Two years after local opposition and lawsuits helped scuttle plans for a redeveloped lakeshore resort outside Ely on the doorstep of the Boundary Waters, developers are back with a new, slightly scaled down approach to reviving the Silver Rapids Lodge.

And while there is plenty of support for updating and reviving the iconic resort built over a century ago along the rocky narrows between White Iron Lake and Farm Lake six miles east of Ely, there is once again pushback from surrounding cabin and vacation home owners who say the proposal does not mesh with the area’s quiet, wilderness-oriented vibe.

Developers envision a revitalized property with a new lodge, bar and restaurant, a pool and spa, along with a remodeled motel and seven cabins.

In addition, the redevelopment includes 44 new “fractional share” cabins on the 60 acre property. Each cabin would have four owners, who would each get 13 weeks to stay at the cabin, or they could rent it out when they’re not there.

The proposal also calls for 33 boat “moorings” – essentially parking spaces for boats– on an unspecified number of docks. That’s down significantly from the roughly 90 boat moorings proposed in the first redevelopment plan.

It’s also a reduction from the 52 moorings on 26 docks that the developers initially pitched in this reimagined project.

Sandy Hoff, President of F.I. Salter Real Estate in Duluth and one of the development partners on the project, said they further reduced that number to 33 after the Minnesota DNR said that the plan for 52 didn’t comply with state and county lakeshore requirements.

“We've listened,” said Hoff. “The number of units has been reduced. The scope of the overall development has been modified, and we are trying to accommodate the feedback that we have heard, so that we truly can try to get the support of those who are most concerned.”

Hoff said he and his development partner Jamie Tatge of Leisure Hotels and Resorts, based in Baxter, Minn., have been getting more support for the estimated $40 million project this time around from area residents. “They understand the need to redevelop this property because it is run down. It's an eyesore,” he said.

But despite the modifications, many in the area remain adamantly opposed to the proposal, which they argue would increase noise, traffic and congestion, and fundamentally alter the character of the area.

“It will transform a peaceful place of natural solitude and beauty into something else entirely– a busy hub with multiple groups of people focused on dining, drinking and partying,” said Mary Zimmerman, who lives about half of the year in a home on White Iron Lake, just a couple hundred feet from the resort property.

Two years ago, hundreds of area residents signed a petition opposing the development and asking for a more rigorous environmental review of the project. Some said it would create a Lake Minnetonka-like party atmosphere at the site, which is just a three mile boat ride from the edge of the Boundary Waters wilderness area.

After Lake County officials approved permits for the resort redevelopment, a local group of citizens and the Minnesota DNR sued to try to block it, arguing the project’s approval violated county and state shoreland development rules. The developers later voluntarily rescinded their permits.

“It’s just not the right plan for this zip code,” said Mary Garbutt, a third-generation White Iron Lake cabin owner who was involved in the effort opposing the resort two years ago.

She would prefer to see the project scaled down even further to better fit with the serene North Woods environment that residents treasure.

“I think we're all realistic that we'd love to see Silver Rapids have the restaurant, have the bar,” Garbutt said. But she calls the density of the current proposal “crazy.”

But others miss the bustling nature of the historic resort from decades past, when it was a destination that added to the Ely area’s character.

“I remember a vibrant, busy place that was an important part of the lake community,” said Jack Tome, who grew up on Farm Lake, about a mile by boat from Silver Rapids. He and his brothers now share the lake home among their families.

Tome says the current resort is a shadow of its past, with limited hours, a smaller menu, and dilapidated docks in serious need of repair. Tome said he was excited when he learned about the proposal to reinvest in the property – and disheartened by the opposition from what he believes is a small but vocal group.

“I want to see Silver Rapids become a vibrant part of the community again,” Tome said. “Someone is willing to make a significant investment in a property that has been an important part of this area for generations. That means jobs, visitors and people spending money in Ely.”

Tome and others say the developers’ investment could be a big boost for the economy in a region in which businesses have been decimated by this summer’s wildfires, which have scorched tens of thousands of acres in and around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Hoff said he and his fellow developers’ plan is to create a resort that blends in with the surrounding area. He said the lodge and cabins won’t be “Wayzata type structures,” referring to the city on the shore of Lake Minnetonka. “They're going to be designed to fit into the environment up there.”

The developers also say they plan to remove several lakeshore RV sites and campsites and address legacy environmental issues, including leaking underground fuel tanks.

The developers prepared an environmental assessment worksheet, or EAW, to analyze the potential impacts of the project. The Lake County Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a hearing on the adequacy of the document on Aug. 17.

Hudson Kingston, who is with the environmental group CURE and is also a Fall Lake Township supervisor who lives near the resort, said it’s a positive step that an EAW was conducted. But he said the document is incomplete and inconsistent and needs to be revised to more specifically address how it would mediate the oil leak and other issues.

“The EAW is a good development,” Kinston said. “It allows the county to take a breath and think about this before they go through a permitting phase. I'm hopeful that everyone will learn something from this process and we can get a better project out of it that benefits the community and the developers.”

If the county approves the EAW the project would then move to the permitting process.

A bear entered an 85-year-old woman’s house in Cass County on Tuesday. As she hid behind a locked door in another room, law enforcement officers scared the bear away. It left, but kept returning.

Sheriff Bryan Welk said officers couldn't leave in case something bad happened.

“Being such a rural county, they could be half-hour to 45 minutes away if they're at a different call and there was really a fear for the woman living there,” Welk said.

Ultimately, an officer had to kill the animal.

It’s one of 19 reported bear incidents in the county since February, Welk said. There were 17 throughout the entirety last year.

Those incidents have included car crashes and three separate cases of bears entering occupied homes, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

Experts at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said despite present drought conditions, natural food sources in the area are adequate. The primary cause for an uptick in sightings is bears having easy access to things like unsecured bird feeders and garbage cans.

“Bear-human conflict, 99 percent of the time it’s in relationship to food,” said Area Wildlife Supervisor Rob Baden. “So if you're a homeowner and you have bird feeders on your deck, you're leaving your grill or your pet food out there, that's what bears are attracted towards.”

Cass County is in the heart of bear range, he said. Plus, black bears typically mate from May to July, and juvenile bears leave the den at the same time.

“This is their first time away from mom,” he said. “They're trying to learn where their place is in the bear world, where they can find food, and they need to be educated that humans aren't a good place to find food, and they get into trouble.”

Baden said those juvenile bears are “kind of like a bunch of rowdy teenagers roaming around.”

Humans can help teach them there’s no food around by keeping garbage in bear-resistant containers, removing bird feeders and keeping pet food indoors.

If they approach, it’s best to scare them.

“Educate the bears, it's okay to harass them,” Baden said. “They're on your porch, bang some pots and pans, trigger your car alarm, shoot a gun in the ground, fireworks, stuff like that; any kind of loud noises to scare them."

If a black bear makes contact, DNR guidance says to fight back aggressively and consider using bear spray.

Not long after St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her announced the city would shut down the Pig’s Eye Park encampment, citing health and safety concerns, Marty Johnson knew what was coming.

He had been through this before. Still, when the morning of Aug. 5 arrived, he stood in the middle of the encampment in disbelief.

Johnson toed the patch of dirt where he and his longtime partner Chalsea Diver used to share a tent, then scanned an emptied out spot where a neighbor in a wheelchair could “barely get around and out.”

“That’s what I don’t understand,” Johnson said. “How come he couldn’t get into a home right away and he’s still in this mess?”

The last Johnson heard, that man ended up at another encampment, about five miles away near Shepard Road and hidden in the woods near the Mississippi River. It’s where Johnson planned to go, too, and where an influx of residents, with no other plan, ultimately moved as a result of Pig’s Eye getting shut down.

In the weeks leading up to that closure, Assistant Mayor Cedrick Baker said the city was committed to making sure that "if anybody needs to be inside, they can be inside.” But only four recently displaced Pig’s Eye residents are known to have slept in shelter the night after it closed, according to a Ramsey County spokesperson and Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities. An estimated 100-200 people had been living at Pig’s Eye.

The majority, including Johnson and Diver, did not get indoors. The couple, like so many encampment residents, had needs that can't be immediately addressed by shelters — so despite the risks that accompany living outside, they saw no better option while awaiting a more permanent spot inside.

It’s also unclear how much shelter was available that night.

Johnson planned to go to the Shepard encampment as soon as his ride returned. Diver was already there with the first of their belongings. She had hitched a ride with a volunteer who promised to come back for him. But because Johnson didn’t have a cell phone, he had no way of knowing how much longer he would be left behind to watch the old camp wither.

So while he waited, he walked their dog Twin around the perimeter of the shrinking camp, taking it all in.

“Half of us people have been out here for so long,” he said. “It’s just, where do we go and where do we start?”

Johnson and Diver had been together for 12 years, going in and out of job and housing instability — a shifting path detoured by struggles with drug addiction and poverty, but always with the companionship of one another.

The first time Johnson and Diver ended up at a big encampment was in 2025, after they got evicted from a supportive housing apartment for families. It was a subsidized apartment for sober living.

The couple said they were blamed for a domestic fight in the hallway that they had nothing to do with, and were at odds with the landlord who wouldn’t fix poor conditions at their home.

They were ultimately evicted for owing less than $500 in missed rent, setting back the progress they had made to stay together with their daughters, who are now 9 and 10 years old.

After that, their kids went to live with his sister, and the couple landed at an encampment at Jackson Street and Maryland Avenue, before it got cleared out after a deadly shooting. They tried to stay with his sister and her boyfriend for a while, but the two bedroom apartment wasn’t a good fit for six people. That’s when the couple landed at Pig’s Eye.

Soon after, a woman with RADIAS Health who came by the camp offered them help finding housing, he said. But she told them she couldn’t guarantee anything. They had to wait.

“Here goes that list again,” he said. “Everybody keeps saying a list, but nobody knows anything about it. We’re either at the top of the list or the middle of the list or the bottom of the list. We don’t know.”

The “wait list” is the coordinated entry list. It’s for those trying to exit homelessness and find housing that often includes additional support, like mental health care or treatment for substance use disorders.

There are currently 2,668 individuals and families on the waitlist.

In the days leading up to the clearing, Johnson saw someone who appeared to work for the county and asked them again about housing, but they told him they weren’t able to do anything about that and gave him a location downtown to visit.

“I’m always hoping something comes up,” Johnson said.

On the day of the encampment clearing, it hadn’t.

‘Why are we all here still then?’

While Johnson waited for his ride, Assistant Mayor Cedrick Baker acknowledged to reporters that many were headed to the Shepard camp. He said the city was “giving them the options of the shelters that are available and that they have access to.”

“We want to make sure that they understand all of the options that they have, and we also know that there will be some individuals that will just not take us up on our offer,” he said, adding they would continue to try and connect with people.

Johnson later laughed at Baker’s suggestion. He said no one had offered him shelter.

“Why are we all here still then? That’s what I would ask him,” he said. “Unless this is what they’re calling shelters out here.”

How much shelter space was available the Wednesday of the clearings is unclear. When MPR News called the county’s shelter hotline, an employee said they were unable to see the numbers as they usually could, due to the encampment closure that day. Later, a county spokesperson told MPR News to ask the Wilder Foundation, who redirected MPR News back to the county. The city did not respond to a request for specific numbers before the publication of this story.

