This morning, at coffee before the Wilder Foundation conference on homelessness, I met Gretchen Blais from the non-profit Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans. Today and tomorrow (May 25 and 26), MACV is sponsoring the annual StandDown for veterans at Fort Snelling. This is one of many stories that I hoped we could cover, but could not - including:

• the May 13 St. Paul Board of Ed listening session (and board meetings),
• the May 19 Native Nations movie and forum,
• the MVNA teen pregnancy assistance programs.

If you would like to help, check the Assignment Desk for stories you could cover, or send us a story from your community organization, religious center, youth group, library, park ... we need you to help cover our community. And that StandDown story? Read on ...

NPR is coming to town to put the Twin Cities in the spotlight of its State of the Re:Union show.

Ten failing schools in Chicago's lowest-income neighborhoods jump-started a turn-around in two years. On Friday, the ACH-Learning Gap committee will hear how they did it.

The Uptake does real journalism - in video, with lots of volunteers and on a low budget - and it has fought for the right of non-traditional journalists to report from and on the state legislature. After leading a successful push for access last year, over the objections of some legislators from both parties, The Uptake now faces a new challenge from media colleagues.