tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15832099380623223072012-02-16T07:40:53.494-08:00Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.comBlogger391100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-9819385687383982762008-11-02T12:18:00.000-08:002008-11-02T12:19:04.994-08:00

by Mary Turck • 10/23/08 • The Strib and the PiPress give strangely different accounts of an RNC-related guilty plea. Star Tribune: A 23-year-old Michigan man has admitted to plotting to detonate a homemade bomb in the tunnels near the Xcel Energy Center, hoping it would cause a power failure and prompt cancellation of the Republican National Convention.Pioneer Press: Although he pleaded guilty,

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-9167709296544147312008-11-02T12:17:00.003-08:002008-11-02T12:18:01.614-08:00

by Mary Turck, 10/2/08 • The media's job is to report the news, and that includes reporting inconvenient facts that contradict the "official stories" about the RNC. This article was submitted to the Star Tribune in early October, in the vain hope that they would respond to the challenge made. They considered the article for a couple of weeks and then decided not to publish it.We published a

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-27224755745440476892008-11-02T12:17:00.002-08:002008-11-02T12:23:02.431-08:00

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-23123781352129649982008-11-02T12:17:00.001-08:002008-11-02T12:17:21.709-08:00

by Mary Turck • 10/8/08 • Army Col. Michael Boatner admitted October 7 that active-duty U.S. military were sent to St. Paul for the Republican National Convention. Col. Boatner, the future operations division chief of USNORTHCOM, told Amy Goodman on Democracy Now that the army was "up there in support of the US Secret Service. We provided some explosive ordnance disposal support of the event."Col

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-81512488293866098682008-11-02T12:16:00.001-08:002008-11-02T12:16:37.956-08:00

by Mary Turck • 10/2/08 • Over the past month, both Sheriff Bob Fletcher and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman referred to "guns and bombs" that "anarchists" brought to the RNC. The massive local, state and federal security presence is credited by both men with saving the city of St. Paul from the people with guns and bombs. But who were these people and how many guns and bombs did they bring? Ramsey

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-42081094126152205152008-07-07T12:26:00.000-07:002008-07-07T12:27:08.303-07:00

by Mary Turck, TC Daily PlanetA giant, red phone rolled up to the offices of Senators Klobuchar and Coleman bright and early on Monday, July 5. The phone, and the people accompanying it, delivered a message: stop FISA. Want to get involved? Here are a couple of options:Call Senator Klobuchar (612-727-5220) or Senator Coleman (651-645-0323) and tell them what you think—about FISA or health care or

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-48601604809677262192008-07-07T10:58:00.000-07:002008-07-07T10:59:22.114-07:00

(Written for TC Daily Planet)"Stick your political correctness up your ass." So begins one of the comments we recently received (and posted.) We post almost every legit comment that we receive. By "legit," I mean comments that are not spam or advertising/self promotion. The very few that we refuse to post are overtly racist, probably libelous, or personal attacks of the "I know him personally and

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-24412435704200214612008-05-28T08:04:00.001-07:002008-05-28T08:04:44.753-07:00

The Republicans are coming. So are the media. And the Anti-War Committee, RNC Welcoming Committee, Women Against Military Madness, ANSWER, the Call 'Em Out Coalition from Detroit, the Latinos Against War from Los Angeles, the Madison Ragin' Grannies, and probably hundreds of other protest groups. The Republicans estimate that 45,000 people will show up for the convention. Their estimate includes

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-75527905602337509532008-05-21T18:24:00.001-07:002008-05-21T18:24:54.497-07:00

by Mary Turck, 5/14/08 • A vegan tofu scramble, pancakes, vegan caramel rolls, scrambled eggs and tortillas, and more—the breakfast spread at the Green Institute was more like a bounteous buffet than the continental breakfast promised on the Bike/Walk to Work Week Web site. And I was ready for it, after biking over from St. Paul, passing the Daily Planet office on my way to the celebration. When

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-8978027819414403192008-05-21T18:23:00.000-07:002008-05-21T18:24:05.669-07:00

• by Mary Turck, 4/27/08 • The little boy began kindergarten already behind, explained Lynnell Thiel. He had never been to preschool, he knew only 14 of his letters, and he just didn't seem to be making any progress. Luckily for him, Johnson Elementary School on St. Paul's East Side has a tutoring program, provided by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. After six weeks of one-to-one tutoring four

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-72691881773465523572008-04-12T06:47:00.000-07:002008-04-12T06:54:31.651-07:00

Archbishop Desmond Tutu came to Minnesota this week as part of a youth weekend. The teenagers of Youthrive and PeaceJam were not even born during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, or when Archbishop Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. After apartheid ended, and after the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black president in 1994, Archbishop Tutu directed his

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-74645940703053322452008-04-11T09:05:00.000-07:002008-04-11T09:07:36.548-07:00

If all the heat generated by community debates over biomass, biofuels and green energy could be channeled into the grid, the Twin Cities could go petroleum-free any day now. Unfortunately, we have no way to harness that energy to light the streets or run the trains. Instead, vehement and sometimes vitriolic discussion sometimes narrows the focus of the debate to what's wrong with one source of

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-26873347363158481972008-04-11T09:04:00.000-07:002008-04-11T09:05:47.798-07:00

[originally posted 3/18/08]"This Marine ... watched the commander, who had given us the order to shoot anyone on the street, shoot two old ladies that were walking and carrying vegetables. He said that the commander had told him to shoot the woman, and when he refused, because they were carrying vegetables, the commander shot them." Winter Soldier testimony of Jason Wayne Lemieux, honorably

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-90943915321783386492008-04-11T09:03:00.000-07:002008-04-11T09:04:03.571-07:00

[Originally posted 3/13/08]by Mary Turck, 3/13/08 • Growing up, I heard my mother admonish us, time and time again, to light one candle rather than cursing the darkness. She meant that we ought to do something. Any effort to make the world better would accomplish more than giving up in despair. Today, as we face climate change around the globe, air quality alerts at home in Minnesota, depletion

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-15943810359868365942008-04-11T09:01:00.000-07:002008-04-11T09:02:07.838-07:00

[Originally posted 12/20/07]Is coal or wood worse for the environment? Which fuel produces greater air pollution? Should wood, or any bio-mass, be considered an acceptable fuel? These questions are matters of hot debate in the Twin Cities today, and I wish I could say we have tracked down the answer. I can't say that, but I can describe the process of turning what looked like an easy answer into

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-41571766033573096092008-04-11T08:57:00.001-07:002008-04-11T08:58:38.788-07:00

[Originally published 12/27/07]'Do you put a disclaimer on your articles to identify the ones written by citizen journalists?' I'm sure the questioner didn't mean to sound insulting. She really believed that there is a huge gap between 'real' journalists and citizen journalists, and that 'real' journalists are much more trustworthy. Similar criticisms distinguish between bloggers and 'real news.'

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-26394272119173135942008-04-11T08:56:00.001-07:002008-04-11T08:56:56.819-07:00

[Originally published 12/12/07]Immigration raids around the country target workers in their workplaces. Their focus highlights the immigrant roots of U.S. unions and labor organizing. This week in Minnesota two events focus on immigrant workers in Minnesota: a December 13 gathering commemorating last year's raid in Worthington and an award to this year's successful Justice for Janitors campaign.

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-17989742357721455132007-11-11T19:38:00.001-08:002008-12-10T14:53:51.483-08:00

No, not the holes in the highways--those can be filled and good riddance to them, though I know they will come again every spring. The potholes we need to preserve are the prairie potholes, those sloughs and swampy mini-lakes that dot the countryside, growing cattails and providing homes for ducks and egrets and herons. Photo by Pete Baer, licensed by Creative Commons. Tom Meersman has a good

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-47546946906856425652007-11-10T21:03:00.000-08:002007-11-11T04:04:27.501-08:00

I've read, researched and written extensively on Rock-Tenn, the paper recycling plant, and plans for its energy future. I spent more hours this weekend editing articles about Rock-Tenn, and more hours continuing to read the e-mails that flow back and forth along the Rock-Tenn Community Advisory Panel listserv. Last year, the questions and answers about Rock-Tenn seemed a lot simpler. The plant

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-20873081232073690752007-11-09T20:16:00.001-08:002007-11-09T20:20:23.923-08:00

