Thank you for the article on Medicare in the recent opinion page of Southside Pride. A basic good general overview. However, the section on Medicare Advantage was not accurate. Not surprising since false and misleading information of the wonders of Medicare Advantage are everywhere. It is not Medicare. It is…
‘Black Boy’ by Richard Wright The first 24 years of my life were spent in the south—that is, the southern part of the United States: Arkansas. In our household of nine, we always had one black servant. We called her the maid, but she really was the “jill of all…
BY TONY BOUZA I was in my 20s during the McCarthy years—roughly the early ’50s. Communist hysteria. Traitors everywhere and a reckless and audacious national figure attacked such supreme patriots as George G. Marshall (of the Plan) and the architect of not just World War II victories, but World War…
Mike Madden Terrance Franklin Legal brief UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA Walter Louis Franklin, II, Trustee For the Estate of Terrance Terrell Franklin, Plaintiff, v. LUCAS PETERSON individually, and in his official capacity; MICHAEL MEATH, individually, and in his official capacity; JANEÉ HARTEAU, Chief of Police for…
BY ED FELIEN There is nothing more dangerous than a cornered rat. It is desperate. It will do anything to survive. Donald Trump knows that when he leaves office there is an almost endless trail of criminal charges he will face. He will pardon his fellow felons: Manafort and Flynn…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Dinkytown, as you know, is not like other neighborhoods. It’s not even like other college campus-adjacent neighborhoods such as those in St. Paul, or in smaller college towns. So Dinkytown’s response to things like the COVID pandemic is also a little bit different. Dinkytown, with its…
The picture of the workers in their hazard suits and spraying the White House reminds me of the answer Senator Kirsten Gilibrand gave when she was running for president and she was asked, “What would be the first thing you would do if elected president?” and she said, “I’d clorox…
I was thrilled to see the news that Robin Wonsley Worlobah announced her candidacy for Minneapolis City Council for 2021. I met Robin in 2016 during the campaign fighting for a $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis. She was leading a large political meeting, energizing a room of diverse working class…
To the City Council Public Health and Safety Committee on “the current model of community safety and opportunities for change:” There are some very simple things this council, working with the mayor, could do to improve the efficiency and restore public confidence in the Minneapolis Police Department. First, return to…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Although there have been few major disruptions to businesses and organizations along 42nd Street due to either COVID-19 or civil unrest, nowhere has been immune. Business models, hours and other things have changed, and there’s often not the additional capacity to keep the public informed. Southside…
BY TONY BOUZA On my birthday, The New York Times’ lead editorial centered on police impunity and labeled arbitrators as the villains. Quite a gift. Thank you. The Times are idiots. Union problems got so bad here that they (city leaders) undertook a desperate nationwide search for a chief in…
The choice between peace and mutually assured destruction There it was—the article reminding us of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and who better to write it than Helen Caldicott, pediatrician, founder of the Physicians for Social Responsibility and Nobel Peace Prize winner. It’s been 75 years since the…
BY CONNIE SULLIVAN MPLS ISSUES FORUM There is absolutely no proof at all that the only “safe” way to vote is in person at a polling place on the day of Nov. 3. In Minneapolis, as in Minnesota as a whole, our voting system is intact andcarefully monitored. Ballots do…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Midtown Global Market’s vendors are having a tough 2020 for the most part. Like most food halls, food courts and dine-in restaurants, the whole market shut down in March. But that was just the beginning. By the start of April, a few eating and drinking establishments,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE It’s a complex landscape. You have the institutions—district public schools, public-private charter schools, alternative, private and parochial schools, as well as the districts themselves and some contractors that fill in essential services, like food preparation or bus transportation. Then you have the stakeholders—students, families, teachers, other…
