tagged w/ Minnesota
-
by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Women on along U.S.-Mexico border are buying black market misoprostol to induce abortions, according to a new report by Laura Tillman in the Nation. The drug is easily available over the counter in Mexico.
DIY abortion is cheaper—a bottle of misoprostol costs can cost as little as $70, a fraction of the price of a medical abortion. The DIY approach can also be more convenient and private. One abortion provider told Tillman that about 20% of his patients tried misoprostol before coming to see him.
He estimates that many others took the drug successfully. Misoprostol is about 80%-85% effective when used as directed, but if it doesn’t work the woman needs immediate medical help. Potential complications include severe bleeding and uterine rupture. For more information on misoprostol abortions, see last week’s edition of the Weekly Pulse.
Comprehensive ignorance
As the bumper sticker slogan goes: If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota bought some very expensive ignorance this week by turning down $850,000 in federal funding for comprehensive sex education through the federal Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP).
According to Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent, Pawlenty opted to apply for the Title V State Abstinence Education Grant Program instead of the PREP, a comprehensive sex ed program. Comprehensive sex ed teaches kids how to say no to sex and how to reduce their risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections if they do become sexually active. Now, cash-strapped Minnesota will have to come up with $379,307 in state funds in order to get $505,743 in federal funding for abstinence-only-until-hetero-marriage education.
Robin Marty of RH Reality Check observes that Pawlenty is trying to burnish his conservative credentials in advance of a possible presidential run in 2012. It’s part of a national race to the bottom where conservative presidential hopefuls compete to see who can take away more rights from women.
E. coli comes home to roost
The agribusiness giant Cargill Meat Solutions recalled 8,500 pounds of ground beef after 3 people contracted salmonella, Mac McDaniel reports for Care2. The Cargill recall comes on the heels of the largest egg recall in U.S. history. So far, 550 million potentially salmonella-tainted eggs from to factory farms in Iowa have been recalled. McDaniel argues that these food recalls should prompt a larger discussion about the state of our food safety net and the wisdom of factory farming.
At AlterNet, food scientist and activist Dr. Marion Nestle writes that “Industrial egg operations have gotten out of hand in size, waste, and lack of safety.” So far, at least 1500 people caught salmonella from tainted Iowa eggs. Nestle urges the Senate to pass the long-awaited food safety bill, S. 510, which the upper chamber has been sitting on for over a year. It’s about time. Powerful agribusiness interests have hijacked the regulatory process for too long. The chickens are coming home to roost.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Women on along U.S.-Mexico border... more
-
-
The fallout from the revelation that Target, Best Buy, and other corporations made independent expenditures on behalf of Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer continues, this time in the courts. The Star Tribune reports that, in the wake of the Target scandal, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life and two other groups are seeking a preliminary injunction to block the state’s law requiring periodic reports on corporate spending for or against candidates:
http://www.refinery29.com/img/target-tom-emmer-1.jpgThe fallout from the revelation that Target, Best Buy, and other corporations made... more
-
-
Minneapolis and Capitol Hill police are investigating a shot that was fired at the condo of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).
Nobody was home at the time of the incident, which was not reported until after the senator and his wife returned home to Minneapolis after a two-day trip out of town on Tuesday and discovered the damage to their window facing the street.
Franken’s wife reported the incident to police.
“Right now it’s under investigation by the Minneapolis Police and the Capitol Hill Police,” Franken spokesman Marc Kimball told POLITICO.
Kimball said that “there was some damage to one of the window panes” in a double-paned window.
Kimball added that “nothing like this” has ever happened to the senator’s residence.
Minneapolis police have not said whether they have a suspect or if they believe Sen. Franken was specifically being targeted.Minneapolis and Capitol Hill police are investigating a shot that was fired at the... more
-
-
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A few Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. institutional shareholders weighed in Thursday on the flap over the companies' political donations in Minnesota, urging the boards of both retailers to increase their oversight of campaign contributions.
Walden Asset Management and Trillium Asset Management Corp., both of Boston, and Bethesda, Md.-based Calvert Asset Management Co. filed shareholder resolutions with both companies. Together, the three firms control less than 1 percent of each company's outstanding shares - 1.1 million Target shares worth $57.5 million and 344,000 Best Buy shares worth $11.3 million - but they are moving the debate over the political giving to a new arena.
"A good corporate political contribution policy should prevent the kind of debacle Target and Best Buy walked into," said Trillium vice president Shelley Alpern. "We expect companies to evaluate candidates based upon the range of their positions - not simply one area - and assess whether they are in alignment with their core values. But these companies' policies are clearly lacking that."
