Star Tribune
Duluth man pleads guilty to criminal sexual conduct with girls
DULUTH – With freshly selected jurors waiting nearby for the start of an expected days-long trial, a Duluth man facing criminal sexual conduct charges took a last-minute plea deal instead of facing the women he abused when they were children.
Clint Franklin Massie, 49, pleaded guilty Wednesday morning at the St. Louis County Courthouse to the four counts from incidents dating back to 2008-09 when two of his victims were young girls. The deal dismissed one of the counts against him. His sentencing is scheduled for March 20, and he could end up with more than nine years in prison. Massie, who was initially charged in February 2023 and has been out on $300,000 bail, was released until his sentencing.
In each case, the victim was known to Massie — whether they were related or through their shared membership at Old Apostolic Lutheran Church. He was friends with their parents and regarded as a fun, child-free uncle, according to reports from the investigation.
Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Michael Ryan told the court that the victims were satisfied with the deal.
“They have been involved in talking this through,” he said to Judge Dale Harris.
After Massie pleaded guilty, would-be witnesses and their supporters filed into the courtroom filling rows. Massie, dressed in a dark suit coat and khaki pants, turned to look. Ryan questioned him on the victims’ accusations — four specific scenarios where he had touched girls: during a sleepover at his house, when alone on a tractor, or beneath a blanket while others were in the room.
Massie said in court there were a lot of big gatherings and shared meals within this the group. It wasn’t unusual for one of the many children to sit on his lap.
At times Massie paused and said he couldn’t remember exact details or motives. At other times he deferred to what he told investigating officers last year. In each instance he ultimately agreed with the scenario presented by the prosecution.
Star Tribune
Mobile home park residents seek rent relief from Lake Elmo
The park residents brought their complaints to the Lake Elmo City Council, but officials there said they don’t have the legal authority to impose rent controls. If the city were organized as a home rule charter city, like St. Paul, the City Council could adopt rent control but Lake Elmo is classified as a statutory city.
“We as a statutory city aren’t able to do anything with regards to rent control or anything like that,” said Lake Elmo Mayor Charles Cadenhead. The city administrator, Nicole Miller, has been in contact with the park’s community board chair, John Murphy, to work on specific issues, including the resident’s concerns over the large number of dead trees in the park, Cadenhead added.
The park’s residents have also asked the Housing Justice Center, a Minnesota nonprofit, to help organize a response to the rent increases. Housing Justice Center attorney Shana Tomenes said that what’s happening at Cimarron “is not an uncommon story.” Many mobile home parks once owned by an individual are now more commonly owned by a for-profit company that needs to keep revenues and profits growing, she said.
State law requires that rent increases be “reasonable,” without defining what that means in terms of percentages, Tomenes said.
“Is 30% over four years reasonable?” Tomenes asked. “There hasn’t been a case in Minnesota law that says what reasonable is or isn’t.”
Christine Kelly flips through the pages of rules at Cimarron Park, including one that you can only have a table and four chairs on your deck, at her trailer in Lake Elmo on Wednesday. (Renée Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The park residents are also contending with new rules that make it more difficult to sell their home, Tomenes said. Homeowners must tear down fences before selling, advertise the sale with a small sign in window and run credit checks on prospective buyers, among other things; taken together the rules make it difficult for people to sell and more likely to walk away from the home.
Star Tribune
Designs under consideration for new Lowry Avenue station
When the Blue Line light-rail trains begin running between Target Field and Brooklyn Park in 2030, they will stop at Lowry Avenue and West Broadway on the border of Minneapolis and Robbinsdale.
What the station there will look like is far from settled.
Met Council and Metro Transit officials last week revealed nine station designs under consideration during an open house at Elim Lutheran Church.
Not every planned light-rail station gets that many iterations, but “this is an unusually complex location,” said spokesman Kyle Mianulli. “It’s at the intersection of several major roads, park property and is adjacent to a hospital.”
The original station design that was approved when both cities gave consent for the nearly $3 billion project called for platforms on street level near the present-day bridges where Theodore Wirth Parkway passes under West Broadway/County Road 81. To make way for the tracks and station, the parkway and trails would be realigned to intersect with Lowry slightly to the east of the current intersection.
In this scenario, sets of crossing arms would be installed on both Theodore Wirth Parkway and Lowry. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board expressed concerns about the impact an at-grade crossing would have on parkway and trail users, and to park property. North Memorial Health Hospital officials raised concerns about vehicles and ambulances being able to access the hospital since gates would be down about 10% of the time, Metro Transit’s Ryan Kronzer said during the meeting.
In response, designers came up with eight other possibilities. Among the options are underground or elevated stations; running trains through a trench or tunnel; and keeping at-grade crossings that may lead to realigning roadways and trails. One plan calls for rerouting Wirth Parkway to pass under the Blue Line while another calls for adding a flyover bridge for trains.
Met Council officials have created a matrix to evaluate each of the eight additional options, looking at criteria such as how accessible stations would be depending on their placement and the effects on the hospital, parks and trails, and overall traffic. Other criteria include connectivity to the neighborhood and how elements of each design would preserve or force modifications to three West Broadway bridges over Lowry that were just rebuilt in 2022 and 2023. And then there is cost, too.
Star Tribune
Minnesota reports most whooping cough cases since 2012
Minnesota is reporting the highest number of whooping cough cases in more than a decade, according to the state department of health.
As of Dec. 5, 2,324 cases of whooping cough, also called pertussis, were reported by health care facilities, medical labs and schools and child care centers, with the majority in the Twin Cities metro. That’s the highest number reported at this time of year since 2012, when there were 4,144 cases.
Health officials expected the spike because the disease peaks every three to five years. Whooping cough cases are increasing across the country, signaling a return to more typical trends seen before a drop-off of many contagious illnesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Minnesota, the median age of those with whooping cough this year is 14. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, immunity to the vaccine — a shot routinely recommended for those ages 11 and 12 — starts to wane after one or two years.
Among the cases, 77 infants were reported to have whooping cough, and 34 people were hospitalized.
Whooping cough often resembles a cold in the initial weeks, and later results in a prolonged cough. People with the illness are contagious for the first 21 days of coughing or until they have completed the first five days of antibiotics.
The health department reports that vaccination is crucial in preventing and reducing the spread of whooping cough. Officials have voiced concerns as immunizations have declined in recent years among Minnesota kindergartners entering school.
Health officials urge women who are pregnant to receive the vaccine and that children receive on-time vaccinations. The whooping cough vaccine is included in a shot combined with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. Adults are advised to receive a booster shot every 10 years.