Star Tribune
Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly shut down Lowry tunnel on I-94
Interstate 94 closed for about an hour at the Lowry Hill tunnel in Minneapolis, after pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic across eastbound lanes of the busy thoroughfare during Monday’s evening commute.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation asked drivers to take alternate routes for a “police incident” about 5:20 p.m. “Expect long delays,” MnDOT said.
Video of the protest obtained by the Star Tribune shows at least 18 vehicles with Palestinian flags sticking out windows as they blocked all lanes of eastbound traffic and slowly entered the tunnel while honking horns.
State Patrol cars then zoom up on the right shoulder to stop the convoy as it enters the tunnel, the video shows.
Troopers arrested eight people and issued two citations “in and around” the tunnel during the incident, State Patrol Lt. Jill Frankfurth posted on X.
Arrests included five for alleged impeding traffic, one on suspicion of fleeing police in a vehicle and one for possession of a firearm without a permit. One teenager was taken to juvenile detention for alleged fleeing in a vehicle.
The citations were also for alleged impeding traffic.
Flat-bed and tow trucks were used to remove eight vehicles and three trailers from the scene after they were stopped by police inside the tunnel. Traffic had returned to normal after about an hour.
About a dozen people also stood on the pedestrian bridge spanning Hennepin and Lyndale avenues and waved Palestinian flags, while others stood on Hennepin Avenue doing the same.
Israel faces international outrage after its military offensive has killed more than 17,700 Palestinians in Gaza, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory, the Associated Press reported. The offensive began after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed an estimated 1,200 people and resulted in hundreds being taken hostage.
Star Tribune
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on the campaign trial, gives a pep talk to the Mankato West High School Scarlets, a team he once coached.
MANKATO – The football players in their pads jogged out to face their rivals Friday night as Gov. Tim Walz, back home briefly as he campaigns across the country as vice presidential nominee, cheered them on.
“Don’t forget to have fun, enjoy,” Walz told players on the football team at Mankato West High School, where he worked as a geography teacher and assistant football coach before launching a political career that carried him to the Democratic Party’s national ticket.
Since choosing Walz as her running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has touted his background as a football coach, hunter and gun owner, as Democrats reach out to Midwestern voters and look for inroads with men.
Walz’s stop in Mankato is one of a series of media stops in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the governor is talking high school football and hunting.
“This is the best of America,” Walz told reporters after greeting the players of Mankato West ahead of their rivalry game with Mankato East. He said he would visit his old classroom, before heading to watch the game.
A quarter center ago, Walz was the assistant defensive football coach for the 1999 Mankato West football team that won the state championship. That year’s crosstown rivalry game was a spark for Mankato West as it headed toward its state championship, said John Considine, a Mankato West alum and right tackle on that 1999 Class 4A championship team.
“It’s good to have him back,” Considine said Friday.
Local Republicans called Walz’s appearance a stunt. “They’re getting desperate to get the word out,” said Yvonne Simon, chair of the Blue Earth County GOP, adding she’s doesn’t think the governor’s “coach” branding is catching on.
Star Tribune
Longtime owner of Gunflint Lodge dies at 85
“There’s a fair amount of stuff we’ve digested over the years,” Kerfoot told the Star Tribune at the time of the sale. “It’ll take a while to pick all of it out of me.”
In recent years, he and Sue have spent summers in Minnesota and then traveled back to Missouri to be close to family for the rest of the year.
Visitors love to drop in and talk about Justine Kerfoot or Bruce Kerfoot or the years they spent working at the lodge, Fredrikson said. He’s found that Bruce’s energy seemingly matched that of his mother, who died in 2001 when she was 94.
“He was one of those people that was able to get stuff done more easily or better than other people,” Fredrikson said. “Maybe because of who he was, or maybe because the stars align for this kind of person.”
In a social media post, Kerfoot’s family said they had peace knowing he and his mother “were paddling together to their shore lunch spot.”
Mark Hennessy knew Kerfoot for 40 years, but has had a closer view for the past three years. He said without Kerfoot, the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, located near the end of the Gunflint Trail, wouldn’t exist. Whenever there was a work project, the executive director said, Kerfoot would show up.
Star Tribune
Motorcyclist, 17, killed in collision with SUV in Burnsville
A teenage motorcyclist was killed in a collision with an SUV at a Burnsville intersection, officials said Friday.
The crash occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Burnsville Parkway and Interstate 35W, police said.
The motorcyclist was identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office as Peter Vsevolod Genis, 17, of Burnsville.
An SUV driver was turning left from westbound Burnsville Parkway to northbound 35W when Genis went through a red light while heading east and struck the SUV.
The SUV driver and a woman with him, both from Burnsville, were not hurt.
The other vehicle was a Mercedes SUV. The driver was a 30-year-old male from Burnsville, with a 29-year-old female passenger from Burnsville. Neither of them was injured.