On November 8, NPR aired the story of a waitress who talked to Hilary Clinton on the campaign trail. "Anita Esterday, a waitress at the Maid-Rite in Toledo, Iowa, told NPR's David Greene in a report that aired on Morning Edition Thursday that "nobody got left a tip" on Oct. 8, when Clinton sat at the lunch counter and ordered up the restaurant's famous loose-meat sandwich."The tip, or non-tip,

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-42070219693652051072007-11-09T19:44:00.001-08:002007-11-09T19:44:35.072-08:00

Did you read about the Finnish musicians who were harassed, detained, intimidated and generally mistreated by U.S. immigration/homeland security agents at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport? Rich Broderick broke the story in the Twin Cities Daily Planet. This is a prime example of citizen journalism. Broderick spoke directly to the people who were involved. He wrote the story and, since it included

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-8420659398146861992007-10-03T16:59:00.000-07:002007-10-03T17:10:56.194-07:00

I feel rich tonight, though I don't have a dollar more than I did before I sat down at my computer. I feel rich because there's a new issue of Minnesota Women's Press and a new issue of the Park Bugle and they both have wonderful writing that brings comfort and challenge and humor. Want to read about hummingbirds, flashing like jewels in the Andes and in a St. Paul yard? Or about the meaning of

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-19181043148649887312007-09-06T18:11:00.000-07:002007-09-06T18:36:33.571-07:00

Bush visited Anbar Province this week, in a photo op that his handlers insisted was not. Now newspapers are reporting that Anbar demonstrates a modicum of success for the "surge." One problem with that analysis: the surge was not aimed at Anbar. The surge was supposed to make Baghdad safe. Here's what Bush had to say on January 10:So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-82062078409596805872007-08-20T20:04:00.000-07:002007-08-20T20:14:20.227-07:00

The big bridge breaks in half, falls in the Mississippi. The skies open over southern Minnesota, sweeping houses away as people cling to the roof, opening a road to swallow cars. We come together to respond, to give aid, to console the bereaved and one another. And yet. Every day small tragedies play out. A teenage boy is thrown out of his home by his parents, again. An elderly mind drifts deeper

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-79926182665709878212007-08-05T19:05:00.001-07:002008-12-10T14:53:51.714-08:00

The kids on the bus call Jeremy Hernández a hero. He calls them his little brothers and sisters.When the I-35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, people around the world watched the orange school bus that fell with the bridge. That bus was filled with 50 kids and eight young staff members from Waite House, along with the bus driver and her two children, all returning from a field trip

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-69167979928796700382007-08-05T19:03:00.000-07:002007-08-05T19:06:28.758-07:00

The kids on the school bus need our help. Jeremy Hernández—named a hero by the "little brothers and sisters" he guided to safety—had to drop out of Dunwoody College last year because he didn't have enough money for tuition. Julia—the youth director at Waite House—is still in the hospital with a broken back and two broken feet and more than 150 stitches in her arm. Many of the younger kids on the

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-44657151381205482952007-07-15T20:40:00.000-07:002007-07-15T20:45:23.948-07:00

On this Sunday, I visited the 16th Street Baptist Church, where Addie Mae Collins, 14. Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; and Cynthia Wesley were struck down by hatred and racism. On September 15, 1963, Ku Klux Klan bombers killed four young girls and wounded more than two dozen other people in a church on Sunday morning. Their deaths came just a few weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-18457220733527909582007-07-11T19:53:00.000-07:002007-07-11T20:06:02.705-07:00

What do you say as life winds down? I know it is right to visit old friends and family, but I don't know what to say. And that's complicated further as family paths diverge so far that the only bridges are shared names, weddings, births, deaths.I could talk about next week's trip to the South, next month's work, impending graduation and college plans, but I cannot banish the looming thought that

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-82120289331334371592007-07-10T21:22:00.000-07:002007-07-10T21:29:35.474-07:00

I met Juana in May. She was one of the people who fasted for ten days to try to move the conscience of the nation toward comprehensive immigration reform. I wrote an article about Juana and the fasters then. A few weeks later, I saw another article about Juana, this one written by a student in a journalism class at St. Thomas.And today was the third time that I saw news about Juana. Yesterday the

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-15764293648443885622007-07-04T07:53:00.000-07:002007-07-04T07:57:56.663-07:00

