Bob Collins1) THE SUICIDE CRISIS AMONG VETS
The other night, Landon Steele, a former combat medic in Iraq, noticed that a soldier from his old unit changed her profile picture on Facebook to the image of a fallen soldier. Last week, she took her own life.
Twenty-three military veterans kill themselves each day, he says. So he’s organized a 23-mile march for veterans in full gear tomorrow, starting at 9 a.m., from the Richfield VFW to the Capitol in Saint Paul to VFW in Uptown to remind veterans not to leave any soldier behind.
“If we were trees, a rare species of rain forest fowl, or polar bears, the American public would be saving us by now,” he writes on his Facebook page. It’s an accurate indictment of the rest of us.
Honestly Doc James Blumenschein and I started this event a few weeks ago thinking it would just be two Docs rucking 23 miles and raising a little awareness about troop suicide. Sadly 5 days after I created the event one of our troops here killed herself. No words are needed. We now have around 100 people coming and I just want to express my thanks to all of you!
Only 1 percent of the population of the U.S. has served in the military. But veterans make up 20 percent of the suicide population.
Related: Canton yard display brings attention to alarming number of suicides among veterans.
When you’re safely ensconced in “flyover country,” the repeated warnings about a rise in sea levels because of climate change may not hit home.
But an effort by marine biologist Andrew David Thaler might’ve changed that a bit. He invited Twitter followers to submit their cities and he modeled visualizations of what sea level increases would look like.
What was particularly fascinating is he didn’t leave the Midwest out of it.
St. Louis, for example:
https://twitter.com/SFriedScientist/statuses/390608413572345856
Sure, sea levels would have to rise 500 feet and nobody’s predicting that.
But it wouldn’t take much to take out New York.
If all the ice melted, sea level could rise 72m (216ft). This is what #NYC would look like #DrownYourTown #manhattan pic.twitter.com/0cVZimidLN
— Abel Valdivia (@AbelValdivia) October 20, 2013
Related: Rising Waters: How Fast and How Far Will Sea Levels Rise? (Yale Environment 360)
We’re liking the first rollout of a new online series at TPT (Twin Cities Public Television), “Are You MN Enough?” Ten producers are contributing to a series “that analyzes what it means to be a Minnesotan.”
They didn’t shy from the big topic in the first production — Minnesota Nice.
How bad is the broadcast business? The Minnesota Daily reports today it’s fallen to a student to try to revive hands-on broadcast opportunities on the Big Ten campus.
Aside from some upper-level courses at the University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, some students say there aren’t many ways to get hands-on broadcast experience on campus.
Weierke said the journalism school has a “state-of-the-art” broadcast studio, but he thinks it’s not being used to its full potential.
“It’s basically being used as a storage room right now,” he said.
The group plans to train members on the studio’s equipment, because many students don’t know how to use it.
At least one ski area in the metro has opened for the season. The temperatures are cooperating but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports ski areas in the region are having a tough time finding people to work in the business.
Locals don’t want the jobs, some ski area owners say. So they’re hiring college students from Brazil.
How’s that working out?
“I remember picking up one fellow at the airport, and when the doors opened and it was 5 degrees outside, he started crying. He said, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t do this,'” Randy Axelson, spokesman for Cascade Mountain, near Portage, recalled.
Bonus I: The Daily Dot – Pumpkin heist gets its happily ever after.
Bonus II: The last piano bar (Smithsonian)
TODAY’S QUESTION
Have you changed how you listen to music?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Daily Circuit (9-12 p.m.) – First hour: Are U.S. drone strikes illegal?
Second hour: How can people with criminal records get jobs?
Third hour: The recent government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis have bolstered those calling for America to play a lesser role in the global community. The Chinese paper Xinhua called for a “de-Americanized world.” Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against the American tendency to think of itself as exceptional and indispensable. What would a “de-Americanized” world look like? And might there be benefits for us in such a world?
MPR News Presents (12-1 pm): From the “BURN: An Energy Journal” series: “Rising Seas,” about climate change and rising sea levels.
The Takeaway (1-2 p.m.) – TBA
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – Minneapolis mayoral candidate Stephanie Woodruff has seen both sides of the economic divide. She’s been a high-level corporate executive, and a victim of the foreclosure crisis. She’s never served in elected office before, but Woodruff is the only candidate for Minneapolis mayor endorsed by a major party — the Independence Party. MPR’s Curtis Gilbert continues his series on the mayoral candidates.
When it comes to uncovering cheating by students or teachers on statewide assessment tests, Minnesota takes a less rigorous approach than most other states. While many states analyze test scores or do regular audits to find cheating, the Minnesota Department of Education relies on school districts to police themselves. Education officials say they don’t have the resources, or the authority, to undertake thorough cheating investigations and instead work to prevent cheating in the first place. MPR’s Tim Post will have the story.
The Drifters Ray Charles Elvis. They’re just some of the musical stars whose hits were written by Doc Pomus, who started out as Jerome Felder, a kid from Brooklyn who was stricken with polio. NPR has the story of Doc Pomus, the unlikely songwriter who shaped the sound of early rock-n-roll.
