Rochester Today: Natural Gas Franchise Fee and Waterboarding

The Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques and the proposed franchise fee for Rochester's natural gas utility were among the topics covered on Tuesday's Rochester Today show with Andy Brownell and Tom Ostrom on KROC-AM. 

Tom started the program by reading from a letter penned by Rochester State Senator and former Rochester City Councilmember Dave Senjem. He was critical of the current City Council for considering collecting a franchise fee from Minnesota Energy Resources, which would have added a dollar a month to residential natural gas bills in Rochester.

The City Council, on Monday, shot down the proposal in response to opposition from citizens. The fee would have generated about $350,000 dollars for the city next year and the council will now have to decide how to erase the shortfall.

Last week, the Democrats holding the majority on the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report that detailed and criticized the methods used by the CIA to interrogate captured al-Qaeda operatives in the months that followed the 9-11 attacks. Much of the report concerned "waterboarding," but it also included information about interrogations of captured terrorists involving harsher methods.

Despite the graphic nature of the report and the years that have passed since the 9-11 attacks, polls show a slim majority of Americans support the CIA interrogation tactics.

You can listen to the discussion of the issues by Tom and Andy, along with callers to KROC-AM by clicking on the play button below.

To download the show, right-click here.