Summer in St. Paul’s Highland Park

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Highland Bridge status check-in I started writing the July articles on Highland Park in 2016, so this marks our ninth piece summarizing the year’s news on this St. Paul neighborhood. In 2016, we noted the impact of automobiles and the Ford plant on Highland Park’s development.…

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Israeli defenders defeat Holocaust scholar

BY CLINT COMBS Few months in University of Minnesota history, if any, were like June, with Raz Segal seemingly on his way to the Twin Cities to run the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS), only to see the deal killed by university officials. The University of Minnesota appeared…

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Correction to “District 62B endorsement struggle”

BY ERICK BOUSTEAD The original May 7 article stated, “Nazir Khan of the Zero Burn Coalition, who is likely the author of this anonymous letter from a mass organization (of one?), this EJ Caucus, wants the incinerator to close in 2025 and opposed the resolution Fernando authored and passed. This is a…

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Bookstore workers ratify union contract

BY JESSICA HAYSSEN Workers from four Twin Cities Half Price Books locations ratified their first union contracts on May 31, 2024. Workers unionized with the United Food and Commercial Workers Locals (UFCW) 663 and 1189 to secure better wages, working conditions and a seat at the table. Because of Minnesota…

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Please Stop!

BY ED FELIEN To the person pasting a QR code over our article “Never forget Hind Rajab” in our June edition: Please stop. Write to us. Let’s talk about it. Your QR code linked to a recapitulation of the horror of October 7.  We have, in past issues, condemned that…

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Support for Omar – Letter to the Editor

Everyday workers are the backbone of our democracy. The work they put in keeps our country moving and functioning on a daily basis. When we think of who we want representing us in Congress, we think of Ilhan Omar. As educators and elected leaders of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers…

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Willkie Forum July 23

BY ED FELIEN “The road not taken,” a lecture by Michael A. Meeropol, will be Tuesday, July 23, 7:30 p.m. at the Women’s Club (410 Oak Grove St.). Admission is free. As an historian, and someone who has lived American history as the eldest son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,…

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Never forget Hind Rajab

BY ED FELIEN The Israeli military has “slaughtered” (Noam Chomsky’s word) more than 35,000 Palestinians—most of them, women and children. From Wikipedia: In January 2024, three months into the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, much of the Strip was largely deserted and bombed out. The health care system in Gaza was collapsing…

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Trump and the threat of civil war

BY ED FELIEN On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told the crowd of his supporters: “We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore. “We want to go back, and we want to get this right because we’re going to have…

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Another look at the new rideshare law

BY CAM GORDON Many people are celebrating the recent rideshare legislation that was signed into law in May. Elected officials are congratulating themselves and others for the new law that is expected to give drivers a 20% raise in pay, protection from unjust deactivations, and stronger insurance provisions. “The drivers…

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Summer on Franklin Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE A lot is happening on Franklin Avenue! Two major portions of the stretch of Franklin Avenue we cover in Southside Pride are the American Indian Cultural Corridor from Hiawatha Avenue to 11th Avenue and the part that runs through Seward neighborhood, from Cedar Avenue to the…

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Summer on Nicollet Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Reconnected Avenue is ever closer As we have asserted in previous editions, Nicollet Avenue is really two different streets. There is everything north of Lake Street (Cecil Newman Lane, really) which includes the crossing of the Greenway, Eat Street, and Nicollet Mall downtown, and then there’s…

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Commemorating the 1934 Teamster strike

BY STEVE BRANDT Twin Cities area labor activists and sympathizers will keep alive the spirit of the landmark 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strike over the next two months with a 90th-anniversary commemoration that includes film screenings, art exhibits, a panel discussion and a wreath-laying ceremony, culminating in a July 27 remembrance…

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