Category Archives: Minnesota

Super Tuesday 2024 live: millions of voters head to polls in the US as Haley suggests she could stay in the race

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Donald Trump looks all but certain of Republican presidential nomination as Nikki Haley rejects suggestions of third-party bid and says she may keep fighting

Over at CNN, Ronald Brownstein has an analysis piece which looks a little at the potential weakness of Donald Trump support away from his core base. Brownstein writes:

[Trump’s] performance so far reflects his success at transforming the Republican Party in his image. He’s reshaped the Republicans into a more blue-collar, populist and pugnacious party, focused more on his volatile blend of resentments against elites and cultural and racial change than the Ronald Reagan-era priorities of smaller government and active global leadership that former South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley has stressed.

But while the primaries have underscored Trump’s grip on the GOP, they have also demonstrated continued vulnerability for him in the areas where he has labored since he first announced his candidacy in 2015 – particularly among the white-collar suburban voters who mostly leaned toward the GOP before his emergence. The early 2024 nominating contests have shown that a substantial minority of Republican-leaning voters remain resistant to Trump’s vision.

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Dying man who stole Dorothy’s Wizard of Oz ruby slippers escapes jail term

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Terry Jon Martin, 76, who is living in hospice care, stole slippers from Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005

A dying thief who confessed to stealing a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz because he wanted to pull off “one last score” was given no prison time at his sentencing hearing Monday.

Terry Jon Martin, 76, stole the slippers in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s home town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He gave into temptation after an old mob associate told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1m insured value, his attorney revealed in a memo to the federal court ahead of his sentencing in Duluth.

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Minnesota family sues jail over son’s death in custody

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Lucas Bellamy, 40, died from a perforated bowel after repeatedly being denied medical treatment by jail staff

A Minnesota family is suing a county jail alleging their son died in prison after staff refused to provide him with medical attention.

Lucas Bellamy, 40, died in July 2022 three days after he had been arrested by the Hennepin county sheriff’s department. Bellamy’s family says that jail staff ignored their son’s desperate pleas for medical attention and signs that he was in agonizing pain.

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More than 100 ice fishers rescued from ice floe in Minnesota

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An ice chunk broke loose from shore, stranding 122 winter anglers 30ft from shore until first responders were able to evacuate them

More than 100 people stranded while fishing on an ice chunk that broke free on a Minnesota lake were rescued on Friday, authorities said.

The anglers were on an ice floe in the south-eastern area of Upper Red Lake in Beltrami county – about 200 miles (322km) north-west of Minneapolis – when it broke loose from the shoreline.

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States to award anti-abortion centers roughly $250m in post-Roe surge

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At least 16 states will fund largely unregulated facilities that try to convince people to continue their pregnancies

In the months since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, at least 16 states have agreed to funnel more than $250m in taxpayer dollars towards anti-abortion facilities and programs that try to convince people to continue their pregnancies.

Much of that money is set to go to anti-abortion counseling centers, or crisis pregnancy centers, according to data provided by the Guttmacher Institute and Equity Forward, organizations that support abortion rights. It has been paid out throughout 2023 and will stretch into 2025.

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Minnesota man wrongfully convicted of murder freed from life sentence

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Marvin Haynes receives apology from DA who said prosecutors had no forensic evidence linking him to 2004 murder

A man convicted of murdering a Minnesota flower shop clerk largely based on a single eyewitness identification has been freed from a sentence of life imprisonment, elating his supporters and him but outraging the slain victim’s family.

Marvin Haynes was 16 when the killing which sent him to prison for nearly two decades unfolded in 2004 in Minneapolis. His release comes amid the implementation of court-mandated reforms to the local police department, prompted in part by a former officer’s murder of George Floyd in 2020.

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US prisoner charged with attempted murder over stabbing of Derek Chauvin

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John Turscak, 52, accused of stabbing Chauvin, convicted of George Floyd’s murder, 22 times in prison in Tucson, Arizona

A detainee at a federal prison was charged on Friday with attempted murder in the prison stabbing of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd.

John Turscak stabbed Chauvin 22 times in the law library at the Tucson federal correctional institution in Arizona with an improvised knife, prosecutors said. Turscak, 52, told correctional officers he would have killed Chauvin had they not responded so quickly, according to prosecutors.

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Derek Chauvin expected to survive stabbing attack in prison, officials say

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Minneapolis police chief provided updates about attack on former officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd

The former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd and was stabbed in prison by a fellow inmate Friday is expected to survive the attack, officials have told media outlets.

Updates about Derek Chauvin, the wounded convicted killer and ex-cop, were provided to various media outlets – including the Associated Press and the news station KSTP – by the Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, as well as a spokesperson for Minnesota state attorney general Keith Ellison’s office on Saturday.

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Moose on the loose in Minnesota entrances wildlife watchers

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Rutt the moose was spotted on Tuesday just 140 miles north of Minneapolis, far south of the giant animals’ usual range

A rogue moose wandering hundreds of miles south of its natural territory in Minnesota has become a growing media sensation as fans join online to track its journey through amateur photographs and video clips.

