December 7-11, 2013
Dec 07 09:10 California doctors rejecting California's HIX Dec 08 09:24 MnSure, ACA costs more, limits options Dec 08 17:21 Ravens defeat Vikings with wild finish Dec 08 23:44 SCSU football referendum passes, results pending Dec 09 11:39 SCTCC vs. SCSU Dec 09 14:20 Respectfully disagreeing with 'Wobbie' Dec 10 00:20 Will Potter attend Meet and Confer? Dec 11 08:19 SC Times questions SCSU investigation Dec 11 18:43 Al Franken voted for this disaster
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Will Potter attend Meet and Confer?
Will President Potter Be at Meet and Confer? NOT Likely!
by Silence Dogood
The Master Agreement is the contract negotiated "between the Board of Trustees, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, hereinafter called the Employer, and the Inter Faculty Organization, hereinafter called the IFO." The Master Agreement defines the working relationship between the Employer and the IFO. In some cases, it seems like the Master Agreement takes some things to almost a level of absurdity. However, when lawyers get involved, this level of specificity in advance is generally helpful.
Article 6 of the Master Agreement states that "The Association may establish a local committee to meet and confer with the President, or when the President is not on campus, his/her designees, at least monthly for the purpose of discussing matters of mutual concern." It is important to recognize that meet and confer is not something that is optional; the contract requires meetings, which occur at least monthly.
Article 5 of the Master Agreement gives the definitions for forty-nine different terms. One of the definitions listed is for a Presidential Designee.
"Subd. 33. Presidential Designee.
Whenever allowed by this Agreement, the use of a designee by the President shall in no way abrogate the responsibility and accountability of the President for the decisions made by the designee. Within thirty days of signing this Agreement, each President will furnish the IFO and the local Association a list of his/her appropriate designees. A President may revise his/her list of designees after the Association has been provided an opportunity to meet and confer in accordance with Article 6. In the event of a new President being appointed, he/she will submit a list of designees within thirty (30) days of assuming office. No member of the bargaining unit shall be a presidential designee."
The current Master Agreement was signed by Governor Dayton on May 24, 2013. As of today, President Potter has not furnished the IFO and the local Association a list of his appropriate designees. Personally, I think that it is extremely unlikely that the President would appoint someone other than Provost Malhotra as his designee but this is something that is somewhat important because President Potter only infrequently attends Meet and Confer. The reason why this is important may be because any time the President is not present at Meet and Confer and no designee has been named, it might not qualify as an 'official' meet and confer. This might be where lawyers might need to get involved when what appears to be fairly straightforward language is not followed. Provost Malhotra has attended all of the meet and confer sessions when the President was not in attendance and it is almost certain that the President would designate the Provost as his designee if he was aware of the requirement to designate.
For the 2012/13 academic year, President Potter attended three out of eleven meet and confer meetings for an attendance rate of 27.3%.
Date Attendance
8/2/2012 President Potter did not attend
8/30/2012 President Potter attended
9/13/2012 President Potter did not attend
9/27/2012 President Potter did not attend
10/18/2012 President Potter did not attend
11/1/2012 President Potter did not attend
11/29/2012 President Potter did not attend
1/17/2013 President Potter did not attend
2/21/2013 President Potter did not attend
3/28/2013 President Potter attended
5/2/2013 President Potter attended
For the 2013/2014 academic year, President Potter attended one out of three meet and confer meetings for an attendance rate of 33.3%.
9/5/2013 President Potter attended
10/9/2013 President Potter did not attend
11/26/2013 President Potter did not attend
12/12/2013 ?
It is important to understand that the schedule for meet and confer is agreed to in April of the prior academic year and dates are selected that fit into the President's schedule. What is reflected by the glaring absence of President Potter at Meet and Confer demonstrates a devaluing and marginalizing of the Faculty Association. Certainly, schedules change all the time and emergences do arise. However, consider the most recent Meet and Confer on November 26, 2013. President Potter did not attend and no reason was given either in advance or at Meet and Confer for his absence. It is also important to note that the date for the Meet and Confer was changed to that date because the President was going to be out of town for the originally scheduled date.
