Archive Search Results
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News
Dozens of journalists arrested at RNC
Their crime? Covering the story
By Matt Snyders
Published: September 10, 2008
A weird thing happens to your nervous system when a flash-bang grenade explodes close enough for you to smell it. The higher functions of your consciousness evaporate and you...
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Feature
Police raid anarchist homes in advance of RNC
Infiltration programs aided the pre-emptive strike
By Matt Snyders
Published: September 3, 2008
Just over three months ago, we wrote of the FBI's effort to recruit moles to infiltrate and report back on peace activists throughout the Twin Cities ("Moles Wanted," 5/21/08)....
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News
Flashback: Moles Wanted
In preparation for the Republican National Convention, the FBI is soliciting informants to keep tabs on local protest groups
By Matt Snyders
Published: September 3, 2008
This story originally ran in our issue dated May 14, 2008, but the events of this past week have made it worth sharing again. Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell...
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Feature
A field guide to the Republican National Convention
Meet the deranged, debauched and deluded characters coming to Minneapolis and St. Paul for the RNC
By Matt Snyders and Bradley Campbell
Published: August 27, 2008
After almost two years of anticipatory civic brouhaha and financial hand-wringing, the Republican National Convention is finally upon us. As you read this, more than 100,000...
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News
Starbucks baristas union drive comes at key time
The effort to organize local latte-slingers could hurt the ailing chain
By Matt Snyders
Published: July 30, 2008
It was a typical, busy Thursday afternoon at the Mall of America's first-floor Starbucks, and Erik Forman was four hours into his shift. The slight, 23-year-old barista was...
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Feature
The Legend of Hidden Beach
The Twin Cities' most infamous party spot has undergone a makeover—but try telling that to the regulars
By Matt Snyders
Published: June 25, 2008
You wouldn't notice it unless you stumbled on it. You couldn't find it unless you were looking for it. Nestled beyond a dead-end street in Minneapolis's Kenwood neighborhood,...
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News
Pawlenty flip-flops on Cuba just in time to cozy up to McCain
Is Gov. Tim Pawlenty's change of heart politically motivated?
By Matt Snyders
Published: June 11, 2008
When Ralph Kaehler made his 15th trip to Cuba this spring, he grew more convinced than ever that the U.S.'s trade policy toward the island nation needed revamping. Part of a...
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Features
Indie comedy label Stand Up! has produced the edgiest comedy in the country
The Twin Cities-based laugh factory offers smart hope in dumb times
By Matt Snyders
Published: May 21, 2008
It's 8:30 p.m. at the Triple Rock Social Club and Doug Stanhope is on in 30 minutes.For the third April in a row, the iconoclastic pied piper and self-proclaimed "deadbeat...
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News
Moles Wanted
In preparation for the Republican National Convention, the FBI is soliciting informants to keep tabs on local protest groups
By Matt Snyders
Published: May 21, 2008
Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated. Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he’d been served a gross misdemeanor for...
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News
Film racing tour puts movie in fast forward
A crew of over-caffeinated students and recent grads put a film to bed in 24 hours
By Matt Snyders
Published: May 14, 2008
The digital clock in St. Cloud State's student newsroom reads 10:01 p.m. It's time. "All right, people," says Brian Prom, a tall guy with glasses, short gelled hair, and a...
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A-List
Doug Stanhope
By Matt Snyders
Published: April 9, 2008
It's unfortunate, and a bit ironic, that Doug Stanhope's most ubiquitous utterance: "Show us where babies feed!" is delivered to us via an overplayed Girls Gone Wild...
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News
State lawmaker tries to ban Salvia...
...so we decide to try the potent, legal psychedelic ourselves.
By Matt Snyders
Published: April 9, 2008
There's something vaguely unsettling about the myriad YouTube clips of people tripping on Salvia divinorum.Watching a young kid's eyes glaze over after just one bong rip and...
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News
The Current shrinks its playlist
Slogan aside, 89.3 limits its list of songs
By Matt Snyders
Published: March 26, 2008
It's 6:59 p.m. in Minnesota Public Radio's downtown St. Paul offices, and Mark Wheat is on in 40 seconds. "I prefer to stand when I'm on air," says the long-limbed,...
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Features
Jesus Weekend
When teens encounter Christ, all hell breaks loose
By Matt Snyders
Published: March 5, 2008
When my mother, a public high school teacher in rural Iowa, entered her classroom to find the occasional Bible verse or Jesus-themed riddle scrawled on the whiteboard, she...
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Features
Skinheads at Forty
Twenty years after their heyday, the anti-racist Baldies recount the rise and fall of a notorious Twin Cities scene
By Matt Snyders
Published: February 20, 2008
Dusk was descending as a dozen skinheads eyed their counterparts across Lagoon Avenue. The ragtag crew stood their ground, the rubber soles of their Doc Martens defiantly...
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News
The Real Brock Lesnar
"The Next Big Thing" looks to live up to his WWE moniker in the UFC
By Matt Snyders
Published: February 6, 2008
Watching Brock Lesnar engage in no-contact sparring is like watching a polar bear perform an interpretive dance. At the Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Brooklyn Center,...
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Features
A raucous Iowa caucus
The Wizard of Odds: Iowa begins the road to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul
By Matt Snyders
Published: January 9, 2008
Every four years, Iowa transforms from an inconspicuous little rural state into a veritable clusterfuck of egomaniacal presidential candidates and predatory media types....
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News
Iranian Football
Top gridiron recruit Willie Mobley has one eye on the Big Ten and the other on geopolitics
By Matt Snyders
Published: December 12, 2007
It's easy to forget that Willie Mobley is 18 years old. Sporting a full beard and a frizzy quasi-fro, the 6-foot-2-inch, 250-pound defensive lineman looks more like a man...
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Feature
The Full MOA
Think Black Friday was bad? Try living at the Mall of America for a whole week
By Matt Snyders
Published: November 28, 2007
For many Twin Cities residents, the Mall of America means one thing: Your out-of-town friends are visiting and want to see the cities' most obvious landmark. Our much-maligned...
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News
Tutu Speaks
The Nobel Laureate deemed too offensive by the University of St. Thomas offers his thoughts in an exclusive interview
By Matt Snyders
Published: November 21, 2007
In April, faculty at the University of St. Thomas's Justice and Peace Studies program were on track to book celebrated civil rights activist and Nobel Laureate Archbishop...
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