Creative Commons/Boston Public Library

Surveys suggest that as many as 80 percent of American parents use spanking to discipline their children, even, as inconceivable as it may sound, with infants.

Parents spank their children much more often than they admit and for trivial misbehaviors, suggest the just-published results of a study based on real-time home audio recordings.

The study also found that parents tend to strike their children out of anger and quite quickly after the children misbehaved — in other words, not as last resort.

Furthermore, the spanking doesn't work. The children in the study who were hit or slapped by their parents typically misbehaved again within 10 minutes.

"From the audio, we heard parents hitting their children for the most extraordinarily mundane offenses, typically violations of social conventions," said George Holden, the study’s lead researcher and a parenting and child development expert at Southern Methodist University, in a statement released with the study. “Also, corporal punishment wasn't being used as a last resort. On average, parents hit or spanked just half a minute after the conflict began."

If these findings sound familiar, it’s because Holden collected the data for this study a couple of years ago and publicly reported on them at that time. The findings were not officially published, however, until Monday, when they appeared in the Journal of Family Psychology.

Given the wide acceptance of parental corporal punishment in the United States, it seems important to highlight these findings again. Surveys suggest that as many as 80 percent of American parents use spanking to discipline their children, even, as inconceivable as it may sound, with infants.

Overwhelming evidence

It’s actually quite stunning that any parent today would use corporal punishment when the evidence overwhelmingly shows that this form of discipline is harmful, not helpful, to a child’s development.

To begin with, spanking has been found to be ineffective at reducing aggressive behavior. In fact, children who are spanked tend to become more aggressive over time, not less.

But researchers have also uncovered more troubling findings. Study after study has found that corporal punishment is associated with undesirable outcomes, including poor parent-child relationships, mental health problems and delinquent behavior.

In addition, children who are spanked are at significantly greater risk of being physically abused.   

No wonder, then, that so many medical and children’s advocacy groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, have called on parents to abandon spanking as a form of punishment.

Globally, at least 37 countries have banned all corporal punishment of children, including that inflicted by parents.

More reliable data-collection

Previous studies on parental corporal punishment have relied almost exclusively on parents self-reporting how often and under what circumstances they use slapping or hitting to discipline their children. Such reports can be unreliable, of course, so Holden and his colleagues decided to conduct a pilot study using “real-time” audio recordings.

They recruited 35 mothers of children aged 2 to 5 years. The mothers’ average age was 34. Most were married (82 percent), white (61 percent) and had at least a college degree (61 percent). Most (60 percent) also worked outside the home.

For the six-day study, the mothers were instructed to strap a small digital tape recorder to their upper arm as soon as they returned from work in the evening, and to keep it turned on until their child went to bed. Daily compliance was high, although only about 62 percent of the recordings were kept on throughout the entire evening.  

The tape recordings revealed 41 incidents of corporal punishment in 15 of the families. The number of incidents in a single family varied from one to 10. Twelve mothers, five fathers, and one grandmother delivered the spankings, and 18 children, ranging from 7 months to 6 years, received them. The median age of the children was 4 years.

The behavior of the adults who used corporal punishment frequently violated six “best practices” guidelines that advocates of the discipline (such as the evangelical Christian group Focus on the Family) claim make spanking “appropriate.” It should, they say, be used 1) infrequently, 2) selectively (for only serious misbehaviors), 3) calmly (not in anger), 4) as a last resort, 5) on the buttocks, and 6) no more than twice in a row (one or two hits).

“When all six guidelines are considered together in one incident, it is clear that parents were rarely, if ever, using [corporal punishment] ‘appropriately,’” write Holden and his colleagues. “The recordings reveal that most parents were responding either impulsively and/or emotionally, rather than instrumentally and intentionally.”

“Among the 12 mothers who engaged in [corporal punishment],” the researchers add, “the median rate was once every 6.3 hrs of interactions. In about three-quarters of the incidents, parents hit their children for extraordinarily mundane social convention offenses, rather than serious infractions, such as rights or prudential violations. Most poignantly, one child was slapped for turning pages of a storybook."

Other proven approaches

Although the sample size of this study was small, its findings suggest that many parents weren’t telling the truth in previous surveys about corporal punishment practices in their homes. In a 1999 study, for example, parents of 2-year-olds reported that they spanked their children an average of 18 times per year.

The parents in Holden’s study were spanking their children, however, at a median frequency rate of 18 times a week— or 936 times a year.

Needless to say, that's an appalling — and depressing — statistic.

Fortunately, parents can be persuaded to use other discipline strategies. Another study by Holden, published earlier this year in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, found that briefly exposing parents to research findings regarding corporal punishment changed their attitudes about it.

Many parents spank with good intentions, says Holden. They just aren’t aware of how harmful corporal punishment can be. For parents who are looking for truly effective ways to discipline their child — ones that will ensure their child thrives as well as learns how to control undesirable behavior — the American Academy of Pediatrics offers some excellent tips and strategies on its website.

CC/Flickr/Ratul Maiti

The "death tax" may not be the main factor driving the wealthy out of Minnesota, however.

When Gov. Mark Dayton signed a $508 million tax-cut bill last month, it wasn't only the middle class and businesses that got a break from the $1.2 billion budget surplus — Minnesota millionaires also received the largesse.

These taxpayers, collectively, saved $43 million from the repeal of the state's gift tax and an estate tax reconfiguring. The gift tax died after just one year; millionaires can exclude twice as much of their estate (to $2 million, a jump from $1 million, phased in over five years).

But millionaires and their financial advisors want more, saying if they don't get it, the "death tax" is more fuel for the move to low-tax states such as Florida, especially in the wake of rising income tax rates. The exodus of the wealthy and their much-sought charitable giving, they claim, continues, with negative consequences  for Minnesota's fabric of life.

State Revenue Department officials scoff, noting that seven of 10 estates that now pay the tax won't in 2019. They argue "tax mobility" isn't statistically significant, reducing state estate tax collections by a mere $13 million to $30 million annually — at most a couple-tenths of one percent of state revenues. It's a small price to pay to retain what they call the "state's most progressive tax."

The price of non-conformity

This year, a Minnesota Senate bid to bump up the state's exemption to match the federal level of $5.3 million failed. A $2 million exclusion, advisors contend, is simply too small to affect Sun Belt flight that accelerated when the state imposed a new a top individual income tax rate of 9.85 percent for married couples earning $250,000 or more and $150,000 for single filers in 2013.

"It's really a battle over what 'middle class' is, and the state of Minnesota isn't going along with Congress' definition," said Robert Abdo, an estate planning attorney and vice president of Lommen Abdo law firm.

"By not matching the federal estate tax, it just continues the conversation that Minnesota is going to find ways to keep raising revenues from the same core group of people," added Ross Levin, president of Accredited Investors Inc.

In 2012, 2,043 estates filed Minnesota estate tax returns and 1,232 actually owed money, according the state revenue department. "The problem is the message that it sends," Levin says.

Revenue Commissioner Myron Frans, however, questions whether such "tax migration" of the wealthy is anything approaching an epidemic. Frans notes that the vast majority will see significant tax savings by the time the changes are fully phased in by 2019 — no mean accomplishment for a state long characterized as unfriendly to the rich.

"Seventy percent of the estates that owed under the prior law will not owe under the new law," Frans said, adding that it's the first change to the provision in a decade.

A taxation dinosaur

Still, Minnesota is one of only 15 states that even has estate taxes on the books. Overall, it accounts for just 0.9 percent of the state's total tax revenues; before the exemption was bumped up last month, the estate tax was forecast to raise $173.4 million in fiscal year 2014.

The estate tax is highly concentrated among a few Minnesotans. About half of the revenues have come from estates valued at $5 million or more, according to a March study from Frans' department.

Raising the exemption to $2 million dings state coffers an estimated $63 million in FY 2015, $91 million in 2016 and $97 million in 2017. 

Dayton framed the estate tax changes as a blow for simplifying how it has been imposed, which was indeed confusing and complicated. Because of a "rate bubble" left from an old federal law, a 41-percent tax was levied on approximately the first $100,000 of an estate above the exemption amount, with 9-16 percent levied on the remainder. Filers needed to calculate two tentative amounts, then pay the lesser the lesser of two. 

This year's changes wiped out the rate bubble  — a move praised by nearly everyone. But because the exemption was raised to "just" $2 million, the benefits for the wealthiest Minnesotans will be negligible, and thus their incentives to leave have not been lessened, said Terry Slye, estate planning section chair of the Briggs and Morgan law firm.

"The way the rates and brackets work is if you're in the $1 million-to-$2-million frame, you'll get a fair amount of tax savings five years from now, but estates above that really won't see any significant savings," he said.

"My own experience is that if people are moving out of state more often that not, it's the income tax, not the estate tax that maybe really is the driving force," he added. "It depends person-by-person. But we certainly have seen in the last year or two a number of long-standing Minnesota clients who have either moved to Florida or announced plans to move to Florida and are in the process of doing that. It's a concern."

Frans, however, points to studies showing such "tax-induced mobility" has little significant effect on state revenues, estimating that such behavior has reduced estate tax collections between $13 million and $30 million per year.

"What we've done with doubling the estate tax exemption is really an important step for us as a state," he said. "It's a matter of simplicity and fairness. There's this concern about how consistent we are with other states. There are only two states with estate taxes that match the federal exemption level (Delaware and Hawaii)."

Adds Frans, "The fact that people are complaining about what we didn't do — as opposed to what we did do —is their prerogative, but we are actually quite proud of the significant reform we've accomplished this last year."

