By: Elizabeth Ryan

The University of Minnesota Physicians group is opening a research and development lab near downtown Minneapolis later this summer.

The Mill City Innovation and Collaboration Center will develop new technologies to make general patient care easier.

Community health providers see more patients per year than the total number of specialty treatments, which is why the Mill City ICC will focus on improving the way patients receive primary care.

In an average community of 1,000 people, about 300 will come down with an illness in a given month, said Dr. Kevin Peterson, director of the University’s Center of Excellence in Primary Care. About eight of those people will be hospitalized, but fewer than one will go to the University’s hospital.

“And yet, almost all of our money [for research at the University] is spent on that one patient rather than back out in the community,” he said.

Peterson said prescription checkups could be an example of the everyday doctor’s appointments the center could help eliminate.

“You’re doing fine … on a medicine, and pretty soon you have to take off a couple hours from work to go see a doctor,” he said. “He looks at you and says, ‘You’re doing good,’ and pats you on the shoulder … and refills your prescription.”

Instead of going into a doctor’s office, all the tests a doctor might have run could be done at home with technology from the Mill City ICC.

“It’s really an unnecessary visit,” Peterson said. “We can do all of that at home.”

The center will be located in the University’s Mill City Clinic, and new technologies will be tested and applied without moving to another location. The center aims to make primary care a more rewarding experience, said Dr. Jon Hallberg, director of the clinic.

“We think that research ought to be done in the place where it will be applied,” Peterson said.

For more on University and business partnerships, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily.

By: Elizabeth Ryan

A public comment period on the proposed plans for UMore Park development ended Wednesday and Rosemount, Minn. residents are concerned with water use, population growth and hazardous waste issues.

The University of Minnesota purchased UMore Park in the 1940s. Plans for the now-5,000-acre plot south of the Twin Cities include sand and gravel mines, industrial areas and a sustainable community for about 25,000 people.

Earlier this month, Rosemount commissioned an Alternative Urban Areawide Review modeling plans for the area’s future and addressing environmental issues.

“The AUAR gives the opportunity to prepare for different scenarios,” said Carla Carlson, executive director of UMore Development LLC. “You can’t anticipate all that can happen over decades.”

The Metropolitan Council voiced its concern with the proposed community’s water use in a letter to Rosemount senior planner Eric Zweber on Tuesday.

Long-term research from the council on groundwater availability suggests water resources in the UMore Park area would “considerab[ly]” decline in the next 30 years.

The UMore community will depend on groundwater, leading to “significant concerns” from the council.

Dakota County staff members expressed similar concerns in another memo to Zweber.

“Groundwater may not be an adequate or feasible long-term water source,” the staff members said.

Rosemount resident Martha Hendrickson also had concerns about the proposal’s impact on the future of the city.

“Think of the long-term future hundreds of years from now,” she said in an email comment on the AUAR. “Think of our descendants, and ask whether they will have any natural spaces left.”

Hendrickson said people shouldn’t have to drive out of their way to appreciate natural spaces. With the proposed use of natural spaces in UMore Park, she said she worries Rosemount would lose its connection to its prairie roots.

“It’s urban sprawl, and it’s ugly,” she said. “… Don’t add to it … Keep Rosemount beautiful.”

For more on resident and agency responses to UMore development, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily. 

By: Kia Farhang

Two University of Minnesota students were warned for trespassing after being caught without their clothes on in a darkened auditorium of the Bell Museum of Natural History Tuesday afternoon.

A children’s science camp leader found the students “engaged in sexual activity,” according to a University police report.

The students quickly dressed and left the building, but returned about 15 minutes later to get a phone and watch they had left behind.

Police issued the students warnings, so they can be cited or arrested for trespassing if they return to the museum within a certain period of time.

University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner said he didn’t know how long the students were barred from the museum, but said most trespass warnings last for one year.

He said the police could only issue warnings because nobody saw the students in the act.

The camp leader and one of the students declined to comment for this story. The other student couldn’t be reached.

Around 4 p.m., the camp leader found a pair of shorts, underwear and a condom wrapper on the floor, according to the police report.

She told the students to leave while another camp leader distracted the children.

Police came to the museum to take a report and inventory the phone and watch. They spoke with the students, who had then returned to collect their belongings.

The report said both students appeared nervous. The man, 21, told police he and his girlfriend were “exploring the University.” The woman, 18, said she was unaware children were in the building.

Miner said reports like this are fairly rare, especially in the middle of the day.

Disorderly conduct outside Sally’s

University police arrested a woman for disorderly conduct outside Sally’s Saloon and Eatery early Thursday morning.

She was in a “yelling match” with another woman at the corner of Walnut Street Southeast and Washington Avenue Southeast, according to a police report.

The officer pepper-sprayed the woman when she attacked the victim, who left the scene shortly after. His spray also hit the officer who was arresting the woman.

Police use pepper spray when they think it will keep an officer or citizen from harm, Miner said.

“It really depends on the circumstance as to what the best use of force is,” he said.

