Long-time community worker Russel Balenger has been named to replace City Council Member Dai Thao, who left Saint Paul in August to serve as director of a faith-based social justice organization in …

Going into 2021, the Midway community was similar to neighborhoods throughout the world: hoping for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. To add to that challenge, many businesses were still recovering …

It began as a conversation among neighbors. Russel Balenger remembers when his sons were younger and in a row with a couple of families. “I went to the heads of the families and said we had to …