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Twenty people marched three-quarters of a mile over frozen Lake Minnetonka for the Third Annual Protest on Ice in front of the $7.8 million home of the CEO of United Health Care Group.
Photo by Joel Albers
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They don’t have a clue
South Minneapolis residents turned out in force Tuesday night, Jan. 24, to hear the official Federal Aviation Administration’s report on the increase of airplane noise. Chad Leqve, the executive director of the Metropolitan Airport Commission’s Noise Oversight Committee along with the local representative of the FAA said they couldn’t understand why there was an increase in noise pollution in South Minneapolis...
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Hiawatha powerline to go underground
 According to City Council Member Cam Gordon: “The Public Utilities Commission has ruled that Xcel’s proposed Hiawatha Transmission Line should be buried beneath 28th Street East, as the City and Midtown Greenway Coalition had advocated.
The PUC has yet to decide whether the costs of burying the line will be borne by Minneapolis ratepayers or by Xcel’s entire Minnesota rate base, but the City and Xcel are both advocating for the broader option.”
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Precinct Caucuses
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 7, precinct caucuses will convene across Minnesota to elect delegates that will eventually endorse candidates for state representatives, county commissioners, City Council members and mayors, U.S. senators and for the President of the U.S. It begins in your neighborhood with you talking to your neighbors.
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Three Occupy protesters arrested
Three Occupy Minneapolis protesters were arrested at US Bank’s national headquaters as their request for US Bank to agree to meet with Monique White and Bobby Hull, two homeowners facing foreclosure, was denied.
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Schools provide college & career opportunities
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Bernadeia H. Johnson, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools |
Dear MSP family and friends
Jan. 20 was an exciting day in Minneapolis, as national leaders visited to focus on the work that we do every day to prepare students for college and career. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited South High School to talk with the senior class and their parents about college affordability and the new simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Al Franken and Mayor R.T. Rybak, who have consistently demonstrated their support for Minneapolis schools, also addressed students. Visit the MPS website to view our video of the event.
What impressed me the most during the visit was the leadership of our students, who raised intelligent, thoughtful and authentic questions during their conversation with Secretary Duncan. Hats off to these seniors—they showed that they were sharp, mature and prepared. They showed that they had successfully completed 13 years of experience as skilled students. They showed that they were ready for college and the workforce.
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Letters to the Editor
‘Are the cops out of control?’ [from Southside Pride, January]
Dear Editor:
The more illuminating question might be: Have the cops ever been in control? Or better yet: Were police forces designed to be out of control at all times?
Wizard Marks
Say ‘No’ to war on Iran!!
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Sober celebration, owl instruction, bad intentions and waiting converge
 I have not seen any ducks or geese inspecting Powderhorn Lake as I did last month, but I have seen ducks almost in the neighborhood—a few Mallards in the water-collecting area or rain garden just west of Chicago Avenue on 37th Street, where there was some open water. That area may have frozen over after our short, real cold snap. I have not checked the area lately. But I did find an area late in January with hundreds of Mallards and Canada Geese. They were in an open area of the conjunction of the Mississippi River and Shingle Creek in North Minneapolis on Jan. 24, the day I went to owl school at North Mississippi Regional Park.
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District 61B election results
Susan Allen (DFL) won 56% of the vote, while Nate Blumenshine took 43%. Allen, a tribal law attorney and member of the LGBT community, will be the first Native American woman to serve in the state’s legislature.
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Tribute to a Valentine
BY GAIL RAJALA HAYDEN
Valentine’s Day is more poignant than ever for me these days. A man I knew at Peace House named Iceman, who was an incurable romantic, always made it fun when that day rolled around, and so I think of him now. I am thankful for our mild winter, where he is concerned, too. It can be so harsh for all of us, especially the homeless, that I could cry sometimes for those without shelter ... those like Iceman.
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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. The hunting of game was done with stone-age weapons—actually, the most advanced stone-age weapons in the Mediterranean—obsidian from an ancient volcano provided a hard and sharp cutting surface that was traded from Cyprus to Crete.
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Who are ‘The Descendants’?
By Ed Felien
 “The Descendants,” starring George Clooney, is a feel-good domestic drama about an absent dad coming to terms with a comatose wife and two young daughters. It’s also a story about who owns the land.
Matt King (George Clooney) is a descendant of a Hawaiian princess who married a missionary. He is a Honolulu-based lawyer and the sole trustee of a family trust that controls 25,000 acres of unspoiled land on the island of Kaua’i. The trust will expire in seven years because of the rule against perpetuities, so the cousins and extended King family have decided to sell the land for development as condominiums, a resort and golf course.
The film is based on the first novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, a native Hawaiian with a mixed cultural and privileged background similar to Matt King’s. Her grandmother was from the Wilcox missionary family that came to Hawaii in 1836 on the same boat with missionaries Castle and Cooke. The children of Castle and Cooke turned native lands into pineapple plantations and then into resort communities. They were one of the original Big Five groups that eventually came to own Hawaii.
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From where I stand
BY POLLY MANN
Recently a friend was telling me a “horror story” about an educational loan that her grand-daughter owed Sallie Mae, the biggest corporate supplier of student loans in the country. My friend had co-signed a promissory note to the company; the granddaughter had fallen behind with payment and a collection agent called my friend threatening her with the loss of her home if the debt was not paid immediately. The matter was resolved, but I began thinking about it and the $40,000 educational debt one of my grandchildren will be paying off for the next 20 years. So I turned to my ever faithful google and did I ever learn about Sallie Mae. She looks and acts a lot like Freddie Mae and Fannie Mae but they’re actually not related
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Walk-in holistic wellness center, right around the corner
BY RAINA GOLDSTEIN
BUNNAG
 A new holistic wellness center has opened on the corner of 48th and Chicago Avenue in the old home of Parkway Hardware Store. Spark Clinic previously operated out of the Shenandoah Wellness Center, but they moved to their own space last month.
Spark is a wellness center that not only provides holistic medical care for chronic health problems, but also sees patients on a walk-in basis, very similar to the MinuteClinic and other urgent care facilities. To their knowledge, the innovative clinic is the first of its kind in the United States to provide homeopathic walk-in care. According to Desirée Brazelton, a homeopathic provider at the clinic, Spark can handle any malady that a traditional walk-in clinic would treat, such as ear infections, sore throat, fever and sinus infections
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Don’t stop pullin’ on the rope
BY ED FELIEN
Marv stopped pullin’ on the rope
The rest of us gotta pull harder now
Pull that new world up
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Lemons turn to lemonade
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN
Since 1994 the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a charitable Catholic organization, has operated a thrift store on Lake Street, at 2939 12th Ave. S. All of its merchandise is donated and includes clothing, household goods, furniture and knick-knacks. Over the years many people struggling to make ends meet have found help at this store.
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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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February
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Powderhorn Art Fair Jury Selection
Powderhorn Art Fair is now accepting resumes for the 2012 jury. Resumes must be received by Feb. 15 and selected jurors will be notified by March 1. The judging will be held Saturday, March 24, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. $100 stipend. Send resumes to: PPNA, 821 E. 35th St., Minneapolis, MN 55407 or ppna-@ppna.org.
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February 2012 
