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Lawmakers rush to meet critical deadlines
Lawmakers and lobbyists scurried to meet critical committee hearing deadlines.
ST PAUL, Minn. — The end of the 2024 legislative session may be eight weeks away, but bills must clear other hurdles long before then to remain viable. On Friday two of those deadlines coincided, which explained why some committees were still meeting when they’d normally be gone.
It was the day that policy bills had to pass all the relevant policy committees in both the House and Senate. Those pieces of legislation with a spending component have until April 19 to pass through committees.
“You have standing committees and bills have different components that are judiciary components to it, and state government components to it, and health and human services component to it, so each of those committees have to hear it in order to hear it and react to their jurisdiction,” Senate President Bobby Joe Champion told KARE.
“And once you’re outside the deadline you have to send your bill to the Rules Committee to determine there’s some extenuating circumstances why that bill did not make it through the policy deadlines.”
For the Senate Judiciary Committee it resulted in a marathon session, with the panel scheduled to hear 38 bills before the day ended. Even Sen. Champion waited for the panel to get to his bill, known as the African American Family Preservation Act.
“Judiciary is always that committee that has more bills than anyone else and it creates a little of a bottleneck, but Chair Latz always does a good job of understanding what bills have to be heard, what bills have to meet the deadline versus those that may have a little more flexibility,” Sen. Champion explained.
The legislature works on a two-year cycle. So, bills introduced during the 2023 session can still be acted on in the 2024 session. Thus far in the 2023-2024 cycle, 5,225 bills have been introduced in the Senate and 5,139 bills have been introduced in the House.
As of Friday, only 80 bills had passed both chambers and gone to the governor’s desk. It’s important to note, however, that many bills that begin as stand-alone bills are combined with others into larger, all-encompassing omnibus bills before final passage. That list of 80 bills signed by Gov. Tim Walz represents a much larger total of House and Senate files.
Still, all in all, most bills won’t make it through on their first try for one reason or another. Regardless of what kind of political divide exists in any given year, there’s only so much lawmakers that can finish before the clock runs out on them.
Champion pointed out that many bills are more about starting a conversation.
“It’s rare that a bill comes through for the very first time, and it’s introduced and gets through the process, and all of a sudden it turns into law, unless there’s some extraordinary circumstances,” Champion explained.
“A number of the ideas we finally get across the finish line have been germinating and making their way through our process for quite some time. Some people say it’s too slow of a process. Some people say it’s a deliberative process. Some say people say maybe a bill or policy comes through at its appointed time.”
The victim’s wife identified their neighbor as the likely suspect following ongoing disputes.
MINNEAPOLIS — A shooting that followed months of alleged harassment from one neighbor to another has escalated to a public sparring session between the Minneapolis Police Department and City Council.
According to court documents, MPD was called to a hospital in the city for reports of a gunshot victim on Oct. 23. Upon arrival, the officers learned a man, identified as Davis Maturi, had been shot and was transported to the hospital from his home on Grand Avenue in Minneapolis.
The criminal complaint in the case said Maturi’s wife told officers that their neighbor, identified as 54-year-old John Sawchak, “almost certainly” was the person who shot her husband, alleging that Sawchak had harassed and threatened the couple for months.
Mrs. Maturi allegedly told officers that her husband was pruning a tree near their property line on that day.
“Touch my tree again and I’ll kill you,” the suspect allegedly told the victim, according to the complaint.
The charging documents lists seven prior police records of incidents between the neighbors before the October shooting, including several allegations of threats and racism by Sawchak against Maturi.
Maturi remains hospitalized with a fractured spine. Sawchak is not currently in police custody.
A letter from ranking members of the Minneapolis City Council to Mayor Jacob Frey shows anger and blame being directed at the MPD for allegedly failing to act on Maturi’s numerous complaints against Sawchak before the shooting, and failing to arrest him immediately after the shooting.
“MPD still has not arrested the suspect despite charges from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for Attempted Murder, 1st Degree Assault, Stalking, and Harassment and a request from the HCAO for a warrant with $1 million bail. MPD told the HCAO they do not intend to execute the warrant ‘for reasons of officer safety,’” said the letter from the Minneapolis City Council.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara scheduled a news conference on Friday afternoon to respond to the council’s accusations.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office confirmed Friday that it filed charges against Sawchak.
“After Mr. Sawchak shot Mr. Moturi on Oct. 23, the case was submitted to our office on Oct. 24. We immediately charged Mr. Sawchak with attempted murder, first-degree assault, and felony harassment and stalking, enhanced for racial bias,” said a statement from the office.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
A Twin Cities developer is planning a new mix of retail and residential in the Victoria Crossing East building.