On November 27, 2013, the President sent an email to all university employees informing everyone: "For the next three days, I will be working with the Starkey Hearing Foundation in Gulin, China to fit approximately 800 hearing aids to recipients who desperately need this care." While this may be a very worthwhile activity, it is hard to imagine that this actually constitutes university business. Thus, without any notification beforehand, the President chose to miss a meet and confer that had been rescheduled to accommodate his schedule.
Why is this important? At Minnesota State University Mankato, Meet and Confer does not occur without the President being present. The reason for this is that President Richard Davenport has a very different relationship with the faculty at MSUM. There appears to be a true sense of shared governance and mutual respect between the faculty and the administration. It is also interesting to note that Bemidji and Moorhead will not hold Meet and Confer without the President in attendance. In fact, the President announced with only one-day notice that she would not be present at Meet and Confer and the Faculty Association decided to cancel meet and confer. Southwest, Winona, and Metro will hold Meet and Confer if the President is absent but that it happens only rarely - typically less than once per semester.
So, back to the initial question. Will President Potter be at Meet and Confer on December 12th? Based on the data over the past year and a half, the answer is: not likely. And if he can't find something that takes him off campus so he can avoid Meet and Confer, his body language will likely display his displeasure at having to meet with the leadership of the faculty association.
So much for shared governance.
Posted Tuesday, December 10, 2013 9:16 AM
No comments.
MnSure, ACA costs more, limits options
Jay Kolls' investigative report for KSTP highlights MnSure's and the Affordable Care Act's shortcomings:
Jennifer Slafter, and her family, are a good example of a set of circumstances making it tough for some to get the help they need through the state's new health insurance exchange program known as MNsure.
Slafter along with her husband and two daughters found out their health insurance premiums were going up about 40 percent in 2014. Slafter's husband was told by the owner of the small company where he works that Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) from the employer would no longer be allowed under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) because the company did not offer a health insurance plan to its employees.
Faced with a higher deductible and a much higher monthly premium, Slafter says she went to the MNsure website hoping to find a cheaper, or comparable health plan for the family.
Slafter tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS she was told her options would amount to a much higher premium and higher deductible than the plan they already have.
Slafter says she called MNsure to see if those were the only options and she says she was told the only cheaper alternative was to put her and her husband on a private plan and shift their two daughters to a Medicaid plan. Slafter does not want to split the family up with different coverage.
The Slafters had a plan that worked well for their family's needs. When the ACA was inplemented, their premiums jumped 40%. That's quite the sticker shock. Unfortunately, that isn't the full extent of their difficulties:
She adds, Fillmore County officials told her there are no Medicaid medical providers in her county, which means they would have to travel much farther to get their children the medical care they need and probably not with the doctor they currently use.
I'm curious how many other rural families are experiencing similar situations. How many rural Minnesota families are getting pushed into higher premiums rather than losing their doctors. How many rural families were told that their children would lose their doctor if they chose Medicaid plans.
Here's the video of the Slafter's story:
Posted Sunday, December 8, 2013 9:24 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 08-Dec-13 12:52 PM
Gary:
A perfect example of the lie the democrats are claiming okay prices might be up, but you're getting better coverage which is why this bill is still a good thing to keep in place.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by Sean at 08-Dec-13 08:47 PM
Kolls's story is incomplete. The 40% increase in premiums does not take into account the subsidy (if the family is Medicaid eligible, their out-of-pocket is almost certainly going to decline sharply over where they are at today). It appears (due to a Twitter exchange I had with Kolls on this topic) that this family was one of those that triggered the recent review of subsidy calculations for some folks who had applied with MNSure.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 09-Dec-13 06:12 AM
The 40% increase in premiums is still highly relevant because a) the family had less expensive rates prior to the ACA's implementation, b) they were paying their lower premiums without government help and c) the subsidy isn't paid by Gov. Dayton snapping his fingers. It's paid by taxpayers, which they weren't paying before.
