BY JOEL ALBERS Last September, 125,000 Minnesotans faced unprecedented HMO premium rate hikes of 50-67% (25% increase the prior year), forcing most of these individuals and families in neighborhoods across Minnesota to struggle to pay for, or go without, health insurance. Being priced out of the market and ending up…
BY GAIL RAJALA HAYDEN For the third summer in a row, the parking lot at 1414 E. Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis is the location of the Four Sisters Farmers Market, most definitely a place you will want to be. Each week, on Friday afternoons, live music, food demonstrations, and the…
BY GREG, KRISTEN, DOUG, DON, CRAIG & MORGAN Comrade Tom died at the age of 91 of unknown causes in a nursing home in St. Paul, after a short stay, having transferred from United Hospital subsequent to colon surgery for colon cancer. His mother died on July 4th too, when Tom was…
BY ED FELIEN There wasn’t much to do after losing the election, so I started hanging out with Mo Burton. He was a 6-foot, 2-inch, 290-pound black guy who had a great political analysis and wanted to start a local chapter of the Black Panther Party in Minneapolis. We’d drive…
BY ED FELIEN We do not need a change of the Palace Guard. Replacing the chief of police is not the solution to the problem with the Minneapolis Police Department. The problem is there is no accountability. The MPD officers believe they are above the law. They believe their badge…
BY STEPHANIE FOX A trip to the farmers market usually doesn’t include a chance to meet birds of prey, but on Aug. 2, visitors to the Nokomis Wednesday Farmers Market could come and see, up close, three Minnesota raptors. The birds, an 18-year-old bald eagle, a 2-year-old red-tailed hawk and…
BY ED FELIEN At its Aug. 9 meeting, the Park Board voted 6 to 3 to stop pumping water out of the Hiawatha Golf Course by the end of the season in 2019. That means the course will be flooded because there is a dam holding back 2 to4 feet…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE On Treehouse Records’ web page there is a little tagline that says “The World’s Last Record Store.” I suspect this dates from the dark days of waning fortunes for record stores, before the Great Vinyl Resurgence of 2009. (I just made that up, but it’s vaguely…
Over 60 people joined an anti-war protest at Hiawatha and Lake Street on Saturday, July 22. The protest, called by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, was held in response to the ever increasing military intervention around the world by the Trump Administration. A statement issued by organizers said in part,…
BY ED FELIEN And they burned the bridges behind them. A new generation came to take their place, so they fought back. They wore the machinery down; ground the process to dust; exhausted them; outlasted them, and they remained intact. The DFL establishment that ran the City DFL Convention was…
BY STEPHANIE FOX A camping box, made out of a wooden file drawer, has just arrived at the Repair Lair and owner Nancy Ford is checking each item. One piece catches her interest. “It’s a massive cook set with a one-burner stove,” she says. She turns the stove over in…
BY POLLY MANN CEO pay may not be quite as high as it once was, but the numbers still dwarf the pay earned by the typical worker. Chief executives of America’s 350 largest companies made an average of $15.6 million in 2016, or 271 times more than what the typical worker…
BY ED FELIEN At its meeting on Aug.9, the Park Board will hear a recommendation from staff to close Hiawatha Golf Course and turn it into Camp Swampy, a wetlands theme park. In spite of a crowd of more than 70 frustrated golfers, a Park Board committee voted 5 to…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Although primarily a residential avenue, Bloomington Avenue has a plethora of small businesses, quite a few of them dedicated to wellness of one kind or another. There are also a few venerable but unconventional churches on or near Bloomington, which adds up to many varied resources…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE This year Franklin Avenue’s Open Streets celebration will be on Sunday, Aug. 27, at the usual times: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The boundaries of the Franklin Avenue festival are Portland Avenue in the west and 32nd Avenue in the east (four blocks longer than last…
