BY CRAIG WOOD On May 19, author/activist and cofounder of the anti-war group Code Pink, Medea Benjamin, had her phone knocked out of her hand by an angry protester she was videotaping at a South Minneapolis event where she’d been invited to speak. When she told me, “They’ve got my…
There was a lovely retirement party on Wednesday, June 28, for Warren Hanson, president and CEO of the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund. He began the GMHF in 1996. For the last 27 years, Hanson has led GMHF and worked closely with state and local governments, philanthropic organizations, institutional investors and…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN I’ve started going to two writing groups that have sprung up in our neighborhood. I go every time because I love words, language and people and that’s what these groups are about. I consider myself quite limited when it comes to imagination and since I wrote factual…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Openings and closings Most of the interesting new openings right now are in St. Paul. There are three that catch my eye, although some have been in the news for a couple of months already. The first one is Juche, a newish Korean restaurant and bar…
BY ED FELIEN The music just carries you away. “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You,” “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “Oh, What a Night,” “Working My Way Back to You, Babe,” “Dawn, Go Away I’m No Good for You” – those…
BY WYATT MILLER From Iraq, to Afghanistan, to Libya, to Vietnam, if there’s one lesson to be drawn from modern-day U.S. wars and interventions, it’s that they don’t help! No matter how bipartisan the call, no matter how morally urgent intervention was portrayed as being, in retrospect we know these…
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 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…
