Latest news with #St.Paul-based
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
With federal cut, Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps to close after 44 years
Eager to give a young person a shot at his profession and bring in some badly-needed talent, Dave Abbott reached out last year to the Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps Center in St. Paul in hopes of launching a 'work-based learning' internship program. As a lead carpenter for a group of remodeling contractors, Abbott figured his company could help train three or four young corps members per year, and hopefully hire some on. A year of planning followed. The first recruit recently 'did two weeks with us, helped frame a garage up, and she absolutely crushed it,' said Abbott, a vice president with Terra Firma, a St. Paul-based contracting cooperative. 'She was great.' Then came word last week that the U.S. Department of Labor, citing ballooning costs and mixed outcomes, had pulled funding for more than Job Corps centers across the country. As a result, the Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps Center — which has operated from the former Bethel College campus across from the State Fairgrounds on Snelling Avenue since 1981 — will close on Tuesday, letting go all staff and releasing more than 170 young people, some of whom literally called the center home. 'I'm so upset about this, I can't even tell you,' said Kaila Broad, business engagement specialist with the St. Paul site, on Monday. 'Haven't slept, haven't eaten.' St. Paul's Job Corps Center, which offered up to 250 young people ages 16 to 24 workforce training in any one of eight career paths as they worked toward their GED and vocational certificates, also provided free housing for many low-income recruits who had landed there through diversion programs or were enrolled by their families. Some members had previously been homeless. As that housing dries up, it's unclear where they'll land. The sudden decision to pull funding has drawn bi-partisan pushback in Congress, given the program's long history in putting young people to work. The Job Corps centers were launched as part of President Lyndon Johnson's 'great society' and 'war on poverty' efforts in 1964, and many a young person has obtained a medical assistant certificate or entered the construction trades while receiving free room and board. 'We had just added a Certified Nursing Assistant certification through St. Paul College,' Broad said. In announcing cuts to workforce training programs last Thursday, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Deremer said the Job Corps centers had proven too costly to operate and fallen short of intended outcomes. In 2024, the program operated at a $140 million deficit nationally, requiring the Biden administration to implement a pause in center operations to complete the year. The deficit this year is projected to reach $213 million, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Labor. Nationally, about 39% of enrollees graduate, according to what the department described as the first-ever 'Job Corps Transparency Report,' released April 25, which analyzed metrics from 2023. Some critics of the report have said pre-pandemic graduation rates were notably higher. The National Job Corps Association maintains that historically, graduation rates were closer to 60%. A previous study of graduation rates, earnings and other metrics was published in sections from 1998 through 2001, though it was unavailable Monday morning from the U.S. Department of Labor website. Citing the most recent report, the Labor Department said earnings for recent Job Corps graduates average about $16,000. The National Job Corps Association has also disputed those numbers, claiming earnings are closer to $31,000. Also troubling, according to the secretary, were nearly 15,000 'serious incident reports,' chronicling everything from sex assaults and other acts of violence to drug use and hospitalizations. The National Job Corps Association has said those reports include power outages, athletic injuries and adults leaving campus without authorization. The secretary said a 'phased pause in operations' is to take place by June 30, but the closures are rolling out in St. Paul and other locations virtually overnight. In response, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services, issued a statement last week saying the loss of Job Corps will exacerbate her state's workforce shortage, hurting the economy while locking students out of good-paying jobs. 'Congress appropriated funding for Job Corps, and the Trump Administration can't just decide to not spend it because they want to make room for tax cuts for billionaires,' Baldwin wrote. 'At a time when Wisconsin businesses are demanding more skilled workers, the Trump Administration is cutting vital resources that put Wisconsinites on a fast-track to good-paying jobs in nursing, manufacturing, and the trades. Gutting Job Corps is a step in the wrong direction.' The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service operates more than 20% of the centers on federal land, steering recruits toward forestry work. Abbott said he sees the loss of federal funding as short-sighted decision-making from on high. Construction trades are notoriously understaffed and desperate for labor, which raises prices for clients. Creating a pipeline of young talent would be a boon to workers, contractors and property owners alike, he said. Many of the young people he interviewed sounded like ideal recruits for internships. 