St. Paul’s Parks and Rec is trying to rename Osborn Plaza and they need your help.

The department is looking for residents’ input on a new name for the city-owned urban park at 376 Wabasha Street North. People can submit suggestions through a two-minute survey online at stpaul.gov.

The survey will close around Oct. 1.

Brett Hussong, a principal designer in the Parks and Recreation design and construction division and the project manager for Osborn Plaza, said a potential name change could help emphasize to residents that the plaza is a city-owned park.

Once the survey goes through, the design team will do community engagement on the most popular names. Once a name is chosen, it will be approved by the St. Paul Parks and Recreation Commission and then the City Council.

“I think the reason for us doing this is because I think there is some confusion about whether this is a publicly owned park,” Hussong said. “We actually went to the farmer’s market this weekend and a couple of people knew this was park land, but the majority of people didn’t. So I think it would help create a little more awareness that this is public property and its park land and it’s open to the public.”

Revitalization project

The name change and the new design are a part of an overall revitalization project, Hussong said.

The design will have a new sound system, decorative lighting that can change color, and more space where new art can be added in the future.

“It’ll bring an interesting feel and warmth if we can have lighting and sound,” Hussong said.

This isn’t the first time the plaza has had a name change. The building was originally named the Osborn Plaza after Merritt J. Osborn, who founded the Economics Laboratory, which was later named Ecolab in 1923, reported the Pioneer Press.

The name changed in 1998 when the St. Paul City Council renamed it to the Ecolab Plaza and the Capital Centre Plaza in recognition of the company’s size and influence.

In 2022, Ecolab asked the city council to restore the building’s name to Osborn Plaza.

Hussong said the final design for the plaza is expected to be released soon. The remodeling project is expected to be completed by late summer or early fall of 2026.

The renovation and the possible name change will help people in St. Paul find an additional place for leisure and recreation, he said.

“I think everyone needs trees and green space, and people need to get away. They are utilized as that amenity to be out in nature,” Hussong said.

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Alan Horton will shift over from the radio call to television for much of the upcoming season, the team announced Thursday.

The longtime Timberwolves’ radio voice will sit in Michael Grady‘s chair whenever Grady is taking on national television duties, which is expected to be a frequent occurrence this season.

Grady has signed on with Amazon and NBC/Peacock for the upcoming NBA season, and could do anywhere up to around 20 of the 65 Timberwolves regular season games that will air on FanDuel Sports Network.

That leaves a large slate of games for Horton to call alongside analyst Jim Petersen.

Horton enters into a more prominent position in now his 19th season with the organization. Horton will still be the team’s radio play by play voice when Grady is available to call the Timberwolves games or when Minnesota is exclusively on national television.

But for the games where Horton is on the television broadcast, he and Petersen’s call will be simulcasted onto radio airwaves.

Minnesota also announced that Lea B. Olsen will be the television sideline reporter for the local broadcast of all Timberwolves’ home games this season, while Cayleigh Griffin and Ashley Stroehlein will handle that role for road contests.

By MARC LEVY, Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department sued six more states on Thursday, saying the states refused to turn over voter registration lists with complete information as the agency mounts a wide-ranging effort to get detailed voter data.

It also accused the states of failing to respond sufficiently to questions about the procedures they take to maintain voter rolls.

The department’s newest lawsuits targeted California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania after it sued Oregon and Maine last week and has said it is mounting a nationwide effort to ensure that states are complying with federal requirements to maintain voter rolls.

“Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”

All eight states being sued are led by Democratic governors, except for New Hampshire, which is led by a Republican.

An Associated Press tally found that the Justice Department has asked at least 26 states for voter registration rolls in recent months and in many cases asked states for information on how they maintain their voter rolls.

Some states have sent redacted versions of their voter lists that are available to the public.

But the department said the states were breaking federal law by refusing to supply all of their information on registered voters, including a voter’s full name, date of birth, address, state driver’s license number and the last four digits of their Social Security number.

That, and insufficient answers about voter list maintenance procedures, make it impossible for the Justice Department to determine whether the states are complying with federal law, the department told the courts.

Some states — such as Michigan — have declined or demurred on the voter registration data requests, citing their own state laws or the Justice Department’s failure to fulfill federal Privacy Act obligations.

The Justice Department’s outreach has raised alarm among some election officials because the agency doesn’t have the constitutional authority to run elections. That power is granted to states and Congress. Federal law also protects the sharing of individual data with the federal government.

Election officials also raised concerns that federal officials are trying to use the sensitive data for other purposes, such as searching for noncitizens on the rolls.

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Why did two firefighters walk from Duluth to St. Paul? This is their story.

The Texas brothers who kidnapped a Grant man and held his wife and adult son hostage at gunpoint for nine hours last week stole $8 million in cryptocurrency from the family, authorities said Thursday.

