8 CSB/SJU students, professor volunteer for roadside cleanup

Eight students from the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, along with Professor Matt Lindstrom, director of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at St. John’s, volunteered for the center’s first roadside cleanup. The McCarthy Center recently adopted a 3.2-mile stretch of highway south of Avon. The cleanup was Oct. 9. The McCarthy Center will invite members of the CSB/SJU community to participate in this cleanup again each spring and fall. Photo submitted by Melissa DeOrio, Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement Written by
Submitted by Melissa DeOrio
Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement


Filed Under
Citizen Times
College Of St. Benedict
Eight students from the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, along with Professor Matt Lindstrom, director of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at St. John’s, volunteered for the center’s first roadside cleanup. The McCarthy Center recently adopted a 3.2-mile stretch of highway south of Avon. The cleanup was on Oct. 9. The McCarthy Center will invite members of the CSB/SJU community to participate in this roadside cleanup again each spring and fall.
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FactCheck.org founder spends week at SJU

Written by
Mark Sommerhauser
msommerhauser@stcloudtimes.com

Like to follow politics through blogs, Facebook and Twitter?

Use of these and other social-networking platforms may encourage voters to type first and think later, a political expert with Central Minnesota ties said Tuesday.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson directs the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and helped found FactCheck.org, a pioneering website that scrutinizes statements made by politicians in ads and debates.
Jamieson this week is a scholar-in-residence at the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at St. John’s University. That puts Jamieson in familiar territory, as she’s a 1964 graduate of St. Benedict’s High School in St. Joseph.

Few dispute that social-networking platforms have had a growing influence on politics in recent years.

That’s not necessarily bad, Jamieson said in a Tuesday afternoon interview with the Times. Such platforms help people connect with each other, and help them aggregate political information.

But they also may foster a climate in which observers continually comment on political speeches or debates, without pausing to consider or digest what politicians are actually saying, Jamieson suggested. She questioned how this could affect “our capacity for thoughtful citizenship and reflective engagement.”
Politics also is being changed by the emergence of technology to individualize Internet advertising, Jamieson added. That could occur when advertisers use a person’s Internet-surfing history to tailor political emails or ads to that individual.

The result: Different voters hear different political messages — and perhaps, different promises. That’s not necessarily a problem if the claims are accurate — but could be if they’re not, Jamieson said.

“Nothing in the media structure is set to capture these messages, to provide a forum to debunk them,” Jamieson said.

Jamieson also stressed the importance of educating high school students on civics — and on how to distinguish when a politician is telling the truth or when they’re fibbing. Increasing emphasis on core subjects like math and reading mustn’t displace such education, Jamieson said.

“It’s also important,” she said, “that we haven’t crowded an understanding of civics out of our curriculum.”

Denis McDonough

Denis McDonough is the National Security Council's chief of staff and one of President Obama's closest advisers. Mr. McDonough is reportedly so close to the president that colleagues — even his superiors — often do not make a major move without first checking with him.

Mr. McDonough is well known for picking up the phone to take people to task, from reporters to Washington talking heads to other Obama officials who go off message. He has berated some of the Democratic Party's most distinguished foreign policy dignitaries when they have dared to critique Mr. Obama publicly.

Mr. McDonough began his Capitol Hill career as an aide to the House International Relations Committee, where he focused on Latin America. He went on to work for Tom Daschle, the former South Dakota senator and former Senate majority leader, rising to senior foreign policy adviser, and became legislative director for Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado after Mr. Daschle's re-election defeat. He was then a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic-leaning policy organization, before joining the Obama campaign.

During the campaign, Mr. McDonough took on the role of Mr. Obama's foreign policy guru. He helped synthesize the contributions of some 300 foreign policy advisers, divided into teams based on regions and issues, to assist Mr. Obama in formulating and articulating his foreign policy. Mr. McDonough was often dispatched to brief reporters about Mr. Obama's positions.

His work during the campaign sealed his role as Mr. Obama's most trusted foreign policy aide in the White House.

He was born Dec. 2, 1969, in Stillwater, Minn. He graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., and has a master's from Georgetown University.

