Southside Pride


	Phillips/Powderhorn Nokomis Riverside

MAY 2007

	Phillips/Powderhorn:
	Lawsuit filed against immigration officials for raid against Latinos Maria Diaz’s cell phone woke her up at 6 a.m. on April 10. “They’re raiding houses. They just took my cousin away,” said a frantic voice. Her phone didn’t stop ringing all day. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting house-to-house raids in Willmar at dawn and people were terrified. Located 100 miles west of the Twin Cities, this town of 19,000 boasts 35 different ethnicities. Racial minorities account for 20 percent of the population. Many are immigrants who have a positive relationship with the community and contribute $80 million to the economy, according to MSNBC. read more MN Legislature wrangles over tax-the-rich bill— Gov. Pawlenty threatens veto if passed Two measures currently being considered in the Minnesota Legislature would bring both sorely needed dollars to strapped state programs and help balance a tax system that favors the state’s wealthiest. read more National Night Out— the time to make plans is right now This is a great time to get together with your neighbors at an event you design just for your block. Your event will give neighbors a chance to get to know each other better. When neighbors know and care about each other, they feel more comfortable reporting crime and suspicious behavior to police. More people watching out for each other and calling 911 will make your block a safer place. And it all can start (or be recharged) with your NNO event! read more Click here for a list of articles for May 2007

	Nokomis:
	Who takesWho takes responsibility at the MAC? At Northwest? Late last month the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a report on a serious accident that happened two years ago between two Northwest planes. A captain of a DC-9 noticed a loss of hydraulic pressure as he was leaving Columbus for Minneapolis. He notified the airport and Northwest declared an emergency just before the plane landed. read more Latin Essence Salon joins vibrant commercial area on lower Chicago Avenue The other day I made an appointment for the first pedicure of my life. Up until this time, as I approach retirement age, pedicures and manicures have never been part of my lifestyle. I grew up in a frugal, austere environment where nobody did such things and somehow that ethos has stayed with me. As a child, the most frivolous thing I ever heard of was a school chum’s mother taking long bubble baths, smoking and reading in the tub. read more What is Rolfing? Rolfing is a hands-on soft tissue technique for reordering the body to bring its major segments—head, shoulders, thorax, pelvis and legs—toward a vertical alignment. The goal of Rolfing in general is to lengthen the body, create better symmetry left to right, front to back, inside to outside, through a progression of ten hourly sessions. read more Click here for a list of articles for May 2007

	Riverside:

		Wi-Fi pilot program up and running in Seward neighborhood The City of Minneapolis has secured $500,000 from its local wireless internet partner US Internet to fund education programs and affordable computer hardware and software in order to help bring low income residents into the digital age.The first deposit of $300,000 has already been made with a digital advisory board made up of educators and local community activists who will decide how the money will be spent. read more The New Plantation Economy Way before George Washington became a slave owner, the Spanish were using kidnapped Africans in Hispañola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and later in the Gulf Coast states of Campeche, Veracruz and Yucatan, to raise hennequen and sugar cane. This was after the local population of Mayan and other native peoples had proven to be “untrainable,” and before the slaves were freed by Spanish decree and replaced by Mexican mestizos. read more Witnessing the decline of the French Left I spent a long evening last week at the victory celebration of Nicolas Sarkozy, the right-wing candidate in France’s presidential election. There were over 10,000 people, many of them quite young, assembled in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. This is where the guillotine stood during the revolution. A stage had been erected a few steps away from where that famous device had served as the “National Razor” in the 1790s, onto which the President-Elect emerged just after 11 p.m. read more Click here for a list of articles for May 2007