Truth to Tell

TTT#0923-CopCulture#3

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:52:52 -0500

TruthToTell continues to examine the dark and isolated world of local police culture and the nature of law enforcement in general. Part III: Police Accountability and Public Policy In theory, police internal affairs units ride herd on their own - the only public agency at any level in charge of investigating itself (although some federal agencies host offices of inspectors general). Rare, indeed, does the Internal Affairs unit - in St. Paul, the Police Civilian Review Commission – crack down on its fellow officers, despite being despised by them for even looking into complaints. Next stop is supposed to be the Civilian Police Review Authority (Minneapolis) or Civilian Review Board (St. Paul). Even here, what is supposed to be a check and balance on the internal review processes fails to sustain complaints at an alarming level or to hold officers accountable for cruel and irresponsible - sometimes criminal - behavior. Politics have placed cops on those boards and authorities, forgetting that the cops are not the only ones being charged, but already having been through cop-controlled investigations, should be free from intimidation and participation in deliberating complaints that reach them. Prosecutors are reluctant to bring charges against police officers, reliant as they are on the notion of deference to an an officer's reports - reports known to be cut from whole cloth, in many cases. Judges defer to police even when confronted with substantial evidence of wrongdoing. Juries, either from fear or undue respect for cops, acquit them of some of the most violent charges coming into court. How can society function without holding its armed, armored and powerful and violent law enforcement officers accountable for their violent, unfair policing and misdeeds, too often death-dealing - getting away with murder? How can law enforcement ever develop trust within the communities officers are constantly harassing, and why are urban police forces still so dominated by white males patrolling in a sea of color? Our questions this week: • Why can’t we convict renegade cops and redress their abuses?  • Where is accountability in law enforcement? • Is it recoverable?  • Cops don’t live in the places they patrol anymore. What role has that played in the dissociation between police and the people they "protect?" TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and guest hostNANCY SARTOR talk with current and former local and federal law enforcement, defense community, critics, policymakers, residents and reporters about what we can do to change these occupying armies back to community policing. Join us for this three-part series. GUESTS: • MICHAEL QUINN, retired Minneapolis Police Officer; Author,Walking with the Devil (Inside the Code of Silence) • JILL CLARK, Criminal Defense Attorney; Plaintiff's Advocate; former candidate, Minnesota Supreme Court •MICHELLE GROSS, Executive Director, CUAPB (Communities Against Police Brutality) • NATHANIEL KHALIQ, President, St. Paul Chapter, NAACP; Legal Redress Chair, MN State Conference of the NAACP • PETER ERLINDER, Professor of Constitutional Law, Wm. Mitchell College of Law; National Lawyers Guild • RICHARD GREELIS, retired Bloomington Police Officer; Author,Cop Book •CAN'T GET US OVER THE AIR? *STREAM TTT LIVE and LATER

TTT#0923-CopCulture#2

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:36:51 -0500

JUNE 24: SPECIAL REPORT #2: The Cop Culture: Police and Political Dissent NOTE: This program, originally schedule for June 17, was delayed one week because of illness. TruthToTell examines the dark and isolated world of local police culture and the nature of law enforcement in general. Our questions: • Why has this paramilitary subset of civil society grown so insular, more secretive and more rageful and violent? • How can we address the increasing federal conscription of local law enforcement agencies to violently put down legitimate political dissent – while stoking the deepening paranoia over those who disagree with increasingly rightwing and racist policing? • Why are we seeing more and more deception in police reports, shredding of documents, disappearing evidence and confiscated money? • Why can’t we convict renegade cops and redress their abuses? • Is there or has there ever been a bright line between some officers and the alleged offenders they arrest and charge? • Where is accountability in law enforcement? • Is it recoverable? • Cops don’t live in the places they patrol anymore. What role has that played in the dissociation between police and the people they protect? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with current and former local and federal law enforcement, defense community, critics, policymakers, residents and reporters about what we can do to change these occupying armies back to community policing. Join us for this three-part series. JUNE 24 - Tools vs Political Dissent GUESTS: • MICHAEL QUINN, retired Minneapolis Police Officer; Author, Walking with the Devil (Inside the Code of Silence) • COLEEN ROWLEY – former Minneapolis FBI legal counsel and special agent; 9/11 whistleblower and critic; Peace and Justice advocate • NATHANIEL KHALIQ, President, St. Paul Chapter, NAACP; Legal Redress Chair, MN State Conference of the NAACP • TERESA NELSON - Attorney, Minnesota ACLU • WILLIAM COX - California-based Writer and Public Interest attorney, retired supervising prosecutor for the State Bar of California; former police officer; author, You’re Not Stupid! Get the Truth: A Brief on the Bush Presidency_ CAN'T GET US OVER THE AIR? STREAM TTT_ LIVE and LATER. PODCAST of this show at MAC.com. And at PODCAST ALLEY And at DELICIOUS And at G-CAST PODCASTS of PREVIOUS Episodes in this series: PODCAST of this show at MAC.com. And at PODCAST ALLEY And at DELICIOUS And at G-CAST Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE
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TTT#0924-ENCORE-Howard ZINNVoices

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:23:28 -0500
JUNE 17: REPEAT - HOWARD ZINN and "Voices of A People's History"

TTT#0923-CopCulture#1

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:28:37 -0500
SPECIAL REPORT: The Cop Culture: Fear and Loathing in the Streets TruthToTell examines the dark and isolated world of local police culture and the nature of law enforcement in general. • Why has this paramilitary subset of civil society grown so insular, more secretive and more rageful and violent? • How can we address the increasing federal conscription of local law enforcement agencies to violently put down legitimate political dissent – while stoking the deepening paranoia over those who disagree with increasingly rightwing and racist policing? • Why are we seeing more and more deception in police reports, shredding of documents, disappearing evidence and confiscated money? • Why can’t we convict renegade cops and redress their abuses? • Is there or has there ever been a bright line between some officers and the alleged offenders they arrest and charge? • Where is accountability in law enforcement? • Is it recoverable? • Cops don’t live in the places they patrol anymore. What role has that played in the dissociation between police and the people they ”protect?" TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with current and former local and federal law enforcement, defense community, critics, policymakers, residents and reporters about what we can do to change these occupying armies back to community policing. Join us for this three-part series. JUNE 10 - The Culture GUESTS: • MICHAEL QUINN, retired Minneapolis Police Officer; Author, Walking with the Devil (Inside the Code of Silence) • COLEEN ROWLEY – former Minneapolis FBI legal counsel and special agent; 9/11 whistleblower and critic; Peace and Justice advocate • JILL CLARK, Criminal Defense Attorney; Plaintiff's Advocate; former candidate, Minnesota Supreme Court CAN'T GET US OVER THE AIR? STREAM TTT LIVE and LATER

TTT#0922-FreedomInformation

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:12:19 -0500
June 3: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Dilemma Over Public vs. Private We have in the last couple decades confronted an unprecedented time and volume of government secrecy even as our technological developments have enabled an unconscionable level of identity and data mining. Governments - federal, state and local - stamp "SECRET” or "TOP SECRET” or "CONFIDENTIAL” over millions of documents and files containing what should be public information. Minnesota's Government Data Practices Act is riddled with rules designed to provide or withhold all kinds of information relating to the state's business. Experts disagree on which should be available and which should not. Insidious in a democracy, the shutting down of information citizens must know to properly govern themselves has become an obsession of elected and appointed officials throughout the systems designed to serve us. Yes, we have the FOI - the Freedom of Information Act – but that has neither stopped nor abated the attempts to keep from the public the more critical record of their governing institutions. And yet...and yet. We seem to be losing the battle to ensure and control our privacy, not to mention our bank accounts and personal belongings – our very identities. We think nothing of going online and ordering goods and services, giving up to an electronic data compiler the very information we hold dear. Why can't we stop the illegal mining of our data while we have to pry open government files? When, if ever, is government information legitimately kept from us? And how can we protect our personal lives from predators? Transparency in Government is the theme of the 2009 Summit of the National Freedom of Information Coalition -summit at the Marriott City Center in Minneapolis Friday, June 5 and Saturday, June 6th. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with scheduled speakers and others – a journalist/scholar, a heralded advocate, an ethicist and a librarian in search of the proper access and limits we should seek for governing ourselves and protecting privacy. GUESTS: • HELEN BURKE – Senior Librarian, Hennepin Co. Library Government Documents; President, MN Coalition on Government Information (MN-COGI). • JANE KIRTLEY – Professor, School of Journalism, and Director, Silha Center for Media Law and Ethics - University of MN • RICH NEUMEISTER l – Citizen Lobbyist, FOI Advocate, Winner, 2009 John R. Finnegan Award • REP. MARY LIZ HOLBERG, (R-36A-Lakeville) - Member, House Civil Justice Committee; Legislative advocate for Data Practices and enforcement. CAN'T GET US OVER THE AIR? STREAM TTT LIVEhttp://www.kfai.org/ _and_ LATER FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LINKS

TTT#0921-TeamstersLaborHistory

Wed, 27 May 2009 22:49:55 -0500
LABOR ISSUES and THE TEAMSTERS STRIKE 1934 Seventy-five years after the big Teamsters blow-out*, labor is back struggling for its survival. Will the times allow a resurgence of unified collective bargaining and worker protections, wages and benefits? Meanwhile, even in the best of times, labor's internal conflicts reflect the all-too-human temptation to forget our parents' and grandparents' struggles to secure middle class status for workers of all skills. Many rank and file union members have changed their political stripes as they settled into suburban isolation from the unity once required to maintain power. _TTT's_ ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with historians and activists to assess the labor landscape even as many are planning a July celebration of the trucker's strike of 1934 in this recessionary period. We recall the nasty events of July, 1934, when deputized thugs ambushed union pickets, killing two and seriously wounding dozens of others and we assess the political climate that allowed it to happen. GUESTS: • JIM MCGUIRE – Chair, One Day in July: A Street Festival for the Working Class – The 1934 Teamsters Strike Remembrance 75 Years Later; Steward, OPEIU Local 12 • TOM O'CONNELL – Metro State Political Science Professor/Labor Historian. Author, TOWARD THE COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH: AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY OF THE FARMER-LABOR MOVEMENT IN MINNESOTA (1917-1948) • DAVID RIEHLE – Minnesota Labor Historian, 1934 Strike chronicler; Chair, Local 650, UTU for Union Pacific trainmen; "One Day in July" organizing committee member. • ERIC FORMAN – IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) with a STARBUCKS ORGANIZING UPDATE LINKS TO STRIKE HISTORY AND OTHER LABOR INFORMATION: MN Historical Society 1934 Truckers' Strike Index BOOKS/WRITINGS: KUCERA, BARB, Workday Minnesota, Farmer-Labor movement owes much to Mahoney 28 March 2007 (reprinted 27 May 2009) McCARTNEY, JIM, Workday Minnesota, Mahoney lives on in his battles with the press, 11 March 2007 (Reprinted 27 May 2009) Union Advocate labor history series - Workday Minnesota RIEHLE, DAVID, Farmer-Labor Party of the 1930's

TTT#0920-CommunityGardens

Thu, 21 May 2009 14:03:11 -0500
COMMUNITY GARDENS: Cultivating Health and Confidence Something in the soil*, in the turning of it, the planting and in watching seeds sprout and bloom with food and flowers for family and friends and neighbors. It brings together young and old, low-wealth and affluent - racially and economically diverse urban dwellers seeking better nutrition and self-confidence. Community gardens throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul are feeding gardeners and young people the fundamentals of raising, marketing and consuming the better health and biology that comes from unprocessed and organic, homegrown foods. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with community gardeners, urban farmers and their charges from across the Twin Cities weeding out the corporate consumption machine from neighbors' nutrition toward pride and self-sufficiency as they feed themselves and their neighbors the healthier results of their toils in the soils. GUESTS: • DIANE DODGE- Growing Food and Justice • MELVIN GILES - Minnesota Food and Justice Alliance • XE SUSANE MOUA - St. Paul urban farmer and advocate CAN'T GET US OVER THE AIR? STREAM TTT LIVE and LATER at KFAI.ORG

TTT#0919-SubterraneanTwinCities

Wed, 13 May 2009 22:32:14 -0500
Down, down, down. Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues Under the City he's not, but geologist, caver and author GREG BRICK reveals in his book, Subterranean Twin Cities, a multi-level world never seen by most, some of it naturally formed, some of it carved and created by humans to service our consumption and our waste...most of it dark, wet, and dangerous. Some, especially youngsters have died in collapses and closings. We rarely or never meet up with our neighbors, the insects and rodents residing below in numbers that would blow our minds, feeding on human detritus, might even be seen as part of the human ecology. We walk and drive above it all every day. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN explore with Greg Brick the underworld of our cities and state and talk about why public access to those inner sanctums has been cut short by security and safety concerns even as the caves and tunnels contain some important geology and serious history of the area. Don’t try this at home—read the book instead! (it smells better) we are admonished by publishers University of Minnesota Press. GUESTS: • GREG BRICK - Author, Geologist and sometimes cave explorer

