St Paul is calling all dogs and their people to the opening of the city’s second off-leash dog park, and the first in downtown. Mayor Chris Coleman and City Council member Dave Thune will be among the dignitaries cutting the ribbon to officially open the new High Bridge Dog Park Thursday evening. The park is Read more →
MPR News Notes on the news from the Twin Cities
By Rupa Shenoy
rshenoy@mpr.org
The downtown Minneapolis Jaguar dealership that’s sat vacant for several years will be cleaned up to make way for a new mixed-use development of housing and retail space. That announcement came from the Metropolitan Council today. The organization approved $2.4 million dollars in grants as part of the Livable Communities program, which funds affordable housing, Read more →
Bank officials, elected representatives, and Somali money lenders still are trying to find a way to keep a financial lifeline to Somalia open. Owners of Somali money-lending businesses, called hawalas, were notified by St Paul-based Sunrise Community Banks this week that their accounts with the bank will be closed Dec. 14th. Hawalas are the only Read more →

James B. Stewart calls Wendell Phillips the “Bono” (of U2 fame) of his time. Phillips was a nationwide star in the years before the Civil War. This weekend the Minneapolis neighborhood that bears his name celebrates Wendell Phillips’ 200th birthday. Stewart is an emeritus professor at Macalester College in St Paul and founder of the Read more →
People leaving prison face many obstacles: finding affordable housing and a job, just to start. We’ve done many stories on those issues at MPR News. But the biggest challenge for ex-inmates may be dealing with the stigma that hangs on them like a prison uniform. It manifests as waves of shame and resentment, coloring their Read more →

The Minnesota Department of Health is waging a campaign to educate people in the Somali community about the need to inoculate their children against measles amid an outbreak of the disease. Some, but not all of the people found to have the measles are Somali. Health officials are concerned that talk of a link between Read more →