Star Tribune
Brooklyn Park City Council wants member to get a mental health evaluation
The Brooklyn Park City Council wants one of its members who has exhibited “disconcerting” behavior over the past year to get a mental health evaluation.
Mayor Hollies Winston at Monday’s council meeting read aloud a letter addressed to West District representative Maria Tran suggesting she take that action after she claimed that council members and city staff were plotting to have her killed and expressed an interest in bringing a gun to council meetings.
“There is a safety concern here as a council,” Winston said before reading the letter. “This is not a fun topic to address. We are not mental health professionals, but we have seen some things that are concerning to us.”
Tran was censured in June for violating the council’s code of conduct and the city’s respectful workplace policy. Following the censure, Tran, as was the case on Monday, has been absent from council meetings or has attended remotely. She has previously claimed that grievances and complaints she has brought to city leadership have not been investigated. She has also filed several police reports against staff and council members and has feared for her safety.
In a Sept. 18 email to City Manager Jay Stroebel with “Mafia in City Chamber” in the subject line, Tran said she felt her life was in danger, writing that there “was a conspiracy to shut me up” and that drug use led to a death in City Hall.
In another case, Tran filed a complaint against council member Christian Eriksen, claiming he wanted to punch her. Brooklyn Center police looked into that allegation.
“Don’t say complaints are not getting investigated, because they are,” Eriksen said at Monday’s meeting.
Tran’s behavior received heightened attention after she allegedly approached a Brooklyn Park police sergeant about getting a permit to obtain a firearm. Tran told the sergeant she needed a gun because she was concerned about being attacked by the City Council. Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said at Monday’s meeting that “paranoia” has been a theme with Tran, but he could not find any evidence to support those assertions.
The Purple Ramp at MSP Airport’s Terminal 2 now has an area to pickup and drop off passengers.
How to avoid circling the bonkers arrival areas at both terminals in a attempt to pick up your passenger: Use the cell phone lots on Post Road. They’re free and you can wait peacefully in your car until your passenger texts or calls.
If you need a primer on TSA’s baffling 3-1-1 liquids rule, and other requirements before you enter the security line scrum: Here are some tips, including identification requirements, and regulated items for carry-on and checked baggage.
If you need a little entertainment: Arts@MSP, the Airport Foundation’s arts and culture program, will feature music performances, Paul Bunyan appearances, kids activities and a “Fossil Friends” interactive display from the Science Museum of Minnesota.
What do the experts forecast for travel? Although this year’s MEA weekend is expected to be busy, Potter says there are signs that the explosive post-pandemic growth in air travel may be cooling off or even slowing down.
“After four straight years of uninterrupted year-over-year growth, national TSA numbers have dipped down to — or even fallen below — the same point in 2023,” he said. “In this post-pandemic travel boom, that’s a first.”
The real question is whether it’s just a blip. It could be “a mixture of the normal, back-to-school seasonality exacerbated by hurricane season in the south and election-year anxiety,” Potter said. “Or is it a sign that ‘revenge travel’ is finally, really over — that, after years of putting travel ahead of everything else, Americans have finally hit a breaking point?”
Navy veteran Alyssa Koeppen felt some added satisfaction on Tuesday as she listened to Hennepin County officials announce the county had “effectively ended” homelessness among veterans.
Koeppen, 54, became homeless and had to sleep on friends’ couches on-and-off after 13 years living abroad in the military and returning to Minnesota. But then in September, Koeppen secured rental housing through a Hennepin County program. She said that in recent months she’s noticed a reduction in the number of veterans she meets on the street who are homeless.
“We’re getting housed, and that matters,” Koeppen said.
She joined dozens of others at the celebratory event Tuesday morning in the Hennepin County Government Center where county officials declared they had made major progress with finding housing for veterans.
That assertion does not mean there will be no future veterans who become homeless. Plus, the overall rate of people experiencing homelessness in the county and state has increased to their highest levels, according to this year’s Point-in-Time Count.
But for any veterans who become homeless, the county says that period will be rare, brief and nonrecurring. The county is also helping veterans overcome homelessness at a faster rate than those who are becoming homeless, officials said.
Hennepin County had 69 veterans experiencing homelessness at the end of September, a nearly 60% decrease from August 2023, according to data provided by the county. Five of those 69 homeless veterans remain unsheltered, the county said. Neil Doyle, director of the Hennepin County Veteran Service Office, said he’s proud of the achievement, but also recognized there is much work to be done.
“Today’s announcement doesn’t by any means mark an end to this critical work,” he said to the crowd on Tuesday. “We are only pausing for a moment to acknowledge this key milestone.”
Star Tribune
Top-ranking Minneapolis Police Department officer sues Liz Collin, Alpha News for defamation following film, book
Chauvin is then interviewed in the film about his training with maximal restraint technique and shows a page from a department training manual about the technique. The lawsuit argues that, “In the film’s deceptive framing and editing, Collin and Chaix lie about the nature of Blackwell’s testimony with the hope that the viewer will believe that Blackwell perjured herself by stating that the MRT was not part of police policy. In reality, Blackwell testified that she did not recognize the technique used by Chauvin as any technique officers are trained to use, including the MRT.”
The lawsuit notes that the film concludes later that Blackwell “turned her back on the city of Minneapolis and implies that Blackwell’s testimony was responsible in part for a whole host of public safety concerns.” That includes a spike in crime, a dramatic drop in the ranks of sworn Minneapolis police officers and “general deterioration of the city.”
“The Fall of Minneapolis” has currently been viewed 2.8 million times on YouTube, where it is available for free, and the lawsuit notes the film has surged back into the public consciousness after Governor Tim Walz was selected as the DFL nominee for vice president.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Fourth District Judge Edward Wahl.
Star Tribune staff writer Liz Sawyer contributed to this report.
