October 16, 2014
Oct 16 01:59 Where's President Potter? Oct 16 02:38 The SCTimes' gullibility Oct 16 03:20 Dorholt's MNsure vote backfiring? Oct 16 16:36 Skip Sandman and Nolan's flip-flopping Oct 16 20:00 Stewart Mills and the anti-Nolan backlash
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Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Where's President Potter?
Where's Earl? or Does IT Services Know A Secret?
by Silence Dogood
SCSU's main webpage has a link to a search window where you can search for offices/departments or people (faculty/staff or students).
Having nothing better to do one afternoon, I performed a search for "Potter" just to see what would come up.
I was mildly amused that the President of the university couldn't be found. Clicking on the box for "Students" shows four students with the last name Potter. Maybe when he's in China, it's like the old computer game: "Where in the World in Carmen Sandiego?" which was released in 1985."
I then started wondering if IT services knew something I didn't. So I went to back to the search window and found the "President's Office" and clicked on the link. The following came up:
I was relieved that SCSU still has a President. However, I'm guessing someone in IT services is going to get a phone call shortly.
Posted Thursday, October 16, 2014 1:59 AM
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The SCTimes' gullibility
Something kept gnawing at me after I wrote this post . Here's what kept bothering me:
That probe, begun almost 18 months ago, had centered on whether the university failed to return federal financial aid money it was required to return if the students whose grades were changed became ineligible to keep that financial aid.
I've finally figured out why that bothered me. The transcript scandal was pushed by the Faculty Association during their monthly Meet&Confer meetings with President Potter and members of his administration. If the FA hadn't pushed the subject, it wouldn't have seen the light of day.
That's proven by the verifiable facts surrounding the scandal. First, as I wrote here , SCSU administration doesn't think that an investigation is needed:
FA: I have a clarifying question. I heard you say this is a preliminary investigation at looking so once you do your preliminary then am I hearing you say then you will decide what your next step is going to be in terms of your going after other data collection for the past four years before this?
Admin: Sure so then we have as to what kind of data is relevant and we go there and we can collect the information so that it makes sense for you. The other thing is I won't call it an investigation I would call analysis. So it's a data analysis to understand if there is a spike and then understand whether it is due to factors outside our control or if it is factors of the band of discretion becoming wider.
Second, Potter's administration hasn't talked with professors who've reported students' participation in their class deleted:
Chemistry Prof. Tamara Leenay also noticed discrepancies in 2012 and gave the documentation to McKenna. 'It was just odd, all of the sudden, these grades are being changed,' she said.
Leenay said she has been out of state on vacation and did not meet with federal investigators. She also said that since she discovered the discrepancies and shared them with McKenna, no one from the administration has talked to her about the issue or asked for her records.
These incidents are proof that the Potter administration isn't interested in investigating this scandal. This isn't open to various interpretations. There's just one explanation for the Potter administration's inaction. They weren't interested in the transcript scandal.
That's important to the claim that "the probe" "had centered on whether the University failed to return federal financial aid money."
Think about this. Why would professors worry about something that's the administration's responsibility? The professors consistently spoke out about the disappearing grades. LFR has covered this story extensively and exhaustively. LFR has reported more details about this scandal than all the other news agencies in the state...combined. While it's true that professors I've interviewed on background were curious if SCSU had returned federal financial aid money, that was always a secondary issue. Transcript integrity and the damage done to SCSU's academic reputation always topped their list of concerns.
That's as it should be. Professors have enough responsibilities. They shouldn't be required to monitor whether the administration has dealt with financial assistance from the federal government. That's the administration's responsibility.
The University's insistence that the transcript scandal was always about "whether the university failed to return federal financial aid money" is pure Potter spin. That's consistent. One of the things that's been consistent from the Potter administration about this scandal is their spin. The other thing that's been consistent about the Potter administration's behavior during the transcript scandal is that they've refused to conduct a serious investigation into this major breech of academic integrity.
The only thing that's worse than the Potter administration's dishonesty is the St. Cloud Times' gullibility.
Posted Thursday, October 16, 2014 2:38 AM
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Dorholt's MNsure vote backfiring?
Yesterday, I received a mailer from Pro Jobs Majority that criticizes Zach Dorholt's vote for MNsure. Saying that it's a hard-hitting mailer is understatement. Here's one thing from the mailer:
The MNsure exchange was supposed to increase competition and help Minnesota families shop for health insurance. Instead, costs are increasing and we have fewer choices.
There's no disputing whether costs are rising under MNsure. Despite the Dayton administration's lie that insurance premiums are going up an average of 4.5%, the reality is it's skyrocketing well past that in almost every county in the state.
In St. Louis County, the least expensive health insurance policy is increasing by 36% over last year. Meeker, Kandiyohi, Chippewa and Yellow Medicine counties are seeing their least expensive health insurance premiums jump by 43%. Cottonwood, Lyons, Nobles and Murray counties' least expensive health insurance premiums hit a less-than-happy medium, increasing by 34%. Benton County's least expensive health insurance premiums will increase by 22% in 2015. Ditto with Stearns, Sherburne and Wright counties.
Thanks to his vote, Dorholt's constituents have seen their insurance premiums skyrocket.
When it came time for Minnesotans to sign up for insurance, the $160,000,000 MNsure website didn't work as promised. ( It still doesn't .)
Unfortunately, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Here's another part of the MNsure disaster :
The recent revelation that the state failed to send out letters to 16,000 low-income Minnesotans seeking medical assistance to let them know their applications had not been processed and they were not covered does not surprise Olmsted County Community Services Director Paul Fleissner.
'Every county has been screaming that we didn't think notices were going out, and the state kept saying yes, yes, yes, people are just forgetting this. We had a really strong sense that they weren't and finally it's been confirmed that they weren't going to our people,' Fleissner said.
