March 8, 2021: The trial against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin begins with an estimated three weeks of jury selection and is being livestreamed. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison charges Chauvin with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Feb. 3, 2021: Judge Peter Cahill announces that the trial will commence in-person with specific COVID-19 precautions.

Nov. 4, 2020: Judge Cahill allows audio and video coverage of the trial after an ongoing battle by a local media coalition. Chauvin’s motion for a venue change for the trial is denied. In his ruling, Cahill said, “Because of that pervasive media coverage, a change of venue is unlikely to cure the taint of potentially prejudicial pretrial publicity.”

Oct. 9, 2020: After the former officer is freed on bail, protesters push bail bond reform outside Government Plaza.

Oct. 7, 2020: Chauvin posts bond, amounting to $1 million, and is released from prison.

June 7, 2020: Nine Minneapolis City Council members pledge to defund the Minneapolis Police Department. Months later, little traction is made to defund the department — however, attrition plagues MPD, and about 200 officers have quit or taken extended medical leave since the death of Floyd, according to the Star Tribune.

June 3, 2020: The three other officers — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — are charged with aiding and abetting in the interaction that led to Floyd’s death. Chauvin’s charge is upgraded to second-degree murder, Vox reports.

June 1, 2020: Two autopsies rule Floyd’s death a homicide.

May 30, 2020: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calls violent attacks and destruction on Minneapolis “domestic terrorism.”

May 29, 2020: Chauvin is arrested in connection with Floyd’s death and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Trump threatens to deploy the army on protesters and calls them “thugs” on Twitter, Politico reports.

May 28, 2020: Gov. Tim Walz mobilizes the National Guard in Minneapolis after violence arises. More than 7,000 guard members were eventually pressed into duty, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

The Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct building, where Chauvin was stationed, was eventually burned down. The Star Tribune compiled a timeline of events leading up to the fall of the building.

May 27, 2020: Protests across the nation begin to arise in response to Floyd’s death.

The Target near the Third Precinct building is looted, and numerous other businesses and buildings are subject to property damage, looting and fires started by the unrest, Bring Me the News reports.

May 26, 2020: Minneapolis residents began to protest the death of Floyd and demand the prosecution and firing of Chauvin and the four other police officers, as well as taking a stand against the MPD, claiming longstanding police brutality by the department.

May 25, 2020: George Floyd dies after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneels on his neck outside of a convenience store in South Minneapolis. Floyd is accused of using counterfeit currency. A video of the struggle between Floyd and Chauvin is posted on Facebook. The video depicts Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck while he is detained for nearly nine minutes.

A new popcorn shop arrived in Dinkytown last month with a rotation of more than 70 flavors it hopes to cater to the students in the area.

After six years in Minnetonka, PoppedCorn opened a second location on Fourteenth Avenue Southeast on Nov. 5. The family-run operation is utilizing its younger employees to better brand the store to the college demographic of Dinkytown.

The shop is relatively small, so it rotates between flavors, which include some classic favorites like caramel and movie theater-style popcorn and more unique takes like loaded baked potato and cinnamon toast. It is all popped in coconut oil and is made without genetically modified organisms.

After searching for a second location for more than two years, owner Sue Michaletz signed the Dinkytown lease earlier this year.

“I think we found the perfect spot, but I signed the lease back in February before COVID was a word I knew,” Michaletz said. “But I still think it’s an awesome place, and I think in the long run we’ll be really happy, especially when events can continue and students can be back in class.”

The shop is currently taking online and takeout orders.

Michaletz started the business with her two daughters after they saw a popcorn shop during a trip to Las Vegas more than a decade ago. Years later, after searching for the perfect location, she set up shop in Minnetonka, where she lives.

“I saw this concept in Vegas, and I thought, ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be fun,’” Michaletz said. “And to be honest, I’ve never worked so hard in my life.”

Michaletz has hired 10 employees over the past month and said she has learned a lot about marketing to the younger audience through social media.

In Minnetonka, they have built support through fundraisers with schools and word-of-mouth. Their customers are typically older and more family-focused people that use platforms like Facebook.

Now in Dinkytown, with the help of her employees — which include a total of 10 second-year University of Minnesota students, Michaletz has worked to build up an Instagram following and is relying on the eventual influx of traffic during Gopher game days.

