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, 2022February 9, 2024
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, 2022December 18, 2023
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
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Men tied to alleged Feeding Our Future fraud donated to reelection campaign of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, records show. by Andrew Hazzard and Becky Z. Dernbach January 26, 2022September 20, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Feds investigate nonprofit incorporated by Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman in alleged Feeding Our Future food fraud. by Hibah Ansari, Andrew Hazzard and Becky Z. Dernbach January 24, 2022December 22, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK During the pandemic, employers asked immigrant workers in Minnesota to risk their health, safety, and status. In a new study, workers say they often got nothing in return. by Ibrahim Hirsi January 12, 2022January 13, 2022
Posted inCHANGING MINNESOTA As a farm kid in South Dakota, Megan Schnitker learned about Indigenous medicines from her Lakota uncle and great-grandmother. Now she’s offering Native plant-based remedies at a new store in Mankato. by Hannah Yang January 4, 2022January 5, 2022
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Pinnacle Logistics employees in Eagan walk off the job after alleged anti-Muslim remark from supervisor. by Joey Peters December 14, 2021December 18, 2023
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Still struggling on Lake Street: Immigrant-owned businesses have reopened, but sales are down sharply, crime is up, and insurance is hard to find. by Joey Peters October 14, 2021October 14, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Changing a flight in Afghanistan? Wiring money to Ethiopia? Facebook crash severs connections between Minnesotans and family abroad. by Hibah Ansari October 5, 2021October 5, 2021
Posted inSTORIES FROM THE PANDEMIC Free muffins, a fancy cappuccino machine, and a $1,000 signing bonus: A Minnesota school-bus-company CEO talks about the struggle to hire drivers amid the pandemic worker shortage. by Ibrahim Hirsi October 5, 2021October 18, 2021
Posted inFood Red Wolf Chai debuts at farmers markets with chai and chapatis from East Africa. by Hana Ikramuddin July 8, 2021July 8, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Now entering the mainstream market: Hilal Ibrahim’s sustainably-made luxury hijabs for Nordstrom by Hibah Ansari July 8, 2021July 8, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Too much work or not enough: Latinos in Minnesota describe one pandemic but two very different economies. by Joey Peters and Greta Kaul June 28, 2021June 28, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Immigrants and refugees are key to the Minneapolis economy. Here’s the data to prove it. by Hibah Ansari June 23, 2021June 23, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Out of the ashes of the George Floyd protests, an Ethiopian restaurant is reborn in a new neighborhood by Emalyn Muzzy June 3, 2021July 7, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK In efforts to rebuild south Minneapolis from unrest following the George Floyd murder, a push for more community control. by Andrew Hazzard April 26, 2021April 27, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK VIDEO: ‘We’re bystanders. Why are they taking it out on us?’ Immigrant business owners on Lake Street share fears about looting in Minneapolis. by Michael Tortorello and Dymanh Chhoun April 15, 2021April 15, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Taxpayers, essential workers, homeowners: A portrait of Minnesota’s immigrant population by Hibah Ansari March 30, 2021March 30, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Latina entrepreneurs find a space online to thrive in pandemic. by Kathryn Styer Martinez March 27, 2021April 2, 2021
Posted inCOMMUNITY VOICES Jeffrey Bissoy-Mattis: There is a rich pipeline of Black talent in the Twin Cities. It still can be hard to find out about events and opportunities. by Jeffrey Bissoy March 11, 2021March 11, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Latino small business stay resilient through a ‘pandemic year.’ by Kathryn Styer Martinez March 3, 2021March 3, 2021
Posted inCOMMUNITY VOICES I got my first job in the U.S. at an Amazon fulfillment center in Minnesota. The work was dehumanizing and awful. by Safiyo Mohamed January 25, 2021November 5, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Tentative contract agreement gives Minnesota home care workers a 15 percent raise. by Dan Gunderson January 18, 2021January 18, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Some Latino businesses in Minnesota call 2020 their worst year ever. by Joey Peters January 15, 2021January 18, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Beauty in the time of pandemic: After a year of planning, Ritual Med Spa found itself opening up at a time when ‘people couldn’t pay the rent.’ by Sheila Regan December 10, 2020December 14, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK African immigrants to the U.S. have a lot in common. National conference organized by St. Paul-based group seeks to pull it all together. by Sheila Regan December 9, 2020December 17, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK After cultural clashes at a food plant in Moorhead, Somali workers and management talked their way to an understanding. We asked them how they did it. by Kait Ecker October 8, 2020October 8, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘You can see the disrespect’: Workers at Amazon center in Minnesota walk out, claiming rushed work conditions, unjust firing. by Joey Peters October 2, 2020October 2, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Some women business owners say they’ve felt neglected by the Minnesota Hmong Chamber of Commerce. Yao Yang is determined to change that. by Abdirahman Mohamed August 31, 2020September 5, 2020
