Star Tribune
Feds award MnDOT $138 million to use on EZ Pass lane project on I-494 in south metro
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is getting $138 million from the federal government to help pay for putting in EZ Pass lanes on I-494 through Edina, Richfield and Bloomington.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced the funding on Monday as part of the latest round of National Infrastructure Project Assistance and Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant programs to improve safety, mobility and economic competitiveness.
A total of $4.2 billion was doled out to 43 other projects across the United States funded with money from the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda.
“With this latest round of awards, dozens of major and much-needed projects, projects that are often difficult to fund through other means, are getting the long-awaited investments they need to move forward,” Buttigieg said.
In Minnesota, the money will be used to offset the $377 million MnDOT is spending to put in high occupancy toll lanes in both directions between Hwy. 100 and I-35W, rebuilding the I-35W/I-494 interchange, and replacing bridges at 12th, Portland and Nicollet avenues.
“The project will significantly reduce fatalities along the I-494 corridor by lowering congestion and conflict points,” the award summary said. “It will improve freight movement to and from the airport by diverting heavy commercial traffic off the main lanes.”
MnDOT began working on the project last year and is expected to finish it in 2026. The EZ Pass project is one of four the agency is working on or planning to carry out between Hwy. 169 and near Cedar Avenue/Hwy. 77.
Nearly a dozen University of Minnesota students were arrested Monday night after trying to occupy Morrill Hall, which holds the Twin Cities campus’ administrative offices, to push the U to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Several hundred pro-Palestine protestors gathered at the Minneapolis building as Students for a Democratic Society tied up patio furniture into giant barricades, covering the building’s large front windows.
The administration has “failed to divest from genocide,” said Ryan Mattson, a sophomore, adding that the U has also passed policies restricting their First Amendment rights to protest. “We will stay here until the university meets our demands or makes us leave.”
Shortly after, university police and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office deputies entered and arrested protesters, citing property damage. At least 11 students were arrested.
It was the first time students have broken into and attempted to occupy the building after organizing encampments last school year to call on the U to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Pro-Palestine protesters block Morrill Hall at the University of Minnesota on Monday. (Erin Adler)
The students said they chose Morrill Hall because of its history with student activism. In 1969, 70 Black students occupied the building in a peaceful 24-hour protest of institutional racism.
Before the arrests, students covered windows and staircases with mailers and green tarps. Students said they escorted administrators out of the building earlier so it didn’t appear any administrators were in the building when they blocked the entrances.
Complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia have risen at the U and other college campuses since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people and resulted in hundreds being taken hostage. Israel responded by invading the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 40,000, according to statistics released by the United Nations.
The situation didn’t reach crisis levels, however, until the costs of the school’s 2022 expansion into Burnsville wiped out STEP’s financial reserves. Its fund balance, the most critical indicator of a charter school’s financial health, fell from $2.7 million in 2022 to $54,461 in 2023, state records show. This year, the school is operating at a deficit of nearly $800,000.
In response to Ibrahim’s allegations, IQS said in a statement that its repeated interventions were aimed at ensuring the school operates within state guidelines and lives up to the promises made in its contract with the nonprofit.
“It is unfortunate that Dr. Ibrahim has made unfounded claims of racial bias,” IQS Board Chair Steve Kelley said in a statement. “He is wrong. IQS and its leadership team have acted professionally and impartially.”
Star Tribune
40-year term for ‘unprovoked’ shooting that killed new high school grad at Brooklyn Park party
A Bayport man received a 40-year term Monday for shooting and killing a new high school graduate at a party in Brooklyn Park last year.
Daniel Martez Walker, 32, was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court after jurors convicted him last month of second-degree intentional murder and being a felon in possession of a gun in connection with the death of Reese Crenshaw, 19, of Roseville, on June 2, 2023.
“This was a callous act of unprovoked violence,” a post-sentencing statement from County Attorney Mary Moriarty read.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Walker is expected to serve nearly 26 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
According to Minnesota court records, Walker has a lengthy criminal history that includes five convictions for burglary, and one each for robbery, weapons possession and disorderly conduct.
According to the charges:
Crenshaw was freestyle rapping at a card table with Walker and others. Walker stood up without provocation and shot Crenshaw with a handgun. Walker fled the scene, and two witnesses took Crenshaw to the hospital. Another witness said Crenshaw was “just sitting there, not even talking,” before he was shot, the charges read.
