October 9, 2014
Oct 09 03:40 SCSU's crisis is over Oct 09 01:43 Is Kansas, Senate slipping away? Oct 09 14:48 Time to go Wild Oct 09 12:46 LTEs from a different planet Oct 09 15:15 Senate majority flipping?
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SCSU's crisis is over
No Need for Budget Cuts - Enrollment Increase Eliminates Deficit
by Silence Dogood
A portion of the latest installment of the Weekly Admit Report for October 3, 2014 is shown below.
The report documents a 77.76% increase in applications (72.4% complete applications) and a 76.68% increase in admission offers over Fall'14. As a result, if enrollment of New Entering Freshmen (NEF) is up 76.68% from the 1,680 students reported for Fall'14, that would produce an entering class of NEF of 2,986 for an increase of 1,306 students! Truly amazing!
Given that each NEF generates approximately $11,500 in tuition and state appropriation, these additional students will generate over $15,000,000 in revenue. Clearly the $8,000,000-10,000,000 deficit for FY15 has now been eliminated and there will no longer be a need for budget cuts.
Congratulations to the administration on solving the budget shortfall! Hopefully, the 5% across the board cuts can be restored to departments and the 'flexible' hiring freeze can be thawed since it will no longer be necessary to make budget cuts. I'm sure champagne corks are popping in the administration building and deservedly so! Clearly, the FY15 budget has been delayed because of the 'good news' and it is being revised to eliminate the hinted at reductions.
Posted Thursday, October 9, 2014 3:40 AM
Comment 1 by Patrick-M at 12-Oct-14 07:28 AM
That time honored classic comes to mind after reading this
'great,great news'. "Happy Days are Here Again!" (Ben Selvin and the Crooners, 1930) http://tinyurl.com/kx9fnfe
Is Kansas, Senate slipping away?
After watching this CNN video on the Pat Roberts-Greg Orman Kansas Senate race, it's starting to look like Sen. Roberts will hold the seat:
This poll isn't good news for Orman:
This isn't good news for Democrats:
1. As you may know, there will be no Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate on the ballot in Kansas this November. If the election for U.S. Senate were held today and the candidates were Greg Orman, the Independent, and Pat Roberts, the Republican, who would you be more likely to vote for? (IF UNSURE:) As of today, who do you lean more toward? (RANDOM ORDER)
Roberts Orman (vol.) (vol.) opinion
Likely Voters:
Roberts 49%, Orman 48%
Registered Voters:
Orman 49%, Roberts 46%
Two Republican incumbents are fighting to keep their jobs in Kansas. The new Fox News poll finds both of them, Sen. Pat Roberts and Gov. Sam Brownback, have jumped ahead of their challengers.
When the first batch of polling came out for Kansas, Democrats were practically giddy. They thought that Kansas would be a firewall in saving the Senate. Each week, several GOP senators campaign with Roberts. That appears to have changed the trajectory of the race. With more GOP senators on their way down the stretch and with significantly more registered Republicans than Democrats in Kansas, this race appears to be returning to normal order.
The Fox Poll didn't bring good news for Democrats in other states either. Here's an example:
Likely voters in Alaska are unhappy with President Obama and don't think much of his health care plan. That helps give Republican Dan Sullivan a 44-40 percent advantage over Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich.
Then there's Arkansas:
Republican challenger Tom Cotton is up seven points over Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor among Arkansas likely voters (46 percent vs. 39 percent).
After that, it's Colorado:
Republicans in Colorado are much more enthusiastic than Democrats about the upcoming election, and that explains, at least in part, why the new poll shows Rep. Cory Gardner topping Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall by 43-37 percent.
Mitch McConnell didn't increase his lead against Alison Lundergan-Grimes but she didn't close it, either, which is good news for Sen. McConnell:
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is narrowly ahead of Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, 45-41 percent, among Kentucky likely voters.
Iowa is still a tight race but it looks like momentum is on Joni Ernst's side :
The Marist poll shows Ernst up by three, 46 to 43 percent, which is an improvement on the 43 to 43 percent tie Marist posted when they last polled the race in July.
The Loras poll shows Ernst and Brady tied at 43 percent, which is a huge improvement on the 41 to 45 percent deficit Loras found when they last polled the race in September.
And the YouGov poll, which shows Ernst trailing 43 to 44 percent, is a small improvement for Ernst over YouGov's August poll which had Braley up 44 to 42 percent.
If Republicans hold Kansas and Kentucky, which looks likely, Democrats will have a difficult time keeping their majority. If Ernst and Gardner win their races, which looks increasingly possible, Harry Reid should start packing because he'll be in a smaller office next January.
In other news, Mary Landrieu fired her campaign manager . That isn't the ideal way to inspire supporters. At this point, it's possible that Republicans will pick up a net 8 seats in the Senate. If that happens, Republicans will celebrate momentarily. Then they'll sit down and figure out how to push a positive, pro-growth economic agenda. That's a gigantic change. It means Harry Reid won't have a pocket veto over GOP legislation, which means Democrats will have to cast some difficult votes.
Posted Thursday, October 9, 2014 1:47 AM
No comments.
Time to go Wild
It's finally here. Tonight's the night when the Minnesota Wild open their season. Tonight, they face the team they eliminated on Nino Niederreiter's laser beam from the win in OT. That's right. This shot:
I'll admit it. I still get chills watching that sick shot over Varlomov's shoulder. Varlomov didn't stand a chance. That wasn't Niederreiter's only offensive contribution that night in Denver's Pepsi Center. Check this out:
The thing is that the Wild wouldn't have been playing that night if not for this overtime goal:
Last year's Wild were a dangerous team that lost to Chicago in 6 games in the conference semifinals. The year before, Chicago beat them in the first round. This year's Wild are expecting big things. The chief reason why Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signed identical 13-year, $98,000,000 contracts was because Minnesota was loaded with young talent just waiting to bust out. That was three years ago. This year, those talented youngsters are young veterans who've grown with game experience.
