Author: Brian Voerding

A disheveled man paced the intersection of Snelling and University avenues, waving his arms as he described to passersby how his car had broken down and he’d been sleeping at the nearby Catholic church. If somebody would spare some change, he promised, he’d be on his way. The man had plenty of pedestrians to talk…

The other day, customers entering the Office Max in St. Paul’s Midway were greeted by bold signs bearing an urgent message: “Avoid Identity Theft. Protect Personal Information.” Next to them were sprawling displays of home paper shredders, all bearing names intended to invoke fear, awe, and consumerism: The Sentinel. The PowerShred. The Paper Monster. Lynne,…

SHEIK OMAR ABDEL RAHMAN—THE BLIND SHEIKOne of fundamentalist Islam’s most exalted spiritual leaders; resided in Rochester between 1998 and 2002 at the Federal Medical Center prison. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for conspiring to blow up the United Nations, New York’s FBI office, and all the bridges and tunnels going into…