KSTP is HOT!

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by Rachel Dykoski • 11/8/08 • The day before the biggest elections of our lives, I had the chance at greatness. Scratch that, a new hotness: I could be seen by thousands of people and had the potential to help hundreds by manning the phones at KSTP during the morning and mid morning news programs representing the League of Women Voters of Minnesota. As my editor can attest, my timing isn’t the best, so I hopped on at 9:00 a.m. instead of insane o’clock. Channel 5 often runs a hot line during those peak times when people need information. Continue Reading

ALANA Summit

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More than 150 people particiapated in the first ALANA Green Summit on September 15 at Concordia University in St. Paul. Speakers, community leaders, educators, policy and labor leaders met to explore how ALANA communities (African, Latino, Asian and Native Americans) can help build and join a burgeoning green economy. “It was such a powerful meeting,” said Karen Monahan, of the Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota and North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. Monahan sat on a panel that discussed green jobs, and advocated green jobs for brown people. Continue Reading

El día de los inmigrantes

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Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network plans “El Dia de los Immigrantes” festival on Sunday, August 24th at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 2424 18th Avenue South, Minneapolis. MIFN’s festival follows the church’s 11:30 a.m. Spanish mass. “This celebration has two patron saints connected to it: St. Martin De Porres, and St. Frances Cabrini,” says says Alondra Kiawitl Espejel, Communications Organizer for MIFN. Continue Reading

VOICES Green jobs, now!

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It took 12 months, hundreds of calls, thousands of emails and a flexible team of dedicated community activists to bring green jobs to Oakland and Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota is poised to do the same for the Twin Cities. EJAM’s mission is simple, bring hope to a community broken by an exclusion/pollution-based economy, empower its citizens with information and skills and further, connect them to jobs and pathways out of poverty that can heal the broken community. We are activists walking the talk. We know our community is in need of inclusive/green solutions. We want green jobs now, for those who need it most. Continue Reading

Central Corridor Coalition wins national grant

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St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced in June that the city won one of the four grants being offered municipalities by the Ford Foundation. St. Paul’s grant is for development planning around the Central Corridor light rail line. Coleman said that the Central Corridor represents a “$1 billion investment opportunity that will forever change the face of St. Continue Reading

Green roof for City Hall

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On June 12, the City of Minneapolis and RSP Architects saw their vision come to fruition: A rooftop garden at 350 S. 5th Street received its finishing touches from the crew with Minnesota Native Landscapes. On what could be called the ‘mezzanine’ level of City Hall –just up the stairs from the rotunda, an interior roof has been spruced up to abate heat, use storm water and provide a soothing, pastoral scene in the midst of this concrete jungle. “The City and the council really wanted to do some visible, public project that would show a public building with a green roof,” said Diane Norman, business development director with RSP. “We wanted to show that we could walk the walk and talk the talk. This really is a great project.”
Minnesota Native Landscape, a Foley, MN-based company owned by John Garry and Joe Schaffer, has seen their services and contracts explode. Continue Reading

Missed out, but made a friend

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by Rachel Dykoski, 6/6/08 • Tonight’s feature film was a happening – Body of War, a documentary film witnessing the horror of youth stolen in an unjustified, potentially illegal war was due to be screened for conference attendees. Just after the dinner hour at 8 p.m. It sounds totally doable, right? But for many of us in need of sustenance or committed to networking events offsite it wasn’t. Continue Reading