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Newsweek
20-05-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
Minnesota High-Speed Rail Project 'Effectively Dead' After Funding Change
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Plans for a high-speed passenger service between the Twin Cities and Duluth have run out of steam after the Minnesota Legislature voted to redirect $77 million in funding from the Northern Lights Express rail project. The decision was finalized when state lawmakers approved HF1143, a bill channeling those funds into unemployment insurance for hourly school employees during summer months. Newsweek contacted the Minnesota Transport Department for more information via email outside normal working hours. Why It Matters The bill's passage is a huge shift in Minnesota's transportation and budget priorities, de facto ending a years-long push for expanded passenger rail in the region. It comes as many other high-speed rail projects across the U.S. face funding issues and higher scrutiny from the Trump administration. What To Know The approved bill, HF1143, allocated $100 million for summer unemployment aid to part-time hourly school workers. The Democratic–Farmer–Labor (DFL) lawmakers and Education Minnesota union advocated for this move, noting the need to support education employees who lose income when school is not in session, local outlet Alpha News reported. Republican House leaders negotiated that $77 million from previously committed funds to the Northern Lights Express high-speed rail should be used to fund the school worker scheme. A proposed map of the Northern Lights Express, from the Minnesota Transportation Department. A proposed map of the Northern Lights Express, from the Minnesota Transportation Department. Minnesota Transportation Department The Minnesota House passed the bill unanimously (131-0) late Friday, followed by a 44-23 Senate vote. Republican senators opposed the reallocation, describing it as "shifts and gimmicks" in the legislative process. The Northern Lights Express, a proposed four-round-trip-per-day passenger train using BNSF tracks between Minneapolis and Duluth, was approved for nearly $195 million in state funds in 2023. The new funding cut leaves about $108 million remaining in state rail project funds, but House Transportation Committee Chair Representative Jon Koznick, a Republican, said the funding shift means the project is "effectively dead." What People Are Saying House Transportation Committee Chair Representative Jon Koznick, a Republican, told Alpha News on Monday: "For years, Democrats have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on wasteful rail projects that Minnesotans barely use and can't afford. With the House and Senate voting to shift a significant amount of the state's share of the project's funding, the Northern Lights Express train is effectively dead, and taxpayers are better off because of it." Republican Senator Jason Rarick said to Alpha News on Monday: "I think taking this money that came from the transportation realm to here and without actually going through the education committee and going through the transportation committee to have this discussion and having it part of the [budget] targets for consideration of either one, I don't believe this is the right way to go about doing this. "What we should be doing here is sending this money to the general fund and allocating in the [budget] targets to the committee to bring it in and then have it be a part of the committee's omnibus bill." What Happens Next The bill is now awaiting signature by Governor Tim Walz. With the reallocation of funds, the Northern Lights Express rail project's future appears stalled, while state lawmakers are expected to continue discussions on permanent unemployment support for school workers and the direction of Minnesota's transportation priorities.
American Military News
09-05-2025
- American Military News
Video/Pic: Illegal immigrant released after killing victim while drunk driving
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson recently confirmed that the suspect charged for a fatal head-on collision in Minneapolis last year has been identified as an illegal immigrant. The illegal immigrant has since been released despite federal officials placing a detainer on him. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 35-year-old German Adriano Llangari Inga was charged on Friday for his involvement in two crashes on August 3, 2024, which led to the death of 31-year-old Victoria Eileen Harwell. In addition to the 31-year-old's death, the crash also resulted in Harwell's sister and 14-year-old daughter sustaining injuries. The outlet noted that Llangari Inga has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that police officials said Llangari Inga rear-ended a car before fleeing the scene, crossing a double yellow line, and crashing into another car head-on. According to court documents obtained by Alpha News, police officers detected a 'strong odor of alcohol' in Llangari Inga's breath and observed that his eyes were 'glazed over and watery' at the time of the fatal collision. The suspect also 'did not have a valid driver's license or insurance,' according to court documents. READ MORE: Pics: Nearly 800 illegal immigrants arrested in major ICE operation An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson told Alpha News that the 35-year-old suspect is from Ecuador and was illegally living in the United States. The spokesperson explained that while Llangari Inga was arrested after the fatal collision, he was released from jail days later despite Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials placing a detainer on the illegal immigrant. 'The Hennepin County Jail did not honor the detainer and released Llangari without notification to ICE Aug. 6, 2024, and he remains at large,' an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson told Alpha News. 