However, there were at least 20 beds available at Union Gospel Mission, one of St. Paul’s three adult emergency shelters, according to Kelly Larson, a marketing specialist at the Mission.

Those beds were for men only, did not allow pets, did not have a space for safe substance use, and could only grant each person a single locker to keep their belongings.

For Johnson and Diver, those requirements meant it wasn’t an option.

From one encampment to another

By mid-afternoon the day of the Pig’s Eye encampment clearing, the population at the Shepard encampment had more than doubled, and would continue to increase over the coming days. A month earlier, about 30-40 people had lived there.

In a previously unoccupied section of the woods, Diver, Johnson’s “other half,” looped twine around a tree to hang rain-soaked clothes to dry. Diver wanted to lay down, but there was so much more to do. She hadn’t slept the night before, instead making sure everything was ready for the Pig’s Eye volunteers to start shuttling before sun-up.

“I’ve been up moving, moving, moving,” she said.

Next, they would have to retrieve another load of belongings from the entrance to the Shepard camp and finish setting up their tent. Better yet, as she finished the laundry, shouts echoed off a hill in the distance.

“Oh, great,” she said. “More fighting.”

Everyone was on edge, she said. There was the sudden influx into a camp that already had its own social order, then the leftover tension from the morning’s clearing. There was also the fear of being uprooted again, with murmurs across the camp of when that might happen (St. Paul officials said they planned to give residents notice but had yet to set a date).

Diver had a feeling the instability would only strain people more.

“It’s just going to drive the homeless into chaos to where people already don’t like us for one reason,” she said. “It’s just going to drive us to be that person that they don’t like.”

Diver already hated what people assumed about her, she said. This wasn’t how she wanted to live. She had OCD and always felt compelled to keep things clean — which wasn’t exactly the easiest setup for being homeless. She kept hand-sanitizer within easy reach in her backpack, and the dirt ground swept perfectly smooth.

But until she could have her own place, emergency shelters wouldn’t work either. Most shelters separate by gender and she needed to stay by Johnson’s side. He was always there to alleviate her PTSD and her anxiety. They both had ADHD and navigated it together.

Twelve years ago, they had met through a mutual friend when they both lived on the Fond Du Lac reservation and worked at a casino. They had been attached ever since, and though they weren’t legally married, she was “the wifey,” to him. They had their ups and downs, and the extra instability had percolated into more disagreements than ever before, Johnson said.

“But at the end of the day, we’re still right there with each other,” he said.

And he would never leave her. He considered returning to treatment for his drug addiction, but he couldn’t find anywhere that accepted couples. He once got partway through a treatment program, before quitting to be with her.

“That’s the one thing I’m always thinking about. It’s like, if I do this, what’s going to happen with her?”

He was planning on asking the outreach workers who came through the encampments if they knew of anywhere that might take them both. He wanted to be free of the drug addiction, but it felt impossible to just quit otherwise. Going without felt like getting hit by a truck, he said.

And it helped cover up decades of trauma and pain, like was the case for many people out there, he said. From a young age, life got real quick, and the hurdles never seemed to relent. At one point, he seemed bound for college basketball, but that was another lifetime away.

He said he grew up getting beat up by different family members. His mom and stepdad were drug users who would leave the house for days on end, forcing Johnson and his sisters to grow up fast. By the time he was 21, a neighbor friend had him hooked on harder stuff.

Johnson wanted to keep his daughters protected from that kind of life. When they would come down to Pig’s Eye to visit, he would play with them in the parking lot, but made sure they stayed away from the rows of tents. That wasn’t a life they needed to see, he said.

There were many specifics they didn’t know, “But they know mommy and daddy are trying to get a place right now.”

Once that happens, he said he hoped more would fall into place.

Still, he had a way of bringing light into even the roughest of days, and a natural warmth about him. Perhaps that was why people gravitated to him and Diver.

“Hey, who all remembers Jeepers Creepers? The movie Jeepers Creepers!” he yelled out, stepping away from his unpacking for a moment.

He pointed toward another campsite in the distance. A wide-brimmed hat rested atop a tarp, draped ominously over a branch like the monster in the 2001 movie. He and Diver recited a scene, ad-libbing where they forgot the words, until it was time to gather their last load of belongings.

The work wasn’t over yet.

‘Until we have to move again’

The end of the road leading toward the Shepard encampment had the shuffle of college move-in. Volunteers helped new residents unload trucks and cars, while moving wagons rattled nonstop. A single St. Paul police car stayed parked, but allowed people to settle.

The last of Diver and Johnson’s belongings baked in the sun. Between the apartment eviction and the first sweep, they had lost most of their belongings, like the beads Diver used for her art and the shoes she had collected for years. So what they could hold onto felt especially precious.

It was another reason shelter wouldn’t have worked for them. They wouldn’t have been able to keep all of it. Johnson said at least this time the city gave them time to grab everything before they left — a pleasant surprise.

Near their belongings, an older man with a full head of white hair offered the couple his help. They each lugged heavy bags and cushions over a set of train tracks, then organized the items on a baby carriage and wagon, which they yanked through shifting sand, then down a series of slanting dirt paths.

They took a longer route to avoid passing a bigger dog, but Twin had his own ideas for where he wanted to go.

“Hold on, buddy. Hold on. Hold on, please,” Johnson said to a barking Twin.

They reoriented themselves, re-situated the balancing act, and kept going. Diver hurt herself holding a wooden bench over her shoulder.

“I just messed up my arm!” she exclaimed.

Johnson stopped.

“You know I can’t do anything until I figure out if you’re OK.”

When they finally traversed the bumpy trails, past tents with new neighbors and others they recognized from Pig’s Eye, they dropped their belongings.

It was the first time Diver had been able to properly sit down since the day before.

She slowly tugged off her shoes.

“So much for brand new socks,” she said, peeling the damp, once-white socks off her aching feet.

They looked forward to a full night's sleep, without the daily wake-up call of a train horn blaring as it passed by the Pig’s Eye encampment, and they predicted they would hear less sirens at night.

Down here, tucked away in the woods, it was quieter — almost too quiet for what they were accustomed to. Twin seemed to like the trees and the space. He was already calmer than earlier that morning.

Johnson pulled off his shoes, too, letting his aching feet breathe.

“I think it’s going to be a good place for a little bit,” Johnson said.

His shoulders dropped with exhaustion.

“Until we have to move again.”

Lime banned some users and put temporary restrictions on its electric scooters in Minneapolis after hundreds participated in mass nighttime rides over the weekend.

Users reported after they rented scooters Wednesday evening, the Lime scooters showed maps with geo restrictions preventing them from being ridden in downtown Minneapolis or on the highway, and the scooters were limited to speeds of 5 mph.

Lime spokesperson Kelly Harrop said in a statement that users who took scooters onto I-35W during the mass rides were banned from the app, and others who “were deemed to violate our terms of service” were issued warnings.

A third mass ride appears to be planned for Friday night.

“We will monitor upcoming events closely and issue warnings, fines, and bans to riders who engage in irresponsible riding behavior,” Harrop wrote.

When asked why users were not already prevented from riding Lime scooters or e-bikes on highways, Harrop responded: “In the past, we had confidence in our riders not choosing to ride on highways given the clear and obvious safety concerns this presents, and because it violates our User Agreement. In other cases, highway overpasses intersect with bike paths and local streets, which would create unnecessary friction during rides.”

“Based on this recent activity, we are working closely with the city to implement geofencing as-needed for anticipated events,” Harrop added.

Local content creator Johan Vargas called for Minnesotans to join the gatherings in Minneapolis, following a trend of so-called teen takeovers in cities around the country.

In a video promoting Friday’s event, Vargas said “bring the costumes, bring the good energy, bring the speakers” and said the gathering would still happen even if Lime restricts use of its e-bikes and scooters.

Vargas did not respond to a request for comment.

Friday’s event, unlike the earlier gatherings, seems to have taken on a political message for some potential attendees. Online posters have labeled the gathering an “anti-Flock” protest, referencing the controversial license plate reader cameras used in cities around Minnesota.

Multiple Minnesota cities have ended their contracts with Flock after public backlash and vandalism of cameras around the state. The Star Tribune reports that although Flock has said the company does not work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Flock data in Minnesota was accessed for civil immigration enforcement purposes during Operation Metro Surge despite Minnesota law requiring the data only be used for criminal investigations.

The City of Minneapolis has said city government and the Minneapolis Police Department do not contract with Flock; instead, the city makes use of other traffic cameras that do not automatically scan license plates. However, the city said it cannot comment on contracts private businesses or other governments may have, and a crowdsourced app claims to show Flock cameras posted throughout the city.

MPD doesn’t “own, operate, or have access to” Flock cameras, a spokesperson said in a statement.

MPD “is aware of possible large gatherings of scooter riders planned for this weekend,” the statement added. “The City of Minneapolis will work with scooter companies to help manage where and how scooters may be operated. These efforts are intended to promote a safe environment for everyone who lives, works in or visits Minneapolis to enjoy the numerous options Minneapolis has to offer.”

Minneapolis police didn’t arrest or cite anyone involved in the first gatherings over the weekend.

Residents of a troubled subsidized housing complex in Minneapolis will soon be able to get stipends to help them relocate.

The Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a plan Thursday to get the funds to residents of Heritage Park. Eighty-three out of the 211 currently occupied units will be eligible for stipends, after residents and council members raised alarms over mold, rodents and damage.

Council member Pearll Warren, whose ward includes Heritage Park, said she’s working to make sure residents have what they need to move out, if they choose to.

“This has been mentally and emotionally taxing for everyone, and I want you to know that I value you as individuals, and that everyone’s story and everyone’s living situation is very unique and deserves a very person-centered and individualized approach,” Warren said.

The stipends will be available to residents who:

• lived in Heritage Park on or before July 17

• cite health or safety concerns as a reason for moving before Oct. 17

• relocate by Jan. 31, 2027.

The money can go toward moving expenses and potential rent increases. Stipends will range from around $6,500 for one-bedroom units to around $12,500 for five-bedroom units.

That funding will come from $2.5 million that the council approved in July to go toward repairs and relocation.

The city plans to work with SRF Consulting to help residents find new housing. That firm has an existing contract with the city, and Director of Community Planning and Economic Development Erik Hansen said working through that existing contract is the fastest way to get help to the residents.

Warren said she’s in talks with city staff to explore the possibility of working with a North Minneapolis organization as well. Hansen told the council he’s in talks with North Point Health and Wellness Center about bringing the organization in to help.

There's a new professional sports team in Minnesota. Announced in November, Major League Volleyball has gone from an idea to a roster to a coaching staff, and now it has an identity: Minnesota Forge.

The Forge will begin playing in January 2027 at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul.

Michelle Haines is president of the team, and said choosing the name was an intentional process that involved one-on-one conversations, focus groups, stakeholders and players. She said the name Forge ultimately stood out because it reflected the resilience and grit the team wants to embody.

The team unveiled its name and branding Wednesday at a launch event in St. Paul’s Rice Park. Haines said the response from fans and partners was energetic, building on months of community events, camps and clinics.

The team is already planning additional events, including a court reveal and jersey reveal, before players report in November ahead of the January season.

