Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Marijuana advocates urge Gov. Walz to appoint local entrepreneur, scientist as state’s cannabis czar by Joey Peters 23 hours agoSeptember 29, 2023 Some marijuana advocates and insiders want Clemon Dabney to lead the state’s new Office of Cannabis Management.
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minneapolis council members revive effort to pass rideshare ordinances after defeat by Alfonzo Galvan September 21, 2023September 22, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minneapolis workers from across industries call on city to establish labor standards board by Alfonzo Galvan September 21, 2023September 22, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Lake Street businesses prepare for Mexican Independence Day celebration by Alfonzo Galvan September 15, 2023September 15, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Your Minnesota rebate check is coming from Montana. What to look out for when it comes in the mail. by Gustav DeMars September 11, 2023September 12, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Cultural Destinations booth at Minnesota State Fair connects diverse businesses to wider audience by Alfonzo Galvan August 31, 2023September 1, 2023
Posted inNEWS PARTNERS Explore Latino businesses at the Minnesota State Fair by Nicole Johnson August 31, 2023August 31, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Social worker Lamar Hill draws from experience as a biracial foster child by Andrew Muthoni August 31, 2023August 31, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK First time at the Minnesota State Fair? Here’s how it went for me by Alfonzo Galvan August 29, 2023August 29, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Former Sears building’s new owner breaks silence on its potential future by Alfonzo Galvan August 29, 2023September 1, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Mayor Frey vetoes Minneapolis rideshare ordinance, announces changes for Uber drivers by Alfonzo Galvan August 22, 2023August 22, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Here comes the Minnesota State Fair! Are you ready? Some things to know before you go. by Alfonzo Galvan August 18, 2023August 23, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minneapolis City Council passes ordinance requiring increased wages for Uber and Lyft drivers, but falls short of veto-proof majority by Alfonzo Galvan August 17, 2023August 18, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Amazon facility in Brooklyn Park provides hijabs for Muslim workers through new partnership by Alfonzo Galvan August 16, 2023August 16, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Uber, Lyft threaten to pull out of Minneapolis if council approves proposed ordinance by Alfonzo Galvan August 15, 2023August 17, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Proposed Uber, Lyft ordinance heads to Minneapolis City Council for approval by Alfonzo Galvan August 8, 2023August 8, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Two Minnesotans named to Obama Foundation Leaders USA program by Alfonzo Galvan August 4, 2023August 8, 2023
Posted inNews Uber, Lyft drivers call for wage increase as Minneapolis considers rideshare ordinance by Alfonzo Galvan July 25, 2023July 28, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK New Minnesota State Fair food vendors hope ethnic treats become fan favorites by Alfonzo Galvan July 14, 2023July 17, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Afro Deli, others join Minnesota State Fair as new food vendors by Alfonzo Galvan July 11, 2023July 11, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK How to get a job at the Minnesota State Fair by Alfonzo Galvan July 4, 2023July 5, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘We love rice’: Chef Yia Vang focuses on rice for newest pop up, Mov by Alfonzo Galvan June 16, 2023June 23, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Indigenous Food Lab Market celebrates Native ingredients and knowledge by Aaron Nesheim June 6, 2023June 9, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Marc Heu Patisserie Paris: A place for Hmong grandmas to shy teenagers by Alfonzo Galvan June 2, 2023June 2, 2023
Posted inDEMOCRACY & POLITICS New legislation protects Hmong farming collective in Dakota County by Alfonzo Galvan May 30, 2023May 31, 2023
Posted inDEMOCRACY & POLITICS Governor Tim Walz vetoes rideshare bill against Uber, Lyft drivers’ wishes by Alfonzo Galvan May 25, 2023May 25, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Uber, Lyft bill passes Senate; rideshare companies ask Governor Walz to veto by Alfonzo Galvan May 22, 2023May 25, 2023
