Daily Digest: Death in Somalia

Good morning, and welcome to another Monday. Hard to believe we're already halfway through October. Here's the Digest.

1. Two truck bombs exploded in Somalia's capital on Saturday, killing more than 300 people. A Bloomington man who fled Somalia in the 1990s and had returned to the country for a short trip was among those killed in Mogadishu. The body of 50-year-old Ahmed Eyow was found in the rubble of a hotel where the first bomb exploded, according to his brother Bashir Eyow of Minneapolis. "We don't know what time he died, but we know as soon as he arrived in Mogadishu, after three hours, bombs crashed into the hotel," Eyow said on Sunday. "We looked for him for many, many hours, almost 10 hours. After that, we found him in the ruins." (MPR News)

 

2. Sixteen candidates are on the ballot this year for Minneapolis mayor. Several sought the DFL endorsement, but the party could not pick a candidate. Voters next month will again make their selection using ranked-choice voting. If you're looking for more information, here are some quick snapshots of some of the top candidates. (MPR News) And here are some of the candidates running for mayor of St. Paul. (MPR News)

3. Plans by a Canadian energy company to replace an aging oil pipeline in northern Minnesota with a new one are sowing a divide between key factions of the DFL as the party gears up for important elections next year. Enbridge hopes to construct a 340-mile pipeline to deliver Canadian oil from northwestern Minnesota to a terminal on Lake Superior. As the Minnesota Department of Commerce pushes back against those plans, DFL lawmakers from the area and their allies in building trades unions who support the project are engaged in a sometimes bitter conflict with environmentalists and American Indians who don’t. (Star Tribune)

4. One passage in a nearly 5,000-word New York Times Magazine feature on tensions over mining produced a firestorm of criticism from the moment it was posted online Thursday, and on Friday led to an apology. Reid Carron, who is active in the Save The Boundary Waters effort to resist a proposed copper-nickel mine, had criticized people supportive of the project for elevating the promise of new jobs over environmental concerns near the pristine wilderness area. “Resentment is the primary driver of the pro-mining crowd here — they are resentful that other people have come here and been successful while they were sitting around waiting for a big mining company,” Carron told the Times. “They want somebody to just give them a job so they can all drink beer with their buddies and go four-wheeling and snowmobiling with their buddies, not have to think about anything except punching a clock.” (MPR News)

5.  Former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty keeps publicly insisting he's retired from politics, yet the talk continues that he may be poised to enter the 2018 race for governor. “What he would bring to the race is a clear vision for Minnesota’s future and what we need to do to maintain this great quality of life here,” said Charlie Weaver, a former Pawlenty chief of staff who’s now CEO of the Minnesota Business Partnership, which represents the state’s largest companies. “He would be uniquely positioned to do that, and he’s uniquely articulate in describing that vision to potential voters.” Or voters might remember how much of his second term he spent running unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, and that when he left office the state faced a big budget deficit. (Star Tribune)

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