Minneapolis Mayor Hodges talks about decision to reveal sexual abuse

After revealing on Monday she was sexually abused as a child, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges spoke to Kare: “Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges says it is time to talk about sexual assault. That is why she’s sharing her story of being sexually abused as a child. …’Last fall, I met with a University of Minnesota student who is a survivor of rape there. She was talking to me about her story, her experience with police. It was in that meeting that I realized — I’m a public figure, I haven’t told my story, it would be useful right now if I had because I could have that conversation with her. … ,” Hodges told KARE 11’s Jana Shortal in an exclusive interview.”

It wasn’t for lack of marketing. Patrick Kennedy of the Strib says, “A delay in new commercials and slower sales have led to an inventory glut for MyPillow, and the Chaska company has laid off 140 of its 1,600 employees, CEO Mike Lindell said. ‘I was so devastated by having to do it, but we don’t have room to make any more pillows’, Lindell said. ‘When we get our advertising done we are going to be hiring back’. MyPillow does direct-to-consumer marketing, and new advertising drives consumer purchases. Lindell said he’s been working on new commercials since January.” Really? More commercials?  

It wasn’t The Big One. The Mankato Free Press has a story saying, “Forceful enough to shake the fortress-like Blue Earth County Courthouse and to rattle buildings across the Minnesota River Valley, the tremor that rolled through the city Tuesday morning made more than a few Mankatoans think ‘earthquake.’ What it actually was, according to Mankato police and officials at the Jefferson Quarry, was a scheduled blast at the quarry that was amplified by atmospheric conditions to create the equivalent of a 2.8 Richter scale temblor.”

Cops and rescuers out on the St. Croix are not happy with the dude and his half sunk 52-foot yacht. Says Mary Divine in the PiPress, “After a 52-foot yacht crashed on the St. Croix River in Bayport early Sunday morning, the law enforcement response was swift and sweeping. Among the agencies that responded to the call of a man missing in the river at 2:50 a.m. Sunday: Washington County, Minnesota State Patrol, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Lakeview Emergency Medical Services. Divers from fire departments in Bayport, Stillwater, Mahtomedi, Scandia, Lower St. Croix Valley and Woodbury were called in to search the river after the man’s girlfriend told police that she last saw the man ‘kind of swimming, kind of standing’ in the water. After a full day of searching, authorities heard from the man’s attorney on Monday morning. Jason Elgersma, 36, of Minneapolis, was ‘alive and well’, the attorney said. … [Police] checked the boat and river for possible victims and found a flotation device and a duffel bag on the shoreline directly west of the boat. According to Cmdr. Andy Ellickson of the Washington County sheriff’s office, the duffel bag contained: a pair of wet jeans, a belt, Elgersma’s U.S. passport, his iPhone and his wallet, which contained Elgersma’s expired driver’s license from Wisconsin. The wallet also contained $2,007 in cash.”

Probably has a good dental plan, too. In the PiPress Josh Verges says, “The St. Paul school board has reached a three-year contract agreement with its next superintendent. Joe Gothard, 45, will make $232,000 next year, up from the $195,200 he gets as superintendent of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district. The board unanimously approved the contract Tuesday night.”

Too bad, he could have done a set at the Thirsty Pagan. Amanda Coyne in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, “Paul McCartney’s a little confused. Tuesday morning, the former Beatle announced a concert for Duluth’s Infinite Energy Center. But some of the promotional materials aren’t pointing to metro Atlanta, but to Duluth, Minnesota, a port city on Lake Superior. We still loved you when you were 64, Paul, but at 74, you’re getting a little dotty. But McCartney fans in metro Atlanta needn’t worry. The show is still on for July 13 in Duluth, Georgia.”   

Eeeew. Says Samantha Bengs of the Forum News Service, “A southeastern Minnesota couple have been charged after an underage girl went to police, saying she had been exploited by the pair in their “sex room.” Michael Lowell Germain, 43, and Heather Laverne Germain, 49, appeared in Goodhue County District Court on Monday on multiple charges of criminal sexual conduct. The girl contacted Goodhue police in January and said she was being sexually assaulted and exploited by the couple, who she said were ‘swingers’ and have a ‘sex room’ in the attic of their garage, according to the criminal complaint.” 

So they’re stealing tombstones from the garden paradise of western Minnesota? In the Brainerd Dispatch Tom Cherveny says, “A father and son in Montevideo are charged with felony theft for allegedly removing the gravestone from the burial plot of the wife and mother of the two. John Wendell Albrecht, 74, and John Darron Albrecht, 47, will make their first appearances May 1 in district court. … Information in the criminal complaint indicates that there is a conflicted relationship between members of the family. Four siblings do not have a relationship with John Albrecht Sr., while one daughter and John Albrecht Jr. do. When Sandra Albrecht died, the complaint stated that Albrecht Sr. ‘was very specific that he quickly wanted the body buried’. He had also instructed the funeral director not to inform his children about the burial.” I mean, what family hasn’t gone through that?

On that Wells Fargo board vote yesterday, Gillian Tan at Bloomberg writes, “I’ve previously written that a board refresh would be a good move, and the result could indeed have been different if the bank’s largest shareholder, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. hadn’t used its roughly 10 percent stake to back all of the nominated directors. If the Warren Buffett-led conglomerate had instead pushed for a level of accountability, at least four existing board members would have been shown the door and each forced to farewell more than $300,000 in director fees, including Chairman Stephen Sanger.  One or all of them should even consider the selfless move of stepping down of their own accord, especially since such departures wouldn’t be viewed negatively by investors.”