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Published: 03 June 2020

Les Lester Challenging Ilhan Omar for Minnesota's 5th District Congressional Seat

   In light of all that is going on in Minneapolis, and throughout the nation in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, Les Lester feels that more needs to be done to address the needs of the African American community. That is why he is challenging Ilhan Omar for Minnesota's 5th District seat in Congress. 

   Les Lester did his first interview of the campaign the afternoon of June 2nd on KFAI Radio's Al MacFarlane Show. He is a journalist, author, teacher, and community organizer, who has served as Communication Director for the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH, Communication Chair for the St. Paul, Minn. NAACP, and general assignment reporter for the Chicago Daily Defender newspaper. Lester has also contributed op-ed pieces in the Minnesota Pioneer Press newspaper, the MinnPost newspaper, Insight News, The Spokesman-Recorder, Minnesota Public Radio’s online edition and other venues. He is a graduate of Chicago State University and was the recipient of a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship where he studied media process and effects at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC). He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change.

   In 2018, he was a write-in candidate for the U. S. House 5th Congressional District seat in Minnesota for the Green Party after the incumbent, Keith Ellison, decided to run for Attorney General on the final date of filing for the election. He is a lifelong Democrat, and this time running as a DFL candidate.

   Check out his website: www.leslester.org to learn all about his stand on the issues of importance to residents of Minbnesota's 5th District.

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Published: 18 May 2020

Minnesota Grandparents Write Children's Book with the Help of Their 9-Year-old Granddaughter

   One of Lakeville residents James and Sharon Lewis’ greatest joys in life is spending time with their youngest grandchild, Courtney, who lives in Colorado. James says the 9-year-old is extremely creative, and when he decided to make good on a promise he had made to himself decades earlier to write a children’s book about the Great Blue Heron that used to come up on his uncle’s lawn in Florida when he was a kid, he turned to Courtney for help framing the story. 

   Courtney Figures it Out, which was just released in April 2020, begins with Courtney in bed, thinking about the problems she will likely face the next day when she brings her best friend, Aaron the Heron, to school. Throughout the story, she faces one challenge after another related to the bird, but stops to think, and figures out what to do.  The story was partially inspired by the fact that Courtney lives with Attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and has learned to cope by going to a Plan B when things aren’t going her way. ADHD is a chronic condition that often begins in childhood and can persist into adulthood. Approximately 129 million children live with the condition worldwide.

   The story RMA Publicity wrote about the project, Lakeville Couple Help Granddaughter Write Book, was published in Sun This Week newspaper's Lakevlle edition in May.