By: Meghan Holden

The Minneapolis City Council approved development for a controversial apartment complex in Dinkytown on Friday, despite a committee vote last week against rezoning.

The Council voted 9-4 in favor of rezoning.

The six-story apartment complex, proposed by Opus Group, will replace businesses and a surface parking lot on 14th Avenue Southeast and Fifth Street Southeast.

Community members who attended the meeting were divided on the decision.

“This is a very sad day,” said neighborhood resident Chris Valenty. “It’s an important small business area.”

Karen Anderson, who supported the project, said she was relieved by the results of the vote.

“We need more safe student housing on campus,” she said, “and this project does that.”

Third Ward Councilwoman Diane Hofstede voted against the rezoning and said she is considering introducing a development moratorium for part of Dinkytown at the next Council meeting. The moratorium could potentially put a hold on development in specific areas of Dinkytown.

Hofstede did not provide additional details about the moratorium.

At a July 25 Zoning and Planning Committee meeting, Hofstede voiced opposition to the project. She said she wants to wait to make decisions about Dinkytown's future until after the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association master plan is finalized this winter.

Dinkytown is “a part of the experience and legacy of students,” she said Friday.

House of Hanson, one of the buildings on 14th Avenue being displaced, will close for good Monday, said owner Laurel Bauer.

Bauer said she’s thankful for the City Council members who have “visions for the future.”

“The jobs that this will bring in will be huge,” she said.

Duffy’s Dinkytown Pizza on 5th Street closed today after the meeting.

Susan Duffy, co-owner of Duffy’s, said they are working on plans to reopen their pizza shop in the commercial space of the Opus project. The project is planned to have 9,500 square feet of commercial space.

The surface parking lot, which Duffy also owns, will close on August 8.

The current lack of parking in Dinkytown, along with the loss of the 5th Street lot, will make it hard for customers, Valenty said.

“It’s going to be a disaster,” he said.

By: Meghan Holden

The Minneapolis City Council approved development for a controversial apartment complex in Dinkytown on Friday, despite a committee vote last week against rezoning.

The Council voted 9-4 in favor of rezoning.

The six-story apartment complex, proposed by Opus Group, will replace businesses and a surface parking lot on 14th Avenue Southeast and Fifth Street Southeast.

Community members who attended the meeting were divided on the decision.

“This is a very sad day,” said neighborhood resident Chris Valenty. “It’s an important small-business area.”

Karen Anderson, who supported the project, said she was relieved by the results of the vote.

“We need more safe student housing on campus,” she said, “and this project does that.”

Third Ward Councilwoman Diane Hofstede voted against the rezoning and said she is considering introducing a development moratorium for part of Dinkytown at the next Council meeting. The moratorium could potentially put a hold on development in specific areas of Dinkytown.

Hofstede did not provide additional details about the moratorium.

At a July 25 Zoning and Planning Committee meeting, Hofstede voiced opposition to the project. She said she wants to wait to make decisions about Dinkytown's future until after the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association master plan is finalized this winter.

Dinkytown is “a part of the experience and legacy of students,” she said Friday.

House of Hanson, one of the buildings on 14th Avenue being displaced, will close for good Monday, said owner Laurel Bauer.

Bauer said she’s thankful for the City Council members who have “visions for the future.”

“The jobs that this will bring in will be huge,” she said.

Duffy’s Dinkytown Pizza on 5th Street closed today after the meeting.

Susan Duffy, co-owner of Duffy’s, said they are working on plans to reopen their pizza shop in the commercial space of the Opus project. The project is planned to have 9,500 square feet of commercial space.

The surface parking lot, which Duffy also owns, will close Aug. 8.

The current lack of parking in Dinkytown along with the loss of the 5th Street lot will make it hard for customers, Valenty said.

“It’s going to be a disaster,” he said.

By: Meghan Holden

The Minneapolis City Council approved development for a controversial apartment complex in Dinkytown on Friday, despite a committee vote last week against rezoning.

The Council voted 9-4 in favor of rezoning.

The six-story apartment complex, proposed by Opus Group, will replace businesses and a surface parking lot on 14th Avenue Southeast and Fifth Street Southeast.

Community members who attended the meeting were divided on the decision.

“This is a very sad day,” said neighborhood resident Chris Valenty. “It’s an important small business area.”

Karen Anderson, who supported the project, said she was relieved by the results of the vote.

“We need more safe student housing on campus,” she said, “and this project does that.”

Third Ward Councilwoman Diane Hofstede voted against the rezoning and said she is considering introducing a development moratorium for part of Dinkytown at the next Council meeting. The moratorium could potentially put a hold on development in specific areas of Dinkytown.

Hofstede did not provide additional details about the moratorium.

