Some will remember Melvin Giles as an apostle for urban gardening, a lifelong advocate for St. Paul’s Rondo and Frogtown neighborhoods that he called home, or as a stalwart voice for peace who installed raised beds, community gardens and symbolic “peace poles” wherever he could find green spaces.

Most everyone who knew Giles will remember him as the “bubble man” — constantly armed with a smile, a wand and the drive to blow bubbles at any community event.

Giles, a co-leader of the Urban Farm and Garden Alliance and a respected elder in Rondo’s Black community, died in his sleep Tuesday at his Woodbury home. He was 66.

“I only know maybe a handful of people in my whole life who I’ve never seen get upset and yell or share any expression of anger,” said his nephew, Anura Si-Asar, in an interview Thursday. “He always had a positive and uplifting energy. I don’t know how that’s possible. He lived the peace that he talked about.”

A fan of “Star Trek,” Giles likened himself in a 2023 interview with the Pioneer Press to a time traveler looking backward in time to draw lessons from the past, while also looking generations into the future toward a better world. He called the peace poles he installed in urban gardens simple monuments, each bearing the inscription “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in several languages.

“The peace poles are my time-traveling vehicles, and the bubbles are the fuel,” he said at the time.

Born in Chicago to a traveling Baptist preacher, Giles was the youngest of four brothers. He never married or had kids of his own, but he treated his 18 nieces and nephews like his own children, Si-Asar said. The family moved to St. Paul when Giles was about five years old.

Giles worked for Catholic Charities for 15 years, serving for seven years as the director of its Catholic Charities Frogtown Center. He also served as an adjunct community faculty instructor at Bethel University’s Anthropology Department.

He was active in urban growing and anti-racism initiatives such as AfroEco, which attempts to source sustainable products from South Africa, and served as an adviser to the diversity committee of the Ramsey County Master Gardeners.

He was also a certified facilitator of Racial Sobriety workshops, an anti-racism trainer for the Minnesota Tri-Council Commission of the Council of Churches and a founding member of the St. Paul Pluralism Circle.

Giles received the Martin Luther King “Dream Keeper” Award in 2003, the McKnight Foundation “Virginia McKnight Binger Awards” in Human Service in 2005, the “Outstanding World Citizen” Award in 2008, Bethel University’s “George K. Brushaber Reconciliation Award” in 2009, the “Morrill Hall/Rachel Tilsen Social Justice Award” in 2011, and the Blooming St. Paul Garden Advocate Award in 2017.

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In 2023, he was named as one of seven inductees in the inaugural Black Legacy and Leadership Enrichment Initiative, a pilot program that awarded unrestricted grants of $55,000 to local activists to rest, recharge and ultimately better serve the community.

Through the work of the Urban Farm and Garden Alliance, Giles was instrumental in installing raised beds of edibles in backyard box gardens, larger community gardens and a greenhouse or two, providing fresh food in areas where leafy greens were otherwise in short supply.

Recent garden locations included the green outside the Lexington Commons apartments on Lexington Parkway, a housing development that caters to the previously homeless; the Lovejoy Family Community Garden on Grotto Street; the Greenhouse Garden on Dale Street in Frogtown; the Pilgrim Baptist Church on Central Avenue; the Morning Star Baptist Church on Selby Avenue; and the Peace Sanctuary Garden on Aurora Avenue.

Memorial services will be announced later this month, Si-Asar said, with arrangements to be made by Brooks Funeral Home.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s dismantling of Americans’ trust in — and ultimately, access to — vaccines isn’t happening with one sweeping policy that grabs the public’s attention. It’s unfolding quickly and quietly, in bland conference rooms where hand-picked appointees make decisions that will have far-reaching consequences for our health.

Inside one of those nondescript rooms last week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent panel that makes vaccine recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offered a glimpse of what’s to come. The group, few of whom have any expertise in vaccines, infectious diseases or epidemiology, at times cast aside evidence-based science and sowed doubt in some of our most valuable public health tools.

This panel of seven replaced the 17 ACIP members Kennedy fired last month in order to stack the committee with members who share his anti-vaccine agenda.

Their lack of expertise and, for some, even basic knowledge of epidemiology, were evident throughout the two-day meeting. Some were unfamiliar with the Vaccines for Children Program, which provides free shots to those eligible. (The program has provided some 71.5 billion doses to kids since 1994.)

At least one member appeared to struggle to understand the distinction between a vaccine’s efficacy and its effectiveness. It’s a wonky, but important distinction referring to how well a vaccine works in a trial versus the real world. Some seemed not to take seriously the risk that infections like RSV and the flu can pose to even healthy children. One member suggested that the 250 children who died from the flu last season — a recent high — was a “modest” number.