Posted inCoronavirus Cameroonian American combats COVID-19 back home by building software in Minnesota. by Jeffrey Bissoy August 28, 2020August 30, 2020
Posted inThe killing of George Floyd In a campaign stop, Trump asked immigrant business owners to air their grievances about the unrest in Minneapolis. Here are the Lake Street store owners he missed. by Jaida Grey Eagle August 17, 2020August 17, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minnesota is helping malls that serve immigrant communities survive the COVID-19 downturn. How much aid will their tenants see? by Joey Peters August 7, 2020August 30, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Governor Tim Walz visits Somali mall in Minneapolis and declares commitment to help businesses. Some ask if commitment is enough. by Joey Peters August 4, 2020August 4, 2020
Posted inThe killing of George Floyd Is Cup Foods reopening too soon after George Floyd’s killing? Or is it time to get back to business? by Sheila Regan August 4, 2020August 4, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘The cash is piling up’: Hawala money transfers provide a financial lifeline for thousands of families. What stopped the money flow from Minnesota to Somalia? by Ibrahim Hirsi July 23, 2020July 23, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK What happens when you lose your job—and the government won’t help? by Becky Z. Dernbach July 9, 2020July 10, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Immigrant retailers reopened shops in neighborhood malls. Customers haven’t returned by Ibrahim Hirsi July 2, 2020July 4, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Left in ashes by unrest, Twin Cities entrepreneurs begin to navigate insurance claims to rebuild their businesses by Joey Peters June 10, 2020June 12, 2020
Posted inCULTURE & COMMUNITY With police absent, Lake Street business owners form their own night patrols by Becky Z. Dernbach June 5, 2020June 5, 2020
Posted inThe killing of George Floyd Immigrant business owners, hit hard by vandalism and looting, say they want justice for George Floyd by Joey Peters and Ibrahim Hirsi May 29, 2020June 2, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Urge to buy local in time of pandemic pushes Hmong farmers to move online by Jessica Jurcek May 28, 2020May 28, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Unemployment claims up — way up — among Asian Minnesotans by Riham Feshir May 20, 2020May 24, 2020
Posted inCOMMUNITY VOICES Hudda Ibrahim: Coronavirus hits central Minnesota’s Somali-owned businesses hard by Hudda Ibrahim May 4, 2020May 4, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Immigrant micro-business owners band together to seek rent and mortgage relief by Natalie Cierzan April 27, 2020April 27, 2020
Posted inCoronavirus Wax walba ood u baahan tahay in aad ka ogaato barnaamij-yada taakuleynta ee loogu tala galay dadka uu saameeyay COVID-19 ee degan gobolka Minnesota by Joey Peters April 16, 2020August 30, 2020
Posted inCoronavirus Todo lo que necesita saber sobre los beneficios y programas de ayuda disponibles para los residentes de Minnesota afectados por COVID-19 by Joey Peters April 16, 2020August 30, 2020
Posted inCoronavirus Txhua yam koj yuavtsum paub txog cov kev pab thiab kev pabcuam uas muaj rau cov tib neeg hauv Minnesota uas tau raug kev kub ntxhov los ntawm COVID-19 by Joey Peters April 16, 2020August 30, 2020
Posted inCoronavirus Everything you need to know about benefits and relief programs available to Minnesota residents affected by COVID-19 by Joey Peters April 15, 2020August 30, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minneapolis gap funding programs aim to provide assistance to all residents, regardless of immigration status by Natalie Cierzan April 8, 2020April 8, 2020
Posted inCoronavirus Afro Deli delivers free meals during the COVID-19 pandemic by Joey Peters March 25, 2020August 30, 2020
Posted inHEALTH ‘Things are changing every hour’: Immigrant business owners in the Twin Cities grapple with coronavirus restrictions by Joey Peters March 19, 2020December 8, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minnesota creates high-level post to help connect employers, immigrants by Joey Peters February 21, 2020April 1, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK Minneapolis East African shops boost security after vandalism by Becky Z. Dernbach November 1, 2019April 1, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK, EDUCATION As demand for coding skills rise, New Vision Foundation trains Twin Cities immigrant kids by Joey Peters October 2, 2019April 1, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK ‘Not your typical networking event’: Somali professionals showcase talent at inaugural national conference by Mukhtar M. Ibrahim September 1, 2019August 18, 2021
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK In fight for better working conditions, Somalis find their voice by Ibrahim Hirsi August 23, 2019June 16, 2020
Posted inBUSINESS & WORK East Africans clock in with hope, hard work on Minnesota’s thankless jobs by Solomon Gustavo August 22, 2019April 1, 2020