SEOUL, South Korea ― Wednesday's ferry sinking off Korea’s west coast is being called one of the country’s worst peacetime disasters in modern times. Although 14 are confirmed dead, close to 300 are still missing in the frigid waters. Hopes are dwindling of finding more survivors.

South Korean authorities haven't yet determined the cause, but hints of human error and incompetence are surfacing. Survivors have said that they were repeatedly ordered through an intercom system to remain where they were, even as the 6,825-ton Sewol listed perilously and water filled the cabins. The ship, which authorities determined made a sharp right before turning on its side, could have struck a rock or been thrown off balance by many tons of poorly secured cargo, maritime experts speculate. Passengers report hearing a loud boom just before the ship began tilting.

The Korean coast guard is questioning the captain and other crew members.

Most of the passengers were high school students from Ansan, a city just south of Seoul, on a field trip to the popular tourist destination of Jeju Island off the southern coast. For them, the long-anticipated trip was a final break before cramming for exams. Their distraught loved ones spent the night in a gymnasium, reportedly under funereal silence.

The tragedy has cast a dark pall over this entire nation, which is at once grieving and gripped by anxiety over the fate of the missing passengers.

Understandably, accusations are being hurled at the ship’s officers; its captain was allegedly one of the first to abandon the doomed vessel. Likewise, the government is taking a bruising for a rescue effort widely seen as lackluster. Officials have been accused of initially underestimating the gravity of the disaster. In the gym, angry parents shouted at the president and threw a water bottle at the prime minister. 

But unlike in other nations beset by tragedy, for many South Koreans the sunk ship is more than merely a disaster triggered by incompetence or gross negligence. For them, it reflects on what they claim are flaws in the national character ―shortcomings that Koreans say they have long struggled with but have yet to overcome.

"Even if the sinking was an accident caused by careless staff, Koreans will say that it's a shame for Korea," said Minjeong Gu, 33, an editor in Paju, northwest of Seoul. "'Shame' is one of the most commonly heard words in Korea," she said. 

Indeed, shame ― along with sadness and mourning ― summed up the emotional reactions Thursday in Seoul. "I am ashamed to be Korean!" exclaimed an elderly convenience store owner in the capital, who would only give his family name, Park, before launching into a diatribe of expletives.

"How can we say we are a developed nation?" he asked. "Those sons of bitches in the government aren't doing enough to help the families. Sons of bitches in the businesses are corrupt, making this happen, probably ignoring the regulations because it is cheaper."

Editorial writers echoed this theme. The Kookmin Ilbo wrote that the disaster response was, "A typical underdeveloped-country style action … confusion, haste and a delayed rescue." The Chosun Ilbo wrote, “Above all, the people must have felt deeply that South Korea is a country that doesn’t value human lives.”

In the US or Europe, it is difficult to imagine a similar reaction, with feverish soul-searching connecting a disaster to national pride, shame and self worth. In the West, a tragedy typically elicits scowling at negligence, mourning of victims, and perhaps efforts to improve safety or response procedures.

Such was the case in January 2012, when the captain of the Costa Concordia, an Italian cruise liner, escaped his sinking vessel but left behind hundreds of passengers allegedly in violation of maritime law. He was soon arrested. Likewise, despite the rash of anger over Hurricane Katrina's devastation in the US ― triggered by a natural disaster, although inadequate preparation and response worsened the suffering ― people blamed government incompetence, not some defect in the American disposition.

But in South Korea, manmade disasters tend to mean more. Here ― despite pride over the nation's rapid rise from poverty in the 1960s to the ranks of wealthy, high tech nations ― a fear of blundering and inadequacy remains imprinted on the national psyche.

This may be partially a result of rapid economic development. Like in other emerging Asiannations, modern urban cities have sprouted up in a matter of years. Buildings and vehicles were constructed hastily, even if that meant sacrificing quality and safety measures. And lives were sacrificed in the process.

Some South Koreans say that rapid growth, which fostered a need to get things done faster and cheaper, made the country more prone to disasters decades ago, something of an embarrassment as it joined the ranks of developed nations in the 1990s. Yet the days of slipshod rags-to-riches growth are over.

That doesn't mean that the reactions have changed, in part due to a fragile sense of national pride. "South Korea is obsessed with … how the Korean people and nation are viewed by the outside world," explained Sung-yoon Lee, a Korea expert at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Lee cited other examples of how disasters afflicted the South Korean psyche. In 1995, the upscale Sampoong department store in Seoul collapsed, killing 500 people. "This incident triggered much soul-searching and collective shame," he said. "Was the South Korean nation guilty in its lunge toward industrialization and the accretion of wealth? Had it cheated, tolerated corruption, and rashly cut corners in its obsession with rapid growth?”

In 1994, a major bridge over the Han River also collapsed, killing more than 30 people. The response? South Korea's president at the time apologized to the people "out of Confucian norms of shame and the leader bearing responsibility for large-scale tragedies," Lee recalled.

More recently, many South Koreans took personally the crash-landing of an Asiana flight in San Francisco last year, which left three people dead. President Park Geun-hye personally wrote a letter to the Chinese government calling the crash "regrettable," offering sympathy for the deaths of Chinese girls in the incident.

 



Perhaps one of the most tenuous causes for national flagellating arose when 23-year-old, South Korean-born Seung-hui Cho killed 32 people before taking his own life in the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre. South Koreans took to the streets with candlelight vigils and expressions of shame, feeling a sense of responsibility for their overseas brethren.

The killer, however, had lived in the US for fifteen years ― two-thirds of his life ― before the massacre.

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified the Sampoong department store as Soompi.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice didn’t mention torture in her brief visit to the University of Minnesota Thursday, but a lot of other people did, and Rice did perhaps discuss the issue with creative ambiguity and defend her role.

At noon, before Rice arrived on campus, Dr. Steve Miles of the U faculty accepted an award for his long service in the cause of human rights (including on the board of St. Paul-based the Center for Victims of Torture).

Miles said in his acceptance remarks that he had closely studied the Bush administration’s use of torture in the interrogation of prisoners in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and concluded that Rice “had executive authority over a system of torture and rendition [and] I believe that she should be indicted and prosecuted for war crimes.”

In an interview after receiving the award from the Sullivan Ballou Fund, Miles said that by deciding and declaring that the emergency following the 9/11 attacks entitled the United States to disregard international law on the treatment of prisoners, the United States “destroyed the system of international law that had taken decades to build up.”

Basically, if one country can decide that a particular emergency situation entitles it to torture prisoners, then another country can do so too.

'No Fee Speech'

Across campus, at Northrop Auditorium where Rice was scheduled to speak at 5 p.m., protesters waited to greet her with signs mostly affirming Miles’ view. “No Fee Speech for War Crimes,” one of the protest signs read, referring to the $150,000 Rice was to receive for her appearance. (It should perhaps be noted that the fee was paid with private money, not state or University funds.)

The protests outside of Northrop lasted for more than an hour but the turnout was low and mostly populated by gray-haired veterans of protests past. The level of participation by current U of M students was notably low and mostly organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). “Say No to War; Say No to Condi” read one of the SDS signs. One of my favorites, because it was so long and complicated and had to be scrawled in relatively small letters, said: “War criminals can be feminine and even good pianists.” (In case you don’t know, Rice is an outstanding pianist.)

Several of the protesters wore orange jumpsuits and black hoods to evoke the prisoners who were subjected to “enhanced interrogation” techniques including waterboarding.

Finally, at 5 p.m. the event began, as part of a series honoring the 50th anniversary of the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act. Rice, who grew up black in Birmingham, Ala., was a child when the law was signed. She described her own middle-class upbringing. Both parents were educators. But she recalled being unable to go into a restaurant. Her references to segregation and bigotry were mostly about discrimination against her ancestors, although she did say that the Civil Rights era was like a “second founding” of the United States.

MinnPost photo by Craig Lassig

Condoleezza Rice: “The work we have left to do is to make sure that aspiration is not ground out.”

I understand that some of the motivation to invite Rice was to ensure that the series on civil rights was not overly dominated by a liberal or Democratic perspective. But Rice didn’t offer much perspective on it at all. Along the way she mentioned that she is a Republican because, in part, she believes in “limited government.” She endorsed “federalism,” by which she meant stronger states and less Washington-centrism. She called for non-specific changes in immigration and criticized her party’s recent efforts to “insult large swaths of the populace and then hope that they don’t turn out to vote.”

Her talk meandered — but never meandered too near to what the protesters outside wanted to discuss. Today, she said, race is no longer disqualifying for those who have access to a good education, but because some schools are not so good, “the K-12 education crisis is the greatest threat we face as a country.”

“The work we have left to do is to make sure that aspiration is not ground out,” she said. (For some reason, Rice’s contract to give the talk prohibited recording, so the quotes in this piece rely on shorthand taken in the dark.)

Elephant in the room

The format allowed a few minutes after her opening remarks for Rice to take questions from Eric Schwartz, dean of the  U of M’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. (The Humphrey School organized the series on the Civil Rights Act anniversary.) I know that some critics of the Rice invitation were counting on Schwartz to bring up the elephant in the room — the torture issue.

He may have meant to, but he actually didn’t, at least not in way that put much pressure on her to call the elephant by its name. He offered her an opportunity to expand on some comments she had made in her memoir of the George W. Bush years (during which she served as national security adviser and secretary of state).

In the memoir, Schwartz said, Rice wrote that she was glad that the administration had ultimately moved its policy for treating prisoners of the Global War On Terror in a “more sustainable” way.

