The Rochester Post-Bulletin is an afternoon daily. A couple of items in the new edition caught our interest.
Steve Forbes: DM&E loan reeks of pork politics
The Post Bulletin reprints an op-ed piece that appeared in the February issue of the eponymous magazine Forbes. The lead:
The routine abuse in the congressional appropriations process is highlighted by an ongoing effort to force the federal government into granting a multibillion-dollar giveaway to a small, private railroad, the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern. The owners want to expand the line to carry coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin to the Midwest.
Editorial: Forbes enters DM&E debate
The Post-Bulletin's own editorial reflects on Forbes' entry into the DM & E fray. The editorial's conclusion gives a fair sense of its tenor:
All Americans ought to be outraged. Experts have predicted that the proposed DM&E loan, if approved, would likely not be paid back. Taxpayers would be stuck with the bill.
There are strong arguments that the DM&E proposal, which would run right through the middle of Rochester, is unsafe. Yet, while strong, the safety argument loses energy the farther away from Rochester it is made.
What does unite all Americans against this loan is the way it came into being and high possibility that taxpayers will have to cover the tab.
This reality has angered money man Steve Forbes, and it should outrage each and every American.
Walz talks policy among the produce at Hy-Vee Barlow
The Post Bulletin's Matt Stolle reports on the latest Saturday shopping stop:
A day after voting in support of a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush's planned deployment of 21,500 additional combat troops to Iraq, U.S. Rep. Tim Walz was in Rochester on Saturday, standing in the fresh produce area of the Barlow Hy-Vee Food store talking with shoppers about the significance of the vote.
Walz, a Democrat from Mankato, said the resolution does two things: It expresses disapproval of a military escalation that "the experts, both political and military, do not believe will solve" the problem. And the language of the resolution shows unequivocal support for the troops. He was in Rochester as part of a weekly program where the congressman meets with people in grocery stores or out shopping.
"It sends a strong message to the president that we're asking him to change his policies," Walz said.
David Shaver: War without diplomacy won't work
In Stolle's article, Walz mentions the need for robust diplomacy and involvement of area countries in Iraq. The Post Bulletin's oped page carries a column by retired U.S. Army officer and former tenured Army War College faculty member David Shaver.
Tomorrow's Hospice Platform Discussion
Even as remarkable a place as the Mayo Clinic cannot prevent our final hours. In the 1960s and 1970s, the hospice care movement grew out of a growing recognition of the very human desire to die with dignity.
According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, this common sense approach faces federal budget cuts. Bush's FY 2008 budget proposal included a .65% rate reduction in the amount of reimbursement through Medicare for hospice funding. T
Nationally, that reduction translates to a $1.14 billion cut nationally. For Minnesotans, it means over $14 million in cuts to hospice Medicare funding over the next five years beginning in 2008.
Heartland Home Health Care &
Hospice, Mayo Hospice and Seasons Hospice of Rochester will come
together with Tim Walz for a platform discussion tomorrow from 1:00 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. in Conference Room 104 at the Rochester City Hall Building.
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