Star Tribune
Minnesotans travel across the U.S. to witness total solar eclipse, catching rare ‘cosmic dance’ in the sky
Thaddeus LaCoursiere has a backup plan for the clouds.
Like many Minnesotans chasing the solar eclipse, LaCoursiere, 35, of St. Paul will make a last-minute decision this weekend based on the cloud cover whether to drive hours across the country to Vermont or trek to Texas — all to catch up to four minutes of a total eclipse on Monday.
“Fingers crossed, it clears up wherever we end up,” he said. “It’s a chance just to see something you’ve never ever been able to see before, and may never see again in your lifetime. The moon, we’re so familiar with, covers up the sun … seeing this cosmic dance there in the sky and them meeting up is awe-inspiring.”
Many Minnesotans are embarking on road trips to chase “totality” — when the moon completely blocks out the sun. In the Twin Cities, a partial eclipse will be visible, with about three-quarters of the sun obscured by the moon.
Like storm chasers or festival goers, they’re monitoring weather forecasts, packing picnics and have booked up hotels or campgrounds months in advance for the big event, a phenomena last seen in the U.S. in 2017 and won’t be visible again in the Lower 48 states until 2044.
The “path of totality” spans 13 states from Texas to Maine, according to NASA. Totality is the only part of the eclipse that can be viewed with the naked eye instead of with protective glasses. Of course, no sighting is guaranteed; clouds rolled into the Twin Cities during the eclipse in 2017.
Larry OIson, 62, of Chisago City, hopes to increase his chances by making a last-minute decision which direction to head for clear skies. Four months ago, he booked four different camping reservations from Texas to Ohio to have the flexibility to go east or south, depending on the weather.
If all goes as planned, the retired Medtronic electrical engineer and a friend will be sitting at a campsite Monday under clear skies with his telescope and four cameras set up to capture the eerie show as the skies turn dark in daytime.
“It’s more of an adventure,” he said of the eclipse road trip. “The fact you can see stars in the middle of the day to me is just an amazing thing to see.”
After trekking to a Nebraska park for the 2017 eclipse and getting held up in traffic jams, Olson added an extra day or two on this year’s road trip. The solar eclipse in 2017 got a lot of hype, drumming up more eclipse fans, Olson said, so he’s expecting bigger crowds this year.
An estimated 5 million people are expected to be traveling the path of totality, according to the Federal Highway Administration — at least the same number if not more than in 2017, snarling roadways across the country.
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Tom Taintor, 62, of Apple Valley is doing his own experiment with his family, releasing a 5-foot-wide weather balloon equipped with three tiny, light cameras to capture the eclipse some 80,000 feet up in the air. When the balloon bursts, the equipment will descend with a parachute — and with GPS so it can be recouped.
The software engineer and his son did the same thing in Missouri in 2017 and have practiced with a weather balloon in Iowa fields since then.
“It’s like you’re looking at outer space,” Taintor said of the photos.
He, his wife, their three adult sons and friends will send up a balloon on Monday either from Missouri or Illinois, depending on the weather.
He was transfixed by the experience of witnessing the total eclipse in 2017, marveling at how the sky darkened in daytime, the air suddenly chilled, birds silenced and nighttime bugs started chirping.
“Afterward, you just sit there slack-jawed, trying to take it all in. It’s a little addictive,” Taintor said. “It was just a life-changing experience. I’d seen partial eclipses before but total eclipses are a totally different thing.”
“A partial eclipse is like a cool sunset. A total eclipse is like someone broke the sky,” he said quoting from a webcomic called xkcd. “It’s just so unusual.”
According to NASA, the 2024 eclipse path will pass over more cities and densely populated areas than in 2017 because the path of totality will be wider than in 2017 with the moon closer to Earth this time. The length of totality will also last longer; in 2017, the longest period of totality was less than 3 minutes, but this year it will last more than 4 minutes in parts of Mexico and the U.S., according to NASA.
Plus, the sun is in or near “solar maximum,” a cycle every 11 years or so when the sun has more solar activity, NASA explained — something that also increases the chance for vivid northern lights this year. During the eclipse, when the moon completely covers the sun, showing the star’s outer atmosphere called the corona, viewers may see more streamers, like loops coming off the sun compared to 2017.
If you miss Monday’s solar show, you’ll have to travel farther in 2026 when a total eclipse will be viewable in Greenland, Iceland, Russia, Portugal and Spain. Taintor is already eyeing a trip to Spain to see the spectacle.
The next total eclipse in the U.S. will be in 2033 in Alaska while the Lower 48 states won’t get a chance for a total eclipse until 2044. The Twin Cities isn’t slated to see a total solar eclipse until 2099.
Jill Smook, 58, of Apple Valley stayed home in 2017 for the partial eclipse, dismissing the need to travel for a total eclipse. But when she heard from friends who saw it, she regretted not leaving the state.
Six months ago, she and her husband booked an Airbnb and a flight to Texas before prices skyrocketed. They’re meeting friends and packing a picnic; they’ll be ready to be stranded in traffic as they drive outside Austin to track down a spot where totality will last almost four minutes.
“It’s almost like disaster preparedness in some ways,” she said of stocking up on food and water.
They’ve got their solar glasses and bright color outfits planned for the “Purkinje effect,” which happens when the sky darkens and eyes become more sensitive to certain hues. If clouds roll in and spoil the show, at least they will have a warm weather destination to explore, she said.
It’s not just the hunt for the total eclipse, Smook said, but taking part in a collective experience, sharing something special with millions of strangers — all who can say they witnessed the sensation.
