Truth to Tell

TTT NOV 18: MENTAL ILLNESS: Not So Far from Home As We May Think

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

NOV 18: MENTAL ILLNESS: Not So Far from Home As We May Think Victims of mental illness have never had an easy time of it. It’s difficult enough coping with the demons that haunt their minds and distort their dreams and world view. Delusions and demons of illnesses such as clinical and bi-polar depression, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can lead them to engage in self-destructive behavior – addiction, suicide and violence toward the ones they love most. In worst cases, they take it to the streets where, when confronted by law enforcement, they have died at the hands of police officers ill-trained to deal with mentally ill men and women, war-torn veterans and mothers, abuse victims and chemically unbalanced brains. Cops have killed too many of these victims. Society fears them, sometimes for cause, more often unnecessarily. In the past, we simply warehoused them with little in the way of adequate treatment – counseling and proper medication; with the closing of state institutions, we now leave many of them to wander the streets, homeless, jobless and refuse to fund the relief – treatment and acceptance - they so desperately need and deserve. The shooting to death of Barbara Schneider by Minneapolis police officers several years ago, spawned an organized community response to cease such callous overreaction and a foundation in her name. One response has been the creation of crisis intervention team training. This week, _TTT’s_ ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with three of the Barbara Schneider Foundation’s principals about where the movement is taking us. GUESTS: • MARK ANDERSON - Executive Director, Barbara Schneider Foundation l and the Mental Health Crisis Response Institute • CHARLES JENSEN - Mental health advocate with Barbara Schneider Foundation; 12 years homeless; arrested 89 times, including seven felony arrests • PATTI KRESSLEY - police officer(13 years); MA, counseling psychology; Instructor, Argosy University • “RUTH” - Mental Health Consumer

TTT Nov 11: GOVERNING THE SCHOOL SYSTEMS: Who's in Charge? Who Should Be?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

NOV 11: GOVERNING THE SCHOOL SYSTEMS: Who's in Charge? Who Should Be? The departure of two urban school superintendents in the same year, both Bill Green in Minneapolis, and Meria Carstarphen in St. Paul after a relatively short time in their positions, not to mention the continuing issue of achievement gaps, resegregation, state vs. local funding bases, teacher contracts and accountability, the politics of central office control vs. site-based management alternatives raise very serious questions over the best constructs for K-12/P-12 school governance. Why have charter schools with their far less restrictive covenants become so popular among public school parents, despite data that show little or, in some cases, less academic success than traditional public classrooms? Is something much more fundamental at play here? Is the inadequate funding and public attention paid to K-12 education at all connected to the separation of education, in general, from all other aspects of the social contract and public policy? Did we create a mess of monsters with the creation of the independent school districts, essentially segregating education from all other aspects of life in our communities? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN examine those questions and query representatives of school boards, parents, teachers and policy observers as we begin a conversation about where school governance should go to make education the truly important and integrated system most everyone sees as grooming every next generation of citizens and leaders. GUESTS: • PAM COSTAIN - Minneapolis School Board member; former Chair • ELONA STREET-STEWART - Vice Chair, St. Paul Board of Education • LAURA BLOOMBERG - former Deputy Director, HHH Center for School Change; Director, Center for Integrative Leadership (HHH Institute/Carlson School); fmr school board member, Mahtomedi Schools • MARY CATHRYN RICKER - President, St. Paul Federation of Teachers • DENNIS SCHAPIRO - former Minneapolis school board member; Founder, Jola Publications; Editor/Publisher, Public School Montessorian

