Blog #7:   Hark the Herald (Juba)

            The story in the Grand Forks Herald on 12/11/15 about the Juba Coffee Shop’s intention to rebuild starts, “A possible arson attack has triggered an FBI investigation.”  Four paragraphs later the story says, “The restaurant…was damaged in a fire police say was deliberately ignited.” 

            If police are willing to say this fire was deliberately set, the story’s lead paragraph might more accurately say it was arson rather than “possible” arson.  (We’ve also seen the video of a person breaking the window and throwing something into the store.  “Possible” arson doesn’t cover it.)

            This confusion is cleared up in the December 12 story in which police name the likely arsonist and clearly identify the fires are deliberately set.  But in neither of the two most recent articles are we told whether Juba owned or rented the building.  Nor do we know if it was insured.  The latest report (12/12/15) omits information on how much the community has raised in support of Juba and whether the community vigil at the burned coffee shop is ongoing. 

            The fire and the Grand Forks Police Department’s identification of the arsonist are, of course, sensational news, but we hope the Herald will provide us more important news we need to have about rebuilding community trust and safety for all. 

            Good news:  Yesterday police said they weren’t doing anything special to protect the mosque.  Today we learn that police were instructed to provide extra security by increasing drive-bys and parking in the mosque parking lot.  Somebody made the right decision. 

            In putting the Juba arson in context, the story refers to the Paris attack by “Islamic Extremists” and the San Bernardino killings by a “Muslin couple.”  This language in the press calls attention to religion and ethnicity and makes attacks like the Juba arson more likely. 

            In a different section of the paper, an article on U2’s performance in Paris earlier this week quotes Bono for the Herald and other media as saying “Isis and these kinds of extremists are a death cult.”  I wonder if it would be best to identify all terrorist acts as done by “death cult extremists.”

            By the way, by looking up the meaning of the word ‘Juba,’ I found that it is a state-like division in southwest Somalia.  It’s likely that the coffee shop was named after the refugee’s home; that makes it all the more sad that the reminder of home in their adopted country was torched.  

Blog Post #6
Republican Roller Coaster Ride
 
For at least the past three sessions, the Republican-controlled legislature has cut income and corporate tax rates. This was done to please the public who noticed that rapidly increasing oil revenues made it appear the state was awash in money.

To reduce the surplus in the General Fund, the Legislature could have (a) put some of it in the Legacy Fund; or (b) sent every North Dakotan a one-time check; or (c) spent some of it on economic development or programs that worked to keep people out of prison or off welfare; or (d) simply saved some of it for a rainy day.

But instead, the Republicans did absolutely the worst thing: they permanently lowered the tax rates on personal and corporate income. I say permanent because I don't believe they would ever have the courage to raise rates should revenues ever fall short. (In addition, most of the corporate rate cuts went to out of state corporations; most of the personal tax cut dollars went to higher income people.)

The Republicans made themselves look good by these cuts--as well as state subsidies to local property taxes--which they paid for with volatile oil revenues. I warned them then that basing permanent reductions on temporary income was irresponsible. 

Now that oil prices are plummeting, and with them state revenues, Republican candidates (as well as editorial writers) are calling for deep spending cuts to make up the budget shortfall. And of course they're blaming oil prices--which were out of their control--for the state's fiscal crisis rather than their own lack of foresight and wrong choices--which were within their control.

What a roller coaster ride they've taken us on.