Finally, having children moved onto Medicaid means, in this instance, that the family would have to travel a long distance to get their children treated. MnSure/ACA isn't helping Minnesotans. Medicaid is second class health care. That's why it's known as the insurance of last resort.
Comment 3 by Chad Q at 09-Dec-13 11:04 AM
In Sean's world, being able to stay on your current plan that keeps everyone in the family under the same plan and paying lower premiums is stupid when you can go on ACA, pay higher premiums but get a taxpayer subsidy and break up the family coverage. Genius! Just another example at how the liberals are breaking up the American family through government programs.
California doctors rejecting California's HIX
This Examiner article highlights how unpopular California's health insurance exchange is:
An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange and won't participate, the head of the state's largest medical association said.
Here's why they're rejecting California's exchange:
California offers one of the lowest government reimbursement rates in the country, 30 percent lower than federal Medicare payments. And reimbursement rates for some procedures are even lower. In other states, Medicare pays doctors $76 for return-office visits. But in California, Medi-Cal's reimbursement is $24, according to Dr. Theodore M. Mazer, a San Diego ear, nose and throat doctor.
In other states, doctors receive between $500 to $700 to perform a tonsillectomy. In California, they get $160, Mazer added.
Only in September did insurance companies disclose that their rates would be pegged to California's Medicaid plan, called Medi-Cal. That's driven many doctors to just say no.
Something significant is happening. California's exchange is creating a network of physicians and specialists who won't participate in the exchange. Eventually, California's laws will have to change because these exchanges can't work without doctors, which is already happening.
Further, Medi-Cal's re-imbursement rates need to improve. Unfortunately, California's financial situation, putting it charitably, is a basket case. There's little question that Medi-Cal is giving Californians another excuse to abandon California. This information is disturbing:
They're also pointing out that Covered California's website lists many doctors as participants when they aren't. 'Some physicians have been put in the network and they were included basically without their permission,' Lisa Folberg said. She is a CMA's vice president of medical and regulatory Policy. 'They may be listed as actually participating, but not of their own volition,' said Donald Waters, executive director of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association.
Waters' group represents 3,100 doctors in the East Bay area that includes Oakland, with an estimated 200,000 uninsured individuals.
'This is a dirty little secret that is not really talked about as they promote Covered California,' Waters said. He called the exchange's doctors list a 'shell game' because 'the vast majority' of his doctors are not participating.
Why is this exchange listing doctors as participating in the exchange when they aren't? I'll speculate that it's done intentionally because the exchange can't admit that it's a failure. Admitting that 70% of doctors aren't participating in the exchange would demolish the exchange's credibility.
Posted Saturday, December 7, 2013 9:10 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 07-Dec-13 11:43 AM
Gary to sum it up, "the government can say you have health insurance now, but good luck finding a doctor or hospital for that insurance."
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Ravens defeat Vikings with wild finish
To say that today's Baltimore-Vikings game was exciting is understatement. For the last 2 minutes and 30 seconds, Baltimore and the Vikings scored at a clip that made the Missouri-Auburn SEC Championship Game look like they were standing still. Here's the box score ...of the final 2 minutes:
2:05 Bal TD Joe Flacco passed to Dennis Pitta to the left for 1 yard gain (2pt attempt converted, Joe Flacco pass to Torrey Smith)MIN 12 - BAL 15
1:27 Min TD Toby Gerhart rushed up the middle for 41 yard gain (Blair Walsh made PAT)MIN 19 - BAL 15
1:16 Bal TD Minnesota kicked off, Jacoby Jones returned kickoff for 77 yards (Justin Tucker made PAT)MIN 19 - BAL 22
0:45 Min TD Matt Cassel passed to Cordarrelle Patterson to the right for 79 yard gain (Blair Walsh made PAT)MIN 26 - BAL 22
0:04 Bal TD Joe Flacco passed to Marlon Brown down the middle for 9 yard gain MIN 26 - BAL 28
Congratulations to the Ravens. They kept their composure throughout the game. Their offense sputtered most of the game. They came alive at the right time.
