Interactive Mosaic Art: piecing together Community

What: Mosaic Mapping Collaboration!

Envision the Twin Cities landscape as a work of art-- YOUR art.

 Come say your piece, and cement your piece into place on this collaborative mosaic work. 

Dig through your pockets. 

Stoop down for that shiny shard of glass. 

Bring something small, something old, something borrowed, and a story told  about your travels here. ADD YOUR PIECE!

When and Where:

All day Saturday February 16 at the Union Depot in Lowertown, St. Paul

214 4th St. E St. Paul, MN 55101  

During the WORLD RECORD-setting largest collaborative Light Bright Display, "Bright Ideas Light Up the Night" you can add to the Light Bright, and add to the Mosaic Map!

February 13  2013, at 6:45 PM

at the Central Corridor Resource Center, 1080 University Avenue W., Saint Paul

Everyone on the District Councils Collaborative can add a piece, before the Governing Council Meeting!

 When and Where you can see it: 

 February 25- March 11 See the mosaic in the lobby of Women Venture economic development group,

 2324 University Avenue West, Saint Paul, MN 55114

March 16  - 31 

See it in the public gallery space of Christ Lutheran Church,

105 University Avenue West  Saint Paul, MN 55155

April 8 -15  2013-- Look for it in the Freeman Building, in the atrium of the Minnesota Department of Health!

Who: You! The Touring Exhibit is on its way to your Central Corridor-area office,

whoever has space for its temporary display!

The State Now Sees Transaction Histories with Impunity

The state of Minnesota can now see your credit and debit card histories, your every transaction, and you'll never know whether they're looking or not.
  The Department of Revenue started using Accurint for Government's new online tools a couple months ago, for extreme scrutiny during its collections processes.
  You can always request a credit report to find out who is checking on your credit and how often, and you can always file a Freedom of Information Act request  to learn what a government agency is saying about you. You can get all records with your name mentioned in them for a very small fee, but it won't include who is looking at your credit or debit card or EBT card purchases, or how often or why.
  At present the public has no idea that someone collecting their fine for a speeding ticket or calling about their sales tax that is due can also know what groceries they purchased and when.

The Bare Buildings of Fall

A couple of my friends are so much quicker at seeing animals than
I-- I have a better eye for special effects in films but they have
better eyes for reality. Like all the deer left in the ditches at the
side of the road, or running along fields hundreds of yards away. Like
eagles and raptors in the sky and squirrels on the road. I am
learning, starting to see animals a little more quickly and clearly --
sadly they are easily overlooked because the modern mind prioritizes
other things.
This morning dawn broke slowly  & elegantly, colors rippling across
the thin cloud canvas that protects my bit of sky.
 A delicate violet blanketed the western horizon, covering the lake,
and above me easing into orange. The pale orange clouds bubbled into
bright orange up by the eastern hill, and below them a bold yellow
stripe broke the gentle cloud cover with its uncommonly optimistic
tint. Birds in the sky stripe seemed to be suspended there, still,
just basking in that beautiful yellow until all was unveiled as the
clear blue of day, unyielding.
 The lake, mysterious as ever, mimicked the sky by showing one
unexpected stripe of calm-- right down the middle, the waters had a
different texture from the waters on either side of the elliptical
lake, in their unnoticed choppy flow. Phalen's contents are unknown,
and they stir the body into inexplicable currents sometimes. Likely
its underwater landscape is like a Cartesian graph, quartered into
four basins, more evident now that the water level is so low.
  The bushes and trees are also revealing more today, more today than
yesterday. The boughs are bare and through them I see large stone
structures on the other side of the railroad tracks which I'd never
noticed before.
  The manmade structures absorb early sunlight, and they stand out to
me as the landscape that's left for the freezing fall. Suddenly I see
that Regions Hospital is a series of angles and curves: spiraling
parking ramp, two rectangles, a curve outward, a bisecting rectangle,
a curve inward. Very artistic-- and for whose benefit?
The Economy Motel is as ugly as ever, but Gillette Children's Hospital
is angled glass like an accordion-folded note unfurling. The law
enforcement building at the end of the street is mysteriously blue
meeting oxidized iron. Why? Why is there a thin rectangular awning of
iron intersecting the front of the building like something alien,
something sliding in from another plane?
  Why is the fence along the sidewalk on the overpass curving cast
iron? It's lovely and black, geometric and dramatic, featuring a
design of squares within squares that's reminiscent of the black
accents on a windowless brown office building: circles within circles,
which hardly anyone ever sees.
  Who has gone out of their way to add curves, designs, and needlessly
tall jutting shapes to the buildings that line the route to work? Such
importance is given to the overpass by its tall smooth fence of
squares, when it could've just been a chain-link precaution there. I
couldn't stop turning my head round & looking everywhere this morning.
  We're so fortunate to live where people have once and will again
value art and architecture.

