Bob CollinsIt was a short first day in the trial of officer Jeronimo Yanez, charged in the killing of Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights last summer. The jury pool is filling out questionnaires about their potential as jurors. There’s no question on it asking the jurors their race; that’s illegal in Minnesota. So reporters were left today to look at individuals and try to figure out race and ethnicity. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Crime and Justice
It was a night for adults to show what they’re made of at Valleyfair amusement park in Shakopee last week. They’re not made of much, apparently.
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The story of an attempted carjacking in Milwaukee provides us one of those ‘what would I do?’ opportunities that the news cycle occasionally provides. Read more →
Let’s consider the goodness and decency that disappeared from the planet the other night when the bomb exploded at the concert in Manchester. Read more →
Who on earth would go to the trouble of stealing an old picture of a musky from a men’s room, let alone one that was all over the internet anyway?
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John Taylor sued over the requirement that he register his drone for a good reason: The rules don’t work. Read more →
Over the objections of one justice, the Minnesota Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the life sentences given to the killer of three people at the Seward Market and Halal Meat on East Franklin Ave., in Minneapolis in 2010. Read more →
A Minnesota man who may have tested the state’s implied consent laws more often than any other driver charged with driving under the influence, has lost again at the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
Under the law, authorities can force a person to submit to breath tests without a warrant by criminalizing their refusal to do so. But previous provisions for demanding blood or urine have been struck down. Read more →
South Dakota is one of only 10 states that don’t shield reporters from being called to testify in court about stories they cover. So a Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporter has been subpoenaed amid criticism from free-press advocates. Read more →
Police officer Stephen Mader was talking a man out trying to get police to shoot him. He thought it was working. Then, another officer shot the man, and Mader was fired from his job. Read more →
The Minnesota Court of Appeals today reinstated a hunter’s lawsuit against the owner of property on which he was hunting, whom he says is responsible for his falling from a tree while trying to climb into a deer stand in Pine County.
The hunter’s father owns the property. Read more →
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras, a Tim Pawlenty appointee, is heading for the federal bench now that President Donald Trump has nominated him for for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Read more →
Souen ‘Posy’ Chheng was put on a flight to Cambodia yesterday, the West Central Tribune reports. He’s never been to Cambodia. He has no family there. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his family fled the killing fields of Cambodia.
He leaves behind the son who was born five days ago, his wife, his mother, two sisters, and a brother living in the Twin Cities.
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This is what it looks like when a cyclist tries to get from one place to another in Minneapolis. Read more →
Guru Mahendra Trivedi claims his remote energy transmissions have the power to heal the sick, grow more crops, cure cancer, and make money for those who receive them, and for $900-$2,000 a month you can receive them, according to his website. He says he’s created 70,000 miracles so far. Read more →