September 29, 2022 - MN Spokesman-Recorder

By Abdi Mohamed Contributing Writer

In 2017, hip hop became the most popular music genre in the U.S. according to Nielsen’s year-end report on the music industry, surpassing rock, which had dominated for decades.

Although the hip hop scene has been dominant in New York and Los Angeles since its inception, there were several cities throughout the country developing their own sound as the wave of music traveled in the early 1980s.

Minnesota had some of its own early pioneers in hip hop who have been commemorated recently by the Minnesota Historical Society with a photo induction at the History Center on Sept. 9.

The event was hosted by Twin Cit ies DJ, author, activist and historian Ryan Dillard, commonly referred to as DJ Stage One, who has organized three previous “A Great Day in Hip Hop” pho to shoots in which he brought together generations of hip hop artists from the Twin Cities to document the region’s history over the years.

Fans and a who’s who mix of artists all gathered together for an intimate event to reminisce about the hip hop scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s in Minnesota and how the art form devel oped through the years.

Historical Society enshrines local hip hop legacy

Big Lie candidates running in November

By Mary Turck Contributing Writer

FIRST IN A SERIES

This is the first of MSR’s “Elections Under Attack” series that looks at four threats to our elections growing out of the Big Lie that the former president won the 2020 election. Articles in the series look at each of these threats to democratic elections in the United States, with an emphasis on Minnesota.

In Minnesota, Republican Kim Crockett is running for Secretary of State on a Big Lie platform. She calls the 2020 election “lawless,” “illegitimate” and “rigged.” She wants to severely restrict absentee and mail voting, saying that postal workers cannot be trusted to deliver ballots.

Her lies about elections put her squarely in the ranks of Republicans running on the Big Lie platform this year—and she’s running for the statewide office that has the most to do with election integrity.

Across the country, right-

wing proponents of the Big Lie have launched attacks against voting rights, election pro cesses, and election officials.

Besides these ongoing attacks, dozens of Big Lie candidates are running for key state offices that will give them control of election machinery.

The Big Lie about U.S. elec tions has two parts: first, that the former president actually won the election, and second, that widespread election fraud stole the election from him.

“Big Lie” is a term that originated

with the Nazis in Germany. The term means that if you tell a big enough lie and repeat it often enough, people will believe it.

The truth: the former presi dent lost the 2020 election and no significant election fraud has been found anywhere.

Even Republican investigators, hired by Republican legisla tures, have not found fraud.

As a Big Lie candidate, Crockett is not alone. A large majority of Republican can didates for offices that have authority over elections are

election deniers. These include candidates for secretary of state in at least 11 states, as well as some candidates for governor and attorney general offices.

The Arizona candidate for secretary of state marched on the Capitol on January 6, insists the 2020 election was rigged, and wants to allow state legislators to reject elec tion results. In Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial can didate Doug Mastriano is an

Conspiracy theories feed White nationalist hate

News Analysis

By Sara Kamali

In September 2022, Presi dent Joe Biden convened a summit called United We Stand to denounce the “venom and violence” of White nationalism ahead of the midterm elections. His remarks repeated the theme of his prime-time speech in Philadelphia on Sept. 1, 2022, during which he warned that America’s democratic values are at stake.

“We must be honest with each other and with our selves,” Biden said. “Too much of what’s happening in

our country today is not nor mal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

While that message may resonate among many Dem ocratic voters, it’s unclear whether it will have any impact on any Republicans whom Biden described as “dominated and intimidated” by former President Donald Trump, or on independent voters who have played deci sive roles in elections, and will continue to do so, particularly as their numbers increase.

Lane gets three more years for role in Floyd killing

Former Mpls cop already serving 2½-year federal sentence

By Henry Pan Contributing Writer

Former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane, one of the four involved in the murder of George Floyd, was sentenced in a brief virtual hearing on Wednesday, Sep tember 21 to three years in prison for pleading guilty to aiding and abetting the man slaughter of George Floyd.

Lane, along with his then-partner J. Alexander Kueng, was the first officer to respond to 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, in response to allegations that Floyd provided a fake $20 bill to cashiers. The incident

ended in former officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, killing him.

“It is a very wise decision to accept responsibility and move on with your life, even though the Floyd family has problems

moving on with their lives, which is understandable,” said Judge Peter Cahill during sen tencing.

The sentencing is a fivemonth departure from the presumptive sentence of 41 to 57 months, in part because

his admission to helping kill Floyd, as well as video evi dence played in court show ing Lane attempting to save his life, influenced Judge Cahill in his sentencing.

For pleading guilty, the court dismissed the aiding and abet ting murder charge. The pros ecution also did not ask Lane for restitution.

Lane receives 31 days credit for time served as part of his two-and-a-half year sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights. He is currently serving that sentence at the Federal Correc tional Institution in Englewood, Colorado, a Denver-area sub urb, where he will also serve his state sentence. Federal and state sentencing guidelines

combined call for Lane to begin serving supervised release in late 2024.

He will also be unable to own firearms for the rest of his life and must register as a predatory offender, to which he responded shortly after the hearing ended, “I have to register as a preda tory offender?! What the f*** is that?!”

“We will never move on,” the Floyd family said in a state ment read aloud by attorney Matthew Frank in the virtual courtroom. The statement also mentioned being subject to a public grieving process and countless trials, hearings, guilty pleas, and sentencings.

“The killing of George Perry

Floyd, Jr. will forever continue to hurt anyway.”

Meanwhile, Chauvin is serv ing both his federal and state sentences at Federal Correc tional Institution in Tuscon, Arizona. His scheduled release date is November 18, 2038.

The two remaining officers involved in Floyd’s murder, Kueng and Tou Thao, will stand trial beginning October 24 at 9 am. Both opted not to pursue a plea agreement in August, with Thao saying it would be a “lie and a sin” to do so. Both also begin serving their federal sen tences next month.

Henry Pan welcomes reader responses to hpan@ spokesman-recorder.com.

will never move on.”

(back, l-r) Ez El pee, Travis Lee, Derrick “Delite” Stevens, Ralph Crowder, Tawala Storay, Sean “Slug” Daley, DJ Chuck Chizzle; (front, l-r) Derek Delgado, DJ Smoke Dee, Rya “DJ Stage One” Dillard, Mark Campbell, and DJ Mixie Da Boss Photo by Abdi Mohamed

MGN

Metro

Looking back on America’s summer of heat, floods and climate change Welcome to the new abnormal

By Shuang-Ye Wu

The summer of 2022 started with a historic flood in Montana, brought on by heavy rain and melting snow, that tore up roads and caused large areas of Yellowstone Na tional Park to be evacuated.

It ended with a record-break ing heat wave in California and much of the West that pushed the power grid to the breaking point, causing blackouts, fol lowed by a tropical storm that set rainfall records in southern California. A typhoon flooded coastal Alaska, and a hurricane hit Puerto Rico with more than 30 inches of rain.

In between, wildfires raged through California, Arizona and New Mexico on the back ground of a megadrought in Southwestern U.S. that has been more severe than any thing the region has experi enced in at least 1,200 years.

Near Albuquerque, New Mexico, a five-mile stretch of the Rio Grande ran dry for the first time in 40 years. Persis tent heat waves lingered over many parts of the country, setting temperature records.

At the same time, during a period of five weeks between July and August, five 1,000year rainfall events occurred in St. Louis, eastern Kentucky, southern Illinois, California’s Death Valley and in Dal las, causing devastating and sometimes deadly flash floods. Extreme rainfall also led to se vere flooding in Mississippi, Virginia and West Virginia.

The United States is hardly alone in its share of climate disasters.

In Pakistan, record mon soon rains inundated more than one-third of the country, killing over 1,500 people. In In dia and China, prolonged heat waves and droughts dried up rivers, disrupted power grids and threatened food security for billions of people.

In Europe, heat waves set record temperatures in Britain and other places, leading to severe droughts and wildfires in many parts of the conti nent. In South Africa, torren tial rains brought flooding and mudslides that killed more than 400 people. The summer may have come to an end on the calendar, but climate di sasters will surely continue.

This isn’t just a freak sum mer: Over the years, such extreme events are occurring in increasing frequency and intensity.

Climate change is intensifying these disasters

The most recent interna tional climate assessment from the United Nations’ In tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found sig nificant increases in both the frequency and intensity of extreme temperature and pre cipitation events, leading to more droughts and floods.

A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature found that extreme flooding

events, enhanced by climate change, often exceed the de signed levels of such manage ment strategies.

Extreme events, by defini tion, occur rarely. A 100-year flood has a 1% chance of hap pening in any given year. So, when such events occur with increasing frequency and in tensity, they are a clear indi cation of a changing climate state.

The term “global warming” can sometimes be misleading,

everywhere. What it fails to convey is that warming tem peratures also lead to a more violent world with more ex treme climate disasters, as we saw this past summer.

Climate models showed these risks were coming

Much of this is well-under stood and consistently repro duced by climate models.

As the climate warms, a shift in temperature distribu tion leads to more extremes.

degree Celsius increase in an nual average temperature is associated with 1.2 C to 1.9 C (2.1 Fahrenheit to 3.4 F) of in crease in the annual maximum temperature.

In addition, global warming causes changes in the vertical profile of the atmosphere and equator-to-pole temperature gradients, leading to changes in how the atmosphere and ocean move.

The temperature differ ence between equator and the poles is the driving force for global wind. As the polar regions warm at much higher rates then the equator, the re duced temperature difference causes a weakening of global winds and leads to a more me andering jet stream.

Some of these changes can create conditions such as per sistent high-pressure systems and atmosphere blocking that favor more frequent and more intense heat waves. The heat domes over the Southern Plains and South in June and the West in September are examples.

The initial warming can be further amplified by positive feedbacks. For example, warm ing increases snow melt, expos ing dark soil underneath, which absorbs more heat than snow, further enhancing the warming.

warming. Higher tempera tures tend to dry out the soil, and less soil moisture reduces the land’s heat capacity, mak ing it easier to heat up.

These positive feedbacks further intensify the initial warming, leading to more heat extremes. More frequent and persistent heat waves lead to excessive evaporation, com bined with decreased precipi tation in some regions, caus ing more severe droughts and more frequent wildfires.

Higher temperatures in crease the atmosphere’s ca pacity to hold moisture at a rate of about 7% per degree Celsius.

This increased humid ity leads to heavier rainfall events. In addition, storm systems are fueled by latent heat, or the large amount of energy released when water vapor condenses to liquid water. Increased moisture content in the atmosphere also enhances latent heat in storm systems, increasing their intensity. Extreme heavy or persistent rainfall leads to increased flooding and land slides, with devastating social and economic consequences.

Even though it’s difficult to link specific extreme events directly to climate change, when these supposedly rare events occur with increasing frequency in a warming world, it is hard to ignore the chang ing state of our climate.

The new abnormal

So this past summer might just provide a glimpse of our near future, as these extreme climate events become more frequent.

To say this is the new “normal,” though, is mislead ing. It suggests that we have reached a new stable state, and that is far from the truth.

Without serious effort to curb greenhouse gas emis sions, this trend toward more extreme events will continue. Things will keep getting worse, and this past summer will be come the norm a few years or decades down the road—and eventually, it will seem mild, like one of those “nice sum mers” we look back on fondly with nostalgia.

and droughts are also getting deadlier and more expensive, despite an improving capac ity to manage climate risks. This is because these extreme

as it seems to suggest that as humans put more heat-trap ping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the world is going to get a bit warmer

The magnitudes of changes in extreme temperature are often larger than changes in the mean.

