Star Tribune
Gov. Tim Walz appoints new Hennepin County judges
Three attorneys have been appointed to the bench in Minnesota’s largest district court in downtown Minneapolis.
Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan announced Tuesday the appointment of Dean Eyler, Kristen Marttila and Dominick Mathews as district judges. More than 60 judges serve the Fourth Judicial District encompassing Hennepin County.
Mathews, a principal attorney at the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, is replacing outgoing Chief Judge Toddrick S. Barnette, who was appointed as Minneapolis public safety commissioner in October. Barnette’s chief role is filled by Judge Kerry Meyer.
Mathews previously served as Barnette’s law clerk. He now supervises more than 100 attorneys and staff in the felony prosecution of serious and violent crimes. He is a member of the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers and earned his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law.
“His deep roots in community and lived experience will serve the people of the Fourth Judicial District well. I look forward to seeing him excel in his new role, ” Flanagan said of Mathews in a news release Tuesday.
Eyler will replace Judge Keala Ede, who Walz recently appointed to the Court of Appeals. Marttila will replace Judge Tanya Bransford, who is retiring after nearly three decades on the bench.
Marttila litigates antitrust and other consumer-oriented class action as a partner at Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP. She was previously a law clerk for the Honorable Patrick J. Schiltz and Honorable Eric C. Tostrud on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. In her past work at Faegre & Benson LLP, she handled environmental and land use matters.
Eyler, a former Edina High School debate coach, is partner at Lathrop GPM handling commercial and intellectual property disputes. He previously clerked for Judge Donald P. Lay on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and was an associate attorney at Dorsey & Whitney law firm.
Both Eyler and Marttila earned their law degrees from University of Iowa College of Law.
Walz said that Eyler has “an extensive background in complex civil litigation that will lend itself well to the Hennepin County bench.” Flanagan added that he is dedicated to serving the most vulnerable based on his pro bono representation with asylum seekers.
Flanagan said Marttila often advocates for the underdog, lending herself to be “a fair, effective, and empathetic jurist.” Walz added that her background “will bring a valuable perspective to this court.”
Tired of hearing about north Minneapolis kids having to go trick-or-treating in the suburbs, business owner KB Brown started throwing a costume bash at the Capri Theater with the goal of bringing together families and the organizations that care for them.
Now in its fourth year, that Halloween party has become a stone soup of community organizations cooking out, roller skating and giving away tote bags of candy to tiny superheroes and princesses.
Elected officials, including state Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde, dropped in on the festivities Saturday to get out the vote in the final stretch of door-knocking season. KMOJ’s Q Bear DJed the party.
KB Brown and his grandson Zakari, 3. Brown founded Project Refocus, a nonprofit dealing with youth mentorship, security along the West Broadway business corridor and opioid response in the surrounding neighborhoods. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Farji Shaheer of Innovative SOULutions provided a bounce house and inflatable basketball hoops. A violence intervention professional who offers community training on treating traumatic bleeding, Shaheer recently purchased land in Bemidji to redevelop into a retreat center for gun violence survivors.
He in turn invited Santella Williams and Dominque Howard to bring Pull and Pay, a former Metro Mobility bus retrofitted as a mobile arcade full of vintage games such as “NBA Jam” and “Big Buck Hunter.” The bus was a pandemic epiphany for Williams and fiancé Howard when they suddenly found themselves with four kids and nowhere to take them after COVID-19 shut everything down. Pull and Pay now shows up to community events throughout the North Side.
Pull and Pay owner Dominique Howard showed kids, squeezed elbow to elbow, how to play “Big Buck Hunter” inside his homebuilt mobile arcade. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“This is the first time I’ve been able to come through, but we figured we’d stop by check it out. It’s so perfect, and such a beautiful day,” said Shannon Tekle, a Northside Economic Opportunity Network board member attending with her two-year daughter, both of them dressed as monarch butterflies.
“North Side, we’re a big family,” said Brown, proudly toting his grandson Zakari (a 3-year-old Chucky with candy-smeared cheeks) on one arm. “Everybody here is from the community.”
NOVI, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper with a woman’s first name in recent days as the Republican presidential nominee focuses his closing message on a hypermasculine appeal to men.
On a Friday morning post on Trump’s social media site Truth Social, the former president referred to one of the most prominent openly gay journalists in the U.S. as “Allison Cooper.”
Trump made the subtext even more explicit later Friday during a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, where he criticized a town hall Cooper hosted with Vice President Kamala Harris.
”If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before pausing and saying in a mocking voice: ”Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”
On Saturday, Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally. ”They had a town hall,” Trump said. ”Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”
In referring to Cooper with a woman’s name, Trump appeared to turn to a stereotype heterosexual people have long deployed against gay men. Such rhetoric evokes the trope of gay men as effeminate and comes as Trump aims to drive up his appeal among men in the final stages of his bid to return to the White House.
The former president on Friday recorded a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan, a former mixed martial arts commentator whose podcast is wildly popular among young men. On Oct 19, Trump kicked off a Pennsylvania rally discussing legendary golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for Cooper declined to comment.
According to Gomez, workers have had wages withheld under threats of possible deportations. Unauthorized workers are less likely to seek legal aid due to their legal status.
“What I want from this program is for other people not to suffer the same abuses that we’ve suffered in the past,” Gomez said. “This program is designed to prevent these abuses.”
CTUL said workers’ rights under the program will be shared in multiple languages.
Gomez specifically named Yellow Tree, United Properties, and Solhem Cos. as developers he’d like to see join the program. CTUL called for these companies, as well as Roers, Doran Properties Group, and MWF Properties, to adopt the standards.
Those working under developers in the program can report abuse to the standards council. After a complaint is made, the council will monitor contractors’ worksites to make sure they are complying with the standards.
If the council finds that a contractor is abusing workers, developers in CTUL’s program would be legally required to stop working with the contractor.
