CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Moldovan authorities said they carried out 250 raids and detained dozens on Monday as part of an investigation into an alleged Russia-backed plan to incite “mass riots” and destabilize the country around a critical parliamentary election.

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The raids targeted more than 100 people and took place in multiple localities across the country, police said. Seventy-four people were detained for up to 72 hours, said Victor Furtuna, Moldova’s chief prosecutor from the Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases.

Moldovans will vote to choose a new 101-seat legislature on Sunday, in an election many view as a choice between Moldova’s continued path toward European Union membership or closer ties with Russia.

Moldova’s police said that the unrest plot was “coordinated from the Russian Federation, through criminal elements.”

Furtuna said that most of the suspects “systematically traveled” to Serbia, where they received training and that they were aged between 19 and 45 years old.

The head of Moldova’s police, Viorel Cernauteanu, said that some of the suspects didn’t know the real purpose of their trips, which were presented as pilgrimages, and only later became involved in “training for disorder and destabilization.”

He added that the investigation was “not aimed at political entities, despite interpretations. Rather, it was aimed at documenting the criminal intent and organization of these individuals who traveled to Serbia for training.”

Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu said in a statement after the raids on Monday that the Kremlin is spending “hundreds of millions of euros” to try to sway the election.

“People are intoxicated daily with lies,” she said. “Hundreds of individuals are paid to provoke disorder, violence, and spread fear. … I appeal to all citizens: we must not allow our country to be handed over to foreign interests.”

She added that the Kremlin “has accomplices here in Moldova,” describing them as people “willing to sell out their country for money.”

Moldovan authorities have long accused Russia of conducting a hybrid war — meddling in elections, disinformation campaigns, illicitly funding pro-Russian parties — to try to derail the country’s path toward European Union membership.

Moscow has repeatedly denied meddling in Moldova.

In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moldova applied to join the EU and was granted candidate status that year. Brussels agreed to open accession negotiations last year. Moldova’s westward shift further irked Moscow and tensions between the two nations skyrocketed.

Ta’Shawn Burks often walked to see friends and family, finding joy in those quiet, simple moments, his mother told the court Monday.

Ta’Shawn Burks, right, of St. Paul, and his mother, Tamera Burks, at his graduation from Northeast Metro 916 in 2008. (Courtesy of Tamera Burks)

Burks was doing just that on July 11, 2023, in St. Paul’s Summit-University, when, “in an instant, everything changed,” Tamera Burks, his mother, said.

As the 31-year-old was crossing Concordia Avenue at Dale Street around 9:45 p.m., Abdirahman Ali Hassan saw a yellow light, gunned his sedan and plowed into him at 77 mph. Burks, of St. Paul, died at the scene.

“Since that day, our family has been left shattered,” his mother said at Hassan’s sentencing.

Judge DeAnne Hilgers gave Hassan, 21, of St. Paul, a 364-day term in the workhouse, a sentence that’s more than double what had been agreed upon as part of an April plea agreement.

After his plea to criminal vehicular homicide, Hassan missed a date for his presentence investigation. On Aug. 14, he was cited for careless driving and speeding for allegedly going 102 mph on Interstate 35W near Lyndale Avenue in south Minneapolis.

“I do not believe you understand the ramifications of your actions, and I don’t believe you’ve come to grips with them,” Hilgers told him. “You will not receive the benefit of the plea agreement because you have twice violated that agreement.”

He’ll get credit for three days already served in custody.

Court records show Hassan was convicted of speeding a month before the fatal crash. New Brighton police clocked him driving 90 mph in a 60 mph zone on the entrance ramp to Interstate 694 from Silver Lake Road.

Hassan was ‘covered in glass and blood splatter’

St. Paul police officers were called to the St. Paul intersection on a report of a hit-and-run involving a pedestrian. They found Burks motionless on Concordia Avenue, approximately 100 feet east of Dale Street.

Witnesses told officers that a white car drove through the intersection heading east on Concordia Avenue at a high rate of speed.

One witness said they were stopped at a red light heading south on Dale Street and that Burks was walking north against the traffic light, according to the criminal complaint. Burks was halfway across Concordia Avenue when the witness heard a vehicle’s engine rev up and then saw a white sedan hit Burks, who went airborne. The driver did not stop.

