OMG! I'm a Millennial! WTF!

Good news. I'm a Millennial (born after 1978). Apparently that's a good thing. There's more of us than there are living baby boomers. We like the Internet. A lot of us have blogs. A recent research paper available at this Case Foundation blog suggests that we Millennials might try to survive without a government in the distant future. I'm sure that will go really well.

(Seriously, the paper, written by Allison Fine for the Case Foundation, is an interesting look at this new generation of American adults and how they are changing the way social action takes place).

I'm most pleased to learn that we outnumber the baby boomers. Now we only need to marshal our power to get those God awful "Just for Men" hair dye ads off the evening news where that smarmy bastard says "Don't trust anyone over 90" while clutching future wife #4.

Oh wait, I forget. Millennials don't watch the evening news. Sorry. You can go back to the Internet now.

DNT: Locals, 'outsiders' equally to blame for Duluth crime

The Duluth News-Tribune is running a fascinating series on the social impact of "outsiders" in Duluth. Talk to most Duluth folks (or Range folks, for that matter) and they'll tell you that those darn "outsiders" cause most of the problems (crime, drugs, welfare fraud, etc.) in their area. The DNT did some investigative reporting and found that outsiders are no more responsible for these problems than locals. They are merely different, identifiable and thus, easy to blame.

Read the story on crime in Duluth, then click around http://www.duluthnewstribune/ and read the rest of the series:

Of 786 charged felonies in Duluth in 2007, the News Tribune was able to track the driver’s license addresses for 720 of the suspects. Of those, 639 — or 89 percent — listed Northland cities and towns as their primary address. Only 54
-- 7.5 percent — had licenses from out of state.

So why do some people say that the crime problem in Duluth is caused by “other people’’ who come here from somewhere else?

Fred Friedman heads the Northeastern Minnesota public defender’s office and provides attorneys to people charged with crimes who can’t afford to pay for an attorney. He didn’t hesitate to respond when asked why there is a perception that outsiders bring so much crime to Duluth.

“Race,’’ he said. “When TV or the newspaper shows a picture of a white person who is a suspect, nobody remembers it. When they show a picture of a black person who is a suspect, people remember it. The perception is not about people coming from other cities; it’s about race.’’

Friedman acknowledges that more of his clients than he would like commit violent crimes shortly after arriving here, but he said it isn’t a high percentage, and that perception is more a myth than a reality.

And before you think I'm being too positive about the DNT, let me add this. Screw you guys for downsizing your coverage of the Iron Range.

See, I'm all about equal time.