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Minneapolis, MN

Record-breaking warmth cost the Minneapolis Park Board $750,000 — for just one week of skating

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Record-breaking warmth cost the Minneapolis Park Board 0,000 — for just one week of skating


Record-breaking warmth this winter melted Minneapolis’ outdoor ice rink traditions — and cost the park system $750,000 for just a single week of skate-worthy ice.

For almost two months, park workers got up before dawn to flood the 45 ice rinks in parks throughout Minneapolis, only to see their work melt away in the daytime. A proper freeze finally arrived near the end of January.

Lyndale Farmstead in south Minneapolis opened on Jan. 17, followed by every other rink within the next three days. But the cold didn’t last. Almost as soon as skaters laced up, the ice started to melt again. Within a week, all rinks were slush.

The cost for eight days of outdoor skating, hockey and broomball: $750,187, or about $94,000 per day. Now, some parks leaders are pondering the future of the city’s much-loved outdoor rink system in a warming climate.

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“I think it’s a wake up call,” said Park Commissioner Becky Alper. “If you look at the long-range forecasts, I think we can expect more variability in temperatures … Let’s plan for that so we’re better serving the public with the resources that we have.”

Alper, an ice skater, has asked the board’s recreation committee to gather data including how much the system spends on ice rinks annually for how many days of use, what planning is done for unseasonable weather and whether climate experts are ever consulted.

This winter’s record-breaking temperatures — caused by the combination of climate change and El Niño — shouldn’t be the benchmark for any kind of year-to-year prediction, said assistant state climatologist Pete Boulay. But the state is steadily warming, with climate patterns morphing to resemble Iowa’s. In recent years, winter overnight lows have seen the biggest upswing, which is particularly detrimental to ice-building.

“Over time, we’ve had definitely warmer winters. We’ve seen that through the years, the shortening of the coldest part of the season,” Boulay said. “In a cost-benefit ratio, what would be the tipping point of do you do outdoor rinks or not? That’s up to the bean counters to figure out.”

Cities can use refrigerated rinks, like the Roseville Skating Center, to hedge their bets on outdoor ice in an uncertain climate, Boulay said. But they’ll have to decide if it’s worth the cost.

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Alper and Commissioner Billy Menz have also suggested that park staff consider the feasibility of incorporating refrigerated rinks into new park plans.

“I’ve been really pushing the board that if we’re going to act boldly for climate change, we also have to act boldly in the area of recreation, and this is a place where we could do that,” said Menz. “Because without acting boldly we’re going to have no ice to skate on.”

Refrigerated rinks are part of the long-range plans of Columbia Park in Northeast Minneapolis and North Commons Park in north Minneapolis, which is slated to receive a $35 million makeover in the next few years. Billed as the biggest neighborhood park construction project in the Park Board’s history and already running over budget, North Commons’ schematics include a placeholder for an unfunded refrigerated rink. Northside skaters would need to raise private funds to make that a reality.

Park staff estimate a refrigerated rink at North Commons would cost $6 million to $8 million, including a canopy to provide ice-extending shade.

New Directions Youth Ministry, a nonprofit that runs a low-cost hockey and figure skating program at North Commons, hopes to build it for less. The organization is getting ready to launch a capital campaign that describes bringing a refrigerated rink to north Minneapolis as an equity issue: kids skating in defiance of the racial stereotypes and financial barriers that have traditionally kept low-income people of color out of hockey.

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Kids whose families can afford to participate in club sports and rent indoor ice typically skate five to six days a week, but lower-income kids can develop the same skills on an outdoor rink for free, said Dale Hulme, executive director of New Directions. This winter’s late freeze and early ice-out meant the hockey program’s 70 kids got to hit the rink at North Commons just twice. They made up some of their missed park league games indoors at Parade Ice Gardens, but with no practice in between, it was virtually impossible to compete.

If they could raise the money for an outdoor refrigerated rink at North Commons, it would help level the playing field between Northside players and their more privileged peers when the weather doesn’t cooperate, said Chris Williams, North Commons hockey coach. He used to live in a working-class Hispanic neighborhood of southwest Detroit, where an artificially cooled rink was a neighborhood centerpiece. He’d love to see that at North Commons.

“We played a game on Saturday, and our goalie had played like two other times before. … If he’d had the practices, he would have been that much farther along,” Williams said. “So our mission is to provide this low-cost opportunity to get involved in hockey because hockey is just one of these things, a Minnesota thing … and I think it’s important for the kids to have this.”

The Minneapolis Park Board’s first maintained outdoor rink was Loring Pond in 1884. It has been providing free skating for 140 years.

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Minneapolis, MN

Man dead, 2 others hurt in overnight shooting in Minneapolis

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Man dead, 2 others hurt in overnight shooting in Minneapolis


Police say two people were hurt and one other man died.

A homicide investigation is underway in Minneapolis after a shooting early Friday morning killed one man and hurt two others.

Minneapolis police were called to the area of East Franklin Avenue and Chicago Avenue at around 12:30 a.m.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS cameras caught more than 65 evidence markers scattered across the ground in the area and shattered glass at a bus shelter. Some nearby businesses also appeared to have some damage.

