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State grant to bolster St. Paul public safety efforts
A $13.6 million influx of money from the state will help the Capital City build up firefighting, crime prevention, and enforcement.
ST PAUL, Minn. — A $13.6 million public safety grant will be put to good use in the Capital City. That’s the word from Mayor Melvin Carter and his leadership team.
“We are endeavoring to build the most coordinated, comprehensive, and data-driven approach to public safety that our city has ever endeavored,” Mayor Carter told reporters at a news conference outside the St. Paul Police Department headquarters.
“We know that emergency response is a vital aspect of our public safety portfolio, and we know just how important it is to send the right people to the right scene.”
The money flowing to St. Paul across the next three years is part of a pot of $300 million in public safety grants state lawmakers approved last May. It’s one-time money, so it won’t be automatically renewed without action of the legislature. But Gov. Tim Walz, who co-hosted the press event, said how cities across the state use those dollars will help him make the case for more.
“A big chunk of this was one-time. It was wisely used by a lot of communities to catch back up on the stuff they needed, some of the stuff they weren’t going to get normally, but I think it makes the point,” Gov. Walz explained.
“This was an historic investment in public safety. And the approach we took is that local officials know best and putting the resources in the hands of folks who can tackle the individual issues in each community is what we should be doing.”
In St. Paul, the grant money will be used in ways that reflect the city’s wholistic approach to public safety, which stresses working behind the scenes with community partners on prevention as well as intervention and enforcement.
“We’re working to make those key preventions and interventions in the future so that the younger folks that are coming up and watching this behavior aren’t deciding to do it themselves,” St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry remarked.
Chief Henry said he considers arrests of suspects after the fact important but compares it to winning a bronze medal. He sees the violence that’s stopped before it can happen is a better prize to win.
“We are down 40 percent in shots fired calls compared to last year. That’s 774 less shots fired calls year to date compared to last year. That’s 774 gold medals.”
The influx of state money will also help put more officers on the street by increasing the number of police academy sessions the St. Paul PD can conduct. But at least one third of the money will go to the city’s Office of Neighborhood Safety, which works with community-based partnerships behind the scenes to reduce violence.
Director Brooke Blakey said her department will be able to hire more community outreach workers that can bolster intervention efforts on the street.
“The Office of Neighborhood Safety has listened to what the community has asked, and we are using the investments given to us by the state to really work in partnership with our Saint Paul Police Department, with our Saint Paul Public Schools, our faith community, our community-based organizations that are out there doing that ground-level, grassroots-level work.”
The St. Paul Fire Department will be able to send more firefighters to paramedic training and purchase more state-of-the-art gear for fire scenes.
“Our EMS will be bolstered up and because of that we will have more available firefighters to respond to fires,” St. Paul Fire Chief Butch Inks told reporters.
“We’re going to be able to purchase the new self-contained breathing apparatus that will help us and allow us to enter into burning buildings, to not only put the fire out and save our residents but also protect our firefighters from toxic chemicals and smoke.”
While gun violence is trending down in Saint Paul, Mayor Carter cited the recent killing of 8th grader Monica Holley as vivid reminder the city must try even harder to stem the tide of bullets.
“We lost an eighth grader to gun violence in St. Paul. That same night we had three other teenage girls wounded by gun fire. That’s unacceptable. We won’t stand by and watch that happen!” Carter remarked.
“But I got a chance that night to be hopeful as I saw the way our police officers comforted the family who had lost their daughter.”
Carter said he also drew hope by seeing the team from the Office of Neighborhood Safety sit with parents of the other wounded teens while they were in surgery for their gunshot wounds.
Like many things in your garden or yard, pruning this popular plant will pay dividends by helping them look their best – year after year!
Hydrangeas are a fan favorite around here and knowing when, how and whether to prune them will have them looking their best year after year – if you follow a couple of rules to remember.
If your hydrangea is just blooming now in late summer/fall, put it on your calendar to prune it in late winter or early spring. This time frame is appropriate for Limelight, Quickfire, Burgundy Lace and Annabelle hydrangeas (which is the classic “snowball” type). PeeGee hydrangeas – which produce creamy white flowers in late summer that age to rosy pink – are also in this category. These varieties bloom on new wood, meaning the blooms come on stems that grow new each year.
