Families demand justice at Stolen Lives March
By Clint Combs Contributing Writer
aton Rouge rapper Boosie’s defiant lyrics blared through speakers outside the St. Paul Police Department last weekend, serving as a rallying cry for protesters who marched three miles in the pouring rain to the Minnesota State Capitol.
The annual Stolen Lives March, organized by Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, brought together relatives of Amir Locke, Ricky Cobb II, Mychel Stowers, Brandon Keys, George Floyd, and others lost to
police shootings. Along University Avenue, two Black men raised their fists outside UnBank, joining hundreds of demonstrators chanting in unison: “Cities, f*** ‘em! Narcotics, f*** ‘em! Feds, f*** ‘em! DAs, f*** ‘em!”
“You have no idea what we go through as families behind the scenes, when they take your loved one’s life.”
For many families, the march was both painful and
empowering.
“This was amazing. My first time walking,” said Tamica Lankfard, mother of 36-yearold Mychel Stowers, who was fatally shot by St. Paul officers
Eric Jaworski and Matthew Foy in 2023. “It won’t be my last, and I enjoyed each and every one of you guys walking.”
Angela Harrelson, aunt of George Floyd, reminded families to seek strength through collective power.
“We need to start owning our own systems, our own economic wealth, our own community,” said Harrelson, a registered nurse and military veteran. “Own that power. So
Students push lawmakers on gun control
By Clint Combs Contributing Writer
ll Lakeville High School student Harper Jensen really wants are Taylor Swift tickets. But snagging those tickets can be a challenge: waiting in long Ticketmaster queues, praying the site doesn’t crash midpurchase, hoping verified fan codes actually work before they sell out.
Meanwhile, someone with an affinity for mass shootings
Sabri stands firm in defense of private encampment
By Carl Spencer
real estate developer has allowed dozens of people to stay on an empty lot that he owns in Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood, racking up at least $15,000 in fines for public health citations. But unless he’s presented with a court order, Hamoudi Sabri said there’s nothing the city can do to make him close off his property from people who need a place to sleep.
Mayor Jacob Frey is expected to brief city council members on possible legal action Monday morning, August 8, in a special closed-door meeting, which could be followed by a
public vote on how best to proceed. Frey’s special meeting was initially planned for three days after the charter school next to Sabri’s property started classes, but was rescheduled due to the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School.
“The reason they’re here is they’ve been kicked around a lot,” Sabri said of those staying in the space, after city workers came in late August to clean up trash that had accumulated around the perimeter of the encampment. Sabri was billed for that.
“Now they’re here as a hub. It’s easy for people to find them, to feed them, to help them,” he said. “So what is
the city doing? They just keep moving them around.”
Sabri said he would be open to working more with the city if the mayor came to the encampment and engaged with the people living there, offering more than temporary shelter, which is often full.
“The reason they’re here is they’ve been kicked around a lot.”
The Minneapolis Health Department had tracked the presence of drug needles, solid waste, lack of sanitation facilities, and other hazardous debris since the encampment formed in early July. Sabri was first issued a public health nuisance letter July 21, and Minneapolis tried but failed to take down the encampment a few days later.
“It’s a multipronged approach,” said Enrique Velázquez, the city’s director of regulatory services that houses the homeless response team. “We need to address the humanity. And every single person in the encampment, as well as all those who aren’t in the encampment — the school next door, all the other neighbors, every single one of them — are affected by what’s happening here.”
The city has an anti-camping ordinance. Velázquez said allowing encampments is “basically saying we fail. We give up.” However, he said the city and Sabri agreed to help Sabri get portable toilets and hand washing stations, which Sabri would pay for, and would look into providing trash cans. Two weeks later, a city spokesperson said they’re “still working on getting all the connections made.”
can legally purchase a deadly arsenal. At Annunciation Catholic Church, where 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-yearold Harper Moyski were killed and 18 others injured August 27, law enforcement found an AR-15, a semi-automatic pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun, and four empty rifle magazines.
On Labor Day, Jensen joined more than 100 other students rallying at the Minnesota State Capitol demanding a ban on semiautomatic guns and high-capacity magazines. Their voices echoed with clarity and urgency.
boost affordable housing development and homeownership, as well as $1 million for emergency shelter response.
Advocates push back
Sheila Delaney has previously contracted with the Frey administration for addressing unsheltered homelessness and helped establish Avivo Village in the North Loop, an indoor tiny home shelter that is less restrictive than many traditional shelter models. She’s also an advocate for safe outdoor spaces, where people can camp outside in a way that would be managed and cleaned by the city, and allow for social services at the site
“We are unhappy with the status quo,” said Samia Mojamud, a senior at Kennedy High School and member of Students Demand Action.
“We are unhappy that kids are dying in schools because they admire their Second Amendment more than they do children’s lives.”
The broader statistics make the stakes painfully clear. In 2023, nearly 47,000 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., the third-highest
■ See STUDENTS on page 5
initiative in Duluth. Delaney said any legal action would be hypocritical, since she knows of other encampments on city property not provided with trash containers and hand-washing stations.
“If public health was the litmus test, then frankly the city should sue itself,” she said. “No one wants anyone in encampments, [but] moving them around from place to place is not a pathway out of homelessness. It’s a revolving door of trauma.”
The mayor’s recommended budget for next year cuts more than $212,000 for contracts that would have gone toward handwashing stations, portable toilets and storage for unsheltered people. It also invests millions into efforts to
to help people transition out. Several city council members have been working on pursuing that idea in Minneapolis, including looking into a model for allowing people to park their cars in established areas to sleep, similar to a new
Ally Peters, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said the city has been on site most days, offering shelter and services to those living there, but said many did not accept the offers “and the situation has now escalated into a health and safety risk.” She said the city has been approaching it “with an eye for both compassion
Students hold up photos of lives lost to gun violence at the Minnesota Youth United for Gun Violence Prevent Rally held at the capitol on September 1. More than a hundred students joined together to demand a ban on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and the creation of a statewide Office of Violence Intervention. Photo courtesy of Clint Combs/MSR
Outreach workers with Avivo visit residents at the encampment near 28th Avenue and Lake Street in Minneapolis Aug. 26. Photos courtesy Ben Hovland | MPR News
Property owner Hamoudi Sabri (l) talks with Enrique Velázquez, director of regulatory services for Minneapolis, near the encampment Aug. 26.
Founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Brutality (FSFAPB), Toshira Garroway (far right), leads the crowd through its annual Stolen Lives March to the state capitol. Photo courtesy of Chris Juhn/MSR
Metro Roof Depot rhetoric goes viral Frey under fire for ‘sabotaging the deal’
By Clint Combs Contributor Writer
In late August, protesters gathered at Chute Park, about 15 minutes from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s home, after organizers changed their plan to rally outside his Nicollet Island-East Bank residence due to safety concerns. Activists from the Climate Justice Committee MN, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), and other groups organized the demonstration to highlight frustration over the city’s handling of the Roof Depot site.
