Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/tom-niemisto/)
The civic process works best when all people have a voice at the table. With a population of nearly 150,000 in Minnesota, the Muslim-American community is stepping up engagement in the public policy debate.
With the release of our most recent report, Building Cross-cultural Commerce, Minnesota 2020 is highlighting ways we should reach out to new Minnesotans, immigrants, and refugees to continue new economic development avenues that keep consumer dollars local.We visited the African Development Center in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, which is doing exciting work to enhance financial literacy, business development, and home ownership. The Afro Deli & Coffee shop is the ADC’s business venture startup, which serves East-African food with an American perspective. Continue Reading
Even though the economic downturn has hit Minnesota electricians hard, they haven’t stopped giving back to the community. For five years, two local unions have donated their time and labor for the Holiday Lights in the Park display. The annual exhibit uses around 100,000 high efficiency LED bulbs, which helps keep down the fundraiser’s energy cost to about $20 per night.
Don’t think you do anything to harm (or help) the Mississippi? Continue Reading
The health of the Mississippi River is improving. However there are new threats from urban and farm runoff and invasive species that we must combat in the coming years. Those are the results released today from a comprehensive National Park Service-Friends of the Mississippi River report.Read the full report here and check their stewardship guide here to find out what you can do. Continue Reading
Now that Minnesota students and families are going back to school, it’s also a constructive time to revisit policy around bullying in our schools.
We saw it in Wisconsin, Ohio, up in sugar beet country, and last summer’s government shutdown. The Midwest has become a battleground for a war of ideas: Community vs. privatization, competition vs. cooperation.
Macalester College professor of history Peter Rachleff has had an eye on changing trends in global economics stemming from events close to home.
This week marks the centennial of folksinger Woody Guthrie’s birth. It’s also been a year since American Crystal Sugar locked out its workers.
This week marks a full year for American Crystal Sugar’s locked out workers in Northwest Minnesota and North Dakota.
White moving vans have been circling the Twin Cities in recent weeks, ducking in to side alleys to collect discarded bed mattresses.