Bloomington father among those killed in Somalia truck bombing

A sad Minnesota connection to that bombing in Somalia. Says Kristi Belcamino in the Strib, “A Bloomington father was killed in a truck bombing in Somalia on Saturday that is being called the deadliest attack in the country’s history, with 276 dead and close to 300 more injured. According to the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Ahmed AbdiKarin Eyow had just checked into his hotel and was resting when the bomb exploded. He was there to apply for a job at the United Nations.”

Interesting story by Mike Hughlett of the Star Tribune on clean energy jobs in the state. “As wind and solar energy have grown, they’ve created a tide of jobs nationwide in fields from construction to manufacturing. Renewable energy jobs, most of which are in wind and solar, grew by 16 percent to around 6,200 in Minnesota from 2015 to 2016, according to a recent study by Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, an industry-led nonprofit.”

Big bear. Says Brad Dokken of the Grand Forks Herald, “Jan Johnson knew the bear was in the area, and he knew it was big. He was right; it was. Johnson, of rural Roseau, Minn., toughed out a gloomy, rainy afternoon of bear hunting Oct. 1 and came home with a black bear that unofficially weighed 721 pounds live weight. Bears are scored by skull size rather than body weight, but Johnson’s bear definitely is one of the heaviest bears to be taken in Minnesota in quite some time.”

Oh yeah, these are kinds of threats we want to keep out. A KSTP-TV story says, “A shift in U.S. immigration policy to include deporting people without criminal records has resulted in a deportation order for a Minnesota doctor who has spent the past 18 years in the state, and, according to her patients, saved lives. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said they will enforce Dr. Guan Lee’s voluntary deportation order from September of 2011. She’s scheduled to Leave Monday. Court documents show the order was initially withdrawn because Lee had asked for a motion to reopen the case. That action stops any deportation by ICE for 30 days.  Lee appealed her case. Ultimately ICE determined she had exhausted all appeals and said the agency plans to follow the law and exercise the deportation order on Oct. 16.”

The Castle Doctrine apparently doesn’t cover the airspace above the turrets.  Christopher Bjorke of the Forum News Service reports, “A northwest Minnesota man has been charged with second-degree attempted murder for shooting an airplane flying over his property last week, according to court documents. Chad Lynndell Olson, 51, was charged Thursday in district court in Polk County for allegedly shooting a Cessna small aircraft with a high-powered rifle from his property on Highway 32 northeast of the Fertile airfield on Oct. 6.” 

You knew this was coming. Stribber J. Patrick Coolican says, “Enbridge hopes to construct a 340-mile pipeline to deliver Canadian oil from northwestern Minnesota to a terminal on Lake Superior. As the Minnesota Department of Commerce pushes back against those plans, DFL lawmakers from the area and their allies in building trades unions who support the project are engaged in a sometimes bitter conflict with environmentalists and American Indians who don’t.”

Talk about chutzpah. At MPR, Catharine Richert says, “After a tumultuous start to the year that included losing its executive director amid allegations of sexual harassment and firing its popular artistic director, the Rochester Civic Theatre is asking the city for $80,000 to make ends meet this year. That’s in addition to the theater’s annual appropriation from the city of Rochester, which came in at more than $200,000 for 2017. The additional request came late last week before a city council meeting Monday night. In a letter, theater board president Kay Hocker said the Civic is ‘in the midst of a very trying time.’