News

Media Monitor: Tragedy in Shakopee — and more media news

Shakopee reporter Ruth Anne Maddox (pictured) was murdered this week, and her paper is flooded with stories and notes by her readers and co-workers. The Mankato Free Press shuts down its online forum as a casualty of Election ‘08. And Media Matters takes issue with a local writer’s New York Times account of the Franken/Coleman recount.

MnIndy’s Demko discusses Coleman/Franken on “Democracy Now!”

This morning, Minnesota Independent political reporter Paul Demko appeared via Skype on Amy Goodman’s radio and TV show Democracy Now to discuss the recount in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race.The independent news site is closely watching the battle between Al Franken and Norm Coleman as one of three still-up-in-the-air races that, if won, could garner the Democratic party a filibuster-proof, 60-seat “super-majority” in the Senate.

Watch or listen to it. (Fastforward to 38:35)

Democratic leadership campaigning for Madia–and his favor

House Democratic leaders have been working hard on behalf of Democratic challengers, showering them with money and personal attention to expand their majority and to curry favor with future colleagues. Here in Minnesota, Ashwin Madia is the beneficiary of their campaigning.

Terrorizing Dissent: New documentary highlights police and protesters at RNC

The Republican National Convention. For many, that week in September brings back memories of the acidic smell of tear gas and pepper spray, police in riot gear on every corner and thousands of protesters in the streets. A two hour documentary by the Glass Bead Collective and Twin Cities Indymedia, features disturbing, never-before-seen footage of the RNC and police actions against protesters in the streets of St. Paul. The entire documentary is available on the Terrorizing Dissent website.

A clever trailer puts Sen. John McCain accepting the Republican party nomination in front of images of tear gas and protester arrests.

Be careful where you ‘video your vote’ on Tuesday

Having Election Day jitters? Problems with touch-screen voting have already been reported in West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas, and a video (after the jump) of an election official in West Virginia demonstrating a machine that just so happens to be seriously malfunctioning and flipping votes while he’s trying to showcase its validity is circling the web today. Now voters want to take action by documenting their own experiences at the voter booth, and a joint project with PBS and YouTube called “Video Your Vote” is starting to gain serious attention.

But can you film at the polls here in Minnesota? Sort of.

Star Tribune story on Senate race ticket-splitters was truer last time

On today’s Star Tribune cover Patricia Lopez makes a case that Minnesota voters who don’t intend to vote a straight party line at the top of the ballot could play a critical role in the outcome of the state’s U.S. Senate race. If that sounds familiar it’s because the Strib printed essentially the same story two years ago about voters who backed Democrat Amy Klobuchar for U.S. Senate and Republican Tim Pawlenty for governor. The difference is that in 2006 the poll numbers justified the fuss.

Minneapolis home sales are up, but prices are down again

It’s become a broken record of late: Home-price declines breaking records. With the economy on the skids and the subprime crisis still unfolding, home values are getting devoured first. This morning the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index was released, revealing that the trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The 20-city index showed year-to-year August price declines of 16.6 percent. Minneapolis saw a drop of 13.3 percent over the year period, with a 1 percent decline from July to August.

‘Joe the Plumber’ finds new career winterizing Minnesota’s foreclosed homes

Joe, Steve, Scott, Mario, Rodney, and Paul the Plumber are not only in recession-immune jobs, they’re making a career out of a collapsing economy. According to KAAL-TV in Rochester, Minnesota, a company called 1st Class Plumbing and Heating is getting most of its calls for service from banks and Realtors needing foreclosed and vacant homes [...]

Electoral “tsunami”: Ramstad says GOP is “looking at a disaster in November”

“We’re looking at a disaster in November… I can only conclude it’s going to be a tsunami.” So says retiring GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad at the conservative National Review Online today. But what must the Republicans do to rebuild should such a trouncing occur Nov. 4? NRO’s Sean J. Miller suggests a move, Ramstad-style, to the center, where social conservatism takes a back seat to economics. But Ramstad’s call for the GOP to “get away from the addiction to base politics” could be construed as fodder in the race to replace him in the 3rd Congressional District. There, former Republican Ashwin Madia is facing off with GOPer Erik Paulsen, who as a state legislator has consistently earned high marks from ultra-conservative groups like the Minnesota Family Council and Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.

MNGOP’s attack flier tries to link Obama to terrorism

The Minnesota GOP is sending out a mailer attacking Barack Obama for his alleged “close ties to domestic terrorist” William Ayers. But at first glance it appears that the t-word is being applied to Obama: just above the mailing panel is the Democrat’s name and face, his head turned to the left. Near his mouth is a quote, attributed only to the New York Times. “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.”

CQ Politics — which has called the charge “so wrong it’s pants-on-fire wrong” — reports that Republicans in Virginia are sending out the same mailers.