Gangs sometimes fire first shots online: Usually hidden from public view, the life of gangs weave in and out of some Facebook pages as kids wrapped up in Minneapolis gang life share their highs and lows on the social network. Posting in real time, their pages include hospital photographs after they've been shot, poses before the mirror with gang signs flashing, and a never-ending conversation rife with gang references, memorials to those who've been killed and threats to enemies. (Matt McKinney)
Monday roundup: Gangs on Facebook, a new birth center, an artificial swimming hole
City news roundup for Monday, July 16
By James Shiffer

Webber Park's new swimming hole to use natural filters: The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will soon demolish an old pool to make way for a pool-lake hybrid in Webber Park scheduled to open next summer. Instead of chlorine, wetland plants and a biological filter will purify the water -- the first pool of its kind in the country. (Masako Hirsch)
Birth center on Chicago Avenue offers home (like) delivery: The Minnesota Birth Center had its first delivery -- a girl -- at the end of May in a renovated Victorian house in south Minneapolis. Eventually, it expects to care for as many as 240 women a year. (Maura Lerner)
A concert promoter named Sue: She not only books the Minnesota Zoo, the Guthrie and the Basilica Block Party, but Minneapolis's Sue McLean is also the biggest independent female concert promoter in the world. (Jon Bream)

As haven for youth, club packs a punch: Circle of Discipline (right) at 1201 E. Lake St. provides troubled kids with boxing instruction and programs developing skills to cope with school and life. (Craig Malveaux)
Hennepin County joins effort to revive Fort Snelling's Upper Post (Kevin Duchschere)
Intercity Trail for Minneapolis, Richfield and Bloomington is last link in chain (Mary Jane Smetanka)
Identity released of veteran whose grave was desecrated (Nicole Norfleet)
about the writer
James Shiffer
The state GOP wants to resolve intraparty feuds before the 2026 election. But some Republicans are calling for the party to cut out its fringe factions, not work with them.