Like many — probably most — people, I have heard from friends who have lost jobs recently, friends who are afraid they will lose jobs soon, business owners who are struggling, and people affected by the recession in too many ways to count. Today, tomorrow and Friday, the Daily Planet will focus on recession-related issues. Today’s stories look at teens seeking summer jobs. Read three perspectives in:
• Summer jobs for teens: Difficult but maybe not impossible •Teen job market worst on record • Volunteering can pay off for teens Continue Reading
Congratulations to TC Daily Planet writer Madeleine Baran, whose article, Stopping foreclosure: One woman’s home, was picked up by a national news service. If you missed this fine article, read it now and write a comment. Continue Reading
This is Sunshine Week, an annual week dedicated to open information and access to government records. We have plenty of examples of attempts at secrecy in government to remind us of why we need a Sunshine Week. On the national level, Mark Danner has just published previously-secret information detailing CIA torture of prisoners held in secret jails in foreign countries. In Minnesota, the House of Representatives is still considering whether or not to allow media access to public hearings. That’s right – some legislators want to bar some of the media, especially on-line media, from public hearings. Continue Reading
After being taken to task for refusing to recognize on-line media as journalists, the House of Representatives stumbled toward the 21st century last week, but didn’t quite make it. For those who haven’t been following the controversy, the House threw out video reporters for on-line media, barring them from committee hearings and saying that on-line media were not entitled to press credentials. Representative Tony Sertich (D-Chisholm), chair of the House Rules Committee explained:“If it’s somebody who designs their own Web site and comes down to the Capitol, … we could be deluged with www.anybody.com walking through the door saying, ‘I’m the online media, let me have floor access.’ You think the House chamber is a ruckus … now, wait till all the bloggers get here and show up en masse.”
For more on this topic, see: Online media lobby for equal access to Minnesota House floor, Minnesota Independent Online media access to state House falls prey to ‘procedural gimmicks’, Minnesota IndependnetNew media quandry: Should online-only journalists be granted access to the state House floor?, Minnesota IndependentOpen letter from Society of Professional Journalists
At the end of a couple of weeks of debate — in the on-line media, mostly ignored by the legacy media — the House of Representatives came up with a new form called “An Application for Video/Audio Recording during a House Committee Hearing.” (Thanks to Marty Owings of Radio Free Nation for the form.) The two-page form requires information about the journalist’s employer, and “the organization with whom you are affiliated,” the “areas of news” that the organization reports on, affiliations with professional media organizations, and “the long-term nature of your assignment.” But the real kicker comes on page 2, where the form requires the applicant to promise that “your work is to tape a full committee hearing, and not individual members” and to agree not to videotape audience members or interactions before the committee convenes or after the committee adjourns. Continue Reading
If your cell phone rang with a message that your house was on fire, you’d get up and leave — immediately, no question about it. That degree of urgency, that recognition of an emergency situation, is what we all need to feel about student achievement in our schools, said Phil Davis, the president of Metropolitan Community and Technical College (MCTC), speaking at a Wilder Foundation-sponsored forum on increasing postsecondary education access and success. Speakers and panelists described programs that succeed in getting lower-income students and students of color into colleges and helping them to succeed. The three-year-old Power of YOU program doubled the number of under-represented (low-income and students of color) graduates of Minneapolis and St. Paul high schools going to Minnesota public colleges in the Twin Cities during its first two years of operation. Continue Reading
If you are a renter and live/have lived in a building that got foreclosed, we’d like to hear your story! Madeleine Baran is working on an article and would like to talk to someone who has had their apartment go into foreclosure. Email her at madeleine@tcdailyplanet.net to share your story. Continue Reading
Remember the Neigbhorhood Youth Corps? As part of the War on Poverty, young people signed on as NYC workers, paid by the feds and employed by non-profit and government agencies to learn job skills and do good work. If you were an NYC worker or if you supervised, organized or participated in some way in the program, we want to hear from you. Sheila Regan is writing the article — contact her at sheila@tcdailyplanet.net. Continue Reading
One of the allegations in the ACLU complaint against the TIZA school is that TIZA restricts staff members’ communication to the public. St. Paul Public Schools seem to have a strikingly similar policy. Journalists trying to interview SPPS teachers and principals have repeatedly run into a stone wall, with interviews refused or canceled on the grounds that staff are not allowed to talk to the media unless the request is cleared with the district office. That means setting up interviews only through SPPS district PR staff, who sometimes sit in on the interviews. Continue Reading
What to publish about the inauguration? How to cover the controversies in the Jordan neighborhood? The questions challenge us from different directions. Everybody is reporting the inauguration, and people want that news. We support reporting by our community media partner, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, and look forward to sharing the articles that Charles Hallman will report from Washington, and to Matthew Little’s reflections on the inauguration in his column. Continue Reading
Burglary, fistfights and shouting matches mark the latest chapter in the Jordan Area Community Council’s struggles. The Daily Planet covered earlier chapters of the battle for control of JACC, as the board and then-executive director Jerry Moore engaged in verbal and legal battles. Daily Planet reporter Sheila Regan is working on a longer story about this week’s events, which will appear on Monday or Tuesday. We invite you to add information — send an e-mail with your actual name and phone number or contact information to editor@tcdailyplanet.net. Here’s a brief chronology of this week’s events:
On Monday, January 12, 2009, the membership elected six new members to the Board of Directors. Continue Reading