Michaletz said Natalie Gumm, one of her new student employees, has been extremely helpful during the transition into Dinkytown.

“I feel like all of us, since we are the younger age, we’re doing a good job of helping her [with Instagram] and stuff,” Gumm said. “It’s really just chill and friendly and just, like, a good environment. It doesn’t even feel like I’m going to work when I’m going.”

Gumm said that the team at PoppedCorn started its first Instagram giveaway contest last week, offering a 3-gallon tin of a popcorn flavor of the winner’s choice.

Michaletz said she knows foot traffic in Dinkytown has been hindered by fewer students on campus, cold weather and pandemic lockdowns. But she got excited seeing students during recent warmer days after the first football game of the season. She said she is excited to see more days like that in the future.

“You know,” Michaletz said, “who doesn’t love popcorn?”

When Asian fusion sushi joint SotaRol shuttered in March due to the pandemic, its owner reimagined how he would utilize the Stadium Village location. Six months after closing SotaRol, Aaron Switz opened Fly Chix after seeing the success of other chicken restaurants around the University of Minnesota.

Fly Chix, a new fried-chicken joint, opened its first brick and mortar location in Stadium Village last month at 309 Oak Street SE next door to Kimchi Tofu House and less than a block from Stub and Herbs.

Switz, who co-founded Fly Chix, described the new restaurant as a made-from-scratch, picnic-style place specializing in fried chicken sandwiches. He saw the success of Raising Cane’s in both Dinkytown and Stadium Village and decided to create his own take, alongside Fly Chix’s executive chef, catered toward college students.

“It kind of shows that there’s a big appetite in general in America, as well as on-campus, that the kids like chicken, and we wanted to be a part of that,” Switz said.

Fly Chix started off as a “ghost kitchen” in Edina, only offering delivery and takeout with limited hours. Switz and his team said the isolation period at the start of the pandemic was the perfect time to construct the new restaurant’s brand.

Essi Tadrus, co-founder and executive chef of Fly Chix, said third-party delivery services have been monumental to building a customer base during the pandemic.

“If customers don’t feel comfortable going out of their house, being able to use that third-party delivery has just been amazing,” Tadrus said.

Switz said the lack of foot traffic that would come alongside in-person classes has made it difficult to increase the restaurant’s visibility for students. He said that most of their customers so far have been from the nearby hospital.

With the lack of dine-in seating and a majority of their orders being takeout, “it’s always been tricky to try and learn how to connect with the community and let people know that we are here,” Switz said.

Both Tadrus and Switz have years of successful experience in the restaurant industry.

Tadrus, chef and founder of BAM BBQ, grew up as an “army brat” and found comfort in American cuisine. He started cooking from a young age and opened his first restaurant at 19 years old, about 15 years ago. He now lives in Tampa, Florida, about an hour-and-a-half drive from BAM BBQ.

Switz is the co-founder and CEO of multiple regional restaurants and chains, including Agra Culture Kitchen, Yogurt Lab, Yumi’s Sushi and La Grolla. He moved to Minnesota in 1996 from Arizona and currently lives in the Twin Cities.

Throughout Stadium Village, the pandemic has led to the recent shuttering of many restaurants, including Applebee’s, Bar Luchador and the temporary closures of Punch Pizza and Naf Naf Grill.

The Fly Chix team hopes to better connect with local University students in the future as people become more comfortable with eating out.

“I’ve been in a lot of places and worked in a lot of different cities, so — the U of M, working here — it’s so exciting because the students bring such an energy when they come into our Fly Chix,” Tadrus said. “It makes it very, very fun, and that’s why I love being there.”

Elisa Gomez. William “Billy” James Hughes.

The gentle beat of a drum was struck after every name was read aloud — each of an Indigenous life lost to gun violence, police brutality or kidnapping and killed.

Jonathon Tubby. Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow. Travis Jordan.

Nearly 100 people gathered at Boom Island Park Monday night in memory of lost loved ones and to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The event was organized by various local groups, including Native Lives Matter (NLM), Justice for Travis Jordan, Black Lives Matter Minnesota and others.

This November approaches the two-year anniversary of Jordan’s death. His girlfriend, Taren Vang, said that after the loss of her boyfriend nothing can heal her, but the Indigenous community has lent her an ear.

