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• ST. PAU L • ‘‘ N E V E R IRON A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER—YOU DON’T

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MARCH

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THE WINNERS
WA N T TO PRESS YOUR L U C K .’’ ANON. •

WE HELP YOU PICK

ø (Hint: Here’s what the Final Four might look like.)
D E TA I L S IN SPORTS

MARCH



JUSTICE WARNS OFCRISIS INCOURTS
“Things are going to start to break down” if the judicial budgets get cut much
further, said state’s chief justice, who will leave the bench in June.
By RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER rachel.stassen-berger@startribune.com

A bright idea in the states’ rights fight?
Bill would allow Minnesota firms to make and sell incandescent light bulbs after
a federal ban kicks in.
By BAIRD HELGESON baird.helgeson@startribune.com

State Rep. Dean Urdahl has a message for the federal government: Keep your laws off
my light bulbs. The retired teacher from Grove City — along with state Rep. Tom
Emmer, a Republican candidate for governor — has drawn a new weapon in the battle
to beat back the hand of the federal government:

incandescent light bulbs, the kind that have been around for a century. A handful
of GOP lawmakers have launched a legislative crusade to let Minnesotans keep buying
convention- Urdahl al light bulbs after the federal government orders lights-out
on selling old bulbs in 2014. The backers have re-ignited a long-simmering debate
about the environmental merits of energy-efficient bulbs while at the same time putting
Minnesota, along with a growing list of other states, headlong into a states’ rights
show-

down with Washington. “I want Minnesota to take a stand; we have the right to do
this,” said Urdahl, a fourth-term Republican. “If a lawsuit is the result, so
be it.” Urdahl is pushing legislation that would allow Minnesota companies to produce
and sell conventional bulbs in the state after the federal government prohibits their
sale. He’s got no big beef with the new energy-saving variety; he’s got three
in his kitchen. “The real problem I have with this ban
Bulbs continues on A13 Ø

B AT T L E O F THE BULBS:

The yearly cost of operating a 60watt incandescent bulb is $47.30 vs. $11.86 for
a 15watt CFL, above. Comparison, A13

Speaking outside the court for the first time since he announced his resignation,
Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson said Tuesday that the state’s
justice system is strained nearly to the point of breaking down. “We are running
a really big engine with almost no oil in the crankcase, and things are going to
start to break down if we get a significant cut in this legislative session,” said
Magnuson, who made it known last week that he will leave the bench in June. Facing
nearly $15 million in proposed budget cuts, Magnuson envisions more backlogs and
deMagnuson lays, more drug court closings, public-counter closings and “delaying
justice to Minnesota citizens.” Magnuson’s two years on the bench have been marked
by a constant fight for money. As the head of the state’s judiciary, he led an
extraordinary effort to push back against cuts proposed by the man who appointed
him — Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Early in his term as chief, Magnuson pulled together a
coalition of sheriffs, county officials, prosecutors and public defenders and traveled
the state to make his most important case — that the state’s justice system couldn’t
withstand deep cuts and still thrive. Now he says, the judiciary is “struggling”
and if another round of cuts proposed by Pawlenty is imposed, the system may have
to look at simply delivering fewer services. “We may have to look at changing what
we are doing, not just how we’re doing it,” Magnuson said. “And I’d hate
Magnuson continues on A12 Ø

Corner vigil for teen hit by truck

» WEATHER

» TOP NEWS

Patchy fog in morning, then clearing. B8

HECKER ORDERED TOPAY EX-WIVES

A judge threatened the former auto mogul with jail time unless he comes up with the
money. D1 Cities on guard for flooding

River towns around state are waiting to spring into action. B1

Sun Country flying to London
Local carrier will offer flights from June 11 through Aug. 15. D1

Beverage maker plans to remove drinks from schools worldwide by 2012. A11

Pepsi to pull sugary drinks

RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII • rtsong-taatarii@startribune.com

