When Generic Saint Paul Public Schools Student Lisa goes back to school in September, her school may look quite different. The new St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) budget for 2008-2009 includes $7 million in cuts. An additional million dollars will come from the reserves to make up an $8 million budget shortfall. MORE »

Something is rotten in the state of the arts. Or so it seemed to more than 250 people who attended the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program (MAEP) community meeting last Saturday morning. The tense crowd of artists, museum staff, media representatives, and other community members swarmed like hornets out of a nest into the Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) for a two-hour-plus meeting. Their issue? In a museum-wide restructuring effort, MIA director Kaywin Feldman—the museum’s fourth director in five years, Feldman began her tenure in January 2008—has reduced the MAEP’s autonomy, adding unprecedented layers of administrative oversight. MORE »

We all know Minnesota’s landscape is changing. But how much it’s changing may be a surprise. 40% of Minnesota lakes fail to meet basic clean water standards, according to tests done by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Minnesota’s population is growing faster than any other state in the Midwest. If we don’t conserve while we grow, over 1 million acres of natural areas and farmland could be lost over the next 25 years. MORE »

Last Saturday night, a crowd of hundreds sat in folding chairs on the shore of a small lake in Pipestone, a southwestern Minnesota town named for a nearby redstone quarry that for centuries has yielded prime pipe-making material for a number of Native tribes. As the sun set behind the trees, the lake reflected the images of a dozen white teepees on the opposite shore. My girlfriend and I settled into our assigned seats beside a woman from a neighboring town who shared her acrylic blanket with us as the evening chill set in. Emma and I were there to see the Song of Hiawatha Pageant for the first time, while the woman beside us was returning for her second show—her previous viewing having taken place during the Carter Administration. An announcer welcomed us all to the pageant, extending a particular greeting to a number of “special visitors”: a Boy Scout troop, two visitors from Germany, a busload from Bloomington. We applauded as the spotlight was turned on each group in turn. Then the spotlights swung to the lakeshore, where the gentle Nokomis was seen cradling her infant grandson Hiawatha. Thus began one of just five remaining performances of a small-town spectacular that is about to close after 60 summers. MORE »

War was looming in 2003 and I was anguishing about how to promote peace. A sign in the yard saying “No” and picketing on the Lake Street Bridge made a statement, but what more could be done? Reading and pondering brought me to this conclusion: Peace has to begin with the individual, then the family, then the neighborhood and so on. MORE »