'I was hoping to have it be a long-term tradition, that we could just (work with) three or four every year,' said Abbott on Sunday. 'Usually, it's pretty busy in the summer, and there's good work for pre-apprentice level carpenters.' Lynx turn up defense in second half, improve to 7-0 A wild stretch leads to Loons' first win in Seattle Here are five ways to celebrate Pride month, from Pee-wee Herman to F1rst Wrestling St. Paul family nonprofit seeks to break the stigma of addiction in the Hmong community The Woddle: A techy diaper-changing pad with a touchscreen and AI
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Twin Cities housing nonprofit paid $5.41 million for Rochester town homes
May 30—ROCHESTER — A St. Paul-based nonprofit developer with a focus on affordable housing recently paid $5.41 million for a northwest Rochester townhomes complex as its first investment in the Med City. The Twin Cities Housing Development Corp., under the name of Innsbruck, LLLP, purchased the aging 40-unit Innsbruck complex at 1530 50th St. NW on May 27, Twin Cities Housing Development has built or renovated over 2,940 units of housing in the Twin Cities in the past 41 years. While the Twin Cities is its primary focus, it does consider any communities within two hours in its geographic range. It did acquire and upgrade a 48-townhome complex in Owatonna last year. This is the nonprofit's first foray into Rochester. "We love the Rochester market. There's just so much energy there," said Ken Isaacson, Twin Cities Housing's Development Manager. Isaacson explained that the plan is to make improvements to Innsbruck, while keeping it as low-income affordable housing with the help of Low Income Housing Tax Credits and other means. Innsbruck is fully occupied. "The site itself is in good shape, but it needs some TLC," he said. Nath & Associates of Bloomington, Minn. sold the 43-year-old property. Nath, which also owns The Quarters in Rochester, had owned Innsbruck since 2015, when it paid $2.85 million to buy it. Olmsted County estimated the total market value of the Innsbruck complex at $4.61 million for 2025-2026.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘Defund the Police,' five years later: What did the movement accomplish?
For months, the 11 members of Ramsey County's Appropriate Responses Initiative planned and trained around how to teach police officers, school principals and 911 operators to de-escalate tense situations, with the greater goal, when possible, of avoiding police response altogether. If a fight breaks out between teens in a school setting, for instance, 'it's not necessary to call the cops for that,' said Nashauna Johnson-Lenoir, a member of the initiative's steering committee and founding director of the Rochester, Minn.-based Journie Project, a youth mentoring effort. Aiming to reduce police encounters with people of color, the steering committee expected the county would cement a $5.3 million grant to the St. Paul-based Roots Wellness Center for pairs of behavioral specialists to respond to non-emergency calls in St. Paul and Roseville. The committee learned in January that a county staffer overseeing the initiative had been reassigned, and the contract never was signed. 'All of a sudden … there's no contract with Roots Wellness,' Johnson-Lenoir said. 'Nobody ever talked to us about what happened.' Johnson-Lenoir and other members eventually sat down with Ramsey County Manager Ling Becker, who she said informed them the county had 'no capacity' for a large-scale urban initiative, and that the St. Paul Police Department and mayor's office had shown little interest. A smaller, $600,000 county effort would expand an existing program in the suburbs, the committee was told. St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said Wednesday that he was not familiar with the Roots Wellness Center and had not weighed in on any initiatives involving the center. 'We have yet to launch it, as the county pulled it from us the week we were supposed to sign the contract, after months of negotiations and resources invested,' said Katy Armendariz, founder of the Roots Wellness Center. 'We are supposed to be launching in Maplewood very soon and we have a meeting with Ramsey County coming up in June. We haven't signed anything.' Since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, efforts to establish alternatives to traditional police response to both emergency and non-emergency calls have gained public attention, and in some cases public funding and rhetorical leverage. The reality on the ground, however, has been more nuanced, with some initiatives quietly falling by the wayside, rejected by voters and municipal leaders or landing under explicit attack by the Trump administration. Police unions often have been resistant. 'Conceptually, a lot of these things sound really good, and they look good on paper, and when it comes to real-world application, it just doesn't work,' said Mark Ross, president of the St. Paul Police Federation. 