Star Tribune
Duluth woman discovers state will use her house to recoup costs
Her white house sits on a busy street not far from Lake Superior. She has limited mobility and enjoys the frequent passers-by, some of whom comment on the sea of blooms she’s packed into her tiny yard.
Flowers show up inside, too, with forget-me-nots on hallway wallpaper and roses on curtains. Last week, jewelry, décor and other odds and ends were stacked around the home as she prepared for a “fire sale” to clear some belongings ahead of her looming surgery. In the next month, she expects to undergo an unusual procedure at the University of Minnesota. Volz said her diaphragm has effectively “disintegrated” and her stomach is pressed against her heart and lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
It’s the latest in a lifetime of bad luck, said Volz, who has struggled with depression and spine, hand and ankle injuries. She receives a Community Access for Disability Inclusion waiver, one of many federally funded waiver programs the state uses to support people with disabilities, older adults, those with brain injuries and the chronically ill and medically fragile.
Direct support professional Blaire Alyssa Frost, left, helps Victoria Volz inside her home in Duluth on Tuesday. (Leila Navidi)
Her waiver covers a range of services, including occasional nurse visits and 30 hours a week of help from a support professional, which can include everything from shopping for groceries to going up and down stairs with laundry. A document Volz received from St. Louis County breaking down her waiver costs includes $53,000 for a year of services from the personal care assistant company.
She likely owes roughly $600,000 for the years of services she’s received since turning 55, Volz’s attorney Malcolm Davy estimated.
Star Tribune
More than 40 years later and thanks to advances in DNA technology, a man has received a 20-year term for a murder in the Uptown area of Minneapolis.
Thanks to advances in DNA technology, a man has received a 20-year prison term for a murder in the Uptown area of Minneapolis more than 40 years ago.
Matthew Russell Brown, 67, of Ingleside, Ill., was sentenced Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing of Robert A. Miller at a home in the 3200 block of S. Girard Avenue in 1984.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest in June 2023, Brown is expected to serve the first 12½ years of his sentence in prison and the balance on supervised release.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said the linchpin in the case was a disposable cup discarded by Brown that contained DNA matching the blood at the scene.
“As we all know, advances in technology have improved DNA analysis,” the Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement released at the time of Brown’s arrest. “Over the past eight years, MPD homicide investigators assigned to the FBI’s Cold Case Task Force have been working diligently with the BCA Forensics Lab to identify DNA found at the scene and narrow down a possible list of suspects. One lead led to another until the MPD homicide investigators were able to identify a suspect in the case.”
At 2:30 a.m. on July 19, 1984, police arrived at Miller’s apartment , where two women in the hall said a man armed with a knife had broken into the building and attacked them.
Officers found Miller dead with “stab wounds to his face, head, chest, back and shoulders,” the complaint read.
Star Tribune
Twin Cities man guilty of murder for fatally stabbing fellow group home resident nearly 2 dozen times
The staffer told a 911 dispatcher that she didn’t hear anything further from the room and said “something isn’t right.”
A police officer arrived and saw a shirtless Adams running from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses across the street and into the group home. In a Kingdom Hall trash can, police located a “badly bent” and bloody kitchen knife inside a garbage bag. Another bag held a pair of blood-soaked gloves.
Officers located Rahn in his room with stab wounds to his neck and back. Medics declared him dead at the scene.
Adams gave various accounts to police about how and why Rahn was stabbed.
The medical examiner found stab wounds to Rahn’s face, neck, upper body and elsewhere. He also suffered at least 20 stab wounds to one of his hands, which are “consistent with defensive wounds,” the complaint said.
The title track from the coming album by FKA Twigs, “Eusexua,” isn’t exactly euphoric or sexy. Produced by FKA Twigs, Koreless and Earthearter, the track runs on nervous, hopping 16th-notes and distant chords under FKA Twigs’ whispery soprano before a beat fully kicks in. It’s anxious and tentative at first, wondering about a primal, possibly dangerous, possibly life-changing attraction: “Don’t call it love — eusexua.” Later, as the rhythm revs up, she promises, “You feel alone, you’re not alone.” But the propulsion falls away, leaving her “on the edge of something greater than before,” but dangling.
JON PARELES, New York Times
Suki Waterhouse, “Model, Actress, Whatever”
Stardom, by definition, is one of the rarest occupations. It’s also a wildly disproportionate topic for songwriters to take on. The immensely sly, self-conscious and droopy-voiced English model, actress and songwriter Waterhouse takes up the self-pity of a star in “Model, Actress, Whatever,” the title song of her new EP. It’s a slow-building waltz about what happens after making it big: “All of my dreams came true/The bigger the ocean, the deeper the blue,” she declares. She musters grandiose orchestral production to sum up a feeling of emptiness.
JON PARELES, New York Times
Car insurance rates are soaring. Here’s how to cut costs.
More than 40 years later and thanks to advances in DNA technology, a man has received a 20-year term for a murder in the Uptown area of Minneapolis.
Catholic women lead push for female priests
Car insurance rates are soaring. Here’s how to cut costs.
More than 40 years later and thanks to advances in DNA technology, a man has received a 20-year term for a murder in the Uptown area of Minneapolis.