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Judy Cooper Lyles and John Sayles
Director/writer/producer of Urban Spectrum community theater, Judy Cooper Lyles, and John Sayles, creator of the film “Honeydripper.”
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Grassroots theater brings ‘Honeydripper’ to Old Arizona Theater
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN
For nearly 40 years the community theater company Urban Spectrum (formerly configured as the Real Community Theatre) has never stopped bringing affordable, enjoyable and relevant theater to the inner city.
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What is that smell from City Hall?
BY ED FELIEN
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, infects unseen … —Hamlet
March went out like a lion for Minnesota. Not the weather. But the angry claw of a report on the potential for corruption in Minnesota politics that tore holes in the cloak of our smug satisfaction with our reputation for respectability.
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America’s police are out of control
BY TONY BOUZA
What can possibly justify so sweeping an assertion?
I will try.
I started in policing on 1/1/53 in the NYPD, rose, over 24 years, to command Bronx forces and then served three as #2 in the Transit Police. This was followed by nine years as chief in Minneapolis.
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Minneapolis-St. Paul 2012 international Film Festival
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The Eye of the Storm (Australia) directed by Fred Schepisi
It’s not unreasonable to have high expectations of Geoffrey Rush, and he delivers on them in The Eye of the Storm, a film about two grown children who return to Sydney to see their dying mother. The threads of the film come a bit loose at the end, but that doesn’t detract from the pleasure of watching the stellar performances in this warm, hard, and at times humorous family drama. –Frank Bures
Shows April 14 at 7:15 p.m. and April 15 at 2:45 p.m. Director present.
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Bert Stern: Original Madman (USA) directed by Shannah Laumeister
“I can see very well,” says Elton John … as clearly as I can see, through Shannah Laumeister’s documentary, that Bert Stern is a man who doesn’t just snap pictures, but creates ideas through his lens where he sees “women as goddesses and men as slaves.” In three days’ time Stern develops a 2,600 photo biography of Marilyn Monroe six weeks before her suicide.
Although he insists, “I don’t take the pictures, I just push the button,” Laumeister’s biographical journey into Stern’s mind shows us it takes one to know one in the case of pushing buttons. Done through an unfiltered lens we come to know the artist as not just a madman, but the genius behind madness. I hear echoes singing, “Take my word I’m a madman don’t you know.” –Suzanne Nielsen
Shows April 13 at 7:30 p.m. and April 14 at 7 p.m.
Director present.
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The big fat truth
BY RAINA GOLDSTEIN
BUNNAG
 Almost every day I hear people talking about how they need to cut out fat from their diet so they can lose weight. People associate the word fat with gaining weight or looking unhealthy. In reality, dietary fat keeps us healthy in many ways and is an essential for a variety of body functions. I consulted with Sharon Lehrman, a registered dietitian in Minneapolis and owner of Nutrition, Health, and Wellness, to provide you with the real deal on fats.
It’s a common belief that we gain fat by eating fattening foods. It sounds like it makes sense, but that’s not actually how it works. People gain weight by consuming more calories than they burn. So no matter where your calories are coming from, you will gain weight if you don’t burn them off.
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The hungry insurgent
BY CHARLEY UNDERWOOD
Frankly, Mayor R.T. Rybak and I could not disgree more about the economic future of Minneapolis. He apparently views a massive public subsidy of a billion-dollar football stadium as insignificant compared to the tsunami of wealth coming our way. What I see are rising taxes, underwater mortgages, increasing gas and oil prices, and continuing economic instability. I would certainly prioritize an investment in future food security over a 30-year subsidy for a New Jersey billionaire’s sports palace.
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‘What’s that smell from City Hall’ inspires counter-attack from Scallon and Kozack
BY ED FELIEN
When the article “What’s that smell from City Hall?” was published on the Minneapolis Issues List it inspired a response from former Council Member Tony Scallon and Andy Kozack, the lobbyist for Glen Taylor and the Timberwolves.
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Nokomis ‘500’ card club welcomes new members
BY AGNES SWANSON
A group of seniors has been meeting more than 30 years on Monday mornings at 9 a.m. at the Lake Nokomis Community Center. In 1984 more than 50 players attended faithfully, enjoying fellowship and great fun as we competed for top honors. Sadly, our numbers have dwindled to less than 12.
