Star Tribune
What prompted chaos at the Minneapolis 10th Ward DFL convention?
They thought they’d be able to vote. They were wrong. They got angry.
Then things got out of control.
That’s the simplest explanation for why chaos and scuffling erupted Saturday at a Minneapolis DFL ward convention, according to videos of the event and several people who witnessed what happened from different vantage points.
While police continued to investigate the incident Monday, senior members of the city and state DFL Party prepared for a meeting later this week to get a handle on what happened, in what amounted to an embarrassment for the party — and to figure out how to prevent it from happening again.
What happened?
Saturday’s events unfolded at the DFL’s 10th Ward convention at Ella Baker Global Studies & Humanities Magnet School in Uptown, held to endorse a candidate — or issue no endorsement — for the ward’s City Council seat in the November election. The contenders were Council Member Aisha Chughtai, in her first term, and Nasri Warsame.
As Chughtai’s supporters took to the stage, backers of Warsame began shouting objections. In events captured on video by Minneapolis blogger John Edwards that quickly gained national attention, a group of Warsame supporters stormed the stage while scuffles broke out on the floor.
The convention was abruptly ended and technically remains in recess, according to a party official.
Several people went to the hospital or sought medical attention for non-life-threatening injuries, ranging from a possible concussion to a shoulder injury when one woman tried to stop a female Warsame supporter from shoving a table off the stage. No arrests have been made.
A host of officials and participants — including Chughtai, Warsame, Council President Andrea Jenkins and her opponent Soren Stevenson, state DFL Chair Ken Martin and Minneapolis DFL Chair Briana Rose Lee — have issued statements condemning what happened.
Why did it happen?
A number of Warsame supporters didn’t understand the sometimes quirky proceedings for a political convention, according to several people present. The fact that many of them spoke only Somali didn’t help.
“The main thing, I believe, was the language barrier,” Warsame said in an interview Monday. “Elders who came down, because of the language barrier, were in tears. They felt the process was not fair.”
Many of those elders, as well as others supporting Warsame, went to the convention in hopes they could cast a vote for him even though they hadn’t signed up in advance to be voting delegates, according to Warsame and Lee.
Under the convention’s rules, some people in that situation can be elevated to become delegates, and some were. But not all of them.
Lee, who was present at the convention but wasn’t running it, said Monday that Warsame’s supporters were intentionally misled about the process by Abshir Omar, the candidate’s campaign manager, “which led to a lot of mistrust.”
Lee noted that Omar served as political director on Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign in Iowa, “so it’s hard for me to believe he doesn’t understand the caucus system and can’t accurately explain that to his supporters.”
Omar could not be reached for comment Monday, and Warsame declined to comment on Lee’s accusation against Omar. In a Facebook post, Warsame said Omar was assaulted in the melee and added: “We deeply regret the unexpected and unfortunate events.”
Lee said that while unruly behavior, intimidation and violence must be condemned, she doesn’t blame Warsame’s supporters for being upset.
“If I felt like my vote was being taken from me I would be angry, too, but that isn’t what was happening,” she said.
Why so out of control?
Warsame, wearing a gray suit, can be seen in the video leaning against a wall by himself — arms crossed or hands in pockets — as his supporters begin to storm the stage. At one point, he begins recording the mayhem with his cellphone. At least three minutes pass before he goes to the stage, raises his arms and tries to calm his supporters — to little avail.
Warsame said Monday that he had been trying to assuage his supporters for some time, but eventually felt powerless to stop them.
“Things got out of hand,” he said. “I tried to talk to them but they felt unheard. At some point, there’s nothing you can do.”
What’s next?
The DFL could decide to resume the 10th Ward convention — in person or virtually — or it could abandon the endorsement process. The latter option is frowned upon by many, since it could send the message that disrupting a convention can succeed.
Nothing yet has been decided, Lee said. “The state executive committee will determine the next steps,” she said.
That meeting, scheduled for Thursday, will also feature a proposal by Martin, the state party chair.
