steller — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:10:39 +0000

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak finally got a big public payback for his early backing of Barack Obama as candidate for president when Obama gave the city a shout-out in his address before Congress tonight. Speaking about the beneficial effects of the federal stimulus package, the president said:

There are 57 police officers who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make.

Obama was referencing a revised city budget that Rybak, a Democrat, unveiled yesterday that applied stimulus money to patch holes in Minneapolis’ public safety budget caused in part by decreased aid from Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s cuts in funding to cities.

Rybak had been rumored to be in the running for a job in Obama’s administration, but last month announced his intention to seek a third term this fall — while keeping open the option of a 2010 run to replace Pawlenty.

Rybak first made the claim about the stimulus saving 57 police positions on Monday in a speech to unveil his revised 2009 budget. Note two subtleties that Obama passed over: Rybak acknowledges one-time stim funds will only preserve the jobs for one budget cycle, and along with the stim funds he credits cost-trimming that includes reductions in overtime (so while not layoffs, effectively less policing):

If the Governor’s cuts were passed on directly to the Police Department, it would have led to the elimination of 57 sworn police officer positions and 19 non sworn employees. We will not have to do that because of two factors. First, working with Chief Dolan, we are proposing elimination of $1.5 million in non personnel costs, including overtime.

Second the federal Recovery Act’s one time public safety grants arrived just in time. President Obama said he would help cities keep police officers on the job and he has delivered. Because of this funding I will be proposing no personnel cuts in the Police Department. Next time someone asks you what the Recovery Act will do, start by telling them it will keep 57 police officers working on the streets of Minneapolis.

There is a catch, and it is a very, very big catch. The money we are using to avoid those public safety cuts are one time dollars. They can be stretched over 18 months but then they are done. In the 2010 budget and beyond we have to make up the funding for these officers and, as you will see in a moment, the 2010 cuts the Governor is proposing would lead to even deeper cuts in public safety funding.

It didn’t take long for the White House Blog (yes, there’s a White House Blog) to pick up on the 57-cops line in a late Monday post. And Rybak kept up a drumbeat on Twitter right through Obama’s speech:

Ready to use federal stimulus funds to save and create jobs in Minneapolis www.MayorRybak.us
5:53 PM Feb 20th from web

Revised 2009 city budget has no cuts to public safety, thanks to commitment to debt reduction and using federal stimulus www.MayorRybak.us
5:36 PM Feb 23rd from web

I wish the Governor would quit criticizing the federal stimulus. It is being used to keep 57 police officers on the job in Minneapolis
8:00 PM Feb 23rd from web

White House blog posted on my budget proposal to use stimulus funds to keep police working in Minneapolis www.whitehouse.gov/blog
about 24 hours ago (approximately 7:45 a.m., Feb. 24) from web

Barack said it tonight but you read it here first: The Gov’s cuts would have eliminated 57 police jobs. The stumulus (sic) saved them.
about 10 hours ago (approximately 9:45 p.m. Feb. 24) from web

Tweeting on the brink of bankruptcy: Strib requires bloggers to use Twitter

Paul Schmelzer — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:38:16 +0000

With the Star Tribune possibly within two weeks of filing bankruptcy (according to newsroom Guild sources), we’re seeing yet another wave of big-name departures at the Strib: columnist Katherine Kersten, online managing editor Will Tacy and web designer Jaime Chismar, among others. But curiously, if you’re on the microblogging service Twitter, you might get the impression that there’s actually more news coming out of the Strib: word is, all Star Tribune bloggers are required to use Twitter.

Irony abounds here: Amid bankruptcy talk, the paper is looking to a free web tool to save itself? And it’s doing so when the main Strib Twitter feed has remained un-updated since October? (I’m unsure if @startribune, which last posted on Oct. 7, is the paper’s official Twitter feed or if @strib, which shows no followers yet some 8,600 updates, is.) And they’ve got a Twitter account set up for one of those taking a buyout, Chismar of the Greengirls blog?