TTT#0918-CentralCorridor09

Wed, 06 May 2009 21:41:39 -0500
MAY 6: CENTRAL CORRIDOR UPDATE: Are Community Advocates Winning? [PLEASE NOTE: This is a truncated program simulcast live from St. Paul Neighborhood Network where our audio connection was unreliable a fair share of the time. Please bear with us.] After a half-dozen years or more of public scrutiny and controversy over community demands for constituent services along the light rail corridor soon to break asphalt in St. Paul and Minneapolis, many of those communities' continue to voice frustrations with decision-makers treating transit-dependent populations as second in line for the resources necessary to make the revamping of this umbilical cord between the two downtowns actually serve them. Coalitions of groups have seen themselves marginalized in a billion-dollar process that promises much but guarantees far less as the state and Metropolitan Council vie for federal transit funds, argue over local and state matches required for completion and, especially the important issues of sufficient station stops, business loss mitigation along University Avenue during construction, and the loss of parking to accommodate small retailers, among other. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with several community leaders deeply engaged in advisory committees and other efforts trying to affect ivory tower decisions that separate political leaders from neighborhood representatives. GUESTS: • ANNE WHITE - Chair, District Councils Collaborative of St. Paul & Minneapolis (DCC); member, Central Corridor Advisory Committee (CCAC); • VERONICA BURT - Community Organizer, Aurora-St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corp; • VIC ROSENTHAL - Executive Director, Jewish Community Action; member, Campaign to Add Transit Stops Along Central Corridor; • LARRY PETERSON - Attorney; Executive Committee, University Avenue Business Assn • MILFORD JOHNSON - Community Stabilization Project (CSP), St. Paul

TTT#0917-PositiveAgingAlzh

Fri, 01 May 2009 22:18:46 -0500
POSITIVE AGING: Living it Up to the End News reports and magazines are full of stories and warnings and worries over the approaching boomer bubble of boomers over 60 years of age, the puzzling spike in cases of dementias and disorders, i.e., Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and related disabling brain function. You'd think that any of us have half a chance to live out our lives with any sense of robust abandon and engaging work and play alike. Yes, almost all of us have had family members or friends afflicted with such disorders, but a major movement has been under way for years urging us to stop accepting our last 20, 30 years as death-in-waiting. Positive Aging takes in a wide swath of affirmative living, mental and physical engagement of everything life has to offer, including lifelong learning, satisfying sex, and a wide variety of active mental and physical contributions to our communities, our families, our children and grandchildren. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with authors, scholars, advocates and promoters Dr. Peter Whitehouse and Connie Goldman about staying alive all the way out. GUESTS: • CONNIE GOLDMAN - positive aging advocate, activist and author of The Ageless Spirit: Reflections on Living Life to the Fullest in Mid-life and the Years Beyond; Connie Goldman is a former MPR and NPR reporter/commentator, doyenne of arts and aging on All Things Considered. • DR. PETER WHITEHOUSE - geriatric neurologist, cognitive neuroscientist, and "global" bioethicist; author, The Myth of Alzheimer's. Dr. Whitehouse spoke at The Marsh Fitness Center in Minnetonka Wednesday and Thursday in Mayo Auditorium on the University of Minnesota Campus delivering the Center for Spirituality and Healing’s annual Ruth Stricker Mind-Body Lecture.

TTT#0916-MplsCityCharter

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:50:23 -0500
MINNEAPOLIS CHARTER AMENDMENTS: Changing City Governance After over 100 years, the Minneapolis Charter Commission is submitting a package of major revisions, which, if passed by city voters in November, will radically change the way Minneapolis would be governed from then on. While some proposed amendments update the overall language of the charter itself, three proposals promise significant changes in how the city would be run, including 1) the creation of the office of City Administrator (replacing the currently appointed Coordinator's position); 2) eliminating altogether the Minneapolis Park Board and 3) the Board of Estimate and Taxation, rolling all those responsibilities into the City Council and Mayor's offices. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with supporting and opposing officials about the history of those bodies, the impact of their creation/elimination, and what citizens might expect in the wake of such radial change: Accountability? Efficiencies? Autonomy? Focus? Tune in and talk with our guests. How would you vote on this today? GUESTS: • CAM GORDON – Minneapolis Ward 2 City Councilmember • PAUL OSTROW - Minneapolis Ward 1 City Councilmember • ANNIE YOUNG – Minneapolis At-Large Park Board Commissioner • CAROL BECKER – President, Mpls. Board of Estimate and Taxation (Elected Member) • JIM BERNSTEIN*, Chair, Minneapolis Charter Commission

TTT#0915-CharterSchools

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:49:20 -0500
Pledge your Support Now - or call 612-375-9030 CHARTER SCHOOLS: New Views and Choices With years of service behind them now, Minnesota's charter schools get mixed reviews and uneven results in their governance, curriculum and results. Supporters maintain their view that these schools, while public, provide competitive choices – alternatives to the regular public system – for Minnesota families. Detractors say both statistics and data show that achievement is no better in charter schools, and, worse, have become agents of resegregation, focused as they often are on serving common ground groups – racial, ethnic, economic, geographic and intellectual. TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with advocates and critics about the history, impact and operation of the state's charter schools and what policymakers are doing to adjust to the mixed record of charter school success. GUESTS: • EUGENE PICCOLO – Executive Director, Minnesota Association of Charter Schools • REP. LINDA SLOCUM – House K-12 Finance Committee, Author, Charter School reform bill • SCOTT CROONQUIST – Executive Director, Association of Metropolitan School Districts • TOM LUCE – Research Director, UofM's Institute on Race and Poverty • AND YOU! Call us at 612-341-0980 with comments and questions.

TTT#0914-MentalHealth-SomaliAutism

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:26:19 -0500
APRIL 8: MENTAL HEALTH CUTS and SOMALI AUTISM WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8 – 1100AM MENTAL HEALTH CUTS What Could Happen?&SOMALI CHILDREN AND AUTISM What's Going On Here? Mental health advocatesand service providers cringe at what budget cuts portend for their charges - as if the stigma of mental illness isn't enough to create political antipathy. Anyone who gets around these cities can see the fruits of mental illness in a wide variety of societal outcasts – rage, drug use, homelessness, and crimes for which their mental illness is no defense. Also, on Tuesday, March 31, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) released a lengthy STUDY on the baffling and disproportionate rates of autism among Somali children born in the US. Can there be any doubt that environmental degradation throughout our life systems is ravaging the immune systems of our children. Asthma, autism, ADD and who knows what else are found in clusters across the Metro, but especially in core areas of our cities where immigrants are proving to be the clearest bellwether for the epidemic proportions of children's maladies. What is happening to these babies among Somali families? GUESTS MENTAL HEALTH BUDGETS AND THEIR IMPACTS • STATE SEN. LINDA BERGLIN, Chair of the SenateHealth and Human Services Budget Division of Finance •SUE ABDERHOLDEN, Executive Director, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness MN) •JOAN WHITE, Program Officer for PEOPLE INCORPORATED, a mental health delivery organization with homes and services provided to hundreds of mentally ill residents. SOMALI CHILDREN AND AUTISM •IDIL ABDULL- Parent Advocate and Co-founder, Somali-American Autism Foundation •ANNE HARRINGTON- Autism Consultant and Advocate; former Early Childhood teacher/evaluator, Minneapolis Public Schools; Mother of child with autism •SARAH THORSON, Supervisor, Minnesota Children with Special Health Needs, MINNESOTA DEPT. OF HEALTH •ABDI AYNTE- BBC America reporter; former Twin Cities reporter covering the Somali autism issue.

TTT#0913-HowardZinnVoices

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:38:48 -0500
The history of the United States as taught in our schools is only half the story - and almost always told from the perspective of the conqueror - in this case, European immigrants - with little if anything said about the conquered - the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere who found their peaceful existence interrupted, their people enslaved and murdered to extinction, their cultures exterminated. HOWARD ZINN's A People's History of the United States sought to correct such half-truths and to fill in the very large vacuum in our understanding of the events that led to our current government's founding, establishment and pervasive culture. Voices of A People's History records the commentary and philosophy of those who sought and spoke truth to power in the centuries that followed. Co-authored with scholar, Anthony Arnove, "Voices..." resurrects the seekers of justice from every walk - like that of Nez Percé Chief Joseph, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Eugene Debs, Frederick Douglass, and Columbus critic, Bartolomé Las Casas, among other "Voices.." to be read and heard when Howard Zinn comes to town to oversee the dramatization of these historical characters at an event on behalf of the Nonviolent Peaceforce> at St. Catherine's O'Shaughnessy Auditorium in St. Paul April 6th at 7:00PM. *Co-sponsored by KFAI.* TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with Howard Zinn and Historian DOUG ROSSINOW about the role historical perspective plays in our self-perception and in the way we govern ourselves today. We'll hear a reading or two from scheduled performers - a song from Twin Cities' premier jazz vocalist PRUDENCE JOHNSON and writer/poet/teacher MICHAEL KIESOW MOORE. GUESTS: • HOWARD ZINN, Historian/Author of People's History of the United States and Voices of A People's History • PROF. DOUG ROSSINOW - Historian and Professor of History, Metropolitan State University; Author, Visions of Progress: The Left-Liberal Tradition in America • PRUDENCE JOHNSON - Twin Cities Jazz Vocalist • ANDY DRISCOLL

TTT#0912-PovertyGreenJobs

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:59:12 -0500
LOCAL GREEN-JOB POVERTY-KILLERS Part of KFAI'S STRIVE TO THRIVE SERIES on POVERTY in MINNESOTA Poverty's ugly head continues to pester a culture claiming to be equal in all respects. Many Minnesotans believe "we're not as bad as other places." But thousands of Minnesota's children and families wallow in unnecessary poverty, hundreds homeless, unable to find work, to eat properly and to learn; Poverty's effects have been and can be even more devastating for all of us...if we look back and down and not ahead. But huge coalitions are forming nationally and locally toward lifting whole communities out of the mire and create sustainable and livable communities at the same time. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with one national and several Twin City movers and inspirations for building and rebuilding poverty-stricken communities with jobs and foresight. GUESTS: • ALEX TITTLE – Education Direcor, Summit Academy OIC, H.I.R.E. (Healthcare, Infrastructure, and Renewable Energy ) Minnesota Green Jobs Initiative • KAREN MONAHAN – Community Organizer, EJAM (Environmental Justice Advocates of MN) • JOHN HOTTINGER – former State Senate Majority Leader; Sierra Club and Blue/Green Alliance; Author, Legislative Commission to Eliminate Poverty in MN by 2020 Can't get us on the radio? Stream TTT live from KFAI's Home Page Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE
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TTT#0911-Judicial SelectionEncore

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:54:06 -0500
MARCH 18: ENCORE: CHOOSING OUR JUDGES: Elect or Select? SINCE AIRING THIS PROGRAM A YEAR AGO, a bill to place a Constitutional amendment before Minnesota voters in 2010 is being heard at the Legislature. The arguments for and against judicial appointments versus election remain before that body. Our program remains relevant to the current discussion. A 2002 US Supreme Court ruling had opened the door to a practice previously prohibited by Minnesota’s Canon of Judicial Ethics. Judicial candidates therefore may no longer be prevented from expressing opinions on issues that may come before the bench, perhaps in the process revealing a bias in favor of one side or another well before the facts are in and a ruling issued. Many legal types see this as turning the entire judicial branch of government into an expensive, nasty politically driven court system. Others insist that traditional elections open debate to reveal bias and make the judiciary more accountable. Former GOVERNOR AL QUIE is spearheading a drive to create a state Constitutional amendment advocates believe addresses both impartiality and electoral accountability – retention elections. TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with Governor Quie and others about the pluses and minuses of a system that would place only previously incumbent judges before voters, but not directly elect newcomers. GUESTS: • FORMER GOVERNOR AL QUIE, Co-Chair, Minnesotans for Impartial Courts • STATE SEN. ANN REST, Chair, State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee; Chief Author, Retention Elections bill • PETER NICKITAS, Attorney and member, National Lawyers Guild-MN • MARK CHRONISTER, Director, Minnesotans for Impartial Courts

TTT#0910-ElectionReforms09

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:00:00 -0500
MARCH 11: ELECTION REFORMS: Will They Enable More and Better Voting? Minnesota's protracted US Senate contest has brought into sharp relief both the strengths – and some glaring weaknesses – in the state's electoral process, some of which discourage voter participation. What can we do to both streamline the system and enable maximum voter engagement and confidence? Furthermore, starting with this year's election, Minneapolis will implement an Instant Run-off Voting (Ranked Choice Voting) system that recently survived a court challenge and opened the door to placing a St. Paul version on that city's ballot this Fall. Is a state version more politically viable now – especially after at least three major elections were decided not by a majority of votes, but a plurality? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with advocates, watchdogs and policymakers about reform of election laws and procedures which may well have been designed to depress voter participation rather than encourage it and what makes sense if we truly seek a fully participatory democracy. GUESTS: • JEANNE MASSEY, Executive Director, FairVote Minnesota, prime movers behind IRV/RCV • KEESHA GASKINS, Executive Director, Minnesota League of Women Voters • MIKE DEAN, Executive Director, Minnesota Common Cause COMING APRIL 1: People's Historian HOWARD ZINN Can't get us on the radio? Stream TTT live from KFAI's Home Page PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE
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TTT#0909-OnlineJournalists

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:11:23 -0600
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4 - 11AM: ONLINE JOURNALISTS–They Get No Respect! Minnesota House Majority Leader Tony Sertich continues to fight equal access for all media to the floor and in committee meetings/hearings. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN discuss the role and importance of New Media (online journalism) in providing professional, informed journalism, but also to challenge the Majority Leader's assertion that allowing online journalists onto the House floor opens a Pandora's box of bloggers and cameras into an already chaotic arena. We discuss the practical flaws in Rep. Sertich's reasoning, given the reality of applications for floor access, etc. This is not a question of practicality, but of principle. The principle is embedded in the First Amendment, in the Rule itself (stating flatly that ALL accredited media MUST be allowed in), and based on the ethics of equal treatment under laws and rules governing access to public institutions. The dispute may narrow to the meaning and definition of "accredited," but who does the accrediting? In this day and age, "accredited" can apply to an ever-widening range of media resources. GUESTS: • REP. JEFF HAYDEN, Vice Chair Minnesota House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee • PAUL SCHMELZER, Editor, Minnesota Independent • SHAWN TOWLE, Editor/Publisher, Checks&Balances.com • MARY TURCK, Editor, Twin Cities Daily Planet • ART HUGHES, Board Member, Society of Professional Journalists Minnesota • MARTY OWINGS, TruthToTell Correspondent and Editor, (My)RadioFreeNation.com Can't get us on the radio? Stream TTT live from KFAI's Home Page

