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How a member of a hiring panel landed — and quickly lost — a job on the St. Paul City Council’s reparations commission

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

The first in-person meeting of the new St. Paul Recovery Act Reparations Commission opened like an office party. The Aug. 17 meet-and-greet was led by St. Paul City Council member Russel Balenger, who introduced a young City Hall employee as the future face of the council’s predominantly-Black commission. To the surprise of several of those assembled, their sole new staffer was Asian.Within less than a week, a Hmong woman who had been offered the only paid staff position on the council’s newest commission found herself facing a street protest led by the very people she was hired to represent.On the heels of unexpected pushback from several of the city’s most longstanding Black leaders, Jenny Lor declined or resigned the position the next day, even before it officially started, with questions swirling around how Lor — who had served on a hiring panel for the position — got the job and who else had applied.“It didn’t really have anything to do with her pe...

Nina Axelson’s Grid Catalyst helps launch new eco-firms like Carba and GetGreen in Minnesota

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

Imagine an app on your phone that challenges you to buy used clothing, or sets a goal of reducing your carbon footprint by walking to work a couple of times this week, or going meatless for the day.When GetGreen, a Seattle startup, went fishing for an established partner to help the environmentally-conscious mobile app make its debut, Nina Axelson got busy playing professional matchmaker. Axelson, a Minneapolis-based clean-energy advocate, introduced GetGreen to organizations large and small, including Ecolibrium3, a Duluth, Minn., nonprofit that jumped at the chance to work with the Duluth mayor’s office and roll out GetGreen citywide as part of the city’s climate action plan.In Burnsville, another startup company known as Carba is building a biomass facility with the intent of removing carbon from up to 15,000 tons annually of ash trees and other waste wood. With Axelson’s help, Carba founders hope to team with investors who will help them pioneer new ways of red...

Stillwater native is helping bring modern health care to Central African Republic

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

Thirteen percent of children in the Central African Republic die before they turn 5, and one out of every 100 women died during childbirth.Stillwater native Ted Hooley is working to change all that.Hooley is founder, president and CEO of Senitizo, a nonprofit organization that provides healthcare services at a clinic in the Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries in the world.Senitizo, which focuses on primary care and community health, with an emphasis on maternal and child care, serves a population of more than 50,000 people “who previously didn’t have access to any health services,” Hooley said.The health indicators in the Central African Republic are “some of the worst in the world,” according to Hooley. “It’s hard for people to really grasp how horrible it is. Understandably, people just don’t want to think that that type of situation exists in the world. These people have been marginalized, basically, since French colonial times. They’ve never ...

Literary calendar for week of Oct. 15

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

DANIEL HORNSBY: Minnesotan presents his novel “Sucker” in conversation with Emma Torzs. 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.KLECKO AND FITZGERALD: Just in time for Halloween, baker/poet and audience-rouser host Danny Klecko leads a discussion of “A Short Trip Home,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s only short story with a supernatural theme. Published in 1927 in the Saturday Evening Post, it’s about young people partying during vacation from their elite East Coast colleges. In St. Paul, Eddie tries to save Ellen, who is under the spell of a sinister man. In conversation with Clarence White, of East Side Freedom Library, and Erica Christ, bartender at the Black Forest Inn. This is the fourth in Klecko’s Fitzgerald Story series in partnership with St. Paul Public Library. Free. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.LITERATURE LOVERS’ NIGHT OUT: Featuring Jean Kwok (“The Left...

Minnesota Black Authors Expo is back for first time since COVID shutdown

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

More than 40 Black authors will bring their books and storytelling talents to the Minnesota Black Authors Expo on Saturday, Oct. 21, at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. The theme of this seventh annual expo, the first since the COVID shutdown, is “Dreaming in Color: Telling Our Stories to Save Our Lives.”Shayla Michelle (Courtesy of the author)“This powerful theme encapsulates the spirit of our Black people, our persistence, resistance, and resilience,” MBAE President Dorothy Nins wrote to the Pioneer Press. “Dreaming in Color reflects the vivid and diverse narratives of Black authors and artists, whose stories are not just words on a page but lifelines that connect communities, inspire change and ignite hope. Through the various shades of human experience, the Expo will bring together authors, readers, and literary enthusiasts for an exploration of the transformative power of storytelling and connecting people. In a world often plagued by division...

