Star Tribune
Motorcycle training classes seek to increase safety, reduce fatalities
Chris Hawkey loves hopping on his motorcycle and going for a ride.
“I enjoy the freedom of being on a motorcycle,” said Hawkey, the co-host of KFAN Radio’s “Power Trip Morning Show” and a local country music performer. “I love the speed and all the crazy things about it.”
Hawkey also knows he takes a risk every time he hits the road.
“It’s the most dangerous thing I do every day,” he said. “I have to depend on everybody else paying attention to me, and I know that is not happening. I have to pay attention for both of us.”
Though he’s been riding motorcycles for more than 40 years, Hawkey knows he needs to keep his riding skills sharp. On a recent Sunday, he took a refresher class offered by the Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Center that, since the 1980s, has been offering courses for riders of all abilities, from novices to experts. The hands-on courses cover everything from braking, stopping, counter-steering, making tight or U-turns and how to control the bike in traffic. Some classes include online modules.
Riding coach Lara Holland said classes allow riders “to brush up on motorcycle skills.”
The push to get riders to enroll comes as motorcycle deaths in Minnesota hit 29 for the year as of last Wednesday and are on pace to surpass the 82 who died in 2022, the most in 38 years. The safety center’s mission is to prevent motorcycle deaths and injuries by providing rider education, training and licensing
Hawkey recently bought a new Harley Davidson Pan America, which rides quite a bit differently from his old Road King. It also has been nearly 30 years since he took a riding class, and he knew it was time.
“The worst thing you can do when you are a motorcycle rider is become overconfident,” Hawkey said before his class in the Hennepin Technical College parking lot. “I think it is a good idea, even for people who have been riding for a long time. You are learning things that will make you safer on the road. I will come out of here feeling that I am a better motorcycle rider.”
Malfunction sidelines pride-themed bus
For the first time ever, Metro Transit wrapped one of its buses with pride-themed artwork and put it in service on several routes during June. The bus also was widely featured on social media.
The agency planned to showcase the bus during the Twin Cities Pride parade June 30. But an unexpected malfunction discovered the night before the parade idled the bus. Technicians worked through the night in hopes of having it ready but were unsuccessful, said Metro Transit spokesman Drew Kerr
“Unfortunately, repairs could not be completed in time and an alternative bus was used,” he said. “This was a disappointment for us, and we have offered our regrets to Pride leadership.”
Metro Transit assumed the cost of wrapping the bus as part of a promotional exchange with Twin Cities Pride, Kerr said. He did not provide a cost.
Two local men died last week as a result of crashes while riding their motorcycles, the State Patrol said.
Ross Anthony Stensrud, 61, of Rochester was killed Thursday evening when his motorcycle went off the highway south of St. Charles, Minn. According to the State Patrol, Stensrud was northbound on Hwy. 74 near Park Road when the accident happened shortly after 6 p.m.
The road was dry but alcohol was said to have been involved. Stensrud was not wearing a helmet.
Kaeden Devon Price, 19, of Minneapolis, died Tuesday of multiple blunt force injuries after crashing into a pickup truck on Interstate 35W on the afternoon of Sept. 24. The State Patrol said Price, who was wearing a helmet, was speeding on his motorcycle when he sideswiped one vehicle and rear-ended the pickup.
The accident happened near E. 36th Street in Minneapolis. No one else was hurt in the crash.
Minneapolis police are boosting patrols around synagogues and Jewish community centers during the ongoing High Holy Days, amid a global rise in anti-Semitic threats and violence.
“I am concerned with all the hateful rhetoric that is online,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Saturday at a City Hall news conference. “I am concerned that there could be a lone actor out there that could see something online and be inspired to commit an act of violence in our community.”
Already police have arrested a man on suspicion of making terroristic threats for reportedly carrying a gun outside Temple Israel in Minneapolis last week — and authorities say the 21-year-old had previously called in threats to shoot up the synagogue using a voice-masking app.
The man has not yet been charged for the incident which occurred during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that began at sundown Thursday. The holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, starts Friday and ends Saturday.
O’Hara said that a gun has not been recovered and that police didn’t have evidence “to suggest that this incident was anti-Semitic in nature or motivated by hateful bias.” He said there were no ongoing direct threats to which the increased patrols are responding.
However, he said, “the police department has been seeing an enhanced level of threats towards our Jewish community over the last year,” and is especially mindful of the impending anniversary Monday of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists that killed nearly 1,200 people.
Mayor Jacob Frey, who is Jewish, said he was at Temple Israel with his wife during Rosh Hashanah.
“We all have an obligation here not just to act with peace, but to encourage peace from our neighbors, regardless of what happens around the world,” he said.
Star Tribune
Nine years after his murder, Barway Collins returns to a community that won’t forget him
Gary Hines, music director for the Grammy award-winning group Sounds of Blackness, played “Tears in Heaven” as the family sang. Barway’s sister Lulu, 2, babbled through the harmonies, saying “Hi” to her brother’s statue before hugging and kissing it.
For Hines, celebrating Collins’ life represents Sounds of Blackness’ mission to connect communities through music.
“I would hope that the unity in the community that we see right here, at this beautiful memorial event and service, would be sustained — would proliferate from community to the cities, state and nation,” he said.
Barway’s death has haunted Keith Demmings for years. The 61-year-old bus driver often thinks about what could have been done to prevent his death, and about what his son could learn from Barway’s life. Demmings said he hopes more adults will watch out for and care about youth in the community.
Barway “could have been a basketball player. He could have been a senator or something. He could have been the president of the United States, but we were robbed of that,” Demmings said. “I feel that our youth are being cheated. We can’t just brush it off, we need to be more involved … [in] raising our kids.”
