VICTORY!
BY ED FELIEN
They picked on the wrong guy.
Bobby Hull wasn’t going to go easily.
 This tough ex-Marine was determined to keep his family home. Because of medical problems he was unable to work and fell behind in his mortgage payments. He didn’t want to cheat Bank of America out of the money he borrowed from them for the mortgage, but he wanted to renegotiate the terms of the mortgage so he could afford the payments. The bank said, “No,” and they said they were going to foreclose.
Occupy Minnesota got involved last summer when Bobby Hull was first threatened with eviction. There were rallies and demonstrations. At one point about 75 demonstrators faced off against the sheriff’s deputies that had come to evict him. The Occupados won and the sheriffs backed down. Since then the bank has decided to renegotiate the mortgage.
 read more
A “People’s Stadium?” Really?
BY ED FELIEN
R T Rybak and Governor Dayton are going to tear down the existing Metrodome because, we are told, it’s outdated. It doesn’t have enough luxury boxes, so it doesn’t make enough money for billionaire Zygi Wilf. Ticket prices have to be higher. 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 and Dayton are going to send us a bill for $338.7 million to tear down the existing stadium and build an even more expensive one. And, they’re calling that a “People’s Stadium.
read more
Child molester on the prowl in Phillips
BULLETIN FROM THE MPLS POLICE DEPARTMENT
The department’s Sex Crimes Unit is seeking to alert the public and gain the public’s assistance to provide any information regarding two instances of an adult male exposing himself to young females and a third incident where a male made an overt attempt to get a girl into his vehicle.
read more
Birder shares life with the usual critters
BY JOHN KARRIGAN
 |
Song Sparrow |
Once again I have few bird or nimal reports (except for lots of nice dogs) from the park or the neighborhood. Unfortunately, I have been kicked out of my place in the neighborhood. Ooops—that is a big exaggeration. But I have been away from Powderhorn a lot in the last month plus, with two house- and animal-sitting gigs in the Highland Park area of St. Paul. One is a really long job covering a little of January, all of February and some of March yet to go. I have still made quite a few trips back to the park and neighborhood, and at this time of year, I am not missing many animals but lots of good Powderhorn people. Of course, the fact that Southside Pride left my name off my column last month makes me feel like an unwanted outsider, but I will probably get over that in a while.
read more
Strength training: An all-in-one workout
BY RAINA GOLDSTEIN
BUNNAG
 Choosing a new exercise program can be overwhelming. With fads like Zumba, pilates and boot camp classes all promising body changing results, it is hard to know the best options. In our fast paced society, we often search for quick fixes with immediate results. When it comes to finding a fitness plan we may have different goals, e.g., losing a few pounds, increased energy or toning our arms for bathing suit season. No matter what the goal, there likely is not an easy solution.
Sorry, just telling the truth. A fitness program requires consistency and hard work to get the desired results.
One type of exercise that is often overlooked (although tried and true) is strength training. Strength training uses weights and body resistance to build muscle. Many people think that strong muscles are just for athletes or for those wanting to bulk up. However, strength training touts a long list of health benefits and is even included in the Center for Disease Control’s recommendations for daily exercise.
read more
The hungry insurgent
BY CHARLEY UNDERWOOD
Are you one of those folks who believes that the hard times are still ahead, that the mayor is going to get you to pay for a new billion-dollar sports palace, that the Congress is going to buy you a new three-trillion dollar war—who notices that gas is getting expensive, that the climate is changing, that lots of mortgages are underwater and that your retirement plan has mostly disappeared? And you wonder: How am I going to eat? I want to write a column for you.
read more
From where I stand
By Polly Mann
Whenever I attend a presentation and realize it’s going to be a “power point,” I am tempted to leave. I’ve never quite brought myself to do it, but then, I’ve never been sitting someplace where I can slip out unnoticed. These are, without doubt, the most uninspired, dull, non-productive meetings I’ve ever been to. A friend to whom I was fulminating about this said he used them, they were fine, and I should (in effect) loosen up.
read more
Education is a civil right: Support your students and your schools
Dear MPS Partners and Friends,
 |
Bernadeia H. Johnson, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools |
It has been said—and I firmly believe—that education is the greatest civil rights issue of our time. I also believe that education is our greatest opportunity to eradicate the inequities that exist in our communities. Standing behind the right of every individual in our community to access a high quality public education is a reflection of our values, our foresight and our commitment to our economic future.
My vision is for all students who graduate from the Minneapolis Public Schools to be college and career ready. A child’s education must start the day he or she is born and must continue beyond the day that his or her graduation cap is tossed in the air. We must continue to invest in early childhood education, prepare students to read by third grade, maintain the academic momentum through the middle grades and push students to reach new heights as they prepare for college and career.
The Minneapolis Public Schools is closing the achievement gap for the first time in six years, but there is still much work to do. We must continue to work to ensure that all students succeed at high levels.
read more
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.
 read more
The buzz on Buzzer
ALEXANDER PALACHE GUTTERMAN
“Buzzer” follows the lives of a trio of friends. Jackson is a young up-and-coming black attorney and self-styled “gentrifier” who purchases an apartment in his old ghetto neighborhood. His mildly neurotic white girlfriend, Suzy, who recently moved in with him, works as a teacher in an urban public school. Don, white, an old friend of Jackson from a wealthy background, recently sober and bursting with the language of 12-step recovery, moves in with the couple.
read more
Kari Tauring leads the Ostara celebration at Tapestry Folkdance Center
“Eggs are a universal symbol of spring. That connection arose because chickens start laying eggs again as the days grow longer. I learned that firsthand when we had chickens in the back yard,” laughs Kari Tauring. Kari is a Nordic Roots educator, teaching people about early (pre-Viking) Scandinavian culture and the myths, rituals and arts that connected people to nature, to agriculture and to each other. Her work was recently recognized by the Minnesota State Arts Board, which awarded Kari a 2011 Folk and Traditional Arts grant.
read more
SELF International and Sabathani to host a free day of science fun for grade and middle school students
BY STEPHANIE FOX
 |
Christine and the Horizon Girls: left -Kobi Gregory, center - Christine Spiritwolf, right - Imon Robinson |
A South Minneapolis non-profit organization, SELF International, Inc., has teamed up with Sabathani Community Center and the Science Museum of Minnesota to create an event aimed at students who may not have had the opportunity to explore cutting edge science or to talk with scientists and science educators.
SELF International (Science, Education, Literacy, Fine Arts) began as a collaboration with a network of micro clinics in Ghana and a plan to use science education to lower the rate of infectious diseases in that country. But when funding for that project dried up, the local organization saw that there was a need in Minneapolis for science education to prepare the next generation for careers in science, engineering and technology. SELF’s long-term plan, said Executive Director Bonnie Everets, is to target interested students who might not otherwise have to chance to learn about science and to get them interested in science during their early years in school.
read more
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.
read more
March
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Peace Vigils on the Bridge
The Wednesday vigils throughout March are dedicated to speaking out against the threat of a U.S. war on Iran. Join any of the vigils to SAY NO! to a new U.S. war, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge over the Mississip-pi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul. The vigil is sponsored by Twin Cities Peace Campaign and Women Against Military Madness. The special March emphasis against a war on Iran is endorsed by Anti-War Committee, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and Veterans for Peace. For more information call 612-522-1861 or 612-827-5364.
read more
| 
March 2012 
