ST. PAUL, MINN. — For some, it’s the unofficial sign the seasons have turned. Minnesota’s farmers markets are beginning to make their return.
The St. Paul Farmer’s Market opened for the season on Saturday morning, marking its 170th year.
“We were here I think one year before the state was the state – so that’s pretty good,” joked market manager Jim Golden. “For us, this really is the kickoff for the summer. It’s kick off for the spring, it’s kick off where everything starts from here.”
Golden, who is entering his 40th year with the market, describes the group like a family – making Saturday’s return a reunion of sorts.
“It goes back generations,” he said. “The kids grow up working here, they get older, start family farms, they start having kids.”
The case is such for flower man Justin Nelson, whose family owns and operates Nelson Greenhouse and Veggies in Big Lake.
“I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid. Just helping out since I was ten years old, probably,” said Nelson. “A lot of the people here, they have their families help out just like we do. Their parents are doing out, and their kids are helping out.”
Golden and Nelson say their eyes are on the weather this year – after multiple years of drought – they’re praying for a “normal” weather season.
“That’s on their minds. People are worried about the weather,” Golden said.
The Minnesota Farmers Market Association says it’s the case across the state.
“2020 was a great growing season,” said Sina War of the MFMA. “Then we got hit by the pandemic, and then, it was drought, drought, drought. Uncertainty – we’re optimistic – we’re trying to stay optimistic.”
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The cost of buying something in St. Paul has gone up. A new sales tax has gone into effect, raising the city’s sales tax to the highest level in the state.
This time last year, lawmakers were debating whether Minnesota’s capital city needed more money as it emerged from a long winter.
“Our streets were pretty busted up from a tough winter,” Mayor Melvin Carter said. “And it was really clear what happens when you take streets that have a 60-year expected lifespan and replace them on a 124-year replacement cycle.”
Approved by voters in November, a 1% tax increase is now in effect. The city is calling the new penny for every dollar “common cents”.
“We know that the track our streets have been on just has not been sustainable. That’s common sense,” Carter said. “A sales tax very uniquely gives us, gives those visitors, those commuters, an opportunity to invest, to help maintain those critical pieces of infrastructure.”
The 1% increase is expected to bring in more than $1 billion over the next 20 years. Three-fourths of that will go toward more than 44 miles of road across the city, including Grand and Summit Avenues.
“The last time Summit Avenue was fully reconstructed, Taft was the president and car ownership in America was just under 3%,” Carter said.
The funds will also go toward parks and recreation facilities.
Carter says the goal is to build more than new infrastructure.
“If we just kind of take this as an opportunity to say, we’re going to take up the old concrete and put down new concrete in all the same places where it was 100 years ago, we prepare our city for a vibrant and thriving 1925. That’s obviously not the goal,” Carter said. “We have a funding stream that will provide almost $1 billion over the next 20 years to reset our city for the next generation.”
Construction on Grand Avenue is expected to start in the coming days with tree removal. Grand Avenue itself will close sometime this summer.
Marco Antonio Mendoza Landaverde was charged Friday with two counts each of failing to restrain an animal from inflicting bodily injury to another person and not vaccinating his pets against rabies.
On Feb. 8, officers were called to the 600 block of Van Buren Avenue just before 5 p.m. on a report of a girl being bitten by a group of dogs.
The family of the injured girl told WCCO that Sacadiya Abdulahi was walking her 7-year-old daughter Sumaya from her bus stop when they were surrounded by five dogs. The girl had pieces of her nose, ear and thigh bitten off, according to the family.
Charging documents filed in Ramey County say the dogs stopped attacking and ran away when a car honked its horn. The driver of the car was later identified as Mendoza Landaverde.
Mendoza Landaverde told police he let the dogs out on the afternoon of the incident but didn’t realize the gate was open.
Charges say Mendoza Landaverde was only able to provide proof of rabies vaccinations for two of the five dogs. Investigators also learned that Mendoza Landaverde did not license any of the dogs and did not have a permit allowing him to own more than three dogs.
All five of the dogs were declared dangerous and were surrendered to the St. Paul Animal Control, where they were euthanized.
NOTE: The video above originally aired on Feb. 9, 2024.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Shauntaija Jannell Travis was sentenced Friday to 36 months, with credit for 292 days served for the second-degree manslaughter of her 7-year-old daughter. She will serve her sentence at the Shakopee Women’s Prison.
