Star Tribune
Shawn Fagan tapped to lead the Rochester Downtown Alliance
Longtime business owner and photographer Shawn Fagan has been named the next executive director of the Rochester Downtown Alliance (RDA).
Fagan, who had been on the RDA’s staff as a deputy director since the summer, takes over for Kathleen Harrington, who led the organization in an interim capacity for the past year and a half.
“Shawn’s passion for downtown, his collaborative spirit, and his strategic vision for growth make him the perfect choice to lead the RDA forward,” Harrington said in a written statement.
Fagan and his wife, Michelle, have been involved in the downtown since 2003 when they opened a photography studio along South Broadway. They later bought the 151-year-old building and added an event space, Studio 324, that they continue to operate. For their contributions to downtown, the couple received the Sandy Keith Downtown Impact Award recipient in 2021.
The Fagans also own Café Aquí, a coffee shop just outside the city’s special services district.
With his new role, Fagan will be responsible for leading the downtown business community through a period of major anticipation and disruption tied to Mayo Clinic’s $5 billion build-out.
The RDA, which represents more than 300 downtown stakeholders, is best known for putting on popular events like Thursdays Downtown and Social-ICE. The organization is also responsible for managing a public service program that provides cleaning, hospitality and safety services to the 44-block district.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
If Revolve Labs, formerly known as Bit49, can start bringing in revenue at the new AI data center, the company should be able to move or decommission the machines at the existing site, St. Onge said.
“The ideal would be to phase out our current site and move everything over to the new site,” St. Onge said at the public hearing.
Several Glencoe residents at Tuesday’s public hearing, which addressed whether to rezone the property Revolve Labs intends to buy, appeared skeptical about the company’s proposal. “Revolve Labs has not proven themselves to be good neighbors,” Gould said to St. Onge at the hearing.
Eddie Gould, 80, confronts a representative from Revolve Labs, a Colorado-based company that runs a crypto-mining facility near his home, at a public hearing Tuesday in Glencoe, Minn. (Jp Lawrence)
But many at the public hearing seemed to welcome the possibility that the company might remove the noisy machines at its current site, which is near the town’s 646,000 square-foot Seneca Foods plant, a Dairy Queen and the corner of a residential neighborhood.
Crypto mining uses huge amounts of computing power, which need to be cooled by banks of fans. Over the past few years, the noise of these fans has led to complaints from residents living near crypto mining facilities across America.
In southwestern Minnesota, similar concerns about noise led to dozens of residents in Windom voicing their opposition in August to a conditional use application by Revolve Labs to build a facility there. The company pulled out of the proposal a month later, citing feedback from the community.
Star Tribune
Minneapolis Market mass shooting among 5 homicides in federal RICO charges against Lows gang
Five Minneapolis homicides — including a February mass shooting outside a market — are at the heart of the latest federal racketeering case to take aim at a street gang in the city. The latest target: the northside-based Lows, described by law enforcement as the most violent among its peers.
The new charges, announced Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, chart a three-year path of bloodshed that saw rivals and bystanders alike killed amid a long-running gang war. Eleven alleged members of the Lows are named in the indictment, which also includes allegations of gun and drug trafficking.
“The murders and shootings alleged in this indictment should shock the conscience of every law-abiding citizen in the city,” Luger said in a press conference Wednesday. “To put it simply, the existence of the Lows gang constitutes a threat to the sanctity of human life and we will continue to take all appropriate steps under the law to remove this threat.”
The Lows indictment bookends an initiative launched by Luger’s office in May 2023 to use complex conspiracy charges to disrupt Minneapolis’ most prominent gangs. The charges follow similar indictments against alleged members of the Bloods, 10z/20z and Highs gangs and brings the tally of those charged to beyond 90 people. Earlier this month, Luger’s office won its first racketeering conviction since starting this work when a jury found three alleged Bloods members guilty of charges that covered racketeering and using a firearm to carry out murder.
All of those charged in this latest case — some of whom have related state prosecutions pending — are in custody and were expected to make first appearances in St. Paul. None of them had attorneys listed as representing them as of late Wednesday, according to the federal court docket.
The Lows street gang has existed in Minneapolis since about 2004 and claims as its territory a section of north Minneapolis south of Broadway Avenue while the rival Highs gang operates north of that road. According to court documents, the murder that year of 18-year-old Christopher Little, identified by law enforcement as “a known Lows member,” intensified a rivalry with the Highs that has since included “hundreds of shootings and murders” in their territories.
A grand jury on Monday returned the latest 18-count indictment under seal charging 11 alleged Lows members with crimes including racketeering conspiracy involving murder, attempted murder, gun trafficking and drug trafficking. The indictment charged 78 “overt acts committed in furtherance of the enterprise” – including seven murders or attempted murders involving 10 victims. Bystanders were struck on two occasions. A judge unsealed the charges Wednesday amid the first federal court appearances in the case.
Those charged include: Ashimiyu Alowonle III, 38; Timothy Calender III, 26; Glenn Carter III, 23; Victor Collins, 22; Damari Douglas, 20; Deontae Jackson, 35; Shannon Jackson, 32; Robert Knights Jr, 19; Albert Lucas V, 20; Kaprice Richards, 23; Cartrelle Smith, 27.