The shareholders said the donations don't mesh with corporate values that include workplace protections for gay employees and risk harming the companies' brands. Walden senior vice president Tim Smith said such giving can have "a major negative impact on company reputations and business."
The Target resolution urges the board to review the effect of future political contributions on the company's public image, sales and profitability and to consider the cost of backing a candidate whose politics conflict with the company's public stances.
The three investment companies together submitted the resolution to Target, while Calvert and Trillium filed the Best Buy shareholder proposal. One of Trillium's clients, the Portland, Ore.-based Equity Foundation, divested a small Target holding of 170 shares on Wednesday.MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A few Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. institutional shareholders... more
-
-
Senator Al Franken draws an amazingly accurate map of all 50 states in the United States — from memory — during an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midday at the Minnesota State Fair.Senator Al Franken draws an amazingly accurate map of all 50 states in the United... more
-
-
By JAMES WALSH and ALLIE SHAH, Star Tribune
Last update: August 8, 2010 - 11:48 AM
They were a regular sight among the dimly lit stalls of the Somali shopping malls and the narrow hallways of the high-rise apartment towers in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood known as Little Mogadishu.
Two conservatively dressed women -- one older, one younger -- often carrying pictures of destitute grandfathers or desperate children to make their pleas more poignant.
Few questioned their work. After all, charity is an obligation, a virtue among the Muslim faithful. Even the poorest of those solicited found a way to spare a few dollars.
But it was all a ruse, the FBI said late last week as the two were indicted in a vast anti-terrorism investigation, the largest since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The women, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan of Rochester, collected cash not for poverty-stricken grandparents, but for the violent terrorist organization Al-Shabab, the FBI says. Al-Shabab, which is tied to Al-Qaida, has trained foreign fighters and carried out suicide bombings.
How did the two women manage to conceal what the FBI said was their true intent as they sought donations in the Minnesota Somali community, the largest outside of Somalia?
Women collecting for charity, area Somalis say, would have provided the perfect cover.
In a culture where females are the most devoted keepers of causes and the most trusted couriers of cash, local Somalis say women collecting for charities is common. These women in particular -- pious, hard-working, bold -- would not have been doubted, said Abdifatah Abdinur, a Rochester community leader.
"Women are the backbone of the Somali community; they do these things," Abdinur said. "But this is the first time anyone has heard of them doing something wrong."
Continue story...
http://www.startribune.com/local/100194194.html?page=2&c=yBy JAMES WALSH and ALLIE SHAH, Star Tribune
Last update: August 8, 2010 - 11:48 AM... more
-
-
A protest this afternoon at Target’s corporate headquarters, 1000 Nicollet Mall, culminated in an attempt to deliver to CEO Gregg Steinhafel 260,000 petitions, each urging the retailer to stop donating to political candidates.
The demonstration, organized by the progressive political action committee MoveOn, came on the heels of a $150,000 donation Target had made to MN Forward, a pro-business group that is backing Republican Tom Emmer’s bid for governor. The donation has triggered calls for boycotts from GLBT groups, who cite Emmer’s socially conservative stance on gay-rights issues.
Seinhafel issued an official apology to customers and employees yesterday, saying “I realize our decision affected many of you in a way I did not anticipate, and for that I am genuinely sorry.”
On July 29, MoveOn began gathering signatures online for a protest petition. In the following week, the group generated phone calls to Target headquarters and flooded the retailer’s Facebook page with complaints.
Around noon today, MoveOn’s Bob Brereton arrived at Target headquarters with hard copies of the 260,000 petition signatures. The print-outs filled three cardboard boxes, which Brereton had stacked on a dolly.
Randi Reitan, the now-famous Target boycotter whose checkout line tirade went viral on YouTube, addressed the crowd. Standing alongside her husband Philip and their son Jacob, a gay rights activist, Reitan decried the donation as an insensitive assault on its gay customers and employees.
“As a shopper at Target, their contribution was in part my money, and it was being used to attack the civil rights of my son,” she said. “Corporations are not people, and they should not attempt to buy an election which rightly belongs to the people.”
Philip Reitan described Emmer as “the most anti-gay person you can imagine running for governor.”A protest this afternoon at Target’s corporate headquarters, 1000 Nicollet Mall,... more
-
-
Crawling back into the sunlight after a the publicity nightmare it created for itself, Target and CEO Gregg Steinhafel now say the company is "genuinely sorry" for donating $150,000 in cash and services to the political action committee MN Forward. Steinhafel also told employees (and, by proxy, consumers) today, "We remain fully committed to fostering an environment that supports and respects the rights and beliefs of all individuals. " But how can Target remain fully committed to something it never had in the first place?
