Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/category/minnesota/page/12/)
With the Twin Cities metropolitan area rental market the tightest it’s been in years, some people who are undocumented are falling prey to extortion by unscrupulous landlords, who seek to take monetary advantage of a potential tenant’s illegal status.
One of the most moving moments of last spring’s medical cannabis debate in the Minnesota House of Representatives was when Southwest Minnesota state representative Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake), who lives with multiple sclerosis, rose to speak of his transformation from being an opponent of legalizing cannabis for medical use to becoming a supporter of the new restrictive bill. Continue Reading
Fast food workers, home health care workers, airport employees and dozens of supporters blocked traffic outside an Uptown McDonald’s on Dec.4, demanding a $15 minimum wage and union benefits. More than 50 protesters marched into the nearby McDonald’s where several employees walked off the job.Thursday marked two years since fast food workers first walked off the job in New York City to demand a living wage, sparking a movement across the country. Minneapolis first joined the “Fight for $15” in September, when workers went on strike for a day at several fast food locations around the city. Just last week, nearly 500 people took part in a Black Friday protest at two Walmarts in St. Paul and Minneapolis, including dozens of retail janitors who walked off the job. Continue Reading
Racial tensions in the U.S. have reached the boiling point in the wake of the deaths of two black males at the hands of police officers, and the announcements in the last few days that grand juries declined to bring charges against either officer.18 year old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, just weeks after Eric Garner was placed in a chokehold that resulted in his death by Daniel Pantaleo in New York. Both officers are white.Read more TC Daily Planet coverage of police misconduct issues.The racial tension, already high, reached the flashpoint nationwide in the last few days following the grand jury announcements. Protests, some becoming violent, took place all over the country, including the Twin Cities, decrying a system that seems to allow police to murder black males with impunity and with no repercussion.Nationally, according to a ProPublica study done last October, black males are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police than their white counterparts. So the Twin Cities Daily Planet attempted to look into the Twin Cities’ police shooting records to see if the cities’ numbers reflect a similar trend. St. Continue Reading
The largest highway in Minneapolis was brought to a standstill on Dec. 4 after protestors marched down a two-mile stretch of I-35W from Uptown to downtown Minneapolis to rally against several recent, high-profile cases of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.For more than an hour, northbound I-35W was reduced to foot traffic, with cars backed-up for miles behind the barricade of police cars separating protestors from oncoming traffic.Read more TC Daily Planet coverage of police misconduct issues.Related story: Protesters shut down 35W over Pantaleo non-indictment, not fast foodThursday’s “Black Lives Matter” protest was part of a national movement to denounce police brutality, racial inequality and a lack of accountability, sparked most recently by the decision to withhold charging police officers responsible for the deaths of two unarmed black men in New York and Ferguson, Missouri.Around 200 protesters joined the march from Uptown to Minneapolis City Hall.“People are tired of the opposition, people are tired of police not being held accountable and we’re deciding to take a stand,” said Nekima Levy-Pounds while walking down the onramp near 34th Avenue toward the main stretch of I-35W.“We’re ready for change. It’s time for change now,” the University of St. Thomas Law School professor added.Protest organizer Michael McDowell said the group’s goal for Thursday’s protest was to create change and “not just looking to get a bunch of media.”The protesters’ goals include a structural audit of the Minneapolis Police Department, quarterly progress reports to the community on racial diversity issues and police misconduct in the city, and body cameras on officers. The group presented them to Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges in an open letter published in the Star Tribune in September.Hodges, who spoke at a fast food labor rally on 33rd and Nicollet Avenue earlier that day, did not attend the Black Lives Matter protest stating she was unaware of the second protest until she had already arrived. Continue Reading
Legislators and Gov. Mark Dayton are expected to have more than a billion additional dollars at their disposal.
If the Storify story doesn’t appear, refresh your browser.Read more TC Daily Planet coverage of police misconduct issues.Related story: [PHOTOS] #BlackLivesMatter protesters halt 35W traffic: “We’re ready for change”[<a href=”//storify.com/tcdailyplanet/blacklivesmatter-protest-in-minneapolis-shuts-dow” target=”_blank”>View the story “Protesters shut down 35W over Pantaleo non-indictment” on Storify</a>]Coverage of issues and events that affect Central Corridor neighborhoods and communities is funded in part by a grant from Central Corridor Funders Collaborative. Continue Reading
The Minnesota State High School League passed a policy on Thursday morning that provide a framework for schools to allow transgender students to participate in high school extracurricular activities including athletics.
Market research isn’t new to the work of business – except when it becomes a strategy for disrupting and dismantling the business of sex trafficking.
Just before the Minnesota State High School League’s proposed vote in early October on a trans-inclusive high school athletics policy, support poured in for transgender students. Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, council members Barbara Johnson and Elizabeth Glidden, Sen. Scott Dibble, the president of Minnesota’s pro-soccer club Minnesota United, the Star Tribune Editorial Board, and the state’s teachers union Education Minnesota all wrote statements in support of transgender students.