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Medea Benhamin, founder of Code Pink, holds a MADE-IN-THE-USA tear gas canister that was used against Bahraini protesters. |
Flo Razowsky arrested in Bahrain
South Minneapolis activist, international journalist, playwright and member of the Café SouthSide collective Flo Razowsky was arrested on Tuesday, Feb. 14, as part of a group of six international observers who responded to the call of Bahraini human rights activists to witness their revolution. Their group, Witness Bahrain, intended to stand with the Bahraini people at protests, in hospitals and in villages, and to tell the world what they saw. They were arrested by Bahraini security forces in Manama during a peaceful protest on the way to the Pearl Roundabout, the scene of the Arab Spring uprising in Bahrain a year ago.
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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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Burglaries in Longfellow
BY ED FELIEN
A rash of burglaries in the Longfellow community has neighbors on edge. According to police reports there were five burglaries between Jan. 29 and Feb. 6 this year in the area between Lake Street and 35th Street, from Snelling Avenue to 33rd Avenue. “In three of the cases entry was gained by breaking a window on the front door, in the fourth incident entry was made through an unlocked rear door, and in the last case entry was gained by removing the dog door.” The most common things stolen were TVs, laptops and other electronic items.
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South Minneapolis Housing Fair
On Saturday, March 10, Minneapolis residents are invited to a free home improvement event for the whole family. Everyone who is trying to improve their living space will have the opportunity to connect with local bankers, real estate agents and experts in every aspect of home improvement. Exhibitors and vendors are offering their expertise and advice on home remodeling, basement finishing, kitchen and bath transformation, landscaping and much more. Put on by Minneapolis Community Education, many local volunteers and Coldwell Banker Burnet, the fair takes place at South High School, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information go to www.housingfair.org.
Letters to the Editor
Say ‘No’ to war on Iran!!
We are perched on the brink of watching a new war break out, this time on Iran. It will be a repeat of the destructive invasion of Iraq but many times worse not only in terms of the millions of people that will be killed in the Middle East but also in terms of the blowback on the United States and Israel.
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R T Rybak and his ‘People’s Stadium’
BY ED FELIEN
We need to tear down the existing Metrodome because, we are told, it’s outdated. It doesn’t have enough luxury boxes, so ticket revenue for billionaire Zygi Wilf is not high enough. Ticket prices for a Vikings game are already so high that most people who live in the city can’t afford them, but R T is asking those same people to pay $3 to $400 million in additional taxes to tear down the existing stadium to build an even more expensive one—one that will make ticket prices even more stratospheric. And, he’s calling that a “People’s Stadium.”
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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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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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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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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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Marv Davidov: Gadfly
By Tony Bouza
 And like that pesky insect that burrows under the blanket of the horse of State, Marv beset the system by demanding social justice, economic justice, racial justice. Such a youth-corrupting agenda was bound to bring trouble to Davidov, as it did to Socrates.
As Marv attacked the state, my duty was to defend it. Thus I played Inspector Javert to Marv’s Jean Valjean, with the only major difference being that I believed in my role, unlike the luckless French inquisitor.
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Don’t stop pullin’ on the rope
Marv Davidov died Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, at the age of 80, after a lifetime of struggle in the Civil Rights and Anti-War Movements.
“A Celebration of the Life of Marv Davidov, Nonviolent Revolutionary,” will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 10, at the University of St. Thomas Anderson Student Center (in the Woulfe Alumni Hall), corner of Summit and Cretin Avenues in St. Paul. It will be hosted by friends of Marv and the St. Thomas Justice and Peace Studies Program. An informal gathering will be held at 1 p.m., a program at 2 p.m. and refreshments, friendship and networking at 4 p.m.
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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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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Watchdogs with cameras
 Anyone who has participated in a public demonstration is used to seeing police with video cameras recording us commoners as we dare to exercise our constitutional right to protest. Authorities insist that being videoed should not worry demonstrators … as long as they’re doing nothing wrong.
But what happens when the cameras point the other way? Cell phones and video cameras are now ubiquitous, so police agents frequently find themselves being recorded doing everything from traffic stops to arresting protesters. This has exposed police abuse and even led to some convictions of agents caught roughing up the citizenry, but it has also produced a police backlash against camera-wielding citizens. Across the country, irate cops have been arresting people for the “crime” of filming police actions. Such states as Illinois have outlawed the recording of police without their consent, while Maryland and Massachusetts have even tried to stretch their anti-wiretapping laws to prosecute citizen videographers.
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‘Travel as a Political Act’: Rick Steves to speak at Westminster Town Hall Forum
For three decades, Minnesota FoodShare has been partnering with local food shelves to help neighbors in need. The March Campaign is the only statewide effort of its kind and raises more than half the food distributed by 300 food shelves.
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February
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Minnehaha Free Space
Everyone is invited to 3458 Minnehaha Ave. either for Art Night on Sundays from 6 to 9 p.m. or to the Icarus Project on Saturdays from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m. Art Night is for anyone wishing to work on art projects in the company of others. The Icarus Project is a radical mental health collective interested in sharing experiences of navigating “dangerous gifts,” commonly bound down by medical definitions as “illness.” Through building community and openly discussing mental health in a personal way, we help inspire, support and strengthen each other. For more information see http://theicarusproject.net/.
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February 2012 