The Forge currently has 13 players on its roster, coached by Pedro Mendez, with assistant coach CC McGraw. The roster includes former University of Minnesota player Stephanie Samedy, who has played professionally internationally.

"For so many of the athletes, the pro athletes in volleyball, had to go overseas in order to make a living," Haines said. "These are the best in the world and deserve to play at home."

Haines said the team is also focused on creating a professional pathway for young volleyball players in Minnesota.

The Forge will be one of two new professional women's volleyball teams coming to Minnesota next year, with League One Volleyball also launching a local team. Both are evidence of the sport's growing popularity — Haines said about 17,000 girls play high school volleyball in Minnesota.

"We are finally going to serve a demand that's there," she said. "And show that there is a path to pro," Haines said.

Season-ticket deposits are now available, and more information about broadcasts and online merchandise will be on the Minnesota Forge website soon. The team expects the Forge's first game in January to sell out.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation officials unveiled the design and construction schedule of the new bridge that will replace the Blatnik Bridge between Duluth and Superior, Wis. for area residents Wednesday evening.

The span will look similar to the original, which was built in 1961, but it’ll have improved design and safety features. The new bridge incorporates a “tied arch” design on raised piers to support the roadway 120 feet above the St. Louis River where it forms the headwaters of Lake Superior.

"This is going to be the most robust, the safest bridge we've ever done,” said Tom DeHaven, bridge design manager for the project and a National Bridge Practice Consultant with HNTB, one of the contractors working with the federal government to design and build the bridge.

“We're making everything a little bit better, a little bit stronger, just to make sure we get at least 100 years [of] service life out of this."

In addition to four lanes of traffic, the new design also includes a 12-foot pedestrian and bike path along one side of the bridge, with alcoves to provide scenic overlooks.

Planning and preliminary construction work on the $1.8 billion project has been underway already for six years, and it will take another six years to finish it.

Demolition of the old bridge will begin in March 2027. The main span will be removed in 2027 and 2028, with the new span installed by winter of 2031. Landscaping, cleanup and other work is expected to continue until June 2032.

But the new bridge will be open to traffic no later than Oct. 31, 2031, on Halloween, said Pat Houston, major projects engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

“We do have a requirement for a closure that is no longer than 56 months,” Houston said.

Traffic will be diverted across the Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River about five miles southwest of the Blatnik Bridge. The detour will likely result in longer travel times for local residents commuting between Duluth and Superior, and for visitors to the area too.

Officials considered building the new bridge along a slightly different alignment, which would have allowed the current bridge to stay open longer during construction.

Houston said after studying dozens of options, officials concluded that tearing down the old bridge and building the new one along the same alignment speeds up the construction timeline by about a year, saves up to $100 million on the cost, and is safer. “Building that huge bridge right next to live traffic is a risk,” said Houston.

Called the High Bridge when it was first built, the bridge was renamed in 1971 after Congressman John Blatnik, who championed the project. The new bridge could be renamed, but would require an act of Congress. Houston said he hasn’t heard any discussion of a new name.

The bridge carries about 33,000 cars and trucks every day over its mile and a half long span. Ships up to 1,000 feet long also travel beneath it, to load cargoes of iron ore pellets, grain and other commodities to transport around the Great Lakes.

The new design features a wider span and more advanced safety features to protect the piers that support the bridge. Two years ago the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Baltimore area collapsed when a container ship that had lost power struck one of the bridge piers.

Officials say the 65-year old Blatnik Bridge needs to be replaced by 2030 because of corrosion and other safety and traffic issues.

The federal government is providing about $1 billion to help build the bridge. Former President Joe Biden traveled twice to Superior to advocate for the funding, which was included in the massive infrastructure bill that he signed in Dec. 2021. Minnesota and Wisconsin are each contributing about $400 million to the project.

Federal wildland fire officials have identified the crew member who died this week while working to contain the wildfires that have burned in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for over a month.

Leslie R. Washington, 41, of Noorvik, Alaska, died Tuesday morning while responding to the Bear Trap Fire, which has burned about 30,000 acres in the Boundary Waters north of Ely, between the Echo Trail and the Canadian border.

Officials have not released details of how Washington died or how his death may have been connected to fighting the fires. The Eastern Area Complex Incident Management Team, which is overseeing the firefighting efforts, earlier said he died at an Ely hospital following a “medical emergency.”

The U.S. Department of the Interior said it is not releasing additional medical information at this time out of consideration for Washington’s family.

Washington was a wildland firefighter who worked for Scorched Earth Services, an Alaska Native-owned company that contracts with the federal government to provide firefighting crews to help with incidents around the country. Its firefighters come from communities across rural Alaska.

Washington was assigned to the company’s 20-person K-River 2 contract crew, which was supporting the response to the Bear Trap Fire. He was one of more than 1,000 crew members who have worked to contain the wildfires burning in northeastern Minnesota over the past month.

“We are heartbroken at the loss of a wildland firefighter who died while protecting others,” said U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy. “We mourn alongside his families, loved ones, friends and crewmates as they face this profound loss.”

Scorched Earth Services confirmed Washington’s death in a social media post, saying “our hearts are with his family, the community of Noorvik, Alaska and the Inupiaq people of the Northwest Arctic.”

Firefighters and other first responders and law enforcement officials escorted Washington’s body in a vehicle procession from Ely to the Duluth area on Tuesday, and then to the Twin Cities.

The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa also recognized Washington’s service.

“In so many ways, we understand this loss because our Fond du Lac Band and our neighboring Tribal Nations often send our wildfire crews across the country each year, and we share in the tragedies that impact fire families and Native communities wherever they occur,” the Band’s leadership said.

“We also hold deep respect for the many Native people who serve in wildfire response across the country, including members of our own Fond du Lac Band who have a history of supporting fires throughout the nation and continue to do so today.”

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her proposed a 6.8 percent increase in the property tax levy — about $58 per year for the owner of a median-value home in the city — in her inaugural budget.

But Her also asked departments to reduce spending by 4 percent to avoid an even steeper tax increase. Her addressed City Council members and the community on Thursday morning at Allianz Field — a location she highlighted in her speech as an example of her administration’s efforts to welcome new businesses, expand the city’s tax base and identify new sources of revenue within city government.

“We’re already seeing the results of that approach, with nearly a billion dollars in investments in downtown,” Her said. “And right outside this very window we’re seeing a breath of fresh air and development up and down the University corridor.”

The cuts were expected as the city faces a $26 million budget gap, according to the city’s projections.

In her Thursday address, Mayor Her proposed a $20,000 cut to her own compensation, and she said her office’s three highest-paid employees will forgo the 2027 cost-of-living increase.

“When savings are necessary, we should first examine management structures, reorganize where it makes sense, and reduce administrative costs before asking our lowest-paid employees to do more with less,” Her said.

Her said the city is eliminating positions where appropriate, and reassigning staff to refocus resources.

She said the cuts brought down the proposed property tax increase — which had started at more than 12 percent.

“I’ve always been honest with residents that we would not be able to reduce property taxes in the near term. What we can do is grow the tax base so that the cost of providing essential services is shared more broadly,” she said.

Spending on cybersecurity, climate resiliency

The proposed budget also includes areas where the mayor would like to spend more money.

Her’s budget includes investments in cybersecurity improvements identified through the after-action review of the 2025 cyberattack on the city.

She also wants to invest in modernizing the city’s payroll and benefits systems, and adding a workers' compensation analyst to reduce workers’ compensations costs down the line.

The budget also triples spending on climate resilience — including expanding the city’s tree canopy, developing electric-vehicle car-share options and improving energy efficiency in St. Paul homes.

The proposed budget would use gas and electric fee revenue to hire a climate director who would coordinate with the mayor’s office and city government staff.

Changing the subject

Her’s budget address was a way for the mayor to shift the conversation, after recent controversy. But in her budget address, she said her speech may have been boring to some.

“Good government should be boring. We are putting our head down, doing the work, and not getting distracted from the challenges and opportunities ahead of us. That’s how we can lower property taxes down the line and attract new neighbors and residents,” she said.

St. Paul’s clearing of encampments has drawn pushback from critics, and Her addressed that in her speech.

“I know that the past few weeks have been difficult not just for our communities but also city staff. People have strong opinions about the city’s decision regarding the Pig’s Eye encampment enclosure, and I understand that not everyone agrees with how we handled it,” Her said.

But she said conditions at the encampment couldn’t continue. She said they were unsafe for the people living there.

Her also made headlines recently not for her policies, but for an investigation into sexual harassment. St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry filed a complaint against the mayor over text messages she sent to city employees.

Ward 1 City Council member Anika Bowie said she wants to let the process play out, but there is an elephant in the room.

“What makes a good leader is someone who can remain focused in the world as a woman of color who's in elected position. There is a lot of distractions that can be thrown at you,” Bowie said. “At the end of the day, people have voted for you to be focused.”

Mayor Her said she’s cooperating with the investigation.

Campaign promises

When then-state Rep. Her ran for the city’s top job against Mayor Melvin Carter in 2025, she promised to diversify the city’s economy.

“We need a St. Paul that is focused on expanding our revenue stream so that our budget isn't balanced on the backs of our residents’ property taxes and rents,” she told MPR News after her election to office.

City Council President Rebecca Noecker said she agrees with the idea of coming up with different revenue streams.

“We need to be creative, especially again at a time when we don't have help from the federal government, when our state government has consistently failed to deliver on their promise of local government aid,” Noecker said.

Her campaigned on revitalizing the downtown and Midway neighborhoods and on creating a more business-friendly city.

Noecker said she wants to make sure that next year’s budget preserves services that people depend on — the basics of city government that affect peoples’ everyday lives.

“The budget is the document that reflects our values as a community and that shows how we're planning to spend our dollars at a most basic level. What we're prioritizing, whether that's city services, whether that's staff, whether that's capital projects like streets,” Noecker said.

What do residents want to see in the budget?

Stephanie Veatch, of Dayton’s Bluff, was outside a Mississippi Market on East 7th Street after a shopping run. She said infrastructure should be in the budget.

“I hope that the budget continues to address some of the public infrastructure that we need improvements on here and continually need improvements on. We need better roads. We need better sewers,” Veatch said.

Robert McWhite, who lives in Cathedral Hill, said he has seen the waterways out west like the Colorado River.

“When I come back to Minnesota, I realize how lucky we are to have all these wetlands. So I would just suggest that we protect those wetlands. They're really our bread and butter here in Minnesota,” McWhite said.

Lauralie Millikan, who lives in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood, was riding her bike in the Starbucks lot in Highland Park.

“We need some more money for infrastructure, streets, parks. I think we need an adequate budget for crime prevention, for the police,” Millikan said.

Millikan doesn’t think Summit Avenue needs new bike lanes.

The St. Paul City Council will hold budget meetings at on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. beginning next week. The public is encouraged to attend.

Chip Rankin was eight days into his new job as Brainerd school superintendent when a 13-year-old student at Forestview Middle School died by suicide.

Just three weeks earlier, an 11-year-old student at the same school had also taken her own life.

Rankin and other school officials faced a grieving community asking: How did this happen, and what can be done to keep it from happening again?

“It’s hard because raw emotions come, and people grieve,” Rankin said. “But people want to know, why, why? Because it's hard. It just makes no sense whatsoever.”