For example, globally, a 1

Warming of the atmo sphere also increases its ca pacity to hold water vapor, which is a strong greenhouse gas. Therefore, more water vapor in the air leads to more

Shuang-Ye Wu is a professor of geology and environmental geosci ences at the University of Dayton.

This story was republished with permission from The Con versation.

Much of the South and Southern Plains faced a dangerous heat wave in July 2022, with highs well over 100 degrees for several days

Photos courtesy of Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Heat waves, like the heat dome over the South in July 2022, can hit outdoor workers espe cially hard

Metro

Government aid for older homes could help with housing crisis

By Mike Moen

As the housing market nav igates a sea of obstacles, com munity-level organizations in Minnesota are urging govern ments to take a closer look at their strategies for supporting older neighborhoods and said deteriorating homes shouldn’t be overlooked.

Construction of new homes continues to lag, in part because of supply-chain issues, and groups such as NeighborWorks Home Part ners say there’s another prob lem: plenty of neighborhoods

in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as surrounding sub urbs, have an aging stock.

Beth Hyser, chief program officer for the group, said the scale of funds set aside for things like home improve ment loans has not kept up with demand.

“We’re seeing more and more folks trying to age in their homes,” Hyser observed. “But because of a variety of financial situations have not been able to keep up with maintenance.”

She added there are many first-time homebuyers who

cannot afford to take on debt for necessary repairs. Com

Photo of the Week

Mutual respect

Minnehaha Academy High School Foot ball Coach Chris Godwin (l) and Minneapo lis North Community High School Coach Charles Adams III greet each other in the middle of the Gordy Aamoth Stadium at the Blake School at the conclusion of a competitive game in the rain.

The North Polars beat the SMB Wolf pack 14-7 and are currently undefeated in a season dedicated to Deshaun Hill, Jr., the team’s slain quarterback. The North High Polars 2021 Season is scheduled for view ing in January 2023 on Showtime.

Did you know that you could easily obtain your or your family’s immunization records through the Docket app? Introduced in 2021, the app offers Minnesotans onestop digital access to their immunization history through the Minnesota Immuniza tion Information Connection, a confidential system that stores electronic immuniza tion records.

In addition to your history, you can check what vaccines may be due for you or your family, see what vaccines you may need in the future, and share immunization records for health, school, travel, and other purposes.

To get the free app, just download by searching “Dock et” on Apple or Google Play app stores or go directly to the Docket.care.com website.

munity partners worry it will lead to more issues like gen trification, with private in vestors buying up properties.

Hyser recommended state and local governments do all they can to access funds through the federal HOME program, noting it of fers flexibility in buying or re habbing affordable housing.

Jim Erchul, executive director of Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services, said they see a lot of older residents stay ing in homes with mainte nance needs piling up. He explained it prevents them from being able to sell. His group can help facilitate op tions, but there are barriers.

“The state has a good, de ferred loan program for ex tremely low-income folks, but it’s rather burdensome to administer,” Erchul noted.

Erchul pointed out a client and a community organiza tion could spend a lot of time seeking approval, only to see it fall through. He suggested creating more efficiencies and expanding eligibility for the program, while still al lowing for accountability, could go a long way in seeing their aging housing stock get the attention it needs.

Both groups say full reno vation costs have skyrock eted, and smaller invest ments over time can prevent a collection of neighborhood homes from needing major overhauls at once.

Mike Moen is a writer for the Minnesota News Connection.

Text and photo by Travis Lee

MDH

By David Hamlar MD, DDS Guest Contributor

Although the medical pro fession strives for equal treat ment of all patients, disparities in health care are prevalent. Cultural stereotypes may not be consciously endorsed, but their mere existence influ ences how information about an individual is processed and leads to unintended biases in decision-making, so called “implicit bias.”

Research suggests that implicit bias may contribute to healthcare disparities by shaping physician behavior and producing differences in medical treatment along the lines of race, ethnicity, gender or other characteristics.

People base their percep tions of reality on received information and experiences reinforced until they become automatic. This ability makes human decision-making ef ficient and likely provided an evolutionary advantage. Ste reotypes are well-learned sets of associations between some trait and a social group.

Implicit bias is also called “unconscious” or “non-con scious” bias and often dif fers starkly from explicit beliefs. Multiple studies with randomized, controlled designs confirm that simply knowing about a stereotype distorts processing of infor mation about individuals.

Implicit bias develops early in life from repeated reinforcement of social ste reotypes. Implicit pro-White bias occurs among children as young as three years old throughout the world.

The most commonly used measure of implicit bias is the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computerized timed dual categorization task that measures implicit preferences by bypassing conscious pro cessing. Participants press dif ferent computer keys to sort photographs of African Amer

Health

Physicians and implicit bias

ican and Caucasian Ameri can faces as either “Black” or “White” and then sort words like “joy, wonderful, glorious” and “agony, horrible, evil” into “Good” and “Bad” categories, respectively.

Next, participants repeat the task, sequentially being asked to press one key when shown a “Black” stimulus or a “Bad” word and a different key when shown a “White” stimu lus or a “Good” word, and vice versa. Overall, the 2,535 par ticipants who reported having an MD degree showed signifi cant pro-White bias. Others have confirmed that even in the absence of explicit race bias, implicit preference for Whites among physicians is common.

The degree of implicit race bias varies by physician race and gender. The presence of pro-White bias was significant among physicians of all racial groups except African Ameri cans, who were neutral, while women showed less implicit race bias than men. Less—but not zero—pro-White bias has also been found among nonWhite vs. White resident phy sicians and medical students.

ceptualizing implicit bias as a “habit of mind” provides a use ful framework for developing interventions.

Although awareness is im portant, as with clinical efforts to change patients’ undesir able health behaviors, it is not sufficient to reduce the automatic, habitual activation of stereotypes and the subse quent impact of implicit bias in medical decision-making.

Despite the best intentions of physicians to provide equal treatment to all, disparities linger and may lead to unac ceptable increases in morbid ity and mortality for some. Many factors have helped cre ate these disparities, including implicit bias, an unintentional, unacknowledged preference for one group over another.

Implicit bias is present in physicians and correlates with unequal treatment of patients. We suggest the contribution of implicit bias to healthcare disparities could be reduced if all physicians acknowledged their susceptibility to such bias and deliberately prac ticed perspective-taking and individuation.

Additionally, increasing the number of African American/ Black physicians could reduce the impact of implicit bias on some healthcare disparities because they exhibit signifi cantly less implicit race bias.

Adapted from: J Gen In tern Med. 2013 Nov; 28(11): 1504–1510, “Physicians and Implicit Bias: How Doctors May Unwittingly Perpetuate Health Care Disparities,” Elizabeth N. Chapman, MD, Anna Kaatz, MA, MPH, PhD, and Molly Carnes, MD, MS

FOR CHILDHOOD. FOR LIFE.

It was also found that the perception of an interaction between White physicians and Black patients was af fected by a physician’s implicit race bias, even in the absence of explicit biases. Such nega tive perceptions could alter their behavior in ways that reduce adherence, return for follow-up, or trust, and thus could contribute to disparities in care.

With growing evidence that implicit bias in physician decision-making makes a sig nificant contribution to per petuating health care dispari ties, it is critical to find ways to reduce its impact. Con

David Hamlar MD, DDS is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngol ogy, Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Minnesota. He specializes in craniofacial skull base surgery. He attend ed Howard University College of Dentistry (DDS) and Ohio State University (MD), and came to Minnesota for his fel lowship in facial plastic and re constructive surgery. Besides medicine, he is a retired Min nesota National Guardsman achieving the rank of major general. His passion today is empowering students of color to achieve their dreams of en tering the medical professions as well as other STEM-orient ed careers.

Our children deserve to be lifted up. Every single child, in every community. And that’s why we’re raising the bar. Raising standards for health care. Raising questions — about equity, inclusion and justice. Raising our hands. Our voices. Raising up kids’ health to the highest priority — so every child can reach their full potential.

Implicit bias is present in physicians and correlates with unequal treatment of patients.

Hip Hop

Continued from page 1

The power of radio

Travis Lee came to Minne sota in 1981 to attend the Uni versity of Minnesota. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Lee was familiar with the origins of hip hop and close to some of its early pioneers.

According to Lee, it would take months if not years for songs to reach parts of the city back in the early ’80s because of how new rap was and how slow things were to travel. “This was the infancy of rap reaching different places. I used to go to New York at least four times a year in college and bring records back,” Lee recalled.

In 1988, Lee got his own program at KMOJ called the “Hip Hop Shop.” Once voted the radio show of the year by City Pages, it was a three-hour program that aired on Satur days and introduced listeners to what was hot in New York. Artists like Rakim, Biz Markie, LL Cool J, and Big Daddy Kane would come bumping through speakers across Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Stage recalled how difficult it was growing up in North Minneapolis to come across new music outside of radio. He came to learn about hip hop from DJs like Lee who he grew up around.

“If you didn’t live on either coast you had to catch things as you may through the news or the magazines to stay up on current events with hip hop,” Stage said. “It helped to be around KMOJ back in the day. I had full access to Derrick Del ite, Chaz Millionaire, Rosan Carl Scott, DJ Def Tronic. We seen

Hate

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these guys as celebrities in the community, but we seen them because the radio station was in our hood.”

Derrick “Delite” Stevens started his career on the radio during his time at North High School and got his first profes sional on-air job with KMOJ in 1987. Since then, Stevens has gone on to work with huge pop artists like Paula Abdul as MC Skat Kat in “Opposites Attract” and has enjoyed a 17-year career with Minnesota Public Radio, where he currently works.

across town limited their sets and would outright ban hip hop music from being played.

“There are so many people that have done so much to create a scene in hip hop in the Twin Cities where we were opposed by people who owned these businesses,” Stage explained. Hip hop was seen as a liability by some venue owners, although there were no issues at any of these early shows. “That’s how they looked at it,” Stage said. “They treated us like juve nile delinquents.”

“They were afraid of the music,” Stevens added, “or they didn’t get the music, or felt like it wasn’t something that was geared towards the patrons that they wanted in their establishments.”

One, frequented these shows as a high schooler. Fleming was 15 years old when he first pursued hip hop, first as a fan, then as an emcee where he worked with several crews and collectives, most notably Headshots and Rhymesayers. While attend ing South High School, Fleming attended shows and familiarized himself with the scene.

“So when those Coffman Union performances were going on that Trav and those guys were putting on, I was sneaking in,” he recalled.

foul stuff,” Fleming said. Recent photoshoot gatherings and looking toward the future

For Stage, documenting hip hop in Minnesota has been a way of not only preserving his tory but also the legacy of the many contributors to the Twin Cities music scene. “I feel like the pictures are a manifesta tion of what we’ve evolved into in this city as far as us starting as people just trying to figure things out,” he said.

cal Society is letting us archive things—it’s really about to go down,” Fleming said. “Stage would randomly hit me up on social media. He was always in forward motion in this. I knew he always had his mind set on preserving the culture.”

“What I would say about Stage is that he put the flag down at the Historical Society and said we were here and we did this. It’s the beginning of the renaissance in telling the story of how it was done,” Lee said.

