In downtown St. Paul, if you unbuild it, will they come?

There is lots of history in the row of buildings that sit on the bluff between downtown St. Paul and the Mississippi River.

There’s the former home of West Publishing, which marks the place where a company with national, even global, reach grew up before relocating to Eagan.

And then there’s the old Ramsey County detention center, which marks an era when governments thought nothing of placing workaday facilities on land that boasts multi-million dollar views.

“I thought the jail was a hotel when I came here for graduate school,” recalled County Commissioner Rafael Ortega on Friday. County officials brought back representatives of both of those story lines to commemorate the start of a massive demolition and clean-up project they hope will spur even more redevelopment in downtown St. Paul.

West moved out of its building in 1991, and the complex became county offices until the last workers moved to other facilities last August. The jail, built in 1979, was closed in 2003.

A total of seven buildings, dating from 1886 to 1979, will be demolished over the next 13 months at a cost of $13.5 million. (Of that, $9 million is to construct a concrete retaining wall up to two feet thick that will be secured to the bluff with rock bolts.) Once the project is completed, the county hopes that a developer or developers will buy the 3.88 acres of bluffside for uses ranging from residential and hotel to commercial. If they do, they will have panoramic views of the river.

MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan

Fane Opperman

“It’s all about the view,” said county commission chair Jim McDonough. A previous redevelopment deal fell victim to the Great Recession. The county commission decided to move ahead with a plan to reduce the risk for future developers by doing the demolition with county funds. It hopes to recover the money spent to ready the site for development when the parcels are sold. And it will end up with land that is on the property tax rolls for the first time in two decades.

“We see this site as part of a catalytic environment to making St. Paul a great city again,” Ortega said.

Louis Jambois, president of the St. Paul Port Authority, called the site on Kellogg Boulevard important in reconnecting downtown to the river. Officials looked at offering the buildings for reuse but said “developers were not enamored with the buildings that are here.”

In an office overlooking the river where their father Dwight served as president of West Publishing, Vance and Fane Opperman recalled going to work with him in what they described as a joyful workplace.

“I was a West kid,” Fane said. “Vance and I got that great Midwest work ethic, but with a twist  — that it was a joy to work.” Vance, who was 9 when he first visited the West offices, remembered it being a paradise for a young boy.

MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan

Vance Opperman

“Secret floors and great big clanky machines,” he remembered. “You’ve got rails, you’ve got locomotives, I thought this was really neat.” He said the company moved its entire operation to an existing facility in Eagan because modern manufacturing plants need to be built horizontally, not vertically, as it was downtown. He said the board fended off bids from other states to keep in in Minnesota and close enough for current employees to stay with the company.

Thomson Reuters bought the legal publishing company in 1996 for $3.4 billion. Dwight died in 2013.

Demolition bids came in higher than the $11.5 million in bonds already approved by the county commissioners. James Homolka, the project manager for the county, said the bid environment for construction isn’t very good for governments because there is so much construction activity. Ortega said the county will transfer money from other capital projects that are under budget, and the project will move ahead as planned.

MN Blog Cabin Roundup, 5/29

What’s wrong with the agriculture, environment and natural resources bill? It’s hard to know where to begin. Partly, the problem is the bill is too damn big. Along with the budget items, (mostly) Republican legislators threw in a pile of bad laws that they thought they could get through at the last minute. They figured, wrongly as it turned out, that Governor Dayton would focus only on the education bill and would let them get away with murder in environmental rollbacks. They were wrong.
Here’s a short list of bad items in the bill, followed by an explanation of what’s wrong with the omnibus process.

When our animals get sick and die

from Minnesota Farm Living by Wanda Patsche

One of the hardest things about farming is when our animals are sick.
We hate it.
And the only thing worst than sick animals are dead animals. We just can’t get around the feeling that we have failed them.
So why do pigs become sick?

LEADERSHIP: A choice — you decide

from Gov. Arne Carlson’s blog

…Now Eric Kaler, the new President, who has a most impressive academic resume, did not create the stonewalling or the untruths of multiple investigations that were “exhaustive” and “found no fault”.  However, he had a choice when he arrived in 2011.  He could meet with the Professors who were waving the red flags and who had fully informed him as to what was transpiring in drug testing which brought millions of dollars to the University and its researchers but was also rift with financial conflicts of interests, false claims about investigations, and abuse of enrollees. Or he could take the road of least resistance and continue the cover-up. He knowingly chose the latter.
Currently, President Kaler is under siege from some of his faculty and others for his lack of truthfulness and participation in a cover-up that protected serious misconduct.  Their claims are fully supported by a recent report by the Legislative Auditor. Yet, there is no acceptance of responsibility.

The Marv Davidov files: A life under surveillance

Among Twin Cities peace activists, Marv Davidov was a long-time fixture. A proponent of nonviolent direct action, Davidov was heavily involved in the civil-rights movement and later actively opposed the Vietnam War through protests and pickets. Starting in the late 1960s, his anti-war activism focused on the Honeywell Corp. — then a Minneapolis-based armaments manufacturer. Later in life, Davidov taught at the University of St. Thomas, but continued nonviolent protests against defense contractor Alliant Techsystems, which was spun off from Honeywell in 1990.
Davidov's death in 2012 presented an opportunity to examine the interaction between government surveillance and radical politics, aided in large part by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Once deceased, the subjects of federal government records lose many privacy protections afforded by federal law, and their records become accessible to the general public. The government transparency nonprofit Public Record Media (PRM, of which I am founder and president) filed a FOIA request for Davidov's records in January of 2012, and received its first set of documents just over three years later. The records (obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation) provide a detailed glimpse into how government surveillance and leftist politics interfaced over a 60-year period.

Watching Davidov

The fact that Marv Davidov had been under FBI surveillance was well documented, even during his lifetime. In the early 1980s, Davidov had been part of a lawsuit against the FBI, which alleged that the agency had illegally surveilled him and other activists, and had sought to disrupt their political activities. The lawsuit resulted in document releases indicating that Davidov had been the subject of government surveillance for many years.
Documents obtained by PRM provide additional details about the extent of the FBI's attention to Davidov — attention that had started at least as early as 1961.
PRM's document cache highlights the detailed filing system that the government maintained on certain domestic political activists during the 1960s and '70s. Davidov's name shows up in reference to a series of index cards held by the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice — cards that included information collected by the FBI and other federal agencies.
The index cards tracked Davidov's activities over multiple years, and include everything from mass protests to mundane undertakings. For instance, the cards note Davidov's inclusion in the mailing lists of various leftist political groups such as "Californians for New Politics" and the "Fair Play for Cuba" committee that opposed the American embargo of Cuba.

Hoover's index

The FBI's index card system was a product of J. Edgar Hoover's highly categorical management style, and grew out of his early years working for the Library of Congress. Hoover's focus on radical politics stemmed from his tenure under Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer during World War I. Palmer's efforts to prosecute and deport anarchists during the war years left an impression on Hoover, and influenced his subsequent, systematic pursuit of political radicals.
Hoover's focus on leftist politics is evidenced through other files obtained through PRM's request — files that include references to the Quaker American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). 1940s-era index cards feature a variety of claims about AFSC — including allegations that it was involved in mail fraud, and that various members were foreign agents. A 1943-era reference also indicates that the FBI recommended terminating the services of AFSC conscientious objectors employed at the Colorado River War Relocation Center (a Japanese-American internment camp) because their employment "may result in embarrassment" to the government.

Davidov arrested in 1965 Washington protests

References to Marv Davidov surface again in mid-1960s FBI files, after Davidov had walked from Canada to Miami in opposition to the Cuba embargo. A 1967 intelligence report [PDF] also notes that Davidov and three others were stopped by the Coast Guard off the coast of Florida, reportedly en route to Cuba. The file states that the incident did not result in evidence sufficient for a criminal prosecution.
Davidov is next mentioned in several arrest records connected to sit-in protests [PDF] that occurred at the U.S. Capitol during the summer of 1965. The records [PDF] report that Davidov had failed to move when ordered by police, and that he was subsequently arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
According to the FBI's files [PDF], notice of the anti-war event was based on information from a confidential informant. Unnamed sources also informed local police that several demonstrators were planning [PDF] to jump the White House fence in order to gain access to the presidential grounds. Police were likewise told that still other protesters planned to rush the rostrum in the House of Representatives to make anti-war speeches.
The list of arrestees at the 1965 anti-war event included names that would show up throughout the protest movements of the 1960s, including David Dellinger (spelled "Dollinger" in the files) who later earned notoriety as an organizer of the mass protest of the 1968 Democratic convention.

