Public Safety

Getting good policy takes time

By Jim Weygand, Minnesota 2020

Good policy is usually not the result from knee jerk reactions to a tragedy. That may be the silver lining in Minnesota’s and national lawmakers inaction when it comes to the Sandy Hook school shooting that left 26 children and adults dead. Unfortunately while the nation debates gun laws, there's very little conversation about all the issues that are resulting in so many lives lost to gun violence in this country.

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Minnesota 2020

Additional money OK’d for sex offender treatment, school safety center

By Mike Cook, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Rep. Michael Beard, left, and Rep. Michael Paymar discuss an amendment to the omnibus public safety finance and policy bill during debate April 19. (Photo by Paul Battaglia)

A conference committee will likely be needed to merge a pair of omnibus public safety finance and policy bills into one.

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COMMUNITY VOICES | Open Saint Paul: What concerns do you have regarding the safety or comfort of walking, biking, or driving on Marshall Avenue? What opportunities do you see for improvement?

By Staff, Open Saint Paul

The City of Saint Paul has begun a community-based study to explore opportunities to improve safety and comfort along Marshall Avenue between Snelling Avenue and John Ireland Boulevard. This project builds off the 2010 Bike Walk Central Corridor Action Plan that identified Marshall Avenue as a bicycle alternative to University Avenue, as well as community efforts to improve Marshall Avenue over the last 15 years. This study may identify additional minor improvements west of Snelling Avenue, but will primarily seek to identify appropriate improvements east of Snelling Avenue. The City Public Works department has requested funding through the CIB process to implement improvements identified through this study.

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Omnibus judiciary bill passed by House, off to Senate

By Mike Cook, Session Weekly/Session Daily

With a goal of keeping the court system strong, while increasing access to justice for all, the omnibus judiciary finance and policy bill received a favorable House vote.

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The lessons of gun control: It's Congress versus the People

By David Schultz, Schultz's Take

Should president Obama have been surprised that the Senate rejected almost all of the gun measures despite the fact that large majorities supported some of the ideas, such as universal background checks? Not really. In part rejection of the gun control measures speak to the power of money in politics or the power of a well organized group to act more effectively than unorganized public opinion. But more specifically, the gun measure speaks to a broader and more serious problem in Washington–how Congress has become a counter-majoritarian institution and is now functioning in ways contrary to what and how the Constitutional Framers envisioned the government to operate.

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Schultz's Take

There is no good way of explaining hate to your children

By Julie Burton, TC Jewfolk

My husband and I were both born and raised Jewish. We both identify strongly with our Jewish faith. Our children attend/ed Hebrew and religious school and all four will be Bar/Bat Mitzvahed (two down, two to go). Yet for many reasons, the most prominent being that we had family members attending, we made the choice to send our children to an Episcopalian school. A school that explains in its mission statement: “Our goal as an Episcopal school is to nurture the spiritual development of each person and to welcome everyone to our community.” And for the most part, we have all found this to be true.

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TC Jewfolk

“New Jim Crow” discriminates against people with a criminal record

By Christina Cerruti, TC Daily Planet

by Christina Cerruti

Minneapolis resident Manu Lewis has spent the past four years working to turn his life around and give back to society despite his criminal record. “I do a lot of volunteer work.

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MN VIDEOS | Jury of peers

By Mary Mabry, SPNN

Jury of Peers is a short documentary exploring the inequities of jury selection particularly in cases concerning African American defendants. Directed by Mary Mabry.

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Need for stadium funding is not about football

By George Shardlow, Minnesota 2020

If pull tab revenue does not increase, it may be deemed necessary to reassess the current structure of public funding for the new Vikings stadium. Should that come to pass, stadium funding proponents like myself will have to once again make the case for the stadium as advancing the public good. If we are going to do so successfully, we need to do one thing. Do not mention football.

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Minnesota 2020

OPINION | Gun control efforts get shot down

By Mordecai Specktor, American Jewish World

On Sept. 27, 2012, a recently terminated employee at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis went out to his car for a handgun, then returned to the workplace and gunned down Reuven Rahamim, the company’s founder, four other employees and a UPS driver who happened to be making a delivery. The shooter, Andrew Engeldinger, then shot himself to death.

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