Arizona law, Minnesota protests – July 29 is the effective date for Arizona’s anti-immigrant SB1070 law to take effect, but much of the impact will be blunted by the July 28 court decision enjoining enforcement. In Minnesota, protesters will gather at 6 p.m. at the state capitol to protest SB1070, joining other protests across the country. Continue reading
Author Archives: Mary Turck
NEWS DAY | Hot enough? / English only in Lino Lakes / More WikiLeaks
Hot enough for you? For the first time in three years, Xcel Energy switched on its hot-weather energy-saver program, reports the Pioneer Press. Today’s 90-degree temps meant “cycling on and off the central air conditioners for hundreds of thousands of Minnesota customers in order to ease the peak demand on its electricity load” between 2 and 6 p.m. Continue reading
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War secrets, WikiLeaks and journalism
A eccentric, secretive hacker-turned-journalist, with a super-encrypted computer network based on secret servers in several countries does battle with the FBI, the Pentagon, international bankers, and the Chinese government – it sounds like this fall’s best new TV series, but it’s playing this summer, in the real world just outside the box. WikiLeaks has released more than 90,000 secret U.S. documents to the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel. In exchange for the information, the three newspapers have now published their stories, simultaneously, at the same time that WikiLeaks made its archive public. Continue reading
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Shirley Sherrod – We need you
The right-wing attack on Shirley Sherrod succeeded in introducing a heroic figure to the mainstream media, after they – and the Obama administration and the NAACP – recovered from their initial knee-jerk defensive response. Time Magazine published an article introducing the real Shirley Sherrod and her long-time struggle for justice within the USDA: Continue reading
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Immigration in the news 7/24/2010
Foreign-born workers make up about 15 percent of the U.S. work force today, up from 10 percent in 1994, according to a new report, The role of immigrants in the U.S. labor force, from the Congressional Budget Office. About half of those workers have been in the United States since some time before 1994, with 40 percent coming from Mexico and Central America and 25 percent coming from Asia.
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NEWS DAY | Extending unemployment benefits and MN / Bulls-eye on Target politicking / Who is Shirley Sherrod?
Minnesota unemployed will get less help from the benefit extension passed yesterday by the Senate, writes MN 2020’s Senta Knuth, because Minnesota has a comparatively lower unemployment rate. One of the give-backs to Republicans in Congress was the agreement that states with lower unemployment would get 13 fewer weeks from the extension. Continue reading
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NEWS DAY | MN, metro housing costs / Ready for Rail? / Plugging the leaks
Housing costs more than half the paycheck for approximately 22 percent of Minnesotans who rent and about ten percent of those who own their homes, according to a new report from the Minnesota Housing Project. The report gives a county-by-county analysis, including the news that most people across the state have to pay more than the “affordable” 30 percent of income on housing: Continue reading
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Immigration notes, 7/20/2010
Just a few links to recent articles of interest:
NYT: Troops to Go to Mexican Border Aug. 1 In May, President Obama pledged the deployment of 1,200 troops. More than 500 of the soldiers will go to Arizona, and the rest will go to New Mexico, Texas and California. [Also 300 more Border Patrol officers]
Who’s lobbying on immigration and who are they giving money to? Open Secrets has a little list – actually, quite a long list – here.
NYT: Illegal workers swept from jobs in “silent” raids “While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported.”
What do Neo-Nazis, Arizona politicians and border patrolling have in common? Gabriela Garcia explains at Change.org.
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NEWS DAY | Extending unemployment compensation / Who’s middle class in MN? / Monkeys, more
Extending unemployment compensation – is the Senate finally ready to do the right thing? As you probably remember, before the July 4 recess, the Senate repeatedly voted down an extension, which Paul Krugman explained as the action of “a coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused.” Now, with one more Democrat seated, the Senate may vote to extend unemployment compensation, which would at least help some of the five or six or seven people looking for every open job in the country. Continue reading
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NEWS DAY | Gang Strike Force revelations / Nashwauk taconite / Top Secret America
A Gang Strike Force raid gone wrong included abuse of apartment residents, police theft of property – and no arrests. Randy Furst at the Star Tribune uncovered a 160-page Internal Affairs Department report documenting the abuses and saying that police action amounted to civil rights violations. (No arrests were made.) A father tried to explain to police who were “kicking and stomping” his son that the 20-year-old man was hearing-impaired and could not understand them – but police continued to kick the son as he lay on the floor. (No arrests were made.) His injuries were later treated and documented at a hospital. Police deny that guns were drawn or that they kicked the young man, but witnesses say they did. Continue reading
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Mary Turck