What did that mean, Schwartz asked, which I took to be an invitation to say anything about the elephant that she wanted to say.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the administration was terrified that another attack might be coming, Rice said. In order to prevent such a follow-up attack, the president asked about the legality of certain measures that he was considering taking, Rice said. This surely was a reference to waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation” techniques, but Rice didn’t specify as much. If you wanted to fill in the blanks for her, which shouldn’t be necessary, but if you wanted to, you would say that she was hinting that certain things of arguable legality were done out of a desperate desire to head off the next attack.

There are laws, and legal advice given to presidents by attorneys general, and Congress can pass more laws and the courts can interpret them, Rice said, or something along those lines. And a country like the United States, in which Osama bin Laden’s driver (Salim Hamdan) could have his conviction overturned, shouldn’t have to take any criticism from others (she mentioned Europeans) about whether it (the USA) respects the rule of law. (Rice was interrupted by applause for that remark.)

But by 2005 (the year Rice moved from NSA to secretary of state), the day-to-day panic was lessened. Al Qaida was on the run and diminished in its potential to mount a serious new attack, she said. It seemed possible to “unravel” some of the questionable tactics and policies that had been pursued in immediate post-Twin Towers power. She said she advocated for some of these changes, often on the other side from Vice President Dick Cheney, and she won some of the arguments. Rice quoted herself as having told President Bush that “the United States doesn’t disappear people.” (This also drew applause.)

That’s as close as Rice came to discussing the torture issue.

Photo by Michele Spaise

Mankwe Ndosi

Twin Cities artist Mankwe Ndosi, a music-maker, performance artist, educator and activist, has won Forecast Public Art’s largest 2014 grant, the $50,000 McKnight Project Grant, to create digital soundtracks unique to the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis. They will include contributions from neighborhood residents, field recordings and her own vocal work, and will be available digitally and physically at listening posts. Ndosi calls herself “a Culture Worker — an artist using creative practice to nurture and be useful to my community, my ancestors, and my planet.” Her previous recordings include the acclaimed “Science and Spirit” (2012), a fusion of hip-hop, soul and improvisation. Other Forecast grants went to Lisa Bergh and Andrew Nordin from Rural Aesthetic Initiative, to expand the territory of their Traveling Museum; Andrea Steudel, to research how artistic lighting projects could become a permanent part of all cities’ lighting infrastructure; Mara Pelicis, to create a community-driven public-art series commemorating the 22 soldiers and veterans lost to suicide every day; and Aaron Squadroni, to research abandoned mines around his Iron Range home and create a site-specific installation of graphite drawings.

The Loft will receive a $55,000 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support in-house and online classes, workshops, conferences, mentorships, readings and author dialogues designed for both casual participants and writers with literary career goals. In all, 27 Art Works grants totaling $2,809,490 were given to arts organizations in Minnesota. Among the other recipients are Arts Midwest ($1,404,690), the Minnesota State Arts Board ($735,300), Cantus ($20,000), MCAD ($40,000), the Minnesota Chorale ($15,000), the Minnesota Orchestra ($40,000), Ten Thousand Things ($35,000), MPR ($47,000) and Skylark Opera ($12,500). For a complete list of all Minnesota winners and their projects, go here and click on Minnesota.

Andy Sturdevant, who writes The Stroll for MinnPost and hand-draws the maps, is the latest participant in Coffee House’s imaginativeWriters and Readers Library Residence Program. The author of “Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow,” he’ll spend time during the next two weeks at the Northeast Public Library on Central Avenue, working with the collection to create new work. On Wednesday, May 28, he’ll return to the library to report on his activities. Whatever Sturdevant takes in usually comes out in interesting ways, whether in his writings, drawings, or public conversations (he hosted the monthly Salon Saloon at the Bryant Lake Bowl, now on hiatus, from 2010-2013). City Pages just named him 2014’s Best Local Author.

We had heard that Minnesota Orchestra principal cellist Tony Ross might be leaving for a new job in Chicago. Instead, he and his wife (Beth Rapier, assistant principal cello in the orchestra) have decided to stay put. Euan Kerr reports that Ross made the announcement before a Minnesota Orchestra concert at South High School on Wednesday. (The concert was closed to the public but open to the media.) Ross told the crowd, “We decided to, I won’t say take a risk, but have faith that this orchestra will remain, as it was, world class.” Meanwhile, former music director Osmo Vänskä and the MOA are still negotiating.

Writing for vita.mn, Sheila Regan reports that Ballet of the Dolls is in trouble. Founder and artistic director Myron Johnson has been hospitalized for anxiety and stress, the two remaining productions of the 2013-14 season have been cancelled, and Michael Rainville, chair of the Dolls’ board and the Ritz Foundation, describes the financial picture as “grim.” Established in 1986 by Johnson, a choreographer, Ballet of the Dolls was the Twin Cities’ first year-round dance-theater program; it has been a fixture in the arts community ever since.

On sale today starting at 10 a.m.: author and humorist David Sedaris (“Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls,” “Me Talk Pretty One Day”) at the State Theatre, Oct. 29. Go here or call 1-800-982-2787.

***

You’ve never seen anything like “The Magic Flute” now at the Ordway. Created by director Barrie Kosky of Berlin’s Komische Oper and the radical British theatre group 1927, presented here in co-production with LA Opera, which gave the first U.S. performances in November and December of last year, it’s funny, fast-paced (even at nearly three hours, with one intermission) and visually stupendous. It’s also the most successful show in Minnesota Opera’s history.

Photo by Michal Daniel

You’ve never seen anything like “The Magic Flute” now at the Ordway.

Mixing live performances with wildly inventive projected animation, with which the singers interact, it’s part “Fantasia” and part silent film, seasoned with steampunk and old horror movies. Most of the action happens in the animation; the singers, often several feet above the ground, appear and disappear as doors open and close and small platforms rotate them on and off. The talky parts in German have been replaced with short, clever projected captions in English. Selections from Mozart’s piano sonatas underscore those transitions; some sound as if they’re being played on an old upright barroom piano. The Queen of the Night is a monstrous animated spider with a hideous head, and Papageno has a new companion: an animated black cat that drew frequent laughs from the crowd.

Mozart’s comic opera — a sometimes confusing blend of Freemasonry and Enlightenment philosophy, Egytian gods, witches, a dragon, three boys up past their bedtimes, names that sound too much alike (Tamino and Pamina, Papageno and Papagena), symbolism, ritual, silliness and magic — actually makes more sense here than in more classic versions. “Flute” is a surreal, crazy masterpiece with splendid music. The over-the-top visuals give an old favorite a powerful reboot. At the Ordway, two casts alternate in the lead roles. The night we saw it, Jesse Blumberg was a loose-limbed Papageno, Aaron Blake an elegant Tamino and Christie Hageman Conover a lovely Pamina. Conductor Aaron Breid met two challenges brilliantly: to lead his orchestra through the score and meet the timing demands of the animation. Only four performances remain, and if you want to see it, don’t delay. Wednesday, April 23 is your best bet. FMI and tickets ($20-$190).

Our picks for the weekend

Tonight (Friday, April 18) at the Parkway: “Oh What a Night.” If the Temptations, the Stylistics, the Drifters and the Dells ring a bell, this is for you. Led by Ronn Easton, some fine Twin Cities vocalists — Willie Walker, Maurice Jacox, Sonny Knight and Maurice Young — will sing sweet doo-wop and soulful R&B from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. 7 p.m. Tickets at the door or online ($18-$20). P.S. The Parkway is owned by Pepito’s, so you can bring Pepito’s food and drinks into the theater. Two words: spicy pork.

Tonight and tomorrow at the Cowles: Shapiro & Smith Dance. Last night at the Ordway, we watched a couple take selfie after selfie in the lobby, oblivious to the crowd milling around them. Tonight Shapiro & Smith premieres its newest work, “Narcissus.” It’s a dance about reflections: what we see and don’t see, what we want to see and ultimately, what is really there. So ancient, yet so now. Also on the program: a reprise of three S&S favorites “Jack,” “Dance with Two Army Blankets,” and “What Dark/Falling into Light.” Tonight’s performance includes a discussion with the artists after. 8 p.m. FMI and tickets ($27-$31). Some nudity, so mature audiences please.

Saturday at Franconia in the City@Casket: Opening reception for Rollin Marquette’s “Natural Beauty.” If you saw Marquette’s “Untitled” at the Minneapolis Institute’s MAEP show, you haven’t forgotten it. The large, floating black ring took up two rooms and pierced the wall between them. It was magnificent and disturbing. Marquette’s new sculptural environment, “Natural Beauty,” is a decagonal steel chamber that almost completely occupies the gallery space. Walk inside to find yourself in a clear box engulfed in smoke. How will that feel? Claustrophobic? Mysterious? Threatening? You won’t know until you try. 6-9 p.m. Free and open to the public. Artist talk May 8 at 7 p.m.

Saturday at Studio Z: Cory Healey 4Tet. Iowa native, ex-Chicagoan and current Minneapolis resident via NYC, drummer Healey has performed with Fareed Haque, Kenu Wheeler, Dr. Lonnie Smith, John Abercrombie, David Berkman and other luminaries. At Studio Z, he and his band Jake Baldwin (trumpet), Zacc Harris (guitar) and Eric Fratzke (bass) will play an evening of Healey originals plus songs from Charlie Parker, Tony Williams, Charles Lloyd, Bob Dylan and others. Part of the Jazz at Studio Z series. 6 p.m. workshop (free), 7 p.m. show ($10).