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Minneapolis police are still working to determine what led up to the shooting and who was involved but investigators say first responders found the three men suffering from gunshot wounds.

One injured man is in his 40s, the other in his 50s, police say. Both were taken to a hospital by ambulance.

The third man died at the scene. His name and age haven’t yet been publicly released.

Police say early information suggests the men were on a sidewalk when at least one person opened fire, then fled in a vehicle.

So far, no arrests have been made.

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Anyone with information about what happened is asked to call police at 612-673-5845 to leave a voicemail or email policetips@minneapolismn.gov.

“This is a tragic and deeply disturbing act of violence that has taken a life, and left others seriously injured,” MPD Chief Brian O’Hara said. “This kind of violence is unacceptable, and we are committed to identifying those responsible and holding them accountable.”

Minneapolis police investigating alleyway shooting near East Franklin Avenue

It comes less than 30 hours after another serious shooting along East Franklin Avenue, just a half-mile west of Friday’s scene. That incident left a man hospitalized with a potentially life-threatening gunshot wound. No arrests have been announced in that case either.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS is still working to learn more about this shooting. Stay with KSTP-TV for the latest updates on air and on the KSTP app.

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A Minneapolis woman recounts death of Alex Pretti as lawyers eye a class action lawsuit

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A Minneapolis woman recounts death of Alex Pretti as lawyers eye a class action lawsuit


MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minneapolis woman who confronted federal immigration officers alongside Alex Pretti in January was among a group of potential litigants who spoke out Thursday about alleged excessive force against people protesting or monitoring the enforcement surge in Minnesota.

Georgia Savageford, who introduced herself as Wynnie at a news conference, said she was inside an officer’s vehicle when she saw federal agents shoot Pretti.

“That day has changed me forever,” she said. “The trauma will haunt me for the rest of my life, and I will never be the same.”

Savageford said she had been legally observing the actions of federal officers in Minneapolis ever since the shooting death of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7. She said she was doing so again on the morning of Jan. 24 when an agent pushed her twice and caused her to fall.

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“As I was going down, three agents proceeded to tackle me and drag me face-down into the middle of the street. They knelt on my back, twisted my arms and my legs to the ground, and handcuffed me. The cuffs were so tight I lost feeling in my hands, which resulted in temporary nerve damage,” she recounted.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond Thursday to emails seeking comment. Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for access to evidence they say they need to independently investigate the killings.

Savageford said Pretti recorded video of her arrest and yelled at agents to leave her alone.

She said the officers put her in the back of a vehicle, from which she saw agents shoot and kill Pretti on the other side of the street.

“At that moment, I thought I was going to die too. I pleaded with the agents to understand why another life was taken, and to not take mine,” she said.

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She added that they told her to shut up and to stop being hysterical. She said they then took her to an ICE holding facility where she was held for 12 hours in a cold cell without ready access to food, water or the bathroom until she was released without being charged.

“I did not know him, but I knew he had my back,” she said of Pretti. “I know the kind of heart he had. One that loves and protects without limits.”

Savageford shared her story at a news conference where civil rights attorney John Burris, of Oakland, California, and other lawyers laid out how they’re paving the way for potential class-action lawsuits over alleged excessive force used against protesters and monitors.

Burris, who specializes in police misconduct, helped win an $11 million settlement against the Oakland Police Department in 2003, and helped win a civil jury verdict of $3.8 million for the late motorist Rodney King, who was beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1991.

He said he and his colleagues have filed complaints with federal agencies involved in the Minnesota enforcement surge on behalf of 10 people, including Savageford, as the first step in a process that’s likely to lead to a larger class-action lawsuit.

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“We have many others that are under investigation that have not completed the process. But I thought it was important for us to start this process now. Put the government on notice that we’re here,” Burris said.



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Boy who shielded classmate during school shooting receives Medal of Honor

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Boy who shielded classmate during school shooting receives Medal of Honor


A fifth grader from Minneapolis received the Citizen Honor Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Victor Greenawalt jumped in front of his friend during a mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

Weston Halsne told local station KARE 11 that Greenawalt saved his life.

“It was really scary,” Halsne told KARE 11. “My friend Victor, like, saved me, though. Because he laid on top of me. But he got hit.”

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Two students were killed and several were injured after a shooter opened fire through the windows of the church last year. The shooter died on the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Congressional Medal Society said in a statement that Greenawalt showed “extraordinary bravery far beyond his years.”

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – SEPTEMBER 3: Flowers line a pathway to Annunciation Catholic Church as U.S. Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance visit to pay their respects to victims of the shooting there on September 3, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The shooting left two students dead and many more wounded. (Photo by Alex Wroblewski-Pool/Getty Images)

“Instinctively, Victor protected a classmate with his own body, directly saving their life during the attack,” the society said in a written statement. “His courage and selflessness became a powerful symbol of hope and humanity for a community in crisis.”

Greenawalt was hospitalized following the shooting, according to a verified GoFundMe page. His sister was also injured.

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He flew to Washington with his family on Wednesday to accept the award.

Greeenawalt met with Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., while on Capitol Hill. The ceremony also included a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery.

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He received the Young Hero award, which honors individuals age 17 or younger for their courage.

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