Your Voices

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Your Voices

Your Voices features unique perspectives from members of your community. Here you’ll find commentary on current events, public issues and day-to-day life in Minnesota.

Dessa

By Dessa

Dessa is a rapper, an essayist, and a proud member of the Doomtree collective. She's got a philosophy degree and a weakness for amaretto. You can find her music at www.doomtree.net/dessa; follow her at @dessadarling.

Nathaniel Hood

By Nathaniel Hood

Nathaniel Hood is a transportation planner and blogger living in St. Paul. He writes for Strong Towns and Streets.MN.

Tim Kennedy

By Tim Kennedy

Tim is an elementary school teacher who gets to spend the endless days of summer with his two sons. He strives to have at least one "adventure" with them every day during this time. It breaks up the monotony, and keeps his boys from resorting to erosion experiments with the hose in the back yard. Tim shares his free or low-cost daily adventure ideas here.

Stacy Bettison

By Stacy Bettison

Stacy L. Bettison, Esq. is the owner of Bettison Consulting LLC, a strategic communications and media relations firm. She has honed an expert blend of communications, business and legal acumen developed over 15 years as a communications strategist and attorney. She's a trusted confidant and strategist for her clients, helping them manage worst-case scenarios, must-win moments and everything in between.

Alexcia Jellum

By Alexcia Jellum

Alexcia Jellum is the Twin Cities New Media Producer for the Revolution Hunger Campaign, where she blogs and works to raise awareness about hunger. Alexcia is a senior at Central High School. She looks forward to college and wants to major in communications and minor in film. She is a firm believer that creativity can have a profound impact.

Barry ZeVan

By Barry ZeVan

Continuously in the professional broadcasting and entertainment industry since age 5, Barry is a Telly Award-winning and three-time Emmy-nominated producer, writer, director, talent and production designer, locally, nationally and internationally. He garnered the highest local ratings in U.S. television broadcasting history as “Barry ZeVan, The Weatherman” in Minneapolis-St. Paul in the mid-1970s. His Star Tribune weekly webcasts often reflect his unusually remarkable life experiences with colleagues and friends who are, and were, global leaders in the entertainment and political arenas.

Reuben Saltzman

By Reuben Saltzman

Reuben Saltzman is a second-generation home inspector with a passion for his work. Naturally, this blog is all about home inspections and home-related topics in the Twin Cities metro area. In addition to working at Structure Tech, he is also a licensed Truth-In-Sale of Housing Evaluator in Minneapolis, Saint Paul and several other cities.

Jonathan Blake

By Jonathan Blake

Jonathan Blake is vice president of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota. In this role, he serves as a policy analyst, research director, and legislative liaison. Prior to joining the Freedom Foundation in 2008, Blake was a public policy and communications consultant for numerous public and private sector clients, primarily focusing on transportation policy, public finance, and intergovernmental coordination. He lives in Woodbury with his family.

Erin Clotfelter

By Erin Clotfelter

I am a Minneapolis mom to three boys under the age of 3, two recently diagnosed with autism. I blog about autism, motherhood and my life outnumbered by boys at The Slacker Mom.

Jen Emmert

By Jen Emmert

Jen Emmert writes at PriorFatGirl, candidly documenting her journey of losing 100 pounds through all of life's dramatic moments including new jobs, the death of her mom, wedding planning and, most recently, tornadoes. Jen's story has been seen in SHAPE Magazine, AOL.com, Woman's Day Magazine and many local news outlets. Follow her journey as she continues to fight for healthiness in an unhealthy world.