Questions for DFL candidates for Governor
BY ED FELIEN
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John Marty |
Southside Pride asked four of the leading candidates for Governor what they thought about three critical policy issues: a single-payer health plan for
Minnesota, public subsidy for a Viking stadium and solutions to the state fiscal deficit. Margaret Kelliher and R. T. Rybak did not respond. However, since both were active and public supporters of the billion dollar Hennepin County sales tax to support a Twins stadium, it could be assumed that they would support a similar subsidy for the Vikings.
State Senator John Marty will seek the DFL endorsement for Governor. Former U. S. Senator Mark Dayton will not seek the endorsement but will run in the DFL Primary.
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Picking a police chief
BY TONY BOUZA
An old unforgotten friend called to ask for advice on selecting a police chief. He was briefing a newly-elected mayor.
I work as an expert. Not because I served forever in the role. I never learned anything from my few and piddling triumphs. But I took away invaluable insights from the many times I applied, made the list of finalists and was jettisoned for prettier faces: Boston; NYPD; Montgomery County, Md.; Dade County, Fla.; Seattle; New Orleans; Philadelphia come to mind.
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Republicans declare class war in Minnesota
BY DAVID RUBENSTEIN
It doesn’t resonate like “let them eat grass,” the words of advice that a trader named Andrew Myrick had for some starving Sioux Indians in 1862, but it’s getting there. Taxpayers, according to Republican State Senator
Geoffrey Michel, “have had to learn to live within their means, and they
expect government to do it too.”
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Slow time in Powderhorn
BY JOHN KARRIGAN
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Photo by Rachel Bennett
Longtime Powderhorn Park neighborhood resident, activist and poet, Mildred F. Miller, celebrated her 90th birthday recently at a party held at the Powderhorn community center. Over 100 family, friends and neighbors paid tribute to Mildred with song and speeches, and they donated over $1,500 to her favorite cause, Doctors Without Borders. Photo: Taimie (left), Mildred's water aerobics instructor and fellow nonagenarian, greets Mildred. |
On most of my January and February park walks, I have seen zero birds. On my last walk, I heard crows to the east and west, but saw no birds of any kind in the park. I have again received good owl reports but still haven’t seen any myself, and the walking, in my opinion, is still quite treacherous with combinations of smooth slick ice and jagged sharp ice.
One great thing I saw in the park was Mildred Miller, a Powderhorn legend, at her very well attended and interesting 90th birthday party at the park building on Feb. 13. Happy Birthday, Mildred!
Away from the park, I saw a Northern Flicker in a next-door neighbor’s tree on Jan. 14. I had heard it before that, but I have not seen or heard it since.
I saw seven Mallard ducks checking out, but not stopping, above the park on Jan. 23, one of the few nice days. A couple days later, I found a small group of Common Canada Geese eating spilled grain near the grain elevator and railroad tracks on 35th Street and Hiawatha Avenue. A park neighbor reports that the geese are there regularly.
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Walking away from a mortgage
It’s not that easy or common to walk away from a mortgage
BY STEPHANIE FOX
If you listen to media coverage about the current housing and mortgage crisis, you are likely to hear tales about people who are walking away from their mortgages when they find themselves owing more on their homes than their homes are worth.
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Obama’s nuclear blunder
BY JANET CONTURSI
President Obama has made yet another bad decision, one that will likely harm your children and grandchildren, and generations of your family, for centuries.
On Feb. 16, Obama announced another bailout—this time for the nuclear power industry, those goodfellas who have given us dangerous nuclear reactors, a few more terrorist targets, and a whole lot of toxic waste that nobody wants in their back yard.
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JCRC response to Tilsen
The following is a response from the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) to David Tilsen’s article last month, “Ten days in the Cairo Corral,” about his attempt to go to Gaza to march in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
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Minneapolis School Board elections
BY DAVID TILSEN
This coming November we will elect five School Board members, two citywide, and three from districts.
Citywide candidates:
T.Williams (incumbent) is the elder on the School Board, and, in my opinion, the wisest. He will wax philosophical and his many years of activism allow him a historical perspective that often lays a new perspective on issues at hand. Mr. Williams is seeking reelection, and should be returned to the board. He says the board needs more people who understand public policy and how large organizations work.
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Letter to the editor
Statement by Pam Costain, member of the Minneapolis School Board
After several months of reflection and numerous conversations with my family, I have decided not to seek reelection to the Minneapolis School Board. This has been a very difficult decision for me because I love the Minneapolis Public Schools and consider my service on the board to be the most significant and important work I have done in my professional life.
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The Resurrection: Born Again
BY BARNABY DEVITT
The glorious Christian holiday of Easter Sunday happens on Sunday, April 4. It’s always the Sunday following the first full moon after the March equinox. Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the flight from Egypt, is on the night of the full moon and is March 30. This year the equinox is on March 20 at exactly 5:32 in the afternoon. The sun will pass directly overhead. Actually, the sun will not pass overhead, but we will revolve, and the sun will seem to be directly overhead. Because of the earth’s wobble, from now until the summer solstice the sun will seem to rise further and further in the northern sky and the days will get longer until after June 21 when the wobble of the earth will start to swing back and the days will get shorter.
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Letter to the editor regarding Barnaby Devitt
Correction:
Mary Ann Pollard wrote to Barnaby Devitt:
Per your article in Southside Pride for December, 2009, re: Immaculate Conception. WRONG! The Immaculate Conception was when Mary was conceived in St. Anne’s (Mary’s mother) womb. Check any Catholic calendar and you will find March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the Mother of God. Is that not 9 months?
Glaring irregularity, indeed. Ahem (& Amen).
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Dave Bicking censured by CRA chair
BY ED FELIEN
 Civilian Review Authority (CRA) member Dave Bicking was censured by CRA Chair Don Bellfield at their meeting Feb. 3. Bellfield wrote a letter to Bicking asking him to resign as a member of CRA if he spoke out against the reappointment of Police Chief Tim Dolan at a public forum on March 3. On a vote of 5 to 2, the CRA board supported Bellfield.
Bellfield sent his letter to the mayor and all the members of the City Council. In it he said, “”With Mr. Bicking publicly stating his opposition to the reappointment of
Chief Dolan, he has again put the CRA in a position where our mission, credibility and integrity are brought into question.”
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GLBT marriage approved in Mexico
BY JOhNNY HAZARD
The legislative assembly of Mexico City approved a same-sex marriage bill in December, just three years after having approved a civil union law. Some assembly members linked to the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), the largest party in the city, had threatened to oppose the bill because it didn’t go far enough. They argued that adoptions by same-sex couples should also be permitted. Surprisingly, they were able to pass an amendment that widened the law to include this proposal. Attacks by the Catholic Church and its allies in right-wing parties like the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) came fast and furious, and are ongoing. The PAN is the party of Felipe Calderón, who assumed the presidency after disputed elections in 2006.
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How corporate money took over Washington and created the mobs who rant against reform
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
Despite a constant racket from the forces of the far-out right (Fox television's yackety-yackers, just-say-no GOP know-nothings, tea-bag howlers, Sarah Palinistas, et al.), the great majority of Americans support a bold progressive agenda for our country, ranging from Medicare for all to the decentralization and re-regulation of Wall Street.
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You can’t have a war by yourself
Letter to Editor
A recent Star Tribune headline read: "Raids in Baghdad thwart wide-ranging bomb plot" (1-13). Now we need to raid the Pentagon and "thwart" all of the "wide-ranging bomb plots" they have in the making. Like all of these never-ending cowardly drone attacks on western Pakistan.
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March 2010 
