Editorial: Our boomer-elders are a state asset

Nov 24, 2009 at 02:44 PM

It's increasingly clear that money for public work is going to be scarce in Minnesota for a number of years. But the state's human capital forecast for the next decade is more hopeful. The reason: The number of 65- to 74-year-olds is about to spike.

Minnesota will soon be rich in physically active, well-educated, "young" senior citizens. That will be true for the rest of the nation, too, of course, as the first wave of the baby boom generation turns 65 in 2011.

What makes that gray wave especially good news for Minnesota is that its older adults already lead the nation in volunteering. They already have acquired the habit of regularly donating time for activities that shore up the quality of life in their communities -- delivering meals, stocking food shelves, mentoring young people, chauffeuring the nondriving elderly, caring for preschool children and more.

Data collected from 2006 to 2008 by the U.S. Census Bureau specific to the Twin Cities area show that more than 40 percent of boomers and more than 37 percent of people age 65 and older reported doing volunteer work in the past year. Those were the highest responses among 25 metropolitan areas surveyed. The number of people who have passed their 65th birthday is expected to double in the Twin Cities in the next 20 years, as the number of younger people stays flat.

Some of those "younger" elders will still be in the workforce for a while. Most economists now expect paid labor by workers past age 65 to become more common, even after today's rocky economy stabilizes. But the sheer number of boomers says that even if a larger share of them than their predecessors collect paychecks into their 70s, the number of 65- to 74-year-olds able to devote more time to volunteering will still swell in the coming decade.

That added human capital was mentioned repeatedly at a Nov. 17 conference at the University of Minnesota that considered ways to confront a looming problem for Minnesota: How will a financially strapped state deal with the rising cost of long-term care for the state's frail elderly?

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Pamela Alexander, Julie Stewart: Cocaine sentencing disparity must end

PAMELA ALEXANDER and JULIE STEWART| Nov 24, 2009 at 02:46 PM

We hope Congress was listening Wednesday when the nation's top prosecutor, Attorney General Eric Holder, told the Senate: "There are few areas of the law that cry out for reform more than federal cocaine sentencing policy."

Pending legislation in both houses of Congress would eliminate the so-called "100-to-1" ratio between crack and powder cocaine. That ratio means that offenders get a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for a crime involving 5 grams of crack -- but that it takes a hundred times that amount (500 grams) of powder cocaine to trigger the same prison term. Fifty grams of crack -- or 5,000 grams of powder cocaine -- garners a 10-year mandatory minimum.

Holder is right to put cocaine at the top of his reform list: No criminal-sentencing laws are more unjust and indefensible than those for federal crack-cocaine crimes. And for years, bipartisan support has been building to reform these laws. Republicans, Democrats, the Department of Justice, judges, the public, criminal-justice experts and the U.S. Sentencing Commission agree that the sentencing disparity isn't just unfair, it's also a nasty smear on the justice system.

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Washington Post: The door is open for Katrina lawsuits

FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE WASHINGTON POST| Nov 24, 2009 at 02:48 PM

Photo by New York Times

The 76-mile Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet grew to two to three times its designed width, contributing to the levee break that flooded New Orleans, a judge ruled.

Ask residents of New Orleans who they think was responsible for the drowning of their city during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and without hesitation many will say the Army Corps of Engineers. U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. backed that assessment in a blistering ruling last week that held the federal agency liable for damages. After earlier dismissing the claim that construction of the 44-year-old Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet shipping channel was responsible for the flooding of the Crescent City, he ruled that the Corps' neglect of the 76-mile passage contributed to the disaster.

The negligence, he wrote, "was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness." Noting that the Corps had known about the channel's deterioration for more than 40 years, he added, it "had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions ... and failed to do so. Clearly, the expression 'talk is cheap' applies here."

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Readers Write for Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009

Nov 24, 2009 at 02:48 PM

GAYS VS. CATHOLIC CHURCH

My words were misrepresented

Statements and actions attributed to me in the Star Tribune's Nov. 17 article "Gays reject church's attempt to 'cure' them" are pure fabrication. I read that story and marveled that the Star Tribune would accept a quote like that and alleged acts by me without even attempting to find out if they were true -- which they were not.

According to Michael Bayly of a group called Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities, "Archbishop Harry Flynn came to us -- we didn't go to him -- in the late 1990s and asked us to serve as resource people for the church."

Take it from the archbishop in question, this never happened, period. I understand that Bayly later recanted those remarks on his website, claiming he was "misquoted." That excuse is a transparent one and one the reporter adamantly denies.

There were other errors and untruths in this story, but the truly unfortunate thing is that the newspaper and the reporter let Bayly, with an agenda of his own, use them.

