Walker Orenstein

What a week’s worth of rider text messages reveals about Metro Transit’s problems Serious crime is down on Metro Transit, but riders continue to report “quality of life” crime that makes some feel unsafe on light rail.

Serious crime is down on Metro Transit, but riders continue to report “quality of life” crime that makes some feel unsafe on light rail.

BlackRock’s GIP nears $38bn takeover of utility AES Global Infrastructure Partners in talks to acquire energy group that supplies power to data centres

GIP, buyers of Allete, making another splash in the utility market: www.ft.com/content/009d...

How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its shoe-leather reporting to background a mass shooter - Poynter A team of journalists relentlessly tracked the shooter’s digital and paper trail. But AI provided deeper insight into her thoughts before the shooting.

How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its traditional reporting to cover a mass shooter

www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...

Northern Minnesota mystery project identified as data center Mystery has been swirling around the project for months amid zoning changes and offers to buy homes.

The city of Hermantown won't say Mortenson has proposed a data center but said zoning planned for the land calls for places that house or operate computers, data and transaction processing, along with digital storage.... www.startribune.com/northern-min...

Northern Minnesota mystery project identified as data center Mystery has been swirling around the project for months amid zoning changes and offers to buy homes.

A massive development proposal that Hermantown is describing only as a “communication services facility” was identified as a data center in a January letter sent to city officials. Story w/
@janahollingsworth.bsky.social : www.startribune.com/northern-min...

I've struggled to put into words how I feel about Cascade PBS cutting its entire newsroom today. That newsroom (formerly Crosscut) gave me space to do the most in-depth, informative public policy journalism of my career -- work other journalists continued after I left. The region is now worse off.

At the same time, the average Xcel customer past due on their bill owed $270 in 2019. That figure was nearly double between 2021 and 2024.

www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...

Xcel Energy disconnected 52,549 Minnesota households from electricity or gas last year.

That is more than triple the number from 2019, the year before the pandemic moratorium began. It’s far more than any year in at least a decade: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...

Xcel is shutting off power in record numbers Economic conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic, and new smart meters that allow Xcel to remotely disconnect homes, are behind a spike that has drawn criticism from consumer advocates.

NEW: Minnesota utilities are shutting off power to customers in record numbers in the years after a temporary ban on the practice during COVID-19.

For Xcel, the ability to disconnect remotely with 'smart' meters is playing a role in the enormous spike: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk dies after being shot at Utah college event Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.

Amazon's data center retreat is latest 'gut punch' to Becker Becker's future is intertwined with a changing energy system, and depends on the whims of an AI gold rush by the nation’s largest tech companies.

Perhaps more than any other Minnesota city, Becker’s fate is linked to the changes transforming Minnesota’s energy sector. That now includes the convulsive data center industry.

Amazon's retreat from Becker is the latest 'gut punch' in a volatile era: www.startribune.com/amazon-retre...

The Mass Shooters Are Performing for One Another The goal of these attacks is to join a lineage of infamous killers.

"Taken together, the messages are incoherent. This is irony-poisoned nihilism, tactical gear as shitposting—the only cause this person seems to have is to troll the viewer." www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The Mass Shooters Are Performing for One Another The goal of these attacks is to join a lineage of infamous killers.

I spent a horrifying amount of time reading and translating the Annunciation shooter manifesto to report on it, and this rang true to me: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Comments like these are a small window into the struggle this summer for an upper hand in a deal that would take Duluth’s only publicly traded company private under an ownership group led by a subsidiary of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...

Minnesota Power sale brings fight over clean energy, private equity Allete says its buyers would provide the cash to comply with Minnesota’s carbon-free law. Skeptics say BlackRock would hurt utility customers.

In the debate over the future of northern MN's largest power company, the rhetoric has turned nasty.

The $6.2 billion sale of Allete/Minnesota Power has exposed tensions over funding clean energy and whether private equity will hurt customers: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...

“Do they think that they can wave a magic wand and put the fires out? People have lost their homes and livelihoods. It’s not like we’ve gone around and started these fires just for the hell of it.”

www.startribune.com/north-of-min...

Northern wildfires have smoked out Minnesota’s summer, but in Canada it’s been devastating The smoke that has drifted south is evidence of Manitoba’s worst wildfire season in three decades.

The impact of wildfire smoke on health & happiness in Minnesota is real. So is the political tension. For our neighbors in Manitoba, the fires have devastated communities.

