MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Law enforcement officials in Minnesota are reacting to the horrific attack in New Orleans, saying they stand in solidarity with the New Orleans Police Department during this difficult time.

MPD reflecting

What they’re saying: “We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and families affected by the tragic attack in New Orleans. This senseless act of violence is deeply shocking, and our hearts go out to everyone involved,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara on Wednesday.

Security top of mind

Dig deeper: The attack comes at a time when conversations around revitalizing the urban core of the City of Minneapolis revolves around re-imagining areas like Nicollet Mall and the Warehouse District to attract more visitors and host special events.

“Downtown is becoming a playground. It is becoming a destination. A place of entertainment that is thriving in every single sense,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey when he announced his latest goals with the Downtown Action Plan in October.

One measure of success for this plan would mean large crowds.

MPD planning for high traffic

What to know: For law enforcement, especially in major cities, it is a critical task to ensure public safety at crowded gatherings and events.

Chief O’Hara reiterated his agency’s commitment to working tirelessly with partners to protect the community from threats, while saying they are constantly evaluating security measures.

“MPD has been and will continue to plan for and staff major events in the city, along with additional staffing during high traffic times like our Late Night Safety plan does during bar close downtown,” O’Hara said. “The numerous high-profile national events that were hosted in Minneapolis in 2024 without major disruptions is a testament to the incredible work being done by all members of the MPD.”

O’Hara also added he commends the courage and swift actions of the first responders in New Orleans.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – It looks like 2024 is going to be tied for the warmest year on record for the Twin Cities.

Warmest years in Minnesota

What we know: As of Jan. 1, 2025, the average temperature in the Twin Cities was 50.9 degrees in 2024, which is tied with 1931.

There are many recent years in the top-seven for warmest years in Minnesota, including 2012, 2016, 2021 and 2023, setting a warming trend in recent years.

Warm weather in 2024

Digging deeper: 2024 being tied for warmest year on record comes after a record-warm fall in Minnesota.

September-November 2024 was the warmest autumn in 130 years in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The average temperature for those three months was 50.26 degrees, beating the previous record set in 1963.

READ MORE: MN weather: Warmest fall on record in the Twin Cities

The DNR says that seven of the 10 warmest autumns on record have happened since 2000.

This autumn was also the 10th driest autumn on record.

Last winter had heat waves that caused record high temperatures and a lack of snow, with the majority of the state seeing 50% less of its normal snowfall, according to the DNR.

When Minneapolis resident Jamie Laudert took her two sons for a routine checkup nearly two years ago, she was shocked to learn both her 2-year-old, Leo, and 1-year-old, Dario, had tested positive for elevated lead in their blood.

After the positive tests, officials from Hennepin County and the city of Minneapolis stepped in to help Laudert find and get rid of the lead in her more than 100-year-old home. That meant replacing their windows, putting new treads on the basement stairs, and scraping, then repainting, chipping paint on their porch.

“We never would have been able to afford all of the things that they gave us, and if we tried to do it ourselves, it would have taken us many years to get this work done,” Laudert said during an October 22 news conference in front of her home, where the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development presented city officials with a $6.7 million check for work to mitigate lead exposure. “So we are so incredibly grateful.”

Thanks to an infusion of state and federal funding, Minneapolis is in the midst of a massive effort to remove lead from residential homes, which includes replacing lead service lines at 40,000 homes in the next decade.

The city has completed an inventory of all water service lines in Minneapolis, and letters went out to homeowners with lead service lines in mid-November. The city plans to replace 400 service lines — free of charge to homeowners — by the end of 2024, and another 1,000 in 2025.

If you live in an older Minneapolis home, here’s how you get it inspected:

How does lead show up in homes?

About 80% of homes in Minneapolis were built before 1978, when the federal government banned the use of lead-based paint.

The presence of lead paint itself is not a hazard, said Alex Vollmer, manager of the city’s Lead and Healthy Homes program, in an interview. But the deterioration of the paint through normal wear and tear, like walking on a floor or opening and closing windows, can create dust, which when ingested by a child can, in turn, cause elevated blood lead levels.

“That’s kind of been the historical standard for identifying lead based paint hazards at properties and in performing more abatement,” Vollmer said.

Aging water infrastructure has also been a focus for the city, as hundreds of water service lines — the pipes that connect the city’s water main to the meter inside a resident’s property — are made of lead and need to be replaced. The service lines could contaminate a resident’s drinking water and expose them to lead.

Nationally, the cost of replacing an aging service line ranges from $1,200 to $12,300, according to estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency.

What does lead poisoning look like?

Lead poisoning in children and pregnant people can cause damage to the brain and nervous system but doesn’t show immediate outward symptoms, making it nearly impossible to detect without a blood test.

Despite federal regulations, the Legislature passed the Minnesota Lead Poisoning Prevention Act to further prevent and reduce lead exposure to children and pregnant people. The current threshold for elevated blood lead levels is 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, which is down from 5 in 2014 and 10 in 2008.

In 2023, there were more than 100 cases of lead poisoning in Hennepin County, said Amy Waller, a public health nurse with the county, during the news conference on Oct. 22.

When children are found to have elevated blood levels, parents are given education on nutrition and assistance monitoring children’s development going forward.

“Lead is very dangerous, but lead poisoning is preventable,” Waller said. “Learn what lead paint looks like. We want to be using these resources before children are lead poisoned.”

How does lead abatement work?

Lead abatement, or the process of removing lead from a home, starts with an inspection including tests of a home’s high-contact painted surfaces, such as windows, porches, floors, doors and stairs. 

The process of identifying the source of lead could take a few days, then a consultation determines how long the work will take, and whether families can remain in the home during the process. 

As of October, Vollmer’s department has held 19 lead education events in communities around the city. At those events, 265 children were tested for blood lead levels in partnership with the Sustainable Resources Center’s Leadie Eddie mobile testing van.

Since 2022, the Lead and Healthy Homes program has proactively inspected more than 750 homes citywide, and found that more than 600 of them had lead paint hazards. In that same timeframe, the team has spent $3.2 million on contracted services that focused on replacing windows, doors and stair treads.

How can I get my home inspected?

Vollmer said the program uses a number of pathways to engage families. The first is a diagnosis of elevated blood lead levels in a child. The city also has an “open enrollment” option where homeowners can ask for inspections.

The Lead and Healthy Homes program has three grants to fund renovation efforts, all with different eligibility rules based on family income, the age of the home and whether a child lives there, among other factors.

City staff also table at community events and doorknock in priority neighborhoods, or neighborhoods that have more children with elevated blood lead levels, based on state data and data collected by the city.

“We don’t want our children to be used as lead detectors, and we want to make sure that all houses in Minneapolis are safe,” Vollmer said at the news conference. “We believe that affordable housing should not be substandard housing, so we want to provide Minneapolis property owners and residents with tools to make sure that they can keep their family safe.”