Star Tribune
Meet the St. Paul car guy who followed his father’s repair footsteps
Raks Pham officially became the boss at Tuan Auto Repair after his father, Tuan Anh Pham, died in 2021. But Raks, 44, has been pretty much running the business his father started in 1986 since he graduated from college in 2002.
Customers in the waiting area on Pascal Street at University and those posting on social media gush about Tuan Auto Repair doing good work at reasonable prices with great service. It’s clear the son has continued his father’s reputation.
Eye On St. Paul recently visited after Greta Kaul, a reporter at the Star Tribune and a Tuan Auto Repair customer, suggested he’d make a good Eye subject. This story was edited for length.
Q: When did you start working in the shop?
A: I was 16 and was still in high school, St. Agnes. As soon as I had any free time, I would come here and help (my dad) out. When I was done with college in ’02, at the U of M, that’s when I started to run it on my own.
Q: When you helped him out, what kind of stuff did he have you do?
A: Whatever they needed. Sixteen is when I first started driving, so that’s when I started to learn about cars. The basic maintenance stuff to take care of my own car. Watching the guys. And learning a lot from them. I did little out in the bays, but when I was done with college, I just started doing the office things, so he didn’t have to worry so much about stuff.
Q: Your dad was pretty good at his work?
A: Great. It was a different time back then. Back then, it was more of “How do you fix things to get them going again,” versus nowadays when it’s replace, replace, replace.
Q: Was he self-taught?
A: He was self-taught. He worked on buses in Vietnam. Then he came over here, in ’79. Coming here, knowing no one and not knowing the language, he just started working. Another family sponsored our family when we came over here, which was incredible for us. We had a place to stay. And he started working on cars out of a house. Just seven years later, he opened the shop.
Q: What did you study at the U?
A: Sociology.
Q: That’s not the degree you get to run an auto service.
A: But it was the quickest degree to get out of there. [laughs]
Q: Did you fall into this, or was it something you really wanted to do?
A: I really wanted to ease a lot of his worries. One day, when I was in college, I got off early. Came here. And literally, none of the mechanics had shown up. And the shop was filled with cars. And he was just scrambling to get everything done. I just said I’ve got to get done with school so I can help him. It was just getting to be too much.
A business, it’s a lot to shoulder. A small business like ours, you have to bring in enough work to support the family, bring in enough work so the technicians can support their family — but yet try to find a balance to where you’re taking care of customers too.
Q: What’s the secret to finding that balance?
A: I don’t feel that I’m doing anything special. Just make a point to communicate with the customers so that they understand what we’re doing, what they’re paying for. Just making sure we’re on the same page. Things don’t always go perfect. If something is not right, just make sure we do it right. I mean, we try to do our best, just being as open as we can.
Q: How many cars do you work on each day?
A: On an average day, we will work on 16-20.
Q: Tell me about your home team. Married, kids?
A: Married. Just passed 20 years. Two boys. The oldest is 17, almost 18. The youngest just turned 14.
Q: Any interest in cars?
A: My oldest is. He might be really interested in aviation. He’s looking at that program right now.
Q: Piloting, or working on planes?
A: Working on planes. I think he’s going to try that. He got accepted to a program at Minneapolis Technical College, which works out of Delta. That’s a pretty exciting thing for him.
Q: How much longer do you see yourself doing this?
A: I don’t know. Just keep plugging away. You work when you’re sick. You work when you’re hurt. When it’s cold. When it’s hot. Just show up. And get the job done.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
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