The Honeywell Project

By the late 1960s, Davidov's activities were largely centered around the Twin Cities area, where he was active in formulating protests against the Honeywell Corp. While anti-war protests flashed across the University of Minnesota campus, Davidov and several companions made Honeywell the focus of their efforts, fliering and picketing at the company's Minneapolis headquarters, and staging recurring sit-in protests. Davidov's focus on Honeywell stemmed from the fact that the company produced cluster bombs — air-dropped ordinance that exploded into lethal, fragmentary shards designed to spread over a wide area. Davidov's group contended that the bombs were primarily used against civilian populations, and were unnecessary as military weapons.
Davidov and his collaborators (including Sharon Vaughn, James Halley, Evan Stark and others) dubbed the ongoing protest enterprise "The Honeywell Project." Many of the index cards in the document cache relate to the nonviolent protests that occurred at the Honeywell campus, with dozens of such events covered by the FBI.
In a handful of instances, the cards reveal criminal activity undertaken against corporate facilities outside of the Twin Cities. For instance, the index files reveal bombings at Honeywell plants in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon.
The FBI documents also include files relevant to the Honeywell Corp. itself, including allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of the company. Index cards from DOJ's criminal division contain allegations of "improper use of time, material, and equipment" by the company in connection with a government contract. Various alleged customs violations, instances of fraud, and illegal political contributions are also noted.

Davidov investigated for sabotage

Several FBI records illuminate the agency's perspective on the aims, tactics and goals of the Honeywell Project. A 1976 letter from then-FBI Director Clarence Kelly states that the objective of Davidov's group was to "counter the national defense effort by attacking national defense contracts and production of defense materials." This perspective appeared to inform the bureau's approach to Davidov and his associates throughout their interactions during the 1960s and '70s.
FBI documents show that the Honeywell Project often worked in conjunction with an ecumenical faith organization called Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC). CALC members would sometimes coordinate directly with the Honeywell Project, and at other times would undertake separate but complementary actions.
During a 1972 anti-war strategy meeting, CALC members decided to meet with then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey to seek his support for a cessation of bombing in Vietnam. According to FBI files, Davidov disagreed with the approach. Notes [PDF] from an undercover informant quote Davidov as saying that "discussions with Senators and Congressman had, over the years, proved fruitless." Instead, Davidov held that "a more dramatic form of action was preferable."
Davidov proposed [PDF] appealing directly to plant workers by distributing printed fliers. The draft text urged workers to take an active step toward opposing the war by failing to arm cluster bomb munitions. The flier read, in part, "You can continue to pick up your paycheck and participate in the total effort. No one knows better than you what makes munitions work. And no one knows better than you what will make munitions not work. These munitions are not necessary to protect remaining troops."
Subsequent to the strategy meeting, Davidov and others placed [PDF] the literature on car windshields at the Twin Cities Honeywell facility. Based on the content of the fliers, the Minneapolis FBI office opened [PDF] an investigation into whether a violation of the federal sabotage statute had occurred. However, in February of 1974, FBI headquarters advised [PDF] that "no further investigative action" needed to be taken, and asked that the case be closed.

Honeywell shareholder protest

FBI records chronicle numerous arrests during Honeywell protests, but few overt acts of violence. One exception occurred in 1970, during the annual shareholders' meeting.
Files indicate that the shareholder protest was the largest such event to that point, with hundreds of participants involved. Toward the end of the demonstration, a group of men rushed the front door of the Honeywell facility, but they were repelled by police and corporate security. The group then responded by hurling objects, effectively ending the demonstration as law enforcement scattered the protesters.
In the aftermath of the violence, many Honeywell Project organizers expressed the belief that the agitators were undercover provocateurs working with law enforcement. Sharon Vaughn asserted as much in a 1980 lawsuit interrogatory, stating that "violent and destructive acts at anti-war demonstrations were perpetrated — as far as I could see — by strangers to our planning groups."
For its part, the violence at the stockholders meeting underscored the FBI's rationale for surveilling the Honeywell Project. Documents indicate that the agency had long been anticipating the use of violence by Honeywell Project members, based on the group's publicly stated goal of halting cluster bomb production. According to notes written by FBI Special Agent David Barham, "Honeywell Project was investigated to determine [PDF, p. 16] whether it was attempting, or would attempt, to achieve its purpose through illegal means."

Church Committee report

In 1976, a Star Tribune reporter called Marv Davidov to get his reaction to a report released by the Church Committee. The committee was an investigative panel of the United States Senate convened to examine government surveillance abuses and related misdeeds. Its findings included revelations that American intelligence agencies had conducted warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens, had engaged in mind-control research, and had harassed and threatened the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Among the voluminous supporting documents filed with the committee's report was a letter from then-FBI Director Clarence Kelly to then-Rep. Donald Fraser that provided an overview of the agency's Honeywell Project investigation.
Kelly's letter stated that the Minneapolis field office was providing FBI data to paid informants within Davidov's group, and was also furnishing information about the Honeywell Project to a confidential source within Honeywell itself, in order to help the company avoid "corporate embarrassment."

Lawsuit against the FBI

In the wake of the Church Committee report, Davidov and others filed suit against the FBI, seeking damages stemming from the government's alleged political targeting of the group. The case was handled by civil rights attorney Ken Tilsen, who had also been active with other leftist and populist causes, including the American Indian Movement.
The FBI's document release contains significant batches of material from the lawsuit, including a series of interrogatories — the formal sets of questions that attorneys serve on parties to gather information. The interrogatories completed by Davidov and other plaintiffs provide a detailed look at activist life in the 1960s, and include multiple allegations of government misconduct.

Allegations of government intimidation

One common allegation that runs throughout the interrogatories involves the use of intimidation to stifle protest organizers and their aims. In some cases, the plaintiffs alleged that pressure was applied to professional colleagues or prospective employers. James Halley — then employed as an associate professor of physics at the University of Minnesota — indicated that senior faculty members at the university had been informed about his political activities by persons unknown. Halley also noted that one professor had asked him to halt his political actions.
Similar stories were related by protest organizer Evan Stark. Stark taught in the sociology department at the U of M, and listed multiple instances [PDF] where he was told that federal agents had visited senior faculty members to tell them that Stark was a "dangerous revolutionary." Stark wrote of his belief that the withdrawal of a promised academic job was related to the episodes. Stark also received materials from the FBI (via the FOIA) that included memos [PDF] referencing various "counter-intelligence" operations to be performed against Stark.
Anonymous telephone threats also feature prominently in the interrogatories. Marv Davidov related that he received "threatening phone calls” [PDF] whenever he was mentioned in news coverage. Likewise, Davidov associate Mollie Babizie mentioned threats telephoned in to the mother of two brothers — Keith and Greg Filion — who were active with the group. According to Babizie, Dorothy Filion was contacted by an FBI agent and told that her sons would be in "considerable trouble [PDF] if they did not watch their anti-war activities."

Allegations of break-ins and eavesdropping

Virtually all of the interrogatories filed by the plaintiffs included tales of suspected telephonic eavesdropping [PDF]. Most commonly, the plaintiff's described "clicking" or "static" heard on phone lines during their conversations about political matters.
Likewise, almost every plaintiff reported break-ins at residences or places where the Honeywell Project operated. Files were allegedly disrupted [PDF]; materials were stolen. In one instance, mimeograph machines were reportedly broken [PDF]. Sharon Vaughn's interrogatory contains details about a 1970-era break-in that occurred at her home when she was absent. Vaughn stated that her home was entered at approximately 1:30 a.m. by an intruder "wearing gloves with brass knuckles." According to Vaughn, the intruder severely beat her mother-in-law on the face and head, and broke several facial bones that required reconstructive surgery.

Impact on protesters

Each plaintiff held that the government's alleged misconduct caused them some manner of financial, material or emotional hardship. Marv Davidov noted the deleterious effect that the use of undercover agents had on his political organizing. "Informants within an organization are more destructive than electronic surveillance or personal harassment," he wrote. "They make deception instead of trust a primary assumption."
Plaintiff Evan Stark stated that the FBI's actions directly affected [PDF] his political activity as he became more aware of the scrutiny he was undergoing. To that point, his interrogatory related the following story:
"In 1972, in Mama Rosa's Pizza Parlor in Minneapolis, I met a man who told me that he had worked for Army Intelligence, assigned to me, from 1968-1970, and during this time had made a number of attempts to prevent my securing employment or being politically effective in my work. He also told me he had direct knowledge that the FBI had been engaged in similar activities during this period. He also told me he wanted me to be aware of what he had done before he presented this information publicly to a Senate (or Congressional) investigating committee. I had no further contact or knowledge of him."
Stark noted that by the mid-1970s, he was largely divorced from political activity. To support his claim, he noted that FBI materials he obtained through a subsequent FOIA request indicated that his level of "political activity was so low" that his file was closed in 1974.

