About Mary Turck
News Day, written by Mary Turck, analyzes, summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to immigration, education, and journalism. Fragments, also written by Mary Turck, has fiction, poetry and some creative non-fiction.
Mary Turck edited TC Daily Planet, www.tcdailyplanet.net, from 2007-2014, and edited the award-winning Connection to the Americas and AMERICAS.ORG, in its pre-2008 version. She is also a recovering attorney and the author of many books for young people (and a few for adults), mostly focusing on historical and social issues.
August 21, 2016 · 5:51 am
Did you read about the world’s biggest baby, born in China, weighing 73 pounds? How about Pope Francis’s denunciation of Pokemon as the devil’s tool? Or about Donald Trump’s cousin leaving a statement for his obituary begging people not to vote for him? Or that Donald Trump says President Obama founded ISIS? Okay – the last one is unfortunately true, which shows how hard it can be to tell actual news from fiction and satire, this year more than ever.
I spend lots of time reading news, and I care passionately about sorting truth from lies. So I’m going to write a series of blog posts to share what I’ve learned over a lifetime of working at this Sisyphean task. Today: phony news sites. Next time: Satire beyond The Onion. After that: Outright lies and hoaxes. Finally: Not really science and not really health. Continue reading →
August 9, 2016 · 4:21 pm
If we really love Minnesota’s sky-blue lakes, if we really care about swimming and canoeing and fishing, we need to do a lot more to protect those waters. And we need to act quickly. Toxic algae blooms, fertilizer run-off, garbage, and mining sediment and run-off threaten Minnesota lakes and rivers and wetlands. Threaten? That’s actually an understatement. “Threaten” sounds like the damage is in the future. It’s not. Minnesota waterways have already been seriously damaged. Continue reading →
Filed under agriculture, environment, food and farming
Tagged as agriculture, blue-green algae, copper nickel, farming, fertilizer run-off, lakes, mining, Minnesota, Minnesota waters, rivers, sky blue waters, sulfide mining, taconite, wetlands, wild rice
August 5, 2016 · 1:55 pm
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Yusra Mardini and her sister fled the war in Syria, two teenagers making their way through Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, the Balkans and Central Europe to Germany. Crossing the Mediterranean in an overloaded rubber boat, they jumped in the water when the engine died and the boat started taking on water. Here’s how the New York Times tells her story:
“Of the 20 people on board, only the Mardini sisters and two young men knew how to swim, so the four of them jumped overboard. It was about 7 at night, and the turning tide had made the sea harsh and choppy. …
“Mardini and her sister swam for three and a half hours, helping the boat stay on course — even when the two male swimmers gave up and let the dinghy pull them along. It was cold, Mardini said. Her clothes dragged her down, and salt burned her eyes and skin.
“’I’m thinking, what? I’m a swimmer, and I’m going to die in the water in the end?’ she said.”
Continue reading →
August 2, 2016 · 7:27 pm
In the 1980s, Lou Anne Kling advocated for farmers against abuses by the federal Farmers Home Administration (FmHA). In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Kling as the agency’s national administrator of farm loan programs. Now, at 77 years, Kling has retired from her job as farm transitions coach for the Land Stewardship Project, and remains active in her community, as health allows, keeping a sharp eye on government shenanigans that affect farmers.
Continue reading →
August 2, 2016 · 1:31 pm
Unless you are in a contested legislative district, you might be tempted to skip the August 9 primary election. You shouldn’t. The primary will decide which Minnesota Supreme Court candidate will be on the ballot this November. That’s hugely important. While the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoints U.S. Supreme Court justices, Minnesota voters elect Minnesota Supreme Court justices, and this year they should re-elect Justice Natalie Hudson. Continue reading →
August 1, 2016 · 7:24 pm
I’m a klutz at composting. Every time I’ve tried, the stuff just sits there. So I am happy to see that the Twin Cities are making composting easier, with curbside pick-up for organics in Minneapolis and easy organics drop-off sites in St. Paul. Big news: St. Paul now has 24/7 drop-off sites, so you can get rid of the accumulated food waste before the raccoons raid your collection bin. Continue reading →
July 28, 2016 · 7:43 pm
Tonight I’ll watch Hillary Clinton accept the Democratic nomination for president. And while I watch, I’ll celebrate with some cookies, the Hillary chocolate chip cookies I baked this afternoon. I’ve been baking those cookies since 1992. They were (and are) my family’s favorites among all my cookie recipes. Hillary’s chocolate chip cookies went to school with my daughters, to the envy of their classmates. Sometimes they asked me to pack extra cookies for sharing. I mailed the cookies in care packages to college dorms. These cookies have gone to parties and potlucks and staff meetings. I’ve dropped off boxes of the cookies for telephone callers in the 2012 “Vote No” campaign for equal marriage rights and at the #JusticeforPhilando occupation this year. I’ll probably keep baking them forever. Continue reading →
July 26, 2016 · 8:43 pm
Screen shot from 1968 LINCOLN PARK DEMONSTRATIONS DURING DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 111-lc-53312 National Archives and Records Administration Lincoln Park Demonstrations During Democratic National Convention (8/25/1968) National Archives Identifier: 32123 Local Identifier: 111-LC-53312 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/32123
My most vivid memory of the 1986 Democratic National Convention is a tank, rolling down Michigan Avenue. And, besides the overwhelming number of police and soldiers — medics with Red Cross armbands. Those memories, even more than the tear gas and the terror, stay with me still.
We filled the streets and parks with protest and they responded with gas and guns and clubs. Police attacked protesters. And reporters. And Democratic National Convention delegates. Chicago Mayor Daley famously proclaimed, “The policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder!” Well, yes. They did that well. Continue reading →
July 26, 2016 · 3:08 pm
from Smithsonian NMAAHC Twitter feed @NMAAHC
The Freedom Summer before the 1964 Democratic convention saw courageous efforts to register black voters in Mississippi, as well as continuing civil rights organizing across the south. In June, Freedom Summer workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner were murdered in Mississippi. In July, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, passed with strong Republican support and despite opposition by Southern Democrats. With racism and tension running high, the national parties held their conventions in August. Continue reading →
July 25, 2016 · 4:35 pm
Collection: International Ladies Garment Workers Union Photographs (1885-1985) Repository: The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives in the ILR School at Cornell University is the Catherwood Library unit that collects, preserves, and makes accessible special collections documenting the history of the workplace and labor relations. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel
In 1948, after 16 years of Democratic presidency, the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, and the prospects for a Democrat to win the presidential election did not look good. The Democratic convention divided over civil rights: a minority report urged the Democrats to adopt a pro-civil rights platform, but neither President Harry Truman nor the strong white southern wing of the party wanted anything more than the vague generalities of previous platforms. President Harry Truman had already sent a strong civil rights message to Congress in February 1948, but with Republicans controlling Congress, civil rights legislation had no chance of passage. Continue reading →
Mary Turck