The dispute centers on the purchase price for the property, which the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) hopes to transform into a community-owned urban farm. While Frey’s office recently agreed to meet with EPNI to discuss lowering the price, the group remains $6
million short of the city’s $16 million asking price. A recent appraisal valued the land at about $3.7 million.
“We’re here today because Mayor Jacob Frey is sabotaging the deal for the Roof Depot, charging the East Phillips community $16 million to purchase what has been appraised for only $3 million,” said Noah Schu of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice.
“The city should give that land to the people of East Phillips for free.”
Frey’s team later canceled the meeting, citing frustration with social media posts promoting protests near the mayor’s home. His wife, Sarah Clarke, addressed the controversy in an op-ed: “I support the right to peaceful protest. But there is a profound difference between voicing dissent in public spaces and bringing that dissent to the doorstep of an elected official’s family home.”
Earlier, EPNI held a press conference urging the city to reopen discussions. “Now is not a time for half measures,” said Kieran Morris, EPNI outdoor farm coordinator. “With funding from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Grant, we could build raised beds, hoop houses, and all the infrastructure an urban farm requires.” Morris added that the project could serve as “an example that other communities facing pollution and disenfranchisement can follow.”
The state senate recently failed to approve a second round of funding to support EPNI’s purchase. “The neighborhood remains over-polluted due to a history of redlining and other racist city planning,” said C.J. McCormick of the Climate Justice Committee.
Activists also pushed back against Frey and Clarke’s comparisons of left-leaning activists to right-wing extremists.
“The mayor and his wife want to compare activists on the left to white supremacists like Vance Boelter and the coward who killed those children yes-
terday,” said Chu, an activist at the rally.
“This rally grew a lot in scope,” added Climate Justice
right now, and he’s right.
“We need a new system that puts people first. We need police accountable to us. We
Tensions around Frey have also spilled onto the city council. Two weeks before the protest, Council Vice President
ness, people who come from undocumented families — like garbage,” ending her speech with: “F*** Jacob Frey, F*** fas-
Committee member Charlie Berg. Alongside Roof Depot, protesters criticized the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party for withdrawing its endorsement of mayoral candidate Omar Fateh and for what they described as “Trumpian” rhetoric from Frey allies. Several signs at the rally featured side-byside images of Frey and former President Donald Trump.
need a system that protects students instead of funding the slaughter of Palestinians.”
Aisha Chughtai (Ward 10) went viral for her profane remarks at the Uptown Porchfest music festival.
cism, F*** Donald Trump.”
The comments sparked backlash.
“We see that as Trumpian, in that it’s election meddling,” Berg said. He also likened the city’s encampment sweeps to “Trump’s purge in D.C.,” calling them “routine violence against homeless encampments.”
The rally coincided with the Annunciation Church shooting, which appeared to dampen turnout. After a moment of silence for victims, Michael Wood reflected, “Our mayor has been saying we need more than thoughts and prayers
Regarding the upcoming election, Berg said, “I think Omar Fateh is the strongest candidate, and he’s been a real ally of the fight in the East Phillips neighborhood.”
“I ran for the city council,” Chughtai said, “because I was tired of my city treating people like me — people who are a product of childhood homeless-
Council Members Linea Palmisano, Andrea Jenkins and Michael Rainville urged Chughtai to apologize, while her challenger, Lydia Millard, called the remarks divisive. But Berg defended her, saying, “Her expressing herself in that way only makes me want to vote for her more. She embodies the sentiments of many of her constituents.”
Ward 4 Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw raised safety concerns, telling KSTP 5, “You don’t know who in that arena would take that and feel like they needed to do something. Those comments could really cause the mayor and his family harm.”
Berg countered: “It’s ridiculous to compare criticism of Jacob Frey to right-wing terrorist violence.”
Citywide elections are scheduled for November 5 and will use ranked-choice voting, where voters rank candidates by preference until one achieves a majority.
Clint Combs welcomes reader responses at ccombs0284@ gmail.com.
Minneapolis mayoral candidates (l-r) DeWayne Davis, Omar Fateh and Jazz Hampton at a forum held at Sabathani Community Center on Wednesday, September 6, just over a week since activists threatened to demonstrate outside Mayor Jacob Frey’s family home. The mayor did not participate in the forum.
Chris Juhn/MSR
Noah Schu from the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice told protesters that Frey is axing a deal between the city and EPNI. Clint Combs/MSR
A screenshot of a social media post from Climate Justice MN that Mayor Jacob Frey said prompted him to cancel a meeting with EPNI Clint Combs/MSR
Park Avenue Center helps Black men get unstuck
Sponsored by
By Jasmine McBride Associate Editor
In South Minneapolis, the Park Avenue Center has long been a cornerstone of support for adults facing mental health and substance use challenges. With over 45 years of service, the center offers programs ranging from intensive outpatient care to freestanding room-andboard services, all guided by a multidisciplinary team including counselors, social workers, nurses, and dietitians.
While the center serves adults of all backgrounds, one program stands out: a culturally specific group designed for African American men. This program is unique in its approach, acknowledging the
historical, social and systemic factors that can make Black men hesitant to seek help.
“Our program is designed to first build trust,” explains John Norwood, MS, LADC, a counselor at Park Avenue Center. “We slow down treatment to meet men where they are… addressing their mental health, their anger, and the systemic challenges they face. Only when they feel safe do they engage fully in treatment.”
“It’saboutaddressing not just addiction, buttheunderlying factorsthathave keptthemstuck.”
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the importance of such culturally tailored programs is underscored by statistics showing that Black men are significantly less likely than other populations to utilize mental health services. National surveys indicate that only 27% of Black men with mental health needs accessed services in the past
year, compared to nearly 40% of White men.
Black women, by contrast, are somewhat more likely to seek care, with about a third of those in need receiving services.
Barriers are multifaceted. Cultural stigma, historical mistrust of medical systems, and societal expectations around masculinity all contribute to reluctance among Black men to seek help. Moreover, many individuals come from environments where substance use or limited coping skills were normalized, whether through family, peers, or systemic disadvantages such as homelessness or prior incarceration.
Christine Caron, another counselor at Park Avenue Center, notes, “Many of our clients have been in and out of systems their whole lives. They often lack examples of supportive networks or guidance on how to manage their struggles without resorting to substances. Our work is about showing them that they are deserving and capable of change.”
The center’s culturally specific program is more than just mental health counseling — it
addresses the whole person. Clients work with dietitians on nutrition and budgeting, social workers to secure housing or insurance, and nursing staff to coordinate medical care. Program participants can engage in both outpatient services and residential treatment, allowing flexibility depending on their individual needs.
For families and friends of those struggling, the center emphasizes building support networks. Programs like Al-Anon provide resources for loved ones, helping them navigate the challenges of supporting someone with addiction while maintaining their own well-being.
Norwood sums up the program’s mission: “Every step of treatment is about creating a
safe environment where our clients can explore their experiences, express their emotions, and build the skills to thrive. It’s about addressing not just addiction, but the underlying factors that have kept them stuck.”
By offering a space tailored to the unique experiences of Black men, Park Avenue Center addresses a critical gap in mental health and addiction services.
