February 5, 2016 · 7:15 pm

Rich renters wanted — the rest of you can leave

You are where you live — or at least that’s the implication of common U.S. code words like “the wrong side of the tracks” and now the use of “Section 8” as a racial slur. Increasingly, poor people who have been priced out of housing are also being pushed out of rent-subsidized housing. A combination of racism and prejudice against poor people lead many private landlords to refuse to rent to people who use federal rental assistance, commonly known as Section 8 vouchers. At the same time, new federal policies encourage government agencies that own and manage low-income housing to turn it over to private developers. Continue reading →

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February 4, 2016 · 3:30 pm

Bernie-the-cabdriver: SSP abandons new rental restrictions

Bernie Beermann

Bernie Beermann called in to talk to me after one of my Wednesday morning KFAI Morning Blend news discussions, and I met him in a parking lot for an interview.

I was heading to the locker room in the gym at 6 a.m. when the phone in my pocket rang. “Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up,” Bernie-the-cabdriver said. “I was just going to leave a message.” The message was good news: South St. Paul had passed some amendments to the city’s rental ordinance, but not the per-block restrictions on rentals that had been proposed. Continue reading →

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February 2, 2016 · 12:56 pm

Immigration agents should not be above the law

No warrants, no consent, no lawyers — that’s the story told by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s first-person report on raids targeting Central American mothers and children in January.

Here’s part of Ana Silvia’s story: Continue reading →

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January 31, 2016 · 10:59 pm

Trash talk in St. Paul

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Image via Fotolia: #80127845 | Author: vostal

St. Paul has 19 licensed residential trash haulers. I’m sure they are all good, but I’d rather not see and hear different trucks rumbling through our alley five days a week. A study by Wilder Research and another by the Macalester Groveland Community Council find that most St. Paul residents agree, and many trash haulers would also like to see a more organized, rational system. The Mac-Groveland study ended up recommending that “haulers contract with the City through a consortium to develop a more efficient trash collection system which will benefit all of us, including the small and local haulers whom we seek to support. “ Continue reading →

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January 31, 2016 · 6:43 am

Eureka Recycling: Pro-employee, pro-environment, local and responsible

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Sorters at Eureka’s MRF – photo courtesy of Eureka

The Minneapolis Public Works Department has recommended a five-year contract with Eureka Recycling to process all of the city’s recycling. Next, it’s St. Paul’s turn to decide between the local non-profit and the biggest private companies in North America for pick-up and processing. Choosing Eureka makes sense from both economic and environmental perspectives. Continue reading →

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January 30, 2016 · 1:08 pm

Good news for the weekend: Culturally relevant pedagogy succeeds in San Francisco

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Among the books banned in Arizona, when the legislature tried to limit ethnic studies.

In San Francisco high schools, students taking an ethnic studies course improved attendance and overall grades. Students identified as “at risk” – in this case, not a code word for race or poverty, but rather a designation for entering high school students with an eighth grade GPA below 2.0 — were automatically enrolled in the course, according to the Stanford researchers who studied 1,405 students in three high schools from 2010 to 2014. Continue reading →

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January 26, 2016 · 2:35 pm

Justice delayed is justice denied

Use extreme caution sign“Plain and simple, if you f*ck with me I’m going to break your legs before you even get a chance to run. Be honest. I don’t screw around.”

That’s what Minneapolis police officer Rob Webber told 17-year-old Faysal Mohammed last March. When one of the teens asked why he was being arrested, Webber responded, “Because I feel like it.” Continue reading →

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January 19, 2016 · 4:28 pm

Rental ordinance changes: ‘Like farting under blankets’

Bernie Beermann

Bernie Beermann called in to talk to me after one of my Wednesday morning KFAI Morning Blend news discussions, and I met him in a parking lot for an interview.

UPDATED February 4, 2016 — Bernie-the-cabdriver, sitting in his green and white taxi van, calls it as he sees it, and he doesn’t like South St. Paul’s proposed rental ordinance changes. The changes will fly under the radar for most people, because almost no one pays attention to city council meetings. Making city ordinances, Bernie says, is “like farting under a blanket.” Eventually, the smell gets out, but nobody knows who is responsible.  Continue reading →

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January 18, 2016 · 9:58 am

Growing lettuce at ten below zero

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Lettuce growing at St. John’s University, January 16, 2016

Local lettuce all winter? At St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, passive solar greenhouses grow lettuce for college food service, with farming and management by enthusiastic student volunteers. With a few dozen other folks, I visited both greenhouses on a subzero January Saturday, on the first of the Deep Winter Greenhouse Tours sponsored by the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota. Continue reading →

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January 16, 2016 · 6:47 am

Dangerous El Salvador: Bring Peace Corps home, send refugee kids back

Northern Triangle murders

El Salvador is dangerous. The murder rate last year was just over 100 per 100,000 residents — one per thousand. That’s even worse than Honduras, where the murder rate is 61 per 100,000. The Peace Corps suspended its program in Honduras in 2012 because of the violence there. On Monday, January 11, the Peace Corps suspended its program in El Salvador “due to the ongoing security environment.” Continue reading →

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