Bob Collins1) Kevin Burkhart probably knows the helpless feeling that family members have when a loved one is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, as his dad was in 1999, City Pages reports. There are no happy endings with Parkinson’s. So today he’s going to do something about it. He’s going to jump out of an airplane. 200 times. He’s trying to raise $60,000 for the Parkinson’s Association of Minnesota. He’ll try to make his goal at Skydrive Twin Cities in Baldwin. In 2008, he jumped 100 times.
2) On the list of “headlines I’d never thought I’d see,” this one certainly is high up. “Student Attacks Hell’s Angel with Puppy.” After his misdeed, the young man escaped on a stolen bulldozer. Here’s what the story — short as it is — doesn’t touch: What’s happened to the Hell’s Angels when you can outrun them on a stolen bulldozer?
A runner-up in today’s headline competition: “12 year old uses World of Warcraft skills to save sister from moose attack.”
3) What’s the best summer job you’ve ever had? American Public Media’s The Story has a continuing series on summer jobs and today features a Minnesotan. Joel Norton was a college kid who was also an EMT. You’ll have to work at finding it (it’s about halfway through the audio) on the Web site since The Story doesn’t separate its segments. Joel was an EMT in St. Peter. It was either that or pack corn at Green Giant. “Corn packing wasn’t my idea of a great job, so I asked what it would take to work on an ambulance there?” he said. He was 16 at the time and a career in health care was born.
Your turn. What was your best summer job (or worst)? Answer below.
4) You don’t usually hear a Minnesota Supreme Court justice opining on the state of politics and policy in Minnesota. Justice Paul Anderson, an Arne Carlson appointee to the high court, told the New Ulm Rotary this week that he’s not in the “no new taxes” crowd, according to the New Ulm Journal.
Anderson said that over the years the Minnesota Supreme Court has taken on a more conservative tone. Anderson, who was a campaign manager for Gov. Arne Carlson, considers himself a centrist Republican, but he said he cringed a little at a recent news article that described him as “one of the more liberal members of the court.”
“I suppose I am, but that’s a sign of the direction that the court has been taking.”
5) No shock, perhaps. The Wall St. Journal reports the two Northwest/Delta pilots who were too busy doing — really, who still know what? — and missed their chance to land in Minneapolis St. Paul, have been fired.
Bonus: A letter from oil. You’ve been through so much together. It’s afraid you’re drifting apart.
TODAY’S QUESTION
Twin Cities nurses plan to vote Monday on whether to go out on strike again. Are your sympathies moving one way or the other in the nurses’ labor dispute?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) – First hour: The future of parks and public spaces. City and state government budgets are tight, so where does that leave parks?
Second hour: Musician Booker T. Jones says he doesn’t tire of the 1962 hit he recorded with the MGs, “Green Onions.” After 20 years, Jones has a new album and is performing again, including a few dates with two of the original MGs.
Midday (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.) – First hour: Minnesota’s present and future energy supplies.
Second hour: A Commonwealth Club forum about electric cars. Panelists include representatives of the electric industry, Chevrolet and others.
Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) – First hour: NPR political editor Ken Rudin.
Second hour: Anthony Bourdain talks about his new book, Medium Raw.
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – A one-day strike is one thing, but a strike of indefinite link poses lots of financial and career risks for the 12,000 nurses locked in a labor dispute with Twin Cities hospitals. MPR’s Lorna Benson will report how nurses are preparing themselves for the financial hit they could take in a multi-week strike, and what a long strike could do to the hospitals forced to operate without its regular staff of nurses.
MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Minneapolis native Robert Bergman, who labored in obscurity for 45 years as a photographer, spending his time travelling the country shooting street portraits. Then he published a book, and had his first show. Now the MIA is showing 30 of his portraits in an exhibit opening Thursday.
