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Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis police arrest man for ‘terroristic threats’ made to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah

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Minneapolis police arrest man for ‘terroristic threats’ made to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah


(JTA) — The Minneapolis Police Department on Friday arrested a 21-year-old man for making “terroristic threats” against a local synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, three weeks after the man allegedly threatened to “shoot up” the synagogue.

Jaden LeBlanc’s arrest occurred a day after a member of Temple Israel’s security team reported spotting a man with a gun outside the Reform synagogue during holiday services.

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Investigators concluded that the man, who fled the scene without firing a shot, was the same person who had been behind threatening phone calls made to Temple Israel on Sept. 11, which MPD Chief Brian O’Hara said had been carried out “using an app to spoof phone calls.” O’Hara said MPD did not locate a weapon and did not know why LeBlanc targeted the synagogue.

“We do not have evidence to suggest that this incident was antisemitic in nature or motivated by hate or bias,” O’Hara said during a press conference on Saturday. “However, it is especially concerning the time that this occurred.”

Reached for additional comment, the MPD pointed to its statement and press conference.

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Temple Israel in Minneapolis. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

High alert for US Jews

The incident comes at a moment of high alert for Jews in the United States, with tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza adding to longstanding concerns about security threats facing Jewish institutions. Like many synagogues, Temple Israel — where Minneapolis’ Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey, prayed on Rosh Hashanah — employs private security guards in addition to coordinating with local police.

The MPD convened Minneapolis synagogues, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas and other local Jewish leaders and students in September to develop a security plan for the High Holidays and the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, and discussed measures to “enhance patrols around synagogues and community centers,” according to an MPD statement. A security officer working the special detail on Oct. 3, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, alerted police upon seeing the man, who the MPD says was LeBlanc.

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LeBlanc fled the scene, police say, but was found and arrested the following day. He was booked into Hennepin County Jail. O’Hara said a weapon was not recovered during the police search.

Frey spoke alongside O’Hara and Temple Israel’s senior rabbi, Marcia Zimmerman, at the Saturday press conference.

“When you go to worship as a Jew, when you go to worship as any background, ethnicity, or religion, you want to do so with peace,” Frey said.

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“For a Jew, during the High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, the whole concept is to reflect [on] yourself over the last year — to determine how you can be your best version of self, where you can apologize to those who you have hurt, and to where you can be better yourself and better in your community to make the world a better place,” he added. “And doing that gets a whole lot harder if you’re worried about your safety and the safety of your loved ones.”

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Zimmerman stressed the importance of sharing accurate information, which she said led her to take the unusual step of speaking at a press conference on Shabbat.

“Every religious community should be able to worship without fear, especially on the holiest days of their year,” she said. “A threat to any religious community is a threat to all of us.”

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O’Hara said his department had been tracking other threats around the country — including “hoaxes,” a reference to the hundreds of false bomb threats and swatting incidents against Jewish institutions in the past year — but that MPD was not aware of any specific threats at this time.

In an email to congregants, Zimmerman and Temple Israel President Anne Stanfield acknowledged how “distressing” news of the threat to the synagogue would feel, especially with additional Jewish holidays approaching.

“We continue to be grateful for your ongoing commitment to our robust seen and unseen security measures,” they wrote, according to TC Jewfolk, a local Jewish publication. “In addition to our strong security protocols, we continue to believe that the best antidote to antisemitism is coming together through prayer, song, community, and pride in our Jewish identity.”

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Minneapolis, MN

Minnesota weather: Gorgeous Sunday with a warmer Monday ahead

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Minnesota weather: Gorgeous Sunday with a warmer Monday ahead


A sunny and warm Sunday is in store for the Twin Cities, with even higher temperatures expected on Monday before a chance of rain and cooler air returns later in the week.

Sunday forecast

Local perspective:

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Sunday is starting with some cloud cover before sunshine moves in with highs near 70 degrees around the metro and southern parts of the state. 

Winds will be much lighter than Saturday, coming from the south at 5 to 10 mph with only occasional gusts up to 15 mph. 

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The Brainerd Lakes area will see temperatures in the 60s, while the North Shore will be cooler, which is typical for this time of year. 

