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U OF M
MINNEAPOLIS
ST PAUL
SUMMER EDITION
JUNE 15-JUNE 21, 2016
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM
NATION
AFTER ORLANDO, SOLIDARITY In the aftermath of the nation’s deadliest massacre in Orlando on Sunday, LGBT and Latino communities are coming together to grieve, resist stigma.
EDITORIAL
Is ‘deadliest’ deadly enough?
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
O
RLANDO, Fla. — When the names of the victims in the worst mass shooting in moder n U.S. histor y are read aloud at memorials around the world, the surnames stand out: Martinez. Fernandez. Guerrero. Most of the 49 people shot and killed were Hispanic, and the tragedy has left Florida’s Latino community hear tbroken over the loss of young lives. Many were also gay — which means that Saturday evening at Pulse was the fateful intersection of two tightknit communities, ones that have existed until recently on the fringes of central Florida’s society. “As a Hispanic, we already have that fear we don’t belong,” said 34-year-old Nicole Neko-Montalvo of Orlando. “We also have that fear as homosexuals. To be targeted twofold is over whelming.” Hispanic residents made up almost half of Florida’s population growth last year, and in Orange County — where Orlando is located — Hispanics comprise nearly 30 percent of the population. The Puer to Rican community is especially robust, with more than 1 million in Florida, nearly the same as New York. “It’s not lost on me that it was Latino night at Pulse,” said pastor Gabriel Salguero of Orlando, adding that some of the victims have fam ily members who attend his large evangelical church. Salguero spoke to thousands Monday night at a vigil in downtown Orlando. He u See COMMUNITIES Page 3
JIM YOUNG, REUTERS
Mourners grieve at a vigil for the victims of the shooting at Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on Monday.
MADDY FOX, DAILY
Roses line the fence outside of the Gay 90s bar in downtown Minneapolis on Monday to honor those who lost their lives at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., early Sunday morning.
Fifteen times since he assumed office in 2009, President Barack Obama has stood behind a podium, and with downtrodden eyes, decried America’s gun epidemic. On Sunday afternoon, he delivered his 16th speech — this time about the latest, calamitous mass shooting in Florida. H o u r s e a r l i e r, a l o n e assailant — identified as Omar Mateen — toting a legally purchased assault rifle, stormed a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., killing 49 patrons and injuring 53 more. The rampage is the deadliest shooting ever to occur on U.S. soil. For the nation’s LGBT community, the shooting is an odious reminder of the continued persecution of gay people — particularly those of color. Despite the gay community’s long, tumultuous struggle for equality — foregrounded by the Stonewall-era riots in New York — the attack in Orlando bears glum resemblance to anti-gay arsons in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Nashville during the gay liberation movement in the 1970s. Nearly 50 years later, the prerogative of such crimes remains the same — to viciously destroy the few sanctified spaces where gay people feel safe to celebrate their identity openly. Hours after blood soaked the floors of Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that an Indiana man — armed with assault rifles and explosive material — had been arrested en route to a West Hollywood gay pride parade. Identity aside, the shooting in Orlando was an assault on the American ideal of liberty. For Mateen, freedom — to live and to love — was clearly untenable. u See ORLANDO Page 6
HEALTH
BOARD OF REGENTS
The MPCA is trying to revoke Northern Metal Recycling’s permit following outcry.
arrested after board meeting
Facility spurs community health concerns Six protesters
The protesters resisted tuition hikes in Kaler’s 2017 operating budget on Friday.
BY RYAN FAIRCLOTH rfaircloth@mndaily.com
When Roxxanne O’Brien and her family moved within a mile of Northern Metal Recycling two years ago, they began to notice new health problems. O’Brien, who lives near North Lowry Avenue in Minneapolis, said she and her three kids have had more frequent headaches and respiratory problems since the move. She said it isn’t just her family that’s had health problems, either. “We’ve noticed a lot of headaches over here. I’ve noticed my neighbors, too, have headaches, not just me and my family, but my friends around the neighborhood,” O’Brien said. O’Brien said she thinks pollution emitted from the Northern Metal Recycling plant on North Pacific Street is partially to blame. The NMR plant has drawn controversy in past years due to emissions from its metal shredder, and now the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is trying to revoke the facility’s air quality permit. During a City Council committee meeting at Minneapolis City Hall last week, city officials presented an MPCA plan to revoke the building’s permit. Presenters said the MPCA found the plant contributed to particle emissions that exceeded air quality standards, and the plant failed to disclose such emissions from their operations. The MPCA’s 2015 Nor th Minneapolis Air Monitoring Study found excessive concentrations of lead, cobalt and other heavy metal particles measured by monitors near
BY KEVIN BECKMAN kbeckman@mndaily.com
no longer valid, Smith said. “We don’t think [the permit] represents how the facility is being operated; we don’t think it reflects a fair assessment of how the emissions from the facility are impacting the community, and the evidence of that is that we’ve been doing monitoring around the facility now for a couple years, and we’re seeing continued air quality exceedances,” he said. But Jack Perry, a lawyer representing NMR, said the MPCA falsely claimed that facility owners lied about emissions, and the agency is trying to blame them for pollution caused by other factors.
Six University of Minnesota students were arrested during a protest over proposed tuition increases at a Board of Regents meeting last week. Nearly 30 demonstrators attended the meeting to protest the Twin Cities campus tuition hikes included in University President Eric Kaler’s 2017 operating budget. “We were hoping to … potentially prevent the tuition hikes vote from happening, but more than that we wanted to show the administration that we’re there and we’re watching ... and that their intentions do not reflect us and reflect what we need,” said Alaina DeSalvo, a student in the College of Education and Human Development and one of the six arrested Friday. In the end, the demonstrators failed to persuade regents to reject Kaler’s proposed budget. The board approved the $3.6 billion budget proposal by a 7-2 vote on Friday. The plan includes a 2.5 percent tuition increase for resident or reciprocity undergraduates and a 7.5 percent increase for nonresident, nonreciprocity undergraduates — a decrease from Kaler’s original 9.9 percent increase proposal. The scaled-back increase comes after opposition
u See METAL Page 3
u See ARRESTS Page 13
ZACH BIELINSKI, DAILY
Roxxanne O’Brien poses with her children on the Lowry Avenue Bridge in North Minneapolis on June 9. O’Brien is one of multiple community members who oppose the operations of Northern Metal Recycling due to its contributions to local pollution and health hazards.
the Lowry Avenue Bridge. These elevated concentrations can cause health problems like respiratory issues and developmental problems in young children, according to the study. Jeff Smith, director of the MPCA’s Industrial Division, said these effects could cause the most harm in the long term. “We’re talking about respiratory irritation, damage to lung tissue, those sorts of things,” he said. “On the metals side, the lead certainly … may contribute to developmental problems with young children, and cardiovascular effects in adults.” Now, the MPCA wants to revoke the building’s permit — issued in 2012 — because it is
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