The Minnesota state Senate convenes today at noon and for the first time will have Black women among its ranks and will have a Black man as its president, also for the first time as Bobby Joe Champion becomes the first Black person to do so. Watch live above and read about the women at this link and about state Sen, Champion at this link.
When Deb Winsor walked to her Uptown bus stop, she was often irked by the amount of litter she found along the way.
So she decided to act, joining a growing number of people who have joined the recently revived and expanded Adopt-a-Stop program. Adopters agree to visit their adopted stop weekly to remove litter and to report more serious concerns, like graffiti or broken glass, to Metro Transit.
In exchange for their efforts, adopters receive Go-To Cards with enough value to take 10 rides a month, cleaning supplies, and can have their names added to the bus stop sign or shelter.
“I would walk to Uptown past this bus stop and be annoyed about the litter. Then, I said to myself, `Why complain? Let’s do something about it,’” said Winsor, a hospital receptionist who takes routes 6 and 2 to her job in the surgery center at M Health Fairview in Minneapolis.
Historically, the program focused largely on stops with shelters. Today, though, people can adopt any of the nearly 12,000 bus stops found across the region.
Hamline University sophomore Lane Renner is another recent adopter. His Theta Chi fraternity now looks after the METRO A Line’s Snelling & Hewitt Station, which sits in front of their house on Snelling Avenue.
“It’s an easy way to give back to your community,” Renner said. “It doesn’t take that much work. I know the people who come by appreciate having a clean bus stop.”
To date, 14 stops have been adopted. The hope is to have dozens more adopted by the end of the year.
Gov. Walz and other constitutional officers will take the oath of office today. You can watch it live here.
Minnesota health officials have closed their COVID-19 vaccination site at the Mall of America.
Gov. Walz visited the Mall of America the same day it was to close. The site was the largest vaccination spot in the state. More than 236,000 doses of vaccine were administered there since it opened in February 2021.
Nurse Cathy Dichter said the first days of offering vaccines at the mall looked like photos from history books, with rows of nurses working nonstop to administer shots.
“Everyone was frightened, scared, relieved that they were going to get their shot,” she said. “Some would cry. Some would hug you. Some would just say ‘I haven’t talked to people in days. Can I just sit and talk to you?’ Because it was during the time where everyone was shut in.”
She said she remembered the first day of administering doses to children between the ages of 5 and 11 sounded like an “echo torture chamber with Disney music loudly infused amongst the clinic.”
Walz said the closure shouldn’t be seen as a signal for people to eschew vaccinations. He said people need to keep getting booster shots and respect COVID-19 protocols.
Prominent Minnesota businessman Tashitaa Tufaa has allegedly been detained by Ethiopian authorities, according to his brother Gebi Tufaa and members of the Ethiopian community in Minnesota. The circumstances of why and when he was taken into custody remain unclear.
Postings on social media indicate Tufaa was in his native Ethiopia to attend the funeral of an aunt and was arrested at Bole International Airport as he was on his way back to the United States.
Tufaa is founder and CEO of Metropolitan Transportation Network, a school bus company with revenues of over $12 million. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the African Awards for Business of the Year.
According to Tulu Sikko Mando, who on his Facebook post described himself as “a member of US based National Committee that welcomed and hosted Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Ethiopian Diaspora tour in the United States in July 2018,” alleged that Tufaa got “detained in his country of birth simply because of no reason except probably his ethnic Oromo identity.”
His reported detention comes in the wake of the end of a civil war that has rocked the country since November 2020 which involved the Federal government and the Tigray region. Representatives of Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray region signed a peace deal in South Africa on Nov. 2, the eve of the two-year anniversary of the conflict. Earlier this month, the two sides met in Nairobi and agreed to allow a team of independent African experts to monitor the implementation of the peace deal.
Mando said that attempts by Tufaa’s family and lawyers to reach him have been unsuccessful and that his whereabouts are unknown.
The community has called on the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa to intervene.
