Good morning, and welcome to another Monday, already 10 days into July.
The Minneapolis police chief says he never saw a video of a former officer using force in his previous job, although emails indicate the chief was aware of the incident before the officer was hired in Minneapolis. MPR News reports Chief Brian O’Hara released a statement Sunday saying he was not aware of a video that shows an incident in 2020 where officer Tyler Timberlake, who worked for the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia, used a stun gun and then pressed his knees into the back and neck of a Black man, La Monta Gladney. The incident happened 11 days after George Floyd's murder. A Virginia jury acquitted Timberlake of assault, but Gladney later reached a $150,000 settlement with Fairfax County. O’Hara said he was limited in what he can discuss about Timberlake’s employment, but said the MPD hiring process involves a background investigation and screening. O’Hara acknowledged he was present for Timberlake’s final interview. In a statement, Police Federation President Sherral Schmidt says O'Hara was "fully aware" of Timberlake's history, though in April the chief expressed concern about the hiring to the Minnesota Reformer. Schmidt said nothing precludes Timberlake from being on the force, since he was acquitted of all charges in Virginia. The Star Tribune has more.
Most of the no-knock search warrants executed by Minnesota law enforcement agencies during part of 2021 and 2022 involved suspects who were Black, and judges rarely denied requests for such warrants, a new report shows. MPR’s Nina Moini reports: A state law that first took effect in September 2021 required law enforcement agencies from all of Minnesota’s 87 counties to report to the state information surrounding no-knock warrants. The 2021 report, which only tracked the data from September through Dec. 31, showed 132 no-knock warrants requested and 129 of them issued. In all of 2022, the year of Amir Locke’s death, the BCA reports 185 no-knock warrants were requested and 179 were issued. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension reports sometimes agencies ultimately decide a no-knock entry is not necessary, and of the 78 warrants ultimately executed in a residence, 63 were executed as a no-knock. Black people accounted for 126 of the 249 subjects counted in the report. There were 77 white subjects and 14 Native Americans. Ethnicity data was not available for all of the subjects and data on Hispanic subjects was not collected from the agencies, according to the BCA.
A mistake in the tax bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature could cost income taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, but DFL leaders say they’ll fix it quickly next year before that happens. MinnPost reports: It’s the kind of “oops” that can happen in the drafting of legislation that is hundreds of pages long and is being written with legislative deadlines approaching. But when it happens in the bill that controls Minnesota state taxes, small errors can cost a lot of money. An error in this past session’s omnibus taxes bill — discovered one month after it was signed by the governor — will cost state taxpayers $352 million a year if not corrected. It will be corrected, pledged state Department of Revenue Commissioner Paul Marquart and the chairs of the two legislative taxes committees.
As Minnesota moves toward legal marijuana, some local governments are considering what their regulatory role will be. The Star Tribune reports: Mayors, city councils and city staff are just starting to think about how they will deal with the regulatory and cultural shift that is adult-use cannabis, which will become legal Aug. 1 in Minnesota. The state Office of Cannabis Management is in its infancy, without even a director yet, much less regulations or model ordinances for cities to follow. As cities cast about for first steps, a few are passing — or at least talking about — temporary moratoriums on cannabis businesses that will last until state regulations are more fleshed-out and cities have enough time to craft their own rules. Mankato passed a moratorium lasting up to one year in late May, said City Manager Susan Arntz. "There are so many unknowns with what the state rules are going to end up becoming," she said. "We are opting to implement a measure ... so that our community has time to kind of work through and make decisions on how they want to handle it."
North Dakota Gov. and GOP presidential hopeful Doug Burgum says he would vote for Donald Trump for president but he wouldn’t do business with him. He made the comments on NBC’s Meet the Press: Burgum, a former business owner who turned a small software company into a $1.1 billion deal with Microsoft, was asked by "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd in an interview that aired Sunday if he would do business with Trump. "I don't think so," Burgum responded. Asked why, he said, "I just think that it’s important that you’re judged by the company you keep." One person Burgum said he'd be comfortable doing business with is Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter and Tesla. Asked what the difference was between Musk and Trump, Burgum said: "Just look at business track records is what I would say, and that’s what I would take a peek at before I would make a decision about who you partner with." | 