Category Archives: Minnesota

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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‘Bomb cyclone’ storm could bring deadly winter weather to US

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An estimated 50 million Americans also under windchill alerts as ‘once-in-a-generation-event’ could impact holiday travel

Severe winter weather is set to affect millions across the US this week, as freezing temperatures and strong storms threaten to wreak havoc on holiday travel plans.

A burst of arctic air settling over several states this week is forecast to drop temperatures to dangerous – and potentially deadly – levels just as more than 110 million Americans are expected to set out for their celebrations.

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US National Weather Services warns of ‘widespread’ winter storm hazards

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More than 15 million people under winter advisory while several areas in midwest and Great Plains face intense snowstorms

More than 15 million people are under a winter advisory as of Tuesday, as several areas in the midwest and Great Plains face intense snowstorms, Axios reported.

Storm warnings are in effect across a dozen states, including parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota.

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Maverick the 2,560lb pumpkin triumphs in ‘Super Bowl’ of gourd fests

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Rhinoceros-size Minnesota native wins big in California and will compete once more before being retired to stud

Growers from across the country descended on the California coast carrying with them some of the world’s most gargantuan pumpkins.

The giant pumpkin weigh-off, held annually ahead of Half Moon Bay’s pumpkin festival just south of San Francisco, is considered by competitors to be a Super Bowl of sorts in the unique sport, and the behemoths entered this year – some weighing as much as an average rhinoceros – did not disappoint.

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High-profile China #MeToo case settled in US out of court

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Liu Jingyao launched civil proceedings in 2019 against retail billionaire Liu Qiangdong

One of China’s biggest and most divisive #MeToo cases, which had been set to play out with extraordinary transparency because of its US location and was closely watched by millions inside China, has been settled out of court.

Liu Qiangdong, a 49-year-old online retail billionaire who also goes by Richard Liu and is known as China’s Jeff Bezos, had been accused of sexually assaulting a then 21-year-old Chinese graduate when she was studying at the University of Minnesota and he was visiting on a business trip. Liu has always denied the assault accusations, saying it was consensual.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Minnesota schemers allegedly swindle $250m in largest pandemic fraud yet

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Forty-seven people have been charged in the ‘astonishing display of deceit’ over providing food for low-income children

Forty-seven people have been charged in what US authorities say is the largest case yet of pandemic fraud, accusing the defendants of a “brazen” scheme to swindle millions from a program intended for low-income children and using it to “enrich themselves”.

Those charged in the scheme are accused of creating companies that claimed to be offering food to tens of thousands of children across Minnesota, then sought reimbursement for those meals through the US Department of Agriculture’s food nutrition programs. Prosecutors say few meals were actually served, and the defendants used the money to buy luxury cars, property and jewelry. Authorities say $250m was ultimately stolen from the federal program.

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Progressive Ilhan Omar wins closer-than-expected House primary in Minnesota

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Democrats select progressive Becca Balint for Vermont House seat while Trump-backed candidate nominated for Wisconsin governor

Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a member of the select progressive group in the House of Representative dubbed the Squad, eked out a closer-than-expected Democratic primary victory on Tuesday night against a centrist challenger who questioned the incumbent’s support for the “defund the police” movement.

The evening went far smoother for another progressive, Becca Balint, who won the Democratic House primary in Vermont – positioning her to become the first woman representing the state in Congress.

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US judge rules in favor of pharmacist who denied woman morning-after pill

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Rights groups express concern after Minnesota judge rules Andrea Anderson’s rights were not violated by pharmacy’s denial

A Minnesota jury has ruled that a pharmacy did not discriminate against a woman when it denied to give her the morning-after pill.

The pharmacist gave “belief” as the reason for refusing to fill the prescription for emergency contraception. Although the jury decided that the woman’s rights had not been violated, it did say that the emotional damage caused by the decision amounted to $25,000.

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