HEADLINES
Theater as a tool for change
by Jennifer Holder, TC Daily Planet
“The theater [can be used] as a tool for personal and social change,” said Jan Mandell, teacher and director of the Central Touring Theater (CTT) Program at St. Paul’s Central High School. For the past thirty years, her CTT students have used theater for change: creating, performing and touring original theater throughout the Twin Cities. They delight, inspire and motivate diverse audiences with their artistic expressions of social issues.
Washington Avenue or bust? Central Corridor LRT route through U of M in dispute
by Chris Steller, Minnesota Monitor
The current state of the Central Corridor light rail transit debate: Mix half-baked engineering with overheated funding threats and watch as public opinion congeals around a premature choice. Both dailies ran editorials Sunday extolling an at-grade Washington Avenue route and excoriating the University of Minnesota for insisting on taking a hard look at alternatives to closing the busy cross-campus thoroughfare to all traffic. The opinion leaders led with the same foot and danced the same steps, with small differences. The PiPress chose an odd metaphor that required picturing the U of M driving a gold stake through its own heart, while the Strib urged the U to hurry up and get “comfortable with the only real option that remains.”
Rural economic development at the Legislature: SEED lost in the weeds
by Lee Egerstrom, Minnesota 2020
For the most part, Governor Pawlenty’s SEED proposal didn’t germinate in the past Legislative session.
SEED stands for Strategic Entrepreneurial Economic Development, a plan put forth by the governor and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to revamp ways that Minnesota assists entrepreneurs and communities with economic development.
Sweeping the landscape bare
by Brian DeVore
A corn-based ethanol future means squeezing every last bit of energy off Midwestern crop fields, but at what cost?
Soil scientist Gyles Randall calls it the “broom handle” effect
INSIDE THE DAILY PLANET
Former resident’s dream becomes reality
by Marlyn Grantham, Park Bugle
On Sunday, June 1, St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church (2136 Carter Ave.) will hold an African service at 9 a.m., dedicated to the memory of Beatrice Garubanda. Garubanda, who founded the Blue House orphanage in rural southwestern Uganda, was an active member of the church from when she first arrived in St. Anthony Park in 1987.
The other Iraq war veteran: Steve Sarvi fights for respect in Congressional contest
by Paul Demko, Minnesota Monitor
Steve Sarvi first met Rep. John Kline in 2004, at Camp Bondsteel in southern Kosovo. The staff seargent was serving with the Minnesota National Guard, patrolling the border with Macedonia for smugglers. The then-freshman congressman was on a fact-finding mission and stopped by to visit with troops and gauge morale.
Theater note: Bulrusher, a witless melodrama
by Dwight Hobbes, TC Daily Planet
Woefully stilted from first word to last, playwright Eisa Davis’s static saga of self-worth and identity isn’t much more interesting than watching paint dry.
NEW IN VOICES
Blessed with unconditional love
by Marion Charles, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
To compete for this year’s 13 scholarships, graduating seniors of African or African American descent were asked to submit essays based on the theme “Education and Graduation: It’s a Family Affair.” Here are some of the winning submissions.
NEW IN BLOGS
96 days and counting
The Republicans are coming. So are the media. And the Anti-War Committee, RNC Welcoming Committee, Women Against Military Madness, ANSWER, the Call ‘Em Out Coalition from Detroit, the Latinos Against War from Los Angeles, the Madison Ragin’ Grannies, and probably hundreds of other protest groups.
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