English Bulldog Puppies for Sale in St. Paul, MN

As part of Mayor Melvin Carter’s Medical Debt Reset Initiative, the city relieved over $40 million in medical debt.

Image by Ava Weinreis

St. Paul announced they are relieving over $40 million in medical debt for around 32,000 residents as part of Mayor Melvin Carter’s Medical Debt Reset Initiative.

The city is partnering with Fairview Health and Undue Medical Debt, a non-profit that works to erase medical debt, to use $1.1 million from the American Rescue Plan to eventually relieve around $110 million in medical debt over the next few years, according to a statement from Carter’s office.

Under Undue Medical Debt’s model where they work alongside the hospitals, $1 gets rid of $100 of medical debt, the organization’s CEO Allison Sesso said.

“That’s why we’re able to, for very low amounts of money, get rid of medical debt,” Sesso said.

The average amount of debt erased was $268 with the highest totaling $104,972, according to the city’s statement.

Residents who qualify will receive letters in the mail notifying them that their debt was erased, the statement said.

In the partnership, St. Paul provides the funds for Undue Medical Debt to work with healthcare providers to get the data necessary to analyze and relieve patient medical debt, Sesso said. They give that information to the mayor and city to write and sign off on the letters.

“What it does is it creates an opportunity to talk about the issue of medical debt and its impact on people,” Sesso said.

Fairview Health President James Hereford said in the statement that through this partnership with the city and Undue Medical Debt, the community can become stronger and healthier.

“Health is not only about buildings, hospitals, or clinics – health care is about meeting the needs of patients where they are and doing whatever we can to improve health outcomes and decrease cost,” Hereford said in the statement. “Our partnership with the City of Saint Paul and Mayor Carter reflects our longstanding dedication to seek innovative solutions that have long challenged the health care sector.”

Even among people with insurance, around 54% of adults have medical debt, Carter said in the statement, which can impact all areas of someone’s life.

“Medical debt is a major barrier holding our neighbors back from prioritizing their health,” Carter said. “By removing the burden of debt, we invest in the long-term health of our entire community.”

Sesso said there are many problems in the healthcare system. Someone may have to go to a doctor or hospital that is not covered by their insurance, making it hard to avoid debt.

“Medical debt is a unique kind of debt because you don’t really control if you get into it,” Sesso said. “The number one predictor of whether or not you end up in medical debt is whether or not you get sick.”

An important part of Undue Medical Debt’s work is to encourage policymakers, hospitals and insurance companies to do more to solve the issue fundamentally, Sesso said.

“By doing this work, we’re talking about this issue in a way that we hope that there’s bigger solutions that we can’t put forward,” Sesso said. “We have a public policy department that really thinks about solutions that are bigger than us as an organization.”

Bremer, a privately held bank that’s majority-owned by the Otto Bremer Trust, a charitable organization, had been seeking a buyer, Bloomberg reported this month. The trust and the bank’s holding company, Bremer Financial, reached an agreement in July to end a five-year legal battle.

Bremer Financial in 2019 was considering a merger of equals with Great Western Bancshares. Trustees, however, felt a sale would offer greater profit, the Star Tribune reported. The holding company sued trust members to stop the trust from selling a stake in the bank to a hedge fund group, according to Bloomberg. Great Western agreed to sell to First Interstate in 2021.

“When our majority shareholder, the Otto Bremer Trust, reaffirmed its interest in selling Bremer Bank, we appreciated the opportunity to identify a partner through a collaborative process to ensure the best possible outcome for our customers, employees and our communities,” Bremer CEO Jeanne Crain said in Monday’s news release.

During a conference call Monday to discuss the deal, Piper Sandler analyst Scott Siefers expressed surprise that Old National was able to purchase Bremer for tangible book value and asked about the competitive process. Old National CEO Jim Ryan said he thought Bremer “reached out to all of the usual suspects” that might have had an interest in the purchase.

“I think some things changed along the way,” he said, although “our bid didn’t materially change throughout this entire process.”

Ryan said he didn’t know exactly which banks participated, but said there was a lot of outreach and Old National felt the process was competitive.

Following the deal, the trust will have about an 11% ownership stake in Old National, and a trustee will join Old National’s board.