“Radio has played a major factor with hip hop here in the Twin Cities, especially in the early years, because KMOJ was the only game in town,” Ste vens said. Record pools began to pop up around town so that people could sell or swap records. Growing up in Queens, Stevens was also introduced to new rap artists through family and friends sending him cas sette tapes.

While radio was a successful way of introducing hip hop to the community in the Twin Cit ies, DJs and rappers knew that the music was best experienced in person.

Issues with venues and building support

Early on in the Twin Cities hip hop scene, many of the shows took place at the University of Minnesota’s Coffman Union, as it was the only space available for Black artists. Other venues

Prior to hopping on the radio, Lee would break records in music venues around the Twin Cities during his DJ sets across town. While the parties were popular with a lot of the young folks in town who were fans of hip hop, local law enforcement worked hard to stifle the scene.

“When I demonstrated the scratching, people thought I was ruining the record,” Lee remem bered. “There was no internet, no YouTube. What we were doing people had to see it and feel it. I did an all-high-school jam, and it was so big that from then on I was always followed by fire marshals who were the ones that detect how many people were in there.”

These venues were also a place of building community as hip hop fans and artists con nected with one another at each show. “We were more close-knit back then,” Stage said. “The beautiful thing about it is that we might not have built with each other in the streets so much, but we were in the nightlife growing so much that we built a camaraderie together.”

Alfonso Fleming Jr., or Dispute

and particular grievances have gained traction to become ingrained in the present-day Republican Party.

I also examine four key strands of White nationalism that overlap in vari ous configurations: religions, racism, conspiracy theories, and anti-govern ment views.

Fleming formed a crew called Interlock who would go on to create a hip hop scene in the U of M’s Dinkytown area. Restaurants like Bon Appetit and The Dinkytowner became the gathering spaces for hip hop as Fleming’s crew and oth ers hosted battle rap shows and performances.

Stage and others who were older than Fleming set an example for the younger gener ation on how to move through the scene and put on their own shows. “They were definitely

“We just need to understand that there are people here who came here before us not to just make music but have made sac rifices financially, and the time they took to break ground for you to come to these venues to play certain records or be a certain color or be a certain age without people automatically counting you as a liability.”

The involvement of the Min nesota History Society has giv en a sense of credence to some. It also was a way for many of Stage’s friends and peers to

“Stage has always been the type of dude he is where he’s working to put people together whether it be crews or hooking up to do shows together,” Ste vens stated. “Stage was always the one trying to get everyone under one umbrella in the Twin Cities.”

The connection to the His torical Society also comes with a sense of shared responsibility according to Stevens. “When you want to preserve certain things, you put money behind it and you put an investment into preserving that and making that stand for future genera tions,” he said.

As the years go on and more gatherings take place, a sense of passing the torch to the next generation will be a com mon theme for many of the pioneering artists in the Twin Cities. “It’s each one teach one,” Fleming said. “It’s getting a lot of the old heads to recognize you should be taking your own energy and aspirations to push these new artists.”

Stage is currently writing a book that documents the Twin Cities hip hop scene titled “The Bridge is Over,” and has a manuscript ready to publish in the near future.

key on keeping us hip to the fact that hip hop is always posi tive. We never went into any venue with the intent of doing

not new to politics, they spread with increasing frequency and speed because of social media.

It’s also unclear whether Trumpendorsed candidates can win in gen eral elections, in which they will face opposition not only from members of their own party but also from a broad swath of Democrats and inde pendent voters.

What is clear is that this midterm election cycle has revealed the poten cy of conspiracy theories that prop up narratives of victimhood and messag es of hate across the complex Ameri can landscape of White nationalism.

Campaigning on conspiracy theories

In my book “Homegrown Hate: Why White Nationalists and Militant Islamists Are Waging War on the United States,” I detail how the White nationalist narrative of victimhood

Big Lie

Continued from page 1

election denier who tried to get the 2020 election overturned. If elected governor, he would be the state official charged with certifying elec tion results. Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen said the 2020 election was not fair and that “I have no way of knowing” whether it was stolen.

In addition to her candidacy for secretary of state, Crockett is part of a network recruiting right-wing poll watchers and election judges. The net work is headed by Cleva Mitchell, who was on the phone call in which Trump tried to pressure Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to change the election result.

Conspiracy theories allow White nationalists to depict a world in which Black and Brown people are endangering the livelihoods, social norms and morals of White people. In general, conspiracy theories are based on the belief that individual circumstances are the result of powerful enemies actively agitating against the interests of a believing individual or group.

Based on the interviews I con ducted while researching my book, these particular conspiracy theories are convenient because they justify the shared White nationalist goal of establishing institutions and territory of White people, for White people and by White people. While conspiracy theories are not new, and certainly

In Minnesota, election judges are recruited and trained at the county level. They may be paid or volunteer their time, and they receive two hours of training. They usually work from 6 am to 9 pm on election day.

Minnesota law allows “challengers” rather than “poll watch ers.” Each party and each candidate may nominate one challenger per polling place. While challengers may remain inside polling places, a code of conduct governs what they may and may not do.

At the local level, elec tion deniers can sabotage elections. In July, after Pennsylvania’s primary election, three conservative counties refused to process absentee ballots that did not have a date written on the return envelope. In New Mexico, con servative Otero County refused to

The “great replacement theory” is one such baseless belief that is playing a role in the anti-immigration rhetoric that is central to the 2022 strategies of many Republican candidates who are running for seats at all levels of government. That theory erroneously warns believers of the threat that immigrants and people of color pose to White identity and institutions.

For months on the 2022 campaign trail, Republican Blake Masters, a ven ture capitalist who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, has portrayed immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an elaborate plot by Demo crats to dilute the political power of voters born in the United States.

“What the left really wants to do is change the demographics of this coun try,” Masters said in a video posted to Twitter last fall. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is another Republican leader who decries what he calls “the inva sion of the southern border.”

certify the June 2021 primary elec tion results at all. They said they just did not trust voting machines in the heavily Republican county, though they could not give any reason for their feelings of mistrust.

Kim Crockett gives plenty of rea

“The fact that the Histori

The lie of the ‘Big Lie’

Aside from the inflammatory antiimmigration rhetoric, the conspiracy theory currently having the biggest impact on local, state and federal political campaigns across the country is Trump’s “Big Lie” that he won the 2020 election.

Of the 159 endorsements Trump has made for proponents of the Big Lie, 127 of them have won their primaries in 2022. In addition, Republican can didates who align themselves with the Big Lie are also emerging victorious in races for state- and county-level offices whose responsibilities include direct oversight of elections.

The continuation of QAnon

On his social media site Truth Social, the former president quotes and spreads conspiracy theories from the quasi-religious QAnon. A major tenet of QAnon is the belief that the Democrats and people regarded as their liberal allies are a nefarious cabal of sexual predators and pedophiles.

Trump is not the only Republican

statements:

“She said the secretary of state counts the votes. That’s false. Coun ties and cities count votes.

“She said the secretary of state mailed her a ballot, but that’s impos sible. Cities and counties mail ballots, not the secretary of state.

“She said military ballots were delivered to the secre tary of state’s office. That’s false: They go back to the county that sent them.

“She said she wasn’t sure whether military ballots are counted by counties or the state. Ballots aren’t counted by the state.

Abdi Mohamed welcomes reader responses to amohamed@ spokesman-recorder.com.

politician who welcomes and spreads such disinformation. Two of the most prominent politicians who have been linked to supporting QAnon are U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, both of whom have been resound ingly endorsed by Trump.

Democracies under threat

The blatant use of conspiracy theories for political gain reflects the open embrace of White nationalism in not only the United States but also throughout Sweden, France, Italy, and other parts of the world.

In my view, the conspiracy theories that drive the 2022 midterm cam paigns reflect the global threat of hate around the world.

Sara Kamali is a professor of creative writing at the University of California San Diego.

This story is republished with permission from The Conversation.

ing was expanded from ‘a week or two’ of early voting to 46 days. That’s false.

“She repeatedly claims Minnesota got rid of voter ID. Minnesota has never required identification to vote.

“She frequently complains about ‘the widespread use of drop boxes in DFL-strongholds’ such as Minne apolis, which has never had unstaffed ballot drop boxes.”

Whether at the state or local level, the Big Lie candidates threaten democracy by threatening elections. November’s election will be crucial to the future of both democracy and elections in the United States.

sons for mistrusting elections. The reasons she gives show her nearcomplete ignorance of the way that elections actually function in Min nesota. The Minnesota Reformer has compiled a list of some of her recent

“She has repeatedly said the state’s residency requirement for elections is 20 days in a precinct, which is false.

“She said postmarks are required on absentee ballot envelopes. That’s false.

“She said when the state was under Democratic control, absentee ballot

Next week: Part II: Sabotaging the election process. In coming weeks: Part III: Threats to election officials; Part IV: Attacking voting rights.

Mary Turck welcomes reader responses to mturck@spokesmanrecorder.com.

recognize him for his efforts in keeping people in touch and engaged all these years later.

“It’s the beginning of the renaissance in telling the story of how it was done.”

“‘Big Lie’,” a term that originated with the Nazis in Germany, means that if you tell a big enough lie and repeat it often enough, people will believe it.”

DJ Stage One

Photo by Steve Floyd

Nonprofit aims to disrupt traditional finance RICH creates opportunities for the financially challenged

By Cole Miska Contributing Writer

At his day job at First Inde pendence Bank, Vachel Hud son has always tried to reach folks who do not have access to financial services. In 2020, he started Reinvesting in Com munities and Housing (RICH), a nonprofit that allows him more opportunities to assist people with financial education.

RICH offers financial ser vices to people who often run into obstacles handling their money. The company offers fi nancial education, mentorship, credit repair workshops, and one-on-one meetings for the homeless, youth, single parents, previously incarcerated people, and anyone else who needs it.

“My vision for RICH is to be the catalyst to financial litera cy with affordable housing op tions to help support people’s dreams of ownership, wealth creation, and development,” Hudson said.

Hudson calls himself and RICH a disruptor of the tra ditional finance sector. He founded RICH during his work in housing advocacy firms and affordable housing providers because he occasionally had clients he was unable to help through the usual routes.

“I was helping folks, but I was always going home think

ing about, man, those two or three people I met with today—I wasn’t able to do anything because there’s no resources, there’s no opportu nity there,” Hudson said.

Many of Hudson’s clients were denied housing because of marks on their credit, rental or criminal history. One way Hudson got around this was by renting out a duplex him self; he offers below-market rates to tenants who partici pate in financial literacy pro grams through RICH and gives positive rental references af ter they move out.

Another solution Hudson found to assist people who

had trouble finding rental housing was by going straight to homeownership. “If you just got back into the com munity, you’re working a job, you’ve been there for a year, yet you can’t find housing or are staying in your car, let’s start thinking about home ownership,” Hudson said.

“You could save up money for a down payment, take this class, make sure your credit is right, and instead of waiting five, six, seven years for some one to say yes to you to live

Army Brigade, N4 Collective, and the Urban League Twin Cities Young Professionals, of which Hudson also serves as president.

On top of education, RICH works on housing advocacy. Hudson sent a proposal to the Minnesota Social Service As sociation (MSSA) asking them to focus on lobbying for a state law that would prevent land lords from using more than five years of criminal history to deny housing. MSSA made Hudson’s proposal one of their top priorities, but they are still in the process of getting any laws passed relating to it.

inclusive and goes hand and hand with one and another.” said Hudson.

