Longfellow School has become a high school for mothers
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN
Longfellow School is a beautiful, old-fashioned, square brick school building with a new purpose. Located at 31st and 31st, it now houses a fantastic educational program that serves 100 young mothers and mothers-to-be. Part of the Minneapolis Public Schools, the program in previous years was at Broadway High School and North High School.
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An appeal for help for Doug Drews
BY BARRY REISCH
 Long time Vets For Peace member, Viet Nam vet and Agent Orange sufferer, Doug Drews has been struggling for years with health issues and trying his darndest to keep working to keep from losing his home which he built for himself and his family years ago. His home has already gone through the foreclosure process and sheriff’s sale, but the banks haven’t acted within the law in this processs so Doug is still fighting to save his home. He needs $6,500.00 within the next two weeks to assist him in his bargaining power to save his home and allow him to reclaim his mortgage.
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NDAA protest at Klobuchar office
Occupy St. Paul will stage a sit-in to protest the military detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act by occupying the offices of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar on Tuesday morning, Jan. 17, from 8 a.m. to noon.
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Final curtain: Obama signs indefinite detention of citizens into law as final act of 2011
BY JONATHAN TURLEY
President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country … and citizens partied blissfully into the New Year.
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Some practical proposals
BY JOHN KOLSTAD
St Paul has 70 miles of utility tunnels, mostly in the Jordan Sandstone. Minneapolis also has many miles, plus many natural caverns. This constitutes a vast heating and cooling resource that has largely been ignored. If the existing tunnels were not adequate or available, more could easily be created where needed. This sandstone is so soft that I can remember digging in caves with a spoon and tin can when I was a kid in St. Paul. This layer is 100 to 150 feet thick under our Cities. We are sitting on an energy gold mine.
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Folwell to reopen in 2013
BY ED FELIEN
When I went to Folwell in the early 1950s, it was a seventh through ninth grade junior high school. It was a feeder school to Central High School, South and Roosevelt. It was full to over-crowding, with a student population of at least 2,000. And it was at least 99% white. That school closed in 2010.
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Looking for love in very old places
BY ED FELIEN AND CAROL HOGARD
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A venus statue found near Olbia, Sardinia |
The Dorian invasion of Southern Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa changed the history of the world.
Nowhere is the evidence of this change more apparent than in Sardinia.
Nothing could stand in the way of the Dorian cowboys from the Russian Caucuses in 1600 BCE when they swept into Sardinia on their horse-drawn chariots, with their bronze spears, herding their cattle and goats. They were a warrior cult with a hierarchal social structure that made military command efficient and effective.
They left little direct evidence of themselves. What we know of them, we know only from the influence they had on the local indigenous cultures.
We know in Sardinia that before the Dorian invasion the Ozieri culture was a very peaceful agrarian society. There were no weapons or forts, even when the land became crowded and food might have become scarce.
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Boondoggle Park
BY ED FELIEN AND SHAWNE FITZGERALD
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The Yamasaki building at Washington and Hennepin |
The downtown business interests want to declare themselves a park and have the rest of us pay for their festive decorations. They’re talking about our spending $50 to $100 to $150 million on landscaping improvements.
Their just released “Downtown 2025 Plan” is breathtaking:
“The Nicollet corridor will cover 20 blocks, starting at the Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden, running through Loring Park to Peavey Plaza, then heading north along a newly green and fashionable Nicollet Avenue to the Mississippi Riverfront.
“Starting at the 5th Street light-rail station, a strip of intense greenery will run for six blocks to the foot of the Father Hennepin Bridge. This Gateway Park will feature a large gathering space just north of the Library and a ‘step down’ to the river on the current site of the Post Office parking ramp.”
The new improvements will “Animate NICOLLET with a curb-less walking environment that shares space with quiet, zero-emission transit vehicles—electric buses or modern streetcars—that offer free shuttle service every few minutes.
