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
Officials identify MN man fatally shot in Brooklyn Park over weekend
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.
Star Tribune
Central MN man shot week ago in Minneapolis has died
A man who was shot a week ago in Minneapolis has died several days later, officials said.
Martin Wayne Horvath, 39, of Clear Lake, Minn., was shot on Dec. 2 in the 2600 block of Cedar Avenue S., the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
Horvath was hospitalized at HCMC with head and neck wounds and died there on Saturday, the examiner’s office said.
No arrests have been announced.
Police said they went to the scene of the shooting at about 10:45 p.m. and saw Horvath there with critical wounds.
“Preliminary information indicates [Horvath] was trying to break up a physical altercation between two people known to him when a shot was fired, striking him. The other two people fled the scene before officers arrived.
Officers gave immediate medical attention to Horvath until emergency medical personnel took him to HCMC, police said.
There have been 74 homicides in the city so far this year, according to a Star Tribune database.
Star Tribune
Twin Cities driver fleeing patrol causes fatal collision
A driver fleeing a late-night traffic stop in St. Paul crashed into a parked vehicle and killed a person inside it, officials said Monday.
The wreck occurred Sunday night at Larpenteur Avenue and Arcade Street, the State Patrol said.
The fleeing motorist, a 28-year-old man from Minneapolis, was arrested after “a Taser was used to assist law enforcement,” Patrol Lt. Mike Lee said.
Shortly after 11:15 p.m., a state trooper stopped a car on Interstate 94 near Marion Street on suspicion of speeding.
The driver stopped briefly but soon sped away. Troopers chased him and were joined by others in law enforcement.
The pursuit at ground level was discontinued while a patrol helicopter followed the fleeing driver until he crashed into a car parked in a lot. The lone occupant in the parked vehicle did not survive the impact.
A Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy apprehended the suspect, who remains jailed pending charges. The patrol has yet to release his identity.