Every day but Monday at the MIA: Matisse: Masterworks from the Baltimore Museum of Art. The largest collection of Matisse’s paintings, sculptures and prints ever assembled in Minneapolis won’t be here forever, and if you miss it, you’ll be sorry. FMI and tickets ($16 weekday/$20 weekend, free to members). Docent-led tours at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, and Thursdays at 7 p.m. Ends May 18. 

Saturday all over: It’s Record Store day at the Fetus, Cheapo, Treehouse, Hymie’s, Fifth Element, Know Name, Extreme Noise, Roadrunner and who knows where else. Here’s a list of participating Minneapolis stores; here’s St. Paul; here’s the state of Minnesota; here’s Wisconsin. Dust off the turntable and bring home some vinyl.

Saturday at Orchestra Hall: Bobby McFerrin’s “Spirityouall.” McFerrin remains one of the most creative, surprising and satisfying performers we’ve ever seen, and we’ve seen him a lot. At the end of one of his shows, you feel good — not because you’ve been manipulated or sedated, but because his joy in music, in life, in communicating with the audience is infectious. In “Spirityouall,” the 10-time Grammy winner goes where the spirit leads him, from gospel songs to the Twist, Bob Dylan to “Wipeout.” The Minnesota Orchestra does not perform on this program, but McFerrin’s daughter, Madison, does. And he’s bringing a band. 8 p.m. FMI and tickets ($45-$93).

Saturday at the Hillcrest Center Theater in St. Paul: “The History of Invulnerability.” You know who Superman is, but do you know where he came from? Easy answer: Krypton. More interesting answer: the imaginations of Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster. Minnesota Jewish Theater Company waited two years for the rights to David Bar Katz’s play, the story of the creation of a superhero and his rise to iconic status during the 1930s and ’40s. With Jim Lichtsheidl as Siegel, Alex Brightwell as Shuster, Dan Beckmann as Superman and Joanna Harmon as Lois Lane. 1978 Ford Parkway, St. Paul. FMI and tickets ($19-$28). Through May 11.

Photo by Janette Beckman

José James' music music is soulful, seductive, tinged with jazz (he started out as a jazz musician) and without limits

Monday at the Cedar: José James. Born and raised in Minneapolis, where he once sang at Fireside Pizza in Richfield with his high school music teacher, Denny Malmberg, James is now a citizen of the world, a Blue Note recording artist and a star in Europe who keeps reinventing himself. His music is soulful, seductive, tinged with jazz (he started out as a jazz musician) and without limits, embracing (at the moment) gospel, hip-hop, R&B, pop, rock, electronica and Moroccan Gnawa. He’s very much a global musician for today, but we can still call him one of our own. James’s next album on Blue Note, “While You Were Sleeping,” is due out June 10, and he’ll preview it for us Monday. Here’s the new single, “EveryLittleThing.” Pianist Kris Bowers, a member of James’s band with his own debut album on Concord, “Heroes + Misfits,” will open. 7 p.m. doors, 7:30 show. FMI and tickets ($20-$25).

Monday at the Trylon:“Psycho.” Movies are easier and more convenient at home, but still bigger, better and more fun at the theater. Even at 54 years old and pre- most of the special effects we’re used to seeing today, Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece has the power to make you swear off showers for the near future. In the cozy little Trylon, you’ll hear your neighbors’ hearts pounding. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($8).

I support environmental activism. As a nation, we've made great strides thanks to the efforts of environmentalists.

Harlan Christensen

“Minnesota and mining: Our children, our waters and wild rice are political pawns,” published April 15 by Ely resident C.A. Arneson, paints a frightening picture of political intrigue and dangers to our children and communities. With this masterpiece of environmental fear-mongering, Arneson reveals a disturbing problem with the environmental lobby in Minnesota.

Increasingly radical environmentalism, with its "all or nothing" approach, seems bent on destroying rather than working with the mining industry industry.

By using selective scientific data, Arneson's commentary implied to Minnesotans that our children are in danger as a result of the political intervention of Iron Range legislators. But those legislators did the right thing.

Please allow me to fill in some blanks. I will not argue Arneson’s contention of sulfide effects on wild rice and methyl mercury. What I will argue, however, are some key omissions.

Important MPCA evidence and other scientific studies offer evidence that rice beds and waters containing elevated levels of iron significantly reduce mercury methylation and make sulfide nontoxic to wild-rice seedlings. Iron makes the difference, and we are talking about the Iron Range, right?

Iron can render sulfide nontoxic

The March 2014 MPCA Wild Rice Sulfate Standard Study Preliminary Analysis revealed that iron presence in mud at levels greater than 1 milligram per liter causes sulfide to bond with the iron and renders it nontoxic to wild rice. Field testing revealed a whopping 8.0 to 84.6 mg/L of iron present in waters throughout the proposed future copper/nickel/PGM mining area in northeastern Minnesota.

Source: MPCA

Iron presence in mud at levels greater than 1 milligram per liter causes
sulfide to bond with the iron and renders it nontoxic to wild rice. 

The MPCA report contains an entire section on iron’s ability to make sulfide nontoxic to wild rice, and considers it important enough to include an illustration formatted for publication. I’ve yet to hear it mentioned by an environmental group.

After acknowledging that some people may not care about wild rice, Arneson moves on to describe how sulfite can lead to methyl mercury and damaging effects to developine embryos, but fails to disclose widely accepted scientific evidence that iron reduces mercury methylation.

“Reduction of Net Mercury Methylation by Iron … Implications for Engineered Wetlands,” published in Vol. 37, No.13, 2003 Environmental Science & Technology by University of California, Berkeley researchers, provides extremely detailed evidence that mercury methylation decreases with increasing concentrations of iron, which the researchers write is “a variable not previously considered in mercury methylation studies.”

The Northmet SDEIS demonstrates a net reduction of the level of mercury downstream from the Embarrass and Partridge Rivers. This isn’t modeling. PolyMet has been testing for over five years at a remote plant site to provide solid evidence. For Arneson to imply that PolyMet would even consider harming my children and grandchildren is unfathomable. 

Regional differences

My wife and I love to watch home-renovation programs on HGTV and are often flabbergasted when a house that would sell for under $200K in Minnesota is listed for $700K to $900K in Boston. Imagine what would happen if state/federal legislators decided to enact laws that disregard any regional differences and set your property tax at the highest home value.

This is what is happening to the Minnesota mining industry.

Minnesota’s stringent 10 mg/L sulfate standard was enacted to protect wild rice. According to the MPCA, no other state has this wild-rice water standard.  I do not hesitate to tell you that the MPCA study validates this level in waters that contain no iron.

The Minnesota Department of Health states 400 mg/L is safe for infant formula in its 1999 publication Sulfates in Well Water. But the 10mg/L wild rice sulfate standard will force towns and cities to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for unnecessary upgrades to water treatment facilities that cannot meet the standard.

In a recent Star Tribune article, Kathryn Hoffman, an attorney with nonprofit law firm Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, commented that the state’s environmental standard remains in place because the state’s research supports it. “And this is science,” she said. “Not democracy.”

This is science, chemistry to be more accurate. The 10mg/L sulfate standard is defensible in waters that contain no iron content. But this is not Boston. Iron Range waters are loaded with iron. The 1973 standard was enacted without taking regional differences into account.

Enormous benefits, without harming environment

Why do environmentalists fail to mention the enormous tax benefits of mining an estimated $3 trillion in copper, nickel and precious metals? Revitalized mining will help pay for improving our schools, our roads and many other projects important to voters, even cleaning up rivers in the metro area. Minnesota legislators are running out of ways to tax you to pay for it all.

If I thought that children and grandchildren of mine or yours are in danger, I would not support PolyMet for a second. The PolyMet NorthMet mine will meet all current environmental standards. Modern scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that mining in the iron-rich Minnesota Arrowhead region can be done without harming wild rice or increasing mercury levels.

Iron Range legislators were right to intercede with Gov. Mark Dayton. The governor needs to demonstrate the courage to direct MPCA to update Minnesota’s antiquated and unreasonable “one-size-fits-all” 1973 wild-rice sulfate standard.

I can do nothing to prevent environmentalists from writing offensive articles other than to make a heartfelt appeal to work together with the mining industry to create a win-win scenario for all of Minnesota.

Harlan Christensen is a Polymet Shareholder, formerly of Duluth, who resides in the Twin Cities.

WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?

If you're interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, email Susan Albright at salbright@minnpost.com.)

Since before Barack Obama’s re-election, it has seemed more likely than not that the 44^th president of the United States would leave office with no education legacy whatsoever. Not even a controversial one, such as George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind policy.

Sometime during the long, soul-sapping winter this changed. The Obama who spoke frankly of race, privilege and opportunity on the 2008 campaign trail reappeared to announce two bold equity initiatives, initially to less fanfare than one might imagine.

The nation’s first African American president is talking about young people of color, and in particular young black men, in a way that has energized educators and their advocates in a way that I, at least, haven’t heard since his first campaign.

On recent visits to high schools, I have heard some of the Twin Cities most disadvantaged students noting what they have in common with the president of the United States. And about the fact that Obama has undertaken a special initiative involving them and their teachers.

In announcing My Brother’s Keeper, a five-year, $200 million initiative focused in large part on African American boys, Obama spoke pretty candidly about his youth.

“I didn’t have a dad in the house,” the New York Times quoted him as saying in February. “And I was angry about it, even though I didn’t necessarily realize it at the time. I made bad choices. I got high without always thinking about the harm that it could do. I didn’t always take school as seriously as I should have. I made excuses. Sometimes I sold myself short.”