ST PAUL, Minn. — A Twin Cities firm is preparing to redevelop a prime site in the heart of the Grand Avenue business district in St. Paul, as the commercial corridor continues to try to reinvent itself after COVID.
Ari Parritz, the founder and president of Afton Park Development, said his group has put the Victoria Crossing East building under contract at the corner of Grand and Victoria, with plans to redevelop the site into a mix of new retail and residential.
The developer will still need to go through the city’s zoning process – aided by developer-friendly rules adopted by the city council earlier this year – but the Victoria Crossing East project may be the next significant change to occur on Grand Avenue.
The structure is more than a century old and currently houses JUUT Salon Spa, Paper Source, Gather Eatery and Watch Bar. (According to Parritz, discussions with those tenants are ongoing.)
“We think of it as Main and Main in the city. It’s the most recognizable – for some people – location. It’s what they think of when they think of Grand Avenue,” Parritz said. “It’s one of the corners that we felt needed some help, and we thought a redevelopment was a good way to accomplish that.”
Afton Park Development recently completed another project a few blocks east on Grand, which included the residential Kenton House and restaurants on the ground floor.
“Grand Avenue has gone through a period of transition. We think it’s on its way out of that period of transition,” Parritz said, “into a new normal that people are going to love.”
Chris Jensen, president of the Grand Avenue Business Association, said 30 new businesses have opened or reopened on Grand since January 2023. He praised the Victoria East Crossing redevelopment proposal as a boom for the neighborhood.
“We’re excited it’s a local developer,” Jensen said. “They have their eyes and ears on the street and know the neighborhood really well.”
At the same time, Grand Avenue still has some high-profile vacancies along the stretch that demand attention.
As KARE 11 reported earlier this year, two entire commercial buildings on the west side of the Grand/Victoria intersection remain empty, following the closures of Pottery Barn, Salut restaurant and others. Those buildings are owned by one of the nation’s largest public pension funds, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio or STRS.
Although the out-of-state entity has drawn criticism for the vacancies, Jensen said he recently spoke with STRS and feels confident they’re trying to find tenants.
“I did meet with the STRS people a few weeks ago. They want it full just like we want it full,” Jensen said. “We’re excited that they are starting to partner with our neighborhood association and are starting to get involved. They are making progress, and we hope to have an announcement in the coming months.”
Prosecutors say Mychal Allan Stowers was on work release from prison when he shot his pregnant ex-wife, and then shot another man during a carjacking.
ST PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul police are looking for a man now charged with two counts of second-degree murder after allegedly shooting his ex-wife and her unborn child.
A criminal complaint filed against 37-year-old Mychal Allan Stowers details the two murder counts as well as carjacking and assault charges associated with his getaway.
St. Paul squads were dispatched to 139 Sycamore St. E. just after 9 p.m. Oct. 19 on reports of shots fired. Arriving officers were met by residents who told them they heard gunshots in apartment 3. Police entered the apartment and found a woman laying on the floor surrounded by spent 9mm shell casings. Paramedics responded and declared the victim dead just before 9:30 pm.
Police later identified the victim as 35-year-old Damara Alexis Stowers.
Investigators on the scene found a loaded handgun on a bed in a different bedroom, along with photos from an ultrasound. In the apartment mailbox were two letters, one addressed to the victim and the other to a Mychal Stowers. While officers were in the apartment a cellphone rang, and the contact name that showed was “My$hon Stowers.”
Neighbors described seeing a heavyset man in his late 30s or 40s running from the scene. One told officers he heard four or five shots from the apartment, walked outside, and soon heard two more from a few blocks away.
The owner of the building told police the victim was in the process of being evicted, and that her ex-boyfriend had been living in the apartment with her, which was against the lease.
Additional officers were dispatched to 99 Acker Street, a few blocks from the apartment shooting scene, at around 9:15 p.m. on reports of a carjacking. They found a man who had been shot in the leg, breaking his femur. The victim’s friend said they were standing outside a running vehicle when a heavyset Black male ran up, said something they did not understand and then shot the victim. The assailant then stole the running gray Audi.
The complaint states that on the same day an employee of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office reported that Mychal Stowers called, said he had shot someone and wanted to turn himself in. Despite the call, Stowers did not turn himself in.
Records from the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) show Stowers was released from prison in March after serving time for another murder, was on work release and supposed to be living at a halfway house. He had had been granted a pass to visit his “ex-wife” at 139 Sycamore.
Preliminary tests show the same gun fired spent shells recovered at both the murder and carjacking scenes, and the defendant matches descriptions of the shooter from witnesses at both scenes.
At this time Michael Stowers is not in custody.
