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Wynfred Russell takes oath of office as Brooklyn Park’s first black council member
Bethel Gessesse, Mshale Photojournalist - 0
Dozens of Brooklyn Park residents last evening crammed into city council chambers to witness history being made in Minnesota’s sixth largest city, the swearing in of the city's first black council member, Wynfred Russell, who was born and raised in Liberia.
Russell, a former instructor at the University of Minnesota, defeated former council member Bob Mata by garnering a convincing...
New enrollments of international students fell by 6.6 percent at American universities in academic year 2017-18 compared to the year before, marking the second straight year in declines in new enrollments, according to new data from the annual Open Doors survey.
New enrollments fell 6.3 percent at the undergraduate level, 5.5 percent at the graduate level and 9.7 percent at the nondegree level from...
Immigration
Know Your Rights – What to do as Trump’s immigration raids come to Minnesota
Mshale Staff - 0
As President Trump brings his immigration raids to Minnesota, specifically targeting the Somali community, in what the Department of Homeland Security is calling Operation Metro Surge, Congresswomen Betty McCollum and Ilhan Omar have published “Know Your Rights” guides on their official congressional pages to help constituents affected know their rights, and how to exercise them.
Mshale is republishing the information...
News
New statue to honor Gordon Parks: ‘Represents the best of Minnesota, and the very best of St. Paul’
Tom Gitaa - 0
A new statue in St. Paul will honor photographer, author, filmmaker and activist Gordon Parks.
State Rep. Samakab Hussein and state Sen. Foung Hawj – both Democrats representing St. Paul - announced Sunday during a press conference at the Landmark Center that they had succeeded in securing a $250,000 appropriation for the commemoration. The funding was part of the 2025...
Immigration
Trump administration halts immigration applications for migrants from 19 travel-ban nations
Associated Press - 0
By Rebecca Santana
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pausing all immigration applications such as requests for green cards for people from 19 countries banned from travel earlier this year, as part of sweeping immigration changes in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard troops.
The changes were outlined in a policy memo posted Tuesday on the website...
News
African community urged to break silence, as it sees worrying trend of suicides
Lizzy Nyoike - Mshale Contributing Reporter - 0
Mental health experts have urged members of the African immigrant community to break the silence about trauma, substance abuse, and mental illness if they want to curb rising cases of suicide.
The experts were speaking at the Mental Health Forum, a convention of community and religious leaders, and mental health practitioners held recently in Brooklyn Park by the ladies’ ministry...
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Across continents, Equity continues to strengthen its bond...
Entertainment
Alune Wade tells the story of jazz on stage at the Cedar Cultural Center
Susan Budig - 0
In Wolof, tukki means journey, which is what the audience at The Cedar went on with Senegalese musician Alune Wade and his band on Wednesday evening. Our trip started with viewing a portion of TUKKI: From the Roots to the Bayou, a film that the African International Film Festival (AFRIFF) awarded Best International Documentary earlier this year.
As our eyes...
New international student enrollment for fall 2025 in U.S. institutions fell by 17%, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE), a New York based nonprofit that has tracked such data for the last 75 years.
The IIE report released on Monday surveyed 825 colleges and universities, and more than 96% of them reported visa application concerns by prospective students...
Politics
Nehemiah Garley announces candidacy for Minnesota Senate District 38, challenging incumbent Susan Pha
Tom Gitaa - 0
Nehemiah Garley of Brooklyn Park has entered the race for Minnesota Senate District 38, launching a campaign focused on supporting small business, infrastructure, education, and affordable housing. He will challenge incumbent Senator Susan Pha in the 2026 DFL primary.
The district leans heavily DFL, and the incumbent Pha is serving her first term in the Minnesota Senate. She was the...
News
Men’s health takes centerstage in Brooklyn Park as they celebrate their International Day
Lizzy Nyoike - Mshale Contributing Reporter - 0
With the sound of upbeat music playing, fathers, sons, and families gathered at the Brooklyn Park Community Activity Center on Saturday for an early celebration of International Men’s Day.
The event was hosted by Brooklyn Park-based Global Fatherhood Foundation (GFF) and marked the fifth time the organization brought the community and partners together to openly discuss the importance of men’s...
Elections
Why Omar Fateh lost and why his campaign still rewrote Minneapolis politics
Mukhtar M. Ibrahim - 0
Mshale Editor's Note: The author first wrote this on his Facebook page. We are reposting it here with his permission.
Omar Fateh lost because ranked-choice math and Minneapolis’s political geography made his path extremely narrow, even as he built one of the strongest insurgent coalitions the city has seen in years.
Here’s the simplest way to understand it.
1. Frey started with...
The U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery, commonly known as the green card lottery, for fiscal year 2027 (DV 2027) is supposed to have wrapped up around this time if it had started in its traditional start of early October.
However, last week on Nov. 5, when it would have been wrapping up the entry period, aka registration, the State Department instead...