The parents of the Brainerd students who died, Ava Starr and Alexis Thornton, say they were bullied by classmates. Rankin said the district has no record of any formal complaints, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.

The district has hired an independent attorney to review the schools' bullying policies and how complaints are handled.

And by the start of the school year, the district will have an online system to anonymously report bullying, Rankin said. A new state law gives districts two years to adopt an anonymous threat reporting system, but Brainerd isn't waiting.

“I want to make sure we improve, because there are 1,500 kids coming back to (Forestview) in about three and a half weeks,” he said. “And I want to make sure if there's anything we could do slightly better, we're going to do it.”

But the rise in youth suicide extends beyond Brainerd, and some say it needs a broader response. Rankin said the Brainerd district has limited resources to address challenges beyond the school walls.

“This isn't a Brainerd issue,” he said. “This unfortunately is a teen issue. The research is really clear.”

Last year, Minnesota's suicide rate for children ages 10-14 was more than twice as high as the previous five years, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. The rate is even higher in rural communities like Brainerd, which often lack mental health services.

Suicide is growing fastest among children ages six to 12, said Tracie Rutherford Self, an associate professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato and associate director of the Center for Rural Behavioral Health.

“Is it horrifying to think of? Yes. Do kids know how to do it? Yes. There's enough online. There's enough access. There's enough pain,” Self said. “I think that's the key point is we don't realize how much pain some of these younger kids are in.”

An increase in traumatic childhood experiences – such as abuse, neglect or family dysfunction – could be a contributing factor. Bullying can also play a role, Self said.

Adults need to have honest conversation with younger kids about mental health and suicide, she said. Despite common fears, research shows those conversations don't put the idea of suicide in kids' heads.

“The moment we start having open, honest conversations, people suddenly feel free to talk about it,” Self said. “Before, they're ashamed, they're embarrassed, they don't want to have those conversations because they're afraid of freaking people out or burdening others.”

Technology can aggravate problems

Smartphones and social media mean problems that once ended at school can now follow kids home, Rankin said. He recently learned about a seventh grader at Forestview who received more than 400 bot messages in five minutes telling him to kill himself.

“What if you're in the wrong place that day – just mentally feeling down, not feeling good about yourself?” Rankin asked. “These are adolescents. Their range of emotions can really vary.”

The school district is hiring a social worker dedicated to Forestview to help connect families to resources. And Rankin said cell phones will be off limits during the school day for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

On his desk is a copy of Jonathan Haidt's book, “The Anxious Generation.” Haidt argues that the transition from flip phones to smartphones with front-facing cameras and social media has triggered a mental health crisis, especially among teenage girls.

As a principal, Rankin supported giving every student a device to take home. Now, as a parent, he questions how much screen time and online access are healthy.

“I think parents really have to arm themselves with the research to see what could we do better, because we're going to have to,” he said. “This is a partnership.”

Limited resources

The Brainerd school district has limited funding and staffing to tackle mental health, Rankin said.

The district has just one counselor for every 1,000 students. That’s well below Minnesota’s average student-to-counselor ratio of 558 to 1, which is one of the worst in the nation, according to the American School Counselor Association.

The Brainerd district also contracts with a mental health clinic for services, but community resources are also stretched thin.

“It's kind of like healthcare if all you do is rely on an emergency room when you're in a crisis, and you don't go to the clinic,” Rankin said. “I feel like right now we're funded and staffed for emergency situations.”

The shortage of school counselors is a statewide problem, says Marcus Schmit, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“We need to continue to reach kids where they're at with mental health education,” Schmit said. “And we know that schools are one of the most effective places to get connected to students.”

Parents, teachers and coaches also need training to recognize when a child is struggling, and know how to start a conversation, Schmit said.

“Kids understand it. They're open about it. They talk about it,” he said. “We have to do more to equip the adults around them to provide them with that support.”

Enlisting the community

In Brainerd, Rankin said it will take an all-hands-on-deck approach to prevent more deaths.

He's launching a program to bring 500 community volunteers into schools – greeting students, being present in the hallways or helping with homework.

Sometimes, one caring adult can make a difference and keep a struggling student from losing hope, Rankin said.

“I think during COVID we we pulled up the drawbridge and closed our castle and said, ‘Everybody stay out. We're going to social distance,’” he said. “Then we never put it back down.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis or needs immediate mental health support, call or text the Minnesota Lifeline at 988.

Faribault in the 1920s must have been a uniquely amusing place. Inventor Herbert Sellner was running around the southern Minnesota town, using the family home, the yards of friends and neighbors, the fairgrounds and the lakes around Rice County as staging grounds to experiment with his contraptions.

In 1922, he created the water toboggan, a giant slide that looked like an old-timey roller coaster descending into a lake. Sellner set one up at Roberds Lake just northeast of town. It became such a big hit that Sellner got orders from all over the U.S., as well as France, Switzerland and beyond. It was considered the precursor to all the water slides to come.

“He mentions he had a call from Jamaica to be able to get one of their water toboggan slides sent out there,” said Jenna Nelson as her finger followed a handwritten note from Sellner. Nelson, the curator for the Rice County Historical Society, flipped through a copy of Sellner’s journal and rattled off dates and amusement rides.

There was “The Swooper,” which had an elongated oval shape.

“It almost looks like a squashed version of a Ferris wheel,” Nelson said, laughing. “That one, unfortunately, did not take off.”

Then came another experiment at a local lake.

Herbert “created a water merry-go-round and, basically, one boat was driving, and all the other boats were tied together,” Nelson said. “It got destroyed by a storm in 1925.” Herbert’s brother, Martin Sellner, suggested adapting it for land.

In January 1926, Sellner started sketching drawings for this new ride, calling it the Tilt-ulator. On April 24, he filed a patent in Minneapolis, and a month later, according to Sellner’s notes, he had made a significant change: The new ride — with nine cars, as one advertisement put it, “tilting, sweeping, spinning, swooping, swaying, speeding, sliding, skidding, rounding, rotating, rising, revolving, hesitating, flying, falling, curving and circling” — would be called the Tilt-A-Whirl.

By Sept. 3, Sellner’s Tilt-A-Whirl was up and running at the Minnesota State Fair. Rides cost 15 cents a pop.

“That's pretty impressive, being that he invented it that year as well,” said Keri Huber, the archivist for the State Fair. “I just love that Minnesota innovation, and the State Fair was like, ‘Yes, let's have it!’”

A century later, a Tilt-A-Whirl still operates at the State Fair, as well as Valleyfair, where it was one of the original rides when the amusement park opened in Shakopee in 1976. Since 1926, Huber estimates that over 1,000 Tilt-A-Whirls have been manufactured and bought all across the country for boardwalks, county fairs, carnivals and amusement parks.

The State Fair is celebrating the ride’s centennial with a history walking tour in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society. The fair’s Tilt-A-Whirl, which is now located at the Kidway, will be one of the stops. Some crop artists have also taken note of the milestone, creating seed mosaics of the Tilt-A-Whirl for the fair’s competition exhibition in the Ag-Hort building.

A Faribault icon

In Faribault, where the Rice County Historical Society is also celebrating its centennial, Jenna Nelson says the museum is preparing to overhaul its Tilt-A-Whirl and Sellner Manufacturing Company exhibit, which will reopen in 2027.

Sellner Manufacturing was the amusement ride company Herbert Sellner founded after working in furniture design and toy manufacturing with his father Frederick Sellner, who had immigrated with his mother Charlotte from Germany in the 1880s. Herbert was born in Faribault 1887.

The current exhibit is small, featuring some Sellner family history, a few designs for toys and lamps, a model car for the Tilt-A-Whirl and some discussion of its iterations. The earliest versions of the ride were made mostly of wood and featured nine cars.

Over the years, it was paired down to seven cars and wood gave way to steel and fiberglass, developing the car’s iconic half-egg dome shape. There are variations too, such as “Barrels of Fun” (the cars shaped like old wood barrels) and the “Berry-Go-Round” (shaped like strawberries).

There’s also documentation of the evolution of Sellner Manufacturing. In 1927, Herbert was diagnosed with leukemia and given only a few years to live. He died at the age of 42 in 1930, leaving behind his wife Frieda and two sons. Before his death, Herbert built a factory and convinced his brother Martin to take over operations, which remained in the family until Sellner Manufacturing sold to a Texas company in 2011.

Nelson said the museum is expanding the display because its collections have so much more to show, such as colorful illustrated advertising brochures that Sellner Manufacturing printed in the 1920s.

One guarantees that the Tilt-A-Whirl is “as safe as grandma’s rocker,” and includes reviews like, “Tilt-A-Whirl is creating furor and produces revenue like an oil well,” reported by Billboard magazine in 1928. (Fun fact: In the early 20th century, before becoming a music industry publication, Billboard used to report on circuses, fairs and burlesque shows).

There are the journals, too, which Herbert wrote in almost daily, about his progress with inventions, materials and going back and forth to the patent office in Minneapolis. His patent for the Tilt-A-Whirl wasn’t actually approved until 1930.

“For what I would think of as an inventor, he has pretty meticulous records from day to day, which is kind of surprising to me, even if it's shorthand notes that he's writing down,” Nelson said.

Nelson said she wishes there were more personal stories on record about Herbert.

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“Obviously, there's that component of fun that he's interested in. He's developing these toys. He's developing these amusement rides. So there's some component there of just kind of generally being interested in creating things for families to do,” Nelson said. “I’ve got to imagine it was a part of his personality. He seems like he would be a fun guy.”

A crop art ode, or ‘that pure joyous feeling that you get in your stomach when it's spinning’

Herbert’s legacy lives on around Faribault. In the historic downtown, there are two vintage Tilt-A-Whirl cars with plaques on street corners. The exterior wall of the Paradise Center for the Arts features a large mural honoring the ride. Herbert’s legacy also lives on across the U.S., like at the Jersey Shore, where the Minneapolis-based artist Robin Schwartzman first encountered the Tilt-A-Whirl as a kid.

“That's my favorite ride,” she said. “There’s lots of love for the Tilt-A-Whirl in my life.”

Schwartzman, who moved to Minnesota in 2008, designs playgrounds and mini-golf courses. She will be entering a crop art piece that celebrates the 100th anniversary of her favorite ride to the State Fair crop art competition exhibition.

“I found out that it was invented in Minnesota,” she said. “Plus, it's like a fair classic, so I was like, ‘I have to celebrate that.’”

Schwartzman grew up in Pennsylvania and recalled going on family summer vacations to the Jersey Shore and riding the Tilt-A-Whirl at the Fantasy Island amusement park. In high school and college, she worked as a caricature artist at Dorney Park in Allentown, Penn.

“Our main stand was literally right across the midway from the Tilt-A-Whirl,” Schwartzman said. “We would just watch it all day long, and so we'd hear people screaming, we'd hear people laughing, people would come off the ride and every now and then we'd witness people puking,” she added, laughing.

She pointed to the Tilt-A-Whirl’s unique design that plays with centrifugal and gravitational forces. Each ride is different, too, as the weight of the passengers can increase or decrease the spinning motion.

“It's that feeling when it's starting to spin and the centrifugal force kicks in,” Schwartzman said. “It's just that pure joyous feeling that you get in your stomach when it's spinning and you can't really control it.”

