Neighborhood editor makes his last stand a legal one

Ed Felien's last stand is headquartered in a tattered and timeworn warren of rooms above a Mexican restaurant near Chicago Avenue and Lake Street. The floorboards creak from nearly 20 years of pacing and pondering the issues that occupy south Minneapolis, and sometimes, the world: Airport noise. Foreclosures. The Middle East. Tax cuts. A bake sale at the Eagles Club. Where to get a good burger.

Felien, editor and publisher of Southside Pride, is now 70, with a head of gray hair. Cheater glasses hang around his neck. A lion in winter. Shivers the cat, rescued from the cold one winter, snoozes under Felien's desk as he talks about his latest battle. And if you are Ed Felien, there is always a battle.

Felien's first opponent, way back during the Vietnam engagement, was apathy. He fought it by handing out anti-war leaflets in Dinkytown to disinterested students, then with an underground newspaper called "Hundred Flowers," a publication he admits was "very shrill."

As a Minneapolis City Council member from 1974 to 1976, Felien fought the likes of Northern States Power Co. Along the way if there was a leftist cause, Felien was probably on it, albeit arguing mostly to a small audience of believers. He even filed a writ to get President George W. Bush arrested as a criminal during the Republican National Convention.

But now Felien is under siege from a new opponent, and it's for a 2005 article in Pulse, a Felien publication that has not even existed since 2007. An article titled "A Roof Over Their Heads," featured an opening paragraph about Sela Roofing and Remodeling. A former client of Sela's commented on the long hours put in by Latino workers on his job and had an unflattering opinion of the work.

The story then took a rather abrupt turn and veered off into a story of how Latino workers were frequently exploited, especially immigrants. The article did not accuse Sela of any of these offenses, but it didn't name any other companies, either. Lawyers for Sela argue that mentioning the company "would lead a reasonable reader to conclude that Sela was culpable for such conduct."

(It didn't lead this reader to that conclusion, but lots of people could challenge whether I might be called reasonable.)

John Steffenhagen, an attorney for Sela, said the roofing company tried to negotiate with Felien since the story first ran. Steffenhagen agrees with Felien that the statute of limitations for defamation is two years, but because the article still lives in Internet archives that refresh every day with that day's date, it appears the article is new. If it simply existed in outdated archives, "we wouldn't be here," said Steffenhagen, who seems to have no desire to ruin a small publisher just because he can.

The company wants the story changed or removed, and knows it won't get any money out of a guy who has run a tiny neighborhood newspaper most of his life. "We've told him from the beginning we're not seeking money," Steffenhagen said. "He says he's somebody who cares about the First Amendment, but we do too," he added. "The story is inaccurate."

If the case goes to court, it will go before the same judge who refused Felien's writ to have the president arrested.

Back in his office one recent sunny morning, Felien was at turns defiant and amiable. Above him on the wall was a picture of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. On another wall, Bob Dylan.

"I'm proud of the piece," Felien said. "It was one of the first that said Latino workers are being exploited in the roofing industry. I say 'damn it, just because they've got a lot of money, I'm not going to take it off the website.' All I've got left is my grandchildren's good opinion of me."

Felien leaned back in his chair, his voice rising.

"It's kind of exciting for me to go out with one last hurrah," he said. "Oh man, are you kidding me? I wasn't afraid of the TAC squad in the 1970s, I'm not afraid of these guys.

"To quote George W. Bush: 'Bring it on.'"

jon.tevlin@startribune.com 612-673-1702