Officers searched Travis’ bedroom and found a straw with “white residue,” the complaint said, along with a pill that was later found to contain fentanyl.
At the time of the girl’s death, Travis was in a custody battle over the child with other family members. Travis admitted to officers that she agreed to let her grandmother take custody of the victim so she could “get her life straightened out and get help from her drug addiction,” the complaint said. The girl would’ve been in her grandmother’s custody less than a week after the victim’s death.
Mackenzie Lofgren is a Web Producer and Digital Content Producer at WCCO. She writes web articles and produces short-form video content used on WCCO’s streaming platforms.
A second man has been charged in connection with the 2005 theft of a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in “The Wizard of Oz,” according to an indictment unsealed Sunday.
Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, of Crystal, was charged with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering. He did not enter a plea when he made his first court appearance Friday.
The slippers, adorned with sequins and glass beads, were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, nearly 20 years ago and their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.
The indictment says that from August 2005 to July 2018 Saliterman “received, concealed, and disposed of an object of cultural heritage” — specifically, “an authentic pair of ‘ruby slippers’ worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 movie ‘The Wizard of Oz.’” The indictment says Saliterman knew they were stolen, and that he threatened to release a sex tape of a woman and “take her down with him” if she did keep her mouth shut about the slippers.
A pair of ruby slippers once worn by actress Judy Garland in the “The Wizard of Oz” sit on display at a news conference on Sept. 4, 2018, at the FBI office in Brooklyn Center, Minn.
Jeff Baenen / AP
Saliterman was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen during his Friday court appearance. His oxygen machine hummed throughout the hearing and he bounced his knee nervously during breaks in the proceedings. He responded with “yes,” when U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright asked whether he understood the charges against him, but he said nothing about the allegations.
The case was not openly discussed in court and the charges were not made public until the court documents were unsealed Sunday.
Saliterman’s attorney, John Brink, said after Friday’s hearing that he couldn’t say much about the case, but: “He’s not guilty. He hasn’t done anything wrong.” Saliterman, who was released on his own recognizance, declined to comment to The Associated Press outside the courthouse.
The man who stole the slippers, Terry Jon Martin, 76, pleaded guilty in October to theft of a major artwork, admitting to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case in what his attorney said was an attempt to pull off “one last score” after turning away from a life of crime. He was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health.
Martin’s lawyer said in court documents that an old associate of Martin’s with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.
Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, said at an October hearing that he hoped to take what he thought were real rubies from the shoes and sell them. But a person who deals in stolen goods, known as a fence, informed him the rubies weren’t real, Martin said. So he got rid of the slippers.
Defense attorney Dane DeKrey wrote in court documents that Martin’s unidentified former associate persuaded him to steal the slippers as “one last score,” even though Martin had seemed to have “finally put his demons to rest” after finishing his last prison term nearly 10 years earlier.
“But old habits die hard, and the thought of a ‘final score’ kept him up at night,” DeKrey wrote.
According to DeKrey’s memo, Martin had no idea about the cultural significance of the ruby slippers and had never seen “The Wizard of Oz.”
The documents unsealed Sunday do not indicate how Martin and Saliterman may have been connected.
In the classic 1939 musical, Garland’s character, Dorothy, had to click the heels of her ruby slippers three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home,” to return to Kansas from Oz. She wore several pairs during filming, but only four authentic pairs are known to remain.
The FBI never disclosed exactly how it tracked down the slippers. The bureau said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover them but demanded more than the $200,000 reward being offered. The slippers were recovered during an FBI sting in Minneapolis the next year. Federal prosecutors have put the slippers’ market value at about $3.5 million.
Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw had loaned the pair to the museum before Martin stole them. The other pairs are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and a private collector. According to John Kelsh, founding director of the museum, the slippers were returned to Shaw and are being held by an auction house that plans to sell them.
Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles north of Minneapolis, until she was 4, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1969. The Judy Garland Museum, which includes the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia.
St. Paul Police Department Sgt. Mike Ernster said the suspect was arrested on the 1000 block of Pacific Avenue Wednesday morning. Shortly after that, the 17-year-old police said was driving during the chase turned himself in, Ernster said. Neither suspect has been charged.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said a suspect fired at Deputy Joe Kill during a chase on March 1. Police said Kill “was struck by debris or possibly shrapnel from the bullets coming into his vehicle.”