For those interested in learning more or beginning treatment, the center offers multiple entry points. Potential clients can call, schedule an assessment, or even walk in to get started.
In 2025, as the community continues to face challenges around opioid and substance use, programs like this demon-
strate that culturally informed care can empower individuals to reclaim their lives.
For more information, visit Park Avenue Center’s website or contact their admissions team to explore treatment options.
Help is Here is a partnership between MSR and Hennepin County created to highlight local organizations committed to the recovery and education within the Black community surrounding opioid addiction. For more information, visit our website at www.spokesman-recorder.com under the tab “Help is Here.”
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@ spokesman-recorder.com.
Why sleep is the cornerstone of vitality
1. Memory: Your brain processes and organizes information, storing it for long-term use.
2. Restoration: Being awake requires immense energy. Sleep allows your body to recover and replenish nutrients for the next day.
By Dr. Ayanna Quamina, ND Columnist
Every time I sit down with a patient, I not only review their current symptoms but also walk through my “seven modules of vitality.” These areas — Sleep, Eating Habits, Stress Management, Movement, Hormones, Digestion, and Immune Support — are essential for everyday wellness. Together, they give me a holistic sense of how someone is doing and where we can make meaningful improvements.
During each 60-minute follow-up visit, we talk through each module, address questions or challenges, and create a protocol for moving forward. And we always start with sleep.
3. Detoxification: During deep sleep, the brain’s glymphatic system clears toxins and waste, keeping your nervous system sharp.
4. Immune Support: Immune activity ramps up at night, producing cytokines and antivirals to fight off illness.
5. Metabolism: Hormones like leptin (fullness) and ghrelin (hunger) rely on consistent sleep to stay in balance.
What happens without enough sleep
• Your cardiovascular system doesn’t fully restore, raising risks for high blood pressure and heart disease.
• Immune defenses weaken, making infections harder to fight.
the same 30–60 minute window, even on weekends, to support your circadian rhythm. Struggling to fall asleep? Get in bed anyway. Quiet activities like reading, listening to a sleep story, or meditating can help your body wind down. (And no, scrolling your phone doesn’t count.)
2. Create a bedtime routine
Just like when you were a kid, a routine signals your body it’s time to rest. Try dimming lights, avoiding stimulating media, or taking a warm shower. Herbal tea, golden milk, or magnesium can also help promote relaxation.
3. Rethink late-night snacking. Often, nighttime cravings are really a signal that you’re tired. If you must snack, choose protein (like a slice of turkey or a handful of nuts) over sweets to avoid a glucose spike.
How much sleep do you really need?
The answer depends on age
Why sleep comes first
I always ask: How many hours are you getting? Do you wake up rested? Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep? In my practice, sleep is one of the top priorities for sustainable vitality.
Sleep is the time when your body repairs, restores and resets. Far more than “rest,” it’s a nightly tune-up for your brain and body.
Here’s what happens while you sleep:
• Inflammatory activity increases, raising risk of chronic illness.
• Long-term sleep deprivation has been linked to Alzheimer’s and dementia.
• Appetite hormones go out of balance: low leptin levels leave you feeling hungrier, often leading to late-night snacking.
Building better sleep hygiene
Here are a few ways to strengthen your sleep habits:
1. Keep a consistent bedtime. Aim to go to bed within
and quality of rest. Most adults need 7-9 hours per night, and many of us are getting far less. Remember, it’s not just about quantity; quality sleep makes the difference in your overall vitality.
Here’s a quick age reference:
• 0–3 months: 14–17 hours
• 4–12 months: 12–16 hours
• 1–2 years:
• Adults: 7–9 hours
For me, sleep isn’t just a recommendation, it’s a prescription. It’s how I fight illness, cure headaches, recharge cre
ativity, and yes, sometimes even hide from the kids. Sleep is one of the most powerful medicines we have. Don’t re-
Learn more about Dr. Ayanna Quamina and her practice at www.drayannaq.com. Email her directly at info@drayan -
John Norwood Christine Caron Photos courtesy of Park Avenue Center
By Jasmine McBride Associate Editor
For Shantel Seraaj, founder of Escape to Paradise LLC, bodywork is more than a profession, it’s a calling rooted in both personal experience
and years of training. A licensed massage therapist for 15 years, Seraaj launched her South Minneapolis practice in 2017. Since then the business has steadily expanded, and this fall marks its much-anticipated grand reopening in a
newly renovated space with 14 treatment rooms.
Escape to Paradise is best known for specializing in postoperative lymphatic drainage massage, a service that has become increasingly sought after by surgeons and patients alike. These treatments support faster recovery, reduce complications like fibrosis, and
offer much-needed comfort during the healing process.
“After surgery, emotions are all over the place,” Shantel explained. “We help guide clients through that journey so they feel supported both physically and emotionally.”
The idea to focus on postop care came after Shantel’s own surgery experience in Miami, where lymphatic drainage was emphasized as essential. Wanting to bring the same standard of care back to Minnesota, she pursued additional training and built it into her business. Today, doctors across the Twin Cities refer patients to her practice.
In addition to post-op services, Escape to Paradise offers body sculpting, deep tissue, and relaxation massage,
creating a holistic menu for clients at all stages of their wellness journeys. With the reopening, Shantel is introducing new features like an on-site seamstress to help patients alter their compression garments (fajas), making her practice a true one-stop shop for recovery needs.
Reflecting on her growth as a business owner, Shantel calls starting her company “the best decision I ever made.” What began as a single rented room in a chiropractor’s office has blossomed into a thriving business with multiple suites and a large dedicated space.
“I love being a Black business owner,” she said. “It’s been amazing to see the support and to create something that’s growing and helping people every day.”
The grand-reopening takes place on September 20, 4-8 pm, at 3255 Hennepin Avenue in South Minneapolis. Clients can learn more and stay updated by visiting the business on social media and through its website at www.escapetoparadisellc.com.
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@ spokesman-recorder.com.
Continued from page 1
dismantling us would not be so easy for them.”
Other families echoed the call for justice while exposing what they described as misleading police narratives.
leaders often justify killings by criminalizing victims after the fact. “They create a narrative and make them out to be the worst person possible, so that people will accept what happened as necessary.”
The family of Ricky Cobb II, killed by state trooper Ryan Londregan during a 2023 traffic stop in Minneapolis, is still seeking justice after charges
“You have no idea what we go through as families behind the scenes, when they take your loved one’s life,” said Lisa Keys, whose 24-year-old son Brandon was shot by St. Paul officer Michael Tschida during a mental health crisis in 2023.
“He was experiencing a crisis, and within seven seconds, he was shot.”
She said officers and city
STUDENTS
Continued from page 1
annual total on record according to the Pew Research Center. Though some progress has been made and gun death rates edged down slightly in recent years, the magnitude remains staggering. That same year, the Gun Violence Archive recorded 656 mass shootings, second only to the record-high 689 in 2021. For Jensen, the response from national leadership has been baffling. The White House offered prayers, then suggested a link between antidepressants and mass shootings. “It frustrates me that our federal government is willing to blame it on anything except guns, whether that’s men-
against the trooper were dismissed earlier this year.
