Star Tribune
Minnesota Senate race will determine balance for next two years
Kathleen Fowke, a Republican candidate running for Minnesota State Senate District 45, places literature in a door handle as she campaigns in Long Lake on Wednesday. Olivia Osgerby, a volunteer with Fowke’s campaign, watches from the bottom of the steps. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
For a dozen years, Fowke has been married to Ben Fowke, the former CEO of Xcel Energy whose compensation exceeded $20 million in each of his final four years. Fowke said she remains connected to her modest roots as a working-class kid and a divorced single mom of two struggling to feed her kids and pay the heating bill.
She started her career as a cosmetologist before launching a landscaping business, then getting her license to sell real estate. She recalls the crash of 2008 as an especially tough time. She faces no such struggles now, having loaned her two campaigns $500,000 so far.
“Nobody owns me,” Fowke said. As for her ties to Xcel, Fowke said, the company has been a leader in green energy and that her husband is well aware she has a mind of her own. She notes that the election is for the remaining two years of Morrison’s term, not a full four years. “Put me in there for two years and let me see what I can do,” she said.
Johnson Stewart, 60, of Minnetonka, already served two years. She was elected to the Senate in 2020 and because of redistricting, she ended up paired with Morrison and didn’t seek re-election in 2022. She’s running to keep the status quo, a DFL Senate majority capable of pushing through a stream of progressive policies.
She talks about protecting reproductive rights and making college more affordability, noting that when she got her degree from the University of Wisconsin in Platteville, tuition was $600 a semester. “It changes people’s lives but they can’t do it if they can’t afford it,” Johnson Stewart said.
The 2023 DFL-controlled Legislature passed the North Star Promise program that provides free college tuition at state and tribal colleges and universities for families earning less than $80,000 in federally adjusted gross income, alleviating the stress for working-class kids. “We’re letting students be students,” Johnson Stewart said.
A man was fatally shot in St. Paul’s North End neighborhood Saturday night, according to police, marking the city’s 21st homicide of the year.
St. Paul Police responded to reports of a person shot at an area near the intersection of Wheelock Parkway and Woodbridge Street around 10 p.m. Saturday. They found a man with gunshot wounds lying on the ground near the intersection.
St. Paul Police aided the man until St. Paul Fire Department medics arrived. The man was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at Regions Hospital.
Police are seeking information that could help identify what happened and who is responsible. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office will identify the victim.
Some people called 911 after a loved one overdosed. Others are struggling with anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Still others wanted help convincing their teenagers to go to school.
No matter the circumstances, the Bloomington Police Department has a new goal: to get them a therapy appointment within one to two days of their call.
“I don’t know of another agency in the country that is doing this,” Police Chief Booker Hodges said.
After George Floyd’s murder in 2020 provoked an international debate on policing, some departments boosted their efforts to partner with social workers. Other cities, such as Minneapolis, contracted with community organizations to send mental health experts to some 911 calls.
The Bloomington Police Department hired two licensed marriage and family therapists to meet with people for free in their homes, at the local government center or virtually in telehealth appointments. It’s since brought on two interns from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota to help boost the division and supply students with the clinical hours they need to graduate. The therapists work to help stabilize people in crisis, with the goal of getting them into long-term therapy, if it’s needed.
“Once somebody is in crisis, we have to strike while the iron is hot to get them to engage in services,” said Luke Campbell, the therapist who oversees Bloomington Community Brain Health Services.
But doing that was often simpler said than done. The city estimates that 4,200 residents are uninsured, and even people who are insured often told police they faced wait times of eight to 10 weeks to see a therapist.
In the first seven months of the pilot program, the therapists received 44 referrals from police officers, the social workers who already partner with officers, or local schools. The program is meant to be a short-term solution that helps people until they can get into longer-term treatment.
Two hikers who reported they were lost in Bear Head Lake State Park Saturday were located in a remote area with the help of a drone, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said.
One hiker called 911 after 6 p.m., but deputies had trouble making contact because of bad cell phone service, according to a sheriff’s office news release. Law enforcement obtained GPS coordinates that showed the caller’s location at the time of the call. The hiker called 911 a second time and told dispatch there was a second hiker.
Bear Head Lake State Park is located between Tower and Ely. The hikers were not local and unfamiliar with the park.
Deputies found the hikers in a “very remote area” using a drone, the news release said. Members of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad helped lead the hikers out of the woods. The two were not equipped to spend the night outside, but neither needed medical attention.
Rep. Maxwell Frost says Congress should return “as soon as possible” to replenish relief funds
Full interview: Speaker Mike Johnson on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”
Open: This is “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Oct. 13, 2024
Rep. Maxwell Frost says Congress should return “as soon as possible” to replenish relief funds
Full interview: Speaker Mike Johnson on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”