Congratulations to the Vikings for not throwing in the towel...ever. They could've done that but they didn't. They're now 3-9-1. Today, the Vikings played with the urgency of a team fighting for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. What's becoming totally apparent to Vikings fans is that Cordarrelle Patterson is a beast. His toughness, his running ability, his physical play and his ability to either outrun opponents or to make them miss makes it likely that he'll be the next dominant receiver in the NFL. (Follow this link to watch Patterson's TD catch and run. CP, as his coaches call him, has now scored twice on pass receptions, twice on kickoff returns and once as a runner lined up in the backfield.
Saying CP is special is understatement by orders of magnitude.
It's apparent that Xavier Rhodes is turning into a shutdown corner. Today, he took Torrey Smith away from Joe Flacco until he got injured late in the game. It isn't coincidence that Baltimore's passing attack took off immediately after that.
Matt Cassel played well considering the field conditions, too. He finished 17-for-38 with 265 yards passing with 2 TD passes and no interceptions thrown or sacks.
The only thing the Vikings are missing is a franchise QB. Their defense needs to be restocked but it's manageable. Mostly, they need a QB who can take them to the next level. With Adrian Peterson and Cordarrelle Patterson in important skilled positions, the Vikings have some gamechangers.
Posted Sunday, December 8, 2013 5:21 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 10-Dec-13 09:23 PM
Gary:
No offense I don't think the Ravens deserve congratulations. They were kept in the game for the first 58 minutes when the refs gave them the ball deep in Vikings territory on a fumble rule which the Ravens didn't expect since their defense came back on to the field after they saw the replay.
And lets not forget the only reason why Matt C wasn't in victory formation was the refs gave the Ravens a phony pass interference penalty on a play where the Raven clearly slipped.
The only words that might apply to the Ravens are "Lucky" or "Awarded"
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
SCSU football referendum passes, results pending
According to this statement , the results of the referendum on whether to continue the student fees to fund the Huskey Athletics program are waiting to be verified:
Results from the Dec. 2-4 student elections will not be released, pending a review by Student Government's judicial committee, according to Courtney Downing, Student Government elections chair. Voting tallies from a Husky Athletics funding referendum, a restoration of Homecoming referendum and the election of 12 senators were to have been released at a Dec. 5 Student Government meeting. They are now expected Dec. 12. To maintain the integrity of the review, causes for the review will not be released. "This is a learning community," said Adam Hammer, director media relations and publications. "Student organizations help our students learn how to be part of a representative democracy."
The Husky Athletics bill (PDF) asked students to approve a student-fee allocation that could provide Husky Athletics about $495,000 per year for four years, beginning July 1. That figure could vary with enrollment.
Approval would keep the Student Athletic Fee at $4.58 per credit, up to 12 credits each semester. Rejection would reduce the fee to $2.84 per credit, the lowest rate of student support for intercollegiate athletics among four-year schools in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. Since 2011, the $1.74 per-credit difference has helped Husky Athletics balance its budget and avoid using cash reserves, according to the text of the bill.
If both Homecoming bill questions are approved, the referendum would encourage St. Cloud State officials to rename the fall Celebrate! St. Cloud State event Homecoming Week. It would also encourage University officials to discontinue the spring and summer Celebrate! St. Cloud State events in favor of a winter Spirit Week, focused on men's and women's Husky Hockey. In 2011, St. Cloud State replaced Homecoming Week with a fall, winter, spring and summer Celebrate! St. Cloud State events. A previous student referendum, in 2012, encouraged the University to reinstate Homecoming.
That statement tells quite a story. For whatever reason, the results of the student fee referendum won't be released until the Student Government's judicial committee is completed. That's quite a bit different than this statement:
According to that statement, the outcome has been determined even though they haven't tabulated the votes. In the initial statement, the Potter administration announced that the results wouldn't be released until Student Government's judicial committee reviewed the ballots.
