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.
October 27, 2012 · 10:15 am
Poverty is real, and it’s not caused by laziness and moral weakness.
Now I hear one of my sisters and at least three of my nieces screaming at me, “Yes, it is! I know this guy who just drinks and won’t work! My friend at work has a next door neighbor who just keeps having one kid after another and doesn’t even try to get a job.” Okay — there are some people who screw up, and some of them are poor because they screw up, but the fact is that poverty is mostly not caused by laziness and moral weakness. Continue reading →
October 26, 2012 · 10:06 pm
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 has been reviled as “Obamacare” by Republicans, including the Romney-Ryan ticket, who pledge to repeal it if they are elected.
Now President Obama embraces the name and proudly claims the law as part of his legacy: Continue reading →
October 26, 2012 · 9:07 pm
Is Social Security going broke? Not really. I’ve been hearing this since I was in high school. Social Security was going to go busy in 1970, 1990, 2010, and so on. Hasn’t happened yet, and it isn’t going to happen. Continue reading →
October 26, 2012 · 7:46 pm
In this week’s Marvel Comics Superman edition, Clark Kent quit the Daily Planet. Superman writer Scott Lobdell told USA Today: “Rather than Clark be this clownish suit that Superman puts on, we’re going to really see Clark come into his own in the next few years as far as being a guy who takes to the Internet and to the airwaves and starts speaking an unvarnished truth.” Continue reading →
October 20, 2012 · 5:25 pm
I listened to The Daily Circuit on MPR Friday, with local “experts” debating what we should do about education (starting at about 37:16.) Peter Bell criticized Minnesota schools and repeatedly said, “The dropout rate in some districts is 50 percent.” He is absolutely, 100 percent dead wrong on the dropout rates, but nobody challenged him on the facts. Not the host. Not the other guests.
Continue reading →
October 20, 2012 · 4:52 pm
Saving girls from prostitution is a noble and worthy cause, as well as a bandwagon that many nonprofit groups and politicians are happy to ride. Unfortunately, the statistics offered by various groups are often self-contradictory and unsupported by research. Using unverified, contradictory and exaggerated numbers is a disservice to the cause of combating juvenile prostitution and human trafficking. Continue reading →
October 18, 2012 · 5:28 pm
Among all the wild-eyed charges thrown about by Voter ID proponents, one stood out last week. That was the charge made by Ramsey County Commissioner candidate Sue Jeffers in a KFAI interview (about the 13-minute mark.) Continue reading →
October 17, 2012 · 5:52 am
Some rights reserved by onefallinghope, published under Creative Commons license
My husband, who refused to watch the debate, asked this morning what the “binders full of women” were. I hadn’t noted that phrase in Romney’s bragging points, so I had the same reaction last night when it began popping up all over Twitter last night. Romney used it in bragging about his record of appointing women when he was governor of Massachusetts, and sure enough — this morning’s fact checks show he misstated the facts. Continue reading →
October 16, 2012 · 9:02 pm
I remember the very first televised debate, which makes me older than dirt. For years, I followed presidential politics, and debates, closely, but I haven’t watched a presidential debate in decades. So why tonight? Continue reading →
October 12, 2012 · 9:03 pm
“Faith in the public schools has been steadily eroding since 1973. But are things really this dismal?” The answer, according to an article in the October 10 Education Week, is a resounding NO. Despite constant criticism and flagging public confidence, schools and students are steadily improving — and the number cited by MetaMetrics, an education research firm, back up their positive conclusion. Continue reading →
Mary Turck