Minnesota News Network

State lawmakers are looking more closely, after a report found some Twin Cities municipalities are jacking-up charges for building permits beyond what their costs are. Republican Representative Jim Nash from Waconia says for every thousand dollars over-and-above that’s charged for building permits, about four thousand potential buyers are knocked out of the housing market: “If we’re trying to promote housing affordability, if we’re trying to give people the American Dream, that’s not exactly a good way to do it,” he says.

Nash says under state rules, cities can only “pass through” their costs on building permits — not charge more. But Irene Kao (GOW) with the League of Minnesota Cities responds that regulation refers to *other* municipal fees. She says for building permits, “it’s based on the value of the land, the valuation, and that’s how it’s done, and that’s according to state rules.”

Representative Nash says he’s preparing legislation to address the problem.

A federal judge has sentenced a man from Buffalo to nearly 40 years in prison plus lifetime supervised release for producing child pornography. Prosecutors say 29-year-old Zachary Witry used social media platforms, posing as a 15-year-old boy to make contact with over 200 girls ranging in age from 13 to 17. They say he obtained sexually explicit videos and photographs from his victims, met with three of them in person and sexually assaulted each of them. Witry has two previous state court convictions for solicitation of a child, one in Sherburne County in 2012 and one in Wright County in 2015.

Essentia-Saint Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth and the nurses union go back into contract negotiations today after Minnesota Nurses Association members did informational picketing outside the hospital Tuesday. Wages and benefits are among the issues, and bargaining team member Chris Rubesch says nurses want to ensure there’s sufficient staff to continue providing safe care, but also to educate patients: “Make sure that they understand their health, their medications — to make sure ultimately that they stay healthy and stay out of the hospital.”

Essentia in a statement says they value contributions of their skilled and compassionate nurses. Nursing staff at neighboring Saint Luke’s in Duluth have also been in contract talks but no bargaining sessions are currently scheduled.

Miracle-on-Ice star and Lutsen land developer Mark Pavelich remains in jail in Grand Marais, facing felony assault and gun-related charges, reports the Duluth News-Tribune. Prosecutors say he struck a neighbor on the back, arms and legs with a metal pole after accusing them of “spiking his beer”, and was also in possession of an illegally-shortened shotgun. A judge said there’s reason to doubt 61-year-old Pavelich’s competency and ordered a mental health evaluation.

Democratic presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar used her Monday afternoon appearance at an Iowa forum on Native American issues to highlight infrastructure problems on tribal lands. “If they can hook up the entire country of Iceland, I think we can hook up our Native American reservations… and our tribal lands to make sure that they have high-speed internet for our kids,” she said.

Harold Frazier of the Cheyenne Sioux Tribe told Klobuchar there are five washed-out roads on his reservation from spring flooding. “Nobody cares. It’s shameful to see the neglect in your own backyard. I have no faith in the federal government. We’ve been lied to enough,” Frazier said. Klobuchar says as president she’d make road repairs a priority, along with “green” solutions.

Metro Transit replacing its Green Line trains with buses between 2 and 4 a-m on weekdays eliminates an option for significant numbers of homeless people who have been sleeping on board in the early morning hours. Metro Transit’s Howie Padilla says keeping homeless people from spending overnight on the trains “absolutely was not the primary reason” for the change in service hours. He says, “One thing this has really done is really ramped up those discussions, especially as people are looking forward to the winter and the cold months. What’s gonna happen then?”

Padilla indicates Metro Transit is looking for partnerships with other agencies to assist homeless people. He says the Metro Transit Police Department has a “homeless action team” — six officers whose job is to work overnight and try to connect people with shelters and other services.

Early morning train service from 2 a-m to 4 a-m on Metro Transit’s Green Line has now been replaced by buses Monday through Friday — but trains will still operate around-the-clock on weekends, with *no* service changes Friday night into Saturday morning, or Saturday night into Sunday morning. Metro Transit’s Howie Padilla says it’s to allow maintenance without putting repair crews at risk, for example, “When somebody’s… in a bucket working overhead, and another person is looking to make sure that a train’s not coming.” Padilla says they’ll no longer have to worry about that when trains aren’t running.

Padilla says no promises, but the hope is that regular overnight maintenance will reduce the number of extended Green Line shutdowns for major repairs.