"The truth is not that Target and its leadership have suddenly turned on their commitment to gay rights. It's more that it never really existed to begin with." So says The Awl's Abe Sauer, who's been on top of Target's anti-gay political donations. "Further research shows that Target has funneled significant funding to the most socially conservative of Republicans and that it boasts a frightening culture of anti-gay candidate support from Target's own stable of top executives."
We already knew CEO Steinhafel personally donated money to the campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann, easily one of America's worst people to hold elected office. But the anti-gay money from Target's toppers doesn't end there.
Target's current group of top corporate officers have supported a murderers row of anti-gay politicians. Even more confusing, some of those anti-gay candidates supported by Target's PAC and its executives don't even represent Minnesota.
Of the small handful of donations he's made, Target CFO Douglas Scovanner has given to both Rep. John Kline and Rep. Erik Paulson. John Kline joined Bachmann with a group of Republican members of Congress who put their names on a lawsuit to force the District of Columbia to put gay marriage to a Prop 8-like referendum. Meanwhile, Paulson supports amending the constitution to ban gay equality.
Of the five candidates to whom Target CMO Michael Francis has donated, three are George W. Bush and the aforementioned John Kline and Erik Paulson. Target's Chief Information Officer Beth Jacob gave her largest personal donation ever to Erik Paulson. John Kline also received money from Terrence Scully, Target's president of financial services. So did anti-gay amendment-supporter Mitch McConnell, who isn't even a representative of Minnesota.
And equally tellingly:
All of these executives also gave money to former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman during his much contested 2008 race against Al Franken. Even largely politically inactive Target executives, such as Executive VP of Stores Troy Risch, gave to Coleman in 2008.
Al Franken, who is a very staunch supporter of complete gay equality, received zero dollars from Target executives or the Target PAC. Coleman, meanwhile, supported a constitutional amendment against gay equality.
And while those are all individual donations, which the heinous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United wouldn't affect, Target's own PAC, the newly formed Citizens Political Forum, has been funneling money to groups like Freedom First PAC, the fiefdom of outgoing Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose record on LGBT equality is terrible. It's one more way some of the billions Target generates every year finds the pockets of bigoted politicos.
Target and its executive suite have a clear connection to a slew of anti-gay candidates. Listening, then, to the company trumpet its commitment to diversity and equal rights and blah blah flies in the direct face of what these individuals are doing in private. And while every American has the right, deservedly so, to donate money to politicians they support, consumers also have a right to understand that as they spend dollar after dollar with Target, the company's earnings increase, and these executives' salaries, bonuses, and equity stakes in the company become more lucrative. Which gives them more money to donate to political candidates who want nothing more than to zap rights away from queer Americans.
I'd write something about Target's executives now having "a target on their backs," but it turns out they always have. We just never put on our special goggles to see it.Crawling back into the sunlight after a the publicity nightmare it created for itself,... more
-
-
Matt Morris, the married gay singer-songwriter and one-time Mickey Mouse Club member, was thrilled when Best Buy started airing promo videos for his new record When Everything Breaks Open. Then he found out Best Buy was funding the effort to elect anti-gay Tom Emmer governor of Minnesota.
So Morris — who you might remember from dueting with regular collaborator Justin Timberlake during the Haiti relief telethon — took down the video he originally recorded (with much excitement) of him visiting his local Best Buy, and replaced it with the one above. So while he doesn't want you to ban Best Buy outright — after all, he wants you to go into the store and buy his CD — he would love for you to take his record off the rack and replace it with some informational material about what the money you spend in Best Buy goes toward.Matt Morris, the married gay singer-songwriter and one-time Mickey Mouse Club member,... more
-
-
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Opposing sides in the gay marriage debate are holding dueling rallies at the Minnesota Capitol on Wednesday.
The National Organization for Marriage, a group opposing same-sex marriages, brings its national tour to the Capitol steps at noon.
Inside the Capitol, the gay rights group OutFront Minnesota(http://www.outfront.org/calendar) will hold its own rally in support of gay marriage.
