‘Cover Stories’ Archives
Laura Waterman Wittstock, still the superb journalist
Laura Waterman Wittstock | J Arthur Anderson/ALLEYNEWS First Person Radio Signs Off the Air By ELAINE SALINAS The final segment of First Person Radio (FPR) aired on KFAI Radio in Minneapolis on February 14th, 2018, forty years after it originated as The Native American Program on KUOM-AM, the University of Minnesota”'s radio station. First Person Radio can best be described as a labor of love coupled with a commitment to produce timely and accurate news and information about the American Indian community to counter the many misrepresentations and inaccuracies perpetuated about Native people in the major media. Not surprisingly, the program was birthed by a volunteer group of bold young Indian University students organized by a seasoned and visionary journalist, Laura Waterman Wittstock. Laura, from the Seneca Nation in New York, had worked with the pioneering Native American Press Association in Washington, D.C. in the early 1970s. First Person Radio was the first work of [...]
Riverside Meadow named for Annie Young
CAM GORDON/ALLEYNEWS Martha Anne “Annie” Young 1924-2018 By CAM GORDON On Saturday, March 17, over 100 people gathered in Lower Riverside Park to celebrate the life of longtime Phillips resident and recently retired Minneapolis Park Commissioner, Annie Young, who passed away earlier this year on January 22. The celebration included a dedication and ribbon cutting to commemorate the renaming of Lower Riverside Park as Annie Young Meadow in her honor. This was the same Park where Young gathered for years with a group of close-knit friends almost every Friday night to enjoy one of the gems she worked so hard to protect and to improve in her nearly 28 years as an at-large Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Commissioner. (more…)
Opioid Crisis: Facts you didn”'t want to have to know
By LINDSEY FENNER The opioid crisis is the deadliest drug crisis in American history. Drug overdoses now kill more people in the U.S. than car accidents or guns. Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death of people under 50. In 2016, opioids accounted for 66 percent of drug overdoses. Opioids are powerful but highly addictive pain relievers that include morphine, heroin, Vicodin, Percocet, OxyContin, methadone, and fentanyl. It”'s getting worse in the Midwest: Between July 2016 and September 2017, opioid overdoses increased 70% in the Midwest, compared to a 30% increase in the U.S. as a whole. Minnesota has one of the greatest rates of disparity in the U.S. for opioid-related deaths based on race. In Hennepin County, Native Americans represented 10.1 percent of deaths by opioids in 2016, but only 0.6 percent of the total population. That is not a typo. The epidemic has shifted: At the beginning, overdose deaths were primarily from prescription [...]
