Star Tribune
DFL leaders approve party rule changes in wake of Minneapolis ward convention fracas
DFL Party leaders unanimously backed a plan Thursday to sanction anyone who incites or engages in violence at a party event, a move to contain the fallout from a weekend Minneapolis ward convention that descended into chaos.
Then they immediately sanctioned the candidate at the center of it.
At an emergency evening meeting of the DFL’s executive committee, which included testimony from people caught up in last Saturday’s violence, members unanimously approved a plan by Chair Ken Martin to give the party the ability to punish violent behavior, all but permanently banning from participation anyone found to have engaged in it.
Next, the committee unanimously voted to ban Minneapolis City Council candidate Nasri Warsame — whose supporters stormed the stage at the convention — from ever receiving a DFL endorsement. The ban is contingent on the party’s central committee ratifying the new policy.
The party does not have the authority to ban Warsame from running for office, Martin said.
Warsame wasn’t available for comment late Thursday.
Martin’s plan would authorize the party to bar anyone found to have engaged in violent behavior from seeking the DFL endorsement, and prohibit them from holding any party or convention position.
“The melee that took place at the Ward 10 endorsing convention last weekend was unacceptable,” Martin said in introducing his plan. “If we don’t act now it will certainly embolden this behavior as a new tactic moving forward.”
Committee member Brian Hansen proposed an alternate measure that would tackle head-on tensions within the party over the influence of its most progressive members. It would ban anyone from running a convention who had worked for a candidate endorsement by a group other than the DFL.
The proposal appeared to target DFLers who are openly affiliated with Democratic Socialist groups, but it might also affect more mainstream Democrats, such as union members. That proposal was referred to a separate committee.
The DFL’s executive committee includes the state party’s top leaders and a host of other Democratic Party officials, totaling dozens of people from across Minnesota.
Warsame campaign targeted
There was never a question that Warsame’s campaign for the 10th Ward council seat was the ultimate target of the rule changes.
“Based on the evidence we have gathered from an in-depth investigation, from numerous conversations with convention officials, local party leaders, delegates and guests, as well as a preponderance of video evidence from multiple sources, it is clear to us that the supporters of the Warsame campaign were mainly responsible for the conflict that erupted,” Martin said.
He said the investigation hadn’t yet been completed, so he wasn’t prepared “right now” to single out other individuals.
The chaos, which was captured on a widely viewed video by a local blogger, broke out as Warsame’s opponent, Council Member Aisha Chughtai, took the stage with her supporters to address convention attendees.
Several DFL officials have said they believe that many of Warsame’s supporters honestly — if erroneously — believed their voices were being unfairly ignored. But some local officials have also blamed Warsame’s campaign manager, Abshir Omar, for misleading them.
Warsame has said he doesn’t condone violence or intimidation, but he left a news conference Wednesday without answering questions. In a previous interview with the Star Tribune, he said he felt he could no longer control some of his supporters who were upset by feeling excluded.
Without providing evidence, Omar on Wednesday blamed a Chughtai supporter for starting the fracas, and he denied any responsibility on the part of the campaign.
He struck a less combative tone Thursday when addressing his DFL peers at the emergency meeting, which was held virtually. Omar, who served as political director for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign in Iowa and once ran for elected office there, called the chaos “atrocious” and said he was sorry about what happened. But he maintained the party had failed to address the campaign’s concerns.
Convention officials speak
Before the committee moved to a closed session, Samuel Doten, who presided over the ward convention and tried unsuccessfully to maintain order, said during the video conference that he supported Martin’s measures. “They meet the moment,” he said.
But Doten, who has chaired several party events, added: “I would encourage everyone to be judicious in the application because these bylaws … open a door, and potentially they could be abused.”
Doten also addressed a concern that worried many in the DFL. Warsame’s supporters who stormed the stage were largely Somali immigrants, he said, but they shouldn’t be used to disparage the entire community, which is increasingly influential in DFL politics.
“What we saw last Saturday — the behavior of some people — was not representative of all the supporters of Nasri Warsame, certainly not representative of the Somali community,” he said.
Doten emphasized that he believed some “five to 10 individuals” were to blame for inciting the disruption.
Members also heard from Amy Livingston, who worked as sergeant at arms during the convention and suffered a torn rotator cuff.
“I saw a few folks who were clearly leaders with Nasri Warsame campaign waving their arms to urge people to go forward,” she said. “I’m only 5-foot-3. Suddenly my arm was being pushed backwards like it was a turnstile. It was a terrifying experience.”
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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