THE REV. HARRY J. FLYNN,

NORTHFIELD, MINN.; ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS,

ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS

WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Invest in the country rather than bomb it

President Obama's advisers and critics agree there are "no good options" in Afghanistan. Doesn't that call for something new, bold and outside the box? Something unexpected, that will shake the situation loose, force new thinking?

276 Comments

Letter of the day: Palin still can raise temperatures -- both on the left and the right

Nov 24, 2009 at 02:50 PM

Photo by Detroit Free Press

Sarah Palin autographed her book, “Going Rogue,” Nov. 18 at the Barnes & Noble in Kentwood, Mich.

It never ceases to amaze me how, in America, someone can publicly fail, commit national blunders and then write a book bragging and pointing fingers at everyone else for their failures, while adding millions of dollars to their own coffers.

The ongoing hoopla of Sarah Palin's book tour is a national disgrace. Why are we putting up with such a flimsy leader, whose only agenda is to seek self-glamour and to hijack the gullible mind-sets of this nation

Is Sarah Palin all we have to show the kind of model leaders America can produce?

VINCENT PETERS, NEW BRIGHTON

I am confused! We were told after the last election that Sarah Palin would just go away from the national scene.

Now it comes out that the Associated Press assigned 11 reporters to vet her book -- one reporter for every 40 pages -- and has reportedly assigned two reporters to the health care bill -- one reporter for every 1,000 pages. In the past, the Associated Press never had any interest in vetting two books written by Barack Obama before he became a national figure.

What has come out in the Palin book is that she had some real conflicts with Sen. John McCain's staff on strategy. I am sure that if she had admitted to catching one more fish than the limit it would have been all over the news and the media.

One wonders if the media realize that the public thinks they are more interested in "gotcha" rather than real journalism.

TOM CARLSON, ST. PAUL

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New York Post: Fort Hood victims deserve honors

Nov 24, 2009 at 02:51 PM

A bill now before Congress would make official what's already plain: The 42 victims, including 13 fatalities, in this month's Fort Hood shooting were casualties of war.

Whether they took fire in Afghanistan, Iraq or Texas makes no difference: The twisted ideology that brought down the Twin Towers knows no borders.

Nor is it relevant that the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, himself wore the uniform: He'd imbibed deeply from the wells of radical Islam -- even establishing contact with an Al-Qaida-linked imam in Yemen.

The bill, introduced last week by Texas Rep. John Carter, whose district includes Fort Hood, would grant those who were killed or wounded in the shooting the same legal status as combat casualties -- putting them in line for appropriate recognition of their valor.

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Editorial: Balance jobs and preservation needs

Nov 22, 2009 at 02:45 PM

St. Paul's Port Authority is poised to close on its biggest land deal in the last 20 years. To complete the purchase of the former 3M site that began last year, the agency is set to buy the last parcel and continue its work to revamp the 46-acre plot into a job-producing zone. Part of the Phalen corridor development, the plan is to attract a combination of light industrial, business and other enterprises to the area.

But a disagreement over whether a handful of buildings on the site should be preserved or torn down in two years could get in the way of sealing the deal. That shouldn't happen. The Port Authority should buy the land and come to terms with the city and community over the proper amount of time to let those structures stand.

Last year, the Port Authority agreed to buy the 3M site on the city's East Side in two stages. First, it bought 35 acres for $3.5 million. Now the agency is ready to buy the remaining 11 acres for $1.5 million.

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Letter of the Day: For Lutherans, there is sadness, Thanksgiving and dissension

Nov 23, 2009 at 04:57 PM

Photo by Star Tribune

In August 2009, members of the ELCA prayed together in for understanding just after the yes vote was taken and approved on the same-sex amendment.

Let me understand: Gays can be doctors, lawyers, medical professionals, professors, teachers, athletic Olympians, engineers, but there are Lutheran churches in this country that are leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America because gays are not good enough for the pulpit and must be kept away. They can go to church, put an offering in the envelope, and participate in what the churches have to offer, but must stay away from the pulpit.

I have spent almost 70 years as a Lutheran and am saddened that this is happening. Churches today are trying to keep a robust and lively membership, and this most surely will not have the folks lining up at the door to join. It truly is a sad day for Lutherans.

RUTH ANN JACKSON, DEEPHAVEN

•••

Thursday morning I read the news "Lutherans ready to split off." I knew it would happen and I didn't like it. I have been part of the ELCA in a way since I was baptized in 1918. I was ready to write again about it, but I didn't because I read the article right below that one: "Brothers, forever" ( the story of Carl and Bill Larson).

As an ordained pastor of over 60 years in the church I love, I found in this little story by Curt Brown what life in the church and the Scriptures is all about. Thank you very much. We need much more of this kind of writing that never really makes the news. In it there is love overflowing, a kind of magical wonder, a look at what matters in life in this broken world of ours. Keep it up and find more of it to make us glad and make us sing for joy and know what real Thanksgiving is.

