Star Tribune
Iron Range’s mini Carnegie Hall hosts its last concert
DULUTH — When Goodman Auditorium opened at Virginia High School — decades before it was named for the school doctor and his arts aficionado wife — the 1,500-seat performance venue was celebrated for its genuine Hartford Saxony carpeting, the chandeliers with easy-to-replace bulbs, and its 50,000 cubic feet of fresh air.
“The decoration was done by artists in Chicago,” reads a program from the first concert held there in May 1920. “The colors are not gaudy but harmonious and in good taste.”
The venue that has been likened to a mini Carnegie Hall hosts its final concert “A Farewell to Goodman Auditorium” at 7 p.m. Saturday in Virginia, Minn. The performance will feature community vocal groups, alumni and student musicians and the world premiere of René Clausen’s four-movement symphony “Mesabi: The Sleeping Giant,” inspired by Iron Range history — from glaciers to immigration to mining.
Bassoon player Mary Peterson, who has played with the Mesabi Symphony Orchestra since it started in the 1970s — aside from a 5-year hiatus when she had a young child — can vouch for the power of the new piece based on rehearsals.
“The music moved me to tears,” she said.
Beyond Sheila Wilcox’s work as the district’s orchestra director, the space holds personal memories. Her sons are among the many musical theater students who have signed a wall backstage after a performance. But after 100 years, the sound is unpredictable, the lights don’t always work, there are obstructed sight lines and plumbing issues, she said.
“It will be closure for our community,” Wilcox said of the final performance. “We’re looking forward to the future.”
The future is Rock Ridge, a school district that merges students from Eveleth-Gilbert and Virginia into two new elementary schools, one that is active and another that will open in 2024. The students shift to the new high school at the start of the 2023-24 school year. Its new auditorium has features that surpass the aged Goodman. An acoustician was hired to consult on the project, Wilcox said.
Goodman Auditorium has been a home venue for countless student productions, the Mesabi Symphony Orchestra, Arrowhead Concert Association and more. World renowned American pianist Van Cliburn, violinist Isaac Stern, long-running Western singers Sons of Pioneers, the real von Trapp children, and bass-baritone Spiro Malas are among the acts that have performed on its stage.
The old high school, including Goodman Auditorium, are scheduled to be razed later this year. If Virginia High School alum Mark Eskola has his way, at least some of it will live on. The retired orchestra director, who worked briefly at his alma mater and finished his career at Duluth East, is part of a rehabilitation project at the Alhambra Theater, an old West Duluth vaudeville stage.
While playing cello at Goodman Auditorium recently, Eskola noticed the fruit and vine plaster around the proscenium stage. He’s hoping to include that in his construction project and has emailed the school district’s superintendent.
“I think it’s fun to keep the legacy of the Goodman Auditorium,” he said.
Star Tribune
Former Hubbard County official, school bus driver gets six-year sentence for sex crimes against students
A former Hubbard County commissioner and school bus driver was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for sex crimes involving minors.
Daniel J. Stacey, 60, was charged in April 2023 with criminal sexual conduct and electronic solicitation of a minor, both felonies, in Beltrami County District Court. He was then charged in November with nine additional felony counts related to criminal sexual contact with a minor.
Stacey pleaded guilty in June to four felony counts as part of a plea deal that dropped the remaining charges. His attorney, Joseph Tamburino, declined to comment Friday on the sentence, and officials with the Nevis school district did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.
Stacey resigned from the Hubbard County Board in January 2023 and was placed on leave from his school bus job during an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) that began after the parent of a Nevis student filed a complaint.
In an email Friday, Hubbard County Administrator Jeffrey Cadwell said he had no comment other than that Stacey’s actions “did not occur within the course and scope of his duties with the County and the County was completely unaware of them.”
According to a criminal complaint, Stacey offered to mentor a 13-year-old male on his bus route. He brought the boy to his property, asked him to watch pornography and tried to touch him in a sexual manner, court documents state.
The boy told investigators that Stacey told him not to tell anyone, and helped him rehearse what to say about doing chores at his property. Investigators said they found footage showing times Stacey would deactivate the school bus camera when the boy was the only student left on the bus.
A second criminal complaint outlines similar allegations against Stacey with a minor who was 14 years old.
Star Tribune
Woman charged as investigation into attack on north Minneapolis homeless shelter continues
A 33-year-old woman has been charged with two felonies in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced 54 women and children to relocate last week.
Eureka D. Riser, 33, of Minneapolis, is charged with second-degree rioting with a dangerous weapon and first-degree damage to property, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. She was in custody Friday, a day after Minneapolis police confirmed her arrest.
Riser, also known as Eureka Willis, is alleged to have been in a group of at least three people who on Sept. 5 went to St. Anne’s Place, 2634 Russell Av. N., and threatened residents, smashing doors with a baseball bat.
Residents were forced to vacate the shelter, leaving it boarded with plywood and watched over by armed security. Building managers estimate that property damage amounts to more than $10,000, according to the county attorney’s office. Additional charges may be brought against others involved.
“This violent attack on some of our most vulnerable community members, unhoused women and children, in a place where they had gone to seek shelter and safety cannot be tolerated,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.
Hoang Murphy, the CEO of People Serving People, which operates the shelter, said earlier this week that the four-hour episode was the culmination of an argument between shelter residents and neighbors over street parking that started days earlier and spilled over into violence.
According to the criminal complaint, which cites surveillance footage, Riser allegedly swung a baseball bat against the shelter’s doors, shattering glass while residents were inside. Another member of the group pointed what appears to be a gun at the front door of the building, the complaint says.
Residents have since been relocated to a hotel for safety reasons, costing People Serving People $9,000 a night — a figure that Murphy called unsustainable.
Star Tribune
6 months in jail for man shot by Minnesota deputies while resisting arrest
A man who was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies in east-central Minnesota while resisting arrest received a six-month jail term Friday.
Leo H. Hacker, 71, was sentenced in Pine County District Court in connection with his guilty plea in two cases of assault, and obstructing and fleeing law enforcement in connection with his clashes with deputies in February 2023.
Hacker’s sentences will be served concurrently and includes Judge Jason Steffen setting aside a three-year sentence sought by the County Attorney’s Office. Steffen’s terms also include five years’ probation and community work service.
According to the charges in each case and related court documents:
On Feb. 21, deputies tried to pull over Hacker’s pickup truck on a gravel road about a mile from his Pine City home. As two deputies approached his vehicle, he drove toward them. Both deputies opened fire on Hacker and wounded him.
Hacker was wanted at the time on charges of second-degree assault and obstructing law enforcement in connection with allegations that he pointed a gun at a deputy outside his home on Feb. 14 and angrily defied orders to drop the weapon.
At one point, Hacker warned the deputies that if they did not leave, he would return with “something bigger,” the charges quoted him as saying.
The deputy was there to seize Hacker’s SUV stemming from a dispute over his unpaid attorney fees, the charges read. However, law enforcement outside the home “determined that based on the totality of circumstances, it was in the interest of safety to leave the scene at that time” and instead seek a warrant for Hacker’s arrest, the criminal complaint continued.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings