BY ED FELIEN Council Member Phillipe Cunningham was quoted in a recent article in The New Yorker: “No one could say that we didn’t try reform. We tried every kind of reform.” I phoned his office. No one was there. I left a message: You say you’ve tried everything? How…
BY JESS SUNDIN, AS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN FIGHT BACK NEWS Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the Minneapolis police’s 4th Precinct in North Minneapolis, July 31, to demand justice for Travis Jordan, on what should have been his 38th birthday. On Nov. 9, 2018, Travis Jordan was shot and killed by…
BY KAY SCHROVEN What’s happening with the west encampment in the park? It’s been nearly two weeks since MAD DADS issued 65 Notices to Transition per the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s (MPRB) Resolution 2020-267 (requiring permits, limiting parks and numbers of tents in a park, etc.). There are varying…
BY OLIVER STEINBERG, GRASSROOTS – LEGALIZE CANNABIS CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE Most elections only involve Republican and Democratic party candidates (in Minnesota, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, or DFL). If other parties’ candidates appear on the ballot, it’s by submitting nominating petitions signed by thousands of voters. A tough assignment! However, if…
BY STEPHANIE FOX As talk about relocating the George Floyd memorial continues, the corner where he was killed by police has evolved to become less a place of mourning and more of a place of celebration—a celebration of community and a celebration of the memory of George Floyd. And, there…
BY ED FELIEN Cierra Hoffman reported on Nextdoor that while she was in the Speedway at 44th and Lake, “I was standing at the register checking out when the gas station clerk ran outside abruptly and confronted a young woman (in her 20s) with a large black & white patterned…
BY TONY BOUZA America has been plunged into riots, pillaging, arsons and killings by the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police. The incident created an explosion whose reverberations radiate to this moment. The event goes to the heart of America’s No. 1 problem. Racism. America…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Our times We live in a time in which the lovers of life and the haters of life are pitted against each other and I am nervously waiting to see if the lovers will win. I am a big fan of co-existence and flexibility and nuance and…
BY TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN —Posted on 29 July 2020 Over 148 journalists were attacked by police in the United States between May 28 and June 4, 2020. Yes. I said 148. Yes, by the police. Yes, in the United States. Over 100 of those attacks happened between May 28 and…
BY DAVE TILSEN Dateline: Monday, July 20, Powderhorn Sanctuary, 14th Ave. Front loaders are removing the tents of the homeless campers. Police are forming a line. This is being streamed live by Unicorn Riot, and hundreds of supporters arrive. People are angry. They say the arrestees are Indigenous people on…
BY ED FELIEN The dream is over. The East Powderhorn Sanctuary has been cleared. The campers evacuated. Protesters were arrested and then released. It ended the way it always ends, according to longtime homeless advocates. Some criminal elements start to get violent. The camp becomes unsafe. And the authorities have…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE As we have been doing since March, this week’s focus on St. Paul’s Highland Park will be a geographical guide to services available and businesses open (or not) due to COVID-19. In addition, we will talk a bit about libraries, and a bit about homelessness in…
Michelle Obama’s school nutrition standards upheld It’s a rather fantastic idea, but then there is much fantasy about what the government does. It seems our president has rolled back legislation having to do with school nutrition. A federal court has struck down a 2018 Department of Agriculture rule that reversed…
BY KAY SCHROVEN Shopping carts, clotheslines, outdoor cooking grills, mattresses, blankets, coolers, lawn chairs, backpacks, boxes of diapers, baby strollers piled high with supplies, wheelchairs, bikes, tikes on trikes, people in swimsuits lining up to shower in the facility provided by NECHAMA (the Jewish disaster response organization) and tents of…
BY ED FELIEN Terrance Franklin Jamar Clark Thurman Blevins Travis Jordan TerranceFranklin: The city just agreed to pay $795,000 to the surviving family of Terrance Franklin rather than contest the wrongful death suit against MPD Officer Lucas Peterson. Peterson claimed in his police report that Terrance…
