Minnesota State University Reporter

Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: News Bits

Minnesota

• A newborn boy was in critical but stable condition Wednesday after suffering second- and third-degree burns from a flame that ignited while he was under an oxygen hood at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.

Allina Hospital and Clinics, which owns Mercy, issued a statement saying the infant was in an open-topped bassinet under a warmer at the suburban hospital on Tuesday morning when the accident happened. The statement said the baby was wearing an oxygen hood and something in the oxygen-enriched environment ignited into flame.

An oxygen hood is a device that fits over a baby's face to supply additional oxygen.

Nursing staff were with the baby at the time and immediately put out the fire, Allina said. Allina spokesman David Kanihan declined to release the specific brand of oxygen hood and warmer being used, citing an ongoing investigation.

The baby, who was born three weeks premature, was transferred to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he was in the neonatal intensive care unit. He was in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator but was responding to treatment, said Dr. Leslie Smith, assistant director of the hospital's Burn Center.


• Rep. Jim Oberstar criticized the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday for suggesting a design flaw was the "critical factor" in the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, saying it was inappropriate to issue such a pronouncement while the investigation is ongoing.

At a news conference last week, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said steel plates connecting steel beams - known as gusset plates - were roughly half the 1-inch thickness they should have been because of a design error.

While stressing that a final cause is not yet known, Rosenker said, "It is the undersizing of the design which we believe is the critical factor here," adding, "This is a very important finding. This tells us why the bridge collapsed."

Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the House Transportation Committee, wrote in a letter to Rosenker that those comments were "highly inappropriate," given that the investigation is ongoing.


• Gov. Tim Pawlenty is threatening to withdraw his support for the Central Corridor light rail project if backers fail to trim the cost of the proposed train line.

In a letter dated Tuesday to the main players, he said the $70 million recommendation he gave the project in his bonding bill "could easily be transferred to projects of at least equal importance to Minnesota."

The proposed LRT line would connect the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Pawlenty said he won't support it unless the current $1.25 billion price tag is pared back to roughly $840 million.

A study of a proposed passenger rail line to connect Minneapolis and Duluth said the project could help generate almost $2 billion in development around five new rail stations.

National

• A former police officer suspected in the disappearance of his wife was ready to take part in a radio competition in which women would vie to date him before station officials canned the idea Wednesday.

Hours after radio host Steve Dahl agreed to the suggestion by Joel Brodsky, the attorney for former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson, WJMK-FM officials said the game would not take place.

"Steve never intended on doing this promotion or any promotion that would put his listeners in harm's way," station vice president/general manager Peter Bowen said in a prepared statement. "The dating game idea was conceived by Peterson and Brodsky, not by Steve Dahl or anyone else at the radio station."

Bowen said Peterson and his lawyer called Dahl's morning show unsolicited and proposed the "Win a Date with Drew" game.

World

• General Motors, a symbol of American industrial might and the world's top seller of motor vehicles since Herbert Hoover was president, has been all-but-overtaken by a foreign rival.

Toyota said Thursday it sold 9.366 million vehicles last year globally, about 3,000 vehicles fewer than the tally from General Motors Corp., just barely allowing the U.S. automaker to retain its crown as the world's No. 1 automaker.

All year long, the two automakers raced neck-and-neck in global sales, highlighting Toyota's phenomenal growth and the struggles facing GM and other American automakers.

Toyota had said as late as Wednesday that its annual total was 9.37 million vehicles, up 6 percent from 2006. GM said Wednesday in Detroit its global sales had risen 3 percent to 9,369,524 vehicles, making for a race that appeared too close to call.

But Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Paul Nolasco in Tokyo confirmed the extra digit in Toyota's sales Thursday, showing that GM's total was narrowly higher. GM has been the world's top seller for 77 years.

Despite the intense interest in their rivalry, both companies have played down the numbers games.

Toyota executives have repeatedly expressed worries about a possible backlash if they dethrone GM, an American icon. The Japanese automaker has been setting up more plants in North America and has tried to show it's a good U.S. corporate citizen.

Nolasco refused to comment on GM's retention of the No. 1 title. But he said Toyota sees sales growth as a reflection of how people recognize its products.

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