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Unemployment rate disguises true extent of jobs crisis
Through its groundbreaking research and tireless public education, Minnesota’s JOBS NOW Coalition has challenged conventional economic wisdom for nearly 30 years. The coalition consists of more than 100 organizational members who come together around the belief that all workers should have the opportunity to attain a decent standard of living. Below, Southside Pride’s Dick Taylor interviews JOBS NOW’s education director, Kevin Ristau.
SSP: What is the main focus of JOBS NOW’s research?
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The NRP Policy Board is dead Long live the NRP Policy Board
BY GARY ARNTSEN
Twenty-four hours after the NRP Policy Board adjourned its final meeting, after 20-plus years, neighborhood representatives Carol Pass and Jeff Strand were elected by the Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission (NCEC) to the newly reconstituted NRP Policy Board. Their current terms ended Dec. 31, and their new terms begin in January and end in June.
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A pastoral letter to the archbishop
BY ED FELIEN
Dear Archbishop Nienstedt:
I was saddened to read your Pastoral Letter to parishes in your Archdiocese denying the blessing of love and joy to God’s creatures who do not conform to your strict definition of marriage. Most people now agree that gay people do not choose to be gay. It is not a vocational choice. The affectional preference of gay people is something they were born with. It is a gift from God. What right does anyone have to judge God’s gift as something sinful and forbidden? Why cannot gay couples have “faith-filled, holy marriages and holy families”? Why is “the union of one man and one woman in a lifelong, exclusive relationship of loving trust, compassion, and generosity, open to the conception of children” the only possible plan of a loving and generous God?
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ON THE ROAD AGAIN: The story of The Alamo
BY ANNE WINKLER-MOREY, from her cross-country bicycle trip
Posted at 10:20 p.m., Jan. 6, 2012
Twenty-six million people visit San Antonio every year. There are two main attractions: the beautiful Riverwalk, and the Alamo.
Half the businesses in town are called Alamo: Alamo Optical, Alamo Forest Products, Alamo Motors, Alamo Mobility, Alamo Junior High, Alamo Draft Theater, Alamo Glass, Alamo Pizza, Alamo Quarry, Alamo Community College, Pie Alamo-d, Alamo Dome—where the Alamo Bowl is held. Even Alamo Bikes—a great bike store with most helpful staff, highly recommended, despite the name.
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Shoveling America’s wealth to the top
 BY JIM HIGHTOWER
As an old country saying puts it, “Money is like manure—it does no good unless you spread it around.”
Yet, America’s corporate and political leaders have intentionally been shoveling wealth into an ever-bigger pile for those at the top. They’ve gotten away with this by lying to the great majority, which has seen its share of America’s prosperity steadily disappear. Yes, they’ve told us, the rich are getting richer, but that’s just the natural workings of the new global economy, in which financial elites are rewarded for their exceptional talents, innovation and bold risk-taking.
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Preparing for the future
Dear families,
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Bernadeia H. Johnson, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools |
This is an exciting time of year. Teachers and students are settling back in their classrooms after winter break and have important work ahead in the last semester of the school year. Our kindergarten students are striving to meet literacy goals, MCA-II tests are right around the corner and many of our students are preparing to start a new phase of their academic careers.
Fifth-grade students are preparing to enter middle school, eighth-grade students are preparing to enter high school and our high school seniors are preparing for college and career paths. Each day, our students are gaining an urban education experience as they prepare to become global citizens.
It is also almost time for families with children in grades K – 11 to choose a school.
Please join us at the upcoming Pre-K – 8 School Information Fair, Jan. 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Hyatt Regency, 1300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis. Families with students in all grades should request a school before Feb. 29.
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January
events
The Real Dirt on Farmer John
Friday, Jan. 20, 7:15 p.m.
Bethany Lutheran Church
3900 36th Ave. S.
Transition Long-fellow invites everyone to Free Movie Night. This film is a poignant and often hilarious look at an honest farmer’s struggle to keep his farm from foreclosure, and to save his family name. Farmer John creates an extended village where people and art thrive alongside agriculture. An optional potluck is held at 6:30 before the show. Bring something to share or just come to eat. Free and open to the public. Free-will donations are appreciated.
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January 2012 