Gebi Tufaa, a younger brother of Tashitaa Tufaa, told Mshale that his family is very concerned for the wellbeing of their brother and appealed to Minnesota’s US Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith to assist in his release.
“We will greatly appreciate their help as we do not know what condition he might be in,” Gebi Tufaa said.
The younger Tufaa who is a former CFO at MTN and is now a human resource manager with the City of Saint Paul said they were both in Ethiopia recently to visit with the ailing aunt before she passed on, but that the older brother stayed behind to take her to a doctor’s appointment.
Tufaa said his brother made a brief phone call from detention to family in Ethiopia simply say he was okay in a call that lasted less than a minute.
“My brother is not even involved in any kind of politics so this is very surprising and came out of nowhere,” he said.
Editor’s note: The story has been updated to include comments from Mr. Tashitaa Tufaa’s brother. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Forty-seven. That’s how many days of child care Kathryn Anne Edwards’ 3-year-old son has missed in the past year.
RSV, COVID-19 and two bouts of the dreaded preschool scourge of hand, foot and mouth disease struck one after another. The illnesses were so disruptive that the labor economist quit her full-time job at the Rand Corp., a think tank. She switched last month to independent contract work to give her more flexibility to care for her son and 4-month-old daughter.
In the first and even second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, multi-week quarantines and isolations were common for many Americans, especially children. But nine weeks of missed child care, nearly three years in?
“The rest of the world has moved on from the crisis that I’m still in,” said Edwards, who studies women’s issues. “That’s sometimes how it feels like to me.”
This fall and winter have upended life for working parents of little children, who thought the worst of the pandemic was behind them. The arrival of vaccines for younger children and the end of quarantines for COVID exposure were supposed to bring relief.
Instead, families were treated to what some called a “tripledemic.” Flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus cases collided, stressing children’s hospitals and threatening the already imperiled child care system. Even parents of babies with less serious cases of COVID-19 have run into 10-day isolation rules that have taxed the patience of employers.
A record-high 104,000 people missed work in October because of child care problems, surpassing even early pandemic levels, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. Child care-related absences fell to 59,000 in November, but numbers still surpass typical pre-pandemic levels.
The instability has hurt many working parents’ finances. Most of those who missed work in October because of child care problems didn’t get paid, according to an analysis from the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
Now, doctors are bracing for the number of sick children to rise after families gathered for the holidays.
“I think we’re going to have to be ready to do it all over again,” said Dr. Eric Biondi, director of pediatric hospital medicine at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Maryland.
Illnesses among teachers and children have strained a child care system that’s already short-staffed.
“This is the worst year I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” said Shaunna Baillargeon, owner of Muddy Puddles Early Learning Program in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. She faces “a constant battle of staff and children being sick with a different virus every day,” with no backups if a teacher calls in sick.
At the Washington, D.C., day care where Jana Williams teaches, illness has caused classroom shutdowns almost weekly since October. Her 19-month-old daughter is also enrolled there, coming down with the same viruses.
“It’s stressful,” she said before Christmas, when she was home with her sick toddler. “You want to stay home and care for your child. But then it’s like, you have to get to work.”
During the early months of the pandemic, women in the prime of their careers left the labor market at a rate far exceeding men. They were more likely to work in the service-oriented fields that were decimated, and they often were caring for children, Edwards said.
Women have since returned to the workforce, particularly women of color, said economist Diane Swonk of professional services firm KPMG.
But the participation of prime-age working women in the U.S. lags most industrialized nations, Swonk said. Advocates have long blamed the country’s lack of universal preschool and paid family leave.
Finding child care and heading back to work has proved far from simple. At the pandemic’s height, more than one-third of day care jobs were lost, Edwards said. Staffing hasn’t fully recovered. As of November, the country had 8% fewer child care workers than before the pandemic, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
The strong labor market has driven up the cost to hire new workers. That means child care spots are pricey and hard to find. Even centers with openings may close when staff or kids are sick.
That babies and toddlers are prone to illnesses adds to the challenge. In the wake of COVID, day cares are more anxious about accepting a snotty toddler.