The combined bank would have $70 billion in assets, and the acquisition would make Old National the third-largest bank in the Twin Cities.

Old National has been a frequent acquirer in recent years, scooping up First Midwest Bank in Chicago in 2022 for $2.5 billion, and Nashville-based CapStar this year.

The Indiana lender entered the Twin Cities market in 2017 with its acquisition of St. Paul-based Anchor Bank, and has had “long-standing interest in growing our market position here,” Ryan said during the call. Old National bought Minnesota’s KleinBank for $400 million in 2018.

Old National executives noted growth opportunities in areas such as St. Cloud, Minnesota and Grand Forks, North Dakota, including with small businesses and the agriculture sector.

For Old National, “[h]owever, another big deal takes away from what had been a good organic growth focus/story,” Siefers wrote in a Monday note. “Plus, Bremer has had some highly-publicized multi-year issues, begging the question of whether it will need to be fixed before it can be grown.”

Old National said it will sell about $2.4 billion in commercial real estate loans after the deal closes, resulting in a $34.6 million earnings impact, according to an investor presentation.

“We wanted to kind of reset our own balance sheet,” and be in a position to play offense following the transaction, Old National CFO John Moran said during the call.

Old National also projects cost savings of about 30% of Bremer’s 2025 expected non-interest expense, or about $111 million pre-tax, with 25% realized in 2025 and 100% in 2026 and beyond, according to the presentation.

Old National also expects to log about $194 million in pre-tax, one-time merger expenses, which is reflected in the pro-forma tangible book value estimate at closing.

When asked by an analyst how much the presidential election’s outcome affected Old National’s comfort and ability to pursue the deal, Ryan said it wasn’t much of a factor, but noted the bank met with regulators at the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency multiple times throughout the process, to preview combined balance sheets and resulting capital ratios.

“Everybody feels like things could ease a little bit into the future, but we’re not planning on it,” Ryan said of regulatory attitudes toward bank M&A.

The deal’s price tag puts it among the biggest bank transactions announced this year. Others include SouthState’s pending $2 billion acquisition of Independent Bank Group; UMB’s nearly $2 billion acquisition of Heartland Financial; Atlantic Union’s $1.6 billion bid to buy Sandy Spring; and Renasant’s $1.2 billion purchase of The First Bancshares.

The Milligan Studio in St. Paul says the sculpture in rural North Dakota will be the largest glass and steel sculpture in the world.

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ST PAUL, Minnesota — A St. Paul studio known for its public art pieces across the world is getting ready to begin work on a record-breaking installation.

"When I came here, as they say, 'Go big or go home,'" said Alan Milligan, who moved to St. Paul from Ireland.

Alan serves as lead designer of sculptures for The Milligan Studio while his wife, Nicole Milligan, is the CEO and lead designer in glass.

"We make huge celebrations of community. We make public art and we make it all over the world. We've had our work in Paris; we've had our work in Ireland... we just make these joyous, colorful reminders that we're all in this together," Nicole said.

The couple started their studio in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood in 2017. Since then, they've made about 30 sculptures.

"I like to think it's a way for people to communicate with each other and go places that they wouldn't go to go see this art," Alan said.

Currently, they're working on a public art installation called "The Weight of Water" that will be located near Cascade Lake in Rochester. It will be about 38 feet long and 20 feet high.

Credit: Heidi Wigdahl

"It's basically a boat that just hangs in the sky with these huge ores that are 13 feet of glass. So these beautiful feather ores... it's madness," Nicole said.

While that project is soon wrapping up, the process for their next piece starts in the beginning of next year near Rugby, North Dakota.

The installation is part of a statewide Creative Placemaking program developed by the North Dakota Council on the Arts called "Arts Across the Prairie: Placemaking in Rural North Dakota."

The project involves creating eight large-scale art installations for each geographic region in the state that reflect the area's unique history, landscape and cultural heritage.

"So "Sky Dreaming," this 100-foot sculpture that's 20 feet tall and 100 feet long is going to be the largest glass and steel sculpture in the world, located in rural North Dakota. It's called "Sky Dreaming" because 58% of the waterfowl in America passes into this area and winters I guess in the prairie potholes," Nicole explained. "It's just an amazing tribute to the people of North Dakota who live out in this place."

