Star Tribune
Twins, ballpark authority to split cost of assessing Target Field’s future needs
The Twins and the Minnesota Ballpark Authority that oversees Target Field will split the $350,000 cost of hiring a consultant to determine the best way to keep the stadium at the top of its game.
The ballpark authority approved a request from the Twins Thursday to spend up to $175,000 from the capital projects fund to hire consulting firm Brailsford and Dunlavey to gauge the overall condition of the stadium, how it compares to other Major League Baseball facilities and recommend future upgrades.
Dan Kenney, executive director of the ballpark authority, said the consultant will take an in-depth appraisal of the stadium and all its various operating systems to see what might need to eventually be replaced or improved.
“At this point, it is good to get a baseline and to take stock of where we are in year 15,” Kenney said. He added that he wants Target Field to be considered among the league’s best stadiums.
Target Field opened in 2010, will host its 15th Opening Day in April and is halfway through the initial 30-year lease. The ballpark and surrounding infrastructure cost $555 million to build with $350 million coming from Hennepin County and most of the rest from the Twins.
Gary Glawe, senior director of facilities for the Twins, told the ballpark authority commissioners that the stadium routinely undergoes maintenance. But he welcomed a fresh perspective on the facility’s long-term needs.
“I feel like we do a nice job and catch a lot of things, but we don’t know what we don’t know,” Glawe said. “Having an additional set of eyes that’s not in the building every day, will be a fun process.”
Brailsford and Dunlavey specializes in planning and development of public facilities like stadiums, universities and municipal buildings. The firm has worked with ballparks in Cincinnati, Seattle and Washington D.C., where it is headquartered.
The state of Minnesota’s major league sports facilities seems to be a perpetual conversation.
Last fall, officials from Xcel Energy Center, the home of the Wild, said the 23-year-old St. Paul facility was in need of significant renovations and there was hope state infrastructure money might help pay for some of it.
In 2017, a $140 million renovation of Target Center was completed. The home of the Timberwolves and Lynx was built in 1990.
And a recent study determined that the home of the Vikings, U.S. Bank Stadium, built in 2016, will need $280 million in maintenance in the coming decade.
Star Tribune
Sentencing set for Monday morning for a Minnesota man who was drunk and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV and killed her.
A man with a history of driving drunk received a four-year term Monday for being intoxicated and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV on a southern Minnesota highway and killed her.
John R. Deleo, 54, of Lake Crystal, Minn., was sentenced in Brown County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on Aug. 17, 2023, in New Ulm at Hwy. 68 and S. 15th Street that killed 82-year-old Sharon A. Portner, of New Ulm.
With credit for the two days he was in jail after his arrest, Deleo is expected to serve the first 2⅔ years years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
A week ahead of sentencing, defense attorney James Kuettner asked the court to spare his client prison and put him on probation for up to five years.
Kuettner pointed out in his filing that Deleo stayed at the crash scene and attempted “to aid Portner, and he left [her] side only when directed to by law enforcement.”
The attorney also noted that Deleo has been sober since the crash, and therefore, at a particularly low risk for reoffending.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police arrived to find the two damaged vehicles near 15th and S. Broadway streets. Emergency responders took Portner to New Ulm Medical Center, where she died that day.
ROCHESTER – The defense for Shane Roper, the former state trooper charged for his role in a crash that killed Owatonna teenager Olivia Flores, has asked the court to dismiss eight of the nine charges against him.
In a motion filed Oct. 24, Roper’s attorneys said the state has “failed to meet its burden of offering direct evidence tending to demonstrate that [Roper’s] actions, or negligence, were the proximate cause of death or bodily harm.”
Roper, 32, faces nine criminal charges related to the May 18 crash, including felony charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide. Both charges carry maximum sentences of 10 years in jail.
The only charge the defense did not ask to have dismissed is a misdemeanor for careless driving, which carries a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail.
Among the other requests made to the court, Roper’s defense asked for a change of venue outside of Olmsted County, citing the extensive media coverage of the case. The defense said “jury pools have surely been tainted and a fair trial cannot be had” in the county.
Roper’s attorney, Eric Nelson of Halberg Criminal Defense, also argued that any evidence related to Roper’s prior speeding or traffic incidents should be precluded as evidence in the case.
In the five years leading up to the crash, Roper had been disciplined by the State Patrol on four separate occasions for careless or reckless driving, including a February 2019 crash that injured another officer.
District Judge Christa Daily has not responded to the motions. Roper is scheduled to be back in court Nov. 21 for a pretrial settlement conference.
Star Tribune
Who is comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who insulted Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally?
NEW YORK — Of the nearly 30 speakers who recently warmed up the crowd for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe got the most attention for racist remarks.
”I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said, later including lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jewish and Black people.
The comments have led to condemnation from Democrats and Puerto Rican celebrities, with Ricky Martin sharing a clip of Hinchcliffe’s set, captioned: “This is what they think of us.”
The Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. ”This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.
Here’s what to know about Hinchcliffe, his comedic styling and the response to his Madision Square Garden comments.
Hinchcliffe, raised in Youngstown, Ohio, is a stand-up comedian who specializes in the roast style, in which comedians take the podium to needle a celebrity victim with personal and often tasteless jokes. He has written and appeared on eight Comedy Central Roasts, including ones for Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.
Even fellow comedians aren’t immune. At the Snoop Dogg roast, Hichcliffe made a joke referencing comedian Luenell, who is Black, being on the Underground Railroad. Of the honoree, he said: ”Snoop, you look like the California Raisin that got hooked on heroin.”
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