[Photos, from left-to-right: Bernard Moore from The Uptake, Daniel Walker from the Park Bugle, and Miski Abdulle from The Alley Newspaper.]
Editor’s note: We’re trying out some format changes at the Planet, so instead of re-posting partner content we’re going to collect the best of the Twin Cities’ community newspapers and blogs and offer them to you in one roundup. Feel free to browse through these stories and visit our media partners, who have the best information from diverse neighborhoods all over our city.
End of the Legislative Session
— Hamline University prof and political blogger David Schultz offers a big ‘F’ to the Minnesota legislature this year, and calls them out for failing to accomplish any of the big goals (Pre-K education, tax cuts, new transportation funding) that they set out this year.
David doesn’t pull any punches and rips Minnesota’s politicians from end to end. Read the whole thing on Schultz’s Take.
— Fellow legislature watcher, Sally Jo Sorensen at Bluestem Prairie, offers a bit more detail about the end of the session in two snarky and important posts. The first is a video of how the Minnesota Republican House railroaded the “jobs and energy” bill through the final process just before the deadline, without letting any of the lawmakers read it first.
Sally’s second, and more lengthy, post details of how the Democratic Senate stripped protections for bees and pollinators out of the agriculture bill (and then joked about it). Both are worth reading for anyone following the last days of state politics.
Tackling Race and Inequality in Minneapolis
—The Uptake has the video from the recent City Council public hearing on repealing the discriminatory “lurking” and “spitting” ordinances that have been on the books for years. The testimony is compelling, and has lots of first-hand accounts of how these city laws have been used to profile people of color. Thanks to the leadership of Council Members Cam Gordon and Blong Yang, the ordinance passed through committee and will be brought before the full Council.
Check out the video and details about the ordinances at The Uptake.
—Also from The Uptake, video testimony about how transit and transportation funding are social justice issues, including Neighoborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC) members testifying about their trips on transit. Lots of stories about why we need to improve our region’s transit system!
—Finally, Artika Tyner pens a lovely commentary in Insight News about Barbara Arnwine, who heads the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a group that aims to prevent discriminatory election practices like the Voter ID law (that failed to pass in a referendum in 2012). Read all about Barbara’s legal leadership.
The Minneapolis Urban League vs. the Star Tribune
—If you’ve been following the allegations of journalistic impropriety against the Star Tribune, from the Minneapolis Urban League and other African-American leaders in Minneapolis, you should read this story in Insight News about the end of the 40-year partnership between the Urban League and Minneapolis Public Schools.
“This is a sad day for the Urban League Academy and community,” said Steven Belton, Interim President and CEO. “Our students found caring and encouraging teachers and an environment of mutual support and high expectations there. The Minneapolis Urban League will continue to advocate for educational equity and develop strategies for new educational services.”
Check out the whole story…
—And also in Insight News, you’ll find the letter that the Star Tribune refused to publish, by former editorial writer Anthony Morley. In it, Morely details the case against the paper, and how the now-vanished News Council might have examined the “innuendo” and “unsubstantiated” stories have maligned the Urban League.
Roundup of the rest
—The colu.mn reports on how Archbishop Niensted, head of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, killed an attempt by a local parish to host an LGBTQ friendly youth event. The event has been moved to a Lutheran Church.
—Minnesota 360, a local news outlet written by teens, has a story from the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood about attempts to stop Al-Shabab recruitment in Minnesota.
—Debra Keefer Ramage pens a nice ode to the interesting businesses along Minnehaha Avenue in The Southside Pride, including the Minnehaha Free Space, Glass Endeavors, Harriet Brewing, and Ricardo Levins Morales’ art studio.
—The Park Bugle has a story about Daniel Walker and Sam Medhane, two chess champions from St. Anthony Park Elementary School.
—In the Spokesman-Recorder, Ron Edwards writes a column on the case of Lt. Michael Keefe, a Minneapolis police officer who was suspended for alleging police corruption eight years ago. The case was thrown out of court this month.
—The Alley News profiles Miski Abdulle, who was recently honored by Augsburg University for her work with immigrant women in the Phillips and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods of Minneapolis.
—And finally Little Laos on the Prairie features a story by Manysavanh “Loy” Phothisane, about walking in Bloomington to raise funds to research thalassemia, a disease she’s been living with for years.
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