Regular Columnists
Ed Felien • Elaine Klaassen • Polly Mann • Tony Bouza • David Tilsen • Debra Keefer Ramage • Stephanie Fox • Johnny Hazard
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The ongoing fight against fracking, pipelines and all extractive industries We lost the battle if not the war on Line 3. It’s done, it’s dusted and it’s leaking into groundwater even as you read this. (See tinyurl.com/55mjebse for reporting on the 153 cases of pollution control…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Spring 2023 dawns on a reinvigorated Chicago Avenue at 48th Street and the southward stretch. There are a couple of new incoming businesses, there are some longtime stalwarts thriving once again, there is a lively sidewalk culture, and there’s even a new transit option from Metro…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Is Uptown … political? There are several different takes on what’s going on with Uptown and Hennepin Avenue south of downtown. Psychically, Hennepin seems to lie upon a political fault line in Minneapolis. Or that’s what you might think if you read Minneapolis “Left” Twitter (which,…
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 CAM GORDON County’s new Zero Waste Plan could end garbage burning downtown Once again, people are organizing to shut down Hennepin County’s downtown garbage burner. The burner, known as the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), has been fraught with controversy since before it opened in 1989. “Communities have been…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Arts and creativity camps ArtStart (artstart.org) is an innovative arts nonprofit in St. Paul that combines artmaking with art appreciation, cultural studies, history and – recycling? (See ArtScraps on their website.) Registration is open now for summer programs, which center on studying and being inspired by…