Minnesota

The sold out show filled First Avenue with hundreds of fans eager to celebrate 89.3 The Current’s 12th birthday on Friday evening. After the stress of a long and tumultuous week, the excitement in the crowd was palpable and it was easy to see why. The national and local lineup of bands and musicians were some of the station’s favorites including Jay Smart, Black Market Brass, Stand of Oaks, Joseph, and jeremy messersmith (At the start of the new year, he requested his name be lowercase). While everyone...

Everyone has a need to feel like we belong. One of the most intimate ways we express this is caring for one another. We express this in multiple ways by doing things such as helping an elderly person with various tasks around their home, helping a neighbor with a project or just being a friend. In a recent article, Wallet Hub ranked the most caring cities for 2016 among the 100 most populated cities in U.S. They used several metrics such as volunteer hours per capita, percentage of sheltered homeless people and percentage...

The Twin Cities Film Festival is in full swing. With a myriad of galas, short and feature films, and workshops, the festival has become a popular and growing annual event at the Showplace Icon Theater at the West End in St. Louis Park. Running from October 19th to the 29th, the festival hosts films from all over the country and invites special guests from Hollywood to attend. The festival is a great way to see independent films that you normally couldn’t see elsewhere, Minnesota made films, and up-and-comers with a lot of buzz surrounding them.

ne of those films...

Canby, Minnesota’s Central Park, is an idyllic spot for a family reunion. It is encircled by a bustling small town that could leap right out of A Prairie Home Companion. A quick left turn from last week’s Randgaard family reunion and I had to screech on the brakes to capture a shot of one of America’s classic art deco theatres, Canby Classic Cinema. Two years ago this art deco treasure was dilapidated and the roof was leaking when the City of Canby bought it and stepped in to save historic venue. Canby Mayor Gene Bis talked to a number of people that remembered...

Rep. Rena Moran, who represents district 65A in St. Paul, has been the key author of the Women of Color Opportunities Act. Moran recognizes gender gaps women of color have had to face and the negative effects it has had for our communities. Moran understands this issue better than most as she illustrates the gender gap by being the only African American woman serving in the Minnesota State Legislature.

To stem the effects of this gender gap, Moran has sought to create a comprehensive piece of legislature that is designed to address gender gaps for women of color in education and the workforce. A video of her speaking about it can be found ...

The bill H.F. 3396, also called the Individual’s Right to Privacy and Safety in Public Accommodations Act, authored by Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen has ignited a heated debate in Minnesota over transgender rights. If passed, the bill would define sex in Minnesota as being either a male or a female as biologically defined. There are a great deal of transgender citizens living in Minnesota who are excluded from the definition of sex proposed by Gruenhagen in his bill.

Gruenhagen’s bill, based on his definition...

A Bloomington man faces the world's wrath over a lion he illegally killed while on a hunting trip in Zimbabwe. Walter Palmer, 55, killed the lion July 1 in Hwange National Park. The lion, Cecil, was a black-mane lion around 12 years old and was well known to park visitors. Palmer paid $50,000 for an illegal hunt and now faces possible extradition to Zimbabwe to face justice, environment minister Oppah Muchinguri said Friday. Muchinguri said the Prosecutor General already started the process to have Palmer extradited from the United States, Reuters reports. Palmer released a statement July 28:

"In early July, I was in Zimbabwe...

There's a goose roast going on in Minnesota and the whole world is invited. Not a real goose of course, it's totally figurative. For we, as a people, are undertaking the prolonged and laborious effort of explaining what seems like common sense to us, but comprises a mind-blowing revelation for those outside our borders. What revelation you ask? That the game "Duck, Duck, Gray (or Grey) Duck" is decidedly more awesome (and beneficial) than "Duck, Duck, Goose." Though sweeping statements have been issued (like ...

On Wednesday, following more than two years of debate and fact review, Minnesota utility regulators approved the first statewide formula for calculating the value of customer-generated solar power. So let the light shine down on Minnesota (particularly after this winter). Via: Midwest Energy News (Dan Haugen) The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted (3 - 2) in favor of a proposal aimed at settling the perennial debate over how much solar power is worth to a utility and its ratepayers, as well as society and the environment, according to a new ...