Isolation guidelines have hit parents of babies especially hard. While older preschoolers who have COVID-19 may return with masks after five days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends children under 2 stay home for 10 days, or until they test negative twice, 48 hours apart.
One issue is masks aren’t recommended for the under-2 crowd. Their smaller airways mean wearing them can increase the risk of suffocation, according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio.
Not all centers are adhering to the CDC’s guidance. But many are following it to the letter, or even going further.
When Chicago educator Tamisha Holifield and her daughter had COVID-19 in May, the toddler had to miss 15 days of child care. Bouts of colds have followed, in what Holifield described as a “constant whirlwind” of sickness that has been stressful both financially and emotionally.
“It’s a major inconvenience. But I’m a single parent, so I don’t have a choice. If I drop the ball, the game is over,” Holifield said.
Disruption from illness can have ripple effects on young kids. Unduly stressed parents can become a stress on the baby, which can in turn cause sleep, gastrointestinal or socialization problems, said Dr. Sherri Alderman, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician.
The situation has also strained employers. Brad Lukas, chief nursing officer at Corewell Health Beaumont Grosse Pointe Hospital in Michigan, has seen eight or nine nurses calling out per shift, some because of sick children.
“We’re seeing a lot of people reduce their hours,” Lukas said. His own wife cut back nursing shifts so she can mostly stay home with their young children.
The continued chaos for young families is isolating, especially when other Americans’ lives are back to normal, said Lauren Hipp, early learning chief at MomsRising, an advocacy organization.
“I feel pretty angry about it,” said Hipp, whose own 2-, 6- and 8-year-old children have been wracked with illnesses, including RSV. “To feel like society has passed you by is a really difficult and lonely feeling.”
Many of us will be gathering with family and friends during the upcoming holidays. With many respiratory diseases spreading right now, including flu, RSV, and COVID-19, it is important to take steps to help everyone celebrate safer!
Here are some things you can do:
Learn more at Protect Yourself and Others: COVID-19 and Influenza.
After a grueling election season, Minnesota Democrats are indulging in the fruits of their labor.
Minneapolis residents gathered on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at Bauhaus Brew Labs on one of the coldest days this year to celebrate an unprecedented victory in Minnesota’s legislative history. A happy hour mixer hosted by Pro-Choice Minnesota, an organization that advocates for reproductive rights, honored the wins of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), as the Democratic Party is known in the state.
In November, Governor Tim Walz retained his seat in the race against Republican Scott Jensen. In the state legislature, the DFL not only held its majority in the House of Representatives, but also able to flip the Senate, creating what is called “trifecta,” when one party controls the governorship and both chambers.
“This is such an important moment for policy in Minnesota,” said Kate Baxter-Kauf, a local attorney. “It’s a long-awaited victory.”
Although many expected the DFL to retain control of the house, few expected the Senate to flip on election night. It is the first blue trifecta the state has seen since 2012. Democratic supporters now hope that with the new mandate, they can tackle hot-button issues like marijuana legalization, climate change, funding for education, and paid family leave. Also on the agenda is access to abortion and reproductive rights groups like Pro-Choice Minnesota have been working to ensure that women can continue to have the procedures safely. Minnesota is considered an “island state” surrounded by states that have voted to restrict abortion.
“Abortion access in Minnesota is one of the most important civil rights issues at the moment, and Minnesota is a beacon of access in the Midwest as other states are rushing to limit that freedom,” said Baxter-Kauf.
People continued to shuffle into Bauhaus Brew Labs as the hours went by, some letting out sighs of relief as they had just escaped the bitter cold. Partygoers were shoulder-to-shoulder as they watched their drinks being prepared at the bar. They repeatedly raised their drinks and toasted as they talked about what they were most excited about in this new political season in Minnesota. Sen. Erin Murphy, who was re-elected to represent District 64 after defeating her Republican challenger Robert Bushard, said that she was looking forward to continuing being an integral part of creating an inclusive Minnesota, specifically, by combating white supremacy and advocating for women’s reproductive rights.
