TCF's New "Insufficient Funds" Scam

In the wake of the supposed overdraft reform, outspoken right-winger Bill Cooper and his bank, TCF, have figured out other ways to gouge customers.

I only noticed because I received an overdraft despite the fact that I'd deposited money earlier in the day.

Here's how it works, according to a TCF customer service guy I spoke to on the phone, who said the policy recently changed:

• Deposits into ATMs after 3 p.m. are now pending transactions and not added to account until the next day (despite the fact that many ATMs are outside TCF branches that are open until 7 p.m. on weekdays).
• Debits on the account until 10:30 p.m. are also pending transactions, but they're assessed immediately against your old posted balance.
• This means you could put $1,000 into an account at 3:05 p.m., only be charged for a insufficient funds for an $11 dollar transaction at 3:06 p.m.
• The bank now treats deposits and expenditures differently and TCF makes $35 in the interim.

It's odd how this always works in favor of the bank, isn't it? It also seems to target the same demographic as their old overdraft scam -- Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck.

I'm not an expert in bank jargon, so if this scenario isn't precisely right, in terminology, I'd welcome corrections from TCF reps. Here's some other complaints about the practice.

But does this make other people want to make the switch to community banks or credit unions? What sort of experiences have people had with TCF or other complicated overdraft scams?

Update: I noticed another implication. A pending purchase that was immediately cancelled has been drawing money out of my balance for four days, despite the fact that it was cancelled and will never be posted.

How ethical are Minnesota's big businesses?

Covalence just released a study ranking 581 Dow Jones companies based on ethical issues like "labour standards, waste management, product social utility or human rights policy."

At least 11 companies based in Minnesota made the cut. Only Best Buy and General Mills broke 50 (barely). Most, like Target and US Bancorp, fell somewhere in the middle (this is probably the place to emphasize that all these rankings are relative, there are no saints on this list).

Failing dismally, in the bottom 10%, is Mosaic Co. They're a Monsanto-like chemical manufacturer. From their website, it looks like they specialize in crop additives, feed additives (yuck), and "specialized products." They were created in 2004 from a merger of IMC Global and Crop Nutrition division of Cargill.

Part of their business involves mining, including phosphates, using what a Florida resident calls "strip-mining." The company ran into a little opposition from environmentalists and townships in Florida, in retribution they used their legal muscle to challenge the townships' right to build water reservoirs, according to this editorial BY the Englewood Herald-Tribune. They were also actually fined by the state of Florida in 2004 for a spill at a phosphate processing plant that spilled millions of acidic wastewater into nearby creek. Not surprisingly, they've been active in the fight against wetland preservation.

45. Best Buy Co. Inc. | Retail

50. General Mills Inc. | Food & Beverages

136. Ecolab Inc. | Chemicals

198. 3M Co. | Industrial Goods & Services

257. Target Corp. | Retail

265. Unitedhealth Group Inc. | Health Care

276. US Bancorp | Banks

345. Ameriprise Financial Inc. | Financial Services

369. The Travelers Companies Inc. | Insurance

374. Medtronic Inc. | Health Care

500. Mosaic Co. | Chemicals

Review: Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life

Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life

By Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith

For those not familiar with her, Molly Ivins was a Texan daughter of privilege who rose through the ranks of newspaper and political journalism (including the Minneapolis Tribune) before becoming a successful nationally syndicated columnist. She died of cancer in 2007.

This is typical of her statements:

"The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion."

Molly Ivins is a personal hero of mine. Despite not always agreeing with her exact politics, her passion and sense of justice were undeniable. Her columns in the fallout after 9/11, when Bush somehow had 90 percent approval ratings, were a small light in the dark of unending war and cynical manipulations of fear. I'd bet that her final column, dictated to an assistant as she was racked by cancer, will bring tears to your eyes.

This recently released biography is an exhaustive chronological examination of Ivins, using letters, friends, and published writings. It guides us from her grandparents, through her revolt against her privileged upbringing as the daughter of a Texas oil man (sound familiar?), to her

position as one of the most popular columnists in the country. It really is a well-researched book that keeps Ivins' memory alive. I'd recommend it to anyone curious about her upbringing or path through journalism.

Despite the attention to detail and thrown-in curse words, what the book fails to do is capture the spirit of Molly Ivins.

It's interesting to see her high school elitism as she dabbles with Ayn Rand and a patrician

boyfriend, but it's only consequential as far as it builds the woman she becomes. The writers

spend much time analyzing Ivin's relationship with her father, attributing her activism to him and his bourgeois Texan values. And they sketch lines between Ivins and G.W. Bush, one of h

er main subjects in later life.

Essentially, it argues that the epic Texan Molly Ivins was a conscious creation (a difficult argument to prove considering we all play a hand in forging our identities). With all the time spent exploring her background, the book should instead be called "A Rebel Aristocrat."

But I'm reminded of stories that journalism elders passed down from Ivin's days at the

Minneapolis Tribune. I've been told she was a police reporter who dug in the muck enough for

the MPD to name their annual pig at their pig roast after her. I was told of her glee at the honor. The book tells instead of her testifying in court against police for her then-activist boyfriend. It strikes me that much of her myth was created by people who knew her through

stories like these-- yes, with some contexts smudged-- but these myths were themselves a testament to her character.