TTT NOV 4: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

NOV 4: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY: Trauma Inside and Out Share More American women have fought and died in Iraq than in any war since World War Two, yet as soldiers they are still painfully alone. In Iraq, only one in ten troops is a woman, and she often serves in a unit with few other women or none at all. This isolation, along with the military's deep-seated hostility toward women, causes problems that many female soldiers find as hard to cope with as war itself: degradation, sexual persecution by their comrades, and loneliness, instead of the camaraderie that every soldier depends on for comfort and survival. As one female soldier said, "I ended up waging my own war against an enemy dressed in the same uniform as mine." Those words from the leaf of a stunning book, The Lonely Soldier, by Helen Benedict, and describing the still-burning issues that shame our military and civilian attitudes toward women serving in the military - both highlighted in two coming performances of At War with Women, starring and about Chante Wolf, in St. Paul – one on Veterans Day(Nov 11) at Hamline University's Sundin Hall, the other Friday the 13th at Macalester College’s Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel - revealing the traumas women soldiers and veterans suffer in and after combat and military service.* PTSD - combat and otherwise - are often no different from those of the military men we hear about all the time, themselves often forced to suck it up rather than seek assistance for their nightmares and the violence memories trigger with little warning in the middle of the night. Add the dimensions of sexual predation and humiliation by combat comrades and the recipe is disaster. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with a woman veteran, author Helen Benedict and another advocate in search of deeper and wider understanding of the plight of women in the military. GUESTS: • CHANTE WOLF - US Air Force Veteran, Persian Gulf War; Veterans for Peace activist and Photographer • HELEN BENEDICT - Author, The Lonely Soldier (nonfiction); The Edge of Eden (fiction) - both about military women/families • ESTHER OURAY - Director, At War with Women; Associate Artist/Puppeteer, Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre; advocate for art working on peace and justice issues. *No website is available for this beyond the play venues

TTT OCT 28: MplsCandidates09

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

OCT 28: ELECTIONS 2009 #3: Minneapolis #2- Candidates in Review In this, our last of three programs covering Twin Cities elections, journalists from around Minneapolis come together to talk about that city's Mayoral, Ward, Park Board, and Board of Estimate and Taxation contests, which are the hottest, the most obscure, and who may or may not deserve much more scrutiny that local media are giving them two weeks away from the November 3rd election. Questions: • Does Mayor RT Rybak face any serious competition. • How will Ranked Choice Voting affect the races? • Will this new voting system increase or decrease voter turnout? • Or will the lack of any serious competition and thorough media coverage of this year's elections affect turnout more than the system? • What role is the ballot proposal to eliminate the Board of Estimate and Taxation playing in city contests for Mayor, the Council http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/, Park Board and Board of Estimate itself? Some observers say plenty! TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN will kick it around with our colleagues on which issues are fodder for which races and why incumbents are under fire by several candidates in this first year of Ranked Choice Voting as the tool for electing Minneapolis leaders. And we'll hear snippets of campaign speeches, candidate forums and interviews from key races around the city. GUESTS: • AHNDI FRIDELL - Director, KFAI News • CHARLES HALLMAN - Minnesota Spokesman Recorder • PAUL DEMKO - Staff Reporter, Minnesota Independent • CHRISTOF TRAUDES - Staff Reporter, Southwest/Downtown Journal • CHRIS STELLER - Staff Reporter, Minnesota Independent • STEVE BRANDT - Staff Reporter, StarTribune City Hall Beat

TTT October 21: CITY ELECTIONS 2009 #2: St. Paul Decides on Instant Runoff Voting

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Like Minneapolis in 2006, enough Saint Paul residents signed petitions to place a Charter amendment on the General Election ballot asking voters to approve a new Instant Runoff Voting (Ranked Choice Voting) system for city elections. Unlike Minneapolis, St. Paul's City Council, armed with a City Attorney's opinion allowing it to deny access to the ballot until the question of the system's constitutionality was settled, initially refused to follow the will of the signatories while they waited for the outcome of a court case challenging the Minneapolis system. The district court, finally affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court, upheld the system's constitutionality - and the St. Paul Council was then forced by law to place the question on this year's General Election ballot. In Minneapolis, the City Council supports the idea; in St. Paul, a majority of its councilmembers does not. Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, Minneapolis had no need for a primary election this year; across the river while St. Paul's September primary drew less than 5% of eligible voters, a turnout figure cited by RCV/IRV supporters as one of the reasons to conflate city elections into one general election and allow all candidates to compete on a single ballot. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL queries advocates on both sides of St. Paul's campaign to determine if St. Paul voters should or should not go the way of Minneapolis and approve its Ranked Choice Voting system. GUESTS: • KATHY LANTRY-President, St. Paul's City Council • JOHN HOTTINGER-former State Senate Majority Leader (supporter of IRV/RCV) • JEANNE MASSEY-Executive Director, FairVote Minnesota - parent of Better Ballot St. Paul • CHUCK REPKE-Co-chair, No Bad Ballots Committee - a Saint Paul group opposing IRV. • RACHEL SMITH - Program Director, Excellence in Election Administration in the Humphrey Institute's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance

