Bob CollinsThe appearance of the FBI’s “mysterious” surveillance aircraft over Sen. Al Franken’s state is now sending the question of “what does the FBI know and how does it know it?” to Congress. Franken, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, has sent a letter to Department of Justice officials Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Crime and Justice
Senatobia (Miss.) Municipal School District Superintendent Jay Foster told the audience at a high school graduation to refrain from cheering and applause until the end of the ceremony, he wasn’t messing around.
He’s turned the law loose on four people for cheering when their relatives got their diploma. Read more →
In a small town Minnesota, is it better to have a police chief that’s locally grown or one from out of town? Read more →
The FBI confirmed to the Associated Press that the flights, which operate without a judge’s order, are being used for “ongoing investigations” and the companies that own the aircraft are fronts for the government.
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Andrew Henderson and a local police department are at it again.
Henderson, who was acquitted by a Ramsey County jury last year for refusing to stop taping police and an ambulance crew in Little Canada, was detained by St. Paul police this month for taping cops conducting a seat-belt crackdown. The police weren’t wearing their seat belts, he said.
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The hatred of pedal pubs, which fueled a squirt-gun attack on a group of off-duty cops last week in Minneapolis, has deliciously reached the ivory towers of academia. Read more →
Jennifer EhrlichThe PedalPub story could have been sad or tragic or alarming. Thankfully, it’s not. Read more →
The Minnesota Court of Appeals today struck down Minnesota’s defamation law, ruling in the case of a man who published sexually explicit ads on Craigslist after he had a fight with his girlfriend. Read more →
In a blistering op-ed in the New York Times today, a University of Minnesota bioethics professor says the rot that infected an industry-funded anti-psychotic drug study, leading to the suicide of a research subject, extends beyond the department to the administration. Read more →
The most interesting quote from this week’s Robin Huebner story about a Fargo TV reporter/anchor who was the victim of domestic abuse is this one: ‘She’s the last person you’d ever expect that this would happen to.’
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The New England Patriots are pushing back — and hard — against the independent investigation of whether and how footballs used by the team in last season’s AFC Championship Game were deflated. Read more →
Somewhat quietly, Washington County has acknowledged that you don’t have to believe in God to marry two people.
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A Fargo second-hand store owner isn’t happy about those people next door. Read more →
In the world of pets, is ‘finders keepers’ an acceptable rule?
Courtney Amos, a Mayo High School senior in Rochester, doesn’t believe so but the people who found her cat of 11 years — Whiskers — disagree.
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It apparently will be quite a trial when a lawsuit against Madeline Island officials goes to court — if it ever does.
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