But this group isn’t just unqualified — it’s dangerous. Its decisions directly influence insurance coverage and access to vaccines, affecting health outcomes for all Americans. The stakes are particularly high when it comes to protecting children against preventable diseases. Yet the tone of the panel’s first formal meeting suggested many members are more intent on sowing doubt about routine immunizations. Even worse, their actions could impede access to these important medicines.

“That whole meeting was a travesty,” says Fiona Havers, a physician and epidemiologist. After the ACIP firings, Havers resigned from the CDC, where she was considered one of its leading experts on vaccine policy.

Kennedy’s oft-repeated claim is that the COVID-19 response caused vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. and that his drastic changes at the CDC are a necessary step in rebuilding the public’s trust. Martin Kulldorff, a former Harvard epidemiologist and chair of the panel, echoed that sentiment during the meeting’s opening, emphasizing the importance of “rebuilding trust in sound science,” and again at the end, when he commended participants for discussing vaccines in an “unbiased, open and transparent way.”

It’s a convenient — and inaccurate — framing. It elides the role Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement played in spreading vaccine misinformation during the pandemic. It provides cover for their “just asking questions” approach to evaluating vaccine policy.

The problem, of course, is when people given the CDC’s imprimatur are asking questions that are purposely crafted to sow doubt. That became clear from the outset when Kuldorff announced that the committee would evaluate the cumulative effects of the childhood vaccine schedule, as well as any immunizations that had not been considered in the last seven years, including the hepatitis B shot given to newborns. The implication is that the CDC has been ignoring some unknown dangers of shots that have been safely used for years. Kuldorff, who was fired from Harvard, was a vocal critic of COVID vaccine mandates during the pandemic and refused the shot.

“The claims that were framed as efforts to increase vaccine confidence actually do the opposite — they undermine vaccine confidence,” says Sean O’Leary, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ liaison to ACIP. He called the meeting “a really long couple of days for science.”

A discussion of flu vaccines was a disturbing preview of what “rebuilding trust” might look like under Kennedy’s CDC — and how that mantra could be used to disrupt access to vaccines. After a thankfully routine vote to recommend that Americans get their fall flu shots, the panel stated that those vaccines should not contain thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative that decades ago came under scrutiny for a now-disproven link to autism.

It was a disturbing development that upended the panel’s normally measured process for evaluating vaccines. The discussion was added to ACIP’s agenda at the last minute, but more alarming was that thimerosal was being discussed at all. The preservative’s safety has been thoroughly studied, but was removed from all childhood vaccines in 2001 to try to address parents’ hesitancy. Today, it is used sparingly — the single-dose flu vaccines that the majority of Americans receive don’t contain it, but it’s still used as a preservative in multi-dose vials, which just 4-5% of patients in the US receive.

Most troubling was that the “evidence” against thimerosal was presented by Lyn Redwood, a nurse and former head of the Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy. She used her time to make a series of false claims about the preservative’s risks. Her original presentation cited a fake study on the risks of thimerosal — a reference removed after the media raised concerns.

Pediatrician Cody Meissner, one of two rational members, questioned the purpose of her presentation and its contents. (Meissner was often the lone voice of reason and expertise on the panel during the two-day meeting.) Ultimately, when it came time to vote on recommending the preservative be removed from flu shots, Meissner was also the only member to vote against it.

The vote has real consequences. It means some Americans will lose out on their shots. The vaccine is more commonly used outside the U.S., and there’s concern about how ACIP’s decisions could ripple into global health. And vaccine hesitancy experts worry that re-litigating a settled topic could undermine broader confidence in immunizations.

And perhaps most alarming is the precedent set by the committee bypassing the CDC’s normal review process to push through what seemed like a preordained decision.

Typically, a CDC working group comprised of internal staff and subject matter experts would spend months developing recommendations that are presented to ACIP in a public forum. They would examine hard data on a vaccine within the broader context of its real-world use, considering, for example, the magnitude of the public health problem it addresses, challenges to implementing a rollout, and its impact on health equity, Havers explains. Before considering removing a shot like the thimerosal-containing flu vaccine, the working group would first study the public health consequences of the decision.

“None of that happened, which is why this was a complete farce,” Havers says.

That’s the antithesis of transparency. And it’s a sign for what we can expect from this group. After watching the panel railroad a vote on settled science, it’s fair to worry about their future plans. The next effort to “rebuild trust” could have far-reaching health consequences — and, without a doubt, will cost lives.

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

By CHARLOTTE KRAMON

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) — The Georgia chapter of a Confederacy group filed lawsuits this week against a state park with the largest Confederate monument in the country, arguing officials broke state law by planning an exhibit on ties to slavery, segregation and white supremacy.