TTT OCT 14: CITY ELECTIONS 2009:Minneapolis#1

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

CITY ELECTIONS 2009: Minneapolis RCV/IRV Primer and BET Ballot Question 2009 is the year of Minnesota municipal elections, and among the most interesting of them are those in Minneapolis and St. Paul. This week and October 28th, we talk about Minneapolis election processes, candidates and the two ballot issues. We will talk about St. Paul's election issues October 21st. Part One: Minneapolis implements its new system called Ranked Choice Voting (AKA Instant Run-off Voting), passed by voters two years ago and eliminating the primary election in the process. How will this work? How about multiple seat boards and commissions? How to make sure you get your vote counted? Our guests explain it all. (Wonder where you vote? Find your PRECINCT.) SAMPLE BALLOT (Ward 2 in this example) PART ONE GUESTS: • PAT O'CONNOR - Interim Minneapolis City Elections Director • ONA KELLER - Minneapolis RCV Outreach Coordinator Part Two: Minneapolis voters will decide whether or not to retain its unique Board of Estimate and Taxation. The Question: "Should the City of MInneapolis adopt a change in its charter to the composition of the Board of Estimate and Taxation so that the Board's membership consists of the members of the City Council, with the actions of the Board subject to the powers and duties of the Mayor?” PART TWO GUESTS: • DON FRASER - former Mayor of Minneapolis, former US Representative (*against BET abolition) • JOAN NIEMIEC - former Minneapolis City Councilmember; Chair, Minneapolis League of Women Voters City Governance Study Committee; Access League Reports and Positions on City Governance Issues HERE (for BET abolition) • _AND YOU!_ CALL 612-341-0980 and Talk to Us! Can't get us on the radio? Stream us LIVE and LATER

TTT OCT 7: MediaTalk

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

WEDS. OCT 7- 11AM: MINNESOTA MEDIA: Mainstream No More? Minnesota's media landscape continues to shift-and not so glacially as generationally. Aging boomers cling to the printed word, some news and talk sources and the 10 o'clock news as younger consumers increasingly get their news and information from their computers and cell phones - when they care to find it at all. The Twin Cities dailies slipped away from reliably family-owned newspapers to never-satisfied Wall-Street controlled profit centers. Meanwhile, alternative outlets, some broadcast, some online are filling the vacuum in local and regional news coverages and blogs have replaced print columnists as opinion-makers. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN toss around past, present and future upheavals in Twin Cities and Minnesota media with four seasoned writers and producers in local and national journalism, themselves having been tossed about by the volatile industry they and their readers relied on for a stable sources of news and information we all need to govern ourselves. Now what? GUESTS: • NICK COLEMAN - StarTribune Sunday Op-Ex columnist and now free-lancing • JUDITH YATES BORGER - retired Pioneer Press reporter, now novelist; author of _Where's Billie?_http://tinyurl.com/WheresBillie • KATE STANLEY - former columnist and editorial writer, StarTribune; now free-lance writer/consultant • JIM LEINFELDER - free-lance television producer; field producer for CNN, ABC, NBC, others

TTT SEPT 30: RalphNader LIVE

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:19:00 +0000

SEPT 30: LIVE: RALPH NADER: His work; his influence; his races; his advocacy; his first work of fiction: Only the Superrich Can Save Us. Ralph Nader was in Minneapolis September 30 to speak and talk about his new, first work of fiction that envisions seventeen of the nation's most prominent and wealthy, if aging, men (and one woman) colluding to return the United States to its original premises and its original promise – absent corporate personhood, and corruption of the fundamental concepts embodies in the Constitution and the social contract. The controversial founder of the US consumer movement and a force in establishing safety standards in the production and sale of everything from automobiles to appliances to toys also stepped into the political arena in 2000 as a candidate for president and the reverberations have never ceased - for good or ill. RALPH NADER was our only studio guest this week. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN query Mr. Nader about his life, his work, his politics-and, yes, his first work of fiction (using real people - like Warren Buffett, Phil Donahue, George Soros, Yoko Ono).