He also hopes to develop apps that would connect people looking for housing or

with them.”

Hudson encourages read ers who think they could use his services to reach out to him. He can be reached via email at vhud son@richmn.org, through his cell

at their property, you could go get approved for a loan and have your own property.”

RICH utilizes many com munity partners, such as First Independence Bank, where Hudson also works. Hudson says other First Independent Bank employees are glad to help, knowing the people helped by RICH could become future customers.

RICH works with many Black and youth-led commu nity organizations such as Black

Hudson said he man aged to get 15 millennials into homeownership in 2021 through RICH and has helped several clients get businesses off the ground, including one couple who he taught how to sell life insurance who used the income to make a down payment on a home.

Hudson plans to expand RICH’s operations in the future, bringing in more partners and types of financial education.

“When I apply for fellow ships to get funding, they say, ‘Vachel, you’re doing a lot. Can you narrow it down?’ If I narrow it down, I’m leav ing so many people out of the picture. So no, I can’t narrow it down because all of this is

looking to become homeown ers with services that could help them. “[People] also want to start conversations with a lender who looks like them,” Hudson said.

“A financial advisor who looks like them, an insurance agent who looks like them, so [we’re] creating the app that has all those folks local in this app where you’re having an opportunity to directly engage

phone at 502-876-5257, or during business hours Monday through Friday and every other Saturday at First Independence Bank, located at 3430 University Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

For more information, visit richmn.org or Facebook/@ RiCHMN21.

Cole Miska welcomes reader responses to cmiska@spokes man-recorder.com.

Taking steps toward homeownership

Buying a home may not be as out of reach as you think…even in this market

Buying a home is one of the most important purchases you will make in your lifetime, and the pressure is mounting for those looking to buy right now, with home prices fluctu ating and mortgage rates at their highest levels in over a decade.

While existing home sales have fallen month-overmonth since the beginning of the year, prices still hit a record high above $400,000 in May, according to the Na tional Association of Real tors, as low levels of housing inventory and supply chain constraints have created an affordability squeeze for homebuyers. Mortgage rates have nearly doubled in the last six months—from 3% in 2021 to close to 6% in 2022—mak ing it increasingly challenging for many Americans to pur chase a home, especially for those with limited income.

So, how do you know when you’re ready to buy a home? More importantly, how much home can you afford? We sat down with Shaun Simpson, Retail Lending Manager at Chase, to answer those ques tions and discuss what the current state of the market means for you and your fam ily’s homebuying dreams.

Q: What are the main fac tors mortgage lenders look at when evaluating an applica tion?

Shaun: When it comes to homeownership, your credit score and debt-to-income ra tio are major factors in the ap plication process.

Your credit score is set based upon how you’ve used credit, or not used credit, in the past. Using credit respon

sibly, such as paying bills on time and having a low utiliza tion rate will result in a higher score. Higher credit scores can help you qualify for the lowest interest rates. A score at 700 or above is generally considered good.

Additionally, lenders look at your debt-to-income ratio. This is a simple equation of how much debt you have rela tive to how much money you make. Borrowers with a high er debt-to-income ratio are considered more risky while a lower debt-to-income ratio may allow you to qualify for the best rates on your home loan.

Q: What are some tips for improving your credit score?

Shaun: There are a number of things you can do to im prove your credit score, start ing with reviewing your credit reports to understand what might be working against you. You can also pay down your revolving credit and dispute any inaccuracies.

Additionally, there are services like Chase Credit Journey to help monitor and improve your credit score.

Credit Journey monitors all of your accounts and alerts you to changes in your credit report that may impact your score. You’ll get an alert any time Chase sees new activ ity, including charges, account openings and credit inquiries. Chase will also notify you if there are changes in your credit usage, credit limits or balances. You don’t have to be a Chase customer to take ad vantage of Credit Journey.

Q: What are some factors that can affect the cost of a mortgage?

Shaun: There are several factors to consider when re viewing mortgage options including loan term, interest rate, and loan type. Potential homebuyers should contact a home lending professional to understand and review the options available to them.

For example, there are two basic types of mortgage inter est rates: fixed and adjustable.

While adjustable rates are initially low, they can change over the course of a loan, so your mortgage payments may fluctuate. Loan term indicates how long you have to pay off the loan. Many homebuyers tend to opt for a 15-year or 30-year mortgage, though other terms are available.

A longer loan term gener ally means you’ll have lower monthly payments, but you’ll pay more in interest over the life of the loan. A shorter loan term may come with higher monthly payments, but you’ll likely pay much less in interest over time.

Q: What are the costs of homeownership beyond the monthly mortgage payment?

Shaun: People often think of the down payment and

monthly mortgage, but buy ing and owning a home carries additional costs. Closing costs, for example, can amount to up to 3% or more of the final pur chase price. Other factors that could add on to your monthly payments are property taxes,

homeowner’s insurance, and homeowner’s association (HOA) fees. To get an idea of what this may look like for you, use an affordability calculator.

While there is no way for a buyer to completely avoid paying these fees, there are

ways to save on them. Some banks offer financial assis tance for homebuyers. As an example, Chase’s Homebuyer Grant offers up to $5,000 that can be used toward a down payment or closing costs in eligible neighborhoods across the country. There may also be homeowners’ or down payment assistance offered in your city or state. Contact a Home Lending Advisor to learn about resources you may be eligible for.

For a deeper dive into this topic, our Beginner to Buyer podcast (www.beginnerto buyer.com)—episode three, “How Much Can I Afford?” is a great resource for prospective homebuyers to get answers to all their homebuying questions.

Learn more about the home buying process, visit, www. chase.com/personal/mortgage/ home.

Sponsored content by:

People also want to start conversations with a lender who looks like them.

Vachel Hudson

Vachel Hudson with clients

Submitted photos

Arts

Film fest caps 20 years celebrating Black storytelling

By Charles Hallman Contributing Writer

It’s been two decades since the Twin Cities Black Film Festival (TCBFF) became an annual fall fixture for films, shorts, documentaries, and other cinematic projects by Black filmmakers. “It doesn’t feel like… I can’t believe I’ve done it this long,” said TCBFF Founder-Director Natalie Morrow during a break at the Sept. 16-19 festival held at the Northside’s Capri Theatre and the W Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.

“I’m very happy that I have [done this] all these years… when you think about all the movies and people that we’ve met in the 20 years, and our growth,” she told the MSR. “I’m happy and I’m glad that we are going in the right direction for that.”

Over the years, Mor row’s TCBFF has brought in the famed actors like Hill Harper, Nate Parker, Sterling K. Brown and Cory Hardrict, among many others, to make appearances and participate in Q&As—not to mention the countless filmmakers, the majority of whom are Black or people of color present to discuss their projects.

“I learned a lot from the filmmakers,” continued Mor row. “I love it when they come through. The year right before the pandemic [2019], we had 15 of the filmmakers come from out of state, and that was the most we ever had in 20 years.”

This year, several filmmak

ers, all first-timers, appeared with their films and spoke af terward. Christina Thurston directed “Boldly Beautiful Eth nic Hair on the Great Plains,” which focused on the issue of Black female hairstyles. “It takes a bold person to be a Black woman and walk into a predominately White space,” Thurston told the MSR.

“It touches a little bit on immigration. It absolutely touches on climate justice. It touches on gender justice, or even generational justice,” said Bates, who works for ISA IAH, a multiracial statewide, nonpartisan coalition that advocates for racial and eco nomic justice.

TCBFF annually features films of many genres—drama, comedy, suspense, nonfiction, topical documentaries, and live-action cartoons. “It is in tentional,” explained Morrow. “I tried [each year] to have a balance.”

elderly Black woman with Al zheimer’s disease who was lost from her family for almost 24 hours. “That was absolute ly wonderful,” said Morrow, “because it hit home in a few different ways. Alzheimer’s is something that’s prevalent” among Black elders and oth ers. Her grandmother suffered from the disease, she recalled.

“I thought that we had a re ally good balance of subjects, because it’s all about the subject. It’s all about just the execution of that film, and I thought [this year’s films] were a good variety, a good balance.

“One thing [about] our fes tival is, I want to educate. I

made the cut and been shown at the TCBFF over its 20-year existence, exhibited at local theaters, colleges and hotels around the Twin Cities.

“It was definitely intentional just to bring diversity,” said Morrow. “I also want us to have these upscale places like the W Hotel for people to see what we can do, and don’t just limit yourself to your community.

“Bringing it to other people, that’s really important to me— make it personable and make it comfortable so that people feel like being themselves.”

However, if there has been one disappointment for Mor row in staging the TCBFF over

for screening.

“I often wonder what I’m not doing to get everyone,” she said. “I feel I’m missing groups of people within my community. I have had some of the best support from some of the same people over and over, like the Spokesman-Re corder and HBO for 14 years out of the 20.

“There are pockets of peo ple that for some reason I’m not able to reach, and I don’t know what I would do, or what I can do to reach out and let them see what a great op portunity this is.”

The filmmakers do appreci ate the opportunity to show their work: “I see myself as a filmmaker,” said Thurston of her first-ever directorial and producing effort. “Thank you for the Twin Cities [Black Film Festival] for making me a film maker,” she told the MSR.

Finally, the 2023 TCBFF is tentatively scheduled for Oc tober 19-22, 2023. Morrow said she hopes that her dream of a permanent location will be achieved by then.

“It is important [that] we have the conversation in Black communities as well, because we’re constantly learning the different textures of hair [re lating] to different products.”

Janae Bates was among a group of multimedia storytell ers and community organiz ers that produced “Mine,” an animated web series that ex plores the theme of commu nity versus individual survival.

Such as “Karla’s Magic Soil,” a cartoon about a Black teen ager who develops special soil samples: “I think it was just so refreshing and cute and ador able,” said the founder-director. “A really sweet animated film.”

“Hopeless Hills,” a tale about a Good Samaritan’s early morning stop to help a disabled motorist that quickly became a deadly game of cat and mouse, “was a horror [film], and we don’t always get those,” noted Morrow.

Meanwhile, “Don’t Block Your Blessings” featured an

Caregivers at the Polls

want it also to be something refreshing and also to inspire.”

Morrow estimated that over a thousand films have

the years it has been her in ability to attract more Blacks to come and watch the films she and her committee select

“The next step for me,” she said, “is to really find a space where we can have a bou tique theater, have a space for the creatives to rent out, and also have a coffee shop where people can network and con nect.”

Sheletta Brundidge

Next week: A conversation with first-time filmmaker Darius Arbury

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

Natalie Morrow, Christina Thurston Photos by Charles Hallman

There are pockets of people that for some reason I’m not able to reach, and I don’t know why.

Christina Thurston

Janae Bates

Rihanna to headline Super Bowl halftime

By Stacy M. Brown

Rihanna, who refused to perform during the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show because of her stand with Colin Kaepernick, has decid ed to headline the big event in February.

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Apple music made the an nouncement on Septem ber 25, and Rihanna took to Instagram displaying an NFL football, signaling her appearance. The highly an ticipated performance takes place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12. Rihanna also is expected to soon drop new music.

“Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has sur passed expectations at ev ery turn,” Jay-Z said in a statement. “A person born on the small island of Barba dos who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment.”

