Midtown Greenway a success story

by DENNIS GEISINGER

Midtown Phillips resident Jessica Treat relies on her Fuji road bike to get around. She is the executive director of St. Paul Smart Trips, and said her favorite place to ride is the Greenway.

Have you walked across the Midtown Greenway during rush hour lately? If you haven’t, here’s some advice: Look both ways.

Traffic on the two paved lanes running through the hollow north of Lake Street, where the old Canadian Pacific railroad tracks used to lie, is steady and moving at a clipped pace and with good reason. With enough time and wind, you can ride the new bike path from Chanhassen all the way to where the Mississippi River divides Minneapolis and St. Paul, from north and south legs of the Southern LRT bike path through the Greenway to West River Parkway.

“The recognition of Minneapolis as a national leader in promoting and investing in bike/walk infrastructure has led to its selection by Congress as one of only four demonstration sites in the country to participate in the non-motorized transportation demonstration grant program,” said City Council Vice President Robert Lilligren (DFL-Ward 6). “This brings $21.5 million to spend in Minneapolis and adjoining cities to shift people from motorized to non-motorized transportation,” Lilligren said.

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Plastics ban legislation would protect children

by DENNIS GEISINGER

Minnesota Rep. Karen Clark (DFL-Minneapolis) is the sponsor of the House bill banning Bisphenol A from baby products.

Minnesota has moved onto a growing list of government bodies mounting campaigns to ban certain compounds in plastics that are common to a variety of children’s products such as baby bottles, teethers, sippy cups and toys.

“When it comes to children and our protection of children we have to pay attention to what’s going on,” said State Sen. Sandy Rummel who introduced a bill this year to ban the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) and another plastics additive, phthalates, from baby products. Her bill was tabled in the Senate, but its companion bill in the House, authored by Rep. Karen Clark (DFL-Minneapolis), is still alive in conference committee.

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Powderhorn Crime watch

BY DENNIS GEISINGER

“When you get up during the night,” Crime Prevention Specialist (CPS) Karen Notsch recommends, “take time to see out the window.” Notsch reported to the 3rd Precinct Advisory Council (3-PAC) at its regular meeting on April 28 that a suspect who had thrown rocks through the windows of several South Minneapolis businesses was arrested with rocks in his vehicle.

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Poisoning the poor: the truth about Midtown biomass

by SUSIE TATONE

Midtown Eco Energy would like to open a biomass burner in the Phillips neighborhood, a burner designed to use renewable urban waste wood to provide energy and hot water to the local businesses and residents. On the surface this appears to be an environmentally friendly step forward for the energy industry and the local economy. However, things are rarely as they appear.

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Playwright hears the unspoken

by ELAINE KLAASSEN

“Witnessing to a Murder,” a play by Elizabeth O’ Sullivan, is part of the upcoming Spirit in the House theater festival at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church.
The play is a 45-minute monologue, performed by O’ Sullivan, in which she fights with a drumbeat played by her husband, Ian Rhoades, and sings unadorned pentatonic melodies unique to this play. Onstage, members of her Quaker community “hold her in the light” and “do the work of spiritual grounding,” as O’Sullivan describes it.

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A fish story--search leads to questions about public accountability of Park Service

by DENNIS GEISINGER

It was hard not to feel expectancy and at the same time dread as I clomped down the wooden stairs of the Southside Pride office at the corner of 32nd and Chicago with the newspaper's digital camera clutched in the furry white bag whose true purpose in life had been to cover a golf club. My job assignment that afternoon was decidedly above and beyond. Get a picture of the dead fish. A good one if possible. Clearly focused and well composed.

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New birds, a new season & loss

by JOHN KARRIGAN

The ice went out on April 16 this year, which is a little later than normal, and the weather, as I say on many Aprils lately, has been stranger than normal.
Even before the ice went out, the usual water birds, Canada Geese, Mallards, Wood Ducks and Ring-billed Gulls and two species of visiting ducks, Buffleheads and Scamp, were on the open water areas.

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Charge George W. Bush with Murder in the third degree, conspiracy to raise oil prices and conspiracy to distribute drugs in Hennepin County

Update on the attempt to arrest George W. Bush:

On April 30, 2008, Ed Felien filed a Writ of Mandamus with the 4th District
Court. A hearing will be held, probably in one or two weeks, by a judge of
the court to determine the worthiness of the Writ. If the judge determines
the Writ is worthy and the County Attorney has jurisdiction in this matter,
then the judge will order the County Attorney to bring charges against
George W. Bush before a Grand Jury to obtain an indictment.