TTT#0908-MidtownHiawathaPower

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:00:00 -0600
FEB 25: POWER PLAY OVER THE GREENWAY: Green Ways to Up the Voltage? Minneapolis' Midtown Greenway converted a rail bed below 29th Street through the core of the city's south side to bike trails and walking paths with an eye to eventually putting a transit rail line from Uptown to the River, connecting it to the regional rail system. Now XCEL ENERGY wants to plunk down a major power substation near Hiawatha and run a high-voltage powerline down and over the Greenway, crisscrossing the trail several times. The neighborhoods are up in arms, despite conceding the need for additional electricity to the area. Bury it, say the neighbors. Too expensive, says Xcel. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN explore the issues and conflicts plaguing the debate between large power users like Allina, Abbott-Northwestern Hospital and Wells Fargo Bank who can't afford summer brownouts against a new green vision for power generation promoted by area advocates. We talk with a panel of principals of varying perspectives. *UPDATE: Xcel bowed out of this program at the 11th hour. So we couldn't query their reps about why they're pushing such a traditional power source.* GUESTS: • PETER MCLAUGHLIN, Hennepin County Commissioner/Chair, North American Water Office; • BILL ZIEGLER, President/CEO, Little Earth of United Tribes; • TIM SPRINGER, Executive Director, Midtown Greenway Coalition; • JULIA EAGLES, Program Manager, Phillips Community Energy Cooperative; • CAROL OVERLAND, Attorney/Green Energy Advocate; BLOG: Legalectric AND YOU! COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? CALL IN: 612-341-0980 Can't get us on the radio? Stream TTT live from KFAI's Home Page

TTT#0907-SinglePayerHealth

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:07:02 -0600
FEB 18: SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE: Are We There Yet? For the umpteenth successive Legislative session a bill consolidating all Minnesota health insurance into a single public source and making coverage mandatory for all residents. It's rarely ever found its way out of committee. But wait! This new bill carries more authors and co-authors and is moving through committees at a pace no other bill of its kind has over the many years this idea has floated about at the Capitol. Why is that? Why have those traditionally resisting such change as too radical and politically nonviable been so willing to climb on board the newly minted Minnesota Health Plan this particular session. Have years of pressure finally taken hold? Do the dollars and dimes in this recessionary time suddenly add up to wise investment in our health care system and no longer the fear-mongering socialization of medicine? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with citizen and organizational advocates, legislative sponsors and at least one opponent of placing healthcare funding in the hands of the public. GUESTS: • SEN. MARY OLSON, Committees: Finance - Health and Human Services Budget Division and Commerce and Consumer Protection. EMAIL • KIP SULLIVAN, Author of "The Health Care Mess", In These Times Blogger, and Long-time Single-Payer Expert and Advocate. • DR. MORRISON HODGES, Retired Cardiologist, former Director of Cardiology for Hennepin County Medical Center, co-founder, Hennepin Faculty Associates, Member, Physicians for a National Health Program Dr. Hodgesis available for talks on the history of healthcare and insurance. EMAIL • DAN MCGRATH, Executive Director - TAKE ACTION MINNESOTA • TTT Correspondent MARTIN OWINGS, with a live report on progress on the Minnesota Health Plan from the Capitol Hearing rooms; Blogger at RADIO FREE NATION ADDITIONAL LINKS - more information: Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition AND YOU! COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? CALL IN: 612-341-0980 Can't get us on the radio? Stream TTT live from KFAI's Home Page PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0906-ObamaEraBegins

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:00:00 -0600
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 - 11:00AM THE OBAMA ERA: PERCEPTIONS, EXPECTATIONS AND POLICIES Just what does this sea change in America's governance mean to us at home in Minnesota – especially in communities suffering under the twin sieges of economic disparity and discrimination - joblessness, homelessness, foreclosure, and debt – that lead to community instability? Do we have a right and responsibility to cheer Barack Obama's election as a sign of progress and hope while holding this new president, his administration, and the new majorities in Congress as well elected officials in our own backyards responsible and accountable for real change and common prosperity? What signs indicate things are really changing? What signs point to business as usual as the Obama agenda plays out in the coming economic stimulus, job creation and long-awaited equity in policies directing resources to education, health and health care, the environment, consumer protection, and financial gaps? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with community activists, scholars and political operatives from the many Twin Cities and Minnesota communities dealing with economic depression in the midst of optimism generated by President Obama's election to get their perceptions, expectations and policy analyses. GUESTS: • IRMA McCLAURIN, PhD - Associate VP, UofM, and Executive Director, Urban Research & Outreach/Engagement Center • PROF. TOM O'CONNELL - Political Scientist, Metropolitan State University; Chair, CivicMedia/Minnesota • NICK AL'AZIZ MUHAMMAD - St. Paul Coordinator, Obama Campaign; Hip Hop Artist (Gardens of Balance) - Hip Hop Get-Out-the-Vote • DAI THAO - Organizer, TakeAction Minnesota; Obama Campaign Hmong Get-Out-The-Vote • plus CALL-IN "MY.OBAMA COMMENTATORS DON HOLT and ANNE SARVER My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-94fabd90af5354980d88f371fe60bb6f}

TTT#0905-HealthDisparities

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:38:57 -0600
FEBRUARY 4 - LIVE SPECIAL From the OPEN CITIES HEALTH FAIR at Wilder Foundation Headquarters in St. Paul: A BLACK HISTORY MONTH discussion: HEALTH DISPARITIES IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR: Access or Responsibility? On first blush, it would be no surprise if we learned that access to good health and adequate health care would be less available within Twin Cities Area communities of color. Access to the resources for preventing illness and injury as well as acute care for sickness and trauma would seem to be less available among folks who live in poverty and that appears truer of African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and other New Americans. But is it? Are the resources actually plenty, but their actual uses meager? Why do so many people use emergency rooms and not doctors and clinics for care best received in less expensive settings? TTT'S ANDY DRISCOLL talks with community health professionals about the data and the reality of adequate care and accessibility among people with low incomes and a tradition of discrimination in many public services. Can patients be held more responsible for their care and conditions than we do? GUESTS: • MITCHELL DAVIS, JR., Director,OFFICE OF MINORITY & MULTICULTURAL HEALTH -MN Dept. of Health • ROXANNE TISDALE, Director of Health Disparities -OPEN CITIES HEALTH CENTER, St. Paul • AKHMIRI SEKHR-RA, Health Systems Navigator, Doula - CULTURAL WELLNESS CENTER, Minneapolis Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0904–GLBT Issues

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:00:00 -0600
JANUARY 28 - GLBT: What do Minnesota's Gays Want? Not an easy question to ask for this legislative session. Some advocates are pushing hard for a marriage bill and have a raft of stellar legislative co-sponsors in both houses in their corner, BUT, other groups are concerned about backlash and want to eliminate discriminatory statutes one-by-one. Just what do Minnesota's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender activists want - and will division in the ranks fragment or dilute support for any one legislative agenda? TRUTH TO TELL seeks to bring issues often confined to directly affected constituencies and their media outlets to a more general audience. This week, TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL & LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with a variety of GLBT organizations and advocates about this legislative session's agenda around human rights issues and their differing approaches to ensuring equal treatment and recognition of same-sex families in housing, employment, health care, financial and estate matters. GUESTS: • STATE SENATOR JOHN MARTY - Author, SF 3880, Marriage and Family Protection Act. • LAURA SMIDZIK - Executive Director, PROJECT 515 • JOHN TOWNSEND - Co-Host, KFAI's "FRESH FRUIT" and writer on GLBT issues. • AMY JOHNSON, Executive Director, OUTFRONT MINNESOTA, GLBT Advocacy Group Can't get us on the radio? Stream it from KFAI's Home Page – KFAI.org. GLBT Graphic by DJ-SLT Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0903-FelonReentry

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:51:56 -0600
JANUARY 21: RETURNING FELONS: How Can We Repatriate Offenders? Millions of prisoners are released back into society each year and yet society often rejects them despite having paid their court-imposed debts. Is this not completely counterproductive - and costly? Why should returning felons not enjoy the full benefits of citizenship after living out their sentences? How can a civilized society believe anyone is irredeemable? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with a former felon active in re-entry issues and advocates for major change in creating a post-incarceration climate of productive citizenship and a crime-free life. GUESTS: • DANNY GIVENS – former felon, Men's advocate, African-American Men's Project and Northpoint Health Center, now studying for the ministry. • ROBERT HOPE, Workforce Development Manager, Goodwill Easter Seals ReEntry Services • SARAH LAGESON - Researcher, Council on Crime & Justice • RICH DEMMERS - Former Felon, Alternatives to Violence Project • DEAN ZIMMERMANN-former Mpls City Councilmember and recent Federal inmate Lobby to give everyone a AFRICAN-AMERICAN MEN'S PROGRAM SERVICES: All groups meet at 1313 Penn Ave. North in Minneapolis • Reentry “EMERGE" Men’s Group – Wednesdays 6-8PM • Tuesday night Men’s Group 5:30 PM • Black Men Reading Weds 6-8 PM

TTT#0902-MPR-CentralCorridor

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:00:00 -0600
JANUARY 14: CENTRAL CORRIDOR: Is It Really Going to Kill MPR? Minnesota Public Radio, in the person of President/CEO Bill Kling has flooded the media with letters and announcements on MPR's airwaves that the Central Corridor MAP light rail alignment down Cedar Street MAP in St. Paul is going to rattle the studio walls and penetrate soundproofing with intolerable noise and vibration by its 12-foot proximity to his headquarters, built and expanded on with several millions of public dollars. Now that Mr. Kling threatens to sue and/or leave the city if the line stays on this path without "mitigation" has critics up in arms, not the least of which are Met Council, Ramsey County and St. Paul public officials insisting his complaint comes too late – whether they agree with the basic premise or not. Kling's history with public and private officials hasn't made it easy to accept his assertions that all of this is based on too little information early on and that revealing data garnered as late as April, 2008, proves his point. But where was he when all the arguments over alignment and specifications were published and debated for months on end over a five-year period? Kling says he started then. Others beg to differ. Either way, TTT will take this on and Bill Kling, Peter Bell, Mayor Chris Coleman and Commissioner Jim McDonough had been invited to join the discussion Wednesday, but: neither Kling nor any of his minions would agree to appear. When a deal just happened to have been struck early on the morning of our show among Coleman, Kling and Bell, Bell cancelled and Coleman, who would have merely called in for a few minutes, never did. Thanks to our guests and a couple of call-in experts, the show becomes an enlightening look at the underlying issues. Listen in judge for yourself. GUESTS: • MICHAEL NOBLE, Executive Director, Fresh Energy and Member, Mayor's Downtown Central Corridor Task Force • JOHN MILTON - author, "Time to Choose," and former Minnesota State Senator • DICK REES - Sound Engineer and KFAI Volunteer SCHEDULED BUT CANCELLED: • PETER BELL, Chair of Metropolitan Council and Central Corridor Management Committee • RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONER JIM MCDONOUGH, Chair, MAYOR CHRIS COLEMAN, St. Paul LINKS TO CENTRAL CORRIDOR/REGIONAL TRANSIT INFO: MET COUNCIL TRANSIT LINKS AND INFORMATION PAGE RAMSEY COUNTY CENTRAL CORRIDOR INFO PAGE CITY OF SAINT PAUL CENTRAL CORRIDOR INFO PAGE PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0901-StarTribune

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:00:00 -0600
JANUARY 7: GOODBYE TO THE STAR TRIBUNE? - Workers and Management at Loggerheads WILL THEY OR WON'T THEY? The Star Tribune was threatening its workers with bankruptcy if deep concessions fail to take hold in the newsrooms, in the press room and on the trucks. (As of January 9, unions refused to concede) Many observers see Strib owner Avista Capital Partners heading for Chapter 11, or 7, either way. Then why concede up to 40% of your wages if the paper goes belly-up? And just why is an investment company trying to run a newspaper, anyway? TTT'S ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN (a former Guild writer herself) query Strib willing management and members of the Rank-and-File Newspaper Union Solidarity Committee [Newspaper Guild (editorial) and the Graphics Communications International Union-GCIU (pressmen and drivers)] about the latest battle over contracted wages and benefits. GUESTS: • CHRIS SERRES - Reporter and Newspaper Guild Representative on the Solidarity Committee • DAN GANLEY, retired 30-year veteran Pressroom Operator and GCIU member • DOUG RZESZUTEK, 30-year Pressroom Worker and GCIU Representative • STEVE PIETRZAK, 42-year Pressroom Worker and GCIU Representative (INVITED but not appearing): CHRIS HARTE, Publisher and/or NANCY BARNES, Editor/Sr. Vice President - Star Tribune) PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0853-McCollumNewYear

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:00:00 -0600
NEW YEAR'S EVE: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31 CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW: Report from our Capitol Representatives We take this year-end opportunity to review the policies and politics of 2008 and their impact on Twin Cities residents – and the changes and expectations we can look for in 2009. Our newly re-elected core-city US representatives join us for a comprehensive conversation. GUESTS: • CONFIRMED: CONGRESSWOMAN BETTY McCOLLUM, (D-MN) 4th District • Fellow journalists ARON KAHN and JIM LEINFELDER PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0852-MelDuncanEncore