The president was galvanized by the shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. The man who shot the unarmed Martin used that state’s “shoot-first” doctrine to justify the killing. In the aftermath, Obama noted that if he had a son, “He’d look like Trayvon.”

Twin Cities teachers and school leaders are already tapped into the initiative, and their students are talking about it. Buzz, then, arrived with the spring. 

A few weeks earlier, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan warned schools nationwide that it will not tolerate the severe racial disparities in suspensions, expulsions and other high-stakes forms of discipline that are now the rule in too many places. His department issued guidance on alternative means of handling non-violent and minor behavior infractions.

This is huge. Both Minneapolis and St. Paul have been singled out for the severely disparate rates at which they discipline African American boys. Minneapolis Public Schools recently entered voluntarily into an agreement with Duncan’s Office of Civil Rights to make radical changes to its policies.

Nationwide, 95 percent of suspensions are for nonviolent misbehavior such as being disruptive or disrespectful. With three suspensions by ninth grade, a student is almost certain not to graduate high school.

African-American students without disabilities are three times as likely as their peers to be suspended, and much more likely to be suspended two or more times in a year. One in six was excluded from school at least once in the 2009-2010 school year, a rate that skyrockets to more than one in three among black high-school students with disabilities.

A modest proposal to help Twin Cities schools implement positive, effective alternatives did not make it into the omnibus education bills now awaiting action at the legislature.

Obama has nearly three years left in office. Wouldn’t it be amazing if he used that time to strengthen the relationship he seems to have begun building with students of color here and elsewhere? Now that would be a legacy. 

Supporters of full legalization of marijuana in Minnesota plan a rally Wednesday, April 23 at the state Capitol.

While state legislators have limited discussions this session to legalization of medical marijuana, organizers of this rally say they want all marijuana use to be legal — medical and recreational — as in Colorado and Washington state. Twenty states allow medical marijuana use.

They're calling the rally "Yes We Cannabis," a play on the Obama campaign slogan "Yes We Can."

The April 23 rally is in the state Capitol rotunda from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. It's sponsored by MN NORML (National Organization of Marijuana Laws).

Scheduled speakers include:

• Neil Franklin, a law enforcement veteran in favor of legalization
• Jim Northrup, an Anishinaabe columnist, poet, performer and political commentator from the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation in Minnesota.
  

Some might wonder why they aren't holding the rally on April 20 (4/20), but that's Easter Sunday.

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges will deliver her first "State of the City" speech on April 24 at the American Indian Center.

City Council members will attend the noon speech because it's actually an adjourned council meeting.

The American Indian Center is at 1530 E. Franklin Av.

A primary in the special election for the District 3 Hennepin County Commissioner seat will be Tuesday, April 29, but absentee voting has already begun.

Those who can't make it to the polls election day can file an absentee vote through Monday, April 28 at 5 p.m.

The primary will narrow the field to two candidates for the May 13 special election.

The seat, which includes St. Louis Park, and downtown and southwest Minneapolis, is open because Gail Dorfman resigned to become the new executive director of St. Stephen’s Human Services in Minneapolis. She'd been on the county board for 14 years.

Listed on the ballot for the primary are:

• Anne Mavity
• Bob Reuer
• Ben Schweigert
• Bob (Again) Carney, Jr.
• Ken Kelash
• Marion Greene

Mavity, Schweigert, Kelash and Greene courted DFL support in the race, but a botched convention meant no party endorsement.

Minnesota can't restrict coal plants in North Dakota, MPR's Elizabeth Dunbar reports. Our state's Next Generation Energy Act forbade coal imports from places like NoDak without carbon offsets for the resulting greenhouse gasses; U.S. Judge Susan Richard Nelson said that violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution as a state restriction on interstate trade. No word yet on an appeal.

Tear the damn thing up … . The Strib's Kevin Duchschere reports, “Vibrations from traffic crossing light-rail tracks are disrupting recording operations in several of Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media’s state-of-the-art studios, only two months before trains will start running daily past their downtown St. Paul headquarters. ‘The floor is vibrating, the ceiling is shaking, the structure is making noise, and that affects the recordings’, said Nick Kereakos, chief technology officer and operations vice president for MPR and American Public Media. MPR and the Metropolitan Council, which oversees Metro Transit, say they’re working on a solution to meet the terms of their 2009 mitigation agreement … .”

A name from the past … .Don Davis of the Forum News Service says, “An American Indian environmental group led by nationally known Winona LaDuke is fighting a northern Minnesota oil pipeline. Honor the Earth officials say the Sandpiper pipeline is planned to go near or through some of the most environmentally fragile areas of the state, including the country's largest wild rice bed. Enbridge, Inc. officials say they have 65 years of safe experience with Minnesota pipelines.” Ralph Nader can’t be far behind.

Feel good animal story of the day … . The AP says, “A rare snowy owl that was apparently hit by a bus in the nation's capital and sent to Minnesota for rehabilitation is scheduled to be released into the wild. The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota plans to release the owl on Saturday along the northern Minnesota and Wisconsin border. The injured owl was found in downtown Washington in late January … .”

For the power-paranoid, the Pioneer Press's Tom Webb reports MSP airport is adding electrical outlets to 1,000 airport seats. Handy for those frequent delays.

The guy with the name that couldn’t sound more German, Helmut Schmidt of the Forum News Service, reports, “North Dakota is keeping its low-income residents better fed than other states, according to a national hunger relief charity. In 2012, North Dakota had the lowest rate of food insecurity in the nation at 7.7 percent, followed by Minnesota at 10.7 percent, according to a report by Feeding America, which used data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

The housing rebound hasn’t yet provided a bounce for all players. The Strib’s Jim Buchta writes, “With house prices on the rise, the number of homeowners who owe more than their house is worth has been steadily declining — good news because more people are able to sell their houses without taking a loss. In Minnesota, only 9 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage are still ‘seriously underwater,’ which means the debt on the property exceeds the property's estimated market value by 25 percent or higher … .”

Andrew Johnson at The National Review on the Condi Rice visit: “Rice is also an accomplished amateur pianist and was a registered Democrat early in her career, but the letter states that her ‘high speaking fee’ is ‘inconsistent with the civil rights movement’s emphasis on economic justice.’ They argue that her presence at the event is ‘not well thought through.’ Meanwhile, students have taken the war on Rice one step further and asking for her to be arrested.” Our own Eric Black decanted the speech here.

The search for the River Road Fellowship “maidens” guru is sounding a bit like Elvis-at-the-mini-mart sightings.Jenna Ross of the Strib says, “Officers in Minnesota and Washington are chasing down dozens of leads in their search for Victor A. Barnard … . Investigators are working to sort out the good tips from the bogus, he said. Judging from the deluge of calls and e-mails, Barnard has been seen in convenience stores, churches, garbage dumpsters and restaurants in several states, ‘all at the same time’, [Pine County Sheriff Robin] Cole joked. One fellow ‘swears up and down that Victor Barnard bummed a cigarette from him,’ he added.

At City Pages, Aaron Rupar offers somewhat more revealing information than the mainstream papers. From the complaint against Barnard:

“1. Barnard told the girls that thanks to him being the son of God, they'd remain virgins despite having sex with him:

‘C said the first time it happened she was at the lodge with him where Barnard lived. She had been talking with him and he asked her if she wanted to have sex with him. She told him she did not. He asked her many times and began to explain that sex with him was not wrong because the flesh. He began to touch her.’”

Call them “artisanal plants” … . Dan Gunderson of MPR says, “Gardeners shopping for plants this spring at Bachman's nurseries will find some new signs in the soil. The company will begin telling customers which of its plants are safe for bees. Bachman's is growing plants now at its Lakeville production center that are free of neonicotinoid insecticide, a widely used treatment that experts partly blame for the die-off of bee populations in Minnesota and across the country in recent years.”

During the next two weeks, you can walk through the doors at Public Functionary and find yourself surrounded by a carousel of Jennifer Davis paintings. The exhibition is filled with glittering lights, swings, and fantastical depictions of neon creatures galloping to greet you. Public Functionary’s Tricia Khutoretsky has created a perfect setting for Jennifer Davis’ work. Davis’ playful paintings are complemented by Khutoretsky’s dark walls, which hint at greater depths bubbling under the paintings’ deceivingly sugary first impressions. Jennifer is a genuinely kind and nurturing person with a very, very, very rich imagination. When Jennifer retreats into the attic of her mind, she emerges with a trove of artwork exploring the inner lives of long-fingered, sullen girls alongside hulking, grinning beasts. If her color palette is candy flavored, the content is steeped in a fine whiskey.

Jennifer calls herself a hustler. She has a very active etsy account, and calls painting pet portraits her “day job.” The artist has come to be something of a local celebrity for her talent and charm. Budding artists fawn over the fact she has been supporting herself off of her art for over a decade. But with this exhibition, Jennifer wanted to achieve more. In 2012, Jennifer was awarded a Next Step Grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the McKnight Foundation. She received significant funding to "research, create, and document a body of large-scale paintings based on vintage carousel animals and traditional carousel vignette paintings."

In the summer of 2013, Jennifer set out to deliver on the challenge. Jennifer stepped outside her imagination and into a car with her partner, to travel the east coast, along the Atlantic Ocean, to visit eight states in eight days and dozens of carousels. She planned for bigger work and for deeper research. Jennifer's roadtrip guided her discovery of new characters, subjects, and inspiration for her work. Along the way, she found she was passionate about sharing her experience of travel and art research to change the way Minnesotans currently think about funding the arts.

