Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/mary-turck/page/7/)
Mary Turck (maryturck@gmail.com) is a freelance writer, editor, teacher, and lifelong activist. She is the former editor of the TC Daily Planet, the Connection to the Americas and AMERICAS.ORG. She is also a recovering attorney and the author of many books for young people (and a few for adults), mostly focusing on historical and social issues. She lives in St. Paul with her husband, two daughters, and two cats.
The plight of tens of thousands of children coming from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala is a political football, with slogans substituting for understanding. On July 9, AP published Young immigrants or refugees: 5 things you need to know — but their list omitted crucial information. Here’s essential information you need to know, but wouldn’t find in the AP article. Continue Reading
More than a dozen drums of all shapes and sizes line the sidewalk on Marshall Avenue outside a storefront. The drummers, too, come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and ages. It’s Tuesday night, and time for the weekly drum circle in front of Kopplin’s Café (2038 Marshall Avenue, St. Paul).The event lasts from about 7-9 p.m. just as the summer day winds down. Marc Anderson — music teacher, cultural anthropologist, Buddhist priest — leads the drumming. Continue Reading
What’s not to like about a car with a cute pink mustache and an app that shows a photo of the driver and tracks the car’s movement toward the corner where you’re waiting? Plenty, say Minneapolis cab drivers. A city council committee will take up the question of the currently unregulated “Transportation Network Companies” or TNCs during the week of July 7.Taxi drivers see newcomers Uber and Lyft as unfair competition in an already-crowded market. To understand their concern, listen to Jim Morgan, whose experience as a cab driver, taxi company executive, and “Cab College” teacher stretches back more than 40 years. Here’s how he explained the system, and the way it has changed over time:”When I first started as a driver at Yellow, it was 1971. Continue Reading
June 21, the longest day of the year was a happy day for 128 immigrants from 44 countries who stood proudly to take their oaths as new citizens of the United States. Standing together, they took the naturalization oath, promising to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”Judge Jeanne Graham welcomed the new citizens and administered the citizenship oath. Frannie Franken welcomed the new citizens on behalf of Senator Al Franken, who was on duty in flood-stricken northern Minnesota. Said Ali, an aide to Senator Amy Klobuchar, delivered her message, and his own. Speaking for himself, Ali said, “I am a naturalized U.S. citizen and today I am speaking to you as a government official. Continue Reading
The Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en La Lucha (CTUL) celebrated a victory June 10, as Target adopted a new policy to protect the rights of janitors who clean Target stores. The janitors work for contractors, not as direct employees of Target. Under the new Responsible Contractor Policy, Target will ensure that workers have rights to collectively bargain, to form safety committees in the workplace, and that they not be forced to work seven days a week.The Target statement said in part, “As Target enters into new service agreements with Twin Cities housekeeping service providers over the next few months, the company will include additional language in those contracts aimed at promoting positive and productive dialogue between Target vendors and their workers.”CTUL and the janitors have been organizing for four years, with actions including picketing, hunger strikes, and marches. According to Veronica Mendez, co-director of CTUL, Target’s action is the first of its kind in the retail janitorial industry. At a press conference at Bethany Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Mendez said that the sub-contracting system has distanced retail stores from responsibility and has blocked janitors from negotiating directly with the stores who actually have the power. Continue Reading
We’re number one! And also number two and three in the category of best independent news blog in the annual Page One Awards of the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists. That’s Jay Gabler, Stephanie Fox and Sheila Regan, in alphabetical order, because I’m writing this before dashing out the door to the awards banquet and don’t yet know who is first, second and third. I do know that we have all three top spots, and that feels great!Alleen Brown won a Page One award for her news reporting on student teaching and licensure. You can find her award-winning reporting at Who’s teaching in Minnesota?, including Student teaching: An unaffordable necessity shuts out many lower-income students. Continue Reading
[<a href=”//storify.com/tcdailyplanet/here-comes-the-sun” target=”_blank”>View the story “Here comes the sun!” on Storify</a>] Continue Reading
Election time already? You bet! The April 29 primary election will narrow the field of candidates for the District 3 Hennepin County Commissioner race to succeed Gail Dorfman, who resigned from her seat. Then a special election on May 13 will choose a winner from the primary election’s top two vote-getters. You can find more information on all six of the Hennepin County Commissioner candidates here. Continue Reading
School discipline is a challenge for teachers, administrators, parents — and students. Continue Reading
The Minneapolis City Council is scheduled to vote on Friday April 25 on a proposal to change that October holiday from Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. Here are five reasons they should vote yes:1) Setting history straighter: Celebrating Columbus Day reduces history to a simple-minded story, and one that’s wrong on a lot of counts. He “discovered America?” Not exactly — there were already plenty of people living in the Americas. As Bill Means told MPR:”We had been edited out of existence in the public school system. Continue Reading