The chase began when officers spotted a dark-colored vehicle being driven recklessly near Payne Avenue and Jessamine Street in St. Paul, according to police. The driver was speeding and running stop signs, police said.
Officers tried to stop the driver, but they fled. Police did not pursue, but informed other law enforcement in the area of the vehicle.
Kill spotted it and also tried to stop the driver, but they fled again, police said. Kill pursued, and that’s when a passenger in the suspect vehicle shot at him, according to police. Kill stopped the pursuit when something struck him in the vest.
Kill was treated at the scene and had no apparent injuries, police said.
The vehicle involved in the shooting was later found and impounded.
Ernster said the case is still “ongoing, open and active.”
Chief Axel Henry said Wednesday that gun violence, and in particular violence against police, “is a very, very serious issue for our state and we take it very seriously.”
“We want to be the worst place for you to fire guns at,” Henry said.
Note: The video above originally aired March 2, 2024.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A man’s body was recovered from the Mississippi River in St. Paul Saturday morning, officials said.
A 911 caller reported a body in the river on the 700 block of Butternut Avenue, near the Lilydale boat launch, around 9:45 a.m., according to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.
The county’s Water Patrol Unit responded and pulled a man’s body from the river. He has not been publicly identified, nor have authorities determined a cause of death.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Police sayseveral people were cited after climbing over the fence at the Minnesota governor’s residence during a protest Wednesday evening.
Around 100 people are said to have shown up to the University of Minnesota’s Eastcliff Mansion to protest investments in programs that help the Israeli government amid the war with Hamas.
The Minnesota State Patrol says 14 people— 12 women and two men —were issued citations for trespassing onto private property during the rally.
The protest comes ahead of the State Board of Investment’s quarterly meeting on Thursday. The board manages public retirement accounts.
The group that organized the event, the Anti-War Committee, claims that in 2023, the SBI invested more than $3 billion in Israeli weapons manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and other industries “that benefit from or are used in the violent occupation of Palestine.”
They hope Gov. Tim Walz, who chairs the SBI, along with Attorney General Keith Ellison, will use their power to divest in those holdings.
“Any investment in companies doing business in Israel binds Israeli and American society and strengthens and expands the genocidal, colonial project that is Israel,” Brian Chval said. “Call me an optimist, but I don’t think that pensioners would want that money if they knew where it came from.”
Riley Fletcher Moser is a digital line producer at wcco.com. At WCCO, she often covers breaking news and feature stories. In 2022, Riley received an honorable mention in sports writing from the Iowa College Media Association.
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SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The hottest get of the season in the Twin Cities has been, not those ubiquitous metal drinking vessels, but rather the St. Paul Public Library’s limited edition “laser loon” cards.
“I saw a post on Reddit about it, and I was like I gotta have one. I’m a big enough nerd that I need a rare library card!” St. Paul resident Andrew Sneeringer said after he picked up his card.
Library director Maureen Hartman said the communications department came up with the idea in December during the Minnesota state flag redesign process. The card they designed was inspired by a few different flag submissions, including the laser loon.
The first batch of cards went fast, so much so that the library decided to open it up for another run.
“Due to the enthusiastic demand for the limited-edition Laser Loon library card, the Library is printing one more run of cards and cover-all stickers for Saint Paul residents. We anticipate these cards and stickers will be available at all Saint Paul libraries by the end of February,” a representative for the library reported Friday.
The Friends of St. Paul Public Library’s online shop also has some limited edition laser loon merch.
Kirsten Mitchell joined the WCCO team as a reporter in November of 2021. A Saint Paul native, Kirsten is proud to tell stories in her home state. She graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Go Gophs!) and interned at WCCO during her time there.
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Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has vetoed a bill that would have set a minimum wage for rideshare drivers after Uber threatened to halt its operations in greater Minnesota — outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area — if the bill had been signed into law.
In a letter Thursday announcing the veto, Waltz said that “rideshare drivers deserve fair wages and safe working conditions,” but said that “this is not the right bill to achieve these goals.”
He also argued that the bill would have made Minnesota “one of the most expensive states in the country for rideshare.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a visit by President Biden to the Cummins Power Generation facility on April 3, 2023, in Fridley, Minnesota.
Stephen Maturen / Getty Images
The veto is Walz’s first as governor, according to CBS Minnesota. It came after an Uber spokesperson said in a statement provided to CBS Minnesota earlier Thursday that the company would stop operating outside the Twin Cities beginning Aug. 1 if House File 2369 became law, further adding that it would limit its services in the Twin Cities to “only offer premium products to match the premium prices required by the bill.”
