Star Tribune
Metro Transit ends its safety pacts with MSP Airport and Bloomington police
Metro Transit has let two key agreements intended to boost the safety of employees and passengers aboard the Blue Line expire, saying the agency now has enough staffing to handle the job.
The transit agency signed pacts with the Bloomington and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport police departments last year to add officers at both MSP terminals and at the Mall of America as safety concerns aboard the light rail system escalated. The idea was to help bolster the Metro Transit Police Department, which was having trouble hiring and retaining officers.
But Metro Transit Police Chief Ernest Morales III, who assumed the department’s top post last March, said this week the agreements with the MSP Airport and Bloomington departments are no longer needed.
Metro Transit has put in place a multipronged approach to beef up the presence of police and community service officers and private security, as well as Transit Rider Investment Program agents who help those using public transit connect with housing, mental health and substance abuse issues.
The plan is working, Morales said. “We’re definitely seeing success. Complaints and crimes have gone down dramatically,” he said, noting crime declined 24% so far this year, although overall crime in 2023 increased by a third when compared with the previous year.
The agreement with MSP police, which expired Feb. 16, came after airport employees implored the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to do something last winter. Many employees who park at Terminal 2 and take the light rail to the main terminal said they felt unsafe aboard the trains because of drug use, violence and erratic behavior.
They even created a Facebook page, MSP Airport Light Rail Incidents, to share their stories. If recent posts are any indication, some employees still feel the safety measures aren’t working, while others say they’re starting to see a difference.
There were 132 reported crimes last year at both airport Blue Line stations, which accounted for nearly 10% of light-rail ridership last year, according to Metro Transit. So far this year, there have been 27 reported crimes; more than 70% of the police calls for service at these stations in 2023 were initiated by officers as a result of “proactive patrols.”
Wade Luneburg, political director of UNITE-HERE Local 17, the union that represents some 1,200 airport employees, said the safety situation appears to have calmed down at the airport over the past year. “It seems like the dust has really settled on this,” he said. Paul Slattery, an organizer and political director for Teamsters Local 120, which also represents airport workers, declined to comment on the matter.
The MSP agreement called for two airport police officers to patrol the Blue Line trains and stations at Terminals 1 and 2 daily from 4 a.m. to noon, when many workers begin their shifts. The agreement was always seen as a stopgap measure as Metro Transit implemented its safety plan, a big part of which relies on more personnel presence on light rail trains and buses.
MAC spokesman Jeff Lea said airport officers will continue to patrol the Blue Line stations at both terminals.
Metro Transit said private security officers are now riding the trains between Terminals 1 and 2 and patrolling the airport stations from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily.
The agreement with Bloomington called for its officers to patrol on board the Blue Line and at stations between the Mall of America and the airport on an overtime basis. Hourly overtime rates varied from $62.38 to $108.25 an hour, depending on the officer’s rank, according to the agreement, which expired Dec. 31.
It’s not uncommon for local police departments to strike up mutual aid agreements: Metro Transit has pacts in place with the St. Paul Police and Ramsey County Sheriff’s departments and with the University of Minnesota police force. U officers patrol the Green Line between the West Bank, East Bank and Stadium Village campus stations.
These agreements “provides a uniformed presence” on transit, Morales said, adding it’s important to “work smartly and collaboratively.” Usually, this collaboration occurs on an as-needed basis.
Other cities have struggled with increased crime aboard public transportation as they recover from a ridership decline during the COVID-19 outbreak. Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called in National Guard soldiers and State Police officers to patrol New York City subway platforms following a spike in crime on the nation’s biggest transit system.
That doesn’t appear to be in the works for Metro Transit, although Gov. Tim Walz served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades. Officials with his office said he continues to implement and develop strategies to improve transit safety.
General Manager Lesley Kandaras said this week that Metro Transit hasn’t asked for National Guard assistance.
“We are always willing to work with our partners to promote public safety,” Morales said. “At this time, we’re happy where we are.”
Star Tribune
Biden calls out Musk over a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked in the US illegally
NEW YORK — President Joe Biden slammed Elon Musk for hypocrisy on immigration after a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked illegally in the United States. The South Africa-born Musk denies the allegation.
”That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here. No, I’m serious. He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. And he’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?” Biden said while campaigning on Saturday in Pittsburgh at a union hall.
The Washington Post reported that Musk worked illegally in the country while on a student visa. The newspaper, citing company documents, former business associates and court documents, said Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California in 1995 for a graduate program at Stanford University “but never enrolled in courses, working instead on his startup. ”
Musk wrote on X in reply to a video post of Biden’s comments: ”I was in fact allowed to work in the US.” Musk added, ”The Biden puppet is lying.”
Investors in Musk’s company, Zip2, were concerned about the possibility of their founder being deported, according to the report, and gave him a deadline for obtaining a work visa. The newspaper also cited a 2005 email from Musk to his Tesla co-founders acknowledging that he did not have authorization to be in the U.S. when he started Zip2.
According to the account, that email was submitted as evidence in a now-closed California defamation lawsuit and said that Musk had apllied to Stanford so he could stay in the country legally.
Musk is today the world’s richest man. He has committed more than $70 million to help Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other GOP candidates win on Nov. 5, and is one of the party’s biggest donors this campaign season. He has been headlining events in the White House race’s final stretch, often echoing Trump’s dark rhetoric against immigration.
Trump has pledged to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.
The only debate between DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP challenger Royce White started Sunday on the street outside WCCO Radio.
As White approached the building, he loudly called some two dozen flag-waving and cheering Klobuchar supporters a “whole lot of commies.” The 33-year-old provocateur and podcaster also told them to thank Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney — who endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — because there was “no chance in hell” that Harris would defeat Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Klobuchar, 64, had arrived moments earlier, smiling and wishing “good morning” to her supporters. Once inside, the two took questions for an hour from moderator Blois Olson. Their tone was generally polite with White often interrupting a Klobuchar response with, “rebuttal,” indicated he wanted to respond.
The senator repeatedly raised White’s claims on X, formerly Twitter, that “The bad guys won in World War II” and that there were “no good guys in that war.” She called that stance offensive to veterans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar arrives at WCCO Radio for a debate with Royce White in Minneapolis on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, portrayed herself as a pragmatist. She opened by saying that we live in “incredibly divisive times politically” but that she has listened and worked with Republicans to bring down shipping costs, drug prices for seniors and to help veterans and push for more housing and child care.
“Courage in this next few years is not going to be standing by yourself yelling at people,” she said, her opening allusion to White’s rhetoric, which she said is often vulgar.
White, a former NBA player, is a political novice, but a close ally of Steve Bannon, the jailed former chief strategist for Trump and right wing media executive. Last summer, White won the state GOP endorsement to run against Klobuchar.
“Our country’s coming undone at the seams. I think we can change that,” White said in his opening statement. He said he threatens the status quo, decried the “permanent political class” and referred to the two major parties as the “uniparty.”
Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.
In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted ”missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.”
Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.
Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be ”over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.
There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.
However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.
