Nathan Wold: How much did Jeff Johnson know about Cargill’s use of child slave labor?

By |

Current Republican candidate for Minnesota Governor, Jeff Johnson, was employed as a corporate attorney for Cargill from 1997-2001. According to the “About Jeff” bio on Johnson’s website, he worked at Cargill, Inc. “to handle employment and labor law matters.” It just so happens that some of the employees at Cargill around this time were child slave laborers, forced to work in Cargill’s supply chain.This is a Community Voices submission and is moderated but not edited. The opinions expressed by Community Voices contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the TC Daily Planet.Cargill is a large multinational corporation based in Minnetonka, MN. It is primarily in the business of buying, trading, and distributing agricultural commodities around the world. Some of these agricultural commodities include fruits such as oranges, cocoa (for the production of chocolate) and palm oil; all of which have been found to have used child slave labor to produce said crops. Continue Reading

Little Mekong Night Market drawing big crowds on University Avenue

By |

Expectations were modest when the Little Mekong Night Market launched earlier this summer in St. Paul.It was the first year for the open-air street festival, so organizers expected a small turnout for each of the four events — “a few hundred people per night market,” said Va-Megn Thoj, executive director of the Asian Economic Development Association.Consider those expectations shattered.Instead of a couple hundred people each night, a couple thousand have shown up. After three Night Markets, attendance has hit more than 6,000 visitors.And it’s not over.A final Night Market for the summer will be held from 5-10 p.m. Sept. 6 in the 400 block of University Avenue near Mai Village, and a day market is scheduled to coincide with St. Paul Open Streets from 12-4 p.m. on Sept. Continue Reading

All sales final: Roberts Shoes going out of business after 77 years

By |

Any time you see a Going Out of Business Sale sign, you know some lives are changing, as an institution is coming to its end. But what if that business has been in the same location, in the same family, and with only two owners, since 1937? That’s the story at the corner of Chicago and Lake, where the familiar green signs “Roberts Shoes” and “Hardly A Foot We Can’t Fit” are now eclipsed by huge going-out-of-business sale signs. That’s the main story, but there are scores of other stories, too.

Continue Reading

What’s really happening on West Broadway?

By |

A recent Star Tribune article was quite critical of the lack of progress on West Broadway, and the director of the West Broadway Business Coalition then published a rebuttal detailing the economic development we have seen. I thought the first shot was perhaps a bit too bleak, while the WBC account painted a picture that was overly rosy. The truth, as is often the case, lies somewhere in between. Continue Reading