Matt Kent

Take a moment to look at the inhumanity captured in this extraordinary photo running on the front page of tonight's Minneapolis @StarTribune. It shows federal immigration agents immobilizing a protester on the ground and spraying chemical irritant directly into his face. The scene reminds me of the brutality used against civil rights protesters in the 1960s. We look back at those old photos and wonder how the authorities could have behaved so savagely; many years from now, young Americans will look at these photos from 2026 and wonder how anyone could have justified shooting a woman in the head as she tried to drive away, arresting 5-year-old schoolchildren on the street, or holding a man down and spaying chemicals into his face. Thanks to the Star Tribune reporters and photographers for documenting this work; they create accountability, they make democracy work, and they make all of us in journalism proud.

The history of green bean casserole: Iranian royalty, mass consumption, and a Floridian barbecue. In 1955, @AP Food Editor Cecily Brownstone wrote an article about a barbecue at the home of Florida citrus magnate John Snively, Jr. and his wife May. They were hosting Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi and Queen Soraya of Iran. The Snively family spent all day supervising the cooking and setting the table for dozens of guests expected for the party. But, shortly before the dinner, the chief of protocol for the Iranian royals arrived and "decreed that one of the rooms would have to be cleared of all tables except one, and that the Shah and the Queen would dine there alone." Spencer, the Snively's butler of many years, served the royal couple in their private dining room. Each time Spencer offered the Queen a dish, she asked him what was in it before deciding if she wanted to eat it. "Pork, beef and chicken were easy for Spencer," Brownstone noted. "But when it came to the special vegetable casserole that was being served with the meat, he lost his patience: 'Listen lady,' he said. 'It’s just beans and stuff.'" The Queen dug right in and loved the dish. But what is "beans and stuff"? The Associated Press wanted a recipe to accompany Brownstone's article, so they called up Campbell's Soup. At the time, Dorcas Reilly was a supervisor in the the home economics department of a Campbell’s test kitchen in New Jersey. She was called up to design a recipe. Reilly wanted to create a recipe based on ingredients that most home cooks in America might have. Reilly and her team initially considered adding celery salt and ham, but they settled on something simple –– only six ingredients that could be stirred together and be cooked in under half an hour. The prep time and effort needed were minimal. "We worked in the kitchen with things that were most likely to be in most homes," Reilly once said. "It’s so easy. And it’s not an expensive thing to make, too." Food historian Laura Shapiro describes the dish as "convenience with a touch of glamour." The recipe was initially published under the title "Beans and Stuff." It really took off when, in the 1960s, Campbell's started printing it on their cans of cream and mushroom soup; they called it "Green Bean Bake." The dish embodied American postwar cooking. Convenience cooking was all the rage in the 1950s. As more women worked outside the home but were still expected to assume cooking responsibilities, they turned to quick and easy options to prep dinners: The TV dinner exploded in popularity. Frozen food options proliferated. And, like with the casserole, canned foods were often featured in recipes. Today, the green bean casserole sits on Thanksgiving tables as a bit of living history –– a dish of international diplomacy and convenience. Cookbooks often call the dish "classic" and "traditional," even though it's less than a century old. Folklorist Lucy Long argues the popularity of the dish is related to its categorization as a casserole, which in the US is associated with "communal eating, sharing, and generosity." In 2020, Campbell's estimated that 20 million Thanksgiving dinners across the United States featured a green bean casserole. #foodhistory #Thanksgiving #greenbeancasserole #americanhistory #ushistory youtube.com/watch?v=-juEJB…

Exclusive: The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika, nooses and the Confederate flag as hate symbols. The military service drafted a new policy that classifies them as “potentially divisive.” wapo.st/47UkEuE