At a July 25 Zoning and Planning Committee meeting, Hofstede voiced opposition to the project. She said she wants to wait to make decisions about Dinkytown's future until after the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association master plan is finalized this winter.

Dinkytown is “a part of the experience and legacy of students,” she said Friday.

House of Hanson, one of the buildings on 14th Avenue being displaced, will close for good Monday, said owner Laurel Bauer.

Bauer said she’s thankful for the City Council members who have “visions for the future.”

“The jobs that this will bring in will be huge,” she said.

Duffy’s Dinkytown Pizza on 5th Street closed today after the meeting.

Susan Duffy, co-owner of Duffy’s, said they are working on plans to reopen their pizza shop in the commercial space of the Opus project. The project is planned to have 9,500 square feet of commercial space.

The surface parking lot, which Duffy also owns, will close on August 8.

The current lack of parking in Dinkytown, along with the loss of the 5th Street lot, will make it hard for customers, Valenty said.

“It’s going to be a disaster,” he said.

By: Kevin Burbach

University of Minnesota Board of Regents member and former state legislator Laura Brod confirmed Thursday a private photograph posted of her online was authentic and said in a statement that she intends to pursue legal action against the anonymous publisher.

The revealing photo, posted on a Tumblr blog Monday afternoon, shows Brod lying on a bed. A link to the blog was anonymously sent to several local media organizations, including the Minnesota Daily, Monday afternoon. The story first emerged on City Pages' website Thursday afternoon after Checks and Balances, a local political website, tweeted out a link to the photo.   

In a statement first released Thursday, Brod and her husband Wade said the photo was “illegally disseminated” for the “sole purpose of embarrassing our family and damaging our reputations.”

“We cannot begin to explain why someone would be so mean, and so hateful,” the statement said. “Nor can we overstate the humiliation they have caused.”

Brod and her husband said that the larger issue of privacy invasion is not unique to them and that they are pursuing “all legal means possible to prosecute whoever is responsible for the illegal dissemination of this material.” 

According to the statement, Brod and her husband have had a “difficult marriage.” The statement said the two have led “separate lives, have been separated and are presently going through a very amicable divorce.”

The University of Minnesota does not plan to release a statement, said University spokesman Chuck Tombarge.

“That is all I can tell you at this point in time,” he said.

–Emma Nelson contributed to this report

By: Kevin Burbach

University of Minnesota Board of Regents member and former state legislator Laura Brod confirmed Thursday a private photograph posted of her online was authentic and said, in a statement, she intends to pursue legal action against the anonymous publisher.

The revealing photo, posted on a Tumblr blog Monday afternoon, shows Brod lying on a bed. A link to the blog was anonymously sent to several local media organizations, including the Minnesota Daily, Monday afternoon. The story first emerged on City Pages' website Thursday afternoon after Checks and Balances, a local political website, tweeted out a link to the photo.   

In a statement sent to City Pages Thursday, Brod and her husband Wade said the photo was “illegally disseminated” for the “sole purpose of embarrassing our family and damaging our reputations.”

“We cannot begin to explain why someone would be so mean, and so hateful,” the statement said. “Nor can we overstate the humiliation they have caused.”

Brod and her husband said that the larger issue of privacy invasion is not unique to them, and said they are pursuing "all legal means possible to prosecute whoever is responsible for the illegal dissemination of this material." 

According to the statement, Brod and her husband have had a “difficult marriage.” The statement said the two have led “separate lives, have been separated and are presently going through a very amicable divorce.”

The University of Minnesota does not plan to release a statement, said University spokesman Chuck Tombarge.

"That is all I can tell you at this point in time," he said.

–Emma Nelson contributed to this report

By: Meghan Holden

Sally’s Saloon and Eatery closed Thursday to make room for a new apartment complex on Washington Avenue.

The Stadium Village restaurant will be temporarily closed during construction of 700 Washington, a six-story student housing complex.

CPM Management will start construction on the complex next Friday.

Sally’s co-owner Chris Diebold said they plan to be open again next July or early August.

The layout of the new space isn’t finalized yet, but they want to keep it mostly the same, Diebold said.

“It will feel and look like Sally’s,” Diebold said, “but it won’t be the same Sally’s.”

Although he was sad to see the 21-year-old restaurant close, Diebold said they are looking forward to the future of Sally’s.

“It was sad,” Diebold said, “but we’re excited for a new chapter.”

By: Meghan Holden

Sally’s Saloon and Eatery closed Thursday to make room for a new apartment complex on Washington Avenue.

The Stadium Village restaurant will be temporarily closed during construction of 700 Washington, a six-story student housing complex.

CPM Management will start construction on the complex next Friday.

Sally’s co-owner Chris Diebold said they plan to be open again next July or early August.

The layout of the new space isn’t finalized yet, but they want to keep it mostly the same, Diebold said.