“I deeply honor the work of Black Minnesotans and will call for reproductive justice,” Murphy said. “The work to advance our freedom in America is unfinished and I won’t quit.”
Since 2020, when a Minneapolis Police Department officer murdered George Floyd and sparked nationwide protests, Minnesota has been in the crosshairs of civil rights activists. Black Minnesotans began calling for change at the legislative level, and now they will be keenly watching what Murphy and other lawmakers do to tackle white supremacy.
Abena Abraham, an immigrant of Ghanaian and Liberian descent and co-founder of the Black Immigrant Collective, said that she was both excited and cautiously optimistic about the election results. She said that the level of work would need to be ramped up in order to create sustainable change for Minnesota’s Black communities.
“We will have to work twice as hard to ensure that our voices are heard,” Abraham said.
Abraham also talked about the impact of having Black women elected to the senate for the first time. Zaynab Mohamed in District 63, Erin Maye Quade in District 56, and Clare Oumou Verbeten in District 66 all won their races against their Republican challengers, making history as the first Black women in Minnesota’s statehood to do so. Abraham said that while she was elated to hear the news and what it meant for Black Minnesotans, she still had her concerns.
“While it is exciting to have three Black women in the senate, we know that they are working in a system that wasn’t designed for them,” Abraham said. “We must be prepared to be on the defensive to make sure that we are amplifying the voices.”
The U.S. announced new COVID-19 testing requirements Wednesday for all travelers from China, joining other nations imposing restrictions because of a surge of infections.
The increase in cases across China follows the rollback of the nation’s strict anti-virus controls. China’s “zero COVID” policies had kept the country’s infection rate low but fueled public frustration and crushed economic growth.
The new U.S. requirements, which start Jan. 5, apply to travelers regardless of their nationality and vaccination status.
In a statement explaining the testing, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited the surge in infections and what it said was a lack of adequate and transparent information from China, including genomic sequencing on the viral strains circulating in the country.
“These data are critical to monitor the case surge effectively and decrease the chance for entry of a novel variant of concern,” the CDC said.
Some scientists are worried the COVID-19 surge in China could unleash a new coronavirus variant on the world that may or may not be similar to the ones circulating now. That’s because every infection is another chance for the virus to mutate.
“What we want to avoid is having a variant enter into the U.S. and spread like we saw with delta or omicron,” said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
But the CDC’s action may be less about stopping a new variant from crossing U.S. borders and more about increasing pressure on China to share more information, said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, adding he hopes the restrictions “aren’t kept in place longer than they need to be.”
“I don’t think it’s going to have a major impact in slowing the spread of COVID-19,” Dowdy said. “We have a whole lot of transmission of COVID-19 here within our borders already.”
Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, agreed China isn’t sharing enough genomic sequencing information. But he also said the U.S. has become a little complacent about sequencing and needs to redouble its own efforts. The CDC also announced the expansion of an early warning program that tests volunteers at select airports for new and rare variants of the coronavirus. That program will expand to airports in Seattle and Los Angeles.
Under the new U.S. rules, travelers to the U.S. from China, Hong Kong and Macau, will be required to take a COVID-19 test no more than two days before travel and provide a negative test before boarding their flight. The testing applies to anyone 2 years and older, including U.S. citizens.
It will apply to people traveling from China via a third country and to people connecting through the U.S. as they go on to other destinations. Anyone testing positive more than 10 days before the flight can provide documentation showing they’ve recovered from COVID-19 instead of a negative test result.
It will be up to the airlines to confirm negative tests and documentation of recovery before passengers board.
Other countries have taken similar steps in an effort to keep infections from spreading beyond China’s borders. Japan will require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from China, and Malaysia announced new tracking and surveillance measures. India, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan are requiring virus tests for visitors from China.
Lunar New Year, which begins Jan. 22, is usually China’s busiest travel season, and China announced Tuesday it will resume issuing passports for tourism for the first time since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
“We look forward to welcoming Chinese travelers back to the United States,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman said in a statement. He called the U.S. approach to testing inbound travelers “reasonable and appreciated.”