For the Bajan beauty and multi-talented songstress, music is far from all in her phenomenal portfolio.

In 2021, Rihanna achieved billionaire status. In 2022, Forbes acknowl edged that she’s the young est self-made billionaire in America.

The 34-year-old, who re cently gave birth to her first child, ranked 21st overall in

the latest Forbes list of bil lionaires. Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty line counts among the most popular in the world and is the only billion aire under 40 on Forbes’ list.

Earlier this year, reports noted that Rihanna’s Sav age X Fenty lingerie planned an initial public offering valued at about $3 billion.

The megastar owns 30 per cent of Savage X Fenty and 50 percent of Fenty Beauty, reportedly generating $550 million in revenue in 2020.

The nine-time Grammy Award winner has stated that she intends to increase her philanthropic efforts around the globe. “My mon ey is not for me; it’s always the thought that I can help someone else,” she told the New York Times in 2021. “The world can really make you believe that the wrong things are priority, and it makes you really miss the core of life, what it means to be alive.”

MGN Arts & Culture

Winfrey as the world’s rich est entertainer.

“A lot of women felt there were no lines out there that catered to their skin tone. It was light, medium,

sultancy Bluestock Advi sors, told Forbes about Ri hanna’s successful beauty products.

“We all know that’s not re ality. She was one of the first brands that came out and said, ‘I want to speak to all of those different people.’”

Born Robyn Rihanna Fen ty on February 20, 1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados, the tantalizing starlet delivered hit after hit with songs like “Umbrella,” “Rude Boy,” and “Diamonds.”

In 2021, Forbes estimated Rihanna’s net worth at $1.7 billion, trailing only Oprah

medium-dark, dark,” Shan non Coyne, co-founder of consumer products con

With over 100 million social media followers, Ri hanna’s fans have pleaded with their idol to deliver

new music.

But with her Fenty and Savage X Fenty business white-hot, Rihanna appears to have settled in as an en trepreneur and business magnate.

Cutting deals with Puma in 2014, Dior in 2016, Fenty Beauty in 2017, Savage X Fenty in 2018, and Fenty Skin in 2020, Rihanna kept her business focused.

Forbes writer Madeline Berg described Rihanna’s rise this way: “When Robyn Fenty, known to the world as Rihanna, launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, she sought to create a cosmetics com

pany that made “women everywhere (feel) included.” A perhaps unintended con sequence: The beauty line has helped her enter one of the world’s most exclusive ranks: Billionaire.”

Berge concluded by pro viding commentary from Coyne, the consultant. “She is creating a brand outside of herself. It’s not just about Rihanna. Even if you don’t like her music, she’s created a real style in the fashion and beauty space.”

Stacy M. Brown is the NNPA Newswire senior na tional correspondent.

Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn.

The military to American youth: ‘You belong to me’

By Robert C. Koehler

Ah, the children!

They belong to us, sayeth the Department of Defense. At least some of them do.

It’s a little more complicated than it used to be, thanks to one of the changes that occurred back in 1973, a year of startling historical significance. That was the year of the Roe v. Wade deci sion and, oh yeah, the Watergate hearings (remember those?)

But there was more. The United States, tangled militarily in the quagmire of Vietnam and increasingly torn apart on the home front by protests, was on the brink of conceding defeat in ‘Nam and getting the hell out of the ravaged country. Before that came about, the militaryindustrialists made a pragmatic decision. They got rid of the draft.

The idea was to shut up the protesters by taking away their personal stake in America’s militarism. The term that was then emerging was “Vietnam syndrome”—people were sick of war. Uh oh!

Ending the draft turned out to be pragmatically the right move. PR-wise, the military could laud its dependence on an “all-volun teer” army. Patriotism lives! It’s as clueless as ever. But quietly, secretly, the military had to make some changes in its recruitment procedures to ensure it was still getting enough boys (and girls) to—as they would put it, of course—keep the country safe.

As far as I can tell, their new approach to recruitment had two main focal points. One of them was making full use of the poverty draft—sucking in young people from poor and disad

vantaged families, marketing enlistment as their doorway to middle-class financial freedom.

The second way was to capture the minds of potential draftees while they were still children: introducing them to real-world militarism via video games and high school gun fun, officially known as JROTC with even children as young as fifth grade in the Starbase program. Grooming.

“colleges often benefit immense ly from the GI Bill financially, giv ing them incentive to support recruitment on campus.”

Debt as a means of leverage, a form of social control—how come kids don’t say those words when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance? But the Pentagon knows student debt, or even poverty in general, are not suffi cient to keep the recruits flowing.

Having been a boy who was totally gonzo about playing war— pretending to die, pretending to kill—I can understand how kids (well, boys) of all economic stra ta constitute a susceptible mar ket that would entice recruiters.

Let the Little Rock Nine anniversary remind us of our debt to young people

By Marian Wright Edelman

In September 1957, nine Black teenagers started the new school year and changed history. Minni jean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Er nest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls were all between 15 and 17 years old when they became the first Black students to enroll at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkan sas, three years after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ended legal segre gation in public schools.

On September 4, their first day of school, instead of being wel comed by principals or teachers, the nine Black students were met by a White mob and the Arkansas National Guard, ordered there by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to block them from entering the school building.

The brave students made na tional headlines as images like those of Elizabeth Eckford try ing to enter the school and being surrounded and spit on by White teenagers and adults were pub lished across the country, and they continued to make daily headlines as they refused to give up.

tions of young people who fol lowed them.

Last weekend, Little Rock hosted four days of events com memorating the 65th anniversary of the integration of Central High School. The anniversary’s theme was “Silence is Not an Option.”

Children and young people in the Civil Rights Movement taught us to be courageous and stand up against injustice and showed uncommon dignity, maturity and grace that was often a direct contrast to the hate-filled adults around them.

Historians like Taylor Branch and David Halberstam have re counted the incredible determi nation and grit of youths like the Little Rock Nine and the many others who subjected themselves to often violent resistance to help end discrimination in the Ameri can South. Their names were not just in the court papers filed by their brave parents in dozens of school desegregation cases.

treatment in Southern jails where they were detained. High school and college youths sat down until lunch counters were desegregat ed across the South.

Young people were some times beaten by police for stand ing up for freedom. And four little girls had to die as a sacrifice in Birmingham before the nation assured Black citizens the right to vote.

As Taylor Branch put it at a Children’s Defense Fund fo rum, “There is no precedent that I know of in recorded history for the power balance of a great na tion turning on the moral witness of schoolchildren… A movement that rode through in history on the spirit of children now looks to how we treat our children [de cades] later. Now we have adults who, in effect, need to pay back children.”

The nature of the poverty draft burst into the news re cently when 19 Republican House members signed a letter to President Biden, expressing alarm at his decision to start partially canceling student debt. They warned him:

“By forgiving such a wide swath of loans for borrowers, you are removing any leverage the Department of Defense maintained as one of the fastest and easiest ways of paying for higher education.”

Careful, Joe! Giving everyone equal financial opportunities may sound nice, but it can screw up the system.

As Thomas Gokey, an orga nizer with the Debt Collective, which works for debt cancel lation, put it, “Debt is a form of social control. You can force people to do all kinds of things if you put them in debt first, in cluding waging unjust wars, kill ing and hurting other people, and risking [their] own life and limbs.” He also pointed out that

For instance, the Army ran a videogame website for 20 years called America’s Army, which apparently was wildly success ful at attracting the attention of young people. It began in 2002 (part of the prep for our loom ing invasion of Iraq, maybe?) and, though it was discontinued ear lier this year, the Army and other military branches continue their involvement in video games and competitive electronic sports.

Not that it stops there, mind you. And it isn’t just a game. Re cruiters aren’t just on college campuses. They’re also in our high schools — especially the ones desperate for funding. JRTC is where the poverty draft meets the war-looks-cool crowd.

Sylvia McGauley, a teacher in an impoverished school dis trict outside Portland, Oregon, described her school as the “perfect prey for military recruit ers who win points for filling the coffers of the poverty draft.” These words are from an essay, written in 2014 and published by Rethinking Schools, called “The Military Invasion of My High School.”

Ultimately, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to call in federal troops who finally es corted the nine Black students into the school for their first full day of classes on September 25. Even with protection they con tinued to endure daily harass ment and physical threats, but the Little Rock Nine persisted. They helped make our nation live up to the promise of Brown v. Board of Education and helped push open doors of opportunity for genera

The Little Rock Nine, six-yearold Ruby Bridges in New Orleans, and children who followed them in schools across the country were the shock troops who part ed the milling, jeering and threat ening crowds and weathered daily the hateful isolation and ugly epithets encouraged or ignored by some White adults who taught their children to spurn and insult Black classmates.

Outside of school, children faced fierce police dogs and fire hoses and filled the jails in Bir mingham and Selma, Alabama when most adults hesitated to re spond to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for fear of their jobs or per sonal safety. Children withstood arrests and tough treatment in Jackson, Mississippi and harsh

How will we do that? When will we do that? Giving children fair treatment, leadership and protection today is our nation’s chance to honor the debt we owe young people.

But the Children’s Defense Fund believes we can also use these examples from the Civil Rights Movement to keep re minding young people today that they are never too young to make a difference. We can double down on efforts to empower the next generation of young Black servant leaders who will lead to day’s movements and guide us towards a brighter future where children, especially our most mar ginalized, are provided every op portunity to thrive.

Marian Wright Edelman is the founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund.

The cruelty of exploiting vulnerable people for political gain

By Ben Jealous

There is always a new low for Trump Republicans. And that is pretty frightening.

Take the latest exercise in law lessness, dishonesty and cruelty from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He chartered a plane to send dozens of mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, an island community off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

ficials or nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts. It was a photo op. It was definitely political. And it was possibly illegal.

The sheriff in Bexar County, Texas, has opened a criminal in vestigation into the false pretens es under which people were lured onto the planes. A lawsuit has been filed on the migrants’ behalf.

Present, and Future of Trump’s America.” Serwer has made the point that Trump is a symptom, not the cause, of a cruel streak in American politics.

There is a long history of back lash against progress, going back to the post-Reconstruction pe riod in which White Supremacists used violence to reverse the en franchisement of Black people.

submissions@spokesman-recorder.com

It isn’t pretty. She writes about the JROTC program at her school, which she describes as “a school within a school.” Via classes called Leadership Educa tion Training, JROTC instructors taught…uh, history, or a Pen tagon-scripted version thereof, which, she notes, maintains that “the sole cause of the Vietnam War was containment of com munism,” and the United States “went to war in Iraq as part of its global war on terrorism.” Period.

Propaganda, in other words. Not in any way real history.

He clearly was gleeful about the idea of sticking it to liberals and gloating about it on rightwing media. It wasn’t even an original idea. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had already been putting migrants on buses to cities like Washington, D.C., where they have been dropped off in front of Fox News and outside the vice president’s residence—a give away that the purpose is publicity.

The news of the DeSantis flight made it clear that he was exploiting vulnerable people for his own political advantage. And the more we learn, the worse it gets. A lawsuit filed on behalf of people deceived into taking the flight says the migrants were ap proached in San Antonio by peo ple pretending to offer humanitar ian assistance.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed De Santis for “alerting Fox News and not city or state officials about a plan to abandon children fleeing communism,” calling it “a cruel, premeditated political stunt.”