FBI response to lawsuit

FBI files included in the Church Committee report reference an unidentified group that "helped" Davidov's Honeywell Project — a group that espoused violent means to accomplish its goals. In addition to seeking damages, Davidov's lawsuit aimed to uncover the identity of that particular group.
Interrogatories completed by FBI personnel do not resolve the identity question raised by Davidov's suit, but they do disclose other information. For instance, the agency affirmed that it used paid informants to infiltrate Davidov's group. However, it withheld all information about the identity of those specific individuals.
FBI interrogatories directly denied [PDF] some allegations made by the plaintiffs — such as the use of warrantless eavesdropping to surveil Honeywell Project members. In other instances, agency personnel avoided answering questions on technical grounds — objecting to questions as being outside the scope of the lawsuit — or else claiming that no responsive documents [PDF] existed.
In some of the interrogatories, FBI agents claimed that memory lapses prevented them from answering particular questions. For example, FBI agent Richard Held admitted knowing Fred Clary of the Honeywell Corporation in both a "social and professional" capacity, but could not recall having conversations with him about Marv Davidov or other plaintiffs. Likewise, when Held served as Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis office, he stated that he attended quarterly meetings of the "intelligence community in Minneapolis," but could not recall having discussions about about the plaintiffs.

Lawsuit's termination

The Honeywell Project lawsuit continued until April of 1985, at which point the case was settled. Honeywell and the government admitted no wrongdoing, and equally shared the $70,000 settlement costs.
The lawsuit documents paint a picture of FBI surveillance during the agency's COINTELPRO — or "counterintelligence" — era of the 1960s and '70s. COINTELPRO was a J. Edgar Hoover initiative designed to proactively disrupt political activity he deemed to be harmful to national interests. The program's existence was extensively documented by the Church Committee and other investigative bodies of the era. In the wake of the Church report, U.S. Attorney General Edward Levi instituted changes to investigative guidelines, including the addition of a criminal predicate threshold for opening investigations.

Scalia, other notable figures appear in records

Several notable figures in American politics make appearances in the FBI document cache. For instance, former CIA director William Webster is referenced in the Davidov files, where he appears as a defendant in the Honeywell lawsuit. At the time of the lawsuit, Webster was the director of the FBI.
A 1978 affidavit of Mary C. Lawton of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) noted that OLC held one record related to the Honeywell Project. That document was a 1976 memorandum from Antonin Scalia entitled "Correspondence Concerning Honeywell Project." At the time, Scalia was an assistant attorney general within OLC. He was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1986, where he currently serves as an associate justice.
Finally, the FBI files note that Marion Barry provided an FBI special agent with the identity of the local coordinator for the 1965 "Washington Summer Action" protests at which Marv Davidov was arrested. At the time, Barry was the staff director of the Washington, D.C., office of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a civil-rights organization. He was later elected mayor of Washington.

Later life, additional surveillance

The Honeywell Project continued to exist throughout the years of Honeywell weapons production, and was highly active during the 1980s when the company produced missile guidance systems and other ordnance. Davidov's group garnered frequent headlines through the arrest of high-profile protest participants including Erica Bouza, wife of then-Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza.
Honeywell eventually spun-off its weapons manufacturing operations to Alliant Techsystems, which was also located in the Twin Cities. By the late 1990s, Davidov (then in his 70s) was teaching part-time at the University of St. Thomas, in its Justice and Peace studies program. During that period, Davidov continued his direct action protests against Alliant, often in conjunction with nuns from the Sisters of Saint Joseph [PDF] convent and a variety of student protesters.

Vox Pop Video

Marv Davidov continued his direct action protests against Alliant Techsystems in the 1990s, often in conjunction with nuns from the Sisters of Saint Joseph.

2005 Alliant Techsystems protests

Based on the FBI's files, the agency appeared to take a renewed interest [PDF] in Davidov's activities around 2005. Starting in January of that year, agents began filing surveillance reports [PDF] related to "Alliant Action" (AA) Davidov's Alliant Techsystem-focused protest group. As with his Honeywell organization, Davidov made frequent public statements about the group's intention to halt weapons production by Alliant Techsystems, as well as equally frequent statements that AA was a nonviolent organization. An FBI counterterrorism report [PDF] from this period noted that "nonviolent may have a different meaning in the context of the way the group chooses to use the term."
FBI reports [PDF] from this period chronicled a series of AA protests using various tactics — blockading doors during sit-in arrests; painting body outlines on the ground; laying flowers on the company doorstep. In a January 2005 report, a confidential source quoted [PDF] Davidov as saying that "corporations only understand violence." In that same report, the source also noted that protesters could be heard expressing their belief that the organization needed to "raise its profile."
A report from February of the same year noted that demonstrators were overheard formulating plans to take over and occupy offices within the corporate headquarters. The report's author further wrote that, "Minneapolis is concerned that this information may be indicative of the group's intention to commit further violence to achieve its objective."
Reports [PDF] likewise indicated that both the FBI and Alliant Techsystems were concerned about younger protesters showing up wearing "Earth Liberation Front" shirts and (in one instance) black masks. A theft at Alliant Techsystems (the subject of a separate FBI investigation) appeared to spur additional concerns.

FBI assigns more agents

In March of 2005, the agency appeared to be assigning additional resources toward the surveillance of Alliant Action. For instance, records show that the bureau not only surveilled the protests themselves, but also stationed additional agents at the Bakers Square restaurant where demonstrators held a morning meal after each of their protests.
By late spring, the FBI was filing reports that showed divergent trends and analysis. On April 27, an agent reported that AA protests no longer contained much content related to Alliant Techsystems, and surmised [PDF] that the group "may be fracturing and losing direction."
A few weeks later, an FBI report [PDF] noted that the sign at Alliant's main entrance had been vandalized with red spray paint — paint that spelled out the word "Killers." According to the report, "the word choice, rhetoric, and the style of vandalism appears synonymous with the graffiti and tactics of the Earth Liberation Front."
By June, FBI files indicated that agents were concentrating their efforts on specific, unnamed individuals. Surveillance reports filed in June of 2005 show that agents followed a target from an AA protest into South Minneapolis. A week later, FBI agents followed [PDF] an individual from an AA protest to a storage shed in Edina, and then to Southdale Mall and a Best Buy store.
Reports filed over the summer and fall of 2005 chronicled various cases of trespass by AA members, sit-in arrests, and instances in which protesters held wooden crosses [PDF] outside of the main Alliantech gate. One report noted that a specific protester admitted to being a member of ELF, and of having defaced a "We Support Our Troops" sign at an undisclosed location.

FBI categorizes Alliant Action as nonviolent 

By November of 2005, the FBI had been surveilling Alliant Action on a weekly basis for almost a year. A report [PDF] from Nov. 16 concluded that based on "the constant surveillance of AA's weekly protests, (the agency) determines the protesters adhere to their creed of nonviolence" and sought to promote their cause in a peaceful manner.
Despite this, FBI surveillance continued, with additional field reports filed in late November. Dates on the last documents produced by the FBI indicate that the bureau was collecting [PDF] news clippings about the protests into January of 2006.
The last news clipping on Alliant Action came from a report filed by the Star Tribune, when the paper was covering a change in an Edina ordinance related to the protests. According to the Star Tribune story, Edina reduced the charge associated with trespassing to a petty misdemeanor, thus reducing its corresponding penalties as well. Alliant Action protester David Harris was quoted in the article, saying that due to the change, "it's impossible to get taken to jail."
Getting taken to jail was never a problem for Marv Davidov, however. As noted in his Star Tribune obituary, he was taken into police custody between 40 and 50 times during the course of this life.
Marv Davidov died on Jan. 14, 2012, at Walker Methodist Health Center.

Behind the music of Black Lives Matter: Jayanthi Kyle’s 'Hand in Hand'

You kinda have to wonder how Jayanthi Kyle finds the time. “I have a two year old, I have a five year old, I have a six year old,” she said. “I’m in over eight bands. I’m in multiple projects. I can barely tell you what bands I’m in.”
Kyle has been singing since she was little, belting gospel songs while cleaning her mom’s home in south Chicago, or harmonizing hymns at her father’s church in Maple Grove. But if you live in the Twin Cities, you’re probably more likely to hear Kyle’s voice at a protest rather than a church or music venue.
Her song “Hand in Hand” has become the unofficial anthem for Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, with Kyle performing it at most BLM events.
“I hoped it would be something that people could keep continuing to use,” Kyle said. “I’m glad that the song is getting out there.”

