Author Archives: Mary Turck

After all the hand-wringing about illegal voting, turns out that many people who have been convicted of crimes in Minnesota are still eligible to vote. That’s one of several interesting bits of information coming out of Minneapolis city council member Elizabeth Glidden’s early morning meeting September 28 on challenges facing individuals with a criminal record, and efforts to create fair hiring opportunities for those who have already served their time (more on that after the jump.) Continue reading →

What is the dollar value of saving one adolescent girl from a pimp? What about four, or five or 381? How much are we, as a state, willing or able to pay? Continue reading →

SAT reading scores hit a four-decade low trumpets the Washington Post headline. That means one point lower than last year. The average reading score dropped from 497 to 496. Is that even statistically significant? Continue reading →

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has published its 2011 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. With 109 of its114 pages devoted to tables of immigration numbers, it’s not coffee-table reading. Here’s what it says about Minnesota immigrants: Continue reading →

 My favorite season.  Continue reading →

On Friday, September 21, the Minneapolis City Council will decide whether to substantially end civilian-controlled review of police behavior. The proposal before the council would abolish the current Civilian Review Authority, which has limped along with only two civilian investigators and an overburdened board, working hard to review cases even though the police chief usually disregards its recommendations. In its place, the new proposal would put a predominantly police-officer-conducted investigation process and review boards with two civilian and two police officer members. The only constant: the police chief could still ignore their findings and recommendations. Continue reading →

Ron tells me Friday is cat blogging day. Continue reading →

August’s slow news days are over, and news is popping off around the globe. Three big stories this week are worth careful reading. Oh, you don’t want to wade through pages and pages of links and analysis? Fine — I’ve done that, and have links to a bare minimum of articles with the inside stories of the assassination and aftermath in Libya, the Chicago teachers’ strike, and taxes in Minnesota. Continue reading →

Homicide Watch tracks every homicide in Washington, posting news reports and court records and hearing dates and verdicts and sentences. Its motto: “Mark every death. Remember every victim. Follow every case.” Continue reading →

The Romney-Ryan campaign paid good money ($120,000 per day) for the Twitter hashtag #areyoubetteroff. Then they waited for the “no” answers to roll in. And waited. And waited. Continue reading →