Political newcomer Merv Moorhead and his family have been Minnesota residents for the last 20 years, the last six in Ward Three’s Mill District. Moorhead says his 30-year career with General Mills and time spent in different communities has given him what he calls “a broad perspective on the challenges we face as a city and the ability to work collaboratively to ensure the safety of its citizens regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, orientation or economic status. The killing of George Floyd was a terrible tragedy and we need to work to ensure that something like that never happens again. I support Chief Arradondo’s plan to reform the department by ending police brutality and holding bad actors accountable for misconduct.”

Kevin Reich is running for a fourth term as the First Ward’s City Council Member; only Lisa Goodman and Cam Gordon have been there longer. But even veteran politicians in City hall have found current conditions challenging.

Steve Fletcher was elected to the Minneapolis City Council for Ward 3 in 2017, winning a four-way race for an open seat. He said he ran on a platform of police reform, derived from his experience seeing police “persistently harass young black canvassers that I worked with as a community organizer.” He noted the police shootings of Jamar Clark in 2015 and Justine Damond in 2017, which, he said, “further cemented accountability as a central theme of that campaign year. The growing perception of our police is of a force too quick to draw guns, and too resistant to reforms...We need to shift the conversation on criminal justice reform to a broader conversation on community safety beyond policing.”

The Northeaster profiled challengers in the Ward 1 race when they first announced. The articles about them can be found at: https://www.mynortheaster.com/wp-content/news-archives/210210Northeaster/#page=1 (Tulley Kline, Feb. 10 edition) https://www.mynortheaster.com/wp-content/news-archives/210224Northeaster/#page=1 (Elliott Payne, Feb. 24 edition) Tulley Kline has since pulled out of the race and thrown his support to Elliott Payne. Elliott Payne and […]

KerryJo Felder was a whirlwind, answering questions, directing traffic, inspecting boxes of food and coaxing volunteers to have a hot dog for lunch. The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation education organizer was on a mission to distribute 1,200 boxes of food free to anyone who drove into the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers parking lot at 67 8th Avenue NE on Saturday, March 20, and asked.

Most people who frequent the Coffee Shop Northeast at 2852A Johnson Street NE, especially pre-COVID-19, probably know and have talked to Courteney Ross, who managed the shop. Ross, who has worked at the coffee shop through changing ownership and locations for 22 years, has lived in Northeast most of her life. She was also the partner of George Floyd, who was killed at the hands of police on May 25, 2020.