News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Sunday December 28th 2025
ReThink Your Drink, Every Sip Counts! Backyard Initiative and the Minneapolis Health Department Partnership
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- All photos by Lawrence Sobaskie, Allina Health
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- BYI TEENS Project member, Andre Graham, gives sample of fruit-infused water to a family visiting the Midtown Global Market
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- Water bottles were distributed to encourage people to choose tap water over sugary drinks.
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- BYI TEENS Project members, Andre Graham and Fathi Abdullahi, discuss the campaign with BYI member Rose Lobley
BY ANDRE GRAHAM, BYI TEENS Project
The Minneapolis Health Department (MHD) launched the ReThink Your Drink, Every Sip Counts! campaign to encourage people and places to choose healthier beverages over sugary drinks. MHD partnered with several community organizations to help raise awareness about the link between frequent sugary drink consumption and negative health effects to help to promote healthier beverage options. One of these partners was the Backyard Initiative (BYI).
During the summer, MHD worked with ten organizations that serve youth with the goal of empowering youth to become sugary drink experts and healthier beverage ambassadors. As a result, they worked directly with the BYI Teens Entering Existing Networking Systems (TEENS) Project.… Read the rest “ReThink Your Drink, Every Sip Counts! Backyard Initiative and the Minneapolis Health Department Partnership”
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Clean Power?
By Peter Molenaar
Tucked in the south-west corner of the Phillips Neighborhood is an impressive facility dubbed the Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center. The Center saw our Congressman Keith Ellison play host to a “celebration of the Clean Power Plan.” Yes, the aggrandizements were well distributed, to be sure. However, my inner voice rudely screamed, over and over: “What”'s the plan for the plan, man, what”'s the plan for the plan?”
Let”'s assume, as some people do, that vast wind and solar farms might sustain a modern economy and prevent social disaster. Then, by what source of energy would we arrive at this happy conclusion? Answer: a heavy draw from coal fired plants. (Note: I worked 35 years at Smith Foundry.) Meanwhile, glaciers and icecaps disappear.
True, existing coal fired plants might achieve a 30% emissions reduction by switching to natural gas. But, wait. Synfuel, derived from natural gas, was to have been the replacement for petroleum derived gasoline”¦synfuel being engine ready, less expensive, and much cleaner burning. Oops”¦can”'t go there now, not under the “plan.”
What”'s a rational nation to do?
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