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Have a Monarch in your backyard. There will be a Growing Monarch Habitat Workshop with Garden-to-Go Kits on Saturday, May 26, from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Nokomis Community Center, 2401 E. Minnehaha Pkwy. Preregistration and a $25.00 fee is required. The fee includes the workshop and resource materials.
To register and reserve your Monarch Garden-to-Go Kit contact the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association, 3000 E. 50th St., by May 18 or call 612-724-5652.
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Put them on a shorter leash!
BY ED FELIEN
 Dogs make wonderful pets. They are, generally, affectionate and loyal, but they need to be kept on a short leash. Otherwise they can knock down small children and tear up the neighbors’ gardens. And they might run off onto some merry misadventure because they smell some message in the air or sniff something left on a fire hydrant.
The same is true for our elected officials. They are, during an election year, affectionate and loyal, but when elections seem distant they sometimes smell something in the air that sends them off chasing wild and expensive dreams.
When the Village of St. Anthony Falls began more than 150 years ago, the citizens appreciated the value of democracy and the need to rein in elected ...
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The city and the state abolish civilian oversight of the police
BY MICHELLE GROSS, COMMUNITIES UNITED AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY
On Friday, April 6, Governor Mark Dayton signed into law SF1981, a
really terrible bill that guts community oversight of police. This law was pushed by the Minneapolis Police Federation, ever concerned
about the community’s access to complaint data and the potential that a good police chief might actually discipline some of their rogue
members. After we won our lawsuit opening up access to the data, they had to figure out another way to shut things down, and it’s a damned
shame that Dayton helped them. In a signing statement Dayton said “... serious concerns have been expressed about the Minneapolis
Civilian Review Authority, prompting the city to begin its own review.” Too bad this bill, which essentially guts the Civilian Review Authority, does absolutely nothing to improve the situation.
The city claims to have opposed the bill but did precious little to stop it.
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Stadium meeting and Rybak Dancing with the Stars
[Editor’s Note:] The Minnesota Legislature has approved a Vikings stadium. The Minneapolis share of the costs range from $680 million (city estimate) to almost $900 million (state estimate). The deal must be approved by the City Council. Please call your council members: John Quincy at 612-673-2211 and Sandy Colvin Roy at 612-673-2212, especially if you can think of a better way to spend that money.
There was a community meeting Tuesday, April 10, at the Nokomis Recreation Center, hosted by Mayor Rybak, to explain his proposal for Minneapolis funding of a Vikings stadium. Charley Underwood made the following observations:
“Immediately striking was the disproportionate number of men compared to women. I counted 35 women to 94 men. The proportion was approximately three men for each woman.
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The media
BY TONY BOUZA
“If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the latter.” Thomas Jefferson
A free press is the most important institution in a democracy.
While in public life I was frequently embroiled in heated controversies that prompted many to ask me, “Is the press fair to you?”
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Minneapolis Public Schools
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Bernadeia H. Johnson, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools |
On Tuesday, April 17, the Minneapolis Board of Education approved a new two-year labor contract with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) that supports and advances student achievement. The teachers’ union and MPS reached agreement on key issues such as providing students with more time to learn, allowing teachers more time to effectively prepare for classes each day and establishing a more collaborative and focused professional development plan.
This contract is only one cornerstone of our reform efforts to turn around underperforming schools and improve academic outcomes for all students. We take the challenge of educational improvement seriously and are launching some substantial revisions to our structure and practice to build momentum for increasing success in our most struggling schools. This work includes focused instruction – what we teach, how we teach and how we measure student progress; teacher evaluation that is both supportive and meaningful; partnering with successful charter schools like Harvest Preparatory; and utilizing instructional time, including summer school, more effectively.
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The hungry insurgent
If you have decided to try gardening for the very first time and you are not sure where to start, this month’s column is for you. For a change I have a good amount of expertise, since I myself am a fairly recent gardener and I remember most of my mistakes. Here are my suggestions.
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Living easy (and healthy) in the summer
BY RAINA GOLDSTEIN
BUNNAG
 Record breaking high temperatures in the winter and spring caught many of us off guard. The warming trend is predicted to continue this summer with even hotter days. While not everyone can agree on what is causing the scorching weather, many of its health implications are immediate and undeniable and affect us all.
To prepare you for the hot months ahead, I consulted with Steve Zuckerman, MD (Minneapolis) and Ian Kenning, MD (Healthpartners – Nokomis Clinic) on how to say safe and healthy. Get ready for a great summer and protect yourself with these tips:
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Hiawatha Avenue and Franson’s Folly
BY ED FELIEN
This year there are three candidates for U. S. Senate living in the area of South Minneapolis served by Southside Pride: the DFL incumbent Amy Klobuchar, Mike Cavlan, an independent progressive, and Dick Franson.