'What some person thinks is an innocuous, low-level call could turn into a schizophrenic person with a weapon, and for the most part, social workers aren't in the best position to handle that. Generally speaking, routine calls can go sideways really quickly.' The wide-ranging strategies, sometimes lumped together under the umbrella of 'Defund the Police,' have varied in their goals and outlook from the start. Some adherents have called for simply trimming police budgets and reallocating those resources to community-based violence prevention and alternative response efforts, some of which work hand-in-hand with police or are embedded inside departments. Other groups, like the Minneapolis organization MPD150, have called for building a 'police-free future' and wholeheartedly embraced the mission of replacing certain police departments, or even eliminating police and prisons altogether. Perhaps tellingly, MPD150 sunset itself around December 2022. A common thread has aimed for reforming other aspects of police response, such as banning chokeholds and instituting greater scrutiny of police use-of-force. For the movement, gains in each of those areas has been 'decidedly mixed,' said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, who pointed to strategic missteps among organizers, entrenched racism and the doubtful durability of some attempted reforms. 'Overall, Black Lives Matter aspirations fell short.' A recent 'Safe and Thriving Communities' report from New York University's School of Law found that Minneapolis has indeed diverted 9% of 911 calls to non-police responders, including traffic control, animal control, behavioral specialists and the city's 311 information line, as well as online reporting. 'Those are good metrics,' said Yohuru Williams, a history professor and director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas. 'If you could grow that over time, you'd be talking about a really novel way of getting the help out to people that need it. … There's still in some quarters a deep investment in these type of alternative interventions.' Still, more ambitious reforms have stumbled out of the gate. On the campaign trail for re-election in 2021, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey claimed he had banned no-knock police warrants. Just a few months later, 22-year-old Amir Locke was shot dead by a Minneapolis SWAT officer executing a no-knock warrant. 'Some of these changes do get implemented, but they don't get the long-term support and funding they need to actually succeed, with metrics for accountability,' said Greg Sullo, a spokesman for the progressive advocacy organization Minneapolis for the Many. 'I don't think the moment has passed,' Sullo added. 'People are still looking for comprehensive changes. … We need to actually commit to making those changes, not just temporary fixes here and there.' Meanwhile, instead of being defunded, police budgets generally have grown with time, and police contracts severed in the wake of officer-involved shootings have been reinstated. Within three days of Floyd's death, the University of Minnesota dropped its contracts with the Minneapolis Police Department for support and specialty services such as canine explosive detection and security at football games. Two years later, amid rising crime near campus, the university made an about-face and began rolling out fresh contracts with MPD. Following the police shooting death of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights in July 2016, the city of Falcon Heights severed its ties with the St. Anthony Police Department, which had handled its policing. In March, Falcon Heights came full circle and reinstated its contract with St. Anthony PD, which at first came as a surprise to members of Castile's family. Clarence Castile, Philando's uncle, said he was later reassured to learn that most of the original staff and officers of the St. Anthony PD had turned over since his nephew's death, including the police chief, and that officers now were assigned body cameras. He prays the culture of the department has evolved, as well. 'We all know we can't have a city without guardians and warriors, people to protect the innocent and lock up the evil,' said Clarence Castile, who served for a time as a community service officer. 'It has to be a special group of people who have training. You can't just have citizens doing the work without training for how to handle stressful situations.' 'All that 'Defund (the Police)' stuff, I didn't think it was a great idea,' added Castile, the board chair of Lights On!, a nonprofit that works closely with police departments to offer drivers repair vouchers instead of tickets if they're pulled over for broken taillights. 