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Community education is key in combatting vaping and hookah use among Somali Minnesotans   Tobacco educators reach out to families about the dangers of smoking — no matter its delivery system — and second-hand smoke by Mohamed Ibrahim   When Hassan Mohamed, a tobacco use prevention coordinator with African Immigrants Community Services of Minneapolis, talks with Somali youth about the hazards of tobacco, he finds himself facing two main adversaries: vaping and hookahs. Hassan, who has been on the job for six months, and his team hear of those tobacco delivery systems’ popularity during their visits to schools and community centers. “A lot of youth [vape] nowadays — high schoolers, college students — and actually fall for advertising for different flavors,” he said. “The Somali community are also doing what’s called hookah, which is a different kind of smoking.”   According to the most recent Minnesota Youth Tobacco survey by the state Department of Health, the rate of teens who took their first hit of a nicotine vape or e-cigarette in 2023 nearly doubled, to 30%, since 2017. About one in 10 teens reported using vapes and e-cigarettes regularly, with 80% of those teens reporting being dependent on them. The good…

Court challenges have blocked Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship. For now.   As President Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship work their way through the courts, Minnesota attorneys and legal experts say it could reshape our definition of who belongs in the U.S. by Katelyn Vue   Hours after he was sworn in to his second term in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending birthright citizenship, or the right of all people born or naturalized on U.S. soil to citizenship. That order is currently on pause following a flurry of lawsuits and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited the ability of lower courts to block a policy from taking effect nationwide. Trump’s order would deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. who do not have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or green card holder. Minnesota legal experts and immigration attorneys say that redefinition of citizenship could create an underclass of future children born here, but denied the legal protection of citizens. “We’ve had millions and millions of people who have operated their lives based on this understanding that their children born here are U.S. citizens,” said Paschal Nwokocha, a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney. “We have our society…

Foreign medical school graduates who meet certain requirements would have shorter U.S. residencies in Minnesota under a proposal in the Legislature. Backers say it would help ease physician shortages in underserved areas.   by Mohamed Ibrahim   Since childhood, Abdilahi Ali Mohamoud has wanted to be a doctor, influenced by the dire state of health care in Somalia amid a decades-long civil war. After studying medicine in China for five years, doing a clerkship in India for a year and then practicing medicine in his native Somalia, Mohamoud had his sights set on coming to the United States. “My goal was always to be able to get the highest [level of] education possible,” he said. “I didn’t feel like there was any other better place than the U.S., and pursuing the dream of training here and hopefully practicing here and getting the best knowledge that I can.” Mohamoud, 31, passed the necessary exams and was matched into a residency program at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis. But for many international medical school graduates, the bar of entry — the yearslong process to become licensed to practice in the United States — is too high. Now a bill in the Minnesota Legislature —…

The celebration of Somali independence includes a street festival in Minneapolis, a multiday soccer tournament, a concert at the Ordway, and festivals in Plymouth, Rochester, Owatonna and St. Cloud. by Yvette Higgins   A huge festival in celebration of Somali culture will take over four blocks of Lake Street on Saturday, June 28, with food, live music, dancing and family fun. The theme of this year’s Somali Week festival is midnimo, which means “unity” in Somali. “The theme for this event is to bring people together to celebrate our differences, but to also celebrate our similarities as one community,” said Daud Mohamed, executive director of People in Action, the nonprofit organization hosting Somali Week. Before the street festival on Saturday, Somali leaders from around the U.S. and Somalia will engage in a town hall discussion. Local and international Somali soccer teams are also participating in a multiday soccer tournament, which runs through July 2. Last year, more than 45,000 people attended the street festival on Lake Street, according to Mohamed. In past years people have come from around the world to enjoy Somali food, dancing and live music, which Mohamed said is remarkable. “Most important, the food is bonanza,” Mohamed said. “The…

