Minneapolis City Hall. Photo: Wikipedia

Minneapolis is the safest city in America, according to Forbes. The ranking was based on crime rates, traffic deaths, workplace fatalities and risk of natural disasters. The Minneapolis metropolitan area ranked in the top 10 nationwide in each of these categories, including the lowest rate of on-the-job deaths. (St. Paul got short shrift from the Forbes’ editors.)

Milwaukee, Portland, Boston and Seattle rounded out the top five.

The neo-Nazi group, which up until late 2007 was headquartered in Minneapolis, announced it will protest the “More Than Skin Deep: Uprooting White Privilege and White Supremacy one cell at a time” workshop being held Saturday at the Midtown YWCA. The event “is for white people who already have an understanding of white privilege and white supremacy (WP/WS) and want to learn more about how to dismantle WP/WS through embodiment work, education, visioning and practical action.” Attendees will learn to “use critical race content and embodiment exploration to uproot ideologies of white supremacy and systems of white privilege in our lives.”

And workshop attendees will likely get a first-hand look at white supremacy if members of the NSM show up.

A number of counter-protests are planned for Saturday. “The NSM has been holding racist anti-immigrant rallies in southern Minnesota, and now they are seeking to establish a presence inside the City of Minneapolis,” reads a flier posted at the May Day Cafe in south Minneapolis. “They plan to bring their racist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, antisemitic message of division and hate right into the heart of the city. They must not go unopposed!”

On Wednesday, more than 100 Minneapolis residents attended an emergency meeting to develop strategies for the counter protest.

“We need to defend the vibrant, multi-ethnic diversity we have here in Minneapolis,” Dan Gannon, an anti-racist community organizer, said in a press release Friday. “Our city must remain a ‘no-go’ zone where white supremacists cannot organize or build a movement with their hate speech and violence.”

A Minneapolis resident who attended the meeting, Angelina Vazquez, said, “We’re not going to let this happen in our city. This is an attack on our multiracial, multicultural community. We refuse to be put under siege by violent right-wingers.”

Workshop organizers say they haven’t organized a counter-protest, but they’re happy the community is coming together to oppose the NSM.

Heather Hackman and Susan Raffo are organizing the YWCA workshop. “Susan and I are grateful that people are stepping up against these protesters,” said Hackman. “We are also very grateful for the support of the Y.”

“There are a number of people responding in a number of ways to this protest, and challenging racism and challenging white privilege,” she said. “It’s clear that this community is not going to stand for this.”

Hackman says the organizers will address the crowd at 10 am.

The Saturday protest will be followed by an NSM-organized rally “against illegal aliens and communism” at the Veteran’s Memorial in Austin, Minn., on Oct. 17, according to the group’s Web site.

Photo: Collegewolf

Minneapolis pastor John Piper seems to have sprouted the idea that God sent a tornado to the Minneapolis Convention Center last Wednesday to express his displeasure that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was considering relaxing its teachings on LGBT issues. But his statement has blossomed among theologians and members of the religious right chiming in with their own answers to the question: Did God send the Minneapolis tornado because Lutherans were voting on gay issues?

WordAlone, a group opposed to a welcoming church for LGBT Lutherans, wrote:

A supporter of the social statement typified the storm as a mighty wind of the Holy Spirit and as a positive message. Some WordAlone Network members heard a different message, a warning of God’s anger at the ELCA in the wind. The storm near the Minneapolis Convention Center probably led local news reports Wednesday evening, not the votes of the day at the convention center.

Jan Markell of Maple Grove-based Olive Tree Ministries, an “end-times ministry” asked, “Was God in the whirlwind?”

At this year’s convention, a blatant pro-homosexual position validating “chaste” same-sex relationships was to be voted on. It was to be voted on at 2 PM on Wednesday, August 19. Then for the first time in decades, a tornado touched down in downtown Minneapolis at, you guessed it, 2 pm.