The bill narrowly passed in both chambers of the Democratically-controlled Minnesota Legislature in party-line votes over the weekend.
“Following several months of unanswered requests to work with legislators on comprehensive legislation that provides flexibility and benefits to drivers without compromising service for riders, we are left with a bill that will make it impossible to continue serving most areas of the state,” Uber spokesperson Freddi Goldstein said.
Under HF 2369, rideshare drivers would have received “minimum compensation” of at least $1.45 per mile and another 34 cents per minute for all trips in the Twin Cities area. For rides outside of the Twin Cities, drivers would get at least $1.25 per mile and 34 cents per minute. Those rates would have also been adjusted every year for inflation.
Rideshare drivers nationwide have battled for better pay and benefits for years. In November 2020, California voters approved a contentious state proposition that exempted Uber, Lyft and other app-based platforms from classifying their drivers as employees rather than independent contractors. The change would have required the companies to provide benefits such as sick leave and health insurance.
Last year, Washington state passed a similar law to Minnesota’s bill, which requires rideshare drivers to be paid $1.50 per mile and 64 cents per minute in Seattle and $1.27 per mile and 37 cents per minute outside Seattle. Rideshare companies are also required to provide drivers with sick leave and workers’ compensation.
In 2018, New York City became the first U.S. city to set a minimum wage for rideshare drivers. As of 2023, that rate is $1.31 per mile and 56 cents per minute for trips within New York City. The per-mile rate goes up to $1.70 for wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Both rates increase for trips outside of the city.
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At least two people were killed in a shooting near a senior living community in St. Paul, Minnesota, Saturday night, authorities said.
The St. Paul Police Department reported that officers responded to the scene in the Frogtown neighborhood to find “multiple people” with gunshot wounds, two of whom died of their injuries. The exact number of shooting victims was unclear.
According to CBS Minnesota, investigators placed caution tape around the parking lot of Kings Crossing by Episcopal Homes, a senior living apartment complex.
HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION:
SPPD Officers are investigating a double homicide on the 500 block of North Dale Street where multiple people were shot. Two victims have since died of their injuries.
No further details were immediately provided. It’s unclear if any arrests had been made, or whether police had a motive. A resident of the senior living community told CBS Minnesota that, prior to the shooting, she overheard people arguing in a community room where a group had gathered.
This marks the second shooting in St. Paul in the past two days. On Friday evening, three teen boys were wounded in a drive-by shooting during a funeral reception for a 15-year-old boy who had been fatally stabbed at a St. Paul high school earlier this month, according to CBS Minnesota.
All three teen shooting victims were expected to survive, CBS Minnesota reports, and a 16-year-old boy was taken into custody following a car crash.
In a tweet Saturday night, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote that the “gun violence in St. Paul this weekend is unacceptable. I’m committed to increasing public safety funding, getting illegal guns off the streets, and addressing gang activity to curb the cycle of violence.”
The gun violence in St. Paul this weekend is unacceptable. I’m committed to increasing public safety funding, getting illegal guns off the streets, and addressing gang activity to curb the cycle of violence.
An aerial view of Ogden Commons, in the North Lawndale community on Chicago’s West Side.
the Habitat Company
Mixed-use developments have traditionally entailed a blend of multifamily housing, offices, and square footage devoted to retail and service businesses. But as mixed-use becomes increasingly popular as a design choice for teeming urban enclaves, the concept’s definition has been stretched to include health care facilities as well.
Hospitals derive multiple benefits from the arrangement. Expanding select operations away from their central campuses delivers real estate cost savings. Quality health care can be brought almost literally to the door steps of residents. The residential units in the developments offer homes for some hospital workers. And the healthcare system enjoys a prominent setting to help make the community aware of its services.
“Healthcare facilities are a foundational part of the communities they serve,” says Ann Duginske Cibulka, vice president of real estate development for Ryan Companies, the developer of a new St. Paul, Minn. mixed-use project including a health care center.
“These locations act like airports. Once established, they rarely close and they provide an enduring service to those living nearby. Healthcare will continue to be integrated into new, mixed-use developments because they’re the epicenters for communities. Being located just minutes from patients’ doorsteps is critical to attaining and retaining patients. Healthcare providers want to be connected to commercial hubs for visibility and accessibility, being as convenient as possible for patients.”
