Minneapolis City Council members have canceled a planned iftar, after city officials raised concerns that it would blur the line between church and state.

The city’s four Muslim council members had planned a community iftar for Friday — a meal breaking the Ramadan fast. They advertised it as an interfaith gathering, hosted in the Public Service Building in downtown Minneapolis.

According to a city spokesperson, the city attorney’s office told council members they couldn’t host a religious event with public funds in a public building. 

“This prohibition applies regardless of religion — whether this was an Iftar, Seder, or a Lenten fish fry, the advice would have been the same: City resources can’t be used for religious events,” city spokesperson Jess Olstad wrote in a statement. 

City Council member Aurin Chowdhury said at Friday’s council meeting that the cancellation was disappointing.

“We’re going to work towards postponing and doing an event with community partners,” Chowdhury said. “We are not going to stop what we were going to do, and breaking bread and being a part of bringing our communities together.”

Olstad said nothing would prevent council members from hosting iftar off city property with other funds.

Mayor Jacob Frey wrote in a post on X that his administration made the right legal call — and pushed back against claims of bias.

“Implications that my office intervened to shut down this Iftar celebration — and did so out of anti-Muslim bias — are both outrageous and untrue,” Frey wrote. “Separation of religion and state is a bedrock principle of our democracy and a legal requirement.”

Lovers of old-school records in the Twin Cities, listen up: you can get a record made in your own backyard.

Alex Stillman is a record presser with Outta Wax. The small business got its start during COVID when Stillman’s business partner, Sara Pette, decided to give record-pressing a spin.

“My job at the time was non-existent because of COVID, so I sort of freaked out and wanted to start another business,” Pette said.

She also saw a need in the Twin Cities.

“When you are an independent artist with no label, it’s really hard to get your foot in the door to get stuff made like this,” Pette said.

So, they got their hands on antique lathe machines which grooves music into plastic discs. They also got their hands on a more modern set-up. The record-pressing process begins with a machine called the extruder, which turns plastic into a pre-mold that looks like a hockey puck.

“We call it a puck or a cake,” Stillman said.  

The puck then goes into the press for about 50 seconds. That’s where a combination of water and steam puts the music on the mold.

“We would take it from there and put it on the trimmer to get rid of the excess material and that’s how you get a record,” Pette said.

The excess trim from the records they’ve pressed gets recycled and made into new records.

A machine called a dinker adds the finishing touch — a hole in the middle of the record. The vinyl is then put in sleeves and shipped out.

Outta Wax has done dozens of orders for all kinds of bands, some with names you can’t forget, like Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children McNuggets.

Pette and Stillman are musicians themselves. They believe records have come full circle, with younger generations now discovering a love for vinyl. It’s a record renaissance they hope will play on.

“There is a reason why it has sustained for 90 years because it feels like a very human act to listen to music this way,” Stillman said. “It’s like a book. You want books to continue to exist.”

Pette and Stillman say they’re unique nationwide because they make 12-, 10- and 7-inch records, which are also known as 45s. They also give credit to Pette’s brother, John, for being a big part of their start-up.