The Wake

Across the Midwest, hundreds of immigrants and refugees are detained in county jails contracted by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the National Immigrant Justice Center, these immigrants spend months, even years in remote detention facilities, isolated from attorneys and criminalized by society. They face obstacles in due process and are often refused basic rights.Barbara Frey, director of the Human Rights Program on campus, along with the Midwest Coalition of Human Rights, is working to change all of that through education and advocacy. In a lecture at Elmer L. Andersen Library on Sept. 26, Frey touched on the many issues facing non-citizens in the Midwest. According to Frey, the “post-9/11 climate of fear” is an issue that faces non-citizens of all races. Workers’ rights issues such as low wages or failure to collect workers’ …

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You may not have heard the names John James, Jeff Johnson, or Lori Swanson, but come No. 7 you will have to decide which of these three you want to be Minnesota’s next attorney general. This year the “AG” race was noted early on for its drama, following Matt Entenza’s withdrawal and subsequent scramble by DFLer’s to replace him. The response of the candidates has been to keep low profiles. Swanson won the DFL endorsement in the Sept. 12 primary and faces Republican nominee Johnson and Independence Party candidate James in the race. Entenza’s withdrawal was certainly the most high-profile event in the attorney general race. He withdrew amidst complaints from Republicans that he violated ethics laws after failing to report expenses paid to investigate the current attorney general, Mike Hatch, who is now the …

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Stomach growling? Yearning to fill that empty space inside? If faith-based-fast-food is what you’re craving look no further than Coffman Union’s resident Chick-fil-A!Chick-fil-A has served up chicken sandwiches in the name of the Lord for over 60 years – in some respects. The Atlanta-based chain – pronounced “Chick-fil-lay,” doesn’t dish up religion to its customers, but was founded on Christian biblical principles.In Minnesota, home to only two of Chick-fil-A’s 1,250 restaurants (Minnesota State University, Mankato houses the other), we hear little about the faithful Southern roots of the company credited with inventing the quick-service industry’s first boneless chicken sandwich and spawning the whole nugget idea. S. Truett Cathy, Southern Baptist founder and chairperson of Chick-fil-A, has used biblical tenets as a guide to steer his restaurants since opening his first, The Dwarf Grill, in 1946. …

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“What comes to mind when you think of the word Muslim?” Faisal Alam asks, speaking to the crowd at the Hubert H. Humphrey Cowles Auditorium. “Homophobic, terrorism, intolerant of other religions, Middle East, lack of women’s rights.” “OK, any good things?” Alam says jokingly. He then explains that the largest populations of Muslims live in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan – none of which are in the Middle East and all of which have had a female head of state, unlike the United States. In fact only 12 percent of the entire Muslim population live in the Middle East, Alam points out.“The United States tries to understand east versus west by making things black and white, but there is more gray in the Muslim world than black or white,” Alam says.Alam was …

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Two U.S. Senate hopefuls, Congressman Mark Kennedy and Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, have engaged in a war of words that’s become increasingly heated as the Nov. 7 election draws near. Both candidates have released television commercials and made statements recently that harshly criticized one another in their campaigns to become Minnesota’s next senator, replacing retiring Sen. Mark Dayton. Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald has withheld from the fiery exchanges for the most part. Republican nominee Kennedy recently aired commercials accusing Klobuchar of breaking promises she made in her successful bid to win the seat she now holds. Kennedy’s advertisement claims that Klobuchar promised to “crack down on drug dealers” and “be tough on repeat offenders” but “”52 percent of first degree drug felons were given lighter sentences” and “career criminals continued to get plea …

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We were all told during orientation that the campus is safe and it’s rare to feel unsafe when walking through the mall or Dinkytown at night. With the recent assaults that have sprung up during the first few weeks of the school year in the surrounding University neighborhoods, everyone is having second thoughts about our so-called “safe” campus. After the first month of the school year, seven assaults had happened in the Southeast Como, Marcy-Holmes and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods, all surrounding the University’s East and West Banks, mostly occupied by students. With the year starting, “we have more people on the streets,” says James DeSota, neighborhood coordinator for the Southeast Como Improvement Association. There are a lot of factors adding up to the additional crime, DeSota says. (what factors?)Three assaults happened on Friday, Sept. 9, the …

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A new exhibit on the West Bank features photographs, set models, costume sketches and other items from the Guthrie collections that have been part of the Guthrie history since 1965. These items have been on display in the Elmer L. Andersen Library since August 7. The display allows for guests to get an idea of the early history of the theater and its creators as well as a feeling for all that goes into a show and how this has changed over the years. Sir Tyrone Guthrie announced his plan for a theater outside of New York City in 1959 and chose Minneapolis over several other cities because of the strong arts community. Early documents and sketches of Guthrie’s original Hennepin Avenue location, where it sat for about four decades, are also featured and …

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If you were beyond devastated upon hearing that Pluto was recently demoted to dwarf-planet status, you are not alone. On Sept. 14, in the first of a weekly series of events hosted by the University’s Institute for Advanced Study, Pluto admirers came from far and wide to mourn the loss of their beloved planet. The series of events, titled “Thursdays at 4:00,” selected Terry Jones as their first speaker. Jones has been working in the University’s astronomy department since 1982 and sought to provide information about Pluto’s discovery, its brief stint as a planet and why it got the boot. In 1929, Kansas farmer Clyde Tombaugh was hired by the Lowell Observatory to search for the ninth planet. After less than a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered Pluto. Differing from the other eight …

