Nokomis


Park Board shenanigans

BY ED FELIEN People are complaining of a smell coming from deals being made at the Park Board. Park Board President Brad Bourn appointed his best campaign worker, Kendall Killian, to a $114,000 a year consulting contract. They broke the contract into six-month periods, so it didn’t need board approval…

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FINDING MY WAY: Work may be my recovery

BY ASHLEY GREY Dear Readers, I have been showing you the most painful parts of my life for many months throughout the last two years. I suffer from schizophrenia, major depression, anxiety and PTSD. I also have dissociative episodes. At my worst I was bedridden. You guys, something has changed.…

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In praise of Doris Overby

BY RICHARD TAYLOR When disputes become drawn out, as has the Midtown YWCA controversy, we are well advised to review the events and values that prompted Doris Overby to go signature-gathering on Aug. 20, 2018. By that time, YWCA CEO Luz Maria Frias, without inviting member input, had announced a…

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Becoming the Kindly Ghost

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Maybe it’s because of the ghosts in “A Christmas Carol,” or maybe it’s my majority Irish heritage, or maybe it’s just the natural feeling that comes around with all the sacred holidays, the longing for light’s returning, the pull of reuniting with family, but I can’t…

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To kill the Golden Goose

BY ED FELIEN The Park Board continues to threaten to flood the Hiawatha Golf Course. They want to reduce pumping groundwater out of the golf course into Lake Hiawatha. The golf course in some spots is 2 feet below the water level of the lake. The water level is 2…

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On the street

BY C J SPARROW I was walking south on Bloomington Avenue, on the east side of the street, about 5 p.m., on Saturday, Oct. 27. As I crossed the Midtown Greenway, an African-American man about 30 years old was standing on the southeast corner of the intersection. He had tattoos…

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Pillsbury House Theatre supports our deepest values

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Sunday night, Dec. 9, I went out into the cold dark night to witness wonderful collaborations—people creating art moments together—at Pillsbury House Theatre, 35th and Chicago. Children in the after-school program there had paired up with professional volunteer performers, playwrights and directors to create the little 10-minute…

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Still out of control, Part Three

BY ED FELIEN Hi Bob, Did you see the latest issue of Southside Pride with your picture on the cover? Was it a fair representation of your ideas? I’d like to take you up on your suggestion that we go over more carefully the police reports and evidence collected in…

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FINDING MY WAY: Patient Zero

BY ASHLEY FRAY I have a chronic mental illness. Schizo-affective disorder. Schizophrenia plus major depression. I am afraid. I am returning to a five-day-a-week work life. There is a problem that worries me. When I am alone, the voices in my head and I have conversations. For me it is…

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Down with Boulder Dam, Part two

BY ED FELIEN The following is my correspondence with Michael Schroeder, Assistant Superintendent for Planning: Hi Michael, In your Sept. 21 email, you said: “I have a meeting with MPRB staff next week to look into this further. I understand the boulders were placed to mitigate a head cut in…

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