It's confusing to see the Potter administration issue an official statement saying that the results wouldn't be known until the Student Government reviewed the ballots, then see another official-looking statement saying that the students had approved extending the student fees providing funding for the Athletic Department.
Here's a suggestion for the administration. It's probably best to just wait until the Student Government reviews the ballots. If the review doesn't yield the results that the administration announced, they'd look incompetent.
Posted Sunday, December 8, 2013 11:44 PM
No comments.
SCTCC vs. SCSU
Is St. Cloud Technical and Community College a Competitor to SCSU?
by Silence Dogood
According to Google Maps, St. Cloud Technical and Community College (SCTCC) is located 2.8 miles North of SCSU with a driving time of seven minutes. For students, it might take considerably longer to find a legal parking space at SCSU even if you park in "K Lot" to the South of campus and ride the Husky Shuttle. But let's leave parking issues for another time. The question to be answered is: Does SCTCC compete for students with SCSU?
Historically, SCTCC was called St. Cloud Technical College. It was a place where you went to learn plumbing, surveying, construction, dental hygiene and other "technical skills." Since there was no community college nearby St. Cloud, SCSU's Division of General Studies (DGS) functioned as a community college within the university and provided access to higher education for students who did not meet the admission standards to the university. Back in the 1980s, the DGS program was quite successful and the five-year graduation rate for the DGS program was actually higher than that of the students who matriculated normally.
The next series of events is somewhat less clear, at least inferring cause and effect is not certain. Whether it was a result of budgets being cut, the loss of services for DGS students, declines in the academic abilities of the entering DGS students, a devaluing of the DGS program, the loss of key faculty and staff in the program through retirement, the success of the DGS program entered a state of decline. Recent efforts, beginning with renaming the program Academic College Excellence (ACE), are attempting to reverse the trend.
In the Spring of 2011, the Enrollment Management Committee projected a decline in the enrollment for the upcoming fall semester. The prediction of an enrollment decline came after six straight years of increasing enrollment and was based on the uncertainty surrounding academic reorganization, elimination of over 30 programs/majors and significant cuts in the budget. Provost Malhotra did not like the level of the decline projected by the Enrollment Management Committee and he decreased the projected level of the decline. Also, without consultation with the Enrollment Management Committee or the Faculty Association through meet and confer, in an apparent attempt to increase enrollment, Provost Malhotra increased the size of the incoming DGS program from its then current level of about 500 students to 850 students!
Fast forward to Fall 2013, on September 5th, the Provost announced at meet and confer that he has cut the number of the incoming students in the ACE program by 160 students because these students are not successful at SCSU and the university is unwilling to spend the additional funding necessary to provide the services necessary for these students to be successful. In essence, he said come back when you are better prepared. The Provost said it in nicer words: "we may see these students in the future."
Where are the students denied entry to SCSU going? Are they ending up at SCTCC? Is SCSU losing a significant number of students to SCTCC? An examination of enrollment at SCSU and SCTCC can answer these questions. The FYE enrollment for SCTCC taken from the MnSCU website is shown in the following figure:
From FY07 to FY13, enrollment at SCTCC increased 711 FYE from 2,782 to 3,493, that's an increase of 25.6%. Dividing by 6 yields an average annual percentage increase of 4.27%. Not too bad! If you only look at the growth from FY07 to FY11, it is an even more impressive 31.9%, which yields an average annual percentage increase of 7.96%. Clearly, from FY11 to FY12 enrollment dropped by 6.03% but rebounded in FY13 gaining 1.33% over the enrollment in FY12. How does this compare to the enrollments at SCSU? The FYE enrollment for SCSU taken from the MnSCU website is shown in the following figure:
From FY07 to FY10 the two school's enrollment trends look remarkably similar in their pattern of growth. In FY11, the enrollment at SCTCC continued rising but the enrollment at SCSU dropped by a small amount 0.8%. Both SCTCC and SCSU experienced declines in enrollment in FY12, 6.92% for SCSU and 6.03% for SCTCC. However, here is where the similarity ends. In FY13, the enrollment at SCSU continued the downward trend and decreased by 6.35% while SCTC rebounded and increased enrollment by 1.33%. To answer the question are students moving from SCSU to SCTCC can be answered by looking at the following Figure which compares the enrollments for both SCSU and SCTCC on the same graph:
Viewed in this way it is clear that students have not moved in large numbers from SCSU to SCTCC. Quite simply, the number of students SCSU is 'losing' is far greater than the number of students gained by SCTCC.
