Star Tribune
Park workers vote down latest contract offer from Minneapolis park board
Striking Minneapolis park workers on Friday evening overwhelmingly rejected the latest contract offer from the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
Liz Xiong, a spokesperson for Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 363, said that 91% of the ballots cast rejected the offer. Just under half of the union’s nearly 200 full-time, dues-paying members turned out for the vote, held at Minnehaha Regional Park.
Xiong said Friday’s vote site was chosen because the Park Board insisted the union bring the latest offer to a vote and a number of union members were already present at Minnehaha Falls for a demonstration.
“The Park Board doesn’t have any jurisdiction to govern or interfere with the way a local union chooses to do its business,” Xiong said.
The strike entered its third week Thursday after negotiations between the two sides again broke down Tuesday night. Workers have demanded higher pay, improved benefits and safety precautions.
Xiong said the two sides have agreed on wage adjustments, but that several clauses she called “anti-worker” still remain in the Park Board’s offer. One such clause, she said, would allow management to withhold step increases in employee pay at its discretion.
“That defeats the whole purposes of bargaining a contract,” she said.
The Park Board said Friday that 46% of park workers have not been working during the strike.
While Timberwolves guard Mike Conley was in Minneapolis for Sunday’s Minnesota Vikings home game, where he fired up the crowd before kickoff, his west-metro home was targeted by burglars, police said Wednesday.
The break-in of Conley’s sprawling residence in Medina occurred mid-afternoon Sunday and was the second of three carried out that day by at least two suspects while the homes were unoccupied, said Police Chief Jason Nelson.
In each instance, the chief said, the thieves got away with a yet-to-be determined amount of jewelry.
The perpetrators “may have done some surveillance or figured out some patterns” of the people who lived at the homes before striking, Nelson said.
In each case, the suspects approached the houses from the rear, broke in through lower-level windows, entered primary bedrooms, scooped up what jewels they could and were out within five minutes, the chief said.
Video surveillance at the Conley home on the southwest side of the city captured the image of a vehicle driving off that might be tied to the suspects. Nelson said there have yet to be any arrests.
One of the other homes was down the street from Conley’s, while the third was on the southeast side of Medina, the chief said.
Conley’s multimillion-dollar residence sits along a road with few other homes within shouting distance.
If someone glues countless seeds and beans onto a board to create your likeness, the correct response is thank you.
Minnesota artist Christy Klancher bent over her canvas, manipulating tiny grains of millet and quinoa with a toothpick tipped with Elmer’s glue, nudging split peas into tidy rows. Around her in the sweltering Agriculture/Horticulture building at the Minnesota State Fair, crowds watched this crop art demonstration avidly. Millet face. Wild rice mullet. Poppy-seed eyes a-twinkle. A portrait of ex-teen idol John Stamos was coming together before their very eyes, a face familiar to any eyes that witnessed the 1990s firsthand.
What, you might ask, was the response from Stamos to this ultimate of Minnesota honors, being rendered in crop art?
“Crap art,” the small-screen star posted on X, with a photo of his seed-and-bean doppelganger.
Now there’s going to be weirdness between us, John Stamos.
There’s a story behind this incredibly niche crop art beef, so gather around, Minnesota, and learn the story of Riot Fest, an excellent Chicago music festival that has been trying to lure Stamos — best known for playing Uncle Jesse on saccharine ‘90s sitcom “Full House” — into its lineup for years.
Riot Fest — unofficial and irreverent motto: “Riot Fest Sucks” — has carved Stamos in butter, curated an exhibit of fine Stamos art and hired other celebrities to stand in for him and pledge never to set foot on the fest.
Riot Fest 2024 runs from Sept. 22-24 in Chicago’s Douglass Park with a lineup of more than 90 acts, from Beck to Public Enemy to St. Vincent to Rob Zombie to Waxahatchee. Stamos, once again, is a no-show.
Kevin Ulmer, head coach of the Bemidji State University women’s volleyball team for nine seasons, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 41.
Ulmer died Tuesday afternoon surrounded by his family, according to an announcement from the school.
“We are heartbroken to lose our colleague, our coach, and our friend Kevin Ulmer,” Bemidji State Director of Athletics Britt Lauritsen said in a statement.
Friday’s match at University of Minnesota Crookston has been canceled, the school said.
Ulmer came to Bemidji State in 2016 after serving as head volleyball coach at Bethel College (Ind.) for four seasons and earlier as an assistant coach at Georgetown College (Ky.).
He graduated from Northwestern College (Iowa) in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and health education, and earned his master’s degree in biomechanics and exercise physiology at the University of Kentucky.
Since taking over the program in 2016, 30 of his players have earned Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference All-Academic Team honors
He also coached two All-NSIC selections, Jessica Yost and Rylie Bjerklie, in one of the toughest volleyball conferences in NCAA Div. II.
