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More than $17 million was donated to non-profits and charities last week in Minnesota's well-documented Give to the Max Day, but as near as we can tell, not a dollar went to an organization with a singular purpose of helping parents pay for a decent funeral for their deceased children. There doesn't appear to be one, and I've heard enough 

stories like the one KARE told last night

Some counties do provide a few thousand dollars to "indigent individuals" for funeral expenses -- a single parent making more than $27,000 a year wouldn't qualify, usually, and the cost of the funeral can't exceed $3,500, which is about half the cost of an average funeral these days.

As a result, parents have to liquidate non-cash assets to bury their children at the worst possible time.

Or go panhandling as the family and friends of 21-year-old Brandy Banks-Sutta had to do after she was killed in a car accident earlier this month. This one has a happy ending, though. They went to deposit $64 in donations -- what's that get you in the funeral business? -- when they found out 

someone had donated thousands of dollars for the funeral.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1684512068001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAACC6OgzE~,L0bTvfk9n15FmF18purmAD2hu9UP9YRL&bctid=2852343079001

The $5,000 funeral probably wouldn't have been possible had the family not been able to get their plight covered earlier this week by 

. But we wonder how many families don't get a media break, and whether there's an opportunity for a more organized ongoing charitable effort to fill a need?

2) THE UNRAVELING AT THE MINNEAPOLIS FED 

What is happening at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank?

Feuding economists isn't necessarily a sexy controversy as controversies go. But on his blog, 

, Stephen Williamson describes a shakeup in which new Fed president 

 is said to be dumping staff in its once-admired research department:

At risk, he says, is a relationship between the Minneapolis Fed and the University of Minnesota under which the Fed provided research assistance in exchange for top academics.

Maybe that unraveling isn't so bad, a commenter suggests, if the academics go back to teaching:

The comments section of the blog post, by the way, destroys the theory that blog comments can't be valuable and insightful.

3) IT'S OVER FOR STADIUM OPPONENTS HERE. ON TO ATLANTA! 

The Minnesota Vikings and their state benefactors will break ground on the new, billion-dollar stadium on Dec. 3, 

. There has been, he reports, "wheeling and dealing" to make the stadium design fit the budget. A billion dollars these days forces you to build an NFL stadium on the cheap.

It's over for stadium opponents here. Things are shifting now to Atlanta, where the Braves announced plans to build a new baseball stadium.

When it was announced last week, the Braves suggested no public money would be involved. Now, 

 has been created, claiming that the taxpayers will be on the hook for $300 million. The county commissioners plan a vote in a week.

The stadium announcement took most people by surprise. But someone must have known. The 

 says in advance of last week's announcement, investors were buying up land near the stadium site.

The Atlanta Tea Party and the Sierra Club -- think about that combination for a moment -- 

are holding a joint rally against the plan next week.

The odds are they'll fail, anti-stadium activists usually do.

 You could've had this trophy, Minnesota.

The Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins had a contest this year to 

see which franchise could sign up the most people to pledge to use a designated driver.

 Cleveland won, even though it ranked near last in attendance last year, while Minnesota ranked 17th.

One in seven Minnesotans has DUI on their record. Maybe not so much in Ohio?

Attorney General Lori Swanson didn't do much to hide her disgust with county officials who didn't oppose the release of sex offender Thomas Duvall, who came close to leaving the confines of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program before Gov. Mark Dayton 

"Neither the county attorney nor MSOP opposed the discharge or had Duvall re-examined by the independent experts prior to deciding not to oppose his release," Swanson wrote.

Strib columnist Gail Rosenblum writes today, however, that Duvall 

shouldn't derail attempts to "treat" sex offenders

 in Minnesota. She says if offenders don't believe they'll ever be sprung from their treatment program, they won't put much into it:

In 2009, Sarah Ernhart, the owner of Sarah Beth Photography in Minneapolis, photographed a woman who was in hospice care and needed a service dog, Joy. "The dog had saved the woman’s life multiple times by breaking her fall, letting her know when her blood sugar was low and sensing when she was about to have a seizure," 

"I’ve never had to experience what these people have to experience,’’ she said. “I grew up on a farm and dealt with death on a regular basis, but I never had to go through things like this.”

It led her to start photographing people with their terminally ill pets, and to start a directory where pet owners can find other photographers to do the same thing.

 will have you remembering every pet you've had since you were a kid.

Fake Bemidji cop cars cruise Calgary for ‘Fargo’ filming 

Tracked Since Birth: The Rise Of Extreme Baby Monitoring 

Pioneer Press erecting online paywall this week 

 (Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal).

. Be sure to change the channels and note that the worst lip syncing is the channel with Bob Dylan.

(9-12 p.m.) - First hour: The art of gerrymandering congressional districts.

Second hour: Dr. Carl Hart, who studied people and addicts, including his own family, to examine addiction and policy. He found that class plays as much a role as race in addiction.

Third hour: James McBride, author of "The Good Lord Bird."

 (12-1 pm) - JFK: Dallas Remembers," a special from the BBC.

 (1-2 p.m.) - President Obama is calling for a deal with Iran, but some of our allies in the Middle East - most notably Israel - and several members of Congress from both parties are deeply skeptical. Congressman Eliot Engel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee explains the way forward

 (3-6:30 p.m.) - Gov. Mark Dayton has not said much about a potential second-term agenda should he win re-election next year. But in an interview, Dayton said he remains interested in expanding gambling as an alternative revenue source.

During his first campaign Dayton talked about a state-run casino at the Mall of America but dropped the proposal after opposition from tribal casinos and officials in Bloomington. Dayton is now talking about casino gambling at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. MPR's Mark Zdechlik will report.

Jazz trumpeter, Arturo Sandoval, left his native Cuba because there, he says, he had to check with the government for permission to play what he wanted, when he wanted, the way he wanted. Now he's being awarded his adopted country's highest civilian honor. NPR will have the story.

NewsCut

Bob Collins

Author

Funeral panhandling, what’s happening at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve,  it’s over for stadium opponents so on to Atlanta, when sex offenders almost walk,  and the ‘joy sessions.’

Begging for funerals, a failed anti-stadium fight, and when sex offenders almost walk (5×8 – 11/20/13)

Go Deeper.

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