Bob CollinsNew images of the shootout, are you willing to give up the backyard campfire, the great I-35E debate, remembering Marv Bossert, and log-rolling at the U of M.
Andrew Kitzenberg, an Edina native, was a little too shaken up after the shootout in Watertown to appear in the media to talk about the pictures he shot outside his apartment window while it was taking place.
Now he’s given his first interview, and provided a lot more pictures than he’d originally posted on Twitter.
Related: Mosque refuses to bury bombing suspect, relative says. (NBC)
2) WE’RE NOT BEIJING, BUT STILL…
The American Lung Association says the Twin Cities’ air is now the 42nd most polluted air in the country. Ozone pollution got slightly worse in Anoka and Washington counties. Particle pollution got slightly better in Ramsey and Scott counties, the MPR says.
What are you willing to give up to make it any better?
The backyard fire?
“It’s used as a form of recreation and enjoyment.” David Thornton, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, tells the Star Tribune. “There is a real tug and pull between what we know and what we like.”
Other recommendations include “a rebate program for old leaf blowers and lawn mowers, incentives for fleets to switch to alternative fuels like natural gas, getting old cars off the road, and model city ordinances to manage wood burning systems,” the paper says.
If you drive I35E in St. Paul along the route of the old Pleasant Avenue, you’re special. The Minnesota Legislature has decided that if you’re stopped for speeding (the speed limit is 45) and you’re doing under 55, doesn’t go on your driving record.
Lawmakers, many of whom use that stretch of highway, don’t like the 45 mph speed limit, but that was worked out in a court agreement with neighbors in the ’80s. In exchange for putting an interstate there, cars had to go no more than 45 to keep the ruckus down.
The annual attempt to raise the speed limit failed yesterday, and the amendment on speeding tickets was a substitute. But there are any number of speed traps in Minnesota, none of which will get you a break on your insurance (by the way, the House rejected a bill last year that would have given everyone a break on speeding tickets if the crime was less than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit).
Marv Bossert has died after a battle with Parkinson’s. Old media people often end up teaching, which is a good thing for new media people.
He spent 42 years at WDAY before turning to teaching.
It could catch on: Log-rolling at the University of Minnesota.
The U’s Department of Recreational Sports will add log rolling into its summer programs for the first time this year, the U Daily reports.
More sports: ESPN’s Bill Simmons is never going to be a fan of David Kahn, the general manager — still — of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He authors a takedown of the local NBA entry’s incompetence.
The Timberwolves turned a potential Rubio/Curry/Lawson windfall into just Rubio (who didn’t come to Minnesota for two extra years); two years of Flynn (played in Australia last year); backup guard Malcolm Lee; three injury-plagued years and more than $15 million of damaged goods (Webster and Roy); and nearly $6 million of Webster/Milicic buyouts. They also briefly had and lost Motiejunas (a promising rotation guy for Houston), Parsons (no. 48 on the trade value list), Mirotic (Chicago’s best prospect overseas) and Cole (a rotation guy for a 66-win team); and they have Memphis’s 2013 first-rounder (near the bottom of a dreadful draft) and Brooklyn’s 2013 second-rounder to show for their troubles.
Bonus I: “Luka, 12, can’t ride a skateboard, go diving, shoot a basketball, stand on one hand while breakdancing, or even climb a set of stairs, but he can certainly picture himself doing these things, thanks to a clever photographer in Slovenia who made a dream come true.” (GrindTV) h/t: Joe Duea
Bonus II: It’s “coffee week” on NPR, documenting the amount of work it takes to give you a buzz.
TODAY’S QUESTION
The Associated Press confirmed Tuesday that the organization’s Twitter account had been hacked. A false post was published about an attack on the White House. The bogus post sent a tremor through the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell briefly. Today’s Question: How do you know when the news you read is true?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Daily Circuit (9-12 p.m.) – First hour: Racial disparities in gun use.
Second hour: A University of Minnesota team performed an unprecedented operation on Tuesday, aimed at curing a young boy’s HIV and leukemia. Two doctors who led the procedure talk about it.
Third hour: When male professional sports has its first openly gay male athlete, what will the reaction be on the field, in the locker room, from the stands?
MPR News Presents (12-1 pm): Journalist James Fallows of The Atlantic, in conversation with Gary Eichten at St. John’s University.
Talk of the Nation (1-2 p.m.) – The president mourns victims in West, Texas. In Washington, both sides look for lessons after the gun bill goes down in Congress. Montana Democrat Max Baucus announces his retirement. And the Boston bombing reverberates through the immigration debate. The Political Junkie Ken Rudin joins host Neal Conan.
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – Rapper Talib Kweli’s music stands out in mainstream hip hop. While he sees the mainstream as obsessed with drugs and parties, his music is complicated, often political and always razor sharp. NPR gives a listen to his new album “Prisoner of Conscious”
A Roseville man says he lied about his age to avoid being killed in the Holocaust. Holocaust survivor Erwin Farkas’ story of survival is one of several highlighted in a new play, “We Could Recall/We Could Tell Stories,” that premiers this evening at Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul with additional performances on Saturday and Sunday. MPR’s Dan Olson will have the story.
A bill making its way through the Senate could allow states the ability to collect sales taxes from online retailers. Lost tax revenue from online sales was estimated to cost Minnesota more than $400 million in 2012. Both of Minnesota’s Democratic senators back the bill, which has bipartisan support, but some anti-tax advocates say the legislation would amount to a power grab for states that already have plenty of revenue. Brett Neely will have more.
