John R. Karrigan passed away peacefully on Jan. 11, 2019, at the age of 74, after a 10-month battle with metastatic melanoma. Preceded in death by his parents, Ellsworth and Vivien (Rasmussen) Karrigan, of Aberdeen, SD. Survived by his longtime partner, Bonnie Rae; siblings Steve (Lynn) Karrigan and Dave Karrigan,…
BY SHASA SARTIN The following piece is brought to you by the impassioned creations of Audre Lorde, Beyoncé, Kelis, Leikeli47, Megan Thee Stallion, Rico Nasty, and my mother. Have you ever encountered some upsetting information and … started seeing red? Shortly after you hear a very loud screeching sound: it’s…
Thinking of summer and a canoe on Lake Nokomis at Carbone’s Pizza, a mural by Adam Turman. Photo by Jessica Magnuson
Roberto de la Riva, Angela Conley and Tabitha Montgomery are all smiles greeting each other before the forum. Last month the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association (PPNA) held a community forum: “Positive Pressure to Protest” led by Roberto de la Riva from Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia, United Renters for Justice—a tenant-aid…
BY BONNIE RAE, ON BEHALF OF JOHN KARRIGAN Bluebird A good neighbor and frequent park walker reported seeing an Eastern Bluebird in the park in the middle of December and snapped a photo as proof! He also reported having recently seen a Cooper’s Hawk, as had another park walker, who…
BY LEX HORAN, RECLAIM THE BLOCK On Dec. 5 the Minneapolis City Council passed its 2019 budget, which included no new funding for hires at the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), but they increased MPD’s allocation by 2.2% over its 2018 funding levels. The budget passed after extensive public testimony calling…
Why should your child die from a gunshot wound? The doctor has found the task a most difficult and onerous one and who wouldn’t? Dr. Marianne Haughey of St. Barnabas Hospital in Jersey City, N.Y., has been assigned victims of homicide for 25 years and one of her tasks has…
BY ED FELIEN Nothing can spoil Christmas quicker than hate. And racism is a special kind of hate. It dehumanizes a group, makes them less than human, and allows cops in the Fourth Precinct in North Minneapolis to treat African Americans like trash that has to be swept from the…
BY TONY BOUZA “What a great country!” The beginning of one of the many dumb jokes I love. Yet, for me, in there is contained the kernel of a central truth. Only an immigrant experiences the shock of change. I left a dictatorship (Spain) in Dec. 1937 to experience the…
BY ED FELIEN People are complaining of a smell coming from deals being made at the Park Board. Park Board President Brad Bourn appointed his best campaign worker, Kendall Killian, to a $114,000 a year consulting contract. They broke the contract into six-month periods, so it didn’t need board approval…
BY ASHLEY GREY Dear Readers, I have been showing you the most painful parts of my life for many months throughout the last two years. I suffer from schizophrenia, major depression, anxiety and PTSD. I also have dissociative episodes. At my worst I was bedridden. You guys, something has changed.…
Forgotten victims of war Recently I read a newspaper article about the so-called “comfort women” of World War II and it reminded me of my visit with several of these women years ago. Marianne Hamilton and I were in the Philippines protesting something or the other that Bill Clinton had…
COMPILED BY ELAINE KLAASSEN According to treehuggers.com, “Icelanders have a beautiful tradition of giving books to each other on Christmas Eve and then spending the night reading. This custom is so deeply ingrained in the culture that it is the reason for the Jolabokaflod, or “Christmas Book Flood,” when the…
BY RICHARD TAYLOR When disputes become drawn out, as has the Midtown YWCA controversy, we are well advised to review the events and values that prompted Doris Overby to go signature-gathering on Aug. 20, 2018. By that time, YWCA CEO Luz Maria Frias, without inviting member input, had announced a…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Maybe it’s because of the ghosts in “A Christmas Carol,” or maybe it’s my majority Irish heritage, or maybe it’s just the natural feeling that comes around with all the sacred holidays, the longing for light’s returning, the pull of reuniting with family, but I can’t…
