It's not surprising that "What are you wary about today" is the Question of the Day due, given the ever-forboding Ides of March; however, its timing is convenient because I finally feel like I can adequately explain my answer.

In recent weeks, I have been very anxious and I couldn't put my finger on what was causing it. I knew that being the single night-side Web Producer in a Top 15 Nielsen Market station in an election year would be difficult, if not only because it would dramatically increase the amount of political coverage I'd have to kick out on top of the day's news. As predicted, the workload is heavier, the days are longer, and the content is more intellectually exhausting. I know I'm tired and that I tend to be more sensitive when I'm not well rested, but I never counted on these emotions.

I spent weeks struggling to figure out why I feel like I''m being muffled or silenced. I feel like my voice isn't being heard. This, of course, is absurd. I write and publish dozens of articles as accurately as I can on the daily in the office. Every night, I speak with a group of friends about what nonsense our political leaders have gotten up to. The next morning, I share some of it online if I'm still feeling riled. Half a dozen usually people respond and even more "like" it.

After further analysis, I realized that the issue was not that the information wasn't well-presented or recieved. It's that I don't feel the gravity of the data is sinking in. Basically, what I am saying is that I'm losing my inner honeybadger, and am to the point where I am now giving several shits. In fact, I give so many that I am constantly carrying around a heap of cynical crap, but I don't always feel like other people are giving their fair fecal contribution to the issue.

Now, I do realize that I am more susceptible to these steaming servings due to my near-constant political immersion at work of late, and I am fully willing to admit that some of the little things occasionally seem more dramatic than they actually are. However, there are some profoundly disturbing trends right now and it scares me that a lot of people are so disenchanted they just don't care. I also think I'm feeling particularly vulnerable because I am a woman.

By now, I think everyone knows that certain Legislative movements in various states and comments by political figureheads have been very offensive and demeaning to women. Some of them I believe to be crimes against humanity, and the constant struggle for a woman's right to govern her own body and health freely is demoralizing when harmful obstacles are being put in the way of care in a blatantly hypocritical and sexist way. Abortion is legal, yet women in Texas will essentially need to consent to being raped with a 10-inch wand and then go home and think about her choice for 24 hours, no doubt causing considerable physical discomfort and emotional distress, before she can access a procedure that was previously offered without those measures. Working women in Arizona who use contraceptive medicines to control migraines or crippling PMS may face an employer's interrogation over their sex lives or lose their jobs. Religious organizations are furious that the Obama administration wants insurance companies to cover contraceptive medicines, but no one seems to care that most insurers cover Viagra and vasectomies, which are all the rage during March Madness. Over 600,000 American men get them each year.

The tenor of discussions in the media is almost more revolting, especially with shock jocks calling women who use birth control sluts and suggesting that having insurance cover medication is akin to wanting to be paid for sex. Having a presidential candidate who was quoted on the 1994 campaign trail saying single mothers are "breeding more criminals" doesn't help either, especially when you consider that a lawmaker in my home state now wants to legally recognize single-parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse.

It's not just the women's issues that I think should be pulling at the public's attention either. There's the fact that signed a bill into law that tramples the First Amendment-guaranteed right to assembly and could make protesting a political event a crime. Or that he gave the green light to drones over the U.S. despite unanswered concerns about privacy, regulation, maintenance cost and security. Don't even get me started on the National Defense Authorization Act and the death of habeus corpus.

These are all decisions and discussions that will affect -- and are already impacting -- the lives of millions of Americans. These issues, votes and signatures could fundamentally alter the way our country operates -- largely for the worse, I fear. I worry even more when I see my fellow citizens willfully maintain political ignorance or flatly deny facts -- like that the rate of violent crime severely declined after the legalization of abortion, and that child abuse has also declined. Or that research consistently shows that teen pregnancies increase under abstinence-only education because -- SPOILER ALERT -- it doesn't lead to abstinence. Yet, some people will argue passionately that these are not observable truths and fight to make them into policy under law.

It seems to me that many Americans do not have an appropriate sense of perspective when it comes to politics. Many of the passionate few are ideologues, the passively-interested crowd tends to be fickle, but even more people are genuinely apathetic. Hell, over 40 percent of the eligible population just simply didn't vote in 2008. Now, there's talk of voter disenfranchisement and we haven't even got a GOP nominee yet.