'Llangari initially entered the United States in June 2016, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, issued an order of expedited removal and placed into removal proceedings.' The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, which operates the jail Inga was released from, told Alpha News that the sheriff's office cannot legally hold people in custody 'based solely on an administrative detainer issued by the Department of Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement' due to guidance issued by Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office. A picture of Llangari Inga and a video of the remains from the August car crash have been shared on X, formerly Twitter. 🚨 WANTED – Hennepin County, MN: Illegal alien German Adriano Llangari Inga is charged for a 2024 DUI crash that killed Victoria Eileen Harwell and injured her sister and daughter. Despite a detainer, he was released last year and now has a warrant. — Illegal Alien Crimes (@ImmigrantCrimes) May 7, 2025
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Push to release Sen. Nicole Mitchell arrest video gets new chance on appeal
The Minnesota Court of Appeals is asking a lower court to consider once again whether to release police video from the arrest of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell for suspected first-degree burglary last April. Conservative news website Alpha News filed a court action last year seeking the release of body and dash camera footage captured by police as they found Mitchell in her estranged stepmother's Detroit Lakes home last April. The group argued that Mitchell and her attorneys made public statements that contradicted the police account of her arrest and that there was a 'strong public interest and benefit in knowing about the truth related to criminal charges against a sitting State Senator.' Becker County Judge Gretchen Thilmony ruled that Mitchell's rights as a person accused of a crime outweighed public interest in her case and did not release arrest videos. But in a Monday ruling, a panel of three appeals court judges said the lower court needed to consider the broader public benefit that could come from releasing a video tied to a case involving an elected official. The ruling written by Appeals Court Judge Elizabeth Bentley did not take any position on whether it would be in the public interest to release the video, but now the district court must reevaluate Alpha News' request. Mitchell, a DFL senator from Woodbury, is scheduled to go to trial for a first-degree burglary charge after the 2025 regular legislative session ends in May. The trial was originally scheduled for January, but under state law, legislators can delay their trials until the conclusion of business at the state Capitol. The arrest came after police responded to a break-in call in the early morning hours of April 22, 2024, and found the senator in her stepmother's home. Mitchell said she was trying to retrieve her father's ashes and other sentimental items and that her stepmother suffers from dementia. 'Clearly I'm not good at this,' Mitchell allegedly told officers, later adding she knew 'she did something bad.' In ethics complaints, Senate Republicans have questioned contradictions between Mitchell's account of events and those outlined in the charges. Alpha News argued the contradictions warranted the release of the body camera videos. After her release from jail, Mitchell made a post on social media where she said she entered the house to check on her stepmother, who had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The stepmother had obtained a restraining order against Mitchell and told multiple media outlets that she fears her stepdaughter. Mitchell claimed her stepmother suffers from 'paranoia' because of her condition. 'The release of the body camera footage is essential to provide clarity about the events of April 22, 2024,' Republican Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson said in a statement. 'The public deserves transparency and accountability, and I hope the court will stand with them in that pursuit. Legislators must be held to a higher standard, not shielded from consequences because of the office they hold.' Mitchell now faces two felony charges in connection with the break-in, where prosecutors allege the senator used a crowbar to pry open a basement window. Prosecutors filed a burglary tools charge in February, nearly 10 months after Mitchell's arrest on a first-degree burglary charge. In a statement on the appeals court decision, Mitchell's defense attorney. Bruce Ringstrom Jr. said releasing body camera footage could create a jury selection problem with the trial set to begin in just two months. 'The judge presiding over the criminal case has already ordered that video coverage of the trial is allowed,' he said in an email. 'Release of the evidence before the criminal trial jeopardizes due process.' Mitchell, a first-term senator and former broadcast meteorologist who is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, was elected in 2022 and is in the third year of her four-year term. She is scheduled to face election again until 2026. Despite calls from fellow DFLers to resign, Mitchell has said she won't leave office. Repeated efforts by minority Senate Republicans to remove her from office have failed as they would require significant levels of support from Democrats. St. Paul nonprofit pays $7.3M to turn Bandana Square hotel into emergency shelter Minnesota health department cuts 170 jobs after federal COVID grant freeze With shortfalls on horizon, Minnesota budget targets feature big cuts Will Minnesota lawmakers raise taxes this session? 2,350 Minnesotans were sterilized under state's 1925 eugenics law — most of them women
