BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The decline and fall The big debate in local media is, “Is Uptown dead and if so, whose fault is it, and why are they not getting as much help as downtown?” OK, technically that’s three debates. But only if the answer to the first one…
BY CLINT COMBS Rep. Ilhan Omar feels nostalgic about her time as a state representative. Congress is passing continued resolutions just to avoid a government shutdown. These continued resolutions, long-form for C.R.s, are not even adjusted for inflation. “We’ve seen an extreme challenge in passing our funding bills. It’s been…
BY CLINT COMBS On March 16 in Bloomington, activists in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza called for a permanent cease-fire, for schools and universities to divest from Israeli defense, and for a permanent closure of the defense manufacturer General…
BY DIANE J. PETERSON AND JOHN KOLSTAD April 15 is our all-American date for financial accountability on our taxable income. Therefore, this is an appropriate time to consider the Minnesota corporations that are evading similar accountability. The IRS requires documented proof of our personal income and expenses. Currently the state…
BY JACKSON O’BRIEN This March, the citizens of Minneapolis were hit with a one-two punch of bad news. First, the city announced that, for the first time in a decade, property values have fallen. The majority of this fall came from declining values in downtown office buildings, as it’s become…
Robert Millard Baum Robert Millard Baum passed peacefully on the day of his birth, March 6, 2024 at Good Samaritan Society in Maplewood, Minnnesota. He is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years Heather, daughters Jennifer Kenna (Ron) and Jessica Baum, two grandchildren Nicholas and Bianca Kenna. Sisters Nancy…
BY KAY SCHROVEN In “Babble Lab,” the Children Theatre Company’s new play running now through April 14, letters become characters and take over the Babble Lab! The Scientist whose experiment goes wrong, played by writer and actress Autumn Ness, can’t control them. They bounce, pop, fly, crawl, spring and leap.…
BY STEPHANIE FOX Most people in Minneapolis know that those blue trash bins, the ones next to the gray garbage cans, are the place to toss recyclables. The trucks come by every two weeks, some with side-loading mechanical arms and others with two-member teams with a driver and a worker…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Openings, closings, and crosstown moves Keefer Court has been reborn in the Asia Mall in Eden Prairie. It has different owners from the original, long-lived, tiny, mostly to-go spot on Cedar Avenue that was named for the building it was in, Keefer Court. But the new…
BY PERRY THORVIG Over the last 20 years, Southsiders have seen the massive rebuilding of the Hiawatha corridor. New apartment buildings have been appropriately located along the light rail corridor. Mixed use in the form of a major brand grocery store has also been included in the rebuild of one…
BY ED FELIEN Hodan Hassan was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2018, and she’s been re-elected ever since. She and Rep. Aisha Gomez have introduced a bill in this session of the Legislature to spend $10 million on construction of the Neighborhood Development Center on Lake…
BY CAM GORDON The new term of the Minneapolis City Council is off to an ambitious start. They have hit the ground running with a new meeting space, new leadership, and a long list of new legislation that a few months ago would have looked impossible to get passed. They…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE From the ridiculous (Moms for Liberty) to the sublime (Notorious D.O.T.) The school board beat is not usually this tabloid-worthy, but have you all been following the (ahem) “career” of Bridget Ziegler of Sarasota, Florida? This fine, upstanding lady is married to Christian Ziegler, who was…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Too many pioneers! The history of summer camps goes back further than you would think. Maybe that’s why I came across many camps for “pioneers” while researching the topic. Created by Canadian Anglicans, the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, Jewish Community Centers, Mormons, Lutherans, Southern Baptists,…
BY ED FELIEN In her Dec. 9 article in The New Yorker, “In the Shadow of the Holocaust,” Masha Gessen makes the case that Gaza is like the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Israelis are acting like Nazis: “For the last seventeen years, Gaza has been a hyperdensely populated, impoverished, walled-in…