“They tried to push it up under the rug, but I know we are going to get justice for him,” said Cobb’s mother Nyra Fields-Miller. His sister, Octavia Ruffin, added: “This hurts. I can only imagine the pain that people have already been going through, and those that are going
through it right now.”
For Karen Wells, mother of Amir Locke, the anger remains raw. Locke, 22, was killed during a no-knock raid at a Minneapolis apartment in February
2022. Though police claimed he pointed a gun, body-camera footage raised doubts.
“How in the hell can somebody asleep on a couch be waiting and knowing that
has walked this grief before. He counseled families after the 2006 Venice High School shooting in Los Angeles and again after the 2013 Sparks Middle School tragedy in Nevada. Now he is again facing the sorrow of a community that refuses to be silenced.
Corps non-commissioned officer. “It’s about the switches,” she said. “It’s about the ability to take out more people on a regular city street than I was able to in a theater of war.”
The violence in Minnesota has played out in neighborhoods and places young peo-
“Weareunhappythatkidsare dyinginschoolsbecausethey admiretheirSecondAmendment morethantheydochildren’slives.”
you’re about to come in at 6:48 a.m. with a no-knock warrant that had nothing to do with him?” Wells asked.
Locke’s aunt, Linda Tyler, wore custom Converse etched with his face and angel wings as she marched. For her, spirituality provides endurance, but action is what drives change.
“You can’t stop, because faith without work is dead,” Tyler said. “You gotta understand who owns the police. We pay their salaries.”
As rain poured down, a rainbow stretched across the St. Paul skyline. For Tyler, it was a sign of hope and a reminder of civic duty. “If you understand the promise
of the rainbow,” she said, “it means the promise that I will never do something again.”
apolis nonprofit A Mother’s Love. “Our kids should be able to ride in a car coming from McDonald’s and not catch a bullet in the head.”
remained in effect from 2005 to 2019, the ban would have prevented 30 mass shootings, saving 339 lives and reducing injuries by 1,139 people. Ad-
tal health or [shooter Robin Westman] being queer,” she said. “Just focus on the problem itself.”
Annunciation Church’s chaplain, Howard Dotson,
Continued from page 1
and safety.”
Jess Olstad, a spokesperson for the city, said the Homeless Response Team was working with three people who expressed interest in sleeping in a shelter Aug. 26 but were not able to on that night. Olstad said the team was working to find shelter space that accommodated their needs, including allowing a couple to stay together.
Around noon that day there were no available shelter beds
in Minneapolis, according to the Hennepin Shelter Hotline. Olstad said two people were able to secure a spot at Avivo Village. She also said the city’s new mobile medical unit, which was at the site in the morning, conducted seven patient care visits and handed out opioid overdose reversal treatment, wound care kits, sharps containers, and substance abuse disorder resources to people.
Encampment residents seek help Gionte Roberts, 37, who was staying at the encampment, said county outreach workers helped him apply for
“No more assault rifles. No more bump stocks. No more ghost guns. No more false either-ors. It’s both gun safety and mental health,” he declared. “We need a bipartisan resolution, because those guns don’t know red or blue.”
Marcia Howard, president of the MFT 59 teachers’ union and an English teacher at Roosevelt High School, spoke with equal clarity. She grew up duck hunting in the Arkansas Delta; hunters came from across the country to shoot ducks in Stuttgart. “The only thing I didn’t have was an AR15,” she said.
“You would not be caught with a high-capacity rifle out in the swamp. This is about the guns.” She turned toward the Capitol dome. “This house right here needs to handle this stuff.”
Howard carries deeper insight as a former Marine
a food assistance card and secure a spot on a housing waitlist. On the same day, he walked from the encampment to pick up his card, crossing under the Lake/Midtown light rail station to the Hennepin County Human Service Center. Carly Sornsen, 23, had stayed in the encampment for more than a month. As she organized her belongings one afternoon, which included a book about dreams and a cooler with water she shared with neighboring tents, she expressed frustration that there wasn’t more of an effort among others to keep the area cleaner. She straightened out a sheet in her tent.
ple trust. Just two days before the Annunciation shooting, one person was killed and six others wounded near East Lake Street and I-35W. Less than 12 hours later, another man was killed and another injured on the 800 block of Hennepin Avenue.
“The conversation needs to be had on a local level in the state of Minnesota,” said Lisa Clemons, CEO of the Minne-
The policy backdrop underscores the complexity. The U.S. once had a federal ban on assault-style rifles, lasting a decade before expiring in 2004. Everytown Research & Policy estimates that, had it
ditionally, weapons used in mass shootings often involve high-capacity magazines; bans on these could potentially reduce injuries by nearly 25%.
Minnesota Democrats did not act even in 2023 when they controlled the governor’s office and both legislative chambers. Following the Annunciation tragedy Governor Tim Walz has called for a special session to pass gun control measures, even as the now-Republican-controlled House likely poses serious obstacles.
Clint Combs welcomes reader responses at ccombs0284@ gmail.com.
“There’s a school right there,” she said. “It looks bad, people leaving needles all over, and there’s people nodded out… Like, it’s just gross.” Still, she said, “people aren’t realizing that this pretty much is the last place that we have to have this kind of thing. Otherwise, then what? We’re all gonna be under a bridge or in some field somewhere. Then we’re still gonna get kicked out of there.”
piece
Despite grief, the families insist the march is not just remembrance. It’s also a demand for accountability.
Clint Combs welcomes reader responses at ccombs0824@ gmail.com
Marcia Howard, president of the MFT 59 teachers’ union and an English teacher at Roosevelt High School
Lakeville High School student Harper Jensen says our local leaders need to reassess the value of high-capacity magazine gun access.
Minnesota Youth United for Gun Violence Prevention rally attendees were asked to wear red to honor the stolen lives lost to gun violence. All photos courtesy of Clint Combs/MSR
Students and youth activists from A Mother’s Love also addressed the need for gun control in relation to law enforcement, holding signs listing the names of people killed by gunfire from Minneapolis police.
Housing advocate Sheila Delaney, standing with Hamoudi Sabri, speaks during a press conference outside the encampment Aug. 26. Photo courtesy Ben Hovland | MPR News
(l-r) Karen Wells, mother of Amir Locke, and Locke’s aunt, Linda Tyler.
NOURISH is community-driven health innovation in action
By Jasmine McBride Associate Editor
For children and families in underserved communities, access to nutritious food and health education is as essential as the lessons learned in the classroom.
NOURISH Mt. Olivet Lab School, established in 1980 as Mount Olivet Lab School, has made it its mission to integrate learning, nutrition and wellness into a single, community-centered model that improves health outcomes while fostering a sense of belonging.
Andrea Thomas, president and executive director of NOURISH, explains that the organization’s transition from Mount Olivet Lab School to NOURISH reflects a broader vision: “When people are nourished, communities thrive.”
supported every week, not just once a month.”
