Extending the sun

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church is the first community of faith in Minnesota to host a solar garden (a solar array) that feeds directly into the Xcel Energy electric grid. Bethel’s pastor, Brenda Froisland, says about the project, “When we say we nourish God’s creation, we really mean…

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Speak up! I can’t hear you.

BY ED FELIEN This Fourth of July at Powderhorn everyone will have an opportunity to speak up and be heard. Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association and Southside Pride are co-sponsoring a speaker’s platform on the Tea House on the Lake. Before the age of Twitter and email, before radio and television,…

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Patriotism and other mistakes

BY TONY BOUZA I am not an economist, but, then, I don’t think anyone else is either. Just a lot of blindfolded gals pinning the tail on a donkey. But I am, though, an economic animal. Fiercely. I found the cruel competitiveness of capitalism very attractive to my nature. Maybe…

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Raina’s Wellness ” The new food fight”

BY RAINA GOLDSTEIN BUNNAG School meals have been a hot issue since the introduction of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. This bill was designed to improve the healthfulness of food served at schools throughout the country. Meeting the nutritional needs of all children and reducing rates of…

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Songs of Hope sharpens cultural perceptions

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN In mid-June, 48 children from 11 countries are landing in the Twin Cities for Songs of Hope, a unique, long-standing summer education program. For the first three weeks of their six-week stay, they will plunge into a grueling rehearsal schedule. The rest of the time, they will…

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The hapless versus the horrific

BY ED FELIEN The state conventions are over. The parties have picked their candidates. The battle has begun, though we haven’t heard much sound and fury yet. The DFL, predictably, picked Mark Dayton as their candidate for governor and Al Franken as their candidate for senator. The incumbents were nominated…

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Organics Recycling Program-Update

BY THE HALE-PAGE-DIAMOND LAKE COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION The Pearl Park Drop-Site Organics Recycling Program has been up and running for almost a month and it is going great! We have had amazing participation and interest. Thank you to all of you who have participated; and to those that have been volunteering…

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Reopening Nicollet Avenue at Lake Street

BY ED FELIEN Soon the City of Minneapolis will be taking concrete steps to reopen Nicollet Avenue at Lake Street, through the site where Kmart and Jerry’s Foods currently stand. The street got closed 40 years ago when the city was desperate to get a tenant at its Lake and…

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Racism, redlining and reparations

BY ED FELIEN The wheels of justice grind slowly but exceedingly fine. Sometimes it takes an earthquake to shake up City Hall. In this case it was Myron Orfield’s report on housing discrimination in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, which documented that the area lost $20.5 billion as a result…

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Sports mascots and racist stereotyping

On May 13, 2014, at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 13th Session, The National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media, the American Indian Movement Interpretive Center, the American Indian Movement and its Affiliates called for a resolution or a study that addresses racist and derogatory, demeaning…

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