Keri Huber, the State Fair archivist, says the first generations of Tilt-A-Whirl rides at the fair used to be located in the Mighty Midway. Somewhere along the way, as larger rides like the Air Maxx and the Kraken took over the Midway, the fair relocated the Tilt-A-Whirl to the Kidway.

One reason: As long as a child is accompanied by an adult, they only have to be 3 feet tall to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl (most of the rides at the Midway require a height of at least 4-feet).

Huber says the State Fair archives don’t hold a lot of information about the ride, but she posits that may be because it was such an instant classic, history took it for granted.

“It's a wonderful ride that can be celebrated through the generations,” Huber said. “Your grandparents went on that ride, and then your parents and then now you as a child.”

The Minnesota State Fair runs Aug. 27 through Sept. 7.

With a budget gap looming, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is proposing a plan to cut spending and staffing across city departments — and hike property taxes by 11.3 percent next year.

The proposed $2.6 billion budget for 2027, which Frey outlined in an address Wednesday morning, also adds funding for police overtime and recruitment, fire department hiring and some community safety projects.

In his address, Frey said the proposal is a result of significant financial challenges.

“This budget reflects our values, and at this time, the primary value is stewardship,” Frey said. “Such stewardship requires difficult decisions, painful choices, and telling the truth about what it actually costs to run a city, especially when assistance from other jurisdictions is questionable.”

The city started the budgeting process with a revenue shortfall of more than $30 million — plus, Frey said the 2027 budget will need to add about another $30 million in spending to keep up basic city services. The city’s finance staff said the gap is largely due to increased costs to pay city employees, and higher costs for fuel and maintenance.

Minneapolis also spent millions responding to the federal immigration enforcement operation last winter. And Frey said the city is also budgeting around the potential loss of some federal funding.

To close that gap, Frey’s budget proposes cutting about 100 staff positions at the city. That includes leaving some empty positions unfilled. The city is already under a hiring freeze, with limited exceptions. City budget officials said they hope leaving those positions empty reduces the need to lay off workers.

Frey said the city will also save money by consolidating some departments. The Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging department will become part of the city’s human resources department; several other offices will combine.

Frey said he’s also in talks with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board about areas to consolidate. He pointed to duplications of the city’s work — for example, the park board has its own human resources department and payroll. City and park board officials are negotiating potential structural changes.

Frey said the city is cutting back carefully, but he expects some pushback.

“I am certain the two biggest critiques of this budget will be that the cuts are too deep, and that they aren’t deep enough,” Frey said.

Increased police budget

Frey’s budget proposes additional funding for some departments, with the biggest increase — $20.5 million — going toward police.

The bulk of that new funding — $13.1 million — is for overtime spending. The department overspent its overtime budget this year by $23 million, and by a similar amount in 2025. That was far over the office’s $2.3 million overtime budget for 2026. Frey said that spending was needed to keep officers on the streets and on standby, particularly during the federal immigration enforcement operation.

The increase in the 2027 budget does not indicate an actual increase in spending, Frey said — instead, it’s a more accurate budget for what the department spends.

“Our overtime allocation of $13.1 million is a transparent attempt to correct the mismatch by aligning our financial plan with the department’s operational reality,” Frey said.

Frey said cutting back on overtime hours isn’t an option.

“With 656 sworn officers — fewer per capita than almost any major city in the country — basic services expected by our residents require the use of overtime as a tool,” Frey said.

Some city council members and residents have criticized the department’s overspending.

City Council President Elliott Payne said he’s open to increasing the budget to get closer to what the department actually spends on overtime. But he said he wants to review that spending and the overtime hours used.

“What we need is a different type of conversation around what’s the right level of service, how should we fund it, what should we be trading off to fund that service — and making sure that there’s collective scrutiny on how we’re delivering that service,” Payne said.

Frey said police and city leaders have also reviewed the overtime spending and are looking for ways to cut back where possible. He’s also looking to hire more officers, which he said will cut back on the need for overtime work.

The remaining additional money for the police department is going toward recruitment and officer pay. Frey said the department has also reduced costs in some areas.

Another $2.3 million will go toward community safety ambassadors, a pilot program that the city plans to continue. The ambassadors are city employees who patrol specific corridors to perform wellness checks and offer help to residents. That funding will cover 23 new employees.

But the budget proposes significant cuts to the violence interrupter program, another non-police neighborhood safety initiative. That program contracts with workers from local organizations to provide violence interruption services. The budget proposal cuts $2.6 million from the program — more than half its previous budget.

The proposed budget also allocates funding for additional firefighters, a social worker in the city’s 911 office, affordable housing projects and contracts related to the city’s work on its settlement agreement around police reform.

Additional new spending is distributed among several departments. Frey said the city is looking to cover essential services, and work previously funded by grants that have now expired.

Proposed property tax increase

Frey’s budget proposes an 11.3 percent property tax increase. That comes out to about $409 per year, or $34 per month, for the median-value homeowner.

It’s a much steeper hike than the city predicted in its financial plan last year, and it’s higher than the city’s average annual property tax increase since 2018 of 7.7 percent.

Council member LaTrisha Vetaw said that’s going to be hard on constituents.

“That double-digit levy increase is a shocker,” Vetaw said after the mayor’s budget address. “I represent a community that… folks are living paycheck to paycheck. That number I always wanted to be as low as possible.”

Frey said he’s optimistic about the city’s future, in spite of the current budget gaps. He pointed to increased occupancy rates in downtown buildings in 2026, and more big events coming to Minneapolis.

“The difficult decisions we’re making in this budget reflect where we’ve been — not where we are and certainly not where we are headed,” he said.

Frey’s proposal kicks off the city’s budgeting process. The city council will now have a chance to propose changes and take public input on the budget. The council plans to hold several public hearings, including some around the city outside of City Hall. Council leaders said they hope that makes it easier for constituents to attend and weigh in.

The council and the mayor will have to agree to a spending plan — and tax levy — by the end of 2026.

Rochester’s wide open mayoral race is now narrowed down to two candidates running against one another this fall: Joe Powers, a prominent catering business owner, and Jess Garcia, a psychologist and former school board member.

Eight candidates were vying for Rochester top office in Tuesday’s primary election after two-term mayor Kim Norton announced she wouldn’t run again earlier this year.

Powers earned nearly half of the votes cast in the city, while Garcia won about a quarter of votes. The other six candidates — which include the president of Rochester’s NAACP chapter and a former city council person — each received less than 10 percent of the votes.

Powers and Garcia will face off in the general election in November, and the winner will be tasked with guiding Rochester through a period of tremendous change.

Rochester is in the midst of massive years-long projects and the ensuing seemingly endless construction projects that come along with that. Mayo Clinic is building a $5 billion hospital downtown and the city is in the midst of a 20-year $5.6 billion economic development plan, known as Destination Medical Center — meant to make Rochester more attractive to visitors, including the patients who fly half way across the world to work with Mayo Clinic doctors.

Conversations around affordability in town seemed to have helped Powers and Garcia win enough votes Tuesday to advance to the general election. Both focused on the topic in their platforms, from fighting against property tax hikes to exorbitant child care costs, with a particular emphasis on affordable housing.

They differed in that Powers has proposed a larger focus on public safety, which includes investing in the Rochester Police Department, while Garcia is driving home the importance of city hall transparency.

The November election will determine which platform best resonates with Rochester residents.

Here are the final vote totals with 100 percent precincts reporting:

• 48.92% - Joe Powers, a restaurant and catering company owner.

• 24.45% - Jess Garcia, a psychologist and former school board member.

• 7.97% - Walé Elegbede, Mayo Clinic project manager and president of the Rochester branch of the NAACP.

• 7.22% Ben Zastrow, a small business owner.

• 3.58% - Ayub HajiOmar, a substitute teacher in Rochester Public Schools.

• 3.56% - Axe Abdimajid Ahmed, business owner

• 2.54% - Molly Denis, former city council member.

• 1.76% - Jerrod Lucker, a literacy tutor.

The Minneapolis City Council at its Thursday meeting will consider a voluntary relocation plan for some residents of the embattled Heritage Park housing complex.

Eighty-three of the current 211 households would be eligible for stipends to escape unhealthy living conditions, according to Erik Hansen, the city’s community planning and economic development director. Videos of mold, vermin infestation and leaky roofs prompted public outcry and led the city to pass $2.5 million in July for emergency repairs and relocation.

Hansen told the council during a Monday committee of the whole meeting the city is still evaluating whether the buildings are salvageable but wanted to move quickly to relocate residents.

“I think we’re on the side of the fence where we can, but I can’t give you with total confidence that we can save the buildings,” Hansen said. “To that point, that means there is no habitable unit.”

Residents who lived in Heritage Park on or before July 17, who cite health or safety concerns as their reason for moving by Oct. 15 and relocate by Jan. 31, 2027, are eligible for the stipend. The total payout is designed to cover moving expenses and potential rent increases based on household unit sizes.

The city estimated stipends for a one-bedroom unit at around $6,500 while a five-bedroom unit would receive around $12,500.

The committee passed the plan by a voice vote without opposition, but several council members raised issues with spending on consultants and excluding 128 federally funded public housing units governed by the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority.

“I don’t have a problem with the relocation assistance that’s being given,” said Council member Pearll Warren, whose Ward 5 includes Heritage Park. “I just have an issue with the fact that the individuals who are participants of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority are essentially being punished for being low- to no-income.”

Warren, along with other council members, were also concerned about a no-bid contract with SRF Consulting to provide relocation consulting.

To qualify for the stipend, residents must find apartments comparable in size to their current dwelling. The city would use SRF, which currently has a contract with the city, to expedite getting families out who wish to do so.

Warren questioned not putting the consulting portion up for a bid since several organizations are already assisting residents find new housing. Hansen said putting it up for a public bid would add two months to the timeline, delaying stipends until the middle of fall.

“That is unacceptable for me,” Hansen said. “I think we need to be able to push this funding out as quickly as we can. The staff and the team have come up with a way to do that. It’s not perfect. Nothing is perfect in an unplanned situation.”

Warren said the city was artificially limiting itself by not including the families who receive federal funding while awarding a consulting contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. She noted the $2.5 million in funding council passed in July equated to roughly $12,000 per family still at the complex.

“There’s not anything anyone needs to do to qualify to move,” Warren said. “Everybody is eligible. They should be. The truth is, it’s not habitable. It’s not anywhere that anyone should want to live.”

A crew member working to contain the wildfires burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has died, according to officials leading the firefighting effort.

The Eastern Area Complex Incident Management Team, which is overseeing the fires under the command of the Superior National Forest and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, says an individual assigned to the fires had a “medical emergency” at about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday near Ely.

Fire personnel and emergency medical services transferred the person to a hospital, where the patient subsequently died.

Officials did not immediately share the cause of death or how it may have been connected to fighting the fires.

Fire officials say there will be an update when additional information is available and confirmed.

“Thank you for your patience and understanding. Our deepest condolences go out to the family and fellow firefighting community,” the U.S. Forest Service said.

As of Monday there were 761 personnel assigned to the wildfires burning in northern Minnesota. This is the first fatality reported since the fires began early last month.

Crews have steadily made progress containing the fires burning in and around the wilderness area, which have now scorched more than 65,000 acres of forest in the U.S., and an additional 8,600 acres in Canada.