Other hydrangeas bloom on what is called “old wood,” meaning the buds for next year’s flowers are set on the growth that happened this season. This occurs with oakleaf and bigleaf hydrangeas, lace caps, climbing and all varieties that bloom blue or pink – like endless summer and summer crush – among others. You should prune these types before August… so not again more this year.
But the bottom line is… unless you need to control the size or shape of your hydrangea, you don’t NEED to prune at all. If you choose to prune, cutting out the oldest, biggest canes will help to control the size and can reinvigorate the shrub.
To get bigger flowers, cut them all the way back to the ground, but also consider that leaving some stems 18” to 24” high. That can help reduce flopping next year.
A criminal complaint alleges the suspect was driving nearly 100 mph at the time of the crash.
MINNEAPOLIS — Criminal charges have been filed against a St. Paul man in connection with a multi-vehicle crash Wednesday night in Minneapolis that left one person dead and several others injured.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Talon Covie-Carderell Walker, 29, is now charged with one count of criminal vehicular homicide.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, prosecutors believe Walker was driving a Chevy Avalanche pickup truck at high speeds when he started a chain-reaction crash on the I-94 exit to Dunwoody Boulevard on Wednesday evening. A total of seven vehicles were involved.
The State Patrol said Natalie Gubbay, 26, who was driving one of the other vehicles, died at the scene. Several others were hospitalized following the crash, including Walker. Two children were also among those injured.
The complaint alleges Walker was driving nearly 100 mph at the time of the crash. Investigators also said an open bottle of liquor was found in Walker’s vehicle. Results of a blood alcohol test are pending, according to the complaint, but investigators said Walker has previous driving convictions and lost his license in 2021.
Industry experts say several airlines were already waiting for deliveries of Boeing airplanes before the strike started.
MINNEAPOLIS — This week union workers who build planes for Boeing rejected a new contract deal.
64% of the 32,000 machinists voted against the deal in another major setback for the company. The strike that has halted most of Boeing’s aircraft production for over a month will continue.
The strike is further delaying deliveries for many Boeing customers who are already dealing with production delays.
It could soon have a big impact across the country, from concerns over plane safety to the cost of flying.
Hassan Shahidi with the Flight Safety Foundation says many airlines were already waiting for Boeing airplanes before the strike started.
“Prior to the strike there were already challenges,” Shahidi says. “This strike is exacerbating the situation even further.”
Shahidi says some of the airlines may have aging airplanes that will have to stay in use longer than the companies had planned for, but he argues that is a minor issue and he is not worried about passenger safety.
“All aircraft that are flying are certified by the FAA, are airworthy and safe,” Shahidi says.
He argues a much larger issue is how the strike will impact the airline industry’s plans to grow in the coming years.
He says most of the orders for new Boeing airplanes are from airlines that are expanding to meet passenger demand.
“To have other companies trying to come in and meet that gap is going to be challenging in terms of both supplies, labor and processes that are going to be needed to produce the highest quality of airplanes,” Shahidi says.
According to Delta’s website, the airline recently ordered 100 Boeing 737’s with an option to buy 30 more.
Those planes are scheduled to be delivered sometime next year and the company says some of those airplanes will be deployed to MSP.
KARE 11 reached out to Delta to see if the Boeing strike could affect the delivery of those planes, and whether the strike could impact Delta’s ability to add new flights in the coming years, but we haven’t heard back from the company at this time.
Sun Country says their entire fleet is made up of 43 Boeing airplanes.
A company spokesperson says all of Sun Country’s airplanes are “mid-life aircraft” meaning they are purchased used from other companies.
This spokesperson says this unique business model will insulate Sun Country from the impacts of the Boeing strike, and the company won’t see a shortage of airplanes anytime soon.
KARE 11 also reached out to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to see if the airport and local travelers will see any impacts of the Boeing strike.
An MSP spokesperson sent KARE-11 the following statement:
“We do not anticipate any immediate impacts at MSP from the Boeing strike. While a strike could push back delivery of aircraft to airlines and lead to future schedule adjustments by those airlines, any impacts would not be expected to affect MSP any more than other airports across the country.”
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