SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

THE PHONINESS FLOWS – FROM ALPHANEWS:   Casinos, bars, and restaurants on Native American tribal lands in Minnesota have remained open throughout the COVID-19 emergency, despite restaurants and bars being forced to shut down everywhere else in the state.  Establishments on reservations have advertised buffets and free shuttles, encouraging patrons to visit for in-person meals.  Bars and restaurants were closed from Nov. 20 to Jan. 10 under an executive order issued by Gov. Tim Walz, but casinos were packed with customers who didn’t always wear masks and disregarded social-distancing requirements, according to pictures from earlier this month. Mystic Lake Casino Hotel invited Minnesotans to dine at its steakhouse on Thanksgiving. At the time, Minnesotans were prohibited from holding private gatherings with members of other households.  What a fraud.  I guess it depends on who you know and how many votes you can bring in.

A NEW VENTURE – FROM THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE:   The patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs is getting back in the newsgathering business.  The Omaha World-Herald reported on Sunday that billionaire businessman and philanthropist Joe Ricketts is hiring staff to launch an online national news source called Straight Arrow News.  “I think there’s a gap in the market — there’s no source for unbiased, fact-based news,” Ricketts told the World-Herald in an emailed response to questions last week. “And I believe there’s a business opportunity there.”  It isn’t the politically conservative Ricketts’s first journalistic endeavor.  He launched DNAinfo, a news website that provided local coverage in Chicago and New York, in 2009. He later bought Gothamist, another New York-based news site, and then merged the two.  But by November 2017, amid staff unionization efforts, the Tribune reported, Ricketts shut down DNAinfo and the Gothamist sites, saying the ad-supported business model was not viable. The staff’s decision to unionize made it harder for the business to be financially successful, a DNAinfo spokesperson said at the time.   We wish him luck.  The more news organizations, the better.  We're not going to change the mediocre ones we have now, so a new venture is always welcome.

January 17, 2021