'It's a good idea to redirect some money and put the community in charge of some things, but never 100% on the community to protect and serve.' Joe Soucheray: George Floyd Square is an embarrassment to the man it's supposed to honor Ex-Minneapolis police chief recalls 'absolutely gut-wrenching' moment of seeing George Floyd video George Floyd: Minneapolis, St. Paul events mark his death, community response Justice Department moves to cancel Minneapolis police reform settlement Minnesota Freedom Fund to stop bailing out jailed defendants The St. Paul Police Department once drew praise in some corners for embedding social workers and behavioral health specialists in a police mental health unit dedicated to following up on mental health calls. The Community Outreach and Stabilization Unit (COAST) launched in 2018 but ended last year as the city transitioned instead to 'Familiar Faces,' which seeks to provide support services to the few dozen people who draw the most repeat attention from the city's emergency services. St. Paul, Minneapolis and Ramsey County continue to fund non-police efforts to get upstream of crime, such as nonprofit street outreach groups devoted to violence intervention, like A Mother's Love and MAD DADS in Minneapolis. Some alternative intervention programs have been marred by scandal, including a recent shootout in Minneapolis involving two members of an anti-violence organization. In Minneapolis, 'those policies either didn't work, or weren't implemented in a way that would be persuasive to policymakers,' said Jacobs, who foresees many such efforts soon petering out. 'We're seeing the city of Minneapolis pulling back. Some of the responses at the state level are not just from Republicans, but from DFLers saying, 'Wait a second, what are we really getting for all this money?'' After Floyd's death, more ambitious efforts to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department gained limited traction. In 2021, Minneapolis voters rejected a ballot measure — 56% to 44% — that would have replaced the MPD with a new public safety department. The prospect ran into political pushback from members of the city council, some of whom initially embraced and later abandoned the 'Defund' rhetoric over time, as well as Frey, who was handily re-elected that same year with 49% of the vote in a 19-way race. A major backdrop to that election involved soaring crime rates. The Minneapolis homicide rate in 2021 was triple what it was in 2011 as the city came one killing shy of breaking its 1995 all-time record of 97 homicides. To many voters, 'defunding' the police sounded a lot like eliminating police entirely. 'It was a huge misstep, even by those who sought to explain what 'Defund the Police' meant,' said Williams, noting the prospect of trimming police budgets and using the savings for alternative response or social spending got lost in translation. 'It did create an impression of a society without police, and communities of color — specifically the Black community in Minneapolis — rejected that. The community wanted good public safety. 'Defund' became kind of a slogan and a stand-in for what community was asking for.' Similar stories have played out across the country. Nationally, urban crime rates — including murders and carjackings — spiked heavily during the pandemic, though they've since fallen back toward pre-pandemic levels. Voters remain unforgiving. In 2022, Oakland, Calif.-area residents elected Pamela Price as Alameda County District Attorney based in part on her pledge to prosecute the police, only to recall her from office last November, after less than two years, amid concerns she was too soft on high-profile crimes. In November, progressive district attorneys lost their re-election bids to self-proclaimed 'tough on crime' Republican challengers in Los Angeles and Tampa, Fla. Not every reformer has had such a tough go of it, Sullo noted. In Philadelphia, citing declining homicide numbers and his efforts around criminal justice reform, progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner won the Democratic primary on Tuesday in a race with no Republican challenger, all but securing his re-election to a third term in office. That's not to say that other types of police reform haven't gained ground. In January, Frey and the Minneapolis City Council approved the terms of a federal consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, building on a DOJ investigation launched in April 2021, the day after a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering Floyd. The federal investigation found that the Minneapolis Police Department racially discriminated against Black and Native people for years using 'unjustified deadly force and excessive less-lethal force,' and that the department had cultivated a policing culture that enabled Chauvin to perpetrate deadly violence against Floyd. That court-enforceable consent decree — which calls for an independent monitor, changes to police supervision requirements, training and other reforms — and another in Louisville, Ky., now are under fire by the Trump administration, which wants both dismissed. Frey has said he'll move forward with enforcing the reform mandates anyway, with or without help from the federal government. For some Black leaders, that's not particularly reassuring. 'It feels like a 'here we go again' moment,' Williams said. 'If we could have done it ourselves, we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.' '100 deadliest days' on roads kick off Memorial Day weekend Apple Valley park's $16M renovation to feature inclusive playground, new pool Memorial Day events in the Twin Cities metro area this weekend Judicial cookout for the homeless renamed for late founder Jim Randall West Seventh garbage truck depot wins City Council's OK