The “majestic” and “noble” animal – nicknamed Rutt after one of two moose brothers in the film Brother Bear played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas based on their Canadian comedy duo Bob and Doug McKenzie – has been spotted in various locations across Minnesota and Iowa for weeks. On Tuesday, it appeared 140 miles (225km) north-west of Minneapolis.

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Ilhan Omar faces Democratic primary challenge from ex-Minneapolis official

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Don Samuels says he will once again run after being narrowly defeated by the twice-elected congresswoman in 2022

Ilhan Omar got a prominent Democratic primary challenger Sunday when former Minneapolis city council member Don Samuels announced he’ll try once again to unseat the representative after coming close in 2022.

Omar, a charter member of “the squad” of progressive House Democrats, won re-election twice despite making comments in her first term that were widely criticized for invoking antisemitic tropes and suggesting Jewish Americans have divided loyalties. But Omar – a Somali American and Muslim – has come under renewed fire for condemning the Israeli government’s war in Gaza.

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Congressman Dean Phillips to launch Democratic primary bid against Biden

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Minnesota representative has voted for majority of Biden’s legislative agenda but says it’s time for next generation of leaders

Dean Phillips, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota who is relatively unknown on the national US stage, is set to launch a long-shot campaign to primary Joe Biden in New Hampshire on Friday.

The New Hampshire secretary of state’s office confirmed Phillips is scheduled to file paperwork to get on the ballot there on Friday morning.

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Minnesota’s cannabis head resigns after reports she sold illegal weed products

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Erin Dupree’s Loonacy Cannabis Co reportedly sold products stronger than recently enacted marijuana legalization allowed

The recently appointed director of Minnesota’s new marijuana regulatory agency, Erin Dupree, has resigned amid reports that she sold illegal cannabis products in the state.

Dupree ran a business that sold products exceeding state limits on THC potency, owed money to former associates and accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in tax liens, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

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Minnesota prison resolves dispute with 100 inmates refusing to return to cells

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Facility put on lockdown after inmates refused to return to cells amid extreme high temperatures

A Minnesota prison was put on lockdown after about 100 incarcerated people refused to return to their cells on Sunday morning amid extreme temperatures.

The dispute at the Stillwater prison, Minnesota’s largest close-security institution for adult men, was resolved “peacefully” on Sunday, according to an update from Paul Schnell, commissioner of the Minnesota department of corrections.

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Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history

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Upper Sioux Agency state park in Minnesota, where bodies of those killed after US-Dakota war are buried, to be transferred

Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back.

The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in US history.

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US pipeline protester has ‘no regrets’ after conviction for felony obstruction

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Mylene Vialard, 54, found guilty after Minnesota trial beset by legal irregularities after effort to block fossil fuel pumping station

A non-violent environmental activist has been found guilty of felony obstruction for her role in trying to halt construction of a fossil fuel pipeline through Indigenous territory in Minnesota, in a trial beset by legal irregularities which ended with the prosecutor demanding jail time.

Mylene Vialard, 54, was arrested in August 2021 after attaching herself to a 25ft bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin county, northern Minnesota.

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George Floyd murder: Minneapolis police have pattern of aggression and discrimination, DoJ inquiry finds

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Merrick Garland announces findings of Department of Justice investigation into department after Floyd’s killing by officers

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, on Friday announced that the 2020 murder of George Floyd was part of a “pattern or practice” of excessive force used by the department and years of unlawful discrimination against Black Americans.

Garland held a press conference to reveal the findings of the two-year investigation by the Department of Justice (DoJ) into the conduct and training of the Minneapolis police department (MPD) both before and after George Floyd’s death at the hands of officers in the city in 2020.

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Flushed but not forgotten: woman reunited with ring after 13 years

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Minnesota woman’s 33rd anniversary ring went down the toilet, but workers recently recovered it and tracked its owner down

Thirteen years after she accidentally flushed it down the toilet, a Minnesota woman’s pipe dream came true: she was reunited with the gold diamond ring once gifted to her by her husband.

“Oh my gosh, this is my ring,” Strand said at the metropolitan council office in Rogers when she was presented with the ring for the first time since losing it. “It’s nice to see it again.”

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Minneapolis to pay $700,000 to family of man killed by police

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Chiasher Vue’s kids wanted to calm their mentally ill father, but police detained them in vehicle and killed him as he pointed a gun

The city of Minneapolis has agreed to a $700,000 settlement with family members who were locked inside two squad cars when police killed their father after officers refused their offers to try and help calm him down.

A federal judge ruled that officers were justified in shooting 52-year-old Chiasher Vue after he pointed a rifle at them on 15 December 2019. The settlement will resolve a lawsuit his family filed arguing that police had illegally and unconstitutionally detained them that night.

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Huge winter storm closes US highways and prompts rare southern California blizzard warning

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Hundreds of thousands lose power and thousands of flights canceled as weather takes toll across northern and western states

A brutal winter storm closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming on Wednesday, trapped drivers in cars, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the first blizzard warning in southern California in decades – and the worst won’t be over for several days.

Meanwhile, pockets of the south-east will be cooking, with record-breaking warmth expected to stretch into the mid-Atlantic spiking temperatures more than 40F warmer than normal and creating weather that feels more “like June than February”, according to the National Weather Service.

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