Tonia Black Elk, an organizer for NLM, said Indigenous Peoples Day is not special: They are “Indigenous every day.”

“We don’t need your month; we don’t need your day. We live this every single day. … It means a lot to come out here to educate you guys on some of the issues that we got going on right here today,” Black Elk said.

Community members and families set up a display of pictures of Indigenous people who have died and red dresses to represent missing and murdered Indigenous women. Women dipped their hands in red paint and pressed them over their mouths to represent women kidnapped and murdered.

The Minnesota Department of Health found that despite making up only 1% of the population, Native American women were seven times more likely to be murdered than white women between 1990 and 2016.

Black Elk and her husband Gabriel work to help heal Native families that are grieving the deaths of loved ones. They reached out to Vang after hearing that the Minneapolis Police Department shot and killed Travis Jordan during a wellness check. The pair focuses on bringing awareness to the disproportionate rate at which Indigenous people are killed and supporting the families that suffer their absences.

“A lot of people see us as activists, but we’re a family,” Tonia said.

She said they will do anything to help, even if that just means sending a family a text letting them know they are being thought of or helping to get them groceries for the week.

The vigil started off with a land acknowledgment from Cantemaza (Neil McKay), the University of Minnesota’s Dakota language specialist and staff member in the American Indian Studies Department.

“The land that you’re standing on is Dakota. It is not American soil,” McKay said.

In recent years, Indigenous Peoples Day has overtaken the celebration of Columbus Day. Minneapolis first celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day in 2014.

Speakers said the day that Christopher Columbus landed on Native soil was the start of the mistreatment of their people. Gabriel Black Elk said it was significant when activists tore down the Columbus statue in St. Paul and that it is important for this generation to know what really happened to the Indigenous people when Columbus arrived.

Gabriel said Columbus was not an explorer but a killer.

“I had been trying to change the name of the day since I was 13. … I didn’t know how much longer I’d have to fight for justice,” he said. “But it just keeps going on.”

Gabriel’s brother, Paul Castaway, was killed in 2015 by Denver police during a wellness check. He said that organizing events and bringing together mourning communities is healing.

He said that to the families, protesters and supporters that spent their Monday night telling stories of those they miss, Indigenous Peoples Day represents all that their ancestors fought for and all that they will continue to work toward in the future.

“For me personally, [healing] is protesting, yelling out my brother’s name,” Gabriel said.

The proposal for a seven-story development above Hideaway and other retail spaces in Dinkytown has changed course to avoid construction within the lines of the Dinkytown Commercial Historic District.

Developers presented new plans to the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association (MHNA) Land Use and Development Committee meeting Tuesday, where community members expressed concerns about construction, traffic and the future of Dinkytown.

Following pushback from neighbors and difficulty working within historic guidelines, the proposal will no longer force Camdi and Mesa Pizza to close during construction.

The apartment building will have a smaller footprint, and downsize to 82 units from 106. It will have 236 bedrooms instead of the original 296. Buildings at 1309-1315 Fourth Street Southeast, which house Hideaway and Cosmic Bean Dispensary, will be replaced if the development is approved.

Hideaway would return to the property once construction is complete; Cosmic Bean Dispensary would not.

“We changed the footprint because of the difficulty of dealing with the historic building,” said Garret Duncan, who spoke at the meeting on behalf of North Bay Companies, the project’s developer. “I’ve been trying to do this project for five or six years now, maybe seven, maybe even longer, and it’s been difficult.”

The construction will also replace two surface parking lots that sit behind the retail shops. Mick Stoddard, the project’s architect with DJR Architecture, said there will still be alleyway access and some parking behind the building.

Wally Sakallah — longtime owner of Hideaway, Wally’s Falafel and Hummus and Cosmic Bean Dispensary — has been in Dinkytown since 2003 and believes building new apartments will improve safety in Dinkytown. He said he hopes the development will modernize the neighborhood and remove some of the alleyways and parking lots where “shady” things happen.

“Businesses are shutting down, businesses are struggling and it’s not cool, it’s not good,” Sakallah said. “We have to do something to Dinkytown … the structure of Dinkytown has to be changed.”

