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St. Cloud sends second notice to Trump campaign to pay $209K for July rally
The city of St. Cloud has sent a second notice to the Trump campaign for public safety and other city services rendered during the July rally.
ST. CLOUD, Minnesota — When former President Donald Trump campaigned in St. Cloud in July, it brought more than 8,000 supporters inside the National Hockey Center at St. Cloud State University and more crowds outside.
It also brought more than $200,000 in city services that the city of St. Cloud is trying to get reimbursed from the Trump campaign.
“I’m not but if I was running for re-election and I had a cost of a rally that I did that was well over $200,000 for the city, I’d feel an obligation to pay the city. And so I would do that,” said St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis.
Kleis was first elected mayor of St. Cloud in November 2005. Prior to that, he served in the Minnesota State Senate for a decade as a Republican.
Kleis said the first invoice was sent to the Trump campaign in September. After 30 days passed without hearing from anyone with the campaign, the city sent a second notice last Friday.
The invoice description includes “Police Department: $63,267.81; Public Services: $60,510.07; Construction Change Order: $61,878.84; Fire Department: $21,420.74; and IT Department: $1,857.71.” In total, the invoice is for $208,935.17.
Kleis said they were notified of the rally less than a week before it took place.
“It was… a pretty quick turnaround and you don’t know those costs until it’s over because Secret Service requires a lot of the changes,” Kleis said.
For example, one of the larger costs involved opening a roundabout that had been closed for construction.
An NBC News report claims at least four cities and a county are still waiting to be reimbursed by the Trump campaign — seeking more than $750,000 in unpaid bills for campaign events since 2016.
The TEGNA Verify team said it’s unclear, however, whether Trump is legally obligated to pay all of them.
The Center for Public Integrity reported in 2019 that in some cases, there weren’t any signed contracts with the campaign which makes the bills difficult to collect.
A Trump campaign official claimed to KARE 11 that the “U.S. Secret Service is responsible for local law enforcement and first responder costs.”
Kleis said if the Trump campaign does not pay up after this second notice which lasts another 30 days, they will then bill the Secret Service.
But Secret Service Spokesperson Nate Herring told KARE 11:
“State and local law enforcement play a crucial role in our ability to effectively conduct our protective operations. Currently, the U.S. Secret Service lacks a mechanism to reimburse state and local governments for their support during protective events. In recent discussions with Congressional leaders, we’ve identified this as a critical need, given the essential role our police and public safety partners play. We are grateful for the additional resources provided in the recent Continuing Resolution, and we will continue to work with the Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and Congress to advocate for the necessary grants and resources to support the city, county, and state law enforcement and public safety agencies that assist us every day.”
Trump isn’t the only one cities are seeking reimbursement from. NBC reports that the Spokane mayor claims Bernie Sanders’ campaign still owes the city about $33,000 and Hillary Clinton’s camp owes a little less than $3,000.
The city of Minneapolis had a dispute with the Trump campaign following his 2019 rally at Target Center. Mayor Jacob Frey tried charging Trump’s campaign more than $500,000 for city services. Ultimately, the city reached a settlement with the operators of Target Center who agreed to pay the city $100,000.
The city told KARE 11 that the last payment was processed at the end of last December.
Kleis said they have hosted campaign visits in the past but without extra costs.
“Previously, the city administration did something very similar billing to George W. Bush at that time. That was in 2004 and that was for cost above and beyond. We’ve had campaign visits but we wouldn’t charge for anything that we would have as routine, people that are already working. These are above and beyond costs,” Kleis explained.
The July attempted assassination of Trump happened just two weeks before his visit to St. Cloud.
Kleis on security said, “in the last year, those costs have gone up just based on the fact that there’s an assassination attempt that increased the amount of security that was used.”
Kleis said while the White House is not billed for official events, campaign stops are treated the same as any other event that requires city services. Kleis also said they will not compromise on public safety.
“We do have an obligation… for our taxpayers to, when there are costs that go above and beyond, to have somebody that is held responsible for that,” Kleis said. “That’s what we’re doing.”
The latest fatal shooting happened Monday night at Jackson Street and Wheelock Parkway around 9:30 p.m.
ST PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul Police are investigating the city’s latest fatal shooting that happened Monday night.
Officers responded to Jackson Street and Wheelock Parkway around 9:30 p.m. They found the victim lying on the ground with multiple gunshot injuries. Police say no one has yet been identified or arrested.
There was another fatal shooting on Saturday night and police found a man with multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the hospital.
Then on Friday night, a man was fatally stabbed to death on Seventh Street East in St. Paul. Police took a suspect into custody soon afterward.
“The last four days have not been good days for our city,” said St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry.
He said there have now been 22 homicides in the city this year, down from 27 this same time last year. Chief Henry says 80% of the murders, though, have since been solved.
“Solving these murders is not and is never going to be the answer,” said Chief Henry in a press conference Tuesday afternoon to address the violence. “We have to prevent them from happening in the first place.”
The latest data from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension shows that violent crime is down 6.9% last year all across the state. Firearm homicides are still high compared to pre-pandemic levels.
