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

Join us in-person at the Ramsey County Library - Maplewood (3025 Southlawn Drive), to hear from Minnesota Judicial Branch officials including Second Judicial District Judge Kelly Olmstead (criminal focus) and Judge Leonardo Castro (civil focus), Jennifer L. Frisch Chief Judge designee, Minnesota Court of Appeals, and Justice Theodora Gaïtas from the Minnesota Supreme Court. Learn more, and get your questions answered about this crucial part of our democracy. Program includes a panel discussion and audience Q&A. Bring a friend, neighbor or League buddy! Zoom option with link: https://bit.ly/LWVRAJudges 

LWVRA will host a candidate forum for House District 40B Special Election to be held Thursday, January 16, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Roseville City Hall, Council Chamber. Candidates are Paul Wikstrom, R, and David Gottfried, DFL. Because there are only two candidates, there will not be a primary election. General election will be held Tuesday, January 28. 

Please send questions for candidates to: lwvrosevillearea@lwvmn.org.

The Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues will host Patricia Nauman from Metro Cities Association of Metropolitan Municipalities serving the seven county metropolitan area. Patricia is a well-known municipal advocate at the legislature and extremely knowledgeable regarding the Metropolitan Council. After her remarks, she will take questions from attendees. 

There was a spell of a few weeks last spring when I felt a theme in random sightings—Kindness. First, I viewed the animated film based on the charming book by Charlie Mackesy which I loved, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. That book gently presents profound ideas, beginning with the mole asking the boy, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” After thinking a moment, the boy replies, not firefighter or doctor, but “Kind.” Ahhh 

The children at a preschool/daycare near my home are protected by a chain link fence. They have used those largish, red plastic cups pushed through the holes in the fence to spell out words, like Create Kindness…Each time I drive by I appreciate their message to the neighborhood and hope that they are treated that way each day and develop empathy and kindness that will last a lifetime.

This latest issue of the Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues (CMAL) newsletter has information on:

• January 29, 2025 Quarterly meeting with Patricia Nauman (Metro Cities)  (via Zoom)
• January 9 check-in meeting for watershed study (via Zoom)
• CMAL Annual Meeting April 30 (in person)

View newsletter here

This program can now be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h56hwOr-j0U&t=49s

Meet and greet - 12:30 p.m. Community news is disappearing at an alarming rate. Join us Sunday, November 17, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Ramsey County Library Roseville, 2180 Hamline Avenue N., for a panel discussion to hear about concerns, work being done to make news available, and options for news in the future. The panel will include Ben Toff, UMN Hubbard School of Journalism, Nora Hertel, from Project Optimist, and Max Nester from the Minnesota Reformer. Co-sponsored with Ramsey County Library Roseville and Do Good Roseville.

“…as painful as foodflation is, it may just be an early ripple of the kind of disruption to the food system that’s coming.”

Eliza Barclay, Introducing the New York Times series, “What to Eat on a Burning Planet”

This summer, while I was thinking about hunger from other directions, I read an op-ed by David Wallace-Wells in the New York Times, “Food as You Know It Is About to Change.” (July 28, 2024) This bombshell of

The Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues will host Todd Graham, Met Council's Principal Forecaster, at its quarterly meeting on October 30, 6:30 PM. Graham will speak on trends in Greater Minnesota as well as in the metro area, and he will take questions at the end. No registration necessary.