Posted inNEWS PARTNERS A new grocery store in St. Paul: Karen and Nepali Foods by Regina Medina May 18, 2023May 19, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK East African Business Association aims to strengthen immigrant business owners by Alfonzo Galvan May 16, 2023May 17, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK St. Paul’s The Tooth Fairy Candy Store offers sweets and a lesson in entrepreneurship by Alfonzo Galvan May 11, 2023May 16, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Beloved Minneapolis bakery Keefer Court to reopen at Asia Mall in late 2023 by Katelyn Vue May 9, 2023May 9, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Afro Deli owner named National Small Business Person of the Year by Alfonzo Galvan May 1, 2023June 9, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK New state research shows that immigration could help ease Minnesota’s labor shortage by Alfonzo Galvan April 25, 2023April 25, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minnesota House approves safety bill for workers at Amazon facilities and other warehouses by Alfonzo Galvan April 24, 2023May 1, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK No tienes documentos y no sabes cómo declarar tus impuestos? by Alfonzo Galvan April 17, 2023April 17, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Cajeta Coffee debuts in White Bear Lake, offering a taste of Mexico by Samantha HoangLong April 17, 2023April 17, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Activists, farmers raise concerns about equity measures in Minnesota’s marijuana legalization bill by Joey Peters April 12, 2023April 13, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Twin Cities Cub grocery workers ‘overwhelmingly’ approve new union contract by Alfonzo Galvan April 11, 2023April 11, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Cub grocery store workers avert strike after reaching a new contract by Alfonzo Galvan April 7, 2023April 7, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Amazon shutters Shakopee facility, agrees to transfer hundreds of workers by Alfonzo Galvan March 31, 2023March 31, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘Elevate and empower’: How St. Cloud’s Diverse Voices Press is filling a gap in children’s literature by Alfonzo Galvan March 30, 2023March 31, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Undocumented and wondering how to file your taxes? Here’s a guide to filing federal and state taxes. by Alfonzo Galvan March 28, 2023May 24, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘Why are they closing Walmart?’: Community members are upset over announced closure of store in Brooklyn Center by Alfonzo Galvan March 23, 2023March 23, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘I’m the chef now’: Afro Deli owner Abdirahman Kahin named Minnesota Small Business Person of the Year by Alfonzo Galvan March 21, 2023March 21, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK A fresh fade right at home: Black student-athletes at St. Olaf start campus barber shop featured in CBS Sports documentary by Alfonzo Galvan March 15, 2023March 16, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Pineda Tacos’ ‘Millenial grey’ restroom drives Internet wild in viral TikTok video by Alfonzo Galvan March 3, 2023March 3, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘It brought purpose’: Two friends start Fire Mountain Fabrics in between chemo sessions by Alfonzo Galvan March 1, 2023March 24, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Twin Cities hospital workers call out racism at work, demand change from employers by Alfonzo Galvan February 21, 2023February 23, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘Everybody in that building shops here’: community mourns loss of north Minneapolis Aldi store by Alfonzo Galvan February 10, 2023February 10, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Workers’ rights group questions Amazon’s motive for closing Shakopee facility by Alfonzo Galvan February 3, 2023February 3, 2023
Posted inNEWS PARTNERS Amazon tells Minnesota it will shut down Shakopee center, lay off 680 workers by Nina Moini January 30, 2023January 30, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Selfies with a side of sweets: Twin Cities Mexican ice cream shop uses its social media popularity to attract customers. by Alfonzo Galvan January 30, 2023January 31, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Mustard greens, enoki mushrooms, and fufu: Brooklyn Park business delivers Asian and African pantry essentials to front doors by Nikhil Kumaran January 26, 2023January 27, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK From suitcases to herbs: How one Lake Street business survived the pandemic by offering medicinal herbs by Alfonzo Galvan January 23, 2023January 23, 2023
Posted inNEWS PARTNERS George Floyd family fund accepting grant applications to help Minneapolis by Maya Rao January 13, 2023January 13, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Uber and Lyft drivers raise concerns about pay and benefits to company representatives, Minneapolis city leaders by Alfonzo Galvan January 12, 2023January 13, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Entrepreneurs of color demand equity and access in revived effort to legalize recreational marijuana in Minnesota. by Joey Peters December 12, 2022December 13, 2022