The school’s innovative approach includes “Hour of Power” Sundays, when seniors and immunocompromised community members can shop without waiting in long lines. Each distribution serves hundreds of families, translating to over 1,000 individuals fed at a time.
ing a culture of service and community responsibility from a young age. For many children, this is an introduction to nutrition, wellness, and social responsibility in a hands-on setting.
ond Harvest Heartland, the organization provides fresh, organic produce and other rescued foods, ensuring that
The school was originally founded by Elnora Battle, a former educator and wife of the Mount Olivet Baptist Church pastor, who created a safe and enriching space for children in the community. Over the years, the program has evolved to meet the growing needs of the community, particularly in addressing food insecurity and wellness education.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, NOURISH adapted its model to include a food shelf, expanding its impact on local families. Partnering with Sec-
families have consistent access to healthy meals.
According to Second Harvest Heartland, one in 10 Minnesotans, more than 500,000 people statewide, experience food insecurity, including over 250,000 children. In the Twin Cities, Black, Indigenous, and Latino households are nearly twice as likely to struggle with access to nutritious food compared with white households.
“We don’t limit visits,” Andrea Thomas says. “Families can come every time our doors are open. No restrictions. We want them to feel
NOURISH also incorporates hands-on education, including discussions on health, wellness and nutrition tailored to the cultural and dietary needs of the community. Research shows that access to culturally relevant healthy foods, combined with nutrition education, can significantly improve long-term health outcomes in communities of color, where rates of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are disproportionately high.
To ensure equitable access, NOURISH focuses on rescuing healthy foods that would otherwise go to waste. “We are intentional about the food we provide,” Andrea Thomas says. “Much of it comes from Second Harvest Heartland and includes organic fruits and vegetables, proteins, and other fresh items that families might not otherwise be able to afford.”
Across Minnesota, food shelves report that only about 40% of the foods they distribute are fresh produce, highlighting the importance of programs like NOURISH that prioritize nutritional value. Families visiting the food shelf also receive guidance on how to incorporate these foods into their diets, helping to address health disparities linked to poor nutrition.
NOURISH’s model emphasizes dignity and accessibility. Families can walk in for food distributions or schedule appointments for urgent needs, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from the program. The school also engages children in volunteer opportunities, foster-
The organization’s approach has caught national attention. NOURISH is part of the American Heart Association’s EmPOWERED to Serve Business Accelerator, a program supporting missiondriven organizations working to improve health outcomes in underserved communities. “Being part of this cohort has allowed us to refine our model and think strategically about how to address diabetes, heart disease, and other health disparities that disproportionately affect our community,” Andrea Thomas says.
“Ourdreamisto maketheexperience of visiting our food shelfascomfortable asshoppingatany local grocery store, exceptit’sfree.”
Andrea emphasizes that NOURISH is not just about food; it is also about creating healthy communities. “We take input from our neighbors seriously and continually adapt our programs to better serve them. This is community-driven health innovation in action.” The school actively collects feedback through
surveys and conversations, ensuring that its programs reflect the needs and prefer
ences of the community.
NOURISH also seeks to remove the stigma around accessing nutrition support.
“Everyone deserves good, nutritious food. Our dream is to make the experience of visiting our food shelf as comfortable as shopping at any local grocery store, except it’s free. We want it to be second nature,” Andrea Thomas says.
By integrating nutrition, wellness education, and community engagement, NOURISH is creating a sustainable model that addresses both immediate food needs and long-term health outcomes.
As NOURISH continues to
grow, the focus remains clear: nourishing bodies, educating minds, and empowering families. Through innovative programming, culturally relevant education, and strong partnerships, the organization is setting a new standard for holistic health and wellness education in underserved areas. Families in the Twin Cities and beyond now have access to fresh food, guidance on healthy eating, and a community-centered approach that strengthens both physical and social well-being.
For more information on NOURISH, including volunteer opportunities and distribution hours, visit www.mtolivetlabschool.org, or follow them on Facebook.
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@ spokesman-recorder.com.
NOURISH Mt. Olivet Lab School founder Andrea Thomas. All photos courtesy of NOURISH Mt. Olivet Lab School
By Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
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An attack on Black people is an attack on democracy
By Aswad Walker
Democracy in the United States has never been a gift from the powerful. It has always been won, expanded and defended by those forced to live on the margins.And no people have done more to create, safeguard and advance democracy in this country than Black people. No one.
From the moment slavery ended, Black people’s precarious position in America forced the nation to define what “citizenship” really meant. The very parameters of rights and belonging, who could vote, who could marry, who could hold property, who could serve, were hammered out because Black people demanded clarity. Every citizen of this country, regardless of race or gender, owes their status under law to the unrelenting struggle of Black people.
We did that That struggle also birthed institutions Americans now call cornerstones of democracy. Free Black communities were the architects of the U.S. public education system, establishing schools at a time when education was reserved for the wealthy few. By demanding literacy and knowledge for themselves and their children, formerly enslaved Black people democratized learning for all, planting the seeds of universal public education.
Black people’s commitment to dignity, respect, and equal treatment has also fueled generations of military service. Enlisting in the U.S. military was never simply about fighting foreign enemies; it was also about disproving stereotypes of
cowardice, asserting loyalty, and showing that Black people were as committed to this nation as anyone else. In every major U.S. war, Black troops were difference-makers, their courage often turning the tide toward American victory.
Haters gon’ hate Abroad, Black troops were celebrated as liberators and symbols of democracy, even as they endured crushing discrimination from white “comrades” and officers.
But the betrayal was stark when they came home. Across the 20th century, Black veterans were beaten and lynched in uniform simply for daring to wear the garments of democracy. Many were denied the benefits of the GI Bill that built the white middle class. Still, their service protected the fragile project of democracy both at home and overseas.
Black people, but democracy itself.
This theme repeats throughout history. The Civil Rights Movement was not just about Black rights; it forced America to extend democracy to others. Voting rights, fair housing, immigration reform, women’s rights and LGBTQ protections all bear the imprint of Black struggle.
Every marginalized group that has gained a foothold in this country stands on the shoulders of Black people who refused to accept second-class status. The Black Power and Civil Rights movements steered America from authoritarianism and toward something closer to democracy.
Yet, as always, the benefits have often flowed disproportionately to others. Affirmative Action, born out of Black demands for fairness, has helped white women and white male farmers more than Black com-
New Orleans remains one of the most unique places in the world — there is simply no place like it. It’s arguably the only place in the world that is an expression of the daily collisions of celebration, joy, creation and culture with melancholy and tragedy, destruction and barbarism associated with cultural appropriation and deracination.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which we know was less about the storm itself and more about the series of machinations after the storm that metamorphosed New Orleans, potentially forever.
Commemorating Katrina and its aftermath in 2025 comes at a time when a series of calamities from the genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid in Palestine to the militarized federal takeover of Washington, D.C. (with the threat of more cities, such as Chicago, to follow) as part of a larger fascist consolidation effort are all exacerbated by an accelerated climate crisis.
