BY ED FELIEN To socialize: “to make someone behave in a way that is acceptable to their society.” Carol Becker was a member of the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation from 2006 until Dec. 31, 2021. She is a respected conservative voice in Minneapolis politics. She wrote a very…
BY ED FELIEN The music just carries you away. “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You,” “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “Oh, What a Night,” “Working My Way Back to You, Babe,” “Dawn, Go Away I’m No Good for You” – those…
BY ED FELIEN Kieran Knutson held onto the door to the meeting with Medea Benjamin, threatening to disrupt the meeting. Members of Vets for Peace stood behind the door blocking his entrance. Dave Bicking asked him to leave. At least six officers and an MPD sergeant showed up. Eventually, Knutson…
On a day sometime between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, long ago, at a time when peasants worked every day all the time, before the five-day, 40-hour workweek, peasants and workers decided there must be one day just for them. For one day they would lay down their tools. They…
BY ED FELIEN Attention dear friends in the Minneapolis legal community: I hope you have the opportunity to read the following brief asking for injunctive relief from the District Court to compel the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and CenterPoint Energy to remove barriers that are artificially raising the level…
BY ED FELIEN The name Ukraine probably comes from the Slavic language, meaning borderland. Greek and Roman historians write about Slavic peoples growing wheat and riding horses across the wide steppe or prairie. The Eurasian Steppe reached from Ukraine to northern China. It was a wide highway and open invitation for the…
BY ED FELIEN On March 7, the city of Minneapolis released an 86-page study of the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd. The study says what most government studies say: we need more studies and we need more bureaucracy. It’s called, “Protecting What Matters,” and it seems that what…
BY ED FELIEN DFL ward conventions are coming up at the end of April and the last half of May. The Ward 2 convention will be on April 30. It will be a virtual convention. According to the Minneapolis DFL, “no known candidate is seeking the DFL endorsement.” Robin Wonsley is seeking re-election. She…
By Ed Felien The Mayor, the Police Commissioner, the Chief have to realize they will never regain the trust and respect of the community until they hold police officers accountable for crimes against our community. In the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Terrance Franklin, Mike Padden proved…
BY ED FELIEN I think Tony Bouza is correct to begin his analysis of the Terrance Franklin homicide with an account of Franklin’s encounter with police Sgt. Katherine Smulski. Smulski heard a burglary suspect had returned to the Greenleaf apartment building on Lyndale Avenue South. The apartment’s security camera footage shows…
BY ED FELIEN Do you want your City Council member to listen to you? The best way to get your council member’s attention is to be a DFL delegate. They need your vote for their endorsement. Anyone can be a DFL delegate, just sign up. You can apply to be a ward…
Journal entry on CaringBridge by Connie John (Polly’s daughter)— Jan. 19, 2023 It is just over a week ago that I woke up about 4 a.m. and heard Mom wheezing. I got up to see how she was doing. Mostly after the stroke when she could not be trusted to…
BY ED FELIEN Tulsi Gabbard Did you see Tulsi Gabbard’s takedown of George Santos, the pathological liar and newly elected congressman from Long Island, on Fox News? Tulsi is a lot more complicated and harder to figure out than most of the noise on Fox. Her anti-war votes and speeches against the…
BY ED FELIEN What does the FL in the DFL stand for? It stands for Farmer-Labor. In 1944 the Farmer-Labor Party and the Democratic Party merged. The Democratic Party was small potatoes in the 1930s and ‘40s. It polled in the single digits in statewide elections. The Farmer-Labor Party enjoyed…
BY ED FELIEN As of November, 33,476 Ukrainian civilians have been killed by Russian bombs and missiles. And the unspeakable slaughter of innocents continued through Christmas Day and New Year’s. In contrast, the bombing of Guernica in 1937 by the German Luftwaffe that inspired Picasso’s painting killed only 1,654 people.…
Columns by Ed Felien