The “Star of Unity” concert, organized by the Somali Museum of Minnesota, celebrates music and dance across generations and across Somali regions. by Amina Isir Musa   As Minnesota’s Somali community celebrates Independence Week this year, a musical and dance showcase will bring a cross-generational group of artists together at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts. Headlined by international recording artist Suldaan Seeraar, “Star of Unity: A Night of Somali Dance and Live Music” will also feature Abdiwahab Cantar Naji, a popular singer and musician from the 1980s, and the Somali Museum Dance Troupe. Co-host Khalid Dahir, known as “Khale Male,” will bring his blend of Somali contemporary music, along with traditional music and dance to the show. The concert’s name comes from the white star on the Somali flag, whose five points represent the five colonial territories Somalis lived under: Italian Somaliland, French Somaliland, British Somaliland, Eastern Ethiopia and the Northern Frontier District in Kenya. It represents an ambitious step up in programming for the Somali Museum of Minnesota and the museum’s dance troupe, according to Artistic Director Mohamoud Osman Mohamed. “The theme this year is unity — unity of Somalis across all regions and ages. There’s a disconnect between the Somali diaspora youth…

The ban, which affects 12 countries primarily in Africa and the Middle East, will block refugees from some of the world’s worst war zones and further delay families from reuniting with loved ones.   BY:  Katelyn Vue and Mohamed Ibrahim   Habon Abdulle had an immediate reaction the day President Donald Trump announced his second travel ban — one that once again targets many Muslim-majority countries. The head of Minneapolis nonprofit Ayada Leads started making calls. “The previous travel bans left behind heartbreak — weddings missed, funerals unattended, futures put on hold,” she said. “These are not political abstractions. These are human stories, interrupted.” The travel ban, which went into effect on Monday, June 9, bans citizens of 12 countries, including Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar from entering the U.S. It also restricts entry to citizens of seven other nations, including Laos and Venezuela. The travel ban disproportionately affects Minnesota, which has historically welcomed refugees and is home to large Somali, Sudanese and Karen communities, among other groups. The Karen are an ethnic group from Myanmar. “I was shocked,” said Mesfun Abreham of his first reaction after hearing that his home country Eritrea is one of the countries newly added to the travel…

Twin Cities nonprofit Isuroon has added a domestic violence hotline and is hoping to open an 87-unit family shelter in the next two years. by Atra Mohamed   A Twin Cities nonprofit serving Somali and Afghan women is expanding its services for victims of domestic and sexual abuse. Isuroon launched a hotline for victims last summer and is developing plans for a $30 million, 87-unit family shelter it hopes to open in the next two years. The nonprofit has served hundreds of domestic violence victims since it was founded 15 years ago, said founder and CEO Fartun Weli. But she said calls have escalated in the last four years — in part because women are more willing to speak out. “In the Somali community, we are facing a cultural shift,” she said. In the past, divorce and separation were rare. Women stayed in their marriages because they had no outside source of income and because divorced women were shamed. “Domestic abuse has always existed in our community, but the driving force in recent years is that more and more young women are speaking up,” Fartun said. She said the pandemic also highlighted family issues with more people trapped at home. Isuroon is not…

Minnesota rideshare drivers, who are classified as independent contractors, are seeking a path to unionize after a law passed last year did not deliver the pay gains they expected.   BY: Alfonzo Galvan   Less than a year after Minnesota legislators passed a law setting a statewide pay floor for rideshare drivers, a group of drivers is back at the Capitol seeking a path to unionizing. Drivers at a Tuesday news conference said the expected pay gains did not materialize, and they’re hoping a new bill will give them the leverage to negotiate directly with rideshare companies and offer more transparency over benefits. Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, DFL-Minneapolis, and Rep. Samakab Hussein, DFL-St. Paul, are drafting the bill with support from Service Employees International Union Local 26. “Drivers are already putting in the work every day, and it is time that they have a voice and power in the industry they sustain,” Zaynab said at Tuesday’s news conference “The drivers feel like they’re being fooled, and this is why we’re being very careful about any other legislation that comes forward,” said Farhan Badel, a rideshare driver who’s been advocating for policy change for the last two years. Key players behind last year’s…