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:44:54 -0600
ENCORE: A CONVERSATION WITH MEL DUNCAN We reprise our October conversation with MEL DUNCAN, whose commitment to and effective organizing around progressive politics and public policy, peace, justice and nonviolence date back 30 years. Mel Duncan was founding director of the Nonviolent Peaceforce, a consortium of some 93 member organizations around the world – recently stepped back from that role but not the organization nor its mission after almost ten years of global collaboration with local people in several countries, most recently Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Guatemala. ANDY DRISCOLL's October interview with Duncan and its message of peace, meditation and advocacy is repeated this Christmas Eve Day and Day 4 of Hanukkah. Happy Holidays to all. PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0851-Utility Bills Redux

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:30:52 -0600
Why are hundreds of households going without heat or light right now when Minnesota's Cold Weather Rule preventing utility shutoffs during the winter months is in effect? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN investigate the reasons utility companies feel they can flout the law. The real question is: why are shut-offs necessary? Is warm shelter a human right? We speak with consumer advocates, tenant advocates and home heating assistance agents to get to the bottom of the cold furnaces and dark rooms cropping up around the Twin Cities Metro and across Minnesota. GUESTS: • MURIEL DICKINSON - Customer Service Coordinator, Community Action Minneapolis PHONE: 612-335-5837 • SCOTT ZEMKE - Operations Director Community Action Partnership of Suburban Hennepin PHONE: Energy Assistance Intake: 952-930-3541 • ERIC HAUGE -Lead tenant Organizer, HOME Line, Nonprofit Minnesota statewide tenant advocacy organization. PHONE: Tenant Hotline: 612-728-5767. Main Office Number: 612-728-5770 • MATT EICHENLAUB - Attorney, HOME Line • CHERI HONKALA - National Organizer, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign PHONE: (612) 821-2364 ADDITIONAL HELPLINKS: COMMUNITY ACTION PARTNERSHIP OF RAMSEY/WASHINGTON COUNTIES MINNESOTA LIHEAP RESOURCES STATE ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM REACH OUT FOR WARMTH PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0850-RNC Justice Report

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:10:28 -0600
JUSTICE AND THE RNC AFTERMATH: Clearing the Courts...and Our Consciences NOW 900 WATTS STRONG: FM 90.3/Minneapolis-106.7/St. Paul and STREAMING LIVE AT KFAI.org Trials move at a snail's pace; charging officers fail to appear; postponements that put off resolution of disputed arrests. What sort of justice is this? What is the status of the umpteen charges leveled at Republican National Convention demonstrators and bystanders? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with lawyers, defendants and, perhaps, even judges in dissecting the body of cases and trials still under way three months after the fences came down and cops disrobed from their Darth Vader-like armor. GUESTS: • LARRY LEVENTHAL, Attorney representing RNC 8 defendant Max Specktor • GENA BERGLUND, Attorney representing RNC arrestees • MICHAEL FRIEDMAN - Executive Director, Legal Rights Center • ROB CZERNIK - An RNC 8 defendant

TTT#0849-EducationInvestment

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:46:53 -0600
DECEMBER 3: "SMART INVESTMENTS IN MINNESOTA'S STUDENTS" TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with Growth & Justice senior staff about that organization's report and proposal for investments in Minnesota's public education system – "Smart Investments in Minnesota’s Students", contrasting and comparing its recommendations with those of the "New Minnesota Miracle" to erase the state's education funding deficit. We'll ask them how anything ambitious can be accomplished in a climate of contracting revenues and rising deficits. And we ask a key legislator and scholar how they think this might work in such a climate. GUESTS: • DANE SMITH - President, Growth & Justice • ANGIE EILERS - Senior Policy Director, Growth & Justice • REP. MINDY GREILING, Chair, Minnesota House K-12 Education Committee and author of the "New Minnesota Miracle" bill • NICOLA ALEXANDER - Associate Professor, UofM Education Policy & Administration, G&J "Smart Investments in Minnesota’s Students" Steering Committee member PODCAST of this show HERE.
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TTT#22A-Race in the ClassroomRPT

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:08:38 -0600
ENCORE:CLASSROOM DISCRIMINATION: Through the Eyes of Peers Originally aired November, 2007 We turned over our microphones to six 7th-graders (now 8th) from St. Paul-based Twin Cities Academy to explore their chosen topic of how their peers of color and gender may be treated differently than white students. TTT's Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen step aside for Madeline Driscoll, Tessa Ferguson, Abby Ewen-Schofner, Anna Eastep, Emily Syverud and Ana Schaff to inquire as to why children of color are treated differently in elementary and secondary classrooms. GUESTS: • STATE REPRESENTATIVE CARLOS MARIANI, Executive Director, Minnesota Minority Education Project; • JEANNE NORDSTROM, Retired Teacher, Webster Magnet School, St. Paul; • NISSAN BROWN, Minneapolis student attending Edina High in The Choice Is Yours desegregation project. PODCAST of this show HERE.
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TTT#0848-HousingForeclosures

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:22:12 -0600
FORECLOSURE TSUNAMI: Thousands More in the Streets? Even as Washington ducks and dodges the real issues of the descending recession, bailing out criminally irresponsible banking enterprises with hundreds of billions of tax dollars, the detritus of their folly resides in some seven million foreclosures nationwide and thousands across Minnesota. Rural and city dwellers alike find their housing values tanking while interest rate rises and fraudulently issued mortgages are turning the American dream into the nightmare we should have seen coming. Has the American penchant for getting something for nothing once again come home to roost in the streets and pocketbooks of even the once-dominant middle class? Who's really responsible for this disastrous and despairing loss of simple shelter for so many of us? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN explore the ways in which our need and desire for home-ownership and real estate investment as the core of our economy have collapsed under the weight of greed and incompetence. GUESTS: • JEFF CRUMP - Associate Professor, Housing Studies, UofM College of Design • ED NELSON - Marketing/Communications Manager, Minnesota Homeownership Center • CASSANDRA WESLEY - Foreclosure Counselor, City of Saint Paul Planning & Economic Development Housing Office (INFO: 651-266-6626) *RESOURCES FOR HOUSING TROUBLES* (see St. Paul's and Homeownership Center's above): – DON’T BORROW TROUBLE Minnesota – FEDERAL RESERVE BANK of MINNEAPOLIS FORECLOSURE RESOURCE CENTER Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT#0847-CommSharesTranspForum

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:27:14 -0600
LIVE from the WILDER CENTER: COMMUNITY SHARES TRANSPORTATION FORUM (NOTE: Technical Difficulties delayed the live radio airing of this program for some minutes. This Podcast is extracted from the audio portion of a concurrent television taping of the forum, but was truncated because KFAI's program schedule forced an end to the show. The final program is 48:30 in length.) Almost three years into its development, the Central Corridor Light Rail Project remains the Twin Cities' primary transportation development effort. Burning questions remain over issues pitting community and neighborhood services against the line's projected costs and our willingness to acquire the necessary funding to meet the transportation and housing needs and demands of neighborhoods adjacent to the Corridor. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL moderates a discussion between two elected officials who also sit as members of the Central Corridor Management Committee of the Met Council and a panel of three Community Shares member organizational representatives. "Community Shares of Minnesota is a workplace giving organization that turns up the heat. On discrimination. On situations that reinforce poverty. On attitudes that look the other way at inequality." The public is invited to attend this forum LIVE from the Wilder Foundation's St. Paul Headquarters at University Ave. and Lexington Pkwy. GUESTS: • Ramsey County Commissioner TONI CARTER and Hennepin County Commissioner PETER MCLAUGHLIN with ANDREA LUBOV – Jewish Community Action SARAH MULLINS – ISAIAH; TIM MUNGAVAN – Executive Director, West Bank Community Development Corporation Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT#0846-ElectionPostMortem

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:50:41 -0600
It's Over!! No matter the result - it's over Tuesday night – for the time being, and with the end of the interminable elction season comes relief - win, lose, or draw. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN will bring to this hour the results, the cheering of wins, the weeping and gnashing of losses, and some analysis of who and what made the differences in the outcome of this historic exercise in democracy after what is likely the most rancorous raft of contests ever to hit the political stage. How well will we have seen the elections have been conducted? Will we have elected this nation's first African-American president? Will the state's first-term incumbent US senator be unseated by a comedian whose serious side surprised many? Will Minnesota help tip the Congressional balance more heavily to Democrats than once possible or expected? What about the State House? The School referenda? The Constitutional Amendment? The Judicial races? We'll have interviews from Election Night parties and reports from KFAI's field correspondents. GUESTS: • TOM O'CONNELL - Metro State Political Science Professor - and lifeline to several grassroots organizations who will give us their take on the results. • MIKE DEAN - Director of Common Cause Minnesota • MARK HALVORSON - Citizens for Election Integrity • JEANNE MASSEY - FairVote/Minnesota (Instant Runoff) • AHNDI FRIDELL - KFAI News Director • PAUL SCHMELZER - State Director/Managing Editor, Minnesota Independent • JIM LEINFELDER - Free-lance Media/News Producer PODCASTof this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0845-StateArtsEnviroRef

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:11:00 -0500
OCT 29: THE ARTS & ENVIRONMENT SALES TAX AMENDMENT: What’s Happening to the State Constitution? and MARK RITCHIE ON COMING CROWDED POLLS 1) SHALL WE PLACE FUNDING MANDATES IN THE CONSTITUTION? A debate on the pluses and minuses of a proposed Constitutional amendment to raise the sales tax in favor of arts and environmental programs. The question goes deeper than adequate arts and environmental funding – and that’s the rub: is the Constitution the proper place for programmatic funding mandates? Or should advocates come down harder on legislators who ignore their issues? GUESTS: • KEN MARTIN, Campaign Manager, YES for MINNESOTA (proponents) • PAUL GILJE - Coordinator, CIVIC CAUCUS (opponents) • JOHN MILTON - former State Senator; Author, "Time to Choose." • JOHN HOTTINGER - former MN Senate Majority Leader • PATRICIA MITCHELL - CEO, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts • DENNIS ANDERSON - Outdoors Editor/Columnist, Star Tribune 2) Registration & Turnout will feature an update from Minnesota Secretary of State MARK RITCHIE on our record registration and, perhaps, expected all-time high voter turnout in this important, nay, critical, election year. Joining him is MIKE DEAN, Minnesota Director, Common Cause. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT#0843-MplsSchBoardABCRef

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:35:11 -0500
MINNEAPOLIS SCHOOLS: COMPOSITION REFERENDUM 1) Minneapolis Schools face two important ballot questions in November. This week, the ABC Amendment: whether or not to reconfigure the city’s school board from an all-at-large body to a combination of citywide and subdistrict directors. Friends are divided on these questions and we’ll talk with some of them: GUESTS: • REP. JIM DAVNIE, Author and advocate of the Minneapolis Schools ABC Amendment • JUDY FARMER, former Minneapolis School Board Chair- OPPONENT of school board reconfiguration • TOM MADDEN, Minneapolis School Board Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT#0842-MplsRefm-KidsVote

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:05:38 -0500
OCT 15: MINNEAPOLIS SCHOOLS: FUNDING REFERENDUM and KIDS VOTING – MINNEAPOLIS & ST. PAUL 1) Minneapolis Voters face two important ballot questions in November, the first being the largest of several referenda around the state to raise revenue in the face of declining state aid and increased costs. GUESTS: • TOM MADDEN, Minneapolis School Board member; • STEVE KOTVIS, Communication Chair, Strong Schools, Strong City Steering Committee 2) KIDS VOTING is the quadrennial exercise giving children their first taste of civic responsibility – even when it doesn’t really count right now. Hear some kids talk about the experience as well program coordinators’ encouraging words. GUESTS: • ROBERTA WORRELL, Executive Director -Kids Voting Minneapolis • AUTUMN CHMIELEWSKI, Kids Voting Minneapolis • MICHELLE BIERMAN - Board member, Kids Voting Saint Paul Executive Director and St. Paul Public Schools Social Studies Program Director • JANE KOSTIK - Former IB Program Coordinator for Patrick Henry High • SAM QUINCY - KIDS VOTING Alumnus (now voting in his first election) and his father, John

TTT-#0841-TomHayden

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:42 -0500
TOM HAYDEN, founder of Students for Democratic Society, is an American social and political activist and politician, most famous for his involvement in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. Hayden’s continued influence in American culture spans fifty years. A famed sixties radical, Hayden became a long-term California state senator, an acclaimed author ( and teacher at many universities, and was once married to actress/activist Jane Fonda. TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN continue the conversations Hayden had with students and the public over two days at Metropolitan State University, October 7 and 8, 2008. Joining Tom Hayden on TTT: Metropolitan State University Political Science ProfessorTOM O’CONNELL. PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT-#0840-MelDuncan

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:00:53 -0500
October 1: GOODBYE MEL DUNCAN HELLO NONVIOLENT PEACEFORCE Founder and Executive Director MEL DUNCAN is stepping down after establishing a global network of programs and peace advocates. TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL talks with Duncan about life as a progressive organizer, former Executive Director of Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action (now part of TakeAction/Minnesota), and his philosophy of citizen action. Not all of us founders are willing to let go of our “babies.” Mel Duncan has done it twice. Why? And What now? What's behind the Nonviolent Peaceforce? PODCAST of this show HERE. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows HERE.
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TTT-#0839-Community Organizing

