Star Tribune
Waconia now requires cat owners to keep their pets on a leash
Cat owners must now keep their pet on a leash in Waconia after the city council updated an ordinance that, prior to Monday’s vote, only applied to dogs. The city council ordinance requires cat owners to keep their pets on their property with a fence or a leash and clean up their waste in parks and on other residents’ yards.
City Administrator Shane Fineran told Fox 9 the ordinance was a response to “concerns residents have.”
The new statute requires cat owners to either microchip or keep identification tags on their feline friends. Cat owners must also clean up their pets’ droppings on their own property within seven days.
Violating the cat leash law is a petty misdemeanor under city law.
Alley Cat Allies, a Maryland-based nonprofit that advocates for low-cost spaying and neutering policies, warned Waconia City Council members that the leash law would unfairly target residents who care for strays and other neighborhood cats.
“We want Waconia to know that dogs and cats are very different animals with very different relationships to people and our communities,” the organization’s leaders wrote. “Cats cannot be slapdash inserted into laws tailored to dog-related concerns.”
The group asked the city council to instead consider a trap-neuter-return operation if its members were concerned about growing populations of cats outdoors. That way, Alley Cat Allies leaders say, the city can head off any unexpected boom in stray cats and more easily control the animals already within its limits.
Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber is challenging the federal government’s plan to idle the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, a minimum-security facility that is among seven across the country slated to close due to aging infrastructure and staffing challenges.
Stauber, who represents northeastern Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District, on Wednesday called the move “quite misguided. The motives behind this decision do not appear to be reasonable or sound and I am disappointed by the way the announcement was rolled out.”
But many of the facility’s approximately 90 employees may find themselves without a job, since only 15 are expected to be transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, about 70 miles away from Duluth, according to a letter Stauber sent Tuesday to Colette Peters, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Stauber was quoting job estimates from union officials, who were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
It’s unclear when the Duluth prison’s operations will cease. “To inform the employees they would be out of the job through an impersonal letter right before Christmas is far too insensitive,” Stauber wrote, noting he will work with the incoming Trump Administration to reverse the decision.
More than 700 inmates currently incarcerated at the Duluth facility will be transferred to other prisons.
The all-male Duluth prison camp, located on a former U.S. Air Force base, has “aging and dilapidated infrastructure,” including several condemned buildings contaminated with asbestos and lead paint, according to Bureau of Prisons documents obtained by the Associated Press.
While the snowflakes, holiday lights and cold temps suggest otherwise, the season does not begin until the winter solstice on Saturday, Dec. 21.
The winter solstice is the precise moment when the sun appears farthest south in the sky. This year’s solstice is at 3:21 a.m. CT in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.
It marks the shortest day of the year, with the fewest hours of possible sunlight and the most hours of darkness.
With days set to lengthen, the winter solstice is often seen as a time of renewal in different cultures.
In Minnesota, there are several winter festivals and wellness-related events taking place to help commemorate the season.
“Since pagan days, solstice has traditionally meant the ‘year as reborn,’ with ancient and modern Scandinavians fusing it into the longer ‘Jul’ or Yule season,” according to the American Swedish Institute, which holds a popular annual event each winter solstice.
Here are a handful of solstice events happening around the Twin Cities:
The Bell Museum: Celebrate the sun’s “rebirth,” and observe the sun through telescopes outside the museum from noon to 2 p.m. Other winter programming including a signs of the seasons exhibit and winter walk are ongoing.
WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee voted in secret to release the long-awaited ethics report into ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz, raising the possibility that the allegations against the Florida Republican who was President-elect Donald Trump’s first choice for attorney general could be made public in the coming days.
The decision by the bipartisan committee was made earlier this month, according to a person familiar with the vote who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday. CNN first reported the vote.
It’s a stunning turnaround for the often secretive panel of five Republicans and five Democrats. Just last month, members voted along party lines to not release the findings of their nearly four-year investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct with minors and use of illicit drugs while Gaetz was in office.
Democrats had pressing to make the report public even though Gaetz was no longer in Congress and had withdrew as Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department. A vote on the House floor this to force the report’s release failed; all but one Republican vote against it.
Gaetz lashed out Wedneday on social media against the latest development, again denying any wrongdoing. He criticized the committee for its move after he had left Congress, saying he would have ”no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body.”
”It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life,” Gaetz posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. ”I live a different life now.”
Most Republicans have argued that any congressional investigation into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent.
While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare.
