BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Two weeks ago, we covered the part of Franklin Avenue west of Cedar Avenue. They were having some hard times but meeting the challenges with the resilience borne of centuries of standing against settler colonialism. Some of the denizens of this issue’s focus, the part from…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN I support the City Council in its intention to defund the police. I’m assuming, though, this doesn’t mean there will be no public safety mechanism in place in the future. I’m hoping this means starting over from scratch, as I understand they did in Camden, N.J., redefining…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Longfellow/Seward Healthy Seniors (LSHS) is a nonprofit that helps seniors live their most healthy and independent lives, following the “Living at Home / Block Nurse” model. It is one of three such programs in Minneapolis, the other two being Nokomis Healthy Seniors and Southeast Seniors. LSHS…
BY DAVE TILSEN Friday morning, June 12. I made coffee and looked out on Powderhorn Park, but the view was not as I expected. There were about a dozen tents pitched in the park across the street from my house. I surmised what had happened. A group of homeless people…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE On May 30, the fifth night of all-night protests and associated property damage responding to the racist murder by police of George Floyd, attention turned to the 5th Precinct police station at Nicollet Avenue South and 31st Street. The 3rd Precinct station had been abandoned by…
BY ED FELIEN Last month we introduced a new feature on our website—exclusive interviews with Stephen McClellan and musicians from local rock bands: Yellin’ at McClellan. This month he hosts his old friends, The Lanes: – https://youtu.be/KkNgAi0-s04 Steve: “Mike and Kiki Lane form the core of a band called The…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I have flown to star-stained heights, on bent and battered wings In search of mythical kings, mythical kings Sure that everything of worth is in the sky and not the earth And I never learned to make my way down … where the iguanas play —Dory…
Michelle Obama’s School Nutrition Standards Upheld It’s a rather fantastic idea, but then there is much fantasy about what the government does. It seems our President has rolled back legislation having to do with school nutrition. A federal court has struck down a 2018 Department of Agriculture rule that reversed…
BY ED FELIEN The cops in Minneapolis have got to be brought under control. They must be held to the same standards of behavior as the rest of us. Our civil rights in Minneapolis are protected by the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission. If some person, some business, or some institution…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Native American populations, whether in urban areas, or rural communities, or on rural reservations, are hit disproportionately harder by COVID-19 than their white neighbors. In Minneapolis, Native Americans experience homelessness at a much greater rate than their population percentage. And they also have a long and…
BY TONY BOUZA America’s police are out of control. This is news to you? White America hires cops to control blacks. This is called racism. The Minneapolis cop did not murder Floyd. It was manslaughter. The prosecutor mangled it, but did he have the police union’s endorsement? Why didn’t he…
BY DAVE TILSEN After losing the DFL endorsement by a wide margin, Sen. Jeff Hayden filed a complaint with the DFL state central committee that the endorsement was tainted and should be invalidated. He argued that the leadership of the DFL in the district, the leadership of the credentials committee,…
BY ED FELIEN Last month we introduced a new feature on our website—exclusive interviews with Stephen McClellan and musicians from local rock bands—Yellin’ at McClellan. He was going to have a new program this month featuring The Lanes, but “the George Floyd killing has definitely shifted the nation’s priorities and…
BY STEPHANIE FOX The original plans were for a huge ceremony and celebration to mark the literal groundbreaking at the Friendship Academy of the Arts site in March. But the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 virus made large gatherings and public celebrations impossible. Instead, the groundbreaking ceremony on April 17…
June 1 The young people that are fueling these these, the reporters call them protests, and although the intent is about change that label doesn’t seem right to me. Gathering is too generic. They are so earnest, almost spiritual at times, but not doctrinaire but peaceful. 20,000 people almost silent…
