News Day

Born into grinding poverty near the ancient Mayan city of Copán, Honduras, Margarita Murillo grew up into a lifetime of activism on behalf of campesino farmers, women, and the poor. She managed a brief period of schooling in between work and taking care of little sisters. By the age of 12 or 13, she had become an activist in the Catholic Church’s Caritas organization. Continue reading →

Yao Yang showed the open house tour group a small melon.

“Farmers often work twelve-hour days,” Yao Yang explained. Having water available near the field is a big deal. That’s often not the case on rented fields, but it’s an important part of the Hmong American Farm. So are the simple washing sheds where they can prepare produce for market, and the cooler where produce can be stored until it’s picked up for delivery.

The 16 farmers who rent five or ten-acre fields from the Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) are part of a project that includes research, cooperation and community. Continue reading →

Sam was 24 when she enrolled in the Nurse-Family Project. She and Izobel will graduate in December 2014. Read her success story at http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/first-time-moms/stories-from-moms/Sam-s-story

Deb Avenido’s 15-year-old client faced big problems. “She was homeless with her mom and her brother through her whole pregnancy. They would stay at a family shelter for a month – that’s as long as they could stay there. Then they’d go to a motel or to a friend, and then back to the shelter.” Continue reading →

A no-bid contract for $375,000 between Minneapolis Public Schools and an organization that barely exists. Programs that actually work to close the achievement gap. A change in St. Paul school start times. A strategic plan that is neither strategic nor a plan. These stories-in-progress involve our kids and our money, which is reason enough to start following them. Continue reading →

“• The ECD shall not be used in any interview or interrogation situation unless the physical defense of the officer or others becomes an issue.

“• The ECD should not be used as a pain compliance technique including used to escort or prod individuals. …

“• A subject who is simply walking or running away from a scene and not posing assaultive/violent or potentially assaultive/violent behavior should not be exposed to the ECD.”

That’s what the St. Paul Police Department Manual says about prohibited use of “Electronic Control Devices,” one of which was deployed against Chris Lollie in January.  Chris Lollie is the St. Paul man who was waiting for his kids to get out of daycare in downtown St. Paul, and was then shot with the ECD and arrested after he refused to give police his name. Continue reading →

© waldemarus – Fotolia.com

Back in the day, when I practiced law, I frequently appeared before a judge who really didn’t like my (juvenile, poor, wrong-side-of-the-tracks) clients. On one memorable day, I began my protest with, “The law says …”

He cut me off, saying “I know what the law says, and I don’t have to follow it.” Continue reading →

Jeffry Martin (Photo by Charles Hallman, Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, 2011)

Jeffry Martin said he expects absolutely no action from police or the City of St. Paul on the Chris Lollie case. “They [the police] think they’re 100% justified,” he explained. So there will be “no change in policy, no discipline of police.” Continue reading →

Ferguson police shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager. St. Paul police tased and arrested Chris Lollie, a black dad who was waiting for his kids in a public space near their preschool. Beverly Hills police stopped, cuffed and arrested Charles Belk, a film producer and business executive, as he walked to his car, because he “fit the description” of a bank robber — “tall, bald head black male.”

After the YouTube and Facebook posting, after the protests, what happens? Continue reading →

Nicaragua is not sending waves of refugees to the United States. Instead, Nicaragua, along with Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize, is receiving waves of refugees coming from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. What’s going on here? Continue reading →

From Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Picture this: a silver bullet solution for the Achievement Gap, a single thing that schools can do to get all children reading by third-grade and college-ready by the end of high school. Continue reading →