Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is preparing to call state lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session on gun control as soon as next month after this week’s shooting in a Minneapolis Catholic school church that killed two children and injured 18 others.

Walz and fellow Democratic-Farmer-Labor leaders, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, have renewed calls for more gun control laws in recent days. They have advocated for policies including a ban on semiautomatic rifles and a magazine capacity limit.

“It’s time to take serious action at the State Capitol to address gun violence,” the governor said in a Friday post on X.

An administration official said Walz is making calls to state lawmakers in preparation for a potential special session.

New gun control bills could face headwinds in the Legislature, where the Senate and House are closely divided between the parties. DFLers have 33 seats to Republicans’ 32 in the Senate, and Republicans have 67 seats to DFLers’ 66 in the House.

Republicans generally oppose new gun control legislation, so passage of any bill will require bipartisan support.

That won’t change after the House likely returns to a 67-67 tie after a special election for former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman’s seat on Sept. 16.

Even then, DFLers will still need at least one GOP vote to pass major gun control bills.

Gun control bills could have a smoother ride in the Senate, which will remain at its current balance until special elections for two vacant seats in November.

Republicans said they were surprised by news of Walz’s plans to call lawmakers back to the Capitol.

“Republicans are committed to addressing the root causes of violence, supporting safe schools, and increasing access to mental health resources,” said Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks. “Calling for a special session without even consulting legislative leaders is not a serious way to begin. This is a partisan stunt from a governor who continues to engage in destructive political rhetoric.”

House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said she had not heard anything about plans from the governor.

“My expectation would have been that he would have had some type of communication to say that he is doing this,” she said.

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Budget carrier Spirit Airlines said Friday that it has filed for fresh bankruptcy protection months after emerging from a Chapter 11 reorganization.

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The no-frills airline said it intends to conduct business as normal during the restructuring process, meaning passengers can continue to book trips and use their tickets, credits and loyalty points. The company said its employees and contractors would still be paid.

Spirit President and CEO Dave Davis said the airline’s previous Chapter 11 petition focused on reducing debt and raising capital, and since exiting that process in March “it has become clear that there is much more work to be done and many more tools are available to best position Spirit for the future.“

In a quarterly report issued earlier this month, Spirit Aviation Holdings, the carrier’s parent company, said it had “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern over the next year — which is accounting-speak for running out of money. Spirit cited “adverse market conditions” the company faced after its most recent restructuring and other efforts to revive its business.

That included weak demand for domestic leisure travel, which Spirit said persisted in the second quarter of its fiscal year, and “uncertainties in its business operations” that the Florida company expects to continue “for at least the remainder of 2025.”

Known for its no-frills, low-cost flights on a fleet of bright yellow planes, Spirit has struggled to recover and compete since the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising operation costs and mounting debt eventually led the company to seek bankruptcy protection in November. By the time of that Chapter 11 filing, the airline had lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020.

When Spirit emerged from bankruptcy protection in March, the company successfully restructured some of its debt obligations and secured new financing for future operations. Spirit has continued to make other cost-cutting efforts since — including plans to furlough about 270 pilots and downgrade some 140 captains to first officers in the coming months.

The furloughs and downgrades announced last month go into effect Oct. 1 and Nov. 1 to align with Spirit’s “projected flight volume for 2026,” the company noted in its quarterly report. They also follow previous furloughs and job cuts before the company’s bankruptcy filing last year.

Despite these and other cost-cutting efforts, Spirit has said it needs more cash. As a result, the company said it may also sell certain aircraft and real estate.

And as discount carriers struggle to compete with bigger airlines — many of which have snagged budget-conscious customers through their own tiered offerings — Spirit is attempting to tap into the growing market for more upscale travel. It is now offering flight options with tiered prices, the higher-priced tickets coming with more amenities.

Spirit’s aircraft fleet is relatively young, which has also made the airline an attractive takeover target. But such buyout attempts from budget rivals like JetBlue and Frontier were unsuccessful both before and during the bankruptcy process.