What I miss about this book is Molly's passion, her optimism, and her distrust of authority. While this book documents the details of her life and attempts to psychologically analyze her, a focus on the values to which she dedicated her existence would better have fit the title, "A Rebel Life."

Franken's Map of Minnesota

National Geographic asked all 100 U.S. senators if they would draw their states freehand to kick off Geography Awareness Week. It appears that Sen. Amy Klobuchar didn't reply, but here's Sen. Al Franken's interesting info-map to our great state.

Minnesota's 1996 'Inter-web' Newspaper of the Future!

In a completely bizarre move, the Minnesota State Demographics Center released a fake newspaper in 1996 that they titled "The Not Yet Gazette."

It was supposed to use demographic information to show what the state will be like in November 2025.

The site is totally worth exploring for gems like this: "Life on the Inside: Are ElderDorms Homes or Prisons for Old People?"

There's another article mentioning the slim election of a coalition led by a " Governor Sheriff Abdul Muhammed." (I don't know how they got that title out of demographic data.)

Also, in the future they call baby-boomers 'grasshoppers,' supposedly due to a parable about grasshoppers not saving for old age. I smell Gen-X all over this.

It's silly, but I'd rather consume demographic data through this forum than the typical presentation.

Although, it does seem naive to assume newspapers would be around in 2025.

Chuck Lewis, investigative journalist, politely listens to wingnuts at Silha Lecture Wednesday

Charles “Chuck” Lewis, spoke at the University of Minnesota as part of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law anniversary.

He's pretty amazing, talking about public service journalism, editorial spinelessness, and private interests' intimidation.

During his speech, he disclosed some of the internal controversies that he's run into in his years as an investigative journalist for ABC, CBS, and the Center for Public Integrity.

My favorites:

• ABC canceled an extensive report on a situation near Love Canal where Occidental dumped three times as many chemicals into the local drinking water supply as at Love Canal. His footage and information from a hundred or so interviews never made it out of the network.

• The head of CBS put pressure on 60 minutes' Mike Wallace not to report on the cigarette industry because the he was also head of a cigarette company. Wallace supposedly told him to go to hell.

• The Center for Public Integrity was sued by Russian Oligarchs. Lewis comments, "I hate when that happens." Their insurer lost more than $4 million fighting the case, which caused them to drop the center from its insurance. That spurred Lewis to raise a $5 million endowment and get guarantees that prestigious firms would do pro-bono work if the center was sued. According to Lewis, it's providing a model for the small non-profits that are sprouting up, to defend them from powerful moneyed interests. He said his legal philosophy now would be that a good offense is the best defense.

• He talked a lot about the dangers of private power (which is often discussed), mentioning that very few Pulitzers have been given for business reporting, largely because they face well-funded lawyers that threaten corporations' bottom lines. He rightly emphasized the impact of the Clinton-supported Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed these cautious (wth news) reckless (with money) corporations to buy up the old media and help gut its public service arms.

Unfortunately, the earlier MPR interview, where Lewis stated that investigative journalism is about holding authorities accountable and getting the "bastards," brought in its share of wingnuts (not that those aren't awesome and true statements).

They asked at length, in a packed room, about the 9/11 commission, Pakistan, their travels to other parts of the world, and their problems with cable journalism (and one guy tried to get everyone to raise their hands to take a survey, really). Lewis was polite, but they wasted time for those of us who came to hear about investigative journalism, a different animal, after all, than CSNBC.

MPR Interview:

Scathing Report on Immigration Detention

Dr. Dora Schriro compiled a scathing report (by academic standards) of the U.S. immigration detention system that will deport around 400,000 people by the end of this year, filtering them through eight different programs and at least four different government agencies. More than 30,000 are currently being detained at any given time.

In the Upper Midwest, the problem is less concentrated than in areas nearer to Mexico, but it's still bad, with a handful of detention centers that show little accountability to the judicial process or human rights like this heartbreaking aggregation at the Ny Times. MinnPost did a good overview of our state's system recently.

You can read the report yourself, thanks to the New York Times.

Here's some key findings that I thought were striking:

• Felons and others of crimes make up less than half of detainees, and get mixed in with asylum seekers and others.
• New technology and the deputization of local authorities could swell the numbers of non-criminals filtered through the system.
  
• The facilities are built and run like jails, but with little of the expected accountability.
• Detainees often have no access to law libraries or access to the court, little or no recreation, no family contact or visitation, and no allowance for religious observations.
• Health intake is casual, with suicidal and mentally ill detainees locked in segregation.
• Lawyers and family often have trouble finding where detainees are being held.
  

Starbucks Barista Allegedly Coerced Into Signing False Theft Settlement in St. Paul

With the defense of a fired and fined Ethiopian-American worker in St. Paul, the IWW Starbucks Workers Union continues its campaign to improve conditions for the coffee chain's workers.

