About the Twin Cities Daily Planet
The Twin Cities Daily Planet, a project of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, is a community newswire and syndication service showcasing the best work of the neighborhood and community press, as well as work by independent journalists and the voices of engaged citizens.
The Twin Cities Daily Planet is conceived as an experiment in participatory journalism, built on a partnership between professional journalists and individual citizens. Collectively, the residents of the Twin Cities have far more expertise and insight than can be found in any one newsroom. The premise of the TC Daily Planet is that new technologies are making it possible for these citizens to become more active and powerful participants in the news production process. One goal of the Daily Planet is to harness that community intelligence and enable individuals to share information and work together for the common good.
The Twin Cities Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization that brings together media professionals and engaged citizens to improve the quality, accountability and diversity of the local media. Funding for the Twin Cities Media Alliance is provided by the McKnight Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, Headwaters Foundation for Justice, Otto Bremer Foundation, Still Ain’t Satisfied Foundation, J-Lab – the Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland, the McCormick Tribune Foundation, the Digital Inclusion Fund, the St. Paul Foundation and by generous individuals who become members of the Daily Planet.
RESOURCES FOR CITIZENS AND JOURNALISTS
Resources for Citizen Journalists
Resources for Neighborhood Organizations
Classes and Training for Citizen Journalists
TWIN CITIES DAILY PLANET STAFF
Editor
Mary Turck
Assistant Editor/Arts Editor
Jay Gabler
Neighborhoods Editor/St. Paul Community Outreach
Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva
Photo Editor
Bonnie Wilson
Interns
Cass Sanford
James Sanna
TWIN CITIES MEDIA ALLIANCE STAFF
Executive Director
Jeremy Iggers
Operations Manager
Emily Pearson Ryan
WRITERS
The TC Daily Planet is proud to publish articles from our media partners as well as original writing by freelance citizen journalists. Dozens of writers have contributed original reporting to the TC Daily Planet; listed below are some of our regular contributors. (For bloggers, see our blogs page.)
Rich Broderick
Jim Brunzell III
Cyn Collins
Colette Davidson
Rachel Dykoski
Jason Ericson
Jeanette Fordyce
Dan Gordon
Joel Grostephan
Dan Haugen
Dwight Hobbes
Jennifer Holder
Lydia Howell
Issa A. Mansaray
Douglas McGill
Rebecca Mitchell
Betsy Mowry
Andrea Myers
Anne Nicolai
Michael Opperman
Nekessa Opoti
Teresa Ortiz
Brian Peterson
Deb Pleasants
Katrina Plotz
Christopher Pommier
Anna Pratt
Mason Riddle
Liz Riggs
Scott Russell
Justin Schell
David Seitz
Melissa Slachetka
Stephen Sporer
Kathlyn Stone
Mary Thoemke
Mark Weaver
Cyrus Wolff
The night I got arrested
The police shouted again, unintelligibly, from the megaphone. Something about we had to leave or we would be arrested….
I wasn’t particularly interested in getting arrested. I started to walk toward the side…
“You are all under arrest,” said the megaphone, more clearly this time. “Sit down with your hands on your head.”
“Really?” I said. “Aw, man. This sucks MORE »
Press freedom at issue after RNC
On the morning after arrests of more than a dozen journalists, journalists and advocates for freedom of the press delivered a strong rebuke and call for action to city officials in St. Paul. Twin Cities Media Alliance organizer Nancy Doyle delivered a letter with more than 50,000 signatures to St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, MinneapolisSt. Paul City Attorney John Choi, and HennepinRamsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner’s offices. Doyle was accompanied by about a dozen local journalists (including Twin Cities Daily Planet editor Mary Turck) and Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kaddous, whose arrests focused national attention on police actions in St. Paul during the RNC. MORE »
Mississippi Watershed group retools grants program, hopes to reach diverse communities
A Twin Cities watershed organization has a quarter million dollars of grant money to divvy up over the next few months, and they’re hoping groups that have traditionally not applied for funding will show up for an information meeting on Monday, September 8.
“Look at the demographics of our watershed,” explains Jenny Winkelman, Education & Outreach Coordinator for the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO), which covers portions of the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Lauderdale, and St. Anthony. “We have a huge audience we’re trying to reach, many of them fairly recent immigrant communities, such as the Hmong and Somali communities. Most traditional watershed materials are produced for a literate, English-speaking audience and may miss important populations.” MORE »
McCollum promises to look into police response to RNC protests
Rep. Betty McCollum (DFL-St. Paul) and two of her staff members met for more than 90 minutes this morning with representatives of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and others speaking on behalf of protestors detained and arrested during this week’s Republican National Convention. MORE »
Over 300 arrested at RNC protests, including reporters from the Daily Planet and the Uptake
More than 300 people were arrested Thursday, according to a booking officer in St. Paul. The arrests came after security forces closed bridges over Interstate 94 to prevent protesters who had assembled at the Capitol at 4 p.m. from marching to the Xcel at 5 p.m. MORE »
Concert-goers clash with police
Approximately 200 concert-goers from last night’s Rage Against the Machine concert at the Target Center organized themselves into a march down 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis, in defiance of Minneapolis Police. The march ended at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street when riot and bicycle police corralled around 50 marchers onto the curb and made arrests. Minnesota Public Radio reported that 102 total arrests were made in Minneapolis last night, at multiple locations. MORE »
