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1 week ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
ROCHESTER - In 2022, economic development officials in Rochester sent out a survey asking what biotech leaders across the globe thought about the prospect of setting up shop within steps of Mayo Clinic. Four-hundred responses later, the message was clear: Most of them had never even considered the idea of having a presence in Minnesota's third-largest city.
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1 week ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
By Sean Baker Rochester Police believe a string of overdose deaths in recent days was likely the result of drugs laced with fentanyl. The latest discovery was early Tuesday morning when officers responded to an apartment near Silver Lake in northeast Rochester. There, they found two women and one man dead on the floor from suspected overdoses. The department has now recorded five overdoses since June 13, a striking number for a city that recorded four overdose deaths in all of 2024.
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1 week ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
ROCHESTER - The latest round of construction to shake up the downtown area gets underway this week as crews begin laying the groundwork for Rochester's long-anticipated Link Bus Rapid Transit system. The work marks the start of multiyear effort to reconfigure one of the city's busiest streets into a bustling transit corridor connecting downtown with Mayo Clinic, St. Marys campus and thousands of parking spaces.
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2 weeks ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
The former owner of a manufactured home park in the Rochester area has agreed to pay $135,000 over allegations it submitted false claims to a state program intended to curb evictions during the COVID pandemic.
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2 weeks ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
By Sean Baker With more than 100 families, the Harmony area is now home to the state's largest Amish settlement. The Minnesota Star Tribune HARMONY, MINN. - Eddie Swartzentruber's childhood growing up in Minnesota's Driftless Area was different than many of his "worldly" neighbors. There was no TV or video games - or even electricity, for that matter.
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4 weeks ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
The owners of a Rochester speakeasy are betting their next venture can help elevate downtown nightlife to heights not seen since before the pandemic. Bitter & Pour, an underground bar along Historic Third Street, plans to double its presence downtown with a second location atop the seven-floor H3 Plaza building, in a space formerly occupied by La Vetta rooftop bar. La Vetta closed in 2018 and efforts to revive it were derailed by the pandemic and the changing landscape of downtown.
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1 month ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
An Olmsted County judge has denied former Minnesota trooper Shane Roper's request for the court to drop charges against him for his role in a 2024 crash that killed Owatonna teenager Olivia Flores. In an order signed Wednesday, District Judge Lisa Wayne wrote that a reasonable jury could find that Roper's driving was grossly negligent based on the facts of the case presented by the state.
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1 month ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
Amazon has completed the purchase of a 23-acre site just south of Rochester where the online retailer plans to build a "last-mile" distribution facility. The company paid $2.5 million for the land, in Stewartville's Schumann Business Park, according to a filing this month with the Minnesota Department of Revenue. Plans call for Amazon to build a nearly 84,000-square-foot facility on the site, which was annexed by the city earlier this year.
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1 month ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
For the first time in Rochester's 171-year history, a woman has been promoted to the rank of police captain. Capt. Jennifer Hodgman, a 21-year veteran of the force, will oversee Rochester Police Department's Community Services Division, the department announced this month. We recently sat down with Hodgman, a self-described hockey mom of two, to learn how she rose up the ranks in a field where only 3% of executives nationally are women. The interview was edited for length and clarity.
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1 month ago | 
startribune.com | Sean Baker
After a pair of false leads, the Rochester chapter of the NAACP says it now believes police have correctly identified the family of a child who was shouted at with racist slurs at a local park. The organization said Monday that three separate families came forward claiming to be involved after a crowdfunding campaign raised more than $340,00 in support of the child.
