March 2022: In the News
The womenspress.com website won first place in its division in the Minnesota Newspaper Awards for its 2021 coverage. Creative director Sarah Whiting won third place for her portrait photography. This is the second year in a row the magazine’s website and photography have been recognized in the annual ceremony.
Publisher and editor Mikki Morrissette also was featured on Ellie Krug’s radio show (a regular columnist for the website) about the new Changemakers Alliance spinoff. Listen here:
KaYing Yang Joins Biden’s Advisory Commission
“The state of Minnesota is a very important state for Asian American representation,” KaYing Yang told Sahan Journal after being tapped to serve on the national Advisory Commission on Asian Americans she helped launch in the 1990s.
Yang, formerly the Director of Programs & Partnerships for the Coalition of Asian American Leaders, was featured in two Minnesota Women’s Press stories in 2021: “Reducing the Risk of Deportation” (March) and “Building a Better Twin Cities” (June).
Details: tinyurl.com/KaYingYangCommission
SCOTUS Greenlights Gerrymandering in Alabama
An op-ed in the Boston Globe titled “Supreme Court shows its true colors by greenlighting Alabama’s racial gerrymandering” parses how the high court could side (5–4) with Alabama’s secretary of state in Merrill v. Milligan.
“Kavanaugh’s even more bizarre claim of election proximity supposedly justified keeping Alabama’s distorted congressional election map in place. It was a map that packed so many Black voters into one congressional district that it looks like a Rorschach test for racists.”
Details: tinyurl.com/MerrillvMilligan
Contaminated Drinking Water in Bemidji
Bemidji’s mayor Rita Albrecht published a piece in the Minnesota Reformer cautioning “every city and township in Minnesota” to understand the implications of living with PFAS — commonly known as “forever chemicals.” High levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were found in Bemidji’s drinking water, which puts residents at increased risk of some cancers, thyroid disease, and infertility. Albrecht urged the state legislature to fund PFAS research, among other preventative measures. In February, the city of Woodbury was also forced to shut down municipal wells because of PFAS contamination.
Details: tinyurl.com/BemidjiPFAS