While we have no final word from God as to whether He sent the tornado, we can observe how God treated rebellious people and nations throughout the Old Testament who would not turn away from sin. If God didn’t send the whirlwind, He did allow it. A holy God never approves of sanctioning sin and lifestyles that are destructive.

Monica Stutsman, a former ELCA member from Vergas, Minn., wrote in the Fergus Falls Journal:

The article on the website dismissed the wind saying it “did only minor damage” and “injured no one.” But don’t you wonder at the timing? It happened exactly when the discussions were going on. Surely God wouldn’t show His displeasure at the Assembly by using wind. Or would He?

Julia Duin, an ELCA delegate blogging for Christianity Today, pondered:

If God was speaking in downtown Minneapolis through the twister, no one was listening. In fact, proponents of ordaining openly gay clergy could have seen the exact two-thirds total as a vindication of their point of view. And, if God had wanted to get through to the assembly, why didn’t he send the tornado a day earlier so word would have gotten through to everyone?

Is it possible that God already knew the Lutherans were going to vote, so he ripped off the cross from the nearest ELCA to show what he thought? Or does he simply not leave his calling card in such dramatic ways? If last week’s events do not constitute God’s warning — or judgment — what does?

Matt Kaufman, a blogger for Focus on the Family, says he can’t be sure that Piper was right when he said God sent the tornado — but he probably wasn’t wrong.

I wouldn’t use the word “conclusion” — not because I think Piper’s wrong about this tornado, but because I don’t know that he’s right. That said, there’s no doubt we need the turn-from-sin warning Piper lays out. So let’s put it this way: God may have chosen an unusually dramatic means to convey it this time. But He certainly conveys it all the time in His Word.

But at least one pastor disagrees with the idea that God sent the tornado. Marty Duren, a Southern Baptist pastor in Georgia, took issue with Piper’s conclusion.

I have no trouble at all ascribing responsibility for the storm to God (even insurance companies did so for decades, though some now opt to term them “natural disasters”). I’m simply demonstrating the danger and seriousness with which those who claim in some capacity to speak for God, better be sure when assigning motives to Him. These types of attributions (including the wild claims of Pat Robertson over the years) open the doors for skeptics to point out the rightful contradictions in the way that we interpret events (”If a tornado bloweth upon the Lutherans, it is God; but, if a tree falleth on our house, it is an attack of Satan”). This inconsistency is a greater tool of the Evil One than any believer would care to admit.

Despite the weather, the social statement relaxing church teaching on homosexuality passed by exactly one vote. Two days later, under a sunny sky, the ELCA approved a measure to allow gay and lesbian clergy in committed relationships to serve the church.

Photo: Wikipedia

It was only a matter of time before the religious right would chime in to announce that a tornado that hit parts of Minneapolis on Wednesday was a warning from God that the Lutherans should not relax doctrine related to homosexuality. “Jesus Christ,” wrote John Piper, pastor at Minneapolis’ Bethlehem Baptist Church, “controls the wind, including all tornados.”

On the church’s blog Piper spells out the Bible verses that prove the tornado was God’s warning to the Lutherans to reject a vote to “agree to disagree” on the issue of homosexuality.

The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction. Reaffirm the great Lutheran heritage of allegiance to the truth and authority of Scripture. Turn back from distorting the grace of God into sensuality. Rejoice in the pardon of the cross of Christ and its power to transform left and right wing sinners.

Photo: Collegewolf

Two close calls marked the third day of the General Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on Wednesday. The nearly 2,000 Lutherans, media and activists assembled at the Minneapolis Convention Center took cover as a tornado nipped one side of the building and damaged the steeple of a Lutheran church across the street. A short time later, the 1,014 voting members would pass a social statement relaxing church doctrine on homosexuality with a dramatic vote that was exactly a two-thirds majority. One vote against would have killed the measure.

“We trust the weather is not a commentary on our work,” said the Rev. Steven Loy, who was chairing the committee on the social statement.

The social statement is a long document that essentially says that the church will agree to disagree on the issue of same-sex relationships, but will neither punish congregations that decide to bless such relationships nor force congregations that reject blessing same-sex couples.

