Social Issues

As winter nears, food shelves aim to make harvest last
Many Minnesota food shelves are stocked this fall with foods they rarely offered two decades ago: squash, peas, watermelon, strawberries. That has some food shelf directors wishing they could make it last into the winter.
A visual timeline of the ongoing story of missing Somali men from Minnesota. The young men are suspected of being recruited and sent to fight in Somalia for terrorist organization Al-Shabaab.
Writer Jill Filipovic says that condemning premarital sex and promoting abstinence are not working. Lasting, loving relationships are made through intimacy, she said.
Rising Chinese cities: Are they learning from American mistakes?
When Foreign Policy unveiled its list of the world's most dynamic cities, one trend stuck out: 40 percent were in China. With a car-focused approach, some urban designers warn that China is making the same mistakes the United States did in the 20th century.
The Week in Commentary
A summary of the past week's commentaries and some of the comments we received in response.
As Minn. considers marriage amendment, a look at same-sex unions in Iowa
In 2009, Iowa's Supreme Court ruled that limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. It became the third state in the nation, and the first in the heartland, to legalize marriage between same-sex couples.
Welfare reform misses America's poorest
New research from the National Poverty Center shows that, while 1996 welfare reform has helped poor families, the "deeply poor" have seen a decrease in funds. This segment of the population has income of less than $11,500 for a family of four.