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:26:41 -0500
SEPT 24: WHAT’S THIS ABOUT COMMUNITY ORGANIZING? "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." – GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin That minor bombshell from Governor Sarah Palin’s RNC speech dissing the honored profession of community organizing has become a talking point for parroting conservatives who forget that history is rife with the importance and effectiveness of community organizing in mobilizing people and movements. This would include the infamous Karl Rove, whose own community organizing efforts spawned electoral wins for George W. Bush as well as consolidating the voting power of evangelical Christians across the political landscape. Every day, community organizers work to empower their constituents from geographic areas (neighborhoods) to issues (environment, education and human services) to electoral (candidates, parties, issues, ideas). What is it about community organizers that suddenly converted the practice into a political threat? Barack Obama’s past is at least part of it. Community empowerment is the likely larger issue. TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with practitioners of the time-honored art of community organizing about its true nature and importance as a tool of civic and political engagement in these times when so many of us rely on mass media for our news and make decisions about who is responsible for change and public policy. In fact, we are, not the politicians. GUESTS: • PAMELA TWISS – TakeAction Minnesota Organizing Director • RUSS ADAMS - Executive Director, Alliance for Metropolitan Stability • MALIK HOLT – Community organizer, Harrison Neighborhood, Minneapolis • STEVEN RENDEROS – Chicano Studies Dept., UofM/Twin Cities-based Latino Community Organizer/Board Member. Organizing Apprenticeship Project • TOM O’CONNELL – Political Science Professor, Metropolitan State University Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT-#0838-RNC-Wrapup2

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:40:37 -0500
TTT continues the discussion and post-mortem (literally) of protests and free speech lodged last week during the Republican National Convention (RNC). We discuss the wider issue of state repression of protected speech, press and assembly, and where media attention was paid. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN recap events inside and outside the Xcel Center during the Republican National Convention – and talk about the political and legal fallout from the near martial law imposed on St. Paul and Minneapolis and the media focused on the relatively minor damage done to property – possibly by undercover police themselves. Police officials, Mayors Coleman and Rybak and councilmembers in both cities can deny complicity in what amounted to police overkill and downright repression of constitutional rights to free speech, assembly and, ye, even the press any which way they wish, but the truth will emerge in the courts and caucuses for next several years that the police state created to prevent free speech expression from reaching the insulated RNC attendees – including the national and local outlets ensconced inside – soured citizens and commercial enterprise throughout the city on ever again hosting anything like this blowout of free movement. ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with key figures in the execution of this other-world event that consumed the cities as the bubble partied. GUESTS: • DAVE THUNE, St. Paul City Councilmember, Ward 2 (where the convention was held) • SYL JONES, Playwright, Cultural Critic, Columnist • GENA BERGLUND, National Lawyers Guild and Attorney for several arrested RNC Protestors • ART HUGHES - Free-lance journalist arrested on the last night of the RNC. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT-#0837-RNC-Wrapup1

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:59:08 -0500
SEPT 10: RNC RETROSPECTIVE I–THE SHAME OF THE CITIES TTT continues the discussion and post-mortem (literally) of protests and free speech lodged last week during the Republican National Convention (RNC). We discuss the wider issue of state repression of protected speech, press and assembly, and where media attention was paid. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN recap events inside and outside the Xcel Center during the Republican National Convention – and talk about the political and legal fallout from the near martial law imposed on St. Paul and Minneapolis and the media focused on the relatively minor damage done to property – possibly by undercover police themselves. ANDY DRISCOLL and TTT crew members witnessed indiscriminate police violence and the exercise of a well-developed siege mentality inculcated into officers over a two year period and rank with paranoia-driven counter-protest tactics. Police officials, Mayors Coleman and Rybak and councilmembers in both cities can deny complicity in what amounted to police overkill and downright repression of constitutional rights to free speech, assembly and, ye, even the press any which way they wish, but the truth will emerge in the courts and caucuses for next several years that the police state created to prevent free speech expression from reaching the insulated RNC attendees – including the national and local outlets ensconced inside – soured citizens and commercial enterprise throughout the city on ever again hosting anything like this blowout of free movement. ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with key figures in the execution of this other-world event that consumed the cities as the bubble partied. GUESTS: • DAVE THUNE, St. Paul City Councilmember, Ward 2 (where the convention was held) • CAM GORDON, Minneapolis City Councilmember, Ward 2 • SYL JONES, Playwright, Cultural Critic, Columnist • DR. ELIZABETH FROST, Family Practice Physician and volunteer for North Star Health Collective. • BRUCE NESTOR, National Lawyers Guild Minnesota Chapter President and Attorney for several arrested RNC Protestors • (Recorded) MIKE WHELAN – Host of the I-Witness Team of journalists arrested in a raid on his house. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT-RNC-Special PT2

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:36:05 -0500
Guests include former Oklahoma Republican Congressman, Micky Edwards; Gena Berglund, National Lawyers Guild: Jane Kirtley, Director, Silha Center for Media Ethics, UofM; Free-lance reporter Jim Leinfelder; Marla Golding, Columbia Journalism Review.

TTT-RNC-Special PT1

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:37:42 -0500
Guests include former Oklahoma Republican Congressman, Micky Edwards; Gena Berglund, National Lawyers Guild: Jane Kirtley, Director of the Silha Center for Media Ethics, UofM; Free-lance reporter Jim Leinfelder; Marla Golding, Columbia Journalism Review.

TTT-#0836-RNC-Inside/Outside

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:40:35 -0500
Sept 3: LIVE from the Convention Center and KFAI Studios. TRUTH TO TELL witnessed indiscriminate police violence and the exercise of a well-developed siege mentality inculcated into officers over a two year period and rank with paranoia-driven counter-protest tactics. While I recorded running commentary and interviewed others in the streets, an assistant photographed the treatment of arrested protesters at the hands of fully padded, black-helmuted riot police in numbers three to four times that of any group we encountered, many of them from such jurisdictions as Cedar Rapids, IA, Springfield, MO, and Tucson, AZ, let alone most of the Metro jurisdictions and outstate towns that brought the force to over 3,500 officers. As three of TTT’s staff lunched in an outdoor café at St. Peter and 7th Place, police confronted three young men seeking to search their backpacks. The young men refused and police pressed their case, calling in St. Paul/Ramsey County SWAT Team back-ups, who piled out of a rapidly arriving police van. The men still refused to be searched (meaning that a warrant would be required to do so absent probable cause they represented some immediate danger). When set upon, the men ran through the plaza and an office caught up with and tackled the slowest, screaming at him and slamming his head into the concrete sidewalk, then dragging him back to the van. Twenty minutes later, the young man, still bleeding from his head wound, walked with his backpack through the plaza - unarrested and uncharged. GUESTS: • GENA BERGLUND, attorney, National Lawyers Guild, representing arrested citizens and coordinating legal observers and videographers. • JIM LEINFELDER, Free-lance Producer/Journalist, working for MSNBC, CNN and other networks • NANCY SARTOR, TTT Associate Producer/Correspondent Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT#0835-GOP Oldliners

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:17:14 -0500
Old-school Republicans have for the last decade or two been wringing their hands and gnashing teeth over the take-no-prisoners, make-no-liberal-friends radical right shift their party has taken as the state's and the nation's Constitutional compact with its citizens tanks and the proud legacy of Minnesota GOP luminaries like Governors Harold Stassen, Harold LeVander, Luther Youngdahl, Elmer L. Andersen, Al Quie and Arne Carlson and many other so-called moderate-to-progressive party members goes up in smoke. Who will bring it back? Who can bring it back to its glory as the education-minded, workforce-developing, fair-taxation party representing Minnesota's conservative wing? TTT'S ANDY DRISCOLL and former KFAI News Director ANN ALQUIST talk with a former state GOP party chair, a “big-tent” veteran GOP activist, and a think tank official about where the state's Republicans might go to recapture its former luster as a fiscal watchdog with a big heart. Our guests talk about "Big Tent" Republicans for a Real Majority and a fundraiser to bring home the wanderers - and a Sept 3rd Growth & Justice symposium on Minnesota's Progressive Republican Tradition. GUESTS: • CHUCK SLOCUM - former MN (Independent) Republican Party chair and public policy activist, owner of The Williston Group policy consultants. • DANE SMITH – President, Growth & Justice, former StarTribune Capitol reporter, author, "Mr. Wellstone Goes to Washington." • SALLY PILLSBURY, longtime Republican activist, wife of former State Senator George Pillsbury, and "Big Tent Celebration" organizer. Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT#0834-RNCVetsPoor

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:59:54 -0500
AUG 20: VETERANS FOR PEACE/IRAQ VETS AGAINST WAR and POOR PEOPLES’ MARCH The names and numbers of organizations planning events coincident with and in response to the Republican National Convention (RNC) just keep on coming. At the end of the month the national and local chapters of the VETERANS FOR PEACE (VFP) will hold their convention, joined by the IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR (IVAW), while on September 2, the second large parade of protesters will seek the eyeballs and ears of RNC delegates and the media – the MARCH FOR OUR LIVES organized by the POOR PEOPLE’S ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN (PPEHRC). TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN will talk with leaders of all these events and get their take on the dynamics of the convention in St. Paul, Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel. GUESTS: • CHANTE WOLF, Vice President, VFP Minnesota Chapter 27 • JIM STEINHAGEN, Past President, VFP Minnesota Chapter 27 • WES DAVEY, Iraq Veterans Against the War • DAVID HARRIS, VFP CH 115, Red Wing, Organizer of Veterans for Peace Memorial March to the RNC- 8/31 • CHERI HONKALA, National Organizer, PPEHRC Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT#0833-Covering RNC Coverage

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:25:43 -0500
August 13: COVERING THE COVERAGE OF THE GOP CONVENTION What will – what can – happen when 15,000 fawning and cynical reporters, pundits, satirists, analysts, columnists and their editors, producers, camera people, assistants and what-not from every media outlet in the world converge on little St. Paul and it’s Xcel Circus in September? TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN try to avoid insider baseball as we ask a few locals who work here, but will look in on this stuff to talk about expectations. Hell, we’re a part of the center ring ourselves. More on that later. GUESTS: • JASON BARNETT – Executive Director, The Uptake online video journal • DAVID BRAUER, Media critic and News Digester- “The Daily Glean,” MinnPost.com • JIM LEINFELDER, Free-lance Reporter/Producer, MSNBC, CNN, ABC • ERIC PUSEY, “The Big E” of MNBlue Blog Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT#0832-MediaReformLiveReplay#2

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:44:52 -0500
August 6: MEDIA REFORM AND THE GOP CONVENTION Join us this week to hear a compacted version of a 90-minute Truth to Tell Special we first aired live from 6:00-7:30 PM June 6 and features our first interviews with comedian and Daily Show and Air America co-founder LIZZ WINSTEAD, who brings her new online satire on network morning shows – “SHOOT THE MESSENGER” – to the Parkway Theater Sept. 1-4 and which will be seen by convention-goers and residents on True Blue Minnesota’s Jumbotron screens hours after the live performance; Then, ANDY DRISCOLL talks with vigilant media guru, former FCC COMMISSIONER NICK JOHNSON and his contemporary colleague, current COMMISSIONER MICHAEL COPPS, one of the two Democratic members keeping the FCC honest. Then comes CLIFF SCHECTER, author of THE REAL McCAIN, in time for McCain’s GOP coronation in St. Paul next month, talking about why McCain could be one of our most dangerous presidents, if elected. Finally, CRAIG AARON, conference sponsor FreePress.net’s Communications Director and legislative policy director talks about movement media reform.
Podcasts are available for all archived Truth to Tell shows.
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TTT#0831-YoungBlackMales

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:42:09 -0500
JUNE 30: WHAT TO DO ABOUT OUR YOUNG BLACK MEN? We talk with terrified mothers of young St. Paul black men in trouble with the law as they watch their children die or go to prison in far too many numbers. One of those young sons facing prison for his role in a street killing will tell his story. Why can’t so many of these young men leave the house without getting sucked into self-destruction? Why can’t they carry the values their mothers taught them into the streets and classrooms and job sites and stay out of the traps that will surely imprison or kill them? How do issues of race, poverty, self-image, and a hostile criminal justice system play out in this daily drama? GUESTS: THREE MOTHERS, A SON and A VETERAN COMMUNITY ADVOCATE. • FAYE MCCOY – Healthcare Worker and mother of PIERRE, a son destined for prison • CHAR LANKFARD – Healthcare Worker and Mother #2 • ROXANNE TISDALE – Healthcare Worker and Mother #3 • BOBBY HICKMAN – Advocate for African-American young men, consultant, conflict resolution specialist & former head of Inner City Youth League
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TTT#0830-RNCPrep-Part3

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:22:43 -0500
This is TTT’s third show with ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talking about the plans various groups are designing to make their presence and messages known to conventioneers and the media. The Republican National Convention (RNC) has been on our local agenda for a couple of years and dozens of groups and agencies have been preparing to accommodate the 115,000-120,000 conventioneers, media hounds, protesters, lawyers/legal observers and police personnel will descend on St. Paul's Xcel Center September 1st for four days of the chaotic crowning of the party's Presidential nominee, confronted by protests and potential clashes of all kinds and a series of counter-convention activities at various locations through the Twin Cities. GUESTS: SEGMENT 1: MINNESOTA PEACE TEAM • STEVE COBIAN – Walker Church/Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers • ANN LEWIS – Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers SEGMENT 2: PEACE ISLAND PICNIC (Thursday, Sept. 4, Harriet Island) • COLEEN ROWLEY, fmr FBI Agent and 2nd Cong. Dist. Candidate, now plumping for peace. • RICK WIDEN – rickrobot of
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TTT#0829-RNCPrep-Part2

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:33:50 -0500
PLEASE NOTE: The opening theme and introduction is missing from the stream. For a complete program, please hear the podcast HERE The Republican National Convention (RNC) has been on our local agenda for a couple of years and dozens of groups and agencies have been preparing to accommodate the 115,000-120,000 conventioneers, media hounds, protesters, lawyers/legal observers and police personnel will descend on St. Paul's Xcel Center September 1st for four days of the chaotic crowning of the party's Presidential nominee, confronted by protests and potential clashes of all kinds and a series of counter-convention activities at various locations through the Twin Cities. Which protest and communications strategies are the most effective and wise? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and Associate Producer NANCY SARTORGUESTS: SEGMENT 1: COALITION TO MARCH on the RNC & STOP the WAR • JESS SUNDIN- Coalition to March on the RNC & Stop the War • MICHELLE GROSS – Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) • KATRINA PLOTZ – Anti-War Committee • DOUG MICHEL – SDS-UofM SEGMENT 2: SHOOT THE MESSENGER and TRUE BLUE MINNESOTA • LIZZ WINSTEAD - Comedian/Satirist, Producer/Host of SHOOT THE MESSENGER coming to the Parkway Theater during the RNC – founding member of Air America Radio and Co-Creator of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." • ANDREW HINE –True Blue Minnesota SEGMENT 3 PEACE ISLAND CONFERENCE, by Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP) • SUSU JEFFREY – Peace Island Conference Organizer • DENNIS DILLON, Peace Island Steering Committee Chair
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TTT#0828-RNCPrep-Part1

