Crime

In the first half of this year, murder rates were down in Minneapolis — a fact that’s being noticed nationwide. This morning, the Washington Post notes that Minnesota’s biggest city — which had six homicides in the first half of 2009, well short of the 18 recorded for all of 2008 — is joined by [...]

If you missed Kristi Piehl’s breathless April 25 KSTP-TV report on the pair of retired NYPD detectives who believe there’s a network of serial killers murdering college men around the country — over 40 to date, they claim, and perhaps 100 — then you’ve probably also missed the overnight growth of a new urban legend [...]

The trouble started about two years ago. Homes on the North Side were exploding in record numbers. Cooper pipes were being stripped, leaving gas lines gaping and unstable. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, two homes would blow up in a single neighborhood. They’d leave giant wounds in neighboring structures. Like the rest of [...]

At least five people have been injured in a shooting at an Omaha, Neb., mall.  Reports are still sketchy, but evidently the shooter opened fire from the top level of a Von Maur store into the crowd below.  More information will be posted as it develops.

Two people are being held hostage by an armed man at the Rochester, New Hampshire presidential campaign headquarters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

According to MSNBC, the man told the four people in the room that he had a bomb strapped to his chest.  The man did allow a campaign volunteer to leave with her infant [...]

Former Metropolitan Council Chairman Ted Mondale was arrested early Wednesday morning on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Mondale, the son of former Vice President Walter Mondale, was pulled over by the Minnesota State Patrol at 1:48 a.m., and refused to take a Breathalyzer test.  Under Minnesota law, a driver’s license is automatically revoked for refusing to [...]

Three players on the University of Minnesota football team were arrested Friday on suspicion of raping an 18-year-old woman.

The players, junior Alex Daniels, sophomore Keith Massey, and sophomore E.J. Jones, have not yet been charged.  Bail has been set at $100,000.

According to reports, the woman was allegedly raped between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning; further [...]

Paul Schmelzer co-wrote this story

With three murders committed during the first 11 days of this year, Minneapolis is on pace to quadruple last year’s 60 homicides. The brunt of the victims

When two men started a suspected arson at a Minneapolis mosque in late August,  Police initially expressed confidence that they would soon apprehend the culprits, because security cameras captured full body images. But lack of video clarity and a followable lead might send the case to oblivion, police said.

That news makes mosque officials unhappy.

“We provided [...]

Yesterday we reported on how Tim Pawlenty’s dismantling of the Minnesota Statewide Gang Strike Force hurt Minnesotans across the state.  The Gang Strike Force used to have offices in Moorhead, Duluth, St. Cloud, and Rochester but those staffers were all let go when the Governor merged the Gang and Drug Strike forces.  Now, unfortunately, we’re [...]