This further elucidates the praxis of Imperial domination, which continues to oppress colonized and marginalized peoples across the world. Imperial domination can be described as the methods by which oppressive
forces — including nation states and corporations (in many cases cooperating with one another) — exercise power over oppressed people through settlement, forced displacement, and other forms of socio-economic, environmental and cultural warfare.
Informed and influenced by the psychopathology of white “supremacy,” imperial domination is responsible for denying thousands of New Orleaneans, the vast majority of them Black and poor folk, from a right of return to their home city in the same way that Palestinians are prevented from returning to theirs.
And we are observing similar trends taking place in cities like Altadena, California.
A majority Black and brown poor and working class community, Altadena is still reeling from a historic wildfire that incinerated entire neighborhood blocks, where reports are emerging about Black working class families being approached with low-ball offers for their damaged and destroyed homes by real estate speculators as part of the “rebuilding effort.” By some accounts, vulture capitalist real
estate corporations have already acquired 50% of the city’s firedamaged homes. Whether it’s hurricanes, wildfires, outright genocide/ethnic cleansing, or everyday gentrification, the lessons of Katrina are instructive in demonstrating that communities like New Orleans, Palestine, Altadena, Washington, D.C., Haiti and many others form a synergy of sacrificed people and sacrificed communities that are forged together by their common experiences as victims of so-called disaster capitalism exercised as part of a larger global initiative of racial capitalism via white “supremacy” ideology, patriarchy and colonialism. That said, there is another theme that synergizes these communities — the denial of their human rights, which is part of a larger denial of their basic humanity by numerous actors, corporations, and institutions that uphold the capitalist dictatorship and its prioritization of profits over people and the planet’s ability to sustain life.
This commentary was originally published in the Black Agenda Report. To read the panel reflections following this piece on human rights in the context of Katrina and other past and current global struggles against oppression, visit www.blackagendareport.com.
One Big Beautiful Bill for the richest Americans
By Dedrick Asante-Muhammad and Jaidyn McKinnie
blame individuals for outcomes shaped by generations of exclusion.
American science and medicine bear the fingerprints of Black innovation. Dr. Charles Drew’s pioneering work on blood plasma allowed soldiers to receive transfusions and survive battle injuries, giving the U.S. an advantage in World War II and beyond.
Yet Drew himself died because a whites-only hospital refused to admit him, denying him access to the very innovation he created. His death stands as a bitter metaphor: America’s antiBlackness often kills not only
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munities. The same is true for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, which corporations adopted to soften their long histories of exclusion.
Today, veterans, disabled people, LGBTQ communities and white women rank far above Black people in terms of DEI’s material benefits. Again, the pattern: Black struggle democratizes resources, but Black people are last in line to reap the gains.
And in 2025, the pattern continues. Every assault on Black rights, whether through voter suppression, attacks on Black history in schools, rollbacks of affirmative action, or the silencing of Black voices erodes democracy for all Americans. To weaken Black citizenship is to weaken democracy itself.
FUBU
But this is not a plea to the anti-Black forces who have shown for centuries that they prefer the lie of white supremacy over democracy, Christianity, the Constitution, or even human survival. These are the same forces that rejected universal health care — after all, it would include Black people — and free college because it would benefit Black students. They would sooner watch the planet burn than see Black humanity respected. Nothing written here is meant for them. This is a call to Black people and those who genuinely respect Black humanity. We must recognize that every scrap of democracy this nation boasts exists because
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act represents an over 40-year march toward concentrating wealth among the wealthy and deepening the racial disparity under the guise of economic growth. In practice, it is a project of wealth consolidation, recycling the same logic that stripped Black communities of opportunity, blamed them for its consequences, and codified that inequality into law.
In today’s economy, wealth is not the reward for hard work or success, but the prerequisite for participating in it at all. From homeownership to higher education to entrepreneurship, the key components of wealth-building demand capital to access opportunity. Families without capital are kept in asset poverty, mired in debt, risk, and economic instability.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2021 the median wealth of white households was $250,400, while Black households’ was only $24,520, approximately one-tenth of their white counterparts. Ignoring that Black Americans were systematically denied the chance to build wealth even as their labor fueled the nation’s prosperity, lawmakers continue to
This fuels a narrative that punishes people for lacking assets they were never allowed to accumulate, deliberately erasing the impact of entrenched structural racism. This narrative, and the policies that sustain it, were entrenched in the 1980s through tax cuts for the wealthy, widespread deregulation, and the collapse of manufacturing.
class and prevented most African Americans from ever having middle-class wealth. Today, we are seeing a renewed embrace of the same logic that deepened the racial wealth divide in the past.
We must hold lawmakers responsible for years of policies that continue to shut the doors to the dream of American middle-class security and leave behind the racial inequality of the past. The country’s “One
Black workers, who had only recently gained access to union jobs and industrial stability through decades of civil rights struggle, were especially vulnerable to this shift. Reagan-era legislation, such as the Economic Recovery Tax Act, deep cuts to social programs, and rolling back protections for moderate to low-income workers naturalized inequality and stripped the government of responsibility for correcting it. Under this model, the economic disparity was framed as the outcome of personal failure and market logic, ignoring the policy choices that ended the rise of the American middle-
Big
is a project of consolidating wealth for the wealthy, cutting opportunity for the rest of America, and pushing the nation deeper into debt.
Reversing course will require not only a sustained populist approach, but a rejection of the false narrative that individuals are to blame for the consequences of exclusion. The sooner we name that lie, the sooner we can build something better.
This commentary was originally published in Word in Black. It was edited for style and length, but retains original language. For more the full piece, visit www. wordiblack.com.
Beautiful Bill”
STATE
COUNTY OF HENNEPIN
State of Minnesota, by its Commissioner of Transportation, Petitioner, vs. The Estate of Leo V. Hendrickson, et al. Respondesnts.
IN THE MATTER OF THE CONDEMNATION
To the Respondents hereinabove named:
You, and each of you, are
at https://Zoomgov.com/join, or
YOU, AND EACH OF YOU, ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED,
Employment&Legals
Hennepin, Don Hendrickson, also all other persons unknown claiming any right, title, estate, interest or lien in the real estate described in the Petition
Respondents. IN THE MATTER OF THE CONDEMNATION OF CERTAIN LANDS FOR TRUNK HIGHWAY PURPOSES
PETITION
To the District Court above named the State of Minnesota brings this Petition and respectfully states and alleges:
That Trunk Highway Legislative Route numbered 383, which has been renumbered 169, and which has been located according to law and passes over the lands herein described.
That it is duly covered by Right of Way Plat Order numbered 100810. II.
That the Commissioner of Transportation deems it necessary that the State of Minnesota for trunk highway purposes obtain the lands herein described in fee simple absolute, together with the following rights: to acquire all trees, shrubs, grass and herbage within the right of way herein to be taken, and to keep and have the exclusive control of the same, and further, to acquire a temporary easement in those cases which are herein particularly mentioned. Petitioner hereby moves the court for an order authorizing the Court Administrator to accept and deposit payments from the Petitioner to the court pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 117.042.