Part of it is the fault of the media, and I know that I too am among the guilty. We know that anything longer than 500 words -- e.g. this virtual novella -- won't get any attention from most web surfers. So, we keep it brief to remain competitive while providing a service I still believe is fundamentally important to democracy. However, in doing so, we lose so much nuance in brevity. It's hard to adequately relay the tangible, human effects in 3 minutes of fleeting airtime, though many fine professionals give it their best shot every day to varying degrees of success. But I feel like we've lost a lot of depth and comprehension in our quest for creating the fastest and dispassionately concise news fare. Just earlier today, I complemented our weekend anchor on a a story he did about barbers seeking a law to require a license to display a barber pole. It was quirky yet oddly easy to relate to, and it was an American story. He said to me, "It felt great to do a real story again. We don't do that anymore." It's a sad commentary that proves all to true on more days than not.

The thing that keeps my feet on the ground -- and me in the saddle at the news desk -- is that there is still time and there is motion. The New York Times had a fascinating profile on how Centrist -- even moderate Republican -- women are growing disenchanted with the GOP-led restrictions and candidates, though sadly some now say they feel less inclined to vote. Yet, there are those who now plan to vote for -- and campaign for -- Obama now. A prominent employee of Goldman Sachs publicly proclaimed disgust at the company's culture and practices, ultimately quitting as a matter of conscience. Locally, a judge just denied a bank's attempt to demand a quarter of a million dollars from an elderly Minnesota man who was struggling with dementia when the loan was signed. And even though they're awful, hateful and dangerous amendment proposals like gay marriage bans and voter identification laws will bring people to ballot boxes. Oh, and it's totally awesome that judges are declaring those laws unconstitutional, because they totally are.

But we need an informed populace. This is vital, because the ignorant are easily misled with manipulative emotional ploys or misrepresented statistics. Is there any better example than the KONY 2012 viral campaign that swept across social media this week, despite the fact that Kony hasn't been seen in Uganda since 2005 and the people behind the project only put about 30 percent of all revenues toward their stated mission? Or the fact that the charity, Invisible Children, said Thursday it's not actually affiliated with KONY 2012, and the translated screening in Uganda was shut down when viewers began hurling rocks in outrage? Yet, millions of people shared this video as if it were the biggest social crisis they'd seen while completely ignoring that child sex trafficking happens in the U.S. too. Perspective, man. I'm telling you.

When society starts to think that liking a Facebook status is tantamount to political involvement, we need to do more to educate our neighbors and discuss what is important in our communities. After all, helping our fellow countrymen should be a happy task for us because every little improvement makes us all stronger. In that mindset we can begin to succeed, and I think we still can.

Hey y'all. Sorry I disappeared yesterday. I've been working on an actual news site instead of operating out of my personal livejournal.

So! If you still want to get your updates, you can get all the latest information (still provided by me!) at channel4000.com. We are not affiliated with AP, and we generate all our own content and share with our partners at CNN. Pop on over for all the home-grown news you can handle.

This is your friendly neighborhood journalist signing on to tell you she's signing off for a bit.

In the interim, I have comprised a links list of related content:

• Fatigue Evaluation of the Deck-Truss Bridge 9340 from March 2001 [PDF]
  
• ABC News: What it takes to survive
  
• CNN: NTSB begins investigation [a sort of "how this will go down" article]
  
• CNN: Previous reports on Bridge 9340 and what they mean...
  
• ^*NEW* Channel 4000: Timeline of Events [interactive]
  
• ^*NEW* 35W Bridge Disaster Photo Pool

^*Added at 9:50 PM, 8/2/2007

Click Image for Video of Bridge Collapsing

Updated at 9:41 PM, 8/2/2007

According to the Star Tribune, the names of four confirmed dead have been released. They are:

Sherry Lou Engebretsen, 60, of Shoreview. She died from multiple blunt-force injuries.

Julia Blackhawk, 32, of Savage, and Artemio Trinidad-Mena, 29, of Minneapolis, both died of blunt force trauma.

Patrick Holmes, 36, of Moundsview, drowned.


If any of these four was a friend or relative, my sincerest condolences go out to you and yours. I will keep your families in my prayers.

Click Image for Video of Bridge Collapsing

Updated at 7:48 PM, 8/2/2007

The focus has shifted from rescue to recovery today, but at roughly 3 P.M. Thursday afternoon the recovery operations were suspended due to high winds and swift currents as the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers proceeds to lower the water level of the Mississippi by 2 feet using the downriver Ford Dam. Water levels typically range between 4 and 13 feet in the section of river where the bridge fell. Divers were pulled from the water before they could extract an more victims, but Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said there are more bodies in the submerged vehicles.

