The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) has named a 20-member panel to study the use of gang databases reports Politics in Minnesota. The panel includes representatives from a wide range of perspectives, including ACLU, NAACP and police organizations. The gang databases have been widely criticized because of lack of transparency and due process. Criteria for inclusion are very broad, including being in the company of a gang member, and there’s no way for juveniles or young adults to find out whether they are included in the two Minnesota databases – or to get their names removed. Continue reading
Author Archives: Mary Turck
NEWS DAY | Gang database task force / Still no unemployment benefit extension / New Faces in St. Paul
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NEWS DAY | Deep drilling and Minnesota waters / McChrystal’s wars
Sulfide mining is starting in northern Minnesota, reports MPR, and it could turn into our own Deepwater disaster:
A trickle of water runs from a six-inch hole Duluth Metals is drilling some 3,000 feet into the earth, seeping into a pit that holds water and a scum of grey muck, finely ground rock from deep in the earth. Koschak says it probably contains copper and nickel traces.
“But look what it’s going into, a wetland,” he says. “That’s all this is, is a network of spruce swamps, all interconnected, this all goes into Birch Lake, all this water.”
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WikiLeaks, Part II: Put up or shut up?
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. Even as attention focuses on the real-time drama of the Pentagon hunt for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a deeper question remains. If WikiLeaks really has the text of 260,000 classified State Department cables (or some lesser number), should some, all or none be published? Continue reading
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WikiLeaks, Part I: Journalism and national secrets
In a nutshell: the Pentagon says that 22-year-old Army intelligence specialist, Bradley Manning leaked 260,000 classified cables to WikiLeaks, and it’s worried that WikiLeaks is going to publish them. Manning, who was stationed in Baghdad, was arrested about three weeks ago and is being held in Kuwait, according to The Daily Beast. The Pentagon is hunting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is staying away from U.S. soil. Since WikiLeaks hasn’t yet published the cables, Assange isn’t a U.S. citizen, and the operation is based outside the United States, the U.S. government has little leverage and “just wants to talk.” Continue reading
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Tracking South Carolina’s political circus
From former governor Mark Sanford’s “Luv Guv” odyssey last summer to this week’s allegations of GOP plots to field Democratic primary candidates, South Carolina’s politics is colorful, lively and sometimes barely believable. In short, it’s great fodder for both the mainstream media and the Fifth Estate combo of alternative media, bloggers, Tweeters and anyone else with access to the internet. Continue reading
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NEWS DAY | “Wimps in the White House” / MN Nurses approve strike / Peter Erlinder is back
“Wimps in the White House?” General Stanley McChrystal has been recalled to Washington “to explain to the Pentagon and the commander in chief his quotes in the piece about his colleagues.” The cause: a Rolling Stone profile, “The Runaway General,” subtitled “Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s Top Commander in Afghanistan, Has Seized Control of the War by Never Taking His Eye Off the Real Enemy: The Wimps In the White House,” which is scheduled to appear Friday. Continue reading
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NEWS DAY | Peter Erlinder freed / U.S., Israel, Suez, Lebanon / MSM this weekend
Free on “unconditional bail,” Minnesota attorney Peter Erlinder is now out of Rwanda and on his way home. Supporters say he will hold a news conference in Kenya on Sunday afternoon.
A fleet of battleships including at least 11 U.S. and one Israeli vessels, crossed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea on Friday, according to Arabic, Israeli, German and Norwegian news media reports. (Strangely, neither BBC nor the mainstream U.S. media are carrying the story, though Firedoglake has a connect-the-dots blog post.) Egyptian authorities lined the canal with thousands of security forces to protect the passage and stopped all non-military traffic and all fishing in the area. According to Ha’Aretz: Continue reading
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NEWS DAY | Erlinder – in jail, hospital, court / Census hires help MN unemployment numbers / more
UPDATE: Peter Erlinder granted unconditional bail in Rwanda – may be released as soon as tomorrow. Peter Erlinder was back in the hospital yesterday, with high blood pressure. His medical problems may be exacerbated by suspicion of food and medicine furnished by the Rwandan government, given past threats to his life from that government. MPR reports: Continue reading
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NEWS DAY | New nurses’ strike? / Erlinder in jail / Gay in St. Cloud
First make concessions – then we might bargain. That seems to be the message from 14 Minnesota hospitals to the Minnesota Nurses Association, which has asked to return to the bargaining table, but is also planning another strike vote. Continue reading
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Deportation and citizenship: two stories
Two immigration stories in the news: The first, in the Star Tribune, is an encouraging note about a Supreme Court decision. The case was that of a young man who had lived in the U.S. as a legal permanent resident:
Carachuri-Rosendo, a legal resident who had lived in the United States since he was 5, was deported to his native Mexico after being convicted of possessing a single tablet of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, and serving a 10-day sentence. He had been convicted of possessing a small amount of marijuana a year earlier and received a 20-day sentence.
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Mary Turck