The woman declined medical care, the report said. Police booked her at the Hennepin County jail.

By: Cody Nelson

Congress is back to the drawing board in passing a bill to address the student loan crisis.

After a tentative agreement to lower recently raised student loan interest rates garnered bipartisan support, the Associated Press reports a $22 billion price tag has made lawmakers shoot the plan down.

Officials were considering a deal that would have tied the interest rates on new student loans to the 10-year Treasury note, plus an additional percentage to account for administrative costs, the AP reports.

But with a cap of 8.25 percent for future years, that plan proved too costly after an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.

More than 14,300 University of Minnesota students took out subsidized Stafford loans in 2012, collectively worth about $54.7 million.

If Congress doesn’t act soon, Congress’ Joint Economic Committee says it could cost an extra $2,600 per student for those taking subsidized Stafford loans this fall.

Interest rates on the subsidized Stafford loan, the most common federal student loan, jumped to 6.8 percent on July 1 after Congress failed to act before its deadline.

Many different proposals floated around Congress in recent weeks, but none of them passed.

A Democrat-backed bill to bring the rates back down to 3.4 percent, the level for the past two years, failed on Wednesday in a close vote that fell mostly along party lines.

Yesterday’s failed plan was similar to a White House-backed plan and to a Republican bill, which passed the House in late June but didn’t get Senate approval.

The University of Minnesota has expressed support for a market-based plan on student interest rates.

"I am very glad that Congress has continued to work on this issue and appears to be prepared to put into place a long term fix which protects both students and tax payers,” University Student Finance Director Kris Wright said in an email on Thursday.

But it’s now unclear if Congress will look into a long-term solution or push for another extension of the 3.4 percent subsidized interest rate like they did in 2012.

For University student reactions to the student loan crisis, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By: Kia Farhang

The University of Minnesota District Alliance heard a proposal Wednesday from the Board of Community Engagement to become the official liaison between student groups and neighborhood organizations.

Recent graduate Chet Bodin founded the board last year as a member of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. He said he wanted to stop relationships from deteriorating between student groups and neighborhood organizations after students graduate.

“It’ll give a continuity to the relationship,” he said.

If the UDA formally adopts Bodin’s proposal, the board will have more resources and connections when it starts operating again in the fall.

At least two departments at the University already exist to strengthen school ties with the surrounding neighborhoods — the office of Student Community Relations and the office of Community Relations.

Bodin said he wants to see more of that kind of collaboration. Students benefit from real-world skills they learn working on projects, while neighborhoods get access to energy and manpower, he said.

But Bodin’s proposal received a lukewarm reception at the UDA meeting on Wednesday.

“I’m trying to figure out if there are any toes that we might step on,” said Minneapolis Ward 2 City Councilman Cam Gordon, referring to the other University offices already handling community relations.

But Jan Morlock, the University’s director of community relations, said it wouldn’t be a problem. SCR employees plan to advise the BCE as it moves forward, she said.

“This doesn’t sidestep anything else going on with students,” she said.

For more on University and community relations group overlaps, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily.

By: Kia Farhang

The University of Minnesota named professor Brian Buhr the interim dean for the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences on Wednesday.

He heads the Department of Applied Economics. Buhr will replace outgoing dean Allen Levine, who announced last month he was stepping down to focus on his research.

Buhr will also serve as interim director for the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station when he replaces Levine at the end of August, according to a University news release.

The search for a full-time dean will begin later this summer. College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Trevor Ames will lead the national search.

Serving as interim dean will give Buhr the opportunity to see how the role fits, he said. 

“I’m going to take advantage of my time here,” Buhr said.

Two University colleges and a department merged in 2006 to create CFANS. About 2,600 students were enrolled in the college this spring.

Buhr’s colleagues said his experience and connections make him a good fit for the position.

Growing up on a farm gave Buhr a deep understanding of the agricultural community, said agribusiness management professor Mike Boland.

“Being a farm kid,” Boland said, “he can walk the talk.”

Marin Bozic, assistant professor of dairy foods marketing economics, said Buhr encouraged him to apply for the teaching position and helped him acclimate to the University when Bozic started working.

“I know his doors are always open,” Bozic said.

Buhr is a “terrific choice” for the position, said Beth Virnig, a professor who works with him at the University’s Food Policy Research Center.

“I can’t think of anybody that I would be happier to work with,” she said.

By: Kia Farhang

A man was assaulted at a party in his Southeast Como home early Sunday morning, according to a Minneapolis police report.

The man gave his debit card to a coworker and asked him to go buy cigarettes, the report said. When he asked for his card back, the coworker started hitting him in the face with his belt buckle until two people who live in the victim’s duplex pulled them apart. Both the victim and the suspect then left the party.

Witnesses found the victim a block away lying under a street sign about an hour later, the report said. The victim told them the coworker had attacked him again, but another witness told police he saw the victim throw the suspect to the ground and kick him in the face.

Police found the suspect about 20 minutes later with head injuries. He and the victim were both taken to the hospital. Neither of them were cited and police are still investigating.

