Star Tribune
Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis opens new Welcome Center
Inside a grand, new two-story building at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, a book group gathered this week.
It was an unusual place for friends to meet and discuss their latest long read. But book groups, concerts and other casual gatherings are some of the non-traditional uses that cemetery leaders are encouraging in Lakewood’s new eco-friendly Welcome Center, which they celebrated with a ribbon cutting Wednesday afternoon.
With office space for cemetery staff, the new center will serve as a modern place for people to make final arrangements — complete with video calling to include loved ones who live far away — and hold memorial services. But Lakewood officials said they also want it to feel like it’s part of the community, and they hope it will help make death a little less taboo.
“We want to change the narrative around how people view death,” cemetery president Chris Makowske said. “We want a place like Lakewood to be able to do that and be a place of remembrance.”
The modern 25,000-square-foot building with narrow columns and stone-tiled walls sits at the entrance of the sprawling cemetery on W. 36th Street and Hennepin Avenue, on the shores of Lake Harriet and Bde Maka Ska.
The building is expected to receive “net zero” certification with its geothermal system and rooftop solar panels. Makowske declined to disclose its price tag, but said it was funded with donations to the nonprofit.
Molly Rice, of Edina, came to the ribbon cutting Wednesday to get her first glimpse of the building’s sleek interior community space, with it’s tall windows and high ceiling open to a second floor balcony. She said she has been going to Lakewood a couple times a year for 45 years, ever since her brother died of a brain aneurysm at age 10.
“I love that they’re opening their doors and inviting people in,” Rice said. “This building is so much more in tune with serving families.”
The building replaces a 1920s-era administration building, which will be repurposed, officials have said.
While space in the center can be reserved for large groups and events, community members are welcome to wander in, said Julia Gillis, the cemetery’s director of marketing and outreach: “This Welcome Center is our way of saying ‘You are welcomed here.'”
Star Tribune
What a federal government shutdown would mean for Minnesota
Minnesota National Guard personnel in active duty status still have to report to work to maintain military operations, but part-time members and their units will not conduct previously scheduled training, drills or exercises during the shutdown.
More than 300 corrections officers at four federal prisons across Minnesota will be working without pay. Minnesota’s four federal district court offices would also operate as usual.
While most government benefits will continue, things like benefit verification letters, updates to earnings records and replacement of Medicare cards will have to wait until the government reopens.
The state’s one national park — Voyageurs in northern Minnesota — along with several national monuments and other sites could temporarily lose staff, but closures are decided on a case-by-case basis. The same applies to national forests, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, as well as other federal lands, including national wildlife refuges.
About a year ago, Congress narrowly averted a shutdown during a spending standoff in the House. The last time government spending lapsed and there was a partial shutdown was in December 2018 over disagreements about funding Trump’s wall on the border with Mexico.
That partial shutdown last 34 days, the longest on record, but it didn’t affect the entire government because Congress had already passed some spending bills.
Star Tribune
Trump’s words of opposition stop a bipartisan budget deal in its tracks with Musk’s help
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” he wrote. He also called it ‘’one of the worst bills ever written.‘’
Sometimes Musk amplified false claims, such as the idea that the legislation included $3 billion for a new football stadium in Washington. In reality, the legislation would transfer ownership of the land from the federal government to the city, paving the way for eventual development.
Musk appeared emboldened by the experience.
‘‘The voice of the people was heard,‘’ Musk wrote. ‘’This was a good day for America.”
Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries said the fallout would be Republicans’ fault.
‘‘You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow,” he wrote on X.
Star Tribune
Man at Twin Cities jail suffers medical emergency and dies days later
A man arrested in Dakota County who exhibited “seizure-like symptoms” during jail intake died days later, according to court records and the Sheriff’s Office.
Kingsley Fifi Bimpong, 50, of Cottage Grove, was taken to the jail in Hastings on Nov. 19 on suspicision of drunken driving in Eagan, a search warrant affidavit made public Wednesday disclosed.
Sheriff Joe Leko said Thursday that Bimpong “was incoherent, and his condition deteriorated. … We rushed him to the hospital as soon as we could see that it wasn’t good.”
Leko suggested that Bimpong might have actually been affected more by whatever medical difficulty he was having at the time, rather than being intoxicated.
The sheriff said Bimpong died a few days later, and “we’re waiting on the medical examiner’s report” for a determination of what led to the death.
An affidavit was filed by Washington County Sheriff’s Office seeking permission to collect Bimpong’s medical records that might shed light on his death. The neighboring Sheriff’s Office is heading the investigation in order to avoid a conflict of interest, Leko said.
According to the affidavit:
At the jail, Bimpong was unable to complete the booking process and “was eventually noticed by correction officers as having seizure-like symptoms while in the intake waiting area.”