”This church also acknowledges that consensus does not exist concerning how to regard same-gender committed relationships, even after many years of thoughtful, respectful, and faithful study and conversation,” the statement says in part. “We do not have agreement on whether this church should honor these relationships, uplift, shelter and protect them, or on precisely how it is appropriate to do so.”

But LGBT Lutherans are hailing the vote, which came in at 676 to 338, exactly the 66.67 percent margin needed.

“This is a day of progress and compromise,” said Emily Eastwood, executive director of Lutherans Concerned/North America, a group that works for inclusive LGBT policies in the church. “By a two-thirds majority the church has supported families of all kinds and has acknowledged without judgment the wide variety of views within the ELCA regarding LGBT inclusion.”

But with such a close vote, opponents were inevitably not happy. “We mourn the decision by the Churchwide Assembly to reject the clear teaching of the Bible that God’s intention for marriage is the relationship of one man and one woman,” said the Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., chair of Lutheran CORE, a group that opposes the relaxing of church teaching on homosexuality. “It is tragic that such a large number of ELCA members were willing to overturn the clear teaching of the Bible as it has been believed and confessed by Christians for nearly 2,000 years.”

While the less controversial social statement passed by a two-thirds majority, an even more controversial vote is expected on Friday when the church will decide whether gay and lesbian pastors who are in committed relationships can lead ELCA congregations. That vote will need a simple majority to pass.

(iStockPhoto)

A report released this week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that Minnesota ranked in the top fifteen states for mortgage fraud claims in 2008 and in the top ten on a couple of measure. Specifically, data from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network found Minneapolis FBI field offices ranked 9th in the number of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to mortgage fraud. And data from Fannie Mae’s reviews of mortgage loan “misrepresentations” put Minnesota at 7th in total fraud cases out of the 50 states.

A combination of aggregate data from eight different mortgage fraud tracking organizations put Minnesota at 13th overall for mortgage fraud. The top 15 states were California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Arizona, Texas, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada, Minnesota, Rhode Island, the District of Columbia and Massachusetts.

The FBI report said that fraud cases increased in 2008 as mortgage lenders tried to maintain their “high standard of living” following the disastrous collapse of housing bubble.

Mortgage fraud trends in 2008 reflected the overall downturn in the US economy … the mortgage loan industry reported a spike in foreclosures and defaults; and financial markets continued to contract, diminishing credit to financial institutions, businesses, and homeowners. These combined factors uncovered and fueled a rampant mortgage fraud climate fraught with opportunistic participants desperate to maintain or increase their current standard of living. Industry employees sought to maintain the high standard of living they enjoyed during the boom years of the real estate market and overextended mortgage holders were often desperate to reduce or eliminate their bloated mortgage payments.

Photo: Hennepin Cty Library

The bells atop the Minneapolis City Hall tower rang out Michael Jackson tunes on Friday in memory of the pop star who died on Thursday. Dan Wascoe performed five Jackson songs: “We Are the World,” “Ben,” “You Are Not Alone,” “I’ll Be There,” and “Gone Too Soon.” Audio and video after the jump.

Friday carillon concerts at midday are a weekly tradition, but such memorials are rare. Frank Sinatra’s death in 1998 inspired a similar program of signature tunes, and the bells played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” after Kirby Puckett died in 2006.

Wascoe, a former Star Tribune writer, explained to the Minnesota Independent (via a Facebook message) how he came to select those five songs from Jackson’s oeuvre:

For the bells concert, I developed a list of potential songs from several folks who know Jackson’s hits, including Tony Hill, the producer of the bells concerts; Baibi Vegners, my musical partner in a duo we call Nuance/a duo, and Nicole Wascoe Bauman, my elder daughter.

I culled that list using two main criteria: First, would they be recognizable when played on the bells? (The overtones of the 15 bells can turn some tunes, particularly uptempos, into musical mush.) Second, could I learn them well enough overnight to render decent versions during Friday’s concert?