Only three other assaults have occurred in the Southeast Como neighborhood this year, according to Minneapolis Police data.

More laptop thefts

Someone broke into a University of Minnesota alumna’s Como Avenue Southeast house on the Fourth of July and stole two laptops, a suitcase and about $100 in cash while she was out watching fireworks.

Ariane Foster said she was the first to notice anything missing when she and her roommates came home around midnight.

The dresser drawers in Foster’s bedroom had been rifled through, she said, but none of her things were stolen.

She later found a hole in a window screen on the front porch, and said she thinks that’s how the suspect got in.

“It’s kind of eerie in your house after people come in that you don’t know,” Foster said. “There’s this … feeling that kind of just lingers.”

Police have recorded 20 other burglaries in the Southeast Como neighborhood this year.

A University student had his laptop stolen from his upstairs apartment on Sixth Street Southeast on Wednesday, according to another police report.

The common door to the victim’s building was unlocked, the report said. His laptop was stolen from his bedroom, which was also unlocked.

Minneapolis Police Sgt. Bill Palmer said he doesn’t know if the crimes are related yet.

Robbery on University Avenue Southeast

Four men robbed a woman on University Avenue Southeast early Sunday morning and stole her cellphone, according to a Minneapolis police report.

Palmer said all of the suspects are juveniles. Police caught one of them but he didn’t have the phone, the report said.

The victim was walking alone, and the rest of the suspects haven’t yet been apprehended. 

By: Meghan Holden

In the 1970s, Darrel LeBarron fought to save the old fire station on University Avenue Southeast.

Now, he’s struggling to keep the property he’s owned there for more than three decades.

Because of his love for the building’s design, LeBarron helped to make Fire Station #19 a historical landmark in 1982.

Since then, LeBarron has put more money into the building than his company, Station Nineteen Architects, Inc., can recoup.

Because the property taxes for the building have gone up 18 percent each year over the last decade, LeBarron said, he might be forced to sell.

After TCF Bank Stadium opened in 2009, property taxes were too high for tenants to afford. Office spaces had to be gutted out to make room for Buffalo Wild Wings — a $700,000 loss for the company, LeBarron said.

“I love that building,” LeBarron said, “but I’m not sure we can economically stay there.”

The utilitarian-style building opened in 1893 because of a demand for fire protection during the city’s industrial movement, according to the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation. The building is also the birthplace of kittenball, a form of softball a lieutenant at the fire station invented.

For more on how businesses deal with historic limitations, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily. 

By: Elizabeth Ryan

The University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing received a $5.3 million grant last month that will allow 100 more students to enter the school in the next five years.

Minneapolis VA Health Care System will work with the University on the VA Nursing Academic Partnership, a national program funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, to train more nurses to treat issues veterans face.

The University was one of six schools chosen for the partnership, said Christine Mueller, nursing professor and co-writer of the grant.

Mueller said the program, which will bring nursing students into the VA to work in a clinical setting, has benefits for both the VA and the University.

“From the VA’s side, they are valuing the students who would graduate from the School of Nursing as nurses who would understand the needs of veterans,” she said.  “And those graduates would consider … positions in the VA system.”

For the University, Mueller said the benefit is a stronger curriculum where students will learn to treat a variety of issues that veterans face, like post-traumatic stress disorder or multiple chronic illnesses in older veterans.

Kaylee Wessel, nursing junior, has worked with veterans before and said she looks forward to participating in the program this fall.

“It’s a different experience working with veterans,” she said. “There are different mental health conditions and sometimes multiple conditions they are facing as compared to civilians.”

For more on issues veterans face on campus, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily.

By: Kia Farhang

A University of Minnesota graduate student and her coworker had their work laptops stolen from their office in Smith Hall sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Chemistry graduate student Zahra Sohrabpour said the window to her basement office was left unlocked and had fingerprints on it.

Sohrabpour and her coworkers usually keep the window locked, she said, and she doesn’t know who left it open.

Minneapolis police have recorded 518 thefts so far this year in the 2nd Precinct, which includes the University.

Grad student’s bike stolen

Plant pathology graduate student Austin Case locked his bike outside of the Christensen Laboratory on Monday morning when he came into work.

But the bike was gone later that afternoon, Case said. Another bike and a broken piece of his cable lock were in its place.

According to another report, a bike was also stolen from outside Amundson Hall sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning.

Minneapolis police Sgt. Bill Palmer said in a previous interview with the Minnesota Daily that bike thefts are one of the most common crimes committed in the summer.

Two cited for public consumption

University police cited two men in separate incidents for public alcohol consumption, according to police reports.

The first man was drinking from a bottle in a brown paper bag on Cedar Avenue South on Wednesday night, a police report said.

He tried to hide the bag behind him, the report said, but an officer found a bottle of vodka inside it.

Another man was lying on the ground on Franklin Avenue East on the Fourth of July and told University police “he had fallen and could not get up.”

He admitted a water bottle on the ground full of alcohol was his, the police report said. He was taken to the hospital because his blood alcohol content was four times the legal limit.