The Associated Press is reporting the U.S. House’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis report reveals meat companies pushed to keep their plants open even though they knew workers were at high risk of catching the virus. Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, who leads the subcommittee, said USDA officials and the industry prioritized production and profits over the health of workers and communities as at least 59,000 workers caught the virus and 269 workers died.
Henry Pan writes at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder that North Minneapolis residents are divided over a Blue Line Light Rail extension project that would extend beyond Target Field 12 miles north to Brooklyn Park, with stops in Crystal, Robbinsdale and Minneapolis along the way.
Beth Hawkins at the 74 Million takes a long view of the coming repercussions of this year’s Minneapolis teachers strike.
Rebecca Omastiak at KSTP is reporting that Minneapolis City Attorney Jim Rowader will not seek a second term. Rowader’s last day in office will be Monday, May 23.
Paul Walsh at the Star Tribune is reporting that a group of weather experts were involved in a crash on Interstate 90 on Wednesday afternoon. Martha L. Llanos Rodriguez, who prepared weather forecasts for the metropolitan Mexico City area and contributed to the creation and operation of the severe weather early warning system for the 21 million people who live in or near Mexico City, did not survive the crash.
Michelle Wiley at MPR News says Minnesota is one of many states being hit with a shortage of contrast dye used in CT scans at hospitals. While hospitals aren’t canceling procedures, health care leaders say the shortage is creating some anxious days.
According to Alicia Eler at the Star Tribune, members of the northeast Minneapolis arts community are divided over the now-open “The Art of Banksy,” a touring exhibit not authorized by the English street artist. Concerns relate to high ticket prices and its opening just prior to Art-A-Whirl, which could take away potential business from local artists with studios nearby.
The city of Richfield, unlike neighboring Edina, will not be participating in No Mow May, via Hometown Source.
From The Guardian regarding Glen Taylor’s (Timberwolves) Rembrandt Enterprises (where 5.3 million hens were culled because of the avian flu outbreak)and it’s care of employees:
“(The worker)…said Rembrandt appeared to care more about avian flu outbreaks than Covid. He criticised the management for failing to require workers to wear a mask or to be vaccinated.
“They actually liked the fact that we didn’t require our employees to get vaccinated, because they were hoping we would get employees from the surrounding areas that were requiring their employees to get vaccinated. They’re using it almost as a recruitment tool,” he said.
Other workers said that when they contracted Covid, they were obliged to use the days off they had earned as holidays instead of being given sick days.
“It’s a company that makes millions of dollars. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it doesn’t care about people,” said Garcia.
Good reporting Alan! Sincerely Dan B.
The treatment of meat packing workers during early covid was an outrage. And yesterday we learned that Sarin Gas was the cause of Gulf War Illness. Ever wonder why some rural people are so pissed off?… Minnpost your record needle is sometimes stuck on George Floyd. Time to broaden your horizons.
Blue Line Rail extension, does anyone remember Rondo?
I wonder whether any of the proposed routes will allow the train to run as a train, or are planners still in the dark about the difference between a streetcar and a light rail train? It’s a really big difference, too, in terms of transmit speed, degree of local service, and infrastructure cost.
The planners and public officials never achieved enlightenment when they created the Green Line.
We can understand the Minnpost impulse to include a former Minnpost writer like Beth Hawkins in their “Glean”, and bringing in fresh or under-represented content from more obscure sources has it’s merits as well. However we should make a couple notes here: First, “The 74 Media” for which Hawkins is writing isn’t necessarily the “non-partisan” organization it pretends to be. While they may not play favorites regarding bipartisanship, “The 74” DOES trace it’s origins back to the school choice movement which has always been decidedly anti-teacher’s union, and that bias is obvious in this piece. For instance we have an article here that essentiall blames the strike for future problems when in fact MPLS schools were and would be in crises regardless of the strike. The budget future budget crises for MPLS schools may not have been resolved by the strike, but the strike didn’t create it. That doesn’t mean Ms. Hawkins facts are in question here, but facts are always framed by context and we can note that any effects of private sector competition for limited public education funding and resources might be having on the MPLS school crises are not discussed. We can also note that whatever problem we want to observe within the MPLS school system have not been resolved by the school choice movement, and we can actually point to a number of ways the “choice” movement has exacerbated some problems such as segregation.
We should also note in this regard that the founders of Minnpost Joel and Laurie Kramer were also big promoters and founders of the charter school movement in MN. That doesn’t mean that narrative alignments like this are deliberate, but it’s worth noting in terms of possible bias revelation, even though the Kramer’s are no longer involved in the day to day operation of Minnpost.
Hawkin’s foray into alleged racism among Union leadership seems exploitive. This is an inside ball game within the Union, not a budget problem for the district. I’m not sure how the Union can resolve this, but the problem arises from terminations caused by budget cuts and shortfalls, not union leadership targeting POC teachers for termination.
At any rate, the most obvious question that always arises in my mind when this issue pops up is a basic budget question: How is it that when the number of students drops in MPLS the cost of teaching students keeps increasing? I can see budget cuts emerging from a loss of students when you have a per student formula, but why doesn’t it actually cost less to teach fewer students? I can imagine an answer to this question, but it would be nice to see someone actually discuss it knowledgably. At the end of the day my real complaint with Hawkins’s article is that it doesn’t really explain very much, it just suggests the Union and the Strike made the problem worse.