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Stone Mountain’s massive carving depicts Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson on horseback. Critics who have long pushed for changes say the monument enshrines the “Lost Cause” mythology that romanticizes the Confederate cause as a state’s rights struggle, but state law protects the carving from any changes.

After police brutality spurred nationwide reckonings on racial inequality and the removal of dozens of Confederate monuments in 2020, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, which oversees Stone Mountain Park, voted in 2021 to relocate Confederate flags and build a “truth-telling” exhibit to reflect the site’s role in the rebirth of the Klu Klux Klan, along with the carving’s segregationist roots.

The Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans also alleges in court documents filed Tuesday that the board’s decision to relocate Confederate flags from a walking trail violates Georgia law.

“When they come after the history and attempt to change everything to the present political structure, that’s against the law,” said Martin O’Toole, the chapter’s spokesperson.

Stone Mountain Park markets itself as a family theme park and is a popular hiking spot east of Atlanta. Completed in 1972, the monument on the mountain’s northern space is 190 feet across and 90 feet tall. The United Daughters of the Confederacy hired sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who later carved Mount Rushmore, to craft the carving in 1915.

That same year, the film “Birth of a Nation” celebrated the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan, which marked its comeback with a cross burning on top of Stone Mountain on Thanksgiving night in 1915. One of the 10 parts of the planned exhibit would expound on the Ku Klux’s Klan reemergence and the movie’s influence on the mountain’s monument.

The Stone Mountain Memorial Association hired Birmingham-based Warner Museums, which specializes in civil rights installations, to design the exhibit in 2022.

“The interpretive themes developed for Stone Mountain will explore how the collective memory created by Southerners in response to the real and imagined threats to the very foundation of Southern society, the institution of slavery, by westward expansion, a destructive war, and eventual military defeat, was fertile ground for the development of the Lost Cause movement amidst the social and economic disruptions that followed,” the exhibit proposal says.

Other parts of the exhibit would address how the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans perpetuated the “Lost Cause” ideology through support for monuments, education programs and racial segregation laws across the South. It would also tell stories of a small Black community that lived near the mountain after the war.

Georgia’s General Assembly allocated $11 million in 2023 to pay for the exhibit and renovate the park’s Memorial Hall. The exhibit is not open yet. A spokesperson for the park did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The park’s board in 2021 also voted to change its logo from an image of the Confederate carveout to a lake inside the park.

Sons of the Confederate Veterans members have defended the carvings as honoring Confederate soldiers.

Changes to the park would “radically revise” the park’s setup, “completely changing the emphasis of the Park and its purpose as defined by the law of the State of Georgia,” the organization said in court documents.

Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.

Chet Holmgren grew up hooping at random parks throughout the Twin Cities. If there was a pickup game to be played, no matter the location, the lanky teenager and his friends were always up for the challenge.

“We would go all over the place,” Holmgren said. “Wherever people were playing.”

In a perfect world for Holmgren, his return to the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center in St. Paul on Thursday afternoon would have been much less conspicuous.

“There’s a bunch of media here,” he said. “I don’t even know how this happened.”

Such is life for an NBA champion.

Less than weeks after the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 to win the NBA championship, Holmgren returned to the Twin Cities and brought the coveted Larry O’Brien Trophy with him to share with the community that helped raise him.

In the hour leading up to Holmgren’s arrival at the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center, hundreds lined up in the parking lot to take pictures with the hardware. They did so while wearing hats and bouncing basketballs that were being handed out for the occasion. There were also a number of food trucks set up in the parking lot, as as well as makeshift basketball court in the distance.

“This is for this kids,” Holmgren said. “Just to kind of show them that anything is possible.”

After talking to reporters inside the recreation center for roughly 15 minutes, Holmgren made his way outside where everybody was anxiously waiting for him.

“This might be a little overwhelming,” he said. “It’s a great problem to have.”

That perspective was on display in Holmgren, who handled himself with grace despite being bombarded as soon as he walked out the door.

Never mind that there were items being shoved in his face as he slowly made his way around the parking lot. He signed autographs for roughly 45 minutes with the sun beating down and temperatures sitting in the mid-90s.

As soon as that crowd started to die down, Holmgren went back inside to cool off, then returned outside and played 1 on 1 with anybody who was up for the challenge.

As the sweat dripped form his forehead it was almost as if Holmgren had been transported back in time. He wasn’t an NBA player for the 30 minutes he was playing on the blacktop, just a hooper sharing the game he loves with those that love it as much as he does.

“It’s all about the kids,” Holmgren said. “Just trying to inspire them and give them something that they’ll remember for a long time to come.”

Why is that part so important to him?

“To show them what they can dream of,” Holmgren said. “The hardest thing for a lot of kids is that they can’t work to accomplish something if they don’t think it’s possible. It’s big for them to be able to see something like this, just so they understand that if they want to do something, they can strive for that.”

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