I'm ready to put up a Neighbors Against the Burner sign in my yard, because I'm convinced that burning refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is a bad deal – economically and on environmental/health grounds. On the other hand, I want to be clear that this doesn't mean I'm against any power plant going up across the freeway at Rock-Tenn. I'm not. I believe that a power plant burning non-RDF biomass fuel can

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-52021521539633959182007-05-06T12:18:00.000-07:002007-05-06T12:19:11.753-07:00

Paranoia strikes deep—into your life it will creep. Buffalo Springfield, 1967The U.S. Army now classifies the media as a threat – along with Al Qaeda, warlords and drug cartels. The classification is part of an Army slideshow, which you can download on-line at http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/army/opsec-blog.pdf.There's a man with a gun over there, telling me that I've got to beware.Besides the

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-47746308299323369672007-04-18T14:22:00.000-07:002007-04-18T15:16:09.898-07:00

On April 16, a gunman shot 32 students at Virginia Tech University and then killed himself. In the United States, flags flew at half-staff the next day, as the nation mourned a senseless massacre by a single deranged man who legally purchased his gun just a month ago. Millions of Americans know Cho Seung-Hui's name, his nationality, his story. How many Americans know the name of Jaafar Hasan

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-76176327832723332832007-03-20T08:19:00.000-07:002007-03-20T11:45:14.105-07:00

We went to the bridge again last night, carrying candles to stand in vigil and protest on the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war. The candles were not much use, as daylight savings time has begun, and the sun doesn't set until after 7:30, but we stood in the biting March wind as it swept down the Mississippi, in company with a hundred or two others of all ages, shapes and

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-12326688411060905682007-03-18T08:00:00.000-07:002007-03-18T08:02:59.773-07:00

This is what democracy looks like. Fifty people at the table—Barbara, Yusef, Pablo, Anne, Yasim, Antonia, Martha, Ricky, Woli, Iztchel. New immigrants and old immigrants, representing all parts of the world. New immigrants tonight speak with accents of Liberia, Mexico, Russia, Ecuador, Somalia and more.Tonight we gather, representing a few dozen organizations or ourselves as individuals.

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-3932953546751108982007-02-26T06:36:00.000-08:002007-02-26T06:37:41.425-08:00

Every year, 600,000 people apply to become citizens of the United States. To become a citizen, immigrants first have to live here for a number of years (usually five years). Then they must apply for citizenship, demonstrate their ability to speak and read and write English, and pass a test on U.S. government and history. (There are a few exceptions to residence and testing requirements, such as

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-69313118019241050562007-02-14T08:29:00.000-08:002007-02-14T08:30:42.514-08:00

One mother was reunited with her baby. One father was released from jail to undergo the testing that might make it possible for him to donate a kidney to his (U.S. citizen) son. But most of the rest of the 230 families whose fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters were arrested in Worthington on December 12 are gone. Many have been shipped out of the country. Most of the rest are still in custody,

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-86818900691938395812007-02-12T05:50:00.000-08:002007-02-07T05:51:29.052-08:00

"I don't have insurance right now," my friend admitted. "So I'm being really careful to eat right and exercise, and so far I've been lucky." My friend is pushing 60, so her luck has to hold for a little more than five years. She can't afford thousands of dollars a month to purchase a private health insurance policy and, given her age and health history, would have a really hard time getting

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-82194450802432761812007-02-06T20:14:00.000-08:002007-02-07T05:51:29.093-08:00

More than a dozen legislators joined farmers, friends and supporters at a family farm breakfast this morning, feasting on locally-raised food and listening to speakers talk about the legislative support needed to sustain Minnesota's farms and food system for the future. The Land Stewardship Project, now in its 25th year, sponsored the breakfast to promote sustainable farming and advocate for

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583209938062322307.post-15900598648664035282007-01-02T13:19:00.000-08:002007-01-02T13:23:00.896-08:00

The stories break your heart. Maria, pregnant and due any day, taken away from the Swift plant in chains. The marks of the chains still visible on her pregnant stomach after her release. The terrified young woman, back at home, refuses to leave the house even for medical care for an infection, refuses to answer the telephone, to talk to people,

Mary Turckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13348220113005783105noreply@blogger.com0