Of course, it’s not the first time that dishonorable politicians have exploited vulnerable people. In fact, racist White southerners who were resisting segregation in the early 1960s did almost the same thing to Black Americans 60 years ago.

DeSantis’s scheme to deceive, manipulate, and harm vulner able people seeking asylum in our country is evidence that the cruelty wielded by Trump and em braced by so many of his followers will continue to poison our politics if Trump or DeSantis or someone of their ilk is the Republican presi dential nominee in 2024.

Recognizing this truth is im portant to understand the work we have ahead of us. We must also recognize that the cruelty in our past and our present is not our whole story.

submissions@spokesman-recorder.com

submissions@spokesman-recorder.com.

Add it all up and the picture starts to get pretty scary. The U.S. military needs more than just money (a trillion dollars or so) in its annual budget. It needs access to America’s young peo ple as well — their wallets, their bodies, and their minds.

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@ gmail.com), syndicated by Peace Voice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the au thor of “Courage Grows Strong at the Wound.”

They were promised that jobs, housing, and other assistance were waiting for them if they were willing to get on a plane. None of it was true.

These vulnerable people were reportedly told lies about where they were going, and given bro chures with false information about help that would be waiting for them. Even worse, they may have unknowingly threatened their asylum claims by making it likely that they would miss court appointments scheduled far from where they had been flown.

DeSantis and his henchmen hadn’t contacted government of

The Washington Post recently highlighted that history. A group of segregationists organized “Re verse Freedom Rides” in 1962 as retaliation for the Freedom Rides that carried civil rights ac tivists throughout the South in 1961. According to the Post, “The plot was organized by White Su premacist Citizens’ Councils in Arkansas, who bought radio ads and made fliers advertising the ‘opportunity’ to African Americans.”

One Arkansas woman and nine of her children were dropped off on Cape Cod near the Kennedy family’s compound because she had been falsely told that Kennedy was going to greet them. Sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?

Last year, journalist Adam Serwer published a book called “The Cruelty is the Point: The Past,

Our story also includes good people in Hyannis in the 1960s and in Martha’s Vineyard this year who responded by mobilizing to welcome and support the arrivals. It includes the people of all colors and faiths who have repeatedly built movements to expand civil rights and promote human dig nity, and who have given their time and treasure to elect political leaders who appeal to our nation al ideals rather than trash them.

We should be outraged at the cruelty displayed by some of our leaders. Let us also be motivated and optimistic so that we can outorganize and overcome them.

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and professor of the practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A New York Times best-selling author, his next book “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free” will be published by Harper Collins in December 2022.

“Schools are perfect prey for military recruiters who win points for filling the coffers of the poverty draft.”

We must also recognize that the cruelty in our past and our present is not our whole story.

Kelly Wayne Reynolds

Sunrise: March 8, 1945 — Sunset: September 19, 2022

Was blessed to have a best friend in his brother, Ross Reynolds.

Body surfed at Zuma Beach.

Drove his family nuts with his shenanigans.

Bought and returned a lot of music equipment.

Found Buddhism, took his vows, and became a practicing Bodhisattva-Warrior.

Loved the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and practiced the life work of sitting with and being mindful with his suffering.

Was found by and reconnected with his oldest child Lisa Dawn Gentry. It was a joy for him and he loved her and was proud to be her father.

He jammed with anyone and everyone at any and every opportunity.

Chose to live fully throughout the course of his Parkinson’s Disease.

Was actively weird.

Born on March 8, 1945, he was an un missable presence wherever he landed. He grew up in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis to an immigrant mother and a father whose own demons often resulted in violence and a loss of family and personal safety. Kelly turned to heroin and other opi ates for escape, was addicted by high school, and continued to use until 1973.

A regular part of the West Bank hippie scene in Minneapolis, he met Thora in 1969. Af ter they got pregnant, Kelly realized he want ed to be sober, but it was a frequently failing struggle. They had their first child on Thanks giving morning 1970. Being grateful hippies, they named her Happy Thanksgiving.

Fleeing the Minneapolis drug cul ture, they found stability in Winona, MN, where Kelly continued to play music and struggle with addiction. He bottomed out while trying to pass a forged prescription at Richters pharmacy back on the Minne apolis West Bank. Pharmacist Phil Rich ter, who knew Kelly well, told him, ‘Kelly, I’ve called the cops but they aren’t here yet. You should go while you can.”

He sped back to Winona completely freaking out and sought the counsel of his AA sponsor who told him his only chance to avoid prison was to go to treatment at Rochester State Hospital immediately. He took that chance and was able to remain sober for the rest of his life.

Other things Kelly did with his time among us:

Showed up to AA, gave and received sup port, and continued to work the 12 Steps.

Graduated from Winona State Universi ty after getting sober.

Delivered his son, Joshua Reynolds, on the side of the road on the way to the hospital.

Got his Masters in Social Work special izing in addiction.

Ran a treatment hospital in Prescott, Wisconsin.

Was pardoned by Arnie Carlson af ter having so completely turned his life around that he blew the governor’s mind.

Dressed like a star at every stage in his life, from beaded jackets to armani suits. He liked to be seen and delighted in the joy his style brought others.

Was authentically thankful for every person’s contribution and directly thanked and honored people daily.

Was human, and if he trespassed against you he would listen, acknowledge, and make amends.

Kelly’s success in life was a direct result of his unending commitment to personal growth and having a community that agreed and supported that goal. He often remarked that in his neighborhood “White men went to treatment, Black and Native men went to jail.”

He knew how hard recovery is for individu als, for families, for communities and in the criminal justice system, and that it’s not fair.

He treasured his family, his AA peers, the River’s Edge Condo Community, the folks of Zion Lutheran Church at Midway, his fellow Buddhists at Compassionate Ocean Zen Center, the staff and neighbors at Iris Park Commons, and fellow visitors from other planets.

His family would like to thank the uni verse and Kelly for being our father, broth er and uncle, for choosing sobriety, and for working on himself every day. We thank all the people who loved him.

If he were still here, he would wish that you would read this, take a breath, and just be right where you are for a moment. That you might open your heart for yourself and those around you and know that you too belong to this universe, you are loved and deserving of love, and you are right where you are supposed to be.

We will be having a celebration of his life on October 15 from 11 am to 1 pm in the Atri um at The Gardens, Episcopal Homes, 1860 University Ave. W., Saint Paul, MN 55104.

If you’d like to do something in his name, consid er donating to Compassionate Ocean Zen Center at https://www.oceanzen.org/donations-appeals, or you can send a check to the Struthers Parkinson’s Center c/o Park Nicollet Foundation, 6500 Excelsi or Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55426.

Eleanor Hunsberger

Sunrise: December 28, 1937—Sunset: September 23, 2022

served as associate minister to All Saints Lutheran Church in Cottage Grove.

Eventually, Eleanor married Mar tin Hunsberger and welcomed a third daughter Jennifer. Eleanor served as a minister until 1999 when she chose to retire. Her commitment to serving oth ers continued. She began working with students at Harvest Preparatory Charter School with her daughter Alana for the next 10 years.

On Friday, September 23, 2022, El eanor Hunsberger, loving partner, and mother to three daughters, passed away peacefully at home at the age of 84.

Eleanor was born December 28, 1937, in Minneapolis, MN to Harvey D. and Frances Witherspoon. She was raised with her nine siblings and attended school K-12 in North Minneapolis.

Eleanor completed an undergraduate degree at Metropolitan State University in 1982. After graduation, she became the co-founder of MIBCA, a chemical depen dency program for African Americans.

In her professional life, she was always finding ways to give back to her commu nity. In her personal life, Eleanor married John Jenkins and shared two daughters Rayni and Alana.

Later in life, she would graduate from Luther Northwestern Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree in 1985.

In 1986, she was called to serve as part-time associate minister at Noko mis Heights Lutheran Church and later

After retiring a second time, Eleanor spent her days keeping busy with fami ly and traveling with her partner Jan. She loved to play and win at board games, es pecially Yahtzee. She enjoyed going fish ing and singing in the church choir. She loved to tell a good story that made ev eryone laugh.

Next to God, family was the most im portant thing to Eleanor. She loved and was loved by many. She was truly a re flection of God’s love.

Eleanor was preceded in death by her parents Harvey D. and Frances Wither spoon, and siblings Sonny, Shirley, Glo ria, Duane, Diane, Juan, and Patricia. She is survived by her loving partner of 20+ years Jan Nielsen, her three daughters Ray ni, Alana (Karim), and Jennifer (Joe); eight grandchildren, many great-grandchildren, brother Harvey, sister Darnell, and a num ber of cousins, nieces, nephews.

The family of the late Eleanor Huns berger wishes to express their apprecia tion for your comforting words and genu ine acts of kindness in our time of sadness.

Visitation will be held Thursday, Sep tember 29, 2022, at Crystal Lake Cemetery Dowling & Penn Ave. North from 5-7 pm. Funeral services will be held Friday, Sep tember 30, 2022, at House of Hope Luther an Church 4800 Boone Ave. at 11 am.

In Memory

In Memory

Fred “Paco” Lee

Fred “Paco” Lee

Sunrise: December 14, 1978 — Sunset: September 15, 1998

Sunrise, December 14, 1978 — Sunset, September 15, 1998

A Mother’s Love

A Mother’s Love

I miss you more than anyone knows, As time goes on my emptiness grows I laugh, I talk, I play my part, But behind my smile is a broken heart Grief never ends...but it changes

I miss you more than anyone knows, As time goes on my emptiness grows I laugh, I talk, I play my part, But behind my smile is a broken heart Grief never ends...but it changes

Minnesota

It’s a passage, not a place to stay Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of Faith...

It’s a passage, not a place to stay Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of Faith...

It is the Price of Love

It is the Price of Love Love Mom, Becki Hardeman

Love Mom, Becki Hardeman

September 29, 2022

MINNESOT

Kelly Wayne Reynolds, aka Kelly Fun, aka Kelly Banana, aka K-Rey went back to a state of cosmic joy on September 19, 2022. Through out his time here, Kelly was sustained by the unshakeable belief that love is a real and pow erful force that exists in the universe and that we exist to love and be loved.

“You Belong To The Universe”

Employment & Legals

PROBATE MENTAL HEALTH DIVISION

NOTICE OF INFORMAL APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS

In Re: Estate of Veronika Werner, FILE NO. 27-PA-PR-22-1298

Deceased

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND CREDITORS:

Notice is hereby given, that an application for informal probate of the above named decedent’s last will dated 07-28-09 has been filed with the Registrar herein, and the application has been granted informally probating such will. Any objections may be filed in the above, and the same will be heard by the Court upon notice of hearing fixed for such purpose.

Notice is hereby further given that informal appointment of Eric James Werner, whose address is 5875 Cheshire Cove Terrace, Orlando FL 32829 as personal representative of the estate of the above named decedent, has been made. Any heir, devisee or other interested person may be entitled to appointment as personal rep resentative or may object to the appointment of the personal representative and the personal representative are empowered to fully administer the estate including, after 28 days from the date of issuance of letters, the power to sell, encumber, lease or distribute real estate, unless objections thereto are filed with the Court (pursuant to Section 524.3-607) and the Court otherwise orders

Notice is further given that ALL CREDITORS having claims against said estate are required to present the same to said personal representative or to the Probate Court Administrator within four months after the date of this notice or said claims will be barred.

