This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. A crowd of spectators erupted in cheers Friday, April 28, after the Minnesota Senate narrowly voted to legalize recreational marijuana, moving the effort the closest it has come to becoming law in Minnesota after years of failed attempts. The Senate passed the measure on a 34-33 vote, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans opposed. The vote follows a similar passage from the state House of Representatives Tuesday, April…
Author: Sahan Journal
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. Before physician assistant Mohamed Adan can start explaining the importance of the measles vaccine, parents tell him they don’t want their child receiving the shot. Mistrust of the vaccine among many Somali community members goes back many years, setting the stage for measles to reach Minnesota’s East African community this fall. Low vaccination rates combined with travel to countries where the disease is endemic led to 14 unvaccinated children contracting measles…
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. How to protect yourself and others from measles The vaccine that protects people from measles, mumps, and rubella is highly effective at preventing measles. Who should get vaccinated? Children should get the first dose of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine when they’re about 12 to 15 months old. If a child younger than 12 months old is traveling to a country where measles is endemic, a doctor may recommend they receive the…
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. It was produced in collaboration with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. For many Somali families in Minnesota, the barriers to homeownership have long seemed insurmountable: reluctant lenders, low incomes, short work histories, and little credit. Members of the East African Muslim community encounter an additional, unique challenge: Because of the principles of their faith, many avoid paying or profiting from interest. This means they typically won’t apply for…
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. If you are struggling to pay off your home through a contract for deed, Sahan Journal and ProPublica would like to hear about your experience. Email the authors at jpeters@sahanjournal.com and jessica.lussenhop@propublica.org. If you bought your home through a contract for deed and can’t make the payments, help may be available through the following agencies and nonprofit organizations: Immigrants seeking general education and help with the homebuying process can also access the following resources:…
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. A lifelong public defender and a retired judge vying to become the next Hennepin County attorney both call for criminal justice reform, but disagree about how much power the office has over police accountability. Mary Moriarty and Martha Holton Dimick bested five other candidates in the August primary to advance to the Nov. 8 general election. Voters in Hennepin County will choose which one leads the county attorney’s office, the largest public law office in the…
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. Hennepin County voters will make history at the polls in November when they elect their next sheriff. Dawanna Witt or Joseph Banks will become the first Black sheriff and sheriff of color in Hennepin County. If Witt wins, she’ll become the first Black woman sheriff in the state, according to the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association. Both candidates said representation in law enforcement leadership is important but is only part of the picture.…
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. Three defendants, including an Eden Prairie man, pleaded guilty Thursday in a massive food-aid fraud investigation, admitting that they inflated or completely lied about the number of meals they served needy children in order to receive federal money. Hadith Yusuf Ahmed, 33, of Eden Prairie, Bekam Addissu Merdassa, 40, of Inver Grove Heights, and Hanna Marekegn, 40, of Medina, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count each of wire fraud.…
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans had long been waiting for: a plan to forgive some federal student loans. In a speech from the White House, Biden noted how the cost of college had risen in recent decades. “An entire generation is now saddled with unsustainable debt,” he said. “The burden is so heavy that even if you graduate, you may not have access to the…
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for their free newsletter to receive stories in your inbox. Whenever Marshall Nguyen’s family got together, they’d dash to grocery stores across Minneapolis, St. Paul, Brooklyn Park, and Brooklyn Center to purchase Asian food for their feasts. Not having a centralized location for Asian groceries inspired Nguyen to open the Twin Cities’ first pan-Asian mall – called Asia Mall – in Eden Prairie. “From my experience, when we have family gatherings, we gotta go to this grocery store or that grocery…