News Day

I always thought that Dad would keep urging me, “Go get those Republicans!” long after Alzheimer’s stole his memory of my name. Now I don’t know. He doesn’t talk about politics any more. His favorite topic of conversation during my whole life has disappeared. Continue reading →

“Tell me your zip code and I’ll tell you how long you are going to live.” Four years ago, at an Annenberg conference in California, that statement came as a shock. Not any more. Continue reading →

I’ve never watched the Oscars before. Oh, I’ve tuned in for a few minutes, or skipped through on my way to something else or maybe even looked for Billy Crystal telling jokes, but I’ve never watched the Oscars on purpose. And what a night — Lupita Nyong’o’s night! Continue reading →

From racial justice to dentistry, everybody’s issues seem to get a day at the Capitol while the legislature is in session. If you’re a social justice type, the day probably starts out either in a church basement or in the Capitol rotunda. If your organization has a little more money, you may kick off the day at Embassy Suites and maybe end it with a cocktail party. Here are seven opportunities to see and be seen, advocate and be persuaded next week at the Capitol.  Continue reading →

I love my coffeehouse. But — it has way too many of those business-intense people hunched over computers, so focused that they forget to drink their (carefully crafted, best-in-town) latte until it gets cold. Since I’m one of them, why is that a problem?

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“Unmasking the past in order to reveal the present”  is a goal of this year’s theater productions at Macalester. When the morning, noon and nightly news seems like too much to bear, perspectives from the past can help us face today’s horrors. Evil that has been defeated once can be defeated again, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui urges us to meet the challenge in every political generation. Continue reading →

When a prisoner dies, sometimes people pay attention to the issue of medical care in Minnesota prisons. Otherwise — not so much. Prisoners can’t vote. Their access to the press is limited, and their credibility doubted. Continue reading →

Following on the previous post about approaches in homelessness:

Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative works to provide a combination of housing and supportive services to help move into employment or deal with the other needs. For more on Beacon’s programs, see Sheila Regan’s recent article, Beacon offers hope to low-income renters.

Homeless youth face a special set of challenges: Cynthia Boyd’s MinnPost article features Lina Warner, who tells her story of couch-hopping and using YouthLink’s drop-in services to get through years of homelessness. The article’s focus is $4.2 million in funding from the Homeless Youth Act, passed last year by the Minnesota legislature.

The common theme in discussing policies and homelessness in Minnesota is that we know what to do, but don’t have the money to do it. That’s also a theme in this year’s bonding initiative for Heading Home: Minnesota’s Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Governor Mark Dayton has proposed bonding of $50 million, the largest amount of bonding dollars ever, according to a blog post by Beacon director Lee Blons. But, she notes, that’s only half of the amount called for by Minnesota Housing Commissioner Mary Tingerthal in the Heading Home plan.

(Photo from USA Uncut)

Solutions for homelessness? Well, there’s a legislator with a sledgehammer in Hawaii and protesters waving pitchforks and torches in Portland, but the more effective approach comes from Utah. Continue reading →

Last week’s Congressional Budget Office report said that the Affordable Care Act would reduce hours worked in the long run.

Republicans started jumping up and down in glee, saying that they knew it all along — Obamacare is a job killer.

Not so fast. Continue reading →