Scanning through its Twitter accounts, it seems like the paper’s 24 blogs are following the letter of the law, but not the spirit. All sites appear to be updated automatically, mostly through Twitterfeed, instead of via personalized tweets. (While all blogs are on Twitter, it’s unclear that all bloggers themselves are required to contribute. My direct-tweets to various bloggers have gone unanswered.) With wave after wave of buyouts, who can blame those who remain?

In a recent post, Kay Krhin of the parenting blog Cribsheet confirms that all Strib blogs are on Twitter, giving a clue to what you won’t be finding there:

Cribsheet is now on Twitter, along with the rest of the Star Tribune blogs. I know as of right now that May and I won’t be giving you a play by play of our days with things like “Diaper report. Orange. Too many clementine cuties?” or “I just stepped on Lightning McQueen with my bare foot. Spoiler and all. Ow!” We are both feeling a little too blogged down to commit to twittering and add it to our reportoire. BUT if you are one who follows Twitter’s tweets and want to know when we’ve put up a new Cribsheet post. You can sign up and follow us…

MnIndy’s Best: Top RNC tweets

Paul Schmelzer — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:30:12 +0000

Tweets — the 140-character mini-blog posts sent via Twitter — are very much of-the-moment and therefore often have a fairly short shelf-life. But in reviewing these brief dispatches sent by our reporters during the Republican National Convention, we found that, despite the 140-character constraint and the inevitable typos that result from punching in text on a cellphone while ducking teargas canisters, an RNC-only best-of list was a fitting way to capture the humor, excitement and surreal nature of last summer’s event. Here’s the top ten:

Rybak and Coleman call RNC a “success,” adding, “nearly 100 lbs of Jelly Bellies were distributed to the media during the Convention.” –molly 5:21 PM Sep 5th from web

Overheard by an onlooker [at a showdown between protesters and police]: “I’ve been a St. Paul guy forever. This is TIME Magazine shit!” 7:36 PM Sep 4th from web

Police: “You must go to the left.” Protester: “Your left or ours?” 6:31 PM Sep 4th from web

i’m so hot for the teacher…. i should learn not to leave my twitter open 4 drunk bloggers to spoof tweets… 11:41 PM Sep 3rd from web [A ghost-tweet by a passerby who noticed an open MnIndy laptop at the Liberal Lounge.]

Overheard post-Poor Peoples March. Placid Jesusy-looking guy to riot cops: “We love you. Thank you for the pepperspray. It was delicious.” 12:14 PM Sep 3rd from web

Overheard at May Day cafe: “Dude, I totally got tear gassed. It was fucking awesome.” 11:57 AM Sep 3rd from web

Guntzel: Watching protesters & police make their moves was “like watching a newborn’s eyes as its brain works out the w orld in front of it.” 10:39 AM Sep 3rd from web

Overheard from excited Mpls policeman, “So I shot him with impact round a[nd] he just fucking dropped!” 6:51 PM Sep 1st from web

Conventioneer: “if obama gets elected, it will be a jewish state. I will go to cuba. We have no place to go.” 2:23 PM Sep 1st from txt

McCain meatballs for sale on 7th St. Sound appetizing. And stale. –Molly 11:07 AM Sep 1st from txt

Follow us on Twitter at MnIndyLIVE.

More of MnIndy’s Best:

Ten most popular stories of 2008

Top 10 photos of 2008

Liveblog: Minnesota State Canvassing Board

Chris Steller — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:00:40 +0000

The Minnesota Independent liveblogged and tweeted (at MnIndyLIVE) the Nov. 26 State Canvassing Board meeting, at which Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie led the five-person board in considering the Al Franken for Senate campaign’s request that they find a way to count votes from all improperly rejected absentee ballots.

9:30: Despite all eyes being on Minnesota’s recount, the room is only half filled. The five members of the canvassing board have taken their seats. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie calls the meeting to order.

9:34: Other recount results are announced: Lisa Fobbe (SD 16), Al Doty (HD12B) and Gail Kulick Jackson (HD 16A), all Democrats, have officially won their races.

9:36: Now the discussion turns to challenged ballots: both campaigns believe the number of contested ballots can be decreased.

9:37: An election official in Sherburne County reports 800 challenges, with roughly 15,000 ballots left to count.

