Sarah Ritter

1 week ago | lacrossetribune.com | Reid Forgrave |Sarah Ritter

Inside the Church of St. Timothy in Blaine, where decades ago Minnesota House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman was baptized and received First Communion, parishioners gathered Sunday under stained glass and a crucifix, bowed their heads and recited a plea for peace. Twenty-four hours after news of the murders of Hortman and her husband shocked Minnesota and the nation, some in the Catholic congregation still felt unsafe. Their killer remained at large, the subject of an enormous manhunt.

1 week ago | startribune.com | Sarah Ritter

Dan Mutka tried closing his windows and turning up the TV, but nothing could drown out the maddening thwack reverberating from the pickleball courts near his Maple Grove home. "I would correlate it to somebody pounding on your roof with a hammer, putting up shingles, day after day after day," said Mutka, who lives by Fish Lake Woods Park.

2 weeks ago | startribune.com | Sarah Ritter

By Sarah Ritter The ruling follows a decades-long saga about control over the water supply for thousands of north metro residents. The Minnesota Star Tribune The city of Blaine has the right to separate its water system from the neighboring city of Lexington, a district court judge ruled. (Eric Roper/The Minnesota Star Tribune) Blaine has the right to separate its water system from Lexington, a judge ruled Tuesday, following a decades-long dispute over the smaller city's contaminated well water.

2 weeks ago | startribune.com | Sarah Ritter

A couple of times a month, a group gathers outside Blaine's Northtown Mall to protest one of the last stores in Minnesota that still sells dogs from commercial breeders. Activists have kept up the demonstrations for more than six years, but they still haven't persuaded the store to change its business model or the city to ban it. Struggling to gain traction, they're instead turning to neighboring suburbs, where more and more cities now ban pet shops from selling cats or dogs.

2 weeks ago | startribune.com | Sarah Ritter

A St. Paul fire inspector is charged with kidnapping and child solicitation after allegedly trying to sexually assault a 13-year-old who needed a ride to school. James Allen Thomas, 73, of Woodbury, is accused of picking up a middle school girl who had missed the bus and was walking to school in late May. He allegedly took her to his apartment where he tried to assault her and offered her money for sex.