The travel and research were life changing. When she returned home, the subject matter required a larger surface area, which required both larger paint brushes and power tools to blow up the aesthetic she is known for. She filled her home studio with very large panels and dreamed of filling Public Functionary with a new direction for her work. The stories lurking behind the imagery are still very much the same. The work is beautiful and haunting, the Jennifer Davis touch is unmistakable.

Pollen asked Jennifer and Tricia to describe their relationship to travel, grant funding, and Minnesota’s art. One thing is certain, both are deeply dedicated to their work and the work of others. These two women will be important to a healthy future of the Twin Cities art ecosystem.

Photo by Micheal Johnson for Public Functionary

Pollen: Tricia, can you speak to your commitment to feature local and international artists in the same exhibition space?

Tricia: I think that my curatorial approach to the artists we are featuring is built on what I naturally gravitate to. I grew up overseas and have spent considerable time in my life traveling. I truly believe that understanding the world around you leads to tolerance and compassion. I also consider Minneapolis very much my home. So for me, it feels right to explore what is here as well as what is happening elsewhere. Specifically, I think a mix of perspectives provides global context for contemporary art. Artists are influenced by their environments, communities and cultures, and through them we can learn more. Featuring only one perspective (that of a Minnesota artist), is not the mission of Public Functionary. The space aims to help people explore contemporary art and understand artists better, in order to do that, I think it's important to look at a broader picture of the art world.

Pollen: How did you pick Jennifer Davis as your first local artist?

Tricia: I chose Jennifer Davis as our first local artist because she is not only defined as a Minnesota-based artist, but her subject matter for this show allowed her to explore and travel to find inspiration. Besides the fact that her concept for the show was fascinating and exciting, I also appreciate her approach to being an artist. She's an interesting individual; in how she shares her work online, makes a living as a creative, and supports other artists and the vitality of the art community as well.

Pollen: Jennifer, how important is grant funding to the work you are doing currently?

Jennifer: For my current exhibition, I took a road trip up and down the U.S. East Coast to research vintage carousels from the early 1900s. I visited eight states in eight days and I lost track of how many carousels stops I made. I would not have been able to take that kind of travel/research trip without the grant support. With so many carousels sprinkled all over the East coast I felt that only sensible way to visit them was via a road trip. As a full-time, self-employed artist I just don’t have the funds to take off on that kind of trip and stop working for that length of time. The chance to see my subject matter up close, in person, and to really immerse myself in the full, crazy sensory experience of carousel culture was infinitely more rewarding than looking at pictures in books or Google Image Searches. I was able to create my own source materials in the form of photos, videos, sketches, etc. As a result, I think the final paintings are more personal and reflective of my true vision. Not to mention the fact that from the time I received the grant to the completion of my solo exhibition at Public Functionary two full years will have passed. The funding was a great motivator to keep going and keep pushing myself to do my best work. The entire time I was conscious of the fact that I needed to honor the financial support of my work by taking it to the next level.

Photo by Micheal Johnson for Public Functionary

Pollen: You have both mentioned that you wanted a piece of the conversation around this show to focus on grants and travel as they pertain to Minnesotan artists. Why?

Jennifer: Right around the time I was hitting the road there was a dust up in the local press about artists supposedly using travel grant money to fund lavish “vacations.” I hate to even bring it up again because it was a really backhanded attack by a small but vocal few. However, those ridiculous tactics worked and in the end the Minnesota Legislature was basically forced to create new rules limiting MSAB grantees to travel within state lines. Although, the grant I received, A “Next Step Grant” from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council / McKnight Foundation, is privately funded and so not affected by the new rules, I was still heartsick about the shortsightedness of limiting artists to travel/research within our state. It is such an insular way of thinking—to believe that there is nothing to be gained by researching things outside our own borders and coming home to make art to share within our communities. I was also really paranoid that I too would be attacked in the press. I felt afraid that I would not be able to defend my project as eloquently as some of my peers were forced to do. Now that the dust is settled, I feel that there is more room for civil discussion about this issue and it is my hope that there will be a reexamination of the rules. I can assure you; while visiting carousels was fun it was not a vacation. A lot of my time was spent in the car getting from one carousel to the next—cursing Siri’s navigating skills (and wondering how people ever did road trips without her). Road trips aren’t as glamorous as they look on TV. I worked harder on this project than anything else I have ever done in my entire life.

Tricia: I thought it was important to highlight the impact and outcome of Jennifer's travel grant. Especially given the specific issue Jennifer goes into detail about. We have generous and amazing arts support in the Twin Cities, and we can't take it for granted. As we have seen, grant guidelines can change in an instant (regardless of the legitimacy of the claims that lead to that change). Grant money is public money and we (artists and arts managers) need to be pro-active about sharing examples and evidence of the benefits to the community based on the funding, otherwise it can be easily be misunderstood.

Pollen: Do you have favorite examples of other local artists making work inspired by traveling?

Jennifer: One of my favorite local artists is Melissa Loop. Her biggest projects have included International travel/research to make surreal, gorgeous, eerie landscape paintings that “confront the fantasy and reality of the exotic and the ways in which tourism and cultural stereotypes are shaping cultural preservation and identity.” One look at her travel journal and you can see how hard she works. Just because the destination is beautiful should we exclude it from being the source of thoughtful and meaningful work? Does it make sense to think that work/research must be ugly and horrible? Should Minnesota artists limit their ideas to Minnesota subjects in order to receive grants? She is a treasure and we are lucky to have her in Minnesota. I hope she continues to get the funding support she deserves.

Pollen: What do you each personally think Minnesota gains from local artists traveling outside the state to do research for their work?

Tricia: I think Minnesota gains a more vibrant art community and more opportunity for experiences that inspire, educate, and teach. If we are going to continue funneling money into artists as an investment in our local culture, we should be enabling them to explore and research. Because if not, the downside is funding artists to create the same art over and over. Our experiences with art will become predictable and expected. Instead, artists have the potential to be our cultural ambassadors. I will likely never have an opportunity to go travel to eight cities and tour vintage carousels (an American folk tradition). However Jennifer was able to do so based on her grant, and she produced an entire exhibit that shares her experience, learning, and joy with whoever is interested in coming to see it. The gallery hours for Jennifer's show have been busy since the opening night. Viewers of all ages have spent time taking in the art for long periods of time, talking to each other about what they are observing, reading the narrative and swinging in the gallery! Certainly kids and teenagers have enjoyed this show, but something about the pure joy of discovering carousel animals resonates with all ages. Everyone leaves happy and inspired. These types of art experiences are absolutely worthwhile.

Jennifer: When we talk about what makes our state great “Arts & Culture” are right up near the top of the list. Minnesota is lucky to have so many talented artists living and working in every corner of our communities. Supporting their artistic visions and creative outputs lifts up our local cultures. If we attempt to stifle this or negate their contributions to our communities, artists will leave. Traveling outside the state and bringing home new knowledge, ideas, and inspiration can elevate new perspectives for everyone that accepts the invitation to engage.

Photo by Micheal Johnson for Public Functionary

Pollen: What is one thing you want the public to understand about the way grants work to fuel artwork made in Minnesota?

Tricia: Particularly, I want the public to understand the potential of investing in artists. In today's world it is becoming more important to understand each other and the world around us. Artists have the incredible ability to express and highlight the things that we often overlook. They provide an escape and a place to dream about what's possible. And Minnesota has actually already agreed on this idea, enough to allocate a portion of tax dollars to the Land and Legacy Fund, because we value as a collective whole the impact of arts and culture on our society. I'd like for there to be more trust in the organizations (the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the State Arts Board) that the funds are being allocated in a regulated and competitive system. As well, if the public has questions and concerns about how the funds are being spent, I would encourage them to actually visit the galleries, ask questions, and give artists the chance to share what they are producing before jumping to conclusions that lead to detrimental limitations on artists.

Jennifer: The decision to grant an artist funding is not made lightly. Artists must go through an involved submission process where their proposal is reviewed by esteemed local arts leaders, peers, etc. Artists are required to prove a certain level of merit and seriousness in their work, their goals, and their proposed ideas. I urge folks to keep in mind that many artists make works that are not tangible/saleable (such as dance, performance, large scale sculpture…) so grant funding is essential to sustaining their practices. Many apply and few are rewarded. It is an honor that is not taken lightly. Once funding is awarded the money is spent in a pre-approved manner. There is not a lavish vacation to be found! Artwork is work. I believe that the state of Minnesota strongly supports its artists—as proven by the commitment of funding to the Legacy Amendment / Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund. Minnesota artists are proving their worth everyday. Look around!

You can find Jennifer's work at Public Functionary through April 25th. You can follow Jennifer all over the internet, where she admits to “oversharing everyday.” But don't miss her blog chronicling her road trip journey, Merry-Go-Round-About.

Photo by Micheal Johnson for Public Functionary

This article was originally published at BePollen.com.

Nice Ride Q&A: Funding exists for 17 new stations

from streets.mn by John Edwards

Last Friday afternoon marked the beginning of Nice Ride Minnesota’s fifth season of bike-share in the Twin Cities. The system’s size and geographic layout for 2014 remains largely the same as last season. But there’s still plenty of change as subscribers are introduced to more generous ride times of 60 minutes, and prospective members are given the option of monthly subscriptions. Anthony Ongaro, Nice Ride’s Director of Marketing, agreed to discuss what’s new and what’s to come for Nice Ride and bike-share in general.

