Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/bkeller49/page/8/)
A man and woman are in the car ahead, and the car has a veteran’s license plate. Which one is the veteran?Most people would identify the man. But maybe this time it’s the woman. As the number of women in the military grows, so does the number of women vets.Life in the military can be hard for women. Like that license plate response, the military system was created with men in mind. Continue Reading
Small, quaint, intimate, private, relatable — words to describe the space and the open house held by the Sexual Violence Center in North Minneapolis. Annex Teen Clinic, UROC, and the Minneapolis Police Department were all a part of the many groups and organizations that attended this event held January 13.Executive Director Kristen Houlton Sukura says, “We are a rape crisis center. We work three counties — Hennepin, Carver and Scott. We’re an advocacy agency… We’re not therapy. We are not a clinic. Continue Reading
As reported by the Camden News last summer, the Penn Avenue Community Works Project has a collaborative team comprised of Hennepin County, City of Minneapolis, and Metro Transit employees. The project’s purpose is to enhance the economic, livability and mobility along Penn Avenue which will ultimately improve the quality of life for Northsiders. The team’s first project effort is to make transportation for Northside residents both affordable and accessible by implementing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) that will extend from the Brooklyn Center Transit Center to downtown Minneapolis—which will conveniently connect passengers to the light rails. The Green Light Rail runs between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the Blue Light Rail proceeds to the Mall of America in Bloomington. Continue Reading
Learn why the Hmong people immigrated to the United States in this short video created by Hmong Pioneers youth interns. Continue Reading
Last month, the City of Minneapolis launched its open data portal, a website that provides online access to municipally collected information.People who visit the site (opendate.minneapolismn.gov) can see fire and police incidents, 311 calls and crime statistics. Data also show property rental locations and open liquor licenses. Air quality, digital inclusion and neighborhood revitalization are additional areas covered on the site.Rollout of the website is the result of an August vote in which the City Council made Minneapolis the 16th city in the U.S. to pass an open data policy. The intention: Make city information easily accessible for residents to increase transparency and improve quality of life.Before the portal, residents and other people who wanted city data were required to complete a Freedom of Information Act request. Now with constant access to data, people can learn more about where they live by just going online.While an innovation for Minneapolis, the open data portal provides information on only a fraction of the City’s functions and services. Continue Reading
High school students often face challenges and discrimination as they work to discover and define their sexual identities. This documentary is about the LGBT community in schools and some of the problems LGBT students face. Its focus is the transgender community struggle to be recognized and respected in light of an anti-transgender advertisement run in the Star Tribune last fall.This video was directed by Luis, Yesenia and Matthew in the VOICES class of 2014-2015. VOICES stands for Values, Options, Issues and Choices Explored in Society. Students in the VOICES class create social issue documentaries with the guidance of teachers Delainia Haug and Laura Lanik and Teaching Artist/videomaker John Akre. Continue Reading
My mother came to America for one reason and one reason only. The “American Dream.”What she didn’t know was the land we held onto might be sacrificed for that dream.She came from Somalia, which was going through a civil war at the time. My mom fled to Europe in 1992 while pregnant with my eldest brother. Soon after, my two older siblings, Zamzam and Abdinaim, and I were born in Bonn, Germany.She wanted us to have the best life, filled with opportunities she never had. The only place to do that was America.Coming here when I was only three, my family and I soon realized that we needed to learn English in order to succeed. Continue Reading
Rich Westerberg reviews Duluth’s Bent Paddle Brewing’s Madagascar Vanilla Cold Press Black.
Every year before the holidays for the past ten years, the World Mission Prayer League, located in a mansion and office building in the Loring Park Neighborhood, puts on a Curry Dinner for the neighborhood. The dinner also raises money for Citizens for a Loring Park Community, the neighborhood organization. And it also gives neighbors a chance to talk and meet and build community. Here is a look at this year’s curry dinner. Continue Reading
Miles Giaehgwaeh Thompson, co-winner of college lacrosse’s top honor last year with his younger brother Lyle, arrived in the Twin Cities on Jan. 2 to a hero’s welcome before he had even played in his first National Lacrosse League game.Twin Cities Native American Lacrosse Club youth players, coaches and families joined other members of the local Native community to greet Thompson with banners and an honor song as he arrived at the Minneapolis airport. He was all smiles as he posed for photos and signed autographs for the fans in the airport’s baggage claim area.The next night, Thompson scored three goals and one assist in his NLL debut at the Xcel Center before a crowd of almost 9,000 fans. Although the Swarm lost 20-13 to Colorado, the team’s native players – forwards Thompson (Onondaga from New York), veteran Corbyn Tao (Nishga First Nation from British Columbia) and returning Swarm star Dean Hill (Turtle Clan Mohawk from Six Nations) – accounted for more than half the scoring, with Tao and Hill adding two goals each.When Hill fed Thompson the ball for one of his goals, a group of fans in the corner of the arena held up a large Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) flag and danced.It was just the sort of welcome and excitement for the Creator’s game that Thompson was expecting.“When I was talking to different (National Lacrosse League general managers) and trying to decide where I wanted to play, my brother Lyle told me about Minnesota,” Thompson said by phone before he boarded his flight to Minnesota. “He said the Swarm draws a big crowd and they really love lacrosse. Continue Reading