Bob CollinsThe Minnesota Twins have banned e-cigarettes before anyone has done enough studies to determine whether the vapors are harmful to anyone. WCCO reports the ballclub recently added the “nooooo e-cigarettes” announcement to its patented no-smoking advisory, leading some to wonder why not?
“It just smells like what you’re vaping on, so if you’re vaping on lemonade, it just smells like lemonade,” the owner of an e-cigarette shop said.
The move to e-cigarettes corresponds not only to the smoking ban, but also to the recent increase in the state’s cigarette tax.
“We don’t know what they are emitting into the air.” Anne Joseph, a tobacco researcher at the University of Minnesota, tells the Charlotte Observer.
That’s enough for an outright ban on them, reasons the Bloomberg editorial board, although those who disagree note that plenty of products emit more chemicals into the air than e-cigarettes. And, ironically, Target Field is downwind — sometimes — from a Hennepin County garbage burner.
More stadium rules: Women strike back against the new NFL rules banning purses. (h/t: John Olson)
We know. The empty nest can be a cruel thing, as many parents are about to find out when they send the last formerly little one off to college in a week or so.
Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson acknowledges the obvious in his column today, fellas.
But with due respect to my son’s feelings, I have the worse of it. I know something he doesn’t — not quite a secret, but incomprehensible to the young. He is experiencing the adjustments that come with beginnings. His life is starting for real. I have begun the long letting go. Put another way: He has a wonderful future in which my part naturally diminishes. I have no possible future that is better without him close.
There is no use brooding about it. I’m sure my father realized it at a similar moment. And I certainly didn’t notice or empathize. At first, he was a giant who held my hand and filled my sky. Then a middle-aged man who paid my bills. Now, decades after his passing, a much-loved shadow. But I can remember the last time I hugged him in the front hallway of his home, where I always had a room. It is a memory of warmth. I can only hope to leave my son the same.
No truer words were spoken than the ones that you heard so often you rolled your eyes when the kid first came home from the hospital: They grow up so fast.
Related: Parenting: Letting go & moving on (Minnesota Prairie Roots)
3) THE REAL TOUGHEST JOB YOU’LL EVER LOVE
First it was too wet. Now it’s too dry. The crop was expected to be poor. Then it was expected to be the second-best ever. Now it’s behind schedule.
This farming stuff is tough stuff. So why don’t older farmers just give up and do something else?
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There’s nothing better for a college freshman than hearing “your tuition this semester is on the house.”
At Ball State, Markus Burden, 18, got a chance at free college by taking a basketball shot during the school’s “welcome week” festivities.
That’s an $11,000 bucket.
Who would send a letter like this?
The letter was sent to the grandmother of a 13-year-old Max Begley’s in Newcastle, Ontario, on Friday. It has had unintended consequences, however. The neighbors have united to try to find out who sent it.
Bonus I: In South Dakota, Beef Jerky, Swimming, and a Search for Spiritual Relief. (Deborah Fallows)
Bonus II: Winonan Gary Dare papers the town with planes.
Bonus III: It’s National Radio Day.
TODAY’S QUESTION
What do you think of the new endangered species list for Minnesota?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Daily Circuit (9-12 p.m.) – First hour: Rep. Tim Walz and Rep. Collin Peterson.
Second hour: An update on the Minnesota Orchestra lockout.
Third hour: In her first book, Coming Up Short, Jennifer Silva suggests that current media depicts the struggles of millenials from the perspective that they all come from upper-middle to upper-class backgrounds. From her own experiences and based on her research, she found a whole class of millienials who similarly struggle in finding employment and financial stability. However, these millennials tend to not have the same safety net or choices their counterparts have. The Daily Circuit will talk with Silva and Nona Willis Aronowitz about their research and what they would suggest to ensure America doesn’t let a group of young people fall through the cracks.
MPR News Presents (12-1 pm): From the Aspen Ideas Festival: The director of the Centers for Disease Control, Tom Frieden on “What Does the CDC do to Protect You?”
The Takeaway (1-2 p.m.) – The Conflict in Egypt: A Proxy for Competing Ideologies in the Middle East.
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – The HBO. series Treme provides a taste of everyday peoples lives in post-Katrina New Orleans. And it’s inspired a book that can provide an actual taste of their legendary, everyday cuisine. Recipes from the shows characters make up the Treme cookbook. One of writers behind that book and the show joins NPR’s segments to talk about the flavor of New Orleans.