I knew a couple of the tunes already and listened to the rest on YouTube. Because of the limits of the bells and the tiny keyboard from which they’re played, I had to determine which keys I could transpose the song into. I summoned the lyrics to the songs on the internet, then wrote above the words the letter name for each note  as heard on YouTube. Then I went to the piano to figure out how to transpose them for the bells.

It was something of a scramble because I am more of a Sinatra/Nat Cole fan than an MJ fan. But I guess folks who listened on Friday did recognize the tunes, so I consider that a small victory given the time pressure.

In a way it was fun to work against a tight deadline again. I was a Star Tribune reporter and columnist for 40 years before retiring two years ago this week.

Wascoe mentioned that there’s a great YouTube video of Jackson performing “Gone Too Soon” at President Clinton’s 1992 inaugural gala.

Here’s audio of Wascoe playing “I’ll Be There” on the City Hall bells, as recorded on the street (you’ll hear the passing traffic) by Jake Mohan and posted at his blog, The Dependent Clause:

And here’s a KARE-11 news report that shows Wascoe playing the tiny keyboard that controls the tower bells:

Minneapolis’ City Hall bells playing Jackson and Sinatra is reminiscent of the old nursery rhyme ”Oranges and Lemons“ about the bells of London, which ring out pop tunes as re-imagined in the Clash song “Clash City Rockers“:

You owe me a move, say the bells of St. Groove
Come on and show me, say the bells of Old Bowie
When I am fitter, say the bells of Gary Glitter
No one but you and I, say the bells of Prince-Far-I

(Prince-Far-I being a reggae DJ, not the Minneapolis-born pop star currently known as Prince, or the son of Michael Jackson who is also named Prince.)

Photo: LilDebbie

The message on a Minneapolis street corner Wednesday was unmediated: VIVA IRAN. That and dozens of other slogans of the Iranian protest movement were carried on signs and on the mercifully cooler air that wafted through downtown, where a crowd of as many as 200 people gathered in a semicircle for urgent call-and-response chants.

Free free elections! Stop stop deception!

After 10 days of TV, Twitter and YouTube, participation in a live, local protest was a bracingly direct way to express and observe the passions and ideals being bravely paraded on other streets a half a world away. The demonstrators’ main communication was to each other, though there were occasional appeals to “our brothers and sisters in Minneapolis” and a few supportive honks from passing cars.

Iran Iran, fight fight! Iran Iran, we hear you! Iran Iran, never give up!

Most appeared to be Iranian-Americans. If the size of the local community with family ties to Iran is correctly guessed at 3,000, perhaps one-twentieth of them had found their way to the Hennepin County Government Center plaza for the noon rally and stayed through a brief shower that arrived at that hour.

I am Neda Neda! We are all Neda!

Beyond that, no generalizations held: men, women, youngsters, people with canes, some wearing the movement’s trademark green. Most held one kind of sign or another, from a simple hand-lettered “I AM NEDA” (in reference to the young Iranian woman whose shooting death in Tehran has gripped YouTube viewers worldwide) to photos of street protests in Iran and a large green banner with the name of Iranian President Ahmadinejad crossed out.

Ahmadinejad is a Hitler! Down with dictator!

Tina Soltani of Maple Grove, wearing a green scarf, said she came to the demonstration to support the people of Iraq. It’s no longer about the elections, she said, but how the government is dealing with the protest movement there.

“My mom was part of the [Iranian] revolution,” said Soltani, herself born and raised in the United States. “They weren’t revolting for [Iran's current regime]. The were revolting against the king … for democracy.”

Other governments have to keep up the pressure on Iran, Soltani said. Though she understands the hesitation to meddle, she sees world opinion as critical to the protesters inside Iran.

“If they give up, the government wins,” she said. But if the people have the world’s support, “the government for sure will fall.”

Daniel MacInnes said he had also attended two previous but smaller protests in Minneapolis: one in Uptown that he helped organize and another on the University of Minnesota campus. He was impressed both by the larger size and the makeup of today’s turnout.