The apartment building would have a step back to the second floor to provide a break between the retail space and the start of the complex, Stoddard said at the meeting. The first-floor exterior would be made of brick to maintain the historic feel and match nearby businesses.

The complex would include underground parking with an entrance off of 13th Avenue Southeast, raising traffic concerns for community members. Many people said traffic along that road is already cluttered, and they wondered how having an entrance to a parking garage would worsen that issue.

Additionally, the seven-story building created a concern for a “canyon-like effect” looming over many single-story buildings along Fourth Street. Community members said at the meeting that developers should respect and maintain the historic nature of Dinkytown and feel that adding more housing that “towers” over retail spaces takes away from that.

“There’s more to a neighborhood than having newer and more housing … there’s more to it than just a house,” Marcy-Holmes resident Julie Iverson said at the meeting.

If the project remains on track and receives city approval, construction could begin as early as next spring. The developers plan to continue discussing community concerns at future MHNA meetings. The team’s land use application will be sent to the city on Oct. 17 and could be presented to the planning commission for approval on Dec. 7.

After a delayed move in for incoming first-years, students are finally returning to on-campus housing.

Friday morning, the common area of Superblock just saw a trickle of carts — lacking the usual chaos of large throngs of students moving in. The routine is different for 2020’s first-years: social distancing and face masks are visible as the new students carry boxes of food back to their dorms.

Students and their limited number of movers, often parents or family, have been arriving since Tuesday. All residents have been required to schedule a 60-minute move-in session and are limited to no more than two people to assist in the yearly tradition, per an email sent out to first-years from the University’s Housing and Residential Life (HRL).

Normally, first-years would start moving into dorms at the end of August to early September. However, due to the coronavirus, the University decided last month to push back the move in and delay the in-person component of classes by “at least” two weeks, according to a universitywide email sent by President Joan Gabel.

First-year Ella Kooyer, a North Dakota-native planning a double major in dance and English, moved into Centennial Hall Tuesday.

“There was just less going on in general … there’s no one giving flyers or introducing themselves or like anything you would see in an American movie. It was definitely more subdued than what I’d expect, but it was COVID,” Kooyer said.

The University’s Maroon and Gold Sunrise Plan sets rules for incoming first-years, and their move-in marks the beginning of step one of the four-step blueprint.

During phase one of the plan, students are expected to spend most of their time in their assigned residence hall and are restricted from being in other students’ rooms for 10 days. After two weeks and the completion of the first phase, the guidelines loosen and allow for more interaction between the students.

Amid fears of contracting COVID-19 and being away from home, students are still faced with the uncertainty of establishing friendships and succeeding in their classes.

This is especially hard for students like Robert Frank, a first-year bachelor of fine arts member, whose classes have all moved online. He hopes to make friends with the people on his floor and in his current classes.

“I’m gonna be working with these people for four years,” Frank said.

Frank was originally assigned a roommate. But, because the prospective roommate’s whole course load is online, they decided against moving in. Now Frank has the room to himself.

Roommates TJ Ayumba and Adam Hague moved into Pioneer Hall Thursday and agreed that “everyone’s super eager to talk,” so it’s difficult to want to follow the rules of no guests in dorms. The two face difficulties being first-years during this time alongside constant reminders that the pandemic is ongoing.

“I’m trying to be mindful of it, but I’m not scared of it … [I’m] wearing my mask and distancing when I can,” Hague said.

Ayumba, on the other hand, had to be more cautious concerning the possible risks while he was living at home. He said he feels a bit more comfortable on campus.

“More when I was at home I had other people to worry about … of like at-risk people like my grandparents, but now here I’m living with a roommate,” Ayumba said. “You feel a little bit more comfortable going out.”

Although Kooyer, the dance and English double-major, wishes that her first year of college would be what she had seen in the movies, she says her unique experience has brought her and her hallmates closer together.

“We’ve had to rely on each other more. I’ve heard people in the hallway be like, ‘I need a mask, can someone walk to Walgreens with me?’” Kooyer said. “It’s hard because we kind of expected college to do everything for us in terms of making friends, and the problem is — it’s no one’s fault.”

For some students, housing contracts end at the beginning of Thanksgiving break. Kooyer, who moved in three days ago and is in the second week of her classes, said that it has already gone by so fast.

“I’m three days in, and I’m already an eighth of the way done with the semester,” she said.