Unfortunately, there's still more:
Is your baby married? It's a ridiculous question. But if you just had a baby and went to MNsure to update your family status, the health exchange website may ask you anyway. That kind of routine update is proving to be a big problem for MNsure and the Minnesotans using it to buy health coverage.
I wish that was it but it isn't. Here's more:
One example: It used to take five minutes to add a baby to a plan under Medical Assistance, Minnesota's version of Medicaid, but now that Medical Assistance runs through MNsure it takes about 45 minutes and "you have to say whether or not a baby is married," said Dakota County director of employment and economic assistance Marti Fischbach, who helps clients sign up for plans.
The mailer finishes with this:
And, unbelievably, the bureaucrats who created the MNsure mess got pay raises and bonuses.
Dorholt didn't vote to give Scott Leitz and April Todd-Malmlov bonuses or pay raises. He just voted to create MNsure, who then threw away the taxpayers' money on bonuses for inept bureaucrats.
The best way to 'thank' Zach Dorholt for all he's given us is to vote for Jim Knoblach on Nov. 4.
Posted Thursday, October 16, 2014 3:20 AM
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Skip Sandman and Nolan's flip-flopping
According to this Brainerd Dispatch article , Skip Sandman jumped into the Eighth District race because Rick Nolan abandoned environmental activists:
His motivation to run against the incumbent was Nolan's vote to in his words "fast track the permit process" for the PolyMet mine, a copper-nickel sulfide mining operation, which he feels is unsafe.
Sandman said the science is currently not adequate to assure the ability to clean up sulphuric acid problems that could be caused by a mining project that's close to the St. Louis River. He contends that an environmental problem with the planned mining project is a certainty.
There's no question whether Nolan has staked out multiple positions on environmental issues. Here's the first time I wrote about Nolan's 'flexibility':
Northern Minnesota is known for its great fishing, so perhaps it's fitting that tracking 8th District Congressman Rick Nolan's position on a bill that deregulates the mining industry and fast tracks the permitting process for PolyMet is a bit like watching a fish flopping around on a dock: first he's against it, then he's for it and now he once again opposes it, this time promising to vote against the legislation if it "comes anywhere near close to becoming law."
That's from an environmentalist publication. Later in that article, environmentalists took Nolan to task:
The reaction of the those who gathered in Bohannon Hall on that Saturday afternoon is perhaps best summed up by 32-year-old Jesse Peterson, who characterized Nolan's responses and actions with respect to HR 761 as 'incredibly deceptive and reflecting a willingness to be phony.'
HR 761 is the legislation that Sandman was referring to. By flopping around like a fish on a dock, Rick Nolan upset environmentalists. If these environmental activists are sufficiently upset, they might cast their ballot for Sandman. The other possibility is that they'll stay home.
Whether these environmental activists are upset enough to cast a protest vote still hasn't been determined. Still, Nolan's campaign can't be happy with this potential division within the ranks. He'll need every environmentalist and every mining vote he can get to stay competitive with Stewart Mills. If Stewart stays competitive on the Range, he'll win because Stewart virtually owns the southern third of the Eighth District.
Skip Sandman's entry into the race complicates things for Nolan. Whether he's able to navigate those waters remains to be determined. That's why this race will be such fun to watch.
Posted Thursday, October 16, 2014 4:36 PM
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Stewart Mills and the anti-Nolan backlash
Stewart Mills nailed it in this article about the impact outside money has on races:
Every day of his 8th Congressional District campaign, he said, he hears evidence of a backlash of reaction from viewers to independent expenditure messages made by outsiders. "They know nothing about this district and they certainly know nothing about me," Mills said earlier this month at the Crow Wing County Republican Victory Office in Baxter.
The DCCC's ads sound like Nancy Pelosi's superPAC ads, which sound almost identical to the ads Rick Nolan is running.
Just off the top of my head, I'll come pretty close to the script. "Stewart Mills inherited his money. He opposed middle class tax cuts so that wealthy billionaires and multinational corporations could keep their tax breaks." If that sounds familiar, it's because it's only slightly different than the cookie cutter ad the DCCC is running against Torrey Westrom. The only difference between the two ads is that the DCCC's ad against Torrey Westrom accuses Westrom of essentially masterminding the state government shutdown in 2011 while the DCCC's ad against Stewart Mills is that he's a rich and out of touch and that he that wants to go to Washington to protect his rich friends' tax breaks.
He said his own message of a consumer based health insurance solution and a reining in of regulatory overreach is resonating with Republicans and independents alike. "I endeavor to run a very issues focused campaign," Mills said. "Our message agrees with them."
Despite the Democrats' claim that people like the ACA, Mills is using the Affordable Care Act effectively to his advantage. Running against the EPA is another winner in the Eighth, too. Miners know that the federal government, especially the EPA and the US Forest Service, are preventing PolyMet from getting built. That's a hot button issue if ever I heard of one for the Eighth District.
He wants a health care insurance solution that's comprehensive. He said he favors the aspect of the Affordable Care Act in which people can't be rejected for insurance because of pre-existing conditions. He rejects his opponent's call for a single payer health care system.
"Consumerism works," Mills said. "Socialism doesn't."
Because Mills has run Mills Fleet Farm's health insurance program, he's got instant credibility on the issue. Nolan didn't try challenging him on health care during last week's debate because he knows Mills is loaded with ammunition to blister Nolan on Nolan's health care policies.
If the DCCC and Pelosi's superPAC continue with the ads they're currently running, there will be an anti-Nolan backlash. That wouldn't be pretty for Nolan.
Posted Thursday, October 16, 2014 8:00 PM
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