Kenyon man caught with over 70 grams of meth
A Kenyon man is facing multiple charges after a traffic stop by Faribault police. On Sunday, an officer was patrolling a known area for narcotics and spotted a vehicle known for drug activity was parked in a driveway. The vehicle was pulled over for a faulty turn signal. The driver told police he came from Northfield and was driving to Walmart. He was speaking nonsense. Another officer arrived on the scene. The passenger kept his head down with his hoodie pulled over. When
approached he gave the officer a false ID. After some discussion and a search, the passenger was identified as 34 year old Justin Scott Prondzinski. A further search revealed 77 grams of methamphetamine, a couple of baggies with trace amounts of marijuana along with 8 gift cards. Prondzinski is charged with 2nd degree possession of more than 25 grams, a felony with a maximum sentence of 40 years, giving a peace officer a false name, a gross misdemeanor and three misdemeanors. He has a lengthy criminal history including conviction of attempting to manufacture meth. A court appearance is January 26th. He remains in the Rice County jail.
“Fear is it’s own policy”
Ben Casper, a Northfield resident, is a University of MN Law Professor and has nearly 2 decades of of experience litigating cases before immigration courts. While there’s plenty of fear in the Latino community, Casper’s best guess on what Trump might do is, “that we’ll see some ramped up enforcement but not meaningfully more”. He said there may be some more spending on border issues such as the wall, but, “the real risk on a day to day basis for a person in our community who hasn’t committed major crimes, who’s undocumented is probably going to be marginally larger”. He believes that fear is it’s own policy, using it to create division. Casper doesn’t believe Trump will deliver on the promises he made on immigration. Saying, “my guess is that he can’t and won’t”. There’s a lot of talk about Sanctuary cities, churches, schools but this is more a political issue than a legal issue. As for the City of Northfield and most local law enforcement, they don’t ask citizenship. As a federal law, they don’t enforce it. Sanctuary is a broad word says Casper, “and I think sometimes it can even stoke fear”. He says there’s no need to cower. Casper said the younger immigrants are showing a lot of leadership and political engagement will be the key. His full interview is on kymn.net.
Greenvale pauses on panels
Greenvale Township pressed pause on their decision to rezone the area to allow for solar panel installation. A citizen input meeting took place on January 10th and, Dave Legvold said the overwhelming sentiment was that the citizens don’t want it. Last night a motion to reject any change failed due to no second. They then made a motion to delay for 60 days. So the discussion will continue at least for the next 60 days as they seek out more information and bring the item back.
Council okays First Reading on Temp dwellings
After swearing in new Councilor-at-large, Greg Colby, the Northfield City Council got down to business. They unanimously voted to approve the First Reading of the temporary family health care dwellings ordinance. Mayor Pownell and Administrator Martig were in studio this morning with a recap. Their interview is online at kymn.net.
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