[ Falcon Heights - Lauderdale - Little Canada - Maplewood - Roseville ]

Meet and greet - 12:30 p.m. Community news is disappearing at an alarming rate. Join us Sunday, November 17, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Ramsey County Library Roseville, 2180 Hamline Avenue N., for a panel discussion to hear about concerns, work being done to make news available, and options for news in the future. The panel will include Ben Toff, UMN Hubbard School of

Journalism, Nora Hertel, from Project Optimist, and Max Nester from the Minnesota Reformer. Co-sponsored with Ramsey County Library Roseville and Do Good Roseville. To participate remotely, use this link: https://bit.ly/DisappearingNews.

“…as painful as foodflation is, it may just be an early ripple of the kind of disruption to the food system that’s coming.”

Eliza Barclay, Introducing the New York Times series, “What to Eat on a Burning Planet”

This summer, while I was thinking about hunger from other directions, I read an op-ed by David Wallace-Wells in the New York Times, “Food as You Know It Is About to Change.” (July 28, 2024) This bombshell of

The Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues will host Todd Graham, Met Council's Principal Forecaster, at its quarterly meeting on October 30, 6:30 PM. Graham will speak on trends in Greater Minnesota as well as in the metro area, and he will take questions at the end. No registration necessary.

“If you have not shown young people how to vote by taking them with you to the polls, do not ask them to show you how to do something on your phone.”

Angie Maxwell, “Carry a Big Stick,”

Gravy, No. 90 Winter 2024.

Artwork: "Hunger" by Kateryna Bortsova

Food. It is fundamental to life. And yet, adequate food can still be controversial. Food production and distribution are political on many fronts, but they need not be partisan. 

“I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand!” Linus, in a Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz

We hear and see the word famine a lot these days, and when its use for one country or region fades from the news, it is often not because those people are now well fed, but merely because another country or region has supplanted it in the public eye. Risk of famine in Afghanistan after the US pullout and Taliban takeover. Famine in Sudan during civil war. Famine in Gaza. How many people in how many other places do I just never hear about? No one likes being hungry, but starvation is orders of magnitude
worse, and famine means that whole populations are suffering.

But what prompts me to write is not the simple horrifying fact that millions of people around the globe are in dire straits.

Supporting “The Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy,” a two-part program will begin with showing the award-winning film, Stripped for Parts:  American Journalism on the Brink on Thursday, September 12 at Ramsey County Library – Roseville.

Film will begin at 5:45 p.m. with a meet and greet beginning at 5:00 p.m. Co-sponsors: Do Good Roseville and Ramsey County Library - Roseville.

MN House Districts 44A and 44B Candidate Forum, held on September 10, can be viewed on Nine North: https://ninenorth.org/speak-outs/.  Who: 44A: Peter Fischer, DFL; Karla Nelson, R; 44B: Leon Lillie, DFL; Bill Dahn, R.

Maplewood City Council and Mayor Candidate Forum, held on September 11, can now be viewed at: https://vod.maplewoodmn.gov/CablecastPublicSite/show/1546?channel=1.  Who: Rebecca Cave, Stephen Fitze, Alex Kline, Nikki Villavicencio

MN House District 40B Candidate Forum, held on September 17, can now be viewed on Nine North: https://ninenorth.org/speak-outs/.   Who: Curtis Johnson, DFL; Paul Wikstrom, R

Little Canada City Council Candidate Forum, held on September 18, can now be viewed on Nine North: https://ninenorth.org/speak-outs/.  Who: Chris Kwapick, Angie Malone, Teresa Miller

VOTE411 is the League’s one-stop shop for all things voting-related, for the General Election. This year, over 7,000 candidates across the state were invited to participate. Nonpartisan and objective, VOTE411 provides unbiased candidate information through the bi-lingual voter guide, allowing you to compare candidates in their own words, through their responses to League-provided questions.