Looking at the data for Fall 2013, SCSU's enrollment is down another 5.5% while again enrollment at SCTCC has risen 3.4%. So it is clear that SCTCC and SCSU are on very different paths! This fall SCSU has lost over 350 FYE but SCTCC has only gained 55 FYE. As a percentage, even if 100% of the students gained by SCTCC this fall came from SCSU that would mean that at most only 15.7% of SCSU's decline is due to SCTCC. In other words 84.3% must be due to something else! However, it is unlikely that 100% of the students not admitted to the ACE program enrolled at SCTCC so clearly the vast majority of the decline in enrollment at SCSU is not due to SCTCC!
SCSU has just completed interviewing candidates for the Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Student Recruitment and Student Transition and an announcement naming the successful candidate should be made soon. Hopefully, this person can come in and get started helping to reverse SCSU's present course. Otherwise, it might be like being hired as the new band director for the Titanic - after the ship hit the iceberg and we all know how well that turned out.
Posted Monday, December 9, 2013 11:39 AM
No comments.
Respectfully disagreeing with 'Wobbie'
One of my favorite Vikings writers is Mike Wobschall. His Monday Morning Mailbag report is essential reading for all Vikings fanatics. For quite awhile, there's been a debate raging amongst Vikings fans on whether to win as many games as possible each year or whether to tank and get a franchise QB. This Q & A from this morning's MMMB tees things up perfectly:
Q: After a rough start to the year, I was hoping to get the best draft picks, which unfortunately means losing. Watching the way we are playing right now, it is impossible to hope for losses. Adrian Peterson's strong finish last week that willed us to that win set the tone for everyone in the organization. It was also great to see Matt Cassel's fire and leadership today, as well as improved secondary play. You can't help but love the team dynamic that is showing up this late in the season, despite a tough year. Skol Vikes. -- Zach S.
A: One thing to consider on the topic of losing draft positioning with wins in a 'lost season' is that when you win games it means certain and various aspects of your team are performing well. Most likely, and in the Vikings case this season, those aspects that play well and thus help yield wins are going to be core members of the team in future years. You have to balance the value of having slightly higher picks with additional losses against having slightly worse picks with a few extra wins.
I'll take the wins every time, no questions asked.
This is where I disagree with Mike Wobschall from a theoretical standpoint. After yesterday's games, the Vikings likely won't get a Top-3 pick, which is what's needed to get a franchise QB or South Carolina DE Jadeveon Clowney.
Yesterday, Matt Cassel played ok for the first three quarters before lighting things up in the 4th quarter. He has an opt-out clause in his contract, which would allow him to become a free agent after the end of this season. I have nothing against Cassel. It's just clear that he isn't a long-term solution to the Vikings' QB problems.
There's nothing wrong with losing lots of games one season so you can get that long-term solution at QB. From a tactical standpoint, it's saying 'We won't win this year but we're setting ourselves up for Super Bowl runs for a decade.' That isn't surrender. It's a tactical retreat to regroup and restock.
The Vikings did that two seasons ago. Their reward was drafting Matt Kalil with the 4th overall pick, then using the pick they got from Cleveland to trade back into the first round and drafting Harrison Smith. They're Vikings cornerstones for the next decade, with Kalil anchoring the offensive line and Smith co-anchoring the secondary with Xavier Rhodes for the next 8-10 years.
