Star Tribune
St. Grand is back, dropping $1,000 cash in a Salvation Army red kettle in Coon Rapids
The mysterious Twin Cities philanthropist dubbed St. Grand is back, helping the Salvation Army to close a fundraising shortfall this holiday season.
The charity found a $1,000 donation Tuesday in a red kettle in Coon Rapids on Tuesday — and like past $1,000 donations stuffed into the signature red kettles, this one was a bundle of 10 hundred-dollar bills.
The modus operandi is leading Salvation Army officials to suspect it’s the same secretive donor (or donors, perhaps) who has given more than $150,000 over the past 13 years, always dropping bundles of cash totaling $1,000, usually in the north metro.
“It has all the earmarks of St. Grand,” said Dan Furry, a Salvation Army spokesman. “It’s always exciting when that happens.”
The generous gift comes as the Roseville-based charity, one of the largest social service nonprofits in Minnesota, remains short of its fundraising goal of $1.9 million by Sunday, which is Christmas Eve. So far, it’s collected about $1.3 million at the nearly 300 red kettles placed outside stores across the Twin Cities.
“We’re behind the pace of last year,” Furry said. “If people can give, they’re helping their neighbors who are really struggling this year.”
The annual Red Kettle campaign is part of the Salvation Army’s year-end goal to raise $11.3 million — fundraising that usually provides more than two-thirds of its annual revenue.
With local and national declines in giving, donations have slumped for the charity as they have for other nonprofits. The Salvation Army reduced its fundraising goals this year as a result, and may have to dip into reserves or scale back services if the year-end campaign doesn’t meet its goal.
The charity is trying to make it easier to give money for donors who don’t carry cash or spare change. The organization this year is testing tap technology at about three dozen of its red kettles so donors can give with a tap of their credit card or smartphone on a sensor.
Furry said the tap technology is gradually taking off. It’s an easier option than online giving because donors don’t have to submit their info or credit card details.
“In two seconds, you’re done. We think that may be a big help in the future,” he said. “We’re always in need of donations.”
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
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