Insight News ::: 01.14.13

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Pinocchio January 15 – February 24, 2013 UnitedHealth Group Stage Friday, Jan 18, 7 p.m. (opening night) Recommended for grades K+ Children’s Theatre Company 2400 Third Ave S, Minneapolis BOX OFFICE: (612) 874-0400 childrenstheatre.org

January 14 - January 20, 2013

Vol. 40 No. 3• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

Answering the

Call

Ellison, Brother h AAli, lii R Rabbi bbi LLatz jjoin i R Rose McGee and ght against foreclosures By Harry Colbert, Jr. Contributing Writer A group of about 100 – including Rep. Keith Ellison (D-5th) and hiphop star, Brother Ali – gathered at Shir Tikvah Synagogue, 1360 West Minnehaha Pkwy., this past Saturday (Jan. 5) to support McGee and other Minnesotans ghting foreclosures. According to

organizers, the event was planned to educate the public on how many homeowners are being forced into foreclosure when banks and lenders refuse to work with homeowners. Following the gathering at Shir Tikvah, many in the group boarded a school bus on an area-wide tour of homes in foreclosure.

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Rose McGee

Rights chief Jessi Kingston passionate about business equality By Harry Colbert, Jr. Contributing Writer In 2008, the Department of Human Rights & Equal Economic Opportunity (HREEO) did not exist in St. Paul government. But when Mayor Chris Coleman took ofce in 2006, recognizing the divide among a growing minority population and government, three years

later he established HREEO to address the civic and economic divide in the city. “We weren’t doing what we needed to do to make sure everyone was being included,” said Coleman. According to the 2011 HREEO annual report, “One of the principle factors that led to the formation of our department was the need to increase the city’s efforts to direct contracting and employment opportunities to low-income,

Jessi Kingston

small-, women-, and minorityowned businesses.” Recently, HREEO has seen a change at the top as its outgoing director, Luz Maria Frias, was replaced by new director, Jessica “Jessi” Kingston. According to Coleman, Kingston is the perfect t to foster equality – especially business equality – within the city. “She’s passionate about the position,” said Coleman, at a meet-and-greet for the new director. “She understands the

January marks 150th anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation

Remembering our collective history By Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President and CEO The Emancipation Proclamation, which set our nation on the path to the end of slavery, was signed 150 years ago this month. This year we should resolve to teach our children the story of our collective history. The past century and a half offers countless tales of bravery and sacrice to inspire the next generation. Only by sharing our history will we be able to continue our progress over the next 150 years. President Lincoln’s wartime proclamation in 1863

Benjamin Todd Jealous read that “all persons held as slaves” in rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free”.

Education

Four new directors join Minneapolis School Board

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This was a noble idea and certainly a brave gesture. But any astute observer at the time would know that it was more aspiration than policy. The Emancipation Proclamation applied to 3.1 million slaves, but only freed about 70,000 right away. The rest, like my grandmother’s grandparents, would have to wait until the union army advanced south to end the war. It took another seven years for the Fifteenth Amendment to grant African Americans the right to vote. And even then, Jim Crow laws and threats of violence kept many people of color away from the polls. Before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation,

Aesthetics

Django Unchained: The good, the bad, and the ugly

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Frederick Douglass urged patience to his followers. “Lincoln may be slow,” he said, “but he will take no step backward.” Since then, the civil rights movement has seen many slow periods of buildup spiked by sudden crescendos of passion that sparked great change. We have struggled at times to keep this nation moving forward, but we have also committed, like Lincoln, to never move backward. Fifty years after the Emancipation Proclamation, NAACP founder W.E.B. Du Bois lauded the accomplishments of the burgeoning civil rights

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issues and she talks the language (of business owners). She’s top to bottom just right for the job. We needed someone who had the head for the work, but we needed someone who had the heart for it. Jessi is passionate and she has both the head and the heart. To get us where we need to go, there’s no better person (to head HREEO).” Kingston comes to HREEO from Digital River where she was the associate director of purchasing. She is also a

member of the Edina Human Rights Commission, serving as chair for the past two years. She has one year left on her term. “I’m here to make sure we’re addressing issues of economic opportunity and confront the issues of disadvantaged businesses and try to overcome these obstacles,” said Kingston. In confronting the issues facing disadvantaged businesses and workers, the department

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Making stakeholder investment dollars count in 2013 Gateway to excellence By Scott Gray

MUL President/CEO Nationally, the economy is going through a fundamental restructuring, and the nonprot sector is certainly being affected by these changes as well. In recent years, boundaries between public (government), private (business), and social

Community

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day events

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(non-prot) sectors have become blurred as more commonly there is an apparent blending of social, human development, economic and environmental aims with business approaches. Expanding needs from within communities and shrinking resources have made it apparent that the best chance of achieving sustainable social impact is through collaborative partnership and the use of sound business practices. Demonstrating recognition of this shift, the Minneapolis

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Health

Prediabetes: What can I do about it?

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