The Camp Fire, burning about five miles north of Winton, is now 84 percent contained. Other fires burning northwest of Ely remain under 50 percent contained.

The Superior National Forest is opening more hiking trails and canoe entry points into the Boundary Water this week. About 1,600 campsites out of the 2,000 in the BWCA have now been reopened. 73 percent of the wilderness is open to visitor travel.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has denied the city of St. Paul’s request to stop a right to repair ballot initiative from being put on the November ballot.

The “Tenants Right to Repair In Residential Rental Property” measure would allow St. Paul renters to make fixes to their homes that are up to $500 or half their rent, whichever is greater, and then deduct that cost from rent or get a reimbursement. Tenants would have to give landlords a 14-day notice, giving the landlord an opportunity to make the repair themselves.

Safe Homes St. Paul, the organization behind the initiative, had gathered enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot. But last week, the St. Paul City Council voted 5-2 against putting it on the ballot. The council cited concerns that parts of the measure may violate state law.

Safe Homes St. Paul sued the city, and on Monday, a Ramsey County judge ruled the city must add the measure to the ballot, saying the city’s concerns were not enough to remove it from the ballot.

The judge ruled the city must put the measure on the ballot by Tuesday, which is the mandatory deadline. State statute requires municipal ballot measures to be finalized 84 days before an election, which is Aug. 11.

Immediately after the judge ruled in favor of the ballot measure, the city filed an appeal with the Minnesota Supreme Court asking the court to prohibit Ramsey County from enforcing this order.

The court denied that order, meaning the city will be required to put the measure on the ballot.

The city will comply but officials continue to explore “all appellate options available,” Irene Kao, the St. Paul city attorney, said in a statement to MPR News.

“I'm excited to get back to the business of getting out the vote and connecting with people and encouraging them to support the ballot measure,” said Cole Hanson, organizer with safe Homes St. Paul.

A viral TikTok video sparked a massive gathering of people riding Lime scooters and bikes in downtown Minneapolis over the weekend, drawing hundreds of riders — including some who cruised around sitting on couches.

Local content creator Johan Vargas posted a video Friday calling people to attend a “Couch Lime Scooter Party” that evening. He also organized a second “scooter takeover” on Saturday night, and, according to several TikTok videos, many of the riders traveled on parts of Interstate 35. Some who participated also rode on Lime bikes or used their own bikes and scooters.

“We want to remind the public that pedestrians and scooter riders must stay off freeways — this behavior is unsafe and will not be tolerated on Minnesota freeways,” said Jennifer Krier, a Minnesota State Patrol spokesperson.

About 11 troopers responded to reports of about 200 to 300 riders entering the freeway at 10:40 p.m. Saturday. The scooters had left by the time officers arrived. Krier says if this happens again, the agency will issue citations.

Minneapolis police also monitored the group as it traveled through downtown and southeast Minneapolis. Police described some of the riders’ behavior as “reckless and disruptive to traffic.” Videos show people riding in circles in an intersection and traveling north on the Third Avenue Bridge.

No arrests or citations were issued by either law enforcement agencies, and although some videos show riders falling down, there were no reports of crashes or injuries.

“Lime does not condone any behavior that disobeys the rules of the road or our terms of service, which all riders agree to follow,” said Kelly Harrop, a Lime government-relations lead for the Midwest.

In an emailed statement, Harrop said riding with friends is encouraged as long as traffic rules are followed, but “clearly many riders involved in this even broke those rules.” Lime is working with city officials to review the incident and pledges to ban anyone who rode on the freeway from using Lime scooters.

“We are grateful to the tens of thousands of Minneapolis residents who ride Lime safely and responsibly on a regular basis, and we want to remind those involved with these takeovers that behavior like this negatively impacts everyone who relies on shared vehicles to get around,” she said.

Vargas did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.

By Becky Z. Dernbach | Sahan Journal

A federal judge dismissed a Department of Justice lawsuit against Minneapolis Public Schools’ policy aimed at retaining teachers of color on procedural grounds Monday.

The decision is the latest twist in a case that began as part of a deal to end a 2022 teachers’ strike and was taken up in court by conservative activists, leading to a four-year legal fight.

In his order, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, an appointee of George W. Bush, made clear he had “grave doubts about the legality of the racial discrimination in which MPS is forced to engage” under its collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union. The policy in question, which the district and union agreed to following a three-week educator strike in 2022, allows the district to retain “underrepresented” teachers, rather than strictly follow seniority order, during staff reductions. Schiltz said that policy could lead to a Black teacher being retained over a white teacher on the basis of race.

Still, Schiltz said, the lawsuit must be dismissed due to a quirk in how federal law governs discrimination cases. Since the policy was governed by a collective bargaining agreement, Schiltz said, the union was a necessary party to the lawsuit. But the Department of Justice did not and could not include the union in the lawsuit, because under federal law, the U.S. Attorney General can only bring lawsuits alleging a pattern or practice of discrimination against governmental entities — not against private entities like labor unions.

“The Court concludes that this action cannot proceed ‘in equity and good conscience’ without the Union,” Schiltz concluded.

Schiltz said that any aggrieved teacher could file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is tasked with enforcing discrimination laws against private entities.

A Department of Justice official said the agency was reviewing the order and would decide on its options. The Minneapolis Federation of Educators did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, Minneapolis Public Schools officials said they were pleased with the court’s decision and remained committed to the district’s collective bargaining agreements.

Four years of legal wrangling

Schiltz’s dismissal of the federal lawsuit marks the latest chapter in the policy’s four-year legal saga.

The union and district agreed to the policy in March 2022 as part of a deal to end a three-week strike.

Studies have shown that a more diverse teaching workforce can boost education outcomes. But in Minneapolis Public Schools, like many districts in Minnesota, the teaching workforce is disproportionately white compared to its student body. Minneapolis Public Schools serves a diverse student population — about a third of students are white, a quarter Black, and a quarter Latino. But state data show that about three in four of their teachers are white.

Typically, teacher layoffs happen on the basis of seniority; the most recently hired teachers are first to be cut. Since teachers of color are more likely to be recently hired, these cuts disproportionately affect them. The 2022 policy in the collective bargaining agreement was an attempt to better retain teachers of color during these circumstances.

The provision in the contract to exempt “underrepresented” teachers from seniority-based layoffs attracted attention from national conservative media and legal groups. In August 2022, a Minneapolis taxpayer sued over the policy, claiming her tax dollars were being used for illegal discrimination against white teachers. The taxpayer, Deborah Clapp, was represented by the right-wing organization Judicial Watch and Minneapolis lawyer Daniel Rosen, who is now the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota. (Rosen did not represent the Department of Justice in the current federal case.)

Ultimately, Clapp’s lawsuit made its way to the Minnesota Supreme Court. In January 2025, days before Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term as president, the Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed Clapp’s lawsuit, saying she lacked standing. Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said he’d ask Trump to investigate the case as a “blatant civil rights violation.”

And the Trump administration promptly did. On May 5, 2025, the Department of Justice sent an initial notice of investigation letter to Minneapolis Public Schools. In December, the agency sued, and Schiltz heard arguments in May 2026.

Though the contested language has led to four years of legal wrangling, it’s not clear that it’s had much impact on Minneapolis teachers.

In court, Minneapolis Public Schools noted that the Department of Justice had not identified a single teacher affected by the policy. The district has made extensive staffing cuts in each of the last three years. But Timothy Sullivan, a lawyer representing Minneapolis Public Schools, told the court in May that “in none of those instances was the challenged contractual language applied to determine whether a teacher was excessed or laid off.”

A Minnesota-based magnet maker is set to receive a $150 million federal loan through the Department of Defense.

The loan will help Niron Magnetics accelerate opening a facility north of St. Cloud in Sartell, where it will make magnets for use in cell phones, electric vehicles, wind turbines and defense weapons. And it will do so without the use of rare-earth materials.

“The goal here is to bring that facility fully on board over the course of the next year for the first phase coming on board in 2027 and the full plant by 2028," said Mark Schramek, vice president of government affairs for Niron Magnetics. “We have secured a large portion of the funding for the full project, and this will allow us to basically move this forward to a full completion.”

Schramek said the Sartell plant, where they broke ground last year, is expected to bring in nearly 200 high-quality, full-time jobs to the area. That’s comparable to the number of employees currently at its Minneapolis-based facility.

Niron Magnetics manufactures magnets through a process that combines iron and nitrogen, which the state has an abundance of, into iron nitride. The magnetic powder is then formed into different shapes and sizes based on what it will be used for.

The method, which was developed at the University of Minnesota over a decade ago, cuts out the dependence on foreign-mined rare-earth elements needed to make traditional magnets. And it lowers environmental impacts.

According to Niron, their magnets are more powerful than ones containing rare-earth elements.

With demand for magnets increasingly spurred on by data center cooling pumps, robotics and electric vehicles, among other factors, Niron is planning to expand its operations in the near future. And some politicians want to see it happen in Minnesota.

“We actually are currently undergoing a nationwide site selection on where we are going to build our next 10,000-ton, high-volume manufacturing plant,” Schramek said. “That process is ongoing today, with a goal that we will actually select a site for that by fall of this year.”

When operational, the Sartell plant will produce 1,500 tons of rare-earth free permanent magnets annually. By comparison, the Minneapolis facility has a production capacity of over 5 tons a year.

A person was wounded after St. Paul police said he pointed what appeared to be a handgun at officers outside Regions Hospital Monday morning. An officer shot the man, leading to non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.

Officers were dispatched at about 9:15 a.m. to the 400 block of Temperance Avenue on a report of a domestic assault, St. Paul police Sgt. Scott Sandell said at a Monday afternoon news conference. Police were told the suspect had fled on foot and was armed with a firearm.

Officers located the person at about 9:30 a.m. on East 12th Street, outside the hospital, “where the encounter resulted in a shooting involving St. Paul police,” according to the department’s initial account.

Sandell said St. Paul officers and Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies located the man near the intersection of East 12th Street and Jackson Street. He said the man again fled on foot, then pulled what appeared to be a handgun and pointed it at officers. A St. Paul police officer fired his department-issued weapon, striking the man in the hand and back, Sandell said.

Sandell said the man’s injuries were not life-threatening. No officers or bystanders were injured.

The name of the person who was wounded has not been released.

Sandell said officers involved in the incident were wearing body cameras and that the footage has been turned over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Officers directly involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave, which Sandell said is standard procedure following a critical incident.

Police said there’s no ongoing threat to the public, and the department has asked the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to handle the investigation.

St. Paul police’s Family Violence Unit will separately investigate the reported domestic assault, Sandell said.

This is a developing story; check back for updates

It’s been a dry summer for many Minnesotan farmers as drought conditions blanket much of the state.

But rain has come for key production areas in recent weeks. Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen called the showers “crop-saving rain” at this year’s annual ag trade show, Farmfest, in Redwood County in southwest Minnesota.

“Right here, we were dry, but the crop looks really good,” Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish added. “We've been blessed here, just getting some timely rains in this immediate area.”

That rain could make a big difference for farmers’ fields, according to senior marketing analyst Mark Schultz with Northstar Commodities.

