Bush: the gift that keeps on giving
BY ED FELIEN
He gave us the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, an economic collapse, tax cuts for the wealthy that bankrupted the Treasury, and, now, we can credit him with giving us the greatest man-made ecological disaster in history.
read more
Fixing a hole at Bedlam
BY SHEILA REGAN,
TC DAILY PLANET
 |
| Photo by Telsche Thiessen, courtesy Bedlam Theatre |
There’s a big hole at Bedlam Theatre where the Fireplace Lounge used to be. On May 4 at 4:30 in the afternoon, Bedlam’s technical director, Brandon Levy, was setting up for the Metro Blooms Happy Hour Raingarden Workshop when he felt
the tiles start to crack. The floor dropped a couple of inches, but luckily no one was hurt. Bedlam staff members shut down the lounge to the public and
began investigating the problem, according to Bedlam’s executive artistic director, John Bueche.
read more
Unintended consequences
BY TONY BOUZA
Unintended consequences: a harsh law of public life that visits well-intentioned officials out to fix serious problems.
Unlike the simple answers of demagogues out to gather cash, power or sex—and we have a plethora of those—those acting in good faith rarely expect the negative results that pop up in unexpected places.
These heroes see a problem—homelessness, addiction, crime, poverty, disease, unemployment, whatever—and apply a solution. Education would be a beacon to the benighted. Policing would be the answer to crime.
read more
Court orders police chief to follow the law
Press statement from Communities United Against Police Brutality
In response to our petition filed on Feb. 12, Judge Susan Burke issued an order on May 5, 2010, requiring Minneapolis Police Chief Timothy Dolan to
“comply with Minneapolis Ordinance 172.130.” Judge Burke further ordered that Chief Dolan “shall show cause before this court why he has not done so on June 4, 2010, at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 757 of the Hennepin County Government Center.”
read more
Midtown Farmers’ Market is open
BY AIMEE MCADAMS
 The Midtown Farmers’ Market is back for its eighth season.
The Market’s location on East Lake Street and 22nd Avenue South is unique in
that it is so accessible. There are several bus routes that stop nearby, the lightrail station is above the market, and it’s just off the Greenway bike
trail. In fact, access is a big part of the market. “It’s about equity and local food access,” says Eric Gustafson, assistant director of the Corcoran Nei-ghborhood Organization (CNO). “The market provides access to locally grown food for many who cannot safely grow their own, primarily due to the
arsenic contamination and related ongoing cleanup at residential properties in East Phillips and Corcoran.”
read more
When mortgage servicers don’t play fair, everyone suffers
BY S. P. FOX
Architect Jaclyn Khoury bought her condo in 2006, but last year, like many in her profession, she was laid off from her job. Six months later, still unemployed and running out of savings, and with her beloved condo worth less than she had paid for it, she looked to her bank hoping to sell it in a short sale.
read more
The fantastical Minnehaha Falls
BY ED FELIEN
 Minnehaha Falls is probably the loveliest park in the State and also the one most wrapped in fantasy.
The 1855 epic poem of Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, has no basis in Objibwe history, but rather is based on the Finnish saga Kalevala.
Longfellow passed it off as Native American mythology. Even though critics objected to the plagiarism, the popularity of the poem outlasted the criticism and even today it remains a thrilling and passionate story.
read more
The origins of Islam: the Kaaba and the Hajj
BY BARNABY DEVITT
Most of the time we think of Islam as the last of the three largest Western religions, following Judaism and Christianity. All three tell many of the same stories, and all three are said to come from Abraham. But even before Abraham there was a religious culture in the Middle East. There was a Kaaba and there was a Hajj. There was the month of Ramadan. There are important parts of Islam that predate Christianity and Judaism.
read more
Buying America-with our dollars
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
Who owns America? Wall Street, you say? The corporate powers? Well, yes. But who owns them? The carefully contrived myth is that they are owned by you and me—the millions of mom & pop investors, pension-fund retirees, and people with savings in mutual funds. This Norman Rockwell portrait of widespread financial democracy is heartwarming, but a lie. Controlling ownership is securely in the hands of financial elites.
read more
|
May 2010 