Abdirahman Ali Hassan (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

While officers were securing the scene they learned the driver had stopped less than a mile away at Carroll Avenue and Arundel Street. Officers located a white Hyundai Sonata with heavy front-end damage and a damaged windshield. The driver, identified as Hassan, was in a “state of shock and had a blank stare on his face,” the complaint says, adding that he was “covered in glass and blood splatter.”

Hassan’s mother identified her son to police “since he was unable to talk at that time” and said he had called her crying and in shock and that she met him there, the complaint says. Hassan was transported to a hospital, and later declined to speak to police about the crash.

A blood draw showed that Hassan did not have alcohol or drugs in his system.

Investigators obtained a search warrant and removed the Sonata’s electronic data recorder for crash analysis. It showed Hassan’s speed continually increased after he got off I-94 and that he “unsuccessfully tried to make a green light at the intersection” and hit Burks. The complaint does not clearly state who had the right of way at the time of the crash.

The data showed the car’s speed was 62.8 mph five seconds before the crash and 77.7 mph at the time of impact. The speed limit on Concordia Avenue is 25 mph.

‘Make some serious changes’

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Judge Hilgers gave Hassan the longest workhouse sentence she could without sending him to prison. She stayed a four-year prison term for five years of probation.

Hilgers pointed out to Hassan that he cannot have any traffic violations while on probation.

“And to make that clear, a speeding ticket could put you in prison,” she said. “So take this opportunity to make some serious changes, changes that can honor who you can be, and that will honor who Ta’Shawn was and who he could have been.”

If the Minnesota Legislature doesn’t come through next year with funding for a top-to-bottom renovation of the recently-renamed Grand Casino Arena in downtown St. Paul, what’s the likelihood that the favorite hockey team up and moving to, say, Bloomington?

“We’ve never thought about moving, trying to figure out where else we can go to try and get something done,” said Matt Majka, chief executive officer of the Minnesota Wild, during a live broadcast on Monday from the St. Paul Hotel. “St. Paul is our home. We believe in this city and we’re going to make it happen.”

Majka joined St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and representatives of the city council, the St. Paul Downtown Alliance, Securian, Sherman Associates, the St. Paul Saints, the St. Paul Area Chamber and Morrissey Hospitality for an hour-long forum on the future of downtown St. Paul. Moderated by Fox 9 news anchor Randy Meier and broadcast live online by the news station, the forum drew consensus among the group that the capital city’s historic downtown draws thousands of visitors when major events are happening at Grand Casino Arena, Rice Park and Mears Parks, but it struggles to draw outsiders when there aren’t.

“We’re probably as good today as we’ve ever been getting those big events,” said Carter, who said the challenge since the pandemic has become convincing visitors to stick around and enjoy downtown after games and Ordway shows, or when there’s no major spectacle to draw them. “We’re kind of a ‘best kept secret’ city. … We have the Midwest ailment where when we’re excited about something … we make sure no one (hears) about it. We have to break that habit.”

Council President Rebecca Noecker agreed.

“When people visit downtown St. Paul, what I hear them say is ‘charming, historic … and walkable,’” Noecker said. “You can see all the highlights of downtown St. Paul in two hours … but the key is to getting people to want to take that walk.”

Reopening storefronts

Reopening street-level storefronts will be key to restoring vitality downtown, said Richard Dobransky, president of Morrissey Hospitality, which operates the St. Paul Hotel and the St. Paul Grill, as well as catering at the RiverCentre convention center.

“We’re now the host to three different cruise lines who embark or depart from here,” Dobransky said, and those visitors “don’t have a car. They want to walk around this area and spend money, and we don’t really give them a lot of opportunities to spend money. We bus them out to other areas.”

“The street-level retail has got to come back,” he added. “A great example is (Thai and Lao restaurant) Ruam Mit … They are now expanding into the space next door. … We hear from residents, ‘yeah, we go to Ruam Mit twice a week.’ We need more Ruam Mits.”

Downtown Alliance revitalization strategy

Meier largely focused the forum on a downtown revitalization strategy drawn up on behalf of the Downtown Alliance. It calls for attracting 20,000 new residents, 20,000 more workers and increasing visitors by 20%, as well as addressing perceptions of crime and public safety downtown.

