July 6, 2015 · 3:10 pm

What’s wrong with part-time jobs — and what we can do about it

Photo by photologue_np , published under Creative Commons license.

Photo by photologue_np , published under Creative Commons license.

Almost one in five U.S. workers has a part-time job. Some people work part-time because it suits them, like a $100 an hour computer programmer. But more of them are like the part-timers featured in a 2014 New York Times article, and the 400+ people who wrote in to comment on it. Liz from Wheaton, Illinois, commented:

“As an RN with a master’s degree, you’d think I would fare better, but no. One Christmas Day not so long ago I was scheduled to work the 3-11 shift at the local hospital. I showed up for my shift but was told, “Didn’t someone call you? Our census is down and we don’t need you. But stay by your phone because you are on call for the next four hours” (without pay).”

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July 3, 2015 · 9:19 pm

Save the flying penises

Wild bees may be in even more peril than managed honeybee colonies, and they are essential to food production.

Because bees pollinate or fertilize crops, entomologist Thomas Seeley called them “flying penises” for plants. Bees are essential for our food supply and our ecological health. According to a May 13 USDA report, summer losses of honeybee colonies now exceed winter losses, for first time. Honeybees not the only, and maybe not the biggest problem: wild bees are in even greater peril than managed honeybee colonies. Continue reading →

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June 30, 2015 · 8:18 pm

Immigration news – June 30, 2015

I publish an immigration newsletter about once a month. You can subscribe to this newsletter by clicking here. I also use Flipboard to collect immigration stories throughout the month. Just click here and bookmark the link to see these stories every day.  Continue reading →

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June 30, 2015 · 3:24 pm

Learning from Irish farms

IMG_4777With stone walls and grazing cattle, Irish farms look like tourist attractions, but farming is still serious business here.

Imagine being paid to maintain fragile land as permanent pasture. Imagine a farm subsidy program designed to support young farmers, small farms and organic farms. Imagine a farm program that declares that 30 percent of direct payments are conditioned on compliance with “greening” criteria, such as crop diversification and crop rotation. All that is part of Ireland’s agricultural economy, where agriculture and food produce 25 percent of the country’s export earnings. Continue reading →

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June 28, 2015 · 1:16 pm

Katherine Kersten vs. Pope Francis

Katherine Kersten inspired me to prayer this morning, and by that I mean more than the usual “Oh, God, not her again!” After reading her heated attack on the dastardly new “Church of Sustainability” that threatens sanity, morals, corporate profits and the very existence of the United States of America, I turned to the recent pronouncement by Pope Francis on the very same subject. And I had to wonder: was KK really so exercised over what university students are doing, or was the real trigger for her outrage the decidedly anti-capitalist, pro-environmental teaching of Pope Francis? Continue reading →

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June 27, 2015 · 9:16 pm

Weeds, compost and recycling in St. Paul

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After ten days of intensive garden work, I’ve finally beaten back the weeds that tried to take over while I was on vacation. Now I have piles of branches and boxes and buckets of weeds to dispose of. Packing weeds into the car and driving to the compost center seems perverse, and not very environmentally friendly. But it’s my best solution — despite years of trying, I haven’t devised a way to compost successfully at home. The nearby Ramsey County compost center offers both a place to dispose of weeds and branches (and kitchen waste) and a return load of wood chips for mulch. Continue reading →

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June 26, 2015 · 8:15 pm

Power in the words

Screen shot from YouTube video of President Obama's eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney

Screen shot from YouTube video of President Obama’s eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney

I love playing with words in puns or poetry, and working with words to build accurate descriptions and stories of the world, to sketch out parameters of relationships and agreements, to define rules and contracts and compacts. I love the way words resonate, passion in the mouths of preachers and the soul-catching rhythms of hymns.Words purely amuse and amaze as they flash and dance in the back-and-forth of humor and repartee. I believe in the power of words to communicate and cajole and convince, to create visions of new worlds.

Today was a day for words of power: the Supreme Court decision on marriage equality and President Obama’s eulogy for the Reverend Clementa Pinckney. Continue reading →

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June 25, 2015 · 11:00 am

Obamacare, fair housing and a little jiggery-pokery

image from Supreme Court website

image from Supreme Court website

Three cheers for SCOTUS! Well – two cheers today for the health care and fair housing decisions, and here’s hoping we can give the third cheer soon for a marriage equality decision. The Supreme Court of the United States again upheld Obamacare, and also issued a tremendously important fair housing decision that could have specific application to Twin Cities housing policies. Rightwing Justice Antonin Scalia is so mad he’s almost frothing at the mouth, saying the legislation should be called “SCOTUScare” and condemning the court for “interpretive jiggery-pokery.” Personally, I think that we could use a little more of that jiggery-pokery. Continue reading →

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June 23, 2015 · 7:51 pm

Bring back the Citizens’ Board — protect Minnesota waters

wild and scenic Crow River

July 1 will be “a sad day for democracy, a sad day for citizen engagement, open government and environmental protection in Minnesota,” said Jim Riddle at the last meeting of the Citizens’ Board of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency today. That date marks the legislative end of the Citizens’ Board, in retaliation for the board’s 2014 decision to require an environmental impact statement from a proposed 9,000-cow mega-dairy operation in Baker Township, Stevens County near Chokio, Minnesota. Continue reading →

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June 23, 2015 · 2:37 pm

Legislature tells fox to choose watchdog for hen house

Brehm's Life of animals : Volume 1, Mammalia Chicago :Marquis,1895. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/item/37942

Brehm’s Life of animals : Volume 1, Mammalia
Chicago :Marquis,1895.
http://biodiversitylibrary.org/item/37942  Some rights reserved by BioDivLibrary

The West Central Tribune quoted Willmar city council member Ron Christenson speaking at a council committee meeting earlier this year: “I remember the advice: ‘Don’t forget. The City Council can do anything … even if it is illegal.'” That sounds a lot like the response I got from a judge in another Minnesota town back in the day: “I know the law, and I don’t have to follow the law.” Small towns and counties often run on their own rules, set by governing cliques who don’t give a damn about law and individual or minority rights. That alone is a reason for independent oversight over local finances and government — a protection that the Minnesota legislature just eliminated.  Continue reading →

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