THE REV. ROBERT S. NELSON, EDINA

•••

TOBY WALDOWSKI, WOODBURY

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Readers Write for Monday, Nov. 23

Nov 23, 2009 at 05:07 PM

HOUSE TAKES ON PAWLENTY

A group decision to support most vulnerable

Gov. Tim Pawlenty's elimination of essential public services through unallotment raises serious and important issues of constitutional law. The question is whether the governor's action was legal, not just whether it was wise.

Last week the Minnesota House of Representatives made a decision to support six poor, elderly and disabled people in their legal challenge to Pawlenty's actions. I was proud to support the decision by the House to file a friend-of-the-court brief on their behalf. Spending hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars to file a separate lawsuit would have been a far more difficult proposition.

So far, no other organization or government entity, aside from Legal Aid, has stepped forward to support these six people and the tens of thousands like them.

Contrary to a Nov. 18 letter, the House decision was not a unilateral act by House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, but a decision arrived at through a democratic process and at a public meeting.

Go-it-alone governing led Pawlenty to unallot programs on which our most vulnerable citizens rely for their basic needs. Anderson Kelliher led the Minnesota House of Representatives -- together -- in standing up to him.

REP. STEVE SIMON, DFL-ST. LOUIS PARK

348 Comments

Mike Sweeney: With level playing field, future is bright for news

Mike Sweeney| Nov 22, 2009 at 02:01 PM

Photo by Star Tribune

Mike Sweeney is the chairman of the board of directors for the Star Tribune.

It has been almost two months since I became chairman of the new Star Tribune, and I'd like to share my impressions of our company, our newspaper and the evolution of the news industry. My colleagues have stressed the special obligation a news organization has to be open and transparent. If we ask you to have confidence in our reporting, we must let you know who we are and where we are going. To that end, although we are a privately held company, we will soon be sharing on our website the same information on our ownership, our board, our executives and our financial results that publicly held companies must provide.

Today we are a profitable company with a healthy balance sheet and the financial resources to fulfill our core mission of being Minnesota's most important news source. Following the financial restructuring completed in September, we are more efficient and more innovative. The combined readership of our print and online offerings has never been higher.

And we are continuing to innovate. StarTribune.com is by far the most popular Minnesota-based website, but we believe it can be much better. During 2010 we'll make a significant investment in the website, adding up-to-date architecture that will allow us to provide more robust information in a format that is simple to navigate. The printed version of our newspaper generates the majority of our revenue, and it won't be going away any time soon. We will print and deliver a great newspaper as long as our customers want it.

The quality of journalism at the Star Tribune has never been higher. Of the 270 people who work in our newsroom, 115 are reporters. And 100 community bloggers write for our website. In 2000, when technology was less helpful to journalists, we employed 126 reporters. No news organization in Minnesota comes close to matching our reporting resources and expertise.

In my 30 years in business, I have never seen a more exciting marketplace than today's news industry. Citizens are more interested in news than ever, and there are countless organizations willing to provide it. For-profit businesses and nonprofits are all vying for your attention. Large technology-driven companies like Google and Yahoo are competing with niche businesses like Politico and the Huffington Post. And the nonprofit world has responded with terrific sites like Minnesota's own e-democracy.org and MinnPost. Against this robust backdrop, our community is facing important public policy questions. One that particularly concerns us is whether the government should provide taxpayer dollars to subsidize news media companies. From the Star Tribune's perspective, the answer is a resounding "No!" We don't want or need taxpayer subsidies, and we see no reason for government to disrupt an already robust, innovative market.

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Steve Chapman: The descent of the GOP thought leader

Nov 23, 2009 at 03:04 PM

Photo by Associated Press

In this book cover image released by Harper, "Going Rogue: An American Life," by Sarah Palin, is shown.

The 19th-century American writer Henry Adams said the descent of American presidents from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant was enough to discredit the theory of evolution. The same could be said of the pantheon of conservative political heroes, which in the last half-century has gone from Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan to Sarah Palin. That refutation may be agreeable to Palin, who doesn't put much stock in Darwin anyway.

You can confirm all this by looking at what the three wrote. Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, made his reputation four years earlier with an eloquent and intellectually coherent volume, "The Conscience of a Conservative," which laid out a blueprint for the policies he favored.

Reagan likewise made the thinking person's case for conservatism. Between 1975 and 1979, after he had finished two terms as governor of California, he did some 1,000 radio commentaries, most of which he wrote himself. They were later collected in "Reagan, In His Own Hand," which provides the texts of his handwritten manuscripts and proves that, far from being the "amiable dunce" of liberal mythology, he thought hard and clearly about the issues of his time.

Palin? Her new memoir, "Going Rogue," fills up 413 pages, but it has less policy heft than a student council speech. Where Reagan dove into the murk of arms control and Goldwater fathomed federal farm programs, Palin skims over the surface of a puddle.

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