Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/category/special-sections/news-day/page/6/)
News with attitude, mostly from MN but with occasional forays abroad. From my personal blog.
With filing for municipal offices now closed, you can find the complete list of candidates for Minneapolis municipal offices on the city website. MORE • Who’s running now? Metro growing Latest numbers approach 3 million • Rampaging raptors But did they need to be shot? • WalMart in the news Cigarettes or prayer? • St. Continue Reading
With the August recess looming ahead and the Sotomayor hearings no longer grabbing every headline, national and Congressional attention turns to the health care debate. The proposed national health care plan is long, with 1,000+ pages in the House bill and a 35-page summary (PDF). The debate is framed in many ways, including the old standard of universal health care vs. socialism. Cost is another buzzword, sometimes framed as (family) bankruptcy vs. Continue Reading
Latest word on the Metro Gang Strike Force – it’s over. State Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion has officially abolished the Metro Gang Strike Force. The 12-year operation, backed by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher from beginning to end, sounded more like a gang than a police operation in the description of its officers by 11-year Metro Gang Strike Force chief (and Fletcher protegee) Ron Ryan, quoted in the Pioneer Press: MORE • Can Somali Minnesotans come home again? The young people who went to Somalia face obstacles there and here. • MN Job Watch Stock Yard Inns, GreenCorps jobs • Arbitration firm settles case No more credit card or consumer collections cases. Continue Reading
Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek has called a news conference for this morning to explain why Hennepin County Captain Chris Omodt is leaving his post at the head of the Gang Strike Force. Omodt, who was brought in to clean up a bad situation, could just be giving it up as an impossible job. The latest revelations and accusations from the Strib: MORE• Feeding the beast in Minneapolis HERC wants to burn more garbage• More bad news for MN budget Less revenue, even higher deficits in next biennium• Dog days news: Baby ducks, attack hawks, naked biking• War Reports | July 17, 2009 Mexico, Afghanistan
News with attitude, mostly from MN but with occasional forays abroad.News Day summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to Minnesota news. Omodt escapes from Gang Strike Force Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek has called a news conference for this morning to explain why deputy Chris Omodt is leaving his post at the head of the Gang Strike Force. Omodt, who was brought in to clean up a bad situation, could just be giving it up as an impossible job. Continue Reading
UPDATED 11 a.m. (EDT) Building local communityDid you know that most of the black press contingent was barred from the Staples Center Michael Jackson memorial? Neither did I – but The Skanner did, and so did thousands of people who clicked on their story. The Skanner news group is a 34-year-old African American newspaper in Portland and Seattle, an area that editor Lisa Loving described as overwhelmingly and demographically white, white, white,” adding that The Skanner is one of the few avenues in Seattle and Portland for the African American community to get their message out to a wider (and whiter) audience. Among The Skanner’s Big Ideas:
• A Google cold case map, created in cooperation with Portland police, which gets “mega hits” — and four of the cases have been solved.Poynter Big Idea highlights
• Building local community• Virtual copy desk• Making social networking work• Producing three minutes in 2.5 hours – nightly news podcast• Big News=Big Work• PolitiFact• The 7 to 7 Breaking News Blog
• A mission to build web-based community service projects “rooted in our local communities but with an appeal to wider audience.” Two examples: an emergency preparedness page and a soon-to-launch project to help bridge the digital divide, that has led to a partnership with local Sabin CDC to run computer skills training at five community locations targeting job seekers, senior citizens, teen parents, and more. Continue Reading
Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken split over immigration votes, with Klobuchar voting with Republicans and conservative Democrats to build 700 miles of border fence and to make the federal E-verify system mandatory for federal contractors. The votes came on amendments to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010. The original Senate bill would have reauthorized E-Verify for three years without making it mandatory, reports MinnPost. MORE• MN farm debate MinnPost says crop farmers “doing well,” but weight of the evidence says not• MN wind farm up for approval Wisconsin utility wants biggest wind farm yet near Albert Lea• Security? What security? Continue Reading
After beating back a proposed referendum that would have abolished the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, the MPRB has its own proposal: a referendum to give it the power to levy taxes. MORE• New Gang Strike Force unit “Less than ideal”• Relief fund from foundations Meeting basic needs• Discipline over racial incident in St. Paul Last August’s monkey business• Cyber-attack on U.S., South Korea Government agencies targeted• War Reports | July 8, 2009 Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan
News with attitude, mostly from MN but with occasional forays abroad.News Day summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to Minnesota news. Mpls Park Board wants more After beating back a proposed referendum that would have abolished the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, the MPRB has its own proposal: a referendum to give it the power to levy taxes. The Star Tribune reports:
Some commissioners began circulating petitions last weekend for a charter referendum aimed at giving the Park Board its own taxing and budget authority. Continue Reading
Hennepin County is going to the Minneapolis City Council for permission to burn more garbage at the downtown HERC incinerator, reports the Star Tribune. On June 22, the Minneapolis Planning Commission denied Hennepin County’s request to raise the allowable daily tonnage from by 21 percent. The Planning Commission said it could not be sure that there would be no adverse public health effects. The burner won City Council approval by a 7-6 vote back in 1987, and today’s council is not expected to be much friendlier. MORE• And then there were … fourteen? Continue Reading
Downtown St. Paul will see streets dug up, starting Monday, so that utility lines can be moved before construction of the Central Corridor light rail line begins next year, reports the Star Tribune. Street closings and restrictions will begin on 4th Street between Minnesota and Jackson streets. MORE• Police and crime news Less crime, more ways to get police news• New hope for old homes Rehab program for foreclosed homes• Trouble on the farm Livestock farmers hit hard by plummeting prices• 140 killed in China Protests and deaths for Uighur minority• Honduras coup update Runways blocked, two killed• Monday in Iran New voices join protest• War reports Somalia, Afghanistan
News with attitude, mostly from MN but with occasional forays abroad.News Day summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to Minnesota news. Central Corridor startsDowntown St. Continue Reading
Happy Fourth of July! I will be publishing some other articles on my blog, but no News Day over the holiday weekend. Keep reading the Daily Planet, come visit the blog, and News Day will return on Monday.Unemployment up – slightly June unemployment (seasonally adjusted) rose to 9.5 percent, up from 9.4 percent in May in the official figure. The U-6 figure, which includes discouraged workers and those who are working part-time because they cannot find full-time jobs, rose from 16.4 percent to 16.5 percent. MORE• And the tests show – not much Newest round of MCA test results for MN students• General Mills puzzle How can profits almost double, when sales go up only five percent? Continue Reading