Jennifer Hoff at KARE-11 reports there are 30 volunteers from Minnesota and the Dakotas on the ground with 50 more on standby in Jacksonville, waiting for Hurricane Ian to hit landfall. “It may die down in category level but it can still cause such devastation and that’s what we have to prepare for,” said evacuation shelter supervisor Kyle Parkinson. “We were at a level seven, which means that’s our highest response.“
Eric Rasmussen at KSTP is reporting the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Minneapolis Police Department’s handling of the 2016 death of Elisa Gomez. Detectives had closed the case as an apparent suicide, but in 2019 an investigator with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety and its Office of Justice Programs issued a memo to the MPD urging the department to take another look at the case citing a lack of follow-up with witnesses and inconsistencies in their stories.
Kirsti Marohn at MPR News reports despite heavy spring rains, a drought (not as severe as last year’s) is spreading throughout Minnesota, leaving farmers hoping for a heavy snowfall this winter. “We’re seeing very, very dry conditions,” said Luigi Romolo, a state climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Shannon Prather at the Star Tribune remembers police officer-turned-politician Tony Bennett who died Monday from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Bennett, a moderate Republican, served on the Ramsey County Board and in the State Legislature.
Via The Current: Walker Art Center executive director Mary Ceruti and MPR president Duchesne Drew announce the summer music festival Rock the Garden will retire following a lauded final installment this past June.
Babs Santos at FOX9 profiles Eagan resident Rachel Stienstra, who only learned to ride her motorcycle six years ago, but has since ridden across Iceland, Canada, and Mexico. Stienstra just returned from riding across Pakistan with a traveling party of a dozen women from different biking groups, raising money and awareness for the needs of women in a patriarchal society.
Randy Furst at the Star Tribune remembers photographer Regene “Reggie” Radniecki, who shot for the Minneapolis Tribune for 18 years beginning in 1972. Battling sexism as a sports photographer, her coverage also included writing about and photographing rural life in Poland, and taking photos during the American Indian Movement occupation at Wounded Knee in 1973. She was 74.
Sophia Barnes at NBC’s affiliate station in Washington, D.C., covered last night’s Lizzo concert at Capital One Arena where, following an invitation from the Library of Congress, she played a 200-year-old crystal flute that was given to President James Madison.
The story on the DOJ investigating MPD’s homicide case is lacking info–did the victim have a history of major mental health issues? You can’t indict somebody on past behaviors and having an outcome you don’t agree with does not equate to racism.
So much is lacking in this story.
Just curious, there aren’t Red Cross Volunteers between Florida and Minnesota? Seems like a lot of gas money etc. (not complaining)