Star Tribune
One body found, search on for others in debris of South St. Paul house ravaged by explosion, fire
A house exploded before dawn Thursday in South St. Paul, and officials are saying they have found one person dead and are searching for others in the debris.
The multiple blasts and flames coming from the home in the 1200 block of S. 9th Avenue lit the dark sky a bright orange and sent grayish smoke skyward high enough to be captured on multiple traffic cameras along Interstate 494.
The explosions occurred about 6:18 a.m., the flames were quickly extinguished, and fire crews were still on the scene hours later, said South Metro Fire Chief Mark Juelfs.
Juelfs said firefighters quickly extinguished the flames and have been going through the debris searching for the victims inside the residence, where vehicles were parked in the driveway.
In an update shortly after 9:30 a.m., Juelfs said emergency personnel have located one body, and the search was continuing for any others.
The chief said it was too early to offer a preliminary indication of what set off the blasts.
Dakota County property records show the 1,800-square-foot home with an attached garage is owned by a 77-year-old woman.
Next-door neighbor Natalia Medina said she and others in her family of four were awakened by “a really big bang. It shook our house up. We heard a second and third explosion, and that’s when we saw the flames coming up out of the house.”
Medina said the home’s owner required use of a wheelchair. She said her 42-year-old son lived there as well.
“We saw him go into the home last night, but we’re not sure if he had left or was still in there,” she said, adding that the vehicles in the drive at the time of the explosion were routinely driven by the son.
Medina said she’s grateful that the home where she, her husband and two children live suffered only some broken windows from the blasts. She said her shed out back “burned a little bit.”
Mike Schuno, 67, lives across the street and was awake at the time of the blasts after letting his dog Pally out.
“I was doing something in the kitchen, and all of a sudden I heard a loud boom, and my whole house shook. In fact, a couple of glasses fell out of my cupboard and a couple of items fell off my counter,” he said, noting that planes from the nearby Minneapolis-St. Paul Interntional Airport frequently fly overhead. “And I thought, ‘What the heck.’ So I didn’t know if a plane had crashed into one of these houses.”
Schuno said he at first saw flames coming out of a window of the home, and soon the entire house was engulfed.
“I mean, it just went up so fast,” he said. “And I was gonna call 911. But I could hear the fire engines and everything coming already. So I ran out here, and I wanted to run across the street. But there was no way you could even get near the house, because that’s how fast the fire spread,” he said. “…T he firemen, I mean, they did a fantastic job. But I mean, there was no saving the house once they got here, because it was totally engulfed in flames.”
Schuno said he had seen the adult son and his mother, but he had never met her. He said they were friendly and always waved, and the son had a large garden out back.
“He grew the biggest tomatoes you ever seen, and he will always knock on my door. He says, ‘Anybody who wants some fresh veggies? and I says, ‘Who in their right mind wouldn’t want some fresh veggies?’ So he was a wonderful guy.”
Janet Danielson, has lived in her home across the street from the explosion for 62 years.
“I thought it was a garbage guy banging, I don’t know,” she said. “I did get up after about the third explosion. I’d say five or six big explosions, and the fire was so intense,” said Danielson, who said the son took care of his mother and sometimes did odd jobs.
“The sad part is, you live in a neighborhood and you don’t even know your neighbors’ last names or anything. I don’t know his last name, just that he’s a nice guy. And they were a nice family.”
“Terrible time of the year to lose family like that. Or anytime I should say.”
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
Star Tribune
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
”We are looking at a health care crisis in America that is affecting people of every background and gender,” Harris told reporters before visiting the doctor’s office.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden went to a union hall in Pittsburgh to promote Harris’ support for organized labor, telling the audience to ”follow your gut” and ”do what’s right.”
Harris appeared with Beyoncé on Friday in Houston, and she campaigned with former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Thursday in Atlanta.
It’s a level of celebrity clout that surpasses anything that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has been able to marshal this year. But there’s no guarantee that will help Harris in the close race for the White House. In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump despite firing up her crowds with musical performances and Democratic allies.
Trump brushed off Harris’ attempt to harness star power for her campaign.
”Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” the former president said Friday in Traverse City, Michigan. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, is scheduled to hold a rally in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, on Saturday before a later event in State College, Pennsylvania.
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.”
Navy issues apology for destroying Alaska Native village in 1882
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
Navy issues apology for destroying Alaska Native village in 1882
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city