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Some say that the race to become the next U.S. Congress representative from the 5th District was decided in the Sept. 12 DFL primary. But Republicans are mounting an attack on the winner of the primary, Rep. Keith Ellison, that could shift the district from the liberal stronghold it has historically been to more conservative ground. DFL politicians have represented the 5th District, which encompasses all of Minneapolis and some of the surrounding suburbs, since 1963 when Republican Walter Judd was in office. Because of this, many doubt that the other candidates in the race (Republican Alan Fine, Independent Tammy Lee and Green Party candidate Jay Pond) have much of a chance. “This district is way too liberal to elect a Republican and not liberal enough to elect a Green Party candidate,” says Nick Lambert, …

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“Katrina-style incompetence,” “priority, pessimism, politics” and “appalling,” were among the labels experts slapped on the United States’ policy regarding current nuclear and humanitarian crises on the Korean Peninsula at a recent Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs panel discussion. Former political leaders and government officials gave their take on the U.S.’s diplomacy – or accused a lack thereof – at the presentation, “Beyond the Nuclear Issue: Crisis on the Korean Peninsula” in mid-September.“The development by Korea of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons is one of the gravest threats that we have had in our lives, and in our history,” argues L. Desaix Anderson, whose credentials include 35 years as Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. State Department. The four-person panel, moderated by former Vice President Walter Mondale, agreed with Anderson that the threat …

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Say goodbye to the University of Minnesota’s Science Classroom Building.The Mississippi River Design Initiative, hosted by the University’s College of Design, plans to render the East Bank river site anew. Jamie Helding, a 21-year-old landscape architecture student, plans to use this project as a springboard into her post-collegiate career.“The Mississippi River Design Initiative is comprised of staff at the University of Minnesota, which reaches out to faculty and administration advisors, as well as off-campus partners, in achieving the Initiative’s goals,” states MRDI’s Web site, riverdesign.umn.edu. One such goal is to redesign the site around the Science Classroom Building in an effort to reconnect the campus to the mighty river on which it dwells.“It’s probably the ugliest building on campus,” Helding says. “It blocks a great view of the West Bank, and it’s like the U …

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The Varsity Theater in Dinkytown was set up more like a coffee shop than a theater. Twinkling lights filled the ceiling, while The Day After Tomorrow, starring hunk of the moment Jake Gyllenhaal plays in the background to set the mood. On Monday, Sept. 11, about 30 people gathered to discuss the change in weather and climate happenings as pollution and the environment become a growing concern to the general public.The first in a three-part series of Café Scientifique at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown, “Global Climate Change: It’s Getting Hot in Here!” showcased the global “warming” happening to the earth, caused in large part by pollution, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. “It’s great to talk about this in a [relaxing] environment,” says panelist J. Drake Hamilton, science policy director for Fresh Energy …

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This election season, there are two “third-party” candidates running in the race to be Minnesota’s next governor, along with the Republican and Democrat nominees. Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson and the Green Party’s Ken Pentel join Republican incumbent Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Attorney General Mike Hatch from the DFL. The Libertarian Party of Minnesota is not running a candidate since Sue Jeffers announced she’d run against Pawlenty for the Republican nomination in the Sept. 12 primary, in which she lost by a large margin. Voters will decide on Nov. 7.Many think that a two-party political system limits voters. Maureen Reed, Hutchinson’s running mate for lieutenant governor and former member of the U’s Board of Regents, says, “we’re listening to what the electorate is saying and there’s no substitution for listening to their concerns.” She explained …

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Over Labor Day weekend, while most were settling into dorm rooms, getting to know new roommates or dealing with moving trucks, Hillel, the Jewish student center, was holding an event to help others in need. Blanket the World with Kindness was held Sept. 3 and Sept. 4 at both the Superblock and Middlebrook, respectively, and allowed students to take a break from packing to get involved with the community and a campus student group. At the event, tie fleece blankets were made for a local homeless shelter and went to children in need, says Ariella DePrenger-Gottfried, Hillel community service representative and co-organizer of the event. Hillel has held similar events to this one on Northrop Mall in previous years as part of Jewish Culture Week and this event was a continuation of that, says Eve …

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Each September during the first week of school, a few thousand freshmen pack Northrop Auditorium for Convocation. The event gives first-year students a warm welcome and a grand introduction to the University. University President Bob Bruininks speaks, students learn the Minnesota Rouser and the marching band brings the show to a climactic close. “It was empowering,” says first year attendee Bobby Halperin about this year’s ceremony.But let’s get serious. The real reason for going to Convocation has nothing to do with the ceremony itself and everything to do with what comes after the march to Coffman Memorial Union: hot dogs, cheeseburgers and cold beverages. Yes, it’s all free. “I mostly came for the food,” says freshman Laura Petersen. “I don’t really even remember what [Bob Bruininks] said in his speech.” These sentiments were echoed by …

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