Lessons from the OUT! Twin Cities Film Fest at St Anthony Main Theater

Marry me, Minnesota? This civil rights issue has come before 30 states before; now it's finally Minnesota's turn to wrestle with a referendum to restrict marriage to the hetero-normative.
 In November Minnesotans will face this question on their ballots: “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as marriage in Minnesota?” 
 A similar amendment passed in California in the 2008 elections, and we can learn a lot from the story of Prop 8. This story was the first to be told, last night at the 3rd annual Out! Twin Cities Film Festival. More great films about LGBT life will screen tonight and tomorrow night at the St. Anthony Main Theater.
Showings:  www.outtwincitiesfilmfest.com/


Charlie Gage didn't expect to be inspired by LGBT protests in LA; he didn't expect to make this particular
documentary about them either.
 But all the creative steam driving people to act against Proposition 8, a 2008 amendment to California's constitution, drove an incredible story that he captured from the get-out-the-vote efforts to the Supreme Court's Day of Decision on the amendment.
  At the screening of Inspired: The Voices Against Prop 8, director Charlie Gage said that he had just showed up at protests, noticed who stood out in the footage, and contacted these people for interviews. Several of them had said they weren't the type to go out and protest, until Prop 8 passed and gay marriage in California ended. The initial campaign to vote "No" burst into several different organizations, each with their own target group. All or Not at All, the Gay UN, Latino Equality, Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, and more groups swung into action to support a repeal of Prop 8  with commercials, slogans, websites, boycotts, marches, candlelight vigils, and a LGBT Equality Conference that was organized by young people.
  In the film, there's also a young man who acted alone and organized a protest beyond LA, in the more conservative Pasadena.
  Boycotts against small businesses and large corporations that had given money to support Prop 8 were discussed for their relatively low impact, and Asian, Latino, black and white gay marriage proponents recounted the dissonance between their separate action groups. How aggressive should the demands in the street get? What do people gain by blocking the streets and defying law enforcement?
   It seemed that through all they went through, the new activists gained stronger voices and community organizing skills. With direct actions they changed, and their movement grew. They kept the issue in the news and on the minds of the judges.
Though the California Supreme Court had ruled in May 2009 that yes, the people have the right to change the constitution,  a federal district judge ruled in 2010 that the change was unconstitutional.
  There was no rational or legal basis for the change to the constitution, and it stripped a minority of its rights for no reason. This opinion was upheld by a US Appeals Court ruling in early 2012. Can the majority vote to remove any rights from any group?
  This is the larger issue, and as it awaits a higher court, the marriage restrictions remain in California.

 Today, Minnesotans United for All Families is present at the film festival and in a neighborhood near you. They are counting votes door-to-door and glad for the support of 420 other organizations. To win on this issue, it will take a very large effort beyond the Twin Cities, beyond our comfort zones, cooperation between organizations, and a steadily cool & reasoned approach rather than aggressive tactics.

1 year after Activist's Death, Dayton's Signature means Stricter Penalties for Caregivers

John Schotzbarger was kind, quick, thoughtful and very active in Minneapolis' progressive community. He was an eager educator, even outside the classroom. Besides working as a massage therapist, and then as a substitute math teacher for decades, he volunteered with the Universal Health Care Action Network, Communities United Against Police Brutality, the People of Faith Peacemakers, and weekly donated food to poor families he knew. He would happily talk with you knowledgably about  the Constitution, our rigged banking system, or strategic planning. 

He passed on in March 2011, despite frequent attention to alternative healing modalities and the best efforts of his caregivers.

A year later, his caregivers, Miski and Shawn, faced very publicized charges of neglect. As if his death were their fault.

See: http://www.kare11.com/news/article/972207/0/Caregivers-charged-in-death-of-vulnerable-adult-

Caregivers, or Direct Support Professionals, often come under fire in the news because there are some very bad ones out there. But most of us work hard and give our hearts for our clients. The media feeds a general distrust for low-income working people like us. Last July the state cut our pay-- a deeper cut for those caregivers who work for their family members.

See: http://www.twincities.com/legislature/ci_20284754/house-unlikely-restore-pay-cuts-personal-care-assistants

Now it's like you need insurance on your care of a client, in order to help out even in those impossible situations!