9:42: Mark Ritchie says more than 12,000 absentee ballots were rejected. He adds that the Attorney General has not weighed in on the canvassing board dealing with such issues; some have challenged the appropriateness of the board addressing rejected absentee ballots.

9:46: G. Barry Anderson moves that the board NOT review rejected ballots: “There are no historical examples of a canvassing board actually including rejected absentee ballots.”

9:47: Edward Cleary disagrees; he’s “not persueded by case law we’ve been provided.”

9:57: Gearin says it would be absurd not to count. Local election judges should review whether they have ballots that were not rejected but also not counted. But she doesn’t want this board to evaluate them. She’s the third vote against the Franken proposal, so it’s dead.

10:00: Ritchie: Should all rejected absentee ballots go to court? No support here for opening ballots. But there is support here for examining how they’re handled. Anderson signals some openness to addressing the problem in another way. Ritchie answers Gearin’s concern that law and procedures already provide for finding uncounted absentee ballots.

10:05: Chief Justice Eric Magnuson speaks for the first time. Rejected ballots are not cast ballots, and cast ballots are what this board is supposed to deal with. Cites historic cases in the Supreme Court that say judicial, not ministerial, officers (such as the canvas board) should decide such things.

10:10: Magnuson: “We’re not going to lose any ballots. They’re all going to be kept safe.” Cleary asserts that statutes have expanded the board’s powers since the 1800s cases Magnuson cites. Cleary: People vote absentee out of necessity (sometimes). Their votes need to be taken as seriously. Ritchie friendly amendment: intent to count illegally rejected absentee ballots. Cleary clarified re: fifth pile of improperly rejected ballots is not out of our purview. Unanimous approval of motion.

10:15: Magnuson asks Ritchie can’t he do this without the canvas board taking action. Sorting the ballots into five piles at the local level: “It’s asking a lot of people of whom a lot has already been asked of.” Magnuson on a question that arose in the 1962 Minnesota governor recount (Anderson v. Rolvaag). Could canvas board accept amended returns from county canvas boards? Ritchie doesn’t know. Could get attorney advice. Anderson: “Once we get into the woods of opening ballots … ” He’s reluctant to get into that area without advice from the attorney general. Cleary says there are only four grounds to reject, so any ballot that doesn’t fit in those four categories should be subject to opening (if it’s an absentee ballot in an outer envelope).

10:20: Ritchie suggests that the so-called fifth pile of uncounted absentee ballots should return to this board. Asks for opinions. Gearin: It’s either in those four categories and rejected or in the fifth pile and should be counted. Magnuson: “At some point in the process you’ve got to stop counting. … At some point in time the count is certified and it’s done. Are we at a point in time when if additional ballots are found, could they be counted? Or are we beyond that?” Ritchie: Not beyond it until we’ve signed off. Magnuson: We don’t have authority to tell local election judge how to rule. That kind of dispute has to be taken up in an election contest (i.e. a lawsuit). Cleary: Respectfully disagree with Magnuson and agree with Gearin: must count fifth-pile ballots. Anderson: Needs attorney general opinion. Ritchie: “Typically they say we’ll get back to you on that.” Ritchie: “There’s a whole ‘nother problem here and that is keeping the cooperation of the people [who are doing the recount].” Staffer points to correction of errors when both sides agree in statutes.

10:25: Cleary says candidates can still challenge the ballots inside the absentee envelope. [I have a question: Aren't local election officials supposed to mail back rejected absentee ballots to voters? The state or counties don't have those ballots anymore, except for a photocopy of the envelope at most.] Gearin: “If it’s in the fifth pile, it should be opened and counted.” Ritchie: More to say? Cleary: What about my motion? Anderson: Make motion now or wait for advice from counsel? Ritchie: “I hear a general agreement with moving ahead with sorting. This is a very important next step for all of us. … There are other forces at play here: candidates’ counsels, citizen groups.” Magnuson: “it would be unwise for us to make a decision right now without hearing from the attorney general’s office.”

10:30: Gearin: Commends the local election people. “We should be proud of them, and proud of our state.” Approved by acclamation.

End of meeting.