Star Tribune
Duluth mayor posts cheeky reply after Kathy Cargill rips up plans for Park Point
DULUTH — Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert, described as peeing “in his Cheerios” by Kathy Cargill in a story that ran this weekend in the Wall Street Journal, took to social media with a clarification.
“For the record … I’m more of a pancake guy #IYKYK,” he posted to X, formerly Twitter, alongside a photo of a lone cake with a pat of butter and a strip of bacon.
Cargill, who has bought more than a dozen properties in Duluth’s Park Point neighborhood broke her public silence on plans for the land in a Wall Street Journal story that went online Saturday. She was going to beautify and modernize this stretch of land that separates Lake Superior from the Duluth-Superior Harbor, she told the publication. She was going to build homes for her relatives, a coffee shop and a sports complex.
A lot of Duluthians have kept an eye on her purchases and wondered aloud about her intentions.
Reinert, who started his term as mayor in January, was among those questioning Cargill’s plans for his former neighborhood. He sent her a letter asking to meet, he told Duluth’s City Council recently. When he didn’t immediately hear back, he said he would ask councilors to also sign off on a letter.
Cargill, a member of the billionaire family, turned to cereal to describe the mayor’s response.
“I think an expression that we all know — don’t pee in your Cheerios — well, he kind of peed in his Cheerios right there, and definitely I’m not going to do anything to benefit that community,” Cargill said of Reinert in the interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Reinert’s post on X didn’t directly address Cargill’s statement, but his hashtag — meaning “if you know you know” — was a strong hint. It was part of a longer note about how he would be riding with local snowplow drivers during the snowstorm.
Meanwhile in Duluth, “Cheerios” has become a buzzword. An anonymous group of residents has issued a challenge to locals (or anyone else) to donate a box or more of Cheerios (or, say, cornflakes) at Duluth Labor Temple or North East Area Labor Council Office between March 27-29. The boxes will be donated to Duluth food shelves participating in Minnesota FoodShare campaign.
The Facebook group, Duluth Cheerio Challenge, is behind the push. It had more than 100 members by Monday evening and describes itself as “community response from a ‘small-minded community that peed in its Cheerios.'”
The DFL candidate for a Roseville seat in the Minnesota House is pushing back on allegations from his Republican opponent that he doesn’t live in the district he hopes to represent.
Curtis Johnson is currently a member of the Roseville Area Schools board. He has owned a home in Little Canada since 2017, according to Ramsey County property records.
In May he filed to run for the open seat in House District 40B, saying he lived in an apartment complex less than 3 miles from his Little Canada home. The district includes parts of Roseville and Shoreview and has been represented by DFLer Jamie Becker-Finn, who isn’t seeking re-election, since 2017.
In a statement, Johnson said he and his wife decided to move to Roseville last year, but they’ve struggled to find the right house. In the meantime, he’s been renting “a Roseville apartment as my primary residence while we keep searching for a forever home.”
“My wife and our youngest child still live in the house because we didn’t want to disrupt our child’s life by moving the rest of the family into my apartment and then moving them again after we found a house in Roseville,” Johnson’s statement said.
Wikstrom released an ad Oct. 15 that accused Johnson of lying about his residency, but he has not committed to making a legal challenge. A residency challenge would be decided by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
“My confidence level is high that we have a solid case he is not a resident of the district,” Wikstrom said in an interview. He noted that Johnson’s vehicle is often at the Little Canada home and a portable storage container appeared out front days after his political ad went online.
An unlicensed driver is now charged on accusations that he was speeding and under the influence of alcohol when he set off a chain-reaction pileup on an interstate exit ramp in Minneapolis, leaving one person dead and several others injured.
Talon Covie-Cardell Walker, 29, of St. Paul, was charged late Thursday afternoon in Hennepin County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the seven-vehicle pileup about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday after exiting from eastbound Interstate 94 toward Lyndale Avenue.
Walker remains held without bail ahead of a court appearance Friday afternoon. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
A search warrant affidavit was filed in court by the State Patrol that cleared the way for Walker’s blood to be collected to measure his degree of intoxication. Results are pending. The affidavit said Walker was “pushing 100 mph when taking the ramp, [and] it appears no braking took place before the crash.”
Walker was driving without a valid license, according to the state Department of Public Safety. In late 2019, his license was suspended, then it was revoked in spring 2021, the agency said.
Court records in Minnesota show Walker has traffic convictions for careless driving and operating a motorcycle without a license. State records also show convictions for illegal weapons possession, disorderly conduct, a minor drug offense and twice for violating a court no-contact order.
Walker’s passenger, 20-year-old Taniyah Randle-Smith, was taken by ambulance to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, according to the patrol. A hospital spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon that she was in critical condition.
Killed in the crash was Natalie Gubbay, a 26-year-old SUV driver from Minneapolis, whose vehicle was struck by Walker’s. Her passenger, Molly Elizabeth Brenton, 28, of Virginia, Minn., was taken to HCMC with noncritical injuries.
A juvenile has died while in detention at the Red Wing correctional facility in southeastern Minnesota.
Officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections said staff on Saturday found an inmate who was unresponsive. Authorities attempted life-saving measures, which were unsuccessful. Paramedics arrived and the resident was pronounced dead at the scene, said spokeswoman Shannon Loehrke.
An investigation is underway to determine how the inmate died, she added.
No information about the identify of the deceased was released.
The Red Wing facility has a capacity of 88 inmates.