“We don’t get a lot of that any more,” Smook said.
LaCoursiere, who is the planetarium production coordinator at Bell Museum in St. Paul, referred to the eclipse is a “big FOMO moment.” The fear of missing out likely will motivate many people to view it. In 2017, he witnessed it in St. Louis, oohing and aahing along with thousands of people. Seven years later, it’s an “amazing cosmic coincidence,” he said, that the eclipse, usually only seen over oceans, is viewable in the U.S. again.
“We all just want to see something we may never see again,” he said. “It’s elusive and almost once-in-a-lifetime.”
State environmental regulators are suing the Lake County Planning Commission to try to stop a developer from building 49 new cabins at a century-old fishing resort on an entry lake to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said that the planning board ignored local and state shoreline protection rules to allow the Silver Rapids Resort on Farm Lake to build the cabins. The project would accompany an extensive remodel and renovation to a motel and restaurant on the site that would also increase the size and number of docks.
The agency asked a district court judge in a suit filed Oct. 3 to throw out the resort’s permit for the construction. A hearing is scheduled for November and no work will be allowed to start while the case is pending. A group of homeowners in the area opposed to the project filed a separate lawsuit that also seeks to overturn the resort’s permit.
Alex Campbell, the environmental service specialist for the planning commission, declined to comment on ongoing litigation. Commission member and Lake County Board Chair Rich Sve did not return phone calls seeking an interview. Sandy Hoff, one of the site’s developers, did not return messages seeking comment.
Silver Rapids opened in 1919 as a fishing resort on a stretch of shore where White Iron Lake meets the western edge of Farm Lake. The Boundary Waters begins on Farm Lake’s eastern shore a couple miles from the resort. It has 12 small cabins on site, an 11-room motel, a restaurant and 21 campsites.
Developers asked the county planning commission for a permit to allow an $45 million expansion that would include a remodel of the restaurant, the installation of a tiki bar and the building of 49 new cabins that would each be sold to up to four owners apiece and rented out when those owners aren’t using them.
The expansion would increase the total number of dwelling units on the site from 13 to 62 and add 12 new docks with space for 75 boats.
But the county’s shoreline protection rules, which were written in the 1990s, allow the resort a maximum of 29 dwelling units and docks that could fit a maximum of 14 boats, the DNR argued in its complaint.
“People stopped paying rent because they didn’t have to, and you couldn’t evict them for it, and it’s just became a free for all where people didn’t respect the place where they were staying or living anymore, and the management couldn’t hold people accountable,” Faust said.
The turning point came when the city, Aeon and tenant advocacy groups like the Village BP started collaborating in earnest, issuing weekly memos to communicate what actions they were taking to claw back control of Huntington Place. Aeon hired an armed patrol, installed security cameras and erected a fence to restrict movement in and out of its parking lot, spending $1.353 million annually from 2021 to 2024. The police raided the units of drug dealers and Aeon jettisoned them as the moratorium eased. City staff door-knocked floor by floor, issuing repair orders for discharged fire extinguishers that were never replaced, unpatched holes in the wall, mold, water damage, mice and roaches. Repairs improved the look and feel of the complex. The addition of sidewalks helped residents walk to the bus stop, and speed bumps broke up the roadway near the front checkpoint area that had been nicknamed the “racetrack.”
Crime stats paint the picture of a massive ship yawing straight. Between 2022 and 2023, there was a 56.6% plunge in violent crime. The trend continues downward.
Longtime resident Ernie Jackson said he and his wife Kim used to only leave their apartment to let their dog out because, “You know, who wants to be involved in the chaos and craziness?” But since security was restored, he’s spent a significant amount of time this summer soaking up the sun in his lawn chair.
Aeon has informed them that residents need not worry about displacement because affordable housing covenants will follow the property through January 2050. The Jacksons are heartened by that. Still, Kim wonders whether the new owner will maintain the social support services that Aeon worked with city and community partners to offer — the school supply giveaways, the health resource fairs and vaccine outreach, pizza nights with police, and the teen outings to Dunwoody College.
Not much is known about MAS Capital locally. It doesn’t own any other affordable housing projects in the Twin Cities region, and the firm did not respond to questions from the Star Tribune about its long-term intentions.
Star Tribune
Twin Cities man gets 5 years in prison for romance scheme that raked in more than $2M million
A Brooklyn Park man received more than five years in prison Tuesday for perpetrating with others a nationwide romance fraud scheme for four years and pulling in more than $2.1 million.
Dodzi K. Kordorwu, 38, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to a 5¼-year term after pleading guilty to the online ruse that targeted dozens of primarily older people.
Judge Eric Tostrud also ordered Kordorwu to be under court supervision for three years after his release and to make full restitution of the money he stole.
The FBI says about 24,000 victims in the United States reported losing about $1 billion to romance scams in 2021. Researchers say romance scammers prey specifically on seniors, some capitalizing on the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic to find lonely victims.
Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors argued in a court filing for Kordowu to be given a sentence of nearly seven years in prison.
While taking on the persona of “Dr. Carmen Williams” to interact with one victim, Kordowu “directly expressed his love [and] promised to never leave them,” the prosecution filing read.
Upon receiving a monetary shipment, Kordorwu followed up with “‘thank you so much my sweet and beautiful wife. I love you, and I will always love you,’” the filing continued. “The deeply personal connections forged by these overtures is what made the fraud scheme so potent.”
The defense proposed in writing to the court for a sentence of probation, contended that he had a limited role in the scam, the crime was nonviolent in nature, and “Mr. Kordorwu is the sole person being held responsible for the offense.”
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