Getting a franchise QB would be huge, especially in light of Cordarrelle Patterson's monster game yesterday. CP, as his teammates call him, is a total beast. He's big, athletic, fast and willing to dish out punishment to defensive backs. With a franchise QB, they could become annual threats to win a Super Bowl championship.
One QB who hasn't attracted much attention is San Jose State quarterback David Fales. CBSSports' Rob Rang sang his praises in t his article .
The Vikings will surely finish with a top-10 pick. That might be enough to get Fales, a QB that Rang describes as being able to make all the throws, is accurate, has good touch and awarenesss.
One thing that Mr. Wobschall and I agree on is that Rick Spielman is the right man making the draft day decisions. In the last 2 drafts, Spielman has picked 6 Pro Bowl-caliber players in Kalil, Harrison Smith, Blair Walsh, Sharif Floyd, Xavier Rhodes and Cordarrelle Patterson.
Spielman has put some impressive pieces of a championship puzzle together on this team. What they need is a QB who doesn't just manage games but a QB who wins games by putting the team on his back. That certainly isn't Christian Ponder. Long-term, that isn't Matt Cassel. Long-term, the solution might be David Fales.
Finally, the Vikings need a new head coach. As much as I respect Leslie Frazier as a man of integrity, he isn't the man to put a championship-caliber system together.
Posted Monday, December 9, 2013 2:20 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 10-Dec-13 09:19 PM
Gary:
One thing to keep in mind. Right now of three teams ahead of us you can make a case only two need a QB (Saint Louis who has Washington's pick and maybe Houston, but they might like their young QB). The biggest problem we might have is if a team behind the Vikings wants to try to trade up to get their dream QB. Depending upon how the season ends if Washington defeats Atlanta on Sunday that will help put us in a better position to get a dream QB.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
SC Times questions SCSU investigation
It's interesting that the St. Cloud Times is questioning the SCSU referendum investigation on its opinion page. Further, the Times apparently isn't curious about things the administration did. First, here's what they wrote about the investigation:
First, a recap based on news reports. Students voted Dec. 2-4 on a Husky athletics funding referendum, a restoration of Homecoming referendum and the election of 12 senators. Results were to have been released Dec. 5 at a Student Government meeting.
However, at that meeting, it was announced Student Government's judicial committee would review the results, and a 'professional investigation' was planned. Leaders refused to provide more details.
A news release the next day from St. Cloud State noted that 'to maintain the integrity of the review, causes for the review will not be released.' It also stated results are expected to be released Thursday.
In other words, the SC Times knew that the administration was, at least tangentially, interested in the results. Why, then, wasn't the Times interested in this press release:
If the Student Government hasn't explained why the investigation was launched, how can the administration insist it knows that the athletic department funding pass? After all, we've been officially told that this is a Student Government investigation. How would the SCSU PR Department, whether it's Adam Hammer or Loren Boone or someone else, have even a hint of what's happened?
When I wrote this post , I questioned the administration's posting of a different-looking press statement. In that statement, it was reported that the referendum passed "by a margin of XXXX to XX." The statement is titled "Students approve Husky Athletics funding." Apparently, the administration is semi-omniscient. They know students passed the Husky Athletics funding without seeing the ballots. They just don't know what the final count was.
What's interesting is that the Times' editorial board didn't question the administration's 'official statement'. In a situation shrouded in unknowns, shouldn't the Times attempt to find out why the administration issued this mock official statement? I'd want to know who authorized that statement. Further, I'd want to know why the administration is inserting itself into the middle of this investigation.
I don't doubt that that wasn't their intent. Imock statement after finding out that an investigation has started can't help but insert the administration into the story.
There are lots of questions to be answered on this, starting with finding out why the administration inserted itself into this situation.
Posted Wednesday, December 11, 2013 8:54 AM
No comments.
