Understanding Arab culture through film: Mizna Arab Film Festival runs March 13-17

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Films from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Palestine, among other countries, will make up the Eighth Annual Mizna Arab Film Festival. The Festival runs March 14-17, 2013 at the Heights Theatre at 3951 Central Ave. NE and opens at Walker Art Center, March 13 with “OK, Enough, Goodbye,” a film about a single man whose mother eventually moves out. Variety calls it “humorous, melancholy, sardonic and wistful.”There will be an “Algeria in Focus” segment highlighting the modern history of Algeria through documentary and feature narrative films, and an “Ongoing Social Movement of the Arab World” theme, specifically highlighting Syria and Egypt.“The People and the Olive” is a documentary about an American group of long distance runners from On The Ground, who decide to run 129 miles across the West Bank of Palestine. They run to raise money from American donors to help third world countries. Continue Reading

Minneapolis: Public hearing on future of former Waite House building scheduled for January 16

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The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB) will hold a public hearing on Jan. 16 to decide whether to sell the Waite House building and lands to Banyan Community, a Christian community development corporation, or to In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater.There was a community meeting Dec. 11 that was attended by about 75 people, according to Brandi Olson, a participant. The vote was 56 in favor of Banyan and 12 for HOTB. On the Minneapolis Issues List she said, “Both organizations presented and answered questions. Continue Reading

Hello and good-bye to Dick’s Metropolitan Carpet

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Dick’s Metropolitan Carpet is moving off the corner. Dick and Dorothy Pitheon have been running their business on the corner of 48th and Chicago since 1978. They started at 4737 Chicago and then in 2002 they moved around the corner to 809 East 48th Street. They’re moving on Nov. 15 to a new location at 5611 Chicago Ave.

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OPINION | “Unusual event” at Prairie Island nuclear facility reminds us our watershed is at stake

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There was an “unusual event” on March 6 at the Prairie Island nuclear plant that seems to have escaped the local media but caught the attention of newspapers in western Wisconsin, the Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Chronicle in California and the Miami Herald in Florida.According to the official Xcel Energy statement: “Officials at the Prairie Island nuclear plant near Red Wing, Minn., declared a Notification of Unusual Event today at 6:24 a.m. Plant officials made the declaration when they received indication that there was a decrease in water levels inside the Reactor Coolant System (RCS) in Unit 2, which is currently undergoing a refueling outage.”How could water levels in the cooling system get low enough to reach dangerous levels? There are only two alternatives. Either the operators failed to notice the water level was getting low, or there was a leak in the system. Xcel: “Operators took immediate actions to respond, and further investigation revealed there was not a leak in the system.” Are they sure? How much confidence should we have in their investigation? Continue Reading