BY ELAINE KLAASSEN If you go to 38th and Chicago, the corner where George Perry Floyd Jr. was killed by a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck, you will see that the people have claimed the intersection as a free state, an autonomous zone of nonviolence and anti-racism. They…
BY DAVID TILSEN This year, Minneapolis will have elections for city offices. This means the mayor, all the City Council members, Park Board and Board of Estimate and Taxation. With the multiple crises that the city has gone through and is still going through, I expect the debate and discussion…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE A big subject in local educational news has been the struggle between teachers’ unions and school districts over when and how it is safe to return to in-person classes. As we explained in the October 2020 Education Section, it’s a complex issue. For some teachers, in-person…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The state of the COVID-19 pandemic is still pretty uncertain for summer 2021. Therefore, not surprisingly, there are more virtual options than ever before available. But there are still some in-person day camps and even residential traditional camps. There is actually a huge variety of choices,…
BY ED FELIEN I feel like Oscar in Sesame Street: “I like trash.” What’s there to do during the pandemic and forced incarceration but watch trashy action flicks on Netflix? And, after you’ve watched all the James Bond movies and “Ocean’s Eleven,” you’re left with the dregs at the bottom…
BY DAVID TILSEN This year the entire Minneapolis city government is on the ballot—the mayor, all 13 council members, the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Park Board. All of these elected officials have been through a lot as the city has been traumatized by the pandemic, the George…
BY TONY BOUZA Our—or any—society is driven by values. We repeatedly extoll the virtues of truth tellers and honest dealers. Our airways are clogged with boasts of integrity. Our morality defines us and we emphasize these beliefs in the artifacts of culture. There are not too many statues left of…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE “By most estimates, we’ve been living in close proximity to companion animals for tens of thousands of years. Cats, dogs and other companion animals share our homes, and often our broader environments, and … are part of our families.” This is the introduction to a wonderful…
BY ED FELIEN A concerned reader wrote, “Please urge more equitable distribution. Please cover this issue right away. White arms are being injected at a much higher rate than their percent of population.” Native Americans are 1.8 times more likely to get COVID-19 than white people. They are four times…
Julian Assange, a journalist in danger Remember him? He’s the Australian founder of the website “WikiLeaks” who ended up in a London jail on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse. He could spend the rest of his life in the U.S. prison in Florence, Colo. He was…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The Ward 2 Housing Forum presented by City Council Member Cameron Gordon on Feb. 21 was attended by over 70 people. A lot of the attendees were landlords, mostly small scale. The Zoom meeting was hosted by Gordon’s policy aide, Robin Garwood. Co-presenters for the forum…
BY ED FELIEN Lisa Bender changed the world. There probably has never been anyone in Minneapolis politics (with the possible exception of Hubert Humphrey) who has had such a profound impact on the city, the state and the country. She had a vision for the City of Minneapolis that she…
BY TONY BOUZA One of my closest friends, Joe Selvaggio, (who is probably well known to you) has done more for poor people than anyone but Mary Jo Copeland. Joe is an ex-priest and has strayed. Today he wrestles with death and asked me to include this and respond: “The…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE 2020 is gone but the Weirds are definitely lingering on. As February rolls in and we congratulate ourselves on surviving the first full month of what could be another very stressful year, we acknowledge two things—one, we’re just past the one-year anniversary of the first publicized…
COVID vaccinations Israel leads the world in per capita COVID vaccinations, with more than a million and a half Israelis having been vaccinated. Authorities estimate officials can administer the vaccine to some two million Israelis before the end of March, if not earlier, and hope to have the bulk of…