The U.S. action is a return to testing requirements for some international travelers. The Biden administration lifted the last of such mandates in June. At that time, the CDC continued to recommend that people boarding flights to the U.S. get tested close to departure time and not travel if they are sick.
“We’ve done this before. We can do it again,” Dowdy said.
Early in the pandemic, the U.S. barred entry to foreigners traveling from China, weeks after the virus first emerged there three years ago, and dozens of other countries were added to the list. The country started lifting travel bans late last year, but required travelers to the U.S. to be vaccinated and tested. ___
AP Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed.
Hours after attending the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington hosted by President Biden, Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud addressed a near capacity crowd of the Somali diaspora at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Dec. 15.
Speaking exclusively in Somali for about 40 minutes to a cheering crowd waving miniature Somali flags, the president praised the tenacity of Somalis and vowed to combat religious extremism at home and abroad.
The president pledged to open a consulate in Minnesota which is home to the largest population of Somalis outside of Africa.
“We will open a consulate here in Minnesota,” President Hassan said.
The hours-long event at the convention center which started around 4pm lasted past midnight with the president taking the stage at around 11 p.m.
The president was accompanied by Rep. Ilhan Omar who introduced him after she spoke. Her district includes Minneapolis. Also present was Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey who made his introductory remarks in Somali.
The evening had a festive atmosphere with speeches from local elected leaders and Somali elders as well as music from local Somali artists.
President Hassan also cracked a joke about the snowstorm that slammed the Twin Cities upon his arrival, saying, “Get ready to go back to your home country, even if it’s just when you have a vacation or holiday or when it’s really cold like this.”
This is Hassan’s second nonconsecutive term. He served as president in 2012 to 2017 and made a visit to Minnesota halfway through his first term in 2014.
President Hassan also met separately with Somali Imams and professionals at his hotel the next morning. Adna Farah, aka Jinow, who attended the more intimate morning meeting, described it as chance for the Imams and professionals to ask questions of the president and also give him ideas.
“We had a chance to ask or give suggestions to the president about the future of Somalia and how we can work together,” Farah said.
Among questions that were asked of the president was when Somali soldiers sent to Eritrea in 2018 for training will come back to take part in the fight against Al-Shabaab.
“The Somali soldiers trained in Eritrea will be deployed gradually as soon the beginning of next year,” the president said. “The first group will be arriving in January and I promise to bring them back all.”
Imam Hassan Jami’i of masjid al-Dawah in St. Paul presented the president with a document the imams have drawn up with suggestions on how to eliminate Al-Shabaab.
The president in response to a question on when the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), will be depart Somalia since they are not actively engaged in fighting al-Shabaab, said he appreciates the sacrifices that ATMIS has made on behalf of Somalia.
The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) is described by the AU as “a multidimensional mission (military, police and civilian), authorized by the African Union and mandated by the United Nations Security Council.” It became operational in April 1, 2022 and is mandated to support the Federal Government of Somalia in the implementation of the Somali Transition Plan and “to transfer security responsibilities to the Somali security forces and institutions.”
“You can’t imagine how helpful they have been, many of them have died because of Somalia, ATMIS will be deployed back to their countries in 2024,” Hassan said.
The holiday season is here, and for Kenna-Camara Cottman that means curating Afro-fusion musicals that grip individuals of all ages. This year, Kenna wants to bring attention to Kwanzaa, the African American holiday, which some say has lost popularity among Black youth.
Kenna, who is non-binary and prefers to go by their first name, is promoting Kwanzaa through a series of events they call the Griot Series. It is a project of VOICE of Culture, an organization founded in 2008 in Minneapolis’s Northside neighborhood to promote Black American arts and culture and will host various cultural events throughout the year.
One of the shows, held on Monday in Minneapolis at the Cedar Cultural Center, spotlighted the African American holiday of Kwanzaa by drawing on traditional African storytelling in a series of vocal and drum performances.
