CORRECTION 7/31/2012 – All it is for now is a faculty member’s dream. Lynn Stansberry-Brusnahan, a special education professor at St. Thomas whose son has autism, wants to start a program at the university tailored for students with autism. She would set up structured social time for students whose disability makes them struggle to find a place among their peers. She would offer supportive housing, nested within mainstream dorms. And advisors would help students with the time management caveats that tend to trip up students with autism. Continue Reading
There’s going to be a bee bike, a yarn-bomb bike, a mermaid bike, a rainbow bike, a garden bike and more wildly decorated two-wheelers on view come mid-August when artist Carrie Christensen’s Wayfi
CORRECTION: As a commenter has noted, this article contained some fairly significant inaccuracies in the list of candidates. It has now been revised. Voters in Hennepin County’s 2nd Commissioner District (North and Northeast Minneapolis) have some head-scratching to do – not just about which candidate to support for the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners but also about the terms and areas the elected person will serve.It all started when Commissioner Mark Stenglein resigned from the Board, effective May 31, to become president and CEO of the Downtown Minneapolis Council. That left vacant two years of his unfinished term representing the 2nd Commissioner District.And then came the redistricting process, required as a result of the 2010 Census. Any district that had more than a five percent change in population had to be redistricted. The 2nd District, now vacant, basically lost New Hope and Crystal to the 1st District (Commissioner Mike Opat) while the 1st District no longer includes residents in Minneapolis. Continue Reading
It’s impressive enough to play in two acclaimed local bands, all the more so to do it simultaneously. The July 10 bill at the Amsterdam Bar & Hall is packed with four top acts—Zoo Animal, Is/Is, Chambermaids, and Gospel Gossip—two of which (Is/Is and Gospel Gossip) feature the passionate singer/songwriter/guitarist. Until Blind Faith opens for Derek & the Dominoes, this is about as good as this sort of thing is going to get.
HARDIN, MONTANA—In character as George Armstrong Custer, actor Steve Alexander rode down Medicine Tail Coulee and across the Little Big Horn River several times one June weekend, making the crossing that Custer failed to accomplish 136 years earlier when he tried to attack a large village of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women and children.Custer was defeated in less than an hour on June 25, 1876, while parts of his command under Major Marcus Reno and Capt. Frederick Benteen several miles away held of attacks from a hilltop for two days until reinforcements arrived. News of the battle did not reach the nation until July 4 during the national Centennial celebration.Alexander and the 7th Cavalry rode across the river for the opening and closing ceremonies of annual reenactments of Custer’s last fight that killed 263 of the solders trying to reach the camp.Two battles, two perspectives“The land, Mother Earth, is really the star,” said rancher and poet Henry Real Bird, director of the Crow Indian reenactment and owner of the land. “People are drawn to the site, and I grew tired of answering the same questions 200 times a day about what happened here, so we decided to do this program to show them.”On a hillside 25 miles north and west of Medicine Tail Coulee, the Hardin Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture hosts a competing reenactment which also boasts a Crow author, Joe Medicine Crow, a descendant of Custer’s scout White Man Runs Him.The chamber traced the roots of its reenactment to a cooperative project begun by Hardin and the Crow tribe from 1964 to 1973, when it was suspended because of protests by the American Indian Movement. In 1990, the show returned as an annual event. Real Bird, though, said the chamber moved their reenactment to the hillside along the railroad tracks and revised the story.“It’s their story told in their version,” he said.“We’re walking the very ground—living the history where it happened,” Real Bird said. Continue Reading
UPDATED AND CORRECTED 7/2/2012: For many Minnesotans, Independence Day means fireworks, flags, and outdoor barbeques. This July, members of the Twin Cities Metro Independent Business Alliance (MetroIBA) encourage you to “Celebrate Your Independents” all month long by shopping at local, independent stores. Twenty-five local businesses are offering special deals during the month of July, including The Wedge, St. Paul Corner Drug, and Midwest Mountaineering. With each purchase, shoppers will gain a chance to become one of two people to win $1,250 in gift cards from participating MetroIBA member businesses.
CORRECTED 6/29/2012: A year and a half ago, Governor Mark Dayton asked Kathy Tunheim to serve as a senior adviser, working to generate a public discussion on jobs and job creation. Tunheim is the principal and CEO for Tunheim Associates, a public relations and media firm and is the president of IPREX, a worldwide network of public relations firms. Her job as senior adviser to the governor for job creation is a part-time, volunteer position.When asked what she and the administration hoped to accomplish, Tunheim said that they want to start a discussion that asks: “What do facts and analysis say about what will drive job growth and economic vitality in Minnesota; what kinds of jobs should Minnesota focus on creating and where is our competitive advantage; and what are the specific opportunities before us and how do we seize them?” One year later, said Tunheim, “We thought the most important thing was to listen.” Since January 2011, when Dayton took office, she and her colleagues working with the administration asked, “What are you seeing that is creating jobs? What’s working? What are the things that really get in the way?She said different parts of the state are facing different challenges and are facing different economies. “In the metropolitan urban core, there is a misalignment between the jobs that employers are trying to fill and what the skill sets are,” Tunheim said. The challenge in northwest Minnesota is quite different. Continue Reading
Sometimes a place is more than just a place, and a building is more than just a building. The Walker Community Church was a grassroots hub of community, spirituality, activism and art, and held in its walls a history of potlucks, community meals, church sales, meetings, organizing, politics, pancake breakfasts, dance, music, theater, and advocacy for a countless number of causes. The old building with the fluorescent painted sanctuary, bright banners drawn by children and floors that creaked every time you took a step, had space that glowed in the light through the stained glass windows and all sorts of strange nooks and crannies. All of it was full of love and creativity and leftist ideals and peace and hope.“It was the most amazing experience to watch that place burn,” said Sandra Spieler, artistic director of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre. “The first hour I just cried uncontrollably. Continue Reading
On Tuesday, May 15, National Law Enforcement Day, law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty will be honored with a day-long series of events. Among those whom the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association will honor for the first time will be C. Arthur Lyman, who was killed on May 22, 1934. Lyman was a so-called “Special Deputy,” who was given a badge and a club by the Hennepin County Sheriff and whose assignment was to club down striking truck drivers in the City Market during the historic 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strikes.Many of the “Special Deputies” who turned out on May 22 were upper class businessmen eagerly volunteering to beat up striking workers. They can be identified in historic photos of the battle in the market by their polo clothes, jodhpurs and boots.Two “Special Deputies” were killed in hand-to-hand combat on that day, Lyman and Peter Erath, a construction contractor. No member of the Minneapolis Police Department was killed nor any other employee of any other law enforcement agency.Nonetheless, the MNLEMA has chosen to include Lyman in their list of fallen heroes. Continue Reading