Spirit operates 5,013 flights to 88 destinations in the U.S., the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Panama and Colombia, according to travel search engine Skyscanner.net

A  Fridley man who investigators say was dressed as a UPS driver when he killed three people inside a Coon Rapids home was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder on Friday by a jury, authorities said.

Alonzo Pierre Mingo, 39, was charged in connection with the January 2024 killings of Shannon Patricia Jungwirth, 42, her son Jorge Alexander Reyes-Jungwirth, 20, and her husband, Mario Alberto Trejo Estrada, 39.

Alonzo Pierre Mingo (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)

Authorities say Mingo went into the home on the 200 block of 94th Avenue Northwest with two other men looking for money.

The three victims were found shot in the head, according to the criminal complaint. Two small children, both under the age of 5, were in the home at the time of the killings but not injured.

Mingo was arrested about three hours after the killings after he was pulled over in his car near his Fridley home. A UPS shirt and vest were inside a backpack, and investigators later learned that Mingo had been employed by UPS until earlier that month, the complaint says.

Mingo’s attorney could not be reached for comment on Friday. Two other men, Omar Malik Shumpert, 20, and Demetrius Trenton Shumpert, 34, both of Minneapolis, have been charged in the case. They face their own jury trials this fall.

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Plans for a new Hy-Vee grocery store in Stillwater have fallen through, and the developer of the site at the southeast corner of Minnesota 36 and Manning Avenue is looking for a new grocer to take its spot.

Summit Management’s Mark Lambert said Friday that his company and Hy-Vee have agreed to part ways after seven years of negotiations at the Central Commons site.

“We basically agreed to separate, and I got my site back,” Lambert said. “I felt it was more important for us to have the momentum going forward than to be in a position where we didn’t know when – and if – they were going to build the store.”

Lambert said both parties agreed it wasn’t “the right place and the right time” for Hy-Vee to build there.

“What that means is that I now have a very nice grocer location that I am marketing to other grocery stores,” Lambert said.

Officials from Hy-Vee, based in West Des Moines, Iowa, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Mixed-use development

Plans call for Central Commons, a $50 million mixed-use development, to include 190 units of luxury apartments, retail and a convenience store, Lambert said.

Key to developing the site will be finding a grocery store to anchor the project, he said.

“We know there are several great grocers in the area,” he said. “My hope is to kind of re-grocer the site, if you will, and that we’ll find another grocer that wants that location.”

A site map showing the layout for the Central Commons development on the southeast corner of Minnesota 36 and Manning Avenue in Stillwater. (Courtesy of Summit Management)

The road leading to the development – the 58th Street extension – is scheduled to be completed next spring, “so I’m hoping by summer of 2026, we’ll have full access and a very marketable site,” he said.

The site is being developed to accommodate an up to 95,000-square-foot grocery store and 4,000-square-foot convenience store on the property, which the city of Stillwater annexed from Stillwater Township in 2020. There’s also the possibility of a hotel, more apartments and additional retail, he said.

Prime location

An aerial photograph taken Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, shows the site of the future Central Commons development, located on the southeast corner of Minnesota 36 and Manning Avenue in Stillwater. Pictured on the left is the future home of the new Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater. (Courtesy of Summit Management)

The site is in a prime location, just south of the new $400 million Lakeview Hospital campus at the northeast corner of Minnesota 36 and Manning Avenue in Stillwater.

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“We’re still excited about (the project),” Lambert said. “I mean, it’s an amazing corner. It’s right across from the new hospital. … While we’re disappointed we weren’t able to continue our partnership with Hy-Vee, we’re excited about identifying a new partner to continue the work we’ve done the last seven years on this site.”

Stillwater Mayor Ted Kozlowski said he is confident that another grocer will decide to build at the site.

“I really think there will be something cool that lands in that spot, so I’m not too worried about the future of it,” he said. “There are a lot of really cool options. I was just at the new Kowalski’s they built over in Edina. Boy, would I love to see that in Stillwater, like, that is the sexiest grocery store I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s really, really nice. I’m ready to call the CEO.”

Kowalski’s operates a store in Oak Park Heights, just east of the Central Commons site.