Star Tribune
Bloomington wants to delay closing Hennepin County garbage incinerator
Bloomington officials want to slow down plans to close Hennepin County’s waste-to-energy incinerator in downtown Minneapolis, saying they are worried alternatives won’t be viable soon enough.
Pushback from the suburbs that use the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, or HERC, could be a major new complication in the drive to close the incinerator between 2028 and 2040. For Bloomington, even the 16 years until 2040 is not enough time to divert almost all of city’s waste to composting and recycling to the point where the incinerator is no longer needed, city staff and council members said in a letter to the county.
“We are confident that our community will struggle to meet the goal of an 85% diversion in the accelerated timeline outlined,” read the letter signed by the City Council this week to be sent to Hennepin County Commissioners.
Other cities could raise similar worries, with feedback from cities due to the county on Monday.
Reaching the county’s goals to reduce trash will take more staff and money, Bloomington’s letter read, and could take well over a decade.
Hennepin County is pushing to close the incinerator for several reasons. State aid for a new anaerobic digester — to deal with organics recycling — is conditioned on a timeline to close the HERC. A renewable-energy plan passed by the Legislature in 2023 no longer considers burning trash a preferred source of energy. And activists have been raising concerns about the health impacts of the incinerator, one of the largest sources of several air pollutants in the county.
In the short term, Bloomington predicted more refuse would go to landfills if the incinerator is closed before cities have time to reduce the amount of trash they produce. The letter warned of the potential for other pollution and climate impacts of closing the incinerator, both from trucking trash farther and from methane emitted by landfills.
“It does not appear that adequate consideration and study of the environmental justice impacts of closing HERC, beyond the neighborhoods surrounding the facility, has been undertaken,” the letter read.
Bloomington is one of 16 Hennepin County cities that contract with waste haulers that bring all residential trash to the incinerator, according to a Hennepin County report.
St. Louis Park is planning to raise concerns similar to Bloomington’s, a city spokesperson said.
Star Tribune
Sentencing set for Monday morning for a Minnesota man who was drunk and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV and killed her.
A man with a history of driving drunk received a four-year term Monday for being intoxicated and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV on a southern Minnesota highway and killed her.
John R. Deleo, 54, of Lake Crystal, Minn., was sentenced in Brown County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on Aug. 17, 2023, in New Ulm at Hwy. 68 and S. 15th Street that killed 82-year-old Sharon A. Portner, of New Ulm.
With credit for the two days he was in jail after his arrest, Deleo is expected to serve the first 2⅔ years years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
A week ahead of sentencing, defense attorney James Kuettner asked the court to spare his client prison and put him on probation for up to five years.
Kuettner pointed out in his filing that Deleo stayed at the crash scene and attempted “to aid Portner, and he left [her] side only when directed to by law enforcement.”
The attorney also noted that Deleo has been sober since the crash, and therefore, at a particularly low risk for reoffending.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police arrived to find the two damaged vehicles near 15th and S. Broadway streets. Emergency responders took Portner to New Ulm Medical Center, where she died that day.
ROCHESTER – The defense for Shane Roper, the former state trooper charged for his role in a crash that killed Owatonna teenager Olivia Flores, has asked the court to dismiss eight of the nine charges against him.
In a motion filed Oct. 24, Roper’s attorneys said the state has “failed to meet its burden of offering direct evidence tending to demonstrate that [Roper’s] actions, or negligence, were the proximate cause of death or bodily harm.”
Roper, 32, faces nine criminal charges related to the May 18 crash, including felony charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide. Both charges carry maximum sentences of 10 years in jail.
The only charge the defense did not ask to have dismissed is a misdemeanor for careless driving, which carries a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail.
Among the other requests made to the court, Roper’s defense asked for a change of venue outside of Olmsted County, citing the extensive media coverage of the case. The defense said “jury pools have surely been tainted and a fair trial cannot be had” in the county.
Roper’s attorney, Eric Nelson of Halberg Criminal Defense, also argued that any evidence related to Roper’s prior speeding or traffic incidents should be precluded as evidence in the case.
In the five years leading up to the crash, Roper had been disciplined by the State Patrol on four separate occasions for careless or reckless driving, including a February 2019 crash that injured another officer.
District Judge Christa Daily has not responded to the motions. Roper is scheduled to be back in court Nov. 21 for a pretrial settlement conference.
Star Tribune
Who is comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who insulted Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally?
NEW YORK — Of the nearly 30 speakers who recently warmed up the crowd for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe got the most attention for racist remarks.
”I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said, later including lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jewish and Black people.
The comments have led to condemnation from Democrats and Puerto Rican celebrities, with Ricky Martin sharing a clip of Hinchcliffe’s set, captioned: “This is what they think of us.”
The Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. ”This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.
Here’s what to know about Hinchcliffe, his comedic styling and the response to his Madision Square Garden comments.
Hinchcliffe, raised in Youngstown, Ohio, is a stand-up comedian who specializes in the roast style, in which comedians take the podium to needle a celebrity victim with personal and often tasteless jokes. He has written and appeared on eight Comedy Central Roasts, including ones for Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.
Even fellow comedians aren’t immune. At the Snoop Dogg roast, Hichcliffe made a joke referencing comedian Luenell, who is Black, being on the Underground Railroad. Of the honoree, he said: ”Snoop, you look like the California Raisin that got hooked on heroin.”