Parker Rosen, LLC Announces Mark Kennedy as Senior Strategic Adviser

January 14, 2011 11:22 AM Eastern Time
Parker Rosen, LLC Announces Mark Kennedy as Senior Strategic Adviser
Former Congressman Adds Depth to the Firm’s International Public Affairs Practice
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Minneapolis-based law firm Parker Rosen, LLC, (www.parkerrosen.com), announced today the addition of Mark Kennedy as a Senior Strategic Adviser. Kennedy brings a broad background in business, public service and global initiatives to his role at Parker Rosen, a firm well known for its involvement in Minnesota politics, civic activities and public affairs in addition to its winning tradition in the courtroom representing local, national and international business clients.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Parker Rosen,” says Kennedy. “I’ve long admired the wise counsel and winning results of the firm, its commitment to its clients and its active involvement in bringing people together through its community and public affairs work.”
In his role at Parker Rosen, Kennedy will focus his practice on assisting clients with global public affairs strategy and international conflict resolution matters. Kennedy is also Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell Strategic Advisors, LLC where he applies his experience in both business and government to help clients achieve success in the increasingly globalized and competitive world.
According to Parker Rosen Co-founder, Andrew Parker, “Mark shares our belief that law firms must be focused on results and that achieving results requires expert advice. Mark’s experience in global business and government will help Parker Rosen continue to achieve the results that our clients need and expect in the ever-evolving environment of business and the law.”
Prior to joining Parker Rosen and forming Chartwell Strategic Advisors, Kennedy was in a global role with Accenture, a leading management consulting firm. He represented Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives for three terms from 2001 through 2007. Kennedy also served as a Presidential appointee to the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiation under both Presidents Bush and Obama (2007 – 2010). Prior to his service in Congress, Kennedy held leadership roles with some of the area’s largest employers, including Pillsbury, Macy’s and ShopKo (then a subsidiary of SUPERVALU). Trained as a Certified Public Accountant, Kennedy was recognized by Institutional Investor in a feature on America’s Top CFOs.
An active speaker, Kennedy has also founded or co-founded three lecture series: the Minnesota Rough Riders, the Frontiers of Freedom Lecture Series at St. John’s University and the Economic Club of Minnesota (www.ecomn.org). He will continue to speak before civic, government, student and business groups in his role at Parker Rosen.
Kennedy is a graduate of St. John’s University and received his Master’s in Business Administration with distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He and his wife, Debbie, live in Watertown, Minnesota.
Parker Rosen, LLC (www.parkerrosen.com) is a Minneapolis-based law firm that represents select major corporations, small businesses, and other private and institutional clients in complex civil and commercial litigation, labor and employment litigation and investigations, eminent domain, real estate, and land use law, appellate advocacy, education law and, international law and public affairs. The firm looks to make a difference – in legal matters within the Twin Cities market and throughout the world – by bringing people with diverse backgrounds together to build a unified community.

DeLand column: Is there economic logic to a stadium?

DeLand column: Is there
economic logic to a stadium?

January 23, 2011

When Joe Friedrich looks at the issue from a
professional standpoint, it doesn’t make a whole lot
of sense.

What would be the financial benefit to Minnesota
taxpayers of paying for the majority of a new
stadium for the Minnesota Vikings? The economist
in Friedrich will tell you there really is none.

“Economists — except for those who have a vested
interest — pretty much cannot really find a
benefit/cost analysis to support a publicly financed
stadium, to the state or the government interest that
pays for it,” said Friedrich, a St. Cloud resident and
professor emeritus of economics at St. John’s
University and the College of St. Benedict (he retired
18 months ago).

“On the standpoint of strictly economic costs to the
state, I literally can’t find a study that comes up with
a positive return.”

But when Joe Friedrich the native Minnesotan or Joe
Friedrich the lifelong sports fan looks at the same
issue ... well, it’s not so cut-and-dried.

“The Vikings certainly add a lot of excitement,”
Friedrich said. “They do contribute to the spirit of
the state. Think of yourself and all the other people
for whom it’s a very real part of their life.”

Central Minnesotans who stand on divergent sides
of this issue will have the opportunity to talk about
it with Friedrich and others on Thursday.

The Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and
Civic Engagement is hosting a discussion titled “
Your Taxes & Sports Stadiums: The Minnesota
Vikings” as part of its Politics & A Pint series.

The forum begins at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Brother
Willie’s Pub in Sexton Commons on the SJU campus,
and the public is invited to hear Friedrich’s
economic insights on the issue.

“I’m just going to give 5-10 minutes of the ‘this is
the economic cost/benefit’ reality,” Friedrich said.
“I’m sure there’ll be a bunch of people there with
assertions. I intend to mostly ask questions back.”
The stadium issue is one that generates a lot of
emotions and a lot of passion, one way or the other.
However, economists aren’t supposed to operate on
emotion: They’re supposed to work with facts.


