North Star Nook 2/3
Media Literacy, State Housing Scene, Factfulness, Listening/Reading/Watching, Twins Notes
I hope your 2025 has started off well or as well as it can. I also hope you’ve survived the cold snap without frozen pipes or broken furnaces and are shoveled out- it is finally starting to feel like winter albeit 60 days late! It’s about time I get out and ice fish.
Media Literacy
In thinking about how we consume media and create trust in the media it appears more and more folks are trusting less “institutional/legacy” media and going to individuals as trusted sources (look no further than Sharon McMahon’s meteoric rise). I don’t want to replicate those efforts or fill that gap, there are still a lot of good reporters doing really good, valuable and needed work- but it is clear that there is a failing in our media to cover stories
For example this Northern News Now story about the Federal Award for the Aerial Life Bridge (hat tip to Senators Klobuchar and Smith for the support). This local TV station chose to run a quote from Rep. Pete Stauber heralding the funding. However, Rep. Stauber voted against this funding. As a defender of institutions this bothered me, as this TV station is allowing the appearance that Rep. Stauber supported this funding, this feels like a miscarriage of journalism so I asked some former journalists how this should have been handled responses ranged from
“If a reporter didn’t include Stauber voted against that for which he takes credit, proceed accordingly. This isn’t journalism; it’s stenography. If local media wants us to save journalism, it should do some”
And another former journalist
“This smacks of both sideism, when there was really only one side: those who voted for the bridge funding and those who did not. Stauber should only be quoted if asked why he voted against the bill”
Kudos to the Duluth News Tribune and Minnesota Star Tribune for the journalism and covering this appropriately. Be mindful folks and support media that is engaging in actual journalism.
Factfulness
I read Factfulness by Hans Rosling, a Swedish physician, statistician, and expert in international health. The core idea of the book is that people often believe the world is getting worse, but in reality, it’s not. In fact, there was a survey of 10,000 people, and the results were eye-opening: 80% of participants knew less about the world than chimpanzees would have! (The idea is that chimpanzees could do better just by randomly guessing.)
Rosling argues that the media plays a big role in shaping this negative perception by selectively highlighting bad news. The old saying “if it bleeds, it leads” really captures this. News outlets often focus on alarming stories, which can create the illusion that things are worsening, even when the broader trends show improvement.
You should read Factfulness—it’s a great, eye-opening book.
Going forward, I’ll use this space to highlight positive news and trends happening around the world. I’m not trying to ignore the issues we face—I fully agree with Kevin Durant’s sentiment after the U.S. men’s basketball team made a comeback to defeat Serbia in the Olympics. Durant spoke about what it means to represent the United States, with all its flaws. "A lot of bullshit happens in our country," Durant said, as reported by Mike Finger of The San Antonio Express-News. "But a lot of great things happen, too.". We can acknowledge the challenges and still recognize the progress and victories we achieve.
So, while it's important to stay informed about the world, it’s also essential to keep an eye on the good things happening because, as Rosling shows, there’s a lot more going right than we realize. (Acknowledging that COVID has skewed data it hasn’t skewed/erased trends however) Unemployment is down- even compared to back in 2005 which was above 5%.
Housing Scene
On the state of Minnesota front- Governor Tim Walz has proposed the Governors budget. Overall there is a reduction in spending to address the structural budget deficit and a reduction from many state agencies. However the Housing Finance Agency is not seeing a reduction from its base funding- this is a good thing for housing in our state. While I’d love to have the level of housing investment we saw in 2023 we are least are not seeing a reduction from what historically housing funding has been.
The Homes Act
So if you’re following along on how The Homes Act would be funded, remember it is a $30 billion annual investment. There isn’t an identified source at the moment but it doesn’t take a lot to make the connection of potentially looking at eliminating the Mortgage Interest Deduction. The US Government spends $30 billion on this deduction annually. You can deduct the MID on interest you paid during the tax year on the first $750,000 of your mortgage debt on your primary or 2nd home. You also need to itemize your taxes versus taking the standard deduction if you would like to qualify for the MID. Only 10% of tax filers itemize their returns. What this means is that a small part of the population and likely a part of the population that has multiple homes benefits from the MID versus working class folks. I’d venture a guess that eliminating the MID and dedicating that income towards the The Homes Act you would be able to fund the work and increase the housing supply and housing affordability across the country.
What I’m listening to, reading, watching
Listening - The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts a live Springsteen album at Madison Square Gardens. An incredible live album catching a Springsteen in 1979 just before the release and tour of “The River”. This is Springsteen just before he comes a mega star. Very fun, raw stuff, give it a listen!
Reading - The Wager. Written by the author of “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Super fun book, lots of swashbuckling, seafaring tales and mutiny. Not a book I would normally read but I loved it. Also a good reminder to get your vitamin C or suffer scurvy.
Watching - the Alien movies in chronological order with my wife. I have seen all of them (she has not seen them all!), perhaps next to Star Wars, the best movie series as a whole. Looking forward to the Noah Hawley “Alien” television series on Hulu this year.
Twins Tidbits
It has been a pretty slow offseason signing wise, and it sounds like the Twins are still trying to offload some salary (Vazquez, Paddack or Castro- in order of likeliness they are moved). A fun rumor is the Twins are interested in the Padres Dylan Cease. I am excited about the prospect of a change in ownership. I’m hoping that the new owners are willing to spend more than the current ownership.
I appreciate the referral to Factfulness and pointing out our tendencies to be bearish. I’ll check that out. The unemployment rate, while historically low, is just one number though. If we look at another number, the hiring rate, on its own (which we shouldn’t do) a bleak picture surfaces and indicates we could already be at the beginning of a recession (which isn’t usually declared until months or years after it begins) and that it could be a particularly bad one. But there I go, being a negative Nelly.
On a larger scale, has anyone in MN DFL considered a petition for a statewide recall against Republicans both in the state legislature and in Congress? They are clearly on a power grab at both state and federal level and need to be recalled.