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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.
Woodbury principal Sarah Sorenson-Wagner sent a message home to families about what the sub allegedly did, from twisting a student’s arm to making racial comments.
WOODBURY, Minn. — Law enforcement and district officials are investigating an alleged incident involving a substitute teacher who was accused of reenacting the death of George Floyd inside a Woodbury High School classroom.
The incident was detailed in a letter to families sent Tuesday by Woodbury H.S. principal Sarah Sorenson-Wagner describing “inappropriate and racially harmful behavior involving a substitute teacher.” Students told Woodbury staff that the teacher, contracted through Bloomington-based Teachers On Call, reportedly told students he thought they’d like to hear about his life as a police officer.
The teacher was accused of the following during the course of four English class periods:
- Put a student on the ground in front of the class as part of a reenactment of the police actions that resulted in the murder of George Floyd.
- Twisted a student’s arm behind the student’s back and showed pressure points on the chin and face.
- Spoke about a bar fight and fake punched a student with his fist “really close” to the student’s face.
- “Invaded students’ space” and mimicked holding up a gun and pointing it at students.
- Repeatedly made racially harmful comments.
- Told sexist jokes.
- Described in disturbing detail dead bodies he had seen, and shared explicit details about two sexual assault cases he investigated.
- Stated that “cops would be the best criminals” and that “they know how to get away with stuff,” adding he once got an “A” on a paper about how to get away with murder.
- Told students that “police brutality isn’t real.”
Sorenson-Wagner specifically acknowledged the racial harm that occurred when the substitute teacher reenacted the restraint and conduct that resulted in Floyd’s murder. She also thanked students for coming forward and sharing what they saw.
“This reported behavior is reprehensible. I am embarrassed, and I am sorry this happened to our students,” Sorenson-Wagner wrote in the letter to Woodbury families. “We will take as much time as students need to listen and create open space for courageous conversations that lead to healing, action and education. The reported actions are not, and will not, be tolerated at Woodbury High School or in South Washington County Schools.”
The principal said the substitute was immediately trespassed from Woodbury High School, and will not be allowed back on district property. Staff members are also collaborating with Woodbury police to investigate the incident and determine if charges can be filed. A full report has also been forwarded to the Minnesota Department of Education’s licensing department.
Teachers On Call responded to an inquiry from KARE 11, saying the substitute teacher is no longer an employee, emphasizing the company’s educators are required to undergo a rigorous screening process and pass thorough background checks. The company says the substitute involved in the allegations passed all background screenings before being placed on assignment.
“Teachers on Call is deeply concerned about the reported misconduct of a former employee on assignment at Woodbury High School. The actions of this individual were unacceptable, and the substitute teacher is no longer an employee of Teachers on Call,” read a statement sent to KARE 11. “We recognize the significant public trust placed in us to ensure our substitute educators maintain a safe learning environment. We have a zero-tolerance policy for any form of violent, aggressive, or harmful behavior.”
Woodbury police also confirmed the alleged incidents that took place at the high school are under investigation. “The safety of the students, teachers, staff and our community is our top priority,” the department said in a released statement. “We will investigate this incident to the fullest extent, while showing compassion to the students impacted.”
Administrators at Woodbury High School followed up with listening sessions in all four English classes impacted, giving students “space to process what happened.” Principal Sorenson-Wagner promised additional opportunities next week to meet with school staff to talk through what happened and take steps toward repairing the harm done.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed what she says is the state’s first Prosecutor-Initiated Sentencing Adjustment (PISA) petition on behalf of Jerome Nunn.
MINNEAPOLIS — A man convicted of first-degree murder nearly 30 years ago stands on the cusp of having his sentence adjusted to reflect the turnaround in his life, the first person to have this opportunity since a law was passed in 2023.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty met with reporters Wednesday to discuss what she believes is the first petition filed since Prosecutor-Initiated Sentencing Adjustment (PISA) became law. It involves a man named Jerome Nunn, who was convicted at age 19 of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder back in 1995.
A case file says Nunn fatally shot Abdul Poe and wounded a man named John Holmes in a dispute over drugs and money that had allegedly been stolen from him.
In the years since his conviction and incarceration, Moriarty, Nunn’s attorney and others say he has made a remarkable transformation, earning three college degrees, becoming an ordained minister and helping to craft the Department of Corrections’ restorative justice program.
Nunn was assigned to work release in April 2023, and is currently working for a nonprofit helping men and women released from prison re-integrate into the community. By filing the PISA petition, Moriarty is asking a judge to reduce the remainder of Nunn’s sentence (supervised release) to time served to effectively end his commitment to Minnesota’s criminal justice system and “get him into a place of unconditional freedom.”
The movement to forgive Nunn for his crimes actually started back in 2014, fueled by the mother of the man he murdered. Danielle Jones told Nunn she forgave him and began advocating for his release from prison. In a breaking voice at Wednesday’s press conference, Nunn thanked Jones – a woman who has become a spiritual mother of sorts to him – and vowed to seek atonement for his actions as a younger man, always mindful of the harm has caused.
“Everyday I get up to make a difference,” Nunn told reporters. “I stand appreciative – I stand grateful.”
A Hennepin County judge will set a hearing for within the next 60 to 90 days to hear the petition and decide whether to end Nunn’s sentence.
Billy Wilder’s classic movie has moved to the big stage.
MINNEAPOLIS — “Some Like It Hot” is headed to Minneapolis as a new Broadway musical and a classic slapstick movie.
The show runs from Tuesday to Sunday and features two musicians escaping from gangsters in the 1920s.
The original movie premiered in 1959, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Curtis and Lemmon masquerade as female saxophone players to get away from gangsters, and get entangled in a whole new set of drama.
As the creative team brought this classic movie to 2024’s stage, they updated parts of it to reflect modern times and center a message of acceptance and gender fluidity.
Edward Juvier, who plays Osgood, visited KARE 11 News at Noon to share more about the show.
Tickets start at $40 and can be purchased at this link.
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