“Hand in Hand” was a collaborative effort between Kyle and Wes Burdine, the guitarist in her indie-R&B group, Gospel Machine. The two wrote the song last December for the Million Artist Movement, a collective of local artists fighting for black equality and racial justice.
Kyle first performed the piece at the Million March MN rally as part of a national commemoration of black Americans killed at the hands of police. Recently, she sang the number at Heart of the Beast’s annual MayDay performance to a crowd of over a thousand — many onlookers singing along from memory.
The song was inspired by high-profile killings like Michael Brown and Eric Garner, Kyle said, which comes through with lines like “My sister ain’t equal and my brother can’t breathe.”
But ultimately, the song is about connectivity, Kyle said. “I only want to sing positive songs. I want to sing something that makes me feel good when I walk away. I want people to be connecting.”
Kyle said that positivity is at the crux of all of her songs, despite them often covering topics of struggle.
BLM Minneapolis co-founder Mica Grimm said Kyle’s song gives their demonstrations an element of healing, and helps people feel they’re participating in something bigger than themselves. “It’s in the spirit of songs from the civil rights movement,” she said. “It really evokes old spirituals that slaves used to sing on plantations.”
The song also resonates with people involved with BLM, Grimm said, because it reminds people that the goal is to reach a point where protesting isn’t necessary. “We would much rather be living our lives and not having to stop what we’re doing in order to call out injustice,” she said. “One day we’re not going to need to do this anymore because one day we’ll be okay.”
BLM Minneapolis approached Kyle to sing her song for their events after seeing her perform at the Million March MN rally, she said.
Wes Burdine said he hopes their song can cut through building racial tensions in Minnesota and nationwide by drawing inspiration from old slave work songs and by humanizing the pain and frustration those tensions can cause. “It’s really healing during a period when things feel dangerous and things feel tense all the time,” he said. “Her music is really reaching out to people and getting them to connect with one another.”
Kyle’s father is Indian and her mother black and Native American, she said, so bridging cultural divides has always been a part of her life. But it’s important that people have hope in their struggles, she said, rather than giving in to despair. “We need people to be working on it,” she said. “It’s better to hope … than complain.

Nicollet Mall: As in the '80s, redo saw a need for skyway-street connection but abandoned it

“Movable chairs come to Nicollet Mall!” the headline reads, touting a brand new idea from an urban design consultant. The effort is part of a redesign aimed at revitalizing Minneapolis’ main shopping street.
Only the headline is from 1988, when the Metrodome was still new, and the chairs quickly disappeared into the alleyways of history. But the idea has returned, almost 30 years later, as part of the flashy plans for a remade Nicollet Mall.
Even expensive consultants readily admit that most hot urbanist ideas are old news. The basic tenets of good street design — small active blocks, people-watching, comfortable sidewalks — were thoroughly laid out in 1961 by Jane Jacobs, and nobody has done a better job since. For 50 years, the problem with American cities has never been a lack of good ideas. Rather, our cities have failed to execute good street design, and it’s a mistake we seem to make repeatedly.

A brief history

What’s old is new

As the tale is told, Nicollet Mall emerged as part of a suite of reactions to suburbanization. As shoppers and office workers fled the center city for the ever-expanding 'dales and office parks (and finally the Mall of America), downtown property owners grew desperate to do something to lure people back into the city.
Most of the key features of today’s downtown landscape trace back to this time. The first was the destructive urban renewal of the Gateway district, the area surrounding Washington, Nicollet and Hennepin Avenues. Next came Nicollet Mall, which disrupted the street grid for better and for worse. In 1961, downtown property owners were surveyed about what solutions they’d like to see on the city’s main shopping street, and given five choices that ranged from full-blown pedestrianization to underground tunnels. They opted for a “transit mall” centered on a bus system. Well-known architect Lawrence Halprin was hired, and a few years later Minneapolis had a main street that would become the background for a '70s sitcom (shot in LA).
Finally, the skyway system was gradually built out, achieving critical mass with the 1972 completion of the IDS center, still the city’s signature building. The key components of downtown Minneapolis were in place. (Since then, the biggest changes to the downtown landscape have occurred around the edges of the core: the riverfront parks, the wide network of bike lanes, and the light rail along 5th Street.)

Flashback 1987: The case of the skyway towers

Yet this isn’t the first time Nicollet Mall has seen a makeover. During the 1980s, downtown Minneapolis was in the midst of another big construction boom aimed at revitalizing the office and retail core. At the center of the efforts was a redesign of the decades-old transit mall. Much like today, a famous consultant was hired (BRW), state and city money were earmarked, and downtown property owners were roped into a contentious political process around a remodel.

This week I did some digging in the wonderful James K. Hosmer city archives on the top floor of the Central Library, and pored through the old news clippings from 25+ years ago. Frankly, it’s surprising how similar the key ideas of both remodeling processes look.
Back in the '80s, Nicollet Mall was seen as an aging street unable to compete with suburban shopping and office parks. Designers pointed out the lack of contiguity between the fairly successful center (near the IDS Tower and Dayton’s) and the north and south fringes of the mall. In particular, leaders at the time identified the lack of connectivity between the streets and skyways as a key problem, which made it very difficult to foster activity at the street level.
The initial design proposal planned to create a “retailing system [that would] challenge suburban centers” by “integrating retail and public space” from 5th to 11th streets.
In response, the design team proposed a series of four glass towers that would visibly link the second-level skyway system to the mall’s wide sidewalks, connecting the two levels of downtown pedestrians and clearly opening up the skyways to the public.

The design team proposed a series of four glass towers that would visibly link the second-level skyway system to the mall’s wide sidewalks.

The rest of the proposal also might sound familiar. The designers proposed a series of “pocket parks,” new materials and landscaping (granite and pine trees), and a bunch of ideas centered on activity programming. Architectural renderings featured black-and-white sketches showing streets filled with life.

Budget crunch and protest

But back in the '80s, the political process didn’t proceed smoothly. Much like today, a rock star committee of downtown movers and shakers formed and began meeting to work out the financing and design details for the project. Then, as now, they lobbied the city and state for money, and the rest of the burden fell to a special downtown assessment district.
But things started to go sour when the money began disappearing. A group of downtown property owners and retailers formed in opposition to the project, and centered their arguments on cost. In particular, many people took issue with the proposed towers connecting the skyway to the street, fearing they would “attract vagrants” and “create drafts.”
The cutbacks began in 1988. First the plans for four towers were trimmed to two, as property owners began balking at the proposed $30 million price tag.  (That’s $62.5 million in today’s dollars, quite a bit more than the budget for this remake.) Eventually the committee decided they would trim the tower plans again, building only one tower as a “test.”
Here’s a representative quote from Dan Hauser’s ongoing coverage of the redesign in the Skyway News:
“The three items that were cut or reduced were sticking points for several property owners. Some said the stair towers would invite the wrong element into the Skyway system. Others said spending money on side street improvements was unnecessary. As for the pocket park [by then whittled down to one], the owners of the land where the board had hoped to build it were opposed to the idea.”
By August 1989, after the City Council again cut the budget, the skyway towers and pocket parks were abandoned altogether, along with other grandiose ideas like heated sidewalks and a free shuttle bus.
By the time the "new" mall was actually built, the changes were largely superficial. Crucially, the mall was reconstructed without any new straightforward connections between the confusing skyway system and the street below. Downtown Minneapolis has struggled with that problem ever since.

History repeating itself?

Though there are a great many newer and shinier elements to today’s mall makeover — see: sky-reflecting overhead mirror, akin to Chicago’s famous Millennium Park “bean” — at first glance it appears the same problems have resurfaced. As Marlys Harris reported earlier, today’s consultants identified a lack of connection between the skyway and the street as a central problem with revitalizing the street life on Nicollet Mall. And all through their initial proposals, the architects proposed “the island,” an open public staircase that would connect the mall to the skyway. The proposed connection was in exactly the same location as the scuttled glass towers from the 1980s.
But just like the last time, the idea has been rejected. This time around, the connection was seen as “invasive” and “challenging to operate.”
As in the '80s, I’m sure that the redesign will be an improvement over the often-mediocre status quo. This time around, church kvetching aside, there’s a lot more agreement by the decision-makers about the value of diverse street life, transit and quality public space. And the problematic remarks about panhandlers and poverty seem to be less obvious.
Downtown pedestrian malls are a difficult thing to get right. Particularly given the skyway system looming overhead, Minneapolis has an uphill battle to build a shopping street with a consistently compelling street-level experience. Without unifying the city’s grade-separated throngs, a real downtown shopping street, like Madison Wisconsin’s State Street or hundreds of shopping streets in Europe, will likely remain a pipe dream.
Despite the flashy renderings and slick design, with the current plans the fundamental problem with the downtown street experience remains. Without including “the island” staircase connection, Minneapolis is again missing a chance to desegregate the skyways from the public realm. Maybe in another 30 years we can try again.