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Peace Island

by SUSU JEFFREY

The idea of a Peace Island conference came to me, whole, in the middle of a meal. Shortly after the announcement of Saint Paul as the location of the Republican National Convention (RNC), September 1-4, I wrote “peace island” on a napkin scrap, and lost it. But the idea festered—an undeclared recession, war without end, and 15,000 media people coming to town looking for a story.

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No need to complicate—
Organic gardening means letting nature do most of the work

by Sharon Parker

Let me tell you about my first garden: I had moved into an apartment on Marshall Avenue in St. Paul some 30 years ago and was determined to grow tomatoes, just as my father did. So I picked a sunny spot in the back, took a breath, and thrust my shovel at the ground, only to have it bounce back up and nearly hit me in the teeth.

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Rigged health care commissions circumvent democracy–again

by JOEL ALBERS


Proposed solutions to the health care crisis have reached a crossroads, with essentially two paths that Minnesota and the U.S. can follow. One path views health care as a market commodity, in which health care is for sale. Patients are also consumers who must shop around, compare prices and quality of care, and buy insurance. That is if you can afford it. If you cannot, you are uninsured. And therein lies the crisis.

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Be dubious about drug companies that hire celebrities to promote “discounts”

by JOEL ALBERS

The ‘Help is Here Express’ bus tour featuring celebrity talk show host Montel Williams visited Sabathani Community Center Wednesday, April 30, to allegedly help uninsured, low-income Minnesotans access information on hundreds of Prescription Assistance Programs (PAPs), mostly sponsored by drug companies, that provide discount prescription medicines.

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Pariah Diplomacy

by JIMMY CARTER

A counterproductive Washington policy in recent years has been to boycott and punish political factions or governments that refuse to accept United States mandates. This policy makes difficult the possibility that such leaders might moderate their policies.

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Critical Mass defendant found not guilty

by DENNIS GEISINGER

The April 14 acquittal of a University of Minnesota student on charges stemming from arrests made at last summer’s downtown rally organized by pro-cycling movement, Critical Mass, has been viewed by advocates for free speech as a first-round victory in anticipated battles between protesters and police during this fall’s Republican National Convention (RNC) here in the Twin Cities.

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Stop subsidizing Big Oil

by JIM HIGHTOWER

In 2006, the CEO of Exxon Mobil exclaimed that, gosh, his corporation was rolling in so much profit that he simply didn’t know how to spend it all. Well, one place worthy of major investment would have been R & D on alternative fuels to help America break its dependency on ever-moreexpensive and ever-more polluting oil.

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The Heathen Science Monitor
is once more among us. For twenty years we were spared the biting satire of Shirley Youjeste and Johnny Hazard. Sadly, a new generation of innocent young people will hear the siren call of revolutionary action coming from this one page diatribe against the law of order. If you can't find it in a public restroom, then go to www.southsidepride. com/hsm.html

When the natural is divine and the divine is natural

by Bill Nolan

Rabbi Harold Kushner was once asked: “Rabbi, how good do we have to be?” His reply: “I think that we have to be good enough.” Often times, it seems as if our expectations, of ourselves and others, set a very different bar. We expect, sometimes even demand, perfection.

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Hayden endorsed!

Impact of chronic offenders tracked by the City

Poisoning the poor: the truth about Midtown biomass

School board limits access to students by military recruiters

Where have all the prophets gone?

The Family Tool Box— the blueprint

On the exodus of 9 a.m. Sunday gym
Mass community from St. Stephen’s parish

Writers needed

aka McGuire—
former legislator writes compelling novel

Earth Day wishes and sustainable dreams

The fight to meet the NRP funding deadline

Welcome to the Suburbs

Executive thievery wrecks people’s lives

Nokomis Classifieds

Nokomis: Queen of Cuisine

Nokomis Re-use-it Guide

Nokomis Community Calendar

Religious News & Events: Nokomis

Critical Mass defendent found not guilty

Yes, we have an “Exit Strategy”

Children in area to be tested for arsenic

Letters to the Editor

Tasers: cruel & unusual tactics?

Community Calendar Riverside Edition

Religious Calendar Riverside Edition

The Family Tool Box - The blueprint

Where have all the prophets gone?

On the exodus of 9 a.m. Sunday gym
Mass community from St. Stephen’s parish

Spiritual writers needed

Poisoning the poor -the truth about Midtown biomass

Queen of Cuisine: Riverside

Re-Use-It Guide: Riverside

The fight to meet the NRP funding deadline

Earth Day wishes and sustainable dreams

Welcome to the Suburbs

Privatizing petroleum in Mexico

Hennepin County libraries receive large grant to overcome language barriers on computers

Executive thievery wrecks people's lives

Riverside Classifieds

Metro Transit celebrates Earth Day