We torture, and we don’t seem to care- CIA whistle blower and APA reformer talk about consequences of torture 

BY TOM DICKINSON On Nov. 12 the illegality of torture and the grotesque ways it has misshapen our country were highlighted in two presentations given by CIA whistle blower John Kiriakou and American Psychological Association (APA) reformer Bradley Olson at Hamline University and the University of Minnesota.  These talks gave a…

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Congratulations Margo!

Congratulations Margo (age 4), you’ve won a $50 gift certificate for Pepito’s Restaurant to take your family to dinner. We were excited to receive 38 outstanding entries, and only wish we could have had 38 winners. The judging was done by peers, children of some of our staff members. They…

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Graduate School, 1961 to 1966

BY ED FELIEN I graduated with my B.A. in June of 1960. That was it. I’d done everything I was supposed to do. I’d been a good Catholic boy, until I couldn’t handle the emotional, psychological and philosophical contradictions, and I just quit. I grew tired of the Jesuit reasoning that conjured…

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FROM WHERE I STAND

BY POLLY MANN Minnesota without poverty Nancy Maeker is an activist who really is active in proclaiming her message. She’s the former director of an organization called “Minnesota Without Poverty” and I became one of her followers after hearing her speak at a meeting of “Every Church A Peace Church.”…

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Do you stand with Bernie?

The following questionnaire will be sent to all candidates seeking election to the State Legislature in South Minneapolis (by the South Minneapolis Organizing Committee for Bernie Sanders: Ed Felien, Sid Pranke, Debra Keefer Ramage, Dave Tilsen, Jason Galles): If elected to the State Legislature, would you introduce and support legislation…

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Marijuana in Mexico

BY JOHNNY HAZARD An injunction upheld recently by the Mexican supreme court recognizes the right of the four litigants to cultivate, consume and possess marijuana and appears to pave the way toward further liberalization of drug laws. The decision is confusing and has been misinterpreted by some as a general…

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An inspector runs wild in Seward

BY ED FELIEN About 60 people showed up at a meeting Tuesday night, Nov. 10, at Matthews Park to discuss complaints against Minneapolis Housing Inspector Joe Jarvis.  Residents and landlords say Jarvis has been over-zealous in applying city codes. Susan Armitage wrote on the Seward Neighborhood Forum, “He is citing…

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Geography lessons and gentrification

BY ED FELIEN Last month Council Member Alondra Cano organized a meeting in her ward (9th Ward) to discuss gentrification.  More than a hundred people showed up to listen to experts talk about how gentrification of neighborhoods prices poor and working people out of their homes. Most people when they think…

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Raqqa and the slippery slide to war

BY ED FELIEN Is it Mission Creep? Does the sending of 50 commandoes into Syria to take back Raqqa constitute an act of war?  Is it unconstitutional?  Isn’t it only Congress that can declare war on another country? Doesn’t the sending of ground troops into Syria break Obama’s pledge to…

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A challenge to the legend of Lee Harvey Oswald

Along with the usual SSP informational and inspirational coverage, including your political rants, I was surprised by a Bay of Pigs story— not by its placement in a community paper but by your repeating the famous but fatuous Lee Harvey Oswald legend. It matters because the deep state that carried…

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