ELECTION 2021-MINNEAPOLIS POLICING

Plan to replace Minneapolis PD worries many Black residents

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A proposal to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new public safety unit goes to the city's voters this week. The idea on Tuesday's ballot has its roots in the abolish-the-police movement that erupted after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last year. It draws strong support from younger Black activists energized by Floyd’s death, as well as from some Black and white residents across this liberal city. But the plan, which would drop a requirement that the city have a minimum number of police officers, has aroused concern in some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods, where many Black residents fear it would make them more vulnerable just as violent crime is spiking.

ADDICTION CENTER EMBEZZLEMENT

2 sentenced for stealing $777,000 from addiction center

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Two employees of a Native American addiction and counseling center, including its executive director, have been sentenced on charges of embezzling more than $777,000 in federal funds. Federal officials in Wisconsin say Fredericka DeCoteau, of Cloquet, Minnesota, was sentenced Friday to 2 years in prison. Edith Schmuck, of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in prison. A judge ordered DeCoteau and Schmuck to jointly back restitution of $777,283. DeCoteau and Schmuck worked at Ain Dah Ing, a non-profit halfway house in Spooner, Wisconsin. DeCoteau was the executive director and Schmuck was the bookkeeper. The center offers mental health and alcohol and substance abuse services to Native Americans from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin tribes.

SLAIN STUDENT-APPEAL

Prosecutors begin round 2 of arguing Rodriguez death penalty

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Prosecutors in North Dakota’s first and only death penalty case say defense attorneys are wrong by claiming the judge didn’t go far enough in explaining why he threw out the sentence for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. Rodriguez was convicted of killing University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin. Judge Ralph Erickson in September ordered a new sentencing phase be conducted, saying his defense team failed to consider key factors. Defense attorneys filed a motion arguing that the judge left out Rodriguez’s intellectual disability as one of those factors. In a response filed Friday, prosecutors said Rodriguez’s attorneys “flatly fail to establish the existence of a manifest error or newly discovered evidence” and “cannot satisfy the very stringent standard to warrant alteration or amendment.”

AP-US-2020-CENSUS-NEIGHBORHOODS-VANISHED

People, homes vanish due to 2020 census' new privacy method

A statistical method used by the U.S. Census Bureau for the first time in 2020 to protect confidentiality has made people and occupied homes vanish, at least on paper, when they actually exist in the real world. The technique is called differential privacy. It involves the intentional addition of errors to data to obscure the identity of any given census participant. The Census Bureau says it's doing so because more privacy protections are needed than in past decades. But some city officials and demographers think it veers too far from reality — and could cause problems in the data used for drawing political districts and distributing federal funds.

AP-US-AHMAUD-ARBERY-GEORGIA-TRIAL

Potential jurors see racism behind Ahmaud Arbery's slaying

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Some people questioned during jury selection about the killing of Ahmaud Arbery have said he was “racially profiled” by the white men who chased and shot him. Others have said he was singled out “due to his color” and targeted for being a Black person suspected of stealing things. The statements came in response to blunt questions about race from prosecutors and defense attorneys who are trying to seat an impartial jury in the coastal Georgia town of Brunswick. The comments could signal trouble for defense attorneys. Several of the prospective jurors have been deemed qualified to remain in the pool from which a final jury will be chosen.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-FLANAGAN

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan tests positive for COVID

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19, she announced Saturday. Flanagan says she received the positive test after caring for her 8-year-old daughter Siobhan, who tested positive on Oct. 22. The lieutenant governor received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine last spring. Flanagan said she and her husband, Tom, had been staying home for the past week to care for their daughter and avoid exposing others to the virus. Flanagan’s brother Ron, who was in his 50s and battling cancer, died of COVID in 2020.

LIQUOR SALES RECORD

Minnesota liquor sales soared in 2020 for a record year.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Sales at municipal liquor stores in Minnesota soared in 2020 for a record-breaking year. sales at the state’s 213 “munis” jumped 10% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by State Auditor Julie Blaha. In recent years, a typical sales increase has been in the range of 1 to 3%. With many bars and restaurants either closed or operating at reduced capacity during parts of the year, people did more of their drinking at home, according to liquor store managers and employees. And the lifestyle shifts prompted by the pandemic played a major role.

FARMINGTON-TRIPLE HOMICIDE

Man charged with murder in deaths of parents, brother

FARMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — A Farmington man has been charged with three counts of murder for allegedly fatally shooting his father and brother, then killing his mother with a hammer two days later. Twenty-six-year-old Blake Maloney was charged Friday in Dakota County. The bodies of 53-year-old Tracy Maloney, 55-year-old Jack Maloney and 23-year-old Scott Maloney were found Wednesday by a police officer who went to a townhome to check on Tracy Maloney's welfare. The criminal complaint lists no motive, but says Blake Maloney told an officer he killed three people, and said he didn’t believe they were his family. A message left with Maloney's attorney was not immediately returned.

News from © The Associated Press, 2021