The men were charged Wednesday with kidnapping in U.S. District Court. Raymond Christian Garcia, 23, and Isiah Angelo Garcia, 24, both of Waller, Texas, also face seven counts each in Washington County District Court in connection with the armed kidnapping, burglary and aggravated robbery Sept. 19 at a house in the 7300 block of Inwood Way North.

Isiah Angelo Garcia, left, and Raymond Christian Garcia (Courtesy of Waller County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office)

The brothers were arrested Monday in Texas.

The armed kidnapping and cryptocurrency heist caused a “shelter in place” warning to be issued in the immediate area of 75th Street North and Inwood Way in Grant and caused the cancellation of Mahtomedi High School’s homecoming football game against Bloomington Kennedy. The stadium is about a mile away from where the kidnapping took place.

“A violent kidnapping that stole $8 million and silenced a homecoming game is not just a crime. It is a blow to the sense of safety of everyone in Minnesota,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a statement. “This is not normal. Minnesotans should not accept wild violence and thievery as normal.”

Police learned of the incident when the couple’s son called 911 around 4:45 p.m. Sept. 19 and whispered into the phone that he and his parents had been kidnapped and were being held hostage at gunpoint in their home, according to the criminal complaint.

The incident started around 7:45 a.m. Friday when the Grant man, bringing his garbage can out to the street from inside the garage, was confronted by the Garcias who “ran out from alongside the house’s driveway, pointing an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun at him,” the federal complaint states. “They quickly escorted him back into the garage, where they bound his hands with zip ties and then brought him inside the house.”

The men then woke up the man’s wife and their son, both at gunpoint, bound them with zip ties and forced them to lie on the floor of the upstairs bedroom, the complaint states.

Raymond Garcia, armed with the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, held the wife and son in their residence for the following nine hours.

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Texas brothers held Washington County family hostage in crypto robbery, charges say

Isiah Garcia, armed with the shotgun, escorted the man around the house and forced him at gunpoint to log into his cryptocurrency accounts, the complaint states.

“Isiah demanded that (he) transfer large amounts of cryptocurrency to an unknown cryptocurrency wallet that he had provided,” the complaint states.

The brothers frequently made phone calls to an unknown third party and “the third party appeared to be providing the information related to the cryptocurrency accounts and transfers,” the complaint states. “Through this third party, (the Garcias) became aware at a certain point that (the man) had additional cryptocurrency funds that he had not yet provided.”

When the man explained that the remaining funds were on a hard-drive style cryptocurrency wallet that was stored at their family cabin in Jacobson, Minn., approximately three hours away, Isiah Garcia forced the man to drive the man’s truck to the cabin at gunpoint, according to the complaint.

At the cabin, the man transferred the remaining funds to Isiah Garcia’s provided cryptocurrency wallet before the two returned to the house in Grant. In total, Isiah Garcia forced the man to transfer $8 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to the complaint.

Largest financial crime

The $8 million heist is believed to be the largest financial crime ever committed in Washington County.

“Honestly, I’ve been here 32 years, and I don’t remember anything as large as this,” Washington County Sheriff Dan Starry said Thursday. “It was terrifying for the victims and also the community. But through great police work, the resolution is that they’re being held accountable and they’re behind bars.”

Paul Sibenik, CEO of CryptoForensic Investigators, said crypto-related kidnappings, extortion, and “$5 wrench attacks” are becoming more and more common.

“They have definitely become more common in the past year or two, and that is a reality that cryptocurrency holders need to be prepared for,” he said.

“Wrench attacks” — a name that originated in a xkcd post that basically mocked how easily high-tech security can be undone by hitting someone with a $5 wrench until they give up passwords — are on the rise because stealing a digital wallet can be easier than stealing money from a traditional bank account, Sibenik said.

“In many ways it is easier though kidnapping/extortion since the transactions can’t be reversed, and the attackers obtain custody and control of the funds — much like cash, albeit digital,” he said. “The funds aren’t directly sent to a custodial solution, something that would be akin to a bank.”

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin offer traders full control of their funds without the need for a bank or permission from a government to buy, sell or hold it. The trade-off is that if funds are lost or stolen, there can be no way to get them back, he said.

Gone forever?

Does that mean the man’s $8 million is gone forever?

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“There’s no way to reverse/recall the transaction, as would be the case with a wire,” Sibenik said. “It is sometimes possible to get some of the funds back, but depends on a variety of factors, i.e. if the thief is caught, where/how they launder the funds, how cooperative exchanges are that receive stolen funds, etc… The victim might be able to get some of the funds back in the end, or might get nothing. It depends. Full recoveries are extremely rare.”

Sibenik said having $8 million in crypto might not be as unusual as people might think.

“It’s not common by any means, but more common than you think,” he said. “Some cryptocurrencies are seen by many as a store of value, albeit more volatile, and effective protection against inflation. Some people choose to store wealth in precious metals for example, since those metals can’t be arbitrarily printed by a government, but do inflate a bit, and there are costs associated with mining it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.