“The rain that you picked up last Friday was anywhere from a 20 to 30 bushel per acre swing on the size of your crop,” said Schultz. “I think it was just that big of a difference maker in the crop.”

That rain could help strengthen this year’s crop production. Last year, Minnesota had record or near-record yields of corn, wheat and soybeans. University of Minnesota Extension Professor Edward Usset said this year’s crop is looking “as good or better” than last year’s.

“We have a shot at setting yield records again in all three crops,” said Usset. “A lot can happen in the last four or five weeks of this crop, but we have that chance to do it.”

Southwest and central Minnesota will still need more than five inches of rain in the coming months to reverse drought conditions, according to projections by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Minnesota producers will have a clearer picture of yields on Wednesday when the U.S. Department of Agriculture publishes its latest crop production report.

Smokes 4 Less in Fargo is stocked full with a rainbow of colorful products like vapes, pipes and bongs. But one shelf, deep in the store, is completely bare.

It’s been that way since last Wednesday, when North Dakota’s ban on kratom took effect.

Kratom is a substance derived from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree. Sold in a wide range of products such as pills, beverages and powders, people use it recreationally and to help with pain. Some also say it helps treat their mental health problems.

But kratom-related calls to North Dakota’s Poison Control tripled last year, from seven in 2024 to 22 in 2025, according to reporting from the North Dakota Monitor.

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong and Attorney General Drew Wrigley announced a ban on kratom products Aug. 3, citing the “addictive dangerous, and potentially deadly nature of kratom.”

Other states, including Kansas and Tennessee banned kratom products outright earlier this summer. Minnesota’s new regulations on kratom products raise the purchase age from 18 to 21.

The executive order highlights the state’s different approaches to products derived from natural kratom leaf and synthetic, concentrated products containing higher doses of a compound called 7-hydroxymitragynine or 7-OH.

The governor signed an emergency rule from North Dakota’s Board of Pharmacy that classifies 7-OH as a Schedule I drug, echoing a temporary federal action from the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The rule is valid for 180 days and triggers a rulemaking process. At the same time, the sale, use and possession of all kratom products has been banned by an emergency order that is effective for thirty days, according to Armstrong.

A special legislative session is set for early September where lawmakers will propose and vote on permanent regulation or prohibition.

Lawmaker reactions in Fargo

Fargo-area lawmakers said they’ve been hearing a lot from their constituents since the ban’s announcement.

“I hear from constituents or other people that live in my state that tote the benefits of kratom to PTSD or other mental health issues,” said Rep. Austin Foss, a Democrat in Fargo. “But then on the other side of that, I've had people reach out to me saying really terrible stories, [of] their son overdosing on kratom and how it is a very addictive drug and how it should be banned.”

Fargo lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said some regulation is necessary, as kratom has largely been legally available without regulations or age restrictions.

“The ban should be for the synthetic version,” said Sen. Michelle Powers, R-Fargo. “All synthetic versions should probably be banned and put an age limit on the purchasing of [natural] kratom.”

But both Foss and Powers disagreed with the governor’s emergency order and said the issue could’ve been tackled during the next regular legislative session.

“There is really no emergency on it, as far as I'm concerned,” Powers said. “We have far more deaths from alcohol than we do from kratom, and we're never, ever, ever going to ban alcohol.”

But Kyle Davison, a Republican representing south Fargo, thinks it was the right call. He said he and other lawmakers still need more education and information before making a decision on how to regulate kratom.

“He's putting a short-term stop to it … so that we can wrap our arms around it,” he said. “I think we'll learn together during the session.”

Regardless of what regulations lawmakers decide on, they might not be as effective in Fargo since people over 21 can easily head across the Red River to buy or consume Kratom in Moorhead, Minn.

“Whether we ban it or not might not matter in the long run,” Foss said.

It's a longstanding dynamic, Powers said, that has also surfaced around marijuana and alcohol sales, which Minnesota and North Dakota regulate differently

“Minnesota, a long time ago the alcohol was sold at 19, and everybody went over there,” she said. “It's nothing new under the sun. People will go wherever they can get it. We can't regulate every state.”

Foss said he’d support some sort of collaboration with Minnesota lawmakers to compromise and align laws across border cities, but thinks it's unlikely that’d ever happen.

“Historically, we have not been very cooperative with the state to the east of us, Minnesota, because a lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle really see us as an anti-Minnesota state,” he said.

And that might be a boon for shops on the Moorhead side, even if they don’t sell Kratom. Gabriel Hernandez is general manager at Beezwax Dispensary in Moorhead and said he’s expecting more marijuana customers because of North Dakota’s kratom ban.

“The majority of my customers come in, they say they're trying to treat pain,” he said. “So I absolutely think anyone who's trying to treat something non-medically, we’ll see more business from them, especially if their preferred becomes unavailable, i.e. kratom, which is very popular in the area.”

As Minneapolis leaders start the city’s budgeting process for 2027, Mayor Jacob Frey said he’s taking a close look at the police department after it overspent by millions of dollars in the past two years.

But Frey said the answer isn’t spending less money — it’s budgeting for the spending.

The police department anticipates coming in $23 million over budget this year, after similar overspending in 2025. That money went to overtime pay for officers, which Frey said was needed, particularly after the Annunciation shooting and during the federal immigration enforcement surge.

“These are really not optional decisions when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it,” Frey said. “If we don’t approve these overtime hours, we’re not able to do the basic work that the city demands.”

Minneapolis City Council members have pushed back on that argument. Several cited the overspending as a reason they hesitated to approve renominations of former Police Chief Brian O’Hara and Public Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette.

And several council members criticized the department’s use of overtime during the federal immigration enforcement operation. The department spent millions on overtime, including keeping officers on standby. Council members repeatedly asked O’Hara why officers didn’t do more to intervene between residents and immigration agents.

Frey said his administration is looking to craft next year’s city budget differently. The 2026 budget included about $2.3 million for police overtime, but Frey said that was “never anywhere close to accurate” — city and police department officials knew spending would exceed that.

The department anticipated covering extra costs with vacancy savings — money budgeted for officer pay, but not spent, because the department has fewer officers than allowed in the budget.

But this year, Frey said, hiring went up. Those officers don’t take shifts right away — instead, they start training. Frey said the result was more officers on payroll, but not enough on the streets to curb the need for overtime.

“There was a flood of applicants,” Frey said. “We did not anticipate such an increase in the number of officers that we got.”

Frey said he wants to keep hiring. The current budget allows for 731 officers — the minimum allowed under the city charter. But the department is still below that number. Frey said he hopes to get to 731 officers in 2027.

And Frey said he’d like to hire beyond that number, too — closer to the 888 sworn officers that the department had at the start of 2020. City administrators say the cost of supporting that many officers would be comparable to the city’s current spending on police overtime.

On Thursday, Frey said he hasn’t made any decisions yet on how much money to request for police in the next budget.

“We still can't entirely predict what those overtime hours can be. We can get more in the realm of reality, though,” Frey said.

He said spending less on overtime, or hiring fewer officers, aren’t acceptable solutions.

The budget could already be tight. The city will have to account for a deficit that could total up to $33 million. In a presentation to the city council earlier this year, city finance staff cited personnel costs increasing, with revenue staying flat or decreasing. That could mean tax hikes for residents — and layoffs of some city workers.

Frey is expected to propose a budget Wednesday. He and the council will have to settle a final budget before the end of the year.

Larry Fitzgerald was the first player to have his bronze bust revealed on stage Saturday at Tom Benson Stadium for the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Fitzgerald, a two-time first-team All-State wide receiver at Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, was one of five inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, including former Vikings runningback Roger Craig, former Panthers lineback Luke Kuechly, former Saints quarterback Drew Brees and former Patriots and Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri.

Fitzgerald, an 11-time Pro Bowl wide receiver who played his entire 17-year career for the Cardinals, was introduced by the oldest of his three sons, Devin.

He finished his speech with a message to his boys that’s applicable to everyone.

“Don’t just pursue excellence for yourself,” Fitzgerald said. “Help other people pursue it, too. That’s the part of this story that matters the most. Not the likes. Not the fame. But the people you travel with. The values you uphold. In the end, it’s not just about the excellence. It’s about the people who help get you there.”

Fitzgerald acknowledged his Minneapolis roots during his speech.

“Martin Luther King Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is where it all started for me,” Fitzgerald said. “ Had my first touchdown, my first home run, first dunk, first fight, I even had my first kiss. And I almost drowned in the pool there at one time.”

Fitzgerald said he measured himself against his father, famed Minnesota sports journalist Larry Fitzgerald Sr., who died in June.

“Dad, I know there were times where it must have felt like you were carrying the weight of the world, but you always showed up, and your willingness to love and sacrifice with the consistency was the blueprint that I used to raise your grandsons,” Fitzgerald said.

Being drafted No. 3 overall in 2004 by Cardinals coach Dennis Green reunited Fitzgerald with the man who was Minnesota’s coach when he was a ball boy for the Vikings.

“When coach Green hired me as a ball boy, I grew up watching legends being built right in front of me,” Fitzgerald said. “Hall of Fame players like John Randle, Chris Doleman, Randall McDaniel and Warren Moon, who taught me what it means to demand more of yourself than anyone else ever would. Plus, they saw me.”

Fitzgerald also acknowledged former Viking Matthew Hatchette, who Fitzgerald said would stay after NFL practice to help hone the budding wide receiver’s skills.

Fitzgerald thanked Hall of Fame receivers Cris Carter and Randy Moss for their influence on his career during his time working for the Vikings as a kid. He singled out former Cardinals teammates Emmitt Smith and Kurt Warner for showing him how to be a professional.

“Kurt, when you demanded that I elevate my preparation, consistency and accountability, you dragged me to the winner’s circle,” Fitzgerald said. “The timing couldn’t have been better for an impressionable kid, and I continue to aspire to be the kind of man you are.”

Fitzgerald is second on the NFL’s career list in receptions (1,432) and receiving yards (17,492). His 121 touchdown catches are sixth.

Minnesota State University, Mankato, the second largest college in the state, is planning to cut 60 jobs across all departments at the school in order to address a $22 million budget shortfall.

MSU Mankato President Edward Inch told MPR News that the deficit was exacerbated by rising operating costs due to inflation and stagnant state funding. A nearly four percent drop in international student enrollment contributed to the deficit as well.

Inch said cutting staff is not something he considers lightly but is necessary because employee compensation makes up about 75 percent of the university’s general fund budget.

“They’re not easy, and there are people involved,” Inch said, “which makes them painful. But they are choices that I believe need to be made now to offset worse choices later if we waited another two or three years.”

The budget proposal calls for 17 employees to be laid off, the rest of the job cuts would come through early retirements and by not filling vacant positions. Those affected will be notified the week of Aug. 24.

There will also be cuts to discretionary spending that includes removing 21 graduate assistant positions, freezing professional development funding for administrators, and ending the lease for space at the Hubbard Building.

The big budget cuts come a year after MSU Mankato began refining its academic portfolio and eliminated 87 degree and certificate programs.

MSU Faculty Association President and professor Jim Dimock told MPR News that some budget cuts were expected but he added that the job cuts will still hurt.

“It’s not like we didn’t sense that something like this announcement was going to be coming,” Dimock said. “And we’ve [the faculty and other employee unions] been putting a lot of energy into working together.”