Adoption play tells community stories; ‘Juno and the Paycock’ to open at the Guthrie

A new play is taking shape that may change our notions about adoption – how it informs our ideas of family and identity, what it means to families and communities, why we should care. “Adoption is not a one-time event,” said writer and playwright Alan Berks. “It affects how people live their lives from beginning to end.”
With his wife, Leah Cooper, a director, producer, and arts administrator, Berks founded Wonderlust Productions, a community-driven ensemble that builds new plays from stories told by specific communities – in this case, the adoption community. Community members work alongside professional actors, designers, writers and directors.
The Adoption Play Project came about because “we want to explore communities that are often misunderstood or ignored, that affect all of us,” Berks said. “Adoption is everywhere, but it’s not something that historically we have talked about openly.” Cooper is an adoptee, so there’s also a personal connection.

The play will have two staged readings this weekend at Augsburg College. It’s still a work in progress, with a full production planned for February 2016. By then, it will be more than a year since Berks and Cooper launched the project with a series of story circles for people from the adoption community: adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, siblings, and social workers. “We did about 22 story circles with around 170 people, and they all told us more than one story, so we had lots and lots of stories.”
After the story circles came workshops where stories were turned into theater. “Anyone who wanted to join us could take part in theatrical games and exercises, similar to what you’d do if you were devising a play.” After the workshops, Wonderlust began creating a structure and a script. “We looked at what stories were similar to each other, and how they could be combined, and which we should include to convey a truthful sense of all the different perspectives.” No stories were used without permission.
Berks and Cooper are theater people, so “we want to create a real theatrical experience. We want [the audience] to have that sort of inspiring, enlightening, transformative experience.” The play begins at an engagement party. Two characters have just gotten engaged, and their parents are meeting for the first time. The young woman and her sister were both adopted; the young man’s parents have no experience with adoption. Assumptions and misunderstandings, some comic, lead to larger issues of how families are made. “It’s a funny play,” Berks said. “It’s a story of two young kids who want to get married.”
Rehearsals for the staged readings started May 18. “We asked people who had participated in the workshops and story circles if they wanted to be included.” Some people who will be at the readings have been involved from the start.
“We don’t purport to tell the adoption story,” Berks emphasized. “This is just an adoption story.” For now, it’s also a window into process, into how some plays are made, with stories that will move you. Bring Kleenex.
Staged readings of The Adoption Play Project take place at 3 p.m.  Saturday, May 30 and Sunday, May 31 at the Foss Center on the Augsburg College campus, on the corner of Riverside and 22nd in Minneapolis. Reservations are recommended. Seating is limited. $10 suggested donation, but no one will be turned away.

Courtesy of Wonderlust Productions

An Adoption Play Project workshop.

Picks for the weekend and then some

Tonight (Friday, May 29) at the Mpls Photo Center: Opening reception for “Still Life: The Inanimate Subject.” Russell Joslin sifted through more than 1,000 images submitted for this juried show, looking for “the thought, the touch, and the presence of the creator” within each one. 6:30-9 p.m. Free. Ends July 12.

Courtesy of the Minneapolis Photo Center

Still Life by Barbara McDonnell.

Tonight at the Guthrie: Opening night for Sean O’Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock.” Joe Dowling ends his 30-year run as the Guthrie’s artistic director with a play he knows so well he calls it “part of my DNA.” Sean O’Casey’s tale of a family’s survival in Dublin after the Irish Civil War stars two actors imported from Ireland, Stephen Brennan as “Captain” Jack Boyle (the “paycock”) and Anita Reeves as his wife, Juno, both making their Guthrie debuts. With David Darrow, Katie Kleiger, Mark Benninghofen, Sally Wingert, Kris L. Nelson and Dearbhla Molloy. FMI and tickets ($23-$65). Ends June 28.
Friday and Saturday in St. Paul and Wayzata: “Ghost Camp.” For their final concert of the 2014-15 season, Matthew Culloton and The Singers perform the world premiere of Minneapolis composer Craig Carnahan’s “Ghost Camp,” based on Walt Whitman’s poems about his time as a Civil War nurse. With musicians from the chamber ensemble Zeitgeist and narrator James Ramlet. Also on the program: Shawn Kirchner’s “Angel Band & Unclouded Day” and songs by Stephen Foster. 7:30 p.m. Friday at Hamline’s Sundin Music Hall, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Wayzata Community Church. Tickets here ($33 preferred/$22 general/$5 students).
Saturday at the Mall of America: World Sumo Champion Exhibitions. Three World Sumo Champions from Japan and Mongolia, weighing a combined total of 1,400 pounds, demonstrate rules, rituals, training and matches. MOA hints that “you may even get the chance to push one of them.” Pray that he won’t push back. Shows at 12 noon and 4 p.m. in the Rotunda. Free. Photo opp guidelines here.
Saturday at the Mill City Museum: Cracked Walnut Literary Festival: Urbanization. At a literary reading in the museum’s Ruin Courtyard, local writers read or perform work on the themes of urbanization and Minneapolis. 12:30-2 p.m. Free. FMI.
Saturday at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church: Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir Spring Concert. “Get your praise on” as Fred Steele leads the choir, now in its 20th year, in a night of jubilation. With guest artist J.D. Steele. Doors at 6 p.m., concert at 7. FMI and tickets ($22.50/$25, $10 for 10 and under) online or at the door.
Saturday and Sunday, in and around the Ordway: Flint Hills International Children’s Festival. 2015 is the 15th year of this great downtown St. Paul festival, which brings tens of thousands of people to live performances by regional, national and international artists. All indoor performances are $5, and the dozens of outdoor performances are free. Music, puppets, drama, dance, and circus acts are crammed into two very full days. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. FMI including schedule and tickets. A free Flint Hills International Children’s Festival app (for iPhone and Android) includes maps, schedules and a photo booth.
Monday at the James J. Hill House: “Schubertiade.” Step into the great hall of the Hill House and you’re already back in time. On Monday, it will be easy to imagine you’re in the 1890s during one of the concerts the family held there, or in the 1820s at the home of Franz Schubert, whose entertainments included music and readings. Presented by the Hill House Chamber Players, with proceeds benefiting the Hill House, the evening includes an all-Schubert concert by soprano Maria Jette and pianist Susan Billmeyer, readings from Mrs. Hill’s diaries by actor Craig Johnson, and a dessert reception with champagne and Viennese desserts. 7:30 p.m. FMI. Reserve by calling the Hill House at 651-297-2555. Pay at the door; walk-ups are welcome ($40).

Monday at Icehouse: “Tall Tales” CD release. Finally, an album by guitarist Dean Granros featuring his own compositions, and we only had to wait 40 years. Jazz fans know what a monster he is and how every performance has something to say, whether he’s playing Monk, Django Reinhardt or music of his own in-the-moment devising. What started as a one-off night at Jazz Central among Granros and friends – guitarist Zacc Harris, bassist Chris Bates and drummer Jay Epstein – became a band, a studio date and a new release on the Twin Cities label Shifting Paradigm Records. 9:30 p.m. $12 at the door gets you in and sends you home with the CD.

Rosa Garcia-Peltoniemi: For nearly 30 years, work with torture survivors has been a way of ‘giving back’

In 1987, when Rosa Garcia-Peltoniemi, Ph.D., called to volunteer her services, The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) was a 2-year-old independent nonprofit providing rehabilitative care to torture survivors in Minnesota.
Garcia-Peltoniemi, then a newly minted clinical psychologist, sought out CVT as a place where she could give back to the community while keeping her therapeutic skills sharp.
“My dissertation research was very generously covered by a grant from the National Science Foundation,” she recalled, “and so I felt that as a new Ph.D., I needed to give back in some way that was meaningful.” The daughter of Cuban refugees, Garcia-Peltoniemi felt that CVT was a perfect fit. So did CVT staff.
“When I called and told them about my background,” she recalled, “they said, ‘Come right over.’ ”
She was hired almost right away, and has worked at the center ever since. “It’s been my privilege to work with clients from so early on,” she said. “As a young clinician, it was an invaluable learning experience, and it has continued to be a meaningful profession ever since.”
Today, Garcia-Peltoniemi is senior consulting clinician at CVT, which over the last three decades has grown into an internationally respected organization with offices in Washington, D.C.; Africa and the Middle East; and healing centers in St. Paul, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya and Uganda. She still works one-on-one with clients, at the St. Paul-based nonprofit’s Healing Center, and consults on torture issues worldwide with governments and NGOs. I spoke to Garcia-Peltoniemi earlier this week about her therapeutic approach and her firm belief that resilience can be learned.
MinnPost: Has your family history influenced your work?

