Star Tribune
Local sales tax measures win approval in several Twin Cities suburbs
Richfield voters approved a half-cent sales tax to raise $65 million for a new community center, updates for Veterans Park, and a new educational facility at Wood Lake Nature Center.
But in Roseville, results were split: Voters approved a half-cent sales tax for one of two city projects on the ballot, saying yes to a $64.2 million facility for the public works and parks departments but no to a $12.7 million license and passport center.
Voters in Cottage Grove rejected a half-cent sales tax for 25 years that would have funded three projects: $17 million for improvements to Hamlet Park to include a new building, play equipment, a skateboard park and other amenities; $13 million for improvements to the 33.3-acre Mississippi Dunes Park; and $6 million for improvements to the River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center that would include pickleball courts, indoor multi-sports simulators a winter mountain biking course and other amenities.
Cottage Grove Mayor Myron Bailey said the city tried to make it clear that the half-cent sales tax would cover all three projects, but some voters may have thought that each required its own tax. The projects remain part of the city’s long-term capital improvement plans and may be picked off one by one as funding allows. The Hamlet Park skateboard park, for example, is planned for construction in three years, Bailey said.
The Mississippi Dunes riverfront park may be eligible for state or federal funding, so the city will start looking for other options to move that piece forward, he added.
Greta Kaul and Liz Navratil contributed to this story.
The next time St. Paul voters cast their votes for the White House, they will select the city’s elected leadership as well. With 60% voting yes, St. Paul voters Tuesday opted to move city elections from odd-year elections to coinciding with electing the next U.S. president.
Proponents of the plan said it will increase voter turnout for city races. In 2016, more than 140,000 St. Paul residents cast votes. And in 2020, more than 150,000 voted. Those numbers were about three times greater than the people who decided St. Paul’s mayor and City Council elections in 2021 and 2023.
In transition, all seven members of the St. Paul City Council, who were elected in 2023, will now serve 5-year terms.
Then, on Nov. 4, 2025, St. Paul voters will vote for mayor to serve a one-time, 3-year term.
Voters will select the mayor and all seven members of the City Council at the same time they vote for president and vice president.
How will the city ballot, which uses ranked-choice voting and provides for an unlimited number of initial candidates, be merged with the ballot for president and other federal, state and local elections? In Portland, Ore., which blends ranked choice-voting with more standard ballots for state and federal races, voters receive two ballots — one with local candidates and one for president, federal and state offices.
Star Tribune
Jackson Gatlin pleads guilty to sexually assaulting teenage girl in Vineyard Church youth group
DULUTH – Jackson Gatlin, dressed in a dark suit with his hands cuffed behind his back, was led by authorities from the courtroom Wednesday morning after pleading guilty to felony-level criminal sexual conduct in a case where numerous women have come forward with similar stories of being sexually assaulted as girls when he was their youth leader here at The Vineyard Church.
As part of a deal, Gatlin pleaded guilty to one count and on four others entered an Alford plea — in which he maintains innocence, but admits there is sufficient evidence for him to be found guilty during a trial. The third-floor courtroom at the St. Louis County courthouse was at capacity for the hearing, with several of his victims sitting together in a row. Gatlin, 36, will be sentenced during separate hearings November 25-26, with all the impact statements during the first.
He will likely serve 13 years in prison and have to register as a sex offender.
Civil charges are expected to be filed soon against Gatlin — in addition to his father Michael Gatlin, who was a senior pastor at the church, his mother Brenda who was also in a position of power, The Vineyard Church in Duluth and Vineyard USA, according to Spencer Kuvin, a Florida-based attorney who has represented victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Cosby. There will be 10 complaints against each entity, nine from victims and one from a mother whose daughter died by suicide.
“The church should be a place where people feel secure — a sanctuary to find God, practice your faith and find support within your community,” Kuvin said during a press conference after the hearing, sitting alongside the victims in a conference room at a downtown law office. “Unfortunately, the church became a living hell for these young girls.”
Neither of Gatlin’s parents were in the courtroom on Wednesday.
As part of the Alford plea, the prosecutors went through each victim’s allegations and the testimony that would have occurred during a trial. It showed a pattern of Gatlin, then in his early 20s, establishing closeness with 11 to 16 year old girls that extended beyond just the church.
His text messages went from friendly to flirty to sexual. He brought them to his bedroom in his family home or drove them in his car or made them sit next to him on a bus ride. He touched them or made them touch him. He bound their wrists or otherwise restrained them. He raped them and at least in one case laughed when they told him to stop.
Two Minnesota House races won by Democrats by narrow margins are close enough to trigger automatic recounts.
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