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Mercado wants images removed from Jensen ad
Mercado Central’s board say they didn’t authorize Republican candidate to film campaign ad inside their marketplace.
MINNEAPOLIS — Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen has been asked to remove images of an iconic Latino mall from one of his campaign ads.
The Mercado Central on East Lake Street is run by a cooperative that is politically neutral. The Mercado president and other members of the governing board say nobody asked for permission to film a campaign ad there.
“Our customers may see this ad and believe that we are taking sides in an election, which is against our rules,” Isis Gastelum, who runs a clothing store in the Mercado and serves as board president, told KARE.
“We, as a cooperative Mercado Central, are nonpartisan. We’re not partisan, we’re neutral.”
In the ad, Jensen and a young Latina woman named Alondra are seen walking on the sidewalk outside the Mercado Central and then walking through the interior spaces of the mall. The Mercado Central’s board, working through business attorney Miluska Novota, asked the Jensen campaign to delete the scenes that customers would recognize as the Mercado.
“The Mercado Central has 39 different businesses, with 39 different opinions. We can’t take sides. We have to remain neutral,” Lisette Moraga, a Mercado Central employee, told KARE.
Moraga said anyone wishing to film a commercial inside the market would need to get advance permission, the same way someone would need permission to film an ad or news report inside places like the Mall of America in Bloomington or the Galleria in Edina.
“We are open to the public, but we’re privately owned,” Enrique Garcia Salazar, the owner of La Loma Tamales, told KARE.
Garcia Salazar and his wife Noelia opened their shop in 1999, the same year Mercado Central opened on 1515 Lake Street East. He said that he doesn’t recognize the young woman in the ad and wasn’t aware anyone filmed anything in the mall until the ad popped up on social media.
“Everybody’s welcome, but if they want to film something they’ve got to ask for permission.”
The Jensen campaign didn’t respond Friday to requests for comments on the controversy.
The campaign is running both Spanish and English versions of the ad, which features a young woman named Alondra saying she’s a lifelong Democrat from south Minneapolis who is voting for the Republican Jensen.
She tells viewers that incumbent Democrat Gov. Time Walz abandoned the Lake Street corridor during the riots of 2020, and “after this, Tim Walz didn’t even bother to show up.” The riots followed the murder George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by then-Officer Derek Chauvin.
Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, who heads Unidos Minnesota, disagrees with the premise of the ad, saying there was immediate outreach by the governor’s staff while the rioting was taking place.
“The lieutenant governor was here the day after the uprising. There was no press, she didn’t make a political scene of it,” Gonzalez Avalos recalled.
Avalos’s organization is an upstairs tenant at the Mercado Central, but she made it clear she wasn’t speaking on behalf of the cooperative.
“Lieutenant Governor Flanagan came here the next morning when many of us were sleep deprived, trying to make sense on how to clean up and what was next for the corridor. She was right here in our parking lot.”
Walz toured the destruction on Lake Street just days after the Minnesota National Guard brought the rioting under control. Since then, he has visited the corridor multiple times and hosted meetings at the Mercado Central with business owners and other stakeholders.
Garcia Salazar of La Loma Tamales said that his business and several others inside the Mercado have received grants from the state to help with the recovery, which was also happening in the midst of the COVID pandemic.
Isis Gastelum said that Walz’s appearances at the Mercado both before and after the riots were done in his official role of governor, showing support for the merchants, celebrating Mexican Independence Day and the 20th anniversary of the Mercado.
Governor Walz’s responses to the riots will continue to be a major theme for Jensen, who has repeatedly asserted Minneapolis burned because “Walz froze” and delayed deploying the National Guard, acting on the advice of his “leftist” constituency.
Walz has pointed out that the Guard members are citizens in private jobs, that need time to assemble with their units and prepare for a mission. Mayor Jacob Frey has stated he asked Gov. Walz to bring in the National Guard May 27, a day before the city felt compelled to surrender the 3rd Police Precinct.
Officers from the Minnesota State Patrol, DNR and other state agencies were already on the ground across the Twin Cities by then working in support of local police, but they were outnumbered.
MADISON, Wis. — Overall enrollment in the Universities of Wisconsin system’s four-year schools ticked upward this fall compared with last year, data released Tuesday shows.
The system released enrollment numbers as of the 10th day of the 2024 fall semester. They show overall enrollment stood at 164,431 students, up 1.2% from the 10th day of the 2023 fall semester.
UW-Green Bay saw 975 new students for a 10.5% increase in enrollment, the largest percentage jump among the 13 four-year schools. Enrollment at UW-Madison, the system’s flagship university, increased nearly 3%. UW-Superior, the most remote campus, in Douglas County in far northwestern Wisconsin, saw a 3.6% increase.
Five schools saw their enrollment shrink, including Eau Claire, Oshkosh, Parkside, Platteville and Stout.
Overall enrollment at the system’s two-year branch campuses fell 22%. The most dramatic drop-off was at UW-Stevens Point’s Marshfield campus, where enrollment plunged nearly 45% compared with fall 2023.
UW officials have blamed declining numbers of high school graduates and more graduates eschewing college for the workforce for faltering enrollment.
An adult male was arrested after the incident.
ANOKA, Minn. — A student was stabbed in the hand at Anoka Technical College Tuesday, authorities said.
A spokesperson with the Anoka Police Department told KARE 11 that officers were dispatched early in the afternoon. At the school, it was learned a student was stabbed in the hand with a screwdriver.
An adult male was taken into custody, officials said. The student was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Anoka Technical College said in a statement that safety and security is the top priority for everyone on campus:
Just before noon today, an incident occurred between two students at Anoka Technical College, in the automotive lab, resulting in one of the students receiving an injury to the hand. The Anoka Police Department responded and took the suspect into custody. The victim was treated by on-campus security officers before going to the hospital for further evaluation and treatment.
At Anoka Technical College, our top priority is the safety and security of everyone on campus. This incident is being investigated by the college and local law enforcement. Support services are available for students and employees impacted by this situation.
The BCA said the 40-year-old man was still hospitalized at Regions Hospital on Tuesday.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Police have identified the man shot and injured by officers after pointing a gun at police on Monday evening.
According to a press release from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), Earl Bennett, 40, was shot by police near Allianz Field.
Officials said Bennett does not have a permanent address but has been staying in the Twin Cities Metro area.
Bennett is hospitalized in critical but stable condition at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.
The incident started just before 7:45 p.m. Monday when police were called to the 400 block of Pierce Street for reports of shots fired. Officers found a man with a handgun when they responded to the scene.
St. Paul police spokesman Sgt. Mike Ernster told reporters on Monday night that when officers approached the man, he put the gun to his own head. Police began to negotiate with the man for a peaceful surrender, but he reportedly refused to drop the weapon, instead walking south on Snelling Avenue.
Police attempted to use “less lethal” means to subdue Bennett, but when he lifted his handgun and pointed it at police, multiple officers fired their weapons, striking the suspect.
The BCA said it is in the early stages of its investigation.
All the officers who discharged their weapons have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
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