Three years ago, the Islanders were ready to dump Nino Niederreiter go. Super-talented, he didn't fit into the Islanders' plans. When the Wild offered Wild fan favorite Cal Clutterbuck to the Islanders, the Islanders jumped on it. Little did Wild fans know that that trade was totally lopsided...in the Wild's favor. During his years playing for the Islanders, Niederreiter scored 3 points . Last year, he scored 14 goals and 36 points in the regular season before scoring 3 goals and 3 assists in 13 playoff games. Two of those goals came in Game 7 against the Avalanche, one tying the game in the third period, the other winning it in OT.
I'd be totally remiss if I didn't mention some of the other young veterans on the team. Jonas Brodin is just 21 years old but he's played like a veteran since his first game. Erik Haula will be the Wild's third line center, where he'll use his blazing speed to pressure teams in their zone when he isn't using that speed to score breakaway goals. Charley Coyle is the 'other' Wild man-child. (Niederreiter is the other beast.) Playing with 2 separated shoulders throughout the playoffs, Coyle persevered, scoring 3 goals and 4 assists in the playoffs.
The Wild play in the toughest division in the NHL, competing against the St. Louis Blues, the Colorado Avalanche and the Chicago Blackhawks. They'll have to play well to get into the playoffs. The good news is that I expect them to be there when the puck drops to start the playoffs.
Posted Thursday, October 9, 2014 2:48 PM
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LTEs from a different planet
There are times when I can't help but wonder if some of the LTEs weren't written by space aliens from a different planet. This LTE is one of them. Here's what's got me scratching my head in disbelief:
- Minnesota is among the national leaders again in low unemployment and growth of jobs that provide good wages.
- Dorholt helped put Minnesota's economy back in high gear .
- A budget surplus brought property tax relief to homeowners.
- And he helped fix taxes that made doing business here better.
That's pretty stunning. If Minnesota's economy is "back in high gear", why have revenues fallen short of projections 6 of the last 7 months? Growing economies produce significant increases in tax revenue. Period. If Minnesota is a national leader in growing "jobs that provide good wages", why did Gov. Dayton's Department of Employment and Economic Development issue a report saying that nearly 50% of the jobs are filled by people who are underemployed and overqualified. People with college degrees are working jobs that don't need college degrees.
The DFL's mythical property tax relief is mostly campaign chanting points. It isn't real because property taxes are going up despite a significant increase in LGA. That's because school districts across the state pushed for and got levy increases.
Finally, saying that Rep. Dorholt "helped fix taxes that made doing business here better" is like saying the arsonist stuck around the scene of the crime, then handed the fireman his fire hose. Rep. Dorholt raised taxes on businesses despite these businesses telling him they'd kill jobs. He voted for the tax increases, then came home at the end of the session to hear businesses criticizing him for voting for the warehouse services sales tax, the telecommunications sales tax and the farm equipment repair sales tax.
After getting the proverbial earful, Rep. Dorholt voted to repeal the taxes he'd just voted to create. It's fair to say he voted to fix the destruction he caused in the first place. It isn't fair to say that Rep. Dorholt "made doing business here better." If Rep. Dorholt and the DFL made doing business here better, why did iconic Minnesota businesses leave Minnesota? Advanced Auto Parts closed its Bloomington, MN office . Nash Finch left Minnesota , too.
Cargill decided to expand operations in another state , too:
Dan Dye, Horizon's president and Ardent's CEO-to-be, said in a statement that the decision 'will allow us to offer great quality of life for employees, provide excellent service to our customers and position the business for long-term growth.'
Does that sound like Cargill sees Minnesota as a great place to do business?
Thought experiment: If Rep. Dorholt and the DFL says that Minnesota is a great place to do business but iconic Minnesota businesses leave, who should you believe?
Posted Thursday, October 9, 2014 12:46 PM
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Senate majority flipping?
These polls don't inspire optimism for Democrats hoping to keep their Senate majority:
Mark Begich, the Democratic incumbent senator, hasn't led in a poll since he ran an attack ad accusing Dan Sullivan of "signing off on the early release of a sex offender who now stands charged with murder and the sexual assault of a 2-year-old."
The most recent polls show Sullivan with leads from 3 points to 6 points. Alaska is one of the most reliably red states in the country. Holding Alaska for the Democrats was always going to be an uphill fight. Throw in a major mistake by the Begich campaign and that uphill fight got more difficult. Then there's Arkansas, where Tom Cotton is running a solid, mistake-free race:
Democrats hoped to flip either Kentucky (unlikely IMHO) or Georgia. Those states are still tight but the Democrat hasn't led since mid-summer. Then they hoped Kansas would flip. That's now slipping quickly away.
Democrats hoped Colorado and Iowa would be their firewall. They're trending away from Democrats. The trend isn't the Democrats' friend in at least half a dozen states. That's how you lose a senate majority.
From a macro level, Republicans did a great job recruiting candidates. Cory Gardner, Tom Cotton and Joni Ernst will be impressive senators if/when they're elected. At this point, Republicans should win the Senate as long as they keep working hard and they avoid gaffes.
This isn't a comprehensive list of races where Republicans stand to flip seats. Still, it gives people insight into how things are trending.
Posted Thursday, October 9, 2014 3:15 PM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 09-Oct-14 05:52 PM
Do we dare ask what's wrong with Minnesota, that we might send a clown back to the Senate?
