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Blight Fight: Minneapolis, St. Paul receive housing bucks, but who benefits?

It’s nearly impossible to travel through Minneapolis and not witness the remains of the foreclosure crisis. Entire streets are left empty and dark. Historic homes have been turned into picked-apart skeletons. And as one foreclosure unfolds, its seeds take root in neighboring homes and streets, causing home prices to plummet and the mortgage mess to accelerate. The problem is especially visible on the city’s North side, where more than 800 homes are on the city’s vacant properties list. MORE »

Recount roundup: the final stretch?

After taking a Thanksgiving break, the Minnesota recount is back, with about 14 counties to go and 10 percent of ballots still to be counted. With Friday’s final-count deadline looming, here’s a recap of recent news: Tough math for Franken, Palin v. Ludicris, and another 599 looks at screwy ballots. MORE »

Responsible budget forecasting should acknowledge reality

Back in 2002, House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty and Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe were gearing up for runs for the governor’s office. However, a looming budget deficit anticipated for the upcoming biennium was a liability for both leaders. Neither man wanted to run for the state’s highest office with the state’s long-term budget deep in the red. MORE »

A change in the air: The minneAppleseed Passive House

On a cool gray morning in early November, I meet Tim Eian, a young Minneapolis building designer, at the corner of Lowry and North Fourth Street in North Minneapolis’s Hawthorne neighborhood. “This is it,” he says, gesturing to a brick eightplex, his blue eyes lit with excitement. Every window in the building is covered with plywood or plastic. On one boarded-up window, someone has scrawled “R.I.P.” According to Tim, the building, like many houses in the neighborhood, will be demolished soon. But he is more concerned with the lot. MORE »

VOICES | Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’ worked

Former President Richard Nixon might well be turning over in his grave with satisfaction for the results of the election on November 4 because of the fact that the political strategy he initiated more than 40 years ago was successful. Yet, for his party it has proved to be dismal failure. MORE »

Blogs

Articles we are working on

December 1, 2008 – We are working on stories on:

• Jordan Area Community Council
• Minnesota Court of Appeals appellate mediation project
• What’s happening to the 3M property in Dayton’s Bluff?

If you have information, anecdotes, or ideas about these stories, we want to hear from you — email editor@tcdailyplanet.net MORE »

Things People Say

Advise and Dissent: Sparkle Jones

What would you like to tell president-elect Barack Obama? Advise and Dissent features opinions on what the new president should be thinking and doing. This opinion came from Your Turn — Teens advise the next president on what youth need.

Abortion: I believe taking away a woman’s right to abortion is taking away her freedom. There are diverse reasons why abortion is the best option. There may be rape; few people want a reminder of a traumatic event. There may also be financial issues; many women just can’t afford children. Additionally, women with weak emotional states frequently turn to alcohol and drugs and this dependency leads to abuse and/or neglect of her kids … If a woman makes this call, or wants the option to make this call, why do people pass judgment? Hard decisions are based on beliefs and if you make a decision based on what you believe, then everyone should both accept and respect your decision. — Sparkle Jones, 17, Humboldt High School MORE »

Now Playing

THEATER | "White Sheep of the Family," a sharp farce at Theatre in the Round

You’re not going to find a stronger theater company in the Twin Cities than the Theatre in the Round Players, and they’ve done it again, mounting yet another first-rate production. The White Sheep of the Family, by L. du Garde Peach and Ian Hay, is a splendidly written, sharply directed, beautifully acted farce you’re going to rush home and tell family, friends—pretty much anyone who’ll listen—all about. MORE »

Videos

The gun

A short narrative film about the dangers of guns in the community. Made by teens in the summer 2008 AVID! film program at Phillips Community Television (PCTV). MORE »

Slide Show

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (1)

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Students from St Paul’s Open School seal pouches of emergency food aid for Kids Against Hunger, a national organization that mobilizes schoolchildren to support emergency relief efforts in America and around the world.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (1)

IMG_1451.jpg

Students from St Paul’s Open School seal pouches of emergency food aid for Kids Against Hunger, a national organization that mobilizes schoolchildren to support emergency relief efforts in America and around the world.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (2)

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Each pouch makes a “hot dish” for 8 made of rice, dried chicken broth and vitamins, soy protein, 7 kinds of dried vegetables.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (3)

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Kids work in teams of four, each one putting a different ingredient in the bags using a large funnel. Teachers and high school-age students circulate around the Open School gym giving advice and helping out.

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (4)

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The gym at Open is a filled with excited shouts, laughter, and loud music. It’s almost like the students are having a party.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (5)

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Tim Leone-Getten, a ELL teacher at Open, has organized this event and several more like it over the last several years at Open.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (6)

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At a similar event earlier this year, Leone-Getten says, Open Students pakced 47,000 meals.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (7)

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Every Open student gets in on the act, working in five, 50 minute-long shifts. Some help move boxes and load meals into a waiting tractor-trailer, but most fill, seal, and pack bags. At shift-change, the third-floor hallway is a mad traffic jam as one grade returns to class and another takes their place.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (8)

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Sullaiman and Ceyairra guard the gym door. No-one gets in without hand-sanitizer and a hairnet or a hat.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (9)

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Faith, the sister of Assistant Principal Al Levin, first connected Leone-Getten to the Kids Against Hunger Program’s Stewart, Minnesota chapter. She helps coordinate a similar program with the same Kids Against Hunger chapter at Highlands Elementary School in Edina, where her children go to school.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (10)

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John Neisen, the “volunteer director, oil changer, and truck driver,” as he put it, of the local Kids Against Hunger chapter was on hand to help. Kids Against Hunger is entirely volunteer-run, Neisen said, and pack all their food aid through events like these. According to their brochure, the Stewart chapter of K.A.H. packed 6.5 million meals last year ; since 2003, they have pacekd 16.5 million. “The number keeps going up every year,” Niesen said.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Kids Against Hunger at St Paul's Open School (11)

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Most of the food packed on Friday will go to Haiti, but increasingly, Neisen said, more of the food they pack stays in the US, donated to local food pantries struggling to meet rising demand.

Photographer / Artist: 
James Sanna

Photos

Dead pumpkin

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A squirrel’s work is never done.

Photographer / Artist: 
Alan Wilfahrt
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