Joel Rosenberg died suddenly in early June.

​Joel Rosenberg, the vocal gun rights activist, was in a bit of a financial pickle. He wasn't working and was using most of his available funds to defend himself against felony charges of possession of a dangerous weapon in a courthouse.

Then, on June 1, the worst happened: Rosenberg suffered a massive heart attack. By the following day, he'd been declared brain dead and his family removed him from life support.

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Senator Linda Scheid began her career in Minnesota politics in 1976.

​At sunrise tomorrow morning, all the flags at state and federal buildings throughout Minnesota will be ceremonially lowered to half-staff.

That's because Tuesday has been proclaimed "Linda Scheid Day," in honor of the Brooklyn Park senator. She died on June 15, after discontinuing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.

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Joel Rosenberg passed away yesterday.

​Joel Rosenberg, the vocal gun rights advocate, has died.

This morning, his wife Felicia Herman posted an announcement on his website "Free Joel Rosenberg," which he created to chronicle his public spat with Minneapolis Police Sgt. William Palmer.

Under the title, "Joel Rosenberg -- husband, father, mensch," she announced that he died yesterday at Hennepin County Medical Center. Today would have been their 32nd anniversary.

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Harmon Killebrew, the way we'll remember him.

​Harmon Killebrew, the former Twins great who announced just last week that he had entered hospice care in Arizona after a months-long battle with esophageal cancer, died today. He was 74 years old.

"I have exhausted all options with respect to controlling this awful disease," the hometown legend said in a brief note to his fans last week. "My illness has progressed beyond my doctors' expectation of cure."

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RIP Derek Boogaard

​Derek Boogaard, the popular Wild enforcer who had signed with the New York Rangers, was found dead in his apartment Friday at the age of 28.

Boogaard was found unresponsive by his brothers Ryan and Aaron at around 6 p.m. in his condo at 415 1st Street North in Minneapolis. It could take weeks for the toxicology test that could determine the cause of death, but foul play is not suspected.

I met Boogaard in 2007 for a City Pages cover story. Although he made his living terrorizing opponents on the ice with his fists, he was a soft-spoken giant with a deep connection to his family and his teammates.
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Wikipedia

The venerated Gen. Vang Pao in the early '60s.

​Last night, news arrived from California that Gen. Vang Pao succumbed to a 10-day battle with pneumonia and died at the age of 81.

Though decades have passed since he lead the Royal Army of Laos in guerrilla combat during the Vietnam War, he was revered as the stateside leader of the Hmong people, and he'll be honored tonight in St. Paul.

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Photo by Davidsonscott15, Flickr

Police don't suspect that the driver was drinking.

​Police have identified the 24-year-old woman who was hit by a car and killed yesterday as Emma Holman.

The details of the crash are still unraveling, but police say Holman, who is from Bloomington, was near a friend's house when she crossed Grand Avenue West near the intersection of Syndicate Street.

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​The mother of Minnesota's first female senator died yesterday after complications from heart surgery. Rose Klobuchar was a long-time teacher in the Minneapolis and Wayzata school districts; she retired from teaching second grade at age 70. She was also a Camp Fire Girls leader and had once won a teacher of the year award in Wayzata.

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Inside Edition, the national television show that named Jeremy Gillitzer one of its most Extraordinary Stories of '08, ran a segment on his death tonight.

This morning, I did a remote interview from downtown Minneapolis to New York. Jeremy Gillitzer's mother was also interviewed--speaking for the first time publicly about the pain she has gone through being the mother of a son with an eating disorder.

It occurs to me that the broadcast is likely to bring Jeremy's story to the attention of a new audience. For those who want to know more about Jeremy Gillitzer's life and untimely death, I've put together this multimedia account.
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Nick Vlcek

Jeremy Gillitzer, from a 2007 slideshow

​Jeremy Gillitzer, who appeared on the cover of City Pages to tell his story about his struggle with eating disorders, died Tuesday. He was 38.

I first met Jeremy in the fall of 2007, when he wrote me an email asking if I would be interested in telling his story. Under the headline, "Boy, Interrupted," Jeremy spared no detail in narrating his torturous existence. Wracked by a host of psychological problems and weighing just 88 pounds, it was clear Jeremy was not long for this world.

Soon after the issue was released, I received a frantic text from Jeremy: He had been involuntarily committed. I called him and he told me that police had stormed his house after concerned family called to report that Jeremy was a threat to himself.
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