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:20:24 -0500
Wednesday, July 9-11AM: THE REPUBLICANS ARE COMING! - Who's Ready, Who's Not? The Republican National Convention (RNC) has been on our local agenda for a couple of years and dozens of groups and agencies have been preparing to accommodate the 10,000-15,000 conventioneers, media hounds, protesters, lawyers/legal observers and police personnel will descend on St. Paul's Xcel Center September 1st for four days of the chaotic crowning of the party's Presidential nominee, confronted by protests and potential clashes of all kinds and a series of counter-convention activities at various locations through the Twin Cities. Who's preparing for what and why? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN bring into the KFAI studios representatives of the wide diversity of organizations of varying agendas for the coming visitors and query them on their strategies and planned tactics for participating in what many consider will be a circus they'd rather not be around for. We talk with convention organizers, arts, peace and protest leaders, law enforcement and just plain folks over several show to clify for listeners what we can expect to see on the news each night. GUESTS: SEGMENT I: The UnConvention Projects • ALLISON HERRERA - Community Programs Coordinator, Walker Art Center • MARLINA GONZALEZ - The UnConvention Program Durector and Curator Intermedia Arts SEGMENT II: ACLU-Minnesota/National Lawyers Guild (NLG) • CHUCK SAMUELSON - Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union-Minnesota • GENA BERGLUND - Attorney, Member, NLG Legal Observer Program Director • BRUCE NESTOR - Immigration Attorney, President, NLG
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TTT#0827-IRV-St.PaulCouncil

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:24:06 -0500
JULY 2: INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING AND THE CITIES: Horns of a Constitutional Dilemma The St. Paul City Council has found itself in a pickle with proponents of Instant Runoff Voting – better known as the Single Transferable Vote advocated by the St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign – having filed the necessary 5,000-plus signatures to present the prospect of installing a system of Ranked Choice Voting for general elections (and eliminating the city primary) before St. Paul voters in November - only to be faced with their own City Attorney’s opinion that the entire idea may be unconstitutional based on a 1915 Supreme Court ruling striking down a similar voting scheme. Minneapolis has already passed it but is in court over IRV’s 2009 implementation. What should the Council have done? Heed the City Attorney’s opinion that it not go on the ballot on Constitutional grounds? Or ignore him and heed the will of the voters who signed the petition to place the city charter amendment before the people this November? The Council voted to withhold at its July 2 meeting; it is sure to go to a courtroom to resolve issues of citizens' priorities. TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with six of the principals in this political and legal debate. GUESTS: • JAY BENANAV - Better Ballot Campaign attorney and former St. Paul City Councilmember • JOHN HOTTINGER - attorney and former State Senate Majority Leader • ELLEN BROWN - St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign Coordinator, and President, The Brown Partners, Inc. • KATHY LANTRY- St. Paul City Council President • DAVE THUNE - St. Paul City Council Ward 2 • JOHN CHOI - St. Paul City Attorney
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TTT#0826-SexualAssault

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:15:36 -0500
JUNE 25: SEXUAL VIOLENCE & OFFENDERS - Part I: REPRESSION DRIVEN? Just what’s the big deal about sex? What DON’T we know about sex and sexual violence? This will be Part One of a series getting at the biological, emotional and political conflicts around attitudes and policies towards sex and sexual behavior. Sexuality in American society is always the hot topic, but is it deserving of the attention? And is the kind of attention it’s getting keeping it the forbidden fruit everyone wants to pluck from the tree? Is its forbidden nature driving repression, sexual violence and the politics of lifetime incarceration? What is so tempting about throwing away the key? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN ask some of those close to the issue just what is going on in our culturally confused notions of sex and sexual asault. Also: A special TTT Commentary: Andy asks some questions of Archbishop Nienstadt and his erasure of St. Joan of Arc’s annual Gay Pride celebration. The text of this message follows below: GUESTS: • DONNA DUNN – Executive Director, MN Coalition Against Sexual Assault • PHILIP VILLAUME - Criminal Defense Attorney COMMENTARY: A Question for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Let us digress for a moment to ask this question of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: what in God’s name is going on with you people that you feel compelled to impose some Neanderthal view of sexuality and sexual orientation as if Jesus Christ himself would condemn all who don’t reproduce, never mind their deep devotion to their Lord and their church? What earthly, let alone, heavenly, harm - other than Archbishop John Nienstadt’s personal and professional disgust with gays and Lesbians, could possibly be driving this idiotic intervention over St. Joan of Arc’s annual celebration and worship of Gay Pride week in the Twin Cities? Is the Church so insulated from public view that it doesn’t sense the rank hypocrisy of this unwarranted authoritarian exercise in light of its own clergy’s sexual history? Now, I haven’t practiced pure Catholicism in 50 years, but I’ve watched my former faith take ten steps backward recently for every inch gained in behalf of the seriously wanting human condition over those years and cannot help but wonder if Christ himself isn’t turning over in his heavenly home over this prehistoric return to religious fascism. St. Joan of Arc has been a model of Vatican II principles, providing an overarching cover for all Catholics, including the disaffected, welcoming all of God’s children under its large umbrella. That congregation and others of similar bent are getting hammered into submission by a theoretically celibate male hierarchy which apparently believes that a return to the catacombs is the only way to maintain its iron-fisted authority over purely personal choices to somehow stave off the devil’s entrapment. What nonsense. And a truly sad commentary on a religious government that was showing such promise that it could live up to its name: Catholic. The name literally means universal, all-encompassing. Universal includes everyone exercising their free will under the teachings and example of their Lord himself. So. Since when did a few men with robes assume the authority to define that term for their own narrow application? Shame on you, Your Excellency. This will backfire big time, as it has for so many years in other arenas of dicta, driving many Catholics into exile and cynicism. ©2008 Andy Driscoll
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TTT#0825-MediaReformReplay#1

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:24:32 -0500
June 18: CONVERSATIONS WITH MEDIA REFORMERS Encore presentation of Truth to Tell’s live Media Reform Conference special featuring Amy Goodman, John Nichols and Timothy Wu. For three hectic days over the first weekend in June at the Minneapolis Convention Center, major media and literary figures came together to cogitate and expound over strategies and methods for transforming the nation’s media into a responsible Fourth Estate as once envisioned by the founders. Over two days, TTT’s Andy Driscoll interviewed more than 25 famous, infamous and often unknown media activists among the 3,500 who gathered for this 4th National Conference on Media Reform under the aegis of Free Press.net. We will air an occasional series of programs with parts of most of those interviews over the next several weeks. GUESTS: • JOHN NICHOLS - Author, Free Press co-founder and writer forThe Nation • AMY GOODMAN - Author and Democracy NOW! Host • TIM WU - Author, Net Neutrality scholar and Free Press Board Chair KFAI Radio, 90.3 Minneapolis /106.7 St. Paul / Streamed@KFAI.org A CivicMedia/Minnesota production
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TTT#0824-Wi-Fi Broadband-Commons

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:40:47 -0500
The cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis have taken different approaches to closing the digital divide – and cities elsewhere in the Minnesota are exploring what is meant by the Municipal Commons. Minneapolis chose Wi-Fi Internet access in league with a private firm; St. Paul is looking at using fiber optical cable to connect citizens, and the entire range of technologies may already be obsolete with the rapid development of faster and faster connections. TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with local techies and troubadours of the movement to close the gap between Internet haves and have-nots from both cities. GUESTS: CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL, Director, Telecommunications as Commons Initiative, Institute for Local Self Reliance; ERIC LAMPLAND, Principal Network Architect, Lookout Point Communications PETER FLECK, Member, Minneapolis Wi-Fi Digital Inclusion Advisory Committee and Web Manager for the Uiniversity of Minnesota's Center for Family Development
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TTT#0823-MplsAssemblies

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:41:20 -0500
June 4: THE MINNEAPOLIS ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION Minneapolis City Council passed a set of regulatory and police constraints on public protests Friday, June 6, in a resolution giving police major power over sidewalk demonstrations and assemblies. Unlike the original proposal, however, the “voluntary” registration requirements passed Friday sunsets following the Republican Convention in September. The arguments against any permit processes for sidewalk gatherings are discussed as TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL interviews key players at Minneapolis City Hall. GUESTS: COUNCILMEMBERS GARY SCHIFF and CAM GORDON APRIL KNUTSON, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) SHERMAN WILBURN, Minneapolis (Minnesota) ACORN CHUCK SAMUELSON, Executive Director, ACLU/Minnesota PHIL DURAN, Staff Attorney, Outfront Minnesota (GLBT Advocacy)
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TTT#0822-MediaReform#2

Fri, 30 May 2008 18:49:23 -0500
Hundreds of trench workers in alternative and grassroots media will come together for the National Conference on Media Reform with powerhouses in the field – Bill Moyers, Amy Goodman, Arianna Huffington, Phil Donohue, Robert McChesney, Juan Gonzalez, Laura Flanders, Tim Wu, Rosa Clemente, and FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. We will be talking with all of them and more – live and later on tape – when TTT goes LIVE from the Minneapolis Convention Center Friday, June 6th, and recorded on the 7th and 8th...AND...Democracy Day June 5th - the day before – will look at electoral reform and similar issues. But, media reform begins at home and continues long after the conferences. This week’s preview will talk about what steps local grassroots media types plan to take to make our local media relevant to the Twin Cities and its real people. CALL US: 612-341-0980 TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen will talk with planners and reformers here and nationally to talk about the Media Reform and Democracy Day events coming up – and the work we expect to do when everyone else leaves town. GUESTS: • NANCY DOYLE BROWN – Twin Cities Media Alliance and organizer of a post-conference Reform Action Group. • BRANDON LACY CAMPOS– Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution & Democracy Day organizer • CRAIG AARON, Free Press Communications Director OTHERS POSSIBLE: • AMY GOODMAN, KFAI's DemocracyNOW! • ROBERT MCCHESNEY, Free Press Co-Founder KFAI Radio, 90.3 Minneapolis /106.7 St. Paul / Streamed at KFAI.org A CivicMedia/Minnesota production
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TTT#0821-JudicialSelection

Fri, 23 May 2008 09:47:40 -0500
A recent US Supreme Court ruling opened the door to a practice previously prohibited by Minnesota’s Canon of Judicial Ethics. Judicial candidates may no longer be prevented from expressing opinions on issues that may come before the bench, perhaps in the process revealing a bias in favor of one side or another well before the facts are in and a ruling issued. Many legal types see this as turning the entire judicial branch of government into an expensive, nasty politically driven court system. Others insist that traditional elections open debate to reveal bias and make the judiciary more accountable. Former GOVERNOR AL QUIE is spearheading a drive to create a state Constitutional amendment advocates believe addresses both impartiality and electoral accountability – retention elections. TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with Governor Quie and others about the pluses and minuses of a system that would place only previously incumbent judges before voters, but not directly elect newcomers. GUESTS: • FORMER GOVERNOR AL QUIE, Board Chair, Minnesotans for Impartial Courts • STATE SEN. ANN REST, Chief Author, Retention Elections bill • PETER NICKITAS, Attorney and member, National Lawyers Guild • MARK CHRONISTER, Director, Minnesotans for Impartial Courts
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TTT#0820-Autism101

Sun, 18 May 2008 01:27:18 -0500
AUTISM IN THE CITIES...where is it coming from? And why so much of it? WEDNESDAY, May 14, 11:00AM KFAI Radio, 90.3 Minneapolis /106.7 St. Paul / Streamed @ KFAI.org A CivicMedia/Minnesota production What is going on here? Incidences of children’s brain disorders appear to be nearly epidemic. 1 of every 150 children are afflicted with some form of autism (1 of every 90 boys). But why? Genetics play a major role, but, more analysts are looking at mercury-bearing vaccines and environmental factors as coincident with massive increases in all sorts of children’s ill health – asthma, ADHD and autism spectrum disorders. Autism, Asperger’s, and related behavioral disorders are seen in light of poor air and water quality, poverty, and immunization vaccines. Not all victims, parents, advocates, researchers and public health officials agree. One item is not in doubt: the explosion in cases of autism and Asperger’s is stirring debate among all of them, some of it very loud and angry, as we struggle with the cause and effect of it all. TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with parents and professionals – and walking examples of the difficulties faced by children and young adults displaying autistic behavior on this segment GUESTS: • NANCY HOKKANEN, Parent/Advocate, Autism Spectrum Disorder • ANN HARRINGTON, Autism Services, Minneapolis Public Schools’ Early Childhood Special Education • DAVID WARD/FAYE FISHER-WARD, Parents of two boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder • MARY WHEELER, Executive Director, Autism Society of Minnesota • MARY TOCCO, Anti-Vaccine Advocate
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TTT#0819-MidtownEnergyPT2