Robin Sven Pillmann and Alendrea Jenkins tended to a memorial Tuesday at the corner
of Lexington and Selby in St. Paul. It was in honor of Isaiah Vinson, 17, a Central
High School junior who was fatally struck by a city Parks and Recreation truck at
the corner earlier in the day. Police are investigating the accident. Story, B1.

health care

THE GREAT DEBATE

Democrats scramble for shortcut to approval
Leaders say some fancy parliamentary footwork could let them pass overhaul without
directly voting on it.
By KEVIN DIAZ kdiaz@startribune.com WASHINGTON – Plan B in the Democrats’ endgame
strategy on health care could be an arcane legislative maneuver that makes the so-called
nuclear option sound like a firecracker: National health care reform could pass without
a direct vote. With a still-uncertain vote tally in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi
says she might forgo a showdown vote on the Senate-passed health legislation that
has been a tough sell with fellow Democrats.

Your online use reveals more than you think
Computer users dole out details on social networking sites that can allow their identifying
data to be deduced.
By STEVE LOHR • New York Times

Brian Anderson of Mpls.St.Paul magazine battled leukemia. B1

Noted Twin Cities editor dies

The mood outside the Schaumburg, Ill., office of Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean
was as divided as Congress as protesters on both sides showed up to voice their opinions
Tuesday.
Photos by PAUL BEATY • Associated Press

Housing protest in east Jerusalem
Palestinians set fires and threw stones at Israeli riot police. A10

Sides play hardball in final push to pass overhaul. A3
Instead, in an act of legislative jujitsu, she might have the House vote only on
a separate package of amendments that “fix” some unpalatable Senate side deals,
such as the infamous Cornhusker Kickback to Nebraska. Voting on those amendments
would “deem” the House to have passed the underlying health bill. Democrats are
calling it “deem and pass.” Republicans call it “deem and scheme.” The aptly
named “self-executing rule” has upped the ante substantially in the waning hours
of a long partisan duel over health care. Minnesotans in Congress are increasingly
polarized. “This is nothing more than a method to ignore the will of the American
people and eliminate accountability for doing so,” said Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn.
“If the bill was good policy, this wouldn’t be necessary.” “Republicans are
objecting because they don’t want health reform,” said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.
“They are making a procedural argument because they want to thwart the content
of the bill.” Either way, it could save the Democrats’ health care agenda
Congress continues on A3 Ø

f a stranger came up to you on the street, would you give him your name, Social Security
number and email address? Probably not. Yet people often dole out all kinds of personal
information on the Internet that allows such identifying data to be deduced. Services
such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are oceans of personal minutiae — birthday
greetings sent and received, school and work gossip, photos of family vacations,
movies watched and books read. Computer scientists and policy experts say that such
small, seemingly innocuous bits of self-revelation can increasingly be collected
and reassembled by computers to help create a complete picture of a person’s identity,
sometimes down to the Social Se-


curity number. “Technology has rendered the conventional definition of personally
identifiable information obsolete,” said Maneesha Mithal, associate director of
the Federal Trade Commission’s privacy division. “You can find out who an individual
is without it.” In a class project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
that received some attention last year, Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree analyzed
more than 4,000 Facebook profiles of MIT students, including links among online friends.
The pair created software that predicted, with 78 percent accuracy, whether a profile
belonged to a gay male. The technique was verified using a group of students who
had freely identiPrivacy continues on A6 Ø

» HAVE YOU HEARD?
More than 36.3 million U.S.residents claim Irish ancestry (that’s more than eight
times the 4.4 million population of Ireland itself). The world’s first St. Patrick’s
Day parade was March 17,1762,in New York City. For information about today’s Twin
Cities parades, go to B3. Tiger Woods will return to golf at the Masters tournament
in April. C2
S TA R T R I B U N E

« WHEN [WORKING] ONLINE, YOU SHOULD BEHAVE AS IF YOU’RE DOING IT IN PUBLIC. »
Jon Kleinberg, a professor at Cornell University

Volume XXVIII • No. 347 Minneapolis, St. Paul March 17, 2010