“To see the Iranian-American community running it, this is really crucial,” MacInnes said.

MacInnes, a blogger, said he keeps up with local Iran-related events via a Twin Cities message board at the Why We Protest web site and other social media.

Another event is tonight at the Mayday Bookstore in Minneapolis, where St. Catherine University economics professor Nasrin Jewell will speak on “Coverage of the Election in Iran and the Role Played by Western Media and Governments.” Women Against Military Madness has more information.

The proposed cuts are equivalent to 3.3 percent of the program’s funding in 2009 and 7.6 percent in 2010. Towns with populations under 1,000 are exempt from the cuts. Many municipalities in greater Minnesota with shrinking populations rely on LGA to bolster their finances, as do larger cities with high levels of poverty.

The League of Minnesota Cities has posted a spreadsheet breaking down Pawlenty’s proposed cuts to local government aid. While a city’s overall budget needs to be scrutinized in order to gauge the significance of the hit, in sheer dollar amounts here are the ten municipalities slated to lose the biggest chunks of change:

1. Minneapolis: $44.6 million in 2009; $102.4 million in 2010
2. St. Paul: $5 million in 2009; $11.6 million in 2010
3. Rochester: $1.7 million in 2009; $3.9 million in 2010
4. Duluth: $1.5 million in 2009; $3.5 million in 2010
5. St. Cloud: $1.2 million in 2009; $2.7 million in 2010
6. Winona: $531,000 in 2009; $1.2 million in 2010
7. Moorhead: $489,000 in 2009; $1.1 million in 2010
8. Brooklyn Center: $464,000 in 2009; $1.1 million in 2010
9. Owatonna, $454,000 in 2009; $1 million in 2010
10. Faribault: $392,000 in 2009; $905,000 in 2010

A Minneapolis 'End the Fed' rally on April 25, 2009 (Photo: Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent)

An “End the Fed” group that will rally this afternoon outside the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank hasn’t felt a backlash since Wednesday’s arrest of James von Brunn in the fatal shooting of a guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Von Brunn, who mixed anti-Semitism with antipathy for the Federal Reserve, served six years in prison for his 1981 attempt to take Federal Reserve board members captive.

Conservative Web outlets with whom von Brunn consorted quickly moved to dissociate themselves from the 88-year-old white supremacist after Tuesday’s shooting.

But von Brunn’s anti-Fed crimes and comments haven’t affected the local End the Fed group, according to spokeswoman Melissa Hill, although she noted that the Holocaust Museum shooting was only two days ago. “It’ll be interesting to see at the rally,” Hill told the Minnesota Independent this morning.

“I’m hoping it doesn’t become a big issue because that guy was a hardcore Nazi,” Hill said. “At our meetings, no one’s come out with that crap. If they did, they’d be kicked out.”

Hill explained that among End the Fed groups across the country, Minnesota’s is far from von Brunn’s rightwing extremism. The Minnesota group “leans towards the left, because of our location,” she said.

Today’s rally is the third the group has held at the plaza in front of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters on the downtown Minneapolis riverfront. They seek to draw attention to the Fed’s role in the current economic crisis, the country’s monetary policy and the federal bailout of the financial industry — and ultimately to get the laws creating the Fed repealed.

They’re also urging passage of a bill in Congress to audit the Federal Reserve Bank. Since the group’s last rally in April, the bill, authored by End the Fed hero Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, has 220 co-sponsors – enough votes to ensure passage. Supporters in Minnesota include all House members except Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Jim Oberstar. Two Democrats, Reps. Tim Walz and Collin Peterson, have joined the state’s Republicans in backing the bill.

Hill isn’t holding out much hope that the rally will change the holdouts’ minds. But she said the bill has gained the support of a number of Democrats, including (yesterday) Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

The rally starts at 3 p.m., with a speech at 5 p.m. by former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr’s partner on the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential ticket, small-government author and talk show host Wayne Allyn Root.