Fotolia File: #127542982 | Author: hafakot
“Carrier, Trump Reach Deal to Keep Manufacturing Jobs in U.S.” trumpeted the post-Thanksgiving headlines. Then, as any media-savvy observer should expect by now, the story began to unravel. Continue reading
Author Archives: Mary Turck
North Dakota pipeline leak: Listen to the Great Oz
Sometime before December 5, a North Dakota pipeline started leaking oil near Belfield. True Companies, which operates the pipeline, has electronic monitoring equipment to detect leaks. The fancy equipment didn’t work. The leak was discovered by a landowner. By the time the company shut off the oil, it had “migrated about almost 6 miles from the spill site along Ash Coulee Creek, and it fouled an unknown amount of private and U.S. Forest Service land along the waterway.” Now the company says that “more than” 176,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled. The spill is about 150 miles from where the Standing Rock water protectors are camped out, trying to prevent Energy Transfer Partners from drilling under the Missouri River. Continue reading
Filed under environment
Sanctuary: What it is, what it isn’t, why it’s important
Minnesotans demonstrate in support of refugees – 2015 (Photo by Mary Turck)
UPDATED 1/25/2017 When Donald Trump targeted “sanctuary cities,” threatening to cut off all federal funding, what was he talking about? Turns out – as usual – that the answer is more complex than the sound bite. Here’s a quick primer on sanctuary, both in misnamed “sanctuary cities” and in the real and resurgent sanctuary church movement – and a note on what Trump’s January 25 Executive Order fails to do. Continue reading
Filed under human rights, immigration
Celebrate — and dig in for the long run
Photo by United Church of Christ, used under Creative Commons license.
Today, tomorrow, this week, this month is a time to celebrate a remarkable victory for Standing Rock. Continue reading
Filed under environment, race, religion
Dialogue, not demonization – for “rural, white Christians”and others
Graphic by Rini Templeton
The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America: A View from the Inside, with its repeated and eloquent denunciations of “rural, Christian, white America” has gone viral in the past week. When I read it, I got angry. Demonization of “rural, Christian, white America” seems just as bigoted as denouncing Muslims as fanatical jihadists or Jews as world-controlling conspirators. Continue reading
Latest on Standing Rock
Click here for edited 90-second video from November 20 police attack on water protectors at Standing rock.
Lots of news from the water protectors at Standing Rock, so here’s a quick update on:
- police repression
- continuing encampment
- Army Corps of Engineers actions (okay, this is more of an educated guess – I doubt that the Corps itself knows what it’s doing)
- three calls you can make
Filed under environment, human rights, police and crime, race
Anne McKeig: Minnesota’s first Native American Supreme Court Justice
Photo courtesy of MN State Judicial Branch “Find a mentor – find someone you like and ask them to be your mentor.” – Anne McKeig
Growing up in Federal Dam, population 108, Anne McKeig never met a lawyer. She and her brothers spent most of their time outdoors: roaming the family’s 40 acres, building forts, tending three big gardens, hunting and fishing. At age 13, she started working, first washing dishes in a supper club and later waitressing. Continue reading
L-R: Bo Thao-Urabe and Kaoly Ilean Her Photo by Mary Turck “We are the experts on our lives and on our needs. Women have to speak up. Women have to organize if we want to elect someone who will care about us.” – Kaoly Ilean Her
The first Hmong candidates to win elected office were Minnesota women: Choua Lee on the St. Paul school board in 1991 and Mee Moua in the Minnesota Senate in 2002. Now, in 2016, Minnesota has the first Hmong women’s political action committee: Maiv PAC. (“Maiv” is pronounced “my,” which is a term of endearment.)
Filed under elections, gender, immigration
Fake news exposé brings real threats
Communications prof Melissa Zindars posted an exposé of fake news, complete with a list of “False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical ‘News’ Sources.” Then, reports the Los Angeles Times, she took down the list, as “a safety measure in response to threats and harassment she and her students and colleagues had received.” That’s the power, and the peril, of good reporting in a time when fake news wins elections and earns big bucks. Continue reading
Stop paying more, getting less health care
One of the eleven charts in the Vox article – read entire article here.
A series of charts published by Vox compares prices for 11 different medications and medical procedures.
Example: “Humira, a medication for multiple forms of arthritis, skin conditions, and inflammatory bowel diseases, costs three times as much in the United States as in Switzerland.”
Filed under Uncategorized
Mary Turck