TTT SEPT 23: ProgressivesMovementsPolitics

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

SEPTEMBER 23: MINNESOTA PROGRESSIVES: Movements and Values vs. Political Power? Minnesota's long tradition for spawning progressive politics and movements, often regardless of party, has been so severely eroded over five decades of undermining our sense of community that the systems all of us have relied on as preserving the commons and common good – preparing and nurturing successive generations of leaders, citizens, workers and responsible purveyors of goods and services – the fundamental functions of food production, nutritional intake, education, health care, electoral processes, environmental stewardship, aesthetic enrichment and a reliance on science as critical compass for cultural and physical sustainability – may be coming to an end - certainly to a crawl. The very words, ”commons” and ”common good,” have been challenged as subversive, in service of ”socialist” indoctrination as our public education system and other institutions ignore the state's history and the US's founding principles to market and promote consumerism as economic stability and isolating individualism – not just individual responsibility – as politic, all of it based on the notion that Number One is paramount and the devil take the hindmost when it comes to collective needs and community. What are the core values that drive the current resurrection of the commons, of progressive thought and deed, of public policy that serves the maximum good while inspiring political engagement and community-based problem-solving? What are the tensions between movements for change and the power needed to make them happen? Are those tensions fatal to reviving the values that drive policy for the common good? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN query some thinkers and doers around those values and the commons in which we all reside, as well as put such efforts in historical as well as present political context. Heady stuff for a Wednesday morning. GUESTS: • JULIE RISTAU - Co-Director, On the Commons • DAN McGRATH http://tr.im/z4vp - Executive Director, Take Action Minnesota • PROF. TOM O'CONNELL, Political Science, Metropolitan State University and progressive movements historian • TOM VELLENGA - President, Heartland Democracy - Progressive Values Public Engagement Group

TTT SEPT 16: LongTermCare

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

SEPTEMBER 16: LONG TERM CARE: How's Grandma Really Doing? America's propensity for placing their aging and infirm parents and spouses in long-term care facilities (assisted living, nursing homes, etc.), likely their last stop before the end has led to the creation of excellent facilities - and to little more than warehouses where the aging are dumped. When things go wrong - and too often they do, perhaps unnecessarily hastening the end for an otherwise healthy senior, or making life pretty uncomfortable for resident and patients - who's responsible? Our first response is: the nursing home or assisted living facility. Often true. But what is our role as family members selecting the proper facility venue for mom or dad or grandma and grandpa? Need they be placed at all? Could they be living independently longer? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN explore the current state of long-term care, the good, the bad and the ugly and discuss the roles and responsibilities of the systems, the private and public sector providers and family caregivers to provide the appropriate setting(s) for our elders and family members with disabilities - mental and physical. GUESTS: • US REP. KEITH ELLISON, D-MN 5th District • STACY BECKER - Policy Consultant, Key Investigator on Citizens League's Long-Term Care Finances study; former City of St. Paul Budget Director and Public Works Director. • LaRHAE KNATTERUD - Director, Aging Transformation, Mn Department of Human Services • LEE GRACZYK - Executive Director, Mature Voices; former Acting Executive, MN Senior Federation EXTRA: • DR. BARBARA BLAYLOCK - Denver Primary Care physician traveling with Mad As Hell Doctors bussing their way from Portland, OR, toward Washington, DC, advocating for a single-payer healthcare system. • DR. ELIZABETH FROST - Minneapolis physician; local leader in PNHP (Physicians for a National Healthcare System)

TTT SEPT 9: CHANCE-CedarRiverside

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

SEPT 9: WEST BANK C.H.A.N.C.E.: Helping Cedar-Riverside Thrive Since 2006, and without much fanfare, and using many of the skills and scholarship acquired there, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (HHH) graduate students have been working in concert with activists in the nearby Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Central Minneapolis to improve the community development prospects. It's a sort of town and gown enterprise - with Cedar-Riverside the next-door neighbor to two college campuses (UofM's West Bank and Augsburg College) now known as West Bank CHANCE (Cedar-Humphrey Action for Neighborhood Collaborative Engagement).html and working through the Center for Integrative Leadership. From the CHANCE website: Through collaboration among the UMN West Bank schools, institutions, residents and business owners in the neighborhood WB CHANCE seeks to expand the idea of community and sustainable, just partnerships. On the University side, partners include the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Law School, University Libraries, Office of Public Engagement, and Office of University Relations. On the community side, CHANCE has on-going and developing relationships with the many community non-profits and associations, Augsburg College and Fairview. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN explore the projects and accomplishments of this small band of volunteers, their cohorts residing in Cedar-Riverside and their faculty advisors GUESTS: • MERRIE BENASUTTI - Center for Integrative Leadership (in partnership with Carlson School of Management) and CHANCE Faculty Advisor • ABDIRIZAK MABOUB -Director, Cedar Riverside Neighborhood Revitalization Program • BENJAMIN MARCY - President, West Bank Community Coalition, CHANCE member • MORGAN ZEHNER, MBA - Carlson School Business Fellows Program

TTT SEPT 2: HOME FORECLOSURES II: Homelessness is More Acceptable?

