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What you need to know: 2023 Dakota County education levy referendums

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

Many Dakota County voters will be asked on Nov. 7 to consider giving more money to public schools.The Farmington, Hastings, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville and West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan school districts are asking for additional funding.Here’s a rundown of what will be on the ballot next month, why the funds are needed and, if passed, how the levy referendums could impact homeowners.FarmingtonFarmington Area Public Schools is proposing to revoke the district’s existing operating levy and replace it with a new one following a budget reduction for the 2023-24 school year and a projected deficit of $3.5 million for the 2024-25 school year.The district will ask voters to consider replacing the current operating levy of $677 per student to $1,239.92 per student for taxes payable in 2024, which will provide $9 million annually for the first three years, with $5 million coming from the current levy and $4 million from the new levy. The question then asks voters to approve an addit...

Literary calendar for week of Oct. 22

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

C.M. ALONGI: Minnesotan discusses her science fiction debut “Citadel.” Alongi is best known for her CaFae Latte TikTok series about a cafe run by fairies. “Citadel” is the only human city on an alien planet, ruled by the tides that bring both deadly danger and much-needed resources. The Flooded Forest is ruled by demons from Hell and Citadel must kill every one of them. 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.BRITNEY CELEBRATION: It’s Britney, B**** is the theme of a celebration of rock star Britney Spears’ memoir “The Woman in Me,” with a reading and conversation with Chris Stedman and Kara Nesvig. 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.CURTIS CHIN: Award-winning filmmaker and activist, co-founder and first executive director of New York’s Asian American Writers’ workshop discusses his debut memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Res...

New Minnesota law cracks down on organized retail theft

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

Charlie Anderson went from St. Paul patrol to investigative police work in 2011 and, as he followed up on shoplifting reports, he realized some weren’t as simple as a person slipping merchandise into their pocket and walking out the door.“There’s something else going on here,” he thought.As he talked to other law enforcement and retailers, he said his eyes were opened “to this world” of organized retail theft, Anderson said.Organized retail theft — stealing to sell goods to other people — isn’t a new problem, but it’s in the public eye more. Target recently announced it was closing nine stores in four states (none in Minnesota), saying that theft and organized retail crime have threatened the safety of its workers and customers.Charlie Anderson (Courtesy photo)Anderson’s experiences more than a decade ago led him to start an organized retail crime association that grew into a statewide nonprofit, and he and others in the field ha...

Ask Amy: Holiday in Europe might involve a rental

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

Dear Amy: Our son’s mother and father-in-law, who live in Europe, have repeatedly invited us to stay at their house, including over the upcoming holidays.We are considering going, and told them so.Then I got a text from my daughter-in-law with an Airbnb listing where she said we could stay to be “away from the mayhem.”Amy, mayhem is part of the holiday experience! (And by the way, this Airbnb property is already booked over the holidays).We think this might be a dis-invite, but don’t know how to formulate a response.We are on good terms with everyone and want to keep it that way.As the parents of two sons, I feel like we need to “hear” from our daughter-in-law.What do you think?— Holiday HousedDear Housed: “Mayhem is part of the holiday experience,” while true, is not necessarily a selling point — certainly for anyone contemplating hosting for a presumably long-ish overseas stay.Your daughter-in-law might be trying to deftly discourage...

Mientras se avecina una incursión terrestre, la gran pregunta sigue siendo: ¿Cuál es el plan de Israel para Gaza?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

(CNN) — Tal y Zak no tienen idea de cuánto tiempo estarán desplegados en lo que los israelíes llaman “la envoltura de Gaza”, el área en el sur de Israel que fue atacada por terroristas de Hamas hace dos semanas.Podrían ser semanas, podrían ser meses, dijeron. “Es igual para todos. Nadie lo sabe”, dijo Zak a CNN en un campamento militar no lejos de la frontera con Gaza. Los dos jóvenes soldados, cuyos apellidos CNN no revela por razones de seguridad, sirven en una unidad de artillería de las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel (FDI) que fue trasladada a la zona después de que militantes de Hamas mataran a 1.400 personas y secuestraran a unas 200 el 7 de octubre.Su unidad es parte de una acumulación masiva de tropas y material militar israelíes en la frontera de Gaza. Además de su fuerza regular, las FDI también convocaron a 300.000 reservistas que se presentaron en sus bases en cuestión de horas. En todo Israel, las carreteras cercanas a las principales bases están llenas de miles y m...

