Star Tribune
Rent control ruling too late to help one St. Paul tenant
During the rent stabilization case, a quasi-judicial proceeding, city officials were asked to dive deep into these policies and other state statutes since the city’s ordinance says no extraordinary rent increase will be granted to landlords violating Minnesota’s habitability law.
Housing Justice Center attorneys delivered many of the same arguments they made last year in an eight-count civil lawsuit filed by Mohamed and other tenants against Marquette and its affiliates.
They alleged that the property management company is aiming to displace the building’s large Muslim Somali population through a mass renovation, which is simultaneously exposing tenants to hazards and being used to justify rent hikes.
Marquette sent city staff reports documenting recent tests for asbestos at the Haven, which found no evidence of the material. Angie Wiese, director of St. Paul’s Department of Safety and Inspections, said the city will sometimes require such tests before issuing construction permits, though asbestos and lead generally fall under the purview of the state and county.
An asbestos and lead expert contracted by the Housing Justice Center wrote a follow-up letter to the city saying Marquette’s testing was based on limited samples. He also referenced older environmental assessment reports that said prior testing confirmed the presence of asbestos in the building’s popcorn ceiling and lead coatings in the bathtubs.
“These third-party documents reinforce my opinion that Marquette has violated and continues to violate lead and asbestos safety laws,” the expert wrote.
One of Minnesota’s favorite spring flowers are blooming again in late summer, a sign of stress from the extreme swings in Minnesota’s weather over the past several years.
Many lilacs across the Twin Cities have sprouted out their purple and pink flowers for a second time this year during an unseasonably warm September. The re-blooming is unusual for lilacs and can be unsettling to see, said Julie Weisenhorn, a professor and the horticulture educator at the University of Minnesota Extension.
“It’s not something we’d call ‘normal’ but it’s something we’ve been seeing now over the past few years,” Weisenhorn said.
When trees and plants suffer from blights or pests, or are stressed by droughts, floods or other phenomena, they sometimes produce an overabundance of seed. It’s a way that they’ve evolved to ensure that, if they do succumb, their progeny has a chance to live, Weisenhorn said.
So during droughts, oak trees may produce a super-crop of acorns. And lilacs will sometimes produce a second bloom in the fall.
Minnesota is not experiencing a drought right now. The summer of 2024, warm September aside, has actually been the most typical weather season the state has experienced in years.
“Sometimes it takes a a little while for plants to react,” Weisenhorn said. “So you have to think back to last year and even the year before last, and realize how stressed these plants were doing those extreme dry summers, and then going through a strange winter with no snow and very little cold.”
That drought was followed by one of the wettest three-month stretches ever recorded in Minnesota from April to June, she said.
DULUTH — An Edina man died following a single-car crash along the North Shore of Lake Superior on Tuesday night, according to a news release from Cook County.
Douglas Paul Junker was dead at the scene of the accident on Hwy. 61 and Joanne Marie Bergstadt, also of Edina, was transported to a hospital in Duluth. Her condition is not known. According to WTIP, the car went off the road and crashed through a fence alongside a bike path and into a wooded area.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Department and Minnesota State Patrol are investigating the accident.
The death of a 39-year-old inmate at the prison in Moose Lake, found by his cellmate, is under investigation, according to a news release from the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
The man, who has not yet been named, was found unresponsive midmorning Tuesday in his room. Staff attempted life-saving measures, but were unable to save him. His name has been withheld while family is notified.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections Office of Special Investigations, along with the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, is looking into the death.
Moose Lake’s correctional facility is a medium-security prison in northern Minnesota that can house up to 1,000 inmates.