Petitioner hereby moves the court for an order transferring title and possession of the parcels herein described, prior to the filing of an award by the court appointed commissioners, pursuant to Minn. Stat. §117.042.
Further, Petitioner hereby moves the court for an order requiring the parties to exchange any appraisals at least 14 days prior to a commissioners’ hearing, pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 117.036.
The Petitioner reserves its right to recover costs of clean up and testing and all other damages arising from the presence of pollutants, contaminants, or hazardous materials on the property described herein, from all potential responsible parties, including respondents herein where appropriate, in a separate legal action to the extent permitted by law. III.
That the following described lands in these proceedings taken are situated in Hennepin County, Minnesota; that the names of all persons appearing of record or known to your
Petitioner has been able by investigation and inquiry to discover, together with the nature of the ownership of each, as nearly as can be ascertained, are
All of the following:
That part of the Northeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter of Section 12, Township 117 North, Range
the Registrar of Titles in and for Hennepin County, Minnesota; the title thereto being
Architectural Sustainable Design Specialist
Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd seeks an Architectural Sustainable Design Specialist in Minneapolis, MN to create sustainable architecture design proposals for review by a licensed architect; research, compile, record, and graphically present information; conduct wholebuilding and material-specific embodied carbon assessments, daylight and glare analysis, and energy modeling; and analyze research and share data and findings. This position involves bimonthly travel throughout the U.S. A master’s degree in Architecture, a Master of Science in Applied Research in Practice or similar program and proficiency in Revit, Rhino, Enscape, Covetool, VrayEC3, Sefaira, Tally, and Adobe Creative Suite is required. Send applications to “Office Manager,” 510 Marquette Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55402, or via email at officemanager@ msrdesign.com.
SOE
Continued from page 10
faith always was first and foremost.
“I think sports is such a wonderful place to be able to become and to show the best of who we are as humanity, right?” said Moore to me when asked about her and Fowles joining Seimone Augustus as three Black athletes who played on a Minnesota pro team, won championships, and now are HOFers.
And if there’s a social justice hall, the retired W great might be a shoo-in for that, too.
“I’m very honored and very privileged, but also encouraged to see more and more people being acknowledged for what they gave to the community. Because at the
VIEW Continued from page 10
“I think hands down, without a doubt, [this is] the greatest women’s class to go into the Hall,” declared Seattle Times beat writer Percy Allen.
“This year’s class will stand the test of time for a long time.”
“It is very significant, especially knowing the history of the Basketball Hall of Fame,” explained Fowles. “There’s some years you don’t have women go in at all. So, to have all three of us…says a lot about the game, and it’s such
end of the day, we do this for people, right?
“Obviously, we’re making a paycheck. It’s a job. We earn a living. But if the people in our community don’t care and aren’t impacted, like, what are we doing this for?”
Added Fowles, who was Moore’s teammate for two of the Lynx’s four championships, “Sports go hand-inhand in what’s going on with things in the community. We try to do the little things that are important to us, and that we are very passionate about.
“Social justice happened to be that for us in Minnesota. We took pride in that,” Fowles pointed out.
As for Moore the star player, “Maya was definitely one of those players who just thought she can do any and everything,” said Fowles, who also played with Moore on the USA team. “Maya just had this itching about her,
an honor to be among those names.”
When a reporter asked her about being great, the usually humble Fowles said, “I never thought beyond doing my job.
I’ve been watching myself [on film] the last six months and, being honest, I didn’t know I was that good.
“I was doing my job, but I was highly impressed watching me play,” said Fowles with a wry smile. “It was a joy to catch myself on film.”
A couple of days earlier Fowles and this longtime reporter spoke on Zoom. I first spoke to Fowles during her introductory press confer-
Sustainable Design Specialist
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Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd seeks a Sustainable Design Specialist in Minneapolis, MN to create sustainable interior design proposals by researching, compiling, recording and graphically presenting information; conduct carbon assessments of interior fixtures and furnishings; facilitate building material and furniture selection; apply the Design for Freedom Toolkit to material selection; analyze research and share findings for project team and client understanding; and facilitate LEED and WELL certifications and implement sustainable practices. This position involves bi-monthly travel throughout the U.S. A master’s degree in architecture: applied research in practice or similar program, a bachelor’s degree in interior design and proficiency in Revit, Enscape, EC3, Tally, and Adobe Creative Suite are required. Send applications to Office Manager, 510 Marquette Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55402, or via email at Office Manager@msrdesign.com
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and I don’t think you find that in too many athletes. Yes, confidence is one thing, but knowing that you can’t do nothing…and actually going out to prove everyone was wrong because your wheelhouse is just that sharp, that was pretty impressive to me.”
point, obviously from a team standpoint. I’ve just really enjoyed discovering who this phase of Maya is.”
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The Naismith Basketball HOF Class of 2025 Enshrinement Weekend in Uncasville, Conn. and Springfield, Mass was a hustle-bustle affair for the inductees.
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“I look at this as a big family reunion.”
Fellow HOF Class of ’25 member Dwight Howard said last Friday of Moore, “She was like the female [Michael] Jordan. That was what we were calling her.”
“I played so much basketball; I can’t be greedy,” stressed Moore, now a wife and mother. “I did everything I could have possibly done, and then did it again either from an individual stand-
“This is a trip for my family,” said Moore. “Just reconnecting with some of my old teammates and their families. I look at this as a big family reunion.”
Sadly, Moore’s grandfather, who I got to know during his visits to Minnesota to watch his superstar soon-tobe HOFer granddaughter, recently passed away at age 93. “He always appreciated you,” concluded Moore of her late granddad.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.
ence after she was traded to Minnesota from Chicago in the middle of the 2015 season. After that we regularly talked, whether for a story or just chit-chatting about life.
I asked her why we had such a player-reporter relationship and she said, “I’m very big on energy. I felt like you were probably one of the most honest ones that I can sit and have a heart-to-heart with without taking stuff and writing about it or putting it in the media.
“I always appreciated that about you, and when you showed me that I can trust you, then it was smooth sailing from there.” Fowles last
weekend gave me a couple of her patented hugs that she always gives to people she likes. She said she likes me.
“It took some time for metoreallyhoneinon
whatIwasreallygood at, what I can get better at, and how can I be a menaceonthecourt.”
The Miami native is no different from most typical HOFers, openly admitting that getting into the Hall was far from her mind. “If I’m being honest, I just want people
HOFer in 2021. He’s now a second-timer as he was also on the 2008 USA Olympic men’s basketball team that went in last Saturday. The 13-year NBA veteran was forced to retire at age 32 after recurring blood clots in his lungs were discovered.
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“It’s kind of overwhelming and a little surreal to me because this is my second
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[HOF],” he said. “I hope I can set a good example for kids to be something and do something.”
Bosh pointed out that he owes his success and longevity to his family: “The time they pitched in, taking me to games, practices, late nights in the gym, that was huge in my upbringing. Respect — they are really proud.