Dick Franson has run for everything except a fast moving train. He was elected to the City Council for one term from 1963 to 1965 from the 12th Ward. Since then he’s run unsuccessfully for secretary of state, Railroad and Warehouse Commission; mayor; City Council; and the U.S. Senate in 1976, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2008 and now again in 2012.
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Antiwar art: An idea whose time has come—again
BY JANET CONTURSI
Social and political contradictions—a daily reality of life in America—are often tough to acknowledge, and most of us spend our days ignoring or denying the most egregious of them.
Take war. The hard truth is that war kills people, harms the environment, bankrupts nations, destroys international relations, endangers democracy and rarely solves political disagreements. Americans have lived with uninterrupted war for over a decade, yet we are in denial about its consequences. Against all logic, and despite all evidence to the contrary, we consistently elect only presidents who wage or promise to wage more war, and we support politicians who claim that war is necessary for our security. How does one resolve the contradiction between the myths and realities of war?
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FROM WHERE I STAND
Tracing my roots
BY POLLY MANN
A friend recently asked me if I would say a few words at a meeting focused on homosexuality. Sure, I said, thinking I would add to my remarks mention of my twin nephews who died from AIDS. My first knowledge of homosexuality was vague whispers when I barely knew what sexuality was, much less homosexuality. My mother’s comments about the two men who shared an apartment above ours was that they “should get over it.” The society has come a long way since then in recognition that this is a human and natural characteristic. In some indigenous populations the homosexual was considered a prophet, one having special gifts.
This conversation brought to mind so many values and beliefs that I hold which are so very much different, maybe even opposed, to those I was taught. Much of my education has been in dispelling so-called truths of my youth.
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The slickest stunt at SeaWorld
by Jim Hightower
Let me tell you a corporate morality tale that I call: “The Shame of Shamu.”
Actually, Shamu is not the cause of the shame. After all, that’s just the generic name given to the killer whales kept in captivity as the star attraction at three theme parks operated by SeaWorld Inc. The shame belongs to the corporation, which not only profits from its exploitation of the whales, but also manages to dodge paying even a penny in national or state income taxes. Based in Orlando, this giant outfit pocketed record profits of $380 million last year, but paid zero taxes on it.
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May
Nokomis Community Calendar
ANNOUNCEMENTS
From the Anti-War Committee: The Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8) announ-ced yesterday that it plans its major march on Sunday, May 20. The President has moved the G8 meeting to Camp David and the NATO meeting won’t start until Sunday. The joint efforts of the Occupy Wallstreet and the anti-war movements scared Obama from hosting the joint summit of the bankers and their generals during a campaign year. CANG8 moved the protest to Sunday so that we will be protesting the warmakers during the NATO summit meeting. This is our chance to say no to the war on Afghanistan and all NATO wars, and to demand money for human needs and not for war to the 1% generals. We hope that you’ll still come with the Anti-War Commit-tee and WAMM to Chicago even thought the protest has been pushed back by 24 hours. Questions about tickets: Contact April from WAMM at 612-823-5989 or the Anti-War Committee at info@antiwarcommittee.org.
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| Nokomis Religious Calendar |
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Two thousand five hundred kids in the metro area are without a home. Join Lutheran Social Service to strike out youth homelessness. Tickets ($30) for the July 19 St. Paul Saints game will include an infield reserved seat, silent auction and other activities and a dinner of hot dogs, hamburgers, pulled chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, etc. Out of each ticket $9 is donated directly to the LSS Metro Homeless Youth Program. Buy tickets by June 25 at www.lssmn.org/strikeout
Join the Dignity Not Detention campaign to repeal mandatory immigrant detentions, preserve human rights and restore justice. Faith Action Vigils are held all first Sundays of the month at 2:30 p.m. at Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, 425 Grove St., St. Paul 55101. For more information e-mail campaign@detentionwatchnetwork.org
Spiritual discussions don’t always take place in houses of worship. Sometimes they crop up in other venues that might surprise you. The producers of “Buddha and a Beer” believe there is more to talk about than what is being talked about. Cut through the noise of our current society and you find there are questions, answers and an ultimate peace, they say. “The answers aren’t always apparent. The peace isn’t always, either. We learn there are tools one can use to dance around these questions. It leaves the seeker with more peace and more understanding. The experience becomes ecstatic. Electric.” Attend this interview forum for discussion, music and suds with hosts Jim Walsh and Pete Christensen at the Bryant Lake Bowl, 810 W. Lake St., Mondays at 7 p.m. Doors are at 6. $10.
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May 2012 
