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St. Paul mayor and city council meeting to reach budget compromise

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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.”



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Metro Transit hails ‘exciting change’ in new service

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The extra and expanded service comes as Metro Transit has, at least for now, turned the corner on its struggle to find enough bus operators. After “struggling mightily” for the past three years, the agency now has nearly 1,300 drivers, a number Metro Transit has not seen since before the pandemic, said Deputy General Manager and Chief Operating Officer Brian Funk.

Funk attributed the uptick in hiring to better wages, up from $21 per hour a few years ago to almost $30 an hour now. New drivers also are getting two weeks of additional training time to get them ready to hit the streets, Funk said.

The agency has 60 drivers in training now, but the need is still there. In March, the agency will open the Gold Line, a rapid bus line running from Woodbury to Union Depot in downtown St. Paul, and will need 30 operators to deliver that service. The agency also plans to open the B Line running from Uptown to downtown St. Paul on Lake Street and Selby Avenue next summer. And the E-Line, a rapid bus route from Southdale in Edina to the University of Minnesota is supposed to open about a year from now.

“We will continue to hire,” Funk said.

The new and expanded service is part of Metro Transit’s Network Now strategy to expand service by 35% in the next three years by looking where current and future service should go to meet travel needs and grow ridership.



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Inmate dies in Stillwater prison

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The Department of Corrections says it’s investigating what happened after an inmate was found dead inside the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater.

At 2:43 a.m. on Dec. 1, staff at the Stillwater prison found inmate David John Ojeda unresponsive, according to an emailed statement from Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) spokesman Aaron Swanum.

The prison staff performed life-saving measures while emergency medical responders were called to the facility. The responders determined Ojeda had passed away, Swanum said. No further details have been released about the circumstances or cause of death.

Ojeda, 43, was sentenced in February after being convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a child younger than 16. He was serving a 25-year sentence.

In June, another inmate at Stillwater, Dalmario Smith, was found unresponsive and died. In that incident,



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Officials identify MN man fatally shot in Brooklyn Park over weekend

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Officials have identified the Rochester area man who was shot to death over the weekend in Brooklyn Park during gunfire that also wounded a second person.

Ramone Rashawn Blue, 23, of Stewartville, was shot multiple times Sunday in the 8000 block of Brooklyn Boulevard and died that afternoon at HCMC, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.

Police have yet to address what prompted the gunfire. No arrests have been announced as of late Monday morning.

Officers responded to the shooting around 2 p.m. in a strip mall parking lot near the busy intersection of Brooklyn and and Bottineau boulevard, not far from a Target and a Menards.

Officers found two victims and began to aid them before both were taken to a hospital, according to a police spokesman.

The surviving victim has yet to be identified.

Staff writer Reid Forgrave contributed to this report.



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