And according to Friedrich and other economists,
paying for a stadium doesn’t make much financial
sense to the general public. The return on other
investments — like, say, pre-kindergarten education
— is much higher.

But that doesn’t get you a football team ...

“There’s a lot of other reasons why you might want
to build a stadium,” Friedrich said. “But if you were t
alking strictly dollar-and-cents type of arguments, I
think the case is pretty clear that publicly financed
stadiums cost the public more than they benefit.

“It’s not just the Vikings — it’s just about
everybody. That’s the reason I said I couldn’t find
an economist who had a different opinion who was
an independent. (You’d have to) tell a story that’s
not false, but doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Does a new Vikings stadium make sense in other
respects? That question will be tossed around on
Thursday, and it’ll have to be answered before the
state legislature moves forward on this issue.

“The bottom line here is the state of Minnesota is
hardly in a position to be taking on too many
endeavors right now,” Friedrich said. “The
opportunity cost of a new Vikings stadium is
significant.”

In economist lingo, “opportunity cost” is what you
give up to get something else. And with a looming
$6.2 billion state budget deficit, that’s an issue.

On the other hand, Friedrich — a lifelong sports fan
— understands other viewpoints.

“I’m the kind of sports fan who in 1954 picked the
closest (major league) team to Minnesota — the
Milwaukee Braves — and has kept the Milwaukee
Braves as his team through their transfer to Atlanta,”
he said. “My favorite football team was the Baltimore
Colts — and they of course moved.”

Stadium proponents would argue that without a new
stadium, the Vikings eventually will do the same
thing.

“You try to ascertain from people, in a way that’s
truthful, how much they would pay for that benefit.
If there wasn’t the sport here, how much would you
pay to have that benefit?” Friedrich said.

“It’s environmental economics — what are the
amenity values? It’s really hard to do. But there are
methods in economics that do some of the
benefit/cost analysis.”


Proponents also tout the economic stimulus —
7,500 on-site construction jobs, by the Vikings’
estimate — that building a new stadium would
provide, and Friedrich says that might have some
value.

“Now is probably the best time,” he said. “If you had
7,500 workers you had to get away from other
construction sites, and if you had to buy concrete
away from other sites, that would bid up the price.
But right now, it’s likely there’s a lot of excess
supply in the construction industry. There is a small
gain.

“But if you spend $900 million for a domed stadium,
how much of that is really additional and how much
is just workers moving from one site to another?”

Whether public financing for a new Vikings stadium
makes economic sense or not, it’s Friedrich’s
opinion that it eventually will happen.

“I think when push comes to shove, something will
be worked out,” Friedrich said. “They’ll cobble
together a set of taxes and fee charges that fall on
people that use the facility.

“‘Use’ can be a very vague word. What they’ll try to
say is people who get the benefit from this stadium
should pay for it.

“I think at the end of the day, a stadium will be
constructed that will somehow be funded — at least
orally — by those who benefit from it. Of course,
there’ll be infrastructure expenses.”

Even if that doesn’t happen, and the Vikings do
leave Minnesota, Friedrich’s economic background
tells him the state would survive without them.

“Sid Hartman once commented that without the
Vikings, Minneapolis would be a cold Omaha,”
Friedrich said. “Well, Omaha was just listed as one
of the 10 best places in the world to live.”

But most Minnesotans would prefer that the Vikings
stayed. And not everybody uses everything that the
state government pays for.

“That’s why we tax people — everybody can say,
‘Oh, that doesn’t mean anything to me’,” Friedrich
said. “There are things in life that are not really
easily translated into dollars and cents.”

When an economist says that, you can take it to the
bank.

This is the opinion of Times sports editor Dave
DeLand. Contact him at 255-8771 or by e-mail at
ddeland@stcloudtimes.com.

The Conversation: Four Myths About the Constitution

James Read, Joseph P. Farry Professor of Political Science at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University has an op-ed column on the Constitution in the Sacramento Bee forum section (Sunday January 23). The title is “Four Myths About the Constitution,” co-authored with Alan Gibson of California State University – Chico, who is a scholar of the political thought of the Founding era. In the column both authors use the new House Republicans’ ceremonial reading of the Constitution to challenge several myths about the Constitution and its history. Follow the linked title of this post to view the article.