The wealthy's love/hate relationship with Minnesota

from mnpACT! Progressive Political Blog by Dave Mindeman

Snow birds want it both ways. They want the warm weather and low taxes of the southern states. But they want the quality of life, the medical care, the transportation options, and the pleasant summers of Minnesota as well. They just want to pay those low taxes...you know, wherever they get the "best deal".

In praise of northern prairie culture: 'How Fargo of You'

from Minnesota Prairie Roots by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

TWO DAYS AFTER I FINISHED reading Marc de Celle’s book, How Fargo of You, a 10-episode mini series, Fargo, debuted (yesterday) on FX television. Excellent. Timing is everything.

Eileen Cooke, a National Library Week tribute

from Poking Around with Mary by Mary Treacy

With a firm hand and a smile that could charm the toughest solon, Minnesota native Eileen Delores Cooke (1928-2000) shaped and steered the legislative agenda of America’s libraries.  She anticipated the role of telecommunications technology, held firm to the principle of freedom of information, and saw to it that the there are public libraries in small towns throughout the nation.

Listening to Adama Dieng, and a musing about the United Nations in our ever more complex world

from Thoughts Towards a Better World by Dick Bernard

Ordinarily, if the UN comes up in conversation, it is the subject of general criticism, from being some sort of sinister world government scheme to at best being an ineffective representative on the world stage; a worthless collection of bureaucrats.

It is so often caricatured by use of bad examples of what it supposedly represents. This is not hard, because where the UN is found, there is often trouble which it did not create in the first place: Rwanda, for example, in 1994.

If there was no United Nations at all would we all be better off, or not?

5 reasons to look beyond gut symptoms for Celiac

from The Savvy Celiac by Amy Leger

In no particular order, here are some very quick reasons why you and your doctor should look beyond gut symptoms for celiac.

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The opening of the Green Line light rail this summer will not only inaugurate a long-awaited transportation corridor for St. Paul and Minneapolis, but will also foster cultural hot spots along the corridor showcasing local diversity, bringing communities closer together, and boosting economic opportunities.

The rail line's 11-mile route along the Central Corridor from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis travels through some of the region's most distinct cultural districts, including:

1. Little Mekong, home to many Southeast Asian immigrants and businesses (Western Avenue Station).

2. Rondo, Saint Paul's traditional African-American hub (Victoria Street Station).

3. Little Africa, a growing cluster of immigrant businesses (Snelling Avenue Station).

4. The Creative Enterprise Zone, the new name for a longstanding community of artists and artisans (Raymond Avenue and Westgate stations).

5. Prospect Park, a neighborhood between St. Paul and the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus that hosts many student, faculty, and cultural institutions such as the Textile Center (Prospect Park Station).

6. The West Bank, another campus neighborhood known for its theater, live music, unique restaurants, and large Somali population (West Bank Station).

"Each of these districts represents a part of the richness of the Twin Cities," says Kathy Mouacheupao, Cultural Corridor Coordinator for the Local Initiative Support Corporation-Twin Cities (LISC). "We know that arts and culture connects people, so we want to maximize the opportunity of the light rail for strengthening culture in these neighborhoods in order to leverage economic development."

That's the mission of LISC's Central Corridor as a Cultural Corridor (C4) Program: to help community groups conceive and carry out cultural projects highlighting their unique assets, as well as creating locally owned businesses and job opportunities for neighborhood residents.

"There's a tension around gentrification in the Central Corridor," Mouacheupao explains. "We are interested in doing work with a community, not to a community. We believe in supporting the artistic identity of the people living there, not moving in a bunch of hipsters and moving everyone else out."

Lisa Tabor, who founded Culture Brokers to promote cultural inclusivity and is involved with the African-American Leadership Forum, says, "It's an important and sophisticated way of thinking to invest in people at the same time you are investing in transit so residents don't have to leave."

The C4 program supports six community-led organizations along the Green Line with training, technical assistance, and direct grants for planning and implementing programs, as well as crafting a joint strategy to draw attention to the cultural assets found along the corridor as a whole.

What C4-funded groups are working on

Asian Economic Development Organization (AEDA): Little Mekong is already a center of Southeast Asian culture in Saint Paul with restaurants, groceries, nonprofit organizations, and a large immigrant population. AEDA has big plans to add regular arts events, a traditional Asian Night Market, a public plaza, new housing, aesthetic and pedestrian improvements, and a Pan Asian Cultural Center featuring a theater for the Mu Performing Arts company.

Rondo Arts and Culture Heritage Business District: The construction of I-94 ripped out the commercial center of Rondo, St. Paul's African-American cultural hub, but it did not kill the community's spirit. An inspiring initiative from the Aurora Saint Anthony Neighborhood Business Corporation seeks to regenerate an economically vital business district that will showcase African-American culture for the entire region.

African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS-MN): African immigrants have opened 20 restaurants, shops, and other businesses in the area around Snelling Avenue and University Avenue in St. Paul. C4 has given a planning grant to AEDS for cultural events to stimulate more businesses and customers. AEDS director Gene Gelgelu states, "Our interest is to revitalize the area with entrepreneurship and economic development. Everyone will be able to taste and smell and see and hear and feel Africa."

Creative Enterprise Zone: This district straddling University Avenue on the West edge of St. Paul is already thriving with artists, graphic designers, potters, architects, writers, toymakers, costume designers, artisans, and unique light industrial businesses such as Midwest Floating Island, which recycles used carpets into habitat for marine animals in ecological restoration projects as far away as New Zealand. Saint Anthony Park Community Council launched the Creative Enterprise Zone Action Team to better connect artists and artisans with one another so they can discover opportunities for sharing space, trading ideas, pursuing opportunities together and generally looking out for one another as rents in the neighborhood likely rise.

Prospect Park 2020: This group's ambitious plans to turn a straggling industrial district on the north side of Prospect Park Station into a pioneer of sustainable 21st Century living includes a strong emphasis on the arts, crafts, and design.

West Bank Business Association: The West Bank's business association is accentuating the West Bank's image as an arts center through stronger marketing and adding more visual arts to its plentiful music and theater offerings.

"Our vision is that people all over the region will think of riding the Green Line for fun, stopping to see all that's going on around these stations," says C4's Kathy Mouacheupao. Dining in Little Mekong, enjoying the lively street life and cafes of Rondo, shopping for gifts in Little Africa's shops and artisans' studios in the Creative Enterprise Zone, touring the Textile Center and Surly Brewing Company in Prospect Park, seeing a play or music show on the West Bank.

This article is reprinted in partnership with The Line, an online chronicle of Twin Cities creativity in entrepreneurship, culture, retail, placemaking, the arts, and other elements of the new creative economy. 

Jay Walljasper, author of "The Great Neighborhood Book," is the editor of OnTheCommons.org. He writes, speaks, consults and strategizes about enriching urban and community life. Walljasper lives and bikes in the Kingfield neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Minneapolis is No. 5 on a list of the Top 10 cities for new college grads, as compiled by Livability.com.

Livability says it based the list on such things as:

• Number of 25- to 34-year-olds living in each city
• Availability of rental properties
• Unemployment rates
• Educational attainment levels
• Use of public transportation
• Types of jobs available
• Recreational activities
• Hot nightlife
• Hip vibe

Livability.com editor Matt Carmichael said in a statement:

“Businesses relocate for access to a talented workforce. But, increasingly, those young talents are choosing where to move after college based on livability. These 10 cities are great places for recent grads, which should put them on the radar of employers looking to expand as well.”

The Top 10:

1. Cambridge, Mass.
2. Bellevue, Wash.
3. Austin, Texas
4. Bethesda, Md.
5. Minneapolis, Minn.
6. Hoboken, N.J.
7. Ann Arbor, Mich.
8. Fargo, N.D.
9. Naperville, Ill.
10. Mountain View, Calif.

CC/Flickr/Jamie

"If every deli could charge $14 a sandwich, then perhaps an $11 or $12 minimum wage would be feasible."

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Michael Saltsman pokes a few holes in the minimum wage balloon:

In a visit this month to the University of Michigan, for instance, the president stopped at the local deli Zingerman's. He raved about its Reuben sandwich as well as the generous wages that the business offers. Like [Costco CEO] Mr. Jelinek, Zingerman's co-founder Paul Saginaw supports hiking the minimum wage. He posted a minimum-wage manifesto on a company website last September.

As Mr. Obama relished the perfect sandwich prepared by well-paid employees, he neglected to mention how much he paid for the happy experience: Zingerman's Reuben costs $14. That's about three times as much as a Subway foot-long. When I was an undergraduate student at Michigan, I rarely dined at Zingerman's because it was so expensive.

If every deli could charge $14 a sandwich, then perhaps an $11 or $12 minimum wage would be feasible. But your local sandwich shop cannot match the price points of a shop serving a parent-subsidized clientele in a college town. Expecting restaurants everywhere to do so is a recipe for business failure.

Actually, the prices at Subway have gone up a fair amount in recent days and you can only get a $5 footlong when they have a sale going. But Saltsman is correct concerning the prices at Zingerman's. But it looks like they throw in a pickle, so that's something. But if you want chips and a drink, you're looking at about $20 a head. So a family of four wanting a quick lunch? $80, maybe more. I suppose some families can swing that, but I'd imagine that most people can't. I certainly can't, at least not very often.

And Saltsman makes an equally good point about pricing:

The president seems oblivious to pricing pressures that exist outside of high-end restaurant concepts in tony metropolitan areas. Labor Secretary Tom Perez's March visit to a Shake Shack in Washington, D.C.—again, to promote the company's above-minimum starting wage—was typical. While praising the restaurant's wage structure, Mr. Perez did not mention that the least-expensive double cheeseburger on the menu sells for $6.90, or more than 40% more than a Double Quarter Pounder at the McDonald's nearby.

