FINDING COMMON GROUND IN OUR COMMUNITY
Immigration reform bill moves on without amendments some advocates hoped for
When the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a comprehensive immigration reform bill by a 13 to 5 vote Tuesday, it did so without a couple of controversial amendments: One would have extended immigration rights to same-sex couples, and another would have preserved two categories of immigrant visas that stand to be cut.
The most controversial amendment was brought up at the end of Tuesday’s negotiations, a proposal from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) that would have allowed gay and lesbian U.S. citizens to sponsor a same-sex spouse on an immigrant visa. As it stands now, federal law only allows straight married couples to do so.
While many on the Senate committee voiced support, they also said they feared the amendment might torpedo the bill. It was eventually withdrawn.
Gay and lesbian advocates say they’re upset that senators bought into what they describe as a “poison pill” argument from opponents.
STEP-UP Achieve—part of the City of Minneapolis STEP-UP program — connects businesses with the next generation of talented and diverse workers, provides critical job training and hands-on experience for young people in Minneapolis, and builds a stronger Twin Cities workforce for our knowledge-based global economy.
One of the country’s top youth employment programs, STEP-UP Achieve places 800 young people (ages 16-21) each year in paid internships with 150 top Twin Cities companies, nonprofits and public agencies, providing work readiness training, on-the-job experience, professional connections and ongoing support.
Now in our tenth year, we’ve connected over 5,000 young people with Twin Cities employers, ranging from Cargill, Boston Scientific and Target to Fairview Health Services, Hennepin County, Nina Hale, Inc., Twin Cities Public Television and many more. STEP-UP Achieve interns bring home over $1 million in wages each year, a significant contribution to low-income families in Minneapolis.
Our 2013 internship application deadline has now passed. Learn how you can become a STEP-UP Achieve employer and check out our brand new STEP-UP video!
UMD graduates first cohort of tribal management program
by Dan Kraker, Minnesota Public Radio
The new graduates, who are their 20s through their 60s, come from reservations around the Midwest to study at UMD, which developed the program at the behest of area tribes, to prepare leaders for the unique management challenges tribes confront. Most already work for tribal governments, including three executive directors of Indian tribes.
Read the full story
Cultural Jambalaya is a photography-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote understanding and respect for all cultures. Cultural Jambalaya aims to celebrate cultural differences — and similarities — while benefiting nonprofit organizations and schools. Learn More.
Women lose political footing at LA City Hall
On July 1, L.A. city government could be run entirely by men.
“I mean, think of this, that we would have in 2013 no woman on the city council. That’s really amazing,” said Roz Wyman, who 60 years ago became the second woman ever elected to the L.A. City Council. The first was Estelle Lawton Lindsey in 1915.
Dr. Dre, American Idol’s Jimmy Iovine donate $70 million for new USC center
Hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and music industry entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine have donated a combined $70 million to create a new institute at the University of Southern California, the school announced Tuesday night.
Students at Humboldt State University in northern California worked to put together the interactive “Geography of Hate” map showing where tweets containing hate speech originate. You can see screenshots of racist and homophobic tweets above, from both Southern California and nationally, as defined by the project.
The students looked at tweets with location information from June 2012 through April 2013 containing one of 10 hate words, which included racist, homophobic and anti-disabled words. They looked at over 150,000 tweets, reading each one to decide whether it was being used in a negative way.
The data was aggregated down to the county level, then normalized by how many tweets were sent, so you can’t tell using the map whether the specific tweets classified as hate speech were necessarily coming from one part of the county or another.
The Huffington Post notes that the majority of hateful tweets seem to be coming from rural areas and small towns, while more populous areas like the Los Angeles region have far fewer hate tweets. Still, a pale blue coloring indicates words being used more than the national average, and there’s still some of that blue in the L.A. area. Southern California also generally shows more racist tweets than homophobic tweets, particularly against blacks
On the afternoon of May 18, 1970, University of Minnesota law student Jack Baker and U of M employee Michael McConnell walked into a drab government office in Minneapolis, filled out a form, paid a $10 filing fee, and applied for a marriage license. It was apparently the first time in U.S. history that anyone had ever taken the initial steps to pursue a legally-recognized gay marriage. Baker and McConnell’s marriage application was eventually denied (Hennepin County Attorney George M. Scott advised that, in any marriage, “there should be a male and a female involved”), but the two men did not give up. They filed a lawsuit challenging the denial of their marriage license application. In the end, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled against them, saying that marriage was “a union of man and woman, uniquely involving the procreation and rearing of children within a family.” Baker and McConnell appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the justices declined to take up the case, essentially setting aside the question of the constitutionality of gay marriage for another time. That was more than 40 years ago.
Mission
The Citizens League builds civic imagination and capacity in Minnesota by:
- Identifying, framing and proposing solutions to public policy problems;
- Developing civic leaders in all generations who govern for the common good; and
- Organizing the individual and institutional relationships necessary to achieve these goals.
Purpose
To organize the means — the “civic infrastructure” — within the Citizens League and in Minnesota, to achieve the mission. “Civic infrastructure” refers to our ability to govern and solve problems for the common good in and across all institutions.
Values
- We believe in human capacity: the power and potential of all citizens.
- We believe in democracy and good governance.
- We believe in civic leadership and active citizenship.
- We believe in good politics and political competence.
- We believe in institutional accountability: that all institutions must sustain these ideals from one generation to the next.
Citizens League members do the work to build civic imagination and capacity in Minnesota. Read our 2011-2012 Citizens League guide to see what we’re up to, or click on a category below to find out more about this work and how you can contribute.