Thanks to Kristoffer Tigue & Carlos Gonzalez for this illuminating work: www.startribune.com/north-of-min...

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Joe Pohlad tells Phil Miller why the Twins are no longer for sale and the Pohlad family will remain principal owners of the team.

The Pohlad family is adding two new groups of minority partners in their ownership structure.

Story: www.startribune.com/minnesota-tw...
@startribune.com

The deal remains opposed by others, such as CURE, Sierra Club, Minnesota Power's large industrial customers and the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota.

Allete/Minnesota Power has drawn some other notable support lately, including from the trade groups Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, and Clean Grid Alliance, as well as nonprofits Center for Energy and Environment, and Fresh Energy.

Allete sale would help fund clean energy investment for Minnesota The proposed sale would inject a massive infusion of private capital into Minnesota Power, capital guided by a long-term perspective rather than short-term market pressures.

@jigarshahdc.bsky.social endorses the sale of Minnesota Power in Duluth. Shah ran a huge clean energy loan program for Biden.

"Public markets are increasingly volatile and swayed by global forces like tariffs, inflation and even speculative trends like AI" www.utilitydive.com/news/allete-...

This tiny town wants to be the first in Minnesota to evict Xcel Energy and start its own utility A four-hour wait to shut off power to a burning utility pole was one of the last straws for Slayton.

NEW: Slayton, Minnesota, wants to kick Xcel Energy out and form its own government-run electric provider. It's an extraordinary step and one driven by frustration with Xcel's service and emergency response.

A city of 2,000 is squaring off with a $43b company: www.startribune.com/this-tiny-to...

A community solar plan would save Xcel customers money — but cost some cities and schools millions Minnesota regulators are considering the plan that would reduce the amount of credits subscribers to these solar arrays receive.

Here's a more expansive story on the how the ruling would save Xcel customers money, but cost some cities and schools millions: www.startribune.com/minnesota-co...

Minnesota regulators cut community solar bill credits to save Xcel customers money The decision is estimated to save roughly $40 million a year for ratepayers, but was fiercely contested by solar garden operators and subscribers, including many local governments and schools who will...

The PUC's aim was to reduce costs for Xcel customers, to the tune of roughly $40m a year.

The ruling slashed expected savings for CSG subscribers and was fiercely opposed by solar developers & customers like school districts.

Background on the ruling: www.startribune.com/minnesota-pu...

The MN Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by the state Public Utilities Commission to shrink bill credits for subscribers of 700+ community solar gardens.

Ruling below: mncourts.gov/_media/migra...

Here is background on how we got here.

Upper Sioux built solar for its casino. Now its electric supplier vows to cut off power:

www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-...

Minnesota regulators bash electric co-op for threatening to shut off tribe’s power The state Public Utilities Commission said it would investigate and possibly punish a rural electric cooperative after it opposed the Upper Sioux Community’s solar project.

This quote from Audrey Partridge didn't make the story but to give you more flavor:

"There are a lot of cooperatives out there who are very member-centered ... They must be pulling their hair out to see you here, in front of us, with this display." www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...

Minnesota regulators bash electric co-op for threatening to shut off tribe’s power The state Public Utilities Commission said it would investigate and possibly punish a rural electric cooperative after it opposed the Upper Sioux Community’s solar project.

It was an extraordinary hearing, and the PUC suggested it might even strip the cooperative from its right to serve the tribe.

Commissioners called the cooperative's threat outrageous, unreasonable and more. "Do you have a patent on electricity?" www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...

Minnesota regulators bash electric co-op for threatening to shut off tribe’s power The state Public Utilities Commission said it would investigate and possibly punish a rural electric cooperative after it opposed the Upper Sioux Community’s solar project.

NEW: Minnesota utility regulators excoriated an electric co-op for its threat to cut power from the Upper Sioux casino because of the tribe's large new solar array.

"I think you have lost your tether to the purpose of an electric utility." www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...

Minnesota invited Google to talk about data center near Rochester The record from the Department of Employment and Economic Development is the first concrete evidence of the company’s search for a data center site here.

It’s the first concrete evidence, this obtained via public records, of Google hunting for a data center site in Minnesota after the company ramped up a lobbying offensive earlier this year to influence tax breaks and data center regulations.

www.startribune.com/state-invite...