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
Man shot in chest during carjacking in Twin Cities alley; 5 suspects flee
Several people ambushed a Minneapolis motorist late at night in an alley, shot him in the chest and drove off with his vehicle.
The carjacking occurred about 11:25 p.m. Thursday in the 3900 Block of 11th Avenue S., according to the Minneapolis Police Department.
The critically wounded victim, a man in his 20s, was given immediate medical attention before being taken by emergency medical responders to HCMC, police added.
Five suspects, male and female, fled the scene in the man’s vehicle and possibly a second vehicle, police said. No arrests have been announced.
Star Tribune
Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the U.S.
A federal appeals court panel on Friday upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for is survival in the U.S.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the law, which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January, is constitutional, rebuffing TikTok’s challenge that the statute ran afoul of the First Amendment and unfairly targeted the platform.
Star Tribune
Red Dragon in Minneapolis closing
Last call for Wondrous Punch: The Red Dragon plans to shut its doors on Dec. 29. The stalwart Chinese American restaurant-slash-dive bar opened in 1976 on Lyndale Avenue in south Minneapolis and quickly became known for its boozy, tiki-style cocktails.
The Red Dragon’s sprawling space attracted groups splitting plates of shrimp toast and cream cheese wontons to soak up the beverages’ powerful punch. In its heyday, the place was crowned with City Pages “Best” titles — Cocktails, Dive Bar, Happy Hour and Jukebox among them — and jam-packed with patrons who didn’t want to go. (In one era, a mulleted bartender used to walk around with a baseball bat to herd crowds through the door at closing time.)
More recently, a sign on the front door announcing the “strictly enforced” dress code and the menu’s declaring there were “no refunds on drinks for any reason,” might make younger folks say the place seemed a little “sus,” — if the younger folks came around as much anymore.
The Wong family, which has owned the Red Dragon since the 1980s, cited a declining customer base among its reasons for the closure. And the place hasn’t proved as invincible as City Pages once predicted: “A nuclear bomb could drop on the Red Dragon and people would drive in from Dinkytown to drink Fog Cutters in the glassy crater.”
In 2007, bartender Sandy Samountry keeps the Red Dragon crowd happy serving up its famous Wondrous Punch. (Tom Wallace/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The Red Dragon’s Wondrous Punch: four types of rum, fruit juices, pineapple, orange juice, sweet and sour and a splash of Grenadine. (Tom Wallace/The Minnesota Star Tribune)