John's death was used as fuel for a bill in the Minnesota legislature that would make Miski & Shawn's inactions a felony, not a misdemeanor.

In April, Governor Dayton was signing bills left and right, trying to make Minnesota a safe & productive place despite budget gridlock. One such bill had been a hope of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman for years.

See:

http://www.minnpost.com/political-agenda/2012/04/gov-dayton-signs-vulner...

23 Arrested this Week as Occupy Our Homes Reclaim Cruz Home in Foreclosure

Since Bobby Hull and family made the news in January,

homeowners have been speaking out against the all-too-common & unethical foreclosure & eviction process-- and getting strong, diverse support.

See:http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/12/occupy_mn_protesters_occupy_v...

In the Twin Cities, the Occupy movement began in Liberty Plaza (by the Hennepin county government center) in October, moved around to Loring Park and the St Paul capitol and other public locales, and then showed up for homeowners facing foreclosure crises.

Occupy Our Homes has grown to be a well-organized movement in itself, meeting weekly & addressing the concerns of more than 50 homeowners who have asked for help. They have had notable success, standing up for Monique White's home in Minneapolis:

Read: http://www.occupymn.org/2012/05/victory-monique-white-wins-negotiation-t...

Last night 14 activists were arrested as they formed a human chain around the Cruz Family home, after 30 days of successful nonviolent defense of this home in foreclosure. That brings the total arrests this week to 23, according to the Occupy Our Homes story.

Story & photos: http://www.occupyhomesmn.org/14-arrested-at-cruz-home-vowing-needless-fo...

Trumped Up Criminal Charges against Caregivers of Elderly

Some months ago police visited a Minneapolis home on West River Parkway and took pictures regarding the investigation of the death of John Shotzburger. Yesterday the result was presented through local TV news. According to Kare11 News:

"MINNEAPOLIS - Two home health care workers are criminally charged in connection with the death of a vulnerable adult in Mid-March.

Shawn James Gigrich, age 48, was charged with a gross misdemeanor count of criminal neglect and one count of failing to report the maltreatment of a vulnerable adult, which is a misdemeanor.

Miski Mohamed-Ali, age 25, was charged with one misdemeanor charge of criminal neglect.

The charges follow the death of an elderly man who died March 20, 2011 from circumstances Minneapolis Police attribute to substandard care.

Investigators say Gigrich was responsible for caring for the victim in his home on West River Parkway from May 2010 to March 11, 2011, when they maintain he visited the victim for the last time.

On March 17, Best Care Home Health, Inc., the company that employed Gigrich, received a call from the victim requesting an emergency visit because he was experiencing pain and believed his urinary catheter was plugged.

Miski Mohamed-Ali, the company's on-call nurse, went to the victim's residence at 12:30 a.m. on March 18 and stayed there for two hours, during which time she changed his catheter.

A neighbor called 911 one day later reporting that the victim was not alert. Police say paramedics arrived at approximately 9:30 a.m. and observed the victim to be in poor medical heath, dirty and uncared for. Additionally, they described the residence being extremely cluttered, the smell of urine was present and there were mouse feces on the floor.

The elderly victim was transported to an area hospital where staff had to cut off his clothes and cleaned both human and rodent waste from the victim. He was admitted to the hospital in critical condition and died March 20. The man's cause of death was listed as sepsis from a urinary tract infection with poor nutrition and pancreatic cancer as contributing factors.

Investigators determined that both home health care nurses were aware of the victim's poor condition and his residence, and did nothing about it.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman maintains that this case shows the need for felony level charging when vulnerable adults are neglected."

I knew the man who died; I spent almost 6 months cleaning his house after he died. The problems of clutter & mice indeed built up over the years that he was sick; he didn't want to live that way. Trust me when I say that it was an overwhelming problem, much more than any caregiver could be expected to do with their limited hours. I know because I'm a caregiver, a caregiver for the widow, and I did much more than I was paid to do and STILL could not solve the problems of the house after working on it for months!!! Shawn is innocent of neglect. The deceased appreciated his caregivers and WOULD NOT want them to face charges. Shawn & other caregivers took care of his physical needs & the smell, clutter, & mice of the house were not their fault; even if they had tried to solve these problems they couldn't have made a dent in that house packed with decades' worth of stuff. The landlord never came to fix the house's problems like bad plumbing & windows that don't open. They rented the house, & the smell, clutter & mice are a result of their lifestyle choices, (hoarding) and the landlord's neglect, NOT the caregivers' neglect. The deceased would not want this attention or legal trouble.