Credit: The Milligan Studio

Nicole said it will be a huge effort that will involve working with 10-15 artists in North Dakota. They'll also train people to teach them how to weld, design and make glass.

"We really believe that sculptures are not just a beautiful thing," Nicole said. "That's wonderful that they're beautiful but it also can be an economic engine."

For the holiday season, The Milligan Studio is open and selling smaller glass pieces, as well as items from other artists.

"We're working this year with Ukrainian textile artists and also artists from Nepal. We're making these incredibly beautiful scarves. We also have some Irish artists... my husband being from Ireland... it's all vibrant. You can't get it on Amazon. You can't get it anywhere else," Nicole said.

The Milligan Studio is open every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. now until Christmas or until they sell out.

The Milligan Studio 459 Selby AvenueSt. Paul, Minnesota 651-756-7683

The Brief

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A blast of wintry weather Wednesday dumped an inch or less of snow across the Twin Cities metro.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport saw about 0.75 inches of snow, with some areas seeing slightly more where it snowed for most of the day. Meanwhile, western Minnesota saw 1–4 inches, with higher snow totals closer to North Dakota.

Snow totals from Wednesday's storm

Snow at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on Nov. 20, 2024. (FOX 9)

Here's a look at snow totals across the state from Wednesday's snow:

Note: This story will be updated as snow totals are confirmed.

Snow led to slick roads Wednesday, Thursday morning

WEATHER FORECAST: Gray, windy and dry on Thursday

Roads remain slick following Wednesday's snow

FOX 9's Bill Keller is monitoring slick road conditions Thursday morning, following overnight freezing temperatures and snowfall from Wednesday.

The snow started in the Twin Cities before sunrise on Wednesday when air temperatures started to dip below freezing, but the roads were in pretty good shape until the evening commute.

This is because the freeze/thaw cycle for soil is delayed by air temperature. It takes a while for the ground to catch up to colder air temperatures, especially during daylight.

Multi-vehicle crash in Burnsville: Traffic cameras

MnDOT traffic cameras captured a multi-vehicle crash in Burnsville around midnight on the Interstate 35W bridge over the Minnesota River. The driver of an SUV had already spun out when two other drivers lost control and spun across the ice, before they all collided.

Well, after several plus hours of sub-freezing air temperatures on Wednesday, the ground started to freeze. Add a snowy burst for a few hours around and over the evening commute as that is occurring, and that spells accumulating snow on our roadways and some slippery conditions.

READ MORE: MN weather: Slick roads Thursday following Wednesday’s snow

The exact opposite will likely happen on Thursday as air temperatures start the day above freezing, but the ground is still frozen, so our snow will take a little while to melt on our roads and grassy surfaces.

MN weather: Gray and windy day Thursday

Temperatures return to above freezing in the Twin Cities metro on Thursday, though it will be rather windy with gusts topping out at 40 mph. FOX 9 meteorologist Cody Matz has your forecast.

Many Minnesotans are about to see their first snow of the season, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.

William Bornhoft, Patch Staff

TWIN CITIES, MN — Snowfall totals for the Twin Cities and the rest of central Minnesota have ticked up slight since Tuesday. The metro is now expected to see around an inch of snow, if the latest forecast holds.

"Strong northwesterly winds may gust up to 40-45 mph across western Minnesota today," the National Weather Service said.

"Scattered snow showers will also combine with breezy winds to reduce visibility. Minor accumulations of up to around an inch or so can be expected for most locations, with some locations in far western Minnesota possibly receiving around 2 inches of snow accumulation."

Looking ahead, temperatures across Minnesota are expected to be slightly colder than normal on Thanksgiving Day and through the start of December.

Here's the full NWS forecast from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport:

Find out what's happening in Minneapoliswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Wednesday: Snow, mainly before 1pm. High near 34. West wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

Wednesday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow, mainly before 9pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 29. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Thursday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 40. Breezy, with a northwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.

Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 33. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 39. Northwest wind around 10 mph.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 28. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Saturday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming east in the afternoon.

Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. East southeast wind around 5 mph.

Sunday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 40. East southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north northwest in the afternoon.

Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Monday: A slight chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 34. Northwest wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. West northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 31. West wind 5 to 10 mph.

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