Dated: September 13, 2022 Alonna J. Warns Registrar

ProSe Sarah Gonsalves District Court Administrator

Notice of Inf Appt of PR Minn. Stat.524.3-310;524.3-801

Minnesota Spokesman Recorder September 22, 29, 2022

State of Minnesota Fourth Judicial District Court

County of Hennepin PROBATE MENTAL HEALTH DIVISION

NOTICE OF INFORMAL APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS

In Re: Estate of Marcy Clair Mann-Anderson, FILE NO. 27-PA-PR-22-1341

Deceased

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND CREDITORS:

Notice is hereby given, that an application for informal appointment of personal rep resentative has been filed with the Registrar. No will has been presented for probate. The application has been granted.

Notice is hereby further given that informal appointment of Cameron Julius Mann, whose address is 3216 1st Ave. S. Minneapolis MN 55408 as personal represen tative of the estate of the above named decedent, has been made Any heir, devisee or other interested person may be entitled to appointment as personal representative or may object to the appointment of the personal representative and the personal representative is empowered to fully administer the estate including, after 28 days from the date of issuance of letters, the power to sell, encumber, lease or distribute real estate, unless objections thereto are filed with the Court (pursuant to Section 524.3-607) and the Court otherwise orders.

Notice is further given that ALL CREDITORS having claims against said estate are required to present the same to said personal representative or to the Probate Court Administrator within four months after the date of this notice or said claims will be barred.

Dated: September 7, 2022 Lindy Scanlon Registrar

ProSe Sarah Gonsalves District Court Administrator

Notice of Inf Appt of PR Minn. Stat.524.3-310;524.3-801

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder September 22, 29, 2022

SOE

Contunued from page 12

Midwest where it snows a lot. But if you want to be the best, you’ve got to compete against the best, and so that’s why I decided to come here de spite the cold.” The NCAA gave all athletes an extra year of eligibility because the pandemic shut down a season, and Gros said she wanted to take advantage of it and play a fifth year of college ball.

Added Davis, who plans to major in biology, society and environment, “They’re [the Minnesota coaches] building me up to be a bet ter player, and that’s what I’m looking for. She called the team culture “unbe lievable.”

“They’re good volleyball players, but they’re better humans,” noted Minneso ta Coach Hugh McCutch eon on the two sistahs, “and we are just happy that they’re here.”

Said Gros, “I wanted to grow as a player and as an individual. I want to be coached by the best. I wanted to come to Min nesota [and] compete for a national championship. I felt that Minnesota was very high on that caliber list as far as going to the [NCAA] tournament and going far in the tourna ment.”

The night we talked to Gros and Davis, Minne sota hosted Pepperdine, who had only one Black player. Minnesota has

four—redshirt sophomore Taylor Landfair, freshman Carter Booth, and the two transfers. Other than Indi ana, who has zero Blacks, every Big Ten team has at least one Black player and some have as many as four.

Still, volleyball still lags in diversity: “I have seen the sport growing in di versity,” observed Gros. “I feel like accessibility is a big part of why you might not see a lot of African Americans playing vol leyball.” But the lack of diversity isn’t because of not enough talented Black players, she added.

“It’s not about women of color not being able [to play],” argued Davis. “It’s about the opportunities that are given. I also think it’s about a shift in mind set, a shift in perspective.”

We asked what unique qualities these two sistahs bring to the Gophers.

“I’m a big energy person,” responded Davis. “I’m very vocal and I try to be as ac tive as I can.”

Gros said, “I feel like being in the game for four years that I have the expe rience and I know what’s coming ahead. Just giving that knowledge out so maybe some of the young er players or some of the other girls [can benefit]. Just being a listening ear for them if they have ques tions. I want to be able to answer that for them.”

Charles Hallman wel comes reader responses to challman@spokesman-re corder.com.

From Classified Department/MN Spokesman-Recorder

NOTICE OF MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE SALE

THE RIGHT TO VERIFICATION OF THE DEBT AND IDENTITY OF THE ORIGINAL CREDITOR WITHIN THE TIME PROVIDED BY LAW IS NOT AFFECTED BY THIS ACTION.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that default has occurred in the conditions of the following described mortgage:

DATE OF MORTGAGE: September 19, 2002

ORIGINAL PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF MORTGAGE: $65,000.00

PHONE: 612-827-4021

MORTGAGOR(S): David L. Frey MORTGAGEE: Discover Bank

DATE AND PLACE OF RECORDING: Recorded with the County Recorder in and for the County of Hennepin, State of Minnesota, on the 4th day of December, 2002, as Docu ment No. 7876121.

FOR BILLING INQUIRIES & TEARSHEETS

FILE NO. 27-PA-PR-22-1204 Deceased TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND CREDITORS:

PLEASE CONTACT ACCOUNTING DEPT

@ BILLING@SPOKESMAN-RECORDER.COM

PROBATE

ASSIGNMENTS OF MORTGAGE: Assigned to Morgan Stanley Private Bank, N.A. as Successor by Merger to Morgan Stanley Credit Corporation in Assignment of Mortgage datedJuly 16, 2012, recorded February 20, 2013, as Document No. 9921142; further assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., successor by merger to Wells Fargo Bank Min nesota, N.A., as Indenture Trustee for MSDWCC HELOC Trust 2003-1 in Assignment of Mortgage dated February 4, 2013, recorded February 20, 2013, as Document No. 9921143; further assigned to FV-I, Inc. in trust for Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital Holdings LLC in Assignment of Mortgage dated February 6, 2015, recorded March 2, 2015, as Document No. 10167057; further assigned to Palm Avenue Hialeah Trust, a Delaware statutory trust, for and on behalf and solely with respect to Series 2014-1 in Assignment of Mortgage dated April 4, 2019, recorded April 25, 2019, as Document No. 10653680; further assigned to ARCPE 1, LLC in Assignment of Mortgage dated April 29, 2020, recorded May 4, 2020, as Document No. 10782599; further assigned to Alabama 2, LLC in Assignment of Mortgage dated July 18, 2022, recorded August 5, 2022, as Document No. 11135301

Notice is hereby given, that an application for informal probate of the above named decedent’s last will dated July 19, 2022 has been filed with the Registrar herein, and the application has been granted informally probating such will. Any objections may be filed in the above, and the same will be heard by the Court upon notice of hearing fixed for such purpose.

Notice is hereby further given that informal appointment of Lilliam I. Fallek, whose address is 250 Turners Crossroad S., Apt. 213, Golden Valley, MN 55416, as personal representative of the estate of the above-named decedent, has been made. Any heir, devisee or other interested person may be entitled to appointment as personal representative or may object to the appointment of the personal representative and the personal representative are empowered to fully administer the estate including, after 28 days from the date of issuance of letters, the power to sell, encumber, lease or distribute real estate, unless objections thereto are filed with the Court (pursuant to Section 524.3-607) and the Court otherwise orders.

2 WEEK RUN FLAT RATE $200.00 PREPAID

LEGAL DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY: Lot 3, Block 94, Remington’s 2nd Addition to Minneapolis PROPERTY ADDRESS: 3736 Lyndale Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55409 COUNTY IN WHICH PROPERTY IS LOCATED: Hennepin

Notice is further given that ALL CREDITORS having claims against said estate are required to present the same to said personal representative or to the Probate Court Administrator within four months after the date of this notice or said claims will be barred.

Please Note: New email address for all future ads is ads@ spokesman-recorder.com

AMOUNT DUE AND CLAIMED TO BE DUE AS OF DATE OF NOTICE, INCLUDING TAXES, IF ANY, PAID BY MORTGAGEE: $71,650.62 THAT there has been compliance with all pre-foreclosure requirements; that no action or proceeding has been instituted at law or otherwise to recover the debt secured by said mortgage, or any part thereof;

Dated: August 26, 2022

ProSe

Lindy Scanlon Registrar

THAT pursuant to the power of sale contained in said mortgage, the above-described property will be sold by the Sheriff of Hennepin County as follows:

DATE AND TIME OF SALE: October 13, 2022, at 11:00 a.m.

The MSR handles billing digitally. This means you will get e-tears and e-mailed invoices unless you specifically request a hard copy.

PLACE OF SALE: Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, Room 30, 350 South Fifth Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota to pay the debt secured by said mortgage and taxes, if any, on said premises and the costs and disbursements, including attorneys' fees allowed by law subject to redemption within six (6) months from the date of said sale by the mortgagor(s), their personal representatives or assigns.

The date on or before which the mortgagor must vacate the propertyif the mortgage is not reinstated under section 580.30 or the property redeemed under section580.23: April 13, 2023, at 11:59 p.m.

From Classified Department/MN Spokesman-Recorder

THE TIME ALLOWED BY LAW FOR REDEMPTION BY THE MORTGAGOR, THE MORTGAGOR'S PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES OR ASSIGNS, MAYBEREDUCED TO FIVE WEEKS IF A JUDICIAL ORDER IS ENTEREDUNDERMINNESOTA STATUTES, SECTION 582.032, DETERMINING, AMONGOTHERTHINGS, THAT THE MORTGAGED PREMISES ARE IMPROVEDWITHARESIDENTIAL DWELLING OF LESS THAN FIVE UNITS, ARE NOT PROPERTYUSED IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, AND ARE ABANDONED.

PHONE: 612-827-4021

Dated: August 23, 2022 Alabama 2, LLC Assignee of Mortgagee HOELSCHER LAW FIRM, PLLC

FOR BILLING INQUIRIES & TEARSHEETS

By: /s/ Brian G. Hoelscher Brian G. Hoelscher #0238752 Attorneys for Assignee of Mortgagee 13100 Wayzata Boulevard, Suite 100 Minnetonka, MN 55305 (952) 224-9551

Notice of Probate of Will & Appt of PR Minn. Stat. 524.3-310;524.3-801

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder September, 22, 29, 2022

State of Minnesota Fourth Judicial District Court

County of Hennepin PROBATE MENTAL HEALTH DIVISION

NOTICE OF INFORMAL APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS

In Re: Estate of Hoa Thi Johnson, FILE NO. 27-PA-PR-22-1291 Deceased

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND CREDITORS:

Notice is hereby given, that an application for informal probate of the above named decedent’s last will dated July 10, 2022 has been filed with the Registrar herein, and the application has been granted informally probating such will. Any objections may be filed in the above, and the same will be heard by the Court upon notice of hearing fixed for such purpose.

Email: brian@hoelscher-law.com

PLEASE CONTACT ACCOUNTING DEPT @ BILLING@SPOKESMAN-RECORDER.COM

THIS IS A COMMUNICATION FROM A DEBT COLLECTOR.