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

HOME FORECLOSURES II: Homelessness is More Acceptable? With the public discussion focused on health care and little else comes news that the foreclosure crisis isn't going away - at least no time soon. A relatively new study of foreclosure rates in Minnesota has been a product of a symposium presented by Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA)http://www.cura.umn.edu/ at the UofM's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Meanwhile the street battle to save Rosemary Williams, Linda Norenberg and others from eviction continues to challenge the powers who would make them all homeless. The question is: what use is it to send struggling homeowners into the streets, vacating properties and blighting neighborhoods while those same owners become essentially wards of the community and shelters if they can find no reasonable alternative housing in their cities. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN ask those question and more as we talk with advocates for poverty-stricken families and homeowners and CURA about community-based solutions to the housing crisis and the impact of foreclosures on our neighborhoods and residents. GUESTS: • ROSEMARY WILLIAMS - homeowner facing eviction from her Minneapolis house. • LINDA NORENBERG - homeowner facing eviction from her Robbinsdale house. • CHERI HONKALA - MN Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign • LYNETTE MALLES - Volunteer advocate - MN Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign • KRIS NELSON - Program Director, Neighborhood Partnerships for Community Research (NPCR), Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) • ED NELSON - Marketing & Communications Director, MN Homeownership Center

TTT AUG 26: TOBACCO ADS AND KIDS: The Pied Pipers of Death

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:00:00 +0000

WEDS, AUG 26-11AM: TOBACCO ADS AND KIDS: The Pied Pipers of Death Despite lawsuits and compacts and consent agreements and judgments, tobacco companies continue their all-too-clever marketing ploys peddling death wrapped in paper, directed at our kids and grandkids - the next generation of smokers and another generation hooked on the most powerful drug in the world - nicotine. Every trick in the book is being used to rope our children into the death-dealing addiction. Hear the kids themselves tell the story of their detective work and how Big Tobacco deftly employs the psychology of subtle association and gimmickry. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with young advertising sleuths, an anti-smoking program organizer, an epidemiologist and local policymaker to get to the core of the deceptive ad practices kids encounter when they walk into a retail store and other venues selling smokes. GUESTS: • KATIE ENGMAN - Tobacco Programs Manager, Association of Nonsmokers' Rights (ANSR) Minnesota • RACHEL WIDOME, PhD - Asst. Professor, UofM Department of Medicine; Principal Investigator on study of Point of Sale tobacco advertising and marketing in Ramsey Co. West St. Paul and South St. Paul • ROBERTA PERRY and SHANICEE DILLON - Student Assessors of point of sale tobacco advertising in their St. Paul neighborhood. • MELVIN CARTER III - St. Paul City Councilmember and sponsor of anti-advertising ordinance that bans imitation tobacco products. Link to Video - Roberta Perry Testimony AND YOU! CALL 612-341-0980 • CAN'T GET US OVER THE AIR? STREAM TTT LIVE and LATER

TTT AUG 19-FoodOrganics

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:00:00 +0000

WHAT'S UP WITH OUR FOOD?: Safety and Nutrition vs. Cheap Vittles America is the most obese nation on earth, consuming tons more fat, sugar and starches than the fresh fruits, vegetables and organic meats necessary to sustain good health and long life. Worse, many of those critical foods are unavailable to a huge percentage of urban and rural dwellers who must either travel miles for access to fresh foods or spend far in excess of their budgets just to balance their diets. Minnesota is among the worst of the nation's states in obesity and unhealthy eating habits, no thanks to the heavy marketing of fast foods and the price differential between unhealthy commodities produced by polluting feedlots and the fresh produce and clean meats from sustainable organic farming practices. How can we change our addictive consumption of unhealthy sugars and fats and produce and consume the nutrition-bearing foods necessary for early childhood development and learning behavior? How can we bring healthy organic food prices in line with cheap commodities and the genetically modified and antibiotic-infused meats and crops now poring off the industrial farms of Minnesota, despite state laws prohibiting corporate farming? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN query organic farmers, sustainable food systems advocates and analysts about the state of nutrition and the impact of producing, processing, marketing and consumption of 21st-Century foods. GUESTS: • ATINA DIFFLEY - Organic Farmer; Founder, Gardens of Eagan • SARAH CLAASSEN - Program Organizer, Community-based Food Systems, Land Stewardship Project • TOM TAYLOR - Rural Food Systems Organizer, Land Stewardship Project; former staff, Organic Consumers Association