Posted inHOUSING Real estate investors sold Somali families on a fast track to homeownership in Minnesota. The buyers risk losing everything. by Jessica Lussenhop, Joey Peters and Haru Coryne November 21, 2022July 10, 2023
Posted inHOUSING Can’t make the payments on your contract for deed? Here’s where to look for help. by Joey Peters November 21, 2022December 1, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK A vintage jersey leads to small business dreams for the Salado-Herrera brothers. by Mike Mosedale November 14, 2022November 14, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Amazon employees walk out at Eagan warehouse over planned layoffs. by Joey Peters November 1, 2022November 2, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Asia Mall plans a soft opening this month after summer debut was delayed. by Nikhil Kumaran November 1, 2022November 1, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Making It in Minnesota: Why a Turkish immigrant left her graduate studies at Notre Dame to open a housewares boutique in St. Paul. by Mike Mosedale October 31, 2022November 3, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK CenturyLink offers slower internet service to Black and brown neighborhoods in Minneapolis, new report claims. by Becky Z. Dernbach October 21, 2022October 25, 2022
Posted inNEWS PARTNERS Biltong, a dried meat snack from southern Africa, comes to Minnesota. by Brooks Johnson October 5, 2022October 5, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Entrepreneur Juan Mejia persevered as banks turned him down for loans. Recent research says people of color disproportionately face challenges accessing credit. by Joey Peters September 1, 2022September 1, 2022
Posted inNEWS PARTNERS Entrepreneur Houston White is building Black economic power in north Minneapolis. by Rachel Hutton August 22, 2022August 22, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Piles of plastic and styrofoam plates spurred Ying Xiong to create Hmong-inspired, compostable dinnerware. by Aarushi Sen July 21, 2022July 22, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK What’s Vivian Aronson’s recipe for social media stardom? Old pickle brine and a dose of authenticity. by Anna Nguyen July 21, 2022July 26, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Mary Taris couldn’t find enough books with Black characters for her children. Now, she’s opening a bookstore in downtown Minneapolis. by Noor Adwan July 18, 2022July 18, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Honduran couple brings bilingual law firm, gourmet coffee to St. Paul’s Como Park neighborhood. by Mike Mosedale July 15, 2022July 18, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Mohamed Malim uplifts refugee experience through fashion brand, Epimonia. by Noor Adwan July 11, 2022July 11, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK North Minneapolis bank is reborn as an incubator for Black-owned businesses. by Megan Burks and Tom Crann July 7, 2022July 7, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK One family’s race across town for the best Asian foods inspired the Twin Cities’ first pan-Asian mall. by Aarushi Sen July 6, 2022July 7, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK More than just a game: Minneapolis company strives to make culturally accurate, online learning tools. by Vicki Adame June 30, 2022June 30, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Amazon’s Shakopee workers rally for better pay, criticize company for not giving Muslim employees vacation on Eid. by Matt Furber June 17, 2022June 20, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Workers’ rights group calls on Twin Cities developers to help stop worker abuse. by Aarushi Sen June 16, 2022June 16, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK A summer romance blossoms into marriage, a shared career for Twin Cities filmmakers. by Mike Mosedale June 13, 2022June 13, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK What to know about applying for Minnesota’s front-line worker bonus by Grace Birnstengel June 10, 2022December 21, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Muslim workers say they suffered religious discrimination at Worldwide Flight Services. After the employees protested, they say supervisors assigned them extra tasks like cleaning bathrooms. by Joey Peters June 1, 2022June 1, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Tom Gitaa started a two-page digest of African news a quarter century ago. Today, Mshale is Minnesota’s longest-running newspaper serving African immigrants. by Mike Mosedale May 24, 2022May 24, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Som Boualaphanh came from a refugee camp in Thailand to build a new life in Minnesota. Now, as