If McDonald's could raise burger prices by 40% without losing customers, it would have done so already without input from Messrs. Obama and Perez. But customers are price sensitive. The same dilemma exists at restaurants, grocery stores and countless other service businesses across the country. If higher prices aren't an option for offsetting a wage hike, costs have to be reduced by eliminating jobs and other employment opportunities.

Emphasis mine. The Shake Shack's prices are closer to what you might see at a Champps or Red Robin, but if you're looking for a quick, inexpensive lunch, you're not going to be going to either of those places. And if you are looking at over $50 for lunch for four people every time you go out to eat, even at a McDonald's, you're not going to see as many people eating out, and those that do will decrease their frequency of doing so. So yes, some people will make more money, but if business is down you'll have less people working. Maybe that will work out well for everyone, but I kinda doubt it.

This post was written by Mark Heuring and originally published on Mr. Dilettante's Neighborhood.

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CC/Flickr/Dwayne Bent

Digital competition is forcing both new and traditional news outlets to move in the direction of quantity over quality.

I ran across a fascinating tell-all article recently by a journalist, detailing her experience writing for an online news site covering the tech business. 

It basically affirms every fear an intelligent news consumer could have about the online news business. In Bekah Grant’s description of her two years reporting for VentureBeat, speed was the one and only goal that mattered.

“When a story breaks, you could take a couple hours to do research, call to sources, and write a contextualized, edited piece — but by that time, five of your competitors will have posted on the story,” she wrote. “You will look slow and readers will have moved onto the next thing. The reality is that original reporting and careful editing fall by the wayside in the desire to be fast.” [emphasis added]

When I was a newspaper reporter, I was proud of being a consistent 200-bylines-a-year guy. That basically meant I averaged around a story a day – pretty good production, considering that a reporter’s year always includes a bunch of stories that take days or even weeks to report and write. Grant wrote 1,740 stories in 20 months at VentureBeat, or roughly five per day.

And they weren’t often stories that will live in the annals of journalism.

World of Miley Cyrus and cat videos

“In a perfect world, important stories would attract the most pageviews, but that is not the world we live in,” Grant wrote. “Miley Cyrus and cat videos get more pageviews than stories about homelessness or healthcare. To write the stories you want, you have to feed the machine. And the machine likes junk food.”

Grant’s experience doesn’t speak for every online journalist, of course. Many online news sites – like this one – provide their readers with thoroughly reported, carefully edited stories. And Grant’s beat – technology news – is one of the most competitive. When you’re reporting on the geek world, you have to move as quickly as the geeks do.

But digital competition is forcing traditional news outlets to move in the same direction. Newspapers across the nation have slashed their editing ranks deeply. Stories that used to be passed through the hands of three, four or five editors now are vetted by one – or none. And many traditional news outlets, like the (Portland) Oregonian, are demanding that their reporters post multiple news items a day, piecing together a story bit by bit rather than waiting until they’ve collected all the information. The Oregonian is requiring beat reporters to post at least three times a day to the paper’s website, and reporters’ pay will be tied in part to how many pageviews their stories get.

You can see where this is going. But I’ll leave the final word to Matthew Bidwell, a management professor at Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania’s graduate business school. Bidwell noted that quotas are an employer’s way of telling employees what they want from them.

“In the case of The Oregonian, employers want a greater quantity of journalism,” Bidwell told the Knowledge@Wharton blog. “They’ll get it; but the quality will likely go down. You get what you pay for.” 

Creative Commons/James Benninger

Although compassionate behavior is linked to better health and wellbeing in old age, little is known about why some older people are more compassionate than others.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, decided to investigate that issue. They surveyed a randomly chosen group of more than 1,000 older adults (aged 50 to 99) living in San Diego County.

They found that three factors were most predictive of an individual’s level of compassion: gender, a recent experience of personal loss (such as a death in the family) and high mental resiliency.

Compassion, by the way, is not the same as empathy. A compassionate person has empathy for the suffering of another and a desire to help ease that suffering.

Women first

Gender was identified in the study as the strongest compassion-associated factor, with women reporting higher levels of compassion than men. This finding isn’t all that surprising given that other studies have found that younger women also tend to be more compassionate than their male peers. Still, it hadn’t been clear that this characteristic persisted into old age.

“Viewing oneself as caring and nurturing is important to many women’s self-concept and fits societal norms; however, many older women have spent a lifetime caring for others and some may experience burnout, which could reduce their reported compassion levels,” explain the current study’s authors.

But that doesn’t appear to happen.

The strong gender difference revealed among the older women in the study suggests, say the researchers, “that the life experiences of women either bolster or maintain levels of compassion.”

‘Paying it forward’

Of course, many men are compassionate, too. Among both the older women and men in this study, the most compassionate individuals were those who had experienced a significant loss or hardship within the previous year, such as a serious illness, a death of a loved one, a job loss or a divorce.

This was somewhat surprising. “One could imagine that those who are currently experiencing stress, depression, and anxiety may be overwhelmed with these personal difficulties and unable to devote resources to caring about the well-being of others,” write the researchers.

But, again, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

“Our findings suggest that when a person has experienced significant life events over the past year … they are also likely to report a desire to provide support to others,” the researchers said. “The relationship we found with stressful life events may be driven by heightened awareness for the potential for suffering in others or could be a reaction to the compassion in others (or lack thereof) that the older adult received following these life events. Those who received adequate help might be motivated to ‘pay it forward’ and/or might feel more equipped to give effective assistance after seeing what did or did not help them cope with their own negative events.”

An ability to ‘bounce back’

The third factor — mental resiliency — was also found among both genders to be strongly associated with a willingness to help others. Mental resiliency is defined in the study as an “ability to bounce back after experiencing significant life events and/or adversity.”

“It may be that people who are themselves adept at overcoming hardships report more willingness to assist others because they predict a tangible benefit from doing so on the basis of their own experience,” write the researchers.

The study found no association between people’s level of compassion and race/ethnicity, education or socio-economic status. The latter is particularly surprising given that so much other research has found that, at least among younger adults, people on the lower end of the socio-economic ladder exhibit greater compassion toward others. Indeed, the poorest fifth of U.S. households donate the largest percentage of their income to charity.

The authors of the current study speculate that the fact that this association did not appear in their study may be because the current income of older adults is not a “proxy for lifetime economic hardship.”

Learning resiliency

The finding of a connection between mental resiliency and compassion among older adults is important, say the study’s authors, because such resiliency can be cultivated through meditation, mindfulness and stress-reduction practices.

“We are interested in anything that can help people age more successfully,” said Lisa Eyler, a clinical psychologist and the study’s lead author, in a released statement. “We know that social connections are important to health and wellbeing, and we know that people who want to be kind to others garner greater social support. If we can foster compassion in people, we can improve their health and wellbeing, and maybe even longevity.”

This study has its limitations, of course. Most notably, it relied on the participants’ own reporting of their attitudes and behaviors. Future research, say the authors of this study, would benefit by also including assessments of the participants’ compassion by family members or close friends.

The study was published in the April issue of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week signed into law a bill adding New York, with its 31 electoral votes, to the list of states that promise to support for president whichever candidate wins the most popular votes nationwide.

That brings to 165 the number of electoral votes that are thus pledged to change the Electoral College system, without amending the Constitution. The pledges don't take effect until enough electoral votes are lined up to guarantee a winner. It takes 270 electoral votes to guarantee election of a president so the California action gets the idea 61 percent of the way there.

Regular readers of this space know about this initiative, organized by a group called National Popular Vote. I've written about it before, most recently here  (and that piece will also get you some of the chief arguments pro and con). California, the biggest electoral vote prize, is already on board. New York is the third biggest (Texas, where the law has not passed) is second. A bill to add Minnesota to the list of states has been introduced in recent sessions, including the current one, but it has received no action this year.

I assume the sledding will get tougher if the idea gets closer to realization. The list of states that have passed the bill is dominated by blue states, but the support does not break down along strictly partisan lines. The Senate in the bright red state of Oklahoma recently passed the law, with almost half of Senate Republicans supporting it. Other than the fact that the last president to be elected while losing the popular vote (George W. Bush in 2000) it's not that clear to me why this should be a partisan issue.

Although New York is a solid blue state in presidential elections, the National Poupular Vote plan passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both houses. (The New York Senate passed it by 57-4 with 30 Dems and 27 Repubs in favor and two Dems and two Repubs opposed). In Minnesota, it has support from legislators of both parties but so far not enough to get it passed.

I favor the proposal mildly and have no idea whether it has a chance of becoming law. My feeling is simply that it's bad for democracy to have a system in which the popular vote winner can lose, as has happened four times in our history. But I admit I'm also bothered by the absurdity of an election system in which 40 or so of the 50 states are ignored by the presidential campaigns because they are considered to be in the bag for one party or the other while most campaign resources (let's say advertising dollars, campaign staff and candidate visits) are focused on the relative few that have been found by polling to be "in play."

I can't see what's so great about a system in which the "swing state" quirk is so powerful. Other than the owners of TV stations in Ohio and Florida, I'm not sure who benefits from this weird quality.

National Popular Vote recently analyzed this weirdness by tracking the campaign visits by the presidential and vice presidential candidates in the final campaign period between the conventions and Election Day. Big surprise: 38 states got zero visits. Ohio got 73. Florida got 40; Virginia 36; Iowa 27.

Minnesota got one, from Paul Ryan. The full map showing the visits is here.