Philippines says a coast guard ship and supply boat were rammed by Chinese vessels at disputed shoal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat Sunday off a contested shoal, Philippine officials said, in an encounter that heightened fears of an armed conflict in the disputed South China Sea.A top Philippine security official told The Associated Press there were no injuries among the Filipino crew members and an assessment of the damage to both vessels was underway. The official said that the two incidents near Second Thomas Shoal, where China has repeatedly tried to isolate a Philippine marine outpost, could have been worse if the vessels were not able to maneuver rapidly away from the Chinese ships. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to a lack of authority to publicly discuss the matter. China’s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea, including over islands closer to Philippine shore, have raised tensions and brought in the United States, a long...

Collin Morikawa wins Zozo Championship in Japan for first PGA Tour title in more than two years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

INZAI CITY, Japan (AP) — American Colin Morikawa called winning the Zozo Championship in Japan “incredible,” a special way to close the season for a player whose great grandparents emigrated from the country.But more important was a victory — anywhere, any victory — after a 27-month winless streak on the PGA Tour that started prompting questions about his game.He broke through Sunday with a 7-under par 63 for a six-shot victory at the Narashino Country Club just outside Tokyo.“It feels so good, I can’t even explain it,” Morikawa said of his sixth PGA Tour win. “I knew I was going to get here at some point. It’s like getting your first win, your first major.”He said he realized that people were asking questions about why he had not won for so long. He said the victory was extra special since his wife Katherine Zhu was in the gallery and gave him a kiss when he came off No. 18.“She hasn’t been to a win since — it’s been a long time since she’s actually been at the tourname...

Belgium announces new security measures after Brussels attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

The Belgian federal government is taking five short-term measures in response to information about the events leading up to last week’s attack in Brussels that left two Swedish nationals dead, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Sunday.The move follows the resignation on Friday of Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, who took responsibility for the failure of Brussels prosecutors to act on a request from Tunisia last year to extradite the attacker, Abdesalam Lassoued, one of its nationals. Lassoued was killed by Belgian police after the October 16 attack.“The government accepts its responsibility,” De Croo said at a press conference announcing the measures to strengthen the country’s security apparatus and ensure a rapid and coordinated response to potential threats.Brussels public prosecutor Tim De Wolf blamed understaffing in his office for the failure to act on the extradition request. “That helps to explain the course of events, but it is ...

UN warns of Gaza catastrophe as Israel prepares invasion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

The ongoing blockade of Gaza has pushed the enclave’s 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation, Cindy McCain, executive director of the U.N.’s World Food Program, warned on Sunday.Israel has besieged the densely populated coastal region for almost two weeks, refusing to allow in food and medical aid amid fears it could fall into the hands of the militant group Hamas. As Israel intensified airstrikes over the weekend in preparation for a ground invasion, the first 20 aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday after being blocked near the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing.But a lot more aid needs to be delivered, McCain told POLITICO. “Right now we’re facing a catastrophe in the area with the inability to feed people and the inability for the people to find anything to eat at all,” McCain said in an interview Sunday. “These people are going to starve to death unless we can get in.”Her warning was echoed by the regional director of the relief organization Mercy Corps,...

Chancellor Scholz voices outrage at antisemitic agitation in Germany ‘of all places’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:22:15 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that he is outraged by the antisemitic agitation spreading even to Germany as the Israel-Hamas war rages, and warned at the inauguration of a new synagogue that the vow of “never again” must be unbreakable.Scholz’s remarks come as antisemitic incidents have been rising in Germany following the violent escalation of the war in Gaza. Assailants threw two Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in Berlin on Wednesday, prompting Scholz to say that attacks on Jewish institutions would never be accepted.He expanded on his comments at the inauguration of the temple in Dessau, a city in eastern Germany whose synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis 85 years ago.He spoke of the “barbaric terror of Hamas” in describing the Oct. 7 militant attack from Gaza on Israeli civilians, and concern about the tensions that have been rising since.“I am deeply outraged by the way in which antisemitic hatred and inhuman agitation have been breaking out since that fatef...