Rosa Garcia-Peltoniemi: Many folks in my life have been survivors of different sorts of persecution, including torture. My father was sent to a forced labor camp in Cuba.
I think this personal experience is helpful in my work in some ways. It gives me this view that others may not have as well as a certain understanding of what happens under conditions of repression and persecution, which is something that is very personal and not easily obtained otherwise. But every person’s experience is unique.
MP: When you started this work, where did your clients come from?
RG-P: At that time it was Africa, mainly the Horn of Africa and Ethiopia in particular. People were also coming from some West African countries, like Liberia. Then, a bit later, clients came from Central American countries. This was the late '80s and early '90s, the time of the Central American wars. There was also a refugee crisis on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and clients came from there.
At the beginning, most of my clients were students at the University of Minnesota who had been tortured prior to coming to school here and who were not able to return to their home countries because the political situation had worsened and to go back would have been a death sentence.
Most of my clients were male.
MP: Why was that?
RG-P: Usually more males than females get imprisoned and tortured, but that has really changed over the years that I have been working in this area. Beyond the torture that happens in prison, there is also torture that comes out of the prison and happens in many chaotic situations of political repression and violence around the world. These types of violence and torture take many forms and affect men, women and children.
MP: How often to children experience torture?
RG-P: It’s not an exact number, but about 20 percent of our clients report having been tortured before age 21. Internationally, 24 percent were children 18 years or younger. In the years that I have been working here, our clientele has become much more diverse. We have seen people from over 75 countries. They are women, men and children. One thing our clients all have in common is that they are a very determined, very self-selected group of people.
MP: What do you mean by “self-selected?”
RG-P: To start with, they have to leave their home countries and somehow get to the United States. And then they have to get to Minnesota — and our wonderful weather. They also have to want our services. It is completely voluntary. They need to seek us out.
MP: How do clients learn about the CVT?
RG-P: Many are referred to us by people in their own communities. Others are referred to us by immigration attorneys, health professionals, social-service providers or religious leaders. There are a variety of referral sources.
MP: How often do you meet with clients?
RG-P: Usually one a week, sometimes twice a week if there is a need at times of high distress.
MP: What happens during your sessions? Are they similar to traditional therapy?
RG-P: Yes, but we also use some methods that have been specifically developed for torture survivors. Our staff has been trained in a variety of methods. One specific method is called Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET).  I have been trained in this method by its developers.
MP: How does NET work?
RG-P: It’s based in the “testimony method,” that was first invented during the Chilean dictatorship of [Augsto] Pinochet.
In NET, the client talks about what happened in a way that integrates normal, day-to-day memories with the traumatic memories. The traumatic memories often have certain psychological responses attached to them. The client goes through a process of bringing up these memories and narrating them to the therapist. During this process, the therapist has to be very attentive to what is happening to the person. The therapist has to assist them through the psychological process that goes with the emotions. He or she has to respond to the client’s emotions and any physical reactions.
As part of the process, the therapist also takes down the narrative. At the next session, the narrative is repeated, so the person has an opportunity to add or correct what has been recorded. After several sessions, the person is given this narrative and can do whatever he or she wants with this it.
MP: What usually happens to these narratives?
RG-P: In Chile, where this process was developed, many times people decided to use their narratives for political testimony about what they had gone through. Others choose to use their narratives for different purposes, such as a personal history of what happened, so their families know their story. It is their choice.
MP: This sounds like an emotionally exhausting process.
RG-P: It can be draining for both the client and the therapist as well. For the therapist, recording the information requires a lot of focused attention and note taking. For clients, reliving the experience is exhausting, but in the end it is usually a relief. Often, in the end, the relief is very apparent. It’s palpable in the room.

Courtesy of Center for Victims of Torture

CVT's St. Paul Healing Center on Dayton Avenue.

MP: Do you witness great resilience in your clients? 
RG-P: This gets back to my earlier comment about the self-selected nature of our clients. I’ve always thought that if our office were across form a notorious prison, we would see a very different clientele with a different set of characteristics. I would say that every client we see here at CVT is resilient to one degree or another. But I believe that resilience is not an internal quality as much as it is one that is influenced by environment.
MP: So you are saying that resilience is a learned quality, not something inborn?
RG-P: Yes. Resilience is not something that you are born with. There are environments that confer resilience. Even neighborhoods can confer resilience on a person who has certain risks.
I also look at our clients in terms of risks and protective factors. I also look at the physical injuries that they have suffered. Many of our clients have been very injured physically as a result of their torture. That’s a reality. Today I’ve seen two clients who were very physically injured. It is very important for us to think about that. You cannot ignore the way they’ve been injured both physically and psychologically. Both need to heal.
And the effects of torture bleed across generations. Many times we are dealing with repeated episodes of torture repeated across generations. We may have someone who saw his or her father being tortured and thrown in prison. That person has a secondary traumatization. Torture did not happen to him or her: It happened to a loved one, but they are still a torture survivor.  
MP: You hear so many stories of pain and cruelty. How does that make you feel about the state of humanity?
RG-P: I think human beings are capable of greatness — and also capable of terrible things, of terrible cruelty to others.
MP: In your personal life, how do you keep your focus away from the negative?
RG-P: I work hard at not losing my appreciation of beauty and the creativity of human beings. I think it is important to do that. It is part of the care of the self.
I have interests and activities that I do to feed my spirit, if you will. I like spending time with my loved ones and friends. I like artistic pursuits, and I garden and design gardens. I like music a lot and I make sure I’m exposed to music in my daily life. I take good care of myself. I practice yoga I practice really being alert to my feelings and also my thoughts about life in general.

'Secret shapes' form backbone of essays in 'The World Is on Fire'

The other day, an item about the Sarah Winchester house made the social media rounds. A few photos, a breezy couple of lines of gawking description; I glanced at it for three seconds and then moved on, while some ad placement agency got its click. It was not a satisfying read. I wouldn’t have even clicked on the bait had I not just finished reading Joni Tevis’ essay about the California mansion in her new essay collection, “The World Is on Fire: Scrap, Treasure, and Songs of Apocalypse” (Milkweed Editions).
In it, Tevis visits the 160-room project, which was initiated by the Winchester gun heiress after a soothsayer told her to never stop building her house, lest she be haunted by the spirits of those killed by Winchester guns. (This being the years after the Civil War, Winchester decided not to take her chances.) Someone on the tour with Tevis asked, “Was she crazy?” and Tevis answers this dismissive question at length by exploring instead what Winchester actually was: a grief-stricken Victorian with a bottomless bank account and an expansive artistic vision. The house is a creative tangent, with interesting revelations down every hall, which is pretty much how Tevis writes, too.

“I went on the tour not knowing what I’d get out of it. I just wanted to be porous and open to experience. There’s so much to see there, and to think about, and afterwards I just wanted to know more, and to understand as best you can someone who lived in another century, and someone who experienced such radical grief while living with unimaginable wealth,” said Tevis. “When I did further research, it was to unpack the history on what I’d seen, and try to understand it, rather than just stare at things, as people tend to do.”
The essay ends up being about so much more than its topic of origin. Tevis explores Victorian mourning rituals, Tiffany windows, Roman mythology and gun technology as she goes off-topic to understand the Winchester house. It’s an engrossing read, and vivid — no pictures are needed. She does the same trick in essays (sort of) about the Nevada Test Site, the Fenton glass factory, the Liberace Museum, the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and the Buddy Holly plane crash site in Iowa and the Surf Ballroom, where he’d played the night before. Tevis says she loves to visit historic sites, and her book feels like a road trip as she meanders through American memory and memorabilia, with off-continent tangents to Cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos, Greece, and into her own memories and experiences.

“Sometimes a topic is too big to talk about on its own, like the A-bomb and atomic testing and fallout. That’s why I need to bring in other things, like the Salton Sea and atomic era toys. Hula Hoops and View-Masters are one way to talk about that time and place, because really, there’s no way to talk about it,” says Tevis, a former University of Minnesota fellow and a Minnesota Book Award winner who now lives in North Carolina. “Nuclear fallout? How can you even write about something that will last longer than our language will last to talk about it? How do you warn the people of the future about nuclear waste storage facilities when we’re projecting forward to a future we can’t even begin to imagine, it’s so far away?”
By writing about smaller things, she’s able to approach the bigger topic they surround, and create a portrait of a time and place. Another technique she uses is to build her essays on “secret shapes,” an archetypal model or structure that holds the essay together and moves the reader through it. “Many essays are built on the shape of a journey, and the reader travels through the work with the writer or character. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Odyssey’ are built on the journey shape, and I’ve found it works really nicely for writing about exploring places.”
Another secret shape that Tevis uses is song. While writing “Warp and Weft,” a piece about the South Carolina textile industry crisis, she happened to hear Led Zeppelin’s version of “When the Levee Breaks” on the radio, so, the way her mind works, it only made sense that epic floods and music and the Genesis made their way into her writing. But the song itself got under the surface of her work.

