Star Tribune
Pedestrian dies in Plymouth crash
A 70-year-old Minneapolis man died after he was was struck by a vehicle while walking across a highway in Plymouth Saturday night, according to law enforcement.
The man, believed to have been drinking alcohol, was crossing Highway 55 at South Shore Drive against traffic when a Subaru Forester, headed east with a green light, struck him around 8:20 p.m., according to a Department of Public Safety report. The man was not in a crosswalk.
Neither the driver nor the passenger in the vehicle were believed to have been drinking and neither was injured, the report said.
The pedestrian’s identity will be released early Monday.
Eagan authorities are asking residents to stay vigilant after two sexual assaults at Lebanon Hills Regional Park.
The Eagan Police Department said a woman was attacked while walking alone on one of the park’s trails around 11 a.m. on Nov. 7. Her assault follows a “similar incident” near the same location on Sept. 7, but that victim got away from the suspect. No arrests have been made.
“The Eagan Police Department and Dakota County Sheriff’s Office have increased patrol activity in and around the Lebanon Hills Regional Park,” a news release said. “We are actively working on leads in both cases, therefore this is an open/active investigation, so no further information will be released.”
While investigators search for suspects, police asked residents to remain cautious by: walking in pairs or groups, staying aware of their surroundings, avoiding poorly lit areas and staying in populated areas, and reporting suspicious activity to 911.
But in May that year, DFLers voted to expel Independent-Republican Rep. Robert Pavlak of St. Paul. The DFL had sued Pavlak, alleging he distributed false information in campaign literature. Sviggum said Pavlak reprinted a newspaper editorial that got some facts wrong. Pavlak lost an appeal of the case, and the DFL moved to oust him. Because Pavlak could not vote in his own case, the vote was 67-66, and he was removed. That move gave the DFL a one-seat majority.
“It was power politics at its best, or worst,” Sviggum said. The floor session was tense.
“You could hear a pin drop on the House floor,” he said. “There were tears being shed, real tears.”
Murphy said the vote to expel Pavlak was one of the hardest of her 46-year career in the House.
Hortman said she hopes today’s leaders will not try to remove members, and will instead work across the aisle.
She repeatedly pointed to her experience in the 2020-21 session working with former Sen. Paul Gazelka, then the Republican Senate majority leader. With divided government, Minnesota got a budget passed, along with some bipartisan police accountability bills after the murder of George Floyd.
Minneapolis police are searching for suspects after a shooting injured two at a homeless encampment Friday.
Sgt. Garrett Parten said reports of the shooting began at around 5:41 p.m. Officers responded to the 2200 block of Cedar Ave. S. to find a man and woman with gunshot wounds.
Both were transported to Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis, where the man was listed in critical condition. No arrests have been announced.
Friday’s shooting comes just over a week after four died and two were injured in shootings at two different Minneapolis homeless encampments. Earl Bennett, 40, has been charged in three of those murders, as well as in the shooting of another man at a sober living facility. He was shot by St. Paul police during an armed standoff Oct. 28, and remains in police custody.
