Social Issues

Students use drama to talk about being immigrants
Some fourth graders at a St. Paul elementary school are taking a creative approach to the hot topic of immigration, performing a play they conceived and wrote about what it means to be an immigrant.
Heffelfinger a target over voting rights for Indians
The latest revelation comes in a report Thursday in the Los Angeles Times, which says Heffelfinger may have been placed on a list of U.S. attorneys to be fired because his office was working to protect the voting rights of off-reservation Indians in Minnesota.
The American way of death
Americans are finding new and creative ways to mark their deaths, from buying fantasy coffins to having their ashes shot into space. Midmorning examines the customs and rituals our society has developed for dealing with death, and how they are changing.
Death Becomes Us
The rituals of death tell us a lot about the living. What do our customs say about our society? And how do our practices shape the way we view our final fate?
Somali refugee students struggle through school
Teenage Somali refugees in Rochester often have a hard road ahead of them if they hope to graduate from high school.
An analysis of the Senate immigration deal
The Bush administration and the Senate have agreed on an immigration reform deal that would grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants and strengthen the border, but critics on the left and the right are already taking aim at the bill.
A song shows the way to a new home
The personal story of a Somali man who left war-torn Mogadishu with his family for a new life in Minnesota has been adapted for a new song, commissioned by the Minnesota Chorale. It's part of the chorale's collaboration with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.
Parenting in public
A new Minnesota Public Radio program called "How's the Family?" is about the families we're born into, the families we choose and, in the case of the debut broadcast, the families that are thrust upon us.
West Bank festival has Pan-African vision
Organizers are developing the Twin Cities' first Pan-African cultural festival. "Afrifest" is designed to introduce Minnesota's African immigrants to each other and the larger population.
States told to improve American Indian student achievement
Education officials from Minnesota and four other states say states need to do a better job of teaching both Indian and non-Indian students about American Indian culture.