Bishop-elect of Duluth diocese resigns after abuse allegation

In the New York Times, Neil Vigdor writes: “Pope Francis on Monday accepted the resignation of a priest whom he had chosen to become the bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese in Duluth, Minn., after a nearly 40-year-old allegation of sexual abuse of a minor emerged against the clergyman, church officials said. The priest, Father Michel J. Mulloy, 67, had been scheduled to be installed on Oct. 1 as the bishop of the diocese, which estimated that it serves about 56,000 Catholics at 92 parishes in northeastern Minnesota. But a little more than two weeks after his June 19 appointment by the pope, the Diocese of Rapid City in South Dakota, where Father Mulloy had been serving as diocesan administrator, was alerted about a sexual abuse allegation against him from the 1980s, church officials said.”

Politico’s David Siders writes: “It’s been so long since Minnesota voted Republican in a presidential election that many Democrats suspected a head fake when Donald Trump first boasted about his intent to compete there. But two months before the general election, the race has tightened and both Trump and Joe Biden are pouring millions of dollars into the state. Minnesota is the rare offensive opportunity for Trump on a battleground map that has him mostly on defense. And with early voting beginning on Sept. 18, the state will offer one of the first tests of the question at the center of his re-election campaign: whether he can turn out enough white, working class voters who did not participate in 2016 to expand his base. ‘It’s in play,’ said Mike Erlandson, a former chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.”

Also at MPR, Riham Feshir writes: “Thousands of other teachers and students across Minnesota will find similar changes and new norms when they return to school buildings Tuesday for the first time since the spring, when the state suspended in-person learning as the pandemic took off. It promises to be a first day of school like no other. … Minnesota officials laid out a plan in late July that emphasized returning to in-person classroom teaching but left it to districts to decide whether to start the year in buildings, online or some hybrid combination based on their local COVID-19 conditions.”

For FOX 9, Bisi Onile-Ere reports, “Hoping to bring healing through food, a local woman has cooked and distributed free meals at the site of the George Floyd memorial in south Minneapolis for the past three months. Now, Chef Tea is looking to open a kitchen of her own. Tasheeka James is known for her cooking at Chubby Food & Catering. … In a few days, the kitchen inside the Blake grocery store in Hopkins will be hers to operate.”

Says Zoe Jackson for the Star Tribune, “Facing a national shortage of older poll workers, Joshua Medley, a student at Normandale Community College, will join other young Minnesotans helping out at the polls on Nov. 3, meeting voters with a greeting and a mask. ‘We need the polling places to be stocked, and to have people who can welcome in voters who may be new, may not be comfortable, or may come from a background or a culture that doesn’t encourage them to vote as frequently,’ he said. Medley, 21, is one of the 150,000 youth from around the country who have answered a call from states, cities and celebrities alike to become poll workers this election year.”

Deanna Weniger writes in the Pioneer Press: “The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association on Monday condemned the inclusion of a St. Paul candidate in a DFL fundraiser slated for Tuesday. The letter, addressed to state House Speaker Melissa Hortman, refers to John Thompson, a DFL-endorsed candidate for House District 67A. Thompson made news in August after giving a profanity-laced, anti-police speech at a Black Lives Matter rally outside the Hugo home of the Minneapolis police union’s president, who has defended four fired officers involved in the fatal May arrest of George Floyd. … The fundraiser… includes a list of 12 DFL-endorsed candidates including Thompson.”

In the Star Tribune, Kelly Smith says, “The crowds of paddlers kayaking or canoeing through the channel between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis pass by crumbling wood retaining walls. Now, a $1 million project next year aims to rehab and stabilize that shoreline in the popular link between the two lakes, adding plants, wildflowers and shrubs. In July, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board unveiled the concept plan for the Kenilworth channel project and hosted a virtual information session last month. Now, the construction, which spans the Burnham Road bridge to Cedar Lake, is moving forward, possibly beginning next fall after bidding for the project … .”

MPR’s Andrew Krueger writes: “Armed with century-old accounts of the sinking along with a well-honed feel for interpreting those voices from the past — and making the most of modern-day technology — Minnesota shipwreck hunters Jerry Eliason and Ken Merryman located the Pere Marquette 18. It sits in nearly 500 feet of water far offshore from Sheboygan, Wis., and Port Washington, Wis., coated in zebra mussels and — as Eliason put it — “javelined” stern-first into the lake bottom at a sharp angle, the tip of the bow rising nearly 100 feet off the lake bed. … The Pere Marquette 18 is just the latest shipwreck discovery for Eliason and Merryman ….”