“We have not had a problem bringing our employees back downtown when it’s safe,” said Chris Hilger, president and chief executive officer of Securian Financial. “There has been a perception and some reality around downtown safety needs, but I think it’s being addressed.”

Tom Whaley, an executive vice president with the St. Paul Saints, said litter and vandalism create a sense of neglect, which feeds into fear.

“If it’s dirty, if there’s graffiti … when you come in from Woodbury, when you come in from Roseville, it’s how does it look? It’s almost instantaneous,” Whaley said. “We don’t have problems during events. If we start there, I really think that’s clear. It’s how does it look?”

Chris Sherman of real estate development company Sherman Associates said downtown St. Paul is well positioned to transition some of its vacant office buildings into housing. St. Paul has an “atypical” number of “historic buildings that are going to be good candidates for conversion,” said Sherman, who called “live/work/play” branding key to filling empty spaces even when office workers have gone home.

Joe Spencer, president of the Downtown Alliance, noted that the architecture and planning firm Gensler evaluated 20 downtown office buildings and found 50% of them to hold promise as future residences, compared to 30% of the 1,400 buildings the firm had analyzed nationwide.

Arena renovation

Hilger and others agreed that the renovation of the 25-year-old arena is essential for the future of downtown.

Carter and Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold asked lawmakers last March for nearly $400 million in state appropriations bonds to fund nearly half of a $769 million renovation of what was then known as the Xcel Energy Center, as well as the adjoining RiverCentre Convention Center and Roy Wilkens Auditorium. With time running out on the legislative session, the two later reduced their late-in-the-session ask, but were unable to draw funding for a scaled-down version of the same project.

“We’ve downsized that project to make it more affordable,” Majka said. “We’ve listened to the feedback we’ve heard from the Legislature. We’ve turned it from a tear-down and complete rebuild of Roy Wilkens (Auditorium), to really a focus on the arena. We’ve taken it down to a $450 million project, with a $50 million request to the state, $200 million mostly from the city and $200 million from the Wild.”

“That’s far less on both a percentage basis and on a real dollars basis than, let’s say, Target Field or U.S. Bank Stadium,” Majka added. “But again, I don’t begrudge those, because these are community assets. We all need to maintain these buildings for the good of our communities and cities. We will continue to work with the mayor and his staff, who have been great partners in this effort. And we will find a way to get it done because it must be done for the community and the city’s sake.”

Asked by Meier how quickly that could happen, Majka responded: “As soon as people see the light. And again, I don’t see it as an option that it can’t be renovated. It has to be renovated. These buildings require that. They have to stay up with the times, for HVAC, and cabling, and safety and flow through the arena. It has to change with the times.”

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Reunited emo rock band My Chemical Romance will play their biggest local show to date when they headline Target Field on Aug. 24.

Tickets go on sale at noon through Ticketmaster. Indie rock veterans Sleater-Kinney open.

Lead singer Gerard Way and drummer Matt Pelissier formed the band in New Jersey shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Way said seeing the World Trade Center towers fall made him realize “music was this thing I secretly wanted to do.” Way’s younger brother Mikey joined the group on bass and named them after Irvine Welsh’s novel “Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance.”

After releasing their 2002 debut album “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” on an independent label, My Chemical Romance signed to Reprise Records. Thanks in large part to heavy touring, the band’s 2004 effort “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” went triple platinum, as did its follow-up “The Black Parade.”

My Chemical Romance made “The Black Parade” with Green Day producer Rob Cavallo and took a much more mainstream approach, earning many comparisons to Queen. For their next record, 2010’s “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,” the band embarked on an arena tour that brought them to the X in September 2011. Two years later, they broke up without citing any specific reasons.

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In 2019, the band announced they were reuniting for what fans thought was a one-off show that December at a Los Angeles theater. It sold out in four minutes and grossed $1.4 million. In January 2020, they revealed a full North American tour that sold out in less than six hours, but it was delayed several times due to the pandemic. The band finally hit the road in 2022 and sold out the venue formerly known as Xcel Energy Center that September.

This summer, My Chemical Romance sold more than 450,000 tickets to their stadium tour of 10 North American markets. As they did at those shows, the band will be playing “The Black Parade” in full during the 2026 tour.