UPDATED 5/23 — see below:
Race in the news this week: long story from Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic, and shorter story from Nekima Levy-Pounds in the Strib, taking on White Privilege: The Elephant in Minnesota’s Living Room. Coates, in a tour de force, makes a case for reparations —”Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.”
Fighting the Keystone Pipeline in Nebraska raises a question for Jane Kleeb and the farmers she has helped to organize:
“Terry Van Housen had a question. What he wanted to know from the 30 or so other Nebraska farmers and ranchers gathered in February at the York Community Center was this: What do you do with 10,000 dead cows?”
The NYT Magazine has a fascinating story about Kleeb and small-town Nebraska.
Minnesota got the 2018 Super Bowl this week, but Doug Belden writes that, “It’s still not clear what taxpayers will pay to bring the 52nd Super Bowl to town.” Team owners and lawyers say they don’t have to release that information.
Sports is king, right? For Major League Baseball’s July 15 All-Star Game, the city of Minneapolis has ceded control of free speech near the event. According to the ACLU:
“In February, the Minneapolis City Council passed the Clean Zone Resolution which grants authority to MLB to approve (or not approve) certain activities that happen in or near downtown in the days surrounding the game. The restrictions begin on July 5, and continue until July 20. The clean zone encompasses all of downtown and a portion of the University of Minnesota’s campus. Activities regulated as a part of the resolution include: block events, parades, temporary food or beverage service, signs, and public performances of song.”
Among the activities now coming under the jurisdiction of MLB — observances of the 80th anniversary of the Teamsters’ strike. The ACLU is representing two of the organizers, one of whom says:
“It is an insult to me, and to all Americans, that before exercising my first amendment right to speak and assemble I must first get permission from a private company,” stated Jim McGuire. “It is ironic that in trying to commemorate a horrific violation of our rights in the past, we are now facing further violations.”
UPDATE 5/23/2014: Hat tip to Ken Bearman for alerting me to the City Council action changing the “Clean Zone” rules — shortening the Clean Zone from 15 days to six, and saying the city will make the decisions in consultation with MLB. Not sure what impact that has on the ACLU lawsuit.
In St. Paul, the legislature finished up the session, with good news for many in the bonding bill, and overall a pretty good record that included a minimum wage increase, an anti-bullying bill and a narrowly drawn medical marijuana bill. But they missed a couple of big items, including regulation of abusive payday lending and drivers license for all.
The St. Paul school board heard lively debate Tuesday night from teachers and parents, both supporting and opposing current discipline policies, anti-racism training, and mainstreaming special education students and English language learners.
And from News Day this week:
- Tools in schools Computers, wi fi, the internet — our schools are lagging far behind what they need
- Revised Miranda warning: If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be charged court fees and jailed for failing to pay them Return of debtors’ prisons
- Pushy women in the news business Jill Abramson and lots of us.
- Advice to grads — and others
- Poor people, housing and a ray of hope
Mary Turck
News Day 