News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Monday January 12th 2026
Youth Voting – Shaping the Future Starts with Your Vote
This is the fifth article in the League of Women Voters Minneapolis 2025 Democracy Series. All articles will be available at https://lwvmpls.org/democracy-series/
By AVITAL KREBS and GEZELLE GONZALEZ MALDONADO with THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS MINNEAPOLIS
Introduction
While 2025 might not be a presidential election year, there are still many important local elections in Minneapolis — mayor, city council, parks and recreation board, and board of estimate and taxation. In these local elections, a handful of votes can determine the election outcome– making your vote extra important. However, elections have been changing. It’s also critically important to be aware of changing influences on voting decisions. In this article, high school students Avital Krebs and Gezelle Gonzalez Maldonado unpack how elections are impacted by social media, why young people should vote, how to vote, and basic information about the voting process in the United States.
Why Social Media is a Game Changer
Starting in the 1930s, candidates commonly used radio, film, television, and newspapers to publicize themselves and their policies. Until recently, there was never a direct, targeted way to connect with voters on a larger scale. The introduction of social media has been a game-changer for candidates to reach and impact their voters.… Read the rest “Youth Voting – Shaping the Future Starts with Your Vote”
“An Intelligent Man, a Good Fellow and a Brave Soldier”
from the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery…
Number 238 in a Series
By SUE HUNTER WEIR
This quote from the Leavenworth Daily Times sums up the life of Alonzo J. Brown, a Civil War veteran, and may be why, when his life was upended by illness, friends and colleagues came to his aid.
During the Civil War, Alonzo Brown enlisted in Company G in the 1st Kansas Infantry attaining the rank of captain. He was wounded and mustered out in 1863, but re-enlisted in the 22nd Veteran Reserve Corps where he performed light duty until the War’s end.
Although he served in those two units for five years, Brown considered himself as having performed ten years of military service. The undocumented five years most likely refer to unofficial service during an attack on his hometown Lawrence, Kansas. In 1856, William Quantrill, leader of a band of lawless Confederate raiders, attacked the town, known as an anti-slavery stronghold. They killed more than 180 men and boys and burned most of the town to the ground. Years later, in a letter that he wrote to the Senator who represented Lawrence, Brown referred to himself as one of the Boys of 56, those who had tried to defend the town during what became known as the Lawrence Massacre, the bloodiest chapter in Kansas history. … Read the rest ““An Intelligent Man, a Good Fellow and a Brave Soldier””
Eddington (2025)
from the series Movie Corner…
4/5 Stars
Drama/Crime/Thriller
A24 and Square Peg
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II
Eddington is a fictional town in New Mexico, but for some reason in my mind it seems like a real place. The movie begins with a homeless man babbling incoherently as he walks into Eddington at sunset. It’s May 2020 and the town is under siege from the pandemic coronavirus (COVID-19) and a barrage of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters. In the midst of these unsettling events Sheriff Joe Cross walks into the local food market, the local bar, and other businesses while refusing to wear a mask even when the managers insist that he respect the protocol.
Joe Cross is married to Louise Cross, who is suffering from an unexplained malady. She’s mainly a shut-in who spends much of her time making weird-looking dolls that seldom ever produce revenge. However, it won’t be long before the governor orders lockdowns for the residents that Joe sneers at.
Eddington is no laid-back drama of taking things in stride but bears itself in a bodacious power play between Sheriff Joe Cross and Mayor Ted Garcia, and others in the story. With Joe and Ted the tensions rise even more when Joe (against his wife’s objection) decides to run against the Mayor in an election.… Read the rest “Eddington (2025)”
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