To the City Council Public Health and Safety Committee on “the current model of community safety and opportunities for change:” There are some very simple things this council, working with the mayor, could do to improve the efficiency and restore public confidence in the Minneapolis Police Department. First, return to…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Although there have been few major disruptions to businesses and organizations along 42nd Street due to either COVID-19 or civil unrest, nowhere has been immune. Business models, hours and other things have changed, and there’s often not the additional capacity to keep the public informed. Southside…
BY TONY BOUZA On my birthday, The New York Times’ lead editorial centered on police impunity and labeled arbitrators as the villains. Quite a gift. Thank you. The Times are idiots. Union problems got so bad here that they (city leaders) undertook a desperate nationwide search for a chief in…
The choice between peace and mutually assured destruction There it was—the article reminding us of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and who better to write it than Helen Caldicott, pediatrician, founder of the Physicians for Social Responsibility and Nobel Peace Prize winner. It’s been 75 years since the…
BY CONNIE SULLIVAN MPLS ISSUES FORUM There is absolutely no proof at all that the only “safe” way to vote is in person at a polling place on the day of Nov. 3. In Minneapolis, as in Minnesota as a whole, our voting system is intact andcarefully monitored. Ballots do…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE It’s a complex landscape. You have the institutions—district public schools, public-private charter schools, alternative, private and parochial schools, as well as the districts themselves and some contractors that fill in essential services, like food preparation or bus transportation. Then you have the stakeholders—students, families, teachers, other…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN At 38th and Chicago, where George Floyd was killed on May 25, the streets are blocked off so traffic can’t go through the intersection. Inside this space are many flowers, murals, a medic tent, daily community meals, a library, food giveaways and a group called Agape (unconditional…
BY TONY BOUZA The writer has a unique series of responsibilities. The first is to truth. Relevance and humility follow. Gratitude and respect for the reader, and I’m sure there are more. Facile, no? No. If our President has reminded us of nothing else, he has reminded us of the…
BY ELINA KOLSTAD The city has tried and failed to reopen the intersection at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue off and on since it was closed down by protestors after George Floyd was killed in May. These efforts have been unsuccessful and I, for one, am grateful to those protecting…
Medicare isn’t just a single health plan. There are various parts, some of which you get from the government and others that you can purchase from private insurance companies. Parts A and B make up what’s known as original Medicare, which comes directly from the government. Part A. You can…
On the eve of the six-year anniversary of Cargill’s pledging to stop clearing forests, 30 Mighty Earth activists gathered at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which houses a Cargill gallery, to commemorate the commitment and sign an oversized renewal-of-vows contract. The document contained an empty line at the bottom for…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN During the 1990s, my friend Marie was the director of a shelter for homeless women and children sponsored by a small Christian denomination. I visited her once at the shelter and I could see that she gave her whole heart to her work. She smiled at residents…
BY ED FELIEN Jojo Rosenbaum was killed trying to talk Kyle Rittenhouse out of his gun. Anthony Huber was killed trying to knock away Rittenhouse’s gun with a skateboard. Michael Reinoehl was killed by the Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force, a group organized by Erik Prince for Donald Trump.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Fortunes on the part of Chicago Avenue south of 44th Street have been varied during the COVID-19 pandemic and the period of civil unrest in late May through mid-June. This area is mainly residential, with a concentrated commercial hub between 46th and 49th Streets. There is…
BY KATHRYN KELLY What are we getting with the new Minneapolis Park Board plan for the Hiawatha Golf Course property? *The Disappearing Park – The neighbors who want to keep their little park at 19th Avenue South and East 43rd Street will have to take up golf, because it will…
