Photo by Howard Lake, published under Creative Commons license
American’s biggest disaster relief organization is a disaster. And American’s richest university doesn’t need your money. Two June 3 stories of incompetence and extreme wealth signal time to re-evaluate and re-direct charitable giving.
Filed under Uncategorized
Photo by 16:9clue, published under Creative Commons license.
Sebeka, Minnesota vegetable farmer Kathy Connell went to McDonald’s last week — not the restaurant, but the annual shareholder meeting. She had a message about pine forests, potatoes and Minnesota water, but McDonald’s shut her out. Connell, along with other Minnesotans and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, is concerned about R.D. Offutt Company’s use and misuse of land and water in northwestern Minnesota’s Cass, Hubbard, Becker and Wadena counties, part of the Pineland Sands Aquifer. Continue reading
Filed under agriculture, environment, food and farming
Professor Brown, Belushi, Bronzie and B2 strutted toward me across the June-green farmyard, accompanied by their entourage of hens. Back toward the barn, the neat little Production Red laying hens and glossy Black Jersey Giants scratched in the gravel, overseen by Goliath and the other Jersey Giant roosters.
They’re obviously healthy, and even state-certified healthy, but in quarantine nonetheless. Why? Because some unidentified commercial flock in the area, tens of thousands of birds that never once walked outdoors in sunlight or scratched the ground for bugs, was infected by avian flu and destroyed to the last bird. Continue reading
Filed under agriculture, food and farming
From 15 people at the Bureau of Mediation Services to 115 at the Perpich Center for Arts Education to more than 4,000 at the Department of Natural Resources, lay-off notices go out to Minnesota state employees today. If the legislature and the governor don’t reach budget deals by the end of the month, more than 9,000 government employees could be out of work. Here’s the list: Continue reading
Filed under work
In the Minnesota special session, the legislature will decide on school funding (including teacher lay-offs and pre-K classes), water quality (including totally deregulating mining pollution and de-funding other anti-pollution measures), and whether to allow seed companies to tell lies on labels, among other issues. Anything there that interests you? If so, read on for a quick-and-easy guide to how the special session works, with more detailed articles linked at the end. Continue reading
Filed under agriculture, education, environment, food and farming
Photo by Barnaby Wasson, published under Creative Commons license – https://www.flickr.com/photos/barnabywasson/279911701/in/set-72157594345855838
The debate over Governor Mark Dayton’s education bill veto focuses on the legislature’s rejection of his proposal for universal pre-kindergarten in Minnesota. But that’s only a small part of what’s wrong with the education bill. Continue reading
Filed under education
Photo by Bob Peterson. Published under Creative Commons license.
What’s wrong with the agriculture, environment and natural resources bill? It’s hard to know where to begin. Partly, the problem is the bill is too damn big. Along with the budget items, (mostly) Republican legislators threw in a pile of bad laws that they thought they could get through at the last minute. They figured, wrongly as it turned out, that Governor Dayton would focus only on the education bill and would let them get away with murder in environmental rollbacks. They were wrong.
Filed under environment, food and farming
Photo by photologue_np , published under Creative Commons license.
Forty percent of U.S. workers are “contingent,” and, for most of us, that’s not good. Contingent means that you don’t have a “permanent jobs with a traditional employer-employee relationship.” So we are the self-employed (3.3 percent), part-time (16.2 percent), independent contractors (12.9 percent), contract workers (3.0 percent), on-call (3.5 percent), and agency temps (1.3 percent). I’ve been in all of those categories. It’s not pretty.
As a contingent worker, you usually don’t have health insurance, sick days or paid holidays or vacation. (Sure, take Christmas Eve off. In fact, take the whole week off, since our offices will be closed. Just don’t expect a paycheck. Merry Christmas!) Continue reading
Filed under work
Photo by Franco Folini. Published under Creative Commons license. Mural: Tribute to Archbishop Oscar Romero by Jamie Morgan, 2001, Balmy Alley, San Francisco.
The Catholic Church took one more step toward declaring Archbishop Óscar Romero a saint this week. To millions of people, he is already a saint, a hero and — more importantly — a human inspiration to emulate. Saints and superheroes can seem out of reach to ordinary people. Superman can stop a speeding bullet and leap tall buildings with a single bound. Óscar Romero could not, but he remains now and forever presente, here with us as family and friend and challenge. Continue reading
Filed under human rights
The Republican-deformed agriculture and environment budget bill attacks Minnesota waters, bees, and the MPCA citizen board. And that’s just the beginning of a long list of problems with the bill. Continue reading
Filed under agriculture, environment
Mary Turck