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Who can the U.S. military legally
kill when not engaged in a war?
BY POLLY MANN
In The New York Times of March 6, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. claimed that it is lawful for the government to kill American citizens if officials deem them to be operational leaders of Al Qaeda planning attacks on the United States, and if capturing them alive is not feasible.
My oh my.
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Community Meeting to discuss the new Vikings Stadium
BY ED FELIEN
Mayor Rybak and Council Member Sandy Colvin Roy will host a community meeting to discuss the proposed new Vikings Stadium at the Nokomis Community Center, 2401 E. Minnehaha Pkwy., on Tuesday, April 10, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The mayor and seven members of the Minneapolis City Council, including Sandy Colvin Roy, have supported a proposal that would give $150 million of the city’s money for construction costs of the new stadium and $7.5 million every year for 30 years for upkeep and maintenance of the stadium, even though the City will not own the building. Council Member Gary Schiff, who opposes the deal, estimates the total cost to the City could be more than $600 million.
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Bechtel is in charge at Prairie Island
BY ED FELIEN
A year ago Bechtel announced it had been “selected by Xcel Energy to provide engineering, field engineering, and construction services at the utility’s Monticello and Prairie Island nuclear generating plants in Minnesota.”
Bechtel was the principal force behind a conglomerate that bought the Cochabomba, Bolivia, water supply and then raised the rates by 35%, depriving poor people of water. Demonstrations and protests in January 2000 eventually drove Bechtel out of Bolivia. That mass movement contributed to the 2005 election of left-wing populist Evo Morales as president.
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100% renewable
BY ED FELIEN
A study released March 13 is claiming that wind and solar can supply 100% of Minnesota’s electricity by 2050. According to ”Renewable Minnesota” by Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research; Christina Mills, J.D., Staff Scientist/Policy Analyst, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research; and M.V. Ramana, Ph.D., Princeton University, “Minnesota has the ability to meet current and future electricity demand, using only in-state renewable energy resources. Our analysis has shown it is possible to meet the hourly electricity demand of the state’s largest utility using a combination of wind energy, solar PV and storage [Compressed Air Energy Storage, Pumped Hydro Energy Storage, biomass and hydropower], at a manageable cost if it is combined with efficiency improvements.
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School reform covers many facets of education
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Bernadeia H. Johnson, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools |
As leaders of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), we are often surprised but pleased by the number of people who fervently follow the ebb and flow of teacher contract talks. We need more people paying attention to the critical issues pertaining to public education in our country. We commend the intelligent public discourse on these issues and we feel it is important that the commitment and enthusiasm people have for this work continue. Now is the time when the systems, the people and the passion are aligned. Knowledgeable individuals can only help us in our work to make the necessary changes to state and local policies that lead to practices that yield positive outcomes for the city’s youth.
While reading articles, blog posts and editorials, we sometimes wonder if people truly understand the complexities of our work. Education reform: what does that really mean? It is so much more than making adjustments to the teachers’ contract.
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Attack of the billionaires
 It was a total lockdown. As jet after jet swept in surreptitiously with top brass and political decision-makers on board, every entrance to the site of the super-secret Coachella Valley planning summit was secured and patrolled by armed guards and helicopters.
This was not a clandestine gathering of America’s allies in Afghanistan, but a pow-wow of some 300 über-rich corporate plutocrats and their political hirelings—all intent on obliterating President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign with an unprecedented deluge of viciously-negative attack ads. Hosted by the billionaire Koch brothers [Charles and David] at the posh Renaissance Esmeralda golf resort in California’s Palm Springs desert in early February, the confabulees were mobilizing and monetizing what Charles Koch called the “mother of all wars.” That would be their self-proclaimed war to enthrone their ilk over workers, consumers, the environment—and democracy itself.
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April
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Burn Notice
The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) is planning prescribed burns of the buffer vegetation at all three Lake Nokomis retention ponds. Minnesota Native Landscapes will be acquiring the necessary permits and performing the burns sometime in April to mid-May as weather allows. The Minneapolis Park Board will be sending out notices to nearby residents before the burns. If you have any concerns or questions, please call Tiffany Forner (MCWD) at 952-641-4513.
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April 2012 