“I will be proposing a bylaw to ban individuals engaged in violent assaults from the DFL Party and will then take immediate action to remove the folks involved in Ward 10,” he tweeted.
Staff writer Faiza Mahamud contributed to this story.
Twin Amur tigers born at Como Zoo in August now have names — Marisa and Maks.
Two long-time volunteers who have worked with zookeepers to care for and teach the public about the zoo’s big cats came up with the names, the first to be born at the St. Paul zoo in more than 40 years.
Marisa, a name that the volunteers found to mean “spirited and tenacious,” call that a perfect reflection of her personality. The name also carries special significance for the Como Zoo community, as it honors a retired zookeeper of the same name who was instrumental in the care of large cats during her 43 years at the zoo, Como Zoo and Conservatory Director Michelle Furrer said.
The male cub has been named Maks, which is associated with meanings like “the greatest” or “strength and leadership.” The volunteers felt this was an apt description of the male cub’s confident demeanor and growing sense of leadership, Furrer said.
“Marisa and Maks aren’t just names; they’re a fun reminder of the passion and care that keep us committed to protecting wildlife every day,” Furrer said.
The newborns and their first-time mother, 7-year-old Bernadette, remain off view to allow for more bonding time, zoo officials said. The cubs’ father, 11-year-old Tsar, has been a Como resident since February 2019 and remains on view.
Fewer than 500 Amur tigers — also known as Siberian tigers — remain in the wild as they face critical threats from habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict, the zoo said.
Much of the wood waste in the metro area is sent to a processing site near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul, where it is stored before being burned to produce energy at the St. Paul Cogeneration plant downtown.
Cogeneration provides power to about half of downtown and was originally built to manage elm-tree waste in response to Dutch elm disease. The plant burns approximately 240,000 tons of wood each year, according to Michael Auger, senior vice president of District Energy in St. Paul.
Jim Calkins, a certified landscape horticulturalist who has been involved in discussions about the problem, said he thinks using wood for energy is the most logical solution.
“The issue is, we don’t have enough facilities to be able to handle that, at least in the Twin Cities,” Calkins said. “So there has to be dollars to support transportation to get the wood to those places, or in some cases, to upgrade some of those facilities such that they are able to burn wood.”
Plans are in place to convert Koda Energy in Shakopee to burn ash wood, which could potentially handle around 40,000 tons of wood waste, but that would take around two years to establish, according to Klapperich.
In some areas of the state, cities have resorted to burning excess wood waste because they felt they had no other option. Open burning wood releases a lot of carbon into the air, Klapperich said.
Weary from the rat race nature of practicing commercial law, Danielle Miller had long dreamed of starting a new professional life as a bookstore owner. When the Lincoln, Neb., resident saw a space at St. Paul’s Union Depot, she moved to make her dream a reality. She and her husband now call the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood home.
Eye On St. Paul recently visited with Miller in her sun-drenched store, Story Line Books, to talk about what spurred her to leave the law behind and lose herself in shelves of books. This interview was edited for length.
Q: So, you’ve opened a bookstore, in Lowertown. Are you a little crazy?
A: That’s been the reaction. There’s been a lot of “Really? Lowertown?” There’s been a lot of that. It’s a little unnerving.
Q: Why decide to just up and move to St. Paul?
A: We travel a lot; we travel all over the world. And we go to bookstores. We were here visiting [my husband’s] parents in Woodbury, and we drove down Randolph because we like to eat at Due Focacceria. And we saw this building that had “For Sale” on it. It was a 900-square-foot retail spot on the bottom and an apartment above. And I was like, that is the European bookstore dream, right? I looked it up online, but it got scooped up. A week later, I was looking again and this [Union Depot space] was the first post.
I was immediately in love. The next time we were up here, we made arrangements to come and see it. And I told my husband, “You should probably get a job in St Paul.”
Q: Back up a few steps. Why this compulsion to open a bookstore when you were a working attorney?
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