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.
March 25, 2016 · 11:08 am
The United States signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement in February, but there’s still time to stop the deal that some are calling “NAFTA on steroids” before it becomes law. Signing is only one step: the next step is passage by Congress. In this election year, you can contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives to say a resounding NO to TPP. Here are four reasons to stop TPP, and links to contact information for Congress. Continue reading →
Filed under agriculture, environment, food and farming, work
Tagged as agriculture, environment, fast track, free trade, international trade, TPP, trade deal, trade policy, Trans Pacific Partnership, workers' rights
March 24, 2016 · 10:58 am
The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder asked me to report on the situation in Glendale Townhomes, the oldest public housing in Minnesota. That article — Mpls Public Housing residents fight redevelopment plan — is now published. In it, I present facts and opinions of the people directly involved in the process. I also have blogged extensively about the current dispute between Glendale residents and the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, and have been generally critical of the redevelopment option that MPHA initially proposed almost a year ago. You can find the blog posts here. Continue reading →
March 22, 2016 · 8:32 pm
Reverend Ovester Armstrong, Jr. speaks to #StopCCA rally
“They are not building these prisons to stay empty,” Reverend Ovester Armstrong, Jr. told protesters at the Minnesota State Office Building on March 22. “They are building these prisons to fill them up.” Inside, the House Public Safety Committee held hearings on re-opening a private prison in Appleton. The private prison is owned by the Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), the largest prison company in the United States.
“We should help people, not make money off of them,” said Reverend Armstrong. “We should not let someone’s life be held hostage to a dollar bill.” Continue reading →
March 19, 2016 · 3:00 pm
What’s wrong with GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in food production? While many GMO critics say they pose health hazards, I find that argument unconvincing. Instead, I am concerned about:
- the tie between GMO crops and overuse of pesticides and fertilizer, each of which has serious environmental consequences;
- the contribution of seed companies and GMOs to the increasing industrialization of agriculture, which I believe harms the land, farmers and consumers;
- GMO genetic drift, which contributes to contamination of crops of neighboring farmers and, even more seriously, may contribute to the development of superweeds.
I support GMO labeling for the same reason that I support other labeling, such as country of origin labeling for meat and vegetables or rBGH labeling for dairy products. I think more information is a positive good, and that consumers should be allowed to make their own choices. For example, while I see no human health hazards in drinking milk produced by cows treated with rBGH, I see very high health hazards to the cows — and a detriment to dairy farming in general. For those reasons, I choose not to buy dairy products unless they are rBGH-free, and I support labeling because it gives me an option to choose. Continue reading →
March 19, 2016 · 1:58 pm
In October 2014 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the registration of Enlist Duo, a new herbicide to fight superweeds resistant to other weedkillers. The chemical combines glyphosate, originally developed and marketed by Monsanto as Roundup, with the older, more toxic 2,4-D, one of the ingredients in Agent Orange. The approval applies to six states, and the EPA is accepting public comment until Dec. 15 to register the pesticide in 10 additional states. The registration, which came a month after the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved new corn and soybean seeds genetically engineered to resist both herbicides, is subject to a six-year limit and some monitoring requirements. Continue reading →
March 13, 2016 · 5:01 pm
David Wilson and Jane Guskin explain what’s wrong with the mainstream immigration debate, including the Sanders/Clinton pseudo-discussion in their March 9 debate:
“The media and the politicians treat the migration either as a natural disaster (‘flooding over the border’) or as a second-rate science fiction movie (‘the aliens are invading’) — with either scenario seen as deserving an aggressive response.
“But in the real world, the asylum seekers and other migrants that some call ‘illegals’ are human beings pushed from their homes by economic dislocation or fear of violence, often risking their lives for a chance at a brighter future. And U.S. foreign and economic policies are intimately linked to these ‘push factors.'”
Continue reading →
March 11, 2016 · 10:44 pm
French authorities cleared a Calais refugee camp called “the jungle” this week — and the refugees displaced from the squalid camp scattered to set up even less secure camps nearby. But what did the French government expect? The refugees in Calais have nowhere to go, and burning down their tents and shacks does not magically create alternatives, but rather increases their misery. Continue reading →
March 11, 2016 · 11:14 am
This week, the already-terrible refugee crisis in Europe got worse, as Turkey and the E.U. reached an agreement that severely restricts refugee movement, and Balkan nations closed borders, leaving refugees stranded in makeshift camps. Continue reading →
March 10, 2016 · 9:15 am
Today is #BestSchoolDay on donorschoose.org, and Stephen Colbert is leading dozens of celebrities in funding teacher requests for books and materials their classrooms need. Students in Mrs. Hall’s classroom at Como Park Elementary School need A-D leveled guided reading books for small-group instruction. Her students come from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds, and many speak English as a second language. You can click here to help buy books for Mrs. Hall’s students. Continue reading →
March 8, 2016 · 9:12 pm
More than 20,000 immigrant prisoners are serving their sentences at 11 privatized, immigrant-only contract prisons run by three companies: the Geo Group, the Corrections Corp. of America and the Management and Training Corp. Many of these prisoners are convicted only of illegal entry.
Private prisons cost less than federal prisons because they provide less. Immigrant prisoners — who are deported after serving time — don’t receive rehabilitation, education or job training, services considered essential for U.S. citizens held in government-operated prisons.
Even worse, these prisons fail to provide minimally adequate health care to inmates, leading to death for some and misery for many. Basic human rights standards require prisons to provide adequate medical care to inmates, regardless of their legal status.
This article originally published by Al Jazeera America. Continue reading →
Mary Turck