“I just wanted to make my family proud, represent myself well, play hard, and maybe make a couple of dollars,” he recalled. “For me, I was either crazy or I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I knew I was going to be great. I worked so hard in the gym and listened to my coaches, paying people respect because I knew if I kept this up, I knew where I was going.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.
to understand that I’m all too human outside of all these great things that I did in the basketball world,” she said.
She recalled in her WBHOF speech that she was pushed into basketball because she was tall for her age as a pre-teen. “I just didn’t think I was good. The potential that I was showing other people, I couldn’t see it in myself. It took some time for me to really hone in on what I was really good at, what I can get better at, and how can I be a menace on the court.
“It took me a while to get there… It probably didn’t click for me until probably after
my third, fourth year in the league where I was like, I can definitely play with this group of young women, and I can be better if I can just lock in and learn these things.”
Fowles’ post-athletic career of becoming a mortician still is on her radar: “Yes, we’re just on pause right now because we were in this wave of doing all these amazing things that’s in the moment.” A couple of Hall of Fame inductions in 2025 can do it to her, I guess.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.
Chris Bosh Photo by Charles Hallman
Basketball Hall of Fame inducts ‘greatest women’s class’
Maya Moore says
she’s done it all and more
NCASVILLE, Conn. —
She walked away at the prime of her basketball career for a greater calling pursuing social justice issues, and Maya Moore never looked back.
“I am so grateful,” she said of her Hall of Fame induction.
“I am super blessed to have some of the great teams I played for. I’m going in with Syl [Sylvia Fowles] and Sue [Bird], USA teammates and Lynx teammates,” Moore told reporters, including the MSR at last Friday’s media availability. The following day, Moore, Fowles and Bird, along with four former players, an NBA team owner, and the 2008 USA Basketball Men’s National Team were inducted as the
Fame Class of
in
field, Mass. Moore finally announced her retirement as a player a few years after she stepped away from the Minnesota Lynx before the 2019 season at age 29. Putting her stellar, now-HOF career in moth balls wasn’t a complete surprise, because the Jefferson City, Missouri native’s overall
Sylvia Fowles admits she was that good
few
Hall of Fame rewards passion, hard work, respect
By Charles Hallman Sports Columnist
NCASVILLE, Conn. —
The primary attributes of a Hall of Famer include excellence, longevity, consistency and teamwork, and their lives and career will be forever remembered.
Such is the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025, which includes five former players, a team owner, a longtime referee, a veteran coach, and a USA national team. All are living today and spoke during their respective inductions last Saturday at Springfield, Massachusetts’ Symphony Hall.
We were twice lucky at the Mohegan Sun Convention Center in Uncasville, Conn.
to have one inductee ask me questions before his scheduled time with the media, and another after a photo shoot when I walked into the wrong
room by mistake.
Dwight Howard’s dream comes true
As he entered the large conference room a day before his HOF induction, Dwight Howard displayed his trademark humor as he walked toward this veteran elderly reporter.
Howard asked me, “Who’s the greatest player you’ve ever seen?” I easily said the late Wilt Chamberlain (19361999), the only NBA player ever to score 100 points in a game and average 40 and 50 points in a season.
“He was at Wilt’s locker after the game asking him questions,” said Howard with a huge smile. “If you all don’t know, he was there when Moses parted the Red Sea.” Both of us knew that wasn’t quite true — I was in grade school when Wilt scored 100 — but Howard couldn’t help saying that, briefly paying me
respect. Then he answered a quick question from me.
“Every day I have tears of joy, just crying, just thankful of all this experience of going into the Hall of Fame,” Howard responded seriously. “It hasn’t really, like, sunk in… It’s incredible, it’s awesome.
“It can’t be taken off no matter what anybody says,” stressed Howard of his name now etched among those of Chamberlain and other HOFs living or deceased. As he fist bumped me, Howard said proudly, “It’s up there in the heavens” as he proceeded to his spot to take media questions.
Later, after another fist bump welcoming me to the media scrum, he said, “I was thinking I would be in the Hall of Fame when I’m 60. But to actually have the call at the young age of 39, it’s nothing
she needed to say in her Hall of Fame speech. Last Saturday in Springfield, Mass. was the second such induction for her in nearly four months — Fowles in June went into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.
“I feel like I’m going to play a game,” the retired WNBA legend told this reporter during last Friday’s Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame media availability at Mohegan Sun
convention center.
Fowles, Maya Moore and Sue Bird are the largest WNBA players class to enter the Hall in the same year. All three were USA Olympic teammates, and Fowles and Moore were Minnesota Lynx teammates on two WNBA championships. Combined, they won 11 Olympic gold medals, 10 W championships, and countless individual honors.
saiah Weeks, a senior at Johnson Senior High School (JHS) in St. Paul was invited to the school auditorium on a Friday afternoon August 29.
“I had no idea why Principal [Jamil] Payton invited us,” he said later, but he knew something was up.
but a blessing.” Howard is now in the Hall twice, having entered last Saturday as the youngest member (age 22) of the 2008 USA Basketball Men’s National Team, nicknamed “The Redeem Team” after its gold medal performance in the 2008 Olympics after failing to do so in the previous Olympics.
“For me as his younger brother, I’d seen him putting his goals over his bed,” recalled Jahaziel Howard, who is three years behind older brother Dwight. “He followed his dream with hard work and passion, love, and in his spirit what he felt God called him to do. To see him here, it’s everything.”
On the final day of professional development before the official start of the 202526 school year, Weeks and his family entered an auditorium filled with JHS staff, increasing the 12th grader’s concern.
“When I saw my teachers, I didn’t know what to think,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”
Moments later Weeks found out. With new Saint Paul Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Stacey Stanley also in attendance, he was surprised with a $40,000 scholarship from the College Board and BigFuture. Payton presented him with a novelty check.
Weeks and his family were invited to Johnson on a day without students present, and staff was able to watch the presentation unfold live. “I was very surprised,” Weeks said. “It definitely caught me by surprise.”
Weeks earned the financial award by completing planning
actions on BigFuture, a free online platform sponsored by the College Board. By completing at least one of the key steps, Weeks, who plans to major in cyber security at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, earned a chance to win the $40,000 scholarship, currently awarded monthly to high school students in the class of 2026 and 2027.
Week’s moment was just the beginning of a memorable day at Johnson High School. Later that evening the football team won its first game of the season, defeating St. Agnes 57-30. It was quite the day for Weeks, his family, Johnson High School staff and the community.
Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes reader comments to mcdeezy05@gmail.com.
NCASVILLE, Conn. — Sylvia Fowles a
months ago had some practice conjuring up what
Naismith Basketball Hall of
2025
Spring
Maya Moore Photo by Charles Hallman
Maya Moore HOF photo Photo courtesy of Threads
Sylvia Fowles
Photo by Charles Hallman
Sylvia Fowles HOF photo Photo courtesy of Threads
Chris Bosh credits family pride Chris Bosh first became an
Dwight Howard
Photo by Charles Hallman
Hallman
Johnson High School senior Isaiah Weeks gives his acceptance speech after being presented a $40,000 College Board Big Future Scholarship.
Photo by Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald