The TC Daily Planet needs you

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At the Twin Cities Daily Planet, we don’t treat news as a commodity, and we don’t think of you as an information consumer. We think of you as a citizen (of the U.S. or of the planet) and we try to provide you with the information that you need in order to participate more fully in the life of your community. We need your participation and your financial support to keep this news project going.If you shop at farmers markets, or belong to a community-supported agriculture group, or if you make a point of buying organic or sustainably produced foods when you shop for groceries, then you already get what is wrong with America’s cheap food policy: It encourages unhealthy diets, and unhealthy agricultural practices. We all pay the price for this policy, in the form of epidemic rates of obesity and diabetes, skyrocketing health care costs, and environmental destruction.America’s cheap news policy is very similar. We have come to expect news, like food, to be cheap, and news online to be free. Continue Reading

Daily Planet Deals have arrived

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Everybody loves a bargain. And now the Twin Cities Daily Planet offers its readers a way to save money, sample new restaurants, shops and services, and support our award-winning journalism, all at the same time.Starting at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, June 1, the Daily Planet will feature a new Daily Planet Deal at http://shop.tcdailyplanet.net/ several times a week. In coming weeks, you’ll see offers for savings of 50 percent or more at restaurants, beauty salons and many other independent locally owned businesses.Our first Daily Planet deal is $35 worth of food and beverages for only $15 at Koyi Sushi Too, the new Asian restaurant at 2111 E. Franklin in Minneapolis’ Seward neighborhood. Click here to purchase after 7 a.m. on June 1. We may allow some deals to run for more than a single day – but if you see an offer you want, don’t delay – quantities for some offers are very limited.Daily Planet deals will be announced in the Daily Planet’s daily e-newsletter – to make sure you never miss an offer, sign up at https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/subscribe.Every purchase you make at our Daily Planet e-commerce store helps pay for our award-winning journalism, classes and programs. Even when you don’t make a purchase, you can help us by spreading the word. Continue Reading

Twin Cities Daily Planet wins two 2010 Page One Awards from Society of Professional Journalists, Minnesota Pro Chapter

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Twin Cities Daily Planet editor Mary Turck was honored Friday night by the Minnesota Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists with a first place Page One Award for Best Single Online News Story. The 2010 awards dinner, held at Town and Country Club in St. Paul, was attended by over 150 Minnesota journalists and featured former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon, creator of the HBO series The Wire, as keynote speaker. The awards, for outstanding journalism in newspapers, radio, television, online, and for photography in any medium, were presented by Jason De Rusha and Liz Collin of WCCO-TV. Douglas McGill received a second place award for Best Continuing Coverage (Online) for his reporting, in the Daily Planet, on Ethiopian immigrants in Minnesota. Continue Reading

Brown Bag Lunch with Laura Secor

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Curious about Iran? Please join me at noon on Tuesday, April 13 for our Brown Bag Lunch at the East Lake Public Library, 2727 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, with freelance journalist Laura Secor, presented by special arrangement with the Walker Art Center.  Laura Secor has covered Iranian culture and politics, including last year’s contentious presidential election, for the New Yorker, the New York Times, and other publications. Her work reaches beyond sound bites and pundits to connect with everyday individuals in Iran as they struggle to be understood outside their country. Secor is a former staff editor of the New York Times op-ed page; before that, she was a reporter for the Boston Globe, acting executive editor of The American Prospect, and a senior editor and writer for Lingua Franca. Continue Reading

When my baby smiles at me, I go to Samba

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Rio de Janeiro isn’t in my travel plans this year, but driving down Main Street in Hopkins the other night, I came across a delightful surprise – a new Brazilian restaurant called Samba. I am not sure what happened in Hopkins over the last year or two, but it seems like a gastro-neutron bomb wiped out a lot of the local restaurant scene: Michaeangelo’s Trattoria, Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe, Gusto Cafe and Wine Bar, the Best Steak House, all closed, and the venerable Jack Yee’s, one of Minnesota’s oldest Chinese restaurants, shut down (maybe temporarily?) by order of the Hopkins health department. Even Burger King bit the dust. Continue Reading

FREE SPEECH ZONE | We are all to be blamed for Haiti

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The tragedy unfolding in Haiti is a natural disaster which we could not have prevented. But, the destruction of its natural habitat before the earthquake, over-population and chronic poverty could have been prevented, or at least lessened in scope, by us.  We, the people of the world, especially the United States, bear a collective responsibility for this mess. We sat silent apathetically while trees were uprooted, vegetation trampled and environmental sustainability suffocated. We allowed the construction of unsafe dwellings to go on for decades while we devoted trillions of dollars to fund un-necessary wars. We let this former paradise to become a trash land and sub-human conditions there to linger on. Continue Reading