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Look inside the new luxury 'treetop' hotels opening in Wisconsin Dells
Announced last summer, the Treetop Villas at Mirror Lake, a new resort in Wisconsin Dells, will officially open on June 2. Additionally, the Dawn Manor Restaurant, located next door, opens on May 23. Both the restaurant and "treetop" hotel are new projects from Uphoff Resorts, and will be managed by St. Paul-based Morrissey Hospitality. The "treetop" accommodations aren't full-on treehouses like the famous Tree Hotel in Sweden. They are, however, elevated and have trees running through the cabin designs in addition to an impressive view of the surrounding natural scenery, including Mirror Lake. View the 21 images of this gallery on the original article The Treetop Villas are a set of four luxury cabins, three of which have two bedrooms and a sleeper sofa that can house up to six guests. The fourth unit has four bedrooms and allows for up to 10 guests. All four spaces include a kitchen, gas fireplace, and wardrobes with ski and snowboard equipment. Additionally, each rental has a deck with lounge seating, a fire pit, and a lake-facing hot tub. 'The Wisconsin Dells area is famous for having unique lodging options, so we strove to create a guest experience that truly stands out from the rest,' says Jason Ryan, senior architect and partner of ADCI, which designed the rooms. 'Each treehouse was meticulously placed to utilize the natural cliffs and preserve as many trees as possible, giving the guest the best views into the natural surroundings." Rooms at the Treetop Villas, which are located at 413 S. Burritt Ave. in Baraboo, start at $250 per night in the two-bedroom accommodations and $1,250 per night in the larger one. While the address says Baraboo, it's just a five-minute drive to the heart of the waterparks in the Dells. Nearby, the same groups have opened the Dawn Manor Restaurant, a relocated Victorian estate that overlooks the lake. The three-story restaurant offers period-themed dining (and a gift shop, because this is the Dells). It was relocated from its original site a few miles away and reconstructed with seven themed spaces throughout the building. Each dining room pays "respect to the various people who came to know and be a part of the history of the manor," the company says in an announcement. That includes The 1855 Room on the main level, which pays homage to the year the home was built. 'I feel like I've played a small part in preserving history that would have otherwise been lost,' says Steve Uphoff, CEO of Uphoff Resorts. 'This has truly been a passion project, with every detail thoughtfully designed to honor the eras of the past. Creating this unique dining experience gives guests the chance to see, feel, taste and breathe in the history of this home for the first time and let the legacy live on.' View the 18 images of this gallery on the original article The menu was constructed by co-culinary director Jayson Pettit and executive chef and co-director Justin Daper. They've crafted a modern American menu that includes a beef and bacon meatloaf, prime rib, and a burger. Meanwhile, the bar program was developed by the Minneapolis-founded Tattersall Distilling, which is now primarily based in River Falls, Wis. The menu mixes classic cocktails and signature drinks. It also features three custom spirits from Tattersall that are exclusively available at the Dawn Manor: Vanderpoel Gin, Straight Rye Whiskey, and, since this is Wisconsin, a bottled Brandy Old Fashioned.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Local students win MTA Foundation scholarships
May 8—BEMIDJI — Paul Bunyan Communications recently announced that Juel Luettinger of Bemidji and Gunther Erbstoesser of Hines have been awarded scholarships from the Minnesota Telecom Alliance Foundation. Luettinger, a senior at Bemidji High School, received a $2,000 General MTA Foundation Scholarship. She plans to attend the University of St. Thomas. Gunther Erbstoesser, a senior at Blackduck High School, was selected as the recipient of the prestigious $3,000 Bud Morrow Award. He plans to attend St. Cloud State University. The Bud Morrow Scholarship is named after a long-time leader in the Minnesota Telecom Industry. Morrow spent his career at the Lakedale Telephone Company in Annandale, Minnesota. He served on many MTA committees and led changes in the industry during his tenure, a release said. The MTA Foundation is part of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance, a St. Paul-based trade organization representing more than 44 telephone companies and cooperatives throughout Minnesota. In addition to providing the opportunity for local students to apply for a statewide scholarship through MTA, Paul Bunyan Communications provides scholarships annually to local students from within the cooperative's service territory. "We're excited to have this opportunity to invest in the futures of outstanding students like Juel and Gunther," Paul Bunyan Communications Chief Executive Officer Chad Bullock said in the release. "Rural communities need bright, educated and passionate young people to help lead us forward. "It's always a proud moment for Paul Bunyan Communications when local students are recognized with statewide honors."
