Author Archive
RETURNING – Chapter 8: Sweet & Sour
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL As our little family walked towards Lake and Bloomington, two other forces started to move. On 17th, the evening crew began to disperse towards the corners that their regular customers knew well. And from a small house deep in the swale near 24th, an elderly woman wrapped a colorful shawl around her neck and stepped out into the night wind. Angel and Luz had met at the San Miguel Bakery six years before, when it was still located in the old People”™s Bakery spot near Bloomington. The People”™s Bakery had made the Guinness Book of World Records for making the World”™s Largest Dog Biscuit, and Luz”™ Uncle Jaime was running the bakery the day they met. St. Michael the Archangel of pan dulce and tres leches had moved two blocks east to a larger place, and on this cold night, the aroma given off caught little Angelito”™s nose. “Mami, papi,” he said. “Tengo hambre. Can I have a [...]
Movie Corner: Unhoused
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter II Adjust your eyes when you see director Chloe Zhao”™s superb road film Nomadland because it has a feel of a documentary and a feel of an arthouse film, yet it”™s a true narrative. The principal star is Fern, played by Frances McDormand, who has recently lost her husband; and the local gypsum and sheetrock factory in Empire, Nevada where she worked, closed shop. The town just disappears, even the zip code doesn”™t show up on the map. Fern decides she will not stay in Empire so she packs up some small possessions and puts them in her beat-up van and takes off on the road. But before she hits the road the townspeople offer her help, even places to stay. She smiles and quietly refuses the offers. What we learn early is Fern is fiercely independent and refuses any help from churches, social services, and charity. Now she”™s a nomad traveling from one nomad community to another meeting various [...]
Random alley Labor News:
By LINDSEY FENNER Union Workers at Abbott and Phillips Eye Institute Hold Strike Vote: After Allina Hospitals refused a to extend an expiring contract for union workers, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare workers in negotiations at Allina/Abbott Northwestern Hospital/Phillips Eye Institute voted at the end of March to decide whether to authorize an Unfair Labor Practices Strike against Allina. Results of the strike authorization vote were too late for print. According to the union, Allina has declined to negotiate health and safety issues. SEIU-represented workers at Abbott went on a two-day Strike last October over safety and COVID-pay. SEIU workers at Children”™s Hospital are in separate contract negotiations, where key issues are pay and safe staffing levels. Teamsters Locked Out at Marathon Refinery: The labor movement in MN is asking everyone to avoid buying gas at Marathon and Speedway gas stations in solidarity with locked out [...]