TTT AUG 12: YouthMusicEducation

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:00:00 +0000

AUG 12: MUSIC AND THE YOUNG: Inspiring Hope and Education- but what about Funding? Arts and music education programs in the schools are under fire. In spite of evidence that arts and music programming in schools enhances over all academic learning in significant ways, these programs too often take a back seat to such activities as organized sports and to budget cutters on school boards, in the Legislature and Governor's office. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with leaders of four Twin Cities youth music organizations: directors, conductors, and educators about their music, their programs and their recruiting methods for ensemble members - and we'll hear from students and music from the orchestras themselves, playing the excellent work of these young ensembles. Listen to a live flute performance as well. GUESTS: • DIANE SOLLENBERGER - Director, Twin Cities Youth Band (TCYB); Music educator, Capitol Hill Magnet School, St. Paul • FELIX JAMES - Jazz Program Director, Walker-West Music Academy, St. Paul • AMIR KATS - Artistic Director/Conductor, Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies - Minneapolis • MANNY LAUREANO - Co-Artistic Director, Minnesota Youth Symphonies; Principal Trumpet, Minnesota Orchestra • HANNAH PETERSON - Award-winning flutist with Minnesota Youth Symphonies and a 2009 graduate of St. Paul Central High School, heading for the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music as a flute performance and music education major. LINKS: • Twin Cities Youth Band INFORMATIONTwin Cities Youth Band (TCYB): • Minnesota Youth Symphonies (MYS) AUDITIONS • Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS) AUDITIONS • Walker-West Music Academy (WWMA) JAZZ ENSEMBLE AUDITIONS/PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

TTT AUG 5: SECOND CHANCES: Reforming Justice, Repatriating Minnesota's Offenders

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:00:00 +0000

To suggest our so-called system of "corrections" is correcting a damned thing is to stick one's head firmly in the sand over the racist and inhumane disparities not only of incarceration itself - where prisons and institutions - now disproportionately populated by with African-Americans and other women and men of color - quick to become colleges of crime wallowing in the underlying, unspoken presumption that, like Les Miserables, no one imprisoned for any crime can be anything but a crook the rest of their natural life. But others know better - and many organizations and activists are working to restore the rights and privileges of citizenship so often now denied to those returning to society and are thus themselves victimized by a justice system that too often provides little justice to those who have paid for their errors and offenses. But, these are the easy targets of "tough-on-crime" politicians and law enforcers who play on the contempt of citizens to foster permanent punishment for those who have offended society's rules and laws, rarely forgiving and never forgetting - much of it aided and abetted by a sensation-loving media industry. TTT'S ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN meet and talk with those who believe that permanent punishment for those who have paid their debt to society must stop. We talk about Second Chances for formerly incarcerated offenders in job, housing, voting rights and other privileges society offers us all. We speak with Second Chance advocates and a former felon, now an attorney and member of "*Save Our Sons*":. GUESTS: • State Senator MEE MOUA, Chair, Senate Judiciary Committee • SARAH WALKER - Chief Operating Officer, 180 Degrees, Inc. and co-founder, Second Chance Coalition; Co-Chair, Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Alternative to Incarceration-Disproportionate Minority Contact • LORI STEE - Director of Student Learning, Rebuild Resources and Member, Second Chance Coalition • DAVID MARTIN, Attorney; Former felon; Board member, Save Our Sons • "SINA BLACK": - Community Engagement Associate, Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington Counties and Member, Take Action Second Chance Organizing Committee

TTT JULY 29: HENNEPIN COUNTY's GARBAGE BURNER: Should It Up Its Emissions 21%?

