Riverside


Make corporate medical insurance conglomerates accountable

BY DIANE J. PETERSON AND JOHN KOLSTAD April 15 is our all-American date for financial accountability on our taxable income. Therefore, this is an appropriate time to consider the Minnesota corporations that are evading similar accountability. The IRS requires documented proof of our personal income and expenses. Currently the state…

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Save downtown by drinking there

BY JACKSON O’BRIEN This March, the citizens of Minneapolis were hit with a one-two punch of bad news. First, the city announced that, for the first time in a decade, property values have fallen. The majority of this fall came from declining values in downtown office buildings, as it’s become…

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PASSING: Robert Millard Baum

Robert Millard Baum Robert Millard Baum passed peacefully on the day of his birth, March 6, 2024 at Good Samaritan Society in Maplewood, Minnnesota. He is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years Heather, daughters Jennifer Kenna (Ron) and Jessica Baum, two grandchildren Nicholas and Bianca Kenna. Sisters Nancy…

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‘Babble Lab’ – a celebration of the curious spirit

BY KAY SCHROVEN In “Babble Lab,” the Children Theatre Company’s new play running now through April 14, letters become characters and take over the Babble Lab! The Scientist whose experiment goes wrong, played by writer and actress Autumn Ness, can’t control them. They bounce, pop, fly, crawl, spring and leap.…

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Trash into treasure

BY STEPHANIE FOX Most people in Minneapolis know that those blue trash bins, the ones next to the gray garbage cans, are the place to toss recyclables. The trucks come by every two weeks, some with side-loading mechanical arms and others with two-member teams with a driver and a worker…

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Future density! Farewell, neighborhoods?

BY PERRY THORVIG Over the last 20 years, Southsiders have seen the massive rebuilding of the Hiawatha corridor. New apartment buildings have been appropriately located along the light rail corridor. Mixed use in the form of a major brand grocery store has also been included in the rebuild of one…

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Hodan Hassan is not running for re-election

BY ED FELIEN Hodan Hassan was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2018, and she’s been re-elected ever since. She and Rep. Aisha Gomez have introduced a bill in this session of the Legislature to spend $10 million on construction of the Neighborhood Development Center on Lake…

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Big education news for 2024

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE From the ridiculous (Moms for Liberty) to the sublime (Notorious D.O.T.) The school board beat is not usually this tabloid-worthy, but have you all been following the (ahem) “career” of Bridget Ziegler of Sarasota, Florida? This fine, upstanding lady is married to Christian Ziegler, who was…

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The quite interesting history of summer camps

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Too many pioneers! The history of summer camps goes back further than you would think. Maybe that’s why I came across many camps for “pioneers” while researching the topic. Created by Canadian Anglicans, the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, Jewish Community Centers, Mormons, Lutherans, Southern Baptists,…

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‘Never again!’ Again!

BY ED FELIEN In her Dec. 9 article in The New Yorker, “In the Shadow of the Holocaust,” Masha Gessen makes the case that Gaza is like the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Israelis are acting like Nazis: “For the last seventeen years, Gaza has been a hyperdensely populated, impoverished, walled-in…

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Process as punishment in Assange case

BY MIKE MADDEN A hearing in London to determine whether Julian Assange can appeal his extradition order concluded on Wednesday, Feb. 21. Assange, whose health is deteriorating, was not well enough to attend the proceedings in person or by video link. He will continue to languish in Belmarsh Prison, also…

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EPNI builds community ownership of Urban Farm

BY DANIEL COLTEN SCHMIDT Far too often, development means gentrification, displacement and exploitation. The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI), the group which made state and national headlines through the environmental justice campaign to save the warehouse building formerly called the Roof Depot, is now engaged in developing a community ownership…

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Phillips fights back on Smith Foundry

BY LUKE GANNON On Feb. 7, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) convened its second public community meeting on Smith Foundry following the damning findings by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May of 2023, which revealed multiple egregious violations of the federal Clean Air Act. During this public forum,…

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