Riverside

BY ADAM M. SCHENCK For us brusque and rugged Americans the British sensibility comes to us as a salve. In times such as these we want for nothing more than wit, banter and the literary turn of phrase in hopes they will take us from the unmitigated horrors of the…

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BY ADAM M. SCHENCK No figure in our politics has so confounded pundits and pollsters like Donald John Trump, current Republican nominee for President of the United States. How does one interpret the ascent of a man thoroughly lacking the qualities of statesmanship toward our country’s highest office? How can…

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BY ED FELIEN Thousands of people gathered at the JJ Hill Montessori School Thursday, July 7, to honor the life and protest the death of Philando Castile.  He worked in the cafeteria at the school and was loved and missed by staff and students.  He was in a car that…

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BY POLLY MANN The Business Section of The New York Times of March 3, 2016, carried a front page article about “universal basic income,” UBI, in which each eligible adult would receive $1,000 a month. Richard Nixon first proposed a program he called a “negative income tax,” NIT, but little…

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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE This year East Lake Street’s Open Streets celebration will be on July 24, going from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The boundaries of the East Lake Street festival are Elliot Avenue in the west and 42nd Avenue in the east. Who else closes their streets to…

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BY ADAM M. SCHENCK Millennials, Greatest Generation, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers—it’s easy to dismiss self-appointed experts who separate out groups of people based on arbitrary birth dates. Yet, within a social movement like the gay rights movement, could the gradual ebb and flow of legal rights and social acceptance change…

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BY POLLY MANN It was during World War II that I became convinced that war was evil and that it served no good purpose. At that time I was working as a civilian employee in the Quartermaster’s Office at an army camp in Arkansas where, at lunchtime I walked through…

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BY ED FELIEN Juan Gonzalez chaired the first discussion group on Friday night.  He co-anchors “Democracy Now” with Amy Goodman.  He talked about how when he was in SDS (I always thought it was the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican SDS equivalent), and they were demonstrating at the 1968 Democratic…

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BY ED FELIEN If you’re a member of a co-op, you’re the revolution you’ve been waiting for. If you’re part of Black Lives Matter, you’re the revolution you’ve been waiting for. If you’re fighting for the dignity of all human beings, you’re the revolution you’ve been waiting for. If you’re…

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BY ASHLEY FRAY The first boy I ever liked was white class. His name was A.J. At least that’s what we’ll call him for now.  I met him when I was 13. We were in the same biology class. A.J. and I hit it off from the start. He was…

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BY TONY BOUZA Around 10 a.m., June 16 (Bloomsday), I received a call. “Grandpa, this is Tony (my 18-year-old grandson, who lives in California and is headed for Carleton).” “I’m in trouble,” he said, sobbing.  I was certain it was genuine.  “Can all weepy voiced teenagers sound alike?” I asked.…

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BY ED FELIEN While all this was happening in the U.S., the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was going on in China. Reports were scattered, mixed and fragmentary, but it seemed that at a Chinese Communist Party Congress in Wuhan in July of 1966, Mao was told by the Central Committee…

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BY CARLA WALDEMAR St Genevieve 5003 Bryant Ave. S. No phone reservations taken Quick: Name your favorite local go-to for French food. Right, that’s the trouble—there aren’t (m)any. We lost longtime icon Collette when Hotel Sofitel changed hands. More recently, we lost Vincent, on the Nicollet Mall, tragically replaced by…

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BY DEANNA BOSS I live across the street from Lake Nokomis on the west side. This past month I’ve dealt with three episodes of water in my previously dry basement. I couldn’t determine the source of the problem since the obvious causes (clogged gutters, faulty landscaping, roof damage, defective water…

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BY POLLY MANN Once again, the United States tops the list. Its incarceration rate is now more than four times the world’s average with about 2.2 million people in prisons and jails. Economists Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action…

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