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…
BY KIERAN F. KNUTSON, PRESIDENT OF CWA LOCAL 7250 On May 19 Medea Benjamin, the famous peace activist/celebrity, brought her book tour to south Minneapolis – and a modest protest of veterans, peace activists, Native Rights defenders and anarchists met her outside. Why would anyone be protesting a famous peace activist?…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE I am a member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and I have been since 1986. In DSA, we like to debate something called the Dirty Break. This is premised on the decades of tension between the Democratic Party and the left outsiders, with the leftists…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Seward Cafe is back! After a launch event in April, the Seward Cafe officially reopened, albeit with some changes, on May 16. Since the pandemic and the George Floyd uprising, the cafe has been closed although the collective owners and the building were not idle, at…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Yes, Nicollet Avenue was originally a main north-south corridor that went from downtown to Bloomington. Very few people remember those days today, but we live in hope that it will soon be so again. Nowadays, Nicollet Avenue is essentially two unconnected streets. One is the funky,…
BY STEPHANIE FOX Summer means Minnesotans finally come out of hiding and head out into the streets, flocking to outdoor celebrations. The first Open Streets, scheduled for Saturday, June 10, is expected to bring Twin Citizens to East Lake Street to enjoy the crowds and the sunny weather. This is…
BY CAM GORDON The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) has released a new proposal that could secure long-term funding to preserve, improve and produce more public housing in Minneapolis. On May 10, they made a formal request to the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) that would raise $12 million…
BY RICHARD TAYLOR NATO’s existence became justified by the need to manage threats provoked by its enlargement. —Historian Richard Sakwa As Americans, we must ask: Did U.S. policy inflame the crisis that led Russia to invade Ukraine? To answer, let’s examine key events in Europe from 1989 to 2022. 1989…
BY MIKE MADDEN, VFP CHAPTER 27 Richard Taylor provides good background to the current proxy war being waged in Ukraine. I would add a few important points to his chronology: • The American role in overthrowing President Yanukovych was extensive. In addition to Sens. John McCain and Chris Murphy joining…
BY ROBERT THOMPSON In 2011, the city of Minneapolis took control of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) in what many considered a hostile takeover. In 2019, the city declared that the NRP was an example of structural racism and continues to insist that NRP and neighborhood organizations only benefit white,…
BY TONY BOUZA “My Dinner with Andre” was one of my favorite flicks, so when I spied Andre Gregory in an abandoned Cape Cod pond parking lot, I rushed over and gushed my enthusiasm over his creation. He guessed I was a professor and I had to dampen his reaction and…
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 DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Openings and closings Several local favorite restaurants have changed hours recently. In April, Tiny Diner reopened for all-day service, including dinner. They’re now open from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. every day and the patio is rocking. Modern Times recently shortened their hours a bit and…
BY STEPHANIE FOX In 1891, 17 years before Richfield officially became a city, John Elsen bought a small property at 7730 Portland Ave. and soon opened a blacksmith shop. He did not imagine that in 2023, his shop would become the city’s longest continuing operating business. And during those 130…
