ST. PAUL NOTES | Green Line train’s first trip from Minneapolis to St. Paul — returning Wednesday

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Sunday (April 28) was a gorgeous day, and when I checked my email and saw that the first train car would be rolling down University Avenue, I decided to follow it. Shouldn’t have been a problem — the press release said it was checking clearances, traveling at a walking speed (and accompanied by walkers), as a “railcar mover that resembles a semi-trailer cab” pulled it down the tracks.The morning press release forecast an 8-12 hour journey, and I set out at about 1 p.m. to find the train. Drove all the way east on University Avenue, around the Capitol and zig zagging through downtown St. Paul to the end of the line at Black Dog. No train. When I pulled over and called Laura Baenen, the helpful Metro Transit PR person, she said they had finished in five hours — much earlier than expected, because everything went so smoothly. Continue Reading

Immigrant, labor marches on May 1 in St. Paul, Minneapolis

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Looks like there are two marches planned for International Workers Day (aka May Day) on May 1 in the Twin Cities. Over the past decade, May Day has also become a rallying day for immigration reform and immigrant rights. In St. Paul, the Mesa Latina is sponsoring a march for immigration reform at 3 p.m., starting from the State Capitol, and a rally at 4 p.m at Central Presbyterian Church (500 Cedar).The event has two Facebook pages — May Day March & Rally for Citizenship Now! — and 1 de Mayo/ May Day ” Dia Internacional de la Clase Trabajadora”In Minneapolis, according to Minneapolis Labor Review, SEIU Local 26 and Asambleas de Derechos Civiles will be sponsoring a march for immigrant rights Wednesday, May 1 — International Workers Day. Meet for the march at 2:00 p.m. at the corner of East Lake Street and Hiawatha Ave. Continue Reading

Race and stupidity

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Most-read and most-commented articles this week focused on race, schools and politics. (Where’s the stupidity? Wait for it …)The winner, by a large margin, was Racial mockery at Hopkins High sparks outrage; Black student handcuffed by Harry Colbert, Jr. over at Insight News. Thousands of readers, and lots of comments on whether “Ghetto Spirit Day” was inherently racist. Here’s a sample (some edited for length and clarity)Everybody keeps making excuses: that’s not racial. Continue Reading

Students protest Wells Fargo on campus, occupy Macalester president’s office

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On Tuesday, April 23, Macalester students occupied President Brian Rosenberg’s office, protesting the college’s decision not to cut ties to Wells Fargo. The Kick Wall Street Off Campus movement cites the mortgage crisis and accuses Wells Fargo of refusing to implement principal reductions and other practices to aid homeowners who are in foreclosure or “underwater” on their mortgages. KWOC’s position is supported by Macalester College’s response is that its connection to Wells Fargo is limited to the college’s purchasing card system, and that no local bank is available to provide this service. A college memo also cited two local nonprofits, Habitat for Humanity and Project for Pride in Living in support of Wells Fargo and their decision. Storify is a tool for collecting comments, photos and videos from around the web. Scroll down to see the Storify collection for this story.If you do not see the Storify collection below, click on “refresh” for this window in your browser.  Continue Reading

Readers respond: What (if anything) is wrong with Minnesota caucuses?

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Readers REALLY didn’t like the headline on Sheila Regan’s column about her experience at a precinct caucus last week! Beyond the headline, though, some people raised serious questions about both the column and caucuses. Here are some of their comments and questions (edited for length.) I’ll lead off with Betty Tisel, whose long-term political activism and commitment shine through:Betty Tisel: Where do I even start with this? Caucuses are run by volunteers. If you don’t like it, get involved and make it better. Continue Reading

Snow day — and you’re talking about it

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UPDATED 4/19, 8:30 a.m.: So it’s snowing again. The latest recorded one-inch snowfall in Minnesota was 1.5 inches in Mizpah on June 4,1935, according to Wikipedia. So, April 18? Not even remarkable. Of course, this might be the only day when we have both the first tornado siren test of the year AND more than an inch of snow. Continue Reading

Out of school and out of luck

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Get suspended in ninth grade, and your chances of dropping out of school double, according to a report issued this week by the UCLA Civil Rights Project. That’s true even though “the vast majority of suspensions are for minor infractions of school rules, such as  disrupting class, tardiness, and dress code violations, rather than for serious violent or criminal behavior.” Forty years ago, suspension rates for African American students were almost double the rates for white students — and the disparity has gotten much worse since then.The rates are also higher for Latinos, for English Language Learners, and for students with disabilities. Hit the trifecta, and you’re really in trouble: “The highest rates were observed when the intersection of race, disability, and gender was calculated; for example, 36% of all Black middle school males with disabilities were suspended one or more times.”Those are the national numbers. The report also analyzed 20 cities in depth, including St. Continue Reading

Around town: Bikes, docs, People of Faith rally

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St. Paul is getting a new bike shop, according to the Star Tribune. Erik’s Bike Shop will open a new store in the former Auto Workers Union building on Ford Parkway, opposite the now-closed Ford Motor plant. According to the company website, owner Erik Saltvold started in the bike shop business at age 13, in his parents’ Richfield back yard. Now, 36 years later, Erik’s Bike Shops have 18 stores and 300 employees in Minnesota and Wisconsin.The fight for Fairview took a new turn on April 4, with the Star Tribune’s revelation that the University of Minnesota proposed taking over Fairview Health Services — which owns the University of Minnesota Medical Center and the new University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital, and several other clinics and medical centers. Continue Reading

Lolla Mohammed Nur selected for New America Media fellowship

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Congratulations to TC Daily Planet community engagement editor, Lolla Mohammed Nur! She’s been selected for a New America Media fellowship program, and will head off to Washington DC for a two-day training at the end of April.  This is the second year of the fellowship program, which aims to expand news reporting on the intersection of immigration and gender. As part of the fellowship, Mohammed Nur will produce stories for publication on New America Media and, of course, on TC Daily Planet. “I’m really excited for this opportunity, both professionally as a journalist, and also as a woman who comes from an immigrant family and is a first-generation immigrant myself,” Mohammed Nur said. “I see this fellowship as an exciting opportunity that is part of my work and what I’m passionate about, and also part of my lived experiences. “I know I’m going to learn a lot from this experience, from the mentorship from both the Twin Cities Daily Planet and New America Media. Continue Reading

Lilly Ledbetter: “One person can start a battle”

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Back in 1998, after working as a manager at Goodyear Rubber for 19 years, Lilly Ledbetter got an anonymous note in her mailbox. The note told her how much her three fellow managers — all male — were paid. They were paid 40 percent more than she was. After her shift, she went home and told her husband and he drove her to the EEOC office to file a discrimination charge, starting on a path that led, eventually, to the U.S. Supreme Court and to the White House.Wednesday night at Mankato State University, I had the privilege of meeting Lilly Ledbetter in person and then, along with about 800 other people, listening as she eloquently told her own story, beginning in Possum Trot, Alabama and going on to have her name on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the first legislation that Barack Obama signed into law when he became president.”What happened to me and my family, I don’t want to ever happen to another family,” Ledbetter said. She insisted that unequal pay is not just a women’s issue: “When I speak about women, it also affects the men, because this is a family affair.”For her family, unequal pay meant 40 percent less to pay for their children’s college, and 40 percent less in her retirement income, despite the stellar evaluations, recommendations and even an award from Goodyear Rubber for her excellent work. More on Lilly LedbetterLilly Ledbetter tells her own story in Grace and Grit: My fight for equal pay at Goodyear and beyond. Continue Reading