How the pope is shaking up the debate on climate change

The Vatican doesn’t have a great track record on science. It took them a bit more than three and a half centuries to acknowledge that Gallileo was right, after all, with that business about the Earth revolving around the sun.
So it’s not surprising that word of a major new Vatican focus on climate change have shaken up many people on both sides of the issue, in the process turning comfortable sets of ideological assumptions on their head.
Those you might expect to be highly skeptical of the Vatican’s teachings on many other issues are encouraged by what they are hearing, hoping it will provide a major push toward a binding global agreement to limit greenhouse gases at a conference in Paris later this year. As a matter of fact, the Vatican’s timing seems intended to push the process forward.

On the other side, those who question the link between human activity and climate change (and at least some of whom are quite comfortable with the Vatican’s cultural conservatism on questions of personal morality) find themselves arguing — vociferously in this case — that Pope Francis has no scientific expertise and should keep his views to himself.
At issue is an encyclical, a letter from the pope to the world’s Catholics, which will be released sometime this summer. While it’s unclear yet exactly what he will say about climate change, the Vatican has tried out many possible themes already. Among them is an emphasis on environmental issues as a matter of social justice.
To be fair, these issues aren’t new for the Vatican. Francis’ predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, both spoke out on the need to protect the environment. But putting it into an encyclical raises the bar.
Late last month, the Vatican organized a conference on the moral aspects of climate change that was attended by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said he hoped the pope’s moral authority would help push the Paris climate talks toward an agreement.
But it’s actually not just a matter of papal authority – which is frequently ignored on all kinds of issues. It’s a matter of this pope’s broad global popularity. Francis and Benedict might think alike on environmental issues, but Francis’ human touch means far more people are likely to pay attention. And he doesn’t seem averse to involving the Vatican in politics. Francis helped bridge differences between the United States and Cuba, leading to the agreement to restore diplomatic relations after more than half a century.
Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, an influential Vatican official, cast the climate change issue in moral terms at the gathering last month: “The lesson from the Garden of Eden still rings true today: pride, hubris, self-centerdness are always perilous, indeed destructive. The very technology that has brought great reward is now poised to bring great ruin.”
It’s pretty clear how many prominent Catholic conservatives feel about how the Vatican is shaping the argument. It’s less clear, and will be quite interesting to see, how Republican presidential candidates, several of whom are Catholics, play this. It will be hard to duck the issue. Francis is not only coming to the U.S. later this year. On invitation of House Speaker John Boehner, he will address a joint session of Congress.
Critics on the right already suspect Francis of being wobbly on a number of longstanding Catholic teachings. He has met with a founder of the liberation theology movement and broken a logjam over the beatification of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. Several critics have been scathing on climate change.  You don’t often read something like this this: Francis “is an ideologue and a meddlesome egoist.”
And, from the same piece by Maureen Mullarkey: “Francis sullies his office by using demagogic formulations to bully the populace into reflexive climate action with no more substantive guide than theologized propaganda.”
Or, this from Christopher Monckton, a British lord and a Catholic, at a conference organized to counter last month’s Vatican gathering: "You demean the office that you hold and you demean the church whom it is your sworn duty to protect and defend and advance."
If you set aside the angry rhetoric, the disagreement does really start with science. In that sense, the debate hasn’t budged. The Vatican accepts scientific evidence that human activity is largely responsible for climate change. But its arguments about the moral, economic and theological aspects of the phenomenon won’t persuade someone who doesn’t agree.

Vietnam 40 years later — and why Americans should visit

Why is it that mentioning Vietnam to people of a certain age often incites a knee-jerk response such as “Don’t they hate us?” or “Why would you want to go there?” as if the country were caught in a time warp, forever recycling 1975? Coming of age in the '70s means that I do have images of the Vietnam War seared into my brain, but I have been intrigued by the country and have wanted to go there for some time. So this past March, My husband and I signed up for a two-week stint in Hanoi, teaching English for Global Volunteers.

Peter was assigned to a middle school with many classes of rambunctious sixth-graders, which suited his energy level and penchant to be the “big man on campus” perfectly. I was assigned to Blind Link, a nonprofit organization that helps blind massage therapists (the career path for most blind people in Vietnam) learn English to serve their growing western and Asian clientele. It is challenging enough to teach English as a second language to sighted people but really difficult when you can’t use any visual cues to teach. Nonetheless, I welcomed the challenge and found that I could connect with these lovely and trusting students on a level that transcended the visual barriers.

Youthful and vibrant

Courtesy of the author

The author with her students in Vietnam

Contrary to misperceptions still present in the United States, we found Vietnam to be a vibrant, young (more than 80 percent of today's Vietnamese were born after 1975), energetic and very welcoming country that appears on brink of transforming itself into a serious economic power. The people we met were so grateful for our presence and enthusiastic about learning English that we felt truly valued both as volunteers and as tourists.
Hanoi itself is a 1,000-year-old city with Chinese and French influences from past invasions, but it is transforming itself into a modern city with all that that entails. Most Hanoians ride motorbikes or buses rather than cars, and the flow of traffic in the city is a truly remarkable sight: Pedestrians wade out into the traffic like forging a stream with a continuous flowing motion of vehicles around them. This organic motion says much to me about how the Vietnamese seem to approach life in general: There is an attitude of letting the past go and embracing the future with a degree of optimism that I don't see to the same degree in the States.
Not surprisingly, we saw few Americans during our stay in Vietnam; most of the tourists we encountered were Asians and Europeans and, of course, the common language was English.

Returnees after leaving in '75

We did meet several Vietnamese-Americans who were returning to see their home country again since leaving in 1975. These were impressive people who had undergone unfathomable hardship to come to the U.S. 40 years ago and embrace the American Dream, making something of themselves through perseverance and hard work. As they said to us often: “Americans really don’t know how good they have it,” and I would certainly concur.
Vietnam looks like a country that works: The crime rate is incredibly low, the streets in Hanoi are clean and safe, a woman can feel free to walk alone late at night, children appear well-fed and loved, the garbage is collected daily, and even those with little are actively engaged in their individual enterprises. Albeit, glimpses of Big Brother and inefficiency do crop up, and there does not seem to be any major effort to clean up the air or the water.
So why don’t more Americans visit Vietnam? I think many of us of a certain age still hold baggage from a sad chapter in our history and we have a hard time moving beyond it. I think we should follow the path of our Vietnamese friends: Let it go and step into the flow.
Laura Merriam is a retired corporate executive and past board member of the Minnesota International Center.

How to lose 10 Kilos of stomach fat in just 4 Weeks with these 2 diet programs that celebrities use.

Garcinia Cambogia is the latest weight loss fad. This so called Superfood that you take as a supplement to lose weight have been getting a lot of international attention. In fact, it was recently featured on the popular US TV program, The Dr Oz Show where he called it "The most exciting breakthrough in natural weight loss to date!".
And like you have probably already seen; they are all over the internet in blogs and success stories of people who have apparently used the Garcinia Cambogia pills and lost a ton of weight. But we here at Women's Life & Health are a little skeptical and aren’t sure that we've seen any real proof that Garcinia Cambogia works for weight loss. So we decided to put these products to the test. What better way to find out the truth than to conduct our own study?

To get started, I volunteered to be the guinea pig. I applied for a bottle of Pure Cambogia Ultra. While there are tons of Garcinia Cambogia ads online, Pure Cambogia Ultra is one of the most credible and trustworthy suppliers on the market. It included free shipping on my order and it did not try to fool me into agreeing to additional hidden offers**. Another reason why I chose Pure Cambogia Ultra is because it is the most concentrated and purest Garcinia Cambogia product on the market. This would give me the most accurate results for my test.

Kim Kardashian @KimKardashian

Lost 42 pounds! Let's hit the beaches. #bikinitime #garciniacambogiaworks

8 RETWEETS 47 FAVORITES

Kate Middleton @PrincessKateM

Back in my favorite dress after the baby. Yay! #garciniacambogia

17 RETWEETS 24 FAVORITES

HERE'S WHAT PURE CAMBOGIA CLAIMS

• 4 Times More Weight Loss Than Diet And Exercise
• Blocks Carbs From Turning Into Fat
• Stops Emotional Eating and Improves Mood
• Suppresses Appetite

HERE'S WHAT PURE LIFE CLEANSE CLAIMS

• Helps Eliminate Bad Toxins that have Built Up Over the Years
• Removes 'Sludge' from the Walls of the Colon
• Helps Get Rid of Gas and Bloating
• Helps to Regulate the Metabolism

We were pretty skeptical, but wanted to find out for ourselves if this product could actually do everything that it claimed. Most of the success stories talk about combining Garcinia Cambogia with colon cleansing products to achieve maximum weight loss. I decided to do the same.
The idea behind combining the products is that while the Garcinia Cambogia encourages weight loss and increases energy, the Pure Life Cleanse helps rid your body of toxins and allows your body to work and burn calories more efficiently. I chose Pure Life Cleanse to test.