The article, which was published on the union campaign's website, advocates for a woman referred to only as "Aizze," who the IWW says was threatened with jail by Starbucks' management while kept alone in a room for two hours. During that time, and because of her limited English, she was coerced into signing a false admission of theft that would cost her $1,200, according to the site. She was then fired, despite a lack of evidence or any history of theft.

The dispute is evidence of the IWW's willingness to unionize those who aren't typically represented by the American labor movement. That's a tradition in the IWW, of course. But in the current context, when the number of immigrants has rose to around 40 million and corporate chains with smaller shops increasingly dominate ("As of September 2007 the company had 172,000 employees worldwide, although since January 2008, the chain has announced more than 900 store closures and said it plans to cut as many as 6,700 jobs." - AP article), it could be an influential model for unionization. Not to mention that the union movement sorely needs some fighting spirit at a time when mainstream unions are tearing themselves apart with infighting.

The union urges supporters to "demand justice" by calling Starbucks officials listed at the site.

(Photo: IWW Starbucks Workers Union: http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/2152)

Minneapolis was a bridge between the living and the dead

Anyone who loves Minneapolis, a city I argue is among the top five in the world, will love this 1995 City Pages piece by current Minnesota Monthly "dining" critic Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl.

It's the type of piece that no one locally will do anymore. It's got the drama of an entire frontier city's cancerous growth and eventual sanitation: drunks, capitalism, assassination and populist demagogues. Written at a time when Minneapolis was dubbed "Murderapolis," Dara predicts a return of the bad old days.

Look at this (photo: Minnesota Historical Society, Bohemian Flats near the West Bank, 1898):

"These settlers had bought up a godforsaken place, which they proceeded to christen All Saints. "All Saints" then meant literally a place where the spirits of the dead mingled with the living: a terrifying, un-Christian place. Perhaps, since it was believed that witches and ghosts couldn't cross a moving stream, they thought that the land west of the Mississippi was especially haunted, rife with the spirits of the untamed territory sprawling out to the west."

Check out this hidden gem (Photo: Minnesota Historical Society, 1886):

"Dead Dogs" were the subject of a worried Minneapolis Tribune on July 12, 1867: "There are dead dogs laying around where they have died... and this warm weather will soon make them more of a nuisance than they were when alive." Dogs weren't the only problem: "If cows are kept by people in the city," complained the Tribune a month later, "they should be compelled to put them in a yard overnight. It is unsafe for a person to drive through our streets on a dark night for fear of running on to cows lying in the street... They are really a great nuisance, and make streets look like barn yards."


Read the whole thing, but here's one last appetizer(photo: Minnesota Historical Society, Bohemian Flats near the West Bank, 1900):

"The most violent of these shantytowns, Hell's Half Acre, occupied the block between Eighth and Ninth Streets and Second and Third Avenues South. Mead's History of the Police and Fire Departments described them as a settlement "of utter darkness, wailing, and woe. Bloody frays were a nightly occurrence.... The alleys were strewn with empty beer kegs and whisky bottles, and the latter were often used as weapons of warfare." Police were strongly discouraged from entering this area: Life was cheap there, and the community displayed such solidarity that police were greeted with the damping of all lanterns and candles, and were frequently pelted with bottles and rocks until they fled."

Tarryl Clark: DFL Superstar

State Sen. Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, announced this week that she'd take on Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Wingnut, in the 2010 sixth district Congressional race.

The news evidently surprised the unfortunately-named Elwyn Tinklenberg (who lost to Bachmann last year, despite Bachmann's enthusiastic help). After announcing his candidacy just a few weeks back, Tinklenberg dropped out Tuesday.

That's evidence of the political sway Clark has gained since winning her seat in the Republican-leaning district during a special election in 2005.

In the state Senate, considered to be the more tradition-bound of the state legislative bodies, Clark rose to Assistant Majority Leader in her first complete term. Throughout this year's session, she served as the face of the Senate DFL, delivering DFL talking points and attacks on Republicans with clarity and reason.

She's young, pretty and well-spoken, with the backing of labor and a moderate reputation, despite years of community activism. And her ambition is widely aknowledged at the Capitol. Before July, most rumors about Clark revolved around a run for the already cluttered governor's race. By moving into the 6th district race, especially with Tinklenberg gone, Clark eliminates the need for a bruising primary fight that could potentially damage her career (the other candidate, Maureen Reed, is a former Independent Party candidate and has little chance of gaining the DFL endorsement against Clark).

Since the last election, Bachmann has fallen further off her rocker, digging deep into right-wing conspiracies (Isn't it a miracle that she has't made a peep on the Obama Birther movement?). Even in 2008, Tinklenberg only lost by three percent, and he didn't really fight back; the endless stream of zany statements by our Midwestern Maverick, if taken advantage of by a savvy politician like Clark, could be devestating to the remnants of Bachmann's public image. Not to mention that Bachmann has become a favorite target of liberals like Keith Olbermann, which could herald a flood of out of state campaign donations for Clark.

One thing is clear: As long as Bachmann stays nears cameras and microphones, it's Clark's election to lose.