Yesterday's numbers have been corrected. There are only 4 reported deaths, but there are 79 reported injured, and at least 20 people are missing. As previously mentioned, the death toll is expected to rise.

I went to Father Hennepin Park to see if I could catch a glimpse of the wreckage, and to talk to anyone who may have been there when it happened. I could see bits and pieces, and I talked to a few people who tried, unsuccessfully, to go help before they were shooed away by the police.

While I was there, I stumbled into a press conference. This is what I learned:

Tom Sorel, the Federal Highway Administrator, spoke and said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will help with an expedited design and construction as soon as possible (a.k.a. once the investigation is complete). The US Government has pledged reconstruction aide, and has already supplied $5 million for use in assisting with the traffic re-routing process.

Evidently, the I-35W bridge had noticeable cracks that had been documented as early as the 1990s, but they "were not populating." Nevertheless, the bridge had been labeled "structurally deficient." According to Sorel, the cracks were formed by 1960s welding techniques, but they were monitored over the years and were not growing.

Around the time recovery operations ceased, Governor Pawlenty promised immediate inspection of three similarly built bridges. The technical term for this type of bridge structure is the 1960s Arch-Deck Truss design - although, I'm not sure how to punctuate that. The bridges that are scheduled to be inspected will remain open while the inspection takes place until the "snooper trucks" arrive, at which point single lanes will be closed. Those bridges are located trunk highways 23, 120 & 123, and 243. All of these bridges are smaller, do not undergo the same traffic amount, but they are of the same structure type.

With this type of bridge, failure of one truss could precipitate the failure of all, according to Sorel.

Unlike what was previously reported, this bridge was not simply suspended above the water. Rather, it had a single pier of support in the water.

The most recent study by the URS confirmed that the bridge was "structurally deficient" and gave MnDOT two options:

1. To use metal plates to strengthen/reinforce the bridge.
   
2. To inspect the bridge with various safety tests.

MnDOT chose the latter on the grounds that drilling and doing work on the bridge could potentially damage it further.

"We thought we had done what we could," said Sorel. "Obviously, something went wrong."

This collapse has spurred many discussions about the failing infrastructure and about the Governor's recent dismissal of a transportation bill that would have included an incremental gas tax to the tune 10 cents per gallon in order to fund structural repairs Minnesota roads and bridges.

Despite this bill's dismissal, MnDOT former chief of staff Bob McFarland insists that there have not been any budget cuts or any inspector layoffs. Though he refuses to speculate about the reasons for the bridge's structural failure, he did say that deicing systems incorporated in the bridge's build are not being investigated as a concern or a factor in its collapse.

As always, more updates as they come.

This post is for anyone who may be entertaining fears or thoughts about possible terrorist involvement in the collapse of the 35W bridge in Minneapolis.

The answer is no. Terrorists did not do this in the same way that they did not orchestrate and send tonight's thunderstorm. There are so many targets that would have been better choices in terrorist attacks. We have a World Trade Center here, an international airport, and the Mall of A-freakin-merica for crying out loud.

Both the military and the Dept. of Homeland Security have been here and they have not found any evidence of terrorism. It's highly likely that this was just a tragic and unexpected structural failure. Don't let theories and what-ifs run away with you, and don't let emotions and fear mislead you. Facts will always serve you much better.

Speaking of factual statements made with evidentiary support, or the lack thereof, emotional and premature scapegoating is not only illogical but also unnecessary. Blame games like these are useless, and they destroy the humanity of the situation and turn it into a circus. While civilians and good Samaritans in the area rush to help each other and support one another, others spend time pointing fingers and hypothesizing about terrorism instead of the actual tragedy and the human response and the *gasp* facts.

So patience is a virtue, and truth is always more valuable than speculation. This is a difficult situation and we all want answers, but let's be rational about this.

The 35W South Interstate bridge near the University of Minnesota crumbled into the Mississippi River at 6 PM today.
Click here for photos.
Last Updated at 4:22 PM, 8/2/2007

Middle of rush-hour, dozens of cars plunged into the water off of a half-mile long, 65 ft high bridge that fell into a very dangerous, currently shallow river less than a quarter of a mile in front of a fully-operational dam. Here are the bridge specs.

This is a very heavily traveled route. I've driven it more times than I can count. It's right by Dan's house, right by the U, and goes right through dowontown. This is insane.