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000

The Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), (Hennepin garbage burner) wants to bump its garbage-burning by 21%. The facility's MPCA permit expired in 2003, but it's been allowed to function without review or renewing since then. That permit allowed Covanta - the private operating firm - to send 2.2 million pounds of pollutants per year into the city's air. According to all documents, among the deadly compounds contaminating our breathing apparatus are 2,200 pounds of lead - the same lead we've been stripping off home and school walls for its effect on brain development in children, among other ills. Another? Mercury - already acknowledged as a fish killer and cancer creator in humans: 360 pounds per year. After the city's planning commission denied Covanta's and the Hennepin County's request for a conditional use permit (CUP) to increase that output by 21% - or 212 tons of garbage PER DAY more than the 1,000 tons currently permitted, they appealed to the Minneapolis City Council's Zoning Committee before consideration by the full Council. HERC's last-minute decision to postpone the Zoning Committee hearing for state review will delay the appeal for months. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL queries environmental advocates and citizens absent full participation by HERC officials. GUESTS: • State Rep. FRANK HORNSTEIN, (DFL-60B) - Minneapolis • JUSTIN EIBENHOLZL - Environmental Program Coordinator for SECIA (Southeast Como Improvement Assn.) • DARRELL GERBER - Clean Water Action Program Coordinator • NANCY HONE of Neighbors Against the Burner and Minneapolis Neighbors for Clean Air • UNAVAILABLE: JOHN SIGMOND - Business Manager for Covanta Hennepin Energy Resource Co, LLP (or a representative of Covanta or Hennepin County)

JULY 22: Feedlots and Pollution

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000

WEDS, JULY 22: RURAL FEEDLOTS: AIR- AND WATER-BORNE DISEASES PLAGUING GREATER MINNESOTA The long crusade to halt air and water contamination from a dairy feedlot's open lagoons of fetid manure releasing upwards of 300 dangerous chemicals into communities surrounding Thief River Falls has thrown a glaring light on the unwillingness and inability of citizens, state agencies and the Attorney General to regulate the serious health impacts of Minnesota's corporate farms on rural life. Massive hog and dairy feedlots enjoy far greater legislative and judicial support than do the official rulings of the State Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control that such operations pose a provable health hazard to humans after in-home air quality monitoring. These are not the friendly family farms we all grew up believing were integral to our Upper Midwest culture and sensibility, not to mention our economy. These corporate farms are the outgrowth of decades of erosion in the agricultural foundations we viewed as America's breadbasket, gobbling up land and cramming animals into immobility, never nurtured and literally milked of whatever market value their bodies can produce with little investment in their well-being and ignoring the effects of their toxic wastes on their surrounding communities. A prime example of this agribusiness phenomenon sweeping the state is the case of Thief River Falls-based Excel Dairy and its three open lagoons of animals wastes feeding toxic chemicals into air and water, sickening, sometimes to death, the humans living in the communities surrounding its operations, but which has - in court - escaped the consequences of its flagrant violations of law and regulations governing such enterprises. Even the often-compliant MPCA joined with Attorney General Lori Swanson asked a local district court judge to declare the lagoons a health hazard and nuisance and to cease Excel's waste emissions. He dismissed the suit out of hand. Despite thumbing its nose at regulation, Excel was given a new permit. Minnesota's watchdog Clean Water Action has taken this issue head-on, joined by activist neighbors who have felt the toxic sting within their families. This week, TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and a guest co-host examine the Excel Dairy case in light of the larger issues plaguing many rural communities - and, by extension, all of Minnesota and the core cities downriver from many similar operations, seriously threatening our air and water quality, therefore the health of humans everywhere. GUESTS: • JULIE JANSEN - Rural Communities Program Organizer, Clean Water Action; • JEFF BROUSE, Thief River Falls resident, small businessman, and anti-feedlot activist; • HOWARD PERSON - Pennington County Extension Educator/County Feedlot Officer

