Star Tribune
St. Paul mayor and city council meeting to reach budget compromise
The middle ground: a 7.2% increase.
In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Deputy Mayor Jamie Tincher said Carter, too, would like the levy to be lower. But proposing a 5% increase would mean an additional cut of $6 million from 2025 city services — a reduction that could increase fire response times, slow the processing of license applications and reduce parks and rec and library services.
“He doesn’t have a path to do that without reducing services that will be felt by the people who are currently getting them,” Tincher said.
If the two sides cannot agree on a tax levy for 2025, state law would require the city to institute this year’s levy. That, Tincher said, would lead to drastic cuts in city personnel and services, as costs go up every year because of things like health care, insurance and previously negotiated salary increases.
The gap between revenue and costs then, she said, would be $16 million.
Tincher was asked if this year’s negotiations felt “different.”
Star Tribune
St. Paul’s McNeely Conservatory at Como getting wheelchair ramps
Longtime elevators, which were often out of order, will be removed and replaced with ramps that will open in January. There is no Holiday Flower Show this year.
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Star Tribune
When greater Minnesota isn’t welcoming
She and her wife decided to move to Duluth.
“I do think America can do better, be kinder, and talk to each other more,” she wrote. “But in this current environment of hate and small-mindedness, I’m glad I don’t live in Becker/Clear Lake anymore, and that I don’t have to be ‘the only gay in the village’ anymore.”
After the election, I received a message from Brent Nelson of Minneapolis, who grew up in rural central Minnesota and who took exception with my column about why greater Minnesota voted for Donald Trump.
Nelson wrote that he refuses to use the term “greater Minnesota” because it implies that there is something better about rural Minnesota. He felt that the reasons people gave me for voting for Trump such as gun rights and grocery prices were “fake polite” answers intended to disguise their real motives.
“They are bigoted transphobic racists — they are just too cowardly to admit it,” he wrote.
Greater Minnesota is changing. For seven years, I put together the “Santa” letters for the Echo Press in Alexandria, typing in and formatting all the Christmas wishes sent in by local schoolchildren. Last year, I received my first letter in Spanish. I let it run as it was, knowing how much it would mean to that child’s family to see their own language in print. There are also members of the LGBTQ community who live here and aren’t hiding who they are.
Star Tribune
Luigi Mangione charged with murder in UHC CEO killing
Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested Monday while eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Penn., after an employee recognized him and called authorities.
Mangione was also charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm, online court documents in New York show. The New York criminal complaint against Mangione remains sealed.
In Pennsylvania, he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.
Mangione is accused of gunning down Thompson last week in front of a Midtown Manhattan hotel. Thompson, of Maple Grove, was headed to an investors conference on Dec. 4 when he was shot from behind by a man. That man then ran off, and had been seen on surveillance cameras shortly after riding a bicycle into Central Park.
Thompson’s killing set off a weeklong search for the gunman, who was arrested Monday. In a news conference Monday afternoon, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the man as 26-year-old Mangione.
Mangione is due to appear in a New York court later this month.