Sunday’s weather is expected to be dry and pleasant.

Overnight, temperatures will drop to the upper 30s and lower 40s, with some clouds moving in ahead of Monday. 

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Extended forecast 

What’s next:

Monday could be the warmest day of the week, with highs in the lower 70s for the Twin Cities and some spots in southern Minnesota possibly reaching close to 80 degrees.

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Winds will shift from southerly to southeasterly and then easterly as the day goes on, but should remain light. 

After the warm start to the week, a cold front will move through on Tuesday, bringing a chance for a few rain showers in the early morning. 

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Temperatures will likely drop to the upper 40s by Wednesday and Thursday, with another front possibly bringing showers late Friday into early Saturday.

The rest of the extended forecast calls for temperatures close to or just below average, with highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s.

The Source: This story uses information from the FOX 9 weather forecast.

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Minneapolis, MN

Man found dead in south Minneapolis house fire

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Man found dead in south Minneapolis house fire


Firefighters are investigating the Minneapolis’s second fire fatality of the year after a man died in a house fire Saturday afternoon. 

Fatal fire on 28th Avenue South

What we know:

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According to the Minneapolis Fire Department (MFD), fire crews arrived shortly after 1:00 p.m. and found smoke coming from the second floor of a single-family home on 28th Avenue South. Bystanders alerted firefighters that someone might be trapped inside.

Crews had to work through heavy debris to reach the upstairs area. It took about 40 minutes to fully put out the fire.

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During the primary search, firefighters found a man in his 60s dead on the second floor. No one else was found after searching all the floors.

Minneapolis Animal Care and Control took in a dog found outside the home.

Assistant Chief Wes Van Vickle said, “The department is grateful to the neighbors who alerted fire crews that someone may still have been inside, allowing them to act quickly.”

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Fire safety reminders and community response

What they’re saying:

“This afternoon’s tragic loss of life weighs heavily on all of us, and we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” said Van Vickle.

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He also encourages the public to regularly check and maintain smoke detectors and fire extinguishers at home.

There were no other injuries reported. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner is working to confirm the man’s identity.

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What we don’t know:

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and the man’s name has not been released.

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Minneapolis, MN

Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump

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Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump


ST. PAUL, Minn. — Organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies across the country are predicting that the protests against the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration could add up to one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history, with Minnesota taking center stage.

Organizers say more than 3,100 events have been registered in all 50 states, with more than 9 million people expected to participate.

And they’ve designated the rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul as the national flagship event, in recognition of how the state where federal agents fatally shot two people who were monitoring Trump’s immigration crackdown became an epicenter of resistance.

Headlining that observance will be Bruce Springsteen, performing “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote in response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and in tribute to the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets over the winter. Springsteen’s Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, which has a “No Kings” theme, kicks off Tuesday in Minneapolis.

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Minnesota organizers have told state officials they expect 100,000 people could converge on the Capitol grounds, where last June’s event drew an estimated 80,000 people.

The St. Paul rally will also feature singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda,Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of other activists, labor leaders and elected officials.

The White House dismissed the nationwide protests as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.

“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

Rallies are also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. Countries with constitutional monarchies call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.

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For those unable to attend in person, another activist group, Stand Up For Science, is hosting a “virtual and accessible” event online.

National organizers told reporters in an online news conference Thursday that they expect Saturday’s protests to be larger than the first two rounds of No Kings rallies, which they estimate drew more than 5 million people in June and more than 7 million in October.

“This administration’s actions are angering not just Democratic voters or folks in big blue city centers – they are crossing a line for people in red and rural areas, in the suburbs, all over the country,” said Leah Greenberg, the other co-executive director of Indivisible. “The defining story of this Saturday’s mobilization is not just how many people are protesting, but where they are protesting,”

Two-thirds of the RSVPs have come from outside of major urban centers, Greenberg said, listing registration surges in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well in competitive suburban areas of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

“Millions of us are rising up from all walks of life, from rural communities to big cities at No Kings,” said Katie Bethell, executive director of MoveOn, another major organizer. “And as we do so, we will send the loudest, clearest message yet that this country does not belong to kings, dictators, tyrants. It belongs to us.”

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