PUTTING CAMBOGIA TO THE TEST

Both the Pure Cambogia Ultra and Pure Life Cleanse arrived within 4 days of having placed my order online.**
The bottles I received held a month's worth of intake which worked out perfect as I was to follow the supplement routine for 4 weeks time and document my progress throughout.

MY RESULTS

Week 1

After one week on the diet using both products I was surprised at the dramatic results. My energy level was up, and I wasn't even hungry, an apparent effect of the Garcinia Cambogia which curbs the appetite.
I honestly felt fantastic.
And I didn't even change anything about my daily routine. On day 7 I got on the scale and couldn’t believe my eyes. I had lost 4 kg. But I still wasn't convinced as they say you lose a lot of water at the beginning of any diet. I wanted to wait and see the results in the upcoming weeks. But it sure was looking up! I now weighed under 65 kg for the first time in years!

Week 2

After two weeks of using both supplements, I started the week off with even more energy and was actually sleeping more soundly than before. I was no longer waking up during the night and tossing and turning because my body was actually able to relax (this is a result of getting rid of the toxins I think). Plus I still managed to lose another 3 kg, putting me at an unbelievable 7 kg of weight loss, in just 2 weeks.
I must admit that I’m starting to believe that this diet is more than just a gimmick.

Week 3

After 3 weeks all my doubts and skepticism had absolutely vanished! I am down, 2 full dress sizes, after losing another 3 kg. And I still have a ton of energy. Quite often, around the third week of other diets, you tend to run out of steam. But with the Garcinia Cambogia and Pure Life Cleanse diet my energy levels don't dip, but remain steady throughout the day. I no longer need that cat nap around 3pm in the afternoon! And I am even noticing that my stomach is digesting food so much better. No bloating or embarrassing gas after I eat!.

Week 4

After the fourth week, my final results were shocking. I lost an unbelievable 2 stone since starting the Garcinia Cambogia and Pure Life Cleanse diet! Actually everyone at Women's Life & Health is kicking themselves for not having volunteered to be the guinea pig. Using the Pure Cambogia Ultra and Pure Life Cleanse in week 4 I lost 2 more kg. But to be honest I really didn’t have much more than that left to lose. And I am definately going to continue taking the Pure Cambogia Ultra afterwards because it has so many antioxidants and vitamins that makes my skin look unbelievable.

"I couldn't be any happier with the results. I Lost 8 kilos in 4 Weeks, No Special Diet, No Intense Exercise!"

CONCLUSION

Like us, here at Women's Life & Health, you might be a little doubtful about the effects of this diet, but you need to try it for yourself; the results are real. After conducting our own personal study we are pleased to see that people really are finding success with it (myself included!).

Here's How You Can Try These Great Products For Yourself

Follow the links to the special offers I have provided and know that you are getting quality products that work - no strings attached! Remember, the best results are from using both products together. I’m not as confident that you will see results like what I achieved if you only use one. Besides, with the amazing deal they are offering today, you’ll be on your way to looking much slimmer and better for over 50% the normal price!
But hurry! Our report has generated a lot of buzz and these bottles won't be available forever!
Good Luck with your weight loss!

Hong Kong quarantines 18 over MERS fears

BEIJING (AP) — Hong Kong authorities quarantined 18 fellow passengers of a South Korean man who arrived in the city infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS.
The Chinese city's health authorities said Saturday the 18 are quarantined in the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village resort in a remote part of Hong Kong for two weeks. They were seated within two rows of the South Korean man, but have not showed any symptoms so far.
Another 17 people are under medical surveillance.
Authorities say the 44-year-old South Korean man flew from Seoul to Hong Kong on Tuesday and then traveled by bus to the Chinese mainland. He is China's first imported MERS case and is being held in isolation at a hospital in southern China.
The potentially fatal virus is similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, which broke out in China in 2002. Fifteen cases of MERS have been detected in South Korea.
Hong Kong authorities were asking other passengers of Asiana Airlines Flight 723 to contact them.

Holiday in socialist fairyland? North Korea woos tourists

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — If you're still looking for somewhere exotic to go this summer and don't mind a vacation that comes with a heavy dose of socialist propaganda and leader worship, North Korea says it's just the place for you.
Fresh off a drastic, half-year ban that closed North Korea's doors to virtually all foreigners over fears they would spread the Ebola virus — despite the fact that there were no cases of Ebola reported anywhere in Asia — the country is once again determined to show off its "socialist fairyland" to tourists.
The focus on tourism is the blessing of Kim Jong Un himself and, in typical fashion, officials have set lofty goals in their effort to please their leader.
About 100,000 tourists came to North Korea last year, all but a few thousand of them from neighboring China.
Kim Sang Hak, a senior economist at the influential Academy of Social Sciences, told The Associated Press the North hopes that by around 2017, there will be 10 times as many tourists and that the number will hit 2 million by 2020.
Pyongyang's interest in attracting tourists may sound ironic, or even contradictory, for a country that has taken extreme measures to remain sheltered from the outside world.
But Kim said the push, formally endorsed by Kim Jong Un in March 2013, is seen as both a potentially lucrative revenue stream and a means of countering stereotypes of the country as starving, backward and relentlessly bleak.
"Tourism can produce a lot of profit relative to the investment required, so that's why our country is putting priority on it," he said in a recent interview in Pyongyang, adding that along with scenic mountains, secluded beaches and a seemingly endless array of monuments and museums, the North has another ace up its sleeve — the image that it is simply unlike anywhere else on Earth.
"Many people in foreign countries think in a wrong way about our country," Kim said, brushing aside criticisms of its human rights record, lack of freedoms and problems with hunger in the countryside. "Though the economic sanctions of the U.S. imperialists are increasing, we are developing our economy. So I think many people are curious about our country."
Opponents in the West say tourists who go to North Korea are helping to fill the coffers of a rogue regime and harming efforts to isolate and pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons and improve its human rights record. For safety reasons, the State Department strongly advises U.S. citizens not to travel to North Korea.
None of that has stopped the number of American and European tourists from gradually increasing, and such concerns are not so strong in the countries North Korea is most actively wooing — China, Russia and Southeast Asia.
"About 80 percent of the tourists who come are from neighboring countries," said state tourism official Kim Yong Il. "It's normal to develop tourism within your region, so our country is not exceptional in that way. But we are also expanding to European countries as well."
While the overall quality of life in North Korea hasn't shifted much in the past few years, efforts to build attractions for visitors and the infrastructure required to host them are already beginning to change the face of the capital and some scattered special tourism zones recently established across the country.
Amid the generally Spartan context of their surroundings, those attractions, which are also used by average North Koreans at much lower fees, can be quite striking.
In Pyongyang, some of the more popular tourist sites include a new, high-tech shooting range, where visitors can hunt animated tigers with laser guns or use live ammo to bag real pheasants, which can be prepared to eat right there on the spot. There is also a new equestrian center, a huge water park and revamped "fun fairs" replete with roller coasters, fast-food stands and a 5-D theater. After a year of feverish construction, Pyongyang's new international airport terminal could open as soon as next month.
Outside of the showcase capital, where funds, electricity and adequate lodging are much scarcer, development has been focused on the area around Mount Kumgang and Wonsan, a port city on the east coast.
A luxury ski resort was recently opened just outside of Wonsan and a number of new restaurants have sprung up along the city's beachfront area, which is popular with tourists and locals alike for swimming, clambakes and outdoor barbeques.
But like everything else, North Korea is approaching tourism "in its own way."
Tourists of any nationality can expect constant monitoring from ever-watchful guides and a lot of visits to model hospitals, schools and farms, along with well-staged events intended to impress and promote Pyongyang's unique brand of authoritarian socialism. Like all other visitors to the North, they have precious few opportunities to interact with average people or observe their daily lifestyle.
Tourists can also expect severe repercussions if they step out of line.
Tours to Mount Kumgang by South Koreans were quite popular for about a decade until 2008, when they were halted after a South Korean housewife who walked into a restricted area was shot dead by a North Korean guard. More recently, an American tourist who impulsively left a Bible in a provincial nightclub was detained for nearly six months until the Pentagon sent a plane to Pyongyang to pick him up.