“There are so many people who care about this issue so deeply and who do the work on it, day in and day out,” said Protect Minnesota Executive Director Maggiy Emery. Protect Minnesota was founded in 1991 and is the state’s only independent gun violence prevention organization.
Emery said safe storage gun laws and reporting lost or stolen weapons, along with conflict resolution, can help people in crisis.
“There are things we can do before the incident occurs to make sure that somebody actively in that moment or rage or fear doesn’t pull the trigger of a gun,” said Emery. “We all live with the collective trauma of knowing that anybody who’s experiencing a break of some kind, mostly has easy access to firearms.”
Experts agree that random shootings are rare and that interpersonal conflict is typically driving crime.
“The work that we do is tiring because we need everybody to be a part of it,” said Emery, who like Chief Henry, is calling on the community to step up and implement evidence-based solutions to this problem.
“We need everyone to get off of the bench and get into the fight on this issue,” said Chief Henry. “The police department simply cannot do this alone.”
Chief Henry said the recent shootings are likely not connected. At the press conference, he also pointed to different programs the department and city have implemented to foster youth outreach and provide resources and services.
Cody Fohrenkam is accused of killing Deshaun Hill Jr. in February of 2022.
MINNEAPOLIS — A man will be tried again for the killing of a Minneapolis teen, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
Cody Fohrenkam is accused of killing Deshaun Hill Jr. in February of 2022. Hill was a star quarterback for the North High School Polars and a guard for the school’s basketball team.
Investigators say Hill and Fohrenkam accidentally brushed shoulders while walking opposite ways down a sidewalk on Glenwood Ave. At least one witness said Fohrenkam then pulled a handgun and fired three or four shots at Hill, at least one striking him in the head. The 15-year-old later died at a hospital.
Fohrenkam was found guilty of the crime, but in May of this year, that conviction was thrown out by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Fohrenkam’s legal team told the court that Minneapolis police illegally detained the defendant, handcuffing and questioning him when a St. Louis County judge had ordered Fohrenkam released in a separate criminal matter. It was argued the videotaped statements that were instrumental in the conviction were illegally obtained.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office took the case to the Minnesota Supreme Court, who declined to review the case. The case is now headed back to the county court for a retrial.
The attorney’s office said in a statement to media Tuesday they are prosecuting Fohrenkam on the same charges, two counts of second-degree murder.
“Deshaun Hill was an honor roll student and beloved quarterback at North High, and his tragic death due to gun violence shocked the entire community,” said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. “We will prosecute Mr. Fohrenkam to hold him accountable for the murder of Deshaun Hill.”
Hill’s family agreed to a $500,000 settlement with the Minneapolis Public Schools after alleging Deshaun would still be alive if North’s principal had not agreed to let students out of school to take part in a demonstration at city hall that day.
The 50th annual Minnesota Prevention Program Sharing Conference brings experts in across the state.
SAINT CLOUD, Minn. — As the opioid crisis marches on, medications like Narcan have prevented overdose deaths, with Minnesota going so far as to enact a state law requiring schools and first responders to carry it.
But it’s not the only solution to the problem.
Tuesday in Saint Cloud, drug prevention experts gathered to talk about strategies to prevent people, especially children, from illicit drug use in the first place.
The 50th Annual Minnesota Prevention Program Sharing Conference aims to put the state’s leaders in substance prevention in the same room to discuss challenges and solutions.
Madeline Bremel is the Events Manager for the Minnesota Prevention Resource Center, the organization in charge of the conference. She said the pandemic has stunted emotional/social growth and made kids in particular more vulnerable to bad choices. That’s just one of the challenges in substance prevention.
“More and more we’re working with youth directly,” she said.
Prevention leaders say they are battling misinformation and messaging kids are getting on their cell phones. One tactic is to fight back with similar methods.
Fairmont High School students are on a mission to reach out to their peers and counteract what they’ve seen on social media.
“A lot of like brands, they will have, like, celebrities or influencers putting out pictures on their Instagram or videos on their TikTok of them, like vaping,” said senior Emily Wheeler.
Coffee and Clarity Preventing Substance Misuse is their podcast available on Spotify. Students who are part of the Martin County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (MCSAP) interview guests like first responders.
“We touch on topics like drug prevention, misuse, substance misuse, and we touch on some it can be sensitive subjects like mental health,” said Megan Wheeler.
Resources are here from all over the state to share ideas and challenges
“New drugs that are coming out every day, kids are being exposed to different substances every single day,” said Andrea Abel, a supervisor with the Department of Human Services.
Abel said funding is also a huge challenge because effective prevention methods take a lot of resources.
“Tools that are specific to your culture that will help with prevention,” Abel said.
That’s what Thomas Barrett, a youth mentor and hip hop artist from Red Lake Nation and David Iverson, former coordinator of the Drug Free Communities Grant in Deer River, did with their New Day music video project created by kids in their communities.
“I wanted something that was about them, but related to prevention that gave some hope,” said Iverson.
“They’re more influenced by their peers and what they see through their phone than they are by their teachers and their classrooms,” said Barrett.
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