The road was under construction for cosmetic repair and replacing guard rails and lighting. No less than 18 construction workers were on the bridge when it fell, and most were free standing. Seven are injured and one is missing.

Cars disappeared in the muddy, brown current. A school bus full of 60 passengers, mostly kids, almost fell in but was pinned against the rail by a semi-trailer that caught fire. Everyone escaped safely.

The bridge and debris fell right onto the West and East river parkways and the bike trails, and crushing cars on those roads. There is a train pinned beneath the wreckage.

They've got rescue workers, medical teams, dozens of troopers and Minneapolis police on the scene, and thankfully the University hospital is only a few blocks away, but there are a lot of injured people. Medical practitioners and police staff from surrounding suburbs are coming in to help. Divers are already in the water. As of 8:30 AM there are 4 reported deaths, over 60 injured, and 20 people are missing. At least 50 cars fell into the river, and the death toll is expected to rise as those vehicles are recovered.

This disaster is being compared to an earthquake in California... except in California there are no cold, swiftly running rivers. Witnesses and survivors say it felt like a jack-hammer for a few seconds, and then fell instantaneously.

Heavy incoming calls from concerned friends and relatives have shut down cell phone towers due to intense traffic. According to KSTP, the city of Minneapolis is providing 12 hours of free wi-fi so citizens can attempt to contact their loved ones.

This will continue to update as more information comes in.

ETA: Oh, and there are severe thunderstorms on the way.

Holy crap, you guys. A girl was just mugged on our block, and there is blood on our stoop.

She lives in my building, in apartment 17. She was walking home from Lunds with a friend, carrying kitty litter and Tide liquid laundry detergent.

mattador and I were watching LOST, and we heard screaming for help and another woman shouting "let her go." We got up, looked out the window, and didn't see anything except two women standing in the lawn. We discussed briefly calling the cops, but they didn't seem to be in any continued danger so we decided against.

A few minutes later, I saw flashing lights against the kitchen wall. We got up, looked out the window and saw a fire truck, an ambulance, and a police car. The women were back outside, so we shut off the sound, paused the episode, and opened the window to try and hear. There were six people I could see. Two paramedics, two police, and the two women. We watched one woman walk to the ambulance, holding her arm which was visibly broken.

We decided to go outside and "smoke" aka get the scoop. In the hallway, we met our neighbor Kyle from across the hall, and our neighbor Aaron from downstairs. Then we learned that she had been mugged, and that we should avoid the front stoop.

We went around the back, and talked amongst ourselves for awhile before I went to talk to the police. Evidently they had just been walking home, and the man that mugged them had been following them. He was wearing dark clothes and was about 5'9". When they crossed the bike-path he grabbed her left arm and twisted it behind her. It's not clear whether her arm was broken while she struggled to get away or because she fell after he let go. Still, there was a fair bit of blood spattered on the concrete.

I don't know much else, besides that our upstairs neighbor, Faith, so the man run away towards the transit station. I don't know whether he actually succeeded in stealing anything, but I do know our neighbor from 17 will be okay, though shaken and with her dominant arm broken.

It's so bizarre, especially when I think about the fact that I've walked home alone so many times even later at night... and she was mugged at 8:30 p.m. while walking with a friend. I have seen a shady character skulking around the shadows in our alley, and I told the cops about him... and hopefully they'll be patroling more. I really felt this was a safe neighborhood, and it blows my mind that this happened.

Needless to say, I'm really glad I took Tae Kwon Do for five years... and that I have at least 2 pounds of metal on my 12-inch-choke-collar keychain.

Um... what happened to my sky?

It was bland and overcast, and now it is furious. I mean, it's 6:30 and it's almost black outside. These clouds aren't fuckin' around. There's gale-force wind, and I'm almost convinced that one of these branches is going to come through our window. This is not good. Plus, they're talking about "large hail" and that concerns me because Etain and Toca [our cars. We name them.] live outside.

What's really scary is that it's not even raining. There's no lightning, there's no thunder. There's just a whole mess of untimely dark, ferocious wind, and birds? No rly, and I don't know why. They're tumbling through the air like rockets with a broken rudders. No living creature should be out in this weather, let alone in the sky. I wont even let my dog go outside right now and she is rooted to the ground... and she's been whining for minutes.

ETA: Oh hey! There it goes! Torrential downpour and near-constant lightning with next to no wind! Sweet! Did I mention there's a lake in my street, 'cause there is.
ETA2: Five minutes later, my windows and screens are washed clean, and there's a SAAB floating outside.

omg, save me.