Prime example
One example of this intersection of housing and health care will be found at Ogden Commons, in the low-income North Lawndale community on Chicago’s West Side.
Phase I of the commercial development at Ogden Commons.
The Habitat Company
The Windy City’s largest Opportunity Zone project, the $200 million, mixed-use endeavor will spread across a 10-acre site, providing 350 mixed-income apartments and 120,000 square feet of commercial and retail space. The first-phase, three-story commercial building was completed in 2021, and is now open and at full capacity.
Among entities filling the space is Sinai Health System’s new One Lawndale Community Care & Surgery Center. Worth noting: Sinai Health System is among the development partners in Ogden Commons, alongside The Habitat Company, Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and the Chicago Housing Authority. The development will serve up new housing for Sinai employees and provide quality health care steps from where many patients live. Residential units will break ground this year.
Health care access is frequently a significant hurdle for low-income families, and many lower-skilled health care workers face headwinds locating homes they can afford, says Jeff Head, vice president of development for The Habitat Company’s Habitat Affordable Group. “At Ogden Commons, the development concept revolved around the idea of a virtuous circle where lower-wage workers have access to housing, low-income residents have access to jobs, and all would have access to the broad range of healthcare services provided by Sinai Health System,” he reported.
Added Dr. Alicia Steed, executive vice president and COO for Sinai Health System: “We have received positive feedback from both people in the neighborhood and patients that the services and experiences are convenient, accessible and affordable, helping avoid unnecessary emergency department visits and waiting times. Patient experience surveys have been favorable with positive reviews.”
All incomes
In St. Paul, Ryan Companies is developing Highland Bridge, an ambitious 122-acre mixed-use development to rise on a parcel along the Mississippi River where a Ford Motor Company assembly plant once stood. The project features a 60,000-square-foot healthcare facility called Highland Bridge Medical Office anchored by premier regional health system M Health Fairview.
Slated to open this March, Highland Bridge Medical Office will serve residents of the surrounding community, as well as the 8,500 new residents of all ages and incomes who are expected to move into Highland Bridge over the coming decade.
“For healthcare providers, dense growth is key when it comes to selecting strategic real estate locations,” Cibulka says. “Real estate developers can help healthcare providers by forecasting where dense growth is expected.”
HERMANTOWN, Minn. — Federal investigators hope to determine what caused a single-engine plane to crash into a house in northern Minnesota, killing three on board and narrowly missing two people asleep in the house.
Officials say the Cessna 172 Skyhawk went down shortly before midnight Saturday in Hermantown minutes after departing from Duluth International Airport.
Authorities on Sunday identified the victims as passengers Alyssa Schmidt, 32, of St. Paul, her brother Matthew Schmidt, 31, of Burnsville, and the pilot, Tyler Fretland, 32, of Burnsville.
Jason Hoffman told Minnesota Public Radio that he and his wife had been asleep on the second floor of their home when they were jolted by what sounded like an explosion. The plane tore through the roof above their bed, he said.
“We couldn’t hardly see each other through all the insulation dust. I was able to grab a flashlight next to the bed and the first thing I saw was an airplane wheel sitting at the end of our bed,” Hoffman said. “That’s when we looked out and noticed the entire back half our our house was gone.”
Hoffman said the wreckage of the plane wound up wedged between his truck and the garage.
The Hermantown Police Department was notified by the control tower at the Duluth airport after the small airplane had left radar and was believed to have crashed. The control tower advised the last location on radar was 1 to 1 1/2 miles south of the airport.
HERMANTOWN, Minn. — Three people aboard a small airplane died when it crashed into a house near a northern Minnesota airport, but the two people sleeping inside the home — and their cat — were unhurt.
Hermantown Police said the Cessna 172 plane crashed into the second floor of the home just south of the Duluth airport late Saturday, before coming to rest in the backyard.
Jason Hoffman told Minnesota Public Radio that he and his wife had been asleep for just over an hour before the plane tore through the roof above their bed.
“We couldn’t hardly see each other through all the insulation dust. I was able to grab a flashlight next to the bed and the first thing I saw was an airplane wheel sitting at the end of our bed,” Hoffman said. “That’s when we looked out and noticed the entire back half our our house was gone.”
Hoffman said the wreckage of the plane wound up wedged between his truck and the garage.
The three people aboard the plane who died included two men from Burnsville and a woman from St. Paul. They were all in their 30s but weren’t immediately identified.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