The fight over same-sex marriage rights recently shifted to the Minnesota courts when three gay couples sued to overturn the state's ban on gay marriage.
http://www.outfront.org/3daysofaction
Saint Cloud and Rochester Demonstrations:
There will also be demonstrations in Saint Cloud and Rochester in support of equality for GLBT Minnesotans on the days NOM visits. Saint Cloud's rally will take place at Wilson Park from 7pm-8:30pm on Thursday, July 29. Rochester will also hold a rally on the next day, but the details have not been finalized yet; we will post them when they become available.ST. PAUL, Minn. - Opposing sides in the gay marriage debate are holding dueling... more
-
-
Remove the hype and all the tenuous connections, and you'll find the straight facts: Target Corporation donated $150,000 to fund an anti-gay extreme right-wing candidate.
This is an open letter to Target regarding its support of anti-gay gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, its statements about why supporting Emmer isn't against their policies, and a CALL TO ACTION to make Target change those policies so these donations never happen again.
http://www.awakenedaesthetic.com/2010/07/on-open-letter-to-target/Remove the hype and all the tenuous connections, and you'll find the straight... more
-
-
As this baseball road trip steers toward Minneapolis and a date with the Minnesota Twins, our basecrawlers stop at a cornfield in Iowa to check out the Field of Dreams. This detour to the site of the storied baseball film begs a great question: Is this the greatest baseball movie ever? And if not, what is? Armed with these questions, our travelers hit Minneapolis and turn to Twins fans to end this debate. Learn more at http://basecrawl.comAs this baseball road trip steers toward Minneapolis and a date with the Minnesota... more
-
-
A deadly outbreak of tornadoes on Thursday has left behind widespread reports of damage and destruction across Minnesota, where at least 3 people are confirmed dead with many more injured.A deadly outbreak of tornadoes on Thursday has left behind widespread reports of... more
-
-
-
Dear Obama Administration, instead of having our Drug Czar focus on addiction recovery and prevention programs, how about changing the policy of our racialized criminal justice system that has used the “War on Drugs” policy to put more Black males in the criminal justice system than slavery in 1850?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamaal-bell/mass-incarceration-a-dest_b_578854.htmlDear Obama Administration, instead of having our Drug Czar focus on addiction recovery... more
-
-
Big Black, was his big-ass vicious noise delivery system; they ruled the ‘80s US post-punk underground, releasing seminal records, pissing off everyone, and horrifying crowds both at home and abroad. Read this interview and download your Big Black discography.... http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/album-rewievs/357-big-blackBig Black, was his big-ass vicious noise delivery system; they ruled the ‘80s US... more
-
-
worrg
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
Center for Hmong Arts and Talent and the Youth Leadership Group present Hmonglish Musical.
The FIRST of it's kind in the Hmong Community across the WORLD.
[synopsis: A young boy, Peev Xwm, is torn between understanding the choices made by his divorced parents and where his place is in Hmong American life. Through a series of dramatic events, Peev Xwm will lead you through the internal turmoil of young Hmong Americans today. Hmonglish Musical creatively captures the essence of being Hmong in America and will leave you with a better sense of how experiences can teach you to fit comfortably in your own skin.]
written by the Youth Leadership Group with pieces by Nou Ka Yang and Fres Thao.
Directed by Katie Hae Leo.
Choreography by Leah Nelson.
Video compiled and edited by Fres Thao.
Music provided by The Kong and Shu Project w/ Duce Khan and Logo.
Additional music provided by Fella of Digital Kitchen.
HMONGLISH MUSICAL IS ON TOUR NOW
AND AVAILABLE FOR BOOKING.
PLEASE CONTACT CHAT @ 651 644 6969
For more information visit: www.aboutchat.org
also see:
www.youtube.com/illegoaliensCenter for Hmong Arts and Talent and the Youth Leadership Group present Hmonglish... more
-
-
Everyone loves the NCAA Tournament. But of course, Ben Hoffman can find the downside to anything. Here he is bitching again in this week's infoMania Editorial.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at http://current.com/infomania/ or on Current TV. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.Everyone loves the NCAA Tournament. But of course, Ben Hoffman can find the downside... more
-
-
The Ivan Brothers invade the NCAA March Madness Basketball tournament with the help of Capital One Venture Card.The Ivan Brothers invade the NCAA March Madness Basketball tournament with the help of... more
-
-
In November 2009 the trial of Melissa Koehn concluded with guilty verdicts on three counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Koehn was sentenced for engaging in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female student.
According to the criminal complaint, Koehn and the teenage girl were found in parked car in Apple Valley, lying on top of each other and kissing in a fully-reclined seat.
Koehn was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 10 years of probation and payment of a $200 fine.In November 2009 the trial of Melissa Koehn concluded with guilty verdicts on three... more
-
-
b2r
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
