[ Falcon Heights - Lauderdale - Little Canada - Maplewood - Roseville ]

One of my sisters taught German at a private school for decades. She is a fluent speaker of German and knowledgeable about the minutiae of German grammar. In retirement, and particularly during the COVID-19 lockdown, she has been trading German lessons for Spanish lessons with another retired colleague who taught Spanish. They meet on Zoom to speak, and give one another practice exercises and options for exploration on DuoLingo. I admire her for even taking on this enterprise.

What is interesting is that despite being an expert at one foreign language, and despite having had some Spanish in high school, she often complains that she just can’t seem to remember all of the new vocabulary she is supposed to be learning. Not long ago she remarked that she has a new sympathy with older immigrants trying to learn English and struggling. Ahhh.

While the November 2 elections may feel a long way off, early voting began September 17, therefore it isn’t too early to begin researching what may be on your ballot.. One item on most local ballots will be a Roseville School District Operating Referendum.  LWV does not support candidates or issues, however the League does advocate being informed. An efficient way to learn about the ISD 623 “Operating Levy 2021” is to view this video:  www.isd623.org/levy2021 .

The League of Women Voters of Roseville Area will sponsor a forum on Wednesday, September 15 at 7:00 pm for the City Council candidates in Falcon Heights.

The Falcon Heights City Council Candidate Forum held on September 15 can now be viewed at  https://ninenorth.org/speak-outs/

LWVRA will sponsor a forum on October 7, 7:00 p.m. for the School Board candidates. The forum will be moderated by League member Florence Sprague. Due to COVID-19 precautions, there will be no in-person audience. The forum will be broadcast by NineNorth on cable channel 15 or 859 HD, and live streamed and available for playback on ninenorth.org/. For on-demand viewing, Candidate Speak-Out and Forum videos will be located at https://ninenorth.org/speak-outs/. You may submit questions to be asked of candidates to lwvrosevillearea@lwvmn.org by end of day, Wednesday, October 6.

LWVRA Environmental Subcommittee and Resilient Roseville are responsible for the city of Roseville enrolling in Excel’s Partners In Energy program. One of the results is the development of the Energy Action Team within Partners In Energy that made significant recommendations to the City of Roseville. The chair of the LWVRA Environmental Subcommittee is Donna Peterson who was selected to be a member of that team. You can learn more about this at CityOfRoseville.com/Partners-in-Energy.

Everyone wants to live in a good neighborhood but what makes a good neighborhood? Who has access to them? What happens when some don’t have access to a "good" neighborhood? How do we sustain good neighborhoods?

The recording for the September 23 program - Part 1 of the Real Life Mister Rogers series co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters Roseville Area, Do Good Roseville and Ramsey County Library's Zoom platform, is now online if you missed it or want to watch it again:  https://my.nicheacademy.com/rcladult/course/37255. Feel free to share this recording link.

Mark your calendar!  The typical June LWV-RA field trip will be at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 19, at the Minnesota History Center, featuring the ExtraOrdinary Women exhibit. https://www.mnhs.org/historycenter  Details:

The latest issue of the CMAL newsletter contains an article about the new country government study, as well as a calendar of upcoming CMAL events. You can view the newsletter here.