“It will feel and look like Sally’s,” Diebold said, “but it won’t be the same Sally’s.”

Although he was sad to see the 21-year-old restaurant close, Diebold said they are looking forward to the future of Sally’s.

“It was sad,” Diebold said, “but we’re excited for a new chapter.”

By: Kia Farhang

Timothy Bakdash owes nearly $140,000 to the victim of a 2011 hit-and-run that killed a University of Minnesota student and injured two pedestrians, a judge ruled earlier this week.

Bakdash drove the wrong way down Fifth Street Southeast in April 2011, striking then-University student Sarah Bagley and three other pedestrians, including University student Ben Van Handel, who died six days later.

A Hennepin County district judge ruled in a civil suit Tuesday that Bakdash, who's currently serving a 40-year prison sentence, owes Bagley more than $138,000 for medical expenses, past wages lost and emotional distress.

Bagley suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after the crash, the judgment said. She was out with friends celebrating her acceptance into graduate school when Bakdash, who admitted to being “extremely intoxicated,” hit her with his car.

Bakdash testified he drank 15 to 20 mixed drinks and about three to five shots at the Library Bar and Grill that night. A man slapped Bakdash in the parking lot, he said, trying to start a fight.

After getting in his car with a friend, Bakdash testified he saw the man he thought had slapped him and swerved the car on the sidewalk to “scare him.”

He testified that he remembered hitting two people, one of whom cracked the windshield, but actually hit four, injuring three. Witnesses of the crash testified they heard screams and saw a body fly through the air.

Bakdash fled the scene after the accident because he “didn’t want to get in trouble,” he later testified. A complaint from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office alleged Bakdash sold his car the same day of the accident in an attempt to elude police.

The incident culminated in a six-day trial, where a jury found Bakdash guilty of second-degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide — meaning he was guilty of intent but not premeditation.

Bagley’s attorney, Peter Riley, said he hasn’t yet spoken to his client about the judgment.

Riley said a different judge still needs to rule whether Bakdash’s insurance company is liable to pay the money he owes Bagley.

The insurance company is contesting any obligation to cover Bakdash, Riley said.

Bakdash’s attorney wasn’t immediately available for comment. 

By: Cody Nelson

Congressional inaction has led to the doubling of interest rates on the most common federal student loans.

Interest rates on Stafford loans jumped to 6.8 percent Monday after a slew of proposals and no agreement in Congress.

More than 14,300 University of Minnesota students took out subsidized Stafford loans in 2012, collectively worth about $54.7 million. Without action from Congress, University students taking out the loan to help pay for school this fall will pay twice the interest rate of last year.

In 2012, 64 percent of University graduates finished school with debt, owing a median amount of $27,334.

The Associated Press reports Congress will look to strike a deal extending current interest rates another year when lawmakers return from their Independence Day vacation next week.

The potential legislation would be retroactive so any loans taken out after July 1 would get the 3.4 percent interest rate, but the deal faces a potential Republican filibuster in the Senate.

This is the second summer in a row where Congress has waited until July 1 to address the doubling of Stafford loan interest rates. Last year it passed an extension of the 3.4 percent rate before the deadline.

By: Branden Largent

A new University of Minnesota STEM Education Center has received funds to start a program focusing on local underrepresented students this fall.

The Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation gave the center $300,000 to start the Prepare2Nspire program, which will tutor and mentor middle and high school students, said Lesa Clarkson, an associate professor in Curriculum and Instruction.

The program will train University undergraduates to tutor and mentor eleventh graders to prepare them for college math, said Clarkson, the program’s principal investigator.

Those eleventh-graders will then tutor and mentor eighth grade students in algebra.

The project is funded by a one-year grant. If the program is successful, Clarkson said, she hopes to get the funding to continue it.

The program targets Minneapolis students who are potential first-generation college students, ethnic minorities and students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, Clarkson said.

“Just because a student is from a poor family doesn’t mean they can’t be successful,” said University PhD candidate Sousada Chidthachack, the program’s recruitment and retention operator.

One reason the program started, Clarkson said, was to make sure underrepresented students don’t fall behind in the state’s math regulations, which have required eighth grade students to complete Algebra 1 since 2007.

The funding will be enough to tutor and mentor 135 eight and eleventh grade students.

“If we can prepare students better in math in high school, then students have the opportunity to be more successful," Clarkson said. 

Clarkson said getting students interested in math is important because it’s becoming a necessary skill in many careers.

“Math is just not optional anymore,” Clarkson said. “It’s so easy to give up when you don’t have the support when you’re trying to learn math.”

Chidthachack said she hopes the program will inspire young students to pursue higher education in math-related fields.

“That’s why this mentoring is so huge,” she said. “It’s so much more than just a math program.”