Ask Amy: Husband’s leavings make a yummy salad

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

Dear Amy: I have a wonderful marriage of several decades with “Lance.”In many ways, Lance holds up his end of the roommate bargain that comes with long-term partnership. He cooks half the time, helps me in the garden (even though it’s my interest and not his), does his own laundry, etc.All that said, he’s a terrible slob in the kitchen, and in ways that cause problems.He chops fruit for his breakfast and leaves the peels and rinds on the juice-soaked cutting board, slices pieces from the loaf of bread then leaves it out on the counter amidst piles of crumbs, and leaves his meal leftovers in places piled in the sink.I have tried everything, from strongly reprimanding him to cleaning up after him like he’s a toddler and I’m his mother, to ignoring it hoping he’ll see how bad it gets.However I travel for work and am often gone for a few nights at a time — during which time the kitchen becomes a disaster.I can’t constantly stay on top of i...

Legal threat for Md. cannabis-themed company halts sale of Old Bay-like parody sticker

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

(Courtesy Crabcakes & Cannabis) (Courtesy Crabcakes & Cannabis) An Annapolis, Maryland, cannabis-themed apparel company decided to discontinue selling its parody sticker looking like the Old Bay spice jar, due to allegations of copyright infringement.Crabcakes & Cannabis said it received a “threatening” letter from Hunt Valley, Maryland-based spice company McCormick and Company, stating that the sticker, which had the words “420 BUD,” violated their trademark and threatened to tarnish their reputation.As a result, Jennifer Culpepper, who founded Crabcakes & Cannabis, told WTOP that the company made the decision to stop selling the sticker instead of fighting it in court.“It wo...

Iowa-DePaul women’s outdoor basketball game could draw over 50,000 fans and a world record

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — High-scoring Iowa star Caitlin Clark doesn’t expect to have much of a shooting touch Sunday when the Hawkeyes play DePaul in an outdoor exhibition at Kinnick Stadium that could set a world record for attendance at a women’s basketball game.Far from it, in fact.“I tell people I will airball twice. Just prepare yourself,” she said. “The wind, the depth perception of seeing the hoop in a big stadium … That’s just how it’s going to be. I’m sure there’ll be no super stellar shooting performances by anybody. It’ll be attack the basket and get to the rim.”More than 50,000 tickets have been sold for the “Crossover at Kinnick” at the 69,000-seat stadium. Net proceeds benefit the university’s Stead Family Children’s Hospital, whose young patients can watch games from window seats.If all goes as planned, Iowa would break the women’s basketball all-time attendance record of 29,619, set by Connecticut and Oklahoma...

Estados Unidos envía un segundo grupo de ataque con portaaviones y aviones de combate a la región mientras Israel se prepara para expandir las operaciones en Gaza

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

Washington/Seúl (CNN) — El Pentágono ordenó un segundo grupo de ataque con portaaviones al este del mar Mediterráneo y está enviando aviones de combate de la Fuerza Aérea a la región mientras Israel se prepara para expandir sus operaciones en Gaza, dijo este sábado el secretario de Defensa de Estados Unidos, Lloyd Austin, en un comunicado.Los buques de guerra estadounidenses no están destinados a unirse a los combates en Gaza ni a participar en las operaciones de Israel, pero la presencia de dos de los buques más poderosos de la Armada está diseñada para enviar un mensaje de disuasión a Irán y a sus representantes en la región, como Hezbollah en Líbano.Los movimientos son “parte de nuestro esfuerzo por disuadir acciones hostiles contra Israel o cualquier esfuerzo para ampliar esta guerra tras el ataque de Hamas a Israel”, dijo Austin en el comunicado.El primer grupo de ataque de portaaviones, liderado por el USS Gerald R. Ford, llegó a la costa de Israel la semana pasada.Israe...

Dorchester Food Co-op, Boston’s only member-owned grocery store, celebrates grand opening

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:40 GMT

Dorchester Food Co-op, a new grocery store that provides healthy and sustainable foods, hosted a ribbon cutting on Saturday to announces its grand opening.The Co-op, which is the only member-owned grocery store in Boston, also supports local farmers and prioritizes reducing food waste. The store is located at 195 Bowdoin Street in DorchesterOrganizers said it was a community effort to open the co-op, which has been in the works for more than a decade.The co-op’s mission is to challenge the traditional food system, reinvest their earnings back into the community and serve quality food to the neighborhood, owners said.“We will be building community with one another,” board member Sarah Assefa said at the event. “We will be deeping our friendships with one another. We will be enjoying nutritious food from a local food system which we own together.”Mayor Michelle Wu, who attended Saturday’s grand opening, said the Dorchester Food Co-op’s member ownership is special.“We have an incredibl...