“I wanted to increase access and engagement with Black arts and culture in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood by bringing together my community of artists in a unique way,” said Kenna.
Despite increasingly progressive attitudes towards multiculturalism, Kwanzaa, which was once a popular holiday, has over the years slipped into obscurity. It was erroneously dubbed the “Black Christmas,” and has been the subject of ceaseless controversy, with claims from Black and white people that it promotes segregation. Particularly amongst the younger crowd, Kwanzaa’s popularity has waned significantly compared to just a few decades ago. Through the Griot Series, Kenna seeks to promote a deeper understanding about Kwanzaa and hopefully restore its true meaning.
The origins of Kwanzaa go back to the 1960s when Ronald McKinley Everett, a prominent African American college professor and civil activist, began to think of ways to keep Black Americans connected to their African roots. He adopted the Kiswahili name Maulana Karenga and in 1966 he organized the first Kwanzaa celebration. In response to growing racial tensions in the United States, Karenga sought to unite and empower his community, especially after riots devastated the predominantly Black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles. The name Kwanzaa is derived from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” which means “first fruits.” Karenga drew inspiration from traditional African harvesting festivals in his ideation of the holiday. As Kwanzaa steadily gained traction in Black America through the 1970’s and 1980’s, it became an African American cultural holiday, hallmarked by feasting, gift-giving, and remembrance of their African heritage.
Kenna, who is the child of community leader and professional storyteller Auntie Beverly, said that their family celebrates Kwanzaa in different ways each year. In addition to organizing events, Kenna works with Black youth to educate them about African and African American culture and history.
“It’s always fun to raise folks of all ages’ awareness and create new avenues to uplift Blackness in those spaces,” Kenna said.
Throughout the night, performers bridged Africa and America leading the audience through the villages of Guinea and then into the Deep South as they switched from a djembe ensemble to gospel tunes. It was a juxtaposing mélange of explosive percussion and lullaby-like melodies that had even the youth on their feet. Children younger than 5 could not be contained as they gamboled across the center of the room. When Kenna conducted the drummers into an ancestral chant, a group of children broke out in a semi-uniform dance number screaming, “Ashe!” which translates loosely to “power” in the Yoruba language and honors the power of the ancestors.
When vocal powerhouse duo Jayanthi RaJaSa and Alicia Jameel broke out into a funky rendition of Odetta Holmes’ “This Little Light of Mine,” the audience erupted. Some grooved to the steady beat, while others nodded. As the singers transitioned from belted choruses to a harmonized outro, the audience grew even more restless. But silence soon swept the room again as they awaited the next set.
Throughout the night, there was a recurring chant of “Umoja! Kujichagulia! Ujima! Ujamaa! Nia! Kuumba! Imani!” the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa, which translate to unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith, respectively. For each of the seven days of Kwanzaa celebration, a candle is lit to represent each of the principles.
In the latter half of the show, Kenna presented the Kwanzaa table, which was adorned with traditional items, many symbolic in nature. The kinara or candleholder, sat in the middle of the table on the vibrantly tie-dyed mat known as mkeka. On the kinara were seven pan-African colored candles – three red ones to represent the struggle, three green ones to symbolize hope for the future, and a black one to represent the people of the African diaspora. Also on display was mazao (the fruit to represent the harvest), zawadi (gifts), and mahindi (the corn representing children). Kenna invited the youth performers to gather around the table and give short recitations affirming their Black identities, which included a chant in Kiswahili and a tribute to Marcus Garvey, the late Jamaican-born advocate and pan-Africanist.
Attendees lingered after the show to chat, grab refreshments, and purchase handmade African crafts at the featured tables. Local rapper Fanaka Nation, who was one of the last to leave as he laughed heartily in conversation with other attendees, said that Kwanzaa recognition is especially important in states like Minnesota, where African American representation lags in the shadows of Eurocentric cultural norms. Reiterating the spirit of umoja, he said the event was a heartwarming way to spend a cold winter evening.
“It’s so awesome they were able to organize this here in Minneapolis,” he said. “It really gets me excited for the holidays.”
