Star Tribune
Inauguration for new UMN president cost twice as much as predecessor’s
The festivities celebrating the University of Minnesota’s new president cost nearly twice as much as her predecessor’s inauguration that drew criticism in 2019 for being too costly, according to newly obtained data Wednesday.
Rebecca Cunningham’s Sept. 18 inauguration ceremony followed by a Northrop Mall celebration cost a total of $272,700 — about $3,300 over the high-end budget estimate, according to the new documents obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune in a public data request.
Among the costliest items from this year’s festivities were: catering at $74,000, security provided by police at the ceremony for $51,000, audiovisual support and American Sign Language interpretation for the ceremony at $26,000 and tent, table and chair rental totaling $17,000.
Roughly half of the expenses — about $136,000 — supported the outdoor campus celebration on the mall, which was a university-wide celebration open to the public, said Jake Ricker, a U spokesperson.
Rebecca Cunningham during her inauguration as the 18th president of the University of Minnesota Sept. 18. (Jerry Holt)
The ceremony portion of the day added up to about $122,000, though it was initially estimated to cost $63,000 to $80,000. Security costs, provided by the U police, far exceeded the “high” budget estimate of $3,000. The U’s Department of Public Safety and the University of Minnesota Police Department decide how much security campus events should have, Ricker said.
Security and audiovisual support at the ceremony both “ended up being a little bit higher than what the planning group had anticipated,” Ricker said.
Other expenses were related to entertainment. Lawn games rental cost $2,000, appearances by the U’s spirit squad and mascots totaled $3,500 and another $3,300 was paid to the U’s School of Music for a conductor, honorariums for student performers and specialty music arrangements.
A Richfield man said he was mad at being targeted by thieves when he shot at a pickup truck and killed a woman in the fleeing vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
Luke Joshua Cain was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of Sofia Rose O’Hotto, 26, of Minneapolis, outside his home in the 6200 block of 5th Avenue S.
O’Hotto was shot in the back of the head of 3:30 a.m. and found in the pickup about a half-hour later after a 911 call sent Minneapolis police to the 4500 block of Hiawatha Avenue S.
According to the complaint:
A report of gunfire sent officers to Cain’s home, where he told police that he saw several people appearing to steal items from his van that was parked out front.
Cain said he confronted the people, who got in the pickup and drove off. He did not say anything about shooting at them.
Police interviewed Cain again on Wednesday and identified some of the items officers had recovered from the pickup, when they found the vehicle soon after the shooting.
Cain acknowledged that no one in the pickup had a weapon or threatened him in any manner. He then admitted firing two shots at the pickup as it left.
A man was fatally shot late at night in north Minneapolis, and police are looking for the gunman, officials said Friday.
Gunfire detection technology alerted police to the shooting shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday, and officers went to the 3500 block of Penn Avenue N., where they found the wounded man, police said.
The officers gave the man immediate medical attention before he was taken by emergency medical responders to North Memorial Health Hospital, where he died, according to police. The man’s identity has yet to be released.
Police have announced no arrests in connection with the killing, nor have yet addressed a possible motive.
“This man’s loved ones will be dealing with an incredible loss during the holiday season,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement. “I urge anyone who may know information about what happened to contact our investigators.”
There have been 77 homicides in the city this year, according to a Star Tribune database. That compares to 79 at this time in Minneapolis last year.
Anyone with information about Thursday’s shooting is being urged by police to contact them by email at policetips@minneapolismn.gov or by calling 612-673-5845. Tips can also be submitted anonymously by calling CrimeStoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or at www.CrimeStoppersMN.org.
Star Tribune
Trump wants debt ceiling in the budget deal. If not, he says let the government shutdown start now
WASHINGTON — Hours before the start of a federal government shutdown, President-elect Donald Trump doubled-down Friday on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — and if not, let the closures ‘’start now.’’
Trump, who is not yet even sworn into the White House, issued his latest demand as House Speaker Mike Johnson arrived early at the Capitol, instantly holing up with some of the most conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus who helped sink Trump’s bill in a spectacular Thursday evening flop. The clock is now racing toward the midnight deadline to fund government operations.
”ff there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump does not fear government shutdowns the way Johnson and the lawmakers see federal closures as political losers that harm the livelihoods of Americans. The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees. Trump himself sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House, the monthlong closures over the 2018-19 Christmas holiday and New Year period.
More importantly for the president-elect is his demand for pushing the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before he returns to the White House. The federal debt limit expires Jan. 1, and Trump doesn’t want the first months of his new administration saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to lift the nation’s borrowing capacity. It gives Democrats, who will be in the minority next year, leverage.
”Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump posted — increasing his demand for a now five-year debt limit increase. “Without this, we should never make a deal.”
Johnson is racing behind closed doors to prevent a shutdown, but his influence has its limits. Trump, and billionaire ally Elon Musk, unleashed their opposition — and social media army — on the first plan Johnson presented, which was a 1,500-page bipartisan compromise he struck with Democrats that included $100 billion in disaster aid for hard hit states, but did not address the debt ceiling situation.
A Trump-backed second plan, Thursday’s slimmed down 116-page bill with his preferred two-year debt limit increase into 2027, failed in a monumental defeat, rejected in an evening vote by most Democrats as an unserious effort — but also some three dozen Republicans who refuse to pile on the nation’s red ink.
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