Crime

In the first half of this year, murder rates were down in Minneapolis — a fact that’s being noticed nationwide. This morning, the Washington Post notes that Minnesota’s biggest city — which had six homicides in the first half of 2009, well short of the 18 recorded for all of 2008 — is joined by [...]

At the urging of local meat packer JBS, Worthington will write off 80 percent of what it could tax a new apartment complex. The city council agreed to forego as much as $250,000 to tempt Gilt Edge, LLC, to build the 72-unit project, with JBS promising to pay rent on vacant apartments so the building [...]

Last week, it was revealed that the law that makes it a federal crime to threaten or commit violence against abortion providers, or to vandalize their clinics, wasn’t being enforced. Now our sister site, the Washington Independent, finds that the Bush administration’s Department of Justice did little over the past eight years in enforcing the civil component of that federal law.

Minneapolis police officer Jason Andersen did not use excessive force when he shot Fong Lee eight times on July 22, 2006, a  jury ruled this afternoon. No damages will be awarded to Lee’s family, who filed the wrongful death lawsuit in federal court.
The 12-member, all-white jury deliberated for roughly six hours before determining that Andersen [...]

Fong Lee was shot eight times by Minneapolis police officer Jason Andersen three years ago. The cops say Lee was armed and dangerous on the night in question. Lee’s family insists that he was an unarmed, innocent victim. Now a jury will decide which narrative rings true.

Did Fong Lee have a gun on July 22, 2006, when he was shot eight times by Minneapolis police officer Jason Andersen? That’s the crucial question that jurors should begin deliberating Wednesday.

Day two of the Fong Lee trial apparently started off exactly where it left off — with U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson extremely pissed off. This morning he threatened to declare a mistrial in the civil case  and force the attorneys for Lee’s family to cover all costs of the proceeding, according to Rochelle [...]

Mohamed Warsame has been held in solitary confinement for more than five years while awaiting trial on terrorism charges. Today he pleaded for his release before a federal judge.

“A very specific threat of violence” has led authorities to close three buildings on the University of Minnesota’s West Bank Minneapolis campus. The threat targeted the Carlson School of Management, Hanson Hall and the Hubert H. Humphrey Center, according to University Police Chief Greg Hestness.
Update: The AP reports that there was a “threat of a shooting” [...]

Rep. Keith Ellison was among eight activists arrested Monday morning at a demonstration outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington. The event was held to protest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s decision to expel 16 international aid agencies from the country. Reps. John Lewis (D-GA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Donna Edwards (D-MD) were also [...]