More than 1,000 absentee ballots with wrong GOP state House candidate sent to voters

Nick Woltman at the Pioneer Press reports, “More than 1,000 St. Paul absentee voters have received 2022 general election ballots listing the wrong Republican candidate for Minnesota’s House of Representatives in their district, officials say. The GOP nominated Scott Hesselgrave in August to replace Beverly Peterson in the race to succeed Rep. John Thompson in House District 67A after Peterson died earlier that month, but the ballots issued by Ramsey County elections officials still list Peterson as the Republican candidate, according to a Tuesday filing with the Minnesota Supreme Court.”

At MPR News, Dana Ferguson says, “Judy Moe took to a small stage in Veterans Park Monday night to make her appeal to several candidates running for elected office: make your campaigns accessible to Minnesotans with disabilities and address their top concerns. With about six weeks left until Election Day, Moe, the director of Richfield Disability Advocacy Partnership (RDAP), hoped to highlight for candidates up and down the ballot the value of including Minnesotans with disabilities in their campaigns.”

Colette Davidson of the Christian Science Monitor writes, “Sarah Hopkins has lived in her two-story gray house on this relatively quiet block in northeast Minneapolis for six years, in harmony with her fellow renters, homeowners, and multifamily dwellers. But she has mixed feelings about the changes her block is about to see. The city recently approved a local development project to build a four-story, 23-unit apartment building on a single lot across the street. … Does building more multifamily homes make housing more affordable? Not so far in Minneapolis, where residents are finding that factors like NIMBY and racism are keeping housing equality elusive.”

At KARE 11, Kiya Edwards reports, “Mother and daughter Jeniffer and Joanne Kuria are the proud owners of Amani Construction & Development. Amani means “peace” in Swahili. They chose the word as a nod to Kenya, where they emigrated from about 20 years ago. … ‘My mom and I have a really wonderful relationship,’ daughter Joanne said. ‘Trying to find housing on our own really led my mom to want to be able to find stable housing not just for our family but to be able to do that for other families as well.'”

From Minnesota Reformer’s Christopher Ingraham: “Soaring interest rates, driven by the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tamp down inflation, are sending costs skyrocketing for new homebuyers in the Twin Cities region. With a 20% down payment, the typical home purchase in the area now comes with a nearly $2,000 monthly price tag, almost doubling since 2021 — and that’s before you add on taxes and insurance.”

Stribber Jana Hollingsworth reports, “Gaggles of geese have foiled plans to restore wild rice on the St. Louis River, leaving those leading the work to a last resort: As many as 300 of the birds will be euthanized next summer to give the native rice a chance to thrive. Several agencies, including the Wisconsin and Minnesota departments of Natural Resources, have been battling the Canada geese as they work to restore 275 acres of wild rice to the river, part of a plan to remove it from a national list of polluted Great Lakes waterways.”

For Racket, Em Cassel writes, “First Animales BBQ, now this?? On Saturday, Northeast’s nationally renowned BBQ trailer, Animales, announced that due to some archaic Minneapolis city ordinances, they’d no longer be able to run offset smokers — which they’ve done since opening — starting October 1. … Now, we’ve gotten word that Able Seedhouse + Brewery, where Animales got its start in 2018, is closing this week. The last day to enjoy a First Light or Ol’ Trusty at 1121 Quincy St. NE will be Saturday, October 1.”

Editor’s note: This story has been update to correct the spelling of Em Cassel’s last name.