“For the first time in years, actually, the presidents of the biggest unions on campus are all meeting together regularly,” Dimock said. “We are probably in the best place possible to really organize and push for alternatives to what President Inch is proposing.”

As for the people being laid off, Dimock said at least four of them are faculty members.

“They moved here, they brought their families here, they had every intention of doing their best work here,” said Dimock. “And now they’re going to go.”

But Dimock noted that other employee groups, including maintenance staff, will be hit harder by the layoffs.

“One of the real questions that we have for President Inch is, how did you make these decisions? Why did you elect to cut from these programs and these administrative units and these support services? What was the rationale?” Dimock said.

The university said the number of students enrolled remains steady, but Inch said changes in federal policy and visa processing has created additional challenges to international students who want to enroll. MSU Mankato has about 1,800 international students from more than 100 countries.

International students tend to pay much higher tuition, and Inch said there is a 3.9 percent drop in international student enrollment for the incoming class, which amounts to about 200 fewer students than last year.

Inch said these cuts will help eliminate a good chunk of the deficit and that the university is “financially stable.”

“Whenever you’re talking about people who live in your community, have families in your community, none of these decisions are easy,” he said. “I wish we were not in a place where we had to make these decisions … it’s challenging to go through this process, even though in the long run, it’s the right choice.”

Nonetheless, faculty association president Dimock said there’s a need for greater accountability from the university’s administration, and he questions why the same issues persist despite similar challenges being faced by other institutions.

“This is something that, frankly, we hire a president of a university to deal with exactly these kinds of things, and so we want to know why this is still happening? Why are we still cutting?” he said. “And what is it that we’re going to do to get out of this? And who ultimately, is going to be held accountable? What we seem to have from our perspective is a lot of top-down decision making and then bottom-up accountability.”

Rochester voters will see a long list of candidates on the city's mayoral primary ballot on Tuesday.

Eight candidates are running for Rochester's top office. They include a prominent catering business owner, the president of the local NAACP chapter, and a former school board member.

The race attracted all these candidates after two-term mayor Kim Norton announced she wouldn't run again.

Whoever wins the election in November will have the task of guiding Rochester through tremendous change.

The city is in the second decade of Destination Medical Center, a 20-year, $5.6 billion dollar economic redevelopment plan meant to make Rochester more attractive to visitors and to entice people to move here.

Mayo Clinic is also building a new $5 billion hospital downtown. Construction on the new facility is slated to be done by the end of the decade as well.

That and other construction projects have disrupted traffic throughout downtown. It’s created hassles for pedestrians, visitors and businesses alike. At least one business says it’s shuttering due to the ongoing construction.

The two candidates who get the most votes in Tuesday's wide open primary will face off against each other in November. Candidates on the ballot Tuesday include:

• Ayub HajiOmar, a substitute teacher in Rochester Public Schools.

• Jess Garcia, a psychologist and former school board member.

• Ben Zastrow, a small business owner.

• Joe Powers, a restaurant and catering company owner.

• Jerrod Lucker, a literacy tutor.

• Molly Denis, former city council member.

• Walé Elegbede, Mayo Clinic project manager and president of the Rochester branch of the NAACP.

• Axe Abdimajid Ahmed, business owner.

For more than four decades, Minnesota has been one of the country’s leading refugee resettlement states for people fleeing war, persecution and humanitarian crises. On average, about 2,000 to 3,000 refugees arrived in the state each year over the previous 45 years.

That system has changed dramatically over the past year.

New data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services shows just 111 refugees have arrived in Minnesota so far this fiscal year — and all of them are white Afrikaners from South Africa.

The drop follows the Trump administration’s January 2025 executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. After that change, state officials projected fewer than 300 refugees would arrive in Minnesota between October 2025 and September 2026, and those projections remain unchanged.

The arrivals Minnesota has seen since then have come through an exception process created by the administration that has prioritized Afrikaners from South Africa.

The change has forced refugee resettlement organizations across Minnesota to reconsider what their work looks like — and what the future of the system will be.

‘A sea change’ for refugee resettlement

For more than 40 years, the Minnesota Council of Churches helped newly arrived refugees settle into life in Minnesota.

That work traditionally included meeting families at the airport, finding housing, enrolling children in school, helping adults find employment and connecting families with health care and community resources.

“Traditionally the work of refugee resettlement really focused on the first 90 days, and again this is kind of pre-Trump,” Kathleen Motzenbecker, director of refugee services at the Minnesota Council of Churches, said. “That work would be as tangible as being at the airport when a refugee arrived. It would be to secure housing. It would be to secure enrolling the children in school.”

The Minnesota Council of Churches decided not to participate in the federal program resettling Afrikaners.

Under U.S. law, refugees are people fleeing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group. Motzenbecker said leaders believed the program conflicted with the legal definition of a refugee and the organization’s values.

“That was the right moral decision, if you ask me. However, it did have pretty significant financial costs for us as an organization, and we lost millions of dollars in federal funding,” she said.

Instead, the organization now focuses on helping refugees already living in Minnesota with services including immigration assistance, employment support and community resources.

Motzenbecker said the organization continues to see demand for those services.

“Immigration continues to be an extremely busy office here at the Minnesota Council of Churches,” she said.

Other organizations chose a different path

Not every refugee resettlement agency made the same decision. Arrive Ministries has resettled Afrikaners.

Ruth LePage, director of refugee services at Arrive Ministries, said the organization's decision was driven by a desire to preserve its capacity to resume refugee resettlement in the future.

“We also want to maintain our ability to welcome people, and that's a skill set. It's a niche expertise. And so to walk away from 40 years of resettlement — once that walks out the door, that's hard to rebuild,” she said.

LePage said the organization still wants the refugee admissions program expanded to include people fleeing persecution around the world.

“Our concern is that is exclusive right now to one population, and so we continue to advocate that the program would expand, would open again to be able to welcome refugees, individuals who have fled their countries of origin because of persecution on account of reasons such as their faith or political opinion or race.”

International Institute sees fewer arrivals, more uncertainty

The International Institute of Minnesota has also seen a significant reduction in refugee arrivals.

In fiscal year 2024, organization leaders said they resettled about 660 refugees, including people arriving through refugee and Special Immigrant Visa programs.

This fiscal year, the organization has helped resettle 21 people — including 13 Afghans who arrived through the Special Immigrant Visa program and about eight Afrikaners.

Michelle Eberhard, director of refugee services at the International Institute of Minnesota said those relatively small numbers still matter, both for the families arriving and for the organization's ability to support refugees already living in the community.

“Some have some family here that they're reunifying or being reunified with. And for us that was kind of a tough decision. But we look at the services we provide kind of broadly,” Eberhard said. “For us, it's important to continue to serve people who are newer to our communities as well.”

Jane Graupman, executive director, said the scale of the change is unlike anything she has seen during her nearly four decades working in refugee services.

“I think it's a marked change in what has happened historically in the history of this program, so it's a big change,” she said.

Graupman said refugee resettlement has historically included people arriving from many regions of the world.

“Refugee resettlement usually has refugees arriving from all the regions in the world, you know, where there's civil conflict. So it's a big change.”

For many refugees already living in Minnesota, one of the biggest impacts has been the disruption of family reunification.

Graupman said many families remain in limbo as they wait for relatives to join them in Minnesota.

“We have to tell families that come to us and say, ‘Is there any progress on my kids joining me here in the United States?’ and we have to say no because there isn't any progress,” she said.

She said refugee resettlement has historically been a way for families already in the United States to reunite with loved ones.

“Refugee resettlement really is a family reunification program. It's people here that are sponsoring folks to join them, to join their families.”

What happens next?

State officials say refugee service providers continue assisting people who arrived before the suspension of the refugee admissions program.

Those services include employment assistance, immigration support, English classes and help navigating changes to federal policies.

Graupman said the future of refugee resettlement remains uncertain, but she hopes the program eventually returns to welcoming refugees from around the world.

“The refugee program is a humanitarian program, and it's something that we've really held up as really extraordinary,” she said.

For organizations that have spent decades building Minnesota’s refugee resettlement network, the past year has been a turning point.

The number of new arrivals has fallen sharply. Providers say the effects of that change will continue to shape Minnesota communities for years to come.

An organization called Safe Homes St. Paul wants renters in the city to be allowed to make repairs on their homes at the expense of their landlords if the landlord doesn't repair in a timely way.

Safe Homes collected enough signatures to put that policy in front of voters this November. But recently the St. Paul City Council voted not to allow the ballot measure, saying it conflicts with state laws on the subject.

MPR News host Clay Masters spoke with Safe Homes St. Paul organizer Cole Hanson to talk about the vote and what comes next for the proposed measure.

Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player above.

A proposed data center in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis is sparking plenty of debate. A plan to turn the Minnesota Star Tribune's former printing facility into a data center has some community members concerned for the environment, while others are excited about the potential economic benefits.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with data center researcher Yiyang Zeng about the impacts data centers have on both the environment and economy.

Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player above.

Revol Greens, which grows lettuce and other greens in a massive greenhouse near Owatonna, may lay off nearly a hundred employees and close its facility in October if it can’t find a buyer for the company or an infusion of funding.

The lettuce grower told state regulators Wednesday that it would be forced to close its Medford facility about an hour south of the Twin Cites and layoff approximately 89 employees if the site or company does not secure financing or get bought out before Oct. 4.

John Carkoski, Revol Greens Vice President of Operations, emphasized in a press release Friday that Revol Greens is still committed to finding a path forward.

“We continue to evaluate all available strategic alternatives, including financing, partnerships, site-level opportunities, and other transaction structures that could support the future of the business and preserve continuity for our customers and employees," Carkoski wrote.

Revol Greens has not ceased operations and intends to continue normal greenhouse operations through October, as it continues discussions with potential investors, lenders, and partners.

The Minnesota company, which grows its lettuce in a climate-controlled, 10-acre greenhouse, opened in 2017 and has an additional greenhouse in Texas.

This announcement comes at a time when many consumers across the country have been avoiding lettuce because of a national outbreak of a parasitic infection linked to iceberg lettuce. While none of Revol Greens products were contaminated, Carkoski explains that the Cylcospora outbreak is one of the challenges the company is facing right now.

“While Revol Greens greenhouse-grown products have continued to meet rigorous food safety and quality standards and were not implicated in the outbreak, the resulting uncertainty in consumer demand has created challenges throughout the leafy greens sector and has impacted ongoing financing discussions for many companies serving the category,” Carkoski said.

Consumer consumption of lettuce and other greens has dropped significantly as the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention investigates the multi-state outbreak of cyclospora infections linked to iceberg lettuce. Since May, it has identified at least 10,000 cases of the gastrointestinal disease — and likely many more that have yet to be confirmed. At least one outbreak has been linked to Taylor Farms, which sells its products in grocery stores and to fast food restaurants and other eateries.

“Our leafy greens are grown year-round in our controlled-environment greenhouses in Minnesota and Texas, where every step of the growing process is designed with food safety in mind,” the company wrote on its Facebook page in mid July. “From treated water and plant and mineral based fertilizers, to automated harvesting that minimizes human handling, our growing practices help us maintain a highly controlled environment from seed to harvest.”

All job losses are expected to occur on Oct. 4. There is no union at the facility.