the cofounder and partner in a full-service engineering firm, he’s helping to build medical centers and industrial facilities. by Mike Mosedale May 18, 2022June 7, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minnesota businesses run by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were hit hard by the pandemic and a rise in hate crimes. An expo will try to help them build back. by Katelyn Vue May 11, 2022May 10, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK A cooling housing market drove Florence Karp out of the mortgage business. Launching a Nigerian hot sauce, Afric, put Karp into business for herself. by Mike Mosedale May 10, 2022May 10, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Akeem Akway used to cut hair for his Fridley high school pals at $5 a pop. Now he owns three barber shops and crafts $100 fades for some of the biggest names in Minnesota sports. by Mike Mosedale April 6, 2022April 7, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK A tattoo artist from China finds a new home—and opportunity—on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue. by Mike Mosedale March 19, 2022January 27, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Kevin Aldwaik learned early that he didn’t fit in the corporate world. He does fit behind the counter of his tidy corner store, serving the Webber-Camden neighborhood of north Minneapolis. by Mike Mosedale March 13, 2022March 13, 2022
Posted inCLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT Nigerian immigrant Wale Falade thinks Minnesota is ready to see more work by architects of color. His own firm, FIHAN, just won the bid to redesign Minneapolis’ North Commons Park. by Sheila Mulrooney Eldred March 8, 2022March 9, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Midtown Global Market once was a cutting-edge incubator for entrepreneurs of color. But the challenges have piled up, and some vendors are worried about its future. by James Norton March 4, 2022March 7, 2022
Posted inCOMMUNITY VOICES Anne Leland Clark: Payday loan debts have financially hobbled thousands of Minnesotans. Lawmakers and other elected officials must advocate for reform in lending practices, including interest rate caps. by Anne Leland Clark February 24, 2022February 24, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Amalia Moreno-Damgaard quit her job in banking to become a chef and entrepreneur. All she had to do was go back to school, invent a new career, and never stop taking risks. by Mike Mosedale February 21, 2022February 21, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Kamal Mohamed wants to serve new, Ethiopian-inspired food at his dining spot, StepChld. He also wants to throw out the old, tyrannical ways of running a restaurant. by Mecca Bos February 19, 2022February 22, 2022
Posted inCHANGING MINNESOTA As a girl in Wisconsin, ThaoMee Xiong’s immigrant father worked the halls of her school – as its janitor. Decades later, she works the halls of power in Minnesota for the Coalition of Asian American Leaders. by Katelyn Vue February 16, 2022February 16, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK As a child in Cameroon, Samuel Ngwa picked coffee beans on his family’s small farm. He never expected he’d start a coffee import business of his own—in Minnesota. by Mike Mosedale February 13, 2022February 14, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Making It in Minnesota: Arnold Kubei went bankrupt trying to launch a Twin Cities gas station. Less than 10 years later, the immigrant entrepreneur from Cameroon expects to collect more than $5 million providing social services and housing. by Mike Mosedale February 7, 2022February 7, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK While Feeding Our Future brought in millions of dollars in federal food aid money last year, its director also launched a GoFundMe campaign that brought in tens of thousands more. by Joey Peters February 4, 2022September 20, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Why hasn’t anyone been charged in the Feeding Our Future investigation? And what’s a search warrant, anyway? We asked a defense attorney to explain what’s happened so far in the alleged food fraud case—and what happens next. by Hibah Ansari February 2, 2022February 23, 2022
Posted inNews Feeding Our Future director blames Minnesota Department of Education for food aid probe. by Joey Peters February 1, 2022February 23, 2022
Posted inCOMMUNITY VOICES Hamse Warfa: Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development has made big strides toward expanding opportunities to Minnesotans of all backgrounds. Here’s how the agency did it. by Hamse Warfa January 31, 2022January 31, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Making It in Minnesota: Filipino customers will drive for hours to find food from home. Herman and Faith Rott opened a new grocery store in Mounds View to give it to them. by Mike Mosedale January 28, 2022January 29, 2022