TTT July 15: MINNEAPOLIS CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT: Can It Survive the Budget Ax? Mayor RT Rybak's revised 2009 budget recommends severing from the city's Civil Rights Department the key division that processes complaints and investigates discrimination cases occurring within the city and transferring its functions to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. (St. Paul's Human Rights Department does the same in that city.) The budget proposal eliminates five full time attorney-investigators, two contract attorney-investigators and an attorney-supervisor. Rare is the human and civil rights agency not plagued by complaint backlogs. Minneapolis is no exception. It takes upwards of two years to resolve complaints. Is this a wise move, even under Governor Pawlenty's unallotments - slicing LGAs (local government aid)? Does this cut and transfer represent a political "gotcha" in the longstanding feud between Pawlenty and the City of Minneapolis? If backlogs double and discrimination balloons for lack of timely complaint determination and resolution, who wins? Who loses? State Human Rights Department commissioner Velma Korbel, insists that the state department has no backlog. She also states flatly that not only would the department handle any increased caseload resulting from a transfer of Minneapolis' Complaint Investigation Unit, but Governor Pawlenty has personally assured her that whatever resources are required to maintain the legal case turnaround time of 312 days. This, despite a documented 24% cut in the MDHR budget, which Korbel denies is anymore than 5%. An appointed Task Force (pushed by CM Elizabeth Glidden) formed to present alternatives to elimination of the MDCR Complaint Investigation Unit or find $300,000 to retain it, has just completed its study, findings and recommendations. The report will go before the Minneapolis City Council's Health, Energy and Environment Committee Monday, July 20th. Join the conversation as we dissect the task force report and test its chances for influencing the budget decision. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and Guest cohost NANCY SARTOR query Minneapolis officials and a few advocates from the communities most affected by these decisions and put some of these issues in historical context. GUESTS: • ELIZABETH GLIDDEN, Minneapolis Ward 8 City Councilmember • DR. JOSIE R. JOHNSON - co-founder, Minneapolis Civil Rights Department; former University Regent and honoree of the Josie Robinson Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award • KENNETH BROWN - Chair, Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission • LOUISA HEXT - Member, Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission • VELMA KORBEL - Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Human Rights • NOT APPEARING: MAYOR RT RYBAK (or his representative) • CAN'T GET US OVER THE AIR? STREAM TTT LIVE and LATER

JULY 8: CitizensJury-ElectoralReform

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000

THE CITIZENS JURY and ELECTION REFORM The Jury is IN.The Citizens Jury, that is, on Election Recounts. After the longest recount in Minnesota history ultimately giving Senator Al Franken a 312-vote victory margin over Norm Coleman, near universal kudos for the integrity of the recount process and the judiciary that decided the challenge nevertheless left open the question of how and who conducts Minnesota elections, counts its ballots, especially absentee ballots, triggers recounts and the tedious work that was left to county and state elections officials, let alone the State Canvassing Board and subsequent court trials and appeals. The Citizens Jury part of the Minneapolis-based Jefferson Center for New Democratic Processes is touted as "an opportunity for a microcosm of Minnesota's voters to examine and evaluate the recent recount in Minnesota, along with other recounts, and report on their findings. Not only will the Citizens Jury's views be made available to the general public, but the final meeting of the project is scheduled so that the Citizens Jury will be able to report its findings to a national meeting of Secretaries of State held in Minnesota July 17 and 18, 2009. Most of its findings will be available for discussion on July 8th, along with a larger discussion of election reform initiatives passed with broad support by the DFL-dominated Legislature last session, but vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and guest co-host TTT Capitol Correspondent MARTIN OWINGS talk with election advocates and Citizens Jury chairs about the latter's recount report and last session's reform initiatives and why we ended up with nothing. GUESTS: JOHN HOTTINGER, former MN State Senate Majority Leader, co-chair, Citizens Jury REP. LAURA BROD, R-New Prague, Lead Republican on MN House election issues MIKE DEAN Executive Director, Common Cause Minnesota

JULY 1: CopCulture#3

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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 host NANCY 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

JUNE 24: CopCulture#2

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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

JUNE 17: ENCORE-Howard ZINNVoices

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:00:00 +0000

JUNE 17: REPEAT - HOWARD ZINN and "Voices of A People's History"

JUNE 10 CopCulture#1

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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

JUNE 3: Freedom of Information

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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

MAY 27: LaborTeamstersHistory

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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

MAY 20: COMMUNITY GARDENS: Cultivating Health and Confidence

Wed, 20 May 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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

TTT May 13: SubterraneanTwinCities

Wed, 13 May 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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 MAY 6: CENTRAL CORRIDOR UPDATE [Simulcast truncated]

Wed, 06 May 2009 11:00:00 +0000

[PLEASE NOTE: This is a truncated program simulcast on television 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-PositiveAging: Living It Up to the End

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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.