Getting insurance is just the start

By |

Good news from MNsure: in the first seven months of its operation, Minnesota’s uninsured rate has dropped by 40 percent. That represents over 180,500 more people with health insurance. The majority of these enrollees have signed up for expanded public insurance programs, but many others have purchased private coverage. (Many people who previously had coverage have also switched to more affordable MNsure options.) Minnesota’s uninsured rate is currently just 4.9 percent, which is our state’s lowest rate ever and the second-lowest in the nation. Continue Reading

20 years later, bisexuals still feel left out

By |

Co-founder Victor Raymond remembers that they almost canceled the first BECAUSE conference when they realized the night before that only 12 people had signed up. They decided to follow through, and the next day over 120 participants showed up to register.That was back in 1992. Now the BECAUSE conference, which stands for Bisexual Empowerment Conference, A Uniting Supportive Experience, draws more than 200 participants from all over the United States every year. The conference, sponsored by local nonprofit Bisexual Organizing Project, aims to bring higher visibility to the sexual orientation, which advocates claim is mostly ignored in mainstream society. The event also provides a forum for support and activism for the bisexual movement. Continue Reading

Just how sticky is his wicket? Dayton says broad medical marijuana demands are just Beltway-spawned pot plot

By |

Not one to let one of Carly Melin’s peculiar talking points about her former allies go to waste, Governor Mark Dayton told members of the ECM Editorial Board that criticisms of Minnesota’s highly restrictive new medical marijuana program came from “Washington, D.C.-based organizations whose mission is to legalize marijuana.” Continue Reading

“Miracles Can Happen” celebrates expansion of Karamu Garden in north Minneapolis

By |

A diverse mix of city and community leaders gathered with north side residents and community partners June 2 to celebrate the expansion of Karamu Garden in north Minneapolis.Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges helped preside over the garden groundbreaking and dedication ceremony entitled “Miracles Can Happen,” along with Barry Sanders, President and Chief Operating Officer of Scotts Miracle-Gro, members of Project Sweetie Pie, the Black Storytellers Alliance and a host of others. Attendees enjoyed free hot dogs and refreshments, a health fair, commemorative speeches, and live entertainment from musician Blair Lee, and Asian Media Alliance performers whose ribbons danced in the blustery wind.Karamu Garden, located on 1600 Plymouth Avenue North, and the city of Minneapolis, are one of five national recipients of a grant through the U.S. Council of Mayors by Scotts Miracle-Gro’s GRO1000 program. The program is dedicated to creating more than 1,000 community gardens and green spaces in the U.S., Canada and Europe by 2018. Project Sweetie Pie founder Michael Chaney sees the Plymouth Avenue location of Karamu Garden as fertile ground for his broader vision. “Plymouth Avenue is the Nile of the North!” proclaimed Chaney. “I’d like this garden to be the impetus for a Plymouth Avenue makeover, with Karamu Garden becoming the Rose Garden of north Minneapolis.”Karamu Garden has been redesigned to become a municipal community garden with food planted and harvested as a givng garden, unfolding over the next three years. Continue Reading

Volunteers help seniors live independently in the St. Paul Midway neighborhood

By |

Jo Ann Olsen said volunteering for Hamline Midway Elders was her husband’s final request before he died.“When my husband was dying, he says to me: ‘One of the things I want you to do, when you have everything settled, I want you to go to the Hamline Midway Elders,’” Olsen said. “And that’s how I started volunteering here, and I’m glad that I did it.”Part of the Living At Home Network and based in Hamline Methodist Church in St. Paul, Hamline Midway Elders was founded in 2001 with the mission of providing services to help seniors live independently in their own homes.This organization is small — a two-person staff, Service and Volunteer Director Monica Gallagher and Program Director Tom Fitzpatrick — and uses 40 to 50 volunteers. Volunteers include people 40 to 60 years of age living in the community as well as college students, including students from nearby Hamline University. (Hamline’s students provide more than volunteer time: one class organized a fundraiser, presenting Fitzpatrick with a check for $1,345 in donations at a conference last month.)Community Sketchbook focuses on the economic and social challenges facing communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, and how people are trying to address them. Continue Reading

Toxic Tater Coalition spreads the word, NOT the fungicides

By |

They had me with their branding – the Toxic Taters Coalition. In my world potatoes are equated with manna from heaven. And any pesticide that comes between me and potatoes is toxic by definition! So when I heard that the Toxic Taters Coalition will be visiting Minneapolis on Wednesday, June 4, it was a call to action. It didn’t take long for me to discover I had much to learn. Continue Reading