Sat, 10 May 2008 16:31:02 -0500
MAY 7: THE MIDTOWN ENERGY ISSUE: Green or Black? Part II A CivicMedia/Minnesota production How much is too much? We continue our discussion of the volatile Midtown Eco-Energy Project, this week concentrating on air emissions - their composition and their cumulative impact on Minneapolis' Phillips and surrounding neighborhoods. Is this an innovative biomass energy generator in the making? Or yet another polluting facility among many in the city's already suffering core neighborhoods? Might this idea be better considered for another venue? Or is burning any material a danger to populated areas? What impact does such a heavy financial stake have on Midtown's owners' lives and future security if this goes down? Does it really matter on balance? TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen continue to discuss all sides of the issues with key players and the reporter covering them. GUESTS: • JOHN DYBVIG, aide to SCOTT BENSON, Minneapolis City Councilmember, Chair, Energy, Environment & Technology Committee • KIM HAVEY, Partner, Midtown Eco-Energy Project/Kandiyohi Development Partners • CAROL PASS, President, EPIC (East Phillips Improvement Coalition) • JULLONNE GLAD, Minneapolis Residents for Clean Air • DAVID MORRIS, Executive VP, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
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TTT#0818-MidtownEnergy-Part I

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:59:11 -0500
APRIL 30: THE MIDTOWN ENERGY ISSUE: Green or Black? Part I A CivicMedia/Minnesota production Just when news reports seem to pronounce the embattled Midtown/Phillips Eco-energy Project dead (the project includes Minneapolis Councilmember Lisa Goodman as an investor), another 50-60 days’ leeway leeway remains for the principals, Kandiyohi Development Partners, to come up with the necessary financing, biomass supply sources ,and buy-agreements with customers like Xcel Energy to make city-imposed deadlines for feasibility. This in the face of serious environmental justice disputes over the environmental impact of burning anything more in close-quartered low-income, minority residential neighborhoods like Phillips and other central neighborhoods where initial support for the project has melted away. Is this an innovative biomass energy generator in the making? Or yet another polluting industry in the already industrialized and polluted central city? TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen query principals on both sides of the issues and the reporters who have covered them as the clock winds down to decisions. GUESTS: • STATE SEN. PATRICIA TORRES RAY, Senate District 62, encompassing the Midtown Project. • BARBARA JOHNSON, Minneapolis City Council President • KIM HAVEY, Partner, Midtown Eco-Energy Project/Kandiyohi Development Partners • JULLONNE GLAD, Minneapolis Residents for Clean Air • DAVID MORRIS, Executive VP, Institute for Local Self-Reliance • STEVE BRANDT, Star Tribune Reporter/Analyst
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TTT#0817-IRV/RCV Voting

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:51:58 -0500
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 11:00AM: INSTANT RUN-OFF VOTING: Updating Election Reform A CivicMedia/Minnesota production IRV is coming to Minneapolis. St. Paul may be next, if FairVote/Minnesota can convince either the St. Paul Charter Commission or they file sufficient petition signatures to place the Charter amendment on the ballot. Is ranked voting the best new way – at least in Minnesota – for you citizens to pick your best candidates to achieve majorities and beef up turnouts at the polls? Not everyone is enamored with what seems like a radical shift in our electoral culture, but a lot of old political hands like this new idea that’s been in practice elsewhere around the world for centuries. TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen will talk with principals and advocates on both sides of the issue in both cities and the a state initiative, too. GUESTS: • REP. STEVE SIMON, MN House Elections Committee • ELIZABETH GLIDDEN, Mpls. Councilmember/Chair, Elections Committee • JEANNE MASSEY, President FairVote/Minnesota • AMY BRENDMOEN, St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign.
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TTT#22-Race in Classroom56

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:49:09 -0500
This is a smaller file version of last Fall's Nov 28 SPECIAL: CLASSROOM DISCRIMINATION: Through the Eyes of Peers. We turned over the microphones to six 7th graders from St. Paul;-based Twin Cities Academy to explore how their peers of color and gender are treated differently.

TTT"0816-MediaReformPvw

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:42:16 -0500
APRIL 16, MEDIA REFORM AND THE TWIN CITIES SCENE Media luminaries (Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Dan Rather, Naomi Klein and reform-minded FCC Commissioners) plus 5,000 activists descend on Minneapolis June 6, 7 & 8 for the 4th National Conference on Media Reform (NCMR), sponsored by FreePress.net – the Connecticut-based national media watchdog and reform group. TTT will broadcast and telecast, live and delayed, direct from the conference that week, but journalist, author and FreePress co-founder (with The Nation’s John Nichols) Robert McChesney joins some Twin Cities’ own to talk about media reform, the conference and other events, its reasons for being, and what we can actually expect to do about the state of our media affairs. NCMR REFORM PREVIEW with TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen: GUESTS: • ROBERT MCCHESNEY, journalist and co-founder, FreePress.net; author Rich Media, Poor Democracy, and Corporate Media & Threat to Democracy (plus many other writings). • JANIS LANE-EWART, Executive Director, KFAI RADIO,. • JEREMY IGGERS, Executive Director of local NCMR cosponsor Twin Cities Media Alliance and Twin Cities Daily Planet (and pretty decent restaurant reviewer, too). • JIM LEINFELDER, Twin Cities-based NBC Television producer, veteran journalist, and former WCCO-TV News reporter/producer

TTT#0815-YoungPeaceJam

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:29:02 -0500
IT’S KFAI’s 30TH ANNIVERSARY PLEDGE: HELP keep TTT coming to you every week! PLEDGES: CALL 612-375-9030 or online at KFAI.ORG. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 11:00AM: OUR SPRING PLEDGE DRIVE celebrates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter, Naomi, who come to town and PeaceJam to talk peace and service to Twin Cities young people (Tutu's Friday Night talk tickets for $10 here. TTT spotlights three organizations working to empower young people in the tradition of Nobel Laureates like Tutu. One, known as youthrive – a nonprofit organization that provides young people with leadership and service learning opportunities – is a co-sponsor of this year’s PeaceJam, held at Metropolitan State University the following weekend. Another is Yo, the Movement. And, Youth Against War and Racism is the third. TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN will talk community with three or four young activists and their mentor – plus our Political Science guru, TOM O’CONNELL. GUESTS: • TRACI COWARD, youthrive representative and a youth co-chair for the North Minneapolis Service Project • DAVE ELLIS, adult co-chair for the North Minneapolis Service Project and Program Manager for the United Way Nurturing Children and Families Program • ALICIA STEELE, Organizer, Yo, the Movement • TYRUS THOMPSON, Youth Against War and Racism • TOM O'CONNELL, Professor, Metropolitan State University (co-sponsor, PeaceJam)
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TTT#0813-EarlyChildhood

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:08:21 -0500
WEDS, MAR 26 - 11AM: CHILDCARE AND EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Studies and discussions appear to lean heavily toward starting children’s education much earlier than ever before believed. TTT’s Andy Driscoll and returning guest co-host Craig Cox query the advocates and policymakers pushing for earlier intervention in child care and education to better prepare youngsters for their schooling. GUESTS: • REP. NORA SLAWIK, Chair, Early Childhood Learning Finance Division Committee of MN House Education Committee • JULIE KORITZ, Consultant, Parent Coaching Services • SAMEERAH BILAL, Executive Director, Early Childhood Resource & Training Ctr. • TODD OTIS, President Ready 4 K
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TTT#0814-HealthCare08

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:08:19 -0500
As the public rightly clamors for more health care security in bad economic times, we bring back the business of health care and talk with policymakers and advocates about competing proposals now moving through the legislature – one to bring universal and state-financed single-payer health care to all Minnesotans, the other to expand coverages and access to uninsured Minnesotans, but still rely on insurance companies and HMOs for payment. This key issue is part of the presidential debate, but it’s remedies are taking root right here in St. Paul. TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and guest co-host NANCY SARTOR delve into the devilish details of all current health initiatives. GUESTS: • STATE SEN. JOHN MARTY, Chair, Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee • REP. TOM HUNTLEY, Chair, House Health Care and Human Services Finance Division Committee; • DR. MAUREEN REED, MN Health Care Transformation Task Force; former UofM Regent (Chair); • JOEL CLEMMER, Legislative Liaison for Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition (Single-payer)
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TTT#0812-DueProc-CentCorr

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:08:17 -0500
1. IS MINNESOTA ANOTHER GUANTANAMO?: DETENTION AND DUE PROCESS OF LEGAL RESIDENTS Attorneys PETER ERLINDER and GENA BERGLUND talk about their cases of clients who have been detained and/or jailed on flimsy evidence for years beyond what the law allows for speedy trials and pre-trial delays. 2. UPDATES ON MINNESOTA’S TRANSPORTATION PICTURE – THE PUBLIC LIKES TRANSIT OVER CARS The Metropolitan Council is seeking comment on the revised Environmental Impact Statement on the Central Corridor – focusing specifically on changes that would complete the St. Paul end at the Union Depot, add stations along University Avenue, and turn Washington Ave. through the UofM campus into a pedestrian/transit mall instead of digging a tunnel. Meanwhile, advocates and researchers state that the public response to surveys is overwhelmingly in favor of increased transit development in the Twin Cities Metro region, including the completion of the Central Corridor. We’ll feature a couple of those advocates in our second half-hour. GUESTS: Prof. FRANK SCHWEIGERT, Metro State University; former president of District Councils Collaborative of Twin Cities CONRAD DeFIEBRE, a Fellow focusing on transportation at Minnesota 2020, a public policy think tank; former Star Tribune reporter.
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TTT#0810-Guns

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:19:55 -0600
TTT's Andy Driscoll & Lynnell Mickelsen take a look at some of the deeper issues and Constitutional dilemmas over America’s love affair with firearms. Two competing bills in the legislature and a pending Supreme Court case challenging 2nd Amendment interpretations provoke some interesting questions about the rights of the individual and the rights of society to regulate our behavior – public and private – including the bearing of arms. GUESTS: HEATHER MARTENS - President, Citizens for a Safer Minnesota MARY JOHNSON, mother of slain son, of Two Mothers and OTHERS TBA
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TTT#0809-Peace Crimes-MN8

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:47:26 -0600
Politics Intersect with Art in a new History Theatre play –Peace Crimes: The Minnesota 8 vs. The War at Rarig Center. PEACE CRIMES opens Feb. 22 at Rarig Center, University of Minnesota. Seven of the Minnesota 8 are still around and still working on peace issues after their arrests and convictions for messing up and destroying documents in Selective Service offices in several Minnesota cities. They copped to it and served a couple of years for it. The Doris Baizley play draws from a FRANK KRONCKE memoir. KFAI’s own DON OLSON (Northern Sun News) is another surviving member. The Eight were represented by Attorney Ken Tilsen, a Minnesota progressive icon. GUESTS: • Minnesota Eight members FRANK KRONCKE and DON OLSON • Playwright DORIS BAIZLEY • History Theatre Artistic Director RON PELUSO, Director, Peace Crimes. • Actor ANDREW THOMPSON (as MN 8 member Bill Tilton)
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TTT#0808-God's Politics

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:39:39 -0600
Evangelist and author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, JIM WALLIS,, CEO and Executive Editor of Sojourners, talks about his latest book, The Great Awakening – Joined by TONY JONES of Edina, National Coordinator of Emergent Village and author of The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, and his latest, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier. TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen welcome these national spokespersons for a new view of how religion and faith play – or should play – into our nation’s politics public life and how some evangelists have distorted the role of faith and following in politics, declared conservative ideology the word of God, and George W. Bush as one of “God’s chosen people.”
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TTT#0807-LocGovtFinance

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:05:16 -0600
Eight years of budget cuts, especially state LGAs – Local Government Aids – may have satisfied conservative tax-cutters and allowed Gov. Pawlenty to live up to his nasty pledge to one organization never to raise revenue. But municipalities, especially the urban core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, have been left to severely cut services, which they have (much to the consternation of their constituents) and/or raise property taxes (much to the consternation of their constituents). But most constituents don’t understand how cities are financed and why lowering one tax must push up the balloon on the other end. TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen try to sort out this mess with officials forced to deal with the exigencies of state and local government funding. GUESTS: • State Sen. DICK COHEN, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee; • Minneapolis MAYOR R.T. RYBAK; • St. Paul MAYOR CHRIS COLEMAN.

TTT#0806-Biofuels

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:14:47 -0600
FEB 6: BIOFUELS. BIOENERGY. BIOMASS: What are they really? And will something work? TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen examine the implications of rushing to any old so-called biofuel as peak oil and other fossil fuels are exposed for both pollution potential and dropping capacities. Are biofuels as we have them now better than the status quo, no matter what their impact? What are the pros and cons of various renewable alternatives and is anything safe to burn or digest in the pursuit of a silver bullet killing fossil fuel uses? GUESTS: • State Rep. BILL HILTY, Chair, MN House Energy Finance Committee • MARK ANDERSON, Linden Hills Power&Light • JOHN CURRY, St. Paul Neighbors Against the Burner My Odeo Channel (odeo/36cafe37b75573e6)

TTT#0805-RacialJustRptCd

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:16:36 -0600
JAN 30: 2008 LEGISLATIVE REPORT CARD ON RACIAL JUSTICE: Racial disparity in public policy. Why can’t we get it right? Despite individual legislators with A’s and B’s, the Governor and Legislature overall earn but a “D” in racial equity for their lack of support for examining race and equity in passing important bills. Can we get past this plague on our culture? GUESTS: •Racial Justice "Champion" Rep. Jim Davnie •Jermaine Tony and Beth Newkirk of the Organizing Apprenticeship Project

TTT#0804-Caucuses

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:33:40 -0600
As we approach February 5th caucus night, dwindling attendance and citizen disgust with the sometimes labyrinthine processes that make up the very cautious caucus agenda once spelled doom for Minnesota’s system for picking party nominees and hading down endorsements. But, since 2000, especially among DFLers, the disgust grew greater for the president and his administration, for the war and health care deficits that anger drove thousands more to these meetings in 2004 than at almost any time in history. Now, another important election looms. Will we see a repeat of 2004’s multi-candidate crowds at this year’s caucuses, anxious to install change in DC politics? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN will question nonprofit organizers and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie on the legalities and politics that go into this ancient grassroots start to the candidate selection season for all partisans and the state’s electoral machinery. GUESTS: MARK RITCHIE, MN Secretary of State; • SHARON SUDMAN, Steering Committee, Peace in the Precincts/Friends for a Nonviolent World; • MONICA MEYER, Policy Director, OutFront Minnesota/Human Rights Campaign; • DAVE BICKING, MN State Green Party spokesperson; • SHAWN TOWLE, Checks&Balances electronic magazine • And YOU! CALL IN – 612-341-0980

TTT#0803-Teaching

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:26:12 -0600
The national education magazine, Education Week, has issued the latest in a multi-year report card on state education systems entitled, “Quality Counts.” While there may be serious questions about Minnesota’s commitment to educational excellence overall, what should be the criteria for judging the success of our system and is it fair to compare states at all with their diverse sets of laws, rules, regulations, governance structures, and labor contracts, and, if it is what does a “D+” in the Teaching Profession category even as we receive a B+ in Chance for Success. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with education professionals, a legislator, teacher reps and a parent on the credibility and ideas contained in “Quality Counts” and whether or not the media is overblowing report card grades given out by what is essentially another media outlet. GUESTS: MAUREEN PRENN, Acting Dean, College of Education, Minnesota State University at Mankato; KATE TOWLE, Active Parent and Member, Minneapolis District Parent Advisory Council; REP. MINDY GREILING, Chair of Education Finance Committee, MN House and former Teacher, St. Paul Public Schools; TOM DOOHER, President, Education Minnesota; DARYL PARKS, Urban Teacher Ed Program, Metropolitan State University.

