Star Tribune
GOP candidate contests results of 54A House race in Scott County
Republican Aaron Paul is challenging the results of the House District 54A race, alleging in a notice of an election contest that Scott County elections officials engaged in “deliberate, serious, and material violations” of state election law when they lost 21 ballots yet declared DFL Rep. Brad Tabke the winner by a 14-vote margin.
“Scott County election officials unlawfully lost and failed to count significantly more ballots than would be needed to change the announced result of the election, meaning at the very least the actual victor is in absolute doubt and at worst the candidate who received fewer votes has been announced as the winner,” reads the notice, which a Republican public affairs director shared with the Star Tribune and other media outlets Monday.
Paul is asking the court to declare a vacancy for Tabke’s seat once his current term ends, giving voters the chance to decide a winner “pursuant to Minnesota law governing special elections.”
Reid LeBeau, Paul’s attorney, and David Zoll, Tabke’s attorney, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The notice is the latest twist in the Shakopee-area race that will determine the distribution of power in the Minnesota House. DFLers and Republicans will share power for the first time since 1979 if Tabke prevails; if Paul ultimately wins, Republicans will have a slim one-vote majority.
The race has been tightly contested since Election Day, when Tabke appeared to have a 13-vote lead over Paul.
Early returns showed Paul, a Bloomington police officer, ahead in several precincts by small margins. Tabke, a former Shakopee mayor who has served two nonconsecutive House terms, maintained advantages in northeast Shakopee and a precinct north of Shakopee High School.
A few days after election night, Scott County officials rescanned some ballots cast in Shakopee after a scanning machine malfunction. The updated unofficial results increased Tabke’s advantage to 14.
Star Tribune
Officials release ID of Green Line train passenger fatally shot in Twin Cities
Officials on Monday released the identity of the passenger who was fatally shot last week on a Green Line light rail train in St. Paul.
Sharif Darryl Walker-El, Jr., 33, was shot while on a westbound train as it neared the Hamline Avenue Station, according to Metro Transit.
Walker-El, who court records indicate last lived in St. Paul, was taken by emergency responders to a hospital, where he died, Metro Transit said.
No arrests have been announced as of late Monday afternoon.
Data presented to the Met Council in Nov. 6 reported an 8.4% decline in total reported crime in the first three quarters of 2024 compared with the same period last year. The agency said the most serious crimes, including homicide, were down 14.5% in that same time span.
Friday’s shooting was the second in nine days on the Green Line in St. Paul. On the night of Nov. 21, a woman was shot in the leg while on the train and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Since 2017, five people have been killed and three wounded in shootings at light-rail stations in Minneapolis and St. Paul, including a double homicide at St. Paul’s Central Station in 2022 and a shooting in May that left one man dead at the Dale Street Station.
Staff writer Christopher Snowbeck contributed to this report.
Star Tribune
Officials ID man fatally shot on Thanksgiving Day in Minneapolis
Officials on Monday identified the man who was shot to death on Thanksgiving Day in Minneapolis.
Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed, 21, of St. Paul, was shot in the head Thursday at an at an apartment in the 700 block of Emerson Avenue N. and died that same day at HCMC, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Police said the person who they believed fired the shot had already fled. No arrests have been announced.
In a statement, Police Chief Brian O’Hara called the shooting a “senseless act of violence.”
The chief added that “our investigators are focused on seeking justice for the victim and are asking anyone who knows what happened or has any information about this incident to contact us immediately.”
There have been 73 homicides in the city so far this year, according to a Star Tribune database. That compares to 62 at this time last year.
Anyone with information about last week’s shooting is urged to call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or submit tips at www.CrimeStoppersMN.org/.
Star Tribune
New minimum pay kicks in for Minnesota rideshare drivers
Rideshare drivers across Minnesota got a pay raise Sunday when a new law governing minimum wages kicked in, and it comes after local Uber and Lyft drivers pushed for nearly two years to get better compensation and job protection.
The new rates could also bring up to a 25% increase in trip fees for riders, Uber spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said in an email, “though pricing is always subject to change,” she said.
State law now requires rideshare companies to pay drivers $1.28 per mile and an additional 31 cents per minute while passengers are in the vehicle. Drivers will receive a minimum of $5 per trip and 80% of any cancellation fee charged to riders who call off a trip after a driver is on the way to pick them up. On top of that, rideshare drivers will also earn extra pay if transporting a rider in a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.
Tips are not included in the minimum pay calculations.
Under the law, rideshare drivers have the potential to make more money, a much as 20% more, DFL Leaders said in the spring before the legislation passed. But not all drivers are convinced they will.
A provision in the law allows Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) to average a driver’s earnings over a two week period, and pay them the minimum on that average. If a driver’s average is below the mandated rate, the companies will provide a “top off” payment to bring drivers up to the minimum pay, according to a posting on Uber’s blog.
That does not sit well with some metro area drivers.
The law “is absolutely not beneficial to the drivers,” said Prince Lee, who drives for both Uber and Lyft in the Twin Cities area. “We need $1.28 paid straight for every ride.”