A slow climb into the 30s by week’s end
Meteorologist Paul Huttner says people in the North only have one or two more corners to turn before temps rise and mosquitoes and ticks think about hatching, assuming moisture conditions will allow that to happen.
I’m still concerned about the potential for growing drought this spring if the usually reliable spring rains fail this year. Nearly all of Minnesota is already in “pre-drought” phase as we approach the spring months,” Huttner says.
http://blogs.mprnews.org/updraft/2015/02/edge-of-snow-tuesday-40-by-friday/
Climbing the economic ladder: What ladder? Or has the safety net become a hammock?
If you’re in the mood for a somewhat long and thoughtful weekend read, try this essay. It’s from a series on poverty in contemporary America in The Huffington Post.
It’s written by David Coates, who holds the Worrell Chair in Anglo-American Studies at Wake Forest University. He is the author of Answering Back: Liberal Responses to Conservative Arguments and Making the Progressive Case.
An excerpt:
“In general Republican thought, poverty is not something caused by society into which some people are unfortunate enough to fall. Rather, poverty is something people fall into by their own failures, and it is also something that they can leave behind by climbing the ladder of success. If poverty persists, the argument goes, it is not because that ladder is somehow absent but because poverty persists whenever political and social conditions conspire to prevent a sufficient number of people from climbing the ladder of success with all the levels of skill and vigor necessary to the task. And the big criminal here, for Marco Rubio as for many other Republicans, is invariably the federal government itself: “Government,” as he put it, “has succeeded in trapping far too many people in poverty as a way of life, and it has not done nearly enough to help Americans escape poverty.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-coates/hammocks-and-ladders-the_b_6768672.html
The Pope isn’t happy about business as usual
Pope Francis is critical about the modern throwaway culture and the globabl economic climate that “suffocates hope and increases risks and threats.”
http://time.com/3727280/pope-francis-inequality-throwaway-culture/
The Ralph ejects students for protesting UND president
Apparently, UND students aren’t happy with the state of higher education in North Dakota. A few displayed a banner Saturday night that said, “Fire Kelley,” the UND president. They were removed from the arena.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/und-students-ejected-from-hockey-game-for-fire-kelley-banner/