Al Franken voted for this disaster
One of my daily (really, it's more like several times a day) reads is Jim Hoft's Gatewaypundit blog. If you aren't already reading Jim's blog, you'd better start ASAP. This summer, Jim went through a horrific time healthwise. Thankfully, Jim had a health insurance policy that protected him from a financial disaster. Today, Jim learned that he's losing the health insurance policy that saved his life.
As a result of Jim's post asking for America's prayers, Rush Limbaugh picked up on Jim's post in this monologue :
There are people with cancer, one of them is Jim Hoft. Jim Hoft is at Gateway Pundit, and he's out of St. Louis. And he's got a post .
"Please Pray for Me: I Am Losing My Insurance -- In August 2013 I became very sick with what I thought was a cold. After a few days I lost vision in my left eye and I checked into the hospital. I soon found out that what I thought was a summer cold was actually Strep bacteria poisoning my blood stream. The bacteria blinded my left eye, ate a hole through my heart, caused five strokes on both sides of my brain and forced the removal of my prosthetic left knee.
"Dr. Lee was the surgeon assigned to perform open heart surgery. What was originally scheduled to last four hours ended up lasting twelve. My heart was severely damaged. Dr. Lee later told me the surgery was one of the most difficult of his career. He also said I only had a few days to live without the surgery. Thanks to the excellent insurance I carried I was able to receive life-saving medical treatment at St. Louis University.
"This week I found out I am going to lose my insurance. The company that carried me is leaving the Missouri market. I will have to find something else. I am one of the millions who will be looking for new insurance. God willing, I will be able to keep my doctors at St. Louis University. I trust them. They saved my life. Please pray for me and the millions of working Americans who are going through this same ordeal. Why is our government doing this to us?"
Rush wasn't done there:
I have, in the Health Care Stack, another story. "Cancer Patient: I'm Devastated Over Obamacare." It's by Joan Carrico, a registered nurse. "I had a lot of trouble early on. I didn't expect my insurance to be canceled, had numerous problems getting onto Healthcare.gov and gave up on the website. Since then, I have received assistance from an agent and a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan representative. I have been stressed and scrambling to find an affordable policy that will ensure that I keep my doctors, chemotherapy drugs, etc. that are literally keeping me alive.
"Over six years ago, I was in a position where I needed to choose an individual health-insurance policy. After much research I chose a Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO that I anticipated would be short term. My plan was to return to work as a registered nurse and be eligible for a group policy. But, for the first time in my life, I got really sick. I've been battling cancer and fighting for my life for the last six years. So much for my plans. I thank God that I am alive and am eternally grateful to Blue Cross Blue Shield and all my doctors, especially my doctors at University of Michigan (UM), who refer to me as their miracle patient."
She's losing hers, too. "What is our government doing to us? Why is our government doing this to us?" This is the root of Obama's problem. Not everybody has cancer, not everybody's losing their doctor and their trusted insurance policy and all that. But a lot of people are losing everything. They've already lost their jobs. Many of them don't really have any hope of getting a replacement job at replacement salaries, levels. And now after being promised for three years that they could keep their doctor, keep their insurance, they can't.
What's upsetting, besides the fact that people are losing very good health insurance policies, is when cheap politicians like Al Franken won't even return calls or emails from constituents who've contacted him about getting cancellation notices from the health insurance companies. I spoke with a legislator last night who had several of his constituents tell him about Sen. Franken's shoddy constituent services work on health care. Franken won't even return calls even though he voted for this wretched piece of legislation without even reading the bill.
"Why is our government doing this to us?" is fast becoming the new battle cry of people of all political persuasions nationwide. At this point, this isn't a political issue. It's literally a matter of life and death.
Every American reading this post should email and/or call their senator if that senator voted for the Affordable Care Act. My first instinct is to tell these Americans to read their senators the riot act. My second instinct isn't much better. Thankfully, I've started regaining my composure with the knowledge that I'll have the opportunity to fire Al Franken next November. The only thing I'd enjoy more than hearing his concession speech would be to watch his reaction as he tries dealing with the exchanges he voted for.
Posted Wednesday, December 11, 2013 6:43 PM
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