Posts by Anna Pratt

In light of all the controversy and litigation that have surrounded Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan in recent months, it’s worth noting that there’s a rumor circulating inside the MPD that Dolan has applied for the chief’s job a few miles south in Bloomington. But Dolan’s office denies it.
In any event, two sources inside the [...]

Recently an investigation by the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights found probable cause that the City Attorney’s screening process for internally promoting attorneys has a disparate impact on minorities and that the Human Resources Department may have "aided and abetted" that practice. The latter relates to the fact that HR largely designed an oral exam [...]

MnIndy reported a month ago on the Office of the Inspector General’s findings that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had been rejecting candidates for its prestigious honors programs on the basis of their apparent liberal political leanings. It’s unclear what impact the DOJ’s actions are having on attorneys and aspiring attorneys who may want to [...]

In the wake of the May immigration raid of a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville was immediately reborn as an emergency shelter for detainees’ families who wanted to be close to their loved ones or were afraid to go home. Children whose parents had been arrested also received help [...]

Updated: Minneapolis Police Lt. Lee Edwards, who was put on paid administrative leave in April, returned to duty on Wednesday, according to a source with knowledge of the case who asked not to be identified. Edwards, formerly the leader of the MPD’s homicide unit and of the department’s Fourth Precinct, was suspended pending an unspecified [...]

A group of nearly 200 Minnesotans representing the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) labor union and Jewish Community Action are planning a trip to Postville, Iowa, on July 27, to provide food and other supplies to the families of those being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in conjunction [...]

In addition to the most obvious security issues surrounding the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul in September, numerous food service employees and government officials are working to ensure that the meals served at area establishments are safe, and that any possible food-borne illness can be controlled.

One example: Inspectors stopped by 23 restaurants [...]

A federal judge’s ruling on Wednesday allows the civil rights lawsuit filed by Sgt. Giovanni Veliz against the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) to go to trial, despite the city’s efforts to impede it.
That’s good news for Veliz, a 16-year veteran of the department who filed the suit early last year, many months before the more [...]

In the wake of a historic immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, that cleaned out the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant’s workforce in May, an advertiser has tried to lure Guatemalan laborers to the town, reports the Minnesota Independent’s sister site, the Iowa Independent. The vast majority of the 389 people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement were [...]

The Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) Internal Affairs Unit logged fewer complaints last year than it did in 2006, despite more 911 calls, arrests and "use of force" by officers, according to a report it released Thursday [pdf].

Complaints have dwindled in part because of changed policies, the addition of more police officers and the introduction of [...]