Minnesota job openings up 15%

This reads like good news. The Forum papers’ story says: “Job vacancies in Minnesota climbed 15.1 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared with the same period a year ago, according to figures released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). Employers reported nearly 63,000 openings during the quarter, up from 54,700 openings during the same period in 2011. Statewide, there were 2.6 unemployed people for each vacancy, compared with 3.6 unemployed people per vacancy during last year’s second quarter. ‘Job vacancies in the state have returned to levels that we haven’t seen since before the Great Recession,’, said DEED Commissioner Mark Phillips. ‘While finding work remains difficult for many people, the latest survey is a positive sign that the labor market is recovering.’ ” … But then there’s this … “Among other findings of the study:
• Forty-two percent of the openings were for part-time jobs (fewer than 35 hours per week).
• Nineteen percent were for temporary or seasonal work.
• Forty-four percent required some level of post-secondary education or training beyond a high school degree.
• Forty percent required related work experience.
• The median wage offer was $11.06 per hour.
• Fifty-five percent offered health insurance.”

Speaking of “lavish” pay … The AP reports: “A Republican-led legislative panel has rejected new contracts for more than 27,000 Minnesota state employees. The Subcommittee on Employee Relations voted 6-4 on Thursday to reject the two-year contracts for the two largest state employee unions. Union members packed into a hearing room at the Capitol booed and jeered the vote. Republicans were unhappy that the contracts called for a 2 percent pay raise for state employees starting in January, and questioned whether health benefits were too generous.” Those unions really need to get down to $11.06 an hour.  

The new school ratings released today should be more informative, say Christopher Magan and MaryJo Webster at the PiPress: “Instead of labeling schools as failing, the focus turns to providing more complete data about student achievement so educators can work to turn around the most troubled schools. State education officials say the new Multiple Measurement Ratings, released Thursday, Aug. 30, will give teachers the information they need to cut the state’s achievement gap in half within six years. Minnesota has one of the largest gulfs in the nation between the achievement of poor or minority students and their white or more affluent counterparts. ‘The focus on achievement gaps has finally arrived,’ said Brenda Cassellius, the state education commissioner.”

At the Strib, Kara McGuire and Steve Brandt say: “All told, 213 schools are now labeled underperforming in some way, compared to more than 1,000 under No Child Left Behind. All are schools that receive federal Title I money to address higher levels of poverty. Those schools have to submit turnaround plans to the state, but unlike previous years, they no longer have to provide tutoring or transfers or face stricter penalties. … Statewide, minority and poor students and those learning English showed better academic growth in math scores in 2012 compared with 2011. The new data, however, indicate that Minnesota schools aren’t closing the achievement gap in reading.”

To no one’s surprise, Tim Pugmire at MPR reports that legal challenges to the voting amendment — if passed in November — could carry on for years. “Supporters and opponents of the proposed requirement that all Minnesotans show photo identification at the polls say those potential lawsuits will only come if voters approve the amendment on Election Day. … Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, said he thinks there could still be a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Minnesota’s voter ID amendment once an election is held under the new requirements and once a voter gets turned away. ‘Their argument in the Indiana case was quite simple: ‘If you want to sue, bring us somebody who’s damaged, who’s been injured by this. They can sue. But if you haven’t been injured by this bill, you can’t sue,’  Samuelson said. ‘That’s the federal position in the Crawford case. So, that’s going to require the election to be held and somebody to be disenfranchised.’ ” And who will pay for all this litigation?
                                           
Thanks to Sally Jo Sorensen of Bluestem Prairie for tipping me to this one. Richard Crawford at The Chanhassen Villager writes: “At a meeting open to the public last week at a Waconia senior facility, [GOP Rep. Ernie] Leidiger admits to ‘standing up and challenging’ members of the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Eastern Carver County over their presentation on the voter/photo ID constitutional amendment. LWV members’ assessment of Leidiger’s behavior wasn’t so kind. LWV members said Leidiger was ‘uncivil,’ loud and interrupted the presentation to about 25 people at Westview Acres. ‘He was loud, boisterous, argumentative and bullying,’ said Glenda Noble, an LWV member who helped arrange the presentation. ‘His manner and tone was not appropriate. We were guests in a facility that houses older people. The public is welcome, but we expect them to behave.’ … ‘What I heard was astounding,’ Leidiger said. ‘It was nothing but fear-mongering, lies, distortions, and made-up scenarios to frighten the elderly to vote against the amendment.’ … ‘the League appears to be nothing but a bunch of lap-dogs for (Secretary of State) Mark Ritchie and the Democrats. They are pathetic partisan hacks.’ ” … to put it civilly.

Given the past couple of years, it’s hard to believe our great and glorious neighbors to the east have a shortage of you-know-what to sling. At The Huffington Post, Carrie Antlfinger reports: “It’s very seldom someone talks about the quality and amount of cow dung, but in one southern Wisconsin city that’s all they’ve been talking about lately. The drought has caused a shortage of flattened, dried cow manure – or cow chips – for the Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw and Festival, which attracts about 300 throwers and 40,000 spectators to Prairie du Sac, Wis. ‘This is my 24th throw, and it’s never been this difficult to find chips,’ said Marietta Reuter, who helps organize the festival that runs Friday and Saturday. … The men’s record was set in 1991 at 248 feet. The woman’s record is from 2005 at 157.5 feet, Reuter said. The festival will give the top finishers $200 each toward a trip to the World Championship Cow Chip Throw in Beaver, Okla., should they decide to go, Slotty said.” First prize is a trip to Oklahoma? What’s second prize?

A “re-hearing,” you say? Abby Simons of the Strib reports: “The judge who denied Amy Senser’s request to stay out of prison during her appeal must explain that decision, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ordered this week, sending that issue back to Hennepin County district court for a re-hearing. The order filed Tuesday says that District Judge Daniel Mabley ‘summarily’ denied a motion by Senser’s attorney that she remain free while she appeals her conviction of two counts of criminal vehicular homicide. Senser has been incarcerated since July 9, when she was sentenced to 41 months in prison for the hit-and-run death of Anousone Phanthavong.”

And with a smaller carbon footprint … Mary Divine of the PiPress says: “The unofficial results from the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah are in, and it looks like Kevin Clemens has set a new world record for electric motorcycles. Clemens, who lives in Lake Elmo, hit 78.4 mph on Tuesday, Aug. 28. … Last year, Clemens set the national land-speed record for electric motorcycles — 61.538 mph — at Bonneville. … ‘Riding across the salt flats on a racing motorcycle is different from almost any other experience,’ he wrote. ‘Almost nowhere else on the planet can you place your body on your motorcycle in a deep aerodynamic tuck, put your helmet down so that you are peeking over the handlebars, and twist the throttle wide open for 5 or 10 continuous miles. The salt surface rushes past beneath your wheels, with an electric motorcycle you hear only wind noise and the crunching of the salt surface, and all too quickly it is over. The feeling is both satisfying and exhilarating, and most people who experience it once can’t resist coming back year after year for more.’ ” I beat that in a rental car one time. But that’s a whole different story.