Vue lecture

Suspect and two victims dead at apartment shooting in downtown Minneapolis

The city’s police department and mayor warn the public to stay away from the Loring Park neighborhood nearby

Two people were killed and the suspect was dead after a shooting at an apartment building in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

One shooting victim died at the scene. A second died after arriving at Hennepin county medical center, a hospital spokesperson said.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

  •  

US prosecutors refuse to say if they secretly obtained Don Lemon’s phone records

Experts have expressed deep concerns that the practice runs afoul of the fourth amendment’s right to privacy

Federal prosecutors have declined to say whether they secretly obtained phone records for the journalist Don Lemon using an unusual administrative summons, his lawyers said in a Monday court filing, highlighting concern about a controversial legal authority the government has claimed to gather information as it charged Lemon and dozens of others with civil rights crimes in connection to a January protest at a church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

In January, officials served Verizon with an administrative summons for a log of Lemon’s phone records between 19 December and 20 January. The subpoena did not come from a grand jury, as is typical in criminal investigations, and also was not a court-approved search warrant. Instead, it was a unilateral request from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which said it was requesting the information under 19 USC 1509 – an obscure law that gives the department power to investigate records related to customs issues. Experts say the government is abusing that authority to gather records on journalists, activists, unions, non-profits and online critics, and have expressed deep concerns that the practice runs afoul of the fourth amendment’s right to privacy.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Paras Griffin/Getty Images

© Photograph: Paras Griffin/Getty Images

© Photograph: Paras Griffin/Getty Images

  •  

An ICE Shooting, an Extradition Showdown and the Federal Case That Stalled

Federal prosecutors planned to charge an immigration agent arrested in connection with a shooting in Minneapolis. Then the agent walked free.

© Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

The scene where a Venezuelan immigrant was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in January.
  •  

ICE agent charged with Minnesota shooting released from jail in Texas

Judge rules Christian Castro, accused of shooting man and lying about it, cannot be held pending extradition request

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with shooting a man and lying about it during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis was released from a Texas jail on Thursday, after a judge refused to order his return to Minnesota.

Christian Castro was released at the break of dawn from a detention center in Brownsville. He motioned his hand toward a few camera operators and a reporter crowding around him and quickly got into an SUV that drove off.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Michael Gonzalez/AP

© Photograph: Michael Gonzalez/AP

© Photograph: Michael Gonzalez/AP

  •  

Judge Sides With Texas Over Minnesota on Extradition of ICE Agent

The two states have waged an unusual court battle over the agent facing charges over a shooting in Minneapolis. The agent could be released from jail on Thursday.

© David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

Federal agents near the scene of a shooting during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in January.
  •  

Judge blocks Minnesota bid to extradite Texas ICE agent accused of shooting man

Christian Castro charged with assault after allegedly shooting Venezuelan man and remains in custody in Texas

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent accused of firing his gun and wounding a Venezuelan man in the leg is caught in an interstate extradition dispute between Texas and Minnesota – and could walk out of a Texas jail as soon as Wednesday after a federal judge refused to intervene.

Christian Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime by another, in relation to the incident in which he was involved in the wounding of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in January.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

  •  

Revealed: How undercover agents spied on anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota

Par : Sam Levin

DHS officers posed as concerned citizens, joining Signal groups and taking photos of community meetings

Newly disclosed records reveal how undercover federal agents posed as concerned community members to spy on residents and activists who opposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) crackdown in Minnesota.

Internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) files, disclosed in federal court and reviewed by the Guardian, document the actions of several undercover agents, including one who went by the username “peanutbutterjelly” in Signal chats with activists. The documents show that the officer kept records of Signal conversations, screenshotting chats about protest plans and volunteer recruitment, and offering to help with fundraising efforts.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

  •  

Alfalfa Sprouts Linked to Illnesses in 15 States, F.D.A. Says

Officials are investigating after multiple strains of E. coli and a type of salmonella sickened dozens of people across the United States. Two people were infected with both salmonella and E. coli.

© St Petersburg Times/Zuma Press Wire, via Reuters

Public health officials have tied a number of salmonella and E. coli cases to alfalfa sprouts produced by a company in Minnesota.
  •  

Michele Tafoya: from unassuming NFL sideline reporter to rightwing firebrand

The former Sunday Night Football stalwart is now one step from a seat in the US Senate. And she could cause a shock in liberal Minnesota

As the third leg of NBC’s Sunday Night Football crew alongside play-by-play man Al Michaels and the tart-tongued analyst Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya was a paragon of deference and neutrality for 11 years as an NFL sideline reporter, dutifully relating boilerplate tactics, talking points and injury updates when she wasn’t nodding along to softball interviews or fumbling through hammy production gimmicks for viewers who might have been too offline to get the bit. She was almost pathologically committed to not doing anything to draw attention to herself or her gender in an era when sideline reporting was a fast track to national celebrity. Even her football takes hewed to the middle. (“New Orleans doesn’t want to lose to Atlanta twice in a season …”) Anyone who says they saw the 61-year-old emerging as a rightwing firebrand was watching a different game.

And yet here we are. Last week, Tafoya was the decisive winner of Minnesota’s US Senate Republican primary, earning the party’s nomination for November’s general election. Even more striking: she beat back eight challengers, not least Adam Schwarze, the party-endorsed pro-gun, pro-military ex-Navy SEAL, and Royce White, the anti-leftist, anti-trans NBA flameout currently testing WNBA gender norms.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Star Tribune/Getty Images

© Photograph: Star Tribune/Getty Images

© Photograph: Star Tribune/Getty Images

  •  

Mike Lindell offers to fund recount in Minnesota Republican primary for governor

MyPillow founder and Trump ally lost primary to Lisa Demuth by 11 points, but still refuses to concede defeat

The pillow salesman, Donald Trump supporter and election denier Mike Lindell has offered to personally fund a recount and audit of every paper ballot cast in Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary, which he lost last week.

Lindell’s announcement on Wednesday escalates his bid to challenge the results of last week’s vote, after finishing a distant second to the Minnesota house speaker, Lisa Demuth.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

  •  

Minnesota Sues Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Over His Refusal to Extradite ICE Agent

A federal agent facing assault charges in Minnesota has been jailed in Texas since May. Gov. Greg Abbott has not granted an extradition request.

© Christopher Lee for The New York Times

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas at an event in Kerrville in July.
  •  

Democrats Face a Potential Tea Party Moment

A string of primary wins by progressive candidates has revealed the strength of a high-energy insurgent movement but also its possible limitations.

© Angelina Katsanis for The New York Times

Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani at a rally last week.
  •  

Justice Dept. Dismisses Threats Case in Minnesota Days Before Trial

The government said it could not prove that a man accused of threatening federal agents had committed a crime, adding to the scores of cases in the administration’s deportation efforts that have unraveled.

© Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

On Jan. 14, after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot a Venezuelan migrant following a high-speed chase in Minneapolis, protesters broke into a couple of vehicles that belonged to F.B.I. agents.
  •  
❌