Green leaving MPS Schools superintendent William Green announced that he will leave the Minneapolis Public School system at the end of his four-year term in 2010, continuing what many see as a trend to one-term superintendents in major metroplitan school districts. According to the Star Tribune, “Green will have spent 4 1/2 years with the district when he leaves — 50 percent longer than the national average for urban districts.”
Continue reading
Tag Archives: St. Paul
News Day: Green leaving MPS / Ellison fires back / No new bushes – and get those eagles out of here / more
Filed under news
News Day: Who’s running now? / Metro growing / WalMart in the news / SPPS school closings / Latest from Harvard
Who’s running now? With filing for municipal offices now closed, you can find the complete list of candidates for Minneapolis municipal offices on the city website. Among the candidates:
Continue reading
Filed under news
News Day: Unemployment numbers / Running for governor / White collar fraud / Rondo Days / Twitter hacked (why you should care) / more
I’m back in MN, after a Poynter Institute conference packed with lots of good ideas and good people … and long hours. Next up: the National Civic Summit, which started in Minneapolis yesterday. Mike McIntee of The Uptake and I will be presenting “Citizen Journalism: Your stories, your voices” on Friday at 3 p.m. — join us there at the Minneapolis Hilton!
Latest unemployment figures The Department of Labor reports seasonally adjusted NEW claims for unemployment insurance at 522,000 for the week ending July 11, down 47,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 569,000. New claims in Minnesota were up by 1,176, and MN unemployment for June rose to 8.4 percent, up from 8.1 percent in May. Although new claims are falling, total unemployment remains high.
Continue reading
Filed under news
News Day: Burn more garbage in Mpls? / One more hat in the ring / Keeping teens out of jail / Danger from IE / more
Burn more garbage in Mpls? Hennepin County is going to the Minneapolis City Council for permission to burn more garbage at the downtown HERC incinerator, reports the Star Tribune. On June 22, the Minneapolis Planning Commission denied Hennepin County’s request to raise the allowable daily tonnage from by 21 percent. The Planning Commission said it could not be sure that there would be no adverse public health effects. The burner won City Council approval by a 7-6 vote back in 1987, and today’s council is not expected to be much friendlier.
Continue reading
Filed under news
News Day: Central Corridor starts / Police & crime / New hope for old homes / Trouble on the farm / more
Central Corridor starts Downtown St. Paul will see streets dug up, starting Monday, so that utility lines can be moved before construction of the Central Corridor light rail line begins next year, reports the Star Tribune. Street closings and restrictions will begin on 4th Street between Minnesota and Jackson streets.
Continue reading
News Day: Franken, Coleman, Pawlenty and the Supremes / Unlicensed in St. Paul / Mortgage relief – finally / more
©Ramin Khojasteh - Fotolia.com
Continue reading
Filed under news
News Day: Online in Iran / Unallotment strikes deep / St. Paul: Schools, students, tears / PFC case to jury /
Online in Iran Everybody in the media world is buzzing and tweeting about the online revolution in Iran. Yesterday The Atlantic “reported” the story by posting an apparently unmoderated and unanalyzed Twitter feed. Jon Stewart skewered CNN for its breathless reporting, also long on direct quotes from Facebook and Twitter and short on verification (after all, it’s CNN) and analysis. The Iranian government ordered all foreign journalists to stay inside their homes or offices and report only from official sources or telephone interviews. NPR reports that the government is doing its worst to stop social media reporting:
The Revolutionary Guards, an elite body answering to the supreme leader, says Iranian Web sites and bloggers must remove any materials that “create tension” or face legal action. …
They’ve also slowed the speed of Internet access to a crawl, making the spread of video much tougher….Twitter has served as a vehicle for mobilizing protesters as well as getting out the news — but people who log onto the site couldn’t possibly keep up with all the Iran-related postings, nor can they fully sort out firsthand witnesses from posers or government provocateurs. But the Twitter updates — up to 140 characters — provide insight into plans for future rallies, strategies for avoiding censors, and links to photos and videos of new developments such as clashes with police.
Filed under news
News Day: The Ax-Man cometh / SPPS stumbling out of the starting gate / Charter schools / Somali teens / Iran protests
The Ax-Man cometh Gov. Tim Pawlenty will announce unallotment targets – or something like that – at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the PiPress. This isn’t the actual unallotment, but rather an announcement of his plan. In theory, he’s still open to hearing other voices, but given T-Paw’s record on listening to people who disagree with him on budget issues, that’s not likely to move him off target. The likely targets? Local government, health care, higher ed, and fancy footwork with funding shifts for K-12 education.
Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
News Day: Unemployment up, crime down / Play it again / Iran elections / more
Crime falling with economy The common wisdom is that crime rises during economic recessions, but the common wisdom is wrong, reports Eric Ostermeier at the University of Minnesota. Comparing crime rates and unemployment figures every April for ten years shows no correlation between crime rates and unemployment. In fact, “the crime rate of 4.3 incidents per 1,000 residents in April 2009 is the lowest April crime rate in Minneapolis this decade. After peaking at a rate of 6.0 incidents per 1,000 residents in April 2006, the crime rate has fallen in each of the subsequent three years – to a rate of 5.7 in April 2007, 5.2 in April 2008, and 4.3 in April 2009. ”
Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
News Day: St. Paul teacher layoffs / Court to Coleman: Pay up / Fletcher vs. Auditor / Taking weather out of MN / more
St. Paul teacher layoffs St. Paul is laying off 143 teachers, reports the Strib, with “116 non-tenured teachers let go for budget reasons, 26 non-tenured teachers let go for performance reasons, and one tenured teacher let go for budget reasons.” The district faces a $25 million deficit next year, and firing the teachers could save $6 million. St. Paul has about 3,500 teachers, and has laid off about 37 each year in the past.
Continue reading
Mary Turck