TTT#0802-Utilities

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:42:36 -0600
Despite early frigid temperatures and the Cold-Weather rule designed to prevent heat and electric shut-offs for those unable to pay rising energy bills, the rule is proving cold comfort to many families who either don’t know or can’t afford even the modest payment plan required to prevent the shut-off. Energy Assistance plans are running way short of the money needed. Customers who come back on line after shut-offs and acquiring new living spaces are being dunned for earlier delinquencies even after utilities have charged off their losses to other ratepayers. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk about consumers with bad luck, bad finances and cold weather with regulatory officials and advocates to see why Minnesota should allow any exceptions to the cold weather rule, why energy utilities are allowed to double-charge rate-payers for their delinquent dollars, and if policymakers, consumer advocates and energy companies can agree on designing so-called affordability plans to keep costly disconnections/reconnections to a minimum while getting low-income consumers to pay what they can afford. GUESTS: LEROY KOPPENDRAYER, Chair, Minnesota Public Utilities Commission; PAM MARSHALL, Executive Director, Energy Cents Coalition; PATRICK BOLAND, Credit Policy & Compliance Manager, Xcel Energy

TTT#0801-Labor

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:24:02 -0600
The same movement conservatism that led to the contemporary slide into blatant racism, sexism, widening economic disparity, severe educational deprivation, a moribund healthcare system, and unprecedented political corruption also trained its guns on collective bargaining over the last 60 years. Some say the movement has suffered a mortal blow by union-busing tactics and a corporate compliant administration; others insist a resurgence of organization and representation is under way in all the new sectors of the economy. Which is true? Or are we truly getting it both ways? Joining TTT's Andy Driscoll is guest co-host and labor scholar, Tom O’Connell to talk with seasoned labor leaders, historians and new movement organizers about the history and future of union organizing, membership, and working conditions.

TTT#26-Progressives

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:14:59 -0600
Fifty years of creeping conservatism has created a mountain for progressives to climb to stop the slide into racism, sexism, increasing economic disparity, an education wasteland, moribund healthcare, and political corruption.Can we push that rock up to preserve democracy and install the promises of our founding documents? TTT's Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with seasoned and beloved political and social activists and scholars in whom the fires of freedom still burn hotly. GUESTS: KENNETH TILSEN – Attorney and public advocate for such high profile conflicts as Wounded Knee, the Minnesota Eight and the Powerline protestors; LAURA WATERMAN WITTSTOCK – Native Activist and Communications Consultant; MARV DAVIDOV – lifelong anti-war advocate and corporate critic, founder of The Honeywell Project protesting local manufacture of bombs and nuclear weaponry; TOM O’CONNELL, PhD. – Professor of Political Science, Metropolitan State University, whose dissertation, “Toward the Cooperative Commonwealth: An Introductory History of the Farmer-Labor Movement in Minnesota (1917-1948)” examines the roots of Minnesota’s progressive politics.

TTT#25-WaterPollution

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:05:05 -0600
Are we unintentionally polluting our river and streams with our fertilizers, lawn shavings and leaves? How does the urban run-off contribute to the other pollution entering the Metro Area from agricultural products and waste? TTT's Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with state experts and young scholars about the pollution we all add to the waters of our state and region with our discarded leaves and grasses and the chemicals we use to keep them green. GUESTS: PAUL WOTZKA, Hydrologist, water quality specialist, late of Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Whistleblower on atrazine run-off and dangers of corn-cultivated ethanol; PATRICK MOORE, Executive Director, Clean up The River Environment (CURE), Montevideo, MN; TWIN CITIES ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE STUDENTS reporting on urban nonpoint pollution (run-off) – Aura Scherbel and Zach Wilkowski (Teacher: Liz Scheidel).

TTT#24-Veterans/HUAC

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:47:59 -0600
When the gear comes off and discipline and alertness wane, veterans have to live with what their humanity had to stuff while killing. Record suicides, marriage break-ups, homelessness and addiction are plaguing returning warriors. TTT's Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with local veterans and officials assigned to their health and re-entry to discuss how “supporting the troops” doesn’t always extend to their lives after combat. GUESTS: MAJ. CYNTHIA RASMUSSEN, RN MSN CANP – Army Combat Stress Officer/Sexual Assault Response Coordinator; GUY GAMBILL – Veteran, Gulf War I, and Advocacy Coordinator Council on Crime and Justice; SSGT. CHERISHA SANDERS, Iraq War Medic; and SpFC Isaac Schugel, MP, USAR. -------------- PLUS ------------ STEALTH FASCISM? HUAC REDUX? House Members Vote to Criminalize Dissent! (HR 1955) The US House has voted 400+ to few to create a new 50s-style witch-hunting National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism. How did such a radical measure pass with the support of our DFL representatives? We’ll ask them – if they’ll answer. GUESTS: PETER ERLINDER – Constitutional Law Expert/Law Professor, Wm. Mitchell. INVITED but not appearing: US REP. KEITH ELLISON and US REP. BETTY McCOLLUM.

TTT#23-10-O'clock News

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:55:19 -0600
DEC. 5: THE LOCAL MEDIA CRISIS: How the 10 O’clock News has Distracted Us from Citizenship TTT's Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with local media observers about the damage broadcast and print media have done to drive citizens away from news and knowledge of their communities and governments, creating instead a consumer culture of celebrity and distraction instead of civic affairs. On the street and in-café interviews with news consumers conducted by KFAI intern Sonia Sultan GUESTS: VIVIAN JENKINS NELSEN: President/CEO of The Inter-Race Institute; JANE KIRTLEY, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota and Director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law; GARY GILSON, former Executive Director, Minnesota News Council, former host of tpt news/public affairs shows and more.

TTT#22-Race in the Classroom

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 21:09:11 -0600
Nov 28 SPECIAL: CLASSROOM DISCRIMINATION: Through the Eyes of Peers We turned over the microphones to six 7th graders from St. Paul;-based Twin Cities Academy to explore their chosen topic of how their peers of color and gender may be treated differently than white students. TTT's Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen step aside for Madeline Driscoll, Tessa Ferguson, Abby Ewen-Schofner, Anna Esteb, Emily Syberud and Ana Schaff to pursue this inquiry as to why all children are not treated equally in elementary and secondary classrooms. JOIN THE DISCUSSION. CALL 612-341-0980 during the show. GUESTS: State Representative Carlos Mariani, Executive Director, Minnesota Minority Education Project; Jeanne Nordstrom, Retired Teacher, Webster Magnet School, St. Paul; Nissan Brown, Minneapolis student attending Edina High in The Choice Is Yours desegregation project.

TTT#21-Peak Oil-Alternative Energies

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:45:47 -0600
Is the sky really falling and are the wells really running dry as crude prices edge over $100 per barrel and we pay higher and higher prices for using this finite resource and its energy? What might replace it as reliable, renewable, and affordable resources? Can the idea of Localism , that is, can Twin Citians and Minnesotans alter our personal and cultural behavior to ensure a secure energy future no matter what happens elsewhere? GUESTS: Philipp Muessig, geologist and MPCA Sustainable Communities analyst; Michael Noble, Executive Director, Fresh Energy; John Farrell, Research Associate, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Minneapolis; Brian Merchant, Peak Oil activist and advocate.

TTT#14-10-3-07-Locally Owned Biz

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:20:55 -0600
TTT Sept. 26: TTT’s Andy Driscoll discusses the benefits and challenges of locally owned business Guests: Nancy Breymeier, St. Paul Investment Counselor and President of the Metro Independent Business Alliance; Jeff Warner, President, Warner’s Stellian Appliance Stores, St. Paul; Papa John Kolstad, Minneapolis music-maker and Lake Street retailer; Wanda Fulton Hockenberger, owner, Formula One Mortgage.

TTT#13 9 26 07Graffiti

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:32:05 -0600
TT Sept. 26: TTT’s Andy Driscoll discusses the phenomenon that is graffiti with a tagger who tells why he “marks his territory” like a claim on the cityscape and graffiti opponents and enforcers who see the markings as the downfall of urban life. Hear Bloch assert that private property should not be private at all. And he doesn’t want graffiti legalized because graffiti will lose its power as commentary if it is. Guests: Stefano Bloch, PhD graduate student in geography at the UofM and acknowledged “tagger;” Gary Schiff, Minneapolis City Councilmember; Laura Waterman Wittstock, Native activist, writer, communications consultant, former director, Migizi Communications; Jane Prince, aide to St. Paul City Councilmember Jay Benanav; Officer Mike Barabas, Graffiti Investigator, St. Paul Police.

TTT#20-Neighborhood Revitalization Pgm

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:47:30 -0600
NOV. 14: THE FUTURE OF THE MINNEAPOLIS NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION PROGRAM (NRP) TTT's Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen lead an important conversation about the future of the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program, if it has one. Mayor R.T. Rybak has hinted that the NRP should disappear in favor of a more centralized Community Engagement system. GUESTS: Robert Lilligren, 6th Ward Councilmember; Bob Miller, NRP’s executive director; Debbie Evans, At-large neighborhood board member, activist.

TTT#18-St.PaulElectTurnout

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:33:49 -0600
OCT. 31 ST. PAUL’S GENERAL ELECTION – WHERE ARE THEM VOTERS? TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with key figures in St. Paul elections on races for St. Paul City Council and School Board and on the extraordinary level of disengagement voters are demonstrating in this year's election. GUESTS: JAY BENANAV, outgoing St. Paul Ward 4 City Councilmember, ELONA STREET-STEWART, Chair, St. Paul School Board, ROGER BARR, Executive Director, Support Our Schools, and JOE MANSKY, Director, Ramsey County Elections Bureau.

TTT#19-Government Secrecy

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:05:31 -0600
NOV. 7: GOVERNMENT SECRECY: YOUR GOVERNMENT IS HIDING FROM YOU TTT's Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen discuss government secrecy and public information with three of Minnesota's most prominent advocates for open government, access and a free press. MnDOT's engineering and administrative reports on the collapsed I-35W bridge are merely one example of public employees refusing to disclose information that could save lives, injuries, and money. Contracts and deals are struck without bidding or scrutiny and reports of dangerous infrastructure flaws are kept under wraps. More and more public information is being withheld from the public. This is not about security, it's about secrecy in state and local government - reports and activities kept behind an opaque veil of bureaucracy and political expediency. Who will break open the political cocoon that is becoming our government and let the butterfly free to allow citizens to access and control their government once again? GUESTS: JOHN R. FINNEGAN, retired Executive Editor and Asst. Publisher, St. Paul Pioneer Press; DON GEMBERLING, Attorney and Retired Administrator, Minnesota Data Privacy Office; MICHAEL FRIEDMAN, Executive Director, Legal Rights Center and former Chair, Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority Board.

TTT#17-10/24-Tutu-Israel-Palestine

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:18:25 -0600
St. Thomas University's President Dennis Dease’s uninviting, then re-inviting, Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu to campus has opened yet another conversation of how the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict is discussed here – and everywhere. (Tutu will now appear on behalf of PeaceJam at Metropolitan State University in the Spring.) Questions linger over how and if people concerned about the Mideast crisis can criticize the Israeli government and its policies and actions without being labeled anti-Semitic. GUESTS: REP. FRANK HORNSTEIN, Minneapolis, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROF. TOM O’CONNELL, Metropolitan State University, KAREN REDLEAF, Jewish Palestinian rights activist.

TTT#16-Race and Resegregation

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:26:51 -0500
OCTOBER 17 TTT's Andy Driscoll and new co-host, Lynnell Mickelsen ask proponents of four perspectives on racism, resegregation, and remedies in Twin Cities education. Studies and statistics show urban core schools more segregated than ever. This was not the plan back in 1960s, 70s, and 80s when court ruling and policymakers combined to invoke the means to bring white kids and students of color into the same educational settings. Why haven't they come together? What dynamics are at play in the palpably re-segregated systems of the Twin Metro Area? The answer is that there is no one answer - and no one remedy. Many good people bring wide-ranging perspectives to the discussion about what to do to improve achievement and reduce the social isolation that comes from segregated housing patterns and schools. .