Good Tuesday morning. It's Digest time. 1. Franken 'absolutely' regrets resignation. Al Franken’s fall was stunningly swift: he resigned only three weeks after Leeann Tweeden, a conservative talk-radio host, accused him of having forced an unwanted kiss on her during a 2006 U.S.O. tour. Seven more women followed with accusations against Franken; all of them centered on inappropriate touches or kisses. Half the accusers’ names have still not become public. Although both Franken and Tweeden called for an independent investigation into her charges, none took place. This reticence reflects the cultural moment: in an era when women’s accusations of sexual discrimination and harassment are finally being taken seriously, after years of belittlement and dismissal, some see it as offensive to subject accusers to scrutiny. “Believe Women” has become a credo of the #MeToo movement. At his house, Franken said he understood that, in such an atmosphere, the public might not be eager to hear his grievances. Holding his head in his hands, he said, “I don’t think people who have been sexually assaulted, and those kinds of things, want to hear from people who have been #MeToo’d that they’re victims.” Yet, he added, being on the losing side of the #MeToo movement, which he fervently supports, has led him to spend time thinking about such matters as due process, proportionality of punishment, and the consequences of Internet-fuelled outrage. ( The New Yorker) 2. Panel to make recommendations on dealing with police shootings. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington are setting up a blue-ribbon panel to examine shootings by police across the state. "We're going to be looking at everything from top to bottom," Harrington said at a news conference Monday where they rolled out the initiative. Ellison and Harrington, two of the state's highest-ranking law enforcement officials, were joined by a half dozen members of a 16-member "working group" that Ellison called representative of a variety of perspectives. Harrington said there have been 101 shootings involving police just in the last five and a half years. He said the group's aim was both to shape official response to such incidents and offer the public a clearer picture of how they'll be handled, although he declined to commit to changes in one of the most common concerns: delays in releasing body camera and other videos from such incidents. (MPR News) 1. Klobuchar criticizes Trump for "basking in" chants. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Monday accused President Trump of “basking in” the chants of “Send her back!” that broke out at one of his recent rallies and said she was particularly concerned about the safety of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a fellow Minnesota Democrat whom Trump has singled out online and in real life. “He has chosen to go after four women,” Klobuchar said in a Washington Post Live interview, referring to Omar and three of her freshman Democratic colleagues. “He has chosen to tell them they should ‘go home,’ basically, which is a racist code word, in my mind.” Klobuchar also said such Trump attacks represent an attempt to distract the public from “the broken promises littering the carpet of the Oval Office.” “We have to remember that when he says these things, it’s not just one person saying them,” Klobuchar said. “He passes that on. He condones that kind of rhetoric.” (Washington Post) 4. Jesse Jackson voices support for Omar. The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday that President Donald Trump should stop attacking U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, and that he is worried that the president's focus on the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota is putting her in danger. "She should not be attacked and vilified by the president for taking the positions she takes," Jackson said in a phone interview. "It's not fair but it's also very dangerous." Jackson's office contacted the Star Tribune to say he had thoughts on Trump and Omar that he wanted to share. Of Trump, Jackson said: "He's making people afraid of her, and it's going to produce violence. Her safety is at stake." ( Star Tribune) 5. Departing DOC administrator denies lobbying allegation. A departing top official with the Minnesota Department of Corrections says she’s being investigated for improper lobbying on state time — an allegation she denies and calls “underhanded.” Sarah Walker, who resigned Friday as deputy commissioner while she’s under investigation for unspecified complaints against her, issued a statement Monday that reads, in part: “The complaint alleges that I conducted private lobbying activities on state time, after my appointment to the DOC. Until this weekend I was unaware of the nature or origin of the complaint. As I have been quoted in the media since my resignation, that complaint played no role in my decision to leave.” Walker also accused state Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, of instigating at least part of the investigation by making a complaint against her. Lesch unequivocally denied that. “Her narrative is false,” Lesch said in a statement to the Pioneer Press. (Pioneer Press)
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