BY KAY SCHROVEN Prostitution is said to be the oldest profession in the world and a “necessary evil.” It is a long-debated subject. Prostitution is legal in at least five countries including Finland, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Germany, and liberalized in Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Columbia and…
BY CAM GORDON Hopes are high for a new report that centers on strengthening safety beyond policing efforts with attention to prevention and restorative as well as alternative responses to crime and violence. Released on July 13 following a city press conference called by Mayor Jacob Frey, the “Minneapolis Safe…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Art, movies, games and Korean fried chicken Grand Avenue in St. Paul is known for trendy bars, popular restaurants and upscale retail, as well as dignified old apartment buildings mixed in with the single-family homes and duplexes that predominate. But there are other, less-apparent gems, some…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE When is a park not a park? The other day I noticed, not for the first time, a little one-square-block park at 42nd and Bloomington called Bancroft Meadows. But when I looked it up on the Park Board site, it wasn’t listed. This puzzled me and…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Flowers, edibles, coffee shops and fun events, some free! The big news on Lyndale Avenue has been the gradual opening of Hi Flora!, a unique market and eatery that is vegan, alcohol-free, and optionally enhanced with THC. Before it was fully open, Hi Flora! was open…
BY STEPHANIE FOX Open Streets is a Minneapolis tradition, a series of summer street festivals where, for an afternoon, neighborhood thoroughfares are blocked off to motorized traffic and open for pedestrians, bikes, skaters and skateboarders (and dogs on leashes). Organized by Our Streets Minneapolis, Open Streets is a program of…
BY RICHARD TAYLOR Our aim is to understand Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces and how it might affect prospects for peace. To do so we need to know about goals, troop strength, weapons, strategy and tactics. What we can’t possibly grasp but must somehow sense is the tens of thousands…
BY ED FELIEN I was standing right in the middle of it, and I still have no idea what happened. I was standing between Medea Benjamin and Kieran Knutson when Kieran snatched Medea’s phone. I was trying to keep them separate to prevent further violence. Then, Medea recruited Craig Wood…
BY DORIS OVERBY My heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of Tony Bouza. He was a person that I had profound respect and admiration for. I met Tony when he was chief of police in Minneapolis in the 1980s. I was executive director of Hennepin Center for the Arts…
BY PHIL WILLKIE Don Fraser picked an outsider to be chief of police. Before Fraser was elected mayor in November of 1979, Charlie Stenvig, head of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, had been elected mayor three times in the previous decade, running law-and-order campaigns. He was defeated twice, but…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE We only have one closing to note – Foxy Falafel in St. Anthony Park. D’s Banh Mi really is open now, if by open you mean it’s possible to get food from them in some way. See the review below for more detail on the long,…
BY JOHNNY HAZARD Early in Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term as president, then-secretary of the environment Víctor Toledo worked on an ambitious agenda to prohibit the pesticide glyphosate (Roundup) and genetically-modified corn. This article will focus on the first of the two substances. Months earlier, López Obrador (AMLO) participated as…
BY ED FELIEN Secretary of State Blinken just got back from his visit with Xi Jinping and Chinese diplomats. He says the only issue dividing the two countries is that the U.S. wants closer military contacts to avoid a mistake that could lead to a catastrophe. That sounds so sensible,…
BY DOMINICK BOUZA On Nov. 19, 2022, I was video recording the encampment under the I-35W bridge on 31st Street while driving. Twelve tents or so lined both sidewalks. Lacking water or any amenity, the wind howling trough the underpass, this encampment was destined for disaster should a kerosene heater…
BY CAM GORDON On June 16, a quiet Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend, with little advance notice, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other United States Justice Department staff held a press conference with city officials to announce the results of their two-year investigation into Minneapolis police and an…
