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THE VOICE OF BLACK MINNESOTA SINCE 1934 July 16 - 22, 2026
Vol. 92
Phone: 612-827-4021 www.spokesman-recorder.com
No. 50
National parks charge foreign visitors more, and history gets a harder look
By Anya Armentrout Contributing Writer
n July 3, 2025, President Trump announced that he would increase fees for international visitors to certain national parks. Over a year later, the policy is still raising questions. For an American family of four, entrance to the parks by vehicle would cost $35, total. For non-citizens, it would cost $435 because of a $100-perperson surcharge. Those fees also increase the price of a year-long America the Beautiful pass from $80 to $250. The increase applies to some of the nation’s most popular spots: Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and
Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion. This fee more than triples the price of visiting these parks, and how the policy will be enforced remains unclear. “How implementation should be happening has not been very transparent,” said Emily Thompson, director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “So what does this look like on the ground, and especially as we’re talking about parks who are certainly struggling with staffing already? It seems that this is an added burden to already overworked park staff.” Some park rangers have been instructed to ask visitors for proof of residence. For parks plagued by long lines and understaffing, that could be a difficult process. The new “America the Beautiful” pass, which grants U.S. residents access to national parks, now features a portrait of President ■ See PARKS on page 5 Trump alongside George Washington. NPR
Community pushes back on Minneapolis drone pilot program By Ella Stern Contributing Writer
squad car, and improve other city services, according to Office of Community Safety ommunity members (OCS) Chief of Staff Andy fervently objected Skoogman. “Minneapolis, like many citto what they described as surveil- ies across the country, conlance, complicity with Israel tinues to face [police] staffing and ineffective policing at the challenges,” Skoogman said. July 8 Public Health, Safety “If technology can help us and Equity (PHSE) Commit- improve efficiency, enhance tee meeting, where members safety and provide better serweighed a “Drones as First Re- vice to residents, we believe sponders” (DFR) pilot program. it’s worth exploring.” The two drones would Under the plan, the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) be stationed at Minneapowould use two Skydio drones, lis Fire Department’s Station launching them to sites of 911 14 in North Minneapolis and calls in Ward 4. Skydio is the launched only after the 911 largest drone manufacturer director’s approval, according in the United States and has to Fire Department Public Inprovided drones to the Israel formation Officer Brian FeinDefense Forces (IDF). Ward tech. Drones would stream 4 Council Member LaTrisha live video to dispatch, which Vetaw wrote a legislative di- would relay it to officers on rective last spring proposing the ground; if footage shows no further police presence is the DFR program.
"A drone will do nothing to solve this problem."
Community reckons with Patriot Front march By Jasmine McBride Editor he masked column that marched through Washington, D.C. on July 4 did not walk through Minneapolis or St. Paul. But for many in Minnesota’s Black community, the images traveled here anyway, landing in a body already carrying generations of the same story. “That is a reminder that these things are constant and consistent,” said Dr. Resmaa Menakem, therapist and author of “My Grandmother’s Hands,” of the images of white nationalists marching in formation. “It is only when something is so egregious, because we’ve been overriding for so long, that we go, wait a minute, that just happened. But it’s always happening.” Menakem said the danger isn’t only in the visible, “feral” moments, the marches, the viral images, but in what he
calls the “seductive” pieces of white body supremacy: the daily conditioning that teaches Black people to scan a room for exits, to keep their hands visible in a store, to survive by overriding rather than processing. Left untended, he said, that weathering shows up in the body for generations. He
During public comment, 40 community members asserted that the program is not how they want to be kept safe, and no one spoke in favor of the drones. PHSE decided unanimously to send the pilot program to a vote of the full City Council on July 16. If the program passes, Minneapolis would enter a 75-day free trial with Skydio to determine whether the drones reduce MPD’s response time, clear low-level calls without a
we just override it and get through it, and then it shows up in these ways.” That through line, from enslavement to the present, is also what retired Judge LaJune Thomas Lange points to in a written statement on the march. Lange noted that ■ See PATRIOT on page 5
Chris F
How four Black women bosses define wellness By Tiffany Johnson Contributing Writer
Sign put up at City Council by advocates against “Drones as First Responders” (DFR) pilot program. Ella Stern/MSR
traced his own understanding of it back to his grandmother’s hands, thick and calloused from a childhood picking cotton, a story she carried silently for decades before ever telling him why. “This is how this stuff gets transferred down,” Menakem said. “We don’t tend to it, so
of Endure Women’s Ministries, a nonprofit supporting women in ministry; Kelsey Joson, hen you hear the founder and CEO of InControl, word wellness, a wellness hub for adults with what comes to disabilities; Dr. Ayanna Rakhu, founder and CEO of Sankofa mind? I posed that question to Swim International, promoting four Black women leaders healing for Black and brown across sectors in Minnesota: bodies through water; and Reverend Joan Austin, founder Serena Wright, arts leader and
needed, responding officers could be freed for other calls. “Drones are not a replacement for police officers, for firefighters, for EMS personnel or other first responders,” Skoogman said. “They’re simply a tool that helps ensure the right resources are sent to the right call at the right time.” The Fourth Precinct sent Skydio its 2025 calls for service. Skydio determined its drones could have responded Reverend Joan Austin Endure Women's Ministries Kelsey Joson (right) InControl ■ See DRONES on page 5
former director in the University of Minnesota’s Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs. I invited each of them to share her perspective on what wellness means and how it shapes different areas of life. What emerged was a reservoir of wisdom, revealing the many ways wellness takes root, and the many ways
these women have built their own leadership around it. Reverend Austin has served as an ordained minister for more than 25 years, and for the past decade she’s run her own nonprofit. “To me, wellness means being wellrounded spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. ■ See BOSSES on page 5
Dr. Ayanna Rakhu (right) with her daughter and mother Sankofa Swim International
Serena Wright
Courtesy