Environment
Ash trees will go in St. Paul, Minneapolis
When it comes to ash trees, it's not if they are going to disappear, it's when. "Ultimately all of the ash trees are going to die," said Ralph Sievert from the Minneapolis Forestry Department. "I use the analogy of a snowstorm. It's better to deal with eight inch snow storms every once in a while than an avalanche all at once." MORE »
Minnesota Clean Water Action introduces Ripple Effects campaign
"Pesticides are everywhere...most people do not even know that -cide means 'to kill,'" said Becky Sheets of Staples, Minnesota. Sheets shared her story as part of Minnesota Clean Water Action's newly launched Ripple Effects campaign.MORE »
Pawlenty abandons reason, embraces climate denial
2012 Republican presidential candidate and occasional Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign official jumped the shark today. Or maybe this is the official kick-off. Hard to tell.MORE »
New and improved wildlife refuge
I live in Brownsville, Minnesota, and for the past four years this small town has been attracting bird watchers from around the area. Almost four years prior there has never been this much activity to stop and look at birds migrating south for the winter season.MORE »
UPDATED: Minnesota EWOKs jailed in Iowa
UPDATED 11/20/09: Scott DeMuth has been indicted on conspiracy and terrorism charges under the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The charges stem from a 2004 Animal Liberation Front raid on the University of Iowa, in which 400+ mice were freed from a research laboratory and the lab was trashed. Will Potter gives some background and links at his GreenIsTheNewRed blog. For additional TC Daily Planet coverage, see Minneapolis EWOKs ordered to Iowa grand juryMORE »
According to Scott DeMuth's lawyer, Barbara Ann Nimis, Scott DeMuth and Carrie Feldman were taken into custody for contempt of court after refusing to answer grand jury questions. They had been given total use immunity, which means they could not face criminal charges based on the answers they gave, with the exception of charges for perjury if they lied under oath. Now they both could be held in jail for up to 11 months which is the duration of this current grand jury.
U of M removing toxic waste from family student housing site
The University of Minnesota has quickly, if quietly, begun to address threats posed by a toxic waste dump it discovered under student family housing in Southeast Minneapolis. The university found the toxins under three buildings on a four-city-block residential complex last year.MORE »
FREE SPEECH ZONE | Events in re Covanta/Hennepin County "more garbage incineration" scheme
Covanta thumbs it's nose at the City of Minneapolis
Minneapolis EWOKs ordered to Iowa grand jury
UPDATE 11/17/09 - Carrie and Scott jailed today for refusing to answer grand jury questions. Carrie Feldman, a 20-year-old activist, and her former boyfriend, 22-year-old activist Scott DeMuth face a federal grand jury in Davenport, Iowa on November 17, but so far they haven't been told what the grand jury is about or why they have been subpoenaed.MORE »
BOOKS | Paul Gruchow's "Journal of a Prairie Year": Beautiful and contemplative...but also one of the most boring books in the history of the planet
Paul Gruchow's Journal of a Prairie Year is not exactly a page-turner, but once you accept that you're not going to be sitting on the edge of your seat reading it, you get seduced by its lulling, meditative contemplation on the minutiae and expanse of North America's underappreciated landscape: the Great Plains.MORE »
Betting on climate change with carbon derivatives
This week in Barcelona negotiators are making one more attempt to resolve some of many differences for a new agreement to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).MORE »