FORECLOSURE DATA Minn. Stat. Sec. 580.025

PROBATE

(1) the physical street address, city, and zip code of the mortgaged premises is 3736 Lyndale Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55409;

Notice is hereby further given that informal appointment of Nancy Kim Johnson, whose address is 7532 Brunswick Ave. N., Brooklyn Park, MN 55443 as personal representative of the estate of the above named decedent, has been made. Any heir, devisee or other interested person may be entitled to appointment as personal rep resentative or may object to the appointment of the personal representative and the personal representative are empowered to fully administer the estate including, after 28 days from the date of issuance of letters, the power to sell, encumber, lease or distribute real estate, unless objections thereto are filed with the Court (pursuant to Section 524.3-607) and the Court otherwise orders

2 WEEK RUN FLAT RATE $200.00 PREPAID

Please Note: New email address for all future ads is ads@ spokesman-recorder.com

(2) the name of the transaction agent, residential mortgage servicer, and the lender or broker, as defined in section 58.02, if the person holding the mortgage is a transac tionagent as defined in section 58.02, subdivision 30 are as follows: – not applicable; or thename of the residential mortgage servicer and the lender or broker, as defined in section58.02, if the person holding the mortgage is not a transaction agent as defined in section 58.02, subdivision 30 are as follows: residential mortgage servicer – Alabama 2, LLC, lender or broker – Alabama 2, LLC;

(3) the tax parcel identification number of the mortgaged premises is: 04-028-24-44-0186;

(4) if stated on the mortgage, the transaction agent's mortgage identification number is:not applicable;

Notice is further given that ALL CREDITORS having claims against said estate are required to present the same to said personal representative or to the Probate Court Administrator within four months after the date of this notice or said claims will be barred.

Dated: September 14, 2022 Lindy Scanlon Registrar ProSe Sarah Gonsalves District Court Administrator

The MSR handles billing digitally. This means you will get e-tears and e-mailed invoices unless you specifically request a hard copy.

(5) if stated on the mortgage, the name of the residential mortgage originator as definedin section 58.02 is: Discover Bank

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder August 25 and September 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29, 2022

Contunued from page 12

career as an assistant at her alma mater (199899), then an assistant at Virginia (1999-2002), then returned to UT for her second assistant stint (2002-08) before becom ing a head coach. After three seasons in West wood, Fargas accepted the LSU job.

The former coach told us why she took the Aces job and left coaching be hind: “After 25 years of coaching, I wanted to pave the way for those who came after me. When I left LSU, I was the only Black head coach, and it served me well. Most im portant is that LSU…have a 100% graduation rate.”

After her remarks, Far gas told the MSR that being a Power Five head coach prepared her to run a pro franchise. “As a

coach, you have to work with all departments. You have to work with mar keting, ticketing and sales, have to work with your PR people. It was a natural progression.”

On the fact that the two top Las Vegas pro teams, ironically both owned by Mark Davis, hired Black women to run them, Fargas said, “I hope it gets to the point where it’s not like, oh my gosh, look what’s going on, to where it becomes the norm. You gave us an opportunity and we’re gonna be damn good at it, because all of our life we’ve had to be twice as good.

“To have us in those lead ership roles is not some thing that was just given to us,” she concluded. “It’s something that was earned. To hire us, it’s okay to put us in those leadership roles.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

Notice of Inf Appt of PR Minn. Stat.524.3-310;524.3-801

Minnesota Spokesman Recorder September 29, October 6, 2022

Advance Your Career

Join the Financial Industry with Goodwill’s free 6-week training

Next class begins October 17, 2022 visit gesmn.org

Sr. Consultant – Developer

(multiple openings); Concord USA, Hopkins, MN. Req. Bach elors in CS, CE, or EE, or related discipline, & 3 yrs exp. in integration consulting or Master’s in CS, CE, or EE, or relat ed discipline, & 1 yrs exp. in integration consulting. In addi tion, must have at least 1 yr. exp. in at least 5 of the following 7 skills: Integration platforms as well as related architecture & implementation solutions including API-driven design, messag ing patterns, & application development best practices; Software development lifecycle, messaging patterns, endpoint security, interfaces with internal and external applications, & database knowledge; driving full cycle of project development, from re quirements to delivery and support; historical experience w/ TIBCO products and technologies – TIBCO EMS, Foresigth, Rendevous; data formats & protocols – XML, HTTP, FTP, AS2, XSD, XPATH, REST, SOAP, .NET, REACT, SQL; connecting w/ cloud & on-premise applications and data sources; communicat ing w/ IT and business people about technology. OT & weekend hrs. may be required. Position is based out of & reports to Con cord’s HQ in Hopkins, MN, but allows for option to telecom mute from home office anywhere in US & may be required to travel to and work from unanticipated client sites throughout US. Travel anticipated up to 50% depending on work requirements Concord requires all new hires to undergo background checks. Submit résumé to jennifer.jamison@concordusa.com

No agencies or phone calls.

State of Minnesota Fourth Judicial District Court

County of Hennepin

State of Minnesota

Judicial District Court County of Hennepin

PROBATE MENTAL HEALTH DIVISION

OF INFORMAL PROBATE OF WILL AND APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL

AND NOTICE TO

In Re: Estate of Malcom Edward Fallek, also known as, Max Fallek and Max E. Fallek,

Sarah Lindahl-Pfieffer District Court Administrator

Black women rise to C-Suite leadership roles

Volleyballers transfer to U of M ‘to be coached by the best’

here are approximately 100 African American and other student-ath letes of color this school year at the University of Minnesota. In an occasional series through out the 2022-23 school and sports year, the MSR will high light many of these players. This week: Gopher volleyball players Arica Davis and Naya Gros

he Las Vegas Aces is the first pro team located in that city now with a champi onship under its belt. Team President Nikki Fargas is the only Black executive to hold such a title in the WNBA and the second-high est ranking Black top exec in the league. (Keia Clarke, New York Liberty CEO and LA Sparks Senior VP Natalie White are the other Black women C-Suite members).

League Commissioner Cathy Engelbert bragged about this during her Sept. 11 press conference before Game 1 of the Finals, say ing that having Fargas in her current role “is a great reflection on the league and the owner ship and the diversity of our front offices.”

The 2022 Minnesota Go phers volleyball roster has seven transfers. Middle blockers Arica Davis from Ohio State and Naya Gros, a Michigan State graduate now attending graduate school, are both among the first-year players, along with four true first-year players.

Both Davis and Gros are Southern natives as well as Big Ten veterans.

Gros (New Orleans) played four seasons at State, where she led the Spartans in blocks

per set for each of the past four seasons. She had her best season in 2021 when she fin ished fifth in the conference and 18th nationally in total blocks and blocks per set. A journalism major, the 6-3 Gros is studying sports manage ment for her advanced degree at Minnesota.

The 5-11 Davis (Hillsbor ough, North Carolina) in her

freshman year at Ohio State played in 33 matches as the Buckeyes reached the Sweet 16. Both told the MSR after a recent match that Minnesota is the best place for them to continue their volleyball ca reers.

“The Big Ten is the best con ference,” said Gros, “and that just so happens to be in the

Only four times in 26 WNBA Finals series has at least one team had a Black general man ager (Natalie Williams was hired by the Aces last year). Furthermore, this is the first time in W history that two different Black general managers (James Wade, Chicago, 2021) won consecutive titles.

Fargas was hired as Aces president in May 2021 after 10 seasons as LSU women’s bas ketball head coach. She and Las Vegas Raid ers President Sandra Douglass Morgan, who became the first Black woman in NFL history

to hold such a position, both were honored at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention in Las Vegas in August.

“This is an unbelievable award,” Fargas told the gathering of Black sports journalists at the Sam Lacy Pioneer Awards banquet. “I can’t even tell you how much this means to me…to be the recipient of the Sam Lacy award. It’s just really special to me and my family.

“The work that I’ve done over the years,” add ed Fargas, “I earned my stripes.”

She coached at UCLA (2008-11), where Far gas won Pac-10 Coach of the Year. We first met her, then Nikki Caldwell, when her club played in the NCAA first round at Williams Arena in 2010. The former University of Tennes see guard (1990-94) began her coaching

his week two photos are featured, one cap turing a nice catch dur ing St. Paul Highland Park’s 17-14 comeback victory over St. Paul Central, and the oth er a catch from Minneapolis North’s opening season vic tory over St. Paul Johnson.

Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDon ald welcomes reader responses to mcdeezy05@gmail.com.

Saints pitcher says he’s right where he wants to be

By Charles Hallman Sports Columnist

Conclusion of a two-part story

imeon Woods Richard son is the St. Paul Saints’ only Black pitcher, and one of two in the Minnesota Twins organization. He joined the Triple-A club in August.

Woods Richardson, who just turned 22 years old on Sept. 27, is the Twins’ sixthbest prospect. He came to the Twins as part of a 2021 trade with Toronto for Jose Berrios. Originally drafted out of high school in Texas by the New York Mets in the second round of the 2018 draft, he made six professional appear ances before being traded to Toronto in 2019.

From then on, the 6-3 right hander has bounced from LowA to High-A to Double-A, where Woods Richardson began this season. He also pitched for the U.S. national team in the 2020

Summer Olympics and won a silver medal.

“I’ve been blessed,” Woods Richardson told the MSR while sitting in the Saints dug out before a recent workout.

“I’ve been able to play on three different ball clubs. Every body’s main goal is getting to the big leagues, but I think I’m pretty good on pace for being a 21-year-old and in AAA. I can’t complain.”

lete,” he recalled. “I played third base, I played shortstop, and I also pitched growing up. [As a pitcher] you’re in command. The game doesn’t start without you. I got on the mound and there was no better feeling. I had no better excitement than starting on the mound.”

Before he got drafted out of high school, Woods Richardson committed to attend the Uni versity of Texas to play college baseball. No regrets, however, he points out. “I can’t complain at all,” said the pitcher.

Since joining the Saints, Woods Richardson has been terrific on the mound, es pecially against left-handed hitters. But his hitting team mates haven’t produced much run support on his behalf.

Woods Richardson is keenly aware of the dearth of Black pitchers in all levels of baseball, especially the pros. “There’s not a lot of us out there on the mound,” he admitted.

“I was actually a two-way ath

“I’m blessed to be here. I love everybody. I love the coaching staff,” he stressed.

Since settling on pitching, Woods Richardson has been a starting pitcher, as he puts it, “ever since I picked up a base

ball.” But if it means going to the bullpen in order to reach the majors, he’s willing to do it.

He also knows that to make it and stick in the majors, Woods Richardson must devel

op and master a second pitch.

Since coming to St. Paul, he has been talking and working with Twins starter and longtime vet eran Chris Archer—one Black pitcher to another.

“It’s always great to have one of those guys to just pick his brain a little bit, to talk mental cues, to talk thought processes,” said Woods Rich ardson. “We’ve been working on my slider recently. It’s also great that he’s one phone call, one text away just to pick his brain. I think that’s a huge help.”

Soon, baseball season for both the Saints and the Twins will end as both teams won’t make the postseason. Woods

Richardson told us that after a little break “to get the arm rests,” he will begin his offseason work.

“I think everybody needs a little bit of rest because we go through 100 and some games and you’re doing it every day,” he said. “I’d say I take about a month, two-month break be fore I start picking it back up again for the next season.”

Simeon Woods Richardson

Photo by Charles Hallman

“I’m blessed to be here. I love everybody. I love the coaching staff.”

“The lack of diversity isn’t because of not enough talented Black players.”

■ See SOE on page 11

(l-r) Arica Davis, Naya Gros

Photo by Charles Hallman

Aces Team President Nikki Fargas Photo by Charles Hallman

“You gave us an opportunity and we’re gonna be damn good at it.”

Photos by Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald

Photos of the week St. Paul Highland Park receiver Ishmael Powell catches a pass during a critical drive in their victory over St. Paul Central Saturday, September 24 at James S. Griffin Stadium in St. Paul.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

Minneapolis North receiver Jayland Baker caught this 22yard pass for a touchdown in their victory over St. Paul Johnson Friday, September 2 at North High School in Min neapolis.