Star Tribune
Developers sue Lino Lakes over alleged discrimination for treatment of “Madinah Lakes” proposal
The developers behind a fiercely-debated “Muslim-friendly” housing development in Lino Lakes sued the city and two of its council members on Tuesday in federal court, alleging that anti-Muslim discrimination was behind the decision to enact a moratorium that delayed the project.
The suit was filed by developers Faraaz Yussuf and Jameel Ahmed, along with their company Zikar Holdings LLC. It names the city and Council Members Michael Ruhland and Christopher Lyden as defendants. Speaking to reporters outside of U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, attorney Sam Diehl said his clients were treated unfairly because the proposal contained a mosque, and said he believes there would not have been opposition if the project was centered around a different place of worship such as a church.
“My clients have received blatantly discriminatory treatment and there’s been a pattern of unlawful behavior by the City Council and the city of Lino Lakes,” Diehl said.
In an email, spokeswoman Meg Sawyer said the city declined to comment. Ruhland and Lyden did not respond to email and phone requests for comment.
“The matter has been referred to legal counsel and the City has no comment at this time,” Sawyer said.
The project in question, “Madinah Lakes,” would bring an estimated 1,200 to 1,300 new homeowners and renters on the site of an old sod farm in Lino Lakes, and was hotly debated since it was introduced this spring. It would also contain a mosque.
Hundreds of opponents and supporters for the project showed up at a series of public meetings, with opponents saying they had legitimate concerns about the project’s impacts on local infrastructure and water use. Supporters of the project, including many Muslim community members, alleged that the opposition was rooted in Islamophobia. To slow the project, the council voted 4-1 to enact a one-year moratorium on residential building in the northwest quadrant of the city. It does not prevent building the project’s mosque or shopping components.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs say the city, and Ruhland and Lyden, were “personally motivated by discriminatory animus against Muslims.” It alleges that the city treated this proposal differently and unfairly based on the religion as protected in the Constitution.
Under the dimmed lights of coach Drew Potter’s classroom, the three dozen football players of Staples-Motley — many of them sporting bleached hair in a show of solidarity — watched game tape on Wednesday afternoon. The coach, in his dark-framed glasses and Adidas shoes, peppered his speech with vintage Dad jokes, references to John Mellencamp and Drowning Pool lyrics, and a line from “Karate Kid.”
But they listened as he spoke about assignments against Chatfield.
“Other towns have very good athletes, too,” Potter said. “But we prepare. Right now, we’re in the classroom.”
In the corner, a collage of newspapers from the ‘88 season. In Potter’s first year, the team didn’t win a game. Last year, when they reached the playoffs, the local paper didn’t put them on the front page. Now, Potter said, they’re splashed all over it.
It’s a recognition that the towns are behind them.
Poring over a copy of the Staples-Motley Athletic Hall of Fame annual, booster Mike Hajek notes the district’s lineage runs deep, with legacies in cross-country, tennis and wrestling. The retired longtime Minnesota Twins broadcaster Dick Bremer, a graduate of Staples, hasn’t even been inducted yet. But Superintendent Shane Tappe, whose son is on the team, noted this year’s cumulative GPA of the volleyball team. The activities director noted the prowess of the speech team.
Star Tribune
Slower ballot processing, expectation of instant results fodder for vote-count skeptics
“A very large amount of absentee ballots dropped off at cities tonight is causing a delay in our reporting,” read an Anoka County statement on election night. “We want our results to be 100% complete instead of releasing a partial count. It could be a couple of more hours.”
In years past, absentee ballots had to be received by 3 p.m. Election Day, but this year, the deadline was moved to 8 p.m. People who waited to return their absentee ballots until Election Day had five extra hours, meaning less time for the election officials opening envelopes, checking to make sure signatures on the envelopes matched those of the registered voter, and double-checking with partisan absentee ballot judges, and finally feeding ballots into vote-counting machines.
On Wednesday, Scott County election officials explained they would recount all 21,000 ballots from the House District 54A. DFL Rep. Brad Tabke holds a 14-vote lead in the race, and if Republican Aaron Paul prevailed in the recount, it would give Republicans control of the state House. Scott County will also audit Shakopee’s 10th Precinct to figure out why it had a record of receiving 20 more ballots than it has a record of counting.
A few people in attendance asked questions.
How are ballots counted? Who is in the room? Who can observe what officials do when they find something amiss and have to count again? Will the recount be open for the public to observe?
Shakopee Mayor Matt Lehman said he was glad for the scrutiny on elections.
A: Well, if I’m doing a book like “Lost [Twin Cities],” I’m researching a lot of different places. I’m looking at old newspapers, old magazines. I’m looking at architects and architectural styles, looking at the history of how things were developing in downtown Minneapolis or St Paul. When I do research for one of my novels, I did one called “Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders,” I’ll research things like the Winter Carnival. It’s set in 1896, and I was hoping I could use a real ice palace. But turns out, the 1896 Ice Palace, melted before it was done. So, I made up an ice palace.
You’ll find the name of a certain well-known person who was in town. And you start digging into that, seeing if you can maybe insert them into the book. I insert a lot of real people into my books. James J. Hill is in a lot. I look for real places and people to incorporate into the novel to make it feel more real.
After Texas woman’s murder, detectives learn killer was “only half of the story”
Trump defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth was probed for alleged sexual assault in 2017
Small Minnesota school heads to first football semi-finals in decades
After Texas woman’s murder, detectives learn killer was “only half of the story”