In the Star Tribune, Hunter Woodall and Stephen Montemayor write: “The Senate’s top Republican said Wednesday he’s holding up the confirmation process for President Joe Biden’s nominee as Minnesota’s next U.S. attorney. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell wrote to Andrew Luger this week detailing his concerns over last month’s sentencing of 26-year-old Montez Lee Jr., who was given a sentence 10 years below the maximum for setting a deadly Lake Street fire during the 2020 unrest that followed George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer. Luger, who previously served as U.S. attorney for Minnesota under Democratic President Barack Obama, did not have a role in the case.”
A KMSP-TV story says, “A school bus driver was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday after being shot in the head in Minneapolis. Police responded around 2:15 p.m. for the report of a shooting along 37th Avenue and Girard Avenue North. At the scene, police say the driver had been shot in the head. The driver was taken to the hospital for treatment, but officials say the driver is expected to survive the injuries. There were young children on the bus at the time of the shooting but none were hurt.”
KSTP-TV’s Tom Hubbard reports: “Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson has agreed to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of a county vehicle he totaled when driving while intoxicated near Alexandria. Hutchinson will pay $47,711.69 for the wrecked Ford Explorer, according to a Hennepin County spokesperson. That announcement comes a day after the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners was set to discuss the sheriff in a closed meeting.”
In the Star Tribune, Emma Nelson writes, “A slate of proposals before the Minnesota Legislature this session seek to limit abortion access, including a measure that would prohibit the procedure early in pregnancy and outsource enforcement of the law to private citizens. Most of these measures are unlikely to gain traction, with DFL House leaders expected to block them and DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who supports abortion rights, ready to veto any that pass. But those pushing for new restrictions say that with the U.S. Supreme Court possibly overturning Roe v. Wade this summer, the midterm elections on the horizon and other states already clamping down, they hope that Minnesota could follow suit.”
Steve Karnowski writes for the AP: “A toxicologist testified Wednesday at the federal trial of three former officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights that it wasn’t drug use, heart disease nor an agitated state known as ‘excited delirium’ that caused Floyd’s death after officers pinned him to the pavement in May 2020. Dr. Vik Bebarta … bolstered the prosecution’s contention that Floyd died because of how Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee down on the Black man’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes ….He also backed up other experts who have faulted officers for failing to roll Floyd on his side, as they had been trained, so that he could have breathed freely.”
Dana Ferguson writes for the Forum News Service: “First lady Jill Biden and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday visited a child development center at the University of Minnesota to tout Minnesota’s use of federal COVID-19 relief funds and to promote the Biden administration’s stalled Build Back Better package. The first lady met with state leaders and child care providers to talk through provisions of the American Rescue Plan that affected child care providers and Minnesota parents. And she said Minnesota had been a model in using the funds to help sustain day care providers and keep children in care settings amid the pandemic.”
Also in the Star Tribune, Janet Moore writes: “A bill to transfer responsibility of the troubled Southwest light-rail project from the Metropolitan Council to the Minnesota Department of Transportation will be introduced Thursday at the State Capitol. Sponsored by Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, the measure calls for MnDOT to assume responsibility by March 1 for ‘all aspects’ of the Southwest project, including ‘planning, construction and oversight.’ … The line now could cost up to $2.75 billion and begin passenger service in 2027; at this time last year, the line’s budget was $2 billion, with service beginning in 2023.”
This from MPR: “A wolf spotted close to Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota recently walked within 5 feet of a group of snowmobiles showing no signs of fear — behavior that’s ‘extremely abnormal,’ researchers said Wednesday. ‘The wolf seemed unalarmed, did not appear to exhibit fear of people or the snowmobiles, and just sauntered/lingered in the area,’,the nonprofit Voyageurs Wolf Project wrote on Twitter.”
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